Goodness, this is over two weeks late, which is... not good. I had so much work and so little time to write. I ended up getting very little written each day. I'll have a chapter or two done by next Sunday, if everything goes to plan.

Hetalia doesn't belong to me.

Enjoy the chapter!

At school, Alfred practically stuck to me like glue. He had made the idiotic assumption that we were automatically 'besties' as I had given him my mobile number. On this particular Monday, I had the misfortune of having maths, chemistry and biology with him, which left only two lessons free. Unfortunately, I happened to have both of those classes with Francis and that was far worse.

At the end of the day, I found myself bursting with both joy and relief as I eagerly made my way towards book club. I felt all the repressed feelings of stress and frustration seep out of me as I reclined inside my seat. Around the room, sat several other club members, divided into small groups of friends who sat close together, conversing amongst themselves. The door opened. I straightened myself, as I assumed it to be one of the English teachers. Surprisingly, it turned out to be Matthew, looking quite unsettled.

"I-is this book club?" He squeaked. I cleared my throat, so as to capture his attention before giving him a small friendly wave. The idea of Matthew joining didn't seem too unpleasant; he was quite undisruptive and our conversations, even though they were few, proved to be quite meaningful. We both muttered a brief, polite greeting as he approached and seated himself.

"So what brings you here?" I inquired, curious.

"Well I'm hoping to catch a bit of peace." He exhaled, rubbing his head. I gave a knowing smile.

We spent around twenty minutes conversing and reflecting over a book we had just read. Matthew looked mildly confused as we talked about a story which he didn't know of. Afterwards, everyone contemplated what to read next – in the end, we settled with an older, classical novel. I watched in amusement as Matthew bounced with excitement upon hearing of the book and started to talk about it being really good. Before we were dismissed, we were asked to read around three chapters of the novel, which was rather easy actually. Then, everyone began to shuffle about, packing their bags and conversing at a louder volume. Matthew and I left the clubroom and headed towards our lockers, which weren't too far away. We threw in a few bags and some other miscellaneous items and then made our way outside of school.

After a few days, the two of us had become quite accustomed to going home together, with Alfred tagging along as well. When it was only myself and Matthew, our inability to socialise was made clear through the abundance of awkward silences. Usually, Alfred essentially acted as the conversation's catalyst – or rather, the entire conversation. I actually found myself missing the yank's antics as I walked home. Of course, Matthew was great company and I could honestly perceive him as a close friend in the future but I felt that he was sometimes too quiet for my liking.

I jumped a little as Matthew spoke suddenly.

"It's a bit quiet without Al here, eh?"

"Yeah." I chuckled in agreement. "It feels a little odd actually." In only a matter of days, I had become fairly used to having Matthew and Alfred around.

We climbed off of the bus and headed into town. Once again, we walked without noise and all that could be heard was the bustle of the streets. The two of us continued that silence until we had to part and head in our own directions. As per usual, we shared a quick farewell and split up.

I turned onto a different street as opposed to my usual footpath, in order to make a brief trip to a corner shop nearby. I was feeling rather peckish after a longer, tedious day at school and I had quite a bit of change to spare. My pockets jingled as the metal of my keys collided with the few fifty pence coins lying about in my blazer pocket. I reached in and fumbled about a little, until my fingers brushed upon the silvery surface of the coins, which I then took out. Change in hand, I pushed open the shop's door and a bell sounded, alerting… no-one. Shelves of sweets and groceries were lined up neatly, stretching throughout the empty shop. I searched frantically around, but nothing was to be seen. Really? Again? I felt a vain pop, couldn't I go home in peace for once? I did not appreciate being closely followed by 'dark spirits' everywhere I ventured. I had only wanted to buy some fucking food, but that was clearly too much to ask for.

I stilled as everything began to shake. Before it was too late, I threw my bag off of my shoulders, pulled the zips open and armed myself with the odd book. In the distance, faint yet heavy and threatening footsteps could be heard. My brows furrowed as sounds flooded in from various directions. Was there more than one of them? I found myself turning around, scrutinising each and every part of the shop. I felt nausea overwhelm me because of all of the fast-paced, dizzying movement. Everything was clear but I could still hear the sounds of life. Breaths, footsteps…

"Hello." I heard someone snarl behind me, their voice low and menacing. My body twisted around. In utter shock, my eyes widened. The spirit, it looked more humanoid than the others. They were clad in ordinary clothes but a mask concealed their face and thus, their identity. I knew I shouldn't have been so surprised, I was a human myself. Even then, my previous encounters had most definitely not been with a species like my own and as a result, I had come to the conclusion that spirits of a human nature were more uncommon.

"Hey! Are you ignoring me?" I felt the same breath tickle my ear. I shuddered and turned around, before backing away slightly. I noticed that in fact, there were two human spirits, one of which was standing to the side, with their arms folded. Would they even be considered spirits if they were human? Argh, this was all too confusing for my liking.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?! You perverted arsehole!" My voice went up a few panicked pitches. I received an uncannily familiar laugh in response. In fact, it lacked any sort of intimidating tone, which caught me off guard a little.

"Sorry man, I was just teasing." What?

"Oi newbie, what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" The other dark spirit (or human?) scolded. This encounter was oddly light-hearted compared to the others. The spirit with no understanding of personal space rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "This ain't the time for flirting!"

"I-I wasn't flirting!" A stutter.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with." The second spirit cast a spell, summoning a pair of pistols. They glimmered with what seemed to be dark energy. I fixed my fascinated gaze on a book held in his hands, which was almost of an identical colour and size to mine. Why didn't the spirits in my previous encounters have one? They appeared to just as perplexed as myself, as his blue eyes, which peeked through slits in his mask, were fixated quite firmly at the similar object within my fingers.

I refused to let myself get distracted and brought up my own weapon. Light blinded the room, making my enemies wince. I held my sword, its hilt secured tightly between my fingers. I felt reluctant to strike – these people were human after all…

So killing everything else was okay because they weren't human?

I felt myself growing emotionally confused. Before I could dissuade myself and cower away from what was my 'duty', I ran forward, pointing my blade directly ahead of me. Just as I was about to land a hit on my enemy, I was pushed back rather roughly. Once again, a searing pain pulsed through my body. I recoiled and left myself open in the process. My enemy appeared to have cast some sort of defence spell. Before another attack could be issued against me, I put my guard up. It was futile though, the guy had guns, for crying out loud and I was most definitely not able to deflect them like some kind of Jedi… Oh lord, Alfred's dorky interests were rubbing off on me. It had only been a few days since I met the idiot as well. I shook my head, now was not the time to lose focus and think of him of all people. I braced myself, expecting an attack but nothing came.

Wait, why weren't they doing anything? Surely I should have been in some sort of agony, or dead right now.

"Wait, dude, where is he? He just vanished…" The two spirits appeared quite baffled as they searched around quite frantically for me. But I was standing right in front of them…?

Ah no, I recalled another instance where I had been in a similar position.

"Boo." I yelped and turned around to see Oliver, standing with his usual crazed smile across his face. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare you." He giggled a little, before turning solemn. "Listen, we don't have much time, we can only remain unseen for so long."

"Ah, right."

"Okay, I need you to try out a new spell." I could hear the other two talking confusedly amongst themselves in the background. "Did you notice how that spirit managed to deflect your attacks?"

"Yes…"

"They used a defence spell, which you're going to need to survive." Couldn't he have taught me that sooner?

"Right. What do I do?"

"Turn to the second half of your book." I complied, frantically turning through every page until Oliver told me to stop. "Recite this spell." He gestured towards it with a point of his finger. Then, with a wave, Oliver left, before I could even protest or ask any questions.

"There he is!" Ah yes, without Oliver and his abilities, I couldn't remain unseen. "Right, finish this sucker off." In response, the spirit with the pistols readied another attack. As their fingers rested upon the triggers, I brought my sword in front of my body, in defence, and hastily cast my new spell.

"Light from within, grant me a shield!" The triggers were pulled. A thin beaming ring surrounded my form. Bullets were hurled in my direction but they turned to nothing but gloomy wisps of smoke as they neared my body. I ran forward at that moment, my sword at the ready – I needed to get this over and done with. Much to my dismay, my enemy was not ready to lose so easily.

"Damn, I liked using the pistols." They grunted, frustrated. "I guess I'll have to fight fire with fire." The pistols disappeared… and were replaced by a sword. It was much like my own, except darker and less radiant, which wasn't so surprising. For a moment, the spirit was left open as he attempted to get into some kind of battle stance. I managed to land a hard blow around their hip, which caused them to cry out in pain. "Shit, you hit hard." They hissed, dropping to the ground. I drew my weapon up, ready to deliver a second attack but…

I couldn't bring myself to do it. I took a step backwards and examined the damage which I had done. Scarlet liquid dripped onto the floor. That never happened when I was hit. Oh bloody hell, what had I done?! I leaned against a shelf for support as I felt myself grow drowsy from all of the 'energy' I had been using.

The second, uninjured person ran towards his comrade, who had fallen out of consciousness.

"Oh gosh, that ain't lookin' good." They fretted.

"H-how…?" I whispered, my voice hoarse with horror. My question was answered with a tense silence, which was then interrupted.

"Listen, you're going to pay for what happened to my friend today." They warned with menace.

"I… I'm sorry…" I mustered. "I didn't know…" And that was the truth, I was very baffled right now, amongst other things of course. I received a snort in response.

"That's just like you people of light, always trying to be the 'good guys'." I felt anger bubble up inside me – my apology was quite genuine.

"Hey, I apologised, isn't that enough for you?! What else do you want me to do?!" I retorted quite suddenly. Frustrated tears built up around my eyes.

"Leave." And so I did. I left the problem completely unresolved but it didn't matter. I was done with fighting these fucking spirits or humans, I couldn't even tell. I didn't care if I had some sort duty or destiny to fulfil; it was too much of a burden.

How many people would I have to hurt like I did today? I didn't think I could cope with that. A heavy guilt settled at the pits of my stomach. I had already killed two others. Yes, they may not have been human but they were still… alive.

I chucked the infernal book onto the ground. They could find someone else to 'unify the kingdoms'. How was that supposed to work anyway? Both sides were bent on murdering each other for goodness' sake. Unless… unless…

Perhaps the guy from earlier was right. What if the people of light intended to take over the other kingdom? That would still count as 'unifying' them.

I was dwelling on this far too much. Their feuds had nothing to do with me anyway.

I felt this chapter was a little confusing towards the end. I wanted to keep the identities of the two people at the end quite ambiguous and it was quite difficult to tell which one was doing what exactly.

I noticed that there's a thing that allows you to directly reply to reviews, haha. I'm still getting used to this site. I got so many follows/favourties/reviews for the last chapter - thanks a lot!

I also realised this fic doesn't have a cover photo and my profile is lacking in a picture too, so I need to get around to drawing those or something, when I get time.

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