Though none of the mentioned ever came.
True, there was impact. I heard Hinata make a muffled "umph!" as our bodies crashed mightily on the ground, pulled by the forces of physics that made up this world.
But I'd already prepared myself for another death.
. . . Which made it weird when it never came.
"Huh?" I opened my eyes. I looked beside me, seeing Hinata having similarly closed his eyes and clutching my hand so hard it nearly hurt. I looked down at the ground, and sure enough, there was our feet firmly placed on the grass. "What's going on?"
"What are you- wha?" Hinata made a similar exclamation of surprise when he too opened his eyes. I painfully extracted my hand from his grasp as I tried walking to test my legs. "Whoa, what the hell's going on here?"
"I don't know," I replied with wonder. Nothing. No resultant pain, lingering blood or displaced body parts. It was as if an invincibility code had been entered into our bodies making us able to survive falling down eight stories without a scratch.
Perhaps the world had been rewired or rewritten at that very moment? I pulled out my gun and hastily cocked it.
Hinata looked over and asked, his face disbelieving, ". . . And what are you doing now?"
I mentally prepared myself for death again, and pointed the gun on my own chest.
The bullet discharged with an angry bang. I didn't doubt that many people heard its blast echo ringing into the quiet afternoon air. And that included me, who stared down disbelievingly into the barrel of my still-smoking gun..
"Wow, bizarre." I placed my hand on where the wound should have been. The bullet was there, only that it didn't penetrate the skin, heck, it didn't even penetrate my clothes. I held up the spent slag to my eyes.
"What's going on? Did they suddenly turn on the invincibility switch in this world?" Hinata leaned in, as dumbfounded as I was.
"Try it, Hinata." I urged. Looking around, there didn't seem anything wrong or different with the world. "We need to know what the heck this means."
"Mrr, if you say so," he grudgingly allowed, pulling out his own gun. He looked over at me and smiled in a half-hearted attempt to look cool. "Don't think too badly of me now, y'hear?"
"Just shoot yourself already," I brushed him off a little coldly.
"That hurt! Meanie. Well here goes," he pulled the trigger, and then a red flower blossomed on his shirt.
"Hinata!" Oh my god, I just had my friend kill myself! What the hell was I thinking, making him kill himself? Too late, his lifeless body crumpled to the ground, his gun clattering onto the grass.
I hesitated from rushing to his side. Puzzled, I looked at my own gun, then catching a glimpse of the feather I clutched in my other hand. A seed of doubt started to form in my mind as I extracted the feather from my sweaty palm and held it up at arms' length. I focused my eyes on the feather as I put the gun to my head.
"Ow!" After discharging, the bullet spanged harmlessly against my forehead, but didn't penetrate. It really hurt, though, as like a paint-ball fired from close-range. It gave me a slight, ringing headache for a while. It was then that an idea, so outrageous but supported by the facts, lit up in my mind at that moment.
"Hinata," I squeaked excitedly before stopping. Oh yeah, he's still dead. I'll just talk to myself then."This feather. . . is a powerful item! This is. . . the Angel's feather!"
"What the fuck're ya doing, huh?" A brazen, uncouth voice called out from my back.
Author's Note: It's here~~~ And it's good! To any of you who're tracking me like stalkers, I'm still in the process of finishing Rewrite, the latest visual novel from Key. There's some stuff from there I can add to this story too, it just fits! Anyway, next upload won't be for a while, still gonna wrap up all of the game's sidequests and friend-collecting.
Merlin Out.