Okay, I lied. I know. But it's out now.

I head up the driveway and step straight inside my house.

"Hey Xavier!" My mom says, playing on her phone in the kitchen.

"Hey Mom." I go through the kitchen to the garage to put the baseball bat back.

"Who won the baseball game?" my mom asks when I get back to the kitchen.

"Oh, uh..." (forgot that we were supposedly playing baseball) "Darius and Minerva. Erika was busy tonight so she couldn't come."

"Oh, alright. How do you keep track of so many friends?"

"There's only four of them. Pretty easy when they're such good friends anyway."

"Well okay. Do you have any homework this weekend?"

"A little algebra, but that's pretty much it."

"Don't leave it all to the last minute."

"Fine."

I turn around to get on the computer when Mom speaks up again.

"What happened to your back?"

"Oh, I...slipped and fell on a little broken glass while we were heading to the area we were playing in."

"Which was?"

"That one culdesac in the back of the neighborhood."

"Go upstairs and put a bandage on it, please."

"Okay."

I head up to my mom and dad's room and grab a bandage out of their closet to apply to the cut on the back of my shoulder. Actually, I'm glad she reminded me to do this, 'cause open wounds like these can get infected or something if left open. Well, now it's time to report back to the Shadow Guard, though one of my brothers is up in my room right now, so I'll have to lock myself in the bathroom. I dial their number and wait for someone to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's X. Do I have Whimsalot?"

"No, this is Astigmatism. Whimsalot is still off gathering info with Final and your other friend. Did you guys finish your assignment?"

"Yep. Actually, that gang found the watches you sent us before we did, so we had to fight them to get them back, and all we heard from them was that they were going to get guns or something. Thanks for those, by the way."

"D**n it, I told him we should have written something menacing on the box! *sigh* Alright, we'll see what we can do with that. We'll let you know if we need you to do anything else for us."

"Glad to help. Talk to you later."

"Bye."

Okay, now that that's taken care of, I can start messing with my watch!

First I turn off the light and turn on my watch. Dang, Justice just feels powerful, but in a more...reserved way. Under the influence of magic, my soul is about as bright as a smartphone screen, but the magic light on the watch is only as bright as the power light on the Wii U.

I take off my watch, set it on the counter, and slowly move away from it. As I do so, my soul starts to get dimmer until I'm standing a whole four feet away, at which point it's gone. That's really not much magic.

Let's see, what can I shoot in here without breaking anything or making noise? ...Toilet paper, of course.

I put my watch back on, turn off the light and tear off a square of toilet paper. I hold it by the top edge (ready), point my finger at it (aim), and shoot it (FIRE). The bullet rips straight through the toilet paper and hits the door, making a loud BANG.

Crap, I thought the bullet would stop at the first thing it hit!

"What was that?" my mom calls out.

"Sorry, I...slipped and fell," I call back.

I think that's enough playing with existential substances for today.

Hmm, haven't played with Nerf guns for a while. Maybe I'll practice reloading the revolver.

My siblings and I have always enjoyed Nerf guns, but our house isn't big enough for an actual Nerf war, so we haven't done that with each other yet. We also have some Nerf swords, along with this wooden toy sword that my brother picked up at a Renaissance fair. That one is my favorite because...wait a minute, didn't Darius said he had one of these?

I got an idea. I grab my phone and open our group chat.

Me: Darius, you free for the next hour?

Darius: sure, why?

Me: Meet me in the rain gutter in fifteen minutes and bring your wooden sword, I'm thinking of trying something edgy

Minerva: Can I come?

Me: Sure why not?

Darius: Alright I'll see if I can find my sword.

Me: See you there

I tell my mom that I'm going to the rain gutter to hang out, and then I grab my wooden sword, phone, and magical watch and head out the door.

The rain gutter in our neighborhood runs perpendicular to my street, but there's a culdesac with walkway that leads right down to the end of it that opens out into the creek in the woods. One could jump down into it from the street, but it's not easy due to the thick railing, and it's even harder to get back up that way. The shade, steep inclines, and lack of cars or anything makes this the perfect place to hang out.

I walk down the narrow alley, duck under the vegetation, and maneuver myself around the slope at the end of the gutter, at which point I walk down the gutter to the shady area close to the street. This afternoon it's really sunny, so there's a big contrast between the shady and more open areas. I set down my sword and start playing on my phone...until I hear someone drop down from above.

"What's up, X?" Darius says.

"I'm alright, how about you?" I reply.

"I'm good."

"You haven't seen Minerva, have you?"

"She should be here any second now, she wasn't all that far behind me."

"Were you two racing here or something?" I ask right before I see Minerva running up to the railing on the street.

"I thought we both agreed *gasp* that you weren't going to do that *gasp* without taking me with you!" Minerva yells at Darius as she climbs over the railing and jumps down into the rain gutter.

"Sorry babe, that's the last time," Darius apologizes.

"Dude, did you-" I start to ask.

"We were racing and he cheated," Minerva tells me.

"Duuude, someone's gonna notice if you keep doing that!" I say to Darius.

"Dude, chill, if there were anyone there I wouldn't have done it."

"Anyway, what are we doing here, X?" Minerva asks.

I hold up my toy sword. "Okay, so you guys know how larp swords fights usually work right? Touch-based, if it touches a limb you lose it? With rules like those and foam swords, people end up standing just out of reach of each other and trying to poke their opponent without touching their opponent's sword. Parrying and dodging are impossible."

"But these wooden swords tho, they're hard and they have some weight. If we fight with these, we won't need dumb rules like those because you'll know when you've lost. Which is when you drop your sword or take a strong hit."

"That would hurt though, wouldn't it?" Darius asks.

"Yeah, but that's what we want right now," I answer. "If we get into another fight like that, we need to know how to fight and be ready to experience pain. This is our practice."

"Sounds awesome," Minerva says. "Who's first?"

"I was thinking me and Darius."

"Alright, let's go then," Darius says, standing up and picking up his sword. I position myself about eight feet away from him, with my back to the the end of the gutter (which is about fifty feet away).

So we're about to have my first wooden sword duel. Hopefully neither of us end up with brain damage or broken bones. Actually, this go wrong in several ways.

"Alright dude, just try to forget what happens when you win or lose and just dodge, parry and strike," I remind Darius.

"Got it," he says. "I'm ready."

"Go."

Darius swings his sword at my chest while I jump backwards to dodge it. He swings it back again, and I hold my sword with both hands vertically to block it, causing him to stumble. At this point I nail him on the leg and trip him down, and then point my sword at his head. "I win!"

"Daaang, that was sick!" Darius says, standing up. "Where did you learn to block like that?"

"Wii Sports Resort, I think," I reply. "You just gotta hold your blade perpendicular to your opponent's."

"That was really short," Minerva says.

"Well, yeah, it kinda was," I agree. "But that could give us time to switch out more often. It's probably best that winner stays, so next would be me and you, Minerva."

Darius tosses his sword to Minerva, who catches it by the blade and moves her hand to the handle. "Tell us when to start, honey."

"Okay...start."

Minerva jumps at me and swings diagonally. I block the attack, but my sword is almost knocked back into my face. Minerva swings again; I dodge that attack twice, but the third smashes straight into my shoulder.

"OW!" I yell as I kneel down and grab my shoulder. "Why'd you have to hit me so hard?"

"Didn't you say it was supposed to hurt?" Minerva responds.

"Well...yeah, you're right," I concede as I feel a small amount of Justice ignite within me. "Darius, you're up."

Darius takes my sword and gets ready to battle while I step off to the side. When I give the word for the fight to start, Minerva comes out swinging, but Darius knocks her attack away and lands a hit right on her head.

"Argh! Wow, those were some cool moves," Minerva comments. "Looks like I'm out."

"Okay, these fights seriously are way too short," I announce. "We need to focus more on defense."

In my next fight with Darius, we both block a few of each other's quick swings, until Darius hits my ribcage. It definitely hurts, but nothing's broken. Minerva beats Darius by knocking his sword out of his hands, I use the incline up the side of the gutter to catch Minerva off guard...we go on like this for about five more minutes. By the time we're done, we're in pretty bad physical shape, but I do believe we've learned a thing or two about dueling.

"This has got to be one of the most painful things I've ever done," I remark.

"Agreed," Darius says.

"Okay, I was secretly keeping track of how many times each person won," Minerva tells us, "and the overall winner is...X with twelve."

"Nice going, X," Darius compliments me. "We should do this again sometime...much later. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it home today."

"Well babe, looks like you'll have to figure something out, 'cause I'm the only one who can do this!" Minerva turns on her watch and floats up to the street. "Race you home again!"

"Aw, come on!" Darius says, trying to climb up the gutter.

"Well, you did cheat in the last race," I remind him. "I think I'm going out the long way. See you later, dude."

"You too, man."

I walk out the gutter the way I came in and head home, remembering that there's one more thing I need to do before I can call it a day. I head home and step inside.

"Okay, I'm back," I announce to my family as I make my way upstairs, where my mom is playing on the computer in her room.

"Xavier, what on Earth happened to you this time?" my mom demands.

In this situation, I've got no good reason to lie. "Well...my friends and I were having sword fights..."

"With wooden swords? You've got church tomorrow! What made you think that was a good idea?"

The real me is thinking that I just wanted to see how well I could handle pain, but the obedient me knows that this is no good excuse. I slowly aim my eyes and head towards the ground in shame.

"Go get some ice and rest for a little while. You should be taking better care of yourself."

I follow her directions. I'm definitely in no position to not.

As soon as I'm feeling better and I'm sure Mom isn't mad at me anymore, I ask to go to Erika's house to deliver a project to her, and am granted permission. I grab Erika's watch and my school binder so nobody will think I'm lying, and leave the house.

When I get to Erika's house, I ring the doorbell. Her dad gets there in about seven seconds.

"Hey there, X. Do you need something?"

"Is Erika here? I just need to talk to her for a minute."

"Yeah, she's here. Erika!" After a few seconds, she standing in front of me.

"Hi, X. How are you doing?"

"Pretty good, I guess, how about you?"

"I'm okay."

"Okay, so first of all, our watches came in yesterday." I hand Erika her watch, and she puts it on and tests it. Her soul activates instantly.

"Wow, thanks."

"If anybody asks, Darius got us these because he's a baller like that."

"Oh, okay. How did your spy mission go?"

"Well, the gang stole our watches, so we had to fight for them, and all we ended up hearing was something about them getting guns. How was your recon mission?"

"Oh, it was great. Whimsalot knew so much about interrogating bystanders. He showed me all the best ways to help people remember as much as possible about what they saw. And he said we could do it again next week!"

"That's cool, but...did you get any good info?"

"Oh, right. One person said he saw Richards's car driving out of town on the freeway, so it seems that he's probably staying somewhere in Sterlington. Whimsalot said he and the Guard would start searching for him there."

"Nice. Well, I gotta go home now, so I'll see you later."

"Bye."

So Richards is in Sterlington, a slightly larger town north of Smithplain famous around here for things like amusement parks? Honestly, I don't know my way around that place, so I'm not sure what help we'll be there. Eh, I guess we won't know until we go for it, so, we'll do that. Later.

Sorry, but it doesn't look like I can stick with any promises I make about when this will update. Really, when this updates depends on how well I can get into writing it and how bored I get. I will keep working on this though, I promise.

Next chapter...well, let's just say that nobody expected this to happen already.