Chapter 8: More Than Meets The Eye (Part 2/2)
Only a few inches away from my face is Wave's Grand Fall but completely at a standstill. I don't know exactly what I did but it worked! Talk about cutting it close! Looking at the others, they're completely frozen too. W-Wait… where did Esdeath go? Maybe she could tell what I was doing and avoided the radius of this technique? Too many things to question right now so I won't bother with pointless conjecture. What matters most is winning against Wave or at least a stalemate. Just as I am about to pick up my sword, sudden pain courses through my body and brings me to my knees.
"Hraaagh!" I scream, grabbing at my chest. The beating of my heart is spiking through the roof! Am I… having a heart attack?! The second I try to breathe, I realize I can't pull in any air. I'm suffocating too?! My body temperature starts rapidly declining too. I knew this was a stupid wager but I didn't think it would backfire like this. Am I… about to die for it? I… have… failed. A pair of hands grab my shoulders, instantly undoing all that's wrong with my body. I feel warm and I can breathe again?! My heart is going back to normal too?! Looking over my right shoulder, I'm taken aback.
"E-Esdeath?!" I exclaim, shocked.
"The one and only. How reckless of you to pull out a technique that clearly you haven't trained with yet. Aside from that, this is most impressive, Tetsuo," Esdeath smirks, amused with my ability.
"T-Thanks… but h-how are you moving? Everyone else is frozen," I ask.
"I have a similar technique and could sense what you were doing. I simply activated mine when you unleashed yours," she explains.
"Huh, what a lucky coincidence. If you weren't here then I would've accidentally killed myself so thanks again," I sigh.
"Don't mention it. Now then…," her grip on my shoulders suddenly tightens. "Were you lying about not having an Imperial Arms?" She inquires menacingly in my right ear.
"N-No, of course not!" I answer.
"How did you do this then?" She questions.
"I don't know! I've always had this strange ability but I don't try to use it. It tends to go off on its own sometimes but nothing like this has happened before," I reply.
"Hmmm… By any chance, do you have a tattoo or a marking somewhere on your body?" She questions. Shit! I don't wanna tell her about it due to me not knowing what kinda reaction and schemes she may come up with but I'm sure she'll force me to!
"It's… not a pretty birthmark," I lie.
"Is that so? Show it to me then," she insists. Goddamn it!
"I… really don't think that's a great idea," I say carefully. She immediately chuckles as if knowing how I would respond.
"You don't have a choice, Tetsuo unless you would rather die," she warns. "I'd hate to take away Seryu's new toy."
"C-Can't we just drop this?!" I try to pull her hands off of me to no avail.
"Not when you can do something that I can do supposedly without an Imperial Arms! I don't buy it one bit! The only logical conclusion is that yours is similar in nature to mine therefore you have a marking that confirms such! For all I know, this is some secret Night Raid scheme to catch us off guard!" She explains. I don't wanna try this after it almost got me killed the first time but I'm outta options!
"Please, Esdeath. I'll do anything you want if you don't worry about how I did it. I swear I'm not up to anything." I plead submissively, suggestively backing myself up against her body while hoping my face can give some leeway. She blushes deeply at my suggestion. Please work! Her hands slide down my arms to my wrists, holding them tightly.
"Anything I want?" She mutters deeply in my ear.
"A-Anything," I reaffirm.
"Then let me entertain myself…," she lets go of my right wrist and grabs the bottom of my shirt. "With your body." She starts slowly lifting my shirt up. This was a goddamn bad idea! I thought she would've opted for harsh labor instead!
"I can't let you do this though!" I grab her wrist, stopping her. "Ser won't be happy!"
"We're frozen in time so she won't know a thing. Besides, you said anything," she continues lifting my shirt despite my resistance. Fuck! Do something else!
"T-The mark is around my genitals!" I quickly blurt out which stops her advance.
"Really? It took that much to get you to spill your guts? How dare you make me result to such perverse tactics!" She drops my shirt, clearly frustrated.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't want to say that out of fear that you wouldn't believe me and think of me as some perverted deviant!" I elaborate. It's bullshit made up on the spot but convincing bullshit nonetheless. At least one of Lubbock's tricks worked in my favor this time.
"A shame that it is placed in such an awkward spot. That will have to sate my curiosity on the matter for now but know that you're not off the hook," she says. A part of me can tell she at least considered checking anyway just to fantasize about Tatsumi's… size. Don't think it would've stopped at just looking either. I'm not about to run the risk of calling her out on it either. "With that settled, let me teach you something about this Permafrost Prison of yours. It certainly can't be that much different."
"How are you gonna do that?" I ask.
"Simple," she completely releases me and I immediately crumple to the ground as all the immense freezing pain engulfs me again.
"Gyaah!" I scream, clutching at my heart. Could've warned me!
"You're freezing everything, including yourself. Focus and exclude yourself from that," she advises. Attempting to control it, a warmth washes over me and the agony subsides. Standing up, I'm in awe at how just concentrating my mind prevents the severe consequences. "I did it?"
"Now take up your sword and strike at Grand Chariot's weak point. I know you figured it out by now," she instructs.
"Right!" I pick up my sword and position myself behind Wave. Despite keeping my focus, my body slowly starts shuddering as the icy sensation travels back up from my feet to my head. I've been in here too long! Taking my one good swing, I slash the area behind his knee, making a deep gash in the armor. Damn it! I've got the right idea but I need more hits. Wait! He's starting to resume moving?! Permafrost Prison must be ending! I wonder if Esdeath was keeping it active for much longer with her version of it until undoing it just now. I jump back and guard as time goes back to normal. Wave crashes into the ground with a big plume of dust engulfing all of us. My feet slide backwards only a couple inches from the mighty impact. As the dust clears, Wave stands up, seemingly uninjured as he turns to face me.
"Wave missed?!" Bols and Seryu exclaim.
"That's a shocker," Kurome casually says.
"How interesting," Run comments.
"You really are special. You somehow dodged Grand Fall at the last second and got behind me. Let's—Huh?" Wave touches the spot I had cut at and notices a small amount of blood on his armored fingers. So I actually cut just deep enough to nick a little bit of skin? "How did you even figure that out? Quite impressive. I won't hold back from now—"
"That's enough, Wave," Esdeath interjects.
"Damn. Just when it was about to really kick off," he sighs, deactivating Grand Chariot. "We should spar for real in the future. What do you say, Tetsuo?"
"Definitely!" I answer.
"General, I'd like to take Tetsuo deeper into the forest for some target practice!" Seryu quickly exclaims and rushes to my side, most likely making sure she can get her way before Esdeath decides something.
"I'll allow it. Report his results to me when you two come back," Esdeath grants her wish, giving me a subtle glare that tells me to keep my mouth shut. Good thing I wasn't planning on it.
"Yay! Thank you, General! No time to waste, Tetsuo! Pick a gun so we can get going!" Seryu excitedly says.
"Thankfully, I already had my eyes on this sniper rifle," I go and pick it up, checking the magazine before loading it back in.
"I knew that's what you would go for. Now let me show you a thing or two. Stay here, Koro," she casually hugs my arm and leads me away from the other Jaegers.
"Actually, y'know what? I'm curious to see his shooting skills. Mind if I tag alon—," Wave starts to say.
"Not today," Esdeath denies his request.
"Seriously?" He sighs.
"I strongly recommend that you read the air, Wave," Bols suggests.
"What's there to read?" Wave inquires, confused.
"Do you really need it spelled out for you?" Kurome asks.
"…Ohhh, I can't believe I let that slip right past me. Yeah, nevermind then," he chuckles sheepishly. Clearly, no one filled him in on the situation. Their voices eventually fade out from the dense amount of trees we're walking through.
"I'm surprised she let me do this," Seryu giggles.
"Esdeath probably feels a tiny bit bad about interrupting us earlier so she's letting this slide," I take a guess.
"You're most likely right. We'll make good use of it," she rubs her cheek against mine.
"Speaking of Esdeath, thanks for that convincing sad act you did to save my life," I say.
"What?" She lets go of me.
"Yeah, when you were crying and stuff? I'm surprised she fell for it. Honestly, I was almost fooled too," I admit. Her face starts pouting as it turns really red. "Uh, Ser? Are you okay?"
"T-Tets! Y-You big idiot!" She yells, pulling out her tonfa guns and taking aim at me. "Please die!" Oh shit!
"W-What the hell did I do?!" I run away as she starts shooting, bullets whizzing past me and hitting trees.