*000000*

[X] Ask Crystal and Vicky to wait, you were only a few minutes away from their location so all of you could group up before moving out.

Forest at Edge of Brockton Bay

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Current Emulation Energy: 16

It did not take long for you and your student to arrive, albeit that was more due to Crystal and Vicky coming to meet the two of you instead of you having to search the forest grounds for their previous location.

"Mom hasn't said anything, but Aunt Carol just texted the go ahead to try and stall until she got here." Crystal said, reconfirming the message you already read.

"We're gonna end this before she gets here anyway." Vicky stated, hastily hefting Amy onto her back. It was clear to you that Vicky was getting impatient, especially having been forced to wait for the two of you, but she had thankfully waited nonetheless. You wished you had more time to prepare and plan for the sortie, but time was of the essence this time.

"Guess you're with me, huh?" Crystal said, walking up to you. "I haven't done this a lot so try not to move around too much, okay?"

You were admittedly worried about how Crystal and Vicky would have their hands full ferrying you and your student. Airborne fighters in Fodlan could still effectively fight alongside a paired adjutant because a pegasus or wyvern could carry the additional weight without burdening the rider themselves. While there were issues when it came to grounded cavalry, and having males ride on a pegasus at all, grouping full squadrons to utilize a flier's mobility only boosted each other's combat ability rather than acting as a hindrance.

Regardless of those worries, you allowed Crystal to pick you up in her arms, trying not to move too much as Crystal's arm propped your legs up from under your knees. It was only once Crystal truly left the ground did you realize that you were also not in the best position to act as a fighter either. You and your student would have to be dropped altogether to contribute to any combat situation.

"Are you handling my weight fine?" You asked. Crystal held you steady for now, but she herself confessed to being unfamiliar with carrying others.

"You're… just okay with asking that?" Crystal questioned back. You met her eyes with a raised eyebrow. Why would you not be, it was important to determine your group's combat potential while you could. After a beat, Crystal continued, "Yeah, you're not that heavy."

"Oh, wow. That feels a lot better." Vicky said. Your student had performed a Heal on her, and while it did nothing for her appearance, it should have removed any scrapes and bruises she had accumulated.

"Remember that Heal does not recover your stamina, your body is still as exhausted as before being healed. Only your physical injuries have been healed." You warned. While soldiers did not usually have the luxury of being able to rest amidst a battle, it was important to keep track of your own limits. It was standard for medics to remind their patients that their stamina, both physical and mental, was not infinite.

And you were not a Dancer, that could magically refresh stamina in exchange for their own. You couldn't lament too much about not studying it however, there was only so much time your life was allotted after all.

Vicky nodded at your words, prompting you to continue speaking. "Now, could you give us an overview of our enemies."

With another nod, Vicky explained, "Okay, so there's Dad. He's the one that's making things so bad because he's really good at fighting and using trees and stuff to make himself really hard to pin down. And he was doing it while his body was getting mastered by another guy on our side. Don't ask about him by the way, he's not here anymore."

You scanned the ground below you. The trees increasingly clustered in the direction you were flying towards. You could still see under the canopy for now, but it was unknown how long that would last. It was an environment that you would assume would be even more difficult to face Mark in. You lamented how your unfamiliarity with such 'Master' effects led to a strategy where your ally's advantage was being used against you. The plethora of powered effects made it far too difficult for you to account for every possibility, but you could not help but blame your inability.

"Then there was a guy named Oak. Either new to being a cape or just bad at fighting. Doesn't matter since his power makes it so that when you punch the guy in the face, it'll feel like you got punched in the face right after. I don't know if it's just the pain or not though, so no idea if breaking some of his bones means you break your own bones." Vicky continued.

An ability that provides an instantaneous and unavoidable counterattack, hm? And rather than rely on the strength of the defender, the damage was dependent on the attacker. Troublesome at the surface level, but avoiding direct combat with a troublesome enemy was a valid tactic. And those strategies applied to Fodlan, designed to avoid situations where an incredibly skilled enemy would overturn a battle's momentum entirely by themselves. If it could potentially work against someone like Professor Byleth or Dimitri, you doubted a novice would require the same amount of required setup to pull off such a trick.

"I punched out the Master a bit ago, so she shouldn't be getting up any time soon, but her power was annoying enough to keep working anyway. Would've been easy enough if Dad woke up just from that though…" Vicky grumbled. "Didn't figure out how whoever-her-face's power worked though. Didn't work on me, but obviously Dad's in deep somehow. Well, maybe not that deep, since he didn't try to kill us when he had the chance but still. Thought it might be limited to Dad only, but it sounded like the Master guy I was working with was having trouble himself too."

You pondered whether that would imply that such an ability would require some sort of arbitrary condition. Then again, you had been thinking of pegasi moments earlier, and the uninformed would consider a pegasus's refusal to accept a male rider to be arbitrary as well. You refused to let yourself fall into the trap of assumptions, especially when doing so had already burned you.

Actually, if it did work only on Mark and an unnamed male, was this Master power also gender-based? You did not want to rely on that hypothesis but it was the first to come to mind.

You waited for Vicky to continue on with her descriptions, only to be met with silence. Vicky seemed preoccupied with scanning the ground below. The forest canopy was growing thicker to the point they would have to fly underneath the leaves to be able to spot any grounded individuals.

"Are you going to continue?" You said to catch her attention.

"Huh? No, that's everyone I fought. How am I supposed to know about anyone else?" Vicky returned with a question of her own, giving you a look as if she did not understand why you had asked.

…You would've appreciated it if Vicky had stated that her briefing was over. There was a difference in being efficient with your words and being clear, even if you had trouble with the distinction yourself sometimes. How were you supposed to know yourself how many Lost Garden members Vicky had encountered?

How many?

You frowned as a thought occurred to you. "Are you certain? That's the limit of the opposition you faced?"

"What? You think you could've done better?! I"m not some pushover, you know." Vicky bristled, having irritatingly drawn a mistaken conclusion from your words.

You did not have information about whether or not you truly would have done better, but part of you did want to argue that you could have. However, there was not enough time for you to sidetrack into bickering. You would save it for a later moment.

You calmly shook your head to dispel any notion of aggression. "That is not what I was implying. I'm concerned why that was all you had faced. My student and I have already encountered a decent number of incapacitated members of Lost Garden, so they should have enough forces to afford losing those scouts."

You thought back to when you had first met Edward, when he revealed he had captured nearly a dozen people. "Yet, you only faced two? Not including your father? Exhibited powers or not, there should have been more to their number. A possible incursion into the city following the arrest announcement is why you and your father were stationed here originally. A mistake? A trap? Or is there something else we are missing?"

"That's… they were also invisible at first? With a Stranger power, so I didn't even sense them until they showed up. And that Oak guy took himself out of the Stranger power only after the other girl was in trouble." Vicky added.

"Maybe their goal in the first place was to kidnap Uncle Mark?" Crystal offered.

"But how would they know Mark would be here to do so?" You questioned. "I suppose they could have happened across him while scouting, but that would still bring up the questions of whether they would be so decisive so quickly, and why they would only be scouting in the first place rather than sending a full force to the city."

"Hey, this might be a stupid question. We were worried about the news about Lung's arrest causing Lost Garden to try something, right?" Your student interrupted your musings. Amy continued after receiving a few nods, "But Lost Garden is based in Barrow's forest and stuff, right?"

Amy squinted her eyes down at the forest below in thought. "Do they get TV? To even get the news and stuff?"

A moment of silence followed your student's question.

"No, there's no way they don't have some sort of way to know that kind of thing." Crystal denied, and you felt her shift the arm under your knees forward so she could dismissively wave her hand back and forth. "These guys were mainstays in New York, they have to have some way to communicate that kind of thing, right?"

"And it still doesn't explain why they would take over your father's consciousness." You added, regaining some confidence. "If not, they would have-"

You noticed Vicky and your student stiffening before they said anything.

"It's Dad!" Vicky called out, tilting herself forward to dive downwards.

"Vicky, wait, no!" Amy said, wrapping her arms around her sister's shoulders and trying to pull her back.

"Why?!"

"Look!" Amy pointed at the ground below, through the same opening in the leaves where they had spotted Mark. "The dirt's all messed up and you can see a bunch of trees uprooted, right? It's in a big line… I think that, from now on, this is Barrow's forest. Dad might be baiting us."

By following her gaze, you also noticed how a line was being drawn in the earth itself, made manifest through plants and rocks that looked to have been pushed aside. It was clear now that your student had pointed it out, but it was far too subtle to notice normally. Perhaps a dedicated hunter could have realized, but you would've completed disregarded it.

This was the so-called Lost Garden? But it looked no different from the rest of the forest. You had been expecting something far more grandiose or-

No, now that you were paying attention, you could see it as well. The trees looked almost equidistant from one another, and were minutely swaying in synchronized tandem. The color of the leaves were polished and you could see the wind itself through the leaves blowing along in a set path.

In a way, it looked like the picturesque view of a 'forest'. It was beautiful. It was serene. It was wrong. Even with how often you trapped yourself indoors in study, you could notice.

You suspected the difference would be far more palpable on the ground.

You felt yourself turn around with Crystal as she looked back towards Brockton Bay with a grimace and said, "Shit, we're still really far away, but this is way closer than I feel comfortable with."

"Okay, this is Barrow, but so what? We just need to fly in, beat some people up, and fly out. Easy." Vicky said with a confident shrug.

Before anyone could argue that point, you tapped the front of Crystal's shoulder. "Fly down, slowly."

After a beat, Crystal nodded and followed your impromptu order. Lost Garden was reported to thrive on defensive battles, so you were unable to imagine that they would not have some mechanism in place to act against fliers.

With how coordinated the Lost Garden appeared, you noticed straight away when something disrupted its flow.

Vines slowly crept from under the treeline, snaking their way towards where you and Crystal had descended.

"Oh, that's… really creepy." Crystal noted, mirroring your own thoughts perfectly.

Creepy or not, it also wasn't what you were expecting. While you could expect the vines could wrap around and trap someone, they were moving far too slowly to practically achieve that purpose. Even with the thorns, you expected that they were also easy enough. And if they were merely vines, you doubted that it could do much to hold back someone with Vicky's level of brute strength.

The only way those vines could achieve any purpose was if their intended targets were paying no attention to them.

You needed more information. Looking below, you were unlikely to be too far from the ground.

"Excuse me." You said to Crystal before surprising her by rolling out of her carrying hold, and entering your intangible projection form.

A minor chill went through you as you passed through the canopy, before landing on your rear. You instinctively winced despite feeling no pain from what would have been a rough fall.

Your eyes were immediately drawn towards a moving white and green shape. Mark was retreating further into the forest, carrying someone in the same way Crystal had been holding you earlier.

It also made you look directly at the forest itself. And as you expected, it looked even more unsettling on the ground. It definitely felt like you were looking at a painting of a forest, but one done by an expert painter that had never once set eyes on a real forest themselves. Nothing looked right.

Or perhaps, it was better to say that it looked too right. The trees looked completely uniform from one another, each blade of wild grass reached the same height, and you could see sunlight break through the canopy in the same shape at the same intervals apart from each other. Even the bark of the trees had nearly straight lines carved through them.

However, you had no time to study the view any further. You also did not want to, considering how eerie this situation felt. Considering how hastily Mark was moving, you were unsure if your student's earlier supposition that he was baiting your group was correct.

You took a step forward to run after him.

And then immediately froze.

Had everything just shifted? It looked as if the entire forest moved to account for your new position.

You were still in your projection mode, so nothing should be able to detect you. Was there a blanket illusion that was simply changing itself to suit your new point of view?

You closed your eyes and took a large step forward.

You stopped once again with a spike of anxiety. Even with your eyes closed, you could feel how the forest felt as if it was moving itself around you, following with each one of your steps.

But your student's perspective from above showed nothing of concern that any of them would be surprised by.

You wanted to conclusively say you were merely imagining things, but couldn't. Stealth missions were the forte of people like Petra or even Hubert, not yourself. You had no method to tell if you were being actively detected even in your projection form.

But stalling any longer would be ill-advised, lest Mark get even deeper into enemy territory. You had been given little information on Lost Garden, so any approach any further would be done completely blind, a tactically unsound decision, but one of the few you had.

[X] Tell Amy the forest has a confounding effect when you're actually in it. Tell the others to stay well above it while you remain invisible. Rely on Amy's vision from far above to move forward instead of your own. If Lost Garden has anti-air too strong to continue they should retreat and you'll just reform later. They should give no indication they have a fourth ally on the ground.

-[X] Report what you are doing at all times if safe to do so to Carol and Sarah. If there is a delay in communications by more than 20 minutes assume that we need help

Lost Garden Forest

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Current Emulation Energy: 16

'Are you noticing anything strange?' You communicated to your student, thinking it would be best to double check for any discrepancies. Amy might be seeing things differently even if what you were 'seeing' should be the same.

'No, the weird vision thing is only on your end, it looks normal… ish from up here.'

'Then you'll have to guide me, I can't trust my senses here.' You said, moving forward once more. You ignored how it felt as if the forest itself was following your every movement. 'I can't wait any longer or I'll lose your father.'

'But I can barely see you! You're already transparent, and there's a bunch of leaves in the way!' Your student replied, hoisting her body above Vicky's shoulders to give herself a slightly better vantage point.

"Amy, what's going on?" Vicky questioned sharply.

"Thea's moving that way." Amy said, being careful not to exclaim too loudly before pointing appropriately.

'You'll have to do your best. We don't have the luxury of time.' You said, dashing past another tree. 'And warn your mother if she is coming as well.'

"Crystal, can you tell Mom to be careful about a confusing vision trick if she gets here, and that if we don't text anything in 20 minutes or so?" Your student asked, confirming and subsequently delegating your instructions to her nodding cousin whilst she focused her best on tracking your movements.

You were asking much of your student all at once, but you were having difficulties of your own, only barely able to notice traces of where another was making their way through the forest like yourself. Even whilst actively carrying another, Mark was potentially outrunning you even when you were purposefully choosing to be less careful about keeping track of anything else and relying on your student's insights.

'Keep straight ahead.'

At the very least, the uniformity of this confounding forest would make it easy to spot anything out of the ordinary. You still wouldn't stop even if you saw Oak or another enemy lying in ambush, however. Your role was to catch up and cut off the rescue target while leaving any potential enemies to the main force. It was a tactic you were familiar with, although you had no experience with the role yourself when it was best left for either for those with fast-moving mounts, enough defensive properties to take the punishment, or a combination of the two.

They were also meant to give others some method of tracking them, and those methods did include ways to work around terrain. For example, while most did not fully commit to the magical arts, many military officers knew how to cast a basic Fire spell. When traveling underneath a thick forest, a Fire spell shot upwards could act as a beacon. Though, it wasn't something necessarily applicable in this case, considering you were relying on the fact your projection form was undetectable.

'On the right, slightly.'

Clenching your teeth as you actively pushed aside the ominous feeling of being watched and followed your student's instruction, you wished you could leave this role to the faster flier in Crystal. But not only would doing so require Crystal to pass by those vines and any other potential anti-flier defensive measures, but it would also guarantee that your targets would be aware of the chase. If Mark moved to defend himself whilst moving, or if any unknown were to arrive, then things would become far more complicated.

It was already difficult enough dealing with just the forest itself, when you were doing your best to overcome your anxiety. It felt like the forest was getting darker with every step-

Wait, it was getting darker. The rays of light breaking through the canopy were smaller than you remembered, the leaves clustering together closely enough that it felt as if there was an actual roof over the area.

Did the uniformity prevent you from readily noticing or was it some other effect?

You widened your eyes.

You were doing your best with tracing any vestiges left behind by Mark, but even with that, you had to rely on your student's guidance.

But now, there wasn't any trace you could notice. And that same uniformity that at first helped you instead forced you to confront that it was impossible to keep track of your direction. No matter where you looked, everything looked identical.

Getting lost in such a place would be ludicrously simple.

'Dammit, I can't see- Wait, right there!'

'Where?!' You sent back. You couldn't even tell which way would be straight ahead in this darkening place.

"Dammit, dammit!" Your student cursed aloud.

You darted your head above, where something rustled the leaves. From the visible cloud of poison, you realized your student had casted Miasma against the trees itself. A second Miasma shot followed shortly, breaking through the canopy, dispersing violently against the ground. 'There!'

You didn't need to be told again as you sprinted in the direction the Miasma had landed, skirting around the lingering gasses. Forcing your student to resort to attack downwards was unfortunate, but it didn't necessarily mean an enemy could infer your existence from that alone.

Though you couldn't help but wonder if your earlier stray thought about the Fire spell had somehow transmitted over to your student's mind for her to come up with that idea. Then again, it was a basic tactic her mind could've easily arrived at on its own.

"Crystal, can you come over here, your beams are brighter." Your student beckoned over Crystal. "We might need that if- wait, no stop!"

You froze in the air mid-stride, realizing that the way your student's voice had echoed with her thought communications meant her desperate instruction was meant for you.

Your foot landed, and you endeavored to wait for-

Your foot phased through the ground. Followed quickly by your ankle.

Was your projection form glitching here?! Now?!

You flailed your arms forward, unable to think of much else to do but try to grasp something to stop your fall. But your hands wouldn't be able to hold anything anyway, if your projection was falling through the ground itself then you would have no choice but to materialize before you fell deeper into the pits of hell itself. You might bury yourself, but you would regain access to your magic and-

Your hands didn't phase through the ground.

What?!

Wait, no, you realized only the bottom of your palms were phasing through the ground. As your head dropped underground, you resolved that you would have to use your falling momentum to swing yourself over to-

Your projected body flattened itself against a wall, stunning you momentarily.

Thankfully, the lack of pain only meant you had to deal with the sudden shift in momentum, as your hands gripped harder at the ground.

And now that your head was underground, you understood.

You took a moment to look at how only your upper arms were now phasing through dirt, being held aloft by some unseen force. Then you looked downwards where a mess of thorny plants awaited at the bottom of the hole. Falling onto something like that would hurt, but was unlikely to kill unless one was incredibly unlucky in how they fell.

Who builds a pitfall trap this absurdly huge?! Also, it was good to know your projection form gave absolutely no leeway in falling for such a trap either!

You began straining to lift yourself out of the pit. Lack of muscular strength or magical anti-gravity assistance aside, your projected self shouldn't actually weigh anything, so you just had to lift yourself-

Had to lift yourself-

Ugh, why was this so hard? You slackened your arms, stopping yourself from your attempts to hoist your entire body up all at once. Instead, you had to progressively edge yourself upwards to get better leverage before rolling your projected body out all at once.

You refused to waste so much time in a goddess-forsaken hole.

"What's wrong, Amy?" Crystal asked warning in response to Amy's sudden yell, her arms glowing with crimson light.

Amy resisted the urge to sigh and scowled instead. "Professor Thea fell into a pit trap."

"She need help?" Vicky asked.

'No, I'm perfectly fine!' Professor Thea sent. Amy could see her struggling but she was true to her words and progressively getting out. At least she wasn't trying to put up a tough act now of all times.

"No, but by the time she gets out, I don't know if we'll be able to keep up with Dad." Amy explained, biting her cheek once she was done.

Amy was having trouble keeping track with how thick the top of the forest canopy was getting, and she was only getting by by using what Professor Thea was seeing as well.

That was the reason why she could see a snapped twig showing where Dad was probably heading, and also the reason why she was able to notice something wrong about the ground Professor Thea was walking on.

Admittedly, it was hard to notice even with how everything looked the same, but it was actually the lack of discrepancy which let Amy notice how the ground wasn't shifting the same way the rest of the forest was from Professor Thea's point of view.

But if Professor Thea stalled out now, Amy wasn't sure if they would manage to keep up anymore. Lost Garden's forest was bigger than she had expected, considering Amy didn't think they were close to the center of the forest yet.

Those weird vines had been keeping up with them as they flew over the forest as well, even if they weren't getting close enough to be a threat.

But there was something else about the air around her that felt wrong.

Amy had already asked Crystal and Vicky about it, thinking there was a Stranger effect going on, but they didn't feel anything even if they started keeping a lookout.

Amy saw nothing, heard nothing, even felt nothing. But Amy was paranoid something was off.

"So what now?" Crystal asked, stretching her arms out by her side.

Amy lowered her head, not knowing the answer to that question. No, it was more like she was averting her eyes away from looking away from the answer that first came to mind.

"We go in." Vicky stated.

"Are you sure?" Crystal asked, and Amy wondered if her own face mirrored Crystal's visible concern.

"We only get the one shot, following them got us this far, so they probably won't be expecting us to land right on top of them. We gotta hit Dad hard and fast, and carry him out even if he doesn't get knocked out. He shouldn't have the time to get both of us if we're quick enough." Vicky exhaled deeply. "Crystal, can you stay up here? You'll need to blast us a way out in the worst case scenario."

Crystal looked downwards towards the Lost Garden in uncertainty. "...You get the one shot, got it?"

"Ready, Ames?"

"Yeah." Amy had already prepared herself the moment Vicky started explaining, fastening her hold on her sister.

Without a word, Vicky dove at an angle.

Amy pointed slightly off, judging where Dad would be based off his speed and direction from the last time she had caught a glimpse of him.

The vines were ready to catch them as they approached. The moment the vines touched Vicky's arm, it suddenly moved far quicker, wrapping around her arm nearly in an instant as they dove even further.

While Amy repositioned herself so they wouldn't be able to reach her, Vicky kept diving at full speed. Vicky pulled her arms violently forwards as they reached the layer of leaves, snapping the vines that were unable to hold her sister's strength.

When the two of them broke through the leaves, Amy felt it.

The sudden sharp pain of something cutting into her arm.

Unable to say anything at the speed they were going, Amy closed her eyes and tightened her sleeves.

She could feel her hands getting slashed, as well her cheeks and ears. None of them were deep, but each one felt like a painful papercut.

Amy could feel as the surprisingly sharp leaves caught onto her clothing, but she only felt the one get through her impromptu sleeve protection to give her a cut across her left arm.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for them to break through, and for Vicky to land.

Opening her eyes, Amy saw that Vicky's hands and legs were unblemished, so her forcefield must've held. Considering the stinging pain Amy was feeling, she felt a hint of envy pass by before she joined her sister in looking around-

Wait, why were they in view of Professor Thea? They shouldn't be this close to her.

This isn't where they should've landed.

Amy's eyes then widened before she slapped her sister's shoulder to get her attention, "Vicky, Dad."

It didn't take long for Vicky to turn towards where Amy was looking.

Where a muscular person was trailing ahead of Dad, movements showing how familiar he was with the terrain. And where Dad himself was carrying a still girl, but Amy couldn't guarantee she was still unconscious.

They were also a ways off, moving in a different direction than Amy had inferred. Or was it due to the way Amy and Vicky weren't in the position she had expected to have been in?

Contrary to her expectations, Vicky didn't fly after them.

"Vicky?"

Amy winced as she could feel her sister's hold on her tighten. Vicky hung her head, "He's too far, we're just gonna be back at square one, dammit."

Amy felt her own heart drop at her sister's defeated tone.

"We're getting out of here, Ames-"

*pop*

Both of them whipped their head around at the worryingly close sound of popping.

To see a pig- no, that's a boar charging them?! Why was it being instantly aggressive? Because they made so much noise landing?

Vicky launched herself backwards with a step. The boar passed by before turning itself around to keep running straight at them as Vicky steadied herself into the air.

Amy narrowed her eyes, the boar was brushing aside the grass, leaves, and dirt on the ground now, but she hadn't heard or noticed anything until it was almost right on top of them. That shouldn't have been possible, even if it had been standing completely still until then. Either that Stranger effect was worse than she expected or the boar had come out of literal nowhere.

*pop**pop**pop**pop**pop**pop*

Amy darted her head upwards at the muffled noises. Those popping noises came from above the trees, but she didn't have a good enough view where she was. However, it did give her enough of a view to see that the vines were also descending downwards towards them, at the same slow pace.

"What the… Right, we're getting out of here." Vicky said, getting over her momentary confusion.

Amy felt Vicky fly them towards the side at an upwards angle to dodge the boar's charge a second time.

Amy stiffened, sensing the same thing she had felt when in the air previously. "Wait, not this way-"

There was… nothing there?

*pop*

There was a bear there!

Amy slid her bokuto out of her belt to block the bear, who had popped into existence already mid-swing.

The big paw slammed against Amy and Vicky's sides, Amy block and Vicky's forcefield softening the blow. However, it caused Vicky to let go of Amy as she rolled away from the impact.

Why did the bear appear once they were that close?! The boar had popped up a short distance away, at least!

Her new position did give Amy the ability to see above the treeline though. Enough to see that Crystal was now being attacked by birds.

…If that was what Amy was feeling this time, why did they hold off on attacking until this very moment? There wasn't a reason to assume any one of them couldn't easily defend themselves against wild animals, right?

*pop*

Amy inwardly screamed in annoyance as she looked back at Vicky, or rather a short distance away from her.

Where there was now a moose.

"Vicky, moose!"

Meanwhile, you were still in your projection mode. You were nearby enough to help your student, but you also kept track of where Mark and Oak were at from Amy's interruption.

Spoiler: [X] Plan: Get dad and retreat.-[X] Conversely, Mark was close enough in a visible area that you could drop someone right on top of Mark and Oak with Warp instead. (-1 Emulation Energy)

-[X] Have Amy use Nosferatu on Oak. Maybe it could bypass Oak's counterpower.

-[X] Have Vicky get close to dad and knock him out.

Lost Garden Forest

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Current Emulation Energy: 16

With your past experience with how fast-paced battles could be and how odd some of the battles in Fodlan could go, you weren't taken that far aback upon assessing the situation.

Admittedly, crawling out of a pit trap to see rabid wild animals suddenly appearing would be a first. If one did not include how giant monsters could seldomly interrupt a Fodlan battlefield.

At the least, the lack of any attempted assault on your projected self led you to hypothesize that despite your earlier misgivings, you hadn't been detected like your compatriots had been.

'If you could instantly close the distance, would you be able to recover your father? You communicated to your student as you made your way towards her. While you wanted to rush, you also didn't want to fall prey to another trap hole.

'I can knock him out, but Vicky's the one that has to carry him out if he's still mastered.' Your student replied, using her bokuto to strike at the side of the bear's head after deftly dodging one of its paws. 'Shouldn't fighting a bear be harder than this?'

You didn't have an answer for the question you suspected that your student was asking more for herself, ignoring how you didn't have any experience fighting bears or hunting game animals. The answer to your question however led you to pay attention to where Vicky had flipped herself over the moose before hovering in the air.

And while you did not have a view of Crystal, the occasional flash of crimson told you that she had struggles of her own. You could only use Warp twice before those magic reserves would run dry, and force your ability to use magic to falter. While smaller spells like Miasma and Heal did not need as much time to recover from, utilizing such a spell like Hades or Warp would require more time for you to essentially catch your breath.

Nearing your student's side, you reconfirmed Mark's position, or at least attempted to, as the short distance you had to cover had given them enough time to ruin the clear view of your targets who were nearing the limits of what you could reliably observe. You couldn't even see Oak any longer.

It was then that you realized that due to the odd uniformity of this forest that it would be difficult for you to form the image of the Warp destination if you completely lost sight of the retreating targets.

You only had enough time for the one attempt.

You would have to hope that your student could delay them long enough for Vicky to quickly fly over the fairly significant distance and provide the necessary assistance.

'Prepare yourself for Warp!' You mentally commanded. The moment you rematerialized, the bright magic circle was already forming underneath your feet.

'Wait, what?'

Amy noticed how Professor Thea had reformed herself and rather than fight, she was instead extending a hand towards Amy.

A part of Amy thought about dodging the attempt, from the confusion as well as to try and deny the instinctual trust she felt whenever Professor Thea did… anything really.

But more than that, this was turning into a mess and any idea to help her Dad was one she welcomed. Especially when any tactic she could think of was telling Amy to abandon Dad due to how unfavorable the situation had been, and was now becoming.

Those thoughts saying Amy didn't have enough information, they didn't know who or what they could be fighting, the limited amount of people they had on their side, the knowledge that Lost Garden should have experience fight Legend and how were they supposed to compete against something like that, and how it would be unlikely for the villains to mercilessly kill Dad before they had a chance to regroup when few would give up a fully mastered hostage, and other so-called 'tactical' things.

For one, Amy didn't want to take charge just to say they should give up before they even tried.

For another, Amy really didn't give a shit what the smart thing was. It was a selfish obsession where Amy wanted to charge straight in and damn the consequences to follow her feeling instead, like what Gi-

Professor Thea pressed her palm against Amy's arm.

The world jumped.

In front of her, instead of a bear angrily attacking, it was her Dad running straight at her.

The disorientation from Amy's first teleport meant she couldn't track everything around her immediately. But she clearly saw Dad falter in his steps upon noticing her, and he had a free arm to use his power from how he had moved the Master girl he was carrying from a princess carry to an over-the-shoulder carry.

A Master girl who was also awake with widening eyes when she shouldn't have been. How clear the blue of her eyes were was actually somewhat pretty, not that it mattered when it was a villain mastering her Dad.

Unlike the girl on his shoulders struggling to figure out what she should do in response to Amy's teleportation, Dad had near instantly started raising his arm while forming one of his energy grenades..

That would've been concerning if Amy's bokuto hadn't made contact with the side of Dad's head before he could raise his arm entirely. Disorientating teleport or not, Amy at least knew to swing before anything else.

Although it was difficult to adjust mid-swing to lessen the impact. Wooden stick or not, bludgeoning her Dad's head would probably still kill him if she wasn't careful.

What had been of far more concern was the moment Amy noticed the Master was awake, her movements had slightly stiffened. It wasn't enough to effectively hinder her since Amy could easily press ahead, but her swordsmanship was at a point where she could notice something as minute as it was regardless.

However, while Amy was certain that her strike was strong enough to knock her Dad out, he did hold onto his consciousness long enough to have that singular orb explode.

And while Dad could handle his own explosions, his human luggage couldn't and she was also blown away at an awkward angle due to how Dad was falling unconscious holding her.

Amy herself was also blown backwards, and she could tell her trajectory meant she was going to crash into another person. And while she hadn't seen him yet, she could somehow tell how he had started turning around, having not noticed Amy had actually teleported until Dad's orb exploded and the Master yelped in response.

Amy knew it was 'Oak' easy enough from who else was around and from his height and build, which Amy could somehow hear.

What Vicky didn't mention was how damn strong he smelt though, the sharp acrid smell coming from his wooden armor catching Amy off-guard. And while Amy might have a lot of knowledge in her head, she couldn't actually identify something by its odd smell alone. She had to assume it wasn't some sort of poison if it was on his person, because the strength of the smell was far too strong and off-putting to be natural… hopefully.

It also meant that Amy wasn't able to flip over and launch herself off of his shoulder as cleanly as she had meant to, accidentally headbutting Oak and slowing her momentum as she did so.

However, unlike the sudden teleport, getting unexpectedly blown up, and the incredibly strong smell, the pain of essentially getting headbutted twice in a row didn't do much to deter Amy. If anything, it was how her head had felt the force of being knocked back rather than the pain itself that was the bigger annoyance.

It did remind Amy not to attack Oak directly with her bokuto, the fighting style she had adapted and defaulted to quite quickly. Instead, Amy focused on spellwork.

The spell circle for Nosferatu appeared directly in front of her outstretched arms, rather than underneath her. Since Amy had yet to fall to her feet from her impromptu launch, she couldn't use her legs to place the spell circle more concretely on the ground.

It helped that the pain was conversely letting her think better, to stabilize the Nosferatu spell from her odd airborne position.

The bright white ball of Nosferatu appeared for a single instant to engulf Oak before imploding into sparkles due to a target already being in the center of the sphere.

With how her arms were outstretched, it was plain weird to see how the cuts along her arms closed themselves as Amy received the healing from the spell.

A beat later, Amy felt the pain of being hit by Nosferatu regardless, but if it was just the pain, that was something she could easily deal with.

As Amy finally landed on the ground, the unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling of her magic reared itself. Although she was glad to not feel the weird feeling of magic under her skin at all times, that only made the feeling more noticeable whenever she did use a spell.

It did provide a good indicator of when she could use a spell again, but Amy had no idea how long it would take to get used to the unfamiliar and indescribable sensations. Especially with how she noticed that when she used Swarm in the fight with Oni Lee, the longer time it took to recover was much more concerning in the middle of a fight.

And unlike Miasma or Heal, the recovery time of Swarm and now Nosferatu was long enough to matter. Something that made Amy think about if this was how Vicky felt like whenever she fought.

On another note, it also felt incredibly weird to feel worse by being healed better. Her movements were incrementally stiffer from before.

Still, the Nosferatu spell essentially inflicting just the pain meant Amy had her own personal counter for Oak. Who wasn't adapting nearly as quickly to the new status quo as he confusingly looked behind him at her unconscious Dad and the Master who was groaning on the ground nearby.

Amy narrowed her eyes. Why was Oak looking to go towards Dad rather than help out the other person? He had also slightly raised his hand towards his chest before abruptly stopping when he looked back at Amy with the side of his vision.

He was looking at her with genuine fear and concern… but it wasn't because it was her? It felt more like he was scared because anyone had shown up, not necessarily Amy specifically.

Why did-

*pop**pop**pop**snap**pop**pop*

Amy flattened her expression as she looked to her side.

A pack of five wolves were running at them…

Wait, them? They were being indiscriminate, but why only now- Oh, that must be why Oak had been scared. Something had marked them as safe until Amy showed up.

Wait, if they were being indiscriminate, that meant the wolves might go after her unconscious dad.

She lifted a foot-

Wait, that snapping noise hadn't come from her point of view!

"Thea!"

Current Emulation Energy: 16 - 1 = 15

The moment Amy disappeared, her form blurring upwards for a split second, you stepped backwards to give yourself some distance from the attacking bear.

You felt burning pain coursing through your body, your internal magic whining from the usage of Warp.

You ignored it as usual.

'Even with the additional reserves of a Gremory, it still hurts just the same, hm?' You thought to yourself. With how accustomed you were to the pain- hm? No, with how accustomed Lysithea was to the pain, it was easy to ignore, especially amidst combat. Albeit it was easier for your mind to be occupied whilst calculating Dark Magic.

A minor and inconsequential reason for you to dislike Faith Magic.

As it was, even if you refused to lower your guard, you also were not expecting a heated fight against a singular bear. You could fell giant monsters with your magic, that one bear was trivial in comparison.

No, what was important was paying utmost focus to your surroundings. There was no telling what manner of beast could appear next. That single instant in which they first appeared was what you could consider truly dangerous.

For now, your immediate goal was to provide Vicky space to move to your student. Regardless of whether or not your magic was in recovery, you could still cast spells. It would temporarily worsen your condition, but it was an early lesson for a mage to get over such a mental barrier in case of the need for a counterattack or otherwise.

Though you suspected that the Miasma spell you had been formulating may not have been needed.

Considering that Vicky had gotten over her initial confusion and struck the side of the boar with enough force to send it flying with an audible crunching noise.

"Wait, was that bone? These things are real?" Vicky mumbled at a volume you could barely make out her words.

You would think how the boar had spurted blood upon slamming into a tree hard enough that you could hear vines snap would be a better indicator for such a thing.

Even if such an inference could easily be false.

You bled as well, after all.

"Move to Amy! She's with your father!" You commanded Vicky, preparing yourself to handle both the moose and the bear simultaneously. While you could Warp Vicky as well, it would be best to reserve the extra use in the case of an absolute emergency.

"But you-!"

You grew irritated the moment the objection was raised. Yes, it was a stressed situation, but you could handle yourself. Were teammates not meant to trust one another? "If you think that I cannot-"

"Thea!"

You instantly bit your tongue at your student's desperate exclamation. Even before she finished thinking of the pronunciation of your adopted name, your mind was already running through what could make her so concerned for you.

You were dodging away from the bear from a fair distance away.

The moose's attention was not currently on you.

You could notice no other animals. The boar was a non-factor. It had fallen limp by the side of the tree it crashed into-

The snapping sounds were still ongoing!

Was there a trap you could not see?!

Then the sound of popping erupted from all around you. In sequence, all at once, it mattered not.

Because while the popping was a nuisance at the back of your mind, the pain of something clipping your ear took precedence.

Something small and wooden flicked around in the air in front of you, and you could only get a quick glance. An 'arrow' that had been light enough to have been affected by passing through your hair.

And you had to dodge several others.

It would be one thing to evade arrows fired at you. It was difficult to dodge an archer's fire, due to their effective range, but you were theoretically capable of doing so.

Amidst the noise of popping, the screeching roar of the bear was heard. You could see several wooden shafts punctured into its body, including one that had miraculously found its way into the bear's left eye.

It was another thing entirely to dodge a volley of completely indiscriminate fire coming from all directions. Your depth perception was scarcely able to keep up with determining which of the small projectiles could pose a threat or would fly by harmlessly.

You grit your teeth. However, your body simply couldn't respond fast enough against the onslaught. Even if the projectiles themselves were flimsier than true arrows, the sheer number of them were all still being shot with enough speed to puncture you, from your shoulder, across your back, in your leg, and wherever else you could not pinpoint in the little time since the trap had activated.

You saw Vicky flying at you in a rush from the edge of your vision.

It was then that you had made a mistake. Or rather, an unlucky decision.

You had turned your head to face her.

And you felt one of the arrows burrow itself into the back of your neck.

Instead of whatever words you might've said, all you did was spit out dribble. If it was a few seconds later, there could have been blood mixed in as well.

If you were slightly taller, it would've been another injury to your back.

If you were as short as your academy days, then it would've lodged itself into your head and may have been stopped by your skull.

Yet you didn't give up from that. You could not Heal yourself, but simply because you had lost the ability to breathe did not mean the wound would be immediately fatal, or fatal at all.

Vicky's intention was likely to ferry you elsewhere, and if they could leave whatever this trap's radius was, then there was a chance for safety. She was already close enough to almost be in reach of her outstretched arm.

You narrowed your eyes.

One of the wooden shafts was sticking out of her right arm.

When had her forcefield broken?

You made a judgment call.

And played a dumb trick.

You locked your arm with hers, ignoring how yet another of the projectiles stabbed into your side.

You saw how Vicky's eyes drifted to your mouth, where instead of words, nothing but a rasping noise came out.

And Vicky blurred upwards.

Current Emulation Energy: 15 - 1 = 14

There were limits when it came to Warp. You could only send a person as far as your magic could allow you. Most mages would exhaust themselves from even a singular use due to how much distance had to be covered. You had to have a clear image of where the recipient would Warp to, with the Faith that the spell would correct itself in the case that another individual would already have been at that exact location. You could only send one individual at a given time, though there was some leeway when it came to magically-bound mounts.

You had to be physically touching the recipient somewhere.

And perhaps most importantly, the recipient and the Warper have to give mental consent to the spell. However, the form of that consent was not set in stone. It could be a worded agreement, but most often, spells were done in the heat of battle. As such, Warp only required the instinctual mental response.

Such as the simple trust in an ally.

Usually, Warp is prepared with at least the bare minimum beforehand, especially considering how a mage that could cast Warp would often be tactically protected from immediate dangers. On the other hand, Rescue was meant to save allies in immediate danger, where that immediate mental consent facilitated its use.

There were not many situation where that aspect would need to be used for Warp, where its purpose was often to place an individual into a selectively dangerous area, amongst other uses. Regardless, the Warp caster themselves being there meant that there was at least some safety by their side.

Which is why using it as you had just done so might be considered a trick.

And so your partner disappeared. Ta-da.

Your vision blurred.

You pulled out the piece of wood lodged in your side and brought it close to the front of your face.

Hm. It really was nothing more than a sharp stick. It was carved crudely into a sharp point, and was slightly thicker than the arrow shafts you remembered, but it lacked a metal arrowhead. There was fletching made from feathers, but it was crudely done, even to the eyes of one as ill-versed in archery such as yourself.

However, the stick itself seemed hardier than you had initially expected, and you were having trouble gripping onto it as if there was something coated onto it. Though you were unsure whether to trust that assessment when your sense of touch may have been off.

The sound of another bear cry grabbed your attention, as you stared at how it stopped flailing around and was staring at you aggressively. You suspected it had deemed you as responsible for its sudden pain.

You cast a Nosferatu spell into the bear's head to live up to that intent as your body toppled forwards and you began to drift into unconsciousness. It appeared that whatever healing you received had not been enough.

Agh. What a pathetic life this was.

…

You opened your eyes-

"Could you Heal him, please?" Your student tiredly asked you, having immediately locked eyes with you as soon as you came into being.

You were surprised, partly by the sudden request, partly by how exhausted your student's eyes were, and partly by the sudden shift in background.

Though it didn't take long for you to realize you were in a hospital and standing over an unconscious and injured man.

You moved automatically.

As you casted Heal, you took stock of the situation. The injured man had scraped skin on the side of his face and his upper arm had a broken bone that was on the verge of breaking through his skin. Your student was seated by your side, watching intently at how your Heal spell was closing up the open facial wounds. Aside from you and your student, there were two others in the room, one dressed as one of this world's doctors if you were remembering your student's textbooks correctly, and the other dressed more normally, in a buttoned shirt and jeans. The latter had been writing down in the notepad held in front of him since you had appeared.

'Should they be-'

'They're with the PRT. They already know you're a projection.' Your student explained. 'Also, only use one Heal for this person.'

'But this injury will need more-'

'There's others that need to be treated. We're only supposed to get them out of danger.'

'I don't believe he was in any danger of dying from his injuries?' You said, complying by not casting another Heal once the first spell finished. His arm was still bruised, and there was a scarred remnant of his facial wound, but the injuries were clearly less severe.

Amy tiredly rubbed her eyes. 'Right. Sorry. I took care of the ones that were actually dying already. I couldn't cast Heal anymore, but there wasn't a lot of really bad stuff… I think someone said we got really lucky in that regard.'

You could hear the disagreement with the last part of the sentence in Amy's voice as she stood up from her chair. "Anyway, we're moving onto the next person, the patients in these rooms already agreed it was okay to be healed by a parahuman power."

'Stupid annoying stubborn other people.' Your student mentally grumbled.

'Wait, wasn't the one I tended to unconscious?'

'Yes, but he agreed beforehand and it worked out since you needed a place to appear from.'

Ah yes… you had died again hadn't you. Something clenched deep inside of your chest at that thought. Resolving to ignore said feeling for now, you asked another relevant question as you followed your student to the next patient, 'What happened with your father?'

You did a quick analysis of the puncture wounds on the next man's chest, to ensure there weren't any pieces left in his body before casting your next Heal.

The spell closed up the wound, the room utterly silent aside from the scratching of a writing utensil on paper. The doctor had delayed himself by checking over the wounds of the previous patient, but showed up to do so again once your next Heal finished.

'Amy?' You asked, attempting to make eye contact with your student. She kept her head down.

While the silence could be an answer in itself, you did want to ensure your mental communications weren't failing for whatever reason.

'...We had to leave him behind.' Your student replied tonelessly. You were at least thankful it was not grief.

'I see.'

You carefully studied Amy's expression. You were unfortunately not the best at easily determining emotions at a glance, but you could tell she was tired, but holding herself up admirably. That was something you were familiar with doing yourself.

It did bother you that she was purposefully avoiding meeting your gaze. You held yourself back from directly asking her to look at you. You wanted to confront her so that all the information could be laid out directly, but the usual aggressive approach might be counterintuitive. For now, you should stick to the facts.

'Can you tell me what happened?'

'...Okay.' Amy answered neutrally after a short pause.

There were another six people you were led to Heal as your student dispassionately reported the series of events following your departure. It was a neutral tone that was fit for a post-battle summary, but it was also one that concerned you, since it would imply she was controlling her own emotions even within her own mind.

After the initial panic when Vicky and Amy considered rescuing you, even through the arrow trap that was still cascading its spread. From what your student said, the way the traps activated also wasn't how it was intended, the chain reaction was an accidental consequence of a poorly crafted trigger mechanism.

It was a complicated feeling knowing that you had died due to someone's ineptitude at trap-making. Even if your death made it technically effective, it was still a product of what could only be considered an accident.

Regardless, it hadn't only been the trap that caused the situation to devolve.

Firstly, Vicky had apparently lost a fair amount of feeling around the right side of her body, which made it difficult to gauge her own strength through the loss of her dominant hand. They had assumed at first that it had been due to the Master now affecting Vicky.

The truth was that you were not imagining when the surface of the arrows felt off to you. There had been a paralytic agent lightly coated on its surface. It wasn't lethal, or particularly strong, but it was fast-acting. While you understood that Lost Garden was considered a highly defensive enemy, you hadn't expected a tactic that sounded as if Claude had come up with it.

'Where is your sister now?' You interrupted to hesitantly ask. You would have assumed that she would be sticking close to your student. Considering Vicky wasn't with the two of you, part of you assumed the worst.

'Flying outside somewhere, I think. Working through her frustrations probably.'

While Amy's reply provided a measure of relief, it did bring to your attention if your student had frustrations of her own. She was presenting a stoic exterior that made it difficult to discern her emotional state, but that did not mean Amy wasn't undergoing emotional turmoil at all. You knew people that were remarkable actors when it came to putting up a strong front.

Your thoughts were only reinforced when Amy continued with her narration, and how detached she sounded when she said that she sensed that your projection had collapsed. That knowledge freed Amy and Vicky to handle the situation in front of them, and even without proper use of an arm, it had been easy to subdue their opponents. The bigger threat had honestly been the amount of beasts that appeared as if drawn to their conflict threatening them with numbers as well as forcing them to protect their downed father and keeping track of any other potential traps.

For example, there had been another set of those moving vines, which your student had realized were poisonous through her human opponent's reactions. It had made her suspicious whether the cuts she had received were laced with some other substance as well, but she had already received a clean diagnosis on that front when their group arrived in the hospital.

'Did you need healing yourself?' You asked out of concern.

'No, it's fine already.' Your student responded curtly. 'I dealt with it on my own already.'

'And you're faring well now?' You frowned. With her dismissing tone, you had little doubt remaining that your student was not as well as she was presenting herself to be.

'...I'm fine.' Your student unconvincingly said. Before you could object however, she cut you off, 'Just… let me finish first.'

Taking the silence of your hesitation as confirmation, Amy continued her dutiful report and you found it difficult to interrupt her afterwards.

With how hectic the situation had gotten, it hadn't come to a surprise to your student that she could faintly hear other people running towards their location. While her sense of hearing felt off compared to normal, the effect was more likened to minor distortion rather than anything more severe. Considering the direction they were coming from, as well as the number of them, Amy had correctly assumed that they were unlikely to be allies.

The only thing that gave her pause was the fact that Amy could hear them at all, rather than having been blindsided by the popping Stranger effect again.

Regardless, Amy and Vicky were already looking to pull out with their father at that point. Although Vicky was partially paralyzed, she should have had enough raw strength to carry the two of them away, especially if Amy helped to balance them out.

Yet fate clearly was against them, as the situation deteriorated further.

You grimaced as your student relayed how she had heard Crystal harrowingly cry out in pain. They reacted quickly, Vicky having flown above to assist while Amy stayed on the ground. However, it didn't take long for Vicky to return in a panic.

And it didn't take long for your student to get onto her sister's back once Vicky exclaimed, "Crystal lost an eye!"

Risking another less than protected trip through the sharp canopy alongside her sister, Amy emerged to see how the birds around Crystal had multiplied exponentially since the last time she had seen her, and her cousin was recklessly firing out beams even when Crystal could have been fully focusing on protecting herself with whatever defense she could muster with her power. Although you could understand defaulting on what you were familiar with in a pinch.

Vicky flew directly into the avian horde, struggling to strike at any of the deftly moving birds in the progress. Vicky had clipped a few and your student had a comparatively much easier time striking at the birds herself despite her awkward position, but it hadn't felt like their numbers dwindled in the slightest. But it was easy enough for Amy to break through to reach and diagnose her cousin.

One of those damnable birds had stabbed their beak directly into one of Crystal's eyes.

Instantly, your student had casted Heal, ignoring the crowd of birds.

At that, you were already contemplating how to word a comforting apology. You knew that while Heal worked best when it came to an immediate injury, it also meant nothing if an organ or limb was separated or lost entirely.

But you had breathed a sigh of relief instead upon hearing how the Heal had been effective. If there was any luck to be spared, Crystal's left eye hadn't been plucked out or destroyed entirely, but was only punctured whilst remaining in its socket, allowing Heal to enact its magic.

'I already forgot who said it first, but we were both thinking it. We were being attacked by a bunch of birds. I was getting hurt since I had to focus on healing Crystal. Vicky couldn't keep up without an arm and carrying me. Crystal almost lost a fucking eye. Even if we went back down to grab Dad, I don't even know if we could have even been able to carry him.'

Your student's head drooped lower as she sat down on a hallway bench. 'We ran away. Fuck, we even had trouble doing that. I ran out of Miasma spells to fire at the stupid birds chasing us, and for some fucking reason, Swarm didn't do jackshit. Something happened but I couldn't tell what, but it didn't help.'

You took a moment to look around at the semi-bustling hallway while gripping strongly at your arm to keep yourself from potentially asking something insensitive before sitting down at your student's side. The two of you had already excused yourselves after healing the supposedly last patient that you were allowed to provide assistance for.

Before you could even say anything, you felt immensely hurt when Amy had immediately shifted herself further down the bench away from you.

"I'm sorry." You apologized, in a hushed voice that could have been easily missed even in the quiet hallway. But compared to how the conversation until then had taken place entirely within your heads, it was deafening. "It was my fault, I could have-"

"I don't want to hear it." Amy hastily interrupted, turning her head away from you. "It's not your fault, even if I gave a shit whose fault it was. It's just- I just…"

Your student rapidly scratched at the side of her head before standing to her feet and bursting out, "Agh! Fuck. I don't even goddamn know what I wanted to say."

When Amy's arms fell limply to her sides, you suggested, "Then why don't we sit down and discuss it together? We could-"

Amy whirled around and raised her arm for a moment. "No! I-"

Amy cut herself off as soon as she realized that for the first time since your reappearance, the two of you had met eyes.

Just as quick as it happened, your student averted her eyes once more and the arm she had been raising once again fell to her side.

From what you could gleam from that momentary glance however, there appeared to be a paradoxically exhausted frenzy in her eyes.

"Listen, I just… need some time alone, okay." Amy weakly muttered. "Just give me some space."

You slowly stood up, "But I-"

"Please." Your student begged, holding the side of one of her arms with the other, mimicking the way you had done so earlier. "You… you have some stuff to think about too, right? We can take a break for now."

When Amy finished talking, she turned and started walking away.

You opened your mouth and raised an arm to stop her… but found that there weren't any words that were coming out.

Eventually, you moved your hand so it was hovering over your heart after Amy disappeared around a corner. The two of you were connected mentally regardless, you would know if the other needed you… in the physical sense at least.

Dammit, even now your student could tell you were facing your own anxieties when you were doing your best to hide it.

You were meant to be the professor in this relationship.

So why did you feel as if you had pathetically failed?

You would give your student her space for now.

[ ] But you would force her to talk to you at the next given opportunity. You refused to have this issue linger further so you should confront her quickly.

[ ] You would give Amy the space she asked for, and trust she would come to you the moment she was ready to talk.

[ ] You would give Amy the space she asked for, but if it becomes a hindrance, or something comes up, you would confront her.

[ ] Write-In.

If someone came across you now, all they would see was a young girl that was quietly observing the outside world through the window. A bystander in the scenery to ignore.

At least, that was what you had first thought, when you had sat back down on the bench that had not been used long during your conversation.

Instead, nearly everyone that walked past, or in one case, rolled past, looked at you with curiosity.

It was almost enough to distract you from your thoughts.

You had died.

Something in your chest clenched as you reminded yourself of that fact.

Why? It wasn't as if this was the first time you had done so, it was the fourth. It wasn't something that should even matter when you were nothing but a projection.

What could be different about this time?

You took a deep breath. Who were you attempting to deceive?

It was because you were now emulating Lysithea instead of Gintoki. Something must have been lost or gained in that process.

Something that made you very conscious when you had experienced the thing that Lysithea was expecting almost every moment of her life.

In a way, it was better than what Lysithea expected, falling on the field of battle rather than fading away in her sleep and never waking again.

That… was far more terrifying.

Confusion wracked your thoughts. Lysithea prepared herself for her death and you were prepared for just the same, especially with how you could easily come back regardless.

It was not as if you were going to seek your own death out, you remembered how difficult it was for Amy to take your initial death.

You died. You came back. It should be as simple as that.

You lifted up a hand to stare at the back of your palm. If you looked closely, there were still traces etched into your flesh from those Crest experiments from so long ago.

Was this all your existence amounted to? One in which the death that loomed over Lysithea's near future was nothing to your ability to reconstruct yourself again and again? To live once more? To teach once more? To fight once more? To suffer once more-

You sharply inhaled at the unexpected thought that had crept up on you all of a sudden.

Lysithea did not think of her limited life in such a way, and neither did you. Her life was fleeting, yes, and she experienced superficial physical pains constantly, yes, but not once did she think the life that she led since she was released from her captivity was in any way an insufferable fate.

She loved her parents enough to make up for how little they could love themselves. She had met Professor Byleth who despite her lack of expressions, was caring and observant. She bonded with Edelgard enough to fight alongside her when the continent was plunged into war. She could even say, however reluctantly, that meeting Claude and the Golden Deer was a happy occasion.

She could remember privately breaking down in tears when others refused to give up on her lifespan the way that she had internally done so.

And you had Amy. A young girl that you wanted to see grow into so much more than what she was now.

So why was it so hard to convince yourself that you were definitively content as well?

Your eyes refocused.

Moving your outstretched hand aside, you noticed a figure darting around in the sky in the window in front of you.

Was that Vicky?

…Was she trying to attack a bird?

You grew concerned for a moment, before further observation told you that Vicky was not endangered and that the pigeon flying about was not trying to attack her.

So for however long, you sat there in silence and forgot your earlier thoughts, watching as Vicky practiced punching a spritely moving target.

…! Oh, she hit it lightly, but it looked like she hadn't actually meant to do so and had been taken back for a second.

The pigeon took that chance to hastily fly away from its aggressor.

"Pft….heheheh!"

You clutched at your sides as you fell into a minor fit of giggling. You ignored how you were drawing the attention of those nearby, from what you could see in your half-closed eyes.

You stood up with a flourish.

What were you even doing? You could figure out why Vicky might be attacking a bird, but it looked ridiculous to an outside perspective regardless.

All these thoughts in your head, but weren't you just as ridiculous to overthink it to the extent that you had been?

You could feel your lips morph into a soft smile as you began walking.

You felt like blowing some soap bubbles.

Before you made it to the bathroom (you were not lost), a familiar voice entered your ears.

"It's my fault! I messed up and it's my fault!"

Again with the talk of faults. Admittedly, hearing Eric declare that aloud did soften the irritation you felt when you had heard his voice, however slightly.

You looked towards the door where the voice came from. It was ajar by a few centimeters, and you could clearly hear the conversation inside.

You and the few others also in the hallway.

"Eh. Kind of, yeah." Crystal confirmed in a light tone.

…Weren't siblings meant to take care of each other?

"Dad got hurt because I messed up, and now you're hurt because I messed up and I'm an idiot- ow! What the heck?!" Eric complained.

"Eric, shut up. I'm too tired for this stupidity. You're an idiot, I already know that. You did something stupid today, both of us already know that. I don't know about Dad, but to be frank, I'm pretty sure I would've gotten hurt like this anyway. You probably wouldn't have come with me and went somewhere else that was on fire anyway."

"Not like I could've even done anything… I did nothing today but get in the way. I suck at being a hero and-"

"Also, why did you leave your phone behind, you idiot?"

"Wait, what?"

You could barely make out the sound of clothes ruffling as Eric presumably patted himself down.

"Oh my god, Eric. Really?"

…This was probably as good of a time to enter as any other.

"I think I should let you know that the two of you could be heard from the hallway." You informed, walking inside before properly closing the door.

The two of them turned towards you as you made your presence known. You internally winced at seeing how Crystal's left eye was bandaged, though her other eye made her surprise at your presence plain.

Meanwhile, Eric was standing initially faced away from you with his hands placed on his posterior. He had stiffened upon hearing your voice before darting his head behind to look at you.

It gave you a clear look to see how his face had reddened from how much he had been yelling earlier.

"Good to see you're okay then, I was a bit worried when I realized you weren't with us earlier." Crystal lazily waved before turning to her brother. "...Did you not close the door?"

"I thought I did?" Eric squeaked out in a higher pitch that he had been talking in previously.

Crystal rubbed her face in irritation, which had you focus on the bandage around her head.

"I thought that Amy was able to successfully heal you?" You carefully threw out.

"Oh. That." Crystal puffed out a breath to recollect herself. "Yeah, she did. It's still here and stuff. I was having a bit of trouble seeing earlier, so just making sure, is all. It would suck if my eyesight got worse because of this, you know?"

Crystal met your gaze with a tired smile.

Whether or not she was truly fine or was strong enough to smile, you couldn't help but respect her remarkable mental fortitude-

"And you know it's okay to cry when you want to, right? Like, super normal." Eric commented.

Crystal's smile became shaky as she slapped the side of Eric's head without turning away from you.

"Ow! I think you accidentally put your nail in my eye! What the heck?!" Eric cried out, closing his own left eye and rubbing at it. "Shouldn't have taken off my stupid visor."

"Seriously, don't worry too much about it. I'm either fine or I'll be fine. Amy already healed me and Dad. Mom's already talking with the PRT and stuff about the Lost Garden thing, so we'll get Uncle Mark back. Everything's gonna be fine…"

It didn't escape your attention that Crystal's hands were clutching at the bedding hard enough to wrinkle it even as she continued while looking at you with a smile. "Everything's definitely going to work out."

Eric stopped rubbing his eye to worryingly look at Crystal before following up with a small smile of his own. "Yeah… we've totally got this."

You couldn't tell if something was off about this conversation or if it was simply an awkward conversation. You remember that a few people called Lysithea an awkward conversationalist but it wasn't this jarring, was it?

You decided to:

[ ] Change the topic for now, you wanted to admonish Eric and impress the importance of following order.

[ ] Ask how things went elsewhere and whether or not anything else was going to happen today. It was best to be informed and ready while you can just in case.

[ ] Press the conversation further. Crystal might not be as okay with things as she was making herself out to be, and you wanted her to be truthful with you.

[ ] This probably wasn't the best time to talk, so you would have to trust that the two of them would work things out on their own like they had been at first. You could try and find Amy or someone else.