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“It’s getting dark..”
…
Setting up camp for the night in the land of Neksdor wasn’t necessarily an easy thing- especially with how big the temperature difference between night and day were. While the hours of sunlight were filled with trekking through the desert in almost ungodly heat, the night-time was a complete contrast; the previous blistering temperature dropping by a lot, leaving the adventurers evermore grateful .
However, Ichika and the others had yet to reach an inn yet, so camping it was. Setting up the tent and starting up a campfire to stay warm, she and her new teammates: Airi, Haruka, and Toya, would then take a seat around it and allow the sound of the crackling fire to fill their ears. Other than that constant sound, it’s quiet. Nobody dares to say anything, leaving one another to reflect on their own thoughts and vice versa.
Moments pass, and nothing changes.
Eventually, Haruka stands up, stretching her arms over her head and out to the sky above. “It’s best that we all get some rest now,” she states, her arms coming back down to her sides. “Especially seeing that we’re hardly halfway to the closest inn.”
The other three nod in agreement, standing up one by one to stretch and dust themselves off. As they prepare to doze off for the night, Toya realizes something. “If we all choose to sleep, there’s always the chance that we may be ambushed. Somebody should keep watch.” He mentions. Admittedly, Ichika had nearly forgotten about that sort of possibility- it happened back in Greenhorne, so why did she think that it couldn’t also happen here? Even for a split moment, why did she forget that the possibility wouldn’t magically be nulled just because she was in another area?
“Ichika-chan? You there?” The sound of Airi’s voice pulls the dark-haired girl out of her hand.
“Ah- yeah, yeah.” Ichika shakes her head for a moment, meeting the concerned gazes of the other three. Illuminated by the light of the campfire, a guilty expression casts itself onto Ichika’s face as she lowers her gaze to the sand beneath her.
Shit, I made them worry.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to zone out like that.” She apologizes, keeping her gaze away for just a few moments longer before looking up to face the others.
Haruka only shakes her head, “It’s fine, don’t worry.” The dark-haired girl heaves a sigh of relief at that. “But Aoyagi-kun is right- especially out here, there’s always the chance we could be ambushed by monsters.” She continues. The others again nod in agreement.
“Well, then that begs the question: Should one of us keep watch? And if so, who?” Toya wonders. Again, the group falls silent. Unlike last time, however, it doesn’t last as long.
“I can keep watch.” Ichika offers. Her teammates all turn their heads towards her upon hearing her take on the task. “I’ve done the same thing back in Greenhorne in situations like this,” She smiles a bit, the memory of camping in the dark of the forest with the rest of Leo/Need still fresh in her mind. The longing to see them again tugs at her chest as she speaks again, “I’ll be okay.”
Airi is the first to speak amongst the three after Ichika finishes. “If you say so.”
She seems a bit doubtful, judging by the way her gaze is focused on Ichika, but she doesn’t press on the topic further. “If you ever need to switch with somebody else, then I don’t mind keeping watch for the rest of the night.” The pink-haired girl offers, receiving only a nod of acknowledgement from Ichika.
“It’s decided then, I suppose.” Toya confirms, looking at the others to make sure they were okay with the idea.
Upon confirmation, each of them says goodnight to one another as Ichika prepares herself to stay awake for the night whilst the others went to sleep inside the tent.
…
Once more, the desert of Neksdor is quiet. Ichika sits by the campfire, her knees close to her chest and her arms wrapped on top of them. She doesn’t say much, simply staring into the flames and watching little flickers of fire reach up to the night sky for just a single moment before they disappear into the wind.
It’s silent moments like these where Ichika allows her mind to wander, allowing it to touch on questions and memories alike no matter what they may be. Sometimes, though, Ichika regrets not doing anything to stop it from revisiting particularly bad memories.
This was one of those times.
Sitting alone like this, keeping watch for any surprise attack that could harm her and her teammates, simply watching the burning flame illuminate the darkness of the world around her- it was an all-too familiar setting in what felt like a completely foreign area.
Except last time, she was completely unaware of what fate had planned.
It was, unknowingly, the final little camping session she’d have with Saki, Honami, and Shiho before they were kidnapped by the Dark Lord. She didn’t know that would happen. In the moment of things, she and the others were satisfied and excited; they had managed to save the Princess of Greenhorne and had gotten permission to travel to the next area over. Things were okay at that moment.
And that same excitement and satisfaction carried on even when they had all reached the inn resting at the very end of the Arid Frontier, just behind the border to Neksdor.
Ichika remembers going to sleep that night with a warm feeling filling up her chest. She was sure that the others were the same way.
But that warm feeling didn’t last. Ichika remembers everything that had happened from there in far too vivid detail. From the exact moment things had gone wrong to its bitter end.
She stared into the flames of the campfire again. If she focused hard enough, perhaps the blazes of the heat source would play out the memory right before her eyes.
★
That evening, Ichika remembers being completely knocked out and asleep. Her friends were no different. Despite their collective hopes for the adventure that awaited ahead, the exhaustion from everything was much, much more prominent on them all. So, they had all collectively decided to rest a little earlier than usual for the night.
(Looking back at it, Ichika wasn’t sure if it was a better option than staying up, should she have known the Dark Lord would come at all. Did it truly matter? Or would the outcome be the same no matter what she had chosen to do that night?)
(She didn’t know. But she does know that what she had woken up to that night was the sound of someone screaming- the sound of Saki screaming.)
At the noise, Ichika had practically jolted right out of her bed. Suddenly, she was much more awake and alarmed of what could’ve been going on, thousands of different scenarios running through her head in a panic as she grabbed her mage hat and staff, rushing outside of the inn room as quickly as possible.
Stumbling over the stairs and just barely being able to keep herself from falling against the wooden floor of the inn, the mage bursts through the doors and out into the night. Immediately, she’s greeted by a sudden breeze of cold air, the feeling of the wind hitting her causing shivers to ripple down her spine and through her body. Shaking her head, Ichika holds onto the brim of her hat and lifts her head up-
-Only to be met with an awful sight.
The Dark Lord, Luka, is there- airborne in the sky and illuminated by the light of the moon. In one of her hands were the rest of Leo/Need- all of them struggling against the iron-grip the fiend had on them.
It seemed as if they were all slowly being crushed in her grip. And although Ichika wasn’t trapped there with them, she felt as if her chest, too, was being crushed just seeing it. Such a thing prompts the mage to call out to her friends, a cry into the dark night.
“GUYS!!” The dark-haired girl yells out, worry and horror etched across her face. Saki and the others turn their heads towards her, expressions ranging from relief to panic and so, so much more.
“Ichika- AGH!” Shiho chokes out the name of her friend, but the tightening of Luka’s hold on her and the others make it feel as if her ribs were about to be crushed into dust. The sight of it alone causes Ichika’s eyes to widen in horror.
Immediately, she turns her attention to the Dark Lord, her hold on the staff growing stronger, to the point where her knuckles were beginning to turn white.
“Let them go!” She yells out to Luka, her mind pleading, begging for fate to heed her prayer and allow things to turn out in her favor; just this once.
But fate is never kind. Not to Ichika Hoshino, no matter how desperately she prayed.
At the mage’s request, Luka only seemed to find it in herself to laugh, as if it were the funniest thing in the entire world.
“Well, isn’t that just precious.” The Dark Lord stares down at Ichika, her gaze piercing straight through her very soul. But the dark-haired girl does her best to not falter.
“I-Icchan, help- ACK!” Saki attempts to cry out for her friend, but again, the hold on her and the others tighten. Strained breaths escape her lips at the action, a throbbing ache enveloping her entire body.
“SAKI!” The sight of it causes Ichika to scream once more, bursts of lightning erupting from the mage staff she bears. In an act of pure irrationality and impulse, she directed a blast of lightning towards Luka without a moment's hesitation.
BOOM!
The lightning strike hits, a roar of thunder echoing throughout the Arid Frontier. And yet, neither the ground nor the heavens shiver even the slightest from Ichika’s irrational attack. Even after the lightning manages to hit Luka, it shows to have barely created a scratch on her.
(And for just one brief moment, Ichika could feel a surge of fear burst through her entire body.)
“So, you wish to get your teammates back? Alright then,” The Dark Lord smiles maliciously, her tone giving away the impression that she had been anticipating this. “Let’s dance.” In her free hand, an orb of dark magic begins to come into view, crackling with unprecedented amounts of magic energy.
Ichika doesn’t know how powerful it is exactly, but with the way the atmosphere begins to shift, and how the night sky hides itself behind an abundance of mysterious purple clouds, she isn’t sure if she could risk being attacked even once. And even then, if she could survive an attack from Luka, she isn’t sure if she’d be able to hold up for too long afterwards.
But she had to get the others back, no matter what.
Failure wasn’t an option. Not now.
Without a second thought, Ichika prepares herself for a battle against the Dark Lord herself.
The face-stealing fiend is the first to attack, firing the magic orb at Ichika and causing it to explode upon impact. Ichika jumps back, launching herself in the opposite direction as she prepares herself to charge up an attack in response.
However, she doesn’t get the chance to as she hears Honami call out to her, “Ichika-chan, watch out!”
Immediately, the dark-haired girl turns her attention away from preparing an attack to another orb of dark magic being thrown right at her. Again, she throws herself to the side, just barely missing the strike- but there’s hardly any room to breathe. Just as she lands back on the rocky ground, Luka fires another attack.
Ichika curses beneath her breath as she does her best to dodge the rush of attacks. I don’t have any chance to fire back! She grunts a bit in frustration, her movements gradually becoming slower. With no room to catch her breath, it was only a matter of time until one of Luka’s attacks hit her. Was that her plan? To tire Ichika out as much as possible before dealing the final blow?
(Looking back at it, it’s.. Almost unfair, Ichika thinks.)
I can’t keep dodging like this- agh, screw it! The dark-haired girl shakes her head, planting her feet onto the ground and holding out her mage staff in front of her. Around her, a ring of magic swirls and glows in the darkness of the Arid Frontier.
The mage does her best to focus on the monster that hovers ahead of her, the wish of being able to save her friends overwhelming her mind as she does so. In response, Luka only prepares a powerful attack on her own.
Please. Ichika’s mind begs once more. Please, let me save them. Saki, Honami, Shiho.. Let me save them. Let them be okay.
“EXPLOSION!”
Both of them fire off their attacks, and they collide.
A thunderous roar echoes through the area, the impact causing the world to shake with fear as it silently prays to the heavens for mercy. A cloud of dark smoke fills the air, clouding the visions of Saki and the others, who had been left to helplessly watch their childhood friend battle against the fiend about to take them all away. Coughing, Shiho tries to see through the smoke to find where Ichika could’ve been, only to see-
“ICHIKA, LOOK OUT!!”
BOOM!
-Too late.
Luka had managed to fire off numerous bolts of purple lightning through the smoke and right at Ichika. The strikes hit, they all do, and a loud roar rings through the area once more. The ground quakes with pure fear as the sound shatters the sky above. In what felt like the blink of an eye, Ichika had found herself now on the ground, her staff having been broken into what seemed like thousands of pieces from the barrage of attacks. Her body throbbed with pain all over, a surging feeling of agony jolting through her every single chance it had gotten.
She felt like her head was spinning, felt like her throat was burning and her whole entire system had been overloaded with hurt and was on the brink of shutting down entirely. Distantly, Ichika can hear the sound of her friends crying out her name, their collective voices loud, strained, worried.
(No, worried was an understatement.)
(Hearing their voices, Ichika knows that they weren’t just worried about her after those attacks- they were concerned and horrified and fearful. )
(Fearful of the possibility that they had just lost their friend for good because of the Dark Lord.)
Faintly, Ichika can hear the Dark Loud laugh at her irrational, stupid decision to try and chase after her to get Saki, Honami, and Shiho back. The dark-haired girl had never managed to pick up the exact words that Luka had said, but one sentence rang through her mind, like the haunting chime of a bell.
“Now then, say goodbye to your friends!”
“NO!”
Almost immediately, Ichika forces herself off of the rocky terrain beneath her and forces herself to run. She’s stumbling over her own feet and her entire body aches with pain; but in the moment, she disregards it. All she can focus on is the fact that she was going to lose them.
Saki, Honami, Shiho.. She was going to lose her friends again.
Ichika couldn’t let that happen. Not when it nearly killed her last time.
She continues running as fast as she possibly can, forcing every inch of her being to cover as much ground as possible to be able to reach Saki and the others before it was too late.
Desperation flashes in her eyes as she reaches out her hand to her companions, before-
SNAP!
-The Dark Lord snaps her fingers, and they’re all gone in a flash. Just like that. They were gone.
“No- NO!!”
THUD.
Before Ichika knows it, her legs finally give out beneath her and send her falling to the ground. The rocky terrain scrapes against her clothing and skin, oddly adding to the pain from Luka’s barrage of lightning strikes from before. She lies there for just one moment, breathing heavily as everything slowly sinks in. Slowly, she pushes herself upwards as best as she can.
Her hands shake with the rest of her body as she plants them on the ground to hold herself up. Ichika stays where she is, still breathing heavily as the realization hits her.
She failed.
She failed to save her friends and now they’re gone and god knows where they could’ve been taken to and if only she was stronger and less irrational and incompetent then maybe things could’ve been different and she could’ve saved them -
(Ichika doesn’t fully remember when she had finally noticed that her powers had been sealed away, to add insult to injury. That had to have been the least of her concerns at the moment in memory, however.)
“Damnit- DAMNIT!” Ichika cries out in frustration, hitting the ground beneath her with her fist. Tears finally work their way out of her eyes, falling down and seeping into the cracks of the terrain beneath her as the sobs breaking through her throat cause her already-shaking body to jolt with every one that escaped her lips.
Her mind was filled with nothing else but words of frustration and confusion: Why did this have to happen? Why did she have to fail? Why did she think she stood a chance against the Dark Lord- question after question fills her head, but no answers are given.
So all Ichika can do is stay right where she is, wounded and shaking and so, so sorry for failing, and cries out to the night sky.
(Ichika remembers looking up at the sky through the tears. That night, the stars seemed so much dimmer than they ever were before.)
……..
From there, Ichika had been traveling through Neksdor alone, having been granted a new power to make use of until she had gotten a few more teammates- namely, Haruka, Airi, and Toya. Not having to travel alone the entire time while she’s still in Neksdor is comforting, that much is true.
Although Ichika can’t help but wonder how her previous teammates were doing. A distant part of her hopes that they’re safe.
Ichika sighs, turning her gaze away from the campfire to briefly rub at her eyes with her palm.
Whether it was an act to try and stay awake or to wipe away any tears that had arrived with the resurfaced memory, Ichika alone was the one to know the answer. Lowering her hand to rest it back onto her knee, the dark-haired girl lifts her head up to the night sky, which is filled with thousands of glittering stars.
Almost as if she were acting on instinct, Ichika reaches her open hand up to the sky, as if she would be able to grasp the stars if she reached high enough for them.
Maybe if I just tried harder back then, I could’ve.. Ichika shakes her head at the thought, bringing her hand down again. No. Don’t think that. You’d make them all worry if they saw you like this.
So for her own sake, she turns her head away from the stars and sets her focus on the world around her, instead. A distant part of Ichika wonders if the stars would continue to grow dimmer and dimmer as the time passes by, or if someday, they’d regain their brightness and shine the way for Ichika to keep going.
But she doesn’t know for sure. So for right now, she sets the wonder aside and stays awake all night long.
That night, no monsters attacked Haruka and the rest.