Chaos is known as the being that never became a star. It is everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time.
Neither good nor evil, the ultimate expression of nothingness. The antithesis of the cosmos, creation itself.
Although Chaos claims to be the very state of existence from which the first entities appeared, it cannot form into the entity it wants most.
So it has been cursed to stay in the form of a dark and shapeless void. Floating between existence and nonexistence.
Longingly watching as stars are constantly born and lives are lived. The seeds of malice had been planted, flourished and transformed Chaos into the purest form of evil.
The spider turned out to be heavier than expected, but Dita was glad that she at least managed to push it back. This would tell her for sure that she wouldn't lose in a contest of strength albeit she wouldn't have as much of an advantage as she wanted. As soon as the spider gave her a bit of space, the girl used the opening to drop to the ground in a sprinting position, while taking notice of the dangerous looking fluid dripping from the spider's mouth. She'd hate to get hit by that.
The initial plan was to try and hit the thing with a tackling sprint. But with that dangerous thing spewing from its mouth, Dita figured there was no way she would want to touch the thing in close quarters. That was just too risky. Not to mention a giant spider was honestly freaking scary. She was just running on adrenaline at this point to keep her from losing her wits. However to her surprise, the youma jumped over her and positioned itself somewhere behind her. She didn't know what it was thinking, but leaving a wide open space before a champion sprinter was just asking for it.
Using her Might to give her an initial boost, she kicked off from her sprinting position and darted at high speed into the inner part of the building, leaving the youma and the other guy behind. She felt bad for him but there was nothing she could do there. She wondered if there was a backdoor somewhere. Anything was better than this confined space. There were stairs leading up, but considering the youma came at them from above earlier, going up was probably a bad idea. Her eyes glanced at the boarded up windows and finally found another boarded up door.
To a normal person, they might have resigned to being trapped here. But ever since she obtained her magic, wooden boards were as good as paper in Dita's eyes. Using the momentum from her sprint, she activated her Might again and tackled straight through, smashing the boards and the door behind it to bits. The girl found herself outside again in the rain, rolling on the ground because she did a bit of a jump right before crashing through the boarded up door. But she quickly got back up on her feet. There was no time for her to be taking a break.
It was a pretty wide street behind the building. This was exactly the kind of open space she was hoping for, though she could do without the rain. It really made visibility a bit bad. She readied herself, wondering if the other guy or the spider would be following.
In the meantime, she was also looking around if there was anything she could use as a weapon. She didn't particularly practice any martial arts that used weapons but she needed something to hit the spider with as she couldn't use her bare hands. The first things she spotted were a couple of trashcans and a manhole. Assuming she had the chance to, she would make a break for them and try to grab either a trashcan lid or a manhole cover.
The initial frustration lasted for only a moment. Most people didn't know, but even the talented Dita Fluegel was no stranger to failure. What would solidify her status as being gifted would be what came next. There weren't many people in the world who could recover and learn from a mistake as well as she did. Even without Cassian's advice, Dita had already made adjustments to her form and aim using her first throw as a reference. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the next one should hit.
She gratefully accepted the second knife from Cassian and then returned to her original position. There were two things she was testing this round. First was her own adjustments based on her previous throw and second was the magician's advice. Admittedly she was more concerned about getting the proper form earlier that aim was just a secondary objective. Now that she had the form down pat, it was just a matter of utilizing its strengths to send the knife flying where she wanted it to go.
Once more she imitated the same style of throwing that Cassian did during his earlier demonstration, but this time with even greater precision than the last. If the both of them attempted to make a throw at simultaneously, people watching would think it was a synchronized act. But of course it was more than just copying. Dita being who she was, she almost immediately understood the pros of using this form and how it generated the kind of power and trajectory needed to make a good throw. Now it was just a matter of application.
The second knife she would throw for the day soared through the air like a bullet, much like the first. An unmistakable thud would let her know that she definitely hit the target this time, though it wasn't quite a bullseye. The knife was about a few inches to the left of the small red dot. Dita hopped a couple of times in excitement at her success.
A man was on his knees just passed the gate of the establishment shivering badly. That was his fault for trying to go out in this weather. There was a reason Dita chose to stay stuck in that place even though technically the rest of the world had not fully given up on traveling in that weather. Still the girl was made of sturdier stuff than most. Despite her shyness, she was too kind to just ignore someone like that.
Piling on as many coats she could find, she stepped outside into the blizzard looking like an oversized Eskimo from the number of layers she was wearing. Surprisingly even with that much on she could still feel some of the chills. The guy who was wearing much less probably freezing. She hopped on over to his side and tried to stand him up by his arm.
"Hey are you alright? L-let's get you inside. It's a terrible time to be out."
Dita didn't really leave any room for him to debate and just went on with helping him into the building, a little forcefully if necessary. She didn't want to spend any more time standing out there in the cold. Surely the warmth of the gym was inviting enough for the guy even if there was somewhere else he had to go to. Well, since he entered the gate the first place maybe he intended to come here after all.
Dita couldn't think of a better place to get stranded except maybe back home. There was a freak blizzard outside and travel of any kind was highly discouraged. But that was fine. Where she was now, she had everything she could have wanted while being unable to do any of her usual outdoor training. It's just what you'd expect from a gym affiliated with St. Elbandia. The facilities were all top class. Though what she really cared about most there at the moment was the nice heating system. That warmth was just right.
She wasn't alone. There were quite a few of other people stranded there too. They were the unlucky folk who happened to turn up earlier the day before when the blizzard hit and now they were all stuck. Even Dita just stopped by from her usual run and was forced to take shelter when the snow began to fall. She had been in here for a little over a day now. But even so the snowstorm showed no signs of stopping. The news said so too.
Once in a while when she was taking a break, she would stare outside at the winter wonderland. Not that there was much to see. The heavy blizzard rendered visibility next to zero. Well she wasn't really expecting to see anyone or anything moving outside in this weather. That would be crazy. And yet that was exactly what she was seeing when she glanced out at the window just a little passed lunchtime on day two.
She nearly dropped her protein shake. There was someone or something out there in the snow. She walked closer to the window and wiped the fog off the glass with her sleeve to get a better look.
It happened all too quickly. Dita was probably the first one to notice it. A strange thing like a ball of some sort struck the top of the entrance to the building and on impact quickly expanded to completely block the doorway. The girl who was already in a boxing stance from her shadowboxing immediately took a guarded position, taking a few quick steps away from the blob like thing blocking the exit. Before she could make sense of what was happening, she instinctively looked up and saw a giant spider-like thing was bearing down on her from above, its clawed leg raised to strike.
In a normal situation, Dita would have certainly made a run for it. In fact that was still an option. But seeing the exit suddenly closed off momentarily erased the thought from her mind and her body shifted from flight to fight. She shielded herself with her arms and braced for impact.
A light purple aura surrounded her body a moment before the spider's blow connected. It seemed her reinforced durability would hold for now, but who knew how many more like that she could take. The strike was strong for sure, but unless the youma weighed more than a ton itself, it wasn't budging Dita from that spot. Most insects and arachnids were lighter than they looked despite their size.
Of course Dita was far from fully composed despite her seemingly quick reactions. Her body had moved on instinct but her mind was not quite in a state yet where she could formulate a proper plan to deal with the thing. She understood this was a youma, and if she had not been keeping her thoughts focused with her workout earlier, she might have been a bit more panicked. For now she had to take it step by step and get out of that position. Figuring out how to beat the thing would come later.
Something similar to black electricity would suddenly crackle around Dita while under the spider's leg. With one big push utilizing her momentarily enhanced strength, she would attempt to flip the spider on its back.
"Get... off!"
She had no idea what other kind of capabilities the monster she was up against had so she would only activate her Might for a couple of seconds, just enough to accomplish the flip, and then would turn it off and save it for her next follow-up.
Having been blessed in more ways than one, Dita was not very receptive to charity. Due to her kind nature, she would always feel indebted to someone whenever she receives something from them, even if they say that she didn't have to pay them back. It just didn't sit right with her. And so when Oscar mentioned that he didn't need monetary compensation, the girl's first thought was to wonder if there was anything else she could do for him instead.
"I'd r-really hate to just have some of you food without at least doing something for you in re-"
Perhaps it was due to her being nervous and flustered taking its toll. Before she could finish her sentence, as she tried to stand back up, she had a misstep on an uneven part of the ground, causing her to fall forward face flat on the grass. Normally she would have been able to break her fall with her arms but the thoughts clouding her focus dulled her reactions.
She didn't even get to hear the rest of Oscar's attempts at making a conversation as she was too busy blushing deep red in embarrassment from her face-plant. Somehow part of her didn't feel like getting back up from there anytime soon.
Dita stopped some distance away from Cassian to give him some room while he walked over to the selection of knives. When he turned back around he had a single throwing knife in hand. It seemed he wanted to start off with a small performance and the girl looked on with interest as he performed his trick with the handkerchief.
She truly felt she was watching a professional at work, as in most other cases her eyes were quite quick on the uptake and following movements. However the magician's sleight of hand was not something she could see through despite her focus. The performance was executed like magic from start to finish, causing the curious girl to break in silent applause in appreciation of the small show. But that was just an intermission after all. The real thing was coming next.
The targets were about twenty yards away from where the thrower would stand. If Dita had a ball or rock, she could probably hit them from that distance, give or take a few tries. Although a bullseye would probably be a matter of luck. Once more she watched Cassian's movements carefully. As he swung his arm for the throw, the girl found herself unconsciously mimicking his movements. She just barely missed seeing the knife strike the bullseye flawlessly. She was sure that if she walked over to the target to take a closer look, it was probably dead center of the small red dot.
For the second throw, Dita almost thought that the magician was going to perform another trick first. But when she saw him catch the blade by the tip with his fingers and whip his arm forward for the throw, she realized that he was merely using a different style of throwing. Rather than flying straight, the knife spun around through the air before hitting the center of the target once more. Once again Dita was moving her arm as though imitating Cassian's movements but partway through she decided that between the two different motions of throws, she had preferred the style of the first. A spinning knife was kind of scary in a way.
For the final knife, Dita was a bit surprised to see Cassian gesturing that she could give it a try herself. There was a pair of safety gloves close by that she could use and so she put them on before walking over to the magician to receive the last knife. She then took position in front of the third target, assuming a stance similar to Cassian's on the first target.
She briefly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was a small ritual to improve her focus. She then quickly glanced beyond the targets, checking that there was nothing or no one there that might accidentally get hit should she miss. Visualizing the movements she saw earlier, she motioned her arm overhead and imitated Cassian's first throw as best as she could. The knife flew straight like a bullet. It seemed for the most part she had the swing down correctly. However unlike her demonstrator, her accuracy was not yet up to par. The kunai-like knife grazed the side of the target and then veered off to the right where it eventually landed somewhere on the grass.
"Ah..."
Dita reflexively closed her hands in expression of her slight frustration at failing the task. She really wanted to at least hit the target, bullseye or not.
By all rights she should be more suspicious and cautious. But food being offered and laid out in front of her made her display momentary weakness, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the lunch box's contents. It wasn't anything grand in particular, but Dita was more of a snack food person anyway.
It was a conflicting dilemma. She was of course very interested in eating. But her timid, kind self was having trouble accepting charity from a guy in a wheelchair. If anything, she should be the one offering something. Maybe even push him around. In the end it was the rumbling of her tummy that answered for her. She did fall asleep a little longer than expected and it was almost lunch time.
"Ughh, I feel bad about it but yes I could use a bite. I don't think I'll make it to the store."
She slumped back on the ground in a seated kneeling position with her head down and sighing.
"I'll pay you back though!"
Her hands shuffled through her pockets for her wallet as she momentarily forgot where she put it.
She was glad that in the end Cassian was taking the lead. She was wondering if her indecisiveness was annoying him but as far as she could tell that didn't seem to be the case from his expression. He was just... really calm and accommodating. Surprisingly he started with going outside. Was he saving magic for last? That was probably it. You would normally want to top things off with your personal best act.
As she stepped outside of the tent after him, he gestured to what looked like a target range and mentioned that they would start with knife throwing as it was free. Apparently the acrobatics set was currently occupied. She couldn't help but glance in the direction of the acrobatics set anyway. A couple of other circus members were prepping to execute a routine. Of course she wanted to see it, but it would be rude to Cassian. And so she quickly shifted her gaze back at the knife throwing area, nodding in agreement to the magician's suggestion.
While walking over to the area that Cassian indicated, Dita pondered about her own background in throwing, her face showing an expression that she was deep in thought. There was javelin throw, discus throw, and shot put among the decathlon events. Hammer throw was another common event in track and field competitions. None of them were particularly concerned with pinpoint accuracy. Control was of course still important as throwing the projectile to go where it ought to go improved one's distance.
As for other sports, she had briefly tried baseball before. But accuracy there was a team effort by the pitcher and catcher. It was hard to find a good reference in terms of things she had personal experience with. Unfortunately while she was watching the show over the weekend, she was seated rather far away from the stage and couldn't fully appreciate the knife throwing act that night. Today would be her first time seeing it up close.
Dita stared speechlessly in awe as the mystery man actually levitated from where he sat, floating and then landing right in front of her. This was the magician alright. For a moment she forgot that "magic" doesn't officially exist and that he was really floating with magic. It was actually a trick though right? Was it wires or something else? She didn't know, but it looked really convincing. She couldn't help but silently clap a bit as the man bowed and introduced himself.
"I'm Dita. It's nice to meet you sir."
She tried to bow too but it was really more just a nod. The man known as Cassian had quite the presence. She couldn't find the words to describe it. But whatever it was it invoked her curiosity.
When he asked her what she wanted to see, she was a bit stumped. She was expecting them to have maybe a program prepared that she could just follow along. Any more specific requests would be saved for later. But instead they were starting off with that. She was a little glad he mentioned acrobatics as one of the options, but at the same time she felt it might be rude to ask a magician to do anything other than magic. This was her indecisiveness kicking in and she didn't even notice she had paused for almost a minute without saying anything as she mulled over her response.
"I... um..."
Magic? Acrobatics? She couldn't decide. She wondered if he could read her mind.
It appeared the misunderstanding was cleared up in the end and Dita sighed with relief. She was definitely not the best when interacting with strangers, more so with this situation catching her off guard. The man was understanding enough and his attempt to diffuse the situation by talking about his reason for being there was something she was thankful for. He was doing a lot better than Dita anyway.
The girl took a few deep breaths to calm down as she processed his words. She knew for sure that they didn't go there for the same reasons. Dita picked that place to take a break because people didn't normally go there at that time. To some extent she could appreciate how pretty the garden was, but she just wasn't much of a history and flowers person to really fully value them. The quiet was nice and the view was refreshing. That was it. Still it was a strange thing talking about stars when the night was still quite far off.
He apologized for startling her and introduced himself as Oscar, extending his hand. Maybe surprisingly in contrast to her actions until now, she wasn't too reluctant to take the hand and shake. Handshakes and congratulations happened so often in her life that it didn't phase her much anymore.
"I-I'm Dita. Sorry for being a mess. I'm just not in top form today. It's nice to meet you Mr. Oscar."
Her words came out right for the most part. But the nervousness in her tone was still somewhat noticeable. It was an improvement at least. Even she wasn't fond of being out of it for long. Calming down and trying to look composed was something she practiced almost daily and she had to show something for it.
Upon hearing the man's words, Dita's immediate reaction was to stand up straight, waving her arms in front of her and blushing furiously. His misunderstanding was even worse than she thought.
"No no no! I d-don't live here! I just fell asleep! By accident!"
Overcome with embarrassment, she all but forgot that she was being suspicious of the guy just moments ago. A guy in a wheelchair couldn't be dangerous right? She stepped out of the bushes in full view of the guy while brushing off some more leaves that had stuck to her hoodie and pants. There was a leaf or two stuck in her long hair as well but she didn't notice these, her eyes focused on the stranger. She was definitely looking at him, but avoiding direct eye contact.
"I was out on my morning jog and took a break. I didn't mean to sleep here. I didn't mean it. It just sorta happened."
Though she was probably doing a terrible job of explaining herself, at the very least her outfit would indicate she wasn't some poor homeless person. She may have been a bit sloppy, but her trainers always made sure she had top of the line athletic wear. At the moment though, she just wanted an excuse to run away.
Dita didn't know what the man she was looking for looked like. She didn't even know if it was a man. All she was told was that they could find them in the magician's tent. And there sitting on a podium with his legs crossed was the only person present inside. She assumed it was him.
As expected of a magician's abode, various props could be found around the spacious venue. Being acknowledged by the blue haired guy, Dita carefully stepped inside and nodded her head slightly, pulling back her hood to reveal her long black hair. He asked what she was doing there as if he had no clue himself. She found that a little strange. This entire time she got the impression that it wasn't weird at all for the circus to have kids like her visiting and having a look around. Maybe he wasn't actually the guy she was looking for? She reached into her hoodie pocket for the slip of paper handed to her earlier as she spoke to explain her reason for coming.
"Um, I'm here for the tour and demo? They said I could find the magician here who would be showing me around."
Though at first she wasn't too enthusiastic about being assigned to the magician, she had to admit the overall feel and atmosphere of the tent and the mystery blue haired guy was really "mystifying?" Her instincts would tell her that he wasn't an ordinary man. Whether he was simply good at playing the part of a mysterious circus member or there was really something else special about him, she wasn't sure. But as of now, dull and uninteresting were far from the words she would use to describe the impression she got.
Dita opened her eyes and stared up at the sky above. It was much brighter now that it was earlier in the morning. She was jolted awake by the sound of camera shutters. Well, it was the artificial kind that you hear from phones. Someone else was in the garden?
She sat up quickly, patting the leaves off of her hoodie and briefly glancing around. The source of the camera sounds appeared to be a man on a wheelchair taking pictures of the garden with his phone.
Her sudden appearance from behind the flower bushes must have surprised him as well and the two made eye contact. A few seconds later, Dita ducked back down quickly, blushing a bit. She was out on her usual early morning jog and stopped by the garden to take a quick break. She didn't mean to but it seemed she actually fell asleep, and now there were other people around. They must think she was a weirdo for napping in the garden like that.
Slowly, she sat up again and peered from behind the bushes. Who was that guy anyway? People didn't usually go there this early. And to make things even more peculiar, he was on a wheelchair. As far as she knew, the palace wasn't exactly wheelchair-friendly. Soon her embarrassment started to turn into suspicion and wariness.
It wasn't the usual sort of thing Dita would go to see herself. She accidentally overheard a conversation that mentioned that the acrobatics and performances in this particular circus were pretty darn amazing. And that piqued her curiosity. She watched one of the shows they had over the weekend, and true enough the physical feats performed by the people there were kind of cool. Well, it was more in the sense that she wanted to try it out herself. on her way home, she picked up flyer that read that they were in fact giving some demonstrations to interested youngsters. That was perfect. Looks like she knew where she'd be spending her next day off.
Even when it wasn't time for any shows, the circus was really busy. She got a few curious looks her way as she wandered in and it only made her a bit nervous, causing her to pull her hood down front to hide her face. Up ahead she saw a group of kids around her age gathered around a man who seemed to be in charge and so she hurried over to join them. It turns out she just barely made it to the safety lecture before they got started.
There weren't many kids around today so they each got to be assigned to a troupe member who would show them what they did in the circus. Dita blinked and stared at the slip of paper that was handed to her. Apparently the guy she was assigned to could be found somewhere in the magician's tent? She was hoping to see some high flying acrobatics but the group had dispersed before she could even try to ask anything. Sighing, she headed over to the magician's tent as indicated, a little less enthusiastic than when she first arrived.
As she approached the tent, she smelled something rather appetizing. Were they having lunch? It reminded her that she forgot to bring a snack in case she got hungry. She peered inside and called out in a soft voice.
The skin LIGHTS OFF was made by JAWN of WICKED WONDERLAND.
HALATION was created by KOJIHIME. Images belong to their respective artists. All codes and scripts belong to their respective coders. Please DO NOT take anything without the owners' permission.
