CHAPTER 11:
Upon returning on base, awkwardly Haru saw the others trying to accommodate Garcia
Having silently agreed that he was an easy guy to talk to silently between them
“Sounds like I'm not late”
The three of them looked up, seeing the boy standing at the doorway
“Not at all. We are actually trying to help”
Casually Garcia laid down his sword on the couch before he spoke
“I admit, Sylvia is a good host, a lot better than what I expected”
“You're being too humble. Compared to Haru, you're actually fun to be around”
“You know that I'm standing right here, right?”
“Ugh those two…”
“Do they do this often?”
“They're all bark and no bite. They do this all the time”
With a tension in the air both heads turned to face away from each other
On the other hand, Garcia simply smiled, he already took a liking to their dynamic
(They're two friends who aren't doing it on purpose)
Out of the blue, Haru teleported away, or was he teleported away by someone else?
It happened so drastically that they genuinely couldn't tell
“What the-”
Instinctively Sylvia tried to reach out, only for her hand to grasp at air, then she slowly retracted her arm
Great shock flashed on Matthew's face
Even Garcia was flabbergasted but he didn't know what to do
Thinking for a bit, Sylvia tried to contact Haru on his smartwatch, it was to no avail
Dazily Haru opened his eyes… only to see Anabelle?
With slow steps he backed away, even when he blinked multiple times the scenery wouldn't change
Inadvertently Annabelle's expression was fixed to the ground, clearly hardened
“What could you possibly want to do with me now of all times?”
“I'm here for a reason, I want to…I want to apologize to you for what I did to you”
A quiet breeze blew by his face, was he imagining this?...nevertheless he continued
“To apologize? After you did that to me, now you want to apologize to me?”
“Yes, I know I don't have the right to force you to it, and I'm not asking you to accept my apology, I want to get it out of me, it's been haunting me ever since”
Tears rolled down her cheek as she spoke, it caused her body to shake violently
It came down her jaw, the tears stained her pale face
“...”
“I have to say, that is a bizarre move, but I allow it, I accept your apology”
“...”
“You can't possibly mean that”
The quiet breeze came back, but only this time he smiled gently
“Oh I fully mean that, I'm not mad at you anymore because of what you did to me, I realized that I shouldn't blame you for your vices that you have no control over, and not just that, maybe I overreacted a bit too”
With a shaky breath Annabelle tried to contain her tears but couldn't
Arms crossed around her chest as she looked down
“I don't know what to say. When I first thought about it, forgiving me was almost out of the question for you”
“Be that as it may, Anabelle, I fully intend to forgive you. Maybe you can even join our team”
“...”
“Join your team? You're saying that I can be by your side?”
“Right, you haven't heard, so basically, since the apocalypse is upon us, Sylvia is trying to gather all the holy beings under a single team so that we can face this all together”
“So you aware of the prophecy, I would be honored to join you then”
Even after he had forgiven her, she still couldn't look him in the eyes
“I guess it's official, welcome abroad Annabelle”
Quickly enough through the snot and tears she nodded
“Although, I have some questions for you”
“...”
“First of all, what's with the timing? Why did you just snatch me like that?”
“I couldn't really think of a better time to do it, plus how am I supposed to know what you are doing on the other end”
“Touché, I suppose timing is an odd thing in of itself”
“My second question is, where the hell even are we?”
“We are in a remote location, out of satellites reach, still on earth”
Even with his exceptional geography skills this didn't jog any memory
“A place so remote that even the satellites can't reach? Then what the fuck kind of island are we on?”
What seemed like looking clouds gathered above Annabelle's head
“The thing is…I don't remember the name of it”
Immediately the boys face passed through all 5 stages of grief
“WHAT, you don't even remember the name of it? Did you just bring me out in the middle of nowhere for an apology?”
“Hey! It was the only remote place that I could find let alone remember the name of it”
“Great, anyway, putting all the nonsense aside, your apology is done now can we head out to base?”
“I guess so, I don't have anything other to say honestly”
Softly turning back, Haru nodded as she (Annabelle) turned around to teleport them, when she looked away the boy's face fell…
He was lying to Annabelle
No matter how much he had tried to understand her or push his emotions down, the wound left in him was still top deep
(I can't let her know…I can't focus on my emotions now…)
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Maybe it was a stupid decision of his or his immaturity showing, yet it didn't matter to him
What mattered the most now was preparing for what's about to come next…
They had now teleported back to the base
Quiet hums were exchanged between the 2 holy beings and the elf
Almost Lazily Sylvia fixed her glasses to look up
“What? You brought her here?”
From the nearby couch, Garcia and Matthew were silently watching the TV
“No, it's not like that-”
“You see, she actually came to me, and apologized”
“Apologized? For what exactly?”
That made Annabelle tense up, as if hit on the funny bone
Urgently Haru bit his lower lip then responded
“For killing my teacher”
“.....”
It seemed that even the tv had turned off, yet Sylvia's expression didn't change one bit
“That's a start I suppose”
From where she was sprawled out on the couch she stood up and walked past them
“Wait Sylvia-”
As the boy turned around, he suddenly a felt an arm tugging on his shoulder
“Let her be”
Although Haru's body physically jolted, his breath was unchanging
“Anyway, where am I going next?
“You're going to England next”
“To England? I'm gonna assume that it's for another holy being?”
“I can come with you if you'd want to”
Out of the blue Garcia suggested, worried that Haru might not be focused enough for it internally
“Thank you but no, I can handle it just fine, don't sweat it”
Slowly Garcia nodded, perhaps it was the right choice not to aggregate Haru
Before Annabelle could even anticipate it, he was already gone
“Does he always run away like that?”
“Probably…”
“So, would you like a cup of coffee or tea Annabelle?”
At the suggestion Annabelle shaked her head in denial
“No no, I'm totally fine, please don't bother”...
Shortly after teleporting Haru found himself in London
“So this is Buckingham palace? Looks nothing like the news…”
Evidently talking to himself while holding a hand in front of his face
It was an early rise in the morning at the Buckingham palace
Nothing was particularly happening as all the guards front of the Buckingham palace gate and perimeter were off duty
It wasn't a festive or special day either so no crowd
Plus it was a nice morning so no tourist would have a reason to be here
Before him stood a man whose hair was long and black like that of a girl
His face looked like that of an English man at least
As for his clothing, it consisted of what would expect of a royal man
“Did you find me, or did I find you? Is thy question”
The mysterious man chuckled, hearing Shakespeare being imitated wasn't something you'd see normally
“You're an amusing one, I suppose that's up to fate though”
Only then Haru noticed the wooden cane that the man was holding, it would odd as who would really use a cane made of wood in 2025
“You're a weird dude walking around with a cane and with no visible injuries”
A smirk on the mysterious man's face could be seen as Haru asked that, seemingly he had been waiting for a moment like this
“Did it pass your mind that perhaps it is not just for show?”
The realization hit him like a flash bomb, if he was holding a cane then he must be using it as a weapon
Then another realization came to him…
One of them was the staff of Moses which was a wooden cane
(Shit…how did I fuck this up?...)
The cane itself was with splinters and somewhat slim where the part that Preston was holding being slightly bent with not splinters
Along its length it looked like it had creases but not too great to crack a normal cane
“How utterly oblivious of me, you're right, I'm the peculiar one in this situation”
“Am I to assume that you're gonna let your fighting skills do the talking for you?”
“How crude, I prefer talking over fighting but that doesn't mean that I cower away from fights”
“Fair enough, at least you're not battle hungry, unlike the others who don't shy away from it, but why fight?”
“I haven't gained your respect yet and you don't trust me, since you're a noble I suppose that me proving myself is more worthy”
Oddly enough something akin to a laugh escapes his lips
“Hmm, bravo, I see you're not a coward, that's a first step”
By instinct the boys stand changed, shoulders relaxing and knees bent, but the most important step was to lower the center of gravity
“Before we start the duel, don't you think that it's common courtesy to introduce ourselves first?”
“Right, my name is Haru senkawa, nice to meet you I guess?”
“The pleasure is all mine Haru, my government name is Preston Harlett”
“You're a well raised one…”
“That's my character for you, I was taught to be the epitome of kindness, a standard of rich men here in Britain and also amongst royalty”
At the same time that Preston was walking, he was tapping his cane with every step that he took
“Crazy how I've now fought two golden spoon fed boys in the same day”
“What?”
“Pretend that you didn't hear anything”
“...”
With that, he tapped his wooden cane down a bit too hard on the ground
Which caused the ground to split apart into multiple two pieces, the cut along the ground was enough to fill a small river
It all happened so quickly that Haru barely got a chance to react, the suddenness made him lose balance
“Wait a minute!-”
In a split second his footing was recovered, rather awkwardly
Immediately he jumped on one of the chunks of the road that the spot had created
Having to rapidly jump from one to another in order not to fall in the split that was created, he kept propelling himself forward using dash
“SWOOSH! SWOOSH!”
When he reached Preston he reached his hand out
A blurry line tainted the boys vision
Yet what motivated him was that he could move, so he threw a punch
In response Preston slightly raised the cane to touch Haru in the abdomen
A shit ton amount of blood gushed out as the boy's abdomen got pierced through
Intestines and liver lashing out wildly from the canes effect
“Damn you!”
From his mouth blood burst from as well
Another simple swing of the wooden cane was enough to send him flying upwards
“CRUNCH!”
With a horrid sound Haru landed on the right of him, a few meters apart
With great power his body smashed into the ground while shattering it in the process
His lungs collapsed as well when he tried to draw breath
Crimson maroon stained his back and abdomen as well as his mouth, and eyes barely even lidded
In a stubborn attempt he tried to stand up
Elbow and hand kept shaking against the concrete but that didn't matter now
Even when his back weighed him down on top of all, it didn't matter
Without looking he couldn't exactly tell if he was split from the inside or not but the pain was definitely there
Turning around Preston saw him on the ground
“Pathetic, one touch it was all it took for you to crash to the ground?”
Halfway upwards Haru looked up through his bloodied eyelids
The sunlight cast down upon Preston just perfectly under his gaze
“I'm guessing that ability of yours allows you to split any two spaces that you so want just with a touch of that cane?”
“Precisely, I underestimated your intellect”
Despite the internal struggle, Haru miraculously stood up again from the ground
For a moment Preston was completely stunned
The imaginary codex could heal one of all injuries but he didn't know the full extent of it
“It should have been utterly impossible from you to stand up yet you did”
“I admit…you seem experienced with your ability and it is very strong, you're probably the toughest challenge I have faced until now”
As an English nobleman, Preston simply couldn't show much of his pride even when he smiled
To maintain class they said
“I admit myself that you are right but you're stretching it with the last statement”
To the untrained eye there weren't any obvious weakness to Preston's stand
Damn it, he didn't know how to approach this, the only realistic way to go about this would be to outspeed him
Something was telling Preston that the boy was ready for his next move, a gut feeling
A calm breath escapes him and with a slight raise the wooden cane was once again tapped on the ground
When the chunks came in at point blank zero range Haru moved solely on instinct
Even if it hurt him more, dashing in directly towards Presto, effectively skipping all of them at once
By that the English man was caught complete off guard, limbs and mind locked in place
Having momentarily forgotten to defend himself with the cane
Seeing the opening Haru punched him in the face with all the momentum
Which made Preston to stumble back hard
“CRACK!”
In a smooth move Haru landed on both his feet at the spot where Preston was just standing in
On the other end blood gushed out of Preston's nose from the punch, most likely broken
Annoyed he moved his hand up to cover his nose in pain
“Damn you, that was a really good punch”
“You're defenses may be high but you're a slowpoke, I guess every one of us has their weaknesses”
Yet again was Preston reminded of his only weakness
Time and time again others would pick on him because of it and he would try to improve only to fail again
Hatred had slowly consumed him, people would critique everything he did, rather than being praised for his actual talents…
Adjusting from where he was, he dashed fiercely
“CLANK!”
Now aiming at Haru's chest with the cane
“You gotta be shitting me-”
2 steps backwards was enough to dodge, almost falling to the rift behind him
In rapid fire motion Preston tried to poke him with the stuff from all the angles
Unfortunately for him his movements were too slow for Haru who had learned from previous fights
“Damn It!”
“Sorry, I should have ended this sooner”
By pivoting inside Haru with one fluid motion elbowed him to the chin
“THUD!!”
And with a leg sweeping motion the same hand grounded into his abdomen
From the punch his clothes creased greatly and the cane was knocked out of his hands
“Gahhh!’
An uneasy nausea came to him, with a ragged breath and a slumped body he vomited blood
“No you don't!”
Ignoring the warning Preston dived in for his cane with shaking limbs
His wrist bend so much so that the tip of the cane directly touched the ground
It served for Haru to run faster
“Damn you! UGHHHH!”
The snapping sound of bones echoes in the quiet garden, yet the staff touched the floor
“...”
All of a sudden Haru's body grew limp as his tendons were ripped out
The force was not so great this time, it scared him nevertheless
The blood of Preston sprayed broken streets in front of Buckingham palace
By itself the place itself looked more like a bloodshed than a fight…
Minutes had passed
Preston's body could hold no more as he collapsed on the ground right in front of Haru
His cane rolling out of his grasp
Gently so Haru stopped the cane with his right foot by lightly stepping on it
“Can you still speak bro?”
“Yeah, but I can hardly stand up”
Defeat was eminent on Preston's face
While Haru looked more conflicted
He didn't think that it was fair that he won because of his regeneration, after all, he was technically evenly matched with Preston
“In my eyes, you won this duel fair and square”
“I can't take that as a win, I say that it's a draw"
From the blood loss Preston could hardly meet his opponent eye to eye
“I call bullshit, it isn't a draw, I should have done way better”
“You certainly hold yourself in high standards, on a serious note, you're bleeding like hell, stay there for me”
At the moment Preston was visibly confused, it's not like Haru was a doctor or something but nonetheless he stayed put on the ground
Nevertheless Haru leaned down besides him, placing a hand on his chest
He began to heal him as he had done on his own body before
A rejuvenating feeling came to him at once, like a surgery was being performed on him by the most delicate of hands
When Haru removed his arm from his chest, he stood back up, awkwardly distancing himself from Preston
“Try standing up normally”
Hardly could Preston beefing this boy's powers, never mind his willingness
(Who the hell is this kid?)
Like ever happened he stood while looking at Haru
“Amazing, simply astonishing, I have never ever felt like this before in my entire life”
“Well that's obvious, you don't get healed like that so often”
“Goddamnit I didn't mean it like that, you get what i'm saying”
“Hey uhh, do you need help getting up there or?”
“I think I could use a hand, thanks mate”
Ahh there was the classic phrase that every brit ever used, which was “mate”
Quietly so Haru's lips curled into a smile which he quickly brushed off
He then got close to Preston, putting his shoulder over him for support
“I may have healed you from your physical injuries but the toll and pain still remain”
In pain Preston's breath hitched, despite the healing the pain was still felt
“There's always a downside to the upside”
In shock Peston's eyes dropped to the ground as he had forgotten about the most important thing to him on the ground
The staff of moses
Comically Haru followed his gaze as he looked at the ground
“Can't believe we almost left without that”
“I'm blaming myself for forgetting it, mind getting it for me?”
“Sure”
Then Haru let go off him to pick up the cane without any prior warning
To his surprise, Preston had fallen to the ground as he looked
“What the hell is wrong with you? At least give me a heads up first!”
Yelled out an angry Preston
A wire in Haru's brain short circuited at the insult, indeed it was very stupid of him to have done that
With embarrassment he reached out with his arm to Preston for him to take it and get up
“Do you want your cane or me supporting you?”
“I'll take the cane, thanks for the thought”
“I almost forgot… you don't know how much I respect after that fight”
“Eh? Where did that come from?”
It seems Preston's assumptions were right…
Haru was a kid so he didn't know how to take compliments at all but he was not completely socially oblivious
“Nevermind, consider me part of your team in simpler words”
At that haru let out a quiet “ohhhh” upon realization, now understanding what Preston had just said
“Wait, how do you know about my team?”
“The media isn't subtle you know”
“Right”
“Well that was quick, normally it'd require a little more convincing and stuff, but I shouldn't be complaining”
The light of London cast upon them one last time, at least for the day
As Haru teleported with Preston back to the base…
Although he had indeed healed Preston who was on the ground after the fight
The blood on the streets was still there, ready to be cleared by some unlucky fellas
Unfortunately it was a recurring theme
whenever Haru showed up but of course, of course the cleaners didn't know that
Two cleaners this time walked up to the scene in full gear, their faces etched with mental fatigue
“Again? We've been all over Europe cleaning up sites like this, just who the hell is causing all this ruckus?”
The second cleaner who was smoking a cigar his name being Marco shrugged
He was a more of the chill type
“I wish I knew but they are a serious pain in our ass”
The first one who was named Paul, could only nod
They both grabbed their mops and started cleaning all over the rumble and the messy stuff in between
The two of them stood there utterly exhausted and melting in the middle of a hot today in London
Marco looked at Paul for a bit before looking back at the ground
“That's it for today, the rest the government can handle this”
Paul wiped his forehead off the sweat with his hand
Now sitting on a rock(chunk)
“You're damn right but I doubt that they are even going to care”
“No shit, it's like saying that gta 6 will get infinitely delayed until it is never released”
Paul groaned at the stark reminder
His face was giving away his frustration and a bit of desperation?
“Don't mention that bro, you know how much forward I've been looking for gta 6”
“There's a difference between emotions and reality bro”
Paul rolled his eyes
But he couldn't deny either that what Marco was saying was true in the end…
