Twisting and turning.

Twisting and turning.

Twisting and turning.

The canvas in front of him twisted and turned as if cloaked in watercolor paint. His entire world spun around him once again as he found himself returning from a new realm entirely.

Or at least—something like that. 

He wasn’t sure what to make of it, although the closest word he could think of was certainly within the realm of magic. After being teleported again, he had far too many questions.

That uncertainty boiled its way up into his veins, overwhelming his whole body… With Irvelle, and this mysterious demon girl, he had so much he needed to stay alert to, so much he needed to be afraid of.

He just couldn't keep up with it all. Unable to keep running away from all the things he feared. Unable to pick himself back up only to be knocked down by someone else. In this neurotic, spinning hell, he felt himself slipping further and further away. Further and further out of reality.

That is, until…

He finally opened his eyes.

Being closed too tightly, trying to hide from the world in front of them, those eyes were forced open by something. Something unconscious, that pushed him completely away from his self-destructive thoughts, and in that moment, his lashes finally pulled away from each other.

First slowly, but then finally bringing themselves all the way open, his eyes almost felt as if they had left Cobalt’s head entirely, revealing the real world, which had now stopped spinning.

A brighter, much larger world than he had ever known existed from his limited perspective. Feeling unchained from his limited mind, which tunnel-visioned itself into self-destructively seeing things in such a small aspect ratio, the scene in front of him now was much, much different than that. Everything had zoomed itself out for Cobalt, and his filmy eyes reflected the spectacular sunrise which sparkled in his own widened eyes.

As if the black space around his peripherals disappeared…

A sudden flutter of wings.

And a falling feather.

That abrupt change in perspective flipped the scene over in his mind like an old movie flipping through rolls of film.

As the falling feather passed from in front of his eyes and out to his peripheral, he immersed himself in that scene, which was completely cloaked in a golden light. This scene, which he had imagined for years. This scene, which he was too scared to grasp. This scene, which he was too tunnel-visioned to ever understand before this.

To the cascading forest scape, painting the entire planet in marvelous hues of yellow, amber, orange, red.

To the wide mountain peaks, jutting down from all directions towards the sparkling streams, shimmering waterfalls, all radiating a thick layer of mist which caked the surrounding autumn trees.

To the millions, if not billions of multicolored autumn leaves, which scattered themselves across that marvelous canvas he became encapsulated in,

To the never-ending view, which might as well have been from the very top of the world…

And to the magnificently warm sun which devoured the distant blue mountains, which covered in a “Rayleigh scattered” haze, igniting the entire scene like that of a timeless photograph, an utter paragon of the masterfully utilized color wheel.

This scene, which he could only imagine in the wildest of dreams...

Devoured the entire sky in its golden rays of life, bringing about a new, long-awaited day with all the waking colors wishing him a good morning.

It was enough to capture the hearts of anyone who could possibly bear witness—the ever so short time of the fleeting colors of fall.

But more than that, to Cobalt’s touched heart…

This marked the beginning of an entirely new series of emotions.

One of which couldn’t possibly be described with words alone…

This marked the first time—in so many years…

That Cobalt had seen a real sunrise.

『Is this what… I’ve been missing all this time?』

“HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

Sparked alive with a charging battle cry, Cobalt’s racing and excited mind went completely blank, being smacked so hard in the rear side of the skull that his entire upper body was sprung forward into action in tandem.

At this sudden lunge, his feet crumbled under the centripetal force, allowing his entire body to roll itself haphazardly across the hill, sent flying away from that beautiful scene.

Just like flipping through rolls of film, that spectacular masterpiece flashed in front of him, washing its way all the way down from out of his vision, replacing it with the cold and wet morning grass.

His thoughtless mind was plunged down to the dew, sending his entire body flipping over it like a gymnast. After that flip, his knees dug into the angled soil on their way back down, springing his torso into action once more and smashing into the dewy grass where it would stay.

Having resigned to his own defeat, drool escaped his agape mouth onto the dirt, his mind clearly not having adjusted to the sudden ambush.

Then that assailant flipped back from their somersault, preparing to land onto the grass behind him—

“!!!”

Just as their foot caught at a sharp angle, throwing their entire body backwards into the wet grass behind his collapsed frame.

 Now both victim and suspect lay defeated on the grass, the only individual left standing after the ambush—being the rising sun.

…

…

“T’hell with that!!!” Cobalt was the first to yell out while thrusting his arms against the ground to support his upper body.

“No! Stay down!!!” was the only reply from higher up on the hill.

A girl’s voice…?

He jolted his rising body around at a 180 degree angle in an attempt to get the advantage before the assailant could have time to recover. But what he saw would only further his complete and utter confusion.

A small girl, maybe only a meter and a half tall, sat on the wet grass rubbing the side of her head frustratedly. She had a look of pain spread across her face—or maybe it was anger or annoyance instead?—and scratched fiercely at her temple, pushing her long and orange unkempt hair out of the way in the process.

“Tch—you’re stupidly resilient for someone so pointless!”

“W-what?!”

Having so cruelly been called out by the demon in the “Tomb”, bites from a little girl like this lost all their luster.

Almost like a middle schooler just learning the right way to insult people.

“You! You failed so hard just an hour or so ago but then suddenly you have a skull of steel!!! Ow—! My foot!!!” 

“What, can you dish it out but can’t take it?! Don’t go smashing me in the back of the head if you’re gonna whine if you fall!”

“For your information, creep, I didn’t smash you in the back of the head! I punted you with a flying kick! It was really cool, actually!”

She’s…

Absolutely nuts.

Between the girl with the fiery eyes, and the girl with the fiery personality, he was completely torn between which of their personalities were more detestable.

He wanted to just laugh at her, but he couldn't let her crazed mannerisms go unchecked.

“What the hell do you mean really cool?!” He practically stumbled over her own insane speech.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to fly, like, horizontally through the air?! Let alone even hit someone with it!” Her voice was tight, shrill, and almost difficult to listen to—and yet strangely enough, almost singsong. She seemed to enunciate some words differently than others, in such a way that made her seem like she was trying to “steal the show”. 

“Why even kick me in the first place?! Are you not even going to explain yourself?!

“I needed to make sure you weren’t going to run away! Wait no! I shouldn’t have to explain any of this to you, you idiot!”

“You sound like a broken record! How am I supposed to feel insulted if all of your jabs sound like rehashes?!” He had now completely renavigated the conversation into insulting her own insults. There was absolutely no reason for this sudden change in approach; it’s just simply where his mind went to.

“Ow—? I don’t know! Just find a way to take it more personally if you’re gonna complain about it! Or should I come with a list of insults prepared next time?!”

His feet went plopped onto the ground and he thrusted his body up, now looking down on the girl who was still sitting defeated on the ground.

Her annoyed face returned his look of frustration.

“Yes! Please do! I think that would make this situation a lot better for both of us!!”

With that line, the repartee between the two of them collapsed in on itself into silence. Cobalt breathed heavily, reflecting on the absurdity of this situation. And the bizarre girl, who appeared unreadable to Cobalt, did the same. 

Silence falling between the two of them, Cobalt felt something building up within him, and after the stupidity of the last minute or so, he just couldn’t hold it anymore.

Amidst his attempts to retain the atmosphere of their heated quarrel, she was actually the first to crack.

Snort.

After that light chuckle, both boy and girl burst into obscene laughter at their own stupidity.

Throughout this entire conversation, the two of them constantly changing the subject has thrown the entire dialogue out of the window. If anyone was here watching the pair, they would say there was never a subject to begin with. That just left the entire confrontation as the two of them wasting time, but for some reason, being at least self-aware enough to see how stupid they both were, all they could so was laugh.

Cobalt didn’t understand who she was, why she was here, or why she kicked him in the head, but none of that really mattered in that very moment. To Cobalt, it was just… funny. And that’s all that mattered.

The moment they shared with each other lasted a while longer, before the girl, choking on the laughs she tried to hold back, resisted it.

“No, no that’s not funny.”

“Then why are you still laughing?” he followed up in between breaths.

This repartee between the two perfectly reflected what would be banter between siblings. In Istheria, he had no one to really compare this interaction to, save maybe Bismuth.

The reaction he got from retorting her insults was surprisingly positive, so even if further provoking and teasing such a loose cannon of a girl would sound insane to anyone else, Cobalt wouldn’t let his own better judgment deter him. He sharpened his resolve and once again returned to the battlefield.

“So… Are you gonna apologize for kicking me back in the head or what?” was his second attempt at dialogue.

“Apologize? If anything,  you should be apologizing to me. Or, instead of that, thanking me, or no—How about groveling instead? Whichever you prefer.”

He clicked his tongue. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. There are literal demons out there that are easier to read than you are—what the hell would I have to thank you for? Giving me a concussion?!”

Her supercilious expression fell into a look of surprise and confusion. Her grin sunk to a resting frown, and her eyebrows raised slightly. “…Do you seriously not remember?”

Hold on… Did this weird instigating girl genuinely expect him to grovel before her? That wasn’t a joke?

He thought back to where he could have seen her before. The only really striking feature was her vibrant auburn hair. There was probably only one other place he could have seen such a striking appearance…

“You’re the orange blur!!”

“Blur?! Is that what you’ve been calling me?! I went through so much trouble saving you and that’s how I’m repaid? There’s no way I deserve that epithet!”

Technically, she was right. The orange blur’s destructive distraction gave him an opportunity to escape.

She may have scared the shit out of him, but if she really was the one raining down missiles to the cultists, then Cobalt may hate to admit it, but…

“You… saved me?!”

“And here you are trying to run away from me!! I don’t do this work for free!! Do I look rich enough to be able to be some kinda philanthropist hero?!”

Looking at her unkempt hair, ripped red cape, and doll-like clothes that didn’t at all suit her fiery demeanor…

He bit his tongue on that question, hoping it was rhetorical.

“No, no, no… You owe me big time!” She stood up, dusting off her lace blouse and skirt—ones which gave her the appearance of a devil inhabiting a doll—and faced him as an equal. Well, as much of an equal as she could face him as, given the thirty centimeter-or-so height difference.

Cobalt faced those fiery eyes with a slightly melted, albeit slightly enduring resolve. “I owe you…?”

“Yes! Yes you do!” she stared him down—stared him up?—with the glare of a hundred suns.

“What exactly did you have in mind?” with a girl this unpredictable, he couldn’t even imagine.

She blinked hard, and reopening her eyes, braced herself for her unreasonable demand.

“I was on a pretty important mission when I saved your ass, actually. And I kinda missed my shot at that when I saw that those bottom-feeder cultists were about to dismember and roast you like a turkey. Let’s just say—I’m a pretty big deal around these mountains, and right now, you’re lookin’ at the number one tomb raider this side of the country!”

Just like that, puzzle pieces clicked together in Cobalt’s mind.

That demon had told him about the Tomb below the mountains, the cultists have been gathering around it as well, and now this girl, too, was describing her ambitions as having to do with the same entity. Something about the "Tomb" had been bringing all sorts of people together around it, and although he didn’t fully understand, he tried to fill in the gaps with his knowledge as a chronic gamer, some of which happened to involve a Tomb or two.

“Er, uhm, I’ve only ever raided this one Tomb, but I’m like… almost positive there’s just the one… Aaaaannnd since I’m the only person there, that makes me the best overall! Erm, right-?” her roundabout logic clashed after it had already escaped her lips.

“Wait… You’re the only person here?”

“That’s right! Wait! I don’t have to explain anything to you! You haven’t even heard my demands yet so my secrets are my own until then!”

Cobalt's mind was now filled with questions. Had she not met that demon? Were the cultists not in the Tomb either? Why wouldn’t people be exploring this? It seemed like such a key location at first glance, and now learning that this girl’s the lone explorer here… Cobalt would need a new approach to wrapping his head around all this.

She cleared her throat. “Because of you, my mission was completely botched. I need to get back in the game, but doing all this raiding stuff by myself is super hard after a while. So, wouldn’t it only make sense to want some help? Someone to carry my bags, help with food, be my meat shield…” she added that last part under her breath, somehow expecting Cobalt not to hear it.

“And you want that person to be me?”

“Naturally,” she replied, preparing herself to run mental gymnastics to defend her outrageous demand. “If you think about it, you’re completely indebted to me. You owe me your life, if not more, right? So, that being said, I mean, it makes perfect sense that—”

“Yeah I’ll do it,” with that quick reply, he nipped her ramblings at the bud.