Chapter 10: Unbeatable Expectation

  “Training? Was it for the purpose of my fate? So you know exactly who am I, right?”

  “…”

  “So I‘ll take that as a yes because this world is generally similar to the world in my head. Some conditions and obligations had led to this.”

  “Paul. Paul is your substituting name, your name was not Paul.”

  “?? Then who am I?”

  “I know I am not a wise person, it’s just that everything is just in the front, and everything is already set in you to let you complete the fate, the task given to you.”

  Philosophical ideas are meaning something great, I can tell the old man meant something bigger. Myself hasn’t even been understood, yet. My mind is wandering like the flash.

  “Alright, alright I want to know my real name, is it too much to ask for?”

  “It’s nothing actually, I just keep it a secret…”

  Getting to this point, it’s the same for me that I always procrastinate if I feel something that is not my version, meaning that the urges of not telling something comes from the burden of disguising as a fool or free soul(will).

  “Haizz, that’s it. Expressing like that, you have figured it out that ‘thing’, haven’t you?”

  “…”

  “We are all connected in some ways, even you and I share the same attributes that the god picked us was for a reason.”

  “Yeah, I know, I know that already.”

  “So you know what is it. Are you sure that you want to know your real name?”

  “Yeah, just say it.”

  “Your name is…”

  Taking about ten seconds, and in this ten seconds, the old man’s face was intense than ever. Was he thinking about something that could hurt me?

  “Kinter, your real name is Kinter.”

  “Oh, so my real name is Kinter. That’s it…”

  “Kinter?”

  My head was burning like hell, my vision started to get blurred. Something was shown in front of me, it was a locked cage with something dark in it.

  A figure, it looks just like me. Then, the cage was broken into million of pieces, the figure got out and reached out to me, all in one second. After that, I saw the darkness, trillion of stars shined brightly just like the universe. Universe wasn’t banned, how lucky it is because the universe is truly astonishing.

  ***

  “My highness, I’ve come to you once again.”

  “Where am I? Why did I end up here?”

  “This is in your mind, my highness. You and I are speaking through my inner world. Your hair transformed into white, looking good.”

  What is this? Where am I? I ended up in another dimension I guess? The surface is water, and the best thing about it is I don’t get wet. The sky shows trillions of stars, shining beautifully, and the water reflects the image making it nostalgic and aesthetic.

  The figure in front of me, the one who I saw earlier, talks to me like I was its owner. Did I meet it somewhere or was my memory of it get lost also?

  “What are you? From everything I’ve seen until now, it’s no surprise that the thing I am seeing is not fake.”

  “You are right…”

  The figure talked in an utterly voice, is there something that the figure cannot say to me?

  “You have something to talk to me? You call me your highness, so, I was your monarch?”

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  “Right, you are my master. Actually, I am your reflection, your instinct. Of course, you take control of me is an absolute thing. I obey you and I am loyal to you, master. I picked the right person.”

  I am its master, the powers the woman said earlier…was it related to this figure that I am talking to?

  “You…are my instinct? That sounds like an extremism. A vessel, like the [_] in my old world. Wait, are you associated with me in the old world that I am talking about?”

  “…Right master, you don’t change when you got brainwashed. Your intuition is always good.”

  At this point, I have to ask it if it knows anything about the old world.

  “Can you tell everything? What happens to my sister, and why are we ended up here? Can you tell me who brought us here.”

  If I know everything, maybe everything would get easier.

  “Sorry, I cannot tell you. If I do, you and I would end up dead. The ritual has banned me from saying those things, I was able to fix a bit to talk to you. If I cannot tell you, then, you and I would have to find it manually. Don’t worry Kinter, I’ll do everything to get you having the memories back and ultimately ensure your safety.”

  The figure seems to be very loyal to me. However, how can I unlock my powers to progress further? The talk was to meant it but without powers, the talking was just meaningless.

  “How can I unlock my powers?”

  “You have it, you’ll know when you train with that old man or you would be too easy-going later.”

  “Huh?”

  Then I woke up.

  ***

  My eyes opened, the first thing I saw is the old man standing in front of me, holding a wooden sword. The setting is in the backyard, perfect for training with swords in my opinion.

  “So you woke up. Stand up and hold the sword from your thighs.”

  “The training…so I would train how to fight first.”

  “Right, you know what to do first now.”

  Jumped at an incredible speed, the old man slashed down. I struggle parrying him, the old man is so strong when he is this old?

  He continued to give me multiple strikes, and those are very fast and heavy. I got used to it a bit and started to combine with dodging.

  After some moments of dueling, I finally gain my feeling. Next, it was just I and him fighting on the same level, no one fell behind, it only depended on whoever makes the first mistake would lose immediately.

  “I can’t believe it, so it was true.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Nothing, just me on fighting, Kinter.”

  “There is a conspiracy behind this right?”

  “It doesn’t matter! Keep on fighting!”

  “I won’t keep on until you tell me the truth.”

  I stopped playing around, my power has grown stronger and stronger every second. I gave the last horrendous strike, and the wooden sword fly away from the old man’s hand.

  “Tch.”

  “Tell me what’s all behind.”

  “Kinter, I’m sorry. I cannot tell you the truths or I’ll get erased immediately.”

  “!?”

  So the people got told by someone about my existence. No one in this city would tell me everything. Everyone talked in an utterly voice because they cannot tell me everything,

  “Someone stronger than you told you to do so?”

  “…”

  That’s it, I don’t want to get into the details. However, if they are that scary, aren’t they going to confront me? They must have a watching power, guaranteed.

  “Alright Kinter, this is the last technique I’ll use to unlock your power. After this, my job is done, you’ll never see me again.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Swordsmanship technique: Turquoise whity force!”

  Turquoise white trail appeared on the path matching where the sword was moving, the old man jumped to me without hesitation.

  At the last moment when the sharpness of the sword nearly reached my left eye, an unusual phenomena occurred.

  The blade transformed into tiny bits of dust flowing into my left eye, the old man flew through me, holding the handle. In revelation, the old man standing still laughed, his body began to shatter away.

  “That’s it, now you can protect yourself. That heterochromia is so pretty.”

  I won’t let him fade away like that, I have to do something!

  “Master, say ‘embroidered locked’.”

  The voice popped up in my head, it was something not what I thought. However, I have to do it because if it said that, meaning it knows that I am trying to save the old man.

  “Embroidered locked!”

  My right eye automatically opened up, the tick tack sound keep vibrating through my ears. The old man, in front of me, started to gain back his parts, and…a symbol of a clock implying on him?

  “What is that?”

  “Don’t worry, the old man would still live. I had freed him from the control.”

  “Cool. So it was you? Are you…the figure?”

  “Yup, my master.”

  “Good! I can communicate with you.”

  “Haha, I don’t think you are that excited, master.”

  “What’s wrong with it?”

  “Nothing actually, pardon me for making master questioning that.”

  “Haha, you’re being too insecure, it’s ok.”

  “My pleasure.”

  The crack sound attracted me, the old man standing there, facing down.

  “I was thinking that I am going to die, those things are so evil. The world they created is the world they put us into prison!”

  The world wasn’t like I was thinking, all people are under controlled by someone greater.

  Now this is the chance to know everything.

  “Can you tell me everything…”

  “Yes…let me…”

  The old man was about to tell everything, then his voice started to spread like the salt dissolving into water, everything started to disappear and all I can see is the white background covering the whole place.

  I am floating into another dimension, again. I can stand if I want.

  When I stand on the invisible surface, in front of me, there was a throne facing backward, someone was sitting.

  “Well, well, well, I guess my prediction is right again.”

  This voice, I‘ve heard before.

  “I haven’t seen you in one week and you are just a completely different person right now.”

  “You are the girl I met!”

  “…”

  “What are you?”

  “Oh wow, you just said that! Guess I’ll have another candy.”

  A candy suddenly popped up on her hand, the hoodie girl grinned. She ate the candy that she got randomly.

  “What is that? You are the probability individual?”

  “I guess I have another candy then.”

  Again, another candy popped up on her hand, her ability is that overpowered?

  “My name is Julia, the probability.”

  “So you are the probability individual! Alright then, I want to know about where is my sister.”

  A dagger popped up on her hand, blue and cursive.

  “Yup, I know, thanks for the sword, and if you want to know, you must defeat me first.”

  “What?”

  Why are those things popped up? Does she have the ability to keep the items in another dimension? It could be because she just teleported me into her realm?

  “Haha, you have no clue right?”

  “What?”

  “Come on, don’t say those predictable things like that. You just buffed me zero point two percent strength.”

  “?!”

  I made her stronger, what the heck!

  “Your power…”

  “Oh! You just said something that I haven’t thought of. I guess I would have nothing then. Well then, I was underestimating you that you wouldn’t figure out my power.”

  “Actually I don’t.”

  “Hohoho, don’t say that, I guess that right, you just fake your knowledge, everyone wouldn’t figured out that easily.”

  That’s it, I figured it out.

  “Oh no, don’t get me wrong, my power is not that all.”

  “!?”

  “You just buffed my defending potential.”

  “Damn it! What the hell!?”

  “Ahaha, I’ll explain it to you since you won’t be able to beat me anyways. My power is probability, I think of things that could be said or happened, and gave it a percentage. The chances of you saying them was one hundred percent, I can have conditions in my prediction, for example, if you say something, and I give it a fifty to fifty, meaning if you say no, I would win immediately.”

  Her power is so crazy, why would she said it out? Was that a trap to set me in? I must be careful, she might haven’t revealed all the tricks yet. One wrong speech could give her something, and if I don’t beat her, I won’t know my sister’s location. Her power is strong but what if everything she thinks of doesn’t happen? So, the strongest thing about her is not her ability, it’s about…

  Her critical thinking and the psychopath in her!

  Would I be able to beat her? This must be very difficult.

  A sword spawned on my left hand, that’s right, I also have the intuition to figure out my ability that quick. I already knew how it works, the name of it is atomic manipulation for sure. The right eye allows me to control time since what I saw what it can do to the old man led me to this conclusion.

  Both stepped up and began to jumped together, investigating other’s potential…

  * * *