Lee: I'm going

  I hesitated for a while, but gave my response to Salazar.

  Salazar: Should I presume you're getting Nicholai as well?

  Lee: Yeah, I'll try to get her to come with me.

  "S-Salazar? You're back already?" I nearly jumped out of bed as Salazar strutted into the tent, diverting every CSF unit's attention to him. Guess this is my chance. I summoned Crescent and opened a portal on the floor, quickly rolling out of bed and through it.

  "I thi-OH GOD!" I hit the cold floor and heard Nicholai's surprise to my left. Wobbly, I stood, using my sword as a crutch. Kenneth was still bloodied, unconscious, and barely breathing.

  "Nicholai..." I leaned on the hilt. "Salazar, one of Kyle's guys, told me about these people who can teach us."

  "Hu-wha? What're you on about?"

  "That bastard...that other me who did this. We can learn to go against him." Nicholai looked back at her brother, internally debating with herself and my words. "Or at least...prevent this."

  "Why are you offering to go with you?" Nicholai's question seemed pointless; we both knew why, and the fact that we were both looking at Kenneth showed that well.

  "Sam is in the same position...even if it isn't my Sam...it's still this Lee's and yours." Nicholai faced me once again.

  "Someone was telling me about that, the whole time thing...Guess that explains why you act differently...why you look different too...You died to him once already if they're right."

  "Yeah, what he said during that whole encounter is pretty hazy too, I know he had some reason to do this though." I finally stood on my own after some time. "Nicholai, I know you wanted to only support, but eventually I have to go back to my time, and someone has to hold the ground in this timeline when I go." Nicholai turned her head to nothing and a long pause ensued.

  "Yeah, goddamnit whatever. If I come back and I see Kenneth dead, so help me god I'm sending that Lee to the depths of hell and tear him limb from limb."

  "Good, won't hear me complaining..." Almost like we called him, Salazar(Thankfully not the Lee), came through a portal.

  "You two can go, I told them in advance of your arrival, treat them with respect, and the same shall be extended to you." Salazar stepped to the side and moved away from the portal, looking in, it seemed like it was a 1:1 replica of the photo.

  "Kenneth" I turned back around to see Nicholai holding the hand of her brother. "That fucker is going to hell, count on it." She let go and belined to the portal, stepping in without further discussion.

  "Salazar, ca-"

  "I will look after both of your wounded comrades, should they come to pass...you shall be informed as soon as possible, but do not let it be the end of your drive if it comes to pass." I nodded to inform him that I acknowledged his words.

  "I'll become enough to face the world if it comes to it." I went towards the portal to follow quickly behind Nicholai, but during my passing, I could see some reflection of sorrow on Salazar's face, seemingly triggered by my words.

  "Fresh air, first time in a while that we're somewhere that isn't a battlefield or ruins, isn't it?" It was the first words from Nicholai that I heard when entering the portal, I couldn't see or tell how she was feeling at the moment, only that she was holding something small in her hand.

  "Can't say."

  "Right, blurry memory, of course." She put the item away and focused back on the village in the city.

  "It seems our guests have arrived." Both of us looked around for the source of the noise, but it couldn't be found. It wasn't until a figure descended from the sky and landed in front of us. "Salazar had told us you would be here momentarily, you did exactly as such." It was, in fact, an owl-like being that stood on two legs, wings folded behind it, but it seemed to somehow be active anyways. "Apologies for the sudden appearance, I was with some of the village's younglings so I could not be here to greet you." They adjusted the end of their sleeve, as they wore some sophisticated suit.

  "Seems like you're still doing that." Nicholai didn't bother speaking in a hushed voice.

  "Of course! I can't have you two wondering around without direction." They dusted themself off and approached, extending their hand to us when they got close. "You may call me Naph, I am the co-chief of this village." We both took a turn to shake their hand, their talons didn't seem to be sharp all things considered. "Now, correct me if I am mistaken, but Salazar said you are here to learn more than what that pesky Raymond is willing to do."

  "You'd be right." Nicholai answered for me, I wanted to mention why, that it was because I wanted someone dead or at least handled, but it could cause hell to appear here too if I had.

  "I see." Naph looked at the two of us, primarily at our weapons. "I have a great trainer for each of you!" They seemed content with themselves. "Miss Broker, if you would please follow, apologies in advance but our scythe unit likes to take trips." Nicholai seemed annoyed and didn't want to move.

  "Don't that sound sketchy as hell." She gritted her teeth, but Naph seemed completely understanding.

  "Well, you may stay here with Lee if you wish, I had only thought you would want to be as quick as possible." Naph, despite calling themselves a co-chief, stood like they were a butler. "However, I must suggest that you two train with your trainer 1 on 1, people must learn how to fight alone before team fighting is taken into account."

  "I'd still like to make sure Nicholai is nearby." I gave my sense in the matter. "Two of our friends are...and if it comes to hearing any bad news, we should make sure we're nearby one another to hear and handle it."

  "Of course, apologies for my rudeness, we can have you two in our training centers, in different rooms, but nearby each other." Naph adjusted the other sleeve. "The building is just over there, if you want I can walk with you, but either way I have to go retrieve your trainers."

  "We'll make it on our own, I need to chat with Lee anyway." Nicholai looked over to me, I was sure she recalled what PTS was, but for some reason or another, she wanted to say it aloud.

  "Of course, I will return post-haste." Unfurling their wings, they soared back into the sky and went off into the woods.

  "Something to tell me?" I was beyond curious, Nicholai in this world seemed more talkative towards this Lee.

  "I get you're not the same Lee, that I understand, I wanted to know the differences about the zombie outbreak." It caught me by surprise, I had thought it would be about all the other Lee stuff.

  "W-why's that?"

  "The outbreak for us seemed like a nightmare, it made our Lee become hardened and experienced when it came to fighting other people...No offence towards you, but you seem more...immature"

  "Well it was bad for us too, but we all participated in our survival, so none of us really had to be cruel...we also met these two kids...poor guys, we were taking care of em and we just randomly vanished." Nicholai snapped her fingers.

  "That's one difference, it was just us."

  "Never met the tw-"

  "No, I mean just us" she pointed at herself and me repeatedly. "Kenneth and Sam were there for a bit yeah, but...some bastards ended up killing them without remorse."

  "Guess that's why you're more willing to talk with me than with my Nicholai, at least except for you calling me a walking corpse." She looked to the side, seemingly ashamed of the outburst.

  "What was your Nicholai like?" I stopped for a moment and gave it some thought.

  "Hm...she's way more focused on her studies and being a doctor...no actually...how she was when we got revived, I can't say"

  "I'm going to assume someone masqueraded as your Nicholai." I nodded.

  "At least I think so, what she was like during the outbreak, though. "I gave it further thought. "She was studious, a bit cruel with remarks but not such an ass that you would wanna fight her, only reason she stuck around us during school was because she wanted to make sure we didn't get her brother in harm's way." She waited for a bit.

  "That's it?"

  "Like I said, she was only with us because we were friends with her brother, I didn't get many chances to get to know her."

  "Guess so." Without any other word, she started walking towards the building Naph pointed towards, only speaking when I started walking with her. "Do Kenneth and Sam die as well?"

  "Actually, you and Kenneth die before me and Sam, we got killed by this guy in a gas-mask."

  "You too huh? God It's such bullshit, can't there be a world where an enemy is an ally?" Nicholai went to push the door to the building open but nearly broke through it instead. "The hell?"

  "It's a sliding door I guess?"

  "With a door handle?"

  "Different styles, I guess." I pretty much repeated myself while Nicholai rolled her eyes and opened the door as it should be opened, revealing a near empty room, only thing that was in it was a TV on the side wall and I suppose the padding that was in the floor.

  "Good evening young ones" Alerting us to their presence, a seemingly older fellow was sitting in the very dark corner of the room to the left of where we came in from.

  "Any reason you're hiding in the corner?" Nicholai was most likely preventing herself from telling the guy off for startling the two of us, settling for just crossing her arms instead.

  "To see if you would check your corners...however I realize that your species has no natural night vision so it would be terrible to judge you two for that." The old fellow walked over on a cane, and when close inspected me and Nicholai. "What is with that hair!? It's a hazard in combat!" They weren't only talking to Nicholai, but me as well, it seemed I hadn't realized how much it had grown during the outbreak.

  "I shouldn't even be in combat, I'm a doctor." Nicholai began to contest against the fellow, I was going to be here for a minute.

  "I would love to hear your patient when they have hair inside of their organs."

  "Obviously it goes up when I tend to people! And I'm not a surgeon!" The older fellow began waving their hand back and forth in a dismissive manner.

  "No no, In your situation!? You best consider yourself a surgeon, blades, bullets, all shards of metal piercing into your body." Nicholai went to say something but was interrupted by two others walking in from another room, both speaking another language with the only understandable word being 'papa' which was directed at the older fellow. "Jah! You all are too serious, do your tests already, I need to go get my tea, I can hear the pot hissing from here." The fellow walked away into the room the two came from.

  "Well, Nicholai and Lee correct?" The one on the left and the current speaker was covered in scars and wielded their sword at their hip, they also wore some sort of face mask. The one on the right had a great axe on a strap which wrapped over their shoulder.

  "Yeah...that's us." For a reason I can't recall, I shifted a bit, perhaps because this was an unfamiliar area with little allies around, sort of like when I first got brought back and I wasn't aware the others were alive.

  "Okay, before we begin, your Likoni asked us to conduct something first." Nicholai and I must've looked majorly confused because the swordsman started fluttering their wings while waving their hands around.

  "Friend, your friend." The Great axe wielder translated for them.

  "Yes, that"

  "Salazar wanted to test us first?" Nicholai uncrossed her arms while asking her question.

  "No, the other one, Loui if I recall correctly." It's been a while since I've seen him.

  "He knows we're here?" I had stopped shifting, both Salazar and Loui know we're here, I wasn't saying I didn't trust anyone here, but I'm not saying I did trust anyone here, Raymond and his CSF goons were sketchy beyond belief, but now that Loui and Salazar seemingly vouched for the people here, I could breath easier.

  "Yes, it seems he was going to visit Lee before he got here." Once again, it was the swordsman speaking.

  "Real quick, is the one with the battle axe acting as your interpreter?" Nicholai said what I was thinking, we didn't get an instant answer, but it was at least a direct one.

  "Yes, similar to you all our kind have a way to speak telepathically, in the case I am...struggling, with certain words."

  "Yeah that's understandable" Nicholai nodded to the answer.

  "Returning back, we'll be conducting the..." They quickly looked to Nicholai who had said the word earlier.

  "Te-

  "Test, yes, I suggest being separated, that way your responses to questions will be unfiltered." They held their arm to their side. "One in this room, one in the other, Salazar and Loui will be here shortly as well." Nicholai looked over to me.

  "Guess I'll take the other room, see if I can't continue that discussion with the ol'guy" Without further debate Nicholai walked off.

  "Welp" The one with the battle axe threw their hands up. "We'll be seeing ourselves out" Their voice was a tad deeper, the standard tough guy voice. "You younglings take care, we'll come back when you're good." Like they said, they saw themselves out.

  With nothing left to do, I sat on the floor. Kenneth sat some weird way during archery club on a similar mat...how was it again? It was probably just crossing his legs honestly. I took out Crescent and looked down at them...it...Crescent was sentient and it was still hard to decide what to refer to them as. I could ask, but maybe they wouldn't even know what it means.

  "How ye doing kiddo?" A hand was suddenly placed on my shoulder, causing me to jump momentarily.

  "Dunno, I'm wondering about this test you and Salazar are doing." Loui crouched down and sat in front of me, holding a tablet. "Especially considering you two are practically on opposite sides."

  "Don't worry about that for now, overall how do you think you're doing?"

  "Fine for now I think, why?" Loui pressed something on the tablet with their thumb.

  "What about your peers? Sam, Kenneth, Nicholai? What would you say your relations are with them?" Something began to tick in my head, this test was completely unrelated.

  "W-what is this exactly? Are you asking this to Nicholai to?"

  "No" Loui's answer completely caught me off guard. "This is only for you."

  "Why!?!?"

  "Something felt off about you, so I looked into it, you're a different Lee, that wasn't the main issue though, I mean, it's happened before, my issue is." He looked away from his tablet and right at me, right into my eyes. "You, flat out you."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "What is that meant to mean?"

  "I looked into the world you came from, the way you've been reacting towards some things is heavily concerning, I guess the easiest way I can phrase it, is that yer way too...calm?" Crescent slowly left my hands and set themselves beside me. "When you got brought back, when things were explained to you, you being perfectly fine a day or two after killing someone...granted, the way you reacted when it occurred was perfectly fine, it was a normal reaction."

  "What's the implication here?"

  "I don't think yer the kind to repress things, you backtalk Nicholai at times, you question and argue certain things." Loui crossed his legs. "What I'm questioning, is why it is being repressed cuz frankly pal, I doubt your mental fortitude is strong enough for all of this. So, back to this" He held up the tablet, waiting for my answer.

  "I guess."

  "I'll repeat the question, what's your relation to each of your friends? We can start with Kyle and go from there."

  "Kyle...I guess he's sort of a rival, not an enemy kind, more of a friendly rival...if you ignore the first time we interacted being him punching me square across the face." I thought about Kayla next. "Kayla...I don't really know, we don't talk that often and she's not exactly buddies with her brother like Kenneth and Nicholai so Kyle doesn't tell me much. I suppose we're comrades at the very minimum and common friends at maximum."

  "Before we get to Bravo Team can you recall anyone else?"

  "I guess a few classmates, I wouldn't really say they're mentionable though, they were the buds you talk to because they were there in school."

  "That's fair, then we move onto yer main fellows, Nicholai, Kenneth, and Sam in that order." Loui seemed to do something on his tablet when we moved onto my three main friends.

  "Nicholai...I can't tell if we're friends or we're around another purely because of her brother. We've banded together at times when someone bullied Sam or Kenneth and were unstoppable as a duo, but then there are other times when putting us in a room is going to end up causing problems."

  "Do you want to be her friend?" That question made me pause. I never really thought of that...at all actually. Nicholai was always sort of there.

  "Part of me says yes, other part says no, we disagree constantly, argue, especially during the outbreak...Then the part that says yes knows that she at least cares about the three of us enough to get into fights for our sake, that she spent days looking for us when the outbreak first happened...I want to know more about her, prove that despite her disagreements with me and Sam that constantly occur that we do in fact care."

  "Makes sense, from what I've seen she's certainly something, though what I know about Nicholai is different, especially since we're from different worlds, so your Nicholai is especially different...onto Kenneth."

  "A pretty good pal, I haven't spent much time with him when we became DTs but when we were humans I would come by every now and again during his club activities...I actually can sorta shoot a bow thanks to him, know a little about tech too because they would need help in robotics...mainly because there was a minimum member count needed to participate in tournaments...but you know, I still had to know something for when they ask me about the robot."

  "He is always working on something isn't he? That might be his way to go back to normalcy." I looked at him with a face curious enough to prompt a response. "You get resurrected and told yer not exactly human anymore, ya got magic, there's a never-ending war going on, so on and so forth, someone needs a way to go back to normal, all your friends have some way...except you again...Onto Sam."

  "Sam...is the only reason I'm still breathing, she found me when I was on my own, that young curiosity actually helped her realize she had never seen me before in school, her mom was going to say I was homeschool, until she realized I was on my own."

  "Why do you say she found ya? You weren't exactly hidden from what I understand."

  "She was the only one who noticed, a skinny kid walking on their own, shambling like a corpse, even a toddler can see something was wrong, it's just the fact I hid it well enough to slide pass, just not past her." Loui wasn't doing anything on his tablet, only listening. "Taught me my first hobby that wasn't stealing."

  "Gardening?" I nodded. "I still find it odd that this occurred when you were so young."

  "I started thinking that too, that maybe I rewinded too far one time and forgot because I was reduced to a young age, that doesn't change what occurred though."

  "Course it doesn't, I suppose the endless trust you have in her is because she saved you."

  "Pretty much, people can tease me or make fun of me endlessly, I don't care, I owe her a lot and I promised her parents I'd look after her, so thinking about..." I hadn't forgotten the condition Sam was in at the moment, my Sam or not.

  "So back to the original question..."

  "My partner in crime, where I go she follows, where she goes I follow. Since I lived with her family we were inseparable, I never really considered myself a member of the family though, her brothers and sister acted differently than how I did, I was more a long term guest."

  "Ight, one more thing and then we'll put a pin in it for now. If you had to describe your bonds with each of the BT members in one word what would it be? Once again, going from Nicholai to Sam."

  "Misunderstood, Buddies, and Unyielding" Loui then stood up, seeming content.

  "That'll do for now Kiddo, I wanted to run a more traditional psych evaluation on you, buuuuut, wouldn't really be all that fair considering certain circumstances. Hopefully, you're either around for longer, or ya actual Loui looks after you." He then pressed two fingers against his lips and whistled, calling over Salazar to go. "Good luck you two." Jokingly he bowed before taking off with Salazar. It wasn't long until the others came back in, including Nicholai.

  "What was that all about?" Nicholai seemed both irritated and confused, more on the confused side though from what I could tell. "You also hear a bunch of jibberish from them?" I only shrugged, in full honesty I hadn't really understood the sudden evaluation, but assuming she didn't get one, it was likely more confusing for her.

  "What did you hear from Salazar?" Nicholai closed upon my question being asked, recounting what was talked about.

  "Frankly the old fellow never shut up about tying my hair up, you even got mentioned a few times to do the same."

  "It's not that long is it?" I ran my hands through my hair, it just reached the back of my neck. "I guess I could borrow a hair tie from Sam, at least get it all together...Though why are you against cutting or tying yours?"

  "Have you seen me with short or tied hair? This shit is nearly hitting my legs." All three of the residents here were just waiting for us to finish talking with one another.

  "Can't say I do remember you with short or tied hair...actually yeah damn you had long hair as a kid."

  "Well let's keep it that way, you all got used to finding me because the bright ass blonde hair anyways, it'd be harder to find if it was shorter."

  "Nicholai's beacon hair." I joked around, Nicholai seemed to enjoy it too, probably because she pretty much made the joke herself first.

  "Man you know this length is considered medium length by some goddamn elitists?"

  "There's...hair elitists?" Nicholai aggressively nodded.

  "There's elitists everywh-

  "Ahhem" The one with the great axe cut into the conversation. "I...um...do not exactly understand the context of the ongoing conversation, however I must remind you two what you are here for." Nicholai and I both refocused back onto the task at hand. "Lee and our swordsman here will take the left half of the room, Nicholai and I shall take the right."

  "What about the old gu-" Without warning the old fellow's cane wacked Nicholai in the leg. "Ay!? The hell is wrong with you?" She turned around to face the guy, holding onto her leg in pain. The fellow didn't respond, instead walking over and sitting against a wall where he could watch both sides of the room easily...aka the middle of the room. Nicholai, from what I could assume, swore in her native tongue and as usual her Russian speaking sounded violent as ever. Huh...I never thought about it until that whole evaluation, but everyone I know comes from many different places...Weird how we all met in one spot...

  "May we proceed with our main purpose now?" We both looked back to them, they wielded their weapons, waiting.

  "Yeah! We're good to go." I confirmed with them, and with that me and Nicholai went to our sides of the room.

  "Firstly young one" The swordsman held out their blade towards me, wielding it with only a single hand while the other remained behind their back. "You will be confl-...sparring often in the world of sword fighting, so one should ensure they know how to enact combat." I held my hand out, signaling for Cresent to return to me without warping to my hand, which it promptly did.

  I slowly pressed Crescent against the other blade, then he initiated the lesson by gently but firmly hitting the side of Crescent with their blade.

  "We shall rid the idea of standard sword combat for now, Loui has made me aware that you have standard knowledge, so allow us to engage in training your enhancements." They sheathed their sword but quickly drew it back out, only now it was engulfed in fire. "A Liko-..." They started to look extremely annoyed with themselves. "A friend had given me abilities that are similar to yours, so this should resume smoothly. I think I've done that flame thing before, but frankly, with all my memories still not intact it's better learning from the very start. "The sheathing is unneeded, but can catch some by surprise, we shall start unsheathed."

  "Got it" I stood straighter, loosening my grip on Crescent slightly to focus more on magic.

  "Feel that burn in your soul, inflict it onto your weapon so you may protect that flame." I took a deep breath and placed both of my hands firm on Crescent's handle. Sam and Kenneth are in that state because I've faltered twice now, their flames are what allow us to move onward, and as their leader it is my job to protect that flame. It felt like I had grown a third arm, one that grabbed into the depths of my body to pull out the fire within, to inflict it onto Crescent. "There, a small flame, but one still!" I looked down at Crescent, the flame was thinly around the blade. Maybe my mind isn't at its A-game, if our stu- Cutting off my thoughts a brick was thrown at me and hit me directly in the arm.

  "Hey! What's your deal!?" I held my arm, it was partially cut open but not bleeding.

  "Thoughts are fine to have in the midst of combat, but you are delved far deep into them, the power you DTs have are reflected from one's inner self."

  "Emotions, youngling!" The old fellow spoke from where he was sitting.

  "Yes, as our Papa says, as long as you remain yourself, use horrible emotions as power." It was difficult to take the advice at face value, but I understood after some time. So long as I don't go over the edge, I should use negative emotions as well to fuel my magic. Some may have found me overkill for going beyond my promises, I had only vowed to Sam's parents that I would look after Sam, but it was my job as their leader to take care of everyone, but not just Bravo Team, Kyle, Kayla, and the others too, and If I couldn't get my emotions to trigger when needed I'd fail to fight back. Their survival rests on everyone, including me, I have to burn, as bright a I possibly can! My hands grew hot as I looked towards Crescent again, the flames having grown, but still not as much as I had seen from those other Lees.

  "Do not pity yourself, you have only just begun and have naught to fuel it."

  "I guess." The swordsman then turned 90 degrees left, facing the room they had come from.

  "Now, send that flame forward." They swung their flamming sword in a full line in front of them in a single fluid movement, it sent a straight line of fire to hit the wall, however it fluttered out before it did damage. "This house will prevent any damage to itself, so give it your all, any line, any way, so long as it is a full swing." I stepped back and faced the wall. "But do not swing wildly, or your flame will lose control." I took a breath and pulled my arm back, and swung in as straight as a line as I could from up to down. Like the swordsman described, a vertical line of fire manifested and fluttered out when it neared the wall. "You learn fast...have you done this before?"

  "Frankly...I couldn't say, it feels like I've done a lot of things already, but without the memory of how to do it." They nodded at my answer, likely in their head on if I had either talent, or forgotten skill.

  "Let us move onward then, restrengthen your flame and ready yourself." I did as he said and looked back at him. "Channel your fire, either within you or on your blade." A ball of fire appeared in their hand, I assumed it would be a basic fireball, but instead, they jumped forward and lobbed the fireball slightly in front of them, using it as a platform to hop on and continue leaping forward even further. "It is not restrained to only this, face me." I followed their lead, they walked back to their original position and readied themself. "You'd best guard." I raised Crescent up, ready to guard whatever was thrown at me. "Though it will do no good." I was confused, but they soon showed what they meant. They stabbed their sword into the ground, and unlike me who has to shoot, their sword immediatly launched them up and towards me, I raised my sword up to guard an arial attack, but they lobbed a small orb of fire behind them, summoning the platform to launch off of and change their trajectory, slashing into my side when my guard was too far.

  "Kgh! Was going through with it...fully needed!?"

  "Your ammo count is limited. It would be best to learn this as well, though for once, this is on a cooldown." I looked down at my wound when they finished speaking, only to find it fully healed. "Prepare yourself, and mimic what I've done." We returned to our standard positions. "This will not be as easy." I leapt foward, trying to do the basic version before getting fancy with it, but as I lobbed the ball to the ground, it instead tinged the floor.

  "What? Is there something else to it?" I looked back at the swordsman.

  "It comes naturally, the way your arm must swing is in a very confined limit." I went back and tried again, swinging faster this time, but it nearly exploded the ball instead, only being stopped by the old fellow tapping their cane on the floor. "I find it odd this is where you begin to fail."

  "No no, just falter, I have yet to fail anything!" I went back and tried again, now slower, but it failed again. I went to go return to my spot to try again, but my sheath was grabbed instead to halt me.

  "You are getting far too hasty, remain still in mind." I look down and let out a sigh, looking over to Nicholai soon after. Her training seemed more focused on fighting with her scythe instead of magic.

  "Alright, I understand."

  "Here you impatient boy!" The old fellow walked over with a cup. "I may call it tea like you youngings do, but it is more calming." I cupped the...cup...with my hand and gently sipped the contents, the heat would normally burn my mouth, but I assume my fire magic made it much more bearable.

  "Thank you." Despite the heat, it produced a calming effect, and my mind felt clearer and without doubt. When I finished drinking it, I gently handed it back to the old fellow.

  "Let's try something else, one trick you may be familiar with already." The swordsman walked towards me, stopping only when they were a foot or two away. "I am no DT so I cannot perfectly teach you, but I am aware you've seen some people warp to their weaponry." I nodded as response. "It is more simple than it appears" They held my hand that wielded Crescent and aimed it across the room. "You've seen other DTs warp before, so you should know the first step."

  "Yeah, I get the gist of the first step." I took one step back and planted my foot, throwing Crescent as far as I could towards the other side of the room until it implanted itself into the wall.

  "Now there are two ways of completing this. First, is to imagine yourself at the location of where you threw, not in any old place, but where your weapon is to an exact point."

  "So I can't generalize it?" They shook their head.

  "You cannot be anything but perfect with it, meaning you may have to think of multiple nearby spots the weapon is." I have to think it down to the atom!? "Which is why it's best to learn in a safe home like this. Now clear your mind and think of where your blade is." My vision started to become enclosed until only Crescent remained, in the wall, just below the middle lining. I thought of what part of the wall it was on, but that wasn't specific enough, there are other parts of the wall that are just below the middle. Actually...there would be a hole in the wall now right? Which means if I just think about that! Just below the middle line, on the left side of the wall, right where the hole that was just made. That is the best way I could describe how I was thinking about the location, but when that didn't work I got more specific, there was a faint pattern on the wall, like a zig-zag, and the new hole was when it was zagging. "Now" I almost fell over when they spoke from how sudden it happened. "Imagine yourself in that space near it, where the structure of your body will be once you arrive there." I would be standing just beside Crescent, my left hand on the hilt while the other arm was against the wall ready to push off of it just in case...yeah, that would be good! I took one breath and put it all together, closing my eyes and letting the breath leave my lungs.

  "Ahhahaha! This is why this room was made so simply! Look how simple that was!" I opened my eyes and saw the wall right in my face, my hand wasn't on Crescent, and I was farther than I would have liked to be...actually pretty far from where I was meant to be, I was nearly on Nicholai's half.

  "Wait...but I didn't warp to my weapon."

  "As I said Lee" The swordsman walked over and took Crescent out of the wall. "There are two ways, that way was warping, not warping to your weapon, but warping without using a portal. Unlike Portals, warping to any location requires you to be close as possible, if the location is too common you may end up there instead, look as such." They extended their arm, pointing to my side. Upon looking I noticed a small hole in the wall. "I can guess you tried thinking about the hole your sword would have made, but you never took into account if any other ones existed, nor did you think about how close to it you would have wanted to be."

  "But I imagined myself holding Crescent!" I walked over and took my sword back, looking up at the swordsman.

  "You can summon Crescent to you at anytime, you seeing yourself holding it means nothing when it is a part of you." They wandered over in front of the old fellow and sat down on their legs, grasping a cup of the drink I had moments ago. "Now for the one you had expected, the simpler version, the one leading you to Crescent, firstly do as you did before." Listening to them, I threw Crescent at a different wall. "Now somewhat similar to warping, you must imagine yourself where you want to be, however this variation is far simpler, as you must be making contact with Crescent when you appear beside or on it."

  "So as long as I envision myself grabbing onto Crescent I can warp to it?"

  "Not only that" The old fellow spoke up. "You have ta act like it's calling you! Not you calling it!"

  "Alright, I think I can manage that." I'd end up inside the wall if I went to the right of it...so I should be on the left! My left hand will be what's connecting to it and when I get there I'll tear it from the wall...Now, Crescent calling me... It was hard to imagine what that was like, I had seen it move sure, and it seemed to have some personality, thinking about that eventually helped it click. You'd want to stand up against CL too right? So we'll handle it as one like always! It was cheesy, but I had seen myself begin shifting forward until half a second passed and I was exactly where I wanted to be, so going through with what I wanted, I pulled my left hand forward and pulled it from the wall. "Yeah! This version is definitely easier."

  "Then it likes you" I perked up when the old fellow spoke.

  "What do you mean?" The two snickered amongst themselves for a moment before continuing.

  "Well it would never truly call you to it if it hated you, would it?" I looked down at Crescent.

  "That true? You intend to stick it through with me?" Crescent pulled up and down, confirming my thoughts the best it could. "I see, that's good to know." I resheated Crescent back to their home on my back.

  "You know youngin, the thing could stick to your back if you wanted with that uniform" The old fellow gazed at my outfit, intruiged my something.

  "How?" I began feeling my back for what they could be referring to, but nothing came up.

  "Sorry son, but that I don't know, I've just seen others do it." They shrugged it off, part of me questioned why they even brought it up in the first place.

  "Suppose I'll figure it out In time." I looked over to Nicholai, her breathing was heavy and they seemed to be calling it a quits for now.

  "Let's call it here as well." The swordsman took another sip of their drink. "We've appointed a room for each of you so you may continue training when dawn hits." They tilted their head to the room to our right.

  "Agreed, you youngins surely tried your best." Both Nicholai and I nodded towards the old fellow before heading into the other room, which actually led down a hall of doors, it seemed the two open doors were intended for either Nicholai or me, so it probably didn't matter who got what.

  "Sam woulda loved this place." With training not being my main focus I began looking at the walls and decor.

  "Why because this feels like some traditional Japanese building or something?"

  "First of all, that's generalizing."

  "The fuck it is!!" Luckily enough for me it seemed she realized I was joking mid-way, if she hadn't these poor walls might have been erased from this very world and replaced with my corpse.

  "Honestly though, she would, look at the window, the way the sun...or whatever they call it here, is coming through." At the end of the hall was a window as I said, light shown from the top of it with a gorgeous orange hue, even the long hall itself would be a good photo, but that view made it better. Sam's photo eye is bleeding into me...

  "I suppose...Welp, have a good nap." Nicholai walked past me and took a room, closing the sliding door behind her. Guess I better get to calling it here for now. With that I took the remaining room, there wasn't much other than a mat on the ground, so I set Crescent against the wall and laid down.

  "I don't know why I never bothered to check the time here, guess I know it gets dark fast here." I turned to my side, looking at Crescent. I wonder if you're thinking of stuff too...I doubt I was your first ever owner, you must miss whoever you belonged to, or maybe you're wondering how to help me since you're willing to stick by my side. I let out a breath and closed my eyes, I would get more chances in the future to learn. I guess I could always have a pen attached on Crescent and have them write...hang on...Why am I only thinking of this now!?!?