A Match Into Water

Ornery, Scandalous, Evil

Li Ling

"Raven!" Li Ling ran to his elder's side. Raven gave him an affirming nod and pointed to the miracle.

"You know your job," she said. "Your job is the most important, but it's also dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah," he gave a thumbs up, "but Gaius will be right behind me the whole time."

"Yes, but still-"

"Mama bird!" Ling sighed the nickname dramatically through his lips. "Don't you fear! I'll be right there with Gaius, plus Lewis and Xuan will be behind us if they need to step in."

Raven rubbed her temples, but she still looked genuinely nervous. Ling knew this; he knew everyone would be stressed out—after all, he was one of the few Espers who could complete the important task, as he was one of the only Espers with multiple arms in the Union.

"Please," Raven suddenly said, "don't get cocky, don't get in over your head."

Ling waved his hand, a gesture that was supposed to calm her, but she said one last thing.

"There are people who care about you. Don't die, that's an order."

***

The heart of the miracle was like nothing Ling had ever seen before. No diagram or artistic rendition could ever prepare him for the actual thing.

Silence engulfed everything, Angular rocks seemed to float, all being pulled to the center gently and slowly. Soft buzzing came from l the light at the very center. This light was supposed to be the very thing that gave life to miramon, or something like that. Ling never did understand the nitty-gritty of miracles.

"Remember," Gaius called. "I'm here if anything goes wrong."

"I've got this!" Ling boldly proclaimed, cracking his knuckles. Gaius have an affirming humph, indicating to Ling that he was ready if something went wrong.

The six armed man walked forward, towards the the light, the ever so strange and bright light.

See, his job was simple: take the core away from the miracle.

After years of work, testing, and probably a bunch of tears, it was determined that taking away the core would stop the flow of miramon.

Unfortunately, multiple hands were theorized to be needed to take the core out, due to some science shit that Ling didn't bother to learn. All he knew was that he had to pull out the core and bam! Miramon (mostly) gone.

"Ouch," he hissed as he stubbed his toe on a rock. Kicking it aside, multiple tiny miramon bugs crawled out.

"Gaius," Ling yelled half heartedly, "bugs coming your way!"

He heard a chuckle from Gaius, and he felt a sort of pride in knowing he could make someone smile in such a stressful moment.

Finally, he made it to the light. Its sheer power felt like strong hands cupping his cheeks, the power only rivaled by the brightness of itself. He could see the core, being a long, white object with four handprints on it.

'Wow,' he thought to himself in amusement, 'even has a place for my big old hands, eh?'

He took a deep breath before reaching his hands into the light. The core in the middle felt like clay, its carvings scratching his hands. Ling smiled a little as he pulled the core away.

"AUGH!"

He held tightly to the core as one of the bug miramon attached itself to his face, its many legs digging into his skin. It hurt like shit! His remaining two hands battled the bug, shaking his face around.