TBATE - The Help of a Certain Being

Cleaning Duty

Kuro

"Well. This is turning out to be an eventful day," Arthur commented, crossing his arms.

I smirked inwardly, watching the clouds pass as the sun began its journey below the horizon. "Believe me, the party's just getting started."

Golden rays of light climbed through the sky and Nico nudged me slightly, opening an eye in my direction.

"What's the plan?"

I paused to think. What was the plan? There was no way I'd be able to follow the original timeline now.

But maybe I didn't need to.

My breath fogged in the air, and a welcome chill graced the edges of my skin.

I picked my hand up, listing our options.

"Arthur plays with the dragons, obviously. Sylvie has a family reunion with grandpa, and that's them."

He glanced at me for a moment, raising a brow. "Simple, but sounds right."

"Nico. I need you on the ground. You'll have to terrorize our classmates a bit. Most importantly, keep the you-know-whats sane."

Nico smirked, turning his body to the stone ledge with a propped elbow.

"Giving me such a hard time? I'm haunting you forever if Alice kills me."

That made me snicker a bit as I went for the last answer. "And me. Seclusion, after I tie up loose ends with our partners in the west. I've a date with death after, and she is very impatient."

**

The stars glistened in the night sky, and I marveled at the beauty of it all.

"If it weren't for the fact that we're about to go to war, I'd love to spend the rest of my life looking at the sky."

I snickered at Arthur's musing, pointing a finger to the sky. "Yeah, I bet you'd like that with wifey, lover boy."

[Fireworks]

Flames gathered at my fingertip and burst up with a flash, exploding like a molten flower.

He aimed for my shoulder with a punch, which I effortlessly dodged with an impish cackle.

"Kuro has a point though," Nico added with a chuckle, his voice gaining a touch of nostalgia.

"This would be a great thing to spend with your loved ones."

Definitely couldn't argue that. I pushed myself off the ledge and wrapped my body in mana, my body resting idly in the air.

"You guys have your plans. Time to part ways."

I flashed a confident smile, pumping my fists in their direction.

"1,000 gold to the most improved."

Arthur looked for a moment, then snickered with a reciprocal movement. "What the hell kinda joke is that? Just come back alive."

Nico returned the gesture with a smirk. "I'll kill you if you die."

The air thickened with familiar pressure and I laughed amusedly. "Same goes for you brats."

My mana flared smoothly and pushed me skyward, meeting the pair already in the sky.

"All good, I reckon?" I inquired to the hooded beast, his voice wheezing from every direction as it always did.

"We are soon finished here, Kuro. All that is left..."

"Naturally we should welcome the competition~!" Akan flared dramatically, firing finger guns at me with a wink beneath his glasses.

I couldn't help eyeing Ren. "Are you sure this guy's entirely good upstairs?"

Something close to a sigh reverberated in the sky as we began our move.

"Akan is a... particular individual amongst our ranks. He is capable nonetheless."

The quip elicited a laugh from Akan, his smirk widening into a smug grin.

"Well, he's certainly a little... quirky," I concurred, leaving it there.

Our course continued over the glades at mach speed, the darkness blurring into flashes of sentience and cosmic beauty.

We made stops to several dungeons I'd missed over the years, unveiling corrupt mana beasts and miasmic caves littered with basilisk presence.

Before I knew it, the sun had risen once more, and Dicathen had been cleaned just a fraction more of Vritran scum.

"It's not everything, but it's something." I clasped my hands together, relishing the grace of golden rays on my skin.

My breath fogged in the air and I let out a satisfied sigh, glancing at Ren.

"Something tells me we didn't just do spring cleaning for no reason. What drift am I supposed to be catching here?"

"Plus 10 points~! Good question, K-man. But... Minus 10 points! That was the mission. Well, part of it~"

Akan finally lifted his glasses, eyes a mix of lightning and pearls, flashing in ways that seemed impossible.

"Close those lookers a sec and detect the mana, why don't you?"

An odd request at a time like this, but I complied.

My eyes flickered shut and my senses spread outward in that repetitive ethereal fashion.

There were always things mana could and couldn't do. I had to thank my God's Eye for letting me feel what I was feeling now.

"Ehhh..." I hummed with deep interest.

Being that we were in the Beast Glades, it was obvious that mana flooded the air like no one's business.

The smallest differences, however, made it all the more obvious.

My senses could pinpoint spots where mana lingered. Not in the same way ambient mana concentrated in certain spots.

Something more intentional sat about. Like particles of mana were being held in certain spots.

Like the dungeons we cleared.

"Well, that's something. Doesn't look random. More like..."

"An array. For this mission to succeed, we must bridge the gap between continents."

"So the plan is to use some'a them em dungeons layin' around to draw one big teleportation array for the clan~!"

Eh...

Well.

That's a plan. I guess.

**

A/N

Holy. Fuck. If you told me a year ago that it'd take me a WHOLE YEAR. To get this shit done.

I wouldn't even be surprised.

But hey, we did it, right???

I thought so too. Well, I suppose things have gotten to a point where I actually have some inspiration these days, so let's just be happy with that.

The long and short of it is I have other plans now. Something new in the works.

A new project that'll carry all the improvements I failed to give this dumpster fire of a book.

I suppose you could call it the thing A Certain Being should've been if it wasn't written by a prepubescent teenager with middle school syndrome.

To those who actually waited an entire year.

Thanks. Hope to see you soon.