Komo-Doubutsu

Chapter 17: Of Faith and Evidence

By: Midori Ushi Law

Lipagron. Lipagron.

"Ugh. What is it?"

Lipagron. Lipagron.

"Stop calling me that. You don't know what it means."

Lipagron.

"Please stop. Just tell me what you want."

Komo-Doubutsu.

"What? What is that?"

Light Beast!

Lipagron's eyes shot open, jerking the upper half of his body up and forward, gasping for air. He noticed he was covered by sheets and observed wires connected to his wrist and forearm. A beeping heart monitor was fixed above the headboard of his bed.

"So, you finally woke up," said an elderly man with silver, curly hair and wide, pearl-like eyes leaning against the wall across from where Lipagron was facing. "Must have been one heck of a nightmare. Understandable considering what you just went through."

The teenager immediately recognized the man's voice as one of the shadowed figures from the Preliminary Trials. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked down at his hands. "It wasn't a nightmare. It was a conflict."

The old man raised an eyebrow in confusion asking, "A conflict? What kind of conflict?"

"I don't know," the boy responded. "It had something to do with an old king trying to not be replaced by a new, younger candidate. His hatred was so intense. It was like I was on fire."

The man stood straight and walked towards the bed. "Do you know who I am?"

"I recognize your voice from earlier, but I don't know who you are."

"You're correct, I was one of the testers of the Preliminary Trials. Your words got to me. I am the reason why you're here."

Lipagron looked up into the man's eyes. "So, when I fell unconscious, you forced them to fail me and put me here. I heard you talking about that with the others."

The elder quickly held out his hands. "No! No! You passed! My colleagues thought you were dead, but I still saw life in you!" He quickly reached into the pocket of his suit jacket, retrieving a ticket and handing it to the teenager. "See? This is your entrance pass. Congratulations."

The edges of the boy's lips crinkled into a pitiful smile as he held in his hands the first sign of physical proof that everything he'd been telling people was true. Nobody could deny he passed the Preliminaries with the powers of the Light Beast now. Still, why was the strange man helping him?

"I brought you here for two reasons," Illuminus continued, "to have you healed in time to participate in the Great Quest, and to offer you training."

Lipagron looked back up at the man. "I truly appreciate your believing in me, but I don't have time for training. I'm being called to go somewhere."

"Really?" the world leader asked in a low tone.

The teenager stood from the hospital bed with his pants and a robe on. The wounds previously made to his upper body were already visibly healed. He reached for what's left of his shirt folded neatly on a nightstand. "Yeah. I need to go back to where it all began. If my parents have been contacted, tell them I'm participating in the Great Quest and I'll return home after I complete it."

"Lipagron," the old man barked. "You won't survive the Great Quest without a little knowledge about what you're up against. You don't need to be-"