Merely Existing

Chapter 16: The Maiyoru Massacre

Blacky's POV

"So, tell me already. What happened?" Beleth pestered again.

"There was a boy I loved and I killed him." I answered curtly.

He blinked. Stared. Then sighed with an exasperated look on his face.

"You know, I get the feeling that you just omitted a lot of detail because you were too lazy to speak," he grumbled.

I didn't bother to deny.

"Fine! Whatever! That was the worst prologue in the history of prologues. Just proceed on to the climax or something."

"What about chapter one?" I asked confused. Didn't he say that he hated skipping any part of a story?

"........as long as it doesn't end with one short sentence."

*** A walk down memory lane***

It had been a month Blacky travelled with her new master, Claus Cavarone. He had wasted no time in training her, with real life experience nonetheless, as if she was a rare jewel that needed to be cut and shaped to his satisfaction. And she was certainly cut and shaped most beautifully with Claus' own unique methods.

She remembered that day clearly. The day her first true training commenced.

***

"Do you know the most important asset in fighting?" Claus asked smilingly at the child he was holding by hand as he guided through his secret base. "It's your survival instinct. Strength, intelligence, agility, stamina, experience are all secondary. They can be gained through time. But that's not all, even if you had all that, you'd still be dead the moment you hesitate. That's why, a strong survival instinct, that overrules all other thoughts, is what I hold in value."

Blacky remained silent. But Claus knew she had processed his words well, so he simply continued his one-sided conversation.

"The question is, which sense is most important in drawing out one's instinct to fight?" he asked again but didn't bother to wait for the response he knew would never come, "Is it sight? Hearing? Touch? Smell? Actually, they're all quite trivial if you asked me." he continued to speak as they climbed down a long staircase into an underground chamber.

He pushed through the twin handles of a steel door, revealing a vast training room dimly lit from the light outside the door. His hands groped at the table and enclosed around a remote control which he used to turn on the lights inside.

Blacky now noticed that the room wasn't simply vast, but was separated onto many sections, each that provided various equipments.... for various purposes.

Claus observed her face for a reaction which, predictably, never came. "You won't be using any of these today, you need to master something much more basic."

With that, he walked into one of the combat section of the training room, which resembled a fighting ring. Blacky followed him and soon they were standing face to face with each other as if preparing for a mini duel.

"Remember the senses I mentioned earlier? Well, most humans rely quite heavily on them, especially sight. Now imagine a situation where you can't see the enemy, you can't hear him, can't smell him, and most certainly can't touch him....how will you fight?"

The moment the words left his mouth, he pressed down onto the remote control and all the lights went out, shrouding them in darkness. Claus made no further sound, his presence could not be sensed, not even his breathing could be heard. The situation immediately put Blacky on alert. However, she was unable to do anything else.