Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Some training, and dealing with some bandits. Classic~.

The next day had come quickly to me, far too quickly if I was being honest. I had enjoyed the simple pleasure of just resting in my sister's embrace that I honestly could have just stayed like that for days. But instead of that comfort, we are out here in the wild heading towards where Roman said there was a high likelihood of bandits being. 

 

‘I really don’t want to do this, but I know my sister has the right of it. If I don’t get control of my ability to sense emotions, it’ll continue to overpower me. Until eventually, something horrible will happen.’

 

I was broken out of my inner turmoil by the soft sound of my sister's giggle going off in my head. Turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow, and softly bumping our shoulders together she looked at me with a sly grin.

 

Neo: ‘Oh, sorry, Sis. Didn’t mean to let you hear that. But, it’s honestly kind of funny. It seems Roman’s little heist was put off for a few days because of some reason or another. Anyway, the point is he had done it last night.

 

But it was interrupted and pretty much stopped by a young teen~!’

 

Neopolitan: ‘Oh?’

 

Neo: ‘Yea. Someone he’s calling “Red” because she had a large red cloak and her weapon, a damn scythe of all things, was also red. Even her Semblance, which is speed based, is red. Just, all the red!’

 

Neopolitan: ‘That’s a lot of red. Did he find out her name?’

 

Neo: ‘That’s the part I am laughing at. Her name is “Ruby Rose~!”’

 

I snickered at that, and I joined my sister in having a sly smile.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Okay, that’s great. So, she was able to stop him then? Impressive.’

 

Neo: ‘Yeah. He had to be bailed out by Cinder.’

 

Suddenly my glow turned a very deep red, purple and orange and my eyes were glowing a bright blood red and became unfocused.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Betrayer!’

 

My sister's eyes shot open at my sudden extreme aggressiveness and quickly tried to shake me out of my trance-like state. Placing her hands on my shoulders, she gave me firm, yet gentle shakes to get my attention.

 

Neo: ‘Neo? Neo! Sister! Snap out of it! What’s wrong, talk to me!’

 

Hearing the concerned voice of my sister managed to snap back my consciousness out of its rage induced haze. Blinking a few times to get my bearings, I looked at my sister in confusion about what had just happened.

 

Neopolitan: ‘What was that? When you mentioned Cinder, I was... am flooded with such… hate. Did we have a bad relationship?’

 

My sister frowned while shaking her head.

 

Neo: ‘Not overly. We got along for the most part. But she is one of the fanatics of Salem. One of the tamer ones, but still a fanatic. Neo, you said “Betrayer” just as you entered the same kind of haze when you got overwhelmed by the emotions near the city.’

 

I slowly nodded my head, while I tried to calm myself down.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Just hearing her name all of a sudden makes me want to rip her apart. I don’t… I don’t know why either. But all I can feel for her is hate. Like she did something to you.’

 

She pulled me into a hug and started to rub my back, further calming me down.

 

Neo: ‘I figured as much, your colour is a deep red, among others. It’s clear red is anger of some sorts. And this sudden outburst that you don’t understand. This is not the first time something like this happened.’

 

I nuzzled my face into her neck while I gave a weak nod.

 

Neopolitan: ‘The outburst when I said the barrier around me can’t be trained. Yes, it’s much like that.’

 

I had eventually calmed down, and my glow had shifted to a very light green, yellow and orange.

 

Still having my face burning into the neck of my sister, I almost whimper in exasperation.

 

Neopolitan: ‘It’s so frustrating not knowing why I have these sudden outbursts. Having only fragments of my memory…’

 

Continuing to rub my back my sister said, ‘I know, Sis, I know. We won’t have to worry about Cinder, as we are not going to be working with Salem anymore. And if she comes near us, we can just kill her. Better to be safe than sorry, especially since you had such a reaction to her just now…’

 

Pulling out of her embrace, I give a solid nod.

 

Neopolitan: ‘No part of me is against killing Cinder if she approaches us.’

 

Giving me a smile and a nod, my sister then grabbed my left hand and started to lead on.

 

Neo: ‘Good. Alright, let’s shelve that for now. See that mountain over there? It should take us about an hour to get to it, and if the information Roman had gotten is solid, it should be only a 20 minute hike to the Bandits Hideout.

 

In the meantime, why don’t you practise with the barrier you can make while we walk?’

 

Neopolitan: ‘Hn, okay.’

 

To kick off my spontaneous training, I first starting off with making simple shapes, and then moved on to adding size variations. Moving on from that, I then wanted to see if I could let some things through the barrier while preventing others.

 

I did this by picking up a few pebbles from the ground, and then creating a flat barrier in front of me. Setting the pebbles on top of the barrier, I then tried to see if I could only let one pass at a time. It was actually rather easy to achieve after only a few minutes of attempting it.

 

Seeing me mess with the pebbles and an invisible barrier my sister had gotten an idea.

 

Neo: ‘Sis, when you move the barrier to keep up with you while you walk… do you even notice that you’re doing that?’

 

Blinking in surprise at the realisation I had not actually noticed I was moving my barrier subconsciously my sister gave me an idea.

 

Neo: ‘Since moving it is so easy, why not see what happens when you place a barrier around something… and move that barrier.’

 

I turned to look at my sister with a surprised face as excitement started to shine in my eyes and glow as it had turned a bright orange.

 

Without wasting any time, I made a small barrier around the handful of pebbles and moved them around. I was glowing a bright yellow and a light orange as I made the pebbles float around us at various speeds.

 

Neo: ‘Grats Sis! Looks like you got a form of discount telekinesis. How fast can you make them move?’

 

With a large smile behind my mask, I started to try and find out. Turns out, the speed is fast. Very fast, even. And there is no slow build up, it’s just instant acceleration. Being curious, I brought the pebbles above my head a few metres away from us, and then had them go as fast as I could make them towards the ground. And before the barrier hit, I dismissed it.

 

There was a loud puff sound as the pebbles crashed into the ground, kicking up a small dust cloud. Looking at my sister, she also was sporting a curious face as we moved to the impact site. As we neared we both waved away the dust and looked at the deep looking holes in the ground where the pebbles had impacted. It was a clean impact too, with very little damage outside of where they penetrated the ground, meaning the pebbles had to be going very fast.

 

My sister let out an impressed whistle and a nod.

 

Neo: ‘Damn, Sis. You’re your own gun! Those impact points look very clean. I even lost track of the pebbles when they were moving downwards.’

 

My sister then looked up at me, and had a sharp gleam in her eyes.

 

Neo: ‘How big can you make your barrier again?’

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Neopolitan: ‘As big as a car I guess? Why?’

 

Neo: ‘Have you tried making a barrier around some ground and… simply moving it up?’

 

I was silent at my sister's outrageous idea.

 

‘That… I can’t do that. Can I?’

 

Looking away from us, I then formed a barrier that went deep into the ground in a square shape. Giving my sister one last look before I started to attempt this crazy idea, I couldn’t help but smile at the equally crazy looking smile and amusement in her eyes as she nodded her head wildly at me.

 

So, with my barrier formed and ready to go, I lifted it up towards the sky. There was a loud crushing and breaking sound as the ground easily gave way and lifted into the sky. I was just staring wide eyed at the rather large square chunk of earth that I had easily ripped out of the ground.

 

Neo: ‘HA! Holy shit, Sis! That’s awesome!!! Forget discount Telekinesis, you just have it with extra steps! Hahaha!’

 

I just shook my head in wonder as I stood there glowing a bright yellow, orange, and teal. I then tilted my head in curiosity as I had a thought.

 

‘Can this massive chunk of earth… move as fast as the pebbles? Can I throw it?’

 

And so with that thought, I accelerated the chuck of earth to max speed and “threw” it away from us. The block of earth instantly turned into a blur of brown as it flew off into the distance at a very impressive speed.

 

Neopolitan: ‘That answers that. The size of my barrier has no effect on the speed.’

 

Turning to look at my sister, I couldn’t help but snicker as her mouth was wide open along with her eyes. Her face quickly gained an equally large smile as she looked at me.

 

Neo: ‘That was awesome.’

 

I could only nod my head in agreement.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Yes. Yes, it was.’

 

I had thrown the chunk of earth so far and so fast that we couldn’t see it after a few seconds. Shaking my head in wonder at my new ability, I hardly reacted when my sister grabbed my hand and started to lead us again.

 

‘I need to train and enlarge the area of the barrier I can make. I also need to try and make more at the same time. With the speed I can achieve, breaking loose some of the ground and hurling it into my enemies is a very viable way to defend myself.’

 

I broke out of my musings when my sister called out to me.

 

Neo: ‘Okay, I think it’s time we start paying attention to our surroundings. We’re practically here. Do you sense anyone near us, Sis?’

 

Neopolitan: ‘Already? And, no, I sense nothing around us.’

 

She giggled as she pointed to a well worn looking trail that led up the mountain.

 

Neo: ‘Got lost in thought about your power, hmm? Don’t worry, you know how… err. I was like that as well when I first got my Semblance. Now, this is the usual path people take. Roman’s information says that we should follow this and then look for some kind of marking to denote where to go off it.’

 

I gave a nod as I let the small bit of earth I was playing with softly drop back down. As we began making our way up the worn path, I had made an idle note.

 

‘I don’t know why I feel surprised about it, but I am not tired in the slightest. We’ve been walking for a while now, but I am still golden. Come to think of it, I’ve never actually felt the need to sleep, because I was tired. It’s always because of some situation of some kind. Perk of being a Grimm I guess.’

 

It only took us several minutes before I ended up freezing in place because of the emotions I was starting to feel from the supposed bandits. Quickly noticing me, my sister started to rub my back gently to help centre me.

 

Neo: ‘Easy now. You can feel them I take it. Slow and steady, Sis. We can take as long as you need. Let’s move off to the side a bit so we’re not so easy to see.’

 

At her urging, we quickly moved off the main path and I sat down and leaned against a large boulder. My sister soon joined me, and gently rested her head against my shoulder.

 

Neo: ‘What are you feeling right now? Your eyes are faintly glowing red by the way.’

 

I gave a nod and I focused on her presence to calm down the small but growing whirlwind of emotions in myself.

 

Neopolitan: ‘They must have prisoners of some sort. I feel a thick layer of fear, hatred and despair. The ones that feel jovial must be the bandits.’

 

I heard my sister hum in acknowledgment before she spoke up, ‘Sounds about right for bandit scum. We’re pretty well hidden here, and I can make us invisible with my Semblance. So, take your time Sister. Get used to those feelings, don’t try to block them out. Let them flow through you, but only flow. Try to let yourself be a simple passage they pass through, without affecting you as much as possible. As if you are merely walking past a person, you can acknowledge them but don’t do anything else about it.’

 

Nodding my head, I closed my eyes in focus while I rested against my sister’s head. I focused on the emotions I could feel coming from the supposed bandit camp. But I was convinced it really was one, by the torrent negative emotions I felt. The despair and hate was so prevalent that it eclipsed the positive emotions by far.

 

‘The number of prisoners or slaves must outnumber the bandits a lot to have such an imbalance of emotions…’

 

I couldn’t help but focus on the negative emotions. They were so… delicious.

 

‘No! Stop, that’s my Grimm side. Focus Neo, focus!’

 

Instead of thinking of how all of a sudden the despair and hate made me feel hungry and elated, I instead thought about how I would feel in a situation like that. I tried to put myself in the prisoner's situation. I envisioned how I would feel if it was me and my sister in that situation.

 

This was a grave mistake, as the next thing I knew I felt my mind suddenly get crushed by overwhelming feelings of hatred and rage. And then I suddenly blacked out.

‘...er…’

 

‘…ter! …ke….p…!’

 

‘...ake… ple…!’

 

‘SISTER! WAKE UP, PLEASE!’

 

I suddenly heard my sister shouting in my mind, her voice laced with pure worry and panic, as I came too. I was feeling groggy, and I was confused at what was going on. But even in my lethargic and confused state, I could feel the embers of a deep rage and hate slowly burning themselves out.

 

My mind slowly waking up, I shook my head as I asked my sister what was going on.

 

Neo: ‘You’re back! Oh thank the damned Brother Gods!’

 

Neopolitan: ‘Sister? What… happened? I remember-’

 

My question died in my throat as I was suddenly very much aware of my surroundings. Bodies. Everywhere. Blood, guts, and other substances I didn’t want to think about were all over the place. And in front of me, behind my worried and scared looking sister, was some person dressed in what looked like classical bandit chief gear. Mutilated and pinned to the side of a cliff face via stone spikes, two near the shoulders, and one where his manhood once was. His arms and legs laid below him in a bloody pile, looking as if they were ripped off with brute force.

 

His chest cavity was ripped open, and inside was his head with a look of pure terror frozen on his face. That was when I noticed something was in my hand. Looking down, it seems I was holding a heart… most likely belonging to the man, or what was left of him, pinned to the wall.

 

Dropping the heart I was glowing a very deep green and blue, with a bit of purple mixed in. But I paid no attention to this as I looked at my sister in fearful shock at the whole situation.

 

Neopolitan: ‘What did I do?!’