《Shovels In Spades》B4: Chapter 15: Failure and Promised Reward
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Daz practised for a few hours and was struggling to accurately mimic what his father had done to help him. He had actually purchased 5 more memory-reliving pills to watch the process again but he still wasn't having much luck even after his 6th attempt.
It was now a little before 4 in the morning and the reaper was growing worried. "Rose said it was today, but when today?"
Her condition had nothing to do with his survival at all so his instincts wouldn't tell him when it was optimal to stop training. A fairly major drawback of the power, he felt.
Something of interest, however, was that now he had reached level-4 of the esper power and could employ the golden eyes that showed the future like how his father was able to, he could use this Future Vision to target anything that he could think of, not just himself.
As a result, in theory, he should be able to consume internal energy to use his normal Survival Instinct in a similar manner and apply them to things unrelated to his own survival.
Rose claimed that it was a very wasteful thing to do with few returns, but it was necessary to help develop the power before it reached the pinnacle, level-5. According to her, it helped with nurturing its ability to alter reality which came with Survivor's Instinct at level-5.
Daz shook his head. "I don't have nearly enough control of my internal energy to be trying to tune my instincts to Rose's wellbeing for hours on end."
He sighed then glanced up. "No other choice, I suppose... Reika, do you mind staring at my eyes for a bit?"
'Hmm? Uh, no, we do not mind, though we have no hobby of staring at you, so please do not make this a regular request. We are a very busy princess,' the tiny soul claimed as she hovered away from the reaper's halo and then lazily laid down in front of his face as if she were on top of a bed and was peeking beneath it.
"I don't plan to. Just let me know if this eye turns black or gold, okay?" Daz requested as he pointed to his left eye.
'Sure, we can do that,' Reika said with confidence.
Daz nodded then closed his eyes and cleared his mind. 'It should be instinctual like the floating from Gravital Body is, right? I'd rather not buy another pill to relive what I felt in the pyramids of El Dorado as well...'
He wanted to peer into the future. It was as simple as that. He kept that desire at the forefront of his thoughts, then suddenly the small amount of internal energy lingering around his heart moved into action.
It rushed out of his heart and quickly travelled through his body until it had made its way to his right eye. Once there, something that Daz had no idea how to explain happened.
He peeled his eyes open and saw a scene before him that didn't take place in the workshop where he currently was.
"Aaaaaah! It burns! It fucking burns!"
"Jesus, you sure do know how to scream, dontcha? Keep your mouth open and don't bite my finger this time, you little shit. How else am I meant to feed you my blood?"
Daz could see Rose thrashing about violently on her bed as Crusher held her down and forced a vial of thick red liquid into her mouth which seemed to calm her, though not a few seconds went by before she was screaming in agony once again.
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Tears streamed down the girl's face while she was clawing at Crusher's arm as hard as she could, though of course, she wasn't cutting into the titan's tough skin.
"She's a real fuckin' piece of work. I thought only her tongue was harsh. Man, being an esper must fuckin' suck balls."
"It's not so bad, really. She doesn't have a bloodline, hence the need for healing."
"S'at so? Well, whatever. Hopefully this doesn't last too long. I don't have infinite blood. How long have we been goin' already?"
"System, what's the time? Huh, it's a bit past noon, so, an hour?"
"Feels longer."
Daz was sucked out of the vision as he collapsed. Sweat covered his entire body and his right eye was wildly throbbing.
'A-Are you okay, Insolent Fool?' Reika asked in concern.
'11AM? Got it. I wonder how future me got there on time... Maybe because he looked into the future too? That would make a loop that is theoretically consistent but begs the question of how the loop started if it's always been there.' Daz was panting like a dog, but he managed to nod. "Yeah... Just... I'm just exhausted. That was a lot more draining than... the floating was."
'Floating?' The little soul looked confused. Clearly, she hadn't been paying attention when he was showing off to Rose only a few days ago. 'Anyway, we are happy that you are not hurt. By the way, Insolent Fool, your right eye glowed a bright hue of gold but nothing happened to your left eye.'
"What?... But Father's eyes both turned gold... Does this have anything to do with how my left eye turned black when I awakened to level-4?" Daz asked himself.
Reika crossed her arms over her non-existent chest as she puffed out her cheeks. 'We do not know nor care. We are going back to sleep... Let us know if you need us for anything else, okay?'
'Such a 'busy' demon, huh?' Daz nodded again as he slowly pulled his body up off of the floor. "Sure. Thanks."
'Hmpf, there is no need to thank us, Insolent Fool,' Reika said in embarrassment before she settled herself back on Daz's halo.
'Such a dishonest girl... Her and that big bumbling gem Grid are a lot alike. Anyway, at least now I know that Rose somehow convinced Crusher to help her and that she won't start awakening until 11. I've got a little over 6-hours left. I should be able to figure out how to move internal energy on my own with that much time,' Daz thought. He then immediately returned to training.
"Hmm?" Rose could hear a knocking at her door. "Come in."
The door slowly swung open and Daz walked in, closing the door behind him. "Morning."
"Mmm, morning," Rose answered plainly.
Daz took a seat at the bottom of the girl's bed and smiled at her. "Nervous?"
"Depends," she said.
"On?" To be honest, the reaper already knew the answer. For once, it wasn't very difficult to read his snarky little sister.
"On if you can transfer internal energy or not," Rose said.
Daz wore a sorry smile. "Sorry, no luck. I can barely move it freely within my own body. It feels like manipulating concrete."
Rose sighed. "Even if you have 3 powers that's kind of to be expected... From what I know, it's normal to take years to learn how to manipulate energy, even more years on top of that to push it into another person without making them explode."
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Daz chuckled. "Then why'd you ask me to learn?"
"Better late than never, right?" she joked. "I was hoping you'd get super lucky or it'd turn out that you were a genius or something."
"So even you can imagine the impossible huh?" Daz asked with a warm smile on his face.
Rose started to lightly tremble. "I-I can be hopeful, can't I?"
Daz felt his heart tighten painfully upon looking at such a meek and... fearful Rose. He reached over and calmly put a hand on her head. "You're going to be fine. Crusher's a bit brash, but she does what she says she will. Plus, I'm controlling Rimmy right now. He's hovering outside of the keep just in range of us so he can heal you. That'll lessen the burden on Crusher."
Rose's eyes jolted in shock. "How do you... Oh. You used your eyes, huh?"
Daz shook his head. "Eye." He pointed at his left pupil and said, "This one didn't change."
"That's weird... I've never heard of that before. I wonder if that halves the vision duration? Maybe its accuracy? Maybe it doubles the cost to maintain the same ability as having two eyes?" Rose was suddenly very curious.
Daz was glad. 'Best to keep her distracted until the headaches start. I don't like seeing her so... frightened. I had no idea she was so nervous about all of this... Survivor's Instinct is a very selfish ability, isn't it?'
'That was weird,' Daz thought. He had just perfectly reenacted the scene he had foreseen in his vision.
A portion of his mind was focused on controlling Rimmy who was outside while most of it lingered on the still struggling and screaming Rose, but a small part of him couldn't help but recognise how odd it was to so... naturally do as he had already seen.
'Is it a fate thing? Fate exists according to the system, after all... I hope it isn't. I'd hate to see a vision of dread and doom only to be unable to stop it or run from it,' Daz thought.
He felt Rose squeezing his hand even harder than she had been doing so for the past hour but only a moments later her grip loosened a bit and her screaming turned into heavy panting.
"Finally finished, are you?" Crusher asked.
Rose could barely breathe, let alone speak. She mustered as much strength as she could to give the massive woman a curt nod.
"Fuckin' fantastic. I used up two whole week's worth of God's Blood," Crusher complained as she scratched her head. "Upgrading it to be collectable day-to-day cost me a fuckin' arm and a leg. Almost seems pointless now."
"Thank you, Crusher, I really appreciate your help here," Daz said stoically.
Crusher shrugged. "Well, it wasn't for free. You owe me another favour now, so does this annoying little shit. Don't go back on your word, ya hear, Hotwheels? I won't be very happy if you do."
Daz shook his head. "No, no more favours. I still owe you the two from before, Crusher, but for what you've done today I shall give you something even better than a pair of favours."
"Oh? Well? Don't just tickle my balls like that. I'm all interested now," the 8-foot-tall woman said.
Daz's face remained expressionless as he arched his neck to look up at Crusher's face, slightly creeping her out. "You will know mid-way through December at the earliest, a few months after that at the latest."
"You can be just as spooky as that snake at times, y'know? Though, I don't hate ya for it like I do him. Hahaha, I'm in a good mood now. That was surprisin'. I hope whatever you're gonna give me is as special as it sounds," Crusher laughed.
"It's more special and powerful then you can even imagine," Daz cryptically stated.
Crusher held her chin. "S'at so? I've been trying out new things lately to evolve, includin' expanding my thought process. I'm pretty sure I have a damn good imagination. Oh well, guess I'll know next month, hahaha. Later, Uriel, later, Hotwheels."
Still panting heavily, Rose replied, "Bye, and thanks."
Daz nodded. "Likewise, thank you, Crusher."
The towering giant lowered her head and arched her back to squeeze through the bedroom's door before she sauntered down the hallway.
Daz lowered Rimmy to the ground and stopped controlling him as he shut the door, giving him and Rose some privacy and allowing the massive man of crystal to wander back to his post beyond the outer walls.
"So, feel any smarter?" Daz teased as he moved to Rose's side and carefully peeled her hair away from her sweat covered face.
"I feel like fucking shit, Daz," the 11-year-old responded.
"Haha, I see you've gotten braver, not smarter." Rose closed her eyes and prepared for a forehead flick, but instead, she felt a set of lips pressing against her glabella. "I'm glad you're okay. Just for now, I'll let you swear."
Rose's cheeks flushed but not as much as Daz had expected them to, oddly enough. "T-Thanks..."
'Is she maturing a bit more, perhaps? She usually gets a lot mushier when I show her affection,' Daz wondered before asking, "By the way, how much would it have helped if I had learned how to move internal energy into you on time?"
Rose scrunched her brow. "I'm not sure. It varies from person to person. It also depends on how good you are at it. A rough estimate? I'd have been in about 3-times less pain and it would have ended in about... half an hour or so? My chances of dying would have gone down from 85% to 60% as well, meaning less need for Crusher's God's Blood. That's assuming you grasped the very most basics of transferring internal energy."
Daz wore a sullen expression. "I see. Father really is amazing at this whole esper business, isn't he?"
"Yeah. He's one of the best in the world, if not, the best," his sister answered.
Daz sighed lightly. "What a bother. By the way, you just mentioned it now, but survival chance? So every time Crusher had to give you blood was a time that you were about to die?"
Rose nodded grimly. "Yeah. Those of us without bloodlines never make it past our second awakening. Honestly, I was expecting that I'd die one day when I was 12 or 13. Not only were my estimates of how long I could prevent my awakening wrong, but I'd still only be 11... I'm glad the system came when it did. A lot of people died, but as a result, I got to live."
Daz smiled warmly. "I agree. I'm upset that you never warned me before, but you're still here today, so I can't rightly complain. Anyway, we should probably go get Maddy and have her help you take a bath, huh?"
"V-Vanessa can do that instead... Though I'd rather do it myself were I not as weak as a wet noodle right now... I don't want to see Madison until I'm back to normal... My whole body aches and I still have a very slight migraine. It'll pass by tomorrow though. I need to grow used to my newly enhanced power," Rose suggested.
Daz rubbed the girl's head of platinum-white hair with concern. "Maddy's a strong woman, you know?"
"I-I do, it's just... I don't want her to see me like this..." Rose felt tears welling up in her eyes. "Only you've seen me cry... Only you've seen me when I'm... weak."
Daz sighed softly once again. "Okay. Vanessa it is but the next time you awaken Maddy is going to be the one healing you, okay? You may not share the same blood as her and she may only be 7-years older than you, but she's still your mother. She deserves to see you at your worst."
"... Okay." Rose knew that she had absolutely no right to protest Daz here, so she didn't.
The reaper grinned. "Besides, both she and I have seen you as a baby and changed your diapers."
Rose's face was immediately overrun by an enraged expression. "T-That's different! How can you even compare changing diapers to my whole body being in pain and my mind feeling like it's about to explode any second?!"
"Haha, I'm glad you're all energetic now. I'll go grab Vanessa. Just sit here and wait for me," Daz said before kissing her forehead one more time. He then promptly left the room.
Rose puffed out her cheeks slightly. "You could have just phoned or texted her... What's the point of me inventing a cell service of my own if you don't even use it?... Idiot..."
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