“Reach out an empty hand and grasp,

for within it you have all you need.”

I wake up on the third day after Blowout brought me to her apartment. Morning light streams into my eyes as I go over my plans for the upcoming day and also reflect on the past few.

Every second was spent learning to speak Western Standard and to have the most common words solidly memorized. Meaning, that I can hold a conversation. Even for me this is an amazing pace. Then again, I have more motivation now than I ever had to learn a language. Also being mentally connected to someone already fluent probably helps. By this rate I should be able to completely understand it by the end of the week.

Blowout kindly kept her distance, inviting me to eat with her and her brother for meals, which I respectfully refused in order to give me as much time as possible to learn. Otherwise, nothing notable happened. Now that I’m comfortable enough in this scenario, I’m ready to go out and experience this world.

Good morning.

“Morning.”

She always wakes up before me. I know that people sleep less as they age, but does that apply to an immortal?

She combs her glossy hair with a brush that she creates. It doesn’t do anything, but she likes keeping old habits. Gods can choose their physical form, so I’m old technically, but I don’t feel or look it. That’s the way it’s always been for me at least. I’ve never asked another though.

Recently, she occasionally reads my surface level thoughts accidentally, which is a bit disturbing, but I can do the same to her, so it balances out. For example, if I try focusing about it now, I can tell that she is thinking about—the concept of how we can read each other’s thoughts if we try.

We really aren’t that different, I guess.

?

I slip on my fingerless gloves and change into my old attire of a plain t-shirt and cargo shorts from the night clothes I’m borrowing. I leave my room, closing the wooden door with a solid clunk as I head for their main living room.

As I arrive, Blowout and Certain Future are lounging while casually making discussion. Certain Future is wearing the same clothing as before but is without his glasses. Blowout forgoes her red cloak in place of a modest tank top and cotton pants. As I enter, they pause their conversation and turn to face me.

“Good morning, are you finally feeling better?” Blowout asks positively, speaking in Western Standard that I can now understand.

“I am feeling much better, thank you,” I reply neutrally, unavoidably taking a few seconds to process and translate her words.

Certain Future doesn’t say anything, only making eye contact before averting his gaze. It’s evident that he doesn’t fully trust me. All that really means, though, is that he has a better survival instinct.

“We were just about to have breakfast; do you want to join us?”

“Sure, why not?”

She walks to the kitchen and returns in a few minutes with two plates and cups. She sets them down before going back to get her own. The meal in front of me contains bread and fruit on a wooden plate along with a cup of water. I don’t recognize the fruits exactly, but they resemble off-colored grapes and something between a pear and grapefruit. Taking a tentative bite of the tough skin of the pear grapefruit thing reveals soft flesh underneath tasting sweet with a tinge of tartness. I proceed to eat at the same pace as the others so as not to finish before them.

“We were just discussing the opening of the academy in four days. The whole city is buzzing with life in anticipation since it was delayed from three months ago! This is my last day off before its opening, so I want to go take a look around the festivities.”

“Why was it delayed?”

She puts a finger to her chin, thinking about how to answer. “Well… it was supposed to be on the fiftieth anniversary of the war against the Goddess of Power ending. But it was delayed due to an earthquake that happened a bit ago.”

“Fiftieth anniversary?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Blowout lightly tilts her head.

I internally stare at my Goddess, not saying anything.

I might’ve lost track of time, so what? Sixty or fifty years doesn’t change much.

Turning my attention back to Blowout, “I’ve been meaning to ask, why were you inside of the academy three days ago?” She obviously has connections to the project, so I might as well find out what they are.

“Oh, that.” She smiles as if she was waiting for the topic to be brought up. “In fact, I’m going to be teaching there! You haven’t seen me in action yet, but I’m actually a pretty skilled ability user. I’m the youngest one to be teaching there too. I’ll be instructing the students about usage of abilities in combat since that’s what I’m good at. As for why I was there, I was scoping out my room before I ran into you. It’s an exciting job, but not quite as impressive as the job Tain landed.”

“I told you not to call me that anymore. My normal name is fine now,” Certain Future complains without any real annoyance in his voice. “Working directly for the goddess’s intelligence section, providing intel is no joking matter. It takes a lot of work and dedication.”

Blowout smiles sheepishly. “Hmm, you did say that didn’t you?” She takes a few more bites, before perking back up. “That reminds me, you don’t have a name now, right? I was thinking something along the lines of ‘Cool Reflection’ would be good since you’re always thinking to yourself.”

Before I can respond, Certain Future interjects, “It should be something related to his ability, Blowout. And besides, he should be naming himself once he’s ready since he doesn’t have any family.”

I didn’t tell him that I don’t have family, but there is nothing to gain from correcting him. Did he assume from the lack of me bringing it up?

“But then he should at least have a ---------- name so that we have something to identify him by.” She looks to me with innocent amber eyes. “Any ideas?”

I don’t know that word.

It means placeholder name. Like what is used for a child that hasn’t developed their ability yet. She takes up a lofty—borderline sarcastic—voice that she uses when teaching me basic knowledge.

Ah.

I’ve always hated naming things. “Simply having no name is fine by me.”

“Aw, come on. You got to have something.”

I’ll just go with some obscure reference that they have no way of recognizing. “If you insist for a name, then Epsilon will work.” My old codename. Creativity is annoying. Actually, being called that would be even more so.

Blowout tugs her lips up in satisfaction. “Hmm, odd sounding but that’ll work until you rediscover your ability.”

“Do you remember what your ability is?” Certain Future’s face becomes serious as if asking a baited question.

“There’s a lot of things I don’t know.”

“This is not an interrogation, Certain Future; don’t pressure him. He’ll find it again sometime soon. Abilities have a way of appearing when you need them most.” Blowout defends me before shoving her last bite of bread into her mouth.

“Speaking of which, what are the two of yours?”

Certain Future coolly speaks first while Blowout chews, summoning his pair of glasses into his hand with a small glow of light and putting them on. I blink rapidly to confirm what I just saw. Getting used to this will take some time.

“Using these glasses, I can gain information. Notably, I can detect lies and see a few seconds into my future as well as a few other perks.”

More than just one thing? Interesting.

As we both look to Blowout, she splashes the last of the water from her cup into her left palm. “I can manipulate the elements in bursts, meaning I can do things like this.”

Targeting a wall, she points her left hand and from it gushes a concentrated stream of water with enough force to knock someone down.

“I ‘charge’ up manipulating an element by releasing my energy while making contact with it. I can then let it go all at once, hence ‘Blowout’. For a bit afterwards, using the same element again will be weaker. I can do bursts with fire, air, water, earth as well with my arm and leg strength.” She paces to her cloak and puts it on as she talks. “I store some dirt, water, and matches in these pockets, so I can use them when I need to.” She pulls out a bundle of red-tipped matches. “Also, the whole thing is fireproof and can strike my matches.”

While taking in the useful information, I finish my meal.

Any comments? I silently ask my observing goddess.

Is there anything worth commenting on?

Fair point.

“Oh, I’m about to go take a look around the city and enjoy the festivities. Either of you want to come?” Blowout offers, looking between me and Certain Future.

“Can’t, I’m still waiting for… For something work related that I need to be ready for.” Certain Future stumbles, glancing at me, apparently almost revealing some information.

Blowout looks to me.

This is the perfect opportunity to get a better grasp on how this world works and also to see around the city.

“Sure.”

~~~

We spend the next several hours making our way through the sprawling city of Corundum, sightseeing from one monument to the next or wherever people are gathering. As Blowout interacts with other people, I am allowed to be lost in my analysis of this world. Notably, the timing of this world’s history is very interesting. In terms of technological progress, it is somewhere between the invention of the mechanical clock to before the steam power, placing it around the Renaissance era. The odd part is that material science has progressed much further—evidenced by use of denim and red phosphorus matches, both invented in the late 1800s where I’m from. In some aspects, this is maybe even beyond my world. According to Blowout, the Nation of Justice treats all law-abiding citizens as equals.

Oh, and there’s also no domesticated animals for some reason. I’m sure that’s important for something.

The Goddess of Power mostly stays silent, probably in deep thought from seeing her city change. I don’t blame her.

From early morning, to noon, to evening, we walk while occasionally chatting about nothing in particular. On the final stop of our trip, we face the church of Justice. Of all the architecture in the city, this is clearly the centerpiece. The church is styled similarly to a gothic cathedral, with spires and domes of grand proportions. In front of it all is a 100-foot stone statue of what can only be the Goddess of Justice. She has the exact same body type as the goddess in my head and similarly has long hair. At a glance, I could mistake one for the other, but on further inspection, there are a variety of minor differences between them. Mine has a more arched brow shape and a softer face. The Goddess of Justice is standing, holding two short swords in an X as if protecting the church behind her against an apparently invisible attack.

This place used to be where my church stood before she destroyed it and replaced it with her own. I can’t tell if her words are meant for herself or for me.

In front of the church is a large open area with circles embedded in a patchwork of different colored stones. Inside them there are pairs of people—fighting? There is noise of colorful varieties along with flashing lights and dashing figures. None of them seem to have serious intent, yet they sling projectiles and clash weaponry that could easily be lethal. One possible answer might be that there are other people around that have similar abilities to the angel that healed me.

Blowout tugs my sleeve to drag us to a small crowd gathered around two people squaring off inside an embedded ring.

The one on the right is a person in ridiculous attire. The right half of his outfit is a bright pinkish red with its part of the shirt curled up to a point made of what looks like scales. The left is curled down with a deep blue fabric. He looks to be in his early thirties and has an arrogant, focused expression with pointy eyebrows.

Opposing him is a well-built man with short grey hair and a trimmed beard. He wears light cloth armor around his chest but with the rest of his clothing casual. His stoic face and scarred arms give me a similar feeling to other military veterans I’ve met. If I had to guess, I would say he’s in his early sixties. He holds a shimmering two-handed sword with a partially transparent shield around it from the tip of the blade to the hilt, making it seem very awkward to wield. Regardless, he is posing gracefully with his sword held defensively, waiting for his opponent’s next strike.

He doesn’t have to wait long. His opponent jumps forward while thrusting his hands. From them, a ball of fire and a ball of ice spiral around each other, travelling forward. The veteran fluidly reacts by swinging his sword-shield, blocking both of them sequentially. They explode into sparks of red and shards of blue.

The fighters’ movements are incredibly smooth. It should be impossible for a human being to move and react with such precision, yet they do. I don’t even want to try to imagine how it might feel to have their movement. Desire for something I can’t have is toxic to my mental state.

The veteran guy swings his sword-shield to the side in order to clear the particles away from his vision.

He does, barely in time to see the next attack. The fire-ice guy continues running directly at him, sweeping his hands in an arc. From them, two wispy semicircles of fire and ice appear with a loud boom. Goosebumps rise on my arms.

The veteran dashes to the left to avoid the fire semicircle and smashes his sword-shield against the ice one, shattering it violently. I flinch as the resulting fragments of ice sprinkle the crowd, feeling cold as they make contact with my skin.

Faster than my eyes can track, the fire-ice guy leaps forward, firing two spiral balls at point blank. The tactician in me knows that he’s been decreasing the distance to give his enemy less time to react. The notion that people can use such planning like that while in such an adrenaline-rushing fight is incredible.

The crowd gasps as more particles obscure vision. Blowout closely watches the fight, enthralled.

Particles clear, revealing the veteran on one knee with his sword-shield gone and his opponent standing.

The fire-ice guy cackles, his hands glowing their respective colors. “Ha HA, It’s my win, old man!”

“Never forget to watch your back, Frostburn.” The veteran smiles.

The sword-shield boomerangs from behind the fire-ice guy, slamming into his head with an audible thunk. He crumples to the ground.

A few people in the crowd cheer and clap, before walking off to spectate one of the other fights.

The veteran reaches out a hand to his opponent as his weapon disappears into nothing. “You have plenty of raw strength, but never underestimate your enemy. If you hadn’t paused at the end, you might have actually won.”

The fire-ice guy grumbles something inaudible before taking the hand.

Blowout is suddenly no longer beside me.

“Don’t forget to watch your back either Uncle Def!”

Now inside the ring, Blowout blurs forward to lightly poke the veteran’s back.

“I didn’t know you were visiting Corundum. You should have stopped by!” She enthusiastically says, greeting him with a playful punch to the shoulder.

My eyes are glued to the spot of the final impact. There are a multitude of things that each one of them could have done better in the conflict. There was no need for somebody capable of blocking to take such a risk as throwing his weapon for a surprise attack. He should have simply struck while his opponent’s vision was obscured. I would never have made that mistake in the same situation, right?

The fire-ice guy (Frostburn?) slinks off to the side, rubbing his head while calling for a healer.

“Hey, who’s my favorite niece?” The veteran pulls Blowout into a quick embrace. “I was planning to stop by, but I heard that you were helping a young lad recover from being imprisoned since that war. And didn’t want to spook him. Is he the one over there?” He points a worn finger at me.

I wake from my stupor long enough to wave and make eye contact with the guy, keeping my distance.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Offensive Defensive, or Def for short. I’m a former angel and was a strategist in the war.” He waves, giving me a chance to respond.

The silence becomes awkward.

“It must look pretty weird for us to be casually using our abilities to duel, doesn’t it? Especially when you’re used to using them as a matter of life and death? I thought so myself when I first heard the concept. Since then, though, my niece and I found it as our hobby. It can be quite fun when you can step back and not take it as seriously.” He misunderstands, but it’s fine.

It’s pointless to try and fantasize about me fighting like that, right? I don’t have an ability like them, and if I tried, I would be quickly found out.

“Yeah, we are pretty good at it too,” Blowout states shamelessly.

But why do I feel so strongly about seeing it? My heart is racing, and I’ve barely moved. I can’t help but replay their every move in my mind.

“Ah, no need to be modest, you’re the best in the country aside from that gemstone girl! That tournament last year proved it! I’m still proud! In fact, it wouldn’t be too unusual for somebody as skilled as you to be made an angel. Back in my day, angels were made for far less.”

Blowout visibly blushes in embarrassment. “I don’t know if I’m good enough yet. The Goddess is much more selective since the war ended.”

“Hmm, yeah, I do remember that day quite well. But if anyone can do it, you can. You used to always look up to them when you were little. Always wanting to be like your uncle in his prime huh?”

“Uh... Well...” Her face colors again.

They keep talking, but the discontent in my chest grows painful for some reason. I somehow have a whim to have some time to myself and cool off these feelings.

One of the towers near us has stairs to the top that no one used in my time. I can guide you there if you need some time.

“I’ll be back at your place in a bit,” I call out to Blowout.

“Uh, alright! See you later then, I guess.” She turns to me, saying awkwardly.

~

From atop the tower, the entire cityscape is within my view. I sit with my legs dangling off the edge. Along the distant horizon, the sun is setting in shades of pale red. I have a much better view of the city than from the steps of the academy. All of the landmarks I visited today are visible along with the open fields beyond the city wall.

A swirling maelstrom of emotion boils inside my chest for some reason. I don’t quite grasp why, but I’m glad to have the time to cool off regardless.

Me and my goddess sit, enjoying the view and cool breeze for a time till she breaks the silence.

I can tell that you have a lot that you need to emotionally deal with. Are you really fine holding yourself back like this?

“I do what I need to. If that means repressing myself, then it’s simply one more step on the way.”

Through our connection, I can tell that she similarly is reflecting on herself.

You know, this time and place isn’t too bad even if it isn’t mine. I never expected this to be so peaceful.

“Are you giving up on winning against your sister then?”

No. I still want to defeat her. I got over my hatred a while ago, but does that mean I have to have perfect logic?

“There doesn’t have to be a reason unless you want there to be one.”

The sun continues to set, edging its way to the other side of this planet’s rotation. Are celestial mechanics the same in this world? I’ll look into it sometime, not now.

I need to decide what I want to do and the direction I want to take to get there. But what do I want?

I say my thoughts for a reason I’m not fully aware of. Maybe it’s simply nice to be able to talk to someone. “I don’t know what I want to do. There is so much uniqueness in the world. But same as before, it’s all seemingly beyond my grasp, isn’t it? No matter what we do, we’ll be making enemies of good people. And sooner or later, we’ll have to oppose them.”

We can find out what to do once the time comes. No one but us can decide when that time is. Because we have power over our fates.

“Whatever we decide that to be.”

Whatever we decide that to be. She smiles.

I honestly relax for the first time since arriving here. “Thanks.”

I should be saying the same.

Minutes slip by in blissful silence. The serenity of the landscape before us seems to dull the edge to my painful self-conflict. But like every time I take a break, I can’t help but remember glimpses of the people I’ve killed. The notion that I’ll have to do so again further brings a bad taste to my mouth.

“Hey... could it be possible to defeat another person in combat without killing them. Obviously without relying on me to hold back, I’m not that naive. In life-or-death combat there is no such thing as not giving all you have.”

She takes a few moments to consider. In the past there have been far too many things I’ve declared impossible, only to be proven wrong. The rule I’ve found is that if you can clearly visualize what you want and have enough will to do it, then nothing is impossible with the power of a god. Although, having those two is frustratingly much harder than it seems.

I don’t reply for a few minutes as I put what I want to say together.

“There is one concept I thought of when I was a kid, about somehow creating a pocket dimension where time is frozen as an ultimate way to win against an unbeatable opponent. Because that’s the type of stupid thing I would think of, yet maybe it can actually have some use. Would you include that in ‘nothing is impossible’?

I did just spend the most recent chunk of my life researching dimensions, yet I’ve never thought of using them that way. I see no reason why we wouldn’t be able to do it. Though, it will be incredibly difficult. Every single variable needs to be accounted for. Otherwise, it won’t work. Something like that would also take a huge amount of energy.

“So… then it wouldn’t be practical?”

She pauses, considering whether to tell me something. I turn to watch the setting sun while she does.

Maybe not… every god is born with a unique capability that is different for every deity. They are usually kept as a secret as knowing them can hold a huge advantage in killing them. But if you are going to be risking your life for my sake, then it only makes sense for you to know.

I raise an eyebrow, silently encouraging her to go on.

I don’t understand why, but they are based on a quote, embodying the deity’s aspect. She licks her lips. My quote is: ‘Power is one above another’. It was the first thing I remember hearing after I was born. What it enables me to do is absorb energy from targets that my energy touches—making me stronger and them weaker. Hence being ‘above’ them.

“So, we can use that to create a way for removing people from combat by using their own energy to supply the process?”

That sounds like exactly the type of thing that I would think of, but yes. If we work together, we could probably piece together how to do it in a few weeks of concentrated effort.

“Let’s do that then. By the way, that reminds me. Shouldn’t we be at full capacity of energy by now?”

“Hmm, let me double check my levels.”

I wait while she does.

That’s odd.

“What?”

All of my calculations should be correct, yet for some reason any energy beyond my threshold decays back to its limit. There is no ‘leak’ anywhere. It simply seems to vanish for some reason. I have honestly no idea why this is happening.”

“Sounds like quantum tunneling.”

I’ve already cross-referenced your knowledge of quantum mechanics with mine of energy, and I don’t believe that energy obeys the laws of the Standard Model.

Alright then, she can do that apparently. “How long does it take to decay?” If it takes a while, we could still use it.

I think we had the same idea. She laughs. About ten seconds. We could use the energy gained from my aspect before it decays and use far more than we would be able to hold otherwise. The number of situations where we would be needing to use such a huge amount of energy are very small in number though.

“Even still, though, we—"

The sound of a heavy footsteps sound nearby along with a flash of red that appears in my peripheral vision. I swivel my head in time to see Blowout jump from a building beneath us, landing smoothly next to me.

“Who were you talking to?” She innocently asks, tilting her head.

My immediate reaction is to come up with a clever lie, but I can’t bring myself to.

“Don’t worry about it.”

To her credit, she doesn’t push for an answer, instead pursing her lips and smoothly turning to observe what I’m gazing at.

A gentle breeze carries the tips of her long hair and cloak.

“It is nice up here, isn’t it?” she asks softly.

“Yeah, it is.”

Silence returns as Blowout gazes at the scenery with a serene expression that seems contrary to her usual cheer.

“You know, you should apply for the academy next week. As I think I said earlier, abilities can develop when you’re under lots of pressure. (I only know that because I read the teaching guidebook recently).” She pauses regathering her thoughts. “And even if you fail or embarrass yourself, you can at least say you tried. Which is far better than nothing at all.”

Subconsciously, I sigh.

“It would be fun at least.” She coaxes. “And the single coolest angel will be there too.”

I take a deep breath. “You know what, why not...” Another one of my dumb whims.

There is nothing to gain from rushing things, so I might as well go and gain better information. If there’s something I don’t want to do or something I can’t do, then I can simply leave. Going to a place where it’s expected of me to use abilities isn’t the best outcome, but it’s not all that bad.

You think we can fake something and not get caught using your power? I mentally ask.

We can if you can.

Good enough for me.

Blowout tilts her head, expecting me to continue. “Well, great then!” She takes one final look at the fading golden sky. “It’s going to be dark soon. Let’s get back before then.”

I nod. “Alright, let’s go.”