“...? What the hell?” the man yelled, jumping back. “What the-”

“Boss. It doesn’t matter. Just kill them,” the assassin said in a low voice.

“...tch. Thanks. I got distracted,” the man said, wiping his mouth.

His sword lit up again as the assassin disappeared into the shadows. Behind, the third bandit (?) started chanting, leading John to believe he was a mage, although that could neither be confirmed nor denied.

“Prota! Watch it!” he yelled as the assassin reappeared behind Prota, knife in hand. She ducked, her body now reinforced with mana, then thrust her hands forwards as a blast of fire sent her opponent flying back.

“Talented little brat, aren’t you?” the man with the sword grunted, dodging Prota’s spell, then stepped in with a swing, intending to finish it in one blow. Prota blew herself back with a gust of wind as a familiar wind blade appeared in her hands.

“...?” John looked in interest. He’d assumed her ability to copy magic was limited to only copying the magic of the opponent in front of her, but apparently, she could retain spells she’d used before.

“Isn’t that just incredibly broken?” John scoffed. “How is she not the protagonist?”

Just like when she’d fought Elfin, she lifted herself up with a gust of wind and slashed, sending blades of wind flying everywhere, reducing the trees around them to woodchips. John, unprepared, was thrown back and gasped as he was slammed into a tree. His body ached as he tried to stand up. He would probably need a few minutes before he could recover.

“...!” Prota noticed this and lowered the intensity of the spell, only to realize that the spell was no longer working. She fell to the ground with a thud, rolling aside to dodge another blow from the man’s sword.

“She ran out of Elfin’s mana!” Zero exclaimed in John’s mind. “She can only use someone else’s magic if she has their mana inside of her. Uh… I think. She doesn’t know how to use that spell effectively enough, so she used it all up. She only has her own magic now. …Yeah, she doesn’t win this one anymore. Reset?”

John grit his teeth. This wasn’t a very good first fight for her.

“Prota!” John yelled, using a nearby branch to help himself up. “Take my mana!”

Prota’s head whipped around and saw John barely standing. She shook her head.

“Just do it, dammit!” he yelled as his left eye began to glow. She wanted to protest, but now probably wasn’t a good time. She saw a line of red mana flowing from John to her core as his mana filled her body. However, it was just mana. What was she going to do with it?

“Go! Do the same thing you did with the old man!”

…the old man? Elfin? She thought back to the fight. When she’d drawn mana from Elfin, it had been in panic, but… she vaguely remembered a large flood of green rapidly approaching her right before she’d used his magic… how had she done that? Was there an activation key to using someone else’s magic?

Taking a calculated risk, she closed her eyes and looked inwards. She could see all sorts of colors mixed around, but the bright red of John’s mana stood out. As she focused, her core reached out and grabbed it, swallowing it whole, and the black orb started glowing red, just like John’s mana. Instantly, she felt a surge in energy. It was like her strength and speed had been multiplied a thousand times over, so much so that she doubted her mind would be able to keep up with the intensity at which her body could now move.

“Beat their asses!” John grinned, giving her a thumbs up.

She nodded, then blinked forwards, surprising the man with the sword. Her fist lit on fire as she delivered a mighty uppercut, creating a loud explosion that knocked the man and many of the surrounding trees out. The assassin reappeared behind her, but a ginormous blast of ice froze him solid, stopping him in his steps.

Her face was covered in sweat as she was forced to stop and take a breather. She was bent over, hands on her knees as she wiped her face with her arm.

“...” John stared in amazement. He hadn’t expected his mana to do so much. He thought it would simply give her a small boost, but it had done a lot more than that.

What he didn’t realize was that when he used his own “magic” on himself, he was amplifying a regular human body to extremes. But what if amplification was possible on someone already ridiculously strong? Wouldn’t it amplify their powers even more? Instead of multiplying one by a thousand, it was like multiplying a hundred by a thousand instead. It was an already ridiculous power added onto another ridiculous power.

The other thing that crossed his mind was the cold look on her face. It wasn’t the usual blank look. Rather, there was something quietly intense about it, a sort of determination paired with anger that radiated a killing intent, unlike anything he’d ever seen.

How had she learned to give off such a look? Had she inherited it from all the people who had tried to kill her?

However, his train of thought was cut short as the magic seemed to have its drawbacks as well. Prota’s body didn’t seem to be able to handle the intensity of the magic she was casting, and she collapsed as she ran out of energy. John looked in worry, but there was nothing he could do about it. It looked like she wouldn’t be able to move for a while.

“Good job, Prota.”

Prota opened her eyes, satisfaction shining through the fatigue. However, their moment was cut short.

“Now!” he heard a voice yell.

“Shit!” He’d forgotten about the magician. A sudden gust of wind blew his hood off his head, lighting up his face as a massive burning meteor appeared in the sky, crashing down on the three of them.

“If we don’t make it out, you’re not making it out either,” the magician gasped as he fell dead.

“...tch,” John grimaced, glancing momentarily at the now dead body. “Well, shit. Zero, do it.”

“...you sure?” Zero said.

“I don’t have another fucking option! There’s nothing to help me break any of the seals. This is the only other option.”

“The side effects-”

“Fuck the side effects! Just do it!”

John’s eyes squeezed shut as he appeared to be deep in thought. His fists clenched but then loosened as he appeared to make a decision. His eyes snapped open, and his black eye began to glow instead of his red one. His body began to turn black like a shadow, whispy and formless, like black smoke, his black eye shining through the fog. His hand reached up towards the meteor as if he was going to stop it with just one hand. Perhaps he would.

“Power: x0”

He looked up and… did nothing. It had been an interesting show, but his smoky body made no move. At that point, Prota closed her eyes, waiting for death to come.

It never came.

She opened her eyes in surprise to see… no meteor. John’s body was back to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

However, he looked tired. His eyes had multiple rings around them, and his eyes looked even more blank if that was possible. While his eyes never shone with emotion, his face at least covered it up somewhat well. Now, it was as if the mask he usually wore had been violently stripped off to reveal the true nature underneath.

“Come on, Prota,” he said. There was no energy left in his voice. “Let’s go.”

He bent down and pulled her onto his back. She wasn’t able to get up on her own. His body felt heavy as he walked over to the empty sack on the ground, and they continued walking as the moonlight spilled onto the path.

As Prota felt herself falling asleep, she thought about what had just happened. John had relied on her to be a protector, and she had failed. Granted, she had taken down two men who were probably way stronger than the average mage, but she didn’t think about that. Something else was occupying her mind.

She couldn’t stop thinking about John’s face after the meteor had disappeared. That fatigue, that emptiness… she didn’t want to see it. Normally, it was only in his eyes. It was like the mask he wore was to convince himself as well as others that he was ok. Maybe it even worked. He never really appeared to be empty.

It was as if he was running from himself, and whatever he’d just done had made it so he couldn’t run anymore. It was like the brief moments she’d seen him sit by the fire in the first six months at the small cabin in the woods; an empty soul, void of all emotion. It sent shivers down her spine. It was a look that wasn’t natural; a look that could only be obtained through… what? She didn’t even know.

All she knew was that she didn’t want to see him look like that anymore.

She was protecting a lot more than John’s life at this point. She was protecting his soul, too.

She wanted… no, she needed to get stronger.

~~~

“Prota.”

The girl’s eyes snapped open to see the sun in the bright blue sky. The scenery hadn’t really changed, but when Prota looked at the map in her system it appeared they had made quite a bit of progress.

“I’m… pretty tired,” John yawned. “I don’t feel very good. I can’t feel my legs, actually. I think that is bad. It is bad. I think.”

With that, he fell asleep in the middle of the road, letting Prota fall to the ground. Her body still wasn’t really responding the way she wanted it to, but she crawled over and poked his cheek. There was no response. She poked the other cheek, and he still didn’t get up. She pinched both his cheeks, squeezing them and stretching out his face, but his eyes remained closed. He really was asleep.

What was she supposed to do now? She grunted as she sat up, looking around, but there was nothing nearby. She couldn’t even walk somewhere to get help. The effect of using John’s magic had a serious backlash.

With nothing else to do, Prota thought. She knew he’d done a lot for her. That much would’ve been obvious to anyone. But after last night, she realised that there was a lot more than what appeared to be.

His story about [Reader], [Writer] and [Character] was strange, to be sure, and it was generally easier to just not think about things like that. However, now that there was nothing else to do she started considering it once again.

He had told her he wasn’t “a normal person,” and was someone “really different.” What did that mean? Who was he, really? “Different” could have meant anything. What was the point in telling her he was a special being that existed outside the standard laws of the universe? He could have easily dismissed some of her questions as silly or covered them up as something else. Did that mean him being a [Reader], [Writer] and [Character] had an impact on who he was?

She thought long and hard about it, but nothing came to mind. She vaguely felt that it had to do with the way he felt about a lot of things, but her mind simply couldn’t make the leap. She couldn’t grasp, as a person, that she was nothing more than a “concept” or “idea,” something that was wasn’t “real”.

She shook her head. She felt like she was so close, but… there was nothing left to do about it. Looking back down at John, she used the last of her strength to drag him off the road to the grassy floor of the forest. Propping him up against a tree, she took her cloak off and covered his body with it, then sat down beside him. As she stared up into the sky, she felt her consciousness fade out, and the world went dark.

~~~

“Mm…” John squeezed his eyes and blinked as he felt the sun shining into his eyes. He stretched and felt something fall off his body.

“...huh?” He looked down and saw Prota’s cloak on his legs. He looked to his left and saw the girl asleep, her head resting on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and smiled. It was a quiet moment, the sun high in the sky overhead, not a cloud in the endless sea of blue above, a light breeze blowing through his hair.

Ever since his life had turned into a story, he often felt like he was either waiting for something to happen, or he was caught up in a whirlwind of events. It wasn’t often there was a moment of rest.

There certainly hadn’t been a moment of what he could call “rest” in this world. Watching Prota grow… that had been satisfying, but it certainly hadn’t been a moment of “rest.” That was a “waiting period.” Now was the first time he had shared a moment of “rest” with someone else. More specifically, it was the first moment of rest he’d shared with someone he knew was just a [Character].

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Zero said, a satisfied smile on his face as he appeared in front of John.

“It’s all fake,” John shrugged. “What does “nice” mean if none of it is real?”

“...sure, it’s all fake, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s nice, right?”

The two sat in silence, allowing the peace of the day to wash over them.

“I really can’t afford to feel like this,” John said after a while. “I can already assume Prota’s seen some real emotion show through me already.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Zero shrugged. “It’s not like anyone can use that against you, can they?”

“She’s going to try to make me smile more,” John said, shaking his head. “I don’t really need that happening.”

“John, you’ve literally formed something called a “Destiny Bond” with her. Isn’t it ok to start feeling again?”

“Zero, do you remember what happened the last time I let my emotions loose? I went on a rampage, attracted the demon lord, and got us both killed. If Prota had died before me, it’s entirely possible I could’ve done a lot more than kill two priests. Do you trust me to think? At all?”

“Yeah, you can’t think. Is that really so different than how you usually are?”

“...”

John gently moved Prota off his shoulder and leaned her against the tree they’d been sitting against. He got up and stretched the kinks out of his neck, looking up into the sky. Zero looked at his physical copy worriedly. There was something John was refusing to admit. Maybe John knew about it and just didn’t want to say it out loud, or was subconsciously suppressing the thought, but there was a second reason he wasn’t letting himself feel, and it had nothing to do with losing control.

“John. you know, you need a partner other than me. Having only yourself for company isn’t exactly a good thing. Most people who have conversations like this are kind of sick in the head.”

“...we’ll see,” John sighed. Zero nodded. The conversation was done.

John looked up at the sky again. It was around noon, which left them half the day to get to the town Elfin had recommended to them. He looked back down at Prota and decided it was probably best to just let her sleep more. He opened the bag he’d been carrying around, which was completely empty, lifted Prota up and put her in the bag. She continued to sleep. Opening up his hoodie, he reached in and pulled out the staff Elfin had given them, even though it shouldn’t have been able to fit in such a small space.

“What’s the point in carrying the bag around?” Zero asked. “Your pocket dimension is more than enough.”

“It’s just convenient,” John shrugged. “I mean, look.”

They both looked at Prota’s head sticking out of the sack.

“You’ve got a point.”

John hefted the bag onto his shoulders as his left eye began to glow. His body alone wouldn’t be able to carry Prota all the way. He put the staff on the ground and began using it as a walking stick.

“...” John stopped one last time and looked up into the sky.

“A partner, huh…?”