《To Midnight》Kingmaker — Chapter 38: What We’re Made Of
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He didn’t know how long he waited. The entire time he sat in his cell, Vincent continued to look up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what felt off about him. Even though he felt somewhat normal and warm, he could tell that something about him wasn’t as it usually was. Maybe he was just tired?
As he sat there, he heard the cell door open again. He slowly looked in that direction and found a slightly dirty Fang. It looked as if they had either just fallen on the ground and tried to wipe it off, or they were in a tussle with some stranger.
“Welcome back,” Vincent plainly said.
Closing the door behind them, Fang softly replied, “Oh thanks. How are you feeling?”
Vincent just looked a little past Fang. “I’m doin’ just fine.”
“Ok, that’s good.”
“Yeah.”
Fang then walked across their cell and sat down. No one really talked for a few seconds. The heavy and awkward hair just hung above the both of them. It never went away; it just lingered there.
“Fuck it,” Vincent casually sighed. “So is it true you’re fightin’ in this thing, or what?”
Fang recoiled back a bit and shook their head in surprise. “W-Where did you hear that?”
“Who cares?” Vincent replied with a neutral smile. “You never told me that you were gonna enter.”
“W-Well I didn’t think I need to tell you th—”
“AHA!” Vincent explained, immediately standing up. “Gotcha! So you did enter the tournament.”
“Yeah, I did, but the reason I—”
“What the hell, dude? I thought we were partners, like Rocky and Mickey, Bonnie and Clyde, Mac and Cheese…”
“Would you just listen to me!?” Fang loudly interrupted.
Vincent immediately shut up.
“Yes. Yes I did enter the tournament. But I want you to hear me out.”
Vincent sat down on the ground, crisscrossed his legs, and stared at his orange-haired friend, expectantly.
With a sigh, Fang began to explain themselves. “Recently—actually, it was the day after I met you and your friends in the Silver Hall—I found myself with a strange feeling.”
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“A strange feeling?” Vincent asked.
“Yeah, it was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but it was always nagging at the back of my head.” They scratched the back of their head as they said that. “But it wasn’t until we talked to your friend, Eliot, that—”
“Our friend,” Vincent corrected.
Seemingly taken back a bit, Fang took a few seconds to respond to that. “Um, yeah, but anyway, when we talked to Eliot after Berserkir awakened in him, something clicked for me.”
Fang then stood up and walked to the other side of the cell and looked at his hands. “When he was describing how Berserkir felt inside of his mind, it sounded just like what I was experiencing.”
“Oh really? So do you have a Berserkir inside of you?”
“Kind of?” Fang answered, their serious demeanor cracking just a bit with a smile. “So that night, after you went to sleep, I experimented with something. I let that flip-flopping feeling in my head run free. As I did, it appeared.”
As they said that, a translucent shimmer appeared on both of their forearms. After a few seconds, it became more and more real and solid. Resting on both of their forearms were two circular, metal discs, about a foot in diameter. The dips and grooves in the discs seemed both natural and unnatural, while also completely alien.
“Woah,” was all Vincent could say in response. “What is it?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but I also do,” Fang replied, squinting as they stared at the discs. “Unlike every other Apparator I've seen, these don’t seem to be alive.”
“Huh, I guess that’s true.” Vincent’s mind then pivoted to something that actually interested him. “So what do they do? What are they called?”
“Oh,” they started to reply, “I haven’t actually thought about what to name them.”
“Well,” Vincent said, now standing up, right next to Fang, “they kinda look like those dish things that people have on their houses.”
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“Dish things?”
“Yeah! Those things that I see old people have on their RVs when they camp.”
Fang just looked at him with the most confused expression possible.
Seeing the look on their face, Vincent elaborated further. “Ya know, like the things that shoot waves up at the metal things that orbit around space.”
“You mean Satellite Dishes?”
Snapping his fingers, Vincent replied, “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about.”
Fang smiled a bit and let out a sigh. “I mean, they don’t look like that at all, but I can see where you’re coming from—they do look like some kind of electronic eye.”
“That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“The name! You should name your ability Electronic Eye.”
Fang looked down at the discs and nodded their head in a very huh, I guess so kind of way. They then looked back up at Vincent and said, “Honestly, that’s not a bad name. I think I’ll go with that for now.”
“Of course it is!” Vincent proudly proclaimed. “So what do they do?”
“Oh!” Fang jumped. “Yeah, I forgot about that. These things…” they looked directly at Vincent, “the Electronic Eyes vibrate.”
“Well, first of all, that’s kinda kinky,” Vincent smugly responded. “And secondly, that isn't very special. Hell, I can shake around without needing giant discs.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that they vibrate more than just a little shake. I could rumble the ground and even send projectiles launching from one of these things.”
“Ooooooooo,” Vincent said in pure amazement. He just stared at the Electronic Eyes for a solid 2 minutes, not saying a thing.
“Um,” Fang said, disrupting the trance-like state Vincent was in, “you asked me about why I entered the tournament, right?”
“What? Oh yeah, I forgot about that part.”
Disapparating the discs, Fang facepalmed. “Of course you did.”
“So why did you enter?”
“Well, I figured that we had a better chance of winning if there were two of us in the tournament, rather than just one.”
“Makes sense to me.”
“Now you’re probably wondering why I—wait, you’re satisfied with that answer?”
“Yep, it makes sense to me.”
“I…” Fang was just left speechless for a few moments. “Anyways, I should tell you that I am actually still in the tournament, so we’ll probably meet each other really soon.”
“Awesome! We can really test out how strong we are and how well our training has been going.”
Fang raised their eyebrows and then smiled a bit. “You know what? You’re right. And I bet that that moment is right around the corner.”
Excited and a bit puzzled, Vincent asked, “Why do you say that?”
With a sly grin, they replied “Let’s just say, while you were staring at the ceiling, a little birdy told me that we’re paired up for the next round.” They then raised a finger in the air. “And because of this, you have a free shot to the finals.”
Vincent’s eyes went wide for a second. “What are you talking about?”
“The next match is one of two semi-final matches. The other fight being Marezi against some guy named Jotaro.”
“Well then,” Vincent said, extending an arm out toward Fang, “let’s have a good fight”
Fang just looked at him and replied “Wouldn’t it be easier for me to just throw the match, that way you are in better shape for your fight against Marezi?”
A bit repulsed by the suggestion, Vincent laughed a bit. “Where’s the fun in that?” he honestly stated. “I wanna fight for real. Let’s see what we’re made of.”
Fang just looked at Vincent for a while. Eventually, they replied, “You know what? Yeah, let’s see.” They shook his hand.
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