Chapter 112: Not a Snitch
While Moon was remembering what he needed to do, Dorbish was taking a stroll. He had been making sure to stay as far away as possible from Roran, who only brought him trouble every time he happened to see him.
After walking for a while, he decided it was time to turn around toward his room...
The dorms of the Normalisation Facility.
"Assistant Uon is a decent guy after all," he said to himself. "He allowed me to move a bed and stay in that empty room on the ground floor." His voice was full of gratitude.
"Anywhere away from that bastard is fine, I guess," he said, almost at his destination.
And there—"Ah!" He couldn’t help exclaiming.
"My... room?"
He barely managed to say the words.
The place where his room had been was smashed, as if it had been hit by a catapult.
Unlike Moon, Dorbish didn’t make a fuss or shout his lungs out about it. He shook his head with a heavy expression.
"Oh, it was his room?"
"Poor guy."
"Now he’s homeless?"
"I guess so."
Passersby saw him, instantly connected the dots, and understood his situation.
"Well, nothing could be done about it."
"Yeah, it was Mishu who did it, and he was chasing Moon."
"Worst combination to settle a score with."
"It’s not bad, just impossible."
"Not entirely, haven’t you heard—"
"Hush, do you want to get yourself killed?"
Dorbish heard every word and knew it was meaningless to try to seek justice for his room. As for the other topic, it had become a heated discussion.
Though it had nothing to do with him.
"I guess I will just have to let it go and accept homelessness," he whispered before walking into the room.
He didn’t bother going through the gates or the door; he just walked through the hole in the wall... it was big enough for people to pass comfortably.
Inside, he pulled out a blanket and bedsheets, full of rubble and dust.
Whip~
Whip~
He whipped them a few times with his impressive strength, sending clouds of dust in every direction before walking away.
He rolled them under his arm and set off on a walk again.
"Guess I’ll need to search for a spot to sleep tonight," he decided, getting moving as soon as possible before Roran came.
He closed his eyes. ’Bro, all rooms are shared by two; let’s stay together.’ Roran’s nagging, annoying voice echoed in his head.
He shrugged it off before speeding away.
On his way to locate a bench, he heard many people discussing the upcoming skirmish ring. Whenever Moon wasn’t around, it was the main discussion.
The plan they came up with might really work.
Not only that, Zera had tried recruiting him to join the plan a few days ago. It was no longer a secret, so he assumed Moon already knew about it.
"Fellow ascender, hope you’ve prepared for this well," he said before his eyes fell on the bench he was aiming to spend the night on.
Except... it was also in rubble.
Sigh~
He exhaled softly and kept walking, searching.
Back in Hall 1, Moon sat down, looking closely at the pendant.
"So, tell me, how did it happen?" he asked the pendant, but it didn’t bother answering him.
He rubbed the rust-like mark on the pendant with his hand. "You gotta let me know. I was sure to make sure my Echo would pass," he said. "Did I mess up?"
He wasn’t sure, but it was unlikely. He was confident in the feeling it gave off... tangible and intangible states of Echo felt completely different.
He didn’t struggle much with it; it just came to him naturally when he needed it, which was the main issue now.
How did it happen?
He closed his eyes, leaned forward, and pinched his nose bridge.
"Did I have my Echo pass through it ever before?" he questioned himself, trying to remember.
Albeit, he couldn’t.
With no other way to test it, he decided to try.
"Here and now!"
His Echo came out of his chest, as usual.
He had it stay suspended in the air.
First, he had his hand pass through it.
"Pass" worked just fine.
Then, he had his shirt pass through it.
"Pass." Another one without any issues.
He stood up, grabbed one piece of chicken popcorn, and placed it on the Echo; now it didn’t pass.
He laid his head below the lump of Echo and opened his mouth.
The popcorn passed through and fell into his mouth.
Crunch~
Munch~
"Pass," he concluded after another successful experiment.
Now for the pendant.
He placed it on the Echo and squinted.
His eyes sharpened.
He gritted his teeth.
"GRRRRR," he growled, making weird noises.
Huff~
Huff~
"What the... huff~ fuck is going on?" He breathed heavily.
He tried to turn his Echo from tangible to intangible back and forth, but the pendant just stayed there, suspended on it for some reason.
He grabbed his shirt and whipped it.
Whoosh~
Whoosh~
"Fuck my life!" he exclaimed, as the shirt passed through his Echo while the pendant stayed suspended.
He could indeed turn a part or section tangible or the other way around, but he was sure as hell he didn’t do that—not right here and now, and definitely not back then.
He placed his hand on his forehead. "Am I sick?" he questioned himself again.
Questioning himself was always the first step before investigating anything else. It was something Moon had been doing naturally for a long time without knowing why or ever questioning it.
Though once he felt like there was nothing wrong with him, he held the pendant firmly in his hand.
"I know I should do my best to keep you safe, but what should I do when you might trick me to death?" he asked it with a very serious face.
Time passed slowly, the pendant lying to Moon’s right and his Echo bouncing to his left... in the middle was the bucket of chicken.
The only sound was the crunching of deep-fried crust.
The golden light passing through his windows was soon gone, replaced by darkness. Night had fallen.
As for the popcorn, "Dammit!" He finally finished it.
"Why is everything so damn frustrating?!" he cursed.
He smacked the bucket aside with one hand before shooting one hand toward the Echo, while the other shot for the pendant.
"PASS THROUGH ALREADY!" He rubbed them in a circular motion against one another, trying to dig a hole through the Echo to make way for the pendant.
Through gritted teeth and curses—
Lots of them.
He was by himself in the room and thought it was fine to let his frustration take over for once.
Then, something happened he never could have expected.
Ding!
Two notifications came simultaneously for the first time in a very long time.
But the two didn’t have the same sound; instead, he got a notification from the forever silent crimson status window.
Before—
A third came, this time from the blue status window of the Tower.
Followed by more and more, something was happening.
He lifted his gaze.
Moon’s eyes brightened beneath the heavy, swollen eyelids of his. His mouth stretched into a long, hideous smile reaching almost to his ears.
Slow and low chuckles escaped his lips, before escalating rapidly.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA, I KNEW MOON THE FREE MAN IS NOT A SNITCH HAHAHAHAHAHA"