Natasha the Halve

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, hugging the Oni for dear life.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” she just laughed.

“I ALREADY DIED ONCE!!” I complained as we fell into the dark void. “NOW I'M GOING TO DIE AGAIN!!”

Yolin laughed harder.

“AAAAHH!!!” I screamed again and closed my eyes. “I DON'T WANT TO DIE!”

We spun in the air as we dropped, picking up speed the longer we fell.

“You wont die, Natasha!” Yolin retorted next to my ear in an amused tone. “It will hurt, sure... but death is not waiting for us down there.”

I did my best to avoid throwing insults at the Oni. “AHH! TRUST NOTHING! BETRAYAL IS FOREVER!”

“Open your eyes, Natasha!” she pushed.

“NO!” I shouted back. “I'M GOING TO DIE OF A HEART ATTACK, YOU SMOOTH BRAIN ONI!”

“NATASHA!” she shouted in my face.

I opened my eyes and saw her angry face.

Quite pretty, I must add.

She grabbed my face and headbutted me, then shouted, “ON THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR LIES GREATNESS!”

“I KNOW! BUT IT'S FUCKING HARD!” I shouted back.

“THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT, YOU DUMBASS!” she retorted in exasperation, then released me.

“FUCK!” I retorted and spun around, facing down. “SHIT!”

“TRY LANDING ON YOUR FEET!” she instructed, fixing her position.

I tried doing as she told me, but ended up spinning around.

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!” she announced and started laughing.

“YOU'RE ENJOYING THIS TOO MUCH!” I accused her.

The ground entered my glow's range and we immediately crashed on it. The rock broke and I sank into it like it was snow.

My body went completely numb and the air in my lungs got pushed out.

The sound of the impact was as loud as an explosion that echoed in the chasm.

Did I die? I wondered, feeling nothing. Did I snap my spine?

“I told you to land on your feet,” Yolin's voice reached me. “And see? We didn't die.”

“I think I broke my back,” I groaned. “I can't feel my legs... or my entire body.”

The Oni chuckled. “Well, you have Ignore Pain,” she pointed out.

I pushed myself off the ground and looked around. My fall had made a hole in the rock.

“Check your status for any damage,” Yolin suggested, standing next to me.

I did and found my health points to be unchanged. “What the fuck?” I muttered in relieved surprise.

“See?” Yolin insisted. “No need to be scared of heights.”

I sighed and laid on my back. “Ah, yes. I am no longer scared of heights,” I muttered in monotone.

She smiled and offered me a hand. “Let's find diamonds so I can rearrange your insides, then,” she chuckled.

I sat up and took her hand. “Do you know how diamonds look like when raw?”

She pulled me up and grabbed my face. “I have an idea,” she muttered and opened my eyes with her fingers. “Look to your right,” she instructed.

I did. “What's up? I wasn't injured by the fall.”

“Nerves and some blood vessels are too tiny to register as health point loss if damaged or severed,” she explained, inspecting my eyes. “Now look to your left.”

I moved my eyes and sighed. “Can't you use the Cleric scan skill to check?”

“I could if you were an Oni,” she explained and wobbled my head to the sides. “Any dizziness?”

“Nope,” I replied. “So the scan is not universal?”

She released me and shook her head. “Not really. I can see basic information but nothing too specific. The scan shows you're healthy but that only means you won't die without healing. It would show the same if you lose a finger, for example.”

I stared at her in confusion. “Didn't you see I have both genitals, though?”

She nodded. “That's... basic information as I said. I know you have two lungs, a stomach, a heart, a liver, kidneys, a brain... You know, organs required to live. Your skin, eyes, nerves, veins, bones, marrow, and more are foggy because you're a Halve. Your immune system is confusing, too,” she added, then sighed. “I won't even mention your E'er receptors, those are an absolutely confusing monster.”

I squinted at her. “How does the whole...” I gestured at my crotch, “work?”

“No clue,” she replied with a shrug. “I'm not familiar with the coding.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Coding?”

Yolin's eyes widened a little. “You don't know about that?”

“No, wait,” I interjected, raising my hands. “I know about DNA. I meant, like, if the code is there, shouldn't the function be obvious?”

The Oni's face turned to confusion. “DNA? What's that?”

I took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “I don't remember what it means,” I admitted. “But it's the thing that has the information inside the cells.”

She nodded and pointed at me. “Yeah, that. My scan is not as good as Alyssa's, so I can't glimpse at the function.”

“I see,” I uttered with a nod, then rubbed my chin. “Why?”

“I'm not a healer, Natasha,” she replied with an amused smile and a carefree shrug. “Other than to scan myself, it has no real use.”

I nodded in understanding. “Well, that was a tangent,” I chuckled.

She laughed and pushed me. “Let's get going, then,” she cheered.

I giggled and pushed back.

The ground was an inclined slope that went on into the darkness.

“Alright,” I sighed and walked to the wall.

Yolin followed me and helped me search for diamonds. “We can safely assume they took all the gold,” she commented, running a hand over the wall. “This is too flat to be natural.”

I eyed the wall along the pit and noticed it was as polished as a mirror. “Machines?” I wondered.

“Nah,” Yolin denied with a shake of her head. “Geomancers. They use nikontia to dissolve the rock and then remove the metals. Saves time and E'er.”

“How do you know?” I inquired, stabbing the rock with a finger.

“I read about it, naturally,” she chuckled. “Boredom does wonders.”

“I see.” I nodded. “How do we find diamonds, then?”

She turned to me and smiled. “We look for holes where they took gold from, then check for diamonds around them. Gold is more valuable than diamond, after all. I'm sure they left it behind.”

“Alright, then... let's get to it,” I sighed.

“Together?” she offered and gestured at me. “I don't glow.”

I nodded with a smile. “Together.”

We took off and walked along the wall until we found a hole and went in. We had no luck there. For the following hours we scoured the pit in search of the precious stone. We found gold in small amounts, some with the milky white crystal, most by itself in small chunks.

I stored those for Sonya.

After a while we reached the bottom of the slope and the opposite wall.

Our steps splashed water, most likely the one that got released in the shaft.

“That's odd,” I commented, looking down at my feet. “There should be way more water here.”

Yolin walked forward and hummed, then turned to me. “That means there's a hole around here. Maybe a few holes, even.”

“Okay,” I agreed and produced a Water Breathing elixir.

“No, don't,” she walked to me and put a hand on the cork. “That elixir allows to to breathe underwater.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Duh?”

“I mean, water full of heavy minerals,” she pointed out. “That will clog your lungs and asphyxiate you.”

“Ah,” I uttered.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Sooo,” I stored the elixir and hummed. “We'll just hold our breaths?”

Yolin nodded and turned around, then walked to a spot near the wall. “I'll go into this one,” she announced and produced a white stone.

I walked around and found another hole under the water. “This one's mine, then.”

“Mhm,” she hummed and took a deep breath, then jumped into the water.

“But I float, though,” I complained by myself. “Oh, well.” I shrugged and replaced my clothes with a swimsuit, then jumped in the water.

Just as expected, I floated.

I clicked my tongue and spread my arms, then used the sides of the hole to push myself down.

The hole went deep into the ground, slightly turning every five meters.

I stabbed the stone sides and pushed myself while looking around.

Everything was the same gray rock.

I pushed myself deeper into the former gold vein, feeling the stone and stabbing my fingers into it.

After a few moments of searching my right fingers didn't go into the stone side, which made my hand slip.

I panicked a little and used every point of strength to pierce the rock, which made it give in and crack, revealing a glass-like material.

I'll take a deus ex machina, thank you very much! I thought with a smile and turned to face the crystal. I used my legs and left arm to support myself in the hole, then placed my right hand on the material and used 2000 points of strength to push it.

The stone around it cracked under the pressure. It was a rough, uneven rock the size of a bowling ball, around 20 cm wide.

I frowned but shrugged. Whatever, a buttplug is good, too, I sighed in my mind and moved the thing around to loosen it. It came off and I stored it with a smile. I stuck a hand on the hole and pushed the sides, using the same amount of strength.

The rock gave in and broke in small pieces that fell into the bottom side of the hole.

I grabbed one by one and squished them in my hand, trying to find more of it. Only two didn't break, but they were tiny.

Disappointment filled my young heart.

Nevertheless, I continued with the same tactics of pushing with two thousand strength while going deeper into the hole.

Things were turning grim and I was growing worried about how long I could hold my breath when I came across a large section of the hole that stuck out in a round shape. It was the size of an inflatable beach ball.

Oh, Gods! Let this be diamond! I prayed and spread my legs to support myself and avoid going up, which at that point was towards my feet. I grabbed the large rock with both hands and moved it around to remove it.

The thing broke in three pieces, much to my horror. They were still a respectable size which made my tummy itch in raunchy expectation.

I quickly stored them with a big, thirsty smile, then let go of the walls and let myself float to the surface.

There, Yolin was sitting with a huge, smug face.

“How did it go?” I inquired while climbing out of the hole.

“You won't believe it,” she chuckled and produced a towel. “I just got out, too.”

I laughed and clapped. “I thought diamonds were supposed to be tiny, but I found some big chunks!” I cheered.

“Hoooh?” She arched an eyebrow and smirked. “Show me.”

I retrieved the ones I managed to find and put them on the ground. “How's that?” I gave the woman a cocky smile.

Her face turned unimpressed. “Are you sure that's diamond?”

“Not really,” I admitted, looking at the ugly, dark gray rock. “They didn't break with two thousand strength, though.”

She hummed and nodded, then picked the biggest one which was around thirty centimeters wide. “Decent,” she commented. “It will turn out way smaller after cutting it, though.”

Once again, disappointment filled my hopeful heart.

“However,” she turned to me with a toothy grin. “You'll think the one I found should be impossible to form.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Why?”

She raised her arms and produced a rock the size of an adult person, then placed it on the ground next to her.

My eyes widened in absolute shock. “...How?” was the only thing I could get out.

She shrugged. “I'm sure it's a bunch of big ones clumped together instead of one big diamond, but still...” she tapped the top and laughed. “The size of this thing is amazing!”

It was my absolute defeat and I was at a complete loss for words. “Can it get that big?” I voiced my disbelief.

She nodded. “They wont be pretty, but that's beside the point, right?”

“True...” I sighed, excitement turned into something else.

Yolin walked to me and lifted my chin. “What's wrong?”

I shrugged. “It turned out way too easy,” I muttered. “Like, I don't know... I expected a legendary battle or something.”

“You faced two of your greatest fears, Natasha.” The Oni took my face in her hands and pulled my cheeks. “I think that's reward enough. Don't you think so too?”

“Yeah... you're right,” I chuckled with a nod.

“Now we have to climb all the way up,” she concluded with a smile.

My smile evaporated instantly.