The Hidden World

Yuna sat on the couch in her dorm as she tried to figure out what her next course of action was. Today was the scheduled day for her next report. She had gotten better at giving them at the correct time, mainly because nothing happened the last two months.

‘But how much am I supposed to say?’ she thought.

She had taken up Yuki’s offer to watch him train. Two nights ago, she snuck out of her room and walked to the training room. When Yuna reached it, she was surprised when the door opened by itself. She didn’t know that the Combat Hall was still open late at night. She had thought that Yuki was breaking in somehow.

Entering the hall, she immediately noticed that one of the two training rooms had the words “In Use” projected on it. She went to it and cracked open the door, the sound of music instead of combat hitting her ears.

There in the middle of a simulation was Yuki. In his hands was a staff almost as tall as he was. Surrounding him were five holographic enemies that each wielded different weapons.

‘He’s going to fight that many?’ Yuna thought.

“Simulation Starting,” Raphael announced, its soft voice easily heard over the music.

The moment the last syllable ended, the five holograms moved and four of them charged at Yuki. The fifth stood back and notched an arrow onto its long bow. Yuki raised his own staff and started to hopping to the beat of the song. When the four came into his reach, he started his attack.

For the next ten minutes, Yuna watched as Yuki wove a complex dance that was in sync with beat of the music that played. He whirled to avoid fatal slices and his staff spun at high speeds to bat away eager weapons and even arrows that flew at him.

As he blocked, he simultaneously gave out attacks. With one end of the staff he would knock aside a sword and with the other end hit the ribs of a hologram that held a knife. And he didn’t attack with only his weapon. While his hands were occupied with the staff, he also used his legs to strike out at his opponents. He landed kicks powerful enough to push back anyone that got near and swung his staff to block any attacks that were sent his way.

Yuki ended his dance with a grand finale. When the hologram that used a sword swung, he pushed it in the direction of the swing and through the hologram off balance. Then with a strike downward strike, he smashed the skull of the falling enemy. This strike smoothly transitioned to a quick spin that batted away a fist and ramming the offending hologram in the neck. Not bothering to look whether or not the enemy fell, Yuki jumped at the precise time of a drum hit and dodged an incoming arrow. He crouched as he landed and swept his staff. It hit the legs of the knife wielding hologram and knocked it over. Then he swung up and his staff hit the chin of the fourth enemy before striking down at the one he had tripped.

Once the four around him had been incapacitated, Yuki leisurely jogged to the bowman. He dodged another arrow then with one powerful swing hit the stomach then the the head of the hologram.

“Simulation Finished. The Challenger wins,” Raphael announced. “Level 5-9 has been completed.”

Thinking back to that scene now, Yuna was still amazed at Yuki’s prowess in fighting. But when she spoke to him about it after the simulation, Yuki told her that this was only average for an adult elf.

‘And he’s right. I could do that as well,’ Yuna thought. ‘It’s just that I was surprised that a human could win that easily.’

And now she had to make a decision. A decision on whether or not to report this and all of Yuki’s other actions to her captain.

‘I have to tell the captain, it’s my duty.’

But Yuna felt a deep uneasiness as she thought this. The words that Yuki had told her when he invited her to watch echoed through her mind. The words that told her to keep this all a secret.

‘I never had to keep a secret for a friend before.’

Though she wasn’t sure on how Yuki felt about her, she considered him her one and only friend. The captain was her captain. The others at the LIA were only fellow associates that were forced to work with her because she was a cadet. Yuki was someone that she could talk to and someone who was willing to talk to her. He never turned her away whenever she came by and even though he was cold most of the time, he never disregarded her.

‘And he didn’t report me for trespassing or sneaking out at night.’

Yuna didn’t know what would happen to Yuki if she told her captain everything that she had discovered. Would Yuki be left alone? Would he be kept under greater scrutiny? Or would the captain see him as a threat because of his strength?

‘I don’t want Yuki to be hurt,’ Yuna realised. ‘I want to keep him safe. I want to keep my friend safe.’

These two things tore at Yuna’s mind. Does she complete her duty and report everything? Or should she do what she can to protect her only friend?

‘Wait. If I don’t report everything then that was to keep Yuki’s trust in me. If I say it then that would hurt my relationship with Yuki, right? And my mission was to be as close to him as possible.’

With that thought, she made up her mind. Then she hit the call symbol on the projected screen in front of her.

“Hello, Cadet. What’s the report for today?” the voice of the captain greeted her.

“There was an attempt to steal the Blazing Jewel of Fire during the annual Academy Tournament,” Yuna said. “The attempt seems to have been successful as the jewel was not recovered. However, the person that stole the jewel was killed when they fled and their body was found in the forest. The body belonged to Nataru Katem, an instructor at the Academy. He seems to have been part of the Shikaku.”

“Good brief and concise report, Cadet,” the captain said. “This is good to know. Before I leave, I want your opinion on something. What do you think of the human’s performance in the tournament?”

Yuna’s breathing faltered for a second before she regained control.

“It surprised me but ultimately it seems to be more of his opponent’s fault for underestimating him,” she replied. “Yuki seemed very tired after each battle and he even withdrew from the third round.”

“Mmm, I see. Well, thank you for your opinion,” the captain said. “Is there anything else you want to report? Anything odd or surprising? Anything new?”

Yuna flashed back to the night where Yuki saved her in that instructor’s room. Then to the night before, Yuna watching Yuki dance a deadly waltz in the middle of the training room. And finally to the multitude of talks they had with each other, theorizing about the investigation.

“No, sir. Nothing.”