Chương 15: R&R Ch. 15 — Cleansing the Soul

Jasmine was not kicking her feet like a schoolgirl as she rolled around in bed reading. She was kicking her feet like a superhero as she watched cute cat videos in bed. It was an important part of the detoxing process. Her soul ached, and she wasn't going to make anything new for ages, especially after she finished the protection jewelry she was definitely not supposed to have made them but she had to get them done before they got costumes. It would have been ridiculous otherwise.

Her lessons had finally begun to click, so her soul was recovering faster than normal, but that didn't mean much. She was being really risky to keep up with the output she wanted, which was going to become a problem if she didn't find a method to discover faster. Nicholas knocked on her doorframe before poking his head inside her room. You would think he would just walk in since the door was open, but no. He still decided to be polite.

"What's up?" Jasmine said, pausing her video and spinning around to face him.

"I was wondering if you were hungry. Dinner is ready?" Nicholas offered giving her an odd look.

"Really? You rarely cook lunch and dinner for both of us?" Jasmine asked, sitting up to give him a suspicious look. There was something going on here; she could feel it.

"You seemed off today. You didn't go to any of your lessons today and didn't bother me with the hand to hand combat training." Nicholas said, ticking the points off of his fingers.

"So I wanted to do something for you." Jasmine waffled between telling him he didn't need to do anything because she didn't want to be a burden and accepting whatever he would be willing to offer because it would help with her soul damage. Her stomach growled loudly, which was the deciding vote.

"I would love to, want to watch a movie or play a game or something afterwards?" Jasmine asked, most of her hope out of her voice.

"Uh yeah we can, why?" Jasmine wilted. Was it really that odd?

"I am really struggling with soul damage and could use the comfort." Jasmine said, hoping he wouldn't ask for more details than that. Nicholas tilted his head to the side, considering her for a long moment.

"And I am the only one you know here?" He knew some things about soul damage, mostly that it was easier healed by spending time with those close to you and resting. Apparently, souls resonated with each other; the closer you were to the person, the better, and that resonance spurred on regeneration. He had also learned that souls not close to one another could cause a negative resonance, hurting them more. So, Nicholas had tried to give Jasmine space unless asked. She was the soul smith.

"What do you want to watch?" Nicholas asked, done mulling over his thoughts on the matter.

"Just like that?"

"We are teammates. And friends. Of course, come on, I am starving." Nicholas said, heading to the kitchen. Jasmine agreed, trailing after him. Once dinner was had, some kind of chili dish Jasmine didn't recognize the duo returned to the front room to use the barely utilized tv. Nicholas also handed Jasmine the book she had been perusing earlier.

"I know you said watch something, but I figured just in case." Nicholas then sat down on the couch, hand-held console in one hand and remote in the other.

"Really going for that together-separately vibe." Jasmine joked, sitting next to him and cradling the book in her arms. They didn't need to be this close for the resonance, but she enjoyed being next to people. After much scrolling, they settled on something they both had seen before. Neither planned on talking that much, but something familiar was easy. Nicholas leaned against Jasmine as he played his game, his face locked in an expression of concentration as he sought to vanquish his enemies.

Jasmine was enjoying the show. It was an old one from long before the introduction of the hero and Beyonder systems. And yet even back then, humanity had dreamed of superheroes. It was fascinating. And absolutely different from modern superhero shows. In these stories, not even all of them had powers, but they had to do the impossible anyway to save the day. That was the kind of hero she wanted to be.

"You'll get there," Nicholas said, not looking up from his game.

"Whar?"

"You're looking at them with absolute envy and desire; it seems pretty clear you want to be like them at some point, maybe even that's the type of hero you want to be in totality. We'll get there. Another three weeks and we'll be free to go. It's not like we actually need to accept having a mentor." Nicholas said with a shrug. She hadn't considered just blowing off the mentor totally. She always knew that her family would provide her one even if she didn't want to use those resources.

And now with the scores they had gotten, it wasn't like they had to worry about getting someone less than ideal for their work. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. And Nicholas was suggesting that they just blow them off entirely and do it all on their own.

"I don't think we should go that far. So long as they understand our goals, I don't think we need to fully do it on our own," Jasmine found herself saying. Despite not being interested, there were a lot of good things that could come from a mentor or even just working with a team. While often ephemeral, you could be at a tier of power for years, even decades in the later stages, so just doing it all on their own was a risk she didn't want to take.

"I suppose that makes sense. There could be a lot of problems if we just tried and did it all on our own. The authority issues are going to be a problem even if we pretend they're not going to." Nicholas said in agreement. That soured her mood as well. Authority was going to be a problem for both of them; that was just how it was for people with their kinds of powers. They could do anything they set their minds to, which meant that there were many things others would stop them from doing.

Jasmine could power through it easier because her dominion over souls, or at least her own soul, was near absolute. And Nicholas could get around it easily with just changing the words, but they couldn't do both. If Jasmine wasn't strong enough to power through, she was doomed, because she could only have the weapons that she had already prepared and had out. Nicholas would never have the power to break through the barriers that they needed to. An option flitted through Jasmine's mind, but she decided against it.

The risks were too high, and they weren't going to need to do something like that yet. They could take the easier routes to power for now.

"What kind of hero do you want to be?" Jasmine asked, the question coming out before she could think to stop it.

"You're very different from anyone I've met. You got here on your own, so I was wondering."

"I'm not sure yet. I want to make a difference. And I want to save people. But I don't actually know what or who I want to be."

"And you still got super powers?"

"You don't need to know the destination to try and chart the course to a better world. Or even to be a better person." Nicholas said, shrugging slowly.

"Weird."

"I don't think so. Beyond being a hero like from the old stories, and not being who your family wants you to be, do you have any plan for what you want to be?" Nicholas asked, almost laughing.

"That's different." Jasmine denied. When he put it like that, it really wasn't all that different. She knew the broad strokes, but it wasn't like she knew where she was going. Though Nicholas was wrong about one thing.

"I don't know if I specifically want to be not my grandma. I'm still figuring that out. It's not that I don't like some of the things she's laid out for me. I just want to do it my way and earn it."

"Want to try and deny all of those nepo baby allegations?" Nicholas asked, snorting.

"I do, but I won't really be able to prove that till we're at the fourth stage. So we should go fast if we want to accomplish our dreams." Jasmine said, nudging him with an elbow.

"I've never once planned on slowing down." Jasmine's attention turned over to the new tests they would face soon. The last two weeks didn't have them in the arena just fighting monsters but something substantially more. They would fight monsters, sure, but instead of fighting them in the vacuum, they would do it while screaming fans were at their back to fight live in front of an audience. She had been to more than one to watch, and she knew she and Nicholas were in for a show.

Everyone wanted to see and be saved by the newest sensation.

"You ready for it?" Jasmine asked quietly.

"We have to be right? There's no other option, so we're just going to prove that we're the strongest heroes around at our tier," Nicholas said, raising a hand and clenching it into a fist as he thought about it. Jasmine wished they actually had other options, but no, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. They were either going to be strong enough that they didn't have to worry about it or they wouldn't.

"Want to take a bet on who's going to kill more Beyonders?" Jasmine asked teasingly.

"Sure, I'll take that bet," Nicholas said, twisting around to give her a sneaky smile.

"You know I don't think we should take a bet about something so important as this and saving lives. We're already under enough pressure; we don't need to do anything else," Jasmine said, hedging her bets. There was a chance Nicholas was taking the bet knowing that he was going to lose. And there was also the chance he was taking the bet knowing that he would win easily. For all she knew, he had made power word lawnmower that cut monsters like grass. She would not risk playing a rigged game.

"So you only wanted to take bets that you were confident you would win?" Nicholas teased.

"No, I only take bets where I'm confident that you weren't going to cheat." Nicholas laughed before putting on a hurt expression.

"You think I was going to cheat?" Jasmine almost buckled. The hurt in his expression was genuine. Almost.

"I was definitely going to, so that's a good call."

"How?"

"Power word last hit."

"That's two words."

"You're never going to get the secret out of me. Though I've been working on more combat options." Nicholas admitted. Jasmine wasn't surprised. So far he had been making most of his progress with Up, Down, Impact, Barrier, and his most recent trick, Maximize, which he used to supercharge her abilities in fights where he couldn't help that much.

"What were you working on?"

"Mostly utility stuff, I wanted something to use that would work on people who could resist up or down. And I have something that was inspired by Call. Though not sure if I'm comfortable using it yet," Nicholas said, tapping his fingers against his knee.

"You can try on me?" Jasmine offered.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure now, magic me!"" Hesitate" A second later, Jasmine shook her head before looking at him strangely.

"Did that do anything?"

"Looks like it worked."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you stalled for like a second, maybe less." Nicholas explained.

"I have a lot of things I'm not comfortable doing with my power, but hitting pause briefly on someone I thought would be acceptable. Just a second of hesitation for us to take advantage of," Nicholas said, looking away.

"We'll put it on ice for now. I'm sure you want to test it more before we use it. We can handle this normally," Jasmine said, answering the unasked question. Nicholas nodded.

"Thank you."

"Always now anything else we need to plan out or do you think it's back to the movie and games?" Jasmine asked jokingly.

"Well, I wanted to see what your thoughts were about travel? I know lots of supers, especially new ones, stay in place to learn the ropes, but I don't want to stay still. I want to see more of the world."

"Definitely, I want to visit the territory of the other Pinnacles. We are here in Equilibrium's for training so we can stay here easily. Then we could for sure explore Brynhild's territory." Nicholas nodded. Happy with the answer and content that they would be able to fulfill his wishes as well. They both sat there enjoying the movie as they thought about the world to come. In a few days, they would officially be helping save people, even if it was in a controlled environment.

Jasmine couldn't wait, and she knew her friend was the same.