Chương 68: R&R2 Ch. 7 — Co-Existence

Nicholas returned to their room exhausted; the goliath had actually ended up being the easy part of the shift. Three more times something broke through for him and Jasmine to deal with, and each time they had been running on empty. None of them were truly difficult, but it made the day a slog when you put it all together like that.

"So, was I right?" Jasmine asked, flopping onto the couch beside him.

"You were right," Nicholas agreed.

"I know the idea to use Finisher as a finishing move word was absolute genius on my part, and I'm sure the idea is what led you to combo. So I am a genius," Jasmine laughed.

"It did," Nicholas said to confirm her suspicions.

"Dang."

"What's up?" Nicholas asked, looking over to his partner.

"I just realized that we don't know who won because most of the shift we had to fight giant monsters and then we fought optimally to conserve energy." Jasmine said with a dramatic sigh.

"No, not true. I lost." Nicholas said, correcting her.

"Oh, what do you mean?" Jasmine asked curious.

"Turns out in the heat of the moment it can be really hard to come up with new words to use when I know the perfect one and I've built habits for it." Nicholas shrugged.

"You're willingly admitting defeat to do something you probably don't want to do?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. Nicholas turned to face her fully, meeting her eyes.

"I'm willingly admitting defeat because I lost. And I trust you, so I don't mind giving you a day to do as you please." Jasmine gasped dramatically, clutching a hand to her chest.

"This young maiden's heart is fragile; you can't do that to her."

"And this young knight thought they were courting already; he will endeavor to adjust his behaviour." They glanced at each other for a moment before both started to laugh. Nicholas levered himself to his feet and moved to the kitchenette.

"Let's call your day in two days when we're off again?" Nicholas said as he pulled out simple ingredients to cook with. Normally, both of them were happy to just take the free food, but there was something comforting about homemade meals after a long day's work, even if they had brought back food in case he hadn't felt like cooking. Jasmine turned the TV on, settling for a show that she and Nicholas had both deemed acceptable, even if it wasn't quite to either of their tastes; compromise was the name of that game.

"Dinner is served," Nicholas said, placing her plate in front of her and taking his own seat, now far away and out of arm's reach.

"Where do you think Rend it?"

"His shift is for the night patrol since Beyonders tend to be stronger at night," Nicholas said with a shrug. Jasmine wanted to correct him because that wasn't actually the reason nocturnal Beyonders were generally stronger, but the reason mattered less than the result.

"You would think he would want to be on shift with us, being our mentor and all. He's trying to train us, isn't he?" Jasmine asked. Nicholas raised an eyebrow, staring at her. Nicholas was certain Jasmine was planning something, but he just couldn't figure out what.

"He's trying to teach us self-reliance, so why would he be on the same schedule as us? We need to fight on our own."

"That almost sounded respectful."

"I respect him just fine; he's strong, capable, and a good mentor for what I am looking for right now. I also, just think he's an idiot. History says that the path only has room for one. But just because something has always been done that way doesn't mean it always will. It's considered impossible to get to Pinnacle already, right? What's the difference between impossible and impossible? Nothing, and we've seen the first one be done." Nicholas said after a minute to put his thoughts together.

They weren't that deep, but finding the right words had taken some time.

"Is it really that impossible to get to Pinnacle?" Jasmine asked curious.

"Uncle Ben didn't talk about it like it was that hard." Nicholas paused, thinking as several tumblers fell into place before slapping a palm to his forehead." Blank""Sorry," Jasmine said after she was sure the process was done.

"No need, I told you I'm doing this of my own volition, so don't feel bad. Whatever made me think about it probably isn't that important." They fell into silence as they ate, watching the TV show. Nicholas, for his part, was internally mulling over what words he tried that day that had worked well enough that it could be good to build them in that direction. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Jasmine?"

"Yeah?"

"What are your thoughts for your next suit of armor being speed-based?" Nicholas asked, spinning his butter knife between his fingers.

"Why? I already hit rank three?" Jasmine asked.

"Search and rescue, set up the helmet to see and hear things normal people couldn't, then make the rest of the suit juice up your speed. I was just thinking it would be a good setup." Nicholas said idly. It wasn't a bad idea, and it was the kind of work Jasmine liked doing; she was a superhero and she wanted to save people.

"Wouldn't phasing or teleporting work better for all of that?" Jasmine asked.

"Probably, but I don't know how either of those work. Speed is pretty easy to understand," Nicholas admitted with a laugh.

"You're struggling with making teleportation or phasing power words, aren't you," Jasmine said, scooting closer to better give him the look.

"I wouldn't say I am particularly struggling with them," Nicholas said, looking away from her.

"Liar," Jasmine said, lording over her superiority.

"You can't prove a thing," Nicholas said with the confidence of a man who hadn't thought this through. Jasmine had only wrestled him for a minute while assaulting him with tickling before Nicholas gave up.

"I give, I give, please just stop!" Nicholas begged, gasping for breath as he tried to stop giggling.

"Then tell me what I want to know," Jasmine said, still holding her hands above Nicholas's head. She wasn't going to get tricked out of her information this time.

"Okay okay I can't figure out phasing or teleporting both I have been trying more or less since I first got my powers, so I just didn't think about them when I suggested the idea for you," Nicholas said once he had recovered enough to speak clearly. Jasmine was struck with two realizations, which was two too many apparently, since Nicholas escaped as she mulled them over.

"What's that look for?" Nicholas asked, now sitting on the recliner away from the couch to escape her clutches.

"I was just thinking that I didn't think it was possible for you to admit you can't do something. If I asked you to do something, you would just say give me some time." Jasmine explained hugging a pillow to her chest.

"I can't do everything, but I am going to crack teleportation and phasing, eventually. I just don't know how."

"I was also thinking that I had forgotten how much stronger you are now."

"Yeah, I'm E-Rank just like you."

"No not that, when we spar it's easy to remember you've been improving but like this when you're still in regular clothes it's easy to remember you before all of this." Jasmine said wanting to get the other one out of the way.

"I'm still smaller than you, weaker than you, and less toned than you," Nicholas said, ticking the points off his fingers.

"I'm still me; I just can now run a mile without getting winded."

"I guess," Jasmine said noncommittally.

"You are a strange girl, Jasmine," Nicholas said out of the blue.

"I am not!" The next two days passed in a blur as Nicholas and Jasmine both adjusted to their new abilities. Even if the odd ranks were more often defined by what you could now do, instead of improvements at the previous levels, they weren't lacking in that department either. Nicholas's new speed let him chain more words together, and the deeper pools let him fight longer.

Jasmine might have gotten the most gains from it; however, with no longer needing to make up for her physical weakness, all of her equipment got a massive spike in power. Between the two of them, they could handle anything in the area of the train they were defending. They even got called up a few times to cover gaps, which was rewarding for both of them.

The instant increase in difficulty pushed them harder and let them flourish with their new power, finally facing a consistent deluge of enemies on par with them or better, instead of mostly weaker than them.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Nicholas asked, pulling on a sweatshirt as he left his room, to see Jasmine already waiting for him, breakfast burritos in hand that she must have picked up.

"Whatever could you mean?" Jasmine asked, grinning.

"You know how it's your day, you're in charge, get to make all the decisions and I am just a passenger for the ride I'm sure you planned something for it," Nicholas said taking his burrito with a quick thanks before sitting down.

"If I need to change into nicer clothes, just let me know and I can do that fast."

"Nope, your outfit is perfect. Today's going to be pretty low key so we don't have to worry about looking nice for anyone," Jasmine said, already enjoying her own food. The chefs on the train were amazing; several of them having various abilities that made the food super naturally good, though Jasmine and Nicholas rarely sprung for those meals. They couldn't afford them constantly, and it would be lame if they couldn't enjoy street food anymore.

"You're only making me more suspicious about what you have planned," Nicholas said between bites.

"Check our bond, you know I only have plans for stuff I think you will enjoy. I might be wrong, that's true, but I shouldn't have anything that you will dislike." Jasmine said with absolute confidence. Nicholas checked their bond before nodding his assent; she was telling the truth, even if he didn't actually believe her. And it changed nothing; he trusted Jasmine, and he had lost, so there was no reason for him to worry about what was or was not going to happen.

So he bided his time and enjoyed breakfast with the two of them, chatting about how their peers had improved their powers since the wave. Some of them were still waiting to rank up for various reasons, but everyone had seen massive gains from the endeavor. Even if they were only showing now.

"So, what's the plan?" Nicholas asked, wiping his hands with a napkin.

"Follow me," Jasmine said, taking a single step into the main room of their team's suite. Nicholas peered in to see it looked completely normal though somehow his handheld console had migrated from his room into here and he wasn't sure how that happened.

"So, just a regular day together?"

"I want to hang out with just the two of us existing together, maybe cuddle if you aren't too much of a black cat. Figured this would be easiest. We've got your games and snacks, and my TV show and snacks."

"Like we're children doing parallel play?" Nicholas asked, sitting down and setting his feet up on the coffee table as he grabbed the device.

"Yup," Jasmine said, sitting down. The two of them just barely separated.

"If this is what you want we can do it, I'm happy to spend the day with you, I just figured something like this wouldn't be, proof I guess," Nicholas mused as he started a strategy game that made Jasmine's head spin.

"Nope, this is exactly what I want."

"So I see the snacks on the table for what I like, but what about you?" Nicholas asked, not looking up from his game.

"Don't worry, I have them right here," Jasmine said, her voice full of suppressed giggles.

"Yeah?" Jasmine rested her head on top of Nicholas's.

"Omnomnom." Nicholas couldn't stop himself from laughing.