The Laughing Swordsman

Apollo's eyes were closed. Yet, he rapidly approached Mark as though he knew exactly where he was going. This time, Mark raised both eyebrows, genuinely interested in how Apollo was able to pull something like this off.

In fact, Apollo was no longer blinking from one location to the next. Instead, he spread out all of his limbs and twisted them around frequently, especially with the arm that was holding on to the bokken.

His body would rock from side to side and sometimes even twirl in the air. He constantly felt the current using his limbs and found a direction that way.

As Mark watched Apollo approach, he decided to snap his fingers. Suddenly, not only did the direction of the wind currents change, but the amount of them did as well. Apollo suddenly found himself going backward.

They were more than double the wind currents there were previously. Because of that, the complexity of trying to navigate them increased by several times. Now, one wind current might send him forth, but trying to take advantage of that meant experiencing another one that would blow him to the side.

Mark was fairly confident this would stump Apollo.

However, after only a few seconds, Apollo began shooting towards Mark once more. Strangely enough, his movements were even more fluid.

Mark narrowed his eyes.

"...Interesting."

He continued to move back, avoiding Apollo's approach. Mark continuously shifted the directions of the winds. However, each time would only interrupt Apollo for less than a second.

And eventually, Apollo was somehow able to predict when the winds would shift, changing his position right as the winds did.

Mark let out a soft sigh.

"And how exactly were you surprised when I predicted something earlier? You can clearly do it far better than me."

Apollo didn't respond. In fact, his face was almost expressionless, like he was sleeping.

But Apollo was definitely moving.

Mark tried to go to one side, then another. But each time, Apollo would cut him off before he could slip by. As Mark realized this wasn't going to work, he decided to try something different.

His body glowed white, then Mark vanished.

Yet, right when he materialized, Apollo was right in front of him swinging his bokken down. Mark easily dodged out of the way, but was forced back once more. Several weak lightning bolts danced across Apollo's body.

He had blinked in order to catch up to Mark, but did it at the same time, allowing him to get up close.

Mark tried this a few more times, but each time he was interrupted as Apollo appeared right in front of him. Mark continued to get closer and closer to the edge of the city. The violent rushing winds rang out in his ears loudly, almost like the crashing sounds of a waterfall.

As for Apollo, he continued to close in.

Eventually, Mark sighed.

"Alright, alright, I won't run away anymore."

Apollo opened his eyes with a bright smile on his face.

"I finally did it!"

Mark nodded.

"Yes, yes you did."

The corners of his smile stretched out ever so slightly.

"However..."

Mark's eyes narrowed.

"I was never afraid of getting close."

In the blink of an eye, his hand shot out. Before Apollo realized anything happened, Mark had a hand around his neck.

Mark gradually increased the pressure, making it harder and harder for Apollo to breathe.

It quickly became painful. Apollo's eyes widened as a trace of insanity flitted by them. Apollo felt like he was falling into a sea and at the bottom was death himself, looking up at Apollo.

Energy began to bubble up in Apollo's body, despite having no air.

It was as though a volcano was getting ready to erupt.

Everything began to darken, and then...

Mark let go.

"We should end it here. Let's just say you overwhelmed me and I was forced to retreat, ok?"

Apollo coughed violently, spitting out some more ash as he did so. After recovering he looked up to Mark and tilted his head to the side.

"Ok?"

Mark nodded.

"See you, Apollo."

Apollo waved to him.

"Bye, Mark!"

After watching him leave, Apollo pouted.

"Wait, wasn't someone supposed to show me around the city?"

He looked around himself, as though someone was going to be there.

"Mm... I forgot who it was."

...

Eden walked down to the door to the basement of their house. It was where her mother lived. There was a time Eden tried to convince her mother to take one of the few empty rooms upstairs as nobody was using them and they were more intended for someone to live inside.

However, Eden's mother insisted that she preferred the basement, something about the light from the window exposing her.

Under normal circumstances, Eden wasn't supposed to bother her mother while in the basement, as she was sleeping. That was one of the ground rules they established a while ago and was ingrained into Eden's brain. However, the golden key she found in the rabbit simply weighed too heavily on her mind.

There were no keyholes in their house other than the door to the entrance. Eden already had that key, so the golden key obviously didn't serve that purpose. 

Since her mother was the one that gave her the rabbit, Eden figured that she may know something about it.

Eden raised up her hand to knock, but hesitated.

She knew that her mother had a broken leg all her life, which was why she always had a wooden cane with her. It was probably hard for someone with a missing leg to do anything and even sleep.

Was it really right for Eden to disturb her?

With a sigh, Eden steeled her resolve and did it anyway. If it got her reprimanded, then whatever.

Yet, the moment Eden knocked the first time, the door immediately gave way. It was never locked or even closed for that matter.

She looked inside.

And found there was an unassuming box with a keyhole.

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