Chapter 56: Chapter 56 - Farewell of the Angel of Humility
James was looking at himself in front of him. He was exactly at the top of the hill. He was oblivious to everything that was happening outside.
The trees swayed in the wind. The seasons on the hill were constantly changing. One moment, everything was pale… the next moment, everything was frozen. The other moment, the flowers were dancing with happiness.
This wasn't James' feelings. These were… 'his' feelings. The feelings of 'the shadow' in front of him.
Although he called it a shadow, it was much more than a shadow. The silhouette was too pale, but he could see his former self clearly. Blood-red veins were all over him, including his hair. But his tired expression was still the same. His black eyes were still the same. His old black hair was still the same, tinged with brown.
Now, with his pitch-black hair and eyes and relatively handsome face, they looked like two completely different characters.
The thought made James's heart ache. The shadow, on the other hand, had only curiosity and incomprehension on his face. As he looked at him, he tilted his head to the side.
"I don't understand... Bakugan... More... I'm hungry. I'm hungry to understand. I want to understand."
The shadow was confused. All this time, he had been observing James, but he couldn't understand. He thought his appetite for Bakugan might solve it. Despite everything, the Bakugan was the only thing that remained in his mind. He seemed to have lost even the intelligence to reason.
James looked at him and pity flashed across his face. He was himself. The one he wanted to remember, the one he wanted to accept. The main reason for this journey. He had hoped that things would change as he remembered himself, but that was not to be.
He spoke in a soft but clear voice:
"That's enough. It's time to leave everything behind."
He understood more than he needed to understand. He remembered more than he wanted to remember. Even though he already understood, he realized once again that there was nothing so useless as remembering the past.
His life had already ended and everyone had gone back to their own happy lives. There was no need for him in any way. Now the human being who might need him - no, he was with the vestals. He exhaled deeply as he spread his arms wide.
Shadow looked at him hopefully in confusion.
"Let go? Can I do that?"
James answered these questions by hugging him tightly. A burning sensation enveloped his entire body, as if he were touching magma. He frowned but made no sound. It wasn't the first time he had felt this pain, but he was sure it would be the last.
"Yes, it's time to leave everything behind."
As he hugged him, the shadow's feet began to break into pieces. The particles scattered like ashes on a hill. As the wind blew, the particles scattered freely, spreading in all directions.
The shadow, on the other hand, hesitated, but there was a great relief in him. Finally, he could stop watching. Finally, he could be free. He hugged James as the relief and happiness welling up inside him caused his eyes to well up.
The burning sensation James felt increased as he held him tightly, but James didn't make a sound. As tears dripped from the shadow's eyes and soaked his shoulder, its slightly cracked but thick voice was heard.
"Finally... T-Thank you. For saving me."
The shadow continued to dissipate as James continued to hug it without saying anything. Until there was nothing left of the shadow. The last pieces of the puzzle fell into place as the particles scattered across the hill, relieved to be free.
James gazed up at the clouds outside. He mumbled through many thoughts.
"The past is the past. It's time for my present sins."
With that, he closed his eyes slightly.
***
Nothing moved in frozen time, but somehow, the demonic flames rising from the beast's eye sockets could move. In fact, if one looked closely, even if it had stopped, it would have appeared to be moving very slowly!
This should have been impossible and illogical. Although it was not yet known how time froze, how could the beast move in this place where time stood still?
At that moment, a kind voice rose from the sky.
"Although I did my best... I was late."
The gentle voice sounded rather regretful. It sounded like a young girl's voice, but it could be heard everywhere.
"Get lost."
With those words, the clouds in the sky suddenly dissipated and the horrible mechanical being with claws disappeared. In the sky, the first thing that caught the eye was a pair of wings long enough to wrap around the whole world.
The wings were made of golden flames. The flames seemed to penetrate to every point, but these flames were only in appearance. They did not move in any expansionist way, on the contrary, they were refreshing to the soul of anyone who looked at them.
In the center of these wings, the image of a girl could be seen in the distance. She looked very young, not very tall. Her golden fox ears were flattened. On her round and lovely face was a look of obvious concern.
"What can I do? What can I do?"
As she muttered in panic, the golden fox tail behind her swayed back and forth in panic. She had seen the alternative scenarios, and the most likely scenario in which she could intervene was about to turn into a disaster scenario.
The sweet girl whose tail was wagging in panic was none other than Fox. As she scratched her golden hair, she looked thoughtfully at the evil-looking corrupted monster standing ahead, James.
It was no big deal for her to rewind time, but the consequences would hurt her and it wouldn't save James. On the contrary, he would relive everything all over again.
The life stories of key characters had many different endings. It was no different for reincarnates. She could see many good endings for Ryuu. Although he had not risen in any of them, he had achieved happy endings. But she couldn't say she saw that in James.
They all ended badly. If she hadn't come, when the city went backwards, Alpha City's controller would have exploded and James would have been turned into a pile of slime and died in the sudden change. Or if she hadn't come at this very moment, James would have turned into a galaxy-consuming corruption!
Still, as she weighed what she could do, she could feel herself reaching a dead end. She had to stop him somehow.
Then she had a brilliant idea. For every second she spent here, she lost her points. The time the system charged her was limited.
Even if she was an angel, she couldn't just walk into a universe and bend time as she wished - if for no reason according to the system. If she did, the punishment she would receive would not be light. And the punishment would not be light for what she was about to do now.
Still, after all the mistakes she had made with James, she was ready to take responsibility. She raised her hand delicately and closed her eyes.
"I... Fox, Angel of Humility, Novice of the Reincarnation Department, request access!"
With that, golden chains began to appear around James' body, which was beginning to distort. First, his arms wrapped around the distortions that should have been his arms and clamped them to the ground. The beast tried to struggle slowly, but it was futile against a multiversal being like Fox.
Fox extended her hand towards James. With this gesture, the space-time rifts opened around him were repaired like nothing. As for James, the deterioration in his body began to heal one by one.
Meanwhile, a white system window with a gold frame appeared in front of Fox.
<Angel of Humility Fox, your unauthorized actions have been reported to your superior.>
Fox's golden eyes flickered slightly when she saw the notification message, but the determination on her face remained the same. The glitches were getting better and better as the chains wrapped around James' body. The demonic flames that burned in James' eye sockets extinguished themselves, even though Fox had no effect.
A pair of gray eyes stared at her, not even struggling. A question in a thick voice could only be heard.
"...Fox?"
This stunned Fox. She thought he had completely lost the fight, completely lost himself, like in the alternative scenarios. Fortunately, contrary to her expectations, he had actually won!
For a brief moment, she stopped all movement and looked into James' gray eyes. Like a predator, his pupils were vertical ellipses, very conspicuous in his gray eyes. Fox might not have even noticed the gray eye color if not for the slight glare from the white whites.
Fortunately, Fox quickly recovered from her surprise. She approached James with a sweet smile on her face.
"So soon... I didn't expect to see you face to face, I'm glad you're okay."
James hadn't expected to see Fox so close, and especially not with the naked eye. Even though for James her face and body were mostly a blur, in the mind's eye, she was one hundred percent identical to the person he saw in his mind!
James wanted to say something but Fox wouldn't let him. With a sigh, she spoke to James in a slightly self-talking manner:
"My superiors are already preparing to question me. Hah! How ironic that they want me to correct my mistake. Anyway, we won't... see each other for a while. From here, you can imagine I'm banned for a while, just like in the games."
James was moved, unable to say the appropriate words because of the slowing time. He could sense her, after all, but he couldn't react. Fox must have known this as he continued:
"I've suppressed the corruptions, or rather glitches, for a while, so it shouldn't cause you any problems in the long run. I'm sure you'll be looking for a way to be human now."
James wanted to nod. It was something that was really on his mind. If he could become a Bakugan, there had to be a way back to being human. Even if he didn't know that way yet, he could find it.
Fox chuckled in anticipation.
"Although Bakugans are generally peaceful creatures with a peaceful mindset, their blood boils for fighting. Evolution will be the answer."
Fox moved a little closer to James as his thoughts raced at engine speed. As the energies of the bakugan James had killed came out in ribbons, Fox returned them to their original state with a wave of her hand.
"It wouldn't be nice to be known as a cannibalistic bakugan on this journey, would it?"
Fox paused for a moment. Even though she had only traveled with James for a short time, she had enjoyed talking to him, watching him. James usually didn't need her guidance, even if he didn't think he was very good at it.
So after a pause, she leaned closer and placed a gentle kiss on the white ridge that was probably his nose. Smiling, she spoke:
"Take care of yourself, okay?"
James wanted to say a lot of words, but realized he couldn't at that moment, so he forced himself to say them. He could barely say them as the strength drained out of him:
"B, e c, a, r, e, f, u, l."
Fox's smile became much more sincere when he said the words with difficulty. The smile quickly disappeared as a system window appeared indicating that her time was almost up. She waved her hand slightly, and James quickly took the form of a ball.
Then, her gaze shifted in a specific direction. Beyond the Resistance, she looked towards a girl. Even now, she could see the girl's panicked expression.
"She may be the only one who can help James, even though she's hiding her identity so clearly and at the same time being so obvious. Or the ideal person."
There were various names James had met along the journey, but by far the one he had managed to get closest to, the one he had talked to the most, the one who could be of the most use to him. Fox knew this, and with a deep sigh, she sent James towards Siren.
James blacked out as the ball flew away and into Siren's inner pocket. Fox pulled her wings back as time slowly began to pass.
When she was sure she had fixed everything, Fox waved her hand and positioned the destroyed but returned bakugans so that the Resistance could see them. Finally, Fox said only these words before flying away and disappearing from the sky:
"I hope you'll be okay."
And time began to pass. Things had returned to relative normalcy, there were looks of confusion, and in time everything would fall into place, but the question was what James' fate would be.
When everything was in order, a system window suddenly appeared. This system window was different from the white design with gold frames that James and Fox used. It was a gray, semi-transparent type of system window.
<Side Quest: Transformation Bakugan is completed! One of the requirements has been met.>
However, the window disappeared without a trace.
***
I am proud to say that our first volume is finished. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your mind.
I think all of these will be explained in the following volumes. Volume Two: Humanity or something like that will probably have a similar name. It will be with you after a one-month break.
You may wonder why I am taking a break for a month. I will soon enter a critical period about school. Apart from that, the second volume will probably have twice as many words as the first volume, so it will take a lot of time to write.
At the same time, I would like to state that if I receive positive feedback from some of my friends, another classic series will be presented to you from my commentary.
In short, in this one-month break, I will either do nothing or come back like a bomb :D
Either way, thanks for reading. I will see you later.
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