บท 25: A Coin's Two Sides
Nicholas kicked a pebble lying in his way out of sheer habit and pursed his lips when said pebble shattered a random window, alerting the skeletons that had previously been poking at random shit or just shuffling around to their presence.
"Oops."
"...Nicholas." Sighing, Olga held the bridge of her nose, pointing at a hill in the distance with her free hand, "We're halfway there, can't you just behave for a while?"
Nicholas took in a deep breath, "It was an accident."
The pale haired teenager started stretching his arms, appreciating the combat uniform Chaldea had prepared for him.
A black compression t-shirt that highlighted a figure he'd honed because of having nothing else to do and the call of the grind, grey trousers with a special belt to hang his lightsaber from... Well, there was that coat that was supposed to camouflage him by reflecting light but he just fundamentally disagreed with the concept of hiding from shit he was going to punch.
"It's not philosophical, you're just retar-... you're just stupid sometimes." Martha spoke out, and Nicholas stared at her with slightly widened eyes.
This woman had just read his thoug-
"Someone like you's easy to read once I get used to that face."
Damn, these onee-san types were good.
But wait...
"How would you know that? No wait..." Nicholas narrowed his eyes and reworded the question, "Why would you pay enough attention to know?"
"People, we're surrounded by enemies, can you for a second recognise this to be the life threatening situation this is?!"
Olga was ignored completely, like she was most of the time when she raised her voice.
"...Is everything a joke to you?"
"Nope, just you." Nicholas couldn't help himself and turned his head to the side as soon as he finished speaking, covering his mouth with a hand, "Sorry, not sorry."
Throwing her hands up in surrender, Olga started stomping away, "Do whatever you want!"
She slowed down when she realised neither of her subordinates were following her like she thought they would and meekly walked back, face completely red as the two laughed at her.
"Well, she is right. I shall deal with those who would seek to hinder your noble goal!" Martha ran away, clenching her staff in both her hands but Nicholas saw the act for what it actually was, she ran away to avoid having to answer the question.
Guess she wasn't exactly 'like' him.
"...Nicholas, w-why aren't you listening to me?"
Hearing Olga's tone and voice, Nicholas turned around and broke into a full-blown sprint at the nearest poor skeleton who'd made the mistake of thinking it had a chance to do something.
He'd never really had the opportunity to run away considering there was nowhere to go in Chaldea, now though, in this... new world?
Past event?
Nicholas still hadn't gotten the exact science down, all he knew was that they were in a past that wasn't the actual past but was affecting the future?
...
..
.
Having found a new question to play around with, Nicholas wasted no time in fighting the skeleton and just grabbed it by the face before yeeting it into the sky.
The result of him thoughtlessly 'yeeting' something was that said something caught fire and disintegrated in an instant.
"... So I can do magic now. Neat."
Olga facepalmed so hard the sound probably echoed throughout the whole block, "You know what? I'm not even gonna waste time trying to explain something to a wall. It isn't worth it."
"Alright bitch, chill. No need to insult a ma-" Nicholas was cut off by a swift chop delivered to his head from behind, "Hell was that for?" He elbowed whoever was dumb enough to try hitting him like that but noticed that he'd hit palms instead of ribs or stomach like he was hoping to.
With an unamused expression on her face, Martha held out a finger, resting her other hand on her hips, "How many times have I told you?! No swearing at women without proper reason!"
"What are you, my ma?" Nicholas deadpanned, "Besides, she called me a dumbass."
"Why didn't you just hit her like usual?"
Now, now society would call that completely wrong and all sorts of fucked up but Nicholas, his eyes widened as if he'd just had an epiphany,
"Y... You're right. Damn, didn't know you were cool like that." Well, actually he did but her advice placated the righteous urge he had to smack her in the face seeing as she blocked his first hit, "... I'll do it next time."
"Come to think of it, I've seen you hit just about everyone except..." Martha narrowed her eyes before counting on her fingers, "I think, 3... 4? people. Yeah, 4 people."
...Martha then realised she couldn't use that as a measure for whether or not he cared about said people because she was sure she knew more about the unruly teenager than most of his colleagues because of how open he was with her and you wouldn't tell so much about yourself to someone you didn't care about.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a bright crimson glint in the corner of her eyes and Martha reacted instantly, summoning her staff and appearing in front of her Master as Olga scurried to his side.
But it turned out her caution was for nothing as the barrage of projectiles rained down elsewhere like they were from an automatic rifle, except they weren't bullets because of the massive explosions that rang throughout the area as they landed on whatever it was that was unlucky enough to draw them.
"I want that."
Nicholas' eyes shined, it sounded like fucking artillery rounds and any man worth his salt would want one if he could have it.
"Do you even know what 'that' is?"
"Nope, not a clue... but I want it."
"... I think that is a noble phantasm." Martha added, observing the spectacle with slightly wide eyes, "It's super stron-..." She paused, oticing that Olga was with them and changed her words, "Quite potent. It could be a threat."
Nicholas ignored the two women and stared at the rain of red in silent admiration until it stopped, "...Aw, so it does have to be reloaded."
It seemed as if the one who'd done it took offence to his words as a glint came from a skyscraper in the distance and the next barrage came right their way.
"Behind me now, Master! This is no-" Nicholas put a hand on his servant's shoulder and shoved her to the side, his other hand already pulled back into a fist.
Without a second of hesitation and a small smile on his face, he punched out at the 'noble phantasm'.
The result wasn't quite what anyone could expect.
The magical weapons of legend were thrown off their course by sheer force, splitting apart and passing through the city as a wave of explosions that tore up the Earth as well as anything else they came into contact with while a second of wave sheer, unfiltered force carved a path to the skyscraper they had come from.
Where the weapons just exploded and ruined, the force, nay, the punch removed, morphing it's path into barren, razed land until it eventually reached it's destination, toppling the massive building by completely razing it's lower half.
Nicholas whistled, "Nice."
He didn't get how he punched so hard now but he didn't care, it was cool all the same.
Olga froze up, her mind trying but desperately failing to comprehend and making sense of the display of strength shown by her combat focused subordinate whose main job was SUPPORTING other combatants.
"...How?" She managed to sputter.
Nicholas held up his fist, "I punched it."
Martha whistled, covering her eyes from a Sun that wasn't there as she nodded her head in appreciation, "Woah damn, that's the first time you've punched so hard outside combat simulations."
"Still not as cool as the earthquake." Nicholas interjected, recalling a certain experiment that may or may not have decreased the size of Antarctica.
"True that but, you probably just alerted everything in the city."
"Worth it."
"Totally."
The Master-Servant duo nodded to each other with crossed arms, and completely ignored Olga.
"E... Earth what now?"
-
Elsewhere in the city, Mash wiped the sweat on her forehead and placed her hefty metal shield to the side, sighing before allowing herself to smile in relief, "Thank goodness."
It was a good thing that the servant prepared for this mission had chosen to give her his abilities at the last moment and it let her defend the gobsmacked senpai staring at the trail of destruction that had passed them just a moment ago but, it was an even better thing that...
"Nicholas senpai is here."
The thought that he might be injured never even crossed her mind.
As far as Mash was concerned, Nicholas was invincible and he could find a friend in anyone.
Gudako stared at her with wide eyes before looking back to the razed ground and buildings some hundred metres away from them and then at her, and then at the destruction, and then at her, "How do you get that..." She pointed at her and then at the ground, "From that?!"
"Well... he did it before." Mash scratched her cheek, she didn't know why she felt embarrassed explaining, "Not a long while ago actually."
"WHAT?! MASH! Do you see that?" The red haired girl pointed at a building that had only one half remaining, "Half of it was blown away! By air! BY AIR!"
What kind of grunts did these people have?!
"...Senpai, I think you should get used to things like these."
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