Sister versus sister, dusk versus dawn, darkness versus light, rage versus innocence.
How had they turned out so different, though the same blood ran through their veins?
Tione couldn’t stop the feelings from welling up inside her. If she didn’t let them out, scream them out, she might very well have wrung her sister’s neck.
And what she found down there, deep down among the amalgam of emotions flooding through her, was jealousy—of what her sister possessed that she did not.
That was the first time Tione realized she wanted to kill herself.
“…”
Tione grit her teeth as the memories of her past faded from her mind.
She bent forward, the side of her face burning under the crimson light of the setting sun.
“Whoa! Who woulda thought all this’d be here, huh?”
Her thoughts were interrupted as the cheerful voice of her sister, much older than the girl of her memories now, reverberated off the walls of the wide room.
They were in an old, abandoned factory a ways away from the city. Piles of rusted iron and steel lay strewn among battered ship parts, and weeds grew up in patches all across the floor. The darkening light of the sky overhead peered in from the tattered shutters and many holes littering the ceiling.
“We wait here till nightfall then, huh, Tione?”
They’d come here in their search for a place devoid of people, away from Aiz and the rest of their familia.
As twilight’s hue colored the world outside, Tione narrowed her eyes, shooting her happy-go-lucky sister a sharp glare.
“Tiona.”
“What?”
“Let’s practice.”
Tiona looked back in confusion, blinking at her sister’s sudden suggestion. “…You don’t mean now, do you?”
“I do.”
Under normal circumstances, the two would use every chance they could get to spar in Twilight Manor’s courtyard, but these were hardly normal circumstances.
Ignoring her sister’s look of skepticism, Tione placed one foot behind her, falling into position.
“I’m serious. We’re going all out here. There’s no point if we don’t.”
Realizing it was no use arguing, Tiona slowly fell into position, as well.
Thus the duel began in the middle of that old, abandoned factory.
“”
Tione made the first move.
Stepping forward, she hurled her fist toward her sister.
She held nothing back, letting her anger carry her forward.
It caught Tiona off guard. Though the younger Amazon was able to block it, the sheer power behind the strike made her take a step backward.
“Yeeeoowch! That hurts, Tione!” Tiona cried out.
“I said we’re going all out here!” Tione responded just as loudly, in the same tone she’d used so many times back in Telskyura.
The change was enough for even Tiona to discern, and knowing there was no other way, she began fighting, too.
Their strikes echoed off the walls, the scraps of iron and steel, and the perforated ceiling. The punches and kicks they couldn’t dodge or block tore deep gashes in each other’s skin. Blood dribbled from Tiona’s lip where one of her sister’s strikes had grazed her, and a deep purple bruise was already forming on Tione’s arm where she’d blocked one of her sister’s roundhouse kicks. Their original intention in seeking out the factory—to escape from any watchful eyes—had all but left their heads completely.
“Gngh…!”
At some point during their exchange of fists, Tione’s vision went white with rage.
And with that white heat came all the feelings, all the words she’d been keeping locked away in her heart these many years.
For so long, she’d been using her emotions as strength; now, she finally voiced them.
“You know, I used to hate you.”
Tiona laughed. “As if you need to tell me!”
“I still hate you!”
“Oh really?”
Her lips were curled upward in a familiar smile from her memories.
Even in the middle of their deadly fistfight, she still had that same damn smile.
This only fueled Tione’s anger further.
“Laugh, laugh, laugh! That’s all you ever do! You haven’t changed one bit!” she snapped, unable to control herself and directing a high kick toward her sister’s head.
“You have, though!” Tiona shot back instantly.
“”
Tione’s eyes widened with a start.
“Ever since we met Loki and the others and you started liking Finn…you’ve changed so much!”
The punches and kicks kept coming with no signs of slowing.
But even as Tione’s strikes carried with them all those tumultuous emotions that’d been weighing her down, Tiona countered every one with a smile.
“That made me so happy!”
“Oh it did, did it?!”
Tione felt the fury rising up inside her, her eyes trembling as she put everything she had into her next strike.
“You make me so angry!!”
“What? I can’t heeeeaaaaaaar you!”
“Damn you!!”
“Grah!!” Even as she let out an incensed roar, Tiona seemed unruffled. Laughing innocently, fighting as though she didn’t have a care in the world, returning her strikes in the midst of her happy, childlike dance.
—She would never change. She would always be the same stupid idiot.
—And whenever Tione looked at that infuriating grin, it would always make her think the same stupid thoughts.
As her rage built and built, the exchange of blows gradually slid into a harmonious dance, and somehow, that stupid, stupid smile found its way onto Tione’s face, as well.
Before she even realized it, both of them were laughing.
She couldn’t even remember why they were there, what they were supposed to be doing—she just enjoyed their fight.
Until.
““Guwaaah?!””
Practically in sync, their fists found each other’s cheeks.
For a single instant, they stood there frozen, like statues, then, finally, their legs gave out beneath them and they crumpled to the ground. The tufts of weeds growing out from the warehouse floor cushioned their descent.
“Another draw…” Tiona sighed.
“Yeah…”
“I’m still in the lead, then, hee-hee-hee.”
“As if! You’ve lost way more times than I have. I’m clearly in the lead.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Uh-huh!”
“Nuh-uh!”
“Uh-huh!”
The girls spread their arms and legs on the ground like two twin starfishes, their bickering morphing into laughter. They were like kids, their voices echoing off the walls of that long-forgotten building.
“Why were we even doing that again?”
“Who cares? It doesn’t matter now.”
Tione could tell without even looking that her sister was still chuckling. She could practically see the gentle smile that had no doubt formed on her face.
The sky above them was brilliant. Its blazing crimson shone through the holes in the ceiling, lighting their faces on fire.
As Tione narrowed her eyes at all that beauty past the warehouse walls, her mind traveled back to another time, another place, where they’d had another conversation just like this.
Yes, it had been back in Telskyura, when her anger toward Tiona had risen to a breaking point just as it had now.
Tiona’s favor with Kali had caught the attention of many of the other Amazons. Theirs had been a world where it didn’t pay to stick out from the crowd, and some of their peers had devised a surprise attack out of jealousy, or perhaps anger. And somehow or another, it had come down to Tione to put an end to it.
Tiona and her raucous laughter had been an eyesore to Tione back then, constantly grating on her nerves. There were times even she’d bad-mout
hed the other girl and her ability to chat with Kali like it was nothing. How dare she act all buddy-buddy with the good-for-nothing goddess who’d kept them trapped in this horrible place! It was only natural that someone like Tiona would drive Tione mad.
And yet, still, the other girl was family. She was the only bond Tione had in the cold, unfeeling world of the arena. The one person she could always turn to. And so, she’d protected her without even having to think about it.
She’d ambushed the group of Amazons who’d been planning their attack in the hallway late one night, and she took out the whole lot of them. Some of the women were ranked even higher than her, which led to a vitriolic exchange of verbal abuse followed by a life-and-death game of tag.
By the time she’d returned to her stone room, run completely ragged, Tiona was fast asleep, snoring among her piles of books. This had only irritated Tione all the more, and she’d kicked her right in the middle of her sleeping face. The resulting fight had lasted till morning.
“Why were we even fighting…?”
“…I forget.”
They’d muttered to each other, spent of their energy and splayed out like starfish. The morning sun had shone in on them from through the latticework of their small window.
It was at that moment, as Tiona had laughed amid that soft light, that Tione had realized just how irreplaceable the other girl was in her life. Not that she’d ever say it to her face.
A deluge of emotions swept through her mind as the scenes played out in her head.
Though fury and bloodthirst had been her two best friends in the harsh world of the arena, she had had emotion, too.
There was something nostalgic about those memories, and she felt her cares and reserves slowly begin to slip away.
“Hey, Tione.”
The sound of her own name brought her out of her reverie.
Sitting up, she looked over to see Tiona do the same.
“What are we going to do if…if Kali makes us fight each other?” her sister asked as their gazes met.
It was what they’d escaped all those years ago—a fight to the death between sisters and a resurrection of the rites.
“Fight,” Tione responded casually. “And I’d kill you. Or at least I’d try. If not, you’d kill me.” She didn’t even flinch, relaying the words as if they were simply a matter of fact.
Tiona’s face grew solemn. “I don’t think it’ll come to that, though. No way.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because of Argana and Bache. Argana’s too attached to you, like Bache is to me. If the two of us are gonna be killed, then…I’m positive they’d wanna be the ones to do it.”
And it was true—they’d taken a risk going up against Loki Familia, attacking Lefiya and the others, and even taking a hostage. It sounded just like something the coldhearted, murderous Argana of her memories would do.
After a moment, Tione pulled the high potions she’d already prepared from the pouch around her waist, tossing one toward Tiona. As the other girl caught it handily, she downed one herself.
“You doin’ okay?”
“Huh? Whaddaya mean?” Tiona started, already having guzzled down her high potion and cocking her head to the side curiously. It took a moment, but then she seemed to infer what Tione meant. She glanced down at her hands, tightening and loosening her fists. Finally, she looked back up at Tione with a nod.
“What do we do now?”
“Nothing until nightfall. Rest, I guess, or do whatever.” Tione shrugged as she made to get to her feet but found herself stuck quite firmly in her cross-legged position thanks to Tiona’s grip on her arm.
She immediately glowered at the other girl, who merely responded with her typical laugh.
“It’s been so long—maybe we could take a nap together? Like we used to?”
“…What?!”
“So we can save our energy for tonight!”
You’re one to talk about energy, Tione wanted to respond, but she lost her chance as Tiona kept talking.
“We used to do it all the time!”
“…Yeah, but only while traveling. You don’t have much of a choice when you need to sleep outside, and you’re like a human space heater!”
“But…!” Tiona frowned.
Tione’s eyebrows rose as she remembered her frustration. “You’re the worst sleeping partner, you know that? I can’t even begin to count the number of times you’ve smacked me in the face.”
“You’ve hit me, too, you know!”
“Yeah, in retaliation!!”
But even as the bickering began anew, it wasn’t long before Tione decided to appease her sister and rest beside her until night fell. Wearily, she watched as Tiona found a dust-covered piece of cloth off in a corner of the warehouse and happily wrapped the two of them up inside it.
“Nighty-night.”
“You better wake up later…”
Tione could barely hold in her sigh, her back against one of the piles of old scrap metal as she wondered how in the world things had come to this. The sigh of grief changed to a sigh of acceptance, though, as Tiona snuggled in beside her, resting her head on the older girl’s shoulder. Soon, she was snoring softly—another source of irritation, but Tione simply put up with it.
It felt just like before, after they’d left Telskyura and had traveled around from country to country, city to city.
They’d had no choice but to sleep out under the cold sky, no roof over their heads save the occasional rocky outcropping or forest overhang. And even back then, Tiona had always fallen asleep first.
Tione let her eyelids fall.
Somehow, she knew the two of them would be dreaming the same dream.
Nothing but the magnificent expanse of nature awaited the two sisters after their departure from Telskyura.
Oceans, mountains, forests, valleys, hills, endless fields of flowers and grasses—they’d never laid eyes upon any of it in that stone prison of the arena. It was a brand-new world to them.
It took their breath away, and they trembled with the rush of emotion.
They could never have imagined that the world would be so vast.
They had never dreamed the sky could be so beautiful.
Back then, it had only been as wide the arena, and they had loathed its very existence.
For Tione, who was still at a loss as to how she was supposed to feel being separated from Telskyura, it did much to restore the life and color to her raging heart and strained eyes, almost like water poured onto a desiccated wildflower. Together with her ever-enthusiastic sister, she found herself finally, ever so slightly, able to smile.
And every time Tiona saw this, she’d break out in a wide grin.
Beyond simply allowing the two of them to leave the country, Kali had also taken pity on them. Not only had she released them from their contract, she’d also left their Statuses untouched. This meant they were able to forge new contracts with any other god, combining their old Status with the new. This was also the only reason the two young girls were able to get by for so long on their travels, as they still had the enhanced power of their Statuses to rely upon. Kali had explained this by way of a “parting gift for her two adorable daughters,” but to Tione it was too little, too late compared to how she’d treated them these many years.
Though the two girls had learned how to overcome just about everything through that miserable hell of an arena, their knowledge was limited to pure combat, and there was still much they didn’t know. Money was difficult, of course, but even something as simple as human interaction was an ordeal. Tione had lost track of the amount of times Tiona had gotten swindled by some passing peddler. Not that they didn’t always retaliate and get the money back, but still. From a survival perspective, the two excelled, to the point where “feral children” could have been an adequate phrase to describe them. As it happened, Tiona did teach her sister some Koine, at least enough that she could get by, shameful as it was.
The first time they cam
e across another “tribe” similar to their own was in a small fishing village along the sea—much like Meren, actually. Accepting requests to hunt down monsters was about the only way they could make enough money to get by, and so, despite continuous objection from Tione, the two decided to temporarily join the local familia. This was what allowed them to update their Statuses and what had helped them level up to Level 3 during their stay in the village.
Be that as it may, Tione was never quite able to open up to the more erratic, pleasure-loving gods and goddesses, nor the members who made up their familias. And so, they made each other a promise that after a year of various bodyguard and labor duties (for there was a one-year rule when it came to converting to a new familia), they would revoke their contracts and leave the familia.
This was a tradition they continued, no matter what countries or what cities they visited. Though the gods and familia members might beg to keep Tione’s and her sister’s strength for themselves, Tione never listened. In fact, her impertinence often had her butting heads with her other familia members, and more than once they ended up leaving their familias on not-so-great terms.
The only person Tione would permit to stay at her side was Tiona.
She wouldn’t acknowledge those who weren’t strong, and even those who somehow earned her acceptance weren’t allowed close, aside from her sister. Perhaps it was her residual trauma from Telskyura—this refusal to form connections with anyone save the sister who’d survived with her. She was scared.
As the two of them earned glimpses into these many new worlds, they made all kinds of discoveries. And yet, never did they have anyone besides each other.
It was no different from their time in Telskyura. They refused to open up their hearts to anyone besides their other halves. No matter how far they traveled across the vastness of the lower realm, their world never expanded beyond that of their dual existence.
Tione wasn’t sure what her warmhearted sister felt on this matter, but whatever she may have thought, Tiona stuck by her side. It was almost as if she understood innately that Tione was the only one she could turn to.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 6 Page 16
