New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Already, Elise was curious as to what he would say. There wasn't much he could offer her that she would want.

But he seemed so convinced that he would captivate her that, if nothing, his confidence at least made it interesting.

"I'm listening."

Alex smiled, and he leaned on the table.

"I know what you're thinking. 'What he got to offer me? Money? Fame? I don't want those.' Well, I could offer those. I have a way to make both a reality, after all. But that isn't what a person like you would be captivated by."

He looked deep into her eyes, and made only his eyes change to black and red, with a devilish grin.

"What if I offered you peace of mind? What if I offered everyone in the neighbourhood peace of mind? In an irrevocable way."

Elise frowned at his words.

"Stop trying to be mysterious and come out with it," she spat.

"You thought earlier that I was dangerous, that my killing intent was all too calm, all too familiar. I'm sure you thought I might also have blood on my hands. You wouldn't be wrong," Alex said, looking at his hands pensively.

Images of that mound of bodies flashed in his mind, and he had to keep a gag from escaping his mouth.

"I've never killed anyone that didn't deserve it, though. That much, I can promise. But, sometimes, justice isn't something that the law can bring. It's something you take for yourself."

Elise could resonate with that thought. But she never had the guts to do anything.

She knew she would floor anyone who tried dealing with her physically. But she wasn't bulletproof.

"What are you? Some kind of benevolent superman?" she mocked.

"You could say that, sure," Alex replied with a smirk.

"But I'm not offering to lock them up. I'm offering to eliminate the problem permanently."

A shiver ran down her spine for the umpteenth time that day.

Elise wasn't used to this. She was a strong woman.

She considered herself as far removed from the word coward as she could be. But there was something about the words this young man spoke.

They were like the ultimate truth, as if when he declared something, it would come to pass.

It wouldn't be a matter of if, but a matter of when.

"What do you want in return? My soul or something?" she asked, almost believing her own words.

Alex choked back a laugh.

"What? I'm not the devil, you idiot. What use would I have for your soul? You're too weak to join my spirit companions. I would rather keep you alive and count you among my allies."

She looked at him strangely.

'He didn't deny that he could use souls…'

"Look," Alex said, snapping her attention back to him.

"I would rather keep my hands clean when I can. But if I believe what you're saying, then these bastards are already putting lives in danger. And I would rather that not be the case.

"Humanity is already in dire straights. We need no more pointless deaths—at least not on the side of the good people…"

The phrasing he used made her frown once again.

"The good people? What do you mean?" she asked.

Alex realized he had said too much and ignored her question.

"It doesn't matter. Are you taking up my offer? You have things to return to, and so do I."

Elise looked at him and sighed.

"Can you give me time to think about it? Even if you say you'll take care of it, their fate would still be in my hands. I'm not sure I want that kind of weight on my mind…"

Alex smiled at her.

"Sure. Take all the time you need. It's a costly decision to make. I don't blame you. Here, take this," Alex said, scribbling his number on a piece of napkin.

"Call me when you've made your decision. I should be available at any time of day."

She looked at the napkin he put in front of her, her mind falling deep in thought.

Alex decided it was his time to go.

He said nothing, heading to the booth where the server was. He paid for the meal and left a fat tip as well, the kid almost tearing up at the sight of so much cash.

Walking around the outlet, he heard Elise call out to him.

"Wait!"

She jumped out of her seat, dashing after him.

But Alex had no intention of waiting.

Once he turned around the corner and disappeared from sight, he immediately formed his white wings and shot into the sky, keeping the building and trees between him and the woman.

As Elise reached around the corner of the building, all she heard was a ruffling of leaves.

She turned the corner, and Alex was gone.

"The fuck?" she mumbled.

She looked up, where the leaves had ruffled, and she caught sight of something white.

Concentrating on her legs' muscles, she focused some of her power on them, jumped to the branch, and grabbed the white object.

As she landed, her eyes lay upon what revealed itself to be a pristine white feather.

And not a small one, either. That feather was about a foot and a half long.

"What in tarnation was that guy?" she mumbled, taking the feather and hiding it in her Gi as she walked toward the back door of her dojo.

Reaching it, she noticed the small hole in the brick wall, and as her gaze followed the straight path from it, she found the Shinai she had wielded earlier, embedded to the hilt in the cement of the back alley retention wall.

Walking to the wall, she pulled on the wooden hilt, trying to dislodge it, and noticed it was stuck. She used more of her power to boost her arms and managed to break it free.

But then she saw the shape of the poor sparring weapon.

The bamboo was frayed and on the verge of snapping. It was as damaged as if it had been used a million times.

She knew her power tended to accelerate the wear of her equipment, but this was past that. It was like the wood itself had aged a decade in a single moment.

She walked into the dojo, looking at the sword in her hands, and sat on the mats up front.

With a flick of her finger, the weapon fell apart, like it had been barely holding on, and she sighed.

"To think just touching his power made the Shinai like this. Just how much of a monster are you, Alexander Leduc?" she asked herself, glancing at the napkin she pulled from her pocket.

She went in the back again, grabbing some spare Shinai's for her next class, and stopped next to her office.

Calling it an office was a stretch, of course. She had no dedicated office room in this dojo.

It was more of a broom closet that she had converted. But it did the job.

She pushed the door open to the windowless office and pulled the feather from her Gi. She stared at it for a moment, feeling the power inside pulsing in her hands, and stretched to deposit it on her desk.

But a thought crossed her mind.

She looked at the feather, then to the Shinai in her hands, and wondered.

"No. I'm sure that's not possible…" she muttered.

But a nagging feeling kept tugging at her mind.

"Maybe just one try?"

She put the Shinai on the ground, keeping only one in hand, and grabbed the base of the feather, feeling its density in her grip.

She raised the Shinai in her hand in front of her, and her other hand over her head, with the feather in her grasp.

With a swift movement, she swung the feather down, feeling no resistance whatsoever.

At first, she thought the feather might have bent out of the way.

But her eyes widened.

*Katakata*

The front half of the Shinai had just dropped to the floor, a clean cut upon the width of it, like an actual sword had cut it.

'No. This may be even cleaner…' she thought, looking at the cut on the part she still held.

There wasn't even a single filament of bamboo loosely hanging. It had been perfectly sliced—almost surgically…

She dropped the cut sword and touched the feather.

It looked everything like a typical feather, and it even felt like one to the touch, she realized, as she slid her fingers on it.

'So soft… How can this have cut through the bamboo?'

It made no sense…

She set the feather on her desk, looking at it with awe, and picked up the two pieces of wrecked Shinai, before throwing them out into the garbage. They were useless now, anyway.

Grabbing the rest of the spare swords, she brought them to the front and set them on the rack to that effect. But she couldn't take her mind off what she had just seen.

A feather… sliced a bamboo sword…

'If it can get hard enough, could it protect, too?' she wondered.

She had no idea how close to the truth she had just wandered…