Chapter 14 — Last Chance
2.9k 48 140
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

The next few days were a strange routine of waking up in the late evening, having a chat with my new friend (whose name I still didn’t know... hehe...), getting glared at by Morning Rain for a while, spending the night cultivating, only eating breakfast once the sun rose and then heading to bed once more. 

Each of these nights, Morning attracted at least one tier zero vi plant, but one night she actually attracted three of them. Of course, she was rather obstinate, and she resolutely rejected all of those vi plants, destroying most of them in the process due to her frustration at the time. (Yeah... she was like, always frustrated.)

By the end of the fifth night, every other girl had a core vi, and most of us had multiple other vi plants to go along with it. I was the only one with a tier one vi plant; all other girls had only collected tier zeroes.

As for what vi? Well, my current vi collection was as follows:

 

  1. Tier One Moonlight Waterfall Lotus Vi — I did not know the use of this one, but according to legends it was supposed to assist with cultivating moonlight essence.
  2. Tier Zero Cooling Aloe Vi — Elder Swan explained that it could be used on small injuries — cuts, bruises, etc — to numb the pain and slightly speed up the recovery.
  3. Tier Zero Frost Touch Vi — Elder Tea explained this one, saying that on activation it would slowly reduce the temperature of your skin and any nearby surfaces, eventually forming a layer of frost.
  4. Tier Zero Formless Flow Vi — Neither elder could explain this one properly, because the way it worked was a little mysterious, but basically it seemed to make it just a little bit harder for most physical attacks to hit the user.
  5. Tier Zero Moonwalk Vi — Elder Tea laughed when I obtained this one, and I pouted. She’d shaken her head and just said, “Sorry, it’s a bit useless...” before explaining: When activating the vi, and walking backwards, each step pumps moonlight energy into the ground. It’s helpful only for assisting any nearby plants that require moonlight energy to grow.
  6. Tier Zero Rose Solution Vi — Elder Tea didn’t laugh at me when I obtained this one, but Elder Swan did. “You’re not getting very good luck anymore, are you?” I might’ve gotten a bit frustrated, but this time Elder Tea was pouting too. “Rose Solution is amazing for baths, you traitor.” I’d asked, “What does it do?” and she’d responded, “If you’re in water, it turns it pink and makes it smell like roses.”

 

At the start of my final night, I was only half asleep, lightly dozing when someone came into the tent. “Mmmhi,” I mumbled, rolling over and squinting at whoever’d come in, which, based on the previous nights, was likely to be the Glowing Rivulets Vi girl. You know, the girl that I still didn’t know the name of? 

It was silly... I really liked talking with her each morning — err, evening — because she was nice and friendly... But yet I still didn’t know her name. Every day that I didn’t know it was going to make asking her for her name even worse, though...

I could almost hear the wide grin on her face as she said, “Good morning!”

I snorted quietly, immediately thinking of my sister. Good Morning? Hah. “No such thing.”

“Hehehe,” the girl giggled. “I’m glad I’m sharing the tent with you instead of her.”

“Yeah, I get it. After all, I don’t make other kids call me ‘boss.’”

“I heard Leaf Bushman talking about her like that!” the girl exclaimed. 

Wait... Leaf... Bushman? Who was that? 

Was that Morning’s lackey? ...Great. so I had her name before I had this girl’s? I barely even talked to her compared to the Glowing Rivulets Vi girl...

Speaking of which, she continued, “It’s so weird. Is she trying to form some kind of organisation or something?”

I shrugged in response, though I doubted she could see the small action, given the dark which still enshrouded—

“Oh, hey, do you mind some light?” she asked.

“No, go ahead,” I laughed, closing my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, it was to the pretty sight of the glowing, floating streams of sapphire.

As the girl ruffled around her bag again, I asked, “So, umm... Did anyone get more vi today?”

“Actually, yeah, all of us did. I’m not sure what Azure Cloud got, but she snatched it really fast and just kept cultivating for the rest of the day. Leaf Bushman got one too; she was really smiley about it... talking about how proud her pa was gonna be or whatever. Oh, and I got my fourth one! Pain Bubble Vi,” she smiled. “What about you? Did you get any last night?”

“Mhm!” I smiled back, launching into a recount of the discussion I’d had with my two elders about Rose Solution Vi.

 


 

It wasn’t as nice a night that night as it had been for the previous ones... it was overcast, most of the stars occluded by the dark clouds. But even still, Morning was sat at the stone table, sat as if waiting for me to arrive. (Yes — she was waiting for me to arrive, and it was actually pretty obvious because she was glaring at me again already.)

Any elders nearby? I glanced left and right... Nope. None that I could see.

I sighed, mentally preparing myself for another tirade. Then, crossing the shallow river over the bridge of stones, I arrived at the table. Give me your worst, sister.

“My Silent Moon Cultivation Method is going to be operating at 30% effectiveness or so tonight,” Morning said, voice surprisingly quiet and subdued as she turned to stare up at the sky.

“That’s... not very much,” I said. “And tonight’s the last night, too...”

My sister nodded, looking back at me with those bloodshot eyes of hers. “This is your fault.”

“I don’t have a vi plant to control the weather, though.”

She groaned. “No. You were the one that took my tier one vi plant — that’s why it’s your fault! It’s got nothing to do with the goddamn weather.”

I just stood there and took it. It wasn’t as if I had anything to refute anymore... and by now I was well aware that her tirades ended faster if I just let her get it all out. 

This one... it felt a little bit different than usual, though. As if her anger was clouded... Clouded just like the sky.

She took a deep breath, once more staring up at that sky. “Tonight’s my last chance,” she finally said.

“Yeah...” I murmured.

Morning Rain turned to me, suddenly. “Midnight Rain, what do I do if I fail?”

I blinked. “What?”

“If in the end, after all of my effort, I have to wait until the second core vi camping trip? My Demerits were bad enough. I’m an A-grade. That should mean I’m destined for great things, but so far all I’ve done is screw up over and over.

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I’m doing.

“I can’t let things go back to how things were before.”

“Morning...” I started.

“But maybe they already are? I don’t have anyone that cares about me. I had to promise to protect all those kids that stick around me, and, well... if I fail, they’ll leave me. And the elders... Midnight, I think the elders care more about you than they do about me. And my aptitude is a hundred times better than yours... 

“I don’t get it. Why does everything I do go so wrong?” 

Morning put her face in her hands, murmuring, “I don’t think Elder Tea is my master to help me. I think she’s my master to fix me.”

“Morning, I still don’t want any of the stuff that you do. I’m not going to take your place or anything. I just want to be myself. And feel comfortable in my body. That’s it. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

She gave me the weirdest look. “I can’t trust that. I don’t believe you. You’ve taken too much from me.”

I sighed.

“If you didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be having any of these problems!” she growled.

Here we go again. I shouldn’t have said anything.

Morning Rain stood up suddenly. “I’m going to go cultivate. Don’t interrupt me or mess me up again, or...” she slid her finger across her neck, pantomiming the beheading I was surely in for.

“Good luck,” I said, weakly, as she charged past towards the boulder, pretty intentionally shoulder-checking me just to be rude.

The angle she came at, though... her shoulder bumped right into my chest and I couldn’t help but cry out in pain. As I gasped, trying to recover, my eyes watered. Holy... why... why... why did that hurt so much? It felt like I’d just been stabbed...

Morning Rain!” Elder Tea’s voice shouted from behind me, and as I winced, waiting for the pain to stop... I heard the elder’s footsteps as she approached. “What in heaven’s name did you do now?”

“I... I...” Morning said. “I don’t know... I just bumped into her...”

“Elder Tea...” I gasped, the pain finally starting to recede. “It’s... okay. Accident.”

Elder Tea gave me a probing look. For a moment it seemed like she knew I was lying... But not even I knew why her doing this had hurt so much, so I didn’t blame her for not knowing...

Taking another deep breath, and holding my chest where it hurt, I walked over to the table and sat down, pushing down any of the negative feelings I had. “Go cultivate, Morning. It’s fine.”

There wasn’t any sound behind me for a long moment, and then I heard Morning’s footsteps receding as Elder Tea sat down next to me. “Are you sure you’re okay? You screamed pretty loud there, you know.” The woman glanced back towards the tents. “In fact... it seems like everyone was curious what happened.”

I felt my face getting warm at the idea of everyone looking at me. “I... I don’t even know,” I mumbled. “That’s why I didn’t want her to be punished for it. It was rude... but that was it.”

“Hmm,” the elder acknowledged. “I suppose that’s fine. I might have an idea of what happened, though,” she said gesturing to my chest. “You’re cultivating yin energy, aren’t you? The Yin Cultivation Method?”

I nodded.

“Well... With so much yin energy on and around you all the time... Eventually, changes are bound to happen...” she said, smiling gently. “There’s a reason why people say I’m pretty, you know?”v v

“Oh my god,” I murmured. “I’m growing boobs.”

She laughed lightly and ruffled my hair a bit, before standing up. “It happens to all of us, Miss Rain. Welcome to the club.”

 


 

‘30% effectiveness’ ended up not actually meaning much, because that night, I watched Morning Rain attract five vi plants. Not one. Not two. Not three, the most any of us had attracted in one session. No, my sister attracted five.

I didn’t know why she managed to attract so many. It was kinda weird. Neither did Elder Tea know, I was pretty sure, considering that her expression had grown more and more surprised with each subsequent vi... and simultaneously more disappointed with each as Morning Rain destroyed them one by one.

There was one difference that night, and that was that Morning Rain actually seemed... calm. She wasn’t sweating and tense like she had been the previous nights... The trademark grimace was still on her face, and her eyes were shut tight, but besides that... she seemed much more at peace.

What changed? What allowed her to attract so many more vi plants? What would make her so much less tense?

I had no idea, and I doubted I ever would learn.

Unfortunately, whatever had changed was not enough... After a cloudy night interspersed by quiet showers, daylight came once more, a gentle orange glow peeking up over the trees to the east.

Morning’s eyes opened, and there were tears in them. 

She’d failed. 

She hadn’t attracted a tier one core vi. She’d attracted numerous tier zeroes, but she’d rejected them all one after another... and that meant, until the next core vi camping trip, she would remain like a mortal, the rest of us charging ahead without her.

I stopped cultivating then, even though I could still continue once the moonlight disappeared. 

There had to be something I could do, right? I wasn’t useless. There was still a chance, wasn’t there? There had to be.

As much as my sister wanted the spot she’d claimed after our Spirit Walks — to be the best — I did not want that spot, and I didn’t want it in equal measure. 

But what could I even do?

Comfort her? Assure her that she still has her entire life ahead of her? That, being A-grade, she’ll get ahead of me again in no time?

No, that just... that wasn’t enough. And honestly, I’d gotten so fed up with Morning’s behaviour at this point that I wasn’t sure if I could actually comfort her for real, so... Helping was the best idea... if I could.

But... as I walked down towards her, as she choked and fell into distressed sobs... my brain could only churn uselessly in search for something that might’ve not existed.

“It’s over,” Morning cried. “I’m still just as useless as I’ve always been. I’ve put in so much effort and I’m still beaten by you, Midnight. Heck, I tried to ruin your efforts, I tried to drag you through the dirt, like I’d been... but it was completely useless.” She laughed through her tears suddenly, wiping her eyes. “In fact, it had the exact opposite effect, didn’t it? Stupid.”

“Morning... there’s gotta be something we can do...” I tried.

She shook her head, laying back against the boulder and staring up at the sky, which was finally clearing. “No, there’s nothing. I’ve failed, and I’m going to get Demerits for being obstinate, or something, and then papa’s going to be angry I failed him and punish me, and then... I don’t even know. At this point I can’t even get a tier zero. It’s over; I can’t cultivate any energy type like you can and the moonlight is gone.”

I frowned. She had a point. Her cultivation method probably couldn’t be used in the day. Mine could, but...

Wait. “S-says who?”

She rolled her head to look at me, wiping her eyes again. “I’m using the Silent Moon Cultivation Method, remember? I can only cultivate moonlight energy.”

“You could... you could use the Yin Cultivation Method,” I murmured. “Theoretically that’d be compatible with your essence ocean, wouldn’t it?”

She furrowed her brows, then closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Taking one last deep breath, she sat up. “Okay, sure, yeah, actually. But... I don’t remember the Yin Cultivation Method anymore.”

“That’s the easiest thing to fix of them all,” I smiled.

 


 

Wasn’t it weird?

Just earlier, and for the past couple weeks... my sister and I... we were as far apart as could ever be. She hated me, and... for a while there, I hated her, too.

Though I’d grown up in pain, I... I wasn’t alone. She’d been hurting the entire time too, hadn’t she? The way she coped with everything was just a lot different than the way I did, or something...

When she’d come after me with those words of hers... the most malicious of them, the ones that I could barely handle... Thinking back, I could only see now how much pain was in them. To her, I represented everything wrong. Everything she should have had but couldn’t. In all honesty, I probably still was this way to her... Sitting together like this — a lack of hostilities — it was nothing but a temporary truce.

A truce, because neither of us wanted to go back to the way things were before. I didn’t want the attention that she wanted. I never had, and I still didn’t.

I opened my eyes, allowing my cultivation to continue as I looked to my side, where my sister sat, legs crossed.

Her eyes were shut tight, her aperture open with a silvery glow quite like my own. She was starting to shake again, like she had the other days of the week. The reason why was obvious, though, wasn’t it?

Because, like... How much stress should a ten-year-old really have?

Was it fair to give Morning Rain a taste of what she’d always wanted, and then put her in a situation where she could lose all of it? A situation that not even her persistence might resolve?

Heaven, I looked up to the sky. Immortals, whatever, whoever’s up there... Give her a bit of luck. Just... once. Please.

But no one heard my plea. Yeah, why would it be heard, to be honest? 

This world didn’t have a god. 

None of the mythology I’d ever heard talked about one. Unless Origin counted, but if Origin was real, they were gone, now.

There was only luck, and persistence, and... well, it wasn’t as if praying to no one could give her the former.

Splash

At that moment, a white shape fell down the waterfall and into the pool in front of us. My eyes followed it as it floated towards the shore between us.

It was a vi plant — a vi plant with little to no life force remaining; a white crescent moon covered in deep gashes. The energy it gave off barely registered, the poor little thing barely projected a quarter of the power of the average tier zero.

The vi plant drifted towards me, slowly floating upwards. I shook my head. No, not me, not this time. 

Stopping my cultivation, my aperture closing once more, I leaned down and gently blew on the weak little plant, guiding it towards Morning, who’d completely failed to notice it.

It made sense that she did, though. The fact that I could pay attention to my surroundings during cultivation was apparently pretty weird, given the elders’ reactions on that first night of the camping trip.

As I guided the little white crescent moon upwards, it didn’t seem to want to enter Morning’s aperture either. Were the vi plants afraid of her? She was able to attract them, but they never seemed to trust her enough to actually be tamed.

But eventually, it did come to her aperture, pressing against it. Morning frowned. She could probably tell that it was barely alive.

Internally, I urged: It doesn’t matter, Morning. You can get another one later. Just take it. You need a core vi.

And, breathing out, she relaxed, and the crescent moon entered her aperture. Instantly, she closed the mystical space of hers, then glanced at me — at the small smile on my face. Morning Rain leaned back onto the floor of the cave, her eyes still shut, and mumbled, “I’m sorry. And thank you.”

“That’s what sisters are for,” I said back, my smile growing a little wider.

Morning opened her eyes just to roll them, then got up and started out of the cave. “If you think this changes anything, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Oh no.

She looked back one more time, and just gave me a playful wink.

Jerk.

Will Morning and Midnight actually get along now?! Will Morning's true nature really change?! Maybe! I guess you'll have to wait and see. Anyway, that's the end of that mini-arc. Next up... it's a surprise! 

If you want to support me and the story, consider becoming a patron!

If you wanna hang out and chat, join my Discord server, the floof zone!

Thanks again, everyone, for reading and commenting and discussing. This journey's been pretty crazy so far, for both the characters and for me, and I hope you've been enjoying the ride too. Here's to many more chapters to come! ?

140