"...I'm not good at this. I always get this awful, warm feeling in my stomach when I think about you."
"I'm becoming a Luni now! If you even... care. I can hear Mom's voice in my head already. She'd hate it.
... But that doesn't matter anymore, and neither do you. Lychinus is no longer safe, so I'm leaving—and I'm not telling you where, though. I'm sure you wouldn't even look; you probably won't even read this.
I don't even know why I'm putting this much thought into it, because it's a hell of a lot more than you ever did for me. But here's your letter anyway, I guess. Dad."
Lucy huffed, stuffing a pen back into her right-side dress pocket—skimming over her words on the page a final time.
She walked over the piles of ash and rubble that were once the walls of the small-time bakery that her mother built from nothing except her own resolve.
The place she grew up in.
Lucy stuck the note onto one of their scorched dining room tables that survived the mayhem. Her eyes couldn't help but wander to the spot where it... happened. Even though she had fought herself not to.
She examined the rugged concrete; traces of red had already seeped into the cracks in the ground, and bits of pinkish-gray matter lingered amidst the debris, despite Ruan's cleaning efforts.
"Phew..." Ruan let out a sigh of relief, wiping the dirt and grime from his hands on his black linen pants as he approached Lucy.
Lucy furrowed her eyebrows, squeezing the back of her palm tightly at his approach.
"...Did you do it?" She said, trying to force some firmness into her voice, but she couldn't even turn to look at him.
Ruan exhaled jadedly, wrapping his large cape around his body like a coat, almost by instinct. "...Yeah. The Light will guide her now."
She chuckled dryly in response. "I don't know how happy she'd be to hear that."
Ruan forced a wry smile, for her sake. Then, after a moment of silence, tapped her on the back playfully two times. "Alright, come on. I got a surprise for you." He said, grabbing her attention and walking next to a secluded, unlit area between two buildings—he stood there patiently, waiting for Lucy to approach.
Lucy just watched him curiously, crossing her arms as she responded to his eager expression with a skeptical raise of her eyebrow.
"And my surprise is in that suspiciously dark alley? No thanks." She said with an ironic frown.
He groaned in response and rolled his eyes—reaching behind the alleyway and tossing Lucy a plastic bag that seemed to be overflowing with various kinds of material. She scrambled to catch it and quickly snuck a peek inside the bag.
She gasped loudly, her starry eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store.
Ruan silently chuckled, pleased with himself. "Hah. Yeah, yeah. There aren't exactly any bathrooms around, so I figured the next best place to change would be—H-Hey!"
Lucy had tuned him out completely, rushing past excitedly into the dark alleyway. Ruan grumbled and promptly crossed his arms with a huff. Turning his back to Lucy, his wide shoulders and enormous, furred cape obscured the view into the alley, giving Lucy complete privacy as she could be heard rustling with the bag fervently.
Though a bit annoyed, Ruan stood as her makeshift door, tapping his foot—waiting patiently for her to finish.
To his surprise, she brushed by him like a mouse, exiting the alley just as eagerly as she had gone in.
"Hey! Hey! How do I look!?" She jumped in front of him and postured enthusiastically.
Her entire outfit had completely changed; the old, ragged peasant's dress she had worn before had been completely switched out for an outfit that mirrored Ruan's.
A hardened tactical black t-shirt, with fitted linen pants, it had an enveloping cape built into the shoulder; it flowed in the wind idly, but it was still big enough to be worn as a coat.
Ruan gave her a once-over, studying her new attire with a cheesy grin he could barely hide. "Exactly how I looked in it."
Lucy's expression immediately shifted—her mouth slowly dropping as she gripped her black t-shirt and glanced down at it, as if she was deeply disturbed. "Ew!! These are your old musty clothes!?"
"What? It's not like I can just walk into the barracks and find you a new one." Ruan said, shrugging his massive shoulders.
Lucy sniffed her cape, and her nose immediately scrunched. "Eugh! It smells like you! And..." She brought it to her nose again and raised her eyebrow. "Apple juice?"
"Eh, I get thirsty sometimes—and the bottle is usually too cold for my hands, so I just wrap it in the cape." He replied.
Lucy squinted her eyes, dumbfounded. "What are you, 4?"
"No. I'm 30 years old, and when you get to be my age, you'll remember this conversation when random parts of your body start aching." He flipped his cape around and began walking out into the ruined street. "Now come on, we can't stay here much longer. We're losing daylight."
As Ruan walked off, Lucy noticed the back of his cape that fluttered in the wind. She once again noticed the Lychinus symbol that was slashed out, right down the middle.
Looking back at her own cape, she noticed the symbol was still intact. Before he could notice, Lucy searched quickly for something sharp, finding a broken piece of pointed stone rubble lying next to her feet.
She then hastily drove it across the star symbol in a single slash, exactly like Ruan's.
Right down the middle.
When she finished, Lucy sprinted towards Ruan, huffing as she struggled to catch her breath. He glanced back slightly and subtly reduced his pace.
His blue and purple eyes studied his newfound pupil once again. She didn't seem to notice—still out of breath. He didn't really know what he was looking for at first; it could be that he was just instinctively checking for any injuries, or maybe he found himself worried about this strange little girl.
Regardless, his eyes trailed down to her back, peeking over her shoulder and getting a glimpse of her cape.
When he laid eyes upon the now-slashed symbol, he nearly froze. He didn't know what to think; a plethora of memories flooded his brain in an instant, most of them ones he'd rather forget.
But finally, his body seemed to settle on an emotion.
He chuckled, feeling a strange sense of gratification.
... But then, he frowned.
"...Lukyan. Are you sure you're okay? That was a hell of a lot for anyone to process, let alone a little kid." Ruan waited for an answer, watching her closely—waiting for any cracks in her demeanor. "Don't worry, I'm not questioning your resolve. You took the oath. But..."
Lucy just kept walking with her head held high. Her eyes stayed straight ahead of her with a steely glint—expression growing into a slight scowl. But she was unflinching.
"I am not some scared little girl," Lucy remarked composedly. "That's not the kind of daughter that my mother raised. If someone hits you, you punch them back. If someone steals from you, you go out and drag back the idiot who thought it was a good idea.
...And if somebody ever wrongs your family, you make sure they never get the chance to do it again."
Then, Lucy turned to Ruan with a pettish expression. "And my NAME is Lucy. Lucy Astra."
Ruan looked back at her, his mouth slightly agape—as if he was astounded by this girl, or maybe he didn't know how to react just yet.
Regardless, he turned away slowly, and a low chuckle escaped him, then a snicker.
To Lucy's bewilderment, Ruan suddenly burst into roaring, boisterous laughter. "Hahaha! Alright then, Lucy! You got a fire inside you, kid. Now I'm excited to see just what form your passion takes after I perform Lucernarium."
Lucy immediately stops in her tracks and dramatically turns to him, gritting her teeth. "Uh, H-Haha! W-What are you talking about? I SO have a light! Already... Ha. Ha."
Ruan rolled his eyes, stopping as well to turn to her. "Oh, spare me, please. I've been around Light wielders long before you were even a thought. After a while, you start to get a sense for who does and who doesn't."
After he finished his remark, Ruan's eyes began scanning the area. They were still in District 8, though they were now far away from the apex of the wreckage that was wrought.
But he seemed to be searching for something amidst the buildings and streets that made up the marketplace.
Suddenly, he grinned. He found what he was looking for.
Walking over to a dimly lit spot of the district, it held a single building, a tavern that seemed to have been shut down a long time ago. He guided his finger along the brick wall of its exterior until his hand seemed to get caught on something.
But... he wasn't visibly holding anything; it seemed like he torqued his hand on nothing but thin air.
Ruan turned to the curious Lucy standing right behind him, with a sly grin.
"...Ready for your first lesson?" He said, leaning closer as a barely audible noise began emanating from the brick where his fingers nearly pressed.
"Never trust what the world shows you, only what you feel beneath it."
The air began to bend unnaturally, warping the space around his hand. Then, Ruan clenched his fist and tore...!
TEAR!!
It was like he ripped the world apart right in front of her; a seam of white light split across the tavern's wall, the illusion peeling apart like a weak piece of paper.
Fragments of what used to be reality disintegrated into white dust. Revealing what truly lay beyond.
The Rainbow Road. A long since destroyed entrance and exit to the Kingdom of Lychinus.
Lucy couldn't believe it, but it was right in front of her.
An iridescent road that arced out far beyond the tavern's threshold and reached far into the plethora of clouds. The first thing she noticed was its glow—it seemed to be made entirely of colored living glass, blue, purple, red, green, and white, casting prismatic reflections across their faces.
It literally seemed endless, like it spiraled through the heavens before dipping towards the planet's ground far below.
From this height, the world beneath looked like a painting, with mountains peaking high and rivers slightly visible through the swirling fog.
"W-Woah..." Lucy stammered. "This... It's the Rainbow Road!? But I... I thought this was! - AH!!"
Ruan cut her off, suddenly pushing her forward off the ledge. "Second lesson."
Lucy screamed as her feet slipped from the ledge; the world began tilting as she fell through the open air. The wind whipped past her, the rainbow light spiraling around her like ribbons.
She covered her eyes but continued screaming. Somehow, she found the courage to peek through her fingers despite her hysteria, and the realization slowly began to dawn on her.
Uh, she wasn't... falling? She glanced down at her feet, and something was keeping her upright; it felt light to the touch, like standing on a feather.
...It was the Rainbow Road! A portion of it materialized below her!
THUD!
Ruan jumped down on the same road Lucy was standing on, causing her to yelp—still startled.
"Never let your guard down, especially around those you trust. Most of the time, they just have a sharper blade to stick you with."
Lucy groaned, rubbing the back of her neck, still frazzled from the whiplash. "Hey! What's your problem!? You could've seriously cracked my butt!"
Ruan stifled a laugh. "Isn't it supposed to be?"
WROOM!
The Rainbow Road beneath them suddenly emanated a strange kind of ethereal, whirring noise. Then, it started rapidly expanding, casting its radiant rainbow light upon the surrounding clouds as it began to connect back into the main road it originated from.
Ruan grinned, whipping his cape to the side. "Looks like that's our cue; I remember my camp being not too far from here."
Finally, he walked over to where Lucy sat and extended his hand.
"So, Lucy Astra. Are you sure that you're ready?"
She stared at his hand for a moment, reaching out her own instinctively, until she noticed her fingers were shaking.
She hesitated, glancing down at her hand.
...But she shook her head, smacking both sides of her face.
With a determined grin, she reached out and firmly grasped his hand.
"Hah. Do you even have to ask?"