*****
"What do you mean?" the five of them looked at Raven outrageously.
"Just as I said it," Raven replied.
The six of them are currently on their way to Eureka"s room.
"It"s what I want to ask her yesterday, but she just woke and the king told us to let her rest," Raven said as they reach her room.
Opening the door, they found her outside, standing in the balcony watching over the kingdom. Approaching her,
"Eureka, we..." they started before looking at Raven.
"Seeing how you have difficulty on starting a conversation with me, I"ll a.s.sume that Raven have already told you," she faced them, "That…. I am blind."
"Then, all this time?" Mamoru said in a low voice.
"Is there something wrong with not having your eyesight?" Eureka asked.
"No, it"s just….. But were you always blind? I mean were you blind ever since you were born?"
"No, I was blinded instantly when I was 10."
"What happened?" Feena asked this time.
"It"s my choice. That"s what happened. I chose to be blind," Eureka replied.
"You were that strong, even though your a zero, even though you are blind?" Hideyos.h.i.+ couldn"t help but ask.
"Physical strength is not in born, you have to strengthen yourself on your own. You can"t rely entirely on your ability or the people around you."
"Just how much have you trained?" Feena asked, feeling her emotions taking over again.
"As long as I can remember I suppose, it was not that I was not allowed to play, but playing is not fun to that place."
"I thought you have no memories?" Raven asked.
Eureka looked at him, "My past does not exist."
Everyone was baffled. Her past does not exist, what does that really mean? She would sometimes tell them an experience of hers, or something from her childhood, just like today, but all she says is her past does not exist.
"Are you from this place?" Raven asked once again.
"What, do I look like I came from the outer s.p.a.ce?"
This sentence caused the others to laugh. They knew what Raven meant and obviously Eureka does too. And yet for the second time since she woke up, she actually made a joke. Yesterday it was the king, today it"s Raven.
"I am from this place, I was born here," everyone once again fell silent.
She was born here but her past does not exist? Just what does that mean?
"I think I"ve said too much already," Eureka once again said before returning her attention to the surroundings.
"Then how were you able to fight the way you did all this time?" Azusa asked bringing their conversation to the real reason they visited her this time.
"Auras, each person"s aura is different from the other," she replied seriously.
"But why are you not hitting any inanimate objects?" Mamoru followed.
"Even those have their aura, an aura that tells you, that such a thing won"t move but it"s simply just an object," she answered.
Come to think of it, their academy had no written examinations. If they ever have, they never saw her take it.
"Then those exams?" Feena asked.
"Why do you think I"m not the top of the cla.s.s when I kept on defeating the instructors?"
"Ah, You weren"t taking them?!?!" Karen exclaimed.
"I"m not, we barely had them anyway so it does not matter to the instructors whether it"s a zero or not," she nonchalantly replied.
"But how did you know the line up of our battle with Kyro"s group back then?" Karen after remembering asked.
"You guys were talking about it, all I have to do is to listen right?"
"Then why were you always in the library?"
"If I want to expand my knowledge I could only stay where a lot is reading or studying, some of them love studying while reading aloud, did you know that?"
"But you were blind since you were 10, how did you?"
"Oh, my companions helped me out."
"Companions?"
Eureka was taken a back, she didn"t expect that this casual conversation of theirs would reach this point.
"Where are they?" Raven urged.
"They"re..." Eureka paused.
"They"re?" this time it was Feena.
"They"re not with me."
"Where are they?"
"Who knows."
"In the end, how did you appear here?"
"By the time I realized it, I was already here."
"Before that, where were you? You were gravely injured they said."
"I was, indeed I was."
They waited for her to continue but she didn"t.
"You"re not going to tell us?"
"Tell you what?"
"More about your past."
"My past does not exist."
"Then what do you call all those childhood of yours?"
"Childhood."
"But-"
"Okay that"s enough. We"ve asked more than what we should," this time it was Raven who stopped them. Seeing how she started avoiding the questions again, he chose not to pry any longer.
Eureka sighed, "Maybe there"ll come a time, when all stories could be said. When all questions could be answered. When all things could be revealed. But that time has not yet come, not just yet."
They couldn"t react, cause this time when she looked at them for the first time since they met her, she was smiling not bitterly but instead sadly, she was actually smiling at them sadly and apologetically. Seeing this they knew that she had started accepting them as more than acquaintances.
"I guess, it"s more than enough," Feena tearyly said.
"Yes, this… is more than enough," Karen followed as she walked closer and hugged Eureka.
"Thank you," Feena added before hugging Eureka as well.
Karen then pulled Azusa who was just close by.
"I can"t breath," Eureka said when they hugged her tighter.
The other guys were genuinely happy, cause Eureka finally accepted them as friends. She finally accepted them in her life.
*****
"Could you help us then?" Raven asked, after the girls calmed down.
"I guess I can, I can help you train your senses to be stronger."
"I still can"t sleep properly, admittedly," Hideyos.h.i.+ clenched his hands.
"We were defeated so easily even with the special abilities that we had practiced so hard. It"s like were fighting a forest fire with just a pail of water."
"That"s what I have been telling you all those times, you can"t just train and rely on your abilities. You have to train your physical and mental strength as well," Eureka lectured.
Hideyos.h.i.+ have no rebuke, she did tell them but just because they were one of the strongest among those of the same age as they are, they thought they were already plenty strong.
"Then this time, we will really train as hard as we can," he said with conviction.
"Train then try your hand with the generals," Eureka added.
"Eureka, how are you against the generals?" Mamoru suddenly asked.
"Who knows, I never tried myself."
That"s what they thought.