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Yami operated on instinct and impulse. He rarely bothered with introspection, and wasn't much for complicated logic. That said, he did possess a kernel of hard-earned common sense- likely the result of growing up in a poor fishing village- and occasionally it manifested itself.
Like right now.
“So this guy- who no record indicates is any kind of prodigy or anything other than a loser bandit like his loser bandit brother- is holding a village hostage. Several hundred people.”
Julius, his face projected into the Bulls' base by a communication spell, nodded.
“And he has a bunch of lowlife thugs and a stolen dungeon artifact, and he's saying if his demand isn't met he'll massacre all the villagers and build a pile out of their skulls.”
Julius nodded again.
“And his demand is not, I don't know, the head of the man who arrested his brother, which was apparently me, but a duel, on equal terms, with a Magic Knight Captain.” He paused. “So this dungeon artifact, you're going to tell me it lowers intelligence or something, right?”
“It's worth looking into once we recover it,” Julius replied. “But you understand why the simplest method of solving the problem seems to be just giving him what he wants. There is the possibility it's a trap, of course, but we can't ignore that he put a countdown on our citizen's lives.”
“Because he's an idiot, but he's an idiot who's gonna kill a bunch of people. Right.”
“Yes. I'm afraid the real problem is the hour deadline. There aren't many spatial mages who've done work in the Forsaken Realm, and the nearest squad to his location is still several hours' flight away. We're looking for someone now, but I was hoping you could handle this in-house.” Julius glanced at Finral.
Finral looked caught between trying to maintain some decorum in front of the Wizard King- even if it was just a projection- and his own incredulity at the stupidity. He startled when he suddenly found himself the center of attention.
“Er. I haven't been to Zocodany, sir, but... if you have a map?”
“Certainly.” Julius gestured to someone off screen- presumably Marx- and his face was replaced by a map. A red dot marked the village. Yami tried to remember if they'd had any missions in that part of the Forsaken Realm before, but came up blank. It'd been pretty quiet since the year Yami and Vangeance had cleaned the place up. Until now, anyway.
But Finral's expression had gone distant in a way Yami recognized, eyes losing focus as he made mental calculations. Yami let him work. After a moment, he spoke up.
“Um, I can get us there in less than half an hour.” Snapping back to reality, he looked at Yami and added, a little sheepishly, “But you're not going to like it.”
Finral proceeded to explain.
He was right. Yami didn't like it.
*
Finral had warned him about the cold and the thin air. It didn't remotely prepare Yami for the reality of jumping into a portal and finding himself closer to the clouds than the ground. He jerked, an instinctive attempt to gain nonexistent footing.
Finral's right arm lashed out like a snake, grabbing Yami's left wrist before the motion sent him tumbling as they picked up speed. But when Yami looked at him, all of Finral's attention was on the horizon. His left hand hovered in a fist over his glowing grimoire before snapping open. A portal bloomed under them.
The next jump left their height unchanged, but a new landscape hurtled toward them at even greater speed. Yami's gut twisted. Why had he agreed to this again...?
*
“The problem is that once you hit terminal velocity-”
“Hit what?”
“The fastest fall speed. And yes, if you hit anything at that speed you'll die. So if I screw up the calculations and open a portal too high, the half second delay between intent and realization will- er-”
“Cut us in half. Got it.”
“Yeah. That. And if I open a portal too low, air currents might cause enough drift that we hit the portal unevenly, which, at that velocity-”
“Will also cut us in half.”
“That's about the size of it. And then at the end, I'll have to open an inverted portal to reverse our momentum before I actually let us anywhere near the ground. Which means getting hurled upward through a portal upside down. And then turning midair and timing the portal after that for the moment of equilibrium for maximum chance at landing correctly.”
“And this will get us there in time.”
“I can portal anywhere I can see. Go a few thousand feet up, and that's several miles. Zocodany village is-”
“Yeah, I get it. Have you actually done this before?”
“Well, yes. Not with a passenger, though.”
“Why?”
“Because it was fun? Didn't you ever do anything for fun as a kid?”
“...Holy fuck, you're actually serious. All of the years of giving me crap for reckless behavior, and I find out you fall out of the sky for shits and giggles. Do I even know you?”
“Okay that's laying it on a little thick. Look, do you want to get there in time or not?”
“Fine. But if we die I'm killing you.”
“Sure, Yami.”
*
When they burst through the penultimate portal, falling towards the sky like they'd been shot out of a canon, Yami grit his teeth to hold back a shout. He focused on the vice grip Finral still had on his wrist as gravity inverted. Ignoring the way his body was rebelling against the sudden change, he forced himself to turn and fall through the last portal feet first.
The disorientation on landing drove Yami to his knees, and only years of training saved him from kissing dirt. Finral had timed it right. They hadn't landed any harder than they should have from a drop of about seven feet. But the several minutes of straight falling before that had turned his bones to jelly.
Finral- who'd finally let go of his wrist now that there wasn't imminent danger of them getting separated midair- looked mildly windblown but otherwise perfectly pleased with the world. He'd also landed on his feet and was looking intolerably smug about it. Yami made a mental note to do something about that later.
And I am going to remember this the next time he complains that he's the only normal one. This puts him right up there with Luck.
Eyeing his sunny expression, Yami told him, “I ever find out there was another way to do this, you're a dead man.”
Finral, way too cheerfully, replied, “Nope! There wasn't.” His ki remained steady, no hint of a lie. Yami growled.
Well. At least one of them had enjoyed themselves.
*
Much later, Yami was back at base and getting ready for a bath. He felt like the cold air had seeped into his bones. Yami shuddered. Shit, but he was never complaining about flying again. At least on a broom he could keep within a few hundred feet of the ground.
Of course, insult to injury, the fight itself hadn't been enough to warm him up. A couple dozen low life wannabes, mostly the kid siblings or other junior affiliates of the same group he and Vangeance had taken care of before, none of them with the power or brains to put up a challenge. Even the dungeon artifact hadn't made any difference in the end. They'd only been drunk on power because they'd managed to terrorize a few villages. Yami shook his head.
All that fuss and nobody strong enough to leave a bruise. He started to unbuckle his sword.
There was a twinge in his left wrist.
Surprised, Yami looked down. And stared. The fuck? That looked like- when the hell had someone grabbed- no one had even gotten that close-
Finral's right arm lashed out like a snake, grabbing Yami's left wrist-
Snapshots of memory flashed before Yami's eyes. Thousands of portals. Nearly every single one controlled with a flick of the fingers or the quick opening and closing of a palm. Yami didn't have Finral's talent for equations, but he could add up that kind of repeated practice just fine.
Yami touched the finger-shaped bruises and smirked. Well then. He stood corrected. Somebody had been strong enough. Just not the pathetic losers he'd been summoned to deal with.
Normal one my ass, Finral. It's not just anybody who can leave a mark on me.