Deus Didymus: Rend

Pt2Ch35: PNation

Y/n took a deep breath. With the swipe of his sword, a trail of lightning snapped at the air. He dismissed his sword, grinning at Riwon's sparkling excitement.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Riwon asked, bouncing in her spot.

"I guess I can try," Y/n mumbled. "If it doesn't work at first, I won't teach you though. It's a really dangerous technique."

"But it's what separates you and I, so I want to learn it!" Riwon argued.

"'Kay," Y/n sighed. "Since you know how to use energy, it'll probably be easier for you to learn than it was for me."

He resummoned his blade above his head. "You want to take a deep breath. With the air in your lungs, you want to transform the air you didn't absorb into energy."

Following a second deep breath Y/n swung down, initiating another chain of crackles. Y/n gestured toward Riwon's training sword, "Try it yourself."

Riwon took a deep breath. She gripped her blade, preparing to swing down. As she started, the training sword's metal turned red before dropping to the ground--indenting the dirt. Riwon fell to her knees, clutching her throat as she choked. She turned to Y/n, panicked, mouthing his name.

"Ya! Deep breaths!!" Y/n slapped Riwon's back, holding her shoulder to stop her from falling forward. "Take deep breaths!"

Riwon fell onto her side, unconscious, causing Y/n to curse himself out. He laid the girl flat on her back, flattening her hood over her face. Y/n inhaled, pressing his lips against hers. Three breaths in Riwon gasped, shooting up. She clutched her head, panting. "That was intense."

"Yeah, we're doing that anymore," Y/n sighed. "I'm not fit to teach this kind of stuff."

"Wait! I was almost there!! I felt it-"

"No!" Y/n interrupted. "People have died trying to do this stuff!! We're done."

Riwon frowned. She slouched forward in defeat, prompting Y/n to reach under her hood. He rubbed her ears, smiling as the girl nuzzled her head against his palm.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap," Y/n breathed.

Riwon brushed her hair, whimpering as she caught her secondary ears with the bristles. She gently rubbed her head, frowning at the thought of Y/n. Compared to IZLand's recent renovations, the housing in PNation felt like a drastic downgrade, but it was more than enough to keep her warm at night; that mattered more than anything.

The house provided by Jaesang was definitely a lavish one. It held seven people: Hyungseo, Cocona, Jisoo, Chaehyun, Haseul, Keisuke, and herself. With four bedrooms, bathrooms, and two floors, the group's house was better than anything they could have individually afforded before Choi Yujin and Minho changed the city. It blended in well with the surrounding houses of the town. Riwon assumed the area belonged to low royalty or rich people since the housing toward the center resembled that of houses she found in IZLand's border towns.

Riwon often took advantage of having her own room. At home, she never had to worry about hiding her ears since her parents already knew about her mutation. The dorm worked similarly with most of the residents acknowledging that Riwon wanted to hide herself, resulting in them avoiding her room or knocking. However, now that she had to stay on her toes, Riwon kept her head and waist covered at all times. 

While Keisuke, Haseul, and Chaehyun worked, the younger ones trained--mostly because they weren't old enough to work in PNation, with the exception of Hyungseo. Without Yujin around to mend their accidents, Cocona and Hyungseo took great caution in not damaging the backyard they trained in. Jisoo often trained in hand-to-hand combat with Chaehyun after work hours ended, and Riwon trained Haseul with a hand crossbow.