Lily's Past

After the day had come and gone right out the window, we were back in the group home, having dinner once more.

During the day, Dani and the others went to their training segments again, and Dani even got to talk to Cole a little more. I haven't seen Illya in a day, not that I'm complaining, but I still don't want her out of my sight for a prolonged amount of time. I woke up fairly early to the time [60:41:01], and it is now [48:00:19]. Just about two days left.

"What is this stuff right here?" I pointed at the plate and Dani leaned in close, looking at it with a confused stare. Lia giggled before telling us.

"It's a kiwi. We used to grow them in the swamp sometimes, but they never grew that well. You can't eat the hair, so put it down. Carve it out and then eat the green insides, that's how to enjoy it best." Lia said. She seemed to know what I was thinking...

"Hm... what an odd fruit. What else did you do in the swamp? I never really got to hear about it." I asked Lia. Lily joined in on the conversation as well.

I had been slowly understanding that has been happening as I spent time in the cell with Illya. I didn't know much about Lily at all... and I thought it would've been uncomfortable for me to ask. However, I wanted to try my luck.

"Well... I don't know much. I was very young in the swamp and moved to the north shortly after my memory started to remember things. I do know that we had oranges and kiwis though." Lia said.

"And, Lily, I don't really know much about you. You seem to be a copy of Lia, but you were... well, missing from the war for a little bit. Your combat training is no joke, so I want to know what you've been doing this entire time." I asked her, risking the atmosphere of the conversation.

"Oh, I guess I never really had the opportunity to tell you. Well, let's see... I was captured with Lia, but Tavian saved me and I stuck with Ellie for a little. Ellie took care of me, but the problem with that was they could gather information from Lia if they tortured it out of her, so I had to move. Ellie had a strategy that seemed... stupid, at first. She offered to hand me over to Noboki, who kept me safe and gave me personalized training whenever she got off of work with the army. Noboki never revealed my location, and I was able to hide right under Orion's nose just by sticking with her." Lily told me.

"I see... and, you match Lia's ability... but I also have to wonder, where did Lia get that skill? Not just from the training after you regained your body's mass, right?" I turned to Lia next.

"Well... not exactly. I'm told it has to do with the Generation Three blood in my body. The kind of blood that lets me adapt to certain conditions as needed. In fact, my body's healing factor is far more boosted than somebody like Lily's, and I have experience from watching those around me." Lia told me.

But, I didn't believe that. Sure, it might've been the truth, but it's still unbelievable.

"Sure... you both use two daggers?" I asked again, prying for the real reason.

"Four weapons are really hard to block," Lily said proudly, sipping on her drink.

"I'd agree. Are you sure you guys didn't... train before that? You learned it from Noboki, and Lia learned it from watching us?" I asked again.

"Well... we trained, but not much," Lily said. She didn't want me to pry anymore, I could tell by the look on her face, so I gave it up and looked back down at my plate.

"What about you? Your combat ability came from... experience? How did you survive an encounter without experience?" Lily asked me. It wasn't malicious, but she was most certainly curious.

"I have a general idea of people and how they should die. Hell, my first skill was an instinctual awakening to one of my abilities. I could telekinetically pull a katana out of a sheathe and use it to decapitate somebody. Sure, I shouldn't be alive to have that experience, but I'm not just going to say that all of it was luck. My training was strenuous, and I also had fourteen years to train specifically in combat in a different world." I told Lily.

"Do you think we're as capable as you, Sky?" Lily asked me. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I didn't want to be mean about it, but I also didn't want to lie.

"Probably," I flatly said.

"I don't like where this is going. Here, stuff your mouth with this." Dani said, putting some weird food in my mouth.

"It's fish. We used to have it on the beach." She told me, putting more in her own mouth.

"Hey! At least use a different fork." I told her, but she shook her head while chewing.

"Oh come on, don't play coy." She said with a wink. What was with that girl...

"Ew, I could throw up," Lia said, looking in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, whatever. You can be jealous all you want," Dani said to her.

"Jealous? Sky's my big brother, I don't view him like that at all." She said, crossing her arms and putting them close to her chest. What were they talking about?

"I'm glad. Hey, what are you looking at?" Dani asked me while I was looking up.

"Hm? Not sure, I just felt like I was absent from the conversation. Hey, what have you been training when you leave the home? I would like to do whatever I can to keep up in strength." I asked her. Dani bit into the kiwi, forgetting to carve it out, and received laughter from both Lia and Lily.

"Bleh! Well, at the moment I'm just training my muscles to be stronger. They have this weird machine you can do all sorts of things on... and it's... tough..." She said, lightly moving her arms out.

"That's okay... can you move the machine at all?" I asked, but Dani shook her head, explaining that it was too heavy.

Dammit... what can I do to keep up with everybody...?