Wish upon the stars chapter 360

"You made me work for that one." I grunted as I slumped down on the  couch. We hadn't talked much on the drive home. "I was worried a few  times there. Your main stats are so much higher than mine. Can't believe  you could see through my Moonlit Night. Even close range."

She  shook her head. "Not see. Sight was gone. I was going off hearing. You  almost got me with that. Some kind of Stealth element I'd guess? But you  forgot that Stealth is about using Perception to erase all trace of  yourself. Someone with a high enough Perception can overpower someone  else's stealth. Even with nearly triple yours though, I could only pick  you up when you got close."

I  winced, pressing on my ribs. "Being able to read and react to every  move was pretty impressive. Fighting me blind must have been tough, even  with your Balam Skill. Honestly I'm shocked I even won with your  advantages. I kept expecting to get pincushioned."

That  got a laugh from Callie. "Honestly, you just have too many options.  Especially with the new tricks, you were able to counter everything I  tried. Several of those were new right? Stuff you've been working on  during the tournament? I was on the back foot the whole time. I had no  clue how to react."

"I  guess that's the downside to us knowing each other's fighting style so  well." I said with a shrug. "Changes are harder to keep up with." I  massaged my side. "Though you made a damn good effort." I could have  healed it up. Used a healing burst to fix things. But I didn't want to.  I'd earned the bruises in that fight. Callie had earned them. Plus they  were light and they would be gone by the time I woke up tomorrow, no use  wasting a healing charge.

She  sighed. "So, with that out of the way, I guess we can talk about the  tournament now. If you want. The closer we get to the end the more  likely you'll be fighting Mel or Abel. What do you think your chances  are?" I could see she didn't want to talk about her loss anymore, and  was trying to move on to discussing the tourney like someone who was  just a bystander. She couldn't give me tips, because while she was out, I  wasn't, and we still had an agreement with the others, but getting my  opinion on it wasn't too much of a problem.

"Honestly."  I said with a frown. "Not great. I have some more options for possible  upgrades, and I might be able to take Mel if I prepare for it right, but  I have no clue which one I'll face, if either. As for Abel...I'll do  what I can. I'm not sure I can beat him, but at this point, even if I  can't, that still means someone from our team will probably enter the  finals. That's enough for me."

Not  that I wasn't going to give my all to beat Abel, but I just...couldn't  think of anything that would get it done. He was too strong. Too  versatile. Too...Abel. If he did beat me though, I was going to make him  work for it. I wouldn't be just another crushed enemy. He was going to  remember our fight, even if he won the whole damn tournament.

The  chances of me fighting him next round weren't high though.  Statistically, running into two teammates in as many battles wasn't  exactly likely. Knowing that she still needed time to process, and that  being under foot wasn't helping, I took off my mask and leaned down to  press a kiss to Callie's forehead. "I have to go check in with Benny  about today's wishes. Especially since SOMEBODY needed half my stockpile  of tranq blows to take down."

That  got a smug grin from my girlfriend. "Well, you didn't think it would be  easy did you?" Rolling my eyes, I headed off to find my best friend,  but internally, I was happy to know she wasn't too upset. She'd put up a  hell of a fight. It had taken me finally utilizing my stockpile of  Skills to their utmost to have a chance at winning. If nothing else,  Heavy Hands had been a hell of a weight on the scales. The passive  ability was the only way I'd managed to do anything with her armor in  the way.

Honestly,  the way that worked out in combination with my other abilities was  amazing. The augmentation from Moonlit Night boosted the force enough  that even ten percent of it could have a real effect, and I hadn't even  used Mercy kill during this fight. Or Afterburner. I'd be keeping those  in reserve for dealing with Abel.

When  I found Benny, he was sitting in the kitchen eating cereal. He gave me a  mute nod as I came in, shoving another spoon full of sugar coated corn  flakes into his mouth and chewing. I always thought it was funny seeing  Benny eat while tired. It was so...bovine. Staring off into the  distance, jaw moving in a circular motion as his teeth ground up the  food, the sound of it like a metronome. Crunch, crunch, crunch.

"Stop  comparing me to a cow." He said without looking up, mouth full. I  grinned, about to ask why he thought that, but he cut me off. "You  always do it when I eat tired. I'm not in the mood this morning. So tell  me how your match went or get with the wishes. Either way, shut up  about my breakfast."

I  scoffed. "Buzzkill. But fine. I won. It wasn't easy though. My match  was against Callie." He stopped chewing, swallowing his food as he  looked at me sharply.

"You  ok?" He asked slowly. I smiled at the fact that he knew me well enough  to ask, but...I was. I hadn't expected it myself, but Callie and I were  in a good place. This hadn't hurt us. My smile must have made that  obvious, because he nodded. "Good. Could have got messy."

I  know he doesn't want to talk about this, because it reminds him too  much of his own situation, so I change the subject. "Well, if it helps, I  need another five stored tranq blows. Callie didn't go down without a  fight, and I blew through half my stockpile. That's today's wishes paid  up if you want to get them out of the way. It's a Focus day today,  right?"

He  chuckled. "They're even so either works, but sure, Focus is usually  first on the rotation. I wish for four Focus, in exchange for a triple  strength tranquilizer attack."

Wish detected. Grant wish? Confirming,  I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, ignoring the list of  necessary stats because I'd seen it dozens of times. A growing charge of  electricity broke over me and poured into my friend, our eyes both  glowing purple, though I could only actually see his.

I  couldn't help think back to that first wish all those months ago, for a  steak dinner in a park. This used to be so difficult for me. The  effects of the power drained me every time I used them, and it felt  insane doing it. Now...big wishes still hit me hard, but stuff like this  didn't even wind me. A side effect of having such a high Vitality  probably. Benny wished for his next four wishes, topping up my tranq  blows again as he got the last of his twenty points of Focus for the  day.

Two  hundred and sixty three Focus, and six hundred and forty three total  stat points. Not bad for someone who had hit G-rank so recently. At this  rate, I'd just barely manage to get he and Jessie both to F-rank before  we left. My healer friend was stockpiling cash for it as we spoke, so  when I finished up with Benny I'd have a nice influx of money and I  could buy a much nicer weapon before we actually left.

Once  that was done, Benny slumped back with a sigh. "Man. That never stops  feeling weird, you know? Not the wish itself, though...that too. But the  sensation of just being...different, one moment to the next. Twenty  points in a minute or two is just nuts, as I'm sure you remember. Like,  yeah it's a smaller percentage now, but having my brain work that much  faster and better out of nowhere is still jarring."

I  nodded. "Yeah, the huge stat dump after the scavenger hunt was nuts.  Glad we don't need to go through that again anytime soon. Even big  events in the future won't hit us as hard without that insane ratio." I  paused. "Does it ever bother you?" He looked at me quizzically. "The  feeling that this eating away to who we are. I don't think it ever  bothered me really, I wasn't too attached to my humanity. But I've  always been a bit weird that way. Looking back I think I might have been  raised with that disassociated view on purpose. But you..."

He  shrugged. "Maybe? A bit. The idea of something external changing me  like that was certainly weird for a while. But in the end...it's for the  better right? Like I can mark notable improvements as my stats go up.  Sure, I'm changing, but so is everyone else. I'm not becoming another  person, just...more of myself. Recursion makes it a bit worrying, but in  the end, don't we all change because of the world around us? It's a bit  more literal for you and me, but it's not like not becoming an  Ascendant will mean I get to freeze the person I was in time forever and  never be anyone different."

"True."  I said, slumping back on the couch as I mulled things over. "I guess  for me, it just never mattered in the first place. My sense of self has  always been a bit weird. Physical alterations, mental ones, none of it  feels like it's changing me. Just making me into the person I want to  become. I guess it's the same thing in the end. More of myself. That's a  good way to put it."

"What  about Callie?" He asked quietly. "Do you feel like your relationship  with her is changing who you are? Making you different in a way the  stats aren't?"

I  could tell the question meant a lot to him. "Of course." I said  immediately. He seemed...thrown. "I'm different because I'm with her.  But like you said, everything changes us. The changes from being with  her are ones I like. Is this about your recent training mindset?"

He'd  been very focused, and while a lot of that was us being gone and him  worrying, at least some of it had been inspired by Celine. "Yeah." He  said quietly. "It is. How much of that was because of her? Do I want to  undo that? Does NOT wanting to undo it mean I want her back?"

"Nope."  I said. He looked up in surprise. "It doesn't. I'm not saying you don't  want her back, or that you shouldn't, that's not my call. But even if  she inspired the changes in you that doesn't mean that she's necessary  for them to stay. We're all made up of nothing but constant changes. The  people in our lives, both the ones who stay and the ones we leave  behind, are the most of those changes. They don't go away, even when the  people do."

His  eyes cleared, the haze of doubt I hadn't even really registered  lifting. "Yeah." He said pensively. "You're right. That's a good way to  look at it." He shook his head. "I'm dwelling on this too much. Let's go  watch something stupid on the scan box. I want to decompress."

I  nodded, clapping him on the shoulder. "Of course. There's a new reality  show where they make people with poor balance try to walk down a long  beam with a wedding cake as a hat. I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds  just stupid enough to numb our brains for a while." Benny laughed as we  headed for the living room. He'd given me a lot to think about, but that  was for another time. For now, I just wanted to be dumb with my best  friend.