Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Two of a Kind
Within the fractured world bathed in a pale lemony yellow, on a pavement connected to a street floating over the illuminated magma, Skouter yawned then stretched his limbs while moaning.
"Aahn~ Ahhh… When you stretch the right muscles it feels so good! Right, Jin?" Skouter turned to Jin with a wide grin.
However, Jin simply stared at a golden holographic panel hovering in front of him while ignoring the strange noises that tainted his ears.
__________________________________________
Name: Jin Shikabane.
Energy Remaining: 9 days, 20 hours.
Wish: Relocated Life.
Grade: –
Titles: Devourer of Stars, Undying Meatbag,
Reliable Big Brother, War Devil's Prodigy.
Skills: –
[Warning: Collections Inactive.]
[Warning: Reward System Inactive.]
__________________________________________
Jin sighed, trying to decipher the meaning behind the transparent box yet again. The first three lines were straightforward, even if he didn't recall how exactly he got his wish.
'I remember not wanting to die as the world ended… But even after all these years, I can't remember my wish or why it has the power to teleport me to other places…'
Jin shifted his eyes down to the titles.
'I didn't have these before, they just appeared with time. I really wish I could remember how I got them. But they're not that important, what's important…'
Jin stared at the warning label below them.
'A locked reward system… I've always wondered why this was locked… And more importantly, if it rewarded us with actual batteries… Maybe that was the intended outcome, and what we're doing is brute-forcing the system… in the most horrible way… But I've never been able to get it unlocked...'
"Oh, you're looking at your stats again? I thought you were just brooding as usual. Hold on, lemme see mine."
Skouter swiped the air in front of him with his index finger, then stared deeply at nothing.
"Hmm…"
Jin glanced over towards Skouter. He found it slightly unnerving how they were looking at vivid boxes of information that the other couldn't see.
'Even if I don't remember how I got my titles, they're packed full of information about me that'd put me at a disadvantage. Devourer of Stars… Probably because we eat Wishbearer essence. Undying Meatbag… Ugh… Why meatbag…?'
Jin sighed at the demeaning title but then glanced at Skouter's focused face, his cheerful air gone now that he was looking at his own information.
'His actual name… His titles… If I knew his weaknesses, he wouldn't be able to pull a fast one in me if the day ever comes. If I could just peek into–'
"If only you could see the stats of others, right?" Skouter smirked and looked at Jin.
"What?" Jin tensed up.
"Heh. That face you're making, I knew it. Honestly you've been doing a good job hiding it, but there's nothing you can keep from me, Jin. I can see right through you, your every thought..." Skouter moved the goggles down to his eyes.
Jin stepped back while cautiously analyzing Skouter's face, although it was difficult with the light reflecting on his goggles.
"I can't blame you, Jin. I have similar thoughts too when it comes to learning important information… I too wish I could see Emilia's true size."
"Huh?"
"She always wears oversized clothes but did you see the size of them melons when she wore that goth–"
Jin's steps were practiced and quick, and in one fluid motion his fist smashed into Skouter's face with the righteous fury of a father, sending him rolling backwards.
Skouter curled up in agony while groaning painfully.
"Mah faihs!" Skouter's voice was muffled by his hand that covered his brutalized face.
"Honestly… You're the only one thinking of that, you idiot. Seriously… Acting like you knew my thoughts? Acting like I was… Heh… Hehahah!" Jin couldn't help but laugh, his voice boisterous and unapologetically loud.
It was absolutely stupid for him to feel so riled up around Skouter of all people.
"Why are you laughing!? Look at what you did to me!" Skouter held his blood-soaked palm towards Jin, his nose bleeding.
Jin took a long breath and exhaled deeply and calmed himself down, a lingering smile still remaining on his lips as he shook his head.
'I've been on edge lately… I need to stop seeing everything as a threat… Skouter's part of my team, he's not dangerous...'
"Hey, Skouter, we've got enough cans and drinks for today. Let's go do something fun, I think the stress is getting to me."
"You act all chummy after you punch me… Unreal…"
***
Jin walked on the side of a fence attached to a large clump of dirt, the broader side made it easier to stand on.
The floating debris and pseudo islands moved in random directions but they were still influenced by things of greater weights, so a fence like the one Jin stepped on would've started sinking if it weren't for the connected chunk following a stronger gravitational influence.
Jin jumped off onto the back of a beige recreational vehicle then looked above him at another earthy land floating slightly higher.
Skouter was standing on it tightening several bandages on his face, hiding his nose and mouth behind a striped half-mask, his goggles resting back on his head.
"Is that really necessary? I feel like that'd make it worse," Jin looked at him with worry.
"But ain't this cooler? I mean look."
Skouter stood up straight, pressing his heels against one another as he moved his hand to his face. He pressed his index and middle fingers against the tip of his nose while curling the rest.
"A shinobi must see underneath… the underneath…" Skouter's eyes glowed a bright viridian as they narrowed sharply.
"Heh, dumbass," Jin crossed his arms and shook his head with a smile.
"Oh, I actually got a ping! And it feels… two spaces away. Come on, Jin. Let's see what cool things we can find!"
Skouter began running towards a drastically elevated island, quickly moving his backpack to his side and zipping it open.
Jin jumped up to Skouter and watched him pull out a rope attached to a metal hook.
"Alright, Rope Throw Jutsu!" Skouter furrowed his brow and spun the rope around a few times before throwing it above the island, where it dragged on the ground out of sight.
With a grating scratch and loud clunk, it stuck on something.
"Nice! Let's go," Skouter gave it a few tugs then climbed up on it. He used his feet to wrap the rope around them, creating a makeshift foothold which he used to pull himself higher to repeat the motion, footlocking his way up in seconds like a skilled monkey.
Jin watched him with a grimace.
'The islands on a higher elevation are really annoying…'
Then his eyes moved down to a round plastic chair burning near the golden abyss.
'...and dangerous... I don't die so it's not an issue for me, but Skouter has to deal with this every time he goes out searching for scrap and food. One slip up and…'
"Come on, Jin! Or are you roleplaying a chicken? Because you're doing it so well," Skouter chuckled.
'Maybe I should secretly cut one of his ropes and watch him fall like a chicken…' Jin glared up at Skouter.
***
Skouter sat on the remains of a tiled roof while looking ahead.
Jin climbed up behind him and carefully crawled towards him.
"Tsk... These tiles always made me uncomfortable… I slipped off the roof so many times as a kid…" Jin sat down next to Skouter with a sigh.
"Can't relate. Anyways, look there, it's a fissure island," Skouter pointed at a piece of land that shimmered while flickering between visible and opaque, with an airplane half-buried in it.
"Way to brush my childhood off. Are you sure you don't want to hear the part where it becomes very tragic? It's a real tearjerker when I went to the dentist."
"We need to go in it before it stabilizes, your tragic childhood can wait," Skouter's smile had disappeared as his eyes locked on to the spectral island intensely.
Skouter quickly jumped down on a bicycle, landing on its seat before instantly hopping onto a doghouse, followed by another leap towards an earthy chunk of dirt.
'This idiot… He's a carefree jester until you give him a limited time to do something, then he gets tunnel-vision and turns too serious.'
Jin gritted his teeth then looked down, watching the objects Skouter stepped on drifting further and further away.
'Seriously…? This acrobatic bastard!'
Jin jumped off the roof, landing and sliding off of a lamppost right onto the same doghouse, which now moved below the chunk of land Skouter was on.
Jin scowled and quickly leaped up, grabbing the dirt edge with the tips of his fingers.
'This bastard! I'll break his nose until he starts breathing sideways! How did he expect me to follow him!?'
Jin squeezed the surface to pull himself up, but it was too brittle and broke under his exertion.
'Dammit! Tsk… Off to die again… Guess I'll punch him when I see him later.'
Jin fell off with an annoyed scowl but then his eyes widened when he saw Skouter diving down towards him with a rope in hand.
"Grab my hand!" Skouter shouted worriedly.
With a perplexed expression Jin quickly reached up and grabbed his arm.
The rope grew taut with a loud crack, the whiplash making them both wince and groan.
"Agh! That hurt... Tsk tsk tsk… Heh… Gotcha, Jin!"
"You idiot, what the hell are you doing!?" Jin scowled in irritation.
"Not the time to yell! Climb up."
"I swear when we…"
***
Skouter was untying the rope around a scarlet water hydrant.
"Sorry, I get anxious when we have to do things quickly. I guess I didn't speak out loud when I told you to wait for the rope, huh?"
"You should get into the habit of calling out your actions… But forget all that, why did you even jump like an idiot after me? Sometimes I really wonder if you have a screw loose in your head."
"Hahaha! The way I see it, we're the last good people alive in a strange illogical world, so it'd be weird if we didn't have any screws loose, you know? Let's go. No time," Skouter carried the rope with him as he ran towards the shimmering island.
Jin sighed and dashed after.
They both jumped on the island and the entire world began to shine as the sky flickered between a faded yellow and pale violet.
"Remember the rhythm, Jin. It's dun din, dun din, dun! We start running at–"
"Stop complicating it. I have my own way of counting that's less annoying."
Both of them stood silently and expectantly as the world kept dancing between two hues and two similar shattered environments.
Jin stared at the sky intently, a metronome ticking in his head in sync with the shifting sky.
'One two... One two… One two… One!'
And on some hidden cue, both of them suddenly dashed towards the edge and jumped off the ethereal island, landing on a torn airplane wing with its engine intact.
Jin straightened up and looked down at the enchantingly radiant magenta-colored abyss then up at the pale lavender sky... and even there, the familiar ebony sun still existed.
However, rather than the houses, streets, land vehicles and furniture they had to traverse through, this new collection of floating islands contained hangers, watchtowers, airplanes, and military-grade vehicles while weapons and explosives flew around.
"This looks promising," Jin crossed his arms while his eyes explored.
"Whoa… There could be some useful stuff here. But not today, it's not what I pinged. We have one more space to go through."
The shimmering islands, or fissure islands, contained a strange attribute where they danced between two realities or worlds. Thanks to that effect they worked as teleporters to new land, sustaining the group's life by increasing the number of places to salvage, and on rare occasions the islands would drag nearby land with them to other fractured worlds.
While Jin's relocation ability sent him to whole worlds with living ecosystems and societies, the fissure islands took them to shattered worlds similar to theirs; sundered realities of an erased civilization.
The islands only shimmered for a while, and after floating away from their merging point they returned to being normal islands, as if some sort of gateway opens when they intersect through worlds.
Any other person would be stuck here because the islands moved randomly without a pattern, but Skouter's Wish basically turned him into a veteran explorer - the entire unknown was his playground.
'Speaking of Skouter…'
"Mind explaining why you jumped after me earlier? If you tied that rope slightly wrong or if your hand slipped you would've died. I can't die so it's fine if I slip, but you're not the same! Use your brain sometimes!" Jin scowled angrily.
Skouter was too vital to die a dumb death, despite him being rash enough to possibly die in such a way. Jin needed him alive more than anyone else in the group.
Skouter rubbed the back of his head while looking down, shame spreading through his face.
"You should think more often and consider the whole picture instead of the small moments that could cost everyone's lives, Skouter, not just yours."
"Yeah… But… it still hurts, doesn't it?"
"What does?"
"Dying… Burning alive… That's… not a pleasant sensation. I mean, sure, you're undying but it will still hurt you, right?" Skouter smiled sympathetically at Jin.
Those words surprised Jin. He still wanted to argue about how he could power through the pain but something about those words made his chest ache.
Jin silently stared at Skouter then sighed and shook his head.
"Don't try to fix my momentary pain with your permanent death, you dumbass."
"Heh, that's fair when you put it like that. Well, this is enough scolding for now! Let's go find what I pinged. There should be another island behind that watch tower," Skouter walked away with Jin following behind him sighing.
***
Somewhere in another fractured world with a burning ivory core glowing under a plethora of wooden houses, floating debris, pagodas and shrines; an island with a food stand flickered in and out of existence as two figures jumped out from it and landed on a chunk of stone.
"Whoa, the sky's pure white! Looks very calming and… formal? We're here, Jin," Skouter pulled down the bandages covering his face while looking around.
"Where exactly is 'here'? What did you even search for? I forgot to ask since I just wanted to take the stress away-..." Jin's eyes scanned the area with Skouter.
The current islands reminded him of eastern countries since some of the buildings possessed an oriental charm to them with their layered roofs and ornate glassless windows made of crimson wood.
Skouter and Jin's eyes moved in unison to the top of a tall crimson tower made of multi-tiered roofs, their gaze resting on a figure wearing a black cloak that concealed them completely below their eyes.
Only the glow of their listless rosy eyes, the glint of their single-edged sword and their long black hair with evenly cut bangs stood out.
"That's… not where I expected to find the katana I pinged," Skouter chuckled nervously.
"Those eyes… That's a Wishbearer… Not good," Jin furrowed his brow and moved his hand inside his jacket for his gun.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
SpiralSheep
SpiralSheep And there you have it, the Shattered Lands, as some would say, and the best tour guide to lead the way.
Plus introducing the system's simple design. It ain't fancy but it does its job... or wait, it doesn't? Huh.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone