Chapter 380: Offering A Chance
’Is this really the way to go about it?’ Laz stared off into the clear blue sky, the wind blowing back his hair that had been ignored for too long. There wasn’t a lot of thought to go into just what he was doing, at least not as much as what others were giving him credit for. He had asked himself why he was still here, why he was doing this time and time again. His only answer to himself was that since this is where he was right now, this would be what he was focusing on.
Taking a pair of scissors in his hand, Laz began to cut back his hair by using his spiritual sense to look at it from the outside. As he cut it and bits of hair blew away in the wind, his hand slowly dropped away as his eyes clouded over.
Focusing on those strands of hair, blowing back and forth, Laz had a strange feeling, like one of weightlessness that suddenly overtook him. In a moment of clarity, he connected to the hair of his, just little bits of protein that would no longer have anything to do with him as he suddenly understood that he was nothing more that a few strains of protein himself, drifting in the wind from one place to another. It truly was equal parts freeing and equal parts terrifying to think of himself that way, but was there really any difference between himself and those strands of hair.
Just as a stray tear escaped from an eye that hadn’t been wet with tears since he said goodbye to Kat all those years ago, a pair of hands touched his and took the scissors from his grasp. Waking up from this moment, he noticed a fiery red billow of hair that had somehow snuck up on the tree stump he had found himself on, a short distance from the field in which he was teaching the women of the order.
"I’ve seen that look before, baby. It’s not a good luck for anyone to have," Nora said as she turned Laz away from her and began going at his head with a practiced hand.
"You cut hair?" Laz asked, somewhat half heartedly.
"I did a lot of things to support by way through college. I even was a stripper for a time, you know, before my body was covered like this. Hell, there might even be a market for someone like me now if I find the right joint," Nora laughed, amused while thinking back on her life.
"But I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to stop you from going down a very dark path..." Nora said as her fingers never stopped moving.
"And how do you figure that?" Laz asked still staring at the sky.
"I don’t know how and I don’t know why, but for some reason I can feel you emotionally ever since that time in my lab. After the seal broke, it seems like I can sense quite a bit more about everyone but it’s stronger on you. I don’t know if it’s tied to the seal or because we fucked like bunnies, but either way, it’s there. And because of that, I know that right now, there is something that is dragging you down, more so than just a strange case of sad memories." As the wind blew her lab coat behind her, Nora didn’t flinch for a minute, nor did she miss a single cut, her focus a laser that would slice through any sort of distractions.
"I’m... questioning a lot." Laz said after a moment of silence. He had decided not to say anything, but somehow feeling her concern along with her helping with his hair just made him drop whatever guard he was going to put up even before it went up.
"Like why me? Why here? Why now?"
"Yeah. And also... is this right? Is this where I am suppose to be? Is this what I am suppose to be doing? I mean... I have goals. There are things I need to do but... I just keep putting them aside and other things keep happening."
"I can’t answer those things you know. No one can but you. But be sure that we all have them. Everyone here, right now, is asking themselves those things and more. And none of us have any answers. For me... I was given one piece of hope though after going through all that despair and strangely enough, that was you. And in the end, maybe that’s all we need. Just a little bit of hope."
"So now you profess you’re undying love to me or something?" Laz joked, thinking that he really did have quite a bit less to complain about when compared to Nora’s situation.
"Nah. You’re not really my type. To young. I prefer a bit older. But I mean you’ll do in a pinch... well, your dick will. The rest of you is... meh." Nora laughed as Laz turned around and swatted at her ass, missing as she jumped away.
"Your hair is now ruined and you’re welcome."
"Don’t give me that. I know you had already finished. Otherwise I wouldn’t have moved." Laz laughed back as he stood up.
"I didn’t mean that. I never once cut someone else’s hair before and I have no idea why the hell you let me near you with scissors. Might just want to shave it all and start again..." Nora said as she stuck out her tongue and started running away.
"Wait, WHAT?" Laz quickly scanned his head and found that she was lying, somewhat. His hair wasn’t exactly model quality, but it didn’t look bad either.
"HEY! You tricked me?" Laz yelled out as she vanished.
"Used to do my little brother’s. It was a whole lot worse back then. See you in a few hours!" Nora screamed right before she left.
Laz laughed as he checked out his now cut hair.
"All we need is a little bit of hope huh? A few years ago I would have laughed had I heard that line, stupid cheesy bit. But now... I guess yeah... Maybe it is all we need sometimes?" Laz said to himself as he laughed.
Unknown to Nora due to the seals she already had on her body, a bright red crescent moon on her chest lit up, a positive feeling flowing in and replacing the dark chill that had been there before.
At the same time, in several other places all over the country and even in other countries, several other bright red crescent moons light up as well, the feeling of joy and energy washing away what lingered there moments before.
As one, the girls smiled and went back to what they were doing, having felt the relief within that warm feeling, like a kiss from afar. Each of them had been suffering and with that their suffering was transferred to the one who had marked them. It was a two way street.
But then again, how was Laz suppose to know that their moods had caused his feelings or that his feeling is what helped to change their moods? That was a part of love that he did not understand.
There was one other green haired beauty who felt this as well as a large meeting was taking place. She felt it for the briefest of moments before turning her attention back to the speaker.
She was glad he was happy right now, because things were about to get a whole lot worse for him.
...
Later that afternoon, Nora ended up showing up with Celes and Joan as the field filled up again.
Laz noticed that Nora was chatting happily with Celes and Joan and was even pointing out Laz’s hair to them. While she laughed and they did so a little as well, it was easy to tell that their minds were elsewhere.
"Alright. Get running and get warmed up!" Laz didn’t waste time and sent them on their way. It looked like Celes was going to stop and say something, but she turned her head at the last minute and followed beside Nora and Joan.
When they finished, it was no surprise to Laz that each of them had a rather nervous look on their faces, even while trying their best to settle their breathing.
Laz gave them a moment before he spoke.
"Are you scared?" He didn’t offer words of comfort or try to convince them, instead, he provoked them.
"I’m not fighting my sisters," Celes came out and spoke first, conviction in her voice. Even if all of them had heard about what happened earlier, none of them could fully convince themselves that this was right.
Off in the distance, almost so far away that the only person who knew they were there was Laz, Wilma and Gretchen watched on.
"Now it begins. And she immediately turned it right on him as though blaming him for something. Quite the granddaughter you have," Wilma joked.
"Yeah. She’s always been good in an argument... if only she had the backbone to support it," Gretchen sighed.
"Then don’t," Laz said, reaching to the side, into his pouch and pulling out a knife before throwing it at her feet.
"Kill them now since that’s what you want," Laz stated without emotion.
"Why the fuck would I kill them? Just cause I don’t want to hurt them?" Celes shot back, her volume rising.
"For a leader, you don’t see very well, do you?" Laz finally smirked, pissing Celes off more.
Strangely, Nora was silent as she watched on. Originally she was going to say something to Celes, but then decided against it as she watched Laz. She could feel he was acting.
"YOU!"
"Ok. Tell you what. You were told to follow my lead and do what I asked, right?" Laz changed the subject.
"Yes..." Celes grunted.
"OK. Then let me offer you a chance. I’m going to show you something, a demonstration. And if you still don’t want to fight after, you don’t have to. Joan, would you come up here please," Laz said.
Joan looked at Celes before standing beside Laz.
"Excellent. Now then, would you take a look at this knife," Laz took another knife out of his pouch, this time a throwing knife.
"If I threw this at you with about half my strength, would you be able to stop it?" Laz asked.
"Yeah... I mean yes. I would guess so at about half your strength."
"Ok, Then let’s do a quarter strength just to make it easy." Laz walked thirty feet away and took a stance.
"I’ll be throwing it to your right side on three. Ready? One. Two. Three." Laz threw the knife gently but with some force. Had a tree been where he was throwing it, it would have been imbedded about half way in.
With quick reflexes and a sure hand, Joan grabbed the knife out of the air.
"HA! Excellent!"
"YEAH!"
"NICE!"
Joan even got some cheers for the crowd.
"Did you see that?" Laz asked Celes.
"Yes. So? I don’t see you’re point."
"You will. Ok, you two, come on up and stand right where Joan is standing." The two random girls Laz picked out stood forward and took their spots while Joan walked back beside Celes.
"Good. Now then, I want you both to stop these two knives that I will be throwing at both of your foreheads," Laz said grabbing two more knives from his pouch.
"Wait..."
"Hold on..."
The girls hesitated with Laz’s words as some of the crowd gasped in surprised.
"HEY, What are you..." Celes spoke up, stepping forward to stop him.
"On three. ONE. TWO. THREE!" And Laz threw them before anyone could object.
"NOOO!!" Celes and Joan and many other screamed at the same time, running.
The two girls dropped like a rock as soon as they were hit, their bodies falling backwards like logs as they hit the ground.
While Celes, Joan and others ran towards the girls, Nora came over to Laz.
"That was cruel," she said in a slight whisper.
"It would be crueler not to do this."
"HEY. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!"
"And here we go," Laz said, walking towards the crowd with Nora in tow.
The two girls were sitting up, rubbing the red spot on their heads with their hands while wincing with the pain. Two lollypops lay behind the girls, the candy part of them now smashed into tiny chunks.
Celes picked one up while almost in tears and turned to Laz, both furious and relieved.
"Do you understand now?" Laz said, looking down on her.
