The moment the bruised and bloody faced Astra had hit him, his head quickly made contact with the sidewalk as it immediately ricocheted from the surface.
This had made him lose consciousness in less than a second.
Upon seeing this sight, Astra had bent her knees and calmly put down the metal rod called the Supporter.
She stood back up and gave a restricted sigh of relief. She looked around at the people that were looking at her strangely. Some of them had confused faces, some of them had fearful faces, some of them had curious faces, some of them had shocked faces.
With an unreadable expression, she then looked up at the sky and saw the crescent velvet moon emitting its faint velvet glow behind the shimmering Saturn-like rings in the night sky. The light purple neon skyline and the overbearing lit megastructures that occupied the city further enhanced the otherworldly atmosphere.
Fortunately, this environment was adequate enough for Astra to begin processing what just happened.
She was used to people staring at her.
"Sigh…that was a lot more dangerous than I thought. That guy was unbelievably strong…I can understand why I felt so uneasy meeting him…"
"Not only that, he seems like quite the arrogant and misogynistic fellow. He wouldn't have been done like this if he simply left immediately once he knew I contacted Kayla. Along with that, all of his actions seemed strangely sadistic. It was almost illogical…It's almost like he has another reason for being like that. If I have the chance, I'll ask Kayla about that while also giving her an update on my situation."
"Speaking of Kayla, it was a mistake for me to rely on her during the first half of that fight. No, it was a mistake for me to rely on her in general…" Astra uncontrollably frowned upon thinking about Kayla.
"After all, she's just a stranger I happen to live with. I don't know her background or if she has any bad intentions. I shouldn't entirely trust her…"
"Sigh…I now know that relying too much on others especially when they're strangers should be avoided. Even more so if they have shady backstories…this goes for both me and Anna. It was also a mistake for me to come into a corridor like that completely unprepared. No, it was downright stupid for me to do so. It was even more idiotic to stay in there for as long as I did either. Even though I did get something good out of it, it was almost a needless risk. I almost died there…clearly I'm too inexperienced…"
"Not only that, fighting is hard! That was only my first fight and I almost died! Plus, I would've lost easily if I didn't have those tricks up my sleeve."
Upon thinking this, she began to chuckle as she pondered about the way she got out of that situation.
"Well, it was only one trick. Heh, who would've thought that he would've fallen for the same trick twice? I guess he's not as bright as I thought he would be!" She started to laugh even harder.
As for the trick, it was the fact that she exploited her resistance to Anna's illusion powers in order to be able to use the Supporter effectively. Otherwise, using the Supporter is almost useless in combat situations due to how heavy and dense it is, even for Astra's superhuman strength.
Regardless, this strategy to win was made after Omar had almost killed her by choking her. This made her realize that he was clearly stronger than her, and evading his faster and stronger attacks when she didn't know how long Kayla would arrive was too risky. She was almost guaranteed to lose if it was a prolonged battle. This was especially evident considering Anna's stamina.
So instead of relying on someone else to come and save her, she had to rely on her own intelligence to escape her situation.
To do this, she had tricked Omar into believing that she wanted to be by the invisible wall so that he could 'force' her into one of the walls of the corridors. Particularly, she had gone by the wall that had the most damage.
Once she had led him by the wall, she had let him punch her repeatedly to create cracks in the wall. This was incredibly risky, and Astra even thought for a second if going through with such a plan was worth it. The pain had almost made her want to give up and let Omar kill her. After all, she had never fought before, and it's not like Astra wasn't sensitive to pain.
So, she had tried to compose herself to follow through with her strategy and wait for Anna's intervention which would complete it. Once she knew that it was about to happen, she had dropped down at the right moment so that he could deliver the decisive blow to destroy the wall entirely.
After that, all she had to do was pick up the Supporter and wait until Anna had used her illusion powers once more. Once this happened, her victory was assured as Omar would have been distracted by Anna, and he would've been caught off guard from Astra's strike.
In other words, her trick to win was the exact same trick she used to land the first hit. It's just that the exploit this time was a more complex and riskier version!
And, with Astra's strength, only she could come up with a strategy to use such a strange object!
…
"Who keeps causing this loud noise outside of my shop?" A holographic projection of a middle aged man appeared outside of the entrance of a building. "My alarms are going off inside my house! Is it someone trying to break into my shop?"
"No, I think it's a crime scene," A bystander who wasn't a holographic projection said with a soft, curious voice. "There's this tall, bruised and dark lady who just suddenly bashed that guy's head in with a metal stick." He casted his gaze towards a particular direction.
"Geez, ever since those aliens came here, crime has basically skyrocketed…" Another voice next to the two men sounded.
Murmurs began to spread throughout the ever gathering crowd. Even some people on the highway had slowed down their vehicles to get a better view of the commotion. However, they passed without ever stopping.
Then, some of those who were standing started to pull out their phones and other strange looking devices to record the scene, including when the strange woman had laughed. There were also some who called the police and the ambulance.
Meanwhile, in the midst of the murmurs and the stares that surrounded the strange woman, unnoticeable changes were going on in the man that was now lying unconscious next to her.
Cracks began to appear all over his skin, making it look parched. Underneath the cracks were a faint yellow light that wanted to seep out.
In the midst of his subconscious, he had heard his own voice rang involuntarily. It was laced with rage, frustration and anger.
"I can't believe I lost to someone with no fighting experience!"
"I can't believe that child is actually going to be separated from me…my supervisors are going to kill me now…"
"I actually can't believe I lost to a woman most of all!"
"Losing to a woman who isn't even a Celestial? Is this who I am? Losing to someone so weak when I had just obtained a fragment of my Lord's dimension?"
"This can't be…this can't be who I am!"
"I am supposed to be the one laughing at their dead bodies!"
"Yes! Laughing, enjoying their suffering!"
Slowly but surely, the faint yellow light that wanted to come out from the cracks finally began to pour down his body as if it was a liquid.
No one noticed these changes.
To the eyes that were surrounding him, he still looked as if he was unconscious, unable to move.
…
"Well, I definitely can't go to work as I am." Astra chuckled in her head as she stopped staring at the night sky and looked at her bruised clothes. Her purple sweater had looked as if someone had begun to tear it in half but stopped in the middle of the action; this revealed her undershirt. Her blue jeans were mostly unaffected, but they were now ripped.
Due to this, pieces of her bloodied dark skin was exposed through the torn sweater and the ripped jeans.
"I wonder how the public will react to this. Personally, I don't see a problem, as I took out a gang member. As for the police, I'm sure they'd be able to figure out that it was self defense. At least from my research of this world, these aspects are similar."
Suddenly, in the midst of her thoughts, all of the people looking at her had turned into black dolls that had no definition. This change was instant. Even Astra widened her eyes slightly in surprise due to this.
From each one of the dolls, white static noise was emitted. As they did, her surroundings began to shift.
The dark night sky and its moon had turned white, as if someone had painted it to be that way.
The towering black and midnight blue buildings in the background began to fade into the white expanse as if it was always meant to be there.
The neon purple skyline and highway, the roads, and all other material forms had also turned completely white.
Astra couldn't help but sigh.
"It's the same hallucination I had at the banquet…" Astra calmly recalled her previous experiences. "First it was the stars, now it's this. I'm guessing the next one will be the 'do not look at the night sky' message."
"…"
In the distance, Astra had heard a static noise that seemed to be a little louder than others. It grew louder and louder, as if it was saying something.
"Miss Astra!"
Soon enough, a young female voice had sounded in a particular direction. It sounded a little sluggish, as if the person saying it was tired. The voice was also muffled, as if it was battling through the other static white noise coming from the other dolls.
And since Astra was still hallucinating, she wasn't able to even see the source of this female voice. As such, she didn't attempt to hurt herself to turn back.
She knew she would've been depicted as a black doll, as everyone else had been.
"T-thank you…" The female voice hesitated as she began to thank Astra genuinely.
"It's Anna." Astra clarified in her head.
"It's no problem, Anna. I had fulfilled my promise for the time being." Astra said.
"Is there anything that I can…wait, nevermind." Anna changed her mind mid sentence.
Astra knew what she was going to say, but she didn't probe further.
"If it's fine with you, may I ask you a question?" Anna asked curiously.
"Go ahead…"
"Why did you do such a thing for me? You almost died so many times." Anna raised her voice slightly out of passion.
"…" Astra thought for a second before saying,
"When you saved me from that bastard's punches, you should've known that in doing so he would've known where you were exactly. So, why did you save me?"
"…" Anna narrowed her eyes as she was in thought.
"Well, I didn't want you to die."
"Why?"
"I don't know…there was just something in me that told me that I couldn't let you die. Not after everything you've done for me."
Astra chuckled.
"Heh, you could've said 'I didn't want you to die because you were my last chance in escaping', or 'I didn't want you to die because I still wouldn't have escaped if I didn't use my powers,'. Both of these things are valid reasons, but you chose that reason instead."
"…What do you mean?" Anna asked, as she still didn't understand.
"You saved me because you cared for me. In the same way, I did this for you because I care for you. Not because of anything you did or can do, but because of your value as a person."
"…Care about me…as a person?" Anna asked, her mouth agape, as she never heard those words before.
Everything she heard about her and towards her was related to her face, her body, and how she should act as a feminine woman.
So upon hearing words that had applied to her as a person instead of a caricature, she naturally didn't know how to respond.
"Of course. Isn't that a basic quality that all of us should have?" Astra chuckled gently. "Heh, you evidently also have that quality."
"Huh…" Anna couldn't help but express her shock.
While she had finally processed what Astra meant, she still couldn't understand it.
"Why do you care about me like that? You doing so got you to get hurt so badly! Why would you keep doing something like that even when I have no use? At least with you, you are very special to me…"
"You're already on the wrong track." Astra corrected her.
"You don't need to have some special purpose for me to care about you or for me to help you. Or for anyone to help you or care for you, in fact. You don't need any purpose, meaning or reason. Really, that might even make you more special to me."
"Even then, sometimes even the purposeless ends up having more purpose than the purposeful." Astra added inwardly.
A short silence ensued as Anna tried to digest these words.
"…But still, you're hurt so badly because of me." Anna said in a soft, dead tone.
"No, it's because of me." Astra immediately objected.
"This is just natural for the people who I care about…"
Without looking in the direction of the voice, a faint smile appeared on her face as she thought about Xavier and Aria.
Anna stood silent. She wanted to object back, but her mouth hadn't conjured up the words.
"Now that this is over, the police will arrive soon." Astra's faint voice had sounded again, as if to remind Anna of the situation they were in.
"I am in no position to escape right now. There's a good chance that once my adrenaline calms down, I'll faint immediately. The good thing is that healthcare for serious injuries is free. The bad thing is that I'll inevitably be questioned. As for Anna…"
"She might have no choice but to escape again…"
"For now, that is what she'd have to do to experience life. To live her own life."
"Yes, escaping…"
As Astra's thoughts flashed through her mind, an almost somber look appeared on her face.
Rapidly, her face turned to one of indifference. She began to turn her head, with difficulty, to look in Anna's direction.
However, all she saw was a black doll. It was as expected.
"Are you asking if I'm going to escape?" Anna read in between the lines of Astra's statement.
"Yes. If you're caught, the best case scenario is that you'd be questioned and sent to a facility. The worst case scenario is prison for using that artifact." Astra replied frankly while turning her head away.
Anna couldn't help but sigh.
"Either way, I'll lose my freedom…well, what about you?"
"You're not going to escape?" Astra ignored her question.
"No. I see no reason to. Since my face has already been recorded, it won't take long for them to find me no matter where I go inside Luna." Anna looked at the highway with bright blue eyes. Some of the onlookers were already dispersing.
"Right. Could another reason behind you not escaping is that at least being caught by the police will at least protect you from that gang?" Astra probed.
"Well…" Anna hesitated slightly. "I don't really trust any sort of organization right now, whether it's an official one, or even if it's owned by the government. There's a reason why I didn't turn myself in after escaping that place."
A short silence that lasted no more than 4 seconds took place before Anna spoke up again.
"But…"
"But…I do trust you…" Anna continued as her voice began to waver. She was hesitating, as if she had never spoken those words before.
Though, Anna's voice was not at all muffled like before.
With no discernible emotion on her face, Astra looked back once more. She saw that the girl who was wearing a black sweater and black tights with a starry skirt had her mouth curled up into a smile.
It wasn't a smile that looked as if it was practiced constantly, like earlier. It was strange and unusual. It was a genuine smile.
Astra's mouth was left agape, and her eyes had widened.
"My hallucination didn't depict her as the others for a moment…?"
Suddenly, the night sky had turned back to its dark color, and the towering buildings warped back into the surroundings.
The faint neon glow of the skyline illuminated Astra and casted a shadow to the side of Anna.
In less than a second, Astra's hallucination had shattered.