Returning to No Applause, Only More of the Same

“Yeah, uh, yanno, this might not have been a fantastic idea now that I think about it,” Sam said from where she walked beside Kreig, hands stuffed in her pockets. It wasn’t extremely cold or anything out in the dark night, but she still felt the need to wear a jacket.

Kreig glanced down at her and got an apprehensive look in return. It was likely meant for the situation as a whole, not him specifically.

And, everything considered, the situation did deserve some smidgen of trepidation. Although the sky was as dark as they could bother letting it get, the streets were pretty much bustling, shops and bars and windows lit up so brightly you could barely see the stars at all. Even though Kreig and Sam were in an area of town not commonly associated with night-time activity, the two often found themselves passing one citizen or another hurrying by with their own mission. A lot of them carried a cloud of alcoholic stink, but Kreig didn’t feel a need to point it out.

Their own mission was, after all, somewhat similar. Acquire the Messiah’s Fruit and process it into the Blood of Oath. And to get it, they had to first find the tree that Kreig had awakened a few days before.

Since they knew the way there, they had no reason to say much. And still, Sam spoke every so often to voice either her displeasure or, less commonly, a question.

“The fruits aren’t poisonous, are they?”

“No,” Kreig answered quickly.

Sam scratched her chin. “Make you high? Or awaken like the Messiah’s Egg does?”

“No,” Kreig said again. He’d been answering similar questions all night. By now, she should know almost as much about them as he does. This information was mostly just that the fruit was harmless in almost every situation. You could eat it. Doesn’t taste very good. It’s both sour and bitter all at once, so the only reason a kid would want to eat it is to challenge another to do the same. Even when processed it doesn’t do much in terms of intoxication.

Sam didn’t seem to like such an answer, but she didn’t voice her feelings.

Before she could ask yet another reiteration question regarding how dangerous the fruit is(n’t), they arrived. Almost.

The school was a fair pace over, but Kreig had stopped her in her tracks, one hand hovering over her chest. Looking up at him, she found her gaze affixed firmly on the school looming just at the end of the road. It was far too bright to be closed. Lights seemed to shoot up and around and over the entirety of the school, most of these concentrated beams of light fixtures on the crown of the tree poking up over the school building.

That was the tree, huh? She really should have seen it before. Unlike the last time she saw it, the tree was now a fair bit bigger, though not extremely so. More worryingly, it had turned completely white. From the bark to the crescent-shaped leaves, it was now a pure, snowy white. The only other colour visible were what seemed to be clusters of red fruits, covered partially by large red leaves. She didn’t need to ask Kreig what they were.

What she didn’t expect, however, was to stop a hundred meters from the school. Kreig answered her silent question before she voiced it.

“There are people in there,” he said, a small question behind his words wondering if people were usually on school grounds at night. They weren’t.

She knew who they were, but she knew Kreig didn’t. At the same time, she also knew that he wouldn’t settle for her answer, should she give it to him “Let’s get closer.” Maybe leading him right there was a bad idea, but she knew that Kreig was now hypervigilant. He probably wouldn’t hurt anybody, but he could easily get them out of trouble if he felt there was danger.

They moved closer to the gates leading into the school yard, keeping mind to both seem inconspicuous and regular but also watch everything with the greatest attention. Once they got close enough, they found exactly what the lights were there for, and who was doing it.

The courtyard was practically crawling with cops. Sam counted a dozen and a half just on a quick scan. Around half of these were lab-rats and not actual armed cops, but that didn’t help still her worries. She had heard about this, of course. She’d never been told just how many there were, however. By the looks of it, it seemed like most of the armed police officers were either there to assist the forensics or to stand guard against thieves or curious bystanders.

Why the hell were they here at night though? Guards or no guards, couldn’t they just study the tree during the day?

Sam’s eyes fell on the school building. Ah. Right, they’d probably want to study it for at least a week or two, and an entire school can’t exactly afford to just close down during that time. Even more so, with how manic a few of these forensics looked, there might be some night-time activity they really wanted to write down and analyze. Who knows?

Softly shaking her head, she turned to look at her brother. “Yeah, as you see, with those guards, we’re not-,”

Oh. No, by the way he was looking in there, he wasn’t giving up. That was a problem though, since Sam kind of didn’t want him doing anything that might harm anyone. Or cause unexplained phenomena. Or do arson.

She’d come along just in case something went wrong, but now she started to think that this itself might not have been the best idea.

“Hey, whoa, Kreig, you’re not thinking of doing anything weird, are you-?”

He turned to her, the cogs in his head turning slowly before he finally gave her a wave, indicating for her to follow. They moved away from where they’d been standing with a view inside the gate and moved over to a singular wall of the school. Out of view for any guards or civilians. And there, he hunched down, hand pressed firmly against the ground. She really didn’t like where this was going or what he was doing, but for once, for just one moment, she had to trust him.

Something seemed to shift. She couldn’t hear it, she couldn’t see it, but Kreig did something, his eyes closed in mild concentration.

And then, the small patch of dirt his hand had been pressed against started pressing back, rising into a small mound before bursting open, revealing a small white branch holding a rather large black leaf, in turn curling around a clutch of red fruit.

Kreig plucked the black leaf and the fruit off of the branch before sending it on its way with a final command.

Alright.

The black leaf cradling the fruit almost resembled a blanket around an infant, especially with how carefully Kreig was holding it in his arms, but any such resemblance disappeared once she got a proper look at the fruits themselves. They were all connected to each other by small black stalks, resembling a large clutch of dark red, almost transparent grapes. Each one was about the size of a golf ball. They looked tasty, but she knew by Kreig’s description that they were anything but.

“Messiah’s Fruit,” Sam breathed softly, not really sure how to understand it.

Kreig had no such preoccupations and knew that it was time to skedaddle. Sam followed his long strides, at times having to half-jog to keep up.

They soon got home, prize in hand.