FI CH 20

Chapter 20: Battlefield Memories (I)

After living together for three weeks, Kurosawa’s shoulder had mostly healed. While Guides don’t recover as quickly as Sentinels, they still heal much faster than ordinary people.

During this time, the enemy made no movements, and there were still no developments in the investigation regarding Lin Yuan.

However, the two of them had looked up quite a bit of information about Lin Yuan.There was no shortage of records—from his childhood and upbringing, to the flawless execution of every mission he undertook, and finally the Rebel Army Campaign—each phase of his life was thoroughly documented. Putting aside the question of why Lin Yuan ended up becoming a rebel, it was noted that he had very few close relationships: only one childhood friend and a Guide partner with whom he had an extremely high compatibility. The most tragic detail was that this friend had died during the Rebellion Campaign, with not even his remains found. As for his Guide partner, he passed away within a year—reportedly from overwhelming grief.

A glorious yet painfully straightforward life.

All the records they had found felt overly official, clearly polished or edited. There wasn’t a trace of useful information to be seen. Then again, it was understandable—Lin Yuan had become something of a legendary figure among Sentinels. Any blemishes in his history would have long been erased.

After several days of searching, Bai Hua eventually gave up. Rather than relying on dusty old records to guess at a person’s true nature, he trusted more in what he had seen with his own eyes. In fact, the reason he was able to associate the brown-haired Sentinel with Lin Yuan was mainly because of the man’s smile. In the graduation photos from the Sentinel Academy, Lin Yuan was always smiling, and his smile naturally carried a sense of warmth and approachability.

But the Lin Yuan he had encountered in the rainforest was a completely different person—silent, expressionless, and stern to the point of seeming like someone entirely different.

Was it because he had lost both his best friend and his partner?

But from what Bai Hua had observed, the relationship between him and the Watcher and the Captor wasn’t bad either. Although their dynamic felt more like that of a superior to subordinates, it was obvious that those two deeply trusted Lin Yuan.

While lost in thought, Bai Hua got up to pour some water, and in the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Kurosawa staring intently at his phone.

Curious, Bai Hua asked, “What are you looking at?”

Kurosawa glanced at him and handed over his phone. “A series of training courses arranged by the Sentinel-Guide Association. Want to go?”

Bai Hua was taken aback for a moment and took the phone to look it over. He recalled the last time they had skipped a scheduled session together, and also remembered the grueling escape they made in the rainforest. If they were to speak strictly in terms of individual skills, both of them were undoubtedly elite in their respective roles as Sentinel and Guide. But when it came to coordination, they were clearly lacking. He still remembered how, during the attempt to apprehend Jing He, he had acted on his own and nearly let the target escape. And during their escape in the rainforest, Kurosawa was the one who had to clean up the aftermath. Kurosawa had been subconsciously accommodating him all along—Bai Hua knew this well.

But true cooperation in battle wasn’t supposed to be one-sided protection and compromise.

The overwhelming strength of Lin Yuan and the sting of their defeat were still fresh in Bai Hua’s mind. Even though he had gone berserk at the time, he remembered clearly that Lin Yuan didn’t let them go out of fear of being outnumbered. No—he had deliberately allowed them to escape. Because he had sensed that Bai Hua shared a certain trait with him.

If that was the real reason Lin Yuan chose to defect… and if he let them go just to observe what would become of someone like him…

Bai Hua shook his head, cutting off his spiraling thoughts. Regardless of what Lin Yuan’s motivations were, his own stance would not waver.

He handed the phone back to Kurosawa and said, “Let’s go.”

He understood all too well the vast power gap between himself and Lin Yuan. He also knew that the Watcher and the Captor weren’t just average threats. Worse still, they knew almost nothing about their enemies. If they were destined to face off, then there was no point in running away.

It was as if Kurosawa had already predicted Bai Hua’s answer. “Then we’ll start tomorrow. Is that alright?”

“Yeah.” Bai Hua paused. “What about your injury? Will it be okay?”

“It’s almost fully healed,” Kurosawa replied. “Besides, I’ve adjusted the difficulty of the training based on both of our current conditions.”

“Hm?” Bai Hua hadn’t expected Kurosawa to be taking the training this seriously.

“You don’t want another situation like the one in the rainforest, do you?” Helplessness in the face of danger—that was the most despairing part of it all.

Bai Hua gave a silent nod.

Kurosawa said, “The only abilities we currently know about are those of Lin Yuan and the other two. We still have no idea about the size or organization of the rebel group behind them. But I’ve said it before—their three abilities alone are enough to form a highly effective combat enclosure. That’s a good starting point.”

“You mean… you want to recreate the conditions of the rainforest for our training?”

“That’s our ultimate training goal,” Kurosawa said bluntly. “Given our current condition, our chances of winning are zero. Last time… you could say we got lucky, or that the enemy went easy on us.”

Bai Hua clenched his fists, unable to refute that statement.

“You sensed it too, didn’t you? Lin Yuan wasn’t even going all out.”

“Yeah.”

“Although we’re short on time and can’t expect to improve drastically overnight, we at least need to learn how to quickly break through or escape from the Captor’s mental landscape. That’s the bare minimum for survival. But the real challenge is Lin Yuan—he’s supported by two Guides, which gives him a terrifying advantage. While we haven’t found any new leads, we can still dig into past fragments of history. Back during the Rebellion Campaign, the field commander at the time was a Guide who stored a segment of the battle using mental projection. I plan to use that as training material—to reconstruct the battle scene using a mental landscape.”

Kurosawa continued, “This is just the foundational training. What we need to do is simple—do whatever it takes to survive. Think of it as a real fight for your life.”

Bai Hua looked at Kurosawa, surprised that he had already thought everything through. This training plan hit exactly where it mattered—just what he had in mind.

Maybe it was because they had no way out anymore, or maybe it was simply because they both had that same unwillingness to lose.

Suddenly, Bai Hua asked, “I’ve been meaning to ask—can we only have one derived ability?”

“Not necessarily,” Kurosawa replied. “There have been cases of two or even more. But it mostly comes down to luck. Some are discovered by accident, like us; others try to develop them intentionally. But because the examples are so few, we can’t say which method is more effective. That said, the closer the pair is—both emotionally and mentally—the higher the chance…”

Bai Hua shot him a glance. “What are you trying to say?”

“The fastest way is, of course, through a full bond…” Kurosawa trailed off as he saw Bai Hua’s expression tighten into a frown, then chuckled and added, “But what I meant was—we still have time to slowly explore other possibilities.”

After hearing that last part, Bai Hua’s furrowed brow finally relaxed a little. Was it just his imagination, or did it feel like Kurosawa had deliberately brought this up?

(To be continued…)