SSS Awakening: Starting With Infinite Soul Copy

It was a series of actions that were as fast as they were slow.

His hands reached from behind, quietly unfastening her hands, which she had latched tightly to her knees.

With that freed, his feet gently pushed back her legs, straightening them from their fold.

Following right after, she felt a hand gently wrapped around her waist, and quietly, she was dragged back into a firm embrace.

The sensation of her back touching his chest was something that still took her by surprise, and her body froze, turning rigid.

...a second

...5 seconds

...10 seconds

The breeze rustled like normal, and slowly, her rigid body relaxed.

It was as if her body knew now that this sensation wasn’t dangerous.

She sank deeper into his embrace until she could feel his breath against her neck, then quietly lowered her hands to her side, finding his where it rested on the grass.

Their fingers interlocked, settling just above her navel.

They remained like this for a while before the words rang in her ear,

"I know how you feel,"

White whispered behind her, and Nova smiled, asking without looking back.

"How do I feel?"

A few seconds, as the air stilled all of a sudden.

"You’re in love."

At the moment, the breeze resumed.

It drew away those words, stopping them from lingering too long.

There wasn’t a rush of rejection from Nova.

While she would have normally rejected that in a flurry and tried to deny it, there was this safety she felt while reclining in his embrace.

One that made her feel like she didn’t need to hide away from her true feelings.

"What about you?"

She asked instead, shifting her head down slightly, to look at his face from below.

"Are you in love?"

She asked,

"No, no, not me. You’re the dumdum."

He answered, and it made her giggle.

"I agree. It’s stupid."

She mused, but then, a slight tap on her forehead.

Not hard enough to make her wince in pain, just enough to stop the negative thoughts that were slowly starting to fill her head.

"I just don’t have a good experience with love, but...that’s just my experience. Doesn’t have to be the same for you."

"What experience? You’re just 17."

She said, and he paused, turning his eyes down to her, and then smiled.

...His smile.

It made Nova freeze for a moment.

There was something about them.

Something she couldn’t quite understand, but they said something.

"Let’s just say I’m older at heart,"

It made her smile, looking into his eyes from below.

Being so close to his face, wrapped in his warmth.

It was safe...so safe, it was unreal.

"Can I kiss you?"

She asked a question she herself couldn’t believe came from her lips.

"I...I’m so sorry. I..."

Her hands reached for her face in that moment, covering it from embarrassment.

White was indeed surprised at first.

Nova was a cold beauty.

She had that aura like a celestial human of sorts, far above the shenanigans of humanity and its emotional stuff.

Those obscene-sounding words weren’t something one would have expected from someone like her, and hearing them, then seeing her fold into embarrassment, he found amusing.

She shifted a finger from her face, allowing her to see above him.

What he saw was a teasing grin at the corner of his lips.

Her heart pounded in the next moment, watching his lips try to say something,

BANG!

White’s head yanked to the back as a punch slammed into his face, sending him flat out on his back.

"OW!"

"Oh, my God. I’m so sorry!"

Nova felt like digging a grave in the ground and burying herself from the embarrassment.

She had panicked.

There was a red tint around White’s left eye from where her knuckles had connected, but the world was only so blurry for a moment.

Her hands reached down, sliding down the red mark around his face.

Since her fingers were normally ice cold, it did wonders in drowning out the stinging pain he felt from the blow.

"So, you okay?"

She asked, watching him blink a couple of times before his blinking stopped and his eyes opened properly.

But then, instead of a reply, she watched as his face turned red, and both of his hands slipped to his face, covering it.

"What’s..."

Nova didn’t fully ask that when the realization hit her as she turned down to look at herself.

There she was sitting right on top of his waist.

Like a scared bunny, she yanked back reflexively, but that proved to be a fatal mistake as they were sitting down at the edge of the cliff.

It sent her flying down

"NOVA!"

White shouted in disbelief and reflexively charged after her.

His hands reached forward to grab her, but they failed to cross each other an inch away.

This sent her flying down even more, and White was forced into a decision that he had barely half a second to make.

Jump after her or remain.

The answer was decided in less than 0.3 seconds as he jumped further.

The extra push made his hands immediately grab hers, but...there was a new problem.

They were now soaring down to the ground.

"NO. NO. NOOOO! I’m going to die!"

White screamed in his head, seeing the ground beneath them as he looked down.

His vision was soon taken away from that as Nova’s hand suddenly grabbed him by the jaw, and she asked.

"Why did you jump?"

"Nova! The ground! It’s the ground!"

He said, trying to tell her they were falling closer, but that didn’t reach her, as she yanked his gaze off the ground, focusing it right on her.

Those blue eyes of hers shone a flicker of blue into his eyes, forcefully drawing his attention.

"Why?"

She whispered.

In that moment, it was like falling didn’t matter anymore.

The question hung in the air like a decree, and unconsciously, White replied.

"It’s..."