Ferain sat in a dark expanse of nothingness. She felt a warm trail gliding down her temple and along her cheek. Her hair on the right side of her head was matted, sticky from blood and tangled from something she could not place. There was pain there, a pain so vivid, it had to be real. As if that wasn’t enough already, the darkness instantly flashed white, nearly blinding her in its radiance. With the change in color, she felt a new pain find her right cheek. The streaming blood smeared from the impact as Ferain was knocked so hard, the world righted itself. She blinked once… twice… and a third time before things began focusing.
There was little light, but little was not none. It was from the moon’s blessing, filling the abandoned room with enough light to make out her immediate surroundings as soon as her vision cleared from its blurred state. A stinging agony pulsed from her head and cheek, causing her blood to boil and her inner lightning to grow in intensity. Ferain blinked, breathed, and opened her eyes once more, bringing the interior into a cleaner image. It looked like a classroom, from the scattered desks to the screen hanging over the digital board at the front of the room. Her next observation told her she was not alone in said room. A girl stood in front of her, wearing the school uniform of all things. For some reason, perhaps Ferain was still lost in whatever stupor she had succumbed to, she thought this to be the most bizarre thing so far.
A night where everyone forwent their typical uniforms for something out of the ordinary, but in this case, it was the ordinary style that made it stand out more than anything she’d seen that night. This girl had bandages wrapped around her hands, ones that seemed to be tainted with fresh blood at the knuckles. The dark crimson liquid would soon be completely absorbed and dried, leaving stains behind that resembled rust more than anything. Behind the girl, sitting against one of the desks, she saw another girl. It was too dark to make her out, but there was a silver gleam coming from her hair whenever the shadow moved, meaning that something was reflecting the incoming moonlight. Even in her befuddled state, Ferain had a fairly clear idea who it was. On the desk beside the girl, Ferain saw what looked to be an outline of a witch’s hat, which was without a doubt part of the girl’s costume.
This stranger laughed while clapping her hands slowly, methodically. “I’m glad you’re awake, Prodigy.” Raven hissed, stepping forward so that a sliver of silver light brought a portion of her face into clarity. The silver sheen reflected in her obsidian eyes and indigo-tinted hair, granting her an extremely ominous appearance from Ferain’s perspective. She didn’t know if whatever had frightened her so terribly was still running through her system or not, but for the first time, she felt truly afraid of this girl. “Hit her again… for good measure.” Raven ordered.
Before Fera could protest, a powerful strike found her cheek again, nearly knocking her sideways. However, she found that she could not fall out of the chair they must’ve put her in. She winced, opening one eye halfway, and saw that she was bound to the seat. Her hands were behind the back of the chair and felt tied to something, as well as together, preventing her from moving at all. The girl that had struck her took a step back, her wrapped knuckles dripping more fresh blood onto the ground beneath them. The hit left Ferain stunned, and there was a rising pressure in her body that was all too familiar. A humming sound, like a million bees had taken root beneath her flesh and muscle, began building up inside of her. She felt something that terrified her more than anything else in the world could match. She felt her control slipping.
“Again.” said Raven, and again a fist came. The hit was fast, powerful, and true. She felt her bruised and battered cheek split open as blood filled her mouth. It dribbled past the corners of her lips and she felt herself losing even more of a grip on what little stability remained to her. Ferain looked up at Raven, tears building up in the corners of her eyes, but the dark haired girl paid her pleading expression no attention at all. “Again.” Raven demanded, and once more, Fera felt the power behind her friend's punch. This time, the chair tipped and she fell with it, crashing to the ground as the tears began to come unbidden.
At once, she was hoisted upwards again to be set right, exactly back where she was when she’d awoken from whatever existence she had been experiencing moments before. Blue lightning started to crackle around her wildly, frantically, in a way that signified just how far she was slipping.
“Stop.” she begged quietly, though her words were distorted by the bubbling blood that persisted in her jaws. Most of the fluid did manage to drain out as her head lulled forward, a result of her fading consciousness. “Why?” Ferain asked, mustering enough strength to look up at Raven, who had stepped closer to bring herself into full, clear view. She had a pleased expression on her beautiful face, one that showed the poison that ran beneath her surface, the malice that she harbored so stubbornly within her heart.
“Because I hate you.” Raven answered. “Because you deserve it. Because I can.” Raven stepped nearer and bent forward so that they were almost at eye level. Her right hand, with her talon-like nails, gripped Ferain’s face hard and painfully. Her sharpened nails dug into her already bleeding skin, creating several new dribbles that bubbled up and stained her pale complexion red. “You’re sick. You lied to everyone, and you’re still lying. Come on, Prodigy, show me what you can really do. Lose that little self-pitying image for just a moment and let me see what you really are. You can, nobody is here besides us three. You don’t need to keep it hidden any longer.”
“Stop.” Ferain begged again, her bleeding mouth clamped slightly shut by Raven’s forceful grip.
It was taking everything she had to remain present, to stay in control of her increasingly rebellious powers. If this continued, if Raven was adamant on walking this path to its end, bad things would happen. Bad, terrible, awful things. Things that nobody in this room could ever take back once it was done. Ferain saw her mother lying beside her, dead and nearly unrecognizable from the damage she caused. That was when she was five, when her powers were first coming in. A wielder’s ability, just like the body itself, grew throughout the course of time. As they aged, as they grew stronger or older, so too did their powers change and grow with them. If Ferain was capable of such a feat in her first year of having these powers, if that was the damage she caused by accident all those years ago, she shuddered to think about what she could do now. Naturally, this meant that Raven was not technically wrong. Ferain was always holding back. Even in her fight with Victor, she had withheld some of her power, but there were two reasons for this. One, she manually reined in her powers, that was the obvious first one, but the second reason was something much more complicated. The second reason she held back was not because she had a choice, it’s because the choice didn’t exist yet.
She only found herself tapping into her full power in times of extreme necessity or emotion, like the time she’d been shot. There were only two other times in her life that she’d gotten to that point, and both were not desirable. If she lost control now, right here, she might kill them all, and she would be none the wiser until it was all much too late to correct it.
“You need to stop.” Ferain cried, begging the girl with her eyes just as much as she was with her voice. “Please, you can’t do this.” Fera let out a quivering gasp as Raven stepped back, allowing another powerful fist to strike her in the temple. Her vision went black momentarily, and she felt a powerful surge in her body that seemed to be bursting at the seams to get out. “Please.” she tried again, when her head had cleared slightly and her vision returned to her.
“I don’t think so, Prodigy. Everyone else might be forgetting about what you are, but I won’t. You’re a liar and a cheat, and I will expose you for what you are. Hit her again.” Raven ordered.
The abuser raised her blood-soaked fist into the air, aiming the blow to strike clean into Fera’s face again. She hesitated, however, stalling while lowering her hand back to her side.
“Raven, I don’t think it’s a good idea. She’s getting pretty… glowy.”
The dark-haired leader, in her little witch costume, scoffed while crossing her arms over her chest. “You said you’d gladly help me. Are you backing out now? Hmm, coward? Answer me.” Raven demanded.
“I have a bad feeling about this, Raven. What if she… you know… explodes?”
“Explodes? Don’t let her fool you too, Tea, she’s in full control. She won’t hurt us, because she knows that it will land her right in a cell next to her crazy boyfriend. Isn’t that right, Ferain?” Raven said, returning her full attention to Fera once more. She lightly slapped Fera on her blood-smeared cheek. “Now, I said to hit her again. I expect you to do what I tell you when I tell you to do it. Is that understood?”
“Please.” she cried. “I don’t want to hurt you. Please, don’t.” She then looked at Raven again. “What do you want? Do you want a fight? I’ll fight you, but please, don’t do this.”
“I want you at your best, Prodigy. Hit her again.” Raven ordered fiercely, giving an icy stare towards her companion.
For a moment, Fera saw hesitation on the girl’s features, and her fist clenched tighter as she tried to decide what to do. She had her doubts about continuing. Unlike Raven, this girl was afraid of her, and for good reason. A few more hits, any further slips of consciousness, she really would explode. She needed to put an end to this now before it got any further out of hand. If talking was not going to cut it, she would have to do this the hard way, even in her current state. She was battered, and her mind was still affected by whatever messed with her senses before entering the school. There was a growing level of fear rising in her rapidly, though it had eased off enough to where she wasn’t seeing her parents’ faces any longer. Instead, she only had the one fear of killing these two, so it wasn’t much of a trade-off in her opinion.
While the girl was taking the time to make her decision about whether to follow Raven’s cruel orders any longer, Fera took the opportunity to steady herself. In order to control her powers, she had to be calm, had to be present. She couldn't afford to be afraid or panicked, she had to keep herself together. With how powerful her abilities were now, there was a very real possibility she would be caught in the blast too, not just the others. She could just as easily kill herself if she lost her grip on what she’d been keeping locked up tight for years. The sporadic crackling sparks that glittered around her retreated into her flesh, reducing the lighting of the room back to its original moonlit scenery.
After a steady, slow exhale, she felt some of her control coming back. Her mind was clearing and whatever spell she’d been under seemed to be fading at long last.
“I said to hit her!” Raven screamed, shoving the muscular girl aside. “We went through all of this trouble! People gave up their time to make this work and now you want to run with your tail tucked between your legs!”
“You told me she was a monster!” the girl shouted back, shoving Raven so hard that she flew off of her feet and crashed into the desk she’d been leaning against previously. “All I see is a scared girl, nothing more than a flea begging for its life.” She looked at Fera now, and to even her surprise it seemed, she took a step back.
Ferain’s eyes slowly opened, glowing brightly in the darkness of the room. Her expression was monstrous, like it was whenever she found herself in a serious confrontation, like when she first fought Copper in the cafeteria all those months ago. Her powers, when she used them to this limit, changed her. Her timid nature seemed to melt away, and all that remained when her outer shell crumbled and turned to ashes was the serious, capable fighter that Anita and Yarin had helped to create.
“Let me out of here.” Fera said seriously, staring directly into the girl’s emerald eyes.
“As if.” Raven scoffed. “What can you do in your sorry condition? You’re bleeding all over the place and you can hardly keep your head up. I doubt you could hurt a fly, Prodigy.”
“She can do more than I’m willing to deal with, I bet.” said Tea. “Marrow was right. I’m out. You can do this yourself, Raven.”
“I! Don’t! Think so!” Raven screamed, stomping a foot on the ground.
Particles that resembled black glass appeared in the air, as if the molecules that surrounded them were shifting into new shapes and forms. They glittered in the moonlight as metallic, obsidian colored feathers formed in midair. Several of them launched towards Tea, slashing at her uniform, and any amount of flesh they could find. Raven walked closer, spawning and shooting more arrow-like blades towards her own ally. Tea blocked one, swatted another away, and while reeling back a punch, took a single feather to the shoulder, accepting the pain and injury as a worthy collateral. Her fist moved fast, but by the time it reached Raven, a shield of dazzling glass appeared in front of her body, taking the blow in her stead.
“Raaaaah!” Raven howled, and with that, the glass, with all of its collected momentum, exploded outward.
There was a loud crash as Tea’s body flew into a couple of nearby desks, which broke apart under her impact of the fall. Raven then turned to Ferain, her captive, who was still helplessly bound to the metal-framed chair. As much as she wanted to do something, she was struggling to come up with any ideas on how to escape her captivity. Her brain was too muddied, and her range of movement was too restricted.
“I can’t trust any of them.” Raven growled, running a hand through her glistening locks of oily black hues.
She turned and a manic gleam crossed her beautiful face, which had now contorted into something corrupt and twisted. Fera’d seen plenty of angry people in her life, and she’d seen Raven angry on more than one occasion, but the ferocity she witnessed here was on an entirely new, dangerous level. This was the look she saw in Yarin’s eyes the night he tried to kill her, and while her fear was dwindling and the spell or power or drug was beginning to fade from her system, she still felt a hint of fright from Raven’s deadly serious gaze.
“You need to stop this, Raven. What do you expect to happen if you do manage to make me lose control? If you keep going, you will die.”
“I’m not that weak!” Raven screamed.
“It has nothing to do with being weak or strong!” Fera yelled back, raising her voice to a place it had hardly ever reached in her life. “Strength has nothing to do with it! You really don’t understand, do you? If my full power is released, if I can’t control it when it does, we will all die! Why don’t you people ever understand that? You! Marrow! Everyone! I didn’t want to kill anybody! I never wanted to hurt her! But people like you think it’s all some game, don’t you?!”
“It’s not a game!” Raven howled, kicking a feather-ridden desk aside with enough force to send it against a nearby wall with a heavy, loud thud. “How we do here means everything! Our grades, our progress reports! They affect everything we do later in life! I dedicate everything to this place, all of my free time, all of my ability, and then you walk in and do it so effortlessly! It’s sickening! You come here, playing the victim, acting weak and helpless, and what happens then? In a few months, little miss prodigy is all of a sudden lvl-2, just like that. Your lies and your games make us all look bad by comparison and I’ve had enough of it! I want to see the real you, all of what you have. Do you know why? Because if I do, if I beat you at your best, then nobody in the entire academy can say that I’m worthless!”
Fera’s anger diminished slightly as her glaring expression softened into one of pity. “Worthless?” she asked, noticing the tears gleaming against Raven’s perfect ivory complexion.
“Worthless, Hirigaya, worthless! That’s all I ever am in everyone’s eyes is worthless! And constantly, when I finally do anything worthy of praise, it’s always you that they talk about! It was you coming here that was on everyone’s lips. It was your advancement test that everybody raved about for weeks on end. It’s always you! Even my own parents… they…” Raven bit her lip and then stomped a foot against the ground as she screamed louder than she had all night. “Ahhhhhhhhh!” She screamed until her voice went hoarse. Screamed until nothing else would escape except for faint gasping traces of air. Screamed until it was silent and the only sound that could follow it was sniffling cries as she fought against her emotions.
“I never meant—”
“I don’t care!” Raven barked, raising her head of now matted hair and glowing eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you say. I’ll get your strength out of you, and when I do, I’ll beat you until you can’t even show your face at school for the rest of the year. So hurry up, Prodigy! Show me what you are!”
“I don’t–” Fera started, but Raven quickly drove a foot into her chest, cutting her words short. The chair she was bound to went backwards, and her along with it. The fall hurt her back and sides, and made her head throb worse than it already was, but the worst sensation of all was the gasps for breath as all of her oxygen had been forced from her lungs. She spit and coughed as Raven stepped closer, looming over her like a wicked shadow or a dark, vengeful spirit that only had eyes for revenge and justice. “Rave– Ah!” she cried, as once again, her words were cut short. Raven stomped against her cheek, sending her face into the ground.
She kept her there, digging the toe of her shoe into the gash upon her right cheek, opening the wound wider and allowing more blood to spill out.
“Give me what I want.” Raven growled through gritted teeth. “Give it to me or I will kill you.”
“Why?” Fera asked in a muffled, agonized voice. Raven lifted her foot up, seemingly to allow Fera to speak. “Why go so far with this? We can duel. If you win there, you– Gah!” Fera gasped again, as another stomp met her face. Three more repeated kicks caused Fera’s body to go limp as her face rested lifelessly in a growing puddle of blood that was spilling from inside her mouth and the cheek that had been torn open.
“I told you, moron.” Raven hissed. “If you aren’t at your best, if you aren’t even trying, how could I consider that a win? How can I be proud of being given my reputation? God, you’re so fucking stupid, it makes me want to pound that pretty little face of yours into the dirt, over and over and over and over until there’s nothing left but bone and blood. I want you gone from my life! I want to be rid of you!” Raven went to stomp down again, but instead, she let out a pained squeak as blue light flashed between her and Fera.
The veins in Ferain’s arms and hands bulged as her mostly unmoving body strained against the bindings that held her in place. Electrified currents coursed around her like armor or some kind of shifting, living aura. She gritted her blood-stained teeth and ripped her hands free from the chair. They moved to either side of her head, her sparking nails burning, melting, and digging into the flooring as she raked her straight fingers into a claw-like position. Sanguine fluids ran from her grimy face and dirt-filled mouth as she unsteadily rose to hands and knees. Looking down still, her illuminated eyes cast a cone of light towards the darkness beneath her, but those glowing irises soon shifted so that they could see Raven in the corner of their vision.
Ferain breathed through an open mouth, revealing the bright, crackling electricity within, and smoke left the opening with each breath. Even the wound on her cheek began to smoke violently as the flesh was burning and folding back together. In seconds, the smoke cleared and the stream of blood ceased fully. All that remained behind was a jagged line of white that started at her cheekbone and went crookedly towards her jawline. She let out a final, powerful exhale through her nose that billowed out grayish smoke, alive with tendrils of sapphire lightning, as if she had created storm clouds in miniature. As dozens, if not hundreds of tiny lightning bolts arced from her low body to the burning ground around her, small fires were starting to be born, leaving almost a ring of mini flames around her person.
“Prodigy?” Raven asked, her voice finally quivering slightly, but Fera made no response. “Hirigaya?” Raven continued, but again, there was no vocal answer to her call. Instead, Ferain shifted from her knees to the tips of her feet, taking the wolf-like stance that she’d become known for since the advancement test. Another stream of charged smoke blew from her nostrils with the next shaky breath she released, and even her golden eyes had hints of darker blue currents running within them. “Fe… Ferain?” Raven asked quietly, taking a few stumbling steps back. “Al-Alright, Prodigy. Y-you win. I-I will stop. I’ll l-leave. Okay? I’ll leave you alone.”
Ferain took a few slow, careful steps to the right, strafing her opposition as silently as any wolf about to make their first and final strike against a creature of prey.
“H-hey. I said I’ll stop!” Raven yelled now, trying to put a force in her voice that she simply couldn’t muster. Her body was shaking terribly, and there was no ferocity to be found within her, as it had all been drowned out by fear. “Leave me alone! Okay? I’ll leave and I won’t bother you anymore! That should be good enough for you, right? You win! I’ll…”
Fera stared at her blankly. In fact, she wasn’t even blinking. Her breaths were slow, as if she was sleeping, and her unflinching expression never once changed, no matter what Raven said or how loudly she said it. Nor did her eyes move, never shifting from Raven’s pale, frightened face. Fera had a primal urge within her. Fight or die. She had promised to Anita that she would defend herself. She promised Anita that she would not allow herself to die, or to be hurt. This feral beast that had taken over her brain and body had only one directive. Do not die. That was all, and that was all it would ever be. A low, guttural growl rose up from within her body, and more steam escaped with her steadying breaths from both nose and mouth. As she strafed sideways, her clothing and skin seemed to be burning as well. Steam rose from every part of her now, and the fabric of her costume was starting to turn orange as tiny holes began expanding into much more gaping tears.
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The revealed pale flesh beneath the vanishing clothing was slowly shifting into a reddish hue as the blood beneath it boiled and lightning broke through the natural resistance she had to her own gifts. As Raven finally stumbled back far enough to have her path blocked by an obstructive wall, Fera stopped her sidestepping, achieving the goal she’d set out to accomplish. It was the most basic rule in the game of predators and prey. Corner the weak, make sure they have no way to escape, and your kill is as certain as the next day’s dawn. It was like her mind had retreated into a primitive state of being, where there was only kill or be killed. No morality existed, no consequences remained except for the teetering balance of life or death. A bright wave of electricity started at Ferain’s head and swiftly passed around her body, building up in power as it reached the soles of her feet.
When they reached the end point of her body, a massive explosion burst out, completely disintegrating the soles of her new boots, and breaking every bit of glass in the classroom in the process. The desks behind her were scorched and thrown back, like a bomb had gone off and the pressure was forced in a single direction. This tremendous amount of power propelled Ferain faster than she’d ever gone before, but somehow, it still wasn’t enough. Everything around her was in slow motion, that was how she saw the world at this speed. She walked normally while everything else simply halted, waiting for her to allow it to move again. Fera saw Raven’s petrified expression, frozen in time as she was completely defenseless against the speed and power Ferain had mustered against her.
However, somehow, something else appeared directly in her path. Before she could comprehend what she saw, before her brain even had the time to revert back to its usual self so that it could render the sight in the first place, a hand was raised. Her body was already on its set course, her actions already determined. Her electrified hand reached out like a glowing, unimaginably hot blade, and it was aimed directly for Raven, or now, this new occupant of the space they inhabited. Fera’s hand connected with the stranger’s, but it did not cut, nor did it stab, nor did it burn, as far as she could tell. His fingers gripped around her hand, catching her in midair, and with a violent wrenching on her arm, she was whipped around and thrown to the side. When time caught up, when reality returned to normalcy, Ferain found herself lying in the rubble collected after four thick concrete walls had been completely obliterated around her. Through the gaping wounds in the building ahead of her, she saw a well dressed man shaking his left hand as it smoked profusely. Raven slid down the wall with complete shock frozen on her face. Beside the man was another woman, one who she could only make out the silhouette of, but she thought it was familiar.
However, her mind did not allow her any more time to examine the scene. She felt like she’d been lit ablaze from the inside out, and the disruption of her last attack had harmed her further. Her powers died out and her vision faded into nothingness for the second, or perhaps third time that night. She dreamt no dreams, thought no thoughts, imagined no imagery. It was her, the familiar darkness, and complete, utter silence. Time passed, though she did not know how long it had been since falling asleep. Eventually, however, her eyes did open, and what she awoke to was an agony unlike any she’d known that year… or her entire life, in fact. This seemed to be a cursed pattern she was stuck in since the age of five. Each pain worse than the last, each loss of control more drastic and more devastating than the one before it… Each nightmare, more haunting than any previously experienced.
Slowly, her eyes opened, and she felt her body throb from head to toe. The fires that dwelled beneath her flesh did not persist now, not as they had done during her… space in memory. That’s what it was, she could realize that much. There was a gap in time, a place where consciousness could not be recalled. Only mere glimpses remained, like every other time she had lost control. She saw Raven pleading with her, weeping from fear as panic and incomparable fright washed over her entire body, changing her movements, her breathing, her sound, her everything. She saw the man that had stopped her, though she only had enough insight to focus on his hand, the primary point that she’d paid attention to before she had been thrown aside so easily. Her final image was of her lying in rubble, rubble that consisted of concrete, rebar, and anything else that was caught up in the destruction as her body blew past.
She tried to move, but a hand reached down and gingerly touched her shoulder. She thought it was Anita for half a second, thanks primarily to the white sleeve of the shirt they were wearing, but Ferain then remembered that Anita was not in her school uniform, thus, she was not wearing the button-up shirt that was part of it. Plus, the hand was too large, too rough, and the nails were much too plain. Anita always painted her nails, and while they weren’t long or particularly sharp, they were not trimmed past the nub of the finger. The smell was different too. Anita smelt of… of sweet things. It changed regularly, but she always chose something sweet, like chocolates or candies, sometimes she even chose more normal things like flowers, but that was a rarity. Anita was not much for normal things.
This person smelled of… cologne, not perfume. It wasn’t drowning or even all that heavy of a scent, but it was noticeable enough to trigger recognition in her still slumbering brain. Slowly, her senses were returning to her, and slowly, she was coming back to herself and to reality. Her eyes blinked twice, and when they opened after, she saw the infirmary at the school, with its white ceiling and the curtains that were on tracks so they could be pulled around beds to give students privacy when necessary. Beside her was Guji Hakamura, the owner of both the hand and the cologne. His hair was disheveled as it hung loosely around his head, which was covered in grime as if he had been digging through piles of concrete for hours on end. He was not wearing the black jacket that belonged to his suit, for that was draped over the railing at the foot of the bed, tossed there recklessly from the look of it. Guji was not a reckless man. He would set most anything down gently, so to see such a thing, for some reason, caused even more fear to once again bubble up within her gut, and her mind began preparing for the worst outcomes.
“Don’t move.” Guji said softly. “You’re hurt. You need some rest.”
“What happened?” Ferain asked, allowing Guji to ease her back down to the pillow.
This question caused a distraught expression to cross the man’s face. Where once existed perpetual calmness, permanent cheer, unmovable strength, now resided pain and regret. He seemed to contemplate answering her, or perhaps he was simply building up the courage to do so properly, without holding anything back. This did not seem to be easy for him either way.
“You lost… yourself. Your mind seemed to regress into a… fight or flight type of response. It’s not a wielder thing, or anything related to your powers. In fact, in that regard, you actually did exceptionally well in containing them. Instead, this is more of a… a living sort of effect. Our natural defense systems trigger what most call flight or fight. It is the base instincts we rely on in the worst of times to determine whether we fight, or whether we run. You… felt threatened enough, afraid enough, that your mind went into this defense mechanism, causing you to lose your grip of self and sense.”
“Raven… I didn’t… I didn’t kill… She…” Fera murmured, feeling tears welling up in her eyes.
“No, Ferain, no. I stopped you in time. If not for Sara, I feel I would have been much too late, but… But no, I made it. Ms. Emming was merely frightened into a state of petrification, but she is perfectly well. She will be facing extreme punishment, however, but that is not for you to be concerned with.” At Fera’s speechless expression, he continued. “We have a confession from a Mr. Okara that he’d been using his powers on you for the duration of your trip to the academy tonight. Ms. Emming coerced him into building up your fears throughout the night until she was ready to receive you. When she gave the word, he implanted Ms. Caswell’s voice into your mind, pleading for help and luring you into the school, and getting you away from your partner at the same time. All the while, he was to build on your fears so Ms. Emming could get you from behind. I assume you know the rest after that point. She used several students in order to get her plan into motion.”
“The other girl, Tea, is she…”
“She’s fine. Cut up a bit, and she might be left with some scars, but she’ll be okay otherwise.”
Ferain looked into his eyes and then looked down, which was when she noticed his left hand. It was wrapped so tightly in white bandages that his range of movement with it would be extremely limited.
“Your hand.” Fera muttered.
“It’s nothing. A small price to pay to prevent a terrible tragedy from occurring, I assure you.”
“How did you know where I was? If you came to me, if you had Sara’s help, how did you know?”
“The bodies you left behind on your way to Ms. Emming on the third floor. One of those you attacked rushed to find me after waking up and explained what had happened to him. I knew something was wrong right away so I–”
“Bodies?” gasped Ferain. “Headmaster, I… I didn’t mean… I didn’t know.”
“I know you didn’t. You were–”
“No. I saw them, I saw my parents. I didn’t… I…”
“Ferain. Calm yourself. Steady breaths. Count slowly, okay?”
“Please, sir. Please, I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought it was… Please, I don’t want to be expelled. I didn’t… Did any of them…”
“Nobody suffered permanent damage and I’m not expelling you, Ferain, so please, calm down.” Guji said forcefully.
Ferain had pushed herself up into a sitting position, despite the pain, during her rambling. She didn’t know when she did it, but her body seemed to move on its own as she pleaded for forgiveness and understanding. Guji quickly put his hands on her shoulders and gripped them tightly enough to bruise if she did not stop him soon. However, Ferain did not stop him. The look in his golden eyes, how they quivered, how they glistened in the same way hers and her mother’s did whenever light struck them just right, showed her a different side of the man she’d known all this year. It was for the reason that in this moment, he was exactly that… a man. He was not the prestigious headmaster or a lecturing professor or some protective guardian. He was simply a man who was concerned for another living soul.
“You’re not in trouble.” Guji said sadly. “You did nothing wrong.”
His glistening eyes flicked up and down, taking in the sight of her injured body, and in the reflection of them, as they found her eyes once more, she saw herself staring back. She looked dumbfounded, afraid, and lost. Most of all, she looked like she was on the verge of breaking down. They were both breathing heavily, but Ferain’s heartbeat couldn’t even compare with Guji’s own. She could feel his pulse through the touch of his hands as they gripped tightly to the flesh that lay beneath the thin fabric of her costume’s tunic. He shook his head briefly before lunging at her. His arms wrapped around so quickly, she could not even try to resist. One went behind her back and the other found the back of her head as he pulled her into a tight embrace.
“H-Headmaster?” she gasped, growing more confused by the second.
She felt him take in a fistful of her hair as he pressed himself closer to her. She’d never been hugged like this, not since her mother had been alive anyway. The memories this embrace brought back reminded her of those days, when her mother would set her down for bed and told her that she loved her every night. She recalled the scent of whatever shampoo she used at the time as she pulled Ferain into just as tight a hug as Guji was doing now. She would even touch her hair in almost the exact same way.
“I’m just glad you’re okay. I’m glad you’re safe.” Guji said painfully. He pulled away and ran a thumb over the crooked lash that now existed on her right cheek.
“Headmaster?” Fera asked, which seemed to break the silence, and seemed to bring the man back to his senses. He blinked, took in a breath, and removed his hand from her face. After leaning back in his chair, he shook his head once more before opening his eyes to meet her inquisitive gaze.
“Yes?”
“Raven, you said she was going to be punished. How…” She stopped short of finishing her question, for she saw the answer plainly on Guji’s face.
“She’s going to be expelled. I have no choice, not now. I… I never like forcing a student from the school. I feel it does more harm than good in the end, but such an aggravated assault on another student… I, as Headmaster, have no choice but to serve the most fitting punishment. As much as it pains me, I can’t, with good conscience, allow her to stay enrolled here. She will be informed in the morning, and she will be given a few days to pack and say her farewells while a ship comes to retrieve her.”
“There’s no other way?” asked Ferain.
Guji smirked faintly. “She did this to you and you still wish for her to stay here?”
“She mentioned something to me before, something about being worthless in other peoples’ eyes. She mentioned her parents briefly. I just thought… if she gets expelled…”
“That is, as unfortunate as it is, not either of our problems to solve. I will do what I must, and the consequences of her actions, no matter how they find her, are hers to contend with. I find it… hopeful… that you wish to forgive her of this attack, but others are not so forgiving, and there must always be repercussions for our actions. If there wasn’t, we would never learn.” He raised his hand and ran a thumb along the length of her newfound scar a final time. “Rest here for a while. Ms. Caswell will be here momentarily and you can choose whether you wish to return home or remain here for the night. Mr. Ita has already given his permission to use the room as you see fit. I will make sure you are not disturbed.”
“Thank you.”
Guji gave a light nod of his head before rising to his feet. He collected his jacket, gave her the briefest of smiles over his shoulder, and left her alone. Alone was how Anita found her, several minutes after Guji’s departure. The first thing they did was embrace one another. Anita nearly tackled her, which caused Ferain to groan in pain, but they soon shared a laugh once they knew the other was okay. Even after Ferain knew it was an illusion, the screams she’d heard hours earlier, if even that, were too real to forget so easily.
They would remain for some time, and the fear that they had been real could not be forgotten either. She held Anita in her arms, but still the screams bounced from one part of her brain to the other, as if she could still hear them now. She knew Anita was safe, but she still feared that she wasn’t. In the end, they both walked back to their home, with Anita being extremely cautious on the return trip, watching for any signs of hostility. They made it back peacefully, and Ferain, despite sleeping already, fell right onto the sofa and passed out near-instantly. Resting beside her, with her arms wrapped warmly around her, was Anita, who did not leave her side all night after that.
Two days after the events on Halloween, Fera found herself in her classes, starting the exams that would judge her progress throughout the year. The basic academic ones were present, of course. Math, History, Science, but there were also the wielder classes, the lessons unique to these academies. Her main wielder classes with Mr. Haris, and the combat lessons she signed up for at the start of the year. These would have exams too, but they would all be taken throughout the course of the week. Ferain was smart enough to easily pass the academic exams, except for maybe math and science, which were always the subjects that gave her the most trouble. For some reason, numbers just weren’t her thing, and it would seem that chemicals and elements and whatnot weren’t either. She could answer almost any question about literature and the various historical events of the world were relatively easy to remember, but those two subjects would forever haunt her dreams whenever Anita’s study sessions came to mind.
As for the wielder specific exams, she had a feeling, and a very good one at that, that she would pass them without too much of a problem. Knowing this, having this sort of confidence in herself going into the exams, it was easy for her to push them to the wayside of her thoughts while reading questions and filling in the bubbles on her answer sheet. Instead, her mind remained tethered to Raven, who’s last day in the city happened to be this day. They did not like each other, she suspected that would never change, but for things to end this way, it felt wrong somehow. There was a massive blank space in how much they knew about each other, and this caused them both to have misunderstandings.
Ferain, for some reason she could not identify, didn’t want these misunderstandings to linger between them. She wasn’t after friendship, she was after knowledge. She wanted Raven to know about her, and she wanted to know about Raven in return. This is why, when her testing was done, she had received permission from Guji to leave a little earlier than usual. She also received from him the location that Raven stayed the previous night, after being forced to pack and move out of her dorm. It was the Welcome Center, the place where every first-year student was guided to on their first day in the city of Olirian. Ferain herself had stayed there with what appeared to be at least two-hundred people, though it could have been more or less. Once she was released from the academy, she sprinted through the checkpoint into District-B, and without stopping, proceeded to the next checkpoint down the line.
Winded, she held up her band to the sensor atop a black podium to be allowed through. She used this short break to catch her breath, and she was off again. She needed to move fast if she was going to reach Raven in time. She sprinted as fast as her legs would carry her without using her powers, her messenger bag slapping against her back with each stride. Hastily, she slid around the corner to the Welcome Center, and rushed towards the door, which definitely opened much too slowly for her liking. The interior was far from lavish. The flooring was a simple, and not even that soft, gray carpeting. The walls had some generic pictures hanging, just to add even the faintest, most basic sort of decor. Some potted plants were stuffed into corners or hanging from the ceiling, and at the opposite end of the massive waiting area of chairs and coffee tables was a wooden desk with an attendant behind it.
Here was where she met Guji at the start of the year, along with the rest of the first-year students, before being ushered into the auditorium, and then to the temporary living quarters that was their home for the night. Ignoring the beckoning attendant, she hurried down the halls until she made it to the metal door that would then lead into the vast, abandoned space that housed a hundred or so bunk-beds. However, it would not be abandoned today, for there should be one sole resident that was preparing to leave the school forever. Fera mustered up her courage and pushed the door open. Ahead, the sound of the creaking door echoed. When she last walked through this place, it was so loud that she could not hear herself thinking, let alone the whispering of a creaky door.
The emptiness of it struck her oddly as she walked, each and every footstep filling the room with a song all its own. Off in the distance, she saw Raven, standing in front of one of the beds and packing things into what she presumed to be a bag, though she could not see it.
“I’m not supposed to leave for another ten minutes. Leave me alone until then.” Raven hissed, not knowing who it was behind her until Ferain decided to speak up.
“That’s why I hurried over here.” she said shyly, hoping that this would not instantly dissolve into another brawl or argument.
“Oh, it’s you. What do you want, Hirigaya?”
“What happened to Prodigy?” Ferain asked.
Raven violently shoved a shirt into her bag and then heaved a heavy sigh. “What do you want? I’m a little busy at the moment.”
“I wanted to talk.” Fera answered, taking a single step closer. “That’s all I ever wanted to do. I never wanted all of this fighting. Not from you or Copper or Marrow. I came here looking for a normal life, a life where I could find friends and go shopping with girls my age and… I guess to summarize it, I wanted everything that I was never able to have before.”
“Why should I care?” asked Raven.
“Because, I want you to understand. I want you to know that you were wrong about me… and I want you to know that you were also right. And… maybe… I want to learn more about you. What you said to me, it’s been bothering me ever since. Do your parents… do they really say that about you?”
Raven’s hands pressed deep into the springy mattress and clenched into white-knuckled fists. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does.” Fera assured her, stepping closer once more. “Look, I am a liar. I was never the monster you and the others thou… No, that’s not true either. I am a monster, you saw that much a couple of nights ago. But that is why I hide my full strength. It’s not by choice, it’s because I have to. I can’t control it. To be honest, it scares me even more than it scares you or anybody else. Even now, after learning to control it to the extent that I have, I’m still afraid of it. I didn’t lie because I wanted to fool people. I lied because I couldn’t use all of what I am. Also, I wanted to be invisible. I didn’t want people to notice me, so I hoped that if I was weak and barely gained entry, I would be able to build myself up at my own pace, while maybe experiencing the things my powers stole from me all those years ago.” Fera explained.
“Only a few people really know what happened that night. I was waiting at home, waiting for my mom to get back so she could make dinner, just like she always did. She was late though, and I was getting worried. When she finally got back, she was afraid and frantic. She scooped me up in her arms and we ran as fast as we could, but I was young and I didn’t know what was happening. I was so confused and afraid and…” Fera let out a breath. “My father was chasing us. He was trying to kill me, and he almost succeeded. When we couldn’t run anymore, he shot me twice, and I… I couldn’t focus. All of my power burst out of me and my mother died because of it. Ever since then, I’ve been labeled a murderer and a monster. I lost my family, my friends, my life, really. That’s why I wanted to come here. I wanted to get some of what was taken from me back. I had no intention of using my powers, or learning how to fight, or any of that. I just wanted to pretend I was normal again, and I thought that being around people like me would let me do just that.” she continued.
“Why tell me this?” hissed Raven. “Do you expect me to pity you now? Do you want me to cry for how sad of a life you had?”
“No.” Fera softly replied. “I don’t know anything about you, Raven. We’ve been at each other’s throats since the start, but I don’t even know who you are. I have no clue what your life was like, or who your family are, or your hobbies or interests. I literally have no reason to hate you besides for what you’ve done to me, and I don’t know if I can keep using that as an excuse. On the other hand, you don’t know anything about me. You read some stories, listened to some rumors, and made your assumptions based on that. I might be a monster, and I am a murderer. Accident or not, my fault or not, I did kill my mom, and after two nights ago, I can’t argue that I am dangerous. Even still, if you’re going to hate me, I want you to know me enough to hate me.”
“It makes me want to kick your face in just hearing you talk like that.” Raven spat before turning around to stare viciously into Ferain’s eyes. “You act like you’re some saint. Like you’re some gift from God that was sent here to bless us all. The way you talk drives me insane. Like you’re so righteous and smart. Like you’re so special.” Raven walked forward and jabbed a finger into Fera’s chest. “Look here, Hirigaya, you’re not special. You’re not a gift from Heaven, and you’re most certainly not above me. You want to understand me better. You want to know what my life was like. Try being constantly compared to everyone around you, and never living up to the expectations. Try being the biggest disappointment in the room every time you enter one.” Raven shoved her back. “Try being hated by your parents so much, they threaten to disown you if you fail!” Raven cried through gritted teeth.
“I’ll never be good enough, no matter what I do! I passed every test, I rose to lvl-2 by giving everything I had to training and studying. But it wasn’t good enough! ‘You should have been lvl-2 from the start!’ ‘You should have done better!’ I couldn’t take it anymore!” Raven screamed. Raven clenched her fists at her sides and bit her lip enough to draw blood. Her hands quickly went to her crying eyes as she tried to wipe away the tears that had started running from their corners. “You have no idea what my life was like.” she growled. “Did you think coming here would cheer me up? Did you think it would make me change my colors? I have news for you, Hirigaya, my colors always run black. My life is hell, and living in it is even worse. I have no pity for you, and I have no reason to bother understanding what you’ve been through. The only reason you don’t hate me anymore is because you pity me instead. You heard my moment of weakness and now you feel too sad to even realize what I did to you.”
“I tried to kill you, just like that freak Yarin, and just like your loving daddy. Like all of them, I failed. You’re so stupid. You survive and yet, you come back to the person that attacked you.” Raven lifted her bag and threw it over her shoulder. “I have to leave, Hirigaya. Don’t bother praying for me or whatever, because you won’t get the same out of me. In fact, I hope you die. I hope it’s slow and painful, and I hope even more that I can watch it happen. Bye.”
Raven literally shoved past Ferain, causing her to stumble back a pace or two. She watched silently as Raven left, heading for a future that neither of them could predict. All that Ferain knew was that she would never see her here again. Her time at Olirian Academy was at an end, and so too was any chance of forgiveness or acceptance of what transpired between them. Ferain failed again, and again, she had to carry that weight all the way home with her.