Fl

“Alright everyone, I’m not going to lie to you, this will be the most difficult test so far.” People weren’t even done wiping their faces before Nike began his instruction. Everyone had quieted down to almost silent murmurs and looked up at their hulking trainer. “As a lot of you know, in the last few hours we have lost an–amount of people,” He said with all the subtlety of a brick to the head,

“and knowing these woods, they’re most likely dead.” That did it. The quiet murmurs almost immediately turned into yelling. Flame watched as the deserter and Rumble began to start yelling with protest with the others. The berserking lesser and the smokey one did something similar.

“Are you insane!?”

“No, we’re not going out there again!”

Almost the entirety of Darkness child’s group were yelling. While their namesake just laid against a tree in silent agreement. Probably not for the same reason as them, but equally as invested in the idea of just laying back and not going back out there.

“This is ridiculous, half our team is dead! You expect us to fight more of those things like this?” Rumble laid into him.

“Sir, I don’t know what that tree did to me. I don’t think–” Rhodney paused, “Respectfully,” I’m not going out there again. I don’t–feel good right now.” He said.

“I’m not going to fight whatever they fought! Look at them!” And bowl cut… He pointed at Flame’s group as a prime example of why not to go out.

Flame didn’t even growl. At this point he wasn’t going to waste his voice. He just sat and resigned himself to the side of this rock. As fun as it’d be to watch the blonde boy squirm around, this wasn’t the time for that.

Their teacher’s eyes turned glossy as it watched the entirety all of the colony begin to turn over to the no corner. The old man closed and he breathed deeply. He held the bridge of his nose, clearly thinking of the proper words to sway the crowd.

Rumble had a point. They were LOW on people. Down two, and flame didn’t trust himself to not throw this deserter to the wolves the first chance he got.

His pride was hushed by his own self preservation. It let Rumble take the rings while Flame thought of a sound strategy. Because if he was honest, there was no way these two scared up, badass, monster adults would just let them just skip their write of passage. Especially with how Nike had worked this whole time.

Rewarding struggle.

Bringing up kids who put in the hard effort to do a task, even if they didn’t succeed.

Flame was doomed.

After everything was said and done, everyone was huffing from exhaustion. Angry smoke and steam came out of mouths, eyes, ears, and even skin. Nobody was happy, and he even saw some who had probably reached the same conclusion as flame start to cry.

“Please–don’t make us.”

Something odd clicked in Flames head when he heard the deserter’s voice quiver. When he heard him sound like he was almost about to…

to…

“...At all?”

Something about the way Nike said it. Something about the way the words left his lips. Something about the way that he asked the question made even more brew in the pot inside Flame. His flame tattoo started to burn as the boy felt like almost throwing up.

Something about this situation made him feel like burning something. Someone, anyone. He looked back at his team. And the deserter. The tears were coming off of his face. His face. Rolling it down pathetically. Like a weeping animal, he looked almost ready to roll up into a ball and die. Just lay down and let whatever was coming move in and eat him while he whimpered.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

My flame tattoo burned as I threw up a little in my mouth.

He would lose a member because he fed the coward to the wolves. Shit, he half felt like dragging him into the woods and doing it now. That’s the only reason. That’s the only reason there could possibly be. Nothing else.

Nothing else.

His chest wound ached more and more as he spoke the mantra to himself but he voluntarily ignored it.

“Yeah, at all.” He said firmly. He got up from his rock and stumbled past the other imps. He squeezed his fist and resolved himself. He thought he was fine but something about this conversation seemed to bring back some phantom pains.

He pushed through it though and eventually got face to face with Nike. “My team refuses, we aren’t doing any test,” Maybe it was stupid to single himself out and be the example. Maybe that was stupid. But he was getting really tired of inspiring speeches and talks. It didn’t matter.

If this made Flame lower in the organization, at best he could at least show them that Rumble and him were special. And at the absolute worst,

Leaving wasn’t off the table.

Nike’s mouth opened up to talk, but right as it did someone elses words just broke through. To the left, he heard a voice say, “So we should just follow what you say, right?”

Normally Flame would’ve loved a challenge. But this voice spoke with confidence, and a little too much venom. He said as he turned,

“What was that?--”

The moment those words left his lips Flame felt something immediate.

Regret.

While he wasn't tall by any stretch of the imagination, Flame’s hairs stood on end the minute the two made eye contact. Clots, sticky wet and black balls rolled down slid out from the man’s ichor and traced down his form. He watched the monster known as Shoji smile almost sadistically as he realized what Flame had done. It was a face the boy was all too familiar with. It was one he made very frequently.

Flame tensed up as the Oni approached him. His shadow stretched so far back and became so long that it looked almost like a cape. The wispy shadows that streamed off him, the popping sounds of the creepy shadow cracking its neck and fingers, and the wind that began to heat up around them.

Flame felt his hairs stand on end as the shadows permeated the ground and stretch into a wide circle around the two of them. Then, gasps. Sounds. Laughs. Voices. In different tones, accents, gruff ones, soft one’s, behind his ear, in front of his head, under him. Flame could swear he could feel, breathing.

He’ll get you.

Ohhh~ You did it now!

HAHAHAAHHAHAHAAHAAAHA

Another one for the pile aye.

CRUSH. TEAR. RIP.

Show your blessing sir. Show them it!

He’s just trying to scare you. Flame thought. But as they stood chest to chest Flame’s bravado began to unravel as quickly as the sounds got louder. He had done it. He had angered a force that he truly couldn’t meet head on. Something that he was now realizing, was his worst fear.

An unwinnable opponent. A being beyond him. Beyond the blessing.

An evolution. An existence like Nike, Flame figured it out.

An evolution.

“So, we should just follow what you say, right?” He had nothing to say. Flame didn’t respond and shut his mouth for the first time in his life. The voices kept up their whispering and made him almost cock his fist back, but he stopped himself.

They aren’t real. He tried to repeat, but he almost jumped as he felt something cold swim through his leg. They made him feel–No, the ghosts weren’t what made him feel weak.

It was hard to hear, but around it he started to hear it. His pen members losing their resolve. Seeing someone like him crumble like this, he watched their once rowdy, rebellious and resolute personalities die down into nothing. He stared at the adult with a look that could kill, but said nothing. “Hmm. Well, if you’re not going to respond…” He looked at the rest of the pen, “This is who you are listening to. This weak, sniveling, child who can’t even stand truly stand up for what he believes in.”

“That’s not!—” Blood dribbled down Flame’s neck as the sword was held to it.

“Quiet.”

The voices began to rise and rouse around him. Beginning to mock him before Shoji even could. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

What a foolish idiot~

Hehehe yes! Idiot, Idiot, Idiot.

HAH

AHA

AHA

HAA

Almost deafening. Almost too much.

Flame stared at Shoji and watched the oni turn around and begin to continue his beratement of the small imp. That. That moment of weakness. That was when he began to feel the fire begin to funnel into his hands.