Raiden Alaric
What do I do?
I'm just sitting here on the floor panting. I swear I broke a few ribs. It's hard to breathe and I can't lift my arm properly. My head is also pounding as if I attempted to challenge a mountain goat to see who has the harder head. Now I'm going to have to take the walk of shame back home to try and give my parents an explanation as to how I ended up with blood on my clothes and broken bones. I think my shoulder is dislocated as well. I don't think falling down stairs is convincing enough. I can't necessarily tell the truth. Just go ‘Hey I just had a brawl with 3 classmates’ and expect a calm response. It's not even for my sake, it's for theirs. If my mom found out that they... yeah let's just not think about it.
Hm?
My left eye is kind of swollen now that I think about it.
Ah man... my pants are wet.
NO NO, I didn't piss myself. I'm just sitting in a puddle. It's a puddle. I swear, it had rained earlier. I honestly would just start heading home and bite the bullet with my mother's wrath but... yeah no I can't get up. Trust me, I tried twice, and the third time was not the charm. Plus, this is a nice wall I lay on. It has all the nice clean bricks for me to admire. This concrete floor, all the wet puddles and dog shit I could desire. It could all be yours for the low low price of $1,200 a month before taxes and fees. Yes sir, that employee of the month title is mine, suck it Arnold, whoever you are. I don't know, it just seems like the name of someone who would be trying to rent out this corner. Sorry Arnold, nothing personal just trying to laugh the pain away.
Ahaha.
"Yo, kid you breathing?" I heard someone calling out to me, at least I think it's to me. I look up and see a man standing in front of me. He walks over to me and squats down in front of me, "You need me to call someone or should I just take you to a hospital?"
I mumbled incoherently, still trying to get my bearings, "I'm not sure, just a dude sitting here after attempting to defend myself from 3 guys. Clearly I'm all good to go, I'm just sitting here to enjoy the nice smells."
The stranger scratches his chin, "Ah, is that so." He turns around looking around the area, "Although to be honest, I personally wouldn't call it an 'attempt'."
Blinking hard, the scene before me came into focus. Looking over his left shoulder I see a yellow wall that has a few blood stains splattered across it. Looking down the wall there is a bunch of trash lying around, more blood stains, and... oh. There are 2 guys just chilling with me. 2 bodies lay strewn across the dim, debris-filled alley. The first was sprawled face-down, arms stretched out mid-fall. The second slumped against a dumpster, head lolled at an unnatural angle against his shoulder and, is that vomit in his lap? Looking to my right I see one more lay unmoving on his back, shirt stained with blood. All three looked battered and bruised almost beyond recognition.
Who jumped these guys?
They are the victims here damn, look at this guy's leg, it's facing the wrong way. Wait are they... oh wait no, I see their chests moving, they're alive.
The stranger kept speaking, "You know, even though you look almost as bad as they do, I think you should pat yourself on the back for winning a 1v3."
Looking up at him quickly I sputtered, "Huh?" That was a mistake, my vision begins to get blurry as the pounding of my head increases.
I did this? Did I fight these guys?
I can't believe it, there's no way. I've never had any sort of training to be capable of fighting 3 different people.
This... has to be... a mistake...
My head begins to spin as I try to recall what happened. No wait, I did do this, but-.
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"Uh oh, he's about to go lights out." I try to respond to the stranger, but no such luck. "Okay kid, just rest up I'll take it from here."
How did I get here again? Oh yeah. These were my last thoughts before my eyes closed.
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I look up at the sky, closing my eyes, I feel the warmth of the summer sun. Not sure how long that will last however, I can spot some clouds moving in.
Ah, finally, freedom.
Taking a nice deep breath of fresh air I let my shoulders relax. Yeah, smells like it's going to rain soon. Putting those thoughts aside I just bask in the glory of freedom. Classes are over, school is out for summer, and I have 3 months to pretend I don't have to return. Luckily I managed to pass all my classes, otherwise I wouldn't survive my mother's wrath. She dotes on me a lot but when I do something such as, get low grades or watch a rated R movie without permission, I'm shown no quarter. My little sister will never understand.
I'm paving the way for you young one. So you better be grateful. At least Dad will let it slide every now and then.
Now I get to use my time to think about what I want to do with my free time. Maybe now I can finally spend some time to finish Final Fantasy. I would have finished it but Mom caught me up late at night so I had the unfortunate end result of her taking the console away until my classes were over. Well, I'm sure she'd have no issue with me playing for 6 hours straight since there's no homework needing to be done, or any school I need to wake up for.
My train of thought was interrupted when I noticed some students a year older than me running around with a notebook throwing it back and forth between them. I was confused as to why they were doing that until I saw a girl chasing after the book they were tossing around.
Hmm, what to do, what to do?
I could go get a teacher, or I could try and help her get the book so she feels as if there is some form of help. It's not like I have a better chance of getting it than she does, I'm just as small. Besides, I shouldn't get involved in such a cliche trope, I have dreams and I'm not looking to shorten my lifespan so soon.
Wait, this is it. I help the girl, after taking a pretty decent beating, gain a potential friend in the process and everyone has a great day.
Is what I would like to hype myself to do but I don't like pain, I hesitate to pop my own fingers for crying out loud. Not worth it.
Speaking of teachers, where are they? I know they are out here often, so why today of all days they decide to not be here. This is when I noticed the emblem on their coats. Ah, now I see why they wouldn't even if they were here. The fact that there is an emblem at all on their coats is another good reason not to get involved. Anyone who has an emblem embroidered on their clothing is either from a family sect or has had an awakening evaluation from the Ascendants Association. Meaning they have power in family connections or they might have already awakened and will be joining an academy.
It was at this moment when one of the students in question was about to catch the book but he missed catching it. The girl notices this and begins to reach for it as she runs, only for the guy to then trip her making her fall face-first into a tree. I winced at the sight because I heard the impact and it did not sound any better than it looked. Okay listen, I may be a wuss, but watching it all unfold got me pretty upset. I may have been trying to stay out of it but this was too far. I was about to run over to help her up to see if she was okay, but I saw one of them grab his head and bend over and yell out, "Agh!"
What happened?
Why is he acting like... a rock... This was when I noticed that I was finishing a throw.
What?
My body has betrayed me. After all, we've been through... I could cry after this sign of mutiny. My own body which I have full rights to, had the audacity to move before I could process let alone think about what I wanted to do. I just wanted to go over to the poor girl and see if she's okay but why am I suddenly using my turn to use the 'Throw Rock At Ugly Dude's Head' action? I didn't even get to quicksave before this interaction.
Stop it with the stupid thoughts... Damn it I need to get out here.
That was what I was thinking until I noticed I had already picked up another rock off the ground and thrown it at the same guy. Surprisingly I hit him in the head again making him fall to his knees.
Damn, I should consider baseball with a throw like that, maybe try out for track and throw a javelin.
Right after that thought came across my head it occurred to me that now isn't the time to stroke my ego for my god-like aim. So I did the most logical thing one does when trying to de-escalate a situation when facing a possible beating. I ran away like a little bitch~.