Aria: “A… Ah….. N… No... No… What have I...”
Ophelia: “A… Alyandrea...? Alyandrea…? ...Alyandrea?”
As readers, as watchers… we tend to form these misconceptions based on our overactive emotions.
"You should have just attacked.”
“If that was me, I would not have screamed. You stay quiet if there are enemies nearby.”
“Why was she refusing to fight?? She’s POWERFUL! They’re villains! Just crush ‘em!”
“Their hesitation is rather annoying.”
...etc.
This may not apply to EVERYBODY, however it’s a common annoyance when characters don’t fit you’re ideal expectations nor abide by your desired outcome. Nor when they don’t fit our association with the word ‘realistic’...
But do please remember: These children are not heroes. They never attended this school to win a fight. Some wished to train and move up the ranks, but most of the current non-combatant students only want the school to equip them with the right tools necessary to complete a job for people like THEM: Where they can peacefully help people without violence or bloodshed befalling them.
Most of the non-combatants don’t wish to fight or even MEET with villains. They are the closest to ‘normal, everyday citizens’. Such students are like Ophelia, Aria, Leos, Oliviera, Wayne and even Ian!
In regards to Ophelia’s strength...How in the world is she supposed to punch someone she can’t see, and isn’t entirely certain is an enemy? Maybe others have no problem pulling off such a feat…
but not her.
These children scream out of a natural base reaction to danger. A survival method to sharpen their individual focus by drawing collective attention to their deduced ‘threat’, and potentially preserve their own life by seeking out help from others within their current environment.
Yes...a natural reaction…
It’s just a shame that nobody was around to save them, save for the villains themselves.
The other problem for this natural distress signal requesting assistance, was actually, in fact, ‘3’ herself. The woman codenamed ‘3’, is a cannibal. She kills to find pleasure and loves to find pleasure in another’s suffering. She doesn’t murder for joy by utilizing ‘ordinary’ methods though.
3 has a terrible habit: Akin to devouring a juicy coconut – one freshly cracked after toiling labor had been devoted to the outer shell’s destruction, she finds intense delectation in ‘hunting’ those that need defending. The thrill of teetering her life on the line against hordes of enemies: sneaking past them or outright obliterating everyone in an attempt at feasting upon that which was supposed to have been carefully guarded, fully enthralled the woman. Just the thought of consuming these children while hundreds, no, maybe even thousands of heroes if counting the city as a whole, assumed that their precious new addition: their ‘treasure’ of students were safe and sound – all while she was gorging and feasting upon their blood and flesh…
Thoughts like this...enraptured her.
Ophelia: “I...I should’ve-
.
.
I should have been more proactive...I should’ve...”
3: “Awww, how cute of you to beat yourself up over your friend~!”
*SPLATTER!*
3: “Would you like to meet her? Eeheehee~”
Ophelia: “Should have be—huh..??”
*SWISH!* - *SWISH!!*
A cold sensation overcame her, it was a minimal feeling, as thin as a needle, but it terrified her nonetheless. This feeling… was it the same feeling that she always brought forth unto others? Was this...how they all felt at the height of her punch?
*SWISH!* *SPLATTER!*
Was...no. IS... this a form of retribution? For the fear she most likely instilled into Harvey? For the PAIN she most definitely injected into his proud physique..?
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...Is this retribution...for rejecting Alyandrea’s plea for help and watching her die?
...If only….
Ophelia: “If only...I could...”
*SPLATTER!* *SPLURT!*
Aria: “OPHELIA!!”
Ophelia: “...!!! Aah...Aria… What’s-”
*SLICE!*
Ophelia: “!!!”
*TRRR—RRRRIPP!*
That cold sensation grew larger until a new feeling stacked alongside it. An electrical sensation that almost made her think she had shoved her entire left arm into a wall socket. Then, she felt a familiar wet sensation: once she never wanted to again, experience drenching her clothes.
Afraid to look down, but forced to nonetheless from the shock of these, newly inflicted emotions – she noticed a tremendous quantity of blood, splattered over her clothes, the floor, a long, thin metallic whip that was slowly being retracted by their adversary as she moans: and a short, frail girl in glasses shivering as she tightly grips something that strongly resembled an arm…
Wait. An...
an arm…?
As Ophelia felt her now stump of a shoulder, she began to notice one thing.
What lay below it was nothing more than air.
As the Gargantuan gal felt a sticky, red substance drench her entire rightside, and SAW Aria, who also happened to be soaked in blood, holding onto something weirdly familiar: The empty air below her shoulder’s stump helped Ophelia to piece together the identity of that “thing” her fragile friend was shakily hugging – what it was became incredibly obvious now.
Her arm had been severed.
Ophelia: “Aah—AAAAAHHH!! AAAAAH!”
3: “Mmm~ This blood...how….unique heehee! I think I’ll let you two…..drain a bit more before I help myself to this one~
The woman before them dressed in an office worker’s outfit flicked her long red hair behind her shoulders before wiping the excess drool leaking out due to her salivating. Her partner, 2, was dressed in all black and sported a unique hairdo where his long, dark brown hair stood completely up, almost like tall grass in an unkempt lawn.
He kept laughing while admiring his double Katars drenched in blood. Below 3’s hand rested the hilt of a crimson-stained whip, but after retracting it completely, the whip seemed to magnetize around the blood-soaked metal disc she fired through Alyandrea’s neck.
These two monsters didn’t seem the least bit remorseful. Ophelia didn’t know what to do – but one thing was certain…
they needed to get out of there!
She grasped a bundle of dumbbells with her single good arm and chucked them all at the two happy killers. Like a machine gun, she made the area above the duo rain with single-handed weights. They grew startled once she actually moved. At first, they were slipping into complacency. She just ALLOWED them to remove one of her arms! Doesn’t that seem a little too stupid? Did she not feel how tough it was for them, to the point that both had to use their weapons together while focusing on a single area of her arm JUST to barely cut the appendage off.
Nevertheless, they weren’t scared. From the very beginning, they’d been fully prepared for a battle against that semi-powerful punch from back at the stadium. If she couldn’t do THIS much, they’d feel embarrassed for being so cautious.
Ophelia took Aria, who was still frozen and in shock from the unexpected situation to move properly, and jumped through the wall, leading her directly in front of the barrier that separated both gender dorms in the center part of the first floor within their ‘H’ shaped building.
Funnily enough, if they had just turned around...they would have spotted two familiar faces, carrying a bloodied comrade side by side, as piles of machinery cluttered the floor.
...
The moment Ophelia relaxed her legs and slid softly against the barrier, a vibrating *HUM* resounded, and a series of *CLANK!*’s echoed loudly off of the walls and into both of their ears.
3 utilized her metallic whip to smash each one of those dumbbells away from she and 2. The swift movement of her superior strength enhanced wrists danced against the cluster of deadly exercise equipment. Once she notice the two of them were safe, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief...only to purse out a sharp *Tsk!* upon losing sight of the two kids.
But it was a no brainer where they disappeared to.
...After all, there was only ONE hole in the wall…
After coming close to the hole, 3 found her two baby calfs huddled against the barrier. Ophelia immediately lifted Aria up and ran forward through the hall,attempting to use her leg strength to dash right past them – but she fell.
Because she had been bleeding nonstop ever since she lost her arm, threq hundreds of dumbbells, used force to both break through the wall that, for some reason, would NOT activate its rune protections, and then again, to dash through the hallway…
3: “Aww, she fell…”
2: “Kehehe, the struggle is over, the chase is over, the mission will now be over. OH! Looks like 5 and 6 are rapping up too! Hey~ *Waves* I don’t see 5, but 6 looks mad. Kehehehe.”
Her hand gripped ever so tightly that even her durable skin began to bleed – unfortunately that’s all she could manage to do. Her right arm simply would not budge.
Ophelia felt like crying now, because she slightly regretted her inaction prior to this. Even if she didn’t fight – she could still run with everyone or prevent Aria from screaming out of shock! If only she could move her arms! If only...she didn’t space out brooding over those memories...it… it WAS painful.. and it still IS painful...but if she could have just ONE do-over...just one single redo….
If somebody could let her have one wish...just redo so that she could release a single punch against this disgusting couple ...then she…
...She knows that ONE single punch is all she would need to end everyone’s suffering.
Both Noel’s words of encouragement, telling her that her strength could transform her into a useful hero...and Ms. Daisy’s words of hope: the speech that not only filled her with hope, but truly hoped for her to achieve happiness and to find a sense of unity with her power…
...Both were about to vanish.
Ophelia: “How...unfair… *Sniff* Please…”
3: “Heeheehee! Don’t worry I’ll end your suffering now~ Although, I don’t really know if those muscles of yours are edible or not~ I’ll soon FIND OUT!”
Ophelia: “Please *Sniff* anybody...anybody at all… please… let me try again…! At least...At least *Sniff* allow me to move my right arm…”
2: “Kehehehe! She’s crying, big sister. It looks like she’s ‘ripe’ for plucking!”
Ophelia: “Aria...please… at least you...need to run…”
But Aria didn’t respond.
Was it due to shock? Or perhaps it was her overwhelming fear in the face of such gruesome actions? Maybe the death of Alyandrea and Ophelia’s helpless plight triggered her brain to temporarily shut down?
Or maybe she froze due to the realization that she was going to die very soon.
Ophelia didn’t know. All she could see on her friend’s face was a strange pair of irises, shine as brightly as newly born stars.
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