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Starvation March
Chapter 16: Broken heart

Chapter 16: Broken heart

[Alysha's Pov]

I spent the night having fun with bandits. I even told them that if they can kill each other then I'll let one live. They readily began killing each other until only one idiot remained. I said "Oh, my hero~ Come, let me show you the way to freedom!" Then bound his arms and legs, cut off his tongue and used my finishing move 'The kiss that kills'. It's quite fun seeing their confused, followed by shock and horror. It makes me quite~ satisfied, and I never get bored of it.

I also spent the night trying to figure out my affinity. I'm not quite sure what it does, but I did notice that I would sometimes simply look up and stare at the moon unconsciously. Ever since I read 'Moon affinity' on the crystal, I felt a connection to it. It's a very hard feeling to describe, it's like something that has always been in the closet but you only found now.

The halfling girl was able to grow the tree, and she probably didn't start that much sooner then me, so I know I can do it, but it's just very hard. 

As the sun was appearing in the sky, I was finally able to understand a portion of my affinity. It let's me use the moon's powers as my own and exploit them. The moon is but a reflection that can be shattered when the sun appears, so my power has something to do with reflections... It's just hard to figure out.

I cleaned my room from all the blood and proceeded to go downstairs. The professor was already there cooking breakfast, which I think looks like scrambled eggs with... vege...ta...bles... Ugh, please no! Anything but that! My cat-like mind and body will break if I eat that stuff! Green is bad, red is the best!

The professor notices my arrival and calls out to me "I don't want to know what happened tonight judged on the screams coming from your room. At least please don't traumatize the kids." I giggle a bit at him as I sit down on the table and flick my tails out of the way. I simply say "Oh don't worry professor. I'm not as heartless as you might think. After all, I make sure to eat a couple of healthy hearts a day..." I trail off as the professor turns and looks at me with a look that screamed 'That wasn't funny'.

"... So not only are you a complete monster, you're also a man-eating monster?" I simply nod and say "Well, for me there is no true difference between mankind and beasts. They both have lives, they both think for themselves and they both try to live their life. Tell me, why do humans shun 'monsters'? That's because they're stronger then them and thus exploit them. I'm not even human, so it can't even be called cannibalism." I say and look at a stupid-faced professor.

"Whatever. I'm not risking an argument with you. Just let my students be." Hey, I take offense in that!

"Just so you know, I'm a student as well with the certificate signed by your own hands, so treating me like this won't do you know, I'm quite welcomed amongst royalty, and if I were to ask them to punish you for treating me like this, or even just me punishing you myself, probably won't end well for you. So, be a good professor and treat me nicely!" I say with a happy smile at the end, while the professor simply facepalmed himself.

I then sit down near the table and say "Neeh~ prof, can I have some food? I'm still hungry you know~?" I hear him mumbling about things like him having problematic students this year but I decide to ignore it.

After 20 minutes or so, the Idiots and the Pervert arrive. They all had bags under their eyes and refused to even just look at me. Since nobody was saying anything I decide to say "So~ How was your nigh? Did you guys have fun togheter? I sure had. Too bad my friends left a bit too quickly though..." Nobody answered me, so I also add "... Do you want me to go do my own things outside tonight?" They all furiously nod at that. 

Sighing, I get up and leave them. There's no point of hanging out with normal people after all, i'm just too strange for them.

Once outside, I sit down near the tree and look at the groups of students training. How wonderful for them~. They're not mindless killing machines and can actually enjoy their life... Good for them. It's not like I care, after all, my life is perfect. It's not like I care that every person I come across runs away from me just because of what I am.

Totally not in a fit of rage, My tails accidentally smash into the tree, breaking it in two. Ops, I guess I'll have to ask that halfling to regrow this. How bothersome... Oh, I accidentally kicked it and sent it flying up and crashing into a building. Nobody saw that~

I swiftly run away and leave by climbing up the wall. I think there was some sort of detection signal that activated, but I simply ignore it and run towards the forest. 

Once there, I simply let go of all of my frustration accumulated over the past months. I know that I'm a monster. I know that I have no friends. I know there's thousands who want me dead or worst. I know I'm not truly 14. I know that I enjoy torturing people. Why can't there be someone who ignores all of that and accepts me for who I am?!

I start smashing trees left and right, bulldozing my way through the forest. I think I can see animals running away the moment they see me. I single-mindedly destroy everything like a tornado for hours, until I reach a bandit looking camp, and see all of them scurrying towards me with weapons drawn. They pale when they see my furious face destruction behind me.

I simply roar out my anger and pounce at them. I tear them all apart and kill most of them in the most brutal ways I can imagine. After destroying their entire camp and even ripping their tents apart, I steal all of the shiny things that catch my eye and then simply proceed in my fit of rage. I think it took me 6 hours and 2 other bandit camps to pent out enough anger to calm down. Nobody survived, which is kind of sad considering I usually free the slaves held captives. Looks like I confused them for bandits...

I spent yet another hour silently crying to myself in the middle of the last bandit's camp I came across. And it just had to be my rotten luck that a group of teachers just had to follow me. I was simply too mentally tired to bring myself to care about them, and simply kept crying, not even looking up.

[Professor's Pov]

I was having breakfast and the little monster had just left, when I suddenly hear something crushing down, followed by another giant crashing sound. I ran outside with my other students to see the monster girl having first broken, then somehow kicked the tree away and made it slam into a nearby building. I'm gonna be responsible for this ain't I...

I don't see her anywhere, but the school's alarm set on all teachers rings in my mind. This means that somebody had either just entered or left the school from the walls. I can only think of one person who would do that right now... 

I tell my students to go do something productive and I quickly run toward the teacher's gathering point for events like this; the principal's building. 

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

When I arrive, I immediately say that I have an idea of who it was. After explaining, me, the principal and 3 of the strongest teachers decide to follow her and check what she's up to. 

What followed was tremendous. Trees were destroyed left and right. Some were slashed cleanly in half, others smashed to pieces, some were torn off the ground and used as hammers on other trees. 

I knew she was strong, but this was quite insane. The trail kept going and going, until we arrived at a camp, which I can assume were once bandits. 

Everything was destroyed. There were innards, heads, limbless bodies scattered everywhere, and not a single sound could be heard. Not even the tents were spared. We hold back our urge to puke and keep following her trail. We come across another bandit camp, were the bodies were all tied up in a neat line, and all had their heads missing. 

Finally, from when the chase started to when we finally found her, it overall took 6 hours. And when we did find her, The show was quite suprising. 

She was standing in the middle of the camp, her clothes so bloody they were red, and she was simply crying. I looked at the principal for what to do, but he seemed just as lost as me. I think he expected to find her laughing maniacally or something, like the rumors say she always does, and like she did during the night.

We kept our distance. I think she noticed us, but simply didn't care enough. We all looked at the principal for what to do. It must be hard to be the one to make decisions.

It's obvious that we have no chance against her if we wanted to fight her. If being the key word, she technically didn't do anything against the law by killing bandits, and the trees can regrow. And even if we were to fight her, I heard that she once fought against two hundred assassins alone and came out without a scratch. Some even say she's actually an SSS-rank, which are essentially people of legends. 

"Uh, can you tell us what happened here?" The professor asks, trying to break the ice. She stops crying for a second and finally looks at us. Her face was... A complete mess. Blood mixed with tears stained her face, and her red eyes didn't complement well in the picture, she looked like a complete monster, but at the same time looked like a broken girl. I think I might know what's going on...

"... P-please l-leave. I don't want anyone, I DON'T WANT ANYONE NEAR ME!" Her attitude turns upside down and she screams out in rage, before breaking down even more then before. She gets up, still crying, and jumps away, immediately breaking the sound barrier and disappearing from our view. Holy shit she's fast!

Since there were no broken trees to follow this time, We had to rely on our tracker skills to find her again. We once again found her crying, but this time she was high up on a tree. I don't know how she does it, but she can climb trees faster then anything I've ever seen, and I wouldn't dare disbelieve that she can jump from tree to tree too.

We try calling out to her, but she doesn't answer. I wonder why we are even doing this. Perhaps for the safety of the students? Or maybe we just feel bad for her. I for once never learned her name when people told me about her, all they kept saying was 'Bloody Cat' or other weird nicknames. It was only when she introduced herself that I learned it. It must be quite awful that people only know you because of a weird nickname and for things you did. I guess her case is a bit extreme. I for my part never saw her talking to another student willingly, except with the 'Hero', but even then it felt somewhat forced. 

The principal tried to climb up the tree, but she simply shouted "G-go aw-away!" but didn't run away this time. We followed the principal up the tree and finally reached her. She was on a large branch, in the same exact position as in the bandit camp. She was sitting down, holding her knees and her face buried in them. 

"... Can't you tell us what's wrong?" The principal tried calming her down, but she simply shouted again "No! Go away! You wouldn't understand, You can't understand!" And went back to crying. I think I have an idea for what's going on. I approach the principal and ask him "Sir, I think I have an idea, but could you please go back to the school and inform everyone that it's fine?" He looks at me for a second, but nods and climbs down along with the 3 other teachers. 

I sit down on the branch and wait for her to finish crying. She didn't show any signs of stopping though so I slowly approach her. I know that what I'm about to do might cost me my life, but I still have my pride as a teacher, and she is a student, even though a bloodthirsty, extremely strong and insane one. 

I sit down next to her. The sun was already three quarters of the way in the sky now. I simply said "The view is beautiful isn't it?"

She didn't lift her head up, but I could hear her crying was reduced to a soft sniffling. I think I've been in a similar situation once before with a student. He was an elf, and his classmates kept bullying him about it. He ended up with a heart-deep buried hatred, and after he released it once on one of his bullies, sending him to the hospital, he cried for hours on end. I had to stay with him for hours to help him finally regain himself.

I stretched out my hand and patted her head a bit. She trembled, but didn't do anything. I kept patting her for five minutes or so, and then caressed her head, combing her long hair. I didn't do anything weird, just simple comforting. 

This makes me a bit nostalgic. I remember my son. He would often break down like this too, even if not to this level. The only difference here is that this is a girl I just met, and potentially the single most dangerous being I ever met. It's quite funny how monsters are the most fragile of beings if you dig deep enough...

"... You don't have to hold every pain for yourself you know? I imagine life must have been and still is hard on you. It's fine to let it out sometimes." I whisper and she begins shivering visibly. I kept caressing her. Her ears felt really nice and fluffy, but I don't dare to abuse the moment for myself.

After a while, she simply begins crying again, maybe even more so then before and starts saying "I-I never asked to be be-become like this. Nobody can understand me... Nobody wants to understand me. They all kept saying I'm a monster, that I should have never have been born. When I thought it was finally over and I could start anew, people shunned me even more! They tried to rape me, kill me, kidnap me! Nobody stopped them just because I'm a demon, and when I killed them they blamed the fault on me! It's not fair!" She kept crying as she said all of this. After a while, she finally calms down and then she falls asleep. Right now, forget about the bloodthirsty monster, she looked more like a broken girl, forgotten by the world. 

I pick her up in a princess carry, and holy shit is she heavy. I wonder where the weight comes from. I'm actually a retired S-rank adventurer, although very few know this, and although I'm not in my prime anymore, I still am a few times stronger then even the principal, otherwise I wouldn't be teaching the Unique Magic class, A.k.a troublemakers class.

After finally climbing down the tree, I begin walking towards the school. Never once did she show signs of waking up, and after 5 hours of running, I finally arrive at the school. I sneak around to avoid being seen like this and arrive at my house/class. I drop her off on her own bed and went downstairs to eat something. 

After having a quick dinner, I went and found the rest of my students all waiting around in the living room. When they see me, they each greet me and ask me what happened. I simply tell them that it wasn't something important in a tone that accepted no further questions, and then began lecturing them on magic theory. As we were all about to leave and go to sleep, we hear footsteps and a bloodthirsty cat appeared. She had giant bags under her eyes and obviously had cried again. 

We all shut up the moment we saw her. I did because of the weird experience from before, the other three probably did due to the fact that she was only wearing a large shirt, and you could see a little bit underneath. She walked over to us and the moment she arrived at the couch she simply slopped down and fell on it. The couch made weird creaking noises but held. She then shot her tails at Sahra, whom was too shocked to defend herself, and pulled her towards her. As I was about to intervene, she just hugged her saying "... You're my hug pillow tonight." and fell asleep. Sahra tried struggling but couldn't even move a centimeter from her place in Alysha's arms. She gave up after a bit and looked at me with pleading eyes.

I just shrugged and went upstairs, ignoring the pleas for mercy coming from the half elf. I had to drag the two males out of the room, as it wouldn't be proper to stay there.

As I fell down on my own bed, I had a simple though. Cats are weird.