The alarm blaring at seven in the morning is consensually thought to be an annoyance by most members of society. Ren agreed with that consensus wholeheartedly. To Ren, being torn from that enchanting warmth and clear mindedness was something to anguish over, especially on days in which he had to go to school.
Ren opened his eyes and stared at his ceiling. He stared at it for a few seconds until he came to the realization that this -- this very day -- happened to be one of those days that filled him with anguish. He sat up in his bed and did what needed to be done: he reached over and smashed the button to stop the pain called an alarm. Ren then stood up and prepared to get ready for school.
This morning was actually more dreadful than school mornings usually were for Ren because today just so happened to be the first day of his second year of high school; or said clearly, it means that summer break was finally over. This meant that he would have to go back to his boring life of sitting in a classroom everyday, listening to the teachers teach their boring subjects. The only bright side was the fact that he would be stuck in those boring classes along with his friends. As Ren looked up at the bathroom mirror in front of himself, he thought the words: "Today's going to be incredibly boring isn't it," and then let out a sigh. Although unbeknownst to Ren, starting today... he was never going to be able to call his life boring ever again.
Ren walked out the front door of his house with his backpack on his back, packed with all the essentials he needed for school, and immediately turned around to lock the door before he set out. Ren had failed to see that his best friend, Tye Ferris, was waiting on the sidewalk in front of Ren's house.
Ren was caught off guard when Tye exclaimed, "Good morning, Ren!" Ren flinched at the unexpected sound of his best friend's voice. After turning the key to lock his door, Ren turned around and greeted Tye.
"Good morning, Tye. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you already be on your way to school?" Ren walked over to the sidewalk and stood next to Tye.
"Isn't it obvious?" Tye asked, "It's the first day of school. I had to make sure you actually woke up on time."
"Woke up on time? What do you take me for, some kind of delinquent?"
"You were late the first day last year, and you were late so many times that our homeroom teacher expected you to be late; he was surprised when you were actually on time."
"Eh, my grades were still fine." Ren yawned.
"You should take school more seriously. You're smart, if you would just pay attention and listen to class you'd be up there at the top of the class with me."
"Nah, it's too boring. I can't. Maybe if the teachers put more effort into making class entertaining rather than just regurgitating the information they read from the textbooks I'd be able to pay attention. The way things are, I just can't be bothered."
Ren and Tye continued to argue with each other, just as they had been doing for as long as they'd known each other. Tye was the son of a family friend and was Ren's friend for as long as he could remember. With dark black hair, blue eyes, and an ever so apparent high intelligence, Tye was known to the people around him as the cool intellect. Ren on the other hand, with blond hair, and light green eyes was known as the brawn of the duo. Together, the two were well known throughout each of the schools they attended; Tye was known for his intelligence and Ren was known for his cool attitude and looks. The duo formed by Ren and Tye was expanded upon once the two entered high school when they added the notorious Steven Alystia to the group. In the days before he became a part of their group, a rumor had spread around the school that Steven -- despite his cool, reserved appearance with his unique spiky, silver hairstyle -- was actually a delinquent who had gone far enough to attempt murder during his middle school days. In the days following, the other students were shocked to see Ren and Tye talking to Steven. Eventually the rumor of Steven being a delinquent was quelled, but in the end Steven and his serious attitude only added another notorious candidate to the duo. Then finally, a girl was added to their ranks by the name of Terra Lanon. Added to the group a week before Steven was Terra, who was known throughout the school as one of the most beautiful girls in the school and the news that she had joined Ren and Tye's friend group only made the rest of the boys in the school have a reserved hatred for the boys in the group. With a group of four so infamous, they had a great many encounters with a lot of peculiar situations…
"Oh yeah, Ren. I just thought of something I saw yester--" Tye was cut off from speaking because Terra -- from seemingly out of nowhere -- had jumped on Ren's back and nearly knocked him over.
Ren stood straight up, blushing. "Where did you come from!" he exclaimed as he looked over his shoulder to see Terra's face beaming at him. She hopped off of Ren's back. Ren watched as her golden hair glimmered in the sunlight.
"You're going to give him a heart attack if you do that, Terra." Steven said as he caught up to the group.
"HUH, where'd YOU come from?!" Ren exclaimed.
"A heart attack? Ren's not old enough for that to happen." Terra retorted.
Steven sighed, "That's not quite what I meant."
"Hey!" Ren yelled out. Steven and Terra looked at him. "I asked you two where you came from!" Ren pointed at them.
"I came from my house, obviously." Steven replied as he began to walk past Ren.
"What -- no, I meant how'd you magically catch up to us?!" Ren inquired.
Tye stood there with a broken smile on his face as he watched Ren's confusion. There was no way he could tell Ren about what he saw now that he had gone off on some wild tangent.
"Oh, so we're magic now? Hey Steven, did you know we're magic?" Terra joked.
"Oh, we are?" asked Steven, still continuing to walk ahead.
"Hey come on, there's no way you could be magic! Don't be ridiculous!" Ren exclaimed, as he ran after Steven.
"But you were the one who called us magic in the first place." Steven retorted, continuing the joke.
Tye smiled after looking at his friends having a good time, but he really wished he could've told Ren what he saw. Tye ran after the three who had begun to walk ahead.
Upon reaching the school gate, Steven had stopped in his tracks. Ren, who was walking next to Steven, stopped along with Steven for the same reason. Standing in front of the school gate was someone they both knew very well: the infamous bully, Jonathan. Jonathan's appearance was one that could be noticed from a mile away for he was the kid with pitch black hair and wore a worn down uniform that looked like he had just pulled it out of a fire. He had another student pinned to the wall next to the gate and was saying who knows what in order to scare the student for fun, one of his favorite pastimes.
"He's at it again." Steven muttered with a scowl on his face.
"Yeah." Ren said quietly as he looked at Steven to say, "let's go put a stop to it!"
"Of course." Steven replied. The two briskly walked over to Jonathan, Tye and Terra following behind the two.
"Hey." Steven called out to Jonathan from behind. Jonathan turned around with his dead looking eyes that were probably about as dead as his personality. He stared at Steven and then grinned.
"Well, well, well -- if it isn't the old misfit. How're you doing old friend?" Jonathan asked Steven.
"Friend? I'd rather be torn to shreds than be your friend." Steven responded to Jonathan. "Hey, you," Steven looked at the student cowering behind Jonathan, "go on ahead." Steven motioned with his hand for the student to go on. The student nodded his head and ran through the school gate.
"Not my friend? That's a bit harsh Steven, we have a history together don't we?" Jonathan asked.
"I wouldn't call that kind of history a friendship." Steven responded. Jonathan turned to Ren.
"And you." Jonathan paused. "What are you doing here?"
"Well I just happened to be passing by, because -- you know -- this is a school I go to after all," Jonathan began to frown, "and I saw a delinquent pinning a student against the front gate, so I thought to myself, 'Oh, someone should help that student from that delinquent,' so I walked over to said delinquent, and do you know what he did?" Jonathan's anger was written all over his face. The tone of Ren's sentence was filled with mockery, and what made it worse was that Jonathan knew he stood no chance against Ren in a fight so all he could do was accept the mockery and forget his anger. "Do you know what I did? I laughed at how miserable a person like him could be!" Jonathan threw a right hook. Ren, expecting the punch, easily dodged to the left and suckerpunched Jonathan in the gut. Jonathan fell onto his knees, gasping for breath. "And that's called walking into a trap." Ren said calmly. "Of course I knew that'd set you off. You think you're above everyone else in the world, but you're not, and you act out because you won't accept that. This is your last warning," Ren looked down at Jonathan with the most fierce face Steven had ever seen from him, "cut it out." Ren regained his composure and began to walk into the school gate. Steven, Terra, and Tye began to follow.
"That was pretty cool." Steven said to Ren. "I wish I could've been the one to put him in his place like that."
Ren frowned. "We'll see. If he accepts what I told him and reflects on it maybe he can change, but types like him typically tend to ignore any advice and become even more of a problem. Not to mention that I don't think that's really the problem with him."
"Not the problem?" Terra questioned. "I think it's pretty obvious that's the problem. His targets have typically been the students that stand out among the rest."
"Logically speaking all of his past actions would tend to point that way, and logically speaking we could come to the conclusion that he's acting out because he wants to feel more in power than he is, but…" Ren trailed off. Instead of saying this to the others he chose to consider it in his head. "But, there's the chance he's evil at heart. Taking into account all of his actions -- yes, he could be doing this for the reason we've concluded, but not all of his actions point to our conclusion. For example, why go after the smaller targets if he wants to feel powerful? If he wants to feel the most powerful then he would go after the biggest targets and ignore the smaller ones and yet he chooses not to. The number of variables to count for are more than there should be and that makes any logical conclusion hard to ascertain. Saying he's bad at heart is probably the hardest conclusion to come by because there's no science that can tell if someone is evil or not, but without substantial evidence to rule it out the possibility will always remain and it is something that should be considered, especially given some of his previous behaviors." Ren continued to drown himself in his own thoughts throughout the school day, choosing to ignore his classes just as he had talked about doing earlier when he was speaking to Tye.
At the end of the day Ren went into the hallway to gather his things in order to go home for the day. As he was gathering things from his locker Tye walked up beside him. "Are you ready to go?" he asked. Ren looked up at him as he continued to grab things from his locker and shove them into his backpack.
"Yeah, I'll be ready in just a sec." Ren looked back at his locker, continuing to pull things out. Tye stared at Ren and questioned if he should tell him what he saw the other day, even if it was around all of the other students -- but it was in a school, surely no one was paying any attention. Tye began to open his mouth to speak, but then a teacher had walked up to Ren from behind. It was Dr. Tirion, a new teacher.
"Hey, Ren." Dr. Tirion said. "Could I ask you to come talk with me for a bit?"
Ren turned around and looked up at him, "Sure, I've got time."
"Thanks, but this might take a while. If you don't want to you don't have to."
"No, it's fine. All I've got is free time really."
"All right, I'll be waiting at my desk." Dr. Tirion smiled and walked away. Ren turned back to face Tye.
"Sorry, Tye, you should go on ahead."
"Oh, it's okay, Ren... I'll -- I'll just go then."
"See you later then." Ren considered Tye's reaction just then was weird, but he didn't think much about it.
"Yeah, see you later." Tye walked away. Ren had finally finished grabbing the items he needed from his locker and stood up.
"Off to see Dr. Tirion then, I guess."
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Character Files
Protagonist: Ren
Age: 18
Eyes: Green
Hair: Blond
Height: 6' 0''
Outfit: Valenthia High uniform
The Valenthia High uniform is a black, long sleeved shirt with the
Valenthia High emblem on the left side of one's chest. Along the
sleeves is a red line that stretches all the way up to the collar and
wraps around the top of the collar. The uniform also consists of long
black pants and black shoes.
Information: Ren is the center of the group of four friends. At times he is funny and cheerful but knows when to be serious. He's been friends with Tye ever since they were kids; therefore, he trusts Tye with his life.
Ren's best friend: Tye Ferris
Age: 18
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Height: 5' 11'
Outfit: Valenthia High uniform
Information: Ren's childhood friend. Has always been there for Ren when he needed someone. Tends to be more timid than Ren yet still draws attention due to his intelligence, charming looks, and politeness.
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Tye was walking home the way he normally went, which was pretty much a straight shot from the school to his house. Ren, Tye, Terra, and Steven all lived on the same road which was the one road stretching from the school and going deeper into the city. The city, named Kizuna, is one of the most prominent cities in the world, known for being home to the two great rival schools: Lineath High and Valenthia High (Valenthia being the school Ren and his friends attend.) The city is mainly comprised of these two highly acclaimed schools, highly acclaimed not for academics but for the international tradition of what are called SwordTours, tournaments in which opponents face off against each other in formal sword duels. No one knows when this tradition was started or even the history behind why Lineath High and Valenthia High are the two most infamous rival schools in the entire world, but the culture has remained ingrained in society since ancient times.
The city of Kizuna is separated into two halves, each half separated by a large lake called Valedictorian Lake (home to the main stage where SwordTours are held in Kizuna, the Valedictorian Arena). On the western half of Kizuna is the main campus of Lineath: high school and university in the north, one long road stretching from the school's entrance that goes south and eventually leaves the campus and connects both Lineath and Valenthia (each road being called Lineath Road and Valenthia Road respectively), housing for students on the side of the road adjacent to the lake, and on the opposite side of the road is where all the commercial and recreational buildings are located. The structure of Valenthia is the same as Lineath. Then to the south of the campuses the city of Kizuna becomes an actual city; in other words, where all the businesses are.
Tye had been walking down Valenthia Road when he finally noticed that at the next road crossing was Jonathan and a few of his underlings. Tye stopped in his tracks. He remembered the last encounter he, himself, had with Jonathan was a very unpleasant one. Jonathan had cornered him when he was on his own in the school hallway. Jonathan had begun his attempt to make Tye feel intimidated but became increasingly enraged at Tye's lack of fear. Jonathan then grabbed Tye by the throat and began to choke him, all the while going off about how Tye wasn't better than he was. That was when Ren happened to come out of the classroom. Whether it was a coincidence or whether Ren had connected the dots -- Tye and Jonathan are both missing, so something could be wrong -- the answer didn't matter because the result was Ren's fist connecting with Jonathan's jawline. While that situation ended happily for Tye, there was no way that this encounter would end well for Tye. He was now without Ren or Steven to help him and Jonathan was surely plenty pissed off from early in the day when Ren had told him off. Tye knew that he had to avoid catching Jonathan's attention, but it was too late. Jonathan had already noticed Tye and started walking towards him with his lackeys.
Tye turned to his left where there was a small side road that branched off and headed towards the commercial district of Valenthia High's campus. In the middle of the commercial districts of both Valenthia and Lineath was a central park. Tye knew that if he managed to get there then there would surely be people there to help him. Tye ran at full sprint, knowing that being caught could very well end terribly for him. He didn't look back to see if they were following, but somehow he knew they were.
When Tye made it to the park, he looked around for anyone -- anyone that could help him, but there was no one. There wasn't a single person to be seen in the entire park. Tye continued to run, but his pace was slowing. He was the brains of the group, not the athletic one like Ren, Steven, or even Terra. Then, there were suddenly footsteps directly to his right, volume increasing drastically until suddenly -- Boom! The person on Tye's right had tackled him from the side. One of them must have not been following from behind, they probably broke off from the group right at the start and ran to the park. But someone predicting Tye's movements? Maybe Jonathan was smarter than he thought, or maybe Tye's actions were really the only option one could take in his situation.
"That's right! Hold him down!" he heard Jonathan yell at his lackeys. The others had caught up and were now restraining Tye just as Jonathan had ordered. There were four lackeys, the perfect number that allowed each of them to restrain one limb each. Tye continued to struggle against the holds of Jonathan's minions no matter how pointless it truly was. "Hahaha!" Jonathan laughed as he inched closer to Tye. Tye looked up at the approaching Jonathan with disdain. "This will be fun!" Jonathan cried as he gave Tye a right hook, and then another, and another.
"What's the matter, Tye?" Jonathan questioned as he punched Tye again. "Your friend not here to save you this time?" He punched Tye again. "I almost wish you had brought Ren!" He cried out as he punched Tye yet again. "I see you noticed my little friends!" He punched Tye again. "You see. A new year, new classes of people, and I happened to find a few misfits like me." He kicked Tye in the stomach. Tye gasped for air. "With this many people --" he punched Tye again, "-- even Ren would have trouble!" Jonathan put all of his strength into this next punch. Blood was spilling out of Tye's mouth, the sheer amount caused some of the minions to begin to regret their decision to help Jonathan.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I don't know what kinda beef you got with this guy but… ain't he had enough?" One minion questioned.
"Yeah, he's about to pass out from this. I'm sure he's learned his lesson." Said a second.
"Quiet!" Jonathan yelled with a face of intense anger. Jonathan turned to Tye and grabbed him by the throat. "Give me the sword!" he yelled.
"But --" a minion tried to argue but was cut off by Jonathan.
"No! Give me the sword!" One of the minions had a long bag hanging on his back. He took the bag off and gave it to Jonathan.
Jonathan took his hand off Tye and uncovered the sword. He smiled as he looked at its shine in the sun.
"To think that something so dangerous is so ingrained in our world's culture!" Jonathan laughed. He pointed the sword at Tye's throat and asked, "Tye. Do you have anything to say to me?"
"...sto…" said Tye faintly.
"What was that?" Jonathan asked as he raised his hand to his ear.
"Stop… or you'll make Ren a murderer…" Tye trailed off.
Jonathan could no longer contain his rage. "You! You would dare think of someone else in your situation!" Jonathan continued on his self-satisfying rant while Tye trailed off into his own thoughts.
"Ah, this is the worst." Tye thought. "Ren, you were right earlier, I may not have been able to hear you say it but I know what you were thinking. It wasn't that he wanted to feel superior… he was just truly bad at heart. Being able to confirm that? I think what's about to happen here is evidence enough. To be able to go so far without a trace of empathy… is that truly human? No, it's below human. Utteral garbage, that's all this monster is. YES! Yes! A monster! There should be no monsters in this world, such a despicable monster who is incapable of understanding the human heart. He should just disappear…" His thoughts trailed off as the world began to look black.
Jonathan's rant had ended and he had raised the sword. The minions, who only thought Jonathan was using the sword as a threat, now realized his intention was to kill and jumped away from Tye so as to avoid being caught in the strike. The sword had begun to be swing down.
"THEY SHOULD JUST DISAPPEAR!" Tye screamed in his head. He had expected to have been cut in half by Jonathan's sword, but he hadn't felt any pain at all. He opened his eyes and looked back up. He found that suddenly, he was there in the park by himself. "What?" Tye thought. "They just disappeared… they disappeared." Tye's confusion turned into a mad excitement. "Yes! Disappeared! They disappeared! I made them disappear! I'm the one who rid the world of those monsters! Yes! I am the one who can judge those called monsters! I am the one who shall rid the world of monsters and create a world as I see fit!" Tye managed to rise to his feet in his delusions and began to wobble home…
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Ren pulled his key out of his pocket and used it to unlock his front door. As he grabbed his door handle, he began to think about his conversation with Dr. Tirion.
"So what'd you need to talk about, Dr. Tirion. Do you have a question about the school?" he asked.
"Thank you, Ren, but it's a school. As a teacher, there are only so many things I might need to know about a school that aren't self-explanatory." Dr. Tirion noticed that Ren was still standing. "Please, take a seat. This will take a few minutes to talk about." He motioned his hand towards the chair in front of his desk. Ren looked down at the chair and thought that the tone of this conversation was feeling a little too serious. Ren sat down in the chair. "I wanted to ask about a certain student that I know you're quite familiar with." Ren looked at Dr. Tirion and realized why the tone was so serious, for he knew exactly which student he was going to mention.
"Jonathan." Ren said.
"Yes, Jonathan." Dr. Tirion leaned back in his chair. "I bet you're wondering why I would bring him up? Well, I know he happens to be a troublemaker and I know that you are one of the people most experienced with his behavior, seeing as you have -- at multiple times -- come into conflict with Jonathan. I hear that you have saved a great number of students from his antics over the past year you two have been at this school."
Ren looked down at his hands. "Yeah… I've gotten the chance to see just who Jonathan is many times over the past year." Ren's eyes then darted back up to Dr. Tirion. "So, what do you need to know about him? Has he already caused trouble for you on your first day?"
"Ah, from what I can tell he hasn't caused any trouble yet. When he was in my class earlier, while he wasn't paying any attention to class, all he did was sit there with a face that looked incredibly pissed."
"Oh. That's probably from our encounter this morning."
"You've already clashed on your first day back?"
"He was roughing up a student at the front gate, of course I couldn't ignore that."
"I see…" Dr. Tirion sighed as he looked down, seeming a little depressed. Ren noticed that Dr. Tirion appeared a little too interested in a student who had not caused trouble for him yet.
"Why are you so interested in Jonathan?" he asked.
Dr. Tirion looked back up at Ren. "Well, that's a bit of a long story." He leaned back in his chair and began to talk about his past. "I happened to be a friend of Jonathan's mother back in the day. She was a great person who was always cheerful. We worked together at the same job and would often meet each other after work to go grab some drinks and have a chat. When she showed up one day and said she had found a boyfriend, I was a bit… heartbroken. I bet you can tell from that how I felt; nevertheless, I gave her my support. Eventually they got married and moved away. I was happy for them, but I also felt empty on the inside. Part of me hoped that somehow, someway, she and I could still get together, but for that to happen the father would have to disappear somewhere -- but that's just selfish to ask for isn't it; however, not long after I thought that, it happened… just not the way that would end up the way I selfishly hoped for." Dr. Tirion left a brief pause here before he moved onto what had happened. "There was a fire that ended up killing Jonathan's mother and father. The only survivor was Jonathan, still only a small child." Ren was very intrigued by this information, seeing it as another variable that may explain why Jonathan acts the way he does. Was he evil at heart? Was there some feeling of inferiority eating at his heart? Maybe with this information he could come to a conclusion.
"How old?" Ren interrupted.
"Let's see." Dr. Tirion stopped to think. "I think he would've been about four at the time. Why do you ask?"
"Depending on the age, trauma tends to stick with people in different ways because a person's cognitive abilities develop along with the brain. I was just wondering if that traumatic event could be causing his behavior today."
"That's the way I see it. Before the fire, Jonathan's mother had called me a few times to talk for old times sake and each time she would talk about Jonathan. Allow me to tell you two things: one, that I knew his mother very well and that's why I know she would never allow for Jonathan to behave the way he does now; that leads me to my second point, that in those conversations she talked about Jonathan being a joyful child full of energy. It's my belief that his parent's deaths caused something inside him to snap, and that leads us to why he acts out now."
"The answer may be obvious, but even so, would you mind telling me why you came to this school?"
"Yes, obvious indeed isn't it. After many years of regret, I feel like there's something I can do for that child -- no, something I can do for her. That's why I'll free him from the chains of despair that bind him. That way I can repay her for all that she did for me."
Ren smiled. "Well, I'm counting on you doc. One less ruffian means that coming to school will be a little less painful."
"Of course." Dr. Tirion smiled back. "And with that, we're done for today. If I ever need your help, would you be willing to assist in my endeavors?"
"Yeah." Ren stood up and brought his fist to his chest and said, "You can count on me." Ren grabbed the bag he had put down on the floor and began to walk out of the room but stopped when he realized he was missing one important detail. He turned to Dr. Tirion and asked, "I forgot to ask. What caused the fire?"
"That's the thing. They never found out."
Ren was laying down on his bed thinking about the possible causes of a fire, but he could think of none that could leave no evidence. How could there be no evidence? Those words appeared strange to Ren; nevertheless, he fell asleep with those words echoing in the back of his head.
The next day came and Ren, Steven, and Terra gathered together in the cafeteria for lunch break.
"So Tye's not here today." Steven pointed out as he looked at the empty chair sitting at their table.
"Do you think he's sick?" Terra questioned.
"He seemed fine yesterday." Steven responded.
"Hey, Ren," Terra said, "where do you think Tye is?"
"Home obviously." Ren responded, leaning back in his chair. "The question is why. What a normal person would assume is that he's just sick, but…" Ren trailed off as he looked around the cafeteria.
"But a certain someone isn't here as well." Steven finished Ren's sentence for him. Ren nodded his head in response.
"Then we need to go check on him!" Terra interjected.
"Mhm," Ren agreed as he nodded his head, "but if we leave school now and he's just sick do you think the school will accept that we left school to go check on a friend?"
"Even so! We need to go check on him." Terra exclaimed.
"Of course, I feel the exact same way." Ren smiled. "Missing a little bit of school isn't going to hurt. Let's go."
With that, the three left school, walked down Valenthia Road, and arrived at Tye's house. Ren was the one who rang the doorbell, Terra and Steven standing behind him. It didn't take long for Tye to open the door, but Tye didn't open the door all the way. He opened it just enough for Ren to see his face.
"Ren… Steven… Terra." Tye said softly as he scanned the faces at his front door. Ren looked at Tye and studied the condition he appeared to be in. While there appeared to be nothing wrong with Tye physically (as in, wounds from a fight), something appeared to be wrong with him. He had a sort of "sick" look about him that made Ren question if he was actually sick or not.
"We came to see if you were okay." Ren said. "You weren't at school… and Jonathan wasn't there either." Tye appeared to react to the name Jonathan, his eyes opened wide but quickly closed as if to hide his reaction from Ren. "Are you sick?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, I--" Tye stuttered, "I guess I am feeling a little under the weather." Everything about how Tye was acting appeared off to Ren. He was usually confident in his speech and mannerisms, yet he appeared quiet and introverted as if he were hiding something -- something behind his door…"
"May I come in?" Ren asked.
"No! I -- I mean, you would get sick too, so of course you can't come in. You can't get sick or you'd stay home from school, I can't let that happen." While half of that sentence seemed like something Tye would say, Ren was still skeptical but if Tye wasn't going to let him in then he very well couldn't just force his way in.
"So you're okay?" Ren asked.
"Yes! Yes! Perfectly fine!" Tye said frantically.
Ren stared at Tye skeptically and then sighed. "Well… if you say so. We'll just go then."
"Yeah… see you later." Tye said, closing the door.
Ren stared at the door with a broken smile. "What are we supposed to think of that?" he muttered to himself.
"Do you think he's okay?" Terra asked.
"No. He's most certainly not okay." Ren replied. "Something's up. He would never behave so reclusively. My bet is that Jonathan is involved somehow."
"Damn that brat." Steven sneered. "I'll make him pay."
"Yeah." Ren agreed, thinking back to what Dr. Tirion told him the other day. He had become more inclined to believe that Jonathan wasn't evil at heart because of what he was told, but his actions certainly made it hard to believe that. "There's nothing more we can do here. Let's go back and get chewed out by the school." Ren sighed.
Tye was watching them from the living room window of his house and saw them begin to leave. "Yes, that's right, Ren. It's too soon for you to see my powers. Just you wait. Just you wait! I'll rid this world of monsters. This world will become my own!" he yelled. As he stood in the window laughing maniacally, his parents' blood continued to run across the ground next to him, the bodies nowhere in sight...
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Ren was sleeping peacefully, dreaming about being a chef in a restaurant. He was at his stove about to prepare a dish when he looked to his right and saw that Terra was one of the other chefs.
"Huh, Terra?" he asked. "Wait. Since when did you work here?" All Terra did in response was smile, but then Ren watched as Terra picked up the frying pan that was sitting in front of her on the stove and then smashed it into Ren's face. Ren leaped forward in his bed, wide awake. "What the hell, Terra!" he yelled. The anger he held towards the Terra in his dream was quickly cut off when he noticed that there was light coming from outside his window when there wasn't supposed to be any sunlight at this time in the morning. Ren tapped on his phone to see the time… it was 7:55, meaning that he would be late to school in five minutes. "AH!" he yelled. "My alarm didn't go off!" He checked the alarm he set last night and saw that he set the alarm to go off at 7 P.M. instead of 7 A.M. Ren blinked twice to make sure that he was seeing it correctly. "Of course. Of course I did you --" he cut himself off and speedrunned his morning routine, making sure to get gold splits at every split. He rushed out of his door, almost forgetting to lock it, and sprinted his way down Valenthia Road and managed to make it to school in record time, making it to school at 8:09. Of course, he was 9 minutes late but Ren felt proud of such a speedrun.
Ren stood there in the entryway panting from the sprint he just made from his house to the school, but there was something very wrong. The building's lights were completely out. He looked around and saw that every visible room did not have their lights on. The school was massive, but so was the student body. Every room in the school was utilized, having even a single classroom with its lights out would be enough to ring an alarm but to have so many classrooms without their lights -- no, the entire school without its lights on was well beyond strange. Without the lights on, the building had a decent amount of natural light feeding into it, but the hallways became pitch black the longer they went without any windows. As Ren's panting began to calm down, he started to listen for any sounds other than his heavy breathing but there were none -- not a single sound echoed throughout the empty hallways. This was also incredibly strange, with a school so large there was always something to be heard: be it the sound of a muffled teacher in one of the various classes or one student roaming the hallways instead of being bored in their own classroom. There should always be something that can be heard… yet there was no audible sound at all. The only audible sound… was Ren's own breathing.
"What's going on?" he thought. "There's school today, it's only the third day, there can't be any breaks yet." He turned on his phone's light and began to walk through the halls towards the room where his first period class was. "Were they evacuated for some reason? A gas leak? No. With a school this size I would've seen someone had they evacuated outside. But then how do you explain," each and every classroom he had passed so far had no one in them, "how do you explain the absence of each and every single person in this school? A simple power outage? But there are generators for that, the school can't be out of power. Even if that was a possibility it doesn't explain why I haven't seen a single person."
Ren climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked down the hallway to the classroom where his first period class should've been going on. The classroom was pitch black as well, no one was in it, but that was nothing new. At this point it would've been more strange if just this classroom had its lights on. As he was peering into his classroom he finally heard a sound, the sound of footsteps coming from where he had come from. He turned back and looked down the hallway to see a dark figure make its way upstairs to the third floor.
"What the hell is this?" Ren questioned. "Some kind of horror film? Or just some sick prank?" Whatever it was, that shadowy figure was his only lead to finding an answer. Was it some monster one could find in some video game? Of course not. This is the real world. Magic? Monsters? None of that could possibly exist. With this philosophy repeating in his mind, Ren forced himself to believe it as he followed the shadowy figure upstairs to the third floor. Ren looked down the hallways he could see and didn't see the shadowy figure. His options were to wander down one of these random hallways or take the stairs up to the roof. The roof could give him a view of the outside so that he could look for people around the school's exterior. That was one reason to go to the roof which was reinforced by the second reason: the shadowy figure could've gone to the roof from the stairs. With these two reasons acting as his rational basis, Ren went upstairs to the roof. He opened the door and stepped out into the most bizarre "natural" disaster he had ever seen. Having been in the pitch blackness of the school for so long, Ren had not noticed that the sunny sky had turned into the darkest gray of clouds he had ever seen, but the color of the clouds were the least of his problems, for there were multiple tornadoes tearing through Kizuna. He looked around. To the south were several tornadoes tearing through downtown Kizuna, to the east were multiple tornadoes ripping up the trees in the forest, to the north were a multitude of tornadoes roaming across the mountain, and to the west were yet again numerous tornadoes destroying Lineath's campus. Of course, the tornadoes were accompanied by intense winds that threatened to pull Ren off the roof but Ren was paralyzed by what he was seeing. Lightning began to strike all around at an incredible rate, so much so that the chances of being struck must've been incredibly high. Whether his death would be by lightning or tornado, Ren knew he didn't have long to live on the roof -- no, even if he took cover somewhere inside the school Ren felt that this was the end. Was there a news forecast last night warning of this and everyone fled? No. This could not be natural… that was the only conclusion Ren could come to… and his conclusion was right.
"It's beautiful isn't it," said a voice from above Ren, who was on his knees in front of the doorway that led to the stairs. Ren, in his feeling of hopelessness, lifted his head up to see who it was that spoke to him, but he could tell from the voice. He'd always be able to tell whose voice that was, for it was his best friend's voice.
"Tye…" Ren said staring at Tye who had the smile of a madman on his face. Tye was sitting on top of the doorway. "You--you called this beautiful?"
"Of course. This is my beginning, Ren."
"Huh?" Ren asked, still wide-eyed from the sight of destruction.
"My beginning. I'm going to recreate this world as my own, and to do so, this is how I'm starting: with the destruction of this world."
"Recreate the?" Ren's expression turned into a frantic anger. "Recreate the world?! You? That's impossible Tye! No human has the power to change the world!"
"Then how about this?" Tye asked as he held out his hand with one finger pointing up towards the sky. In that moment, Ren's entire vision became white, for lightning had just struck Tye's finger. Ren failed to realize what had happened until the sound of the thunder reverberated through the air, nearly causing Ren to fall over due to the explosion of sound. As he balanced himself, Ren's eyes refocused on Tye. Had Tye just been killed in front of him? No -- lightning had struck his fingertip, yet Tye remained unharmed. Tye simply continued to sit there with a smile on his face as he looked down upon Ren.
"What the--" Ren struggled to comprehend what he saw. "But -- that's impossible…"
"Not for me." smiled Tye.
Ren pulled himself together and accepted what he was told, "Even so," he first said quietly, "even so!" he yelled. "Recreate the world? Who would do something so idiotic? What's your reasoning -- I can't comprehend it!"
"Ren, don't you think there are too many monsters in this world?"
"Monsters?" Ren questioned.
"Yes, monsters! Those fools who can't comprehend the human heart! Those monsters -- they shouldn't exist! Not in any form!"
Ren connected the dots. Jonathan was gone that day and so was Tye. Jonathan must've done something to Tye to make him this way. "So what!" he yelled back. "You're just going to destroy the lives of every one of the good people in this world to get rid of the bad people? Doesn't that make you a monster as well?"
"No one will remember this world, Ren; therefore, it never happened in the first place."
"Wha--" Ren was thrown back by this preposterous statement. Tye was going to completely take over their lives. With that power, would anyone be able to live a real life? Or would Tye control it all in order to fulfill his deranged ideals. It was clear to Ren that the friend he knew was replaced with a delirious, power driven maniac. "I don't know what Jonathan did to you, Tye, but you've gotta snap out of it! You can't do this!"
"So you're against me?" Tye glared at Ren.
"Of course I'm against you! You can't become the god of the world!"
"Then you're against me. That just means I need to wipe your memories and get you ready for the next world." Tye raised his right hand and pointed his palm at Ren.
"Like hell I'll become your slave!" Ren jumped up and grabbed Tye's foot from below and ripped him off of the doorway, allowing Ren to give him a good right hook while falling through the air, slamming Tye's face against the door to the stairs. Ren was about to continue to let him have it but found that he could not bring his right arm forward. He looked right and saw that there was a chain wrapped around his bicep and that chain stretched out behind him. He followed it with his eyes and saw that the chain was coming out of a black hole, as if someone had smashed a mirror and the result was the same broken black hole. The black hole was sustained in the air as if reality itself had broken right then and there and the chain had come out of it. Before Ren knew it, chains had wrapped around his neck, both arms, and both legs. He was completely restrained by the chains. Nevertheless, he continued to struggle.
Tye began to stand back up. "Hahaha!" he laughed maniacally. "Don't worry, Ren. I'll forgive you because we're best friends. I know you aren't a monster like Jonathan. And because you're my best friend, I'll make sure you live a great life next time."
"Tye!" Ren yelled, struggling to move towards him to get another punch in.
Tye snapped his finger and reality around the two broke. Ren looked at his surroundings, a pitch black darkness surrounded the two but the ground beneath them began to shift. Ren looked down to see that they were on an inclined cliff, Tye standing a few feet from the end while Ren was being pulled by the chains down the incline and towards the darkness. A door began to appear from the darkness at the top of the incline. Ren knew what that door was and that he had to stop Tye from going into it. Ren put all his strength into his legs and his slow skid down the incline halted. He then lifted his right leg and took a step forward. Tye's expression, before an expression that clearly expressed how confidently he thought he had won, had broken down as he saw Ren take a step up the incline.
"It's pointless." Tye said as he unleashed another chain that wrapped around Ren's waist.
Ren slid down slightly but was stopped. He then took another step, then another.
"It's pointless!" Tye then set upon Ren countless more chains.
"I will stop you!" Ren yelled as the chains wrapped around him. Ren took one final step as the chains of despair took hold. Ren began to slide down the incline. "I will stop you!" Ren continued to yell this even as he was pulled closer and closer to the darkness. Tye then turned around and faced the door at the top of the incline. The door began to open slowly, and from within shone a bright light, the light of the new world. Tye smiled as he began to walk through the door.
The last thing Ren saw before he was pulled into the darkness was his own arm extended out, his hand, reaching for the light.
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In the pitch black darkness, Ren lost all sense of time just as if he were sleeping, but in his sleep he faintly heard the words of a girl talking to him. "A girl?" Ren thought. Ren opened his eyes to see a faint light appear before him. He began to move closer to it by swimming through the darkness. As he moved closer to the light, the girl's voice got louder and the light became brighter.
"Yes! Yes! That's it!" The voice cried out as Ren stretched his hand out to the light. "Come closer to the light!" Ren inched closer and closer until eventually he was so close to the light that it began to completely blind him, and that was when a hand grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled him towards the light. Ren opened his eyes as he felt that he was pulled out of some hole in the ground and thrown into the air. In that moment he opened his eyes to see the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Ren landed with his feet splashing down in the pool of water beneath him. He continued to stare at the girl who was holding his hand. The girl had the longest hair he had ever seen, so long that it seemed to go on forever as it stretched across the ground, and along with her eyes were the most radiant green he had ever seen. She wore a style of dress Ren had never seen before. The dress appeared to be a light green one piece with white accents. Her shoulders were exposed, there were no straps to hold the dress up, meaning it was held in place by the sheer tightness of the dress. The skirt of the dress was actually incredibly short when compared to other dresses one might think of such as a ballroom dress. When one thinks of a ballroom dress, one thinks of the skirt of the dress stretching nearly all the way down to the floor, yet the girl's skirt was the length of the skirt a girl might wear on a date to impress her boyfriend. Her overall look was jaw dropping to Ren.
The girl smiled at him and said, "Welcome, Ren. You made it." This brought Ren back into reality. He realized he needed to get down to business. Specifically, to ease his confusion he needed to know --
"Where am I and how the hell did I get here!" Ren said spastically. The girl laughed at Ren's silly speech. Ren stood there, embarrassed at the frantic mess of a sentence he just said. The girl recovered herself and began to speak.
"First, allow me to introduce myself." she said proudly. "My name is Mana, and I am the Goddess of Willpower. In other words, I am also the god of your world."