"Ahh! Stoppeth! Prithee it feeleth to good. I promiseth thou I shall not peek again. As longeth as thou will doth this to I ev'ryday!"
She releases an erotic moan and then speaks again in her head aching accent.
"Oi! I don't want to be known as someone who enjoys tying girls up you know?"
Ghost immediately destroys the bondage and she looks disappointed about it!
"What about mine requesteth?"
"There is no way that I will do this to you every day!"
"Fine, then I'll spread a rumor that it was you who peeked." She threatens him while smiling evilly.
"Hmm? I don't want to be known as the school's pervert or anything like that. If everyone pays special attention to me things could get difficult."
"Seeth, so thou will controleth mine urges aye?" She gets on her knees and slowly crawls to Ghost while begging him to satisfy her.
Ghost, on the other hand, tries to find anything in the storage to distract him, but sadly there is nothing in there besides cleaning supplies.
"Or I could just get rid of you. I mean if I can hurt you, I probably can destroy you. How about that instead?"
Rainte's face suddenly turns into an expression of pure bliss and starts to shiver uncontrollably. While Ghost suddenly realizes that there is no hope for this ghost girl.
Rainte suddenly starts to move even closer to him while panting. Eventually, she fazes right through him.
"I wouldst loveth that, but i feeleth that th're wouldst be m're to gain if thou took it stepeth by stepeth."
"And do you think I'm giving you a choice?" Ghost crushes a mop to release some of his anger.
"To bad this isn't mine real soul. This is just a projection of it." She flickers as if she is just a hologram.
"Wait that last sentence didn't have an accent to it!" Ghost starts to wonder if her whole 'accent' is just to force people to want to hit her.
"Oops. Err, I cullionly this accent cometh naturally."
"Oh really? Anyways I thought you didn't want your existence known?"
"Knowing that this academy is filled with 'heroes' I'm pretty sure they will drive you out thinking you're a monster. So how were you planning on spreading that rumor?"
She is really testing my patience in keeping her accent as it is. But this is truly showing how annoying it is so.
"I didn't thinketh that far mast'r!"
"Don't call me master!"
"I will calleth thou wanteth I wanteth!"
"I can't decide what you call me, but I can see you less. If you want to call me master whenever you rarely see me then fine."
"And wherefore not?"
"What do you mean why not! I don't even need to be in this area!"
"Well, since mast'r is mast'r then I will followeth thou. So thou shall seeth me oft."
"What do you mean often you! I don't want to have anything to do with you. So just leave me alone please."
Ghost starts to get on his hands and knees to beg but then he looks into her eyes.
"Nope." She doesn't even let him completely get on his hands and knees before denying him.
The look on her face shows that she means what she says and that it would be her final answer. Ghost has seen in countless time from an old friend in the past.
"Sigh~ Fine!" Ghost resigns to his fate of attracting weird people.
-I could just tie her up but she would love that it's best just to ignore these types sigh~ I could kill her but then I would be no better than the old me all those years ago.-
He quickly escaped from the strange girl and attempts to hide where he now lives. While probably failing to escape from her in the end.
"So I'll be the trash of society again. What's so good about being the hero anyway? If you become a hero then you will never have any free time?"
Ghost can't help but mutters as he thinks about his situation while laying on top of his bed and he starts to fall asleep.
"Why didn't you save me?" The scenery instantly changes back to all those years ago. A small girl with pointed ears and blonde hair appears in front of him.
"What's the matter you look like you've seen a ghost?" She asks confused and lost.
Ghost tries to move but it's as if invisible chains shackle him in front of the poor girl.
The girl suddenly seems to have clarity, while Ghost attempts to break free. "Oh, you want to move and do what run? Or do you want to kill me again?"
Ghost tries to talk but nothing manages to escape his mouth.
"You won't get to talk Mr.Hero, slayer of the unknown. Hear me out for a bit. When I was being tortured I thought you couldn't do anything about it at first."
"While you may be inexperienced I still coughed up a good amount of blood you could have used. My problem isn't that. You can breathe fire, no?"
She tells him the cold hard truth at haunts him to this day.
-I could have saved her back then. I wasn't completely helpless like I am right now. Why didn't I do that to free myself.-
-Why couldn't I think I could've saved her. She isn't the only one that I failed to save when I was able to save them.-
"Yeah that's right you could still breathe and you killed him with magic, in the end, no matter how attuned you are with controlling blood. Why didn't you save me?" After she says her sermon more and more people start to appear in front of Ghost.
"Why didn't you save us!" An assortment of voices assaults echoes throughout his empty mind. "Why did you kill us?"
More and more people start to appear and join in. "You didn't have to kill us did you?" All of the voices join into one distinct voice of Jana and then he wakes up crying.
Rainte appears in front of him and starts saying words that he doesn't seem to understand. He slowly starts to seem to be able to hear and be part of the world again.
"Are you okay Ghost? You don't look so good. Did you have a nightmare?" She looks worried and scared as her emerald green eyes almost pierce straight through his body and into his very soul.
"I'm fine, it's just, I don't know why I'm crying. You don't have to worry sometimes I wake up like this. Why are speaking without that annoying accent?" His mind suddenly registers that she isn't talking abnormally anymore.
"I doth not knoweth what thou cullionly. thou might not but of learn'd to naturally translateth what I sayeth to n'rmal."
Ghost holds his head and cries out in pain. "Oww can you please just speak normally it's annoying to people."
"So?"
"Sigh, can you go somewhere else I need to. Just leave for a bit please." She vanishes and he slowly gets out of bed revealing underneath that the sheets are soaked in sweat and so is his shirtless body.
-That dream, it's always the same. When will the past stop haunting me? I know that I've killed too many people, but I've been trying to change.-
-I won't kill someone without knowing both sides of the story and hopefully a third side. Well if they try to kill me then they die.-
He slowly stretches his body to wake up and then goes to the bathroom to start a nice hot shower. But, he changes his mind and enters it without waiting for it to heat up.
As the ice cold water pours on top of his head, his mind starts to wander. "Of the three worlds that I was suddenly transferred to the first still leaves me the deepest regret."
He starts to think out loud about the times that are already in the past. From the living to the dead. Faces of friends and foes.
"I wonder how many of my mistakes were solvable at the time. How many people have died that could have lived."
The warming water washes away his thoughts and his regrets. As the now warm water hits his head he can't help but forget about everything.
In the end, nothing matters. The past will always be the past and the future will always be ever-changing and unknown.
The only thing that can be changed is the present.
The sound of a crow cries out and wakes Ghost of his empty trance. He looks outside through the glass, that separates him from the cruel merciless world, and see a crow wanting to be let in. He notices that there is a note attached to its leg, so he immediately let it in.
He takes it off the crow and reads it out loud. "Dear Ghost, is there anything that I can do for you? Oh, who am I fooling! The monsters in the forest seem to be escaping from the forest more often than usual."
"I'm afraid something might have moved into our lovely forest. This is an early warning so you can start preparing to investigate. I don't need you to act now it would be better if it gets a little worse."
"From your benefactor Hiiro."
The crow flies away before he can even get out a pen and paper.
-What is he planning? It would be easier if he just orders me to kill this and that. Complicating things just makes everything tedious.-
Ghost ponders about what to do while he does nothing but dries himself and gets dressed. "Ahh, I know what I can do to alleviate my boredom!"
He leaves the bathroom and then goes through a couple doors till he reaches the living room. Then he pulls out the bear rug. Revealing a door leading towards the underground portion of his abode.
The underground is lit by glowing plants, which release multi colors of light making the room feel a bit to rainbow-like.
From the stalagmites on the ceiling being covered in glowing green moss to the blue mushrooms seen on the floor.
The plants make it easy to see the wonderful underground lake to the east portion of it, which also has glowing red algae on top of it.
The different color lights make the water shine in various colors, but mainly crimson thanks to the algae on top.
To the western side are targets at different distances. Bows and quivers are also laid out in a neat and orderly fashion.
"Well, I should actually learn to be an adequate archer. At least at F rank. It would be weird if I couldn't do at least this."
So, he starts to shoot one arrow at a time. *Whoosh* "Another miss. Maybe. Hmm."
He keeps aiming at the closest target shot after shot, but all of them come up short until *whoosh thud!*
"Hmm, it hit yet it didn't pierce this is harder than it looks. What defines an F rank archer anyways?" He suddenly stops practicing and has a look of confusion on his face.
"I should learn what makes an F rank archer before I do anything else. It would be bad if I don't have a clear definition of F rank."
So he proceeds to leave his dorm by following a secret tunnel to the headmaster's office. After a short time, he leaves the mine shaft like tunnel and appears in front of Hiiro.
"Knock before entering next time what if a student was in here with me?"
"Wouldn't knocking coming from the floor be just as bad?" He tries to come up with an excuse because he knows. That he's in the wrong.
"At least I can create an excuse for the noise. Creating an excuse for a student appearing out of the floor is much harder. It would be possible if you aren't supposed to be a terrible student."
"Hmm, you're right. How do you define an F rank archer? I saw how you had practice targets and arrows in my basement?"
"So that's why you're here. I thought you were here about the letter. An F Rank archer should at least be able to hit a couple of targets. I would say above the level of archery in your previous world?"
"That would be fine and dandy if the world I went to was filled with weaklings, but sadly most of the D rank archers would die as they are now."
Ghost start to reminisce about the last world he ended up on and thought about some of his previous party members ability to shoot arrows.
Some warriors were better than the archery students he saw showing off.
"Well, each world is different. I wonder what your actual rank is?"
"That doesn't matter you've already hired me, so you will naturally know of my strength later."
"True, but an F rank is hard to define since it shouldn't exist yet in the first place. Just watch the D rank archers and be worse than them."
"Hmm, that would work. What if they see me watching them?"
"That won't matter much. If you stand out too much, then people would pay more attention to you. So, it would actually be better if you go to class now and again. Of course being too familiar with them would be a problem as well. Think of it as a balancing act."
*Knock knock!* "Headmaster, can I have a word with you?" A female voice asks behind the door.
"Why does that voice sound familiar?"
"Because she's your teacher, you idiot!' He angrily whispers.
Ghost immediately drops down the trap door into the tunnel. "What do you need?"
"I've come to talk about a student of mine. He doesn't seem to be coming to school at all. He doesn't even join the other students to practice."
"So, it's not like we are a school that can get rid of students. He won't be the first to not find an organization after graduation."
"If that was the case then I wouldn't have come to talk to you. You see this student has a special position in the school as of right now."
"He is the F ranked member, the one you just brought in. If he wants to he could stay here forever as of right now."
"So you want him to at least gain a rank?" The headmaster's voice is starting to sound angrier and angrier
"The people that I hate the most are neets. You understand what I'm saying?"
"Oh then it's simple you just want him to show worth. If he stays here indefinitely but has a purpose you won't mind him then?"
The headmaster's voice starts to vibrate with killing intent and gets quieter almost to the point that Ghost can't hear him.
"I don't understand?" The voice of the homeroom teacher starts to sound more and more squeamish and scared.
"Simple he has a purpose for being here, so just ignore him, please. By the way, this is an order."
The killing intent starts pouring through the dirt and the tunnel goes down a couple degrees. You can imagine how cold the room feels upstairs right now.
"Yes, please forgive me for being."
"Shhh, you've already said enough go back and think this over kay?"
A door opening and closing can be heard in the dead quiet tunnel.
Then Ghost comes out the trap door with a surprised expression on his fake face. "Wow, didn't think you would show killing intent to your underlings."
"What do you want? You should've already left while I was talking to her."
"Couldn't help it. Would you walk away when someone is talking about you?"
"Yes because curiosity can be a deadly thing." The killing intent pours back into the surroundings.
"Hahaha, here it is again your so-called killing intent. I'm not like you're weak-willed teachers you know? I'm only here till sis gets cured you get that?"
The room grows colder and colder. A knife starts to form behind Ghost's back made out of the killing intent, but it's still illusionary.
"What makes you so confident in yourself? I already caught you once! Your life was in my hands and I was nice enough to give you a job."
With each sentence, the room gets colder and colder. The killing intent continues to pour out and surround Ghosts body like a thin mist.
"Well, I won't create any excuses. If this was a battle I would've already been dead. You're right. But since I'm still alive than that last battle doesn't mean much. We are partners right now so don't worry."
"You didn't release a tiger back into his mountain. If my sister doesn't get your full attention then. Well, we will see."
He walks out of the room ignoring the killing intent as if he can't feel any of its pressure. He leaves and starts heading towards the direction of his archery classroom.
Knock knock! "Teacher are you in there?" He calls out even though he knows that she is in there.
"Yes, you can come in." Her annoyingly high pitched voice sounds out. A couple seconds later she opens the door for him. "Oh, it's you." Her voice has clean disdain in her tone.
"Indeed it's me were you expecting anyone else?"
"No, I was just surprised that a student who is becoming notorious for ditching appearing outside my classroom."
The disdain in her voice grows with each passing word. She is even starting to look at him in disdain as well.
"Well, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have anything important to do."
"And why have you decided to show up now?" She asks me while briefly looking towards her desk.
"Hmm is that where you hide your weapon? You would think that in a hero academy the teachers would be constantly holding their weapons. I mean it's our lifeline isn't it?"
"Well for an archer I don't see a bow on you. At least mine is close by." Her disdain turns to contempt and arrogance.
"Well, why should I carry around a weapon aren't you here to protect us? We're forbidden from hunting, so why should I bother carrying it around?"
"It's also heavy and hard to sleep with. Well if the teachers can't protect their students than I will happily carry around my bow."
"Of course we can protect you, but student duels aren't forbidden. You do know that dueling someone of a higher rank is the fastest way to increase your rank. Also, what does sleeping have anything to do with carrying your bow?" She asks him curiously.
"Yes, I do know that and I even know that you have to battle against people from the same class!"
"I need to duel a D rank archer. But why would anyone ask to duel against me? I'm the lowest rank, so I have the right to deny everyone."
"If you don't increase your rank and stay here forever you will not make any companions you know? Anyways why are you here?"
"I was wondering if we had a school uniform or anything like that? I mean do we only need this crest?"
"If you went to class more often you would notice if there was a uniform or not." She directly reprimands him while inspecting his clothing. "Do you wear anything besides that?"
"I don't have any other 'clothing' I mean I have armor that I usually wear over this, but that's about it." He looks over his combat effective clothing.
"Is there anything wrong with me only wearing a black shirt and black sweats? They don't get in the way of movement like other clothing."
"Oh, so you care about mobility more than a weapon?"
"Movement is what keeps people alive. A weapon is what makes people be able to murder. I rather stay alive instead of killing one then dying to another."
"I guess it doesn't matter much. What can you do in a dangerous situation anyway? A slacker like you will probably just find somewhere to hide while your fellow students are fighting to protect you."
"Sounds about right, now then my question?"
"No there's no uniform all you need is that badge. Is that the only reason why you came to bother me? Couldn't you just look around at your fellow students?"
"Oh, wait no one would want to talk to a weakling like you. So, you probably don't have any friends!" She starts to feel the atmosphere chilling down a bit, so she does the first thing she can think of.
"Of course it's not the only reason. I also came to say this." The room starts to get colder and colder as Ghost slowly increases the pressure. "I know the headmaster may scare you, but he isn't that terrifying right?"
Her sweat starts to pour off her head and it slowly falls to the floor. Drip Drip. "Why are you doing this?"
"Firstly you know that I'm not here as a student yet you still felt like messing with me. I came here with a simple question after hours with no one around yet you still mocked me!"
"What type of teacher kicks her own students and you also know full well I have my reasons for being an F rank!"
"Doing this during school hours is fine but after hours you should treat me as a superior. Secondly, I don't trust your headmaster so of course, I would want to create a chain around you." The room slowly returns back to the normal temperature.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you please forgive this junior for not realizing her errors." Ghost says nothing and turns around to leave the classroom.
While he's leaving the room a faint sigh of relief could be heard and Ghost sports a big grin.
-Hiiro used his own pressure to hold his men in place so why can't I just override it with a stronger intent.-
-He seems like a dictator and the teachers are his subjects, so where are his trusted men?-
-No dictatorship is just a one-man show there is always a loyal group that actually wants to help him run his country.-
Ghost slowly walks through the empty halls and makes his way towards the archery range. The school feels like a ghost town since everyone is either training or at the dorm.
Twangs and swooshes can be heard with an occasional thud as he gets closer to the target range. He carefully looks through a window.
-Their archery is decent, comparable to C rank adventures from my previous world. So, if a C rank is a D rank in this world that means an S rank would be an SS rank in my previous world.-
Hmm, I wonder if these thoughts are true. The S ranks are as strong as gods so they should be universal.
"What are you looking at?" A voice suddenly says behind him. Ghost jump forward, nearly hitting a window, as he turns around he sees the archery girl from the first day standing behind him.
"You know you really shouldn't let your guard down. What if I was an enemy you would've probably been dead."
"How can I compare to you I'm only an F rank and you are A?" Ghost tries his hardest not to laugh at her pathetic attempt to sneak up on him.
Obviously, the jumping forward was an act or else he probably would of went through the window.
"While you say you're an F rank that arrow you shot earlier would've hit the target as you said. Your rank is probably higher than people would think. Or so I thought but seeing how you didn't notice me sneak up behind you I'm doubtful now."
"My rank is A yet you didn't notice my aura coming behind you which is strange. Most other students I talk to get scared just by being near me." She looks very confused and conflicted about him.
She has a decent aura around her, which might even be stronger than that useless homeroom teacher.
"I guess I'm too weak to even feel any danger from you. Now, why are you bothering me?"
"That's strange the only people that don't notice our students with the same ranking as me or the teachers."
"If you want to practice then why not go in? But, I haven't met any civilians before or an F rank so maybe you really can't feel me, weird."
It seems that the world does indeed have other F rankers it's just that the summoned are at the D rank minimum.
"Why would I want to practice? It's all pointless even if I grow strong enough to be a D rank what group would want me?"
"Odds are I'll graduate just to die alone in some monsters belly. I'd rather keep my rank and stay here where it's safe."
This is true in a different way in many other worlds as well. You graduate and find something that will swallow most of your life. Barely surviving the day by day till you get a vacation.
"The world outside isn't any safer than my previous world. If you want to risk your life for strangers than go ahead."
"So what if a couple cities get destroyed? Humans and animals have always fought for survival even though we are animals ourselves."
Humans have also hunted various other animals to extinction so it's only right that they can do the same to us.
"It's always been the law of the jungle even before this has happened. The only thing that's changed is the animals are making up for their lack of intelligence, while we are making up for our lack of strength."
She glares at him and starts to angrily rebuke him. "If you don't think any group would take you in then you're wrong even a D rank is important to a city."
"We were all heroes in our previous worlds, so how can the weakest hero be weak? Compared to all the normal citizens we are the elites. We were chosen to remember that."
The elitists and self-entitled mentality are real in this one. I never thought I'd say it but I kinda like taints more than this chick.
"There is a reason why you were chosen to be summoned like the rest of us. Every one of us is needed. If you become a D rank I can guarantee that you will be able to at least join whatever group I join."
I wonder what the other ranks below F rank are and how strong these so-called heroes really are.
"Why do you care about small fry like me? With your rank, you should be able to join any organization that you want."
"There's no reason for you to care about what happens with my life. If you want to feel good about helping someone to help someone else." He leaves the noisy girl and starts to walk away back towards his dorm.
"Wait! I have one more thing I wanted to tell you. I started out as a D rank when I came into this academy. You don't have to start out great."
"The strength we have when we come to this academy depends on only one factor. Where we were summoned. It doesn't depend on our talent nor our worth."
It makes you wonder why they were summoned to different worlds in strength if they have the potential to grow even more compared to the world they lived in.
"We all have the potential to grow stronger and stronger. Talent doesn't decide anything it's just an added bonus what decides our final strength is our own hard work. Don't give up just because you're weak now."
-Too bad I'm not actually a weakling or else that might have made me work harder. If only I wasn't doomed to stay in this academy until my sister can get healed. I kinda want to see how this world has changed.-
Ghost returns back to his empty home and enters Jana's room to only find her staring at the ceiling with an empty look.
"I'm home! How are you feeling? Good, that's great." He says as if she could actually reply while tears start rolling down his cheek.
"Why hasn't he sent anyone to try to heal you? Is he waiting for me to prove my worth before he helps you?"
He leaves her alone knowing there's nothing he can do to help her right now and return to my residence. A note is attached to my door from the headmaster that says my office now.
-Did he find out that I threatened the teacher? No matter I wanted to have a word with him as well.-
Half an hour later Ghost appears in front of the feminine headmaster again.
"Did you forget something? Is old age finally getting to you? It seems like you're forgetting things lately. Why hasn't my sister been given any treatment?"
"Do you think my help is free? I will only start showing her to priests once you do your job. Which is the reason why I called you."
"I should've told you to go and kill it earlier. I didn't expect it to escalate this quickly. Whatever moved into the forest made one of my teachers go missing and harmed a student."
"Why was a teacher even near the forest?"
"So, no student sneaks off into it for practice. It's a forbidden zone if you're caught in it you will be under house arrest for a month. The student was found outside the forest and brought to the nurse." He looks off towards the forest, but there are no visible changes to it.
"The problem is she had a house arrest spell on her. This means a teacher found her in the forest. Yet the teacher was never found. He or she might still be alive, but I don't want to risk sending anyone in the forest."
"Since, there was no visible signs of a struggle near the unconscious girl. That's where you come in."
"I'm not asking you to kill whatever harmed the student just figure out if the teacher is still alive or not."
"It's only been thirty minutes since we've found the girl, so go quickly if the teacher is saved I can guarantee my full help with your sister."
-Damn, I'd have more time to search if I had run instead of walking. I thought he found out about me, not the school actually having a problem.-
-I mean who would want to mess with the only school in the world filled with former hero's and the headmaster who is also a tough nut to crack.-