"If you scream like that we are going to be found in no time." Joaquin grabbed a bit of her hair and pulled it lightly.
"But… But, you're the one who screamed at me." She pouted and tried to grab him.
Joaquin took a light step back before smacking her again on her forehead, she covered it and looked around curiously. 'I guess they found us already,' she thought to herself.
"You know, after all this time you still haven't told me what your ability was." Joaquin said as he slowly pulled out a kunai.
"Oh, it's time." She looked at him. "I am not supposed to tell you, so make sure to keep it a secret. Okay?" she smiled at him before everything went dark.
When the lights came on Joaquin was at the bottom of the stairs and Miss Lin had replaced him at his former position. Right next to her with blades barley missing her voluptuous chest was a person dressed in an all-black attire. Their eyes were covered and the rest made them look like a ninja.
He quickly spun the blade and missed again. Miss Lin appeared from behind and kicked him, he fell for a bit before shifting mid-air to throw the blade at her. She blocked with a pen from her pocket.
"ChiShi," she said softly.
The attacker jumped back towards Joaquin and Miss Lin began chase downward. The assassin jumped up onto the handrail, and she followed, they continued bouncing around from one flight to the other. That was until another blackout and the assassin came plummeting with Miss Lin on top of him.
They crash landed on the steps and his body snapped, Miss Lin raised her head and calmly tried to smile at Joaquin. "No matter how beat up they are, they won't stop pursuit until their last breaths, which is why I had to kill him."
"Can't you wear them down?"
"Impossible, only death can stop them, that or breaking their binary. But I doubt that the assassins would let the latter be their weakness in a mission, so I chose to kill." She tossed the body aside and started to ascend the stairs.
"You are one scary woman." Joaquin grunted as he ran up from behind. "But I do understand that if we don't get rid of them quickly we might end up surrounded, with that being said I think the others are already here."
"As long as they can't walk through walls we're okay." She giggled.
Joaquin grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back to his level before passing her by, "the happier you get the more afraid for my life I become."
"Are you scared of dying?"
Joaquin glanced at her curious expression before showing his back again. "I never wanted to believe this but, everyone around me believes in life after death. Whether it will be better than this one or not is everybody's guess. But, if there is one thing all these talks have in common it is that your actions in this life play a part in what you get for the next life.
"I don't believe that I have done enough to and go to a paradise, if my life was to end here, then only more misery awaits me on the other side." Silence in the night, a norm for Joaquin, but it somehow felt suffocating.
He wasn't alone but after what he said he felt like was walking on a treadmill, exhausted and stuck in one place. There was a huge cloud of darkness behind him and coming for the immobile boy. A need to pick up speed enveloped him, but it wasn't alone, a feeling futility was also there.
Wherever he was headed had already been decided by fate and there was no escaping it, for some reason he started to get a feeling of déjà vu. His heart became the heaviest thing on his person and his steps got slower and slower.
He finally stopped and fell to his knees. One huge breath after the other he began to sweat as the room shrunk on him.
"Hey. Are you okay, you kind of blacked out after your little rant?" Miss Lin said as she ran her fingers through his hair. Her face was bloody and she sounded like she was out of breath, from behind her was the moon and the stars shining down carelessly and making the teacher's face darker.
"I didn't pass out because of a speech. Was I hit?" Joaquin grabbed her hand and moved it away. He tried getting up but his head was stabbed by lightning bolt. He grabbed his hair and pulled hard on it trying not to scream.
A chance to catch his breath presented itself and he collapsed to the ground. He gave Miss Lin a look and beaten up, she was no longer wearing her coat, her shirt was bloody and her skirt was in shambles. For some reason Joaquin found himself paying more attention to her exposed skin than her current condition.
"You were almost killed but I somehow managed to stop you from getting any fatal wounds. Your incredible healing speed patched you up and in total you were only out for about 3 minutes." She raised her arms into the air and let her body fall backward. "Whoo! There are still three of them left, two of which are as strong as me and one that might be stronger.
"To be honest tonight might be my last with you, so how about we make it worthwhile?" she said with a light giggle.
"Are you sick?"
"I just fought against 27 assassins on my own, how do you think I feel?"
"You said you were used to this."
"Normally I am only attacked in teams of 7 not a whole elite unit." She got up again and started rubbing her eyes. "Oooh, this is starting to feel like 20 years ago."
"Damn you're old."
Miss Lin folded her fists and waved them around, "I am young and pure girl in her thirties. How can you say something so mean?" She shook Joaquin violently while trying to hold back her tears
Joaquin cut away rolled on the ground, "girl and thirty don't belong in the same sentence. That and you've been lonely for 20 whole years, maybe I should give up alchemy." Joaquin managed to calm himself down and think, talking like this with Miss Lin, made him feel a bit better about the situation.
"Jojo." Miss Lin's voice came out solemn this time, the fun little ring it got from its softness disappeared instantly. Joaquin shifted his gaze to her with the intentions to tell her off but found an unfamiliar face staring back at him. She was stern and it was felt as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"What."
"What is the most important thing you learned about life?"
"It is a fruitless journey through a transverse wave of events."
…
"What?"
"I was going to say you only get one chance, but okay." She let go of him and Joaquin turned his body to face her. "Listen well to me Jojo, as a zero otherwise known as bleach, people believe that you destined to doom the world. I believe otherwise, but in the end it's your choice.
"Since you're now maturing and turning even more violent than before, everybody will soon come for you. Either to have you join their cause or bring an end to your life. At that time neither the school nor your family will be able to protect, I might not even be able to protect you."
"Where are you getting with this?"
"Honestly even I more than once thought of killing you because of what occurred 20 years ago." She giggled and tried to cover her mouth while she did it.
"I still remember that day. It was when we first met in class. Honestly I wanted to hate you shaming me like that in front of everybody, but I needed to have at least one teacher supporting me in this hell hole."
"And I looked kind?"
"And you looked dumb."
"I knew it… What!?" How can you be mean to me at a time like this?" she started to punch him on his chest, lightly as her smile faded but she fought to keep it there.
"It's about time you tell me what all of this is about."
"Nowhere really, I just wanted to tell you actually try and become stronger, the world is bigger than you think. And if you just sit back doing nothing your memories will turn into regrets, if at all you manage to live long enough." She said as she stood up, she placed her hand on her shirt and her body started to cleanse itself. Pretty soon she looked good as new and with a bright smile on her face she gave Joaquin her hand.
"Those guys are no longer trying to conceal themselves." He said staring behind Miss Lin were three silhouettes stood. They had their arms crossed and they didn't look to be in much of a hurry.
Miss Lin slowly shifted to face them, and folded her fist. "Jojo, you might wanna hide somewhere, these people will not let you go even if you're not part of their mission." She pushed him back a little bit.
Joaquin tossed her hand away walked closer, "no, I don't think I will. I am interested in how they fight, are they really using a custom or is there something more to their movements. I might be weak but my senses have never been tricked the way they were today."
"You are just another cocky brat it seems. If I were you I would've just listened to the target and fled, maybe then we might have considered sparing you." The man in black standing in the middle of the other two assassins said. His voice was deep and it sounded like he was talking directly into their ears.
Miss Lin backed up a single step, her body shook and flared up causing sweat to drip from her face. 'Normally these people don't talk, hearing his voice can only mean one thing…'
"MISS LIN!" Joaquin screamed and dragged his teacher away from her thoughts.
When she looked before her she was met with two figures attacking her with daggers. She grabbed Joaquin and the two phased through them. They planted their feet on the ground and immediately turned around for another slash at them. Miss Lin managed to turn around and counter before they got cut. The two assassins were blasted back and they stayed on the ground.
The one behind Miss Lin started to clap his hands.
"I thought they were crazy when they said to never underestimate a time mage. After seeing you knock out two people at your level without touching them, I am convinced that I don't need to hold myself back." He stopped clapping, grabbed his wrists to pull out a bracelet.
'He said mage, then that means he is not from the ChiShi clan…' A huge force pressed down on Miss Lin. 'Not only that, but this power, this power is something else. I might also need to release my limiters.' She smiled. 'To think that I'd be forced into this again, what a shame.'