"Please, Terra. Won't you do this for me?" Julian persisted.
Terra almost drove herself mad with the urge to wrench his eyeballs from their sockets and shove them down his throat.
"I'm busy. Ask someone else."
"No, you're not. I know you're going to the arcade later."
Terra narrowed her eyes and lazily shoved her phone back into her skirt pocket. Did Julian not understand what no meant?
Not a second passed before her phone began buzzing again. And again. And again.
The loner she ignored the notifications, the more frequently they began to roll in. Exasperated, she fished out her phone one more time.
Fifty pleading messages had rolled in.
"Don't make me come to the arcade," Julian threatened.
Terra rolled her eyes in defeat. "Fine." Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she finally decided to press send.
There was a brief moment of silence. Julian stopped spamming her phone, and Terra sighed in relief. Suddenly, she received another message.
"Thanks, babe :)"
Terra scowled. "You're getting ahead of yourself," she muttered to herself while slipping her phone away.
***
The sun was halfway through its day, shining through the clouds like water seeping through a filter.
Thales rolled out the awkward kinks in his neck that had formed after hours of sleeping in awkward positions during class. He impatiently tapped his foot as he stood outside the gate of M High School.
By now, he had a new, revised plan to get Rem to join the White Snakes. Everyone needed money. And Thales had plenty of that. He could easily buy off the Black Lion.
She'd make an excellent extra line of defense against the Eagles. As of late, the Eagles had grown increasingly active, and Thales was worried they might start becoming violent once more.
The familiar sound of the school bell sent a wave of adrenaline through Thales, and he spun around to watch the wave of students pouring out. His eyes flickered over each and every face, eager to find where Rem could be.
A familiar face appeared from the sliding doors of M High School. But instead of it being Joan, it was Navier. The small, innocent boy walked briskly to keep up with the rushing current. He had a slight smile on his face from the excitement of anxiously waiting for the next game of Mortal Strike.
If Navier was here, that must mean Rem was somewhere around as well. But no matter how hard Thales looked, he couldn't find her familiar figure.
As Navier passed by Thales, who stood at the school gate, Thales shot his hand out and caught him before he could go any further. Navier curiously turned his head. When he saw Thales, his eyes widened in recognition.
"Y-You… W-What are you doing here?" Navier anxiously stuttered. "Rem isn't here today!" He seemed to have predicted Thales's intentions.
"Stop lying," Thales growled. From the anxious way Navier averted his eyes, Thales knew he was lying. "Where is she?" he repeated.
Navier looked left and right, praying that anyone would stop and help him. But the flood of students continued to pass by him without care. At best, Navier caught a few curious glances, but upon seeing Thales, they immediately averted their eyes.
"I a-already told you. S-She's not here." Navier couldn't help but trip over his own words, and he knew that his unstoppable stutter wasn't helping his case.
With a chuckle, Thales shook his head. Suddenly, a feminine figure caught his eye: long midnight hair, sharp gaze, and perfect posture. Thales recognized her at once.
Thales yanked Navier closer to his body and slung an arm around Navier's shoulder. "Guess who that is, buddy," Thales said, pointing to Rem.
Rem's gaze immediately snapped toward Thales, as if she had felt the tickle of his gaze brushing against her skin. When she saw Navier pressed against Thales's side, the corners of her lips quirked downwards, but the subtle movement was hardly noticeable.
"Rem!" Thales waved toward her.
"King," Joan muttered under her breath. Her old mentor looked exactly the same as he did 50 years from now. His boyish grin and unruly hair were proof of that. If anything, the only thing that would change about him was his hair, which would eventually pale into a snow-white.
"What are you doing here?" Joan asked as she approached him.
"I wanted to chat." Thales grinned at her. "Good to see you, too."
"Enough with the friendly tone. We don't know each other." Joan supposed that wasn't entirely true. She knew him better than he realized. After years of training under his guidance, she had learned everything there was to know about him.
"I suppose not," Thales chuckled. "But we can work on that."
"Let go of him."
Thales looked at the boy attached to his side. "Who? Navier?" He chuckled and shook his head. "We're buddies. Aren't we, Navier?"
Even his personality hadn't changed one bit. He tended to hover annoyingly over people like a gadfly, and his behavior attracted all sorts of enemies.
Of course, Joan knew he never took anything seriously—not even Joan's life. He'd tested her limits and edged her near death on a multitude of occasions—all for the sake of 'becoming stronger.' Regardless, though, he'd made Joan strong and a 'worthy superhuman.'
"Why don't we chat somewhere else," Joan suggested.
"Rem!" Navier called out incredulously. "Don't listen to him! He'll try and hurt you again."
Joan lifted her hand and patted Navier's head. He was multiple inches shorter than her, making it easy for her to see over the top of his head.
"Don't worry about me. Let's go," she gestured to King. She was curious about what her previous mentor had to say to her.
Thales grinned victoriously. "I knew you'd come around." He pushed Navier away from himself and led Rem away.
Navier defeatedly stared at Rem's retreating figure. Shakily, he reached up to touch the spot of his hair Rem had just touched. As he did so, a furious blush blazed across his cheeks.
"I'm never cutting my hair again," he said determinedly.