Rain poured on the small island of Marylebone, and children sat in a small classroom, some watching the nearby coast rise up and retreat consistently. The teacher stopped talking and slowly realized the children bored of school on a rainy day.
"Class, recess time," the teacher stated. The class didn't respond, assuming that they would just be drawing or something to that effect. "Why don't we have a tournament?" The class' eyes darted toward her at the word. The teacher drew a tournament tree onto the chalkboard and said, "you all have been practicing, yes? Why don't we have a friendly competition?" The class moved their desks to the side and started grabbed wooden practice swords and waited for the teacher to assign them their opponents. As a boy with brown colored hair, which had a pinch of ruby in it, was walking, another classmate stuck out his foot to trip him. The brown haired boy stopped in front of his foot, and slowly stepped over it, continuing to walk away.
A girl who had seen the whole thing started chuckling and enlightened, "Enzo, nobody can sneak up on Aster, he has the instincts of a tiger!"
Enzo scoffed, declaring, "yeah right! He just got lucky and noticed it last second."
"Alright class, Marylebone's dojo school tournament starts now! First round, Enzo versus Peeko." Peeko was a shorter and stocky boy, he held the wooden sword haphazardly. Enzo was taller, and only a little less stocky than him, he held the sword in reverse. The class watched as Enzo began circling Peeko, waiting for a chance to strike. When Peeko began to strike Enzo, Enzo leaped forward, his foot snaked behind Peeko's; which led Enzo to easily know him over.
"Round one goes to Enzo—like always," the teacher exclaimed. Various matches were played, Aster's superior technique led him to the final round; against Enzo. Aster's face rested on his skull, expressing no will to fight.
Enzo internalized, "that 'nonchalant' attitude about you Aster, it—it pisses me off!" Enzo swung the fastest and hardest he could, determined to teach Aster a lesson. However, Aster, kept his silence and swiftness, easily dancing in between his sword slices. Aster held the handle of his blade close to his waist and thrusted, striking Enzo's stomach and knocking the wind out of him. As the teacher came to console him, he shrugged her off and asked, "could I go to the nurse?"
"Of course, that was a tough jab, next time Aster, try not to thrust that hard when sparring."
Looking up at the teacher, Enzo said, "I forgot where it was, could someone show me?"
The teacher nodded and asked the class, "who would be willing to show Enzo the nurses office?" No one answered.
"Could Aster show me?" Enzo asked, gripping his stomach.
"Would you be okay with that Aster?" The teacher questioned, looking up at the quiet boy. He hesitantly nodded.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Enzo gripped Aster's collar and pulled him close, growling in his face, "you like making everyone laugh at me? I've always hated you Aster but this, I'm supposed to be the best here, not you! You with your dumb eyes and expression, do you even feel emotions?" Out of his pocket, Enzo revealed a pocket knife, aiming it at Aster. Aster's eyes quietly widened and he sheepishly tried to pull away. "So I do scare you, I knew it, I am the leader here, you're just a no good rebel, sticking up to my authority!" Aster was beginning to get lost in Enzo's ramblings. "If you want to live, I'll let you—if you lose every time to me—in anything! If we play chess, I get the checkmate, if we play soccer, I goal on you, if we do a tournament, I beat you, every time, kapish?"
Aster's eyes darkened and he gripped Enzo's hand and said, "I don't have time for this, if you're going to stab me, just do it already. If you think I'm just going to let you win you've got me all wrong, I don't really care about the act of winning, I just want to have a legacy as the top student here. If that means beating you in the school tournament, so be it."
"You!" Is all Enzo could stutter before pulling the knife back and thrusting it into Aster's neck.