"So, are you really going to do this?" Sefir asked doubtfully. He eyed Icarth sitting opposite of him. Icarth stared back with a dead look in his eyes. Next to Icarth, Jade sat there constantly twisting his head in wonder. The trio were currently in the cafeteria, with countless people staring at the group that sported a dark brown rabbit.
"Yes," Icarth repeated in a monotonous voice.
"Alright man," Sefir shrugged his shoulders. "It's just surprising to see that you want to deepen the bond between you and Jade."
Hearing that Jade gave an inaudible snort while Icarth just nodded mechanically. He had decided to go with that story to avoid revealing his master to other people.
"Ohhhh!" A squeal pierced through the constant chatter of the cafeteria, and a red flurry of hair rushed to their table.
The trio turned to see Shui stop in front of their table.
"Ahem," Shui cleared her throat to alleviate some of the embarrassment at shouting earlier. It was just involuntary that she let out the noise. After all, who could resist the charm of a small, cute, and furry animal?
"I'm sitting here," Shui stated determinedly and grabbed a chair from a nearby table to add a new space next to Jade's seat.
"Hey Shui," Sefir greeted politely. Shui nodded and directly moved on to start petting Jade. Having seen Shui enough times, Jade did not shy away from her touch.
He did however turn to look at Icarth.
Catching a glimpse of Jade from the corner of his eye, Icarth could almost swear that he saw a smug expression on that rabbit's face.
'Na, rabbits can't look smug,' Icarth thought to himself as he helped himself to his meal.
"So, what's the occasion?" Shui asked while stroking Jade's head.
"No-" Icarth started before Sefir cut him off, "Icarth wants to deepen his bond with Jade, so he's decided to live with Jade from now."
"Oh? Ohhhhhh," Shui started to gloat. With a knowing smile, Shui glanced at Icarth, "You needed Jade for something, huh?"
Icarth chose to remain silent, unwilling to react to Shui's taunt.
"Heh," Shui laughed. "Don't worry. I understand completely."
"Sure," Icarth resisted the urge to groan.
For the next 40 minutes or so Icarth decided to remain silent, suffering under Shui's laughter and Sefir's encouraging tips on how to get closer to someone else.
'I just had to think of such a cringe excuse,' Icarth slapped himself internally.
"By the way, what's the occasion with you?" Icarth suddenly asked Shui, trying to divert the conversation.
"What do you mean?" Shui asked confused, before the context clicked in her head.
"Ah! I'm here today for some extra lessons," Shui informed with a hint of embarrassment in her voice. Shui's gift, "Ignition", was pretty hard to control and use. Hence, after trying to get better at it for the past few weeks without any results, Shui had asked for help from one of the instructors.
Icarth nodded his head in approval, 'Good, she's finally getting help for her gift.'
Discretely, Icarth activated his universal energy vision and looked at Shui. Just like before, the red mist had returned to its original state, a thick red fog, almost like water that clung to Shui.
Icarth deactivated his vision and the fog faded away from sight, leaving only Shui who had completely embraced Jade, placing him on her lap.
"Oh, that's cool, who's your instructor?" Sefir asked politely.
"Oh I don't know I was supposed to meet her here today-" Shui started to explain when the group heard the footsteps of someone approaching.
"Student Shui Vari?" the person asked. She was tall, almost reaching 6 feet. Her red hair, which was probably long, was tied up in a bun on the top of her head. Piercing red eyes focused on the group, as the teacher stood there expectantly.
"Yes, that would be me," Shui finally answered after a short pause. "And teacher, you are?"
"You may call me Ms. Lynn," the teacher introduced herself curtly. "Let's go, student, we have a lot to work on."
"Yes ma'am," Shui responded quickly, releasing Jade, who hopped off after sensing the current mood.
"See you guys later," Shui waved at Icarth, Sefir, and Jade as she hurried to follow Lynn who was already walking away.
"Bye Shui!," Sefir called out as Icarth just waved.
"That teacher feels so cold," Sefir commented on her attitude that they had seen. "Do you think Shui will be alright?"
"Mmm," Icarth murmured, deep in thought. 'Something feels wrong.....where have I seen that person before?....' Icarth racked his brain.
After a solid minute, Icarth was still drawing a blank. 'I guess I'll think about it later,' Icarth pushed the thoughts out of his mind and turned his head back to Jade who had gotten tired of the cafeteria and was preparing to go back to sleep.
"You know, I just want to say that you two are made for each other," Sefir commented after witnessing Jade fall asleep in just a couple of minutes, in a public space.
Icarth's eyes twitched as he breathed out, 'Don't respond, that would just encourage him.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Seril walked next to Emmia as the pair made their way through the city. The morning was just warming up, with the sun slowly ascending to its rightful place in the sky.
"Thanks, Seril!" Emmia chirped with a spring in her step.
"Mmmm," Seril resisted the urge to yawn and nodded.
"Why do you need to go to the academy during during the weekend as well?" Seril asked Emmia as she adjusted the beanie on her head.
"Well, I finally got how to finish the forest crawler design! I just need some more material which should be in the library," Emmia started. "It's really interesting. I can finally see universal energy now! And when I try to see how the design was made in the actual book, it just looks amazing. The detail in the sketch - wait, did I tell you I see things like they are drawings in a sketchbook? It's all black and white. So anyways, the detail was just *blah* *blah*"
Emmia started to ramble on, her eyes glowing with barely contained excitement.
"Mmm."
"I see."
"Wow."
Intertwined between her ramblings, Seril gave distracted inputs while picking up on bits of information from her sister.
'Good that she can see universal energy now.....An interesting type of vision.....oh right, I should warn her,' Seril suddenly remembered.
"Mia?" Seril called out, interrupting Emmia's full-blown rant.
"The engine is- Yes?" Emmia finally paused.
"The description about what you see universal energy as? Never say it out loud again," Seril warned.
"I- what?" Emmia was prompted to ask, very confused at what Seril meant.
"I mean that it's a taboo to speak about what you see when you look at universal energy. Every being is unique, and the way that they perceive universal energy is absolutely different each time. So if one hears about someone else's view of universal energy, it may taint their vision and cripple them," Seril explained.
"Oh....," was all that Emmia could utter in response.
"It's fine. It doesn't affect people who have already stabilized their views of universal energy, but it's better not to mention anything," Seril ran her hand through Emmia's hair to calm her sister who was starting to panic.
"Oh..," Emmia repeated, this time in a relieved tone.
"I'm sorry Seril, I didn't know," Emmia apologized after a short pause.
"It's fine Mia," Seril shook her head. "Just keep this in mind, we never know who might be listening."
Seril calmly glanced around once more to check the universal energy around them. During Emmia's ramblings, she had set up a rudimentary barrier of universal energy that blocked out people's perceptions of sound. 'No one there,' Seril noted satisfied that her barrier had succeeded its purpose.
Shifting her focus back to Emmia, Seril saw a fog of various colors. Black, yellow, and green were mixed together and were floating around Emmia, clinging to her.
'Regret, fear, and will,' Seril noted. 'Looks like the message got across.'
Along the rest of the way, Emmia made sure to steer clear of the taboo and buried Seril with a mound of information about engines, fuel, tires, pipes, and other various things that she was planning to add to the forest crawler design.
------------------------------------------
Seril patted Emmia's shoulders when they reached the academy.
"This is where I'll let you go," Seril told her sister.
"Awww, don't you want to come to the library?" Emmia asked with puppy eyes.
"Nope," Seril refused with a small laugh.
"Okay," Emmia nodded in understanding, her eyes drooping a little.
"Heh," Seril chuckled a little and continued to say, "I have an appointment with Ms. Sophia here."
Emmia flinched almost imperceptibly, yet not enough for Seril to overlook it.
"What was that?" Seril narrowed her eyes.
"What was what?" Emmia kept her voice stable, casually glancing at her escape route towards the library.
"Why did you flinch when I said Ms. Sophia?"
"I don't know what you mean. It was just a chill," Emmia denied naturally.
"Anyways, I have to go, I'll see you back home Seril!" Emmia shouted the last part behind her back as she started to jog towards the library with her bag in her hand and her heart in her throat.
'I'll just have to ask Ms. Sophia then,' Seril thought with a raised eyebrow as she made her way to the administrative department.
Entering the department, Seril was greeted by a blanket of silence followed by hushed whispers of, "It's the Huntress!"
Almost everyone in the hall dropped what they were doing and averted their eyes.
"Who is that?" One of the employees asked.
"Shhh," his friend silenced him immediately.
Getting the hint, the employee shut up and looked to the ground.
Seril glanced at him from the corner of her eyes and decided to ignore him.
Passing through the main hall, a wave of sighs followed her wake.
"Bro, you have no idea how lucky you were," the employee's friend said.
"What do you mean? Who even was that?" The employee asked confused.
"She's the Huntress. Rumour has it that she has never failed a mission before," His friend replied, his tone lowering as if he feared the Huntress would hear their conversation.
"But that doesn't explain why everyone went silent," the employee was still confused.
His friend shook his head a little before taking in a deep breath to prepare himself.
"It's said that if you look her directly in her eyes, you see your worst fears come to life. Everybody who looked directly into her eyes was never the same," his friend shivered after recalling the stories of insanity that he had heard.
"I see," the employee said, not entirely convinced, but willing to believe after seeing everybody's reactions.
"Man, I'll tell you what I've heard, just not right now ok?" his friend whispered to him, wanting to ensure that he didn't do anything dumb.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Seril!" Sophia beamed a smile while staring directly into her eyes.
'Anyone who looks into my eyes becomes scarred for life huh?' Seril thought dryly, after locking eyes with Sophia. She recalled some of the superstitions that she had heard around the place.
'If that were true, then I think she's already insane,' Seril closed her eyes and endured the hug that Sophia was currently giving.
"You need to visit more often! You rarely visit me after you graduated," Sophia smiled as she broke away from the hug.
"I don't think anyone would want to visit their tormentor voluntarily," Seril commented under her breath.
"What was that?" Sophia raised her eyebrows with a smile.
"Nothing, why did you call me here teacher?" Seril plopped down on the chair in the room. Facing her teacher, Seril recalled some....particularly violent memories of training under Sohpia.
'And they call me the demon,' Seril thought with a hint of bitterness. The people viewed Sophia as a saint who would help anyone who was injured at any cost. But what they didn't see or realize, was the actual terror of her gift...Blood Manipulation was not just a gift for medical use. Though, only a few people knew that.
"Aww, Seril, don't be in a hurry to leave," Sophia chirped. "It's been so long since I saw you!"
Sophia started to arrange some papers on her desk which Seril caught a glimpse of.
'Increase in the violence of the beasts...'
'Reports of various mutations in new births of the current year....'
'Nectel territory undergoing reconstructions due to an increase in attacks.....'
"Lot of work huh?" Seril commented after reading a little of the reports.
"Haah, the world feels like it's in turmoil these days," Sophia sighed softly. "The number of turbulent events just keeps increasing."
"Hmm, so why was I called here?" Seril asked once more like a broken record.
Sophia pouted slightly, "Oh come on, no small talk?"
"No," Seril refused flatly. 'I need to get back to finding the user of that parasite gift..'
But Seril's thoughts were stopped by the following words.
"The Numbers have infiltrated the city," Sophia relayed, without a hint of her previous playfulness.
"What?" Seril asked in a sharp tone. While she was training under Sophia, she had heard of the numbers and their acts of terrorism.
"How did they get in without the Supreme knowing?" Seril demanded with narrowed eyes.
"Seril, you should remember that the supreme's barrier doesn't work on the numbers," Sophia responded calmly, finally finding the report she wanted. She pushed the report to the silent Seril opposite to her.
'Right, the Numbers are indistinguishable from regular people,' Seril thought to herself as she took the report.
Seril pressed her lips together. Absolute carnage. That was what she saw on the report. An entire street was reduced to ash and rubble, with an entire squad massacred.
'Done by Bell or also known as Belial,' Seril read to herself.
"So it really is the Depraved," Seril commented with a cold voice.
"I'm afraid so," Sophia sighed as she leaned back.
The numbers were also known as the Depraved or the enemies of humanity, who wanted nothing more than the destruction of life to suit their own goals.
"I was asked to give you a mission to hunt down one of the numbers to extract information," Sophia explained while rubbing her eyes.
Seril looked through the report and found some compiled information on each of the numbers that were suspected to be stationed in Aster City.
'The All-Seer, Belial, Heracles, ???, Doctor, ???, ???- wait, Doctor?' Seril stopped skimming through the names.
'Doctor....suspected to have a parasitic type of gift.....'
"I know that you are busy with your work right now, but this takes top priority-," Sophia started to say.
"No," Seril cut in. "I'll take the request, teacher."
"You will?" Sophia raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, but I want to choose my target," Seril pointed at the name 'Doctor'.
Seril's logic was simple, 'It makes sense if the controller of those parasites is one of the Numbers, those things are just too strong....and their target is probably me, so they targeted my sister...'
Confirming her student's choice, Sophia nodded her head.
"Fine, take the report with you. It has all the information we have about the target," Sophia rested her head on the back of her chair.
Seril nodded, taking the report.
'If they already targeted her, then there's a chance that Ica and Mia are in danger,' Seril clenched her fist. 'Not this time....I will protect them this time,' Seril swore to herself.
"Just," Sophia started to say before stopping. "...be careful ok?" She requested in a soft voice, her soft brown eyes filled with worry for her student.
"Mmm," Seril nodded, eager to resume the hunt for the Number who tried to *fuck* with her sister.