Luna stood quietly facing Chase on the rooftop. From an outsider's perspective, this was the ideal confession event taking place, the Academy Prince proposing to a mysterious and beautiful girl.
But, alas, this was far from reality.
Luna was already circulating universal energy through her body, the soft glow of her eyes overshadowed by the afternoon sun.
'I don't see any movement in universal energy,' Luna noted. Along the way to the roof, everyone in the hallways started to somewhat ignore the duo despite the initial commotion that they caused.
'Some mind control gift,' Luna thought to herself feeling slightly sick. There was no way that people just suddenly started to ignore Chase unless it was in the form of a gift.
'Maybe invisibility, but...' Luna contemplated, trying to find clues about Chase's gift, yet all she could come up with was some form of a mind-manipulating gift.
Chase just leaned his back against the railing with a soft smile adorning his flawless face. The light of the sun's rays filtered through the gaps in his hair creating a dappeled shade across his face.
"So, you must be wondering why I requested this meeting," Chase started, sweeping his hand through his hair.
Luna stayed silent, carefully observing the universal energy in the surroundings. Any change and Luna would immediately activate her gift.
"Well," Chase continued, not minding the lack of response from Luna at all. "I wanted to have a little chat about your friend you see."
Luna flinched.
'Oh?' Chase thought to himself. Although it was barely imperceptible, Luna had just flinched. After all, the action itself was just too much of a difference from her regular doll-like appearance.
Chase stopped speaking after that, letting his words sink in.
'I need to take control of the conversation,' Chase smirked inwardly.
Unfortunately for Luna, Chase was indeed taking control of the conversation.
'I knew it! What does he want from Emmia,'
'Why talk to me,'
'I don't think he's planning anything good,'
Due to Luna's lack of interaction with others, her thoughts started to spiral out of control with just a few words and a pause from Chase.
But even then, Luna's face remained impassive, not showing any sign of the turmoil that she was feeling inside. Slowly, Luna's mental state started to drop, causing the black color in her eyes and hair to grow darker.
Misunderstanding, Chase furrowed his brows slightly, before relaxing. 'Impressive, she isn't getting swept up in my pace...In that case, I'll just charm her now.'
Chase decided to use his trump card, his gift, 'Charm'. A gentle pink mist started to emanate from Chase as his gift started to do its work. The mist was imperceptible, as it was a direct byproduct of his gift, only Chase could see it. It was made from his internal universal energy that was released all around him. Slowly but surely, the pink mist started to drift towards Luna.
Meanwhile, Luna didn't notice anything abnormal for two reasons. One, there was no movement in the universal energy in the surrounding of the terrace as Chase was using his own internal universal energy. Two, Luna was distracted. Very distracted.
Chase's one line was enough to send Luna into a state of chaos.
'What does he want?' Luna tried to rack her brain to no avail.
'He's just standing there, the universal energy is calm,'
'Does he have partners in crime?'
'What if this is just a distraction?'
'That would be silly, but what if...'
Luna's thoughts continued to swirl as the mist was finally upon her. Unconsciously, Luna had also started to emit some particles which caused both the particles and the mist to clash right around Luna's figure.
'Finally,' Chase thought to himself. A victorious smile hung on his lips. The range at which the two were was not at all optimal, but Chase knew that any movement toward Luna would spook the girl.
'Anyways, the distance and patience paid off in the end,' Chase thought to himself. This made it so that Luna didn't suspect a thing from him.
'How should I take care of the target now?' Chase thought to himself, counting Luna as one of his charmed minions at this point.
'Should I make this bi**h betray the target at the last moment?'
'Or should I do something worse...' Chase contemplated as sadistic thoughts started to run through his head.
'How should I break- wait,'
Chase's thoughts stopped in place as he felt something out of place.
'Why can't I feel a connection,' Chase thought to himself as he focussed on Luna's figure engulfed in the pink mist.
Usually, when the victim was affected by the gift, Chase would feel some sort of feeling that informed him about his target's status.
'What the-' Chase's eyes widened as he saw what was happening. Just around Luna's body, there was a buffer between the pink mist and her figure.
'Why-' Chase narrowed his eyes to capture what was happening right in that space. And then he caught sight of it. Almost minuscule black dots that floated around Luna's figure. The black dots seemed to prevent the pink mist from touching Luna's body by 'absorbing' the mist around them.
'What are those,' Chase questioned as he felt a chill down his spine. It was an instinctive reaction as he continued to stare at the black dots. They seemed to float in place, defying all physical laws of the world, anything that got close to them was absorbed without mercy, almost as if it was erased from existence just by coming close to the dots. This gave Luna a slight buffer that prevented the mist from touching her.
'Those are dangerous,' Chase thought to himself, a cold sweat forming on his back. Immediately, he shut off his gift, causing the formation of the pink mist to stop.
'This is bad, what sort of monster did I come across?'
'I need to get out of here and report to Master.'
'How should I leave without raising any suspicion?'
Chase racked his brain for a way to escape without bringing down the wrath of the girl - no monster in front of him. As Chase continued to stare at Luna slowly emitting more and more black dots, her figure in his head started to warp. From an unworthy person not worth his attention to a full-fledged monster.
'Demon,' Chase thought as Luna's hair and eyes started to suck in all the light right in front of him. Shivers scittered through his body as Luna's figure started to obscure itself, slowly being replaced by a shadowy figure. Chase's breath caught in his throat as his eyes contracted at the vision in front of him.
"I-I'm sorry, I just remembered that I was called by Mr. Gavin for a review at this exact time," Chase eeked out trying to stay calm.
Sweat dripped down his brow as the shadow in front of him didn't answer.
"Let's meet later," Chase breathed out shakily and quickly walked past the shadow. Giving a wide berth as he passed the monster, Chase started to run as he reached the stairs.
'What the HELL?!'
'What in the actual hell was that?'
'What sort of monster is hanging around that Emmia girl?!'
'I need to report this,' Chase thought worriedly.
In haste, Chase rushed through the hallways, only keeping his gift partially active due to the mental exhaustion of whatever he had stared down.
Passing by droves of people, many recognized their prince, some calling out to him and others admiring the way he ran.
Only a few noticed his flustered countenance as he ran like he had seen something really terrifying.
'What happened to him?' Sefir thought as he raised an eyebrow at the sight of Chase hurrying by.
'He came running from the roof?' Sefir thought as he traced the path from where Chase had come running from.
'I wonder....' Sefir pondered, as he decided to check it out just like his gut wanted him to.
Vollax on the other hand just snorted at Chase running through the crowds.
'Ugly b*****d,' Vollax shook his head in disgust. Surprisingly, it seemed that Chase's disguise didn't work on Vollax. Well, that and Vollax could hear Chase's sick thoughts as well...
Back at the rooftop, Luna still stood there rooted to the spot, the pink mist having disappeared, completely absorbed by the black dots floating around Luna.
However at this point, Luna was still too preoccupied with her thoughts to even notice the black dots that were being formed around her.
'What do I do?'
'There is something wrong with him....'
'He was stalking her pretty heavily...'
'Will Emmia be okay outside the academy..yes, she has her super strong sister living with her....'
'Should I tell anybody about him?'
'But will anyone believe me...no..'
'Maybe I need to take action on my own...'
'He's dangerous, a mental manipulation gift should not be treated lightly...'
'If Emmia was affected that would...I don't want to think about it.'
'I should kill him...' The black particles surged around Luna.
'Yes, or else he'll cause problems later-'
"LUNA!" A shout pierced through her daze startling Luna to the point where she lost her balance. The impact on the ground caused the black particles around her to fizzle out and disappear harmlessly, nothing like what they were before.
"Are you okay?" Sefir fretted slightly as he held his arms out to help Luna. "I didn't mean to startle you that badly, you were just standing there without saying anything and you weren't responding to anything I was saying..."
"...." Luna tried to open her mouth to answer Sefir to reassure him that what happened wasn't his fault, but no sound came out.
In fact, Luna stood up without saying a word and started to walk down the stairs completely ignoring Seifr.
Sefir scratched his head awkwardly as he just got brutally ignored.
"Haaah, I should apologize for startling her," Sefir rubbed his neck ruefully.
'What am I doing,' Luna thought frantically.
'I should've said something, why can't I speak anything.'
'I can't even stop,' Luna thought horrified as she found herself a stranger in her own body, unable to control it as she walked towards an unknown destination.
Finally, after 5 long excruciating minutes of dread, Luna found herself in the library where she was finally able to consciously able to control her own body.
'Finally-' Luna thought before a truck of exhaustion slammed into her, knocking her out instantly right on the floor much to the surprise of Shui who reading a book at a table not too far away.
--------------------
Emmia excitedly made her way to the factory in the manufacturing district. 'Finally, I'm almost there!' Emmia almost bounced her way across the street as she rounded the corner.
'I'm late, but it should be....fine.....' Emmia's thoughts halted as she faced the factory. Or at least where it should have been. There, the building was closed, with no lights in the main machinery area, looking like it was shut down.
'Is today a holiday?' Emmia thought confused. She walked around, trying to see if there was any light on in the factory.
"Excuse me," Emmia called out to a worker passerby, "What happened to the factory here?"
"Ah, this?" The worker scrunched up his forehead before remembering what had happened. "Ah, they happened to close a few days ago, saying something like they were relocating or something like that."
"Ah....thank you," Emmia managed to push out in a daze as the worker left with an 'aye'.
'What.....bad luck.....' Emmia thought despondently as she clutched her bag straps. Suddenly, she could feel the weight of the bag that she had been carrying, digging into her shoulders, pushing her down to sit down.
Exhaustion filled Emmia as she took a seat in front of the closed factory, her bag now on her lap.
Taking out her sketchbook, Emmia looked at the design she had spent the past two weeks on. Every detail, she had painstakingly mulled over for an obscene amount of time.
"Haaaaah," a long sigh exited Emmia as she just sat there staring at her own sketch.
"Aye, what ye doing 'ere?" A gruff voice called out to Emmia.
"Eeek!" Emmia yelped in fright as her sketchbook tumbled out of her lap. 'Ah! It's that girl,' Ulmolg thought to himself. It was that girl whom he had tried to scout into the company. 'What's she doin' here?'
"Ye okay girlie?" Ulmolg raised an eyebrow in concern.
"Ah y-yes," Emmia started to respond as she scrambled to pick up her sketchbook before her eyes widened in recognition. "Sir, it's you?!"
"Who else would it be?" Ulmolg huffed as he eyed the sketchbook in the girl's with curiosity.
"I m-mean, why are you here?" Emmia stuttered to as, clutching her book in excitement.
"Just te grab some things at 'e office before leaving," Ulmolg responded while unlocking the door.
"You're leaving?" Emmia asked with wide eyes.
"Ye," Ulmolg responded curtly while scratching his beard. 'I wish I had more time to see what she cooked up....but..'
He eyed Emmia as she fidgeted with the sketchbook in hand. Sighing, he relented, as his curiousity won, and told the girl "Come in, we can have a better discussion inside."