The following days after Daniel joined the group has been uneventful. He'd wake up in the morning, perform his usual morning routine, which involved failing to activate his arcanum. After that he'd head to class with Aurelia, Nat, Atlas and the new member, Daniel.
Ever since Daniel officially became a part of the group, Nat seemed to have stopped beating poor little Dom. He finally felt relieved and… free. He could now wake up every morning without being beaten up. It was either Nat didn't want Daniel to think she was a bully or she now had her eye's set on Daniel.
'I'd like to think it's the former. It's nice to see Nat thinking with her head.'
Dom smiled as he headed into his bathroom to take a quick shower.
He headed out of his room, his face gloomy, once more, due to another failure in uncovering his arcanum.
This time around, he exited his room earlier than usual, hoping to finally be able to reach the cafeteria before the others got there.
Anytime he reached the cafeteria after the others, they'd see his gloomy face and that just made them worry and he was tired of making them worry and him in a sad state, so he decided to start getting there before the rest.
Entering the cafeteria to quickly get a drink, he noticed that there was barely anyone in the cafeteria.
'It's still early.'
He was only able to put a foot in, when he was suddenly dragged by a huge hand.
"The fuck!"
He grunted as he was slammed against the wall.
He felt the air in his lungs suddenly run dry as he began greedily breathing in air.
"What do you think you are doing? Huh?", the owner of the huge arm asked.
Deciding to take a look at his assailant, the first thing he noticed was the shining blonde hair.
'Oh fuck me.'
Among everything he would have expected, it wouldn't have been to be attacked by Daniel's bully. It had crossed his mind, but he didn't think it would really happen. It seemed like the blonde saw him about to defend Daniel and then later invite him to his group to protect him.
The thought of using JKD to attack the blonde crossed his mind, but feeling the pressure he used to pin Dom's shoulders, it felt like he could shatter it at any moment. The pain was almost blinding, but he tried to stay focused.
"I asked you a question. What'd you think would happen after you took our pet away?"
Looking around him, it was only now that he knew he was surrounded.
'The fucking blonde came with his friends'
Dom was now regretting coming out earlier. He wished his friends were with him, but there were no signs of them. He felt… weak. The time spent in school without getting beaten had almost made him forget how weak he was. Rather than training throughout the day, they were made to learn and only train for a few hours.
Dom felt his shoulder bones cracking as the assailant increased his grip. He yelled in pain, just for his mouth to be covered by someone else. The hand tasted beyond disgusting.
"This weak trash thought he could save someone. You do know that you are only the second weakest in our class, right? That might even be the reason you were kept in an orphanage, because your parents already knew they gave birth to a failure.", he laughed a bit and continued:
"I don't want to see you or your group of orphans near Daniel.", the blonde giggled as he loosened his grip on Dom's shoulders, causing Dom to slide to the floor.
"Just so you know, this was just a light threat. Let's go guys."
The blonde and his gang began walking away, some even spitting on Dom's head.
He sat down quietly, not uttering any word or making any movement. Not sure how long he sat in that same position , he stood up and headed to his room.
...…
The door violently shook behind him as he slammed it violently. Tears falling down his face, his face squeezed together like paper, his teeth bare.
He felt like hitting something, but then who'd repair the expensive furniture? Unable to even trash the room, he began moving his hand around his hair, trying to let the stress out. With each thought of what just happened, passing through his head, his pride thrown out, he just kept getting angrier, until it all just stopped.
The room was embraced in a serene quietude as his anger slowly subsided and the tears stopped falling. Partly regaining his sanity, he headed into the shower to take a quick bath to wash away the saliva on his head. He silently washed every part of his body, wore a new uniform and headed out.
....
Reaching the cafeteria, his friends we're already gathered in front of the cafeteria. Aurelia seemed to be pacing around.
"Hey doofus, you are late again.", Nat said as she put her arms around Dom's shoulders.
"Yeah yeah, my alarm stopped working.", Dom said as he tried to put a smile on his face.
"How could that expensive clock just stop working?"
'Something is weird.', Aurelia thought
'He's acting weird, did something happen? And how would they place a faulty clock in that expensive room? Why was he even given that room in the first place?'
Aurelia had so many thoughts concerning Dom, but she never voiced it out. She began having speculations when she found out that Dom's room was far better than the rest.
Why would the school give an expensive room to an orphan? Unless they wanted something from him, but what would they want from him? What did he have that the rest didn't? The only difference is the lack of arcanum but Daniel also didn't have arcanum and yet his room was like the rest. They were so many thoughts in her head and none had an answer. She asked Dom about, but he just seemed clueless.
Now, Dom is acting troubled and is trying to hide it but it was obvious to them that he was troubled, but they decided to not ask him about it.
'It might be the absence of an arcanum.'
Nat looked at Dom with a troubled expression before letting him go.
"Shit, we are extremely late!", Dom shouted and immediately started running towards the class.
...…
" As written on the brochure, the school has its own beasts that are kept behind the school and, of course, you aren't allowed to go there unless taken by a teacher. The beasts serve as a sort of security and your centre for the scho-"
He stopped listening to the words of his lecturer as he delved deeper into his own thoughts.
'It's the same as before, just because I'm weak. I'll show them, I'll show them!', a picture of the blonde Anders, the bully, popped up in his head, causing him to grind his teeth together in anger.
He had a simple plan, to train way harder than before and beat them to a pulp with his only fist. He would have told his friends about what occurred, but that fucking Anders hit a nerve. The stress, anger and feeling of being a liability have been piling up for weeks. He always tried to keep his calm and not break down, but now he continue getting beaten for being weak? He had had enough!
...…
The bell rang and as usual, Dom and Daniel headed to the training center, since the current period was for the professional classes.
He took his battle stance opposite Daniel, slightly bending down with both hands in front of his face.
He went in for a punch to the face, his hands moving so fast, it was a blur.
Daniel was barely able to dodge the attack, shifting his head to the side to evade the punch. He sent his other hand flying towards Dom's ribs.
"You still don't understand the principles of JKD.", Dom said.
Rather than blocking it, he punched the side of Daniel's wrist, pushing the wrist away from him while also inflicting damage on the attacker.
Daniel winced as he felt the sharp pain from his wrist. Taking two steps back, he took his leg up to hit the back of his opponent's knee cap.
Dom simply waited for the leg to be halfway to its target before raising his leg to hit the incoming leg, causing Daniel to fall.
Using the momentum, he did a back flip to get some distance between them.
'Shit.'
Daniel had been unable to even land a hit on his opponent. Every attack he threw at Dom would be easily reflected with heavy damage. It felt like Dom was putting more strength behind each counter, more than he'd usually use.
'This isn't working out.', Dom sighed as he changed his tactics.
Not waiting for his opponent to attack, he ran closer to his opponent, throwing out fierce attacks. Daniel was barely able to block any attack thrown at him. He had several minor cuts all over his body as it became harder and harder to deflect each attack.
"Timeout?!", he shouted.
Dom stopped his attack midway and went to fetch his water bottle.
"What are you doing?! We're meant to be training, not trying to beat me to a pulp.", Daniel shouted in anger as he walked closer to Dom. Dom simply continued drinking from his bottle.
"Dude, I'm fucking talking to you!"
"Can you just shut the fuck up?! It's not my fault that you are so weak, you can't even block a few punches!"
Dom had dropped his bottle, his face squeezed together. He knew those words would hurt Daniel but he didn't want to care.
"Well fuck you!"
Daniel grabbed his thing and began heading out of the Hall. Dom just continued drinking his water.
Until he heard a sudden yelp, causing him to turn backwards.
'Shit!'
In front of him, Daniel was pinned to the wall by one of Anders goons, while the boss himself slowly walked towards Dom.
"This dude is probably training with the hopes of toppling me. I can't believe I almost gave him two weeks to rest.", he laughed as he continued walking.
'Motherfucker.', Dom thought
Not waiting for Anders to get closer, he jumped over the ring and began running toward Ander 'fucking-son'.
"Finally got two balls?", Anders asked as both of his legs suddenly ignited with flames. He ran towards the approaching figure.
"You got this.", one idiotic goon shouted from behind.
Not thinking much of Anders' arcanum, he continued running at the same speed. He already knew Anders arcanum, since everyone was aksed to activate it during physical training class.
The day he had been dreading had arrived and he was still unable to activate his arcanum and as expected, a lot of muffled laughter and snarky comments were made. He tried to be calm as he sat back down on his seat.
The two opponents met halfway, Anders going in for an overpowering punch to the head. Putting all his attention on his opponent's body to know when he was about to be strikes, Dom shifted his head to the side while punching the arm covered in flames.
It felt like hitting an adamant wall, Anders hand barely moved am inch from it original target. Using the momentum of the punch, he used the back of his leg to kick his opponent's head.
Anders simply used his bare fist to grab his legs, raised him in the air and slammed him back down on the metal floor.
"Such a poor attempt.", Anders laughed as he grabbed the leg harder.
The air evacuated Dom's lungs as he coughed out blood. He immediately began searching for air while also looking for a way out of the Anders grip.
Laughing at his prey's poor attempt to loosen his grip, Anders punched the side of the knee, dislocating his knee cap.
Dom was about screaming when he felt his mouth held shut by an invisible force.
Anders' smile grew wider, devilishly. He used Dom's body as a dirty rag, hitting him, continuously. With each hit on the ground, Dom's eyes would widen and muffled screams would pass through his sealed mouth. With each hit on the now red cold metal floor, Dom would be healed to keep the torture going.
He felt his consciousness go black after he was slammed, once more on the metal floor.
"He's out.", Anders and the rest of the goons laughed.
"It's your turn.", Anders said to one of the goons
Picking up the unconscious body, Anders headed to one of his goons and placed his hands on him and they both dissapeard.
"You could have waited for me."
Jack said as he managed to place his hands on the invisible Anders while holding the unconscious Daniel on his other hand.
While Dom was getting beaten to a pulp, Daniel also received his own share of horror and torture. His arms and legs were twisted in unnatural angles, causing the weak kid to pass out immediately.
...…
Anders and the rest quietly travelled the long hallway, trying to evade as many students as possible. There weren't many students in the hallway since lectures were still ongoing, so it wasn't hard.
Their plan was simple. Kill the kids so that they won't tell on them, place their dead bodies in the forest behind the school to make it seem like they got killed while wandering the forbidden area behind the school.
Finally reaching the forest, the arcanum was deactivated and they were finally visible once more. They placed the children on the floor and Anders said:
"Which one is going first?"
He pretended to think for a while and continued:
"The weakest always dies first."
His face turned gloomy with a sadistic smile plastered on his face. He bent over Daniel and wore a glove with claws placed above the fingers.
With a single swipe, he sliced across the neck of the weakest, Daniel. Blood sprayed everywhere as he took a step back to evade the blood.
"Woah ther-"
Before he could complete his words, a sudden scream caused him to stop and look at its source.
"Noo!", Dom shouted.
He had regained his consciousness, just to see Daniel facing him with his eyes closed while blood gushed out from his neck, some even dripping on his face.
"Noo!"
He screamed and then suddenly, his vision turned black. Nothing else could be seen except darkness in the endless black void.