"What did you just say?" In that instant, Natasha's face contorted into one of pure, unbridled anger. She had been trying her utmost best to hold it in, after everything that happened.
It wasn't that she couldn't straight up pour out her frustration of what he put her through on him, even tenfold, perhaps traumatizing the non-entity in the process. But she resisted the urge to do that, solely because she was the CLASS REPRESENTATIVE. In a way, she was supposed to be a model student, and that she tried her very best to portray. It would be a lie to say she didn't have this itch to break the faces of every one of these pathetic pieces of shit whenever they got on her nerves with their disgusting attitudes, but she always chose to be the bigger person.
And that was the same situation now. She was trying, REALLY TRYING, to not cripple the idiot standing before her who had not only jeopardized the future of the class with his reckless and selfish act which led the dean to deduct extremely IMPORTANT points their class desperately needed to stay afloat. But now, with those points gone, they had fallen last in the placement.
The class was yet to even learn about it, and it was bound to cause a major riot, as most—no, ALL the students needed the benefits that came with being within the top three classes in the placement. But now that they had fallen below that, they would lose all those benefits and instead depend on phases to keep up with their peers in the other classes.
That, THAT irritated her beyond all bounds. And as though that wasn't enough, he had dragged her into the mess, and she was now facing some serious issues. It was even more frustrating knowing nothing at all was done to the culprit, and she, SHE, termed the so-called "ACCOMPLICE," received some severe punishment which, till this moment, she refused to admit hurt. And now, NOW, standing before the cause of it all, she realized something.
He actually had no remorse.
"KAEDEN Richard, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!" From nowhere, a sword manifested which she pointed towards him in rage, her ether threatening to burst out uncontrollably. She wanted to beat him so bad he would lose his face. OH HOW BAD SHE NEEDED TO!
"And I... refuse," he walked away, brushing past her shoulder.
She was stunned. Utterly in disbelief as she turned and stared at him. "I would advise you take up this duel.... I don't want to have to do something we will both regret," she said through gritted teeth.
She knew he was weak. Heck, THEY all knew. After all, in every phase, no matter how barely available the difficulty was, HE was always injured, sometimes at the verge of death. And it was simply because he was nothing more than an ordinary human without ether. But even at that, it still surprised her that he blatantly walked away from a challenge—the highest level of disrespect one could show in this institution. After all, even if most people here were worse than trash, there was one core value that was drilled into them from the very beginning of this all: Pride.
Weak or strong, it was strange to find someone reject a duel.
But he did it, and so disrespectfully at that!
Her sword disappeared. She looked at his receding back, her expression unreadable, then turned to find some students staring. This was definitely going to be a hot topic. She grabbed her bag.
"Tasha?" She turned to see her friends approaching with concerned looks.
"It's nothing," she said, but it was obvious from how dark her eyes were that she was going to make him pay.
...
"What happened to your eyes?" The moment the young man stepped out, the question was posed.
"Huh?" He frowned, tilting to find a girl leaning by the wall just outside the class. Black long hair tied with a red bead, and wine red eyes. She wore the same uniform as the other girls, a bit busty with the right curves, but her eyes were the real point of attraction, those red orbs.
"You," he muttered, then turned and began walking away, not sparing the girl a second glance.
"There will be a phase on Friday. I don't care what has gotten into you or if you have recovered or not, you better be on your very best on that day, or I swear, if you turn into a burden like you have continually chosen to be, I will make sure the admin has no choice but to reassign the squad a new member, and I hope you know what that means?"
For every two years, the team assigned was permanent, and that was something unchanging.
An unbreakable rule, but there was one way to actually FORCE the academy to issue another member to an incomplete squad.
It was simple.
She was going to kill him in the phase.
"..." He said nothing, just kept walking. Not to the infirmary, not to the cafeteria. At this moment, if someone who knew him could notice, they would realize something was wrong with the young man, very wrong. It was as though...
He...
Was possessed.
Red eyes watched his back intently.
'...Hmm... I wonder,' she thought.