17. Surpassing my limits

Bzz, bzz. Bzz, bzz.

I was just getting out of the bathroom, a towel on my head. I looked at my cell.

‘Zeeta, today, at 06:39: Rise and shine, Straw Head! Today’s the day u get your results!!’

‘06:39: I’ve got a little job this morning, but be sure to call me when u go relieve your stress.’

“That bastard,” I chuckled as I sat on the sofa beside Rainbows.

‘Armen, 06:40: Morning~ 😊 🎔’

‘06:41: Are ya saying I’ll get failing grades? 😕 Don’t jinx me!!! 😦’

‘Zeeta, 06:42: Relax 😁’

‘06:43: Btw, it’s been three days since that day. Are you all right, now?’

‘Armen, 06:44: I’m fine! Ray’s the best doctor on earth. 👍’

I lowered my eyes to my torso with a happy face. Actually, Ray had just been following his dad’s instructions, but he had done a very good job: my skin was smooth, without a trace of injuries. The Lord Necromancer said I would need about two months to completely heal my inner wounds, but as long as I ate lifeforce regularly, I should be fine.

I typed:

‘06:45: Tonight I was so stressed about my results I couldn’t sleep at all! 😥’

‘Zeeta, 06:45: You moron. 😂’

‘06:45: Please don’t write lame jokes like that on your cell, or the IA will get you.’

‘Armen, 06:45: The IA? 😨’

‘Zeeta, 06:46: The Insomnia Association.’

‘Armen, 06:46: 😂’

‘06:47: Louise has come every day to play with Rainbows and me. She said she wants to play with Seeta too 😄’

‘06:47: We made a snowman in our garden! ⛄’

I sent the photo I had taken yesterday, of Louise, the cat, Ray, and the snowman.

‘Zeeta, 06:52: Wow. Nice photo. Rainbows is like ‘what on earth is going on here?’ How did she climb all the way to the head?’

‘Armen, 06:53: Heheh, I put her on the snowman myself. 😁’

‘06:54: she didn’t like it and destroyed the poor snowman afterwards. 😣 She’s full of energy.’

‘Zeeta, 06:54: you get what you deserve for making fun of her. 😎’

‘06:56: I kind of want to see Rainbows now. This weekend Loki didn’t give me a break. He’s a good guy, but he seriously thinks the world revolves around him. Can I come this afternoon?’

‘Armen, 06:54: Any time! 😊 😸 🎔 🎔 🎔’

I was distractedly stroking Rainbows’ head when I heard the sound of footsteps upstairs. Ray was up. Outside, it was just starting to get light.

Only some hours left before we got our results!

* * *

The school’s gate was wide open, and the hall was crowded. Everyone was gathering around the bulletin boards, searching for their names and grades. As third-year students, Ray and Arkill had gone at the far end of the hall.

“Armen! I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to see you in this crowd!”

I turned around and widened my eyes as I saw a blond young woman in casual clothes grinning at me.

“Sis?!” I cried out. “You came?”

“Of course! I didn’t tell you?”

“You didn’t!”

“I see. Mm… Well? Did my demon-fish brains have an effect?”

As happy as I was to see Azritz, on hearing her question, I became gloomy. She raised an eyebrow.

“Why the long face? Did you flunk your exams? Now, now, you’ll do better next time!”

I shook my head, troubled.

“Actually, I don’t know yet.”

“What? Oh… I see.” She paused, then said: “I’ll go take a look.”

“Don’t!”

“Why not?”

“You’re not even a student here.”

“Eeh? People always take me for one! What? You scared? It’s all right, I won’t tell you your results: you’ll have to take a look yourself for that, scaredy-cat! Ray is there too, right? I’ll go say hello to him.”

She disappeared in the crowd of students. I gazed at the busy hall, in a daze, then took a step forward. What was I waiting for, anyway? For my grades to show up in front of me?

Then, I heard Woon’s voice.

“Armen, Armen! I got two grades above average!”

“That’s nothing to be proud of, Woon,” Arkifa snorted. “You usually do better…”

“Haha, I messed up big time, right? I used some new personal techniques. It’s like, yaaa know… Once Haxton is tempted by a great idea,” he said dramatically, holding up his third hand, “I can’t back out. It gives me a wonderful thrill just to try it out! Armen, you know what I mean, right? Well, failed experiments are a part of life!”

“Quit experimenting with your own grades, please,” Arkifa huffed, and raising her purple eyes, she stopped before me, grinning. “Congratulations, Armen.”

I stared at her, bewildered. Congratulations? What did she mean? Did I…?

“Sorry!” I let out, as I broke into a run.

I finally made it to the board and look at the names. Arkifa got very good grades, but not as good as Ashooka’s: his boyfriend was ranked first out of all the second-year again. As for me…

Armen Moon: Mathematics: 42 | Biology: 18 | Chemistry: 9 | Literature: 25 | Common Language: 40 | History: 35 | T: 28/100 | Rank/240: 199

I blinked, a weird sensation in my throat. My grade in chemistry was a bit of a surprise. Did I really manage to only score nine points? Well, but what about the others subjects? Mathematics and Common Language…

My eyes were about to cry.

No, no, I mustn’t show my black tears. Besides, I had to save all my deathforce to heal myself.

As I stepped backwards and leaned on the wall, I breathed in, absorbing the dense lifeforce accumulated in the hall. My lips stretched into a quivering smile. Now I understood what Arkifa meant by “congratulations”: she unexpectedly knew me well.

I had sworn to myself I would pass over forty points in math and… I did it! Also, I couldn’t remember the last time I had achieved a rank below two hundred. But the most important thing was that my grades had improved. My efforts hadn’t been made in vain. That was a sensation I hadn’t felt in quite a while.

As I let my arm down, Azritz’s worried face popped up in front of me.

“Hey, no, you crying, Armen? Don’t let your exam results get you down!”

I chuckled.

“Sis… I’m happy.” Before Azritz’s surprised look, I added: “You know, Ray put a lot of effort into teaching me mathematics, and my results actually improved. Ray’s amazing. Well, I’m amazing too, heh.”

Azritz sighed in relief and laughed:

“So that’s how it is! Those demon-fish brains I cooked for you really made you smarter!”

She was joking, but her merry face was saying: muahahaha, I’m gonna cook more of them! As I followed her outside the building, I rubbed my forehead doubtfully.

“The finals are in summer, sis. I don’t need to be smart for now.”

“Ha! No pain, no gain! Next time, I’ll brew something even better for you, you will see! Even that Ray always first ranked will be in shock!”

Whatever her next potion would be, I wouldn’t be able to taste it, which might be a shame but… it might be a good thing too. Anyway, Ray got first ranked again, even after spending so much time reading grimoires, helping me, or playing video games… His capacity for concentration was truly incredible.

Outside, the snow had been piled up on the edges.

“Didn’t you have work this morning?” I asked, then gasped. “Don’t tell me you took a day off just for coming here?”

“What if I had?” Azritz gave me a teasing look, then got serious as she reached the school’s gate, turned around lightly, and said: “Actually, I’ve quit.” Before my amazed eyes, she announced: “Next week, I’ll start working at the Nyomin College as a quirk researcher.” She hesitated. “I was thinking about moving houses. Now that my wages will go up and that I’ve almost paid up my debts, I think I can afford something in the Nyomin District. You’re welcome of course! … What? Why are you grinning? I didn’t accept just because you told me, lil bro. Actually, I was thinking about accepting the offer this whole time.”

Yeah, sure, that was why she turned the document into a ball back then… My grin broadened.

“Congrats, sis. I knew you’d do it.”

We looked at each other with an amused pout, then chortled.

“I’m really looking forward to working with my new team,” Azritz said. “Hira’s on the same team! She is a very good friend of mine, so I’m sure it will be fun.”

“I’m sure of it. Oh, and I’ll help with your move whenever, but… is it okay if I stay at Ray’s place?”

“You two really are close, huh? Of course it’s okay.”

“Nice. This way you’ll be able to invite your friends over without worrying. You might even meet some nice guy in that team and—”

“You shut up already, you jester!” she laughed, giving me a push. She glanced at the school. “I wanted to invite you two to a restaurant, but Ray told me you had already planned some party.”

“Eh? Is that so?” I didn’t know. Wait, no… Did Ray say that because I couldn’t eat human food? I raised a hand. “Just a minute. I’ll go talk to Ray.”

Two hours later, the three of us were sitting at a restaurant table in the Old Docks. I ordered a plate of noodles and a cup of ice chocolate for dessert. When Azritz went to the bathroom, I slid my plate to Ray, saying:

“Enjoy!”

Technically, I could swallow anything as long as it didn’t have milk, oil, alcohol, or too much salt, but even so, to an undead, human food was tasteless and useless. Besides, Ray had told me not to eat anything until my injuries healed up…

Ray threw a bored look my way.

“How did you know she would go to the bathroom?”

“She always does! She looks at her hands before touching her food, then with her eyes like microscopes, she always sees things, like, microbes and the like…”

“I know that, but still…” Under his orange cap, Ray shook his head. “Why did you order a dessert?!”

I grinned as I slid my cup of ice chocolate in front of him.

“It’s a gift for teaching me, professor. Dig in fast, or Azritz will come back. You did say you were hungry, right?”

Ray grunted as he took his fork.

“So that was your plan all along.”

He ate about two-thirds of the noodles and the whole ice chocolate in a time record. When Azritz came back, he was having a hard time eating his own meal.

“Here I am! Wow, Armen, you eat way too fast, as usual,” my big sis whistled. “What’s wrong, Ray? Eat well to maximize your potential!”

I grinned.

“That’s right, Ray! Eat well or you won’t grow taller.”

My friend gave me a deadly look as he said through our bond:

‘You’re really trying my patience.’

My smile didn’t falter in the slightest. After all, I knew Ray wanted to eat with my big sis as much as I did, just like we used to do now and then when we were middle schoolers. Since Ray had been avoiding his parents for years, I bet he really appreciated those times when the three of us did simple things like eating together, or playing video games, or chatting around some drinks… Just like a family would do.

We talked about anything and everything. Azritz remembered her high school life, I complained about the exams system, and Ray said they didn’t take exams in the European high school he had gone to. Not only that: the weather there was quite warm. I blurted out: I’m going to Europe now! But Europe was an elitist island with many restrictions and not anyone was allowed entrance. I guess Ray had been able to study there thanks to her mom’s influence… But he said nothing about this, so I didn’t say anything either. About her mom being a Nyomin Hero.

We were talking about Azritz’s new job and quirk research when I found the right time to say:

“Oh, right, sis. I just discovered something the other day: I’ve got a power.”

“Whaaaat?”

As I showed it to her by lifting briefly my cup, she let out a shriek that attracted everyone’s attention in the restaurant. I rolled my eyes, and Azritz said excitedly:

“Let’s leave this place. You’ve got to show me more, Armen!”

We ended up spending a whole hour trying my power in different ways: I lifted a dead leaf in a park, tried to lift several of them at once, and failed. In the end, after scribbling on her notebook for a while, Azritz concluded:

“So, that’s it! What you’ve got is a vision-controlled focused telekinesis power. You’re able to move every object as long as it’s light and is in your field of vision. You can control its movements in every direction, draw it nearer or farther. However, if it’s too far or too close, your control loses accuracy. I’d say your power is most efficient in a range between sixty centimeters and about six meters… but I’d need further tests to confirm it. That’s awesome, lil bro! Now let’s see how much you can last!”

Damn, she was… too much into it. I made a snowball fly over Ray’s and Azritz’s heads, then purposely blinked: the snowball fell on my sis, making her scream.

“Armen! You did it on purpose!”

I laughed.

“Did I?”

“You did!”

A sudden snowball splashed against my face. Heh. It wasn’t cold at all. I crouched to gather snow in my hands when I saw the second snowball coming: I used my powers to deflect it toward the ground and gave Azritz a devilish grin.

“Try to catch me, sis.”

“Wow, that was great, Armen, you…! Wait, no, I mean, no fair! Ray, help me crush him!”

Two against one, huh? Azritz’s idea of experimenting with my quirk had turned into a snowball battle. I was having so much fun trying to stop their snowballs with my power and fighting back that I lost sight of time. Only the photo Zeeta sent me, picturing Louise grinning and holding Rainbows, made me notice the hour and realize I was a bit dizzy after using my power for such a long time. When we finally headed back home, I sighed as I fell on a seat in the subway train, mentally tired. Ray chuckled.

“I’m drenched.”

“So am I, you bastard. Your snowballs were freaking big.”

“Haha… But Azritz is the fastest at making them. Looked like a machine gun. You couldn’t stop all of them at all!”

“My sis is scary.”

“Heh… Well, she was really happy about your power. I think your sis will make a good quirk researcher.”

Yeah. She would. Definitely.

“But… I didn’t expect you to lie to her so easily.” I flinched on my seat as Ray added: “I mean, about how you got that power. Though you couldn’t possibly say the truth.”

“Ah…” I lowered my head with a guilty smile. “I didn’t really lie. I did get my power only recently… and the first thing I moved was a pen.”

Ray couldn’t deny it. I tried to imagine how Azritz would react if she had known that my power had been awakened by the Lord Necromancer after my resurrection. I couldn’t possibly know but… my intuition told me she would be devastated. After all, her little brother was dead. And not everyone was able to accept the truth as level-headedly as Zeeta did.

Well, one thing was for sure: the day would come when I wouldn’t be able to explain some things, like why I wasn’t aging, and then I would be forced to disappear as Armen Moon but… if I had ever worried about my future when I was alive, now that I was dead my happy-go-lucky behavior was disturbingly getting worse: I wasn’t going to worry about what would happen years from now. It felt already quite good to be able to throw snowballs at my sis even though I was dead. Necromancy was really an amazing art.

I took a deep breath, absorbing the dense lifeforce in the wagon. It tasted so good that I couldn’t help but think we arrived at our stop way too soon.

We left the station and were halfway between the school and our home when I felt that something was off. I glanced back. Four guys had been following us for a while now. Actually, I was almost sure they had been waiting at the same subway station with us in the Old Docks and…

Suddenly, I caught on. Those familiar shaved guys wearing thorned dog collars and tattoos…

I knew them.

My eyes scowled at them for an instant. I stopped just after turning the corner of a street.

“Ray, you go first. I think I’ve lost something on the way.”

“Oh? What did you lose?”

I smiled.

“Just some garbage, but it’s wrong to just throw it in the street, right? Don’t worry, just go change clothes, you’re shaking like a leaf.”

“Oh, y-yeah. Well then…”

Ray walked away with a curious look on his face. Was he just surprised or suspicious of something? Anyway, now Ray was safe. I turned the corner, retracing my steps. Perhaps because my companion was out of the way, the young gangsters were closing in even faster. The street was empty. I went to them, increasingly worried. Their smug, snotty faces didn’t bode well.

I stopped in front of them.

“Do I know you guys?”

The four of them smirked at each other and soon surrounded me like a pack of wolves. Though they didn’t really seem to care about being seen, they pushed me into the alley between two houses. I didn’t know what to do. If I had run away earlier, they would have gone catch Ray. But now I was in a pinch: those thugs didn’t believe even an instant I didn’t recognize them.

A blue-skinned guy laid his arm on my neck and said:

“Don’t tell us you forgot, Mr. Smiley Straw Head. You used your power on me just some months ago. Oh, but you’ve got no pills now, huh? When I saw you by the docks, I thought, ‘yay, why don’t I go say hello to my old pal’?”

I did remember, of course. Those four were Hell Hounds. Back in spring, the Cheetahs had had an encounter with them when their gang had planned to steal the Tiger Clan’s secret recipes to create power pills. We just happened to bump into some suspicious lookouts on our patrol, interrogated them, and found out about their plan… and that mainly thanks to my power. It goes without saying that that blue-skinned youngster was precisely the one who had spilled the beans after I had scared him to death on that day… In other words, I was screwed.

I couldn’t really feel pain, but I knew the blue-skinned man was grasping my shoulder tightly. He was a merfolk and his nails were almost as sharp as lion claws. Since the Hell Hounds couldn’t rely on pills as the Tiger Clan did, they had searched for new members among people that were already somewhat strong and capable of protecting themselves.

What should I do? I couldn’t stay put and let them beat me up. I wouldn’t die if I did, but then, Ray would probably feel that I had been hit, he would be worried, and worst-case scenario, he would even have to fix me up. I really didn’t want that, nor explain to him what happened, nor…

“You’re wondering what’s gonna happen to you now, Mr. Smiley?” With his other hand, the merfolk grabbed my arm and twisted it on my back. Did it break? I couldn’t tell. “You won’t scream? I must say, you’ve got some guts. But, if beating you up won’t do, then what about that friend of yours just now?”

My eyes widened as he made me bend forcefully. Those bastards… They wanted to pay me back for what I did to them, and I somewhat understood that, but…

“You’ve got it wrong, Hell Hounds,” I said, facing down. “That guy just now was just an acquaintance. As for what happened back then, sorry, guys, but we were working for different gangs, just doing our job. I understand you guys won’t forgive me, but don’t go messing with people that have nothing to do with this—”

“Don’t tell me what to do, you trash!”

He was strong and forced me down on my knees. He whispered to my ears:

“Also, we’re no Hell Hounds anymore. We’re Black-Hearts from the Unholy League. You’ve surely heard of our group.”

I had. In the Underworld, the Unholy League was as famous as the Dark Alliance. So, in the end, both groups had gotten their piece of the pie from the fall of the Hell Hounds and the Tiger Clan…

“Congrats,” I said.

The Black-Hearts snorted.

“That guy… he’s crazy,” one of them laughed.

“Maybe he is,” the merfolk groaned, “but I’ll make him beg for mercy very soon. See that, Mr. Smiley?” He put his cellphone under my nose: there was a photo of a lively girl with pink pigtails and blue, piercing eyes flooding with tears. I stared at her in bemusement. That was Erma, the youngest member of the Cheetahs, our Cheetah Duo’s muse… But how? How come that merfolk had a picture of her? “If you want to save her, come alone tonight to the place where we met in spring. We’ll let her go. We may even give you your wallet back. But you have to come alone.”

As they took my wallet, I caught glimpse of someone in red pants walking waveringly by the alley: the passerby averted his eyes and picked up the pace…

“I’ll come,” I said. “But you bastards don’t even touch one strand of Erma’s hair. She’s only fourteen.”

“Yeah,” the merfolk laughed, “she’s a real handful to look after, right, guys?”

I glared at them as they smirked. A wave of fear ran through my mind. What did they do to our Erma?

“You…!” I hissed. I was losing my temper.

A kick flew at me and hit my stomach. I collapsed on the snow, coughed, and let out a flow of the lifeforce I had just eaten in the subways, though they couldn’t see it. I panted, dizzy.

“You scared? You’d better be. I’ll make you get even more scared tonight, so be ready, Straw Head. Oh… I’m taking your cell too while I’m at it. Don’t worry, I’ll let you get it back when you come. That’s a promise, right?”

“S-S-Stop right there!”

The shout startled all of us. Between the legs of one of my attackers, I discerned the silhouette of a man walking into the alley. He wore red pants. Wait… Was it the same person that had averted his eyes just a moment ago?

“Wh-What are you doing? Let go of him or I’ll electrocute all of you!”

I heard a sizzling in the air and saw sparks flew from his hands…

“Mm. Electric power, huh? Not bad, kid, but don’t waste your energy for that trash. Hey, Straw Head, you know him?”

One of the Black-Hearts stepped aside, and I could finally see the newcomer: young, reptilian eyes and green hair… My face darkened. No way. What was that Hidden Wolves fan doing here?

“Never seen him before,” I answered.

The merfolk raised an eyebrow, shrugged, then pushed my face on the snow saying:

“You’d better come.”

They left, luckily ignoring the newcomer. I got on my feet, dusting my knees.

“Styzz, was it? Why did you step in like that?” I asked, perplexed.

From Styzz’s face, it was clear that he had never encountered real delinquents before. The look he gave me was a mix of worry, embarrassment, and alertness. As I stopped by the entrance of the alley, I turned, smiling:

“Thanks. You acted like a real hero.”

Styzz’s face got red.

“Are you making fun of me? I did nothing at all! Though I clearly am stronger than them but… If I knew it was you, I wouldn’t even have tried to save you, mph.”

My smile broadened.

“But you knew it was me from the beginning. Now that I think about it, you were following me too, right? Weren’t you gonna make me pay for what happened the other day at school? You guys even wrote that message on the wall I was painting… That was scary.”

“Tsk.” Styzz’s reptilian eyes regained bit by bit a jaded and tranquil glint. “You’re clearly making fun of me. Those guys just now were the scary ones.”

“Ah, you’re right, they were pretty scary, weren’t they?” I laughed. “Well then, I’ve got to—”

“Armen!”

I turned around, cursing under my breath. I’d had my doubts until now but… Ray had definitely felt that something was going on: he was running to me with Zeeta and Louise. The latter one was the first to reach us; she stared at me intently:

“Alumen! What happened? And you, who are you?”

“Who… am I?” Gazing at Louise, Styzz looked as if he had forgotten who he actually was. Was it me or was he feeling embarrassed? What for, though? As Ray and Zeeta arrived out of breath, he stylishly rubbed his electrified green hair. “I’m Styzz Van Leer, a Hero-to-be. I’ve just saved this blond guy from some thugs that were bullying him. They ran away tail between their legs, and…”

His last sentence lost confidence under my deadly smile until he fell silent. I affirmed:

“Nothing happened. Right, Styzz?”

“Don’t lie…” Ray clenched his fists, panting. “I saw them… Armen… Don’t lie.”

I winced as his order struck my mind. Did he even realize…? Wait, but what did he mean by “I saw them”? Did he see the four Black-Hearts leaving? Or did he see them… through my eyes?

I gulped, then looked intently at Zeeta, and let out:

“Erma got kidnapped by the Hell Hounds.”