Friend, you say? (Rayne’s POV) [5 days until Eve]

I was being scolded by the teacher. Not much else to say about the current situation. The foxnapper was still unconscious, the other students were either looking down upon me or reading their own books. Seems like I have a class half full of bullies and half full of stuck up rich kids who like to read. How disappointing.

Apparently, I was mistaken as a rude student who laughed when their teacher fell, even though that’s only half right. I am a rude student, but I was laughing because of her last name. Well, I suppose I should actually describe my teacher in detail, to make the joke have meaning.

She has a very childish face and an even more childish figure. She’s almost my height, her hair somehow going down to her waist. She looks like she could be no more than 11 years old, talking earth terms, a perfect example of a loli-baba. Pretty much an older woman who has the appearance of a younger one. Although, I refuse to ask her age. Her uniform, if you care to call it that, is quite the scene. Like, a disaster scene. A light blue… dress? It seemed like my suit until it got to the waist, where it split into four parts. It was like an upside-down four-petaled flower. She also seemed to be wearing pants underneath it, but I didn’t have the time to study them.

“And you! Stop laughing at me! Looking down on your teacher, how terrible!” She was pouting, her cheeks puffing up cutely. Another chuckle escaped my lips, more at my own thoughts than her actions.

‘I’m sorry, but I think you are mistaken.’ ‘I was not looking down on you.’ ‘I was laughing at something else.’

The same stupid grin was on my face the entire time, even as her eyes went wide. It was then that I realized my mistake.

The mana I had used to create those words were solid. That grin broke apart like shattered glass, as a look of horror washed over it. The mana went back to being liquid, in a futile attempt to hide my powers.

“Was that… so- Mhhm!” My teacher attempted to spoil my secrets. I stopped her with a hand.

‘Of course not, you’re imagining things.’

At least I made sure that it was liquid mana this time. I felt so stupid for revealing my powers so thoughtlessly. But for now, I could hope that the other children didn’t see it. Taking a quick look around, it seems that my hope could just end up being the truth.

I removed my hand slowly, the teacher staying silent this time. She had a look I couldn’t quite understand or describe. My own was filled with confusion. It had been a long time since I had found somebody that I couldn’t understand.

I shrugged. I could save that for a later time.

Class, so far, is really uneventful. Most of today was just self-introductions, which I happened to have slept through. The rest of it was pretty much some simple self-study time since the teacher had ‘some things to think about’.

I was bored, to say the least, as I didn’t have anything to do. The other students ignored me, including the foxnapper. I had already read all the books here over the past month, visiting the library occasionally when I had the chance.

At least my little fox was happy with any amount of petting, so I graciously granted her requests. It was pretty much all I did for the twelve or so hours I was there, earning me more than a few glares from the foxnapper. I'm actually almost positive that she just wanted to pet it, but I couldn't really apologize now that I assaulted her, now could I?

Much later I walked out of the classroom, ready to descend the steps, without learning a single name or having a full sentence spoken to anybody but the teacher. Honestly, I don’t even think I saw the other students. My mind just blotted out everything that happened in that class. At least I didn’t have an actual class because I would have certainly forgotten everything from it.

The walk down the stairs was certainly boring, so I decided to ‘spice it up’ a bit.

The wind buffeted me as I plummeted to the ground. Stupid, you say? Well, I have just the response to that.

Did you expect anything different from me?

After leaping from the 397th floor, I let out a yell of pure adrenaline as it filled my system like a drug. Quite the simile, I must say.

The winds whipped at me like steel wires and hammers, blasting my skin back as it tore through my body. My clothes were blowing behind me, leaving a trail like a comet.

Once I was nearing the ground, the journey there not nearly as long as I desired, I reached my hand out to the side. Bracing myself for the impact, I screamed out as I felt my shoulder dislocate.

However, I have gained an effect for breaking my body so many times, so my fingers stayed clamped shut throughout the pain. But even so, it surprised me. The fall was not only much faster than it should have been, I fell with a lot of force. Before grabbing onto the ledge, I had put all of my mana into my arm, making a sort of gauntlet to absorb the shock. But it still dislocated my arm.

I was probably no higher than 7 floors up, gripping onto the edge of the walkway with four fingers on my left hand. Judging the distance I would have to fall compared to the distance I would have to walk using the stairs, I began to slightly sway myself back and forth.

Gathering enough momentum, I flung myself towards the wall and dug the fingers of my right hand into it, slowing my fall enough for me to get off without many injuries.

I had my dislocated shoulder, which I cradled gingerly, afraid to hurt it more, but that was about it. Kicking the wall with a misplaced step, I cursed myself in my head. Make that a dislocated shoulder and a stubbed toe.

I waited at the bottom of the steps for my fox, who had taken the smarter path of walking down them. At least she had a shred of common sense.

I look upwards as I hear a loud, somewhat familiar, bark. The fox is falling, just as I was doing a second ago. Standing quickly, I leaped to catch her. I made it with quite a bit of space left, but that didn’t stop me from thinking what would happen if I was too late.

I take back my statement. She doesn’t have any common sense.

But at least on my way home I see the sky that had donned its fiery cloak before night.

Nothing really changed back at the shack. The girls were all talking, Freil reading a book I didn’t manage to see the title of. Dinner was ready, by the smell that permeated the air around me.

I managed to conceal most of my eagerness to eat, not wanting that to be the first thing on my mind after school. Did I mention that they don’t serve lunch there? They give you permission to go out into the town, it seems. But you have to get permission from the teacher, so it would have been difficult today anyhow.

The girls stopped talking as I came in the room, looking away from me. I was instantly suspicious. These women loved my eyes. There should be no reason for them to look away from them.

“Alright, what’s going on?” I asked, my vampiric transformation coming easily. I still had 91% blood, so I should be good in terms of keeping control.

A clap from behind me startled me, making me turn around. Freil had noisily shut her book, holding the spine and closing her hand. She stood up from the half-repaired chair, creaking loudly.

“Freil, is something wrong?” I asked, staying on guard in case she began throwing fists. Old habits die hard.

“Nothing, Rayne. Just a bit concerned.”

“About what, exactly?”

“You.”

“Oh. Might as well stop now. I’m hopeless.” I responded, voice full of sincerity. People had told me that before. Never really ended well for them. A few therapists were even called. Pro tip, therapists can’t fix a deficiency of common sense.

“I’m… actually not sure what to say about that…” My mother spoke up, sitting in the chair Freil had just stood from. A few more seconds of creaking ensued. I was quite annoyed by the noise, so I fixed it. The chair was filled with mana, making me take a few seconds because I didn’t want to fuse it with my mother.

Repaired, I opened my eyes, snapping out of my meditative state.

The sight was something that I wished I could take a picture of. With that thought, Mana exploded from me. 2 mana left, I slowly walked forward. A slight wind blew, shaking the fire on each of the candles. No, not shaking. Dancing.

A simple cake was all it was, but it brought tears to my eyes as I memorized the scene with my mana. Filtering through every molecule, every atom of the scene, my mana learned.

Two words were said in unison. “Happy Birthday.”

The tears I had been holding spilled out.

I woke up the next day, tired. I had stayed up, reveling in the joy that my birthday had toted along. My hair was in a disheveled nest on my head, bobbing precariously as I yawned and stretched my neck. Rose was next to me on the bed.

Lifting the blankets slightly, I sighed in relief. Both of us had our clothes (Mostly) on. Nothing happened last night. Probably.

Right on time, Rose began to stir and wake up. She was close to the edge of the bed. A devious grin appeared on my face, my scheme being slowly put into play even this early in the morning. A hand snaked around her waist, pulling her closer to me and away from the edge of the bed.

After all, I didn’t want her to fall… But I was more interested in seeing her embarrassed. After all, she was the one who was always on the offensive. So I, as a side project, wanted to see her reaction to my advances.

It wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. Instead of questioning my actions or getting embarrassed, she just snuggled closer to me, placing her hand softly on my chest. Aaaand… yup, there’s the embarrassment. This seems to have backfired.

After a few minutes I realized she had actually fallen asleep, so I lay her back down on the bed and began looking for my fox. I wanted to know if she had somehow figured out some way to give me her name.

After looking for nearly a minute, she was still nowhere to be found. I was getting slightly worried by now since I had checked the entire house twice. I began to walk around the house, jumping slightly to get over the jagged shards of wood sticking up from the bottom of the hole I left from.

Circling the house twice, she was nowhere to be found.

I noticed something. The fox may have been gone, but so was everybody else. [Mana Eye] began to expand in size, covering a large area around the house. It was still a bit before sunrise, giving me a solid hour I would usually use on my morning training. This time, however, I was not in the mood to be training my body when my family and Freil is missing.

I ‘saw’ something off. Upheaved dirt a bit further away from the house, patted down with small indents that looked familiar. Handprints. Somebody had dug something up here, then patted down the dirt over it.

My body wasn’t moving. I was shocked stiff. A few bits of information hit me at once.

Rose, lying next to me in bed. I’ve never allowed anybody to touch my bed before.

How little she cared when I held her. She almost was expecting me to do it.

The missing members. Could she have known that they were gone? Would she still be able to sleep in my arms like that?

The dirt that poked a few inches above its original position. I’ve dug holes before, and there seems to be an interesting phenomenon. There never quite seems to be enough dirt to fill the hole, even if you just lift the dirt and place it back down.

There was something buried under that dirt. I had a feeling, digging into my stomach like a shard of glass, that I knew what it was. My body, following my orders, began to move. Slowly, much too slowly. I was wasting time and I knew it. If they were still alive, they would be losing oxygen fast, but here I was, walking over there at the speed of a slug with a nail through it.

A minute had passed, but it felt like an eternity. Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t move my legs. They were locked in place, unmoving and yet shaking. The mound was two, maybe three steps away. My body felt like it was slowly turning to stone.

Mmh. I think this is the feeling I should have felt a long time ago. Rage. Despair. Grief. Terror. My heart couldn’t decide. Neither could my brain. Time slowed down, quite perceivably. I felt my movements be restricted once more, only my eyes and brain working at full capacity.

I looked at the facts. The sight before me. I perceived my emotions. Carefully, like unraveling a large tapestry by pulling a single thread, counting each moment of resistance. Like untying a large bundle of wires, keeping your hands behind your back.

Pain. What I came to realize was that I hurt. My heartbeat slowed, each beat pounding in my chest like a drum. No, a sledgehammer. My ribs felt like they were shattering, the shards stabbing every part of me.

It was all fine, though. I could move. I could, at the very least, see them off. I began to dig with my hands, uncaring for the rocks that sliced and tore through my skin. My blood watered the earth. My hands dug a hole as if to plant something.

But the hole grew deeper. The ground stopped holding the liquid, pooling it into the hole. I had dug a few feet by now. I was close. I didn’t even really need to use my [Mana Eye] to tell that something was just under this dirt.

Wood splintered as I hit it with my fingers, tearing at it. Eventually, I managed to get through the wood, to be met with a sleeping face. The blood in the hole I made painted it red in an instant.

“Aww, you found them so fast! As expected from my Rayne, you know me so well!” I heard a female voice from behind me. Turning to find Rose, my vision kept fading in and out.

I turned into my vampiric transformation, not bothering to check my blood levels. My vision stopped shaking, focusing on Rose. I was furious. She buried three people and the fluffiest fox alive. No, even worse. She buried my family, Freil, and my fox.

She didn’t deserve what she had now.

I would make sure she never had it again.

She would not be leaving this property alive.

But I couldn’t move. I had the resolve. I had the facts. I had my anger.

I didn’t have the motive. I still had too many memories of this girl.

She came closer, slowly running her hand across my chest. Two different colored eyes looked back up at me. But they were alien to me. One was stark red, contrasting to the other one, which was a dark blue. Both were filled with feelings I had seen in her often this past month. Lust and euphoria.

But one was there I hadn’t seen recently. It was pure and utter insanity. A flash of a thought slammed into me. One of her covered in blood, standing over a few other girls. What did they call those again? Yanderes?

I would have shaken my head as I cleared the thought, but I was still unable to even flex a muscle. My arm began to rise, slowly, against my will, towards Rose. It caressed her cheek, slowly moving down her body. Her neck. Her shoulders. Tracing her collarbone. Finally, to her breast.

It hovered there for a second, not quite touching it yet. Rose stepped forward into it, placing her hand over mine. Normal men would probably have stopped by now, explaining some of her lack of control.

Go back and put some emphasis on ‘normal’, would you?

My hand lurched backward, snapping as I tore out of Rose’s grasp. I took a large step backward, not wanting to be near her. I took a small amount of mana out of my hand, taking absolute control over it.

I realized something over this month. When you take mana out of your body, it takes a small amount of extra mana to keep it out. A minuscule amount, with hundreds of zeros after the decimal before the first ‘number’, but still some. By doing something I like to call ‘Absolute Control’, you are able to do anything with that small amount of mana. That includes having it stop draining that extra mana. The effect of doing this? It isn’t a ‘part’ of you anymore, meaning that even if somebody can completely control your actions, they still can’t control that amount of mana. It takes insane concentration for me to do this to even a single point of mana, but in times like this one, it’s worth it.

Just after I did that, my body froze up again. The mana I took control of would slowly dwindle away, but I left it some orders before making it. It took off in a flash, completely bypassing Rose’s attention. My body began to move against my will, but that just meant that I could focus completely on moving that single point of mana.

“Ahh, Rayne… I forgot to tell you… I’ve taken control of your body. I can make you do anything I want you to do, anytime I want you to do it. Of course, I’ll ask permission first, but don’t blame me for still doing it if you say no. So, may I take our little ‘session’ a few steps further?” She asked, her hand dangerously close to my crotch. I didn’t respond, knowing that would give her the most pause.

My mana reached the hole I had dug and began to check through each and every body. They were all alive, so it began hitting my mother in the face lightly, but with enough force to make her wake up with a groan and a sputter, a few drops of my blood dripping down her cheek.

Rose stopped, probably hearing her. I had to take her attention away, so I began talking.

“Rose… What have you been studying these… this past month?” I spaced my words out more than I usually did, as well as speaking louder than usual. I had to let Avalina know that it was dangerous, as well as stall for time.

“Me? Oh, you never realized, did you? Always too busy to pay attention to the one’s who love you… I was studying on how to get a god’s attention. Specifically, Teagls. You know, the god of Lust and Revenge. I figured it out! All I had to do was kill the other ones who were after you! His blessing was what allowed me to do this.”

I was confused. I had no information on this god. I wondered if he was one of the minor deity gods.

Once again, I couldn’t shake my head to clear my thoughts. I settled for just blinking viciously for a second.

“I’ve set runes in your body, written in my own juices. I hope you like them…”

This succubus.

“I’m not so sure… I would much rather they be written in your blood.” I spoke, lying like second nature.

“Ahh! How could I forget! You’re a vampire, of course, blood would have been the better choice!” She yelled, gripping her hair and glaring at the sky.

I don’t remember her being this much of an airhead, to think that a vampire wouldn’t like blood. I can feel him getting excited inside me just from the thought.

But this is the end for this thorny Rose. (Ha! Puns!)

A blast of mana ripped through the area in front of me, space itself seeming to ripple. I felt the bonds on me shatter, leaving large wet patches of something I’m pretty sure I don’t want to touch.

As soon as I felt this, the large surge of anger the runes had been holding back burst out from me, knocking away the mana. Nothing was left of where Rose had stood, making me feel both relieved and angrier. I wanted to kill her myself. But I didn't want to hurt her. Looking down, I felt disgusted at the liquid dripping down my body. At least I wasn’t in my school uniform. School should be starting soon, anyway.

I looked at the sun, just as a little bit of confirmation. It was long past sunrise, nearly an hour. But I had work to do before going to school. So I reached down, picking up my tiny mana point, before reabsorbing it. A very tired looking Avalina held one of her knees as she crouched down, attempting to catch her breath.

I helped the others out of the earthy coffin, making sure not to injure them further. I asked Avalina, with a heavy heart, to tell Freil about her daughter when she wakes up. I got changed, not worrying about spying. The mood was a bit too solemn for that. Hungry, I would have to find something to eat on the way to school. It’s been awhile since I had meat, I might have to try and find an animal to catch soon.

A little hint about our financial status. We haven’t been into town the past three days because we don’t even have the money to pay the 2 copper toll. My father, if you can call him that, works as one of the guards, but he does nothing about our finances. I looked into it. Guards get paid every day, but he says that he only gets paid once a week. The money he gets ‘paid’ is just a few copper, but Avalina can’t do anything to him. As a guard, he is technically part of the empire, making an assault upon him pretty much a declaration of war. In case you haven’t noticed, having 2 mages, a maid, and an accountant for a carriage company does not count as a full army.

I sighed as I finished buttoning the shirt, straightening the cuffs of my sleeves. If I let my arms hang, they completely covered my hands, but I liked them. I could make rude hand gestures without people noticing like that.

Since the sun had already risen, I ran as soon as the fox woke up. Reaching the school only took four minutes, with an extra two for climbing the steps. If I run up them, I can go nearly 4 at a time. I burst into the room, panting softly from over exertion. My mana bracelet was fully formed, and it made my thoughts form.

‘Sorry, I’m late.’

It was probably quite the sight. I was sweating slightly from the run, my hair ruffled and sticking up in various places. The fox on my shoulder was giddy, probably high on adrenaline, wide-eyed and yipping at random intervals. My breath was loud in the silence I had interrupted so rudely.

But nothing could compare to what I saw, standing in the middle of the room. A little girl, in my school uniform, staring at me with bright golden eyes. My breath, already ragged, was stolen from me by her beauty. Now, I wasn’t really one to judge by looks only, but this tiny girl was beautiful. Stunningly so. My eyes were glued onto her.

She smiled at me, and I thought for a second it felt familiar. Tears leaked out of her eyes, swimming their way down her cheeks. She fell to her knees, facing me. One word is all she spoke before I recognized her and rushed forward to hold her.

My name, “Rayne…” between sobs. I was shocked. No, dumbfounded. No, flabbergasted. No. I was heartbroken but felt it heal.

Nothing could have mattered at that moment. A meteor could have struck the school, I could have been stabbed through the heart, I could have spoken my first words in this life, but it wouldn’t have mattered. It wouldn’t have mattered at all if my first words in this life were:

“Eve…” In a voice deep and gravelly, choked down by sobs of my own.

A Tearful Reunion. (Effret’s POV)

A teacher. A demon. A failure. A runaway.

So many titles. So many faces. So many people. All of them are me.

Let me explain. Four days ago, a student in my class, no more than a month old, used solid mana. For a second I wondered about his talent, but then I dismissed it. Using solid mana before at least 4 months old was impossible. I have a child in my class that wasn’t human.

I was scared of him. If he inspected me, he could find out my species. At the very least, he would know I’m not human.

I left immediately. I knew I couldn’t avoid him forever, but I could try my best.

He didn’t come to school after that. I was dying inside, worry that he had already found out and was telling someone eating me up.

But he did come back, eventually. A girl, with the same golden eyes as him, walked into my classroom, asking me if she knew somebody else with the same color eyes as her.

I was shocked speechless. Of course, I couldn’t quite answer. I thought she might be asking around for the teacher of the boy. Maybe he didn’t see my name or something.

Alright, I’ll admit it. I wasn’t quite thinking straight. The girl was the same age as him, so what could she do to me? But I was still scared. Scared of the person she wanted to see. I opened my mouth to reply, but it was dry. Swallowing audibly, I tried to calm myself. The girl was patient, not asking again.

I heard a loud thumping sound, coming from behind me. Or, maybe I didn’t. But there was somebody climbing the stairs at an astonishing rate. The door slammed open, hitting the wall with enough force to dent it.

Mana, liquid this time, formed into words. Such a familiar scene. ‘Sorry, I’m late’. How many times have I said that one, even when I wasn’t? I looked back to the girl as if to show her it was him, but she was already walking towards him. I stepped away, watching silently. I could feel something was about to happen. What, I did not know, but I knew that I must not interrupt them.

Tears. A reminder of my own past. Falling to the ground like rain. Sobs, deep and heavy. This girl was truly heartbroken. I, at the very least, should know. Through her sobs, she called him. The entire class was stunned. A girl, asking for a missing student, only to break down in tears when she finds him.

Swiveling my head quickly, as if to not miss anything important, I saw him crumble. His exterior, always hard and heavy like a shield, melted away. Tears flowed from his face, adding to the rain that had already fallen.

A word. A single word was all that he spoke. But it carried so much weight. Mountains crumbled beneath that word. The seas rushed in, a great current slamming the tower. The wind howled, slicing into the earth and spreading the waves. A great inferno raged, razing villages and forests alike. All in a single second, as if the world itself was bending down to that word.

Her name. An embrace. Tears rushing like rivers. An overwhelming pressure, a sense of worthlessness. All of this was laid before me, and I shattered.

What a worthless fairy queen I am...