Hello everyone, it has been over a month since my last post. Writing constantly like that for two weeks straight wasn't a good idea now that I look back on it. I don't regret doing it though.

Now we get back into the swing of things. This is a very short chapter. This is because of a couple reasons, but I will just end this discussion here for now.

Enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 19: Finally

I woke up in my bed with my prosthetic arm beside me. My left hand is bandaged so tight that I can barely even use it.

I breathe deeply as I get up and stretch. I hope today is going to be relaxing.

A voice comes from my door, “Hey Ryu, are you awake?”

I recognize the voice immediately, it’s my mother, where’s she been? I walk over to the door and open it with my left hand carefully, “Hey, where have you been?”

As I finish my sentence and the door is opened fully I am talked by my mother, “I missed you so much!”

I pat her head, “I guess it has been a little while.” I smile as I look at her gently, I wonder if this is what my family should have been like.

My mother moves away and starts to talk, “I was tasked with going out to get the yearly permits for the forest of a thousand trials for the school. The principal called it my punishment.” She makes an indifferent face and shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t even know what I did wrong.”

I sigh, “Most of them were plots against me. Also, isn’t this school a little too… safe? Everyone knows about my identity and you said that enemies will appear on all sides. What’s up with that?”

My mother frowns suddenly, “Everyone knows? That is certainly not good.”

I tilt my head, “Why? Except for one girl, everyone treats me normally.”

Her face gets a more serious expression, “Ryu. You have dug your own grave. I cannot help you beyond this point. Whether you survive or not is no longer in my hands, nor do I have any way to predict when or what will happen, just be cautious. Very, very cautious.”

I nod slowly while frowning, “I don’t know what you think may happen, but I hope I live too.”

My mother’s phone rings, “Give me a second Ryu, I need to take this.” She answers the call, “Hello, this is code name: Raven. Yes. Yes. No. Why should I do that!? No! Fine. I’ll be there in five hours.” My mother turns to me with an apologetic and sad smile, “See you Ryu. I probably won’t see you for a while. I’ll miss you. Bye.”

I give a weak smile, “Bye mom.”

She slowly walks out the door with a grim expression on her face. The atmosphere in my room turning darker and darker with each passing second.

I take a deep breath and grab my prosthetic to leave the oppressive atmosphere of my own room.

I slowly attached my prosthetic and moved it around to stretch. What a rough morning already.

I walk to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. I get the same breakfast mush as usual and slowly eat it.

Alice sits at the table with me, “Hello Ryu, you know lessons were cancelled today due to an attack on the school right?”

My jaw drops, “Why are we even allowed to walk around like this if the school was attacked!?”

She laughs lightly, “The school has a barrier around it that even a person in the ninth realm would have trouble breaking through.”

I sigh as I slowly calm myself down, “So what are the students supposed to do?”

Alice smiles, “The students were given free time, they can go to the training fields, the library, or just sit in their rooms all day. The students are not allowed to leave the school grounds for any reason. Students seen attacking others will be arrested on spot, unless it was a duel approved by a teacher.”

I lean back in the seat, “Sounds absolutely boring.”

She shrugs, “Depends on how you look at it.”

I laugh lightly, “I guess so.”

Alice and I then eat in silence for a few minutes when suddenly she stands up, “I’ll be taking my leave, I’ll talk to you another time.”

I was confused why she was leaving so suddenly, was the silence too awkward?

My question was answered almost immediately, “Ryu!” I heard Claire call out my name from the entrance of the cafeteria.

I sigh and hang my head. I get up and put my tray on the stack near the garbage cans. I then walk towards her, “Hey Claire, what’s up?”

Claire grabs onto my arm once I get close enough to her. Her head barely touching my shoulders, “Hey Ryu, let’s go on a date!”

A person sitting nearby listening to her does a spit take with his water. I feel sorry for the guy sitting across from him.

I frown slightly, “No.” I sigh heavily, “Anyways, even if I said yes, where would we go?”

Claire smiles, “I have a good spot! Come on!”

I sigh, “Fine then, not like I had anything better to do today.”

Claire raises her arms, “Success!”

“When you said you had a good spot… you didn’t mean…”

Claire had just dragged me into the female dorm building.

I sigh, “Is there any way you could explain all this to me. I mean, what happened to the, ‘I don’t like you at all’ air that you and the two other girls had around you? You all changed in an instant. It seems… off. You know what I mean?”

She frowns, “Ryu, I have no idea what you are talking about. I have always loved you!”

No, this is wrong. This is wrong on so many different levels. I understand the fight between them, me being at the center of it. That made sense. What doesn’t make sense is that they are openly admitting that they like me now. Especially Claire.

Something is going on here, I need to fi- “Is something wrong Ryu?”

I make a complicated expression, “No, nothing’s wrong.”

Claire smiles, “Let’s go to the room then!”

Claire drags me into the building while I start to think again. What could cause them to change like this? This shouldn’t be the illusion poison, it has been too long of an illusion if it is. What is causing the girls to act like this? It isn’t normal no matter what angle you look at it from.

Before I knew it, I was in front of Claire’s room with her. She had a small smile on her face, “Ryu. Are you feeling okay?”

I nod slowly after collecting myself, “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Claire opens the door and I see Sayaka and Kelly sitting in the room already.

Claire has a shocked expression on her face, “Why are you guys here?”

Sayaka laughs, “We tricked you in order to lure Ryu here!”

Kelly smiles, “You even fell for it! We knew that you would invite Ryu here if we said that we were going to leave for the day!”

While they argue I leave. I walk back to my room. The three arguing girls didn’t even notice me as I walked away.

I went back to my room to try and get to the second realm.

The days started to pass by quickly.

Classes had begun again and we talked about how the forest of a thousand trials was going to be done.

For the first section of the forest of a thousand trials, groups have to be formed. No one really wanted to pair with me as Kelly was not in class.

I was forced into the group of girls I hated the most by Mr. Grey. He did it with a smile on his face.

Juliet was thankfully not in class either.

The next day we all practiced in our groups. I say practiced, but they all ganged up on me since I could not use my left hand which had the most motor control. What made it worse was that Juliet had decided to show up… but she was fully healed of her injuries.

I went back to my room that night with a lot of bruises.

The next day was more practice. This time for the entire day. I went back to my room and was glad that tomorrow was a rest day, so I did not have to practice with the group of vicious girls.

I woke up in the morning with a huge smile on my face, “Finally.”

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Hello again. I will now continue to rant on.

I will attempt to try and put out chapters every couple of days or so, every day is too much for a small time guy like me that does it for fun. This is a project that I intend to see to the end (hopefully). It will be a long road, and I hope all of you readers enjoy the ride!

Remember to comment if you have any concerns. I always enjoy reading the comments and replying to as many as I can.

Have a good day!