Chapter 4: The first purified Alastor.
"Apollo," I reluctantly called out his name, "You're going to possess me, right?" I have to confirm with him, even after 1 week of special training for my 0% music talent, it only increased to a 0.01%. In other words, it's useless!
"Yes, yes, how many times do you have to confirm with me?" Apollo cleared my doubts.
"Hello," The smug senior appeared in front of me, that arrogant face made me really want to punch him hard, "how's your preparation?"
"It's good, how's yours? Don't worry; I'll not give up my seat in the student councilor." I smiled, giving him back the exact smug face.
"We'll see," He smirked, a really evil smile which gave me a really bad feeling. I was walking towards the appointed place with determination that I can defeat him until I could not sense Apollo inside of me. "Apollo?" I muttered, "Apollo? Hey, Apollo!" No matter how much I called out, I could only get silence as my reply.
I looked up and stared at the audience and saw a worried face of Ran. "A-" He mouthed the words, "las-tor." At first, I have a hard time depicting what he said, but I found out in the end, Alastor. My head turned sharply towards the arrogant senior. Alastor!
"He," Ran's voice entered my head, "had made a wish to an Alastor, and the Alastor might have negates Apollo's power. Therefore, Apollo is unable to possess you!"
No way! Gosh, my music talent is currently 0.01%; how the hell can I passed this 'test' without fail? "I'll start first," He declared with confidence, he held his violin up high, (When did he hold it in his hands?), and started playing the 'Canon in D' violin solo. As he is playing, everyone was gawked at him stupidly. The hall became so silent that only his violin can be heard.
When he's done, the audience clapped loudly, and many cheered. I bet they have high expectations for me. The senior bowed, and took 3 steps back, indicating that it is my turn. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst. I hope my death isn't as painful as I think. I took 3 steps up and stared at the audiences whose eyes are full of hope. I place the mouthpiece into my mouth and was about to start playing until the lights went off.
The hall was in a chaos, everyone was practically screaming their head off, and you could hear a lot of foot stamping. "Thank you, Raymond Jackson, for his wonderful violin performance," Aphrodite's voice echoed through the whole hall, silencing the rampaging students. "Next, we'll have our new transferred student, Felix Jones and his Alto Saxophone solo, 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'."
The spotlight shone over me, and all the attention was focused on me. I took in a deep breath, and shut my eyes.
"Do you think with your 0.01% of music talent, you can win his beautiful violin piece?" Apollo! "Don't you think you should fall back and let me take over?" I'll be more than grateful; I beamed and let him take over my body.
Under his command, my fingers moved to each note that is written on the score. The sound was beautifully played, my soul felt like dancing together with his playing. When he's finally done with playing, he's lost somewhere in my body again. The audience clapped, and cheered more loudly than Raymond's playing, I have to admit. After all, it's Apollo, the god of music, even the genius of the genius could never win against Apollo.
"Let's vote!" Aphrodite's excitement was heard clearly in her voice.
Right after the performance, we met by chance at the hallway. He smirked at me, giving me the smug and arrogant face expression. "I'll win you! Definitely. Unlike you, whose parents died when you were young, I'm blessed with my family love."
As usual, his words pissed me off, "So? That doesn't means that you'll win me. We'll see, by then."
"I've heard that you have a really attractive sister, named Felicia, who runs a family café nearby. I wonder what will happen if I hook her up?" He sneered at me.
The mention of Felicia's name ticked something inside me; a boiling anger erupted like a volcano. With an angry fist, I gave him a punch which sent him lying on the ground. "F***, don't you dare threaten me using Felicia!" I sat on top of him and grabbed his collar, "What do you know about her? You jerk, so just STFU!" I was about to throw another punch until one of the guardians, with blond hair whom I believed is called Adrian, pulled me backwards.
"You'd better not stop him," Apollo exited my body, and hovered over Adrian and warned him, who tried to stop me, "He's unstoppable when it comes to matter of his guardian, also his sister. After all, his sister is the one who supported him, encouraged him and helped him when he's at his lowest."
I just couldn't calm down after what he said about Felicia. I wanted to rush forward, trying to break free from his grip, but he just too strong for me "You jerk; asshole!" I yelled as he stood up and wiped the blood off the edge of his lips.
Adrian walked me back to the Guardian's room, while having a conversation about just now.
"Just one more sentence from him, and I'll kill him!"
"What happened?" Adrian's voice was rough but gentle.
Without knowing, I ended up pouring everything out to him, from the day my parents died. He comforted me, and told me something I would never thought of that about him, "I have once got in trouble with the police, because I got too agitated with a guy who insulted my family. I fought with that guy till he's partially dead. And I was fined and jailed for a few months." I couldn't help but stared at him. He's so kind and gentle even stopped me from fighting, so how could he partially killed a guy?
"You must not commit the same crime. Violence is not always the solution to everything!" He encouraged me. "He's right, even if the other party was the one at fault. By the way, Ares here." The voice of Ares voiced out from inside of Adrian. "I have to go already, see you soon!" Adrian smiled and left me alone outside the Guardian's room.
"He's a good person, huh?" Apollo voiced out from inside.
I nodded as I stared after his shadows and his back from behind. "I'm starting to idolize him."
"I know what you mean."
After a week, the day of the result is out. Sitting on the throne of the 'Sun', I clenched my hand into a ball of fist. I have to admit, I'm pretty nervous. Even if it's Apollo, with Alastor's power, Raymond may have a high chance of win. It's a 50-50 challenge. "Felix, Apollo!" Athena's voicefilled the hallway outside. But instead of the usual petite Debbie with shoulder-length hair, she's having long hair with a streak of black hair standing out of the blond hair and her pupils were yellow. "The results are out! You won by one vote!" She squealed and rushed through her words.
I stood there for a minute and let my mind absorbed the words. I won, I won, I won, "I won!" I screamed out loud and cheered. Ran beamed, Victoria smiled elegantly, Debbie grinned widely, Galvin tittered, and Adrian chuckled softly. Everyone's happy for me, so am I. But that happiness does not remain long, Raymond forcibly budged into the guardian room and started rampaging.
"Why?" He cried when he budged into the room. His eyes became black, totally black. I have a hard time differentiating the pupils and the eyeballs. As he budged in, Ran's face immediately changes expression and rushes forward and slammed the door shut, tightly. He waved and Victoria rushed with so much intensity then I could feel something bad is going to happen later.
Victoria, with shivering hands, formed a barrier around the room. I guess that it was to protect the other students, and prevent them from learning about the danger of Alastor. "What do you want? I have won, so this seat is mine!"
"I would have…" At that point, his voice changed into something rougher, "won. You just won because Aphrodite talked and hypnotized everyone into voting for you. You should have lost to me."
"You should just show yourself, Alastor." Athena-Debbie advised calmly. "You couldn't even achieve a small thing like this." It's pretty obvious that she was trying to provoke the Alastor into showing its true form.
Black smoke emitted from Raymond's body, and he collapsed on the ground. Debbie rushed to the senior's aid and brought him to somewhere safe. The smoke starting forming itself up; and in its place looked like those typical female teenagers' soft toy. Its head looked like a cracked egg, and it had a round body and mini hands. At the back of it were two bat wings, small and tiny. But even so, I still could feel the hatred emitting from it.
"I've worked so hard, I wanted to get into the student councilor, but after you just transferred in, you got in so easily, why? Why is that so? I want to get in the student councilor so badly, yet you entered like it's nothing. It must be because you're friends with Yamamoto Ran! I'll defeat you and take your seat in the councilor room." The words left the Alastor's mouth.
"What… what is that…?" I couldn't stop my voice from trembling.
"That's the reason why he hated you." Ran explained to me.
"You must have made use of that Victoria Carey and won. Why can't I win? Why? I need to win. I've really worked very hard on my violin!"
Apollo took over my body as soon as the raging Alastor rushed forward. Apollo summoned Kara and fought it with great intensity but everyone could only watch from a far.
"Tsk," He clicked his tongue, "It just couldn't purify it as fast."
"What happened?" I asked him.
"I'm slowed down because I'm using another's body and my powers can only be one when I'm with Artemis. When I'm separated with Artemis, my power was naturally divided into half."
"What?" That could be dangerous. Firstly, I did not know how to purify. Secondly, that fuming with rage Alastor is becoming more powerful than we are… Damn, now, what exactly are we going to do? I asked myself as I gazed at the Alastor who looked like it would kill me if given the chance.
When I thought about this, my mind thought about a lot of things. I've felt that way before. 4 years ago my parents died, I wanted to get into the school they hoped for me to go. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get in. That day, I cried really hard to my sister. Softly, she assured me. So now, I'm going to use the same way to soften it. "Apollo," I murmured, "Move." With that, he let my body, and I took control of it. As we switched, the sword, once again, rejected me.
"So…" I uttered, "So what if I won? You know you have did your best, isn't it all that matters?"
"Felix…" Everyone called my name softly, as if they understood. I fought back tears I thought about the words my sister assured me with.
"That saxophone playing was not mine! I have only had that 0.01% of music talent; mine will never suppressed your playing. You have won; you have won in your own way! But I just can't give up this space; I need that space to find Artemis. I'm sorry, but I love your playing, I really love it, so don't give up. It doesn't matter, student councilor doesn't matter, and nothing matters as long as you do your best…" I shouted out to the Alastor, holding back the tears that might flow down my cheeks any time.
When I really could not hold back anymore, a drip of tear rolled down my cheeks and dropped on the handle, which was the lyre. It shone with a warm light that would blind anyone who stared at it directly. I was surrounded by beautiful music and both my hands felt like it was being burnt instead of being electrified. When the light faded, my hands gained strength and the sword had stopped electrifying me.
Apollo took advantage of my shock and possessed me again. "You're officially announced a master recognized by Kara." He smiled, and ran towards the confused Alastor who did not know what exactly was happening. This time, he managed to get close to the Alastor and slashed it into two. The same black smoke emitted from the Alastor and Apollo played a few notes on the lyre-handle. The music touched the black smoke which changes into a sparkling bright light.
Ran, whose highlights turn silver and have silvered eyes, summoned his scythe and collected the Alastor. In a split second, both Ran and the Alastor were gone. And the room returned to normal. Raymond woke up with no memories of the Alastor and apologized about his rude behavior. Everything as normal as it is, I walked back to the classroom with the Guardians.
A girl with wavy brown hair walked passed us and her hair brushed past me. Giving off a familiar scent, I paused at my steps and turned in the direction of the girl. "What's the matter?" Apollo was asking out of curiosity.
"Nothing," I replied but my head just couldn't leave the direction of the girl. Just who is that girl?