A.N: Hallo guys :3 the update came very late, I've been living very poorly and lamely the past few weeks and I was out of town. My chronic depression kicked in and that's what I meant by living poorly and lamely. But let's be honest, nobody wants to hear rants about depression. The thing is I'm better, well for now, and I finally updated! :D Thank you for all the support and reviews! You guys really made my day huhu
ph: You don't need to worry for Kenny, he definitely won't do anything bad, he's a good guy :3
QUEENSPELLER67: Johanna isn't really their mother, I'll reveal more of it in the coming chapters :D and yes she is still alive and the septuplets are all hybrids (half-devil half-human).
LovelyLily13: Dawn really is troublesome isn't she haha but for Kenny and Dawn, things will be tested between them in the coming chapters :3
ShadowRosealine: You sure did mention it a lot haha thank you! And sorry for the super late update. And things will be getting intense!:D
Pokemon will never ever ever ever be mine.
Chapter Six – A Protected Promise
Dawn was pretty sure something in him changed. When he came back and saved her last night, he wasn't that helpless and fearful boy she once met in a dark alley a week ago. The frame of his lips was firmer, the life of his eyes got colder and his expressions grew more turbid. He was now a darker version of his former self. Or at least darker than what Dawn had originally perceived of him.
She deduced that something must have happened to him at such a little span of time why he had grown more remote.
If it wasn't for his cold and apathetic demeanor, she could have slept soundly that night without questions murdering the back of her head. She didn't know why he would immediately dismiss her off and give her the cold shoulder. He was acting like her mother, which she hated very much.
Why wouldn't anyone tell her anything about what she actually wanted to know? She didn't know whether she really was that forbidden to know what really mattered to her or she was just worrying at the wrong things.
Her head was still swimming with a lot of questions pending to be answered. With a heavy sigh, she decided to push those thoughts away for now and focused on her current predicament – Advance Algebra, first subject of the morning.
Paul said earlier that he had to go somewhere and told her to trust him that he would come back. And honestly, no matter how much Dawn wanted to know more about him and those broken visions he gave her, she didn't want poking her nose forcefully at anything personal. She thought better to be patient at those answers.
She might not have them now, but she would, eventually and hopefully.
She slowly closed the door of her apartment. The morning was still quite young. There was no way for her to be late. The knob clicked. She tapped her blue skirt, straighten the blue sailor ribbon on her chest, checked on her white sailor uniform for some unnoticed stains, held onto the straps of her knapsack and finally, she took a quick check of herself in her pocket mirror. Her azure hair was clipped at the side like the usual. Perfect.
She wanted to see Kenny before she would go to school.
She stopped by his room and knocked on the door.
"Kenny? Are you there?" She called out. She knocked again. Perhaps he was still sleeping.
The door creaked open when she was about to turn away.
"Good morning." Kenny greeted, panting. He was shirtless wearing only his red jogging pants and a face cloth over his shoulder.
He was sweating.
"Sorry I couldn't answer immediately." He continued. "I was, err, busy…" He trailed off.
Dawn gave him an amused look.
"You're working out?!" Disbelief washed over her. "Kenny that's great!" She exclaimed.
He laughed sheepishly in response. "Thank you."
"But why though?" She faced him.
Kenny opened the door fully and leaned on the door frame. He was awkwardly touching his auburn hair in embarrassment. "Nothing, uhh, nothing in particular."
"Well just don't overdo it okay?" Dawn chuckled lightly. "You don't want fishing a lot of girls for that."
They both laughed together.
"Oh god! I took too much time!" She flipped by her sudden realization and raced towards the stairs. She paused and looked back at him.
"See you after school?"
"I'll see you after school Dawn." He smiled.
She grinned before running down the stairs.
He looked down and his bittersweet smile faltered. He closed back the door and resumed working out. He threw the cloth over the sofa and laid on the floor.
He pulled his knees and started pull ups.
"One, two, three, four, five…"
'I'll protect her this time, even if I had to kill my own kind or other human beings. I'll protect her.'
"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…"
'She's all that matters to me.'
"Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three…"
'I need to be stronger. Stronger than those two devils last night. Stronger than the monster that killed my family and everyone in my village. Stronger than Paul. Stronger than anything!'
"Twenty-seven…Twenty-eight…" Kenny's strength was dying. "Twenty-nine….Thirty…" He unbuckled his knees and spread his arms flat on the floor. He gasped for breath. He felt a few beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
…
"Good morning Barry!" Dawn's seven-year old cheerful voice caught the blond boy by surprise. He yelped and accidentally dropped his soldier action figure.
"Oh Dawn, morning." He picked the figure up from the sandy grounds of the sandbox of the playground.
"What are you doing?" She asked and peeked over his shoulders.
"I'm training Sergeant Stone here for a war operation that would commence by daybreak." Barry answered with a modulated voice. He hardly looked at her.
"Can I play?" Dawn asked excitedly.
"Well..." He answered unsurely to which Dawn pouted.
"All you care about are your toys!" She stuck her tongue out and walked away.
…
Kenny knew that Dawn had a child-crush on Barry. It was the reason why she broke his action figures at that time which made him run away and got lost in the forest outside of Twinleaf, their home town.
He'd know of course, he had scourged him. Absorbing his identity allowed him to register Barry's own memory into his. He replaced him in his family as well as Dawn's bestfriend. Despite without knowing how he did it, the scourging was very successful. He was able to erase him completely. Even Barry's name in all written documents was replaced by Kenny's name. It enabled him to blend perfectly in the human society.
He could still remember clearly the scourging process how he slowly absorbed Barry's existence and identity into his. But unexpectedly, instead of having Dawn's crush transferred to him, Dawn simply lost that crush. He didn't know why. It confused him because Barry's family still viewed Kenny like he was their son that the relationship was still there.
The only theory Kenny had thought why Dawn's crush wasn't transferred to him was because there wasn't any proper establishment of it. The reason why Barry's family took care of him like Kenny really was Barry was because the strong and proven connection of being their child. He actually had the title of being their son.
A mere crush was just too weak and fleeting to be transferred. She simply outgrew that crush.
He thought that it was a good thing at first, because attachment especially towards humans was forbidden for devils. Devils weren't supposed to act in cooperation with humans, much more fall in love with them. And the same applies to humans. It was a given rule of nature.
That was why they were given two separate worlds to live – the human world and the Netherworld. For both beings, betrayal against his own race for the other would be the greatest sin to commit. To fall in love with the opposing race would bear a mortal curse, a mortal price.
But whatever curse that would be, Kenny wasn't afraid. As long as he could just protect Dawn.
He tried continuing his pull ups, but he was too tired already. He could feel his muscles twitching in fatigue. He could barely move his arms and his abdomen ached.
"I'm so weak…"
He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He opened them red and he could feel renewed strength surged in him.
"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five…" He was doing it more easily and fluidly that he had started.
His determination was stronger than before, stronger than last night. He had steeled his resolve. He needed to steel his resolve.
"Seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five…"
Kenny was determined to work everything out, to strengthen himself physically and mentally to protect her. To avoid doing the same mistakes all over again.
And more importantly, to make her notice his feelings.
"One hundred, one hundred one, one hundred two, one hundred three…"
And for that, he was far more than willing to endure a lot of pain. Even if it would mean to bear a curse that would last more than his lifetime or cost his life.
"One hundred forty-four, one hundred forty-five, one hundred forty-six, one hundred forty-seven…"
The cold and gentle breeze of early Wednesday morning drafted by Paul. It brushed past his purple hair as sunlight tapped his skin playfully. He was staying on the rooftop of the apartment complex meditating for what it seemed to be more than an hour already. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and black shorts.
He decided to do this every morning in attempt to control his curse. He knew better now. All those that adopted him that died were his entire fault. He was an immature crybaby for believing otherwise.
He really was a killing machine. He was living a lie and there was no other way around than to believe and control it.
If only he was able to accept that earlier he would have avoided such unfortunate events which only fueled his nightmares. Things could have been different now. He viewed his thirst for family as something trivial now. He was never going to have such a thing.
Not to a monster that makes killing as easy as breathing. He had to at least control it.
He surely knew better now. Happiness was never something you'd wish for. It's something you'd work hard for. And sometimes people just aren't meant to be happy, but just to be contented. Paul was one of them, to be content with loneliness. For him, seeing the people he cared about in safe hands was all the reason he needed to live.
He made the right choice to leave his foster home. He was only being a burden to Sister Cheryl and her own happiness.
He slowly opened his eyes and stood up.
By his far right, he saw a young plant sapling in a pot placed at the edge of the complex. It basked in raw sunlight. Surprisingly the more he looked at it the less healthy it seemed to get. Its leaves went pale and brown and they fell one by one. It wilted as if the soil had absorbed it.
In less than a minute, what was left was an unrecognizable carcass of a sapling.
By the reflection of himself on a water tank in front of him, he could vividly see his own right crimson iris.
He cursed.
"I still can't control it yet, damn it."
Even though it wasn't his first time seeing his eye red, it still gave him that implausible feeling. His head throbbed horribly and he placed a hand over his eye. He was tempted to pull it out and maybe it might disable his curse.
But he knew it wouldn't, for he had tried it already.
"Hey Dawn, it really makes me happy you know." Zoey said as they walked along the center quadrangle of the school.
"About what?" She asked.
"That you might be smarter than me at mostly anything, yet you're so helpless without me in Advance Algebra." Zoey laughed.
"Hey, hey! I'll get better at it!" Dawn chastised. "You just watch!"
"Oh sure, it's not like I haven't heard you say that before, pffft."
"I really hate you sometime." Dawn sighed. "I sometime question myself if you're really my bestfriend, you know?"
Zoey playfully wrapped her arms around Dawn's waist. "At least I'm giving you my lessons for free. That's how much I love you!"
"Whatever you say Miss Mathemagician." Dawn chuckled.
The dismissal bell rang a few minutes ago. Dawn and Zoey were already making their way toward the school gate.
"Oh Dawn sorry again! I completely forgot that Coach needed me to be at the gym this afternoon!" She panicked and started running back.
"You've been ditching me recently Zoey!" Dawn screamed.
"I'm really sorry! I still love you though! See ya tomorrow!" And she disappeared.
Dawn chuckled at Zoey's clumsiness and laxness. It gave her a sense of comfort and amusement that they have something similar at some point.
And then elation crashed over her when she saw Kenny waiting for her at the school gate in his usual get-up. She smiled to herself and embarrassingly called out his name again, gaining weird looks of other students at her.
But she didn't care.
Zoey anxiously hid her hands in her pockets and slowly walked toward the Dean's room at the topmost floor of the central building. She felt bad for lying to Dawn about late club activities.
She checked her watch.
5:00PM.
She bit the inside of her cheeks in anxiety.
Professor Will, the dean of the university, had been arranging a lot of meetings with her lately.
She breathed in deeply as her pulse started to race. She could feel her heartbeat ringing in her ears.
They weren't exactly meetings despite what Will termed them himself. For Zoey, they were more of threats than just mere meetings or arrangements. The only thing a monster like him was capable of doing.
The knob turned slowly and the cold lemon scented air gushed against her like a wave. Her stomach churned uncomfortably.
She hated that scent.
"You haven't scourged Miss Berlitz yet, have you?" The familiar voice of Mr. Will rang around the silent and enclosed room. Aside from her rampaging heartbeat out of anxiety, the only noise she could hear was the hum of the air conditioner.
As much as how she hated him, she was deeply afraid of Will. He wasn't just any typical devil.
The knob clicked closed behind her.
In front of her was a large glass table with piles of papers and folders stacked neatly beside each other on top, beside the table was an empty small grey plastic trash bin. The shutters of his windows were all closed. The room had low visibility which increased her anxiety.
Will sat on his huge office chair facing the opposite side. He wasn't even facing her yet his mere presence was enough to make Zoey's knees turn jelly. Zoey knew well enough that she didn't need to see his face to know how furious he was at her right now.
His chair made a squeak as he spun around and faced her. Her purple hair traced the corners of his cheeks. He was wearing his usual suit, magenta colored slacks and long-sleeve polo topped with a black vest with two pairs of golden colored buttons at the center.
And his signature black-framed masquerade mask covering his eyes.
Masks were supposed to hide faces for ambiguity. But his mask was more than just for ambiguity, it made him look more malicious and dangerous. His mask furthermore highlighted his pathological insanity.
Just his mere mask was enough to make any devil who knew his name run in fear.
Zoey tried her best to overcome her fear with hatred toward the monster that completely annihilated his family and village ten years ago.
"N-no, sir-"
"I've grown tired of that response! Have you even tried doing it Nozomi?!" Will enraged, whipping his left gloved hand for emphasis.
"I'm just waiting for the perfect timing-"
"You imbecile! Almost all of the students and staff here have been scourged already and you here are delaying my plan! You useless thrash!" He pushed the stacked papers off of his table in deep frustration.
Zoey could faintly see a tiny glow of red behind his mask.
His eyes were glowing cerise.
She suddenly felt something taking a strong grip of her neck. Will was using his ability at her, again. As she choked for air, she could feel her feet lose hold of the floor. She struggled and kept on kicking.
She helplessly struggled like a decapitated insect in midair.
"Don't tell me you're getting attached to this human girl?" Will asked with voice laced with malice. "It's been a semester already and you still haven't scourged her yet! And it was the only thing I assigned you to do! How useless can you be?!"
Zoey didn't know what kind of force he was using against her. She felt something strangling her but she couldn't touch it no matter how many times she had swatted her arms around her neck. He was choking her just by mere looking. She tried looking around and realized that her head had almost touched the ceiling. Her lack of oxygen blurred her vision and she could barely see him smirking sadistically at her suffering.
Just a second later she would have fallen out of consciousness that she fell on the floor with a thud. She crouched down and gasped for air.
"N-no..." She coughed. "I-I'm not... I'm not attached to her…" She coughed out her words.
"THEN DO IT IMMEDIATELY!" He yelled at her. "You're really making me regret for keeping you alive all this time Nozomi." He hissed. "I should have killed you together with your pathetic village and parents ten years ago!"
"I'll be on a leave starting tomorrow to meet someone. I'll be back by the end of this week and if you can't scourge or kill Berlitz by then, I'll gladly do it myself." Will finished as he rotated his seat again. "And you won't like what I'll do with you."
"Now scam!"
She gritted her teeth and balled her fist.
She quickly got up and closed the door behind her.
"Damn Will and his delusions. What is he thinking of making an army of devils out from this school? And scourging poor students! What a psycho!"
What I mean is that, don't you feel out of place here? Like you're some sort of stranger, despite knowing all of them for three years you just feel like you've known them just now.
"Even Dawn has started to notice the changes. Abusing the power to scourge to create an army for himself. Insane!"
She trudged down the stairs quickly and touched her neck, which now had red imprints from the earlier struggle. She was sure Will had the ability of moving things around at a far distance without touching them. What she didn't know though was the full extent of his ability as a devil. She had witnessed it once when Will was able to overpower her whole village with just a few men. She could hardly remember for she was still young at that time but he was more than terrifying in full power. Will was surely on a different and unique class of devils, far different from her and all the other devils she had encountered.
Unlike most devils which basically relied on speed and power, Will has a unique ability.
Will was definitely one of the strongest devils she knew, if not the strongest.
Zoey bit her lips that it started to bleed.
"I surely can't defeat him in combat. He's too powerful for me. I just need to stay perfectly in my plan. Make him think that I'm on his side and by the time of his departure tomorrow I will assassinate all of his four henchmen one by one. I could probably kill them by myself." Zoey bared her fangs in anticipation of her plan for tomorrow. "And I'll kill Will by surprise when he gets back. He can never get away from murdering my family and my village. I'll get my revenge."
When she was outside of the school main building, Zoey ran ahead to the gates and exited the school in a pained expression. The darkness of the night slowly covered the sky like a blanket as the awful screams of nightly scourging in the school slowly got out of her earshot.
"Will needs to die."
"Wait for me Kenny. I'll see you real soon. Just like what I promised you. Just a little more time and I will look for you. We'll be together again."
A.N: Who guessed that the redhead in Kenny's memory was Zoey? You all probably did,xD but yes I've planned it all along that it had to be her for plot purposes. And also yes, when Paul said that he tried taking out his eye, he really DID take out his eye. I will reveal more of it soon. Zoey is gonna go full badass mode in the upcoming chapters. Friendship, promises and memories will be tested. And if you're wondering why I used Will (the psychic type elite four of Gen II) is because of his sort of psychic ability, more of it will be revealed as well as the past between him, Zoey and Kenny. And I find his getup really cool! I'll be creating his character the merciless-sadistic antagonist which is very cliche. I can't promise anything about the next update, but hopefully it would be sooner than later.
Once again big thanks to all those who reviewed and read this story. It really makes me happy! :D
Kicks!
