Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy this next chapter of CFOP!
Also! I will now refer the group of main characters as the Makai Busters, coined by presea221!
A Closed Fist to An Open Palm
Chapter 17: Sullen Bitterness in Profound Sadness
"What a bald prick!" Jasmine exclaimed as she sulked through a hallway with a scowl on her face.
After the meeting in Chancellor Sheppard's office ended, Chairman Claire came to the four and informed them that they managed to find Brier, and is now resting at the infirmary for the time being. Relieved to hear that their Ra Yellow Friend was safe and sound, the four began their way to the nurse's office, wanting to check on him to see if he was okay.
Well, Mindy, Blair, and Zenn were relieved to know of Brier's whereabouts, Jasmine, on the other hand, was keen on venting out her frustration instead of worrying about Brier's wellbeing.
"Jazz, could you not yell that out loud?! You're gonna get us all detention if a teacher heard what you just said!" Mindy hushed, trying to calm her down.
"Chancellor Sheppard doesn't give a damn about what we do! The only people he cares about are his fancy 'Spirit Key Holders'!" Jasmine continued to rant, mocking the title the Headmaster gave to Jaden and his friends.
"This afternoon, I saved the school from that Mosquito freak, and I didn't get anything from that clown! Not even a freaking thank you!" The Redhead lamented.
"I mean...It's not like you told him upfront that you dueled it..." Blair pointed out, scratching the back of her head, surprised to see herself be the calmer one compared to the livid Jasmine.
"That idiot only puts his attention on students that he THINKS are the best! It's like he skipped over everyone because he's too lazy to pick awesome duelists like us to save the academy! And when we show up! He treats us as if we weren't even there!" Jasmine continued to rant, completely ignoring Blair.
"Master Sheppard's coveting is expected, Jasmine. He already hand-selected the protectors of this academy...He didn't believe others would want to jump to the call instead of heeding it," Zenn reasoned in a calm tone, while he did possess the same anger over the Headmaster's lack of gratitude in their efforts of defeating the Makai, it was a pointless grudge that didn't need settling.
The Shadow Riders aligned themselves with The Makai, Trilojig's forces are now more united than ever. They're bigger worries to fixate on than a Master's lack of acknowledgment or praise.
"JUST SHUT UP!" Jasmine shouted as she turned to Zenn, running out of patience for him.
Zenn visibly flinched as he took a step back, his jaw agape in shock. Words tried to escape out of Zenn's mouth only to dry up in his throat, completely taken aback by Jasmine's sudden outburst. Zenn was used to Jasmine's bouts of anger by now, but this was a completely different type of ire that Zenn has never seen in Jasmine before.
She was upset about something, and while she's vocal about it, it's not Chancellor Sheppard's favoritism. No, it was something deeper, something that Jasmine had buried for a long time, only to unearth in that meeting, reviving itself like the walking dead.
"I've had it with you guys! You're never on my side! NEVER!" Jasmine accused as she slammed her foot against the floor. The stomp made Blair and Mindy flinch, they instinctively jaunted closer to each other, frightened by Jasmine's sudden outburst.
"It's because this isn't like you, Jazz..." Mindy said softly. Garnering the courage to try to talk Jasmine out of her wrath-induced haze, Mindy placed a warming hand on the Red-head's shoulder, showing none of her usual playfulness, and instead, all of her care for her disheartened friend.
"It isn't?" Blair suddenly chimed in. She would quickly receive a smack to the head by a scolding Mindy as an answer.
"Jazz...You have been my best friend ever since I've met you. I'm always on your side, no matter what." For a moment, Mindy's kind, heartfelt words managed to get through to the frustrated Jasmine. Unfortunately, Jasmine's anger won over her sense of reasoning, her hazy mind poisoning Mindy's truthful words into a murky message of back-stabbing lies and hallow platitudes.
"LIES! You guys are SNAKES!" Jasmine barked back. Without thinking, Jasmine threw her arms out at Mindy, pushing her to the ground in a hard shove. The effect was immediate, Mindy let out a yelp of pain as she made contact to the floor, fully landing on her side
"Mindy!" Blair and Zenn exclaimed as the two rushed to her side. Mindy grimaced as she gripped her elbow, the join now shaded in a big bloom of purple after it met the floor in her fall.
Jasmine's livid scowl would soon warp into a disgusted grimace, now realizing what she had done. She stared at her hands, as if she committed a murder, while no bloodshed, the cascade of remorseful shame was too great to bear for Jasmine.
"Jazz..." Mindy whispered, more disheartened than offended by Jasmine's actions, slowly sitting up from where she. Stunned, Jasmine stormed off in a sprint, staring at the ground while she ran away, too ashamed of herself to face her friends.
"I'll catch up with you two at the Infirmary, go," Zenn said to Mindy and Blair, motioning them to leave him behind.
"But Zenn! "A Sullen Bitterness hides a Profound Sadness," Zenn calmly recited to the two before heading off. Zenn followed Jasmine's trail, intent on chasing her down and finding the root of the problem.
'This battle is a lonely one,' Zenn added in thought.
Jasmine, now out of the academy and into the island's dense forest, slumped down to the ground, her back arched against the trunk of a tree. She buried her head in her knees, trying to make herself look as small as possible so that no one could see her like this.
A hundred different emotions ran through Jasmine's, anger, disgust, shame, guilt, regret, fear, they collided with each other in a messy moshpit, clashing with each other like a horrible trainwreck, which is what Jasmine would describe herself as right now.
"Why am I like this?" She asked herself, not able to stand her lack of self-control, her anger issues, and her hurtfulness.
"You treat everyone you care about like garbage...You're no worse than the people you hate..." Jasmine continued to degrade herself. These awful truths brought the girl to tears.
"You're nothing more than a bully..." She said to herself as the final strike to her faltering composure.
"That's not true, Jasmine," The girl heard, instinctively, she looked up to see Zenn, slowly walking towards her, making sure he wasn't scaring her with his surprise presence.
"Why can it not be Zenn? I insult and belittle you guys all the time...I always take you guys for granted..." Jasmine would bury her head again to avoid Zenn's emerald eyes.
"Is that the true reason for you being upset?" Zenn asked. Jasmine would only respond with a stiff nod. With cautious steps, Zenn slowly dropped down next to Jasmine, sitting close to her. Jasmine shuddered as she felt her bare shoulder brushing against his, tensing up from the unintentional contact. She questioned why her uniform didn't have sleeves, so something like this could happen.
"Please, Jasmine, I know there is more to this sorrow...You need to open it up if you wish for me to help you," Zenn pleaded in a whisper.
Shakily, Jasmine coughed as she cleared her throat, relenting to Zenn's grievances. Jasmine picked her head up, not wanting her words to be muffled by her knees only for her eyes to drift down to the grass floor as soon as she caught a glimpse of Zenn's face, not having the courage to confront his stony gaze.
"When I was younger, I used to be that shy girl that no one paid attention to...Because I was poor," Zenn frowned from the revelation. He didn't expect someone like Jasmine to face the painful weight of poverty. While she didn't give off an aura of affluence, she certainly didn't give off any clues of her being impoverished.
"So I could never fit in. When others get into some fad, my family could never afford it, so I got left out a lot."
"During Duel Prep school, there was this boy I liked. I was totally into him, even though he paid no attention to me," Zenn suddenly felt a touch of jealousy for the boy, how could such a person catch Jasmine's affection so effortlessly? Zenn shook his head; it was another question for another time.
"So, one day, out of the bloom, he came up to me and asked me if I wanted to go on a date with him...I took this as a way to finally be accepted, so of course, I said yes, but he then told me I needed to do something for him in return," Jasmine paused as old memories started to flow back, unearthing a past she didn't want to remember. Jasmine hesitated, feeling unsure if she wanted to shed another layer of secrets.
"I stole someone's cards...And gave it to him." Jasmine admitted through an ashamed grimace. Zenn's face flashed with shock, in Gendai Reiki, a duelist's deck is their heart and soul, and without it, they become incomplete, lost without direction, unable to worship the virtues that gave them the strength to push forward.
"When I gave it to him, you know what he did? He went up to that person and told him that I stole the cards for myself. That lie spread around the whole school...And I became an outcast after that," Zenn watched as Jasmine's curled up her fists, the flooding memories spurring her wrath.
"I used to be that one girl that no one paid attention to because I was poor, but after that rumor spread, I was everyone's punching bag, they called me names, they pushed me around, some even spat at me. One day, I couldn't take it anymore, and I shouted at them when they came to me for another round, I even threw a couple of punches, I just wanted to be left alone."
"They eventually did, but I guess that way of coping with all that crap stuck with me...Because ever since then, I always had anger problems...I lash out at anyone." Jasmine paused to wipe away a couple of tears off of her face.
"Even to the ones I care about because I'm scared they'll leave me out or turn on me again..." Jasmine finished before weeping once more.
"It won't ever happen. Because you're Jasmine," Zenn quickly responded. Jasmine, confused, would crook her head up to him, not knowing what he meant.
"The ones that hurt you; they only knew you as a thief. But the Jasmine, I know..." Zenn paused as he felt a blush blooming on his cheeks, his flustering face being a clear sign that whatever he was about to say was going to be a challenge for him to not stutter through. Zenn would stand up, looming over Jasmine before offering her a closed fist.
"Is kind, confident, loyal, and determined." A finger would blossom out of the curled up hand.
The Jasmine, I know is duelist of untapped potential and natural talent." Then another.
"The Jasmine, I know...Is a beautiful person who will overcome her temper with patience." Then another.
"The Jasmine, I know, possesses a passionate flame that shines brighter than the sun." Then another.
"This is the Jasmine, I know...And this is the Jasmine that the rest of your friends know of too." Zenn finished. His hand now blossomed into a supportive, open palm for Jasmine to take.
"R-Really? Do you believe in me? That I can change?" Jasmine squeaked, still bearing some self-doubt.
"If I didn't, I wouldn't go searching for you. If Mindy didn't believe in you, she wouldn't give sympathy when you pushed her away."
Before Zenn could continue, Jasmine would take Zenn's hand before she slammed herself into him, her arms wrapped around his neck and her head nested on his shoulder, hitting Zenn's skin with a river of hot, but grateful tears.
Zenn never felt his whole body lock up so fast before. To be embraced by Jasmine...It brought a feeling that Zenn couldn't describe, a feeling that he couldn't recite in a quote from his master.
Perhaps, he needed this talk as much as Jasmine did.
Zenn forced his arms to hug back awkwardly, never feeling such a paralyzing sensation that Jasmine gave to him through this tender embrace.
"Thank you...For believing in me," Was all Jasmine said.
"I always will. now let's go see Brier...A friend in need is a friend indeed," The Martial Artist recited. Jasmine couldn't help but let out a teary-eyed giggle.
"And back to the quotes, you're such a dork Zenn," Jasmine said, smiling lightly.
"If it means helping you go back to your usual self, then I will be a master of all dorks," Zenn responded back in a serious tone, without a hint of irony or jest.
Jasmine let out another giggle as she wiped away the rest of her tears.
"I wouldn't like it any other way, c'mon, let's go see Brier." With the two teen's spirited lifted, they began the trek back to the academy.
