Leanne's eyes were burning with fury as she stared at Meiko, her teeth gritted behind her tightly sealed lips, which made her jaw stiff as she stared. Meanwhile, Meiko just grinned at her fellow classmate and annoying rival in a taunting way, knowing that teasing the blonde was something she could get away with without any sort of repercussions. She knew that Leanne was too soft to do anything back. She was a Cherrygirl, the fuck was she going to do?

The thing about Leanne is that Meiko knew she was capable. Of course, she wasn't as capable as she was, but the blonde still managed to annoy and irk the absolute shit out of the young Japanese girl. She was the only Cherrygirl in all of the northwestern Hero Academy, and the entire class of two hundred young squires in training knew that. Yet despite being from such a mushy, squishy, pathetic place, every time during relay races, competition games, obstacle courses, and most of all, during point-based sparring matches, Leanne always managed to come among the top contenders.

When the classes first began, the young squires were made aware that only fifteen out of the two hundred of them were going to make it into the Barracks, as fifteen trainees were taken from each of the four Hero Academies to complete the sixty total that would stay at the Hero Barracks. This made the Hero Academies extremely, utterly, and sometimes toxically, the most competitive places in the entirety of Fort Diamond and the Azure Legion's Hero culture. Of course, the environment was still mostly friendly in terms of what it was like to go to school and learn, but during classes and physical assessments, everyone became an enemy, and it was every squire for themselves.

However, there was sometimes some exceptions to these norms, and that was usually what occurred with the creation of "cliques" within the Hero Academies. Examples of cliques were things like the kids that were known for being good at the bookwork, the nerdy stuff, like learning languages, mathematics, geography, history, and other things of that sort. Another clique was the squires that excelled in physical areas, and were usually loud, boastful, and full of swagger, since athletic ability is and always will be admired in any sort of culture, especially one where the art of combat is an essentiality. A third clique are the kids that are seen as the "lucky" ones. They only got into the Academies because they got lucky in basic training and intermediate school, but now stood absolutely no chance of becoming a qualifier for the Barracks among an atmosphere that was actually competitive.

Within these cliques, friend groups obviously formed among the students, and each group would usually stay away from other groups. It was normally always a quarrel between the bookworkers and the athletes, since they were essentially polar opposites. The athletes normally picked on bookworms or threatened them in order to get them to help with things like exams and homework. Bookworms had a way to fight back in their own way, however, and that was by taking advantage of the way athletes thought. Instead of resorting to violence, bookworms would attempt to get things in return from the athletes in exchange for help with school work. Whether it was food, money, or some other personal favor, athletes always found themselves trying to find ways to get bookworkers to help them. If payment wasn't given, and the athletes resorted to violence instead, then the wrong answers were given, essentially ending with the athletes beating someone up just to get the wrong answers to a test anyway.

Absolutely no gain in that.

The third group, the Lucky Ones, were all on their own. They were usually seen as the social outcasts of each Academy, since no one really believed in them. They weren't anything special and they didn't seem to specialize in anything, either. They weren't super smart, they weren't overly athletic, and they had no unique defining features to help them stand out. Therefore, people tended to cast them aside, believing that their overwhelming mediocracy simply wasn't Hero Barrack material. The Lucky Ones obviously made friends with each other instead, but usually had to do things on their own regardless. A coping mechanism that Lucky Ones used was the motto: "if one of us suffers, we'll all suffer." It was in reference to how most of the time, Lucky Ones struggled to do one thing or another. Whether it was a subject they weren't good at, or an exercise they hated doing, they all had to deal with it together, since the bookworms and the athletes only ever struggled with one thing. Ironically, the Lucky Ones struggled with everything.

Quite unlucky.

Leanne was a Lucky One. Meiko was an athlete. Despite the fact that people mostly left Lucky Ones alone, Meiko had a very particular disliking towards Leanne, simply because she was a Lucky One that was actually somewhat competent. She did her best on school work and got passing scores, and her athletic ability was higher than most and was borderline athlete-clique level. But the most annoying part was that she was from Cherrytown. Of course, anyone from Cherrytown was going to automatically become a Lucky One, as it was known for birthing the least number of Heroes. Leanne personally hated that. But she knew that it was true, and could do little about fighting back against such a predominant and accurate stereotype.

The rivalry between Meiko and Leanne had gone on since the very first few weeks of school. Meiko hated the idea of the Lucky Ones entirely, believing that they didn't deserve to be in the Academies in the first place. However, she had her own dislikings, too. Some people had the belief that the Hero Academies should be exclusive to people that were born within Fort Diamond and its quadrants, and that the three outer towns shouldn't be included at all. Meiko hated people who believed that, as she herself was from Myrefield. It very clearly wasn't fair if the three towns weren't given a chance to let their children become Heroes, but some people were in support of leaving them out regardless. Meiko swore those people were all braindead. She even supported the idea of Cherrytown children being allowed into the Academies. She just didn't really believe that anybody from there had the grit to actually make it.

On the other side of the rivalry, Leanne hated both the "quadrant exclusive academies" and the "weak Cherrytown" concepts. She was glad that the beliefs that the Academies should be exclusive to Fort Diamond born fighters were gradually becoming more and more outdated. But the Cherrytown stigma still held strong, and she was determined to prove people wrong. That's what made her so fierce when it came to people like Meiko, who didn't believe in her at all. While others also looked down upon Leanne, most chose to keep their ridicule and jeers to themselves, or just gossiped to their friends in secret. Meiko, however, wasn't afraid to make it obvious that she thought Leanne was a fool for even bothering to try. She was by far Leanne's biggest bully, and was constantly insinuating and trying to get reactions out of the poor blonde.

Because of the way she was raised, Leanne did her very, very best every day in school to control herself. She very rarely yelled back, she refused to give dirty looks to Meiko's face, she always tried to defuse situations or just ran from them in general, and she was always humble and modest when it came to interactions with her. But ever since the incident with the Conqueror and her talk with Emora, she had gained more confidence, and now, over halfway through the first Academy schoolyear, she began to show more and more gusto towards Meiko, which in turn began to annoy her. Normally, she didn't expect much resistance. But whenever she got it, she was always eager to shut it down in order to put Leanne back in her place. After all, she believed she was too soft and reserved to do anything that would actually be effective.

But it was always during games, or competitions, or other public activities in where Leanne would get recognition when Meiko would get the angriest. A Cherrygirl performing well in the Academies, what sort of shit was that? Meanwhile, Leanne beamed whenever she got recognized by her peers. She always knew that she had resentful eyes on her, but she humbly smiled through the hate and continued to do the very best she could. She knew that people didn't believe in her, and that whenever she performed well, that people were always surprised. To Leanne, it only made things feel even better, to see everyone's shocked faces when she does something spectacular, as it shows that she's helping to prove all the slander about her hometown wrong.

Ironically, all these vast differences are what brought Leanne and Meiko together in the form of a powerful rivalry. Meiko's friends always hung around her and were also among the top athletes at the Academy, so she didn't consider them opponents, but rather allies that all planned to work together to reassure their spots on the top fifteen. But people outside the athlete clique, like Leanne, were marked as key enemies, threats to the spots on board the top fifteen. There wasn't space for fodder on that leaderboard, and the athletes wanted to make sure of that. The bookworms did too, to an extent, since they knew the athletes lacked brains. Sabotage was their main tool of reassuring their own spots on board the top fifteen. The Lucky Ones? Well—all they had was their best, which is what they gave each and every single day in class. For most, it wasn't much. But maybe, just maybe, it was enough to make it all the way through.

Things were different now, though, at least for Leanne. Because of what had happened today for her, she no longer believed that her best was going to be enough to make it onto the top fifteen for her Academy. Throughout the school year, she was always struggling with her doubts, and worries, and anxieties. They were constantly yelling into her ears, trying to discourage her. Normally, she held onto her sources of willpower, like her father, her mother, the Alphas, Amybeth, and Emora. But today, all of those sources were finally drained all the way up and left dry. Her father would've been disappointed. Her mother was a former shell of who she used to be, and being unable to help hurt so much. The Alphas all thought she was a crybaby troublemaker. Amybeth was going to forget about her and jump ever ahead with the help of the Alphas. And finally, she had yelled at Emora, and now she likely thought she was a hurtful, good-for-nothing brat that she severely mistook for a potential Hero.

Leanne was further down the gutter than she had ever been, and about a week or so ago, she had lost to Meiko in a sparring match, which was now being rubbed in her face all over again. Meiko continued to stare at the blonde as she picked up all of the berries and placed them each into the linen baggies, making sure to properly separate them all. She did so in complete silence, still trying not to give in to any of the Japanese girl's mocks.

"You're awfully quiet today, Bennett. Usually, you'd beg me to go away, or just ask me what I want from you. Of course, what could I possibly ever need from somebody like you, huh? Well—besides a personal servant to pick my berries up for me." She sneered, reaching a hand out and grabbing onto one of the baggies of berries. She reached in and pulled out a blueberry, before tossing it at Leanne's head. She watched as the berry bounced off the blonde's forehead, and just plopped down onto the dirt between the two.

Leanne flinched lightly when the berry hit her, her eyes darting to it once it fell. She slowly looked back up to Meiko, her eyes filled with hurt. The young squire was just about ready to blow. She was a ticking time bomb of emotions that were just waiting to spill out. She had thought about so much today and was already feeling worthless and weak, and now with this happening to her? For a moment, she began to think that the world legitimately had it out for her. That it hated her and wanted her life to be nothing but agony.

Her lips slowly opened as she poured a bunch of raspberries into a baggie, the last of the berries that she had spilled. "I picked them up for you because it's my fault that you dropped them. I—I was distracted, and I wasn't watching where I was going, so I ran into you on accident. It's my fault, I'm… I'm sorry…" She mumbled, her voice frail and audibly unstable. It had a light quaver to it that was noticeable to anyone that was used to hearing her voice on a daily basis, and Meiko just so happened to be someone like that, as the two were in the same class. The Japanese girl detected the quavering tone of Leanne's voice quite quickly, blinking as her sneer weakened a bit, her face mostly neutral as she looked at the blonde. It was somewhat normal to see Leanne upset, since Cherrygirls were emotional, and it wouldn't be the first time that Meiko had successfully made the blonde sad or hurt. Whenever it did happen, there was usually other people around to keep Meiko in character, so that she could play off that she didn't care. Leanne normally just ran off, or dug her face behind a book, or put her head down onto her desk, or just raised her hand to ask and go to the bathrooms.

Leanne couldn't do any of that right now. She could only do one thing, and that was sit here and take it. And Meiko didn't have anyone to egg her on. So, the two just stared at one another for a moment, mainly because Meiko hesitated to react on time. The Asian eventually just yanked the baggies back up and placed them back into her grocery basket one by one in quite the hurry. Once she had done so, she stood back up and looked down to Leanne with an angry frown. "Yeah, it was your fault. Like I said, you should really watch where you're walking more often. What the hell were you even doing that didn't let you see me when I turned the corner, huh?" She asked, taking a moment to look around at all of the other civilians just going about their own days. Some were looking over as they walked past, wondering why two young girls were standing in front of one another, a blonde on her knees in the dirt, the other standing with a basket full of groceries.

Kind of looked like Leanne was begging for food.

Leanne just looked up to Meiko momentarily, her eyes flashing with another wave of hurt that made the inside of her chest sting. She looked away for a moment, feeling her airways tighten up as she held back the need to cry. Her eyes were tearing up already, but she couldn't let Meiko see her cry. She knew for a fact that she would never, ever live something like that down. Meiko would probably laugh at her and make her feel worse, and then proceed to dash off and tell everyone at school the next day. And since Meiko was popular, everyone would believe her and join in on crushing the Cherrygirl into Cherry-jelly.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath, before raising a hand up and fixing her hair a bit, and then finally standing up, bending down to brush dirt off her beige colored pants. Leanne took a moment to look at what Meiko was wearing, since she very clearly hadn't gone to school today, either. The young Asian girl stood there wearing a white silk shirt and a simple pair of gray pants that loosely hung around the leg, the ends of each pant leg covering up the topsides of a pair of brown leather boots that had a rim made of sheep wool, the laces beige colored.

Leanne's eyes darted back to look at Meiko's face, who still looked quite annoyed to even be within her presence. She merely shrugged in response to her question, since she didn't exactly feel like telling her bully about her terrible day and the horrid condition of her mental and emotional state. "I was just distracted, okay? P-Plus, you were walking sort of fast, and so was I, so… I just didn't have enough time to react." She blurted out, having no real excuse. As much as she hated it, Meiko was right about her not paying attention to the path at all.

"Jeez, you might actually be that stupid, huh? I was walking pretty fast, sure, but you certainly weren't. When I hit the corner, I was checking up on my basket, and when I looked up, you just walked right into me. So, your excuse is terrible." Meiko replied bluntly, her brows furrowing a bit more as she grew even more disappointed with the blonde. She continued to give her a disparaging glare, which Leanne easily acknowledged and took offense to. Regardless, she just nodded her head, brutally accepting Meiko's vilifications. "Yeah, I know. I'm really sorry, Meiko. I didn't mean to and you're totally right, I was… I was just distracted. B-But I can't tell you why, okay? But I know that it's my fault and I'm really sorry." Said the young blonde, her blue eyes falling down to look at the ground between the two classmates in shame. Though, she briefly looked back up, her lips parting as she pointed a finger at the basket.

"B-Be sure to wash them when you get home. I'm sure you don't want dirt in whatever you're—"

"I know that I have to wash them, idiot! I'm not fucking stupid, Leanne." Meiko said with a harsh tone. Leanne let out a yelp at the moment of interruption, before just falling silent, her head falling back down, before it just began to nod. Meiko stared at this with another look of contempt, unsure of how to feel from the reaction. She was used to Leanne not putting up much of a fight, but she had to admit that whenever she tried to, it made the teasing a lot more entertaining. But she supposed that after what had happened a week ago, it was safe to assume that Leanne had been slapped back into her proper place. A grin came over her face all of a sudden as she leaned her body to the side a bit, to get a glimpse of Leanne's side profile in an attempt to see what she looked like, since the blonde had her head down with her face out of view.

When she saw that Leanne was just staring at the ground with frantic looking eyes, Meiko's own eyes widened a bit, her head moving back in surprise. Okay, sadness and a feeling of depression was normal, but… Leanne looked paranoid and scared. What was going on? This was different, and Meiko knew it was. The Japanese girl's frown became less intense as she tried to come up with a way to ease the situation's tension.

"But yeah, whatever. It's not like I'm gonna be the one washing them anyway, my mom's the one that's using them, not me. And she washes like all the fruit and vegetables we eat before using them regardless, so it's… w-whatever, like I said." Meiko grumbled, the basket of groceries that her mother sent her to get was hanging from the inside of her right elbow, which is where the handle of the basket was hooked on. Her arm came across her torso beneath her small chest, her left hand resting on her right arm's bicep in a weird folded-arms position, while still holding the basket up. She looked away as she stood there, since she could see that Leanne was beginning to look up to her. Her eyes just stared off to the side, watching random people walk past.

"R-Right. Um." Leanne began, swallowing her saliva momentarily, before her eyes landed upon the basket of groceries. It seemed to be a variety of things, though most were what Cherrytown was widely known for. It's sweet fruits and delicious vegetables. Fresh tomatoes, baggies of berries, bundles of apples and oranges, a jar of what looked like to be strawberry jam, and some bottles of wine. Her eyes darted back up, her mouth opening a tad bit to speak again. She paused when Meiko's eyes shot back to her, which made her pause. The two just looked at one another for a second, before Leanne pointed a finger at the basket. "Uh—so you didn't go to school today! G-Grocery shopping, right?"

Meiko's head turned back over fully to eye Leanne, before she momentarily glanced down to look at the basket. "Yeah. My mom likes sending me over to get some of the groceries from this place, since… you know, you guys are good at growing some… pretty killer stuff." She admitted, sounding and looking quite sour to be doing so. Meiko did have to give credit where it was due, though. If any place grew the best stuff, it was Cherrytown. Woodbury was good with lumber and potatoes, Myrefield did the mining and had tons of livestock,so somebody had to specialize in the other agriculture, besides Fort Diamond who had mass grain fields, such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye.

A small smile came onto Leanne's face as she heard Meiko's compliment to her town. That was probably the first nice thing she's ever said about Cherrytown, ever, in front of Leanne. "Y-Yeah, our apple orchards and stuff are always being worked on. Uh- we grow some pretty nice cabbages, too! If you're into that sort of stuff." Leanne stammered, her shoulders rising up in a shrug, her neck tucking itself in a bit as she stood there awkwardly. Cabbages? Seriously? That's what the conversation was about now?

Meiko just nodded in response, a weirded out squint coming from the young Asian as she peered at Leanne's attire. The white and blue colored sleeveless coat that hung down to her calves, buckled and buttoned closed over the torso, the belt around the waist, the white sleeves of the cotton undershirt beneath the coat, the chainmail shirt and iron bracers on both arms, the beige pants and the shin-high boots, all of it. Identical to what Meiko herself would be wearing had she gone to school. As she looked back to Leanne, she once again squinted in confusion. "What about you? You're in uniform, but… I don't think we would be out just yet." She said, peering at the sky for a moment. "It's still somewhat early in the afternoon."

Leanne joined Meiko in looking at the sky above, before she just slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, I uh—I just… I—" She began, but her stuttering messed everything up. It was here where Leanne really began to panic, since she couldn't just tell Meiko about what had happened today. Oh yeah, she just broke into the Hero Barracks to stalk Amybeth and the Alphas, then got caught, made a huge mess with horses, nearly got trampled, got saved, then got all pissy and threw an emotional fit before just running off like a baby. No big deal telling that to her bully, right?

The blonde just stared at the ground as she gripped her arm with the opposite hand, trying to come up with some sort of excuse. She could feel Meiko's glare from her peripheral vision, and it was killing her. Leanne's eyes shot back up to make eye contact, but it didn't last long, since her gaze began to sporadically dart about at random things behind the Japanese girl. "I got all dressed to go to school this morning, but uh—my mom told me that I had to do some stuff, so I… had to miss out on my first few classes. It all ended up taking up a lot more time than I thought it would, but I'm finally done, so that's the good thing! Now I was just… on my way back. That's all…"

Meiko listened to Leanne's story with a look of skepticism. Cherrygirls were by far the easiest kind of people to read on the entire planet. They were bad liars. The inability to maintain eye contact, the way she was stuttering and hesitating while she spoke, the fidgeting with the hands and uncomfortable looking body movements, it was all so obvious. She had half the mind to further inquire about what had actually happened, since it wasn't like Leanne to skip school early, and she was very rarely ever absent, even if she was sick. But she didn't want to give Leanne the idea that she actually she cared. After all, she didn't. What business was it to her? Still, her curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to make that noted.

"You're lying to me, Leanne." She said sternly, her eyes narrowing as she stared at the blonde with suspicion. Her observations stood true to the reality of the situation, which was made obvious by Leanne's nervous reaction. Meiko watched as she just stared at her, her blue eyes were dilated and frantic, just as they were before. It looked like she had just seen a ghost, and Meiko wasn't exactly dead looking or ugly.

"I just want you to know that you look like a total mess. It's as if you're fucking paranoid, or something. I can tell, you know. You Cherrygirls are easier to read than a picture book, and you barely even have to do any reading for those." She spat, looking Leanne up and down momentarily. Leanne just stood there in silence, having absolutely nothing to say. Her chest felt so dense and heavy, and the only way to relieve it was to either yell or cry. She didn't want to do either, at least not in front of Meiko or in public. So, she kept avoiding eye contact and remained silent for the most part.

Meiko just stared on for a moment, before a small smirk came onto her lips. "This isn't actually because of what happened at school, right? You should honestly be used to losing to me by now, it's not like you've ever beaten me, anyway. You can beat my friends all you want, but it's always me that has to remind you of where you belong. It's nothing personal, Bennett, it's just the way things work. You were getting too confident, so shutting you down was a must." She said with a cocky shrug, her belittling sneer returning to her face as she looked at the blonde.

Leanne's brows knitted together as her sadness and heartache turned into frustration and anger. She had reached her limit, but she continued to hold her emotions back. She couldn't let herself crack under pressure and risk everything flooding out. What would happen? Would she break down crying, would she unleash another angry outburst, maybe a little of both like last time? Not even she knew. She finally made eye contact again, her blue eyes now had a bit more glint in them. "It's not. It's none of your business what's bothering me, and why would you care anyway? If you can tell that I look like crap, then just rub it in my face like you always do and leave me alone!" She argued, her heartbeat beginning to speed up naturally as she shouted at her classmate.

Meiko's sneer immediately disappeared once Leanne began to fight back. She gnashed her teeth together and furrowed her brows with offense, since Leanne mentioned that she cared about the way she felt. "I don't care, what on Earth even made you even think that I did?! I'm just saying that you look like you're insane, so if anything, I am rubbing it in your face, dumbass!"

Leanne's chest continued to tighten as she took a step forward. "Why would you even bother asking me if it's because of you that I'm upset, then?! You don't know why I'm upset and you want to know why, that's why! You can't just ask me something and then pretend you don't care about my answer!"

"What—" Meiko stammered, leaning her head back a bit as she glared at Leanne. "Just shut the fuck up, okay?! Whatever, just forget I even said anything! It's clear you're still fucking sour about what happened, so I'll just leave you alone to sulk like you always do after losing!" She taunted, beginning to storm away to Leanne's side in order to get past her.

Leanne watched her with bitter vexation, turning her body about and shouting after the young Asian. "It's not because of you! I have better things to worry about than some conceited bitch that's so full of herself that she can't even think straight!" She yelled out, before letting out a gasp at the vulgarities that had come out of her mouth on accident. Other people from nearby turned their heads to look over at the shout, since such powerful language was usually a sign that something pretty heated was going on. Leanne's eyes stared at Meiko's backside, her hands quickly coming up to her face to cover her nose and mouth in apology.

Meiko had stopped her walk, only her back visible to Leanne as she stood there. The girl slowly let the basket slide down her arm until it landed in her right hand, where she grasped onto the handle briefly, before setting it down on the ground next to her. She stood straight again and paused for second or two, before slowly turning her head to look over her shoulder at Leanne. As soon as she did so, her flaming eyes flashed with rage.

"What the shit did you just say to me?"

Leanne's hands just pressed back against her face harder as she watched Meiko slowly turn around fully, her stance was aggressive and domineering. She saw that her fists were tightly clenched together, and her face was stone hard with repressed anger. The blonde just put a hand out, her other moving down from her nose to cover her mouth as she spoke. "I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—I didn't mean to call you that, please, I—I just… I don't know what came over me, please—" She suddenly let out a yelp as Meiko began to storm forward. Her hand fell from her face as she began to stagger backwards in fear. She didn't want to fight, and she felt terrible for calling Meiko a bitch. Her emotions had gotten the best of her and it slipped out.

The young Japanese girl stomped forward and reached out to grasp Leanne's collar. The blonde tried to stop Meiko's hand by grasping onto her wrist, but she was too slow, and felt as she was yanked forward by the other girl, both of her hands tightly wrapped around Meiko's wrist and forearm as she was grabbed onto. Meiko brought Leanne's face close up to hers and stared into her soul. With her voice low and intimidating, she spoke. "Don't you ever call me something like that again, do you fucking understand me, Leanne? You don't fucking get to talk to me like that, and you should know that. You're fucking garbage, you sad excuse of a squire, you hear me?!" She uttered through gritted teeth at first, before yelling that last part into Leanne's face.

The blonde girl stared right into Meiko's eyes with shock as she was spoken to, before squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head away when she was yelled at. Her composure was currently paused from the pure shock of the situation, but she knew she'd break down afterward. She slowly nodded her head to Meiko's words, only because she wanted this to stop. She was sorry, and her apology was ripped apart and now she was met with harsh violence, and she was too weak to do anything to stop it. The abuse continued.

"You're a fucking Lucky One for a reason, Leanne, the people from this puny town don't stand a chance out in any sort of battlefield! I mean, just look at you, cowering in fear and taking back your insults, all because you were fucking sorry? If you hadn't backed down, at least you would've earned a modicum of respect from me, but no, not even that. You're worthless Cherrytown trash, and you always will be. I hope this finishes off whatever little bit of determination you had left in you, because you, Leanne," Meiko paused, bringing her second hand's pointer finger up and holding it to Leanne's face, right below her right eye, over her cheek. One of Leanne's eyes opened up halfway to stare at Meiko's finger, which was pointed right at her face. "Aren't shit. You're weak, you're soft, you're fragile, and you're not meant to be a warrior or fighter, much less a fucking Hero!" She thundered out.

With that, Meiko quickly shot both of her hands back, making Leanne let go of them, before moving to reposition them, taking a cheat step to the right side of Leanne in order to properly align her left leg up with the other girl's stomach. She wrapped her arms around the blonde and forced her close, before countering that momentum by driving her knee directly into Leanne's soft, unprepared underbelly. Leanne's eyes widened abruptly as she felt her insides get rattled by the blow to her gut, feeling a paralyzing, extraordinarily unique kind of pain rush outwards from the point of impact, forcing all the air in her lungs to vacate and exit her body in the form of a pained, yet short yell, saliva spilling from Leanne's mouth and splattering down onto the dirt below her. Meiko merely grunted with effort as she kneecapped her classmate, looking down to her to see her agonizing expression.

She watched as Leanne's body crippled and threatened to fall forward, but Meiko dropped her knee from Leanne's stomach and pushed back to hold her still for a moment, forcing her to stand as she brought her lips close to her ear.

"Remember this pain, and let it obliterate you." Meiko whispered, before finally stepping back and allowing Leanne to collapse forward. The blonde squire fell onto her hands and knees, luckily being able to catch herself with her arms as she began to gasp in and out for air, one of her hands soon moving beneath herself to hold her aching gut, her other hand holding her up as she groveled there, trying to recover. Meiko just stared on for a moment, before her head looked up to see the civilians that had gathered around and stopped in their tracks to see what was going on. A Japanese girl standing over a Caucasian girl like this was not a good look.

Meiko didn't care, though. She puffed her head and chest out, her arms rising up briefly in a menacing way. "What?! This is personal, you nosy gnats, keep moving on with your days and quit staring!" She yelled out, prompting the civilians that were staring to quickly look away and keep moving, at a faster pace than they were moving before, since they just wanted to get away from whatever was happening. Meiko just watched them walk off, before turning back down to look at Leanne, who was coughing and panting as she slowly recovered. She took a step to the left and placed her right foot onto Leanne's side, before push-kicking her harshly. Leanne just let out a small grunt as she was shoved onto her side. She rolled over onto her back, before slowly sitting up and staring at Meiko with tears in her eyes.

The young Japanese girl stood there with a stern face, before turning around and walking back to her basket of groceries. She crouched down halfway, picking it up in her hands and sliding it down her arm to her elbow, before turning about and looking at Leanne one more time. "See you at school tomorrow, Cherrygirl."

Meiko turned away fully at last and began to walk away towards the town's exit, leaving Leanne sitting there on the ground, her back leaning up against the building that she had been walking alongside when Meiko first turned around its corner, causing the collision in the first place. She just sat there with one of her hands on her abdomen where she was kneed, the other laid on the ground next to her, palm up. She stared at the ground in front of her as her chest moved up and down in conjunction with her heavy breaths. The pain she was feeling was finally enough to break her. And it wasn't necessarily the pain from the knee, but more so the devastating words that Meiko had spoken when doing so.

Leanne's eyes began to water rapidly, her vision blurring as the flood of oncoming tears drew near. The blonde grunted with pain and effort as she forced herself to stand up, before just breaking out into a full-on sprint towards home. She ran as quickly as she could, her stomach aching still as she did so. Her heartbeat began to beat faster and faster, both because of the running and because of the break down. She tried to breathe steadily in order to allow herself to keep running, but sobs began to belt out from throat as she ran, tears pouring down her face, her hands moving up to her face to try and wipe her eyes so that she could see. She weaved and ran past everyone on the paths, her breaths heavy and desperate. It was hard to balance out the sobs and the inhales for her stamina.

Finally, she saw her humble little home. The same one she had grown up in. She quickly fumbled for the keys in one of her belt's pouches, but her blurry and watered vision didn't let her find them quickly enough. She slowed to a stop and fell against the door, her body and shoulders jerking with each sob and hiccup that came out of the poor squire. She eventually found the keys and rushed inside. The home was dimly lit with candles and lanterns, but like it always was, it was empty.

Her mother worked at the rose gardens during the morning, before spending her lunchbreak with a 'client.' She worked at the rose garden until a few hours past midday, before she left and continued her day at the orange orchards, working until twilight. But the workday wasn't over, even then. She spent a couple more hours in the late evening with yet another 'client,' or maybe just trying to find one, sometimes two if she finished quickly with the first. Her workday finally ended about an hour before midnight, where she came back home from whatever tavern or inn she had been in, ate something light to quench her hunger, before heading to bed to do the same thing again. This was every weekday for Ada. On the weekends, she only worked the orange orchards during the early day, and then the rest was just constant 'client time.'

This meant that Leanne barely ever got to see her mother. The only times she really did get to see her during the weekdays was that brief period of time where she would come home after work from the orange orchards, take a quick cold bath, and change into more attractive clothing for the night of work to come. During that time, Leanne had already cleaned the house up and made herself something to eat. She was normally working on schoolwork or reading something by candlelight by that time. Leanne hated that she never got to see her mom. But part of her was glad, since she knew that her mother had changed a lot throughout the years. During the weekends, she sometimes wouldn't bother to bring her clients to inns, and would just invite them right into the house. Drunken and filled with lust, they'd barge through the door, their lips usually locked in a passionate series of deep kisses, ready to get right into it.

Meanwhile, Leanne just closed her eyes or looked away. Sometimes both when she really didn't wanna see anything. Her hands usually came up over her ears too, so that she wouldn't hear anything, either. Leanne just stood there, leaning back against her home's door as her eyes scanned over the empty house. Her mother wouldn't be home for another couple of hours to bathe and change. So, she had a lot of free time for the time being.

Meiko's harsh words echoed in Leanne's head. That was what was truly hurting. With those words, stacked on top of everything else: the heartache, resent, bitterness, regret, anger, frustration, anxiety, doubt, self-hate, disappointment, jealousy, and a flurry of other emotions too complicated to describe with words, she went on to break down, sobbing loudly and freely, since no one was around to hear her scream. She didn't want to clean. She didn't want to cook. She didn't want to do anything. Crying her pain out was all she wanted to do right now. She needed to. Maybe it'd help her mind clear itself, and she could get back on track. Maybe she could find the strength to continue again?

Her heart had grown heavy many times before, but she was always strong enough to pick it back up and continue the tread onwards. But this time, it felt different.

This time, it felt impossible.


Ouch. Well, hope you enjoyed! As always, thanks to any and all reading and leaving reviews! Stay tuned...!