Chapter 13: One Move Forward, the Other Step Back
Mint always started her mornings early. Ever since the fluke accident in the underground tunnels that had incapacitated her for almost an entire month, and especially with the Gamul games coming up in a few weeks, she had been more anxious than usual to make up for the lost time in training. She was in the garden of the dormitory where Mrs. Cartha was landlady, doing the martial arts forms that had been handed down from generation to generation of the East Heaven bloodline.
Tired already? She mentally scolded herself as she stopped, breathing heavily. Usually it would take her three or four hours of the intensive exercises before she'd begin to even feel fatigue. But she had been doing only the basic forms for the past hour and a half—maybe she wasn't as fully healed as she thought she was. Which was very strange, as she usually healed wounds faster than most people do, and she found it really perplexing—her magic had definitely gotten stronger over the years but recently she felt even her psychic abilities degrading somewhat, and physical injuries technically had nothing to do with magickal prowess…
Deciding to try her magic out again, she chose a small bush beside the dormitory walls, and focused on the air right above it. After several seconds of intense concentration, a gray mist started to collect above the bush. After several seconds more, the mist had turned into a rain cloud, copiously watering the plant before dissipating completely.
Mint smiled. So, she could still do it, and better this time too. She was able to cast the spell stronger and faster, and without exhausting herself in the process.
Self-taught magic—what's wrong with self-taught magic? The power was her destiny. It was what made her who she was.
She sniffed irritably, remembering the long lectures that Grandpa East Heaven would give her every time he would catch her doing something as insignificant as lighting a candle or casting a small rain shower to annoy his pet hamster. Even her own mother before she died had forbidden her from using the magick, and Maya too—which was one of several reasons why she never got along keenly with her sister, the jealous brat!—but of course she never listened to any of them. The magick was a gift, and she knew she was one of the more gifted scions of the East Heaven bloodline (she had overheard her teachers talking about her once), and quite possibly the strongest born with the gift in the past twenty generations. It was the gift that gave her the ability to cast simple spells—fire, water, wind and lighting-based, plus psychic shields were among those she had discovered so far, whenever she'd test her powers unbeknownst to her elders, but she can only cast the small spells as her magick still wasn't that strong—as well as some sort of limited danger sense. And there was her favorite: levitation.
But such strong inborn magick was a like double-edged sword, both a great blessing and a terrible curse. If there was one thing she remembered from her history lessons, it was that (especially in times of war) it wasn't uncommon for an East Heaven mage to sometimes use too much of the power, literally draining herself of the Life Force to cast one final spell, and winding up irrevocably dead afterwards. Almost all of the stronger East Heaven scions in the past three millennia—those born with uncanny strength of magick that they can cast spells without the use of psyche-enhancing items such as the Cosmo-Penalty—had died that way.
The training was supposed to be a form of safeguard against this—to instill in the child a sense of discipline in casting spells, as well as increasing stamina. Maya never had to undergo the training that Mint did as the former wasn't deemed as gifted in the magickal arts, which meant that she had a lot of free time to romp around the kingdom while her older sister was stuck in rigid lessons with her tutors. But instead of having fun as was Mint's wont, Maya was always in the castle library with her nose in fairy tale books and other nerdy stuff—and medicine and herbology when she grew a little bit older—which was rather weird on hindsight, Mint always thought. Another reason why she never really liked her sister much.
It had been four years since Mint had a tutor to tell her off for not doing her morning exercises. But in those same four years, she discovered that the training did help increase her abilities, not to mention increasing the power of her notorious killer jump-kick among others, and so she continued doing them in spite of it being against her nature to follow rules. The benefits far outweighed the (slight) stain in her reputation, not that anybody would dare mention it of course.
One other thing that she must always remember, what with the world-wide fiasco of the three telekinetics (one of them happenstance being also pyrokinetic) running amok in the United Nations congress in 2015, and the generation-tried-and-tested adverse reaction of the 'normal' people to those born with 'supernatural' powers, she had to keep her abilities exceedingly secret outside the confining boundaries of the isolated kingdom of East Heaven.
Admittedly, the world continued to change, and people were more open-minded nowadays. More of those born with the magick (and not just the descendants of East Heaven) have emerged in recent times, and they were starting to become accepted in the circles of normal society, rather than being branded as freaks and mutants as they had been during the Dark Ages of Europe and even up 'til the recent 1900s. The Orient had always been more lenient to those with the power, especially in the areas of Mongolia and Tibet—the Chinese call it chi, the Japanese ki, and the Hindu call it prana—and in fact the monks of Shaolin had mastered several disciplines involving its use.
Still, for Mint Vanguard, it was better safe than sorry. But she was alone in the garden now, it was only a quarter past six in the morning and the sun was only then beginning to rise (the Christmas holidays and winter solstice were fast approaching). She had opportunity yet for another spell.
Let's try fire this time. A dry leaf would suffice—she didn't want to test herself too much. She picked up one and concentrated on setting it aflame. It lit up quickly enough. Two seconds, good.
Deciding she had enough of a workout today, she went back into the dorm to get ready for school.
Monday, first period, chemistry class, and for once she was early. But, no surprise, Mr. Punctual Doll-Boy Class Rep was still earlier. She rolled her eyes. Like I care.
Suddenly, she scowled as she looked at him. Rue was usually quiet, but not usually this quiet. [Expletive], he's thinking about that fake Claire again. She had tolerated it (barely) for the entirety of the past week, and frankly, she was starting to get really annoyed at his misguided self-imposed guilt. She stomped over to where he sat and loudly dropped her duffel onto her seat beside his.
She forcibly pulled his cap down over his face.
"Ow ow, Mint, wha—?!" She raised one hand irritably to stop his protests.
"No, no, no, don't tell me, let me guess—you still can't stop thinking about her. Claire, your beautiful kind and caring girlfriend, and how she had oh-so-mysteriously disappeared one night so long ago. And now she had suddenly appeared as a ghost, had tried to lure you into some sort of trap, and when you found out she was fake thanks to my help, you went berserk and got me hurt in the process. You're worried that they have the real Claire in custody, that they might be doing strange experiments on her like the genetic-testing/engineering-whatsis that you read about in the sci-fi thriller novels, or maybe they had gone and inserted her into one of those creepy life capsules, and that there's nothing you could do about it because you're stuck here, in class, with no clues and no leads on what to do or where to go next."
She had said all that animatedly and in a single breath. Rue looked up quizzically, his dark eyes gazing silently back at her. That only got her even more annoyed. "Get over it. Brooding about it isn't going to help anyone, least of all her."
"Mint, I can't just…" But the red-haired girl stomped her foot.
"Oh, if you're going to be so dead-set about it, why don't you march over again to Principal Klaus and have him try to knock some sense into you?" She glanced briefly at her wristwatch. "You have fifteen minutes. Twenty, if Belle is gonna be late again today."
Sighing, Rue stood up. "You're right. I'll see you later then." Without another word, he walked out of the classroom.
Mint just stared at his back as he disappeared into the corridor. "I was kidding. World-class idiot."
Rue had always known that he had trouble hiding his thoughts, especially whenever he started brooding about something, but was he really that obvious? Mint's long monologue had hit a nerve—had hit a nerve real sore—and he couldn't help but wonder. It was as if she had literally read his mind.
He knocked twice on the door to the principal's office before letting himself in.
"Ah, Rue." Klaus looked up from his morning newspaper. "Good news—they've decided that the teams going to Gamul this year are badminton and kendo. But I suppose that's not the reason you came to see me so suddenly?"
"I'm sorry for intruding on you, professor," Rue walked a few steps closer to Klaus's desk. "I was just wondering if you've found anything more about the fake Claire incident last week."
"Still worried about it, eh?" Klaus raised one eyebrow at him. "No, neither I nor the police have found anything new on the life capsules. However, I managed to get new data on the original box we procured from Elroy's library—the one you found over a year ago—and it seems that there's a link between our favorite late magician and the abandoned amusement park several towns away. Have you ever heard about the Ghost Temple?"
"But that place shut down years ago."
"Right, it was exactly the same year that Elroy died. Coincidence?" Klaus smiled knowingly. "Feel like going there sometime? It's not too far from Gamul."
"Sure. But to tell you the truth, I was actually hoping that our team was not going to get chosen for Gamul this year. They moved the Junon national tournament a few months early."
"And I suppose Mint isn't going to like it that her team wasn't chosen. It was very close, though." Klaus's eyes were twinkling as he looked at the boy over his glasses. "By the way, Mint's angry at you again, isn't she?"
The other nodded. "I still couldn't figure out how she knew that night that I was with a fake Claire…"
Klaus merely shrugged. "I don't know either." He went back to reading his newspaper. Rue turned to leave, but before he got far Klaus said, "Oh, and Rue, did you tell Mint about the data we found in the life capsules?"
Rue hand stopped on its way to the doorknob. "No, I didn't think it was—"
"Good. Don't mention it to her as you'll only worry her needlessly. Also, I wouldn't brood too much about that Pseudo-Claire incident either. We're doing our best to find the real Claire, and I'm certain something will turn up soon."
Rue frowned thoughtfully. After some time he nodded in understanding, and then promptly went back to his class.
The announcement of the individual teams going to the Gamul games was posted Tuesday morning. Of course, people in the gymnastics club weren't happy about this development. And it turned out that the people in the kendo club shared Rue's opinion and weren't happy about it either.
But Rue didn't know about the latter until Neil approached him about it two days later. It was Thursday afternoon after shop class, the teacher had already left and only a few others who had not yet finished their seatwork for the day remained in the workshop. Mint and Annette were gone as well, the former having gym practice while Annette had a school fair committee meeting to attend to.
Neil began, "You know, we don't really need to go the Gamul games. Our team is prestigious enough without having to go there every year. Besides, the time would be better spent in training for the national tournament in Junon City."
"Tell me about it," Rue replied, not looking up from his work.
"Captain Davis was the one who brought it up. He said he's leaving the decision to you, being our 'most capable fighter' (for the moment—but I'm going to beat you one day, hah!), and everyone else agrees. It's alright if you want to give our spot in the Gamul games to, say… the gymnastics club. They were next in line to be chosen anyway, and the entire team knows about your sentiments."
Rue suddenly turned to stare blankly at him.
"Don't give me that look," Neil grabbed a piece of paper lying partially hidden underneath Rue's thick volume of discrete mathematics. "Don't tell me this doesn't mean anything?"
It was a design of an extra project Rue was making for shop class. "Umm… Claire never had any sort of jewelry, and I know she'd be happy to receive even just a pair…"
"Claire is also into video games?" The earrings were in the shape of the Nightmare Altar logo.
Rue colored, ever so slightly. "Okay, you got me," he admitted. "I noticed she has pierced ears, but she doesn't have any earrings. I'm hoping to finish it by Christmas so I can give it to her at the school fair." He grabbed the paper from Neil's hands and looked over it again. "The design seems a bit too fancy for her, though…"
Neil laughed softly. "Knew it. Annette was right, and it was a good thing she warned me not to go with you guys to Elroy's library that time…"
Rue frowned at Neil's words, and realization was slow in coming. "You mean, Coach Mira did ask you…? And you and Annette set us up?!" The other nodded, breaking into a grin.
"It was bound to happen," Neil commented off-hand. "I mean, a tough chick like her and a playboy like you—"
"I AM NOT A PLAYBOY!!" Rue, his face very flushed now, abruptly stood and banged his fists loudly against the table. Quickly grabbing his violin case, he brandished it and chased after a madly laughing Neil out into the corridor.
Neither of them noticed the shocked stares of the petrified people that remained in the classroom.
"Wait, wait, stop Rue!" Neil stopped short in the middle of the corridor, and turned abruptly to his no-longer blushing yet still livid classmate. "Principal's office," he pointed at the nearest door. "Why don't we tell him about it now?"
Rue reluctantly lowered the black violin case, and then nodded. He and Neil proceeded to talk to Professor Klaus about the kendo team giving up their spot in the Gamul games. Professor Klaus agreed, as Rue and Neil managed to be pretty convincing.
By the next morning, the word was out—Gymnastics was going instead of Kendo. And it turned out that people in the gymnastics club were not exactly happy about this development either.
Friday afternoon after club practices. Mint and Tonia, the former carrying her twin metal rings, paid an unexpected visit to the kendo team. Tonia talked to Captain Davis first. After a short conversation, turning to Mint she inclined her head towards Neil and his best friend. The two girls then approached the other two who were still doing extra drills after the usual kendo practice.
"Rue, you [exple—!"
"I'll handle this," Tonia interrupted the redhead. Rue and Neil immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to the girls. "Rue, it's about the placement of teams for the Gamul games. We've heard that it was you who requested Principal Klaus to give your team's spot to the gymnastics club instead."
Rue nodded. "That's right. It's better for both teams—we could take more time to train for the Junon tournament which is more important to us than the Gamul competition, and I know you guys had been trying for that spot since the school year started. And your team is right next in line for it anyway. Kendo beat you guys by only half a point, I think."
"Uh, well, that's not exactly what we've been hearing from the grapevine. You've had your experiences with raging teenage hormones I'm sure, and you know how quickly rumors in Carona tend to spread, especially if they're about you…"
Mint coughed sideways, muttering under her breath, "I-am-not-a-playboy-yeah-right."
Tonia continued, "Mint got hit twice this lunchtime alone by (somewhat) cruel practical jokes, and even Annette and I have gotten our share of flame email," she shrugged. "To put it bluntly, practically everyone is saying that the only reason Gymnastics is going instead of Kendo is because you, Rue Kincaid, has a certain interest in the gymnastics team captain."
Rue started at this. "T-that's not true!"
"We know," Tonia affirmed. "But they don't."
"And besides," Mint added, her voice oddly quiet. "I don't take charity. Freebies yes, but not charity. Especially not like this." She was absently twirling one ring. And then, turning her gaze straight into the dark wide-set eyes, she slowly, deliberately raised both Dual Haloes up in a battle stance.
"I challenge you, Rue. I'll fight you for the spot in the Gamul games."