Chapter Eight – Curse of Loneliness
As Arisu had thought, the "summer vacation" would have been better classified as an extended weekend, since classes started again sooner than they would if they had had actual vacation. As she walked to class along with Misaki, she noticed Loki and Balder entering the room and couldn't deny the redheaded god seemed to be in better moon than he had been in last classes.
It was, no doubt, a kind of progress, taking in account how until now he used to come to class with an expression that was the essence of boredom and annoyance.
"They do look more… Cheerful" Misaki commented after a moment thinking of a proper term and while it wasn't the best one, it was the one that first came to mind. Still, she had never thought she would see this and let a sigh of relief.
Last night, Yui had discussed an idea she had had and the two in the end had decided to put it in action right today… Some days ago, Misaki would be sure that most of the gods would merely refuse and call it a waste of time, but today she hoped even those would find the idea at least interesting.
"Hi, guys." The blonde greeted the group upon coming closer to the side of classroom they usually sat near each other. Apollon greeted her with a wave as Balder watched Dionysus who let out a long grunt, attracting their attention.
Dionysus used to always have a relaxed smile and a tension-lacking appearance or then cheerful with a gleam pulsating in his eyes green of a forest that seemed to hide something among the leaves.
The being sitting there was quite far from it.
The god had his elbows in the table, head between them and almost touching the surface, hands sinking in the wine colored hair and, upon leaning forward, Misaki saw that his eyes were closed.
"Ahh?" She muttered lowly, looking from Apollon to Yui, unsure of what was going on. The other girl shook her head slowly and Takeru, sitting behind Dionysus, just watched without saying a word, frowning slightly and maybe also not understanding the situation.
Arisu took her seat behind her sister, but having a fair guess of what was that.
"Please…" The red-haired Greek hissed, words shivering in the air. "Speak in a low voice…"
"Dee-Dee yesterday wanted to celebrate going back to school" Apollon explained in a whisper that was no more than a breeze making words. Yui had her doubts about "celebration" and wondered if Dionysus just didn't seize any excuse for drinking here at school. "But he never got that way before…"
"Apparently, human bodies have no tolerance for large quantities of alcohol" Tsukito commented in controlled voice to which Yui replied it varied from person to person while mentally wondering how Dionysus had ever gotten wine… During the barbecue Balder and the others had made when back from the beach had been one thing, just a bottle, but now?
Following human school rules, the consummation of alcohol wasn't exactly allowed here.
"Yet, I'm shouldn't be surprised. I mean, let's be honest here, god of grape harvest? Wine?" Not to mention ritual madness, theatre and other stuff. "It shouldn't be hard for him, shackles or not."
"Is he going to be okay?" Balder wondered, merely moving his lips. Misaki nodded, but before she could explain it was a hangover and normal for humans, someone came closer.
"It's better to leave class for today" Though Ren sat nearby, none of them had noticed when she had stood. Now the girl was behind Dionysus' desk, holding her elbows and eyes fixated on the god.
"But what about Thoth-sensei?" Balder asked, but it was Isuzu who answered.
"If he is not feeling well, then he has the right. He can stay in the infirmary." She tried to speak lowly not just due the other's headache, but also hoping Loki wouldn't hear and casting a wary look to Takeru, buy it was impossible to tell if the sea god was paying any attention to this since he was reclined on his chair, arms crossed behind his head and eyes closed.
"Can you imagine sitting here through all class, listening to Thoth?" Ren asked Dionysus, coming a bit closer as she spoke.
Before the idea of listening to the thunder of Thoth's voice during the next hours, Dionysus shivered and, leaning his hands on the table, stood up. His face was pale and he blinked as if the light hurt his eyes.
Without saying anything, before someone did or said anything, Ren passed one of his arms over her shoulders, helping him to keep his balance. During all this, her face was a mask and she didn't say anything as she helped Dionysus to leave the room.
"Damn…" Isuzu muttered, turning to Apollon. "Just how much did he drink to get that way?" She remembered he had drunk during the barbecue (and in the end, it hadn't been some few sips) and hadn't had such reaction. Not that she was experienced in drinking, but this had seemed quite a hangover.
"I'm… I'm not sure" The sun god replied worried, the green eyes (stone-like, unlike his half-brother's), going away from the door and to Yui and Isuzu. "Do all humans react that way?"
"Some are more prone to it, some not… It depends." Yui said with a shrug as she raised her hands to her shoulders, eyes still on the door. At least Ren had helped Dionysus to leave; it wouldn't be good if he ended up falling in the middle of the way or puking… A thought started to take shape and turn into words, but Thoth entered the classroom and the words turned into ashes, so she forgot what she was going to say.
XxX
As they took a way among the empty hallways, Dionysus didn't say a thing and even his groans were rare. Someone passing by may have thought his problem was another, even if the god didn't reject the support Ren offered. He meant to say something, but considering the eventual jumps his stomach did, shaking his organs in response, he let it go.
Ren, in a similar way, kept herself in silence and didn't think much on what she was doing. The maximum she reflected was that maybe Dionysus groaned so little was either because this increased his headache of maybe it was instinctual, born from the pride of his divine nature.
"I wonder how much he did drink" She reflected, unaware Isuzu had asked the same thing. "No wonder he is like that, he probably never felt anything like that during all his life." She didn't know about the vulnerabilities of Greek gods or even if they had any, but she doubted Dionysus had, ever, suffered of this: The idea of a god of wine suffering with hangover was too paradoxical.
"Zeus could have thought about that and at least, not sealed this ability, resistance, whatever it is." He should know his son enough and know it would be impossible to stop him from getting wine for a whole year if Dionysus truly wanted it, but her thoughts regarding the subject were broken in this point as a branch being broken against a knee.
A sensation of discomfort was born in some point of her body, echoing with a bitter taste that reached her organs and mouth.
Though she had never been in the infirmary before, she and the others had walked though the whole academy several times as they tried to get used to the place and know its ways and rooms (Misaki had pointed out she didn't know the reason why make the place so big once they actually just used one of the classrooms).
The floor was of boards instead of tiles, smooth and polished. The walls were of a light cream reflecting the sunlight stretching through the room. There were some beds covered in white sheets and spaced between them. In a corner to the left of the door, one would find a hazel stand covered in a grey and black ceramic-like with a sink and cabinets above it.
There was no one and the air was dominated by the smell of grass and flowers that entered by the window, instead of the smell Ren so used to associate to hospitals and nurses, of something antiseptic and cold, adorned by the aroma of medicine.
It was a difference she appreciated.
Ren went towards one of the beds (it looked more like a real bed than a stretcher found in school's infirmary) and took the gods' arm of her shoulder that had grown warmer with his touch after the time he had spent leaning on her. Dionysus, as soon as he lied down, covered his eyes with his arm, muttering something and stopping in the middle of a word, giving up. His head throbbed inside as if the flesh couldn't contain the bones anymore and the pressure made even thinking painful.
He meant to thank the girl for the help, but just the idea of speaking made his body protest. During his years, he had witnessed mortals consuming wine, especially during festivals in his honor and other reunions of certain poets (one the varied Greek poetry was even turned to the liberty bought by wine, by Zeus!) and, therefore, he knew of such effects, but had never experienced them before. It was quite unnerving if you took in account that, even in a human body, his resistance should be at least average.
Damn Zeus and his twisted sense of humor…
Ren watched him for a second, touching her lips with her tongue before finally walking to the windows and pull the curtains, blocking the light and sinking the room in shadows. Still in silence, she walked to the cabinets and started to open them with care to not make any sound.
It was with a light surprise that she found medicine, but considering they had all been kidnapped and, in the gods' case, forced into a weaker form of life than their own, the least Zeus could do was to provide medicine in case something happened.
Her dark eyes ran through small bottles, tablets of pills, a bottle of serum and some cotton, before she went to the second cabinet. It was like the other: Three small shelves, each with a line of options.
Soon, she found what she had been searching for.
Picking one of the small bottles, a small brown-transparent glass with the label covered of small letters and a little cup over the cap that she took off and filled with the liquid while going back to the god.
"Drink this" Ren told him softly. "It will help." The god took his arm of his eyes for a moment, spying before picking the cup that looked even smaller in his strong fingers and when he approached it from his lips, they twisted slightly. Ren didn't say a thing as he drank it a single sip.
"This is awful" He muttered, words almost glued to each other as he lied down and covered his eyes with his arm once more. Ren leaned to him, her fingers brushing his as she picked the cup and took it to the sink to clean it before putting all back in the cabinet.
"As most medicine are. Try to sleep now" For a brief instant, a part of her considered searching for a towel, moisten it a bit and leave it in his forehead, but when she took notice of the sensation, she pushed it away as she would to an object spreading poison in her skin and suddenly, she was cold.
"See you later" She muttered, assaulted by a furious need of leave that room before her flesh cracked and turned into ice shards that would rip her apart inside out. If Dionysus didn't end up puking, she would.
"Hey… Amaya…" He muttered before the girl left, making her turn her face to him. "Thanks"
"Don't mention it."
XxX
After long hours, after Thoth left and the classes were ended for the day, Yui asked the others to wait a little and listen as she stood in front of the class with Misaki and calling Apollon to join them, since he was the Student Council President.
Weeks ago, she might have felt some nervousness, especially with the unpleasantness some of the gods had directed to her (though even back there, part of her had believed it was more due to the situation than her in a personal level), but now she was even kind of excited.
"As we mentioned, a school involves different activities of several kinds" She started, realizing the words sounded quite like a speech and almost laughed. Perhaps she should get involved with the council back home after all, she was starting to enjoy coming up with ideas for events, organizing them and all. "So, we thought about starting clubs."
"Aren't those places where humans go to have fun?" Balder asked, recalling they had mentioned something of this sort when they had discussed the "summer vacation", the subject had passed by things humans used to do and fun places.
"The clubs we're talking about are different" Yui explained before turning back and started to doodle in the blackboard. "In a simple way of saying it, the students gather in groups and do activities together after classes."
"Varied activities" Misaki told them quickly. "Some involve sports, others music, you can choose whatever you like"
Yui stopped in one of her drawings of Melissa to spy the class with the corner of her eyes, fishing for reactions. Balder was leaning forward in a position that denounced interest, but it was expected from him. Takeru had his arms crossed over the table and laid his head on them, but at least his eyes weren't closed and he seemed to be listening. Yet, she noticed that while all of them had at least picked chairs in front and closer to the blackboard, Hades remained almost in the far end of the room.
"So, with these activities, humans interact and learn how to establish ties and bonds with each others?"
"When you speak of it that way, it sounds far more sentimental than it actually is, man" Arisu thought, not saying anything. Between the absolute interest and enthusiasm of Apollon and the apathy she had seen in the others, she would rather go with the cheerfulness.
"That's right" Misaki decided to agree rather than say anything else. Yui turned to the others after finishing her last drawing. The trace was a bit sloppy since she wasn't used to draw in a blackboard, but it didn't matter. As guarantee, there were several options, some she hadn't had in her school too. At least one had to pick the interest of them…
"I thought that those could help you guys to understand humans" She was about to say "things we do and study", but decided against it. This was of speaking unconsciously divided the class into "we and them" and she didn't like it. "We have several options, so you can choose more than one club if you want to"
"Great idea, Fairy!" Apollon smiled. "You have the support of the Student Council's President!"
"He ended up liking this president stuff, hm?" Isuzu whispered too low to others to hear and Arisu just smiled, leaning to her sister and saying through teeth.
"I think what he liked was the compliment Yui gave him when nominating him. Kinda cute…" She didn't resist saying it, though she doubted the reason was really that (or just that). Again, Apollon excitement was so much that perhaps the fact he could get even more involved in the school and officially help organizing events and ideas was genuinely fascinating to him, not just that Yui had complimented him about it.
"One of the reasons why I won't ever understand him" She thought, almost shivering in thinking how it would be to get involved in Student's Council. It wasn't what she would call her thing.
"I'm interested in tennis club. Especially soft ball" Balder commented. When Apollon in turn mentioned he was interested in the sport as well, Yui saw an opportunity for them to play together, since it would be great if gods interacted more, but Apollon's interested was in hard ball.
"And there is a difference?" It was all Misaki managed to think. Despite the gods having talked to them before about human sports, it seemed Balder and Apollon had made a little research of their own. "Wow, we're here to teach them and they end up knowing something I had no idea of… Guess you learn something new every day!" She reflected as Balder went own about the enjoyment of youth and Apollon completed mentioning they would have a friendly rivalry…
Arisu thought she would either laugh or gag.
"What youth? They are older than us by a millennia and more!" Misaki whispered to Yui, taking care so Apollon wouldn't hear. Yui bit the lower corner of her mouth, trying to hold a laugh. Well, Apollon definitely showed that getting older was a matter of mind, rather than body…
"Well, they don't age for starters…" She stopped thinking about it. She wasn't sure how aging worked with the gods, since Apollon had once mentioned of being a child and growing up…
And she didn't like to think about immortality… It had been just a while after coming to the Academy that she found the idea rather frightening.
"Have you thought about which clubs you want?" Balder asked looking to the other girls as Loki kept twirling a strand of hair in his finder and Thor kept his usual silence, so Yui had no idea if they were interested or just finding this a complete waste of time. Considering Loki, it could be one thing as easily as the other.
"Archery" Isuzu replied right then, leaning her face in her hand. "Don't want get out of practice." Her eyes were thoughtful for some seconds and the Light god thought she was thinking about her home. He recalled Isuzu had said, in the Sports Event, that she used to be in this club back home too.
"Swimming, here" Arisu completed raising her hand. Actually, she didn't use to get involved in clubs, but the girl knew that if she refused, it was possible that someone else would based in the fact that even a "representative of humanity" wasn't getting involved. Even if Loki didn't look quite as bored and Takeru had played with them and the fireworks, Arisu didn't believe that changed things completely.
So, she opted for an activity she was at least comfortable with.
Tsukito surprised everyone when he commented he would rather join the student council, once Isuzu and Yui both were sure he would have picked the Astronomy club. Loki confirmed Arisu and Yui's suspicions when he decided to be in a "going home club", making the brown haired girl to roll her eyes and Yui internally sighed.
"I knew it" It was too much to ask to Loki to cooperate with things right away. Misaki tried to talk to him and Thor, but Yui was already used to it and her attention went to the dark haired god looking through a window, silent until now.
"Hades?" She called him. "Are you interested in any club?"
Ren's eyes went from her friend to Hades. The god slowly turned his eyes to the purple-haired girl in front of the class. Even under the sunlight, he looked like a creature made of cold and darkness.
"Astronomy" He replied. The light entering the window and falling around him just intensified his pale skin as it slid in his hair. Yui felt relief that the silent god wanted to join a club, but his next words suffocated the emotion just like excess of earth could kill a seed.
"You do not understand. You asked me if I had any interest, so I told you. Just that" Hades clarified. "I didn't say I would join any club." Though his voice was nothing if not polite, it was also definitive. Yui's nerves hadn't forgotten the cold sensation from when Hades had told her and Ren to stay away and Yui realized she couldn't make a sound, be protest or insistence.
Automatically, her eyes searched Ren's, whose head moved from a side to other so briefly that it could have been a trick of the light. However, Yui understood she was also recalling how it had been in the path to the beach…
None of them understood this.
Loki and Takeru's behavior was caused by anger and rebelliousness (considering one had powers over fire and the other was the god of seas, it wasn't impossible to understand) and Thor always looked just disinterested, so who knew what went on in his mind? However, what was making Hades refuse so much to interact with the rest of the class?
XxX
"I got a little surprised with the choices" Isuzu commented, pulling her hair up to a ponytail as she went downstairs. "I mean, I didn't think you guys would be interested in tennis" If someone asked her, she would have replied she had imagined that Apollon would pick the archery club as she had or perhaps the Arts club. To make things easier and open space to other options, Misaki had suggested making the arts club involving music, drawing and literature, which the members could chose the "category" they were most interested.
Apollon shook his head with a smile.
"I didn't think it would be as fun. I mean…" He paused for a moment, not wanting to sound as if despising the other clubs or people who had chosen them, turning his eyes to the blue sky that welcomed him, Balder and Isuzu once they left for the school's grounds. "I'm already a god of music and poetry and archery. So I wanted to try something different"
"I've read about more modern human sports" Balder commented, walking at the girl's other side. While the sun shone in Apollon's hair accentuating the strong colors, it seemed to slide in Balder's in such way that the wax color looked liquid-like, especially with the straight strands. "And I decided it would be interesting to try"
"I wonder if they find modern sports too different from theirs" She knew some were in essence, quite alike sports from days long past and others were very different. They had had their own activities, but what did they think of now? And Isuzu still didn't know for certain how it was nowadays: Did they watch mortals or their "worlds" kept themselves apart of it? She supposed they could still see them if they wanted, considering Zeus had a pretty nice notion of the modern world.
"Why would Apollon and Balder walked away from mortals?" It didn't make sense, not what the excitement they showed in the Academy. It also was too constant and genuine to be an act. "They don't seem to be lying…"
"Isuzu-chan?" Balder called her, leaning in her direction and cutting her thoughts.
"Oh, sorry, kinda got lost in my thoughts."
"What were you thinking about?" Apollon asked. "You got quiet all of sudden"
Isuzu smiled slowly. There was a lot in her mind, together with the curiosities that had bloomed about the gods, so she decided to avoid it.
"Some stuff…"
"Were you thinking about your home?" Balder tried in a sweet tone. With a sport she tended to practice at home, he doubted Isuzu wouldn't think about her family. Perhaps she missed them… For a moment, he wanted to ask how her mother and father were.
"A little…" In part, it was a lie. She thought about them frequently, of course, but they weren't the reason why she had been in silence. Now, her mind was taken by the memory of their faces and, as if they had a memory of their own, her nerves got warmer as if she was being hugged by them now. "Sometimes I wonder what they would say if they saw me now."
"You'll see them again" Balder said. Not with comfort, but certainty. His hand created a light pressure when he placed it in the girl's shoulder as they passed by the garden beds, following way until an area divided from the gardens by grayish walls.
"I'm not worried by it" That was a lie, no other way around it, but Isuzu didn't want to seem a little child crying in the eyes of the two. "I know things will work out in the end. And hey, this school is far more interesting than my other one" She added with a smile, making the gods agree while holding a laugh because that was a way of putting it.
"And how it was in your "new" school? You commented you and Arisu exchanged schools when the classes had already started. Were the places too different?"
The girl was somehow surprised that Apollon recalled something of this sort, but soon expulsed the sensation. He was immortal, there was no real surprise that he had a great privileged memory even to things she could consider trivial.
However, though the sun shone bright and its heat spread to everything it touched, she felt isolated from it and a needle of cold ran through her nerves without Isuzu being able to control it.
As natural as it is, ghosts of memories touched her mind softly in provocation.
"They were quite different, yes" The girl carried on keeping her voice normal. "But that's how it is, right? You know, new place, new people, so on and so forward… Hey, the courts are close to each other!"
Passing by the walls, there was a huge area in which the grass disappeared and two courts with a space between them took place, of a green color and without a single stain, marked by white lines and nets already ready. Isuzu saw a bank near each one and it seemed to have a black thing over them, that she thought it could be a racket cover and bottles, the ones you kept tennis' balls.
Some trees grew near, pointing to the sky as arrows. A bit beyond, grass could be seen again and there was another long wooden bank with some targets ready, some on easels and others leaning in the wall.
"That's great!" Apollon said. "We won't be far from each other!"
"Cool!" Isuzu agreed. She didn't mind being alone in a club, actually had strange feelings regarding this: On a side, at least for now she would rather have it that way. On another, it would be pleasant to not be completely away from her friends.
Balder turned to comment this when the trio was wrapped in screams. Her attention had been so focused in the courts that he hadn't seen some spirits in gym clothing that hadn't been walking aimless.
"Balder!" Some called, a single sound in which masculine and feminine voices mixed. The only different among them, besides timbre, was cadence. Isuzu couldn't help a shiver when she realized that, in essence, those voices were actually the same. Even their cheerfulness was like something programmed to sound just loud… The way someone could program the sound of a heartbeat in a software of sound, yet it lacked something.
"I've heard more real voices in video games" The girl reflected as some spirits came near the Nordic god.
"Teach us to play, too!" Some asked and Balder tried to smile, asking them to calm down before casting a gaze of almost apology to Apollon and Isuzu before the spirits insisted that he stayed with them and practically guided his way to the court. Their voices slithered in air as echoes from each other as they kept an almost circle around the god.
"You know, I'm not sure I find this funny or if I'm sorry for him" The girl commented to Apollon, to which the god nodded, looking unable to decide if he was disturbed or if he had another reaction. The spirits barely used to talk with the gods or the humans, unless they took the initiative (and even if they tried, the result was just pitiful).
"Why do you think they act like this with Bal-Bal?" He asked, going to the other court. Isuzu shrugged, showing she had no idea either.
"My guess is as good as yours."
Apollon picked the black cover, unwrapping it to reveal a new-looking racket, with smooth handle of a shining metallic blue. The girl turned to the targets, seeing a quiver with arrows a bow.
The sun god noticed her gaze.
"Hey, Suzu-Suzu!" He called her with a wink. "Remember, keep your arm firm, but don't get too tense."
"I'll try to remember. Hey, you could take a time to help me train!" She added, thought in a kidding way, there was something pleasant in the idea. Not because he was an archer god, but just because it would be fun.
XxX
Misaki at first had thought it weird that they needed to report to Thoth about the activities they tried to make and the results, even if he was the only teacher in the whole academy. She understood it was necessary to inform him, once the objective was something far more important than grades and exams, but she didn't think she would get used to it early.
Light entered the several windows, making clear spaces among the soft shadows and reflected in the dark shelves, creating a veil over the books. Upon entering, Misaki didn't see anyone in the table of the center.
"Is he not here?" She wondered, approaching to see if there was any message and almost laughed when she imagined a little board saying "Back in five minutes", but held the sound in the depth of her throat. Around, the books watched as living beings, guardians of information, knowledge and stories.
"Uh… Thoth-sen… I mean, Thoth-sama?" She asked, daring to raise her voice a little, without need. The sound echoed among shelves and through air. The girl looked around, hoping to see the teacher.
A shadow moved.
Misaki turned, blonde hair hitting against her neck and face. There was no one there, but the girl was sure something had passed by… Or had it been a trick of the light? It was normal to feel there was something behind you when you were in an empty room, your mind often ended up making you think you had felted something there.
"Yes, Aihara?" A solemn voice pulled her attention as a line pulled a puppet's arm. Upstairs, Thoth watched her, only his eyes turned to the girl's direction, head held high and he held an open book in his hands.
"Oh, hi, Thoth-sama" The girl greeted with a nod of respect, soon hurrying to a spiral-shaped stair. Upstairs was also a forest of books and she ran her eyes through some book's spines… In some shelves, she could just see traits and letters she had never seen in her life.
She thought in how many books there were there and looking over the brown, circular rail she could see more shelves downstairs, some she hadn't even realized were there. Each held more books than she could count first sigh and suddenly, Misaki felt very small.
Here one would find writings that could have come from all parts of the world and more ages than the human mind could comprehend. Knowledge that could have been destroyed by people with a narrow view, unable to accept the importance of what they held in their hands, cultures that had been reduced to nothing, suffocated and several stories that were portals to different worlds, neatly created by the authors.
It was a forest in which each plant had lived more than triple of what she wouldn't even be able to dream living, a time so long that thousand years were like a blink of an eye…
Her flesh shivered under her skin and her heart seemed to beat slowly, taken by different emotions that went from tension to fascination. And among all this, she felt as small as a dry leaf, threatened to be carried by the wind.
"Aihara" Thoth called her, though his attention was back to the book he had in his hands. "Do you have something to say?"
"Oh… Yes. Is that…" The words sounded weak and she gulped, cleaning her throat before going on. "We started today the school clubs we talked about."
Thoth didn't, except for a nod. Misaki was sure he did this just to be polite and would rather interpret the silence as a cue to go on, so she dragged a foot against the floor for a moment.
"Most picked their clubs, but some still don't want to know" Not that this is any news, she almost added, soon thinking the best of it and keeping the comment to herself. Thoth's dark blue eyes went to her and the god didn't say a thing.
"I mean, Hades showed some interest in Astronomy" The words kept coming fast from her mouth, as if anxious to escape, before Misaki could take a breath or reflect if she should go into details. "But when Yui meant to place him in the club, he said he had just answered what he was interested in and didn't want to enter any club"
"So" Thoth cut her. Except for the usual seriousness, there was nothing else in his expression. "In summary, he refused to take part in the new activities"
The emphasis in the term "summary" didn't pass by unnoticed to the blonde, who didn't feel offend and just shrugged before playing with a strand of her hair. It wasn't of a light shade like Apollon's or Balder's, but medium and in the shadows, some brown strands that sprinkled it became almost grey.
"Not only that…" She thought about the Underworld Lord. "He actually doesn't seem interested in being much part of the class. He keeps his distance." She didn't know why. It didn't seem to be out of shyness, neither because he was quiet (Tsukito was quiet and Ren, back when they had arrived, used to speak very little). The girl knew Hades had basically ordered the others to stay away, but she had no idea of the motivation behind this.
"Could it be that he hates people? Or he just likes to be by himself?"
"And?" Thoth's eyes were over her without a movement of his head and there was something in his tone. "What do you expect me to do about it?"
Misaki hesitated, refusing to avoid his gaze.
"Well… I don't know…" She hadn't come here thinking about asking him for anything, actually, the conversation just had taken them there, it was just to tell him about the clubs in the usual report-like stuff they needed to do. "Maybe if you have an idea of what we could do or maybe you could talk to Hades…"
She backed away by instinct when Thoth crossed the small distance between them, surprising the girl. Her back hit a shelf and the Egyptian hit his hand a bit over her head, making her body react with an involuntary spasm.
Thoth's blue eyes grabbed hers as daggers.
"Do you expect me" He started, voice still serious and yet still having some threatening softness. "That I deal with an absurd such as this?" Not giving her the chance of replying, Thoth leaned forward with a hiss. "Thinking about solutions isn't your duty and the others?"
"Well, and you're our teacher!" Misaki let it slip, the nervousness of her body intensifying when she realized what she had just said. Thoth raised his eyebrows to her. "I mean, isn't the duty of a teacher to offer support and help when the students need?"
She knew at once this had been the worst thing to say.
"Are you suggesting I'm not keeping my duties?" His voice was a whisper of winter, daring her to confirm such idea. Misaki fought to not try shrinking under his iron gaze or his proximity, forcing herself to keep her eyes on his.
"I didn't say this. I just wanted you to help us!" In the middle of the cold tension devouring her body inside out, Misaki realized she was also bothered by Thoth and focused on that emotion, a solid ground. "We don't know how to solve everything! Hades doesn't listen to us!"
"You and the others are here to teach the gods about human's hearts." The god carried on as if she hadn't said a thing. "This means that thinking about solutions for something of this sort is your duty, not mine"
Misaki opened her mouth to protest that all she had just wanted was an advice, she wasn't asking him to solve that for them, but decided to shut up. Thoth wouldn't change his mind and whatever she said now, he would just interpret in the same way. The best thing to do was finish that as quickly as she could just so she could get the hell out of that place.
"Very well, understood." She muttered, avoiding weariness to manifest in her words. "Can I go now?"
Once Thoth stepped away, she took her way to the stairs without looking behind and once out the library, she took a deep breath leaning her back in the wall and lifting her face to the ceiling.
"Why does he have to be this difficult? It would be easier if he was more alike Balder or even Tsukito. Sure he keeps to himself and sees everything as a duty, but he is easier to deal with." Now she was happy for not mentioning how Hades hadn't been the only one to refuse join a club: Loki and Thor had insisted in their idea of "going home club" to her gloom and Yui's disappointment and when they had asked Takeru which club he would join, the sea god had mumbled that he didn't care for this and left the room.
"Times like those make it all seem like all we try ends up in fiasco" The girl sighed, walking through the hallway. Yui and Apollon had started to consider themselves part of the Student Council, just like she was starting too as well. Misaki had just done so because she didn't have another activity that really called her attention… Even in her old school, she hadn't joined anything yet.
As Arisu, Misaki had decided to take part in something she wouldn't mind doing. She had just been part of something like that for a brief period…
"It isn't like before… I picked this because with Yui, Apollon and Tsukito, it will be fun!" She told herself again and again. "It isn't like before, I'm chosing this to say I'm doing something, and to stay with them, so it's different…"
"Yo, Misaki." A voice called from the end of the hallway, making the blonde turn. Arisu hurried up, until joining her. The Hironezumi girl had small white things sprinkling her hair, hands a side of her face.
"What were you doing?" She asked, tilting her head to a side. Misaki shrugged and told her about how she had been talking to Thoth about the clubs and how their "conversation" had ended. Arisu shook her head, twisting her lips.
"I can't even say I'm surprised anymore" She muttered, rolling her eyes. "You shouldn't even have said a thing when he asked what you wanted him to do" She added, to which Misaki nodded.
"I know, but I swear I thought he could at least have a suggestion or advice. It isn't as if his tongue would fall if he did this"
"I wish…"
"Hm… Ari?" She observed her, unaware if the white stuff was dust or rests of drops of dried paint. "What happened to you?" Misaki indicated a corner near her own ear.
"You got three chances" The other replied.
"Loki?"
"And we have our winner, thank for playing" Arisu mumbled, thought the weariness wasn't regarding Misaki. Rubbing the corner of her face, she carried on. "One of his pranks. I thought it was okay during that barbecue, you know, his little revenge and all, I never said I was okay with him going on with this!"
"And I don't know? Do you remember what he did to me the first day?" Both exchanged looks, for they would never forget Loki's pranks. "I don't mind a joke from time to time, but Loki goes beyond the limits."
"I almost punched him this time" Arisu confessed and again they looked to each other in understanding. It had been an act out of impulsiveness, and it just showed how they sometimes forgot what they truly were. Truth to be told, their auras had been enough to make the idea of facing one of them like Arisu had tried to sound like… Well, insanity.
"Yet, he dodged and went away."
They still talked a bit more until Misaki realized she had accompanied Arisu to the pool's locker room. That was divided in rectangular-shaped areas, the first with toilets and a row of white sinks over a ceramic-like stand under a mirror. The floor was covered by white tiles with smoke-like smudges of grey except the showers in the second area, there the floor was covered by grey non-skid rubber like overlays.
In a wall, there were several small square lockers. Both girls felt a soft smell of soap, as if it was the natural air in there and not just a perfume.
"Is that okay if I stick around?" Misaki asked while Arisu undressed in a shower, hidden by the white door. Near the lockers, the blonde found a larger and darker one, which had all sort of objects inside and, hanging inside, a chronometer. "I can mark your time for you or something…"
"You sure?" Arisu's voice came from behind the door and somehow muffled as she dressed her swimsuit. "Won't you have problems if you don't go to the Students Council?"
"Oh, who cares?" The blonde took a seat in the long bank leaning against a wall that divided the rectangular areas in the room and leaned her head back. "Besides, Apollon went to tennis practice, Tsukito is probably with his brother…"
She winked in a playful way when her friend came out of the shower, dressing the school one piece, hair under a swim cap.
"Besides, who will know?"
XxX
"Why did I ever choose this? I don't know anything about it."
Crouched, she passed her fingers delicately in one of the flowers, so much that it could have been the touch of a ghost. The petals grew in two overlay circles, a purple that grew darker as it approached the black center.
"Maybe I should skip club today…" Ren reflected, not caring much if this would make her look bad case she was caught. Besides, she could just go back to the academy and to…
"Did you pick gardening club as well?" A voice made her raise her head as a shadow fell over.
Dionysus stood at her side. His aspect still wasn't the same she and the others were used to, but there was a clear improvement: His eyes were somehow reddish, but didn't blink so much under the light anymore and color had gone back to his face.
"Are you feeling better?" She asked, not moving from where she was and the god crouched at her side, nodding and studying the small bed flowers.
"Not sure what medicine was that, but it helped me a lot" The god told her with a smile. "I left the infirmary some minutes ago and I met Kusanagi. She told me about the clubs and I decided for gardening. You?"
"Gardening and Arts" Ren confirmed with a nod, crossing her arms over her knees. "Why did you choose this?" She asked suddenly, just to say something and the god laughed lowly, turning to her with an arched eyebrow.
"God of fertility here, remember? I'm used to deal with plants."
"Uhh… Wasn't it Demeter who took care of plants?" She said, hoping he wouldn't take the comment in a wrong way or anything of the sort. Ren wondered, like the others, with clubs the gods would choose but she wasn't sure she would have guessed this to be Dionysus choice (which now sounded obvious).
"Demeter is the goddess of harvest in general" Dionysus confirmed. "I'm more involved with grapes and fertility, yes, but it's all connected to nature" He stopped for some seconds, watching the flowers with a shadow of smile in his face. "I would have joined the Arts club as well, if there was anything related to theatre."
He noticed Ren's head tilted and interpreted the gesture as signal to go on and decided to humor her.
"God of theatre as well, Amaya. Among other things, festivals in my honor involved presentation of plays. Tragedies, comedies or satires. There was a time the focus was more in tragedies, though…" He added and she saw his eyes assuming a soft difference, as if he was remembering it. It was still hard to believe she was talking to someone who probably had watched the first presentations of Greek plays, including those which had been lost in time.
"You watched them all?" The question sounded stupid even to herself, after all, he had just said those were festivals in his honor. Ren could just imagine how they were, with the singing and plays. Dionysus didn't look at her in mockery or anything, mind taken by years long past, vivid and detailed memories.
"Yes, I did. Sometimes I hid among mortals, sometimes I didn't need to be near to see. It was fun" Suddenly he turned to her, the mist disappearing from his gaze as he came back to the present. "What about you? Do you like plants?"
A light smile appeared in Ren's face as the beginning of a dream and she shrugged almost awkwardly.
"Honestly, I don't know anything about it" She indicated the purple flower. "I don't even know the name of these flowers"
"So why? You wanted to try something new?"
Ren was in silence for a while. Before, her reply could have been different.
"I think I…" Now that she thought about it, there was a kind of motive she hadn't noticed before. "Maybe because this makes me remember home. My parents have a garden. Maybe that's why…" She wasn't sure it was that, but after saying, a sensation she hadn't realized and that was as small as a seed, seemed to pulsate.
"That's good! So I'll teach you!" He smiled as he stood. "By the way, those are anemone. They mean forsaken…"
She stood with him, black hair sliding on her shoulders and casted a last glance before turning back to the god.
"Very well, then. How do we start?"
Dionysus looked to the flowers and then around, hands in his waist and muttering with his mouth closed as he evaluated the environment. The bed flower there wwas pretty, but just some random flowers and they could do better.
"There is an area near the stairs" He pointed his thumb to the stairs behind him. "We could put some vases there, with different seeds. It catches a nice sunlight and has a lot of space. Then we could replant them in the garden when they grow too much"
Ren examined him with suspicion.
"Dionysus… Are you thinking about cultivating something like, I don't know, grapes?"
"Of course I am" The reply was as if this was obvious.
"Wine?"
"Exactly"
Ren didn't resist and facepalmed, holding a giggle.
"You know what, I'm not even surprised" She commented in pleasant tone. "I think we can get seeds and vases in the school's store"
XxX
With the club's activities, time seemed to go a little faster that day, as it happens when we get involved in something new. With night approaching, Ren didn't know where Yui was. Nor she or any of the other girls had seen her since afternoon, but they weren't much worried.
The academy was huge and sometimes it felt nice to take a time to walk around, and come back later. It was possible that she was just talking a walk in the gardens or reading in the library (when Isuzu suggested that, Arisu thought it was more probable that she would pick the books and come back to the room as she had done it before).
Now, Ren walked in the empty hallways. Moonlight was the only source of light, creating illuminated areas when entering the windows, the pale light giving the colored glass a ghost, pearly quality.
She looked through the room she had examined before dinner and that, apparently, Zeus had turned in the official Arts Club Room. There was a shelf filled with books at the side of a window and that followed the wall until the corner. A bit forward, there was a small table with chairs of high backs and lined in bluish velvet… Following the shelf, to the right, there were two easels, empty in the moment and a cabinet where she supposed there were paints, brushes, canvas and other artistic utensils.
In the left side of the room, a dark smooth-looking figure in which the moonlight seemed to slid and drip.
A piano.
She closed the door behind her carefully and approached, watching the white bones that were the keys before pressing one.
A solitary note shivered in the air.
The room was far from the library and the feminine dorm (the masculine was even further) and Ren wasn't sure the spirits even had a dorm (whatever they did at night, she didn't know and didn't care).
She took a seat. For some seconds, Ren didn't move, satisfied in just watching the instrument, the way the transparent light because pearly upon touching the smooth surface. The silence was pleasant as well, but it was broken soon.
Raindrops started to fall against the window's glass, each sounding as a tinkling of a second and uniting, making another sound, as a mosaic made of several colored pieces. It started softly, almost gently before the drops started to hit the glass with ferocity, the trail they left alike cracks.
The wind let out long cries and the moonlight was dead among the clouds. Outside, darkness reigned and yet, Ren thought she could almost make out the figures of the top of the trees, black ghosts shivering in the storm.
The girl remained still, watching through the window for some seconds. Even with the glass closing it, the aroma of the rain managed to invade the room as if also anxious for warmth.
The change in the weather had been so out of sudden like when Zeus had changed the seasons. Was that something he did too? They had had rains before, and after what had occurred in the beach, Yui asked Thoth if Zeus always controlled the weather to which the Egyptian replied it wasn't always the case: Zeus had the power of changing the seasons to his will here and the weather, but that didn't imply nature here didn't follow its own course without his interference.
There was no way of knowing if this storm was natural or not.
Ren went back to the piano. Even without the moon, the keys were still visible.
There was a moment of hesitation before she started to play, slowly at first, as if testing and checking if she remembered her lessons. Then her fingers became more agile and the musical notes ceased being mere sounds to become threads that united in a spider's web, making a cadence.
In the second music, her vocal chords vibrated when she sung with her mouth closed to herself. Time altered, no more felt in seconds and minutes, but marked by notes and the words she had in her mind.
However, Ren noticed another sound hiding under the melody.
Her fingers froze in the middle of a movement.
"You don't need to worry about it, I'm fine…" She recognized the voice. Yui.
"You could have been severely hurt" Another voice, firm even if with something in which mixed stern and apology.
Leaving the room, Ren came across a soaked to the bones Yui. Her purple hair dripped, leaving dark spots in the ground and her clothes were hugging her frame, agitated by shivers the girl tried to contain in her muscles.
At her side, equally soaked, was Hades. His hair seemed almost black, emphasizing the blood of his eye and he seemed between passing his arm around Yui in an attempt to warm her and not touching her in any way. If his intention was to help the girl with the cold, Ren knew he would have failed in any way, considering the state of both of them.
"What…" She whispered, eyes going from one to another without a clue. "Were you both outside in this weather?" She asked as she removed her jacket, staying just in her long sleeved blouse, but Yui raised her hand trying to refuse it.
"No need, Ren, I'm fine…" She looked with the corner of her eyes to Hades, clearly hoping he would take Ren's offer, but the god shook his head. Ignoring both, Ren placed her jacket in Yui's shoulders, deaf to the other's protest. Feeling how cold she was and the bluish shadow under her eyes and in her lips, Ren started to rub the jacket to dry her. Cold? Her very skin seemed made of ice now.
Strange, for them to be in such state, they should have been under the rain for a long time, therefore, they hadn't been close to the academy.
Hades fixated his eye on her as a dagger.
"Please, take her back to the dorm and help her to get warm." Curious. His tone was firm as always, almost severe, but the girl felt traits of gentleness in the request and Yui turned to him at once.
"Hades, it doesn't matter. Listen, I don't…"
"You could have drowned." The god interrupted in the same tone and in that moment, it was possible to have a glimpse that appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye. In that instant, his gaze seemed deep, marked by something old and long, an eternal river…
Then it was gone.
Hades turned his back to them.
"Please, Amaya… Take her to the dorm."
Ren sighed.
"Yui, could you explain to me just what was that all about?"
XxX
At the end of long minutes, after Yui took her time in a warm bath, she rubbed a towel in her hair as Melissa, sitting at her side in the bed, patted her thigh friendly.
"C'mon Kutanagi, it wasn't that bad"
Yui didn't reply, eyes frozen in a point of the ground and turned inside herself. The sensation of cold water forcing its way through her nose and throat, filling her lungs and no matter how she moved, there was just that endless coldness around… This had scarred her nerves.
She wouldn't ever forget.
She had told Hades and the others at first that there was nothing wrong, that she was okay, however this was something she was in need of telling herself because Yuio knew Hades was right: She could have died.
Her body shivered out of control and her blood ran wild once more. It was as if her organism needed her mind to feel it and realize that it was still alive.
"My God…" Isuzu whispered weakly. "Yui…" She didn't know what to say or do, if Hades hadn't saved her… No, she didn't want to think about what would have happened.
"I don't understand…" Yui muttered with an absent voice that didn't sound at all like a living voice. "Hades insists this was his fault and that he causes misfortune, but I don't understand…"
"That storm of now happened because of him?" Misaki asked surprised, frowning to the idea. Yui had told them all, including how the god of the dead had insisted that she would stay in the field and waited until he was gone, for the rain would stop them.
"It's obviously not on purpose" Arisu had her feet on the bed, hugging her knees and looked to the others in a child-like way. "It's not his fault"
"But it explains why he told us to stay away from him all the time"
"Oh, c'mon!" Arisu growled, placing her chin on her knees. "It's always that, stay away from me, you'll be miserable, this sounds a little too emo for me…"
The honey-colored eyes of Yui rose slowly, passing through Arisu as though she was not there.
"That's cruel"
"Yui, he didn't explain anything, since the beginning he just told us to stay away. And he keeps repeating that of…"
"See things from his point of view…" Yui continued in that voice that seemed to float from a distant point and her expression made it clear that Arisu's last words had not been heard or comprehended in any way. "He causes disgraces and can't control it. I don't understand it, but if it is true, then he just doesn't want people to suffer"
Arisu hesitated.
"Well, I understood that part, but…"
"And he is immortal" Ren completed.
"Imagine that, girls…" Isuzu whispered, thinking in how she would feel if she was in his place. "More than millenniums alive and, whether he wants or not, if people get close to him they end up hurt." The proof was right here. Yui had almost drowned. Hades' disgraces didn't reach him, but the people near him.
If he was a god and couldn't stop this, the only way that sounded possible to keep others safe was indeed to isolate himself from everyone.
Arisu tried to imagine this. Not mere years, but decades of loneliness while ruling over the realm of the dead… Not actually having anyone to talk to or any company, nor even getting close of his own family, aware of what could happen…
She thought about her parents and another memory came to rip her mind apart: Isuzu, Isuzu crying, tears escaping her eyes and rolling down her face as if they would cut her as her nails found a nest in her shoulders as she hugged herself in despair…
What if Isuzu cried like she had in that day because of Arisu? What if Isuzu's blood was shed because of her?
It could not be her fault, but she would still be the cause.
A coldness dominated her bones. And Arisu knew she would rather never see her sister again than risking something like that. Or any person, for that matter. What right did she have to put others in risk? And she didn't know the extension of Hades' disgraces, but after today, she didn't think they were harmless stuff…
"Now you know what Hades feel" A voice whispered in her mind and she felt a bitter taste spreading through her body. And Ren was right, they were mortals. The gods had lived too long and would live forever, more than they could even understand…
An eternity of loneliness…
"Great, now I feel like a bitch" Arisu muttered, hugging her legs tighter. "Damn…"
"Don't be like this" Melissa asked, calling their attention as he laid his head on Yui's lap, trying to make her feel better. "There is nothing you can do about it…" Worse, he was right.
"I don't accept this." Yui muttered, slowly lying down on the side of her body. The natural rhythm wasn't back to her voice yet, but Misaki noticed her eyes seemed less opaque. "Maybe we can't do a thing about the misfortune or how they happen, but I don't want to accept there is nothing we can do for Hades…"
However right then, facing something so old and powerful, which real cause they didn't know, all seemed as dark as the sky during that storm.
Some raindrops that still rested in the window slid down the glass slowly.
Ana: Not very happy in the end, but… Well, as I mentioned, I'm trying to be realistic in some points.
Yui: Huh… Bunch of girls taken by Zeus to a school so they can teach gods about humanity? That's realistic?
Ana: You know what I mean. Anyway, things can't be solved with a mere talk and five minutes. It always takes work… And I don't know about you, but if I had almost drowned, I would be in shock for a good couple of minutes.
Hades: That's why I warned you all to stay away…
Arisu: Well, you could have explained it better.
Hades: Would that have worked?
Arisu: … Honestly? Not really.
Ana: And so, we go on with this fic.
Loki: Hey, why I didn't get more screen time this chapter? We didn't even see me pranking the girl there!
Arisu: Not everything is about, Loki.
Loki: How come not? I'm one of the most popular guys in this anime! Ask anyone!
Ana: That's actually an idea… Hey! Readers! Could you tell me your three favorite gods of the anime? Let's make this sort of a pool!
AndreaRamos2003: De acuerdo. Ella ha ido demasiado lejos. E si, lo provocaste.
Misaki: Me quedó sorpresa que Loki no dijiste nada e solo tentara salir.
Arisu: Pedí perdón… Lo siento. Pero estabas a me poner fula.
Balder: Creo que podemos concordar que ambos estaban in erro?
Ana: Haha, creo que te gustas a Loki? Pero me gustas también. Solo in el comienzo me aburría con su testarudez.
Loki: Todavía soy uno de los más populares personajes.
Arisu: Lo peor, es la verdad…
Ren: No me sorprende que el tengas uno inmenso ego.
Arisu: Aprendí mi lección, nunca voy a aceitar comida de él otra vez.
Ana: No, no eres mala. Estoy de acuerdo, algunas cositas todos los dios precisaban oír, pero Arisu fuste demasiado lejos. Ahora vamos esperar que la relación de todos mejore poco a poco!