Author's Note:

Even more shout-outs to onetimetrip for the Follow and to Lurking Pheonix for the Favorite!

Yet again, I must make it apparent how much I appreciate your attention!

Disclaimer:

Pokémon and any other referential materials found in this story do not belong to me. They belong to their respective owners and subsidiaries, and I claim no ownership of them.


Of Children, Men, and Monsters

Chapter Thirteen: Aggressors


A few more days had passed since her dream with the entity, and Marza was currently gazing up at the clock in an upper corner of the room in anticipation. "Three… Two… One…" she mumbled, and then the bell promptly rang, signaling the end of the school year, and, as most of the children in the class pointed out in their cheering: "The year is over!" It wasn't actually the end of the year, obviously; it was actually still the middle of July. No, rather, it was the end of the school year.

The young boys and girls nearly sprinted out of the classroom, leaving Marza, who was still packing up and organizing her things, in the proverbial dust. She hardly minded this, of course; better to wait a couple of minutes and leave while everyone else attempted to escape the building through the miniscule front entrance.

Key words here being "attempted" and minuscule"; Marza could already hear the dozens of other kids falling to the floor and upon each other as well as their respective grunts of pain and frustration. Marza couldn't hold back her "heh" of bemusement at this.

It was only after the noise began to die down that she noticed her teacher lying on the ground. She had evidently been quite literally shoved aside, if her ruffled clothes and position were anything to go by. The older woman was scratching her head, as if uncertain as to what had just occurred. Marza walked over and offered a hand to her, and she took it gratefully, a smile gracing her features as she re-adjusted her glasses.

"Thank you, Marza. It's really quite a shame that most of the other children of this town seem incapable of following your examples…"

Marza shook her head, looking a bit irked. "My examples? The fact that they would need to imitate me, of all people, just shows how much of a pack of delinquents they are." Blink. "Like that. I'm not quite as polite as I let on, you know."

"Nonsense! You think too lowly of yourself, I think, especially since your words are practically nothing but the truth!"

Marza felt uncertain about her praise. "Well, I still don't think you're quite accurate about that thought, but the sentiment is appreciated. Anyways, I've got a bus to catch. Will I be seeing you next school year, or…?"

"I hope to continue being a teacher in the faculty, yes."

"Right."

They shook hands, and the younger lass left, heading to her locker to obtain the rest of her belongings before finally leaving the school for good.

As she was heading to her bus to leave the school grounds, however, she was intercepted by two other kids – specifically, the two who attempted to steal her books in their harassment attempt just a few days earlier. Marza let out a deep, tired-sounding sigh. "Oh. It's you two again. What, do you plan on getting the last metaphorical words in for the year? Because that's more than a little petty, and I sincerely hope that you're both bright enough to realize even something as simple as that."

The slightly larger one of the two smirked. "Yeah, well, we don't really care about that little detail, do we, my friend?"

"Heh. Nope," he confirmed, voice a tad stupid-sounding yet still appearing eager for… something. Marza wasn't quite sure what this something was, but she already didn't like it.

"Well, regardless of your intent, I've got a bus to ride home on, so if you'll excuse me…"

She made an attempt at ignoring them from that point on and walking off to do what she had intended to do, but was unsuccessful in this endeavor, as the lankier one roughly grabbed her by the hair. She resisted the urge to grunt in pain; one of the biggest ways to assert your authority over a person is to not show that you're hurting from something, after all, even in these types of circumstances.

The one with the greater amount of girth to his person walked up to her front to stare her in the eyes. "Not so tough now, are ya', girlie?!" he rhetorically inquired, his sneer nearly splitting his face into two separate pieces.

"Oh, so having another person helping you do the dirty work on restraining a single girl makes you "tough", then? Because if so, I believe that you need to grab a dictionary and take a quick glance at it."

The lad's sneer transformed into a snarl. "Think you're clever, huh? Well let's see your cleverness protect you from this!" He reared his hand back, palm open, and sent it flying into Marza's cheek, a resounding slap sounding out as a result of the action. Marza's eyes widened dramatically, thoroughly startled. '… Did he just get physical with me!?' Her shock was well-founded; she always made certain to be the one to physically get to her opposition first when the need arose, so she was justly startled to find that he possessed the audacity to make the first real move.

The boy grinned in satisfaction as her shocked expression. "Now who's the tough guy!? Huh!?"

Taking a moment to r-compose herself and begin to ignore the pain, she spat, "Neither of us, because I'm not a guy and you're certainly not tough!"

The boy growled something fierce, rearing his hand back again, though this time his fist was closed.

'A punch next, is it?'

Anticipating this next blow, she shoved herself to the right, opposite to the way his arm was oriented, twisting her body so that her captor was instead facing her assaulter.

The portly boy caught a flying fist to the face, and he let go of the girl to reflexively clutch at his face as he howled in pain. "Oh, shoot!"

Marza took the opportunity of their distraction to escape, shoving the people in the circular crowd of people out of her path. She muttered a few apologies to those that she had pushed aside as she sprinted into the bus just as it reared into motion, the driver shooting her a concerned glance as she paced to the very back-left seat of the interior of the bright yellow vehicle.

Marza put a tentative hand to her cheek, rubbing it once the initial pain began to wore off. She didn't have a mirror on her person, but she could still tell that it was going to bruise up and stay present on features for at least a few days. She let out a sigh. "Doubtless this'll raise questions from my parents and Oscura…"

She rode the bus home in pensive silence, though she was also a tad rather frustrated by what occurred to her. The ride was peaceful, but her thoughts, on the other hand… 'The fact that those two would do something like thisIt's just a bit disconcerting. And the fact that they are hardly even teenagers yet…' She gave a worried hum. 'And that's not even getting into what's going on with Arceus and that mysterious person. I haven't heard from either of them in the past few days, which, considering the frequency of these anomalous events, is also definitely cause for concern…'

Before she even realized it, the bus drew close to her home, and she scrambled to get her now-jumbled, messy collection of belongings together and into a wieldy stack so that she could get it all back to her house in one trip. The road was a bit bumpy, after all. She initially struggled with carrying the load, yet still managed to carry all of her things out of the vehicle and into her home – not without a couple of breaks, however.

Eventually and finally, she pushed the front door of her house open and more or less barged into the house, Julius and Erise almost running to her to assist her in carrying her school-oriented belongings to where they ought to be. Upon getting close enough to notice their daughter had a rather distinctive red mark on her cheek, they both simultaneously gasped, concern riding its way onto their faces.

Julius inquired, "Marza! Did someone slap you at school!?"

Marza nodded, then elaborated: "There are these two slightly older boys at school that're always dead-set on harassing me and only me. Why this is, I've no idea, but they decided that they wanted to physically show their dislike of me by accosting me and giving me a slap to the face. And before you ask, I would've gotten a teacher, but only two or three of them really care about the students' well beings, despite the fact that caring for us kids is supposed to literally be in the job description. None of those few caring teachers of the members of the school faculty were nearby at the moment, so I decided to indirectly get physical in return and force the guy who was holding me still to accidentally receive a punch from the other boy intended for me. I got away and onto the bus afterwards."

"Marza, that's terrible! Why didn't you tell us about those two before, then? We could've called the school and gotten them punished for you!" Erise asked of the younger lass.

"Well, it's equal parts because those two are clearly of the vengeful sort, so if you did that, they'd probably just get worse with their actions against me, and because, well…" A brief, awkward silence, and then a small intake of breath. "I didn't want you fretting over me."

Marza's creators couldn't help but be touched by their daughter's sentiment. "… Marza, we appreciate the gesture, but if you find yourself ailing and if you know that someone is capable of helping you, then you should always reach out for assistance if you can."

Marza appeared uncertain about this, but before she could even open her mouth to respond, she had the wind knocked out of her as Oscura came barreling into her stomach in an over-eager hugging attempt, sending Marza flying to the ground and her things skewing across the wooden floor of the house. Once Marza got the air in her lungs back, she said to Oscura, after a small grunt of pain, "… Enthusiastic about me, aren't you, Oscura? Don't worry, I'll give you all the attention you want and deserve after I get all of my stuff organized. Before that, though, I'm going to have to ask that you get off of me please you're crushing me Oscura." That last part was gasped out.

She did as the other female requested, giving her an apologetic small all the while. Marza sluggishly got up, clutching her stomach for a second before standing up fully. "Would you mind helping me move this stuff up to my room?" she asked of her parents. They both nodded, each picking up a decently sized portion of the contents that Marza had just spilled across the wooden surface of the floor. Marza then grabbed her own chuck of the fallen goods, and just as she made her way to the stairs, she noticed that there was still a small bag lying on the floor. Before she could point this admittedly miniscule mistake out to anyone, Oscura picked the errant object and the contents within, hurrying up the stairs along with the three humans. Marza smiled at the Larvitar in gratitude, and the Pokémon returned her smile in earnest.

Once everything was organized and placed in positions in her room that Marza deemed appropriate, her parents headed back downstairs to begin preparations for dinner. Marza relaxed in bed, Oscura joining her mere moments after she sat down.

Oscura had likely noticed the red mark on her cheek when she unintentionally tackled the human lass to the ground, but she now had the opportunity to ask about the wound in earnest, giving the offending cheek a small, gentle prod, as if to ask what had happened to make her acquire such a thing.

"It's nothing, Oscura. Trust me," she responded to the unspoken question, seeming completely sincere about her words. The alien tyke just gave her a concerned glance before once again lying beside her.

'I suppose that the usual lessons for Oscura can wait an hour or two…' she decided, grabbing a book from her nightstand and getting a bit more cozy on the bed before flipping the hard-covered stack of word-filled papers open and started reading…