ARC I:

Antinomy

Chapter III

REALIZATION

PREVIOUSLY

Kazu Yuuki is tasked to assassinate Ayako Tsumura, an elite member of the Light Faction Academy. He failed to complete the mission and now he is facing punishment issued by the high council of the Darkness Faction.

It was past midnight, I got thrown into the high council chamber, although only the commander himself was present. The three members of the Advanced Division pinned me down on my back.

"Kazu Yuuki, report," he commanded. His strict voice pierced my ears, as I knew that I would be killed on the spot if I screwed up.
"..Assassination Mission, objective: assassinate Ayako Tsumura, result failure. The guards found our Stealth Squad sneaking about the academy, they deliberately lowered their guard to lure us out. I got beaten by her, but I managed to escape," I explain in a broken tone.
"Disappointing. I thought it was best to leave everything to you, given that Emigrace trained you herself. But it looks like we underestimated the Light Faction," he sighed.
"Commander Yami, what should we do to the failed operative?" one of the Advanced Squad asked.
"Take him out of my sight. Proceed with the punishment, it's only fair," Commander Yami ordered.

They pulled me up from the ground and saluted to the commander before dragging me out of the room. I didn't have any words to protest, I still had a lot to think about.

Commander Yami, he is the Head of the Darkness Faction Militia. His leadership skills minimized the number of casualties in the first step of the Calamity Project. He ascended into power with his ambitions and positive remarks from the masses of society. His predecessor died in battle before the start of the Calamity Project. Yami took the burden of everyone's expectations onto his back. Eventually succeeding his predecessor and establishing a new era in the Darkness Faction.

I was walking down a long corridor, the floor was white marble the walls and ceiling shared the same material. I've seen the torture room before, it was completely white, with distinct dry blood splatters on the walls and floor. I imagined there was a bloodbath in there last time someone got tortured. I only call it a torture room because that's what it looked like to me at the time, it's more accurate to call it a "punishment room." They opened the locked metal door and tossed me across the floor. They stepped inside and locked the door behind them, ensuring that I won't try to escape. If I did, my life would be in danger.

One of them asked, "Where do we start?" they started to discuss numerous things they could do. It started with if they were going to hurt me physically or mentally, then transitioned into where they were going to hit me. Two of the Advanced Division members in front of me were in their uniform. Untucked dress shirt with the bolo tie and buttoned blazer. There was only one girl among them, but the uniform was the same for both genders.

"The gut is the most generic place to hit," one of them stated.
"Then do you have anything to suggest, Yuro?" the girl asked. The person named Yuro was on my right of them. He had brown hair with long bangs but combed neatly. He wore a black peacoat over a dark red turtleneck sweater, with black pants and black leather shoes. I would assume he came back from an espionage mission, given his choice of clothing.

"Freeze him?" Yuro blindly suggested.
"What the!? No! We're not killing him! Do you understand the word 'punishment'?!" the girl yelled.
"Punishment can exte- oh wait, that's torture." Yuro corrected himself. Is this guy for real?
"You're an idiot." the girl started immediately.
"You're only figuring that out know?" the guy said.
"Cut it out, Dennis, Alexis," Yuro pointed at me and continued, "We need to decide on something quick, we are wasting his time, my time and your time,"

Dennis and Alexis, obviously annoyed by Yuro, aggressively walk over to me to lift me off the ground. They used me as a live punching bag. Each one of their blows hurt, eventually, I started coughing up blood.

"Gah!" I screamed in response to their punches.
"..." they didn't say a word, they just kept punching me, as if they were imagining they were punching Yuro instead of me. Their angry facial expressions supported that thought, even more, the punches felt like I was being pounded with a twenty-pound weight repeatedly, just by looking at them. They punched not only my gut but my face too. However, not as much as my stomach.

Time passed.. they stopped with the torture and the trio took me out of the room. I was completely bothered. I had a trail of blood from my mouth and bruises on my face. They were carrying out their own conversations while they dragged me back to my dorm room.

Dennis called out, "Yuro, how was your report?"
"Just gathering information from the Light Faction. It was small, but every bit of info is important," Yuro shrugged.
"Espionage?" I asked, curious.
"Uh-huh! Just some juicy info on one or two of the elite members of the Light Faction Academy," he said.
"Juicy? It better be acceptable for the Calamity Project," Dennis said, doubtful.
"I think one of them was.. Ayako. Ayako Tsumura!" Yuro said, able to recall. He continued, "Ayako Tsumura, the person Kazu failed to assassinate, is an elite member. She raised to the ranks quickly during her second-year, almost mastering high-level magic."
"How do you know that much?" I asked. Ayako Tsumura, her words made me question myself for the first time, She is certainly a special person, perhaps it's the power of the Light Faction as a whole. Managing to bring light into the darkness. You could say that she "lit up the path to the truth," or something like that.
"Well, I was on the espionage mission for quite a long time, I witnessed Kazu's fight with Ayako myself. I learned about her grade from gossiping students hours prior to Kazu's infiltration," he explained.
"Oh? What high-level magic did she use?" Dennis smirked, still doubting.
"..Reflect," I said. I hear the two gasp in surprise.
"Wait, are you for real?" Alexis asked her voice was full of disbelief and surprise.
"How can a second-year master high-level magic like that?" Dennis said, skeptical.
"She hasn't mastered it. The aftershock of the rebounded damage didn't occur. From what I saw before I hightailed outta there was Kazu's Blizzaga being reflected back at him. So she hasn't mastered it yet, but it's still troublesome to deal with. Don't you say?" Yuro explained. He's completely right, Ayako was able to "send back to sender" with her Reflect. Underestimating her would only be an insult to her if anything. Her skills are on par with other elite members of the Darkness Faction Academy. I wasn't able to compose myself to fight on even ground. Her words made me froze in place during the fight so many times, it nearly cost me my life. Ever since I haven't felt the same and it hasn't even been a day yet! Do her words have that much of an effect on me?

"What are you fighting for?" her words rang in my head once more. What am I fighting for? I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to that question myself. I never had a reason to fight for something. I only followed orders thoroughly.

"Hahahaha... where is your free will? Because from how you act, it tells me otherwise." her laugh only a few hours ago brings chills down my spine. Just thinking about it, reminds me of her face at that time, unable to hold in what nonsense I had to say to counter her words against me. Come to think of it, I really don't have a free will do I? Since all I have been doing all my life is following orders from the higher-ups like a dog following his or her master's orders. She has a point, a very good point. She acted on her will to attack, she was even told by guards that we were mapping out their academy. It's remarkable.. really. I'm an idiot. Truly.

I snap back into reality after zoning out for a good about of time. I hear someone call out to me, "Hey, Kazu. Wake up," Yuro said.
".. I'm awake."
Yuro sighed, "I think you guys hit him too hard."
"Oh come on, he can take a small beating," Alexis shrugged.

I noticed we were at the front of my dorm room. They let me back on my feet. I was surprised they actually carried me on their backs on the way here. I was still able to walk. I turned to them and waved them goodbye. I confined myself to my room for the entire night, not wishing for a night's rest. All on my mind was Ayako's words, they affected me a lot. It was almost impossible to get them out of my line of thoughts when I realized they were true. I remembered I had my earpiece still on, I tried communicating to Emigrace, "Hey. Emigrace! Are you there?"

"Here. What is it?" she answered back. She's awake? I thought, maybe she's doing some extra paperwork or something. That, or she wanted to check up on me.
"I have a few questions."
"Oh no, this isn't about puberty, is it?" she giggled annoyingly.
I sighed, "Of course not."
"It's actually something serious? Wow. I am astonished," she said sarcastically, but with my sense of humor, to be correct, my lack of humor didn't pick up on it.
"You know it's always going to be serious."
"Well. What is it?" she asked, restlessly.
"What do you think I'm fighting for?" I ask.

A moment of silence passed, then I received a response from Emigrace.

"You know, I cannot answer that.. at all. You have to find it, yourself," she said, in her more calm tone. That's actually quite mature of her, I thought.
".. Really?" I said, having doubts.
"Shouldn't you be the one to decide it for yourself? It's not like I'm in charge of every decision you make," her sincere voice rang into my ears. I knew she was right. I didn't have to ask her and I can't ask her to help me in my pursuit for it. Only I can do it. Only I can grasp my purpose.
".. Thanks," I quietly said.
"Take good care of yourself, okay? Now get some rest, come see me in my office tomorrow morning."
"What for?" I asked. Tomorrow was Sunday, no school on Sundays, so it was puzzling.
"You'll see," she hummed.

I decided to wait till morning to see what she wanted, I didn't even bother changing. I just went to bed immediately and waited for the wave of sleep to engulf my body.

...

"You idiot!" Emigrace snapped as soon as I took a seat in her office. I knew where this was heading.
"You knew how important this mission was to the faction, yet you failed? Inexcusable!" she roared. Once she rambles on, you cannot reason with her, at all. She's like a mad cow on a rampage, craving for more cow meat-I think it was a huge mistake to make a metaphor with her and a cow.
"You had one chance. one! And she was sleeping too! How in the hell did you fuck it up so badly that the commander had to order the Advanced Division to come fetch you like a lost puppy in a park!?" her metaphors were out of this world, but at least they made some sense.
"She snuck up on me," I simply said.
"So she snuck up on you," her face was expressionless. I nodded slowly.
"How?" she asked.
"She found out our Stealth Divison were sneaking around the academy mapping out the place to her room, so she waited out the following nights waiting for someone to ambush and capture," I explained carefully.
"So they were found out by the guards.." Emigrace muttered to herself.
"Eh?" I wondered what she said.
"Nothing. It wasn't anything important," she brushed it off. She slammed her hand on the desk to get my attention, "Well. What do you think of their elite members?"
Whew.. I thought she was going to ask me if I liked her, she's always been joking about that, I thought.
"They are certainly powerful," I admitted.
"So, how did one of our top members got his ass handed to him? After all the training I gave you that put you near death? Don't you remember? That whole mountain fiasco that I made you climb for three days? Where did the progress go?" she wondered. Her expression clearly read that she was irritated that I failed. Since I was the only student that she ever trained personally.
"I was thinking about things."
"Things like that.. will get you killed on the battlefield," she sighed, then continued, "Then again! You are a teenage boy after all. You were probably gawking at her during your fight. I guess that's understandable."
"What? Of course not!" I finally yelled out.
She sighed, "This is why we shouldn't have assigned teenagers going through puberty into the military. Hahaha!"

Well, at least she's back to normal. I prefer this side of her better than her angry side. Much less yelling this way. At least she brings some sort of happiness in my life, it isn't all gloom.

END

NEXT TIME:

Roughly a month as passed since my assassination mission, from orders from the commander, I had to take a break from school. To recuperate with myself, I guess Emigrace told him what happened. She always knew if I was struggling or troubled. In that time, I devoted it to train with Yuro, from the Advanced Division. Being honest, it was tough. But it was worth it. I made a good acquaintance and improved myself. But now...

"The Light Faction is attacking! Repeat, Light Faction is attacking! All available soldiers out at the front gates of the academy immediately!"

PURPOSE

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ehh.. since I didn't want to do a recap of what will happen in a time skip next chapter, I preferred to do this. If you think it's not good, I'll get rid of it. If you think it was poorly executed, give me tips on how to improve it. I appreciate it!