Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Enter back into the first layer of the inferno.
A white door opens in front of her, not a chorus of angels awaiting but just staring eyes, and a need to fulfill a purpose unwanted, and counterproductive.
Again she descends.
Lingyin strutted to her desk walking past some of the crowded talking of the mindless masses, and made a landing at her desk.
Resting her head upon her hands with both her elbows on the table she took a weary look at herself.
Where was she? In class. What is she feeling? … not wanting to be here. How many more days? Checking made waiting longer.
A watched pot never boils. To lose patience is to lose the battle (ironic). Have patience with all things but first yourself.
Fear no evil. Even if she was at the heart of it. Even if it was supporting an industry she hated.
Hate is a strong word. Her mom always annoyingly told her that, making sure it echoed in her mind whenever she used that word.
Heated moments, she found a good use for it that could not be denied its application.
But then it´d be hypocritical. And that was another thing drilled into her.
Hypocrite oaths of loyalty to countries that were controlled more by the person than the people. Any ounce of defiance being put out like a fire drowned in an ocean by the sheer fact that she had to do this for her mom, not herself.
A slight sigh came out of her from that thought, might made right, even if it wasn´t right.
Checklist, one. two. How are the two other figures who she´s learned about after they voluntold themselves to join on in her little get together?
The blonde. Cecelia. Reveling in the group of girls enraptured in every word she proudly states with her head high. Even if it was brutally buried in the ground for everyone to see. A few forced listens into the conversation spiced with the chatter of the classroom revealed she was talking about her clothing.
A girl, one of her loyal nameless fans seemed to mention the tournament in 2 days.
That shut her down and plucked her wings like Icarus.
Lingyin moved her hands to her ears and tried to seem as if she was napping, in truth she was just trying to avoid the empathetic cringe. People remember their failures more than their successes, and she felt all of it.
And also lingyin herself would have to compete. With some random chick she´d never even bothered connecting with up to now, whatever. Winning was of no interest to her, just die tired and they´ll believe you tried.
¨This is good. That means you´re more human than they want you to be.¨ a quiet forced whisper to herself.
War creates, forges, and destroys egos. She´d rather look away from it all. Maybe one day do something about it.
Hoping was useless. Dreaming was better. Action in idolization and reality will lead her, that´s why she´s here.
That restaurant, that stable peaceful life she´s reveled in coming back? Seeing her dog again? That first moment when she comes back would be relished in her mind. The fantasies she had over achieving it were buoys to her in this place.
She really was a ¨Soldier¨ now. This feels to her how a soldier would think.
Where is he anyway? Class almost started? Seriously, if she was going to carpe diem and achieve a friend she could trust she´d have to do something.
The promise flashed in her mind and she reeled back, it was played in her head like that just from the mere thought, beautifully rendered in crisp detail.
He´d forgotten her. One of the few people she thought she had even the slightest chance of connecting with without her status as ¨representative" or ¨networking" getting in the way.
Was she talking to him for the sole reason of a relationship? To try to reignite a flame that he threw aside growing up? Is that how he saw her interaction?
Her stomach started cramping, this was a person she actually wanted to be liked by.
Relaxation, meditation. Seeing the sunset fall with mom on a beach. Peace.
It wasn´t the same person. Time pulls the clock along with the person.
A brute that looked like he killed, did he enjoy it?
It was a sort of fresh start, an inroad.
The promise.
Thank the god´s he forgot.
Wait, wasn´t she supposed to do two?
Endlessly dreaming, never acting (excluding the fact she was HERE OF HER OWN WILL).
The internal yelling was bringing her strife.
A quick turn around to the edge lord in the corner, master of the blade.
Houki was looking at her desk leaning back against the chair looking unapproachable, she raised her head seemingly noticing her staring by instinct. Their eyes met for too long. Lingyin knew another unfriendly encounter would come from her if this continued, so she broke her gaze, infuriation rose and her heartbeat quickened.
Ruiner of a first attempt at making a real friend, giver of slight strokes.
It was obvious that she would revel in war and violence.
But then again her vision was clouded by rage, maybe she grew daffodils and roses in a small garden that she didn´t see.
Yes, that´s good. Control the self and win a peaceful battle. Even if she was a bit-
No. Rage against the dying of the light. Not the person. Don´t let it win again.
Thank goodness no girls were approaching her trying to be ¨friends¨. They didn´t stop trying, she could just tell that the craftier ones were probably researching new tactics. Distant acting and monotone responses worked well with the general, never against the pushers.
This type of schizophrenic paranoid line of thinking wasn´t unusual to her, but this odd habit was fed too much being here, who wanted to be her friend, and who wanted her to be an ally?
It´s funny, any other sort of goal and she would love being here. And she did, in almost everything excluding the actual learning of warfare.
Cheap student discounts for things ranging from luxury handbags to live hawkers (sort of with their weird system.)
Hunger´s, she had the munchies. It was a nice thought break from the downward spiral of negative thoughts.
What´s more funny in the cosmic irony sort of way was the relentless training that she put herself through, making it so that she avoided more people. Even if she knew deep down that it was killing her with the extroversive tendencies being bottled up more every day.
Making her act. And falling face-first onto concrete. She carpe Diemed.
It wasn´t relentless in the way she trained, just in the way of how often she did it.
Even then she was getting shockingly, stupidly, agonizingly better at using weapons of war she despised, no matter how much sloppy practice she did.
Maybe a brief walk would do her good. That´s something she enjoys, most people are in classrooms now anyhow.
Just as she stood up the door opened, and there we go. Plot convenience.
An actual conversation would be… nice. Friendly relations, friendship.
What would be her openin-
What´s wrong with his FACE?
¨WHAT´S WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!?.¨ An outburst that she did not NEED TO DO THAT SHE INSTANTLY REGRETTED. Now the eyes were being pointed at them.
Language was being lost. Calm down, even if with the addition of his tussled hair making him look like a blue (black?) berry that was smushed in a street fight.
He still wasn´t responding.
¨What happened!?¨ The tone went down a notch from yelling to a raised voice.
Ichika decided to just blink slowly. It was clear his brain was processing something, and the black eye didn´t help.
¨Fight.¨
¨Shouldn´t you be at the nurse? Do you need an ice pack? Aren´t you in pain?¨
More of a slow-thinking look from him. Finally managing to utter another word.
¨No.¨
¨Are you sure?¨
After that helpful sentence, a painful realization occurred, the room was quiet. They were the center of attention.
A new voice came to the fray. One that annoyed her, and raised irritation.
¨Why would he need help if he said he doesn´t need it?¨
It was Houki. Don´t start a fight. Don´t start a fight. Don´t start a fight.
¨Some of us care about other people. ¨
A quick turn to look at the awed crowd revealed a face that looked as if Lingyin said something utterly stupid, Cecelia was behind her looking like she had just given the best gift of her life, with a slightly interested smile coming out of her. It all irritated, irritated, irritated her. She needed a new word to express her irritation.
Infuriation?
Whatever, doesn´t matter.
¨He was training. It´s odd how you don´t understand that.¨
Talking down. TO HER?
Cecelia added in her diatribe. Or maybe she was agreeing to what Houki was saying.
¨ It´s just the cost for people like us.¨ looking like she was about to laugh.
Ichika turned around and gave a quick glare at Cecelia for that certain bit, looking as if he was in the mood to punch her, calculating and plotting painful things. A surprisingly new side to him that she didn´t expect compared to the earlier events. Guess, he stopped pretending.
So yeah, it ruined Cecelia´s newfound smile, hitting her emotional momentum into a brick wall. Which was exactly how her face looked now, stunned and dazed. Was she intimidated?
It seemed like Ichika was going to have a proper conversation now.
¨I was doing some boxing, I took and gave.¨
¨Did you give more?¨ Houki was talking as if she liked his current state.
¨Gave, but I took more.¨
Ichilka walked to his desk responding and seemed to depress slightly when he sat down and leaned low on the desk, letting out a deep sigh. It turns out that being turned black and blue makes a person tired.
It was Cecelia´s turn to talk now, she walked up behind him and lowered her head to his.
¨What wonderful person do I have to thank for giving you that amazing workover?¨ Huh, It was aggressive, but it was laced with a slight undertone of… something? It lacked the effort that smarminess she usually gave.
Ichika responded by simply ceasing to speak. Closing his eyes and slouching even more than he was already.
Cecelia didn´t take too fondly to that, she visibly grew a slight look of annoyance at the audacity.
It didn´t even deserve the harsh description of audacity, but cheek seemed too friendly.
¨Why!¨
Cecelia raised her hand for a slap, Lingyin knew she had to step in and stop this pretentious girl but it was obvious she was too fa-
Houki stepped in and stopped Cecelia, giving her another silent glare, actually deserved this time.
Cecelia looked even more maddened, as if she was about to speak but Houki quickly tilted her head and moved it closer to Cecelia´s opening her eyes more. It gave the glare a higher intensity that made Cecelia back off slightly, but before she was going to raise her voice she somehow intensified it more. That finally quieted her down.
Cecelia for her part… calmed down, she was forcefully taken down a step but to her credit, she took a surprising breath and relaxed, or at least losing the tension she had before.
She walked to her desk and sat, and then the once-silent swarm of girls who were watching this whole debacle descended on her with a newfound and emboldened flurry of conversation.
Lingyin wouldn´t even bother trying to listen in, she just gave Houki a look of ¨are you kidding me?¨ and went to her desk, laying her head down with a groan she didn´t bother to mask.
Houki in kind decided to thankfully not start anything, just rolling her eyes at her and walking back to to her desk.
And that was that, all that tension that was once very apparent? gone.
The morning just did this.
The green-haired lady stepped in at the last minute as she always did.
Roll calls, class greetings, mindless work. venturing back into the inferno.
She couldn´t wait to go home.