Chapter 6
This desert. The same one I've been dreaming about since that night. But, strangely, the infinite sword has disappeared. I look around me, perplexed. But as I move, I feel things moving, clashing in my body, a sound of metal, like blades rubbing together. I look at my left arm, then suddenly, blades come out making blood spurts at each exit. Pain, a pain so intense that I have the impression that my body ignites. The blades coming out one by one, of my arm, goes up to my shoulders, then my body and my face. I fall on the hot sand, still conscious, feeling the blades that continue to pierce me from the inside. I can only look at these clouds passing, one of my eyes is pierced then, complete blackness.
Friday, September 16, 2022.
"Partner, wake up, you don't have to keep living this nightmare."
"...Hmm"
Ddraig's voice wakes me up. Strangely, I do not feel any pain, I feel absolutely nothing to be more precise. Strange, after what happened last night.
(What was that... this is the first time I have had this nightmare... What do you mean Ddraig?)
"These nightmares may be much more real than you think."
(Ah... yes it's true, after all, this place is...)
"Senji? Are you awake?" I hear Fuji-nee's voice from behind the door.
"Oh, Fuji-nee, yes I'm awake, I'm coming."
"Okay, we'll wait for you for breakfast."
I can hear her steps going away. I get up slowly, not knowing the state of my body and the moment I put my weight on my legs, I collapse. I don't feel any pain, I don't even feel the sensations in my legs. Hearing my fall, Fuji-nee stops.
"Is everything okay Senji?" Fuji-nee opens the door, seeing me confused.
"Um... I don't have any sensation anymore, it's really not pleasant."
"What? Yet you can move?! Oh dear, you can't go to school like that, I'll tell the principal!"
"No, it's okay Fuji-nee, we're only going to do theory today, I don't want to miss a class just for a little problem, it'll pass."
I can stand up and stand on my own two legs. I have never felt this sensation, that of walking without feeling anything, the weight of my body, the temperature and texture of the ground...
"What do you mean a little problem ...? Ahhh, very well, but you're not doing anything physical today, is that clear? No work or anything else, is that clear? Anyway I'll tell the principal."
"All right, deal done. Now can you please get out? I'd like to change."
At my words, Fuji-nee goes out. When I put on my school outfit, I discover another problem.
(Damn, my motor skills are off...)
"By 7 centimeters to be precise. Kiritsugu was always there to stop you before you got to this state, now it's up to you to be careful. But knowing you, it won't be the last time..."
(Yes I know, I'll be careful, but I can't promise you anything).
When I slide open the dining room door, all eyes are on me. I can see bitterness, concern or astonishment in some. Avoiding all eye contact, I head for my seat.
"Hello Senpai, how are you feeling?" Sakura asks me, setting a glass of tea in front of me.
"Hello Sakura, everyone. Thank you for the tea. I guess Fuji-nee already explained my situation to you."
I take the glass with difficulty, and drink the tea. I expected to feel no taste, but to my surprise, the tea is delicious.
"That's right Senji, we're worried about you. Are you sure you still want to go to school? If you're worried about missing class, Inaho can take care of getting the classes for you." Explains Haruko, who brings back the breakfast with Inaho.
"Yes! Let me do it Senji-sama! You just need to recover!" Inaho puts my dish in front of me, trying to persuade me.
"As I said to Fuji-nee, I'm fine, I'm not going to let it get me down for so little and then, if I stay, I'm sure I won't be able to sit still."
"Ahhh, that's not wrong, yes..." Fuji-nee sighed.
it seems that I managed to more or less convince them. Breakfast goes smoothly, even if I have a lot of trouble using my chopsticks.
I go as fast as I can so as not to be kept waiting and when it's time to clear the table, I can't take the tray.
"Leave it to me Senpai." Sakura takes it instead of me.
"Ahhh, thanks Sakura and sorry."
"This...this is nothing. It makes me think about that time you were injured in your left shoulder."
"Senji, are you really going to be able to keep up with the classes? You were having trouble eating and you can't lift your tray. Can you even hold a pen?" Haruko asks me, preparing everyone's bentos.
"I don't know."
"You just want to act present... this commitment will never leave you will it... it's gotten even worse than before."
"Haru-nee, it will soon be time to go."
She looks at me, seeing that I stop the discussion. So she finishes preparing our bentos. We all finish getting ready and leave for school.
I feel so weak. This is the third problem I've noticed, we just got to school, and I'm exhausted. I can only hope that the day goes by quickly. Losing myself in my thoughts and in my tiredness, a face returns to me. That of the fallen angel, who tries to kill me. It is like a nightmare, but unfortunately, it was real. But I sincerely want to follow the classes properly.
The first bell announcing the break rings, most of the students get up and go out for a shot. I decide to stay, wanting to avoid moving too much to keep my strength up.
"Hey, buddy. How was the DVD I lent you? It was some good stuff, wasn't it?"
The bald head guy speaking to Usui is Matsuda. He might look like a sportsman, but he's just a pervert who makes sexually harassing comments every day. He was a sports-boy during his time in junior high where he broke multiple records, but he's in the Photo-Club now. He's really open about his ambition of wanting to take photos of every part of girls' bodies. His nickname is the "Perverted Baldy" and the "Sexual Harassing Paparazzi".
"Fu...the wind sure was strong this morning. Thanks to that, I was able to get a good view of the girls' panties."
The guy with the glasses who's trying to act cool is Motohama. He has a special ability called Scouter that lets him get the numerical values of the girls' measurements through his glasses, along with a special body where his power level plummets when he takes his glasses off. His nickname is the "Perverted Glasses" and the "Three-size Scouter". These two are the evil friends of Usui.
Seriously, seeing these guys' faces in the morning really makes me feel down. I feel sick.
"I got some nice stuff". Matsuda opened his bag and took out the items it contained without hesitation. The books and DVDs stacked on Usui's desk all had suggestive titles.
"Eek !" A small scream comes from a girl far away from them.
Well, of course she'd react like that. After all, something like this is happening this early.
What I hear next from the girls are discriminating comments like "You guys are the worst~" and "Go die, you filthy scumbags".
"Shut it! This is how we entertain ourselves! Girls and kids should look away and keep away! Or else, I'll rape all of you inside my head!" Your words are vulgar as always, Matsuda-kun.
"Wow, where did you get these treasures from?!" said Usui with sparkling eyes at everything piled on his desk.
Then the three of them turn to me, as if they were waiting for me to take action. Normal, every time they do something like that I tell them "Excuse me guys but can you do that somewhere else or wait for another time? Don't make me go get Kodama-senpai."
These guys will always impress me, doing this at a school where the majority of students are girls is daring. But since I've been feeling terrible this morning I'm not in the mood.
"Hey, hey, hey, why are you making that face when we have all these treasures in front of us?" Matsuda sighed as he looked at my dull face.
"You're not in the mood this morning. It's really weird, even though you pretty much always pull that zombie face, right now we can clearly see that something is wrong." Motohama also said while he poked at his glasses with a bored expression.
Usui makes no comment. He looks at me with concern. It seems that the girls have already explained to him. This also explains why I didn't receive a patrol for today.
"Well I'd like to tell you to go to hell because you're embarrassing everyone, but I just don't have the energy for that today."
"Are you sick or something? No, it's not possible. It's impossible for you, the manifestation of sexual innocence, to get sick." Motohama made a rude remark. Honestly, he's just plain rude.
"It's not my fault I was raised the way I was, and then I never had time to care."
Matsuda then gestures with his hand, as if he is remembering something.
"Wait, that's right! You've never seen porn in your life if I remember correctly!"
"...So what, is it that bad?"
Both of them gave me a sympathetic look in response.
"Is it serious? Oh no, it's much worse than that. Senji, any man of our age should know the pleasure of watching a porn movie, it's the basics. Right, Motohama?"
"That's right, how can one enjoy one's youth without porn!"
Why the hell do they always have to talk about this?
But during the rest of the class, the face of Amano Yuuma, the fallen angel who tried to kill me, reappeared in my head, like a ghost that haunts me.
I want to deny it, but other than my memory, there is no evidence of her existence. Thinking about it, I remembered that she claimed to be a student at Kuoh as well. So I asked some students about her, but none of them matched her description.
I remember her face very well.
While I'm thinking about the past incidents, Usui rests his hand on my shoulder.
"Well, we're in the middle of our youth so some weird stuff like that can happen to us. Okay then, you guys come over to my place after school. Let's watch my secret collection together."
"That's an excellent idea Usui-kun, you should definitely invite Senji-kun as well."
"Of course I'm going to invite him Motohama-kun, we're high school boys who operate on sexual desires. If we don't do anything perverted, it'd be disrespectful to the parents who gave birth to us."
All three of them smile lewdly. Perverts. No matter how you look at them, they're just perverts. But strangely, that's not what bothers me the most.
(disrespect to the parents, huh...)
It doesn't matter. I think I really need to get my mind off of things.
"Okay. I'm willing to open myself up to your debauchery, but not for too long." I say because I can't be bothered to think.
"Oh yeah, that's it! You'll see, after this, you won't be able to live without it!"
"This is perfect! Guys, let's be perfect guides for Senji's first steps in our field!
"That's the spirit. We need to enjoy our youth even more." Matsuda, Usui and Motohama are starting to get excited
I'll put the Yuuma-chan incident aside. Looking for a fallen angel as powerful as she is is suicide. For today, I'll forget about it and go into that, like boys our age apparently do...
It happened after we made plans for the afternoon. There was a crimson colour that caught my attention, a brilliant crimson colour...
The schoolyard can be seen from the classroom window, and my eyes were glued towards a certain girl.
The girl with the crimson red hair. One of the idols of our school, whose beauty exceeds that of a normal human being. Her slender proportions have nothing to do with a Japanese girl. Of course, she is not Japanese after all. She is a devil from a noble family and attended a Japanese high school because of her father's work. Anyone would have their heart stolen by her after seeing her beauty.
Rias Gremory.
She's a third year student, so that makes her my senior.
When I realised it, everyone including me were staring at her as well, both boys and girls. Even Matsuda, Motohama and Usui were also staring at her. This happens every morning. Everyone looks at her when she walks past them. Some people stop walking, others stop talking, just about everyone turns around to gaze at her.
The wind gently blows her crimson hair as everyone watches her. Her long crimson hair which comes down to her hips makes her surroundings look like it's coloured in crimson when the wind blows it. Her beautiful skin, which is white as snow, is remarkable.
Beautiful. That's the only way to describe her in one word. In fact, its the only word you need to describe her.
I am also fascinated by her beauty and noble atmosphere. I'm so fascinated by her that I always stop what I'm doing every time I see her.
But, because of my encounter with her last night, the way I see her has changed. She is definitely beautiful, but she is a devil. I'm starting to feel a little scared of her beauty and fear her from the bottom of my heart. I don't know why I'm starting to feel this way, but it's been like this since she saved me from the fallen angel.
Then, her eyes move. Her clear blue eyes grasp hold of me. I feel as if my heart's being grabbed by her. What's this feeling? It's like that feeling you get when someone superior to you is standing in front of you.. She narrows her blue eyes, and it seems like she's smiling.
she's looking at me. Of course, after all, I remember our "discussion" perfectly. The way she looked at me, like a new toy. As I think back to last night, she's already out of my sight.
"I seriously wanna grope some tits!" Matsuda can't help but cry as we all watch the latest video from our porn DVD marathon.
After we left school, we started watching porn. They were all happy and excited at first, I came along, wanting to find out what other kids my age were doing and watching, but the more they watched, the more depressed they started to get, as the question "Why don't we have girlfriends?" came to mind and I became more and more embarrassed. Usui felt like crying after having a serious discussion about it. Matsuda hasn't stopped crying for three movies. Motohama tries to keep calm, but tears are flowing from his eyes behind his glasses. Half an hour ago, Motohama said in a calm voice, "...A girl asked me to meet her behind the gym...it was the first time I was assaulted by a girl...", so even I was shocked after hearing that.
"At least this girl didn't try to kill him the first time they met."
(It's really not the time Ddraig...)
I look at us and wonder what four boys look like who are all glum while watching porn?
(This is really pathetic...)
In any case, this little experiment led to nothing. Just like this date with the fallen angel. I can't relax and enjoy spare time. Well even more so now, because I regret having accompanied these 3 perverts. I just don't have the luxury to have fun and enjoy. Not after this...
As I was thinking about this, the last movie ended and it was already dark outside. When I look at my watch, it is already 10 o'clock. I already told the girls that I was at Usui's house, but they will worry if I stay here any longer.
"Anyway, I think we're going to go now." After Matsuda said that, all of us stood up and started packing up.
"See ya." After we split from Usui at the entrance, Motohama, Matsuda and I headed home.
"It's a beautiful night. On nights like these, it's normal to feel like watching porn." Motohama said some weird crap while he looked at the sky.
Matsuda lets out a big sigh. They look really down. Well by tomorrow they will all be back to their usual state.
"See ya tomorrow."
"Yeah, sweet dreams."
"Good night."
I split up with Motohama and Matsuda on my way home, but they don't look energetic when they wave at me.
A few minutes pass after I separate from both of them. I return home, but the energy flowing within me is down drastically. This is the result of my mishap last night. As I thought, it won't be fixed in just one day. I am so exhausted that I lean on a wall to catch my breath.
My eyes close by themselves, I see blurred and I can hardly hear anything. I have the impression that the blood that runs through my body has stopped, I have pins and needles absolutely everywhere.
Suddenly, I feel violent chills. From these chills, I can feel that someone's been watching me for a while now. I can feel a mysterious atmosphere ahead of me. I'm shaking so much, and it only gets worse.
It's a man wearing a suit, glaring at me with fierce eyes. It feels like I'll freeze up just by looking into his eyes. I can definitely feel hostility from him. No, this is something more dangerous, this is definitely bloodthrist! The man walks closer, silently. He's coming towards me! So he is after me!
"It's fallen angel, I guess he comes to finish the job. Get a grip Partner, you can't do anything in your condition so run!"
(This is bad! I still haven't stopped shaking! Why do I have to meet another one so soon!?)
"So it wasn't a joke when she reported to us that she failed to kill you." the fallen angel decides to speak.
Hearing him get closer, I take a deep breath and run as fast as I can, which is not very fast in my condition. I stagger and threaten to fall with each step and it becomes more and more painful, but I can't afford to slow down, I know he is behind me, flying.
"Trying to run away? Tell me, are you part of the Gremory clan? She must be someone who either has a very low rank or a weird hobby to choose this to pick this place as her territory. So, answer me!"
(Huh, since Rias Gremory saved me last night, the fallen angel must have thought I was part of her peerage and made her report based on that).
After a few minutes, I come into an open area. It's a park.
I stop running, and walk instead. I walk up to the water fountain while trying to catch my breath. I look around the park as I stand under the street lamp. Something feels mysterious about this place.
I know this place. I remember this park... This is the last place I visited on my date with Yuuma-chan.
(Man, what a coincidence, Did I come here unconsciously? That can't be...)
I feel chills all over my body. I feel that... someone is above me.
I raise my head slowly and a black feather falls in front of me.
"Did you think I'd let you escape? This is why lowly beings are a pain to handle." The fallen angel floats above me.
(This bastard, he came to finish the job?)
"I let you run to see what ploy you were going to pull on me, after all you managed to land quite a blow on my colleague. But it seems that this fight has left you in a sorry state... And then, looking at you, you don't seem to be a devil. So much the better, I would have no consequences to kill you then." The suspicious guy is mumbling to himself.
The situation is serious, they left me alone during all these years because I was under the protection of Kiritsugu and now these dirty cowards take turns to attack me?!
I have to run away, do something. I have to move! But I can't, my legs don't respond anymore. I manage to stay upright but that's all I can do.
"Hmph. According to my colleague, it was a devil that saved you. Yet I don't feel any presence, I don't see anyone hiding her presence. There is also no magic circle appearing. Well, it seems that she abandoned you, so no problem to finish the job."
He raises his hand in my direction and forms a spear of light. Then rushes towards me, aiming at my stomach.
In a final effort I grab the spear with both hands, preventing it from sticking me. But the spear is hot, so hot that I burn my hand and smoke comes out between the contact of my hands and the spear. But I resist, resist the pain of the burns and resist the scream my body is giving me.
"Hmmm, interesting, even in your condition you are able to resist? I must admit, for a mere human, you have quite a fighting spirit. But even if you're not a demon, this spear is still deadly to anyone who touches it. Anyway, you put up a good fight but now it's over." The fallen angel announces and pushes with more force.
I feel the tip of the spear pierce my skin, then my flesh, in excruciating pain. I feel that I am burning from the inside, it sinks more and more. My forces abandon me, I can only howl and cry.
Suddenly, the fallen angel retreats and flies away, narrowly avoiding a black and red magic attack. I look up at my assailant, his hand holding the spear has been hit, bleeding profusely.
"Don't you dare touch him." She passes in front of me.
Crimson hair. I can tell who it is, even just from her back.
"...Crimson hair... You must be a woman from the House of Gremory..." The man glares at the crimson-haired woman with eyes full of hatred.
"My name is Rias Gremory. How are you doing, Fallen Angel-san? If you are trying to hurt this boy, then I won't hold back."
Rias Gremory. Yes, she's the senior student at my school. The beauty with crimson hair.
"...Fufu. Well, well, it seems to me that this boy doesn't belong to you, so I can do what I want with him, right?"
"Indeed, but this young man interests me, for he is not as simple as you think, fallen angel." Rias answers him curtly.
"I see, and then this city must also be part of your territory. Well, I'll apologize for today, but I advise you not to let your prey roam free. People like me might kill him while walking around."
"Thanks for the advice. Since this town is under my surveillance, if you get in my way then I won't hold back."
"I'll say the same to you, heiress of the House of Gremory. My name is Dohnaseek. I hope we won't meet again."
The man spreads his black wings, and his body starts to float. He then flies up into the sky. He glares at Rias-senpai and me once more, then disappears into the sky.
I feel a bit relieved, but my vision's getting blurry, and it feels like I'm about to pass out.
"Ara, are you about to faint? You really seem to be at the end of your rope. There's nothing we can do about it. Hey, where is your house -"
Senpai speaks to me as I fall down, but I can't hear what she's saying.
Then, I blacked out.