Chapter 2: Next Up
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zaraluxe24: I've read several of your stories, and I'm really impressed! Your writing, characters, and storytelling are amazing. Every scene feels so real, and you build tension and emotion really well. Your work stands out, and I'm excited to read more. I believe your stories would translate beautifully into a comic format. There's so much visual potential in your scenes and character dynamics! If you're interested in exploring this idea, feel free to reach out on my Discord: lunamax33. thank you.4
Dragon Emperor0: Dude. Shut. The fuck. Up. All of you wannabe art commissioners leave us alone. We're sick and tired of this. Seriously, this is getting to be fucking harassment. Leave us be—and for the love of god and your own body—cut it out.
ThermalsniperN7: I'm just gonna be plain about my stance on this. It was nice to be acknowledged at first, but at this point, it's gotten stale. I have no interest in turning my stories into comics. I am perfectly fine with what I have now, so stop.
-Koryou Academy, Monday-
Four days later, Joshua let out a groan as he woke up, stretching his arms as he took off his sleep mask. He took a few moments to let his eyes adjust to the light, rubbing the crust out of his eyes as he did.
It was then he noticed something inconvenient: He could only hear fully with his left ear.
"Oh great… I have earwax buildup…" He groaned at the bane of his ears. He couldn't feel any pain in his right ear, so no infection was present.
"Is everything okay, Josh?" Miyabi questioned, looking down at him from her bunk while she read something.
"My right ear has some earwax buildup blocking it." The boy replied with another groan.
"Oh no…" The brown haired girl groaned, already knowing that was gonna be an issue. "Do you have anything to clean it out with?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'll get 'em." The one armed boy replied as he got an ear camera, a rubber drill kit and an earwax removal kit out from his suitcase. When he plugged the ear camera to its charger to see how much power it had, the light was red. "Crap… Gonna have to wait until this is charged to see how bad it is." He sighed.
"… Well, I'm used to cleaning out my little sister's ears when she has a build up. Maybe I can do the same for you?" The girl suggested.
"That would be very appreciated, thank you." The boy nodded in reply as he laid down, allowing Miyabi to take a seat next to his bed.
"Okay, just stay still." The girl told him as she started working.
"Trust me, I know the routine." Joshua acknowledged.
(Later)
After that, a very appreciative Joshua's right ear was clear again. Miyabi was blushing profusely since the boy had given her a hug when she finished, but she still felt nice about his appreciation all the same.
"Thanks, Miyabi. I really appreciate it." The boy told her.
"Y-you're welcome." Miyabi stuttered before looking at the clock. "Guess we should probably get headed to class, huh?" She noted.
"Yeah we should." Joshua nodded, glancing at the clock and seeing that they still had a decent forty-five minutes before class.
Plenty of time to make sure they were ready.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile in the dorm room of Lilith and Calvin, the two had also woken up a bit earlier than when class would be starting.
But rather than one cleaning the other's ears, they were having either a morning coffee or morning tea to get the day started until breakfast time, the latter of which was brewed Sarah while Calvin brewed his own coffee.
"Well, let's hope nothing surprises us in a bad way." Calvin hummed as he brewed his coffee.
"I certainly don't disagree with that sentiment…" Lilith nodded as she sipped the tea that was brewed for her.
As she did so though, her gaze slowly started to shift to different things of focus. The room, the bunks, the balcony outside, right until her gaze settled on Calvin as he poured himself a mug of coffee.
The boy had his uniform, necklace, ring, boots and hat on, but for some reason that Lilith couldn't rightly figure out in the current moment, she found herself staring at him longer than she originally intended to, almost as if her brain were trying to strip him down mentally.
Shaking her head, she refocused her mind on her tea before it could get cold.
(Later)
An hour later in class, Joshua and Miyabi were in class, where they got a surprise that blindsided them.
"Everyone, you better train hard because this year's first Novgladius is just around the corner!" The eccentric bunny woman exclaimed.
"What the–?! Is that supposed to happen this soon?!" The tall boy uttered, looking at his equally surprised partner.
"I don't know! The year just barely started!" Miyabi responded.
"Great… We definitely have our hands full with this one." The tall boy sighed.
Meanwhile, Lilith and Calvin exchanged glances when this information came to light.
"Something tells me that this has the word 'rat' written all over it." Lilith stated.
"Shit, I was gonna say it smelled like a cow pasture after the first grass of spring, but you pretty much summed that up." The gunslinger nodded.
"Looks like we have a fair bit of target practice to do, don't we?" The English girl hummed.
"Ain't that the truth." Calvin agreed.
"So what exactly is going to be happening during the Novgladius?" Tomoe questioned.
"Is it similar to the proving rite?" Imari asked.
"If it is, then I wouldn't be surprised." Tora muttered to Tor, who rolled his eyes.
"Ever the cynic, I see." Joshua noted.
"The Novgladius is going to pit every duo on campus against each other! Outside of that, it's a fierce free-for-all!" Tsukimi explained enthusiastically.
'Is it my birthday?' Calvin thought with a grin. So many targets for him to shoot…
"Well, seems we have a rather 'target rich environment' as you Americans would say." Lilith noted, causing the boy to whip his head to look at her.
"Where have you been all my life?" The cowboy questioned, causing the blonde to try and hold back a laugh.
Joshua, who just barely heard what Lilith said, snickered.
'Target rich indeed…' He mentally agreed.
(Timeskip)
On Wednesday, Joshua and Miyabi were in a sparring room practicing their attacks for the Novgladius. There was one small problem: The girl could barely hold her Blaze without being worn down.
"Okay, stop." The boy sighed. "Miyabi, I truly don't mean to sound rude, but have you always had trouble like this? Most people can handle their Blazes easily, so I'm confused." He questioned, trying to make sense of things.
"I've… Oof!" The girl said before she fell down on her plump ass in exhaustion as her Blaze disappeared. "I've never been very good at physical activity." She panted, her chest jiggling with every breath.
'Somehow I can't say I'm surprised…' The boy thought to himself. "I suppose that makes sense." He said as he sat down. "Have you ever thought about why?" He asked.
"A lot of the girls at my old school said it was probably because I'm so…" She said before blushing as she hugged her legs into herself. "Too heavy…" She muttered.
"Oh great… A case of gossip and self-depreciation mixed with physical problems." The boy deduced. "Have you never tried to find a way to turn it around?" He asked.
"I have, but no luck." The brunette replied with a sigh.
"Well, one thing that would definitely help is some encouragement." Joshua mused as he repositioned himself to sit next to her. "I can tell you definitely need it." He added.
"... Thanks." She uttered with a small smile, leaning on him a little.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile…
The sounds of gunfire could be heard as Calvin both dodged and weaved through Lilith's shots at him from a tree while also firing rapid hip shots to try and get her to move—but so far that tactic was proving fruitless—pun intended.
"You have to do more than hipshots if you want to make me move, Calvin!" The girl called with a laugh.
"You're asking for it!" The gunslinger barked before he raised his hand cannon into the air and caused it to go into its Golden Gun state, before he started blasting—causing the tree to be set ablaze.
"Oh dear!" Lilith gasped before leaping from the branch and onto the ground.
"Gotcha!" Calvin cackled as he hip-fired three shots at his duo partner.
"Show off!" Lilith called back with a giggle as she rolled out of the way of the shots, before she leapt at him and tackled him to the ground, causing them to tumble in the grass before landing on top of each other.
Groaning, Calvin blinked his eyes open… And found himself staring into Lilith's. The girl herself froze when she realized just what position she was in with her partner.
"Oh!" The two gasped as they both shot up and backed away. "Sorry." They said in unison.
"No, I should be the one apologizin', I should been more careful." The gunslinger told his partner.
"The same could be said about me, you know." Lilith pointed out. "But no matter, I suppose. It wasn't that bad anyway." She admitted. "That said, shall we end things here for today?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'd say we're more or less good for today." Calvin nodded in reply. "Wanna just sit here for a while? This is some good scenery." He offered.
"You know what? Burnt tree withstanding, this is a good spot to relax." Lilith smiled as she sat next to her partner.
(Timeskip)
Fast forward to Friday and it was now finally time for the Novgladius. Now everyone was gathering all around the school for the event to begin, and they were all ready to quite literally—as Lilith put it—tear into one another.
Joshua and Miyabi in particular were in a classroom waiting for the signal to begin the fighting.
"Ready?" He asked, glancing at Miyabi as he readied his gun-scythe.
"R-Ready." The girl nodded, struggling slightly with her giant lance.
"Let's go." The boy nodded as they headed out.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile with Calvin and Lilith, the two gun blaze users were absolutely wrecking shop on their way through the main courtyard to the school house, dropping bodies on top of bodies as they bush whacked everyone who stepped to them.
For example, as they reached the school building, Calvin performed a six shot hip fire at two guys while Lilith sniped two dudes who tried to sneak him from behind from over the cowboy's shoulder.
"Much obliged, ma'am, appreciate the assist." The boy told her, tipping his hat to her.
"Well what're partners for?" The blonde smiled as they approached the door.
"Ladies first." He smiled.
"Oh, you don't have to be so polite with me—though I do appreciate the sentiment—after all, We're both partners here." Lilith told him.
"On the contrary, Lilith. As a cowboy from the states, I very much do have to, as it's a key part of the Code of the West to be polite to ladies, especially partners." The gunslinger told her.
"Well, I won't deny you following that code, then." Lilith acquiesced as she went inside the main building.
Upon heading inside, they soon came upon a battle that was already going down between the duos of Tomoe and Imari and Tor and Julie.
"Which duo should we take out of the equation, I wonder?" Lilith hummed as she took aim.
"Personally I vote for leaving those four be to duke it out themselves and deal with the winnin' pair when they're tuckered out. No sense in workin' hard when workin' smart'll do just as good." The cowboy told her.
"Hm, fair enough. Let's keep out of sight." The rifle user nodded with a hum as the two stayed out in cover and waited the brawl out.
(Elsewhere)
At a different part of the main building, Joshua grunted as he blasted a girl that tried to seduce him into a wall. He was pretty peeved about that. Meanwhile, Miyabi let out a grunt of effort as she managed to swing her lance at another girl that had tried the same with her partner, sending her target flying; for some reason, that girl's actions left her feeling a sense of agitation and possessiveness.
She had no clue what that was about.
"Okay, that's two stooges dealt with." The boy sighed as he twirled his heavy scythe. "How are you doing, Miyabi?" He asked as they walked.
"I'm… Urgh! Getting there." The girl grunted as she hefted her Lance onto her shoulder. "We should probably keep moving, before more people show up." She stated.
"Agreed. Last thing we need is getting caught off guard." Joshua nodded as the two started walking. "Is holding your lance just a tad easier now?" He questioned.
"A little." The girl admitted. "It's still hard to attack with, though." She added.
"That's to be expected, I suppose. It is rather big." The boy noted as they kept moving.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back with Calvin and Lilith, the two managed to reach the near end point of the school, when they came upon Tora and Tatsu, who were on the ground and looked like they'd just been molliwopped.
"What the hell?! What in tarnation happened here?!" Calvin gasped as he and Lilith rushed to check on them.
"Oh dear!" A voice said, causing them to turn and see Tsukimi walking up to them. "Mr. Morgan, Miss Bristol, what happened here?" She asked.
"We don't know! We found them this way!" The English transfer girl replied worriedly.
"It… was… her…" Tora groaned, weakly pointing at Tsukimi.
"Calvin, jump!" Lilith exclaimed as both of them jumped in opposite directions, avoiding the serrated sword that was poised to cleave them directly in half, revealing that Tora was not mistaken. "That's a rather cheap trick, professor." She hissed, though her voice seemed to say 'Professor' with anything but respect.
"Ask me when I care!" Tsukimi chuckled, now sounding like a literal madwoman, "I have a job to weed out weaklings here, and I intend to do it!" She cackled.
"You…" Calvin snarled as he got back up, wincing as he noticed that he had a knick on his brow. "… Well I'll be a monkey's uncle." He uttered in surprise as he realized he'd been hurt by a Blaze.
"Surprised?" The madwoman chuckled. "While it's true Blazes don't normally hurt people, they can do so if the intent to harm is present." She explained.
"... You do realize that you just put a bullseye on every vital part of your body with that, don't you?" Lilith smirked as she readied her rifle, Calvin doing the same with his hand cannon.
But as the latter did so, his eyes suddenly started to glow green as his Blaze started changing shape, its black and gold slowly becoming black and almost hellish green instead, and the blaze itself became sharp and jagged, almost like… Thorns.
"Uh oh…" Tsukimi gulped, seeing her blunder and Calvin's new gun.
"… I'm hungry." The boy muttered as his blaze's aura seemed to creep up his arm and visibly eat at his body. "It's hungry." He snarled as he pulled the trigger, causing the gun to fire in a flash of green.
A bullet whizzed by Tsukimi, grazing her cheek and causing it to bleed… As well as cause her to suddenly feel slightly sick.
"Wh-What's…?" She groaned as she looked at where the shot landed, her eyes widening when she saw not a bullet, but a fucking four edged kuni. "Oh shit!" She gasped before quickly taking cover as the boy started shooting at her again, Lilith joining in.
"Calvin, love, are you alright?" She questioned, looking over at her duo partner, whose face was just contorted in anger as he just kept shooting.
"Need… to… eat…!" He growled as he started walking forward, not letting up on the gunfire.
Behind Lilith, Joshua and Miyabi arrived and saw what was unfolding.
"What's going on here?" Joshua questioned, getting Lilith's attention.
"Joshua, you've known Calvin longer than me. You wouldn't happen to know why his Blaze looks like it's eating him, would you?" She questioned, causing the boy's eyes to widen in alarm.
"Oh no…" Joshua groaned. "That typically happens when he's overcome with feelings of anger, hatred, and malice." He explained. "That's his Blaze's Thorn form." He added.
"It looks scary…" Miyabi gulped, looking at the effect it was having on Calvin.
"Lukifer… Consume… All… LUKIFERS!" The cowboy roared as he kept shooting, the jagged bullets tearing through the cover Tsukimi was behind and actually pierced her in the stomach with one of them while she deflected the others with her blaze.
However, despite this, as soon as she removed it, she started bleeding really badly, and a sickly green started to creep up her body in veins, as if something was eating her Lukifer from the inside out and poisoning her at the same time.
"W-What's… happening…?" She groaned, struggling to stay on her feet. "You… You irregular freak! I'll kill you!" She roared as she rushed at him with as much speed as she could muster.
"Die!" Calvin snarled, shooting at her legs to try and trip her up.
However, she managed to sidestep them, but this did little good as while Calvin tried to line up another shot, her focus on him left her wide open for another attack.
"Coming through!" Miyabi called as she ran towards them and drove her lance into Tsukimi and sent her crashing through several walls, with the impact causing her to cough up blood.
"Fuck… That hurt!" She cursed, coughing up a few globs of blood onto the ground.
"Nice one!" Joshua nodded, patting his partner's shoulder.
"I think it's about time for you to say good night." Lilith said as she lined up her shot.
BANG!
And a single shot to the head caused the woman to collapse to the ground.
However… That didn't mean it was over—as Calvin just turned his attention to them and started shooting them instead—right as Tor and Julie arrived.
"What's happening?!" Tor questioned as he took cover next to Joshua.
"Calvin's consumed by the power of his own Blaze! He sees everyone as an enemy; we need to knock him out!" Joshua explained in reply.
"Hunger." The boy snarled as he fired another shot, this time managing to nail Miyabi.
"AAAHHHHHHH!" The girl screamed as she grabbed her now bleeding shoulder as the poison started affecting her.
"Miyabi!" Joshua exclaimed in alarm before he scowled. "That's it! Tor and Julie, you two get in close! Lilith, you and I will give them cover fire!" He barked.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I see." The blonde noted, shouldering her rifle. "Apologies Calvin, darling, but this is for your own good." She said before she shot at the boy, nailing him in the shoulder and staggering him while also getting his attention.
"This stings." Joshua nodded with a sigh as he fired his scythe's blunderbuss, forcing Calvin to stagger while Tor and Julie ran at him. "Sorry man!" He called as he shot his friend in the head.
"Julie! Ei, Two!" The shield user called to his duo partner.
"Right!" The Norwegian girl nodded as she sprang forward to attack.
This caused Calvin to whip and fire at her, only for her to deflect the bullet, twirl and dodge the second shot, and then catch his revolver blaze in the cross of her two swords.
"Now, Tor!" She called.
"Right! MJOLNIR!" The shield using teen nodded as he threw a power boosted punch at Calvin's face, his face to almost indent and elicit a scream of pain from him before he was sent flying and crashing to the ground, out cold. "He's out cold!" He called to Joshua and Lilith.
"Good work, you two!" The tall American nodded as he let Miyabi drape an arm on his shoulders, the girl having torn the large projectile out of her shoulder.
"Can we go to the clinic now?" She asked, leaning on her partner for support.
"Best we do, we're all pretty damaged." The taller teen nodded.
(Timeskip)
The following day was a weekend that everyone welcomed, since it meant a break from what had happened on Friday. In their dorm, Miyabi decided to ask some questions about both her partner and Calvin, the latter being something that was bugging her since it was fresh in her mind.
"Joshua, how exactly did Calvin discover that his Blaze can do what it did?" She inquired.
"Sorry, Miyabi, but that isn't my story to tell." Joshua responded with a shake of his head. "Calvin's the only one who can say anything about that." He added. "All I can say is that this is why you don't want to see him angry." He told her.
"Oh." The girl uttered. "... Can I ask about what happened to your arm, then?" She asked after a beat passed, looking at her partner's prosthetic.
"... That is quite the story. Good thing we have all day." The boy mused. "A couple of years ago, I was visiting a farm since I was invited to handpick some strawberries with the owners." He began. "Some criminals decided to try and raid the place, so I grabbed a scythe and started swinging. I took a few of 'em out of the fight when one of them pinned me to the ground and cut my arm off, saying that "it'll teach me to stay down," but all that did was piss me off." He growled, clenching his right fist while Miyabi looked shocked. "So I kicked him between the legs, grabbed his pistol from its holster and shot him in his legs and his arms to make sure he was the one that stayed down. The local cops arrived by that point and I passed out from blood loss." He sighed, looking at his prosthetic. "I woke up in the hospital the next day with this attached, and the rest is history." He concluded.
"That's horrible…." Miyabi muttered, looking a little shaken. "But at least you're alive." She nodded.
"Yeah… At least." The boy sighed. "Recovery was a real pain in the ass, though." He added, recalling just how much trouble he had to go through to get used to his new arm.
"Somehow, that's easy to believe." Miyabi giggled. "…" Blushing she patted her hand on her lap, and Joshua, recognizing the subtle cue, laid his head in her lap as she stroked his hair, resting after a pretty long day.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, in the dorm of Calvin and Lilith, the British Blonde was currently holding an ice pack to the boy's head while he was seated on his bunk, Sarah being in the process of making them tea and tea sandwiches.
"Ugh… Tor coulda at least held back enough to avoid givin' me brain damage…" The cowboy groaned, his head throbbing.
"Now don't you go blaming Tor, you're the one who went off the rails, love. Not him." Lilith told him in a light scolding tone.
"I know…" Calvin sighed, looking at the floor. "I can't believe it happened again…" He murmured.
"Again? You mean that's happened before?" The girl questioned.
"A few times." The boy nodded. "It started out as an accidental discovery, one I made when I had strong feelings of negativity with my Blaze active." He began. "When that happened, I got consumed by the power it gave me, and when the one that instigated my negative feelings was down, I'd start shooting anyone and anything else close by. I nearly killed people because my own Lukifer was poisoned by my malice and yearning for the power of other Lukifers." He continued, his voice shaking. "I was lucky that I was stopped before there was a fatality." The cowboy uttered, his hands shaking.
Lilith looked like she was about to say something to that, but decided not to after a moment and instead took the brunette's head into her hands, and held him to her chest.
"I'm so sorry you have to carry this awful curse…" She sighed, caressing his head and running her hands through his hair.
Calvin didn't say anything in response to that, as he just let his head rest in her chest and relaxed.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, in Tor and Julie's dorm—surprisingly—these two were actually in the midst of having their own relationship development, only unlike their peers, theirs was a bit more noticeably romantic.
Specifically, they were cuddling in bed and just relaxing after what had happened—though notably—Julie's 'pajamas' had slid off her back, revealing a scar on it, which Tor couldn't help but trail kisses along as he held her close.
Julie just hummed and relaxed as Tor did what he was doing, not even uttering a word.
As the boy pulled back, the two looked each other in the eyes as they became half lidded.
"Julie…" Tor whispered, slightly breathless.
"Tor…" The girl replied before they slowly started to move towards each other—and then their lips met.
It was probably the most tender moment they'd had since they started attending the academy.
ThermalsniperN7: I can already hear the keyboard warriors gearing up for a rant. "You can't make ships happen this early in a story!" Uh, yeah, we can if the chapters cover what amounts to multiple episodes. So screw that. Allow me to reiterate that we ain't doing that 'will they, won't they' bullshit.
Dragon Emperor0: Plus the only ship that's 'confirmed' per say is Julie and Tor which we all know would have happened sooner if the manga didn't make Tor such a dumbass when it comes to women. So, this is basically that kind of situation. The other two couples are still in the development phase. I'd say give it about another chapter and then we should be good.
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, that sounds about accurate. Also, a little letter to Destiny fans has come in the form of Calvin's Blaze turning into Thorn. The origins of which are more tuned to suit this story and hopefully be coherent… Or whatever.
Dragon Emperor0: Eh, who cares? We're trying our best here. Anyway, see you guys next time.