"H-hey Hans, was that really Cale?"
A friend of Hans asked him, his voice quaked with fear and his body visibly trembling.
Hans was in turmoil, Cale had pushed him off the stairs, however he somehow had survived by grabbing onto the railing but what was most puzzling was undoubtedly Cale's sudden disappearance.
Cale had undoubtedly turned a corner and was then gone, almost as if he had never been there and they were hallucinating the entire thing.
"I don't know damn it..."
Hans started tapping on the floor, anxious about the unnatural disappearance of Cale.
Hans had told Bringam the Vice principal about what happened, but it ended too crudely.
This was because there was no visible injury on the supposed victim, making it seem like he was kicking up drama for no reason. Not only that, 'he had a rock solid alibi'
Bringam went to Catrina after recess began and asked her where Cale had been yesterday to really confirm his words.
Catrina had stayed silent, confused about the situation but then she quickly answered Bringam's question and said 'Cale was with me the moment the bell rang' with no hesitation in her voice.
Of course she could have just covered for her friend so they went and asked Cale's classmates and other students about his whereabouts.
All of them said they hadn't seen him and that he had been with Catrina or they hadn't seen him at all.
Hans along with his friend sitting beside a tree started wondering If what they saw was real and whether or not they were of sound mind.
"...?"
Hans caught the sight of someone leaving the basketball court, right now it was recess and Hans 'group' hadn't arrived yet which was why they were sitting at their usual meeting spot. No one usually went to their meeting spot as it was in a corner.
'Cale?'
Hans saw Cale walking towards them, but something was off about him
'Why is he coming here?'
step
"Ha.. Ha.."
Unknowingly. The closer Cale got, the more ragged his breathing became, his entire body felt heavier, his limps turned slightly numb.
Looking to his right, he saw his 'friend' not faring any better than him.
step
Soft steps started digging into their ears, hopping towards them
"Hm?"
Cale(?) looked at them and a soft smile appeared on his face.
"What's up with you two? You look as if I'm going to hit you~ just here to refill my bottle"
He waved the empty bottle in his hand.
Hans may have not felt it before, but now he felt it with certainty
'Something's seriously up with him...'
His face paled in contrast to the scorching sun hanging above him and casting a long shadow
Cale then looked at them, almost as if he wanted them to feel the difference from before and now.
Hans stared at Cale's eyes that resembled the abyss.
Something stirred and swirled. Something alive, yet dead was swirling In Cale's eyes.
Hans felt fear, he felt as if he garnered the attention of something he shouldn't have and that he was getting second checked to make sure he doesn't fall out of line.
He gulped down his saliva, all of sudden it got harder to breathe as Cale kept staring at him
The strange swirling in his eyes dissipated and returned to normal
"Hey~ you should relax~ Though I don't know what made you want to say something like that to the teacher, we're good right?"
Hans's body started to tense.
Cale eventually filled his bottle with water and started walking away as if he had done what he needed to do.
***
"..."
On the other hand, our Cale was deathly silent.
Carlos stood in front as he uttered a fourth rule which he didn't elaborate more on. Prompting Cale to try and think of a way to make him spill the beans in a smooth way but eventually gave up when he didn't answer no matter what
'Is the fourth rule targeting abilities that require to be activated manually?'
To be more precise, Cale meant abilities that required conscious effort in order to be activated. Unlike his ability which was passive by his standards and didn't actually affect anyone physically. For some reason he was very knowledgeable in this area
'I guess reading all of those action novels paid off?'
He insulted many action novels he read that made him want to tear his hair out, he liked mystery novels not action after all
[Well, that should answer all of your questions... also, you over there. When will you stop hiding? it's not manners to stalk someone you know?]
[!!!]
The being tailing was startled, finally he looked back and saw a Sludge.
'Ah... now that I think about it, I should've ran'
Cale finally then realized his mistake of stopping before when no teacher was around and how stupid it was, he could've easily died by this dumb reason, he knew how powerful and fast they were which was what made this more dumb
'I'm not learning much from my mistakes'
A palm raised to smack his face but another question rose
"..."
Eyes zoomed at the small details filling his vision
'Is that?'
A small mushroom protruded from its temple.
'They are all different'
Appearance wise, they were similar save for the humanoid monsters
But that was not the point of the observation, if they were all different
'Who said all of their superhuman strength and speed would be the same'
That armored creature Cale encountered could just be the only one actually that strong
'No, counting on that would really be dumb'
Cale appeared to struggle with making a good decision that successfully safeguarded his life
The sludge fidgeted quietly, unable to meet Cale's gaze, as if ashamed.
[Oh? someone gifted and cursed by nature I see? that is quite rare]
Carlos spoke surprised but did not look any longer at the sludge and returned the axis of his gaze to outside
[Being that timid, It's quite surprising that you didn't become an 'Echo']
Another unfamiliar term suddenly appeared.
'Echo? what's that supposed to mean?'
[So you are?]
[F-Fiend...]
'Fiend' said in a subdued voice.
He then started Inching closer to Cale?
'Is he that guy from yesterday?'
Cale felt somewhat relieved but also stayed vigilant, remembering anything could happen.
[Is he your friend, Cale?]
"..."
'Guess he did remember me'
Cale nodded. Feeling a certain creeping unease clasping onto him when claiming that he was in fact his friend.
'Well whatever let's not pay too much attention to it'
[Well, my job here is done. I'll see you both next time, Come to me if you need anything else]
Carlos turned around, he lingered his gaze outside for a few moments before walking and starting his patrol once again.
Looking back and seeing Fiend somewhat keeping his distance made the situation more awkward then Cale thought, he brought a finger to his forehead and pressed on it
'If I hit my head on a wall and reset it...Would it work?'
Quite frankly speaking, Cale had somehow achieved a medal for making the worst decisions when it came to protecting his life
'Well I can't do anything about it, I can only try to be better...even though I am not'
He sighed soft and quietly, but Fiend seemed to have noticed
[I-I only found and followed you this hour]
Fiend's voice stuttered to get the words out of his mouth, his legs trembled occasionally, only slightly though.
"..."
[Ah, yeah you can't talk]
A faint rustling was heard as Fiend started rummaging through his pockets
"..?"
'A pen? and a paper?'
Fiend held it out to anticipatingly waiting for Cale to take it.
'He's more thoughtful than I thought?'
Taking the pen and paper from his hands Cale begun to write while thinking miscellaneous thoughts....'Wait, was this why I never saw him again after yesterday?'
Cale stared at Fiend for a few moments.
Trrrr~
Trrrr~
a familiar bell rang out as Cale wrote
[It's already that time]
His lips lowered along with his head which drooped and sagged.
"..."
Cale walked to the wall opposite the window and started writing quickly on it before the gentle darkness started consuming his surroundings.
[What are you...?']
Cale ignored his question and just focused on writing on the paper, the skittering and screeching like drifting tires across the paper
'Done'
Completing what was written, he turned around and showed it like a kid showing his father the cute drawing he made only to see a monstrosity. The paper hit the gentle breeze as it snapped forcefully at Fiend, revealing the contents of what was written.
[Meet me again next time]
Fiend's eyes were filled with life and vigorously, he nodded his head.
Cale only then closed his eyes, waiting to come back. He didn't know why on earth a monster would be this timid and honestly, he didn't care as long as the creature before him didn't kill
His heavy laced eyelids opened to see the light again and see a familiar classroom, the middle far end was where Cale was sitting this time.
'I know what to do now'
In the end, for survival there was an obvious task that needed to be done
'I need practice, training and reflexes. There was clearly no way I could survive like this with my current physical abilities, even more so when I can't activate my abilities and can only use its passive ability of detecting danger'
Of course It didn't mean that he should get all buff thinking It would help greatly. It should be the opposite, fighting didn't mean you could survive
'I already experienced their damn strength and speed firsthand, I don't want to get toyed with again'
But running on the other hand?
'You won't lose something running away, you only gain and win'
Essentially a game of tag
Cale needed to learn techniques centered on running away. Agility and dexterity were going to be a core aspect for that.
'But the most important thing that I will have to focus on has to be...'
Flexibility. the ability to move your limbs freely and turn them into spring-like tools centered on escape, agility and dexterity were the prerequisites for learning this type of technique, without flexibility, escape becomes difficult when it is needed
Great reflexes would help with this, but there wasn't any good way to make them better aside from rhythm games. To Cale's knowledge anyway
'I'll just have to make do'
Flexibility however also had its cons. It took too much time to get any real results, there were only four months left till the first practical exam
"It should be fine If I do it every day..."
***
"..."
[...]
Both Cale and Fiend stared at each other as they sat next to each other on a wide bench In the Cafeteria.
Cale slightly kept his distance and observed Fiend who misunderstood it as taking personal space and making it known
'I'm not trusting him that easily'
Fiend might be his friend now but Cale feared that might not stay that way for a long time.
It was a reasonable fear, just meeting him was dangerous enough.
[So...why did you want to meet me?]
Slowly taking out the paper and pen he had given, Cale checked Into one of his pockets to see if the Dwon was still there.
'It's still here?'
Having changed clothes from yesterday he expected it to be gone but the Dwon was still there, albeit In a different pocket than before. Cale didn't dwell much on it and just thought it was a nice, surprising fact.
Bringing the paper to his thighs he started skittering with the pen while organizing the information he had confirmed from his slight dive into the internet after searching through his phone.
Before coming back to Gardenia, Cale had asked the physics teacher to go to the restroom, he had said it was okay and let Cale to do his business.
'But I didn't want to go to the restroom so I can do my business, I had done it so I can search the meaning of the unfamiliar terms Carlos had spouted'
[Echo]
Tapping on the screen multiple times a result soon surfaced
[-a repetition or imitation of sound-]
The rest of the paragraph didn't have anything important so it was skimmed through
He scrolled trying to see If he could find a different meaning, but nothing caught the eye as they were all the same.
'What could it possibly mean?'
Cale couldn't wrap his head around it no matter how hard he had tried to make sense of it.
'I should've just asked....'
Hesitation clouded him for no reason whatsoever, stupid was the word he kept hitting himself in the head before finally going onto the next unfamiliar term which was so generously Dumped on by Carlos
But the results had been devastatingly disappointing, Which weren't even worth mentioning.
[What did you write?]
Cale showed what was written on the paper, he stayed silent. Slowly, his eyes widened
[Y-You need my help?]
Fiend stared at Cale as If he had said a word he had never heard In his life coming from someone's voice