I Don't Want to Go to School
The building shook violently. The tremors traveling through the floor made Shine and me stumble. I stared blankly at the entrance, my mouth hanging open. The wall was torn and blown apart. A massive steel wall had been ripped wide open. Within the hazy, rising smoke, something began to flash.
Amy, Victor, and Rain, seemingly accustomed to such situations, sprang into action immediately. Victor kicked off the ground and sprinted forward, flicking both hands. Metal rods released from his grip, glowing brightly as they flew and embedded themselves around the shattered entrance.
Clang-clang-clang! A brilliant blue light erupted alongside the harsh metallic screech. A split second later, the roar of thunder shook the entire space. Rumble! It was a manipulation of power similar to mine, yet far more delicate. The blue lightning discharging from his hands blanketed the entire entrance, blockading any further intrusion.
"Rain. Begin." Amy's voice was low. Her focus was entirely locked onto the entrance. As she gathered her momentum to prepare for the next wave of enemies, a white aura unfurled behind her back like wings.
The moment Amy finished speaking, Rain activated her ability and began generating droplets of water. The droplets gathered around her, coalescing into a massive sphere of water that began to spin rapidly. A cold, harsh wind started to whip through the air.
"Where? Where should I aim?"
"Right above us. The space directly above this spot is empty."
"Got it!" Answering Amy with an energetic shout, Rain raised her hands toward the ceiling. The spinning sphere of water in front of her began to rise, following her gesture.
Although the enemies kept trying to breach the blocked entrance, the electrical discharges Victor unleashed kept them at bay. The enemies seemed to hesitate for a moment, then pulled the pins of elongated objects at their waists and hurled them inside. Seeing how they remained unaffected by the intense electricity, they seemed to be specially insulated devices.
Amy reacted to the objects flying slowly toward them. With just a single step forward, a massive shockwave erupted, shaking the very earth. Boom! A display of pure physical force. The shockwave initiated by Amy completely upended the ground in front of her. The marble floor shattered, and steel rebars thrust upward from beneath. With that single move, she blocked every single one of the unidentified flying objects.
Screams and shouts from the enemies echoed at the entrance. Immediately after, a red flash of light shot through the lightning-covered doorway. Flying soundlessly, it pierced straight through the upended floor Amy had created and vanished.
"I'm ready!" At Rain's shout, Amy spread her hands. The white aura erupting from behind her back surged forward like a colossal beast. A faint silhouette flickered over Amy's body before vanishing. The white energy expanded its massive form, swallowing the incoming red flashes whole.
"Jeff! Shine!" Victor barked at me as I stood frozen. Startled by his voice, I grabbed Shine's hand and ran forward. Thanks to our long hours of training, I could vaguely grasp the intent behind Victor's tone, knowing he was calling us to move.
I kept my eyes forward as we ran. The white aura unleashed by Amy neutralized all supernatural abilities. The arrogant White King. The white beast looked down on everything flying toward it with utter disdain.
The moment Shine and I arrived, Rain's eyes gleamed as she launched the water sphere. The sphere began to stretch out, growing thinner and thinner until it became so fine it was practically invisible to the naked eye. For a second, I wondered if she had failed to control her ability, but Rain's expression was more serious than ever.
I looked up toward where the water sphere had been launched. Though the massive sphere was nowhere to be seen, something was glinting in midair.
"That's..." The moment I muttered blankly, cracks began to spiderweb across the high ceiling of the building. A slow, shifting misalignment began to spread. Debris from the building started to slide down smoothly.
"It's coming down!" The moment Rain shouted, a massive tremor struck. The building was collapsing. The debris falling from above gleamed with edges so sharp they looked as if they had been sliced by a razor-sharp blade.
The sky was laid bare. As bright sunlight began to pour through the gaps of the collapsing building, the cleanly sliced debris scattered beautiful reflections in every direction. The surroundings were instantly bathed in a brilliant light.
The sight was so beautiful that I stood there with my mouth agape until someone scooped me up. A familiar sensation, a familiar scent. It was Amy. I looked up to read her expression. She was holding Shine and me in her arms with a serene smile.
"Have you thought of what you want to eat?" Along with her question, a massive sphere of water formed around us. Enclosed in a round bubble of water like a hamster ball, we soared toward the sky, riding a stream of water summoned by Rain.
"W-Wait. What about Victor?!" Noticing someone was missing as I looked around, I practically shrieked the question at Amy. But she replied with an unbothered face.
"Victor will be fine."
What did she mean, "fine"? I squirmed and poked my head out to look down. The hamster ball kept rising higher and higher. The cityscape viewed from inside kept shifting. A massive hole had been gouged out where the museum once stood, and the surrounding buildings grew smaller and smaller.
Boom! A harsh crack of thunder echoed. The ear-splitting shockwave drew my gaze back down. From deep inside the gaping hole, blue lightning surged toward the sky. Crash! Crash! Crash! The lightning was relentless. It was a familiar flow—Victor's ability. He was still fighting down below.
"Rain, I think you need to help him out a bit."
"I know, you don't have to tell me." Water cascaded around the hamster ball enclosing us, and a wave writhing like a dragon lowered us safely to the ground.
The moment we touched down on the rooftop of an unnamed building, the water surrounding us vanished instantly. Stepping onto the roof, Rain ran forward and raised her hands toward the sky. Just like she had when I asked her back at Grandfather Pehrman's castle, she was gathering dark storm clouds.
My own power seemed to react to the storm clouds gathering in an instant. My hair stood on end as if charged with static electricity. Crash! The dark clouds began to react to the lightning Victor shot upward. Boom! Hidden within the storm clouds, a creature wrapped in blue light—a lightning dragon—revealed its head, answering Victor's call.
Lightning struck from the heavens. All sound vanished. A world bleached completely white unfolded before my eyes. Stripping away both sound and color, the colossal lightning dragon writhed as it began its descent to the earth. I stared wide-eyed, taking in every detail of the spectacle. Every movement of the massive lightning dragon made my heart pound, as if the power sleeping inside my own body was resonating with it.
As its massive head crashed into the ground, its long body followed, its wild tail thrashing and fading away. Immediately after, a colossal explosion shook my entire body. The world bleached in white returned to its original colors. I collapsed to the ground from the sheer shockwave.
Standing beside me, Shine held her ground, her face pale. She refused to fall. Biting her lip hard, she met my eyes, smiled softly, and pulled me into a tight embrace.
"It's okay." Why did those simple words bring me such immense relief? The trembling in my hands, which I hadn't even realized had started, quietly subsided.
"We should contact Jin." When had he even gotten here? Victor's voice, which should have been coming from deep inside that hole, sounded right beside us. Startled, I turned my head to find Victor sitting there in tattered clothes, looking thoroughly exhausted.
He wiped away the blood trickling down his forehead and let out a fierce grin. His slightly bared canine teeth gleamed sharply. The sparks of electricity crackling around his body made it difficult for anyone to easily approach him.
"I already did," Amy said without even looking at him. Victor nodded at her words, waved at Shine and me, and pushed himself up. Dragging his exhausted body, he moved as if he had one final task to complete.
"Now... shall we wrap things up like we always do?" With tired eyes, Victor cast his gaze into the distance. I followed his line of sight and looked around. Helicopters and cars were swarming from all directions. They looked like news crews capturing the scene, with dozens of camera lenses glinting in the light.
Victor raised his hand as he watched them. "And... cut." Snap! Victor lightly snapped his fingers, sending out a small ripple that expanded outward. The city lights began to die. Cars that had been speeding forward lost control, veering wildly and crashing into buildings. The helicopters hovering in the sky lost power and plunged downward.
With that, Victor slumped back down onto the ground. Looking thoroughly drained, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, placed it between his lips, and sparked a tiny flame to light it. White smoke drifted lazily into the air.
A moment later, space tore open, and Jin stepped through the rift. He silently surveyed the surroundings, nodded, and spoke to us. "Good work, everyone."
"We'll talk when we get back," Amy said.
"Alright." Hearing Jin's reply, Amy nodded, grabbed Shine and me by our hands, and led us through the rift Jin had emerged from. Before being pulled through, I glanced back at Jin. He was holding a small gem in his hand, his eyes gleaming.
The moment we returned to headquarters, we were ushered straight into the bath. Our soles were pitch-black from running around barefoot, and our clothes were a complete mess. Amy soaked us in warm water until we were thoroughly relaxed, then scrubbed us clean from head to toe. After being fussed over and dried off, we were dressed in fluffy dinosaur pajamas and collapsed onto the bed. I didn't have an ounce of strength left in my body. Shine seemed to be in the same state, lying limp with her eyes closed.
Rain, on the other hand, looked relatively fine. Having already dried her hair, she was wearing her pajamas and chugging a glass of cold milk. As I stared blankly at her, she offered the milk to me. "Want some?"
"No..." I didn't have much of an appetite. When I shook my head in refusal, Rain gave a disappointed smile. Amy, who was the last to leave the bathroom, sat down at the living room table and stared at us in silence. She didn't look angry; it was just her usual expression, but why did it feel so terrifying? I slowly wriggled away and pulled the blanket over my head. The blanket, wrapped around me for the first time in a while, smelled cozy, like warm sunshine.
"Jeff. Shine. Do you have anything to say?"
I stared blankly at Amy's question, my mouth hanging open. For a long time—long enough that a bit of drool almost escaped my lips—neither Shine nor I could utter a single word. What was I even supposed to say? They say sometimes you can be so sorry that you're rendered speechless, and that was exactly my situation right now.
"I'm sorry..." In the end, that was the only word I could manage. After whispering my apology, I cautiously peeked at Amy, only to see her gaze shift to Shine. Shine was keeping her mouth shut, her eyes wide. Seeing her look as if she had no intention of apologizing to the very end, I reached out and gave her side a gentle poke. Shine flinched. Turning her head slightly to look at me, her eyes flickered before she finally opened her mouth to apologize to Amy, just as I had.
"I'm sorry..." At Shine's quiet mumble, Amy gave a slow nod.
"Do you truly feel sorry?"
"Yes." I nodded and sat up. The blanket wrapped snugly around me provided a soft cushion. "But... we only did it because we were worried." As I mumbled softly, Amy's gaze locked onto me. The deep affection swirling in her eyes made me feel a bit embarrassed, so I squirmed and buried my face back into the blanket. My cheeks felt a little warm. I wiggled under the covers, trying to gauge her reaction.
After staring at me in silence for a long moment, Amy turned her gaze to Shine. Sitting there blankly, Shine hugged the tail of her pajamas to her chest and answered, "I was worried too."
In the end, Amy let out a soft sigh without saying anything further. Even so, a faint smile played on her lips, though it vanished in the blink of an eye when I blinked.
"Now... your turn, Rain."
"Wh-Who, me?" Chugging her milk, Rain squeaked in surprise at Amy's call. The hand holding her glass slowly drifted up toward her head. She was trembling, clearly bracing herself for the inevitable noogie.
"Why didn't you do more to stop the kids?"
"Well, that's..."
"Yes. Go on."
"I wanted to give them some real combat experience, and I didn't think it would be that dangerous... But at the very end, I couldn't catch Jeff. She was just too fast..."
She was right. Back then, I had suddenly bolted at a speed Rain couldn't possibly react to. Unless she had been actively bracing for it, there was nothing she could have done. After giving her answer, Rain squeezed her eyes shut. Her tiny frame trembled violently as she braced herself for the impending pain.
But Amy merely let out a soft chuckle as she looked at Rain, then reached out and pulled her into a warm embrace. Thanks to her tiny stature, Rain fit perfectly on Amy's lap. She blinked in confusion and looked up.
"Good job, Rain." Amy gently stroked the head of the girl in her lap. Startled by Amy's unexpected reaction, Rain blinked a few times before letting out a blissful smile. The slight flush on her cheeks was definitely not just from the hot shower.