Internet-Degenerate

Fact: Exams suck.

"Don't turn around, Seraph," Sapphire warned me with an unusual sense of peril in her voice, her big blue eyes opened wide in shock.

"...Why?" I hesitantly ask, afraid of the answer. 

Seeing that I was about to soil my pants, Sapphire loosened up and giggled. "You don't feel that heat at your back?" she playfully asked me. I didn't feel any heat... though I did sense an incredibly intimidating presence behind me. I thought it was just my paranoia as per usual, but it seems that my needless anxiety has some basis to it now. 

"That's an interesting outfit, Matilda," Tabby says, trying not to laugh. Chloe is looking confused. Great. Now I want to turn around, but Sapphire just told me not to.

"What an emotional meeting," Sapphire says. She had a really mischievous streak. "Well, then, Seraph. You may turn."

I slowly turn my head around to face my dance partner, and whatever nerves I had instantly vaporized. There stood Matilda looking up at me, grimacing. Her fists tightly clenched and raised in front of her chest. As Tabby had already said, her outfit was really interesting. She wore a navy blue hakama with a white obi and keikogi. In simpler terms, she wore her naginata uniform. This little chihuahua was ready to throw hands. I barely managed to contain the giddiness I felt when I looked at her.

"Hm..." I murmur with a voice crack leaking out and I place a hand over my mouth, trying to hold back my laughter. This seemed to have agitated her for some reason.

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded to know. "Is that the attitude you take to a duel?"

…A duel? Did I hear that right? I take a deep breath in through my nose and try to adapt to the absurdity of this situation. "Why are you dressed like that?" I ask, dumfounded.

"This is my naginata uniform!" She boldly proclaimed. 

"I can see that-"

"I deemed it necessary in order to combat your sorcery!"

"What are you talking about?"

She ignored my question and continued yapping, undaunted. "Wearing a uniform unifies the body and mind. To put it simply, it raises my defensive prowess. In addition, it is drenched in my blood, sweat, and tears. All of the suffering and joy that I've experienced practicing the naginata are contained within it! And so, as long as I am wearing it... I will not lose to the likes of you!" 

For a short while, a wave of silence flooded over the group as we each individually try to comprehend what the ever-loving fuck happened - if anything even did happen - to this girl to make her into what she is now. Sapphire is the first to break the silence. 

"When did this become competitive?" She wondered aloud.

"Dancing can be a competitive sport, can't it?" Chloe threw in her two cents.

I ignore the both of them and keep talking to Matilda. "Um... Matilda..."

"What is it?" Matilda responded to my befuddlement with caution.

"Um, I'm stupid, so I don't understand a lot of what you're saying... but at the very least, could you explain this 'sorcery' thing?"

"Are you going to feign ignorance of what you did to me?!" Matilda asked me, angry.

"Not feigning. Am ignorant," I tell her. "What exactly did I do?"

Now Matilda just stared at me in silent disbelief. "A-After you addled my mind and body that way..." she mumbled.

Oh god oh fuck, please don't phrase it like that. I don't know what I did but please don't put it in a way that can be misconstrued to make me look like some kind of philanderer.

Tabby melodramatically gasped while placing a hand on her chest. "So the Serpent Séduisant reveals his true colors!" She acted so exaggeratedly that even I could tell she was just messing around. Chloe didn't seem to understand, though. Either that, or she's really bad at being melodramatic.

"What did you do to her?!" Chloe grabbed me by the collar and fiercely interrogated me. 

"I didn't do anything, ma'am!" I cower at her sudden outburst while (figuratively) shitting myself, holding my hands out in front of her face to put some distance between us.

"She's just a child," Chloe scolded me, pulling me closer towards her via my collar. "What were you thinking?!"

"She's barely younger than me! Not a child!"

"That's no excuse!" Chloe tossed my perfectly crafted argument to the side and started to lightly shake me back and forth.

"But I really didn't do anything," I tell her, lowering my voice. Realizing I don't actually need to take any of this, I pry open her hand that was grabbing my collar with a decent amount of force and begin to ignore her. Matilda must have been off in her own little world, since she started speaking as if none of that just happened. 

"I won't lose this time!" She boldly declared. "With my uniform on, I have the strength of a hundred!"

"The dance is starting," I tell her, plainly. Chloe stopped pestering me and Matilda took some kind of battle stance.

"Now," Matilda yelled. "Have at me!"

"Mhm, yeah, hurry up. People are already starting."

"R-Right..."

With that, the two of us finally headed for the dance floor as soon as the dance started. I draw her in close to me and quickly assume the standard hold; I hold her hand with my left and place my right hand on her shoulder blade. So far, so good. Matilda had just gone from being a ferocious pup to a whimpering mess almost instantly. Compared to my decidedly mediocre box step, her dancing is atrocious and is completely ruining my groove. I thought I would be able further improve my technique with this dance, but it's kind of hard to do with a bad dance partner. She's clearly out of it.

"Oi, Matilda." I call out to her in an attempt to get her to snap back to reality and focus on the dance. She didn't respond. "Uh... Matilda?" I call out to her again, to no avail. Upon closer inspection of her eyes, I saw that pupils were as wide as saucers. That means it's either really dark in here and she's trying to see, or her fight-or-flight response kicked in hard. Now I feel bad for insulting her dancing skills in my mind. Nowadays, I find myself forgetting that I'm one of the most hideous and terrifying eyesores to ever exist. It can't be helped that she'd be scared in this situation. 

Oh, this must be my 'sorcery' that she was referring to. She was probably talking about how my being fills her with paralyzing fear... I don't know if should feel proud of that or not. On one hand, being able to petrify anyone with my presence alone like I was Medusa was really cool. But on the other hand... it really wasn't cool at all, since I have no control over it.

Out of guilt, I take my mind off of dancing and inadvertently lower my hand from her fragile shoulder blade down to her small waist. Now we're just stepping randomly while our bodies swayed as if we were infants trying to slow dance. Beads of sweat began forming on Matilda's forehead. Her dilated pupils were darting all around the room as she started trembling more and more. It's clear her body was telling her to run, but she forced herself to stay and fight until the end, like the warrior she was. I both envied and admired her indomitable willpower. 

As soon as I decided it would be for the best to stop the dance here, the waltz had finished before I even realized. When it did, Matilda suddenly collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut. I quickly catch her before she managed to hit the floor. 

"...Filthy... sorcery... ugh..." Matilda murmured something as her eyes closed, but I couldn't quite make it out. 

Good job making it to the end, I praise her in my heart. I picked her up in my arms, now seeing her in a whole new light. The number of people I idolize in this world can be counted on one hand, and they're all wondrous and exemplary human beings. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this little girl would be one of those people. I aspire to have even a fraction of this lioness's valor; courage so great that it pushes the human body beyond its natural limitations in order to surmount insurmountable fear for a greater cause.

Albeit, that cause being an insignificant dance.