ACT III – CORE-COLLAPSING INFERNO

 

Part VII: Scarlettail vs. Sunbird

 

The shocking announcements for Reimei kept coming. But then again, it wasn’t that much of a surprise Zoran had chosen to spar with her of all the Earthlings. He himself had said he had been interested in his newest student ever since her inclusion in the class and considering Jill Lahala and the Devibolts had plans for her, it would make sense the History teacher would want to test her abilities himself.

Though afraid she would disappoint him with her performance, Miss Scarlettail agreed to the match-up for her sparring session and before she knew it, she had found herself standing opposite Zoran in one of the adaptability chamber’s twelve compartments. Theirs had the word ‘desert’ written on the glass part of its door and had a beige-colored interior, these two factors suggesting a desert-type drought environment would be recreated inside.

If that were true, Reimei would be at a disadvantage, especially once her homeroom teacher put his phoenix flames to work to further evaporate any of the moisture remaining in the area. But no matter how much she would worry about the way the sparring session would play out, nothing could save her from having to fight now. Hearing Obur’s voice from the speakers installed along the area where the walls met the ceiling further helped solidify the inevitability of the situation.

(Obur) ‘Everyone seems to be set. Start by using basic moves to see how well you can execute them in your environment and depending on how you do, I’ll make things harder or easier. I’ll also judge when a fight is over, so don’t any of you dare go too far. I’ll come in there and stop you with extreme prejudice if you don’t follow my commands! Now let’s start this combat training session!!’

Right after the Literature teacher’s voice cut off, the sound of machinery being activated was heard behind the walls of the room, not long after the air inside becoming hot and heavy. Through her water deva the scarlet-haired beauty could actually sense the moisture being sucked out of the compartment more and more, the first symptom these changes caused in her being the feeling of dryness in her throat.

Then she started sweating and her breathing became heavier which was a result of not only the room environment becoming more extreme, but also of the fact Zoran had now stepped a bit closer to her and taken up a battle stance.

(Zoran) ‘Are you ready, Reimei? I won’t make you stay in here for too long, so don’t worry. And don’t worry about how you’ll do, either. It’s your first time in a place like this, so I’m not expecting perfect results. This exercise is just to see what type of fighter you are.’

(Reimei) ‘And see if my abilities might be the reason the Devibolts want me?’

The History teacher was very surprised to hear this from his student, but not nearly as much as Reimei herself. Why had she said something provoking like that to him out of the blue? It was not normal for her to behave like this. Perhaps it was because of all the stress accumulated during her first few days at Sunbird?

Whatever the reason for her question was, the result of it was the formation of an awkward smile on Mr. Lawell’s face as he scratched the back of his head.

(Zoran) ‘You’ve figured that out already, huh? Hikaru and Exo should really watch out then. Our school might just have a new genius in its midst.’

(Reimei) ‘And maybe you’re trying to test me to see how someone from Saraley will fight against a member of the Lawell family? To see if I’m holding any grudges?’

This time around Zoran was even more surprised, but the awkward smile he had followed up his last shocked reaction with didn’t appear on his face now. Instead he was just worried. Guilty even, considering he avoided Miss Scarlettail’s gaze , which was usually her thing to do during a conversation.

(Zoran) ‘I’m very sorry, Reimei. I really am. I hadn’t even thought about how that might affect you. The history of my family and your home from almost 300 years ago has got nothing to do with me choosing you as a sparring partner, though. And if it’s any consolation, I’d like to offer my apologies on behalf of my ancestor for any atrocities he may have committed against your ancestors that have affected your own life in any way.’

(Reimei) ‘Apology accepted. Now let’s get on with this fight.’

It was as if someone else was talking and not Reimei, a part of her realizing how rude her behavior was, but that part not being able to do anything about it. Neither could it stop her from waving with her hands to form a big water wave sent at her homeroom teacher moments later.

Proving he was a well-trained warrior, Zoran instantly switched from surprise to battle mode, waving with his hand as well to form a pillar of his phoenix flames mixing a pale red and orange color. The pillar was so hot, it turned the entire wave to steam, the spreading of that steam around the room greatly impeding Miss Scarlettail’s vision.

A clear vision wasn’t needed to know a counterattack was coming, Reimei beginning to put up water walls with a colder temperature all around her to defend from whatever came her way. The attack wasn’t a singular beam, projectile or something like that, however, but took the shape of tens of mini-phoenixes made of her opponent’s deva, each one exploding when it made contact with her walls.

On their creator’s command, all the walls burst into super-thin water streams that cut up most of the fire birds, the few that survived this attack merging with each other to form a phoenix that was bigger than an eagle in terms of size, flying toward Reimei very fast. Her reaction was just as fast, making the streams spread around become a singular mass of water and dropping that mass on Zoran’s creation to prevent it from ever reaching her, but forgetting it wasn’t made of normal flames while doing this.

Dealing with smaller amounts of Mr. Lawell’s deva wasn’t a problem, but the bigger the constructs he used were, the harder it was to put them out, eventually becoming clear nothing could be done on the scarlet-haired beauty’s part to stop the phoenix. So she just dropped to the floor to evade its attack, the bird flying beyond her, but not disappearing after missing the first time.

Instead it came back, which was perfectly synchronized with the History teacher shooting a massive ball of his flames at his opponent from the other side.  All the while this was happening, Miss Scarlettail felt like her throat was drier than it had ever been, an abundance of sweat having already been secreted from her body to an extent where it made her feel extremely uncomfortable. And as if that wasn’t enough, another issue came into play as well – a feeling of lightheadedness that made her lose her balance just as the phoenix and the fire ball were about to hit her.

Feeling these attacks’ heat so painfully on her skin, Reimei knew there was nothing she could possibly do to stop them at this stage. So she completely gave into fear, which not only paralyzed her but made her black out.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

When she came to, the scarlet-haired beauty first felt her symptoms from earlier had got even worse. Her throat was on fire at this point and no amount of gulping could help save it, her lips stinging, which meant they had most likely chapped under the effects of the dry heat. The strands of her hair were dripping with sweat that stung her eyes and hindered her eyesight, at the same time her skin feeling like it was melting, her body – like it was being crushed by the extremely heavy air.

A detail in her environment was so shocking, however, that it drew Reimei’s attention away from the hell she was experiencing. She had not only somehow destroyed both of Zoran’s attacks, but had managed to wound him, the smiling former headmaster now standing across from her with a deep cut in his upper left arm, the blood flowing out of which made his shirt’s sleeve turn an even darker hue of red.

(Zoran) ‘That wasn’t bad at all, Reimei. To produce that amount of water in an environment like this … your water deva is something special. And not only that, it’s different in quality.’ – he paused for a moment to look at the wound on his arm, the transfer student noticing how his expression became more intrigued as she wiped as much of the sweat from her forehead and fringe as she could with a heavy breath – ‘I’ve been wounded by water devas many times before, but it’s never felt like this. Considering you wounded me first, this session counts as a win for you. Plus you look like you’re about to pass out, so what do you say we get out of here?’

Listening to herself as she answered, Reimei found not only the nature of her answer, but her voice to be disturbing as well. Both were so foreign, it was as if not only was she nor herself anymore – she wasn’t even human. 

(Reimei) ‘I haven’t had enough yet. You think wounding you this much will satisfy me? I’ll only stop when I see you covered in blood. Or maybe not even then.’

After that Miss Scarlettail truly felt as nothing but an observer of the events that unfolded, someone or something else controlling her body as it sprang toward her homeroom teacher. As shocked as he was, Zoran’s reaction was quite timely again, blowing out a roar of phoenix flames that was drowned in water, but not the normal kind.

This one mixed a pale pink and dark orange color, absorbing all the steam spread around after the roar’s destruction to instantly convert to more water, that water whipping Mr. Lawell multiple times in the shape of tens of tails before wrapping itself around him tightly to stretch the man and leave him open for an attack. Reimei’s body was almost thrown at him then with an inhuman force, the only thing that saved the History teacher being the release of his phoenix wings from his back.

The wings successfully tore apart all the tails and created a blast that pushed their creator’s attacker all the way back to the other end of the room, right after feeling a dull pain in the back of her head from the fall seeing it was Zoran who had leapt at her now. And he had the same disturbingly serious and destructive look on his face like the one during his speech from earlier, other parts of his body becoming covered in dark red feathers and then set ablaze as he kept transforming the closer he drew.

(Zoran) ‘I don’t know what you are, but you sure as hell aren’t Reimei. So she’ll have to forgive me for being a bit rougher in order to put you to sleep.’

A whirlwind of flames consumed all of the scarlet-haired beauty’s surroundings with a bang then, causing pain to every single one of her senses until everything became blurry and finally turned pitch-black.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

However long she had been unconscious for this time, it had been longer than the previous blackout because when Reimei opened her eyes, she could tell right away she was no longer in the desert room. Judging by the ceiling, she guessed she was back in the adaptability chamber’s main hall.

Right after her eyes identified her surroundings, her ears registered pained screams coming from different people. Miss Scarlettail looked around to confirm she was in control of her body again, that body presently lying on the floor along with quite a few of her classmates, most of which were screaming because they were being treated by the headmistress Neana Ilre. In particular, she had run formulas through their bodies that split them into miniature cubes that were then rearranged multiple times, Hikaru and Yuki being among her patients as well.

As for Zoran, he was sitting on the chair behind the touchscreen control panel for all the extreme environment rooms with the upper half of his body left naked, his entire left arm being bandaged up by Obur after the same had been done with most of his torso. Rather than address the mysterious appearance of Neana at the training grounds or the condition Zoran was in, however, Reimei asked a question with a much more obvious answer.

(Reimei) ‘Hikaru … Hikaru, are you OK?’

(Hikaru) ‘Not really! I’d rather go back in …’

He couldn’t finish his sentence as he started screaming again due to the painful experience of having his body rearranged into a healed state by the headmistress’ restructuring deva, in the midst of that Neana giving a complete answer on his behalf.

(Neana) ‘Everyone’s just fine, Reimei, yourself included. Don’t worry. You’re the only one among the class that came out unscathed, but no one’s suffered any serious injuries, not even Zoran.’

Obur finished up the bandaging of Zoran, the two of them rejoining the students as their screaming finally stopped, Reimei’s eyes full of terror, guilt and tears moving from the fully healed Hikaru to her homeroom teacher’s left arm and torso.

(Reimei) ‘D-did I do that to you, sensei?’

(Obur) ‘He did it to himself, actually, because he wouldn’t let me or Neana help. ‘Stay and watch the brats while I restrain her.’ Ha! Ordering us around like you’re still the headmaster. You should be thinking how to thank us for helping out instead, Zoran.’

(Zoran) ‘I said I’ll buy you dinner later, didn’t I? Relax already.’

(Neana) ‘Well, my check on the Earthlings’ progress and the healing session are done, so there’s nothing left for me to do here.’ – she eyed the teacher duo for a moment with an expression that had suddenly turned very serious while getting up to walk out of the chamber – ‘Take better care of the brats next time, OK?’

Her colleagues gave her a nod, Zoran starting to talk again right after the headmistress left. Meanwhile Reimei’s mind became more and more overwhelmed, being torn between blaming herself and trying to find the right words to apologize to her homeroom teacher.

(Zoran) ‘Well, I do dare say this was a very good first session. Everyone’s performance has been recorded and we’ll be going through those recordings soon enough, but from what Obur’s told me, you guys did great. Now we’ll just have to keep working on building your stamina and the scope of your techniques and you ought to be fine, no matter who or what you go up against.’

(Reimei) ‘Lawell-sensei, I … I know I’m in no position to ask you anything after what I did in that room, but our session’s recording … could I see it now?’

Miss Scarlettail had been very hesitant to ask that question, because if Zoran refused, it would mean something had happened in the desert room he didn’t want her to see, and if he agreed, then she would actually see it and could witness something terrifying. Looking over at her History teacher’s stone-cold serious face, however, she already knew what his answer was going to be.

(Zoran) ‘I don’t think you want to see that, Reimei. Just celebrate your victory against me and don’t think too much about it.’

(Vega) ‘Wow-wow-wow, sensei! Hold it! Mei’s not the only one who wants to see that recording!! You just got your ass kicked by the new girl and I think everyone from the class want to know how that happened!! Right?’

The drunkard’s search for support from his classmates was cut short by the intervention of the person Reimei had expected the least. It wasn’t Yuki or Hikaru who defended her first, but Seiren, the pervert having become very angry as he roared at Vega and the others.

(Seiren) ‘Why the hell should they show you what’s happened between Mei and sensei?! That’s private, so no one else should be allowed to see!! Why don’t you focus on your own fights instead, huh?!!’

(Hikaru) ‘But don’t you want to know how she did it, Blackscale? Even a little bit?’

(Yuki) ‘Seiren’s right, Hikaru. It’s Mei’s business and no one else’s. Whether Lawell-sensei decides to show her the recording or not, the only ones who should watch it are the two of them. And Segune-sensei, because he’s already seen what’s happened in that room, anyway.’ – after rebuking her classmates, the white-haired beauty turned to her scarlet-haired counterpart to further show her support with an encouraging smile – ‘Don’t worry, Mei. Me and Seiren’ve got your back. And Hikaru, too, despite how curious he is.’

Zoran smiled upon hearing a couple of the youngsters’ positions, Miss Scarlettail having turned to him to hand down the final verdict.

(Zoran) ‘There you have it, Reimei. If we let the others keep arguing about whether I should show you the recording or not, we’re going to have another fight on our hands. We barely got out of the last one, so I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Let’s just postpone it for now, OK? I think everyone from this class has stayed in Sunbird for too long today as it is. Time to send you home.’

Her classmates were as disappointed as Reimei was about not learning more in connection to what had actually happened during her battle with the former headmaster, but all of them ended up nodding to confirm their agreement with Mr. Lawell’s suggestion. The members of the class in a better state then helped up those who were still in a more rough condition, Yuki in particular helping Hikaru while Miss Scarlettail went to help Seiren instead to express her gratitude for his support. He redirected her attention to Exo next to him with a smile while managing to get up just fine on his own.

(Seiren) ‘Help this one instead, Mei. I might’ve kicked his ass a bit too much.’

As the scarlet-haired beauty got the techno-genius back on his feet, he wouldn’t even look at her to show his gratitude in a polite way as she had expected him to, instead looking only at the pervert with a mixture of annoyance and dread.

(Exo) ‘You know, Seiren, I was really happy to have not sparred with you one-on-one since we’ve met and now I see why. Let’s not do this again, OK?’

(Seiren) ‘Hey, don’t blame me, Ex. Lawell-sensei matched us up.’

(Obur) ‘It’s better that he kicked your ass, Exo. If he ends up being put under mind control and attacks you, he’ll automatically underestimate you, but by that time you’ll have thought of a new counter for his moves from today, right?’

(Tokura) ‘If this exercise is about us learning to better counter anyone put under mind control, shouldn’t you get all the students and teachers to train here together? All of Sunbird’s being targeted, you know.’

(Zoran) ‘That’s true, but the teachers have me, Neana, Obur and Aguaro to protect them. And the students have your class to count on if they get into trouble. So just focus on sticking together as much as possible for now. From what I know about you, as long as you do that, everyone should be safe.’

Some of Reimei’s classmates were annoyed by being reminded what a responsibility was presently put on their shoulders, that reminder having a different effect on King, however. The giant who had now turned back to his normal form seemed to have reached a state of enlightenment, turning everyone’s attention to him just as they were getting ready to leave the adaptability chamber.

(King) ‘About sticking together, sensei … I think I’ve got a way for us to do that and help out Hikaru at the same time.’

(Hikaru) ‘Help me? What are you talking about?’

(King) ‘You’ve lost most of the main guys for your play, right? Well, what if people from our class took over for them?’