15 Tensions
It was lunchbreak at Seinen North High. Students flocked the hallways and some of them headed into the cafeteria to get their lunch and eat it with friends.
Ozi on the other hand was on the school rooftop and he looked at the device that he was given by the Jushiomo member. He saw that it was a black pager with three buttons beneath the small screen.
"A pager huh. This isn't the late 80s." he said to himself as he tried to get it to work.
Elle right on cue made her way towards the place where Ozi was. She saw him on the rooftop fiddling with the device he was given.
"I can't believe she gave you a pager of all things." She said to him.
"This device is so antiquated." Osiris replied. His pet raven was on his shoulder whilst he tried to figure out how the device works.
"Oh, you'll find that its very advanced." The raven replied to him.
Elle felt a bit uneasy with the raven coming out in the open and much worse, talking while out in the open.
"You sure it's okay to let Mr. Blackie out like this?" she asked. "I mean talking ravens are weird you know." She said.
"As long as the nosey one does not come to this place, it's going to be okay." Ozi replied to her,
"Nosey?" Elle asked. "You think Mion is nosey?" she asked him with a small laugh afterwards.
Ozi paid no attention to her small laughter and her comments. After a few moments of fiddling the device he gave up and put the same in his pocket.
"If what Samara says is true, then the Netherworld has really gone to shit." He said to himself as he sighed.
"Well, it has been quite a while since you have returned to the Netherworld." The raven said to him in response.
The blonde-haired student tucked her hair behind her ear and she prepared to eat her lunch.
"So, the Netherworld. That's like hell isn't it?" she asked.
Osiris did not respond to her again. A lot of things were going on through his mind.
"Hey I'm talking to you." Elle reprimanded him.
The raven replied in his stead.
"Yes and no. The Netherworld is the general term that Soul Reavers use to refer to the Spirit World as you humans refer to it here."
The girl took a bite of her sandwich as she listened. She was very interested in the explanation made.
"The Netherworld is divided further in three sections, Paradiso Eternal, La Purgatorio, and, Infernum Infinidad." The raven said.
"Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell." Ozi said to her. The look on his eyes looked serious.
Elle was beginning to understand the divisions of the afterlife. But what she could not comprehend is what exactly is Osiris. Was he human before?
"So…" she began to ask. Ozi still did not look towards her. "What were you? Before you became a Soul Reaver?" she asked.
Osiris was stopped in his train of thought when he heard the question.
…
…
…
Some time in the past.
"You know what we are right?" a platinum-blonde haired female asked him. She was dressed in a black hooded trench coat. Her eyes were cerulean in color and skin was pale.
The other man was dressed the same way. He held on his weapon which was a scythe but it had chains attached towards the bottom of the handle. His wrists had chains on them as well.
"Prisoners." He replied. "We're just prisoners in the world that no longer needs us." He said in response.
The girl with him laughed a bit and smiled at him afterwards.
"That's a morbid way of looking at it. We were lost souls back then, right? Until he found us that is." She said.
The male who held on the scythe took a step past the blonde-haired girl. He stopped in his tracks to say something.
"It doesn't matter." He said. "What matters is what we are now." He concluded.
…
…
…
"The past doesn't matter." Ozi said in response to Elle's question. "What matters is only the now and the hereafter." He replied.
The blonde-haired girl was dumbfounded with the answer of the Soul Reaver. Ozi sensed that there was a third person approaching them and immediately the raven on his shoulder transformed to an attachment of his ankh necklace.
Right on cue, Mion appeared through the doors of the school rooftop.
"I knew you two would be here." She said to them. Ozi however started walking towards the rooftop exit when Mion arrived.
"Hey where are you going?" Elle asked him.
The Soul Reaver did not reply. Instead he walked past her and her friend whilst he exited the place.
"Hmmm." Mion said whilst putting a hand on her chin. "Something's up. Is it me or is he acting a bit jerkier with you than before?" she asked her.
"Not really." Elle replied to her. "But yeah I noticed that he has been acting strange since yesterday." She said out loud which caused Mion to look at her funnily and slyly.
"Oh. So that's why you stayed behind in the café. You went out with him huh?" she playfully joked.
Elle was a bit red but she pushed Mion a bit.
"It wasn't anything like that. It's just a friend helping out another." She replied to her.
"Well you better clear that up because with the way you have been spending with the new kid recently, rumors have been spreading that you two are dating." Mion said.
"Make them say their rumors. I know the truth." Elle replied with a smile on her face.
…
…
…
Osiris was walking down the school hallway with hands on his pocket. As he walked and passed through other students, he heard rumors left and right being passed upon them and being said as well.
"Is that him? The new kid?" a male said.
"I heard he's been out with Elle." A female said.
"He's dating her? No way." Another said.
"He doesn't look half bad though." Another female student said. "Shame that he's dating the school's heartthrob though." She added.
Ozi paid no mind to the rumors, but then a group of guys who looked like trouble made their way towards him. They were being led by a person who had spiky blonde hair and red eyes. He looked intimidating enough that the other students were looking away and running from him when he and his crew walked.
"Hmm so you're the new kid." The intimidating high school student said to Ozi.
Osiris just smiled at him with his hands on his pocket.
"You must be Tetsuya. We are at the same class, right?" he asked. "Well then nice to meet you." He said as he stretched out his hand to offer a handshake towards Tetsuya.
The intimidating bully smirked at his fellow bullies and he faced Ozi once again. He slapped his hand out of the way and instead he sized him up. The Soul Reaver just played it cool and continued to smile. The student body is witnessing this event right in front of them.
"Uh oh." One said.
"Once you get the ire of Tetsuya and his crew, there's no stopping that." Another said.
"So, you're the one trying to get together with Elle?" Tetsuya said to him.
"Excuse me?" Ozi asked him in response. "I'm doing no such thing." He said to him in response.
"SHUT UP!" Tetsuya shouted at him and his crew readied themselves. "Don't play dumb with us!" he shouted further as they surrounded him now.
Ozi's smile disappeared and a serious look on his eyes was present. Tetsuya and his four other cronies surrounded him in such a way that they formed a circle around him.
"Listen you don't touch Elle all right?" Tetsuya said. "She's my girlfriend and not anyone else's." he said to him in an intimidating tone.
Ozi paid no mind to what the bully said. He then sensed an incoming attack from behind and immediately he moved to his side whilst his hands were still in his pocket. The punch attempt landed on one of Tetsuya's cronies which sent him falling to the ground.
"What the?!" The crony who threw the punch said.
Another crony attempted to attack him this time with a kick. Ozi ducked underneath the kick and the attack took out another crony of the bully.
A third crony tried to hold Ozi down but the latter was too slippery and instead he tripped on the other crony and the two of them were on the ground and out as well.
It was only Ozi and Tetsuya who were on their feet.
"Woah!" a student said. "The new kid took them out without even touching them!" he added.
"Damn. He just became a bit more good looking after that." A female student said.
Right on cue, Elle and Mion made their way through the commotion and saw that Ozi and Tetsuya were facing each other. The blonde-haired girl saw that Tetsuya's cronies were on the floor where Ozi was standing.
"Ozi!" she shouted, but the latter paid no mind.
"Damn you!" Tetsuya said. He rushed at Ozi and attempted a series of punches.
Osiris however dodged and slipped the strikes like they were nothing whilst his hands were in his pocket. He then continued to mockingly not attempt an attack at all whilst the bully was having trouble connecting with a single strike.
The Soul Reaver then saw an opening wherein Tetsuya's legs were a bit too wide so he nudged one leg with his feet and this tripped up the blonde bully and he fell to the floor.
Ozi just smiled afterwards.
"What the hell are you…." Tetsuya said as he stood up from falling. He rushed towards the black-haired student who had turned his back, but was then stopped.
Elle stood in between the two of them and the student body was even more intrigued with her presence.
"Stop this." She said with her hands spread out. "Tetsuya stop being a child. And stop saying that I am your girlfriend, you know that I am not." She added. And the latter fell silent.
The girl then faced Ozi and the latter did not face her.
"How could you stoop so low in engaging a delinquent?!" she shouted at him. Again, Ozi paid no mind her remarks.
"Look at me while I am talking to you." Elle said to him. Her voice sounded stern.
"Ooooooh." Some of the students said as a reaction.
"No." Ozi said to her in response. "You have no business being here and tailing my every move." He replied with a cold tone. For the first time ever, Elle heard him speak like that and it hurt her.
"What…" she said in response. Osiris then faced her.
"Leave me be." He said. "You have no place in my life quite frankly." He added.
The whole student body was shocked at what he said.
"THWAP!!!" a big slapping sound was heard.
Out of pure impulse, it would seem that Elle slapped Osiris in the face. The latter just took it standing while the former was on the verge of tears just after she slapped him. Mion then stood beside her to comfort her friend.
A teacher then walked over and the whole student body dispersed.
"What is going on here?!" the male teacher said as he saw the fallen crew of Tetsuya and Osiris, and Elle standing there.
"You troublemakers are in it for sure! You're all going to detention!" the teacher said to all of them.
