77th Move | Siblings

AN: I like dark stories. It shows the protagonist working hard, suffering, and bleeding to actually achieve victory.

Just a heads up, there is some heavy subject matter in this chapter, view it at your own discretion.

This chapter deals with Scientia pre-isekai, from the perspective of their sister. Originally, it was going to be a single chapter but it became too long so I broke it up in two. Update, it's three now.

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380 Years Ago, the Underworld.

When a solid vaporizes into a gas, its volume expands by a factor of thousands. Using this principle, Relentless caused individual humans and other Monsters to turn into literal bombs as it transmutes their constituent carbon, iron, and calcium atoms into oxygen, expanding their volume to thousands of times in a fraction of a second.

Near the latter half of the berserk Perfect Homunculus' rampage, nothing made up of matter can even affect Relentless since they'll subsume and control it, turning Mythical-grade swords and armor into tombs as they grow to encompass their wielder.

Relentless became a virus. It infected the planet and turned it against all its inhabitants. Later on, it started to infect spacetime with distances expanding or contracting to protect the Perfect Homunculus.

Velzard tried freezing all the momentum of Relentless and trapping them, but like a perpetual motion machine, Relentless generated more energy than Velzard could remove.

Attempts at throwing Relentless into the Underworld through the Hell Gate in El Dorado proved useless as Relentless had somehow ripped open a hole in the geodesic surface of spacetime to enter into the universe once more. In short, it created a new Gate of Hell at the South Pole.

It was truly living up to its name of Relentless. Anything thrown at it, Relentless the Perfect Homunculus adapted and used to its own means.

After returning from Hell, it started opening holes to other Universes, either to defend itself or to serve as a vector of attack when it opened a wormhole to the core of a star.

It took the combined effort of two True Dragons, all the Primordial Angels and most Primordial Demons, all the Demon Lords, all the True Heroes, and all the nations of the world, just to pin Relentless down for more than a few seconds.

While it might seem tiny, a few seconds was all it took for Chronoa to lock on and cast something to banish Relentless from this reality.

Afterward came the Geas of Silence. Everyone present was forced to take what had exactly occurred to their grave.

Which leads to Violet's current situation.

Right now, the Purple Primordial resided inside her little castle in the Underworld. She sat by one of the chairs beside a table in the courtyard, sipping on tea under a bright blue, cloudless sky.

By the opened doorway to her castle stood Chronoa, her clothes repaired and her mask seemingly been replaced since the last one got shattered.

In truth, all of this was a lie. The Purple Primordial was on the weaker end of the Primordial power scaling, so she was forced to use cunning and sadism. All this castle under a blue sky was an act designed to keep people off balance, as who would think a demon like her would ever have something like this?

It was a picturesque scene from a fairy tale, one that shouldn't exist in a place such as the Underworld.

It doesn't seem to be affecting Chronoa.

As the Hero entered the castle courtyard, Violet could sense that all her movements were as efficient as possible. Almost like an automaton.

"How can I help the Great Hero of Time? Has another threat come?" Asked Violet as she shifted herself so all of her upper body was facing Chronoa, her attention completely on the True Hero.

With a single swiping gesture from her free hand, the other chair moved outward, inviting Chronoa to sit.

The Hero did not take the offer.

Speaking in an even tone, "Relentless will return."

Violet's lips thinned. Her skin tingled as though she was cold. The tea, the table and chair, the castle, and the blue sky faded away without a single trace of where they went like a cloud on a windy day.

What remained was a flat rocky surface devoid of any life, the sky glowed orange as though it were perpetual dusk.

"I see." A flash of phantom pain erupted from her chest, subtly rubbing it, "what do you need me to do?"

Relentless caused such a ruckus that everyone put away their differences for the first time ever since Ivarage invaded. So to hear news of its eventual return from the one who sealed it away must mean Violet could contribute somehow.

"I want you to follow it. Using my Ultimate Skill I've sent Relentless on a multiverse hopping journey that would hopefully distract it. There's an uncountably infinite number of Worlds out there in the System, it's like asking how many decimals are there between 0 and 1. Hopefully Relentless would be distracted for the rest of eternity itself, but just in case, you're the early warning system."

What a cold and heartless decision.

"So you're damning other Worlds to Relentless?"

"Unfortunately, yes. For the sake of our own, we must damn other worlds." Chronoa then offered Violet a hand. Again, her arm's movements were perfect, and it was completely still lacking in micromovements as though it belonged to a corpse, "I want you to observe Relentless as they cross those worlds, make sure they never come back."

"..." Violet observed Chronoa's form, trying to find any hints of falsehood, only to come up empty. Troubling, "I see. Why would I, one of the weakest of the Primordial Demons, be receiving this honor? Why not Rouge? Or Blanc? Or anyone else? Why do you ask me?"

"You're the one most fit for the role. Despite having a feud lasting eons, you seek peace, unlike Jaune or Blanc. Noir is too whimsical, he may just unleash Relentless back into this world for funsies, Rouge is depressed, and the True Dragons are an obvious no-go since I doubt I'd be able to convince any of them. Thus, you're the one most fit for this mission."

With a single thought, Chronoa conjured up a hole in space behind her, "If you accept this mission, walk through this portal, I will not pressure nor will I think less of you should you decline."

Violet's right hand came up to her chest like a person hesitating on deciding which color of the same shirt they should wear for the day.

"Fine... I'll accept. Will the other Primordials know?"

"No. Missing in action for a few thousand years is common. Hell, the amount of time Guy spends in the material world is quickly catching up to the time he's spent in the Underworld. I don't think any other Primordial would care beyond perhaps a raised eyebrow." Chronoa said efficiently straight to the point.

It was almost unnerving just how efficient Chronoa was. It was like she had done this multiple times and had figured out the fastest way to achieve her goal.

Nodding, Violet then silently stared off into the distance, her gaze sweeping across the jagged and burning landscape of the Underworld, taking one last glimpse of her home before entering the portal.

"It's odd. I've always hated this place, the colors, everything is just so ugly. But when I'm about to leave it, I found my legs unmoving."

Violet was wavering as she stood in front of the portal.

"You're going into an unfamiliar territory, it's only natural."

With that, Violet walked through that portal and was embraced by a space beyond space, a time beyond time.

She could vaguely recall that she was floating— no, it wasn't that she was floating, it was that gravity was pulling at her from every direction.

Unreality is what can be used to describe her surroundings.

All around her, impossible shapes phased in and out of view, her [Magic Sense] was assaulted by fractals, infinite, and constantly repeating kaleidoscopic fractals.

The shapes made no logical sense. Shattered glass-like fragments of colors the Purple Primordial never knew existed popped into view. Turning her head, the impossible shapes changed, the colors distorted, and the kaleidoscopic fractals turned in and out on themselves. It was as if everything was a projection coming from her eyes, and the very act of turning her head had caused the space around her to distort since she was now viewing a new perspective.

In the distance, there were titanic pillars.

She wanted to scream, but no sounds came out of her throat. The demon tried using magic, but while she could feel her supply draining, reality itself didn't change.

As demons, Violet knew very well how magic worked. It was long known amongst the Primordials that magicules came from 'somewhere' and that they shouldn't exist inside reality. But by crossing into reality, they interact with the tiniest thing— the bundled-up extra dimensions of spacetime— responsible for physics and thus, change the constants within the local region of space to allow the desired phenomenon to appear.

For humans, magic is hard because it isn't instinctive. It's like asking a human to fly. They don't have the proper physiology to fly. In the same sense, demons are like 'birds', magic is second nature to them because it's instinctive. A bird doesn't think about how to fly, they just do it since it's part of their very being.

Usually, when the magic fails, it's due to Anti-magic. But the arms race between magic and Anti-magic ended with the former's victory, so Anti-magic was rendered mostly useless.

But right now? By all logic, the magic spell that Violet cast should've succeeded.

Feeling helpless, Violet closed her eyes, the only relief she could get.

She drifted aimlessly across that vast sea. A feeling of betrayal grew like a tumor inside Violet's mind.

'Why did Chronoa damn me to this fate?'

'Why did she lie to me?'

Time became meaningless as she had nothing to measure with. After ending Relentless' Rampage, Violet reluctantly admits that she was a little smitten with the white-clad masked Heroine. After all, she did save the Primordial several times just as Relentless was about to annihilate her spirit and force her to wait until she's resurrected in the Underworld thousands of years later.

Then, she felt herself get yanked in a specific direction. When she opened her eyes to see what was causing it, she saw God.

Violet recalled her first memory when she was molded from 'clay' and was granted intelligence by the Creator. She recalled seeing His majestic form, the form of a dragon whose wings are as large as the skies themselves, whose very presence seems to make everything else seem less real as you can only focus on Him, the only Real Thing, the only Truth, the only 『God』.

Focusing on it more, Violet's mind then realized it was a 'hand' of some kind.

Blinking several times, the Purple Primordial found herself being pulled by not the hand of God but instead by the hands of gravity. It was known that a long-term stay in complete isolation causes a person's mind to go bonkers. This applies even to demons but her tests showed that it takes a minimum of thousands to even millions of years for the effect of isolation to become noticeable.

Rationalizing it away due to her long stay in this no-space, Violet took a long break as she heard the Voice of the World for the first time in forever.

<<Error, anomaly found>>

The ears that she hadn't used in forever finally heard something. The Primordial Demon could almost cry in joy.

<<Reincarnating the Individual known as {No Name}>>

A bright flash of light and Violet knew no more.

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The human mind is unable to really comprehend and even hold long-term memory until said mind has aged until the person is three years old. While the memories of her past life were engraved upon Violet's soul, it wasn't until she was three years old that Kathy finally began to comprehend what these memories meant.

It was when she woke up one day when she was three that she suddenly remembered everything, her eons of existence had overwhelmed the young human girl and sent her into a seizure.

Waking up in a white room lying on a white bed to a soft beeping sound, Kathy found her body incredibly weak, and there was this translucent flattened bell-shaped thing that covered her mouth.

Feeling a weight on her lower half, Kathy found there was a mop of jet-black hair belonging to a human boy hunched over lying on her lower half.

What was his name again? It didn't matter. She also noticed there was this line thingy coming up from the back of her hand connecting to a bag of a transparent liquid

Her next thought when she woke up was to cast a stamina regeneration spell before a simple magic bolt to disintegrate the human that dares to lay hands on a Primordial Demon such as herself.

"Recover Stamina"

She still felt as weak as before.

It had failed.

More accurately, she could no longer feel any amount of magicules at all. It was as if magic didn't exist.

But that's impossible!

A shot of fear ran through Kathy's body.

"Recover Stamina"

The spell did nothing.

The Primordial then pointed a finger at the boy still lying on her stomach, "Collapse"

The boy stirred instead of collapsing into a ball no more than a few centimeters across.

The boy then got up and started rubbing his eyes, "Kathy?"

Kathy... Kathy... Kathy *******, right that was her name in this new life—

Wait, what? New life?

"Kathy you're finally awake!"

Despite being embraced in a warm hug, Kathy could not feel any colder.

She was a Primordial Demon, how in the hell did she reincarnate? Could a demon even reincarnate? She's seen Otherworlders reincarnate as demons but never the other way around so what the hell is happening?

In her state of confusion, she was essentially blind to the outside world.

Being out of control and in an unfamiliar setting, panic quickly replaced every logical thought Kathy could make.

She wanted to be alone. She wanted to be in control. She wanted to be somewhere familiar.

With uncharacteristically muscular strength for her size, Kathy pushed the boy away before getting out of bed and running.

In her panicked state, she could not feel the fatigue in her legs nor the pain from having the needles in the back of her hand suddenly ripped off.

Throwing the door open, Kathy found only more white halls and humans in strange get-ups. She was currently by the corner where two hallways conjoined.

"KATHY!"

Making a split-second decision, Kathy decided to run down the right hallway where there were fewer people.

Hearing footsteps and shouting behind her, Kathy ran faster.

Escape was the only thing on her mind, she repeated it like a mantra, the only thing that kept her sanity intact was that this was all some kind of dream.

Dead end.

Shit!

Turning around, Kathy found some adults running towards her, with one asking "How is she so fast?"

Looking for an exit, Kathy chose one of the doors and opened it, finding a set of what appeared to be staircases but instead of going around like the grooves on a screw, it's far more rectangular.

Seeing how it would take too long, Kathy jumped down the first flight of stairs, only to immediately regret it since as she fell down, she felt fear as if she was going to die.

"Gotcha— oof!"

Kathy immediately collided with the boy from before, who ran up the flight of stairs from below. Both fell to the ground, with the boy banging his head on the wall.

The boy hissed in pain and looked like he was about to cry. Kathy tried to escape but the boy just won't let go, instead holding her tighter.

Scratching at his arms, the Purple Primordial acted more like an animal as she tried to escape his clutch.

But the boy didn't let go.

"Calm down, calm down Kathy! Big Brother is here! ******* is here! The nightmare isn't real! You're okay! You're okay!"

The familiarity of his voice and the warmth of his embrace finally injected some sense into Kathy's panicked mind, slowly calming down, Kathy finally heard the steps of other people approaching.

For some reason, Kathy then cried as she huddled closer to the boy. While her mind doesn't know why her body felt safe in his presence.

"I'll protect you. You're my only sibling after all, and Mom and Dad always said how the family is the most important thing in the world."

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Two years later.

Kathy was now four years old, while ******* was six. In her new life, Kathy found herself possessing black hair and purple eyes, the latter being the only fragment left off when she was a Primordial Demon.

"You're a freak! There's no way you could've beaten us by that much if you're normal!"

They were both in kindergarten. Since it was the year in which the summer Olympics happened in the city, the teachers at the kindergarten decided to hold their own mini-Olympics.

Kathy won all of the mathematics, language, and reading competitions because of her eons-long memories. It would be a great embarrassment for a Primordial Demon such as herself to make a grammatical error.

"Yeah, you're a freak!"

"""Yeah!"""

Because of her win rate, other kids started hurling insults at Kathy. Seeking quietness, Kathy went off to the back of the school. To be honest, the ex-Primordial couldn't find it in herself to really care about what other people thought. However, that disregard quickly turned into anger as one of the kids, upon being ignored, decided to throw sand in her face.

"You—!"

Childrens often questionlessly follow their leader, so when one throws something, others quickly join in. It was a barrage of stones, dirt, and sand that reminded Kathy of when humans would stone other humans to death. Entering into a protective fetal position, the four-year-old cursed her lack of magic in this new World. If she had it, these human childrens would be burned alive for a thousand years for this transgression.

The stoning thought made Kathy wonder if it was possible to return to her previous power and World if she did die.

"—OOF!"

Hearing the sound of bodies falling to the ground and subsequent wet crunching. Looking over her shoulders, Kathy found ******* wailing on the first one who threw the stones. The other kids stood ramrod and completely still in shock, horrified expressions on their faces as they stopped throwing stones at Kathy.

Nobody went to help the one getting beaten down as even Kathy was staring in shock. In this World, violence is shockingly rare. In fact, if it weren't for TV showing a metal tube with wings crashing into two towers, Kathy would've thought that this world's achieved absolute peace!

"Don't... you... dare... hurt... my sister!" ******* growled out as he continued to punch the kid.

Kathy was confused at his protective stance. As a demon, kindness is never shown, and any amount of weakness you display will get exploited by other demons simply due to their nature. The term 'family' never existed. The closest equivalent would be 'bloodline' since any demon belonging to the Purple Bloodline would bow in her presence.

The concept of unconditional familial love was foreign. It was new, so it was scary.

"Why...?" She meekly whispered as teachers rushed to pull ******* off of the boy. Kathy knew the type of punishments he would get for fighting but for some god-forsaken reason, he still decided to risk it.

Afterward, ******* got reprimanded harshly by both the teachers and their parents. The boy who got wailed on had to get multiple stitches while her brother was suspended and almost expelled.

"I don't need your help." Kathy simply said as they sat by some chairs in the school office, that the principal was currently talking with them and the boy's parents. The inside of the office smells completely unique compared to the rest of the school, making any trip that came here instantly memorable.

******* was unremorseful, so he was crossing his arms when Kathy declared her wish to him. His eyes widen, "what do you mean you don't need my help? I saw that kid—"

"I don't need it. I had it under control. If you hadn't decided to help me you would've never been in trouble. Please... help me only when I ask for it."

******* looked scandalized, betrayed, and hurt by Kathy's words. Her brother had expected gratitude but instead received the opposite. His fist tightened, and just when it looked like the boy was about to hit Kathy he stopped and took a deep breath.

"Fine."

Their relationship was hurt immensely by her words. He remained aloof and cold to Kathy, but at least ******* never got in trouble for the rest of his remaining time in kindergarten. For some reason, the reincarnator felt pain around her chest whenever her brother ignored her. It was an unfamiliar pain even with the Purple Primordial's extensive experience of eons of fighting.

Another year passed, and their relationship never truly recovered. In front of their parents, both spoke only what was required to keep up the appearance of siblinghood while when they were gone, the siblings never spoke. Wanting to stay away from Kathy, ******* filled his days with extracurricular sports like swimming, tennis, and soccer, making the knot inside the young girl's heart further twist.

On her fifth birthday, Kathy found herself unable to taste the sweetness of her cake. In fact, she could barely taste anything beyond their texture. The world seemed colorless with how unbearably dull it all was.

The Primordial felt her new life as a human was meaningless, every day is the same, and every day she just goes through the motions of living like a doll or a puppet. It was in complete contrast to the exciting and entertaining life she had as a Demon.

Humans can't even see the entire electromagnetic spectrum! How pathetic that now she's been rendered only able to see a tiny bandwidth of all possible light?

As a result of this dull life, Kathy gradually started thinking of ways to escape. Her new father tried some father-daughter bonding activities, and while it may be fun for the time, the sparkle in her eyes quickly died out like sparks coming from an active welder.

It was probably due to a psychiatrist diagnosing Kathy with chronic depression when their parents announced on New Year's Eve that they would be going on a camping trip during Spring Break.

On the second day of camping, Kathy found herself on a canoe with her new family. When they hit a particularly rough and quick patch of the river, Kathy fell off the boat.

Instead of fighting to stay on top, Kathy found herself wanting to sink deeper. The fact that a jagged rock had cut loose her lifejacket had only further cemented her belief. Her new life flashed before her eyes as though her brain had wanted to give her a reason to stay alive, yet that only further encouraged Kathy to start breathing in water.

Perhaps if she died, then she'd become a Demon again.

Perhaps if she died, she'd reincarnate into her old world.

Even if none of those would come true, at least Kathy would no longer be bored.

She felt the hands of the abyss tighten their hold. The depth of the water is no more than a few meters, however, there are many hidden dangers due to the number of jagged rocks that poke out, not to mention cracks that one can get stuck on. As the water continued to fill her lungs, Kathy's survival instincts kicked in and forced her against her will to start swimming upward. However, before she could, the girl found her foot stuck between two rocks with the flow of the fast river keeping her stuck in place.

During drowning, the initial stages will see the victim fighting harder and harder to catch a grasp of air. However, there comes a point where the fighting reaches a crescendo before the body just gives up and stops fighting since the brain falls unconscious.

As her urge to breathe becomes stronger and stronger, her will to just end it all starts to get sapped away as imagining something is a world's difference away from actually doing it.

I don't want to die.

I don't want to die! She tried to scream, but only more water rushed into her mouth.

The suffocation, the purple-eyed girl's arms started swinging randomly since panic finally set in. The constant rush of river water hitting her is making her flair about like trees during a tornado.

Unfortunately, as suddenly as her will to live blossomed, so too did it wilt away as tiredness flooded her veins. Her arms slowed down until they were barely moving. Black dots were forming all over her vision, the pain of opening her eyes underwater didn't even enter into the equation.

I don't want to die!

I want to live!

Her visions dimmed, and her body accepted its fate.

Ah, thought Kathy using the last of her conscious moments. It's the Voice of the World, is it really that time? Time for a reincarnation? I want to be able to choose which world I reincarnate into next—

Something pushed roughly against her pre-teen body. The push was just enough that her foot finally loosened against the rocks, finally freeing her. Then, two arms came up around her sides and hooked onto her body.

She felt herself rapidly ascending— she could see the light from the sun! Just before the ex-demon could take in a breath of fresh air, she finally blacked out.

.

.

.

Piercing bright light.

*Cough*

Once she finally came to, Kathy was disorientated, her eyes strained to quickly adapt to the bright environment she found herself in. Looking around her immediate surroundings, the girl found herself coughing up water onto her already wet shirt.

She was on the shore of the river, and the sounds of rushing water flow assaulted her waterlogged ears as she finally realized that someone must've been responsible for pulling her ashore.

Looking down, Kathy found herself sitting in a reverse straddle on her brother's lap, his clothes completely wet showing how he must've jumped into the river a few seconds after she fell and pulled her onto the shore since the canoe her parents are on was at least ten meters away due to just how fast the river had flowed.

The slight rise and fall of *******'s chest showed how tiring it must be.

"Ha, I knew going to those swimming lessons was worth it! I'm so going to tell Mom 'I told you so'!"

"That was incredibly reckless of you."

The knot— the pain in her chest was gone, replaced by warmth despite how cold her fingers felt due to the water. It was odd, is this love? Familial affection? Her parents took her to many movies, and almost all of them had 'love' as a primary or secondary theme, whether it's love for one's father that leads to them sacrificing themselves and taking his place as the prisoner of a beast or something else.

Time erodes everything.

Such self-sacrificing acts were extremely alien to immortals, as you know the other person will come back. It's like watching a show or a play that constantly reuses its formula with different initial conditions.

Love feasibly can't exist.

"Well I couldn't see my unappreciative sister drown can I?"

Kathy felt angry at *******'s casual dismissal of her warning, feeling extremely undignified, "You..."

Her hands tightened into fists, and pushing her right arm forward, Kathy harshly elbowed *******'s ribs, "No! You don't get it! You could've easily drowned! Just as I have! You could've died! Why did you..."

Why did you risk it? For demons, 'love' was primarily a method of tormenting mortals. You get the best reaction if you torment a couple or a family than just one person. So to feel it personally was scary.

Because if she felt it, the ex-Primordial had no doubt she'd feel guilty for all the deeds and horrors she committed.

"...Why did you do it?"

Kathy desperately hoped the reason was something selfish even if she already knew the answer.

"Didn't I already say it? It's because you're my sister. We're family, do I need any more reasons?"

The girl chewed hard on her lower lips, her mind was like a swirling vortex of confused feelings. The sound of quick footsteps on rocks off in the distance heralded the approach of their parents.

The swirling storm of confusion built up, and up, and up. Kathy wanted to scream just like an office worker overwhelmed with tasks or someone who's had a really bad day.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Kathy repeated as she elbowed her brother before sighing, pushing down the urge to scream for later as their parents ran to ask them if they were okay.

_____________________________________________

Ten years later.

After that event, Kathy decided to stop being so cold and started connecting with her brother. She learned about his odd fascination with space, becoming the youngest student in his elementary school's history to start their own club.

The near-drowning incident made Kathy pay more attention to her surroundings, it made her more appreciative of her newfound peaceful life. As an immortal, you don't really care all that much about the present or life in general. In fact, anything less than immortal you could barely see them as, to borrow a phrase from this new world composed solely of humans, 'human'.

In a way, having a limit on your capacity to experience made each moment infinitely more precious. It made it so you can't just push your desired things to tomorrow, as what if there isn't a tomorrow?

Life was... precious. Scarily so. It took her a full year to finally admit that to herself. Kathy found herself in the same situation as childrens of Nobility that suddenly fell from power: she was at the height of her power, experiencing all the riches that the world holds, but now that she fell from grace, she was forced into a new humbling perspective.

As a side effect of being able to see from the perspective of her victims, Kathy began to sympathize with them. Soon, guilt started chewing away at her inside.

In an effort to repent, she began volunteering around the Church and community at least once every week. She tries to bury the memories, as otherwise, guilt would've crippled the girl.

Another side effect of Kathy being more appreciative of her life as a human, the ex-demon found a passion in anything related to computers after her father had bought home this new thing called 'laptop' that ran on this operating system called 'Windows Vista'.

Compounded with her penchant for volunteering, Kathy quickly became known around the neighborhood as 'the computer girl' with how quickly she mastered the art of coding and having built her own computer from money she gained from selling lemonade in the summer since her father refused outright to buy her one. She would go to houses and houses in her neighborhood and help them either to repair their computer, deal with the software, or help them set up connections to the World Wide Web, all for free.

Her passion continued in high school, joining up with the Computer Club. She was the only female in an entirely male-dominated club, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that this club was about computers.

Kathy didn't even see her gender as a problem until one day in mid-December when she was 16 years old, she was asked out by one of the boys from the school basketball team.

"You available this Friday? I wanna ask you out to a movie," Tom asked as he leaned beside her open locker.

Tom was a rather tall and athletic kid. He had brown bushy hair and brown eyes. With a really fit body, he was one of the boys whom almost every girl in the school would want to go out with.

More importantly for her though, it's that he's one of her brother's close friends since they're both on the basketball team.

This was the first time someone's ever asked her out, in both lives, so she was rather unprepared. Predictably, Kathy's mouth hung ajar as her mind went blank, trying to think of a response.

She doesn't really want a romantic relationship. To her, Kathy doesn't see a point in high school romances, especially when most of them are going to end once you reach university.

"Um..." If it's a flat-out rejection, Tom's relationship with her brother would probably get strained, so she'll use her experience from watching romance movies and books to gently let him go. Pushing her bangs to the side, Kathy looked into the teen's eyes, "I'm sorry, but I'm too young to be dating."

Tom's eyes widened as his lips thinned, "alright." then he quickly left.

Getting her computer, books, and papers and closing her locker door, Kathy heard loud laughter down the hall and saw Tom with a group of his friends, one of them slapping Tom in the back and the teen giving what appeared to be a green paper bill to another of his friends.

The ex-demon's eyes narrowed as her arms crossed her tiny chest, trying to push up mostly air.

Kathy felt offended that Tom went to ask her out because of a bet. Sure, she may not have the largest chest nor the longest legs but come on! Is she really that ugly?

"What's wrong?"

"Eep!"

Her brother's voice spooked Kathy, causing her to drop her books onto the ground with a loud 'thump'. Thankfully, since the pack carrying the computer contains a strap currently wrapped around her forearm, the computer didn't fall and break.

Immediately, ******* went and picked up all the heavier books while Kathy took care of the papers, his eyebrows raised as he tilted his head to the side, "well? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kathy tried to grab the books, only for her stupid brother to instantly back away.

"I'll help you get these to class before I'm off."

The purple-eyed girl's shoulder slumped, "You really don't need to baby me so much, it's been 10 years! I'm almost an adult now for crying out loud!"

******* smirked, he smiled as he ruffled Kathy's hair like when she was young. It continued until Kathy slapped *******'s hand away with a snarl.

Kathy narrowed her eyes in annoyance, stomping exactly as a little child would when they didn't get their way, "god damn it, I'm not a little kid anymore!"

******* backed off while waving his free hand placatingly. After ten years, her brother is now in his final year of high school. Standing 1.84 meters tall, ******* got into basketball at the start of high school. Despite being on the sports team, Kathy found ******* didn't really fit the whole 'jock' stereotype as described by movies, especially since he's soft-spoken, quiet, and much preferred a book than playing with others. What's more, ******* once said to her and their parents after helping to win the regional finals that he's more interested in finance than sports.

"Right, right, anyway, you have Computer class next right?"

"Yes, now give me my things, you're going to be late."

"Nah."

Despite her reluctant appearance, Kathy found it comforting to have ******* escort her to class. During her first day of high school, she was as lost as a human without a map in an antediluvian forest. Fortunately, her brother volunteered that day and helped her get familiar with her schedule, letting her have a touchstone in an otherwise unfamiliar place.

Despite being older than most stars, Primordial Violet never interacted once in a setting even resembling a high school. It was an outside-context problem.

As she entered the doorframe to class, the bell rang, causing ******* to freeze up.

"Ah crap, I'm late."

"Hmph," Kathy felt jubilant at the vindication, "I told you. I told you, you utter buffoon!"

******* scowled lightly, "fine, anyway I'm going now."

Her brother then dropped the heavy books onto a small table next to the door before running off down the hall and up the staircase. Kathy merely sighed as she watched his disappearing form, before picking up her books and feeling her back strained from all the weight.

_____________________________________________

A month later, at night time.

Tom was angry, embarrassed, and now wanted some sort of revenge.

Even if it had been a month after Kathy rejected his advances, the fact that a woman had the audacity to reject him of all people is ludicrous. If he had simply asked, any girl in the school would easily say 'yes', that's why he made a bet to his friends that there's no girl who would say no to him.

And then *******'s sister had to just show up, rejecting his advances just after he made that boast and actually causing the teen to think that there might be something wrong with his ears before realizing he had just been embarrassed.

'Too young'? Tom wanted to scoff at the pathetic excuse, he's dated people ever since he was 13 for crying out loud.

So why did she reject him? He's perfect! The perfect senior that always helped sophomores, the perfect student who's always ranked in the top 10, the perfect teammate who's almost always the MVP of the basketball team. His body is like that of a greek statue, all without the use of steroids or any performance boosters.

He's smart, intelligent, handsome, desirable, trustworthy, friendly, and everything in between! He can't be in the wrong, and after much introspection, Tom came to the conclusion that it must mean something is wrong with Katherine!

Feeling responsible, Tom decided to diagnose and see what was exactly wrong with Katherine, and help her, cure her of whatever was wrong.

Over the past two weeks, Tom discreetly followed Kathy around, trying to see whatever was up with the girl without her knowing. His logic was that when he figure out what was wrong, and he pointed it out, Katherine would have no choice but to be extremely thankful for his thoughtfulness. Perhaps even finally love him like in those movies about romancing vampires.

The teen would forever deny that it's not stalking, it is a 'secret observation'.

Tom hid behind the side of a car in a parking lot as he saw Kathy exit a Canada Computers while carrying a small opaque bag. The 16-year-old girl was wearing a light jacket considering it is now the twilight of winter.

Tom then mentally reviewed his findings, the most likely cause for Kathy's prudish behavior is her inexperience, once she gets a taste of the flesh, she would crave it.

Tom has plenty of experience slowly breaking people in and helping them explore themselves, unlike his prudish parents.

Thus, just as Kathy walked passed the car which Tom hid behind, the teen waited for a few seconds before popping out. Seeing that the girl was passing the alleyway between Canada Computer and a Shoppers Drugmart, moving passed another stranger walking towards the computer store, the teen then yelled out to her.

"Hey, Kathy!"