CH #6 - Determination

"… Now…!"

At the sound of Ryan's shouted signal, the two boys set out to attack immediately. Both had been waiting for the grotesque mass of insects that seemed to mix in one body to just "turn away" – if that could even be said.

Focusing on his breathing, the boy who was once undecided about his own fate now radiated with renewed determination. Ryan's words weren't by far the most subtle and perhaps the most appropriate for that conversation, but looking back now, even the victim of all those hard-to-listen things had a much more positive new perspective on any future.

He called out that inner power that he had recently discovered and that still didn't know how to control well. In his palm an almost solid sphere of flame formed, illuminating the surroundings with its orange glow that exclaimed "I'm here!"

"Take this, monstrosity of my nightmares...!" He then threw it, as one would do to a small rubber ball.

The impact was significant and nailed it, putting the entire mass of those little crawling and fluttering creatures into painful flames that would finish the job quickly. For a few seconds, the creation that seemed to have come from the darkest pit of hell stirred in what appeared to be the purest suffering.

"What the fuck is this?! It even looks like a real living being...!" He turned back, thinking about how it twisted around like a medium-sized dog or a small human child in pain.

Steve bit his lip. It made him think of all the pain he could have caused those innocent girls if he hadn't been stopped. Science claims that insects do not have pain receptors like those of humans, but this scene made him feel the pain must be the same anyways.

"I can only thank him for stopping me and reminding me of what was most important." Steve mused, once again regurgitating his regrets back into his mouth.

... It was no time for that. Quickly, he spat them out quite literally on the gleaming amber tiled floor, and leaving the imprint of his change there, he went on another attack.

"I've changed, and I'll be making a point of showing it clearly...!" He exclaimed aloud, preparing yet another flaming strike.

Sensing the approach of an even greater mass of these things, he sucked in air with all his might, holding his breath at the end. For a moment, he thought how almost of a cheat it was that his own flames did him no harm, after all, in that very second, his lungs were on fire on the inside.

"Take that...!"

It blew up, but not as an ordinary blast. Steve put all the force he had into the expiratory muscles of his chest, releasing what should have been pure air with surprising speed and intensity.

A blaze of pressurized fire cut through the corridor, traveling several meters until colliding with the macro composition of those micro creatures united in one. The fire burned with the most solid bravery, holding itself imposing for the short five seconds the attack lasted. At the end of that, the shifting mass was gradually reduced to its fundamental pieces, which peeled off like dead skin, revealing layer by layer that was underneath, also dying from the excessive heat.

Cockroaches, spiders, scorpions, bees, ants... If he had to describe every element he could see in the mass of dead and still dying beings, he could spend the whole day. The variety of species united in that amalgamation of destruction was such that it could not be believed if he had not "killed" it himself.

"But what in the actual fuck-"

His thoughts were interrupted by the alarming sound of the fire extinguisher being activated. Right there, on the other side of the long hallway, was Ryan. With the use of pressurized gas, he also eliminated those demonic creations.

"Freezing also seems to work...!" Ryan said, from a distance. "These things are paralyzed by the cold of carbon dioxide, not to mention suffocation."

He also seemed to be doing well, although was visibly on a slightly worse standing when compared to Steve. The released gas, lethal as it was, did not have the same efficiency as immediately setting fire to the heart of danger.

Insects and other small animals fell in heaps, disoriented and paralyzed by freezing and suffocation. Many lost all sense, flying in circles until they fell for lack of oxygen.

They eliminated a total of five of those masses, and that only in that single set of hallways.

"Is it serious that these things are out there too?! That explains why no one was able to get in or leave...!" Steve commented, regrouping with Ryan.

Still fearful, he already had his next attack ready. He and Ryan worked almost as a perfect pair, covering each other's rears and collaborating when attacking, not to mention the second boy also serving as damage control should Steve damage the structures with fire.

"That's why it's not safe to tell the students to evacuate! In fact, most of them have already seen it, so that's why they decided to stay here." Ryan responded, setting the fire extinguisher forward. "This will only end after we find the person responsible! For now, all we can do is mitigate the danger by eliminating these things."

Quite thoughtful about it, Steve nodded with some difficulty, sliding his fingers in a sign of stress through the strands of hair that were the color of fire.

"It's the first time I've seen someone with that hair color... And knowing you use fire makes me feel like it's not a coincidence." Ryan commented. "Did you color it or something?"

"Ah... About that..." Steve pulled a small lock, analyzing its color. "No, I didn't color it... It happened after I opened the letter."

"Eh? Like that? Did your hair color just change?"

"That's about it, I guess... A couple of days after the fever had gone, I noticed that my hair had started to grow in that color, whereas before it was brown... Isn't that supposed to be normal?"

"Not that I've seen before…" Ryan thought as silently and cryptically as he could.

The Savoia has never heard of changes in appearance caused by abilities. The purple eyes like amethyst geodes were inherited from Joanne, and that is to say she always had them. Other than that, Ryan or any of the other skill users he encountered didn't have these mutations.

"Not that I've encountered many, anyway... Maybe this is some kind of special condition."

Cast and Lira looked relatively ordinary in terms of appearance, and other people never commented on their looks, and the same was always true in his case. Everywhere he visited on their temporary stays, Ryan's bright, vibrant purple eyes were never a topic of conversation.

So finding out that skills could also cause visible structural changes was quite new.

... ... ...

"Look over there, Ryan...! In the name of the holy mother, that thing is gigantic...!" exclaimed Steve, pointing ahead.

Pulled out of his trance, Ryan let his eyes draw their own conclusions.

"What the fuck is that?!" He questioned himself.

"That's what I want to know...! That seems like twenty of those things put together in one!"

The mass of small beings moved gigantically through the walls, climbing and filling up according to the structure. It appeared to be much larger than the appearance made visible, and it felt like it was having to compress in order to adjust to the ambience of the hallway, as it came from a more open room, which corresponded to the front patio.

"What the fuck... How are we going to kill this?! I doubt my fire will be able to do anything...!" Steve hesitated, taking a few steps back as he became aware of the fast approaching mass.

It was moving towards them, and though it had no eyes, it was clear to see – it was angry, absolutely infuriated at what they had done to the smallest of its kind.

"It wants to kill us with all its might...!" Steve once again let his panic sink in.

Ryan was having none of that bullshit. The dark-skinned boy impatiently kicked open a nearby classroom door, quickly thinking of what to do.

"Set fire to the chairs, Steve…!" He yelled from inside the classroom.

Ryan threw a chair out of the room with the speed of someone who really didn't want to die being devoured by that mass from hell. One by one, the chairs were out of place, stacking one on top of the other in a kind of barricade.

"This… This might work...!" Steve exclaimed to himself as he realized what the other boy's desperate plan was. "Keep sending the chairs, Ryan!"

"No need to even say...!"

Steve ignited the base made by the first chairs, rearranging them from their random arrangement to something a little more like a wall. In doing so, it helped the base flames consume all of the material, effectively creating what they might call an "insect-cutting wall."

"This is crazy...!" Spoke the boy with orange hair, helping Ryan to reinforce the "firewall" with more layers.

"That thing you did to the library was too!" Ryan responded, bringing with him two chairs that would serve to thicken the wall. "There is no more normality around here!"

The plan had an obligation to work, and very fortunately, it followed that rule. The great mass was contained by the wall, and the crackle of the wood mixed with that generated by the burning of the exoskeletons of those small arthropods.

The few who made it through the first layer soon died, as their bodies were inevitably heat-damaged on their way between the various gaps. The threat had been contained.

"This thing will die out in time, but if it managed to form, we have no way of knowing how many more of that size or even bigger are lurking around the structure…" Ryan spoke up, still defensive.

The monsters made of insects acted as "guards", preventing the rescue from approaching and people from being saved. He himself had witnessed the existence of those various conglomerates outside, making any attempt to leave or enter impossible.

Ryan knew he was being too repetitive with that same sentence, but there was nothing to do if it represented the truth...! He had never seen anything as devastating as this.

Without outside help, they could do whatever they wanted inside. People would be tortured not only out of fear of uncontrollable fire, but also traumatized by monsters and horrors that never before left the imagination.

How to solve that situation? How many would they have to defeat to undo this scenario coming straight from hell? How to think about making everyone forget about it all at once?

Some traumas never go away, and some things cannot be erased. Ordinary memories are like writing in pencil, but the worst memories can never be permanently erased.

"Emily... I hope she doesn't go back to that house ever again." Ryan thought.

The beautiful girl in a bob cut and cheerful heart had no idea her traumas were suppressed. That was the best Ryan could ever hope to do.

It is all still there, and will never go away, the only difference being that, now, all those painful memories are sealed in a fragile glass box – one that will certainly break in a thousand fragments in the presence of the smallest of triggers.

Painful memories are but inky in nature, and can only be covered while never truly gone. If she ever decides to return, he won't be there to seal them again and save her once more from dying.             

"Damn it…"

"Hey… Ryan…"

"How the hell can I make this work? How are the others? Are Cast and Lira fine?"

"Ryan…!"

"There has to be something I can do…"

"Fucking dammit Ryan…! Stop biting your hand for fuck's sake! It's bleeding!"

Being alerted by Steve, the dark-skinned boy finally took note on the ferric taste that now covered his whole mouth. Staring at his right hand revealed two tiny wounds made by pressure.

"Are… Are you okay, man? You seemed kinda…"

Seeing that made Steve quite worried, as Ryan looked like he wouldn't stop until some real pain started to take place. Or maybe, that was even the intention?

No. That was way too dark to think of, but even so, seeing he actually started to bleed…

"Ah… Guess I'm just a little stressed. It will be fine." Ryan quickly abandoned the gesture, taking the red cylinder in his burnt left hand. "Let's take this one. It will take us to the outside, where there are more to take care of."

The flame-haired boy was left hesitant after all that, and while following Ryan through the chosen hall, couldn't stop thinking about that unique semblance of what he so carelessly called "stress".

Meanwhile, the leader of that duo marched as an unfazed soldier, holding an expression made of steel, but that could only hide how fearful he felt about the future of it all.

… … …

"Did you also hear that?" Ryan asked, ceasing to walk after that strange and loud noise had cut through the place like a wave.

"Yeah… That… Didn't sound any good."

The whole structure was put to shake for about a second, followed by the noise of glass breaking abundantly. It was like a yell or scream of some sort – and quite nearby! – Knowing how Ryan acted when it came to these things, Steve's mind quickly jumped to its conclusions.

"You wanna check on it, right?" He asked.

"Yes." Ryan's answer was immediate. "You can keep going. I'll catch up soon."

"But that shit sounded so fucking dangerous…!" Steve protested. "And you want to go by yourself?!"

To that, Ryan simply turned back.

"Steve, me being there would be meaningless. There are so many of these monsters out there that only you can do something about it." He spoke. "As for me, I can't keep babysitting you and telling what you should or not do. I'm sure that's not what you want, too."

Trying to give maximum reassurance, Ryan let out his signature smile of sarcasm – but that time, it was genuine.

"And I want to help, too. I'm tired of looking so secondary, you know? If this was some story people could read, they would certainly hate me for being so useless." He smiled a little in the end. "I'm being selfish and I know it – and let me tell you – I don't regret it."

Walking up to Steve, Ryan touched his shoulder, still showing that smile.

"You made me believe in you, fiery bastard. Please believe me too. I'll be back and I mean it, after all..."

Taking the left hallway in that bifurcation, Ryan waved as he walked away, having a now empty cylinder in hand.

"…I didn't finish scolding you yet."

***

"Annoying... This getting way too annoying."

It was nice to have the opportunity to shoot down everything in sight, but the fun of it was being taken away by the kind of enemy the nasty-eyed girl was currently facing. A firearm proved to be the worst match against that heavily annoying situation, and she felt like even a pencil would do better.

It wasn't as if the "enemy" could do any harm, but the situation was slowly becoming more and more unbearable. As she crossed the corridors, seeking to understand the situation at its root, she had to share more and more space with these beings.

They were butterflies, small and white, but that flew in countless numbers all around the place, floating aimlessly, like the stuffing of a feather pillow being blown away by the wind.

The pale color of the small insects took over every spot of places, seeming to grow denser with each step. There wasn't a place they hadn't taken over already, and the discomfort of having to expel a lot from her hair and face was the peak form of discomfort.

"What I wouldn't give for an electric racket right now…" Lira thought, almost letting her frustration manifest itself in the form of speech.

But not. She couldn't speak. Getting the enemy's attention was what she least wanted. Whatever that scenario was, it wasn't normal.

The small, harmless fluttering insects reminded her of the wall she had to deal with earlier. Certainly the previous scene was much more morbid, however that didn't change the fact that nothing was over for sure.

She felt prepared, though. Any suspicious person would show up... and a bullet would end up in the middle of their forehead. The objective was the room where the Principal had to be. The place wasn't far from the main hall, but the walk was complicated, both by the need for absolute silence and by being careful with any situation she might encounter.

There were only two more relatively short hallways to cross. Most of the trip had its place in the past. With so little left, however, she readily noticed the changing pattern in the environment.

"No more butterflies...?"

The hallway was clean; entirely devoid of any potentially disgusting-looking life-forms. Not even a single ant dared to walk on the floor.

And while that was supposed to be good news, the second part made it terrible. There, in that hallway, were several people.

"What are they all doing here?" Lira allowed herself to speak for the first time.

Surprise took the Suzuki girl's face as soon as her eyes met that absurd scene. There, thrown down the hall, spread out like garbage bags, were some students, coordinators and the school Principal.

However, the most morbid point of all that was quite another. The fact was that none of those who laid there were unconscious. Everyone was visibly aware of everything that was happening.

And worst of all, every single one moaned intensely in what seemed to be the face of purest pain. Agony distorted their expressions, and they couldn't bring themselves to utter a single word, or make a sound that wasn't a cry for help.

"Damn it."

And it was at that moment, when she saw that traumatizing event unfold, that Lira realized that perhaps she was getting involved with something a little greater than someone who was capable of merely manipulating groups of insects in the open air.

Movement was seen in all of the fallen, arising from their stomachs which had an unnatural degree of bloating. It was as if they had been filled with cotton on the inside, like a stuffed toy.

... Except that what was inside was moving in the image of a nightmare. Underneath the skin, Lira watched as things walked on all sides of their bodies, seemingly ignoring any physiological boundaries, spreading out over their arms and legs, necks and heads, taking over each one of them.

And then, what she had half expected to see happened, even if not so hideously.

The bodies rose, all walking toward her like zombies in an old horror movie. Their gait was slow, uneven and unsteady; something distorted and not human.

There were six of them, all focused on the sole goal of capturing her. Counting her shots, Lira realized that she could finish them all with a single well-placed bullet to their heads.

... But what good would that do? They were not in control of their own actions, being but mere puppets for the insects that crawled under the skin to control. Even if dead, she doubted they would stop moving. If anything, they might become even more agile, given the new lack of resistance on the part of the victim they would encounter.

Likewise, there was no longer any possibility of returning. Lira took it into her own hands to find out what had happened to the people who were supposed to be helping the students amidst this chaos, and as illogical as that was to her character, the girl had a strong stake in what would be in the room.

"They wouldn't protect this room if there wasn't a solid reason. The user of this power knows I'm nearby, and wants to stop me from getting there." She thought, smiling to herself.

The thought of knowing she was pressuring her enemy to make this kind of grotesque decision and eventually revealing their location made her feel good, even in the face of the morbid scene taking place there.

"Es... Escape..." One of the "insect puppets" muttered as she warns the girl, struggling to speak.

She wouldn't do that. At that moment, Lira's mind could only think of one thing – a way to reach the Principal's office.

"They're too slow…" Lira thought. "Something tells me that's not all."

From where she was standing, she could easily push any of those pathetic puppets aside and finally face the person responsible. The problem was that it sounded too easy.

"And nothing is that easy." She let herself speak, taking a few steps back as she noticed an extreme change in the puppets' behavior. "Huh. Here it comes."

Stopping halfway, all of them spontaneously began to convulse. The muscles went into extreme spasms and tetanus, overcoming the signs of a common epileptic seizure by a wide margin.

And finally, it came. The mass rearranged in their stomachs, once again swelling their bodies enormously, making its way up, climbing the esophagus, to finally-

... ... ...

"What the fuck..."

Even Lira – a person who could be considered as mentally prepared for anything – found herself disgusted by that scene.

From the mouths of each of the six came, fluttering, colossal quantities of those pale little butterflies. Just by looking at it, you could see that the number was in the scale of millions; not just a few million, but likely hundreds.

Mouth, nose, eyes... Those little beings appeared from everywhere in a cruel and monstrous display, and the mere sound of the infinite and eternally reverberating wingbeat was enough to erode sanity.

The path to the desired room was now blocked, but while the most expected solution from the average person was to run, Lira knew what she had to do.

"Not failing today." She held up her gun, aiming at a specific spot in the wall to the right. "…And I'm not sorry."

***

Inside the Main's room, all that could be heard were several explosions of varying intensity taking over the outside.

No. They weren't varying in intensity, but in distance. Someone was triggering those bombs, and they were getting quite close to that room.

Question was… Could they be after her?

She had sensed someone nearby – the butterflies told her. Someone was looking for her, and that person seemed to be very angry.

But how? How could they ever hope to get past the numerous walls and obstacles, problems and difficulties she planned to be unsurpassable? How could they defeat walls and masses of insects that could swallow whole humans in one go?

She didn't know but… It was safer there. It had to be.

"This joke is over." A new voice was heard invading the room by force.

Accompanying her figure, the thick, white and incredibly cold fog seeped through, entering the place that was meant to be secure. Holding a gun to her hand, that person shone in pure determination.

"Hands up. Don't try anything funny, or I won't think twice before shooting."

That was it. She was surrendered, defeated. Most of her insects and other animals were dead, and the few who lasted were either too far or already being decimated by a far too damaging thing.

Giving up was the wise thing to do.

"O… Okay… I… I will surrender…" She slowly raised her hands, revealing all the fear that cowered behind.

She didn't offer resistance, nor planned to do so, unlike any story villain. In fact, if one could say, they would tell she seemed quite glad for being caught. It was almost a dream coming true…

… Especially after the nightmare she had to go through by 'his' hands and words.

It was only fair – someone would capture her; someone better, someone greater, someone fairer. Such was the fate of any villain.

Kneeling, she felt as the gun held by the imposing hero was raised and placed against her head. That was the moment. In her opinion, after the last few days that felt like months worth of suffering, death was a proper answer, and even, a good ending.

So why did her body refuse to accept it?

 "I'm not here to kill you." The mighty voice spoke, rather gently, but cold as that fog at the same time. "You won't die."

… … …

"I don't want to die… I… I don't want to die…!"

Tears streamed like rivers from her eyes, her whole body shivering as the hero took mercy upon her pitiful being. It wasn't her wish. That wasn't her desire.

"Speak up. Tell me who forced you to do this. I can see this isn't your will."

She could no longer feel the metal pressing against her head, but that didn't stop the tears. Whether speaking was impossible due to fear or relief, she couldn't tell.

But, in the end, it felt comforting nonetheless.