Chapter 18 - Reunion

'Huh… is that it?'

After four attempts, Ashe finally managed to do something with his completed thread sigil. Even if it wasn't on purpose.

After trying to somehow grasp how to use it through intuition he had finally given up. He was going to go look for Sap who flew away but something weird happened when he put the sigil into his pocket.

'It's gone! But what now? Maybe I just have to visualize myself using it.'

Ashe held out his hand and imagined the sigil.

…

'Nothing… huh. Why did Sap just fly off like that?!'

Ashe was getting agitated not only at Sap but also at himself. If Sap left him without explaining, it probably meant that it was simple enough that Ashe could figure it out. So why couldn't he?

'I'm getting too irritated, I need to cool off. Maybe I'll understand if I get a fresh mindset.'

He sat down and concentrated on his energy flow. The more emotions he felt the more uncontrollable it became. But when he looked inward he smiled uncontrollably.

The sigil was inside his body. Or at least that's what it felt like.

'Now that I think about it Sap pulled out the threads from my hair. Maybe they were here as well? Let's leave the pondering to future me, I need to focus.'

Right now Ashe had one priority. To figure out how to use his new ability before Sap came back. He didn't want to seem incompetent in front of his teacher.

Inside himself, he willed for his energy to flow into the sigil. It flowed inside but it never seemed to fill it up. Ashe was beginning to feel weak from energy loss. Even though he was actually just returning to normal human strength.

'Is it sucking in all my energy? this isn't good!'

Ashe tried to pull out the energy from the sigil but he struggled to do so. In a panic, Ashe used all the strength he could muster to pull out the energy from the sigil. He had overdone it.

The energy went flying out even managing to fly outside of his body. It flew for a couple of meters before falling onto the ground.

'Why is everything going wrong today? Give me a break.'

The weakened and annoyed Ashe walked over to his energy that splattered on the ground and tried to consume it. However, instead of a puddle of demon energy on the ground, Ashe saw an incredibly thin layer of crystallized demon energy in the shape of his sigil.

'Maybe everything is going great today.' He thought with a smile.

It wasn't larger than his palm and it took almost all of his demon energy but he made it himself, mostly.

The sigil was frail and looked as if a single touch would shatter its surface.

'Is that how you activate the trap? I better not touch it then, would be such a waste. So does the formula you use to decide how it's activated?'

Ashe laid on the ground, looking up through the multiple levels of the library. He had completed all his goals.

'It's a shame my new skill is so inefficient, maybe if I learn how to control more demon energy it will be more useful. It also feels like I've forgotten something. Ahh… it's probably not important.'

Then a sudden sharp pain appeared on his cheek and quickly spread, covering Ashe's whole head. It was so overwhelming that it felt like he'd lost all his senses. He couldn't think or comprehend his surroundings. All Ashe could feel was pain. Not even a scream came out of his mouth as the pain got larger and larger. It felt like death.

__________

"Hey, kid! Wake up!" A loud voice shouted.

The pain quickly disappeared and in its place a soft repeating slap on the cheek.

Ashe opened his eyes slowly, he was still dizzy from the overwhelming pain. In front of him, he saw the female worker from before.

"You can't sleep in the foam pit! I know it's pretty empty today but you have to follow the rules."

"I'm sorry." He said weakly.

"Wait… is my card ready?"

"Yes. You've been sleeping for quite a while." She responded and reached out her hand to help Ashe get out of the pit.

"I'm May by the way." She introduced herself.

"There aren't many workers here so you might as well remember our names."

"May… got it, thanks."

Now with the two of them standing on the ground.

"Come with me. Your new ID is at the reception." Said May.

They started walking towards the reception in silence. Ashe felt a bit awkward so he took out his phone.

'5 pm already! And so many messages and missed calls.'

There were many missed calls from his mom as long as some unread messages.

<Are you okay? It's getting late.>

<I'm sorry sweetie. I'll tell you everything just please respond I'm worried.>

Guilt grasped Ashe's heart. Everything that's happened to him has also happened to her. She was now also the only one left to care for him and Roy.

He typed out a simple message.

"I'm sorry too. I'm okay."

The other messages were from his school friends. They haven't seen him since Tuesday and when Emily tried to contact him last time, he didn't respond.

With it being Friday afternoon he decided that he would visit his friends. It's the least he could do since he was planning on leaving for a mission next Tuesday.

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by May. The two of them were entering the reception.

"Hey Gwen, would you take out the ID." Said May towards the older reception.

"Sure thing." She responded while taking out a small letter.

"Here you go, young man." She said with a warm smile.

"Thank you, have a good day," Ashe said before leaving the building.

He took out his phone and sent a message to his friend's group chat.

<I'll be at the usual place in a bit if anyone wants to join me.>

The group chats quickly lit up with notifications.

__________

Standing in front of a shoddy little restaurant at the edge of the inner city was none other than Ashe. After taking in a deep breath, he opened the door and was immediately met with a familiar sight.

A group of teenagers sitting at a table in the far corner of the establishment. Emily was doing her homework, while Dan and Harry were chatting. The moment Ashe opened the door the entire table's eyes were focused on him.

"Hey, school skipper! Where've you been?" The loud welcome came from none other than Dan.

"I've been through Hell." Ashe smiled at his own pun. He could not help himself, he had to make this joke even if only he got it.

"But really. What happened?" Continued Dan.

Ashe sat at the table and without answering pulled out a sealed letter. And before anyone could speak up, Ashe slowly started opening it.

The suspense was filling the table as the letter stole everybody's attention. A folded-up piece of paper left the letter's confines. Ashe unfolded it revealing a spread of information about him and in the middle a small black metallic ID card.

The group's audible gasping could be heard from across the small restaurant, luckily it was mostly empty. Everybody knew what a mutant ID looked like, it was prominently used in all types of media.

"No way!" Said Dan, breaking the silence.

"Lucky you." Harry chimed in.

All of their eyes were locked on the card, none of them have ever seen one in person before.

Emily looked up at Ashe with excitement.

"So… what can you do?"

Harry and Dan shifted their gaze onto Ashe as well.

"I don't know much but I can do this." As he said those words a small droplet of red liquid left from Ashe's finger and started floating around the table.

To Ashe, this was a pathetic display, but to the group, it was still fascinating.

'This is embarrassing! I still haven't regained my energy from making that sigil.'

"Wow! What is that?" Asked Harry.

"It's like my energy. I can also control it inside my body and make it strengthen parts of my body."

"Can I touch it?" Asked Dan.

"Sure."

"…ew it's warm."

"Grow up Dan!" Emily scolded him jokingly.

"You touch it then! It's gross… it's like touching pee."

"How do you know what pee feels like?" Harry smugly added.

from an outside perspective, the group's light insults or light jabs might invoke a sense of a toxic environment. But the group was no stranger to banter, it was their way of joking around.

"From… uh… your mom!" This masterful use of the English language to redirect the negative stigma from Dan back onto Harry made the table go silent. How could one even reply after such a deeply degrading comment?

"You're… so cringe," Harry said while trying to hide his laughter.

Everybody knew that whenever Dan would be unable to figure out a good riposte he would fall back on the classic "your mom". It's a very endearing feature of his character.

"You sure know how to make a good comeback." Giggled Emily.

The group enjoyed each other's company and the banter that followed.

'I missed this.' Ashe thought to himself.

but nothing could last forever, especially not this happy atmosphere. There was an invisible pressure that everybody at the table was ignoring, but the longer the night dragged on the heavier it became. It was only a matter of time before someone would mention it.

"When are you coming back to school?"

The moment these words left Emily's mouth, the mood turned sour. everybody knew that it had to be asked, Another student had already left their school this week because of their mutation, and they didn't want Ashe to be the second.

"Don't worry! I'm not leaving, in fact, you'll see me on Monda… hmm. You might see me on Monday and then I will be gone for the rest of the week… actually it might be longer than that… but after that, It'll be all back to normal!"

Nobody spoke after that and the silent looks were breaking Ashe's heart. A mutant leaving their life behind for so long wasn't uncommon but it also meant something serious. Either new mutant school tryouts, Maybe the government is especially interested in Ashe's mutation, or he's going on a mission to the wilds. All of those could end in them not seeing each other again.

"Well let's enjoy the time we still have," Emily spoke in a somber tone.

Dan also took his turn to try to lift the mood.

"Yeah. Let's order something already."

"Let's celebrate! This shouldn't be a sad occasion." Harry added.

The group slowly returned to its cheerful tone and stayed in the restaurant long till it closed. The invisible pressure was slightly more bearable after that.

"Ah, it's so late!"

"What do you mean! It's only 9. Come on Ashe you aren't going already, are you?" Shrugged Emily.

"What are we even going to do? Everything is closed." Ashe said, still opposed to the idea. he wanted to talk with Sap, and he was coming back after the mission anyway.

"I have something in mind. What do you all say, one last thing?"

"Yes! I'm with Emily on this one."

"Same here!"

Dan and Harry answered in unison.

"So it's decided! We're all going! Follow me."

"Where are we even going?" Sighed Ashe.