Grey Nirmala
[Grey Nirmala and Sovereign Orinn Legia`s battle on the Mountain of Destiny will happen in 28 days.]
[Grey Nirmala is still not considered a terrorist by Sovereign Orinn Legia.]
[The Pits are shaken by a large amount of aetheric power. Grey Nirmala is the prime suspect.]
[The Marshals have found 52 gateways in the Dream Realm that are connected to the other 4 realms.]
[The preparation for war against the Green Realm will start in 10 days. May The Mighty Tarn be with us.]
Article headlines were plastered across the deputy headmaster's wall. Maya looked at me first, then threw a dumb glance at the article titles.
"You're described even scarier here," Maya said with a smile. I shrugged and knocked on the deputy headmaster's door. A few seconds later, a man's voice shouted from inside, "Enter!"
I waited a moment before opening the door. The man's name was posted on it: "Leon Grishem." Could I really trust this person? I didn't even trust Lilith that much. I'd only warmed to her a little because she helped me. But in the end, it was Lilith who told me to come here. I had no choice. I needed help and power. If I wanted to kill Orinn, I had to do this. I had to.
My hand gripped the knob and I opened the door slowly. I stepped inside and saw a middle-aged man. Leon's eyes were green and his hair was silver. A small mustache sat on his face.
"Hello, Grey Nirmala. I've been expecting you," Leon said, his voice carrying an interrogative edge. His green eyes left me and moved to Maya, who still stood at my side.
"Why is she here?"
Behind Leon were various certificates and awards. That caught my attention. Each was carefully prepared. But the one that drew me the most was a certificate labeled "Awakening Certificate." On it was written, "Awakened Leon, you have reached the Conversion Awakening." Leon was leagues stronger than me. I hadn't even reached the section he was on. And it annoyed me. In the Green Realm I'd felt unbelievably strong, but here I was just a brat with almost no strength.
"Is there a problem with her being here?"
Leon sighed and straightened his posture. I could feel his aetheric intent intensify.
"I generally prefer to discuss private matters well... private ."
I grinned at his words and tapped a finger against my temple. "With him around, we can never be alone."
Leon raised one eyebrow but said nothing. Instead, he picked up a capped pen from his desk, clicked it open, and aimed it at me.
"If I'm not mistaken, you haven't reached your Third Awakening yet, have you?"
His tone was calm and pitiless. I rolled my eyes and nodded.
"Yeah."
Leon smirked. "Then we'll have to train you well in twenty-eight days. After all, you can't fight Orinn Legia in a state this weak."
He threw the pen. It flew fast. I didn't think it could seriously hurt me, but the pen wasn't aimed at me. It was aimed at Maya. The moment I realized this, I channeled aether into my arms and caught the pen at high speed. Before Maya even knew what had happened, the pen was in my hand. I looked at it, just an ordinary office pen.
"Yes, I know. You're probably about to ask me why I did that, but the truth is—"
Before Leon could finish, I whipped the pen back at him with the same speed. His eyes widened, but he caught it effortlessly. He stared at the pen with a curious expression, then seemed to push whatever nonsense he'd been thinking aside and set the pen back on the desk.
"Alright, perhaps I should have expected you'd pull a stunt like that."
I narrowed my eyes and frowned. "I don't want her getting hurt."
My voice was hard, but fear and worry hid behind it. Maya smiled at my words.
"Anyway. Where was I? Right, my real reason for tossing the pen wasn't to measure your reflexes, but to see how you'd catch it. After all, as our ancestors said: 'When heading into the storm, what matters is how you go.'"
Maya and I exchanged a silly look. We both found Leon's words funny. If I truly had to listen to this man, I was in for a long haul, because he and I were opposites.
Leon stood and stepped around the desk, fixing me with a judging stare. "In this state, you can't match the Dream King. In fact, you'll go through the exact same thing you just experienced with another student. This isn't a game, Grey."
I tightened my legs and took a step toward Leon. "If it's supposedly so easy to train me to beat that man, why didn't you train anyone before?"
Leon mirrored me with a step of his own. "I did but, no one else has the potential you do. Your power is an anomaly. Even at Second Awakening, you managed to defeat the Crimson Leader Gien Husk."
Despite all the praise, I still didn't know why I should trust him. Lilith hadn't even told me why she wanted Orinn dead. And Leon was a mystery himself.
"It's nice that you have such faith in me at defeating Orinn. But don't forget this, Leon Grishem, I'll kill Orinn not because you want me to, but because I want to."
Leon narrowed his eyes, lifted his shoulders, and let his face grow serious. "You're taking the word 'death' too lightly, kid. No one understands what death truly means until they taste a real death. Are you really ready to take that responsibility?"
I looked him in the eyes. I had dozens of insults for this bastard, but I bit my tongue and held the urge back. I didn't want to talk about my past. The more they knew... The more Orinn knew about me, the stronger he became. Knowledge was a weapon to him, and I barely knew anything about Orinn. Leon sighed.
"That's what I thought." He returned to his desk, sat down, picked up a sheet of paper, and held it out to me.
"On this paper is everything you'll do over the next twenty-eight days."
I snatched it from his hand and examined it immediately. I could feel Hachiko and Maya peeking at it, too. I ignored them and kept reading. The page listed various classes, exercises, diets, meditations, and drills, laid out day by day. The good part was I could do them all right here at Aetherim Academy. It was nice to have everything I needed without leaving my position. But what I really needed were results.
"You'll start all of this tomorrow. Today, go to your room and rest. Tomorrow will be the day everything begins."
Maya bowed her head to Leon, then lifted it after a few seconds. "May the Great Tarn be with you," Leon said. In that moment I knew my job with this man was done. I could bow to him like Maya did, but I wouldn't. I had no respect for this man, so I had no reason to be respectful, my superior or not.
I left the room and searched the page for what I should do now, but there wasn't much to help me at this moment.
"Your room number is written here," Maya said, pointing a small finger at a number on the sheet. "2110."
The moment I saw it, I spaced out. Such a big number… How many people were actually here?
"You can reach the two-thousand-series rooms by turning left down the corridor."
Maya answered with a smile. I reflected the same smile back at the little girl and patted her head.
"Thanks for today. You helped a lot."
Maya's face flushed and she bowed her head. "It's nothing, big brother Grey. If you'll excuse me, I have to get to my next class."
I took my hand from her head and turned away. "See you tomorrow," I said and started walking away to my room.
"See you, big brother Grey!" Maya called from behind. I still had a ton of questions for her, but I couldn't keep her with me all the time.
I walked toward my room and glanced over the training sheet again as I walked. Days, weeks… classes, meals, even a meditation schedule.
"Meditation… Why is aether so tied to minds?" I asked Hachiko. The answer came quickly.
"Don't think of aether as just a power aimlessly drifting around. Aether has a consciousness, too. We're here because of that very consciousness. Aether chooses whom it awakens."
Hachiko's explanation was strange and incomplete. "So what, you mean aether has to choose me to reach new awakenings?"
Hachiko shook his head. "No, only the first awakening. The rest is entirely up to you."
I frowned. "Blah, blah, damn it. I haven't even reached Third Awakening yet, what the hell am I supposed to do? It's impossible to be on par with Orinn in twenty-eight days…"
I stopped myself. Different ideas and tactics flickered to life in my mind. "Not unless I make a gambit."
"A gambit?" Hachiko asked, surprised. "A gambit with aether? That's pure nonsense and madness, and you're hearing that from me."
I shrugged and turned left down the corridor. "I'm not going to trick aether, I'm going to toy with it. If I want power, I have to cheat. I can't spend my whole life drilling."
Hachiko went quiet. His thoughts scattered to every corner of my mind. "What about the consequences?" "If this happens, what then?" "What happens to me?" "What really is aether?" "Can he use the power of Eclipsera?" After that last question, Hachiko stopped thinking. I arrived at my door, but couldn't open it. Hachiko's weirdness was affecting me, too.
"Eclipsera?" We asked at the same time.
"What the fuck is an Eclipsera?" I asked, dazed. Hachiko couldn't answer either. We both just stood there at my door. The number "2120" was written on it, but my hand wouldn't reach for the handle.
"I just want to sleep. Why did you have to bring this up out of nowhere?"
Still no answer from Hachiko. My companion was locked in a battle with himself inside his own mind. I could do something to get his attention. I almost sent him a disturbing image, but didn't. I gave up. If I messed with Hachiko now, he might fail to grasp whatever he was trying to understand. I sighed and turned my focus back to the door. I pulled the handle… but the door didn't open.
"What the?"
No matter how hard I tried, the door wouldn't open. I thought maybe I needed a key, but if so, Leon would've given me one, and there wasn't even a keyhole. I leaned my head against the door and frowned.
"Damn it."
"You have to channel aether into the door."
"Huh?"
Confused, I turned around and saw a girl sitting in front of the opposite room's door, resting her chin in her hands.
"First time dealing with an aether system? I guess you don't have things like this where you're from."
I stared at the girl with a dumb expression. "And who the hell are you?"
She giggled and stood up slowly. Her eyes and hair were both orange. She stretched her arms and gave me an impatient look.
"My name's Ulma Shinra. Maybe you've heard of me, around here some people call me the 'Orange Princess.'"
Ulma tossed her orange hair back, probably thinking it looked cool, but she didn't really manage to pull it off.
"Uh… no." I said with an even more dumb expression.
The moment she heard me say no, all her swagger vanished.
"Huh? Wha—? Seriously? Damn it, why does this never work?"
Ulma muttered to herself, then looked back at me with an awkward grin. "Alright then, Mr. Annoying, what's your name?"
"'Mr. Annoying,' huh? Funny," I thought. But the fact she didn't know who I was was even funnier. I leaned my back against the door and spoke in a calm voice.
"My name is Grey Nirmala. Maybe you've heard of me, around here some people call me 'Fates Masterpiece.'"
Ulma's eyes went wide as much as they could. Her jaw dropped, she wanted to talk but really wasn't managing it.
"Wha— Huh? What?" Ulma yelped. Her orange hair was a mess.
"Y-You're Grey Nirmala? Shit!"
She slapped her cheeks a couple times to see if she was dreaming. When nothing changed, she focused back on me.
"Uh… so then… is something dramatic supposed to be happening right now?"
Ulma asked, her voice filled with nonsense. I raised one eyebrow at her. The Orange Princess straightened her hair and coughed a few times.
"You need to channel aether into the door to open it. Then the lock will undo itself."
Having gotten an answer to a question I hadn't asked, I turned back to the door and placed my hand on it.
"So, can anyone just enter anyone else's room, then? Isn't that a little unsafe?"
Ulma giggled. "Nah. Don't worry. If the door is keyed to your aether signature, it obeys only to you."
"Interesting," I thought. I had a lot more questions I wanted to ask. "So if I'm no longer the room's owner, how does someone else get in?"
I glanced over my shoulder at Ulma. Her eyes danced around. "Well, actually the answer's simple. They take the door off its hinges, bring it to an aether extractor, clean it, then reinstall the door."
"That's kind of ridiculous, isn't it? They could've found a better way to remove the aether." Hachiko said, he seemed to have shaken off his thousand thoughts. I turned back to the door and pushed aether into it.
"Frankly, I don't care," I replied to Hachiko. The moment my aether touched the door, I felt a weight lift from it. I grabbed the handle, and this time, the door opened.
"Finally," I murmured with a breath. I poked my head in and surveyed my new room. It was small but functional: a bed with a little window at its right, a tiny toilet, a mini fridge. Enough for me.
"Well, at least we've got a warm place to shit," Hachiko quipped with a laugh. I rolled my eyes, pulled my head back out, and turned to Ulma. She looked at me with a slight bow. At last, I asked the question I most wanted to ask:
"Why aren't you in your room? Why are you just sitting out here doing nothing?"
Ulma didn't answer right away. The Orange Princess wore an odd, embarrassed expression. After a bit more silence, she finally replied:
"Uh, because my aether… ran out."
Her eyes dropped to the floor and her face turned red.
"So, could you maybe lend me a little aether?"
"Uh…"
Her request put me in a weird spot. What did it even mean to "lend aether"? I gave her a puzzled look.
"Isn't aether everywhere? Can't you just draw it from the ground or something?"
Ulma perked up instantly. "You can't just absorb aether like that directly. And I don't even have the strength left to find aether and draw it in. Today's physical training class wrecked my throat."
I stared at her. She'd said, "You can't just absorb aether like that," but I'd done exactly that, instantly. Was that something only I could do? Yet Lilith and Gien Husk had both directly absorbed the aetheric particles floating in the air, too. Maybe my way of drawing it differed from theirs… or maybe it didn't.
My head began to spin. Meaninglessness tossed me around. Was aether's stupid mystery still not over? On top of that, new mysteries kept piling on.
"Uh, hey! From the Dream Realm to Grey, are you still there?"
I shook my head side to side and tried to refocus on Ulma. "Yeah, yeah, right, aether."
I held out my right hand to Ulma and waited for her to take it. At first, she didn't move, probably trying to figure out what was going on in her head. After ten seconds of blank thoughts, the Orange Princess finally took my hand, and the aether stored in my body began to flow from my palm into hers. As it did, I noticed something interesting: while the aether passed through my hand, it gleamed gold; but the moment it left me and entered Ulma, its color shifted from golden to a pale orange. It wasn't a huge mystery, I could understand why that difference might exist, but it still struck me as curious that aether had such a detail.
After a little while, Ulma withdrew her hand and flexed her arms and legs. She already looked livelier.
"Alright, I can work with this. Thanks, Grey."
I nodded to her and stepped back so she could open her door. Ulma opened it and slipped inside. Before closing it, the Orange Princess looked at me and spoke in an even tone:
"My twin brother is here too. His name's Kai, but some students call him the 'The Maniac Crimson Flame.' If you see him, tell him you helped me. I'm sure your reputation in the academy will go up."
My lips curled into a smile. "If I see him, I'll be sure to mention it."
Ulma smiled, flashed a peace sign, and closed her door. I sighed, turned my back to the closed door, and entered my own room, shutting it behind me. I flopped onto the clean-sheeted bed and took a deep breath.
"Hey, Hachiko. Are you listening to me?" I asked aloud. Hachiko didn't answer, but I kept talking anyway. "When you were the Eye of the Void, were you aware of the Organizer's existence? Or were you given to me for no reason? And did you had a consciousness before, or after I woke up in the Dream Realm"
Hachiko was still silent, but I could tell he wasn't asleep, more like he was deep in thought. For a long time, we were both quiet. I waited for Hachiko to answer.
"If…" Hachiko broke the long silence. "Even if I had known of the Organizer's existence, I wouldn't have understood what he was. And yeah I had a consciousness before. I'm still a pup. I'll mature as time passes. But until that day comes, could you please not ask me fewer brain-melting questions?"
I chuckled at Hachiko's reply. I pushed myself up from the bed and looked out the small window.
"Whatever you say, my dear compan—"
My words cut off. Every hair on my body stood on end, and my eyes filled with fear. On the other side of the window, far away, someone was watching me. A bloody knife in her hand, waving at me with blood-smeared fingers. The Pink Bunny stood there. Her murderous intent radiating like the Sun.
I stumbled away from the window. Trying to understand if the thing I saw was real or not. After a minute I looked back at the window, but the Pink Bunny was gone. Instead there lied a writing on my little, tiny window. The letters were carved from blood, and it said:
"Trust No One!"