Chapter 49: Useless Door
"What was your plan for his next session?" I reconnected with Pandora, which allowed me to see Geeta talking to Rika with a serious tone.
As for Rika, she had difficulty looking into her eye and even seemed nervous for some reason with the way she was gripping the couch tightly. "I was…planning on familiarizing myself with what is a healthy relationship is...and also to teach him how to assert himself and his own needs."
"Mmh, I suppose it is indeed appropriate, but still, prioritize fixing his dependence on his pokemon, it's clearly the highest factor in his panic attack, and also the most dangerous one."
As I regained my sense of view, I could see that strangely, the whole room was a mess, like a tornado had spawned right in the middle of the room.
But that couldn't be possible, as I didn't feel any kind of wind despite being in the center of the room, so it must have been something else.
"We can't just rush his treatment Geeta, we must do it step by…" Rika stopped talking as she saw me slowly stand up from the corner of her eye. Then, she completely ignored Geeta to squat before me with an air of worry. "Luciel! Is everything fine?"
I was kind of stumped for an answer, as for the first time since I was asked this…I wasn't sure what to respond. Usually, it was better to just lie, as this was what would give out the best response from the other…but now, I'm not sure if it is even necessary. "I'm…not sure."
But as I tightened my grip on Pandora, who seemed much more happier than before. "But…but I think…I am doing fine...we're doing fine…"
Rika was confused for a moment, but her expression softened into a smile as she moved her hand to headpat me. "Then there's nothing else to ask. You can go now."
I stayed to appreciate the pet on my head, and only decided to go when she stopped. I looked back at her in hope she would give me more, but she was already in motion of standing up, and I was already selfish enough today, so I didn't dare to ask for more. "Before I forgot Luciel, this is my local alright, so during your therapy session, you just have to come here. Mentioning that, also remember that each of your sessions will be on Sundays.
Geeta was frowning in the background as she watched me leave, but she didn't say anything other than that.
So after Rika opened the door for me…only because she was kind, absolutely not because I was too small to reach the handle, absolutely not, don't go create a fictional scenario around like that…anyways, after that I left the room putting me back into the hallways.
As I was trying to identify where I currently was situated in the academy, I suddenly heard screaming behind the door and I jumped back in fright.
I continued to look at the door for a moment, but saying that no one opened the door to grab me, I chose the intelligent solution and left before they decided to use me as a way to expel their fury.
I decided to run back toward my dorm, as my meeting with Colress would happen later in the night, so maybe I could spend more time with my friend instead.
…friend…
I stopped running and instead decided to walk instead. I was already far enough from the room anyway, so at this point I'm sure they would prefer to throw the nearest table at each other instead of me…otherwise their no amount of distance that would keep them away from me.
…but that was not the reason why I stopped, no, I simply did it to observe the friend ball inside my hand. It was pretty light currently, despite my remembering it being way heavier.
"Kyu." Pandora jumped back on my shoulder as he also looked at the ball with curiosity.
"How…how did it feel?" I asked Pandora with awkwardness, as I knew that he was excited to go inside of it earlier, but I really hoped he wasn't disappointed by it.
"Mi, muy kiku, kyu…miky kykumiku, myui!" (Weird at first, but it goes relaxing really soon, almost soothing…it would have been even more relaxing if someone hadn't started to panic after merely 1 second of me leaving their presence, then maybe I would have enjoyed it even more!)
Pandora reprimanded me, and I could only lower my head and accept the criticism. I knew that I wasn't acting normally when he wasn't near me, even if I didn't know how or why. But at least this time I was able to keep most of my calm, the proof is that I deemed that I could still keep that memory instead of sending it deep into my forgotten memory.
…wait a minute, is that also how Allister felt when I left him alone this morning? Is that why he was angry?
As I was considering that, Pandora leaned his body near my neck to lie on it.
"Mimi, kyki, kyu. (Well, don't worry, now you no longer have to be scared of me leaving you, as we are officially together!)"
Pandora's words made me feel warm inside as an unconscious smile tried to spread through my chest, but I stopped it the moment the idea came to my mind. I didn't want to ruin the moment with my ugly smile.
But still, I was still worried about something else. "Are…are you sure that this is what you wanted…now you can no longer leave me you know?" I said with worry, as I was scared that he would change his mind now.
But my worries were unfounded…or perhaps they weren't directed at the right thing, as I felt as if my vision squinted, which means it was Pandora who did it.
Without answering my question, he jumped back onto my head angrily.
I stopped walking, as from how he was currently acting, I had an idea about what he was about to do. "Wait…Pandora…let…let talk about it."
But Pandora showed no mercy, and with his tendril he started to touch my skull and…made a mess with my hair. "MIKYU KY! MIMIKYU, UYK! MIMI, KU…mi…MIKU! (I WILL TEACH YOU TO DARE TO DOUBT OUR FRIENDSHIP! I'M YOUR FRIEND, DON'T YOU DARE FORGET IT! AND NOW, EVEN THIS…ball thingy…PROVE THAT OUR FRIENDSHIP IS ETERNAL!)"
I couldn't even defend myself as Pandora rubbed my crane extremely fast, but not in a way that I would feel any pain about it, but still to a point where anyone else would have the impression of having a thousand jolts inside their hair.
And yes, this is an accurate description, I tested it once…even if I didn't really count how many there were there…But I counted more than that, so it can still be a thousand!
With this cruel punishment placed upon me, I could only walk back to my room with shame, and he only felt satisfied when I reached my dorm doors.
"Kyu, mu! (Mmph, I hope that will make you remember well our eternal friendship!)"
"Mmmh…I'm sorry Pandora." I apologized with an awkward expression on my face.
Pandora's body stiffened at my comment, but he didn't move from his spot…probably out of mercy rather than anything else.
At this point I had to keep Pandora on my head until I was alone, because I knew for sure that the moment he left, my hair would look similar to what would happen to them if they were hit by lightning and a storm at the same time.
…I couldn't say if this is a good comparison, never try it…but I'm pretty sure it would just cause my death.
With another theory to test added to my idea, I pressed my meltan against the detector, and the door opened.
As I was considering whether my friend was still there, I was blasted by a strange image in the center of our room.
"Prepare to fumble!"
"And make it double!"
"To protect the world from your devastation!"
"To unite all people in the nations."
"To denounce the good of true and love!"
"To extend our reach to the love above!"
"Jessie!"
"Jame!"
"Team Guardian blast off at the speed of light!
"Love yourself now, or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth that's right!"
… Is that pokemon speaking?
"Kyu. (That's absurd.)" Pandora stated like a normal pokemon would.
Agreeing with him, I entered the room to have a full view of the situation, and realized that most of the room was dark, with the exception of the television, which was currently showing a blue-haired guy and a purple-haired girl fighting a massive tyranosif with the power of…heart?
Well that just seems inefficient.
Yet, Mina and Allister seemed to look at the show with great interest, to the point where they didn't even notice my presence.
So of course I didn't want to ruin their time with my presence, so I silently sat on an adjacent sofa and simply looked at him without uttering a word.
I stayed silent for approximately twenty minutes, until the episode finished by itself.
With their concentration finally broken, I could finally talk to them without disappointing them with my voice. "Did you have fun?"
Allister instinctively looked at Mina, probably because he was recently used to her asking this question. But soon, he realized that not the voice sound far from him, it also lacked any feeling in her voice.
A characteristic he could only attribute to…me.
"Luciel!?" Allister screamed in surprise as he turned his head toward me, which also made Mina notice me in return.
Contrary to Allister, the only thing that proved that Mina was surprised was her eye suddenly widening, before lowering in intensity and raising one of her hands to salute me, "Oh, hi Luciel. Hope you didn't get punished too much…well with how much green there's around you, I would say it went well…unless you're a masochist."
"What is a masochism?" I wasn't familiar with this term, but Mina simply shook her head instead of answering, so I could only assume that I wouldn't get an answer…then how am I supposed to answer that question if I don't know what that means?
No, I should try to answer anyway. "I…I do not think that I am a masochist…because…well my punishment was only that I could use Pandora for the battle class for the rest of the years…so I need to find a new companion if I want to participate in the rest of the class. But…but also made Pandora officially mine…so that's great." I slowly petted Pandora while saying that.
A small grin appeared on Mina's face as she couldn't help but to tease me. "Oh, really, when is the wedding?"
"Wedding? You need to marry your pokemon once you capture it?" I asked in shock, which made Mina grin wider as she realized I didn't interpret it as a joke.
But she didn't even have the time to clear up the situation as Allister rose from his seat in shock. "You need to marry them? But no one told me this before!" Allister panicked as he raised his own pokeball to his eye level, but he's fear was interrupted by a slap on the back of his head.
"Stop being stupid, both of you. I was only joking, so don't be even more dumb than my own humour.
"You…you lied?!" Allister said as if he were truly afraid of considering these options.
But he's fears were true as Mina nodded her head to end this embarrassing situation.
Clearly, Allister was going to ask even more questions about this topic, so I decided to help her a little bit. "You didn't answer what was what you were watching?"
Catching the lifeline she received, Mina answered with the best of her ability. "Well that show is called Pocket Adventure, which is an animated series about two young trainer and their loyal Meowth travelling the world to learn more about pokemon. And during their travel, they often need to defeat the evil Ash with his pikachu that keeps trying to steal their pokeball!"
"…and you enjoy it?" I looked back at the screen which was already ready to diffuse the next episode.
Mina nodded without any hesitation. "Of course, I watched it since I was a child, and I love it. So you couldn't tell how happy I was when I saw that the academy had the entire 4 seasons available to watch…but I do have to pay some SP to unlock the other three seasons."
Mina looked at me with little eyes as I already understood what she wanted from me. "Yes, I can buy them for you."
"You're the best!" Mima raised her two arms in the air in excitement, but I didn't take her compliments seriously, she probably didn't mean it.
Instead, I turned my head toward Allister who flinched at my gaze before gulping. "Do you like the show Allister?"
His mouth formed a circle shape in surprise, before nodding rapidly in embarrassment.
"Oh that's great, then the other should also like it…but why aren't they here?" I said as I looked around the place to find any trace of Cynthia or Clair, but none of them were there. Which was weird, because if they considered it to be fun, then everyone should be here to watch it! I even want to watch this funky thing!
Mina's expression grew awkward as she started to scratch her neck. "Oh, well…Clair said something about not deserving to stay with us after betraying us…and Cynthia…really didn't take her defeat well and is currently retreating back in her room."
I waited for any indication of it being fake, but as I saw Mina not preparing herself to say anything else, I started to pout. 'I did my second selfish act today just to spend more time with my friend, I refuse that they simply decide to leave!´
With these thoughts, I started to walk toward Cynthia's door.
"Eh…wait Luciel! Cynthia locked her door. It's not possible to open the door!" Mina warned me, but I already had an answer the moment she told me this.
'Pandora, could you open the door?'
My friend nodded his body before jumping down from my body to reach the floor, before passing one of his tendril below the door. Soon, I heard a sound of a click happening, and the door opened by itself.
Pandora turned around and looked proud of himself for what he did, but I was only confused.
'I thought you were going to break the door…since when are you this delicate?'
Pandora looked at me blankly before jumping on my shoulder without a word, and especially without giving me a single look me. But I could still feel his irritation as he rested on my shoulder.
I gently petted him to calm him down, before entering Cynthia's room, which was completely covered in darkness.
I tried to see if she was on her bed or anywhere else in her room, but I couldn't find any trace of her.
So Pandora's eye slowly diverted toward a specific door that still had some light coming from the side.
…well I suppose she should be there then.
***
Bubble.
…she liked bubbles.
Cynthia thought as she lay in her bathtub that had probably more bubbles than water right now, but she didn't care as her gaze was still dazed from her earlier defeat.
Another thing that she liked was to be clean, it was not to a point of obsession, she just liked to be clean.
So each time she felt stressed or in turmoil, she simply gave herself a long bath.
And this one was particularly better than the one she was allowed to have in the Goldwin clan, for one that this thing had as bubble, but also because she didn't have to carry this uncomfortable sensation of owning something to Volo for forcing the other clan member to let her take such a private bath.
Cynthia pushed a deep sigh as she let herself dive even deeper in the water, which made some fly out of the bath.
Cynthia looked at them slowly fall down, and even got some form of amusement from seeing them fall, but it quickly stopped once they hit the floor.
She then looked back at herself and saw that her hands were already starting to be gilled, which was a sign that she had already spent too much time inside the water.
'I should probably stop…I can't just stay here and wallow in my own misery. It was just one lost…and you lost against yourself, that isn't that bad, it means only I am able to beat myself.'
She thought to herself that even she wasn't convinced by her argument, but in the end, she only blamed herself for her own mistake.
'No, it doesn't matter to whom I lost, I wouldn't have failed if I were better, so I need to become better, it's as simple as that!' With renewed determination, she grabbed the edge of her bathtub.
But it was a that same moment that she felt a vibration around her door.
She looked at it in confusion, but she didn't have the time to question it more than that, as the situation immediately grew worse.
Bam
The entire door was blasted off with what she could only discern as a dark hand, before that hand also retracted back into the darkness of her room.
Cynthia didn't allow herself to stay confused and immediately lunged toward her pokeball to prepare herself for an attack.
'Did these idiot of the clan send their assassins once more? Do they really think that because I suffered one defeat, I would become an easy prey?' She mocked inside her mind as she was about to send Nibble to the fight, but she stopped when she realized something crucial.
'Wait, how did they get past Luciel? He would have been able to easily stop them…Did…did they do anything to him? Did they hurt him? Did they cause him harm to go after me?!' Once she arrived at this conclusion, Cynthia was fueled by anger.
'They can fail to do anything to me as much as they want, but don't they dare cause harm to my friend!´
But this little lapse of time was all that it took for the being who broke down her door to close the light inside her bathroom.
But despite having her visibility considerably reduced, she was still able to see her assailant…and how couldn't see, even in complete darkness, his white hair was a shining beacon in the middle of the night.
Cynthia lowered her pokeball in surprise as she immediately recognized her opponent and could only look at him in confusion. "Luciel?"
***
After closing the light to avoid it burning my skin, I looked toward Cynthia who was completely surrounded by bubbles to the point I could only see her face. So, because I was polite, I decided to wave at her. "Hi Cynthia, how are you doing? I didn't know you could make bubbles out of your skin, I thought you weren't an esper after all…or maybe you are just this awesome?!"
Cynthia rapidly blinked before looking at herself. "No…these are just bubbles that were…" Suddently, Cynthia's face grew red and she immediately dived back into the bath, completely covering her bubble body.
Weird, I don't think it's that hot in here…is she this sensitive to temperature…or maybe her bath is just that cold?
Just because I was curious, I tried to approach her bath to touch the water to see its temperature, but Cynthia immediately growled at me.
"What do you think you are doing you little vixen!?"
"Little!? But I'm not little! It's just that everybody else is too tall!" I complained back, which made her narrow her eyes.
"Very well, below average vixen, did no one teach you how impolite it is to interrupt someone during their bathing time!?"
"No."
Her eyes widened before looking at me with pity. "Well I suppose no one told you that…well it is, do not enter a bathroom when somebody is already in there…and also make sure to close your eyes if you even saw somebody naked by accident."
I didn't really understand why she said such a thing, but if she said so, then there must have been a reason behind it.
Fixing me for a second, Cynthia faceclam when she realized her poor wording. "For you Luciel, it means that you must stop sharing your vision with Pandora!"
Oh, that makes more sense. If it is a rule that targets me specifically, then there is no need to have any kind of justification behind it.
I nodded to her to understand that I got her message, but she still seemed annoyed with me. "Luciel… that means that right now, you should close your vision.
I pushed a deep o with my mouth as I finally understood why she acted like this, and stopped to share my vision with Pandora, rendering me completely blind.
I heard Cynthia push a sigh of relief, then the sound of her grabbing the edge of her bathtub, accompanied by the sound of water falling.
But right before I could receive the sensation that she was fully raised, the sound stopped, and I felt her gaze directed toward me…or more specifically, Pandora.
"Actually, takeaways vision too, I don't trust him not to have any lecherous thoughts on my body."
"Kyu?! Muky! (Lecherous!? I do not have any interest in your ugly body!)"
"Whatever he said, I'm sure it was rude, block his voice too." Cynthia ordered, so I grabbed him from my head, which immediately made him panic.
"Kyu! Mi?. (You wouldn't do that you your best friend! Right?)"
But his plea of mercy fell deaf into my ears, as I remember that he showed none to my hair.
Realizing my thoughts, Pandora tried to escape from my grip, but it didn't matter, it didn't matter if I held him or not. The moment I could detect him with any of my senses was the moment it was at my mercy.
Realizing his fate was already decided, Pandora stood still and accepted his punishment with a heart filled with defiance and desire for vengeance.
"Alright, it's done." I said with a hint of fatigue, as stealing Pandora's sense asked a lot from me, the only reason why I didn't fall on the spot was because my condition was rapidly improving.
Which was great, as Cynthia didn't notice the tiredness in my voice, and simply concentrated on draining the bath and leaving the kitchen, leaving a bunch of droplets hitting the floor.
I know, I'm pretty good at distinguishing action with only the sound they make.
"You can reopen your vision now…and the one of Pandora too I guess." Cybthia said as I connected back the sense of Pandora and then mine, allowing me to see Cynthia wearing a white towel around her body and a comb in one of her hands.
Noticing me fixing the comb more than her, Cynthia grew a little offended, but she passed over this feeling to explain the situation. "You need a little combing, because I suppose that a little wretch decided to mess with your hair," Cynthia said in a humorous tone as she started to apply a weak pressure on my head to help her with her mission.
I let her do as she pleased as I stayed as straight as a stick to help her redo my hair.
"But I suppose that you didn't just destroy my door and intrude yourself just to have your hair combed, so what is it?"
Cynthia's words made me remember the reason why I was even there in the first place. "Right, I wanted to invite you to watch the stuff Mina likes together! But they said that you were presently sad about your defeat, so you didn't want to watch it…but they also said that it was fun! So I'm sure that if you envision it with us, you will have a lot of fun instead of being depressed!"
"Don't move, I'm trying to get your hair out of your eye…blindfold." Cynthia said to me as she grabbed my brow to have an easier access to it before responding to my proposition. "As for what you said…well I'm sorry, but I have to train instead, but you can still go watch that stuff with your other friend if you want."
"But you are my friend! I can't celebrate something if you aren't here with me! And why do you need to train anyway?" I said in frustration, which forced Cynthia to grab my brow once more to stop me from moving.
"It's because I lost Luciel, and I lost because I was too weak. So if I truly want to accomplish my dream of becoming the strongest there ever was, then I must train myself now!"
"But why must you train now? Can't you do it later?"I pouted as she added a gentle caress with the rest of her combing.
"Because some people have a lot of advantages over me since their birth, and if I want to surpass them, then I must make a lot of effort every day." Cynthia said as she released my brow to start working on the center of my head. "People like you for example, archon and other espeers have more advantages than me, so if I can't take a break."
"That's a lie." I stipulate, which made Cynthia freeze.
"…what do you mean?" She asked in utter confusion, she didn't even feel offended at being called a liar because she wasn't even sure on what point she would be wrong.
"In the top 10 of the results of today, only two of them were esper, and only one of them was an archon! And that esper who made it there is apparently considered as only a rank 1 esper, and he only made it to rank eight! Then, the rank one, Lance, didn't even follow the same rule as others and got straight to level ten just to fail!"
"But…"
Chynthia tried to replicate,but I continued my other point before she could. "So this means that among all of the students, only two students were able to win against the level 7, you and Leon! And then, a great part of the esper were far behind the normal student, in fact, two archons weren't able to make it to the level 2! Me and Natural!"
"But that was…into specific circumstances…"
Cynthia tried to argue, but I didn't let her say more. "Also, among you and Leon, you were the closest Then, that means that currently, you are the legitimate number one student in this school! So I would say it's the other who needs to catch up to you! So you can easily take one day to relax.
Cynthia's hand froze at my idea as she looked at me in shock, as the realization finally hit her. "I'm…I'm at the top? Just…just like that?"
The idea was so absurd to her that she couldn't even think about her defeat anymore.
"I'm…I'm the best…I'm even better than anyone else…" Cynthia suddenly started to grin and even giggled.
"…Cynthia…you're pulling my hair…" I whimpered, which immediately made Cynthia recover her senses and stop pulling my hair.
"Ah…I'm sorry Luciel…you know what…to apologize and to celebrate my success, then I won't train today and would join you gladly."
I beamed a smile at the answer, which was clearly delivered to a still-shocked Cynthia. "Thank you Cynthia, you're the best!"
Cynthia's expression grew horrified as she removed the comb from my hair, and I immediately stopped smiling when I realized that this was the reason for her scare.
"I'm sorry…I apologized as I decided to leave her alone to not waste her joy even more.
Realizing what I was about to do, Cynthia tried to run toward me. "Wait, Luciel, I didn't mean to…" Before she could finish, a black tendril swept right below her feet.
"Eh?" Unable to gather back her balance, she fell on the floor, making her unable to stop her towel from falling off her body.
I immediately looked back to see if she was fine, and noticed that her face was covered in red once more.
"KYU! (TAKE THAT YOU VILAINE!)"
Well that's not really nice Pandora, but at least you didn't hurt her, you only made her lose her grip on her towel…by the way…
"…should I close my eye? I mean, I didn't see you naked by accident…so does it count?" I wasn't sure what to do, so I asked her for a specification, but it only made her smile wryly.
"Luciel…" Cynthia tried to keep the little shame she had left by picking up her towel and trying to fit it around her body the much as she could to cover her most important part.
"Could I strangle Pandora?"