Chapter 17: Episode 17: The Girl That Obsessed
In The City
Years Ago
In A Certain Household
The mayor of the city, a well-loved and cheerful man. He was loved by all, by the people, by the community, by whoever it was that surrounded him. He was so loved that the elections were won with an almost unanimous decision by the people. Loved by the people, loved by his family.
One day, his daughter was born, a beautiful thing, he finally had a child. He did not care whether she was a girl or boy, he would love her either way. Fearing for his wife’s failing physical health, he did not have another child. His daughter grew up, they were a happy family. That was when he noticed something, his daughter would constantly mention something about her vision being blurry, it was weird, he started to sweat slightly.
One day, when his daughter was six, he covered her right eye and asked, “Can you see properly?”
“Yes.” She replied.
He covered her left eye and asked, “Can you see properly?”
Her eyes widened, she tried to squint. She shook her head, saying, “My vision is blurry.”
The mayor instantly had his daughter diagnosed by a doctor. She had an illness that would cause blindness, but luckily, it was only on one eye. To make his daughter less afraid, he helped her put in contact lenses on her right eye to correct her vision. It was a short-lasting thing, by eight, her right eye lost all form of focus, she became completely unable to see through her right eye. She did not let it bother her, she tried to tell her father that she was fine, there was no need to worry.
She went to school despite being blind in one eye. She did not really enjoy school, she found no purpose in it. Furthermore, she was given special treatment for being the daughter of the mayor. She hated it, she did not like to be treated differently, she wanted to be normal. When her blindness became known, she was placed at the rightmost of the class so she could easily see the entire board. She disliked it, she disliked special treatment, treatment as if she was someone special. If she could design a school, she would make it so that everyone was treated equally.
When people talked to her, they stood to her left, when she was told anything, they made sure to be polite while standing in her field of vision. She was exempted from any physical activities because of her condition and status. She disliked it, stop it. She wanted to shout at the school, she wanted to change the school system. She did not want to be left out, she could do physical activities just fine even with one blind eye.
When she was nine, she sat to the side while the other kids played soccer. She just looked as they played, the kids running and laughing. She brought her knees up to her chin, wondering if she should ask her father whether there was anything he could do for her eyesight. It was horrifying, to feel that her right eye was open while seeing nothing out of it. When people looked into her eyes, it was unnerving, her right eye unfocused. It disgusted her even, so when she talked, she tried not to face the person talking to her.
That day, while watching the soccer match, a ball hit her in the head from the right where she was unable to see. It was a light kick, so she was unaffected by it, she was going to ignore it, but the class made a commotion out of it.
“What did you do?” One of them whispered.
“That was a bad thing to do!”
“Apologise to her!”
A boy stepped up, scratching the back of his head, his expression was very obviously frustrated. She could understand him, after all, the people around him only acted that way because of her disability and status. He looked her in the eyes, she noticed something. Unlike the others, he did not look her in a single eye, but both, as if she was never half-blind to begin with. He asked, “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” She replied.
“Well, okay.” He said, turning around.
The class started to go on a rant on how he should properly apologise even if she was alright. She sat there, not wanting him to apologise. She had enough of people treating her specially, she did not want to be treated like a princess. That was when he turned around and said, “She’s fine, isn’t she? Just let it be!”
“Still!” A girl told him. “You hit a girl.”
That stems to made him pause. The girl sat there, surprise that she was being treated as a girl, not just ‘someone born the daughter of our mayor’ or ‘that blind girl’. He approached her, his hands in his pocket. He had short blonde hair and a look that only his mother would love. He looked away, blushing slightly.
“Would you like to play?” He asked.
The class burst into a chain of complaints. She smiled and replied, “Okay.”
For once, she joined in the game, the opponent of the boy. The other classmates avoided her, not wanting to injure her or cause a commotion. But the boy would play seriously against her, she finally felt like a normal girl.
The next day, she found out that his name was Yuki Herro, so she went to him one day to talk. He had a pad in front of him, drawing and writing a few things. She approached him and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Hm?” He asked, looking back at her. “Writing a story.”
“What’s it about?” She asked, curious.
“Why should I tell you?” He countered, hiding the pad and sticking out his tongue. “Won’t tell you.”
She almost laughed at his childish behaviour. She looked at him with her one good eye and told him, “My name is Scarlet Rose.”
“Oh, my name’s Yuki.”
He kept his pad in his bag and was about to leave when Scarlet asked him, “Are you planning to be a writer in the future?”
He looked back at her and smiled widely. “I know I can’t do it, this is just for fun. I don’t have enough interesting material to finish my stories.”
“Interesting material?” Scarlet muttered, confused.
He approached her, smiling, a glint in his eyes. He explained, “Yeah, like people. I like to see how people act, how people feel. With more interesting people, I can write more. But our class is boring, no one here acts weird, it’s sad. So I don’t think I can publish my stories in the future. Maybe I will be a reporter.”
The glint in his eyes was so genuine, it moved Scarlet. She asked him, “If you could be a writer... would you?”
“Of course, dream job!” He exclaimed.
It astounded Scarlet, to see someone her age, just nine years old act like that. He had an aspiration he was ready to pursue if given the chance. He had a dream, he had ambition. Compared to Scarlet, he was much more special. She had no dreams, no ambition. She did not know what she was to do, maybe become a politician by following her father. But that was unnecessary, she was allowed to do anything they want.
“What if... I made a place where you can get inspiration?” Scarlet asked, uncertain.
“Cool.” He told her before running off.
That was the last she saw of him that day. She would walk towards the car and be driven home. She stared out the window, wondering what she was going to do.
Over the next few weeks, she started to learn seriously, she was smart, much smarter than anyone in her class, she could understand and comprehend most things in her life. And not long later, she talked with Yuki once again.
“Writing again?” She had asked.
“Yep, I like it.” He replied, staring fondly at the piece of paper he wrote on.
“Why do you like writing so much?” Scarlet inquired.
He looked at her and raised a hand. “My mind can relax that way. I like it because my mind can relax by having ideas settle down. I can do what I want, I can be whatever I want. It’s fun, nothing else to it. To do what I like, what other reason would I need?”
The smile on his face was so bright and pure that Scarlet found it blinding. If they compared their motivation, he was like a light, she was the pitch-black darkness. She talked to him more, trying to figure out what about him truly made him shine so much. That was when she found out about one of his stories.
She was ten, they were still in the same class. She listened as Yuki finally decided to tell her about the story he wrote. He laughed, so innocently it hurt her. “A girl, like you, she goes to school. But funny thing is, she is the principal of the school! A student is a Principal, isn’t that funny?”
“What happens next?” Scarlet was curious.
“Um...” Yuki paused to think. “I also go there and there are many people there. A strong delinquent, a bunch of interesting people from all over the place, gathered together, don’t you think it’s fun?”
“Will you write a story for it?”
He scratched his chin and looked into the sky. “I don't think so, no inspiration.”
“If you get the inspiration, you can write, right?”
Yuki was shocked that she would ask such a thing, what was she planning? He, being ten, ignored that feeling and laughed, “I can write anything.”
“Then I will grant it for you.” She offered.
“Really? Thanks!” He laughed, thinking it was a joke.
Scarlet, having found a purpose, studied as hard as she could, finding out everything she needed to know to start a school of her own. She learnt how to conduct business from specialists from her father. She learnt how to act proper, be a role model. As a result, she barely went to school, the distance between her and Yuki growing. She wanted to accomplish her dream of accomplishing another person’s dream. It was a long process, it took three years for it to happen. The school compound was formed, she entered it for the first time, walking beside her father. She was thirteen and had never seen a school that empty.
For the next year, she settled the admin matters to the best of her abilities, hiring staff, hiring cleaners, hiring people to work in the stores. She had the dorms built, the classrooms built. She hired a gardener to create a hedge maze around a small pond in the school. She had a beautiful garden around the hedge maze and garden, a perfect place to relax. She built it in her image, it was the best way for her.
She stood in her office, wondering if it was alright. At the age of twelve, she was technically already the principal, but the school had not started. At the age of fourteen, she officially accepted entries into the school. People assumed that because the mayor built the school, everything was professional. Not that it was not, but no one knew that a child was behind it all. Scarlet remained unknown, working as the principal and writing out invitation letters. Of course, the first letter she wrote was for Yuki.
Afterwards, she went to the news websites and asked professionals along with her father to find a few people. A girl that was detached from reality, she invited her to the school. A gambler, a radical, a game designer, a prodigy, a mechanic and many more. They were all her age and all had such distinct personalities that they might start a nuclear reaction.
When the middle school results were announced, she watched the news and saw a girl survive a fire. She read that the girl started talking to herself, Scarlet did not pass up the chance and invited her over. Several others too, a guy that had a record of hurting others just to see how they would react, two girls with their own problems. One did not like boys, the other feared boys. Scarlet invited them all to her school without exception.
She wanted to bring more people, more interesting people, she looked at the criminal records. She found two special prisoners, reading up on their crimes. She managed to convince her father to let them into the school, to give them a chance at a normal life. That was how she set up the school, she created Atdonus Highschool.
She waited patiently for the new batch to enter, she helped arrange the classes and lessons. She placed Yuki in the most interesting class, a class filled with a bunch of these interesting people. She herself joined that class. She had a designer design the uniform to best fit the school.
She decided to have a change of look, she wore a headband, a cloth covering the right half of her head past her chin. She wanted to wear it since her right eye was blind anyways. She had no ambition and wanted to be treated like a normal person. She met a boy who had all the ambition and treated her like any other.
At the age of fifteen, she walked into the orientation ceremony along with the rest of the students. She sat there, sitting through all the events she had planned, waiting patiently. When the principal’s address came, same as last year, they waited. No one appeared on stage, no one was able to Shee the principal. She did not want to be known as the principal, she wanted to just be a normal student in the school.
When they arrived in the class, she was seated next to Yuki by coincidence. She gave him a smile when she saw him, saying, “Good morning.”
“Right back at you.” He said, looking at the front of the class.
She went through the school year, watching from the sidelines as events played out. She looked at the events, she looked and waited and waited. Nothing was really happening. The only thing that happened was that the two prisoners she brought in had started dating. The boy from the slums kept to himself, she also found out that he was mute. The delusional girl was not as violent or crazy as she had thought. The girls acted normal. The girl that kept reading behind Yuki might as well not be there. Scarlet was starting to rethink a few things, things like what she could do to spice things up.
Even still, she found out that Yuki managed to sign with a small publishing company. He wrote a story with several volumes, he even came up to her one day, telling her about it.
“Can I read it?” She asked.
“Please don’t, it’s embarrassing.” He joked. “What am I going to do if you criticise my work?”
She did as he said, she never read the works he published, it did not matter either way. She started to write a notebook, filling it with the students’ names, backgrounds and her plans on making them more interesting. She then started to fill in more ideas, she started to keep thinking about how to set off a reaction.
The second year, in the first month of that year, she looked at a list of an orphanage, wondering if there was anyone interesting in it. That was when she found a girl, her name registration had five different names on it. When she called the head of the orphanage, she found out that the girl was ostracised in the orphanage for having a split-personality disorder. Without thinking twice, she offered the old lady to take the girl into the school.
Her initial thought process was to invite more interesting people into the class. Hopefully, with the introduction of a transfer student, it might set off a reaction. She simply did not know how big of a reaction she ended up getting.
The day she transferred in, Yuki pulled her aside to talk to her. He asked, “Why are you doing this?”
She blinked a few times, confused.
“Why are you gathering all these people? It’s obvious that the situation is the same as the story I wrote back then. What is your plan.” He elaborated.
She had never gotten that far, what was her plan? She was earning a stable income as a principal despite her age. She was capable of continuing the job for quite some time, but she had only done it on a whim. She wondered, what truly did she want? Or was she just obsessed by the idea of someone else?
Obsession, she thought, it fit her.
“No reason.” Scarlet replied, giving him a smile through her half veil.
She was going to act like the antagonist, that was how deep her obsession went. She wanted to help him create the perfect story he had always wanted to write. She would go as far as to become the inspiration of the villain. She thought, he was going to be the protagonist, she was going to be the antagonist. He would try to stop her and she would persist until eventually, she had to stop.
At least, that was what she thought would happen. Yuki did not seem to be doing much, he barely talked to her, she barely talked to him. When she had walked into the classroom that day and saw Yuki sleeping, she was pleasantly surprised. When she saw that a girl was looking at him sleep, she felt a twist in her heart. She played it off as normal and acted normal around her, all the while trying not to attack her. Scarlet did not know why she felt that way, but she did.
School continued as per normal until the day she dismissed Angela. She saw as the classrooms were caught on fire, the red colour reflecting on her face. She saw as her obsession went up in smoke. She would have to wait a long time before the classrooms were repaired, so she let the students go home.
Not long after, she received a message from Yuki, telling her to read his books as it was completed. She did it, with nothing much to do anyway. That was when she found out that she was mistaken, she had not acted as the antagonist to his story, the story was about her, to begin with. Highlighting the interactions between Scarlet and Yuki, it was an entire three part series dedicated to her.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone