章 25: Forward [4]
[Celine's Pov]
*Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!*
'What's going on...'
For some reason Ray was currently right in front of me, throwing an endless barrage of punches against one of the many sandbags hanging from the ceiling, obviously without noticing the fact that I was right there.
At first, I had thought that he had simply ignored me, but after trying to call him out on his bullshit, his eyes hadn't even flinched, proving that he truly didn't hear me.
Wearing a tight, black tank top and a pair of well-fitted dark sweatpants, sweat was pouring from his body like a waterfall. His thin but pronounced muscles twitched with pain as they contracted and retracted like an instrument, producing punch after punch. Despite how painful it looked, he still didn't stop.
*Bam! Bam!*
Ray was doing all kinds of different and weird punching combinations, and they all flowed so naturally that it finally made sense as to why he didn't want to use a weapon during the spars. He was, in fact, a fighter who used his fists as weapons and it hadn't been that he simply thought he was that much better than everyone.
'But I still don't like him...'
There was still no denying that he had been toying with me during our spar, and although I now saw that as a sign that I needed to get stronger, I still couldn't accept what he did to me. That being said, somehow I couldn't stop watching him right now.
*Bam!*
'His punches... they have no power behind them?'
His whole body was being utilized when he used his right hand, but even still the punch didn't carry nearly the power that one would expect. And though his combinations flowed freely, they weren't particularly fast either.
'...isn't he super weak?'
For all intents and purposes, there was no denying that the man in front of me wasn't someone strong, even if he had more than convincingly defeated me. Yet his black hair kept fluttering as a result of his body never stopping, his eyes never letting go of his target.
At some point, without me even realizing it, I had sat myself down, leaning my back against the wall, and just watched him.
****
[Ray's POV]
*Bam!*
'Shit...'
My knees were finally caving in, unable to hold up against the exhaustion that settled in after punching the sandbag for as long as I possibly could. Most people would divide their punching practice into 'rounds', punching for a couple of minutes before resting and then going back to the bag again, but right now I was simply trying to squeeze out the last bit of power that I had in my body.
Which I had done more than successfully, as I now had to lean against the sandbag to keep myself from falling.
"Huff...huff..."
'...fuck!'
Frustration filled me up to the point where if I could, I would have continued to punch the impossibly strong enemy that I was now leaning on, as even now, as I was leaning on it, it still didn't move.
'I'm still so fucking weak! Damn it!'
It was the same feeling that I had felt so many times before in my previous life, a sense of being completely useless.
'I hate this... I fucking hate this...!'
When I felt like this, I wanted nothing more than to disappear, to hide underneath the bed covers and hide from the world for all eternity. And it would be so easy to do that. I just had to go back to my room and... give up.
'...but fuck that. I ain't giving up. No way in hell!'
Releasing my grip from the sandbag, my head inadvertently turned to the ceiling and the bright lights above me. I wasn't going to give up. Not when I had finally gotten gifted another chance at doing what I wanted to do.
So instead of despairing, I simply carried on with life. Because ultimately, that's the only thing you can do. Give it your best shot.
'I need a shower...'
"You're... pretty strange."
Suddenly a bright voice rang out in the room, expelling my consciousness out of my head as I realized that I was no longer alone in the room. Or maybe I hadn't been alone from the start. Because, further along inside the room, Celine was standing with a hard-to-read expression dressed in a pink training top and tight, gray leggings, showing off her mature form which contrasted her more young-looking face.
Needless to say, it was extremely awkward, even more so as she had been the one to begin the conversation. So much so that I didn't find a good way to answer her.
I knew that I had wronged her, and though it was difficult for me to comprehend why she had gotten upset to the degree that she did, I was still feeling a bit of shame for what I did.
"Not gonna say anything, huh... Well, see you tomorrow at homeroom then."
Seeing that I wasn't about to answer, she began moving toward the exit. Just as she opened the door and was about to leave me to my thoughts, I finally mustered up a single sentence.
"I'm sorry."
Weirdly enough, though I just wanted to clear the air a bit, I could see her body flinch from behind, but as I couldn't see her face, I had no idea how she took it. Unfortunately, she wasn't about to tell me either as she commenced her exit once more, quickly leaving not only the room but the gym as a whole.
'Well, at least I paid my dues.'
I wasn't immature enough to not apologize when I had done something wrong, but I also didn't care enough to go any farther than that to seek repentance. An apology was more than enough for someone who I barely knew and someone who I didn't seek to develop a deeper relationship with.
Sure it would be nice if I could get some friends, but that wasn't a priority to me. I already had enough on my hands that it would be a waste of time anyway.
'Man, I need a shower.'
****
[Celine's POV]
Running out from the gym, I tried my best to get as far away from Ray in the least amount of time as possible. A strange mix of anger, frustration, and... something else, something I couldn't quite put my finger on, was currently welling up inside of me.
Meanwhile, chaos was taking place inside my mind as I couldn't even begin to comprehend what had just happened.
'He's so weird! What is he thinking, apologizing all of a sudden?!'
From the very start, I had a bad feeling about the black-haired man as there was something about him that I just couldn't understand. An aura of otherness that somehow contrasted everything around him.
At first, I had thought that it was only because of his eyes and the way his gaze pierced through everything and anything, but now I wasn't sure about that anymore. Because now that I had gotten to see his gaze look at something else, I no longer found them that eerie. Especially after he stopped punching. At that point, his black eyes changed completely and the confidence that I had thought was his default state was no longer present in his eyes.
Instead, he appeared to be frustrated and to some extent... sad?
My feet stopped right underneath one of the many streetlights that lit up the campus at night as I could no longer hold back. Clenching my fists, I stomped the ground beneath me in anger.
"Hnnnng! Why does such a bastard have to be so weird?! Damn it!"
For all I knew, he was still a cocky bastard with no sense of respect for anyone, and that wasn't something that would change that easily, even if he had shown a bit of another side to me. Also, how was I supposed to know if his apology was sincere or if he was just messing with me again?
After how he treated me during the spar, how was I ever supposed to trust someone like that again? And for what reasons did I even have to attempt to trust him? It wasn't like I even knew the guy, we were just classmates without any sort of relationship whatsoever. It's not like I wanted to be his friend anyway, so why should I care about him?
'Shit! Damn it!'
We had only been at the academy for a couple of days, and he had already succeeded in making me lose my mind, a fact that only served to make me even more annoyed.
After spending some time punishing the cobblestone underneath my feet for existing, while uttering curses inwardly, I finally managed to empty out enough of my frustrations to take a breath and calm down a bit.
As I calmed down, I also made up my mind about how to approach the situation in the future.
'There's no way I will ever try and be friends with someone like that! No matter what!'
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット