Chương 85: Chapter 85 : Ripped Pages
(Morning time)
[Marshy and Duri's house]
Duri sat up in the bed, rubbing his head.
'We literally celebrated my birthday all day yesterday. I then came in here and was bombarded with tons of gifts. Literally from all my friends and the Hosts; hell, even Roga the cat gave me a gift. I'm so…sleepy. Right after the party, when I got home, I went straight to training, and practiced on controlling my Titan form.'
Duri got out of the bed, and he was instantly met with a punch from Ellie.
Duri caught her fist, and then threw her against the wall.
Duri sighed, "It's too early for this shit."
Ellie stood up in her school uniform, smiling, "First day of school! First day of school! I'm so excited!"
"Imagine."
"Sucks though. We won't be in the same class."
"I'm actually GLAD."
"DAMN YOU!"
"DAMN YOU!"
"Can you please hurry up and get dressed though? I'm not going to school alone. Marshy said she'd drive us, but I said no. I stole a bunch of your manga last night and read them, it made me wanna walk to school. So you have to walk with me."
"Don't have to. Let's just fly."
"No! Walk!"
"Fine, fine. Give me about five minutes."
"Hurry!"
"Get outttt!"
Ellie ran out, running downstairs, saying, "Marshyyyyy! I'm excited!"
Marshy answered, "I'm glad!"
Upstairs, Duri was getting ready. He brushed his teeth in the bathroom, took a shower, did 100 fast pushups and sit-ups, and got dressed.
Duri was walking downstairs now, holding his black school bag. Ellie and Marshy were standing near the door, grinning.
Ellie exclaimed, "Walk fasterrr!"
Duri replied, "Shutttt the hell up."
Marshy said, "Aw look at you two brats. I'm gonna cry tears of joy."
"Please don't cry."
Ellie yelled, "Cry! I wanna see!"
Duri scoffed at Ellie, "Are you on drugs?!"
"No! Are you?!"
"You can't ask me the same scolding question I've asked you. That's just lazy writing."
Marshy put Duri and Ellie in headlocks, saying, "You two stop bickering or you'll both have to fight me. Good. Don't get into any trouble today, ya hear?"
Duri and Ellie nodded, and Marshy smiled, "Great! Have a good day! And have a good first day, Ellie."
Ellie answered, "Thanks, Marshy!"
Duri and Ellie were about to walk out the door, and Marshy reminded them, "Oh, and one more thing. If ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE tries to mess with you guys..call me..I'll kill them."
Duri and Ellie responds, "Definitely will do."
They left the house, and started walking down the sidewalk.
Ellie asked Duri, "How do I smell? Do I smell alright? How does my hair look? You think they'll judge me if I have an eyepatc? How does my face look? Am I pretty? Tell me I'm pretty! How long are the schools on earth? Am I short for a girl? I know you're popular, so can you make me popular?"
Duri put his hand on Ellie's shoulder, and said, "Ellie."
"Hm?"
"ONE QUESTION AT A FUCKING TIME! GEEZ! And to answer ALLLL of those questions…just be yourself please. No one would dare try and disrespect you because they'll know me and you are of the same species."
"How would they know? You're gonna stand up on the lunch tables and confess like they did in a manga I read?"
"No. Kazuma posted it everywhere on Bloggerz, people now know you are a Shadow user like me."
"But they won't know I have no human in me. Yeah I LOOk human, but that's how the guardians of the Shadow realm created me to be."
"Doesn't matter. They don't need to know all of that."
"Screw Kazuma! He's REALLY gonna be my pet now!"
"He's alright. Super hyper all the damn time, but he's alright. But all in all there's nothing to be worried about now. Since you're gonna be instantly popular as soon as you step foot inside of the school."
"Popularity.."
"Hoh???! You don't wanna be popular?"
"Not really."
"Shocker. Back in the Shadow realm you always wanted the attention. You even stole it from Jae a couple of times."
"I know. But I need SOME kind of character development, right?"
"Hahaha! I guess. So..um…do you still have those dreams about Jae?"
"Yeah. Last night was kinda rough. Me and him were just sitting face to face, staring at each other. I couldn't speak for some reason; he didn't say a single word. It was..weird. I was terrified."
"It's strange. And you've been having dreams like this every night since the invasion?"
"Yep. But, I'm fine though, really. Can't believe I get to experience real school!"
Duri looked at the smile on Ellie's face, and dropped the entire Jae conversation.
Once they arrived at the school, everyone saw them, and people screeched:
"The Shadows!"
"Duri and Ellie are here!"
"Are they brother and sister?"
"Maybe they date."
"Seven wouldn't allow that. She'd be out here in milliseconds."
One buff student approached them, saying to Duri, "Oi. Duri. Step away from her. You've been with too many of the popular girls lately, and you're stealing my shine. I'm a jock, so popularity instantly belongs to me. So, step aside."
Duri answered, "..Fuck away from me before I slaughter you."
The buff jock threw a punch, "You asked for it! I'm gonna squash you, nerd!"
Ellie caught his wrist before it could go any further, and she lifted him up with one arm, with the sounds of snapping slowly going off.
Ellie said, "You..don't touch him. He's my responsibility, so no one goes near him at all with hostility."
Duri scoffed, "Heh?! I'm basically babysitting you, Ellie!"
"No! I'm a year older! I'm your elder! You're basically my son! So you're my responsibility!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
The buff jock in the air asked, "Oi! Oi! Oi! Can you let me go?! Ma' arms breaking!"
Duri and Ellie yelled at him, "No!"
Ellie said, "Hmph!"
She let the jock go, making him fall on his back. He was crying like a baby, while Ellie and Duri were walking inside of the school with crowds of students surrounding them asking them tons of personal questions.
They were walking down the hallway, and Ellie asked Duri, "Do you experience this type of ballistic behavior every school day?"
Duri answered, "Most of the time."
"How long do you think I'll have to put up with it?"
"A while."
"A while?! How long is a while?!"
"A few months."
"Months?!"
"Yes! Haha! Nerd!"
"No!"
Ellie made shadows form on her arms, and she turned to the crowd of students, sticking her hands out at them.
"Listen! If ANYYYYY of you try to follow me anymore and ask me personal questions, it won't be pretty! I'm dangerous, ya know! I was a bully once! Don't follow me anymore!"
Duri said, "Shit."
The students started backing up, and they started to whisper, walking away.
Duri said to Ellie, "I couldn't let you hurt them, Ellie. Even if they did keep following us."
"Why would you try and stop me?"
"Fool! Why would I let you do anything violent for unnecessary reasons?! You wanna get kicked out?! Duuuumbass."
"N-No! I don't wanna get kicked out. Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll do better."
"Do I need to stand by your classroom all day and monitor you?"
"No! I'm fine, I got this."
"Okay. Peace."
Duri walked away towards his class with his hands in his pockets.
Ellie turned around as well, taking a deep breath, and heading to her classroom.
Duri walked into his classroom, and everyone was doing silent reading. Some students looked at him, and Seven looked at him. Seven waved slightly with a grin, and Duri blushed, waving back at her.
Sensei Kei was sitting down, whispering to Duri, "How ya doin?"
Duri answered, "Great. Awesome. The hell are we doing?"
"Silent reading. This is gonna be for our world history lesson."
"Funnn."
"Totally. There's a book right at your desk too."
Duri started walking to his seat, and sat down. Tek wasn't in his seat.
Duri sat down, putting his bag on the floor, and Seven whispered, "You alright?"
Duri replied, "Yeah. Where's Tek?"
"He just went to the bathroom."
"Ah."
Kazuma whispered to Duri, "Oi! Oiiii! Duri! Hey! What's up?! Birthday party was fun!"
Duri answered, "Hello. And yeah, it was. What page do I start reading at?"
Ren-Ren answered, "Page 340. Peasant. Our commoner teacher was supposed to tell you. Hmph. Couldn't be me."
"Nothing could be you, in your perspective."
Nine whispered, "We gotta give him SOME kind of a break. He did have to help other people rebuild the city using all of their power."
Ren-Ren answers, "We did most of the fighting. We did most of the deadly things. We literally went against millions of enemies at once."
Shiryu whispers, "But..Kei has probably seen a lot of things. Horrific kinds of things..while rebuilding the city..like the deceased…or people dismembered…and he still managed..to push through and fix the city."
"Hmph. Just sayin, we took the heavy hits."
Seven stared at Duri, and she asked him, "Are you sure you're okay?"
Duri responded, "I'm so…fucking…sleepy."
"Duri. Don't tell me you trained last night right after your party?"
Duri nodded his head, and Seven sighed, "What the helll. You're a monster."
Duri looked down at his book and started flipping to page 340. He started to read a few words, and then he fainted, with his head slowly laying on the book.
[The Garden realm, where the Titans live]
Duri found himself in the Garden realm, and he was standing on a golden cloud, with nothing but 100 sunsets surrounding him and blue water a hundred feet down below.
Duri yelled, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Where am I?! What is this?"
"The Garden realm."
The Time Titan, Ranbu, stepped beside him.
Duri gasped, "Ranbu?!"
"Sorry for the delay. I promised I'd come talk to you again, but it took a long while to do so."
"It's fine. Been busy risking my life all day, fighting in the Diamond realm and shit like that."
"I'm aware of that."
"And yet, none of you helped us. Why the hell is that?"
Ranbu sighed, "It's time I explain more about the Titans. Half your kind."
"Hold up, hold up. First things first, do you know about-."
"Ryu? Or your father?"
"Um..both?"
"I brought Ryu here and took the Spirit of Destruction out of him completely. He's with his grandmother. And about your father, I don't know. Anyway, back to what I was gonna talk about. Titans aren't allowed to interfere in human battles on earths, and also we can't interfere with any battles in any other realm only if we are definitely needed. Our power is immense, we could destroy an entire realm of people. We are not bad guys. With you leading your allies into the Diamond realm, you had it under control along with the Judges."
"You had faith in us..huh? We could've prevented our losses if you guys showed up."
"Like I said, our power is immense. We could've killed everyone without trying to, even your mother and the Hosts."
"…Mhm. Who are you really? What's your story? What do you want?"
"For what reason?"
"Since me and you are of the same kind, I gotta get to know you a little."
"You're suspicious of me, aren't you?"
"Nothing you said has been a lie, so not really."
"Haha, alright. I've lived for hundreds of years, and I'm cultivating my creation powers on earth so I can max out my Time powers. I wanna go back in time and spend time with my wife and kids that I've lost due to them living out their max years. I wanna go back and make them live for thousands of years, so we could be together longer."
"That's why you create things on earth..interesting."
"All Titans have a reason for creating things on Earth. It will max out their creation ability, as well as their overall ability. We'd be creating no limits for ourselves and our powers."
"Seems like a long ass process."
"It is a long process."
"Why create tournaments that give people more power?"
"We wanted to give the powerless opportunities. And we wanted to give the powerful more of a challenge. And also.."
"What?"
"We always knew Zabel would try and start something with earth. We're giving people on earth opportunities to gain more power so they could be strong enough to fight back against Zabel and the Arcane realm if they ever were to show..since us Titans can't fight there physically."
"Kinda makes sense."
"The past lead Titans had a good relationship with humans, thus developing the relationship between humans and Titans."
"We're y'all on good terms at first?"
"Oh yeah, definitely. But the humans kept thinking we were gonna slaughter them all and eat their sun to become immortal. Haha! Can you believe it?!"
"I mean you guys are hellishly strong, so I'd probably think that too. Why the sudden agreement?"
"Before the Titans, earth wasn't that strong, but their sun was. It took FOREVER for earthlings to gather powers from the sun, so we agreed to use our creation powers to speed up the process. They didn't wanna be weak, they didn't want to grow powers slowly."
"…Oh..Damn. It's all starting to make sense now."
"Any other questions? Before I explain why I really wanted you here?"
"Why do I have a halo and horns whenever I'm in my Angel Titan form?"
"That's easy. The Angel Titan is basically a spirit of power, but that spirit of power had united with bad Titans and good Titans. Thus the halo also represents the good, and it represents that you have an ancestor that possessed that power before. And the horns represent devilish acts and evil, which is why you go berserk after a period of time in your Titan form. Zabel on the other hand, I don't know the mystery behind his halo."
"I don't need to know all of that shit anyway. Now then, what did you call me here for?"
"…There is a war coming. Quickly than ever. Zabel has been conquering realms left to right, and even has a demonic medium woman with him to aid him."
"I'm ready for him!"
"I hope you are. I can't get what I want if Zabel, Reborn, and the others are in the way."
"Who are the others? A new group of people?"
"Not new, old. Very old, before my time. But it's just a matter of time before things start to collapse.."
"Who is the rogue Titan giving Harvest Titan powers?"
"That's still to be discovered. It's only a matter of time.."
"Time..?"
Duri woke back up, and he was in class with everyone surrounding him.
Sensei Kei sighed, "Phew! You're awake! I was fixing to call Host Marshy!"
Duri replied, "Why are you all surrounding me like that? You guys plotting on me or something?"
Jiyu exclaimed, "You weren't waking up! We tried shaking you and everything! I got scared."
Kazuma said, "Good thing you're awake! I got worried too!"
Nine said, "I was about to curbstomp you so you could wake up!"
Duri chuckled, saying, "Thank ya. But I'm alright…I think. Oh, Tek still isn't here?"
(Lunch time)
[Abandoned warehouse]
Tek was sitting in a chair, tied down to it by black and red chains, with blood running down his head and face.
He was surrounded by boys dressed in all black, wearing black motorcycle helmets.
Approaching him was a man in a long red coat, black gloves, spiky black and blond hair, and brown eyes.
He was Magmell.
He started smoking a cigarette, and he said, "How did you know I'd be here…nephew?"
"I got contacts.."
He was talking about Xenon.
Tek continued, "My contact's information matched with all the people I've interrogated…"
"Seems like your contact led you into a trap. But I am definitely definitely definitely impressed you found me here. He-."
"My contact was tracking you."
"But he TRAPPED you, is what I'm saying. Geez kid, why aren't you listening? He led you here to be held against your will. He didn't even bother to come with you. Yes, I killed your parents in order for me to become the leader of the family mafia. Is that what you wanted to hear? I used you to get what I want. I used you to kill business owners just so their competition stock could shoot up high. Which followed a huge payout. I love money by the way, you know that, nephew."
"..I knew everything. I knew my parents wouldn't just hand their leadership over to you. Yeah, mom and dad were pretty damn evil, but not as corrupt as you were. I was so stupid, you used me to kill people, all for money."
"Actually, I used you to manipulate the stock market just so I could have enough money to eliminate your parents. I wasn't strong enough to take them on my own. And I needed more funds to expand the empire and to gain strong followers to protect me."
"Protect you from what?"
"Your berserk appearances. Your cursed chains. I knew one day that you'd escape from my influence and go off to be independent, seeking revenge on me."
"But mom and dad were your family…how could you do that to them?"
"They never gave a damn about me, nephew. They always shunned me, never listened to me advance to improve our empire, multiple times they threw me under the bus. I did TIME for them! I hated the pin! Big buff men tried to call me candy and kiss me! Ew! I hate thinking about it! They never came to visit or anything."
"That didn't give you the right to do what you did. I still loved them…"
"You don't love ANYONE. You are your own man. You didn't need anyone before, you don't need anyone now."
"You're wrong.."
"Me?! Haha! No..I'm never wrong. Your damn parents were wrong. You see nephew, I don't wanna waste talent like you, I'm gonna use you again. You see these motorcycle head people around you? They are teenage boys like you with cursed power like yours, they simply wanted a father figure in their life, and I'm that man. They do what they're told in order to live well. You can have that life again. Join me, and we can run the family empire. You'll be my subordinate, you'll be my son."
Tek spit at Magmell, "Fuck you!"
"Your new friends have blinded you, nephew."
"They didn't. They'll be here any second to save me anyway."
"Yeah no. Just because you jinx it doesn't mean it's gonna happen. What's it gonna be? Yes or no? Basically, die or live? Or maybe..I'll just draw out your berserk power and make you kill your friends."
"…"
"What's it gonna be?"
Magmell was holding Tek's book, and he was acting like he was about to rip it.
Magmell said, "The clock is ticking."
Tek yelled, "No!"
"I will destroy this stupid book! Give me an answer! Yes or no?!"
"Idiot! If you rip that, I'll end up killing all of you!"
"That's something you forgot about me, Tek. I'm a smart man."
Suddenly, Duri landed feet first in front of Tek, and he was in his shadow form.
Duri said, "Tek. Mind exposing who the hell this dumbass is? Xenon texted me and told me to come here, and here you are beaten up and tied up."
Tek exclaimed, "Duri! You gotta leave! Now! He has my book!"
Duri looked at Magmell, and Magmell grinned, ripping Tek's book in half.
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