An Assassin's Respite

Back to Present Day

“Once Amaraz was defeated, his immense power was released throughout the world and granted humans access to powers. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks after that humans began gaining access to powers thanks to dragons granting them their blessing.” Kazuna finishes.

Akeno was silent as she slowly sits on a box that was in the closet.

“This… This completely changes everything that we currently know about powers, history even.” Akeno replies in astonishment.

“It’s been my clan’s most closely guarded secret for thousands of years,” Kazuna notes.

“Understandably so. If something like this were made public, there would have been numerous cases of people claiming to be you or trying to awaken Amaraz.” Akeno says, still in disbelief.

“But, if Athena is truly speaking to you, then you must be made aware of these things,” Bahamut adds.

“But why me?” She asks.

“Because you have spent so much time with Kazuna, your connection to her has been strengthened. Coming to this island also helped in that endeavor. The dragons that blessed the rest of Kazuna’s classmates either weren’t very vocal one’s or probably felt that their human wasn’t the best one to speak with.``”Karma theorizes.

“It does make sense seeing as my power would make it much easier for me to understand and retain the knowledge you have given me.” Akeno guesses.

“Most likely,” Bahamut says.

“I’m assuming that the dragons have decided to go into hiding and not mess with humans after the war.” She notes.

“Yes. They still control their respective areas such as Ra moving the sun and Nepudon watching the sea.” Kazuna answers.

“But why are you telling me this? This Amaraz was defeated already, right?” Akeno asks.

“Yes, but he wasn’t killed, he was merely sealed away. Apparently, the explosion that allowed humans to use powers would have instead eradicated them if we had killed him. Athena thinks that it has something to do with a contingency plan he had set in place in case he was defeated, but it turns out sealing him away created a sort of constriction on his backup plan and instead made his biggest nightmare come to fruition.” Bahamut notes.

“And once Amaraz awakens, the dragons that sided with him will most likely awaken or at least some of them and the dragons that sided against him will probably awaken in response.” Akeno theorizes.

Bahamut simply nods in response.

“The war that follows will be even more gruesome than the one 3,000 years ago due to humans being easier to find. Even if the battles aren’t as one-sided, the number of casualties will be immense. Even if things went significantly in our favor, I could still see millions of casualties.” Karma notes.

“There’s more that I feel we should tell you,” Kazuna adds.

“More?!” Akeno exclaims.

“There is a prophecy involving me, Bahamut, Kirin, and Karma. We are the only ones that are capable of fully defeating Amaraz once he awakens.” Kazuna adds.

“Well if you’re our last hope then I’m pretty confident about our chances.” Akeno proclaims.

“Although it makes me happy that you have such faith in me, it seems that faith itself doesn’t hold the same feelings,” Kazuna replies.

“How so?” She asks.

“When Bahamut, Karma, Kirin, and Kan met with the dragons of faith and destiny, they were told that in the hundreds of strings they held of my fate, only once did it end favorably for mankind.” Kazuna answers.

They went silent as they thought about the idea of millions of deaths being in the cards of a best-case scenario. After a short silence, Akeno gets up, snapping them all out of their daze. 

“Well, even with everything I’ve heard, from what I can tell our situation hasn’t changed. It doesn’t appear that Amaraz isn’t any closer to awakening and isn’t doing anything notable to us as of this moment, so all we can do is what we have been doing and that’s preparing for the day he fully awakens. And as for that one in a hundred chance or whatever, all you’ve done is the impossible in my eyes, so why would this be any different?” Akeno says.

“You truly remind me of Athena, I can see why she chose to speak with you,” Bahamut notes.

“Yea, she’s annoyingly smart,” Kirin grumbles.

“That and she was one that held more hope than anyone despite being so logical. Also, we all know that you liked Athena since she never backed down from you even a little.” Karma teases.

“Shut up,” Kirin growls.

“Do you plan on sharing this with anyone else in the near future?” Akeno asks.

“I’m hoping that I can keep them from it for as long as possible. They were blessed with the ability to live normal lives, I don’t want to rob them of that.” Kazuna replies.

“I see, well in that case I will do the same and treat everything we’ve discussed here as highly confidential.” Akeno states.

“Thank you, and if you hear anything new from Athena that seems important, don’t be hesitant to share it with me,” Kazuna notes.

Akeno nods as she walks out of the closet. Kazuna waits a moment before leaving as well and hurrying to his room.

The next day, Kazuna kept a close eye on his classmates to see if they started to act differently, but it was hard to tell since all of them were going through changes thanks to the island. He decided to focus more on his training since he had a lot of catching up to do with his fire and wind.

He closed his eyes and let the feeling of the wind take over his mind, he raised a hand and blasted a blade of wind that cut through a rock and barely scratched a tree behind it.

“I’m still struggling with the power a bit, but it won’t be hard to reel it in.” He notes to himself as he repeats the process.

Over where Kagura was training, she was still having a hard time. She had never really used big moves with her power and kept it to more subtle attacks so the sudden increase in power was a lot for her to get used to, but Kazuna’s advice had helped a lot as always. Thinking back, Kazuna had always helped her move forward, but it felt like all she did was hold him back.

As she stared at her hand, she balled it into a fist with a determined look in her eyes.

“This time I’ll be the one helping you move forward.” She thinks to herself as she continues her training.

As Ria watched her train, she thought about her and Kazuna’s meeting at the lake. After peeking at Kazuna for so long, she could tell when he noticed her and when he didn’t and for the first time in a  very long time, he didn’t notice her. It was probably because of the effect this island was having on her power, but it still felt like she was beginning to drift away from Kazuna. He was changing so rapidly and those around him were changing as well yet she was still the same person.

He seemed to talk differently to Kagura, more gently. It wasn’t as if he talked to her with anger or anything, but it felt like he had feelings for Kagura. She was pretty and had a more mature body and was more charismatic. 

“Maybe I should disappear and let him live his new life.” She whispers to herself.

She hears someone walking up to her and sees that it was the special agent that was charged with looking after her. She was a beautiful woman with long black hair and green eyes with the figure of a model. If she recalled correctly, her power gave her super hearing to the point where she could hear blood flowing.

“Hey there missy,” She says with a wave as she takes a seat next to her.

They were silent before Ria spoke.

“Are you just going to sit there creepily?” She asks.

“I wouldn’t say I’m being creepy, after all my job is to watch over you all. I just think that I can better see everything from here.” She replies.

Ria goes invisible, but before she could move her arm was grabbed.

“With my power, I can tell exactly where you are, even when you're invisible. So, why don’t we have a little girl talk.” She says with a smile.

Ria reluctantly sits down next to her with an annoyed look on her face.

“So what seems to be on your mind?” She asks.

“Why would I open up to someone I don’t know?” Ria asks.

“Oh, pardon my rudeness. My name’s Vanessa. I would ask for your name, but I already know it.” She says with a chuckle.

“That’s not exactly what I meant.” She says with a sigh.

“What’s the harm? Plus, anywhere you go I won’t be far behind.” She states.

She goes through her options before sighing. 

“Have you ever felt like you’re on the outside looking in?” She asks.

“Yes, all the time actually.” She says.

“Are you just saying that to make it easier for me to share?” Ria asks.

“No, I’m serious. Growing up, I could always hear what everyone was saying so I always felt like I was on the outside looking in. Whether it be someone making plans, talking about their life, or having a pointless conversation, I always felt as if I was intruding on their personal space. But what could I do, it’s the power I was born with. The best I could do was ignore what I heard the best I could.” She explains.

Ria stares at her for a brief moment before clearing her throat.

“Sorry for doubting you.” She mumbles.

“That’s alright, most people tend to have harsher things to say after hearing that I’ve been listening in to what they’re saying. But back to, for you to say you feel like you’re on the outside is pretty weird. I’ve only been around your class a few days, but you all seem so close. Obviously, you have your groups that you’re closer with, but your class definitely seems closer than the other class or other classes I’ve been a part of or known about,” She notes.

“It’s true that they’re all close, but I’m not. Partly it is my fault since I’ve never really wanted anything to do with them, but I feel distant from my childhood friend Kazuna and that’s what really bothers me.” She replies.

“So that’s the center of this problem, boy issues,” Vanessa notes.

“It’s not like that,” Ria says while kind of teetering off in the end.

“If your connection to him is the only one that matters, then it is most definitely like that. Also, the way you tettered off there only reinforces my theory.” Vanessa notes.

Ria was silent and just buried her face into her knees.

“If you want my advice, then why don’t you try opening up to your fellow classmates some since this boy seems to be close to them,” Vanessa suggests.

“But at this point, I’m already firmly on the outside,” Ria says.

“I don’t know about that,” Vanessa says.

“Huh?” Ria asks, but her question was answered when she saw Kagura walking towards them.

“It seems like one of the classmates you didn’t want a part of is coming here to check up on you.” She notes as she gets up.

“Try not to mess it up.” She says before distancing herself.

“Ria, what are you doing up here?” She asks while sitting next to her.

“Just thinking.” She replies.

“I know you don’t like talking to us that much, but I’m always willing to listen to your troubles if you’re willing to open up,” Kagura says.

Ria was silent as she looked over to Vanessa who urged her on with a wave.

“Well, it feels like I’ve been growing farther and farther away from Kazuna and it stems from me not opening up to you all. But it’s too late to try and get close to you all now.” She says.

Kagura looks at her in surprise that she actually answered her before snapping out of her surprise.

“What do you mean it’s too late? We’ve been waiting for the day you open up to us all.” She replies.

“But I’ve been so adamant in my rejection of all of you.” She notes.

“I know, but we’ve been adamant about including you.” Kagura retorts.

“But…” She goes to start a rebuttal, but Kagura puts her hand up.

“You have feelings for Kazuna right?” She asks.

Ria was silent, but Kagura knew the answer to her question anyway.

“Love can make people act rashly or differently than normal, especially when they haven’t seen the person they love in a long time. We were probably just roadblocks to Kazuna when you first met us, but once you saw that Kazuna seemed to have fun around us, you began to fear that he would leave you behind, but you didn’t want to try and push us away from him since you thought it would negatively affect him. After all, you want what's best for him.” Kagura says while looking over to RIa.

She was still silent so she took it as being right so far.

“So that’s left you in this spot where you feel Kazua is leaving you behind and you have no way of reconnecting with him.” Kagura finishes.

“Mhm,” Ria mumbles, confirming Kagura’s hypothesis.

“Well, you’re wrong. Kazuna isn’t going to leave you behind, you should know that better than anyone. And it’s not too late to let us in, it’s what I’ve been waiting for since the first day I met you.” Kagura says.

“No one should be alone.” She adds.

The smile she had on her face and the words she said reminded her of the old man, Kazuna’s grandpa. When he had found her, she tried to push him away since she wanted to be alone. But he was insistent as he reached out his hand and said with a smile, ‘no one should be alone'. The memory brought tears to her eyes and she quickly began to wipe them away.

“This is why I don’t like any of you. You can never keep to yourself.” She says.

“If we had kept to ourselves, then you wouldn’t have been able to reunite with Kazuna.” She retorts.

“Yea, I guess I do have to thank you all for that.” She says.

“Why don’t we end training for the day so we can get to know each other a little,” Kagura suggests.

“Mhm,” Ria says with a nod.

“She may have been an assassin at one point like Kazuna and kept her distance from us, but she’s still a teenage girl like me. She still struggles with a lot of the same issues that every girl does.” Kagura thinks to herself.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, class B was training just as hard as class A. 

“Don’t let class A overshadow you. They’ve been garnering most of the attention recently, so let’s show them that we’re just as good as them.” Mr. Satoro shouts as class B begins training for the day.

Even though Yua was already pretty fast with her creation, that speed only applied to things that she created frequently. She was training on increasing the speed of creating things that she’s new to. She was paired with Azumi from her class. She spent her time increasing the size of the objects that Yua created. Their powers coincided perfectly for training.

Chad, who had been slowly changing after succumbing to Kazuna's strength twice now, saw the training at the island as a way to grow as both a fighter and as an agent. He was paired with Akira. Chad worked on how much he could increase gravity while Akira increased how much he could power up by having Chad increases the gravity around him. 

“Not only did I lose to Kazuna during midterms, but I also lost to Kagura, It seems that I need to take a deeper look at myself and refocus my training.,” Chad notes to himself as he ramps up his gravity.

After another tiring day of training, the students shower and quickly head to the cafeteria. 

“Ah, I’m tired.” Matt moans with a mouthful of food.

“No matter how many times I tell you to not talk with food in your mouth you still do it,” Kagura notes.

“I don’t know why you bother. It’s clear that he has no class.” Yua points out.

“You say no class, I say I’m just a special class,” Matt says while puffing out his chest.

“Emphasis on special,” Shiba says, leading to everyone laughing.

“That one is your fault, you walked right into it,” Kazuna says before Matt can complain.

“You wouldn’t get made fun of as much if you just thought before you spoke,” Ria notes.

“Was… Was that actually useful criticism?” Matt asks in shock.

“Y-yea, so what?” Ria stutters in defense.

“Nothing, just a little unexpected,” Matt says as he slowly takes a bit of his food.

“Did something happen between you two?” Kazuna whispers to Kagura.

“Hmm, it’s a secret,” Kagura answers with a wink.

Kazuna watches as Ria bickers with Matt in a way that feels like a teenage girl arguing with a guy she couldn’t stand.

“I see.” He says with a smile.

Once they get back to their rooms, they all fall asleep right away, except for Matt. He went to Ms. Saugoma to make a request.