The Astral soul system-Chapter 221: Truly shitty luck
They breezed through morning classes , mostly keeping an eye on Jade. She seemed to still be doing well, though he did notice she was indeed a bit moody. She still smiled but it felt forced.
Perhaps dying really did have more of an effect on her than he originally thought.
Zaria was also in class and just like she said, she was fine, and her energy seemed stable, though from what she told him,it wouldn’t be long before her condition flared up again.
Halfway through the class, he noticed Aurora looking right at him and he awkwardly straightened up. He hadn’t spoken to her since that day. It didn’t feel like she’d told on him but he really couldn’t be sure. She didn’t seem happy when she found out.
As soon as classes ended, he bolted out as quickly as he could.
Way too many problems.
Although Zyro knew putting things off like this might only make it worse later on, he still opted to focus on getting stronger now, which meant one thing
Dungeon.
His previous experience didn’t dull his spirit ,in fact he was even more pumped.
He wanted to go back to the steel beast dungeon but he kept in mind that Zaine’s sword would be useless. This required blunt instruments, meaning gauntlets, staves,maces and hammers, and a few others of course.
Problem? He had none of those.
Fists it is!
"Dude. You do realize you could call your friends to come help you, right?"
"They all have their own problems. Besides, we’ve got this"
"Yeah, that’s not what it felt like, and maybe stop talking to yourself using we in the middle of the halls, nut job "
Zyro quickly stopped, noticing people staring. He smiled awkwardly and picked up the pace.
"You have got to stop doing that "
His watch suddenly beeped and a message popped up. It was a picture of Ava’s newsletter, meaning only one person could have sent it.
It was the picture she’d taken of him the day before, and the article read.
<Student gets impaled and nearly killed in a brawl>
He read through the article and almost laughed.
Once again very impressive.
She’d basically shamed him without outright saying it. The details she’d given were far too vague for the details to be ascertaininged, but because of her wording, Zyro already knew most people would believe he’d gotten beaten up and almost killed by another low level student in a fight he’d initiated
"Clever girl"
"This is going to be another inconvenience. Teenagers are notoriously nosy."
It was specifically why she’d managed to be relatively famous and left alone. She was good at manipulating not just people but information,scary good. In only a few days she’d turned half the school against him
He swiped down to see the rest and was even more suprised.
It showed a video of him going into a teacher’s personal office multiple times, often multiple times a day, though it didn’t say which.
And beneath that was some of his personal information.
Name, ability,GRADES
Once again, another instance of manipulation. She wasn’t making an accusation, she wasn’t even trying to make a correlation. But she didn’t stop anyone else from doing that for themselves
Sigh
Not to mention she literally highlighted his grades with bold letters. Could just be a design choice. Maybe?
He was honestly a bit curious to see what else she’d put up but he decided to close it, instead sending a message.
<Ava, what are you doing?>
He waited for a while, wondering if she was going to ignore it but eventually he got a reply. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
<Ava? Who’s that?>
She didn’t even bother ignoring him altogether. Not to mention how obvious she was making it. She wasn’t even putting any effort. The contact was named "Anonymous", with a picture of her bird as the profile picture.
"Why is she so aggressive"
He remembered she seemed a bit upset when he mentioned his family, and she made it pretty clear she didn’t believe him. Is that what this was about?
"It’s the truth though"
’Will I really have to kill her?’
No , not possible.
He looked at the video again and realized.
She’d pulled the school security cameras and his own personal records.
Ava practically had this whole academy in the palm of her hand.
He looked around, cautiously
She could be watching right now? She could have been watching him since he left the office,since he left bed even.
There was a reason the pioneer class abilities were considered extremely famous. Not only were they a sign of human ingenuity, they were some of the most versatile abilities in the known universe.
In this day and age, technology was literally everywhere and in every single thing. People even had cybernetic implants in them, though it wasn’t very popular outside of the Ryder. For this reason,Ryder’s specifically and some other pioneer abilities had to be bound in some situations.
Whenever a meeting between pioneer families was to be held,it was to be in person, and every member was required to consent to their abilities being temporarily bound by a member of the void family,in fact it was one of the reasons ability suppressing technology was suspected to have come about .
In the academy though, Ava was free to do as she pleased with no one to suppress her.
Looking at the looping video, he suddenly remembered something
"Zen, didn’t something happen once,in Freya’s office?"
"..."
That’s right, he remembered, the time he flew out through the wall. The video wasn’t here but...had she seen that one too?
Not to mention all the other times he’d used his abilities when no one was near,or wherever he thought there weren’t security cameras.
Had she seen all that too? How many secret cameras did she have hidden? How much did she know?
He suddenly opened the contact again and sent another text.
<Did you see it?>
<See what?>
She replied immediately this time.
"..."
<How much do you know?>
<What do you mean?>
She was still bullshiting him... but that didn’t confirm anything.
Before he could think of what to send, she replied.
<I know everything>
"..."
He was about to send another when she continued.
<I know nothing>
What?
<Lies aren’t so fun when you’re on the other end of them,are they?>
<You need to stop this>
<Sure, come find me, and make me>
The entire conversation suddenly erased itself and it looked like he hadn’t sent anything to her after the newsletter.
Zyro didn’t even know what to do.
She was practically dangling herself in front of him with a giant sign that said "kill me"
But he knew he couldn’t. The moment he stepped in front of her with so much as a kitchen knife or even a slight frown, his face would be broadcast over the entire city for everyone to watch, and he wouldn’t just be exposed to the military, but the arcade too. Every enemy he’d ever made would be upon him, and in his line of work, that was usually a lot, and he was no exception
"She really wants me to come to her with my own two legs"
"She wants you to surrender, and tell her the truth of your own volition, perhaps even beg for mercy"
Zephyr spoke with a gruff tone.
"Out of all people to suspect you,it just had to be her?"
Theia said, shaking her head
"That is some truly shitty luck big guy"
Zyro looked around.
"Problem is i can’t even tell when she’s watching me and when she isn’t"
"Despicable "
Zephyr said
"I’m impressed "
He sighed and kept walking .
Somewhere else in a dark room, Ava watched Zyro walk away on the screen and tilted her head
"You’ve got him rattled"
She looked down at the hologram of a tiny girl hovering over her watch. It was an AI , similar to Gemma in Zyro’s class, but this was a personal one just for her
"I know, but I’m still not satisfied "
She said, stretching and yawning. She reached over across the table and grabbed a half eaten chocolate bar, throwing it in her mouth.
"I just wish you’d ripped that stupid smile off his face too"
Ava looked at the screen,still chewing
"I’m pretty sure it’s like a deformity, or a mental thing. The guy’s completely wacko"
The AI rolled her eyes
"You’re acting like you aren’t the stalker in this scenario watching him from your creepy dark room"
Ava ignored her and focused back on the screen.
"Zen. Just you wait. I’ll completely screw you over, unless you give me what I want "
The AI facepalmed and sighed.
"And she’s monologuing. This is why you need friends!"
She snapped her fingers and all the lights in the previously gloomy room came on
"Nina!"
Before Ava could complain,Nina raised her hand
"Your parents are calling "
Ava’s eyes widened
"Shit"
