Trash: Chapter 108 Awakening (Patreon)

Chapter 108

Awakening

“All clear,” the voice of the Royal Order of Watchers’ councilman called out, as he dropped his glowing staff to his side and letting the light fade.

What had begun as a crime scene investigator, trying to find any signs of stains using this world’s equivalent of a black light, revealed only cleanliness. Well, cleanliness and lingering traces of my life magic that were now part of almost every affinity infused Skill I used.

“This is, really clean,” the councilmember muttered low enough so that only Madame Voyou and I could hear. “Almost too clean.”

As he spoke, the rest of the team came through, hesitantly at first, but seeing that the wand-wielding invader was seemingly calm and standing beside us, the rest of the ROW members slowly also came in, analyzing the findings and trying to document everything.

A few ran over to secure the few slime samples that had not yet broken free of their glass cases. But those that didn’t manage to break free weren’t doing that well, as they looked almost pale.

“You managed to make the slimes rot?” One ROW member called out, holding up the glass container to the light, as if analyzing the glass for cracks or breaks.

“No, my star pupil here managed to render them inert,” Madame Voyou cooed out proudly as she patted my shoulder.

“Your student did this?” The ROW councilman who barged in first, only to clear the room once it was proven to be safe.

“Yes, with her violin,” Madame Voyou declared. It was clear from her actions that Madame Voyou was hyping me up, though I couldn’t quite understand why exactly.

“Wait, you are Voyou? That Voyou?” One of the ROW members calls out, from inspecting the slimes.

“I am a Voyou, though which Voyou you mean is unclear,” Madame Voyou replied a bit tersely, her tone indicating that she expected this to go sideways.

“You have heard of her?” The Councilman asked?

“Yes, she is the nutcase who submitted the paper on music being a natural deterrent towards slimes. Part of a new initiative to increase the budget for music in schools and Bard related training at the colleges,” the second ROW member who had been inspecting the glass vials declared. Meanwhile the first one went back to the pile and seemed to pull out a total of ten beakers that still contained living slimes, the others were in various states of decay and rot. They might reform, if given time, but I honestly had no clue how slimes formed in the first place.

“You’re a bard?” The councilman asked, pointing to Madame Voyou. At that comment Madame Voyou looked visibly insulted.

“A bard no, I am not a lowly bard. I am Skald. A Master Skald if you must know,” Madame Voyou declared a note of pride in her voice.

“Master Skald?” I questioned, wondering if she had underplayed her class before. At my question she just turned to me and smiled brightly.

“Yes, I am now a Master Skald, and I have you to thank for that final push,” Madame Voyou declared, as she gently patted my shoulder.

“Oh,” was all I could respond to that declaration with. I guess her raiding the rift was beneficial after all.

“A Skald, wait isn’t that the same class as War Machine?” A fourth ROW officer who had been standing guard outside the door asked, popping his head in long enough to see the cleaned-up chaos of the classroom. A classroom that still had abandoned instruments, books, papers, and school utensils strewn about, but was relatively free of any real dangers. Taking one look at Madame Voyou, I could see the way his eyes tracked across her face first, then her body, and finally down to her legs, the eyes almost skipping over the metal rod for a leg that Madame Voyou made no point of hiding. Then I saw as those same eyes fluttered back down and seemed to stick on one metal leg, which was when dawning realization could be seen covering his face.

“Wait, you’re War Machine?” The fourth guard declared.

At that comment, everyone paused to truly look at Madame Voyou, which was when others also seemed to notice the leg and intense blue eye, well eyes.

“Wait, you have two eyes?” The one ROW agent declared.

“No, that was healed, by the pink eyed healer,” The agent by the door declared. That’s when he looked at me and seemed to take in my face. “Wait, are you that healer?”

For a moment, I paused, wondering how he noticed me. Only to remember that there were a number of times when I had to remove my mask, or had my outfit destroyed during my sessions. If he was there on the day I healed Madame Voyou’s eye, then he likely saw my face entirely. I try to think back to remember if I saw him at all, but that was a lifetime ago. A time between my needing to dive headfirst into a serpent to pull free a fighter from a serpent, to having to heal the Royal Seal master after he pushed himself too far.

Just as I was trying to come up with where or if I remember this one person from a packed audience, that’s when I feel a slight tremor at first, followed by the a long slow rumble stretching out and vibrating just under our feet.

There was a slight pause, as everyone paused, faces scrunched in focus as we all seemed to wonder what just happened.

Dust that had long ago settled on the ceiling and walls suddenly shook itself free from the violent tremor. Just as I wondered if everything was okay, that’s when I heard it, the sound that set my skin on edge. A sound that is unmistakable once you hear it one time. The sound of a person crying out in pain.

Hearing the sound, a switch flipped in my mind, as my nurses instincts kicked in causing me to act before my mind could even think.

My feet were moving and striding against the ground before I even knew what was happening. I was going in blind, instincts told me to stop and wait, especially as secondary and tertiary waves of force reverberated throughout the school. Each reverberation telling me exactly which direction to go. If the violence under my feet wasn’t enough of an indication, the panicked and fleeing students and faculty were also a clear indication of where the danger was.

I ran before I had a plan, before the danger was even measured. I knew that I would likely get scolded by Madame Bloom later, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the fact that I was acting, while everyone else was reacting. I surged forward, in less than a dozen paces I found myself running towards the front office area. A glowing flame that seemed more magical than anything glowing brightly from behind doors. Doors that the school’s receptionists were fleeing from, their faces twisted by fear. With them as my cue, I turned and saw the ROW Chief, the person who interrogated me with Jinx standing before a holding room used for the worst of offenders. I knew the room well, as Mr. Wallace had me wait there multiple times when he suspected me of being up to no good.

This time, I could only see the look of shock on the Chief’s face, a face that was highlighted by the intense burning light of a holy magic infused flame burning.

“AHHH!” Then the cry of pain that caused me to run past the stationary chief and try to figure out exactly what was happening, and how I could help.

***

(Johny DiVoratore)

Johny had made it, at least that was what he thought when he entered his second period classroom. By the time he was in, cleaned up and ready, first period was almost over. That was when he decided to do what he normally did, and skip the class entirely.

When he entered his second period, everything seemed to be fine. No one seemed to care, even his teacher Mr. Jones seemed to not be aware. It wasn’t until Mr. Karl came in and called him out specifically that he realized he might have been caught for something stupid.

“You didn’t check into your first period class, which set off an internal audit,” Mr. Karl declared confidently. Given the state of heightened awareness on campus, of course, Johny would have been found by something so trivial.

At first, he thought it would just be detention, it wasn’t until he felt his body being manhandled down towards the ROW officers, each one possessing at least one highly touted Holy infused Skill that were designed for identifying people exactly like Johny did he begin to get nervous and try to turn back. Of course, by the time he realized there was an issue, it was already too late.

“Wait, there is some type of mistake, I was already scanned. I just skipped first period on account of the lines taking too long,” Johny protested.

However, Mr. Karl the person who often cared the least about excuses and would normally just turn a blind eye to delinquents like him, just remained quiet. Only going into full detail once he got to the front of the ROW officers. Officers that instantly turned on him and took Mr. Karl’s side without question.

“Very well, let’s put him in the holding cell, while we prepare to take two soul scans,” the ROW commander declared, taking Johny by the arm and all but forcing him into the school’s holding cell.

For a moment, Johny felt like things were going to go poorly, but that’s when he saw who else was here with him. There in the corner was the sorriest excuse for a student that Johny had ever seen. Someone who looked defeated just by breathing. Seeing that he too was in here, made a small twinge of sadistic glee rise within Johny as he was not alone in here.

“Oh, look at this, they caught you too Quinny?” Johny’s voice rang out, the condescension rolling off of his tongue. Each word a release for the discomfort that Johny felt about his own situation.

Quin for his part was still as rail thin and scrawny as ever, a scarecrow in human form. In fact, Johny mused that Quin was so frail and skinny that a scarecrow might actually look thicker and healthier than this little boy who always seemed to be on Cat’s good side. Which only made Johny hate the kid more, for why did she flock to someone so weak and useless like Quin, when he was right there. That was one of many reasons why Johny loathed the skinny kid that had absolutely no backbone whatsoever.

“Cat got your tongue?” Johny responded, after seeing that Quin didn’t even look at him, only his eyes seemed to scan his feet, showing that he was afraid and intimidated by Johny. An act that only seemed to fuel the rage that had been building inside him. “Actually, you’d probably like that, Cat’s tongue that is—”

That did it, that line got a reaction from the mousey kid, who looked angrily at Johny. Their eyes met and Johny felt a sense of sadistic pleasure seeing the look of inept rage in the skinny kid’s face.

“But she’s not here to save you now, is she,” Johny pressed, his words causing a rage to build in the skinny kid. Johny watched in childish glee as his words finally found their home, he watched as his neck began to pulse with the increase of blood flow, a sign that he was about to have a surge of adrenaline. Then he watched as his eyes glowed golden, the sclera turning a deep silvery color.

That’s when he felt it, something shifting. Seeing those eyes upon him, he felt a sudden chill run down his spine, as he saw the look of constrained fear suddenly shift to rage on the timid boy’s face. Seeing him make a sudden shift, Johny felt fear grip him as he looked into rage filled eyes. Eyes that spoke of deep madness. Madness and untampered power.

Having already awoken once, Johny was aware of the signs of someone truly awakening their bloodline. There was the minor one awakening that most families had, that involved the eyes, which Quin was already showing. Then there was the deeper more violent one that everyone prepared for, as it was violent if people waited too long to fully constrain the effects. That is what Johny now felt, that surge and release of power as a powerful bloodline was coming to life as a violent holy flame erupted around Quin, covering his body in an intense flame that was so violent that it pulled Johny closer, as all the air in the room seemed to be sucked forward.

Then Quin spoke one word that let Johny know he had gone too far, done too much to the wrong person on the exact worst day.

“YOOOOUUUUU!” Quin hissed, and Johny knew he had messed up.