Humans hurting, breaking, killing other humans, gifted turning against other gifted, peers, trusted friends, destruction upon destruction on a revered stage, and most of all, there was despair induced in every beating heart racing around like cowardly mice as their haven plummeted to the depths of hell.
The rooftop provided the perfect view for the spectacle, a place nobody decided to resort to. People who ran to the very top of the building generally had a death wish that she wouldn’t be so hesitant to fulfill; there were no escapes, after all. A gentle breeze whipped past, carrying with it the putrid odor of burnt pines in the little forest ways out in the horizon, the rising smoke as the campus kissed the sun-lit earth, and the unmistakable stench of blood. From the ashes came debris and from the debris came the students responsible for what was happening, the cute little dolls that yielded to the will of the People in Black. Argona’s Force had long devastated the academy.
It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.
None of the attacks organized before had ever been to this scale, so fatal and hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood that sent the innocent children screaming, betrayed by the ones they held in their hands and the ones they loved for all eternity, swearing to be friends until the bitter end. Sharp pains fell into their sides, sudden dizziness wracked their heads as the succumb to panic came ever so sweetly, and the profuse bleeding at the pores with no treatment. Crimson, sticky stains splattered onto bodies of the victim, and most importantly, the faces of the nameless. It was the incident of the hours as darkness and decay held illimitable dominion over all.
And here she was, happy and dauntless with a mega-watt smile as everything took place before her very scarlet eyes. A long, delicate finger caressed a lock of rosy pink hair, her other hand resting daintily on her crossed legs as she kept a perfect balance on the metal wires that acted as a barrier. ”Hundreds of people falling over like dominoes… ahh~ It really is a magnificent view. My brain might melt at this rate, ufufu.” Pluck came a single strand, shining brilliantly as it reflected the light of the sun. ”Ju-Min’s soo lucky he gets to deal with the darling headmaster.” An unauthorized mission, one worthy of being considered dissenting from the original faction, the kind that Argona herself had explicitly stated they should never do. Yet, so many had jumped aboard the bandwagon, and Quyen found herself tagging along to cure her boredom.
Without a doubt, without even regretting it, disobeying her leader was worth it. ”Uahh, look at that explosion! Boom!” It wasn’t like she was going to dirty her hands with this - no, playing the spectator was much more fun right now -, but taking it all in as entertainment was the most exciting thing up to date. Proper ladies shouldn’t stain their hands with too much blood; no elite did much work, their pale skin an ideal for the poor as they sat comfortably under their roofs as the world fell at their feet and did their bidding. She was sitting on the throne now. She wasn’t going to revert to the ways of the savage, even if primal instinct told her to.
At least, that was the original plan. The loud clang of the metal door banging against the wall registered in her ears, but she didn’t want to turn around, not when a grade-A movie was screening right in front of her. Two people were heavily panting like dogs after a long run in the park or playing catch with their trainers, and soon enough, a sharp intake of air followed as they held their breaths. There was a deafening silence as something else in the distance went splat, detritus blown away as the remains of corpses dropped to the ground.
”You…!” Quyen didn’t have to look back to know that someone was pointing and boring their gaze right into the bed of her roseate hair, the one that cascaded half-way down her spine. ”All of these people wearing dark clothes, who are you?!”
”Lilka, wait…! Shouldn’t we, uhm, leave?”
”No, no, no! I want answers already! I’m sick of running!” Feet were stomping into the ground like an immature child throwing a tantrum… Oh wait. It was an immature child throwing a tantrum. Never mind that simile.
Said child’s friend was at least more reasonable. ”It’s kind of dangerous here… Maybe we should’ve gone to Rosebury and gotten on the train.”
”Haah? I’ll leave over your dead body.”
”Well, I mean, if you say--”
”No! I didn’t mean it like that. You aren’t dying on me, Yume.” Ugh, they were so cheesy. This whole friends forever thing was gross.
A quiet sigh passed Quyen’s lips. ”Could you two take your lovers’ spat elsewhere?” She could hear the way they stiffened up and how their faces reddened. So predictable. ”I’m trying to enjoy a game right now.” Her crossed legs uncrossed, her position on the rail becoming all the more precarious than before. One eye took a glance towards her black, brand-name purse and then it switched back to the horizon.
”Lovers…! I’m not a lesbian!” Lilka or something? retorted. Ugh, Lilka was a stupid name. Lily sounded prettier and was so much better; who named these poor children? ”And Yume’s engaged, so there’s no way I could love her!”
”W-w-wait…! Don’t just share that… out… loud…” The pleas went unheard as Lily kept on rambling on and on about how they definitely weren’t dating, and Quyen halfheartedly listened before holding her hand up to usher a silence.
”Jeez, so a forbidden love, whatever.” Someone was cracking their knuckles. How cute. ”Be a dear and go somewhere else~” Her head snapped over her shoulders as she winked towards them, forming a heart with her hands.
Seeing them now, they weren’t exactly the most attractive bunch of girls ever. One had an ugly raspberry shade of pink hair and the most mundane and plain pair of gray eyes in existence, but she was the taller of the two. The other girl had a slightly more hesitant and shier disposition with a nice shock of dirty blonde hair, bordering silver, yet her eyes had to be the color of urine. Quyen stuck her tongue out at them before deciding it wasn’t worth bothering any longer. ”Bye-bye~!” Once again, her attention fell on the discord below her feet.
Lily had angrily come up to her, tugging on the translucent veil wrapped around her arms in order to phase her balance, but of course, to no avail. Quyen’s legs were carefully entwined on the rails. ”Hey! I’m not done here!”
”Ah, what do you want? I told you to skedaddle already,” her cheeks mockingly puffed up in indignation, but her posture remained elegant and composed. Crimson eyes narrowed dangerously, an innocent smile falling onto her features as her voice grew to be monotone in nature, a hushed whisper stroking girls’ hearing. ”Could it be that you want me to silence you for good?”
”As if you could. We could beat you - it’s 1 v 2!”
”Lilka…” Yume looked at her friend nervously before her hands slowly reached for a quiver, the other removing the bow slung around her shoulders. Lily herself drew her hammer, steadying herself as the weight overtook her for a few brief moments.
One confident smirk embedded the raspberry girl. ”You’re going to regret picking on us.”
A jade-colored gun, crystalline-like and shining like the more brilliantly than any diamond in the sky, emerged from in Quyen’s palm out of thin air; her mind focused on the colorful and eccentric fighting style of a certain gunner in Argona’s Force with goggles always adorned around either the top of her head or around her neck.
Teasingly, she pointed it at one of them, making a swift snap with her wrist. ”Pow!” The scared looks that spread across their faces made her even happier. Pain, pain, pain. It was the only good form of attention. Everything else was boring. ”This’ll be fun, right~?” Everything else didn’t matter. Gently, she mused: ”Neh, what happened to that confidence? Is a gun that scary?” One of her side locks bounced at the smallest pull of her finger, like a spring.
They were shivering, terrified. What did they think - that she had an entire arsenal at her disposal?
…
. . .
Well, it wasn’t wrong, in a way. But it was better for them to believe that.
”This is a lesson you need to learn.” Her voice took on a very didactic tone, as though she were a professor scolding students for doing a terrible deed in the shadows. ”The bullet won’t ever miss, you know. It’s a special gun. Never think you’re in a superior position…” Quyen paused for a few moments, a Cheshire-like grin spreading more and more, a smile that never reached her eyes. ”... against someone you know nothing about and especially not to an ultra-gorgeous queen.”
Lily was shaking terribly. Poor child must be cold. ”Wha… what are weapons when you can control time?”
”Time is an abstract concept, Lily.” Quyen really didn't know whether or not that mattered; it just sounded smart.
”I’m not scared! It’s just one gun.”
”Ehh? I never said anything about being scared, did I?”
”... Lilka…?”
”...”
”Ah, well. Doesn’t matter~”
The ground beneath rumbled. Ah, this section of the rooftop was going to collapse soon, wasn’t it? There was a hushed silence. ”It’s punishment time ♡”
A bullet flew out at the speed of light, and Lily made no indication that she would move. It was all over in a second. Blood poured onto the ground, flesh flying into the air, a body hitting with a splat! as the puddle dressed the face and body in red. Quyen found it took a few moments to register that it wasn’t the raspberry-haired girl on the ground but her friend. She blinked before giggling, spinning the gun within her fingers like a ribbon as the shape became indefinite, forever changing.
Lily was wide-eyed, her hands coming to grasp the sides of her heads, mouth opening and closing as though to say something but nothing would come out. The words wouldn’t escape. Score. A raw scream came hoarse out of her throat, joining many of the others throughout the campus.
”Aww, I was hoping to save Mei Mei for something more fun.” Mockingly, she pouted. ”But this is okay too! I like surprises. Teleportation is such a cute power.”
”You… Why… How…”
”Nuh-uh-uh. No pinning the blame on me, missy.” One hand was planted firmly on her hips, her index finger swaying back and forth in the way a mother would when they were lecturing their children. ”You could’ve gotten out of the way. This is completely your fault.”
”My fault…”
”Are you going to try and escape now? You did say over her dead body~”
Silence.
”Of course not. Friends ‘til the bitter end and all of those cliche and mundane things.” Carefully, Quyen leapt off the railing, approaching the girl, who tried to step away. A whip formed at her fingers from the mass of jade, tethering itself to Lily’s ankle. With one tug, Lily was grovelling on her feet, begging for mercy and to be spared, to let her escape the hell that the academy had become.
Falsely, she put on an expression of deliberation before whispering into the raspberry-haired girl’s ear.
”Kill yourself.”
A mini-grenade formed from thin air, and Quyen placed it in Lily’s palm, curling the fingers up. ”This is a task only you can do.”
”No… nonononono.”
”Ssshh, it’s alright. You can see Mei Mei again soon.”
”Yume, where are you?”
”Look, look. She’s over there. She’s waiting for you. She just needs the signal.”
”Yume.”
”Go on.”
Mindlessly, the girl walked away, holding the grenade, and soon, a loud boom! resonated into the air. The cement below cracked, and Quyen fell into free-fall. A bo staff formed from the former whip, and gracefully, she landed on the new level. The large pieces of debris had crushed several students below, and this was only one sector of the rooftop; a few notables being a red-head with a purple scarf and a girl with several white fox tails. A few ways away, Lily and Mei Mei’s bodies were stacked upon each other… Or the mangled remains of them. Probably. She didn’t care enough to bother identifying them.
Quyen dusted off her dress, glancing up to the sky before letting out a sigh.
”Naughty girls made me dirty my hands, ufufu.”
Her smile reached her eyes now.
”I’ll forgive them since it cured my boredom~”
And so she continued her former spectator-role in the remnants of the academy, strolling as though it were a simple walk in the park.
