Continuing on, five months later. ....
Riiiing!! Riiiing!!
The school bell rang.
Primes Junior Academy, or PJA. Think of it as an elementary school for children aged 6 to 12.
A school built exclusively for that specific area. There, each grade had three classrooms: A, B, and C.
...
Class 4-B. Second floor.
Nexus arrived at school, intending to sit at his desk. But he couldn't find his chair anywhere.
He looked around to see who the culprits were. Naturally, it was a group of boys whispering and giggling in the back.
...
He found his chair near the incinerator. He went to fetch it himself.
A student from Class 4-A approached Nexus there.
"Hey... Nexus!" the guy called out.
The student had a name tag on his left chest that read "Alpha Trion." Nexus remained silent, didn't look back, and simply grabbed his chair to carry it away.
"Umm... I need to talk to you about something important!" Alpha Trion continued.
But Nexus kept walking, leaving him without a single word in response. "Uh... um..." Unfortunately, Alpha Trion's calls were completely ignored by Nexus.
Alpha Trion was left bewildered by Nexus's behavior. ...
Nexus had become incredibly quiet at school. He sat back down in his class. His gaze was fixed out the window, completely ignoring the teacher's lesson. "Nexus!"
The teacher reprimanded Nexus for not paying attention. He threw out a question that Nexus was forced to answer. Nexus tried to respond, but he was awkward, and his answer went completely off-topic. The entire class burst out laughing and mocked him.
"Hahahahaha!!!" "This is math class, idiot. Not biology!"
...
"Shh!! That's enough, everyone!... Nexus, sit back down!" the teacher said.
...
Riiiing!... Riiiing! Finally, the school bell rang.
A girl stood up and walked over to him. With both hands, she shoved Nexus.
Thud...
"Hahahaha!" "Oops, my bad!" the girl said.
Nexus fell, and then several desks tumbled down as well, pinning him underneath. A group of boys—five of them—surrounded him. Along with that one girl, the six of them grabbed Nexus's backpack from his desk. They hurled it right out the window, sending it crashing into a tree beside the school.
"Yahahaha," the boys chuckled. Right on the girl's chest, her name was written: Onyx Vatum. A body colored in light blue. "What else? Anyone got an idea?" asked one of the boys.
Nexus struggled to get back on his feet. But his gaze was already full of resignation. "Later, after school. We're going to... hahahaha!"
"So... go home, kid...—I mean... thief!" Onyx said.
"Ptoo!" Onyx then spat on Nexus. Then she and the boys walked away. Leaving Nexus all alone. ...
Nexus eventually stood up, walked out of the classroom, down the hallway, down the stairs, and into the bathroom. Sitting, silent, without a sound, completely still. Sitting on the toilet, ignoring it even when someone asked, "Huh, why is it locked?" Nexus squatted on top of the closed toilet lid.
Not long after, he walked out. Straight to the school gates. There was no other way. It was better for him to just leave.
SWOOSH!!
Suddenly, a sack was shoved over his head. He couldn't see a thing. But his body felt like it was floating.
....
After quite some time, he was thrown to the ground. Then the sack covering his face was pulled off. He was in a rather dark room. Around him, there were dozens of broken desks and some unusable sports equipment scattered to the side. "Alright, finish your business, yeah?" a boy's voice echoed from outside. Nexus sat on a chair, his hands and feet tied. And right in front of him was Onyx. Glaring at Nexus, the blue light radiating from her pupils striking.
"I'm not done yet, idiot!" Onyx said. Her voice wasn't loud, but her tone was chillingly flat.
Onyx leaned close to Nexus's face. "Rich kid!" "You lived your whole life feeding off my parents' money, but..." "It's such a relief that your father and mother were finally given the death penalty by the High Prime." Onyx backed away. She stood up from her seat. "Do you know?"
Onyx then grabbed an iron bar. "...Your father got me stuck in this school."
"I should have graduated by now. But instead, I'm trapped in the fourth grade with someone like you," Onyx spat. Onyx raised the iron bar with both hands high above her head. "My dad, he went crazy because of you!" "I lost those years!... You took away all my happiness!"
CLANG!!
"Arhggg..."
Onyx slammed the iron bar straight into Nexus's head. Nexus screamed in agony, an overwhelming pain that made his vision blur and warp. Tears instinctively streamed from his eyes, his breathing ragged. Nexus's head split open, right on the left side; he was likely concussed. Onyx was breathing heavily, her heart pounding, but her hands trembled as she gripped the iron bar now slick with green fluid. Onyx's hands shook as she held the metal rod.
Onyx let go of the iron bar, lifted her foot, and kicked Nexus in the head, still unsatisfied. THWACK!!
"..."
... ... ...
...
Nexus slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. Blood was pouring from his head and leaking from his mouth. ...
Onyx's pupils dilated. Approaching Nexus, she tried to nudge his hand with her foot. Nexus then fell flat on his back, but his eyes were still open, glowing a bright blue.
Onyx panicked, darting her eyes around the room. She rushed to grab the door handle.
Eh, it wouldn't budge.
"Is anyone out there?! Help!!" Onyx yelled.
Onyx pounded on the door. It turned out the door had been locked from the outside.
"If I scream, people will come here, and I'll..."
"Oh Primus, this is the doing of those useless boys!" Onyx was locked inside with the very person she hated, Nexus.
Onyx then sat down. Silent and thinking, but her anxiety was rapidly spiraling.
"...Oh my god... is he dead?!"
...
"No, no! He must just be unconscious!" ...
Onyx grew increasingly frantic. She tried to find a way out, pacing back and forth and scanning her surroundings, but there was no escape. "Ugh... What should I do?... RRGHHH!!! ALRIGHT THEN!!!... UGH, BASTARD!!"
...
Onyx looked back at Nexus, but he showed no signs of waking up. "What if he dies?"
"Oh my god... what do I do?!"
Fueled by anxiety, Onyx finally made a decision. She dragged Nexus, laying him flat on his back. She grabbed some cloth lying around the storage room and wrapped it tightly around his bleeding head. From her chest compartment, Onyx took out a canned water bottle. She cooled the water down using the cooling unit built into her chest. She poured the freezing water onto the cloth. Then, she pressed it against the wounded area of Nexus's head. Compressing it to stop the bleeding and ease his pain.
Onyx rested her head against Nexus's chest to listen to his heartbeat. It sounded like it was slowly returning to normal. Earlier, his heartbeat had been dropping dangerously low. Onyx then checked his breathing by placing her hand near Nexus's nose.
His breaths were drawn out and incredibly shallow. Nexus needed specialized medical attention immediately.
Onyx cooled the cloth again and placed it back on Nexus's wound. Treating Nexus's wound suddenly reminded Onyx of her mother.
For a brief moment, she recalled her mother's words: "Don't end up like your father."
...
Onyx then sat beside Nexus. Quiet, pondering in the silence.
"...Mom... why isn't our family like everyone else's?"
Onyx then shed a tear, sniffing softly in the dim room.
An hour had passed, but no one had walked by.
Besides, teachers rarely came to this part of the school, except for the security guard on night patrol.
"Hm, ehrggg!!" Nexus began to groan in pain. It looked like he was finally regaining consciousness.
"What is it? Don't scare me even more, dammit!"
Onyx felt that Nexus's head was getting too cold, so she altered the cloth's temperature to warm and placed it near the wound.
"Huuuuh..." Onyx blew gently on Nexus's wound.
"My mom..."
"...Whenever she blew on a wound, it would always heal so fast."
Click! "Hey, hey, done letting off some steam?" The boy who had locked the door earlier finally showed up.
Onyx immediately stood up and glared furiously at him. "Where were you? What took you so long?"
"Sorry, I had a stomachache and went to the toilet. After that, my friend invited me to play console games, so I ended up forgetting. But luckily, I remembered and came straight to you."
"Tch!"
Thump!!
Onyx kicked the boy right in the groin.
Onyx then stepped out, snatched the key from the boy's hand, locked the door behind her, and left Nexus lying inside.
Onyx and the boy immediately ran off.
...
It seemed to be late afternoon; the two of them ran, leaving Nexus far behind.
"Where are the others?" asked Onyx.
"They forgot too! They went home, and in the end, I was the only one who remembered!"
"Ugh, you guys are so stupid at remembering things. Just watch, tomorrow I'll stomp on all your faces!" Onyx snapped.
Onyx fled down the hallway where the storage room was located alongside the boy.
With every step she took, she kept looking back. Her eyes kept darting toward the storage room—an involuntary reflex she didn't even want.
Inside, Nexus still lay unconscious because of what she had done. But Onyx felt strange, as if her very soul was trembling in terror upon realizing she had nearly taken someone's life.
However, back in the room, Nexus opened his eyes. Not heavily, but normally, as if he had actually been awake the entire time.
....
....
To be continued....