“Student,” he said with calm authority, yet a short flare of his own power to remind her of her place. Or, perhaps, to smash the wall of ice before it froze her very being.
Cowed a little, Mizuki lowered her fractured gaze and bowed demurely.
“I apologize for speaking out of turn,” she whispered. “I will...reflect…”
Glad to hear the girl under the marble facade once again, even if it did hurt his heart to hear her sound so defeated, the master reigned in his power once more and nodded, his gaze gentle.
“The please, do so. Get something to eat and meditate for a while. We will continue this another time.”
“Yes, master”
…..
Stepping from the room, Mizuki slid the shoji door closed behind her. Once she was out from under the sharp eyes of the Grandmaster, the priestess sighed closing her eyes as she resisted the urge to reach up and pinch the bridge of her nose.
She did it again…
Oh, she knew, in her heart of hearts, that the master meant well, even if his methods drove her to distraction. He had known her brother, way back when, well enough to have known about Mizuki long before she had ever met him, if only because her brother, apparently, had a horrible habit of gushing about his little sister. Thus, he knew about how his death had affected her. Not only that, but the Master knew that, considering Mizuki was determined to follow in his footsteps, that she needed to learn the more intricate parts of being a hunter, especially now that she was being inducted into Pandora in order to be able to find the thing that had brought about the Masuyo tragedy. Which meant that, sometimes, the lessons had to be harsh. Sometimes the master had to even interrupt her before she settled on a single idea, knowing just how stubborn she could be once her mind was set.
Even so, the truth was sometimes like salty antiseptic being poured into open wounds. It hurt, and would keep hurting, but she knew, in the long run, it probably would do her some good.
It didn’t mean that it didn’t cause her soul to cry, be it in an effort to push the painful help away and let her nurse her inner wounds, or to protest at the idea of needing anyone. Needing people just meant leaving oneself vulnerable. And the last thing she wanted was for that to happen again. Not after him…
Still...despite that, she would at least offer the master some form of apology soon enough. Even if she was angry and bitter, there was no reason to push away competent allies.
Heaving another sigh, Mizuki straightened, pushed her worries and concerns under her icy facade once more and made her way to the mess hall as the Master had instructed.
The mess hall was a large room where all the trainees would gather to eat, no matter what their level. Usually, those of higher levels like herself tended to enter the hall before the main mass or afterwards, in order to focus more on eating what was needed before moving to their studies once again. However, at this time, thanks to the mess with Rodessa and the conversation with the Master, the main mass of trainees were already there, leaving the halls far more crowded and noisy than Mizuki was truly comfortable with. Oh, sure, there were those who were focusing on eating the way that Mizuki appreciated - those who were truly dedicated to their crafts - but then there were some of the newcomers…
Mizuki’s eyes narrowed slightly at a group of them, the kind that figured out a few tricks and suddenly felt that they owned the place, even if any of the others in the hall could probably have blasted them to the other side of the village if they wanted to. Another reason Mizuki prefered those quiet, competent types to the arrogant newcomers
Speaking of arrogant newcomers…
“And here I thought I would have a peaceful evening meal,” Rodessa drawled from where she lounged at one of the benches, the smile on her face honey sweet despite the mocking words. That same arrogance that caused her distaste at the rough-housing students making Mizuki’s back stiffen. “Oh, and here I thought your people were all about manners.”
Pausing, the silver eye ran over Mizuki’s face, lighting almost gleefully. “Oh, wait, are those new frown lines? Darling, they become you.” she blew a mocking kiss in her direction.
Honestly, Mizuki really didn’t feel like playing with her in this ridiculous game as she sat down to eat primly, eyes closed. “I believe it’s called ‘thinking’. Perhaps this is a foreign concept to you, however, not all of us have the privilege of having only poisonous barbs to consider during their day to day activities.”
“Hm~” Rodessa’s eye narrowed, before the smile curved into something closer to a smirk. “Oh, yes, dear, keep on with that attitude. It’s no wonder that you’re always alone, barely able to gain an ally that’s not one of your masters.”
That hurt a little, hurt deep down in a place that Mizuki let no one see. However, she froze the feeling along with the rest of those that belonged to the young girl that still wailed in grief deep inside. She wasn’t going to let that woman see something like that. After all, demons of any kind prayed on such weaknesses. Even if Rodessa tricked herself into believing the lie she was human, she was no different.
The woman in question tossed her hair, happy to continue her poisonous barbs. “Of course, you’re all hips and talk. Quite honestly-”
It happened all at once, so fast that, had they not being Mizuki’s level, they might have missed it entirely. While Mizuki was tolerating Rodessa, the rough housing students had apparently decided to show off physically and, in the resulting competition, a spell shot off into the crowds and shot straight in the direction of the table the two were sitting at. Mid sentence, Rodessa had cut off, her eyes flashing and, in a single, fluid motion had grabbed a shield that had been lying on the table - had a student left it behind? No…had one even been there before this? - and whirled it around, timing it just right for the spell to hit and ricochet off towards the ceiling.
The students sitting close by had gone silent in shock and even Mizuki had to blink. Usually, if something like that were to happen, mizuki would normally just activate a talisman or flare her aura and cancel such a spell herself, but that was mainly due to her own level. New students likely would have just dived under the table to get away. Considering Rodessa’s level, such fast reflexes (especially considering she seemed under self delusions of being human) were a little surprising. Not only that but, unintentionally or not (unneeded as it was), Rodessa had incidentally protected her from the spell as well.
Not that Mizuki was going to thank her for something like that, considering the woman had been verbally attempting to slice her to bits.
Still, credit where credit was due.
“Good reflexes,” she murmured calmly. “For a beast.”
Whether Rodessa heard her or not was debatable, considering she had slammed her hands on the table and was glaring at the idiot who had cast the spell in the first place.
“Oi!” she snapped. “Watch it! You could have hurt someone, asshole! Just know this I’d give ya ten times what you deserve, I promise you that!”
Said spell caster practically cowed under her gaze. However, it seemed that one other idiot either didn’t hear her, had too big a head to care or was wanting to actually test that as a moment later an arrow flew-
Only to be caught between the hands of the shorter priestess.
The hall seemed to fall silent as Mizuki stood primly and turned her tundra gaze upon the idiot that had ignored Rodessa’s warning. While the fool might have been arrogant enough to undermine a newcomer, said fool was not idiot enough to do so with one of the temple’s upper learners.
“You call yourselves students of this temple?” Mizuki proclaimed icilly. “For people taught to protect mankind, you are failing spectacularly. Perhaps you would serve better as moving targets for the archery range instead since you apparently cannot even grasp the concept of weapon safety. Now report yourselves to the master before I decide to test out some of my spells on you in order to drive the lesson home!”
Not even bothering to watch as the fools scrambled away under the combined stare of both Masuyo and Hunter, the two girls near simultaneously retook their seats with synchronized huffs.
“Idiots”/ “Dumbasses”
As one, the girls paused, eyes sliding to each other as they realised that they had both, as one, insulted the group of rough housers. Quickly, they rolled their eyes before discomfort could set in and instead busied themselves with the food that had just been set before them discreetly by those on waiting service that day.
After a long moment, Rodessa finally spoke, almost reluctantly. “I didn’t ask for your help,” she tutted. Her eye flicked up to Mizuki, before back to her food/ “But…that magic thing...it was…adequate.”
Mizuki raised a brow, both at her words and the fact that Rodessa had even noticed that, in order to catch the arrow before it had flown into her only visible eye that she had used her power to slow the arrow’s momentum. Even so… “Adequate?”
“Well,” Rodessa huffed. “Had you caught it between your fingers and fired it back, instead of your hocus pocus, I would have been impressed.”
In a room full of students when both Rodessa and Mizuki had told those students off for that exact thing? Yeah….no.
Mizuki snorted. Of course, if she had done that, she was willing to bet Rodessa would have found delight in pointing that exact thing out instead of admitting to being impressed.
“Always the critic, it seems,” she huffed instead.
“Yes, yes I am.”
[END]
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