36. Negative spirits and TG-gums

A spar, he said… with who exactly? Me?

“Haha… I’m honored, but I just don’t feel up to it?” My diplomatic refusal somehow sounded like an interrogation.

“Glad to hear you’re honored, since you didn’t seem to realize you’re just a small fish among sharks around here.” He looked at me head to toe. “Linah told me you’re her friend. But aren’t you more like her boyfriend?”

Eeeeeh… What was that all of a sudden?

“Actually we’re just—”

“I don’t really care if you are her boyfriend or not,” he cut me off. “I know she’s only playing around with you. But I’m curious about something she told me. She said you have an emotion manipulation power and that you can scare people just by looking at them. I want to see it. So try it on me.”

I stared at him, bewildered. He wanted me to scare him? Was he a masochist? Anyway…

“I can’t.”

Axel shot me a black look. Aw, why was he so hostile? I explained:

“The Tiger Clan used to give us pills that allowed us to have temporary powers. I don’t have that kind of power anymore.”

“Don’t give me that crap.” Taking a pace forward, he stood before me. He was shorter, and that seemed to bother him. “The fear I sent you before should have made you beg for your life. Only other emotion manipulators have been able to resist my power until now. O are you telling me you’re some kind of insensitive monster who can’t feel fear?”

His hand grabbed my neck. I felt the same fear as before running down my body…

“You should be trembling in fear right now, yet you aren’t. Why?” he hissed.

So I had guessed right. Axel Sunclaw was an emotion manipulator. As for why his power wasn’t affecting me as strongly as he wanted it to… that was probably because he was attacking me not knowing I was an undead. But how strong was his power if even without attacking my core directly I still felt afraid?

Frowning, I grasped his wrist with my hand and pushed it away.

“Why would I tremble in fear? No matter how amazing your power is, if you can’t use it, you’re nothing more than a nobody, a worthless worm… is what you said to Ray, ain’t it?”

Axel’s eyes widened. Then a twisted smile curved his lips.

“Oh… Good work, Curry. You found a real stupid guy this time.”

“Kurikurikuri…” the kompa cooed.

“Stupid whelp,” Axel called out to me. “Do you know why I keep a kompa by my side?” Wasn’t it because it was super cute? “It’s because I can’t stand the sight of positive guys like you, so every time Curry gets attached to someone, I don’t let the guy go until he begs for forgiveness… no, until his mind breaks and becomes that of a real depressive wimp.”

The gleam of Axel’s eyes told me more than I wanted to know. That guy wasn’t in his right mind, and he was dangerous. It was such a shame a wonderful creature like Curry was his pet…

“Kurikurikuri…”

“Are you telling me you can’t stand positive people?” I asked.

“That’s right. My power is based on negative emotions, so I can’t stand positive emotions. They disgust me. So stop smiling. You make me sick.”

Azritz had told me about how emotion manipulation powers tended to change the power-holder’s personality more than any other power. But what Axel was saying made me sad. Axel frowned.

“Are you pitying me?”

I recovered my smile.

“No way. Don’t you know the saying? People who pity others are the most pitiful of all.”

Suddenly, Axel threw a punch at my face, probably wanting to wipe off that smile of mine… I barely managed to dodge, and received the blow in my shoulder. In a matter of seconds, I was lying on the gym’s ground, face down, Axel blocking my movements.

“I’ll let you off the hook for today because you’re Linah’s friend,” he told me. “but let me warn you. I’m a Sunclaw, you’re a nobody. Don’t ever treat Linah or me like we’re all equals here, or I’ll make you suffer. Don’t ever smile in front of me again, or I’ll make you live a thousand hells. I don’t know why my power doesn’t work well on you, but I’ll make sure it will soon. Guys that piss me off always end up having a nervous breakdown that marks them for life. I despise happy-go-lucky bastards like my brother, but it’s my brother, so it can’t be helped but… you’re just scum. There’s no way a scum like you can have fun around me. No way in hell, you hear?”

He had lost it. I wasn’t smiling at all right now, but he couldn’t see it because I was facing the ground. My body was trembling. I was scared. If Axel found a way to send his power into my core, I had the feeling that I wouldn’t only be frightened: that crazy guy wanted to break my mind… and that for the sole reason I was a positive person who smiled a lot? Holy Crystals, what was wrong with the Sunclaw family? The medusa, the martial artist, then that mental punk… They were all crazy monsters! No wonder Linah had wanted to run away last year.

“So you can be scared, after all. But it’s not enough. Not enough at all.”

Axel released me and stood up.

“You’ll go to that stupid training for the Heroes of Tomorrow, won’t you? Remember I’ll be there too, so come… but don’t look forward to it. It won’t be fun for you.”

I was sitting up when I heard the door open and Axel’s footsteps fade away.

Dammit.

I didn’t care about Axel Sunclaw being superior, wealthier, or more powerful than me.

I didn’t care about him in the least, so why did he have to take an interest in me? I hadn’t asked for his attention!

Also, why did the Lightning Veil wanted her son to go to a training full of monsters? Well, but didn’t I myself push Ray into going? Was it a mistake? Was I being too optimistic? All that because I wanted to skip school, show off my power, and have fun with my friends…

“Kurikurikuri…” The kompa was moving towards the door, glancing at me at each small step he was taking.

I rolled my eyes, finally calming down.

“Curry. You’re running away because I’m not being positive, aren’t you? You like it when people are positive around you, but your owner doesn’t make things easy for you, huh…”

The way Axel was using his kompa was so messed up it sickened me just thinking about it. The magical creature turned away from the door. Kurikurikuri… Its eyes were staring at me. Could it understand what I was saying? I didn’t know a thing about magical creatures… I reached Curry, gave it a smile, and patted its head.

“I’ll do my best to be positive even when I see you, it’s a promise, so… do your best too.”

“Kurikuri!”

It showed its mouth, similar to that of a whale at a smaller scale. As Curry went out of the gym, I felt uneasy to let it go like that. But what did I know anyway? Maybe Curry did like its owner. It didn’t seem to be mistreated.

I went outside to wait for Ray and looked up at the blue sky.

In the end, despite what I said, I did pity Axel. If his power had made him this way, I couldn’t help but pity his bad luck. If he hadn’t been a Sunclaw, he probably would have been sent to that Champion Institute Zeeta had told me about, that “school” for power-holders with deviant or uncontrollable powers.

Yet, Axel was even going to participate in the training for aspirant Heroes along with his twin. Was Linah coming too? I should ask her. As for the red-haired medusa… I hoped I wouldn’t see her again.

A gust of wind swooshed to my ears. I checked the temperature on my phone. Despite being in winter, it was twenty degrees Celsius. Such was the climate in Farskyer, always changing.

I breathed in the air, but I couldn’t feel its warmth.

I looked up at the Sunclaw’s red-horned building. Where could the infirmary be? Ray surely knew where I was, but I didn’t. Would it be possible for an undead to track the necro-bond too? I almost heard Arkill’s voice telling me: ‘seeing how you struggle with simple equations, you won’t learn it any time soon…’ Well, I wouldn’t know until I tried it, right?

My eyes caught glimpse of a thing spinning in the wind. I grabbed it with my power, drew it closer, then seized it. It was a hundred Corn bill. I gaped at it, amazed. The hell?

I looked around, saw nobody, put the bill in my pocket, and joined my hands.

“Thanks, Santa. I’ll use it well.”

Linah didn’t take long and soon joined me handing me one piece of pink chewing gum.

“Wanna one? I’ve bought them this morning. They’re TG-gums. They’re supposed to make giant bubbles.”

Would they work in an undead’s mouth unable to create saliva? Well, I was able to chew it with a bit of water; it had no taste, but gumming it was entertaining. We were waiting for Ray sitting on a bench, trying to make a bubble gum bubble, and I had just managed a big one when he came down.

“Sorry for making you guys wait…”

We both looked up at Ray, and our giant bubbles blew up on our faces. Linah burst out laughing, pointing at me with a finger.

“Hwara-hwara, Straw Head, you’re all pink!”

“So you are.”

“Hwara-hwara-hwara!”

“Erma’s way of laughing,” I just told Ray so as to reassure him as I tried to detach the gum stuck on my mouth. It was so sticky… “Has the doc patched you up?”

Ray nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine, only some bruises. Lei went easy on me, yet I broke his wrist…”

“He broke it with his own power,” Linah shrugged cheerfully, standing up.

“But the EPHT training will start in only three weeks…” Ray worried.

“Yeah, shouldn’t you worry about your brother?” I asked casually as I rubbed my cheeks fiercely.

Linah rolled her eyes.

“Why should I? Lei is always reckless when fighting. He sprains or breaks his bones pretty often. With good medical treatments, it will heal up in two weeks. We use regeneration pills for that.”

“Regeneration pills?!” Ray and I echoed, astounded. Wasn’t that, like, super expensive?

Linah gave us a crooked grin.

“My family is filthy rich, ya know. Well then! I’m starving! Mm! What are we going to have for lunch?” she asked randomly as the three of us walked away from the Sunclaw quarters. “Oh, by the way, you did say you were treating us, Straw Head, right?”

“Hah? Just earlier, you said you were treating us, did I imagine it? I think I’m gonna fast, anyway, in preparation for New Year’s Eve—”

“But I don’t have money. Are you gonna make a lady pay, Straw Head?”

I squinted an eye. What was her deal? Didn’t she just say her family was filthy rich?

“Well, whatever, I’ll pay…”

“Mm… Mm…” Was she laughing? She burst out: “Hwara-hwara-hwara! You’re such a gentleman, Straw Head! After all, you just found a hundred Corn bill, right?”

“…! Wh-What! Don’t tell me it’s yours?”

“Did you really think you could hit the jackpot or something? I saw you and threw the bill from a window, just to see if you’d see it, but then the wind carried it away, and I thought I had thrown it for nothing, hwara-hwara!”

“To think I even thanked Santa…”

“That’s literally throwing money out of the window,” Ray commented.

“I wanted to try it once!” Linah confessed.

She kept on laughing at me.

“… By the way,” I said as we stopped on the boulevard, “instead of a restaurant, how about we go to a ramen shop?”

Linah looked surprised.

“Well, I don’t really mind.”

“It’s okay with me,” Ray shrugged.

“Oh. That’s a relief because I don’t think I’ll be able to use your hundred Corn bill, Erma. I kinda got attached to it, you know.”

Linah snorted.

“I didn’t know you were that kind of guy, Straw Head!”

I hurriedly raised my left hand between us, and she stopped her fist a few inches away, puzzled, as she looked at my palm and at the hundred Corn bill stuck on it with pinky gum.

“Whoa. The power of money is awesome,” I said. “But your TG-gums are even more powerful. Never seen a gum so sticky. Worse than the superglue Ray used in his fight. I just put the hand in my pocket when you said the bill was yours, and you can see the result. Do you think your bill can be saved?”

A gust of wind gently whistled in our ears amidst the silence. Then Linah breathed out:

“For real?”

Suddenly, Ray snorted, then burst out laughing. I turned to him, surprised, then smiled, relieved that he wasn’t letting his duel against Lei getting him down. Heh. After all, that day wasn’t that bad of a day. That said, we spent almost one hour trying techniques to save the poor hundred Corn bill.