Mr. Abrams: “…”

Ian: “Meep…!”

Elijah: “…Te-Teacher…”

Brennan: “Oh wow… so domineering. Was he always like this?”

Li Shun: “I… think so? I dunno, but… he mentioned something about… presents? Did you guys ...get either of them anything? Because I… I didn’t.”

Ophelia: “Same. But I’m sure Noel wouldn’t mind. He didn’t seem to have that sort of selfish temperament when we first met. Rise doesn’t sound too pleased about getting gifts either.”

Alyandrea: “I guess we all know that Rise is finally awake. It’s been what, 3 days? With that bad attitude, I feel sorry for all the nurses taking care of him.”

Elijah: “Alyandrea, shh, don’t speak like that. It’s rude. Any assumptions you make based on both of their behaviors today and over the past 3 to 4 days should be done half – heartedly and with caution. After all, they both just survived deadly poison and severe injuries. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they were changed or altered somehow from the encounter.”

Ophelia: “Changed…? Al-Altered somehow?”

She couldn’t help but envision a Noel that spoke equally as disturbing as Rise had, just now. An angry, resentful Noel that harbored hatred for heroes, an older Noel who failed in life because he lost faith in people – and finally…

A Noel that died alone and bitter at the world, because he failed to properly overcome his trauma in time before it took root inside of his subconscious and conscious mind – as a result: affecting his very decision making itself. Such a momentary assumption of betrayal was something she didn’t wish upon anyone! The heroes didn’t intentionally betray them! Mr. Abrams was led away from the group by assigned missions and quickly helped everybody he found spread out inside of the forest! He really didn’t give up on them! It not for Mr. Abrams himself, then maybe Noel and Rise would both be dead by now!

She had to let him know how she felt. She just couldn’t stand idle and watch as Noel fell into a dissenting stupor of despair and eventually turned into a creepy old man that didn’t want to spend time with anyone!

Yet, before she could gather her thoughts together, the door was pressed open.

Mr. Abrams decided to let each of his students in first, before he himself, confronted the troublesome pair. If they hadn’t been such talented kids, he might have been able to grow closer to them as quick as these four little weaklings: referring to Li Shun, Alyandrea, Ian and Brennan. But since they each had dubious backgrounds, and enough power to kill either Elijah and the rest, he had to take caution with confronting them.

Besides, they were asleep and after his experience with Noel’s little ‘memory’ anomaly, this wizened and handsome powerhouse dared not converse with them from deep within any of their dreamscapes. Ophelia was a much larger threat in terms of raw power, but she was generally a lot more simple-minded than either of them. This is not to call her an ‘idiot’ or claim her to be ‘stupid’ or something, only to point out how, whether it’s Noel or Rise who is brought into question, both have varying levels of cunning that greatly surpass Ophelia’s. If anything, Ophelia is a little more clever than cunning, while slightly lacking in both. Both Noel and Rise are cunning, but Noel, similar to Ian in this regard, has both of these two traits in spades. Harboring a simple mind makes Ophelia the far lesser threat. Holding both power AND cunning, that was a deadly combination. Of course, he had to be apprehensive with these two.

As the days pass, slowly but surely, Mr. Abrams is coming to learn how exactly he must approach his students in order to earn their trust and favor. Only then, can he begin instructing each of them on how to improve their strengths and cover their weak points. The Secret class would require each of them to be strengthened to peak physical, mental and emotional condition before starting up, after all. This was the same rule for all three classrooms filled with non-combatants. Step one: Weed out those unable to handle the project and better suited to become genuine non-combatants. Those students would stick with the cover-up curriculum while the promising ones move on to step two: the impartment of superpowers.

His thoughts were swiftly interrupted by the frozen and stiff children who ewre once his students, gazing at a table full of gifts.

At once, Ian and Alyandrea came to understand what Rise meant by demanding they leave their ‘gifts’ at the door before being denied entry. The others, such as Li Shun, Brennan and Elijah, had their gazes equally fixated onto the gifts, but their thoughts were entirely different. While Ian and Alyandrea inwardly said, ‘Ah, so this is what he meant…’, the other three were busy questioning something else entirely. ‘Those two had visitors…? HOW?! WHY?? Rise met nobody since they came today, except for Mr. Abrams’s son, Rhys. But even THAT was mostly spent between he and Noel bickering back and forth while Rhys slept away like an overworked human on of a couch.

It’s just...even with such circumstances; HE was the lucky one out of the two! Noel should have been hated by everybody! Although most people didn’t actually know who were the two non-combatants that got hurt defending their fellow students from villains, thanks to privacy rules, that only applied to the ordinary student body. Any who had power, a good background or wonderfully loyal connections within the school could easily find out that Noel, the big mouthed middle schooler from Orientation, had gotten himself hurt defending the class he hailed from: 3-C! With such knowledge discreetly spreading among those in the know, why would they still receive gifts?

As for Ophelia… absolutely none of this mattered. She unknowingly shoved Alyandrea and Brennan out of the way, as she dashed over to Noel…

...and Rise.

Ophelia was about to speak while facing Noel, before remembering everybody’s earlier jeers about their strong classmate being too over-caring for Noel’s well being. But she couldn’t help it! He was the first to care for her when she was being picked on. Maybe not everybody reacted this way, but for her, it meant something special. Something worth caring this deeply over, ESPECIALLY after witnessing the near-death state he was in.

Ophelia: “Noel! ...Rise! How are the two of you feeling? Any problems with moving? ...Or… breathing? Or eating, or sleeping or-”

Rise: “Hmph! There’s no need for you to care that strongly about me. We don't even know each other well enough to-”

Noel: “Ah! Ophelia! How are you feeling?! I heard from Nurse Winney that my injuries and Rise’s were the only casualties, but I remember those two guys having teammates they were speaking with on the phone! I know how you feel about using your strength – when I felt that first tremor… was that you? Did it bother you? Did you… have to…”

Noel’s string of worry-filled questions left Ophelia stunned for a moment. At the start of the fight, back then, she wanted nothing more then to run away. Following Alyandrea’s ‘death’ and losing an arm, she readjusted her mind so that she may put up a proper fight against the pair of evildoers. She basically ‘forced’ herself to protect her peers, ignoring the inner shaking and disgust she felt without noticing how her hands stopped their constant trembling. She temporarily lost herself in survival-mode while forgetting about her traumatic fear. But no more than 5 minutes into the next day, after realizing her vigilance was no longer needed… her powerful knees turned into jelly, and Ophelia found herself unable to extract her body from the floor for a good few hours. Not until a nurse came by to offer help did she manage to lay back atop her own temporary bed.

Yes… She came to realize the gravity of what she had done. Silently, she endured by escaping from her memories and by being alongside the others, such as Alyandrea and Ian. Worrying over Aria helped give her something else to vent her grievances and frustration over.

But in the end…

Most likely, she had ‘killed’ back then. Her punch had obliterated two enemies. She knew this, because Mr. Abrams had inquired for her about the enemy bodies. Yet, only 2 people and a ‘hand’ belonging to a third, were discovered. This could only lead them to believe that the owner of that hand had disintegrated into mush. Mr. Abrams laughed at her opinion and tried telling her such a thing was unlikely, but she knew better. She knew about her strength better than most people. At least, better than he did. But Ophelia still didn’t dare to bring it up with anyone. She strictly blamed herself for Alyandrea’s quick death, and because of that, she no longer wished to show others a weak side of herself. A brand new trauma – one based on her fear of being the root cause of her companions’ deaths – began to grow. Along with her previous trauma about her ‘strength’ accompanying very close to death, she was unknowingly on the verge of losing herself to despair. The very same despair she feared Noel would fall prey to.

And it was Noel that managed to do exactly what she wanted to do for him – to throw him a lifeline and to wrap her up in a protective bubble of kindness.

Once again, Noel saved her.

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