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Round 2:1 - Her Little Boy

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~*~ Round 2:1 – Her Little Boy ~*~

Round one was long over, the arena long cleared of people and cleaned of blood, all trace that people had been fighting was gone. But that wouldn’t be the case in the next week and a half. Merrillana was perhaps one of the only people that wasn’t scarred from the first round of the tournament, well, physically anyway. For several days she had been searching for a little blond haired boy, trying to spy those familiar turquoise circles upon his dark skin. But so far she had had no luck.
She hadn’t been to her dorm for a while, thinking that since Hiro was sleeping she would let him sleep, and had, instead, slept in the forest while working on perfecting her abilities, aim and increasing her power level. She had had minimal luck with that, as well. So when she had gone back to her dorm, and found that Hiro was nowhere to be seen once again, she had become frantic, scouring the school for several hours before it went dark.

Each day, from dawn to dusk, with any spare time she had she would go searching for the dragon boy, but never being able to find him. He would be hungry, and he would also be scared, and tired in the dark on his own. What if he got sick? What if he got injured, and was unable to make his way to the infirmary? What if someone had taken him away when he had started wandering through the school on his own? What if he was d-? No. No she would not go there. It would not do well to dwell on such things, she had to retain a positive attitude, that she would find her son, and that she would hold him close and tell him that she wasn’t going to fight anymore, just in case she scared him again.
If only she had been in front of the hexing building, or at least close to it, after the sun had set on the horizon. She would have seen him there, his bright, messy shock of blond hair and his yellow reptilian wings with turquoise circles that he often kept folded against his back just in case they hit someone or he couldn’t make it through a doorway with them out. She would have seen his hand holding someone else’s hand as they lead him away from the hexing building, with a small, bright white figure following them. She would have recognized the person leading Hiro away as the Shadowmancy professor mDrake Moritz, and she would have followed them to the Shadowmancy building, determined to have him back.

Unfortunately, Hiro would not want to go back. Yes, he loved his mother, and yes, even though he was a little older he should know – or at least have a vague idea – that the world was a violent place, or at least that this school was a violent place; he was still scared of her. There wasn’t just one instance where he had seen Merrillana be violent, there had been the situation with her reflection where they had fought each other and his mother had ended up the one that went out the window. This was only because mMerrillana had thrown the small boy at the window, in an attempt to distract Merrillana. But Merrillana had ran and caught him before he hit the window, landing in the bushes bellow.
The Merrillana in the arena he had seen wasn’t as bad as the one he had seen when she fought with her reflection, but it had had been oddly sadistic of her, and she had shown a violent, torturous side that no one else had ever seen before. Not even the woman – Masa, her name was – had seen this sadistic side of her sister. It was something new that had developed, and it was terrifying, that she could have been that unpredictable.

“Mister Drake?” Bright, turquoise eyes peered over the edge of the professor’s desk, small locks of of blond hair covering them slightly. Yellow eyes peered back at the dragon boy, wondering why he was peering over the edge of the desk when the top of it barely reached his head. He was tall for his apparent age of twelve years.

“Yes?” Admittedly, the professor had a soft spot for children, if he didn’t, well; Hiro wouldn’t be in the Shadowmancy building right now. After he had brought him to the building, he had given him a proper, filling meal. It had been mainly meat, but there had been a small amount of greens in there just in case Hiro had wanted them. Despite him crinkling his nose at them, he did end up eating him, and as mDrake had promised earlier, he got a small piece of candy. But only one. Not like the diet of ice cream and candy that Hiro had told him he lived off. He had potentially been on a permanent sugar high.

“Why do people willingly sign up and do the tournament?” He genuinely wanted to know. It was something he hadn’t really considered when he had signed Merrillana up and she had, to his knowledge, willingly gone into it. From what he had seen, it was just violence and pain; then again he had only seen the first three rounds of the first round, but from what he had seen… It hadn’t been pleasant. “Are the people angry at each other?”

“It is very much a fight to determine who the best and strongest fighter in the school is. It’s also to determine who is the weakest in the school, and who the disappointments are.”  Many Shadowmancy students entered the tournament, one of them being his large disappointment of a graduate, Kichi. He had come second last year, just after Glitch, and he had lost to someone far below his level in the first round and he was determined to win this year. “It’s very much like a gladiator fight.”

“…What’s a gladiator?” The boy was genuinely curious about the tournament, even though many things within the tournament that he had both seen and heard terrified him. That was good, that meant he was willing to learn and willing to gain more knowledge. Hiro had clearly been sheltered, not told about the atrocities and the violence that was an integral part of the world, history and society.

“A gladiator was a man that was trained to fight against other men or wild animals in an arena. Most of the departments give the students at least some sort of training or equipment that they can make use of in battle.” Basically, the students were trained very much like gladiators and made to fight against each other once they signed up to the tournament. Not everyone wished to enter the tournament, but those that did had to make use of everything they had learnt or they would lose. Most would lose anyway, regardless of their skill or what they knew, proving them to be weak.

“Why did they do that? Isn’t that dangerous?”

The dragon boy seemed to have an endless amount of questions for the professor. “It was for everyone’s entertainment, much like how most of the people who are not in the tournament find entertainment in watching students fight each other.”

“Oh...”  He was silent for a moment, possibly thinking of another question to ask, or maybe simply thinking about this information he had been given. He didn’t know people were always willingly so violent most of the time. ”Why did mum never tell me about how violent the tournament is? Did she want to participate so she could show him? Did she not want to disappoint him?”

“Has anyone ever died in the tournament?” The question was sudden, as if he was scared to ask it.

“Many people.” They had died either by another student’s hand, or by their own foolishness and cockiness. The tournament weeded out the weak, and those that did not have a will to continue fighting or were simply not strong enough, died. Sometimes they died suddenly; sometimes they died slowly, to the enjoyment of the crowd surrounding them in the stands. Blood was expected to be spilled, and blood was what they received.

mDrake realized that Hiro’s eyes were drooping slightly, and that he started to yawn more and more frequently. He wanted to stay awake, but he wasn’t used to staying up into the late hours of the night like he was. He wasn’t nocturnal, nor was he old enough to have the stamina to be able to stay up the entire night and change his sleep schedule to suit his own. “I think it’s time you went to sleep. Come, I’ll take you to your room.”

~*~

“I saw your first round, you know.” That familiar, flat voice forced Merrillana to turn around and face the dragon woman behind her. “I didn’t know you like fighting that much. If I did, I would have let you take care of Daichi yourself.” Bright yellow eyes met piercing purple; the blonde’s narrowing in slight anger at them. They held a hint of annoyance and irritation, and if the black haired dragon couldn’t see that, the she was clearly blind.

“I told you to stay away.” Masa’s arms folded over her chest defensively, her chin rising slightly at the light dragon. “You interacted with my son without my knowledge, and you killed elder Daichi, your own father.” Slowly the light dragon took a step towards her ‘sister’, Masa mimicking the movement and moving closer to the blonde. The yellow glare that stared into the purple eyes of her former friend and ‘sister’ was not unexpected. Instead, Masa had been fully aware of how the elementalism student would react.

“You would have killed him yourself, if given the chance… Actually… I believe I did give you a chance with injuring him and sending him your way.” So it had been her that had injured him, she was just finishing the job that she wanted Merrillana to finish. If Masa had gotten Merrillana to kill Daichi, then that meant to would have warrant to kill Merrillana as well, as it was a crime in their community to kill an elder. The immediate punishment was death. The first dragon that saw the one that had killed the elder had to kill the murderer on sight, otherwise if others found out, the dragon that didn’t kill them would be classed as a traitor and be executed as well. This was the first time an elder had been killed in…. probably seven centuries.

It only occurred to Merrillana then that they had never found the killer.

Masa must have seen the realization appear within the yellow glare, because she uncrossed her arms, making small ‘sculptures’ out of dust that appeared directly in between the pair. “Elder Daiki, whose name means impressive or grand tree, was the first; he was growing weak, his age starting to catch up to him. I found him one morning outside, in the sunlight. It was unusual for him to be outside, but he was ill, he was not himself. He begged for me to end him, and following his orders, I did. I made sure no one else was around, and I was able to get away with it just from the fact that no one knew I was there nor did anyone know I was gone.”
The first of the dust sculpture’s head disappeared, the dust and dirt falling away to the ground. “Do you remember our dear friend, Elder Daisuke, whose name means impressive or great help? When he disappeared to find other dragon civilisations, he didn’t really disappear. He never made it down the mountain. Well... His body did, but it was soon eaten by other animals that were able to eat dragon flesh and stomach dragon blood and bones. So no evidence was left.”

The second dust and dirt sculpture suddenly exploded into several parts, before it floated down to the ground, no longer required. “And everyone thought he had deserted us, so he was classed as a traitor by the other elders.” This was a side to Masa that Merrillana had never seen, she was always so quiet and patient, the light dragon never imagined Daichi’s daughter to be so… bloodthirsty. But as she continued, she realized that it had been only the elders and the soon to be elders that she had been killing, well, out of the ones that she had told her.

“And finally… We have the ninth and most recent one – my father – Elder Daichi, whose name means impressive or grand first son. He was the hardest to find, and I had to ‘die’ in order to find him in secret. After you left, my ‘body’ turned to dust and I was able to go through the forest and search as much of the world that I could in order to find Daichi, or to bait him to coming into this area of the world.”

“We always wanted to do something about the elders, Masa, but killing them isn’t the right thing to do.” Merrillana watched the final dust and dirt sculpture had chunks taken out of it, finally falling once holes appeared in its chest and stomach. “I’ll have to execute you before the rest of the elders come here to look for Daichi.”

“But I saw you in that fight, Merrillana. You did not have the guts to throw that boy into the fire and scar him for life, or perhaps scaring him for the rest of what little life he would have had left, you simply overloaded his senses and brain with light and energy. What makes you think that you will be able to kill me? I have always been stronger than you. Besides, you may have grown up with me and in our society, but you are not truly part of it. I have discovered where you are really from, Merri.”
She froze in place as those words were spoken, her glare turning into something that resembles surprise. They were probably as wide as saucers.

“Where am I from?” When Masa was silent, Merrillana charged at her, grabbing the other’s neck and holding up high, the glare returning to her face. “Where am I from, Masa?! Where am I from?!” Despite her efforts, she received no answer from her ‘sister’, but instead received a small, sly smirk. It looked unnaturally on Masa’s face, like something twisted that wasn’t meant to be there. It just looked wrong.

“If you had helped me kill Daichi, I would have told you.” The light dragon’s hands tightened around the other’s throat, her face one of pure rage. She had never fit in at home. No, it hadn’t been home, Otherworlde was home, the mountains had just been a place she had been living and where she had grown up. It didn’t mean much to her, where she was from and who she was, was what she cared about.

”You and your weird glow don’t belong here!”

She felt Masa’s heartbeat underneath her hand. The warm blood flowing through her veins that allowed that heart to continue beating and be felt by her hand. She felt her slowly breathing… in… and out… in… and out. How her breath slowed in order to conserve the little air she was receiving due to the hand around her throat. She looked calm and collected, her body almost completely relaxed – though her fingers were twitching beside her, most likely as an impulse to reach up to the blonde dragon’s hand that was being hidden, or to attack her to try and get away. Merrillana felt Masa’s soft, inky black hair touching her hands on its way to cascade over her shoulders. It definitely wasn’t like how it was before, it wasn’t dead straight. It seemed to have life to it, just like Masa did.

A familiar adrenaline ran through Merrillana, illuminating her and making her glow at least ten times brighter than it was before. Not out of happiness, not out of anger, but out of pure adrenaline the glow stayed vibrant, illuminating any shadows that may have surrounded them. “Tell me! Tell me tell me t e l l  m e!” It was like a beast had emerged from within her, causing her voice to lower to a low, guttural growl. The yellow glow of the glare flashed dangerously, and electricity started to light up within her, filling her with a cruel, twisted form of energy. It wasn’t light or excitable, like it normally was, no, it sparked and flared, fighting to be released to attack whomever the dragon so desired.

Masa remained calm.

”Something went wrong with you, you’re a mutation! You’re impure!”

“No…” Masa breathed, causing a roar of rage to burst free, a large swing of the arm and a strong throw accompanying it. Masa flew away from her ‘sister’s’ hand, hitting the ground perhaps ten metres away from her, continuing to roll a further ten metres.

TELL ME!” The only thing that could be heard after that was frustrated and laboured breaths, as well as… crying? Which one of them was crying? Masa definitely wasn’t, so the only conclusion that Merrillana could come to was the fact that it was her. She was…. She was crying. Before she knew it, Masa was gone and the light dragon was upon her knees on the ground, her bright glow slowly fading. After a while she could hear the soft clicking of boots in front of her, eventually seeing a pair of brown boots in front of her.

“You’re doing a great job proving to your son that you’re not a monster with what you just did.”  He was quite sarcastic in how he spoke, and he sounded a little irritated as well. The voice was familiar, she had heard it before and as she looked up from the ground she saw why. It was Kaine, the assistant Shadowmancy professor. She had been taught by him for a year, and she had had instances where she – to his utter enjoyment - had talked to him outside of classes.

“My…Son. You know where Hiro is?” She sounded somewhat hopeful, but soon appeared confused when the assistant Shadowmancy professor sounded more annoyed than usual. Perhaps a bit angry.

“Why should I tell you?” He was sneering down at her in disgust now, and it made Merrillana cringe away and look back down at the ground. For once she was accepting words and insults without a smile, because she knew that it was all true. “You shouldn’t even be worth my time.”

”Go away, mutation. You’re not worth my precious time.”

“Why… Why won’t you tell me? Tell me where Hiro is!” A boot hit her in the chest as she tried to stand up, sending her sprawling backwards onto the ground.

“You’re stupider than I thought if you can’t figure out where your son is.” But she had no clues as to where Hiro was. He could have gone anywhere in the school. He could have gone into the alternate realm for all she knew. He could even have left the school and started travelling the world, getting as far away from Merrillana as possible. “Even if you do figure it out, you’re not getting him back.”

Wait.

Kaine knew where Hiro was, and he wouldn’t be here or know what happened to Hiro unless he had encountered the dragon boy… He was in the Shadowmancy building. He would stand out like a sore thumb in the Shadowmancy building, and he would even have some of the shadows try and attack him, so he must have someone to protect him within the building. Her yellow eyes widened in shock, and she tried to sit up and get up once again, but she received the same boot to the chest. This time the boot stayed on her chest, pressing down on it and pressing her against the hard ground. “Even if you do prove to him that you’re not a monster and that you won’t hurt him, what makes you think that I’ll be convinced?”

“You’re childish and reckless and you refuse to mature and act your age. You matured slightly when that phantasms made your son, but apparently not enough for you to stop being reckless and grow up. Dragons like you don’t generally make it to your age by being childish and reckless; they’re normally killed by their own kind by then. They’re dead weight that drags the rest of their society down with them. You’re a full blooded dragon that is lucky to have made it to the age you are, start acting like it.”

“I should do to you right now what you did to that boy. mDrake said he’s supposedly terrified of his mother, that the boy saw her in the tournament and that was the final straw. I didn’t have much faith that you would amount to much in the beginning, but I had to give some leeway because you’re full blooded, but I didn’t think you would use your childishness and recklessness to scare someone that cares for you and looks for you for support. I should terrify you as much as you terrified him, it wouldn’t be hard… But it would be a waste of my time and energy.”

”You’re not worth our time. You’re not worth anyone’s time.”

“Watching him grow up in a home where he’s not scared of the people that care for him is enough to terrify you and maybe force you to grow up and act your age.”
Sorry if anyone is OOC, I really did most of this in a hurry. So sorry if they're butchered. 

Word Count: 3,627

Mentions:
mDrake viralremix 
Kaine BlueBlueFox 
Merrillana, Masa and Hiro (me) 
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