Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The Gifted Moon Academy ❯ Truth and Lies ( Chapter 30 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Waking up on the floor, Nakya slowly stood up. Making her way back into her room, the events from a few hours before came flying back. Ki'iro didn't love her. he thought she was trying to pressure him into saying it when she wasn't. Ichio had never cared about her. Groaning softly, she held her head as it began pounding. She grabbed her bags, still packed from her last trip, and moved out into the hall. Locking the door behind her, she made her way downstairs. Dropping her key off at the office, she made her way out side, waiting for the cab the secretary had called for her. Looking around, she saw Ki'iro.
''Great.." she said softly, trying to make herself as invisible as possible.
Ki'iro's eyes followed Nakya as she walked away from the school. A part of him was glad that she was gone; another was hurt that she didn't care enough to work anything out with him anymore. He stood up and briskly walked to her, and stopped a few feet away from her.
"You're leaving," he commented.
It wasn't meant to be a question, it was obvious she was. Ki'iro chewed on his lower lip as he made an attempt to fight back tears. Unconsciously, a shadow moved its way up towards Nakya's hand and gripped it. Seeing this, Ki'iro took a step back and yanked his shadow away from her.
"My apologies," he hissed through his teeth.
Nakya turned at the sound of Ki'iro's voice. As her eyes met his, tears filled hers. Looking away quickly, she answered.
''I am. I'm sorry I upset you so much. I wasn't trying to pressure you into saying you loved me. I know you don't." she said, her voice breaking as the last of her words left her lips.
She saw the cab coming up the driveway as she felt something on her wrist. Looking down, she saw one of Ki'iro's shadows. Opening her mouth to ask him something, she quickly closed it as he jerked it away. She listened to the tone of his voice, or hiss rather, and she could feel what was left of her heart shattering.
"No, it's okay, I deserved that."
Her reply came out as nothing more than a whisper as she looked at him once more. Hearing the cab pull up, she tore her eyes away from Ki'iro's as tears spilled down her cheeks. She looked back at him and whispered goodbye. Running down the stairs, she twisted her ankle, causing her suitcase to fly down the the stairs, popping open. Swearing through her tears, she stood up and limped around, trying to pick up her things. The driver stayed in the car, too lazy to get out and help.
Ki'iro stared at her for a moment longer, an internal struggle was going on inside of him. Should he ask her to stay? Or should he just let her go? Surely he still cared about her, and if nothing more wanted to be her friend. But if she felt the need to leave, then why should he try to keep her here? He sighed heavily, his heart sinking. Raising both of his hands, he threw shadows out that quickly reached out to pick up her things. Moving the majority of her things back to where he was, he kept them under his control. His stomped down the stairs reluctantly towards Nakya. His heart had been so damaged beyond repair now, he needed to distance himself from her, but he didn't exactly want her to leave. Making his way towards her, her things hovered behind him.
"You make it sound like a horrible thing that I won't say that I love you. Just because I don't love you yet, doesn't mean that I don't care about you and want to be with you. But Nakya, I don't think I can do this with you anymore. I want you to stay...but we can't work this out, and you know it," his voice had gone from a rage to a whisper.
He reached his shadows out to pick up the remainder of her things, and shove them back into their suitcases.
Watching her things being picked up by shadows, Nakya froze. Hearing Ki'iro stomping down the stairs, she turned slowly to look at him, tears still streaming down her face. Listening to him speak, her chest began to tighten.
"No! That's not what I meant! I understand that you don't love me, I'm okay with that I just..."
Listening to him finish speaking, she felt as if all the wind was knocked out of her. Unable to look away from Ki'iro, all her pain and heart ache was visible on her face. After a few moments, she whispered
"If that's what you want, I won’t try and convince you otherwise.."
She looked away long enough to see the last of her things pile into her bags. Moving around Ki'iro, she limped up the stairs, leaving her things outside, and back into the school. Stopping at the office, she picked up her key again. Making her way down the hall, she saw Ichio ahead of her. Ducking through the door for the stairs, she quickly made her way into her room. Leaving the door slightly ajar, she walked into her closet, sat on the floor in the corner, wrapping her arms around her knees. She rocked back and forth slowly, all her pain escaping through her tears.
Ki'iro sighed heavily, his heart broke in his chest, and struggled to keep beating. He kept her things under his shadow's control, and walked towards her dorm room; her things still followed behind him. Quickly reaching her room, he didn't notice anybody along the way. Though there easily could have been a crowd of people, he wouldn't have noticed. Ki'iro quickly entered her dorm room, not bothering to knock. He looked arouund the room, and didn't see her. Quickly walking into the bathroom, he didn't see her there either. Ki'iro began opening everything up, and finally opened her closet. Sighing as he saw her sitting there, he stood quietly for a moment. His shadow reached out to her and wrapped around her body, holding her tightly. He didn't dare to say anything until he thought out what he wanted to say.
"I..." he began to speak. "I still want to be with you, but we've tried so..so hard..."
He began chewing on his bottom lip, not knowing what else to say.
"And I..." he stuttered, just trying to fill the silence.
Hearing Ki'iro come into her room, she buried her face in her legs. She could hear him moving around, looking for something. When she heard him sigh, she looked up to see him standing in the closet. As his shadow wrapped around her, she waited for it to squeeze the life out of her. When it didn't and he began speaking, she looked up at his face. Sighing softly, tears still rolled down her face.
"No, it's okay. You don't want to be with me, that's alright. I don't want you changing your mind just because you see me crying. That's why I was hiding in here."
She looked down, biting her lip until it bled.
"H-hey...Don't do that," he said as his barrier cracked, his voice became soothing.
He swiftly moved down to her level and wrapped his arms around her. Ki'iro kissed her lips softly, then moved his finger up to her lips to wipe the blood away.
"I would never lie to you, Nakya...I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be with you..."
His voice trailed off as he looked away from her.
Hearing his tone change, Nakya glanced up quickly. She felt his arms go around her and his lips brush against hers. Her body relaxed against his and she returned his kiss.
"I just don't want you to do something you don't want to, or something you're unsure about."
She watched as he looked away from her. Leaning her head against his chest, she wrapped her tail around his waist.
"We need to talk about what's been causing these problems though...you know that, right? We need to work things out, or this is never going to work out in the end," he ran his fingers through her hair as he spoke. "You need to stop trying to get me to tell you that I love you," he said bluntly.
Ki'iro wasn't afraid of losing her now, and figured they were having a decently civil conversation.
"Just give me time, it'll happen eventually, don't rush things," he said, slapping a smile across his face.
She nodded silently. Her eyes closed as he ran his fingers through her hair. Sighing softly, she answered him.
"I'm not trying to get you to say it, I don't know why you always think that."
She looked up to see him forcing a smile on his face. She couldn't help but laugh.
"You're horrible at fake smiling, you know that?"
Ki'iro smiled genuinely for a second, then laughed uneasily.
"I know but, I have to try sometimes."
He kissed her forehead softly and stood up, reaching his hand out to help her up.
Taking Ki'iro's hand, she stood up and hugged him.
"I need to take care of one thing. I'll be right back." She whispered, placing her mouth by his ear.
Walking down the hall towards Yumi's room, Nakya pushed the door open without knocking. Seeing Ichio in the room, she stared hard at him, while advancing on him.
"You lying, no good piece of sh*t, Ichio! You lied to me about everything! Last year was a complete and total waste of my time! I have never been more hurt, more betrayed, than I am now! I can't believe I ever let myself care about a sack of sh*t like you!"
Her tears began flowing freely again, and her fists were balled at her sides.
"Yumi told me everything! You never loved me! You didn't even care about me! You felt nothing for me!"
Bringing her open hand up, she swung at Ichio's face.
Ichio started as his door swung open, revealing him with nothing more than a pair of pants on. Caught off guard, he stood still as Nakya yelled, dumbstruck. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He never cared about her? He never loved her? What was wrong with her? Where had she gotten such a twisted idea? Still unable to speak, he didn't move as Nakya's palm connected with his cheek, sounding with a loud smack and leaving a dark welt behind.
"What.... are you talking about, Nakya?" he asked without turning his head back to face her.
Hearing Ichio's question, she grew angrier.
"Don't play dumb with me, Ichio! Why did you lie to me?! Yumi told me everything. She said what you felt for me was nothing! NOTHING!"
Moving closer to him, her tears continued streaming down her face.
"I love you! Do you not realize that? Or do you not care? I don't even know who you are anymore. If you could lie about something like that, then for all I know, you lied about everything else!"
Her voice was filled with quiet menace. Blinking in surprise, she realized she had said she still loved him. Did she? No. No she didn't.
"I loved you once, Ichio. But so help me god, you will never get the chance to hurt me again. I'll help you get away from Yumi, but after that we're done."
She looked at him, her pain and anger evident on her face. She had never felt like this before. Why did he have to lie to her? She wanted to rip him limb from limb.
Ichio slowly turned his head back as Nakya continued on her rampage. His eyes were filled with pain and confusion. His focus returned when he heard three words he thought he'd never hear again. looking into her face, he tried to see her eyes through the misty haze that surrounded his vision. Her eyes were merely dark shadows, reflected in his milky pupils. She sounded so angry.
"Nakya. Please, don't do this. You don't understand." He said, feeling tears well in his eyes as he looked away. "What she said to you... It wasn't..." He began, trying to keep his voice level.
"Shut up! Both of you lied to me! I can't trust either one of you now. I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry."
Her voice started out rage filled and ended in a mere whisper.
"As much as I care about you, I care about Ki'iro too. I can't keep doing this to the two of you. Or myself even. I know that no matter who I choose, someone will get hurt. I'm just happy to see it was me this time and not one of you two."
Tears continued falling down her face as her voice broke.
"I'm sorry Ichio.."
Her voice trailed off as she brushed her hand against his face gently before leaving the room. Making her way down the hall, she sat in a chair and buried her face in her hands, her knees up by her chest.


After Tahtsu left, Rinsi was left feeling more worried than ever. He had earlier said he was the outcast of his family. Why would he go back? Was he trying to recompense for his mother's life? She just hoped he would be okay. She wanted badly to go with him and make sure everything was okay, but she knew if she forced herself like that then he would end up hating her. She was more worried, confused, and sad than she ever had been.
"Mistress Rinsi, where is Master Tahtsu going?" Cecil asked, looking how she felt, but refused to show.
"He's going to go talk to his family. He'll be back soon." She said, though it was more to reassure herself than it was to reassure Cecil.
Rinsi realized she hadn't been smiling and, in fact, had been frowning this whole time. It wasn't like her and she knew it. However, she didn't feel like smiling. She felt like crying, but she didn't want anyone to see that. Not even Cecil or Mooney. So, as always, she slapped on the most convincing smile she could conjure up, hoping it would be enough for everyone else not to see through, and walked back towards the school.
Vibol had his hands in his pockets, his face expressionless as usual. He noticed a woman approaching, the woman was smiling, but he could it was fake. It was the same smile his mother had, his father, his uncle, and even himself at one point. He sighed, what was he doing? He needed to tell someone about Crow, but here he was staring at someone's fake smile.
"Hello," he said politely as he passed by her.
"Oh, hello!" Rinsi said cheerfully.
Or at least, she hoped it sounded cheerful. In truth, she felt like crying still, but she wasn't about to show it.
Rinsi walked by the boy, not really meaning to be stuck up or snobby, but more so that she could go some place where she could be alone. She then would send Cecil back to his/her world for a bit and have Mooney go elsewhere. But that wasn't until she got there. She wanted everything to appear normal so no one would ask questions.
As she wondered down the hall, she saw Nakya and Ki'iro talking, both of whom seemed to be crying, or close to it.
Great, she thought to herself, just what I was hoping to avoid this year. More drama.
She had hoped she could circle around, or maybe take another hallway that would circle around so she wouldn't be seen, but there were no such choices. So, instead, she approached them, hoping that they were so wrapped up in their conversation that they would not see her.
Vibol wasn't the type to look someone in the eyes when he spoke, but now, he was especially avoiding her eyes. A fake smile didn't suit the eyes, the eyes were always something different. Her voice was shrill and it sounded like it tried to be sincere, but fell a little short. She was good at faking it, most people would fall for it, he probably would have too if he didn't fake it himself. He wasn't sure what to say now, he couldn't just ask her why she was faking a smile, that was be awkward.
"Um, I'm Vibol Anticellum," his monotone voice matched his expressionless face.
Rinsi almost flinched when she heard a voice behind her. Almost, that is. She hadn't expected the quiet boy from a moment ago to talk to her, and were she her normal self, she would have been glad for it. Not that she wasn't right now. In all her years of being the hyper, chipper, happy-go-lucky person she pretended to be so that others wouldn't worry, she had somehow made that a true part of her personality, and no matter how bad a mood she was in, she was always glad when someone who was normally quiet would talk.
"Oh, hello, Vibol." she said cheerfully, "I'm Rinsi Starlight, the literature teacher. It's nice to meet you."
She appears busy, maybe I should bother her, but she's a teacher... Wait, this was the girl that guy was talking about...whatever his name was. They were friends, she was a student last year. I'm not going to tell her this I'll appear as if I'm a stalker.
She appeared busy, and she might not have even been in the right state of mind.
"Oh, you appear busy, I won't bother you then."
"It's okay." Rinsi said. "I'm really not busy at all."
She really wasn't, except that she wanted to be alone for a bit. However, she also knew that left too much room for sulking, which wasn't healthy at all. Besides, this was a new student and it was her duty as a teacher to greet said student, especially if he was one of her own.
He wasn't good at conversing at all he just stood there, and muttered a "Pleased to meet you," very politely. He forced himself to put both hands in his pocket rather than hovering his waist nearby his sword. That always made him seems crazy or violent.
"Oh? He's polite!" Rinsi surmised out loud. "It's good to see someone around here that is polite. You're the warrior type, am I right?"
He was caught off guard by that complement.
"Huh? Oh thank you?"
He was a little confused, no one bothered to point that out. It was weird, maybe going to school here wouldn't be so bad.
"Warrior type? Um, ma'am, could you please clarify?"
He didn't know he he should refer to her with a Ms. or Mrs. so he just played it safe with a ma'am.
"You carry a sword with you, which tells me you're either very paranoid, or are used to battling at any given moment, when needed of course. Your build shows the very same."
Rinsi said, intentionally using the conversation to distract herself, as well as to get to know the student better. Perhaps they could be friends?
"I hope I'm not too bold in pointing that out, though. But I must say, I appreciate your politeness. You may call me Rinsi, if you like."
She's very analytical...but then again, she's a literature teacher. I thought a science teacher would be more analytical, oh well, new life lesson.
"It's more like...I'v been trained to be paranoid. It's very rare that I'm attacked at random," he said this almost ruefully, as if he wished he was in a position where this would happen.
Am I talking too much about myself? Should I ask her about something...but what?
"Why'd you chose to be a literature teacher?" he blurted out.
He forced himself to make the sentence sound like a statement, he wasn't extremely curious, but it was an interesting question. He hoped he hadn't stepped on any barriers.
"If you don't mind me asking," he added.
"Oh? Trained to be paranoid? Sounds like a warrior to me. That's fine, though. Sometimes people need to protect themselves, and those who cannot need someone to help them. Oh, I don't mind at all. I love to read. It's a weakness of mine. So, I thought it fitting to teach literature." Rinsi said cheerfully, this time being a bit more genuine about it.
Rinsi couldn't help but wonder why such a boy would be trained to be paranoid. Someone so young should not be fighting. If he wanted to fight to defend, that was fine, but it was best that he grow and finish developing first.
Oh, well. She thought to herself. It's not my choice. I hope he hasn't seen too many battles.
"Protection? Interesting..."
Even the most able body won't protect the destructive powers of the mind, he thought to himself.
"How is reading a weakness? It's very useful, and I wish it was something I liked to do. It would save me a lot of trouble," he admitted.
"Oh? You do not like to read? Why is that?" Rinsi said.
Rinsi really couldn't understand why someone wouldn't like to read. Then again, being the adamant reader she was, it was not difficult to understand why she couldn't understand. Still, she supposed maybe he had a hard time getting into stories. Or perhaps he could not read well. Either way, whatever it was, she would be glad to help if she could.
"I can't believe. Whatever happens in a story is totally fictional, some of it may be drawn out of writer's life, but I can't believe in stories. No matter what kind of ending they have, they built on dreams or some sort of abstract theme, and I've learned how destructive themes are. I just can't believe in a story anymore, I can't read it without fantasizing how different things can be, without wishing I was in a story where conflicts get resolved, where an entire person's miserable life can only take a few hours to read. I can't do it. Before my mother died I like to read, but now, I've learned."
He stopped, he was giving too much away about himself, and he knew the next thing he was going to say was 'But I've learned better than what a book can teach me’, and that was extremely wrong for a student to say to a teacher.
"No, it's okay." Rinsi said, this time smiling genuinely, "One should not bottle such things up. Don't worry, I promise I won't tell anyone. Anyway, that's one way we are alike. Reading a story, wishing you could be there to resolve the problem. You don't have to believe it, but only imagine the things that the story is telling you. An adventure for the mind, painted on the canvass of the reader's mind. It's what makes reading fun, even if you don't believe it. In fact, it is probably best not to believe it, though you can still imagine what is going on. Also, I am sorry about your mother. I must head to the library now. It was nice to talk to you, Vibol. Thank you for the conversation."
The conversation had proved itself useful, as it had, for the time being, completely distracted Rinsi from what was troubling her. She would have liked to talk more, but she was afraid she had disturbed him a bit too much, and that was never a good thing. If she came across him later - after he'd had time to distract himself from the conversation - she would apologize, and, at the same time, make it clear that he needn't think of her as superior by any means. She wanted all the students, whether or not they were hers, to think of her as a friend, rather than as a teacher. Things were more relaxed that way, and the student would feel free to open up more, which makes for an ideal learning situation.
Once she had reached the library, she found to her dismay that she had not put the books away. She approached the table, now remembering why she needed the distraction, and began piling up books in her arms to be put away. Of course, she made sure they were all in order according to their call number, with the highest number at the bottom of the stack.