(Ace Katsuro)
I had to do it just this once. I flew out of there without her looking.Surprising that she didn’t notice.That was close.However, I did hear her talk shit about me. My face was sore from all that kicking. Plus, my nose was a little bloody. I walked to a nearby pond and sat down, filling my hands with water. I splashed the cool water against my face a few times and looked down at my reflection. Mixes of purple and blue splotches on my cheeks, and bit on my nose and lip. I washed my face again until the blood from my nose was gone. Just then, Anita and Vera stopped by. I was facing away from them, wiping my face with my sleeve.
“Hey Ace.” Vera started.
“What?” I asked, before turning.
“Ah-! Your face-”
Mira walked by.
Anita frowned. “Ace what happened to you?”
I waved my hand carelessly. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“I-If you say so,” Vera stammered before clearing his throat. “Anita and I made a hideout.”
“You did?” Mira asked with raised eyebrows.
Anita gave a nervous laugh while twiddling her fingers. “It’s not the best, but we tried.”
Mira smiled. “Let’s see what you got.” Then she shot me a knowing look before following the other two.
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It looked like a shed made of branches. It wasn't awful, but not too good either. At least it was stable.
“This doesn’t look too bad.” Mira commented.
“It’s a branch house,” Anita explained. “Since we’re deep in this forest, we could make a mini house for us.”
“Did you two happen to make one?” Vera asked us.
I shook my head and Mira shrugged. “We were, but we kind of had a bit of complications. Don’t worry about it.”
Anita shrugged. “We could easily make a fire and we have a pond nearby. So we can cook food.”
Mira laughed. “Leave that part to me. You guys did an awful lot of work. Take a break.”
Vera and Anita walked inside the shed. Mira motioned me to follow her. I didn’t want to look immature so I followed.
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She was picking out herbs and flowers by the pond. She tied them into a neat bundle before shoving them in her bag.
I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. “What?”
Still picking, she asked, “How did you get out of that hole?”
I raised my eyebrows and glanced at her incredulously. “Are you serious? You dragged me along for a question like that?”
“Well, you claimed that we were going to die when you hung from my leg.” She pointed out.
“That was before I realized we weren’t so far off the ground as I thought.”
She gave me a look.
“I climbed obviously!” I answered.
“That quickly? With no ledge?”
“Why? Were you planning to ditch me there?” I asked her.
Her cheeks turned beet red and she turned away.
“Asshole.” I muttered before leaving.
This whole situation is quite hard to take in. Too much was happening. I hated her. I hated this. I just wanted to live a normal life like everyone else. I wanted to roam around without being captured or known as dangerous. My chest started to feel heavy. I’m just something people like to beat up. I shook my head. Maybe I should wash myself a few more times.
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Mira called us by the shed to eat. There were four bowls and chopsticks made from wood.
“Where did those come from?” Mira asked.
“I know how to carve wood without tools,” Vera replied. “I used to do it a lot, so I thought I’d make bowls for everyone.”
“This is really convenient,” Anita told him. “But how without tools.”
Vera wiggled his fingers to show his nails. They were stumped.
“Oh, are you okay?” She asked.
“Yeah, like I said. I practiced before. So stumped nails are what I expected to have.”
Mira poured a wood pot of soup into the four bowls before passing it to us.
I held onto it. I could feel the heat from the bowl to my hands. The liquid was a pale yellow with green strings and pink and yellow clumps of mush.I poked at it with the chopsticks. There was a gooey sound as pink mush oozed out of the green strings. This looked disgusting.
“Impressive.” Anita told Mira.
“It’s about independence,” Mira started. “I spent a lot of time alone so I had to learn these things.”
“Amazing,” Vera breathed, before slurping up the food from his bowl. “You never had to rely on anyone.”
“Well, not literally everyone,” Mira corrected. “I’m close to some people. However, I still do things independently. But it seems taking down the borders alone is difficult.”
I dipped my tongue in the soup. Just as I thought. It tasted like absolute mush and garbage.
“Ugh, what is this? Your food is literally trash.”
In an instant, Mira flung her empty bowl at me. It striked right at my forehead so hard, I fell back.
Anita and Vera gaped. I stood up furiously in response. “That’s it! I’m going to cave this into your skull!”
“Or, we could rest for the night?” Vera suggested quickly with a panicked expression on his face.
“We’re all new to this, so it’s understandable to have these types of emotions.” Anita said.
“Screw it, I’m not resting.” I snapped. Mira stood up and headed toward the shed without saying a single word.
I climbed up the wall of the shed to the roof, considering it was pretty sturdy.
“Are you sure?” Vera asked me.
I ignored him. It finally got quiet once everyone else headed inside. I let the cool air brush against my skin. That was close. It’s really hard to keep my anger to a minimum. But I have to. Because if anyone else finds out the truth, I’ll lose it.
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