Ay Adir, andate.

[therealkaichan]

Bonus 04

Changes.

Katherine woke up from her dream as confused as ever.
It was really disorienting, the sound of water, the warm feeling, and then all the mess that followed up...

She didn’t remember anything clearly. The only thing she remembered was Kael’s face.

It was Kael’s face, right?

Something was hurting her, and she looked down to notice she was scratching her wrist again.

She put on her uniform, the long sleeved one would have to do for today, and checked herself in the mirror. She was ready for any sudden uniform checks, that was for sure. She was careful, really careful when it came to that. She didn’t want to get in trouble, or draw too much attention to herself.

She was barely in second year, and she didn’t want to trouble her new partner. Evie was, after all, the nicest girl she had met in a long time. Katherine was really looking forward to having some practical classes about shaping magic, even when she wasn’t looking forward at all to the duels.

Those things could get really dangerous. Like that one time when they... No. She didn’t want to think about that. She had apologized and it had been an accident. The other person had accepted her apologies too, right?

So it would be okay.

She smiled a little, taking her backpack and leaving. She didn’t want to be late for class, right?

It was two months and three days until Katherine turned fourteen. She had been in the Academy for a year and a half now, and other than meeting a few troublemakers here and there, something she avoided as much as she could, her time there was perfectly fine.

The previous day, while they were getting their first steps in paired battle training, she had accidentally released an unnatural ammount of magic, which ended up with a few students hitting the wall. Nobody had been hurt beyond what they usually were during training, but it was still unexpected.
She was sent to the doctor’s office, who confirmed that it was simply a natural reaction for her age and personality, and then to the Director’s office, who had decided against reprimanding her, as it hadn’t been intentional at all.


But somehow, for some reason, the word had spread out.

She was sure. She was really sure. The other students were throwing weird looks at her, and she didn’t want this. Not at all.

“Katherine!” Oh that was Evie. She didn’t seem to be angry at her, so that was some consolation at least.
“Evie...” She smiled.
“I was waiting for you. Did you sleep well?”
“I did, thank you.”
“You looked really worried yesterday afternoon, and I was a little worried about you.”
“I’m fine, there is no need for you to worry.”
“I’m glad... Then let’s go to class.”
“Okay...”


She was good at avoiding trouble. Really really good. It came with learning to be unnoticed, but trouble, like regret, had a way of catching up with her eventually.

“Hey Ahlgren.” She blinked, turning to see the person who was calling out. She didn’t know him, but he looked like an older student, at least his uniform was from the third year.
“Yes...?” Her voice was barely a whisper. She hoped that this person wasn’t looking for any kind of fight.
“I heard about the thing you did last class. Pretty cool huh?”
“It was an accident...”
“And there we were, thinking you had outside training. But they said that you went to a normal school.”
“I did...”
“You know that crap is illegal right? You could get into biiiig trouble if someone found out that you trained on magic outside of the Governments schools.”
“It’s not that... I never...”

For a moment everything was silent in her head. Right now, she could reach out and make him shut up. She could beat the hell out of him.

But that wasn’t right. She couldn’t stand the idea of hurting someone like that. It was wrong, right? She only was this strong because there was something wrong about her. Because she was some kind of freakish monster thing that didn’t have the right to go to school with normal people. That was why mother had been so reluctant right? She had said it was because she worried, but she probably worried about her schoolmates too.

“Hey, Isaacs. Don't you have better crap to do?”

Katherine’s mind came back, and she looked at the newcomer. Another person she didn’t know... Though she did notice that he seemed to be from Black sixth year.

“She’s a creep, Heiss. Why the hell do they keep people like her around anyway?”
“I'd say that you are more of a creep, tormenting some second year kid just because she can do your job better than you.”

Katherine tried to say something but the words wouldn't come out. They were fighting because of her. It was her fault, it was always her fault. Maybe she should’ve stayed home. Maybe mother was right. Maybe...

She moved to the side to dodge the flying student. She blinked. Had this Heiss person just... Punched someone so hard that he... This wasn’t right.
“Hey kid.”
“H-hello sir...”
“The name is Andre Heiss. Adir is just okay though.”
“Nice to meet you... And I’m sorry for troubling you.”
“Dude, stop looking apologetic he was bullying you, not the other way around.”
“I’m sorry.”
“... You just did it again.”
“O-oh...”
“Don’t you dare.” Adir chuckled.
“Then what should I say...?”
“Well, an introduction would be cool.”
“I’m Katherine Ahlgren from second year.” She smiled, and he smiled as well.
“I’ve heard a bit about you, yeah. Tell me, kid, have you been trained in this whole magic thing?”
“Not at all. I had an accident during one of my classes, just that.”
“Oh. That sounds like it sucks.”
“I was worried to have hurt one of my classmates... Fortunately he was fine.”
“So you need training huh?”
“I suppose... We should start getting at that soon.”
“The training here won’t help you. They make it so weak people become strong, but the truth is that they can’t train a strong person to become weak.”
“I’m not that strong...”
“You kidding? Accidentally smashing people against walls is not for weak ones. But it’s okay.”
“Ah...”
“But I get how you feel. You don’t want to hurt people too bad, and even less by accident, so you try to go under the radar.”
“Yes. It’s exactly that.” She looked up, smiling. It was the first time someone got it. “How did you notice...?”
“Because I went trough the exact same thing. One time I brought down the whole north wall of the training room. They almost murdered me, haha....”
“That sounds difficult to deal with...”
“Not at all. I will teach you to control your magic. And once you do, you’ll be able to beat up people with the riiight amount of strenght.”
“But I wouldn’t like to take your time... Sixth year must be really busy and...”
“It’s okay. Once I’m done with you, you’ll be able to get into all the fights you want without worrying. Just trust me. Being super strong is awesome, as long as you only use your power to beat up the bad guys.”
“All right... I’ll do my best.”
“Yeah. I’m sure you will.”



---

Notes:

Uh yeah, this was necessary.