An Unordinary Shinobi

Chapter 17 - dobe

Morning was usually a busy time in Wellston High - the school's halls were filled with students hurrying around - whether that was rushing to their lockers to retrieve books, stressing because they forgot to complete their homework, or literally just vibing despite this.

This morning, however, Blyke wasn't paying attention to the everyday hustle and bustle, much too focused on analysing his fight less than ten hours ago (unlike the last update sike) to bother navigating the erratic obstacles that called themselves students.

'Last night in Newside...'

It was a tough fight alright, especially when the reinforcements came. Blyke could feel his injuries throbbing, particularly the bruises on his back. Luckily, they were all pretty easy to hide, apart from a small cut on his face, but it wasn't anything a little concealer couldn't fix. Despite his body aching all over, Blyke grinned and clenched his fist. That power shockwave thing? Wasn't that like, the coolest thing ever? He couldn't wait to show Remi and Isen, or maybe even use it on Joker – Blyke could already imagine the shock on Joker's face as he was blasted away (sure, he wore that stupid mask, but that's not the point).

The trip to the infirmary was quite short. Doc just gave him a glass of green liquid and told him to stop fighting with Isen after examining his injuries. Blyke had to admit it was weird how last night his injuries seemed more severe. Eh, maybe it was just fatigue making the pain worse. After thanking Doc, he strolled out of the infirmary and headed over to Maths. Apparently, even super cool insanely powerful vigilantes have to learn algebra. Yay.

------------------------------

It was a well-known fact that Isen, Head of School Press (however reluctant) spent most of his lunchtimes at the Press Room. Seraphina certainly hoped that this was the case today, because she did not have the emotional strength to spend hours trying to find Isen to get information on John. Anyways, she was already in front of the Press Room, so she might as well check.

Isen, according to Arlo, could find information on basically anyone, which meant that he spent much of his time either interrogating people or hiding from high-tiers wanting to recruit him for various stalking missions (a certain Arlo, for example). Seraphina would bet her favourite HB pencil that he had some info on John that would help her understand her friend better. Why did John pretend to be a cripple? Why was he so hell-bent on destroying the hierarchy under the cover of a mask? Why was he so merciless towards his victims, even when it was clear they couldn't fight back anymore? Sera reckoned that learning about John's past could give her some insight to what was going on in his head, so that she had a better chance of helping him get through whatever he had going on. Maybe they could finally return back to the happy normality they used to share. She missed that.

Seraphina took a deep breath and opened the door.

---------------------------------------------

"Oh, hey Seraphina! What brings you here?"

Isen glanced up from the pile of news articles he was proofreading to greet Seraphina enthusiastically. A distraction from the pathetic grammar in the articles submitted would always be welcome – how did these morons even pass their English classes? And why, oh why, couldn't they stop the GODDAMN COMMA SPLICING-

"What brings you here? Do you need something?" Isen asked whilst shuffling the papers in his hands around, just so it looked like he was doing something more productive than whining over poor grammar. Seraphina didn't look fooled.

She put on a serious face and looked him in the eyes.

"Isen," she began. Shit, was he in trouble again?