My Memory

“I always said it was useless, chasing after them and their power.”

Nabi reflected on her own words. They felt hollow against the burning pain in her thigh. Unlike the force of her blows or the blades of her enemies, she felt this pain more than anything else.

It was a pain that found its way to her heart.

Nabi remembered the dark chamber she sat in. The only thing on her mind was him and the task he laid out for her. From the shadows, a man’s crimson gaze watched her. Men, beasts, and demons surrounded her on every side, yet her voice was tempered and dull, muttering the same mantra the man told her as a child.

“To be strong, embrace emotion. Let it consume you, and in the darkness, that emotion will be your strength.”

No matter how much she tried to forget, Nabi’s mind remained centered on the idea of that word: strength. Bred to fight and kill and kill and kill until all that was left behind was herself. All the blood and all the pain for the sake of strength.

Nabi hated that. She hated it more than she hated the sight of snow once she escaped the labyrinth of her memory. Snow only held the worst memories for her. Footprints of blood and harsh screams. Nabi tried to shut out the sounds around her, even if there were none.

The mountainside she stood upon was vacant with only a few students from the academy waiting for the trial they’d endure to begin, but those same memories and the emotions always leaked into her.

Wrath.

“I don’t want these thoughts,” Nabi said to herself, almost frantically.

Her gaze blurred, and she unconsciously stepped forward. With a single step, a crunch filled her ears. A sharp noise like the sound of a crushed skull. An echo of a voice navigated through the seas of chaos within her mind. She lowered her gaze to the frozen powder beneath her feet.

“I hate this damn snow,” Nabi said.

“Hate is such a strong word, you know. If anything, I’d say it’s beautiful.”

A voice as smooth as the snow lifted Nabi’s gaze to the sight of the one speaking. His hair reflected the snow’s hue almost perfectly, if not for the burning pink highlights in his hair that bled into other parts of his uniform. Nabi stared at the young man lifelessly, wondering if her nightmare of a mind conjured up another fake person to talk to.

“You look like I dumped your cat down a garbage chute, lighten up a bit,” he said.

He looked down at Nabi. His eyes pierced through her tiny frame, inspecting her like a specimen to be studied more than anything. Oddly enough, Nabi did the same. Whether he was an enemy or not, the most she could note was he was way too tall to keep staring up at.

“I believed nobility had some form of manners to at least ask one’s name,” Nabi said, her eyes angled at him as if peering through a hollow shell.

“I’d say it’s bold to think that I was a noble, rather than not,” he said.

Nabi kept her gaze on him. His voice grew irritating for her. The emotion leaked into her expression and the young man captured it before she could realize. The young man allowed a devilish smirk to creep onto his face. It appeared almost animalistic; hungry.

“It’s a school for the nobility, its easy to assume someone lucked their way in through some distant noble lineage,” she said dismissively.

“Well, not everyone is that blessed, I’d assume,” the young man said. The latent resentment within him leaked into his wording. “But even then, I have manners. Tebiki Naisho at your service.”

The moment she heard his name, Nabi formed a full image of the devilish smirk and expression he had. Animalistic and hungry for conflict like the students she witnessed, but unlike them, his gaze was different, deceptive like the smirk of a fox.

Naisho lowered himself into a bow, letting the shine of his bright pink eyes link with Nabi’s. His voice shifted, sounding smoother and calculating. He noted Nabi’s bright white pupils enveloped by the scarlet.

It was a familiar gaze, like an island of snow surrounded by blood to protect itself.

“You’re from Superbia?” Nabi asked.

“Who knows, names like mine apparently were a nice trend.”

When most would say such a thing with pride, Naisho lacked it in his tone. What good is a name born from a prideful people’s language, let alone in a place where that pride swelled more than any other?

“Though this one behind me is an entirely different story,” he said.

“Wa—wait, I thought you were going to introduce me?!”

The voice of a young girl shivered from behind Naisho. It was like the innocent chirp of a baby bird to contrast against Naisho and Nabi. He let a light chuckle escape him.

“You’re a big kid. Just do it yourself,” Naisho said, nudging the girl from her hiding spot. She slowly stepped from behind Naisho, keeping her hands hidden behind her even if the sleeves of her oversized uniform draped over them. Unlike other students, her uniform was a black and green dress, almost like clothes a witch would wear.

“But we ⸺ we had a deal,” she said.

“If I recall, nothing in our contract states that I had to do such a thing,” Naisho replied.

Nabi was lost in thought, watching the two closely, not caring enough to leave or stay, instead remaining in that same state she was in before thinking of nothing. She watched the girl’s frosty-blue eyes shift towards her. The look of disappointment on the girl’s face drifted away like the snow, and Nabi simply stared at her.

“I’m Juno Qhil, but you can call me Jun, if you wish to,” she said. “Oo—”

It was gold. As if a joke by the bitter winds surrounding them, Juno’s hat fell to the snow, revealing hair that shined golden blonde.

An innocent look.

The sight caught Nabi’s eye. A boy and girl, one from Superbia and the other seemingly from Invid. Despite the cordial air, an underlying tension weaved between the three like a strangling web. Nabi spoke, deadly cautious of the girl’s demeanor. Bright smiles, like Juno’s carried even darker shadows.

“So, what exactly do you both want? I have no desire to join your legion or whatever thing you want to entangle me with,” she said.

“All I wanted to do was check if the newbie and her tiny boyfriend were getting used to somewhere like this,” Naisho replied.

Nabi grit her teeth. He prod at her like a tiger challenging a dragon, yet she wondered why a tiger wore such a mask of an expression. She broke her gaze away from the two, only to change the subject.

“So I’m assuming you both are second-years?”

“Juno is a second-year. I, on the other hand, am a third-year student.”

Nabi peered at Naisho, her eyes scanning him carefully. To her knowledge, few students ever made it past their second year at the academy, either being killed in a duel for the merit they earned or failing the numerous trials given to the students.. Those who had lasted that long were powerful, having groups of students readily available to follow their commands: a legion.

“Then you’re one of the Exousia?” she asked.

“As if I’d bother myself with helping the students here like they do. Most of the poor idiots don’t even know until it’s too late,” Naisho said with a shrug. His presence seemed carefree. Careless. Naisho appeared beyond concepts like the hierarchy of Curse Academy. “It’s a free world, after all. If you have enough strength, then you are your own god, but who am I to explain that to you of all people⸺Blood Princess: Nabi Itami?”

People fear the concept of death, but each path leading to is always points to carelessness. The name Naisho mentioned was one of the most careless things one could do in the presence of Nabi. His words rang in her mind. It echoed over and over and over, but would never stop.

“Blood Princess.”

Voices other than her own crept to the surface of her consciousness.

“The only one to inherit our Wrath.”

“A mere doll.”

Doll. Her mind trembled at the word even while her skin crawled. Nabi tried to focus on her breathing, but was overpowered by that same sense of pain. The pain her memories always kept hidden rose to the surface; the stabbing sensation covered every inch of her body as if it barely belonged to her.

The word itself had invoked a sleeping demon within her heart.

Naisho gave the same devilish smirk that felt so familiar to her. He watched her closely. His eyes flickered to the sight of Nabi. With the last amount of consciousness left within her, she kicked her body away from the two, sliding across the frozen mountainside.

A flame made of reiju appeared from her forehead like the horn of a demon. All she could see now was him; the one who truly deserved her wrath. For what he put her through, she’d beat him until there was nothing left to be called the “Lord of Wrath” let alone a father.

The snow beneath her feet melted. Her mind continued to crawl back to the darkness of her being. Bright red steam erupted from her legs, searing the fabric of her leggings to reveal a twin set of seals engraved within her skin.

His gift to her and the rest of humanity: The Wrath Curse Series.

Juno captured the sight and pressure. It was unlike that of most students that she witnessed at Curse Academy beyond an Exousia or a Noble. What glared at Juno and Naisho was one thing and one thing alone.

A Devil.

“H..hold on, let’s just save it for the trial, right Naisho?” Juno said, tugging at his sleeve.

The devil shifted her foot back, and with it, the pressure built. Her bones let out a crack, but the sound didn’t meet her ears. She simply prepared herself like a loaded gun waiting to be fired. Reiju rippled through the air, yet Naisho merely chuckled, measuring what he may be up against.

He took out a hand from his pocket and continued to mutter to himself, giving him a chance to test something he rarely had a chance to use. Naisho kept the same calm and frozen tone as the girl. He watched her blue eyes slowly shift to green defensively.

“Sorry, Jun, I let my experiment get a bit out of hand, haven’t I?” Naisho said.

The ground.

The same ground that was blanketed by snow.

The snow that shattered her calm found itself cracked and burned like a window into her mind. The demon blazed through the air towards Naisho, but his words left his lips sooner.

“Disappear like the hallowed mist…Memoriae.”

The world that surrounded Nabi crumbled into pure white.