Chapter 13:

Bloodlust (2)

MiracleBound


\\\ Oliver///

“How touching, a big brother looking out for his little sister.”

I quickly pulled off my headphones at the sound of that voice. I guess homework would have to wait.

Sitting on my bed was a girl around my age with pale skin and white hair. But her hair color’s never been the strangest thing about her if you ask me. She outdid both of those orphanage brats in weirdness all by herself.

“What are you doing here, Destiny?” I asked. “And how the hell did you get in my room without anyone noticing? The window isn’t even open.”

“Do I need an open window to get inside your room?” She asked while tilting her head.

“Don’t act all cute, save it for someone who cares. I show my true face to you, don’t I? Wasn’t that the agreement you wanted so badly?”

She chuckled at my words.

“What are you laughing about?”

“Oh come on now, don’t tell me you’re annoyed already,” Destiny said. “I only just got here.”

“If you could only just leave that’d be great.”

“But you need me don’t you?” she asked. “That’s why I’m here after all, to help you with those fifth graders who picked on your sister today.”

“How do you already know about that?” I asked.

“That’s a secret,” she said while pretending to zip her mouth shut. “But you don’t need to be so distrustful, Oliver. I’ve helped you out perfectly so far, right?”

“A little too perfectly if you ask me,” I retorted. “So, when shall we get started?”

“We should get started early tomorrow morning,” Destiny suggested. “That group of boys likes to meet up at the park on Saturdays around noon, so if we work fast we can set a fun little surprise for them before breakfast.

“We’re having pancakes tomorrow, my favorite!”

“Why do you know so much about that particular group of fifth graders? It’s almost like you knew something was gonna happen. Plus why do you think I care what you’re having for breakfast tomorrow? It’s pancakes every Saturday, isn’t it?”

“It’s not that I knew something was going to happen, you just need to be more observative,” Destiny retorted. “And you don’t need to get so prickly about breakfast. I just can’t wait to eat pancakes with Hiro and Tyler. After all, it’s my favorite meal with my favorite people.

“Speaking of which, you can come too if you’d like.”

“Hard pass.”

“Come on! We’re friends aren’t we?”

“At best you’re a very useful piece on the board,” I said. “But you should know that I always end up sacrificing my queen.”

“Maybe that’s why you’ve never beaten me at chess.”

“I’ve never beaten you at chess because we’ve never played against each other before.”

“Maybe we should start.”

“Sure, after taking care of business tomorrow.”

“Then it’s a date! See ya then!” Destiny said before opening my bedroom window and hopping out. Despite being two stories above the ground, she landed with a graceful roll and then disappeared into the night.

I got up and closed my window, making sure to lock it.

“What the…”

I was back in the room I rented out in the upper part of the tavern. I was lying face up on the bed, no one else was in the room.

Did I just regain a memory?

“That’s not exactly what I was asking for, Canvas,” I said aloud. I’m pretty sure she can hear me. “Didn’t even answer a single question I had.”

I was met with silence, but I guess that’s to be expected.

For some reason my head hurts…

Wait, where’d Marion run off to? I get the feeling letting her go off on her own isn’t the best idea when I’m supposed to be watching her.

I got up and grabbed my sword before heading down to the lower level of the tavern.

As I was walking out, something just felt… off. But I can’t tell what it is.

I looked around as though I might find something that would explain this feeling inside the tavern when someone else’s gaze met mine.

A girl with dark orange hair covering half her face. She’s wearing a cap and goggles on her head, and- two-thirds of a jacket? Is that some sort of fashion statement or something? She doesn’t look much younger than I am and-

Huh?

Why is she glaring at me? She’s staring so intently that it’s starting to piss me off.

Wait- neither of us have blinked since making eye contact… so that’s what this is.

A staring contest.

Normally I wouldn’t stoop to participating in such a lowly competition, but…

Between dealing with Marion, Canvas, and being reincarnated into a future fantasy world along with all these fun little perks. I could really use a win right now…

I can’t believe I lost to that little brat!

Ugh! And that smug face she made after she beat me-! I’m feeling very violent right now!

Okay, not ‘violent,’ but I am frustrated. I can’t even beat a dumb brat in a staring contest…

Anyway, after losing that contest I went outside to steam off and look for Marion. See, multitasking, I’m not completely useless.

I reached the outskirts of town, there’s not really any people around, but it’s getting kinda late. Maybe I should Accelerate my search.

Pun intended. Heh heh.

I then heard something that sounded like an impact coming from close by. My best guess is that this will directly have an effect on me whether I want it to or not.

I picked up the pace and ran in that direction before hearing another similar impact.

What the hell’s going on?

I arrived in time to see the third impact happen. And suffice to say I was very surprised at the scene unfolding in front of me.

Marion, whose skin was now completely light grey save for some darker grey markings, had just slammed her fist into some dude’s back while he was on his hands and knees. Her dress is covered in blood and what looks like bullet holes, but it looks like she’s fine.

There must’ve been some sort of fight before I got here, but it looks like Marion was able to handle herself. That’s good to know. Despite her incredible strength, I thought her docile nature would make it hard for her to do battle, but she seems alr-

Smash!

“Aaaahh!!!!!!”

Huh?

She just… crushed this guy’s hand under her foot. Blood went flying everywhere, and I could hear the bone shatter from over here. And that scream was unnerving…

That seemed needlessly cruel. It’s obvious that she just won this fight, but this is a little overboard…

She’s raising her claws now… don’t tell me she’s gonna-!

I activated Accelerate and ran over as fast as I could. I grabbed her right hand and activated Miracle, holding it up so that she wouldn’t be able to kill this guy bleeding out on the ground.

“What are you doing!?” I yelled. “You already beat this guy didn’t you! Why do you have to kill him?!”

“It’s survival of the fittest,” she said. “He was trying to kill me first, but since I’m more powerful he’s the one that’s going to die instead. Now get out of my way or I’ll kill you too!”

Something about her seems absolutely terrifying. It’s not the same type of fear as when I fought Pink Head, it’s completely different. Back then I just thought there was no chance I could beat someone like him, but this is pure bloodlust.

Just by looking into her eyes I can tell that she wasn’t joking. She was seriously going to kill me if I kept holding her back. By the way, the whites of her eyes are pitch black now, and her irises are sharper than before.

What happened to the Marion I know and tolerate? She’s completely different.

It’s almost like… some sort of mask came off…

Is this what she’s really like underneath? Did this guy really try to kill her? Would that even justify her doing this?

Even if that is the case, a more important question I should be asking myself is: Am I going to cower just because the wolf finally bore its fangs at me?

No.

I won’t yield to her bloodlust!

Even if this guy happens to be a crappy human being like the Liquid Assassin, I won’t let someone die if I can do something about it.

“Sorry, but I won’t let you kill him,” I said. “I have a strict no-kill policy, and it applies to enemies and allies alike.”

“Taking his side then you colorless traitor?”

“I’m on your side, Marion! I’m supposed to be protecting you while-”

“Shut up!” she yelled. “If you wanted to protect me you should’ve been here when this started! Now get the hell out of my way!!”

Well, I can’t deny that I chose a pretty terrible time to black out, except that wasn’t really by choice.

By similar logic none of this is my fault because the events leading up to this stemmed from me blacking out spontaneously, if I could have controlled when I’d recovered a memory it would’ve been during the night when Marion was asleep too.

Why’d she even go wandering off in the first place? This is more her fault then mine if you think about it. Everything about this current situation is happening because of other people doing whatever the hell they want.

Even so, that’s a pretty lame excuse, and Marion doesn’t exactly look like she’d be willing to listen to that line of reasoning. Or any for that matter, but I gotta try something. I just need to be extremely careful with what I say…

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” don’t add a ‘but’ you idiot, “Okay, I’m sorry… but you can’t kill this person,” I SAID DON’T ADD A FREAKING BUT!!! “You need to stop and think for a moment, if you kill him, then what happens?”

“I don’t care!!” she shouted as raised her left hand into a fist. I caught her punch with my open hand.

“If you start killing people I won’t stand by and let that happen! If you follow the path of bloodlust then I will become your enemy!” I shouted.

I got a feeling that told me I wouldn’t be able to follow through on this because of my contract.

I already knew that of course. I wasn’t planning on following through with this threat, but I’m not planning on letting her kill anyone either. I just need to get her to back down.

“Don’t make me do this!” I said. “It’s not too late. Let’s all just calm down. We need to get this guy to an infirmary or some-”

Using her right hand she grabbed my wrist and hurled me over her shoulder. At the same time, I activated Accelerate to go into bullet time.

As the world slowed down around me, so did my movement in the air, in fact I had barely moved at all.

I guess it makes sense. I can only speed up my movements and perception, I’m not actually slowing down time when I do this.

I grabbed Marion while I was still in the air and then deactivated Accelerate.

Sure I still flew through the air, but I dragged her along with me. Getting her away from the guy.

We fell to the ground and rolled a bit before we both quickly stood up, looking into each other’s eyes.

Marion looked pissed.

It just occurred to me that while I’m not exactly allowed to hurt her because of the contract, she could rip me apart limb from limb without any repercussions.

This isn’t going to be fun.

At least I added those clauses, so maybe I can just knock her out? I can do that much, right? I’m not getting any subconscious “no you can’t”s so I must be right.

Hopefully if I can manage to knock her out she’ll be calmer when she wakes up. But how do I go about this?

She has super strength, razor sharp claws, and super healing, while I have super strength and speed.

Not gonna lie, this doesn’t look good. At all.