Fist as Hard as Metal

Pearl has her hands around my arm as we walk through the main building’s hallway. I didn’t know where we should be going, so I thought of a clever excuse to tell her that, “I like to see you drag me around through school.” However, before I could tell her a piece of my genius, she says, “You should go ahead of me, Big Bear. I need to stop by the classroom first.”

“I’ll go with you,” I suggested.

“It’s alright. Besides, I wouldn’t want you to cancel your plans.”

“Plans... right.”

“Alright, chat to you later, Bear.”

I wave her goodbye.

“Later, Bun.”

After seeing her go up the wide stairs, I walk to a random hallway and ponder what Pearl just did. So, she isn’t afraid to show intimacy to the public. I can’t make heads or tails of it as a good thing. What’s unfortunate right now is that I didn’t manage to finesse my way to subtly confirm my suspicions if Pearl knows about Ruby. Even worse, I’m left devastated as to whether to break up with Pearl or not, even if I did promise Ruby…

The ground suddenly hurls toward me. Lying on the floor, I realize someone just tripped me. I got pissed and quickly turned my head to the suspect but my feelings did a complete 180 after realizing it was a girl with unconventionally attractive features. To put it in a certain way, she looks feminine but her posture and demeanor suggest otherwise. Like a tomboy... or something along those lines. Her long hair is tied with a long red ribbon.

Even though I was the one who got tripped, she crosses her arms and looks at me furiously.

I get up, brush the dirt off my pants and ask, “Got a problem with me?”

“More like—what’s your problem? I was just walking in front of you, but you acted like you didn’t see me!”

I did notice, it's just… I don’t remember who you are, unfortunately. “Well, sorry. I was busy thinking.”

“I see. So you’re planning on breaking up,” she said, shaking her head.

“D-Did you read my mind?!”

“What the hell, I was just kidding! What the fuck, Seth! How could you!?”

All my reservations about her being a tomboy suddenly fade out of existence after I see her cheeks flush with a bright tinge of red and tears start to flow out of her eyes. I hate that I find this cute.

“Is it because I grew abs?”

“Good for you, but why would you think it’s because of your abs?!”

“I don’t know, it’s just that I’ve been training too much and fighting’s not girly!”

“Training’s not bad, you should continue to do what you want to do!”

“But I don’t want you to break up with me!”

“Eh?”

“I-If it’s between being with you or fighting Scarlet, I’d rather make peace with that hag than lose you, even if I don’t want to!”

“Ah?”

“I-I’ll even wear make-up for you, it’s what you want, right?!”

I have… another… girlfriend.

“Seth?”

I have another girlfriend?!

“Say something, please!”

I place a hand on her shoulder and say, “I’m sorry it turned out this way, but I too, was also kidding—of course.”

As I hang my head and mentally let out a deep sigh of relief, I can’t help but notice her hands crumpling into fists, shaking uncontrollably.

Oh, boy. Yep, I really am a scumbag. I mentally let out a sigh again, this time of defeat.

“You. Fucking. IDIOT!” she screamed then punched me in the face.

What a day. If I had a penny for every time I woke up in a day. I’d have three pennies. Which is not a lot, but it’s still weird that it happened on the same day.

From the smell of the sterile air around the room, I’m likely lying on the clinic bed. “Oh, you’re finally awake,” the nurse stated.

“I wish I didn’t.”

“Why is that?”

“... Stuff.”

“I can only imagine. Well, you on the other hand, are made of hard stuff. Madison usually leaves her contenders bruised and bleeding. To be honest, it’s thanks to her that I get a lot of visitors here. Even though it makes my job more exciting, I shouldn’t be happy about that one.”

…Madison?

“You don’t look like you have as much of a scratch. It’s either Madison didn’t leave a dent on you—which I highly doubt—or you just heal really fast.”

So, that beauty who slugged me back in the hallway is called Madison, huh? Thanks for the tip, I guess.

“Either way, you’re walking out scot-free,” she nods all the while saying, “You’re lucky.”

Lucky? Oh, you have no idea……

The nurse writes something on her clipboard and asks if I wanted anything. I tell her, “No thanks,” and she walks out of the room.

The sounds of metal clinking and plastic fabric folding come crashing to my ears, as a girl with glasses opens the dividing curtain up on the side of my bed. “Hey there, good lookin’,” the girl commented.

I’m all out of confused juice at this point. It’s either drained or punched right out of me. “Hey there yourself.”

The girl quickly jumps out of bed, which lifts the pajama dress she wears for some reason—and shows a little bit of polka-dotted red (let’s just say) “indecency” that my eyes captured in 8k resolution and saved it in my memory banks. Shen then plops her elbows on my bed with her head in her hands. “How’s your day, sweetheart?” she asked, then started crying all of a sudden. “I-I thought you were gonna die!” That’s the third girl I managed to make cry today. Again, I haven’t made a lot of pennies; though it’s still weird it happened.

This confirms it. The confused juice has been drained to the last drop, and it’s not like I don’t give a damn anymore. It’s just that the bizarre, random stuff that keeps happening has become the norm for me.

At that moment, the nurse comes back and yells, “Pam, what are you doing out of bed?!”

“Seth is dead!” the girl screamed back.

“Honey, he’s not. He’s just sitting in front of you.”

“He is?” She looks at me and cries, ”Seth!” then proceeds to smooch all of my face.

As much as I like this pretty girl stamping my face with her kisses, she’s clearly not in the most sober state of mind right now.

“I’m sorry about this, Seth. It’s her meds, you know how it is,” the nurse explained.

“Yes,” I said, gritting my teeth, “Of course, I know how it is.”

The nurse starts to drag Pam, but she starts having a tantrum while holding my hands. “I’m not leaving without Seth!”

Wanting to help the nurse, I played along with Pam. I resign, “It’s alright, I’m coming with you.”

I lie with her on her bed. If I didn’t, I’m sure she’d throw another tantrum. I don’t want her situation to get any worse. The nurse comes back with a glass of water and some pills. She just took some meds, why should she need more?

A couple of moments after she took her recent meds, she became sluggish and drowsy. Despite her disposition, she still manages to weakly utter, “Seth, I want to show you something.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“A robot.”

Out of all the girls I’ve met so far—and despite my best efforts to avoid being confused—she always manages to surprise me. “A robot?” I replied.

“Yes. It’s inside my bag. Please get it. I'd like to see how you’ll react.”

I open her bag and immediately smell the metal, oil, and gasoline. The smell mostly comes from the wrenches, screwdrivers, and other tools. The typical girly stuff. I sift through books about robotics, engineering, and programming, and I find a small box.

I get back to the bed and open it there. What's inside is a little metallic robot, if Pam here is to be believed. What makes this weird—and confirms my suspicions about her—is that this robot has my features, albeit if I were transformed into a metallic chibi figurine.

“Did I get your face right?”

“You did. You forgot my 20 pack though.”

She starts to feel my stomach.

“You only have 6, you liar.”

“I do?” I huffed, “You learn something new every day.”

I try to put the robot inside my jacket, but Pam relents, “Why are you stealing S-150?”

“I thought it was a gift?”

“Not yet. It’ll probably explode if you keep it right now.”

“It’ll probably explode? Guess I’ll move it to a safe place, then.”

“Keep it in the box it was in.” She groans, stretching her arms. “It’s to keep it from escaping.”

I get the box and put the thing in there.

“What did you mean when you said, ‘to keep it from escaping’?”

She mumbles something incoherent and from that, I realize I should just let her sleep.

I turn the black box around to look at every detail, but it’s not what I’m really thinking about. With the way Pam’s being all chummy to the care and detail she put on the robot—just for me, I have a pretty solid idea of what she is to me; most likely—who I am to her. I turn my eyes to her peaceful face, sleeping with her thick-rimmed glasses on. I take it off and place it on the table. I can’t help but stroke the hair on her very delicate features. She smiles as I lightly massage her scalp. I guess the shock of having a lot of girlfriends was already punched right out of me by Madison, or maybe it’s the serenity on Pam’s face that made me calm.

The nurse walks back in and says, “I can take it from here, Seth.”

“You sure? I can stay. I don’t mind.”

“It’s okay. One other thing, though. Please encourage her to take long rests. She’s been working on that secret project of hers non-stop and at this rate, her heart’s only going to get worse.”

“That’s worrying. I should stay.”

“No, no, encouraging her is all you can do. What any of us can do, really. The rest is ultimately up to her, sadly. I’m sorry I worried you, it really is okay for you to leave, she’s going to be out cold for a couple of hours. You still have a lot to worry about, right?”

“A… A lot—you could say.”

“Yeah, Pam told me you’re part of the council. That’s important stuff. Don’t worry about her for now. You should keep going.” She tries to push me out the door and succeeds.

I stayed a couple of minutes longer outside the clinic. I’m thinking about whether or not I should just phase inside through the walls and back to Pam, even at the risk of pissing off the nurse—but what can that really achieve; except pissing somebody off? I take a moment longer to reflect on the abilities I have, the abilities of ultimate destruction. Nothing could ever rival this power, yet I’m still left ever weaker from the aspect of creation and healing.

Why was I ever born at all? Why would mom and dad even create me in the first place; a being that can only conflate their aspects of space and time? Why create me at all, who will only ever know of manipulation and obliteration? I have been gifted with the ultimate power of authority for myself. If I could ask the amalgamation of all my powers, what it is—it’ll only reply, “annihilation.” So how can I, who only knows of ultimate powers of destruction—save—everyone?

I figured I would’ve cried, but I couldn’t. I feel, deep inside my heart, that I already know the answers. What I should just do—what I can only do—is find it all again.