From A To Z

"Hey Adrian, glad we get to go against each other. You look pretty strong."

"Thanks, you do too."

"I didn't introduce myself, I'm Ramus, Ramus Hendrickson."

"Oh I see, you're related to Jonathan."

"Yea, you could say that."

I look pretty strong? That came out of nowhere. Why is this guy so excited to go against me specifically, he didn't say anything to Johnathan who's clearly stronger than me. Then again they're related so they've probably gone up against each other before. Wait no that can't be right, Johnathan's never met him before. Actually speaking of that, what's he mean by "you could say that", seems unnecessarily cryptic. Nothing about this guy makes sense.

Trying to ignore the awkwardness and out of nowhere comments and conversation sprung on by Ramus, along with how logic seems to be irrelevant to his entire being, the two take up their positions, clasp their hands together, and begin their duel. In the middle of their competition, Ramus begins another conversation.

"Hey, I know this isn't the best time for talk, but I'm just curious, how is your family doing?" 

"Huh? What are you talking about, my dad is Mr. Okabe, he's right there, he's all there is, why are you even asking me this?"

"I'm talking about your real family, oh yea, a zombie killed them 18 years ago, then Okabe killed it, I remember now, my bad. It wasn't just any zombie either-."

For a split second, Adrian lost all feeling in his arm and his mind went blank, losing him the battle. Once he regained his strength and state of mind, he punched Ramus in the face with all his might, sending him flying. He was immediately apprehended by multiple instructors. Akihito got right in his face and confronted him.

"Adrian what are you thinking! Why would you assault him!"

"He-."

Adrian initially wanted to tell him exactly what happened, but ultimately chose not to, leaving out a few details and coming up with a vague excuse.

"He said something I didn't like." 

"What are you talking about, are you crazy, you don't just hit people because of what they say, you should know better. Come on, you're coming with me."

After the initial shock went down, Reliquiae began trying to start the competition back up. Adrian and Akihito on the other hand went into Akihito's office in the boys locker room.

"Sit down. Adrian, why would you hit that boy in the face, what could he have possibly said to irritate you that much."

"He." Adrian paused for a moment. "He brought up my family. I was honestly just shocked he knew about it, and he kept talking about it and made me mad, so I hit him out of anger."

Silence and the feeling of a new understanding filled the room.

"Oh, I see. I get why you didn't want to talk about it out there. To tell you the truth Adrian, I'm proud of what you did, you were being mocked with something so horrible and relataliated. That's how it should be, in my opinion there are limits to these things where doing something like that in the moment is completely valid. I don't want you to be upset over this. But just know that just because I think what you did was right, that doesn't make it so. You're probably gonna have to face repercussions."

"Yea, I know."

"Still you're right, I'm surprised too. The students aren't supposed to know about that, only the staff. Your last name was changed after all, there's nothing they have access to that connects you to the incident. Then again, if he's good with computers he can probably see things only the staff is permitted to. Man this isn't good. Adrian, I'm sorry he said those things to you and I'm even more sorry I yelled at you. I'll see to it you're both treated fairly. Are you ok? Do you want to go to your room?"

"Thanks but it's fine. I'd like to watch the rest of the sporting day. I understand I probably can't participate anymore, especially because the last game involves fighting."

"Yea you'd be right about that. Ok, you can go sit in the bleachers and I'll handle this ordeal."

"Thanks."

Adrian stands to go leave and begins walking.

"Adrian."

Adrian stops, turning around to listen to Akihito.

" I love you. I want you to know I'll always be there for you and you can trust me."

"I know, I love you too dad." Adrian said smiling.

Adrian goes outside to see the sporting day to its conclusion. He makes it in time to watch the combat practice, of which someone he doesn't know won. The freshman are then addressed by Ms. Saahh, congratulated on their efforts, and dismissed for the day. Adrian gets up and goes to leave the area until he's stopped by two familiar voices behind him.

"Adrian!"

"Adrian!"

He turns around to see Emily and Delwyn running to catch up to him. Emily leads to questioning.

"Adrian, are you ok? Why'd you do that? What happened?"

"Yeah, are you feeling alright?"

Are they asking me if I'm ok? After I punched a guy in the face? Man that's ironic. Still though, it's nice to see they care like that.

"Yea guys don't worry about me, I'm fine. He just said something that didn't stick with me so I just lashed out on instinct?"

"What did he say?" The two asked simultaneously.

"Just something about my family, no need to be concerned about it though, that guy's just ignorant. I won't let him get to me anymore."

"Alright, if you say so."

"I'll walk with you to your room, after all we're neighbors."

"Wait, you two are right next to each other, that's so cool! It'd be nice if I was next to my teammate."

Seeing the two talk so casually, Adrian chimed in.

"Honestly she doesn't seem like the type to socialize that much. She's pretty reserved."

"Hm, yea I guess you're right, still it'd be nice for us to become closer as a team. After all, it won't be too long before we're going on missions together."

"Oh yea that's right, my mom sends me pictures of her on missions all the time, she was really upset when she found out we were in different teams."

"Yea, Akihito was pretty disappointed too."

The group continued talking for a bit, then the two boys parted ways from Emily and headed to their dorm. Adrian struck up a conversation on the way there.

"Today was pretty stressful, I need something to take my mind off it."

"Don't worry too much about it. Find something you like to occupy your time. You'll eventually forget about it."

"To be honest that's pretty unlikely, I don't forget things easily, I was born with a pretty good memory, in fact I remember things from when I was only a year old."

"Seriously? That's pretty crazy. Though it's not that I don't somewhat understand, I was born different from others too-."

All of a sudden, Delwyn stopped in his tracks, looking marveled at what he just said.

"Delwyn, you ok?"

"Uh, yea, I'm fine. Shaking his head and regaining his composure, they continued to walk. "I was just saying I was born stronger than most people, that's how I was able to do so well in the sporting events. Powerful genes and training. I can understand the feeling of naturally being able to do something others find impressive."

"Oh, I see, we're even more alike then. Still that's pretty cool, I wish I had that over a good memory.

"It's not as nice as it sounds, it comes with its own fair share of problems."

"Like what?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Hm, if you say so."

They finally made it to their rooms. The two boys were about to enter their respective rooms.

"Hey Delwyn?"

"What's up?"

"It's not very late, you wanna hang out for a bit? I have a game console and a few controllers. Honestly, I just need something to do."

After thinking for a few seconds, Delwyn responds.

"Hmm, alright sure, why not."

"Nice, I got a popular platform fighter. They said everybody's arrived."

"If it's what I think it is, you're done. I play with my mom all the time."

The two enter Adrian's dorm and spend a couple hours hanging out, playing games and eating food they shared between the rooms. By the time it was 7pm, Delwyn had called it a night and started to leave for his room.

"See you Adrian. Let's do this again."

"Later Delwyn. For sure."

The pair bid each other goodbye and Delwyn left the room. Adrian decided to stay up a couple hours more and play games until eventually going to sleep. Delwyn went back into his room, sat on his bed, and thought some things over.

"I was born different from others too." What was I thinking? Why did I say that? I don't want to draw attention to this. I don't want to remember it. I just want to move on from it all, from my father, from what he did, from those men. I generally try to stay away from people, staying in my own lane, but it's not my fault if we have a lot in common. It makes him easy to talk to. I don't wanna think about this. I just gotta ignore these things. He's gone now. I'm not worried about it anymore.