I try to be nonchalant and smooth, but I can feel myself close to stumbling. "Hey, Shoko, what's your skincare routine again? You don't look a day over 20."
"It's Mrs. Shoko to you. Now tell me, what are you here for this time?"
She lets go of my face and goes to make tea. My eyes wander to her ass, but I don't look for long. "Shoko, baby."
She interrupts me.
"it's Mrs. Shoko. You can either call me that, or get out."
Ugh, damn this woman's ironclad defense. "Yes, Mrs. Shoko."
It takes a minute, but she eventually brings back some microwaved tea and paper cups. I gulp down mine in one sip, and she looks at me, shocked. "How are you able to do that? That's boiling hot water."
Another shot, no problem. I smirk. "If you ever lock that door back there, I can show you just how I can gulp it all down."
She closes her eyes, mostly in disbelief. "Do any of your pickups actually work?"
"Nah, I mostly get by off of women who want to make their boyfriends jealous. You might be thinking that's parasitic, but honestly, I consider it symbiotic."
She takes a sip of her tea, and it takes everything in me not to stare at her luscious lips. When she opens her eyes again, she's a lot more calm. She looks me over, a complicated emotion splattered on her face. "Lock, you're almost at the maximum amount of detentions, and your grades are average at best."
I point. "But I'm passing, though, right?"
She narrows her eyes at me, and I put my hands up in defense.
"Listen to me, okay? It's for the sake of your future. You can't just keep running around like a stray cat, eating and doing as you please. The real world can be really cruel sometimes, and I don't want to see you get hurt anymore."
I put my feet on the table and yawn. Here it comes again. I've gotten this speech since the start of the school year with her. I feel more strained each time I hear it, but this time she seems a little bit more somber. "Listen, you've reached the maximum amount of detentions for the year, as you've done every year, the maximum amount of suspensions, as you've done every year, and you have a record of fights from pepper sprays to tasers. You bring your weapons on campus like it's nobody's business."
"I know you told me to never bother asking, and for the past 3 years since I've come to know you, I haven't, but do your parents celebrate you? Do you have anyone who's ever truly given you love?"
Parents, uh. My mother fools around with other men, and my father only gives a shit about running his company. He doesn't really care if I get into trouble or not. He only cares about his competitors. He's thinking of getting another son, whether through adoption or through another woman, not that I'll let her or know that. Probably the only reason why this problem, too, at this entrance of the school would disappear as if it didn't happen.
I wanted to inherit his company, but he told me to not bother, with these words:
"A wild animal like you should just stay as far away as possible."
He promised me a certain set amount of riches as long as I do four things:
Don't mess with his competitors.
Leave the city behind once I graduate.
Show up to the events and do as I'm told when I'm there.
No fooling around with rich women, be charming and respectful, don't be the dog that you are.
"Alas, I can't complain. Life's easy for me," I shoot back.
"I asked if you were loved, not if it's been easy so far, but I can see that pained look on your face from here. I don't need an answer."
Throwing up a tough act here would be distasteful. She really is the best I could ask for. It's fine, though. Soon I'll never see her again after it's better to bury this city. I throw a smile on. "Well, if that's all, I'm gonna ditch again."
"Saying that directly to the teacher's face is so you," she chuckles.
Oh, did I hear you laugh? A small smile crosses my face.
She smiles as she composes herself. "Maybe I finally lost my mind due to your incessant flirting. You can go now if you really don't want to talk. Just try to stay out of trouble and learn to value yourself a little more, okay?"
"Learn to value myself." All I do is care about myself. The way she phrased it almost peeves me a little, but I ain't got no reason to yell at her. After all, I'm not the type to give up. I leap up from the couch. "See you around, Shoko. I promise I'll visit with cake next time."
She pouts at me, "Don't bother. Just stay out of trouble, all right."
With a smile, she sends me off, and I'm back to the hallway, feeling lonely as usual. I end up sighing because it's so boring. My prepper spray and Taser were confiscated. I'll have to buy new ones. I take a step down the hallway, each step feeling a little longer than the last. After a while, I begin to warp, huh? As the ceiling turns, those words lead me unconsciously, and I hear a low, authoritative command:
"Step forward into the king's abyss."
Darkness takes the sky outside. The land begins to crumble away. I hear the screams of the students inside. The hallway starts to shift. The floor feels like quicksand as I sink into it. I move my feet forward in a panic, and in this world, digging a single step forward causes my body to be contorted and twisted. I scream as my bones break and shatter, my eyes bleed, and a choking feeling rips through my throat and chest. My heart thumps over and over again. I can hear the sound of the world coming down into layers, my mind splitting and ripping apart like brains splattering on concrete, the feeling of my eyelids returning to me inside of the excruciating pain.
I blink, and the next thing I see is an all-consuming darkness. A purple flame encompasses me, and that darkness ends, becoming the foul-smelling inside of a giant dungeon-like gate, architecture spanning generational knowledge of craftsmen and spellcasters lost to miserable annals of time. I play games in my off time, but I've never seen something so detailed and realistic.
Is this a game?
The screams come a moment later, fire and agony as I hear teeth ripping through flesh and bone, like a chainsaw through wood. No, it's a nightmare, one that I have been chosen for.
The next thing I know, I'm staring up in an empty sky. The clouds brush by without a second thought, the pain completely subsiding, the feeling of grass underneath me, and a strange wave of calm washing over me.
I normally love days like this because the wide open sun is beaming on my skin, but this is not one of those days. I'm in the middle of nowhere, leaves swaying just above me from the singular tree that lies atop a hill. I look over to my left, and I see a small town. It leads to mountains in the far off distance.
I look to my right, and I see nothing but more plains. I have no idea where I am right now. Maybe I got teleported or something. Ah, wait a minute. I know this phenomenon, this is where I get superpowers.
"Status," I shout. A flickering black and white screen appears in front of me. Oh, shit, that worked? I might actually be a corpse in-waiting. In front of me lies eight stats, which read:
Stat
Level 1: 0/100 xp
Strength (STR) 8
Agility (AGI) 14
Magic (MAG) 16
Endurance (END) 10
Willpower (WIL) 18
Perception (PER) 16
Affinity (AFF) 10
Technique (TEC) 5
Magic: None
Abilites: Mystic eyes
Okay, not bad. I mean I'm level one, so of course, there's room for improvement, but you know, all good things come with time. I make a small stretch, but magic, huh? I guess I better learn a spell or two as a top priority. It doesn't seem like I can check more info on any of the stats either. Let's just hope the locals can speak my language.
Though I finish some basic stretches, I run down to town. That's a sure jog away, so it doesn't take me long to arrive at the entrance. It's populated with people in JRPG village like clothing. The two men holding spears at the front seem to be guards. They stand at the front of the village there are no walls so it's not very secure besides them.