Chapter Twenty-Five #3
“Don’t think for a second I’m going to hold back on you, Branchless Blunder.” Kenzo closed their distance, Caleb’s mind a foggy mess. I wasn’t sure how much longer he’d last, honestly. “And if you think you can keep up with me with your knockoff root version of my branch, you’re wrong.”
Kenzo snatched Caleb by the collar, reeling back a fist until Caleb collapsed into Kenzo’s chest. Kenzo froze, holding Caleb upright as his legs gave way.
Scanning Caleb’s thoughts, the fog had shifted into a soft, dreamy lull. How he’d managed to stay upright despite losing consciousness was a sheer will of force meant to prove his worth here.
And he had.
Caleb had gone from the branchless kid ranked at 160 to taking second place in the first-year student’s Spring Showcase. Even if he hadn’t placed, Caleb continued demonstrating his value at Gemini time and time again, and I wished he understood how triumphant he’d become.
“In a completely anticlimactic showdown, Kenzo Ito is our first-place winner,” Chanelle shouted, followed by an explosion of fireworks and a roaring crowd.
I descended to the arena, walking around broken stone tiles to reach my students.
“Wake up.” Kenzo shook Caleb. “Wake up, you bastard.”
“Kenzo,” I said, “you won.”
“No. Wake up, Branchless.” He continued shaking Caleb, holding him upright and casting gray static along his temples to block his thoughts.
“ You don’t get to do this. You don’t get to knock yourself out of this competition after perfecting a goddamn root magic.
Wake up and fight me! Prove you belong here! Prove me wrong, you fucking loser. ”
I grabbed Caleb, pulling him away from Kenzo, blocking most of his rage and the audience’s perplexed internal opinions. “It’s over.”
It took everything to hold Caleb without falling into the sadness pouring from Kenzo. His naturally furious nature dimmed; melancholy and rage and love and hatred and so many other complicated feelings between the two I still didn’t understand boomed in instantaneous flashes.
“ Dammit, Caleb. ” Kenzo stormed off the arena, ignoring the cheers, the comments, and everything other than how Caleb had failed and bested him all at once.
I carried Caleb off the stage and to the infirmary while proctors tended to the other students.
The halftime show kept the audience of industry witches entertained long enough for our top three in the Spring Showcase to recover and join in the closing ceremony.
Jamie took the stage in the third-place podium with rejuvenation sigils marked along his face and disgust he’d lost to not one but two witches beneath him.
Caleb anxiously stood on the second-place podium, in awe of the audience more than his placement.
All he wanted was a closer view of the many enchanters he methodically studied from a distance.
Meanwhile, Kenzo stood at the first-place podium, pensive and calm, his mind mostly silent despite his earlier outburst. The praise and fawning did nothing to lift his spirits, and he hardly found the enchanters in attendance moderately impressive.
“I know everyone, like myself, is eager to hear from this year’s champion.” Chanelle handed Kenzo her microphone .
He held it, quietly observing the audience. His eyes flitted toward Jamie and Caleb, anger spiking, but for completely different reasons, then he settled, releasing a heavy breath, testing the acoustics.
“I’d say this is an honor, but I hate liars.
It was an uneventful and unchallenging showcase, given the pathetic competition I faced.
Truthfully, the only thing worse than everyone attending this academy is the enchanters who took the time from their ‘oh so busy’ schedules to watch this performance.
I’d say you have jobs to perform, but not a single one of you can do your fucking job, which is to protect this city and its citizens.
” Kenzo gripped the microphone, shooing a nervous Chanelle away.
“You’re all weak and pathetic. I can’t wait until I graduate from this second-rate program and finally show you how it’s done. ”
Kenzo dropped the microphone and left.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, how’d I not see that coming?
It was Kenzo. Of course, he’d use this as a chance to flip off every single person in the industry.
Chanelle talked, soothing and calm, attempting to laugh it off as teen angst, but I couldn’t pay attention to any of it.
I couldn’t hear anything past the sea of rage churning throughout the arena as every single professional exploded with internal furies.
Each had done their best to protect the citizens of Chicago, fighting impossible odds, and some fifteen-year-old kid had the audacity to shame them publicly after they’d made time to attend this joke of a spectacle. I began to hyperventilate.
“Mr. Frosty, you okay?” Gael smirked. “You look less frosty and more melty. Mr. Melty, maybe?”
“Ba-bawk.”
I couldn’t breathe. The entire auxiliary gym transformed into a crimson thunderstorm from all the buried rage barreling to the surface from every industry witch in attendance .
“I thought Kenzo’s speech was awesome. A total F the man move.
” Gael’s smile faltered. My teeth chattered, and I trembled, attempting to quell my telepathy.
“But in a totally not a big deal kind of way at all, so you can chill out, you know? Just Kenzo being Kenzo. No one really listens to his tantrums anyway.”
“Cluck.”
“ Yeah, we should find someone to help. ” Gael and King Clucks took off in search of a nurse.
The world of thoughts intensified, weighing down on my mind and muscles, the very fiber of my being.
“ I truly love how that kid tells it like it is, ” Milo thought, cutting through the sea of rage and offering me a life raft in the form of his gentle mind that I desperately needed.
“ Not sure if it’ll help on the collaboration front, but he’s gotten under their skin and is definitely helping make a brighter future. ”
Milo’s mind soared high above the clouds, a breath of relief I followed. Even as he drifted into visions I couldn’t view, I embraced the link holding us together, curious about the future he’d envisioned based on a single outburst from one of my students.