After the incident, I went straight back into my routine, which was going to school, getting perfect grades, training my magic and fighting skills, going to the gym, and finally, resting at the orphanage.
To be honest, this lifestyle was quite dull, but I endured for two years. Now, repeating the same thing isn't good for your you. Initially, I believed my mental strength was limitless, but starting a new school year as a 14-year-old monster made me admit the truth; I was completely burnt out.
Thus, I asked Lyanna about what to do.
"Zen, it pains me to tell you this".
"Just tell me, it might be the clue to finally solving my problems".
"You don't have any friends, do you?".
"....".
"That's quite sad".
That day, I fought with Lyanna more 'passionately' than usual.
***
I took a break from training and enjoyed life a little more. To do so, I had one simple goal, make friends. It seemed easy at first, right? But it wasn't as easy as it seemed. The main problem was that I was an outcast.
I spent my first two years barely socializing with anyone and never hanging out with others, I was pretty popular for being impossible to befriend. Also, I had the best grades from my school and on top of that, I was without a doubt the strongest.
That made some people quite jealous, but they never tried to bully me, they just ignored me. Slowly, people started forgetting my existence until the cult incident happened. After that, a photo of me, frisk and Caeli became viral, and with the return of Asriel, my classmates started theorizing that I was his hidden twin brother.
After some weeks, I started hanging out with some of my classmates and started being integrated into a friend group. I was proud of myself for being able to socialize with them, after all, my mental age was already 18.
***
We were on break time, the fear of having to return to class haunted everyone as they were doing all sort of things. I was quite bored and was expecting something to happen, but despite my boredom, nothing happened.
That was until she appeared.
"Zen, let's have a fight!".
A white-haired human stared at me with expectation. Seeing her face, I remembered that she was a new student. My classmates were mostly monsters, so seeing a human was quite surprising.
She seemed so eager to fight me, so I accepted.
"Brace yourself".
All classmates surrounded us after hearing the word 'fight'. As the ambient was set, she outstretched her hand and prepared a magic attack. Seeing a human able to use magic filled me with anticipation as I waited for her to finish the attack.
A white ball of energy emerged from her hand and approached me. With a smile on my face, I tanked the attack, expecting a powerful shockwave to go thorough my body, but when I was hit, I felt a slight tap on my chest.
"???".
"???".
We both stared at each other in awe as I remained unaffected by the attack.
"Ah, I never expected you to be this strong!".
'No, I never expected you to be this weak'. I kept that remark to myself.
"You must be my fated rival! Get ready, the next time I will surely defeat you".
While the others fell for her bullshitting, just glaring at her I could see that she was quite flustered.
After that, she swiftly escaped the scene with her head low to hide her embarrassment.
Zen vs mysterious girl.
1 - 0
The next day a sense of déjà vu invaded me as I found myself surrounded once again. In front of me was the same girl but unlike last time she lowered her gaze.
"Sorry, I-I was forced". Trying to excuse herself out of the situation, she once again attacked me. Just like last time, her attack was inoffensive and our 'battle ended'. This was just as disappointing as last time, but somehow the crowd was cheering like crazy.
"While knowing she had no chance of victory, she still kept fighting".
"A true rival's story!".
"Don't give in!".
Remarks like that could be heard from the crowd.
Suddenly, I realized that I would be seeing this girl more often.
"Looks like I lost again, hehe".
"... Anyways, if we're going to be rivals, I should at least know your name".
"Right, my name is Alina".
Zen vs not-so-mysterious girl.
2 - 0
We kept 'fighting' each day, surprisingly, Alina was showing growth. We had small conversations at break, and we got along better than I expected. Still, I won every time, and I could tell that she was pretty pissed by this.
Eventually, I started teaching her magic myself.
"Zen, is this really necessary".
"Trust me, this will really help you connect with magic energy"-
We were currently on top of a mountain. Alina was sitting in the lotus position while she was surrounded by flames casted by me.
"Ugh, can we leave? my legs hurt a lot".
"As a kind master, I only wish the best for my students; endure it, and you will become unrivaled".
Her face was red from the heat, and more than likely she was feeling dizzy thanks to the altitude. To be honest, I was just pranking her, but it's also her fault for trusting me. Why the hell being surrounded by fire would make you stronger? She trusted me a lot, making me enjoy pranking her a little too much.
This wasn't entirely useless because meditating is a very effective way to improve magic control, and a bit of sightseeing never hurts. But seriously, why was this world so beautiful?
Gazing back at the struggling Alina, I envied her a bit. She was a magic genius. When we fought, it was the first time she used magic and that alone was surprising. But the more I train her, the more she amazes me. Her magic seemed endless, if my *check skill worked properly her magic would be over 9000.
To put it simply, she was the ultimate glass cannon, she had the potential to be a nuclear bomb with the physique of a coughing baby.
the next day we fought again at break time.
"This time I'll get my revenge on you".
"Do your best, my 'rival' ". (I was so feed up by her rival shit that I just accepted it).
As she started attacking, her energy beams were smaller, but ten times more controlled and deadly. 'I even have to dodge them, I feel so proud!' . She was good, but she would never defeat me in a close battle.
To put it simply, I'm fighting a mage with 1hp on a small arena while being an all-rounder, the fight was rigged from the beginning. I reached her and lightly punched her forehead; this marked the end of the fight.
Zen vs Alina.
98 - 0
***
pshhhh
"I scored 89 on this math exam ". While I was brewing some coffee, Alina tried to brag about her high mark on the exam.
"Me 97, I was the one who helped you study dumbass ".
"You really need to stop being such a nerd, if you keep being like that, no one will want to be your friend ". That felt like a dagger straight to the heart, as always Alina was too blunt.
Currently, I was at my part-time job as a barista and Alina had ordered an expresso. We chat a bit while I prepared it to her. Then my boss and owner of the café made his appearance.
"Looks like your friend has you busy ". I smiled and offered him a reply.
"She's more of a parasite than a friend ".
"Haha! Don't be too harsh on her, or she might blow the café up ".
I smiled and joked around with him. He is a human that I knew from the months that I worked here. the way I would describe him is a nice and funny guy, he's acquainted with lots of people and has always been popular.
Working for him has made my job really enjoyable, and I became a coffee fan as a side effect. All of that made the uneasiness of my heart stronger, as I knew William's secret.
Ever since the cult incident at Newest Home, I tried investigating the cult, but I hadn't made a lot of progress. Then I started searching for cultist in my city, the one and only being William.
I could never have guessed that William, from all people, would be a member of the True Fear Church.
The name itself was quite ominous as it made me remember a certain someone, but I brushed these thoughts aside. William would serve as my plot device to infiltrate the church, if it was a normal crazy cult, I would just report them to the Royal Guard.
Glancing at William, my smile slightly dropped as I thought about having to face him. Until then, I chose to enjoy our little friendship.
***
Some days after, I found myself at my rival's house playing videogames. While she gave me an astronomical ass-whopping, she started asking me things.
"Zen aren't you like super weird? " . I frowned a bit.
"What do you mean? ".
"Think about it, you're weirdly strong and mature for your age ".
"That is because I train and take care of other orphans ".
"Also, you're too similar to Asriel Dremurr, and when I asked you, you told me you had nothing to do with him ".
"…".
"Then, you also don't have parents nor relatives, no childhood friends, nothing ".
There was a brief silence before she kept going.
"Let's make a deal, if I tell you a secret of mine, in the future you will have to tell me about yourself".
I pondered for a moment before refusing, I couldn't tell anybody about my secrets because the risk of the anomaly finding out. Alina pouted a bit before kicking me.
"Alright, I'll tell you mine anyway ".
Then she pulled out her own soul and showed it to me.
I was momentarily perplexed as I saw her pulling the soul, but soon I understood why she did that.
Human souls have seven traits, with each one having its respective color. Most humans have a completely gray soul as their trait is still un-awakened, in fact, only a few awaken a trait.
But the soul before me was glowing as white as her hair. Alina then proceeded to reinsert her soul again.
"Cool right? ". She had a careless smile.
"Cool as fuck ".
That day, I wondered about how my soul looked. Sadly, I couldn't do the same thing Alina did, after all, I'm a monster, so doing stunts like that would immediately dust my body.
That day, I dreamed about showing off my multicolored soul to her.
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