(66) Appreciation
“I did it! I fucking did it! In your face, Yuumi! In your face!” cheered a high-spirited girl jumping around in her modestly sized suite millions of kilometers away from home.
She stopped next to her bedstand and grabbed her Dragonfruit device, checking for any messages her old man might have sent.
“Not yet.” she vocalized, bringing her hands level with her chest and closing them tightly into two fists. “Nhhhh! I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about that duel! Championship here I come!”
If Yuumi was here, she might have told her to calm down. That wouldn’t be the last time she had to duel Anna. But unfortunately Yuumi wasn’t here, and for once in Aya’s life, she felt like she was the one ahead. If she could defeat that duelist, who gave Yuumi so much trouble, who else could she defeat?
Those blue-ranks scums at the academy who looked down on her? ‘That’s not even a fight.’ The person who reminded everyone she was a rank-down? ‘No problem.’ Maybe even the one who thought her how to duel like th— ‘No way, she’s different.’ her aspirations of greatness stopped there.
For Aya, who had seen the extent of Yuumi’s ability, it was obvious that Penta-Summoning was just the surface of a much more fearsome monster. forsaken were the fools who challenged her on the assumption she would just be another prideful natural penta-summoner with great potential, but absolutely no skill… Fools, like her.
‘I got really lucky back there. I wonder what she would’ve done if attacked Mia before she could intervene… What was I even thinking back then? They called me “The Queen of the Blue Dorm,” but Queen of what? Bullying defenceless freshmen… What a nice way to be remembered.’
Her grandiose days at the blue-dorm were behind her. Even if she ranked up again, she would miss the parties and congregations like most of the blue-ranked students. Before she got de-ranked, she called them misfits, unable to handle high society or failing miserably. But now she saw they were just getting away from the lunacy of other students like her. Kept there as a form of containment so that the reasoning of the high-strung aristocratical sons and daughters of big-shots wouldn’t spread to the other students.
Even then, it wasn’t difficult to spot their influence on the campus. From initiations and hazing rituals to secret clubs and hierarchical structures of thought. Even staff members were affected.
Speaking of hazing rituals, Aya still couldn’t understand how Haruna got Yuumi to accept joining the cheerleading club. It was an open secret to the blue dorm that the Cheerleading club might as well be called ‘The Orgy Club’ or ‘The Lesbian Club’ due to how they used their events and what happened at their initiations. Of course, not every cheerleader in the cheerleading club took part in those activities, but there was a clever identifier to see who did. The club badges were different based on how their initiations went, the ones who went through with the initiation had a badge that emitted a slight pink glint when in very direct light.
Imagine Aya’s shock when she was hanging out with Yuumi and noticed that pink sparkle on her badge. ‘She just didn’t look like the person to go along with rituals like that.’ While Aya wanted to know how Haruna managed to “tame” Yuumi, the truth was probably less exciting than the theories on the NWDA forum that read like romance novels… and sometimes mind-break smut.
*BING, BING*
Aya jumped from her bed and swiped her phone from her bedside desk.
[Daddy]
“Yes!” Aya exclaimed, straightening her posture and accepting the call with a hologram.
“AYA! What the fuck did you do now!?!?!” her father yelled over the phone, voice only of course.
She twitched and firmed up. “Daddy? What do you mean? I won just won the duel, two more and I’m in the top 3.”
Heavy breathing followed. “Ahhh! Ahhh! You sorry excuse for a daughter! Do you even know who your last opponent was?!?!”
Blinking in confusion, but faced with an opportunity to show her data collection ability, Aya replied. “Yes, father! She was ‘Anna Matili.’ Daughter of ‘Lucija Matili’ owner of Dimcorp! The company you work at, father! She even called her mother before the match to tell her she was dueling me, your daughter.”
… The phone went silent for an uncomfortable amount of time. Aya could feel the tension building up over the line.
“YOU. RETARDED. PIECE OF SHIT. EXCUSE. FOR. A. DAUGHTER!” Her father screamed over the line. “FORGET THE NWDA! YOU'RE NOT COMING BACK PERIOD!”
To this statement, Aya could only reply in shock, tearing up. “B-But, daddy! I just did what you told me to do—”
More screaming interrupted her excuse. “You knew who she was and even told her who you were! And then, knowing that, YOU FUCKING WON!? NITWIT! RETARD! SHIT FOR BRAINS! YOU’RE DEAD TO ME! *pingggggg*” the call ended.
Aya’s whole body was shaking. Cold sweat coated her bare skin, and she became keenly aware of the clothes touching it.
*Thump* she fell flat on her bed, her eyes distant but wide open, tears streaming down her ducts and wetting the sheets. Her mouth remained opened even with drool hanging from her lips.
Next came heavy breathing. Aya practically panted with her face pressed against the bed. “*Huff*, *Huff*, *Huff*, *Huff*.” As her heart-rate soared, her brain became flooded with disjoined speculation, incapable of forming a coherent line of thought.
She felt like she was about to die, a feeling of impending doom looming over her whole self, followed by a white hot headache and pinching pain on her chest accompanied by an intense heat threatening to burn her up.
Feeling this, she rushed from the bed and threw herself into the bathroom, ripping her clothes off on the way to the shower.
A naked Aya entered the shower and turned the water on in its coldest setting. She fell down into the fetal position and sobbed.
She didn’t understand what she’d done wrong. Aya believed her father wasn’t an unreasonable man, strict maybe, but he wasn’t one to make snap decisions like this one.
But she wasn’t in a decent state to think about that and stayed in the fetal position, sobbing.
“I shouldn’t be up. But I have to talk with her.” Anna grumbled to herself while walking through the hallways of the duelist hotel on the housing section of the station. She was barely out of the hospital after being seriously wounded in her last duel. Bandages covered her body, but the more serious wounds had already healed.
Her mother called her… Apparently, the marketing director at Dimcorp had submitted his resignation right after her duel’s conclusion. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going through his head.
Arriving next to the suite numbered 241A, Anna tried the access panel, but the door didn’t budge — Of course it wouldn’t, she wasn’t the designated guest — She thought about trying the doorbell, but Aya had ignored her texts so far.
Anna staggered. She recognized the system the hotel was using for its access control, and knew it was old, but the ethical implications stopped her, furthermore, Dimcorp was a sponsor for the tournament and having the CEO’s daughter breaking into guest rooms wouldn’t look good.
Reluctantly, Anna pressed the ‘request to enter’ option on the door panel, and it opened immediately.
‘What? Did she forget to lock the door?’ Anna thought while peering into Aya’s room. “I’m coming in.” She called out and did so.
The lights were on, but Aya wasn’t in the bedroom and there were clothes thrown around. ‘Her academy uniform?’ Anna said after picking up a yellow skirt while following the trail. She realized the clothes were leading towards the bathroom door and a familiar sound of water running became more prevalent.
She knocked on the door and asked. “Aya, are you in there?”
No response, but the sound of water stopped.
“Aya, I messaged you, but you didn’t respond. I-I heard from my mother that your father tried to resign. Are you alright?”
…
No responce.
“Please, I promise, this is a misunderstanding!” Anna plead, she knew she was the person who Aya least wanted to speak with at the moment, but she didn’t have Yuumi’s number, or any of her colleges, it was probable she was the only one who knew anything was wrong.
This time, the door budged. From inside the bathroom stood an eery looking girl. She was short, with disheveled blond air to her shoulders and tear-stained eyes of different colors, one blue, one black. Cold humidity waved from the bathroom, like the type after a long bath but laking any of the heat.
Anna simply stuttered. “A-Aya?” and looked her over. Obviously Aya was naked, but there were other issues to focus on first.
Aya nudged her head to the side, looking past the taller green-haired girl in front of her, and meekly greeted. “Oh! H-Hi, Anna….”
Anna kept looking over at her former opponent. For someone who had supposedly won, she was looking worse for wear. First, the long scar over her arm was reopening and a thin line of blood drew from above her elbow to her wrist, where the blood pooled and formed occasional droplets which stained the tiled floor of the bathroom and shower.
Finally, she picked herself up and asked keenly. “Aya… Please, tell me what’s wrong. I-I know we haven’t known each other for that long— But… Please, if this has something to do with me, just say it!”
The petite blond girl stammered. “M-M, *Sniffle*. I-I, UUUA!!!!!” then broke down crying, pushing herself onto Anna, hugging her tightly and sticking her face into Anna’s chest.
Anna stumbled, not enough to fall on her butt, but almost. She looked to the side and back to Aya, crying her eyes out on her shirt, not knowing why exactly she was behaving like that or how to react. Eventually, Anna carefully wrapped her arms around Aya, and reassured. “It’s alright, you’re s-safe, it’s going to be okay.” she said what she thought would be appropriate in this situation, but she didn’t know that for a fact.
…..
…..
Five minutes passed, then ten.
Aya had run out of tears a while ago, but she remained latched onto Anna’s chest, sobbing quietly.
In the meantime, Anna had started giving Aya head pats. Her mother used to do that when she cried as a child and while Aya was way older than her at that age, something told her Aya needed them.
Finally Aya looked up. “A-Anna…” and let go of her. A deep red blush developed on her checks and she swiftly moved her hands to cover herself, like she had just remembered that she was, in fact, naked.
Anna giggled and turned her gaze away, letting out a relaxed sigh in a process.
After getting into some comfortable underwear, Aya exited the bathroom and sat down on her queen-sized bed, the wound on her arm still bleeding slightly.
It was then that Anna could observe a large red stain on the shower floor. ‘How long was she here for? That’s a lot of blood… If I hadn’t come here… Would she have bled out…? No way, that’s silly.’ thought Anna.
Just to make sure, she stepped into Aya’s bathroom and opened the medicine closet, taking out a large bandage and gauze nanogel. Finally, she turned back and walked back into the room proper.
Aya was sitting on the edge of her bed, legs pulled up and close to her chest, with her arms around them and her face pressed against her knees.
Anna sat down next to her and told. “Give me your arm. It’s bleeding.”
Holding that arm close to her face, Aya noted. “Oh… It is… I… hadn’t noticed.” and held it out to Anna.
She grabbed Aya’s arm and started applying the gauze. “You’re probably feeling a little lightheaded. That’s a lot of blood you lost there.”
Aya didn’t respond, and just nodded along.
Done with her arm, Anna asked. “So… Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
This question made Aya glance at Anna, then back to the wall. “It’s… It’s my dad…”
The conversation lasted over half the night. Spanning from the phone call with her father to how Anna got here. There was crying, there was laughing, and surprisingly, there was shouting. No one blamed the other for the core issue, but sometimes they jumped to conclusions which led to mix-ups and hurtful arguments.
The conclusion? Aya’s father was a bastard. While Aya couldn’t bring herself to say that, it was obvious she thought about it.
Anna just said what was on her head, sometime leading to those misunderstandings.
In the end, at almost 5 in the morning, Aya went to sleep and Anna decided to join her. It was too late for Anna to walk back to her own suite, and the great queen-sized bed gave them plenty of space to cuddle up and drift off to sleep. Yes, cuddle…