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wargreyfics · 6 years

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Maths, My One True Weakness (Part 2)

SUMMARY:

Naomi meets up with Asa at the public library, as promised. He tutors her as he is supposed to, but she discovered more things about him as their afternoon go on.

The library wasn’t a place she frequently visits. In fact, she had zero memory as to when she came to the town’s public library the last time. She doesn’t hate reading, it’s just that the books she reads are those she has really strong interest in.

A soft creak announced her presence to the middle-aged lady sitting behind the counter. She greeted her with a warm smile, which Naomi greeted back with a slightly more awkward smile, before she returned her attention to the computer. That left Naomi free to roam around the place to find her tutor.

She found him sitting at one of the tables next to the aisle that says ‘Fiction: G-H’, reading a big, thick book that easily splayed open without his fingers needing to press the pages apart. A large pair of black headphones hugged his head, over his ears. She was amused at the thought that he still found this place not quiet enough that he had to bring such large headphones. He probably couldn’t hear her coming, so when she stood next to him, she gently placed her bag near him. The shudder from the impact her bag made with the table alerted the half-blind young man.

“Oh, hey, you’re here,” he said, hastily turning off his music and taking off his headphones. Something that looked like a smaller earphone tumbled off from his right ear, and noticing he dropped it, he caught it in his hand before placing it in the breast pocket of his shirt.

“Why are you wearing an earphone inside a headphone?” Naomi asked, sitting next to him.

“It’s my aid,” Asa replied quickly. His face slightly red, flustered from how awkward and stupid he was for hurrying. He realized he didn’t need to be such in a hurry.

“Aid?”

“Yeah, my hearing aid. I’m deaf—well, only on this side…” he explained, one finger made a circling motion in front of his right ear.

“Oh… Sorry…”

“Nah, no, it’s fine. It’s not like it’s obvious that I’m half-deaf, not as obvious as my being half-blind.”

“Then...why aren’t you wearing it right now?” She pointed at his breast pocket where he dropped the hearing aid into.

“Don’t need it. The library’s quiet, I can hear you just fine.” His eye darted to her bag, trying to steer the conversation away from his handicaps. “So? Which one do you have problems with?” he asked.

“Everything!” Naomi replied with a gusto, taking all of her textbook and notes. “I’m sorry, but please start from the beginning of this term.”

Asa gulped; not because he was afraid of having to explain half a term’s worth of math equations, but he basically gulped for her sake. “You do realize we have only about two weeks before midterms, right? You sure you want me to cram that much in this little amount of time?”

Naomi pouted, acknowledging that he was right. She had thought about this and it scared her. “W-well...let’s just...start with the first half of the first chapter, then see if I can handle them or not.”

“Fair enough. Alright, let’s not waste anymore time.”

Asa was quick to turn into tutor mode, and he was quite the stern tutor at that, too. Whenever Naomi lost focus and started going off on a tangent, Asa tapped her on her arm with the back of his hand, accompanied with a sharp, “Focus,” jabbed at her. It happened several times during their first two hours of tutoring; Naomi was obviously trying to make the suffering much more bearable, but when she tried to do so, Asa noticed, she really attempted to steer every attention away from maths. Asa’s main struggle was to keep her listening to him.

Naomi still hated maths, and despite her multiple attempts to escape from her tutoring, she found herself somewhat understanding the formulae she never understood before. Granted, Asa had to speak to her as if he was speaking to an elementary student, because the fancy math terms escaped her. He used Naomi’s strong tendency to make fun rhymes to her advantage, which works awesomely with trigonometry. And three long, arduous hours later, the older of the two decided to end the tutoring session, much to Naomi’s relief.

She stretched her arms up, groaning with relief. “Oh my goooooood! My head is gonna explode!”

“You’re fine. We managed to cover through our goal, didn’t we? You can go home now, eat...ice cream, I dunno. Whatever you like.”

“I like ice cream.” She packed her books and notes back into her bag, while Asa grabbed the large book she found him reading in the beginning of the day. She watched him rummage into his bag and pulled out a bookmark with a picture of some character from a game that was currently quite a hot discussion topic, typically among the boys. She kept hearing how said game made them frustrated, but at the same time excited. He slipped the themed bookmark about a fifth through the thick book. He had read that much since his arrival to the library and their meeting?

“Not only are you apparently pretty shy, but a straight-A student, a bookworm, and a gamer, too? You’re actually a pretty big nerd, aren’t ya?” Naomi teased with a big wide grin plastered on her heart-shaped face. Her remark earned her a blush and stammers from the eleventh grader.

“Y-yeah? So what if I’m a nerd?” he retorted, trying to remain stalwart.

Naomi giggled. “Nothing. It’s just really interesting that everything is packed in such a tall package of muscles and rage. You honestly strike more as the typical jock type. Hold on...don’t tell me you play football too?”

Asa sighed and walked to the counter. There, Naomi learned that Asa and the librarian seemed to be very familiar with each other, judging by their small talk. A small talk which he cut off to talk to her. “I can play football, but not part of the club. I’m not in any clubs at school, actually.” He paused and thought about his next words. He wanted to decide against it, but he ended up telling her anyway. What harm could there be? “I do go to the gym and take wrestling three days a week, though…”

“Ha! That still counts as a jock thing!” Naomi laughed as they exited the library. “You must be popular, huh?”

“I dunno. You don’t seem to know me, otherwise you wouldn’t be talking to me. Your friends, though, oh I know they know who I am. They don’t want you to talk to me.” Asa grimaced; he acted like he didn’t care but he paid close attention to Esh-baal and Eve’s body language, how they just succumbed to Naomi’s genuine wishes to present him with her homemade lunch. He could tell at least one of them was ready to pick up a fight with him should he harm this tiny blond girl. A lot of the students wanted to fight him, not just the bullies.

“Oh, they’re always in with the gossips and stuff. I don’t. I’m happy with cooking shows and DIY videos.” She lightly skipped in her steps, contrasting the way Asa took giant heavy strides that made him appear to walk fast. “I must say, I almost think you’d join Kazuo and his guys to gang up on me back then… Glad that wasn’t the case!”

“Who—oh. That prick. Ehh, I’ve had a lot of beef with that kid for a long time. Picked on Glovar when he first entered the swimming club, but my bro defended himself. You just...happened to be his victim at the time, that gave me an excuse to dish some payback. Feels real good.”

“Well, I’m glad my being harrassed turned to be beneficial. Also, it made a positive first impression of you for me!”

Asa raised an eyebrow—well, his only visible eyebrow—at the shorter girl. “Really? You’re not scared, after how I threatened a junior off a window that one time?”

“Now that I know what a big nerd you are, no! Besides, you were saving your brother, weren’t you?” she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side, a smile sitting on her face. “You’ve been nothing but a pretty nice jock-nerd combo to me this whole time.”

The tall young man shifted his mouth and ground his teeth together to hold back a big bright blush. “Okay, enough with the labels.” His eyes looked up momentarily as they arrived at a crossroads and stopped to turn to her. “Which way’s your house?”

“There,” she pointed straight ahead, “at Clementine Road. Where’s yours?”

“Same way, but two blocks further at Cherimoya. But I’m meeting up with my sister this way,” he said, pointing to the road to his left.

She giggled, knowing they didn’t live too far apart. “Nice. Still in the ‘Fruity District’,” she giggled again, this time at her own nickname for the area of their houses. The roads were, indeed, named after fruits. But then her brain tuned in to another piece of his sentence. It made her freeze for a moment. “Wait wait wait… Sister? I never—”

“You know her,” he cut her off, “she goes to the same school as us.”

“What grade? Is she younger? Older?”

“Not a student.”

“A teacher?! Which one? Tell me!” She hopped towards him, standing as close as possible in front of him, eager to know.

“I’ll give you a clue: she teaches English.”

It wasn’t much of a riddle; she gasped with the answer somewhat choked up behind her voice. “Miss Cayaditto?! She’s your sister? But your last names...oh, wait, she must be married.”

The way she reacted to the revelation amused him, Asa had a good chuckle out of it. “No, not married. Not yet. But, yeah, she’s my sister. Okay, technically not, but we used to grow up in the same house before she moved out with her boyfriend. Uh, long story. I’d tell you when I’m not in such a hurry.” His feet moved towards the road that lead him to his sister, while Naomi to her house.

Naomi understandingly nodded and headed towards her home. “No problem. See ya!” She started walking, but turned around before both of them departed too far. “Wait! Asa!” she hollered. She made sure to holler as loud as she sanely could, remembering that he was half-deaf. Luckily, not many cars were around at the moment. “Can I eat lunch with you again?”

Asa didn’t answer immediately. His eye was searching for an answer on a blank sidewalk tile, his lips pursed. Soon, his hand cupped his chin. He glanced quickly at her, only to find her eagerly waiting for an answer—which she expected to be ‘yes’ judging by how hopeful she looked. He thought Grimoaldo had given her the warning, he thought Esh-baal and Eve had warned her. Either they actually failed to do so, or this girl just had the determination the size of a kaiju. He sighed through his nostrils. “Yeah, only if you promise to focus when we meet again tomorrow. And, uh, if your math grade doesn’t improve the next pop quiz, no more VIP rooftop lunch for you. Copy that?”

Her eyes and face beamed. She striked a saluting pose with a gusto. “Sir, yes, sir!” she exclaimed, followed by a series of giggles. Asa returned her salute out of amusement, though his gesture had less oomph in it. They saw each other off for the second time, and for real.

Asa thought back of his decision; worrying if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He was mainly influenced by what she said; after purposefully building an intimidating image throughout his school years, it felt pleasing to find someone who saw past that, and he clung to the sentiment. Maybe he shouldn’t have, but for once, he wanted to go against his harder, colder instincts.

#writing #aruni writes #amwriting #ya literature #yalit #original characters #asa shirmi #naomi summers #ocs #domestic verse

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susumus-spook-zone · 6 years

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Damn It Azamir: The Movie- Act 6, Scene 5: The Shout In The Dark

So this was it.

Eight districts, eight bosses. It had been a long and difficult journey, but now it was finally at its end. Susumu made her way down the main street of New Lumos, where Azamir and Reina were waiting at the end.

“We’re here, Azamir,” Susumu said. “You said Reina had something she wanted to say?”

Reina was standing behind Azamir, looking very forlorn. She stepped out, and looked around. “Go on then, Reina,” Azamir said. “What did you need to tell us?”

Reina turned to face Azamir. “Azamir… I… Want to thank you,” she began. “And, Susumu… Thank you too. If it wasn’t for the both of you, and Martcha… I wouldn’t have become what I am today.”

Susumu seemed confused. “Reina, what do you…?”

Reina turned around to continue. “Well… How shall I say this? When Martcha tried to purify that shadow… It actually worked. Well, sort of. A small speck of light began to form inside the shadow. It ignored it, thinking the light would fade out soon. But it didn’t. The light only grew, until eventually… The light completely overtook the shadow, and… I was free.”

“Free…?” Azamir asked. “Reina… Does that mean you…?"

Reina nodded. "Once I was free from the darkness, I… Started to change. Into… Well, the form you see now. But something was wrong. As soon as I was free, I felt no emotion. At all. I left Neksdor, thinking there was something wrong with me. Thinking I would never be a normal person, until… I ran into someone in the desert who needed help. I didn’t know what I could do, but I helped them get to the town, to find someone who did. And that’s when it happened. When I started to feel something. It was small at first, but… The more people I helped, the more I started to feel, until… Until I became REAL. That was when I knew what to do. To make up for what I did… I went to find Azamir. I wanted to help him rebuild his life, and maybe build one of my own.”

It took Azamir a minute to realize what Reina was saying, but when he did his eyes opened for a split second. “Reina… That shadow… Was you? And you came back here because you wanted to help me?” He was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. This little girl who looked up to him so much…

She looked back up at him, with tears starting to fill her eyes. “I know, I don’t expect you to forgive me, especially after I possessed both you and Martcha,” she said. “But… I just… Want to thank you. For… Not just destroying me when you had the chance. For giving me another chance to make things right again.”

“Reina…” Azamir wasn’t sure how to react to this. He’d never heard of anything like this before. A spirit becoming a person was strange enough, but she actually wanted to make up for everything? Without another word, he picked her up and gave her a hug. “Reina. It’s true that you did a lot of bad things before, but… You truly did want to change, didn’t you? Look at you now. You’ve changed so much since then, and… I’m so glad you did.”

“Azamir… Thank you,” Reina said. “I’m going to start doing a lot better from now on, I promise. I… I’m gonna make you proud!”

“…Hey, yeah!” Sachio suddenly remembered something. “Azamir, didn’t you say Reina had something to show us?”

“Oh yes, that’s right!” Azamir put Reina back down. “Reina, why don’t you show them what you can do now?”

Reina nodded, then turned to Susumu. “Susumu, remember how I said I had a place I could show you?” she asked. “Well… You’ve cleared out all the boss monsters in New Lumos, right? Well, now that we’re all here, it’s time to show you what I can really do!”

Reina closed her eyes, and held her arms out in front of her. “Ancient tower, I call upon you. Rise from the darkness, and show these travelers the way!” She then opened her eyes, and raised her arms above her head. When she opened her eyes, however, they seemed to be completely black, save for a thin purple iris glowing between the dark patches. There was a loud rumbling nearby, and a tower began to rise from the ground, right before the group’s eyes.

Once the tower had finished rising, Reina’s eyes returned to normal. “This is the Tower of Dread,” she explained. “In that tower… You will find the most fearsome and powerful monsters in all of New Lumos. I wish you all the best of luck.”

Azamir then turned back to Reina. “Now then, Reina…” he began. “You’re going to be a wondeful banana merchant someday. But only if we get back to your training.”

“Right!” Reina declared. “It’s only Day 17 of my training, after all! See you all later!” And with that, the two disappeared into the city.

“The Tower of Dread…” Susumu mumbled. Boy, this place sure did live up to its name. “Dread” was the only way Susumu could describe how she was feeling, and she hadn’t even stepped inside yet.

Raya’s tail was wagging furiously. “There’s gotta be something cool at the top!” he declared. “Come on, let’s go in!”

“Well, let’s get going then.” Raya rolled through the doorway of the tower, followed by his fellow dog Vinny. Susumu and Konade, however, hung back, as Susumu stared at the tower, shaking slightly. “Susumu, it’s going to be okay,” Konade tried to comfort her. “We’ve fought a lot tougher, haven’t we? If we can beat the Ultra Dark Lord… We can beat anything we’ll find in here.”

Susumu sighed. “You know… You’re right, Konade,” she replied with a smile. “We shouldn’t have any trouble in here, right? Anyway, we should go help Raya and Vinny before they get mowed down.”

Once the girls stepped inside the tower, they saw that Raya and Vinny were already fighting some sort of minotaur. “Hey, that looks like the minotaur we fought in the first district,” Susumu pointed out.

“And it’s a lot stronger too!” Raya stated, firing a cannon shot at the minotaur. “You girls keep an eye out!”

And then Susumu got an idea. She remembered that Junpei had given her something to try out once she went back to New Lumos. Reaching into her back, she produced a small bottle of purple flakes. “Hey, guys!” she called to the others. “Let’s all try some of this! Junpei gave these to me before we left. He called them ‘hype sprinkles’. I wonder what they do.”

The party took a few flakes into their hands, and sprinkled some into their mouths. It took a minute for anything to happen, but… Susumu slowly felt herself getting more energy. “I-Is anyone else starting to feel-”

“HOOO-WAH!” Raya suddenly charged at the minotaur, swinging his cannon with full force. “COME ON, EVERYONE!! LET’S TAKE THIS THING DOWN!!”

Susumu swung her microphone wildly, Konade was flinging petals everywhere, and Vinny slammed the minotaur with his frying pan several times. The minotaur wasn’t done with them, however. It raised its hammer and smashed it into Susumu.

…But she didn’t feel any pain! It was weird, very weird, but the strike didn’t hurt her at all! She was able to continue swinging, and eventually, the party took the minotaur down.

“We… Did it!” Susumu gasped. Her hype sprinkles were starting to wear off, and her entire body was beginning to feel sore. “Now the next floor is…”

The group slumped onto the ground, and Susumu pulled the bottle of hype sprinkles out of her bag again. They ate a bit more, and continued up to the next floor.

The next few floors were a breeze for the group, thanks to the hype sprinkles. They fought a computer head who could summon robots, a couple of frogs like they fought in the Realm Of The Fey, and even a dragon on the fourth floor! But as time went on, hype sprinkles began to run out, and the group’s injuries were beginning to catch up with them.

On the fifth floor, however, things were beginning to turn around. The group trudged up the stairs, bruised, bleeding in some places, and feeling VERY exhausted. The boss of this floor was a Cerberus as well. What Susumu didn’t know was that this would be difficult.

Susumu reached back into her bag for another dash of hype sprinkles, but something was wrong. “T-the jar…” She groaned. “It’s…” The group had ended up using all their hype sprinkles, and had completely emptied the jar already. How were they going to win now?

They weren’t.

Before the group could even do anything, the Cerberus snapped at Susumu, flung a fireball at Konade, and tried to freeze the entire group with ice breath. This thing was fast, and it had every intention of wiping them out.

“W-what do we do now…?” Raya asked. “We’re… Gonna die like this…”

“No… No, we’re not…” Konade picked up Vinny, took Susumu’s hand, and carried them towards the stairs. “Come on. We’re getting out…”

Fortunately for Raya, his armor allowed him to roll away with ease. They managed to escape back to the fourth floor, and the cerberus was unable to fit through the door follow them. With the cerberus barking at snapping at the stairwell, the group collapsed in the center of the floor to rest. “We… Made it…”

They weren’t completely home yet, but once they were strong enough to walk again they could go back to the inn. Maybe they would return to the Tower of Dread another day.

But not for now…

#damn it azamir: the movie #the story so far...(diatm)#FINAL PART EVERYONE

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