Deceitful

Theory Bending or not: Poison POV

I open my eyes the moment the sun rises. My eyes are particularly sensitive to light. Especially when I’m sleeping. They’re also very good in the dark. The Headmaster thinks that’s a gift, but who in the frozen hell will ever listen to him? And anyway, if it is a Gift, I don’t like it either. Why? Because it’s damn bloody murder waking up the moment the sun rises every day. I’d like to see you try it.

I sit up in bed and sort of zone out. I barely got six hours of sleep, and even though I don’t have that annoying Gift of the retard’s I know that you’re wondering why a thirteen year old will want so much sleep, and that a “Poisoneer” (murderess to you, maybe) will want seven to eight hours of sleep. But that’s not me. Like in the case of clothing, I differ from all those people who ‘look’ dangerous. I like getting some shut-eye, thank you very much.

I just sit there staring into space till the sun really rises. Classes will be starting today. I can’t say I’m looking forward to them, although I will be able to plan my targets properly in class, where it was mandatory for everyone to attend.

For this year, I have a total of thirteen subjects (I swear the Headmaster is too organized. Last year, when I was twelve, I had twelve subjects).

I look at my watch, and yes, I wear my wristwatch to sleep. Is there a law against it? Even if there were I’d still wear my watch to sleep. It’s exactly 7:24 in the morning, and the sun has just risen properly. Class starts at ten sharp exactly everyday, which gives all the students good time for breakfast. Or at least that’s what the Headmaster says, but I think that it’s for the lazy teachers to do some last minute preparing for classes.

I grab an empty sling bag that’s lying nearby. My room is messy to the extreme (no one moves anything around during the summer break, so you can leave anything and everything here). I can’t find things if it’s neat. I carefully put in some empty vials and some full ones then proceed to pull my notebook out from one of the bigger piles of paper on my table and stuff it in too. Following that I randomly grab things that seem useful for my poison making and throw them in the bag, but leaving a good amount of space for a few books.

The textbooks are paid for beforehand, but you don’t get them until the first class on it. Once my bag is ready, I get out of the room. As usual, the timetable is tacked onto the door on the outside. I lean in to have a look. Oh, great, the first lesson’s Theory Bending.

Theory Bending is a name given by the moronic arsehole of the Headmaster. It just refers to bending our Gifts to suit the circumstance, for example, yesterday; the guy with the barrier was using his Gift to create a handy umbrella. It’s something like that, but the Headmaster has to come up with a stupid name for it. The lesson is boring and taught by a certain Professor Hygeum, who sucks. I’d have used her as one of my first guinea-pigs if there wasn’t a rule invented (once again) by the (moronic) Headmaster threatening that there will be personalized punishments for people who purposefully harm any of the teachers.

I quickly remember what the next few classes were until lunch, then turn to get to the Dining Hall. That is when I remember Ziel.

I think of his face when he realizes that I’m gone and that he’s more or less lost. Probably… distraught.

I smile at the thought and walk briskly toward the Acrylic Block.

My room is on the fifth level of the Zinc Block, and there is a rather… how do I put this… ah, yes, Headmaster-proven safe connector between the Zinc Block and the Acrylic Block on the third floor, made entirely of silk, and mind you, that means a good four hundred meters of silk. The Headmaster was sick of people not daring to use this connector last year some time in April and walked on it himself just to prove it.

The Zinc block corridors are empty. Because of the late starting classes, people here normally tend to sleep in late, those lucky pigs. I walk towards the silken connector, zoning out and quite losing track of things for a while. I seem to do that often, but my feet always carry me the right way, so I’m not bothered.

Next I know, I already found my way to the Dining Hall. I know I’m weird. Except for the few early risers, the Dining Hall is completely empty. In fact, only two people were in the Dining Hall right now, and both are new students, and very obviously twins. I take no notice of them as they take no notice of me. If they’re lucky, they might just live through this year. That is, if they are lucky.

I dump my bag onto my usual orange table by the entrance, and cross the hall to the counter where the twins are ordering food. I note that although they are completely identical, they are of different genders. How… interesting. Don't boys accidentally try to rape the guy instead of the girl?

They don’t move away when I line up behind them. Big surprise; they’re new after all, but maybe the past year inflated my ego or something. I think I’m used to cutting the queue. But then, who cares?

Or at least, that’s what I thought until the female one got her food and said brightly to me, “Good morning,” and cantered off. Seriously, how many retards did the Headmaster admit into the school this year?

Seems like I’ve seen one of my first guinea pigs after that big oaf yesterday.

I plan to be done with him (in other words, I was actually planning to kill the guy, in case you’re a retard too) by the end of breakfast, although it will not be exactly nice to have to deal with two, but I have never cared about the number of witnesses anyway.

I get my food (What else can I do?) and get back to my seat. I’m still trying to decide if I should kill him now or later. Then I decide to base it on my mood, and I really want to enjoy breakfast before testing.

The first few people were starting to trickle into the Dining Hall in twos and threes. No sign of the Headmaster or Ziel. Thank god. I hope that Ziel never manages to find his way here.

But unfortunately, the Lady of Luck never really seems to be on my side. Just as I was finishing up my toast, the two arrived together. Talk about doubling nightmares.

“Ah, Poison! We were just talking about you!” that damn… thing that calls himself Headmaster greeted me with a happy wave and Ziel grinned. Maybe I should get a retardometer.

Ziel dumped his bag on a chair next to mine and sat down while the Headmaster said something about getting something to eat.

“Well? Aren’t you supposed to get your food? Go on,” I snapped at him. I was rather hoping to slip away while he was away, although it will be hard to slip past the Headmaster, but I’ve managed it before.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not about to let you go off on your own again, Poison,”

Crap. I forgot he could read minds.

“…Fine. Starve yourself to death. I don’t care,” He’s going to try to be smart? Let’s see who’s smarter.

He pouts. Ha, of course. What else can he do? Me? I look away.

“No way am I going to fall for that one again, you retard,” I popped the rest of the toast into my mouth, brush the crumbs off my shirt and stand up, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

“Eh?! You’re really leaving?” He wails. I roll my eyes. Of course I’m really leaving, or why the hell would I have my bag over my shoulder? I glance at my watch. It’s way too early for class to start, but it beats being with a retard.

“W-Wait up!” He grabbed his bag and hurried after me as the Headmaster’s bag lay forgotten. I smirked at the thought of his face when he sees the empty table.

“Oi, what class do you have first?” I snap at him after a few turnings.

“Year One Training,” He answered immediately.

“Then you’re supposed to have went the other way from the start,”

“…”

“What? You didn’t ask,”

“Aw! Just show me to where I’m supposed to be! Please!”

I roll my eyes. But then, at least it would get him off my back, but there’s no way I’m going to make a U-turn just to show an idiot the way to a Training Hall.

I stop so suddenly that he nearly bumped into a nearby pillar. As though I care. I look around and see the twins that I had targeted. I had quite forgotten about them. But oh well, they might come in handy now.

“Oi, you,”

The female twin looked around.

“Take him to the Training Hall in the Mercury Block, thank you,” I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at Ziel then stalk off before either can say a thing.

Exactly 8:37 in the morning. I wonder what I should do for the rest of the time I have until lessons start. Then I decide to get to the Lead Block to get some fresh air, although some of the plants amazingly don’t even photosynthesize.

I turn left sharply, thus reaching the wire-made connecter connecting the Mercury Block, which I had just arrived in, and the Lead Block. It looks the sturdiest, but occasionally a few wires will break, scaring the life out of the people who are using it. There are quite a number of people in the corridors now, seeing as the emptiness around me is now clearly visible.

I gingerly step onto the connector. It seemed steady enough. But knowing the mad Headmaster… oh well... There’s nothing I can quite do about it, is there?

0o0o An hour or two later o0o0

I stroll into the classroom five minutes before class starts. As I expect, no one was in class yet. Those people know the time as well as a guinea pig, which to me, they are. I suppose the classical version is that they have as much sense of time as a doorknob, but I don’t care and if you do, too bad. I throw my bag down onto a chair right at the back of the classroom and go to the cupboard where I know all the textbooks are kept. A bell rings before I reach. Still, no one was in the classroom. Even Hygeum, the damn teacher wasn’t here yet.

I eye the stack of books in distaste. The cover page was pink.

“-I’m really rather looking forwards to Control Class. I heard the teacher’s hot…” Ah. The first people were coming into class at last. Sixty-seven seconds after the bell rang. How early. Kindly sense the sarcasm. I snatch a book from the top of the pile and stride back to my seat, seeing the girls jump as I emerge from the cupboard. They obviously did not know I was already in the classroom. I can’t really help but chuckle in my head. How stupid.

Fifteen minutes after class should have started, the classroom was full, and yet, the damn teacher isn’t here yet.

“Settle down, you bunch of unruly hooligans…” A lazy voice was heard in the classroom, right on cue. A teacher at last, but it was by no means Hygeum.

The young man who did not by any means walk into the classroom was tall and his had a strong build, but that was just because I was in his class before. Currently, it was hidden in loose clothing, but his chocolate brown eyes and sharp features was seemingly enough to earn a few loud sighs in the class, evidently from the a few of the newer girls. Now, when I say that he did not walk into the class, I meant that he just appeared in the classroom with no sound whatsoever. I recognised him immediately.

He was by no means the moronic Theory Bending teacher, but Professor Crisis, the Weapons teacher. Well, he at least, has earned some of my respect, with his Gift of Fighting. Normally, it was a fairly useless – no, that is to say- very useless Gift, but then, the damn sympathizing pig of the Headmaster told him that he could take a job in teaching Weapons here in Deceit. I have heard a rumor that he had a second Gift, but so far no one has been able to give me a definite answer.

I raise my eyebrows. Just what in the world is he doing here?

“Hygeum has recently been assaulted by a new student who still does not understand the school rules about no harming of teachers allowed here, and she has been taken for some calming exercises today, so for now, I will be your teacher,” Ah. Sometimes he just says things right at the right time. But then, I never knew that he ever taught Bending of any sort… so…

“Alight. I have an urge to make this session self study, but the Headmaster has specifically said “no self study”, and thus… hm… it’s a free period,”

“…” was the class’s response. I don’t blame them. What the hell was the difference between self study and a free period? Crisis either did not notice the class’ exasperation, or just ignored it.

“Can we throw the duster at you?” Asked one of the new students.

“Sure,” Crisis replied lazily, sitting down onto a comfortable cushioned chair and putting his feet on the table. “Like I said, it’s a free period,”

The class stared while a few like me snorted. Some were just lost for words. This was going to be an interesting lesson for a change… The boy was the first to recover. He put his hand palm up in front of him and the duster zoomed into his hand as Crisis folded his arms behind his head, yawned and closed his eyes.

I make a mental note that the boy’s gift was Summoning.

He threw the duster up into the air once, feeling its weight, then threw it at Crisis. It would have hit, except that that retard of a new kid should have researched on his target before attacking, or at least used his head. His duster just hit the chair and Crisis was next seen leaning on the wall at the back of the class; people should have realized by now, as I just did, but I suppose that the Headmaster once again just got a bunch of idiots to join the school, that Crisis’ was a person, like me and the Headmaster, who had more than one gift. His second Gift, which is now clear, is Teleportation.

As he put his full weight onto his feet again, just behind me, he clapped his hands, much more energetic than he was a few seconds ago.

“You, the one who threw the duster, what’s your name?” He nodded at the new guy.

“Fyethe,” he replied coolly. I make another mental note.

“Right then, Fyethe, I’ve got something to tell you. You throw worse than a girl. You there at the front. Pass me the duster. Thank you, Miss. Now, when you throw you don’t toss,” he tossed the duster into the air, like Fyethe did to feel its weight. “You throw it, as in, it goes in a straight line and not an upward or downward arch, like this,” and the next thing the class saw was the duster falling to Fyethe’s feet and his originally black hair coated in white powder. Crisis nodded as some of the girls in the class applauded.

“Like that,” he repeated as he vanished from the back of the classroom and reappeared again on the armchair.

Fyethe picked the duster from the floor after patting the dust from his hair so that it looked grey instead of black.

“Can I throw it at you again?” he asked.

“Whatever you want… but oh yes, and remember, don’t bother feeling the weight of whatever you’re going to throw at the examiners, because they’re all really fast, and before you catch it again, they’ll be gone…” before he finished his sentence, Fyethe had already thrown it at him, but it once again only hit the chair.

“…like that,” he completed his sentence, now standing right beside Fyethe. “If it were my lesson, I’d give you hell, but seeing as it isn’t… all I can do is tell you that you need serious practicing, but in a more rude way, I can tell you straight out that you suck,”

Fyethe pouted. Why do all the new guys seem to like pouting? I still remember how Ziel’s looked like and it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life, probably, but I could see that Fyethe’s was not on purpose. Don’t ask me how I know it. I know I’m supposed to be bad at emotions, but I just have a gut feeling that it is, okay?

“Eh? I- I mean, er… I’ll coach you! It’s a basic move, but no one gets it right at first!” I swear that all the teachers here are either bisexual, homosexual or asexual, and I would say that initially I had thought Crisis might be the only straight one, but looking at how red his face is and how desperately he was trying to cheer Fyethe up I’d say he was at least bi.

Fyethe gave a short laugh and Crisis grinned, relaxing.

One reason why I liked the back seat was because it was less noticeable, but another was that I could see everyone in class as clearly as my new poison, and from where I was sitting, I saw a few girls looking quite crestfallen. Ha. Maybe that will teach them not to get their hopes up on the male teachers here.

“Right, now that we’ve got that out of the way, who else wants to try?”

There were numerous cries of volunteering, but everyone missed in the end, except for a girl who was wearing what looked slightly like a straitjacket that was left untied, and how she picked the duster up was anyone’s guess. All that the class knew was that one moment, the duster was flying at her, and the next it had landed on Crisis’ head, making a small cloud of dust.

The whole class stared at the girl, but Crisis simply picked up the duster calmly.

“Gift of Time Control? Impressive… I haven’t seen that one since Icarus… that’s one of the examiners by the way, and you seem to need even less time to concentrate than him…” he mused, sounding impressed.

One of the girls that was obviously in love with him raised up her hand.

“Er… Professor Crisis? Erm… you keep mentioning something about examiners, but I thought Deceit High did not have examinations?”

Ah, yes, now I recognize her. She was from last year’s group of people with the Gift of Accuracy; one of the few I didn’t target to use as tests.

Crisis looked mildly surprised.

“You don’t know? Didn’t the Headmaster announce it yesterday after dinner? That cheese head… From this year on, exams will be mandatory for all levels and ages. People have already been chosen to be examiners, and those people are people who have already left Deceit,”

The silence in the class after he said that was so solid I felt like laughing. Crisis cocked his head.

“No need for that kind of look… now then, who else has not tried to throw the duster at me?” he looked around, and spotted none other than me. I think I should warn you beforehand of the enormous use of sarcasm next.

“Why, of course I would like to throw some stupid duster at you for some damn, retarded exercise, Crisis,” I said, looking at my watch. Fifteen minutes left till this class ends at eleven.

“Come on now, Poison, your sarcasm comes out of you like sweat-”

“Correction. I don’t perspire,” I cut across. And it was true. I’m unique in many ways.

“Not the point. Someone pass her the duster,”

I roll my eyes.

“Can I throw my knife?”

The atmosphere in the class grew cold immediately. I knew that my experiment on that arrogant boy yesterday as good as hell did not go unnoticed.

“Whatever you want,” Crisis said, drawing a few stares. I smiled. Time to get to business. I draw one of my poisoned knives from under my jacket and set it fly. It spun in the air a few times before finding home in one of the old guys’ chest.

Screams galore. My smile turns into a grin. Crisis, like he is, just looks around and sighs.

“That was completely off, Poison,” he just says. “You should work on your aim,”

“Sir! Someone’s dying here!”

“It’s completely normal. I’ve never taught a class with Poison in it that no one has died. If I ever encounter a lesson like that, I would try my best to kill Poison as she would probably have been an impostor,” he said, voice still calm and oblivious to the screams of the new girls. The old ones yelled at first, but I suppose they were used to it too, and the boys hardly even batted and eyelid. “Now, the duster. Throw it please,”

I glare at him. My respect I’ve got for him, is not enough to stop me walking out. I pick up my sling bag, arrange my jacket and stalk off towards the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him moving towards my guinea pig.

“He’s dead. That took less than fifty-four seconds,” he called after me.

Already outside the classroom and with my back facing the class, I turn my head enough for the class and Crisis to see half of my face and smile before slamming the door shut.

Then again, he’s familiar with the Poison teacher.

~~Asphodel_Winter~~
Battle between~
Rationality and Surreality~~~~