bad enough to take me home

“You’re just starting out, huh?” He asks, eyes on Zeph. “That blade looks real weak.”

“Screw you too, buddy!” Zeph barks, but he hears it as squeaking. The girl and boy sitting chuckle. Saber’s smile twists.

“Weak, huh? There’s this nice saying, though. I really like it. You know what it is?”

Saber opens her palm and Zeph jumps into it. She curls into a ball of red fur and starts growing long, thin. The wind picks up and spirals around the transforming animal, tail becoming a sharp metal point, ears melding to form a handle and nose flattening. Her black eyes stretch to become a black silk ribbon that dangles from the pommel. The blade is crimson like a dying sun, and the size of a long dagger. Saber tightens her fingers around the handle, smiling brighter and motioning for the boy to approach.

“‘Don’t knock it until you try it’.”

“You’re challenging me?” The boy laughs. “Seriously? You don’t have a single Mark!”

“Then this’ll be easy for you,” Saber braces herself. The boy looks back at his friends, who shrug.

“I don’t like picking fights with new kids. But fine. If you want this so bad, then -” He sighs. “Let’s go, Hadon.”

The emerald lizard rises, lumbering over to the boy. He touches its headfin, and the lizard curls up, scales elongating and tail becoming a whip-sharp blade-point. The headfin curves into an intricately-woven handguard, and the eyes of the lizard become two yellow jewels embedded in the handle. The rapier is bright green and translucent like crystal. The boy smirks and raises it higher.

“Still wanna fight, new kid?”

“Fight? No. I just wanna have fun,” Saber says. The boy narrows his eyes and lunges for her, closing the distance. He’s not playing around. His puts all his speed behind the lunges, stabbing at her, the rapier point flashing. It’s made for stabbing. One stab from that and she could kiss her intact body goodbye. But his thrusts are powerful, driven. Focused. Too focused. He doesn’t explore his options, doesn’t stray. She can see his forceful stabs coming, and knows where they’re aimed. She stays light, puts her weight in her toes and keeps moving, swaying, ducking to different sides. Away from him. Seven thrusts, and all of them miss. Saber dances away from the last, puts space between them.

“You –” The boy growls. Saber holds up a finger.

“One sec,” She fishes a hairband out of her pocket, and ties her hair in a ponytail. She’s doing something so casual in the middle of a duel, and it’s a slap in his face. She knows that. He knows that. The girl by the road calls.

“Don’t be so arrogant, kid! Get her now, Aaron!”

Aaron grits his teeth and plunges the rapier into the ground. From the puncture, a fissure grows, splitting the ground with thundersound. Saber jumps to one side, narrowly avoiding the gaping wound.

“Whoa, whoa! Why so much hostility?”

“You’re disrespecting your betters!” Aaron shouts.

“Yeah, you know, me and that respect thing,” She tosses her ponytail. “I don’t understand it all that well.”

Aaron pulls the rapier from the ground until just the tip is in. He flicks it up, and a boulder carves from the ground and levitates. A stab from the rapier sends the boulder hurtling towards Saber. She leans to the side, the boulder missing her by mere inches.

“My turn!” She chirps. The wind generated by the zooming boulder gathers around her crimson blade as a small tornado. She rotates her wrist, and the tornado gets tighter, larger, faster. Aaron dashes in, and she struggles to dodge his furious stabs at her every body part. Just a little more. She keeps her wrist going as she bends back, rapier skimming her cheek. The wind in her blade lathers from a faint whistle to a roar, and she lets it go. The tornado smashes into Aaron’s abdomen, twists his shirt to shreds, spirals his skin painfully, and he goes flying.   

He would get up. He would struggle to his feet from the fifteen-foot fall and keep fighting, but his hand is empty. He can’t feel his blade anymore. Fingers scrabble at the ground, he sits up and frantically searches. It’s over. She separated his blade from his hand.

“Here,” Saber walks up, his blade kept in the air by a tendril of wind. She moves it to hang in front of him. “You okay?”

“H-How?” He stammers. “I have four Marks. I’ve beaten four Blademasters! There’s no way some no-Mark like you –”

“You were surprised I threw a strong wind like that. Confusion and muddled thoughts weaken the bond between Cutter and blade. I poked wind at your hand while you were falling, and the bond severed. A Cutter can topple a stronger one if the stronger underestimates them. Why am I telling you this? You have four Marks. You know this.”

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Here's a good question. 

who the fuck are you to tell me what to do

oh god it is so fun until it gets serious

heaving sighs

because it is so fun until it gets serious

until they want names for what you are to them and what they are to you

because I must be some kind of dysfunctional who only likes cotton candy 

I will never be tamed

and once they realize it's impossible they get frustrated because they thought it was possible, that's the only reason they kept talking to you, doing things with you

because they thought they'd get rewarded 

ahhhh they're so funny aren't they

the people who take this life seriously

so boring

time to grow my hair long and whip idiots in the face with it

gonna get my taregami hair on and write waka poetry and have poetrybattlereadings in my teashop

just let me live
just shut up and let me live until I die

god what

what I wouldn't give to be a ____________.

I wonder what it's like to not be a raging emotionally independent bitch

the argument is, but what about his feelings?
people with feelings are boring, I say, and roll over on my cat 
why do people have feelings I don't understand it
no i do

people get attached

it's so predictable
selfish
shallow


if you really liked someone
really, really liked them,
you'd just want them to be happy even without you



ahhh

these people, 
these people are so.