Riley Ross-Chapter 85: Never Go Full...

"He’s... pissed? But he didn’t look any different than normal."

"...You guys didn’t notice? He’s mad."

Victoria, Bella, and Pauline glanced at one another. Amid the chaos, they hadn’t paid much attention to Riley’s expression—but from what little they remembered, he looked the same as always: quiet, detached, and unreadable. Typical dry Riley Ross.

"He lo—"

"What are you guys doing?! We need to go, now!"

The Baby Crew still hadn’t moved, frozen in place even after being warned they were in the blast radius of another bomb. Their eyes remained locked on the darkened sky, following the silhouettes of Riley and the others as they vanished into the clouds.

But suddenly, even Katherine, who’d been busy ushering younger students onto the bus, froze in her tracks. Something massive was emerging through the haze. A glow, faint at first, bled red across the clouds like veins beneath skin. Like blood, almost... it crept upward, pulsing... slowly.

But soon, the beast from which this bleeding was coming revealed itself.

It was colossal, but perhaps not actually a beast.

It was a ship, a gargantuan ship that covered the sky above them, dwarfing even the thick cloud cover left by the explosion. If not for the faint red glow tracing its outline, they might not have recognized it as a ship at all. Its dark hull absorbed the light, casting a shadow more suffocating than the smoke.

"These guys... are serious," Bella’s eyes widened as the ship started to reflect in her eyes, "...Maybe I should’ve joined too?"

"What?"

Hannah quickly glared at Bella as soon as she heard that, and Bella winced and shrugged before making her way to the bus.

"He’ll... be alright." Victoria gently pressed Hannah’s arm, looking her in the eyes before following Bella. Pauline didn’t say anything, but her nod told everything she needed to say. Pauline didn’t head to the bus just yet and instead waited for Hannah to finish staring at the colossal ship.

And it wasn’t until Katherine called for them again that she finally started to move. But while Pauline stepped on the bus, Hannah went under—literally. She crouched down, even placing her cheek on the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Katherine narrowed her eyes at her. Hannah, however, did not even glance at her.

"I’m just checking if those Dark Millenium fucks put any bomb on the bus," she said while waving her hand, "I’d suggest you ask the others to check under their seats as well—although that would cause panic."

Katherine stared at Hannah’s back for a few seconds before quickly getting on the bus and telling everyone to check their seats—she didn’t care if they would panic; it was more important that they didn’t blow up.

Even the driver started checking around his seat.

"What... what does a bomb look like?!"

"Are we going to die?!"

"Just check for anything that looks like it doesn’t belong anywhere near a bus!"

"What about this?!"

"That’s my calculator."

"Who the fuck brings a calculator on a fieldtrip?!"

"Hey, don’t judge! My normal class is accountancy!"

"You’re doing math as your normal class?!"

"Guys, focus!"

Katherine rolled her eyes as the freshmen were quickly distracted by a single calculator. She was also a freshman once, but she was sure she wasn’t like this at all... or was she?

Class 1-V continued to search the bus, but even after a full minute had passed, none of them really saw any bomb or something that looked like it. Hannah also finally boarded the bus, nodding to the bus driver and Katherine before making her way to Bella and the others at the back.

"Let’s go," Katherine patted the bus driver on the shoulder. She was about to return to her seat, but chose not to do so and walk to the back to sit close to the Baby Crew.

"...I’m sorry about your brother. And yours too, Bella," she whispered, "And I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything."

"...They gon’ bring that lil’ sissy back soon, watch." Bella scoffed.

"It’s... fine," Hannah sighed and shook her head, "There was nothing you could’ve really done. Your power set isn’t really fit to handle hostage situations like that."

"What would you have done if you were me?"

"If I had your powers?"

"...Yes."

"I would have summoned a dense fog to obscure their vision, and then blast us away even if we got hurt, and then create a wall of earth and tried to fry the detonators all at the same time."

"That..."

"And I could’ve probably killed more than half of you," Hannah shook her head, "I told you, there was nothing you could have done—this was already the best outcome, Scarlet Mage."

"...I think the best outcome would be that no one was abducted."

"No. The best outcome is that no one died."

"That—"

"I’m... I’m so sorry, guys..."

And before Katherine and Hannah could continue their conversation, a loud snivel whispered in their ears as Pauline suddenly started crying.

"I... I could’ve stopped them if... if I used my powers. I... all I needed was to get in their minds and I... I was so scared and—"

"Stop it," Hannah sighed, lightly pressing her fist on Pauline’s arm and pushing her softly, "They revealed themselves so easily; this was a show of dominance, and they had our profiles, they would have probably known about your powers and had some sort of protection against it."

"How... old are you again?"

"...Don’t compare yourself to me, Scarlet Mage." Hannah once again shook her head, "I... didn’t have a normal childhood growing up. And you don’t have to worry about Riley either. This isn’t the first time he’s been kidnapped."

"What...?"

"Yes," Hannah shrugged, "We were kidnapped like three years ago or something."

"The... both of you?"

Katherine’s eyes widened, and even the Baby Crew, who were just listening in on the conversation, gasped at Hannah’s reveal. They didn’t even know where they were more stunned; the fact that they were already kidnapped before, or the fact that she was so casual about it.

"Girl, what?! For real?! What the hell happened?"

"They called Dad, hoping to get some ransom. He just laughed and said he already knew where we were, and that we should be able to get out of that situation ourselves. I actually lost three nails there since the kidnappers pulled them out."

"Wait... what the fuck? That’s... fucked up. And here I thought your old man was cool."

"You and Riley... went through that?" Pauline’s eyes widened.

"What happened? How did you escape?" Victoria lightly bit her finger as she imagined everything the siblings went through.

"Riley dislocated his hand to free himself, and then he freed me... and then we just fought our way out of there."

"Hmm. Nah. I feel like you just damn omitted like a hundred details there."

"The only thing you guys should know..." Hannah took in a long and very deep breath before releasing it with a shake of her head,

"...Is that you do not want to see my brother pissed off. He goes full... well, autistic. Those Dark Millennium fucks don’t know what they just brought into their ship."

***

"Make yourselves at home... you’ll be here for a long time."

In the giant ship of the Dark Millennium, the students who were abducted were all gathered in a single area; a large hall with absolutely nothing in it but them—no. It wasn’t actually empty; there were almost a hundred cameras hanging on the ceiling and the walls, watching them.

And when the last member of the Dark Millennium stepped out of the hall, the only ones who were left there were them, the students.

Some were already crying, while some were trying to punch through the walls, but to no avail. The only thing they were doing was making noise.

"She’s still breathing."

Tomoe was checking in on Gracey, but aside from the fact that she was completely knocked out and not responding at all, she seemed to be alive. Riley, however, didn’t seem to care at all as he started walking around the hall.

Tomoe glanced at Gracey one final time, checking her pulse before following behind Riley.

"How many cameras are there, Tomoe?" He asked, and she instantly answered.

"Forty-three, there could be more hidden... and there’s also a high chance that someone’s still disguising themselves as one of us. It... would be best to stay cautious."

"What do you think they will do if our schoolmates start dying one by one, Tomoe?"

"...Why?"

"They would probably be mad, correct?" Riley placed his hands on his back and sighed, "We spent fifty-five minutes gathering and cleaning all the trash next to the Phoenix’s Wrath, Tomoe."

"Yes...?"

"They wasted our time," Riley glanced back and looked at her shoulder, "I believe an equivalent prince should be paid for that—if everyone dies here, then that would mean they have also wasted their time and effort in gathering them, Tomoe."

"I... don’t believe that’s equal at all," Tomoe’s robotic voice started to show signs of hesitation, "What are you trying to say?"

"I am saying that we should kill everyone here, Tomoe."

"But they haven’t done anything."

"I fail to see how that is relevant, Tomoe."

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