I stood there.
Antoine had just asked me for a duel in front of everyone, and the crowd behind him was waiting like this was some kind of show. My mouth was dry. I felt my heartbeat getting faster and faster, so loud it felt like it was trying to break out of my chest.
I had no idea how I ended up here. For a week, I felt like I was finally growing into something new, something that felt like a fresh start. And now I was standing here again—exactly like back then, in that school hallway, when they made fun of me in front of everyone. I felt small. Like a tiny thing anyone could step on.
The guy next to Antoine, the blond one from Unit 1, looked me up and down. He had short blond hair, looked around seventeen to twenty-one. His face was narrow, his chin sharp, his skin completely clean. He grinned wide and clapped once, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Bro, haha, look at him. How are you even supposed to duel with this guy?"
A few people in the crowd giggled. Not loud, but enough for me to feel it. Enough to know exactly how they saw me.
Antoine barely moved. His eyes stayed locked on me, like he was waiting for me to say something stupid. He looked at me as if it was obvious I was the one who would fall apart here.
"Let's wrestle," he said.
The blond guy nodded immediately and slapped his hand in agreement. My whole body tightened.
Wrestle? Against him? In front of everyone?
"Uh… I… I don't know… I think… no. I kind of have something else to do."
I tried to smile, but it felt completely wrong. My face muscles trembled. It wasn't a smile—it was something between panic and total overload.
Silence.
So uncomfortable it made my stomach twist.
I turned around. I just wanted to leave. Anywhere, as long as it wasn't here. As long as no more eyes were staring at me. I didn't want to look at Daisuke. Or Rafi. And definitely not at Carmen. I could feel that in their eyes, I was losing everything I had built up over the week. The mask had fallen off.
I didn't know where to go. I just wanted to disappear before tears came. I couldn't be the idiot who cried in front of everyone again.
I pushed myself into the crowd, trying to slip between bodies, as if I could dissolve inside them.
Suddenly, two hands landed heavily on my shoulders.
Before I could react, I was pulled backwards and slammed hard onto the ground. The air shot out of my lungs. For a moment, the crowd sounded like nothing but a distant, muffled noise.
Antoine was kneeling above me.
"Think you can just walk away without a duel?" he asked. His voice was disgustingly calm, almost friendly, but there was nothing friendly in his eyes. He leaned closer. "Come on. Show us what Squad Seven can do."
It hurt.
I tried to get up, trying to twist out of his grip. He let go, almost as if he wanted to show me I could stand up if I wanted… just so he could shove me back down again.
I turned away and tried to run back into the crowd, but he grabbed me by the collar and threw me down again. Harder this time.
In the background, I heard laughter. The others from Squad One slapped each other's hands, like all of this was normal.
My heart was racing. I was on the ground again. Again. Just like back then. I didn't want this anymore. I didn't want to keep ending up in situations like this. No matter how far I tried to go, they always found me. People like him.
I looked up. Antoine stood over me, still as arrogant as before.
And I hated him.
Every feeling from the last years ,every humiliation, every moment where I felt small ,collected in my chest.
Why do I always get the disgusted looks? When people like him are the disgusting ones? Why am I always the one who gets pushed? Why am I always the one they laugh at? Why am I never allowed to live freely?
I stood up. Slowly. Without saying a word.
Antoine and the blond guy grinned. The blond one pointed at me, laughed, and said, "Hey bro, you know it's not illegal to fight back, right?"
I heard a few others laugh at that.
Antoine took a step toward me. "Relax," he said. "He's not gonna do anything anyway. People like him never fight back. They're… broken or something."
I just stood there. My hands hung loose. My eyes felt empty.
He reached for my arm to throw me back onto the ground again. Probably the same technique as before. But this time, his face blurred right in front of my eyes. And in that blurred image, I suddenly didn't see Antoine.
I saw one of them, from back in school.
The voice. The laughter. The look.
My chest tightened. Everything I had pushed down for years forced its way back up. My head pounded. My body tensed. Something inside me snapped.
Before I understood anything, my right hand clenched into a fist — tighter than I had ever done in my life.
And I hit him.
No hesitation. No pause. The punch landed on his cheek, clean and direct. His head snapped to the side. The crowd gasped out loud.
For a second, everything went silent.
Not because it was dramatic, but because no one, absolutely no one, expected that to happen.
Antoine staggered back, holding his cheek, blinking in shock.
The blond guy's face twisted. "Hey! You bastard! We said grappling, no punches!"
Antoine raised his hand. "Wait." His voice dropped suddenly, colder, heavier. He spat blood. "I'm going to kill this motherfucker now."
He walked toward me.
I was full of adrenaline. I didn't even know what I was doing. I just knew I didn't want to hit the ground again. Never again.
He struck first. A fast right hook. I dodged instinctively. I had no idea how.
I punched back, this time hitting his chin.
He stumbled. I stepped forward and rammed him with my shoulder. He fell backward. I jumped after him and landed on top of him.
I punched his face. One blow. Another. And another. I couldn't stop. I was full of rage I had locked away for years.
Blood sprayed. His head turned to the side.
I heard people shouting, but it was like the sound barely reached me.
Suddenly something hit me on the head. Hard. A blow that blurred my vision for a moment. I fell to the side.
It was the blond guy. And then two more from Squad 1. They threw themselves at me. They kicked my back, my stomach, my face. Someone grabbed my arm and pinned it to the ground, another kicked me in the ribs.
My whole body burned. Everything hurt.
And yet I started laughing.
I grinned like a psychopath on the ground.
Because I had finally fought back.
Because I hadn't stayed silent this time.
Because I actually hit him.
Antoine got up slowly. His face was covered in blood and his eyes were full of hate.
"Fuck him," he said. "Fuck this son of a bitch."
They kicked harder. I felt my head hit the ground again.
The crowd hyped them up.
Someone suddenly dropped to the ground in front of me and shoved one of the attackers away.
Nikita. He stood in front of me. Not even a second of hesitation. I remembered: wasn't Nikita also in Squad 1?
"Sorry for being late," Nikita said. "It's hard to be on time anywhere without a watch."
"Get out of the way, Nikita!" one of Squad 1 shouted. "Look what this psycho did to Antoine!"
Nikita didn't move. He just stood there. His posture was calm but firm. Daisuke and Rafi rushed in too, trying to push the others back. I only heard fragments:
"Are you insane, Nikita?"
"First you show up late to training and now you're defending this bastard?"
"Stop playing the hero, that psycho was the one who threw the first punch!"
"I guess we have no choice but to beat you and your psycho friends too!"
The crowd kept screaming. "Hit them! Hit them!"
I stayed on the ground, my body too heavy to get up. My vision blurred. The only thought in my head was:
Shit. I'm the most hated person here now.
Then I heard the voice that cut through everything.
"What the fuck are you all doing?!"
Basha.
She came running in with, I think it was Squad 2. The fighters immediately split the groups apart, dragging people away from each other. Someone from the medical team knelt beside me.
I only saw blurry faces. Daisuke above me. Rafi holding my arm. A woman from the medics checking my pulse.
"Hey, bro… you good?" I heard Daisuke say. "Can you hear us?" Rafi asked.
I tried to nod, but my head felt like stone.
Then I saw Basha. She was talking to the blond guy, her eyes fixed on me. But they weren't calm. They were angry. That idiot must have already twisted the whole story, lied straight to her face ,just like people used to do after school fights, turning everything so that I ended up being the problem.
And then I looked at Antoine. He was being held down by two men. He kept screaming nonstop.
"Stop holding me!" "I'll kill that bastard!" "Let me go!"
I couldn't help it. I grinned. Just like that. Because I knew I had hurt him.
When he saw that, he exploded even more.
"You're laughing?!"
"You think this is funny?!"
"I'll kill you!"
My vision got darker. Heavier. The ground felt like it was pulling me down. My ears started ringing.
I looked at Nikita, Rafi, and Daisuke one last time. Their faces blurred. The shouting turned muffled. The colors faded.
Shit.
Then everything went black.