"Die." Emmanuel said and jumped at Desmond who forgot all about his injuries and held the girl, before jumping off the hospital bed. Emmanuel landed on the bed, surprisingly not breaking it. Desmond put the girl down as Emmanuel jumped towards him again. This time with a katana in his hand. A katana appeared in Desmond's hands aw well which he used to block Emmanuel's attack.
"How dare you touch my sister?"
"But I didn't even do anything bad to her."
"Shut up, you pervert." They were like that for a while with Emmanuel pressing his katana forward and Desmond using his katana to push Emmanuel's katana back. Emily got angry and moved between them, pushing Emmanuel back.
"That's enough big brother."
"B- but Emily-"
"Don't but, but, me! Is that how you thank someone who risked his life to save your sister?" The question struck a cord in Emmanuel's mind
"Not to mention it's your fault I got strangled up in that mess." The girl- Emily- added, which sent ripples of shock rushing into his mind.
"Ga... gar-" Emmanuel was technically frozen at this point.
FLASHBACK
Earlier in the night Desmond rescued Emily, She was sitting at a table under a tent talking to a boy of her age.
Emmanuel exited a shop which was closer to the tent and started walking towards Emily, but immediately noticed the other boy and froze. His mind went blank instantly.
"Yeah, I've heard of him." Emily said with a nod.
"What was his name again? Ummm-"
"Maxwell. His name's Maxwell. He's one of the staff members. I heard his ability was cool and was one of top five strongest among the staff at the academy."
The boy grinned and clenched his fists.
"I wanna be-" A hand came slamming on the table before he could finish his sentence scaring the heck out of both the boy and Emily.
"Oh, big brother. It's just you. What did you do that for."
"Hey kid." Emmanuel wasn't even listening to his sister. His attention was on the boy.
"Don't think of flirting with my sister anymore." Emmanuel said, shooting an ominous glare at the boy who started sweating buckets.
"If you don't want to die, that is." The boy screamed and jumped out of his seat, immediately taking to his heels. Emmanuel looked on with a satisfied and proud smirk.
"Wait. Don't go." Emily called out to the boy but the boy galloped into a nearby shop. Emily turned to Emmanuel with an annoyed expression.
"Big brother you jerk." Emily jumped from her seat and kicked Emmanuel in the stomach. He gasped and went down on his clutching his stomach, slowly turning his head to Emily with a pained expression
"What did do that for?" He asked Emily who was fuming.
"I could ask you the same question. You deserve more than that." She said and gripped the hem of her skirt firmly.
"Why do you always keep doing stuff like that?" Tears started swelling up in her eyes.
"How am I ever gonna get married like this?" The tears in her eyes started flowing down her face, sparkling with different colors from the many colorful lights surrounding them.
"You... dummy. I hate you." She shouted and ran off.
"E... mi... ly." Emmanuel struggled to get up due to the pain he was feeling in his stomach thanks to his sister.
"W- wait." He added and went after his sister. "Come back here!" But his sister was long gone.
Emily ran to a deserted part of the street into an alley, crying uncontrollably. She ran to the far end of the alley and went down on her knees covering her face with her hands and sobbing softly, emotions swelling up in her heart, threatening to burst.
But then, she heard a light thud behind her and got startled. She slowly turned her head to the side to take a glance at what it was and widened her eyes...
END OF FLASHBACK
"You're such a terrible brother, Emmanuel." Desmond added only to worsen his state of shock. "It's fine if you want to protect your sister but you take things too far. What are you, some sister-complex psycho?"
"Humph." Emily groaned and walked over to Desmond, holding his hand.
"E... mi... ly." Emmanuel stammered, the shock reaching a boiling point.
Emily led Desmond to the bed and made him lie down. Emmanuel was looking at them the whole time with anger evident in his eyes but couldn't do anything. He didn't want to make his dearest Emily mad at him.
Emily walked over to the door after making Desmond lie down.
"Don't try anything funny while I'm gone." She said to her brother before walking out.
"Tch." Emmanuel took a chair beside the bed and sent it to the wall away from Desmond and sat on it with his arms crossed and an irritated expression on his face.
A nurse opened the door and peeked through.
"Is everything alright? I heard a commotion so I thought I'd check to see what was going on."
"Oh it's nothing serious." Desmond answered scratching the back of his head nervously. "Really, it's nothing serious."
"Ookay." The nurse said not sounding too convinced and left.
Emily came back in a minute after with a lunch bag in her hand. She walked over to Desmond and sat on a chair beside him.
"My mom made you this to thank you for saving me."
"Really? You shouldn't ha..." He paused when a heavenly smell hit him.
Emily took out three bowls. One containing rice stuffed with pieces of meat. Another one containing noodle soup and the last one containing different varieties of pieces of seafoods fried with vegetables.
"It looks so good." Desmond thought as
Emily took out chopsticks.
"Here." Emily said and scooped some rice. "I'll feed you." She said.
"Umm, you don't have to I can feed myself. My hands are perfectly..." He trailed off as it seemed like Emily was about to burst into tears.
"But if you insist." He said and ate it. Emily brightened up. "Mm, It's so good."
Emily was happy to hear that. "Really? I helped out too."
"Seriously? You're so good at cooking huh? I'm sure your future husband will be so lucky." He said as they both laughed.
"By the way, I didn't notice that Emmanuel was your brother. I mean, you both have red hair and..... You do look alike."
"Yeah. Emy and I took after our grandfather."
"Emy?" Desmond repeated and looked over at Emmanuel who froze from embarrassment.
"You mean him?" Desmond pointed at Emmanuel and Emily nodded in response. Desmond had to cover his mouth to prevent laughing out loud.
"Are you... Are you okay?" Emily asked Desmond, tilting her head to the left. "You're acting kind of funny."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Desmond replied with a chuckle and forced the laughter away.
Emmanuel who was watching the whole thing looked more irritated. And the fact that Desmond mentioned "your future husband" pissed him off even more. Yet he couldn't do anything about it. Emmanuel got more and more pissed watching as Emily fed Desmond and they kept chatting.
"I see you two are having a good time." He finally managed to speak up through his annoyance.
"Yeah." Emily nodded at him with a big smile. Seeing her smile like that cooled Emmanuel down a bit and even a small smile even graced his lips.
"He's a really good person." She added. "Since eating delicious foods makes him happy and he complimented me that I can cook, I'll marry him when I grow up so I can cook lots of delicious foods for him." Emmanuel almost exploded hearing her. He felt like squeezing the life out of Desmond.
"Oh really?" Desmond felt awkward but was delighted to hear it from her. Although he knew it was never going to happen.
Besides, she was just a kid and didn't know what she was talking about. She'd fall for someone else before she'd even realise it. "I'll be waiting then." Desmond said and patted the girl on her head, making her smile widen. Emmanuel on the other hand got more angry and started hitting his head against the wall.
"What are you doing big brother, are you crazy?" Emmanuel didn't answer and did it until he was bleeding.
Emily packed up everything into the basket and went to her brother.
"Stop it you idiot." She said and grabbed his hand which he didn't resist. As a matter of fact, he wanted to get his sister out of there.
"I'll be going Des. I have to let them check on brother before we leave. I hope we meet again soon."
"Yeah." Desmond said and waved at them before they left.
For the rest of the morning Desmond just laid there until till his parents came to pick him up.
"You can come for the papers next week." The doctor told him before they left in his father's car. The doctor adjusted his glasses watching as they drove away with a smirk.
"Now that's an interesting fellow we have there."
Desmond started training immediately after he fully recovered. There wasn't much to begin with so for the first few days, he focused on learning how to control his power.
In a plane with grasses, Desmond sat with his legs crossed and his eyes closed, in a form of meditation. He didn't seem to be paying attention to his surrounding and was lost deep in his meditation. But his brows suddenly twitched and he gritted his teeth. A bird from nowhere landed on head, which made him growl from irritation, scaring the heck out the bird and sending it flying away.
"I..." Desmond buried his face in his hands. "I'm never gonna make it. I'm so pathetic." He sulked, feeling gloom and frustrated at the fact that he couldn't grasp a simple concept: feeling the flow of energy through one's body.
Emmanuel had already given him some clues to the concept but he was having a pretty hard time. He sighed and laid down on his back on the ground.
"What should I do now?" He thought to himself, looking up at the sky. He lifted one hand hand as if trying to touch the sky. "How am I ever gonna fulfill my promise like this?" He added with a frown.
"No!" He said, going back to sitting with his legs crossed. "I have to try harder." He closed his eyes and straightened up.
"Take a deep breath." He thought and inhaled. "Breathe out." He exhaled. "Breathe in." He inhaled. "Breathe out." He exhaled.
"Locate the onyx. The source of your energy." A small, blue glow brightened in the middle of his chest. "Become one with it." The glowing got bigger and brighter. "Let the energy flow through you like your blood. No..." The energy from the glow started flowing through his veins. "Let it become one with your blood."
As the energy ran through him, lightning started sparkling around him.
"Let it flow intensely, limitless, laced with purpose." The glowing got brighter, followed by the increase in the lightning sparkles.
"More. More." The lightning started flashing around him intensely and released into one powerful, blinding light. Desmond dropped to the ground after the light died down, breathing heavily with a grin.
Emmanuel laid on the ground in his room, breathing heavily with only a pair of tracksuit pants on. No shirts. He heard his phone ring on his bed and got up to take it. He looked at the number on the screen but didn't remember it.
"Who's this?" He thought, looking at the screen. "I don't remember giving my number to anyone recently. Who could it be?" He added before answering the call.
"Hello... Ah! Desmond...! How'd you get my number?" Emmanuel asked over the phone.
"Umm, Emily gave it to me before... you guys left me at the hospital." Desmond answered from the other side, also in his room.
"I see. So... is there anything I can help you with?"
"I ahh... was wondering if we could meet up and train together after school hours. I could use a punching bag."
"Really?" Emmanuel asked, brimming with excitement. "Of course. Why not? At least I get to fight my rival."
"You're in?" Desmond asked also brimming with excitement from his end. "Alright. You won't regret this."
"So where do you want us to meet up?" Emmanuel asked which only made Desmond grin.
In an expanse area in a forest, Desmond and Emmanuel stood, facing each other, a few meters away from each other, both in their junior high school uniforms.
"You ready?" Emmanuel asked with a wide grin, cracking his knuckles.
"Ready, when you are." Desmond answered, also with a wide grin taking off his shirt as lightning started flashing around his body.
Emmanuel also took off his shirt.
"Okay then." He said as flames lit up in his palms. "Let's grind."
At that, they both lashed out at each other...