Anima

by Jae Choguk

long practice now.

  As I suspected, I got thrown down on my ass more times than I could count. I felt like everything I had learned was worthless by the sheer force of me hitting the ground. If the bruise from yesterday was bad, today was going to be 10 times worse. Finally, I snapped.

  “What the hell is this?” I yelled after being slammed to the ground with extra vigor. “Is this revenge for having to train me? Why do I have to be your stress reliever? If you don’t want to train me then don’t! I’m sure they can find someone else or better yet nobody at all!”

  “You think you could learn how to stop a hunter by teaching yourself, who has never even encountered a hunter before?” He said with a cold sneer.

  “I already have!” I said defensively.

  “And if you remember the outcome of that, you were shot, and almost died.” He lifted an eyebrow, asking me to challenge it. I grit my teeth and ran at him in a flash of hot anger.

  “Too slow.” He said before I even tried to hit him. Every swing I took, he dodged just as effortlessly. I now knew what he was trying to do and I felt stupid for falling right into it. Good thing was that I could still pretend I was angry with him.

  “Is that all?” He taunted as I feigned to the left, then did a right uppercut. He was mildly surprised, but that was all I needed. I shoved my shoulder into his stomach, knocking him backwards. I jumped instantly with a roundhouse kick to his shoulder, then as I suspected he reached for his shoulder where I hit him. I smiled and swung my leg around again knocking him to his knees. Then I went for the kill; I rushed forward about to knock him onto his back, but he’s my rival for a reason. As soon as I was about to ram him down with my shoulder he grabbed my shoulders and pinned me.

  “Damn…” I muttered knowing I lost this one, not that I had too much hope of winning in the first place.

  “Better.” Was all he said grabbing my arm and pulling me up.

  “Not good enough.”

  “Do you want it to compare to before?” He asked lifting an eyebrow.

  “Actually, yes since you were going harder on me before.” I said sticking my tongue out.

  “I’m not going easy on you if that’s what you’re trying to say.” He said once again not knowing how to take a joke.

  “Fine, if you want to get serious. Then tell me why you didn’t go all out on my assessment.” I crossed my arms for emphasis that I planned on getting an answer.

  “You think you would’ve won if I hadn’t?” asked Jeremy running a hand through his shiny black hair, sticking up from the sweat.

  “Well, that is-” I fell silent realizing I was really mad that I didn’t pass the same way as everyone else.

  “Exactly, unless you can prove it now, then be my guest.” He spread his arms wide. I wanted to take the invitation; I even took a step forward, but realized I wouldn’t be able to win anyways. I glared at him instead. “See it now?”

  “Just wait,” I said fire in my eyes once again, “If anyone thought I was training hard before, they haven’t seen anything yet.” And with that I turned around grabbing my gym bag, and water bottle pouring it over my head and back. It was raining outside, which felt even better.

  “For a cat, you sure do love water.” Someone commented from behind me. I turned around and saw Lucas with an umbrella.

  “Yeah, I’m a freak, but then again so are you and everyone else here.” I remarked with a smirk.

  “Touché, but we tend to act more the animals we are.” He said trying to be witty. I lifted an eyebrow questioning that statement. “Wow that did sound worse out loud, than in my head.”

  “You’re too nice to be sassy.” I said with a smile.

  “What makes me nice?” He asked laughing.

  “You put up with Jeremy every day, and you’ve been doing that since how long?”

  “Childhood friends.” He clarified, but he didn’t go any deeper, which confirmed that there was more to it. I didn’t push, and he didn’t tell.

  I felt the soft breeze of early autumn, a month or so had passed since I started my brutal training sessions with Jeremy after my mess-up on the mission.

  “Faster!” He yelled and blew his whistle.

  “I swear I’m going to take that damn whistle and blow it up!” I yelled back. We were doing sprints, and I was already faster than the average, but I guess with hunters since they were so good at tracking, you had to run faster than humanly possible. Also not making prints as you ran, and signs that you were there. I also learned how to throw them off my trail, which was fun training for (not).

  “Shut up and run!” He yelled back.

  “Why don’t you run?”

  “I’ve already had to do this!”

  “Was it with a trainer like you?”

  “No, it with a trainer worse than me!”

  “Who could be worse than you?” I snapped.

  “You haven’t seen worse until you catch up for all the years you missed!” Jeremy said, knowing that was a weak point. I literally had to bite my tongue to make sure I didn’t say anything that I would regret. I put on my pads, because my elbows and knees were already so bruised and full of cuts that healed everyday just to come back the next day.

  “Climb the nearest tree and travel from there; they won’t be able to track you as well when you don’t leave footprints.” This is the sentence he said that started the demolition of my body. I didn’t realize how many trees had sharp braches jutting out until I cut myself on all of them.

  “Alright, I have a mission today, so we have to end early.” Jeremy called out as I just got done falling after slipping on the wet ground. It was always raining now for some reason.

  “Is that bad for me or for you?” I ask holding my butt where I fell on a particularly sharp rock.

  “Both; you are my stress outlet and punching bag, and you need all the help you can get! So stop complaining, it’s a win-win.” He smirked.

  “Well at least you’re honest about it, no point in pretending you’re not enjoying this.”

  “Exactly, so clean up, you look like hell and we’ll be back in the training hall tomorrow.

  “Thank goodness!” I yell throwing my hands up that we wouldn’t be outside in the wet, nasty weather, falling down more than I did inside (and that was a lot).

  “Don’t be too happy since we had to cut out some time today, you will be making it up tomorrow.”

  “FML.” I said smacking my head against an imaginary wall. He snickered and walked away. I found out that he loosened up most when I was in pain -caused by either him or myself- and when I was being weird and/or stupid.

  “Have fun.” He called back over his shoulder.

  “Not likely.” I muttered, knowing he heard it when he snickered. I really hated Anima abilities sometimes.

  I didn’t end up taking my shower though, because I had extra practice to do as always, running through all the things Jeremy and my classes. I didn’t really have many people to practice with, since they were all already on their own missions, and training themselves. Taking down a hunter is an honor I guess, and they all get really excited about it. I technically didn’t beat the guy in the alleyway, so I had yet to really fight one.

  An ice bath was next, the bruises hurt less when I iced my body until I was numb. I didn’t eat much, and when I did it was only healthy, filling foods. Everyone kept telling me to take it easy, that the first mission isn’t a big deal anyways. The thing was, I wasn’t as upset about that as much now, but my newer determination came from a source that wouldn’t burn out; Jeremy.

  “Why do people act like the hunters control us?” I asked one day during training. Jeremy couldn’t stop talking about how we had to be perfect, or else be killed.

  “What kind of question is that?” He asked with a sudden ferocity.

  “A valid one? From what I have seen, we are the ones with the better abilities, yet we are training our whole lives just to get rid of them.”

  “They deserve to die, that’s why.”
He said like there wasn’t any question about it. It was one of those few times where I was actually afraid of him.

  “What did they do?” I ask in a softer voice.

  “Nothing, training’s over for today.” And that was how our conversation ended, even though we weren’t even halfway done with our training session. I knew I hit a nerve, and since curiosity killed the cat, I decided to find out what really happened from another reliable source.

  Normally I would just ask Alice, who seems to know everything about the school, and the people in it, but she said the one exception was Jeremy. So I went to the one closest to him; Lucas.

  “What happened to Jeremy to make him hate the hunters so much?” I ask bluntly after sitting down on a bench outside of the boys’ dorm next to him as he read a book. He shut the book slowly and looked at me, sadness in his eyes.

  “How did you know anything happened at all?” He asked quietly.

  “So something for sure happened then.” I said more to myself than anything.

  “Yes, and it’s something he doesn’t talk about, even between us two.”

  “Is it that bad?” I ask getting more nervous and worried to hear the answer.

  “Has Jeremy ever mentioned his family to you?” Lucas asked seriously.

  “Not really, all I heard was that he had a sister, and his mom and dad why?”

  “Well even knowing that much is more than most. Did you notice that it is always said in past tense?”

  “So that means…” I asked prompting him.

  “He killed his parents, and his brother and sister.” He said without any emotion, as if he as there when