"Holy shit," Kendra said, looking at all the bodies. "You killed all of these by yourself?"
"Yeah."
Vasa was examining one of the corpses. "Their skulls are completely crushed. How strong are you exactly?"
"Strong enough."
He started walking down the hallway and the girls followed behind him. He could hear them whispering to each other but tried to ignore it. Why the hell had he agreed to let them come along anyway? They were all level one according to his party interface. Basically useless in a real fight.
"So where are we going exactly?" Emilia asked, jogging a little to catch up with him.
"Wherever the boss monster went."
"And how do we know where that is?"
He pointed down the hallway where there were huge claw marks gouged into the walls and ceiling. Like something massive had dragged itself through here not too long ago.
"Oh," she said. "That's pretty obvious actually."
Kendra was trying to walk quietly but kept stepping on broken glass and making noise. Every few steps she would freeze and look around like she expected monsters to jump out at them.
"Relax," he said without turning around. "I'll hear them coming long before you do."
"How do you know that?"
"Because my stats are way higher than yours."
"Stats?" Yeda spoke up for the first time. "Like in a video game?"
"Something like that."
Vasa was walking beside him now, studying his face. "You can see things we can't see, right? Like information about us."
He glanced at her. She was sharp, he had to give her that. "Yeah."
"What does it say about me?"
"Level one. Ice powers. Pretty weak overall."
She didn't look offended, just curious. "What about you? What level are you?"
"Higher."
"How much higher?"
"High enough that I could kill all of you without breaking a sweat."
That shut them up for a few seconds. Emilia looked nervous but Kendra just got that stubborn look on her face.
"You wouldn't though," Kendra said.
"Why not?"
"Because you're not actually a psychopath. If you were, you would have left us to die back there."
He stopped walking and turned to look at her. "I thought about it."
"But you didn't."
"Yeah, well, don't read too much into it."
They kept walking and the girls went back to whispering among themselves. He caught bits and pieces of their conversation. Something about how different he seemed now compared to before. How he used to be invisible and now he was like a completely different person.
"Hey Nox," Emilia said after a few minutes. "Can I ask you something?"
"You're going to ask anyway."
"What was it like? Before all this happened, I mean. We never really talked to you at school."
And there it was. The question he had been waiting for. He kept walking but his jaw got tight.
"What do you think it was like?"
"I don't know. That's why I'm asking."
"Must have been pretty fucking lonely," Kendra said. "Nobody ever talked to you. You just sat in the back of every class and never said anything."
"Thanks for the observation."
Yeda was being quiet again but he could see her looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Like she was trying to figure something out.
"We should have been nicer to you," Emilia said suddenly. "Back then, I mean. It wasn't right how everyone just ignored you."
He stopped walking. The girls almost bumped into his back.
"What did you just say?"
"I said we should have been nicer to you."
He turned around and looked at all four of them. They were standing there with these concerned expressions on their faces like they actually gave a shit about his feelings.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
"What?" Emilia looked confused.
"You're really going to stand there and act like you care about what happened to me? Now? After I have powers and can protect you?"
"That's not what this is about," Kendra said.
"Bullshit. Where was all this concern when Mark was shoving my head in toilets? Where was it when I was eating lunch by myself every single day for three years?"
His voice was getting louder and he could feel that familiar anger building up in his chest. The same anger that had been there when he killed Mark.
"We didn't know it was that bad," Emilia said quietly.
"You didn't know because you didn't want to know. None of you ever bothered to find out. But now that the world is ending and you need someone strong to keep you alive, suddenly you want to be my friend?"
"Nox, that's not fair," Yeda said.
"Fair?" He laughed but there was no humor in it. "You want to talk about fair? What was fair about me getting beat up every day while the entire school watched and did nothing?"
Vasa was just staring at him with those cold eyes of hers. She didn't look surprised or defensive like the others.
"You're right," she said finally. "We were all complicit. We saw what was happening and we chose to look the other way because it was easier."
"At least you're honest about it."
"But that doesn't mean we can't try to do better now."
"Why should I believe any of you actually care? How do I know this isn't just you trying to manipulate me into protecting you?"
The hallway went quiet. He could hear his own breathing and the distant sound of something moving around in the school. Probably more monsters.
"Because if we were just trying to manipulate you, we would be a lot nicer about it," Kendra said. "We'd be all fake sweet and telling you how awesome you are now."
"Instead of what?"
"Instead of me calling you an asshole for abandoning us earlier."
He looked at her for a long moment. She had a point. If they were trying to kiss his ass, they were doing a pretty terrible job of it.
"And besides," Emilia added, "if we really didn't care about you as a person, why would we feel guilty about how we treated you before?"
"Maybe because you're afraid I'll leave you behind again."
"Maybe," Vasa said. "Or maybe we're actually capable of feeling bad about our past behavior."
He looked at them. They weren't backing down or apologizing or trying to make excuses. They were just standing there taking whatever he wanted to throw at them.
It was pissing him off even more because he couldn't tell if they were being genuine or not. And the fact that he cared about the difference was annoying as hell.
"Whatever," he said finally. "Just stay close and try not to get yourselves killed. I'm not slowing down to save your asses if you can't keep up."
"Fair enough," Vasa said.
They started walking again but the mood was different now. Less chatty. The girls were giving him more space and talking quieter among themselves.
He tried to focus on following the trail of destruction but his mind kept wandering back to what they had said. About feeling guilty and wanting to do better. Part of him wanted to believe it was real, but a bigger part of him knew it was probably just survivor instinct kicking in.
People didn't actually change. They just pretended to when it suited them.
At least that's what he told himself as they made their way deeper into the ruined school.