NIKE -Blue Lock-

Oblivion

The grip as strong as the effect of her words in the boy's mind.

Unresponsive. Uncontrolled. Weak.
This is how she had been left.

She could think of nothing else since she had woken up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room, completely naked.

It had never happened. Never had she allowed herself to lack enough lucidity to let someone else control her mind.

She had not been in control of the situation, and everything had gotten out of hand. She had not been in control of her own will and the other person's body, and she had been abandoned in the floor of a fucking bathroom at an event too important to afford any mistakes.

When she had asked Noel Noa if he had raised his hands on her, she already knew that he had done nothing to her. Her mind was foggy, but not so much that she could totally forget what had happened in that bathroom.

She remembered mentioning Oliver Aiku's name just before she passed completely out.

That was fine with her. She was probably more angry with herself than with him. She was probably more upset for losing control of the only thing that still belonged to her: her own mind.

"I did what?" asked Oliver with a raised eyebrow, stopping himself from trying to pull away from the girl and starting to stare at her.

The latter sighed, suddenly calming down and shaking her head. The headache caused by the hangover made her more susceptible and less stoic than normal, and the fact that she had not met her father the night before when he had clearly ordered her to do so was an additional cause for anxiety. 

She knew that whenever she did not respond to his command, and she was not around to receive his reward, someone else would repay her sins. 

Moreover, since she had reacted to his abuse on the night of the game, the old man had shown an even more contemptuous and violent attitude. An attitude that other people were probably suffering from.

And since she was the cause of that attitude, they were suffering because of her.

"Nicole, I did... what?"

Oliver's tone forced her to bring her rubies on the amethyst and emerald set in his eyeballs. Medium-wide pupils, eyebrows imperceptibly furrowed, irises blurred, lips tightened.

Her eyes studied and analyzed every inch of his expression and it was only a matter of brief moments before she realized what was happening.

Her grip on the defender's hand loosened, slipping along his wrist and falling into the space between them.

"It wasn't you in the bathroom..." she whispered aloud, more to herself than to him.

It was a matter of two beats.
Slow and controlled.

And then everything went downhill.

Who was he? Why had he said nothing to her when she had called Oliver's name? Why had he continued when clearly she was thinking of another person? Why had he left her? Had he told someone else about that? If so, to whom? And to how many?

Blood began to flow rapidly through her veins, giving her an unpleasant sensation of heat. Her skin began to pinch and burn until it hurt. Her heart began to beat as fast as the rhythm of a high-speed train on the rails.

For all she knew, it might as well have been that crazy maniac of her old man. He would have done anything to humiliate her. No matter how repulsed be her he was, as long as he could break that shred of sanity she still possessed, he would do anything.