𝐓𝐎𝐈𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄 , bnha

7 ゜campfire

Serafina pitied the others for what they were missing out on. She doesn't even think she would feel jealous if others stared at Toru, because she understood their thought process.

After all, why wouldn't you stare in awe at the beauty of a northern light?

She watched as Toru gave in, scratching at her scalp with a sigh. "Okay, fine! Just get off the ground, would you?" Mina cheered and a few smiles erupted from the others, before they all sat back and listened closely.

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

"You really thought a silly little hex like that would work on me?"

Serafina flinched heavily as spittle flew from the man's mouth, his sneer piercing through the silent creaks of the daytime forest. He wasn't much older than her, 16 if she remembered correctly. She was 15 at the time.

Yeah, they were both young. Her raven hair was still short and choppy, her brown skin sunkissed and her fingers calloused from the days of determined practice. His youthful limbs were still growing and once in awhile he still played in the river with his also youthful friends.

Yes. Serafina Enomoto was young, through and through. But not after today.

The way that her hands shook, the way that his eyes were coated with malice— she was no longer young. And he hadn't been for awhile, but once she had noticed it was too late. She had already provoked the immortal rage inside of him.

"I'm sorry, sincerely," Serafina voice wavered as if she was being shook by the slapping winds of a hurricane. Her usually calm and ethereal demeanor was being chipped away as if by an amateur blacksmith. It was a fiery way to be broken. "It is a harmless hex, just meant to bring you some bad luck. Stuff like a broken bucket. Nothing more, I swear!"

"And you think that's not bad enough in it's own right!" He yelled in return. His arm jerked upwards slightly and a small cry escaped her lips as he did so. Clouds fell over the sun, darkening the already dark canopy of trees. "Oh, I know you're too weak to do a meaningful hex, but just the thought of you wanting to do wrong by me... it's disgraceful!"

The quarrel quickly fell silent by the small whimper of another girl whose legs struggled to stay standing and whose eyes only knew fear. The girl's worries fed the boy, turning him into a beast poisoned by mortal man's flaws.

"Oh," he drawled with a bloodthirsty lisp. "I almost forgot she was here." Serafina never understood how he could be so blinded by red that he forgot about the girl he held tight in his arms, the girl whose neck he held a rusty knife to. She wishes he would forget again as the girl found a new reason to struggle. "Tell your bitch to stay quiet!"

"T–Toru, please." The witch felt her eyes swell with tears. She hated every ounce of this situation, but she couldn't bring herself to feel the same way about what Hagakure had done. They both had made mistakes.

"Let's make a deal," he offered as soon as Toru closed her mouth and stopped wiggling. He had seemed to have calmed a bit at their cooperation. "Thoughts?"

He knew he had the upper hand. A frail human girl and a witch with barely any magic, what were they going to do? He was human as well, sure, but being trained by the king's guard had its perks.