“Shinsuke, wake up!”

  I was furiously shaken awake by mom who was standing above me with a panicked expression.

  “Ugh, what is it, mom? I don’t even think my alarm went off yet…”

  “There’s an army of paparazzi outside the building again!”

  I jumped out of bed and almost killed myself running to the window in the living room. Just as she said, there were enough paparazzi surrounding the front of the building to invade a small country.

  “When did they get here?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Right after your father left for work. It’s like they all just appeared out of thin air!”

  How the hell am I supposed to get to school like this? These people are insane!

  “Hey, your phone is going off!” mom alerted me, pointing back towards my room.

  I ran back to my room and saw my phone ringing on my nightstand. Fittingly, it was Raven Blackwell.

  “Raven?” I answered. “Listen, my apartment is—"

  “I know,” she interrupted. “Be ready to go as soon as possible.”

  She hung up before I could even try to get a word in.

  Okay? Gods, screw this morning!

  I had no idea what her call was about, but I had no choice but to trust that there was some purpose to it. I got myself together in a hurry and paced anxiously, unsure what I was waiting for.

  “Shinsuke, look outside!” mom shouted, and I rushed back to the window.

  A limousine sped up the road and right into the parking lot where the paparazzi bum rushed and completely boxed it in. Raven called again and I quickly answered.

  “Hurry and exit through the back of the building!” she urged before hanging up again.

  “Mom, I’m heading out through the back of the building. Could you please let Mizuki know that I’ll meet her at school?”

  “Of course. Be safe, Shinsuke!”

  I crawled out the door, keeping low to avoid any potential spies and crouch-ran through the outdoor corridor to the stairs. When I got into the main area, I bolted through the back exit. There was a car parked across the street in an empty lot, and as soon as it caught my attention, the rear driver’s side window rolled down, revealing Raven beckoning me over.

  I rushed over and got inside the car beside her. It started moving as soon as my seatbelt clicked.

  “You didn’t think I was going to leave you high and dry, did you?” Raven asked with a wink. “I’m glad my little decoy worked.”

  “What’s going on, Raven? I get why they’d mob us together or have a few people watching my place, but why were so many swarming my apartment like that?”

  Raven held her phone screen up to me, showcasing an article from some tabloid. The headline read, “ShinRa rumors heat up as pair is spotted sharing drinks after wild chase”. A large photo of me and Raven having tea on her terrace the night before was posted below the clickbait title.

  “How did they get that picture of us?”

  “This is what it’s like to be a celebrity. They’re everywhere.”

  “But we snuck up to your penthouse undetected. How did those creeps know we were there, let alone get a picture when we were so high up? Also, a couple name? Seriously?”

  “Cute, isn’t it?” she giggled.

  “Raven, I need these paparazzi assaults to stop. I already have the media on my case, but this is getting out of hand very quickly.”

  “I’m sorry, Shinsuke. I wish I could control them, but this has been my life for a long time.”

  I buried my face in my palms and groaned.

  How am I supposed to find time to prepare for the next fight if I’m constantly in hiding or on the run?

  I felt Raven’s soft, slender fingers slip into my hair and begin to gently stroke my scalp. “Try to relax. It will all be okay,” she assured me in a soothing whisper.

  “Ah,” I sighed as both my scalp and cheeks tingled. My body tensed at her sudden touch, but quickly relaxed the more she massaged.

  She carried on quietly, and I, despite the awkwardness of the situation, allowed her. I couldn’t deny that it was genuinely calming, and it seemed to be coming from a good place. I just wished I understood how she could be so wholly affectionate towards someone she really didn’t know—even if she insisted otherwise.

  “That’s it, just breathe and let my hands absorb your stress, Shinsuke.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  This sensation feels familiar…

  I found my mind drifting back to the time Eva took me to that secret fight club for training. That night, I hurt myself during one of the rounds when I delivered a headbutt to my opponent. Eva sat with me on the sidewalk after that, and just like Raven, she rubbed my head gently.

  The déjà vu I was feeling was undeniable. My heart was pounding just as much as then, but unlike that time, I couldn't think of anything to say. So, I sat, enjoying the way her fingers danced rhythmically in my hair for the rest of the ride.

  ***

  The hope was that we would be able to at least get into school before anything ridiculous happened, but when our car pulled up to the front of St. Cirelia, Raven realized she left her disguises in her limo. We had no choice but to step out as we were. Predictably, we immediately caught the eyes of our peers.

  “There she is!” someone yelled.

  “And look who’s with her.”

  “Get him!”

  Raven grabbed my hand and began dashing into the building.

  “Run Shinsuke!”

  “I heard these idiots got told off yesterday. Why are they still acting like barbarians?” I yelled.

  “I don’t know, but if we can get away from them, I’ll call my bodyguards again and—”

  Out of nowhere, a pair of large hands yanked me out of Raven’s grasp and hurled me into an empty classroom. I gawked up to find a bunch of muscular boys looming over me. They seemed to be St. Cirelia’s rugby team.

  “Huh?” I managed as the presumed captain emerged to the front of the group.

  “Don’t act all confused, Demon Eyes,” he seethed. “We’re beyond sick of you! You have the gall to walk around like you don’t know how much people can’t stand you and your ugly mug!”

  “Yeah!” the team shouted.

  “I—”

  “Shut up!” he interrupted me. “You’ve gotten too big for your britches, punk. People are tired of you embarrassing our school, our princess, and our kingdom. You punched one of your classmates for picking on your stupid friend, yet you went and bullied Emil LeClair in front of the world! Now you come back to St. Cirelia after getting the privilege to skip classes for a month and try to seduce a world-famous actress? Well, I don’t think so. One of us should have her!”

  “Oh, so that’s what this is really about, huh?” I asked. “You’re just a bunch of jilted, jealous fanboys. I should’ve guessed.”

  “Tch…we’re going to enjoy beating you senseless.”

  The door flew open, and Raven rushed in, her eyes wide with worry.

  “Shinsuke!” she called.

  The captain signaled something and one of his boys held out his arms, acting as a wall that wouldn’t allow Raven to pass him.

  “Don’t worry,” the captain assured her. “We’re going to show you what real men look like. Then you’ll want one of us!”

  He nudged another of his teammates and said, “stand outside the door and play lookout. Don’t let anyone in until I give you the all clear.”

  His goon replied with a nod and stepped outside to take his post.

  “You guys are painfully stupid,” I groaned.

  “Shut up and get your ass kicked already. Get em’ boys!”

  They all rushed me at once, attempting to overwhelm me with their numbers. I got to my feet quickly and the instincts I developed from training with Eva immediately kicked in. I swept the legs of the first one to arrive, sending his large body to the floor. A bunch of the others came tumbling over him and I was granted an opportunity to go on the offensive.

  I charged one of the jocks who was still upright. He took a swing at me, but I slid beneath him, grabbing his off-balance leg as I did. He crashed to the ground atop another of his friends, and I had to stifle a laugh when I noticed them struggling to untangle their legs from the pile.

  “What are you idiots doing?!” the captain yelled. “Get up and get him!”

  One jock managed to free himself and tried to stand up, but I rushed him and used his knee as a springboard to nail him with a step-up enziguri. Needless to say, a kick to the back of the head put him out like a light.

  One down, thirteen to go.

  The rest of the downed clowns were back up now and mean mugging me. We stood staring each other down for a bit, waiting for someone to make the first move. They were preparing for another charge when a male scream froze us all in our tracks.

  In the corner of the classroom, the jock that had been tasked with keeping Raven in the corner was launched halfway across the room, hitting the floor with a resounding thud.

  “Wh-what the?” the captain stuttered.

  Raven stepped slowly out of the corner, an ominous, swirling ball of shadow magic spinning in the palm of her right hand. Her eyes were wide and the whites of them were reddened, while her brows were sharply narrowed. Her breath was heavy, but she didn’t look exhausted in the slightest. She, quite frankly, looked absolutely pissed.

  “Holy crap, did she just do that?”

  “We were all lookin’ at Demon Eyes. It wasn’t him. So, yeah. I think she did…”

  “What do we do?”

  The jocks nervously huddled amongst themselves as Raven drifted to the back of the room. She stepped over the boy she leveled with her magic and grabbed hold of a chair that was stacked atop an out-of-use desk.

  “H-Hey, Raven?” one of them called sheepishly. He walked up to her and continued, “if you could just go back in the corner and wait for—”

  CRACK

  She smashed the chair over his head without hesitation, sending him to the floor beside his teammate. A singular moron in their group ran up to her and tried to restrain her, but he was quickly grabbed by the collar and literally shocked out of his shoes by an electric spell.

  The remaining jocks stared at one another with wide eyes, their faces pale. They put their hands up and stammered out some words in an attempt to reason with Raven. But it was pointless. She drew towards them with a crazed look in her reddened, amethyst eyes.

  I had the feeling something was about to happen, so I backed myself up against the whiteboard and watched on in disbelief.

  Raven began to twirl her arms in a perfect swirl pattern rapidly and I noticed the stirring of a breeze gently blowing my hair. It didn’t stay gentle for long, though. The stacks of unused desks and chairs in the back began to shake and rattle before taking flight in the air like wild debris. A small cyclone had spun into existence right in the center of the room, ripping all the remaining jocks off the floor against their will and thrashing them around in hellish circles.

  AHHHHHHHH!

  They shrieked in perfect unison as they whirled round and round. The furious wind kept blowing my hair into my eyes, but even through blinded blinks I was able to count at least twenty revolutions around the room before the jocks exited the cyclone and were finally hurled every which way. Most of them hit the floor, some of them hit the wall, one of them nearly flew out the window, and all of them were knocked unconscious.

  Holy hell…

  The cyclone slowed until it dissipated, and all the desks and chairs suspended in the air plunged to the floor, thudding hard around the room. A few of the downed jocks were pelted by the descended furniture.

  Lucky they were unconscious.

  “Ooh, so manly,” Raven cooed. She stepped on the head of an unconscious jock and taunted them. “You lot sure showed me the epitome of your gender. Shame you’d all rather sleep than play with me a little more, though.”

  She dug her heel into his head and laughed.

  What did I just witness?

  “Raven…” I managed to say.

  Her attention snapped to me and her face was instantly alight with joy and relief. “Shinsuke!”

  She ran up to me and pulled me away from the wall and into her embrace.

  “I’ll never let anyone hurt you, Shinsuke. Ever.”

  https://www.patreon.com/posts/inception-of-x-123500852?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

  It's safe to say there's a lot more to Raven than meets the eye, and a lot of people just found that out at once. Thanks for reading and all who voted in last week's poll! I was shocked to see Raven leading as the current favorite character. Very interesting... And thanks to my Partons as always!