☽ hard to breathe ☾

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Kiyo stared at herself in the dirty mirror of their shitty apartment bathroom

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Kiyo stared at herself in the dirty mirror of their shitty apartment bathroom. Grasping her thick silver hair she twisted it up into a high ponytail, her locks still long enough to brush against her mid-back. She wore a tight black long sleeve shirt, black cargo pants, and thick black combat boots to match. It wasn't the most comfortable get-up but it was excellent for training and stealth.

She took one last look at herself in the mirror, her lips curving into a smile as she stepped out and walked into the living room. Zeref sat on the couch, adjusting his large black gas mask onto his face. His smoky golden eyes traced over to her, his expression unreadable under his mask.

"Are you ready, Z?"

Kiyo grabbed her matching silver bracelets off the counter, putting one of them onto each wrist. The curse hummed lowly in response, rising from his position and making his way to the door. The pair entered the old elevator, riding it all the way up to the top floor from which they could access the roof. The roof was high enough to avoid any detection, and this late not many people were out and about anyway. It was where Zeref had been training her for years.

The past few nights they'd been working on something new, a defensive ability. Kiyo was able to manipulate the space around her, preventing anything from actually touching her. Even Zeref's gas was unable to penetrate it. If she could master it, this ability would give her an extreme upper hand in any kind of fight. But thus far, she hasn't been able to maintain it for more than a few minutes.

"It's been three minutes," Zeref stated, "this is when you typically lose control. I'm going to release some poison gas, so if you don't want to vomit up your dinner, maintain your veil".

He was harsh, and it wouldn't have been the first time he poisoned her during training. Or knocked her out. Or intentionally manipulated her with his gas. His style of training was certainly unforgiving, but it had shaped Kiyo into a formidable opponent.

She could feel her grasp on the space around her flickering in and out, desperately trying to hold on. It started to quickly slip away and she bolted to the other side of the roof, frantically trying to escape the gas. But it was to no avail, she collapsed to her hands and knees, violently vomiting onto the concrete.

"You're being weak," she could hear Zeref's heavy footsteps approaching from behind.

"Fuck-," she lurched and choked a few more times, wiping her mouth with her sleeve, "I'm fucking trying".

"Try harder," he said shortly, "you have two seconds to get off the ground before I release more".

Kiyo braced herself, tugging at every thread of cursed energy she could grasp and hoping for the best.

"There's a girl with him! Is she a curse too?"

imposter syndrome | m. fushiguroWhere stories live. Discover now