Ink Chain

-Barak Waraen-

I peered over the girl's shoulder. She was cocky, overestimating herself. Leave it to the daughter of a wealthy guy to be impudent as fuck.

"Nova Basal, I wish we could have a pleasant conversation under better circumstances. But of course, you had to ruin the day with your shenanigans and attitude. But don't you always?" His voice was low but stern. Nova tensed at his words, with an obvious face of anger but keeping it low profiled. Another voice chimed in, the voice revealing an older but not old woman/

"Nova, why are you so determined to ruin the family reputation? We keep a high status despite your attempts but you've never helped keep us in a good light," A male and female sigh was heard through the video. "Now come straight home after school so we can discuss this. Or face pun-" She threw the tablet on the ground and stomped on it with her heel.

"I'm tired of their fucking voices." She picked up the tablet and tossed it in the nearby trashcan. She picked up her jacket, put it on, threw the hood on with an aggressive tug, picked up her bag, and left the room. The little red-head puppy followed her, moving with quick steps past the frozen robots.

My sister, Angelique, and I stood in the office, sharing silent stares with Uada and the AI's. Uada gave us 2 detention slips and parted away from the door, allowing us to pass.

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"What the hell was that, Barak?!" Angelique socked my arm and I stumbled to the side. Her shrieked voice echoed in the empty hallway. She never used much force to hit me, this was new. She was pissed.

"The fuck was that for?! What'd I do?" I rubbed my upper arm and spaced ourselves a bit. She scoffed, stopped in her tracks, and crossed her arms. 'Oh shit.' "Gonna have an adult tantrum over there, sis?" Her face turned bright red.

"You know the problem dipshit! Why didn't you protect me, back there?! Do I not matter to you?!" She placed a hand over her heart with her other arm crossed over her. Like when an old Christian woman hears you don't believe in "the holy lord"

"I didn't protect you?! While you stared them down with that oh-so-perfect set of eyes of yours, I was on all 4's keeping them away from you!" I side-punched a locker beside me and growled. A lion's growl snuck out from deep in my throat. I heard a soft gasp from behind me.

"Growl at me again, I DARE YOU." She strutted past me and shoved me into the locker. She pulled out her phone and made a quick call. Over the balcony, I saw she had made her way out of the school. 'Great, I gotta explain why she isn't at detention.'

OK, it's not literal detention. Like they have in high school. When one gets in trouble at this school, they send them to an after-school program and if you don't show, it gets held against you. I am on my 3rd visit. To be frank, Angelique is on her 9th but she hasn't gone ONCE. It's a wonder she's still gonna graduate.

She studies lethal containment in the science wing of the school. To cut it short, all chemicals, good, bad, and unknown go through that wing before we send it out to fight in any wars. Thinking about it, most of our chemicals are used in Hirane (Country Of Warriors).

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While wandering around the halls, trying to learn what to do since the school day only had 20 minutes remaining for the day. The hallways were near silent other than the cleaning AI's scattered around the school. I decided to head to the library.

I'm a history buff, it's my defense major! I study past war tactics and create new ones based on the situation. I guess a better word for it would be a "Lunaris Military Strategist". One among few. Most people want to stick to the fighting, I want to stick to the books.

I pulled a book off the shelf:

"The Inked Wars of 2234; A Playthrough Of The Strategies and Military Positions"

My favorite tactic is what historians call "The Lying City". It was our final attempt in the war. Lunaris, Onryx, and Hirane built a floating city in the middle of the ocean. The ocean itself, being called the Graylin Ocean, was small enough not to hold any islands but large enough to build a floating platform large enough to hold a small city.

Lunaris was put in charge of spreading the news of the island. Once the construction plans were heard of by Ramshorn, Arkala, and Nor, the three opposing countries sent troops to attack. But little did they know that the city was not only abandoned but filled to the brim with bombs. Almost all lives were lost in that bombing. But it was enough for our enemies to call surrender.

The world was silent after that. Nobody fought, everyone gave up. Lunaris stayed the top country and the war was over. We were all inked and we were all happy. At least most of us.

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"Don't you think you should be in class?" I turned around, close to dropping my book by surprise. The woman's voice was a bit perky but wasn't much more than that. The Basal Mother, Mrs. Genie Basal. The school librarian. "Well, Mr. Waraen?" She crossed her arms and chuckled with quiet breaths in between.

"S-sorry, Mrs. Basal. I have detention after school, which is in like, 10 minutes. Thought I'd study a little bit." I waved my book a little bit in the air beside me. She glanced downward, toward the book. "Is everything OK, ma'am?" I looked down at the book and back at her.

"That would be perfectly fine, young man," she took the book from my hand. "If this was what you were learning in class. You're supposed to be learning about the 2234 war generals, not their game plans," she put the book back on the shelf. "Busted. Have a seat, tell me what's going on with you and why in the world you're back in detention."

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"You're in detention because of your sister? That's kind of dumb." She took a small swig of her water bottle and crossed her arms, leaning back into her chair. I stared at the water bottle, wondering if there was any alcohol in there.

"Yep. I didn't even want to fight them, but I had to protect Angelique. Kinda ironic her nickname is Angel, huh?" We both chuckled, letting the quiet of the library wash over us. "Ma'am, can I ask a question?" I looked her in the eye.

"Is this a serious matter or a matter of curiosity? Because," she tapped the air 3 times and on the third tap, the school bell rang. "You've got detention. And a speech to give a teacher about you're sister skipping." She stood up and reached out her hand. I took hold and she pulled me up and close. She whispered something I hadn't realized was important at the time;

"The Answer Is A Heroine"