Limitless (Rin Matsuoka x OC)

58. Fairytales

The dorm room fell into complete silence. Nayna looked at the floor before her feet nervously, not daring to raise her eyes towards her boyfriend who was still on his chair, bewildered by her words. Sousuke stood by the window, leaning his back against the wall, overlooking the two, waiting for whatever reaction his best friend might have to the news.

Rin blinked quickly as he looked at his girlfriend flabbergasted trying to process what she just said.

"Eh? You're what?" He asked, just to make sure that the information his brain just processed was correct.

"I'm a wolf..." She repeated, trying to keep her nerves under control, her eyes downcasted, waiting for the inevitable shout.

"Wolf?" He repeated confused looking at her then at Sousuke. "So all the stories your mom was telling us are real?"

Nayna's head snapped up. Now it was her turn to look confused at them.

"Wait...Y-You know about..." She muttered confused looking at Rin then at Sousuke. "Why didn't you tell me he knew about us?"

"Kaa-san only told us those stories as fairytales." Shrugged Sousuke.

"Yeah, I remember her telling about packs and forests..." Said Rin in a soft voice looking at the ground in remembrance. "So all thous fairytales were actually real. People really can turn into-"

"You got it reversed. Not people can turn to wolves. Wolves can turn human. I was born wolf...But there are cases like Sousuke where one parent is human and one wolf where the child is born human and can later change to wolf." Explained Nayna.

"I see... So you can-" Said Rin only to see Nayna raise her hand that slowly started to morph, white fur covering her pale skin as her long nimble fingers turned stockier, her nails turning to claws.

Rin looked at her hand in awe, Nayna looking at it too, though, her eyes more somber.

"Unfortunately for me, my form isn't as usable anymore...Born with a busted wrist...It got harder and harder to step on it." She sighed before her hand turned back to normal.

"Busted..." Murmured Rin worried. "So that's why you didn't wanna swim your IM anymore?"

"No. It has nothing to do with it. I have no problem swimming. It just felt wrong. I was having an unfair advantage compared to the rest..." She said looking away.

"I see... So you're the white wolf that everyone keeps talking about?" Asked Rin.

Hearing him, Nayna's head jolted in his direction. She looked at him scared and worried, studying his facial expressions for any trace of fear or disgust...or anything, but he was unreadable.

"So... The wreak thing was a lie-" He muttered looking at the wall.

"Oh, it happened. But I wasn't planning on doing any deep diving... Got attacked and tangled in chains so I couldn't swim out of the wreak... My team had no way of coming down to that depths... They had to find someone who could... The only thing that I lied about with that incident was the time I was down there. It wasn't hours... It was about 5 days..."

At that Rin looked at her mortified.

"How...how could you be at the bottom of the ocean for so long?" He asked, voice wavering with raw fear.

"Repeatedly boiling the water that got into my lungs, getting this way the oxygen from the water."

"Boiling..." Repeated Rin confused.

"I guess Sousuke's mother didn't mention the elements, huh?" Said Nayna, rising her hand, opening her palm up, a flame coming to life in her hand, Rin looking at it completely astounded.