─── Chapter Five. ❛ VENGEANCE OF A HALF MADE TEENAGE GIRL ❜
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MINAMI CHIZUE VIVIDLY RECALLED WHAT HEROISM MEANT TO HER FAMILY. On one side of the tipped scale was her father's arrogance and failure, shriveled limbs that decided his ended path towards the top. Failure crumbled a once steadfast man into a sour crumple of heavy limbs and gritted teeth.
On the other end of the scale, light and spindly, a remnant of a star lingering between cataclysmic bodies of fervent ash, was Chizue's mother. Unheard of, yet still painfully in action, still taking from the Minami family their rightful glory. A marriage held together by two children — each of lingering mirror image of their parents — forced to coexist amongst ruined strings and taut souls.
Minami Akihiro, whose vessel was created from the perfect family, made of particles and birthed by the entertaining hands of a forced marriage, could've never learned to love Kato Noa, whose existence stemmed from the loving embrace of two intimate meteors.
Inevitably, they were only vessels for their children, as their children were for theirs. Akihiro held nothing more than spite for his children. One was born defective, her lungs caved in and her body weak, too weak to carry on a legacy, and his only son inherited the wrong birthright.
When Minami Chizue turned seven — three years too late, calloused wounds too heavy — was when she learned that she would never mean anything to her father unless she had something to give. In the end, all she had to give was her spindly body, a remnant of crushed marbles and luminescent bubbles. Her father turned her from sand to steel, until eventually, Minami Chizue no longer knew how the world could've ever referred to the man as a 'hero'.
HEAVY SILENCE HELD THE TONGUES OF THE ENTIRE STADIUM, hearts beating in unison to the tick of the game-picker illuminated against the large screen before them.
To Chizue's every angle, nervous students stared expectantly at the rapidly spinning program, eyebrows creased against youthful faces. The screen stops with a loud ding! and thick black and yellow words illuminated the small square.
"Ta-da!" Midnight called out gleefully, brandishing her whip towards the crowd.
OBSTACLE RACE. . . ! The screen shone.
"All eleven classes will participate in this treacherous contest." The pro-hero launched into an explanation, and the screen behind her changed in accordance with her words. "The track is four kilometers around the outside of the stadium. I don't wanna restrain anyone, at least in this game."
