The Oracle

Chapter 12: Friendly Fire

AKARI

"You don't have to be so hard on him, you know," I say as I lace up my black boots, one foot up on the wooden bench in the changing room just outside of the arena.

"If I'm not, then he won't learn," Kit frowns as she sits on the bench beside me and polishes her katana.

"We both know that's not true," I sigh and switch feet. "Sander doesn't want people to think that he cares but we both know he cares more than anyone else at this academy. He works his ass off to be the very best he can possibly be. You know that and you know that he only wants to do his father's wishes proud, so why are you being so hard on him?"

"Because..." Kit snaps, "because if I don't, then how do I know he won't--"

"Because he's not you!" I shout and Kit's eyes widen as her words die in her mouth. "Because he's never been like you. You and Sander both try so hard, but Sander has never been afraid of his own abilities, he's always owned them. Sander's never frozen and he never will because he'll never doubt himself. I know you work so hard because you never want to freeze up again, because the consequences of that could be deadly, but you can't take back what already happened. You were already doing all that you could. You couldn't help it. So, just let it go."

"How could you say that?!" Kit shouts back and stands up, tears forming in her eyes. "If I had tried harder, if I had just trained harder, I could've...I could've..."

"Maybe. Maybe you're right," I shake my head with a sigh and pick up my scythe to sling it over my shoulder, my eyes meeting Kit's, "but we did the best that we could. We tried and we didn't run away no matter how against us the situation seemed. In order to ensure nobody ever gets hurt again, we must become even stronger to protect them, to protect our loved ones. But if you run yourself into the ground in the process, you'll never be able to do that."

"So, are you saying that I should just...I should just give up?" Kit scoffs as I start to walk away.

"No," I glance back over my shoulder at her as I stand in the doorway to the arena. "You should never give up because there's always a way. Nothing's impossible, but what I'm saying is that if you're so worried about freezing up, if you doubt yourself for even a second, if you don't trust yourself, the very thing you don't want to happen most certainly will happen. Instead of training so hard just to ensure you don't freeze up, you should be training hard to accept your full potential."

As the two of us stand there in silence, Gambit walks by me through the door and she glances between the two of us, her eyebrows raised.

"Woah, what's going on in here?" She asks.

"Nothing," my lips curve into a smirk as I throw a glance back at Kit, "I was just teasing Kit about her being jealous over Sander and Isabella."

"What?" Kit's eyes widen. "Not true!"

"Your face says otherwise!" Gambit sing-songs and Kit's face turns red.

"Shut it, grandma!" Kit retorts.

"Grandma?" Gambit scoffs and walks over to playfully throw an arm over Kit's shoulders and ruffle her hair. "I'm nineteen!"

"Yeah, thousand!" Kit grumbles and struggles in Gambit's hold as Gambit laughs.

"Go enjoy your match, you two," Gambit says. "I'm gonna get changed and head to the dining hall. Winning really makes me hungry, you know. Maybe because I'm, as Kit would say, old."

Kit sticks her tongue out at Gambit and I roll my eyes and chuckle before I head out into the arena with Kit following closely behind me.

"Who are we up against, anyway?" I sigh and stretch my arms over my head as we walk into the arena.