HNTD

Chapter 22: Ramona Rhombia

Chapter 22: Ramona Rhombia

Dust groaned as he walked out of Professor Port’s horribly boring class. The minutes felt like hours in that damn class, especially when Port told his crazy stories. Regardless, the class was finally over and done with! Dust considered going to play a board game with Ruby, or go back to the Team HNTD dorm room. The fact that Hunter may or may not be in the room however made Dust lean towards finding Ruby. As Dust walked down through the halls in search of the small, red hooded girl he saw a being that he was not pleased to see.

The woman had mostly white hair, except for the two strands of gold hair lying down on her shoulders. Her unique outfit had the colour scheme of only blue, turquoise and grey shades. Her golden eyes had an intimidating yet seemly seductive look to them, as well as her outfit was quite revealing. Resting on her left thigh was a black snake tattoo, which was just as scary as the look she gave Dust upon seeing him.

Dust tightened his fists as visions filled his head. Countless times he saw the death of her, the one he loved the most. Her name was Crystal; she was the leader of Dust’s old gang, the “Silver Gamblers”. The gang had been at war with another guild, “The Black Serpents” for months on end. The Black Serpents were lead by none other than the white haired woman glaring at Dust; Ramona Rhombia. Unfortunately for the Silver Gamblers, the Black Serpents won the Gang war when Ramona brutally murdered Crystal in front of both Gangs.

Ramona grabbed Dust by the arm and threw him into the nearest room, closing the door behind her. Thankfully she chose an empty classroom, away from anyone to see or hear what would follow next,

“Let me get one thing clear, you scum” Ramona began to explain, “I’ll let you off with a warning this once, so listen up!” Dust tried to hold back all of his anger as much as possible as he stared at Ramona, his eyes were full of hatred. “I’ll let you off just this once, but if I see you again then I’ll finish you just as quickly as I ended Crystal’s life!” Ramona threatened. Dust’s anger and rage got to him as he swung a violent punch at Ramona. However, Ramona used her unique Semblance; the power to slow down time and walked out of the room before Dust could hit her. Time resumed its normal speed once she left the room.

Night sighed as he put down his blue prints. The rumours about the Military advancing closer into Vale, coming towards Beacon filled his head with so many thoughts and far too many questions. He needed something to clean his mind of all of this, anything at this point. Night walked out of the HNTD dorm room and made his way to the cafeteria; he figured he could solve two problems; his boredom and his hunger.

As he walked into the cafeteria he noticed something odd; there was a lack of people. There were a few students he did not know, but almost all of them were in groups conversing with one another. There was one girl sitting alone, taking small spoonfuls of her soup quietly. Night saw no other options but to converse with her, after all the idea of being alone with his thoughts for one more minute was painful.

“Hey, do you mind if I sit here?” Night asked as he approached the purple-cloaked girl. The black haired girl looked up with her one visibly grey eye, her body language suggested that this question seemed strange to her.

“Y-you would sit with me?” She asked quietly. Night could tell this girl was by no means social, if anything she was straight up shy. Also the fact that this girl was sitting alone rather than in a group suggested that she also wasn’t interested in being social. Regardless, Night took his chances.

“Yeah, why not?” Night asked as he sat down across from the girl, “My name’s Night and you are?” The black haired girl was once again shocked by the question, as if she had never gotten this far into a conversation with a new person,

“Celeste.. m-my name is Celeste” she replied quietly, trying her best to avoid all eye contact.

“So what Team are you apart of?” Night asked curiously. Celeste looked worried as she decided whether she should tell Night the truth or not. Usually the answer to this question was enough to turn people away from Celeste all together, or they already knew and tried their best to avoid her.

“T-t... Team DARC” Celeste answered nervously.

“The same team that’s led by that Diana bitch?” Night questioned. Celeste lowered her head and frowned as she realised exactly where this was going. It would only be a matter of time before Night left the cafeteria. “My god how do you manage?” Night asked. Celeste was once again shocked at how different Night was from the usual person that talked to Celeste. He was far more kind than anyone she had ever met at this academy or otherwise.

“I-I just try to stay calm...” Celeste mumbled, “I... I can get a little... angry at times” Celeste finished as she spoke quieter about her semblance, which felt more like a curse than it did a gift. Night tilted his head in confusion,

“I cannot imagine you angry” Night replied.

“T-that’s what they all say, b-but no one sees it coming...” Celeste muttered. Night was one hundred percent interested in what Celeste was saying as his curiosity got the best of him. How could such a shy yet sweet girl be so angry? What was it about Celeste that sparked his curiosity? “I-I should be going... g-goodbye Night” Celeste mumbled as she stood up and walked out of the cafeteria.

“Man fuck Team DARC!! Especially, fuck Diana!! Stupid bitch!” Hunter shouted,

“WHAT IS RAMONA DOING THERE!?” Dust yelled in rage,

“Alice is... so CREEPY and just... a LUNATIC!” Thalia complained with a shiver,

“I gotta say Celeste is pretty cool” Night admitted. Team HNTD stopped and remained silent in their dorm room for a minute as the rest of the team looked at Night in confusion.

“Who’s Celeste?” Dust question,

“She can fuck off if she’s like Diana!” Hunter threatened,

“Please tell me she’s not crazy like Alice...” Thalia begged,

“Not at all! Celeste is actually really cool, shy, but cool” Night explained, “She doesn’t even seem like she’s a part of Team DARC when you compare her to the rest of that horrid mess of teammates”. Hunter, Dust and Thalia considered Night’s explanation of Celeste before saying anything further,

“She sounds cool to me” Dust replied with a nod,

“That team needs some kind of good quality to make up for that bitchy leader” Hunter said in frustration,

“She’s sane? Thank goodness” Thalia sighed in relief.

“We won’t have to worry about Celeste at all” Night explained with a smile, “However... the rest of Team DARC will pose a threat and a problem” Night finished seriously. “Hunter, have you come up with any tactics on the other three?”

“No, I can’t come up with any tactics based on their fighting without seeing them in combat” Hunter replied as he held out his notebook, “I have some information of Diana, but not enough for a tactic or strategy. As far as Alice and Ramona, I also have nothing on them. I’ll have to observe them fighting in order to come up with a plan”.

“Hey! Ramona is mine; you and your little tactics can back off!” Dust warned, “I know her fighting style better than all of you, plus I have revenge to seek out, so you will all stay away from her! I will be the one to finish her off”. The sudden hostility and threats from Dust surprised everyone in the room. Clearly there was some kind of history between Dust and Ramona; based on how harshly Dust was reacting it would be safe to say that the team would prefer to stay out of Dust’s business with her.

“I will still need to come up with strategies to beat her, dumb ass!” Hunter retaliated, “If you fuck up fighting her, guess who has to clean up the trash you failed to throw out?” Dust tightened his fists as anger filled his eyes,

“I WILL KILL HER! You’ll see, you’ll all see! I will avenge Crystal!!” Dust yelled as he stormed out of the room before he physically harmed anyone, namely Hunter. Dust walked quickly through the halls, anger filled thoughts clouded his find, along with the already present memories of being in with the Silver Gamblers. Ramona would die by Dust’s hand, they’ll see, they’ll all see!

Crystal will not be forgotten.