Colors in the Dark

[25] Vanguard Action Squad

A/N: Oh boy, this is a long chapter! Buckle up, everyone, because Ayami's got a lot ahead of her today. Wish our little redhead luck with this huge event- and this isn't even the end of it! The next chapter has a ton to cover, too; there's no stopping the forces of good nor evil.

The next day began as early as the first, while Ayami once again finding her way to wake Class 1-B. However, they had since figured their way back to the training ground, which meant Ayami was free to jog back to her cave from the day previous. Before she left, the Pussycats were sure to remind her and all the other students about the test-of-courage tournament they'd be doing later.

As she and Tokoyami reached the dark holes in the earth, the bird-headed boy turned to her before looking back at the cave. "Revelry in the dark," he intoned.

"Revelry in the dark," she repeated with a sigh as she entered her own cave. "Revelry in the dark..."

Once again, she dual wielded Prometheus and Deimos, this time successfully summoning her other spirits and not having them disintegrated by a bright flash of light. Instead, despite her oncoming headache, Ayami allowed them to work individually.

As it turned out, Ares was able to copy the other spirits' own quirks by touching their semi-corporeal wisp bodies and practiced with them beside perfecting his precision with the red aura blade and Counter Shield, which would then carry over to Ayami when she merged with him.

Gaia was summoning small sources of water, bending them in midair before freezing them into ice, melting them with the heat of her fire without using the bright flames themselves.

Hecate was molding her body, trying to memorize the biology of animals that Asclepius ranted to her about, critiquing her transformations.

Ansaluia and Brizo were working together like Ayami had thought before, the former creating small chains while the latter controlled them with telekinesis.

All the while, Ayami was battling a headache- having already swallowed two ibuprofen- and tried to manifest her Nightmares and Manifest itself alongside her spirits. After some time, she managed to create a translucent version of her Capture Ribbons, wrapping them around her wrist as she focused on Manifesting emotion as well as her spirits.

"Come on, now," she encouraged herself, "We can do this, Prometheus. Breathe in, breathe out. Feel the pride, live the pride, become the pride."

A violet hue, not far from the deep ultramarine indigo that speckled Ayami's own aura, began to wrap around the ginger, whose eyes were a combination of black sclarae and amber-pink-blue irises, semi-slit pupils atop them, and hair was only partially ginger, shadows darting around the scarlet-pink-blue-and now purple hues.

"Who are you talking to?" A voice called from the darkness.

Ayami immediately let go of the pride, jolted from her progress with Manifest as she extended her ribbons toward the voice, in turn creating a small glow from the ends of them, a fear of light she sensed from whoever it was.

A pure-black-skinned boy was pulled into her view, wincing at the sudden shift in brightness. She recognized him as a 1-B student, his white hair reflecting all the light the glow shone at him. He seemed to take in her appearance as well, which was only a black silhouette displaying her aura in the short-ranged Oblivion she had condensed it to.

She let go of him with her ribbons, allowing them to retracted back to her arm length and once again wrap around her, though the glow they emanated remained to faintly light the cave enough for her and the boy to see one another. He spoke once more. "What was that for? And what are those things around you!?"