* Rival x Cadmium – Willow Tree (feat. Rosendale) *

“Mom…” Draven muttered quietly, almost as if he’s afraid the word would be out of the cage in his heart and never come back again.

At the same time, what came out of his own mouth surprised him so much as he was sure he’s never seen that woman before.

A wave of mixed feelings that weren’t even his own hit him so hard that he felt his soul choke on tears. However, it only lasted a few seconds before his face turned emotionless.

It wasn’t the emotionless face of a cold robot, but rather the expression of an infant that knew nothing of the world around him.

In his mind however, a vision that wasn’t his own flashed before his eyes. In that vision, he could see a red ball being torn to shreds by and between his hands. But rather than a small air explosion, the ball released weird molten rocks and a disgusting metallic smell, similar to that of blood and burnt flesh.

Not that he cared at that time, his senses were filled with blinding rage that wasn’t his own. A rage that threatened to consume the universe whole.

The moment the woman felt that, she tightened her hug around him for a second as a few tears left her azure eyes warm, and her vision blurry. After that, she let go.

‘Seems that the trauma is still there, huh?’ she thought in a mix of sadness and disappointment. ‘I was really wishing this could be the time where we talk to our hearts’ content, but apparently not. *sigh*

‘I’m so sorry I made you relive this. The only purpose of the concealment stone was your protection only.’ she whispered in her mind, afraid that her words would make the kid flinch.

The woman was feeling down as she understood what her daughter had been through the moment she touched her.

Also, the fact that her body here was still that of a boy meant that she doesn’t believe she’s got that of a girl yet, or simply doesn’t know.

Even the ‘trial stage’ that her daughter went through wasn’t supposed to be a thing. It was merely a protected reflection of her memories as it was trying to delay and protect the soul from the real suffering the moment both girls met.

“I guess it’s not the right time for our meeting, little Amy…” the woman said in a cracked voice as she erased every piece of evidence about her existence within the kid’s mind.

With a kiss to the cheek, a blinding white enveloped Draven’s senses as he was transformed somewhere else.

————–

“Ugh…” a sudden rush of pain flashed through Draven’s every fiber as he woke up.

Opening his eyes to find himself laying down, again, but this time it wasn’t the ground hugging him, but rather the tender arms of two girls he cares about dearly.

His head resting on one of their chests, as the other rested on top of him lightly, on an angle as not to make it hard to breath.

And instead of the crimson sky and red blood moons there was the dark ceiling of a foreign structure blocking his view. Of course, it was the cave.

Looking at the people around him and feeling the rhythmic touch of his pillows left him with a rather red face, to add to his feverish features.

He didn’t realize the girls had sandwiched him in order to relieve him of the fever he had, but he knew there must be a reason as to why they did it.

“Err… wh-” before he could say anything, the two girls’ arms tightened around him as they almost choked him.

What had caught him by surprise the most was the voice he/she heard when she spoke.

But the girls weren’t giving her time to react or do anything as they just burst out crying, almost as if they were trying to hold it in for so long. Little did she know, it was actually the case.

Even though her mind was a confused mess, Raven’s last memory was her defeating that giant demon in her trial. ‘Before that I must’ve injured myself when fighting with that monster in the forest,’ she thought to herself as she surrendered herself to the girls embrace.

Only after some time had passed and the girls were more composed did she dare look them in the eyes.

Maya’s eyes were as red as the two blood moons in the sky of that trial she’d just finished, from the lack of sleep and exhaustion. Maria’s were just a little bit better.

“I’m sorry, I-” she was shocked again at the voice she produced that she stopped mid sentence.

Widening her eyes in surprise, she felt a shiver running down her spine as she took her right hand that was stuck between the girls’ warm bodies.

Trying to ignore that the girls were almost naked while hugging her, she looked at the small, even tiny, hand and couldn’t tell if someone was pranking her or she was just on the verge of losing the very last bit of sanity she thought she had.

‘I think I’m already past that stage, at this point.’ she thought to herself.

The girls looked at her but didn’t know what to say or where to start explaining from.

‘If it’s a f*cking prank then damn they’re good!’ she thought, ‘but if I’m insane… then I guess that’s fine ’cause I’m insane, I wouldn’t care, no? Seriously though, the f*ck is happening here?’

Looking at her rather… ‘unique’ expression, (AN: imagine a child giving you a ‘what the f*ck expression’), the girls couldn’t help but chuckle slightly as they felt their worry slip away.

To them, Draven or Raven were still the same person, having them back was akin to having the sun shine again, after an eclipse that has lasted more than a few dark years.

“Raven.” Maya said in a low warm voice that landed on the others’ ears like a hot summer day’s breeze.

Looking at how the girl’s expression just went from ‘what the f*ck’ to ‘who the f*ck’, the girls straight up started laughing loudly.

“Your new name, we’ve anonymously voted that Raven is your new name,” Maria said in a motherly tone.

‘Like f*ck it was anonymous, Maya would’ve happily murdered anyone who’d oppose.’ Camilla thought with a mind snarl.

Of course, little did they know, or rather little did they care, Raven’s expression had gotten from bad to worse.

Only after laughing had made their throats hurt, did they start to explain to poor Raven what had happened. Not that it made her feel better I’m any way.

“I’M A WHAT??!!!!!” even though she yelled as hard as she could, her voice came out as a cute melody that made the others laugh even harder.

Raven would’ve ran through her full dictionary of awesome R18 insults if it wasn’t for Maya and Maria’s presence. Up until this moment, she’s never sworn in front of them, not even once.

All of a sudden, Maya wrapped her arms around her for a second embrace. That left Raven rather flabbergasted.

“I’m sorry… I just really missed you…” she said with tears in her hazel eyes.

Although she was laughing earlier, the feeling of helplessness she’s felt had made her doubt her very existence.

‘Why am I even alive?’ was a thought that kept assaulting her soul multiple times every second Raven and Maria had spent unconscious.

Luckily though, Maria’s condition got better soon after she’s lost consciousness, whereas Raven was still deep in her slumber. That had given them hope, indicating that Raven’s life wasn’t in any danger.

‘The glowing of that eye tattoo though still needs a little bit of an explanation, but thank God Rain was here to treat her. Exhaustion could kill people after all,’ Maya thought.

Recovering from her surprise, Raven hugged Maya back. “I’m sorry, I’ve probably missed up big time, to end up like this and make you worry for nothing.”

“”Don’t say that!!”” everyone including Camilla and Rain said. Joey, of course, was kicked out of the cave the moment he finished warming up the water as Rain had asked him to guard the entrance.

Raven was surprised since she didn’t even see Camilla and Rain when she woke up as they were sitting besides, almost behind, Maya and Maria, with their backs to the wall.

Trying to sit up, Raven almost fell as she was so dizzy.

“Shh, please don’t move, we’ve only managed to lower your temperature by a few degrees. It’s only enough for you to be out of the danger zone but not even close to being healthy again,” Rain said, almost scolding poor Raven.

After making sure Raven understood her, she smiled warmly as she put a hand on her forehead to check the temperature, “I don’t know how much you remember from the previous events, but you saved my life back at the soccer field, now it’s my turn.” she said with a slight bow of gratitude.

“Uhm,” Raven nodded slightly as even that hurt. To say that she was feeling lost and confused would be an understatement. But she indeed remembers saving the girl with Joey.

According to what the girls had explained and based on the records left by her robot self in the scout drone, she was indeed a girl to start with, but she had a disguise runestone working on her that had changed her BIOLOGICAL body into that of a boy.

That’s why she’s lived her life thinking she’s a boy.

According to Camilla who introduced herself as an S ranker, much to Raven’s surprise, the runestone would be a legendary tier item as the possibilities it opened were rather abundant.

Not only has she never heard of such a potent disguising item, but if it could also change the features themselves, not just biological gender, then it’s just absolutely a hack item.

Assassins would kill to get such an item. (AN: pun intended)

On top of that, the runestone wasn’t a one time use item, rather even after its extraction, Camilla was sure she saw the girl store it in her bracelet as it appeared to be a dimensional item.

However, Raven couldn’t care less about such details. All she cared about is that she’s lived her life as a boy and wasn’t going to abandon that anytime soon.

“That’s just so missed up!” she exclaimed in frustration.

“I know… I’m sorry,” Camilla truly felt bad for the girl.

“Hey.. it’s alright, your actual body is that of a girl, why would you want to live as a boy?” said Maria.

“Because I’ve done that for the past 16 years and up till now?”

“…”

“…”

“Err, I see your point, but still-”

“NO!” Raven cut her off, “can you Imagine how it feels for me right now?”

Thinking about it for a second and taking a few glances at Raven’s rosy cheeks, she realised it must be hard, having… ‘everything’ taken away from you. But at the same time, it would be like living a fake life.

Almost as if all of a sudden, some scientists discovered that humans of the current age are just smart parasites that evolved by taking over the body of brainless ‘real’ humans. Not only that, but also that the human bodies will soon die out for some weird reason, like a disease, leaving the parasite with the only option of living in their native body.

It would definitely be a horrible experience that would make living the fake human life a paradise in comparison.

‘Well, sh*t just got real deep,’ Maria thought as she pondered about which is better, a good fake life, or a bad real life.

“Isn’t this just like a video game?” asked Maya as everyone looked at her quietly.

“Jeez don’t stare like that,” she said as she covered her chest with a soft chuckle. Raven’s face could be described as a red glowing firetruck’s siren at the moment.

“What I mean though,” Maya continued, “is that I’ve watched a movie once about a virtual reality game where everyone is so focused on the game and they forget they have real lives outside of the game. Your situation isn’t much different.”

“True,” said Camilla nodding her head, “it’s just a question of whether you want the real or fake life.”

“FAKE! PLEASE GIVE ME MY FAKE LIFE BACK!” Raven yelled, before anyone else could comment again.