"Wasn't that the point, Chuubo?" the Headmaster muses, in a soft, cold voice; and with every word he says, his appearance shimmers away into wisps, until Death is standing in his place - finally divested of away of his costume of flesh, done with playing games at last. "You were immortal once - maybe you still are! At least, you would be if you returned to your previous form, that is - but you chose to become an ordinary boy, with barely a few tricks to your name, and so you lived as an ordinary boy in this town. You wanted to experience how humans live, did you not? And your curiosity was never sated; your experience never over."
He pauses. The sudden crash of shattering glass from the room where Chuubo’s friends doesn’t seem to worry him, and... Chuubo hates to think ill of his friends, but it's probably not, with Natalia out cold, no animal for Seizhi to call for help, and Leonardo can barely get along with any of them on the best day, much less days where they’re facing his ex-mentor.
"It is no use to struggle, you should have told your friends. But," he continues magnanimously, "I am willing to help you complete your experience. I am going to kill you, Chuubo; and then you will know."
Chuubo swallows, his throat suddenly dry. “You’re wrong!” he says, more bravely than he feels - he’s just an ordinary boy, not the hero of some tale - and whatever past existence he might have discarded to become this ordinary boy, giant snake, river dragon, or dragon god of screams and flames, it won’t be of help. It never is.
“I became a boy so I would have friends!”
It echoes defiantly, as Death arches the Headmaster’s eyebrow. “Oh?”
The door crashes open as Chuubo tries desperately to stop being lost in the infinity of Death’s orbits, dark, full of stars, and hypnotizing - and in burst his friends, spear-headed by a shouting Leonardo.
Fill: Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine
He pauses. The sudden crash of shattering glass from the room where Chuubo’s friends doesn’t seem to worry him, and... Chuubo hates to think ill of his friends, but it's probably not, with Natalia out cold, no animal for Seizhi to call for help, and Leonardo can barely get along with any of them on the best day, much less days where they’re facing his ex-mentor.
"It is no use to struggle, you should have told your friends. But," he continues magnanimously, "I am willing to help you complete your experience. I am going to kill you, Chuubo; and then you will know."
Chuubo swallows, his throat suddenly dry. “You’re wrong!” he says, more bravely than he feels - he’s just an ordinary boy, not the hero of some tale - and whatever past existence he might have discarded to become this ordinary boy, giant snake, river dragon, or dragon god of screams and flames, it won’t be of help. It never is.
“I became a boy so I would have friends!”
It echoes defiantly, as Death arches the Headmaster’s eyebrow. “Oh?”
The door crashes open as Chuubo tries desperately to stop being lost in the infinity of Death’s orbits, dark, full of stars, and hypnotizing - and in burst his friends, spear-headed by a shouting Leonardo.
“Get away from him!”
“Oh,” Death repeats darkly.