SSS Cultivation: I Can Conquer Earth's Rank System
Chapter 61: A Week: Wednesday (Myriads of Feelings

Chapter 61: A Week: Wednesday (Myriads of Feelings

"Wow. It’s really Loca."

Finally, he’s getting to communicate with Loca from Luxus ever since he got to the academy. He had thought that their Passive Interstellar mind communication quirk had experienced some glitch. He had even thought maybe Loca was intentionally not communicating. He felt abandoned and pushed to the mercy of these brutal Earthlings.

Leo felt so exhilarated at that sudden "ding" sound in his head. He even welcomed the headache that always accompanied the start of their mind communication this morning. Instantly, he forgot about how distressed he was about Lam. He knew Loca was now here to help him with so many questions bothering him. He knew it all just got easier for him, like he just secured an experienced personal tour guide navigating him through the most dangerous routes.

<Loca. Loca. Are you there? It’s been a long time>

Saying these in his mind wasn’t enough. He felt like blurting those words out and scream for joy, but someone might hear him and may think him psycho.

<Hi, Leo... Bye, Leo>

That was all Loca said as response. The ding sound went off in his head again and the communication ended. Leo’s heart sank. He felt like crying.

<Loca? Loca?>

No response.

"Okay. That’s not very nice."

Leo grabbed a towel from the rack, yanked his shoes off and jogged to the nearest punching bag.

Oh, what a bad day to be a punching bag.

He unleashed every anger he didn’t know he had, on the red stuffed bag. One, two, three... A hundred punches, still counting... Punching at the speed his tiny frame and resilience could allow, and breaking the limit there on stamina and tenacity. His arms started aching. Then he switched to kicks.

"Very not nice!"

"Not very nice!"

"Not nice, very!"

He played with those words of complaint while balancing on his left leg and kicking vigorously with his right which stayed airborne, swinging at that short arch, back and forth, hitting the bag.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

His right leg went sore and hurting, unable to bear such sudden rigorous activity. But Leo wasn’t done yet, was he?

Without giving any part of his body a break, he lowered his hanging right leg, bounced on his left, and switched the position of his legs all at once. Now, the left one’s doing the kicking, the sore right is supporting.

And on and on it went until the left was sore and tired also. He would have proceeded to continue if only he had more limbs. He thought of hitting his head repeatedly against the bag also, but that was probably a beastly behaviour. It’s good that despite his anger, he didn’t think of anything more stupid than the one he’s done.

He was breathless, panting hard. Sweating. He was standing in a pool of his own sweat.

Ding!

That sound again. The sudden switch from anger to excitement probably needs to be studied.

<Loca! Loca, are you there? Please don’t go yet!>

But there was no reply.

Was he imagining the sound in his head or was Loca really connecting with him and not communicating? Was he playing pranks on him? No, Loca is not the type to prank a kid.

Ding!

Leo was sure he wasn’t imagining it this time around. It really sounded. He was sure of it. Maybe their connection was faulty. Just maybe.

He was insanely tired, so he slumped on the floor to rest. Nobody was at the class yet even when it was a few minutes past the normal assembly time. He couldn’t care less about the class for now. He really needed some quiet time, if nothing else.

In his idle thoughts, one of those really idle thoughts where each thought linked to another even though there wasn’t any real connection between those thoughts. First, he thought of Lam and his suspiciously crazy acts, then Peter Payne and his dirty hints on a secret he had of him. Leo probably knew what secret Peter was hinting about but he wasn’t going to confront Peter yet. Maybe he was only just speculating and trying to get a reaction out of Leo to confirm if what he was speculating was real, and Leo wasn’t planning to give him that satisfaction.

Then his thoughts flew back to Jade in the living room earlier. Something felt strange with his behaviour. He wasn’t trying to pick a fight like Leo thought. Now that he was replaying that time in his mind, he could see that Jade was struggling with something. Like, he was trying to tell him something that was apparently too hard to tell.

His thoughts switched back to Loca at planet Luxus. Suddenly and dreadfully, he reeled back to that terrifying thought from earlier. He had to hit himself in the head to stop the thought from lingering. "What is wrong with me? Why did that keep popping up?"

"But I need to find a way to bring this quirk back before my Beast weapon classes commence."

"But you shouldn’t think of doing something as stupid as that, you idiot."

He heard rushing footsteps. His fellow students are here already. The class is starting soon. Leo knew Fong Yuk will complain a lot about him today as he is so tried that he wasn’t sure he could walk properly for now. To think he pulled off a very impressive performance against Rosa yesterday (thanks to Jose) only to appear drained today.

"Leo ’wonderful’ Rayden," that shrill voice echoed round the under occupied classroom. Of course, Leo knew who it was. He was expecting to see a slim figure, with deep brown eyes and a hair done in a neat ponytail.

He was right. But Rosa wasn’t on any ponytail today. Her sandy brown hair swept down both sides of her oval face. She had a green scarf covering the top of her hair though, giving her a very striking look, like a super model who decided to be modest but still slaying regardless.

"I looked for you everywhere. Why are you sitting alone here?" Rosa asked with a slightly worried voice. Leo was uncomfortable being alone with her again. He wished the other kids would troop in and make this atmosphere less...what’s that word?...romantic, yes.

"What do you mean why am I here? Is the combat class ended?"

Rosa smiled sweetly. It was as she predicted. "You didn’t hear the news, I guess."

"What news?"

"Classes are cancelled for today."

"Why?" Leo was happy and curious at the same time.

"Someone died," Rosa said as if announcing that Jade was her brother.

Shocked. "Someone? Who? How?"

"A freshman. His name was Gabe. It wasn’t my fault. I just had to kill him when he wouldn’t stop talking trash about you." A guilty face washed over Rosa’s face.

Leo bounced up, forgetting he was weak in his legs. "WHAT?!!!"

The laugh that escaped from Rosa was intentional and straight from her soul. She enjoyed every bit of Leo’s reaction at her fake confession. "Just kidding. They found him behind the girl’s dorm with a very wide bite mark that took half of his neck. The authorities are suspecting a beast on the loose."

He had no right to be happy about such a news, but the relief that washed over Leo after Rosa said she was kidding about what she said earlier, was enough to console a dying soul. He didn’t know what he’d have done if it was true.

"Gabe," Leo repeated the name. He didn’t know if he ever encountered him, but he felt sorry for whoever he was. No one deserved to die like that. "I feel sorry for him."

"Yeah, me too. Your reaction was priceless earlier though," Rosa laughed again.

"Stop making jokes like that. I mean you had a serious face while telling it. You should consider acting as a career."

Rosa laughed the more. She wasn’t stopping. At that moment, Leo saw something he hadn’t seen before. Well, it was always there, maybe he was just blind... Her innocent laugh, her perfect dentition, her straight nose, her beautiful curly brown hair adding some weird contrast to her soft light skin, her free nature, the shape of her body, the shape of her face, her nimble and fluid-like movement, the shape of her—

"Stop, you fool!"

He didn’t even realize he was smiling. She had stopped laughing.

"This is the first time you’ve ever smiled at me, you know that?"

The speed at which his face switched from pale to red, even the speedster teacher, Amelia Green couldn’t match it. He looked away in embarrassement.

"How long have we been admitted in the academy now?" Rosa asked, changing the topic which seems so uncomfortable to Leo.

"A month, I guess."

"And have you been anywhere apart from the hospital wing, classrooms, the cafeteria, the staff room, and your dorm?" Rosa pressed sweetly.

Leo pondered. "Well, I’ve been to the open field with you the day you wanted to see your Avenger crush, Sunslayer."

It was Rosa’s turn to turn away from embarrassment. It was Leo’s turn to laugh. He stifled it though.

"That was a stupid move, I won’t lie. Anyway, I’m going to the library. Care to tag along?" Rosa asked.

"I don’t like reading," Leo said. Anything to not go.

"I know," she rolled her eyes. "Just come see something different for meteor’s sake."

Was Rosa forgetting something? Leo wondered. Did she forget that they were not expected to be seen together as instructed by her brothers? Of course, I’ll remind you.

"Jade. Riley," was all he said. She rolled her eyes so far back it hurt and let out a frustrating grunt.

"Trust me, you need not fear nothing. Let’s go."

She turned to go.

Leo moved his heavy legs also.

"We only die once, right mate?"