Oddballs

Walking up to the resting girl, Noah waved to her with a smile, his bright tone making a few heads turn toward them.

"I see you're training as hard as ever, Lillith."

"Noah?" She asked mid-exhale, her chest moving up and down as if ready to burst. "You're back already?"

"Of course I am. I'm never late."

"Yeah, right." She snickered under her nose, shaking her head with a tired grin.

"Who's that with you?" Her sudden question made Noah turn to Valentine, who was standing behind him awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.

"Wait a minute..." She mumbled; her eyes stayed on Valentine for a second longer than he would have preferred. Her expression showed a multitude of gears turning inside her head as she was trying to figure out who he was.

Finally, her voice came out, a little surprised in a good way. "Ghost guy?"

The question passed through them as Valentine turned around to where the Phantom was lying face-flat on the ground.

Despite a great first impression, the poor guy was sleeping on gravel with no one checking on his condition.

What kind of horrible people would leave him there all alone?

He didn't want to imagine how bad his face would look once he woke up and saw his face in the mirror, nor did he want to help him despite feeling pity for the man...

Who... did she just talk to?

"No, I'm talking to you, longcoat."

Furrowing his brows, Valentine growled.

"I have a name."

"Oh, was it scumbag or the bastard? My memory might be a little hazy after overexerting myself~."

Damn.

It seemed that he wasn't the only one with a sharp tongue, and it was a knight at that? What luck...

Now that he had actually gotten a better look at her, he immediately remembered who the girl was.

They had actually seen each other before, right as the selection was about to begin and send him to the monochrome world.

The playful female knight who made his heart flutter briefly, seeing him as nothing more than a strange child.

So that's why they say to look at what's inside?

Who would have expected a pretty girl like her to have such a foul mouth?

It's quite useless when everyone he meets looks like a freaking model.

You just wouldn't be able to focus on anything else!

Feigning a cough, he crouched down next to Noah, lowering himself to her eye level.

"But why did you call me a ghost boy?"

"Didn't Noah tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Her head snapped toward Noah, her eyes glaring, saying Why didn't you tellhim!? While he tried to act nonchalant, ignoring two pairs of burning holes being drilled through his skull.

"It seems that everyone else is here as well. I didn't expect the other five to be brought here."

"Don't ignore me-"

"Other five?"

The second Valentine's words left his lips, Noah's face lit up like a lightbulb, his body backed away from the sitting Lillith as he wrapped his hand around Valentine's shoulder.

A low grunt escaped him, but he didn't complain, only following the knight's gaze.

"You see," He started explaining, gesturing towards a group of people sparring. "After the selection ended, some people like you couldn't join any major groups to master their Ignis."

"They were either sent to their closest family or given a place to stay here, in the preceptory."

"Is that why I'm here now?"

Valentine asked with a frown. "To join the rejects?"

"You're not rejects!" Noah cut him off, his mind trying to find the right words so as not to make it sound like they were unwanted. "It's more like... the misfits!"

"That sounds even worse..."

"Remnants?"

"You can stop trying."

"What about oddballs!" Lillith chimed in from below, earning a scornful side eye from Valentine.

"No one asked for your opinion."

"No one asked for ya to talk back!"

Annoying.

Sighing to himself, Valentine looked at the troubled Noah, who was still focused on finding a proper name for the group. He looked as if he was genuinely trying his best, but with the current circumstances, it looked like nothing would make it sound better than it did.

"So I was invited to attend some sort of lessons?"

Noah raised his head and nodded.

"Exactly. The whole point of the selection is for others to see what you have to offer. While you are inside the trial, people who have reached a certain stage in mastery of Ignis can sense your potential and decide what to do with you if you manage to pass it."

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That's... stupid.

"Okay then, I get that we weren't good enough or anything, but then why waste time and effort on someone who was deemed worthless?"

"Cause everything can be useful," Lillith said as she pushed herself up against the stone fence, her body still shaky but standing. "Just because you're nothin special don't mean ya've got no use."

"She's right." Noah nodded along with her logic, looking at a group of five people standing huddled in the corner.

They all looked just as hopeless as him, with tired looks on their faces that seemed to convey just how much they hated to be here.

One of them was a thin man, old, a little unkempt. He was taller than Valentine, with an unshaved chin and ruffled brunette hair. He was dressed in light clothes with a dull green scarf wrapped around his neck and a cigarette between his lips that he didn't care to take out as he exhaled a puff of smoke onto a kid beneath him.

The child was a head shorter than Valentine, with long, prominent red hair and a spoiled attitude that she showed by hitting the old guy in the nuts a moment later.

Ouch—

After dropping to the ground holding his crotch, two people next to them jumped in, one held the child from attacking, while another was checking on the man crouched down with his face down.

A trained girl with long, unruly navy hair and a light blonde that wore various pieces of jewelry on his fingers. They quickly calmed the two down while another person watched from the side with a blank look.

Valentine couldn't discern what gender that person was, but from his face alone, he determined it was a man with long curly hair that hid his expression.

Nice raincoat though.

Watching the group in such disarray, he could hear Noah swallow his saliva before turning to Valentine.

"Everyone here feels just like you, Valentine. Because of how quick and sudden everything is for you lately, you might be against the entire idea... But once you start learning together and discover different ways to control your Ignis, I'm sure you will be able to accomplish anything!" Noah, laughing awkwardly, tried to look at the bright side of things.

Honestly, he might have been right.

Valentine also wanted to understand how exactly that spark that kept following him worked.

Seeing other people in a similar situation to him is a good practice, he could get to know them and their own perspective on how they dealt with this whole ordeal. Like a... Support group!

Exactly like it!

"Ay, Ghost boy," Lillith called to him all of a sudden as she shakily walked up to the two with a smirk, her eyes briefly meeting Ramona's.

This again...

"For the last time... I'm not-"

"Let's spar."

Eh?

"Lillith?"

Noah seemed just as confused as Valentine, both of them watching her wobble on her feet as if she were about to collapse at any moment, her smug expression seemed strained, painful to look at from the spectators' perspective.

Her weapon lay shattered on the ground where she sat, in no condition to be used again. There also didn't seem to be a replacement.

At least her clothes were intact: straight pants and a buttoned shirt with a curved rose on her heart.

Something like a uniform to wear during practice.

"Sure."

He agreed without hesitation, following her slow pace to where she fought Phantom.

"Valentine?"

Noah tried reaching for them, but both ignored his calls.

He didn't want the two to fight so soon, he knew perfectly well what they were both capable of and, because of that, tried to stop it from happening.

However, after being quiet for so long, Ramona held his shoulder tightly, her long fingers sticking to his plated armour.

Noah looked up at her expression, her golden eyes slightly opening with a glow.

"Let them be." Noah looked at the two already preparing to spar, Valentine's expression was stone cold while Lillith struggled to contain her laugh. "It's easier to learn the hard way."

Ramona said, pulling Noah closer to her.

In her eyes, a faint glow rippled as if content on watching this to the end.