June 16, 3142, Sunday. In the woods, Ren is conversing with the old man. As it progresses, he lays down the ground full of dead leaves and insults the old man.
“From all the things you could’ve done, why an athletic competition?”
“Just do it, kid”
“Fuck you, I’m not announcing them that for a worldwide entry exam”
The old man proceeds to walk without minding Ren’s ranting. As he stopped, he showed Ren a button from a pen he picked from his pocket and looked back.
“Threatening me now, huh?”
“No… just reminding you who’s in control”
The old man continued to walk while Ren walked in the opposite direction, pissed off over the old man’s request.
6:15 AM, June 17, 3142, Monday. In the Homura Academy dormitory, Vincent and Blaze are currently arguing in their room with Shado silently trying to push them from getting near to each other.
“I TOLD YOU, YOU CAN’T KILL PEOPLE JUST LIKE THAT”
“---FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN? Watch them die? Scream? OR GETTING TRAUMATIZED OF A FUCKING BAGEL”
“But isn’t he the first man in society to accept you as a person?”
Vincent went silent and paused. He then vigorously got his arm off of Shado’s hold and went to the door. As Blaze called his name, he stopped.
“Did I… really kill him?”
“What? Er- uh-, you didn’t?”
Vincent confronted Blaze and quickly materialized a long sword aimed close at Blaze’s neck while at the same time, Shado rifts his own hands to get rematerialized around Vincent’s neck and holds it.
“Remember this, Lissclion. I am willing to kill anyone whoever I see to be in the wrong. Other than that, I will never, EVER hesitate to kill anyone who uses my family’s name to cover their inhumane deeds. If you watched it from the news or an exclusive, Lissclion-only CCTV, you haven’t seen the full picture behind that teacher’s manipulative mask. And lastly, I would never claim a murder without its blood on my hands as I see it.”
Blaze went silent, and so did Vincent. Suddenly, their materialized items disappeared without their consent. After, a void portal sucked them three at the same time and teleported them to the school gym. The moment their heads got out of the portal, Ren hardly punched their faces and flew to the corner of the gym with enough impact to damage the said corner. Ren then slowly walked in a girly fashion to the three and smiled in front of them.
“You’re late, tee hee hee”
A sound of a deep-voiced skinny man with black hair long enough to cover his eyes echoes around the biggest establishment in the academy. As the three stood up, the skinny man became buffed as he jumped from the stage to their front from a distance of twenty kilometers in an instant. This shocked the other students and they slowly moved away from Ren and the man.
“Do you know what day it is today? Huh?”, Said the buffed man.
The three were confused.
“Really? You haven’t told them, Ren?”
“Uh, can I ask a question–”, Vincent asked just as his head was thrown down by the buffed man’s fist. Which makes Blaze breathe even more in terror.
“Well, you’re the one tasked to announce it, right?” said Ren casually.
“Eh, damn liar”, The man responds right before he jumps back to the stage and becomes skinny again as he lands.
As Shado is helping Vincent to get his buried head out of the ground, Blaze goes to Ren.
“Who is that man? Where is Falcon? What’s the announcement for?”
Ren stayed silent, looking serious towards the stage.
“Just let him explain it to you. The one who organized this is such a pain in the ass”
The man began to pick up the microphone and asked for everyone’s attention. He introduces himself as Roberto le Vou, a gym teacher.
“---You might start to wonder, excluding the chaos earlier. What’s up? Well, to answer that. This Wednesday, we will be conducting a school-sports day-based Entry exam for the upcoming third Ithorenth Mission Agency exam, which if you already know, is an exam on which when qualified, will become a member of the said agency and do whatever missions they give you. Now, why do we have to take this Entry exam and pass it to get to the main exam? The answer is that the coordinator of the exam was created and went through the idea mentioned earlier so you can have fun and at the same time get chosen by the judges on who will have the abilities to join the main exam. Now, any questions?”
A girl from the same class as Vincent and Blaze raised her hand. Then, Roberto grants her permission to speak.
“What are the events that will occur in the entry event, Sir?”
“Well, about that. We have three categories of events and within are two or three types of games—”
As Roberto set a silence of tension. It widens the first-year’s interest to the point it reaches its utmost peak. Waiting for the mention of the most wonderful events the academy can give them. Running? Tennis? Basketball? Everyone thought within themselves joyfully.
8:45 AM, inside the First-Year Section Yumenaka classroom.
Everyone is in distress, with visible hopelessness. The girl who asked earlier is looking at the blackboard with the list of categories with the individual events in each, anxiously. Meanwhile, Vincent and Blaze on the back were confused, Falcon is trembling as he reads the bible, upside down… and Shado pretended to be a shadow as he was placed sitting behind Blaze.
Seconds later, Falcon could not take the shaky hands and began to gently put the bible to his desk and up with a sour face paired with a melancholic gentle scream which reminisces of a chorale. The rest of the class began to look at him in confusion as Vincent held him up.
“I know, ok, I know… We don't know who could work within these events” said the girl. “Can you make him calm down, Ashite? I’m going to commence a prep meeting regarding this”
The girl swiftly raised her hand holding chalk and cried in a roar.
“THE FIRST YUMENAKA-1 CLASS MEETING, WILL NOW BEGIN”
“AAAAAGGGHHHH” screeched Vincent’s vocal cords as he slammed his head to his desk.
“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM NOW, ASHITE”
“Uhh, I’ll just explain it to him?”
“THE WHAT? MR. DRAKE?”
“GRAAAAHH, MY NAME’S NOT DRAKE MOTHERFLIPPER”
“THEN WHAT THE HECK IS IT?”
“His name is Bla~ze” Shado unexpectedly inserts in-between.
“WHY IN THE HEAVENS IS EVERYONE SHOUTING?” Asked Falcon.
“WHAT… THE… FUCK… IS… A… YUMENAKA”
The commotion suddenly went to a close. With literally everyone, including Ren and a buffed Roberto peeping from the window outside, grilling some meat, all confused.
[The Academy consists of four grade levels with four class sections that are named after the departed founder’s friends, named from the oldest descending: Juoldeus Lissclion (Deceased), Yumenaka Yachi (Deceased), Lexen Monstierre (Decamped), and Richard Ashite (Imprisoned)]
“Soo, about the events. Since I seem to know you all now, I’ll do the choosing myself” confidently said the girl as a shimmer of Arcanae energy came out of her eyes. This immediately took the students in shock and they wondered how.
“Heh, with an Arcanae’s help, of course, stupids”
The girl stepped back and picked a pair of tea shades, wairs them, and stomped her foot on the teacher’s table. She opened her arms wide and smirks.
“I… AM… VALODIA DARKFRIGHT… YOUR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE…AND I WAS BORN WITH THE ARCANAE COMMON FROM OUR CLAN… THE WELLOW SIGHT”
The moment she mentioned her Arcanae. Blaze’s eyes widen more than his classmate’s shock at the reveal of the class representative’s identity.
“Now, bow before me, as with these eyes, I saw what you all wanted, personality, biography, and most of it are worse enough to make your mommies cry in embarrassment. HO HA HA HA HAA”
As Valodia stands proud with enlighted glasses. A mysterious voice occurred from Falcon and Vincent’s ears.
“Do you think she looks like one of those black-haired AA nerd cuties that will get fucked by a fat ugly NEET? Because I did”
Falcon shouted with all his lungs and proceeded to cry while begging forgiveness in the bible. While Vincent calmly looked at the blond-haired boy and immediately noticed his HSMA uniform.
“Oi oi oi, Are we being too noisy, sir?” asked Vincent.
As the rest of the class looked in his direction as he walks to Valodia, rumors ensue and reached Vincent’s ear.
“Isn’t he the boy who instantly became a commander in HSMA? Isn’t it suspicious to get that high with such age?”
“I’m pretty sure he paid for that shortcut”
“I could’ve done what he did myself but my mom won't let me”
More rumor arises as the boy goes near Valodia. But what bothers Vincent is that Blaze is still shocked by Valodia’s revelation of her Arcanae. As he looks back, the blond guy is standing in front of the table where Valodia stood, she immediately noticed his presence and looked down.
“Oh, you’re finally here, Anstrale.”
“I have one thing to remind you,” said Anstrale as he smirks.
“Hmmm, is it because I have the high grounds?”
“Heh, you may have won with the high grounds… But I ALWAYS GET THE PRIZE”
In an instant, Anstrale flicked Valodia’s long black skirt upward and jumped before the rest of the class see Anstrale’s “prize”.
8:50 AM, Anstrale is walking towards the door, casually.
“Wait, aren’t you gonna join?” asked Vincent.
Anstrale stops and gave Vincent a thumbs up, he then looks at him with a beaten-up face and smiled.
“I won't, for now”
While Anstrale leaves the room, Valodia calls everyone's attention with a smirk.
“So, why are we here again~?”
11:30 AM, near the Lissclion residence. Blaze is still dazed by Valodia’s introduction earlier.
If the Darkfrights have the said Wellow Sight by heredity.
Then how come Ren has a different, FAR different Arcanae?
No…
Is he even a Darkfright in the first place?
As Blaze mumbled, he heard a knocking of wood in a distance. As he looked toward it, he saw Vincent with his father, happily training.
Oh yeah
I almost forgot
We have an event this June 19
Heh, I wonder why I became absent-minded whenever I see families together in jolly.
Father
Mother
I just wonder…
What could happen
If you had time to…
The time to…
As Blaze look beside him, he saw a familiar face. A blue-haired girl, in a blue skirt, in a blue shirt, also watching Vincent. Her unexpected presence startled Blaze.
“How… long are you… been… here?”
The girl stayed silent and smiled. Blaze looked in the same direction her sight is, he got shocked. Despite the distance, he can clearly see, for the first time, Vincent smiles with his father and mother. This sent chills in Blaze’s spine as he reminisce all the bloody Ashite children being abused in the streets. Despite the pain, despite the injuries he clearly sees Vincent constantly get since childhood, Blaze’s sympathy became too heavy, that it made him drop a tear.
Blaze proceeds to continue his walk as he wipes his eyes, leaving the girl still watching Vincent as her mother approaches and walked to home with her.
6 years
6 DAMN YEARS
Vincent
If only I could do something in your case
But I have my own goals
Which comes
With their own foolish quests.
In a mysterious office. A cyan-haired figure enters in the middle of the silent night and pats the sleeping white-haired man within. It then woke up and stretched its arms, yawning.“Do you know what time it is?” Asked the man.“Sir, it's 4 in the morning. It’s time for us to go”“Ahh, yes… correct”The man then smiled as he stand up.Let’s see, if we can find… one of the vessels. Tch heheheeJune 19, 3142, Homura Academy. The day has come, Homura Academy’s annual Olympiad-like event. An event where students are supposed to have fun as their parents watch them in the same manner. And yet, some don’t follow the same formula. Some see the event as a day to have fun, while some see it as serious business for either themselves or the clan which they proudly represented in their classes.The crowd with a variety of clans began to fill the bleachers of the establishment in which the event is held, waiting for their kids to appear from the entrance proudly.Blaze enters the gates of the acad
February 27, 3130 In the raging breeze, at a deserted castle within the vastness of fine dust. A silver-haired man and a black-haired woman stood in front of the castle of ruins. The white-haired man gulps nervously as it slowly knocks on the gigantic gate. THUG THUG THUG Despite the soft knock, the travel of sound through the gate is enough to make goosebumps arise. However, else is nothing but the soaring sound of the wind, making the enormous door rickety in an uneasy way. The man attempts another knock. Before its hand made contact with the door, the door blew to smithereens. Revealing eight figures with the eighth being the man’s alchemist. It has come that the figures have known by them as the infamous savage terrorist group “Felentinna”. With a knocked guard, the man has come unknowingly about a certain event. Being split up, the man’s gaze is in search of the woman while avoiding consecutive attacks by the five figures of the Felentinna. Tumbling upward, downward, side
February 27, 3142, 7:25 AM at Bomei Elementary School, Homura. I did not kill him, W-We never did that. That's all… A frame-up. The boy opened his eyes and met a fist to his face. We never killed him. The boy fell to the ground as more kids ran to beat him. Believe me, We are not the culprit. I will prove the government wrong, and destroy the man who started all of this, Weldrin Vodabrick A total of eight male kids left the boy in a bloody state as the school ring ended the fight. Seeking revenge, the boy found an opening, picked a rock, and rushed to the kids. Suddenly, a teacher named Raiden holds his hand stuck. And sighs. “Bullying again? Cain? Lucie?” “No, we did nothing. The Ashite only smashed the rock to his face so he can frame us for attempted murder” An accomplice of the two replied. “Hmph,” Why, why, I’m a teacher, yet, I don’t have the guts to prevent bullying, is this the effect of the law? Did the law get absorbed into my brain like a dried cacao seed?
After two hours of walking, the boy frailly reached home, lost enough blood to make his vision blurry, he saw an incoherent silhouette of a red-haired woman approaching in his direction and passed out. Thirty minutes have passed, and the boy starts to wake up. Still having a blurry vision, the red-haired woman is holding the boy’s hand in her face as it performs ancestral hand signs. A green specter glare starts to come out from the woman’s hand as she continues the movement. “Continuous Seal: Complete Heal” The woman then placed its palm with the specter light on the boy’s chest, the light rapidly scattered to the boy’s body and healed the bruises and open wounds it passes, then it traveled inside to his body healing the damaged tissues, internal bleedings, small fractures, and lastly the blood addition slowly bringing the boy’s vision to normal. The boy realizes that the red-haired woman is his mother and rapidly hugs her tight with despair in his eyes. “Ko, where is…” A sudde
Scared by the infamous face of a killer, the mother kept declining in a tremble, protecting her daughter in a blue hooded jacket. “Give me the bagel… NOW” The fuck? All that for a damn bagel? The boy sighs disappointedly. Sometimes, Motives sound stupid when said aloud, isn’t it? “Hey!” the boy yells as he claps his hand twice walking into the scene. Attracting the man in black. As the man in black is seen by the boy, the boy starts to struggle at walking forward. “What?” said the infamous Noir Robin. Not seeming to answer, Noir Robin turns back his gaze to the mother and daughter and continues the unfinished crime. Shit Shit SHIT It's actually him It's my chance The start of saving an old reputation Fuck My brain Its giving me fears The boy continues walking to the scene, menacingly shaking, with seriousness on his sweaty face, and doubts filling his fearful mind. "Stop doing that sir, it's not cool", the boy attempted to save the mother and daughter. "You seem n
From a distance, Naiyhto can feel the pressure from the energy that Vincent released in such a long time. Raiden does feel it too, but his paralysis prevented him from reacting, yet he is still shocked. "Hmn, flexing too MUCH?" Naiyhto responds as he does 20 ancestral hand signs, then incants 20 Seals: Flash Step, teleporting himself to Vincent. Naiyhto draws closer with a smirk. Coldly, Vincent goes to a stance, keeps his katana on his left shoulder, and swiftly draws it forward. It then disappeared into thousand hexagon pieces floating around him. I thought I’ve made friends, Instead, I’ve made the ones who will cause my own to perish. “Sword Style, Manipulate: Rushing Barrier” The hexagons stopped floating, and each materialized into razor-sharp slash rays connecting to a nearby hexagon and slowly forming a sphere of continuous slashes protecting Vincent within. As Naiyhto continue his flash step, he noticed the rushing light of slashes drawing in his direction. He managed to
June 10, 3142, Four months after the Bomei Elementary School ceremony. Vincent, inside his consciousness at the mask’s environment with the sealed being now comprehensible by its mask. The mask sighs in boredom as Vincent walks toward it. “What exactly are you? My guy”, Vincent positively asks. “Huh?” blankly replied by the mask. “Like, what kind of being are you?” “Why do you care about such information?” “Eh, I dunno, maybe you could be my friend or ally or something” “Not a chance for a mere vessel” “Wellll, could I get your name at least?” The mask sighs, moments after, a grunt is heard. The mask looked to its front, a terrified Vincent got struck by a yellow streak of lightning towards his head, making the mask shocked. Vincent fell to the flesh-like grounds and held his head with both hands, grunting continuously from pain. Vincent screams in an attempt to restrain the pain, the mask thinks it's an act and remains cold. The moment the mask’s eyelid is close to blinking,
June 10, 3142, 10:20 AM. HSMA interrogation room. A sound of beaten flesh surrounded the silence of the isolated underground room below Homura. Then follows a splat of blood rushing like rain as blows throw it away from the figure’s beaten-up body. Behind the beat-up is a soundproof glass work with a single fluorescent producing a classical-yellow glare representing the aging item. The light reveals a black-haired man in the same HSMA uniform as the one who’s beating up. There, the man examines a familiar syringe with every piece of equipment the room had. [HSMA Uniform: A sign of being an official member of Homura Secret Mission Agency consisting of a funnel-collared black long sleeve with a certain color combination which tells a member what area of Homura he/she will focus on] The man grabs a flashlight and holds it with his mouth aiming forward as he picks up the scalpel and slowly sliced the syringe. Getting a test tube, he transferred the droplets of the sketchy liquid into i
In a mysterious office. A cyan-haired figure enters in the middle of the silent night and pats the sleeping white-haired man within. It then woke up and stretched its arms, yawning.“Do you know what time it is?” Asked the man.“Sir, it's 4 in the morning. It’s time for us to go”“Ahh, yes… correct”The man then smiled as he stand up.Let’s see, if we can find… one of the vessels. Tch heheheeJune 19, 3142, Homura Academy. The day has come, Homura Academy’s annual Olympiad-like event. An event where students are supposed to have fun as their parents watch them in the same manner. And yet, some don’t follow the same formula. Some see the event as a day to have fun, while some see it as serious business for either themselves or the clan which they proudly represented in their classes.The crowd with a variety of clans began to fill the bleachers of the establishment in which the event is held, waiting for their kids to appear from the entrance proudly.Blaze enters the gates of the acad
June 16, 3142, Sunday. In the woods, Ren is conversing with the old man. As it progresses, he lays down the ground full of dead leaves and insults the old man.“From all the things you could’ve done, why an athletic competition?”“Just do it, kid”“Fuck you, I’m not announcing them that for a worldwide entry exam”The old man proceeds to walk without minding Ren’s ranting. As he stopped, he showed Ren a button from a pen he picked from his pocket and looked back.“Threatening me now, huh?”“No… just reminding you who’s in control”The old man continued to walk while Ren walked in the opposite direction, pissed off over the old man’s request.6:15 AM, June 17, 3142, Monday. In the Homura Academy dormitory, Vincent and Blaze are currently arguing in their room with Shado silently trying to push them from getting near to each other.“I TOLD YOU, YOU CAN’T KILL PEOPLE JUST LIKE THAT”“---FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN? Watch them die? Scream? OR GETTING TRAUMATIZED OF A FUCKING BAGEL”“But
June 12, 3142, Two days after Ren’s chaotic exam. It’s Independence Day. Everything is full of color, children are running happily in the streets, the annual carnival is as packed as ever, and the people are hanging small flags with the country’s yin-yang-looking crest embroidered in blue and sewn in red fabric making it look like a flag. It is, after all, a jolly Homura day.From the 2nd door to the left on the 3rd floor of Homura Academy’s dormitory. A familiar voice kept whispering in the distance of Vincent’s sleepy ear in a nervous. Later, the voice clears its throat.“Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up—”Vincent is still out cold. Paired with snoring, and embraced his body pillow with his arms and legs. This annoys the familiar voice as it releases a frustrated sigh. The voice whispered once again with steps heard from the ground.“Your mom is outside, bissshhhh”Suddenly, a hard wave of breeze passed by the familiar voice and the sound of the door creak follow
Amidst the fight, Blaze starts to weaken from the blows he threw to Ren, which is still mysteriously untouched. Blaze currently sped up in circles as fast as the remaining of his energy could. While his eyes are still on Ren’s casual position, the same question occurs. Why can’t I hit him? Other than that, how can he hit me without any physical contact? Blaze finches his eyes and is glad to notice that Ren’s fists have fresh-made bruises. He immediately charged toward Ren with a smile on his demolished face. Ren, still unknowingly clueless, began to smile and slowly tilts his head toward Blaze in an uncanny way. Even running faster than the falling leaves, it startles Blaze. He stared longer at Ren’s face, and his uncanny face became disturbingly wrinkled. Blaze decides to end this and quickly throws a fist loaded with his Arcanae energy towards Ren’s face. But as it got closer, his gaze can’t be moved from the death stare of Ren’s right eye. Then it suddenly tilted to the side as
June 9, 3142, Lissclion clan residence. Blaze is standing, observing something at a window. He watches the situation outside in a hollow as a cry of a little boy kept louder in grunts. As he watches the beating, he recalls the news he saw in the last month of the fourth. He then crunched both of his hands inside his pockets as he recalled every word the boy spoke at that specific news and aggressively gritted his teeth. That guy, His words annoy me, Even just a syllable of it, It makes me puke to myself. But even so, He is strong, And his strength, Interest’s me A knocking sound came from the other side of his room and a woman clearing her throat followed. Blaze casually turned his head towards it, and calmly stomped his left foot twice. “This is Maid Aeris, someone has come to meet you, Master Lissclion” Blaze slowly walked to the door and stopped near it with a cold expression, and sighed. “For seven dang years, Master Lissclion is nonexistent” Without Maid Aeris’s answ
June 10, 3142, 10:40 AM, Kyourou-ho Hospital: Asoko Branch. Aston is walking to the hallway of the establishment while looking at the number tags above the patient’s doors. He stopped in front of one, Room #665. Raised his right arm, and attempted to knock on the door. The door opened before so, revealing a red-haired girl standing with its anesthetic stand as support, reminiscing Naiyhto. “Are you, Nozomi Makushi?” The girl nods coldly. “Where’s brother?” Nozomi asked in demand. Aston gazes at the cross above Nozomi’s bed. Noticing, Nozomi starts to cry and loses grip on her anesthetic stand. He then attempted to help her get up, but as he got closer to Nozomi. “I will kill you— Vincent Ashite” Shocked, Aston swiftly turned his head around the room and saw a television parallel to Nozomi’s bed. Aston swiftly got out of a sobbing Nozomi’s room and busted rushing out of the hospital. He speedwalks with his hands inside his pockets with an alarming expression. How? How can it b
June 10, 3142, 10:20 AM. HSMA interrogation room. A sound of beaten flesh surrounded the silence of the isolated underground room below Homura. Then follows a splat of blood rushing like rain as blows throw it away from the figure’s beaten-up body. Behind the beat-up is a soundproof glass work with a single fluorescent producing a classical-yellow glare representing the aging item. The light reveals a black-haired man in the same HSMA uniform as the one who’s beating up. There, the man examines a familiar syringe with every piece of equipment the room had. [HSMA Uniform: A sign of being an official member of Homura Secret Mission Agency consisting of a funnel-collared black long sleeve with a certain color combination which tells a member what area of Homura he/she will focus on] The man grabs a flashlight and holds it with his mouth aiming forward as he picks up the scalpel and slowly sliced the syringe. Getting a test tube, he transferred the droplets of the sketchy liquid into i
June 10, 3142, Four months after the Bomei Elementary School ceremony. Vincent, inside his consciousness at the mask’s environment with the sealed being now comprehensible by its mask. The mask sighs in boredom as Vincent walks toward it. “What exactly are you? My guy”, Vincent positively asks. “Huh?” blankly replied by the mask. “Like, what kind of being are you?” “Why do you care about such information?” “Eh, I dunno, maybe you could be my friend or ally or something” “Not a chance for a mere vessel” “Wellll, could I get your name at least?” The mask sighs, moments after, a grunt is heard. The mask looked to its front, a terrified Vincent got struck by a yellow streak of lightning towards his head, making the mask shocked. Vincent fell to the flesh-like grounds and held his head with both hands, grunting continuously from pain. Vincent screams in an attempt to restrain the pain, the mask thinks it's an act and remains cold. The moment the mask’s eyelid is close to blinking,
From a distance, Naiyhto can feel the pressure from the energy that Vincent released in such a long time. Raiden does feel it too, but his paralysis prevented him from reacting, yet he is still shocked. "Hmn, flexing too MUCH?" Naiyhto responds as he does 20 ancestral hand signs, then incants 20 Seals: Flash Step, teleporting himself to Vincent. Naiyhto draws closer with a smirk. Coldly, Vincent goes to a stance, keeps his katana on his left shoulder, and swiftly draws it forward. It then disappeared into thousand hexagon pieces floating around him. I thought I’ve made friends, Instead, I’ve made the ones who will cause my own to perish. “Sword Style, Manipulate: Rushing Barrier” The hexagons stopped floating, and each materialized into razor-sharp slash rays connecting to a nearby hexagon and slowly forming a sphere of continuous slashes protecting Vincent within. As Naiyhto continue his flash step, he noticed the rushing light of slashes drawing in his direction. He managed to