Yurui The Cursed One

I only realize the others have stopped when I nearly run straight into Maya’s back. I manage to pull to a stop just before colliding with her and take a step back. Around us, the rhythm of the run has already fallen apart, leaving only ragged breaths as everyone slows to a stop. Marcus was in the worst shape out of all of us. He makes it another few steps before bending forward with both hands braced against his knees, sweat runs down the side of his face and drips onto the floor beneath him. It takes him a few seconds to get the words out between heavy breaths.

“T-that's enough for now.”

Narun doesn't look much better. He wanders toward the nearest wall and lifts the bottom of his shirt to wipe his forehead, while Maya rests her hands on her hips and takes a few slow breaths beside me. Even Oba, who’s spent the entire time looking about as animated as a corpse, seems a little winded, his chest rising and falling more noticeably than before.

I glance between them.

Huh.

I knew we'd been running for a while, but I hadn't realized everyone else was this exhausted.

Meanwhile, my own breathing has already settled back to normal. My legs are still warm from the run, but there is no ache in them, no tightness in my chest, and I do not feel even the slightest urge to sit down. If anything, I feel better than I did when we started. Honestly, I was a little disappointed we were stopping already. I’d been enjoying the run more than I expected.

Oba looks over, wipes his face, and pauses.

“Hey, new girl. You don’t look very tired.”

The others turn my way. With everyone suddenly staring at me, I lower my eyes to the floor.

Marcus lifts his head, still bent over and catching his breath. “Oh, come on.”

Narun glances at him. “What now?”

“Some of us are trying to preserve what little dignity we have left,” Marcus says, rubbing a hand over his face.

I glance down at myself. There isn't much to see. My breathing is almost back to normal already, and when I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead, it comes away surprisingly dry.

Maya pushes some loose hair away from her face and studies me for a moment. “You’re not even sweating.”

“Should I be?” I ask, not quite sure what she’s getting at.

Marcus finally straightens, one hand still pressed against his side. “We’ve been running at full pace for over half an hour.”

Narun keeps staring at me for another moment, then wipes his forehead with the hem of his shirt.

"Dam, for real, how the hell are you not tired? You work out or something?”

“Not really,” I say, still not seeing what the big deal is. We only did some light jogging, if anything, the most surprising thing was how worn out everyone else was.

His expression shifts from confusion to genuine curiosity.

“What about sports? Training? Anything?”

I shake my head. “I walk to or from school sometimes, that’s about it.”

Marcus gives me an annoyed look. “That does not count.”

“To be fair, that’s still a pretty long walk. Five hours, sometimes more,” I point out, feeling the need to defend myself.

Marcus gives me a long, exhausted stare.

“That is not what people mean when they ask if you exercise.”

I frown. “Why not? I’m moving my legs for five hours straight, sounds like exercise to me.

Marcus rubs a hand over his face while Maya lets out a quiet laugh beside him.

“I don’t know where you’re from, but where I come from, walking home from school definitely doesn’t count as training.”

Narun looks between Maya and me, still trying to make sense of it. “How is it possible that you never once in your life noticed you could run for over half an hour without even getting winded?”

I shrug.

“I mean, maybe I have. I never really paid much attention to it.”

I probably had at some point, but thinking back, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone for an actual run. Hell, I barely even ran during PE if I could avoid it. Most of the time I either skipped the class altogether or faked being sick and spent the whole period sitting on a bench.

Marcus stares at me. “You’re telling me you’ve never seriously trained, you don’t play sports, and somehow you're more fit than everyone in this room?” He adds, “You know we are not just some chumps, right ?"

I almost laugh, but the look on Marcus’s face stops me. He’s completely serious.

"You could say that the four of us are the best of the best, the pinnacle of human athleticism, and we've been training for as long as we can remember. And yet we had been sprinting nonstop for over thirty minutes, and you not only kept up with us but did so without as much as breaking a sweat..."

When he puts it like that, it does sound slightly suspicious.

“I suppose so,” I admit, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.

Marcus lets out a tired groan and shakes his head. “Okay, that’s just annoying.”

I frown. “What is?”

“You.” He gestures with his hands. “You know how long we’ve had to work to get to this po–”

Narun shoves a hand over Marcus’s mouth.

“Don’t listen to that idiot. He’s taken a few too many hits to the head on jobs. Scrambled something important up there,” he says, doing his best to force a reassuring smile that keeps slipping at the edges.

My stomach drops. Of course. What else had I expected? I’d shown up out of nowhere, barely knew any of them, and had already started acting as if I belonged here. Maybe they had been annoyed by me from the start and were too polite to say it outright.

I blink a few times and look away before the sting behind my eyes can turn into anything more embarrassing.

“I’m sorry," I mumble quietly.

Narun sights

“Stop apologizing. Some people are born into better circumstances, while others receive greater blessings. It's just how it is. You take whatever advantage life throws your way and run with it as far as you can.”

Marcus gasps for air. “That’s what I was going to say, you freaking jerk!”

Maya gives him a light smack on the back of the head. “I warned you not to bully the new girl.”

“But I’m n—" Marcus protests but gets hit in the head again.

I cannot help but chuckle to myself. It certainly seems that I have come upon a very colorful crowd.

Marcus, finally recovered, points at me. “Wait. How the fuck do you not know you’re this athletic? Like, how is that even possible? If you are messing with us, now’s as good a time as any to come out with it.”

I shrug. “How the hell am I supposed to know? It’s not like I have pro athlete written on my forehead. Besides, I was never that good during PE or anything, I was just average, like right in the middle of the pack.”

He looks at Narun. Narun looks back at him with a weird look on his face.

I frown. “What?” I ask, genuinely confused.

“Could be your blessing,” Narun says, eyeing me up and down.

“But I’m not even transformed right now,” I say, frowning as I glance down at my hands.

Okay, hopefully they weren’t just messing with me. Sure, I wasn’t tired, but was I really supposed to be? We hadn’t even been running for that long, and thirty minutes wasn’t even a full PE lesson. For all I knew, maybe these four had simply convinced themselves they were some kind of elite athletes when they were actually complete chumps, which would honestly be pretty funny.

Narun rubs his chin. “Blessings can affect you even when you're not actively using them, you know.”

I look at him, waiting for an explanation.

Maya pushes away from the wall. “It depends on the blessing. Some barely affect you outside of activation. Others change your senses, reflexes, stamina, strength…” She falls silent for a moment. "However, those are really rare outliers, usually stemming from a defective or complicated blessing."

Oh great, for a few moments I expected to receive a revelation that I was some kind of once-in-a-generation genius, but as it turns out, I’m just a cripple.

“A defective blessing ?” I stammer out nervously.

She nods. “Usually it’s nothing serious, but…’’ Maya trails off.

I swallow. “Don’t tell me I’m going to fucking die from this shit.”

Like the little devil he is, Oba immediately pipes up. “It’s happened before, people have died from out-of-control blessings.”

Great. Fucking amazing. I just found out I’m basically terminally ill. My day could not have gone any better if I’d tried.

“It’s very rare, though, so you don’t have to worry about it. Personally, I’m not aware of a single case. I just know it’s happened before,” Oba adds immediately after.

Marcus opens his mouth, “I–“ But Maya elbowed him to the side again, and all that came out was a pained yelp.

"So…what the hell am I supposed to do about it?" I ask while twiddling my fingers nervously, my eyes darting between different spots on the floor.

“Only one way to find out,” Narun says. “Let’s see what happens when you transform.”

Great, the only possible course of action is the one I’m incapable of.

“E-Um, I already told you, but I don’t know how to…” I trail off awkwardly, suddenly very aware of how stupid that sounds coming from someone who’s supposed to be an officer.

"Yes," Narun replies dryly, "We'll work on it now."

I glance nervously at Maya, but her expression doesn't give up anything.

I have no idea what's coming next, but I seriously doubt that I’m going to like it.

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