Ch. 67 | Revolt 8

Well, that was a fucking mess. Uden thought to herself as she recalled what had just happened.

Out of nowhere, the new officer twitched awkwardly on the spot and started making her way towards her desk. To Uden's surprise, somehow, Yurui had crossed half the office without her noticing it.

As she got closer, Uden could see the girl transforming as she walked.

Her legs changed first.

Black armor erupted over them like a ripple with a quiet, clicking sound, her limbs lengthened as Yurui’s entire frame surged upward. The transformation travelled through her torso almost instantly, dark plates crawled over the skin while one arm swelled into a massive, misshapen limb that barely looked human anymore.

Janis barely managed to turn her way when Yurui caught her by the head. The woman slammed into Uden's desk, the impact cracked through the room like a gunshot. The expensive wood and reinforced composite caved inward beneath Janis's body.

Everyone in the room froze.

Uden slammed her fist against the desk. She would have been reluctant to do it before, but her beloved desk was already destroyed, likely beyond repair too, so what did she have to lose?

"Wells." She said sternly.

To her annoyance, Yurui didn't react, and her transformation kept spreading further.

Well, that was a whole other can of worms she was going to have to deal with later. Uden thought as she took in the scene.

Short black horns pushed through the girl's hair. Jagged ridges climbed along her back. Her shoulders widened beneath overlapping plates, and something shifted beneath one side of her torso with enough force to distort her uniform.

Fucking hells. What exactly had Maevis dumped on her? This wasn't some talented newcomer sent to help—this was more like disaster Maevis didn’t want to deal with and sent her way instead. Uden’s pen drummed against the desk, a sharp sound echoing across the room.

Janis let out a strangled noise as Yurui's fingers tightened around her throat, a thin line of blood trailed from Janis's nose.

A cold chill traveled down the spines of Ninth Squad members as they saw the ice-cold expression on Yurui’s face as she strangled their squadmate.

Yurui's grip tightened again, and Janis whimpered.

The Ninth Squad immediately sprang into action and jumped at her, desperately grabbing at her hands, desperately trying to pry Yurui’s grip off Janis's neck, to no avail. The new officer was far stronger than anyone had ever expected. All they managed to do was loosen the hands enough to get some air flowing into Janis's lungs.

"Wells, let her go."

The words rang loudly in my ears, and I blinked a couple of times as I came back to it.

What the fuck was that? I could swear that someone spoke right into my ears before I passed out, or lost consciousness, or whatever happened was it that put me out of it.

My eyes had dropped to my hands, and the realization of what had just happened completely horrified me. I let go of the woman immediately and took a step back.

I looked around and found everyone staring at me with wide eyes.

What the fuck had I done?

I didn't even know this woman. I hadn't wanted to hurt her, let alone wrap my hands around her throat. I'd been trying so damn hard not to screw things up this time, I wanted to actually get along with people instead of making an enemy out of everyone around me.

And somehow, in the span of a few seconds, I'd managed to shit all over that too.

Heh, as always, fuck my life, I guess. No matter where I go or what I do, nothing ever changes. It’s almost like I was fucking cursed or something.

Janis collapsed beside the desk, catching herself badly on one elbow before rolling onto her side and breaking into a fit of coughing. Blood covered her mouth and nose, and one side of her face was already beginning to swell.

For several seconds, nobody moved to help her.

They were all staring at me instead.

Oba had backed almost to the wall. Narun looked genuinely frightened by me, Marcus kept flicking his eyes between me and the door, while Maya had gone completely still. The others– people I didn’t know yet- looked more lost and confused rather than scared, as if not knowing what to make of my little outburst. Alysa, though, had looked noticeably amused. Well, at least someone was having fun.

I thought as I bit my lip.

"Wells. Undo the transformation." Captain said sternly.

I lowered my eyes and looked upon my elongated body covered by dark armor.

Oh, right, that.

I could feel my cheeks heating up.

"Umh, I don't know how," I replied sheepishly.

Uden stared at me as if I had just told her that I had just shit my pants.

Something bumped against my side twice.

I turned to find Alysa grinning at me.

“Guess that makes two of us now, huh?” she whispered. “Fellow fuckups.”

Alysa clapped both hands over her mouth, but a snicker escaped anyway, her shoulders starting to shake as she tried and failed to hold it in.

“That’s enough.“ The captain shout said.

I winced, and Alysa snickered again.

“Shut up, or I’ll swear to Miracle Inc.’s good name I’ll have both of you whipped till your skin goes red. “

I don’t want to get fucking whipped, I thought, a fresh wave of panic running through me. Alysa’s playful giggling made it considerably harder to stay terrified, though.

“Are you gonna tie us with that rope and hang us from the ceiling just like how–

“Gawk !” Alysa shouted as she got hit with a book right in the face.

“Dafuq was that for ?”

A slight tremor had started running through her, and judging by the look on her face, she was one wrong word away from trying to kill someone.

She looked Captain right in the eyes and said:

“You wanna die bitch? I’m about to take that book and shove it up your ass so hard that you’d fucking explode.“

“Alysa…“ Uden said quietly, her face gone dark.

“WhAat“ Alysa replied mockingly, "Bitch," she then added quietly.

“Shut your trap for five minutes and let me deal with the mess you caused in peace. I’ll glue your mouth shut if that’s what it takes to get a few minutes of silence.” She held up a small bottle of glue for emphasis.

I turned to Alysa and saw her looking gobsmacked, horrified even as she eyed the bottle of glue suspiciously as she clenched her lips tight.

Uden nodded her head.

“Good, keep those gates of hell shut till I’m finished.“

Alysa looked like she was about to explode, but one glance at the bottle of glue in Uden’s hand was enough to make her compose herself.

“And you…“ Uden said while giving me a look

Oh fuck. Am I gonna get glued if I don’t do what she says?

“Stand there and don’t cause any trouble, we’ll go over your whole transformation thing once I’m done dealing with the situation at hand.“

I gave her a curt nod and kept my mouth shut. Considering the absolute clusterfuck I’d just caused, I’d gotten off surprisingly lightly.

If you were to look at it one way, at least I wasn’t the “situation at hand”. So not all was bad. Heh, I was starting to get pretty optimistic nowadays. Before, I would have been mulling over the ”go over the whole transformation part”. I have been here for less than a day, but I had already started displaying signs of a positive change. I could only imagine as to what the future holds for me. Well, whatever it is, I bet it’s better than whatever I have had before.

Uden looked at the massive dent in her desk, then at Janis collapsed on the floor. From the expression on her face, I got the feeling that even by her standards, this morning had gone completely off the fucking rails.

She then shot another look at Janis

Janis wiped more blood from her nose and turned to face her captain.

"We didn't come here to fight."

“I’m well aware“ Uden says in a casual tone. “You should also be aware that I’m not going to fire my vice captain because she’s not the miss popular in the squad.“

“Damn right !“ Alysa proclaimed with an eager look on her face. “Tell them to fuck off, Mr Captain.“

Uden tapped the glue bottle against the table. Alysa immediately snapped her mouth shut and threw her an enthusiastic salute.

“Listen––

Janis hissed, but Uden slammed the glue bottle against the table. Both Alysa and Janis winced. Janis shot Alysa a glare, and Alysa stuck out her tongue in response.

“Enough !“ Uden shouted.

That sure got everyone's attention.

“No more circus. Turn away and go back to the dorms, go get changed into your uniforms, and we’ll pretend that none of this had ever happened.“

Bereth took a step forward.

“You know we cannot do that, the majority of the squad, including the officers, by the way, are on our side. You cannot talk your way out of this“

“Oh, do we now ?“ Uden asked almost mockingly.

“Yes.“ Breteh replied frankly

“Well then, let's not beat around the bush and do a hand count, that ought to settle things.“

Bereth gulped and took a step back.

“Ma'am.“ He said quietly.

“Oh, don’'t you mam me.“ Captain Uden said while waving him off.

She paused, then looked at him. “Bereth."

“Yes ?“

Uden flashed a smile.

“You’d better start praying you’ve got the officers on your side, because otherwise the rest of your day is going to be a lot less pleasant than you were expecting.”

Bereth muttered something under his breath and shifted uneasily on his feet.

All I could do was stay quiet and brace myself for whatever disaster was coming next.