When I arrived at school, I saw the classroom almost empty. For the first time in a long time, I had arrived too early… I looked for my seat at the back of the room to wait for someone to talk to.

Or just…

Someone who could take this heavy feeling off my chest.

Despite everything, I really couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened at the art gallery…

Hanna crying desperately as she transformed into that monster… 

That girl… Tormenta Violet… Breaking Hanna’s blue heart in two with her huge axe…

What would happen to her? When I destroyed Carter’s heart, he became a cowardly empty shell, so… What would become of Hanna?

"Hey, earth to Rose" Ariel arrived, waving her hand near my face to pull me out of the thoughts haunting my mind. "Are you okay? You look tired."

"Oh, I just… Stayed up late playing games yesterday, hehe…" I tried to deflect. I didn’t want Ariel to know or to be worried. It might not seem like it at first, but she really cared about the well-being of the people she considered friends more than she let on.

"You don’t need to lie to me if you don’t want to say what it was. You were off Dyscord all day yesterday." She replied, a little disappointed, and soon picked up one of her handheld consoles and opened a game.

After a few minutes, other students started arriving, including Miss Hazel, her beautiful hair moving with the wind, always calm, trying to blend in with the crowd… But I always saw her.

I always wanted to see her, no matter what.

But…

Why did her cold gaze remind me of that girl?

Tormenta Violet… With her serious face, her wavy lilac hair flowing, her huge dress blending sensuality with a princely touch… Her eyes were the same.

Not exactly the same, while Miss Hazel seemed to look at almost everyone with disinterest, the eyes of that Destroyer were… Sad? Angry? Tired? Maybe a mix of all that, with that blend of purple and blue that made her colder than ice. That girl… She was also very beautiful, but it was as if, if I touched her, I might lose my hand at that moment.

"Good morning!" Alexandra said loudly, accompanied by Melissa and Annabeth. Despite the three having left behind the idea of being an "exclusive group," they still walked together and made their own plans. Was it the power of being together that way for a year and a half? Maybe, but it didn’t interest me much. After purifying Melissa’s heart, I knew much more about her than I ever expected in my life, but her reality was still very distant from mine, and… Just like Alex, I didn’t know if she or Annabeth, who was passionate about romance stories that always began and ended the same way, would accept me as I am.

I love Miss Hazel.

Ever since I could understand myself, ever since I saw her for the first time, while she was in the corner of the room avoiding attention, hiding her sculptural face with her glasses, I loved her.

But even if, by chance, fate hadn’t allowed me to meet the Hazel I know, I would still have fallen in love with a girl. I knew deep down in my heart that even if she weren’t in my life, I would still love a girl.

Even though throughout my life, I also wanted to be one, even if my body wasn’t the same as Miss Hazel’s or Melissa’s or most of the girls I met at school.

The girls who knew about my life accepted me as a girl, but… there was still fear… If they knew I didn’t like boys, that I didn’t want to have a boyfriend, that this wasn’t the reality I wanted to live, no matter how much I forced myself to think otherwise.

I wanted to surround myself with pink things, have lots of cute plush toys, sparkling jewelry, and pretty hair bows. I tied my hair with red ribbons and curled the ends every morning because I felt beautiful that way, being this way, living this way… was what I always wanted.

And still

I wanted to love Miss Hazel the way she was; I wanted her to love me for who I am too. All these… desires, these wants, this thought… all of it was a part of me.

“Rose, Ariel, have you seen Hanna?” Alex said, approaching us with her two other friends. “I tried to talk to her all day yesterday, but she didn’t respond… The deadline for submitting illustrations for the contest is this afternoon, I’m worried…”

“It seems like the only thing you talk about now is Hanna. Are you in love with her or something, Alex?” Melissa said, looking bored as she checked her manicure.

“Hahaha, of course not, right? Alex likes Zackary, doesn’t she? She’s liked him since the beginning of freshman year!” Annabeth said with a carefree smile. She could be cheerful and a bit flighty sometimes, but when she got into her matchmaking mode and decided which couples should form, it really made me uncomfortable.

How did Alex manage to put up with that, knowing how much Hanna meant to her?!

“Ah, I haven’t been interested in Zackary since the end of freshman year!” The red-haired girl said, a bit embarrassed. “Anyway! She’s still not here, is she? I really need to talk to her…”

“By Zackary, you mean Zackary Linèrre? The boy Hanna liked at the end of middle school?” Ariel said monotonously, without taking her eyes off her game.

“That’s him!” Annabeth exclaimed, still with that same smile that could be as inviting as it was scary. “Hanna liked him too? What a surprise! It seems like you went through a love triangle, doesn’t it? It's very common in romance novels, imagine living something like that in real life?! It would be even more interesting if it were two boys fighting over you, right, Alex?”

Alexandra seemed clearly uncomfortable with that topic, yet Annabeth didn’t seem to notice… Or maybe spending the past weeks purifying hearts as Heartbreaker Magenta had really made me more sensitive to the feelings of the people around me.

“Can we… stop talking about this? If Hanna hasn’t arrived yet, I’ll wait for her here in the classroom, I just wanted to talk to her about the contest…”

Ariel stood up, giving Hanna a look she knew very well. She didn’t talk much about how she felt, it was much easier to see Ariel being social online than in our daily life, but… that look, which contained a certain anger, was the same look she gave Alexandra when she decided to start hanging out with Melissa and leave us behind, that stare that said “I don’t trust you” without saying a word.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” And with that, Ariel, the green-haired girl, left the room without much explanation.

Alexandra’s face looked embarrassed, the blush on her cheeks was much more of shame and regret than what I saw when she was smiling while praising Hanna, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong when I noticed how sad that girl seemed…

After a few minutes, the door opened, and the red-haired girl’s face lit up again.

“Good morning, everyone.” Hanna, the black-haired girl Alex adored so much, had arrived. I couldn’t help but let out a relieved smile when I saw that the tips of her hair were still dyed blue, maybe her artist’s soul was still there… But then… What had breaking the blue heart done to her?

“Oh, Hanna, I’m glad you arrived! Why were you so late? I really need to talk to you!” Alex said, running to her like an excited little girl, showing a thousand and one emotions that my eyes could only understand as a heart thrilled to see the one she loves.

“I had to deal with some things at home… but it’s nothing serious.”

“Well, if you’re okay, then I’m okay too! Anyway, today’s the deadline to submit the illustrations for the painting contest that Ms. Suzuki mentioned! Since the last period is with her today, I was thinking we could show her the drawings and then we could submit them together… If you haven’t already, of course! I imagine you spent all Sunday working on the drawings, right?”

“Oh, about that…” My artist friend’s carefree smile turned into a sheepish grin. “I’m not going to enter the contest.”

“W-What…?” All the excitement Alexandra had was shattered, leaving only desperation in her eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Seeing that exhibition made me realize… I don’t have the talent for this, you know? The people entering this are real professionals, it would be ridiculous for a high school girl to send in some silly drawings to compete. I was talking to my mom this morning… I’m going to stop drawing and focus on something worthwhile, like my grades at school, I always stay average because I wasted my time with drawing.”

“...Who are you, and what have you done with Hanna?! Are you serious?!” Alexandra was losing control with the volume of her voice, soon the rest of the students were looking at the two of them as people looked at a car accident.

In the middle of the commotion, Ariel entered the room again, calm as if nothing was happening.

“You don’t believe this, right, Ariel?! That Hanna can just give up like that?!”

“...Do you want to stop drawing, Hanna?” The girl who had been playing all morning put her console away and looked at the other, who, despite being serious, still had a pained expression.

“...I do. I don’t like doing it anymore, it’s hard and there’s so much to learn, I know I’ll never be as good as those other artists, so what’s the point?”

“Well, if you decided that for yourself, then there’s nothing I can do.” Ariel spoke nonchalantly. “But… I hope you really understand what it means to stop drawing… even though you’ve been doing it for so long.”

“Ariel, are you stupid?! Are you really going to let her give up like this?! And you, Hanna, are you going to be a coward and give up like this?! Are you going to let someone or something just take all of this away from you?! We met because you were drawing, because we watched the same show when we were kids, and you were always drawing the characters! Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been drawing! Are you just going to throw that away like it means nothing?!”

“...Are you still insisting on these childish ideas, Alex? I don’t have talent, if I spend my whole life trying to draw, I’ll never be a real success.”

“You damn coward! It’s this side of you that I hate!” Alexandra shouted, trying not to cry but not seeming very successful. Behind all this insult was a side of her that really wanted to help Hanna, but…

That wouldn’t reach her… not after what happened at the gallery.

It was my fault…

All of it…

Was my fault.

“Guys, please let’s calm down… Everyone’s looking…” I said, hoping to try to separate the two.

“It’s true, you’re being irrational, Alex. If Hanna doesn’t want to enter the contest, there’s nothing we can do. They’re her drawings, after all.” Melissa added. I couldn’t say I completely agreed with her, but no one there could fully understand what was happening, and it’s not like I could explain what Destroyers or crystallized hearts were…

“These… were the illustrations we worked on together…” Alexandra said, more to herself than to the others. “Don’t go deciding what others can or can’t love!”

TRIIIIIIIIIIIM

The bell rang.

The chemistry teacher, Manuel Eisen, entered the room and immediately told everyone to sit down so the class could begin. Everyone obeyed, some quicker than others, but still, Alex couldn't hide her sadness from her face.

But… that… was strange…

I hadn’t seen Carter since I destroyed his heart, but from what Melissa had said, it was as if his soul wasn’t there anymore… However… Despite being discouraged, Hanna seemed fine… I mean, not really fine, but she wasn’t acting as if her soul were dead.

Well well, let me lend you my eyes for a second. You humans are really limited…

Anima’s voice echoed in my head, and when I glanced at Hanna, I could see… Her crystallized blue heart broken in two, with small shards floating.

That… What does it mean?!

Hehehe, it seems the new Destroyer left quite a job for you, huh?

What do you mean, Anima? Anyway, I’m in class now, if the teacher catches me not paying attention…

I opened my bag to get my materials but…

“Do you really think your peaceful life can continue as usual, Rose Ophelia?”

“KYAAAAA” I reacted instantly as that pest in the shape of a winged bunny tried to get out of my bag.

“Miss Ophelia, is there something you’d like to share with the class?” The teacher spoke. I knew he didn’t like me, but the way he looked at me when I screamed was almost as if he wanted to expel me right then…

“Hahaha, I need to go to the bathroom, sir, it’s urgent!” I left the room with the bag, trying to avoid more weird looks, and as soon as I found an empty corridor with no windows, I let Anima out of the bag.

“You… What were you doing?! You almost appeared in front of everyone! What would I say if a winged bunny that looks like a plush toy started flying around the classroom and talking to me?!”

“You humans are so simplistic! Anyway, you saw it, didn’t you? That girl’s heart wasn’t completely destroyed, there’s still hope!”

“There might be, but… how exactly could I fix her heart? Can I glue it back together with super glue or something?”

“Of course not! You can’t put super glue on a magical fragment! But… you are a Destroyer, and the other Destroyer has also revealed herself, so…”

“So what? Stop being so mysterious, Anima! If I miss more chemistry classes, that teacher will definitely make me repeat the year!”

“This means… the Liebesherrscher is near.”

“How are you so sure?”

“That type of wound isn’t completely broken… The Liebesherrscher approaches hearts that are suffering, so I believe Tormenta Violet did that not to destroy your friend’s heart but to draw the Liebesherrscher closer to us!”

“If you’re saying that… then that means Tormenta Violet’s true identity is a student at this school, doesn’t it?”

“It might or it might not be. She is the Destroyer who made a contract with Kenos, and… his situation is a bit more atypical.”

“What do you mean? Is there more to this story that I don’t know?”

“These are complexities of the people of Omoiland, but… Kenos and I are a quite noble part of the royalty, it is we who possess the power to travel outside, to find fragile humans like you and even other beings we might need to connect with, but our powers have different principles. My powers follow the principle of the ‘soul,’ given to hearts that have strength and faith, for distinguished fighters like you.”

“And that black cat’s?”

“Kenos controls the principle of the void. Where there is no soul, there is a void. So, that girl… must be working with him precisely to find some cure for her pain.”

“She also doesn’t seem willing to talk to me…”

I still remember the anger and sadness mixed in those eyes when she spoke to me when she said I wouldn’t understand…

Hanna’s heart was still shattered and blue

There could still be more victims nearby with a blue heart

And that wasn’t something neither I, nor Heartbreaker Magenta, nor Anima could fix… The only one with the power to purify blue hearts from sadness was Tormenta Violet.

♡