They say your whole life changes when you graduate.
It's because the day of graduation is the same day of your Awakening.
One by one, each graduate stands before the Awakening Pillar, closes their eyes, and recites the Oath they've repeated millions of times in their eighteen years alive.
The Awakening is a big deal because there are no second chances.
The crystal pillar shines with brilliance as it absorbs your voice. One flash of color decides your rank. One rank decides everything.
Beasts never answered to humans before the Oath. It was a sacred contract between the Beast God and our ancestors as the first human–beast pact.
Beasts gain accelerated growth and access to their partner's skill when contracted. Humans gain safety and strength through them.
Intelligent Beasts crave growth and evolution.
Contracting with a weak human is chaining themselves to mediocrity.
If your rank is too low, they won't even glance your way.
Likewise, if your Beast is weak, no human will partner with you. No guilds, no parties, no warm bed at night.
That's why the Awakening matters so much.
A high-ranked skill earns respect from both sides of society.
I stare at the massive crystal structure glowing at the center of the stage.
They say that the Awakening Pillar measures sincerity when you recite the sacred Oath, that the most faithful receive the greatest blessings.
But I've seen arrogant rich kids mumble the words like they're reading cereal ingredients… and still awaken A-rank skills.
And if they don't? They just contract with the offspring of their family's legacy Beasts or buy a skill scroll.
Scrolls are the only way to awaken a second skill outside of the Pillar. Each one costs four lifetimes' worth of my organs.
Me? I've only ever contracted with three dappleback rabbits.
They had brown-and-white mottled coats. They sometimes hopped in zigzags to avoid predators. They were passive and low-instinct creatures, so children's pets, really.
They'll contract with anyone. My sincerity for Beasts was... kind of there.
Unlike the rich kids, I don't have the money or spare organs to fall back on.
If the so-called divine fairness decides to pass me over, that's that.
I need a different kind of luck.
"Aria Velwyn, graduating with Honours."
I flinch.
Of course. Her.
They also say that the Pillar favors appearances.
If that's true, Aria's destined for greatness.
She walks to the Pillar with the kind of quiet grace that makes the crowd hold its breath. Tall, aloof, silver-streaked hair that catches the morning light and eyes that look right through you.
Her hand rests on the crystal.
The Pillar flares so bright I squint. A resonant hum fills the air before a cascade of golden light shoots into the sky. Gasps echo through the crowd, followed by a roar of applause.
"A-rank skill, Ice Tomb!"
A rare, utility skill that's also AOE, the kind every guild would fight over.
The girls before her were average-looking and got average skills.
I'm not an orge. I'm just so unremarkable I'm forgettable.
Divine fairness probably prefers to pity the ugly over rewarding the boring.
The moment she accepts her diploma and bows to the instructors, I know we're in different worlds now.
All the boys have a crush on her. I'm no exception.
She keeps her distance from everyone. I'm the rare exception, being her deskmate.
I was the only boy her age able to exchange words with her, and yet, I never took it further.
If only I didn't have those shameful, unattainable desires of her every night, then perhaps I could raise my head and speak with her properly.
Alas, we'll never cross paths again.
The bitterness stays in my mouth until my name is called.
"Next, Eli Cohen, graduating with Honours!"
I step forward, bow halfway, when I meet her gaze.
Would she look at me differently if I awakened a top-ranked skill?
The Pillar looms before me, it's crystal glowing alive.
The Oath between Beast and Human is sacred, described as a turning point for continued life on the continent of Veyrath.
Is it really sacred if such an oath is inevitable?
Humans are Beasts, after all.
We crave the same desires, whether that'd be power, influence… lust.
Sincerity shouldn't be exaggerated, then. It should be true to oneself.
I've never been good at expressing myself. It's a weird realization when I know exactly what I'm feeling now.
It's shameless. It's another unfiltered fantasy of her breath-taking self.
I close my eyes and press my palm to the crystal.
A cold current surges through me then fading immediately.
The glow decorating the sky is only a faint green.
I don't need the announcement by the instructors to know my awakening is a forgone failure.
"D-rank Rejuvenation."
Under the polite and dismissive applause, the stage feels a hundred times wider.
My legs move before my head catches up. I wish they hadn't.
I'd rather still be in the past, before her gaze turned away.
Knowing it, seeing it, confirming it made it hurt that much more.
Ironic, that I awaken a healing skill, only to be hurting.
D-rank Rejuvenation.
What is that good for, if it couldn't even heal this heartbreak?
I grab my diploma and walk home without looking back.
.
.
.
By the time I enter the elevator, I've made up my mind.
When I get home, I'll relieve myself for the first time in two years.
It's a pathetic consolation prize. It's the only good thing I can claim today.
I toss my backpack and diploma onto the couch, grab a roll of toilet paper and lotion from the bathroom, and steady my breathing.
The last time I touched myself off, I was twelve.
It started when I kept two dappleback rabbits and didn't realize they were opposite genders.
One night, I woke to strange noises and found them "wrestling" on top of each other.
Curiosity led me down a rabbit hole, pun intended, that ended in a porn addiction.
Two years ago, I quit cold turkey. No p*rn. No m*sturbation.
I'd started noticing my brain twisting things, turning classmates into walking sex scenes. Every laugh, every accidental touch became something filthy.
When m*sturbation became my go-to stress response, I knew I had to stop.
But tonight? Tonight, I don't care anymore. The restraint's ready to snap.
I want the dopamine, the endorphins, the mental reset and clarity.
I want to finish this chapter of my life and start the next with pleasure.
I push the door shut with my foot, toss my backpack and diploma on the couch, and head straight for the bathroom.
A roll of toilet paper. Check. Lotion. Check.
The blinds in the bedroom are half-closed. A line of sunlight cuts across the bed.
I drop my pants, pump a small handful of lotion, and lie back. Cool air brushes my thighs, brushing against the stiff, burning mast between them.
Her face floods in as lotion lathers my dick.
Aria at her desk, pen poised between those elegant fingers.
Aria in that graduation dress, silver hair spilling over those bare collarbones.
Aria leaning in just a little closer to whisper something only I could hear.
God, how is she so hot?
My hand tightens around my dick and I hiss through my teeth. Even that first touch is too much.
Two years of abstinence didn't erase my fantasies. It has only honed them. It's rewired me, sharpened every nerve ending so that every detail of her in my mind is impossibly perfect.
The lotion is warm, sliding easy, squelching softly. My strokes start slow, savoring the pressure, the way my muscles tense with each pull.
The slick rhythm fills the room along with my own ragged breathing.
She moves in my mind, that cool, unreadable gaze looking down at me, those lips parting slightly, as if she's about to—
I groan, tightening my grip and pumping faster. Heat is burning below me each breath coming heavier, every detail of her turning sharper.
The faint scent of her hair is vivid. The way her collarbones catches the gleam light is unforgettable. The supple softness of her skin, if I could just—
A soft thump snaps me out of it.
My eyes shift sideways, vision still hazy, Aria's figure overlapping with the figure at the door.
Velvet.
The usually sleepy rabbit is in the doorway, ears twitching, nose in the air. She hops closer, first onto the dresser, then down the floor, until she's two feet away from the edge of the bed.
She's two feet away from my cock.
"Oh my god, Velvet, what are you doing here—fuck!"
The shock crashes into the climax already building inside me. My entire body seizes, muscles locking tight.
I can't hold it back anymore.
My dick convulses, and three hot bursts arc through the air. One lands between her ears, one across her cheek, and one splattering her nose.
"No, don't—" I lurch forward, arm reaching out.
It's too late.
Her pink nose wrinkles at the sticky, milky-white cum… then her tongue flicks out, lapping up every thick drop clinging to her fur.