Zack did not work well with the evidence of what had happened lying around him, and though Sora cared little about this himself he quietly resolved to make his means of killing less generalized, less bloody and far less off-putting. Future hosts would be far easier to get along with if they didn't react as badly as Zack did. They'd still probably have issues with a creature that killed, but the less horrifying he made it, the longer he'd keep them for - a trade off, but one probably well worth it.
While Zack got to work, Sora headed through the wall and back into the hub itself, watching the students as they came and went. For the most part only those practising Air related magic arrived here, though there were some students who came only to stop by and chat with their friends before lessons actually started.
On the other hand all manner of people came in to head to other Hubs, some students, again a few staff members, and some who Sora suspected were no longer students but still had access to the University's transport network. He used the flight spell again to float above them all and watch, looking for potential in any of them. Some of them had an imperceptible mark about them, something that make them stand out while not appearing to be any different. After listening in on several conversations, Sora decided it was likely a mark of the magic they were learning, Shadow magic, or when several of them gathered together to talk about it in hushed voices, Dark magic. Such meetings were rare here on the Air site, but a few took place before they dispersed, deliberately separating if they headed to the Nox district's site. Some stigma attached to the subject appeared to make them wary and somewhat paranoid – and in one case, Sora suspected aware of him.
No one stood out though. Without using fear as a magnet for someone or another Dark Child to aid him, hunting for a new host was a far more difficult challenge than he imagined. Not only were there a wealth of possibilities if he didn't want to be selective, it was hard to see what set any one of them apart from each other. Not being able to overlap and see into their minds as he had with Zack made him frequently consider ditching his host to make that an option once again, but Sora decided he'd do without for this time. And if he didn't find someone, there'd always be other days to terrorize Zack.
Despite the gruesome evidence of Sora's actions, or perhaps because of it and to get away from it, Zack completed his work at the Air hub just after the streams of students had dropped off, indicating the start of the first lessons of the day and making for a quiet trip to the Ignis area to repeat the job. Nothing to interest Sora, so he once again left Zack to it and went exploring.
The University's Ignis site, like other places, was vaguely familiar to him. Somewhere he'd been regularly once alive maybe, but unless someone recognised him there was no way of finding out. And that wasn't an option in any case. The knowledge aided him in finding the Adept classrooms, where several Fire lessons were taking place, one on the use of solar magic – which seemed relatively pointless since the sun was only out in good weather – and one on illusion magic, where Sora again found someone who seemed familiar. A tall young man who seemed oddly younger than his fellow students, but just as capable.
Sora remained unseen, but took a seat on the familiar student's desk, glancing over the notes that detailed an illusion and went into detail on several runes. Sora filed the information away for later, though without certain other runes he didn't yet know about, by itself it was useless.
After listening in for a time, his curiosity got the better of him and he chose to show himself, just to that one student. As he looked up from taking down yet more notes he saw Sora, almost starting back – but stopped himself, trying to conceal his reaction. Sora held up one finger to his lips and smiled.
"I don't know why," he said quietly. "But you're familiar, do you know that?"
The student frowned, examining him closely while still trying not to show anything and even look attentive. He still kept most of his attention on what he was supposed to be learning, but now kept an eye on him, as if trying to think. Eventually he tore off a piece of paper wrote something on it and turned to face him.
Sora glanced at it briefly. "So you know my name. That must mean you knew me before. It's the hair that gave it away, isn't it? Evan said something about that. But I don't remember you. I don't remember anything from before I was killed though, so that's nothing surprising."
He took back the scrap, turned it over and wrote something else.
"Riku?" Sora read. "Your name?" Riku nodded. "Huh... definitely sounds... familiar. I knew you, that's for sure."
Riku wrote another note – 'Host?'
"Oh, don't worry. I already have one. Though you could say I'm shopping around for a new one. I rather fancy the idea of learning some magic, and that works best if I'm doing the learning right alongside my host, wouldn't you say? Only my current one has a job and isn't here at the University. A student would make things so much easier, wouldn't you say?"
"Are you paying attention there Riku?" the teacher called.
"Uh, yes professor," Riku covered quickly. "You were just saying about the need for finely grained control when utilising weather-based illusions."
"And?" he was prompted. Riku faltered.
"Repeat after me," Sora told him. "I have perfect recall, and I heard the whole thing." He then gave Riku the exact words the professor had used, with Riku then repeating them – with a few extra pauses to listen to Sora, artfully concealed as pauses to think. Once the teacher was satisfied, he took down the notes he'd almost missed, but caught thanks to Sora.
"I almost think you owe me a favour after that," Sora said casually. Riku, he noted with some satisfaction, was definitely afraid of that. He must have known something about Evan. "Don't worry... I think you must have been a friend before. So I'll leave you alone... for now. You never know when you might see me again though. I might make my student host become friends with you, just so I can see you regularly."
Riku did not look happy about that prospect either, but Sora was satisfied. He'd found someone he'd known before, though it meant if he wasn't careful about what he did, someone who could act against him. For now though he settled for fading out of sight for Riku and making his way back to Zack.
"Come to irritate me some more, have you?" Zack asked, glancing up only briefly from tinkering with a server.
"You're feeling bolder than you were before. Or is it just because you can't see what I did now?"
"You're the Dark Child, you can tell what I'm thinking," he retorted. "Either kill me or leave me alone already. You've done enough damage."
"Don't tempt me Zack. There are a lot of people here I might choose to use. What about your work? I've been a little distracted, and I know how you hate for me to poke about in your memories."
"Nothing out of the ordinary really. A few traces of Shadow magic-"
"Dark," Sora corrected.
"Whatever. A few traces of that here, but nothing all that challenging. I'll probably find the Nox one soaked in the stuff though, they do that stuff up there. And I'm probably going to get pranked again. The students there are terrible for it."
"Just remember you have me around then," Sora told him.
"Don't even think about it!" Zack rounded on him, swearing briefly as he caught his head on a rack. "Once was bad enough today!"
"You'd better hope I find a host then, hadn't you? Or maybe you should wait until between lessons before you use the hubs? I'll be looking at them some more between lessons, obviously."
"I can't think why," Zack muttered and went back to work. "Maybe while you're here you can make yourself useful and start handing me tools."
"I'm a Dark Child, not a technician," Sora replied. "Besides, I might choose to 'help' you in my own way."
"At least you're aptly named then – especially the last part."
"Ooh," Sora chuckled. "I can almost feel the burn."
"I'd make you feel something else if you stayed solid long enough," Zack muttered to himself, then fell silent.
Sora left him to it, watching the monitoring screens to see if there was any activity in the hub itself. Once, a student hurried through that had another Dark Child perched on her shoulder, but aside from that nothing happened until the lessons ended and the next flood of activity happened. Sora again headed out to have a more detailed look.
Ignis was clearly busier than Air was, though the fact that Air's site was by far the smallest probably contributed. Ignis also handled several other subjects as Riku's lesson had already shown, if no the considerably increased crowds.
More students gathered outside even during this short gap between lessons, so Sora headed out to have a look, waving to three more Dark Children who'd already had the same idea Sora did and acted on it. None of them stopped to chat though, sticking with their respective hosts.
One student stuck out this time. One who looked about the same age as Riku had or slightly younger, a small, blonde-haired boy who Sora had already seen suffer bullies on his way out of an Ignis classroom. He appeared resigned to this happening, as if it had become almost routine for him. It had lost him nothing but a bit of dignity and cost him only a few bruises.
What made him stick out however was not any of this, but the way he paused on his way toward the hub and stared directly at Sora. Sora looked about behind to make sure there was nothing else the boy could be looking at, then when there was nothing he pointed to himself. The boy nodded, then mouthed the words, 'I can see you', emphasised by gesturing to himself, his eyes, then toward Sora. Sora almost fell out of the air – he hadn't willed anyone to see him, and there was no Dark Child visible.
He beckoned for the boy to come close as he descended, leading him away from the entrance to the hub and back around one side – the side with the maintenance access. He kept just far enough away from it that Zack wouldn't hear though – just in case.
"Can you hear me too, boy?" Sora asked when they met there.
"Sure I can. But I've never seen anything like you before. What are you?"
"You'd run from me if I told you that," Sora replied. "Most do."
"Try me," he offered.
"Remember it was your idea then," he warned. "I'm a Dark Child."
"Yeah, I can see that. But what are you?"
Sora stared, momentarily nonplussed. "No, really. That's what my kind are called. We're what's left when someone is killed in certain ways. We don't remember who we were, because if we did, who we were might object to who we are, and that would make us cease to exist."
"Why would they object? What do you do?"
"I kill people," Sora shrugged, not bothering to sugar-coat it. "But most people can't see me – or hear me. Not unless I want them to, or they're my host. What makes you so special, boy?"
"Roxas," he said firmly. "I got a name, I hate it when people don't use it."
"I didn't know your name, and I didn't ask. I generally don't bother, since most people I meet I kill. Now answer the question, Roxas. What makes you so special?"
Roxas shrugged, "It's probably the same thing it always is. I'm a half-elf. I don't look like it, I look like any other human, but I get all the benefits. I can see magical creatures like you, I'm better at magic than everyone else-"
"Which gets you bullied even more, right?" Sora interrupted.
"Naturally. No one cares for the one who's better than the rest," he sniffed. "I don't even show that off because that'd only make it worse."
"How would you like it if all those bully problems just... melted away? If they started to realise it wasn't worth it any more?"
"What, because of you? But you'd just kill people, and someone would notice it's only people who bully me."
"I could kill them. But you see Roxas, what I want more right now is to learn more about magic. And you're in a perfect position, don't you see? As you learn, so do I. I can help you practice, you can help me. I don't have to kill them, although it's probably a bit unusual to find a Dark Child that doesn't kill. I know a bit of magic already, and if I combine that with what you've got... that and a few threats, maybe the suggestion that I could and would kill them... they might find other people more interesting then – but who cares about them, when you can be free of such people, free to learn all the magic you want, show off all you want and not have to worry?"
Roxas at least appeared to be seriously considering it for a while, distracted when the bells rang for the start of the lesson and looking concerned.
"What do I have to do?" he asked. "Quick, 'cause I'm gonna be late. I can make up for it easy, but it's kinda the principle you know."
"Just come with me. This won't take a moment. You see, I have to have a host so I can draw my strength from them. I can also get it by making people afraid, but I can get that from your bullies. Killing too, but obviously you'd rather I didn't do that. But I already have a host, and only one thing can happen when I leave a host."
"Lemme guess – they die?"
"Very good," Sora said approvingly. "Open the door. It's already unlocked, my host is inside at work. I don't need it myself," he explained before Roxas asked, going part way through. While Roxas came in, he called, "Oi, Zack! It's time!"
"Time for what?" he called back. There was the sound of something crashing, then he extricated himself from the systems and spotted Roxas. "Oh, sh..." he trailed off. Sora heard the rest of the remark thought in his head.
"Yep. That time. And like I promised you, Zack... before I kill you, I'll tell you my name, so you know who did it."
"He'll know too," Zack pointed out.
"I know. I'll work something out with him later. Now sit somewhere you won't make too much of a mess, and not on the boy – sorry, on Roxas," he corrected quickly, to Roxas's clear gratitude. "I'm afraid this bit is always like this," he told Roxas. "I haven't actually been a Dark Child long, so I'm not as... neat as I could be. I'll work that out eventually too."
Roxas just nodded, not trusting himself to say anything. He was afraid, but not as much as Sora would have expected. While he watched, Sora sank back into Zack once again stopping once just before to tell him his name, then drew himself out completely, feeling an almost audible tear as he broke free from his first host, causing Zack to go the same way all his other victims had. Roxas started back violently at the sight, the fear now on more expected levels, raised considerably when an alarm went off somewhere – but he didn't run. Sora settled in front of him.
"Don't be alarmed," he told Roxas. "I won't hurt you. Just accept me, become my host, and then we can be on our way to your lesson and no one will ever know what happened here. I promise not to kill anyone unless you ask me to, or unless I really, really need it. But if I can manage without..."
"Deal," Roxas said, and walked into him, saving him from having to do it himself. Sora remained unseen, settling into his new host while Roxas quickly closed the door to the maintenance room and made a dash for the hub. If he hurried, he'd only be a few minutes late to the Light lesson.
