The morning was a hectic one. It started with Lyra fast asleep, only to suddenly jump awake as a sudden banging began followed by Reina.

"Lyra! Where are you? You're going to be late for class!"

Lyra groaned, mumbling out a reply loud enough for Reina to hear. Once she was sure the brunette was gone, Lyra slowly turned over, glancing over at her clock that sat on her nightstand next to her bed. She was going to be late if she didn't get up. Lyra sighed, sitting up. She wasn't sure what it was, but it had been very difficult for her to wake up, even with an alarm clock. Up in the top left corner of the clock, it showed how many times her alarm went off only to be either missed or dismissed in her sleep. Had it not been for Reina, she would have most likely continued to sleep.

"Shit..." she grumbled, before finally rolling out of bed and heading to the showers, hoping, and dreading, the fact that a cold shower would wake her.

She had been feeling like this the last few days. Lyra wasn't sure why and none of her other teammates had yet to notice due to the fact that they're training sessions were getting shorter. Nina had told her that a few days prior, during their martial arts class. However, usually the weakness happened after training or work, but it was starting to get worse.

Finally, after showering, dressing, and having combed through her hair, which she was too lazy to tie up and just decided to keep a hairband on her wrist to deal with later, Lyra was finally out and at the table with Reina, and another blonde hair student, Clarissa. She was another engineering student though Reina was two years her senior.

"Good morning, Lyra. I was at the post office this morning and I saw a letter for you there. Figured I would bring it back," Clarissa explained, handing her the letter.

Lyra blinked. The post office was a hike from their place. "Thanks, but when did you get up?"

Clarissa giggled, "I've been up since before sunrise. Around 5ish?"

Lyra shook her head. That wasn't bad at all and yet, Lyra struggled to get up two hours later.

"I have to get going now. See you guys, this evening," she waved to them and she was out.

Lyra sighed and just worked on getting breakfast, which just ended up being cereal. With that, she was sitting at the table now. While eating breakfast, Lyra couldn't help but stare at the letter. It had been some time since she had received anything from her dear friend back home. Then again, it was unpredictable due to the fact the letters would have to travel through the vast bare lands and the risk of being destroyed due to the pollutants and filth monsters.

"Lyyyyyrrraaaaa!"

"What?" Lyra snapped, looking up, though she instantly regretted it, seeing the surprised look on Reina's face. Luckily the elder student understood.

"You really should get this checked out. If not that, then at least relax more. You come home so late usually. Take fewer hours at work," the head of the dorm started.

Lyra only nodded. This was something Reina said many times, though all those options were difficult. After all, Lyra like the idea of just depending on her scholarship and so she took extra hours, as needed. As for training, she really couldn't cut back on that and relaxing, wasn't easy at all just due to her nature.

"I should probably head out too. I'll try and figure out what's up, don't worry," she assured her friend as she washed her dishes. Reina had gone to her room to finish up some work. She would be leaving later that day.

After saying goodbye, Lyra was off. The first class she had that morning was martial arts so here was her hoping that would help her wake up for the rest of the day.

Arriving at her martial arts class, Lyra was confused to see so many new faces along with many that she knew. It made her doubt that she was in the correct class, especially since she didn't see Nina.

"Hey guys, thanks again for your cooperation in this change of schedule and coming to the joint class," the instructor called, as more students entered. Lyra blinked. Now that she thought about it, he may have mentioned that.

Due to increase in his platoon's training, the instructor had combined two of his sessions and this would stay until all matches were complete. Many students were uneasy with the idea, as the students from the other class were upperclassmen therefore much more experienced, but the instructor stated that the upperclassmen were to help the lower class.

That still didn't explain why Nina wasn't there. Lyra hoped the captain was alright.

They were ordered to partner up with one of them. Lyra let out a quiet groan, looking around. She ended up without a partner due to the uneven numbering and students running to find one another.

Well, this is embarrassing... She sighed and was going to try and find a group. At least if Nina were here, she would have been guaranteed a partner no matter what the numbering was.

"Well, looks like your wish has been granted," a voice appeared, "you wanted our schedules to match and here we are. We're going to have to be partners."

Lyra turned around to see it was Gorneo Luckens. She was surprised to see him there.

"One would think that these guys would want to take advantage and learn from a captain..." he grumbled.

"Wait, why are you in this class?" she raised a brow.

Gorneo shrugged, obviously not happy with having to explain his reasoning, "I didn't think it was a necessary class at the time. Only... it's mandatory no matter what your ranking is. So yes. Here I am."

Lyra smirked, "how convenient? I was actually looking forward to this."

It would still be some time before they fought the fifth platoon (depending on how the other matches went). Even so, Lyra was excited.

The rule for the spar was no Kei allowed and only strength, which instantly decided the outcome for the two, but Lyra didn't give up and continued to try. She really didn't know where there would be some possible weaknesses. He was a giant, brick wall and she learned that the hard way.. Her attacks were barely getting to him, but then again no kei was allowed, which is why this was useless. But she was still making sure to take notes.

Gorneo grunted, blocking an attack aimed for his chin, "you do realize you're wasting a lot of energy, right?"

Lyra didn't respond right away, as she tried to get around him and attack his back, "since you decided to go defensive, I'm trying to figure out where it's the weakest."

"But what if I were to go suddenly offensive. You're leaving yourself quite open right now," as if to prove the point, as Lyra came striking again, with her leg, which she realized held more power than her fist, Gorneo instantly caught her leg and pulled her down. Lyra missed the next part. Next thing she knew, she was on the ground with a fist at her stomach.

"There's no way you're this naive in an actual fight," he remarked as he stood up straight.

Lyra could only blink and watch him stand. He was right. Lyra was so distracted by the idea that she was sparring with him, that she failed to actually properly spar.

"I demand a rematch," she pouted.

"Then get up already. We still have time. And you better be focused this time. That was an embarrassment," Gorneo remarked. Well, he wasn't going to sugar coat anything. "But remember. The goal is to get a hit in. Whether that hit knocks me down or not, it's still a point to you," he added.

Lyra smirked. Well, that was true. She stood up, fixing her shirt and then stood straight again, studying him. He was tough and not many of her attacks affected him at all. Kei wasn't allowed so what could she do?

"We don't have all day now," Gorneo remarked.

Lyra didn't reply. She knew he was just pressuring her, but Lyra wouldn't let him get to her. She had to change her mode of thinking right now, but she also knew there was a time limit. The class would not run all day now.

With that, Lyra started towards him. She needed to get behind him to get the best attack in. For that reason, she lowered herself, aiming to swing herself around using one of his legs, but he saw that coming and aimed an attack at her, punching towards the ground.

Lyra didn't react. She knew that would happen. Using his fist that he had aimed downwards at her, Lyra changed her tactics, She dodged the punch by moving on to her left leg and then brought her right leg down onto his fist and used it as leverage to get some air to get behind him. She flipped over him, which got her behind him, and as she landed, Lyra instantly pushed up again to aim the kick.

Of course, Gorneo was used to speed due to having Shante on his team and quickly composed himself for the next attack, spinning around. However, Lyra knew due to his size, she had to take advantage, being smaller, even so, she continued to focus.

Now things were getting better. With her focusing on actually sparring and not whom she was sparring, Lyra was actually able to keep up. Of course, being that this was a spar with no kei allowed, it was obvious that would have determined the fight.

However with the point system. That meant any time she hit him it counted as a point. More points were awarded depending on where they struck.

This was very fun in Lyra's mind. Gorneo was different from what she was used to, which was constantly sparring with Nina. Gorneo was different from what she expected. She knew he would be like a tank, difficult to penetrate, but he was much faster than she expected. Lyra didn't expect that.

For that reason, when she thought she was getting the hang of it, by tricking him and appearing on his left, Gorneo was waiting. He instantly swung out his hand and hit her directly in the chest.

Lyra felt the air knocked out of her as she fell back.

Lyra gasped, hitting the ground. That was harsh.

"That is better, but there's still work needed," he remarked.

Lyra frowned, placing a hand in the center of her chest, "one would think men would be a little more mindful about where they struck a woman," she grumbled.

She looked up to see Gorneo's face turning red. She then regretted what she said, "sorry!" but it was true though! Perhaps she should also consider changing her training gear to add more constraints in the front like her suit allowed whenever she left the regios.

Gorneo just mumbled a response, offering her a hand. Lyra took it, thanking him as he did. The bell rang, stopping the spars.

Lyra sighed. Now would come the boring part... It was the time where they would get tips from the instructor and then work with that.

She knew it was to be expected. At least Gorneo wasn't super strict during the rest of the period. He was making casual remarks here and there as well. Lyra wasn't sure why she was expecting him to be such a serious person. Maybe, because of his expressions. He always looked so serious. It made it difficult to actually see what he was feeling.

Luckily they had a few weeks together in the class now, considering the platoon matches will be going on. Lyra hoped to figure him out a little more during that time.

Afterwards, Lyra and Gorneo were leaving class.

"Don't worry. There's always next time, you can try again then," Gorneo assured her, referring to their match.

"Very true there. I'll be ready. But good thing, Kei isn't involved. Can't give too much away now," she remarked.

Gorneo nodded to that, "well I'll see you around then."

"See ya!" she waved.

That was an interesting class. She was actually looking forward to it. However, as she exited the class, Lyra suddenly felt a wave of fatigue hit her. She had to pause for a minute, and stood there, staring down at the ground with a hand on the rail. The feeling stayed for only a minute and then passed. That was strange. Perhaps she overdid it during her martial arts class. However, Lyra did not feel exhaustion then. It was happening after. This was something Lyra had been noticing the last few days as well, but it was much worse this time.

Luckily no one was around to see it.

Maybe she was overworking herself? But she didn't see how that could be, especially when she didn't use any kei just now. Plus it wasn't like Lyra had been training that harshly. Yes, she was working on staying in shape and making sure to stay up to date with all of her moves, plus focus on more, but that was the usual.

Either way, Lyra decided she should get something to eat before heading to her next class. After all, she didn't eat much for breakfast either so that could be the reason.

With that, Lyra's next destination was the cafe on campus and after that, she would do some training and then work.

-x-

NEXT DAY...

The next day, Lyra was up on time, surprisingly. That was only due to the fact she had literally slept, hugging the alarm. She would be lying if she said that made it much easier, but with how difficult it was the last few days, Reina was starting to get concerned and wanted to go to the medics, but Lyra refused. Instead, she showered and packed herself breakfast to eat while on her way to class. Yes, she felt the exhaustion and every day was becoming slower and slower, even focusing in class was difficult as the professor called on her twice to make her aware he was noticing that she was dozing off. Lyra knew she needed to work harder. She just hoped this was all nerves and just the anticipation. It didn't help that the entire rest of the day prior and this morning she had yet to run into her platoon. In fact, normally she would meet up with Harley and Sharnid in the morning while heading to class and Layfon was not in class either.

That bothered Lyra.

Hopefully, she could get some answers in training today.

Lyra was on her way when she heard a buzz.

"Lyraaa!" Lyra's eyes widened. She instantly spun around but then dove to the side as the familiar motorbike came zooming past. There was a screeching noise heard as the driver was trying to stop, which they managed to right after passing where Lyra was standing.

"I swear, you're trying to kill me," she muttered.

"No! I'm so sorry," Reina apologized as she pulled herself out from under her bike, "I really thought I had it down!"

Lyra shook her head and went over to lift the bike so that Reina could stand, "seriously, why not get permission to have one of the back roads blocked so you could practice there?"

"Thanks," Reina sighed, standing straight, cracking her back as she did. Lyra cringed, hearing the crack.

"We're trying to get permission, but we first need to choose a road," she explained.

Lyra frowned, "there are so many to pick from," she muttered, but then shook her head, realizing how this could quickly turn into a long conversation, "I'm late for training. I gotta go," she decided.

"Okay, I'm sorry again, Lyra. Good luck in training!" Reina called after Lyra.

Arriving at the training hall, Lyra noticed everyone was there. That was expected, but what she actually noticed from that was how things seemed to quiet. They were initially standing together, but with Lyra entering, she noticed the quick glance towards her and they separated to work on their dites. Lyra felt her stomach turn. Why did they do that? What were they talking about? Or was that her, overanalyzing the situation. They did separate when Lyra came, but Nina, Sharnid, and Layfon were coming her way.

"The Princess has finally arrived," Sharnid was instantly commenting.

"What happened, are you okay?" Nina asked, coming over, "how did you get those grass stains?" she pointed to the back of Lyra's uniform. Lyra frowned.

How did that happen? She didn't think that the quick dive into the grass would stain that bad. "I had a run in with someone and accidentally fell into the grass," she explained.

"It wasn't our favorite engineering student now, was it?" Sharnid suddenly asked.

Lyra just sighed and nodded, as she explained the incident.

Nina just nodded, "well hurry and change and join us. I have a lot planned for us," Nina ordered.

"And I'm going to have to cut your training short due to some DITE maintenance needed," another voice spoke up. Lyra blinked noticing Harley appear next to her. She wasn't sure when he got there.

However, Lyra didn't question it. She then headed down the hall to the changing room and quickly changed. When she came back out, she saw everyone standing in a rectangular shape. Though one spot was empty, as that was Lyra' spot. Feli was not part of the circle as she was with Harley at the time.

"Alright, this is going to an evasive. Each person takes a turn trying to attack. You as the evader can only move when the other is moving to attack. If you get hit, you lose a point," Nina explained.

"And if you lose, you have to pay for dinner," Sharnid added suddenly.

Lyra frowned, of course, that was the case. That was always added in. Lyra glanced over at Layfon who just smiled and laughed. Lyra pouted, obviously, he didn't have to worry, but neither did Lyra, as last time she had no problems either. It would just depend on who Nina wanted to focus.

With the rules explained, the training began. Lyra couldn't help but think of a childhood game she and her brother used to play. But this was a much faster version of the game and it was testing one's reflexes. It was actually fun and thankfully for Lyra when it came to an end, she was not the one in the last place, but it was actually Sharnid.

"Damn... well then," he sighed, restoring his dites, "looks like I'm still rusty here," he remarked, "though I may need Harley to take a look here as well. Sorry, Lyra, I'm stealing your spot in line to see Harley," he remarked.

Lyra shook her head and then shrugged, "if you must."

"With that being said, I think we're done then. We can wash up if we're ready, though Sharnid and Layfon, you two say back. We need to see what changes need to be made to the pistol."

"Well, I mean I can figure that out, but okay!" Sharnid suddenly nodded when Nina looked at him.

That made Lyra, curious, but she just shrugged and headed to shower. However, stepping out from the shower room into the locker room, the only one there was Felli, who was finishing up combing her hair.

"The others are outside still training," she explained. Lyra nodded her head. She then glanced at the clock. Interesting... They were still at it.

Heading out, Lyra saw that Sharnid and Layfon were getting into position. It was actually interesting to see Sharnid trying. She didn't think that he would be that focused on training, but thinking back to Dinn's words, Sharnid must have known about that risk, thus wanting to train more.

That, or it was Nina's doing, which wasn't a bad guess either. Nina must have noticed Lyra watching, as she had come over, "most of this training I wanted to focus on Sharnid and figure out how to incorporate his skills into this match. I didn't think everyone was needed for that, especially since Layfon could cover."

Lyra shrugged at that, "if you say so." She couldn't help but think that she was the only other one aside from Nina so why was it necessary to have her leave, but Lyra didn't say anything. Instead, she sighed, "I'm going to head out and get some homework done then."

Nina nodded her head, "sounds good then. See you later. Don't overwork yourself."

'I will keep trying to figure out what you guys are up to,' she thought to herself but didn't say anything as she headed out. It felt weird to Lyra. Now she wasn't sure what to exactly do. Normally Sharnid would be leaving at this time as well and he would drag her along somewhere whether it'd be food or something else, but he wasn't there.

In fact, the last few days had been quiet since she barely saw him. It made Lyra feel lonely.

"Lyraaa!"

Lyra stopped and turned to see who called out to her. Out of precaution, she took a few steps into the grass, as part of her was expecting a motorbike to zoom past her. However, no motor vehicle went passed. In fact, it was actually Clarissa who was coming out from one of the buildings. She seemed to have a look of confusion due to how Lyra reacted.

"I'm sorry, it's because of Reina," she explained.

Clarissa suddenly began to laugh, "she did tell me about that. But at least you're not hurt."

"I have bruises everywhere," Lyra muttered.

"Oh, you've had worse," she remarked.

"Sure..." Lyra replied, taking note of a group of students walking past to meet up with two others. Lyra couldn't help but feel slightly envious, thinking of her own team.

"You okay?" Clarissa asked, noticing Lyra watching the group.

Lyra shook her head, "sorry, just thinking."

"About what?"

"Eh, you know me. I'm always thinking," Lyra replied, but Clarissa didn't accept that.

She had a hand on her hip and moved to stand in front of Lyra, "and you know me and I know something is wrong."

Lyra knew there was no getting around it, "My team is investigating something and I'm curious to know what," she explained.

Clarissa raised a brow, "wait, you're not part of it?"

Lyra shook her head, "I mean there were plenty of times I could have known. Like just now, got out of training, everyone was going to wash up. Only for me to learn they were out there having a meeting when I came out. I mean I'm assuming they were working with Sharnid on his new techniques, but I don't know," Lyra shrugged.

Clarissa nodded, "that's strange, but I'm sure there's a reason. You're part of their team, Lyra so you know they consider you too before involving you. Perhaps because of your position in the team, they didn't want to burden you," she offered the idea.

Lyra nodded. That was a possibility, "you know me though. I'd rather be in the loop."

Clarissa laughed, "That is true! Oh well, come on, we can catch Reina as she gets out of class. With her, let's go get something to eat!" she suddenly offered, knowing Lyra didn't want to stay on the topic more. Lyra was fine with that idea, especially since she was planning to get some food. The two hurried towards Reina's class where they manage to meet her.

Reina was very surprised to see the two, especially since Clarissa decided to hide and jump the engineer. That was very amusing to watch. Just watching Reina scold Clarissa, made Lyra laugh. She remembered thinking back to when first meeting the entire dorm girls, how she was not looking forward to it, but the three other girls in her room, Lyra enjoyed them. Though the fourth one was barely ever seen.

With the girls now together and a place decided, they quickly headed that way in order to beat the crowd and order their food.

It was during that time the Clarissa suddenly brought up the male friend she had been hanging out with.

Lyra rolled her eyes. Of course, this conversation would come up. She remembered a few weeks back the topic initially starting due to an encounter Clarissa had. Reina was the first to realize the feelings that Clarissa was developing and just warned her to be careful. That topic had come up again and from what Lyra was hearing, nothing had happened between the two yet, but Clarissa was hoping.

Lyra could only watch in amusement as Clarissa was protesting due to the teasing Reina was doing.

"What do you think, Lyra?" Clarissa suddenly asked. Luckily Lyra had taken a bite of her food, so she had some time before answer, but she was shaking her head the entire time. As she swallowed, Lyra shrugged, "I mean like Reina said, as long as he is actually giving you proper hints and not just edging you on, you should be fine, but personally I feel all this relationship drama is unnecessary."

Clarissa rolled her eyes, "of course you're the lone wolf here."

Lyra frowned, "am not!"

Clarissa, nodded her head, "yes you are. You're either studying or training. You're that dramatic character from those books. The one who's too focused on saving the world to actually work on a relationship.

Lyra rolled her eyes, "of course everything is a story to you." That was another thing about Clarissa. She was obsessed with fairy tales and fantasy stories.

"Besides, I don't really have a wide variety of friends, if you haven't noticed," Lyra sadly admitted.

"Well, this is your first year, technically," Reina suddenly added, "I mean you won't have fully developed a group of friends yet. But you do have your platoon to fall back on."

Clarissa shook her head, "not enough! That means we as upperclassmen should be helping her out!"

"No thank you."

"Oh, come on Lyra, you should at least be trying," Clarissa insisted.

Lyra raised a brow, "trying what? You've been just edging me to get a boyfriend. I really have other priorities right now. I don't have the time for that. I mean with how much time I spend with my team due to training purpose, that really does make it difficult," she added.

Clarissa nodded, "well there are those options."

At that Lyra laughed, "you know damn well I refuse to even think of them like that," she remarked, "besides, I'm only seventeen. I have time."

"Or so you say," Clarissa let out a dramatic sigh.

They knew how Lyra really felt about Layfon. He was a friend and like an older brother, but the two didn't exactly meet eye to eye on many things. Sharnid, both girls knew how annoying he was, plus they had told Lyra about the type of man he was, especially Reina who absolutely hated him. Not just that, but Lyra saw based on how he would talk about dates. So they were definitely not in her mind. Plus, they were her teammates. Lyra didn't feel it would be right forming a relationship with her teammates, especially if that risked the overall performance should anything happen.

However, Lyra's biggest reason for not forming any relationship was due to her priorities. She had other concerns she needed to focus on, especially with all that had happened and with Noemi saving her. She needed to investigate that still.

It was then they heard a jingling like sound. The three looked up, instantly knowing who that was.

"Dean!" He was a friend of the two older girls, part of the police force with the crew. He was also the one that Clarissa was debating about. Lyra had met with him before, but they hadn't talked much.

"Alright guys, I have to go," Clarissa suddenly spoke up.

Reina and Lyra looked at her, surprised.

"I do, I'm sorry guys, especially you Lyra. I know you were annoyed by the constant secrecy and wanted to hang out, but I really did promise Dean that I would help him out with an assignment now," she apologized.

"Suuure," both girls replied at the same time. It was obvious that was an excuse. Even Lyra knew that and decided to join in with teasing them. That would also explain why Clarissa was quick to finish her meal. The two watched as she hurried after Dean and the two were off.

"That girl..." Reina sighed, shaking her head, "I really do hope things work out for her," she remarked.

Lyra nodded. With how often her roommate talked about the man, she hoped as well, but Lyra honestly didn't care that much. Relationship drama wasn't Lyra's forte. In fact, she was always the last to realize when a couple was dating, that was realized when Lyra didn't even notice the relationship form between Leerin and Layfon.

Lyra then yawned, "well, what do you have planned now. I need to get some training in for the platoon match now."

Reina nodded her head, "it's in a few days, isn't it? How is your training going?"

Lyra shrugged, "going well. We've been doing a lot of independent training due to our schedules changing around." She didn't bother to go deep into her theory behind why, knowing it was pointless to rant, especially to Reina, who would end up involving herself way too much.

"Well, you should get going then. This was fun, even if it did end a little suddenly," she laughed, making a face in the direction that Clarissa had left.

Lyra could only smirk. After cleaning up their table and throwing out the trash, the two headed off their separate ways.

Lyra let out a sigh, as she headed down the streets towards the gym. It was fun hanging out with her roommates. She knew Clarissa tried to do it at least a few times a month, considering they all lived together and the fact that the seventeenth platoon wasn't really gathering for extended periods of time due to their own little secrets, Lyra really needed this.

It really bothered her with what they were doing. She didn't like that they didn't tell her what was going on and that they continued to do their own thing. What was worse, was it involved everyone but her. She wondered if even Harley knew what was going on.

"Yo! Lyra-chan!"

Speaking of one of the devils...

Lyra turned around to see Sharnid coming her way. She actually felt some relief hearing him call out to her. It made her feel better, knowing that she wasn't being avoided. Not that she thought she was the problem, but now she could get some explanation.

"What's up?" Lyra asked him, as he finally reached her.

"Nothing, I felt bad seeing poor Lyra-chan walk off by herself after training," he started, as he was now next to her.

Lyra blinked. She wasn't exactly expecting that, but she was happy that was the first thing he brought up. "It didn't feel nice leaving by myself," she replied, "especially seeing you all just standing around together," she replied.

Sharnid nodded, "it's something that technically not many can be involved with, but I could use your help! Come on a walk with me!" he suddenly decided, as he began to walk ahead of her.

Lyra blinked at that, watching him starting to head off ahead. Sharnid noticed her not following and sighed, coming back and grabbing her arm, pulling her with him.

"Come on, we're going to miss our window. I can't explain if you don't casually walk with me," he insisted, pulling her along.

That confused Lyra even more, but she wasn't sure.

Lyra wasn't sure what was going on, but she walked with Sharnid a strange route. She wasn't sure what was going on and the strange thing was, he kept quieting her whenever they would be by themselves. It was starting to annoy her that they were doing this.

Sharnid suddenly laughed, stopping in his tracks, "Lyra-chan looks so angry right now."

"I am, what's going on exactly? Where are we-" she started to ask but was silenced by Sharnid when he placed a hand to her mouth to muffle her voice.

"Just try and pay attention to the people who are around us," he quieted her.

Lyra raised a brow and just relaxed herself so that Sharnid would move away. He then took a step to the side and that's when Lyra noticed the two students at the end, turning out of the alley into another one. Lyra's brows furrowed.

"I don't get it. Why are we following them?"

"You don't recognize them?" Sharnid asked. Lyra shook her head. "I thought you would have considering your encounter with Dinn the other night," he muttered.

Lyra shook her head, "that night it was just Dinn and the one chick, Dalsienna."

Sharnid nodded his head, "those are the other two members. Come on, let's go now," he urged to walk with him again.

She really wanted to say no and demand answers due to how he was acting, but Lyra followed after him. Turning onto the next alley, it was much darker due to the sun being blocked by the building. Lyra noticed they were heading towards a gym, but it was much different from the one that students usually went to.

"You saw that too, right?" he asked.

"Um..." Lyra wasn't sure what to say exactly.

"Let's go this way," Sharnid suddenly, pulling her out from the one alley onto the main road again.

Lyra wasn't sure what to say and just decided to follow. She really wanted to know what was going on and Sharnid was acting way too serious for once and that was strange to her.

"Those two don't usually go there to train," Sharnid started suddenly.

Lyra raised a brow, looking up at him, "what do you mean?"

"I've been following them for some time. They're actually going there to meet up and take an overload drug," he went on adding, letting out a sigh with it.

Lyra blinked, "wait, but that's illegal!" she instantly protested.

"Yup," Sharnid nodded his head, continuing to walk, "we've been looking into it and trying to get proof so the President could do something about it."

"We?" Lyra asked, but suddenly stopped. Now it made sense. So this is what they were doing!

"Wait, is this what you all have been talking about after training?" Lyra suddenly asked.

Sharnid stopped ahead of her and turned around to see he head, "pretty much."

Lyra frowned, "well that explains why I never saw you after class anymore."

"Aw, has Lyra-chan been feeling lonely since I haven't been hanging out with her much?" Sharnid chuckled, as he came over to where she was standing.

Lyra shook her head, making sure her expression stayed stern, "I'm not happy that I was the only one left out," she replied.

Sharnid's expression straightened, as he nodded his head, "yeah, you were the only one not to know. Actually, this was something that only Layfon was initially involved in and Nina soon joined in. Of course, I knew something was up and decided to join them and Harley found out through Nina, I'm surprised he didn't tell you. Then there was Felli, and considering she's the President's sister, she already knew," he started listing.

Lyra wasn't sure about that. Was he trying to justify to her or himself?

"Even so, it's not fair," she crossed her arms. Lyra knew she was probably making a bigger deal about it than she should have, but it did bother her that she was part of the team and they didn't bother to say anything to her.

Sharnid nodded, "fair enough. That's mostly my fault though because of your encounter with Dinn Dee. I figured it would be best not to get you involved any more due to how he seemed to think of you and your skills."

At that Lyra raised a brow, "now you have me even more curious."

Sharnid laughed, "how about later when they're away. Now let's actually get some food. I'm hungry," he suddenly decided. Lyra blinked.

"But I already ate."

"Get a drink or something," Sharnid insisted, "I don't want to eat by myself."

Lyra sighed. She really didn't have a choice since Sharnid was pulling her along now.

"Wait! Slow down, I can't keep up!" she called after him, struggling to hurry.

Ugh.. Tall people...