Reuploading this and a couple of the subsequent chapters to fix some typos that I only just noticed. But hey, two months late is better than never, right?
It was good to be back, Will thought as he leaned back on his barstool. There was nothing wrong with his family or his home, but over the previous year the bar that he and his friends had created from the mysterious Room 777 had become more home to him than the place listed in his school records as 'residence'. And not just more home than his home, but more than a home.
It was sanctuary.
He wasn't sure what he would have done if second years hadn't been allowed to start coming back to school a few days early, if he hadn't had the chance to join the friends he loved so much and seek a few moments of peace before the year started anew and they had to face the darkness. Yes, Room 777 had not been immune to those mysterious clouds that had dragged their minds down in bursts of despondency, but all the same it had been their safe haven. He needed it, they all needed it, and with an intensity that he knew bordered on addiction. A sobering knowledge, but nonetheless not yet enough to dampen the happiness of sitting here, looking at all their faces again, with the quiet jazz tunes playing on Hiraga's phone complementing the warm light that streamed in through the windows, with the drinks that they'd made and the cookies that Professor Snow had pressed into their hands when they'd arrived.
Of course, they couldn't quite escape the reality that lay beyond the door.
"Do you think it'll start up again?" Lidia asked nervously, stirring her drink with a cocktail umbrella.
"I can kind of feel it already," Starri answered. "But not, like…actually. Just that it's there, waiting…."
She shivered miserably, whisky coloured eyes glittering. She put her drink down on the bar and fiddled with the ties of her puffed sleeves as she looked at them all. Lenni, sitting next to her, automatically put an arm around her.
"I wonder if we'll actually manage to capture the shadows, this time, if we see them." Hiraga asked absently between sips of his drink.
"Do you really think that's what was causing it, though?" Lucy asked, frowning over her glasses. "I mean, where were they even going? They looked like they were after someone, but they dissipated by the time we caught up."
"Not all of us even saw them, either," Will added, remembering. "Right?"
The twelve of them nodded at this, looking at each other, yearning to find answers to the questions that had just been mounting and mounting. Will remembered that night-the dark had been drawing in, and they'd left Room 777 for the night, some of them having already left the West Wing altogether but others loitering. It had been those loiterers, himself included, who'd seen the black, vine-like tendrils creeping close to the floor, or up through windows, relentless towards a destination. They'd followed out of curiosity, but nothing about the shadows seemed to notice them pursuing, instead seeming to be pursing something themselves. Then, they'd disappeared under a door, and there'd been cries of horror in a distant corridor, echoing in the emptiness. Will and those who'd been with him had rushed down to the source of the noise, but by the time they'd gotten there the corridor had been empty, the only noise their ragged breaths and clattering footsteps as they tried to make sense of what had happened.
Shaking his head at the still-baffling memory, Will drained the last of his drink, and then got up to go around the bar to make another.
As he did so, Hiraga yawned and stretched, leaning back. Unfortunately, even after a year of doing this, he still had not mastered the art of remaining balanced and ended up flailing. He somehow managed to stay on the stool itself by grabbing at it tightly, but the little crown he liked to wear fell off and clattered to the floor. As everyone instantly burst out laughing at him, Hiraga scowled, righting his glasses which had also gone askew.
"What are we gonna do with you, mate?" Will asked fondly, still laughing as he went back around again, picking up Hiraga's crown for him and dusting it off before handing it over with a slightly dramatic bow.
"You make it look so easy." Hiraga grumbled at him. "But thanks."
"Ah, have some of Professor Snow's cookies, they seriously make everything better."
This came from Mica, who got up from the table they were sitting at with Tate, Kureha and Wren, holding the plate that they'd all decanted their cookie bags into so they could share all the different flavours. Wren grinned out at them all as Mica walked around handing them out, but Tate didn't look up, instead busy doing…something.
"What's Tate doing?" Lily asked, almost on cue.
"Apparently dissecting the cookie." Wren shrugged.
"Why is Tate dissecting a cookie though?"
As Mica passed him, Will grabbed a cookie at random and bit into it. This one seemed to be extra chocolate and some other identified flavour, and he grinned as he took a few chewy mouthfuls, enjoying the flavour so much that he almost missed Tate's reply.
"To see if there's something that can help us."
Tate's dark head remained bent over the remains of his cookie which was rapidly becoming a pile of crumbs with a selection of pieces laid out on a napkin on the side. Aww man, poor cookie, Will thought absently before remembering himself.
"Why not ask Professor Snow?" Lily inquired. "After all, she helped us a lot when we were first experimenting with drinks."
"Yes, but that was before everything happened." Tate bit out.
"I mean, she's nice though, right…?" Starri asked nervously.
"Nice has got nothing to do with it."
For a moment, none of them said anything, taken aback at the venom in Tate's voice. Oh no, is it starting again? But then a weary sigh came from him, and he looked up at them, eyes stormy.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Just…can we really fully trust the staff right now?"
He was of course not referring to the mysterious clouds, or even the shadows that some of them had seen towards the end of the year, even though he could have easily meant those. But rather the four girls that had gone missing over the course of the year, with no trace of them to be found. The police had come up blank and the Imperial Law Force apparently hadn't deemed the disappearances important enough for them to intervene in. As for the staff, they'd been tight-lipped about the entire thing. Will knew that a few friends of some of the missing girls had been trying to find some clue as to what may have happened-Julka had been in his tutor group last year and so he'd seen first hand how the entire buisness had devastated her. But those friends hadn't had luck either, and certainly no support from the staff. Yes, some of them had been consoling and comforting…but the reassurances had seemed empty to his ears and no doubt everyone else's.
Will had to admit he liked all the teachers here, and even admired some of them. But yes, trust had disappeared a while ago. He missed it.
"You're right, I suppose," he agreed.
"Besides, she's losing her mind, isn't she?" Hiraga said bluntly. "I mean, she seemed even spacier in the last few weeks of the year."
"Yes, yes, you're right," Lidia exclaimed. "And oh, Luce, Lil, remember that time we went out on a morning walk and we saw her wandering by the forest, and she didn't even recognise her own name until those other two professors came."
"Mmm, I remember." Lucy agreed, her dark eyes more sombre than usual.
She tucked a lock of her short brown hair back behind her ear and drained her drink before setting her glass down with a sigh.
"Want another?" Will asked, having finished mixing his own.
"Yes, please." Lucy replied, pushing her glass towards him. "But yes, she's been like that for a while though, I think, even before we arrived and all this started happening."
"If it's getting worse, it's surely connected though, right?" Mica asked.
"Still, end result's the same," Tate stated bluntly. "We're on our own, more or less."
"No we're not."
They all stared at Starri, whose colour had returned to her slightly, though her smile was tremulous.
"No we're not, because we have each other, right?"
Her sweet voice was strengthened by conviction, and for a moment, Will felt himself relax at the truth of this. Because none of this had gone, had it? Yes, it'd wavered, more than a few times. But Room 777 was still here. They were all still here and they were together, and this year, the 300th anniversary, they would beat whatever it was that was happening.
That was something he had to believe, and so he would.
"Hear, hear!" Will laughed. "We should toast to that. Luce, here's your drink!"
He gave Lucy her drink, and then those of them who weren't sitting by the bar counter came over so they could clink their glasses together and toast to each other.
"To us!" they cried out, before drifting back to their seats.
"The Lolita Tea Party Club could help us, maybe, right? They're trying to find similar things after all, aren't they?" Kureha asked after a moment.
"Oh yeah, that's true!" Will exclaimed. "Of course! Have they arrived back yet?"
"No, but I've been texting Stella, she said she's arriving tomorrow and the other three will be the day after that-oh, and they've been getting new tea-club outfits together and she sent photographs!"
Lily swiped at her phone, then held up a picture, showing the screen around so they could all see the picture before then swiping to the next one and repeating. Each member of the club looked adorable, in particular Tiro, blushing furiously as he brandished a tea-pot.
"Awww, bless him!" Starri said. "We really need to go and visit them anyway, regardless of if they can help us or not!"
"Naturally, naturally." Lucy agreed.
After that, there wasn't anything else to say on any of the topics, so they just talked and talked, continuing drinking and finishing the last of the cookies (with Tate thankfully letting up on acting as if the cookie was a scientific specimen), enjoying being in each other's presence until the night fell and sunlight no longer streamed through the windows. Then, reluctantly, the glasses and other things were cleaned up, the chairs rearranged, surfaces wiped down. Hiraga's music turned off, and the magic lamps switched on so the room wouldn't be in darkness. Slowly, reluctantly, they all filed out of the room, lining up in front of the door as slowly, the magic sparkled and travelled up its length, concealing it.
Watching it always felt a little like the heaviest of goodbyes, even though Will knew it'd come back to them.
When the last spark dissipated, he turned to his friends-all of whom had decided to wait, and wordlessly opened out his arms. Just as quietly, they all gathered together into as tight of a group hug as they could, conveying all the feelings they couldn't manage to share in words in that single, messy embrace. Some of the girls' hair tickled him slightly, and he was sure either Lidia, Lucy or Hiraga's glasses were ending up askew, but things like that didn't matter. They just held on for a little while, and then slowly untangled.
"Well, goodnight then." Tate said shortly, being the first to start moving away.
"Yeah, goodnight!" Lidia responded.
"Goodnight!"
"Goodnight!"
And so, heading back down the north corridor, they left Room 777 behind for the night.
…
The memories stole Theodore's breath away.
Returning to the moment he'd stepped into the school for the first time, the self he had become slamming into the person he'd been then, that had knocked him off his feet, more or less, and he'd struggled to stay upright. But he'd managed that, only for the memories to flood in, hard and fast. Not just of what had really been moments ago but was now…what, what was it, exactly? Theodore didn't know, but the memories flooded in, thick and fast and oh, they stole his breath away. Memories like:
"A? What sorta name is that? Is it short for something like Avery or Aimee or…?"
"I dunno, it's just my name. It's not that bad, is it?"
"Naaaah, but y'know what, we're going to call you….hmmm, Ada instead. What do you think?"
"Sure, if you want to! Theodore, you can call me that as well, that's fine."
"Sure, sure- wait, what's YOUR name anyway?"
"Oh yeah, I'm Ezrael! That or Ezra is fine!"
And then:
Sitting in the clubroom, laughing at Ezra and Haze's attempts to balance buckets on their heads
As well as:
"Wooooah, that's freaky, isn't it?"
The four of them, pausing as suddenly the East Wing's walls turned transparent and they could see everything all around them. The non-magical group of their year-group-mates were crossing the courtyard below them, and one of them noticed because suddenly she tugged at the sleeve of her friend next to her, then exclaimed at the rest, and they all looked up.
"Um…what do we do?" Ezrael asked awkwardly.
"I dunno, just wave?" Theodore asked.
"Sure, let's do that!"
And so they all waved manically. The group in the courtyard waved back even more manically, with the pink-haired boy doing a silly dance and two of the girls making peace signs until they all collapsed laughing, and Theodore, Ezra, Haze and A took the opportunity to steal away.
And then:
Sitting in the library after school, working together on assignments; getting soil all over each other during a Plant and Earth Magic lesson as if they were five year olds and having to be sent away early to clean up; chatting in Theodore and Ezra's room until Professor Ceiraii came to remind them it was almost approaching bed-time; the birthday celebrations; Strolling in the town center buying all sorts of nonsense; chatting in the corridors between classes; visiting the clubs of their classmates and friends, though only being able to ogle the Elite Chess Club from afar (and teasing Haze over his crush on Judas); the laughter, all the laughter-
=Theodore? Ezra? A?=
Theodore had managed to take a few steps further into the school, but hearing Haze's voice ring so suddenly and clearly as if talking to him made him freeze abruptly in the middle of the way.
=Wha…wha….Haze? Is that you?=
Before he fully knew what he was doing, his thoughts had formed into a sentence, also ringing slightly. Was he…could it really be….? He sucked in what little breath he had, and waited.
=Are we TALKING? In our heads? The hell? Haze, Theo, I can hear you both! Ada, our A, can you hear us?=
=Y-yeah….I can hear you…does this mean that whatever happened just now has also made us mind readers?=
=It…it seems like it, huh?=
Theodore wanted to laugh. His friends were here, still here. They'd come back to the present with him and if he kept moving forward, he'd be able to meet them just like on the first first day and then…and then….
He had to find then, first.
=Where are you guys? I can't see you, it's so crowded….so many people….=
=Yeah you doof, it was like that before, remember? I can recognise some of the people, it's weird. But I'm almost at the front doors=
=Wait for us, Ezrael, okay? I'm somewhere in the middle=
=I'm the same as Ada, I think= Theodore thought-spoke. =I'll catch up to her first then get you and Haze...oh, Haze, HAZE!=
Theodore hadn't realised that yelling in his mind could be quite as loud as actual yelling, but nonetheless the echo of his words shook him a little. But he couldn't help it, not when spotting Haze's shock of white hair, the black turtleneck peeking out from the collar of his school-shirt and those tiny dangly earrings just up ahead of him. Haze startled, spinning around on his heel, bright green eyes catching the light as they widened in shock. Theodore sped up, and then saw A, stumbling and unsure as she ran up to Haze. The plaster on her face had been in exactly the same place that it had been on the day they'd met. He sped up and joined them, and then all of a sudden Ezrael was there, his distinctive pink hair a mess, for once no longer the suave goof Theodore had always known him as. And just like that, they were altogether, standing in the same courtyard, facing each other, and completely ignoring the other freshman who were heading into Kawaakari for their first day. No doubt their actual first day.
All those details, those funny little things about his three friends that he'd just…taken for granted. The things that had always just been there, no big deal. Now he couldn't stop staring at them, thinking about them, cataloguing and memorising them. Theodore tried to calm his racing heart, and the urge to throw his arms around them all. The shadow's whispers-so, you think you won?-, being ripped from that evening and slamming into the self from back here, it'd only taken a few seconds but he'd thought he'd lost them, that they'd gone. And now they were here…no, whatever this was about, he wasn't taking anything for granted about them, ever again. Never.
"I decided to run back, I didn't want to wai-"
=SHHH!= Haze interrupted Ezrael's out-loud, out-of-breath exclamation.
A moment of confused staring as Haze glared at them all.
=Do you think we shouldn't make it obvious that something's wrong= A thought-asked.
=No, we can't let on. I don't know why but…we don't know why for any of this.=
=We can still be friends though, right?= Ezrael frowned quizzically.
Haze's facial expression became exasperated.
=Of course! Just….we have to try and act as if we're not in some sort of time loop or whatever this is=
"So um….hi, nice to meet you?"
Haze, A and Ezra blinked at Theodore's out-loud attempt and then abruptly, they all started laughing. Theodore did too, almost instantly, almost doubling up with it. Some of the tension-only some, but enough-of the tension that had been caught up in his shoulders and throat started to leak away.
=So= Ezra thought-enquired. =We all met after registering, right? We swapped cookies, didn't we?=
=Yeah, I remember= A replied. =We all got different flavours and you were just fishing to try Haze's, but he wanted Theo's, and then I almost dropped mine because someone bumped into me and you helpe…anyway, yeah. Yeah, you're right.=
"So," Haze said out loud, decisively. "We should go get ourselves registered and hot-foot it to the entrance ceremony, huh?"
"That we should."
So they walked together, alternating between stumbling small talk out loud and trying to sort out what they knew about their situation. They discovered that they were also able to shield their thought-speech by way of visualising a curtain going around their brain, which itself was a highly unsettling mental image, but at least useful to know. They hadn't reached the point in the year where Professor Arianna would have taught them about mental shields, so this was a useful advantage, especially if they were trying to keep what had happened under wraps. They also observed that though, by and large, the scenes playing out around them had been more-or-less the same as they had been, as far as they could remember. There was still the same sense of celebration over the fact it was the tri-centenary, A recognised a small black cat that had been wandering around the front, hiding in the bushes whenever someone got near, Ezrael remembered being bowled over by the black-and-gold garb the Elite Chess Club wore when they strode past the queue of nervous freshman in the front hallway.
Yet at the same time, there was a slight difference too, a certain sense of pensiveness, a sort of sorrow lurking under the pretty surfaces. Some of the older year students seemed a little on edge in a way that Theodore didn't remember from before, in particular a girl wearing glasses of a similar style to A's desperately trailing after a tall, stylish girl with flowing dark green hair, one pleading and the other angry but both looking inordinately haunted as they headed to their year group's entrance ceremony in a different hall. None of them recognised any of these things, so they had in the end abandoned the musings for that moment, instead using their inexplicable new ability to share memories and jokes, slipping easily between speech and thought-speech when the topics were so much lighter. They concentrated on the steps of registering that they remembered, going through the queue one at a time, picking up the documents, receiving their cookies, and then finally stepping out of the queue and waiting on a side until they all gathered again.
Their cookie flavours were all exactly the same as they had received the first time, but this time nobody bumped into A, because they didn't have the time to. Instead, straight away, as they headed into the hall they would be having their entrance ceremony in and found seats. They chatted, lightly, as if the biggest things on their minds were who they'd be having as tutors and what lessons they'd like. They looked around them, everything looking so ordinary and yet not, and after eating some cookies, put the rest away for later.
As the lights changed from yellow-white to dark blue, and little stars started to light up, Theodore gulped, fear suddenly hitting him again. Though he could see fine, it was almost blindly that he reached out on one side, looking for A's hand and feeling an absolute rush of relief when he found it, and her delicate fingers gripped back tightly. On his other side, he touched Ezra's hand lightly, and their fingers intertwined. And in the moment before Headmaster Cher stepped up to the podium, Theodore glanced over to see that Haze had taken ahold of Ezra's other hand. They all kept their hands low, and close to their bodies as much as they could, since of course there were no shadows to hide them with. Not that they'd want shadows, but even so, if Haze was right their connection had to be as discreet as possible.
That was alright though, Theodore didn't mind.
Just as long as they remained together.
…
The words that Headmistress Hades uttered meant nothing to Julka. For all she cared it could have been gibberish, really. Perhaps in another life she would have listened diligently to the admin details of the upcoming year, and she would have been beyond excited to help play a role in the celebrations for the 300th Anniversary. She would have roped in Mist and Amuri and Lunar, then Mist would have bought along Negi, even Reo would have come too (though she'd have belly-ached about it the whole way through), and they would have had fun. She would have been eager to meet some of the freshman and maybe sign up to be a buddy for one of them. Maybe she'd have been Cookie's buddy, as they were old neighbours and she knew it'd annoy the younger girl, though Cookie wouldn't have minded really. Perhaps in such a situation, they'd have been actual friends.
But none of that was happening. None of those dreams mattered.
Because Lunar, Amuri, Negi and another girl, Mona, had gone. They'd gone, and nobody seemed to know or care why. After they had, she'd spent the rest of the year trying to find them, with Mist's help, but they'd found nothing and then the year had ended, and now a new one had started and though she wasn't paying attention to the speech if Headmistress Hades had even bothered to say one thing about any of them, she'd have known. She did not leap to the conclusions that Cookie did, not fully. But whatever she was hoping to have heard from the staff of the school, she hadn't, and what she had heard was lacking. Their actions too, were lacking, and now look what had happened.
Lunar, Mona, Negi and Amuri had gone. Mist barely spoke to her, and instead of sitting together as they'd done all through freshman year they sat in completely different rows. Mist was sitting next to Delilah from the Elite Chess Club and a girl that she didn't know, though they weren't talking to each other, while Julka was at the end of a row with Will on her other side. And yes, Will was nice and had been so kind that one time last year she'd stumbled on the secret room he and his friends spent their evenings in. But Will wasn't her friend, wasn't any of her friends.
And then there was Cookie. She was in the school, yes, but drawn by the mysteries she had spotted rather than the possibility of reconnecting with a friend. Okay, so Cookie and friendship were not an easy combination, as the girl had always preferred mysteries to social nicety, but even so. Even so. Julka had been acquaintanced with her since before the days she'd decided she liked being called Cookie better than the name she'd been given at birth. That had to mean something, right?
Julka felt a yawn coming, and suppressed it, not wanting to draw attention to herself while she was still in assembly. When was the last time she'd truly slept? It was not a question she could easily answer, and she knew that was bad, but…how could she?
I need to try harder, she told herself firmly as Headmistress Hades droned on. I need to really knuckle down and try and figure out a way to understand what is happening and try not to get dragged down by those clouds again. At least Cookie's interested in this mystery and has said she'll help me anyway, so there'll be that at least…
Her head buzzed with plans, and she turned them over and over in her head, until finally the signal was given that the assembly was over and they all got up. Blinking, Julka got up and realised that she had no idea what tutor group she was supposed to be in each year.
"We're in the same one again this year."
Julka blinked again, looking up into Will's kind grey eyes. He was smiling, but he looked tired too. She felt guilty -she wasn't the only one with problems here. She knew it, but…unless something changed, she didn't know what else to do.
"Who's our tutor this time?" she asked instead, hoping her gratitude leaked into her voice.
"Professor Yanovi," Will replied. "Lidia and Hiraga are with us, too."
So you'll be fine, went unsaid. Julka wanted to cry, knowing that no matter how much he meant it, it couldn't be true. But she couldn't do that, so instead she smiled.
"Thanks."
…
Ariadne frowned at the little crucible that she, Angela and Sera were all staring at. They'd followed the instructions that had been provided at the start of the lesson but still…nothing. It had been like this all day, lesson after lesson in which their non-magical status stuck out like the sorest thumb around. They couldn't cast runes, or simple transportation spells, or anything. The teachers had been…well, they hadn't been horrible, but she could tell that they didn't have a clue how to handle the nine of them. As for their new classmates…some had been sympathetic to their confusing plight, others less so. There'd been all manner of stupid questions (Do you know what [ ] is, have you heard of [ ], do you even know what magic is?) to, to the point where Kay had eventually shrieked OH MY GOD WE LIVE IN THE SAME WORLD AS YOU PILE OF MOULDY SOCKS OKAY right across the cafeteria at lunchtime. This had helped nothing, naturally, but it was honestly such a mood that Ariadne couldn't blame her. Though they had retreated to a sunny corner outside to cringe and distract each other playing mobile games for the rest of the lunch period after the resultant embarrassment.
Still, at least they all had each other. They weren't in the same tutor groups, and for most of the day Ariadne had only been with one or two of her friends in her lessons, but thankfully in Professor Cinnabun's Alchemy lesson they were back altogether again.
"Hey," Angela called to the group next to them, consisting of Kura, Rena and Char. "Any luck?"
"Nope." Rena called back simply, leaning back to look at them.
"We're complete duds too!" Mikelz called from Rena's other side. "Maaan, I wish they weren't having so much trouble figuring out how we made a wrong turn! I mean, how hard can it be?"
"I dunno, it's all kinda hinky if I'm being honest." Char said bluntly.
'Hinky' it most certainly was. The directions they all downloaded had most definitely been for the school they were supposed to go to, but for whatever reason at the halfway point they'd deviated and ended up being directions for this place instead. And then the name of the school itself had glitched in all their documentations. From the way the admin staff had reacted, and how both Headmaster Cher and Headmistress Hades had done so once they'd been called in, there were more things wrong, but of course they hadn't been privy to that. Just assigned tutor groups and told that they'd be here for the foreseeable future and sent off to orientation with packs but very little sense of what was actually happening.
"Ehh, I guess we just gotta sit tight and just try and get some fun out of it while waiting, right?"
With this pronouncement, Angela gave a heavy, dramatic sigh, and all nine of them quietly looked at all the other students in the class, busily working at the task and apparently getting somewhere. They joked and laughed and were thankfully not looking over at them. Ariadne wasn't sure she could handle any more of the attention. She didn't want them to become one of the Big Things of the school, not like, for example, those attention-grabbing second year kids who wore those striking black and gold outfits, looking somehow polished and feral at the same time. Just the thought of them now made her shiver despite her cosy scarf.
"I guess in the meantime though we gotta try and figure out how not to be a laughing stock, right?"
Kay's mouth down-turned, and awkwardly, Ariadne reached over and patted her shoulder. Across the room, Professor Cinnabuns (Oh goddess, that was such a name) moved away from the students he was talking to, and looked over at the nine of them. With a broad smile, the red-headed man strolled right over.
"Are you lot alright?" he called over on his way.
"Um, no." Kura snarked.
"We can't do things like this, Professor Cinnabuns." Ariadne said softly.
(Ariadne really didn't know how she managed to say that name with a straight face. She was convinced it had to be a nickname of some sort, just like how that girl in her tutor group liked to be called 'Cookie' instead of the name that'd been called out on the register that morning).
The professor reached them and went to look at what each of them had attempted to do. He winced, but quickly covered it with a smile as he took their crucibles.
"Alright, you know what, let's start again? Come over to my desk, we'll go through it, okay?"
"You're…just gonna use your desk?" Wendy asked.
"Of course. This is a small experiment, it will damage nothing. Now come, come…that's it, gather around, honey…ah, can you all see? There we go."
Soon, a version of the set up all the groups had was now laid out on Professor Cinnabun's desk and Ariadne was standing right next to him when they'd all settled around the desk. He looked around at all of them, starting with Ariadne, and gave them a reassuring smile. Feeling slightly embarrassed, Ariadne ducked her head slightly, peeking up again when the teacher started to talk.
"Now, I can appreciate that this has probably been a little bit of a weird day for you all, huh? It's alright, I can only imagine, and I have to admit that as this isn't something that's ever happened before I may make a few mis-steps in teaching you…but, let me tell you, even if you find yourself struggling in some of the other classes, which are very heavily magic-based, I am utterly confident that you will at least learn something here."
"But we've not been able to do it, and you said it was easy!" Kay protested.
"Yes, you're right," Professor Cinnabuns said. "But you see, the thing about alchemy is that being magical isn't enough. You need to put hard work and plenty of love into it, and that's how you get the results. A lot of it is even more like cooking, which everyone does, right?"
"Right…." A few of them said.
"So, if you just think of this as a set of steps to follow, like in a recipe, nothing inherently magical, then you'll manage it. Look, I'll talk you through the steps again, and then you can try it out yourself for me, alright?"
Professor Cinnabuns did so, his actions slower and more careful than when he'd demonstrated it in front of the class earlier. With each, he stopped and made sure they understood, and this time whenever Ariadne didn't, she didn't feel stupid for it. Eventually, once done, he cleaned the equipment and got Ariadne's trio to try first. Reciting each step as they carried out, they took it in turns to walk through it and then….
"We did it! We did it!"
Ariadne giggled as Angela and Sera shrieked and they all hugged, staring at the bowl which was now glittering and fizzing with magic. Kura's group tried next, and also succeeded, and once Mikelz's group was done they all had bowls of glittering, fizzing…something. Ariadne still wasn't sure what it was they'd done, exactly, but they'd done it.
"Oh my goodness," Kay said. "We actually did it!"
"HAH, take that!"
Kura yelled this to the rest of the class, and a few looked over in confusion. Most rolled their eyes or shrugged and turned away, but four in the furthest corner of the room did at least give them a little smile and thumbs up first before returning to their work.
"You see?" Professor Cinnabuns said. "If you take it slow and steady, you'll achieve great things. Now, I'll need to put these out, but very, very well done. I'll let you have the rest of the lesson off, especially as it's the last one of the day. Are you going to visit any clubs?"
"Ariadne bumped into someone nice, who invited us to her club-hey, Ari, what was it again?" Rena asked.
"Ririsa-sempai," Ariadne said. "Told us we could drop by their tea party club if we liked."
"Ah, the Lolita Tea Party Club," Professor Cinnabuns said fondly. "They are a very nice group of young people, I'm sure they'll make you feel welcome here and help you with anything you need assistance with. I will too, naturally. Like I said, I can only imagine how hard it is for you all, so if I can help in any way…"
He opened his hands out in an inviting gesture, and Ariadne beamed slightly, feeling inexplicably warm.
"Thanks, teach!" Kura grinned.
"Do you happen to know if there's a gaming club of any kind here?" Angela asked.
Professor Cinnabuns adopted a thoughtful expression.
"Gaming…you were originally meant to be going for a school specialising in that, right? Electronic games, right?"
"Yeah!" Kay said. "Do you have anything like that?"
"Sadly, no…but, I don't see why you cannot make your own." Professor Cinnabuns tapped his fingers against the desk. "Tell you what, you explore and enjoy the rest of your day and I'll make some inquiries, then come and see me tomorrow morning. I should have managed to find a place for you by then."
"FOR REAL?" Angela, Kura, Kay and Rena exclaimed in unison.
As they all scrambled to thank the professor, he simply laughed and looked at them all fondly. Not really a way she imagined a teacher looked at kids at all, but Ariadne liked it all the same. For the first time all day (apart from Ririsa's kind offer) she felt as if she actually could belong in this school, even if for a little while.
"Go on, go, go. I'll see you tomorrow morning!"
Giddy with excitement, they barreled out of the classroom, and immediately tried to figure out which way to go to get to the room that the Lolita Tea Party Club, wandering the corridors haphazardly and laughing and joking with each other. It turned out that they hadn't been let out that early though, because it was only a short while later the bell rang and other classrooms began to empty, filling the corridors.
As they went down on flight of stairs, something made the hair stand up on the back of Ariadne's neck, and cautiously, she looked around, but initially saw nothing. But then, as they arrived at the next floor she blinked.
Black…and gold….
Ariadne went through the six black and gold clad people she had seen earlier. The fox boy, the boy with dark blue hair, the tall one who looked like a boxer, the serious looking girl, the girl with a pretty sweep of long pink hair and finally, the girl who wore a mask. She didn't actually know anything about them, but when she'd seen them she'd known instinctively that they came as a set- a tight, risky unit.
This person she saw now, slight and white-haired, outfit adorned with a cloak-that person wasn't one of the six. Yet the way they moved, and the cut of their outfit…yes, this person looked like one of them. The shape of their individual features were soft and sweet, but put together there was something…something almost frecht about it.
And of course, her neck was still tingling.
Barely listening as her friends babbled and cackled in their usual manner, Ariadne kept her eyes on the person, mesmerized and yet terrified. Resolutely, the person continued walking straight through the corridor, slightly ahead of Ariadne's group. They paid no heed to the crowds of people around them, barging past them in their single-minded motion.
But nobody seemed to notice. Not even a girl who had been quite violently barged seemed to have registered that it had even happened. Instead, she just continued chatting earnestly to her companion as if nothing had occurred at all. And as Ariadne kept walking and staring, it kept happening.
Wait, does that mean that for whatever reason, only I can see them….but, the rest of those people can be seen, right? I saw them talking to other people….
With a little gasp, she turned to tug at Kay's sleeve and ask her if she could see the person, but then, abruptly, the person stopped at a door and opened it, disappearing into the room so quickly Ariadne had to blink a good few times to comprehend what it was she had seen. The tingles faded, but the chills did not.
Once again, she started to try and get her friends' attention, but then she spotted another door open up ahead, and a girl clad in pink holding a large toy rabbit in one hand while she propped the door open with a chair decorated in ribbons.
"Guys," Ariadne called out. "It's over there."
She moved ahead and gestured to the girl, who noticed them and looked up, bursting into a big grin as she hugged the bunny close to her and called out.
"Oh, hey, you decided to visit after all! Come, come, be our first visitors of the year!"
"Oh, hell yeah!" Kura cheered. "We're firrrrrssst!"
"Thanks so much for inviting us!" Rena said gratefully.
"No problem, no problem," Ririsa said with a giggle. "Come and meet my club-mates then please, take a seat and have a look at the menu to see what you'd like and enjoy yourselves, alright?"
As her group scrambled in, and Ririsa and her club-mates got them settled, Ariadne looked over her shoulder, looking for any sign that something was wrong. That the mysterious person would come back again. But seeing nothing, she shook her head and told herself to get it together.
It's probably just a ghost or something…magic schools have loads of those, don't they? Yes, that's it.
And with that in mind, she forcibly pushed the worry away, and concentrated on enjoying herself.
…
Howl remembered exactly who his roommate was by the time he'd showered and changed into his night clothes, but still didn't remember his name. Luckily, that was an easily solved problem.
"I'm Howl," he said simply as he climbed into bed. "You are?"
The boy looked up from whatever it was he was doing on his mobile phone and answered:
"Kura. I believe my reputation precedes me."
The statement was ruined by the way Kura's dark eyes sparkled from behind his glasses and the stupid grin and wink he gave to accompany it. That, and the goofy pyjamas decorated with some cartoon rabbit of some sort, didn't do much to make Kura seem even vaguely as mysterious as those words were clearly supposed to be. Howl rolled his eyes.
"Of course it does. People like you don't usually come to schools like this."
"I mean, it's not like we were planning it?" Kura asked with a raised eyebrow.
Howl waited a moment, sensing that Kura had something else to say, and sure enough after an annoyed huff and a moment to push away his candyfloss-pink fringe in a useless gesture, Kura elaborated:
"We're not sure what happened but basically we're kinda stuck here for the rest of the year until they can figure out what's going on and send us back to the school we were supposed to be going to. We're getting a room to game in, though, so that's something."
"Game?" Howl asked.
"Yeah, you not a gamer?"
"I wouldn't say so…"
Well, that at least explains all this nonsense. Howl looked over again at the piles of games cases, the stickers all over the battered suitcases; the key-chains and other charms on the school satchel and pencil cases; the earphones and various other accessories strewn across the desk and the…Pac-man lights? It's not like he had never encountered a game in his life, but he'd never met anyone who was quite so into them. Now he was thinking about it, the three of Kura's friends who had been in his tutor group had also been weighed down with similar paraphernalia, and they were all also as loud and rowdy as Kura was. Well, the blue-haired girl with the fluffy scarf and bunny hooded garment over her uniform had been a little quieter, but it had frankly made zero difference.
"Aww, that's a shame," Kura was saying. "Hey, maybe once we're set up you should come by to our games room, it'll be fun. Though gotta warn you, me and my friends, we're proper competitive gamers so it's more than likely we will completely beat you."
Howl raised an eyebrow at that.
"If you say so. Your friends are…interesting, aren't they? Particularly with their choice of insults."
"Ah, you saw that?" Kura laughed so easily, it was baffling. "Yeah, can you blame Kay for being pissed off? I mean, yes, we're not magical but we're not stupid, or aliens not from this world or whatever. And it's not even our fault we're here anyway."
Kura's expression became dark, and Howl got the sense this wasn't quite his usual state of being, so he decided to just wait and see what happened next. To be fair, he wasn't a fan of stupid questions either, so he did feel some sympathy with the girl. Though the ensuing chaos had ensured that he'd taken one look at his new friend, (the aptly named) Quiet and exchange a nope look with him before the two of them had retreated to the basketball court to finish eating their lunch.
"Oh, well," Kura said. "We can just fine-tune our skills in gaming and maybe we might pick up a few things or two in the meantime. I guess magic is cool anyway."
"Have you grown up around it?" Howl asked, curiously. "Magic, I mean. I know that not all non-magical people do."
"Weeeeell…." Kura thought about it. "Our old school was pretty mixed in those terms, and some of us have magical family members…both Ariadne's mums are, and Angela's big brother, and Sera's aunt and a few others. My own street is almost completely like me but everyone else's neighbourhoods are also pretty mixed but yeah, yeah. This is a whole different ballgame, this is. Anyway, what sorta magic you into?"
"Anything combat based, though I want to improve my melee combat skills and I want to expand my knowledge in other forms too." Howl said simply.
"Ooooh, you're gonna be a swot then, aren't ya?" Kura said.
Howl rolled his eyes, which made Kura cackle almost uproariously.
"I kid, I kid. You do you, innit? I am not looking forward to melee combat."
"No, I can see why you wouldn't."
Kura's smirk froze for a moment, and as he stared at Howl, Howl stared back, appraising the boy. While he certainly was skinny, he wasn't scrawny or particularly weedy looking, and his dark skin didn't have the grey undertone of the unhealthy. Not someone to be underestimated on looks alone. But even so, Howl stood by his original judgement.
Just as he came to this conclusion, Kura shook his head and let out a low, long laugh.
"Touché, old buddy, touché."
"You should probably try, though. It seems like it might help you adapt to the situation, just in case. I'm sure you know where magic is concerned things can get unpredictable."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Professor Cinnabuns said that apparently we'd be able to learn some things in his class anyway so there's that, I guess. But nah, like I said, I'm gonna up my game with the gaming. Speaking of which, I've got a level to finish here, so I'll chat when I've done that."
"Your eyes are gonna turn square at this rate." Howl informed him staunchly.
"Okay, Dad."
"Call me that again and I will end your existence."
"Okay…Dad."
"Existence. End."
Kura cackled again, eyes glinting, undaunted by Howl's attempt to convey that he meant buisness, and in the end he just sighed and face-palmed audibly. Kura continued laughing, and when Howl looked up again the boy had picked up his phone again and had started to continue his game.
"Wait, before you get into…whatever that is," Howl said. "How'd you keep your lights at night?"
"Oh, usually just those, especially if I'm going to be playing something. But I guess I don't mind one other set of lights as well. Are the moon ones magic? Because I can't get them to work."
"Yes, they're magic."
Heavily, Howl got up and went to each moon light and turned it on, before turning the main electrical lights off. Kura made appreciative cooing noises as he looked around, and then flicked the switch of his fairy lights, which cast brightly coloured glows onto his wall side. He made another noise of appreciation and then looked over at Howl with a grin.
"Yeah, man, this is fine! For you, though?"
"I'll live." Howl responded, side-eyeing the fairy lights.
"Cool. Leave 'em like that, I'll manage just fine."
Howl stopped from where he was about to turn the electrical lights back on and turned to stare at Kura, who was completely engrossed in his game once again.
"I'm telling you, square eyes."
This time though, Kura didn't respond and Howl just sighed again. Slowly, he went back to his bed, and considered what he could do to pass the time before suddenly yawning. It had been a long first day, and the anticipation of what to come was sweet, but there was just so much new information and his mind could only take so much during a day. Especially with a roommate like the one he was now stuck with. Still, he knew that whatever happened, he was only going to rise from where he was now. It was why he was here after all.
And, have to admit, it is not all that bad. Just looking at him now, Howl had to suppress a smile. Non-magical Kura may have been but he certainly was not dull or ordinary. He wasn't against fun, and he suspected that the presence of the non-magical students was going to bring a lot of that to his time here. But he needed sleep first, or there was no way that he was going to be able to keep up with the sheer madness.
So, with yet another yawn he lay down, turned so he was facing away from those god-damned lights, and fell fast asleep.
…
Jun yawned slightly as he arrived at the shed that served as the base for the new Gardening Club that he'd ended up being a part of. He wasn't really a morning person, but he'd managed to get used to it back home when he'd woken up to work on his family's little garden before they all woke up, and now he managed it here. After all, though the Gardening Club was only a few days old, it was something worth taking pride in.
"Ah, morning!"
It took Jun a moment to place the name of the girl with long plaits, but then he remembered and smiled.
"Good morning, Jenna. How are you?"
"I'm good, I'm good. Hey, it looks like Professor Yanovi's left a memo cube for us."
Sure enough, Jenna was holding aloft one of the small magical cubes, this one with a slightly greenish glow. She pressed it and the glow brightened as Professor Yanovi's voice started speaking from it.
"Hello, lovely children. If any of you happen to drop in early, I was wondering if you could do me a favour? The Angel Tree in the South Wing needs some cuttings taken from it, and I'd be ever so grateful if one or two of you could get a head-start on that for me. The process is the same as taking cuttings from a non-magical tree, but The Angel Tree isn't used to being cut so you'll have to be patient with it, okay? I only need a few for now anyway, but if you can't manage it don't worry, we'll be regrouping at the end of the school day anyway, so we can do it then if that's the case. The pots and rooting powders are set up in the greenhouse, so take the cuttings there afterwards, alright?
Oh! And I believe that I'll be teaching a couple of you for your first ever Plant and Earth Magic lesson here! That's so exciting and I'm looking forward to it! Remember, we'll initially be meeting up in the greenhouse. I'll see you all later then. Have a good day!"
The cube blinked twice to indicate the message had finished, then returned to softly glowing.
"Are you one of the ones who has the lesson today?" Jenna asked.
"Lemme just check my timetable."
Jun fished in the pocket of his school trousers and pulled out his paper copy of his timetable which he shook to unfold before reading it.
"Yeah, I am. I don't know who else from us is going to be there though."
"You'll find out soon enough anyway, but are we going to try and get tree cuttings then?"
"Sure-I wonder why Professor Yanovi wants them. Tree cuttings are taken in the autumn after all."
"Yeah, but I guess the rules are different for magical trees, which this is, I'm pretty sure."
"Oh, you've heard of it?"
"Yeah, apparently it grows right through all the floors in a particular spot of the South Wing, but I've yet to go that way."
"Well then, guess it's an adventure for the both of us then, isn't it?"
Jenna grinned at this pronouncement, and went to find them a couple of secateurs and a couple of bags. Jun took off his school blazer and left it on a hook on the shed wall, then hunted his pockets for a sheet of paper and a pen, and scribbled a note.
"If we don't see any of the others on the way." He told Jenna.
Jenna nodded at that, and left the memo cube on top of the note, and then the two of them set off back across the school gardens and into the south wing. They had to walk down to the opposite end to find the tree, but it was impossible to miss once they did. For a moment, the two of them stared up at the tree and how the entire seemed to glow-iridescent rainbow leaves and bark that was white. Jun had to rub his eyes and blink a few times, unable to believe quite what he was seeing.
"Woooah…" he murmured. "This is quite the tree."
"It certainly is. Let's see if we can manage a few cuttings then."
Jenna held out a pair of secateurs and a bag, and Jun took them before sticking them in his hoodie pocket, rolling up the sleeves and then climbing up the tree. It was harder to climb than it looked, but once he'd managed to hoist himself high enough to grab branches, it got a little easier and he continued climbing until he was about halfway, and then he shimmied out onto one of the sturdier branches while considering which one to cut. Eventually selecting a slim but sturdy branch above him, he hung his bag at the end of it, then took out the secateurs and prepared to make a horizontal cut at the section that he was going to keep as the bottom of the cutting.
The moment the metal touched the branch though, he heard a mournful cry.
"Hey, Jun, did you hear that?" Jenna called from round the other side of the tree.
"I did!" Jun exclaimed. "Do you think this is what the Professor meant?"
"Yeah but…oh, it sounds so sad…"
Pressing down, the mournful cry resonated in his head again, louder and more insistent.
"Hey, tree," he murmured. "I'm sorry, but we've gotta cut you. It won't really hurt, I promise…"
But the cry continued, even as he managed to make that first cut. Even as he held the now freed branch to make the cut at the top, it continued. Oh, what do I do…Jun frowned, and then remembered how a neighbour's little kid threw an absolute fit over having their hair cut. Wait, what did their mum do…?
Then, remembering, Jun began to hum. Quietly at first, but then a little louder, a tune whose origin he wasn't entirely sure of but that seemed to come to him anyway. He hummed and hummed, and as he did he cut branches, slowly and carefully, cleaning the leaves away from each branch cutting as he did so, and gradually the cries faded away.
Then he became aware of someone else humming along with him. The voice seemed unfamiliar with the tune, pausing every so often then picking up again, but it was a pretty voice. And it was coming right from below him.
Stopping abruptly, Jun peered down, and saw a girl, standing there with a bag over her shoulder and eyes half closed as she followed along. It took her a couple of moments to realise that she was being watched, and when she did she stopped just as abruptly as he had and looked up. Her eyes were revealed to be a vivid ocean-green as they widened, and her cheeks went pink.
"Ah, I'm so sorry, I was just…"
"No, it's alright."
Jun found himself blushing, and felt momentarily tongue tied. The girl fidgeted and lifted up a hand to push back a strand of her glossy dark brown hair before blinking confusedly up at him.
"Um…why are you taking cuttings in the springtime? If you don't mind me asking, that is?"
"We don't know either, but Professor Yanovi asked us to so…"
Jun shrugged one shoulder and the girl nodded thoughtfully at that.
"It did seem to me like the tree hadn't been pruned in a very long time anyway…"
"Yeah, it seems so. Are you a gardener too?"
"Hey, hey, who're you talking to?"
Jun glanced over to the side to see that Jenna was now peering around. When she saw the girl standing on the ground she gave a big grin, and gave a brief wave before having to cling to the tree again.
"Hey! Morning, uh…I can't remember your name, sorry!"
"Robyn." The girl said. "Morning, Jenna."
Robyn. Jun filed the name away carefully in his mind, not wanting to forget it.
"Yeah, yeah. Robyn, this is Jun, he's a part of the Gardening Club too. Jun, this is Robyn, she's in my tutor group and she's a little unusual because she's part of a work-study programme, so she doesn't take all of the same classes that freshman usually do."
"A work-study programme?" Jun asked. "I didn't realise they did things like that here. What sort of ah…erm, thing are you work-studying for?"
"I'm in the infirmary…I was on my way there, actually."
Robyn seemed a little wistful at that, looking up almost longingly at the two of them up in the tree.
"Are you alright?" Jun asked gently.
"Oh!" Robyn blinked, then shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Truth is, I like gardening too and I was hoping to come by and visit, but I've been busy these last few days settling in, and this morning particularly I overslept."
"I'm sure you'll be able to come soon though, right?" Jun asked. "Was there anything particular you wanted to do?"
"Not as such, but it'd be nice to be amongst plants from time to time. And I suppose I was hoping to perhaps put together a small pot of flowers to decorate my room."
"Oh, I can do that for you."
Jun blinked, taken aback at how easily the offer had come to him. But Robyn's face lit up instantly, making her seem positively radiant. He blushed again.
"Oh, you don't need to-"
"It's no problem, really. I'll have to do it after school today though since we've got these cuttings. What's your favourite flower?"
"Violets." Robyn answered instantly, now also blushing once again. "But really, if you can't it's alright. I can wait a while until I'm able to come over."
"Violets it is." Jun said decisively. "I'm sure we've got some. I'll deliver them to the infirmary or get Jenna to give them to you in tutor time."
"I…thanks so much."
Robyn pressed her hands to her chest briefly in a grateful gesture, then hitched her bag onto her shoulder and smiled.
"Well, I should be off now. Bye for now."
"Bye."
Jun watched her turn and walk away, waiting until she left before he turned back to the branch he was focussing on. A few moments passed, quiet except for the humming he resumed to sooth the tree.
"Soooo, I'm your wing-man now, huh?"
Jun yelped, and almost fell out of the tree. Jenna laughed at him.
"Sorry, were you focused?"
"Yes. But doesn't matter now…what do you mean, wing-man?"
"You're the one who's just volunteered me to deliver flowers to your girlfriend."
"I…what?" Jun blinked. "She isn't….that is….I…"
Jenna laughed again, and Jun peered around the tree just to stare at her. She shook her head, laughing.
"You're smitten-it's written all over your face. But hey, I don't mind setting you two up. She's nice enough, you're nice enough, seems like it'd work."
Jun spluttered.
"We don't need setting up, I mean, it's not like…we just met, we're not anything yet."
"Hah! Yet, you said! You at least want to get to know her better, don't you?"
Jun opened his mouth to protest, and then closed his mouth. Slowly, he nodded, and Jenna continued smiling at him, though this time a lot more fondly. Briefly, he looked over in the direction that Robyn had walked away before staring back at Jenna.
"There we go then. Let me know when and where and I'll help you out, okay? Anyway, you think we've got enough?"
Jun recovered his voice enough to answer in the affirmative, and then the pair of them clambered back down the tree with their spoils, tidied up whatever mess they had met, and headed straight to the greenhouse.
"I'll put the tools away, you head on, okay?" Jenna asked.
"Sure."
Jun took the bag Jenna had and gave back his secateurs, and then continued on to the greenhouse. Ahead of him, he saw two more of his other new friends going to the same destination, though evidently from a different direction, deep in discussion of some sort.
"Yeah, but have you actually even seen the person yet? I know I haven't!" Seraph was protesting vehemently.
"Well yeah, but it's gotta be true, right? I heard from the Lolita Tea Party Club that the Elite Chess Club's definitely let a new freshman in, and they wouldn't lie, right?" Jae asked.
"But we see those guys everywhere, and let me tell you, every time, I've still only seen the six so-"
"Morning, guys!"
"Oh!" Seraph turned around. "Hey, Jun! Do you know the freshman who's joined the Elite Chess Club?"
So full was his head of thoughts of violets and tree cuttings, that it took Jun a moment for his brain to catch up with what they'd been talking about.
"Um….no?"
"SEE," Seraph said triumphantly, her dark blue ponytail swishing as she nodded. "SEE?"
"Okay, whatever," Jae shrugged. "Just don't whine to me about not getting to play chess with them."
Seraph pouted at that, but quickly shook it off to ask Jun what it was he was carrying. He was happy to explain what he and Jenna had been doing, though he left out the fact that he'd met Robyn, just wanting the little breather to let the new feelings sit before Jenna burst in and inevitably told. Not that there was any secret, just that Jenna really did seem pretty full on and eager to do things where he was…not.
The three of them headed in and quickly spotted the set up that Professor Yanovi had put together for the cuttings, and they made quick work of planting the cuttings and lining them back up along the relevant shelf. As they did so, they talked about their lessons for the day, and it turned out that Jae and Seraph were indeed in the same Plant and Earth Magic class as him.
"Ahhh….what to do now…?" Jae asked, stretching and yawning. "Still a little time before we got to go to tutor time, right?"
"Yeah…"
Jun cast his eyes around the greenhouse, looking at all the plants, particularly the flowering ones.
"Hey, do you know if we've got any violets here?"
"Violets?" Seraph raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"Oh, no reason."
"Nuh-uh, Jun, you don't get to evade like that! Also, you forgot your blazer in the shed."
Jun swallowed a groan as he turned to the doorway to see Jenna grinning at him, holding out his blazer. Pulling a face, he walked over to take it, and shrugged it back on.
"What doesn't he get to evade?" Jae asked.
"Oh, just that this boy has already managed to bag himself a girl!" Jenna declared.
"Jenna! I haven't bagged anyone yet!" Jun protested, feeling himself going red again.
"And you're at it with the 'yet' again." Jenna laughed.
Jun sighed. Yeah, I'm not gonna win this one, am I? Still, he couldn't help but smile. She meant well and besides, perhaps she wasn't so wrong. He was going to be giving Robyn her flowers after all, wasn't he? And he couldn't deny he liked that this meant he'd get to see her again. So rather than protest further against Jenna's triumph and Seraph and Jae's curiosity he just shook his head and said:
"Fine, then you can tell it. I, in the meantime, am going to look for some violets."
…
Cain's wrist was hurting.
It was one of the first things he noticed when he woke up and turned to slam his alarm off. His roommate-an insipid, boring boy-remained dead to the world which suited him just fine as he sucked in a breath and stared at his arm, examining it from all angles. Nothing seemed bruised, and prodding it didn't reveal anything off. He certainly had not been stupid enough to do anything stupid that would have sprained it. Besides, this didn't feel like a sprain. Did it?
Stop it, he scolded himself. I may just have slept in an odd position. I can visit the infirmary and get it sorted if it persists.
With that thought in mind, he determinedly pushed aside his covers and stood, and briskly went through the usual motions of getting ready, the pain calmly persisting. Small tendrils of dread snaked across his brain, slim but very present, and again Cain pushed them back with internal scolding, with a reliance on the routines. And though by the time he was ready to leave his room the pain had subsided and no dread surged up, he knew they were there, still, waiting.
So, as he walked, he forced himself to think about how much he loved it at Kawaakari.
Second week of the second year in, and Cain felt like he had never really left. He went through so much effort to make sure his weakness was never seen, and yet every solitary moment he found his chest seizing up with the worry that maybe this was the day that it happened, that all his careful words and easy charm would no longer do what they were supposed to. And away from this school, the feeling was only worse. It should have been worse in school, considering how Abel captivated others, how Judas made girls squeal. How each of the girls of the club had their own charms as well. But, as it turned out, he could pretend as well as them too. It was so easy to polish a surface enough to reflect off of and hide the flaws within and oh, what flaws some of his shiny friends had. So in the end, this place was his kingdom, more or less. The magic that seemed to flow through all the cracks in the wall, he was more than able to use that to refine those parts of him he used to polish his own surface, make it shiner than the rest. There was nowhere else in the world that he felt like this.
Yes, he loved it here.
Walking down the corridor towards the room that Eve had commandeered to start their Elite Chess Club, he waved and said a few words of generic greeting to the few people who were up already, taking satisfaction in how they simpered or beamed, eager to soak up whatever he chose to throw at them. Pausing at his locker, he opened it, and sighed at the pile of letters that had already accumulated after just a single week. He swept them all into his bag anyway, since it was entirely possible many were from those new and impressionable freshman and he wanted to try and get a sense of them.
Though, none of those letters were from Oura. Or, he assumed none of them would be from Oura. After all, that freshman was different. They had chosen simply to turn up and straightforwardly ask to be included, dressed in an outfit that was clearly meant to fit in with the dress code they'd all adopted when they'd become a club. No doubt, Oura had seen some article that'd mentioned them briefly in relation to either Eve or Delilah, and had made the most of the knowledge. It spoke of something far more resolute than the shy, timid person seemed capable of. Their club had never meant to admit more people, it was meant to be theirs and theirs alone. Yet, Oura had slid right in, and Cain didn't mind at all. He liked the idea of having someone completely in thrall to him, as it proved that he was indeed worthy of something, that 'elite' was a label that applied fully to him. And it put him in the position of power for a change, as he had spent the week getting Oura settled into the club.
Cain gave a smile, and continued on his way. When he reached the club room moments later, his mood had lifted right up, and the way his morning had started felt only like the hazy remains of a nightmare. Confidently, he swung open the door and stepped through it, waving and beginning a greeting:
"Mor-"
As the door swung closed behind him though, pain shot through his wrist again, this time enough to have him gasping and doubling over. Gradually though, the sharp burst faded to a throbbing, enough for him to be aware of similar reactions rippling through the room. He looked up to meet everyone's eyes, prepared to take charge of the situation when he noticed them all looking at their wrists in horror.
"What…how did this…?" Maria stuttered.
"Why is there a countdown on our wrists?" Eve asked.
Cain didn't need to see her face to discern the absolute terror that was no doubt coursing through her, giving her voice a slightly more hysterical voice than her usual privileged celebrity-child whining. For once, he was completely lost for words, and instead of talking to the others he slowly lifted his wrist to his face in an action that mirrored the others.
And sure enough, right there, in black ink, was a countdown, flashing between simply saying 'SEVEN DAYS' and then to a counter displaying the hours and minutes left. Cain blinked, rubbed his eyes, and then used a finger to rub at the numbers, letting out a cry when the motion delivered a tiny electric shock. The numbers remained as they were, as if they were a tattoo-but what tattoo moved?
"Has this happened to all of us?" Maria asked.
"You can see that, can't you?" Judas snapped, unexpectedly vehement as he waved his arm around.
"I hate it! Who even would do such a thing?" Delilah asked.
Abel, of course, said nothing. But Cain knew his old friend well to know that he was just as worried, possibly even more so, perhaps wondering if this was just another nail in his coffin. Me, Abel, Judas, Delilah, Eve, Maria…wait….wait. His eyes widened in shock and he looked at all them
"No, wait! Not all of us-where i-"
Although all the windows were closed, the wind suddenly started to blow. It picked up the edges of their garments, the ends of their hair and made them all flutter, but nothing else moved. Even the trees outside remained utterly still. Pushing a lock of his night-blue hair back off his shoulder, Cain spun around to the door and stared.
Their cloak also fluttered slightly in the wind, as did the golden tassels at their shoulders. The white hair remained in its ponytail, though now it looked windswept. But the gold eyes which had seemed so soft were now flint-hard, and their timid expression twisted into something gloriously, terrifyingly triumphant as each and every one of them felt scrutinised. Cain prided himself on always maintaining a confident façade, on being dazzling no matter what. But now, he shivered, for the nightmare was in full-focus once again.
And Oura had arrived.
Groups first featured this chapter (not completely in order, and some names I just had to type out a close variation of because this site doesn't like some of the more unusual letters/symbols):
FAKES
(character name changes: Lidia=UN3H, Kureha=Puff, Tate=Dictate, Wren=n357w, Mica=theMCA)
PROJECT: NIGHTMARE
teatime
round
(most of the character name changes are more capital-letter-placement changes, though I've gone with referring to MonTaRo by the nickname of Mona. Also I'd like to give a shoutout to cookie's R1 Libretto because not only was that a great springboard for this story, but was just really fun to read in general)
Concern! In the Chorus Battle
(character name changes: Kay=k*chan which is probably not THAT difficult to discern but hey, better safe than sorry)
Kaiju 怪獣
Renge
(character name changes: Yara=.exe)