Luciform

by TheRoseShadow21

This is a year that, for Kawaakari Academy, should be brighter than most. But the threads of change have been woven in the background for a long time, and the tapestry is almost complete. Here is the story of some of the students caught up in it, and how they face the resulting darkness. Fic combining various KACB entries. AU, rated M for difficult themes. Cross-posted to AO3.

10. 2-2

Edits made on 31/08/2022, primarily punctuation and other minor things for flow, as well as a teeny bit extra narration in the second scene.

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"Another less common complication of coming into magical ability during adolescence is the phenomenon of doppelgangers, as they were named at the turn of the Clockwork Era, in which the magic takes the intense emotions that characterise the age group and…"

Professor Void continued on, but rather than continuing to take notes without thinking as he usually did, Theodore was struck dumb. As Professor Void went on, all of a sudden things started to click into place and what had felt unknowable and terrifying was suddenly not. Or rather, it was still scary but perhaps not nearly as inexplicable, and that made it easier.

Ah, I should probably…

His usual diligence kicked in and he picked up his pen, frantically scribbling notes, all the while thinking that he had to tell the others, he had to because finally there was something about all this that made a little bit of sense.

=Yo, Theo, what're you screaming about in your head?=

Theo almost spluttered at Ezrael's cheery voice, his pen skidding across his notebook's page, but remembered himself just in time and continued furiously writing and hoping nobody had noticed anything amiss.

=I think there's an explanation for our shadows. = he said excitedly. =Professor Void is talking about something in their lecture. I'm taking notes so we can look at them, and then maybe we should go to the library to see if there's anything further=

=We looked in the library already though?= Haze asked.

=That's true, but we didn't really know what we were looking for, right?=

=Theo's right= A piped up. =We're all almost finished for the day, right? So let's meet in the library once our lessons are over.=

=Alright, I'll see you all there!=

=Sure= Haze said.

=It's a daaaaaaatttteeeeee= Ezra added.

=You're an idiot, Ezra.=

Holding back his laughter, Theo made sure that he got down as much information as he could while simultaneously willing the time to go as quickly as possible. Coming back after the summer break hadn't felt particularly like a new start, as it still wasn't that long ago that that poor girl had been found dead. There was a heaviness to the air, not helped by how evasive all the staff were and how restricted they were in talking about it. The incident wasn't exactly being covered up, as far as Theo understood, but it was very…muted. He hadn't thought that anything would make sense, ever again, but now…maybe, just maybe it would.

The moment the bell rang he was up like a shot, gathering his things together as fast as he could and practically racing to the library. If anybody shot him an odd look, he barely noticed it, but he wasn't particularly built for running that fast and so just as he got to the corridor the library was located in, he found himself getting out of breath and had to stop. Leaning against the wall he bent over and took in great gasping breaths before feeling himself return to normal and straightening. As he did so, he idly looked out of the window.

And saw the shadow.

Theo blinked and froze, wondering if it was just an unclear reflection. But then the shadow turned, and it was unmistakably nothing but black, swirling forms that had somehow come together in a shape that he now realised was his. And more than that.

So, you think you've won?

That voice, whispering to him on that day…it had been his. Now he thought he knew what was going on, he wondered how he had not recognised this before. His own voice, but different, laced with a taunt as if taking all his worries and fears and giving them shape.

"Well, that's exactly what you are, aren't you?" Theodore muttered aloud. "You're just my fears and I'm not….I'm not scared anymore."

The hesitation, of course, was more than enough to give him away but nonetheless, the shadow disappeared slowly. Once he was sure it had gone, Theo turned and walked the rest of the way into the library, quickly spotting Haze and A waiting near the book-return trolleys for him. As he approached, he was tackled from behind by none other than Ezrael, who laughed uproariously when Theo stumbled, only to get told off by a senior. Ezra, naturally, waved this off with a cheeky apology before slinging an arm around Theo's shoulder and steering him over to their other two friends.

"So, you think you've cracked it, huh?" Haze asked.

"May have. Let's go to the teacher shelves." Theo said.

He was, of course, referring to the section of the library where books were sorted into shelves according to which professor's lessons they were meant for. The books in question were usually the required reading titles, or some recommended further reading. Anything that went beyond that was shelved normally elsewhere in the library in the relevant area for the specific topic. Considering Professor Void had mentioned the doppelgangers in class explicitly, Theo imagined that any books on the matter would be on their teacher shelf. So he led them there, and then, lowering his voice did his best to explain.

"I don't feel particularly freaked about my powers." Ezra said almost immediately. "At least, I didn't before."

"You do realise what subconscious means, don't you?" Haze snarked.

"Yeah, but…"

"I think it makes sense, for some things." A said thoughtfully. "But not others."

"Such as?" Ezrael asked.

"Why are we here? As in, in this…loop, rather than where we were before?" A whispered. "And why haven't things turned out the exact same as they did before? I know some of us have done minor things differently because we remember, but…"

"Like the Elite Chess Club…" Theo supplied when A trailed off.

"Yeah, like that," A said gratefully. "And even some of the things with the girls, that's different too."

"I mean, we didn't manage to reach this point in the year, before, did we?" Haze asked. "We don't know whether that would have been the same outcome."

"But Rain and the others…and the Night Patrol…" A pointed out.

"Yes, those two things are also…"

"I'm thinking that there's a lot of different things happening. Not just ours, so maybe that explains that. But I really do think that what I said explains at least part of our part."

Haze frowned at this and considered.

"I agree. Maybe not as much as you think, but it does make sense."

"Are we…are we going to go to Professor Void?" A wondered.

Ezra immediately looked around them before staring, bug-eyed.

"We can't do that, right?"

"No, we can't." Haze agreed. "Especially because of all the overlapping stuff."

"Let's see what information we can find first, right?" A suggested. "Maybe then that will give us a clearer idea of what to do."

"Sounds like a plan to me Ada, our A." Ezrael grinned.

Theo, too, smiled.

"Yes, lets."

They spent some time flicking through books, using the contents and index to try and find the right sections to save them going through the whole book (though Haze kept ending up doing that anyway, and Theo lost count of how many times he had to remind him). Eventually, they moved onto trying to find books in the wider library and though they ended up with a few more pages of notes they still found themselves confused.

"I…I mean, the explanation still makes sense to me, but it doesn't make us make sense." Ezra sighed. "You know?"

"Somehow yes," Haze wryly replied. "But yeah, where else can we look?"

"What about Professor Shippa's personal library?" A asked.

"But we can't see it now," Haze pointed out. "Which means that we can't get in."

"I mean, not necessarily. After all, it still has to be there, right?" A said.

"That's true. I highly doubt it's the entire room that's disappeared, just the door. I think it's worth a try, anyway. Professor Shippa's good at collecting information, I'm sure he'll have something to help us…and I'm sure he'd understand why we have to look."

"Course you'd think that, Theo." Ezra grinned teasingly.

Immediately, Theo felt himself go as red as a tomato and he pulled a face, much to Ezrael's (thankfully now very muted) laughter.

"We'll need to be careful, though-can you imagine the amount of detention we'd get if we were caught?"

Theodore, who'd never had a day of detention in his life and didn't want to start now, shuddered at the thought. Feeling a hand on his arm, he glanced over to see A smiling softly at him and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Let's go now, then. Try and make it quick. I think…I think we should try, right?"

The four friends looked at each other carefully, fear and hope so clearly warring in all of them. It's an answer, right? We owe it to each other to try, I think. I think. Theo sighed and then, trying to be brave he smiled.

"You're quite right. Lead the way, then?"

…

Cookie ducked behind the shelves as A and her three friends rushed out of the library before peering back around them again. She'd almost forgotten that it was only because of A that she'd known about the personal library in the first place, even if she couldn't access it anymore. Which was a shame, since she was sure that if there were any more answers about what had become of the girls then it would more than likely be in the documents that Professor Shippa had kept. And considering what she knew about Rielle, it was likely there would have been something there about necromantic plant magic. Still, she would work with what she could get. For now.

Of course, A wouldn't know that the protective charms on the library had been increased, otherwise she would not have suggested it to her friends in the first place. This told Cookie that whatever the situation was with them, it wasn't exactly the same as the situation with the non-magical freshman. After all, they'd talked about 'before' and not being able to see it 'now', indicating that they were involved in some sort of time-loop magic. And if that really was the case then that just added extra levels of complication, for it suggested that Ancient Magic was at play in some way.

Feeling Milo headbutt her ankle, Cookie bent down and picked the cat up, letting him clamber up to her shoulder, where he was small enough to both fit and to feel comfortable. The comfort didn't quite take away the worry. If this was Ancient Magic, then it was far more than any of them could deal with it. She wondered if it was more than the Professors could deal with, and if that was why they were behaving the way they were. They were proud beings, they were. Too proud.

"Now, what do you think we should do? Carry on here, or see what the situation is with my roommate?"

"I thought you didn't like divining cats?"

Cookie almost jumped, before collecting herself and taking a deep breath. Patting Milo to reassure him, she turned to Frost who was standing there leaning against the shelves, having apparently come around from the other side.

"I don't."

"And yet…."

"I like cats. And talking to them. Not divining from them. There is a difference, you know. "

"I do not think that cats are allowed in the library."

"Actually it's food, hot drinks and loud devices that aren't allowed in here, and a cat is none of the above. What are you doing here?"

"The library is open to all students. I have cleaning duty later."

Cookie had, after delivering her comeback, made a point of turning to the shelves and pulling a book out at random and then opening the pages. Well, sort of at random, because this was at least the right section (or one of the right possible sections). However, this pronouncement from Frost had her turning back again in utter confusion.

"You have cleaning duty in the library?"

"No."

"So you are here because…..?"

"I assume you are trying to find something to consolidate what we found out from that so-called book?"

Cookie narrowed her eyes further and resisted the urge to try another Sense Emotion spell. What she needed was other evidence before figuring out what she should do about Frost, if anything needed to be done in the first place.

"What do you mean, 'so-called book'? The book existed, it just disappeared."

"Right, right." Frost nodded. "That's a strange stance, coming from you, I think."

"Meaning?"

"You won't believe in the Goddesses but you'll believe in an ancient, disappearing book?"

There was barely any inflection in Frost's voice as she asked this, and Cookie just stared, utterly gobsmacked. All she could come up with as a retort was:

"You won't believe in an ancient, disappearing book but you'll believe in the Goddesses?"

She was disappointed but not surprised to see that Frost had precisely zero reaction to this. Heaven help me, Cookie thought sardonically, well aware of the futility of starting a fight in the library. She shut the book, but held onto it, figuring that she could take a proper look at it if and when Frost decided to leave. With the girl needling at her she was hardly going to retain anything, after all.

Frost didn't react to that either beyond lifting a hand to tuck a lock of her snowy hair back behind her ear. As she did so, however, Cookie once again caught a glimpse of that strange tattoo. It looked like a perfectly normal tattoo, it didn't even move, but there was something about the look of the blue rose against the paleness of Frost's arm that had Cookie convinced it meant something. But what?

"What is it about the book that's more plausible than the existence of the Goddesses, to you? Their stories shaped the world, after all, did they not?"

As she asked this, she noticed Cookie stare and silently re-adjusted her sleeves.

"Oh, I don't doubt that." Cookie said. "Stories are powerful things, aren't they? That's not the same thing, though."

"I suppose you would say that. Still, have you ever thought of the types of stories that have been told, and why? I mean, let us take….let's see, the concept of mirror sisters."

Cookie stiffened almost immediately, and Milo pawed at her face anxiously. There was no way that Frost could know something that she herself had only learnt a year ago and only through snooping. She'd never told it to anyone, let alone written it down. There was just no way, even if she was an enchanter. Okay, so some people were uttering nonsense along the lines of 'oh there must be mirror sisters infiltrating the school' but Frost was not an idle-rumour type. No, blank-faced as she was, she was clearly aiming the comment specifically at Cookie. And she did not like it.

"What about them?" Cookie tried to ask as evenly as possible.

Frost raised an eyebrow, and adjusted her beret. The motion made an irrational annoyance flare up-how dare she have the same taste in hats that Cookie did? She didn't speak for a moment, apparently concentrating on her beret. But eventually, she said:

"I suppose that works as a response as well. I doubt you will find what you are looking for."

"Well at least I'm actually doing something, as opposed to shirking cleaning duty!"

Frost's lips twitched, very slightly, though Cookie couldn't tell if they were going up, or down. She has to be like this on purpose, otherwise how on earth does she even function? I mean, I'm hardly the life of the party myself but still! Come on!

"I'm not shirking anything. I suppose you must have been, though, right?"

"Are you teasing me? Because you're really bad at it."

"Oh, just wondering. I would have thought you'd be all over the whole apparent link between flowers and necromancy thing."

"I was. I'm here now, aren't I? But in case you didn't notice, we just had the summer break."

"That we did. Still, you are not one to drag your feet on something like this. "

Again, Cookie wondered if it was possible that Frost knew something. Not about the missing girls, necessarily (though she was wondering that, too) but everything else that she was trying to investigate. There was no way in hell that she was letting Frost anywhere near those other investigations, not when she got shadier with every second.

"You don't know anything about what I am or am not. I don't know that about you."

Frost raised an eyebrow, and nodded.

"I will go and complete my cleaning duty then. Goodbye."

And just like that, she headed off without so much as a backwards glance. Cookie held her breath until the white-haired girl was out of sight, and then let it out in relief.

"Well, that made about as much sense as a kettle of fish." She muttered to herself, looking down at the book in her hands. "Suppose I should get on with it then, right?"

Naturally, the cat didn't answer, instead poking her face again. Sighing, Cookie shifted the book so she could reach up and scratch the cat between his ears, before returning her attention back to the shelves and seeing what else she could find.

…

"Alrighty then, whose turn was it next?"

Angela turned to the others and grinned.

"Ah, that would be me!" Wendy exclaimed. "Sera, want to join me?"

"I'll go up against you, if you're game." Wren said before catching themselves and laughing.

"Sure thing, sure thing."

Wendy and Wren got up and scrambled over, and Angela and Rena handed over their controllers before going back to the table.

"So, sempais, what do you think of our games room?" Angela asked Will, Tate and Lily, who had come to join them.

"Seems nice to me." Tate said.

"Yes, it does seem nice in here. Very cosy. I suppose this must be like your little heaven, right?" Will mused.

"Ehhh, we've got a lot of happy places. We make the happy places. Which probably means 'yes' to your question but whatever," Kura said, shrugging. "Hey, we've run out of brownies!"

"Oh, we forgot!" Rena exclaimed. "Kay, the cookies!"

"Oh yeah, right, hold on a moment!"

Kay bounced up and went over to the area they kept their snacks before grabbing the box they'd stashed there earlier in the day after their lunchtime shopping trip that day.

"Are those from Professor Snow?" Tate asked curiously.

"No, no there's a new bakery that's down the street-not the one by the convenience store, the other way. They have cookies that look divine, so we pooled our money to get a bunch of different flavours."

"Yeah, we've got double chocolate with caramel, salted caramel and strawberries…some other funky fruit and chocolate combinations…including banoffee pie!"

After passing around the other flavours, Angela held up the relevant packet with a grin, and Mikelz frowned at her.

"How can a pie be a cookie flavour? That doesn't make sense."

"I take it that you don't want any then?" Angela teased.

Instantly, Mikelz's face changed and he reached out to try and grab one. Angela laughed and held the packet a little out of his reach, waggling it slightly before relenting and passing it over. Mikelz snatched it and mock-scowled at her before opening the packet and adding one of the cookies to his overflowing paper plate of snacks.

"Hey, Tate, you'd better not be dissecting that cookie, now." Will said to Tate, who had also taken one of the banoffee pie cookies.

Tate's response was to give an utterly unimpressed look.

"I only did that once, Will! Once!"

This made Will and Lily chuckle, and Wren too looked over and flashed a grin at their three friends before returning to the game they were playing against Wendy. Angela had no idea what that was all about, but she assumed it was some sort of weird inside joke. Goddess knew her friends had plenty of those to go around and then some. After some conversation about the various merits of the cookies and their flavours, Sera suddenly asked:

"Aren't you guys doing that Night Patrol thing tonight?"

"Well, us three are on duty tonight, yes," Lily explained, pointing to herself, Tate and Wren. "And so are a few of our other friends, but those others were off yesterday. So they're getting everyone's stuff ready and we're having a break. As for Will…well, finally, he's completely off duty so he's having a proper break."

"Which is why we've dragged him here!" Tate added through a mouthful of cookie.

"Ah, I have been meaning to come and see here," Will said. "It's interesting to see the different spaces everyone's carved out for themselves in this school. Their own heavens, despite everything that's been going on."

This caused a brief, awkward silence to descend. Angela and her friends talked about poor Lunar a lot, of course they did. Especially when it just raised questions about what may have become of their own friends and just reminded them of how out of their depth they were here. They didn't belong, even if they'd found…well, whether they called it heaven or a happy place it was the same thing, and very glad she was of it. The fact remained however, that it was an aberration no matter what they did.

"Whatever the reason you joined us I, personally, am glad!" Kay declared. "You guys and your group are by far the coolest sophomores here! It's awesome that you've come to hang out here."

"Ahh, I'm sure we're not all that much." Will blushed.

"Nah, you guys are cool!" Char agreed.

"I mean, Ririsa-sempai and the rest of the Tea Party Club are nice, too! I like them!" Angela added.

"Of course you do! I do too!" Mikelz declared staunchly.

"That's because you have a crush on one of them." Kura teased.

"I DO NOT!"

"Oh you doooooo, and believe me I will figure it out."

"…"

"Hey, Ariadne, who do you think is cool? In the second years or the third years, I mean?"

Ariadne blinked at Angela's question and tilted her head, considering, before slowly glancing over at Will and his friends.

"I like Ririsa-sempai and her friends, and I like you guys. But cool…cool is different." She started, slowly.

"As much I'm enjoying all this admiration, kiddo has a point." Lily remarked, absently.

"Yeah, but who is cool to you, then?" Kura demanded.

Ariadne stared back and blinked once.

"You guys know who."

Angela frowned at Ariadne and the girl sighed, blushing slightly and snuffling into her scarf again before then looking back up at them.

"Well…we do. You four don't."

Oh.

"Ariadne!" Sera protested. "We're trying to keep it down-low."

"We can trust them." Came the simple response.

"I mean, the cat's kinda out the bag now, right?" Kura said. "May as well tell them."

"Tell us what?" Tate asked.

Before any of the rest of them could say anything, Ariadne spoke up, describing the six 'black and gold students' and that mysterious seventh one who may or may not have been a ghost or a spirit. As she did, Angela noticed something about her, something haunted in her eyes and in the way she clung to her scarf as she got nearer to the painful parts, like the fox who had jumped off the roof. Her words were soft, and matter-of-fact, and as if she were a proper storyteller they were all bound to her words. Even Wendy and Wren had turned around to listen, leaving their game blaring uselessly in the background.

When Ariadne finished and wrapped her arms around herself helplessly, it felt as if a dream had ended.

"Well…that's…"

"None of that is something that we remember…which fits, I guess, right?" Lily said.

"But it explains it, doesn't it?" Will said. "Haven't we mentioned it a couple of times. That it feels like something is missing?"

"That's because it is. They are." Ariadne whispered, insistent.

"But that means…that means there are what…thirteen students still missing, now?" Tate said. "That doesn't…?"

"Yeah, it's terrifying, right?" Mikelz said. "Honestly, we try to not think about it sometimes."

"That's not the impression I'm getting." Tate said, dryly.

Ariadne lowered her head but looked up from under her eyelashes in a way that gave Angela pause.

"Well, the fact that it's only us who actually has any memories of them does kind of make it stick in the mind." Kay shrugged. "But yeah, those days were scary. Especially since they did some of that to each other."

"Oh for sure, they don't sound like straightforward victims." Wren observed.

Again, that look. Angela tried to meet Ariadne's eyes, but didn't quite manage it. But knowing Ariadne, she didn't want to bulldoze in and draw attention to it. Surely, if something was niggling her, she'd say it. She usually did in the end.

"Maybe there's a good reason for it, then," Lily mused. "That they were forgotten. Perhaps it was for our own safety considering the circumstances."

"Huh?"

Angela's concern was swiftly replaced by confusion.

"Think about it. The forgotten Goddess…we call her that because of the darkness and what that did to the world, and because forgetting was part of the consequence for those actions. So perhaps it is the same for these six…it's kinda horrible to think about that someone our age could be dark like that. But perhaps that's why we've forgotten them. Because of that darkness."

"Huh….I suppose that kinda makes sense, actually." Mikelz said. "They were terrifying."

"Frecht would be more apt. I did like to look at them," Kay shrugged. "But yeah."

"Maybe, maybe." Char nodded

"What about us, then?"

They all turned to look at Ariadne, who was now sitting up straight and looking right at them, her eyes wide and beseeching but the rest of her face utterly blank, a combination that chilled Angela to the bone.

"What do you mean, Addie?" she asked, slowly.

"If they were meant to be forgotten because they're dark, does that mean we're dark, too?"

Some of theme exchanged looks, and then Sera said:

"Ariadne, I don't get it."

"I'm asking, are we dark because we remember them?"

Again, another silence. But this one was heavier, so much heavier and made so by how Ariadne's voice had wobbled with the end of her question. She kept staring at them with eyes that started to swim and the rest of her expression blank and then suddenly let out a soft cry, and before anybody could reach out or say or do anything, she had abruptly leapt up. Stumbling over their bags and books and the other paraphernalia strewn across the floor, she rushed for the door and ran out.

"Addie!"

"Ariadne, wait!"

But she was long gone. Angela blinked at the doorway, and then turned to the others.

"What was that? What on earth was that?"

"I don't know….that's not like Addie!" Kura said. "Did we just completely piss her off?"

"No, that was probably me." Lily sighed. "I probably shouldn't have said what I said."

"No, you probably shouldn't have." Wren said. "But it does make sense."

"It might be clouds," Will said. "Do you want me to see if I can find her?"

"I don't…" Angela paused, looked back over the last few moments. "I know nobody understands the clouds yet, but I'm sure that was mostly Ariadne's own feelings rather than anything outside of her, if that makes sense."

"Yeah, it does." Will agreed. "Still, maybe I should look-"

"Will Toshino, no you will not. You're on a break today."

"Lily, this is different."

"Ari's kind of the type to retreat when she's in a mood," Rena piped up. "I mean, never like this but she's one of our quieter ones, as you all well know. Let's give her a few moments to calm down, right, then don't worry, one of us will make sure she's alright. I'm sure she will be though."

"Yeah, I hope so…." Angela sighed.

There was another brief silence, and then Char cleared her throat and picked up a couple of the cookie packets:

"Sooo, anyone want more?"

…

Ariadne hadn't had anywhere in mind when she'd up and left her friends-she'd only been thinking of getting away. But soon enough she found herself tiring, and wanting somewhere to go and almost inevitably she'd ended up going to the Lolita Tea Party Club.

When she walked through the door, she was spotted almost immediately by Stella, who came over, still balancing plates and trays.

"Ariadne! Didn't think you were going to drop by today? On your own?"

"Um…"

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Um…"

"Ah come, come. Tiro! Let Ariadne sit behind the counter!"

"That's….you don't need to…" Ariadne said weakly.

"Don't be silly," Stella said. "It's fine, really. You're one of our favourite guests after all!"

This pronouncement made Ariadne smile, just a little, and as Stella continued her rounds of collecting things, Tiro took her round to the counter, pulling up a stool for her before carrying on with what he was doing. A few moments passed, during which he also had to serve a couple of other students, but then he turned back to her.

"Do you want anything to eat? Or drink?"

"Maybe something to drink? Surprise me."

Tiro nodded and did just that. Ariadne quietly thanked him as she took the drink, served in a tall light blue glass with a curly purple straw. She twirled it absently before then sipping, watching as once again Tiro served other students and the three girls rushed around doing other tasks. After a little while though, Memora came over to her.

"You know, it's not always like this…well, it's not always been like this." She said. "Good things have happened here too."

Ariadne blinked at Memora, who tilted her head as she thought, before then launching into stories. Stories about lessons that had been fun, about going stargazing, various celebrations, school performances, even about the process of setting up the Tea Party club. She was interrupted every so often by needing to get something for a student, or to clear something else, but the others filled in bits and pieces in-between their own tasks, and Ariadne started to enjoy listening to them. In the process of doing so, she could almost forget reality.

"Oh, oh, Mem, tell her about the VYPERs' failed trip!" Ririsa called out.

"Failed trip?" Ariadne asked, curious.

As always, she was also mildly curious as to why the VYPERs called themselves that when as far as she knew, not all of them were specifically snakes. But of course, it was the failed trip that she really wanted to know about now.

"Oh right, right, yes!" Memora exclaimed. "So, this was the first term of our freshman year, during Crane Moon. I'm still not sure entirely how, or which one of them suggested it but basically they got the idea to try and steal some dragons from the stables and then go to the Floating Gardens. Well, I mean, they also used Ani because she's a dragon specifically…but they also stole dragons."

"Did they get there?"

"Well, of course not!" Memora laughed. "Nobody's ever been able to get there."

"What happened to them, then?"

"Well, apparently despite them being the reptile lot none of them were particularly good at flying dragons and Ani's even worse at flying as a dragon…so they basically crashed in the forest and the things they got up to….they came back in the middle of the night causing such a ruckus it woke the entire school up! They had these weird mushrooms with them-they're still growing some in the greenhouses now- and they were absolutely covered in dirt and leaves and they were giddy and laughing. Maybe they'd eaten some of the mushrooms? Who knows? I did hear that they somehow managed to enrage like, five owls and got chased half the way by them."

"They angered five owls? How do you anger owls? And five at once?"

"Honestly I don't know! Anyway, they all got a month's worth of detention once they were in and watered and fed and the teachers had made sure they weren't hurt. And the dragons wouldn't let them near afterwards which didn't help with any of the Dragon Taming classes. Still doesn't. Honestly, you should ask one of them about it! They've got so many absolutely crackpot stories, I wouldn't do justice to them."

"You think they'd mind me asking?"

"Nah, of course not! They love to talk about it, still! Though, when you get to second year and you first get access to the dragons you'll probably get a very stern lecture from Headmaster Cher. Actually, you may have got one about not going anywhere near the dragons before second year already."

"Yes, we did! And now I know why!." Ariadne laughed. "That sounds like it would have been funny just to see."

"Oh, it was. Nobody could stop talking about it for days."

Memora laughed and shook her head at the memory.

"Still, you wouldn't be able to do anything like that now. They've restricted access to the stables, for one thing…"

Memora's mouth downturned slightly and Ariadne's own mood started to dip.

"And the missing girls, right? Lunar-sempai, it was soon after that wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was…but also it'd be harder to try and aim for the gardens now, now when you can't see them."

The dip in mood turned into a swoop, making her stomach churn the way it had earlier, when Lily had suggested that maybe the black-and-gold people deserved their fate.

"I can…I can see them, though."

"Oh?"

Ariadne bit her lip and waited for Memora to be horrified, to perhaps say something that suggested that she was weird for being able to still remember and see what others did not remember or see. Though surely the Floating Gardens couldn't be dark, could they? Surely not?

"Well, that's strange."

It took a moment for Ariadne to comprehend that Memora had indeed just shrugged and then set about restocking some muffins. Well, that's…whatever it was, while it didn't make her worse it certainly did not make her feel any better.

I wonder, what stories would they be telling about the black and gold people if they were alive, and here right now? Ariadne imagined that for the most part, they'd spark the type of stories that stopped the breath and quickened the heartbeat if for no other reason than that was what they were doing to her right now. But she wanted to believe that they, too, would get up to the type of things that left them giddy and laughing and that made people bubble bright with the re-tellings.

She wanted to believe that, so badly.

With a sudden spike in visitors, Ariadne was left alone for a long while, and she found herself looking around at everything behind the counter. She'd been here a few times before, of course, when she and some of her friends had come to help out. But it was the first time she'd really looked. Taking the last gulps of her drink, she hopped off the stool to quietly return the cup to the kitchen sink and on her way back she paused at the pinboard that held the many thank-you cards and other mementoes that the club had pinned up there. Idly, Ariadne wondered if she would recognise any of the names and so she spent some time peering into the cards and squinting at the notes written in the corners of the photographs. As she expected, some names she recognised and there were a lot more that she didn't. Then…

"That can't be…"

But, sure enough, on the inside of a pretty card with pink flowers and foil printing, the name Delilah De Callaway was signed in a pretty, looping font. The message inside wasn't anything significant-just a simple but heartfelt 'thank you for the treats' sort of message but nonetheless. Ariadne suddenly had an image of the pretty girl she remembered, sitting at a desk and smiling to herself as she lifted her pen off the card and then tucked it into an envelope-maybe a pink one-before then sweeping into this very room and handing it over. Happy and cheerful and looking forward to another year.

And I'm supposed to believe that someone like that was dark all along?

"Whatcha looking at?"

Ariadne jumped as Stella approached and came to stand next to her.

"It's nice, isn't it, all this collection of memories….oh, that's a pretty one who is it…oh. I don't remember a Delilah? That's odd. Hey, guys?"

"What is it?" Ririsa asked.

"Do you remember a 'Delilah' who would have been in our year?"

"I….no? No, there's nobody like that."

"I can check the class lists, if you want, Riri!"

This came from a second-year student waiting for an order, someone Ariadne didn't know. Ririsa thanked them as they quickly checked their phone before concluding:

"Nope, no Delilah at all. Not in the year above us, either."

"Ah, thanks. Well now, that's strange." Stella frowned as she turned back to the pin-board.

"It is." Ariadne managed to say.

Stella unpinned the card and looked at the writing more closely, then flipped the card to regard the back, and then the front.

"It's pretty, huh?"

"It is." Ariadne agreed.

"Do you want it?"

"Do I…?"

Stella chuckled, since she of course had no idea what the possibility meant to Ariadne.

"Well, it doesn't make much sense for us to have a card of someone who never existed, but it'd be a shame to just throw it away. And maybe you could use it to decorate one of your notebooks-the design would look good as a cover, wouldn't it?"

Admittedly, it would. But that was obviously not what she would be using it for.

"Are you…are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, like I said, we've got no use for it."

Ariadne could only grin in delight as Stella handed the card to her with a flourish, but the older girl wasn't fazed by her excitement and simply ruffled her hair before continuing on. Not wanting to raise any suspicions, Ariadne stuck around for a little bit longer before then deciding to leave. Bidding goodbye to the four, she left the room with a spring in her step.

…

The plan, as Ariadne had thought of it while bounding out of the café, was to find Cookie and show her this latest piece of evidence that the black and gold people had existed. But instead, as she found herself crossing the central courtyard she found herself pausing, her eyes drawn to the North Wing building. Or specifically, the roof of the building.

Since it was early in Harvest Moon, there was still a little while before the evenings would become darker earlier, but all the same the sun was clearly preparing to set, the top of the sky already almost aflame in the vivid hues of sunset.

The sun was setting that day, too…

Ariadne blinked, and for a moment she could see it. First, the motion at the roof that had caused her to turn in the first place. She remembered tugging at Kay's sleeve to point it out to her, only to scream as the motion revealed itself to be a silhouette that leapt out in to the sky and seemed suspended there, backlit and glorious for a moment in time before plummeting down, and down, and down. Ears sharp, tail flaring out behind him as a signal and a warning, neither of which anyone could do anything about. And as for when he hit the ground…even now, Ariadne couldn't make herself picture it. She knew what had happened, how he had looked, but all her mind let her imagine was a sheet of glass, crashing down and shattering in all directions, the shards like diamonds catching what was left of the light, sending colour spinning everywhere…

"Ariadne?"

Ariadne whipped around to see Howl standing a few feet away from her, frowning quizzically with his hands shoved deep into his tunic's pockets.

"Are you alright?"

Ariadne considered him for a long moment and then turned back around, staring at the roof again. Imagining that backlit silhouette, plunging and shattering, the bright bleeding light everywhere.

"This is where I was," she murmured. "When I saw it."

"When you saw…oh. Oh. So, it was from the North Wing?"

"Mmmm."

"Now I'm thinking about that, why do they call it the 'wing' still when it's expanded into a separate building? Though, that's not really the issue here, I know."

Ariadne didn't say anything to that, instead just staring at the sky, the scene replaying over and over until she felt Howl's hand on her shoulder and she jumped.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you! Are you…are you alright?"

Ariadne sighed, and was about to tell him no when she paused, and thought. With the card in her pocket and the memories of Abel's death, how could she believe what the others did? Believe that they deserved it? She knew somewhere deep down that in some ways she was idealising them, but all the same she knew that whoever they really were and whatever they had done, they did not deserve whatever had become of them. If there were consequences their actions needed to have, then fine, she could deal with that. But she wanted them back. She wanted them here, out in the world, known and remembered.

To do that, she realised, she'd have to find them herself.

She had no idea how it was she was going to manage it, with no real clues and no ability to protect herself from whatever danger it would entail. But it had to be her, she knew this. It had to be her, and she had to find them. And that resolve did something to her, something that made her able to stand straighter and look him in the eye and say:

"I will be."

"Uhm….right. So, where are your friends?"

"Oh I was, um…gonna meet them in the canteen for dinner." She said, realising she hadn't made up with them yet.

Ah, I hope you'll all be able to forgive me once I have come back with them…especially as there's no way I can tell you, not if I am to have a chance to do this. Aware that Howl was starting to give her an odd look, she did her best to appear normal, giving him a smile before hiding back in her scarf and walking in the direction of the canteen, taking out her phone so that she could send a text message. All the while, though, she was thinking about what she would do next.

Because she would do it. She would.

…

Sasi did not expect that one day she'd be able to recognise somebody by their feet, but that was exactly what happened when she spotted Tricker up a tree. Doing a double take when she realised she had recognised him, she hung back from her friends and looked up to be sure that her instincts were correct and sure enough he was there, comfortable in one of the higher branches, back leaning against the trunk as he looked out around him at nothing in particular. She was about to call out to him when he seemed to sense her and looked down. Without saying a word, he simply made a motion with his hand to beckon her up and she nodded before turning to her friends, who'd apparently walked a few more steps before noticing she wasn't with them.

"Guys," she pointed up into the tree once she had their attention. "I'll see you next lesson, yeah."

Asuka pursed her lips and considered this, and Sasi tensed, not wanting to get into the same old conversations again even though she did know and did understand. She knew, but this was still her one little thing, it wasn't over yet. She wasn't sure she wanted to get into it all right here and now on the grounds with other people around (to say nothing of the fact of Tricker, right above her) but she would if she needed to.

However, before she could say anything, Niwa (who had been in a giddy mood all day) took the opportunity to launch into a series of clumsy backflips, which naturally threw Asuka off. Taking a moment to stare at their tiny friend, she then turned back to Sasi and sighed.

"Okay. You know the drill."

"I do indeed."

"Have fun up there!" Yuu said cheerfully. "Don't get up to anything naughty now."

Sainty gave Yuu the most appalled stare.

"It's a tree."

Since they started walking away at this point, Sasi didn't hear what Yuu had to say in response, but snickered before then turning to climb up the tree. She was more used to walls and fences and sides of buildings, so it took her a moment to get a grip, but once she had it didn't take her too long to get up to a branch close to his and sit down on it.

"Why're you up here?" she asked, casually.

"It's quiet up here."

"It's quiet up here?"

Sasi raised an eyebrow, listening to the wind whistling and the faint hubbub of people down below and other vaguely nature-y noises. But to her surprise, Tricker leaned over and put his finger to her lips.

"Shhhh. Listen."

He drew back and watched her, and slightly confused, Sasi closed her eyes and listened. At first, all she heard was what she had been hearing but then, after a few moments, the noises seemed to sort themselves and change. There was still the rustling of leaves, still the whistle of the wind and hints of the world below but somehow, it made everything seem removed. Remote. The noise was a different type to usual and while she still wasn't sure she'd call it quiet as such, she understood why Tricker might have. Opening her eyes, she glanced over at him and nodded, and he nodded back, clearly satisfied.

For a little while, neither of them said a word as they just sat on their respective branches and gazed out around them. Then:

"I never thanked you."

Sasi gave Tricker a sideways look.

"For what?"

"For that night, with Kaguya-san and the flowers."

"Oh, that."

The look on his face as he watched her now reminded her so much of another day, before the one that he had been talking about, when he'd told her that he'd look for her too when anything happened. She hadn't allowed herself to believe it then, not truly, but…

"You came after me in the forest."

"Of course I did. Not just because we were on the same team."

"And you were scared," Sasi went on. "Of course I was going to stand for you, after that."

Tricker averted his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"The thing was…it didn't seem like you cared about anything else. Even though you knew, right? That it was Kaguya-san."

"Like I said. You were scared."

To her surprise, Tricker nodded firmly at that, meeting her eyes again.

"I was."

You were. And I didn't like seeing you like that. It was a scary thought, especially when thinking of the inevitable end. When they'd been in that forest and she'd seen him freeze like that it had cut right to the heart and she knew, she just knew that Asuka was right that this could hurt her when it did end and yet…and yet she still wanted to feel it. She cared and although that scared her she still wanted to care.

And she'd thought about it in the days since, and even while overshadowed with the fear that maybe Lunar's death could somehow be pinned on her and her friends thanks to her presence around the hydrangeas (she'd heard the rumours, that some of the Night Patrol and that annoying girl with the snack based nickname thought the flowers were related) she'd thought enough to realise that she had started to care right from that other day. I'd look for you, too. Those words had been so much more powerful than she'd realised and made only so when they'd started to come true.

There was another thing, too, that had made her think of him a little differently:

"I think…I think I know the reason."

Immediately, he tensed, gripping the branch tightly and ready to spring if he needed to.

"Being scared of Kaguya-san's panther form, your arms, your inability to feel the cold. Those things put together would be pretty damning, but the invisible scars on your back really clinch it. You've been through an exorcism, haven't you?"

Tricker stared at her for a long, long moment, utterly unreadable.

"You don't need to say. It's your story, you don't need to say."

"How do you know? About exorcisms?"

Tricker's voice was hoarse, searching. Too late, she realised that the ownership of stories applied to Niwa, too. Still, she could be general.

"I know someone-that someone was a baby when it happened to them, so they have no memories of the pain or the form the magic took when it hurt them. They went the other way with temperature, where they get too cold and they get sick too easily. They have their limbs but their growth is stunted and….then there's the invisible scars. And that's all I can say about that, but…I know a thing or two about the damage that gets done and I could guess that that's what happened to you."

"I was ten."

Sasi almost fell out of the tree, she hadn't been expecting him to say anything at all. But now she watched and waited.

"I was ten," Tricker repeated. "And I remember…looking across the room and seeing my arms there. And I know the pawprints couldn't actually have been there but I remember seeing them red and sticky across the floor. I thought I was…was going to die."

He pressed his lips together after that, and if Sasi remembered how to cry she would have right then, for him. Another scary, destabilising thought but one she held onto all the same.

"And you were ten." She murmured.

Tricker nodded, slowly.

"I'm sorry."

"I am, too."

Sasi blinked, and for the first time in the conversation Tricker smiled, a small and watery thing.

"For your friend, being a baby when that happened. And for whatever your story is."

"Yes, well." Sasi cleared her throat. "We're all surviving, somehow."

"Yes."

Again, another silence. Sasi didn't know how to fill it, not with them high up in tree branches and unable to fill those silences the usual way. Instead, she just remained sitting, and the two of them remained there looking out at the world, oddly safe in this leafy bubble such as it was. And as they did a calm returned.

"We don't really do things like this often, do we?" Sasi asked after a while.

"Sitting in trees."

"No. Well, yes. But I mean just…sitting and talking. Just being."

"We don't really talk in general."

Hearing the smirk in his voice, she glanced over and grinned briefly.

"Well, that's true. Maybe we should, though. Some of the time. But perhaps on the ground for a change."

"Perhaps. Is there anywhere here you like to go? Or like to be?"

Briefly, Sasi wondered if this would lead to the type of thing that'd count as a date. She could probably ask Yuu who would be more than happy to give the dubious advice she lifted from her romance novels, but Sasi decided she wanted to keep this special. Something theirs, regardless of what it counted as, so that she could treasure it afterwards.

"The weapons' workshops."

"The…weapons' workshops?"

"We all go as a group every so often to fix up or polish our things. But Workshop D, they have a facility where you can leave your weapons and other students who are more skilled in that area can fix them for you. I like to do the fixing, particularly for blades. I've been with the girls sometimes, but not to Workshop D for a while."

"Then one day we'll meet there. And talk."

"My hands will be full so yes, talking will be the main aim there." Sasi teased right back.

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay," Sasi tried not to sound light and ridiculous from how happy the thought made her. "Okay."

They smiled at each other, and then Sasi thought to check the time.

"Ah, I need to get going. Do you know where you're patrolling tonight?"

"By Kouki-san."

"I'm on one of the dorms, have to double check which one precisely though."

"Ah. Well, see you later then."

Sasi nodded as she scrambled down the tree and then pulled out her phone to message Asuka when she heard Tricker call her name again. She frowned and looked up and Tricker gave her a direct stare and said:

"Stay safe, okay?"

Again, that hope, that faint and fragile but still-pulsing hope. Despite all her instincts telling her to push it away she simply tucked it into a corner but still held onto it. With a small smile she called back up:

"I will. You stay safe too, alright?"

And then before she could be completely undone, she walked away.

…

Quiet arrived back in the room with the tape and scissors that he had been sent out to get and walked over to hand them to Ariadne and the small cluster of students who were sealing up and piling the boxes. The smaller girl gave him a small smile and nod in thanks, and Quiet smiled back at her even as he caught a slight flash of…what was it? Something troubled, for sure, rumbling and deep like a storm cloud. And yet, at the core of it there was steel which seemed incongruous with Ariadne's wide-eyed, fluffy-jumper-clad form. Since he didn't know her well enough to probe, he simply turned back and went over to the station he was helping out with.

"What have we got here?" he asked, hefting up the bag.

"Looks like a whole bunch of random things this time, not just fruit." Hiraga told him. "I swear, I've lost count of how many tinned peaches we've seemed to have received this year. Last year, it was all about the tomatoes, you know."

"Was it now?" Quiet grinned back.

"It sure was."

"I imagine though, things were very different last year."

"They were."

Hiraga sighed, and Quiet felt a twinge of guilt as melancholy cut through the overall good cheer Hiraga had been showing all afternoon. For a moment, the two of them stood gazing out at the rest of the room, where students from all year groups were helping to sort and pack Harvest donations in order to hand them off to a particular charity. There were other groups of students in other rooms doing the same for some of the other organisations Kawaakari supported, while yet others were dealing with orders for baked goods and other student-cooked foods.

"Even though by this point last year things had already started, what with poor Lunar, we were still open to the public. They'd drop off things, come to directly buy from those of us with actual cooking prowess. The charities would come in directly to collect our food parcels and while it wasn't a proper festival as such we did have a few fun stall things set up-extra money to raise, you know? And when it was all done and we had tidied up they more or less let us loose to just relax. I think we had a mini party of our own, my group and I and I know some people went stargazing. It was…it was nice. Normal, still. I guess we were all still hoping that this was just one thing, you know?"

Quiet nodded slowly.

"We've still got a free evening after this, haven't we?"

"Yeah…"

"And since with the late ending we're not doing Night Patrol…why don't we go up to the South Wing's roof and stargaze ourselves?"

Smiling, Quiet leaned over the table to meet Hiraga's eyes fully, satisfied when the confusion gave way to a warm, blushing sort of embarrassment that was mirrored in his facial expressions.

"Quiet, is that a date?"

"You tell me."

This was not entirely banter. This whole dating thing was still very, very new to him in general let alone with Hiraga. He waited a beat, and then two and then Hiraga's face broke out in to a huge grin, the joy bubbling so hard Quiet wondered at the fact that others couldn't see it in the same way he could.

"It is indeed a date."

And then, Hiraga being Hiraga, he leaned to close the small distance between them and give a brief but passionate kiss that left Quiet flustered in the best possible way, though it quickly gave way to embarrassment when the gesture resulted in hoots:

"Sempai, stop canoodling your boyfriend and get those tins to us!"

"Stop staring at us and make sure you've got your boxes filled, Jenna-kouhai!" Hiraga called out, leaning back and also blushing.

Jenna, naturally, was not even vaguely fazed by this and simply grinned cheekily at them before turning back to her friends and checking something on the list she had pinned to a clipboard. Amused, Quiet and Hiraga shared a look between them before getting back down to work. All things considered, although Lunar's recent death and discovery was still hanging over the school, the general mood as they contributed to the very-different Harvest arrangements was still light and happy and if Quiet had not known any better it would have felt…well, ordinary. The cheer would have felt uncomplicated.

Still, at least there is some cheer to be found, he thought.

Over in a corner, he noticed some of the non-magical students along with a couple of their friends puzzling over where to put a box that had been sealed up as they stared at the increasingly large stacks of boxes.

"Just leave it there, man!" Char gestured wildly.

"But then there's gonna be nowhere to actually seal the boxes!" Seraph pointed out. "Or even for us to walk."

"Let's wait for Cookie to return with the trolley," Angela said. "I'm sure she'll be back soon."

"Ahhh but the boxes are coming in faster than she is!" Mikelz exclaimed.

"Hold on, let me see if I can get a stool…"

Quiet was not entirely surprised when nobody listened to Jae as he rushed off to do just that. Instead, they just continued frowning at the piles and considering what to do.

"Do you think we can get it up onto the pile there?" Rena asked, pointing to the least-tall stack. "It does look rather wobbly…"

"Ah, let's give it a try. Mikelz, shoulders."

"Why my shoulders?"

Despite this whining, however, Mikelz did indeed allow Kura to clamber onto his shoulders. Grinning at them, Char tip-toed to hand the box to Kura and then started to cheer the two of them on as they wobbled dangerously in the process of trying to get the box close to the pile. Eventually, stretching his arms as long as possible, Kura managed to get the corner of the box he was holding on top of the stack of boxes and with a cheer he slid it across…only to somehow knock the box, sending all of them flying, along with Kura and Mikelz themselves, who promptly crashed into some of their friends and making them fall to the ground themselves.

"Oh crap, the boxes!"

But even as Kura yelled this, Howl had bounded over and stopped the falling boxes in their tracks with his magic, while Jenna, Lily, Samu and Aerin managed to keep what remained of the stack from falling over by holding onto it. Shaking his head, Quiet went over to relieve Howl of the boxes, aided by Will, who immediately went over to the students sprawled on top of each other in a dog-pile once he'd dumped the box on the table.

"Are you all alright?"

Quiet was pretty sure that they were, since all he was getting from them was laughter both inside and out, with maybe only the mild defeat of bruises.

"Yeah, we're good-Angela you're squashing my elbow!"

"How am I meant to know it's your damn elbow, Seraph and Wendy are…gaaah."

"I'm turning into a pancake…."

"Guuuuyyyyyssss…." Mikelz whined. "Hurry up, I'm right at the bottom."

With more laughter and groans and some swearing, the pile peeled themselves off of each other and got up, dusting each other down.

"Well, I'm certainly not trying that one again." Kura declared once his glasses were re-adjusted.

"Too bloody right you aren't," Howl scolded while checking the boxes for damage. "Forget your eyes, I think your brain's gone square. "

"Well, the boxes do seem alright," Quiet spoke up. "So as long as nobody's seriously hurt I guess no harm's really done."

Howl let out an exasperated huff and looked up at the ceiling, clearly needing a moment to count backwards from ten or something along those lines. Then, he looked back at Quiet and nodded.

"I suppose you are right, yes. Well…"

After giving a look at the group of still-laughing students with fondness and exasperation coming off of him in waves, Quiet observed Howl go back over to the group of students who were double-checking contents, only to abruptly stop and turn back to crouch. Peering, Quiet saw Ariadne sitting with her head bowed over the roll of tape, apparently trying to find the end of it. From this angle and with the others in the way he couldn't see her expression but again he felt that strange heaviness, the rod of steel shocking its way through it. Clearly, Howl had similar concerns because though Quiet couldn't hear what he said or asked of the smaller girl, the worry wafted over clearer than day.

Before he could dwell on it, however, the door to the room opened and two people came through it-first, Jae with the step stool and then Cookie with the trolley.

"Any finished boxes, pile them up on here-ah, Milo, get off now!"

As Cookie parked the trolley in the middle of the room, she picked up the black cat whom she'd started caring around everywhere with her and placed him on her shoulder.

"You couldn't have come sooner, Chocolate Chip?" Kura asked.

"No I could not, and do you mind not nicknaming my nickname?"

"It could be worse, you know? They could be calling you banoffee pie." Mikelz informed her.

Cookie glowered at him:

"That makes even less sense, and I don't want it to make sense."

She helped to pile as many boxes as she possibly could onto the trolley, and then let the cat jump back from her shoulder and sit on top of the boxes, looking as regal as a statue. Fondly, Cookie rubbed the cat between the ears before then setting off again without so much as a backwards glance.

"Is anyone going to tell me what happened?" Jae asked, still holding the step stool. "Because I have a feeling I just went out for nothing."

"Unfortunately yes, but it's cool, we'll tell ya. " Seraph declared. "Come, let's get more boxes filled up, okay?"

Still clearly in the silliest of moods, the group clustered together to continue their jobs, and so Quiet went back to his station with Hiraga and some of the others, sorting out through the donations they'd been offered and making sure they were good enough to be boxed up.

"You know," Quiet said conversationally. "One of my sibling's birthdays is this month."

"Yeah?" Hiraga asked. "I don't suppose their name is 'Harvest'?"

"No, no, thankfully my mums went with 'Tuesday' with him. I do have a little sister called Lotus though."

"Any others?"

"Another sister, older, her name's Winter."

"Oooof. Which month then? Godless, Dark, Cold, Storm, Crow?"

"Actually, the same as me. Our birthdays are a week apart." Quiet answered, grinning.

"Holy wow. Yeah, I'd seriously question the judgement of parents who gave two of their kids the same name." Hiraga laughed.

"You have siblings too, don't you?"

"Just my older sister, Isannah."

"Now that's a good name."

"Not nearly as good as mine though, right? Though…. Quiet, Tuesday, Winter and Lotus aren't too bad a set…though I am of course biased where you're concerned."

Quiet laughed at that, enjoying the faint teasing note as Hiraga laughed back and playfully punched his arm before they started a different conversation about something equally light and silly. All around them, other moments of silliness threaded through the hard work and kept the room cheerful, people's good intent criss-crossing everywhere and warming the room. There was no way it would last, not with everything that would still be true when the day was over. But even so, it was happening. He was here, helping to do good with friends and classmates, with the promise of a date once they were all done.

And that, at least, had to be something.

…

Howl came out of the bathroom only to see Kura sitting cross-legged on his bed, levitating two boxes of…something.

"What are you doing?"

Kura flicked a glance and an evil grin over, but managed to keep his concentration, even levitating one of the boxes higher.

"Practicing."

"Go to bed."

"Awww, it's not that late, Dad."

Howl simply made a rude gesture at him, and then went to sit down on his bed, fluffing up his pillows and then watching Kura.

"What are those things anyway?"

"Boxes of hair-dye."

"And the reason you're levitating them is…?"

"I kinda wanna change my hair colour-hey, which one do you think I should go for?"

Kura reached out to grab the boxes from the air, and then held them out. Howl squinted, and then shrugged.

"I dunno, can't you decide in the morning?"

"Pffft, you're no fun. You know what, I'm kinda liking the green. Red's too similar to pink so, yeah, I think green. Hmmm…."

Kura prattled on in a similar vein for a few moments longer, and Howl couldn't tell if Kura was actually talking to him or just to himself. Nonetheless, the worry that had been niggling at him prevented him from just rolling his eyes and turning over to sleep the way he usually did when he'd had enough of Kura's nonsense.

"Kura."

"Hmmm?"

"Kura, I need to ask you something."

Perhaps sensing that he was serious, Kura stopped and set the boxes back on his bedside table. They were precariously close to the edge but Howl couldn't be bothered to scold him about it.

"Is Ariadne okay?"

"Ariadne….why?" Kura blinked.

"Haven't you noticed that she's…"now that he was voicing the concern to someone else, he didn't know where to begin. "I think there's something wrong. Have you noticed anything?"

"With Addie? No, not really."

"Are you sure? Nothing's happened at all?"

"No, nothing has…though, come to think about it, a little while ago we were talking about the black and gold people-you remember, right? Being told about them, not actually remembering them?"

"Yes, I remember. But what about Ariadne?"

"She got a little upset, since we were talking about whether they could have like, you know, done something to themselves? She ran out of the room that day and we don't know where she went, but she did meet up with us in the cafeteria again for dinner so, you know."

"Did she ever explain it?"

"No, and honestly we've kind of stopped talking about them, you know. Something feels kinda wrong about it. But I guess she's seemed a little…sadder, than usual. Then again she did see one of them die."

"I'm aware."

"Yeah, but I'm sure she's fine. Why're you asking anyway?"

"I'm worried."

Kura opened his mouth but then abruptly shut it again, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head. Howl narrowed his eyes back, just daring the boy to come up with some sort of stupid retort. But to his surprise, he didn't.

"You know, the thing about Ariadne…she's our quieter one, right? It's pretty obvious just from looking at her and also, every group needs one, right? And she's really quiet, but that doesn't make her shy or anything. Not fully. It's more like you can't press her to say anything if she isn't ready to. You can like, gently squish occasionally because she's soft too, but don't press or push. She'd come to us if there really was something going on, and we would help her. We're childhood friends, you know that, don't you? All of us."

"Yeah…"

"So, we've basically known each other forever and we'll know each other always. And like, as if being here in the first place isn't wobbly enough, there's been weird stuff happening and Lunar-sempai's death was only a month ago now. We kinda scream through stuff to deal with it, but she has to do a lot more inside her head before she can let it out so…yeah. I'm sure she's fine and if she isn't completely then she will be. Don't worry though, we've been squishing and we'll still squish. You may as well do the same if you're worried."

"Yes, I think I will." Howl said drily. "But I suppose you would know, wouldn't you?"

"Well, duh! It's like I said, we've known each other forever and we'll know each other always."

It wasn't enough to satisfy him, but he supposed it would have to do for now. He supposed he could keep a casual eye out to see, just in case. He knew that it easily could have just been a bad day when he'd seen her gazing out at the North Wing's roof looking utterly blank and paler than usual. But if that day had been the same day she'd run out on her friends then perhaps it was something else. He couldn't take the risk. He just couldn't.

"Right, of course."

Kura had still been regarding Howl carefully this entire time, but now he started to grin in that usual idiotic way. Of course he is-it was only going to be a matter of time, wasn't it?

"Maaan, I didn't know you cared about us so much. You're just a sap under the old-man grump, aren't you?"

"I swear, if you call me old again I will end you."

"So you keep saying."

"I will."

"I knooooowwww!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know you do. Goodnight, Kura."

"Night!"

…

Stella held her lamp up nervously as she followed Ririsa into the forest, with Memora and Tiro right behind her.

"Do you really think we'll find something out about the Gardens from here?" she whispered.

"Perhaps not," Memora said. "But maybe we'll get to see them from here, since we'd be directly underneath them now."

"I suppose it's worth a try anyway," Ririsa said. "Especially since they're going to be patrolling again tomorrow night and this is our only chance."

"I'm surprised, you know, that nobody else has mentioned it." Stella mused.

"I mean, you can still see the magic dust." Ririsa said. "And I suppose there's been plenty going on down on the ground too."

"Mmmm…."

They walked on in silence for a little while longer, doing their best to stay on the path, using their lamps and the additional light of the little fireflies around to light their way. It occurred to Stella that maybe the incident with the flowers she'd so distantly heard about might happen again, and that maybe they shouldn't be around for it if it did, but she reasoned that they weren't going too far in and so-

A beating, swooping sound interrupted her thoughts and they all stumbled.

"W-what was that?" Tiro asked.

It happened again, and Stella shrieked, clinging to Ririsa.

"Let's go…let's go back."

They stumbled back a few steps as the noise repeated and repeated, seeming to get closer. Something glowed, coming out of the dark and Stella shrieked again, lifting up her lamp only for the thing to hoot.

"Oh!"

"It's just an owl." Tiro breathed. "Thank goodness."

They stared for a moment as the owl came to land in a hole in one of the trees, gathering their breath. The owl stared impassively at them, and hooted a couple of times. Stella put her free hand to her chest to try and calm her racing heart, and looked up at the sky. It was difficult to tell for sure through the trees, but she couldn't see a glimpse of the islands that formed the Floating Gardens. Just some of the dust, and the stars around it.

Goddess, the sky's so clear…

"I think, maybe we should go back after all…" Ririsa said. "This was kind of a silly idea after all."

"Nah, it wasn't silly, but I agree." Stella agreed, returning her gaze to her friends. "Let's…."

The realisation hit her, cutting her words off abruptly.

"This isn't the path we were on." Tiro murmured, voicing Stella's thoughts.

For some reason, her immediate reaction was to glance over at the owl, who just stared back. She sighed.

"Right what should we do? Try and walk backwards? Or…?"

"Maybe Kaguya-san is near." Memora whispered. "How does it…how does it work? Do we call him?"

"Shhhh!"

Stella startled as suddenly, Tiro darted forward towards a tree and peered around. He looked over his shoulder and beckoned them, and they clustered around him. They pointed to where something low and dark was slinking through the trees, apparently talking to someone-a small figure, possibly feminine holding a small torch of the battery-powered kind (powder-blue and cheerfully patterned). Apart from that, though, the figure was mostly obscured by waving branches and Stella could only see some of their shape, a lock of curly blue hair.

Who do I know who has curly blue hair..?

As she paid attention, she saw the form lift up a paw and then release a soft stream of light in a path ahead of it. Immediately, the girl-if the figure was indeed a girl-bowed to the form that Stella knew was Kaguya before then scrambling in the direction of the lights and quickly moving out of sight. The panther appeared to watch the figure go before turning. Bright blue eyes scanned the forest as his pink-brown nose lifted up as if sniffing.

Then, the panther made their way to him.

Instinctively, all four of them stepped back from the tree and clung to each other as Kaguya got closer, his eyes piercing as they apparently studied them closely. Then, he came to a stop directly in front of them.

"You are lost?" Kaguya's deep voice intoned.

"Yes. We're…we're sorry. We were curious about the Floating Gardens." Ririsa stammered.

The panther nodded and Stella got the distinct impression that he may even have been smiling:

"They are still there. Still safe, just hidden. But you may not be if you stay."

"I…will you show us the way out, please, Kaguya-san?" Memora asked.

"Why would I want you to be lost?"

Rather than wait for an answer, Kaguya did the same thing that he had done with the other figure-lift up his paw and set lights ahead of them, to light their way home.

"Follow those and do not stray from the path, and you will be safe too."

The four of them quickly thanked him before turning to do just that, their steps quickening as they were all too eager to get out. Indeed, the relief that swept over Stella when she finally saw the grounds through the trees almost threatened to overwhelm her, and suddenly she wanted to do nothing but go to bed.

Wait, what about the girl?

Stella slowed slightly as they got closer to their dorm building, looking around her. It had not been so long between the girl's exit and theirs, so she assumed that that person would be around. Yet, she didn't see a trace of them, anywhere.

Maybe you just imagined it…

But really, now she was far too tired to try and figure it out. So firmly, she pushed the thought away from her mind and continued on her way back.

…

Ezrael was being called by the music.

There was part of him that recognised it wasn't really him. That it was his doppelganger, the shadows. It was the shadows that were bringing the strange sound to his attention, making him sit up and turn his head to try and listen for it, that were making him slowly get up and get dressed even though it was a good couple of hours before it was time to get up. Theo was still asleep in his own bed across the room, sprawled out on his side, one of his arms pinned by his face and the sight of him made Ezra want to stay, to stay and lie there and watch even though that was a little creepy, so that he could grin at him when he woke up and tease about the inevitable pins-and-needles such an awkward position would result in.

But the music was calling him, and his shadows were making him listen.

Rather than taking on a full form of their own, a mirror of his own body, the shadows instead chose to thread around his limbs, his torso, his head, as though they were the strings of a marionette. He was pulled to the door by the shadows, his hands forced around the doorknob by the shadows, his feet made to pad down the corridor by the shadows. He walked and walked without really knowing or understanding where he was going.

But he'd made sure his footsteps were soft, that his getting ready hadn't made any noise. And he'd paused long enough to look at Theo and hope that somehow he was still dreaming dreams of the happier kind. That, that was all him.

It was little comfort though as he ended up down a small corridor behind what he vaguely recognised as the staff offices, going somewhere deeper and deeper into the North Wing before pushing open a small door and entering a small room with metal-lined walls and no windows to speak of.

Here, the music was louder and though it was not coming from anything, he knew where it needed to come from. The flute, sitting in a glass case in the middle.

"Pick it up," he heard the shadows say as they disentangled from him briefly to reform as a person, gesturing to the case. "Pick it up, play it."

Ezra hesitated, and the shadow gave a smile, one he knew was the mirror image of his own.

"Come."

Even the voice was so much like his own voice, and for that reason Ezrael didn't want to speak. Instead, numbly, he obeyed and took hesitant steps towards the case. He expected it to be difficult to open, or to set off alarms, but all he ended up having to do was lift up the glass lid and set it on an empty plinth nearby. And then he stared at the flute, at its silver-blue body and the ornate carvings, the blue stones inlaid into some of the decoration. Tenderly, he stroked it and felt the shadows wrap themselves around him.

"Play it. Pick it up, play it."

Ezra obeyed despite not wanting to, holding it forwards before realising the holes didn't align that way and turning it sideways before placing it to his lips. Driven by a compulsion that was beyond him, he tried to replicate the tune that he was hearing, that was demanding to be pushed out into the world around him. The notes stumbled out, unsure and hesitant and straight away he knew that it wasn't right. Not just the sound of it, but it. There was something. Something about the two tunes that this flute could play, something that was demanding that he stop, stop right now.

Ah, if Theo had come with me, he'd know-

"Play it again."

Ezra didn't want to. But the shadows snaked around his arms and hands and heart and mind and so once again, he put the flute to his lips. Trying harder, to match the notes he was pushing out with the melody that was seeping into him. But again, they came out strange, different, and the part of him that was still him demanded that he stop.

"Play it again."

The shadows seemed only to multiply, control slipping through his fingers. No, no, no. That part of him that knew something but not what it was told him to stop, to put it down, to walk away. But the shadows, they were so very, very insistent. They were getting tighter, darker. And that melody, it was still there.

So, he played again.

…

Theo's dreams were all strange fragments of the day. Laughing in one of the school's teaching kitchens as he chopped vegetables, wheeling a trolley piled with boxes along the corridor, a picnic afterwards. Watching Cookie tailing a second-year student from a distance and wondering what was going on, doing a double take at Ariadne borrowing out a chunky book on runes from the school library. All of them together, him and A and Haze and-

Wait…

Wait…

Even in the fogginess of sleep, he knew that something was wrong. As the pictures played over and over in a loop, something was wrong. Who was it, who insisted on sitting on the trolley? Who was it, who'd started an asparagus-sword fight with Haze? Who was it that laughed, and laughed, and laughed, so warm?

Wait…

Wait…

Caught between sleep and waking, Theodore thrashed in his blankets, each little flash of memory slipping away the more he tried to hold onto it. Him, and A, and Haze. Haze and A and Theodore and…and…

Abruptly, the memories faded to white and as if viewing it from above, he watched a smaller version of himself, maybe twelve years old or so, dashing through what looked like crowds of people dressed for a formal occasion of the non-festival kind. He recognised none of the people, and certainly had not attended any such occasions at that age. This was no memory, but all the same he watched this younger version of himself suddenly catch his foot on something invisible and get set flying, falling to the ground. The embarrassment that flooded through, almost blocking out the pain of his bashed up knees, now that felt like a memory. The way his apparent younger self cringed at the whispers, covering his ears-that, too, felt like something he'd do.

And then suddenly there was a hand, reaching for his hair.

Theo looked up abruptly to see another boy had crouched before him, a gentle expression on his face. Instinctively, Theo knew that usually this was a face that was merry. Cheerful, a bit of a goof. Yet nothing but compassion radiated from those gold eyes and his hand…his hand as it moved from his hair to his cheek was so warm as he smiled and laughed:

"You're fine, Theo. Just fine! Forget them! I'm here, after all and what's better than that,eh?"

"Ezra!"

Theo gasped and finally, finally woke up, the sensation wrenching him away as Ezrael's younger-self face drifted from his memory. Swinging his legs down he looked over to the bed, and his heart went into his mouth to see that it was empty.

=Ezra? Ezrael, where are you? Ezra=

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

=Ezra?= Theo got up,body shaking. =Ezra, where are you? We'll come to you. I'll come to you, just-=

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

=Ezra, can you hear me?=

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

Suddenly cold, Theo stumbled to the door just as a violent knocking rattled it. Quickly he opened it to see an out-of-breath Haze and A standing there, looking as though they'd just skidded to a halt by his door. Haze wasn't dressed but A was, and the two of them were holding hands.

"Theo, did you hear?" Haze asked, breathlessly.

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

"What do you think's happened?" A asked. "How do we find him?"

"Follow the voice," Theo said without fully understanding why. "We need to follow his voice."

And so that was what they did, straining to hear whether it got louder or quieter as they picked a random direction at every turn and followed it. It was a miracle that nobody was awake yet, or at least that those who were far enough from them to wonder what they were doing or why. They kept on going, all the while Ezra's voice kept echoing and echoing, the same lonely question repeating as fear slipped further and further into his voice. Eventually though, it became at its loudest and clearest as they found themselves in a corridor behind the staff offices and inside a place that could only be considered a vault.

The first thing Theo noticed was that the room was easier to get into than the appearance of it suggested it should be. The second was the flute, suspended above an opened glass box and floating, glowing bright.

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

"Ezrael, what did you do?" Theo moaned, going over to the flute.

"What did he do?" Haze asked.

"The flute, this is Kumiko-san. He's…I don't know how he could know the tunes…'The Song of a Story Untold' or ' The Secret that the World has Promised'…but that must have been it. One of those, he must have played." Theo began.

"What happens, then? When you play them?"

"It's not just playing it…it's playing them wrongly, three times. It causes a curse…a curse of being forgotten."

"But we haven't." A cried out. "We haven't."

"No…no, we haven't, but…we almost did, didn't we? Were you dreaming of yesterday, except without him being there?" Haze asked grimly.

Theo just nodded as he considered the flute from all angles, wondering what to do. He'd never read anything that explained how the forgetting happened or even if there was a way of reversing it. But there had to be, there just had to be.

=Theo? Theo are you there? Haze? Ada, our A, can you hear me? Where did you go, guys?=

There was now a sob in Ezrael's voice and it tore at Theo, ripped him in two. From the looks on the others' faces, they were much the same. Suddenly, Haze's hand whipped out and gripped one end of the flute tightly. When Theodore and A just gawped at him he glared.

"What? We've got to try something."

Theo looked at A, and she looked at him, and they both knew that Haze was right. They had to try. So A cautiously curled her hand around the other end, and Theo grabbed ahold of the middle. For a moment, nothing happened and then suddenly, the world went black. Not dark, but black, and Theodore didn't understand how this could be even as it was, the clarity with which he could see (even if for now there was nothing to see) disconcerting beyond words.

Without a word, the three of them linked hands and kept walking and walking through this not-dark blackness, Ezra's cries a beacon for them. It was strange and weightless, this place and Theodore idly wondered if it was even a place at all.

Oh, Ezra, what did you do?

"There!" A gasped.

And sure enough, Ezra was there, somewhere in blackness below, reaching up, straining.

"EZRA!"

"EZRAEL!

"We're coming, we're coming!"

Theodore didn't even falter when he saw how Ezra had changed-shadows curling around him like tattoos (and some of his tattoos multiple, like shadows), the whites of those bright eyes filled completely with black. With A on his right and Haze on his left, flanking him, Theodore leapt across and reached out, grabbing Ezra's wrist and pulling. The strange weightlessness made Ezra himself weightless and he was easily pulled towards them and as he did, his oddly transformed eyes widened.

There was a moment, a horrible moment, where it seemed like he didn't recognise them. But then, tears welled, and the black faded away, as did the tattoos and the shadows and with a cry of joy Ezra leapt at them. They clung onto each other, laughing and sobbing, not wanting to let go.

"You came for me, you came for me!"

"Of course we did!"

"We'd never leave you, Ezra, never."

"I'm so glad you're safe."

And so on, and so on. Theodore was not fully aware of the blackness fading until he felt that they were back on solid ground. Kneeling, since he could feel it beneath his knees rather than his feet. And sure enough, as he loosened his grip around Ezra just slightly so he could lean back, he noticed that they were all kneeling together in a group. Theo was there, alive and real, with Haze beside him on the left and A on the right and Ezra, warm wonderful Ezra, before him.

This is it, he thought, this is how it should be.

"Okay, now we've conducted our early morning rescue successfully, can you tell me what the heck you were doing with the flute?" Haze demanded after a few moments more of laughter and sobbing.

Immediately, Ezra looked sheepish and averted his eyes briefly.

"I…the shadows. The shadows came to me and lead me here…I mean, man, I didn't know this place was even a thing! But yeah…"

"You could've been gone for good, you know?" A scolded, even as she kept patting Ezra. "You know what flute that is, right?"

"Kumiko-san, yeah…I know…guess it's not such a good idea to play musical instruments if you're tone deaf, right?" Ezra laughed.

"Damn straight." Haze said.

"I know, I'm sorry…I…anyway, where is the flute?"

That question halted them all in their tracks and reluctantly, Theo fully let go and turned around. Rather than floating above the box or even nestled inside it, the flute was now on the ground, broken into two. They all gasped, but before Theo could go over and pick it up to see if it could be fixed, they were picked up by a pair of unfamiliar hands.

"Well, well, this is interesting."

Slowly, Theo looked up to meet another pair of gold eyes. But these ones, they weren't warm and merry like Ezra's, but a great deal colder. Lively, but chilly and with just the slightest sneer to match the twist of their full mouth as they stood up. Standing at what was probably a similar height to A, this person had soft white hair and wore a black outfit with gold accents in a very familiar style.

"Oura…" Theo heard A breathe.

"Our threads keep crossing over more than I'd realised…" Oura said. "It's really quite intriguing, but quite a pain for me. If they're dead now, I've got no way to loop them back and that's not going to do anything for my game."

"Your game?" Haze demanded.

"Nuh-uh-uh, that's not for you to know. But yes, you've just halted the game…funny, I wouldn't have imagined it for people like you. But there's a bond there, isn't there? You're their warmth and you've got a sweetness to sustain them all. Your spark gives them vitality and you…you, why, you're the heart of all this, aren't you?"

With each label he had pointed to Ezra, A, Haze and finally Theo in that very order. The warmth, the sweetness, the spark and the heart. Theo wasn't sure the labels made sense as such but they were fitting despite it. He liked them, even if they had come from this fearsome person standing there taunting them.

"And you know," Oura rambled on. "I'm starting to wonder if taking people like the four of you may have made the game proceed along more interestingly…after all, the four of you actually love each other, don't you? That sweet, so-called-pure kind of love. Not like them…those six. Oh no, nothing like them. But you've saved them now, you know. You've gone and broken the flute and you've saved them. But they don't know it and besides! Besides, what use is it being saved when you're stranded and forgotten, still?"

"I…we don't understand." Theo stammered.

"If you did understand, I'd have to cut your threads short. Or I would if I could. Despite my blind spots with all this unexpected entanglement, I cannot do that. It still hasn't run out. So you're lucky, I guess. And I'm pretty sure we diverge from this point…so. We shall see what the tapestry demands of us all, in the end. But we won't meet again."

And just like that, Oura disappeared with a laugh, carrying the two pieces of flute. For a long, quiet moment the four of them stood there before Theo turned back to them and said.

"I think we should tell Professor Void-"Theo held up a hand before they could protest. "Not about Oura, or what they just said, or anything like that. But just the shadows. I'm not sure if the threads are a metaphor or not, but assuming they are some kind of metaphor…dealing with the shadows is a thread within our reach, right? So we should try."

Ezra, Haze and A exchanged looks and then they nodded, slowly. A in particular gave him a gentle smile.

"I just have one question, though." Haze asked.

"Hmm?"

"How are we gonna explain the damned flute?"