When Cain was dragged back into life yet another time, he was back staring down the barrel of Eve's pistol. For the longest moment, that dark tunnel was all that he could see, all that he could sense. He had no idea where in the room the others were, and didn't even care. Even Eve, who was obviously holding the damn thing, seemed remote and far away.
And then it all rushed back. And with it, the rage.
He was kneeling, blood soaking into his trousers as he looked up at Eve, the gold whiskers of her mask glittering in the unchanging light from the windows. The shimmer and shine of them seemed to be mocking him, teasing him on Eve's behalf. Rage welled up further and in a swift movement he'd pounced up, swiping forward and grabbing the pistol by the barrel as he did. He stumbled back as he did so, but otherwise managed to keep his footing. When Eve lunged and tried to grab it he jumped back, holding it up high, the barrel pointing to the sky.
"Give it back!" she yelled.
"No. I've had enough, I'm sick of this." Cain responded. "How can you genuinely say that this still has any thrill for you? There's no stakes, not really."
"Lofty words coming from someone I've faced down…what? Ten times? Twenty times?"
"Do you really think it's any braver to shoot yourself, however many times you've done it? To rig those guns and force us to do the same by holding a knife to our throats? Does that really make you feel bigger, braver, better? Because believe me, Eve, you aren't."
And I'm not, either.
Cain could only imagine the scowl that marred Eve's face under that mask, but unexpectedly as she tried to strike again, Maria appeared and stood between them, facing Cain.
"ENOUGH!" she yelled. "Enough, I say. I've had enough too. And you know what, Cain, give that."
"Eh?"
"Give it, I'm not dying again."
Cain frowned at Maria, noting how heavily she was breathing and how mussed her hair was. She held out her hand, tapping her foot insistently against a small patch of flooring that wasn't stained. He waited a moment, and then another and then he shook his head, handing it over. Maria nodded at him and took the gun carefully in her hands before walking away and then unexpectedly going around the bar counter, ducking behind it and rifling through it, muttering something about having seen something before gasping and then grabbing that something and reappearing with a bin bag. She came back around with it and glared at them all.
"Okay, all the weapons are going in here."
"You wha-"
"All of them."
Indeed, as if to reiterate her point, Maria began to make her way around the room, grabbing every weapon that they had managed to unearth during the stretches of time between their deaths. Judas and Abel handed over their own personal weapons, while Delilah hesitated but gave up her own eventually. Since she had Eve's already, Maria was soon dragging the bag back over to Cain. He swung around, tilted his head and pretended to consider before also giving in. After all, at least not immediately going for each other's throats had to yield at least a slightly different outcome, even if only for a while. She then hauled the bag behind the bar and plonked it on the counter before grabbing a stool and climbing on it. Once she was done, she then picked up the bag and shoved it on the top of the cupboards above the counter, straining slightly to be able to push it right back before then letting out a breath and then climbing down from the stool. Looking over, Maria put her hands on her hips and staunchly announced:
"There. That's better."
"How, exactly, is that going to help?" Eve asked.
"I'm hoping the extra effort will dissuade anyone from going back there."
Maria regarded them all for a moment or so longer before then coming back over. They stood in their spots, all looking at each other until Judas cleared his throat and asked.
"So, what are we doing now?"
"It's a shame we don't have a chess set here…" Delilah mused.
"Why are you of all people lamenting the lack of chess set?" Cain asked pointedly. "It is not as if you play so it would hardly benefit you."
Much to his displeasure, the taunt didn't hit the mark as Delilah was now lost in thought. Tapping her delicate finger against her chin she ummed and aahed to herself before suddenly, her eyes brightened and a smile spread across her face, incongruously sunny.
"You still think I'm pretty, don't you?"
Yes, yes he did. Her, and other people too. It changed nothing at all. Nothing.
"Abel!" she called out, surprising them all. "Can we borrow some of your paper, please?"
Delilah fluttered her eyelashes as she asked this, even though she didn't need to. For her, eyelash-flutters were more or less on the same level as breathing. Cain turned to see what Abel had to say, watching as he knelt by a card table and took out the notebook that they'd managed to unearth moments before Eve had made him take the next turn on the roulette game with her pistol. With a stubby pencil that could barely fit in his hands, he began to write and after a few moments that dragged on laboriously, he walked over and held out the page. Delilah frowned prettily and then lit up again before crossing the room, and disappearing around a corner. A few drawer-opening sounds later, she was back with a triumphant grin on her face, pens in one hand and a larger sheet of paper in another hand.
"We shall draw one!" she declared. "Surely, we don't need a proper set to play."
"We don't, actually."
Colour me shocked, does Judas actually look impressed? It was hard to tell but there was something, something. He took the paper and pens from Delilah and then went to a larger games table to lay it out, sketching out the squares of the chessboard and colouring them in with a finesse that took Cain aback, enough to make him actually wobble before something settled in him as he realised that this was a surprise. This was something different. He joined the others as they clustered around the table, watching as the paper chessboard came to life. Judas even added shading to give it the likeness of a real one, to the extent that Cain almost expected it to come to life.
Sadly, it did not, and once Judas was done he leant back and frowned.
"The only thing is, what are we going to use as the chess pieces?" he asked.
Abel scribbled something in his notebook and held it up:
Casino tokens?
"Maybe…" Maria said.
"How would we make sure we knew whose side was whose? Do those sets have enough colours to be able to distinguish between them?" Cain wondered as he continued to warm to the idea.
"They're too finicky and flat for something like this." Eve said, bluntly. "It won't work."
"Hey, don't knock it before you try it." Cain said to her. "Or are you scared, maybe? Can't stand the thought of a game that doesn't turn deadly?"
Before Eve could deliver a response to that, however, Delilah had exclaimed again and was off, clearly on a mission. She ran over to behind the bar and then frowned at the stool, rubbing at the surface of it before lifting a finger and frowning. She then made to climb up before pausing, then pulling a face and then proceeding to tug off her very high heels. As she took off the second one, however, a crack reverberated through the air and made her wobble for a moment before standing there unsteadily, holding the shoe in her hand.
"Did you feel that?" she asked.
Cain had indeed. A loud, unmerciful crack of something snapping cleanly in two, the break between the pieces as wide as the gap between then and now. It had shaken him down to the very core, a sound more felt than heard but still so loud.
"Was it just the stool, Delilah? Did you break it?" Judas asked.
"No!" came the very wounded response.
"No, it wasn't anything here. Apart from Del, nobody's moved. At least, not enough to break a bone." Eve said.
"You think that was a bone?" Maria asked. "Pray tell, where exactly here are there bones lying around for somebody to snap?"
That was a particularly stupid thing to say, particularly for Maria and Cain would have wasted no time in telling her that if not for the fact that all of a sudden her head lifted, as if listening to something. Next to him, Abel did the same, his fox senses clearly having picked up something similar to what Maria was experiencing.
"M-Maria?" Delilah asked uncertainly from where she was still standing dumbly. "Maria, are you alright?"
"Someone's coming." Maria murmured.
"Who?" Judas asked.
"I don't know…"
Slowly, slowly, Maria blinked as she braced her hands on the table, taking a deep breath. She then shook her head before then glancing over at Abel.
"You felt it too, right?"
Abel nodded as he was already scribbling in his notebook. Cain waited impatiently, wishing not for the first time that Abel would just take the easier option of speaking. His voice still had the same butteriness that it had had before he'd become a fox after all, even if the growls made it a little rougher around the edges. By the time Delilah came back over (after putting her shoes back on) he had written what he had to say and pushed it out into the middle for them all to read:
Someone's coming, looking for us. I think it might be a good thing. I think. They may have answers, if they find us.
"If?"
Maria pushed back the notebook, and Abel wrote again:
I'm not sure they actually know where it is we are, just that we are, somewhere.
"What, someone from school? Law enforcement? Our families?" Maria asked. "All I got the sense of was just that someone's coming."
Abel shook his head, presumably to indicate that he didn't know either.
"Well, if it's a good thing then that means it clearly isn't Oura." Judas deadpanned.
"I mean, what if the cracking thing was something to do with Oura, though?" Cain asked.
Abel shook his head and furiously scribbled.
OURA IS A LIAR.
"Explain." Eve ordered.
There was never any intention of declaring any of us Grandmaster, we were never going to win anything. We never will.
"How do you figure that?" Eve asked.
We're still here.
When Abel had pushed the notebook back after this last simple statement, he leant back, sighing. Cain bit his lip as he looked at those words, trying to hold back all the feelings that they made swell up inside of him. It had always, always been that way with Abel. He'd be so damn oblivious to the concept that people hid things in their actions and then all of a sudden he'd sense something any other person would miss, cut straight to the heart of a matter. Even with his own weariness over the endless cycle, Cain had still been holding onto the thought that there was a way of winning this thing but of course there wasn't. After all, there wasn't any meaning in shining if there was nobody to see it or remember it. Nobody to be dazzled.
Then again, who would they be dazzling with the things they had done? The smell of the blood all around them, the brilliant red of it coating most surfaces. Even this very table hadn't gone unscathed. There was no shininess to be found here, and he'd looked out of the windows plenty of times by now and the nothingness had knocked him back each time. How could he have ever thought that there was something to be won from all of this? How?
"Right, so if somebody is coming, and it is some kind of good thing, then what are we meant to do in the meantime?" Judas said, jolting Cain out of his thoughts.
"Clearly, not kill each other." Maria responded. "Which is why I was putting away the weapons…but, Delilah, why were you going for them?"
Delilah blinked and then smiled, pointing to the drawn-out 'chessboard'.
"Oh, I was thinking of using the bullets to turn into the chess pieces. I mean, we could carve them or something, with the pen or even Abel's claws if they're not different enough on their own. Right?"
Abel looked startled to be mentioned by name, and then cautiously nodded. Delighted, Delilah clapped her hands together.
"Then, it's settled!"
"Right, and then what are we going to do once we've worn out this?" Eve asked. "What are we meant to do, exactly? Just wait for Oura to come back and taunt us even more, get the upper hand again?"
"We wait. That is all."
Cain startled as he realised that Abel had actually spoken. Abel turned his head slightly and stared at him before turning back, picking up his notebook between his paws and holding it there thoughtfully. Eve crossed her arms but didn't sneer, or make a move to do anything. Judas watched them all, as did the other two girls. Eventually, though, Maria sighed.
"Well then, Delilah, let's get those bullets out of the guns."
…
Ariadne did not usually like the free periods that she had on her own, even though she did manage to get work done in them. Yes, sometimes she'd hang around with some of the other freshmen or even with Ririsa's group whenever their free periods also matched her empty ones, but even so it felt unbearably lonely when she was without the others.
Today was different though, for she could take the opportunity to go to the library, find every book and document it held about Kawaakari Academy's seven wonders and go through them and try to work out what Kaguya's words to her had meant. She'd risked a lot, sneaking out alone to try and find him, though having done so on the night of the Harvest Festival had made things a touch easier.
"So if they are really still somewhere around on the school grounds, somewhere in the wonders…where?"
"Likely the shrine of the forgotten."
"The shrine of the forgotten? Do you mean…? Is there really such a place?"
"Well, that is a questions whose answer is lost in time and fog..."
"But it must be, right? Otherwise you would not have mentioned it, surely? Do you know…do you know where it could be?"
There was a long pause, and looking up into Kaguya's gentle, scarred face Ariadne wondered if possibly she should feel a little fear. But if she should have, she didn't. Just like if she should have been afraid of the black and gold people, she didn't.
Eventually, the answer came:
"If it still stands, then it will lie beyond the dragon's heart."
If anything, things had become a lot more cryptic after that statement, and it hadn't taken very long for Kaguya to then insist on sending her back. But he had revealed that 'the dragon's heart' whatever it was, was definitely a part of the school. In a way that was comforting as she wouldn't need to travel too far, relatively speaking. But it left so much open.
The only thing she could be sure of was that Kaguya hadn't been talking about a literal dragon. After all, dragons were creatures and not objects or places. Ariadne sighed, flipping through the pages of a large coffee-table style book with gorgeous painted illustrations, lingering over the description of Otohime. Dragons live in caves, don't they? Out in the wild? Could there be some kind of water dragon in that cave? Or maybe Otohime-san herself…? That, of course, didn't make sense either considering Otohime herself was a creature, so it was hardly her heart that the shrine of the forgotten would lie beyond. Ariadne flipped the page to the next chapter, which introduced Kouki-san, and then something made her look up.
Cookie was crossing the library apparently on a mission, cat around her shoulders, when she then seemed to sense that she was being stared at and looked up. Giving a sharp nod, she changed directions and approached Ariadne's table.
"Free period?"
"Yeah. You too, right?"
"Mhm. What are you looking for? Anything in particular?"
Ariadne smiled. If anybody could have a crack at figuring out what Kaguya might have meant, she was sure it'd be Cookie.
"Yes, actually, it's about-"
"You are becoming a fixture of this library, aren't you?"
Ariadne abruptly shut her mouth as a chill came over her. There was something about the look that this new arrival-an older student with deep blue eyes in a blank face-that made her blood run cold. Cookie didn't seem to like her much either, as she scowled.
"Same goes to you."
"Ah well, well, and who's this? You're not part of our detective team, are you?"
"I…I'm Ariadne Mitsuko. We're in the same tutor group."
"I see."
"Since she still hasn't mastered the art of introducing herself, this is Frost," Cookie stated. "I don't know her family name, unfortunately, but she's a second-year."
"Ah, and how are you two acquainted?" Frost asked. "Do you know Cookie's family name, Ariadne-kouhai? Or her real given one?"
"I have heard it…"
Ariadne tilted her head slightly as she looked between Cookie and Frost. The former had stiffened even though neither part of her real name had even been said. She remembered it from that first day, when their tutor had read it out and Cookie had immediately corrected it with a curt "Cookie. It's Cookie." Frost, on the other hand, had not answered the question about her own eponymic and was still staring at her.
"Cookie prefers 'Cookie' though, so that's just what I call her."
"As we all do. So, doing an investigation of your own?"
Ariadne stared and then glanced at the still bristling Cookie, who then glanced at her with an equally vehement expression.
"I…no, an assignment."
"Ah, yes."
Did Frost believe her? Did she not believe her? Ariadne couldn't tell, and either way the hairs on the back of her neck were starting to go up.
"Oh, I know where I recognise you from." Frost stated suddenly.
"Oh?"
"Of course you recognise her," Cookie rolled her eyes. "She's one of the non-magical ones, remember? They've got a reputation."
"As do many, but yes, of course."
"I, um…you know what, I think I'm going to check these books out and head to my room. I'm meeting friends there afterwards anyway."
"Oh, I do hope we didn't disturb you."
"No, no, it's fine."
Ariadne slammed the book shut and gathered them up, barely managing to look at Cookie as she scrambled away to the checkout desk. The member of day staff who sat there barely looked up as they took Ariadne's school ID, scanned it, gave it back to her then scanned her books through. Despite the number of books she had gathered, they were all soon done and she was able to leave the library. Once through the doors she started to feel a sense of relief, but even so she didn't stop, just kept walking until she got to her room without fully understanding why it was she felt like that. What it was about that girl that had triggered her flight.
Fumbling, Ariadne struggled to get her door open while holding all the books, but nonetheless she managed it, only to stumble and drop them as she got inside. Gasping, she dropped to her knees in the doorway, gathering the books to make sure that she hadn't damaged any of them.
And then she got to the book that she had been reading before Cookie and Frost had arrived in the library.
…Kouki-san is a mountain that covers most of the horizon southwest of the academy. It is a mountain with a really rough and harsh terrain that makes it difficult to navigate through at any time of the day…
…If you are lucky, there are multiple things you can harvest within this harsh terrain, each with their own attributes…
…there is something about this mountain that makes people come back every time despite its ominous history…
The phrases jumped out at her from underneath the vivid illustration, all those warm browns and oranges and the glow of the lava in the volcano off on one side, the dragon's head-shaped part of the range peeking out of a corner on the other side. And then there was a box, tucked in a corner of the page underneath the illustration with the headline: MYTHS OF THE MOUNTAIN. Slowly, Ariadne murmured the words aloud to herself.
"It is said that this mountain was formed during ancient times from the body of a giant dragon, one that the Goddess Akari reared, though other sources suggest she created the dragon with her own magic. There is also dispute between re-tellings as to whether the dragon died before the mountains were created or whether it is simply in a deep slumber. Regardless of the specifics however, it is understood that many of the goods that can be harvested are thought to primarily originate from this first dragon, as well as the multiple smaller wild dragons who have lived on the ranges for millennia. Indeed, many of the ledges, outcrops and rock formations are said to resemble the head, scales and limbs of this dragon, while the mountain range's only volcano is often believed to be representative of the heart of the dragon…"
Ariadne trailed off as the words hit her. Heart of the dragon. Dragon's heart. If the dragon's heart was truly this place, then…
…then, on the other side of that volcano, that is where they are.
Ariadne gulped, looking back at the main body of text, flipping to the next page and scanning until she got to the bottom.
…people that are unfortunate and get lost on Kouki-san remain there until they die…
But even with such a terrifying, final pronouncement, Ariadne could not be dissuaded. Would not be dissuaded. She knew now where 'beyond the dragon's heart' was and knew that they had to be there. So she was going to find them and she was going to bring them back.
And nothing would stop her.
…
Tricker wasn't a particular fan of the East Wing. There was something about the lack of windows that made him nervous, and the fact the walls became transparent in lieu of said windows didn't make him feel that much better. As such, whenever he'd had to be there he hadn't paid that much attention to what the rooms were like beyond whatever he needed to know to get through the lessons he'd had there. This was probably why he found himself surprised at the sight of the workshop, though as far as he knew it, for the most part, looked like an ordinary swordsmith's workshop, with a couple of large forges, shelves and boxes of materials, barrels of water kept cool with cooling stones so they could be used to quench any swords. The lights had been dimmed, but the first thing Sasi had done was to turn them on so that they illuminated the room fully, but now she strode back to a series of bins that were lined up against the same wall as the door.
"What are those?" Tricker asked as he came to stand next to her, pointing to a small plastic sleeve attached to each bin, with a sheet of paper tucked into it
"Those are where people put their weapons if they've got any that need fixing-look, this is where people put in their names, what they need fixing and when-this one's empty…"
Sasi knelt and frowned at the first sheet, which was completely empty before moving onto the second one. This had names filled in, but they'd been crossed through, which Sasi explained had meant they'd been fixed and the owner contacted to collect them.
"The sheet only gets replaced once it's full and everything on it has been crossed off." She explained. "Ah, this one's…."
At the third bin, Sasi perked up and opened the lid, only to peer in and swear.
"Someone's not crossed things off properly. Damn them."
Slamming the lid back onto the bin, she straightened up, sighed in frustration and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before taking a deep breath and sighing. Then, she went to a fourth bin, tucked right in the corner and slightly shorter than the other three, with no sheet in a slip attached to it. Tricker watched as she opened the lid and peered in, before then reaching out to grab some items. To his surprise, when she turned around she had gathered a number of what looked like pieces of different swords, all differently coloured metals.
"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me get the rest? Spread them out across the table there."
She jerked her head to where she meant and then strode off without waiting for an answer. Tricker went to the bin himself and though it took a few tried to get a grip on the smaller, slimmer pieces he managed it and held them clumsily as he carried them to the workbench Sasi was now sitting at. She'd donned gloves and was carefully laying out the pieces she had found, considering them carefully as if trying to match what she had to some picture in her head.
"What are you trying to do?" Tricker asked.
"I'm going to reforge these pieces into another sword," she said immediately. "Or maybe with these I can…yeah. Yeah."
She kept moving the pieces around, and eventually she leant back, satisfied.
"Two swords."
Sure enough, the pieces laid out did look somewhat liked a mismatched jigsaw puzzle of two swords. Sasi grinned at the sight and then looked up at him.
"There aren't any handle pieces, but I can probably do that when I reforge the metal…how are you with a forge?"
"With these hands?"
As he held them up, Sasi's eyes widened and he couldn't help but smirk a little. She gave him a look and then considered, tapping her fingers against the workbench as she thought. Watching her, he could almost see the thoughts and ideas fizzing in her head as she turned them around and around, smiling to herself. He wondered if this was what it was like to have any kind of ability to sense thoughts. He'd never wanted that kind of ability, and would not have intruded on Sasi's thoughts and feelings if he had but even so, seeing her this energised in this new setting felt like something had been revealed to him, something that couldn't be seen through ordinary sight.
"Okay," Sasi looked up. "You can carve though, right?"
"Mhm."
"Grab some paper and pencils from there, draw a handle shape that you think would be good and pass it to me. Then you can carve it over there. Think you can make the sheaths too?"
"I can try. What are the blades going to be like?"
"Curved, single edge. As for the measurements…"
Sasi found a measuring tape and checked before giving him the numbers. He nodded, and then went to get the paper and pencils before settling down to attempt to draw something. Being no artist (amongst the many things he wasn't), he found himself easily distracted as he watched Sasi don protective wear taken from a cupboard he hadn't noticed before and then get the forge set up before then beginning the process of welding the pieces together, a couple at a time heated and then forced together with an anvil and hammer, which she wielded as easily as she did any other weapon than he had seen her with, before then adding another piece and another. Magic fizzed white-blue around her hands, mixing with the sparks of the flame from the forge and he suspected that it was helping along the process. She concentrated fully on the process, furrowed brow, lips bitten. She was in constant, purposeful motion. It was as if the very many concerns that he knew that she had (even if he didn't know what they were) had just melted away.
Most of the time, seeing her around the school and in Mixed Melee Combat, she was constantly on guard, constantly waiting for the next threat, no sanctuary. He'd seen it fade away a little whenever she was with him in their quiet private moments but he was not so arrogant to think that he could bear the burden of being an entire place himself-but he hadn't thought that Sasi had had anywhere else. This was another arrogance in itself but one he had come by fairly enough, not just from their reputation but from other things. The way she made sure one of her group knew where she was whenever she separated from them to be with him, that time she'd let slip that she believed nobody else would care if she came to harm, the fear that he had started to sense lay behind the wildness and the spite, though he knew plenty of it was still just her own blinding fire. He had not expected that there was a corner of the school where it all melted away and she could just be, but of course she had. If he had the trees and the hidden parts of the school he was always looking for to get away from the noise, then of course she had somewhere else to go too. And that was something that she needed more than he needed the sanctuaries he had, and yet she had offered this place up to him. Allowed him to be here and watch her here, in her element.
What else, then, can I offer up?
Gradually, between all these thoughts and glances, he managed to sketch something he was reasonably happy with. After making a few more tweaks, he quickly re-sketched it out onto another sheet and then got up to hand it over to Sasi.
"Hmm? Let's see?"
Still welding, she turned to regard the design.
"That's the pattern you're going to carve on the handle itself?"
"I'm going to try to, anyway."
"It's nice…hold on a minute," Sasi's eyes widened. "Isn't that the tree I hung out with you in the other day?"
"It's a myrtle tree."
"But it is...?"
"Yes. I'm surprised you could tell."
"So am I."
Sasi's lips curved up in that smile. He wanted to trace it, as he always wanted to whenever she smiled like that, to but instead he just smiled back.
"I'll leave it here for you."
"Thanks."
He left the copy of the design on the small table next to the forge and then went around the room collecting pieces of wood and the tools that he needed before returning to the workbench and then attempting to bring his rough design to life. It was hard-going, not the type of work that his hands were made for, though Goddess knew that he'd spent enough time on those appointments intended to teach him how to do everything he would need to do in his everyday life, including the fiddlier skills that'd work well for tasks like carving. Yet despite that, and despite how the windowlessness of this room was usually oppressive, today it was different.
I'll figure it out, I swear. One day, Sasi, I'll give back to you all that you've given to me and that you're still giving me even now.
By the time he'd managed to finish the handles and the sheaths, Sasi had quenched both the blades and had bought them over to the workbench he was sitting at. She then went and gathered a number of stones, and some powders and oils.
"These are waterstones, and these we use to make nugui mixture-this workshop has some ready-mixed versions but sometimes I like to do my own, with a mixture of the powders. It seems fitting, considering this sword was made from a mixture of old ones. And you can see that, too."
This he could-the sword was all different colours swirled together as they travelled down the blade, creating an abstract swirling pattern all across the length of the two blades.
"How did you get it like that?" he asked. "The patterns, I mean."
"Pattern welding."
As she mixed the nugui mixture and then proceeded to use that and the waterstones to polish the blades, Sasi explained a little more about the process of pattern welding, before then going back to explain her other steps. Most of it went right over Tricker's head, but he could tell that here was something she excelled at, that she was passionate about.
"Have you thought about being a swordsmith yourself? When you graduate from here?" he asked.
Sasi stared at him, then snorted and shook her head.
"Please, someone like me?"
"Why not you?"
"Get real," she spat, hands stilling. "There is no way that'd happen. Any job, anything that gets a roof over our heads and means that the others don't have to do anything too…too, you know…that's all I can hope for."
Tricker didn't know, but from the little bits and pieces he'd learnt about her he was starting to wonder and the thought of it, that things like that could have happened to her. The thought of it-all that had happened to him was a single event, but from the sounds of things Sasi had endured a lifetime. He could hope to support her even after they'd finished with school, though there'd still be a year when she was out in the world while he was still studying. Perhaps that'd be something, but he wouldn't say that just yet, not until he knew that she knew that she could trust it. So although it felt so inadequate, he simply opted for:
"You deserve it, though."
Sasi's glare froze, and she tilted her head slightly to regard him before she looked down at the blades and returned to polish them. As with the forging, she used some magic here to presumably speed up the process, though much less than the last time. Once she was done, they both drilled holes in the handles and blade, before nailing them together. The swords glimmered under the lights as Sasi held them up to the air to consider them.
"What are you going to do with the swords?" he asked.
"Keeping them, of course."
"You're allowed?"
"Sure." Sasi said. "Anyone is, really, but I don't think many people know that. Though this is the first time I've made one for myself. Last time, I did a sword for Asuka and the time before that I made a pair of knives for Niwa."
Tricker nodded as Sasi lowered the swords and then sheathed them before setting them down on the table. She took off her protective gear and dumped it on the bench next to her and reached to loosen her ponytail, presumably to retie it but there was a small snapping sound and she swore, bending down and then straightening up with a broken hairband in her hand. Remembering he'd seen some string on a shelf, Tricker got up to find it and then cut a length before going to stand behind her.
"Here, I'll do it for you."
Sasi tilted her head at him again, but then nodded and turned around so that he could gather her long hair together. He wasn't sure if a piece of string would hold up a ponytail, so he opted for a plait instead.
"Where'd you learn to plait?" Sasi asked quietly.
"One of many tasks I was given to increase the dexterity in my new fingers," Tricker answered. "Usually it was just string or ribbons, but I practiced on my mother's hair."
"Your mother. Did she…did she have anything to do with…?"
"With what happened to me?"
Even though Sasi knew and recognised what it was that had happened to him despite not knowing the specific story or reason for it, he still couldn't say it out loud, not directly. Still, he took a breath and continued.
"No, that was my other mother. This one…this one divorced her after she was sentenced, moved us away after it was over. Said she was sorry that it had gone that far. But still made me keep my eponymic as it is, because 'Suvi's still your mother, too'. Still looks at me as if I am a bad omen."
"Bad omens, huh?"
I know a thing or two about that, he imagined being left unsaid behind her remark. Tricker just nodded, though of course Sasi wouldn't be seeing it, and finished the plait, tying the string around it in a somewhat loose bow, but still tight enough to do the job of keeping her hair together. Or so he hoped.
"Okay, that should be fine." He said, stepping back and putting his hands in his pockets.
Sasi swung her legs around and turned so that she was now facing him. Unflinchingly, she gazed at him for a moment before extending her hand out, as if to beckon him. Uncertainly, he knelt before her, which for some reason made her smile. This time, he didn't hesitate to reach out but as he did, she grabbed his hand and held it in both of hers before leaning in to kiss him, brief but hard.
When she moved away, something occurred to him.
"You made two swords, but you just said this is the first time you made one for yourself."
Sasi rolled her eyes.
"One's yours, of course."
Tricker blinked, but Sasi did not particularly seem like she was joking or making fun. After a moment, he blurted out:
"But you've given me so much already."
"And?" Sasi returned almost immediately. "So have you."
Tricker was left speechless once again, because he knew that couldn't possibly be right. But before he could think of anything to say in response, Sasi had abruptly let go of his hand and stood up.
"Right, we should tidy and get out of here."
…
Will smiled as Lily and Lucy came back to the table they had all clustered around with a new set of drinks.
"Okay, these are our break drinks-five minutes?" Lily asked.
"I mean, we've got a lot of good ideas already, right?" Kureha asked, holding up the notebook and using it to point at Hiraga's laptop. "Why don't we call it a day, especially as we're all on again tonight?"
"I second that!" Mica said.
"Same, same." Starri said as well.
"Sure, why not? We've worked hard." Will agreed eventually. "Besides, I think we're a little overloaded. "
They all looked at the other glasses that they'd pushed in the middle of the table, alongside a few plates of assorted snacks, and then Will sighed.
"Sorry." He apologised.
"Naah, it's cool," Hiraga said. "Makes a change for you to be the one to be pointing that out."
Will narrowed his eyes at Hiraga suspiciously, but noticed that he was grinning, and so he relaxed. Almost immediately after, Lily launched into a long diatribe about an assignment she didn't like, and they soon found themselves talking about that, which then led to them talking more about lessons in general. It was something they were able to do since despite the discovery of Lunar's body, there had been less cancelled lessons overall, and despite the Harvest arrangements having been so much more muted things had started to feel normal. Almost normal, anyway. And so although there was still something hanging in the air, it was easy to let go for a bit. To just keep talking and talking, as if it was a different time, when things had seemed so much less complicated.
Though, really, it's never been us that's been complicated, has it? Will thought as he took a sip of his drink, listening to Lidia and Lucy fiercely debating some kind of stew recipe that they'd been looking at in one of the General Studies classes.
"Chicken isn't a root vegetable!" Lidia was saying.
"Chicken isn't a vegetable at all!" Lucy exclaimed.
"I know that!"
"Then, why'd you look so surprised at it not being a root vegetable?!"
Lidia opened her mouth to retort, then paused. She shut her mouth abruptly, frowned, opened her mouth, then shook her head and closed it. Will laughed at them and Lidia turned to pout at him.
"Will, don't laugh."
"I'm sorry, you have to admit that was quite funny."
"Meanie." Lidia's pout became more exaggerated, but then she shrugged. "Oh well. I still say the recipe is misleading. Chicken is always an important ingredient."
"Remind me what this is about, again?" Hiraga said.
"Root vegetable stew that's called 'Root Vegetable Stew', except it has chicken in it." Lucy said. "Which is apparently a punishable offence."
"It is." Lidia protested, het up all over again.
Everyone else around the table laughed and Lidia pouted for a few moments more before she eventually admitted defeat and reached for one of the apples still left on the plates, crunching into it furiously.
"This is kind of nice, isn't it?" Will found himself saying.
"What, arguing about a stew?"
Lucy raised an eyebrow and Will almost choked.
"No. Well, kind of. I mean, being like this, you know. It's almost how things were at the start."
"Yeah, it feels like a long time since we just chilled out like this," Hiraga agreed. "Even figuring out the recipes didn't feel as stressful as it has been recently."
"Agreed, agreed." Lily said.
"I kind of think I'd like to do something like this afterwards, too. Once we graduate?"
"Huh?"
Everyone stared at Will, but now the idea had come to him, he found himself warming to it:
"I mean, not just a room like this is now, but a proper bar. Where we have a menu that we change with the seasons, and maybe special menus for festivals and other holidays. And live music events-one of us could even be the resident performer for normal nights too. "
"Oooooh, that could be me!" Lidia exclaimed, all annoyance about stew apparently forgotten.
"It could be, yeah," Will said. "But either way, it could be something we do together one way or another, right? Some of us would need to do the more administrative end of things, some would need to be in the kitchen or out serving…I mean, once we were established enough we'd be able to employ people, right? But it could start with us."
"I mean, Tate could do the money stuff, right?" Wren said.
"Yeah, why not?" Tate shrugged. "I am good with things like that."
"It'd be a lot of hard work…" Kureha said.
"I know it would be," Will said. "And I know that some of us already know what they want to do after we've graduated from here like you, Lucy. I wouldn't want to stop you from getting into law enforcement and Lidia-"
"Hey, don't sweat it," Lidia said. "I can just start out my career in this bar and then when I'm famous you can charge extra for the privilege of seeing me perform."
"And even if I don't directly work there, I'll still support you all anyway." Lucy added.
"I like the idea myself, too," Gin said. "And honestly I've no idea what I want to do once we're done with school so honestly, if we're going to go ahead with this I'm game."
"Same here." Getsu nodded firmly.
"Yeah, me too." Lily said.
"Why don't we actually try and plan it out right now?" Hiraga asked. "All the things we need to do-I'll pull together a document here and then we can go back to it as we figure things out."
"I'll go get another notebook from the back." Tate said, getting up. "I'll use it for the specific bar plans."
"No need to go to the back," Kureha said. "There's a couple behind the counter."
As Hiraga fiddled with the laptop, Tate nodded and went to grab another of the notebooks, putting the one with the recipes. Then, Tate began to walk back, but idly opened the notebook only to stop abruptly and stare at it, narrowing his eyes in confusion.
"Hey Tate, mate, what's wrong?" Will called over.
Tate looked up, startled, and then jogged the short distance back over.
"Did any of you write this?"
He turned the notebook page over so that they could all see it.
"…'Thank you, and I'm sorry for everything'?" Will read. "No, I don't recognise that handwriting at all. Do any of you?"
Most of them shook their heads or frowned, but Starri considered the page for a long time, even taking the notebook from Tate's hand to consider it for a long moment, tracing the wobbly letters with her finger.
"Whatcha thinkin', Starri-star?" Hiraga asked after a good few moments.
Starri looked up, eyes pained.
"This reminds me of that dream I was having."
"The dream?"
It took a few moments for Will to remember what it was she was talking about.
"You mean the one with the fox? Like that old story, the not letting go one?"
"Wait, how could those things be connected?" Lily asked. "What would he…they….that….whatever be apologising for?"
"Possibly for attacking her, assuming that happened." Tate muttered.
Fox…hold on a minute. Didn't little Ariadne and her friends say something about a fox student who'd died? That we've all apparently been made to forget? Suddenly, it felt as if the present was rushing back at him. It's so much, it's just so much.
"Get another notebook, Tate." He said.
"What?"
"I don't…I think maybe we should keep that, for now. Keep it safe. "
He wondered if Tate and Lily and Wren had picked up on it, the connection between what they were seeing and that strange story. If Starri's dream was really a memory, and the story Ariadne and her friends had told was also true, and the fox boy was indeed this Abel who had died alongside his friends and then been erased then that made them connected to it all, however tenuously. They had had an opportunity to help.
And they may have failed.
But not a single one of them seemed particularly to have thought of it, and not one of them mentioned it. Will didn't want to be the one to have to do so. Surely that can't be the answer though. It just can't be. For all that's happened, surely the school would not go that far…
"Okay, sure," Tate said. "There was another one in there anyway. Also, could someone clear the table while I'm at it? The mess is starting to stress me out."
"Aw, diddums." Lidia teased.
Tate gave her a look, but Lidia did indeed get up to start clearing. Glad of the distraction, Will helped her and then went to grab a couple bottles of juice, noticing that a few of them were running low.
"Quicker than making something," he said. "Then we can get down to business with the future…what are we calling this, our new place?"
"Um, Room 777, obviously." Tate said as he too sat back down.
"Same as here?" Lucy considered. "it's certainly snappy."
"And let's be real, you wouldn't have had the idea if not for this place, right?" Lily pointed out.
"Exactly, exactly," Will agreed. "I like it."
"Then, Room 777 it is." Hiraga declared, typing.
Tate, with his new notebook open, wrote 'Room 777 (actual bar)' at the top of the page and nodded. They spent the next hour or so setting out the first version of their new plans, but even as they packed up to leave so they could have dinner and then prepare for the Night Patrol, they still found themselves debating and discussing it fiercely, batting around new ideas and new possibilities. And Will wondered if this was all they needed to be able to get through whatever was coming. The hope of a life beyond school, for all of them together. Because if it was, then he thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to keep the shadows at bay this way.
…
Ruby stared at the girl who had apparently been the one to knock on her room door. She recognised her, because of course she did, but she still hadn't expected to see one of the non-magical freshman at her door.
"Ariadne, isn't it? Hi, what are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you…I…wanted some advice."
Aerin came to the door too, apparently curious and Ruby exchanged a look with her before asking:
"Advice? About what?"
"About making a scarf."
Ruby opened her mouth to snap, then looked at Ariadne again. She supposed that since the weather was colder, it did make sense for her to be as wrapped up as she was. But that scarf in particular seemed almost to swallow her up, with the lower of her face almost shielded by it and the ends trailing down to the hem of her skirt. Somehow, it reminded her of Samu, and she could never yell at Samu, the youngest of them and his confidence in his skin still so fragile. Sighing, Ruby ran a hand through her hair.
"Look, kiddo, I don't typically make clothes for classmates on-demand unless it is for a special occasion or a wider project."
"Oh, no," Ariadne's eyes widened. "N-not for you to make it. I'll do it, myself. But I thought you might know good places to start with finding out how to make one…not knitted, though. I think making it straight from fabric will be easier. But there's so much out there I didn't know where to start really and thought maybe you'd have a better idea. It's what you do, after all."
"Why'd you need to make a scarf anyway? Don't you have lots anyway? I'm always seeing you wear them."
"It's important."
"…I don't suppose you have a design on you?"
To Ruby's surprise, Ariadne's response was to dig in the pockets of her oversized cardigan and bring out a carefully folded piece of paper. She handed it over solemnly, those big eyes unblinking and Ruby took it cautiously. Aerin leant on her shoulder to peer over as Ruby unfolded it and looked.
The drawing was rudimentary, a rough rectangle apparently representing the scarf itself with little lines at either end she assumed meant tassels. Next to it someone (presumably Ariadne) had scribbled: plain black? Or like a chessboard? Gold thread for tassels? Definitely gold thread to stitch the runes.
"Ruby." Aerin murmured as the question rose in her mind. "Look."
Aerin was pointing to a neat list written along one side of the sheet: yr, algiz, reið, ailm, Óir, dara, triskelion. Ruby frowned at them, then peered over the sheet back at Ariadne, who had barely moved.
"You want runes on your scarf? Why?"
"There's…there's something important I need to do. To help someone."
"And this scarf is supposed to help with that?"
"Help me to help them." Ariadne stated firmly.
"I…well, you're not going to be able to do that yourself, you know? You don't have the power to make the runes do what they need to do."
"I…"
"Ruby."
Ruby whipped her eyes around to Aerin, who was now frowning at her.
"Ruby, does this not remind you of…?"
Aerin didn't need to finish the question, because she both knew how it ended, and knew the answer. Yes, she knew exactly what it reminded her of, particularly the note about making it look like a chessboard. Even now, she still felt a little fragile just thinking about it. But if anything, that felt like more reason to do something.
"I can help. I'll be fine."
Ruby turned back before Aerin could object any further.
"I'll do it for you, and I can work on it straight away. Can you wait between three and five days for it to be completed?"
"I-I really? Are you sure? How much is it?"
"How about a favour, as and when I need it? I'm thinking something along the lines of having you model something for me? I've got a few design ideas that'd suit you like a dream…"
Ruby grinned as Ariadne blushed and attempted to disappear into the scarf that she was wearing. Despite the memories of the feelings that had overwhelmed her before, imagining Ariadne wearing some of her latest upcoming creations was enough to hold that darkness at bay.
"Alright, since that's settled…anything else you want to ask me while you're at it?"
Ruby didn't expect Ariadne to actually seriously consider that, but that was apparently exactly what she was doing. A moment or two went by and then:
"Can you tell me how you managed to make five owls angry at the same time?"
…
"Ah, Yara, we need some more of the Portal Water-do you think you could take Katherine with you and show them what we do?"
"Of course, Professor Yanovi."
Yara turned to the girl with the short white hair and big eyes who was one of a small cluster of students who had joined the gardening club after the end-of-summer break. She didn't know the names of any of the others, with the exception of Mars, a slight, bespectacled boy who was also part of the Night Patrol and who happened to be friendly with Jae as well.
"We need to go to the shed first," Yara told Katherine. "That's where we keep the bottles that we use to bottle the water from the pool-we keep specific ones for the purpose, you see."
"Sure, sure," Katherine said easily as they left the greenhouse and went to the shed. "Won't do to mix it with ordinary water or anything, right?"
"Mhm…"
Entering the shed, Yara immediately grabbed a stool and dragged it to the shelf.
"We usually keep them all up here, there's quite a few. Want to find the other stool to help me? They're litre bottles, sort of crystal blue, pink lids and a large carrying handle."
"Sure, sure."
Katherine obliged. Being a little taller than Yara, once she was up on the stool she managed to reach up easily and soon snagged one.
"Like these?"
"Yeah."
Katherine put it down on the table below her and then kept reaching.
"Hey, Yara, what do you think of Professor Yanovi?"
"Hmmm?"
"I mean she's like…cute, right? For a teacher."
Yara concentrated on taking two bottles down at the same time, but this didn't deter Katherine, not completely. Keep it down, keep it down.
"I mean, I kinda like Professor Nyamai too, but she's a bit…kinda like a feral squirrel sometimes. Professor Yanovi's softer and she has the more mature vibe, you know, and she wears flowers in her hair! Oh, though maybe it's not girls or women you're into? Do you have a favourite?"
"All the teachers are nice…" Yara tried to be as neutral as possible as she hopped down from the stool to rearrange the bottles so there'd be enough space to put them down.
"Ah, come on! Pretty much everyone I talk to has a mini-crush on one of the teachers, at least. What's your type?"
Yara's chest started to hurt again. As she got back up on the stool, she opened her mouth to try and answer:
"Why do we call it the 'butterfly stroke' if butterflies don't know how to swim?"
Katherine was about to launch into a response, but her smile froze and then she abruptly shut her mouth. Pulling a face, she shrugged and returned to getting the bottles.
"Fine," she muttered. "Be like that."
Yara bit her lip, feeling bad for a moment. But when they managed to retrieve the rest of the bottles in silence, her chest loosened again. When they were done, they each gathered some bottles by the handles and then left the shed. They walked through the garden, and passed Kyouki tidying some leaves.
"Hey, are you going to the Portal to Otohime?" Kyouki asked.
She bit her lip and appeared to be looking at something beyond some of the trees. Yara followed her gaze, but couldn't see what it was Kyouki may have been looking at.
"Want to help us? We could use some help with the bottles."
"Yes, yes!"
Kyouki eagerly took bottles from Yara, then looked over at Katherine.
"You're one of the newbies, right?"
"Yeah, Katherine. You're Kyouki, right?"
"Mhm."
"So, what do you think of Professor Yanovi….?"
Since of course Kyouki did not have the same fears that Yara had, she was happy to indulge Katherine in that line of thinking, and Yara did her best to look like she was listening without listening, to look like she was fine when she was not even remotely fine. Luckily, as they approached the end of the river and the small footbridge that led to the Portal to Otohime, Katherine squealed with excitement and dashed ahead, kneeling down and making quick work of filling the bottles that she held.
"It's so pretty!" she exclaimed as Kyouki and Yara got to the bridge. "It's so clear and it goes really deep…you guys come here all the time?"
"Ah, not all the time, but we have a couple of times to get the water. Certain plants need this water specifically to thrive, and as for anything else…well, it certainly doesn't hurt." Yara explained.
"Some of the second years who do potions a lot-like Will-sempai and his friends, you've probably seen them-they also come to use some of the water. So we collect it for them, too." Kyouki added.
"Oh, that's so cool-aaaa!"
Unexpectedly, Katherine screamed and scrambled backwards, narrowly avoiding spilling a bottle she'd forgotten to close.
"A-there-there is…."
"Katherine?"
"There are faces in there," she whimpered, trembling. "Bodies….I…..it's….ohhhh."
"What is it? Who?" Yara pressed.
"The girls…the freshman girls…"
"Juu!"
Katherine had barely gotten out the answer when Kyouki practically leapt across the remaining distance and landed by the poolside. Yara ran after her and crouched as Kyouki leant over the pool. Despite the clarity of the water, the reflection was rippling and distorted, making it difficult for her to see in. But sure enough, after a few moments, a face came into focus. Big blue eyes, long brown plaits. And then another, easily identified through the blurriness as Kyouki's Juu. And then two more…
…wait? Wait, where's Hibi?
The girls eyes-already so wide-widened and stared, and something bubbled out of their mouth, the words almost unintelligible.
"Juu? Juu, can you hear me?" Kyouki yelled. "Juu, do you need help, let me…."
Again, more bubbling. Yara thought she heard who? And no, no, no but with the bubbling and the way the girls drifted in and out of focus it was hard to tell who was saying what, if anything at all.
"We need to tell a teacher!" Katherine exclaimed, getting up.
"What's going on?"
Yara sound around at the new voice and almost fell over herself to see Cookie there, slightly rumpled and out of breath. The black cat she'd recently acquired stood by her side, looking mildly curious.
"Juu's in the water!" Kyouki cried out. "They're in the water, but I don't think they want to come out."
Cookie's eyes widened, and then she did the unexpected thing of looking all around her before then returning her gaze to the three of them and making a decision.
"We need to find out why they're there," she ordered. "Yara and whatever your name is, get back over the bridge and wait. Milo, make sure they don't go, okay?"
"B-but why?" Katherine wanted to know.
"Just listen."
"If we can get them out," Yara said. "We can help them get back, so it's better for us to wait…"
Katherine frowned at this but reluctantly nodded and followed Yara back over the bridge where they waited with the cat. Yara realised that she had left her bottles over by the pool itself, but to her surprise Cookie started to fill them as she talked, with Kyouki interjecting every so often. The sloshing of the water and the bottles made it hard to hear what it was the two girls were asking, but with every passing moment Kyouki's anguish filtered through. At one point, she rolled up hers sleeves and attempted to reach in, but Cookie roughly jerked her back, looking angry before the expression abruptly melted away and she attempted to pat Kyouki awkwardly on the shoulder. Then followed some more questioning before finally Kyouki turned away, and Cookie leant back, looking grim and defeated. Slowly, the two got up and picked up all the now filled bottles before staggering back across the bridge.
"They're not coming back." Cookie said as she dumped the bottles down.
"What do you mean?"
"We need to get the teachers-"
"Don't even think about getting any of the staff here," Cookie hissed, cutting Katherine off. "I couldn't get a sense of how much they were involved in this."
"They're scared of coming out," Kyouki whispered. "They were happy in there until we made them remember that they were scared."
"And now, with any luck, they'll sink back down and forget again." Cookie added.
"Why do they need to forget?" Yara asked. "What happened to them? How did they get down here? Were they kidnapped? Did they accidentally fall into the pool the night they went missing and drown?"
"They have…the best I can understand it is, they've become something like Otohime-san, although they can still speak, at least. Though it was still a damn sight trickier deciphering them than it was divining from a cat. But anyway, they weren't kidnapped, and they didn't drown. They escaped to there, and the p-the thing they were escaping from probably doesn't know that they are there."
"What about Hibi?" Yara asked.
Cookie closed her eyes, and Yara noticed for the first time that they were almost completely ringed with purple, the shade startling against her pale complexion. But when her eyes flicked open again, they were still vital and vivid and so, so sad. She sighed and looked around her and Yara steeled herself for the answer:
"Hibi is dead."
Katherine gasped, but Yara could only blink as she looked between Cookie and Kyouki, one tired and the other devastated. Hibi, dead? How could that be? Hibi, dead. It didn't make sense.
"But how?"
"The fewer who know, the better." Cookie said. "Which is why I don't want to hear a word about this to anybody outside of us. I'm not sure I'd call what the four down there are alive, as such, but certainly the fact they managed to get there is the only reason that they aren't dead. Oh, where has that-ah, there you are, Milo!"
Unexpectedly, Cookie darted and grabbed the cat away from the bottles it was batting at. The cat mewled in protest for a few seconds before consenting to be draped around the girl's shoulders like a scarf.
"Um…why have you been carrying that cat around everywhere?" Katherine asked, slowly.
"Because I'm baby-sitting, obviously."
Yara giggled at this, and even Kyouki did too, though in a more wavery way.
"Cookie, yesterday I heard you telling a girl that the cat had adopted you…who was that, by the way? You seemed angry with her." Kyouki asked, shaking her head.
Cookie's expression transformed, eyes flaring and mouth thinning up. Pointing a finger, she jabbed Kyouki in the chest with it.
"Not a word about the pool, understand? Not to any of your other friends, not to anyone else on the Night Patrol, not to anyone else you may see me talk to. "
"Ah, I know, but-"
"And that applies to the rest of you. Not. A. Word. Have I made myself clear?" Cookie almost growled, whirling around to glare at Yara and Katherine.
"I…yeah, sure." Yara stammered. "You said already, so sure."
Cookie nodded, still clearly angry for whatever reason, before she turned and ran off quite abruptly. The three of them stood there, blinking for a moment.
"Are we really going to listen to her?" Katherine asked, somewhat tremulously. "Who does she think she is, anyway?"
"Juu's in danger, Katherine." Kyouki said. "That's why they're all there, because it's not safe-"
Kyouki broke off to cover her mouth. Katherine frowned at her, still clearly sceptical. Yara looked between them for a good few moments before then deciding to speak up:
"Cookie's a little…well, she's something else, sometimes. But I think usually she has good reasons for doing things. So yes, I am going to listen to her. "
"That's…"
"Katherine, please. Please."
Katherine didn't seem happy with that, but Kyouki had the exact same expression that she'd had when they'd returned from the side of the pool, so the girl pouted and nodded.
"I don't like it, but fine."
"Ah, let's get the water back, they're going to wonder where we've been." Yara exclaimed, checking the time.
Without further discussion or fanfare, the three of them gathered up the bottles and walked back to the gardens, their steps heavy. Yara and Katherine went straight ahead, intending to get to the greenhouse so they could pass over the bottles of water but Yara noticed that Kyouki was hanging back and turned, noticing her standing and watching Jun carefully planting a hydrangea shrub in preparation for the next year.
"Kyouki, what is it?" Yara asked.
As Jun looked up at the sound of the question, Kyouki's mouth dragged down and her shoulders started to heave as she sobbed.
"It's not…it's not fair. They…the hydrangeas, they were my favourite. The first thing I ever planted in my little garden back home, one of the few things I've actually ever done with dad because he was….you know…actually a-able to….he…those, those were hydrangeas. Blue, and purple and…they were my favourites. I loved them so much a-and now they…that girl, that poor girl and what happened to her and Y-Yara, if wh-what you saw was really, really…if the hydrangeas killed her then…and if Juu, and the others…the same thing…if the same thing…I can't look at them anymore knowing that they did that! I've loved those flowers since I was five and I can't even look at them anymore. It's not fair, I didn't ask for this, for any of this. I…"
And whatever Kyouki said was overwhelmed by her sobs as they increased in volume. Yara made to put down her bottles of water when she realised they were gone. Noticing that Katherine had disappeared too, she could only assume that she'd taken the bottles away herself. Of course, by the time she had realised that Jun had gotten up to comfort Kyouki, and Seraph and Jenna had arrived too, squeezing her and patting her hair. Yara reached out and then paused and looked around, her eyes settling on the gladioli. It was almost time for them to finish for the year, but there were a few stalks still standing, merry and vivid. There was a tinge in Yara as she considered it, especially when she considered that they would bloom again, as all plants eventually did. That, and more importantly, she felt confident that she would still enjoy the sight of them when that time did come. That she would still, hand-on-heart, be able to tell someone that the gladiolus was her favourite flower if ever she was asked.
Yara picked off one of the gladiolus flowers, a small purple bloom and joined the little cluster. Jun and Jenna and Seraph had let go of Kyouki now, and someone had handed her a tissue which she was using to blow her nose. Yara approached her directly and held out the flower.
"If you like, you can borrow my favourite for now."
Kyouki sniffed and stared at the flower.
"Oh, that's a good idea, Yara. The bluebells are all gone now or I'd totally be making a case for them, too but yeah. Since winter's approaching we can find a new flower to be your favourite!" Seraph crowed.
Kyouki reached out a hesitant hand to stroke the petals before tugging the bloom from Yara's hand and then haphazardly tucking it into a button of her school shirt. She blew her nose again and then sniffed and nodded.
"Th-thanks. Sorry."
"Nah, nah, nothing to apologise for. I'd be pissed myself if someone was using roses to hurt people." Jenna said.
"I know we should help with those, Jun, but what do you think about Kyouki and I doing some of the spring bulb pots back in the greenhouse instead? I'll send Jae and some of the other new kids back out to help." Yara suggested.
"Sure, sure, that's not a problem."
As Jun got back to work and Jenna and Seraph returned to their own task, Yara made a point of linking arms with Kyouki and walking back towards the greenhouse. She tried to think of flowers and vegetables and soil, and all the other things they had to do this evening and just generally did as much as she could to keep Kyouki distracted. But she couldn't keep herself distracted-all she could imagine now were those faces, distorted and floating in the water.
So close, and yet, so far.
…
Cookie had the notebook laid out in front of her, had all the evidence laid out in her head, but she couldn't write. Those distorted faces kept swimming around in front of her eyes, even when she closed them, and their words…half of them had been garbled, it had been a job trying to decipher them and she hadn't even been divining. But what it meant.
A girl with no face…
Though, the four had said it themselves, it wasn't that she literally had no face. The word they had been looking for, lost in the depths of whatever was left of their human brains, had been expressionless. And though Cookie knew or knew of quite a few people in this school who could be said to be expressionless, girls amongst them, there was only one of them whose expressionlessness was of the type that she imagined would prompt a terrified water creature to think of it as faceless. And the recognition that had triggered was strong enough that even if the girls hadn't also picked up on the hair and the style of hat the person in question had, she would have still known who they might have meant.
"The evidence is stacking up," Cookie murmured as she flicked back through the notebook, noting the things she had written down.
There was the spell that Cookie had cast, and before that the strange conversation and the first glimpse of the tattoo. The way she seemed to try and pop up wherever Cookie was going and how she had been with Ariadne a few days before. I swear, if the Chess Club has something to do with her too…And then she'd seen her sneaking around the offices, sneaking around the gardens looking for something. And now this.
If those girls were right, then she had been doing something with Lunarveil in the forest, and had murdered Hibi to prevent anyone from finding out. And they had no reason to lie but…Cookie had seen it for herself, the way they had been transformed. Their eyes were too large for their faces now, their skin too opalescent. Their speech, bubbling and fizzing and starting to fade. They had become Otohime's creatures and yet somehow, that was a better fate than the alternative.
If I speak up, then that puts them in danger. She knew that as a detective she'd have to question people in all sorts of traumatising and inconvenient situations, that investigations would upend things and that was just how it was. But investigations as a member of law enforcement, Imperial or otherwise, came with procedures and safeguards. People who could help smooth the way, protect from danger. What could she, just a girl, do in that regard? It was enough to make her do what she had always done when she was little despite the new dangers it bought her-hide under the bed when things got too blinding.
Turning, Cookie stared at her bed. The gap underneath was a decent size, presumably because A: it didn't occur to the staff that anybody would be so 'sinful' as to attempt to shield their eyes from light and B: Because they were high schoolers. To hope that they didn't consider hiding under the bed to be sinful in the first place was probably wishful thinking so she refused to entertain that as an option. Her own bed back in her house had drawers underneath a bed that had replaced her first one when she was ten and her mother had grown tired of spot-checking every night to make sure she was still lying in her bed with all the lights turned on full.
Let us go, please.
Cookie slammed down the notebook and pushed back her chair, scrambling across the room then ducking down and shuffling under the bed. She curled up on her side the way she always had, peering out into the room. All around her was shadow, but she could still see the light out there-it just wasn't blinding her, that was all. It wasn't overwhelming her. She could have peace, while knowing the world was still out there.
It was all she'd ever wanted.
Let us go.
But that had never been seen. Cookie closed her eyes tightly, remembering. The smooth whiteness of every surface, all the silk, not nearly enough of the other colours of light to soften things. The scented prayer candles that housekeepers made sure were lit at all times. By the time she was five she had learnt to hold back her sniffles, because apparently the fact that the candles made her sneeze was a sign of her godlessness. She remembered the scriptures, and the smacks around the back of her head every time she spotted something that confused her and she dared to ask a question. Not hard, no, not hard at all. It wouldn't do to have left any bruises, after all, not in any places that couldn't be explained away by her being a child. Not unlike her knees, which reacted every time to being forced on that cold stone tile without even the respite of over-the-knee socks to cushion them. Definitely without the respite whenever she had been 'caught' doing something wrong or saying something wrong or thinking something wrong.
Even so, most of her bruises, those were of the type left on the inside of her person, not outside. And she was sure that both her parents knew it and didn't care, as long as they kept their precious, precious reputation. After all, why else would they keep on saying it, keep on telling her that they shouldn't have chosen herthat they had made the wrong choice with her, keep on praying to the Goddess for forgiveness for their poor judgement with her? All statements that had been thrown at her constantly without her really understanding why until last year and the paperwork that she had discovered.
"It doesn't make me dark," she murmured. "It doesn't make me dark, I swear. I don't want anything bad to happen to these girls, I don't want anything to happen to the ones still lost. I want to help them and find the truth…I…"
"Meeeeeeeeeeeee."
"Me what? Oh."
Cookie opened her eyes abruptly as Milo's nose snuffled hers. She blinked once, twice and then everything focused. It was dark under the bed, but a soft darkness. The light was there, still out there. And her knees throbbed. Slowly, she put one hand over them, knowing that she hadn't been praying against any stone floors lately.
"Oh, right…the ground…hey, feline nephew, I gotta get up."
She patted Milo absently and then sent him darting out of the bed as she inelegantly shuffled back out from under the bed and sat up. Dusting herself down, she then examined her socks, seeing that there were indeed mud stains across the knees from when she had knelt by the pool. Pulling them down, there were bruises but smaller, not quite as vivid. Even so, the sight of them brought back all the sensations, particularly the scented candles.
Wherever you are, my mirror sister, I hope you're not living in a house with too many damned candles. Or that they don't make you sneeze if you do.
Slowly, she pulled each sock the rest of the way off and then shakily got up to shove them in the laundry basket before then going to find a new pair. Rifling through her large collection of over-the-knee socks she settled on a thick fluffy pair, grey and pink stripes with a cute mouse face and two pom-poms stitched above them for ears. Strictly speaking, they were winter socks, but the weather was getting cold anyway. And they'd pad her knees which was the main thing. Taking them over to the bed, she sat down and pulled them on, and smiled as her knees were covered up once again.
"So, Milo," she addressed the cat without looking to see where he was specifically. "I can't say anything to Julka just yet, especially not when I ordered the others with me to stay quiet…besides, under the circumstances I don't think she'd believe me yet. I'll just keep on keeping an eye…but I'll write this and then, you know what? I think I'll grab the travel set and see if I can annoy Mist or Julka into a chess game before dinner. What do you think?"
Milo meowed and Cookie assumed that that meant he was fine with it. That, or he just heard her voice and was meowing for the hell of it. Either way, the response made her smile. So she picked up her pen once again, and this time was able to start writing.
Lots of stuff for me to leave notes about this chapter so let's go:
-Katherine is Kyttyee from béΔèm's character, because it didn't make much sense to completely change the identity of someone I have already established as a character despite the vocalist swap. Therefore, new separate character. Plus the swap combined with béΔèm's interpretation gave me some far-too-perfect plot details. I also gave the group's artist a character/brief mention. Both of them will continue to get mentions/appearances throughout the story in some way or another though depending on how things go these may be quite small.
-Many of the passages that Ariadne notes in the book she has borrowed are the same as the original Mount Kouki descriptions on the Kawaakari website, while the 'myths of the mountain' section takes a lot of influence from the Round 3 'Research Files' with some of my own elaboration. As for the runes Ariadne requested for her scarf- some of them are from two different variants of the Norse runes with yr (the yew tree, endurance) and reið (ride, journey) being from Younger Futhark and algiz (protection, shield, elk) being from Elder Ruthark.
Óir and Ailm are from Ogham and means 'gold' and 'fir tree/pine tree' (though this meaning isn't clear) respectively with the latter relating to inner strength. Dara refers to the Dara Knot, an Irish Celtic symbol that relates to strength with 'dara' meaning 'oak' while the triskelion is also Celtic and means progress. Obviously some of those aren't actually runes in the real world, but in the Kawaakari world as I'm writing it that's basically what they function as.
-Finally, the next chapter is an interlude that basically just consists of exactly what the girls in the pool said to Cookie and Kyouki. So writing-style-wise it's a little weird, but it'll provide answers (and more questions with it, probably).
But anyway, hope you enjoyed this latest update :) :) I shall see you with the next one.