Summary:

Her heart used to be full, but it became empty... now she had to fill it again in Tokyo where accidents are happening, phantom thieves are stealing hearts? and this black masked man forcing her to meet him in the underground palace for the collective to... race on motorbikes through the labyrinth like place? How does this all tie in with her filling her heart? It didn't make sense, but somewhat it still did.


A pair of deep blue eyes was set on the screen of their phone, opening another email from Tsubaki Akane, her mother. It contained a link and a short message: Be careful, Kiaria. Her finger hovered above the screen of her phone. She pondered between opening the link and leaving it. If she guessed it right it would just be another link to a news article, it wasn't difficult to tell with her mother. She had been sending her news article about accidents happening in Tokyo for a week already.

"─mental shutdown?" Two friends, a girl and a boy from the same school judging from their similar uniform, were in the middle of a conversation.

"That's unlikely to happen." The boy said, shaking his head, "Is there even a medical condition like that?"

"I don't know. I asked my sister and she's not sure either and she works in the hospital."

"Doesn't your sister work in obstetrics?"

Kiaria tuned the two friends out from there. Nothing in their conversation afterwards was of any interest to her and it was also none of her business. She turned her eyes back to her phone and re-opened the puzzle game she had on her phone to pass the time.

It didn't take that long before the train arrived at the station and she was going up to the ground level of Tokyo.

The street she was in, like she expected, was busy. The tall buildings had display screens on it. It was lively and the air was different too. This place she would be living for the year was unlike the peaceful countryside she had lived in for most of her life.

She followed the stream of people walking in the streets while checking the GPS on her phone. Along the way she would find the roads were also packed with cars, well, at least she could move while the cars were stuck waiting for the traffic lights to change.

She reached her destination just like the gps told her. It was another place with a large crowd.

For a vast place, there's too many people. I don't want to get used to this place. She thought just as the sounds of the city were silenced. The abruptness had her survey her surroundings. The crowd stopped moving at the same time. A girl was about to fall to the concrete, the timer on the street lights paused, a few people were in the midst of talking, but there was one guy a few steps away from her who turned their head in one direction.

She followed his gaze and she stepped back at the sight of a figure formed out of blue flames. It had eerie yellow eyes and a mouth. She blinked. There were footsteps. A child crying out. Horns going off from cars. The sound of the city was back.

A monster? What happened just now? She shook her head deciding that she must be overwhelmed that it was causing her to see things. She did stay there for a bit looking in the direction of where she saw the hallucination before going on her way to the underground station and taking the Inogami Line to Yongen-jaya.

She bypassed a small grocery store, a building which seemed to be a theatre, and a two floored apartment. She continued down the alleyway until she reached an intersection and she had to take the one in the northwest direction where it took her to houses instead of the apartment complexes that she had seen earlier.

Eventually she stopped in front of a two-story house with the name plate of Tsubaki by the gate. She opened the gate and pressed the doorbell.

She stood there for a while waiting for the door to open. It was after two persons and a motorcycle passing by in the street that forced her to press on the doorbell for a second time. She counted under her breath up to sixty and the door had yet to open. She was about to press the doorbell again when the door was opened by a man with his black hair sticking upwards and had the same set of eyes as her.

"Suzuki Kiaria," He scowled at her.

"Yes." She said, pushing down the complaint she wanted to throw at him for taking his time to answer the door.

"Your things arrived earlier in the week. I was considerate enough to place it in your room instead of letting it block the entryway. Your room is on the second floor, first door to the right." He said before turning away from her, "You can read my rules under this house on the note I left on the desk, be sure to read it."

He left her in the entryway, not even introducing himself. She didn't have to ask for his name. Their mother told her that she would be living with her half-brother, Tsubaki Hiroshi. She liked him better in the pictures she received from their mother so she would know his appearance.

As much as she didn't want to judge a book by it's cover. Hiroshi didn't seem to be welcoming like what their mother said in her messages. Whatever, she wasn't hoping for anything when she got shipped to live in Tokyo. Reality wasn't a fairytale. She had long realized that the fairy tales presented were just a bunch of stories coated in sugar to hide its grim side or the truth it was really telling.

Left to figure out things for herself without a tour of the house. She searched the shoe rack for indoor slippers she could use and while she did find a pair. The soles were thin enough that if she used it while running she might find a hole in the middle of it. She took note to buy a pair for herself tomorrow as she entered the house foregoing the slippers.

Her room was an average sized room with a wall closet on the left side of the room. A wooden desk and chair near the door and a single bed, barren of any bed sheets or pillow, pushed to the wall next to the only window in the room with white curtains hiding the contents of the room from neighbors.

After looking at the room her eyes fell back on the paper sitting on the desk. It was probably the rules Hiroshi mentioned. She picked it up and read it.

Rules:

Don't give me any problems.

Break anything, pay for it.

Clean the dishes.

You are not allowed to have your classmates over.

You are not allowed to be here when I have guests.

My room is off limits.

Break any of my rules and you'll be out of this house.

Reading his rules had her grinding her teeth together in frustration. These rules were basically telling her that she was a nuisance. Was that what he thought of her? His behavior to her had been brazen, but she didn't do anything to him to earn it yet.

If only she could leave and never return, that would be easier, wouldn't it? But where would she go? She had no place to return to. She was alone. It wasn't even decided yet if she would remain here or be sent to live with another relative, if she still had any at all. She just had to follow 'his' rules, and mind her business, but what did the fifth rule even mean for her? She'll have to worry about it when it comes.

She glanced over at the two medium sized boxes that were in the middle of the room, her belongings. She still had to unpack, but first she had to clean the room. The desk had a layer of dust when she had picked up the note. The room, her room, had been left alone for a long period of time and no one bothered to clean it, not even the person she would be living with from now on.

For the rest of the afternoon, she cleaned her room. Wiping the floor and the desk, dusting the closet and washing the curtains. She had the door and the window open to air the place out. By the time evening rolled-in, she was tired and hungry, but she was done.

Hiroshi was almost done with his meal at the dining table when she walked-in looking for him. He paused on meeting her eyes and said, "There are instant noodles in the drawer above the counter and you can have the two onigiri in the fridge."

She was having instant noodles and onigiri while he was having yakiniku, a side-dish, and miso soup? What was this situation? It was like she was a beggar and he was the kid of a nobleman.

"If you have something to say, say it." Hiroshi said, placing his chopsticks above the bowls.

I also want rice. She thought, but that wasn't what left her mouth. Instead she said, "Where can I find the pot?"

After Hiroshi answered her question he was already done with his dinner and she was by herself in the kitchen and living room. Silently, she boiled water for the two packs of instant noodles and ate them along with the onigiri. She cleaned the pot, the bowls and the bowls Hiroshi used for his dinner. Once that was done she took a bath and went to sleep. It had been a tiring day.

Once she shut her eyes, she found herself opening them to a white place and she was even dressed in white. She sat up and shrieked out of fright coming face to face with a long nosed man with large eyeballs, that looked to be coming out and his irises were small against his large eyeballs.

"Are you done trying to break my eardrums?"

The sudden question had her stop and her gaze shifted to the boy dressed in a blue uniform next to the man. His platinum hair peeked out from under the blue cap on his head and sitting next to him on the white floor was a large hardbound book.

"Welcome to the Velvet room. I am Igor, the host and this is my assistant, Ivan." The Long nosed man said.

"Velvet room?" Kiaria echoed. The name sounded fancy. "Is this some sort of club? How did I even get here?"

"The Velvet room is a place between reality and dreams. The Velvet room usually reflects our guest's heart." Igor said, ignoring her latter questions giving her bad signals.

"Does that mean my heart is empty?" Kiaria said, taking in the white room. There was nothing there and she didn't count the low table separating them.

"An empty heart does not really mean it is empty," The boy said.

"Why am I here?"

"Most of our guests usually will come into a situation and will appear here." Igor answered before he lowered his intertwined hands onto the low table. "It has been a while since we had more than one guest into the Velvet room and at the beginning."

"I'm not following." Kiaria stared back at him confused. Situation? Two guests at the beginning?

"My apologies," Igor chuckled, even the man's smile didn't make sense with how wide it was and was anatomically impossible. "It appears fate has brought us together."

"What?" She must be dreaming. Fate? No one believes in fate.

"I would like to forge a contract with you," Igor said. "In this contract, you will be assisting me. In exchange for helping me, I will be doing the same in the coming events that will take place."

"Isn't there anyone else that can help you?" She was not about to get herself into any binding contract. Dream or not, contracts were contracts.

"I can only hope that 'he' will be able to make a change in this game, but…there is a reason for your appearance and into this space alone."

"But why me?"

"That I cannot answer for you." Igor replied just as there was music playing, "Well, it seems our time is up. We shall meet again."

Kiaria snapped her eyes open to the jazz song she set up as her alarm ringtone. After getting out of bed she went to the kitchen, she found on the table were used bowls and a bunch of crackers set in front of the bowls. There was a note on the table left for her together with two keys.

The Key to the house and your room. Lose it, sleep outside.

Kiaria rolled her eyes before she grabbed the bowls and washed them, as for the crackers she left it on the desk of her room then she changed into her casual clothes. A striped white and brown long sleeved shirt with a navy blue padded vest, black jeans, brown laced hiking boots and a blue agate beaded bracelet. The keys left to her were attached to her resin lotus keychain.

Closing the door behind her with her brown cloth backpack on one shoulder, she set off for the nearby convenience store to eat brunch. It seemed like she would be eating convenience store bentos if Hiroshi wasn't going to give her any decent meals. With that thought after eating, she added to her list after 'buy indoor slippers' was 'look up shop breakfast n dinner'.

She fired up the GPS on her phone and the map searching for Hanasetsu Academy. Searching for the school wouldn't be an issue if she asked around and from what she searched about the school, it was a private and prestigious school. It was a well-known school, but who in this day and age still asked for directions to get to a place?

The train ride to Shibuya was jam packed with people that had her hugging her bag to her chest. It was an uncomfortable ride, much like the first time, but not something she couldn't endure. Stepping out of the train and into a less confined space, she went in the direction of the nearest stairs and checking on her GPS she found her way to Hanasetsu Academy. It only took her less than twenty minutes to arrive in front of the gates coming from the station and now that she found the school, it was time to explore the area then buy indoor slippers.

It was her second day in Tokyo and the crowd of people still overwhelmed her, but there were more cafes and shops compared to the handful in the countryside. She found a number of restaurants and even a quiet bookshop that had a café on the second floor. The café had books for the customers to take and read for their leisure.

She stayed in the café while she poured over the book she found in the shelves of the café about creating a palace in one's mind. As she read over it, it was actually a method for an individual to memorize a lot of information. It was something by association to a familiar place. When she had taken the book, she had thought it was a novel, well the first page already told her it wasn't, but she decided to read it as it seemed to be of good use for studying.

After leaving the café, she went to the underground mall at Shibuya station to purchase indoor slippers and while she was there she found a brochure with a list of part-time jobs. She was considering taking a part-time job to have some extra money aside from the allowance her mother gave her. She'll have to check the rules of their school first before she could even apply, but she did take one of the brochures for future references.

She wandered around for a bit more in the underground mall and when she checked the time and the day had gone by without her noticing. It was already late in the afternoon and with the accidents happening the schedule for the subway lines changed frequently.

Her train wouldn't be arriving any time soon after checking the timetable and left with no choice, but to wait. She stood at the side near the ad changing posters. She had her puzzle game on the screen of her phone. In the middle of a game, two things happened at the same time, one, there was a call from her mother. Two, a red and black icon popped up on her phone that she had tapped on by accident before she could answer the call.

"Hello, Kiaria" Her mother's voice came up as the icon with an eye and a star as an iris stayed on the screen of her phone. Was her phone glitching?

"Hello," Kiaria said, pressing the phone to her left ear.

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"Are you getting along with Hiroshi?"

Should she tell her the truth? No. It wasn't that big of a deal. Her mother continued to ask her questions during the call and she gave short clipped answers.

"Have you read anything interesting?" Her mother said, and that was the only thing she knew about Kiaria.

"I may have."

"What's it about?"

"Just a sort of trick to remember things better."

"Oh, how would you be able to do this trick?"

"It's something like creating a palace in your mind."

"Palace?"

"Well, not really a palace…" Kiaria said, explaining what she understood from the book.

"It sounds difficult, and after listening to your explanation. I'm not sure about the author's thoughts that everyone—"

The line was cut off all of a sudden and Kiaria looked at her phone to find only the red and black icon was on the screen. The icon was creepy as it gave off red waves on the screen. When she looked around, the subway seemed darker and the red tones of light were noticeable. It was quiet like the time she saw the blue flames yesterday.

She looked back at her phone. The icon was gone and she tried to use the other apps on her phone, but none of them seemed to work. What was wrong with her phone? She had it for two years. It shouldn't be at the end of its life, yet. She sighed before she replaced her phone in her pocket and thought to get out for the meantime.

She walked in the direction she knew where the subway exit was, but it only led her to another hallway. She continued walking until she saw a giant inhuman figure with a full-face mask standing a few feet away from her. It wasn't facing her, but she was frozen in place because of the figure? monster? She didn't know what it was and before it could turn to her she turned on her heel to get away as fast as she could.

After getting away from the strange creature, she leaned against the wall and was breathing heavily. First, blue flames having eyes and a mouth, a creepy icon that just appeared on her phone, a place that she didn't know how she got there, the next she was running away from a black figure with a mask on. What could possibly follow after that?! She couldn't imagine it, but she hoped it wasn't anything terrible.

Finally, getting some air in her lungs and calming her mind even if it was a bit, she pushed herself off from the wall and told herself she had to get out. She had taken five steps to round the corner when she saw two figures. She narrowed her eyes in the dark and by the silhouette were humans. She had meant to call out to them, but when she saw a lightsaber go through the other person and the one that was stabbed fell to their knees. The words were stuck in her throat at the scene in front of her.

She took a step back and the scraping of her shoes against the concrete caught the black masked man's attention. She turned and ran, but the masked man had jumped above her and blocked her path. She tried going in the other direction, but the echo of a gun and a breeze to her left made her freeze.

"I wonder if you would be of use," The masked man said.

She didn't know what he meant, but she just wanted to get out of there.

"No…you will only cause me problems." He said before she felt something stab and burn through her stomach.

She tasted iron in her mouth as the green saber was pulled out from her. The beginning of her life in another place and it was also her end. She dropped to her knees as the sound of footsteps was fading. The man was leaving her to die there on the concrete. Maybe it was better that she died. She had no goal with her life. Continuing to live would just be suffering.

"Foolish girl, before you start dying you might want to try living first." A voice echoed in her mind.

"I'm done with… with living," She said as she was losing her strength.

"Death greets us eventually, my dear, there is by no means of escape. Life has always been calling to you and yet you ignore it."

Life calling to her? Life went ahead and crushed her. All she ever felt was pain, after trying and trying, she always ended up getting hurt.

"My dear, those chains not only weighed you down, but have blinded you. Why then did you run when you felt death coming for you?"

She couldn't argue with that. She had run away earlier to save herself.

"You yourself want to live, Suzuki Kiaria. If any, this is just the beginning, my dear."

"Who are you?" She muttered.

The voice laughed in her head, amused. "I am thou, thou art I…come remove the chains that you call safety, step forward into chaos that is life!"

Kiaria blinked her eyes and narrowed them as her sight sharpened. She felt a bit of her strength return and she pushed herself up, while she did, at the edge of her eyes was a mask.

I'll worry about it later. She thought. She was too tired and her priority was to get out of there without meeting any more dangerous people or creatures.

Once she got out of there she would look for a nearby clinic or hospital and have herself checked. That was physically and maybe mentally as well, because there was no way her mind could possibly create a place that was too real.

"You have returned to the real world." A robotic female voice said telling Kiaria, she was back.

In testament to that, it wasn't eerily quiet anymore and the ground she stood on didn't feel like she was walking on air. She checked the time on her phone and found it was past seven. It was almost time for the train to Yongen-jaya to stop at the platform. The earlier incident was forgotten and she pushed herself to run back into the subway and not a second too late onto the train.

On her way back to the house, she luckily came across a clinic in the backstreets. Entering the clinic, behind the reception was a woman with dark blue hair in a messy bob-cut with blunt bangs and brown eyes. She wore a choker and necklace and a blue dress covered by the white lab coat.

"Is this your first visit?" The woman asked her, with Kiaria nodding in answer. She hummed. "So, what are you here for today?"

"A ch-checkup" She stammered, still shaken from the earlier events.

"Okay, head in the exam room."

The woman introduced herself as Tae Takemi. At the beginning of the check-up, when Kiaria was asked to remove her vest there was blood on her shirt. Kiaria panicked at the sight of the blood but seconds later the blood was gone.

"Huh? Where did it go?" She said out loud.

Takemi didn't ask her what she meant and told her to remove her shirt to start with the check-up.

"Have you done any extraneous activities lately?" Takemi said, while Kiaria pulled down her shirt.

"I may have," Kiaria flinched, recalling how much running she did and not to mention the pain of having a lightsaber go through her. Never in her mind did she ever think that lightsabers would be real other than in a movie. It's impossible! "Er, do I have any internal injuries?"

"You're fine. No internal injuries, but you may want to cut back on any extraneous activities." Takemi said offhandedly.

"Tae-san, How would you know if you're…mentally…uhm, sick?" She might as well ask since she was there, right?

Takemi stared at her blinking twice, "Do you think you are mentally ill?"

"I don't think I am, but I had a weird dream. Actually, I don't even know if it's a dream. It seemed so real. Earlier too it—" She caught herself before she could continue. There was no way the person in front of her would believe her.

"Has this dream been happening a lot?"

"No. Just once."

"Maybe it's all from fatigue, and you said that you just moved. It's probably because you're not used to the place, yet. For now, I'll give you a prescription of some painkillers, for the soreness of your muscles. You won't need sleeping pills, you're tired enough not to need them." Takemi said, going to the rack of medicines and holding the small bottle of painkillers to her.

"Thank you," Kiaria said, receiving the bottle and placing it into her bag.

She arrived at the house, and although she was tired she still managed to eat her dinner, a bowl of rice, dried fish and miso soup with spring onions. She found it on the dining table in front of already used bowls. It was at least better than the crackers she found on the table in the morning. After eating, she washed the bowls, took a bath and hit the hay.

Kiaria opened her eyes and saw white again. Everything was white, she wondered if she had ended up in the hospital or something, but that was far from it. She sat up from the floor and stared at Igor and Ivan on the other side of the low table.

"Welcome," Igor greeted.

"You again!?" Kiaria shouted, glaring at them. "After I met you two, weird things have been happening to me."

"Wow, and you're blaming us?" Ivan said, his face twisting into a grimace. "We have been patiently waiting in this room for you to return and you blame us for what happens outside?"

"Outside? Wait, you two can't get out of this room?" She said, her ire diminishing.

"We remain here waiting for our guest to return and assist them." Igor said, "Such is the circumstance of being a resident of the velvet room."

"What do you two do when I'm not here?" She asked curiously. There was literally nothing in this white space they called a velvet room.

Igor and Ivan merely glanced at each other. It was only for them to know the secret.

"Nevermind, forget I asked." She said, shaking her head. There are some things better off not knowing. "Will I keep coming here?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Will I keep ending up here, and will weird things still happen even if I don't agree to help you?"

"We do not have the answers to that," Igor replied. "We can only offer assistance to our guests on their journey."

"But aren't you the ones asking for my help?"

"That I am."

She groaned. "This is ridiculous! You're asking for my help and you say you're supposed to guide me on this…weird occurrences happening to me. Which is it?"

"It is both," He answered.

"What is so hard to understand?" Ivan said. "If you help us, we would be able to help you further and possibly answer a few questions."

"Possibly answer, that doesn't mean you can answer 'all' of my questions." She fired back at him.

"Well, do you want an answer or do you just want questions?" Ivan countered.

She was slowly pushing herself up from the floor, "You are beginning to—"

Igor coughed, cutting off further words from Kiaria. "Hence, your return to the Velvet room, will you accept our offer?"

Kiaria was still sceptical about helping them, but where was she supposed to go and ask about the strange things happening to her? It's not like there's someone out there that could give her a manual. While she thought about accepting their offer, words from her past echoed in her mind.

Life is an adventure, Kiaria. There's no set direction that you have to go in. You can go anywhere you want.

"Fine. I'll help you." She exhaled with her shoulders slumping down, "I don't have a direction yet, but I may just find one by helping you."

A folder by then appeared on the table and a pen next to it. Kiaria pulled the folder close to her and read the contract. The main point of it was that she would take full responsibility for her choices and actions. She found that strange, well, things have been strange since she came to Tokyo. There was nothing else in the contract, but that… she peered over at Igor. The man was attentively looking at her with those large eyes, and tiny irises. She grabbed the pen at the side and affixed her signature at the bottom line at the same time sealing her fate.

"Then the contract has been established." Igor said, smiling at her. She wished he didn't. This long nosed man still creeped her out even if she agreed to help.

A young boy's voice echoed in her mind and it sounded closely like Ivans'.

"I am thou, thou art I...

Thou hast acquired a new guide.

It shall become the essence of your journey

that would revealth thy way.

With the birth of the Fool Persona,

I have obtained the light

that shall lead to life and new power..."

"What did you just say?" Kiaria turned to Ivan.

"Say what?" Ivan said.

"You said something about—" Kiarias' dream was interrupted as her alarm went off telling her to start the day.

On her way to Shibuya, she thought about the app she was sure she had removed. Why was it still there? A glitch? A bug? A malware? Was she getting hacked? She didn't know and the strange app was making her upset and frightening her.

Wasn't the app related to how she ended up in that strange place, but how in the world can an app even accomplish that? She had tried using the app earlier at the house, but nothing happened. There were no red hues around her. She was relieved that nothing happened when she did use it, but she might have a breakdown if it did work.

At the front of her new school, there were teachers and a few student council members standing by the gates. It was a standard for teachers' and the student council to check students are wearing their uniform properly. She didn't have her school booklet yet, but it was a common rule with schools. She had transferred enough to know this particular rule was always present.

"Wait a moment," One of the disciplinary committee members called her over. "Your school uniform isn't up to standard."

She looked down at her clothes. She was wearing the uniform issued by the school consisting of a tan school blazer, but beneath it she had a stand up collar light brown jacket. The zipper wasn't zipped up to her chin and she was wearing her white blouse. She was wearing the black and white pleated skirt and not the pants the male students wore. There was no rule against wearing sneakers with your uniform, and this is coming from a prestigious school like Hanasetsu Academy, so she opted to wear sneakers instead.

"I don't understand what you mean," She really didn't.

"You are missing your tie," The female council member said pointing to the black and white striped tie she had on.

She looked down at her uniform. She was missing her tie and she recalled it was on her desk in her room. Oh, right, she had trouble on how to wear a tie and she didn't really want to ask Hiroshi for help, so she just stuffed it into her bag and left her room. She lifted her chin to meet the council member's lifted eyebrow.

"Technically, I left my tie at...my house."

The student council member gave her a withering look before she was told to hand over her school and to retrieve it from the disciplinary committee once school was over for the day. She walked away from the gate and towards the main building for the faculty room in a bad mood. First day of school and it wasn't going well.

She entered the faculty room. There were a few teachers in the room turning their heads to her and the nearest teacher speaking to a male student was one of them.

"Then, Mitsuo-sensei, I'll be going." The male student said smiling before he nodded to her with that same smile plastered on his lips.

Her eyes followed him as he left the room, there was an unusual feeling she got from him just now. She just wasn't sure if it was good or bad.

"Did you need something?" The teacher, the male student addressed as Mitsuo-sensei, spoke to her, forcing her to turn her attention to him.

"I'm Suzuki Kiaria."

"Oh! Suzuki-san! Yes. We've been expecting you. I'm Mitsuo Morino, the english teacher," Mitsuo Morino, a man in his late-twenties wearing a green turtle neck, said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "You were supposed to come here last saturday."

"I'm sorry about that sensei. I only just arrived this Sunday and the school was closed." If she was being honest she was supposed to go, but she had to clean her room. No way was she sleeping in a dust filled room.

"It's okay," Mitsuo Morino waved it off. "What's done is done. You're here already so we should have you take your qualifier test."

"Qualifier test?" Eh? A test? The last time she took a test was… a while. She stared back at him hoping she heard it wrong.

"Not to worry, Suzuki-san, this is only for your qualifications for the grade we would be assigning you since you were in the hospital for the remainder of your first year due to an incident." He said, probably noticing the distress she had on her face. He tried to uplift her spirits, but he failed. "It would be wrong if we just had you join the first years without making sure that you are qualified to be a second year."

What? There's something like this in this school? If they had doubts on her grades they might as well make her a first year!

"Suzuki-san?"

"Do I really have to take this test?"

"Yes, all transfer students are required to take this qualifier test. No exceptions." Morino-sensei said.

It was no wonder they wanted her to come to the school on a Saturday. The test took up the entire day. The qualifier test she took might as well have been the equivalent to a final exam she wasn't able to take in her first year in her previous highschool. She only managed to go up a level because of her scores during the prelims and midterm exam, but this school was making sure she was qualified to be in that level.

Her qualifier test was done an hour before school was over.

"Please stay here for the meantime, Suzuki-san while I get this checked." Morino-san said, taking her answer sheet and the questionnaire with him, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Tired from the test she laid her arms on the table and used them as her pillow. It didn't help that her head was thumping badly. She could literally feel the pump of blood through her brain with each thump. She should have brought the bottle of painkillers. If she passed this qualifier test, it was all because her luck for the day had been squeezed out for this test alone.

It was half an hour before the end of school and she was following Morino-sensei into class 2-3. It was a first and quite strange that it was close to the end of school that she introduced herself to her class instead of just doing it the next day. Hanasetsu Academy is a prestigious private school, but to her it was a strange school.