[Authors Note] Hello to all my readers! It's been four months, but I hope you enjoy this next chapter of Down Into My Shadow. I actually have a very good reason why I haven't updated anything since December, even though I would have liked to – I've been studying full time to complete a certificate in MicroBusiness Management, and now I have my own business :D It's called Melon Fox Designs, and it's based in Illustration and Graphic Design. The official start date is the First Week of May, and I've spent all this time since the last update actually setting everything up. I'll still be writing, of course. If anyone's interested to see what it is that I actually do in Illustration, then look up MelonFoxJozei on Deviantart, and you'll find me ;) I'll add a link onto my profile page on here if you can't find my DeviantArt page, anyway.
And during the four months since my last update, Down Into My Shadow has broken 100 followers. Wow, haha, I had no idea that this was so popular until I came back a couple days ago and found all those notifications in my email :D So I hope this chapter does not disappoint.
In any case, enough of my blabbing, I'd love it if I could hear from some of you wonderful people reading, even if it's just a word or two like 'Cool' or 'Meh', you know? ;)
Josaphina / MelonFox Jozei out!
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Heat In Beat
It finally felt like things were beginning to come together.
Serah Fythe couldn't think otherwise as she awoke Wednesday morning, for the first time in what felt like months having gotten a good night's rest. No frustrations plagued her, even after her little tantrum at Liz and Kid the night before, though she did know she was going to have to apologise for it. Feeling like a kid waking up on the first morning of Summer Vacation, there was nothing that even sought to burst her happy mood. In fact, everything that had been bothering her just felt like pebbles in the path in comparison to the mountains they felt like up until now.
It was just before six in the morning, the normally grinning sun beginning to wake up now that the moon was starting to pass out again, as they did every morning.
After four hours of Amanda's company talking her through what to expect as a Meister, how resonance works, and even a lot of other things that didn't appear relevant – like how Italy's Gelato was to die for – Serah felt entirely uplifted, which was quite different. They didn't get around to doing any resonating or anything that was a form of practice, and yet it didn't feel like they did nothing at all, either. Hard to put her finger on it, but it was hard to disregard it, too. The only other times she could think of feeling like that was when Stein had paired her up with Tsubaki the day before, and when Lord Death had told her he was giving her a replica set of circlets.
Right now, however, Serah felt like things were working out, at long last.
This change felt like it was for the better, unlike a lot of the changes of late that just proved to addle and frustrate her.
Getting herself organised for classes seemed to fly by way faster than she was used to of late. Before she knew it, she had gotten cleaned up, dressed in her regular clothes of tights, shorts and tank-top with a cerulean jumper for good measure, and she had pulled her hair back in a high ponytail at the back of her head – She caught herself before pulling her hair in a side-tail, consciously acknowledging that doing that was simply asking for another symmetry melt-down to occur.
It was just after six when Serah had gathered her belongings strewn across the room following last night's events, and she had shut the door behind her to head to the Academy.
In Serah's head, it felt appropriate to refer to Amanda's appearance, and the manner of their interactions as tutoring, and before she knew it, she found herself thinking of the four-hours of company as that. She learned some things she missed in classes because of her horrible concentration of late, and new lines and connections were drawn to link what Serah had already learned with the new stuff that was in her head, making everything a lot more concise and coherent to Serah.
Which was a very good thing, considering that there was a lot that hadn't been sitting right in Serah's head to begin with.
Unlike the last allotment of time that Serah had spent with Amanda, it was a lot more comfortable; It wasn't teacher and student, but more equal-level between them.
And unlike the last time, Amanda didn't ask any questions about Serah's classmates or other things about the Academy – She seemed more content with pointless things that were more in like with learning about Serah herself, and vice versa. It was like the woman was interested in learning about Serah now that she wasn't just giving Serah Dancing Lessons.
Pulling the front door of her dwellings closed, Serah cast a glance to her mailbox for just a moment, where the little flag was lifted up, signifying the presence of mail, though she didn't believe there should have been anything in there to begin with.
At least until she stopped to think on it for a few seconds.
She let out a faint breath as she realised that she had left that cursed letter in her mailbox - For whatever reason it was, she didn't exactly want to throw them away without reading them, but she didn't want to read them, either. It was a kind of catch 22 that she was submitting herself to. Of course, if she just let them accumulate in the mailbox, the postman might end up thinking that there's no one home and start returning all mail to their senders, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing, either. Serah flipped the catch of her mailbox door so that it fell forward, leaning down to see what else lied in the box other than the letter she really did know was in there.
As she gazed inside, she found herself rather surprised at the contents within.
There was that confounded brightly coloured envelope with heavily looped handwriting, as well as an additional one as well within another variety of bright enveloping, the same handwriting adorning the front of the envelope. But further to that, there was a large, brown parcel that almost shouldn't have fit in there to begin with, but somehow the postman had managed it without damaging the cursed letters - If they had, it would have actually pleased Serah just a little.
Carefully removing the contents of the mailbox, Serah soon lost the sense of displeasure at the unopened letters from Heather, and instead found herself greatly curious about the contents of the parcel.
It was as Serah straightened up and scrutinized it's appearances that she realised that it hadn't come through the post - if anything it was from somewhere within Death City, though there was no sender information, nor was there any markings or stamps that were a tell-tale sign that the parcel had come through the postal service. It was a box about the height and width of one of her hard-cover notebooks, and about ten centimeters thick, wrapped in a neat layer of brown postage paper and tied in place with postage twine. The only markings that adorned the parcel itself was her own name in a peculiar font that she couldn't pick, yet it was hand written, and nothing more.
Either the sender had someone deliver it personally, or the sender had delivered it themselves.
Serah's lip jutted out into a pout ever so slightly at the confusion that was beginning to take place in her mind, however she decided to push it aside for the time being until she got to the academy; She tucked the two letters from Heather into the back of one of her notebooks with little care or consideration, and tucked the parcel carefully into her shoulder-bag along with her books and writing implements. It really didn't matter if there wasn't a sender on the outside of the old-fashioned parcel wrap - She'd soon find out who sent it to her when she saw the contents. And she knew for a fact that it was not sent to her by Heather of all people - The woman would have it sent in the most flamboyant, 'look at me' wrapping she could have found, no matter what the price.
That was just the kind of person the woman was.
Picking up a small bottle of juice, a salmon, lettuce and cheese roll, and a box of sour-jellies for later from her regular deli on the way, Serah snacked on her more spontaneous and less strict breakfast on her way to the Academy, her headphones in place blaring 'Everything You Want' by Vertical Horizon as her feet moved in time with the relaxed beat.
It was part-way through a scroll through her mp3-player that had Serah realise that she may as well get some more music – everything on her player had a play-count between 200 through to 3,000, and it had her note that she listens to her music quite a lot. And it was some kind of modest way of celebrating her good mood.
She didn't fail to notice that she felt her good mood was something to celebrate, but even that didn't frustrate or bother her.
Even the fact that she'd forgotten her glasses today didn't even bother her – She shrugged it off, along with the fact that her eyes were now noticeable to her desk-neighbour and she was going to have to sweet-talk Maka into letting her copy some notes later. And she may as well test the waters – Death The Kid had mentioned that he was going to do his best to refrain from letting his obsession get out of hand again.
Soon enough, even though Serah usually refrained from it, she was humming as she walked, her tint-free vision picking up on a lot around her. The sun was quite strong for 6.30 in the morning, and the sandstone-coloured buildings around her seemed to just make it even stronger still. The plants that were throughout Death City – Trees and flowerbeds alike – were beginning to droop a little from what she could only guess to be a lack of watering. And there were clouds beginning to roll in from the west, heavy based clouds that looked like they contained a lot of rain from the dark, almost blue hue to them over the white balls of fluff that she usually saw in Death City.
The encroaching storm-clouds reminded her of Chicago, oddly enough, or rather of her father's house just city block away from the beach – The clouds were almost the same, heavy from a quick accumulation of evaporated ocean-water, enough so that the colour of the water showed, even in the sky.
After so many years of living on the coast and swimming every day when she was in Chicago, Serah could tell with little thought that there was going to be a fair bit of rain, and by the strange charge that seemed to hang in the air, she was beginning to expect thunder to come with it. She missed the Rain and the Ocean, so the prospect of a thunderstorm just made her feel even happier than when she'd woken up.
Maybe if it was raining after classes, Serah would go for a walk in the rain? She hadn't done that in what felt like years.
There was a faint click as her Mp3 player changed track, and after a few seconds of silence, 'Heat In Beat' arranged by Kouichi Korenaga started to echo through her headphones instead. She found herself quite enjoying the rather rhythm-heavy beat, and realised that she was in the mood for more music like this today than her regular range of vocal tracks.
'Good morning, Serah.' Echoed a voice she faintly recognised all of a sudden, snapping Serah out of her train of thought with little effort; She came to a halt and turned her head to locate where the voice had come from, her free hand pulling her headphones from her ears.
Approaching from one of the streets to her right was Tsubaki of all people, her arms linked behind her back as she walked. She was wearing a small smile, and once again she was without her Meister. Which was in Serah's favor, as she still hadn't figured out how to deal with the Egotistical Brat.
'Hiya Tsubaki - Good Morning!' Serah piped up with a grin.
It appeared that Tsubaki was a little surprised by the energy in Serah today, as she seemed to giggle a little after a moment.
'You must be feeling better, today.' Tsubaki remarked as she came to a stop in front of Serah, causing the peach-haired girl to blink in surprise. 'I don't think I've seen you look so happy, before.'
'It's going to rain.' Serah responded with a smile after a couple of seconds to recover her thoughts; She really wasn't expecting that remark after all, but it didn't really bother her. It was probably true, after all.
'You like rain, huh?' Tsubaki asked, earning a nod from Serah as they both began to continue walking towards the Academy. 'That's kind of surprising.'
'Maybe.' Serah remarked, pausing to take another bite of her breakfast. 'I just miss it.'
'Thats true – It doesn't really rain out here. And when it does, it's almost torrential downpour.' Tsubaki agreed, earning another smile from Serah.
Well, it looked like she'll be able to walk around in the rain after all.
'Where's your Partner, out of curiosity?' Serah couldn't help but ask after a few seconds, earning a rather surprised look from Tsubaki with little effort. She was legitimately curious; Maka was usually with Soul, and so were the other Meisters to their Weapons, and vice versa. But of late Serah hadn't of seen any sign of the irritant in what she believed was a few days.
Of course she never made a point of looking for him, either.
'I'm not sure – Sometimes he just takes off on his own for a day or two.' Tsubaki remarks, though there was an edge to her words that hinted at disappointment – Serah guessed Tsubaki wasn't entirely pleased with Black*Star at that moment.
'Sounds like you've got your hands full when it comes to your Meister.' Seah couldn't help but comment, and she earned a sheepish smile in response.
'It's not all bad – Black*Star's a good guy, he just …'
'Has some bad habits?' Serah offered for the raven-haired weapon.
Tsubaki sighed in response, her shoulders drooping just a little.
'I guess.' She spoke, a little glum, it seemed.
Serah finished off her breakfast before she spoke up again. By this point they were already at the top of the stairs of the Academy.
'He's lucky to have you.' Serah remarked as she scrunched up the wrapper in her hands, glancing at Tsubaki from the corner of her eye. 'You're some kind of miracle saint, or something.'
Tsubaki didn't quite say anything, but her shoulders lifted again, and she was wearing a soft smile.
Serah let out a relieved breath as she tossed the wrapper into her bag for the time being, her now free hands linking to stretch above her head as she looked around once again.
There were various students of the Academy all around – Serah recognised some from class, and vaguely registered that she had glimpsed some of the others before. Oddly enough it was kind of busy, and while Serah was perplexed by it, she didn't place too much thought to it. She'd only just been taking note of the world around her since beginning her tragic attempt at shedding her book-gazing autopilot mode. Who knows, maybe the Academy is often like this on a Wednesday?
Serah glanced upwards at the sky in thought, noticing from the sky that it was a little later than she had intended to get to the academy.
'I wonder if Maka and Soul are here, yet.' Serah wondered out-loud as she walked, looking around as she followed Tsubaki inside to head to their classroom.
'I don't think they left on any jobs, so they're probably in the classroom.' Tsubaki offered as a suggestion, causing a smile to touch Serah's face as she looked up at the raven-haired weapon.
She was still wondering how the hell she had never really spoken to this kind-hearted weapon until yesterday morning – Her subconscious habit of shying away from strangers really was problematic.
A mutual silence had descended over Tsubaki and Serah, however it wasn't uncomfortable; Serah was looking around at the decorative features of the corridor once again, and Tsubaki appeared to have drifted off into thought. Various other students were traversing the same route to their particular classrooms, and much like outside, Serah recognised some of them from their own class. The bald-headed boy with two tufts of brown hair on either side of his head, a girl Serah vaguely knew to be called Jackie, and a couple others, too.
She couldn't see any sigh of Death The Kid, Liz or Patty, even though she was actually keeping an eye out for them. The desire to apologise for her temper tantrum yesterday was still there where she couldn't exactly ignore it, and it was better to get it over and done with sooner rather than later, wasn't it?
There was an odd sight as the two girls reached visible range of their classroom; Serah found herself becoming rather confused, yet pleased to see Soul standing against the wall just next to the door as he seemed to search the traversing students and teachers alike for something – Or rather, someone.
If Soul was here, than Maka was either here already, or he was waiting for her. It pleased Serah greatly to notice this. She wanted to tell Maka all about how her first meeting with her Part-Time Weapon had gone, after all.
'Good Morning, Soul.' Tsubaki called out, catching Soul's attention with little effort. Serah of course smilled and waved as Soul looked in their general direction. However he did not return the gesture.
Instead, Souls eyes zeroed in on Serah, his brow furrowing slightly as he pulled away from the wall and began to approach.
This … was not looking good.
'I-is there something wrong?' Serah couldn't help but ask, a sense of nervousness beginning to overcome her as Soul came to a stop in front of her.
Serah realised that the look he was wearing was a mix of confusion and frustration.
'I'm not sure.' Soul remarked, his brow furrowing just a little more.
Her stomach churned uncomfortably, and something in her was telling her to turn around and leave.
'Then …?' Serah hedged, not sure what was going on. Tsubaki was standing off to the side, watching with a blank look across her face.
'Something's come up, apparently.' Soul remarked, his frustration beginning to give way for the confusion to take a stronger presence over his face. 'Maka's old man came running telling us not to let you inside the classroom – He said it was a message from Lord Death, apparently.'
'S-so … What am I supposed to be doing, then?'
'I dunno, but he made it sound important.' Soul responded, glancing at the classroom door just a few feet away. 'I think it's got something to do with that lady talking with Stein, though.'
Serah's brain zeroed in on the word 'Lady', her sense of foreboding exploding to a screaming chorus of run away, and yet somewhere in the back of her head she found herself disbelieving her stomach altogether. There were millions of ladies in the world, and a few of them of course existed within Death City.
'What Lady?' Serah couldn't help but ask, biting down on the inside of her lip as Soul cast another glance at the classroom door.
'Italian I think. Brunette.' Soul responded, turning his heead to look back at Serah. 'Walked in acting like she owned the place.'
'Did she give a name or anyth-' Serah began, however a sudden exclamation shot through her ears much like she'd just been struck, cutting her off immediately and snatching her attention straight from Soul.
'Serah-Weisse?' The voice questioned, a faint Italian accent echoing in the distinctly familiar voice.
The voice had come from the door of the classroom, belonging to that of a rather neatly dressed woman in a summer dress in navy blue, a white bolero and white sandles. Her long brunette hair hung over her shoulders in neat locks of curls, and her dark eyes were wide with recognition. A great grin spread across her face as she came trotting right over with little care for the students she practically shoved aside just to approach Serah.
Serah's whole body turned rigid and her body instinctively recoiled away from the woman. The churning in her stomach and foreboding sensations had evaporated, and all she was left with was a panic-stricken sense of flight or fight. She didn't need to see the woman's face to know who it was – Just that frustrating addition to her name was enough to tell her who exactly it was.
All that was echoing inside her head was frantic, desperate whimpers of 'Oh no!'.
She was staring at Heather Fythe.
'I knew you were here! Oh Serah-Weisse! I missed you so much!' Heather practically squealed, her arms extended to drag Serah into an embrace.
However she didn't get a chance – Serah's panic settled on flight, and before Heather had even gotten close enough to hug her, Serah's legs threw her into a panic-stricken sprint back down the corridor.
Serah's breath was shallow even before she had started running, the lack of oxygen making her light headed, and the panic that was fueling her escape wasn't helping, either. Her eyes were screwed shut as she ran, her bag knocking painfully against her legs with every step.
And then something occurred, so suddenly that there was no way she could have expected it.
A door suddenly opened right in front of her, and smacked her in the head so hard that her consciousness flickered on her. The deafening 'Thwock' combined with a crash of wood against body and messenger bag resounded throughout both the mostly empty corridor and Serah's ringing ears. A distinct exclamation from a somewhat familiar voice echoed in response to the impact, though she missed all spoken words.
Then with the rebounding motion from the crash, Serah's stunned body hit the floor with enough force to knock her consciousness entirely out of her grip, her messenger bag flying free from her shoulder and scattering belongings across the floor.
Serah's appalling luck had returned to bite her, once again.