Alright! Second-to-last chapter of the first book! Let's get to it.
"Shizu!" someone whisper shouts. I mumble. "Shizu!" the person says again. I lazily sit up from my top bunk and I see nothing because it's dark. I can tell the sound is coming from the top bunk.
"Tomoko? Is that you?" I mumble rubbing my eyes. I look at the glow in the dark wall clock in our dorm and sigh. "It's 3:38 AM!"
"Shh!" Tomoko whispers. My bad.
"What's going on?" Emi whispers tiredly.
"Tomoko is having a conference for us." I say.
"Let's hear it then." Katsumi says yawning. I guess we're all up now. Tomoko sighs.
"I was going to say that my user bracelet is glowing, see?" She lifts up her hand and it was glowing.
"Wow, it's such a dull glow." I say.
"Anyways, my teacher told me that when the bracelet glows it means my egg will h-" she is interrupted because right beside the cubicles, her egg is glowing way brighter than her bracelet. We all get out of our beds and go in front of the egg.
"Oh my gosh!" Emi shouts.
"It's going to hatch." Katsumi says.
"Yeah, we kind of figured that out." I say sarcastically.
"We're going to be aunties!" Emi exclaims.
"Since when were we Tomoko's sisters?" I ask.
"Come on guys, we are like sisters." Emi says smiling. This whole time the egg is making more cracks. Tomoko is intently putting her hand on it. In a few seconds, a bright golden light shines blinding my eyes and then it's over. There was a really tiny gray puppy wagging its tail.
"Aww." Emi says.
"It's so cute!" I say.
"I think it's a wolf." Katsumi says.
"I'll name her Nana." Tomoko says.
"Why Nana?" I ask.
"Because today is November 7th." Tomoko replies. (A/N: Nana means seven.) She already had a bed ready for the animal so she put Nana in it.
"Well, off to bed again." Emi states.
"What happened to the egg shells?" I ask.
"Dispersed." Tomoko answers. We're all back in bed.
"Good night." I say.
"More like good morning." Katsumi says in response.
The bell rings and Tanaka puts her papers down.
"Okay, bring your wooden swords tomorrow. I'll be testing each of your guys on how well you hit and dodge tomorrow so practice!" Tanaka says. People start walking out to classroom for period 2.
"Well, bye Shizu!" Katsumi says. I wave at her and she leaves the room. I slowly walk up to Tanaka. I admire her and Ootsuki the most in this school.
"What is it Shizu?" Tanaka asks looking up at me. I wait a few seconds for everyone to get out of the room.
"I have a question about", I go closer to her ear, "the monthly mystics." Tanaka looks at me more seriously.
"We're not supposed to talk about it but I'll make an exception for you. What's your question?" Tanaka asks. I play with my thumbs.
"Why do you think they're doing it?" I ask. The truth is, I haven't told anyone about what I discovered yet because I can't answer the four questions I thought of yet.
"Well, it could be multiple reasons. They could just be rogue users trying to have fun, or taking revenge for whatever reason." Tanaka says. "Is that all?"
"Yeah, thanks Tanaka." I reply. I start to walk out of the room. Okay, one question down but it sounded like common sense.
"You better hurry to your next class, time doesn't stop on it's own." Tanaka says. I start freaking out and running. Wait a minute!
I stopped running and leaned against the wall to think. I tried remembering what I read on that element book. A huge spell needs the element to surround. That's it! A huge spell is stopping time!
Now I can tell someone. I'm thinking about telling Tomoko because she was closest to Ootsuki and she's the most secretive out of my dorm mates. All right, I'll tell her tonight and we'll make plans there.
Did Tanaka know? Is that why she told me? No, it can't be. Tanaka always says random stuff like that. The final bell rings. Dang it! I arrive at my general class in a few seconds.
"Late Shizu." Kanezawa says. Obviously. "Detention at the library after school." I give a mental sigh, there's no point arguing with this guy. I take the detention slip and go to my seat. Daiki and Genji give small snickers and I just barely manage to ignore them.
The last bell of the day rings and I sigh. It's time for detention. I stay seated on my table and tap my fingers. Tomoko said she had detention today for being late, what a stroke of luck! But then again, Tomoko has detention at least once a week. I see Tomoko come in and sit at my table.
"So I need to talk to you about something." I say.
"What is it?" Tomoko asks. Hano gives a big 'shhh'. I take out a piece of stratch paper and we pass notes the whole detention time. We had to use a whole page for notes.
Shizu: So this is pretty serious, it's about the monthly mystics. It's obvious you want revenge for Ootsuki.
Tomoko: Yeah, I never seen her so weak. Keep writing.
I wrote about how I encountered the green haired guy at Kumi City. I told her about the other green haired guy- probably his twin- that came to the academy to talk to the principal. I told her what I heard him say to the principal. And finally, I told her about my theory that they're using the academy candles to perform a time stopping spell.
Shizu: I was thinking of researching the time stopping spell today.
Tomoko: Come on; let's go ask the librarian.
Shizu: No, I don't want her to be suspicious. Plus, do you really think they'll have a book on a spell as dangerous as time stopping?
Tomoko: I got it! My brother is a sorcerer. He must have learned something about it.
Shizu: Okay, ask him when you have time. Don't pull him in this though.
Tomoko: Fine, but we still have a problem. How do we know what day they're going to attack?
Shizu: Leave that to me.
Tomoko: Are you sure?
Shizu: I always am. :3 Meet at the left balcony around 5.
Tomoko gives a smile. I have a certain principal's son that might be able to get me into the principal's room.
"Okay, detention is over. I hope you learned your lesson." Hano says. I look at the library clock, 3:30 already! I quickly go behind the shelves, put on my mask, and tap on the teleport card three times. I'm in front of Ken's room and I open the door.
"Hey Mask Maid, what took you so long?" Ken asks.
"Stupid detention." I answer. Ken grins.
"Are you a rebel?" He asks.
"Not really." I say.
"Whatever you say." Ken says.
"Coffee?" I ask. Ken starts playing with his yoyo.
"Sure, you can get whatever drink you want to." He replies.
"Sweet." I answer. I make coffee with 4 creams in it. I then get a mini water bottle out of his refrigerator. We start drinking our refreshments.
"So Mask Maid, my birthday is coming soon." Ken starts.
"Really? When?" I ask taking a drink of my water.
"November 18th." He says. I spit out my water and start laughing. He gives me a weird face.
"You're a half year younger than me!" I say still laughing. "No wonder you're so- uh never mind." I say as Ken gives a pout.
"You're birthday is May 18th?" Ken asks.
"Obviously." I say as I stop my laughter.
"Well, my birthday brings a weird memory." Ken says.
"What happened?" I ask more serious.
"I broke up with my girlfriend." Ken says grinning. I start laughing ever harder than before.
"You had a girlfriend when you were 12?" I shout trying to hold in my laughter. Ken blushes a bit. I take another gulp of water.
"It wasn't serious, and her name is Mana, from this school." Ken says. Now I start choking on my water. "Are you okay?" I cough for a while and then it's done.
"I'm sorry, I just think Mana is such a… nice name." I say but my voice comes out weird. How could Mana and Ken have connected? I guess they both have fake personalities….
"You're funny Mask Maid." Ken says and smiles. I like our kind of friendship; it's smooth and easy. A moment of silence comes.
"Uhh, Ken?" I ask.
"What is it?" He asks.
"Is your father organized?" I question.
"Yeah, it doesn't look like it, but he has to have a plan and schedule for everything. Why do you ask?" Ken says.
"Curiosity." I reply. He raises his eyebrow but doesn't question any further.
"You can go now Mask Maid, it's already 4:30." Ken says.
"Alright, see you tomorrow then." I say.
"You know it." He says grinning.
We continued talking about random stuff and I realized something. I don't want our relationship to change. Or maybe more like I'm afraid of our relationship changing. That's why I didn't ask Ken any farther questions about his dad. That's why I'm going to Tanaka instead.
I rushed over to Tanaka to make plans. I know I can trust her. I reach her place in about a minute.
"We need to talk." I say to Tanaka. She's sitting on her desk correcting papers.
"Is this about the monthly mystics?" Tanaka asks. I close the classroom door and nod my head.
"It's going to be on November 20th." Tanaka says.
"How did you know?" I ask; a bit surprised.
"I sneaked into the damn principal's room and found it on his schedule." Tanaka replies. "I'll probably be fired if he finds out." She doesn't seem worried about this at all.
"Nice. So want to help? My friend Tomoko's going to help too." I say. "They're stopping time with their spell using the academy candles."
"Very impressive Shizu. I'll help." Tanaka says and grins.
"Okay, I still need information on the time stop thing. Tomoko is asking her brother about it since he's a sorcerer. I'll come back to you tomorrow around this time okay?" I suggest. Tanaka nods and I head out to find Tomoko. I go to the left balcony and I find Junsei and Tomoko intensely looking at each other.
"Uhh, am I interrupting?" I ask. Tomoko looks at me.
"Junsei found out and he stubbornly wants to help." Tomoko says and them glares at him. He smiles.
"I'm not as dense as your bro Tomo. As soon as you asked him about time stopping I knew something was up." Junsei says grinning.
"Well, there's nothing we can do to stop him now I guess. Plus, I also have another member of the team." I say.
"Thank you Shizu. So who's the new member?" Junsei asks.
"My swordsman teacher, Tanaka. She also found out the day is November 20th." I reply.
"Wha?" Tomoko asks, sounding very surprised. Junsei starts laughing. "Shut up!" Tomoko shouts at him. I then hear yawning, and behind Tomoko's chair I see Nana, her wolf. I hear more yawning and this time it's behind Junsei's chair. It's a turtle.
"So cute!" I scream. I pet both of them.
"Wait until they turn into full forms while fighting." Tomoko says.
"Ehem. Enough of the animal companions. What did you find out about the time stop?" I ask.
"Well, it can't just be a triangle. There has to be more fire surrounding it." Tomoko says.
"So, lucky me found candle wax on the corners of the second floor." Junsei says.
"Of course! So what should we do?" I question.
"From my brother's lecture, I say we take out the balcony candles first. And then the time stopping barrier will weaken, so we can get the candles in the corners of the second floor next." Tomoko says.
"And I theorize that once we do get the balcony candles and got through the second floor, our movement will be super slow still. You see, only the second floor is frozen with the candles. If you go to the second floor while the candles are lit, you will be frozen in time and not know you were until the candles light out." Junsei says.
"Impressive, you really are smart." I say. He grins. Tomoko rolls her eyes.
"We have to climb to the balcony, from the outside." Tomoko says.
"You know it's going to snow, I mean it's already snowing now. Plus, we have to climb really high to reach the balcony." I say.
"The climbing can be solved with rope, the snow will be solved with water. That's my element, water. So I think I can manipulate the snow to melt outside our school." Junsei says. Tomoko nods in agreement.
"Let's talk more about this tomorrow. My brain is hurting." Tomoko says.
"I'm in agreement." I say as I get up from a balcony chair.
"Okay then. Bye Tomo, bye Shizu." Junsei says. We leave the balcony and walk back to our dorm room.
"Hey Tomoko." I say as we're walking down the stairs.
"What is it?" Tomoko asks.
"You didn't tell Junsei not to call you Tomo." I say slyly.
"Well, you know, I'm so busy thinking about you know." Tomoko says stuttering a bit.
"I see." I reply smirking.
"Don't smirk!" Tomoko yells chasing me.
"I'm not smirking at all~" I say running faster than her. We run all the way to our dorms, Tomoko shouting and myself laughing. In the dorm room, Emi and Katsumi are already there. But then again, it's 5:23 PM.
"Hey guys." I say smiling.
"Where have you guys been?" Katsumi asks.
"Uh, we were chilling at the balcony." Tomoko says.
"So you count planning to punish the monthly mystic guys as chilling?" Emi asks smiling. I do a face palm.
"How did you guys find out?" I ask.
"Well, we saw Tomoko and Junsei talking in the balcony, so we went to eavesdrop to see if they were talking about, you know, them." Emi says giving a smile.
"But we were disappointed to find out they were talking about serious stuff." Katsumi states, fixing her glasses.
"And we ran back to our dorms when Shizu was coming." Emi says.
"I feel disappointed I didn't notice your presences." Tomoko sulks.
"So let's cut to the chase. We want to help." Katsumi says.
"I guess we have no other choice." I say and sigh. "I'll have a lot to tell Tanaka tomorrow."
"Come on, give us the details!" Emi says enthusiastically.
"Let me get this straight. There are going to be 6 people, going around the school at night, and at the cost of dire consequences?" Tanaka asks.
"Yeah, it's not my fault though." I say.
"Well, the principal assigns two C rank guards to watch the school every night. So, before I meet up with you guys, I'll knock them out." Tanaka says. The glint in her eyes looks scary.
"So where do you think we should meet?" I ask.
"Probably at the foot of the stairs. Oh, and the only way to get in or out of the school without anyone noticing is through the garden door. Only teachers have the pass code, so I'll type it in." Tanaka explains.
"Alright, so we light out all the candles first and then beat up those two. How about the two chosen?" I ask.
"They'll be forced to fight. We have to let it happen." Tanaka says.
"Okay then. I really think we can pull this off." I say. Tanaka grins and I leave the room. I go to the balcony to meet up with the rest of the 'team'. Everything will go as planned.
Ah~ I love winter break.