Chapter 3

"….so, if we reverse the tangent line of this hypotenuse, we can reverse the equation to prove our theory…." the teacher droned on the second day of school, with Ayumu staring blankly at the interactive projection, lost in confusion. Judging the looks on each of her peers but two, they were in the same state. "…and so, we prove that using reverse quotas, the Tri-Cosine is real, any questions?" the teacher smiled at the class.

Everybody raised their hands, except for two. One of them was the smartest of the group, Linda Spielberg and the other was Armarmia.

"Yes, Miss Soul, you can ask a question." The teacher picked her at random.

"Can you explain the first 5 seconds of the lecture? Afterwards, the next 5 seconds, and then the rest, please?" Maka asked.

"I can't see how that can confuse you, it's really simple…" then looked at the many faces of shocked expressions.

"I see…none of you have opened your textbooks yesterday, have you? I suppose I'll start again…" the teacher sighed, and began to rub out the board, before Armarmia interrupted.

"Miss, isn't x over the square root of cosine, =1.698, not 1.689?" Armarmia interrupted, before shutting her mouth in surprise.

"I'm sure Miss Gedons, and…wait, you are right, it does equal 1.698. Glad you spotted that." And the teacher repeated the lecture again, much to everybody's disappointment.

"Did you understand the question at all? It looked like chaos theory just blitzed out our board." Ayumu's friend asked her.

"Not one bit, not even the first letter, it looked like ancient Pharaohs took over the board that time." She replied, giggling. It was break, and the group was sitting under the design block, the cool sun providing ample light and warmth. Suddenly, a shadow fell on them, blocking all light.

"May I sit here? It is awfully cold." Armarmia piped, speaking perfect English, with only a slight Duranei accent.

"Sure, Einstein, and in the meantime, stop showing off." One of the meaner friends of Ayumu snarled at her.

Ayumu slapped her friend that made that remark, and then apologised to Armarmia. "Sorry, she gets to be touchy to people who are smarter than her, but how did you know?"

"Maybe because she's a nerd." The sarcastic friend, Maka Soul, mumbled.

"Or maybe the nerd at least read the text book, rather than asking obvious questions," Armarmia snapped at Maka, and Maka fell silent. "The equation is simple really, you just need to remember the values of cosine and the square root to 3 decimal places," and Armarmia drew out an algorithm, and explained it to the dumbstruck group.

"Where did you learn this?" One of the more bedazzled friends asked, adding hastily, "My name is Ino, call me Ino-chan if you want."

"I learned it at my old school, at the…Duranei Academy for Gifted People." Armarmia hesitated, for she did not trust these people yet.

"Wow…so you really are a stuck up nerd with no life," Maka replied, determined not to be battled down by this new student.

Armarmia frowned, and then sighed. She did not plan on using sarcasm at all, but then again…

"Oh? If I'm such a nerd, then why don't I help you then…wait, I don't need to, because you are so clever yourself, aren't you?"

Maka just stared at Armarmia, and then she started eating, her head down in shame. Meyacha gasped at Armarmia comeback. Of course, Maka was terribly mean, but she deserved nothing to be called stupid. She knew how much she had studied each night, just to stay in class, and how her older brothers and sisters taunted her for being the bad egg in the family.

"Hey Armarmia, I think you should say sorry, that was a little mean," one of the most clear minded person spoke.

"Hmf. It's not my fault that she is stu…" and Armarmia was cut off when Meyacha grabbed her by the neck and dragged her behind a tree.

"What do you think you're doing, coming on in like that, and threatening her? I know she can be annoying but do you realize what she's been through?" Ayumuu hissed, with rage tinting her voice.

"No…not really, but she has no right to call me a nerd after what I've been through."

"Oh really? What have you been thro…" Suddenly the bell rang, cutting her off.

"You have no idea, Ayumuu," and Armarmia left for the literature block, leaving the other to stay completely still.

"What did she mean by that?" Ayumuu stared, and then her eyes blinked rapidly, since she did too much staring.

Later that day, Ayumuu collapsed on her bed; her head was swimming with ache and sores; her neck stiff from looking at the blackboard all day long. Holding her neck, she piled her homework on her desk.

The desk broke.

"Eh? ONII-SAN!!! THE DESK BROKE!" she screamed, and realised that her bag was very special, since it contained all of her homework without breaking, but an oak table broke immediately.

"The table did not break; it's just you and your periods….THE TABLE BROKE!" Shorou exclaimed, as he walked into the room.

"Of course it did, now, what are we going to do about that?" Ayumuu pouted, with her hands on her hips.

"First of all, how did you survive?" Shorou pointed to the near-perfect condition of her bag, and her face, which was not showing signs of physical exercise. In fact, it seemed as though she took a walk in the park, rather carrying a 3 and a half ton bag over a mile.

"…Good point…Wait, I think I know…" she replied slowly, and then took out everything in her bag.

She took out: a ruler that reached either 10 centimetres or 2 metres if she adjusted the settings properly; a rock that intrigued her; the note that was passed around the class saying that the teacher had a baboon's backside; the note that got passed back that said the teacher was a baboon's backside and the note that replied to everything else; the teacher is looking at us now.

"Nope, nothing's here I'm afraid, just a few pieces of stuff." Ayumuu replied, to no-one in particular since her brother went back to the kitchen and finished cooking.

"Make sure the bag gets checked by Spielly tomorrow, 'kay?" her brother cried out, "and dinner's ready!"

"Sho-onii, why did you break Onee's table?" Shinta asked when he was sitting down on his chair.

"Apparently, her homework was too heavy," Shorou replied hastily, not wanting the already tepid meal to get colder.

Shinta gasped, "You get that much homework? I don't want to go to school anymore," his eyes were crestfallen with the thought of homework that breaks tables.

"Don't worry about it, I just brought in all my work, it won't be like that…" Ayumuu smiled before she whispered under her breath, "…it'll be 10 times heavier."

When the three children sat at the table, eating their tepid meal, another girl was sitting in a barn, looking out of the window and wondering what has become of her, if the message she wants to receive really is coming to get her, without knowing where her family, her legacy or even those who were considered her friends, are.

Breathing a sigh, she climbed out of the neo-hay stack, and removed her clothing before replacing it with new ones, and washed her body using her pores, before looking at her glistening blue skin and watching it turn ghastly white.

"Meus familia, que tu? Jus oblige meus potentia…"she whispered, her words shaping the air, and turning it into a swan, flying high above towards the sky, until it disappeared in the moonlit shadows; the last of the white dust settled on a person's feet.

"Armarmia…your life is to be gone soon," and a flash of Darkcraft glimmered in the air, destroying all the shards of the swan.