And now…MORE FILLERS!

/= [DAY 72] =/

There was something weird going on today. First of all, Elizabeta and Erika were talking about something when she entered the chorus room. Secondly, they were the only ones in the room. As Charice walked in, the two of them squeaked in surprise but quickly relaxed once they saw here.

"We thought you were someone else!" Elizabeta sighed.

"Like what?" She blinked. "A guy?"

"Someone suspicious!" Elizabeta answered. "You see, me and Erika are doing a submitted article about the seven wonders of this school!"

"We have WONDERS?"

"Of course we do. All academies have them, and we have seven we need to look into!" She pointed at her notepad. "If you want, Charice, you can join us!"

"SWEEEEET!"

/=+=/

"So what's the first one?"

"It's in the sculptures room." The Hungarian answered. "According to rumors, the sculptures talk to each other and even move!"

"Wow." Erika gasped. "I want to see moving sculptures."

"…we have a sculpting class…?"

While Charice mauled that around in her head for a few minutes, they finally found the art classroom. They entered the room before looking around at the sculptures that were there. She had to admit: whoever made them was very skilled at their ability to make rocks look human.

"…I don't hear anything."

"We've just got in here." Elizabeta stated.

"Yeah…ten minutes ago."

They stared at everything for a few minutes before realizing that nothing was happening and…

"Someone's here!"

The three of the quickly jumped into hiding (must be ninja like that) before looking up and realizing that it was only one of the students Charice never saw before. He had long, semi-curly hair with dazed eyes and olive skin, and…was that a cat on his shoulder? She didn't really know.

"…the heck is this guy?" She blinked.

"…is someone there…?" He stated, barely registering in her eardrums (even worse so than Matthew, my goodness). The cat meowed quietly. "I guess not…well then…let's pick it up from yesterday…"

Before their very eyes, they saw this man walk to one of the statues and started to move them around. Charice quickly confirmed this rumor and continued to watch as he turned his head to one of the statues, pulled up a chair, sat down, and then proceeded to just stare at it.

"What do you think, Apollon?"

She heard nothing, but he nodded.

"I see…a very interesting thought…" He turned his head. "What about you, Thinker? Still thinking? OK…"

The three of them left, unable to figure out what else to say.

/=+=/

"So that's one rumor down…" Charice stated. "What's the next one?"

"Well…this one has to deal with the rumors of a ghost…" Elizabeta stated. "Sometimes you can hear someone's voice, other times you can feel a chill down your spine…"

"A-ah!" Erika shivered. "I just felt a chill!"

Charice felt that chill too, but it was a chill that she was oddly used to. The two girls were looking around trying to figure out what that chill came from as Charice rubbed her chin and tried to hear the oncoming footsteps. She whirled her head around as the chill came back to the three of them.

"Hey, Ivan!"

"Ne~~~good afternoon, Charice." He waved back. "What are the three of you doing around here?"

"We're looking up the seven wonders of this academy!" Charice answered. "And I guess we just solved one of them!"

"Ne~~~that sounds like fun, da?"

"I know! I didn't even know that we even had wonders in this school other than the fact that it was built by Germans!"

"Charice, it was built by Americans."

…

…

"It was built by GERMAN AMERICANS."

"But that doesn't explain the voice part of the rumors…" Erika stated. "I've heard the voice a couple of times, and it didn't sound like Ivan-"

"E-excuse me…"

"AH!" She jumped. "That was the voice!"

"Oh, hah!" Charice laughed. "Hey there, Matthew~!"

"Um…h-hi there, Charice…"

"Aren't you just the most adorable thing here?"

"C-Charice…y-you're breaking my ribcage…"

/=+=/

"That's the second one. Number three?"

"Well, it started recently, but it had something to do with flying fish outside around this time." Elizabeta stated. "It's always a different fish, every day. Brightly colored, extremely beautiful…"

"I want to see one…" Erika seemed interested.

Charice nodded as she looked around the meadows for any signs of flying fish. Before she knew it, she caught the glimpse of one flying just a few feet away. It was bright blue with purple scales, flying in circles in the air like it was swimming in water. The three of them stood dumbfounded at that fish before realizing they had to investigate it.

"What should we do?" Erika asked.

"Take a lot of pictures for that one!" Elizabeta pulled out her camera. "Maybe we'll see something."

Charice had other ideas. She headed deeper into the forest on the chance that she could be underneath the fish and get better pictures from there. She was expecting anything from weird aliens to even a fish colony. What she wasn't expecting was seeing Li Xiao holding up a string almost as if he was holding up a kite. Or a…

"Oh. OK, that makes sense."

"Charice?" He looked up. "What brings you here?"

"I just looked up at the sky and saw nothing but a huge fish. Imagine what I was thinking."

"Ah." Li Xiao laughed. "Well, as you can see, you will be very disappointed."

"Well, the flying fish is actually nothing but a Chinese kite. The world makes sense again, doesn't it?" Charice laughed. "Either that or someone divided by zero again!"

"…?"

"Ahahaha…Alfred joke, don't mind me."

"Ah…well, I guess I can call it a day…" He looked up. "You came alone, right?"

"Hypothetically, no. Two other people are looking at this kite from the school as we speak. I came here alone."

"Ah…well then…"

He slowly looped it in a circle before making it land just a few feet away from them. As it was hidden in the trees, Charice saw Li Xiao quickly roll up the kite strings until it was hidden safely under his arms.

"Better keep this one a legend, huh aru?"

"Yep." She zipped her lips. "Run, now!"

He made his move, dashing into the trees like some Chinese ninja. Before long, Elizabeta and Erika came running through, asking if she had seen the fish land. All Charice did was shrug and say that it faded into the distance somewhere. They looked at each other and declared it a true legend. Charice laughed.

/=+=/

Compared to those three, the next three were a bit of a bummer. One of them involved the strange spawning of cakes and pastries from the kitchen every so often in the afternoon. Upon closer inspection, it was nothing more than Ludwig baking some cakes for the upcoming Thanksgiving event and then some. He bribed them to keep it a secret, and Charice walked out with two cakes.

The fifth wonder had something to do with ground shakes every now and then in the Northern Wing. Charice didn't even have to think twice before concluding that it had something to do with Arthur. And she'd be right. It turned out that he was able to move his Dark Artes circle and workshop into the school, turning it into a downright club. Odd enough that he had members, too. Only one of them was introduced (Ion, from Romania) before they were able to partake in a summoning that again only got Ivan's head. The girls left disappointed.

The sixth wonder, unfortunately, included the strange overabundance of tomatoes every now and then. Dare I say more?

All Charice could hope for was that the seventh wonder was something worth her while. She looked up to Elizabeta.

"What's this one?" She asked.

"Well, this one is the strangest one yet. We waited until this time to look at it because it's the only time it comes out." She answered.

"…what comes out?"

"…" She turned to them. "The Weeping Angel."

"W-what?" Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit "W-Weeping Angel?"

"Yeah…it comes around the night and supposedly walks around the school." Elizabeta stated. "You can hear it crying sometimes, and when you actually see it, it's bleeding and calling for someone to help them."

Wait a minute. "Weeping Angels don't actually bleed and cry…"

"They don't?" Erika asked.

"No! They're solid stone and they look like angel statues and when you see them you can't turn away because if you turn away or blink they turn to life and either fucking snap your neck or SEND YOU TO THE NEXT FREAKING DIMENSION AND MANIPULATE EVERYONE YOU KNOW!"

"…you're scared of this Weeping Angel, aren't you?"

"FUCK YES!"

"Well, this Weeping Angel actually cries and moves even when you look at it. And it bleeds."

This is one messed up Weeping Angel.

Nonetheless, Charice was forced to hunt for a crying statue that might kill them all. What joy. As the three of them slowly walked through the hallways, she couldn't help but wonder something: an angel? Would that mean that they were talking about Arthur? She was getting extremely confused.

It was then that she heard someone sobbing from behind the kendo club doors. Elizabeta was hesitant, but she threw open the door and she and Erika looked in. Instantly, the smell of blood filled Charice's nostrils, the two other girls screamed and the three of them started running.

Until the angel hiccupped.

Charice paused. She knew that type of crying before.

She heard it millions of times.

Her knees started to knock together as she slowly approached the door, the blood really starting to get to her. She took a deep breath, willing herself to grab the nearest weapon on the off chance that this was the murderer, and threw herself in front of the door. Instantly, she saw a figure sobbing on his knees, a pool of blood flowing freely from open wounds on his wrists, palms and forehead. The angel looked up, familiar gold eyes shining at her.

"Oh my god, Feli-chan!" She ran to him. "Are you OK? What's going on?"

Feliciano continued sobbing, more blood flowing from his wounds the more tears leaked from his eyes. Her head tried to figure out what to say to him to calm him down, but only two things came to her mind.

One: The emotions that he had been holding back for hundreds of years, while it should be slowly leaking out, are now gushing out like a flood and Feliciano can't handle it.

Two: He had stigmata.

"Feliciano?" She leaned closer to him. "Can you hear me? Feli?"

"…it hurts…it hurts…" He sobbed, the blood getting worse. "I know Heilrich is back…I know that he's Germany…so why does it still hurt when I think of him…?"

"You're just letting go right now, Feliciano. All that emotion you held up is coming out now…"

"I don't want to let it go…my head is getting dizzy…"

It was then that she realized that Feliciano was losing blood fast. She had no idea what to do at this point until she heard a slam behind her. She almost screamed, turning her head and seeing a rather shocked Ludwig staring at what was going on. Charice quickly jumped out of the way as Ludwig went to Feliciano and held his shoulders.

"Feli…Feli, look at me."

"…ah…" He looked up weakly. "…L-Lud…?"

"This is enough. Your body can't handle this pain. Look at me, look at me…it's over. It's all right. I'm here."

Feliciano's body shivered as Ludwig leaned in and kissed him, feeling the last of the shiver before he collapsed into his arms. Charice was about to yelp when Ludwig started to wipe the blood away from his skin. Surprisingly, the stigmata were gone from his body.

"…what…?"

"He obtained these stigmata around the time that I left. He was emotional and sometimes cried about me when I was at war…and usually he would stain entire bedsheets at a time." He explained. "Once Roderich found out, he taught Feliciano to at least hide his emotions to at least control the stigmata."

"The wounds are…?"

"The wounds are connected to his emotions. The more emotions he let go, the more the stigmata bleeds." Ludwig lifted up Feliciano's body and looks around the kendo room. "Being a nation, he doesn't have to risk bleeding to death…but it hurts him twice as much when it happens."

"Poor Feli-chan…"

"It's been accelerating ever since I regained my memories, probably because he no longer has to hold anything back…but still, this worries me…"

"Have you talked to Feliciano about it?"

"I have. He's the only one that is open to me about this…and to think that this is despite the fact that I'm the cause of this…"

"If you caused it, at least you're helping Feli-chan."

"Yeah…" He turned around. "I have to take care of him now. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. See ya."

/=+=/

Don't ask, man. Please don't ask.