All the Clueless People

The day after, the mistress called in Shindou, Kirino, Kariya and Amemiya.

"Good morning," the mistress greeted them.

"It's four in the morning, mistress. Let's be honest, we're all tired," Kariya yawned.

"Sorry, then, but I need you to take the girls here after school. Bring those four troublemakers, too."

"Mistress, if you needed the girls only, why bother with the four delinquents?" Shindou asked.

The mistress chuckled, "Hakuryuu convinced me."

"Hakuryuu did...? So those girls must be important..." Kirino muttered.

"We'll bring you everyone you need, ma'am!" Amemiya saluted.

Kariya coughed not-so-secretly. He was probably hiding his laughter, because (let's be honest) Amemiya did look pretty dorky... saying those things to a woman he barely knows.

The mistress gave a secretive smile, as if she knew everything and was amused by how little the people around her knew.

"Dismissed."

All of the boys walked out. Immediately, Natsumi's silhouette appeared from the mistress' back.

"So you proceeded with your plan, huh?" Natsumi asked.

"Yes, but I'm still not sure about the possible outcomes..." the mistress sighed.

"I can't calculate it, too."

"Both of us are being kept in the dark by fate, Natsumi. Usually, you know a lot about outcomes."

Natsumi only pursed her lips in reply.

Raimon High was bustling with people.

And Miya couldn't be any more happier with it. Why? Well, after spending quite the quiet time inside that darned house the day before yesterday, it was pretty refreshing to settle in to her daily environment again.

"Ah! Miya-chan! Have you reviewed for the Math test?" Aoi greeted her that morning.

Miya froze. No! She did not!

"A-ah! Aoi! I completely forgot about it!" Miya freaked out.

Aoi widened her eyes and asked, "Really? That's very careless of you... you're always prepared for tests."

"I know!" Miya groaned.

"Hey, guys!" Tenma greeted the two girls with Shinsuke was trailing behind him and Shindou walking behind.

"Tenma, Shinsuke! Captain, too! Good morning!" Aoi greeted.

"Good morning..." Miya trailed off, thinking about the topics her math class had.

Tenma looked at Miya, confused and asked, "Is Miya-chan alright?"

Aoi shook her head as she replied, "She forgot to study for the Math test."

"Eh? Miya-chan forgot to study?" Shinsuke shrieked.

Shindou stared at the said girl, thinking that she must have stayed up all night because of that house. Shindou also had an experience like that, he was very nervous and about to pee his pants. Thankfully, the mistress was kind back then and did not try to kill him (unlike the day before yesterday).

"Aoi, it's time for the manager assessment," Shindou remembered why in the first place he was with Tenma.

"Oh, yeah! Miya-chan! Good luck!" Aoi left a message before running away. Tenma and Shinsuke also said their goodbyes, and then followed Aoi (constantly trying to scream 'calm down, Aoi! You might fall!').

And Shindou walked away, without saying a word.

Eri, meanwhile, was busy inside the library, trying to search for anything related to that house (and also possibly trying to fix, well, mess her dark red hair as well). Unfortunately, no leads were found in the series of books she had read.

I mean, the house was clearly suspicious. She wanted to check more about it.

Yawning, she took a step back and crashed on the couch behind her. Thinking maybe that the history of that house maybe in the archives, she decided to ask the librarian. Thankfully, it was only the assistant librarian, everyone in the school knew that the librarian was a heavily stressed old lady (who practically yells at everyone if one of the books aren't in place).

The assistant librarian was much nicer (in short, she couldn't care less of anything). When Eri asked, "Where can you find the archives?"

She replied, "At the back. It's the really dusty bookshelf."

Eri grunted in reply. Therefore, the assistant librarian also grunted.

Chuckling, Eri walked to where the 'dusty' bookshelf was. She whistled silently in amazement as she looked at the tall bookshelf with over a hundred old books (Kari suspected that they were already stained and there were few torn pages).

"The big old bookshelf." Eri whispered to herself.

She found a thick red book at a corner. There, on the side of the book, bold golden letters were written: HOUSES IN INAZUMA TOWN. Eri, was glad that she immediately found it, however, it was too high for her to reach the book.

Eri wasn't that much of afraid of anything, regardless, she was a clever girl and knew that she couldn't reach the book.

Eri sighed at the little her options were. There were no ladders in the library, and her other option was to get a chair from the nearest table (even then, she still was too short to reach it, she might have to step on the edges of the bookshelf, which was a rather dangerous thing to do, she wasn't a daredevil).

She jumped, but she could never reach it. But, she reached it one time, yet it did nothing to move the book. Regardless, Eri jumped over and over again, just to try and reach the book.

On one of her exasperated (or, rather, desperate) jumps, she lost her footing and crashed down on the floor.

"Fuck," Eri hissed through her teeth.

Soon after, she heard footsteps and she knew that those were for her. Some students must have been terribly annoyed with the ruckus Eri has been doing... but why only now?

"Are you all right?" a deep voice asked her.

Eri looked up and her vision was clouded with a boy. Eri widened her eyes as she saw her familiar senior (she wasn't sure shy), stretching out his hand to help her up. Eri, as a cold beauty should be, kept quiet, rather embarrassed to be caught in a situation like this.

"What do you need?" Eri snapped.

"Come here," the boy lifted her up easily from the floor and let her sit in one of the chairs (easily ignoring her question). He asked after, "What book were you looking for?"

Eri bit her lip and sighed in defeat. That was her only option if she wanted to get the book...

"That red book about houses," Eri replied stiffly.

"Okay."

Eri raised her eyebrows, wondering why the hell the boy was not curious about her choice of books. He must have thought it was an assignment, but still. That was a stupid assignment, didn't he think of that? Well, as long as he did not question Eri's state of mind, she was grateful (not that se'ff ever show it).

After the boy successfully got the book with the help of a chair, he immediately gave it to Eri and checked her foot.

"What the fuck are you-?!" Eri hissed, but stopped as soon as she felt a sharp pain from her foot. The boy was already examining it thoroughly (how was that possible? Was he a doctor?), and it hurt like hell.

"I think you have a fractured bone..." the boy whispered silently.

Eri's blood in her face drained. She screeched, "What?!"

The boy was surprised, regardless, he shushed her down as they were inside a library. He said, "You should be more careful next time. Why did you not want to step on the chair?"

"Are you crazy? You want me to risk my life for a book?"

The boy smiled at her smart retort and asked, "Do you want me to help you?"

"Fine." Eri hissed.

And the boy swung Eri's arm on his shoulder and he helped said person walk to the clinic. The walk to the clinic was silent and very awkward, for Eri at least, since she was pressed up against a stranger she may or may not know.

When the two reached the clinic, Eri was tasked to lie down the clinic bed. Everything became a blur after that, possibly as Eri was used to not interacting with others.

Regardless, she did not forget to ask the name of her volunteer (or maybe forced) helper.

"Shindou Takuto, Erika. I'm surprised you did not know that."

And the thick red book was on her lap.

Kurama sighed as he looked outside the window, finding Nishiki and Kurumada outside, as they were in their P.E. class. Needless to say, Kurama was very jealous of the two. The subject the teacher was currently teaching was boring.

"Kurama Norihito! Listen to the lectures I'm giving you!" the teacher yelled and flicked a chalk to the said person's forehead.

"OW!"

"That's right! You better answer this question!"

He wondered how Tsurugi was doing right now.

Well, turns out, he did well on the test they were just handed some time ago. Of course, Miya also scored high in this test, but she was still rather depressed about the Math test she had earlier.

Tsurugi sparked up a question, "Miyazaki, are you going to the house later on?"

Miya jumped, surprised Tsurugi even knew her name. She bit the end of her nail and confessed, "Not really. I need to study for the test tomorrow..."

"Oh."

Unfortunately, there was a person in the shadows who was listening to their little chat (yes, it's Amemiya, in case you didn't know) and was rather surprised at her confession.

Miya was not going to the house? That made Amemiya's heart deflate a little.

But, he still wanted to make sure Miya would be able to drop by the house later. Not just because the mistress needed them, but also because he kind of like her company. Maybe, just maybe, they'll go home together again?

He wondered how Kariya did it, how he managed to force people to do what he wants.

Especially when it comes to Ai.

"Why won't you go, Aiko?" Kariya asked.

Ai flinched at the tone of his voice, as if he was disappointed in her. Ai stammered, "N-no... I meant that... I want to..."

Kariya stared at the smaller girl whose blue bangs were already covering her eyes. Kariya swept the bangs and stared into her eyes that were a mix of blue, purple and gray. He said, "You have to stand up for yourself sometimes, okay? But, we really need you. If you don't want, I can always ask the mistress to-"

"No, I'd like to go." Ai cut him off, her cheeks tinted red.

"Okay."

In the end, the girls were in front of the house, again.

Sato sighed, "I can't believe we're doing this."

"We should do it. I have a feeling we're needed in there." Ru explained.

Eri snorted, "Yeah, it's your feeling, not ours."

Ru looked at her with wide brown eyes and asked, "Don't you feel it, Erika-san? It's like the house is calling for us."

Eri's own purple eyes stared at the outline of the house. She whispered, "Maybe..."

"So we're really going, huh?" Kairi hummed as she scratched her auburn hair.

"... yeah." Sato replied, looking determined to go inside the house. She smiled at the other girls and replied, "Ru's right, we are needed in there, even if we're not sure why."

Ru looked surprised as she heard Sato calling her by her little nickname. After, she smiled and looked rather grateful as Sato stood up for her, Sato's little speech made the other girls agree with them.

Miya nodded and whispered, "Even Amemiya forced me here. This must be important."

At her side, Ai smiled softly, guessing that Miya had someone important in her life named like that. Did Ai have anyone? She didn't know, but she's still grateful for the people who took her in inside Sun Garden.

"So, we're going in, right?" Miya asked.

The other girls nodded in sync.

"Let's go in, then."

Again, the inside of the house looked like it was destroyed by a typhoon or something.

Yet there was something in the atmosphere, as if the house felt excited to see the girls again. What's more interesting was that the girls rather felt connected to the house... whatever that meant.

Three familiar girls walked up to them, yet again.

"Oh, hello! How're you? Remember me? My name's Sana." Sana bowed, her short brown hair covering her face.

"Kei." Sato greeted rather formally.

Said person noticed Sato and greeted back (with much more enthusiasm), "Nice to see you again, Okazaki Aira-san!"

"Airi." Sato gritted through her teeth.

Kei chuckled at her own mistake, "Whoops, sorry!"

The last of the three girls merely nodded. Miya remembered her name (as the last girl toured the house with her). She asked, "Yuu-san am I right? May I please know your real name?"

Yuu's posture became stiff, but still replied, "Yuzuki Melanie."

"What a wonderful name."

No response.

Sana, as usual, explained to the girls why they were here, again. She instructed, "Today, the mistress wanted to ask of you to help us in a little experiment."

"Why can't you do it?" Eri scowled.

"...because we do not fit in the qualifications." Yuu replied as nonchalantly as possible.

"Oh." Ru voiced out what the others were thinking.

"Where are the other boys? The ones you came in with the last time you were in here." Kei asked them.

"We don't know..." Sato replied, looking at her schoolmates' for any clarifications. All of them shook their heads, indicating that they really don't know the reason why the said boys weren't here today.

Miya only kept quiet, Tsurugi had asked her if she was coming today. Maybe he actually followed what she was supposed to do and didn't come. Though, Miya can't blame the boys, she also didn't want to come in the house again. She was merely forced to be present along with the rest of her schoolmates.

"Well, if you would, let's all form a circle." Kei continued.

"Right now?" Kari asked, quite surprised to be asked to do something like that.

"Yes." Yuu answered rather sternly, as if she didn't actually like the crowd that was built here (which was a fact, she absolutely hated crowds, and there were, like, ten people here).

All of them formed a circle (as round as they can manage). Kei volunteered herself to be in the middle of the circle as Sana instructed them to either go closer to Kei or farther than her to make a good circle.

"Now, hold hands..." Sana whispered.

"And close your eyes," Kei added.

They all did as followed.

3

2

1

When all of them opened their eyes, gasps and exclaims of amazement were heard.

"This is amazing." Ai whispered.

"I know, right? How they did this should be impossible." Kai agreed on what Ai had said.

"I'm surprised you heard me." Ai chuckled silently, but kept quiet immediately.

Kai ruffled her head and replied, "Sure. Also, try to smile more often, Kira."

(How all of them became comfortable with each other was beyond me.)

Their surroundings was somewhat like a research lab or even a (mad) scientist's lab. They were in a small room with stacks of computer with data here and there, along with stacks of papers (and the occasional vials and test tubes of different sizes around the room). A hinted smell of strong coffee entered the girls' noses.

"What is this?" Kari asked Sana.

Sana sighed, "We don't understand, but it's somewhat like a room to install 'back doors'."

"Back doors?" Ru asked.

This time, Miya answered for them, "It allows the people here to access data, but it's like unauthorized. It's either a defect or feature of the computer."

"It's more like a feature," Ru snickered.

"But isn't it wrong?" Kari asked them.

"... sure, but it isn't like they're accessing your data. They've been trying to hack into government websites to monitor them. Consider us somewhat like a media with illegal supports." Sana shrugged.

"..." Miya decided not to make a response.

"Well, enough chit-chat, let's go into the next room." Kei announced and opened a door in front of them (which should have been impossible as they did not notice it the first time around).

"What's next door?" Sato asked warily.

Kei shrugged as she replied, "Somewhat like a gym."

And the door opened.

It was true, though. Once everyone walked in the next room, there were various equipment similar to local gym's. Regardless, the girls were still amazed (mostly because they're trying to figure out how they got there in the first place).

"And what're we supposed to do here?" Eri asked.

"Well, the mistress said to teach you basics." Sana remembered.

"Basics of what?" Kari asked.

"Yuu, do you want to-? Oh, is she not here?" Sana asked to the said girl. This said girl, however was currently absent, though eeryone could have sworn that they saw here a while ago.

"The mistress must have needed her," Kei told Sana.

Sana nodded and decided to continue, "You came down here to practice magic."

"Excuse me?" Sato asked, not truly convinced (but, to be fair, not a lot of people would have been thoroughly convinced).

"You heard me, I said: MAGIC." Sana stressed the emphasized word,

"What, so we'll be like Harry Potter now?" Ru snickered. Ai and Kairi, who were both next to her also laughed rather silently.

Kei sighed at the immature-like reaction of her 'apprentices' (which was quite true, though). She explained, "Since you people were not technically born with gifts, you must have a special chemical inserted to you so you would be able to use magic."

"Okay, we're not going to inject something in our body that we don't know." Miya voiced out her opinion.

"It's like a vaccine, you know." Sana told them.

"To protect us from what?" Eri asked rudely.

"Well, it just hurts like a vaccine. If this chemical enters your body, you'd be a gifted person in a snap. Problem is, it only lasts for a few hours, so you really do have to use it wisely."

The schoolmates looked at each other as if asking the same question, 'Were they sane?'.

Finally, Ru immediately volunteered herself and stated, "I'll try it out first. If I'm poisoned or anything like that, you kill these two and rush me to the hospital."

"We're not kidding." Kei defended.

"Prove it." Sato and Eri snapped at the same time (which made them glare at each other, regardless, waited for Kei to speak up).

"Fine."

Kei pinched herself on her arm (which left a red mark) and immediately held out her hand and asked, "Touch my hand, anyone?"

This made Kairi do it, rather curious on what would happen if she did touch Kei's hand (in her defense, she never knew this would happened as it was her first time witnessing it).

Once Kairi touched Kei, the same spot Kei pinched herself was present in Kairi's body. Kairi gasped in surprise as she felt a sharp pain from her arm and realized that Kei's own red mark went away.

Kairi immediately released her hand from Kei's and cussed, "What the fuck was that?"

Seeing Kairi in pain, made Eri touch her foot. She had later learned that it wasn't a fractured foot, it was merely a bruise that formed after losing her footing. Eri was kind of mad at Shindou after, but decided to let it go as he did give her the book she needed (which she later saw that it was completely and utterly useless).

Kei explained soon after, "I transferred my pain to you."

"It's pretty handy, actually," Sana grumbled.

"Sana's too. She can make anything out of nothing." Kei praised Sana indirectly.

"Energy. I can make any shapes or objects from energy." Sana corrected and continued, "That's what we want to test it to you, we want to know if you deserve to hold the magic inside your body."

"Just for a little while. You have to exercise." Kei stated.

The apprentices (let's call them this for a while) groaned in reply.

"So, who's in?" Sana cheered.

Even with the apprentices' unenthusiastic reply, they were all pretty excited to do it.

SPECIAL: Amemiya's request to Miya.

Classes were almost ending. The last teacher already walked out of the classroom and most of the students went out to buy something from the canteens, so there were a handful of students in the classroom.

"Miyazaki-san." Amemiya already called out the name before he could even think.

Miya approached him and asked, "Yes?"

"Uh, are... busy this afternoon...?" Amemiya blurted out.

Miya blushed and asked, "W-what?"

Was this boy asking her on a date? She was too young! And, besides, they knew each other for only days. That was a reckless decision Amemiya made... since he didn't really know her that much (just possibly where she lived and her name).

Amemiya started to blush to as he realized what Miya must have understood. He cleared his sentence, "I... just wanted to know if you're going to the house today..."

"What house? Wait... you're part of that house, too?!" Miya shrieked.

Amemiya hushed her and explained, "Well, I kind of like the interesting life I had in there..."

"Interesting? It looked like a place where the police can find parts of my body anywhere." Miya snapped quietly, just so the two of them could only hear the conversation.

"Listen to me. It's a place where... well, a lot of impossible things happen. So, please go just this once? If you don't like the house, officially, I won't bother you about it again. Please?" Amemiya replied.

"Impossible?" Miya whispered. She won't get the answers until today, she supposed. She decided to accept Amemiya's bet and confirmed it to him, "Okay, I'll go to the house. And, if the house changes my mind, I'll serve under your mistress."

"Thank you." Amemiya grinned and hugged her.

That made her skin tingle and her cheeks colored.

Sorry for the delay! I had problems with the OCs and tried to ask the owner of that OC, however she still hasn't replied until today, so I made this rather late.

Anyway, I'll see you next week! :D