If We Burn, Begin Again

by TheRoseShadow21

The members of high-school club Niðavellir have always protected Asgard Academy by whatever means necessary, leaving no enemy unscathed. But even their powers cannot prevent their numbers from dwindling as controversy swirls. And soon secrets will rise to the surface. It is in this year that Arisa Hiyama becomes leader.(Remake of 'Before the Beginning, and After')

6. 1-5

Kotone took off her headphones and looked through the window at her manager, agent and parents on the other side. All of them giving her a big grin and a thumbs-up, and so she beamed and waved back, before then putting down the headphones and turning to the sound technicians.

"Thank you for your hard work today!" she said, giving them a pretty little bow.

"Oh, not a problem, Suzuki-chan, it's a pleasure working with you as always," one of them said. "Have a good rest of the day now."

"You as well."

Kotone kept her voice bright and perky, but what she really wanted to do was yawn. She had been up since three in the morning to come down to the recording studio and get some more work done for her latest album before she then had to go to school. Her parents had come down too, to make sure everything was as it should be, which was nice of them, considering they still had her younger siblings to think about too. Indeed, when she reached them, she said:

"Mum, Dad, go home to Miruka and Katsuya, I'll be fine from here."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," her dad said. "Masafumi and Meiko are home as well as you well know."

Kotone smiled tightly. She'd barely seen her older brother and sister since they'd come home to visit. The same went for her younger sister and brother. Between the recording studio and arranging what media appearances and interviews she might give, as well as sorting out how she'd balance her new school life with her idol life, she'd barely been at home at all.

"Anyway, Kotone, you sound wonderful," her mother gushed. "I'm sure this album will do exceptionally well! How many more songs do you think we'll be adding to it?"

This last question was directed to her agent, who said:

"We are considering potentially polishing off this song and the last three and releasing them as a mini album by the end of Kotone's first term, and taking a slower pace on the other songs. After all, there is always the possibility that her Niðavellir duties will start taking precedence. Hopefully there'll be nothing on the scale of last year's Autumn Solstice, but we have to be prepared. Kotone is going to be the face of a generation, after all. She can't be seen to be shirking duty."

"No…of course not." Her mother said.

"Naturally," her father said. "Kotone would never, would she? She's our little hero."

He ruffled her hair, and Kotone beamed, despite the sour underlayer beneath her pride. She tried to swallow it down, and then said:

"I really don't mind if you go home now, because you've been up for ages and you have work too…but can I ask one thing?"

"Go on, honey."

"Can I start going to school by myself? Or with my friends? My Niðavellir friends, I mean?"

"Well…"

"Or maybe I could get a dorm room?"

Her parents exchanged a look with her manager and agent, and then eventually, her mother said:

"Why don't you and Matsushita-san discuss that in the car on the way to school, and see what solutions you come up with?"

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, though, Kotone," her manager, Matsushita, said. "It's not as if you are an average high school student, you know?"

No, but it would be nice to have some moments where I could be one, Kotone thought. She wasn't expecting complete normalcy, she knew she couldn't have everything. But just a vague semblance of it would have been nice. Besides, she didn't want to always be so dependent on her parents and agent and manager. They helped her so much all the time. They only wanted her success and happiness, for her to follow the right path.

The only thing was, she wasn't sure that this was the right thing. Not entirely. In the few moments of free time she'd had in the last couple of days, she had done a search on Tsuyoshi Sakai's story. Very little came up in the standard searches, but she'd always been good at digging deeper, and she'd found more about them that way. It was all very tragic, no matter which way she looked at it. Tragic, and utterly terrible.

Even if Leif and Marin had indeed managed to save the lives they'd been looking to save, it was tragic that they had had to give up their lives to do so. Had those lives not been as valuable as the lives of Shókó Freya Sáburódottir and Shótór Þór Sáburóson, the twin children of their town's police Captain Saburo Seichison? It was a question she hadn't quite been able to shift from her mind.

Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't shift it. She believed that Niðavellir was meant to be right, she believed that so very deeply. Leif and Marin had saved the twins from being kidnapped by a drug dealer with a grudge, last year's Niðavellir had managed to stop the terrorist who'd attacked their Autumn Solstice with fewer casualties than might have been expected. They had done so much good over the years, but…

…they are not perfect. They are not right, all the time.

But she couldn't turn away from it, she couldn't quit. There was no way she would be allowed to and besides, she wasn't sure that she wanted to. She didn't want to be a part of any other tragedy, but she didn't want to turn her back on it.

"it would certainly make things easier if something came up with Niðavellir, and my duties required me to travel for whatever reason. Time spent waiting to be escorted could be time spent making sure my fellow students are safe, and defeating the danger if not. I need to be in the best position to be a true help, and I need freedom of movement to be able to do that."

From her parents' bright faces, and the careful nods that her manager and agent gave, she knew that this was the right thing to say. They know what they're doing, they have my best interests at heart. That doesn't mean I can't have a little more freedom but…I just have to remember to keep trusting them. Right?

"Perhaps a dorm room can be found for you at the last minute. I am sure if I talk with Principal Asakura he'll be able to arrange something."

Kotone gave a grateful smile and bowed deeply:

"Thank you so, so much."

"Alright, now get yourself together."

Kotone did just that. She didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her parents, but she ignored the disappointment, instead obediently getting in the car and listening to her manager and agent discussing her next mini-album, and whether that really was the better option rather than pushing for a full album. But then, Matsushita said:

"Kotone?"

"Yes?"

"It has been a while since you've done one of your update videos, hasn't it? One of the livestreams. I'm sure your fans will be curious about you now you've joined one of the country's top school armies."

"I…yes."

"I know that the likes of Tatsumi-san and I aren't going to be allowed into the Niðavellir quarters, but I'm sure you could find something suitable to record. Perhaps you could even give the fans a short walking tour."

"What if I do a short pre-recorded thing in the next couple of days giving a brief update and then promising the video, and then perhaps in the next couple of weeks I could do the livestreaming tour? It would give me time to work out the best place to do that, but it would give them something that's a bit more than 'I'm so sorry I have been super busy' and 'Guess what I'm now transferring to Asgard Academy'. Some of the comments have been asking for more than that, after all."

"Yes, they have. Clever girl." Matsushita said.

"Our little protégé, blooming. I'm very proud of you, you're probably one of our best solo idols! Well then, Matsushita-san, why don't we give her full reign, at least on the non-livestream update video?"

"Yes, I think so too. That should please you, shouldn't it? Some more independence."

Kotone nodded at this, and said:

"That would be wonderful, thank you so much!"

Ideas were batted around for the rest of the journey, but neither her manager nor her agent noticed that Kotone didn't really contribute. Instead, she gazed out of the window, so many thoughts running through her head she didn't really know where they began or ended. When they finally pulled up outside, she almost leapt out of the car. Not without giving her best and most polite farewell, along with a cheery promise to work on the video, of course. Nonetheless, she did nearly leap, and almost ran to the Niðavellir rooms.

When she got there, most of the others were there already. She waved and said 'good morning' to them all, but when she spotted Emiko it was her that she made a beeline for. Since meeting her the day before yesterday, she had enjoyed talking to her whenever their paths had crossed. It made Kotone wonder if they could perhaps be friends. Though they both took some of the same classes taught by the same teacher, their sessions were each at different times owing to their timetables. So it was no surprise when, after saying hello, Emiko asked:

"Did you get the same question sets for Divination Basics? Did you want to go through them if you did."

"Sure, let me get them."

Kotone sat down at the big table next to Emiko, and at that moment Kenjiro asked:

"Suzuki-san, did you want anything to drink? I've also bought some pastries and sandwiches."

Kotone looked at the side table that had been set up, loaded with things. Kenjiro was standing by the kettle, already making drinks that were set out on a tray. It looked like a proper, full-on breakfast buffet. She realised that, apart from one melon bread, a couple of packets of nuts and dried fruits, and bottles of water, she'd barely eaten since the night before.

"Then, maybe just a mocha? And any kind of chocolate pastry?"

"Ah, I'm sure that can be arranged."

Kenjiro gave her a mini-salute and the returned to his coffee making. He was assisted by Chika, Arisa and Rei, and they seemed to be also having a conversation about the protections placed on the school building. For whatever reason, Kenjiro was insisting-quietly so, but nonetheless insisting-that they needed more fire protections. Kotone assumed that if this was something official, they'd be having a proper meeting, so she didn't pay too much heed to it. Instead, she reached in her bag for her homework assignments, only for her hand to brush up against something rough and unfamiliar.

She grabbed a hold of it and drew it out and frowned at the ball of golden wire in her hands. She tested the weight of it in her hand, and then put it on the table before then finding her work. She and Emiko then compared their work and adjusted their answers. Or rather, it was Kotone who had to change and add to most of her answers, with Emiko guiding her. It felt so shameful, that she, someone who had nothing to really worry about, hadn't been able to complete her work at all whereas Emiko with her precarious situation had done all of it. And even if Emiko's answers weren't all correct and perfect, they were there, and they had been worked on. Yet Emiko didn't seem to be judging Kotone as they looked over each other's work. She just explained kindly, pointed out where Kotone might have gone wrong in some things, provided ideas for other things.

Just as they finished going through it all, Kenjiro passed around the drinks and breakfast items. Kotone thanked him, and took a sip of her mocha. Emiko followed suit with her black coffee, and then asked:

"Do you have anything to do after school? I mean, relating to your music?"

Kotone shook her head. There was the video to think about, but since she had to take charge of that, she wasn't particularly worried.

"Then," Emiko suggested. "If we have homework or anything from any of the classes or subjects we both take, why don't we work on them together when school's finished for the day?"

"You would really be alright with that?"

Emiko's eyes went wide with surprise:

"Well, of course."

"We'll probably have to stay in school, though…" Kotone said. "My manager is over-protective at the moment."

"I didn't think we'd go anywhere else?" Emiko asked.

"I mean…it would be nice, I guess? To eat out or something. It'd be my treat, of course," Kotone said hastily, remembering that Emiko's financial situation wasn't the greatest. "A change of scenery, especially for you."

"Oh, I suppose that would be nice, but you don't want to annoy your managers, do you?"

Kotone pasted a smile over her true feelings, and then changed the subject-though not too completely:

"What do you like to eat anyway, Chiba-san?"

For a little while, the two of them talked about food, with some of the other Niðavellir members interjecting as they went in and out. From there, conversation naturally branched out to other things, and Kotone allowed most of herself to relax. Perhaps this is what it's like to really have friends, she thought. I could get used to this. If I am allowed to, I could really get used to this.

Yet, she knew that this wasn't the full picture of the type of life she could be having. There was a little part of her that kept being drawn back to the ball of golden wire-or rather, the absence of the person it truly belonged to. So eventually, she was compelled to ask:

"Has anyone seen Nakahara-kun?"

"Nakahara-kun?" Rei asked, looking up from his own work. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

"I need to give this back to him."

"I've not seen him either," Emiko said. "Maybe you could give it back to him later?"

"He's in the Niðavellir workshops." Arisa said.

"The…Niðavellir workshops?"

"Well, it's one big workshop, really," Arisa said. "This was after most of you left yesterday, but Shiho-san took him down there. He's our edgesmith, after all."

"Wait, wait, wait, are these the ones underground? The ones that can be accessed through here?" Tsuyoshi exclaimed. "Does this mean that we're going to get custom-made weapons? My parents did the first year they were there, but their craftsman graduated the year after…and then there was me…"

Some of Tsuyoshi's enthusiasm dimmed, and Kotone felt sorry for him. He, too, was a victim of what had happened to Leif and Marin, even if he didn't see it that way.

"Anyway, there is also a normal entrance in this same building, " Arisa said. "But not many people know about that, either, since it's in one of the stationery cupboards. Though it's not secret, per se."

"Is Nakahara-kun busy, do you know?" Kotone asked, hopefully.

"Hmmm….as far as I could tell, he's just making the place his own. It's not as if we've got particular things that need forging just yet, anyway. Let me show you the staircase that leads from here. It'll be quicker that way."

"Sure, I won't take long anyway," Kotone said. "I wouldn't want to disturb him."

"Ooooh, ooh, can I come along?" Tsuyoshi said, perking up. "I really want to see what the inside of the workshop is like. It's supposed to be legendary, with state-of-the-art everything!"

"Uhhh, maybe you should let Suzuki here sweeten him up first." Chika teased.

You don't know him if you think that, Kotone thought, flaring up on the inside with a strange sort of defensiveness. Outwardly, she blushed and giggled though but as the flare of defensiveness settled she found herself also thinking: but you don't know him either.

Yet, here she was, clinging to the ball of golden wire as if it were a protective charm, the thought of seeing him feeling like the final piece of a puzzle slotting into place.

"Sure," she told Tsuyoshi. "I'll tell Nakahara-kun that you might drop by to explore later, but I should give this back to him first. He might need it."

"Yes, of course," Tsuyoshi exclaimed. "That would be great."

Kotone followed Arisa out of the main room and into the small corridor. She opened the door to the Green Room and then went to the other end, where there was another door. Kotone had noticed this door when she'd been shown around, but she hadn't paid much attention to it before. It certainly hadn't been pointed out as being significant.

"I should have shown you this earlier," Arisa said. "But of course, we had no idea back then that we'd get Nakahara-kun. I mean, we didn't even know if we'd get an edgesmith or a craftsperson or anything to join us at all."

"If you hadn't, what would have happened?"

Arisa frowned.

"I suppose we wouldn't have used the room at all," she mused. "Or maybe it could be used as a sort of panic room in an emergency of some sort. Did you want me to come down with you?"

"No, no, I'm fine."

Arisa opened the door for her, and then left the room. Kotone stepped through the door, and wondered if she should let it close behind her. But she then spotted another wooden doorstop-this one carved to look like a tiny cherry blossom tree. She used this to keep the door ajar, and then went down the stairs. They were wooden and carpeted in deep red, and though the staircase went on forever and was almost spiral, it did not feel terribly steep. It was an airless staircase, owing to the lack of windows, but there were lanterns affixed to the walls at varying intervals. Some of them were lit with natural flames, others with orbs of magic, though all the lanterns were closed ones. She wondered who it was that came to keep them lit, because surely somebody did.

She was very relieved when it ended in front of a wooden door that looked a lot like the wooden doors in the rest of the Niðavellir quarters, the only difference being a metal door knocker that was made to look like a kitsune was holding the ring of it in its mouth. She gave herself a moment to catch her breath before then grabbing the ring of the knocker and hitting it against the door. She gave it a few moments, but there was no response.

If she were going to see any other person, Kotone would have probably given up. Well, she might have tried to knock again, and called out, but then she would have given up and left for sure. But it was Haru. She most definitely didn't know him, but the one thing she was sure of that where he was concerned, the rules were different. So instead, she simply twisted the doorknob and opened the door and stepped in.

She didn't know much about what a typical smith's or craftsperson's workshop was meant to look like, so she certainly didn't know if this was state-of-the-art. But what she did know that it was huge, with multiple forges and tables, and plenty of materials and equipment in cupboards, or boxes, or even affixed to the walls.

At the centre of it all, there was Haru.

He was not transformed-he was wearing his uniform, and had taken off his blazer and rolled up his shirt sleeves. But his fingertips glowed with his magic, as did everything in the room. Rather than announce herself, Kotone let herself drink the sight in. The warmth of the gold shade of his magic was nothing like the wire she held in her hands, or even the gold of coins and jewellery. Rather, it was the rich, delectable gold of honey. It did not suit him. It would not have been her guess if someone had asked her what colour his magic would look like to her. Yet, she couldn't imagine his magic being any other colour, now that she had seen it. Especially not while she was seeing it now, lighting up the room better than the many well-placed lanterns in the wall were. She wasn't sure what it meant that she wanted to keep watching him, busily crafting something at the worktop he was sitting at, but she wanted it all the same.

Of course, that wasn't possible, but only because it didn't take very long for Haru to look up and notice her. His hands stilled for a moment, and the magic there faded slightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," she said. "I just wanted to give this back."

Haru raised an eyebrow:

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Kotone asked.

"Exactly that." Haru replied.

"Well, when you lend people stuff, typically you expect them to give it back."

Kotone hadn't realised she was aiming for sarcastic until she'd actually started speaking, and the revelation gave her a little rush. Sarcastic wasn't something she usually-no, make that ever-did with anybody, ever. She was the good, sweet girl, the earnest and compliant one who never made trouble.

Yet, a few seconds in front of Haru, and she had immediately reached for sarcasm without thinking. And even more astonishingly, she delighted in it. So, though she was sure she wasn't going to be making a habit of it, she revelled in the feeling and continued:

"Unless it's a gift? How sweet of you, Nakahara-kun, you should have said."

"In your dreams." Haru retorted immediately.

He then returned his attention to whatever it was he was working on. Kotone briefly wondered if perhaps she should just leave the ball of wire on one of the worktops somewhere. Walk back up those stairs alone, and return to the rest of the world above.

No. I don't want to leave just yet.

So instead, she walked up to his worktop, and after dusting off some sawdust from a corner, perched on top of it, and took another look around the room, at the traces of his honey-gold magic all over the room.

"It seems like a nice set-up that you've got here," she commented. "Do you like it?"

"As long as I don't have to share it, I suppose it'll do. It's well-stocked, anyway." Haru said without looking up.

"But surely there's plenty of space here…then again, I suppose not many people would want to be down here, what with the lack of windows."

"It is ventilated, you know."

"Yes, but…."

Kotone's temporary facility for sarcasm failed her, and she was deeply disappointed. Haru seemed to sense this, because he peered at her now, a smirk tugging at one side of his mouth. Then, he said:

"This is certainly a more appropriate Niðavellir, don't you think?"

"How do you mean?"

Rather than give her a straightforward answer, Haru started to recite:

"Stóð fyr norðan, á Niðavöllom…

Recognising the line, Kotone joined in with the end:

"…salr úr gulli ,Sindra ættar."

And when Haru stared at her she just smiled sweetly and said:

"Yes, I see."

Haru pulled a face, and then put his tools down and stated:

"Yes, well, anyway, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to be named Niðavellir when our main bases are high above everything else."

"Perhaps they are simply trying to be ironic." Kotone suggested.

Haru snorted at that, and Kotone giggled. He gave her a look, and she blushed. To hide her embarrassment, she didn't say anything else for the time being, and instead just looked around at the workshop. She spotted boxes of paint on one shelf, and a jar with cords shoved into it on another and that made her think of Tsuyoshi's parents. Or rather, it pushed the thought of them to the forefront of her mind.

"Do you ever think that Sakai-kun's mum and dad came in here?" she asked.

"That box of paints has Marin Tákáshidottir's name on it," Haru said. "So it is possible. But I wouldn't know. I don't think their powers particularly related to crafting in any sense."

"Oh. Did you look them up too?" Kotone asked.

"Yes, but there wasn't very much." Haru replied, frowning. "I suppose the family must have tried to scrub as much of it as possible. I hear the Sakai family is pretty moneyed."

"They are, but you can't erase everything. They were tracking the number of days that Tákáshidottir-san missed for medical appointments, and when the school had an electrical fire in the alchemy labs they criticised her for not immediately rushing in even though she was pregnant at the time…and then she was praised for coming in to school two days after giving birth…and the two days were only forgivable because they were weekend days. But only barely forgivable."

Haru was giving her a bug-eyed look over it, but Kotone couldn't stop, even if she wanted to:

"Sakai-kun…that's Leif Sakai, not Tsuyoshi Sakai. Actually, let's just call him Leif-san so it's not confusing. Leif-san, even he got a lot of flack for it. If he took Tákáshidottir-san for appointments, when he tried to stay off so that she could go to school…he got the same sort of things. Somebody heard him talking about wanting to go away with her and their baby during the next school holidays, and then one of their classmates leaked that to the newspapers and it was framed as them not being truly committed to Asgard Academy's values. There were campaigns to make them drop out…did you know there was, at one point, debate over whether they should be sterilised?"

Kotone took a breath. She didn't know quite why she had been affected by what she had read, let alone why it was this last thing that suddenly robbed her of the ability to talk. In the silence, she thought she could hear their voices. Not that she knew what they sounded like, but she could hear them saying:

Forgive me, forgive me. Forgive us.

"Sterilised?" Haru asked. "What in the name of-"

He halted mid-sentence, as if too appalled to continue. Kotone just nodded.

Haru considered her, and then asked:

"Can I see? What articles you were reading?"

He picked up his phone from next to him on the table, but rather than simply hand it to her, he got up and came around to the side of the table she was sitting on, and sat himself next to her, swinging his legs almost like she was. Unlike her, however, he paid little attention to any of the sawdust he ended up sitting on. It was only then that, after opening up the internet browser on his phone, that he handed it to her. She raised an eyebrow, but then took it, and did the searches she had done on her own phone. After a few moments, she had opened just some of the articles that she'd found, and she handed the phone back.

He read in silence, and she looked around the room.

Stóð fyr norðan, á Niðavöllum, salr ór gulli, Sindra ættar.

Stood to the north, in the dark fields, the golden halls of Sindri's clan.

This was the darkest place, yes, if only going by the lack of light and air. But there were other forms of darkness too, she was starting to think. Other forms of darkness that weren't so obvious. What else could be the cause of harassing a teenage girl for getting medical care, for demonising a teenage boy who wanted to spend precious time with his new family, if not a kind of darkness?

None of that had happened here, under the ground, had it? No, it had all been above ground.

And yet, this is what I am supposed to believe in? This is what the adults believe to be the right thing for me and for everyone?

She became vaguely aware of Haru looking at her, and sure enough, his eyes were on her, coolly assessing.

"Well, I can see why it never went through," Haru eventually said. "Those proposals to sterilise all school army teenagers. It's stupid. Most teenagers aren't running around getting pregnant, are they? Most of them probably aren't even having sex even if they're running around boasting about it."

He scrunched up his face as if utterly disgusted by the thought-though whether it was the thought of sex itself, or just the boasting that so repulsed him, Kotone couldn't tell. Either way, it did make her want to laugh. But she didn't. Instead:

"That, and a school army is only a short amount of time. It's not a lifelong career. What about the rest of their lives?"

"Even if they were somehow going to be in a school army for life, it's still daft. "

"Either way, I think now you'll see when I say that actually, I disagree with you."

Haru frowned.

"Niðavellir is the perfect name for us, even if we're based high above everything else."

"Huh."

Haru looked down at his phone for a moment, still showing an article full of outraged words such as SCANDAL and REPUTATION and APPROPRIATE CONDUCT. Then, he abruptly asked:

"How did you find things like this anyway?"

"Oh, you know, I have to keep on top of what's being said about me, or not said about me, what's pleasing the fans and what's not pleasing them. How successful my music or other appearances have been."

"Oh, it's an ego thing, then." Haru sneered. "Why are you even here, then? Isn't spending time here going to eat into the time spent pleasing the fans?"

Stung, Kotone jumped up. The ball of golden wire she had been holding onto all this time fell to the floor and rolled away, quickly.

"It's not as if I had a choice!"

She wrung her hands, torn between his audacity at assuming that he knew her, and wanting to make sure that he did know her. Her, not just who he assumed her to be. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she didn't know how to say them. In the end, all she said was:

"I just don't want to disappoint anyone, that's all."

Haru's sneer faded away, and again he assessed her cooly for a few moments before again another shift in his expression. Something softer.

"You know that's basically impossible, right?"

"Yeah, I know, but…"

"That's just how being an idol works, huh? That's why I have no time for them. But you know, I'm probably going to basically move in here. It's not as if I'll spend all hours of the day here, so don't worry about me being deprived of light and air or whatever. But people in the dorms are annoying and stupid, and I have no issues with a futon. "

"I…um….uh…"

Haru rolled his eyes at her lack of coherent response, and hopped off the table and ambled over to where the ball of wire had stopped. He bent to pick it up, and then walked over to her. Holding it out, he said:

"I don't need it now, so come and give it back to me another time."

He said each word slowly, as if explaining something to a very small child. She veered between irritation and amusement for a moment before his meaning hit her. She did not know him yet, but she did know that to openly acknowledge the lifeline that he had thrown her (almost literally, considering the ball of wire) would be like throwing the gift of it back in his face. So instead she simply pocketed it, pressing the wires slightly so it was more of a squished ball and therefore less noticeable in her pocket. Her eyes swept over the room one more time, taking in every last trace of the honey-gold glow.

Kato-san might have assumed that I would need to sweeten him up, but really it's the other way around, isn't it? There was so little she could do, but at least she would have somewhere and someone to go to. Someone who she would, hopefully, one day really know. Keeping up her perfect smile and acting as if everything was fine with all of this was going to be harder now, she knew. But as long as this underground room existed, as long as Haru was here to light it with his honey-gold magic, she could be 'sweetened up'. She'd be able to carry on, and perhaps one day, she'd find a way of making things right. It was too late for Marin Tákáshidottir and for Leif Sakai, but perhaps for the rest of them…

…after all, that's why the adults whisked me here, didn't they? To help. So even if it disappoints them, that's what I will do.

"Alright then," Kotone said lightly. "I should get back up. For all that sunlight and air, you know?"

Haru scoffed and then turned his back on her, returning to the bench at the worktop, and picking up the dagger he was working on. Immediately, his fingers were draped in that warm glow and Kotone watched it for a few moments, watched him at work, both deft and careful. Then, she took a deep breath, and slipped out of the room, and began to make her way back up the staircase.

…

The voices came back again after Kotone had left.

Forgive me, forgive me. One feminine voice, one masculine voice. A stretch of silence, and then again: forgive me, forgive me.

They had spoken a few times while Haru had been in here alone, but he had ignored it. He assumed that it was just the wind, somehow, and that his mind was seeking patterns where there were none. Minds were known for doing that, after all. But then Kotone had come along, and she had talked of Marin and Leif, and he'd heard it again. It had gone silent while he was reading, and when he had made the decision to tell Kotone she was welcome back here again with the ball of golden wire, but then it had started up again.

Did she hear it too?

Haru had a feeling that she had. Even with the display of emotion she had revealed to him, she was good at controlling her feelings. In some ways, she was better at it than he was. Damn idol, he thought with something that felt disturbingly like affection. So it wasn't like he could be completely sure. Still, he was as sure as he could be that she'd heard it too, and that, like him, she had dismissed it as her own imagination. He put down his tools and looked in the direction Kotone had gone.

"Is that actually you? Marin? Leif?"

He felt stupid as soon as he said it. What, were their ghosts going to materialise out of nowhere, just walk through the door the way Kotone had? They'd been buried fifteen years ago! Their souls were long on the other side! It made no sense.

Yet, something tickled at his ears. Not words, this time. Not forgive me, forgive me. But…something. A sigh, perhaps a sob. But when he tried to listen closer it disappeared, and all he was left with was silence.

"Pfft, of course," Haru scoffed. "There's not meant to be any such things at ghosts. Not even in a place like this."

He turned back to the small dagger that he was making, and added the final touches to it. It was little more than a scrap dagger, really. It was, quite literally, made from scraps of material he had found. There were plenty of new (or, at least, un-used materials) around too, so he could try his hand at one of the forges soon anyway. But for now, playing around with the scraps was enough. So, when he did finish it, it ended up being a rather simple piece. It wasn't mediocre though-far from it.

No, the way he'd polished the metal, with the polish being a concoction of his own making, the metal did not just gleam silver, but turned at the right angle and in the right light, there were flashes of opalescent blues and pinks. The metal had had kinks in it, as though it had been left to set without being smoothed out into a proper sheet, but nonetheless he had managed to sand it down into a perfect triangle, the bubbling kept around one of the edges, giving the blade an odd kind of serration.

The handle he had carved from oak, drilling a hole in the bottom and threading a cord made of three ribbons plaited together -all black, but one velvet, one silk and the other infused with silver threads-and making the cord into a loop so that the dagger could be hung up somewhere. Indeed, to study it closer he now hung it on his own wrist, holding it up to his face and watching it swing gently so as to study it.

Where the blade met the handle, he had carved his own maker's mark-his given name in Norse letters superimposed over the kanji of his family name. Apart from that, though, both blade and handle were unadorned. The blade had its opalescent colours from its polish after all, and as for the handle-that, he had varnished. But that varnish wasn't standard either. No, it was one infused with vetiver oil.

The same thing that Kotone's magic smelt of.

He swung the dagger on his wrist again, gently. As it circled, it flashed blue and pink and white, and then silver again. Thinking about it, even those colours felt like they were connected with her. It was perhaps not such a surprise. She had been on his mind ever since the first day. And she had never really been what he had expected her to be. Yes, she was all sugary and girly and surface-level polite, especially around other people. She was exactly how he'd expect an idol to be in the flesh.

But she was also exactly what he hadn't expected.

On that first day, when she hadn't crumbled under his contempt. On the day they had pursued the shadowy figure, when they had been able to slip into an easy fighting rhythm. And now, today, when she first she had opted for playful banter rather than insipid earnestness, and then she had revealed vulnerability. Vulnerability. To him. But somehow, it wasn't a vulnerability that made her seem weak. In some odd way, it felt like strength.

It was the same strength that she had shown when she'd looked him in the eyes and smiled. The same strength when she had taken the lead in getting them into the forest and after that figure. The same strength he had seen in a million little moments that he couldn't really describe between all these. Moments that he was sure that the others hadn't noticed. Looks that she had given him, pauses where she seemed to try and steel herself before expressing a carefully-thought-through gesture. The way she had snuck back to the memorial room long after a gleeful Tsuyoshi had left the day before, staring at the pictures of Marin and Leif, touching their photos as though she had known them.

It had caught him unawares. And he liked it.

A part of him was mildly horrified. She was an idol, after all. The face of a generation, the obsession of generic teenagers everywhere. Pretty and polite and pure, sugary and simpering. Or pretending to be, anyway. He hated her type, hated the idea of her type. But Kotone wasn't that idea. No, she was so much more than that, and it was fascinating.

And, she understands me, doesn't she? Or, she's trying to.

That, too, was a perturbing thought. But it was also something that filled him with a quiet sense of satisfaction. He moved his wrist slightly and sniffed the handle again, taking in the strong notes of vetiver. He wondered, briefly, what she herself smelt like. Probably something that was nothing like vetiver, something fussy and floral or fruity. That, too, was something he hated, normally. But he had a feeling he wouldn't mind it on her.

Now there's a horrifying idea.

He let out a sharp laugh at the thought. And then he laughed again as he imagined telling her that, and what she might say. He slipped the dagger off his wrist, then got up and went to one of the wall units to hang it up. He then began to tidy away, cataloguing the workroom and thinking of what else he'd have to do in here (hopefully before he was drafted to make anything for Niðavellir) He'd have to clean up a few more things if he was going to end up staying here instead of his own room, as he had told Kotone he would be doing. On top of that, he'd have to carve a special bench.

After all, when Kotone came here again, he didn't want her sitting on one of his workbenches and getting in the way.

He finished tidying, checked the time. He had missed half of homeroom, but that he had anticipated. Atsuya and Kou had already said one of them would stop by his homeroom and tell his teacher. Not that he really cared, anyway, but it would save him some hassle. But I suppose I should go to at least some of my lessons. Since he had his school bag down here with him, he thought he would go through the other entrance, rather than all the way up to Niðavellir and then down again. And again, that had him thinking of Kotone. The other entrance, the one that could be accessed through the main part of the school had a special lock. It could only be accessed by those who were magically authorised. The lock was a form of blood magic and indeed, he had given a drop of his own blood when he had been shown the place. Shiho had claimed to have already given hers, but Arisa had given a hair instead.

Now, just how am I meant to…his eyes caught a flash of something bright near a basket of planks, and he went closer to it, realising that what he had spotted had actually gotten caught onto one of the planks-a strand of Kotone's hair. Now he had come right up to it, it no longer shone. It was just brown, a shade or two too dark to be called mousy but nonetheless somehow plain. But when he held it up, it shimmered gold once again. He closed his eyes and thought of Kotone running in the forest, the dappled light through the leaves illuminating some of that hidden gold.

He gripped it tightly as he went for his school bag, and then strode to the door that led into the store cupboard. He crouched down and peered at the space underneath the door handle, which was covered completely in complicated sigils and runes. He closed his eyes, and tried to recall the exact steps that Shiho had taken with his blood and Arisa's hair. Carefully, he rolled the hair into a ball, and called the magic into his fingers, pressing it against the small carved area, and murmured the words he remembered Shiho saying. He repeated the words a couple of times, made sure that the hair aligned exactly where Shiho had dabbed his blood. When the carved wood started to glow, he grinned in satisfaction, concentrating fully on the idea that Kotone was someone who should be allowed into this space, by this route, until the magic emanating slowly absorbed the hair into the wood. Eventually, he could no longer feel it beneath his fingers, and as the magic faded he stepped back. For a weird moment, he felt a pang of loss, but it was quickly swallowed up by a sense of triumph.

He stood up, and opened the door, and stepped out. He closed it behind him, and then exited the cupboard, surprising a few students who were in the corridor. He ignored them, and checked his timetable on his phone as he walked. But the first class that showed up made him stop in his tracks.

Life and Death Rites: Beginner Classes.

Immediately, he looked back over his shoulder. Marin. Leif. All the other dead. They, too, had taken these classes. Would those have prepared them in any way for the fate they had ended up meeting? Somehow, he thought not.

He opened up the Niðavellir group chat, and then tapped on Kotone's number. Selecting the option to start a chat with her, he messaged:

Haru Nakahara: the entrance to my workshop that's from the main school building is a spelled one, so only those who have been worked into the spell can enter through there

Haru Nakahara: anyway access is arranged for you

Haru Nakahara: Just in case your dainty legs can't take going up stairs and down them again

Haru Nakahara: Also…

He accidentally pressed enter, but before he could attempt to type his full sentence, he saw that Kotone was typing and waited eagerly for her words to appear on screen.

Kotone Suzuki: I hadn't even thought about the other entrance being spelled but that makes sense, actually. Thank you for arranging access for me.

Kotone Suzuki: May I ask…how you did that, though?

Haru Nakahara: blood magic

Kotone Suzuki: Right.

Kotone Suzuki: And will you explain what that means, or are you going to be pretentious about it?

For a moment, it was as if he was hearing the words in her voice. He looked up, half expecting to see her somehow manifested in front of him. Half expected to see her wearing that smile that had been just for him, just for a moment. Then he shook his head to try and clear it. What on earth is wrong with me, he wondered, before typing:

Haru Nakahara: you seem remarkably calm about this

Kotone Suzuki: Would some screaming emojis make you feel better?

She then proceeded to send a range of different emojis, mostly screaming faces, with a few unimpressed and shocked faces thrown in. There were also a couple of red hearts, which Haru suspected were accidental. And sure enough:

Kotone Suzuki: Nakahara-kun, please ignore the hearts! They're in my most frequent emojis that's all!

This was accompanied by an emoji of an embarrassed, blushing face. Haru's first thought was to imagine Kotone's face with that expression, and he smirked. However, soon after that, he got another message from her and that made him smile too, just for a different reason.

Kotone Suzuki: But are you going to explain?

Haru Nakahara: hmmm, how about we arrange a time for you to give back my golden wire then

This time, he didn't wait for a reply. He tucked his phone back into his pocket and carried on making his way to class. She'd reply sooner or later, and then he'd be able to ask her if she'd heard the voices too. If she had the same suspicions that he had.

But whether she did, or she didn't, in the end it didn't really matter.

Not as long as she kept coming back.

…

Since Kenjiro knew that Arisa would be assisting Asakura this lunchtime, he decided that his first port of call was to go down to reception and collect the first lot of parcels that had arrived here. He was surprised at how fast they had arrived. Well, apart from one, given that it wasn't for kitchen supplies, and he'd been told it'd be arriving today. Still, even that was a surprise to some extent. That one, he had been prepared to go and pick up in person if necessary. But he wasn't complaining. The sooner that particular parcel was here, the better.

Spotting Chika coming out of her class, he called out to her. She was alone, meaning that Arisa had already gone to Asakura. When she spotted him, she grinned and loped over.

"Hey Jeff, feeling lonely?"

A little, he thought to himself.

"Not until I saw you." He said lightly, instead. "What were you thinking of doing this lunchtime anyway?"

"I was going to do some of my day's reaping. Why?"

"Well, I have some parcels to collect, thought maybe you'd like to come with me."

"Ooooh, are these some of your kitchen whatsits?" Chika asked, eyes brightening.

"Yes, and something from the Miyakoshi Shrine."

Chika frowned at that, but rather than ask about that, which he thought she would, she said:

"Alright. I need to get out of here soon, because otherwise I'm going to start feeling really queasy. But sure, I'll help."

"Queasy? Do you need to go to the medical room?" Kenjiro asked immediately.

"What? No, no. I'm fine for the moment. It's the building…" Chika flapped her hand dismissively. "Come on, let's go, and I'll explain. Though, actually first, tell me-what are you getting from the shrine? I heard you saying something about fire protection when you took that phone call yesterday."

They started walking, and Kenjiro explained:

"Oh, yeah. I got some extra protective charms ordered specially from the Miyakoshi Shrine. I got some miscellaneous ones, but most of them are fire protection ones, to be embedded into the walls or hung in the usual way."

"But why fire, though? Even yesterday you were so insistent on checking that the alarms and the sprinklers were all in order, and that the evacuation points were all working in case we had any wheelchair users and all that. "

Kenjiro hesitated. He could not tell her about what Kou's sister had seen in the tea-leaves. There's a big, big fire…everyone's crying, and someone's lost-those words kept ringing in his head. And he knew, he knew that no charms were truly, fully fool-proof. They stopped things coming in from the outside, mitigated the effects of some threats, but what about the ones on the inside? What about the moments when the intent of the threats became too big for charms to contain, or if the threat was completely unintentional? What about the whims of fate itself, sometimes more powerful than anything?

But he didn't know what else he could do. The future wasn't set in stone, but that didn't mean there wasn't a way that a fire could happen anyway. He'd have to get Kou away somewhere quietly one day, alone, and try and get him to read the stars and tell him more. That way, he'd have a better idea of what to do, of how to keep Arisa safe. Until then, he had to keep it quiet. He would not heap any more pressure onto her shoulders, not when his only purpose here was to ease it.

Hence, checking the evacuation points and the alarms and the sprinklers. Hence, the charms. They might not be foolproof but the more, the better. He couldn't tell Chika that, though, because she was Arisa's best friend, and he could not ask her to keep such a secret.

That, and I don't want to burden you, either. Not really.

In the end, the answer he opted for wasn't the truth, but was a truth all the same:

"This school has quite a history of burning."

Chika tilted her head at him and then nodded slowly:

"I suppose it does."

"I know we can't prevent every threat from breaking through, but if there is another fire…I don't want Hiyama-chan to go up in flames with it. I don't want you to go up in flames with it."

Kenjiro was painfully aware that his last sentence sounded a lot like an afterthought. It was, however, true. Because when it comes down to it, I suppose I love you too, don't I? It wasn't the same as loving Arisa, but it was there, nonetheless. Nonetheless, the crooked smile that Chika gave him nearly floored him from the sense of guilt that it sparked.

Remembering that she had said something about feeling queasy, he studied her carefully for any sign of sickness. She, for her part, stuck her tongue out him, and then pulled a series of varying horrific faces before suddenly looking thoughtful and blurting out:

"Did I ever tell you the story of the first time I reaped a soul?"

"I…what?"

"I'm answering your question from earlier. So, did I?"

"I'm not sure," Kenjiro said cautiously. "It happened when you were quite little, I think?"

"Yes. Which I'm sure will help explain why I say it would be more accurate to say that it's the story of the first time I ate a soul. Also the last time. Obviously."

"I'm sorry, did you say you ate a soul?"

"Look, in my defence I was barely three years old, it just looked like a shiny floating sweet to me. It was even pink! I thought it was a strawberry flavoured magical sweet! Which sounds daft, but you know three-year-olds are known for being stupid, right?"

Chika said all of this dismissively, punctuating each sentence with an exaggerated grimace or a shrug of the shoulders. Nonetheless, Kenjiro decided to step gently, and so it was only after a careful pause that he asked:

"What happened, then?"

"Well…honestly, I don't remember the ins and outs of it. I was very sick, like almost immediately after I ate it, I remember that much. I remember trying to get it out of my mouth, but I'd already swallowed it by then, but I didn't even realise that. Everything hurt, a lot, and it wasn't pretty. At the hospital, they got in one of the mediums from the end-of-life facility, a funeral medium. The doctor that oversaw it all was a reaper too, actually. I spent a lot of time in bed afterwards, classic sickly kid, even once I was out of the hospital. Except that once I was out of the hospital, I was immediately moved in to live with my aunt. "

"That must have been a scary time for you. Especially without your parents."

"My parents were there," Chika retorted. "They were. And it's not like I don't see them. Dad's around all the time, more than Mum is, because he's super close with Aunt Komari. But neither of them are reapers. "

"And your aunt is."

"Exactly. So it's a no-brainer that they sent me to live with her. Easier all around. And it's not an abandonment. Not like Ari and her idiot parents. "

Chika stopped and pointed her finger right in Kenjiro's face. With a scowl, she said:

"So, don't you go feeling sorry for me, alright?"

She moved her finger away, and carried on walking, airily adding:

"Anyway, what I was trying to say with that little tale was basically, if I spend too long in this building, it makes me feel sick in a way that reminds me of how it felt when I was that idiotic three-year-old. It's no big deal, though. Let's get these parcels shifted and then I'm outta here."

Kenjiro wanted to hug Chika, but held back, instead opting to pat her on the shoulder.

"Alright then."

They arrived at the school reception, where two receptionists were sitting. One was talking to someone Kenjiro assumed was a parent, but the other looked up from his paperwork and immediately stood to attention.

"Ah, Niðavellir! You must be here to collect your parcels."

"Yes, that's right. There aren't many but they're probably all under the name Kenjiro Takenaka. Well, apart from those from the Miyakoshi Shrine, those will just say that they're for Niðavellir specifically."

"Yes, yes. Hold on, I've put them in one of our cupboards for you. There's a trolley you all can use as well. If you just wait a moment…"

The receptionist spoke hurriedly, as if eager to reassure them that yes, all was in hand. Kenjiro inclined his head and said politely:

"Take your time, there's no rush."

The receptionist scuttled away, and almost immediately, the parent who was in the middle of haranguing the other receptionist whipped around to look at them:

"You! Boy, girl! You are part of Niðavellir?" she demanded.

"And what's it to you?" Chika huffed.

Kenjiro placed a calming hand on her arm, briefly, then stepped forward to shake the parent's hand.

"I'm Kenjiro Takenaka, third in command, and this is Chika Kato, second in command. Our leader's helping Principal Asakura oversee the beginning of term mahou shoujo testing, so we're acting on her behalf. How can we help?"

"Has my errant son joined you yet?"

Kenjiro had a feeling that he knew who she was referring to, but all the same he politely asked:

"Who is your son?"

"Týr Minoru Endo. You must have seen him. He is just like the great god Týr himself, only possessing one hand. He should have been joining you."

"No, nobody by that name has joined us yet," Kenjiro said carefully. "May I ask why you're asking?"

"Because my husband and I are tired of him bringing disrepute onto us! He's always been acting difficult, because of his so-called disability, but really he's old enough to pull himself together. At this age he should know that one has to put aside discomforts for the sake of duty! He's in the Asakura Longhouse, for crying out loud, that's the greatest honour one could have! And he has the power to actually do us all proud. He's actually an incredibly talented runecaster but he just puts it to waste!"

"And you want him to join us?" Chika raised an eyebrow. "If he's so whiny, what makes you think that we're going to want him?"

"That's…well. He has to join. That's tradition, as is proper! Besides, surely Niðavellir could whip him into shape. He doesn't listen to us, he doesn't listen to Principal Asakura, he doesn't listen at all. He just has tantrums and runs away all the time like a coward!"

"Okay, lady, we get it," Chika huffed. "But what do you actually want?"

"For you to find him, of course!"

Chika rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything else Kenjiro hurriedly jumped in with:

"Could you explain what you mean?"

"Nobody has seen him since the night before last. On Wednesday, he skipped the rest of school after his first lesson. We were informed immediately, of course, and we waited for him to get back to the longhouse, where all of us present formed an assembly to discipline him and remind him of his duty. We confiscated his sketching materials too, of course. But then he snuck away after dinner and cleanup, as he always does, but he didn't come back. The ungrateful little cur has run away!"

"Did you, at any point during this 'assembly', actually ask him why he'd skipped school?"

Chika's voice was low and rumbly, an approaching thundercloud. Kenjiro himself felt the same, remembering the odd, fragile boy he had tried to help on Wednesday morning, and the day before that. But though Chika's thundercloud was right there, rippling under her surface, Kenjiro hid his under a calm, clear sky as he then asked:

"Have you called the police?"

The mother raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms as she loftily said:

"I've come to you, haven't I?"

"We're not the police, though. If something happens and you're concerned for his safety-"

"What I am concerned about is our place in the Asakura Longhouse! We're devoted to our faith, and we worked so hard to get to live in a longhouse, and the best one at that, and Týr is ruining it! And after he was born with such good omens, too. What have I, as a parent, done to deserve this?"

Chika muttered something that sounded a lot like: good omens, my arse.

"Don't worry, Endo-san, " Kenjiro quickly jumped in. "We'll make sure to find him and bring him home to you."

"Oh, don't bother about that. He just brings the longhouse down. Just track him down and knock some sense into him, and make sure he joins your ranks. I will not have the rest of my family tossed out of the streets because of him!"

"And what if we say no?" Chika asked.

"Well, perhaps then Niðavellir isn't up to the job!" the parent harrumphed. "And I shall complain to Principal Asakura."

"No, no, there's no need," Kenjiro quickly apologised. "Rest assured that she doesn't mean it that way. Kato-san is a reaper, you see."

He was well aware of Chika scowling at this, and winced internally. On the outside, however, he just kept smiling as reassuringly as he could, until some of the woman's haughty indignation subsided very slightly.

"A reaper…" she muttered, before shaking her head and saying. "Well, whatever. I'm entrusting the matter into your hands, so fix it."

At that, she stalked out, not even bothering to look back. It was at that moment that the other receptionist returned with Kenjiro's packages. He looked between them both slowly and said:

"I assume you will be wanting the boy's records?" he asked.

"That would be a good start, yes." Kenjiro agreed.

"Right, let me get those for you. I'll print two copies, but if you need more come back and ask."

The packages were set down on the counter, and the receptionist went back behind the desk. The other receptionist gestured to their screen, and after a few clicks something spewed out of the printer behind them. These were taken, stapled together and handed over, and Kenjiro thanked both receptionists. He loaded most of the parcels onto the trolley, and placed the stapled papers on top of them, but Chika carried the few remaining boxes in her arms as they left.

"Look, Jeff, I'm gonna fly up and leave them there, and then I'm just going to go."

"Oh, are you…"

"It's fine, honestly. Plus, that insufferable woman…Odin's eye, I thought Ari's parents were the worst but I actually wanted to punch her."

"I could tell." Kenjiro said drily. "Speaking of which, sorry about earlier."

"What, interrupting me all the time?" Chika laughed. "Nah, you're cool. I might choose violence on a daily basis but even I have sense to accept it when someone's trying to knock sense into me."

"Do you, though?" Kenjiro asked before he could stop himself.

This just made Chika laugh even more. Since her hands were both occupied, she jostled him with her shoulder, and said:

"Well, I am a reaper, after all."

With that, she transformed, turned invisible and then presumably flew off. Kenjiro shook his head and made his way back up to the Niðavellir rooms. Nobody was there, and a quick glance showed him that Shiho's room had her 'Do Not Disturb' sign on it. He put his parcels on the main table, and then sat down. He pushed aside all of the kitchen gadgets, and pulled the one from Miyakoshi Shrine in front of him. It was a perfectly square-shaped parcel, taped up quite heavily. He tried to pull some of the tape away with his fingers, but had to get up and look for a pair of scissors in the end. Gradually, he managed to get the box open, and he took out the charms that were inside. Some were little sealed silken pouches in different flame-like colours, and the Miyakoshi crest printed on the side of them. Others were hanging charms of various shapes and sizes. All of them he checked carefully, both reading the leaflets that came with them, physically examining each one, and then casting an illumination over all of them to make sure that the magic in them was authentic.

Thankfully, each one flared brightly, in the different colours that suggested they were true, and so packed them back in the box. It was then that he remembered Týr Minoru Endo's school records. The papers had slipped off the parcels and onto the floor, so once he had located and picked them up, he read through them. There wasn't very much, despite the number of pages, but one thing jumped out at him and suddenly made him understand Chika's level of anger. Under the section for relevant medical conditions, it was very clearly stated that he had Social-Communication Neurodivergence. Kenjiro remembered that this was a type of a broader difference…he couldn't remember exactly what the term for that was, but it suddenly made what little he knew of the boy make so much more sense.

It also made him really agree with Chika's anger, and even with Arisa's distress. Even without knowing that the boy had such a condition, it was clear he was someone with whom people had to take extra care with, yet nobody seemed to have done that. Indeed, from the looks of it, the extra pages were notes from his middle school about his diagnosis and what he needed to be supported, while the rest were notes from Principal Asakura stating that they should be disregarded. Which rather tallied with the things he had said to them before, and it made Kenjiro realise that Arisa was right to not like what Asakura had said.

But…I wonder…

Being in Niðavellir clearly had its perks. The packages still on the table were proof of that. Haru having access to his own workshop was proof of that. So perhaps if this Týr Minoru Endo ended up in Niðavellir, he could have his accommodations reinstated, dressed up as a 'perk'. The idea of that didn't sit easy with him, although he didn't know why-but it was still the best thing he could think of.

First though, I need to find him.

Kenjiro flicked back to the front sheet and looked at the photograph that took up the top half of the page. Týr Minoru Endo's eyes did not meet the camera, instead gazing slightly to the right, and his expression was tense. Even in a photograph, he looked uncomfortable, ready to flee at any second. He put the second copy right in the middle of the table, and then once he had found a sticky note and a pen, he scribbled a note on it and stuck the note on top. His plan now was primarily to go around and put up as many of the charms as he could, but on the way, he would look for first year students who might have met Týr Minoru Endo, and ask them about him. If he could find Atsuya, Haru, Kou or Tsuyoshi, he'd ask them things and get them to search, too. And hopefully, once they'd found him, well…

One thing that Kenjiro knew for sure was that, for all the things Niðavellir was, sanctuary was one thing it had never been.

But this time, it would have to become one.

…

Sanae Yasuda, who was also sometimes known as Shohei Yasuda, brimmed with excitement as they headed to the Principal's office. They had been waiting for this day ever since school had ended last year, and had been practising for much longer than that. Perhaps, if they hadn't wanted to join Niðavellir, then attaining mahou shoujo status would not be so important to them. But things were what they were, and Sanae had every intention of absolutely smashing it today.

When they got to the Principal's Office, they were still a good fifteen minutes early for their allotted time and there were a large number of students waiting.

"Hey," one of them, a girl with her hair in dark blue plaits demanded. "Are you here for the mahou shoujo tests?"

"I am, yes."

"Do you think you'll pass?"

"I've been practising!" Sanae announced proudly. "So I'm sure of it. I'm sure you will too!"

To Sanae's surprise, the girl glared at them.

"Why would I be testing? You know what the true purpose of these tests are, right?"

Sanae just stared at the girl gormlessly, and it was another student who spoke up. This person appeared to be with the girl with the plaits, and he had a large scar across his face. Sanae had to fight the urge to immediately run through their knowledge of all the injuries that could have possibly caused such a scar.

In any case, the scarred boy looked almost as indignant as the girl with plaits as he hotly declared:

"They're only trying to get more recruits for Niðavellir, that's all!"

His mouth twisted, voice dripping with scorn, and Sanae took a startled step back.

"Oh for the gods' sake, just push off and stop evangelising at us," another student groused. "It's not as if either of you two are mahou shoujo, are you?"

"We are."

This came from two voices in unison, revealed to be two flame-haired girls who looked almost identical. What was more notable was that they looked as if they were half-Norse, rather than some undefined fraction of Norse.

"We are, which is why we're lending our voices to Inoue-sempai." One of the twins said.

"You don't need to join Niðavellir if you don't want to. They're just using you, really." The other said.

Sanae looked at the twins, the plaited girl, and the boy. There were some others who seemed grouped with them, and then the rest of the students appeared to actually be waiting to be called in, like Sanae themselves were. If that's the case, it's not really that many here at all, is it…Sanae swallowed, and then hesitantly said:

"I want to join Niðavellir, as it happens."

"You do?"

Both the students led by the plaited girl and the students who were waiting for tests looked at Sanae in surprise. Then, the plaited girl demanded:

"What can we say to you to make you change your mind?"

"I…I wanted to join last year." Sanae said, their voice growing in determination as they did so. "Unfortunately, I wasn't mahou shoujo last year, so I couldn't. But if something like the Autumn Solstice happens again, they're going to need a healer on team, so I practiced."

The plaited girl tilted her head and stared at Sanae for what felt like a very long time. Two times, she opened her mouth to speak, and then both times she abruptly shut her mouth, her body tensing a little more with each attempt. Finally, on the third attempt, she gave a big sigh and said:

"You might have healed me, actually. I had a broken arm and fingers, and a gash here…"

The plaited girl traced a line across her left hip, and Sanae didn't even have to think about it, blurting out:

"Two gashes, really, one leading into another. They were the biggest ones, though you got pretty cut up everywhere, and bruised too. You scraped yourself while falling, and then fell onto glass, at which point you drifted in and out of consciousness. I think there's still some scarring, right? Even now, the biggest wounds still end up leaving some sort of scar even when I use the most intensive healing."

The plaited girl blinked. Sanae opened her mouth to say something, but the girl waved her off tiredly as she said:

"So it was you. You…looked different though. I assume you were transformed, but…I remember the boy's blazer and that your hair…you tied it up?"

"Oh, yes, I was feeling more masculine more often at the time," Sanae explained. "That's probably it. At the moment, I'm only Shohei-that is, more masculine-when I transform. But how are your injuries?"

"The scar's only faint, though. And my arm…yes, I had to rest it, but they got better in a week, the fingers soon after that."

The plaited girl gave this answer slowly, as if thinking about her answer while saying it. She continued in much the same manner:

"I did have headaches for a while, but they didn't take that long to subside, thinking about it. So, well, I should thank you, really…"

"You're welcome!" Sanae beamed.

The plaited girl shuffled from one foot to the other, vaguely uncomfortable before then shaking herself.

"Well, anyway. Forget that. How could you be joining them? Wanting to join them? Especially after the Autumn Solstice."

Sanae found themselves bristling at that. Especially after the Autumn Solstice. When the dust had settled then, so to speak, Sanae had been sure that they had proved themselves worth despite still only being a mage. They weren't going to pretend that they were solely responsible for the number of lives saved, because that was ridiculous. But when they'd seen Niðavellir spring into action to evacuate as many people as they could, they'd jumped in too. When Niðavellir needed help locating the injured, they'd been one of the first to lend their efforts. When Niðavellir had been trying to do whatever they could for whomever they could before the ambulances got there, Sanae had been one of the ones who'd been able to keep many students stable and alive in time for the real professional care to be delivered. The medical services had commended them, in a certificate that bore both their names. Even Principal Asakura had praised them in a whole-school assembly. Them, as one of many, sure, and only secondary to Niðavellir but even so. Even so.

Yet, even after that, Sanae hadn't been good enough for them, and for no other reason than not yet having been mahou shoujo. The only thing they weren't able to do was transform without a physical amulet, but they had tonnes of those and besides, they felt as if they could confidently wager that the strength of their healing powers were probably comparable to a mahou shoujo healer. The Autumn Solstice had proved that, it had. And yet, they had been turned away.

"I don't know how to answer that." Sanae eventually answered. "But when I pass, I'm joining."

The plaited girl's mouth twisted:

"You know that Niðavellir will only cause more tragedies like the Autumn Solstice, right? Not prevent them?"

"How do you figure that one?" Sanae asked, curiously.

"Inoue-sempai," one of the half-Norse twins said. "Don't waste your time on her. She's clearly not going to listen to us."

Sanae thought of correcting the twin, but decided not to. They were technically presenting as feminine at this moment in time, anyway, so she wasn't wrong, per se.

At that moment, the door opened and a dejected looking boy trailed out. He kept his eyes to the ground, hands shoved tightly in his pockets. He stomped past them, the disappointment coming off him so thickly that nobody dared to call out to him. Sanae felt sorry for the boy, and silently wished for him to do better next time.

Sanae expected Principal Asakura to come to the door, but instead it was a face that they knew very well. Arisa was smiling anyway as she looked down at a sheet and called out another name, but when she looked up to look for the person in question, her eyes met Sanae's and widened briefly, before her smile, too, widened.

"Yasuda…-san? Is that the right honorific to use this time?" she checked.

"Yeah, you can use -san at any time, since it's neutral anyway, right?"

"Got it. Anyway, you'll be next after Tomura-san, alright?"

"Cool! I can't wait!"

The person who was called-who had been the one accusing the plaited girl of 'evangelising' -stepped forward and entered the room. Arisa made to close the door, but then peered at the plaited girl and her group.

"How long are you going to be here?" she asked them. "We'll be testing for quite a while."

"You don't have the right to kick us out!" the plaited girl said immediately. "We have the right to be here!"

"I'm not kicking you out, Inoue-sempai," Arisa said patiently. "But if you're not going to be testing, there's not much point being here."

"Sure there is-peaceful protest!" one of the others said.

"…."

Arisa looked genuinely baffled, which made Sanae feel an odd burst of compassion towards her. It must be really weird being the leader, they thought, second year or not.

The plaited girl, however, showed no such sympathy:

"Protesting against your blatant exploitation. Somebody needs to tell the other students that there's no need for them to join a brutal, obsessive regime just because they've become more powerful. They don't even need to use their powers anymore than what is necessary!"

Arisa looked taken aback, but then she lowered her eyes slightly and sighed softly.

"Inoue-sempai," she said. "I wouldn't ever force anyone to join us if they didn't want to. Or…I suppose I should say, I don't want to force anyone to join us."

"What's that meant to mean?" the plaited girl demanded. "You're the leader, right? So it's down to you whether or not people join, right?"

Arisa opened her mouth as if she was about to explain, but then she was cut off:

"Hiyama-san, do we have a problem?"

Principal Asakura seemed to appear at the door behind Arisa, whose eyes flashed briefly-the only sign she was startled-before she stepped aside and gave Principal Asakura a placid smile.

"None at all," she said, clearly trying for reassuring. "Tomura-san is just coming in."

"Or I will be," Tomura said. "If these people don't stop causing trouble! Can't you get them to go away, sir? It's really getting us down."

Sanae noted with interest that some of the others waiting nodded at this, while others either looked confused or just didn't seem to care. But Principal Asakura nodded seriously and fixed the plaited girl and her friends with a look. One of those friends, the scarred boy, said:

"Principal, we were just talking, that was all."

"Just talking, hmm? Or actively seeking to disrupt the good order of the school?"

"That's.." the plaited girl said. "That's…not….that's…"

"I've heard about you, Inoue-san, and I have to say I am disappointed. Such behaviour, and especially for a third year. You should be focusing on your studies and graduating. You do want to graduate, don't you? It's rather hard for anyone to become a lawspeaker if they don't graduate high school, let alone a grand lawspeaker."

"You can't do that to Inoue-sempai!" one of the twins burst out.

"With all due respect, sir!" the other twin added hurriedly, though she didn't look as if she particularly meant it.

The principal shook his head sadly, too, but he didn't look as if he particularly meant his sadness, either. Indeed, his voice was clipped and imperious as he said:

"It looks less favourable that you're influencing younger students too. Especially those from good families such as the Sasaki twins. "

The twins looked startled to be singled out, but then both narrowed their eyes at Asakura, who added, almost breezily:

"I'm sure your mothers would be disappointed to hear what you've been up to, but I trust you to come to your senses in time. Make better choices in friends."

He then hardened once more as he returned to addressing the plaited girl:

"If you care at all about your future and your life, then I think it's best that you think about your actions and revaluate them. Otherwise you will regret it, and you will only have yourself to blame."

Sanae squinted at the principal, wondering if they were correctly interpreting what he was saying. But then, the Principal turned to Arisa and said:

"Let's not hold up the tests any longer."

"Ah…no, of course."

The principal went back in first, followed by the student who was to be tested. Arisa lingered, looking at all of them with an expression that Sanae couldn't quite interpret. They half expected the plaited girl to say something, or at least one of her friends, but they said nothing. Arisa closed her eyes briefly, then stared at the plaited girl and mouthed sorry, before shutting the door. Sanae stared at the door for a long moment.

"That was an outright threat." The scarred boy said. "Didn't you all hear that? It was a threat!"

Those of the students who were waiting to be tested didn't respond. Indeed, some of them actually turned their heads away. Sanae found that they couldn't do that, even though they wanted to. They still couldn't compute what they had just witnessed. Asakura wasn't exactly the warm and cuddly type. As far as they knew, none of the Asgard Academy principals weren't known for being particularly likeable, but that was easy to live with as long as they weren't cruel.

Sanae couldn't find a way of describing that as anything but cruel though.

"Do you still want to join Niðavellir?"

The plaited girl had said this so quietly that Sanae almost didn't hear her. But when they did, they had to force themselves to look her in the eye. If I'm going to do something that maybe isn't so righteous anymore, I should at least have the courage to look her in the eye, right? Still, it felt like thy had to squeeze the one word out:

"Yes."

The girl flinched, but didn't try to argue with her. That, somehow, was worse. Sanae tried to say something to justify their choice, but knew really there wasn't anything. All they wanted to do was see their ambition through, to make all their hard work mean something. That, they knew, wasn't enough though.

"Come on," the plaited girl eventually said to her friends. "Let's regroup."

"We can still go through with…" one of the twins hesitated. "You know?"

"Yes. Yes, I think so. There's people who would be more intimidated, who have less resource. Yes, come on."

The group left, sparing Sanae no glance. That lack of regard made them feel so very, very small. It was the least they deserved, though. When the group were completely out of sight, Sanae plonked themselves onto the nearest chair, dejected. The only thing they could do now was wait to be called in, and to pass the test to prove they'd become mahou shoujo.

Then, once they'd joined Niðavellir, they'd just have to hope they were able to live with themselves.

…

Arisa was more than relieved when the last student finished their testing (unsuccessfully) and she was able to leave. Most of the students had been unsuccessful, still proving they were mages rather than mahou shoujo. Of the ones who were mahou shoujo though, only one had shown any interest in joining, and sounded as if they had been thinking about it for a long time. Sanae Yasuda hadn't put their name down on the interest sheet during club recruitment on the first day, though, which was surprising, but not such a big deal. The main thing was that they were getting one more member, which was better than no new members.

Not according to Principal Asakura, though, Arisa thought as she checked her phone and walked towards Niðavellir's quarters. She hadn't been able to escape his little lecture after the last student had gone. If she were to believe him, the lack of interest as well as the lack of new mahou shoujo students were a sign of society's decline, of today's youth being lazy, entitled and disrespectful. Then there was the little display with Fukiko and the students she assumed to be the older girl's friends.

I'll have to find a way to apologise to them, won't I?

She could not go directly against his orders, not as such, but that didn't mean that she couldn't show where she stood. Asakura had talked about that, too, reminding her that they had to protect the school by any means necessary. And she didn't agree that the way he'd threatened Fukiko and the others was justified but …by any means necessary-just what did that mean, really? What should it mean? It was occurring to her that as the Niðavellir leader, she had the responsibility of finding those answers.

"And a missing student apparently," she muttered to herself, slowing as she started catching up with the back-and-forth on the group chat as well as messages from both Kenjiro and Chika. "Alright, let's see where Jeff-kun is…"

Still scrolling through her phone, she kept walking, but then the comfortingly familiar sound of Kenjiro's voice caught her attention. Not because it was his, and it was comforting, and it was familiar, but because of the edge it had acquired. Still even-keeled, but the edge could not be missed.

"So you're saying that you have been intimidating a student, pushing him around, vandalising his property and you can't comprehend why he might have possibly tried to protect himself from that."

When Arisa turned the corner and saw Kenjiro, he even looked sharper too. He was unsmiling, though his expression was reasonable enough. But even though she was still some distance from to her it was clear that his eyes had become the storm lurking over an ocean. And of course, he focused on the small group he was confronting with the same intensity he used when casting his magic. It was satisfying to see how they squirmed underneath the scrutiny.

"S-sempai, you're making it sound worse than it was!"

"Explain."

"I…we were just messing around! Banter, you know! Jokes!"

"Yeah, it isn't our problem if he couldn't take a joke!"

"Besides, he should be able to take a little roughing around, he's from the Asakura Longhouse! Unless he's just lying about that to make himself look good. But anyway, man, it was just a joke, you know how it is, right? Doesn't that reaper chick tease you all the time? I've heard her and man, she is a-"

Arisa knew that Kenjiro would have it perfectly in hand, but she decided now would be the right time to step in. Though honestly, this was one of the times she wished that Chika was here to dispense some of her outlandish threats and scare the absolute crap out of these kids.

"You do know that a joke is only a joke if all the people involved are laughing, don't you?"

The first-year students jumped, but Kenjiro only gave her a calm look. He didn't quite smile as she came right up to them, but his eyes lightened slightly.

"Takenaka-kun," she said, opting not to use his nickname in front of these students. "I might be wrong, but does this matter have something to do with our missing student?"

"It does, yes." Kenjiro said.

"Could you give me a run-down of the situation here, then?" Arisa asked mildly. "It sounds like these students are guilty of some pretty serious things."

"Hold on-"

"I didn't ask you." Arisa said sharply.

The students' eyes widened, and a few looked at each other with bug-eyed looks. A couple had gone pale, and Arisa clamped down on the remorse as she said:

"I will ask you, in time. But first I want to listen to Takenaka-kun."

She fixed the students with the best commanding look she could give, and thankfully it seemed to work. There were a couple of mutterings, but the mutterers were elbowed by the other students into silence. When she was satisfied, she turned to Kenjiro, and allowed herself to smile slightly at him.

"Takenaka-kun, when you're ready."

"Sure thing, Hiyama-chan."

Kenjiro immediately launched into an account of what the group of students had told him-essentially, that they had zoned in on Týr Minoru Endo being 'weird' as well as the fact he had a special status as someone from the Asakura Longhouse, and decided to pick on him for it. This had culminated in them knocking him over in the corridor, taking his sketchbook and throwing it around until it was almost battered. It was at this point that Týr Minoru Endo had retaliated, but not directly at them. Instead, he'd cast a protection rune in the air to claim back his sketchbook, at which point he'd bolted.

Arisa knew from the messages that she'd just caught up on that the boy hadn't come back to school for the rest of the day, but he had returned to the longhouse before disappearing again that night. Still, she didn't think that these students needed to know that. It was obvious that the bullying Týr had endured was one of the reasons he had run away.

Slowly, she turned to them:

"What can you possibly say to explain yourself?" she asked.

"I…that's…that's just…." One stuttered.

"We didn't mean it that bad!" another protested.

"Yeah, like, normal people don't just run away when they get teased like a little bit."

"It wasn't a little bit, though, was it? Every possible moment for the entire week is hardly a 'little bit'." Kenjiro said. "How do you think that would have felt for him?"

"Well, if he can't handle a little bit of heat then why is he in this school?"

For a moment, Arisa's vision flashed red, but when the glare of it subsided then suddenly, she was suffused with a cold feeling of clarity.

"If you can't handle being told you behaved dishonourably," she said slowly. "Then perhaps you should be asking yourself why you're in this school."

The first-year students gawped at her, and she continued:

"Do you really think that picking on somebody who is weaker than you makes you seem stronger? Do you think harming the kinds of people you're meant to look out for makes you look like a hero? No, no-"

She stopped and held her hand out as though she were stopping them from interrupting, although they still hadn't said a word. A part of her felt a little squeamish at what she was going to say next. I don't want to be like Principal Asakura, not completely. But in this case…

"No need to give me an answer now. I am sure you'll be thinking about it in the meantime. However, let me ask you this: are you aware that you may have been the last people to have seen him alive?"

"What?" about three of them shriek-gasped.

"What do you mean, last to see him alive? Do you mean…do you mean he may have like…offed himself or something?"

"Or something." Arisa repeated. "Or something. How do you think it would look if he was found dead, and it was known that the last interaction he had with anybody was with you, pushing him to the brink? And that this was part of a pattern? What conclusion do you think we would draw from that, hmmm?"

"We didn't do anything!" one protested immediately.

"Yes, well, I think we've established that's not quite right, don't you?"

Arisa had to work really hard to make sure her voice did not shake and falter, and that she herself did not shake or falter. She crossed her arms, and stared them down. The students looked at each other uncomfortably, some of them elbowing each other and giving each other looks. Eventually, one of them asked tremulously:

"Are you going to call the police?"

"We're going to try and find him first, if we can," Arisa said. "Hopefully alive. But if not…"

"Hiyama-chan, perhaps they can help us?" Kenjiro interjected.

Arisa turned to him, trying to ignore her thudding heart, grateful to him for the interjection, even if she wasn't quite sure where it was going to lead.

"How do you suggest they help?"

"If they want to…redeem themselves, and prove their innocence," Kenjiro suggested. "Then perhaps they can help form a search party. We'll put a Niðavellir member at the head of each search-group, of course. They can't be let off any sanctions for what they did do, of course, but we can be fair and give them a chance to prove that they did not directly cause Endo-kun's disappearance."

"What if we say no?" one of the students asked.

"Oi, don't be an idiot!" another retorted before either Arisa or Kenjiro could say anything. "Do you want to get arrested for murder or some shit like that?"

"But they don't actually have the power to like, arrest us?"

"No," Arisa interjected, again thinking by any means necessary, by any means necessary. "But who do you think will be going to the police if that proves to be necessary? And what do you think the police will be told-what will that look like to them? I know what it looks like to me."

She waited, and flicked a glance at Kenjiro. He'd returned to looking impassive, but when he noticed her looking, he gave her a brief nod. Arisa nodded back, bolstered. Perhaps this still wasn't quite right. It would certainly not make the likes of Fukiko put any faith in Niðavellir, not if they were to find out about such a thing.

But this was different, it had to be. These students had actually caused harm, and needed to be shown that. A student was still in potential danger and had to be protected. And that was Niðavellir's duty: to protect, by any means necessary. Still, it did not stop her heart from beating as, after another long pause, she turned to the students and asked:

"Well then. The choice is yours. What will it be?"

---

The lines in Old Norse that Haru recited in Kotone's scene are from the Völuspá, from the Poetic Edda. The translation I used was a mixture of the one on Wikipedia and another that was on a website called 'Norse Mythology for Smart People'.

A couple of other things. First, a term for Scandinavia in this universe is just 'The Norse Regions' or sometimes 'The Norse Countries' and as such, the people get referred to as being Norse, though whether they're from Iceland or Norway or whatever also gets specified where relevant. Anyway, mixed-race people are a little more common in this universe's Japan, though not by much, and most of that mix is with Norse people of some variety. However, it's not that likely that members of Arisa's generation are half Norse. What is much, much more commonplace for this generation is that one of their parents is half-Norse, or that a grandparent is half-Norse. Or if not that, that just generally it is known there's a Norse person somewhere in the family tree. This gets reflected in naming conventions-a lot of people will have Norse or Norse-influenced given names and Japanese surnames, and occasionally vice versa, but you also have a good number of people whose names follow the Norse (Icelandic) patronymic naming system-just using Japanese names instead of Norse (Icelandic) names. Hence some of the somewhat unusual names a lot of the side characters have. Even Minoru's first name being Tyr is an example of this.

Anyway, as always, hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you want, please leave me a review :)