Situated in the better parts of Wellston Town up north, the hospital boasted state-of-the-art facilities and multiple wings which could easily cater to thousands of patients at a time. This was of course a necessity - it wouldn't do to have lacking medical facilities in a society which encouraged violence as the first solution and reasonable conversation second.

The building itself was made from robust white marble and interspersed with blots of green windows. It was of a blocky design, shaped like something I imagined a honeybee might construct if they were into building with squares and rectangles instead of hexagons.

I stood in front of the hospital's information desk, tapping my foot impatiently as a nurse checked over the security roll to see if I had permission to enter. At first, I'd checked the school infirmary, but it turned out that Dr. Darren was on leave today and the nurses couldn't handle Ventus' case so he was carted off to the Wellston Hospital further uphill.

"I'm sorry, but you've been barred from visiting this particular patient," the nurse explained calmly. She turned the laptop around to show me a list of blacklisted visitors - my name and face proudly smiling among them.

"That's ridiculous. Why can't I visit? I'm his friend," I claimed, lying through my teeth.

The nurse sputtered and almost started laughing at my words. "What kind of friend would give their buddy a skull fracture and concussion? Before he went to sleep, the kid specifically asked us to bar you from visiting him. Short, golden hair, nasty expression; does this picture remind you of anyone?" She gestured at the monitor.

"I am not short!" I scowled immediately.

"Sure, kid. Keep telling yourself that."

She smirked, calling over one of the guards to escort me out. I let him gently pull me away from the information desk instead of brutally lashing out at him because I didn't want to start a fight in the hospital. The coarse fabric of his uniform chafed against my arms as I was led outside.

"Don't come back!" The info desk nurse called after me. "This isn't your first time hospitalizing Ventus - and yes, he's been here enough times that I know him by name now! I'd appreciate it if you dial down your fights whenever your school doctor is out of the office, so we can save the beds for our other patients!"

"He'll be back by tomorrow!" I shouted back in response. "Tell him to pull his head out of his ass and stop trying to challenge me if you want him to stay out!"

Once outside, I just sort of stood there and contemplated what I was going to do next.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. From what I could remember of the canonical story, Ventus was supposed to become my subordinate. It had been far too long, but what little I remembered about Ventus suggested he was some kind of goon who acted as an attack dog for me. He and another girl - I would eventually order them to provoke the protagonist. What was I doing wrong? And more importantly, what did the original Arlo do in the intervening years to make Ventus so loyal to him?

Either way, I couldn't just leave without finding Ventus. I'd already made the journey to the hospital; I had to at least make it worth my time coming and throw him the apology, otherwise, Rei would badger me endlessly and I didn't want to deal with that.

The outside of the hospital was thankfully clear of guards, so I ran around the back and started scanning the windows; the nurse had refused to give me his room number, so I could only manually search for him by peering into each window. The one saving grace was the fact that I knew Ventus had to be in the South Wing. It was usually reserved for brawling students - a common enough occurrence that they'd built a dedicated wing.

After sweeping most of the rooms on the ground floor, I started looking into the second-floor rooms. Taking a deep breath, I concentrated and materialized a series of thin, two-dimensional barriers beneath my feet, creating what were effectively floating stairs for me to run up.

The airwalking enabled me to reach eye level of each second-floor room, and as I ran around the length of the hospital, more footholds materialized for me to step on. I couldn't help but slow down though I continued to search and climbed higher. The ground beneath me began to look increasingly precarious, especially as the wind picked up and made me wobble on the reflective golden panes beneath my feet.

Fortunately, ten minutes of searching later, I spotted my target's purple hair leaning against the window in a corner room on the third floor. A large gauze bandage was wrapped around his head, and he seemed to be reading a book of some kind as he basked in the sunlight.

You could imagine his surprise when I tapped against the window and tore out the frame to get access to his room.

"I'm here to apologize!" I announced cheerfully.

Ventus scrambled backwards in shock.

Cecile had ambition.

Unlike the low and mid-tier dregs who just wasted their days away, or the elite tiers who'd grown content with their place in the hierarchy, Cecile yearned for more. She wanted to be powerful. She wanted to gain influence, make a name for herself, rise through the ranks of society - a delusion that had rapidly become reality after starting school in Wellston High.

Through some stroke of fortune, the current King of Wellston turned out to be a bleeding heart and decided to go against the hierarchy, deliberately picking younger and weaker students to represent the Royals as Queen and Jack in a vain attempt to give the lower tiers hope of representation.

Of course, that wasn't to say that she and Arlo were weak by any means - they were both elite tiers and the best of the incoming batch of new students; their weakness was only relative to the older juniors and seniors who'd trained for years longer and craved a position as Royals - a position with Rei denied them.

While Rei dealt with the backlash of his decision, Cecile was furiously training herself to prepare for the inevitable challenges that would be thrown her way. Most people held back for now out of respect for Rei's strength, but they'd pounce on her the moment he graduated in the spring.

Arlo's case was unexpected though. Rei seemed to tacitly allow Ventus to challenge Arlo unbeknownst to him, and when she'd approached her King in private to ask why, Rei simply laughed it off and explained that he wanted Arlo to befriend Ventus. It wasn't her place to question Rei, so Cecile simply kept quiet about it.

She shuffled through another stack of photos displaying Ventus' broken face with a sigh, scanning them into her laptop and zooming in on the injuries. Caved-in nose, light bruising - maybe even a broken leg, she hummed idly as she worked, cataloguing the injuries and wondering about what she should write this time. Arlo wants me to humiliate him. What to do this time…

Maybe a more serious bent this time would be good. She could really dig into the humiliating aspect of the fight and Ventus' helplessness.

Cecile cropped out the injuries and pasted them together with a photo of Arlo stepping on his foe's head, adjusting the placement of the pictures to draw attention to the severity of Ventus' injuries. Arlo's spotless face and dustless uniform only helped highlight just how lopsided the fight was. There. That's perfect.

She was just about to start typing out the article's contents when someone placed their hands on her shoulder, pulling her backwards. Cecile grit her teeth and tried not to react.

"Him again?" Her supervisor commented snidely. Namida peered at Cecile's laptop from over her shoulder, leaning in for a closer look at the subject of the image. "Is he your boyfriend or something? How come your articles focus on him so often?"

Cecile tried to ignore the way Namida emphasized the word boyfriend, but she still fumed internally. Hypocrite. I don't want to hear that from someone who does the same for their boyfriend.

"It's just a small favor," she replied airily, although she made a mental note to reduce the focus on Ventus in the latest issue. "Arlo's annoyed that Ventus keeps challenging him and wants me to help put a stop to it. People seem to like the articles too, which is why I kept doing them."

Left unsaid was the fact that Arlo promised her a favor in return. She could call it in anytime, anywhere, for anything. Given that it was coming from the future King of Wellston, Cecile thought it was a pretty good deal, especially since it didn't take much effort on her part.

Namida frowned. "Cut the fights out. It's getting repetitive, and people don't want to see Ventus' ugly mug anymore."

"People think they're funny," Cecile protested. She tabbed out and showed Namida the polls on the previous article - many had found the images of Arlo beating Ventus quite humorous, especially given the golden bubble he wore on his head. It was her finest work to date - 'Martian beats disobedient lower tier,' she'd titled it.

"Are you not listening to me?" Her supervisor stared at her. "I said remove the images."

Bitch.

Namida was only doing this because her boyfriend lost his position as Jack to Arlo. Like a whining baby, he'd come running to Namida to complain about Rei's mismanagement of the hierarchy, and now Cecile was left to deal with the consequences of his inability.

Cecile hated it. Why couldn't people just go deal with their own problems instead of slapping them onto others? If Namida attacked Arlo over it, Cecile could at least respect her a little. Instead, Namida was taking it out on the newest member of the Journalism Club just because she decided to write a few articles about Arlo.

Not to mention… Cecile was the Queen. She felt indignant just thinking about how Namida treated her. Too bad you're not strong enough to back up the title, some nasty part of her mind whispered.

Cecile was tempted not to speak up because she didn't have the strength to defy Namida and her boyfriend Arthur, a high-tier and former Jack. Unlike him, she didn't earn her position through merit, and her status as Queen was entirely social rather than martial. Against the younger and weaker students, Cecile could still use her position as Queen to cow them, but it was impossible to do the same in this situation.

She weighed the consequences in her head. Arlo wanted her to publicise the images of Ventus' defeats; Arlo was the current Jack, and given his rate of growth, very likely the next King after Rei left. Failing to do one simple task for him wouldn't reflect well on her. On the other hand, Namida's boyfriend was a current high-tier. Cecile didn't want to offend either party. Who should she listen to?

One favor huh?

She pursed her lips. You better deliver on that fucking favor Arlo.

"The images are staying." Cecile looked Namida right in the eyes coolly, having made up her mind. "Have a problem with it?"

Namida made to strike her but Cecile was already prepared and anticipated her attack, dozens of glowing green vines materializing from the air and lashing her skinny form viciously. She snapped rigidly against the wall like a plank, pinned and bound so tightly that she couldn't even attempt to struggle. Her mouth was bound with a vine, so Namida could only whimper in fear as Cecile stepped closer, hands raised and eyes glowing with eerie purple light.

"Don't forget your place in the hierarchy," Cecile whispered viciously. "I might only be Queen in name for now, but my ability level is still higher than yours."

Cecile let the vine on Namida's mouth linger, moving it upward and covering her nose as well. As she strained against her bindings and her breathing grew increasingly panicked at the lack of air, Cecile couldn't help but feel a rush of adrenaline at the power she held over her supervisor.

It was a heady, delightful feeling that tingled her skin and made goosebumps appear. Cecile breathed in, almost like she was inhaling Namida's fear, and tossed her to the ground roughly.

"I don't want to hear about this from your boyfriend," she warned. It was useless to tell Namida that, but Cecile still hoped she might be deterred from tattling for a few days. "You won't like what will happen if I find out you snitched on me."

Cecile watched Namida struggle to her feet and stumble away in fear, unsure if she'd done the right thing. Rei would protect her from Arthur's wrath if necessary, but that was a nuclear option Cecile didn't want to touch because it would further demonstrate her weakness and undermine her authority after he left. I need to talk to Arlo.