Azul had to fight the twitch on his face when he saw the admittedly adorable (and anatomically correct) octopus and eels on the menu. There were also very familiar sea shells on each of the four corners of the menu, and what appeared to be sea weed acting as the borders.

"Why the sea creatures?" he asked finally.

"You said yourself that the lounge is heavily themed towards the Benevolent Sea witch," she replied. "I looked up her story and tried to fit the theme without making it look too ridiculous. Besides, you haven't noticed the fun part of the eels."

"Fun part?" he repeated.

Kiseki picked up one of the spare menus...and proceeded to move the sea creatures to another spot.

"People's eyes are drawn to bright colors, and unusual images. You can use the eels to highlight specials of the day without being too obvious about it, and the octopus to draw attention to items you want to promote more than others."

Azul looked intrigued at the idea.

"That makes some sense, I suppose."

"I also assumed you eventually want to expand to include items geared towards women. The animals are attractive enough to get their attention and cute enough that they'd be inclined to spend far more money on the more expensive items and drinks," explained Kiseki. "There's another reason I included the animals, but I figured you would rather have the restaurant up and running for a while before implementing it."

"Oh?"

Kiseki grinned.

"Well, I thought we could use the animals to draw customers to certain items and specials on a mobile app. People our age are often on their phones and with an app they can order something ahead and pick it up for when the lounge is too busy or crowded for them to enjoy their meal. It would also allow people to pick up something to share with their dates outside the lounge...at a higher price, of course."

Azul was openly delighted at the idea. All these ideas sounded highly marketable, and she was sharing them for free.

Vil had a rather bemused look on his face when Azul flat out told him that if anything happened in Pomefiore and she had to find a new dorm, he'd happily claim her for his own.


Kiseki was used to being tired for long periods of time, but never this bad. For reasons she never understood, she had periods of odd energetic bursts since coming to Night Raven followed by such absolute lows that she couldn't even move.

It all came to a head during Professor Trein's after hours lessons that she had signed up for. One moment she was barely awake, the next she blacked out with no memory of anything else.

In the Nurse's office

Trein had levitated the female student to the infirmary immediately after she passed out, and there was no success in waking her.

The doctor took one look at her, before casting a few diagnostic spells. He went pale, and Trein knew this wasn't just a case of a student overexerting themselves while studying.

Seeing her look so pale, and being completely comatose would worry anyone.

Vil and Rook arrived shortly after being informed of Kiseki blacking out.

"What. Happened."

"She has mana deficiency," said the doctor.

"What?" said Vil confused.

"I thought that had phased out centuries ago?" asked Trein.

"It's rare, but fortunately it's something that she can grow out of," said the doctor.

"I don't understand. What's mana deficiency?" asked Vil.

"Mana deficiency happens when someone who is born with a large magical core is raised in an environment that is unable to support it. According to her records, miss Midoriya grew up in the non-magical realms, which means she had to sustain her magical heritage without any outside influence. It's like throwing someone dying of thirst into a large lake with no warning. Her core is being overwhelmed due to no longer being the only source of magic to sustain it."

Vil mulled this over.

"What needs to be done?"

"The best solution is to let her sleep," said the doctor simply.

"Sleep?" said Vil.

"The issue is that her body isn't used to absorbing mana from outside sources. She will likely fall into deep sleep patterns that will last for days at a time while her body slowly readjusts. Fortunately she should be able to outgrow the issue once it corrects itself."

Vil looked displeased hearing that.

"Is there any other method?"

"There is one, but it requires someone of a similar bloodline and heritage donating their magic. With her heritage, I wouldn't recommend it," said the doctor.

"How so?" asked Rook, curious.

"The odds of finding someone of a similar bloodline are almost nonexistent...and if you did, chances are you would be unable to contact them before the issue resolves itself."

"How long will she be in a coma for?" asked Vil.

"Three days at the most."

Vil transferred her to her dorm, and placed a special barrier around the door. The doctor had assured him that while in her comatose state, she would not require food or water. He covered her up properly and let her sleep it off.

Three days later...

Kiseki was very wide eyed as Vil patiently explained her condition, and how she would need to alert the teachers ahead of time so that they could give her any homework or tests separate from the other students.

Having a legitimate medical condition was one of the few reasons that a teacher would show leniency about homework being turned in late.

She went to the doctor so she knew what sort of signs to look for, and what it meant.


Kiseki reached the pop music club room ahead of the others, mostly because she didn't have as many responsibilities.

Kalim was a housewarden, Lilia was a vice housewarden, and Cater heavily helped out with his dorm to keep the peace due to his tyrant of a housewarden.

She was sketching when Lilia entered and nearly gave her a heart attack. To be fair, he did seem to enjoy sneaking up on people.

"What are you drawing?" he asked.

Kiseki squeaked, before she calmed down upon realizing it was just Lilia. After a moment she passed him the sketchbook she had.

Inside was a rough sketch of a fairy. Not a high fae like Malleus or Lilia, but one of the smaller ones that kept the place running.

"Is that one of the little ones from the dorms?"

"He's the one in charge of the fireplace in my dorm, I think," she admitted. "He was rather nice when I politely asked if I could draw him, since the others are often busy."

Lilia hummed and after a moment went to look at the other sketches. Kiseki didn't mind, since none of the other students had shown any inclination to destroy her things like Bakugo used to.

He paused at one of the more detailed sketches. The picture was of Cater in one of his more unguarded moments, playing an instrument and completely in the moment.

Lilia gave her a gentle, if knowing grin.

"You have a crush on Cater, don't you?"

Kiseki squeaked, her face flushed red.

Lilia chuckled. Especially since he sensed Cater was right outside the door with Kalim.

"How did you..."

"You've clearly spent more time on this one than the rest, among other things," said Lilia.

There were several of Vil, but the one of Cater had more emotion poured into it. It was clear whoever drew it had put a lot of love and care into the subject.

Kiseki was absolutely mortified. She didn't know how or when she developed her slight crush on Cater, just that she saw him as more than an 'older brother' figure like she did most of the boys she interacted with. Though in Lilia's case it was more of a 'favored uncle' than a brother.

Lilia handed her back the sketchpad, and Kiseki was glad he didn't mention anything to Cater about her slight crush.

Either way, Cater kept the conversation in the back of his mind.


A few days later...

"So you want to try and convince a few more students to join the Pop Music Club?" said Vil.

"Think of it this way... it's your best chance to convince Kiseki-chan into a makeover. I know I can't be the only one dying to know what she looks like under those bangs," said Cater.

Vil paused. He wasn't wrong. He had spoken to her about the fact she kept her bangs so long as it wasn't a very appealing look. Considering her health issue, he had let it drop but he had directed her to better products so her hair didn't have nearly as many split ends.

"When is your next meeting?" he asked seriously.

Kiseki squeaked when Cater showed up with Vil to give the club a makeover to attract new members. To be fair, Lilia's performance had scared off a good number of people and the only new members they had that year were her and Kalim.

Vil debated on who to work on first, before settling on the lone female.

"Let's see what we have to work with. I highly doubt your face is that hideous," said Vil.

Kiseki wilted, but relented as Vil moved her bangs out of her face with a brush and a hair tie he had on hand. She had to blink a bit because of the influx of light.

"Why are you staring at me like that? I know my face is plain and boring, but I didn't think it would cause a model to be stunned speechless," she said quietly.

Vil was staring in utter disbelief. Then when he regained his wits he said something that would change her life more than it already had upon learning she had magic.

"Lilia...out of curiosity is Malleus an only child?" he asked with an odd note in his voice.

"His only biological family is his grandmother," replied Lilia with absolute certainty.

He knew his question had given all of them a great deal of curiosity. So in lieu of explanation, Vil simply moved out of the way so the others could see her face properly.

Lilia went absolutely rigid with shock. It had been some time since something had caught him this flat footed.

Even Cater was too stunned to take a picture.

"What? Is there something on my face or something?" she asked confused.

With her bangs no longer in the way, her inhuman features could be clearly seen. She had sharp, piercing green eyes that glowed from an inner fire, slightly tanned skin from all the time she spent outside, and an inhuman beauty. Closer inspection revealed that her ears had a slight point to them, and her nose was sharply defined.

In short, she looked almost identical to Diasomnia's housewarden Malleus Draconia. Which should be impossible.

Kiseki was clearly uncomfortable with all the odd attention to her. This was why she had hidden her face...she hated the way Bakugo would target her more than usual and the other girls hadn't hesitated to mock her about her appearance to try and earn his favor.

Needless to say the planned makeover was derailed in favor of a far more interesting mystery.

Kiseki looked absolutely miserable, as Vil refused to let her hide behind her bangs until this was resolved.

"Sit still," he said firmly as he adjusted her hair. While he had no issue with her having long hair, the split ends had been driving him nuts for a while now.

She tried not to fidget.

"Is it really that surprising that I look like this...Malleus...person?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Considering he's the heir of a powerful magical kingdom and the future king of the Briar Valley, yes. At the very least now we know why you were even allowed to enroll here. Faeries are considered gender neutral, even if they happen to favor one form over the other."

And there was zero doubts she had faerie heritage... especially with those looks.

"And done," said Vil.

Kiseki looked in the mirror and had trouble believing it was her staring back. She was so used to hiding her looks she had almost forgotten what she looked like.

"Roi du Poison, they're here," said Rook.

"Stand straight. You are a member of Pomefiore and I won't tolerate slouching," said Vil.

Kiseki did her best, but it didn't help her nervousness much. This was going to be incredibly awkward.