Lycèe De Cinq Flèsches
After a week of tests with Julia and going under a trial of hypnotism, it was rather strange being put under an induced sleep to see what the recess of the mind would reveal. Nothing seemed to have surfaced quickly. Merely the same images from before and a terrible headache right after.
"Well, Konella, not sure where to go from here, but it seems your mind is quite foggy." Julia leaned in her chair while holding every test result in hand. "I'm more curious to know your past more than I expected…"
"Story of my life…" tired of the failed attempts and wondering if it was ever going to reveal any truth for me, I sighed and decided to end this here. "Julia, as much as I appreciate the assistance, this is getting me nowhere."
"It takes time to—"
"Time that I may have, but you don't. Trying to uncover my own past for 60 years now and I've barely scraped the surface. Haji is getting suspicious to where I have been taking off as of late doing these sessions, and this does not look good on my end with David's watchful eye."
"I see…" she knew better now as her eyes were downcast. "Then I will just monitor from the sidelines and see if you need me."
"Alright." A simple agreement, I left the hospital and returned to Omoro when I learned that we were to leave here almost immediately.
From Omoro to a large ship, we headed our course following a lead towards Diva's location. We were to head to the battlegrounds of Vietnam. David and Luis didn't speak to me often, only when Haji and Saya were near, and any and all information would be told to me through Haji. I found it strange we would be heading to the grounds of war, but from my understanding it was to trigger Saya's memory. Unfortunately for myself, it triggered mine as well from the horrors that took place here.
"Konella," hearing Haji and turning to face him, he was not with Saya for once on this trip. I found it almost unnerving considering he hasn't left her side for a single moment since leaving Japan. "David and the others have something to discuss with you." Feeling nervous being with David in a room, I nodded and started heading there when Haji stopped me.
"Are you alright," he asked. His hand pressed lightly on my face, I was comforted knowing he still cared of me, but a chill nonetheless creeping in by the man I was going to be questioned by.
"Yes," answering quickly, he seemed to not believe me and went to speak more when I felt someone's eyes boring at my back. "Looks like their waiting, I have to go." Feeling bad turning my back on him, I went to the room just down the hall of the ship where they wanted me to meet. Seeing it wasn't just David in the room, but also Julia and Luis and Saya as well?
"Good of you to come," Luis spoke up and pulled out a seat beside Saya. "We have a question for you Konella," he waited till I sat down before they handed me a file. I was a bit thrown off from how much they were speaking with me considering they didn't involve me with much of anything. Saya seemed just as surprised being here and was also handed an identical file.
"Can you go with Saya to this school to find out some information for us?" David asked. I became slightly wary as I turned the file over and looked at what they needed and questioned it immensely.
"A school?"
"Yes." David walked to the whiteboard and pointed at several pictures they'd taped up. "There are several instances to which our intel tracks a particular shipping container here at this location. Though it is a girl's boarding school, there seems to be a warehouse there of some kind distributing wine called Chateau Duel."
"Wine being exported from a boarding school is rather odd." Speaking clearly as I read the files, Saya seemed lost in thought trying to follow along before I saw the image of the bottle and felt familiar with the label.
I feel like I've seen this before…but not like this. My thoughts running amuck as I continued listening to what they wanted from me, it was decided that Saya and I would enroll into this boarding school and gather inside information as much as possible.
"I'll give it my best!" Saya seemed eager to please as I looked her way to see if the short time we've spent together would show our bond. She looked at me with a smile and seemed more at ease now than before, which helped my case greatly. "Let's do this together, Konella." Speaking in tongue of an order as she faced David and the others, I nodded with contempt that seemed submissive to them all.
"Good. We'll handle the paperwork to get you both in. I will hand you different objectives to look over before you enter the school."
"Sounds like a plan." Waiting for Saya's move before leaving the room, she finally got up after speaking with Julia for a short while and I was able to finally breathe easy.
"Konella, wait."
Saya took hold of my arms gently, still unsure of our relationship, she seemed nervous about something.
"What troubles you?" Asking as nice as possible without showing too much expression, she looked around and saw there was no one around first before talking.
"It's about this mission. Do you think we'll be in danger at all? What about Kai and Riku?"
Trying to be understanding, to give her reassurance of any and all choices she's making, it was quite difficult. I on more than one occasion questioned her, and everyone here.
"I'll be with you inside the school. Take things at your own pace and leave any dangerous task to me or Haji to deal with. David will consider your feelings as well on this mission."
"…it's nice knowing I'm not alone in this."
"You've never been alone." A little harsh, but she didn't mind my tone and seemed to smile to my words. "Just do what you can and feel free to speak your mind. Haji and I are by your side, there is nothing you need to be afraid of."
"Thank you, that means a lot."
"Before we are enrolled, I took note that the school is rather prestigious and classifies a high standing. Let me show you some proper etiquette to memorize before we meet any of the staff and students there."
"Are you familiar with that?" She seemed baffled, but I couldn't help but smirk knowing more of this lifestyle than Haji.
"In all my travels with Haji, I am best suited to teach you the ways of the upper class. Let us begin."
Saya and I were dressed in gray traditional uniformed clothing as we were briefed of our objectives. The car ride was rather long, but as Saya and I practiced our proper mannerisms and what we would do when there, it was evident that this mission seemed to be taken on high priority.
"We're here," David spoke as he drove through the gates of the boarding school and circled the entrance to the drop off. He said nothing as we got out and took our luggage to the bel-boy we saw waving at us.
"Saya look," pointing to the entrance and seeing a tall woman with the straightest of posture and a sharp figure, I concluded she was the head mistress of the school. "Saya, please keep up your posture and appearance of a young noble woman." Whispering to her as the head mistress of this school would soon come and greet us, she nodded nervously and clasped her hands together tight. "No worries Saya, I'm with you." Trying to not only ease her worries, I was also repeating in my head that this mission will be successful as long as I kept up appearances. Just follow the objective and be done with this mission quickly.
She gave a shy grin as the head mistress had come walking over. Her straight posture and way she discerned gave me all I needed to know that she would not tolerate anything out of her rule book. She called for the bel-boy to take our bags to our assigned rooms as she also held a clipboard in hand that she seemed to be looking at quite often while staring at the both of us repeatedly. We started off with a small tour led by her and it was awkward as I thought it'd be.
With each step I took I kept having this feeling like I've indeed been here once before. The surroundings looked both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Yet the sensation I was feeling when walking through the halls got me irritated as well. There was no color on the walls that made the school seem special. The art that was placed were nothing to gawk at, and though I knew better than to feel irritated at a place I have never stepped foot in, something was grating my nerves about it nonetheless. The mistress was apparently speaking to me and her crackling voice broke my stupor and faced the angry woman head on.
"Did you hear me," the mistress repeated herself, supposedly, since I looked up and found her looking right at me with narrowed eyes that would cut you. Saya seemed worried for a moment, but I passed it off by giving the mistress a harmless smile and nodded.
"I heard you head mistress," speaking politely as possible, I kept my head bowed slightly. "I was taking in the scenery of this garden you grow here in the courtyard. We are honored to come here to such a beautiful school." Flattery getting me somewhere with this cold woman, she rummaged her papers on her clipboard and furrowed her brow deeply.
"Hmm," raising an eyebrow and looking back to me, she cleared her throat. "Ms. Brooks, before seeing to you two I had come across an odd file I wish to bring up." She handed the file to me and I was frozen. "In our record books it shows that you have registered here once before. Be that impossible, but this is what I found." She laughed through her nose and pushed her glasses back up. "The picture there is unmistakable." She leered at me for answers, but the picture stunned me.
It was me—had to be. But the date this was done was far too long ago—the date being 1920; that was 84 years ago. And this school was founded in 1901. The picture seemed rather aged but not likely to enroll into a school. And since traveling with Haji off and on for the last 60 years and the timeline of 'enrollment' she has here, it doesn't add up. I looked at it carefully and noticed it wasn't the enrollment for the school, but the winery that seemed to have been here back then as an employee. I was a worker here…and this was my file.
"Konella," Saya looked at the file over my shoulder and gasped softly. "Is this you?" She whispered so the mistress wouldn't hear, but I knew that this was me, no question. Merely longer hair in the photo to my mid-length hair I have now. Younger too. I looked at the birth date and found I was just 19 years of age when I was hired.
Clearing my throat and looking back up as she was still waiting for answers, I smiled and handed the file back regretfully. "Miss Head Mistress this must be one of my relatives. I would be quite old coming here and trying to enroll as a student." She seemed skeptical of the words I used, but she nodded to the possibility, though reluctant to believe it so.
"Be that as it may, having the same name is quite odd. And to look identical in the photo, even if a relative, this is quite curious." She commented.
"My mother gave me her mother's name and so forth…it is tradition in my family." Sweating a little trying to veer the woman off this trail, making up such a lie on the spot was not easy. But it was like unlocking a hidden door to my life that I became jittery to find more.
"Hmm…I will make the necessary changes…" not at all convinced somehow, I worry of my time here at the school and what I can discover here with her being nosy on me. "I will show you both to your dorms. Follow me."
Being led to separate dorms and finding this situation unlikable, I browsed the room for a bit to find my roommate to be quite a wealthy girl. Rich finery in the closet and far too much make-up to bother with, she also had an assortment of perfumes that stung my nose. I just happened to look at one of the perfume bottles though and an image flashed through my head so quick it made me dizzy.
"Just what…" my words fading as I held my head, I leaned against the vanity and felt my head just pulsing with agony. The bottle seemed oddly familiar, yet as I tried to look at it more closely, I was met with another pounding pulse of pain. "I need to clear my head."
I was quick changing attire and roaming the grounds of the school discreetly. Headache gone and wanting to know why I had such an episode, this place made me shiver to what I would find here. Several students passed me by without much notice as I wondered around to find myself at a church. It was rather old, but well maintained as I stepped inside the chapel and looked around with admiration.
Once inside and just sitting in the silence, the bell chimed loudly in the empty chapel and echoed. As calming to me as it was, class was starting, it would be bad if I missed out on my first day.
"Guess I'll blend in like a normal schoolgirl…"
"Saya don't you know about the phantom?" The girls whispered to Saya with much gossip and giggle that I tuned in to the conversation from afar. "They say that the phantom picks the prettiest girl in the whole school by placing a single blue rose on their desk. It's super romantic." The girl spoke with such fantasy that it was hard to bear any more conversations from them. Several giggling girls continued the conversation while gossiping who the next girl would be, I caught wind of a ball being held here.
"Can I ask about the ball?" I tapped one of the closest girls and she happily spoke of the occasion. It would be held after the field trip to the museum of Vietnam for their history lesson. Not interested in the battlegrounds of war and knowing that Saya took part in it when she was awoken prematurely, the idea of her going didn't sit well. But it may actually benefit her to go and unlock her memory.
"Saya!" Her roommate called out and pulled her hand to come with her as the trip was to take place in a day after joining a group. I took no interest and feigned I was sick and unable to join the excursion.
"That's too bad, I heard there will be several military men there telling their heroic stories." Some whispered with other intentions, but nothing would prevent me from completing the mission.
"Perhaps another time. I'll be heading back to my room." The girls moved aside and didn't try to stop me as I left.
It was convenient having a roommate that didn't bother where one was at or going. Eleanor was the extravagant type and kept to her social circle. As quickly as I came back and changed, I was gone and using my speed to explore the school grounds.
[Nothing is out of sorts…there are no signs of a warehouse or trucks large enough for import of wine.] Thinking to myself and surveying the area more, I returned to the church and decided to head up the bell tower for an aerial view. The moment I opened the door leading to the open tower, a scuffle of feet startled me.
"Konella?"
Surprised to have found Saya here, I looked around and found her to be alone and wondered what brought her here of all places.
"Finally got away from your friends?"
"They are very nice. And we were talking more about the phantom before they returned to their dorms."
"What did you find out?"
"I think…I think the phantom might be a chevalier. But I'm unsure. It just seems odd to have the same rumor for so many years and leaving a blue rose that doesn't exist."
Something felt odd about those words. Saying blue roses didn't exist made me answer curtly "they are" to her face that she was stunned. "Sorry, that was improper of me."
"Have you seen blue roses before?" Curious as she came up close, I saw the dual image of her sister before my eyes and my head pulsed with raging pain that I stumbled backwards and clutched the railing. "Konella?" Her approach made my whole body convulse.
"…nothing…" gritting my teeth, I tried looking away from her face and to the outskirts when I noticed something in the distance beyond a large ravine. "There…" moving away from her and pointing out, she didn't try prying into my matters and looked. "Something is over there, and from what I see there are blue roses being bred there as well."
Saya seemed determined to go there now, as matters stood, I wasn't in great condition to take her there and offered to contact Haji instead.
"If we can go there now we can get more information—"
"Saya, I can't." Cutting her off as I bit my lower lip to keep my mind off the pain, she seemed hurt by my rejection, but I kept seeing Diva in her in an annoying fashion.
I need to get away from her! Head reeling as I went back down the bell tower and called for Haji, he questioned my personal reasoning to abandon Saya and I couldn't even speak of it. I managed to return to my room in peace, but the night felt long and arduous as memories flashed through my mind as well as feeling like I had walked these halls dozens of times before. Eleanor no longer felt she needed to keep her distance from me as apparently my tossing and turning worried her all night long to care for me.