When the day was over, she told Anita that she would be heading to Maple’s dorm with Victor so they could catch up on some studying. Anita smiled, nodded her head, and wished her good luck. Ferain, as she was leaving to go meet up with the others, promised to repay Anita for her kindness and understanding later. As she walked towards another dorm in District-B, one that was a bit smaller than her own building, she tried to come up with a multitude of ways to make it up to her partner, most of which involved a tremendously stupid amount of food and an empty school account as a result. The ten-floor dormitory had a similar layout, as did most of District-B as a whole. The structure appeared to be made out of dull red bricks, the doors were the same stained wood, and windows were in practically the same places.
She’d thought about this before, but every time she walked around the various districts of the city, it reminded her of gated communities. Most of them always had the same layouts and architecture, and the island-city of Olirian was no different. District-B was old-timey and honestly, sort of slumish. District-C had a much more bustling city vibe, with its taller glass structures and advertisements and shopping plazas. It felt like the pictures she’d seen of New York in the Eagle Nation, always busy and full of life, even at the dead of night. Tokyo in the Sakura Nation wasn’t much different either. District-D was a bit more industrial, using most of its space for power supplement and water filtration plants so they could drink and utilize the ocean water safely in everyday use. District-E, the final band on the outer edge of this massive circle, was meant as a resort type of environment.
A lot of it was beach, seeing as it was the coastline, and there were plenty of hotels and apartments for the students and staff that didn’t already live there to use while taking a break from their usual jobs and required tasks. Even the people that lived here needed vacations sometimes. Knowing all of this only made District-B a bit more of a disappointing accommodation when compared to places like Mana’s own dormitory. Though, it had its ups as well as its downs. For starters, she was closer to the school, plus, it was much more quiet here than it was in the outer rings. One other important note was that everything was much closer together, meaning less walking time from her dorm or the school to Maple's place.
From her previous experience when visiting Mana, she remembered that a student’s band did not permit them entry into dorms that were not their own, so she arranged for Maple to meet her outside the lobby. Keeping to this, she saw Maple sitting on a concrete bench in front of the dormitory, poking at a bandage on her cheek and wincing from the sting it sent through her nerves. She was sitting cross-legged with a sketchbook in her lap and a pencil in her free hand, but the only thing Ferain saw on the page was a half-finished outline of some person when she got close enough to steal a peek.
“Trying to get a preview of my latest work?” asked Maple, grinning when she noticed Ferain eyeing the paper. Ferain didn’t take the bait of lightening the mood. She was still a bit freaked out over what she’d done earlier, though admittedly, some of her fear did die out over the course of the day. On top of that, she hadn’t yet seen Maple’s injuries from her fight with Raven, nor did she hear how bad they might’ve been. Maple took note of Ferain’s glower and pressed two fingers to her white patch of gauze and tape. “Nothing major, just a tiny cut. Mr. Ita said that it might not even scar if I’m lucky. Just between you and me though, I kinda hope it does. I mean, Anita has that really cool scar on her cheek, right? It looks awesome in pictures, like she’s some kind of badass action character in an anime or something. I’m kind of envious, to tell the truth.”
“Stop making light of it.” Fera said, moving a hand to the bandage and running a finger gingerly along it.
“Ow! Stop touching it.”
“See, it hurts.”
“Of course it hurts. It’s because you’re touching it. It’s fine if you leave it alone.” Maple said, playfully swatting Fera’s hand away and laughing. “I’m okay, really. I would take it off and show you but Mr. Ita said to keep the bandage on for a few hours so the medicine will work. He said it will be all closed up in no time. He didn’t even need to use his powers.” Still seeing a look of disbelief on her friend’s face, Maple jumped to her feet and tucked the sketchbook under one arm. “I’ll explain what happened when we get to my room, okay? Victor is already up there.”
“Alone? With your partner?” asked Ferain.
“Yeah.” Maple said, giggling. “She’s a real sly one too. Do you think they’re hitting it off yet?”
“The opposite, actually.” Fera said, walking towards the wooden doors of the dormitory’s entrance. “He might be hiding in a corner or something, trying to avoid talking to her.”
“Jokes aside, I hope so. He’s mine so Nona better keep her hands to herself.”
“Yours?” asked Ferain, watching as Maple passed her school band over the sensor, giving birth to a little melodic chime and a green flicker of light.
“Mine, got it? I’ve had a crush on that idiot all year so I call dibs on him.”
“You and Victor, huh? Odd combination.” Ferain said softly.
“Not really. I tend to think we’re a pretty good match, actually.”
“Oh yes, your overly dirty mind and his too timid to talk to girls nature, they really go hand in hand.”
“It’s good to see you still have some humor left, Fe-Fe. I thought it all went up in smoke with the headmaster’s desk.”
“You heard about that?” Fera asked, wincing as they entered the elevator in the all too familiar lobby. Honestly, it was a bit uncanny how similar it was to her own place of residence. To some extent, she was expecting to walk into her own room when they reached the fourth floor, knowing full well that Maple’s apartment would look extremely similar, if not exactly the same as the one she shared with Anita a few blocks away.
“Well, everybody heard that his desk blew up, but I think Victor and myself are the only ones that might have a clue it was your doing.”
“It might not have been.” Fera argued. “He broke the desk before I did anything to it. It might’ve been his fault.”
“You’re so cute when you pout. It almost makes me want to kiss you.”
“I’m not pouting.” Fera protested, puffing up her cheeks without realizing it.
“I love you so much.” Maple said, lunging at her and pulling Fera into a tight, teetering embrace.
When the elevator dinged, signaling the arrival to Maple’s floor, Fera succeeded in breaking apart from the clinging feline of a girl, and led the way to the fifth door down on the right side, just right of the elevator. Maple quickly caught up and opened the door for her.
“Welcome to my lovely abode, Fera.” she said cheerfully.
Fera stepped in and was instantly amazed at what she saw. Unlike her own apartment, which lacked pretty much any decoration or character, Maple’s home was full of charm. Pictures were hung up practically everywhere. There were large rectangular ones depicting rolling fields with girls wearing light dresses that blew in the breeze of the morning, and smaller square ones that were simple depictions of lakes or the sky or even small mountains. Others had animals in various poses and there were a select few that were portraits of people, and Fera recognized these ones as being Maple’s own artistic style, though they thankfully lacked any nudity. In the air wafted the aroma of honey-scented incense that gave the interior a calming, relaxed vibe.
Fera looked for any signs of life but the living room, dining area, and kitchen all appeared to be empty. The entryway had three pairs of shoes right by the small step, one pair of which she knew to belong to Victor’s massive feet, and another pair looking like they belonged to Maple. This meant that the remaining white boots which had collars of puffy brown faux fur must have belonged to her partner, whom Fera had never met before.
“Hmmm… Nona must be in her room. She gets these bursts of inspiration sometimes and hardly ever leaves when she’s working.”
“Working?” asked Ferain.
“Oh, I never told you. Sometimes I forget that you two have never met. Listen to this, Ferain, I lucked out big time. Nona is an artist too. All of these pretty landscapes and stuff, that’s her work. She’s really good at scenery and backgrounds, both of which I’m not that great at yet. We’ve even started a bit of a project together, where I draw the characters, she draws the backgrounds, and we both write the story. It’s going okay, but I’m not the best with a pen.”
Reluctantly, while twirling a bit of her hanging brown hair around a finger, Fera muttered, “I write a bit, actually.” She instantly regretted opening her mouth, as Maple quickly lunged at her and grabbed her hands tightly with her own.
“Really? You have to let me read some soon. I’d love to see what you come up with, and maybe, we can turn this pairing into a threesome.”
“Please don’t put it like that.” Fera groaned. “I shouldn’t have said that, just forget it ever came out of my mouth. I really don’t do it much, and it all kind of sucks. Anyway, we need to get this over with so I can get back home at a reasonable time. Also, Victor’s not supposed to be in your dorm after hours, remember? Let’s get to work.”
Ferain followed a disgruntled Maple to her room, which was the equivalent of where Anita’s room was back home. She pushed the door open and Fera saw Victor sitting on the floor, using Maple’s bed as a backrest while he stretched his legs out in front of him.
“Already making yourself at home, I see.” Maple said, shrugging off her bag and letting it drop to the floor.
“You told me to when you left me here with that crazy girl you call a roommate. She bit my finger, did you know that?”
“Yeah, she does that,” said Maple.
“Why?” Fera questioned.
“I don’t really know, to tell the truth. Maybe it’s her way of breaking the ice.”
“It’s not her power?” asked Victor.
“Nope.” said Maple. “I won’t tell you what she can do, but it has nothing to do with the biting. Now, as Fe-Fe so impatiently pointed out, we should get working on this registry. There’s a lot of names to go through.” She pulled off her white socks and tossed them at Victor before leaping over his head to land gingerly on her mattress of paw-print patterned sheets.
“Why did you do that?” he groaned, grabbing the tiny bits of fabric and tossing them over his shoulder towards their rightful owner.
“Because, you might have wanted them. It’s not like they stink or anything.”
“Why would I… You know what, it doesn't matter. Ferain, do you have the drive?” he asked, reaching into his own backpack to pull out a black tablet.
“Uh-huh.” Fera said, nodding her head and removing the protective case from her messenger bag. She gently set the bag aside and took a seat in front of Victor while handing over the tiny storage unit.
“Perfect.” He accepted it before inserting the device into a thin hole on the bottom edge of the tablet. After a few clicks, his screen had opened the file and the list of hundreds of names appeared in the same order they’d been in on Guji’s computer.
“You actually got it?” Maple gasped, leaning over Victor’s head to get a better look.
“I mean, yeah. That was the plan, right?” Fera said, sounding confused by her friend’s display of surprise.
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“You’re not much of a rulebreaker, that’s all I meant by it. I’m a little awed that you really pulled it off.”
While they talked, Victor was scrolling through the names, one after the other, checking their powers to confirm if anybody had the needed abilities to pull off the murders in Yarin’s place. There were familiar names as they went further and further down. Raven, Lilipa, Kiko, Anita, herself, Maple and Victor, but out of all of the students, not a single one possessed any ability close to what they were looking for. There were a few students that could copy traits of a person, sort of like Lilipa, but on a lesser scale, and a few students could replicate hints of other’s powers. What they couldn't find was a person that could do both, which would be the only thing that would explain the Yarin Ferain had run into that night.
Maple and Victor pointed out several names during their perusal of the registry, but none of them sounded or felt right to Ferain, and slowly but surely, Yarin was starting to appear more and more guilty with every name she crossed off. Two hours dragged by at an abysmally slow, agonizing pace. Maple was leaning on her side atop her bed, the sketchbook she carried with her open as she worked on her current project. Victor was resting against the bed and staring up at the ceiling, rubbing his temples to work out an encroaching migraine. Meanwhile, Fera couldn’t take her eyes off of the list. She was determined to find something, no matter how many times she had to go through the names and powers. She knew there was a possibility that it would all be for nothing, that she betrayed the headmaster’s trust for a pointless escapade created from her own denial, but for her to be finally confronted with that reality, it felt too cruel to withstand.
There had to be something here, because if there wasn’t, there was nothing that could absolve Yarin in her mind. There would be no way to expect forgiveness from Guji when she inevitably came clean about what she’d done. There would be no hope in having her friend back in her life. The worst part of it all was that if Yarin was who really attacked her, that tainted image of him, the one that filled her nightmares, would never go away. There would be no repairing the way she saw him now. That fear of him would forever be there, like a ghost looming over her shoulder until the day she, or he, died, and the burden was finally lifted.
“I don’t think we’re going to find what you’re looking for, Lightning Bug.” Victor stated, sounding exhausted and apologetic.
Fera ran her hands through her hair frustratingly before letting out a weary, defeated breath of resignation. He was right, of course. There was nothing to be found, otherwise they would have found it. “I know.” she sighed, reaching down and removing the drive from the storage slot of the tablet.
“Maybe you should just talk to him.” Maple said nonchalantly while scratching something onto her page with her pencil.
“Who?” asked Victor.
“Yarin, that’s who.” Maple replied, setting her utensil down and looking to Ferain. “If you want to know the truth so badly, why not just ask him?”
“He might just lie,” said Victor, but Fera didn’t think so.
Now that Maple mentioned it, she could talk to Yarin, as long as she got permission. What reason would he have for lying at this point? He already confessed to the crimes, and was already facing extreme punishment for them, so what good would avoiding the truth really do at this stage of whatever game he was playing? Ferain pointed this out to her friends and it seemed to just barely convince Victor of it being a suitable idea. The truth of the matter was, it wouldn’t take much for herself to have been dissuaded. If even one of them put a single word of argument forward after her rebuttal, she would have dropped the idea for one simple reason. She was afraid of him. Even behind bars, even under constant surveillance, she was afraid of the face she’d seen that night. However, her friends did not protest any further, and this seemed to be enough to solidify her little bit of courage.
“Then it’s decided.” Fera said. “I’ll talk to Guji tomorrow about setting up a meeting with him. I have to apologize anyway.”
“What?” spat Maple. “What do you mean by that? Are you turning yourself in? You could get in a lot of trouble if you admit to stealing that stuff.”
“I have to at least tell him, I owe him that much. Besides, if I know him as well as I think I do, he might already have an idea of what I did. I’ll leave you two out of it, so…” Fera paused briefly, remembering something from hours earlier, when Maple promised to elaborate on what happened during lunch that day. Fera brought up the topic again, and to this, Maple scratched her cheek and giggled nervously. She was trying to hide something, Ferain knew it. There was no other reason for why she was trying so hard to avoid the subject.
“You see, the original plan was that I was going to start a bit of a food fight or something, and Victor would try to stop me. Raven seemed to have other plans.”
“How so?” asked Ferain, looking from Maple to Victor, who would more than likely be the one to tell the truth.
“She threatened Maple before we had the chance to do anything.” Victor said. “A couple of her friends got in my way, which is all well and fine. Maple told me to hang back anyway. After that, Raven started attacking her without any more words than a few poor insults.”
“Really lame ones too, like how I’m some kind of lapdog for you or something. Really, I don’t get her. You know, I’ve never lost a fight at this school yet, and I’ve been in a ton of them. You would think she would second-guess what she was doing from time to time.” Maple continued. “Honestly, not even worth the time and effort, I say.”
“Why did she attack you though?” Fera questioned.
“Who knows?” Maple said, shrugging her shoulder before sitting up on the bed. She crossed her legs and put her hands in her lap. “Maybe it’s to get you aggravated. Attack somebody’s friends and that’s bound to provoke them, right? I don’t know what you did to her, Fe-Fe, but she really hates you.”
“Jealous, probably.” Victor butted in.
“Not likely.” Ferain murmured. “She’s better looking, more skilled with her abilities, and more popular than me. What’s there to be jealous of?”
“Your power.” Victor answered. “You’re stronger than her by leagues and miles. I mean, you’re probably one of the strongest in the school, or would be if you had the proper training. Either way, I’ll just chalk it up to her being reckless and strong willed. Well…” Victor said, rising to his feet and stretching his arms into the air. “I better be going. I’ll see you two in class tomorrow. You’re good to get home on your own, Lightning Bug?”
“Yeah, should be. I mean, if Yarin is… Anyway, he’s locked up so… there shouldn’t be any more danger. Thank you, though, I appreciate the offer.”
“You never offered to see me home.” Maple pouted.
“I live right down the street.” Victor said. “I walk you home almost every day.”
“Yeah, but you never offer to do it, you just do it.”
Victor shook his head while rubbing his eyes. “Goodnight, girls.” he sighed, scooping up his bag and walking to the door. When it closed behind him, Ferain rose and stretched as well.
“I should probably head back too. Thanks for the help, Maple, and I’ll make it up to you for what Raven did, I promise. If it was my fault, you shouldn’t have gotten roped up in it.”
Maple waved a hand and smiled. “No biggie, really. Honestly, it was kind of fun. She’s pretty good, that blackbird. It’s a bit of a rush to actually have a challenge for a change, and besides, cats' favorite pastime is hunting birds.” Maple then made a finger gun and pointed it right between Ferain’s eyes. “Pow!” she said playfully before laughing. “I would like to see you shoot her out of the sky soon enough though, so you can do that to pay me back. Just a suggestion, not a requirement.”
“Maybe sometime soon, if the harassment keeps going on.” Fera said grimly.
“I’m just playing. Get out of here already and get some rest.”
“Night, Maple.” she said, turning and following Victor’s trail out of the room.
When the next day came, she was sleeping in class with her face buried in her folded arms. Sleep the previous night was nearly nonexistent, primarily due to the list of registered wielders at the academy. She was still subconsciously trying to find that connection, that one combination that would explain everything and prove Yarin was innocent. No matter what she did, no matter how many names she looked at, no matter how many times she read through it in her mind, nothing ever changed. In the end, it would be down to speaking with Yarin, who would hopefully tell her whatever she wanted to know, but her hopes of his innocence were slowly but surely shifting to acceptance. As she dreamed of names and powers and levels, something reached her ears, startling her awake.
Back in her previous lvl-4 class, this would be caused by her professor, Sara Yakuma, slamming a book or a hand on her desk. Today, however, it was a crystal clear announcement over the intercom, one that was made by the voice belonging to Autumn Willow, Guji’s right hand man, in a manner of speaking.
“Ferain Hirigaya, you are requested in the headmaster’s office. I repeat, Ferain Hirigaya, make your way to the headmaster’s office as soon as possible.”
Half asleep and trembling from the fear of what she might be heading towards, she walked unsteadily down the halls and up the multiple flights of stairs to reach the top floor. There, she pushed the door open to see Guji sitting behind his somewhat mended desk. The split and indent were gone, instead being replaced by a long, spidering crack that was patched over by some sort of polished wood putty. The headmaster’s hands were clasped atop his desk and his face, well, his face carried upon it such a stern, mean expression that even Professor Willow would be left in awe.
“Sit.” Guji demanded, not even bothering to put on a smile or a show of positive intention. This was not a time where he could be her friend or supporter. This was the moment where he was the headmaster, and she… she was a rule breaking student that needed to be punished for her wrongdoing. There was no kinship between them, not at the moment. It was like a judge that was watching a criminal walk down the aisle to reach the podium where they would receive their judgment
“Yes, sir.” Ferain quietly responded, closing the door behind her. She slowly made her way to the chair opposite of Guji and had a difficult time even making eye contact with him. She was ashamed of herself, and before he had the chance to relay her inevitable consequences, she had to at least make an effort to atone for her crimes. “I’m sorry, sir. Here.”
Fera pulled out the small drive from her bag and while holding out for him to take, she let some of her power flow through it. It sparked and then began to smoke after making a loud popping noise.
“I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to see something. I—”
“Quiet.” Guji said sternly. He took the now smoldering remains of the chip and examined it. He held it up, in between his index and thumb, and stared intensely into Ferain’s stunned expression. “Do you know what you downloaded onto this?” he asked her.
“The school registry.” she replied, sounding confused and frightened.
“Yes, but do you know what that fully contains? No?” he questioned, noticing her blatantly clueless stare. “Every ounce of personal information we have on every student here is in that registry. Past school records, their marks, the amount of money their families paid for enrollment and supplies, the results of their evaluations… everything. You went behind my back, downloaded all of that information, and you left after lying to my face. You broke our trust, and quite frankly, broke the law. I’m disappointed in you, Ferain Hirigaya, I thought you were better than that… smarter than that. I should expel you, and even then, that could be considered light punishment. You’re lucky you’re not being arrested for the theft of personal information on literally every student within these halls.”
“I know, sir.” she said softly, hanging her head to avoid that golden, piercing leer that she could almost physically feel upon her.
“I don’t know if you do, Ms. Hirigaya, and that’s the problem. I’ve been lenient with you all year, because of your problems, because of your past, but I’m afraid that my leniency has to come to an end. Despite what my staff may think, I am not a biased man. A daughter, a son, friend or foe, student or teacher, it does not matter to me. If they break my rules, if they deserve punishment, if I deem it necessary, no matter who they are, I will punish them. That is my job, and as unfortunate as it may be, I live for it. I have always given everything I am to this academy and for every person that exists within it, that will never change, not even for you.”
“Of course, sir. When am I going home?” she asked, still staring at the hands she had clasped together in her lap.
She heard a disgruntled, exhausted sigh from the other side of the desk, followed by the creaking of the chair the headmaster sat in. He leaned back and wiped his face with his hand. “I am not expelling you today. Your thoughts… All I see is Yarin’s face, and the events of that night as they replay over and over in your head. It is all I have ever seen since it happened. You think of very little else, and I am certain that this is why you did something so rash and idiotic. This will be my last time, Ferain, but I will once again be forgiving. Know this, I will not be doing this again. Should you find yourself breaking any more rules of this scale, I will have no choice but to end your enrollment at my school, is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.” her defeated, guilt-ridden, extremely ashamed voice quietly said.
“Naturally, I will still be punishing you. I am inclined to forbid you from participating in the Halloween festivities at the end of this week.”
“I understand, sir.”
“I said that I was inclined, Ferain. Again, I will not be doing this. After the year everyone in this city has been through, I find that the festivities are somewhat of a necessity in order to move past what has happened. I will not be revoking this privilege from you. Instead, you will be subjected to detentions for the remainder of this week and all of next week. You are to be in my office every lunch break and every day after school for the duration of your punishment. You perform whatever task I ask of you, or what the other teachers ask of you, is that understood?”
“Yes.” she replied.
“Excellent. You will be starting today when your lessons are through. I expect to see you in my office this afternoon. Go, you’re dismissed.”
Fera choked on whatever words she might’ve said next, and instead, rose shakily to her feet to start heading for the doors. As she was about to reach them, she turned around and saw Guji leaning on his clasped hands, which were propped up by his elbows on the desk. He was watching her, almost like he expected her to stop and prolong her exit.
“Yes, Ms. Hirigaya?”
“About Yarin, sir. I… I want to talk to him. I know I don’t deserve any favors, but I need to see him.”
He seemed to think long and hard on this, possibly pondering the consequences of such a visit. Finally, his dark expression softened just enough to ease some of the weight that was suffocating Ferain’s heart.
“Very well. I will set up a meeting. You will be notified when the arrangements are made, but for now, you are dismissed.” he repeated, and Ferain knew that if she stayed any longer, she would be in more trouble than she already was.
“Of course, sir. Thank you.” She reached for the door and when it was open, she looked over her shoulder one last time. “I really am sorry.”
“I know.” Guji said painfully, and that was the last she’d seen of him until the end of her classes eventually arrived.