Chapter XCVII (97)- Student Council Shake-Up
The letter Allik had given him for Professor Knoff contained two rings. Both enchanted as spatial pockets to hold brewing materials from Tross’s tundra region. One with supplies for Knoff, and another for Kizu. The gift completely caught him off-guard. But Knoff even read the note out loud, reassuring him that it was indeed meant for him.
The ring was an invaluable asset to Kizu, and he quickly began using it to store his collection of brews. Especially since it preserved the ingredients and kept them fresh. However, he quickly learned that the weight of the ring increased the more it contained. Not as much as the weight of the physical item stored within, but approximately ten percent of that. The inconvenience of carrying around a five-kilo ring quickly outweighed the convenience, as he performed his experiments in only one of two places- at the academy’s brewing facilities, or on the beach near Owl’s Respite. So he usually kept it on the shelf above his hammock unless he specifically planned to use it. Which turned out to be a lot.
Kizu spent large chunks of his free time during the next few weeks focused on experimenting with new brews by mixing concoctions designed by the witches of the Hon Basin with Allik’s materials. He was still limited by what he could obtain from the academy supply, but it was more than enough to keep him occupied. Especially since Harumi insisted on always tagging along and watching him brew whenever possible. And the younger student always had so many questions. But eventually Kizu managed to successfully teach him how to properly prepare a basic healing potion. An endeavor Kizu didn’t mind too much since it meant stocking up on the potion for himself while he taught.
When not brewing, Kizu devoted the rest of his study time to developing the gate for his Enchanting C final. Despite his utter disdain for Kizu, Finn was incredibly reliable. He finished his portion of their group work several weeks early. He enchanted the foundation of both bookshelves for Kizu and even put extra effort in layering additional protections to prevent them from damage. Basil, on the other hand, was utterly unreliable. Kizu barely ever saw the shapeshifter. He was absent from the majority of classes and was aloof in the few he attended. Not unfriendly, but extremely distracted. When Kizu managed to corner him, he promised he was hard at work enchanting the books that would act as the triggers for the gate. Technically, Kizu could create a work-around by triggering the spell manually with his own spatial spellcraft. But that only worked for someone practiced in the art. Which meant it was useless to pretty much anyone besides himself and a select few professors.
His own progress on the gate was steadily moving forward. Once Finn finished with the foundation wards, Kizu started to layer his own glyphs over the shelves. He took quite a bit of pride in his progress. While not quite confident enough to test with a live subject, he still managed to transport some nonorganic material through. The big issue now would be transporting something with blood, as it could conflict with his own that he used for the enchantment and thus cause the spell to act erratically.
Over the weeks, his rankings steadily improved as well, despite him not dedicating too much time to them. He managed a pretty decent bump up in Enchanting, due to his curse breaking exercise. And he participated in the combat test every weekend. Each week he secured an easy victory, so his rank steadily rose. He still wanted to catch up to Harvey and beat him in the ring. But Harvey also continued to win matches, keeping just out of reach of Kizu.
By far the most surprising ranking increase was in both History and Politics. As he skimmed through the test pages, found he actually knew a few of the answers. A history question from Jak’s lesson on Ilosin-Don, and two questions of politics involving Tross that Allik mentioned. His placements actually increased. Not a lot, but it was still a nice surprise. But he still had a long way to go before he’d be able to get any information out of the headmaster about his sister.
Combat- 462, Astronomy- 201, Divination- 92, History- 797, Politics- 795, Rejuvenation and Restoration- 799, Conjuring- 799, Brewing- 1, Numerology- 799, Music- 712 (piano), Enchanting- 177, Illusion- 81, Elemental- 300.
Outside of his schoolwork, Kizu dedicated his spare time to helping Anata. She was progressing well as a swimmer, though her lack of muscle still cut their lessons short. And she could now read just about anything he set in front of her. Which showed an almost scary amount of talent. Her rapid comprehension only remained stunted by her refusal to speak. Now that he knew she was capable of talking, he occasionally tried to prod words out of her. But he always dropped it after seeing her terrified expression. It was a bit frustrating because it also stilted her chances of making friends her own age. Kizu brought her to the beach for a party with a bunch of other children from the town, but she ended up sitting alone in the sand and staring out over the ocean. It wasn’t just that the children avoided her, though that was certainly the case, she was also uninterested in them.
Overall though, he was pretty pleased in his progress the last few weeks. He still had things he wanted to do before the end of the semester, but he was progressing.
“I wouldn’t go in there,” Ione warned as Kizu approached the Student Council’s room. “Not if you value your life.”
She leaned up against the wall next to the door. Her black hair was a mess that covered her face. She looked as if she was resting after barely surviving a bear attack. Though, far more likely, she’d only woken up a few minutes ago before dragging herself up here.
“Did the caterer mix something else up?” Last week, the restaurant Sene hired for the ball’s feast had accidentally switched the quantities of asparagus and celery in their order, which resulted in Sene ranting for over an hour. Not that it actually mattered, since the ball was still weeks away. But Sene took that as a personal affront.
“Far worse,” Ione said grimly, pushing her hair out of her eyes to look at him. “The unthinkable happened. We gained a new member.”
“Wait. But that would mean….”
“Yes. Sene got moved down in the rankings.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad. She took my transition pretty well.”
“But that was all orchestrated by her. She planned to move you up into that position as a ploy to try to get to me. She had no control over this switch. And Sene doesn’t like losing control over something.”
Kizu opened the door to see who exactly usurped Sene’s spot. Sene sat in her usual seat at the head of the table. She glared down the table at a gnome. A gnome with familiar pink hair and thick spectacles. Despite his small stature, he met Sene’s gaze. No words were said as the uncomfortable tension built between the two of them.
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“It’s Jak, right?” Kizu said as he walked in, trying to break them out of their hostile staring match. “I saw your presentation a few weeks back. Really interesting.”
Jak’s eyes flitted over to him for a second before returning to meet Sene’s.
“Thanks. According to the information I was given, you must be Kaga Kizu. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
They continued their silent confrontation for another minute while Kizu took his seat. Then Ione slinked into the room and Jak melted. The transformation was instant. One second, he was meeting Sene glare for glare, and the next he was smiling and welcoming Ione into the room.
Ione didn’t seem to care much. She slouched down into a chair and put her head down in her arms, ready to nap.
“I can’t believe Professor Krimpit would do this,” Sene said, finally speaking. “He is attempting to sabotage the ball. It’s outrageous.”
“It wasn’t up to Krimpit,” Jak retorted. “I scored a higher score than you on the history exam.”
“Then you cheated.”
“I took it three times. Three completely separate tests in separate locations with varying levels of difficulty while directly supervised by the academy staff.” The gnome fidgeted with his glasses then returned to glaring at Sene.
Sene harrumphed before finally starting their meeting.
“Until his fraud is exposed by the academy, Jak Joon will be joining our Student Council meetings. Consider him the temporary acting secretary. This means that Ione Kajima’s duties have been lessened to just that of the treasurer.” Sene paused, as if waiting for Ione to protest, but her twin was already snoring softly. “Vice-president, Kaga Kizu. Do you have anything else to add?”
Kizu was caught off guard for a second. Sene rarely asked him to speak during these meetings unless it was something directly involving him, like setting up the posters. Then it made sense as he realized she wanted him to disparage Jak’s appointment.
“Nothing super noteworthy. Just, welcome, Jak. I hope we can all work together well.” Kizu was going to leave it at that, but then something else occurred to him. “Oh, and by any chance do you have any leads to where we might be able to find fireworks for the ball? I had a lead, but last week it fell through. Right now, the only other real option I found is an expensive import from Hon.”
Jak furrowed his brow in thought. “I might be able to figure something out. What’s the budget?”
“That’s confidential information for official Student Council members,” Sene cut in. “As a temporary member, you’re not privy to it.”
“125,000 yennies,” Ione said, her voice muffled by her arms. “There’s a total of 250,000 total available for entertainment, but we decided to split it evenly between the dance contest and the fireworks.”
Sene gave Ione a look of absolute betrayal. Kizu was more surprised by the fact that Ione knew any of this. She almost never showed any sign of paying attention during their meetings.
“We finished planning the dance competition two weeks ago,” Kizu said, deciding to fill Jak in on the rest of the event’s expenses. “We hired two professionals from Tross to help teach lessons at the start of the ball, and then work as judges for the contest at the end of the night. Professor Kateshi volunteered some officials from Hon as the other judges.”
The gnome nodded, considering. “I’ll talk to my uncle. He might have some contacts. I’ll fill you in next week with what he comes up with.”
“If you’re here next week,” Sene muttered.
Eventually, Sene managed to seize control of the meeting again. She didn’t say anything antagonistic towards Jak, instead switching to a new strategy of pretending like he didn’t exist. It reminded Kizu of his first interactions with her in Brewing S.
“And don’t forget to get a date for the ball,” Sene announced at the meeting’s close. “It’s expected that you don’t show up stag.”
That sent a jolt of fear down Kizu’s spine. He hadn’t thought about finding a date. And, now that Emilia was off the table, he had no idea where to look.
If any of the other three had any concerns about finding a date, they hid it well. As they departed the room they said their goodbyes and split up. Kizu went to his old spot under the stairs to practice elemental magic and sort through his thoughts. Anata was visibly uncomfortable when he practiced producing fire and doing so on Owl’s Respite seemed foolish anyway.
As he tossed fire from one hand to another, he sorted through his thoughts. His potential dating pool was severely limited, and he wasn’t keen on getting involved in another relationship right now, regardless. He was friendly with a few people, but not to the point where he was comfortable asking them to the ball as a friend. He was popular enough that he might be able to ask out a random person he didn’t know. But that thought terrified him.
Eventually, he snuffed out the flames and decided to go to the dining hall to see if anyone there might stand out to him.
The food’s theme today appeared to be from Edgeland. Heaps of meat, carrots, and potatoes weighed down his peers’ plates. Of course, the first person he noticed was Emilia. Swiftly looking away, he scanned the benches for anyone else.
He spotted Evie and considered approaching her. Then he thought better of it. Asking her to join him as a friend would probably be extremely uncomfortable for her. He didn’t really know much of what she actually thought of him. And she was clearly still distraught from the excursion. Better to not overwhelm her with things.
Finally, he found the obvious choice.
“Hey Ione,” Kizu said, sitting down beside her. “By any chance do you have a date to the ball?”
Her eyes widened and she stared at him, speechless. She held a spoon of mashed potatoes hovering centimeters from her mouth.
“Yes,” she finally said quietly as she set down the spoon. “You’re a few hours too late.”
“That’s fine,” Kizu said quickly. “I was just thinking about what your sister said about needing a partner.”
“You could try Sene,” Ione said. “She looks like me.”
Kizu blinked and took a moment to form a response. “Ah. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I’ll pass. I wasn’t asking you to join because of your looks.”
Ione raised an eyebrow.
“Not to say that you aren’t pretty! You’re very pretty. But Sene would be miserable to go with and likely drag me into all sorts of extra work. Not that going with you wouldn’t be worth work but-”
Ione laughed, cutting him off. “Relax, Kizu. I set you up for that. We’re friends. Don’t stress. But if you have a question like that again, maybe try asking a little faster next time. Now, what are you eating? It’s on me.”
“The cafeteria food is free,” Kizu said dryly.
“Does that response mean you want me to pick?”
Kizu snatched the menu from her. He chose clam chowder and sourdough bread. A moment later the food appeared in front of him. Tearing a chunk from the bread, he dipped it in the soup.
“You could try basil,” Ione suggested.
“I’m sure he has a date,” Kizu said between a mouthful of food.
“I meant as a seasoning for your soup. But maybe he’d know someone to set you up with.”
Kizu thought back to how Basil knew so many of the people in town when they’d gone shopping together. Then he recalled the first outfit Basil had picked out for Anata. A ballgown.
“Actually, I have a better idea. I’ll take my niece.”