Jacob let Blake and Grace go ahead into the Decomposition Basics auditorium, saying he had to go to the washroom. The auditorium, even the entire building, was an exact mirror of the Production Building, with dark violet trim instead of the gaudy red. Jacob milled about in the washroom, checked himself in the mirror, washed his hands, then went into the auditorium. It was practically full now. He deliberately eased the door shut behind him and scanned the room.

Tanaka lounged in the very far back corner, his arms folded in boredom. The seat next to him was unsurprisingly empty, but Jacob went and sat with Blake, Grace and Camilla—the last having recovered from her bracket fiasco. The middle of class was not the time to be discussing clandestine plans. Jacob would have to sit through the lecture, then corner Tanaka afterwards.

He hoped the lecture was long.

The Decomp Basics Professor, Prof Idlewild, was a wild woman in her fifties with an Einstein-like shock of grey hair shooting off her head in every direction, as if she'd been electrocuted. She was as jumpy and energetic as her hair suggested, prancing around the room while she lectured as if the floor were lava.

She demonstrated a transformation spell, a basic kind of light teal coloured Decomposition that allowed the caster to change the shapes of objects and matter. Sheriff Hueller had done a very similar thing with the ground in the magical realm against the chameleon creature. And then again against the rogue mage. Jacob could still see the thrust of jagged ground being blocked by the rogue mage's own counter spell.

After the demonstration, every student received a spherical blob of what looked like silly putty.

"This is magical putty." Professor Idlewild said. "Not magical in the sense that it has magical powers, but magical in the sense that its physical makeup is magical. It is one of the easiest substances known to the Regulation Order to be able to manipulate magically. I want each of you to raise a protrusion from its surface."

The class spent the better part of the next hour trying. The two keys were to push your magic into the object you were trying to change, and believe that the object changed.

Jacob struggled at first, but managed to manifest his magic in the putty. His magic wasn't a muscle, it was the orb. The orb was his magic. He raised his hand gently, and a finger sized protrusion emerged from the orb. A moment later his concentration lapsed and it snapped back into the orb.

"Hey, hey!" He exclaimed. He looked around. A handful of stronger Decomposition savants like Archie and Camilla had gotten it to work, but the bulk of the class was struggling.

Jacob grunted. Not exactly combat ready, though. There was a gulf of difference between what he'd just done and the cliffs of rock Sheriff Hueller and the rogue mage had called up on instant command. Not to mention through the exhaustion and tension and craziness of battle he now knew he would have to factor into everything. A very large gulf. He focused back in on his putty orb.

By the end of the class Grace had managed to do it, but Blake hadn't.

"Is it my lack of strength, or am I just not good at this stuff?" Blake sagged.

"Both," Camilla said.

"Ouch."

"Class dismissed." Professor Idlewild belted out. "Don't forget to do the readings!"

They packed up their things and left the auditorium. A good portion of the class milled about outside. It was the last class of the day, and people were deciding how to spend the rest of their evenings.

"I'm starving," Blake said. "Y'all wanna hit the cafeteria?"

"I have something I gotta take care of first," Jacob said.

"Oh, okay."

"But I'll meet you there when I'm done."

Blake, Grace and Camilla left the Decomposition Building. Jacob hovered around, pretending to text someone, waiting for Tanaka to leave the auditorium.

The auditorium door opened and the transfer student walked out. His jagged black hair hung down over one eye. He wore a baggy black t-shirt with a heavy metal band logo. His trousers were black, scruffy, and covered with utility pockets. He was shorter than Jacob, but heavier set, and looked generally unimpressed with his surroundings.

He turned and walked down the hall. A couple other students glanced at him as he came out, and some cringed away from him, but no one spoke to him.

Jacob forced himself to follow Tanaka down the hall. The transfer student walked with his head slightly bowed, an uneasiness following his wake.

C'mon Jacob, you're the white mage, be confident. He can't be that scary.

"Yo, uh, Tanaka?" Jacob asked.

Tanaka turned and stared at him. His visible eye narrowed. He seemed wary, ready to move or cast a spell at a moment's notice. A cornered animal.

Jacob gulped. He was that scary.

"What do you want?" Tanaka asked.

Jacob glanced back behind him. There were still too many people around.

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"I was wondering if you could help me with something, but I think it would be better if we talked about it where there aren't so many people around."

Tanaka stared at him without responding, his gaze heavy. A few dark hairs were growing on his upper lip, making him look more like a college freshman than a high school junior.

"Follow me," Tanaka said.

Jacob blinked as Tanaka turned and kept walking down the hall. He'd expected to fight tooth and nail to even get a word out of the guy. He followed Tanaka around a few corners and down a set of stairs to an empty seminar room in the basement.

Jacob tentatively closed the door. His heart was pounding. Was he really about to do this?

"Is this about the tournament?" Tanaka asked, his tone neutral. Jacob had expected the transfer student to have a heavy accent, but his English was nearly perfect.

"What?" Jacob said. "No. Something else."

Tanaka frowned. Clearly he had been expecting something tournament related.

Jacob trailed his hand on one of the desks. How to begin? "I think I might know how to catch the vampire."

Tanaka blinked, then folded his arms.

Jacob was a little pleased with himself. He'd clearly thrown the transfer student off. Better to just come out and ask the question. "They said your affinity is in necromancy. Can you actually cast necromancy spells?"

Tanaka suddenly looked guarded. "Who's asking?"

Jacob frowned. "Me."

"Why?"

"Because I think I need your help to catch the vampire."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You. Catch the vampire?"

Was there a problem with that? "Is there a problem with that?" Jacob asked.

Tanaka grunted. "No. Just didn't expect this from you, to be honest."

Jacob knew that was an insult in some way, but Tanaka seemed genuine. He decided to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was a cross-cultural thing. He'd watched enough anime to know the Japanese had weird ways of going about certain things.

"So, can you talk to the dead?"

"Tell me what you have in mind first."

"Fine." Jacob grimaced. He didn't want to give everything away up front. "I was thinking you could talk to the girl who got killed earlier this week and get her to tell us what the vampire looked like."

Tanaka considered this. "How will knowing what he looks like help catch him, exactly?"

"Think about it. The only reason they haven't caught him yet is because he's someone that's supposed to be here. The campus is only so big. If it was some random guy hiding around after he killed that student, they'd have caught him. Once we know what their identity is, or at least what they look like, it won't be hard to catch them."

Jacob became almost externally aware that he was alone in a secluded room in the empty basement of a building with the guy who, out of every student, was probably the most likely candidate to be the vampire. And he hadn't told anyone where he'd gone.

No, he was being paranoid.

Tanaka sat forward. "Who told you this?"

"No one. I uh, figured it out on Monday."

Tanaka frowned deeply. "Who else have you told?"

"Camilla. D'Angelo."

"D'Angelo, huh? Hmm..." Tanaka trailed off.

"Well, what do you think?"

"It might just work, but talking to the dead doesn't work like you think it does."

"What do you mean?"

"Once you call up their shade, they don't just start rambling. You have to trade with them. Usually information, or a task of some sort."

"Like what?"

"Could be anything. Depends on the shade. But usually the more you want them to talk, the bigger the ask."

Jacob considered this. They'd need an identification, or a facial description, which might take a little while to describe, but shouldn't be too long.

"Okay," Jacob said, feeling more committed now. "Can you do it?"

A slow, creepy grin spread across Tanaka's face. "I can, but it'll cost you."

"What?"

"A similar barter to what we'll have to do with the shade. I'll help you with this, but you have to tell me everything you know about D'Angelo's magical capabilities."

Jacob spluttered. "What? No. I can't just-"

Tanaka leaned back in his chair, a smug grin on his dark face.

Jacob floundered for a moment. Tanaka clearly wanted this information for the tournament. Knowing your opponent's capabilities would be paramount to countering them. He couldn't betray Camilla. He wouldn't be able to live with himself.

"This isn't for me, though," Jacob said. "It's to help stop a murderer. You'd be saving lives."

Tanaka laughed. He actually laughed. "That might work on your softy classmates, but not me, kid. If someone's too weak to defend themselves that's their problem, not mine. It's a dog eat dog world."

"But you'd be helping the Academy. They'd be indebted to you. It's beneficial for you too!"

"You think I give a flying fuck what this place thinks of me?" Tanaka scoffed.

Jacob had run out of wiggle room. Goddamnit. He should have expected this. Of course this guy was a bastard. He couldn't believe he'd waltzed in here thinking Tanaka would just go along with everything. But now he was stuck.

"How do I know I can trust you to follow through?"

Tanaka shrugged. "You'll just have to take my word for it."

Jacob tried to think of another way around it but couldn't. He should ask Camilla if she was fine with it because it was for a good cause. That was the right thing to do. "I need some time to think about it."

Tanaka laughed. "No, I'm not giving you time to go scheme up bullshit. It's now or never."

Jacob clenched his fists. Screw this guy. He should just walk out of here. He couldn't just betray Camilla. Not after everything she'd done for him. How would that reflect on him as a friend?

But what if this was the only way to catch the vampire? What if this actually worked and prevented the creature from killing someone else? He couldn't live with that on his conscience either. He had to do this. Camilla would understand, wouldn't she?

"Fine," Jacob said. "I've seen her cast a fireball before. There, you happy?"

"Not good enough."

"That's all I know."

Tanaka sat up, "Well, then I think we're done here."

"Alright, fine. Fine!" Jacob sat down on one of the desks. "Jesus. Alright. She's cast fireballs pretty quickly. Pretty big ones. The size of basketballs. She's also used strength and speed and resilience augments. Nothing insane, but enough to fight a Dream Tiger for a little while, took some big hits-"

"Stop. She fought a Dream Tiger?"

"Well, I helped her a bit, but yeah."

For some reason this made Tanaka grin. He threw back his head and laughed.

"Good. Very good. What else?"

"Um, some force blasts. Not really sure what they were specifically. But like these cones of force that-"

"Hardened wards used as projectiles. Standard Production combat magic."

"Okay, that's all I've seen her use."

Tanaka nodded. "Good enough. I'll help you with this."

Jacob sighed. Thank God.

"We're going to need access to the body. Do you know where it is?"

"Probably at the morgue." Jacob grimaced.

"Then we'll have to break in. You okay with that?"

Compared with betraying Camilla, the idea of breaking into the morgue didn't seem too bad. If he was being perfectly honest with himself, it sounded exciting. A little adventure like hopping the fence at VanDusen. Worst came to worst they could tell whoever caught them what they were up to which would save some face, unless whoever caught them was the vampire, in which case, well...

"Yeah, I'm okay with it." Wasn't like it would be the first time he broke the Order's rules.

"Meet me outside Harrison Hall at 6:00 tonight," Tanaka said.

Jacob nodded. "Okay."

"One other thing, kid."

"What's that?"

"Necromancy is considered illegal by the Regulation Order. If they catch us doing it without permission, well, it won't be good."

Jacob groaned.