"I think we've started to hold our internal meetings at night-time more often than not."

–Was not the expected opening when one had asked about the issue that they noticed that day, but it was indeed a concern.

Not to mention that Felicia had said it with such a confident tone that nobody questioned it until a second later, after she picked a cotton ball and a rubber band, twisting their shapes into five small hairbands. "I mean, at this rate, this feels more like a sleepover than, I don't know, us talking about serious business?"

"You're not wrong." Donny nodded as he sank into the opposite sofa, letting out a groan of exhaustion before continuing his words. "But I also can't think of any solution for now. Since, the only time all of us are free always happens to be at night."

"Um, is it really okay for me to be here?" Henry raised his hand like a kid wanting out of an awkward situation, which he had unfortunately found himself in. His hair was adorned with hair clips of various shapes and colors, and even his raised hands were colored with black and white nail polish. "I know that we are considered allies now, but–"

Lydia, who sat behind him and was one of the reasons for the most damage, slapped his shoulder lightly as she tugged him back into position and said, "Shut up and stay still! I’m almost done."

"I-I'm almost done here as well!" Devy squeaked as she waved the other hand so the nail polish would dry faster, her cheeks blushing fiercely in a shade of red pepper.

"I don't see why it would be bad for us to have the meeting at night, as long as it's around this hour and not any later." Dharma commented from his seat as he ate the snacks laid out in agonizingly slow munches.

"Ugh, so right, bestie." Felicia chimed, then tapped Dharma's foot, which had almost stepped onto hers and he begrudgingly shifted away.

Once satisfied with her so-called masterpiece, Lydia tapped the hunk’s back to signal that she was done with his hair (though it didn't do much since his hands weren't done yet) and threw her glance to the corner of the room. "I've been wondering how the so-called war room would look, but I'm impressed with the decor. Whoever was in charge has done a great job."

"Aww thank you~" Felicia cooed sweetly as she tossed the finished hairbands to Lydia and had to defend herself again from the foot assault of the bandana-wearing boy. Round four.

When Tira remarked that Lydia had a familiar aura around her, she had not foreseen this as what she meant or the answer she had wanted. The two had gotten along like houses on fire from the moment they were introduced to each other, and since then, they had not shown a moment of mercy to anyone unfortunate enough to happen to stumble upon the duo.

As for Lydia and Henry's appearance in the music room; it was because Sir Saputra had said it was safe enough to let them know about the place. Perhaps, after careful consideration that Tira wouldn’t bother to try and dissect the idea. She'd tucked herself into the corner by the hidden wall, guarding the door while gathering energy to replace what she'd expended during the long day.

"So how was the recruiting affair on your end?" Dharma asked, still attacking Felicia with his foot.

"It’s going. People who were helped by your angel were grateful enough that they had joined without any prompting whatsoever." Lydia responded casually, the sounds of nail clippers snipping filling the room as background acoustics would.

"Angel?"

Tira got into another position while listening, leg straightened and her spine bowed to touch her toes. The push and pull of her overworked legs were starting to feel painful as the energy she had accumulated immediately rushed over to soothe her aching muscles.

"She’s talking about Rina." Henry clarified, sounding mildly concerned while he sighed. "They’re calling her an angel of life or something along those lines. In fact, I’ve been hearing more interest in people joining the first aid team than other teams. They think they can get closer to her that way. There are those that try to leave the campus as well, to come here whenever possible, just so they can see her and be blessed—in a general sense."

With Tira's only indication of power going out of control being the speed of her hair or nail growth, she had to make sure to keep close attention on them as she held back from letting out a pained sigh and began her stretch again.

Dharma phrased his hum along with a question, "That sounds almost like a cult situation going on. Are you all okay?"

Now, by standing and stretching her legs to the sides, Tira finally dared to attempt a full split with the power running as she got lowered to the floor.

One may have called it cheating, but she knew her ability to be flexibile would be important in the coming days. She used the energy to a brute force through the searing pain of her hip muscle tearing from being forced over its usual limit without sufficient preparation.

She held on for the next few minutes to allow the tears to heal.

"I don’t know if I can say for certain if we are all, cumulatively, okay."

Regrettably confessed the engineering student, his tone a mix of embarrassment and fear as he gained their attention. "The situation over at our university sounds more hellish than yours, I bet."

"And you’d win that bet." Lydia gloated with glee; teasing made its way into her voice so naturally that it was easy to tell. "It's mostly just apprehension about the barrier stuff on our end, which has been cleared up pretty quickly once we announced our plans on recruiting for the scouting group. Everyone who lives nearby is eager to join in, to check on their..."

The side-by-side split is completed. Onto the next.

Slowly and painfully, she stood back up, and, after taking another silent deep breath, slid down to do a left-front split.

"I get that." Felicia said in a muffled voice, "I’d like to check on my aunt too. My dad would be stoked to go if he heard of the news, but I think we should be left at home base."

A pause. A long, deafening pause that threatened to stretch its presence higher to drown them all, until Lydia’s soft voice stopped it from reaching the ceiling. "I’ll look for her. Can you draw how she looks for me?"

Almost there.

"Y-Yeah! "Let's see if there's any wood nearby."

Almost… there!

"I think there’s some-"

Using the momentum she'd gained, she finally pushed herself all the way to floor level. The pain that shot through her spine upward was not incomparable to the pain of the other leg, an unceasing, searing pain that was increasing in intensity with each ticking second.

It felt marginally worse than eating a Sichuan pepper but not so much better either, because she couldn't tell when the pain would abate–

"Tira, what are you doing?"

Opening one of her eyes, Tira scanned the complex emotions that was framed on everyone’s face, ranging from confused to supporting smiles, but mainly confused. "Bedtime exercise."

To further clarify, since they still looked at her like she was out of her mind, Tira breathed out along with the pain that had built up. Jarring it out so the pain she was currently experiencing didn't slip into her voice. Breathe. Slow.

"The spar. Tomorrow."

"Ah." Donny caught on fast and shook his head disapprovingly. "He really did set a date for that fight, huh? That madman"

"You should join in if you want to get better." She tried very hard to sound convincing because the healing of the right-front split was progressing slower than the left's side had. Fitting, given that she had been subconsciously pivoting with her left foot more in the last year. "It’s not like he clarified he wouldn't take on another challenger."

"Aww! You know, you’d sound much more threatening if we coulnd’t see you pouting from over here." Lydia cooed with her usual saccharine tone, teasing intentionally so that even the dense her could tell.

A sigh finally escaped her as the hip joint finally gave out and popped, allowing Tira to slide all the way down. Though, it was not only her joint that popped. All along the lines of her knees and lower lumbar spine, cracks had spread out from where her nerves began and ended. She was desperately healing at a slow rate so it wouldn't be visible or detectable to the others in the room.

They might have gotten better control, but nowhere near enough to recognize the fluctuations of air in the room like she was able to. Or perhaps she was too sensitive, daydreaming while she was being questioned by others and not continuing the conversation because of her pain.

And the pain was certainly…immaculate. It had been a while since she had tasted pain so mind-numbing that Tira had to fight to stay conscious to manually spread her power evenly to fix the joints that were popping in and out a couple of times before her body found equilibrium.

Tira allowed herself a moment of self-reflection after she let out a long exhale. While she might not have been able to hit a split before, she wasn't so out of shape that her entire body was stiff after merely a five-minute stretch.

It was getting ridiculous how rusty she had been after only a year-long break. "I see, thank you for the suggestion; I will work on my intimidation tomorrow. And goodnight, try to clean up the nail clippings before you leave."

"That's not what I meant–"

Rolling right into the thin mattress behind her, Tira lifted the covers and immediately passed out as promptly as she could. Yet it felt like no time at all had passed when she opened her eyes once again, as morning had come greeting with strands of gold spilling over the horizon.

Dawn break was brighter this time, without a hint of smog to diffuse the light distribution. Today, she had woken up before Dias even usually did and had the chance to admire the rising sun from the corner of the corridor, right outside of the door.

The moon hanged low, nearly translucent and blended right in with the color of the clouds; gathering around the sky in a patchy design.

Since they were only barely getting out of the summer season, the air was chillingly dry, assaulting her lungs with a ferocity of tiny little needles that wished to flay her from the inside out.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Perhaps it was just her mind influencing her senses – a good night's sleep tended to do that – but the air felt cleaner this morning.

She spotted a few figures in black, most likely a patrolling team, who stood by each staircase's entry points. They were working hard, even on the eve of the day. She entertained the brief thought of going down to the cafeteria and fetching herself a cup of warm tea to start the morning, but that meant leaving the room unattended for too long.

Weighing her options and making her decision, Tira retreated back into the room and and after tidying up her paper-thin mattress, slid open the hidden door. She stepped inside as quietly as she could, careful not to make any unnecessary sounds while her eyes adjusted to the new contrast level of the room. The dim light of the bedside table lamp greeted her, its warm yellow tone emphasizing the disparity between what was visible and what was darkened in almost sharp clarity.

It took a few blinks before she was confident walking around the room.

Dias was asleep on the bed, lying on his back with both hands draped over the blankets covering him. His breathing was slow and measured, sometimes skipping when a soft whistle, nearly a snore, escaped his lips. She closed the door on her way in and went for the sink, already adapted to the new routine of coming into the room while the only other person in the room was asleep.

An improvement had been made to the room in the last three days, namely the appearance of a second latch on this side of the secret door, so that it could be locked from the bedside in case of emergency. She didn't know, and didn't ask how and when Dias had installed the lock, but she gave the man the barest respect of trust that he wouldn't use it to lock her in.

Hopefully not. Hannah would come striding in with an axe if she didn't show up on time for breakfast.

Teeth brushed and face washed, she went over to where the walk-in closet was. Most of her newly acquired clothes came from the supermarkets discount pile, on Hannah's insistence, who had asked her to have more than one pair of clothes to change into. So, she took a dozen sets of black and white shirts and some monochrome-themed pants, and had called it a day. There was no point in trying to be fashionable when utilities were more important at the moment.

And due to her utilitarian opinion, Hannah had called her boring. Tira would have liked to think that she was saving her brain cells as much as she could for other more pressing matters, but Hannah wasn't having it. Thus, she was forced to take two pink knee-length skirts in exchange for that remark before she was allowed her to leave the place at all.

While she had been coming in and out of the room for several days now, despite her best efforts to familiarize herself with the place, she was still astounded by the number of drawers and doors that littered the wall, and how... empty they were.

The big sliding-door closet only had one other suit in it in white instead of black, along with a thin cotton hoodie that had a connected front pocket. There were three different leather shoes, which didn't look all that different unless you caught on how the light reflected on them. And all the pull-out drawer had were three sets of silk pajamas in plain maroon, navy, and forest green colors.

But for what seemed like a big waste of space given the clothes' lackluster selection, Dias made up for it with accessories.

Many sliding drawers were filled with watches from front to back, displaying a variety of styles ranging from wrist watches to pocket watches, with the corresponding bands and chains hanging on the section above it.

A collection of socks in a variety of patterns and fabric was neatly folded in the drawer above the pajamas, creating a collage that looked almost like a scrapbook project due to the way it had been divided into sections by complementary colors.

The centerpiece of the room, however, was located in the middle.

Above a white oak table, was the form of a glittering display of cufflinks in a variety of shapes and colors. Although the display glass that covered them looked a bit dusty and neglected. A golden-colored, leafless tree held on its curling branches a few necklaces and earrings for display, while the rest lay underneath in a transparent table case that could be pulled from the side. The tree was another new addition to the room that wasn't there when she had last taken a shower yesterday, though Tira couldn't fathom why Dias only brought it out now and from where.

Did he have his ear pierced? If so, she couldn't have noticed it easily, seeing that it was covered in long hair at all times.

She paused in thought for another moment. Right now, she had to change out of her pajamas into the school gym outfit.

Not long after she had changed into the uniform, Tira opened another cabinet that she had left alone since yesterday.

She wasn't snooping, since snooping meant rummaging around without the knowledge of the rooms owner. Dias gave her permission to explore as much as she’d like to, including the permission to open all openable cabinets in all the rooms to satisfy her curiosity.

And she was not about to say no to the offer, especially since he was allowing her to borrow his things, if she wished to do so.

So, today, she decided to try and borrow something. Something from the man's personal collection of accessories, which is why she had gotten up earlier to look through the selection.

What she eventually settled on were a pair of silver hairpins, the bigger one sporting a purple glass bead on the end in the shape of a lotus, and the smaller one about the size of a fingernail.

Diverting her attention to the last interesting thing in the room, and also her last destination for today, where a set of sectioned, were chocolate-colored, small cabinets, that had intrigued her the day she first moved her clothes into the room.

Design-wise, it looked just like a random assortment of marble-style tiles cemented onto the wall, and anyone would be correct to assume so– because only if you pressed the correct tiles would a hidden marble door pop out and reveal the contents of the secret wall.

So far, it had been filled with a mix of ordinary and weird stuff—trinkets, being the most likely guess. That didn't rouse her intrigue further than it being a holding space—for small stuff that Dias found important enough to keep separately, but not so dear that he wouldn’t let her see it.

Her hand traced the tile with a red streak running through it, the third tile on the fourth level. She's worked her way up from the bottom, one tile at a time and paused. The tile rests at her eye level, it had had a little bit of a give when she pushed it yesterday, except for the fact that it wouldn’t pop open like the rest.

Tira was puzzled when she realized the tile did not open with a simple push as she had expected. She brainstormed for fifteen minutes, coming up with ways to open it. Though, in the end, she assumed that since it didn't open easily, that it held something that Dias didn't want her to see. Actual private, secret stuff.

Since then, she hadn't attempted to open that tile and had moved on to the other ones. Curious as she may be, Tira didn’t want to break into Dias' private stash of something important, even if he had given her permission to do so after she had already rummaged through every other thing the man owned.

When she pushed on the tile above it, she received no feedback, no spring-loaded give. It remained as rigid as stone.

This one was a bust.

Exiting the changing room, she saw that Dias had rolled to the side, his face scrunched in annoyance as he stared at the floor. At first, she thought she had accidentally woken him up, but it was made apparent when she asked him about it; Dias then clarified that he was just bad with waking up after actually sleeping.

"Morning. Mind if I borrowed some of your accessories?"

"Mhm." As he sat up from his bed, the man hummed, then yawned. "Go ahead and take them, no need for my permission to..."

Ambling around as he moved on autopilot to the bathroom to wash his face. She went out the back door and waited until Dias finished his morning routine before taking stock of the music—no, the condition of the living room.

Aside from a few throw pillows laying flat on the floor, there was no actual garbage or mess for her to clean up. She still has yet to figure out which senior was responsible for tidying up before leaving, but now it has been narrowed down to just Donny, Devy, and Dharma.

While she was still musing on who it could be, the door slid open once again, revealing a fresh-faced Dias holding a small towel in one hand in the middle of drying his hair as he leaned back onto the door frame.

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

She shook her head. He nodded and patted his hair a few more times before he turned back towards the room again.

"Let’s get some then. What’s on the menu today?"

Tira took a chance when he lifted his hair to dry the underside to see if his ears had piercing holes or scars, but failed as he hadn't lifted it high enough.

A small clunk echoed from the inside. A sound she had come to associate with the washing machine’s door being opened.

"Fried rice, chicken porridge, sausage bread... The side dishes would be the same as usual." She carefully listed off the menu Ginan had told her yesterday evening, promising he would keep some of the bread on the side for her. While she couldn't fully trust his definition of 'a few', it was still kind of him to offer so she could skip the line. Having at least two should suffice for breakfast, since she didn't feel like eating until she was full that morning. "Any special request?"

"I’d like to try the fried rice this time." Dias’ voice came from further away, accompanied by the clink-clanking of metal hitting other metal, which could be the hangers hitting the edge of a tile. "Is it good?"

"It tastes like how fried rice should be." She replied dryly, a bit at a loss for what else to say about the dish. She approached the front door as the sound of his nearing footsteps indicated that he was almost finished. "They said they finally added milk to the list of drinks last night, so that should be available today, if you’re interested."

Dias emerged once again, all suited up and primed and the two of them exited the corner room to descend the stairs. Dias walked ahead, constantly trying to slow down, though Tira kept her steps behind the man.

He tried slowing down again on the third floor. She lagged behind even further.

Eventually, when they made it to the second floor, he stopped and, with an exasperated twist of his brows, glanced up to find her still coming down from the top of the staircase.

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"I’ve not showered yet." She answered succinctly, unbothered to keep the reason private since he had asked. "No point doing so if I’m getting sweaty afterward."

"Why would you be– Ah!" Dias cut himself off when he realized. She thought he might as well have forgotten about it. Apparently not. "The fight is today?"

She nodded. "At eight, in the auditorium."

Continuing his climb down the stairs, he asked again with a confused tone. "Auditorium? Not on the running track?"

"I don’t want the spar to have too many spectators. And, the track is an open field." She continued to maintain the distance, following two steps back and replying to a boy-girl pair of security guards on patrol who saluted at her on their path going up with a nod. "And since the nearest gymnasiums are still being used as refugee shelters, there was no other choice."

Dias hummed as they reached the first floor, waiting for her to come down to his side until he finally moved out of the way. "I see. Is limiting spectators done to help you focus?"

"...Sort of." She followed a little closer this time, though not so close as she usually does, being side by side or the like. Dias appeared to have accepted this concession as he continued walking ahead of her, though definitely took his time and went on slowly.

There wasn't much activity going on at six in the morning, but the cafeteria had been working busily to transform raw material into food for perhaps an hour or two before. Even though it was a rare sight, there were some exceptional students who came by earlier than the morning bell that were already eating breakfast. Most of them were members of the black-uniformed patrol team, off from their late-night shift and eating dinner before they went to bed.

Countless pairs of eyes immediately landed on them both as they approached the detached building, following their forms with differing amounts of interest. Some were just checking on who had just arrived, as for the rest, mostly the girls, they were taking in the form of their pretty-faced demi-god who had come by so early in the morning.

By this point, Tira could confidently say that half the influx of girls getting up early was motivated by the pretty face feast in the morning rather than getting actual breakfast. A few of them were starting to become familiar, she noted, which meant they must have shown up frequently enough for her brain to recognize them subconsciously. The smitten looks on the fangirls' faces, and the way they always tried to say hello if Dias passed them by, were the biggest giveaways.

It was easy to tell the fangirls apart with just those two signs, although Tira knew that criteria wouldn't apply to all of Dias' admirers.

Speaking of those who didn't fall under that category, she spotted Lydia coming over with a plate filled with rice in her hands. Upon locking onto the sight of Dias, her sleepy demeanor seemed to melt away and her smile brightened. Overall, she became much more present as she strolled over to Dias.

"Hi, handsome, fancy seeing you here. Do you always wake up this early?"

"Give or take ten minutes or so, but I do get up around this hour." Dias greeted her back with his business smile, walking by to the food booth number three where Ginan was stationed.

"How about joining me at the table? There's enough room for two more," Lydia suggested, pointing to a table with another older girl occupying one of the seats, already silently digging into her food.

Dias shot a glance between her and the girl, waiting for Tira to nod before he agreed.

"We’ll swing by after this"

Would he have rejected her if she had shaken her head? Most probably. She couldn't understand why, but perhaps he trusted her judgment on the older girl not being a threat.

Tira joined him at the booth and ordered the fried rice and a plate of fresh, warm bread on the side. Once she had checked both for poison, she handed them to Dias, who carried them away to Lydia's table. She stayed to get him a glass of warm tea and a carton of milk, pulling a small carton of unpopular banana milk from the showcase and giving a short wave to a passing sleepy Hannah and Elvin, who was guiding her to the communal shower room.

This way, they'd know not to look for her until the lunch bell rang.

Coming back to the table with the rest of their breakfast, She slid into the last remaining seat Dias had seated himself next to. He was in conversation with Lydia and the other student, who had polished her second plate clean and was well on her way to demolishing the third before introducing herself as Nina.

Tira watched silently while she stabbed the straw into the milk carton as the three talked about the night spent at the school, noting that the most important thing for Lydia was, "-to sleep in a room with AC again! I really have you to thank for my sweet dreams last night."

Dias chuckled at her sweetly worded praise, stopping himself from scooping the food to reply first, breaking apart the half-cooked egg yolk and mixing it with the rest of the hot, steaming, brown rice.

"I think the credit should be mostly attributed to the AC, but I’m glad to hear that you had a restful sleep."

Tira kept eating, chewing on the bread as carefully as she could to avoid accidentally biting her cheek or cutting her tongue, for another ten minutes or so, until Nina seemed to have digested her food enough to move and excused herself to go. Lydia followed her friend as the bell marking the seventh hour of the day rang, saying that she was going to do some touch-ups before coming upstairs to join the sparring.

Another ten minutes later, Dias had finally finished his breakfast. Standing up from their seats, they both made a beeline to get out of the cafeteria before it got crowded with the normal students getting up, who would no doubt be fighting for the best food after they shambled out of bed, even though there was enough to go around for everyone until they could fall into a food coma.

Even though they had taken their time to climb the stairs and stopped for a short visit to the bathroom for her, they still found themselves as the ones earliest to arrive at the fifth floor auditorium.

Sir Saputra was already there, along with Rina and the old doctor from yesterday, who had been introduced to her as the father of her senior sister and Vina, Dr. Ishan Raj Jamal.

As their gazes collided, she noticed the silent question from Tira and explained, "He wanted to watch just in case. Father can pop back dislocated joints better than I do."

Nodding to show that she understood and didn’t mind one other audience member, Tira took a seat on one of the piled-up gym mats, waiting with her head on her knees until one by one, the Majoras made their way in. Most of them came alone, with the exception of Armand, who came in fashionably late and had Kevin tagging along with him.

What exactly compelled the boy to attend was beyond Tira’s comprehension, but his participation in the audience wouldn’t change a thing for her.

She got off the mattress and walked to the middle of the room, stepping into the marked lines. Inspecting Armand a bit closer yielded no interesting results, at least nothing more than how he usually looked. Healthy, well-rested, and unbothered by the summer heat. As expected from a true gang boss, he wasn't even sweating.

Armand cracked his neck loudly after stretching and asked her with a grin, "We’re doing this then?"

"We are." She answered with only what was necessary, straightening her spine into proper posture, relaxing her muscles so they wouldn't undergo shock later, one fist readied in front of her chest as the other lay at rest in the back. "Don’t hold back on my account."

Sir Saputra’s voice warmed up the room before the match, reminding them of the rules, "First round, no powers, no weapon. The first one to get out of bounds or to give up, loses. And if I tell you to stop, you stop!"

"Ready?"

She took a deep breath. Armand nodded eagerly.

"Fight!"