The events from yesterday were so surreal that it felt like a dream. Maybe it was a dream. She hoped it was since two students ended up getting killed by a dragon...right? Pro had been plagued with an uncomfortable headache all morning, and her appearance reflected her disheveled state. The ribbon tie around her sailor collar was loose, one of her red thigh-high socks wasn't pulled completely over her knee and her hair frizzled because she forgot to brush it. A student eating a banana tossed his banana peel while passing and it landed perfectly on Pro's head, but she didn't even care about this offense since she was so exhausted and confused from the fight yesterday. She needed to see Luka's rabbit doll if she wanted to know more.

A sudden push nudged Pro forward. From behind, a smaller blonde hopped and skipped to her front. Her hair was in twin tails and she wore the same sailor dress and armband Pro did, their differences being that her collar's ribbon was purple and she had matching purple striped tights. She spoke in a cutesy loli-like voice that matched with her short height.

"Are you excited for another amaaaazing day--" she then gasped and jumped back away from Pro speaking in her real voice that was much deeper and dry "Oh my god you look like garbage."

Pro turned her stiff head around towards her friend. "Yeah…" she said in a similarly tired voice, "Gachi you know…how I said... I wish our days could be more eventful."

Gachi nodded and returned to her cutesy voice at the flip of a switch. "I remember! Like they say, be the change you want to see!"

Pro stepped forward slouching like a poor man. "Well... I think--"

Before she had a chance to finish, a boy with white hair and purple eyes, smacked her back to straighten her out. "You good?" He wore a red sweater vest over a white buttoned shirt and an orange ribbon instead of the usual red tie. He looked odd and mysterious like someone out of a book about poets but since he was in the council many girls and boys avoided him because of his talent like Pro and Gachi.

"I-I'm fine!" For now Pro sought to keep what she knew a secret until she found the right time to discuss everything with her friends and Luka. They shared the same class with the strange girl, 2-B, and though Pro shared a glance with her, they didn't speak to each other in the hallway or before class began. Pro sat near the middle of the class, Kyokai near the front, and Gachi behind him. The monotonous cycle began. Sometime during the class, the teacher flicked a piece of chalk at Luka to return to her focus away from the window. An act Pro found rather funny. Other than that nothing else noteworthy happened, not until after school.

The final bell then rang signaling that their last class of the day was over. Students packed their bags, but Pro was quick to run over to Luka, surprising everyone when she grabbed the girl's shoulder. She didn't take into account the remaining students in the class staring at her spur of the moment action, something so out of character for her to do. Either way she wanted to know the truth of things. "Meet me on the school roof." She whispered and moved away to pack her things.

Luka understood the message and was the first to leave the classroom. Gachi and Kyokai thought it was strange for Pro to go out of her way for the weird girl in class. They thought she caught a bad sickness or worse, was being coerced to do something bad to Luka. They kept silent until they reached the school roof.

The rooftop was full of spare desks scattered about, all dirty from rain and lack of management. The janitor never ended up moving the desks and the student council was too preoccupied with other work to do it themselves. Unlike other schools the towering neighboring buildings obscured the vast horizons and students were left to stare the grey mundanity beyond the perimeter fence. Waiting was Luka, sitting on top a desk, and her assumptions that this was going to be a one on one affair were dashed when she saw Kyokai and Gachi following behind their leader. Pro ran over to her and grabbed her pantyhose covered thighs, looking up at her yellow eyes with a faint slit pupil that made Pro's spine chiller. Luka was similar on edge staring back into Pro's blank deep sea eyes that put her in a trance.

With narrowed eyes, Gachi looked back and forth between Kyokai and Pro with her mouth agape believing they were going to kiss and make up or something equally weird.

"Where is that doll of yours?" Pro said and Luka shrugged. After that Pro instantly gave up and turned around scratching her head. "I don't get it. Why did we fall into that world yesterday and why was that doll talking and dragons..."

Gachi raised her hand. "Uhm, what are you talking about?"

"I wish I knew." Pro sighed and explained to them the events of yesterday. Following a freaked boy who showed her a completely different world from their own and a dragon showing up in that world. The boy unfortunately died and Pro was about to too if Luka didn't step in to save her. As outlandish as her story sounded, Kyokai and Gachi believed her tales of slaying a dragon since they were her friends. Both stepped back to have a word with each other about how much they cared for her well-being.

"I think one of the bullies hit her in the head really really hard." Gachi whispered.

Kyokai dropped a sweat and his eye twitched. "Y-yeah, I think we need to send her to a mental ward."

"Hey what are you whispering about!"

They turned back around with a shared frown. "Listen Pro, that story of you getting to use your powers against a dragon sounds cool but you can't be serious about it really happening." Kyokai crossed his arms "And don't you know Luka isn't right in the head either?"

With a nod, Gachi added, "Luka's cute but she's no hero that saved your life. Be realistic. I'm sure that doll talking is just another one of her delusions."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Luka nervously smiled. "It's fine if you don't believe us. I don't entirely believe it myself..." There was a genuine hint of sadness behind her words that Gachi and Kyokai picked up on. This was the first time they had seen her speak in complete sentences that made sense. "I don't know what trouble I caused everyone. This is the first time I felt alive in so long and I don't know why."

"So earnest..." Gachi muttered. "What did you do that changed her Pro?"

But not even Pro knew what changed her so suddenly.

"Then this can be the start of our new beginnings! We already met before, but now we can do it properly," Gachi grasped Luka's hand and shook it wildly. "My name is Gachi Momomeno! I'm Pro's happy-go-lucky super awesome childhood friend."

Luka nearly fell off the desk from the handshake. Kyokai didn't need to introduce himself more than, "I'm Kyokai Ikura."

Gachi continued, showing off the red armband on her right arm with the kanji '叢雲' printed on it. "We're the student council but I'm sure you already knew that. However what most people don't know is that we go by Murakumo! We aim to make the school a better place but..." She trailed off and it was obvious what she was implying. They weren't viewed well in the public eye despite their efforts because of their special talents. Luka already saw Pro's which was the power to control fire magic but more specifically she was a witch. Gachi was incredibly skilled with swords and was undefeated when she attended kendo club but her talent was with thunder magic and unfortunately she was ill with narcolepsy. Kyokai's talent was his super expert hacking skills, he was a tech genius.

They rarely showed their true emotions when surrounded by the masses who hated them, hiding all signs of weakness to keep themselves from being exploited. When alone they could be themselves but more often than not they vented their feelings to each other leaving themselves in a perpetual state of sadness. Sure they had the means to fight back but that would mean risking getting expelled and they already had two strikes stacked up.

Their third strike was right around the corner. Hinata kicked the doors open and intruded their peace, joined by three other students who shared a menacing glare towards the group. Usually Hinata would be smug and insult them but this time he was pissed beyond belief, kicking over a desk and shouting, "Where the hell is Tanaka?! This is the fourth time a student disappeared because of you."

"H-huh?!" Kyokai didn't have time to fully get the situation, getting punched in the face before he could think of a proper explanation. Gachi and Pro ran to his aid, stepping in front of him to guard.

"Don't huh me bastard! I know you did something to Tanaka because he never looked so scared in his life before!"

Obviously Pro couldn't tell them her ridiculous story of him getting crushed by dragons in a different world. A story so preposterous that it was basically admitting that she killed Tanaka. She couldn't think of any excuse, his death was genuinely not her fault, it was out of her hands what he did and the consequences for it.

She shook her head. "I didn't do anything with him--"

"You're such a goddamn liar..." Hinata took out his phone and showed them a picture of his crushed body behind a building presumably judging by the dumpster in the corner of the frame and dirty street. Pro's heart sank; how did he even get that picture when Tanaka's body was in the other world... no--it was in the real world? It was difficult to tell since both worlds shared similarities. And worse, she believed Hinata knew about the other world and was using it against her. He scrolled through the pictures, the next being his guts in a bodybag then a student crying over the zipped body bag. "I only found out because someone told me about his death. They said he was pushed off the top of the Sunflower library and zapped by magic. The only people allowed on the library's roof are staff and you..."

The evidence didn't feel like it completely matched up in Luka's mind. To her it was an obvious case of framing but how were they going to slip out of this.

"None of that is true!" Gachi exclaimed while waving her arms. "None of us even thought about killing a student!"

"Shut up! I've had it with you, your lies, you bullshit, all of it. The student council is no better than the government. All of you are the same, wanting to control people with your authority--well I won't allow it!" Hinata snapped his fingers and his lackeys got to work, restraining their arms behind their backs as Hinata slowly approached Gachi. He punched repeatedly while she was restrained, hitting her with all the rage contained in his fists, bruising her so badly she thought a tooth was going to fall out. Next was Pro who he kicked and kicked and kicked her gut until she spat out. The student behind her even felt the blows and almost lost her grip. Before he had the chance to land his final hit that would've done her in, Luka stepped in front causing him to stop his fists mere inches from her face.

He raised an eyebrow. "What? So the retarded girl wants a beating too? If you know what's best for you then step aside."

Now she's done it. It didn't show on her expressionless face but she was rather intimidated by his threats even though she faced a bigger and deadlier monster. She couldn't let this beating go on however. "The student council had nothing to do with Tanaka's death. Those pictures you showed... are fake!"

Hinata stood silent then his lips rose and he erupted into a loud laughter. "Are you trying to gaslight me? Ohohaha, that's the stupidest thing I've heard all week!" He laughed on for a few seconds before he was able to speak calmly again. "Man, what was the council doing with you here? That was such a stupid idea that I don't even wanna keep teaching you a lesson anymore."

The students restraining the three council members released their grasp and returned to Hinata's side, letting the three all collapse to the floor. Hinata felt that he had enough and motioned for his lackeys to leave, but he alone stopped at the door to share one last thing with them. "Don't think this is the end, student council. I have the cards in hand. If you even think about stepping out of line then these pictures here are going straight to the principal." Then he left.

Luka knelt beside the three members. "How much did it hurt?"

A silly question when the answer was so apparent. Pro squirmed holding her stomach and turning her face to hide welling up tears. "J-just leave us..."

"You shouldn't involve yourself... in our problems..." Kyokai was similarly writhing in pain.

"Cynthia said our bonds would help us so… I'll join the student council."

"Whwhwhwh--" Gachi sat up in an instant. Her left eye was dark around the edges. "You don't want to join us, no, no, no! We're just a buncha losers. You're better off being left off the hook as the weird girl."

"You want to prove your innocence right? Hmm, I think it's time to end this bullying forever. You said yourself, this is our new beginning." And Luka still needed to find Cynthia in order to know more about the other world. Without more information about how it worked then it was going to be difficult piecing together how Hinata got those photos. From now on Luka would join the student council and promised to change their awful lives around for the better, and for the sake of the world to stop the dragons from returning.