Quib and Jian arrive at the entrance to Unimori, now holding each other's hand. The main courtyard is a bit more lively than usual, with several students dotting the courtyard and having menial conversations.

“Whelp, here we are.” Jian says, shielding his eyes from the sun just over top of Unimori's main building. Time is running short, but he knows that he needs to speak with his friends before the day is over. “Let's get going, Carie should already be in my dorm room....”

Jian walks through the gate, but then goes no further. He looks back and realizes that Quib isn't moving an inch from the school's entrance. “Huh? Is everything okay, Quib?”

“I'm sorry, but I need to leave for now.” Quib says to Jian, her tone low. “I have to get rid of my weapons, my armor, and my cloak. I don't want to draw attention from anyone, especially at a drastic time like this....”

Jian lowers his head and thinks for a moment. He turns his head back up and says “You'll come back, right...?”

Quib gives Jian a smile and says “Don't worry, I'll be just a moment....” while slowly drifting her hand away from Jian's grasp and walking backwards. Once she has walked backwards two feet, she spins around and runs off down the street, disappearing down an alleyway.

Jian looks towards where Quib had gone and says “Mysterious indeed....” before he spins on the balls of his feet and continues on his way to his dorm room.

He walks past the courtyard's center area and behind the boy's dormitory, which is the closer building to the library. The entrance and exit of both dormitories are located away from the school's gateway, facing towards the school itself. Jian slips past a small group of students near the edge of the dorm buildings and walks over to the door.

The door is made out of stern plywood and has a copper handle and locking mechanism. Thousands of finger prints must linger on the handle, since so many people come in and out of it every day. Nevertheless, Jian grabs the handle, gives it a squeeze, and walks through the doorway after he opens the door.

After shutting the door behind him, Jian looks down the hall in front of him. The hallway is painted an olive green color similar to Jian's iris, but a slight shade darker. Halfway down to walls from the ceiling, there are planks of shinned wood that go down to the floor. The area is lit up by overhead chandeliers that have electric candles hanging from them. There are about five of them going down the hallway, stopping in front of the room at it's end.

Other than that, the school has tried to cram as many rooms into this building as possible. There are doorways going down every fifteen feet up to the room at the very end of the hallway. To Jian's left is a set of stairs that lead up to the second floor. They are relatively ordinary, being made out of a simple oak wood and supports, which is odd compared to the regal aura the rest of the school attempts to exude.

Without a second thought, Jian turns himself and walks over to and up the stairs to the second floor. The venture is rather uneventful, since there is nobody else in the building, well, at least not on the first floor.

After going up the stairs, he walks back into the hallway and looks down the hallway to see that the door to his room is hanging wide open. Inside of the room he can see Carie's bright blonde hair over top of her school uniform sitting in his computer chair and typing away. “Hey Carie!” he says in an earnest voice. “I'm here, but Quib had to leave for a second. Have Boz or Lera gotten here yet?”

When Carie hears her name being called from down the hallway, she let's out a “Hmm?” sound and turns from her seat to look out of the open doorway. “Oh, Jian. I'm happy to see that you have arrived; Do you have any idea why the Quib-girl has left?”

Jian takes a moment to think over his response. If he told Carie that Quib had to get rid of her armor and weapons, she will probably get even more protective of him, so Jian opts for a different, but true approach. “She had to change, she thought the cloak would draw too much attention.” Jian says while walking closer to the room's entrance.

“Ah, I can understand that, a big brown cloak would probably draw a lot of attention. But anyway, Jian come over and look at this live stream that is going on!” Carie says while waving her hand for Jian to come forward. When Jian is within a foot of coming through the doorway, she points towards the computer screen.

Jian wanders over to Carie's side and looks down at his computer's screen. As Carie presses on the volume, he notices that this is what was described, that and it is coming from a place that he recognizes. “Wait, I've seen this place before....”

“You should know, this is coming from an alleyway on the way to Lera's house.” Carie says to Jian, turning the volume button low to talk to Jian first. “Apparently there was a gang shooting in the alleyway between Sima way and Brondo avenue this morning. From what I've gathered so far, there was a large shootout between gang members that resulted in around fifty five deaths. They haven't really told much so far, but the entire alleyway is being roped off by the police, including a small intersection in between the two streets.”

“Anyway, I'll put the volume back on....” Carie says quietly before turning the sound back on.

The computer's stereo system immediately kicks back on, spewing out the news lady's speech as she interviews a bystander. “... you witnessed the shooting, is that correct? What can you tell us about this double-digit homicide?”

The bystander on screen seems reasonably shaken from the day's events, but nevertheless, the man speaks into the microphone. “I don't remember everything, I kind of had my head down for most of the time, but I remember seeing a bunch of people running out of the alleyway at once. Some of them stopped in front of one of their cars and started shooting at someone in the alleyway. Moments later I heard a ton of gunfire and I ducked down behind my car. When I looked back up, the people that were shooting into the alleyway were dead and their car was ripped to shreds. A moment later and two people in these brown cloaks came running out of the alleyway with a person dressed up in a Unimori High school uniform running out right behind them. A moment later and three cars started driving off, but one of the cloaked people had a minigun and tore their car to bits. Another one tried to run over one of the cloaked guys, but the vehicle caved in around him! I couldn't believe my eyes!”

“Wait,” says the news lady, who is not exactly sure what she should make out about the witness' accusations. “So the car crashed into the man? Was he hurt?”

“No, not in the slightest! From what I saw, the car caved in around him, like his body was a solid wall! He jumped into the air and started shooting a handgun at the car right after. I'm not sure what kind of gun he was using, but it-”

The video stream goes silent as Carie turns off the volume. She then looks back at Jian, wide-eyed. Jian is just as perplexed as her, and stunned by what he's heard. “Brown cloak...? But Quib wears-” Jian stops halfway through his sentence, his mind unable to accept the realization that is spreading through his body.

Jian and Carie spend the next few seconds staring at each other with their mouth's wide open, both not willing to speak a word.

Suddenly, they hear a knock on Jian's door. They turn to see that not only Quib has arrived, but so have Boz and Lera. “Hey guys.” Quib says in a happy voice, lifting up her hand to shut the door behind her after Boz and Lera enter. “Look at who I found on my way over? Apparently once they heard that you wanted to meet, they rushed over from their dinner! Anyway, I have something I want to give you, Carie, a little peace offering, if you will.” Quib says, raising her other hand to show a silver laptop.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Carie and Jian stare at Quib until she takes a seat on one of the four beds in Jian's room, the one near and to the left of the door. After which, Carie opens her mouth. “Alright, that's it! If you want to be Jian's friend and help him out with things or your in love with him or whatever, that's okay, but not if you are a fucking murderer!” Carie launches up from her seat and rushes over to Quib and grabs her by her shirt collar and nearly lifts her off of the bed in her haste. “Listen, you bitch! I won't let you hurt Jian, I don't even want to see you come anywhere near this school ever again-!”

Carie stops her sentence when she feels Boz's arms wrap around her's and her stomach. She goes “Huh?” before he rips her away from Quib, but not before almost pulling Quib along with her.

She almost wants to kick out Boz's leg, which would give her a chance to go back after Quib, but then shw reconsiders. “Please Carie, you need to calm down....” Boz says in a calm, but hasty voice. “You rushed at her without even giving her a chance to explain. Plus, her and her friends saved Lera's life today!”

“What!? How!? They are murderers for all I know!” Carie shouts while struggling to get out of Boz's huge arms.

“It's because the Yomatza came after me.” Lera says in a calm voice. “From what I was told by the leader of their hit squad, my father used some of their money to start up his company, but he never paid them back. To make up for it, they chose to take my life since my father's already dead. Before they shot me, one of Quib's friend's shot their leader with a sniper rifle. The person who I think is her leader jumped down from a rooftop above me and shot down every Yomatza member around me right after. A moment later and I started running away, but I got hit by a stray bullet in my leg. It isn't life threatening or serious, so I can still walk. I'm not sure what else happened after that, since I blacked out and woke up in a nearby house with another of Quib's friends....”

Boz takes up the conversation a second after Lera finishes speaking. “I was in the courtyard when this all started. Lera told me through a phone conversation that she didn't want to go out with me and I took it kind of badly. I was looking downward for a while, but then I heard a person walk up to me and I looked up to see a girl in a brown cloak staring at me. She told me that Lera was in trouble and gave me a katana. Since I couldn't leave her to die, I took the katana and went along with her. Part of the way to the alleyway the girl tried to stop me and started saying that it was too dangerous, but I kept going anyway!”

“By the time I was there, Lera had already been shot and carried away from the firefight. I was about to rush at the Yomatza members, but the girl in the brown cloak pushed me to the side and wiped out a minigun.... Anyway, I'll tell you more about that later! After the fight was over, I got where Lera was at out of Quib's leader and went to the building she was in, and I find her with a bandage wrapped around her leg and resting against a wall. She apologized for trying to break up with me and now we've found that we love each other again. So please Carie, Quib and her friends have done no harm to any of us and will not hurt us in the future! Are you calm enough now that I can let go of you?”

Carie lets out a deep sigh with her eye's closed before saying “Yes, I am calm, but you have a few questions to answer for yourself, Boz! Now, can you please let me go?” Boz nods his head when he hears Carie's words and loosens his grip. After which, Carie walks away from Boz, rubbing her lower arms while walking back to Jian's computer seat.

“Oh, well, I guess that explains my question from earlier then, and that also explains why you were so on edge too.” Jian says, still standing in the same spot that he had been in during the entire altercation. “Anyway, you said you had a peace offering, Quib?”

“Yes, I do. Since Carie was so... concerned about me earlier, I decided to give her something that she could use that I can't, since I'm terrible with technology.” Quib says, grabbing a hold of the laptop that she had laid on the bed earlier. She then gets up and walks over to Carie and presents it to her. “Listen, I understand that we got off on the wrong foot, but I want to change that. To show you that I'm a friend, I'm giving you this laptop, since you don't have a computer of your own-”

“Wait, how do you know that I don't have a computer!?” Carie retorts, shooting her head up in surprise. “Exactly how much do you know about us!?”

“I know enough to keep you safe, that's it! Now, can you please take the laptop?” Quib says to Carie, nudging the laptop closer to her.

Carie looks at the mechanical instrument for a few seconds before snatching it from Quib's hand and saying “Fine, but I'm not going to use it until I know that I can trust you!”

“If that is what you wish, then so be it, but I still insist that I'm a friend and only want to help you, not an enemy!” Quib says while slowly making her way back to her seat. Once she sits back down, she turns her attention over to Jian. “Jian, now that you have your questions about Boz and Lera answered, why don't you explain to them what has happened to you?”

“Ah, yes, I almost forgot!” Jian says while backing up to sit on the bed to the far right of his room's entrance. Boz and Lera are sitting on the bed to his left, the bed to the near right of his doorway. He takes a deep breath in and out and then begins to speak. “I was on my way to the internet cafe I go to in the city when this man bumped into me and sprinted down an alleyway. I wanted to get an apology out of him, so I followed him behind a dumpster. I found him curled up in a ball and in pain. I asked him if he was alright and reached my hand out to him, but got an evil glare as a response. When the man looked up at me, I saw that he had this weird eldritch Sigil on his head. Before I could pull my hand back, the man grabbed it and tried to bring me closer, but I punched him in his forehead, which made him loosen his grip on my hand, and then I ran away. He chased me through the streets for a while until I eventually found my way into an abandoned office building. I tried to barricade the door, but he busted through it in just a few seconds. He chased me through the building for a while until we arrived at the rooftop. Seeing no other way out, I attempted to make a jump for the roof of another building. The Sigil guy fell off of the rooftop after me, but I didn't make the jump correctly. I hit the edge of the rooftop with my diaphragm and started to slide off, but Quib caught me at the last moment! After which, we walked back to Unimori and I called this meeting together.”

“Shit....” Boz says in horror. “An eldritch Sigil... wow....”

“Wait!” Carie says, placing her new laptop on the bed to the left of the computer desk. “I think I heard about something similar to this on the internet a few days ago!” Carie swings around in Jian's computer chair and starts typing into the computer's web browser. She types in 'multiple shooting eldritch Sigil on forehead' before pressing the enter button. A list of a few sites pop up, but she ignores them and goes to the one she is looking for. She clicks on a link that says 'Ignama blood bath; man with eldritch Sigil on head attacks night bar; ten killed, fifteen injured'. “There, that's what I heard about! I saw this a few days ago but ignored it because I thought it was just some internet trolling. Apparently this has happened somewhere before, maybe it has something to do with a cult of some kind?”

“Damn, I thought it was just me...” Jian says in exasperation. “I'm lucky I got away, he would have killed me, without a doubt! Maybe he was part of that cult. I mean, who would go around with some eldritch sign on their head unless they are completely crazy!?”

“Wait....” Carie says with her finger pointed in the air and her eyes buried in the computer screen. She moves her mouse over a link on the side of the browser. From what she can see before clicking the link, it says 'Eldritch Sigil cult strikes again; Killing the....” She clicks the link, curious about exactly what this link says.

After clicking the link, a picture appears on the screen of Ignama's city hospital. Over top of picture are the words 'Eldritch sign cult strikes again; Killing fifteen injured during attack on a night bar days earlier.'

Cold sweet drips down Carie's face as she reads the news article out loud. “D-During a daring night time assault, the amply named 'Eldritch sign cult' struck again. This time they have gone after the injured victims of the night bar attack days earlier. From what we have heard, they attacked in great numbers, overwhelming the hospital's security and killing the injured victims. They attacked no one else, as if their target's were only the night bar victims and none other. From the police's original reports, we have heard that the eldritch sign cult attacked with such efficiency and speed that they killed and fled in the matter of only a few minutes, leaving the police department no time to get to the scene before they had left....”

“Oh god...! Does that mean they're still going to come after me...! Oh god, oh god, oh god....” Jian says in complete fear, his pupils dilated, his skin going pale. “I feel cold....” he says, wrapping his arms around him, shaking uncontrollably and rocking back and forth.

Before anyone can mutter a single word, they hear the window behind Jian opening....