It's around the middle of the day Sunday when we inevitably get called to the administration office again. However, there's an old woman there when we walk inside. She remains motionless, fingers interlaced on the desk. We both glance around, confused, before she speaks.

“Leona Vicca-san, Seiko Maka-san. I see you are the two troublemakers that got the last administrator removed.”

Huh?

“Removed?” Leona asks. “Janice Monasta was fired?”

“More than just fired, but yes,” the old woman confirms, her expression neutral and unreadable. They did more than just fire her? Like what?

“Yes!” Leona doesn't even try to hide her joy, looking down at me with a big smile and clenching a fist in triumph. Her energy is infectious, and I grin back up at her, a few relieved tears trickling down my cheeks.

“A bit too excited, don't you think?” the woman asks, a brow arched at us.

Not breaking stride at all, Leona responds, “Not at all, that woman was evil.”

“Oh, really?” Amid their back and forth, I finally have time to look the old woman over. Her hair is mostly gray, only hints of its original green coloring left. It's wavy and cut short around her somewhat wrinkled face. Eyes moving down, she's wearing a dark, professional looking dress, with an unusual maroon sheen when she shifts forward to lean on the desk and the light hits it just right.

That's what finally gets me to see that she's not just at the desk, she's sitting at the desk. I didn't even notice at first- wait, how tall is she?

My mind trips and I have to back it up when I realize that I'm looking up at the woman as she sits. I might be short, but that isn't normal.

Shaking her head and calming herself, Leona turns a polite smile on the woman. “So, are you the new administrator?” Oh, that's who she is! I feel slow when that finally clicks.

“That I am. Nora Ashil,” she introduces herself with a similarly polite smile. However, Leona flinches slightly at the name.

Clearly trying to cover her response, Leona maintains her pleasant expression, even if it's not fooling anyone now. “It's good to meet you, Ashil-san.” Does she already know this old woman somehow? Seeing Leona nervous is making me nervous to...

“You too, Vicca-san. Now, I didn't receive much information about my new assignment besides you two being involved in the removal of the last administrator. Would you care to explain?”

“Of course,” Leona agrees immediately. “Since the beginning of the school year, Janice Monasta consistently persecuted Seiko, going as far as covering for the perpetrators of an attempted sexual assault, and building a new, legally uninhabitable section of dorms in order to isolate Seiko from the rest of the student body. There were other offenses as well, aimed at abusing, traumatizing, and denying Seiko basic rights and bodily autonomy as well, but I think you get the picture.”

“Holy...” The old woman blinks at us, eyes shuffling back and forth, clearly not expecting that. “Well, that's certainly egregious...” She nods a few times before her attention turns on Leona once more. “What on Miel would possess her to do such things?”

Leona shrugs slightly with her first answer. “Part of it was likely a grudge when I hospitalized her daughter, the leader of the attempted sexual assault.” That has Ashil facepalming as Leona continues. “Mostly though, she persecuted Seiko for being transgender.” When Ashil doesn't recognize the term, Leona explains.

“So wait, Maka-chan was born male?” the new administrator looks down at me in confusion. “But she's clearly female. So how...?” She trails off, scratching her cheek, stumped.

“That information is confidential.” I'm confused when Leona sounds... resigned as she says that? Why?

“How odd,” the lady comments. “I have clearance level four.” She says it with a somewhat dismissive wave of her hand, like that's obviously enough to get any information she wants. But-

I jolt, heart probably skipping a beat. Woah... that's...

“Clearance check,” Leona intones with the same sound. Did she already know? Why is Ashil's clearance so high? She's just a school administrator...

They tap mobiles so Leona can confirm the clearance even though she already knows, then turns to me. “I'm sorry Seiko, can you step out for a minute? You don't actually have clearance to hear about this...” She looks so apologetic, but... isn't this my own information? I guess it's a government technicality thing? According to the clearance info Mejja sent to my mobile at some point, my I have level thirteen from working for psi-ops, so I guess it's understandable...

I nod stiffly and back off, out the door. I guess Leona's telling her how that psi-tremor changed my body and now I'm working for psi-ops so they can study my PEP. I have so many questions though. Why is it such a high level secret? Because anything related to psions and the military is that big a deal for the Laros government?

And why, why does our new school administrator have such ridiculously high security clearance? Wouldn't that put her in military high command? I'm about at the point of calling Mejja to ask, since I'm having trouble breathing through my worry because it's so damn weird. But the door opens again and Leona waves me back into the office before I can pull out my mobile.

“My, my,” Ashil says as soon as I approach again, “what an interesting one we have here.” Her eyes are practically gleaming as she looks me over with renewed interest, immediately sending me closer to Leona's side. I'm already sweating, my palms damp as I try desperately to stay calm.

With her political power, we can't raise a single protest, can we? We couldn't even fight Roland Barrett, and his clearance was only level six...

Was getting rid of Monasta a good thing or a bad thing...? We didn't replace her with someone even worse did we? What if she decides to hate me the same way? My life will be absolute hell...

I'm already in a downward spiral, when she stands.

I think my brain isn't working right. The anxiety is getting to me or something. My eyes are reporting that her head skims the ceiling, soaring almost double my height. But that can't be right. Humans don't get that tall, do they?

I don't think I'm breathing by the time she steps around the desk between us. My hands cling, sweaty fingers digging into Leona's arm with dull, disbelieving terror. When the woman stops in front of us, I'm eye level with her stomach.

...How?

“Oh, no need to be so gray,” she tuts. Even if I was thinking right, that wouldn't make sense, would it? “It sounds like you've been through an ordeal. You should be happy to hear that I won't be piling any more issues onto your clearly already full plate.”

That's... that's good? She's not going to destroy my life for no reason? She raises a brow when I do nothing but stare in response. “Maka-chan?” she prompts me.

I open my mouth, some part of my brain automatically trying to respond. That's when another part reminds me I'm not breathing, and I sputter to take a gagging breath. The whining sound has both of them looking concerned, before I manage to squeak out, “Th-thanks?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I'm sorry, Seiko has been through a lot,” Leona apologizes for me. “So Seiko has a lot of anxiety, especially around high ranking government officials. If you request a copy of the Compliance report, I'm sure you'll understand.”

“Is that so...?” the woman mutters pensively, “I'll have to do that. Now, I believe that answers my questions for now. Have a nice day, girls.” With a polite farewell, Leona herds me out of the room before I have a panic attack or something.

When we make it out of the building, my feet stop working. Something is wrong. I fall against a wall, sliding down to sit in the grass because I can't stand. I start to shake and cry, letting Leona hold me close and whisper comforting, unintelligible sounds in my ear. I don't... what's......

My emotions swing wildly all over the place. The whole time, there's this pounding in my head and a dreadful certainty that my life is over. I tell myself that the new administrator seemed nice, but that imminent sense of foreboding doom doesn't diminish at all.

I don't even know how long it lasts, but I do eventually calm down. My wildly gasping breaths and pounding heart slow, and I slouch limply into Leona's side.

My eyes flutter, opening and closing a bit at a time. Where am I...? Once I can hold them open a little longer, I recognize the familiar ceiling. The infirmary? It takes a little while longer to sit up; I feel like all the energy has been sapped out of me. Before I know it, the doctor is approaching.

“Good to see you up, Maka-chan.”

“What happened...?” I ask, needing to put in effort not to slur my words together.

“By Vicca-san's description, I think you had a panic attack.”

“A... panic attack?” Wait, like an actual panic attack? I know I was seriously freaking out in the new administrator's office, but why would I have a panic attack afterward? That doesn't make any sense...

“Pretty much.” The doctor sits lightly at the end of the bed. “They can happen, especially when you're dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety, so...” she shrugs. “I can't say I'm that surprised, but still. It must have been really frightening.”

“I...” I'm not sure how to respond. I'm not even sure how to describe it after the fact. That sense of doom. It didn't even make sense during the panic attack, how the hell would I get it now? I end up shaking my head. “Sorry... or thanks...” I'm not sure what to say here, and end up yawning, mouth open wide as I bring a hand up to cover it.

The doctor ends up yawning too, like people do, and shakes her head, looking a little amused by it. Then she goes to the next bed over, where I finally realize Leona is, looking worried even in her sleep. The doctor shakes her gently awake, and she's up and asking if I'm alright within moments.

“Yeah, I'm sorry, Leona. I'm fine now. Just... too much stress, I guess.” With a small sigh, I pull my mobile from my pocket. “Shit, it's this late?”

“Panic attacks tend to leave you really tired,” the doctor jumps back in to explain. “You slept most of the day.” It's pretty much time for my daily checkup, so Leona gets to it. I didn't have a chance to burn off any energy though, so I'm going to be taking a big step backward. I was actually starting to get the level down too this last week, I would have been able to finish next week, I think.

Another setback... I sigh sadly as Leona climbs up onto the bed. She apologizes softly, but it's my own fault. Stupid panic attack...

After Leona pins me to check my energy level, she reports that it's not great, but I already knew that. Then we move to a bed in the back of the room and close the curtain; we learned our lesson not to mess up just because we were knocked off our routine that time with Melissa Bolton.

Once the curtain is drawn, she climbs on top of me and starts charging up. The heavy weight on me is so comfortable now, I relax into the bed with a sigh. As I wait, my tired mind idly wanders.

I wonder why it feels heavy? Air pressure? It's funny when I think of it that way. Supernatural psionic power that can do literally anything, and it makes the air pressure heavier. How weird...

Then Leona finishes charging up while I'm grinning like an idiot at the weirdness of it. She fills me with another rush of power, and suddenly I get it. That's not air pressure.

I understand. All at once, it all makes sense. Everything makes sense like this. Leona finishes, straightening up over me. As soon as her hands leave my chest and abdomen, I can feel the world closing in around me again.

I only have an instant, but that's all it takes. At the speed of thought, it's done, and then the feeling is gone, buried beneath the background noise of reality once more.

Leona jolts, stumbling backward on the bed with a startled yelp, and I look up at her, just in time for her to drop her mobile on my chest. It bounces off one of my breasts and I wince, watching it roll off the bed and onto the floor.

“Ow...” I murmur, rubbing that spot as I sit up.

“Wh-what was that?” Leona stammers.

“Umm, I think I figured it out?” I offer uncertainly. It's disconcerting how even after doing it, I don't understand it once the feeling is gone. Leona gets my point though, her eyes widening. She starts to open her mouth, before spinning to check the closed curtain. It's clear what she means though.

Oh, we definitely can't discuss this in front of the doctor. I realize it moment late. No one can know about this if I want to keep off the psion registry. That's the doctor's cue to open the curtain, asking if we're alright.

“Yeah, fine.” I blush when she averts her eyes, and quickly fix my clothes.

“Just dropped my mobile,” Leona says, climbing off the bed to grab it. Once she's sent off the data to Mejja like usual, we say goodbye to the doctor. She reminds me to get some extra rest after my earlier panic attack on our way out.

As soon as we clear the school building, Leona asks, “So?”

“Let's see...” I'm still trying to put together how to explain. “Basically, when you do a psionic flood, I can feel psionic power. But it's just for like, two seconds maybe, before it's gone again. I figured out how to use it today. Or at least, I think I did, since it worked.” Her mobile definitely appeared in her hand when I wanted it to. She couldn't have dropped it otherwise, it was up at the head of the bed before I moved it.

“Alright, ok.” She takes a few breaths. “So, you just figured out how to use psionic powers. Ok then. But what you did - my mobile teleported. That was my power.”

“I'm probably piggy-backing off of you?” I offer my only real guess. “Either from the psionic energy you put in me, or just like, the power you're releasing or something? I don't really know. Like I said, all the understanding just kind of poofs out of my head and don't make any sense as soon as it's over.”

“Mmm...” Leona considers that for a while. Eventually, she asks, “So, what now?”

“What do you mean, what now?”

“Are we training now? Or do you want to tell Mejja-san?” Huh?

“O-oh, definitely not telling Mejja-san,” I wave a hand anxiously. “I don't want to end up on any lists... And, umm, like I said, I'm not really a psion if I can only piggy-back off your power for like two seconds a day, you know?” And what was that about training?

“Ah, good point...” She runs a hand up through her short hair with a complicated expression. “Sorry, I think my expectations were a bit...”

“What do you mean?” What were her expectations?

“Well...”

When I catch her hesitation and realize this probably touches on her past, I start to backpedal. “You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.”

Leona sighs deeply. Then she turns and looks off into the distance, somewhere up in the sky. “When I first used my powers, my caretakers immediately started my training. I spent all of my time honing my powers to make them as strong as possible. So, well, my first reaction was... I'm sorry, Seiko.”

“O-oh...” I grimace. “No, it's fine,” I try to comfort her, reaching up to rub her back. “If that's how it went for you, of course that's what you would think of first. But for me, there really isn't much I could do to train, even if I wanted to. I mean, I'll probably keep trying things out in the time I have during our checkups, but it's more curiosity than anything.” After all, the way things are, I'll never be able to do anything freely on my own.

“Fair enough. Still...” she pauses for some time, before saying, “you're amazing, Seiko.” Huh? “You basically find out you're a psion and you just brush it off. Most people would freak out, don't you think?”

“Ahh, it's not like that,” I giggle a little. “I already thought about it a lot and figured out that I'm not a psion. I have no idea what I am at this point, but a psion isn't it.”

“Huh, that's a good point,” she nods a few times. “There are so many abnormalities in how things work for you, it's like you fall into an entirely different classification. Something we've never seen before.”

“Great...” I twitch a little. Being some sort of unique, weird thing just makes me more anxious. Like I'm less human, when people already treat me like shit...

In any case, we've basically decided to leave things as they are, so we drop into a comfortable quiet and head back to the dorms together. I'm really tired after my panic attack, so I climb right into bed. It looks like the new admin worked her magic and got Leona properly transferred into our room too, so one less thing to worry about...