The moon-mech pilot stares coolly at the world before them. That is, at us. The senior class of the 605th Planet-anchored High School, also known as Lunch High.

Lunch High. A school with a thousand year legacy, but to be honest, doesn’t look like much—and despite its faculty often boasting its legacy as one of the earliest high schools on the planet Breath—totally blends in with millions of other schools that populate the world, these days.

It really isn’t considered anything particularly fancy nowadays, considering that it’s just. Sitting here. On the planet. In this absolutely average city. But at one point, I agree it must’ve been a sheer feat. Back when Earthians had no idea what they were doing, that is.

Out of nowhere, the moon-mech pilot’s eyes meets mine. Everything about them stays a little…serious. Their messy black hair frames a stormy lavender-tinted gaze, and a stony expression takes up their bronze, sun-darkened face.

I look away. My gaze falls to one side, then haphazardly rises again, and accidentally meeting Esme and Roka’s.

The two of them look…a little concerned.

“Would you…uh…like to introduce yourself?” I hear Instructor Lee ask at the front of the room.

Dead silence fills the air for about half a minute, and then the distinct sound of Instructor Lee clearing his throat.

“So, their name is Daisy.” says Instructor Lee. “As far as I understand, in our language, Daisy’s pronouns are they, them, their. Hope we all get along, class.”

Not gonna lie. So far, all the students from the Realm of Blossoms’ Royal Academy haven’t been getting along well with the rest of the school.

Despite Instructor Lee mentioning something about a distinguished protagonist’s rival desk behind that one guy near the window, Daisy strides, without veering, right toward me, within the second column of desks within our class.

Oh. Amazing. Just frickin’ stellar—

Then I hear the near-marble-cracking slam of a pair of hands that come down against one of said desks.

After relaxing out of a rigid recoil, I look back to my side, cautiously.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It turns out…

Daisy 500% just tried to break Esme’s desk with their hands.

“Esmeralda Archona. Failed guardian among the Seven. Meet me at the Quiet Trees Park at 23 hundred hours for a duel to the death.”

Uh… Fuck.

*

“Sooo. That was kinda fucked up, not gonna lie.” says Roka, yawning a little.

“Great to finally know your stance on all this.” I reply. “Get the hell off, Roka.”

“Haha!” Roka snorted, then hesitated. “Really? While your bike’s still going?” His hands on my shoulder secured themselves more carefully, even as my mech-bike slowed to a walking speed.

Geez…

He’d hopped onto the back of my mech-bike half an hour prior, originally chatting about the most mind-blowingly inane shit as we headed for the exact direction we needed to.

The goddamn opposite of the place Daisy had demanded that Esme meet them.

—Or…we should have.

Esme had already gone ahead. It was still 23:00 out of the 28:00 hours that cycled through on Breath.

As the sun began to set, its typically golden shine turning into a lavender color due to Breath’s atmosphere, I caught sight of her ahead of the rest of us, with Flora at her side.

She’d…

Definitely kicked through five typically impenetrable venra-rebound walls, three meters high on all sides. There was a huge hole surrounded by what looked like literal blue jelly, now.

The winds that were never-ending upon the planet Breath rushed through it.

I finally hit the brakes of my already-slowing bike as we neared, and Roka finally hopped off, a little primly, before spinning. Then he flashed that overbearing grin of his straight at me.

“Dudes!” Teal’s brakes screeched as he made a weird move down the hill right as he managed to get over it, as if to mimic some kind of TV animation from like, 5,000 years ago. Considering that our bikes didn’t have any physical wheels and mostly hovered with colored glow-light blazing beneath, he mostly just looked like he was about to fall off of that leopard-print-with-green-flames-from-hell contraption.

“Please don’t turn your bike into a rocket heading to space again.” I commented, hopping off my way sleeker rose-gold one. The body-securing glittering exo-sphere turned off as I slid the key back into my pocket.

Our bikes weren’t supposed to be able to…rocket to space—they basically only hovered a few feet high in the air, but when it came Teal’s existence…he managed Feats.

Technically less terrifying feats, compared to Flora.

“I was really thinking we’d ride our bikes vertically over the fence…” said Teal.

Roka suddenly took me by the shoulder and pulled me forward. Our faces wound up a little too close.

“Stop wasting time and let’s go.” he said, his brown eyes meeting mine, sparkling too excitedly. “They say there’s ghosts, Rea.”

…Urgh.

It’d always been about the ghosts with him.

He wound up half-dragging me toward Esme and Flora again, who were engaged in a low, murmuring conversation. The golden bloom-lights flickered on nearby as night fully set, bathing our world a deep violet-blue, then finally space-dark, aside from that flower, towering three meters high, nearby and…the row of glean-flowers and their own golden lights, not far ahead. They seemed to be the only real source of light for at least half a kilometer around.

“Shit—what’s that?” Flora suddenly hissed.

There was a flash of another kind of light, more like an explosive firework, from…afar.

Before we could reach them, Esme and Flora flashed forward with their magic, becoming blurs of emerald green and orchid purple…

…and Teal nearly ran us over, yelling “Hell yeaaaaaaaaah!” as he’d apparently realized he could just ride his awful bike through the enormous hole, too.

Roka and I were left alone. The wind danced through his dark locks, somehow not smacking against my face as he parted from my side. He took two steps back instead of going forward.

“Are you worried, Rea?” He almost sounded amused, and I looked at him.

I think I almost wished it. That any kind of worry for me shone in that starry night gaze. It was too hard to comprehend it: that calm expression of his.

But I smiled at him, tilting my head toward the overly-dark park.

“No…not at all. Let’s go, shall we?”