Chapter 20: Rika

Everybody was a little too awestruck to answer the question, but Zel could help but blurt out the first thing that was on her mind.

"That was amazing!!!" she said, almost yelling before managing to reign herself in a little. "That was amazing! Uh, my criticism is, uh... That was probably a bit too... deadly?" she said with a nervous shrug while eyeing the freshly redesigned statue.

The room went dead silent. For a moment Zel felt like melting into a puddle like the stone, but then the silence was broken with a laugh. A laugh that rang out with the resonance of a beautiful bell. It was Rika who was laughing, and as soon as she did, the entire class erupted with laughter. For a moment, everyone shared a moment of levity, even Cleinz was holding back a chuckle behind a grimace.

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind, Zel." Her voice was as sweet as nectar and Zel felt like she could listen to Rika talk all night. Miriya was looking on with a piercing gaze and the same wry grin from earlier, but Zel didn't notice. Captain Ceres brought her back to reality.

"Haha, thank you Zel," He said in his normal warm tone, "being too lethal can definitely be an issue depending on your enemy. But I believe I will give Rika a pass in that category, as the test was simply to explore methods of attack. Do we have any other criticism for Rika?" None of the students responded, but no longer due to the shock of having witnessed such a display, they were now genuinely bereft of advice. When no one spoke, Captain Ceres gave his own critique.

"Your attack was, of course, exceedingly effective." He gestured to the slowly congealing puddle on the floor before he continued. "If I were to give you a piece of advice, it would be not to waste so much mana on complex techniques unless your opponent was exceedingly strong. But if you were envisioning such an enemy, then I have no qualms." Zel was confused at the wording that Captain Ceres used. 'Complex' didn't exactly feel apt for what she had seen, but Rika simply nodded.

"Thank you, Captain Ceres, I'll try to keep it more simple in the future." She said with a smile that nearly blinded Zel before returning to her seat.

Captain Ceres looked at the Tiltwilt flower on his desk and clapped his hands together.

"We are out of time. So that will be all this evening. You all did excellent, it was a very productive start to the year and I hope to see such efforts from you in the future. Those of you who we did not get a chance to work with, please spend some time before tomorrow thinking about the solution to Captain Exelcia's bubble. You are dismissed."

The students all stood up in unison. Zel took a moment longer before she rose to leave the room. Rika was walking by and she wanted to let her out of the room first to avoid talking to her and further embarrassing herself. This was not meant to be, however. As Rika passed by and Zel made to stand up, she felt a hand press against the middle of her back. She turned her head just in time to catch a glimpse of the wicked grin on Miriya's face as she pushed Zel with just enough force to make her stumble out of her seat, directly towards the unaware Rika.

You bitch!

Zel fell tumbling towards Rika and almost managed to stop herself on her tippy toes, but to no avail, as she was forced to grab onto Rika's shoulder to avoid falling. Rika was a bit surprised by the sudden extra weight, but she latched onto Zel's arm and held her fast. She was surprisingly strong, her grip solid and firm.

"Are you okay, Zel?" She asked, reaching across with her free arm to give Zel more support. Zel had gotten close enough to feel Rika's breath on her face as she talked. Unlike Zel's own face, which had freckles under her eyes, Rika's face was totally pristine and free of any blemish or marking. Zel found herself again mesmerized by this woman's beauty.

After a moment being frozen in awe, Zel realized that she had been staring too long. She let go of Rika's shoulder quickly and righted herself, stiff as a board.

"I-I am so sorry. I must have tripped over myself, I am such a klutz, sorry to bother you." Zel couldn't recall the last time she had such difficulty speaking, the words felt as if they were tumbling out of her mouth at random, there was nothing she could do to stem the flow. Rika simply giggled.

"No trouble at all. Since we're heading out the door, why don't we walk together for a little while." Rika suddenly frowned, "Unless you have somewhere to be, of course." Zel couldn't answer fast enough.

"No! N-no. Nowhere to be, at least for a little while. Let's go!" She said with a little too much gusto, Rika seemed unphased.

They set off into the hallway with Miriya trailing a little bit behind. Zel made a mental note to get some payback later.

I'm going to switch out her shampoo so her fur gets itchy! She thought.

Once they were in the hall, Rika took the lead and started asking Zel questions.

"So, Zel. Have you been around campus much?" She asked, twirling effortlessly through the crowded passage.

"Ah, not really. I have had the time to go visit some shops in the city, but I have not looked around the school very much yet." Zel responded, she turned away shyly, screaming at herself to act normal in her head. It wasn't working.

"Ooo," Rika's eyes lit up, "Let me show you some cool places that I know about then."

"That sounds nice. Like where?" Zel asked.

"Follow me and you'll find out!" Rika said with a coy grin. She led them along in relative quiet for a while, because Zel could not think of anything to say, and Rika was happily humming to herself.

This is stupid, Zel thought. Someone I just met is going out of their way to show me around the school, and I can't even talk to her. What is wrong with me? She's just so pretty, UGH! Zel finally mustered up the courage to speak.

"You were really amazing. In Captain Ceres class, I mean." She managed to say.

"Ah, thank you! I don't think that it was anything special, but it means a lot." Rika said without breaking stride.

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"Nothing special? It was unbelievable! I have seen a bunch of amazing people since arriving at the academy, but that was definitely the most incredible magic that I have seen yet," Zel assured her, "I cannot believe that you are only a first year like us."

Rika stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Zel.

"Oh, I'm not a first year. I'm a second year student of the academy." She said, with a perplexed expression. "What gave you the idea that I was a first year student?"

Zel didn't know how to answer at first, but this didn't slow her down for long as her brain finally kicked into gear and took over for her pounding heart.

"Because you were in the same class as us? I thought that only first year students were allowed to be in classes together, they do not offer mixed experience classes until you're at least a second year student?" Zel repeated verbatim what she had learned from her sign-up sheet.

"Well, I suppose that is true, yes," Rika responded. "I guess I just wanted to see what this year's students were like. And see if there were anyone interesting." A phrase tumbled out of Zel's mouth before she could stop herself.

"Am I interesting?" She asked this with the sting of immediate regret piercing into her. However, she was surprised by Rika's response.

"You are very interesting." Rika said this with conviction. As though what she said were a fact that were indisputable. Zel was taken aback.

"If you do not mind me asking... What do you find interesting about me?" She asked cautiously. "If I am totally honest, I would say that I am probably the least interesting person at this academy right now. Even my sister, who is a total weirdo, has a time affinity and really impressed the captains during the exam. I do not think that I am very interesting at all."

Rika laughed again. Zel thought she would get used to the sound, but every laugh seemed to make her innards swell and swoon. She wasn't sure she liked the sensation, but for some reason she didn't want it to stop either.

"You know, there is more to a person than their use to the academy. I find you interesting in different ways." Rika paused to consider something for a moment before speaking again. "And from what I heard from the Captains about your examination, especially your second one, you are very interesting to Dream Academy as well. Don't sell yourself short!" She said this to Zel pointedly as though she were scolding a child. For the first time since they started talking, Zel suddenly felt comfortable.

"Alright, alright." She held up her hands in defeat. "I'll admit that I'm pretty awesome, as long as you do as well, Miss second year, showoff." Zel's nervous smile had grown into a genuine one as Rika giggled once more before responding.

"Sounds like a deal." She stopped suddenly in the hallway so that Zel almost smacked into her again before turning back towards a doorway that they had just passed. "Ah, I almost missed it, we're here!" Zel read aloud the words on the doorway.

"Observation deck," she said, "observing what?"

"Come on and see." Rika grabbed Zel's hand and pulled her into the doorway. Inside the door was a long tunnel, like the ones that led to the outside of the mountain, and indeed Zel could see a light on the far end. Rika let go of Zel's hand but led the charge into the darkness.

This tunnel appeared to be a storage room of sorts, there were a variety of instruments and devices in various sorts of repair that lined the hallway, but all cleared out of the central path, allowing them to pass through easily. It was at this moment that it hit Zel for the first time just how wealthy Dream Academy was. They had so many resources that they were able to leave them out in the open where anybody could find and use them, or perhaps even steal them. Based on what she saw here, Zel thought it entirely possible that they wouldn't even know they were missing. She just managed to finish this line of thinking as they reached the end of the passageway. Drawn out into the light with Rika pulling her along, Zel couldn't help but gasp at what she saw.

They were standing on a small platform at the edge of the sheer cliff face of the mountain, the entirety of Dream Squall laid out before them. Zel could clearly see the districted layers of the mountain, buildings, lights, people sparkling and flowing like a river that wrapped its way all round them, far below. Above the moon was shining down, omnipresent and ever gentle light intermingled with the sparkly lights from the city, creating an eerie glowing aura of light that met somewhere in the middle. Zel had never seen anything like it before.

"Wow, it's unbelieveable!" Zel exclaimed, she leaned on the railing and took a deep breath of the outside air.

"Very pretty, isn't it? It's much more bright than my home, though the city that I am from is every bit as busy as Dream Squall." Rika said.

"I'm from a tiny town on the railroad track. You can hardly even see the lights while you're standing right next to them inside the town!" Zel said with a laugh, "But this is amazing! I've never seen anything like this!" Zel took it all in for a moment longer before a thought hit her.

"But where is home, for you I mean?" Zel turned to look at Rika, but she quickly reversed course. Somehow the light outside made her seem even more beautiful than she had already seemed. "If you do not mind me asking, that is," she finished nervously.

To Zel's dismay, Rika let out a sigh. She was looking over the railing as Zel was, but seemed suddenly downcast.

"Oh, I am sorry. Forget I asked," Zel said quietly.

'No, no it's alright." Rika said with a sigh, "I just miss it, you know? ...I'll tell you about it sometime, but for now, why don't we head back? You probably have another class coming up soon, right?" Zel wanted to say something, but she simply nodded and they walked back down the long hallway to the main spiral of campus. Once they reached the doorway at the end, Rika put her hand on the knob before stopping and sighing once again.

"Zel, I'm sorry for grabbing you like this. You don't know me, I'm not in your class. It was selfish of me to take up so much of your time on your first day of classes. But thank you for coming with me regardless of my selfishness."

"I'll be honest with you, Rika." Zel's voice was firm and steady for the first time in a while. "I don't know why you would want to talk to me. But I am sure glad that you did. And I hope that you will again soon."

Rika froze, her icy-cool features did not betray any particular emotion as she turned to push open the doorway.

"Thanks, Zel. I'll talk to you later." Rika said with a smile before departing as quickly as their little walk had began.

Zel waved as Rika left. She took a big breath and let out a bigger sigh, which ended up being unfortunate as she had the rest of the wind knocked out of her as a furry sister-figure, coming from seemingly nowhere, headbutted her stomach.

"There's my smooth sis! How did it go? Did you kiss? Did you tell her you love her? I've never seen you like that before, Zel, I couldn't believe it! You were totally smitten! I didn't even know that you liked girls! So, Rika... is she nice? Does she like you back? When are you going on another date? Do you need me to come with? I can go find a shop that you two can visit! Oh what to do what to do!" Miriya's never ending onslaught of questions slammed into Zel like a moving train, each question one of its seemingly endless cars. She didn't know which question to answer first and eventually after stuttering like a fool trying to get a word in, she instead decided to answer everything that was on her mind instead

"We just talked, Miriya. You heard from our class, her name is Rika. She's a second year student, and for some reason she wanted to talk to me. That's all that happened." Miriya looked a bit disappointed that nothing more happened, but she quickly recovered and returned to her questions, instead asking one at a time, since Zel clearly couldn't handle the bombardment.

"You like her?" She asked simply and concisely. Zel didn't think Miriya could have overwhelmed her more than she already had, but her sister found a way.

"...shut up." Zel said, turning her head away from Miriya to more appropriately pout.

Miriya's own face lit up into a glowing smile and she asked Zel a follow up question.

"Does this mean that you'll forgive me for giving you a little push?"

Zel pondered for a moment. Part of her still wanted to swap out Miriya's shampoo for the sheer audacity of the crime she had committed. Instead, Zel simply held out her arms, Miriya dove into them and gave Zel a mighty hug.