The monster horde was slain in just a few minutes.
When the crisis had been dealt with, the six members of Class G reunited by the benches outside of the stadium. Though Annabelle had been asked to return to the hotel by Kiria, she had chosen not to. And that turned out to be a pleasant outcome, as she had been holding on to the Ulty’s food, allowing the group to eat together.
No one was more thrilled about that fact than Reina as she stuffed chicken strips and burgers down her gullet. The excitement and fighting had taken a lot of energy out of her. “That was so much fun, you guys! We should do that again!”
“What, you mean save innocent people from bad guys?” Zeo asked with a chuckle. “Well, that’s what we are planning to do, right?”
Silence took over, and eyes shifted in Kiria’s direction.
She would have to be the buzz kill once again. “I know you guys were excited to be heroes and stop Mistral, but I’m afraid that’s not going to happen anymore.”
Annabelle’s ears drooped. If Reina’s could, hers would have as well. Instead, it was her tail.
“We can obviously handle it!” Zeo said. “We did great just now, didn’t we?”
“It’s not that we couldn’t defeat them in a fight, Zeo.” Kiria looked around the circle. Everyone was quiet, and mainly kept their eyes away from one another. A pang of regret hit her for just a brief moment. It was a little heartbreaking seeing them all in such a sad state. “But Mistral is a very serious threat, and for all we know they could very well have spread themselves out too wide for us to handle them ourselves. And besides, you know we can’t afford to go to Chateau Aurum, so we wouldn’t be able to deal with them anyway.”
Tyger’s head tilted to the floor. “Sorry….”
Scowling, Cain then said, “Do we know for a fact that this was Mistral’s doing?”
She nodded. “The stadium staff said they found traces of explosive forcestones on the roof, just like the ones Mistral has been mining. The pulseons are obviously from the pulse as well, and they were likely captured by Mistral for this purpose.”
“Um….” Annabelle could barely be heard, and if Kiria hadn’t been sitting directly beside her, she probably wouldn’t have noticed she’d said anything at all. “Why did they attack the stadium?”
“Yeah, that is weird, isn’t it?” Zeo asked. “I thought they were just going after the Chateau.”
“The stadium was packed cuz of the tournament,” Tyger grumbled. “Bet those bastards just wanted to kill as many people as they could. Scumbags.”
Cain prepared to fold his arms across his chest, but had to stop as soreness struck him. He tried to keep it lowkey so as not to show signs of injury and weakness to the others, but Kiria and Tyger both caught it. “Perhaps it was a test run before their main operation.”
“Dude, quit tryna act all tough. I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You wouldn’t be able to afford my treatment anyway. Aren’t you working as a janitor?”
Tyger growled. “The hell does that have to do with anything? I was just offerin’ to help, asswad!”
“Boys,” Kiria said with a sigh that actually managed to quiet them both, diverting their focus back to their food. During this silence, she did take the time to look at them both closely, particularly Cain given his obvious signs of hurt. “Why does it seem like you two brutalized each other in your match?”
“Cuz they totally did!” Reina said with a giggle. “It was awesome! But also kinda scary, actually….”
“I understand you both wanted to win,” Kiria continued. “But you were supposed to be competing for the prize money so that we could afford the airship ride. Even if one of you had won, it wouldn’t have helped us stop Mistral if you two were too injured to fight them.”
The boys, equally embarrassed by Kiria’s “disappointed parent” critique of their conduct, muttered out apologies.
Getting back to the main topic, Kiria said, “I’m sorry we won’t be able to go on that ‘real adventure’ you were all so excited about, but we did get to save the day here in the arena, right?”
With a bright smile plastered over her face and barbecue dipping sauce plastered over her cheeks, Reina pumped her fist high into the air. “Yeah!” Zeo and Annabelle laughed in response.
However, the latter’s eyes didn’t stay on Reina. They returned to Zeo, as they had been throughout the entire conversation. She could only imagine how disappointed and hurt he was inside that his heroic adventure plans had been stomped into the dirt. Her hand moved towards him, wanting to provide comfort and reassurance, but she knew she shouldn’t keep satelliting him; she had to move on from this crush.
She pulled her hand back.
“Enjoy that, then, and be proud of yourselves,” Kiria continued. “I’ll contact the authorities after we eat, and they can handle Mistral. We’ll just enjoy the rest of our vacation here together. Maybe we can actually go explore the pulse together as a group for once.”
Tyger’s brow curled up. “The pulse? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Tyger, that’s the whole reason we all came out here in the first place.”
“….Oh, yeah, it was, wasn’t it?”
“Imbecile.”
“Piss off.”
The mood seemed to have transformed from then on. The group was laughing and chatting casually amongst themselves, relaying the events of the day to one another and commenting on the food.
Even Zeo found himself in a good mood. For the most part, anyway. There was still a part of him — a faint little voice in the back of his mind — that couldn’t let it go just yet.
We can’t let our adventure end like this….We’ve got to be the ones to stop Mistral….
That is how he truly felt about the situation, but there wasn’t really much he could do about it. They didn’t have enough money to afford an airship or boat ride to Chateau Aurum on account of Tyger and Cain both failing to win the tournament. Perhaps if Zeo himself had entered into the tournament, this would’ve turned out differently….
“Aw, look at this cute little party you guys got going on here!”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The members of Class G all turned to face the source of the voice. It was Meifang. She had changed back into a nice designer coat and dress, and had a duffel bag slung around her shoulder.
Reina gasped. “Meifang! Wow! Can I have your autograph?!”
“Sure, why not?”
Reina frantically began her search for a pen and paper. It was a chaotic mess of a search that ultimately required Kiria to calm her down and retrieve the supplies from her own bag. All the while, Meifang moved behind Tyger and Cain, placing her hands on top of both of their heads.
“Hey, it’s my two favorites from the tournament! You guys were great! I’m proud of you.” The boys desperately tried to hide their blushing faces before any of the others could notice. Mission failed.
After Meifang finished signing the autograph for Reina, she looked around the circle once more. “You guys friends of Tyger and Cain’s?”
Reina nodded. “Yup! We’re Class G!”
“Class G?”
Zeo chuckled. “We all went to elementary school together. We actually hadn’t seen each other since then until recently.”
“We came to explore the ultrapulse together,” Annabelle added. “We, um….we promised we would, ten years ago.”
A big smile carved itself into Meifang’s face. “Aw, that’s so cute! So are you guys having a little picnic after kicking all those monsters’ butts?”
“Something like that,” said Kiria.
Meifang looked down as she felt someone tap on her leg. It was Tyger, holding out a box of fries in her direction. “You want some?”
She happily accepted, even going so far as to squeeze herself onto the bench in between him and Cain. “Oh, thank you. I just knew you’d be a little sweetheart, Tyger.”
“Sh-shut up! I’m totally not!”
“Were you participating in the tournament as well?” Kiria asked.
Meifang nodded, taking another fry. “Yup. It was a lotta fun.”
“She won the whole thing!” Reina added. “And it wasn’t even close!”
Zeo whistled. Meifang simply waved her hand to dismiss Reina’s comments. “Oh, you’re giving me too much credit. Cain here was actually a pretty tough opponent.”
Rather than a blush or a smile, Cain’s face twisted into a scowl in response. The insincerity in her words was offensive, and served only to mock him and his performance. That hadn’t been her intention at all, of course, but that was just the way Cain tended to see things sometimes.
“Did the stadium staff tell you guys the good news?” Meifang asked. When the group responded with a round of nos, she then said, “Zero casualties, and only a few injuries.”
“Wow, that’s amazing!” Annabelle squealed, genuine pride swelling up for her classmates. She instinctively turned to Zeo to shower praise onto him, but stopped herself, looking over towards the others instead. “You guys should be proud of yourselves!”
Meifang nodded. “Oh, totally. That was some real hero stuff you all did.”
All three boys’ faces lit up in unison. Furthermore, Cain scanned the eyes of everyone in the circle to try and find if any of them recognized Meifang for who she was. When it didn’t appear to be the case, his smile faded and he looked away in a trademark Cain harumph.
“So what are you guys doing for the rest of your trip?” she continued. “Might be a little tough to top ‘rescuing civilians from monsters’, though.”
When the kids’ excitement began to peter out following her question, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Kiria did not think it wise to provide her with the true answer; for one thing, to anyone outside of Class G, it would probably sound utterly foolish that six eighteen year olds were planning to charge in and defeat a terrorist organization by themselves, and for another, saying it out loud would only further call attention to the kiboshed plans and rub salt in the others’ open wounds.
And so, she simply stated, “We were planning to go to Chateau Aurum. We didn’t know it would be open to the public when we planned the trip, and just found out the other day. Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to afford the ride there, so we’ll have to look elsewhere for a good way to end our trip.”
“Ah, the Chateau Aurum resort, huh?” Meifang said. “That does sound like a lot of fun.”
Suddenly, Meifang threw her arm onto Tyger’s shoulder and leaned in closer to the center of the circle, presenting them all with a smile. “But what’s your actual plan?” She poked a finger into Tyger’s cheek. “Good little boys don’t lie to adults.”
Six pairs of eyes reached out to one another for answers. Had she really seen through Kiria’s answer? They’d all been satisfied with how she’d handled it; even Cain, and he was never satisfied with anything anyone did, ever. Not even himself, and he was quite fond of himself.
It was Zeo’s words that cut through the confused silence. “We were going to stop Mistral.”
He’d successfully pulled in everyone’s attention, including Meifang. “Mistral?”
“They’re a terrorist organization,” Zeo answered, ignoring the furrowed-brow look Kiria was shooting his way. “I had a run-in with them on the train ride here, and we’ve found signs of their activity in the pulse.”
This is my chance….my chance to lead us to a real adventure!
“Not to mention….” He nodded his head in the direction of the stadium. “…The guys who dropped those pulseons into the stadium.”
Meifang cupped her hand around her chin. “Wow, I haven’t heard anything about this….”
“We’re the only ones who know.”
She turned to Kiria, having already deduced that the latter was the rational thinker of this Class G squad. “You haven’t told the city? The authorities?”
With a sigh, Kiria responded, “I was planning to after we finished eating.”
“You don’t think informing the authorities is a higher priority?”
“Er….”
“Why wouldn’t you call them immediately?”
“Sh-she was giving us a chance!” Annabelle nervously stuttered out.
Meifang’s eyebrow curved upward. “Giving you a chance? What does that mean?”
To keep the train rolling, Reina tagged in next. “To stop Mistral ourselves! To be real heroes and go on a real adventure!”
While Kiria appreciated the effort, she couldn’t help but sigh. Reina’s answer didn’t really do much to justify the group’s intentions.
“How exactly did you plan to stop a terrorist organization on your own?”
Tyger cleared his throat to speak up next. “We, uh, were supposed to ride the mayor’s airship, but it’s expensive as shit, and I, uh….I fucked up on gettin’ the money….” His words were weak, diluted by shame.
Already sensing Meifang’s incoming question, Cain stepped in next to pre-empt her question while also patching up the holes in Tyger’s answer. “We’ve deduced that Mistral is most likely planning on attacking Chateau Aurum, or perhaps Mayor Virilitas’s airship.”
“And that’s why you two entered the tournament,” Meifang said. “To win the prize money so you could board the airship.”
The boys’ heads hung low as they were once again reminded by their failure.
“I understand that this is all silly,” Kiria said, trying to fight off the embarrassment that was heating up her face. “I’ll call the authorities right n-”
“How much are the airship tickets?”
When Meifang’s question was met with naught but silence, she pondered on whether she’d actually said it aloud or not. That wouldn’t be all that new for her. Before she could ask again, however, Reina blurted out, “24,000 forcens! Can you believe that?! That’s freaking nuts!”
“Oh, that’s fine. I can cover that.”
Kiria shook her head as though she’d just emerged from water. “H-huh?”
Meifang smiled. “I won 50,000 from the tournament. I can get you all tickets for that airship. I was already planning on going anyway.”
“Wow, really?!” Reina asked, jumping up in excitement. “You’re so awesome, Meifang!”
“Whoa, whoa, no, we can’t take yer prize money!” Tyger began. “A hero doesn’t-!”
Her finger pushed against his lips, silencing him. “A hero doesn’t let bad guys hurt innocent people. Can’t really call yourself a hero if you don’t show up when people need you, now can you, sweetie?”
Zeo felt his heart race. Was this actually happening? Were they actually going to get their real adventure?
Kiria’s brows knitted. “What about calling the authorities? Surely they’d be better suited for-?”
“No, no, no, c’mon!” Meifang insisted, waving her hand to wipe away the incoming objections. “You kids wanna be heroes and stop the bad guys, don’t you? You wanna rise to the occasion and make a difference in the world. Trust me, I know where you’re coming from.” She sent a quick wink in Cain’s direction.
Beaming, Zeo bowed his head as low as he possibly could. “Thank you so much, Meifang! This means the world to us!”
In contrast, Kiria frowned, still unsure about this entire thing. She was in disbelief that it was happening to begin with, and also uncertain of her own feelings on the matter as well. “But….”
“I think you kids can handle it,” Meifang said, slipping several stacks of forcen bills into Kiria’s hand, knowing that doing so was the final push needed to click the case shut. “And if not, I’ll be on the airship as well to back you guys up. Sound good?”
Zeo and Reina both leaped up to their feet, high fiving one another and jumping in excitement, while Kiria stared blankly at the money in her hand.
Annabelle looked to Zeo with a smile.
I should enjoy my time with him while I can….
“Well, I’ll let you all finish your food and rest up. Gonna be an exciting day tomorrow, yeah?” As Meifang got back to her feet, she patted Cain on the back and tousled Tyger’s hair. “See you later, Class G! Make me proud, kiddos!”
And that was that.
The Class G Mistral quelling plan was back in action.