Before reaching the dorms, Terran used mend once more, this time on Ken. Surprisingly, the boy didn't wake up.
"Now that I think about it, I don't think I've seen this kid sleep. He's always up later than me and awake before me." The night Terran had pulled an all-nighter was an exception. Although, Terran had been too focused on his reading that night and was not paying attention to his roommates' sleeping habits. "I guess his lack of sleep is finally catching up with him."
As he expected, he couldn't spot any cameras until they reached the residential buildings. It seemed the ambush had taken place in a blind spot of the academy.
When Terran arrived at their dorm, Oliver was still awake, reading something on his phone, and listening to foreign music similar to the night before.
"Woh, what happened to him?" Oliver asked, clearly referring to Ken.
"Oh, he just had a little too much to drink."
Hearing Terran's obvious lie, Oliver frowned. Like real food, alcohol was extremely expensive. While he didn't know his two roommates' financial situations, he doubted they were very good. Both barely had any personal items to their name, and only used the things provided to them by the government. Moreover, it was easy to smell alcohol, and neither student had it on their breath.
"Come on, tell me the truth! Oliver begged." But Terran just gave him a look before throwing Ken in his bed and jumping into his own.
"I'm going to bed, you can keep your music on but please turn out the lights."
Content with his spoils of war, Terran quickly fell asleep.
----
Somewhere in an undisclosed location in the Oasis, sat a man behind a solid dark-oak desk. Hand-carved into this desk were 3 twisting serpents, each scale crafted with the utmost detail.
Similar to the artwork chiseled on the desk were 3 very real serpents wrapping around this man. Their dark prismatic scales were glistening from the expensive backlighting of the room.
The man drummed his fingers in inpatients as a woman wearing a serious, yet respectful expression stood before him. A glimpse of red flashed every second as the snakes tasted the woman's fear through the air with their tongues.
"Repeat what you just said to me. I want to make sure I heard you right. Make sure to elaborate this time."
Swallowing her fear, the woman repeated her earlier statement. "Father, the 3 men you sent to reel your son back in have cut contact with our family."
"That's what you told me the first time. I want to know why! How hard can it be to handle F-rank trash like him! Find out what happened immediately, it's likely they were bribed by another family trying to take advantage of this minor situation. Those hyenas will jump on any free meal they see to bring us trouble."
"Yes father, I will look into what happened myself!"
----
Back in the dorm, Ken jolted awake, his heart racing as he looked down at his hands. They were illuminated by the warmth of a morning sunray.
"My-my fingers! I'm fine? My whole body seems to be in perfect condition. What happened? Was it truly just a dream? But it felt so real, and I don't remember ever getting back here."
Pulling himself out of bed, Ken realized he was the only one in the room. Looking at a clock, he realized it was already 11 AM.
"Shit, I missed my first class and I'm already late for my next one!"
Ken threw some new clothes on. Then, just as he was about to pick up his katana, which he never left without, he paused. It was clear something passed through his mind, but soon he just grabbed it and ran out of the room.
Walking down a particular path, a shiver ran down his spine as he gazed off into the brush. This section of the academy was fresh in his mind from his all-too-realistic dream.
There he paused for the second time today, staring off into the distance as if his mind was in great turmoil. He could see the clearing from the path, but nothing about it seemed off.
"Am I really just going mad?
It was then that a large gust of wind blew, and a small storm of white dust blew across the path. The individual particles were impossible to see while flying through the air. Still, some of those particles got into Ken's mouth, causing him to cough. Having been well educated in elementary school, Ken coughed directly into his arm. Finally, the wind settled, and with it the dust.
"Wow, the winds must be pretty strong today to carry dust all the way over the mountains?" Ken thought, but immediately, his mind spun as he noticed a few white spots on his clean uniform. This was now the second place Ken had seen this white powder. The first time being when he paused in the dorm. They would have been unnoticeable to many. In fact, the only reason they had caught Ken's attention was that they were on his katana. He took that sword everywhere, and he always took good care of it. There was no way he would have let dust accumulate on it. Especially dust with such a strange appearance.
Ken still didn't know what was going on, but at this point, his mind knew it was not his imagination. As if in a trance, he walked off the path and into the small thicket.
As Ken walked, he noticed more of the flour-like substance sticking to a few leaves. "Could it be pollen?" Although the color was off, when encountering something unknown, one's mind would try to group it in with something it was familiar with. It was currently early spring, so it was not impossible. But Ken's mind only pondered this question until it happened, the same thing that happened to Terran the other night. As if someone flipped a switch, 3 very familiar bodies appeared out of nowhere on the forest floor.
"I-it really happened! It wasn't just a dream! Wait, but what happened? Are they dead?"
Bending down, Ken used two of his fingers to check for pulses. Upon getting his answer, a myriad of thoughts raced through his mind. He was not happy, nor was he sad. Instead, he was more worried about what this meant for his future.
"After this inevitably gets out, what move will my old man make?"
The bodies would definitely be found eventually, and even if they weren't, there were only so many possibilities for why they wouldn't have reported back.
"Will it anger him further; will he send more men? Or will he finally see that I'm capable on my own? Tch, like I care. If he does send more, I definitely won't be caught off guard like last time. But I wonder, what did happen here?"
Before leaving, Ken took out a cloth he used to clean his katana and wiped off his fingerprints.
"Looks like I'll need a new cloth after letting it touch such scum."
Just like that, Ken walked off to his class. He knew his father well enough that he wasn't worried about any legal charges. Anything along that line would just be an embarrassment in his father's mind. As for finding out what happened, Ken would start by questioning his roommates.
It wasn't long after he walked off that a slender woman dressed in black jumped down from a nearby building. She even wore black gloves even though the temperature was warm.
This was, of course, the woman who had been reporting to the one she called her father. Her name was Cora.
"He looks untouched, did they never even make contact with him? More importantly, what was he doing visiting the ambush sight?"
Without any hesitation, Cora headed into the small patch of trees. Unlike the other two, she was not surprised when passing through the barrier. However, if one paid enough attention, they could have noticed her pupils dilate ever so slightly upon seeing the 3 bodies lying in perfect condition.
Inevitably, her attention was soon drawn to the white powder, and her eyebrows furrowed. Then, bending down, she took out a small plastic bag and inserted a few of the leaves that had been dusted before turning her attention to the bodies.
Cora took her time inspecting the scene and the corpses. The fact that a fight had occurred from the torn-up earth did not escape her notice, nor did the extra pair of footprints.
"Looks like you found a friend, huh little brother. Unfortunately, you will only drag them down with you."
Her expressionless face did not waver in the slightest as she slipped her glove off, revealing a set of long red nails. Without warning, she used one of her nails to puncture her own skin, drawing a drop of blood from her fingertip. Letting the drop fall and splash into one of the corpse's open mouth.
The consequences of this action were instant. The dead's frame became gelatin. From the outside, they almost appeared to be melting. However, on the inside, a much more gruesome event was occurring. Their internal organs and bones were being liquified. Soon, the effects reached their skin, and the entire corpse was reduced to a pile of black gunk. Contrary to what one may assume, this black substance did not let off any sort of smell.
The same thing happened to the two other corpses, and soon the forest floor was covered in the black gunk.
Still expressionless, the woman named Cora dipped her exposed hand into what was left of the bodies, and somehow, something even more unexpected happened. The black substance began to be absorbed into her palm.
Her exposed veins became pitch black for a moment, but soon, they returned to normal. All of the mysterious gunk was gone, and the forest was empty.
Putting the glove back on, Cora picked up the barrier item and left to make her report.