Tomorrow at lunchtime,
Ryo sat alone near the window, his eyes impassive as he took some bite out of his ham sandwich. His mind was filled with yesterday's events.
The zombie-like actions of the students, and the whole situation. When he got home yesterday after the incident, he researched this so-called "dreaming incident" and surfacing his web was the recent FWMA Incident.
He was enlightened by numerous articles, yet filled with vague information. Similar results also showed the previous "Dreaming Incident" in Seiei Academy, especially featuring the face of "The Magician Of The Infinite Skyfall."
In the recent incident, there were two perpetrators; Suou Mika, a female third-year, and Sato Akihiro, a male second-year. Both of the said students were fine students, and both the top of their class.
When investigated and interviewed, it followed the pattern within the Incident's apostles; 1) They have no personal connection to one another. 2) They both don't naturally possess a magic aptitude related to sleep and dream. 3) No solid reason or motive for them to cause chaos was found.
It is becoming clear that someone else is controlling these students to cause havoc in each school.
This piqued his curiosity. He looked for all the dreaming incidents documented, and to his surprise, all of them were at random times and at random locations.
Before the FWMA incident, the previous incident was all the way to the other side of the country.
The rest randomly occurs in mere random schools.
If this is the case, then is the culprit doing this just... For fun, and just randomly? When do they feel like it?
Usually, in cases, you'll find a connection between these schools. However, there seems to be no connection between these schools.
Or maybe... There's still a missing piece to the puzzle.
Ryo again takes a bite of his sandwich, his expression straight, yet his mind deeply pondering.
When suddenly, a voice calling out eradicated his focus.
He turned around and saw Hina, and the rest of their classmates (Airi, Kyouko, Haruto, and Arata) behind.
Hina was the one calling out to him, waving her arms widely, and a bright smile plastered on her face.
They walked to Ryo, carrying food and snacks in their hands.
"Can we join you? Since there are no more seats available." Hina eagerly asked.
Ryo looked around and it was just like what Hina said.
Reluctant, yet he affirmed. All of them sat around the table and placed their snacks on the table.
Arata was the first to initiate the conversation. However, Ryo only maintained his gaze over the window.
"I can't believe what happened yesterday. They said there were zombies!" He said quite loudly,
Kyouko, who is bothered by the loud storytelling of Arata, quickly intervened.
"Please keep your voice down, Takahashi-san, we're not the only people here." Coldly, she says.
Arata scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"S-Sorry, I got carried away," Arata replied, before lowering his voice, and continued to talk about yesterday.
Ryo noticed this, and without taking his dead eyes off the window, spoke to Kyouko, who sat just beside him.
"Aren't you gonna stop him?" He asked, pertaining to Arata who's continuing to talk about the incident.
"Gossip flies fast. I'm sure everyone here is talking about that." She nonchalantly replied, taking a bite off her sandwich.
Ryo takes a quick glance, and sure enough, just from the expression of everyone around, the topic discussed seemed curious and interesting.
"And like, they were attacking everything, like monsters!" Arata exaggeratedly told, giving Hina the shivers.
"T-That's scary! I-Is that what really happened, K-Kyosuke-kun?" Hina asked in a shaky voice.
"Don't know" Ryo blandly replied, shrugging them off.
Hina groaned in protest, however, Ryo ignored it.
The scene he saw in the classroom, the inhuman actions of the student, someone resembled something similar and familiar.
It was like, he already experienced something like that, but couldn't wrap his head around what exactly.
...
After school, Ryo and the other students went to Ryo's dorm. As for Kyouko, the council members were called for a meeting, to be led by none other than Matsubara Kiku, the previous President.
Kyouko walked along the corridors where a beautiful mix of bluish, and orange-ish hue shone through the windows.
She glanced to the side. The sun was slowly melting over the horizon, with splashed hues of red and orange streaking across the upcoming night sky.
She smiled for a moment, admiring the beauty of this world.
Until,
"Kyouko-chan!"
An enthusiastic voice called out to her. The ethereal feeling inside her cracks as she faced the front and saw Ryujin.
"Looking so unhappy, why is that?" Ryujin asked.
"Nothing. What's with the get-up?" Her brows furrowed, weirded out by Ryujin's choice of clothes.
Non-uniform, red polo with the first two buttons unbuttoned, black pants, and sunglasses over his eyes, while he holds a rose.
"What is wrong with my clothes?" Ryujin asked,
"You should change. If you should know, you're cringe."
"W-What? This is to make Matsubara-san think I'm cool and handsome!"
Kyouko was so dumbfounded by how Ryujin thought, that she couldn't help but face-palm.
"Just shut up."
"W-What? You'll see!"
"J-Just shut up."
"Fine."
Kyouko lets out a heave before looking at Ryujin with a straight and serious face.
"I know that you're aware of the gravity of the situation, but be serious for once." She said in a commanding tone.
Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind her. "Indeed, Ryujin. Do I have to freeze your lungs before you'll take this seriously?"
To both their surprise, Yukime was behind them.
"Yukime-san, hello there." Ryujin greeted with a smile.
"Greetings, Ryujin and Kyouko."
"G-Greetings, Yukime-san." Kyouko conveyed formality, bowing ever so slightly.
"Shall we all get going to the meeting?"
"Yep, let's go now!"
The three of them went to the meeting room, just a few distance away from their location.
Upon entering the dark room, they were met with a tense air. The council members are already at their table, with the exception of the president, and the sixth.
At the end of the table, was Kiku, her face serious and cold, being lit up dimly by a laptop In front of her.
The three of them promptly sat on their seat.
"Now that every one that is supposed to be here has arrived, I first have a question." She stopped for a moment. "Where is the sixth and the president? What happened to them?"
"About them... The president is currently overseas, and is expected to be back next month, while as for the sixth, we haven't heard from her." Yukime replied,
"I can understand Sakanoue Kazuki (The President); however, why haven't you been able to contact Suzune Rei (the sixth)? " she asked, her intimidating gaze and aura sweeping through the room.
"We were always left on seen, and when we would do visitations, no one would answer us," Yukime replied.
"Make sure that by some other time, you are all able to address the issue with the council members. But, setting it aside, we need to discuss the current issue at hand, and its possible implications."
She cleared her throat and faced everyone.
"The main cause of these incidents is what they call the "apostles." And from experience last year, these apostles usually attack in all-black clothing, and a white mask covering their face. Yet not having shown themselves, they already decided to move."
Kiku turned the laptop around, showing a video.
"The attacks have started; as Yukime said, yesterday, at the music room in the first-year building. I skimmed through the CCTV cameras around the whole campus and saw that the two victims were acting normally, not until, the boy entered the room." Kiku pressed a file video, and played it, replaying the events of yesterday.
"However, the other victim, the girl, suddenly appeared inside the restroom, in which, I didn't find any footage of her entering from the main door."
The video continued, now onto the part where the girl suddenly lashed out of the bathroom, and went to attack the students.
"Instead, what I found was this."
After the video ended, she played another video, this time from the CCTV from the room behind the music room.
It shows there the girl, walking towards a wall, which behind it, was the restroom. She was walking oddly, swaying from left to right, as if she was drunk, and would soon lose her balance.
However, when she reached the white wall, she stood straight and raised her hands up, and magically, she walked through the wall, as if it wasn't there.
"That's how she got in. She entered the room at the exact time when Kyouko pinned the boy victim down. I could likely theorize that the culprit was near and controlled the girl to try and help the boy victim. With this in mind, I tried to look for the culprit if they were nearby. To my dismay, I found no traces of them."
She stopped the CCTV and turned her attention towards Stella.
"Stella, could you tell us about these two victims?"
Stella affirmly nodded. She grabbed a bound book in front of her and rummaged through the pages.
"The first victim is: Kujo Hanzaki, a first-year student from class C. His evaluation is somewhat mid, however, he knows his way around electric aptitude. The second victim is Kihiro Ai, a first-year student who is from the class and is a member of the Literary Club. She's a user of a unique magic related to intangibility. The magic she did earlier was her own, but as for their purplish energies, I haven't found evidence that it is their aptitude since both are single-aptitude magicians."
"Thank you, Stella." Stella sat down and placed the bound book back on the table
"That means that not only could they control the human body, but also, the magic energy that the individual has. Not just that, but just about everything within the human body; Memories, Mind, etc." Kiku added, her voice deliberate and sharp.
Ryujin, who was free-going earlier, was uncharacteristically quiet, and serious. He leaned forward, his sunglasses now on the table. "So, what about the proximity of this culprit? If they have such a tight grasp on their victims, does that mean they have to be close to cast their spell? From what I know, such strong magic spells require close proximity, as they consume a tremendous amount of energy, isn't that right, the Sleeping Rose, Yasuna-san?" He glanced over to Yasuna, who was barely holding on, her eyes so heavy, that she was so close to falling asleep.
She heavily turned her eyes towards Ryujin. "As far as theory goes, yes. I haven't heard of a magician that could do just that, not unless, an artificial magic was made possible, enabling that absurdity." She spoke in her sleepy, soft voice.
"That's what we're also going to figure out," Kiku replied. "We don't know when, and where the "apostles" will strike, so be prepared for the next conjunction. If necessary, suspend classes."
She looked at everyone in the room, who shared the same, determined look. Suddenly, Yasuna raised her hand up slowly.
"Yasuna, what is it?" Kiku asked.
"Could I be excused for a minute? I need to use the restroom."
"Sure."
Yasuna stood up, her eyes half-awake, as she carefully navigated the path toward the door. She slowly opened the door and closed it behind her.
"Yasuna-san is really... interesting." Ryujin remarked,
"The Sleeping Rose. In these incidents, she's our most reliable person. After all, she is a user of the "Somnolent Rose" magic. Kiku replied.
...
She sleepily walked down the hallway leading to the nearest restroom. Though she's drowsy, her senses are still heightened and sharp.
When she was in the council room earlier, she felt nauseous.
As she was walking, something caught her attention. She felt as if someone was watching her. However, she remained unmoved and sleepy so as not to alarm the one watching her.
As she moved closer and closer to the restroom, the feeling of uneasiness grew.
And that's when her suspicion was confirmed. The enemy, thinking that her mind was somewhere else, launched a sharp, dark-energy embedded spear toward her direction, aimed accurately at her head.
With half-opened eyes and a sleepy head, she released a white shockwave around her, enough to disintegrate the spear coming towards her.
"I haven't got enough sleep. You chose the wrong time to deal with me."
She widened her eyes, heightening her senses even more. She was able to track the strings of their magic energy. They were just around the corner.
And at an inhumane speed, almost similar to teleportation, she flickered towards the location of the "culprit".
It was covered in black clothing, from head to toe, and wore a white mask.
She remembered how Kiku described them.
Black clothing from head to toe, and a white mask. There's no doubt. This, in front of her, is one of the apostles!
Her face was impassive, yet her eyes showed a hint of bloodlust. In a quick draw movement, she summoned a white dagger and slashed through the figure's chest. She was so quick that the figure couldn't react.
The dagger smoothly slashed through the figure, splashing blood on her blade, and the ground.
The figure immediately jumped back, holding the wound tightly with its black-gloved covered hand. It looked to the fifth seat.
Her eyes were indifferent yet blazing with an intense murderous intent—a gaze so sharp it could pierce through its mask and its soul.
"Death isn't scary. Scary, is who will bring you to death."
The "apostle" froze for a moment. It didn't anticipate that Yasuna's strength would be this much.
In the council, there are two, who are misplaced. One is called the Phoenix, and the other is called The Sleeping Rose.
Behind the white mask, it gritted it teeth, carefully thinking of the next moves it should make.
"Apostle. You, are behind all of this?" Yasuna asked, her frame relaxed, yet her aura was screaming with lethality. The Apostle didn't respond. instead, it raised its hands to summon another set of purplish, demonic spears. However, Yasuna vanished before it could launch its attack.
And this time, Yasuna appeared behind the figure. However, unexpectedly, her eyes lit up in shock. As she teleported behind, someone was already waiting behind, in the same, black clothing, and the same mask. She didn't even notice that the other "Apostle" was there.
The other "Apostle" behind was about to grab Yasuna on the head, intending to cast magic over her mind. However, she reacted quickly. She unleashed another cast of intense shockwaves with her quick wits, pushing the two "Apostles" back.
Realizing that it may be hard to beat two at the same time, she decided to summon her magic technique.
"Somnolent Rose." She mumbled. Then, a peculiar scent, resembling a fresh rose, appeared out of nowhere. It was the poison and the mind control that she specialized in. Those who will breath under the scent will fall into a dream plane, controlled by Yasuna, and she herself, can't fall asleep from her own spell.
Taking this chance that they were distracted, Yasuna screamed out to alert the council.
"The Apostles are here!" She yelled out at the top of her lungs.
While one of the Apostles was about to jump out of the scene, the other one, specifically the one who just appeared out of nowhere, was undeterred. Calmly, it summoned a barrier, that not only blocked Yasuna's attack but also, deflected it back to her, a magic that specially uses one's spell against them.
But, she was unaware of this. As she took a deep breath, to cast another spell, she inhaled, a deflected version of her magic. The spell seeped through her nose, and into her, and like a sleeping poison, her eyes instantly became heavy.
Realizing that her spell was used against her, she fought hard to resist the spreading sleeping poison. However, it was too late. Her eyes began to blur, as he body slowly went limp, and she fell onto the ground.
The Apostle walked up to her unconscious body and crouched down. Then, summoned an arcane, bluish-stone on its hand, and crushed it, causing tremendous power to flow to its body.
Then, it placed its hand on Yasuna's head, beginning to implant something in her mind; A poison, similar to the one used in the dreaming incident.
The intention was clear; It was to subdue Yasuna and to use her as the next massacre puppet for this incident.