Bell awoke slowly, the singular window blocked the repeated pattering of the droplets reminding her of the eternal rain.
As she sat up in her bed, Bell rubbed her throat in the area where she had dragged the knife against.
Bell sighed, 'Another bad dream.'
She slowly stepped off of her bed, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes as she did. Bell looked into the long mirror set against the wooden door that led into the living room in her dormitory.
Bell examined herself, the mental image of herself in that plate armor, bleeding from her neck flashed before her. With a slight shudder, Bell blinked, the mirror now displaying her true self.
Her pajamas looked okay enough to head to breakfast, with a yawn, Bell opened the door and headed around the miniature lounge area in her room. As she opened the door to the hallway, Bell saw that there were two envelopes at her feet.
One was labelled "Bellona Finley," and the other "Mona Chronis."
'Hmm.' Bell thought, closing the door and heading to the Mona's door.
Bell slipped the envelope underneath the door and returned to the hallway. As she walked down, Bell opened the envelope, in which was a single paper. Bell unfolded the paper and read:
[Student Name: Bellona Finley
Class List:
08:00 -> 09:50 - General Class / Teacher Brutus Caesar
10:00 -> 11:50 - Hunting / Teacher Sofia Soffice
12:00 -> 12:50 - Lunch
13:00 -> 14:50 - Forging / Teacher Hephaestus Karagonis
15:00 -> 16:50 - Combat / Teacher Brutus Caesar]
Bell memorized the list, and by that, Bell tapped her Pathfinder, saying:
"Pathfinder, remember this list. General Class with Teacher Brutus Caesar. Hunting with Teacher Sofia Soffice. Lunch. Forging with Teacher Hephaestus Karagonis. Combat with Teacher Brutus."
The Pathfinder then displayed a window that read:
[Alright! List made, title: "Bellona Finley August Classes."]
Bell then let the window shatter into nothingness before continuing to the exit of the dorms. At the door, Bell activated Ruination and burned the envelope and paper into nothingness after reactivating Ruination to burn the ashes.
Afterward, Bell opened the door and started walking in the heavy rain.
'Wait...'
Bell activated Creation, the fuzziness almost warming her up. Bell summoned an umbrella with her power, opening the umbrella and deactivating Creation simultaneously.
The cool air of the Terrarium woke bell up a bit more, a soft yawn escaping her lips.
Where was Bell heading? The cafeteria, of course.
Bell tapped the Pathfinder on her wrist, speaking her question amidst the rain, "What time is it?"
The glass pane summoned by the Pathfinder was small and circular, a minute and hour hand pointing to a myriad of numbers. In the middle of the glass watch was a number:
[06:46]
'What time did I go to bed again?' Bell thought to herself. 'It couldn't have been past eight, right?'
Soon after she asked those questions, Bell cleared her mind and simply enjoyed the walk to the cafeteria. The walk wasn't long, but to Bell, it felt like she had been trailblazing a path through the oceans.
Several times on her way, the wind attempted to take Bell's umbrella away, the continuous struggle against the storm slowly woke her up fully.
She picked up a plate at the beginning of the buffet lines, and picked out some waffles, a few types of sausage made from various creatures, and got herself a cup of strawberry milk.
After wandering a bit, Bell found that Jude, Torm, and Wren were having an early morning.
"Good morning," Bell greeted the other three as she sat down.
"Morning, Bell." Torm replied. In front of him was a large bowl of cereal with a cup of orange juice sitting beside it.
"Good morning, Bellona." Jude greeted. A plate of various meats, potato, and eggs sat in front of him, the boy had a small mug of pitch-black coffee.
[Good morning!] Wren had typed into her Pathfinder. Wren was eating a plate of pancakes and sausage.
Bell sat down and started to enjoy her slightly lighter meal, saving the rest of her stomach for a larger lunch. She had chosen two large waffles with sausage patties resting in-between them.
After a few moments of shared silence, Torm asked, "How'd you sleep?"
"I slept pretty alright, you?" Bell said between bites of her surprisingly good breakfast sandwich.
Torm looked deep in thought for a moment, "I slept good."
But the dark lines under his eyes disagreed with his statement.
A few more moments of silence mirrored the ambient volume of the cafeteria. On her way to the trio, Bell only saw a handful of students here and there. Breakfast didn't seem to be the most popular meal in the Terrarium.
"Hmm, this sausage is pretty good, have you tried it?" Jude asked, vanquishing the silence for a short bit.
Bell examined Jude's food, finding all of the sausages to look the same.
"Nope." Bell replied, "What type is it?"
Jude shrugged his shoulders, which made Bell chuckle.
Soon, their breakfast ended, and the four returned to their rooms.
When Bell opened the door to her and Mona's room, Mona was wide awake and was standing in front of a coffee maker sitting on the kitchen counter.
"We have a coffee maker?" Bell asked.
"Morning, Bell." Mona replied staring intently at her mug being filled up. "Yeah, I didn't know either. I found this bad boy in the corner of the counter."
'Who puts their coffee maker in the corner?' Bell asked internally. Her family always had the coffee maker next to the toaster, both of which were in the middle of the counter.
Bell simply shrugged before returning to her room, "I'm gonna change, we should head to class early."
Mona turned around with a full mug, taking a sip before replying, "Alrighty."
Bell closed the door behind her and quickly swapped into a pair of jeans and a hoodie. She changed her pair of sneakers to a pair that looked a bit better. Bell wore deeper colors, the jeans were dark blue, while her hoodie was deep green. Her new set of sneakers was completely black, but with the aglets being golden.
Bell examined her new outfit in her mirror and found it acceptably alright looking.
She exited her room, looking towards Mona, who was sipping her coffee on the couch while reading a large pane summoned by her Pathfinder.
"What'cha looking at?" Bell asked.
Mona looked up towards Bell before answering, "The news. There isn't much going on in this city, surprisingly."
Bell nodded before asking, "You ready to head out yet?"
"In about five minutes." Mona said, now looking at the news once more. "If you want, you can get yourself a cup of coffee, there's a bit of creamer in the fridge, if you like your coffee that way."
"Alrighty, I'll get myself a cup before we head out." Bell answered after a moment of indecision.
Mona didn't reply, and Bell headed towards the kitchen area of the dorm. There was a counter that wrapped around the wall, the floor changed from carpet to marble tiles. The counter was also made of marble, and Bell almost found the sheer amount of polished marble in everything slightly too much.
'I mean, who needs this much marble?' Bell wondered as she poured herself a cup of coffee with the only remaining mug in the room.
She looked toward the wall, where a simple minifridge rested. Bell opened it and found a gallon of milk, a bottle of creamer, a carton of instant iced coffee, and a carton of half n' half resting on the two shelves.
'Nice selection.' Bell thought, reaching for the creamer and half n' half.
Bell had only filled her somewhat large mug halfway with coffee. Soon, a quarter mug worth of creamer and another quarter mug worth of half n' half were added. Bell quickly put away the carton and bottle before returning to her coffee.
Bell took a sip, and her face soured slightly. 'Bitter.'
Despite the fact that there was so much additive, Bell found the coffee still slightly unenjoyable. In a heartbeat, Bell put away the rest of the large mug of coffee, managing to not let a single drop of coffee to fall away.
A sweet aftertaste lingered in her mouth, and Bell gently put the mug down into the sink. Bell pushed her sleeves back and set the sinks faucet to hot, waiting a few seconds for the water to warm up. There was a sponge nearby, and a bottle of dish soap.
'Nice.' Bell thought, taking the spare moment to wash her cup.
Bell then dried the cup by activating Ruination, allowing the dancing mote of gray flame at her fingertip to evaporate the water. Bell was careful to not let the gray flames touch the mug, however, as that would surely damage and weaken the poor mug.
Afterward, Bell reached up into the cupboards and looked around. Outside of a single tub of coffee grounds, there was nothing. Bell simply chose a cupboard and put the mug in.
As she closed it, the Pathfinder revealed a window:
[ New Message from Groupchat "Bullet Train Buddies" ... Reply? ]
Bell tapped the [Reply] pop-up, the window expanded, and a list of messages appeared.
[Michael: Morning, you all! Ready for our first day?
Torm: Yeah, just had dinner with Wren and Bellona.
Jude: It was breakfast, and I was there too]
Bell chuckled at Jude's message before continuing to read.
[Hilia: Can you all stop blowing up the group chat???
Pyralis: You can mute notifications unless we @ you, yk
Hilia: Oh... my bad.
Pyralis: np
Michael: ...anyway, are the rest of you ready? Hilia woke up on the wrong side of the bed
Hilia: I'm still here, and I didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed >:(
Pyralis: lol XD]
Bell didn't understand the acronym, but saw that he added a laughing face.
'Heh heh.' Bell thought with a chuckle.
[Michael: You need some coffee, see you later
Hilia: See you all in class.
Jude: Breakfast was pretty good, you should go if you get the chance
Torm: Yeah]
Bell added to the group chat just as Torm agreed with Jude.
[Bellona: Yeah, it was really good]
Without much else to talk about, the group chat died down, and Bell was left silently looking around the room. After a short bit, Bell heard Mona stand up and say, "You ready?"
"Yeah." Bell replied, and Mona simply left her mug on the coffee table in front of the couch.
Bell then paused at the door, just before opening it, she turned around.
"Do we need anything for the general class?" Bell asked.
Mona replied quickly, "No, if you want, you can take notes on your pathfinder."
Bell nodded and opened the door. The two found themselves walking beside Strella and Hilia, who had come down the staircase just as Bell and Mona passed by.
"Good morning, Hilia, Strella." Bell spoke as she noticed the two.
Hilia waved politely as she replied, "Morning, Bell."
"Good morning, Bell, Mona." Strella yawned, the girl looked like she had just awoken.
Hilia was wearing a black rain poncho, which only revealed the thick boots underneath.
Bell asked, "Were you able to get some coffee?"
Hilia's smile faded a bit as she playfully punched Bell in the shoulder, "Yeah."
Bell chuckled as Strella yawned once more.
Mona spoke, "Strella, we have a bit more coffee if you need some."
Bell wondered what time it was, and simply tapped her Pathfinder twice.
[07:34]
'We probably have the time.' Bell thought, slowly agreeing to the idea.
"Yeah, I could use a cup." Strella said.
The four spent a few minutes in Bell and Mona's room as Strella drank a cup of black coffee. All the while, Bell couldn't stop wondering why people would willingly drink such a bitter drink.
'It's just so gross...' Bell thought.
A few more minutes passed, and the four were at the top of the giant staircase leading to the other floors. They descended to the layer where the rest of the buildings were, and Bell tapped her Pathfinder, asking it to find their general class.
A pane of glass shaped like an arrow appeared, and it pointed forward.
They continued down the concrete paths, heavy rain fell on the four, but all the rain was blocked by umbrellas and ponchos. The rest of the rain drained to gutters on the side of the concrete paths and drained down beneath the ground.
They passed hundreds of other students wielding umbrellas or ponchos, but a few others wielded their Shards to prevent the rain from reaching them. However, there were a few students who were simply taking the rain in its entirety and doing nothing to prevent it.
'How strange.' Bell thought as she passed one such student who had seemingly given up on staying dry.
-----
Bell returns to the room and finds that Mona's woken up Bell changes while Mona prepares for the day Soon, they head down the stairs onto campus proper
They arrive at General Class taught by Teacher Brutus He waits for the rest of class to arrive before starting class In the meantime, he explains that 40 students will always choose their train car teacher
Class starts, topic of discussion: Stardust He explains how Stardust works, how it circulates, how one can power themselves, etc. Soon, class is over, and he dismisses them all to their next class.
Over the course of the next few minutes, Bell and the others took many turns and finally reached the building they were looking for.
The glass pane shattered after they entered a rectangular building. Upon entering, more students were standing in the hallways and talking to one another as they waited for class to start.
Bell tapped her Pathfinder twice, and the window displayed:
[07:43]
"We still have a bit of time before class starts." Bell announced to the other three. "What do you all want to do until then?"
Hilia spoke out first, "I think we should head to the classroom and wait there."
Mona nodded, and after, Strella nodded as well.
"Alright, let's look around." Bell stated.
There was a staircase directly in front of the entrance, and they headed down a hallway down the left. After they searched the hallway and found nothing, they tried the other. All the while, they avoided bumping into other students and steered clear of large groups of students in the middle of the hallway.
Bell grumbled angrily after she nearly bumped into another student that was simply sitting in the middle of the hallway.
However, at the end of the hallway, Bell saw Teacher Brutus sitting in front of a desk at the front of a classroom.
"He's in here." Bell announced.
The four then entered the room, and Teacher Brutus looked up.
"Good morning, you all. You're here for the general class?"
Strella answered before anyone else, "Yes."
Teacher Brutus smiled and then said, "Awesome, you can all find a seat wherever."
And so the four did, finding a group of seats near a window, Bell sat at a desk next to the window, Hilia sat at a desk in front of her while Mona sat in a desk beside her, and Strella sat beside Hilia.
The other two Eriksons and the Solace brothers then entered the room and greeted Teacher Brutus, soon finding their way next to the others.
After they sat down, a large bell rung in the distance, and Bell nearly felt the vibrations in the ground underneath her.
"By the skin of your teeth, huh?" Teacher Brutus announced to the four. "Well, class is in session, and today's subject is Stardust and Akashic Shards."