Alexia gazes up at the twilit academy building. Classes have just ended, and the other students stride past her.
"I can't trust the Knight Order. Or my sister..."
She thinks back to her conversation with Iris from the day prior. Her sister has changed, and nothing Alexia says is getting through to her anymore.
"I need to do something..."
Somewhere on campus, the Cult is trying to restore Diablos's right arm, and with no one else she can count on, it's all up to her. If she can stop the Cult from reviving the arm and get her hands on some solid evidence, then people will have no choice but to listen to her.
"Hey, out of the way."
"Ow!"
All of a sudden, something slams into her from behind at incredible speed.
Alexia turns around and finds a beautiful dark-haired girl standing with the sunset at her back. "Claire..."
"If you just stand there, you'll get in the way of my charge."
"Y-your what?"
Alexia can't make heads or tails of what she's saying.
Claire looks at her, eyes burning with some sort of bizarre confidence. "What's wrong, Alexia? You look down."
"I...I was just thinking about what I need to do."
"What a coincidence. So was I."
"You were?"
"Yeah. Even if the truth gets swept under the rug, that doesn't mean things have to end there. It's important to have someone crack the case in secret."
"...…?"
"Also, I had something I wanted to talk to you about. The thing is...I've been chosen." Claire holds up her right hand, the one with the magic circle on it. "I have a duty to save the world and keep Cid safe. That's what I was given this power for."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"If we've got the same goal, then I'm willing to join forces. Come on, let's go."
"H-hold on a minute!"
Claire drags Alexia off by the arm. Alexia still has no idea what in the world she's going on about.
In a weird way, though, this feels kind of nice.
"And where do you think you're taking me?" Alexia demands.
"The church."
"You know where it is?!"
"I do—my right hand is throbbing." Claire comes to a stop, her expression stern. "Aurora refuses to talk about it, but I can tell she's hiding something. This throbbing will lead me to the truth, I'm sure of it."
With that, Claire undoes the bandage wrapped around her hand. Beneath it, the magic circle is faintly glowing.
"This all seems extremely sketchy...," Alexia says.
"Little by little, it's getting stronger. The moment of reckoning is nigh." Suddenly, the magic circle flashes brighter than ever. "Here it comes!"
A moment later, the entire world shatters like glass.
"No way!" Alexia cries. "You're kidding!"
She recognizes the scenery before her. It's the exact same as what she saw when the librarian abducted them.
The academy is shrouded in white fog.
"Wh-what's going on?!"
"What's with all the fog...?"
The entire academy is surrounded by it, and the students who'd been heading home have all been swallowed up.
<<•>>
Standing on the school roof, 1 gaze down at the academy dyed in twilight's hues.
"Fine by me. The world needs this...so I'll shoulder all their revulsion. Doing so is my duty."
As I mutter a variation on the quote Zeta hit me with last night, I can feel my heart stir.
"…Oh yeah, this plays for sure."
Shadow, the man rebelling against the world itself. He needs to protect everyone, and to do so, he takes on all the sin on his own.
I gotta say, that's pretty badass.
"Good stuff, Zeta. I can't believe how far you refined the premise."
Out of respect for her amazing work, I'm gonna shamelessly plagiarize it.
Wait a minute—hold on. Now that I think about it, didn't I come up with a similar line that one time?
"From the beginning, we've walked the path of neither justice nor evil. We walk our own path."
I step up to the edge of the roof and strike a cool pose. My uniform flutters in the wind.
"You talk big. Accuse us for the sins of the world. We'll accept them as our own."
Yep. Still badass.
Now I'm sure of it: That's definitely something I said. Quotes like those are a perfect fit for rooftops at twilight.
"So chronologically speaking, I was actually first. That means I can plagiarize her all I want. If anything, she's the one who plagiarized me."
Next time I get the chance, I'm definitely gonna bust that one out.
Actually, this is a solid opportunity of its own. I've been slacking off on my Cool Quotes training lately, so now might be a great time to go back to basics and get some reps in.
"…That was my afterimage.
"Go forth, shadows—devour them.
"The wind is whistling—whistling with the screams of souls."
With each quote, I strike a different pose.
Back in my past life, I frequently went up on rooftops to train like this in secret. Good times, good times.
"The school grounds stained by the setting sun... Standing alone on the rooftop... Me, wearing a meaningful smile as I stare down at the students going home... This feeling, like something big is about to happen..."
Everything about the situation is perfect.
I raise my right hand and let out an excited whisper.
"Here it comes."
Not a moment later, the world shatters into pieces.
White fog begins billowing up.
"…Huh?"
The fog envelops the whole campus, like it's cutting us off from the outside world. Before long, it's grown so dense that not even the light from the sunset is able to reach us.
"...…" I blink repeatedly and look around. "I'm sorry, what?"
I had a feeling like something big was going to happen, but I didn't think anything would actually happen.
I can hear panicked voices rise from the school grounds.
"Wh-what's going on?!"
"S-someone get a teacher!"
"The teachers are all at an off-site staff meeting. There's no one here but us!"
The remaining students begin gathering.
"Hmm," I muse. "A mysterious white fog... A sealed-off campus... Me, smiling atop the roof... This is good stuff."
I dunno what exactly is going on, but we've clearly tripped some sort of event flag.
"Before much longer…the white foe will engulf the world in silence."
After letting out one last profound-sounding murmur, I leave the roof.
When I head down the stairs and go out into the hallway, I discover that it's dim inside on account of how thick the fog is. Over half the students have already left for the day.
"But actually, though, what is the deal with this fog?"
I had assumed that the librarian was using some sort of artifact or something, but he's out of the picture now.
I try probing the fog with magic to figure out what's up, but all I learn is that it sure is some funky-ass fog.
"...Eh, so it goes."
For me, figuring out the fog's deal is way less important than figuring out how to spend my time inside it to the fullest. The question is, should I go join up with the other students, or should I just show up out of nowhere as Shadow?
"Decisions, decisions."
As I skip cheerfully down the hallway, I hear someone screaming off in the distance.
"Ooh, a plot hook?"
I pick up the pace and hurry in the direction of the scream.
<<•>>
"This is about where I heard it from, right…?"
I arrive in a cramped area filled with doors. This is where the private study rooms are.
People are mostly done with class, so the majority of the rooms are empty. However, one of the doors is locked shut, and I can hear noises coming from within.
"Hrah!"
I rip out the lock, doorknob and all, then charge in for a dynamic entrance.
"Wh-what is this thing?!"
Inside, I find a student. He's clutching at his neck and wailing.
I think I've seen him before.
"Oh, hey, if it isn't my classmate, uh...Suzuki, right?"
Oh yeah, now I remember. This guy is as forgettable as I am. I actually really respect how much of a complete nobody he is, and I've used his behavior as a reference on more than one occasion.
According to my internal background character list, he's a member of a Hope branch family and a distant relative of Christina's.
"H-hey, Kagenou, you gotta help me out here! This collar won't come off!!"
"Wait, what?"
Sure enough, there's a gaudy-looking collar fixed around Suzuki's neck. C'mon, man, background characters aren't supposed to wear stuff like that.
"Ick. That's not a good look on you."
"It showed up all on its own! I can't get it off, and it keeps making this weird noise!"
I can hear a quiet beep, beep, beep coming from it.
There's a timer on the collar, and right after I look at it, it hits zero.
A protracted buzzer noise goes off.
"Oh."
"Oh..."
With that, Suzuki's head goes flying.
Blood goes spraying across the room, and I quickly protect myself with slime so I don't get splattered.
Suzuki's head rolls across the floor. I look down and find that it's scowling back at me.
"…Y'know, I did kinda feel like it was about to explode."
Guess I shoulda said something earlier.
RIP.
"Now, let's see what this little doohickey's deal is."
I scoop up Suzuk's collar. It's still just as ugly, but now it's blackened and charred, too. The timer is frozen at zero.
"Hmm..."
I pour some magic into it to check it out.
Between that and my knowledge from my past life, I'm able to come up with an incredibly detailed working hypothesis. To sum it up...
"It's one of those bomb collar things that explodes when the timer hits zero!"
Then I continue expanding on my theory.
"Aha, I get it. Most timer doohickeys go down as time elapses, but it looks like these ones are a little different. The hand goes up and down in response to magic, and it feels like when you touch it, it starts sucking out your magic. So, in summation... the collar steadily drains its wearer's magic, and once their magic hits zero, it explodes!"
Suzuki had been pretty torn up about having one of the smallest magic pools in class. He must've been training here in the study room, and he had the misfortune of getting wrapped up in this whole situation right when he'd already used most of his magic up.
I grin. "...One truth prevails."
The questions are, who stuck the collar on him and when?
"Now, if someone had one of these things stuck on 'em, you'd think they would realize it. You'd have to be pretty dang stupid not to notice that you've got a—"
A nasty premonition strikes me, and I reach up and touch my neck.
There's a collar on it.
When the heck did that get there?
"...Clearly, they must've used some sort of incredibly sophisticated method that no normal person could ever hope to notice."
The only possibility that springs to mind is that the collars showed up at the same time the white fog did.
I make myself a slime mirror and take a closer look at my collar. Sure enough, it's the same kind as the one Suzuki had. However, my remaining magic counter is hitting the 9,999 cap and bugging out. I can feel it slowly draining my magic, but it's basically a drop in the bucket and doesn't even come close to overtaking my natural regen rate.
"Interesting..."
I'm pretty sure I could get it off if I put my mind to it, but let's not be ridiculous here. Bomb collar events don't just happen every day, and I wouldn't miss this one for the world.
For starters, I decide to temporarily sever my internal magic circuits in order to adjust my latent mana stores.
"Suzuki didn't have much in the way of mana, so...yeah, this should do it."
I fiddle with my reserves until my timer gets to about six hundred. Looks like this thing sucks out about one point of mana every ten seconds, which means I've got an hour and forty minutes left to live.
If you wanna know why I'm intentionally matching my reserves to Suzuki's, the answer is obvious...
"…Sometimes, an eminence in shadow's gotta take a dead student, steal his identity, and head in undercover. Heh-heh-heh. This is gonna kick ass."
Suzuki was a total nobody, so it'll throw people for a loop when he starts dropping profound-sounding lines about the situation we're in. That'll make it clear that there's more to him than meets the eye, and when we finally corner the culprit, he'll reveal his true form!
I'm getting pumped already.
"I've got the slime makeup techniques I cribbed off Nu and the slime plastic surgery I cribbed off Epsilon, so...that should about do the trick."
I take another look at my mirror, and the person staring back is unmistakably Suzuki. After I steal his student ID and other belongings, just to be on the safe side, my preparations are complete.
"All right, let's do this!"
When I leave the study room, I do so with a newfound skip in my step.
<<•>>
Alexia and Claire have gathered in the auditorium and are talking things over.
"These collars are draining our magic, I'm sure of it. And when the timer reaches zero..." Alexia looks down at the dead students lying on the ground with their necks blown apart.
"It's not safe to take them off, either," Claire replies. She's tried running magic through her own collar a couple times to test it, but every time, she feels a nasty sort of resistance. It's possible they're set up to explode if anyone tries messing with them.
Alexia addresses the gathered students. "Bottom line is, we need to avoid using magic unless we absolutely have to. That goes double for the students who don't have much to begin with."
The students trapped by the white mist have congregated in the auditorium. A lot of people have already left for the day, but even so, more and more students keep piling in, each of them wearing that same ominous collar around their necks.
Alexia's collar reads 1,303, and Claire's display reads 1,917.
"Sigh... I looked around, but I didn't find any teachers we could ask for help," says a petite girl wearing a short skirt. It's Nina.
"That's what I've gathered," Alexia replies.
"We're just going to have to pull through together."
"Nina, do you know where Cid is?" Claire asks.
"I haven't seen the young'un. He's probably already back at his dorm."
Claire breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank
goodness..."
"The question is, what exactly is even going on here?" Alexia says. "There's that weird white fog, there's these creepy collars, and we can't make contact with the outside world. I can't make heads or tails of it."
"It's the Shadow Garden," says a boy with dark green hair. "Rumor has it that an organization by that name was involved in both the case of the missing students and head librarian's unexplained death. My dad's a member of the Knight Order, and he told me all about it."
"You're...Isaac, right? I've heard you show a lot of promise as a dark knight. But what proof do you have that the Shadow Garden was behind this?"
"Proof? That's a strange question to ask, Your Highness. This isn't even the first time they've taken over the school."
"...What's their motive, then?"
"They're an evil criminal organization. They don't need a motive. For them, slaking their thirst for murder is an end unto itself."
A stir runs through the students listening from the sidelines.
"Th-the Shadow Garden is at it again..."
"I...I thought I was gonna die last time...Snff..."
"This isn't fair. Why are they doing this to us?!"
"Calm down, everyone!" Alexia shouts. "And, Isaac, watch what you say. People are scared enough as it is."
"Forgive me." Isaac offers an apologetic shrug. However, it does little to quell the other students' fears.
"It's dangerous to settle on a culprit when we don't have enough information. What we should be doing right now is getting out of these collars and escaping. Don't you agree?"
"That might be easier said than done," Nina interjects. "I tried testing to see how far the fog goes, but I don't think we're gonna be able to leave the campus. There's some sort of invisible wall in the way."
"Then is there at least a way for us to remove these collars?"
"That's a toughie. These are some pretty nasty artifacts. Who knows what'd happen if you tried screwing with them?"
"That's probably a good call..."
A grim silence descends on the auditorium.
Then one of the boys trembling by the wall stands up and makes a break for it. "No, no... I'm too young to die!"
"Me too!! I'm not...I'm not gonna die here!"
A couple of other students follow him, and they all head toward the auditorium's exit.
"H-hold it right there!!" Alexia hurriedly shouts after them.
The moment they step out of the auditorium, however, blood goes spraying.
"Wha—?!"
Invisible swords held by lifeless, ghostly-looking warriors pierce the students clean through.
"Those are...those are spirits," Claire stammers.
"What the heck is a spirit?!" Alexia cries.
"I'm not really sure, but that's what Aurora called them!"
The two of them draw their swords and break into a dash.
Isaac and Nina follow their lead.
"Hraaah!"
"Take that!"
Alexia and Claire lash out, and a handful of the spirits vanish. However, there are far more lurking just outside the auditorium.
"There's so many of them... When did they even get here?"
"We're outnumbered. This'll be an uphill battle."
"Be careful with your mana reserves, you two," Nina warns them from behind.
Alexia and Claire gasp in realization, then glance at each other's collars.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"Shut the door!"
As Alexia and Claire shove back the spirits, Nina and Isaac begin closing the door.
"Get back in here, you two!"
At the very last moment before the door slams shut, Alexia and Claire slide back into the auditorium. Then, while catching their breath, they take another look at each other's collars. Alexia is at 1,238. Claire is at 1,825.
"This is bad...," Alexia says. "I didn't expect our reserves to drop so fast."
"Me neither," agrees Claire. "Nina, how much do you have left?"
"Huh? That's, uh, a good question."
For whatever reason, Nina shifts her timer out of view.
"We can't see it if you do that."
"Oh. Right. Good call."
Nina slowly reveals her timer. The number it displays is resoundingly average.
"Seven hundred and eighty four, huh? That's lower than I thought."
"At this rate, I'd say I've got about two hours left to live," Nina says. "What about you, Isaac?"
"I'm at thirteen sixty-seven."
"Dang, that's an honors student for you. You've got loads of magic. Let's go around and get a read on the others."
The four of them go around and check the readouts on the other students in the auditorium.
"The weakest student is already down in the three hundreds…," Alexia says in a hushed tone once they've finished.
Claire looks over at the girl in question. She's trembling, and her face is as white as a sheet. "Yeah, she drained her reserves doing some self-study after school. If we don't do something within the next hour, she's done for..."
"There's a lot of other students with low reserves, too. Plus, there's no guarantee we'll be able to hold this position forever."
The spirits are pounding on the auditorium door, and the students are building a barricade by piling up tables and chairs.
"What do you propose we do, Princess Alexia?" asks Isaac.
"I don't know, I just don't..."
Alexia had no way of predicting they would get swallowed up by the white fog, and she has no idea how to disarm the collars.
Her gaze darts about, desperately searching for answers.
Then she hears it.
"As things are, we're just sitting around waiting to die..."
The voice isn't loud, not by any measure. However, its strange confidence echoes through the auditorium nonetheless.
"…but I have an idea."
There's a boy leaning against the wall. He lazily combs back his dark-brown hair as he walks over to Alexia and the others.
"Who're you?" Alexia asks.
"Suzuki."
He looks Alexia straight in the eye. There's something a little shady about his gaze, but other than that, he's utterly unremarkable.
"He's in my class," Isaac offers.
"Suzuki, huh? Well, you said you had an idea. Would you mind sharing?"
"Not at all..." Suzuki slowly sweeps his gaze across the students in the auditorium as he speaks. "The first thing we need to realize is our ability to do battle is limited. Most of the students here don't have much magic left, and it would run out in an instant if they tried to fight. If things got violent, they'd be hastening their own deaths every time they swung their swords. Between that and the psychological strain they're under, they're in no state to fight."
"You have a point."
Suzuki's analysis is accurate. Despite how tense the situation is, he's drawn some intelligent conclusions.
"Only the small handful of people right here have any magic to spare. In other words, those are the only ones who can actually fight. Now, I propose we split the students into two groups."
He looks over at the students putting together the barricade.
"The first group will be the defense team. All the students who are low on mana will stay here in the auditorium, and they'll focus on staying safe while preserving their magic. Then the other group..."
He turns his gaze to Alexia and the others.
"…will be running offense—"
Suddenly, a female voice cuts Suzuki off. "What in the world do you think you're doing?!"
All the tension drains from the quartet who'd been listening to his plan with bated breath.
"What gives a branch-family nobody the right to talk to Princess Alexia like that? You should just keep your mouth shut and help build the barricade with the others. If you harm the main house's reputation by speaking out of turn, I assure you there will be hell to pay."
There's a girl with light-red hair standing behind him.
Alexia gives her a look. "And you are, uh...?"
"I'm Christina Hope. A distant relative of Suzuki's."
"Another classmate of mine," Isaac adds. "And a talented one."
"I'm so sorry Suzuki was bothering you. He's really supposed to know better."
Christina grabs Suzuki by the collar and tries to haul him off.
However, Alexia stops her. "Hold on. He's got a point."
Christina reluctantly lets Suzuki go.
"Yeesh," he says. "You never change, do you, Christina?"
"Don't you take that tone with a member of the main house."
"We're in a state of emergency here. I'm going to have to take some liberties."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
Christina's harsh glare earns her a small sigh from Suzuki. "Back to the topic at hand," he says. "We should take the select few with magic to spare and have them be our offense team. That group's job will be to break through the spirits' siege and stop the phenomenon at the source. That's my plan."
"And what exactly is the phenomenon's source?"
"These collars are sucking out our magic. Have you ever thought about where that magic goes?"
"That's a good point..." Alexia concentrates and searches for the magic. When she does, she senses a faint flow streaming out of her collar. "So if we follow the magic... I'm impressed you thought of that."
Christina looks a little surprised as well. "Suzuki..."
"It was a simple enough deduction," he replies nonchalantly. "Anyone could have made it if they'd put their mind to it."
"It's a clever thought. However, are we going to be able to follow that flow with any sort of precision?" asks Isaac. He shoots a suspicious look Suzuki's way. "Magic that faint can unravel at the drop of a hat. I'm against Suzuki's plan. He's not even that good of a student. As a matter of fact, he's downright incompetent."
"I agree," Christina says with a nod.
Isaac shoots Suzuki an intense glare. "Allow me to be blunt. Suzuki isn't worthy of our trust."
Everyone's eyes turn to Suzuki, who lets out a little laugh. "Trust, huh…? Heh."
"…What's so funny?" says Isaac.
"Oh, everything. But I have to say...I never expected to be called untrustworthy by the least trustworthy person in the room."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
Before Isaac and Suzuki can finish, Claire speaks up. "I'm on board with Suzuki's plan."
"Claire…?"
"My right hand is throbbing...and it's doing it in the direction the magic is flowing. I can sense it... and I won't go astray. I can follow the magic's trail."
The look in Claire's eyes is one of confidence.
"You know what, Claire? I'm in," says Alexia.
"Let's follow Suzuki's plan."
"Please, don't be rash!" Isaac cries. "I don't trust the guy."
"There's no time," Alexia replies. We can't just sit around discussing tactics forever."
"But—"
"Look, Isaac, we're going whether you're with us or not."
Nina raises her hand. "I guess I'm on board with Suzuki's plan, too."
That's enough to make Isaac fold. "Rgh... Fine. I'm in."
"Let's figure out who's going to be on the offense team, then," Alexia says. "For starters, we should take me, Claire, and Isaac. Any objections so far?"
Claire and Isaac shake their heads.
"And if possible, I'd like to ask you to come along, too, Christina."
Christina's remaining magic is at 1,179.
"I would never turn down a request from you, Princess Alexia. My sword is yours."
"Much appreciated. Then the four of us will—"
"I'm coming, too," Nina says, raising her hand.
Alexia's expression sours. "But your mana reserves..."
Nina's counter is at 784. With a number like that, she can't afford to mess around.
"Nina will be fine," Claire replies. "She might not have much magic, but she knows how to pull her own weight."
"…Fine. Welcome to the team, Nina."
"I'll do my best not to slow you all down."
"Wait a minute," Claire says. "Weren't you at seven hundred and eighty-four earlier, too?"
"Huh? Whaddaya mean?"
For the briefest of moments, Nina's expression freezes.
"Your mana reserves. I feel like it hasn't gone down this whole time."
"I don't think so," Nina replies. "It was at seven hundred and ninety-four earlier, so that means it's gone down by ten."
"Was it?"
"Yeah, it was. You're such a scatterbrain, Claire."
Nina gently runs her finger over her collar's timer. When she does, the number goes down by one.
"Oh yeah, it went down to 783," Claire notes.
"See?" Nina says. "It's going down just fine."
"Well, that's a shame. And here I was, thinking you'd found some way to prevent your magic from draining."
Nina lets out an exasperated sigh. "Of course I haven't."
"Then with that," Alexia says, "the five of us will be the offense team—"
"I'm coming, too." This time, it's Suzuki who speaks up.
"That's obviously not happening," Christina replies. "You only have five hundred and forty-one magic left."
"I object, too," Isaac agrees. "All he would do is slow us down."
"If I start holding you back, you can just cut me loose," Suzuki says coolly. "I won't ask for anyone to save me."
Alexia starts to speak, but Nina beats her to the punch. "I'm on board. If he ends up being a burden, we can always ditch him and use him as a decoy."
"How could you even suggest something like that?" Claire chides her.
"He literally just signed off on it himself. Plus, those analytical skills of his could come in handy."
"I say we take him." Surprisingly, this final voice of assent comes from Christina. "As a member of the main house, I'll take full responsibility for any problems he causes. Do you have any objections?"
She stares daggers at Suzuki.
He gives her a quiet nod. "...That's fine by me."
<<•>>
Alexia takes the lead as the group explains the plan to the rest of the students.
"You're just gonna abandon us?" some of them cry, but there's no time to make them see reason.
The group of six sneaks out the auditorium's back entrance, taking great care not to draw attention. There are a couple of spirits that look like they might be trouble, but Claire and Alexia quickly dispatch them and urge the group onward.
All the while, Christina subtly observes Suzuki.
There's no telling when or where spirits might attack them from out of the white fog, yet his composure doesn't so much as waver.
"It doesn't make sense...," she murmurs, too quietly for anyone else to hear.
She and Suzuki are classmates and distant relatives. There's nothing more and nothing less to their relationship than that, and they haven't exactly spent loads of time together.
Even so, she has a firm handle on what kind of person Suzuki is. He's neither the kind of guy who would ever act that brazenly around Princess Alexia nor the kind of guy who can keep his cool in active combat. It's almost like he's become an entirely different person. The change is so profound, that's the only way she can think to describe it.
However, his face and voice are the exact same as ever.
"Was he keeping his talent on the down-low?"
Perhaps he wanted to avoid getting wrapped up in the conflicts between the main house and his branch family. It's weak, as far as motives go, but it's certainly not impossible.
"Could he be using an artifact or some sort of drug?"
Those are the only other possibilities she can come up with, but neither of them sits right with her. Still, there's no doubt in her mind that something must have sparked the change.
If Suzuki is going to become a threat to the main house, Christina won't hesitate to get rid of him.
Right as she steels her resolve, she feels it.
"Be careful."
Someone gives her shoulder a gentle tug.
A moment later, a spirit sword slashes right before Christina's eyes.
"Get away from me!"
She reacts as anyone would, drawing her blade and hacking the spirit apart. It crumbles into bits and vanishes.
"I see your sword work's just as impressive as always," Suzuki says.
She turns to him. "...Thanks for the save." If he hadn't been there, that attack would probably have hit her head-on.
"I was just fulfilling my duty as a branch-family member," he replies curtly. Then he hurries ahead.
Christina can't read him one bit.
<<•>>
"It's this way."
Claire traces the faint threads of magic and advances through the schoolhouse. Every so often, she clutches the bandages on her hand as if worried about something.
"What's the deal with her hand?" Isaac asks.
"She's got some sort of special power. She's more sensitive to magic than most people," Alexia replies. She decides to leave out the weird bits about Claire being possessed by a spirit called Aurora.
"I imagine that's how she won the Bushin Festival, then."
"That would make sense."
"The fog is thick up here," Christina notes. "There's no telling where someone might launch an ambush."
"True."
"But don't worry, Princess Alexia. I'll be sure to protect you, no matter the—"
Before Christina can finish her sentence, Alexia abruptly lashes out with her sword, lopping the arm off the spirit that was reaching for their ankles. After casting a sidelong glance at the specter as it crumbles and fades, she stows her blade. "I'm sorry, were you saying something?"
"N-no, ma'am."
For the next little while, the six of them walk in silence.
Later on, Nina stops in her tracks. "You guys hear that?"
"What are you talking about…? Wait, were those screams?!"
The rest of the group has to strain their ears, but those are definitely screams.
Claire's standing at their vanguard, and she turns around. "There might be students who didn't make it out in time. What should we do?"
"Need I remind you what razor-thin margins we're working with?"
Isaac has a point. In the time since they left the auditorium, they've already burned through nearly a fifth of their magic.
After hesitating for a moment, Alexia makes the call. "Let's go help them."
The group races down the hall only to be greeted by a throng of spirits.
"More spirits... Looks like they've got the classroom surrounded."
"There are students inside!" Claire shouts.
"Outside too."
Nina's found a couple of brutally mangled corpses—along with a girl who's about to get run through.
"Eeek... H-help!!"
They won't make it in time. Everyone is sure of it.
At the last minute, however, a blood-red tendril shoots out, rescuing the girl by shredding through the spirits surrounding her.
"Now!"
On Claire's signal, the six of them charge the spirits' line.
While Claire uses her tendrils to punch big holes in the spirits' formation, Alexia efficiently slices through one spirit after another. Isaac uses big, magic-loaded slashes to send their foes flying.
The three of them represent the bulk of the group's combat strength.
Meanwhile, Nina, Christina, and Suzuki fight more reservedly a couple of steps behind the vanguard. Nina dispatches the spirits that escape Claire's onslaught, and Christina fights while keeping one eye on Suzuki the whole time.
And as for Suzuki..he just stands there. He doesn't even draw his sword.
Instead, he merely leans on the wall and watches the battle transpire. He sticks out like a sore thumb.
The other five make swift work of the spirits.
Once the fighting is over, Christina is the first to speak. "If you're not going to pull your weight, then why are you even here?" she demands from Suzuki.
"I don't have much magic left, so I'm avoiding fighting when I don't have to, that's all. You all looked like you were doing just fine without me. What, did you need help?"
"Of course not. You can just keep quivering in the back, for all I care."
"Don't mind if I do."
Their exchange lacks any sort of passion or emotion. They might be classmates as well as relatives, but you certainly wouldn't know it from listening to them.
Claire goes and checks on the girl they just saved. "Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
The girl winces. "M-my arm..."
"Looks like it's broken. You need to rest up..." Claire sneaks a peek at the girl's timer. It's already sub-one hundred. "It's not safe out here. Let's get you into that classroom."
Alexia reaches over to open the door.
"N-no, you can't!" the girl cries, her expression frantic. "You have to help me. If I go back in there—"
Behind her, the door swings open.
"Goodness me, if it isn't Princess Alexia. Please, do come in and make yourselves at home."
"I know you... You're the vice president."
The girl standing there has a bewitching sort of beauty. It's Eliza, vice president of the student council.
<<•>>
Eliza smiles kindly as she helps treat the girl's injuries. "There, aaall patched up."
"Th-thank you...Miss Eliza..."
The girl's voice trembles, and it's definitely not because of the pain. The brawny bodyguard by Eliza's side crosses his arms.
Alexia looks around the room. "I had no idea there were so many people left."
Aside from her and Eliza's groups, there's another eight students in the classroom, as well as four corpses.
"Right as soon as that white fog showed up, we got attacked by those strange, horrible monsters...but as vice president, I just knew it was my job to pull everyone together and fight like our lives depended on it."
There's a barricade over by the classroom's entrance. It's splattered with blood, and the walls are absolutely drenched with the stuff.
Alexia steals a glance at Eliza's mana reserves. They're at 1,971.
"That's a lot of magic you've got there, VP," she says.
"I come from good stock," Eliza replies. There's a hint of boastfulness in her voice. "I'm proud to be my parents' daughter."
"I see... Well, what do you plan on doing from here? There are students gathered in the auditorium, so it would probably be safer to head over there."
"We would love to, but I'm worried about getting there. People here don't have much magic left."
Aside from Eliza and her bodyguard, there isn't a student in the classroom who has over 300 mana left.
"We could take you partway there," Alexia offers.
"Oh gosh, that would be such a relief."
As they wait for the students to finish making their preparations, Alexia's group leaves the classroom. The girl continues trembling the whole way through.
<<•>>
Alexia, Claire, and Isaac stand at the vanguard as the group travels. Their goal is to avoid wearing out the students who are low on magic.
However, Alexia doesn't have much to spare herself.
"I'm under one thousand...," she mutters.
As her magic drains, she can feel death
creeping ever closer.
"I'm at eleven hundred," Isaac says.
"I've still got thirteen hundred," Claire replies. "If things get rough, just leave it to me."
The two of them have slightly larger buffers than Alexia, but even so, the psychological strain is wearing away at them.
However, the person who has it the worst of all is the girl they just saved.
"No, no, I can't..."
She trembles as she watches her number steadily drop. Her mana reserves are down to 59; that means she only has about ten minutes left. However, there's nothing anyone can do about it.
"Snff..."
When she finally breaks down into tears, nobody can find any words to console her with.
All of a sudden, the group senses a series of magical reactions around them.
"Be careful."
They look around, but there's nothing there but white fog.
No, that isn't true. There's magic gathering in the fog and forming into spirits.
The fog is literally conjuring them out of thin air.
"Take this!"
Alexia and the other attackers stab at the spirits before they have a chance to make a move. However, there are too many of them. Christina, Nina, and the students making up the rear guard join the battle as well, and the cramped corridor devolves into an all-out melee between humans and spirits.
"Gah, there's more behind us!"
"Damn these things!"
"Eek! Stay away from meeeee!"
Despite it all, there are still those who don't fight.
"Are you not going to get in there, Eliza?" Suzuki asks.
Eliza laughs scornfully as she deftly evades the spirits' slashes. "That's Miss Eliza to you, thank you very much. And the time for me to fight hasn't come yet. What's your excuse?"
"I've got way less magic left than you, Miss Eliza. I figured that if one of us should be fighting, it's you, Miss Eliza."
Eliza's brawny bodyguard shoots Suzuki a glare. "Watch your mouth, frosh." He, too, has been using magic solely when it's the only way to keep Eliza safe.
Suzuki lets out a quiet chuckle as they stare him down, then looks over at the girl from earlier. Her mana's in the single digits. "It really is a shame. You patched her up so thoughtfully, and now she's gonna die."
Despite the girl's wounded arm and paltry reserves, she's fighting the spirits as if her life depends on it.
"It is what it is. There's nothing any of us can do for her now."
The girl's mana reserves keep dropping. Six, five, four...
"Sure there is. I did some fiddling, and I found that there's something reeeal interesting you can do with these collars."
With that, Suzuki walks through the battle, over toward the girl. A spirit is about to bring its sword down on her, but Suzuki parries the blow with a magically imbued palm strike.
With a wham, the spirit's sword explodes into pieces.
"Huh?"
The girl looks up at Suzuki in shock.
Another wham echoes.
Before anyone realizes what's happened, the spirit's jaw shatters as well. Suzuki slowly lowers the palm he just lashed out with.
"What did you just do?!" Eliza demands.
"Some rudimentary martial arts. It's nothing to get excited over."
With a soft grin, Suzuki reaches for the girl's collar.
The numbers keep going down. Three, two, one...
It's obvious the girl is beyond help.
"Ahhh... No, no, I don't want to die... Please...," she begs.
"Don't worry," Suzuki assures her, then pours magic into her collar.
The next moment, the girl's magic reserves start shooting up. Fifty, one hundred, one hundred fifty...
"Th-thank you..."
They stop at 251. The girl breathes a sigh of relief.
"Suzuki...what did you just do?"
The question comes from Christina, who's now finished fighting.
Most of the spirits have been dispatched, and Claire is right in the middle of dispatching the final one.
After looking to see that the fight is well and truly over, Suzuki explains himself. "Back in the classroom, I took a look at some of the dead students' collars. When I tried pouring magic into one of them, I found out that the collar actually stored it, and that got me thinking."
Everyone present is listening to him.
"These collars allow you to transfer mana. When you do, it gets saved in a pool in the other person's collar before slowly getting expended. In other words, if we transfer mana to low-magic students, we can delay their explosions."
"I'm impressed you were able to figure all that out," Alexia says, meaning every word of it.
"This'll mean that fewer people will have to die," Claire notes.
"And out of all of us, the student with the most magic...is Miss Eliza." Suzuki smiles. "I trust you'll be happy to help, right?"
Eliza returns his smile with a sweet one of her own. "When we get to the auditorium, I'll take it under consideration."
"Aw, that's good to hear. By the way... when I was checking out the bodies in the classroom, there was something that caught my attention."
"And whatever might that be?"
"There were signs that all of them had had their hands and feet bound."
For a moment, Eliza's eye twitches. "Are you certain you weren't just imagining things?"
"Well, there was something else that seemed odd. All their collars had detonated."
"And what about it? They ran out of magic, so of course their collars exploded."
"True, true. But if you try picturing it, it makes for a pretty odd scene. While they were tied up, their collars went off and killed them. Makes you wonder what exactly happened."
"…If you have a point you're going to
make, I would suggest making it now."
"Let's say there's a person who had the same idea I did, but they did it to someone who was still alive. Maybe they transferred mana, forcing other people to use magic. Maybe they ran a test to see what triggers the collars, or they checked to see if they could be removed. But the decisive piece of evidence was her."
Suzuki points at the girl.
"When I gave her my mana, she thanked me. But that's weird, right? Most people would just be surprised. After all, the fact that you can transfer mana between the collars would come as news to them. But you guys already knew about that, didn't you?"
The girl goes pale and starts trembling. "I-I..."
"You knew."
"...I'm sorry. Miss Eliza is a powerful aristocrat, so I couldn't defy her... If anyone went against her, she had them tied up and messed with their collars. She would try to remove them or force people to use up their magic until the timer hit zero... That's when we learned they could transfer mana."
"I thought it was weird how Miss Eliza had so much mana left when everyone else was running on fumes. No one else was over three hundred. It's almost like it was by design."
"We all had to give Miss Eliza our mana. But I had so little, I couldn't even do that, which is why I was in the hallway..." The girl lets out a sob.
Alexia glares at Eliza. "If this is all true, then this is a serious situation."
Eliza sighs. "And? What exactly do you plan on doing about it?"
"So you're not even going to deny the charges."
"Charges? I was trying to help people in my capacity as vice president. Back then, I had no idea the collars would explode if you ran out of mana or tried to take them off."
"You have no shame, do you? How do you explain the way you stole their mana, then?"
"I didn't steal it; I was looking after it for them. I assure you, I had every intention of dividing it back out evenly."
"You really think that excuse will hold up?"
"Against most people, certainly... although I will admit to being on the back foot against you, Princess Alexia. Instead, how about this? Let's make a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"I still have nineteen hundred mana. If you agree to turn a blind eye, I'd be happy to hand it over."
Alexia softly clicks her tongue.
That last fight did a number on the students' mana reserves. Getting Eliza's mana might be enough to save them.
However, accepting Eliza's offer would mean having to overlook her crimes. Even Alexia would get into trouble if she tried to renege on a deal with a major aristocrat.
"…And you'd really hand it over?"
"Of course. If you agree to my conditions, I'll hand over allll sorts of mana." Eliza beams confidently. She knows that Alexia's in no position to turn her down.
Alexia glances around at the other students. Their faces are filled with exhaustion and fear. They can feel their lives draining away with every passing moment.
If she wants to save them, she has no choice but to strike a deal.
"Fine. You have a—"
The words are halfway out of Alexia's mouth, when suddenly...
"You really don't understand the situation you're in, do you?"
...Suzuki speaks up, cutting Alexia off. He's standing behind Eliza.
"What the...? When did you get there?!"
"Don't move."
Eliza and her bodyguard hurriedly try to turn around, but with a low growl, Suzuki puts a swift stop to that. He's holding his hand to Eliza's neck—or rather, to her collar.
"You know what'll happen if I rip this collar off? I suspect you do, Miss Eliza."
The look on Eliza's face is downright bloodcurdling. "What are you playing at? You know exactly what's going to happen to you for laying a finger on me!"
"Cut it out, Suzuki," Christina urges. "The Hope family has no desire to make an enemy out of her."
Suzuki sighs loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Well, damn. I guess none of you understand the situation we're in."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"None of the things that usually protect you are here right now, Miss Eliza. Your influence as a powerful aristocrat, your faction's authority, and all that wealth you've built up can't reach you here in the white fog."
"I am Eliza. One of the foremost aristocrats in the Midgar Kingdom—"
"So what? Right here, right now, is that going to protect you? If I kill you here in the fog, what sort of testimony do you think these people will give? You really think the people you stole mana from are going to come forward on your behalf?"
Eliza glowers at the other students. Not a single one of them meets her gaze.
Suzuki leans in close and whispers in her ear. "Are you starting to understand? Are you starting to see the position you're in?"
He tightens his grip on her collar.
"…L-look, I'm sorry," Eliza squeaks.
"I'm not interested in your apologies. What I want is for you to distribute that mana to the others."
"Of course, of course."
If looks could kill, the hatred burning in Eliza's eyes would have done just that.
"Look, Princess Alexia, this is an emergency," Suzuki says. "You can deal with Miss Eliza in a court of law once this is all over. And me, too, if the need arises."
"Are you sure about this?" Alexia replies. "Once it comes out that you threatened a major aristocrat, things could get ugly for you."
"I'm prepared for that."
"I see..." Alexia turns to Christina. "And what does the Hope family have to say?"
"I'm all right as long as you agree to testify on our behalf, Princess Alexia." Christina's tone is flat. "We have the moral high ground here, so I can't imagine things turning out all that badly for us."
Suzuki gives her a small bow. "I appreciate it."
Christina averts her gaze. "It's nothing. I'm not made of stone, you know."
With that settled, they start transferring the mana. Eliza ends up with 400, and the other 1,500 goes to the mana-starved students.
"I hope I don't have to spell this out, but you're banned from stealing their mana back," Alexia tells Eliza.
"Let's just get to the auditorium already," Eliza replies. "Wouldn't want to get attacked by any spirits, now, would we?"
After the transfers are finished, the party splits in two. Eliza and the students head for the auditorium, and the original group goes back to tracing the magic.
As they part ways, Eliza shoots Suzuki a glare. "You'll pay for this, you know."
However, when he passes her, he pays her no more interest than he would a stone by the side of the road.
With his back facing her, he lets out a profound-sounding whisper: "None of this happened. It's just an illusion, conjured up by the white fog..."
<<•>>
The six of them follow the magic all the way out of the school building. The spirits' attacks have died down, and what few skirmishes they end up in are short and sporadic.
Alexia sidles up to Christina. "Just who exactly is he?" she asks under her breath.
Christina turns her gaze to Suzuki, who's at the very tail end of their procession. "He's from a distant branch of the Hope family. He's not supposed to have any talents worth mentioning, but..."
"Well, he's a force to be reckoned with. It takes a lot of nerve to go head-on with a major aristocrat like that, and that sort of courage doesn't come easy."
"I'd never seen those moves he pulled in the fight before, either. He must have been hiding his true strength."
"But why would he do that?"
"I don't know. But after this, I'm going to have him transferred to the main house."
"That's probably a good idea..."
Leaving him to his own devices would be a waste. Moreover, it would be dangerous.
"I'd be careful around him, if I were you. He knows too much. It's almost like he's a whole different person," says Isaac, who's just come up alongside them.
"What do you mean?" Alexia asks.
"The thing with the collars. He said he did some testing, but we barely spent any time in that classroom. There's no way he could have run all the tests he says he did. He's the one who noticed the mana flowing out of them, too. Maybe, just maybe, he knew everything from the very start. If you look at it that way, it all starts to make sense." Isaac narrows his eyes. "The reason he's been so calm this whole time, and the reason his whole personality changed when the white fog showed up... is because he's a mole."
"Do you have any proof?"
"Nothing definitive yet. But I'll get some, just you wait. Make sure you stay vigilant, Princess Alexia." With that, he strides off.
Sure enough, there's a logic to Isaac's theory. If Suzuki is working with the Cult, then the sudden transformation he's undergone since the fog appeared makes perfect sense.
Assuming that's true, they're playing right into his hands.
"…What a shallow man," Christina mumbles. She's looking at Isaac as he walks on ahead of them.
"Shallow?" Alexia repeats.
Christina shakes her head. "It's nothing."
"Looks like the magic is going into here," Claire says as she comes to a stop in front of a small aged church on a far corner of the academy.
"I never knew there was a church over here," Alexia remarks.
The answer comes from Nina. "There isn't."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. There isn't a church here. Or at least, there wasn't, not until the white fog showed up," Nina replies as she opens the door and heads on in.
The inside of the church is so quiet and still, it's like humankind has forgotten it. The chairs are piled high with dust.
Alexia puts up her guard as the group heads for something that looks like a pedestal in the back.
"Under here," Claire says.
There's a faint breeze coming from underneath it.
"Hnph!"
Without a moment's hesitation, she fires off a swift kick at the pedestal. However, all she accomplishes is causing a dull sound to echo out.
"Owww! What the heck?!"
"It's got a magical barrier...," Nina explains as she pokes it. "Looks like it's an artifact. You need a key to move it."
"A key? What key? Where is it?"
"Beats me. I hope it's somewhere close, but who knows?"
"Let's try looking for it."
The group spends the next little while searching the area. However, there isn't a single clue to be found.
"No dice," Alexia says. "I'm coming up empty here."
"Me too," Isaac replies, audibly annoyed. "Are you sure we're on the right track?"
"We don't have time. We need to hurry..."
Alexia's remaining mana is down to 500. Even considering the fighting they've been doing on their way there, it's still draining faster than she expected. The students back at the auditorium can't have much left, either.
"Looks like it'd be hard to decipher the artifact," Nina says. "I'm no good at this kinda stuff."
Christina and Suzuki don't find anything, either. "There's nothing over here."
A heavy silence descends on the group. All they can do is stare powerlessly at the pedestal. They're at a deadlock.
Then there's a small thud. When they look, they discover that Claire's just struck the pedestal with her hand.
"It's no use, Claire," Alexia says, trying to stop her.
However, Claire strikes it again. This time, the noise is even duller than before.
"Please...lend me power. I have something I need to do. I can't let things end, not here..."
Then she unravels the bandages on her right hand. Isaac and Christina gasp when they see the ominous circle etched on her skin. "What is that...'"
Claire stares at her hand as she talks. "Please, Aurora, I need your strength. I know you've been keeping quiet this whole time, but I'm sure there's something you can do to help here."
"What's she doing?" Isaac asks.
"Looks like she's talking to someone," Christina replies.
Alexia shushes them. "Shhh, be quiet."
"Please... Please, Aurora. Answer me... Answer my voice!!"
Then Claire's magic circle begins glowing. Under its red light, ancient script etches its way across the pedestal.
"Wh-what is this?!" Isaac cries in shock. "What is this power?!"
"Open, open, opeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!"
The red magic engulfs the pedestal, then bursts outward.
When it fades, the pedestal is gone without a trace. Beneath where it once stood, there's a staircase leading underground.
"Wow...," Christina murmurs. The magic Claire just wielded was so powerful, it was like nothing she'd ever seen.
"You answered me, Aurora. Rgh... My hand is throbbing... So this is the toll the power demands..." Claire clutches her hand in pain. Her breathing is labored.
Alexia gives her a shoulder to lean on. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Come on, we need to go. We don't have time." Claire pushes herself to catch her breath and to put up a tough front. "Let's do this—let's save everyone."
With her at their lead, the group descends the staircase.
It's a long, long set of stairs.
Thanks to the darkness and the fog, they can barely see anything ahead of or behind them. They say nothing as they go down. The only sound is that of their footsteps.
By the time they finally reach the bottom of the staircase, Alexia's mana reserves have dropped from 500 to 450.
"That's a big door."
Sure enough, there's a massive door down in the underground dimness. It's heavy, so they push it open as a group and head on through.
Beyond it, there's a wide room lined with broken cells. The cells are empty.
"Is this...a dungeon?"
The group advances with caution. Then, after proceeding for a bit, they hear something heavy moving behind them.
"What was that...?" Claire wonders aloud.
There in the darkness, they can't see what it is that just happened. Alexia turns around, feeling as though she's forgotten something terribly important.
"Under a church... A long staircase leading to a hidden room... A door, closing behind him..."
She thinks back to the librarian's story. It bears a worrying resemblance to the situation they're in at that very moment.
"Gah! Go back—it's a trap!!"
Alexia dashes back the way they came. However, the door slams shut with a heavy, resounding thud, and as it does, gas begins bursting out of tiny holes in the ceiling. A cloyingly sweet smell begins permeating the area.
"Hold your breath!"
However, it's too late. One of the six collapses unconscious, then another. Eventually, only Alexia is left.
"We can't go out... Not like this..."
As everything goes hazy, she sees a young man wearing a gas mask.
"Good heavens," he says. "I never imagined you would worm yourself all the way down here, Princess Alexia."
"It can't be. You were—"
"That's right. I was the mole."
Beneath his gas mask, Isaac lets out a low chuckle. Alexia tries to reach for her sword, but she loses consciousness before she can grab it.