Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

—

Yuu’s unfocused vision was blurred unnaturally at the edges, but the crowded forest of faded scenery around her took no heed of her confusion. The world doming her eyesight was moving constantly, as if she were whisked along by a travelling instrument. Shrubbery passed by, a large rock, a bird in flight soaring overhead. A bounty of viridian leaves cloaking the sky away from her sight. Disoriented, she stared blankly at the rushing canvas before her, saw that no snow covered the leaves and the ground, and finally recognised the blurred images as divorced from reality.

She was dreaming again.

A shrill scream. Yuu’s vision reoriented, her incorporeal form floated over a rock, and a cowering girl—the same girl from her last dream of the well—came into view just as a man flung a dagger to the ground with a clatter.

—I can't! I can't do it! Forgive me. I beg of Your Highness, forgive me. The man pleaded, sinking to his knee and clutching the hem of the girl’s skirt. His expression was screwed up in turmoil.

—I don't understand! The girl stammered, terror high in her trembling voice.

The man facing away was trembling, too; his own travelling gear, the bow slung over his back dragged against the dirt path below. —She's mad, jealous of you! She'll stop at nothing!

—But, but who?

—The Queen!

The girl gasped.

Urgently, the man pointed towards the far-off forest and entreated her. —Now run, child. Run, run away! Hide, in the woods anywhere! Never come back. Now, go. Go! Run! Hide everywhere!

Yuu blinked once, and suddenly she was floating within a stone-walled room just as shrouded from the sky, a dark curtain replacing the tree canopy. The tall, impossibly beautiful, crowned lady in a cape was facing a cauldron bubbling over a fire, clutching a goblet with her white teeth clenched together under red lips.

—I've been tricked! She snarled. —The blundering fool!

—…A formula to transform my beauty into ugliness, change my queenly raiment to a peddler's cloak. Now, begin thy magic spell…!

Looking beyond the tall Queen, Yuu saw a crow watching quietly with its claws resting atop a skull. Both she and the creature jerked back in shock as the Queen downed the contents of the goblet, clutched her throat, and choked for air.

Lightning struck. Bubbles rose into the sky. The air around them thickened and turned a vicious purple…

—Look! My hands! A bony, white, wrinkly limb clawed its way out of the purple. A shrivelled cackle followed. —My voice! My voice! 

Yuu saw the crow, horrified, lose its footing and fall into the crevice of the skull it was perching on; turning, her vision sifted through the purple before meeting the hunched-over skeletal figure of an old lady, hair bleached unnaturally white, skin sagging from weathered cheekbones. Yuu held her breath despite knowing it was a dream, for it was not that appearance that shocked her but the fearsome smile—and her eyes.

—A perfect disguise. The old lady cackled.

Those eyes.

—And now… A special sort of death for one so fair. What shall it be? Ah! The lady reached for a thick leather-bound book and flipped through it before stopping on one page.

—A poisoned apple! “Sleeping Death”. Ho ho ho ho ho! “One taste of the Poisoned Apple, and the victim's eyes will close forever in the Sleeping Death.”

The queen’s smile widened to show yellowed teeth, and then she looked up as if to meet Yuu’s eyes with her own—

“—!” Yuu sat up with a muffled gasp, righted her world, and returned to the warmth of Ramshackle’s bed in one dizzying movement.

“’Ey, so… ‘Lutely tuna cans,” Grim mumbled from her stomach.

Yuu squeezed her partner to her vaguely sore-feeling abdomen and sighed out shakily to pace her uneven pulse. For some reason, this dream had been much more frightening than the other ones she’d had sprinkled throughout the past semester.

A knife, a box. A queen, a spell.

That smile, those eyes…

Yuu’s spine quivered in a chill entirely uncalled for in the dim comfort of her bedroom. It was the first time she had experienced such focused, distilled intent in the gaze of another. This wasn’t rage, wasn’t violence, and it wasn’t even the unfiltered hatred Jamil had spat out in the halls of Scarabia over a month ago.

The unravelling of one’s sanity was a chaotic blur that had engulfed Yuu four times, but this Queen’s determination seemed altogether separate. It was something more fearsome, for none of her calm, rational intent had been lost.

Yuu saw in those eyes the intent to murder, without any room for emotional argument.

Even if it was just a dream, the focused gaze of that Queen, transformed into the old lady, seemed burned into Yuu’s memory again. The deadliness in her eyes was too sharp, too complete to ignore.

With a heavy feeling in her gut, Yuu realised that it resembled another pair of eyes she had observed close to her own. In her mind, the two gazes overlapped and matched each other…

And it pointed the bloody way to a future Yuu did not want to see.

—

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE | Until We Change.

—

“Apple juice?” Azul repeated during her morning shift that Saturday.

Yuu, who was carefully arranging edible fruit on the rim of a cocktail glass, stuck a curly straw into the frothed lime green liquid and nodded in satisfaction. “Yes. A friend’s family runs an apple orchard, and…”

“‘Friend’s family’, is it?” Azul sniffed while he whisked her completed drink away to a waiting staff. “Very precise. I hope you realise you sound nothing less than untrustworthy right now.”

“Azul-senpai’s face is nothing less than untrustworthy all the time,” Yuu muttered under her breath while she accepted a new glass from fellow kitchen staff Bluejaw Triggerfish, who ladled it half-full of a deep cerulean juice.

“What was that?” Azul asked pleasantly.

“In the first place, I’m not asking you to sell a product or anything. …So currently, my friend is having trouble marketing his apple juice, even though it tastes really good and is healthy for the body.” Yuu added cream soda until just under the rim before squeezing a lemon onto the curved edge and dashing sparkling decorative sugar across the top of the foam. “And after seeing the apple cider in the refrigerator today, I thought… What would Azul-senpai do in this situation, since you handle a lot of beverage sales? In the first place, can I sell things like juice on campus?”

“Ah, yes, the first venture of many elementary school students. A backyard lemonade stand,” Azul declared to the bustling kitchen theatrically. “I suppose you have to start somewhere as far as entrepreneurship goes.”

“I told you the question isn’t for me, it’s for a friend,” Yuu sighed as she delivered the finished drink his way. “But since you’re the boss of Mostro Lounge and you know more about business than anyone else on campus, I thought you might have the best advice.”

Azul smiled beatifically at her.

Yuu hesitated in the middle of arranging fruit on her next drink. “……I don’t have much on me,” she admitted after a moment. With the shortening of her shifts to once a week, even though evening meals were subsidised thanks to Vil's strict supervision of the VDC training camp, her budget was strained now that she teetered at the very precipice of the month’s end. Ruggie’s dandelion recipes were sounding more and more attractive by the day.

“And why would I need to try and charge you for a pittance of Madols?” Octavinelle’s Dorm Head asked in exaggerated surprise. “You should know how the consulting service works here in Octavinelle, should you not? Yuu-san.”

“…You promised the Headmaster that you wouldn’t start doing weird stuff with anemones anymore, and the only alternative is that point card which costs money to stamp,” Yuu frowned back, though her hands never stopped moving. “So what would you want, other than money?”

“Azul, we’re running low on eggs,” Jade called from across the room in a carrying voice.

“—What? Even with the cartons that came in this morning? Don’t tell me Floyd left them lying around without storing them again,” Azul snapped to attention and stepped away quickly, leaving a whiff of sea-salt and sage lingering in the air. Yuu and Bluejaw smoothly adjusted their roles to cover for his absence as Redear Sunfish stepped through the doorway with an empty tray.

“Oya oya,” Jade’s pleasant voice seemed more amused than anything. “And here I thought he was doing well in the hall serving guests.”

“That eel,” Azul’s voice sank an octave before he stomped out of the kitchens.

“I guess I’ll wait to ask him after he comes back,” Yuu muttered to herself as she heaped whipped cream atop a mug of hot mocha and set it aside. In any case, she hadn’t expected negotiations to go smoothly with someone like Azul at the outset.

“…You have a lot of guts to try and barter with Dorm Head even after everything that happened last semester,” Bluejaw commented while he passed Yuu the next glass.

“Barter? This isn’t anything big. It’s just advice, not asking for help on exam questions,” Yuu blinked back at him as she reached for a new straw. “And Azul-senpai is really good with this topic, so there’s no one better to consult.”

“I’d like to find another idiot who would just casually ‘consult’ another dorm’s Dorm Head like you're not on guard against his schemes. What are you, friends?” he muttered.

“But there’s nothing I respect more than Azul-senpai in terms of business.” Yuu tried to explain again.

“Hey, this kid’s already lost any fear around our dorm, ain’t it kind of too late?” Sunfish put in, stretching out his empty tray for her. “What table is this next one?”

Yuu checked the dangling receipt over her head. “Five. That’s the last of their order. Thank you senpai!”

“You bet.” He disappeared back into the Hall.

“Directing Student. No one should lose their fear in Octavinelle, it’s just not how things work in the ocean,” Bluejaw scowled at his steadily moving hands. “…Why am I even advising you…”

“We’re on Land, as you put it, though,” Yuu pointed out. “And more accurately, it’s not that I’ve ‘lost’ my fear, but being afraid isn’t very useful or productive around here. Not anymore.”

“……He was right, it’s too late for you,” he told her. “Whatever, none of my business. But before you start trying to take on entrepreneur lemonade stand projects—”

“It’s apple juice—”

“Do something about that pasty complexion first. You look like the underbelly of a trout,” he ignored her.

“Pasty?” Yuu repeated blankly.

“…You do look kinda pale,” Sunfish observed as he appeared back through the doorway. “Though… Are you using makeup or something?”

“Eh? No. If I had money for makeup, I would be buying groceries and tuna cans.” Yuu peered between the two of them staring down at her before brightening. “—Oh! Am I pale-looking because of the ‘skincare routine’? Right now, all of the VDC Tribe members are using a bunch of new skincare products every day to prepare for the competition. Schoenheit-senpai made them himself, did you know? Though the routine is quite time-consuming.”

“Skincare?” Sunfish repeated with a squint. “…Oh, yeah. You were a part of that Pomefiore dance team.”

“It’s not just Pomefiore. Scarabia and Heartslabyul have members participating, too,” Yuu felt the need to put in. “And I’m not on the dance team, I’m a helper.”

“Why are you always getting yourself embroiled into troublesome things,” Bluejaw made a face. “Couldn’t you stop at Octavinelle? Or at least Scarabia? That mess you got into during the Winter Holiday was huge enough.”

“Nothing’s even happened yet,” Yuu defended herself, wondering how much the two of them knew. One could never tell with Octavinelle students, who kept their cards close to their chest. They had shown the same information-gathering skills when students of the dorm were fishing for information about her magic at the beginning of the Winter Holiday.

“Ha ha! That’s our Directing Student!” laughed Sunfish as he scooped up the next tray of drinks and disappeared out into the Lounge Hall a second time.

Yuu rubbed her sore abdomen absently. “Don’t look at me like that, Bluejaw-senpai. I’m not in trouble this time. Everything's fine!"

“I can already see the betting pool getting rowdy,” he was unconvinced. “How many days will it take this time…?”

“Nothing’s going to happen until February twenty-fifth,” she insisted.

“So something’s gonna happen next month at the Cultural Festival, got it,” Bluejaw took it another way.

Yuu wasn’t sure if she could deny him, but she tried to add, “I promise whatever it is, I’ll do my best to stop anything bad from happening.”

“That’s your problem,” he was not appeased in the slightest. “Because you do stuff like that, you almost die all the time.”

Jade leaned down from her vacated left side and peered into her face at close range. “…Hmm. That ‘Sunfish’ upperclassman had a point. Yuu-san, you are rather pale today. Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

“Whoa!” Yuu jumped a little and nearly bumped into his forehead. “Jade-senpai, if you don’t make any noise when you walk, you’ll surprise me into shattering this extremely fancy and expensive-looking glass.”

“And a good morning to you too,” Jade said cheerfully, straightening her wobbling vessel smartly.

“…Good morning,” Yuu, infected by his smile, returned the expression, catching a whiff of butter that warmed herbal notes of bergamot and patchouli. She breathed in. “Are you in charge of the breakfast omelettes? Smells really good.”

“Once Azul returns with the eggs, I’ll make one for you too,” Jade promised.

Yuu blinked. He knew about the eggs left out in the corridor? Then why had he purposefully said they had run out…?

“……Did you maybe purposefully make Azul-senpai go get them because you knew Floyd-senpai didn’t do his job properly?” She guessed suspiciously. That smile of his looked too pleasant to be completely innocent.

“Why, I would never use Azul like that,” Jade revealed a sliver of sharp teeth.

“If Azul-senpai finds out you’re manipulating him to carry eggs because you don’t want to, he’ll get angry,” Yuu’s mouth twitched.

“You wound me with baseless accusations,” Jade declared. “And Yuu-san? Are you trying to distract me?”

“…Am I really that pale that everyone needs to comment on it?” Yuu wrinkled her nose, shifting a little uncomfortably. A flash of pain flared up her spine. “I really don’t feel any… Ah.”

“Ah?” Bluejaw and Jade chorused, zeroing in on the syllable.

“—It’s just anaemia,” Yuu said very quickly, finally reminded by the dull ache in her abdomen. “Recently, I can get anaemic sometimes, but I promise it’s no big deal! Uh… Anaemia is very common in teenagers, and is…”

“You’re already a tiny fragile human and you’re getting even more fragile?” Bluejaw asked incredulously. “What do you mean ‘just’ anaemia…”

“I’m not fragile! I’ve only gotten sick that one time, ever!” Yuu insisted.

“Once is enough.”

“Ah… Come to think of it, you were also this same way during New Years’ a month ago,” Jade commented in reminiscence. “Does this mean I should carry you like Floyd did? Are you sure you’re not sick?”

“I’m sure I’m not sick,” she responded firmly.

Both Jade and Bluejaw stared at her, neither looking remotely convinced.

“Why does no one believe me?” Yuu asked the sky. “…Next time to avoid looking pale I should just colour my cheeks pink or something.”

Perhaps she should ask Vil for advice on cosmetics, too. If she thought about it, Yuu realised that makeup could be highly useful in times like these.

“That is not allowed,” Jade shot her wandering thoughts down with a smile. “And in any case, I’ve observed you enough to tell any shoddy makeup apart from your natural skin colour, anyway.”

“Scary,” muttered Bluejaw.

“Jade-senpai! I’m not sick. I’m fine! Great!” Yuu flexed her arm to show him. “Look, super healthy and growing muscles. I even went on a run this morning!”

Jade observed the arm, then her earnest expression. “Hmm? And that run was not cut short by your running companion Jack-kun?”

“!?” Yuu’s refusal caught briefly in her throat. “Why would Jack cut our run short?”

“Because you look even more ‘fragile’ than usual, and no guard dog would let such a fact escape his sight,” Jade smiled smartly, latching on to the moment of weakness without mercy. “So it sems that he did. Why, Yuu-san, would you try and lie to me? I’m hurt.”

“No one lied,” Yuu started. “And Jack’s not a guard dog.”

“Lying by omission is still lying,” Bluejaw joined in against her.

It was true that Jack had stopped her halfway through their morning jog and hauled her on his back for the rest of the trail, muttering something about how wobbly she looked. But apart from a general sense of lethargy and the persistent dull pain chasing Yuu around, nothing was out of the ordinary; in fact, it was more accurate to say that she had finally—seemingly—become somewhat ordinary. Enough to be plagued with something as ubiquitous to women as a menstrual cycle, anyway.

To her, however, it was much more important to go about her day as usual, for a mountain of tasks were piled up before her eyes. A slightly inconvenient condition like this, what Dour Samurai would call a ‘debuff’, wasn’t something to waste time caring about. There were too many tasks at hand to pay it attention.

“Do I really look that unreliable?” Yuu stuck out her bottom lip a little sulkily. “I really am fine. Even if none of you suspicious Octavinelle types believe me…”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” Jade relented slightly. “However, I believe my eyes more… And you were moving at least ten percent slower than you usually do, even taking into account the record low temperatures today.”

“It’s just anaemia,” Yuu repeated, deciding to ignore his rather unnerving calculations. “Give me two, three days and I’ll be back to the way I was before, I promise! I can even bet on it like you Octavinelle people like to.”

“…What was good for anaemia again?” Bluejaw wrinkled his brow, ignoring her.

“Iron-rich foods, which is the same whether underwater or on Land. Such as spinach.” Jade thought for a moment. “Yuu-san, shall we go purchase iron supplements after your shift is over?”

“What are the three of you doing clustered over there?” Azul walked in with a towering stack of egg cartons hefted easily in the curve one arm. “Don’t tell me Yuu-san injured himself.”

“How can I even injure myself making drinks,” Yuu tilted her head skywards again.

“I wouldn’t put it past you,” Azul sniffed. “In any case, Jade, report to me if you see anything amiss with him.”

“I’ve already mentioned that Yuu-san is rather pale,” Jade responded obligingly. “He says that it’s ‘anaemia’.”

Azul’s pale brows furrowed under his glasses. “…Again?”

“Please don’t worry, Azul, I’ll take care of it.” Jade pressed a glove to his chest with a smile. “After all, we are symbiotes, are we not?”

“I’ll leave it to you, Jade, but don’t forget to fill me in on the details after,” the Dorm Head eyed her critically. “Depending on the severity, we may have to take action.”

“I give up,” Yuu muttered. “Go ahead, do whatever you two want with me, just let me finish my job first.”

Bluejaw gave her a bemused look. “…Were those two always this…” he trailed off.

“—And I almost forgot! Someone just please tell me how I can sell apple juice on campus,” Yuu held up the shaker of sparkling confectionery sugar like an offering. “Do I need a license? Can I set up a stand in Mostro Lounge’s Hall? How about the Cafeteria?”

“Aren’t you busy enough, what with preparing for the Vocal and Dance Championships on top of work and school?” Azul sighed at her. “I don’t know why you’re so active in a competition you’re not even performing in, but everyone in the school has seen you running around following Pomefiore’s star, Vil Schoenheit-san, down the hallways like a lackey. And Jade’s mentioned that you even began regular exercise in the mornings for some unfathomable reason. Even without anaemia or whatever’s ailing you, overloading yourself cannot be an intelligent decision.”

“You’re one to talk. …Okay, fine. How about we split some of the profits if I set up an apple juice stand here?” Yuu offered, used to his long-windedness by now. The only thing she could do was try to redirect the conversation.

“……” Azul paused, adjusted the frame of his glasses, and sharpened his gaze. “…Bring me a sample of this product you’re trying to sell first. I won’t say a word further until I’m fully aware of the quality of this ‘apple juice’ you want to offer.”

“This is like that TV show where would-be entrepreneurs try to sell product ideas to an investor,” Bluejaw muttered.

“Thank you senpai!” Yuu straightened her spine to meet the shrewd glance seriously. “I tried it recently, but the juice is really good. I’ll bring you some next week.”

“Yes, yes. This better be worth my time,” Azul sniffed, losing the intimidating glint to his pale eyes.

“Don’t worry, senpai, I wouldn’t disadvantage you,” Yuu recalled their rather troublesome contract still tucked in his breast pocket and tacked on, “on purpose.”

Azul snorted, not bothering to deign her a further response.

“By the way, the most important thing to obtain on campus is the permission of the Headmaster,” Jade told her with a smile as she resumed her work in high spirits. “The same way that Azul coerc—excuse me, agreed to dedicate a share of Mostro Lounge’s profits in his first year, beginning any business ventures at Night Raven College is all dependent on the highest authority here.”

“Isn’t the highest authority the school council or board or whatever? Not the easily bribed Headmaster?” Yuu muttered. “Okay, I’ll ask Headmaster Crowley about it later. Or maybe Mister S, too?”

“Why can’t your ‘friend’s family’ or whoever you’re helping just advertise their product? Invest in something eye-catching and returns are guaranteed,” Azul declared.

“That only works if I already have assets? Madols? To invest,” Yuu pointed out.

“Heeeeeey Koebi-chan!” Floyd poked his head into the kitchen and waved at her, dorm uniform as rumpled as usual. “I’m bored and it’s slow out here. Let’s go play!”

“Floyd!” Azul snapped in remembered anger. “How many times have I told you not to leave delivered ingredients lying at the service door!?”

“Geh,” Floyd made a face. “Koebi-chan, hurry up and let’s make a run for it before Azul blows his top.”

“Why are you roping me into this like I’m your partner in crime?” Yuu asked rhetorically.

“Whose fault is it that I’m pissed off!?” Azul snapped at the same time.

“What? Who knows,” Floyd inserted a pinkie finger into his ear.

“It’s so lively in here these days,” Sunfish commented while that day’s waiting staff, Bamboo Shark, manoeuvred around the slouching Moray standing in the doorway to approach them. “I swear last semester it wasn’t like this around the kitchens, ever.”

“Whose fault could it be but our very own Directing Student,” Bamboo Shark drawled, watching Azul round on Floyd with some amusement.

“I’m not a part of that,” Yuu, who had finished crafting her last drink, lifted both hands and backed away from the bickering Azul and Floyd. “Aren’t they always like this? You should have seen when Floyd-senpai dented his safe. Or broke the table.”

“We don't get to see stuff like that. Plus, Dorm Head was much more ‘put-together’ last year,” Sunfish collected the finished drink from her before confiding.

“…You mean suspicious-looking?” Yuu’s mouth twitched.

“Only you have the guts to say that. And you seem to be under the impression that he looks overly suspicious, but just to let you know, most people outside of Octavinelle get tricked by him until they fall into his trap,” Bluejaw rolled his eyes. “Apparently he isn’t suspicious-looking to non-Octavinelle students.”

“Really? Well, I suppose that Azul-senpai is very handsome, which helps with the first impression,” Yuu pondered. She wondered what Octavinelle’s Dorm Head looked like to a stranger, but knowing Azul the way she did, it was no longer possible to regard him as someone so harmless.

“Not what I meant,” he gave her a strange look. “I guess he puts a lot of care into his appearance and expressions, though.”

“I mean, it’s kind of late to act all put-together after you smash a hole in Mostro Lounge and nearly take the dorm apart,” shrugged Bamboo Shark. “Thanks to you, some of Dorm Head’s mystery’s been cleared, and some fear left with it. So it’s kinda easier to approach him these days.”

“Now he’s a lot more natural? I guess.” Sunfish nodded.

“True, even the first years in-dorm are less fearful than last semester,” Bluejaw added thoughtfully. “Thanks to someone destroying all the contracts in one fell swoop.”

“I wasn’t the one to turn his contracts to sand,” Yuu said weakly as he eyed her. “But… Does this mean that… It wasn’t all bad that the O-word happened? If people get along better in Octavinelle now?”

“O-word,” Sunfish repeated, looking like he was about to laugh.

“All bad or not all bad, it happened,” shrugged Bluejaw, not seeming to care either way. “You can be as wracked with guilt as you want, but nothing’s going to change even if you mope. Like Dorm Head and those two, it’s a lot less of a waste to move on ASAP.”

“Move on,” Yuu repeated with a small smile. “…Jamil-senpai and Azul-senpai… They’re both really strong.”

“Too strong, if you ask me,” he muttered. “That’s why we always stayed out of their way. And that Jamil Viper flew completely under our radar for over a year, which is even scarier…”

“Anyway! It’s easier to spend time in the dorm now, thanks to those three seeming more… Personable,” Bamboo Shark added before tousling her hair. “So come visit more. We don’t see you that often recently, but drop by to study any time, preferably around those twins. They’re less violent with you around.”

“!” Yuu brightened and beamed up at him. “Of course, senpai! After the Cultural Festival, I’ll visit and bring snacks!”

Bluejaw shielded his eyes.

“…Are you trying to part-time as a model or something?” Bamboo Shark asked suspiciously. “Why does your face look like that?”

“What?” Yuu asked blankly.

“Don’t tell me you’re really competing in the VDC,” Bluejaw realised in horror. “You’re gonna trip on that giant stage! None of us Octavinelle students are that good at footwork, you know!?”

“Uh, I’m not an Octavinelle student?” Yuu pointed out.

“You almost got crushed by a crowd back in October,” Sunfish recalled with his red brows drawn together in concern. “Are you sure you’re up to something like an idol concert? What if you get mobbed again?”

“It’s not an idol concert,” Yuu began patiently.

“—Koebi-chan!” Floyd escaped the still-lecturing Azul and dove in between them, heterochromatic eyes curved in high spirits. “Been a while. I haven’t seen you in forever… A~h! You finally cleaned up your face!”

“Hey! What kind of greeting is that!” Yuu spluttered as the three staff around her stifled laughs. “Why are you talking like my face is dirty most of the time!?”

Ignoring her offended retort, Floyd stuck both hands under her armpits and lifted Yuu into the sky so she was at eye-level. “Not bad,” he appraised.

“…High praise. I’m honoured,” Yuu monotoned. More lethargic than usual, she dangled listlessly midair instead of trying to wriggle free.

“Floyd, be gentler with Yuu-san,” Jade began.

“Yeah, I know,” Floyd hefted her on his arm as if she were a sack of rice. “Koebi-chan’s in that same mode as last month when he was semi-hibernating, right? I’m in a good mood right now, so I’ll carry you!”

“…Hibernating?” Jade repeated curiously.

“Floyd. Have you forgotten that both Yuu-san and you are currently on the clock?” Azul said pleasantly, vein throbbing in his temple.

“E~h? Not in the mood,” Floyd complained. “Jade, you do my job for me.”

“I don’t want to,” Jade said, beaming.

“Ah?” Floyd turned his way, pupils contracting.

“Is there no one in the Hall right now?” Yuu asked the six present students tiredly, swinging her legs back and forth. “Shouldn’t someone be around to take orders?”

Azul began frowning at her. “Maybe we should cut your shift short. You don’t even have the energy to stop these two from glaring at each other.”

“Not you too,” Yuu groaned. “Didn’t Octavinelle students stay out of others’ business?”

—

Apparently, Vil’s homemade skincare collection was effective enough to display results after just two rounds of use. Thanks to this, Yuu received considerably more attention than usual during her shift—from both the staff and the customers—which was rather disconcerting. And for some reason, Floyd looked far prouder about this than she.

“Maybe I should start wearing a face mask so people stop talking about complexion,” she grumbled that afternoon, straightening her messy hair. “Or staring at me. Or messing with my hair! If they like skincare so much, just buy some yourself!”

“I wouldn’t,” Leona tossed Flying with the Cannons onto his colourfully blanketed mattress and twitched his nose in her direction briefly. “Then you’ll have a bunch of overprotective idiots asking you if you’ve caught another cold.”

“…Why do people even pay attention to me,” she half-asked, dissatisfied.

“Like you’re one to talk,” he retorted, pushing aside Quidditch Through the Ages to leaf through the next leatherbound book from the stack on his right. “You’re the same way with other people around this school.”

“But that’s because people like you don’t care about yourselves enough,” Yuu defended herself.

“Don’t you think it’s the same thing the other way around?” Leona eyed her briefly.

“No, you’re worse,” Yuu said immediately. “Leona-senpai in particular! Never ever tells anyone anything! If you want to blame me for being annoying and sticking to you like glue, then blame yourself for being secretive.”

“Says the idiot who’s so secretive that ninety-eight percent of the school still doesn’t know your damn gender,” he sneered.

“But that’s because my gender doesn’t matter at all,” Yuu asserted. “Unlike Leona-senpai! You hide all your struggles so well that the only way to notice is to actively chase you around…”

“Like I said. Right back at you. Only someone like you would do things like send me Holiday presents all the way over to the Savanna while getting mixed up in Scarabia’s conspiracy and never saying a word about almost dying. If I didn’t have Jack report to me, I wouldn’t have known anything until the semester started,” Leona cut her off.

Yuu opened her mouth to argue as he spoke, but lost momentum as he continued, for there was more steel in that voice than she had been expecting. “…You make it sound worse than it really was,” she mumbled weakly.

Leona stared at her.

“I apologise,” Yuu said contritely. “But ever since the year started, I’ve been pretty much reporting everything to you as soon as it happens! Not even through Jack, through me! I’m getting pretty good at this ‘reporting to various people’ thing, you know. Even though it takes forever.”

“Everything, huh?” Leona arched one eyebrow over his book. “…We'll go in circles forever, so this conversation is moot. Hurry up and finish your tea.”

“…Fine,” Yuu muttered into the rim of her steaming cup. "…It’s delicious. I should thank Ruggie-senpai later. What kind of leaves are these?”

“You can thank him by getting a little more colour to your cheeks,” he responded dryly.

Yuu recalled arriving at Savanaclaw’s lounge and being met with Ruggie feeling her forehead persistently amidst numerous comments on her appearance. “…I’m really, super, extra fine though,” she muttered, unsatisfied. “Really!”

“You were walking slower than usual,” Leona responded, flipping a page. When she opened her mouth to protest, he rolled his eyes. “And even if you’re ‘fine’ by your standards, you’ll be even more fine if you take it easy for the next couple of days, so sit still and drink your tea.”

“…Okay.” Yuu finally decided it was wiser to go along with everyone’s wishes instead of arguing fruitlessly. Running into the sharp-eyed Jade and Leona and Ruggie, who could even measure her walking speed against the average, spelled the end of her luck anyway.

Even though her schedule was packed full to the brim, Yuu felt a strange and heavy weight to her entire body and especially her abdomen, so it was a bit of a relief to be greeted with hot tea and a heavy blanket Leona had tossed in her face the moment she’d arrived. Not that she needed such amenities… Being treated so well still felt strange, like sitting on a couch that was too soft and plush and feeling herself sink into the cushion—though it was not unwelcome. The only worry was never being able to stand up again.

As Yuu neared the bottom of her mug of tea in slightly sleepy silence, Leona tossed the second book aside, waved his Pen, and floated a familiar broom into view. “After you’re warm enough, we can get started.”

“Eh? We’re going to experiment indoors today?” Yuu sat up straight, recognising the halfway-enchanted work in progress from last week. “Didn’t we try enchanting the broom in the Magift Pitch last time?”

He glanced at her and twitched his nose again before sighing. “…It’s fine. I’m good with defensive magic, and thanks to last week, we’re reasonably sure that the broom won’t explode like you mentioned it did in November. Staying here’s more convenient.”

“Did my trunk have any useful information in it?” Yuu asked curiously, gesturing to her luggage sitting in a corner of his bedroom. Upon Leona’s text message requesting resources, she had carried the hefty trunk over to Savanaclaw that afternoon. “Last time, we couldn’t quite get it to work for more than a few minutes, but you said you figured something out.”

“Yes and no.” Leona sat up from where he’d been reclining and pointed the broom at her with a gloved hand. “…How much do you know about enchanted artefacts?”

“An infinitesimal amount. I just started learning, which is kind of a coincidence,” Yuu recalled Crewel’s conversation that week, then Sebek’s book that she was currently working through in her spare time. “On campus, the most famous one is that Mirror of Darkness, right? Most artefacts are powered by magic stones. But they’re all very rare, old and expensive. Hard to find.”

“Yeah, and part of the reason is that many of them are made of special or rare material. You could say the Magift Pitch’s floating goalposts are magical artefacts too, if you want to be specific,” he explained.

“That’s where this world’s magical artefacts differ from what I’m familiar with. Enchanting things in my world seems to be more like… Just applying a long-lasting spell to an object,” Yuu warmed her hands around her mug thoughtfully. “So for example, the Pensieve, the watch I gave Azul-senpai, and the present I gave you are technically enchantments, just smaller ones. The problem is, it’s a lot harder for me to enchant a broom for some reason.”

“…I’ll wait to ask about those other things. For now… According to that book, Quidditch Through the Ages, and the other Brief History of Broomstick Flight, there are upwards of ten of your Charms applied to any modern broom at a time,” Leona mirrored her expression. “Think again. Are you sure you cast everything correctly last week?”

“To be honest, most modern broom refinements are for comfort and not necessarily for the basic function of flight,” Yuu explained. “Like the Cushioning Charm for comfort, and the Braking Charm for better manoeuvrability. The only Charm we really need on a broom is the Flying Charm… And that’s the one I can’t seem to get down.”

“Even though ‘Charms’ are your best subject?” Leona arched a brow at her.

“…Yes,” Yuu admitted a little despondently. “…If I was a better witch, we probably wouldn’t have to go through this… I’m bad with Healing Charms too…”

“—You’re someone who understands everything behind the magic you cast,” Leona shook his head, cutting off her lament. “If your world is anything similar to ours, you should know that most people—magicians or not—don't have such a thorough understanding of the true theory behind casting spells. Your foundation is already strong enough that last week, you could explain to me in words the entire process of enchanting a broom without even referring to this book over here.”

“But that’s natural. Who cares if I understand it well? I still couldn’t cast it,” Yuu paused and made a face. “Or more accurately… I cast it and it worked for around five minutes before failing.”

“Still means you’re technically capable of casting this Flying Charm,” Leona dropped the second tome and picked up a third. Yuu wondered how he could read and talk to her at the same time. “Then think about it like this. Why would a Charm last a short time, compared to a longer-lasting enchantment?”

“When the caster isn’t ‘good’ with the spell,” Yuu answered readily.

“Why would a caster not be good with a spell?”

“Um,” Yuu carefully sorted through the information on spellwork she’d stored in her mind over the past five years. “There’s the issue of wand compatibility, and there’s the user’s familiarity with the spell, and then there’s personality inclinations. And lastly, intent or will. Those are the major factors, I think.”

“Then let’s go down the list. How’s your wand with Charms?” Leona directed patiently.

“Good, I think?” Yuu felt the yew wood in her sleeve. “You saw how eager it was to be used last week on the Pitch. It’s a volatile wand that likes Charms and He—um, offensive spells.”

“Are you familiar with this Flying Charm?” he continued.

“Yes. The Charm itself isn’t that hard. At least, we all should know it before entering our fifth year,” Yuu nodded. “The precursor? Of sorts? Levioso, the Floating Spell, is a first-year Charm so in itself it should be relatively simple.”

“Then that leaves personality and intent,” Leona shut the third book and gave her a flat stare.

“…I'm guessing… Is that where the problem lies?” Yuu asked sheepishly.

He snorted. “Obviously. Leaving aside your aversion to physical activity in general, you’re especially afraid of heights and Flying. That's why the Charm won’t last.”

“…It’s that simple?” Yuu blinked back owlishly.

“Actually, this isn’t that different from how our magic works. If some fresh-faced first year can’t imagine summoning an object, they’re not gonna be able to make it work,” Leona explained. “Whereas if I’ve got a clear picture in my head of what I want to happen, summoning anything is easy as breathing.”

Yuu watched as he waved his Pen and summarily caught a knight chess piece that fell from midair. Indeed, Leona looked incredibly familiar with the movement—she remembered Cater’s similar expertise with changing colours of the roses among Heartslabyul’s bushes. Experience and familiarity and imagination seemed to go hand in hand.

Her shoulders slumped. “So… You’re saying that I need to fly on a broomstick more…”

“…Don’t give me that look,” Leona sighed, twirling the knight between two fingers. “Now’s a good time as any. What is making you so afraid? I’ve been wondering since we went on a flight back in October, but for someone who is good at ignoring their own fear—enough to fight me and that octo-bastard and who knows what else—it seems unusual that you would be paralysed by floating up in the sky.”

“…You’re right,” Yuu blinked after a moment. She put her empty mug on his desk and thought about it. “Usually, fear is useful as a signal about my surroundings, but I don’t like it getting in the way of things, so I try to push it out of the way. Like when meeting Floyd-senpai for the first time and when I was trying to figure out Jamil-senpai…”

“And that’s how you get labelled as a kid rushing towards her own death,” Leona sighed at her.

“Eh? By who?” Yuu blinked. “I’m not rushing towards my own death, I just know my priorities…”

“That idiot you call Aardvark, for one. And Ruggie.” He paused. “They’re not quite right, but it doesn’t matter. Either way, you seem like you’d want to get rid of this aversion to heights of flight as soon as possible. Like you’re trying to do with mirror travel, am I wrong? You came through all by yourself today without any problems.”

He’d noticed. “Leona-senpai, as expected, you’re excellent at reading people.” Yuu furrowed her brow. “You’re right. It would be really helpful if I stopped faltering whenever it gets to broom flight.”

“Save the praise for later. Other than mirror travel and flying, you’re usually clear-headed and decisive, if moderately short-sighted,” Leona paused. “…Other than when facing Overblots. Then you really do start rushing towards your own death.”

“Eh!? Are you complimenting me? Are spears going to rain from the sky tomorrow!?” Yuu gasped in mock surprise, and was immediately rewarded with a glare. “I’m just kidding. But like you mentioned, I’m close to getting over my fear of mirror travel, I think. Ever since the semester has started, it hasn’t been as bad.”

Leona picked up the last book in his stack and waited.

“On the other hand, Flight is…” Yuu clutched her legs up to her sore abdomen and wrinkled her nose. “I can’t be that unfamiliar with the Charm itself since I was tortu—I mean, taught by Mahoutokoro’s instructor who is crazy about broomsticks when visiting Japan. And we flew practically daily… So while I can’t deny a lack of experience, it’s probably ‘heights’ that are the problem. —Which means, being afraid of heights can interfere with casting a long-lasting Flying Charm?”

“Probably. It’s a common fear,” Leona flipped a page. “Usually, I wouldn’t say you need to get over it or anything, but since you need a working broom for your own safety, there’s no other way. Unless you can fly without one.”

“No one can just fly,” Yuu shook her head. She hadn’t heard of any witch or wizard managing something so miraculous back in her world, no matter how powerful.

“That’s what you think. Well? What’s so scary about heights?” Leona asked, eyeing her over the top of the book. “You visit Crowley’s office all the time and that’s way up at the top of the school castle. Does looking out the window give you vertigo?”

“Eh? No. I guess I should be more specific,” Yuu corrected herself. “I’m more afraid of ‘hanging’ from a height. Being up high in the sky, without anything under my feet. …I guess being dangled from the Astronomy Tower was more traumatic than I thought, heh heh.”

“—What? Say that again.” Leona put the book down and sat up.

“Say what?” Yuu reflexively mirrored him and straightened her spine. Why was he suddenly paying close attention? “I’m afraid of hanging from a height?”

Leona sighed at her. “You really never tell anyone anything if they don’t ask.”

“Excuse me, that’s the biggest boomerang I’ve ever seen coming my way,” Yuu puffed up. “Right back at you!”

“Enough of that. Why the hell did you get dangled from a tower?” he waved her off impatiently.

“Oh. That's… Because people didn’t like me,” Yuu admitted.

“Hah,” Leona emitted with acidity in his voice. “And being disliked warrants such a reaction?”

“They really didn’t like me,” she corrected. When his scowl worsened, she shrugged. “…Also, I kind of deserved it.”

“Deserved it, my ass.” Leona sneered. “No wonder you were so unaffected even when the dorm students attacked you in October if that’s your standard. …Don’t give me that look like it’s natural for people to dislike you. It’s not like you’re the hated second prince of a country.”

“You’re not hated! Everyone in this entire dormitory loves you!” Yuu snapped back heatedly.

“Yuu, explain,” Leona said lowly.

Recognising the seriousness in his voice, she hunched over in her chair again and searched for an explanation. “…My father has a bit of a bad reputation. So, I did too.”

“More detail,” he prodded. “The father does not make the son, as you should be clearer on than anyone.”

“Well, at Hogwarts… There’s currently this polarised atmosphere going on, where some students are loved and some are hated. It’s mostly because of their parents’ actions during the 1990s—um, two to three decades ago? But most students take it as an excuse to run with their prejudices, and groups have formed around those who are ‘accepted’ and those who aren’t,” Yuu searched for the best words to explain. “I just fell on the wrong side, along with some others. …And after recently revisiting my memories, I really do think I kind of deserved it, in my case.”

“Enough to get dangled from a tower?” Leona stared at her.

“Tensions were especially high at that time,” Yuu tried to clarify. “That particular incident was in my third year, where some first years of notoriety enrolled, and it really made the entire school tenser than usual. Especially against Albus—a notorious first year, he had a lot of trouble with broom flight and… Thanks to his parentage, the entire school paid attention to his every move.”

Leona didn’t seem impressed at her explanation. “What does that have to do with you?”

“Well, we were fellow ostracised students?” she tried. “I was really, um, unpleasant to be around back then, but I think Albus and Scorpius—uh, the two first years that were kind of infamous—reminded me a little bit of me in my first year. So I…”

“Couldn’t leave well enough alone, you nosy herbivore,” Leona finished exasperatedly before she could say any more. “I’m starting to see a pattern.”

“I wasn’t even nosy back then! Just… When you see someone who’s so obviously suffering, don’t you, I don’t know,” Yuu waved her mug in the air, looking up towards the blue sky above and remembering the deadened grey gaze in its shadow. “Don’t you find it hard to ignore? Like… It’s impossible to stand without doing something. At least, that’s probably how I felt. Though I didn’t recognise it at the time.”

And even here, she had always felt the same way, whether it was staring down Riddle’s empty grey eyes or Leona standing all alone on the Magift pitch, seeing Azul demand more and more, watching Jamil glare down Kalim in Scarabia’s hallway.

How had Albus Potter, so firmly excluded from all of his classmates, been any different?

There was no verbal response, but Leona rolled his eyes at her. Yuu privately thought that he was less apathetic than he liked to show, but didn’t chase the conversation further, lest they start bickering again.

She reoriented herself. “But I was even worse with social situations back then, so I had no idea how to handle things. In hindsight, it was a bad idea for me to hang out with them or practice flying like that without paying attention to the surroundings, since it got all of us in trouble, and… Well, one thing led to another, and I got hung from the Astronomy Tower for a day.”

“And you were never going to tell me this if I didn’t ask you,” Leona finished wearily.

“I didn't even think it was important… And, well, it’s not pleasant to hear, right?” Yuu smiled sheepishly at him. “Anyway. You’re right about ignoring my fears. I know I should be getting over something like just a fear of heights sooner or later, but having nothing below my feet—that feeling of unsurety keeps following me around no matter what.”

“Not surprising. It’s a revolting story to hear,” Leona said solemnly.

“Sorry,” Yuu drew her brows together. “You can forget I said anything. If I were a Gryffindor, maybe I would have been able to get over it…”

“It’s even more revolting that your image of flying has been ruined by imbeciles like those who did that to you,” he continued lowly, the skin tight beneath his eyes. “…They’re lucky I can’t get my hands on ‘em right now.”

Leona seemed to be a good deal more irritated than she’d expected, despite him being the one to press her for an explanation. She had rarely seen such intensity in his usually lethargic expression.

Yuu searched for a way to lighten the glare narrowing his summer green eyes. “Um, but, hey!” she grinned at him. “We kind of match, right? I mean, I still think that people love you more than you give them credit for. But you mentioned that you were reviled for your Unique Magic, and I’m reviled because of my father too. Or my personality.”

“You think that 'matching' is supposed to make me feel better?” Leona lifted the corner of his mouth to reveal an incisor. “A kid like you didn’t even know to fight back like you’ve learned here at NRC.”

“I learned how to fight back after that,” Yuu assured him. “Slytherins are good at that sort of stuff and they taught me…”

“It pisses me off even more that you survived your first semester here in part due to that ‘nothing matters’ mentality of yours—you really think that getting hurt doesn’t matter,” he cut her off. “And thanks to the part of you that doesn’t care about yourself, you’ve woken up annoying guys like that octo-bastard and the Heartslabyul Queen.”

“Eh? I have been trying my best to improve various things about myself,” Yuu defended herself mildly. “Like having a regulated lifestyle and reporting stuff to you. And avoiding getting hurt! And Kalim-senpai taught me that it’s important to care about oneself, too, since my well-being in jeopardy can have consequences that I don’t anticipate. Uh, what does Riddle-senpai and Azul-senpai have to do with anything?”

“Heh,” was Leona’s response. “Whatever. At least we have an idea of how to fix it now.”

“We do?” Yuu stopped trying to explain in surprise.

“If you’re uneasy with feeling nothing beneath your feet, how about that rich boy… Kalim’s magical treasure?” Leona suggested. “He brought that thing with him to school, didn’t he? It’s got more support than a broom.”

“Eh? The Carpet?” Yuu remembered last night’s leisurely ride with Grim and Kalim and realised slowly, “You’re right. I’m a lot less scared than usual when I ride it.”

“Of course you’ve been on it more than once already,” Leona muttered.

“I know it’s supposed to be a priceless national treasure, but Kalim-senpai tends to treat the Carpet like a friend,” Yuu hastened to explain. “And the Carpet really likes flying, too.”

“And thanks to that, you’re less likely to freak out about being aloft,” Leona nodded. He sighed. “…It doesn’t sit right with me that you’ve got that memory of hanging from a tower embedded in your mind.”

“The memory of the Astronomy tower?” Yuu blinked. “That’s what you were angry about?”

“You don’t need a memory like that,” he said. “Something useless like that can only get in the way. …Especially if it’s the only thing standing between you and a broom. It’s a waste for you to not understand the feeling of flying.”

“…Leona-senpai,” Yuu started.

“Once you’re feeling better, we’ll start overwriting that trauma of yours,” Leona tossed the knight in the air before catching it. “In the meantime, you should get familiar with being up in the sky. On that Carpet of Kalim’s, probably. It’ll probably take some time, but don’t rush it. Enchanting this broom can wait until after that.”

“……Overwriting my trauma?” Yuu repeated a little wonderingly. “…Senpai. I’ve been meaning to ask… But why have you been helping me out like this? You and Ruggie-senpai say… You can even ‘fix’ things about me like… Like I’m not a hopeless case.”

“That’s beside the point,” Leona stared at her flatly. “Haven’t I told you? You need some sort of defence unrelated to spells, especially if you’re dealing with any remaining troublesome people around the school. It doesn’t matter if you’re hopeless or not.”

“Remaining troublesome people,” Yuu repeated, expression sobering. Unbidden, she recalled the Ignihyde student in her class whisper about scary Dorm Heads.

“If we could have you within reach twenty-four seven, I wouldn’t have to worry about teaching you to defend yourself,” he said pointedly.

“I’m a Ramshackle student,” Yuu responded automatically.

“But it never hurts to be prepared, ‘specially since you like wandering around free-range,” Leona tossed his knight back up in the air and it disappeared in a sparkle of light. Then he smirked. “Unless you’re ready to move into Savanaclaw, of course. The paperwork's right there on the desk for you to sign.”

“Not you too,” Yuu groaned as a stack of papers materialized on his desk in a shimmer of glowing yellow-gold. “I thought that even if your dorm students are overly enthusiastic, you were above all this competitiveness!”

“It’s not competitiveness,” he rolled his eyes at her exasperatedly. “This is the safest place in the world for you, idiot herbivore. Anyway, until you come around, we’ll have to work out different ways to keep you out of trouble. For example, securing spots at your upcoming dance party with that nag, Vil, to keep an eye out in case anything happens.”

“I have some misgivings about Savanaclaw being the safest place in the world,” Yuu muttered. Then she sat up in a rush, heedless of the colourfully patterned blanket falling from her sore stomach. “Wait. What do you mean, securing spots? You’re going to come and watch the VDC?! Leona-senpai!”

“Not quite,” Leona yawned, seemingly done with any concentration, and flopped back on his pillows in a state of relaxation. “Like the rest of the athletic club members, we don’t have much stake in the Cultural Festival, so I took up management of the Purple Stage that’s being constructed in the Coliseum.”

“Ma… Management!?” Yuu spluttered. “Someone as avoidant of work as Leona-senpai is managing!? Wait, the Purple Stage is the stage we’re using for the VDC!”

Leona turned on his side and ignored her.

“Senpai! How did you know?” Yuu asked insistently.

“You think a Dorm Head like me doesn’t have access to information on all the events going on just because I’m not in a cultural club?” was the sarcastic response. “And compared to running around between all those amateur booths set up around campus talking to people, it’s a lot easier controlling the lights, sound data, and streaming software from the back of the Stage. At least I don’t have to move around.”

“Wait, so you’re going to do that ‘lights, camera, action’ stuff for the VDC!” Yuu lit up and bounced in her chair, heedless of the slight pain in her abdomen. “Which means! You’re watching everyone perform the day of the competition?”

“Unfortunately,” he monotoned. “Last time we left you alone during the Winter Holiday, and look what happened with Scarabia. This time, I’ll be better at manoeuvring so something like that doesn’t happen again.”

“……Something happening again,” Yuu quieted and recalled the dream she’d seen this morning. “…Is something really going to happen again? Everyone keeps saying it.”

“You tell me,” Leona cracked one eye open and stared at her.

“I’m doing my best right now to avoid it,” Yuu made two fists. “And I’ll keep working at it. Promise! …But Leona-senpai, I’m surprised you’re good with technology. You even gave me this earpiece. Is this one of your hobbies?”

“Like I said before the Holiday. Technology is useful, and it’s only going to become more useful in the next several decades. People who can’t change with the times can only fall behind, like those old codgers back in the palace who don’t even know how to run a kingdom right,” Leona shut his eye again. “You, too, should at least get a good understanding of online tools, like cloud computing and backups. It'll be useful.”

“Both you and Jamil-senpai are so good at thinking ahead and planning,” Yuu slumped her shoulders in amazement. “To even secure a spot at the theatre stage where the VDC Tribe is performing. I didn’t think of that at all.”

“You’re way too easily impressed,” he snorted. “You just focus on being Vil’s gofer, and during downtime, hassle that Kalim for Carpet rides. All you need is an opportunity or a necessity that undoes the preconceived notion that flying is ‘uneasy’. Then we can finish enchanting this broom for real.”

“……You don’t have to put this much effort into, into putting up with me and helping me,” Yuu managed after a moment. “Even though all of this is due to my disappointing performance that can’t even enchant a broom right.”

“Fortunately, I’m an incredibly charitable Dorm Head,” Leona started.

“That sounds like something Headmaster Crowley would say,” Yuu quipped.

“Stop, you’ll give me goosebumps.”

“—Thank you Leona-senpai,” Yuu said sincerely to the apparently half-dozing third year. “Words as cheap as these can’t express my feelings, so I’ll return the favour three-fold. No matter what I can do in return, just say the word.”

“I don’t need anything you’re capable of,” was the unimpressed response. Then Leona gestured towards the abandoned stack of books beside him with a glint in his eye. “…Though. These books from your baggage are rather interesting. You got any more where they came from?”

—

When Yuu opened the creaky door to Ramshackle that evening in high spirits, humming to herself, she was further buoyed by the signs of life moving around the lounge and upstairs where the VDC Tribe were spending their own time. Despite Ramshackle’s obvious inferiority to the rest of the opulent dormitory buildings, there had been a significantly smaller number of complaints about the living conditions than Yuu had anticipated. Perhaps Vil’s ‘demon coach’ training had worn them down too far to bother.

Epel poked his head into the foyer hallway as she was shedding her shoes and offered Yuu a smile that could put blooming flowers to shame. “Welcome back, Yuu-san. Back from dropping off your luggage?”

“!” Yuu brightened further and jogged down the hallway to meet him. “I’m back, Epel!”

“…That was an enthusiastic greeting,” Epel blinked a few times. “Are you that happy to see me?”

“Well, yeah,” she tried to suppress her smile but failed. “…Heh heh. I’m not used to someone welcoming me, that’s all.”

“Really? Isn’t it normal to welcome back a dorm member when they return?” Epel blinked at her. “…Oh. I forgot that it’s just you and Grim-kun most of the time.”

“And not everyone is nice enough to say something like ‘welcome back’, so thanks, Epel,” Yuu peered over his shoulder. “How do you like Ramshackle’s lounge? It’s not much, but let me know if there’s anything you want and as a host, and I’ll do my best to make it come true.”

“Actually, the wooden surroundings and snow piled up outside really remind me of Harveston—the place I lived before coming to NRC,” Epel confided as the two of them made their way to the longer striped couch. “The fireplace, rustic environment and all… You’re only missing patterned coats and quilts and sleds to make it a complete double. So, um, what I mean to say is, it’s very nice… I guess.”

“That’s a relief to hear,” Yuu sighed. “I know that the water temperature’s spotty sometimes, and the woodwork is, uh… Aged… But I can’t really do anything about that. Still, a training camp is supposed to have you all focus on training, right? I wouldn’t want to distract anyone with poor lodgings or inconveniences.”

“Don’t remind me about training. It’s a good thing we’re on break today after seven straight days of that hellish practice,” Epel plopped down on the couch in a manner unbefitting of his elegant purple robed uniform. The creak of the sofa was accompanied by a crinkle. “…Hm? Did I just sit on… Is this a photo?”

“Sorry, that must be one of mine I left lying around yesterday.” Yuu received the slightly bent rectangular photograph from him and peered around before finding a few others between the cushions. “Look, this one’s of Kalim-senpai striking a dance pose.”

“I didn’t know photos could move like that,” Epel peered over her shoulder as she collected the photos into a stack before filing through them. “Is that an effect of the Ghost Camera? …Come to think of it. I think we heard from the Headmaster in September that your job as a Directing Student was to report on Grim-kun using it.”

“Is that what he told everyone? That’s my job. Though recently I’ve just been taking a lot of photos because I like watching you all dance,” Yuu admitted sheepishly. “To me, the Ghost Camera feels more familiar than a smartphone, and they’re like photos and videos combined. Since most of these pictures are moving by themselves anyway.”

Whether the moving photos had to do with the mysterious origins of this item given to her by the equally mysterious Headmaster, or if Yuu’s own magic was interacting strangely with it, remained to be seen.

“That’s really interesting,” Epel seemed genuinely curious while she showed him a moving photograph of Jamil somersaulting midair. “I don’t know much about magical artefacts like the Ghost Camera, but how does it make photos move like videos like that?”

“Uh…” Yuu didn’t know how to tell him that something about her own magic might have been influencing this. “…Come to think of it, this is a magical artefact too?”

“What else could it be?” Epel blinked back.

“I guess you’re right.” Yuu frowned at the photos in her hands as if they could give her a broom-enchanting clue.

Epel didn’t seem to catch her pondering expression. “Do you have any of me?”

“Sure I do!” Yuu brightened. “You’re especially photogenic, Epel. Here, let me show you.”

After Yuu ran upstairs to fetch the large photo album she had bought from the Mystery Shop, she gathered together the miscellaneous loose squares not yet sorted and presented Epel the purple leather-bound book.

“I heard this is Pomefiore-style,” she pointed at the rich indigo decorative cover. “Mister S recommended it to me before the Winter Holiday.”

“Geh! That looks like Vil-san’s Magical Tome,” Epel staggered back in a knee-jerk reaction before edging over to examine it more closely. “…Oh, but the design’s different. Yours has an apple on the cover, but Vil-san’s Magical Tome is sealed shut with jewelled belts and the central design is a heart with a knife going through it.”

“…Is that heart with knife thing really your dorm’s crest?” Yuu remembered the pennant hanging proudly above the dormitory and wondered what a Magical Tome was. Didn’t Vil also wear a hair accessory that matched?

“Huh? Yeah. I might not be huge on the whole aesthetic of the,” Epel fluttered his dormitory robe’s sleeve and made a face. “This, but the knife-heart is pretty cool, right? And the poisoned skull apple.”

“You really like apples, huh,” Yuu commented as she opened the album and began inserting photos. “—Oh! Speaking of apples! Epel, I asked Azul-senpai about selling your apple juice at NRC this morning. He said he wouldn’t give me any information for sure without a sample, so could I borrow a bottle next week when I go for my shift at Mostro Lounge?”

“Eh! You really asked him for me?” Epel gaped, hand freezing in the middle of passing her a photo of Grim twirling on his hind legs in the Ballroom.

“?” Yuu blinked at him. “I said I would. Why not?”

“…I always thought guys at a school this snobby would be less friendly,” Epel scrunched up his face. “I mean, I’d just take ‘em all down when they mess with me, but I didn’t expect you to really go to the trouble of helping me out. I thought it was just lip service…”

“Schoenheit-senpai said the same thing about ‘dealing’ with anyone who messes with him,” Yuu commented in amusement. At the flat look, she put both hands up. “Okay, okay. …I didn’t even do much, just asked Azul-senpai, so it’s not a big deal.”

“…Still. I hear that Octavinelle’s Dorm Head is hard to get anything out of, so thanks,” Epel still seemed slightly disbelieving. “And as for the apple juice, you can take as many bottles as you want. They’ll just expire otherwise, anyway…”

“Cheer up, Epel,” Yuu patted his shoulder while he stared despondently at the nine-plus boxes of apple juice stacked up beside the tall windows. “I’ll ask the Headmaster and Mister S when I get the chance too, and once we’re able to sell them, they’ll be gone in no time!”

“Thanks, Yuu-san,” Epel offered her a small grin. “The only problem is, even if we sell these nine boxes, it doesn’t really solve the original problem…”

“Right. You said tourists are lessening around your home town,” Yuu recalled, tucking another photo away. She crossed her arms and thought seriously. “To be honest, I’m not very good with technology, but my best guess is, the modern way to fix tourism problems would involve MagiCam and advertising?”

“Doesn’t advertising cost a lot of money in the first place?” he asked sceptically.

“…Does it?” Yuu didn’t know. “Um… Maybe I’ll ask Azul-senpai about this too. Or, maybe Cater-senpai would have some experience in the art of social influencing? He gets called a phone addict or social media addict by Trey-senpai and Riddle-senpai sometimes, but I saw last time that he has a ton of followers on MagiCam…”

“Oh! Don’t get me wrong,” Epel hurried to wave both hands at her. “I really appreciate all your help, Yuu-san. …It’s the first time someone at this school has listened so seriously to my words and tried to help me like this. Thanks.”

“As your Manager, I’m here to help,” Yuu grinned back. “And especially you, Epel, one of the most pleasant people on the VDC Tribe. It’s no trouble at all.”

“Me, pleasant?” Epel wrinkled his nose. “What kind of people do you spend time around?”

“…NRC students?” Yuu made a face back. The two of them dissolved into laughter.

Still, it was true that compared to every other first year Yuu knew—save for Deuce, when not confronted with a fight—Epel was friendly, pleasant, and nonconfrontational. It was downright easy to communicate with him normally, which almost took her off guard, for Yuu was far more used to sharp words, insults, and sarcasm that NRC students used as a second language.

Perhaps it also helped that they were almost the same stature, or maybe even that both of them wore their school uniforms with crooked ribbons. Or maybe it was because Epel was so pretty to look at.

If she steered clear of mentioning his appearance, the Pomefiore first year was happy to spend the evening hanging out and browsing through the many pictures Yuu had amassed over the last semester. It was unsurprising that the first three hundred or so were almost exclusively of Grim and the three Ghosts that had made Ramshackle their home, but the pages of grey Monster seemed to amuse him to no end.

“Ghosts can show up in pictures?” Epel gaped. “…Well, it is the Ghost Camera, I guess…?”

“The Ghosts are actually still around the vicinity, but they’re very considerate and gentlemanly and won’t disturb any of you,” Yuu explained to him. “That’s why no one’s seen one at all this past week.”

“Ghosts, gentlemanly? The ones that I’ve seen in the kitchens are just old chefs who love to make weird jokes and laugh,” Epel commented.

“That too,” Yuu nodded. “And they did fight us when me and Grim first came to Ramshackle, but they’re mostly harmless now. Though if one comes through your mirror when you’re brushing your teeth, it might scare you wide awake a few times.”

“Yeah, I’d bet,” Epel muttered. “…As expected, Yuu-san, you’re tougher than you look.”

“Sorry?” Yuu blinked as his voice sunk below earshot.

“Nothing. I just thought, we’re kind of alike after all,” Epel said, and beamed at her.

The pages of grey Grims became dotted with reddish brown and blue-black as Ace and Deuce’s grinning faces appeared more and more often, followed by the idyllic green of the Tea Garden in Heartslabyul, Trey’s picture-perfect marron glacé, the scarlet wallpaper of the lounge…

“You really get along with Ace-kun and Deuce-kun,” Epel commented, watching the moving image of Ace toss a handful of browned leaves at in their direction. “You’ve been friends since school started?”

“I guess you could say that?” Yuu paused while remembering their first meeting. “Though at the beginning, Ace wasn’t exactly friendly.”

“I kind of get that feeling. Did you know that during the beginning of the opening ceremony, he snuck out of the Mirror Chamber during the speech and dragged me with him?” Epel made a face. “Friendly or not, he’s quite forceful. I couldn’t even get a word in.”

“He did? So you and Ace were acquainted after all?” Yuu blinked. Had Ace revealed a similar clue earlier…?

“I wouldn’t go that far. He didn’t even remember me when we met this semester,” Epel shrugged. “…And basically it was him talking the whole time. Then he told me I shouldn’t think so much before I talked…”

“But Ace is really sharp with things like that,” she said a little proudly. “He reads people well and while he’s kind of harsh about it, he wouldn’t just lie. So he probably does remember you… Do you maybe tend to think a lot before talking, like Ace said?”

Epel pondered quietly while Yuu flipped the album page to the faded gold of Savanaclaw’s grounds. “…Does it seem that way to you?”

“It’s more like… Are you trying to hide your accent, or something?” Yuu guessed, inserting a photo of Round Ears sitting sullenly at a table while Ruggie filmed him tearing up a scarf.

“You’re sharp,” Epel let out a small sigh. “…I have to hide my accent, and speak more politely, and stop glaring at people, and always keep manners in mind.”

“So that’s why you waver between having an accent and having none!” Yuu put her fist into her hand. “Glaring? Did you used to glare at people a lot or something? To me, it seems like you don’t show emotions on your face easily at all.”

“That’s just ‘cause I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking like, so I wind up with a half-baked poker face,” Epel admitted. “And I've told you before, but I'm not really good at acting…”

“Well, Ace and Deuce both seem to be under the impression that you’re very polite and shy, so I think it worked,” she commented, flipping past images of the waterfall in Savanaclaw’s lounge to the darkened interior of Mostro’s Lounge.

“…Even a few upperclassmen in Pomefiore think I’m some sort of noble boy thanks to my stupid frilly school uniform,” Epel sighed, seeming rather displeased with their judgment, and looked down so that his lavender hair shadowed his eyes. “…Just wait. One day…”

“Epel?” Yuu blinked.

“Eh! Uh, nothing!” Epel laughed nervously, looking back up. His gaze wandered around as if searching for a new topic. “Um… Hey, Yuu-san, you’re a pretty good photographer, y’know?”

“Me?” Yuu pointed at her nose, surprised. “Really? I don’t think I’m particularly skilled.”

“No, you are good. Especially with people,” Epel pointed to a shot of several Savanaclaw students laughing as they crowded into the camera view. “…That student’s on the Magift Team, but I’ve never seen them smile like that during practice… You’re good at capturing expressions and people, I think.”

“Thanks, but I’m a total amateur,” Yuu said a little embarrassedly. “I guess I like observing people, so I take more pictures of them than of scenery? The subjects are good, so I end up with good photos. So I should thank you all for being so good-looking.”

“Stop that. You don’t have to be modest. If this school has got a photographer’s club or something, you should join and do exhibitions and stuff in museums,” Epel encouraged. “At least I like seeing all these pictures. Whoa! Is that me?”

Yuu had flipped over to the centre of the book to store her newest photographs, one of them being Epel’s determined glare aimed off into the distance as he clutched a ballet barre. As they watched, his likeness dashed an arm over the sweaty hairs on his forehead and gritted his teeth, a far distance from the ‘half-baked poker face’ that Epel usually wore.

“This is a great expression,” Yuu praised. “Full of energy and determination. Very cool.”

“Eh! Heh heh… Thanks,” Epel beamed widely.

“I really respect you and Deuce,” she went on, inserting the newest photos. “Both of you are able to never give up no matter what… And that expression of yours was so focused and intense, I had to take a picture. Oh, of course, I’m not going to post these anywhere, in case you’re worried about privacy.”

“I look kinda cool, don’t I?” Epel didn’t seem to mind. He rubbed his nose, grin still lingering on his cheeks. Perhaps the word ‘cool’ was the greatest compliment to him, for the first year looked much happier than when she called him good-looking.

“You're always cool,” Yuu declared.

“!” Epel blinked at her before smiling even wider. “Re… Really? …But usually I get people telling me I’m cute.”

“That too,” Yuu nodded, thinking that he could even out-smile the celebrity, Neige LeBlanche.

Immediately, the blooming smile vanished for a glare. “Ah?” Epel emitted, a vein throbbing in his cheek.

Yuu widened her eyes and stared—perhaps this was what he meant by trying to stop ‘glaring at everyone’; for someone with such delicate features, Epel had a slightly threatening glitter to his shrunken pupils that somewhat resembled Deuce’s violent look when he fought.

But this time, she had made the comment despite understanding it would anger him. She patted him on the shoulder. “Epel, did you know that you can be both cute and cool-looking at the same time?”

“…How would that even work?” Epel still seemed rather dissatisfied with her rating of him.

“I don’t know, but you’re the best example of someone who’s both,” Yuu shrugged. “I know that you dislike being looked down on or compared to anything because of your appearance. Um, how about this? Think about it like Buy One, Get One Free. You get to be both cool and cute, isn’t it a bargain?”

“But I don’t care about being lovely or cute or whatever crap,” Epel threw his hands in the air, and the sleeves of his Pomefiore robe fluttered her way with a small of cinnamon apple.

“Isn’t it a good thing to be lovely?” Yuu asked curiously. “Surely it beats not being lovely, right?”

“But that’s not what I’m looking for,” Epel told her frustratedly. “And ain’t being called ‘cute’ an insult?!”

“Eh? Why? Grim is cute, and that’s a giant plus,” Yuu held up a finger. “Do you know how hard it is to find cute people on campus here? Everyone’s rude, intimidating, or a muscle man!”

“I wanna be a friggin’ muscle man!” Epel snapped back.

“You already are!” Yuu asserted. “…At least compared to me!”

“But compared to someone like Jack, in my class…! This is just not enough.” Epel shucked up one arm of his flared robe and showed her a slim, black-sleeved forearm. “Even here, d’you know how insulting it is when people look dahn on ya for bein’ girly? An’ back ‘round the village, ah got insulted all the time…!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Yuu clutched Epel’s hand reflexively as his words veered out of the understandable range of English she knew. “Hold on for a second, your original hypothesis is wrong!”

“Hah? Hypothesis? What, are we supposed to be in Alchemy or somethin’!?” Epel growled back.

“I mean your original assumption,” Yuu clarified earnestly. “Epel, being called cute isn’t an insult, you know?”

“Everyone who’s said it to my face meant it as an insult,” he snapped. “I can tell ‘cause they apologised when I slammed ‘em down on the ground.”

“Surely not everyone? What about your family and friends?” she tried.

“Nai—my Grandma doesn’t count,” he deflated slightly.

“Sure she does. And in the first place, people who can’t figure out a better insult than calling you cute don’t deserve your attention,” Yuu entreated.

“Yeah, but…!” Epel glanced down frustratedly before blinking at their joined hands. “…You know, Yuu-san, this might sound rude, but I sort of had a weird feeling of camaraderie with you despite us not knowing each other too well. It’s the same with Heartslabyul’s Dorm Head and Diasomnia’s vice Dorm Head. Since, y’know, we’re all sort of the same size…”

“Oh, really? Thanks?” Yuu smiled back in some confusion. “Ortho-kun from Ignihyde is even smaller than Riddle-senpai and Vanrouge-senpai, you know.”

“Really? Not familiar with him, but,” Epel scooted a little closer and peered into her face. “Even among them, you’re especially kind of… Small and not very intimidating, so I always sort of assumed we’d have the same problems. But you don’t seem bothered at all.”

“Bothered by what? Being small and unintimidating?” Yuu showed him a troubled smile. “Actually, I’ll tell you because it’s you, Epel, but I’ve been trying to improve my physical endurance recently. Because compared to everyone, I’m exactly as you say—weak and unintimidating, and it’s gotten in the way. But unlike me, you’re so good at flying on a broom and much stronger than me, even if it’s at ballet. So I think you’re plenty ‘muscle-man’ like.”

“…But you don’t seem insulted about being called small or cute,” Epel muttered. “Doesn’t it piss you off?”

Yuu hadn’t had much experience with being angry in regards to herself, so she shook her head after thinking about it. “I mean, I can’t argue with facts. It’s true that I’m comparatively small here. Though the only person who’d call me cute is Cater-senpai, who calls everyone cute.”

“Eh? That can’t be true,” Epel blinked brilliant aqua-blue eyes. “Yuu-san, you’re probably the cutest person I’ve seen on campus all year.”

“Fuah!?” Yuu emitted, taken off guard.

“Even without Vil-san’s skincare routine doing work, the parts that make up your face are tiny and delicate, and they’re well-balanced.” he narrowed his eyes observingly. “And look, your hands are smaller than mine and a lot thinner, too. And the best part is your eyes…”

“E-Epel, uh, thanks but,” Yuu stammered, finally noticing that she was still holding his fingers.

“Ah! I didn’t mean that as an insult! I was just looking at you and then I thought…!” Epel added hastily. Then he sat up in surprise. “—Oh. Is that what you meant when you said that being called cute ain’t an insult?”

“What did I mean!?” Yuu squeaked.

“But even if it’s not an insult, I still wanna be called manly…” Epel muttered to himself, but it appeared that most of the anger had extinguished from his expression. He peered into her face again and laughed. “Heh heh! Yuu-san, your cheeks look like apples.”

“Tha—that’s because you started calling people cute out of nowhere all of a sudden!” Yuu stammered, releasing his hand to shield her face with both palms. While she was used to insults and sarcasm, being complimented always took her off guard.

“Next time you call me cute, I’ll call you cute back,” Epel showed a surprisingly mean-spirited grin, a far cry from the usual gentle smile that gave him an ethereal aura.

“…Okay. You win. You’re going to give me palpitations, please don’t tease me like that,” Yuu admitted defeat after a moment.

“Tease you?” he blinked. “I was just telling the truth…”

“A-anyway! I still think that it’s not all bad being as pretty as you are, Epel,” Yuu talked loudly to change the topic. “But I definitely respect your goal too. And in the first place, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be called cool or manly… But how does one become taller and stronger and more muscly, anyway?”

“Tell me about it,” Epel sighed. “No matter how many weights I lift, I don’t seem to get any bulkier. But just watch… I’m not gonna give up anytime soon.”

—

“He’s got perseverance,” Jack said approvingly when Yuu told him of Epel’s determination the next morning. “Normally, I’d scoff at people who’ve only got bark and no bite, but Epel doesn’t run on empty words.”

“I just knew the two of you would get along well,” Yuu said to one silver ear, huddling closer to his shoulders in the deep cold barely touched with early sunlight. She hadn’t made it five minutes into their run this morning before finding herself in a piggy-back position again. Apparently, her anaemic state bothered him too much.

“I don’t ‘get along well’ with people,” Jack grumbled.

“But you and Epel have a lot in common, at least from what it looks like to me,” she continued, voice bouncing a little as Jack crested the hill away from Ramshackle and towards Main Street. “And you spend time together in class sometimes, right? How about giving him a few muscle-building tips? His biggest complex seems to be his size.”

“Nothin’ to it other than persistence,” Jack grunted. “Some people, like you two, are naturally slower to build muscle and height. But I won’t say it’s impossible. You just gotta keep putting in the work consistently.”

“I will. I think I’ll be able to run alongside you again tomorrow,” Yuu promised him. She offered a wry grin to the top of Jack’s head and admitted, “I probably need some of that persistence Epel has.”

“That’s not what I meant. You have a problem with taking on more and more troublesome stuff on your shoulders indiscriminately,” he said disapprovingly, words interspersed with heavy exhales. “Even if it’s for the pipes and infrastructure around Ramshackle, agreeing to be the manager of the VDC when it’s got nothing to do with you is stupid. How long are you gonna let that Crow—Headmaster order you around anyway?”

“He doesn’t even order me around that much,” Yuu said bemusedly.

“Especially when you’re not feeling well…”

“I’m feeling fine,” she hastened to correct him.

“Get some colour into your cheeks before you say that. Anyway, Epel’s at least got a handle on what he can and can’t do, unlike you,” Jack continued to lecture her. “That foolishly good-natured tendency you have… Agreeing to every request given to you is gonna get you in big trouble one day. Even bigger than when you made a deal with that Azul. …Senpai.”

“Yes, Jack, thanks, Jack, everything you say is correct, Jack,” Yuu felt the silver ear closest to her and warmed up the icy cold appendage with her glove.

“Stop messing around with my ears. Are you really listening?”

“I still think the actual performers in the VDC Tribe have it worse than me,” she felt the need to insist. “Especially Epel and Deuce who have extra lessons. But all the members go through at least two full-length practice sessions every day and even do early morning practice on weekdays. Even right now, they’re practicing while we run! The workload has got to be much more intense than regular athletic club practices…”

“That’s to be expected if you’re gonna participate in a world-class competition like that,” Jack did not seem sympathetic. “If they can’t even take that much training, they don’t deserve to be on the team.”

“As expected of the stoic Jack,” Yuu took advantage of her spot to pet his other ear, too. “You know, a lot of what you say kind of matches a lot of what Schoenheit-senpai says. No wonder the two of you are friends. Stoic minds think alike.”

“There you go again,” Jack snorted. “I’m gonna drop you.”

No matter what he said, Jack’s grip was steady and warm, and no matter how much he disagreed with her, through all of their running sessions, he always listened to her rambling about all manners of silly topics and her unfiltered thoughts.

“I’m really impressed by the VDC Tribe team, you know,” Yuu told him in high spirits a few minutes later. “Not just by how good they are at dancing—which, by the way, is kind of ridiculous. I usually forget this is a Dixney world until witnessing how everyone’s a natural pro at singing and dancing. At this rate, I won’t be surprised if Jack’s also a great singer… You would make a great bass vocalist. Want to give it a shot?”

“Why the hell would I sing? And sometimes you start mentioning this Dixney thing. What’s that supposed to be, something from your world?” Jack asked suspiciously.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m not that knowledgeable about Dixney, but this world has a lot of similarities with that… Um…” Yuu lost her train of thought. “…Where was I? Anyway! Everyone’s not just crazy good at singing and dancing, but they’re also really resilient under pressure or stress.”

“The pressure of competition? Wanting to win?” Jack guessed.

“Huh? Oh, none of them seem to be nervous. They’re already ready to beat those ‘sissy flowery RSA bastards’ into the ground or whatever this week’s insult was,” Yuu corrected. “I was thinking more about resilience against the serious pressure coming from Schoenheit-senpai… As a leader, he is incredibly strict. In close quarters, he’s even harsher than Professors Trein and Crewel.”

“…He was probably always like that. People who have a lot of responsibilities since youth tend to be harsh on themselves,” Jack mentioned as if reminiscing. “Though Yuu, leaders of the pack have always got to keep it put together, else they’ll get looked down on. I doubt Vil-senpai’s that much stricter than any athletic club captain worth his salt.”

“Eh? Really? I’m not that familiar with how athletic clubs work,” Yuu admitted. Besides the scarily intense Mahoutokoro Quidditch team, all the other athletic clubs she’d heard about were relatively tame.

“You’ve come to a Magift practice before, haven’t you? Though you might not have seen Leona-senpai right before a match with another school.” Jack realised. “…The atmosphere of the entire team is completely different then. You can feel the tension in the air making your tail and ears stand on end.”

“Leona-senpai, strict?” Yuu blinked. “I thought he’d leave players to themselves a little more.” Though he didn’t seem to shy away from putting his team through the wringer, Leona himself was almost always relaxed.

“That’s right too. But… It’s sort of hard to describe… You sorta have to be hands-on when leading a team. Athletic clubs tend to be really rigidly structured, kinda like a gang,” Jack explained.

“…Rigidly structured, like Scarabia?” Yuu mumbled to herself in thought. At this point, she had gotten used to Jack and Deuce showing flashes of delinquent behaviour in everyday conversation.

“So the Captain is absolute. Because of that, it’s kind of a rule for him to be strict, so he can properly manage the team under him and ensure full cooperation between all members.” Jack paused. “I dunno about dancing, but surely it’s the same principle there? That’s why you probably don’t hear much complaining about any strictness. Everyone on the team probably understands and respects the leadership.”

“It’s true that most people in the VDC Tribe are on athletic teams, so maybe they’re used to the atmosphere…” Yuu digested the information slowly. “It’s a little different from how teachers like Professor Trein are strict, right?”

“Yeah. The only thing separating a leader from the pack is his strength,” Jack elaborated. “And that means the ‘distance’ between a Captain and the team is a lot closer than the ‘distance’ between a teacher and their students.”

“And… That makes captains of athletic clubs and such put on a stricter demeanour? So they don’t get looked down upon, or undermined, and can keep the team together?” Yuu slowly put his words together.

As she spoke, she felt the explanation snap cleanly into the rigid structure of the practices she’d witnessed during the first week of the training camp. Small mistakes that would be ignored in daily conversation always attracted Vil’s attention and sharp words; being late for a moment got Yuu into trouble immediately, no excuses allowed. There was always a sense of pressure that surrounded the team practicing. And she had already lost count of the times his sharp voice cut across the music with a Stop! Stop! That froze the room. Overall, the tight atmosphere and unforgiving rules indeed fit Jack’s description of an ‘athletic club’ to a tee.

“Pretty much. Like you said, most of the people on your VDC Tribe are in athletic clubs already, so they’re probably already familiar with the way things are run,” he shrugged, moving her on his back while he puffed for breath. “…Though, well, I won’t deny that Vil-senpai’s got an especially perfectionist streak.”

During their conversation, they’d reached Main Street; last night’s flurry of snow dusted the Great Seven’s stone statues that looked down upon the two of them. At this hour of the morning, the wide stone road was empty of other pedestrians, and Yuu could only barely make out a few Ghosts travelling in the distance.

“…That makes a lot of sense. I never thought about it before, but athletic clubs are interesting,” Yuu said brightly, happy with her new discovery, while Jack regulated his laboured breathing. “Jack! Thanks for taking the pains to explain it to me. This is an area I’m so unfamiliar with, I could have never figured it out by myself.”

“…Fu,” Jack’s next exhale was strengthened with a brief laugh.

“?” Yuu peered down over the top of his voluminous hair suspiciously. “Did you just laugh at me?”

“No. …I just thought that it’s always worth explaining stuff to you since you’ll always make your best effort to understand,” he said after a minute. “Even if it’s about a topic that’s far away from you.”

“Hey, even if I’m as far away from athletic clubs as we are from the moon, right now I’m trying my best to be a good Manager,” Yuu tweaked an ear. “And us Ravenclaws have basically got only one thing going for us, and that’s our desire for knowledge, okay?”

“Even the name of that dorm you were in sounds like Savanaclaw,” Jack commented.

“House. Yeah, it kind of does, right? To be honest, I felt a sort of kinship with Savanaclaw’s name when I learned it back in September. Though the dorm itself couldn’t be more different than Ravenclaw. Our colours are blue and bronze, for example,” Yuu chattered as they approached the end of Main Street.

“I dunno. You fit in pretty well already.”

“Where!?”

“—Why, if it isn’t Howl I see this early in the morning!”

“!” Yuu and Jack looked up simultaneously. Descending the last ridge of the considerable staircase leading from the school castle, Ashton Vargas showed glittering white teeth in a smile as he approached with large strides.

Thanks to her aversion of all things athletic, Yuu usually did her best to stay out of the way of this particular teacher as much as she possibly could. As she’d mentioned to Ace and Deuce, this was in spite of Vargas being a relatively pleasant (?) and harmless instructor—he had even taken the pains to develop a personalised training plan for Yuu early in the semester, and had been the first to provide her with a sturdy pair of shoes that she still wore to this day.

Still, compared to Trein and Crewel, she saw him much less often, because Yuu usually had plenty of questions about history, alchemy, and all other academic subjects—but zero about exercising.

But perhaps it was best to revise that reluctance of hers, for if anyone knew about muscles, it was Vargas, who was now striking a pose in the middle of the street to show off two biceps bulging at his signature red tracksuit.

“Good morning, Professor Vargas,” Jack greeted readily. He was probably among the minority of students who got along relatively well with the athletics teacher. At least he was better than Ace, who complained about Vargas regularly.

“I see you’re training already, Howl! Impressive,” Vargas boomed loudly at them, seemingly unaffected by the chill despite his light dress. “And you’ve even got yourself a weight.”

“Good morning Professor Vargas,” Yuu ducked her head and nearly headbutted Jack with the motion.

“Directing Student! I see you have taken your first step towards the never-ending journey of overcoming your own weakness,” Vargas turned the glittering smile on her. A diamond of light shone at the corner of his mouth; Yuu shielded her eyes. “You don’t have to say a single word more! I understand completely. It’s only a matter of course that you, like the rest of the students here, admire me enough to emulate this!”

“Eh?” Yuu admitted while Vargas flexed one arm in her direction, taken aback. “Uh, that’s not… Well, it’s true that I’ve been trying to improve my stamina recently, I suppose.”

“I must warn you!” Vargas put both hands on his hips. “It’s not an easy feat to develop muscles as perfect as mine. Especially not for someone as small and mousy as you, Directing Student!”

“Mo-mousy?” Yuu stammered.

“I will commend you for having the right role model in mind. Ha ha ha! Don’t worry! Even I wasn’t born with these perfect specimens of beauty! If you don’t give up, perhaps one day you’ll obtain one tenth of what I have,” he declared proudly. “Aren’t you honoured?”

“Wow,” Yuu muttered dully. “That’s an honour too great for me to handle, I think.”

“Don’t be so modest! Be more like Howl,” Vargas declared.

“Modest…?” Yuu muttered.

“…Professor Vargas, what brings you out here in the cold this early on a Sunday?” Jack asked, saving her.

“Hm? I’m off to do maintenance on the gymnasium building, of course!” Vargas gestured into the distance over their shoulders. “Winning or losing in sports is determined by the condition of the lawn grass… In this case, the condition of the wax on the gym floors. Since there’s been an uptick in gymnasium use this past month, I’ve been checking up on it more often. You know that the condition of the floors is tightly linked to the condition of your muscles!”

Yuu listened with some interest and realised that outside of classes, where Vargas’ whistle overwhelmed his short shouts of command, that this teacher was perhaps almost as verbose as Crowley. He talked a lot.

“Thanks for doing that,” Jack ducked his head.

“Thank you,” Yuu hurried to follow his example. “We sometimes use the gymnasium to practice for the VDC when the Ballroom is full.”

“If only it didn’t snow so much recently!” Vargas shook his head. “I would have ploughed the snow over the athletic fields, but there isn’t enough time every day after each snowfall. You’ll just have to put up with the gym for now.”

Apart from interpreting everything through the lens of muscles and admiration for muscles, he seemed surprisingly diligent concerning his teacherly duties. Yuu thought that she might have wasted some Vargas observation opportunities last semester because she was too busy fleeing from physical education classes and trying not to collapse.

“Hm?” Vargas noticed her considering him and lifted both brown brows smugly. “That look… Directing Student, it seems that you’ve been captivated by me as well! Don’t worry. It’s only natural to be fascinated with the most handsome man on campus.”

“Eh!?” Yuu emitted in surprise.

“Even though your gift of admiration can’t improve perfection, this is the fate of someone as impossibly perfect as me,” Vargas continued blithely, running a hand over his waxed brown hair. “Though it’s not often that I receive gifts from students, it must be because they’re all too shy. Don’t worry! Your passionate thoughts, at the very least, have reached me!”

“Wait, you got Vargas a present too?” Jack mumbled up to her in surprise.

“Yeah. It was Christmas, after all. …I actually forgot to give the teachers presents so they were late, but recently, I sent them something,” Yuu whispered back. “I had a hard time figuring out what to get, though, so I just picked out key charms that I thought would fit their image.”

“…You know you’re only going to make him think you’re his fan,” Jack sighed.

“Even back in my hometown, I was the most popular man around,” Vargas seemed to be proving him right as he bragged.

“…He really thinks I’m his fan?” Yuu was taken aback.

“He interprets everything as admiration,” Jack said dully.

Now that Yuu had decided it wasn’t wise to avoid him no matter how much she wasn’t a fan of physical education, she also realised that this teacher was a highly optimistic narcissist who was convinced the entire school was obsessed with him.

“…And Directing Student! Now that you’ve seen the light, there’s no need to continue reading those books that don’t even have any pictures,” Vargas was still going. “It’s about time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more important things, like…”

“…Muscles?” Yuu guessed.

“Ha ha ha! That’s the right idea!” Vargas didn’t seem to catch the slight flatness to her voice at all.

“Then, Professor Vargas, what would you say is the secret behind getting more muscly? Musclier?” Yuu asked curiously. “Especially if you’re someone who’s, uh, muscularly challenged. Like me.”

“Good question! You’re far from the only one to seek the secrets of muscular perfection!” Vargas beamed again. “I suppose as thanks for your gift, I’ll let you in on my secret. Which is…”

“Which is?” Jack and Yuu asked in unison, interested despite themselves.

“You ready? Here’s the trick,” Vargas paused dramatically. “Fresh eggs!”

“…Eggs?” Yuu repeated, suddenly remembering Crewel mentioning something similar.

“Raw eggs!” He elaborated. “First thing in the morning. Since I was young and living in a place with winters far, far colder than this one, I’ve been drinking raw eggs every day. Four dozen is about right! Then you’ll be able to properly train your muscles.”

“Four dozen raw eggs?” Yuu repeated again, faintly.

“Of course! You can even get eggs from campus, you know,” Vargas went on enthusiastically. “Thanks to the plentiful ingredients home-grown on school grounds, you can even start today. How about it, Directing Student? Surely you’d love to join me on my never-ending journey, hmm?”

“…I think I need to make mental preparations first,” Yuu hedged after a moment. Didn’t raw eggs have a chance to contain salmonella? And what did he mean, eggs home-grown on school grounds?

“This is what happens when you let him get carried away,” Jack muttered. “Normally, he’s a competent teacher except when you encourage his obsession with himself.”

“Hm? Did you say something, Howl? How about you join us in partaking of our morning eggs?” Vargas grinned at him.

“Hey, I didn’t say I would join you, Professor,” Yuu put up a hand. Why had he assumed she was in agreement with him already?

“Maybe another time, sir,” Jack said tactfully. “For now, we should finish our run.”

“Well then, don’t let me stop you,” Vargas nodded approvingly. “Aim for the top, Howl! You might not ever be as impressive as me, but don’t let that stop you. Well then, I shall bid you adieu!”

“Au revoir,” Yuu wiggled her fingers as she watched Vargas swagger past them down Main Street and towards the gymnasium building.

“What?” Jack himself broke into a gentle jog as well.

“Nothing. The name is Spanish, but I feel like he’s French,” Yuu squinted. “…I guess I’ll tell Epel that the secret to muscles is raw eggs then.”

“It’s protein,” Jack corrected. “Which eggs have. …When I see Epel in class, I can tell him about the protein powders I use for optimum muscle gain after a workout.”

“Jack, I knew I could count on you! Thanks,” Yuu patted his ear cheerfully. “I keep wanting to pay you back for all your help, but you keep piling up the debt. How am I ever gonna repay everything I owe you?”

“Don’t insult me, I’m not like that Azul…-senpai. You don’t owe me anything, and you already got me that Winter Holiday present,” Jack sighed out a plume of white as they made a circle around the lip of Main Street and proceeded in the direction of the Coliseum. As expected of his athletic prowess, the short break and conversation had been enough for him to recover his steady breathing.

“There has to be some way I can show you how much I appreciate you,” Yuu was dissatisfied. “Other than shouting out: Jack! You’re amazing and smart and strong and powerful and handsome and…”

“That’s enough, you embarrassing weirdo!” Jack’s tail whacked her leg as he sped up. “You’ve got to do something about that habit of indiscriminately praising people to their face. Either they get a swelled head like Ace or they’ll think you’re making fun of ‘em. Or they might get the wrong idea.”

“Yeah, I still have to work on the delivery thing,” Yuu admitted. “Though… Making fun? Even if I call you smart and cool and strong?”

“Not everyone’s in the state of mind to take your words at face value,” Jack warned. “Especially people with warped personalities like Azul…-senpai and Jamil-senpai. I still don’t know how you get along with those two, no one knows what they’re thinking.”

“I don’t think I really get along with them,” Yuu admitted. “Both of them definitely hate me at least most of the time, though that has to do with me messing up their plans, too.”

“They got what they deserved,” Jack snorted. “My point is, people like that will find a way to interpret everything you say or do in the worst way possible no matter what you say. I wouldn’t think too much about it.”

“Interpret things in the worst way possible?” Yuu repeated thoughtfully. “What does that mean?”

—

“You better not be leading me on with this whole thing,” stammered the Ignihyde student from Class A that afternoon, looking warier than Grim facing off against Lucius in Magical History class.

“Leading who on?” Yuu squinted up at the patterns of light illuminating his pale face within the Hall of Mirrors.

“I know what you Party-P sunny characters are like,” he spat out nervously. “In the first place, Heartslabyul guys interacting with Ignihyde nerds like me never happens outside of a setup. I’m warning you, if there are hidden cameras around tryin’ to catch me being embarrassed by you invading Ignihyde and trashing the place like the trouble-making Party-P you are, we can all render that data unusable even if we’re not a genius like Dorm Head, and…”

“Oh. I see. So this is what Jack meant by ‘interpreting things in the worst way possible’,” Yuu put her fist in her hand in realisation while he rambled.

“…And no one will ever see you again…”

Yuu stood on tiptoe to wave a hand in front of the lanky student’s face. “Um, Mister Ignihyde Student, do you really try to read intentions of other students this deeply? I already told you I wanted to check out a Magical Wheel, that’s all.”

“Th-that could just be your cover for trying to make a fool out of me,” he was unconvinced.

“Why do I have to waste so much effort into making a fool out of someone else?” Yuu asked a little exasperatedly.

“How the hell should I know? I’m not an insane Heartslabyul student.”

“I’m not a Heartslabyul student either,” Yuu sighed. “…So, I guess the reason you won’t tell me your name is because you’re still suspicious of me. But, then you could’ve just denied this whole meeting in the first place.”

“After I lost the bet about getting full marks on Crewel’s Lunatic Mode worksheet? I’d only make myself seem even more pathetic,” snorted the student. “D-don’t look down on me. Even a gloomy character has his pride. Going back on my promise would be too embarrassing, e-even if this is a bad idea.”

This student, at the very least, seemed dead set on assuming the worst out of everything she said or did. “I don’t mean to be insulting,” Yuu tried to explain.

“Everyone who says that follows it up with something insulting,” he cut her off smartly.

“Okay then, take it how you want.” Yuu threw her hands up. “I just don’t really understand what it is with you and Mister Samurai and classifying people in to ‘sunny characters’ or ‘gloomy characters’ or ‘Party-Ps’. Don’t you think that it’s kind of limiting to sort everyone you see into those boxes before you even know them?”

“I dunno who this Samurai guy is, but people who haven’t gone through what we have all say the same empty words, pretending they have the moral high ground,” the Ignihyde student glared back down at her. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I really don’t understand,” Yuu admitted. “But if it makes you feel better… I promise that I won’t do anything to ‘trash’ Ignihyde, nor will I make fun of you, nor will I cause any damage. You know I don’t even have any of your magic in the first place, so I doubt I would be any threat. And if you’re an Ignihyde student, aren’t you all smart enough to outmanoeuvre me?”

“…That’s true. ORTHO did say that you were relatively harmless, and he’s right de facto,” the student finally seemed to calm down a little, though his shoulders were still bunched. He cleared his throat at her exasperated expression. “…L-look, don’t get mad about me being cautious, ‘kay? Almost no one ever visits from out-of-dorm.”

“Ignihyde does seem to be the most secretive dormitory on campus,” Yuu nodded. “I still know next to nothing about it.”

“And it should stay that way,” muttered the student.

“—Don’t mind him, Yuu-san!” Ortho’s cheery voice piped up from between them. “He’s talking a lot uselessly, but basically what it boils down to is a protective mechanism. It’s common for Ignihyde students, who think they don’t ‘fit’ into the rest of campus society, to create categories to delineate others from themselves. That way, they can group together and protect themselves from the perceived threat!”

“Wah! Ortho-kun!” Yuu jumped as he appeared fully from the rippling travel mirror.

“Since humans are so fond of categorizing, and Ignihyde students gain a sense of relief from understanding the world around them, they tend to be even more aggressive with compartmentalizing the world around them than the average introvert. It also gives them a sense of feeling ‘unique’ or special, and at the same times provides a way to look down on others while employing the shield of humorous self-deprecation,” Ortho explained as confidently as usual. Today he was dressed in his usual shiny white suit (?) that floated inches from the ground.

“O-ORTHO? What are you doing here?” stammered the student.

“I saw you leave the dorm thirty minutes ago to pick up Yuu-san but you still haven’t come back! So I took it on myself to check up on the two of you,” Ortho said proudly. “I thought you might be making a fool out of yourself, and I was right!”

“Hey!” He yelped.

“People from Ignihyde really are unique,” Yuu, who had finally digested Ortho’s explanation, commented interestedly. She had never even thought about categorizing the world being a source of comfort, but humans did indeed like seeing patterns in everything.

And self-deprecation as a weapon… Perhaps she could understand that. If someone insulted themselves, they made it much harder for a stranger to add any more insult.

“What. Got a problem?” the student snapped rather defensively as she stared curiously at him.

“No. Actually, this is very fascinating,” she shook her head. “It’s kind of amazing how so many different types? Cultures? Are on one campus, and while I’m also a mob? Gloomy? Nerd character, I guess I’m a completely different kind compared to this dorm.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t tell,” the student made a face. “You might be a gloomy character, but you’re like, an optimistic gloomy character. Which should cancel itself out. How do you even exist? Are you sure you’re not a hidden Party-P?”

“…Did you bring me here this afternoon just to insult me?” Yuu sighed at him. “We’ve been standing in front of Ignihyde’s travel mirror for ages without moving. Look, if you’re not comfortable with this thing after all—”

“Ignore him,” Ortho said cheerfully. “He’s just being a chicken.”

“ORTHO!?” yelped the student.

“One thing you should know, Yuu-san, is that we Ignihyde students all have little to no interaction with the rest of the school dormitories or students. Of course, by our own volition,” Ortho talked blithely over him. “And as a result, most of us have no experience with ‘inviting friends over’ for any reason. But that’s not to say that most Ignihyde students don’t have a secret yearning for an Event Story like this suddenly dropping into our laps.”

“Stop! Stop it!” the student raised his voice. “That’s enough, ORTHO!”

“So basically, what he's not saying is, this guy has been fidgeting all weekend about inviting you over to play, and he probably even had trouble sleeping last night,” Ortho snickered, sparkling yellow eyes narrowing over his mouthpiece. “But as with all Ignihyde students, what he thinks doesn’t necessarily translate well to what comes out of his mouth.”

“…me… Just… Kill… me…” the student crouched where he stood, mumbling into his hands.

“He’s basically just an excited elementary school student the day of a field trip!” Ortho concluded with merciless cheer.

“Ortho-kun, I think is where I shout, ‘Stop it! His life points are already at zero!’,” Yuu took pity on the crumpled-over student and quoted her Get off the Internet manual.

“You’ve been studying!” Ortho beamed at her, ignoring the first year with aplomb. “At this rate we’ll bring you out of the Founding Year of Magic soon enough.”

“…Do you maybe like teasing your fellow dorm-mates or something?” Yuu’s mouth twitched as she observed the hunched-over student who was hiding his face but could not hide his scarlet ears. “I know you’re incredibly eloquent, but go easy on the poor guy. He can’t stand up to your deadly yet accurate verbal attacks.”

“That’s what he gets for making me wait thirty entire minutes,” Ortho was unrepentant.

“Why were you waiting?” Yuu blinked.

“Why else? Someone needs to guide you around Ignihyde before you two lock yourselves in the MagiWhe Garage,” Ortho puffed out his metal chest piece. “And on this campus—no, in the entire world, there’s no one more suitable for your guide than me, ORTHO!”

“Thank you, but… Are you sure?” Yuu gestured to the halfway collapsed student. “I wouldn’t want to overstimulate the other students by walking around your dorm if everyone’s shy and reclusive. He’s already like this… All I wanted was to check out what a Magical Wheel looked like, so I can sneak in, sneak out, and avoid provoking anyone else.”

“That would be way too boring. You don’t need to pay attention to him, if that’s what you’re worried about!” Ortho didn’t seem bothered.

“Hey, be nice, he’s my classmate,” Yuu said mildly. But infected by his enthusiasm belied by the slight midair bounce moving him up and down, she broke into a grin. “…Um, if it helps, I’m excited too. It’s my first time ever seeing Ignihyde and, well, I’m very grateful for your invitation. Both of you.”

“Sh… Shut up,” the Ignihyde student staggered to his feet, looking somehow both pale and red at the same time. “Don’t try to comfort me… It only makes the wound sting worse.”

“He’s also got a case of middle-two syndrome,” Ortho began.

“Ortho-kun! Shh!” Yuu put a finger to her mouth, but it was too late.

“S… So what! Like everyone else here I’m an introvert with no inter-dorm friends! Would you not be nervous about inviting an out-of-dorm student over!?” the student burst out, scowling in Ortho’s direction.

“I don’t feel nerves,” he responded without missing a beat.

“Yeah! I know!!”

“Why are you so angry? Are you lacking calcium?” Ortho instigated with a mean grin in his eyes.

“Ortho-kun is really impressive, though!” Yuu said loudly to prevent another verbal fight from breaking out. “To be honest, I also get nervous easily, but you always seem so confident about everything. Even during VDC tryouts.”

“…Heh heh,” Ortho seemed pleased by her praise and stopped grinning meanly at the student. “As long as you’ve got calculation and probability on your side, there’s no need to be nervous about anything!”

“Probability?” Yuu repeated. “But, aren’t statistics easily manipulated?”

“That’s true too.” Ortho nodded. “But even if the odds are against you, getting nervous can only damage performance, so not feeling it is the most rational outcome.”

“…Only ORTHO can say something like that and actually mean it,” the Ignihyde student muttered to her in undertone. “Who the hell just decides not to feel nerves or fear when they want?”

“Not feeling fear on demand would be nice,” Yuu whispered back wistfully. Then she would be able to get rid of her aversion to heights.

It seemed that when Ignihyde students gathered together, their chattering volume increased exponentially (they also talked incredibly quickly). Yuu tried her best to keep up with the machine-gun pace of her two conversation partners for another minute before Ortho finally remembered their appointment and hustled them through the travel mirror before she had a chance to feel nervous about it.

“May I be the first one to welcome you, Yuu-san, to Ignihyde!” Ortho said proudly as the light of the mirror faded from her squinted vision.

Yuu rubbed her eyes, looked up, and lost the words of thanks on her tongue.

“…Earth to Yuu-san? O~i?” Ortho waved a metallic hand before her face.

“……I didn’t just suddenly travel to another world, did I?” Yuu asked in a hushed voice.

“This scene does kinda look like a castle dungeon from a Souls-like game,” the unaffected Ignihyde student mentioned thoughtfully, following her gaze. “But don’t worry, those giant skeletons surrounding us aren’t gonna come down and try to kill you with scythes or anything.”

“No wonder Mister Samurai said that ‘blue’ was also the identifying colour of the dorm.” Not registering what he was saying, she swept her gaze apprehensively over the dark towering mass rising above them. “Everything’s black and blue.”

“And dark and spooky,” Ortho added with a satisfied nod at her open-mouthed wonder. “Really cool, right?”

“Cool as hell,” added the Ignihyde student proudly. “In any case, we have better taste than the rest of the dorms, which is one reason I’m glad I’m part of ‘Hyde.”

Yuu was too busy staring to respond. While she had some misgivings about labelling the vast dark surroundings of Ignihyde as ‘good taste’ or ‘cool as hell’, she could readily admit that the atmosphere of this particular dormitory was a complete departure from the five others she had observed throughout the past several months.

The Ignihyde student had put it quite aptly when he called the dorm a ‘dungeon’, for Ignihyde was incredibly dark and vast, with the majority of the surroundings fading into a blackness she could not see through even with surrounding flames of blue flickering around them. At the entranceway, the three of them were barely illuminated by the travel mirror, surrounding stone pillars topped by torches, and a billowing bluish smoke that wafted around them persistently. Several steps ahead loomed a winding stone staircase that faded into darkness.

“Wait,” Yuu’s racing mind finally caught up with the ongoing conversation. “Did you just say skeletons? What do you mean, skeletons?”

“Your eyesight should have adjusted well enough by now,” Ortho judged before pointing up and to her right with one metallic finger. “Look!”

Yuu followed his gaze and immediately wished she hadn’t. “Eek!” she let out reflexively, leapt sideways, and clutched Ortho’s cold arm with nothing but instinct.

“Pffft!” the Ignihyde student burst out from behind her. “That was the girliest scream I’ve heard in a while. Nice one, ORTHO.”

“I couldn’t resist giving Yuu-san an Ignihyde jumpscare,” Ortho snickered back. “The reaction was even better than I expected!”

“Ske—ske—skeletons!?” Yuu stammered out, ignoring them to point with a shaking hand. “Above us! Why are they so giant!? They’re bigger than the Sea Dragon skeleton from the Atlantica Museum! Are these real skeletons?”

“Probably not, unless they’re all leftovers of the legendary Titans,” Ortho seemed unaffected. “And neither are those curved spiky bones that are sticking up from all around them everywhere. By the way, every single skeleton you see is probably at least a hundred times the size of an average human skeleton when measured to scale!”

“Why, by Merlin’s freaking beard, are there six giant skeletons staring down at us with giant balls of fire burning in their eye sockets,” Yuu managed, finally calming down somewhat.

“What the hell is a Merlin?” muttered the student.

“For atmosphere,” Ortho said cheerfully. “Also, you see that they’re giant structures with enough support to hold up the dorm, right? Ignihyde is actually located all above this ‘dungeon entrance’, though it’s mostly supported by that central pillar that the staircase curves around. You could call that pillar the cerebral stem of the dorm, or the mainframe, if you will.”

Yuu half-listened to his ever-abundant stream of information while apprehensively peering around them, still feeling her pulse beat faster than normal. Ignihyde’s incredible atmosphere was made only the more intimidating by those stone (?) structures of six enormous skeletons.

Upon closer inspection, they were indeed lifting their bone arms up above their heads to balance what looked like a giant fragmented coliseum towering above them and fading into darkness. The cerebral stem, or what looked like an enormous tree trunk made of stone, supported the coliseum above from the centre, though its detailed structure was indecipherable thanks to the absence of light. The entire structure resembled an enormous stone tree, a blue and black Yggdrasil looming out of her perception.

“Why does it have to be so dark?” Yuu asked, still clutching onto Ortho’s cold metallic arm piece and huddling close. “I can barely see… Hie! I-is that a three-headed dog guarding the staircase right in front of us!?”

“That’s our dorm crest! You can see the neon-lit banner hung up way above,” Ortho pointed up at a distant glowing blue banner spelling IGNIHYDE hanging from the exterior of the coliseum. “Cool, right? Don’t worry, it’s just an obsidian statue and won’t suddenly start attacking you.”

“…So this is what they mean by unique aesthetic senses,” Yuu sucked in a breath and finally let him go, though she stuck one step behind his slighter frame. “Uh, sorry Ortho-kun. I just was taken off guard. You know, with the huge black statue of the three-headed dog in front of us and those even huger skeletons staring down at us with fireball eyes and stuff. Has anyone told you your dorm looks like it came out of a horror movie?”

“Game. And no one says anything, because no one ever visits,” the Ignihyde student muttered. “Honestly I thought it was gonna stay that way, but nooo, the Directing Student had to hide his intellect and make me lose my bet and show up out of nowhere…”

“So it seems that Ignihyde’s appearance might cause shock for those unused to it?” Ortho noted curiously. “I must say, Yuu-san's expression of abject fear was kind of fun to see.”

“Now that I can agree with,” the Ignihyde student added, brightening. “Maybe we should invite suckers—I mean, people more often to see them scream. If they don’t come inside, anyway.”

“Why does everyone at this school revel in the misery of others,” Yuu rolled her eyes before edging forwards to explore the obsidian three-headed dog (wolf?) statue perched on a slab of grey rock. While black all over, three pairs of blue chips for eyes glowed with the same eerie light that lit up the skeletons’ eyes. “…It’s just a statue, right? Not like the legendary Fluffy?”

“Did you just call that thing ‘Fluffy’?” the Ignihyde student gave her an incredulous look. “What is wrong with your naming sense?”

“Uh, never mind,” Yuu coughed. The many stories from her school's colourful history were close to myths to her and her cohort, and Fluffy was especially infamous as one of Hogwarts’ mysteries.

“—More importantly! Yuu-san! You must give me your first impressions of Ignihyde’s outside appearance. You’re impressed, right?” Ortho floated up to eye-level and stared at her with expectant eyes.

“Now that the initial shock factor has worn off,” Yuu began.

“One day I should take you to visit a haunted house so I can observe your reactions,” Ortho put in thoughtfully.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Ignoring the giant ominous skeletons and smoke and darkness, this dorm isn’t like any other dorm I’ve seen by an order of magnitude,” Yuu answered honestly. “In the first place, the others were all ‘castles’ on level ground, but it looks like Ignihyde is a giant amalgamation of sections of a coliseum rising way up above into the sky like a giant Norse mythology tree? Though I can’t see the sky since it’s so dark.”

“What the hell is a Norse?” muttered the Ignihyde student.

“Actually, we’re underground,” corrected Ortho. “That’s why this hollowed space needs those skeletons for support. The smoke and skeletons and statues and blue torches are for atmosphere, but that central pillar supporting most of the dorm is actually partly hollowed out. If you squint, you can see a slanted row of torches in that hollow in the pillar, right? That’s our Garage!”

“And our final destination for today, where some of the Magical Wheels are stored,” added the student.

“But it would be way too much of a waste not to give a rare visitor a brief tour while you’re here, so I volunteered myself!” Ortho added. “Today I’m the Village Elder giving you a tutorial, Yuu-san. Now young whippersnapper, accept this quest!”

“Uh, okay,” Yuu smiled back confusedly.

“……Well, I was against it at first, but the Directing Student gives better reactions than expected, so I guess I can come along too,” the first year added reluctantly.

“I really am entertainment to most of this school, aren’t I?” Yuu sighed. Even Lilia had remarked numerous times on her ‘entertaining’ reactions.

He was unmoved. “Then be less entertaining.”

“So, is there a reason all of the fire is blue around here? Is it hotter than normal?” Yuu ignored him to ask Ortho.

“Nothing to do with temperature, the colouring is a stylistic choice. I think it’s to match the dorm colours?” he shrugged, gesturing at the distantly looming IGNIHYDE crest far above them, flickering with neon blue light.

“The guy who designed this place must have had great taste. He really gets it,” the Ignihyde student commented rather proudly.

“Are you kidding? This place looks like what I imagine Azkaban would look like from the outside,” Yuu muttered under her breath, still rather intimidated.

“Okay, that’s enough dawdling at the entrance. I still haven’t showed you around the first floor yet!” Ortho tugged her along towards the staircase guarded by two torch pillars. “I promise it’s not this dark inside, at the very least.”

“Not physically. With our personalities, though, the darkness seeps out from our very souls,” the student said threateningly.

“Middle-two syndrome,” whispered Ortho.

“Hey!”

While blue was one of Ravenclaw’s signature colours, the neon glow that illuminated Ignihyde seemed an altogether separate and colder tone, and did little to stave off the smoky darkness that surrounded the three of them as they made their way up the winding staircase. Apparently, there was also an elevator rising up the entire length of the centre, but Ortho insisted on taking Yuu up the scenic route for her first visit.

“No wonder you guys call yourselves ‘gloomy characters’,” Yuu declared once they had reached the entranceway several thousand steps later, panting slightly. “I’m about to become a gloomy character for real just existing in this place. Everything's so… Dark.”

“Should’ve… Taken… The elevator,” wheezed the first year, hands on his knees. “Why are there so many steps anyway!”

“This is what you get for never using them and always defaulting to the elevator,” Ortho sang.

“Not all of us can float, okay!”

“I used to be like you too, Mister Ignihyde Student,” Yuu sympathised with him, catching her breath a little faster. “…I guess running regularly for over a month was actually useful? This is the first time I’ve seen evidence of it helping me.”

“You traitor!” he pointed at her.

Unfortunately for the student, he seemed too exhausted to follow them further, and after entering the doors to the first floor of the building, bade them farewell for the garage. Ortho wasn’t bothered by his departure and eagerly showed her the entranceway and elevators, and Yuu was too busy staring greedily to do more than wave.

The interior of Ignihyde was indeed lit up brightly with white and blue electric light, a far cry from the dark exterior. While still a marked departure from the natural lighting around the other dorms, the futuristic atmosphere nevertheless incorporated a touch of the ancient. The building was made not of concrete but of white stone. Carvings of what looked like mythological figures decorated the triangular stone above the elevators facing them, and white ionic pillars signature of Greek architecture stretched from floor to ceiling in regular intervals down the hallway to their right. Curiously, the two opposing themes fit together surprisingly well.

“Are triangles a theme in Ignihyde?” Yuu asked curiously, observing the patterned isosceles shapes spaced across the floors and walls in various shades of blue and grey. If she remembered, Samurai’s tablet had also featured a similar triangle-patterned background.

“Yuu, good eye, you’re right!” Ortho blinked before pausing. “Response: Isosceles triangles are a widely used architectural structure on the Island of Woe and have been since the time of the ancients. Not only are they a mathematical and geometric symbol used in academia, they also hold a special symbolism dating back to myths… Hmm. Not a lot of info. But anything further than this probably requires more research!”

“I feel like I read something about the ‘sacred triangle’ back before I came here,” Yuu muttered to herself. “…Oh, and what is that mysterious-looking carving above the elevator?”

“That’s the Lord of the Underworld, surrounded by flames!” Ortho brightened. “Isn’t he cool?”

“Sure?” Yuu blinked back with a confused smile. Was that the spiky guy whose statue stood on Main Street?

“Oh, right. The first years haven’t gotten to that unit in History yet,” he seemed to realise. “For now, let’s go down to the lounge before I start showing you all sorts of articles about how amazing the Lord of the Underworld is. This way!”

Unfortunately, Ortho could not pull her very far before Yuu’s footsteps came to a halt again, this time tempered by awe. The hallway leading towards Ignihyde’s lounge was, incredibly, filled with holographic blue monitor screens that stretched between each of the ionic pillars, each displaying a wealth of information that attracted her eye like nothing else.

Yuu observed the first one showing a circular graph, bar graph, and line graph monitoring electricity usage before being distracted by the second screen that was buzzing with an aerial map of their current floor. Ignihyde seemed to be perfectly circular on the inside, ringing the central pillar mentioned earlier with rooms separated by circular hallways, much like layers of an onion. Yuu saw the dancing line graph beside them monitoring the temperature average of the floor in real time and would have stood and stared forever if Ortho didn’t forcefully drag her forwards. She didn’t even have any attention left to comment on how surprisingly strong he was for someone so small.

“All the ‘smart’ lights are motion-triggered and monitored, as well as the temperature and other stuff. Smart monitoring, though I wouldn’t expect you to understand that yet,” Ortho chattered, happy to have a receptive audience as Yuu gaped at a radar chart emblazoned on the next holographic screen. “And you can see most of the data that’s automatically collected on these dashboard charts! We’ve got historical temperature, humidity, air quality, noise level, air composition, electricity use in kilowatt-hours, and all sorts of other metrics stored in the servers for the past hundred years. Well, the technology wasn’t great more than forty or fifty years ago, so the accuracy drops the further back you go.”

“This is all measured data…!” Yuu gasped.

“That radar chart you’re looking at is last semester’s average Ignihyde grades, anonymized,” Ortho told her. “Technically you’re not supposed to know other peoples’ grades, but I mean, it’s Ignihyde, so no info is safe for long. Ignore the super low physical education and Flight scores.”

“Ortho-kun! Ortho-kun, a screen is following your head!” Yuu pointed eagerly as a smaller rectangle of blue flashed up by Ortho’s right shoulder.

“This is a MagiCam feed! It’s today’s NRC stock market,” Ortho told her cheerfully. “This is something most people don’t know, but the ‘stock market’ tool is actually a fun monitoring thing one of our second years made. Last semester it went kinda viral on MagiCam so here it is. Every week, he tells you which dorms to watch out for and which ones are on the uptick.”

“Uptick? For what?” Yuu asked, vaguely recalling a post she’d seen on MagiCam earlier in January. What did ‘viral’ mean, anyway?

“He’s got his own proprietary formula for the charts, but it’s probably a combination of grades, attention from the teachers, reputation, luck, Astrology predictions, stuff like that. Basically, a dorm’s ‘score’ for the week.” Ortho shrugged. “Looks like this week Pomefiore’s bearish and Ignihyde’s bullish, which is great for us!”

“So… Is this like a fortune of the day thing?” Yuu asked suspiciously. She'd seen a similar TV show broadcast in Japan during her visit, though its purpose seemed to be to market that day’s obscure lucky item to sell.

“Fortunes, not a bad example,” Ortho nodded. At her wrinkled brow, he laughed. “Yuu-san, looks like you’re someone who doesn’t believe in prophecies or fortunes, eh?”

“I like data and information,” Yuu waved her hand around at the various floating holographic screens all around them. “Nothing as nebulous and uncertain as a prediction like that.”

“But you know, fortunes can be based on science and magic too,” Ortho paused as automatic doors whirred open ahead of them. “—And we’re here. Welcome to Ignihyde’s student lounge!”

At his cheerful and bright introduction, several heads turned towards them briefly before whipping pointedly away.

Yuu stepped out onto a circular balcony, separated from a lower level by only a glass partition glowing blue with Ignihyde’s signature colour, and was immediately inundated with visual information so intense she could not recover for several moments.

In retaliation to their entrance, the two of them were greeted with some whispering and unfriendly glances, but Ortho ignored the frowns with ease and Yuu was too busy gaping at the futuristic white tables and chairs ringing the pillared balcony to notice. Once again, Ignihyde’s lounge was so different from the lounges she had seen thus far that the impression burned itself into her vision.

Sunday afternoon saw a scattering of students, all wearing a shiny black triangle-patterned jacket she guessed was Ignihyde’s dorm uniform, most hunched over blue hologram screens glowing at their tables or debating in low voices. Ortho led a silently staring Yuu down a wide, shallow set of blue-lit steps to reach the very centre of the circular room, where the giant pillar extended from underground to reach up above them.

This close, Yuu could finally see the structure of the ‘cerebral stem’ of Ignihyde in detail. This spire was far larger than she had imagined from a distance, and the couches that ringed it looked like toys in comparison.

More importantly…

“This isn’t even rock, like I thought from a distance!” Yuu whispered feverishly to Ortho, barely heedful of the quietly studying students around her. “It’s a giant mass of cables! Is this entire thing made of cords!?”

“How else do you think we get electricity everywhere? By the way, my brother helped to add all of the giant blue holographic screens you see floating around the ceiling and covering the pillar,” Ortho said proudly. “That’s a map of the building, that’s a searchable encyclopaedia, that’s the daily news, that’s our imageboard, that’s the public imageboard, that’s a list of the top grossing retail games this month in millions of Madols…”

“What does 91.63% mean?” Yuu pointed at the large numbers displayed at a nearby screen glowing down at them.

“You know what? I’m not too clear on that, even though I’ve performed a bunch of searches. No results show up, and no one around Ignihyde seems to know either,” Ortho said regretfully. “But you know what they say! Since NRC seems to have many mysteries like Cater Diamond-san mentioned, it’s not out of the question that even veterans at this dorm don’t know.”

Yuu craned her head up to see the giant crisscross of electrical cords and cables branching up to the ceiling and decorated liberally with blue holograms. She wondered how high they went, how many floors there were to this incredibly mysterious dormitory… It had been a long time since she was confronted with something this foreign.

“—You’ve got the wrong strategy, idiot, you’re gonna miss the high score for sure at this rate!”

Attention drawn to the nearest white booth, where two Ignihyde students had their heads bent over discussing something in heated tones, Yuu found herself observing the uniform they wore. In addition to the black triangle-patterned jacket, Ignihyde’s dorm uniform seemed to feature a neon blue half-vest buckled around its exterior, featuring Ignihyde's crest as a badge and a cargo pocket that seemed like it would fit many a wrench or tool.

“Strategy doesn’t matter as long as your Attack stat is high enough,” the student’s opponent was responding. “Look, all you have to do is attack twice with the element the opponent is weak to, and bam! You win. EZ.”

“Have you forgotten that the whole point is a score attack, not winning in the fewest moves possible? Listen, we already figured out that winning on the first half of turn four out of five gives you the highest score,” the first student seemed exasperated. “And with those characters, your HP is way too low to get you anything above an SS-rank.”

“What, you a competitive player data-mining the game or something?”

“At least I’ve got higher scores than you.”

“Yeah, right, you’re just a whale that pulls for every new character that shows up, that’s why.”

“The loud barking of a losing dog,” sniffed the first student, “sounds terrible to the ear.”

“Haaah? I'll have you know—!”

“—Got it!” Someone several booths over sprung up in brief excitement. “That damn Crewel… But! You can’t best a genius like me. Bet’cha no one else in our class got this problem right!”

“…Your conclusion is totally ignoring the results of this thesis paper,” someone from behind her snapped in annoyance. “Look at the P value! Can you seriously draw any conclusion at all apart from anecdotal evidence?”

“Then let’s just test it out next time. I’ve got a complete titration set somewhere around my room anyway,” his partner responded, unruffled. “But if I’m right you gotta buy me that new figure coming out next month.”

“Hah, like you’d ever be right with that IQ of yours.”

“It’s higher than yours.”

“…Ugh…” A person from the table on her remaining side collapsed flat, thumping his head on the stone surface. A sleek smartphone skittered across to the person across from him. “…I don’t wanna play this game anymore. Someone smash my phone for me.”

“You’ll just have the same game installed on your new phone in a week,” snorted his companion, staring at his own phone intently. “Now shut up, you’ll break my Perfect combo.”

“You shut up! And I’m serious this time! That Season Two ending was… Was…!” The student sounded suspiciously teary. “Uwaaaah! None of it meant anything in the end! I hate this damn game!”

“Hate yourself for spending money on it every week. Didn’t you just drop a bunch of Madols for the New Year’s event last month for that new broken character?”

“Shudduuuuup… Nothing matters anymore…”

“—san? Yuu-san!” Ortho was waving a hand in front of her face again. “You okay? You look like you’re about to fall over from dizziness.”

“Too… Too much stimulation,” Yuu managed after a second. “…I take back what I said about quiet and dark and gloomy. This place is nothing less than incredibly lively.”

“Really? I guess we Ignihyde students all have one common quality, and that’s getting super excited and gregarious about topics we care about. Whether that’s a science thesis, a competitive mobile game, a popular gacha game, or homework,” Ortho, who had better hearing than her, gestured to each table in turn.

The hivemind of intelligence swarming around the lounge was indeed full of ardent students that were content to completely ignore Yuu’s presence. She and Ortho were treated like air, and not one glance came their way.

It was quite nice to be fully ignored for once, so Yuu found herself smiling as she observed the bright room again.

“So? Tell me your impressions! Review! Tier list!” Ortho nudged her. He seemed to have a penchant for seeking out her response to stimuli, whether it was the exterior of the dorm or its interior. “From that expression, I can at least tell that you don’t dislike it here, am I right?”

“This place is so cool!” Yuu gushed, not needing any further prompting. She bounced on the balls of her feet. “I can’t believe you have screens? Monitors? That show the air composition and stuff in the hallways, that’s the greatest idea I’ve seen ever. Why doesn’t the rest of the school have these monitor screens either? And even though the exterior is basically Azkaban, the interior is full of cool architecture with the Greek pillars and isosceles triangles and carvings and stuff. I’ve seen a bunch of dormitory castles, but this place is just… Completely different…! Incredibly different! Everything’s new!”

“What’s Azkaban?” Ortho asked curiously.

“Uh… A prison dungeon?” Yuu curbed her enthusiasm sheepishly. “That’s not important. The point is, how do you even get those hologram monitor screen thingies to appear? I’ve never seen technology like that before, it’s amazing! O wise Ortho, please impart your knowledge on me!”

“Duh, it’s magic and engineering and science,” Ortho said proudly.

“The interaction of magic and science,” Yuu breathed with sparkling eyes. Such a thing would be unthinkable back in the Wizarding World—no matter if one was at Hogwarts or Uagadou or Beauxbatons.

“That’s right! One of Ignihyde’s central tenets is using technology just as much as magic,” Ortho nodded, yellow eyes narrowed to slits. “’Cause both are just as useful as the other! Heh heh heh.”

Yuu recognised the look for contentment and tilted her head at him. “You seem like you’re in a good mood.”

“That first year’s not the only guy who was looking forward to today,” Ortho imparted, floating closer and lowering his voice towards her ear. “This surpasses my predictive simulations by far! I feel like I figured out part of what makes you so funny to hang around, Yuu-san.”

“Huh? Me? What do I have to do with anything?” Yuu whispered back reflexively, cupping a hand around her mouth despite being unable to find Ortho’s ear.

“It’s your honest reaction to everything,” he said, still smiling with his eyes. “Not just screaming when you see skeletons—”

“Hey, anyone would react that way if they see a two-hundred-meter-tall skeleton staring down at them—”

“—But you’re not shy about showing how eager you are to chase new info, ask questions, stuff like that,” he steamrolled over her. “And you’re kinda like us nerds, who can’t rest easy until we dig in deep to any topic we’re interested in. Chief says that ‘research is the way we show our passion’!”

“Who is this Chief you keep mentioning?” Yuu asked curiously.

“Chief is Chief,” Ortho answered. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re so interested in Ignihyde, it’s especially rare to find someone like that on campus. As I expected, I made the right decision in scouting you out to be my brother’s friend! If it’s Yuu-san, maybe…”

“So are you going to introduce me to this brother and Dorm Head anytime soon?” Yuu asked as he trailed off. “By the way, I still can’t tell if he’s nice, or quiet, or actually super scary anymore. Too much info is floating around and it’s probably better for me to just talk to him in person. After all, I’ve learned that rumours are not to be trusted.”

“Sorry, I can't do that,” Ortho gave her an apologetic draw of the brow. “Not only have I been directed to reduce as much contact between the two of you as possible, since nii-san is shy, it’s also not a good idea to get too close to the experimental subject for a bunch of reasons.”

“Pardon me? Experimental subject?” Yuu repeated incredulously, pointing at herself.

“Oh! You’re not the experimental subject,” Ortho hastened to assure her.

“???” Yuu squinted at him.

“Pretend I never said anything. Let’s go to the garage!” Ortho started pulling her up the steps to the automatic doors.

“…You know, Ortho-kun, for someone even littler than me, your arm strength is incredible,” Yuu stumbled after him so she didn’t fall over. “Take it easy on me! You’re gonna pull my arm off.”

“Oops, I misjudged my output strength,” he slowed down a little midair. “And this is nothing! I can carry ten of you, no problem. Let me know if you want a ride!”

“What! Carry me!? With those small arms? I’m good, I’ll like break your wrist under that suit,” Yuu waved her free hand midair hastily.

Someone she was passing released a snort.

Yuu blinked and looked around, but everyone was still focused and chatting among themselves. However, she suddenly got the same feeling she had in Savanaclaw when the lounge of mostly Therianthrope students pointedly did not pay attention despite having their ears pricked in her and Leona’s direction…

“You don’t believe me? I could carry you and nii-san on one arm no problem,” Ortho insisted, distracting her.

“I don’t think two humans would fit on that arm,” Yuu muttered, trying to measure it with her eyes.

“If they’re as small as you, I can manage,” Ortho paused. “Maybe dangling the second person from my thumb?”

“Ortho-kun? I would like my feet firmly planted on the ground, please,” she said hastily. “…You’re not being serious, right? Ortho-kun?? Say something!”

—

True to kindred spirits, the two of them almost never ran out of things to talk about, and Ortho regaled her with all sorts of trivia about the measurement of data in Ignihyde and how the central tree of electrical cords powered the dorm as they entered the elevator and sank below ground level. Apparently, the ‘cerebral stem’ powered the entire building, including servers (?) that his brother had built, and had lines going to every student dorm room located on floors two and above.

However, all conversation ground to a halt when they exited to the garage. Cut open to the elements and barred by the same ionic pillars reminiscent of the school’s hallway, the dimly lit carved-out room overlooked the distant travel mirror and grinning skeletons—but Yuu’s gaze was robbed instead by the row of shiny circular structures that were surely today’s main event.

Delineated by clearly marked lines of blue chalked along the floor, a long row of giant spherical wheels lined the room, each slotted into a glowing machine Yuu wasn’t familiar with. She was vaguely reminded of the few electric vehicles she’d seen back in her world, but this looked entirely more advanced.

“You’re here,” the Ignihyde student poked his head out from behind one shiny blue-and-black Magical Wheel, screwdriver in dirty gloved hand and dark smudges on his cheeks. “I was just running a checkup on the motherboard. How was the tour?”

“Shoot! I should have recorded it,” Ortho realised with a start. “Yuu-san’s eyes were actually sparkling like in the commercials!”

“Come to think of it, your eye colour matches his hair, Directing Student,” the student commented, pointing the wrench at the flames burning atop Ortho’s head. “Don’t tell me you secretly admire Ignihyde enough to buy contacts in blue like that?”

“Nii-san didn’t give me this shade of blue because it’s Ignihyde’s dorm colour,” Ortho mentioned.

“Huh? Then why?” the student asked curiously. “His hair is blue too, right? I thought he dyed it.”

“Nope!” Ortho said shortly.

Yuu shrugged as she met the curious first-year's gaze. What did Ortho mean by ‘giving’ a shade of blue, in the first place? Was blue hair common in the Twisted Wonderland? As expected, Ignihyde really did have their own language, and they were even more mysterious than prima facie.

“By the way, these aren’t contacts,” she told him.

“Really? How is that shade of blue natural?” he seemed taken aback. “You’re not having me on again, are you?”

“Not again,” Yuu groaned.

“Not sorry. Being sceptical is a critical feature of any NRC student,” he responded unrepentantly.

“I feel like you’re a special case,” she muttered.

Apparently, Ortho was a busy humanoid who had his own tasks to complete that afternoon, and he waved goodbye to the two of them soon after concluding the ‘Grand Ignihyde Tour’. The two of them watched him disappear down a stone hewn slope that left the garage and wound down to the ground floor.

Yuu, who forcefully wrenched her vision from Ignihyde’s forbidding landscape and prepared to study the structure of the Magical Wheel seriously, pulled out a notebook and pen from Jack’s oversized coat she was still wearing. The movement earned herself a slightly disbelieving snort.

“What are you, in class?” the student muttered.

“This is important,” Yuu insisted. “I only know how to complete theoretical problems about Magical Wheels and I have no idea how one of these things actually works! You need a license to ride it, same as a motorcycle, right?”

“Yeah. Since the Sage’s Island is out in the middle of nowhere, there’s really only a single Training Institute on the entire island. By the way, their website is super old and the CSS design could probably come out of the last century,” the student said rather incomprehensibly. “Still, every spring they have driving classes you can enrol in and get your license for around four hundred thousand Madols. Here, this is what a sample one looks like.”

After scribbling the information down, Yuu watched him peel off his glove and pull out his phone to show her an online image of a plastic card. “It’s just like a driver’s license,” she commented in interest.

“It is a driver’s license. Well, these ones are only valid on the island, so don’t think you can suddenly go zooming around under the Island of Woe or wherever,” he explained. “Also, for minors they expire every two years. See this LIMITED TERM specification?”

“Sounds expensive. Four hundred thousand Madols every two years?” Yuu asked incredulously.

“Hey, hobbies are expensive, though I don’t think you have to pay the full amount for a renewal,” he shrugged. “And it’s sort of a deterrent for idiots. Since there’s no need to be a magician to ride one of these bad boys, and the only magical thing about them is their power source. The classes themselves are easy, all you have to do is pass four tests—start and stop, straight bridge, slalom and figure eight, and speed. Anyone attending NRC can pass it easily if you’ve got the cash. So they make you pay some money to make up for the low barrier to entry.”

“You seem to know a lot about the licensing process,” Yuu commented, impressed as she quickly jotted down notes about the Sage’s Island Training Institute located in the Foothill Town.

“It’s only natural since I’m aiming to take the test in the spring,” he said a little smugly. “I’ve already done my research and asked around for tips on passing in one shot. Then I can finally ride this baby I’ve been working on all of last semester…!”

“So this is your Magical Wheel?” Yuu walked around the spherical one-wheeled motorcycle and admired the blue highlights over black and silver metal. “It really is just a circle.”

“That’s ‘cause it’s folded closed.” The student pulled out a flat blue circle with the teeth of a key sticking out of one end. “This is the key, and watch, if you press the circular button in the middle—”

Yuu jumped as he depressed the central circle on the blue key and the Magical Wheel before them reacted with two beeps and a flare of light. Forgetting to take notes, she stared; the curved windshield and tail at either end of the motorbike slowly folded outwards to reveal a large curve of leather positioned above the giant single wheel.

“—It transforms! Like one of those transforming robot mechs, super cool. Watch this,” the student, happy to have a captive audience, straddled the leather seating. “You wanted to know how someone fits on here, right? The seat is way back near the tail, and you bend your entire body over the Wheel like this.”

“Oh, I get it now,” Yuu watched him settle into the seat close to the rear before curving himself over the wheel to grasp the twin steering handles on either side of the driver’s console. “Your entire body is very low, almost horizontal, when you sit like this curved over the wheel.”

“Right, it’s to prevent any wind damage and slowing thanks to the elements. This thing can go fast thanks to magic stones powering it,” the student explained while she jogged over. He inserted the key and turned just as she caught sight of the instrument panel; a brilliant blue hologram screen the size of Samurai’s tablet flickered into sight as the engine roared to life.

“So that’s the speedometer,” Yuu observed the large digital dial reading 000.0 kilometres per hour.

“This is all pretty basic. The fuel gauge, tachometer, and radar over here are included in any regular non-magical powered vehicle,” the student pointed to each of them in turn before patting a nearby gear selector with a grin. “Now, the special thing about Magical Wheels is that they’re powered by magic—and more importantly, they’re extremely modifiable! I can get this thing to change more gears and pop wheelies if I change the mechanisms inside the hood.”

“Powered by magic… I noticed all of these Magical Wheels are plugged in? Or something? To these glowing devices,” Yuu pointed as he turned the Wheel off and dismounted. “Is that the magic source powering them?”

“Bingo. Well, it’s mostly still electricity since it’s more efficient, and you’re not supposed to go riding these around campus anyway if you don’t wanna get in deep trouble,” explained the student. “Which us cowardly Ignihyde students avoid at all costs, ‘cause getting in trouble means getting into the centre of attention. Like I said before, Dorm Head was the one who built this whole power system on a whim just ‘cause he could. This one’s mine, but he even built some standard NRC bikes, like those ones all lined up in a row over there.”

“They’re purple,” Yuu noticed with some surprise at the neatly lined-up row of vehicles across the garage. The stone wall they faced was decorated with a rack, from which hung a neat line of purple-and-black keys that matched the one the Ignihyde Student was holding.

“Yeah, school colours. Also has the NRC crest emblazoned on the front, for school pride and stuff. Dorm Head’s annoying about details and style so he made it to match the Ceremonial Robes we wear at special locations, student body gatherings, stuff like that.”

“Ceremonial Robes? Come to think of it, everyone has one of those,” Yuu commented, recalling the robes all students had worn in the Mirror Chamber back in September. “How nice.”

“What d’you mean ‘how nice’? It’s part of the enrolment package, what with the uniforms and school handbook and orientation stuff,” the student gave her a weird look.

“Unfortunately, I’m not actually a student here, so I got none of those,” Yuu admitted. “Though Professor Crewel helped to get me school uniforms and athletic uniforms later on.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” he muttered. “Looks like even dense optimistic gloomy mob dropout RTA characters have their troubles too, huh?”

“You really just call me whatever you want in Ignihyde, don’t you?” she responded dryly.

“B-but you’re still semi-sorta-kinda a student by now, aren’t you?” he went on, to her surprise. “Even if it’s like half a student with that kitty. ORTHO’s in a similar spot and he has all sorts of Gears for every occasion… Though I guess that’s ‘cause Dorm Head designs them himself.”

“…That’s very nice of you to say,” Yuu commented with a smile.

“Don’t make me barf,” he snapped. “My point is, you could probably snag yourself a set of Ceremonial Robes if you wanted.”

“Me? Get a set of robes?” Yuu hadn’t ever thought about this before.

“You looked like you wanted a set,” he shrugged. “I don’t not understand the desire to look cool, and those robes have got a lot of history, I guess. I don’t know if you can get one over that miserly Headmaster, but it’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

“Headmaster Crowley sure has a reputation among the students,” Yuu fought a laugh. “…Maybe I’ll try asking, then. It would feel great to fit in among everyone else, even if just cosmetically.”

—

Thanks to the ever-widening circle of acquaintances Yuu exposed herself to by the day, she had plenty of opportunities to experience the wide range of interests held by the eclectic individuals of Night Raven College. Whether it was break-dancing, riding a Magical Wheel, or running in the mornings, each of her friends’ personalities shone vividly through the prism of their hobby. And as someone who found great satisfaction in the discovery of information, whether it was about this world or its inhabitants, Yuu was eager to find out even more.

“Even Mister Samurai has a hobby and he’s a tablet. Board,” Yuu told Tsuno-tarou that evening after she animatedly described her visit to Ignihyde. “I bumped into him on my way out, and he shrieked and complained and then told me that he and something called Muscle Kurenai are going ‘hunting’ all night, so he had to stock up on snacks. Do you know what a Muscle Kurenai is? Would Professor Vargas know about this hunting thing…? Is hunting even legal on campus?”

“I haven’t the slightest,” her friend said bemusedly, seeming ever unaffected by the frigidity silencing the snowbanks around Ramshackle’s fence. “Like you, perhaps I am least familiar with the dormitory of Ignihyde and its leader, Shroud. Though I feel like I may have heard that ‘Kurenai’ moniker somewhere…”

“But nothing showed up when I Goog—uh, web searched it except for the leaderboards…? Of an FPS? Which I don’t understand, since I’m not finished reading the Get off the Internet manual yet,” Yuu admitted. “Kurenai is a Japa—I mean, far eastern word for ‘crimson’, so I feel familiar with it, though.”

“Far eastern… Ah, might you be referring to the Country of the Red Dragon?” Tsuno-tarou seemed to recall. “While neither I, nor anyone I know has visited such a far-off location, you could very well be right.”

“Red Dragon,” Yuu repeated in interest. “Does that mean there are real dragons living there!? —No, wait, stop distracting me!”

“You are distracting yourself,” he put in mildly.

“Anyway! I was going to ask you about your hobby, as part of the ‘getting to know my friend better’ campaign I’m running by myself,” Yuu forcefully steered the conversation back. “Now that I’ve got a reasonable knowledge of Magical Wheels, it’s your turn to reveal your secrets, Tsuno-tarou!”

“What a strange campaign you’re running.” He didn’t seem overly impressed with her determination.

“You won’t get away from me tonight despite all of your mysterious haughty tendencies,” Yuu put gloved hands on her hips triumphantly. “I’ve got you cornered, Tsuno-tarou! Now spill! Just how far does your ruin maniac hunting go?”

“In this world, it’s certainly only you who has the foolish courage to call me a maniac,” Tsuno-tarou revealed an incisor. But he relented when she tugged at his sleeve insistently. “…I believe I mentioned participating in the cultural festival this year. I’ll be happy to explain more about my club and ‘hobby’ once you visit on that day.”

“I like how you’ve automatically assumed I’m visiting your booth or presentation thing,” Yuu commented.

He blinked at her. “I thought you were interested in me? Of course you’ll come, won’t you?”

Sometimes Yuu was rather taken aback at his natural confidence, but he wasn’t wrong. “…So yeah, I was planning on visiting in the first place. If I have time between VDC competitions and checking out the Mostro’s Lounge booth,” she capitulated. “But, what club is it? A Ruin Maniac club?”

“Not quite,” Tsuno-tarou seemed rather amused despite himself.

“Wait, don’t say anything yet! I can guess again,” Yuu thought hard on their past meetings. “You really like Ramshackle as a quiet spot, and like lecturing about the history of buildings… Is it maybe the Architecture Club?”

Tsuno-tarou shook his head. “You’re moving farther away.”

“Uh…” Yuu drew out the syllable. Then she put her fisted glove in her palm. “Oh! If this wasn’t part of my fever-induced haze… Back in November or December, you gave me this whole lecturing series about bas-reliefs and gargoyles and stuff, like about how they serve more purposes than just being intimidating but also direct water and stuff. Which means! It’s… The Stone Carving Club!”

“Very close.” Now he was wearing an entertained smile. “To think that despite being ill at the time, you paid such close attention to my words. It seems my imaginary friend has a good memory. Very well… As a consolation prize, I’ll reveal that one of my hobbies is ‘classical music’.”

“—Eh!” Yuu, who had been about to fire back a snarky comment, brightened instead. “Classical music! Organs, violin? Can you sing opera?!”

“More or less,” he nodded. “Education in music is standard for training and broadening one’s imagination, but I had more time than most. Much of that was spent playing the violin or cello.”

“Whoa, you had a classical gifted education like in those royal historical movies. How nice,” Yuu was impressed. She scooted closer and cupped a glove beside her mouth. “…This is a secret, Tsuno-tarou, but I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the piano. I’m a big fan of all sorts of music.”

“Really? Perhaps one day I can demonstrate my own playing skills to you,” Tsuno-tarou offered.

“Wait, you can play the violin, cello and piano? And you can sing!?” Yuu was almost offended.

“I’ve received the standard education in almost the entire gamut of stringed instruments, yes,” Tsuno-tarou responded calmly as if it were natural.

“Dixney world,” Yuu shook her fist at nothing. “Stupid genius NRC students! Everyone can sing and dance and play music! What do you think the rest of us normal people are?!”

“Fu fu. Don’t sulk, human child. It's not difficult to learn to play the piano. Why don’t I teach you sometime?” he chuckled.

“…I mean, I won’t say no if you really insist,” Yuu stuck out her lower lip and toed the frozen ground. “You better not be all talk, though, ‘cause I’ve got really strict taste in music, I’ll have you know.”

“Perhaps that rebellious attitude would be more convincing if you were better at hiding your smile,” he pointed out.

Yuu was not reconciled, so she toed his shoe childishly instead of responding.

For all of her lamenting about how unbearably good everyone was at everything around this school, Yuu was still happy to learn more about her imaginary (?) friend, and secretly grateful that he put up her no matter what topic she chose to rant about at length.

Perhaps Tsuno-tarou was right and he really was mild-mannered, she thought sleepily as she prepared for bed in the darkened master bedroom of Ramshackle. Thanks to that, she could easily behave as brazenly with him as she did with Ace and Deuce and Grim, even if he might be an upperclassman. Come to think of it, she hadn’t yet asked Tsuno-tarou his class and year.

While Yuu’s waking schedule had been somewhat reoriented by Jack’s insistence of morning runs—and, for over a full week, Vil’s Spartan control of their lifestyles—her nighttime conversations with Tsuno-tarou still put her among the very last to extinguish the lights in Ramshackle during their meetings. Rubbing at her vaguely sore abdomen, she crossed the cold room, eager to clutch her partner to her stomach and drift away from the day’s exhaustion, and felt a slight dissonance as she passed the fireplace.

Yuu paused and glanced at the dusty mirror above the mantelpiece sleepily—

The mirror?

Hadn’t she covered it before the semester began to avoid any incidents from occurring? Yuu had even told Jack as much to reassure him.

Then, why was it visible now—?

Just as her fingers closed in on the wand tucked in her pyjama sleeve, the mirror came to life with soft glow that illuminated her face again and set her pulse alight with apprehension. She sunk a few inches in preparation to gather Grim and run…

Unbidden, Ace’s and Deuce’s words came to mind.

—Actually, that’s a good idea. Take a picture of that Mickey guy with the Ghost Camera next time. Since that old artifact can at least show the ‘souls’ of whatever it’s capturing.

—At least if we have a picture, we can pin down where this Mickey came from.

Just in time, she remembered her last meeting with the mysterious creature that tugged at a corner of her memory.

“Accio Ghost Camera,” Yuu rushed out lowly, and from the corner of her room, the old artefact zoomed out from Jack’s coat to land in her outstretched palm.

A small fist knocked at the surface of the mirror just as she mustered the courage to edge closer, and Yuu was greeted with a familiar silhouette of a creature that somewhat resembled Grim’s. “…’lo? …ello…? …Hello?” A high voice called out, fading in and out of earshot.

“He… Hello?” Yuu responded tentatively in kind.

The mist thinned, the voice brightened. “Yuu! Are you here tonight, too?”

“Ah! Mickey! So it wasn’t a dream after all,” Yuu burst out. Behind her, Grim rolled over and released a snort.

“Whoa! Gee, you surprised me!” Mickey Mouse’s silhouette jumped before coming into full view. Curiously, apart from a pair of red shorts, his round form looked as if it were painted in black and white…

Almost like one of Yuu’s strange dreams that had taken her through gardens, down cliffs, across deserts, under the sea…

Mickey patted his chest with a white glove. “You suddenly let out such a loud voice… But wait, it seems like today—tonight, I can hear your voice super clearly from across the mirror!”

“Mirror? You’re looking at a mirror, too,” Yuu guessed, straightening out of her defensive stance as her curiosity got the better of her. “It looks like mirrors really are a universal method of communication and travel here.”

“Not sure what that means, but I can even see you more clearly!” Mickey beamed and twitched his ovular nose. “Last time, I could barely see a shadow, but this time you’re more of a fuzzy outline. Hi there!”

“Really? I can see you more clearly than last time as well,” Yuu was not only taken aback by the new information, but also this Mickey’s unabashed friendliness. Having never known how to react to kindness directed at her, she hesitantly waved the hand not gripping the Ghost Camera.

“You can see me, too! That’s great!” Mickey smiled even wider.

“You look a lot less intimidating than I thought,” she muttered. “Almost like a stuffed animal.”

“You know, I told my friends all about our little chat last time,” Mickey went on before drawing a comical frown. “…But neither Donald nor Goofy had any idea what a ‘Twisted Wonderland’ was.”

“Your friend’s name is Goofy?” Yuu asked a little disbelievingly.

“What’s more, Donald even started shouting ‘It must be those darned ghosts up to no good! We gotta exterminate ‘em!’” Mickey continued, imitating the voice of his presumed friend.

“My friends said basically the exact same thing. Wait, that means Mickey, you’re not a Ghost?” Yuu noticed. “Even though you’re all fuzzy and surrounded by smoke?”

“Eeeh?! Why would you think that? I’m not a ghost!” Mickey put both gloves up in exaggerated surprise before putting his nose right up to the mirror excitedly. “You’re not a ghost either, are you, Yuu?”

Yuu nodded rather speechlessly. Why did he look so excited?

“Okay then,” he leaned back and regained his friendly smile. “But… That makes all of this more and more mysterious! Y’know, just before we met today, a bunch of living trump cards and dancing gloves appeared before me and asked me, ‘You showed up again?’”

“Dancing gloves? Didn’t you mention something similar last time?” Yuu felt her chin thoughtfully. “Looks like you have your own share of discoveries I can’t see.”

“Isn’t it strange?” Mickey crossed his arms to mirror her pondering. “But I still get the feeling that this isn’t as simple as a dream.”

“Dream… Oh! Right! Why don’t we try an experiment?” Yuu lit up before she waved the Camera at him. “To prove that you’re not a dream, would you let me take a picture of you? So I can leave evidence!”

“A photograph?” Mickey repeated and then beamed. “Ha ha! Of course!”

“…You didn’t hesitate,” Yuu commented in some surprise. “Don’t you think I might be a suspicious bad guy? Like your friend Donald said, a ghost or something.”

“No? You seem like you’re very smart!” Mickey responded, gloves on his hips. “I love meeting new people and trying new things, and taking a picture of me might give us a clue about how we get to meet like this, right? Good idea, Yuu!”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Yuu stammered. This strange stuffed-animal Grim-like creature was almost friendly to the point of oversimplicity. “Then, let me just—”

BRRRRRING! BRRRRRING!

The shrill call of a bell startled them both. Yuu reached for her wand. “What’s that sound!?”

“Huh?” Mickey blinked, though he didn’t look as shocked as her. “……like… …rm is…… …ring…”

“What? I can’t hear… You’re fading!” Yuu realised. Hastily, she aimed her Camera and snapped a shot in his direction. “Wait! Mickey!”

The only thing that answered her was Grim’s surprised snort. “Yuu?” he called out sleepily. “You still not in bed yet? That demon coach’s gonna… Yell… Munya munya.”

“Sorry Grim,” she lowered her voice hastily, remembering that the exhausted temporary residents of Ramshackle might be able to hear her voice if she wasn’t careful. Catching the photo that fell from the Ghost Camera, Yuu looked down at the developed image and sighed in disappointment. “Nothing but smoke. I missed the opportunity…”

Crowley’s voice echoed in her mind as she re-hung the heavy cloth over the mirror.

—Not only do your country’s names not exist on the world map—no historical record shows any of the names. None!

—Yuu-san. You really do come from that place, right? You’re not lying, are you?

—Now we must consider the possibility of your arrival from a second planet… Ah, or from a separate universe.

“If I came here via mirror… And if mirrors are a method of travel and communication in the Twisted Wonderland…” Yuu pondered aloud. “Then where is Mickey? Is it possible that I’m not the only one, and that this mirror in particular is connected to somewhere else—a different world entirely? Does that mean there might be more people like me? Or is Mickey the next person on the list to arrive here?”

Nothing but the silence of her darkened bedroom answered her.

“Mickey, what are you?” Yuu asked the silent curtain of cloth falling over the mirror. “And… What world are you from?”

—

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming all that up?” Cater asked Monday afternoon after classes, wearing a slightly puzzled smile as he handed back her forgotten pencil case. “I’ve never seen a mouse bigger than my palm, but the size of Grim?”

“But Mickey—the creature I saw said it wasn’t a dream,” Yuu finished her story and accepted it gratefully before stuffing it into her over-full backpack. “Um, thank you for taking the time to keep this for me, senpai. Sorry I rushed out last week.”

“No problem at all!” he winked at her. “Buuut, since we’re here anyway, there’s no reason for me not to hang on to my precious few minutes with our resident rising star, the super-popular Yuu-chan.”

“Very funny, as usual. Me and popular shouldn’t be put in the same sentence unless there’s a ‘not’ between them,” Yuu said dryly, scooting out of the way of a crowd of students passing them in the corridor.

“It’s only you that’s unaware. Now come on! The west side of the school building’s a bit of a walk,” Cater tugged her into step before pushing himself from the wall he was leaning against.

“Western school building?” Yuu repeated curiously, ducking her head in greeting to a few passing Scarabia upperclassmen, who waved back. “Is there something you wanted to show me?”

“Something, or someone… I’ve been wanting to introduce you to Rosalia-chan since September,” Cater chattered, deftly pulling her out of the way of another student rushing headlong in their direction. “And ever since we had our convo in the Tea Garden before school started, I thought, I’ve got to make sure Yuu-chan knows the other girl on campus! Oh, but don’t worry, your secret’s still safe.”

“Rosalia-chan-san? …Oh, that portrait you mentioned!” Yuu connected the dots. “So her portrait is hung in the western hallway, or something?”

“Bingo! She’s not the only portrait that talks to us sometimes, but she is the cutest,” Cater dashed a wink her way. “And when I mentioned her last time in our conversation, she was complaining about how she’d already memorized the cracks in the wall and was dying to see something new. So I thought, this is a great opportunity!”

“Most of us did get released from our last period of class a little early, so I actually have some time before this afternoon’s practice session,” Yuu acquiesced. “So I’d be happy to meet her, but… Um… Are there manners about meeting girls in this world? Should I straighten up my appearance or something? Anything not to say? I haven’t really talked to a lady yet.”

“Ah ha ha! Are you maybe getting nervous? Don’t worry, relax!” Cater assured her. “In the first place, Rosalia-chan is starved for new meetings anyway, since she’s the only portrait in that entire hallway. She’ll be happy to see you no matter what!”

“I guess I’ll borrow Cater-senpai’s confidence then,” she relented. “But Cater-senpai, it’s impressive how you really know a lot about the school building. I’ve never heard anyone mention talking paintings before and only ever saw the one gentleman that pointed us to the Cafeteria on the first day of classes.”

“The secret to being an info broker like me is to talk to everyone,” Cater grinned. “And plus! Rosalia-chan’s picture is positioned right near the teachers’ staff room, you know? So all of their conversations are completely overheard by her… So in many ways, Rosalia-chan’s someone you want to get to know.”

“…As expected of an NRC upperclassman,” Yuu said dryly. “You never miss any advantage.”

“The only downside is that it takes some coaxing to get her to spill the beans for stuff like what’s covered on tests,” Cater said conspiratorially, unbothered by her expression.

“Is manipulation to extract info part of being an information broker, too?”

Cater put both hands together in a pleading motion. “Yuu-chan, I’m counting on you to butter her up! My grades in the next Magical History quiz are depending on your performance today…!”

“So that’s why it was today,” Yuu’s already flat stare flattened out even more. “…Please don’t expect much from me, but I’ll do my best, I guess.”

“I knew you’d be a good sport!”

True to Cater’s praises, Rosalia the portrait was magnificently painted and illuminated by fading afternoon light, the subject herself elegantly clothed in an old-fashioned but well-designed dress. Poised and quiet, her expression barely changed after catching sight of the two of them approaching the otherwise empty wall around her. Long lashes fanned her cheeks in a blink.

“—Cater, you’re late.” she stared down at them regally before rounding her beautiful eyes. “Oh, my. And this is?”

“He-he-hello,” Yuu stammered, standing ramrod straight and edging slightly behind Cater’s arm. “My name is Yuu, and I’m a first year in Class A. It’s very nice to meet you. I-I’ve heard about you from Cater-senpai.”

“Ah,” Rosalia lifted both hands to her mouth, finally showing a change in expression. “If it’s not the Directing Student you’ve mentioned, Cater! And how little and cute he is!”

“Wait! What did he say about me?” Yuu yelped.

“What did he say about me?” Rosalia asked in turn, regaining her composure.

“Um, that you’re extremely cute,” Yuu tried to recall. “I think you’re more pretty than cute, though.”

“Cater… Where did you find a smooth talker like this child?” Rosalia turned to the smiling third year beside her with one arched brow.

“Not like other NRC students I’ve introduced to you, right?” Cater responded easily.

“Those poorly mannered boors don’t even count. They either run away or can’t put a sentence together right,” Rosalia fluttered one elegantly painted hand. “Enough of you for today. Directing Student. Why don’t you come a little closer to talk? It’s been far too long since I’ve had something happen in this boring old hallway.”

“I’ve never been around this area, either,” Yuu admitted, jogging up to the golden frame. “Since Ace and Deuce avoid the staff room hallway like the plague… It must be boring to be stuck here. Can you travel between portraits?”

“Travelling between portraits? I’ve never even imagined the idea,” Rosalia peered down at her in interest. “As expected of Cater’s favourite Directing Student, even your ideas are revolutionary. But travelling would be nice. If only I could get out of here once in a while… That blank wall across from me is awfully drab to stare at all day.”

Yuu didn’t think she was revolutionary in the slightest, but perhaps it wasn’t wise to consider moving portraits in this world the same as how portraits worked in Hogwarts. “If you don’t mind, I’d be happy to stop in once in a while and say hello,” she offered, buoyed by the impression that the first girl (?) she’d met in this world seemed to look favourably down upon her.

“Would you? I love exciting things and parties!” Rosalia declared. “I hope you’re not one that goes back on your promises, like someone over there.”

“I apologized for that one time!” Cater protested. “The other two people I was trying to invite to our last gathering suddenly had other plans…”

“Oh, yes, a likely story,” Rosalia sniffed.

“But Rosalia-chan, you’re always so composed, so it was kind of novel to see you so angry when that happened,” Cater smiled up at her and winked. “Personally, I think your angry expression is super cute!”

“Directing Student, listen closely,” Rosalia stared down her nose at him, unimpressed. “You must not become an insincere and superficial man like Cater when you grow up.”

“But I meant it!”

“Any girl can see right through your attempt at getting by situations with empty praise,” she went on.

Cater muttered something under his breath about no longer being the age at which one could be called a ‘girl’.

“Did you say something?” Rosalia asked pleasantly.

“I said that the curl of your hair is especially stylish today!” he responded without missing a beat.

“Do you see?” Rosalia turned to Yuu.

“The two of you seem close,” Yuu was smiling at their conversation. “Cater-senpai can even joke around with you. He’s usually really good about avoiding making people angry, so he probably enjoys your company a lot, Miss Rosalia.”

“My, my. Miss Rosalia, he says!” Rosalia stared at her again. “Cater, I don’t need you any more. Just bring this Directing Student to me in the future.”

“Wow, I feel so used,” Cater wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek. “Who’s going to tell you about all the latest café trends when I’m gone?”

“How Cater-senpai remembers all those super long drink names is beyond me,” Yuu recalled their last ‘date’ with some amusement. “In that way, Miss Rosalia, he might be a rare talent.”

“Rare indeed, rare enough to come right up to me and start chatting away when very few others even bother,” Rosalia said nonchalantly, though she seemed rather pleased with the memory.

As the three of them chatted, Yuu was reminded of her conversation with Mickey Mouse in the mirror last night, for speaking with the indifferent yet assertive Rosalia through the frame was just as fresh of an experience. True to her spot in front of the staff room, the beautiful portrait was quite familiar with the conversations and movements of the teachers, and eventually divulged that the third years’ next Magical History test seemed to focus on memorization of dates and locations pertaining to a queen’s rule in the Shift Lands.

Having achieved his goal, Cater hummed in high spirits as the two of them waved goodbye to Rosalia and left the school building. “I should bring you around more often,” he commented. “Usually it takes way longer to get any info out of her! Though that’s all part of the fun.”

“I feel like she can see right through your intentions,” Yuu pointed out. “Miss Rosalia seems incredibly intelligent.”

“Hey! All’s well that ends well, right? She gets a conversation partner, I get some info, it’s a win-win partnership.” Cater didn’t seem to mind. “Plus I get to talk to two cute girls at once!”

Yuu screeched to a halt. Instinctively, she glanced around to make sure no one was listening to their conversation before breathing out a sigh of relief after beholding the empty entranceway.

“Relax, I wouldn’t say anything if I wasn’t sure it was safe,” Cater, reading her movements, patted her head.

“I mostly believe you, just not used to it,” Yuu admitted, patting her chest in relief.

“Exactly,” Cater snapped his fingers her way. “You’re way too not used to it, and it’s such a shame that you don’t get treated like a girl around here! That’s why I’m here to help.”

“…Help?” Yuu blinked. “Does it matter if I’m treated like a girl?”

“Because it’s a part of your individuality,” he answered without hesitation. “It’s a part of what makes you ‘Yuu-chan’, right? I wanna make sure that someone can notice you for you, and consider all aspects of you. Even if you don’t care that much, suppressing parts of yourself can become kind of… Stressful if you’re not careful, you know?”

“…Part of my own individuality?” Yuu repeated, catching a slight shadow to his eyes.

“Sure, just like how curious you are about other people and even portraits, and how you have no filter,” Cater ticked off, recovering his cheer.

“I’ve never thought about that,” she stared up at him admiringly. “Cater-senpai, you’re always so good at noticing and thinking about things I’d never be able to come close to. I think Professor Crewel mentioned something similar, about things getting stressful for me, but I’m not good at noticing things like that.”

“I guess even he can show some care for his students, eh?” Cater laughed. “Also! It’s such a waste to not call a cute girl ‘a cute girl’. Just put up with me for now, okay?”

“No one has to put up with you,” Yuu protested. “And I don’t mind, I just… I’m not used to it, that’s really all.”

“You’ll get used to it eventually,” he promised.

“While I can sense Cater-senpai’s good intentions from your words, please take it easy on me,” Yuu said weakly, covering her cheeks.

“That easily embarrassed part of you is super cute too!”

“Cater-senpai!”

It was the considerate and positive part of Cater’s conversation-steering that, while called ‘superficial and insincere’ by Rosalia, probably allowed him to make friends with anyone, including the portrait that stood all alone in the hallway. Even if it was bad for Yuu’s heart.

“So where are you headed off to? Practice? You sure work hard,” Cater commented as they left the building. Yuu, shuffling along in Jack’s oversized coat, pulled on her gloves to combat the chill immediately.

“Not as hard as everyone else. But it’s a little early for our lesson, which is a good thing since Grim got Ace and Deuce in trouble during class again,” Yuu admitted. “…Uh, please don’t tell Riddle-senpai they’re staying behind.”

“Hmm… What should I do?” Cater sang, narrowing green eyes. “Those kids could use a bit of a warning once in a while.”

“I feel like they get in trouble enough,” she muttered back. “Actually, I was on my way to visit Riddle-senpai anyway, since I haven’t seen him nor Trey-senpai all month. Being the Committee Chair? For the Cultural Festival must be hard work, right?”

“So that’s the reason your bag is bulging like that! Let me guess, you’ve brought souvenirs along? Yuu-chan sure likes to give other people stuff,” Cater noticed as shrewdly as usual. “And it’s perfect timing. Your visit can double as taking the edge off Riddle-kun’s anger in case he figures out the resident A-Deuce combo are in trouble, again. Maybe he won’t even Behead ‘em!”

“…I never thought about that part, but…” Yuu paused in wonder of his strategic prowess. “Maybe I should learn more from you about how to survive this school. Like I said earlier, as expected of an NRC upperclassman, you know just how to manoeuvre around any situation skilfully.”

“Rosalia-chan doesn’t seem to agree,” Cater laughed.

“I think she likes you more than she shows,” Yuu remarked. “By the way, do you think I can learn tips about making a good poker face from Miss Rosalia? She’s got a great one. Very composed.”

“What do you need a poker face for?” Cater asked.

“Let’s just say people around here are too perceptive,” Yuu sighed.

“Ahh.” Cater stifled a knowing laugh. “…Yuu-chan, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think a poker face will help you at this point.”

“Eh! Why?” Yuu asked, taken aback. She had just begun trying to find a way to escape the sharp eyes of the observant students of NRC.

“Because we pay too much attention to you,” Cater responded lightly. “Even if you develop a way to hide, I’ll give you twenty-four hours tops before I figure you out.”

“……Cater-senpai, can you not suddenly become scary like that? You’ll give me whiplash,” Yuu puffed out her cheeks at him.

“Sorry, sorry! But it’s not my fault,” Cater dashed a glance down at her sideways. “You’re the one that suddenly started wanting to run away. Be glad you mentioned it to a reasonable guy like me first, Riddle-kun would blow his top if you started trying to hide information again.”

“Reasonable guy,” Yuu wrinkled her brow, but decided wisely to drop the topic.

While still covered by snow, large areas of the school campus had begun to clear in preparation for the Cultural Festival, especially the entrance of the Side Street and faraway athletic fields, where the ground was visible once again. The latter area was also crowded with bricks; a stage was beginning its construction despite the snow. Yuu mentioned this progress to Riddle and Trey after she and Cater arrived in Heartslabyul.

“Any later and we would have fallen behind schedule,” Riddle said severely, accepting a paper from his vice Dorm Head over the table of Heartslabyul’s lounge. “If I hadn’t had Trey remind the athletic team in charge, it would never get done. Snowdrifts are merely an excuse for their laziness. Hmph!”

“It can’t be helped, since a lot of students are still getting back into the swing of things now that the second semester’s started,” Trey scooted aside to make space for Cater. “Since they’ve got club activities and tests on top of helping out, everyone’s busy this time of year.”

“Is that all paperwork you have to complete?” Yuu stared at the several stacks piled up by the Dorm Head’s side of the table, taken aback.

“These are details for each student-run booth and presentation submitted for me to verify,” Riddle explained to her. “Since we must maintain a quality standard, I need to make sure no one has anything inappropriate or lacking. …If you think this is a lot, you should see the documentation provided by sponsors and companies participating. And after that we must arrange schedules for media and reporters that will be present as well.”

“Without Riddle here to help organise, I think the preparation process would be a giant mess,” Trey said wryly.

“……Thanks for your hard work,” Yuu managed while Cater whistled over his first cup of tea. “Um, it’s not much, but I hope you’ll find this useful.”

“Hm? For me?” Trey straightened in surprise, adjusting his glasses.

“Both you and Riddle-senpai.” Yuu reached into her full backpack and pulled out two paper bags emblazoned with the Mystery Shop’s purple top hat. “Here. These are disposable hot eye masks to wear at night. I thought since you’re probably really busy with this on top of school, having something to relax you would be the most useful thing to have around.”

“Thank you, Yuu,” Riddle lost his frown as he accepted his own bag. “That’s very considerate… And timely. Mm… It even smells like lavender.”

“I’ll try it out right away tonight,” Trey grinned. “Since I wear glasses, I don’t find myself wearing this much. Great gift idea, Yuu.”

“Hopefully it’s useful. I would have brought sweet treats, but that would feel kind of like handing bread to a baker,” Yuu said sheepishly. “And this is partially a thank-you return gift to Trey-senpai, since you sent Ace and Deuce over with sweet treats when they arrived for the strengthening training camp—we really appreciated it.”

More accurately, the sole devourer of the whole cake and pie, Grim, waxed poetic about both out of earshot of the diet-controlled rest of the VDC Tribe. Yuu wondered if his default reaction was calling things ‘fields’, for he went on and on about apple and chocolate fields until she pointed out that neither grew on a field.

“Yuu, there is no need to feel indebted to Trey about any baked goods he foists off on you,” Riddle advised her.

“In this case, I’ve gotta agree with Riddle-kun,” Cater added.

“Eh? Why? To be able to eat something so high-quality from someone so skilled with dessert-making is incredible luck for Grim. And everyone else,” Yuu said earnestly, wondering at their flat expressions.

“Ha ha ha, I’m the luckier one to have people like you and Grim that eat so deliciously,” Trey responded mildly.

“Exactly,” Riddle and Cater chorused.

“?” Yuu blinked her eyes wide.

“Anyway, you just need to know that Trey-kun bakes because he likes to. Having consumers is like a side effect,” the latter explained.

“You wound me, Cater,” Trey commented cheerfully.

“I’ve had to stop him from overwhelmingly ruining the general diet I follow,” Riddle sighed. “Even if I’m no longer strictly controlling my food intake, overconsumption of sugar breaks at least three of the Queen’s rules. And before that, it’s just against common sense!”

“Ah. Speaking of,” Trey started, seemingly unaffected by the disapproval of his friends. “Yuu, I know you probably have practice at Pomefiore soon, but at least take some cupcakes with you when you leave. I got inspired by all the snow and kept experimenting with whipped frosting, and well…”

“…Ended up with way too many extras,” Cater finished for him cheerfully.

“Even distributing them among the entire dorm wasn’t enough to get rid of them,” Riddle paused. “Though I will admit, the strawberry-flavoured ones were delicious.”

“Yuu, don’t look like that. It’s rewarding to present food to people who I know will enjoy eating it, like our first years and you and Grim,” Trey pushed himself to his feet. “Just a moment while I grab a box to pack some up in, okay? How about a baker’s dozen?”

“Wa-wait a second,” Yuu said hastily as the vice Dorm Head disappeared into the winding mass of corridors. “Actually, right now the VDC Tribe can’t really… He left so fast!”

“Sorry, Yuu-chan, you and the NRC Tribe have been marked as the next victims,” Cater sighed in mock sadness. “Unless you manage to out-talk Trey, which is surprisingly hard.”

“Cater, you can joke when you eat a single one of them,” Riddle shot back.

“Ah ha ha ha… I think I’ll pass,” Cater, who disliked sweet foods but disliked revealing it even more, laughed weakly.

Feeling slightly guilty that most of the Tribe hadn’t had a chance to try Trey’s last treat, Yuu couldn’t strongly refuse and ended up laden down with a paper box full of the fragrance of buttered vanilla and sugar. Furthermore, her conversation at Heartslabyul had taken more time than expected, leaving her not a moment to spare dropping off the baked goods at Ramshackle; it was all she could do to rush straight from travel mirror to travel mirror to avoid being late for her managerial duties in Pomefiore that afternoon.

This, of course, was risky—especially since the sharp and watching eyes of Vil Schoenheit were ever present during practice.

“What’ve you got there?” A similarly rushed Grim, who had narrowly escaped Lucius’ paws just in time to make practice, immediately caught sight of Yuu’s paper box in the corner of the room moments after he arrived. A heavy weight landed on her shoulders from her crouched position plunging freshly-made sports drinks into ice. “Smells swee—”

“Shh!” Yuu covered his mouth hastily as she dropped the next prepared bottle in the ice box. “…Grim, can you keep a secret?”

Grim nodded, moving her hand and his snout together.

Yuu explained the origin of Trey’s cupcakes. “I don’t want to stress out the team but couldn’t make it back to Ramshackle to hide in time,” she whispered. “No one else has noticed the box, so I’ll just leave it by my bag. Don’t eat it during practice, got it? If no one notices, you can have it later.”

“That Glasses—no, Trey!” Grim mumbled into her palm, eyes sparkling with chandelier light and excitement. “He can do some pretty nice stuff once in a while, eh?”

“So what flavour’s Trey-senpai given us this time?”

“There’s five vanilla, five chocolate, and three strawberry cupcakes,” Yuu explained. “Trey-senpai said he was experimenting with whipped frosting after being inspired by the snow.”

“Whipped frosting… Clover-senpai is pretty creative.”

“I felt guilty that no one was able to have the apple pie and chocolate cake last time, since you ate it all, Gri… Grim…?” Yuu noticed that she was still covering her partner’s mouth.

…Then, who had been speaking to her just now?

“Yuu, I can’t believe you’re this cold,” Ace slung an arm around her shoulder from her left side, nearly knocking her out of her crouch next to the ice box. “To keep secrets from your best pal Ace?”

“Careful,” Deuce steadied her and Grim from the other side, casting glances at the box in the corner of the room. “…It smells good.”

“Not you two,” Yuu groaned. “The literal worst people that could find out. Listen, no one can eat those cupcakes without permission from Schoenheit-senpai, got it?”

“I—I wasn’t going to eat any!” Deuce said hastily.

“He won’t notice if we sneak one,” Ace cajoled her.

“Ace, I’m getting flashbacks to September when you tried the same thing on Rosehearts-senpai,” Deuce scoffed at him.

“Oh come on. I won’t get caught this time.”

“What are you three potatoes doing all clumped up over there?” Vil’s sharp voice came their way. “Before you always smother the Manager, at least finish your stretches. Snap to it!”

“Yes sir!” Yuu leapt up reflexively.

“Puha!” Grim emitted as she released him. He pointed up threateningly. “Ace, Deuce, don’t spill the beans. Triple-flavoured cupcakes are riding on your silence! Just think of the fluffiness of the whipped frosting, the crunch of the sprinkles, the springiness of the cake!”

“Why does he always get so eloquent when talking about food?” Ace muttered.

“C’mon, let’s go before we get in trouble for the second time today,” Deuce nudged him towards the centre of the Ballroom.

Now was not the time to be making idle chatter, and they rushed to complete their various tasks after exchanging nods.

Regrettably, perhaps the four of them weren’t as good at hiding things as they thought—or, more likely, the act of ‘hiding’ something was next to impossible here, for one had to escape the highly observant eyes of Vil Schoenheit, Rook Hunt and Jamil Viper, each a monumental challenge. Especially when the latter could read her thoughts, such a feat was incredibly difficult, and she could only be grateful that Jamil merely settled for a roll of his eyes in her direction in lieu of ratting them out. As expected, he had seen right through her in a second.

Even with Jamil’s tacit cooperation, Trey’s box of cupcakes was still confiscated just as they settled down in Ramshackle after that night’s gruelling practice. Pomefiore’s vice Dorm Head gently liberated it from Yuu’s hands and presented it to Vil with a flourish as she was sneaking it towards the staircase. The sudden lack of weight on her wrist made her jump; she hadn’t noticed his presence until the box was gone. Rook was as quiet as Jamil when he wanted to be.

“What is this?” Vil asked her, unimpressed as he dangled the paper box from one long index finger.

In the corner of her vision, Yuu saw Ace, Deuce, Grim and Epel cringe. She straightened her back and cleared her throat. “Senpai, I can explain. I visited Trey-senpai before practice this afternoon, and…”

“That man again?” he sighed. “I told you to be careful about people like him. Chances are, he managed to trick his way into shoving that box into your arms.”

“Eh? No, he just had leftovers,” Yuu tried.

“But you tried to refuse, did you not? As a responsible Manager of a dance team?” Vil arched a brow.

“…I wasn’t going to accept,” Yuu was unable to deny it. “But Trey-senpai means well, and he’s always been generous with distributing food. It would be rude to just refuse his goodwill.”

“Generous? You’re being fooled,” Vil frowned. “Well, in any case, I told you not to reveal these things in front of the team and stress them out.”

“I'm sorry,” Yuu slumped a little.

“Non, Trickster, we have no intention to blame you,” Rook smiled down at her. “Right, Vil?”

“Unlike the responsible Manager, those three first year potatoes and Grim have been casting longing glances at these baked goods all afternoon,” Vil sniffed delicately. “You really think that I wouldn’t notice? Such shoddy acting would warrant a retake order in a second. In any case, these are confiscated.”

“Funaaaa! My cupcakes!” Grim wailed as Vil swept the box into his arms. “Throwin’ away food makes you a criminal!”

“Don’t make a fuss. No one said I would throw them away,” Vil looked down his nose at her partner. “They’ll be in the refrigerator. Honestly, what do you think of me? However, no one is to eat any of those cupcakes, unless you want to face the consequences. Is that clear? I’m talking to those three potatoes in that corner trying to sneak away.”

“Yes,” Ace, Deuce and Epel chorused instinctively from the end of the hallway.

“Smells good,” Kalim laced his fingers behind his neck with a cheerful grin. “Too bad we can’t have any!”

“Why does that Trey give people so much food, anyway?” Jamil, who was by her side like usual, muttered a little suspiciously.

“He really likes baking?” Yuu shrugged. “And he likes watching people eat deliciously? Though after eating he sometimes pulls out a toothbrush and makes us brush our teeth on the spot.”

“……Heartslabyul’s full of insane people, as expected,” Jamil concluded.

“Hey! That’s not true!” Yuu protested. “At least they’re not as crazy as you.”

“I’m sane,” Jamil said calmly. “I just no longer hold back on my own desires.”

Ace and Deuce were muttering among themselves despondently as Vil disappeared with the box, but Grim, stomping over to her feet in a bad mood, climbed up her arm and shoved his head into her shoulder angrily. Yuu patted his head guiltily.

In the rush of dinner, homework, and conversation afterwards, however, she completely forgot about the cupcakes. In fact, staying up late last night to talk to Tsuno-tarou and Mickey had interfered with last night’s sleep, enough to send her nodding off by the kitchen table that night—even earlier than a sulking Grim. Perhaps her slightly weaker-than-usual state and sore abdomen aided the exhaustion that came from practice to completely ruin any efforts to stay awake, for not even her morning coffee could sustain any more energy.

She barely stayed lucid long enough for Jamil to long-sufferingly haul her up the stairs to her room before going out like a light sprawled across her bed; blissfully unaware of any dreams or mirrors or Mickeys, Yuu was left with nothing except a warm and mysterious magenta-iron colour that seemed somewhat familiar. Clouds passed by her vision, a flock of white birds stirred her hair…

“…man.”

Blearily, Yuu cracked her gaze open a sliver. Grim’s twin paws were shaking her shoulder.

“Henchman,” he repeated, blue eyes aglow in the darkened greys of Ramshackle’s master bedroom. “Wake up!”

Someone had been holding her hand. Still mostly asleep, Yuu flexed her empty fingers. “Where’s…?”

“You’re harder to wake up than a rock,” Grim complained, though he let her hug him in her half-conscious state.

“What time is it,” Yuu slurred.

“Midnight. Now c’mon, follow me without sayin’ a word,” Grim said energetically despite the late hour. “Let’s go downstairs!”

“Can I go back to sleep?” Yuu asked, still disoriented.

“I’m doing you a favour as your leader, y’know,” Grim snorted at her. “You’ll regret it if you don’t join me and get in on the benefits. ‘Specially since Ace said you’re lacking nutrients or whatever. Now come on!”

Rubbing her eyes, Yuu let Grim pull her out of bed and towards the door despite not really understanding what he was saying. “Where’re we going?” she asked sleepily, straightening out her wrinkled uniform she hadn’t bothered changing out of.

“Shhh! Everyone’s asleep, so don’t talk. And watch out for the creaky floorboards,” Grim hissed. “If you make a noise with your feet, it’s over for us!”

“What’s over,” Yuu muttered, but nevertheless tiptoed out of her room and down the darkened stairwell to the unlit lounge. The chilly room sent a shiver trembling up her spine, and she sneezed.

“You finally brought her,” Ace’s low voice came from the corner of the lounge. “C’mon, over here.”

“Ace? …Deuce, too?” Yuu blinked some sleep from her eyes as she and Grim approached the couch where the two of them were sitting. “Why are you awake this late? Especially Deuce.”

“Here,” Deuce threw a blanket over her shoulders. “This room gets drafty at night.”

“Thanks,” Yuu huddled down between them to stave off the chill and pulled Grim into her arms. “By the way, when did I fall asleep?”

“Way too early. That Vil-senpai pushes you too hard, and you push yourself even harder,” Ace complained. “You barely even ate any dinner. Just watching you made me hungry. After all, that super light fare just doesn’t fill up the stomach, y’know?”

“No. I don’t know. It tastes fine to me,” Yuu gave him a slightly suspicious look before rubbing her eyes again and squinting around. “…Wait, I’m getting a bad feeling about this. Why are you two even gathered in the lounge with the lights off? And dressed in dorm uniform, too.”

“Heh heh heh,” Grim emitted, sounding like a third-rate villain.

“C’mon, you haven’t forgotten Trey-senpai's bountiful gift of food sleeping in the fridge, have you?” Ace winked at her. “I’ve always thought that wasting food is a capital crime, by the way.”

“Ace???” Yuu stared at him in abject betrayal. “Have you learned nothing from September?”

“Ace is right!” Grim shook a fist. “Wasting food is a crime!”

“Shh! Who told me to be quiet a minute ago?” she put a finger to her mouth.

“Plus, Trey-senpai always tells us to eat what he makes as soon as possible so it’s fresh,” Ace went on.

“—Yuu, don’t get me wrong! I didn’t come here to eat anything like him,” Deuce said hastily when she turned towards him in disbelief.

“Then why are you here,” deadpanned Grim.

“Wa-water,” Deuce stammered. “I just came to grab a glass of water!”

“Henchman, you should know. Snacks that you eat covertly at night are automatically a hundred times tastier than snacks you eat during the daytime,” Grim deemed his excuse unimportant and turned to laugh creepily at her. “Guh hee hee!”

“Your weird food rules aside, Schoenheit-senpai said expressly not to eat anything,” Yuu started.

“C’mon, live a little. Aren’t you hungry?” Ace nudged her.

“No, I’m sleepy,” Yuu responded flatly. “I should just go back upstairs and ignore you lot.”

“You can’t leave Grim, you’re his Directing Student. Now c’mon.” Ace dragged her upright as Grim leapt to the ground and pushed her in the direction of the darkened kitchen. “I’m thinking starting off with vanilla before chocolate.”

“Deuce? You’re not gonna stop him?” Yuu craned her head over her neck to stare bug-eyed at Deuce, who was following them.

“I, I am,” Deuce said hastily, but made no move to get in Ace’s way.

“Deuce…” Yuu gave up on him. “You guys just got into trouble today during class. Have you forgotten the lecturing already?”

“That was Grim!” Deuce protested.

“All we have to do is not get caught this time,” Ace said complacently.

“You know that in Ortho-kun's words, that is a giant flag,” Yuu rolled her eyes skyward.

Grim was the first one to the refrigerator. “Fridge, ooopen!” he called out, flinging the door open with his paws easily.

“—Wait. So that’s why sometimes I wake up to see various things gone,” Yuu realised suddenly as she watched the deft motion. “Grim, that’s not the first time you’ve snuck food in the middle of the night, right? I knew it was you snacking while I wasn't around!”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff,” Grim waved her off.

Yuu was speechless. It was a good thing that his round paws couldn’t handle the use of a can opener yet, or her stock of tuna cans would be gone in a single night. In the first place, wasn’t he sleeping at night? How often did he wander around while she was sleeping?

“I’m gonna go for chocolate after all,” Ace sang, abandoning her to pull out the paper box happily.

“I want strawberry!” Grim fist-pumped the air.

“I can’t see anything. I’m not seeing anything right now,” Deuce crossed his arms and shut his eyes.

“Deuce, it’s not too late. Let's just go,” Yuu scooted back towards him and tugged him in the direction of the lounge.

“Wait, Yuu. —Hey Deuce,” Ace said solemnly, approaching. “Look over here for a sec.”

“Hm?” Deuce reflexively turned towards him. “Wha—fugah!? Whmmt mm you ooin’!?”

“This is Trey-senpai's handmade vanilla cupcake!” Ace snickered, shoving the cupcake further into his mouth. “Since you’ve put it in your mouth, you’re our partner in crime now. How does the flavour of crime suit your taste buds?”

“Ace, this is coercion and duress!” Yuu exclaimed, pointing at him and forgetting to be quiet.

Grim was already chomping on a delicately swirled cupcake and transforming it into a mess. “Mmm!” he emitted, crumbs flying. “There are real strawberry pieces in here… This has gotta be what they call ‘sinful and decadent’, mmm!”

“Gulp,” Deuce retrieved the half cupcake sticking out from his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “Vanilla bean… I, I mean, it’s bad manners to just leave something I bit on the table, so… Just one should be fine, right?”

Yuu covered her face with both hands.

“Ooh, there’s still carbonated juice lying around in here,” Ace was rummaging in the fridge now. “Cherry flavour! Good job, past me. This’ll go well with the cupcakes.”

“That makes no sense, and you guys really have no self-restraint, and I should just Stun you all right now to forcefully Levitate you up to your beds,” Yuu started massaging her forehead with the hands covering her face, regretting waking up at all.

“C’mon, henchman! You especially need to get in on this,” Grim declared, snout smeared with whipped frosting. “Since lately you’re not eating enough. That Jamil was nagging about it today, y’know! Plus Ace earlier!”

“Me?” Yuu pointed at her nose. “But I’m not hungry. Really.”

“Your whole hunger sensor is whacked out,” Ace licked his fingers before picking up another chocolate cupcake and aiming it threateningly at her face. “And we’re here to fix it! Now c’mon, say ‘ahhh’.”

“Get that thing away from me,” Yuu backed up warily. “Listen, you three can get into trouble as much as you want, but Schoenheit-senpai said—”

“Oh c’mon, Yuu, live a little.” Ace glanced over. “Deuce?”

“…Sorry, Yuu,” Deuce held her by the shoulders as she backed up another step. “But it’s true that you need to eat more. And they’re really good, as expected of Clover-senpai. For once, Ace seems to have the right idea about this.”

“You just want to rope me in with you since you got roped in by Ace!” Yuu spluttered in abject betrayal.

“Nya ha ha!” Grim snickered at them.

“You’re all villains!” Yuu pointed angrily at a smirking Ace.

“—Ara, ara. And what could these small mice be doing scuttling through the kitchen so late at night?”

By now, Vil Schoenheit’s deep and sharp voice had ingrained itself into all of their minds as a blazing alarm. All four of them froze in unison just as the lamps flared to life in Ramshackle’s kitchen, revealing the impeccably robed and made-up Dorm Head in leaning against the doorjamb, staring regally down his nose at them.

“Funa!?” Grim dropped the wrapper of his second cupcake, tail shooting up. “Tha-tha-that intimidating voice is… Vil!?”

“…It seems that I’ll have to dish out some punishment to the bad children who cannot follow the rules,” Vil lifted one finger to his cheek. While his voice was calm, there was a grim slant down to his painted mouth, a hard set to his jaw.

“—Senpai!” Yuu yelped as she saw his free hand reaching into the flared wide sleeve of his violet robe. Reminded keenly of how he had looked just as calm before flinging Grim into a tree weeks ago, she dashed across the empty space between him and their group and put both hands up placatingly. “I promise I’ll give these three idiots a stern talking to! Before we resort to violence—”

“—You know we’re all in our peak growing years, right?” Ace burst out, starting to scowl as he stomped his way beside her. “What’s wrong with getting hungry in the middle of the night, anyway! It happens all the time!”

“A-as a Heartslabyul Dorm student,” Deuce stammered a little bit before making a fist. “Ignoring Clover-senpai’s handmade sweets made especially for us is something, I mean, I just can’t really do.”

“Yeah! Wasting fresh food is a crime!” Grim waved his crumb-dusted paws.

“Shut up for a second!” Yuu hissed over her shoulder. She cleared her throat. “Schoenheit-senpai, this is completely my responsibility for failing to be a proper Manager—”

“—The time is almost ripe,” Vil cut her off. To Yuu’s surprise, she saw that he was not reaching for a Pen, but his smartphone, the backlit screen of which he briefly checked.

“Hah?” Ace exchanged confused glances with Deuce over her head. “What d’you mean, ti…me… Ugh!?”

“Fugyah!” Grim emitted at the same time that Deuce doubled over with a matching grunt of pain. Ace keeled over sideways; his shoulder struck the ground with a dull thud.

It took Yuu a full second before she managed to react, but by then, all three of them had collapsed in the kitchen entranceway, seemingly not of their own volition. She stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, her mind whiting out completely—before rushing for Grim, who was lying face-down on the wooden ground and grunting in apparent pain.

“Grim!?” Yuu’s voice spiked as she sunk to her knees. “Why did you all just collapse—Grim! Are you okay!?”

“My,” Ace gasped from his side, where he lay prone. “My—body—can’t—paralyzed—”

“Gu-guh,” Grim emitted while Yuu hauled him over on his back with some effort. “He… Henchman, I can’t, can’t stand up…”

“What the… Hell is…!?” Deuce strained out.

“—Wait—don’t… Tell me!” Yuu turned with Grim in her arms, just in time to see Ace’s wide eyes swivel upwards.

He stammered out, “You po-poisoned the food in the fridge?!”

Yuu finally looked up and viewed the cruelly smiling Vil, who had been watching quietly until now. At their disbelieving stares, he released a condescending breath of a laugh through his nose. “Fu. ……No, it’s not poison. What you’re experiencing is a ‘curse’.”

“!?” Yuu clutched the prone Grim to her chest protectively. “Y-you Cursed them!?”

“A curse…?” Deuce repeated in stiff confusion. “How do you even… Put a curse… Into food… Ugh!?”

“Deuce! Are you okay!?” Yuu hauled Grim into one arm and reached for the wand in her uniform sleeve. “Just wait, I’ll—”

“—Manager, listen before you act hastily,” Vil said calmly. “As you seem to have enough common sense to avoid such a trap, I’ll reward you with an explanation.”

“Senpai! I understand that they did something wrong but—” Yuu started.

“Calm down and listen,” Vil commanded. “—You behold the effects of my Unique Magic. Called Fairest One of All, or ‘The Poison of the Fairest Flower’, this magic is able to impart a ‘curse’ upon that which I lay my hands on.”

“…Curse magic,” Yuu whispered. “Jamil-senpai and Tsuno-tarou said that Pomefiore students are good at it.”

“Indeed. And I seem especially skilled towards such magic,” Vil nodded once before shutting both eyes. “—In fact, the intensity of the ‘curse’ is so severe, that until its ‘conditions’ are fulfilled, even I cannot resolve it.”

“But! But to Curse your own classmates,” Yuu began, unable to help herself.

“Listen until the end, Directing Student,” Vil opened his amethyst eyes to pin her in place. “This is the ‘curse’ that I cast upon the confiscated sweets not hours ago: The foolish ones that partake of these items will be struck with immobility until the sun rises.”

“…Immobility?” Yuu repeated dumbly.

“I don’t know what you think of me,” Vil looked down at her. “But I am not so foolish as to damage the weapons I’m currently honing beyond reason.”

“Oh.” Yuu emitted, faltering. The rushing in her ears subsided somewhat. “…It’s just immobility?”

“Do you think I’ve poisoned them as well?” Vil arched one champagne brow. “Unlike the Scarabia combo, my mind is firmly rooted in common sense. I wouldn’t do anything that would put my career in danger, of course.”

“But then, why is everyone grunting in pain like that?” Yuu asked a little apprehensively. “And forgive me, senpai, but I really don’t understand this ‘curse’ thing… Is it really not going to hurt them?”

“I-in the first place, something like this is possible…?” Deuce managed.

“But isn’t that—even scarier than poison?” Ace managed. “I have—a pretty sharp sense of taste and there was—absolutely no change or evidence it was ‘cursed’ at all!”

“Fu… Funa,” Grim managed to produce a much feebler sound than usual. “Me neither.”

“—Fresh Potatoes One and Two. I’ve said time and again that food products containing a surplus of sugars or additives were to be avoided in the advent of the VDC competition. Did I not?” Vil’s voice sharpened further as he stared down at the prone forms of Ace and Deuce. “Both of you have absolutely no self awareness of the importance of your role as selected members of the team!”

Yuu opened her mouth, couldn’t find a way to defend her friends, and shut it again. Perhaps just as quelled by the ever-correct and ever-cutting Vil, Ace and Deuce fell frustratedly silent, too.

Vil’s brows slanted down over his lashes. “As punishment, the three of you—yes, that includes the Manager’s assistant Grim—can lie around on the hard floor until morning.”

“But I—I just had the cupcake shoved into my mouth…!” Deuce started, voice still strained.

“No excuses! This is what’s called ‘collective responsibility’, you’d best learn it.” Vil cut him off coldly. “—Manager. It seems that you were the only one that didn’t eat a single bite, so I’ll let you off this time. However, don’t think you can presume everything’s on the table just because you’re not appearing on stage. Before rushing to your little friends’ defence, judge properly with those eyes. Who is in the right and who is in the wrong? Make sure those eyes can see the truth.”

“…Even if they’re wrong, does this really warrant being Cursed without knowledge?” Yuu drew her brows together, unable to resist the query.

While being immobilized—as if under the effects of a Body-Bind Curse—was far from the worst punishment one could suffer, Yuu had been trapped in a brief whirlwind of panic when her friends toppled to the floor one after another. Indeed, she had even wondered if the curse was more sinister, along the lines of ‘poison’ Ace had cried out moments ago.

Vil, however, had no sympathy for Yuu’s still-racing heartbeat. “You wouldn’t last a single night laying on the floor like these two potatoes,” he scanned her up and down critically. “If you don’t want to worsen that complexion of yours, return to your room immediately and go to sleep. Don’t you have to wake early to meet Jack tomorrow morning?”

“But,” Yuu began a little frustratedly.

Vil took one step forward and lifted Grim from Yuu’s arms by the striped ribbon collar. “No buts,” he commanded before pointing a manicured finger at the staircase. “Upstairs, now.”

“Funaaaa!” Grim’s voice was rather squashed as he dangled midair. “Yuu… Don’t… Leave the Great Me here…!”

“Silence!” Vil snapped. “The Manager might be as sweet as honey to you, but I am not the same. Good grief… How is it that every last one of you can behave in ways so utterly lacking in beauty? It truly escapes my understanding.”

“Ugh…” Deuce emitted, seeming to strain fruitlessly on the wooden floor.

Ace stopped scowling long enough to catch Yuu’s eye as she reluctantly edged towards the staircase. He winked.

Yuu released a quiet sigh in his direction before dragging her heavy feet up towards Ramshackle’s master bedroom. It seemed that tonight would, once again, be a sleepless one.

—

Only moonlight filtered through the curtains of Ramshackle’s darkened lounge. It was just barely enough to illuminate the open entranceway leading into the corridor and kitchen, and if she squinted, Yuu was able to make out the outlines of the prone figures of her friends and partner dyed in midnight.

Grim, lying spread-eagled on his back, was the first one to notice her presence. His nose twitched, and then he hissed, “Henchman? ‘S that you?”

“Yuu went to sleep,” Deuce muttered back, though he was stuck facing away from the other two on his side. “You saw Schoenheit-senpai practically march him upstairs a few minutes ago.”

“Nah, Yuu’s gonna come back any minute now,” Ace, lying closer to the door than the other two, said confidently.

“Hah? What’s that supposed to mean?” Deuce asked suspiciously.

“My henchman wouldn’t just abandon me!” Grim declared.

“We agreed on it,” Ace corrected. “Right, Yuu? I can’t see you, but you’re around somewhere, right? I heard a noise.”

“……I’m seriously debating just going back upstairs right now,” Yuu grumbled as she approached.

“Uwah!?” Deuce emitted, seemingly frozen in a botched attempt to twitch in shock. “…Yuu!? Is that you? Where are you!”

“Shhh! If Schoenheit-senpai hears us, we’ll all be in giant trouble!” Yuu hissed. “…Just in case he’s got some other Curse thing set up, I’m under the Disillusionment Charm right now, to avoid being seen. So don’t expose me, please.”

“Heh. That Vil’s got some scary Unique Magic, but he don’t know that Yuu’s got some super crazy magic too,” Grim crowed.

“The air is like… Rippling in places,” Ace followed her tiptoeing form in the darkened kitchen with sharp eyes. “So that’s you? You’re practically invisible and blending in with the background. Hey, can you cast that on other people, too?”

“Don’t distract me. I’m not doing anything for you for the near future, Disillusionment Charm included,” Yuu grumbled. “…Wingardium Leviosa.”

“Fuwah!?” Grim emitted as the three of them lifted from the ground. “I’m floatin’!”

“Shh!” Yuu hissed again. “…I can’t bring you up to your room, but Kalim-senpai’s expensive carpet is much better to lie on than the wooden floor, and totally sleepable if Scarabia’s carpets are anything to go by. Trust me, I’ve tried. …Just put up with the spell for a second.”

“Sleepable isn’t a word,” Ace sang, seemingly quite comfortable floating midair. She suddenly had an urge to pinch his irritatingly smug cheek.

“Can’t you use that other spell you used before? The one that makes the surroundings quiet,” Deuce suggested as Yuu carefully floated the three of them into the lounge. “Then we won’t have to whisper.”

“…You’re right. I forgot in my rush,” Yuu smacked her forehead. Sometimes growing up in Muggle society meant that her mind didn’t jump to magic as naturally as other witches and wizards.

After the four of them were situated on the lounge carpet, coffee table moved aside, and Muffliato safely cast, Yuu Summoned several blankets to pile upon the three of them, concerned about the lounge’s draftiness and general exposure to the elements. “Everyone sort of comfortable?” she asked. “…In times like these, central air would be nice.”

“I’d be more comfortable if I could move,” Grim complained as she tucked him in.

“Sorry, but there’s a phrase called you get what you deserve,” Yuu poked his fuzzy forehead. “Schoenheit-senpai’s Unique Magic scared me half to death, but if the punishment is nothing more than being paralyzed for a night, put up with it as the price for those strawberry cupcakes, got it?”

“I didn’t do anythin’ wrong! Wasting food is…”

“Yeah, a crime, I know,” Yuu sighed while she laboriously pushed the sideways Ace onto his back and threw a thicker blanket over him. Her shoulders slumped. “…Honestly, I feel bad for Trey-senpai, having his carefully made food being used like this. …I need to apologise to him later.”

Ace yawned widely. “Why d’you have to apologise? Make that uptight Vil apologise,” he grumbled sleepily. “…Man, I really can’t move an inch at all. I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow…”

“Yeah…” Deuce, who was a little subdued, sighed. “My muscles are completely locked up no matter what I try to stretch ‘em out. …Looks like that ‘curse’ really can’t be underestimated.”

“Why is each Unique Magic scarier than the last?” Ace complained. “Wasn’t Jamil-senpai’s something about mind control too? And now you’ve got a ‘curse’ that can do basically anything the user wants, plus it’s unstoppable even by the caster? This is worse than poison.”

“We can think about Schoenheit-senpai’s Unique Magic later, okay? First, we need to make sure it’ll really stop working when day breaks,” Yuu said worriedly. “…I keep thinking about Curses from my world, but it’s different here, right? Like Tsuno-tarou and Trey-senpai said, curse magic is simply ‘a magic that endows or applies an effect on the one it is cast upon’… It’s not necessarily Dark Magic, I have to keep that in mind… But that really scared me half to death just now.”

Grim interrupted her mumbling with a snore.

“…How can that guy sleep in this situation?” Yuu asked Ace, a little offended. “He could be in big trouble if the ‘curse’ has serious consequences!”

“Not like we could do anything about it,” was the sleepy response. “Plus, Vil-senpai’s kind of a celebrity. All eyes are on his every move, y’know? If he actually harms one of us, he stands to lose more than we do.”

“Why are you so relaxed!” Yuu pointed at his nose in the dark.

“I can tell you’re pointing angrily at me even with that Illusion Charm of yours,” Ace snickered at her. “C’mon, it’s not like any of us can do anything about it right now. Ain’t it smarter to try and get some rest so we can put up with the hell training tomorrow? I’m assuming Vil-senpai’s not gonna let us take a break just ‘cause of muscle pain.”

“You’re right, but you should reflect on your actions and stuff,” Yuu grumbled at the incorrigible first year. “Also, this is the second time food has gotten you in trouble. First it was a tart, now it’s a cupcake…”

“Okay, okay. Sorry,” Ace rolled his eyes. “…Though. Guess it was a good thing you didn’t eat anything, huh?”

“Says the guy who tried to force feed me?” Yuu snorted at him.

“…You feeling okay, by the way?” Ace asked in undertone, humour fading from his voice.

“?” Yuu blinked. “Me? I’m fine. You’re the one that’s not fine.”

“Oh come on. I’m not stupid. These couple of days, you’ve been in pain, right? I’ve seen you nursing your abdomen when no one’s looking.” Ace’s shrewd eyes glittered in the dark. “…Tell me if it gets really bad or something, got it? I know that Jamil-senpai’s always hovering over you like a helicopter parent, but he doesn’t know you as well as we do.”

“…Ace,” Yuu blinked in surprise. “…You could be considerate? Are giant meteors going to rain down from the sky tomorrow?”

“Oi!”

“Just kidding,” she snickered. Yuu reached over and squeezed his motionless index finger. “…I’m feeling a lot better, and it hasn’t been a big deal. Minor at worst.”

“Really?” Ace didn’t seem convinced, though the word was broken by another yawn. “…You know, I kind of wanted to make you eat those cupcakes just so you had some more carbs… You didn’t eat enough today since you fell asleep sitting up… Doesn’t take a genius to notice.”

“Ace…” Yuu widened her eyes.

“…Keep runnin’ yourself into the ground, and…” Ace’s voice trailed off.

“…Ace?” Yuu repeated after a moment.

Grim’s snore answered her, covering Ace’s slowing breaths.

“…Both of them can fall asleep so easily even while they’re cursed,” Yuu sighed. “…But I guess they both worked hard today, whether it was during extra lessons after classes or during practice. No wonder. —Deuce, are you asleep, too? I know you sleep early, but—”

“…I’m awake,” Deuce’s subdued voice came from her other side. There was a heaviness in his exhale.

Yuu released Ace’s hand in concern. Perhaps the more serious of the A-Deuce combo was feeling down, the same way he had looked at the road despondently on their way back from the Mystery Shop last September. Yuu scooted over to him on the carpet and peered down; Deuce was staring pensively at the ceiling, eyes clear of sleep despite the late hour.

“Deuce? …Don’t feel too bad,” she tried after a moment, forgetting her own exhaustion.

Deuce’s eyes swam in the air aimlessly. “Yuu? Where are you? I can’t see anyone,” he wrinkled his brow.

“Oh. Sorry,” Yuu had forgotten she was still Charmed. Deeming it safe enough to relax, she incanted, “Finite. Better?”

“Better,” Deuce finally met her eyes. Then he glanced sideways in reflex. “………Sort of. Uh… Sorry we roped you into this. You, at least, should get a good night’s sleep in a real bed, okay?”

“Hmm,” Yuu crossed her arms and stared down at Deuce’s averted eyes thoughtfully.

“We all can handle a night sleeping on a carpet,” Deuce continued. “But, even that inconsiderate Ace was concerned about you, and you’ve been tired out, right? I know you’ve been way overworked recently. So…”

“Deuce, you know something?” Yuu tossed a blanket over his dorm uniform and sat down next to him under her own.

“Hm? Thanks. What?” Deuce asked distractedly. “You should go back to your…”

“I was pretty close to never telling you my secrets several times,” Yuu confided to him. “…Especially about my gender.”

In the darkness, she saw Deuce’s eyes light with surprise before they met her own. It had been a while since she had seen them directly meet hers like this, and she could admire the blue-green even in the dark.

“When you came all the way to Scarabia during the Winter Holiday,” Yuu reminisced with a smile. “—That was probably when I realised it. That I had two choices in front of me. To be completely honest with you and Ace, or to completely resolve to lie forever.”

“……What made you decide to choose the first one, to tell us?” Deuce asked quietly, so quietly it was almost indiscernible beneath Ace’s and Grim’s slow breathing. “I remember that you said… You wanted to change…”

“Yeah. I wanted to be honest with you, because the words you said to me when we met have never left my mind, Deuce,” Yuu told him solemnly. “You said to someone like me, I trust you. So I always wanted to respond, to live up to that trust.”

“…Yuu. You took those words that seriously,” Deuce looked just as solemn.

“And now, I want to return those words to you,” Yuu continued. “To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on, what I did wrong, or what you’re thinking about, but Deuce. I trust you, and I would be… Very happy if you still trusted me.”

“Hah?” Deuce gaped. “Wait, of course I still trust you! What are you—”

“Really!” Yuu beamed. “Then can you tell me what’s on your mind lately? I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve even been in the same room.”

“—Eh?” Deuce sputtered to a halt. His eyes swam away from her again. “I, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“…Sorry, Deuce,” Yuu said determinedly. “But honestly, this is the best chance, even if disadvantageous for you, that I have. You can’t move at all right now. So I’m not gonna let it drop until I figure it out.”

“Wha—! Striking while I’m frozen is cheating!” Deuce burst out as she pushed him onto his back bodily.

“Yeah, I know. But I can’t hope to catch up to you normally if you want to run away, so this is my only shot,” Yuu managed. Determinedly, she planted both hands on either side of his head, and leaned over his face to forcefully met wandering eyes.

“Yuu!?” Deuce spluttered.

“Deuce! I’m serious!” Yuu cut him off, heedless of his shock. “What’s going on? You can tell me anything. Did I mess up somewhere? Did I make things awkward somehow? Or are you worrying about something? Don’t hold back. Lay it on me, I can fix whatever my mistake was. I’ve been working on that stuff a lot lately, so I should have some experience.”

“Ho-ho-hold on!” Deuce stammered hurriedly.

“And people keep lecturing me about stuff recently, so I can definitely take harsh words, no problem,” Yuu continued confidently.

“Wait!”

“Not this time,” Yuu shook her head, sending shorter tresses of hair bouncing between their faces. “Like I was honest with you, I want you to be honest with me.”

“—What if there’s something that’s kind of hard to say?” he let out, brows drawing together.

“It’s okay! I said can take it!” Yuu said confidently. “And whatever is going on, it can’t be as bad as a Death Eater, right?”

“That’s not really a comparison,” Deuce said flatly.

“Uh… Not funny? Sorry,” Yuu said sheepishly, but didn’t move.

“…Yuu. You still keep a ton of secrets from me,” Deuce began to stare at her rather accusingly. “And you won’t let me keep my own?”

“……You’re right,” Yuu blinked down at him after a brief pause. “…I even chose this unfair method of cornering you when you couldn’t run.”

“Why?” Deuce asked, frown one step away from a glare.

Yuu asked herself the same question. She pondered, “…I guess… I didn’t notice, but it’s affected me more than I thought. That you weren’t looking me in the eye. …I guess I’ve become selfish and hypocritical when it comes to my friends? Or something?”

“Then, can we talk about this another time?” Deuce asked hopefully.

“No,” Yuu blurted out. Then she hesitated. “…I should respect your boundaries? Or whatever it’s called. Right?”

“Yeah?” Deuce nodded with anticipation.

“Sorry,” Yuu said apologetically. “I’m a bad person who does not respect boundaries.”

“…….” Deuce let out a long sigh that stirred her bangs. “…Sometimes I forget you can get this stubborn.”

“I’m nosier than ever before, and plus, people around here build up stress by themselves way too much,” Yuu gave him a pointed glance. “So I’m gonna get it out of you tonight, even if you get angry at me. Well?”

“Are you really going to stay like this all night?” Deuce asked a little exasperatedly, gesturing to her arms with a glance. With some relief, Yuu noticed that he was meeting her eyes regularly now, with no inclination of averting them, even if his face was hard to make out clearly in the midnight lounge.

“Yes. Until my arms give out,” she answered confidently, adjusting the two palms planted on either side of his head. “Recently I’ve been sweeping a ton with a broom, right? And cleaning under Schoenheit-senpai’s directions. My arm strength has improved somewhat.”

“…That’s not the problem,” Deuce sighed. His expression firmed. “…Fine.”

Yuu released an echoing sigh of relief. She wasn’t used to being so assertive, and thought it was fortunate that her strategy worked.

“First, though, you’re probably misunderstanding something,” Deuce furrowed his brow briefly as he looked up at her. “You didn’t… Well, it’s not that you didn’t do or say anything, but… The problem isn’t you. It’s me.”

“If I caused whatever you’re fretting about, then isn’t it my problem?” Yuu wrinkled her brow back.

“…Back in September, when I first met you. You were a lot different from that person who told me your secret during the Winter Holiday,” Deuce stared over her shoulder reminiscently. “And, well, after we went into the Pensive—”

“Pensieve.”

“—And I saw your memory, even though I still don’t know how that works…” Deuce paused and searched for words. “…I realized just how different you used to be. …Of course. You were brought up in an environment like that. I should’ve known since you told us about it during the Trial in November… It’s obvious that you’d carry your past, no matter how much you look like nothing bothers you. I should’ve…”

“Deuce…?” Yuu blinked curiously. “…Did something about the Pensieve memory affect you?”

“You’ve said things like… How you were unpleasant, or how you deserved the treatment you got, stuff like that,” Deuce frowned at her. “…Remember what I told you about before, in September? I was the same way. I did a lot of stuff I’m not proud of, too.”

“Like bleaching your hair?” Yuu teased.

“…Like bullying people without magic,” Deuce said solemnly. “I was like one of those people who grabbed you by the collar in that memory we saw. …No, I was worse.”

“But you’ve changed, like you said you wanted to in September,” Yuu argued. “You’re a model student now, and I’ve never seen you bully anyone.”

“Changed?” Deuce released a self-deprecating laugh. “Have I?”

“…Deuce?” Yuu widened her eyes.

“…When stuff like this happens,” Deuce glanced around to indicate his current predicament, “…It’s shoved into my face that I haven’t really changed at all.”

“That’s not—”

“I get into trouble, I get into fights… And when I see Epel struggling, just like me, I…” Deuce paused. “I want to be an honours student, a model, someone who follows the rules and achieves excellence. And I won’t spare effort for that. But… The results aren’t really following.”

“Deuce,” Yuu said quietly.

“And so, when I saw your memory, who you were before… And after this past semester. The whole semester when I watched you for months from the closest spot,” Deuce narrowed his eyes at her in the dark, as if he were seeing something bright. “…I realized that the person who’s changed the most dramatically, who’s put in effort to improve and to grow—that’s you.”

“Me…?” Yuu had not been expecting this, and her arms wobbled in surprise.

“Unlike Ace, who’s irritatingly quick and has always got control of the situation, who’s socially adept and knows when to push and pull, you’ve always been more similar to me. I always thought so,” Deuce said almost absently. “So I just assumed that we were best friends, buddies… Comrades who shared a ton in common. Even if you’re crazy smart, you’re kind of clumsy, socially awkward, and have no idea the effect you’ve got on other people. And worst of all, you can’t detect enmity directed at you with such hostility, so I just… I thought that you were someone I could help. That I needed to help. That no one but me could help.”

“Deuce!” Yuu brightened. “I don’t know if you’re trying to insult me or not, but you’re right, we are! Best friends and buddies!”

“But,” Deuce’s gaze met hers briefly, and then as if blinded, he looked away again. “But you keep walking forward, and unlike me who wants to change but can’t, you’ve done it successfully. You’ve changed from the way you were before, and you’re far ahead of me now.”

“Eh…?” Yuu’s smile faded. “What, what are you talking about?”

“Unlike me or Epel, you can somehow just… Move ahead of your struggles, and I can’t do that,” Deuce said heavily. “We, who want to change, but can’t. Yuu, who continuously changes without stopping.”

Yuu stared at him uncomprehendingly.

“And I suddenly realized that you’re from a different planet—not just physically, but you’re completely different from me. Hell, I couldn’t even tell you were a girl,” Deuce made a movement like he wanted to shrug. “…Ow. …But after that night, it just became… Harder and harder for me to look you in the eye like usual. Because where I thought we were similar, it turned out that we couldn’t be more different.”

“Wait… a second,” Yuu said numbly. In the winter night, she felt the warmth leach from her hands and toes.

“Obviously, this isn’t you fault. I’ve been thinking a lot about change recently, what with Epel and the VDC and stuff. But someone like me, who can’t change…” Deuce grimaced. “I don’t know how I should treat you anymore, since you’re so far ahead. It just feels like you’ve left me behind.”

Yuu was silent.

“And, well, I d-don’t really have a lot of experience talking with girls,” Deuce stammered a little, not noticing. “Because back in middle school they all just ran the other way whenever they saw me—ow!”

A bright starburst of pain exploded into orange-white behind Yuu’s forehead. But she had been the one who had headbutted Deuce, so enduring the pain, she swallowed back her own shout and glared him nose-to-nose at point-blank range. This close, Yuu could tell through smarting eyes that the colour of his irises matched the peacock’s brilliant blue-green plumage she’d observed in Scarabia.

“~~~That hurt,” Deuce’s brows slanted down to narrow his eyes in displeasure.

“It… Hurt me more,” Yuu managed. She knocked her aching forehead against his again with much less force than the first time and solemnly observed him with watering eyes. “But… I was angry.”

“Were you always someone who used violence when you were angry?” Deuce asked, still scowling in pain.

“…Actually, probably,” Yuu thought about it. “What with Duelling Riddle-senpai and punching Aardvark in Savanaclaw and stuff. I guess it’s my resort when I don’t know what else to do.”

“And what did I say to piss you off enough to headbutt me like that?” Deuce wrinkled his nose. “By the way, you have a surprisingly hard head.”

“…It’s because Deuce said something like ‘you’re leaving me behind’,” Yuu scowled, flaring up. “How could you say that!”

“Eh? That?” Deuce blinked. “But it’s true…”

“……Deuce, if I’m no longer the Yuu that you could commiserate with, if I’ve changed, and I’m an alien girl like you said, then does that mean we can’t talk like before?” Yuu asked, feeling lost.

“Yuu…?” Deuce’s eyes widened.

“Like I said, Deuce has always been the first person who said you trusted me,” Yuu told him. She pressed her forehead against his as if in confession. “…Are you going to leave me behind now?”

Deuce protested, “What? No, it’s you that…”

“You say it’s me who’s leaving you behind, but it’s you that’s put distance between us with those words,” Yuu felt her brows draw together again. “You say I’m different from you, that I change but you can’t, …Stuff that draws a line between us.”

This time, it was Deuce’s turn to be silent, as if he didn’t know how to respond.

“I know that your goal is very important to you, and that you’re stricter on yourself than anyone else,” Yuu said. “But… I can help too, even if I’m different from you. No, because I’m different from you, I can help out somehow.”

“Yuu.”

“Plus, I’m far from as ‘cool’ as what you make me out to be. I had no clue you thought of me in that way,” Yuu puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction. “I’m full of mistakes, okay? In the first place it was me who was too cowardly to say anything about my gender for months, which has led to you worrying about these things and overthinking.”

“Overthinking? Me, not you?” Deuce seemed rather offended, and she felt his brows draw together in consternation.

“Yes, you,” Yuu didn’t back down. “…I learned how bad overthinking could be in Scarabia. It stops progress and makes you wander around in circles, and it can even cause things like explosions of emotion and panic attacks. I experienced all of that. …I couldn’t even avoid Jamil-senpai’s Overblot.”

“Yuu,” Deuce looked stricken, arm twitching. “Ow! Dammit, if only I could move…”

“Thanks to you participating in this VDC, you’ve been exposed to a lot of new things you weren’t exposed to before, even if dancing’s not really your thing. And even though you’re doing a great job improving this past week or so, I know you’re running into a lot of obstacles the same way as Epel is,” Yuu continued earnestly. “So thanks to that, you have a lot to think about, including about changing and improving things about yourself. But, but…”

“……” Deuce watched her struggle for words absently.

“But if… If at all possible… I wish we could talk the way we used to,” Yuu confided through the lump in her throat.

“!” Deuce’s pupils constricted.

“In the first place, I still need your help for a lot of things,” Yuu rushed on. “I’m still sort of clumsy, and socially awkward, and I rely on Deuce for all sorts of things about the Twisted Wonderland. I-if there’s something I’ve said or done that’s made you uneasy, like you are now, let me know what it is and I can fix it. And, I’ve studied about Deuce’s hobbies too, you know! So we can talk about things you like!”

“Yuu,” Deuce said again.

“Magical Wheels, right?” Yuu steamrolled over him. “I asked one of our classmates from Ignihyde about them since I know that Deuce likes riding. He taught me all sorts of—”

“Hah?” Deuce’s voice sunk an octave.

“—Eh?” Yuu’s diatribe was cut off by the ground bass in his voice. She blinked a few times, eyelashes almost hitting his.

“What are you asking that guy for? Ask me,” Deuce was scowling so hard she could feel the furrow in his brow. “In the first place! You have no sense of danger at all, even if it’s a classmate.”

“Deuce?” Yuu stared owlishly at him, unsure what had suddenly triggered this. “…But you didn’t seem to want to talk to me recently. So I thought maybe, if I had a common topic of discussion like your hobby, then it could help… That’s what Mister Samurai said.”

“Who the hell is that? Another one? …So is that why you’ve been running around so much lately?” Deuce seemed highly displeased. Then he sighed. “……I messed up.”

“Eh?” Yuu emitted again.

“…I didn’t think about it enough. The less I’m around, the more exposed you are to all sorts of…” Deuce’s eyes widened if he suddenly had an epiphany. “…Wait, if there’s distance between us, then someone else is gonna show up and kidnap you again!”

“Huh!?” Yuu gaped. “Where did you come to that conclusion?!”

“That can’t happen,” Deuce seemed anxious now. Then he screeched to a halt. “…Oh.”

“Oh?” Yuu repeated, bewildered. “Deuce, I’m not following your train of thought…”

“I get it now,” Deuce said triumphantly, ignoring her. “I’ve figured it out!”

“Figured what out?” Yuu knocked her forehead against his a third time, sulkily. “Can you tell me?”

“You’re an alien girl, and you’re full of magic and secrets, and… You’re not like me at all,” Deuce cast his gaze aside painfully, but only for a moment before peacock blue-green returned to meet hers. “But just now, when I was considering putting distance between us, you looked like you were going to cry.”

“Huh? I did?” Yuu blinked.

“I can’t make you cry,” Deuce said staunchly. His scowl deepened in a blaze of determination. “…And if leaving distance means some random classmate’s gonna take my place, I won’t allow it.”

“What random classmate? How come I can’t understand what you’re saying sometimes?” Yuu scowled right back. “Deuce, did you suddenly get smarter and start talking circles around me?”

“And most importantly, you still need me,” Deuce finished with a grin.

“Uh… Yeah?” Yuu agreed confusedly. “Of course I do.”

“Heh heh,” Deuce laughed a little embarrassedly. “……Well. To be honest, I felt pretty lonely not being able to talk to you this past month, too.”

“Deuce…!” Yuu emitted, feeling the warmth return to her fingers. “Does that mean…?”

“…Can’t be helped,” Deuce sighed. “Next time, ask me about MagiWhe and not those guys, okay?”

“Okay?” Yuu blinked. “I guess Deuce is really confident about your Magical Wheel expertise.”

“Close enough.” Deuce grinned apologetically up at her. “…Yuu. Sorry I’ve avoided you for a while. I guess I really was overthinking. …It won’t happen again, okay? I promise.”

“………” Yuu’s arms gave out suddenly.

“Whoa!” Deuce emitted as she collapsed on top of him, head hitting his shoulder. “You okay?”

“…My arms hurt,” Yuu realized, voice muffled.

“That’s why I asked if you were really gonna try having that entire conversation pinning me to the ground,” Deuce said a little exasperatedly from atop her head. “I knew this would happen.”

“…I didn’t notice before. I guess I was really worried that Deuce had finally had enough of me and didn’t want to be my friend anymore,” Yuu admitted sheepishly to the white fabric of his dorm uniform.

“That’ll never happen,” Deuce’s voice was solemn from above her head. “We’re ‘best buddies’, aren’t we?”

“Heh heh! Yeah, we are,” Yuu rolled to the side and peered up at him, stifling a yawn. “Deuce, are you feeling better after talking about it?”

“…Yeah,” he admitted, only able to move his eyes her way. “I still feel the same way about most things. While there’s a long road ahead of me, I want to change and become the person I want to be. That’s all.”

“You keep saying ‘change’, but what does that mean?” Yuu asked curiously. “I like your personality a lot already. Do you need to change any more?”

“I’m still far from a model honours student,” Deuce sighed. “…And during practice, me and Epel aren’t as good as Ace and the others at all. You’ve seen how we get stopped by Schoenheit-senpai more regularly than anyone else.”

“What are you talking about? You and Epel are like completely different dancers from a week ago. I should film you next time to show you,” Yuu protested.

“Yeah, but… I’m not satisfied,” Deuce glared determinedly at the ceiling.

“Okay,” Yuu rested her head on his outstretched arm and yawned, a sudden wave of exhaustion rushing over her. “Then let me know how I can help you do what you want to do.”

“Thanks, Yuu,” Deuce responded, catching her yawn. “This might be a fight I have to go through myself, but you’re already a great helper. Manager?”

“…And you have to tell me if next time I do something to make you want to put distance between us… Again,” Yuu continued.

“There won’t be a next time,” Deuce agreed. “Hm? Yuu? …Are you feeling sleepy?”

“And,” Yuu yawned again. “You need to tell me all your worries… So I can at least listen.”

“Right back at you.”

“And…”

“Okay, okay,” Deuce shifted slightly. “—Ow, dammit! Yuu, you should go rest in your bed, you’ll get sore tomorrow.”

“Hold on, Deuce…”

“You can talk to me all you want tomorrow,” Deuce’s reluctantly smiling voice softened. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“…Promise?”

“Promise,” Deuce answered. In her fading consciousness, his voice was a lullaby, one that told her, “So you have to promise you won’t go anywhere, either.”

—