Before we begin, please enjoy this writer’s special edition of: The ABC’s, But I Made Them by Me.

A

B

X

Y

3

2

1

Singing this is kinda fun

I didn’t plan this out

God I hope you like this song

A

B

X

Y

3

2

1

I should probably think about going into college sooooonnnbutMIThasanactualswimmingtessstttttlikewtfitsafreakinginstitueoftechnologyuyyyyyyitsinthenaaameeeeeeeeandicantswimmmmmmm

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“Together, forever. The END~~~!!!!”

“…WHAT THE FUCK?”

“Yeah Ammi honestly what was that”

“I liked it. It was very… you.”

“WHY DID I DIE FIRST?! IS THIS BECAUSE OF THAT YOGURT CUP?!? YOU DON’T EVEN LIKE MY MOM’S COOKING!!!!”

“Did Freckle eat me? Awh, you’d never do that, would you, Freckle?”

“mrrowww”

“You’re such a good little kitty!”

“hira stop pampering the damn cat let me process in silence”

“Uhm, Ammi— why weren’t like— Trillix and Suns and Juno and Danann in this?”

“Because I didn’t know how they would aaaacccctttt”

“Why’d you make me cry a thousand times? Are you stupid?”

“God— can you STOP!? I specifically asked you about how you feel about yourself and y—“

“—okay fine I’ll stop.”

“Yay!— Look, I even added in how Hira thinks Vera is actually a little cool— and how Jay really doesn’t like his nickname!”

“Which one…?”

“Hey, am I really a robot to you?”

“GUYS THIS WAS MY FIRST CREATIVE WRITING EXPERIENCE THAT ACTUALLY GOT DONE AND I AM NOT TAKING CRITICISM!!!” Ammi tossed her phone far, far away.

Vera groaned. “You need it. Where was the racism? Everyone knows I’m just even the slightest bit of racist! Like— I honestly think that’s a defining characteristic of me.”

Kindle’s sudden, weird face as a reaction made everyone fall silent.

“EW. YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT. IT’S NOT SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT!!!”

“It would’ve been a little more realistic! Someone’s gotta agree. I would’ve said some shit about Aeronians— y’know, when I was fighting Cara? I said it in real life, too!”

Hira frowned. “That’s mean. What did we ever do to you?”

“UH, I DUNNO, GOOD QUESTION— HIRA THEY BEAT YOUR ASS.”

“wuh”

“AND THEY BURNT YOUR ROOM DOWN! ALL YOUR HARD WORK!”

“True…”

Vera and Hira kept on arguing, Kindle interrupting to make a joke or two. Or, like, a billion. Meanwhile, QD and Rhine learnt that Ammi’s stupid story had sparked a new conversation, and went off to talk about that instead. Jay was simply comforting Ammi.

“It wasn’t a bad story. I liked it. Though, I’m not sure about my part…” He tapped his cheek in thought. “I mean, it wasn’t bad— I actually really liked it. But, I felt like I would’ve been a little more rash.”

Ammi gave him a disheartened look. “You’re the only one who really gets me… I knew you’d act like that! I knew it!!” She flew to his arms. “Ugh— they don’t see my true genius. Do they even understand how much TIME I SPENT MAKING IT!?” Muffled Ammi, burying her face into Jay’s elbow.

He stroked her hair. “Well, I thought it was perfect… I think everyone truly thinks so, too. They probably feel a little called out.”

“Really?”

“You can trust me. When have I ever lied to you?”

“uhm…” Ammi’s mind flew to the several thousand lies she made Jay tell in her absurd little book.

This didn’t bother him at all— he simply laughed it off. “It’s alright. Your spin on it was great. What inspired you to make it?”

“Well— you know how we tried to save the Sea with a few of those people from your home world but QD had to scratch that idea and she plunged herself into that 2-week long depression but then we got through it anyways and then Hira almost died and you just got done with your mid-life crisis?” Ammi rambled on.

“Yes,”

“I thought ‘Hey what if that all went extremely terribly wrong like really bad and what if everyone died’ so I made the story as a sort of revenge to whoever made QD sad because they’ll believe that they caused several thousand deaths due to their previous incoherent statements which will be implemented by directly implying that this story about ‘you’, usually an unnamed person the author the piece is talking about that everyone already knows is not you, when it is in fact in reality YOU!!!”

Jay blinked. “That’s very sweet of you, thinking about her like that.”

“I know, right? And I wanted to add a twist villain but I also didn’t want anyone to feel sad about being bad so I just made myself the villain aaaand tada Second Chance!!!”

“Very good!” Jay clapped gently. “What about the name? Was it just something you thought of, or does it have some extra meaning?”

Ammi worked herself up. “Oh— yeah— that’s like— the second chance given to learn about the Sea. It’s a personal thing.”

Jay nodded. “I see. Well, I appreciate the work. Keep writing.”

Finally, Ammi grew a large grin— the grin of a writer’s sudden sadism. “YAY! THANK YOU.”

“You’re welcome!” Jay gave her hair one last ruffle, as she raced off to go do something else that was totally useless.

“aaaanddd that’s what she said!!” Kindle teased, as we are now switching our point of view. Flawless transition, no?

Vera’s sudden child killing urges emerged. “that’s it you’re being put on the list”

Suddenly scared and confused as to what the list could be, Hira’s wings fluttered uncontrollably. “Wh—what do you mean by that?!” He accidentally smacked Kindle in the face.

“OWCH.”

Vera’s only response was a deep look into Hira’s eyes.

“Am— I on the list?!”

“Maybe.”

“AGH—-!!!” Hira had the habit of taking jokes too seriously, especially Vera’s.

Freckle did not want to be around this blundering buffoon. He padded away.

“FRECKLE NO WAIT YOU’RE MY ONLY PROTECTION”

Unable to contain his laughter anymore, Vera burst out, clapping Kindle’s back and shaking her like a bag of buttery popcorn. “DUDE are you HEARING THIS IT’S HE’S SO FUCKING STUPID”

“Areeeeyyyoouuuttrrryyinnnggggttoooorreeeegaaaaaiiinnnnyyyyooouuurrrtttooouggghhhh
gggguuuuuyyyyypppeerrrrrsssooonnnallllliiitttyyyaaafffttteeerrrAaaaammmmmiii
’ssssreeeaaaddddddinnnggggggmmmaaaddddeeeeyyyyyoooouuuuuccccrrrrrrryyyyy?” Kindle responded like a washing machine.

“I am not translating that.” Suddenly, Vera frowned, freeing the idiot dirt child from his grasp like a certain character in a certain story of toys exclaiming ‘I don’t want to play with you anymore,’ whilst dropping a toy.

Vera ignored Kindle’s everlasting attention seeking ‘hey smelly look at me’ and ‘stop ignoring me’s, then turned to Ammi, passing by. “Ammi, who else read that thing?”

“Uhm. Like, two people. Or three.”

“Pssh, how disappointed are they gonna be when they find out it was fanfic about your most favorite people in the world? And you probably fantasize your friends dying? And that none of it ever really happened??”

Ammi scoffed, turning 180, facing her back to Vera. “You’re so annoying— just go away! Some people can’t appreciate true art, hm?”

Silently, Vera crept up on Ammi, then pounced at her. He snatched her up into a headlock. “Please, THAT thing was ‘true art’?!” He rammed his knuckles into her hair, rubbing them against her head.

“GAHHH—-“

Vera couldn’t help but descend into teary laughter again. “YOU— LITERALLY SUCK SO BAD OH MY GOD—“

Rhine caught the conversation, then angrily eyed Vera from the side. “Ugh, it was bad, but— why are you being so lame about it?”

Rhine is thirty seven. Why is she using the word ‘lame’.

“It’s funnnyyyy!”

“Vera, how old are you?”

“Twenty three and three fourths!” He proudly announced, his hands flying to his hips and freeing Ammi.

QD held in her laughter. “He’s 17.”

“I AM NOT!!!”

Instead of pissing Vera off further, Rhine realized she never knew his actual age and shouldn’t have taken him out on a few of those… trips they had together.

“Hold on— WHAT!?” She turned to QD, alarmed.

As if it was common knowledge, QD shrugged. “Yeah. He looks older, I know—“

Rhine shook her head, smacking herself silly. “UGH—“

“Hey, what is it—?!”

“It’s just— morally WRONG!”

Vera grew a sinister grin. “What, that time when you took me out—“

“YES— do not tell ANYONE.”

QD’s face twisted into full horror. “Oh my gods. YOU GUYS WENT OUT TOGETHER!? OOOH WHERE DID YOU GOOOOO?!?”

“Not like that—“

“WHERE!?”

“We went out dr—-“

“WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?”

“aaawwWWWWHHHH COME ON I WANNA KNOW I WANNA KNOW I WANNA KNOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE” The one thing that could kill QD was the unknown. She was too curious for her own good.

Jay shushed them from across the room. “Quiet Coyote~”

“oh my gods, Jay.” Vera frowned.

Kindle, unlike Vera, responded. “Shhhhh!”

“You gotta stop doing that—“ Rhine was cut off by immense shushing.

Politely covering his mouth as he chuckled to himself, Jay found his little joke the most amusing of all the entertainment that had enveloped him. “Sorry, you guys were being a bit too loud. And, anyways, don’t we have something much more important to do now? It’s that day.”

Ammi jumped up out of nowhere. “Oh, yeah! That day!”

Kindle never kept up with the schedule. “What day?”

Beaming and over her curiosity wave, QD was in the mood to explain. “Aeronia day!”

“uggghh… not Aeronia day…” Groaned Hiraeth from the hall.

In a joyful mood, Kindle hopped over to Hiraeth. “What? You scareeedddd???” She tried to tackle him (because she has been so poorly influenced), but couldn’t move the really tall pole Hiraeth had taken form of.

“Uhm, yeah. Did you see what they did to me?!”

QD clapped Hiraeth’s back. “It’ll be alright! We’re going over there to help out with a few things. Or— like— everything wrong with it. Like how we did for that one world Kindle really likes!”

“Name pending! I still have to ask Zachy if he’s learnt it yet~! Wow, he’s such an idiot.” With disdain, Kindle clasped her hands together, swooning lovingly. This is Kindle’s sarcasm 101.

“…Anyways,” QD teasingly turned away from the sight of Kindle. “we still have a few bits of work left to do. We fixed the anomalies in Verdant and Arcane pretty easily… but we can’t just do anything of our usual magnitude in them yet. Which leaves Aeronia, Day Two, and Reading Red up next!” QD ticked off the mental boxes.

Rhine put a hand to her cheek. “Ooh, I’m excited to see Era again!”

Pulling Vera over (by his ear, he’s not a very good listener), Jay nodded as he listened to the plan. “In order to start any of those, we need to help out Aeronia first. Not a problem, right?”

Hiraeth groaned again, hiding himself in his wings. “Uh-huh,”

“Haha! I’m really looking forward to seeing you cry about it.” Vera stuck a tongue out to Hiraeth, who responded with an even angrier tongue out. He’s grown some attitude since he last felt like himself.

Jay, taking the role of ‘Vera Containment Proxy Chairman’ without actually paying attention to his role and taking all the others in the Vera Containment Facility, gave the Vera to be Contained a smack in the back of his head.

“ow.”

“You’ll do great, Hira. Plus, you’re the only one who can really help us, so you have no choice.” Jay smiled somewhat bitterly.

Rhine gave a quick thumbs up towards Hira. “Yup! So, tell us things we don’t know about Aeronia first.”

“…like what? I already explained the social hierarchy. And the whole everything else. A thousand times. Whenever you asked for it. Which got tiring.”

QD rolled her eyes, nevertheless enjoying the company. “She means your own experience. We can have that all on paper, but what we really need is an actual understanding of an average day for anyone living in Aeronia. If we’re gonna sabotage, we obviously need to blend in. That’s what we mean!”

“No one can understand your thought process. Like, I have no idea what we apparently mean by that.” Kindle commented on QD’s explanation with a frown. She took matters into her own hands. “Just give us a childhood story! I mean, this is your first and only time to give us insider info on a world! We did it before, with Zachy-boy.” She reminisced about Zachy-boy. Which, truthfully, she does often. “I mean, he SUCKED at it, ‘cuz he was being sad in the Snow Paths, but it worked.” Kindle shrugged, relishing the opportunity to over share info about her favorite person at any time.

“Can we move on?” Vera raised an eyebrow, already getting bored from lack of things to not care about.

Ammi burst out of nowhere with a notebook. “Yeah! Let’s get started!” She liked putting pen to paper and not finger to hologram while taking notes. Only because it added to the experience, however. She’s gotten carpal tunnel before. “Head over to our silly little conversation pit~!” Ammi led the way enthusiastically.

“I still think the installation of this thing was totally unnecessary.” Vera complained as he surrounded himself with pillows, feeling like a king, thinking the installation of the pit was totally necessary as everyone took a seat.

Taking a deep breath in before starting, partially to prepare himself and partially for dramatic effect, Hiraeth closed his eyes to remember.

“Something second lives, like me, can do is remember about everything they’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to our last lives, even though everyone thinks it does. Oh, which also leads us to believing there’s something wrong with us, causi—“

“WAIT WAIT WAIT CAN I READ THE NOTES AFTER WE’RE DONE?” Ammi butt in, jumping in her seat (Vera’s lap) a little too high, hitting her head on the seat (Vera’s chin), and tossing her writing materials everywhere (Jay’s face and QD’s arm).

Slightly ticked off by the sudden jump, Hiraeth bit his lips and slowly nodded.

Ammi relaxed after picking up her things and sitting back down comfortably in her seat (Vera trying to reset his jaw). “Thanks.”

“Where was I…”

“There’s something wrong with us, causi?” Rhine suggested, as if her answer was incorrect.

“Oh, I just wanted to say ‘where was I’ to sound cool. Also, I was going off on a tangent. I’m actually starting now.”

Rhine sunk back on a pillow (Vera’s pillow/shoulder), nodding.

So… like… usually, second lives can be born three ways. They can be born outside of the Academy and or Palace— with parents— or born inside the Academy-Palace with parents, or just be born in the Academy-Palace whatever without any parents at all. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to just be born outside, all alone. Anyways, I was born in the Academy-Palace without any parents. I was already off to a great start, too, because it rarely happened, and I was already set to go by our government. They kinda technically were my parents, so they didn’t have to go through any of the whole process they do to get the second life children. Plus— they literally owned me. Not that the government doesn’t consider everyone property already… they just owned me thirteen THOUSAND times more than they would’ve.

Ugh, and they do treat us like objects, too. We really are property… but, little me didn’t know it at the time. —Moving on! I appeared on top of a stairwell. And some student tripped at the sight of me, toppling over their books and barely squishing me to death. Oh, by the way, second lives are already born with clothes. It’s not like I was butt naked. That’s really weird.

I would’ve died laughing if you weren’t!

VERA, SHUT UP! HE’S TRYING TO TELL HIS WHOLE LIFE STORY AND YOU’RE BEING VERY DISRUPTIVE.

Guys. Shhh.

Fine.

Ah… thanks. anyways…

The student profusely apologized to me, an actual baby, then ran off to go tell someone I appeared. Soon enough, this… …hm… how do I explain it… this guy is like a professor, but he’s also a few other things— like a head of a position you can tell important business stuff to…? And he’ll relay the message and all of that. That guy later on becomes my teacher or professor— whichever you prefer to use… I think they’re the same thing to us… oh, that’s because the student was his— and then he’s my teacher later because that group of kids that this student was in graduated by the time I was ready to go to school so funny little coincidence isn’t it? Hey do you know how people actually gradu—

Uhm, Hira, I don’t wanna write all of that down. Could you. Uhm. Continue in order…?

Oh, sorry! So… My professor basically picks me up and takes me to the caretaker’s house. From there, they just gave me a name, room, and caretaker. My room was bigger than everyone else’s, since I was born in the Academy without a parent. I guess it’s just a reward for being better at being mind controlled, hehe.

…yeah, I shouldn’t laugh at that. Now… My caretaker was pretty sweet, actually. He was one of those special first lives— they sometimes have these amazing talents and abilities, usually coming with a form of magic that second lives don’t get. His was healing! That came in handy once I got this deep paper cut I wouldn’t stop bawling over… more on that later.

Imagine just a small little child, with stubby wings that haven’t even grown in yet, wandering around a huge room with multiple rooms and floors inside of it— constantly getting lost and then having to be found by his caretaker after, like, six hours. That was me. Everyday. I commend my caretaker for putting up with me. Anyways, that’s what my life was like for the first three years. Awh, wait— I have this sweet memory where I wanted my hair to be as long as his, but I couldn’t really say anything because I was a baby. Hey, hair is actually kinda important for Aeronians, like how Rhine constantly fusses over her hair like a human girl would— but in a different way.

My hair always looks great. I don’t need to fuss over it.

Ooh, I’m a little curious. Could you explain that— that hair thing?

Sure! The longer your hair, the more physically capable you are. So— usually— second lives have shorter hair, since we’re usually all high-up scholars. Lots of first lives do, too. By the way,

second lives are just meant to be scholars, while first lives can do whatever they want. Okay— back to the original topic! Guards have longer hair… and then the Elders usually have longer hair too. Since they’re meanies. That’s why I had these weird impressions of you guys when I first started to come to the Sea! Kindle being tiny but having long hair made me unnecessarily afraid of her… Jay having longer hair made me feel comfortable around him… then Rhine’s hair did, too— but she was pretty scary anyways… Vera made me terrified, because his hair is crazy and there’s a lot of it— also, your skin is blue. Like— I thought Jay just had a disease—

—huh?—

—but you were blue!! Then QD severely confused me. I thought she was either strong and hiding it, or weak and hiding it.

Interesting… Ammi, did you get that?

Yes… hold… on… I’m… writing… and… speaking… speaking... at… the… same… time… but… I… also… want… authenticity— a-u-t—… in… our… tones… and… writing…

You little nerd.

…stop… it. …Done…!

Uh, where did we leave off at?

You constantly got lost as a kid?

Oh— thanks, Jay.

Mhm.

So… I was just living happily— but not really happily— since our emotions were still repressed… Anyways, the day of our testing came along. The incoming class of second lives are expected to take an entrance exam to— and I’m not joking— determine our seating chart. It’s stupid when you hear it like that, but it’s literally just another hierarchy thing. The very middle seat at the very front is for the best students, the ones the teacher likes. Then, the very back and corner seats are for those who suck and constantly cause trouble, blah blah blah.

(Hiraeth is very salty about this topic)

Usually, the seats swap after two weeks, because your horizontal position depends on how much the teacher likes you. That wasn’t the case for us, though.

My seat was in the front row, because I somehow did well on the test. I think most of it was about etiquette, or other things we should’ve known by the time we were literally five years old. I wasn’t in the very middle, but I was close. I was just one seat over. The girl in the middle is very important later on. Then, other kids sat all around us, like usual. Some girls who were placed next to each other all started to introduce themselves, and these two boys next to me did the same. Soon, everyone started to introduce themselves, and everyone’s names were being passed around and remembered. The two boys who sat next to me asked me for mine, but I never said anything, because I absolutely refused to speak a word anywhere. I honestly don’t know or remember why… even though I can remember all this other stuff. Then the school day started, very orderly. I don’t know how we’d managed to not start making a mess, since we were FIVE. Ahem—. My very first day EVER in school, we went over the basics in about twelve minutes. I remember watching the clock!

Good for you…

Mhm! Anyways, then we went straight into taking notes and doing school stuff like reading. I had trouble with reading— out loud. Either way, good with speaking or not, I completely messed up my first day by just staring at the clock, the door, my professor, then drawing on my papers and getting ink absolutely all over my hands. In the front row. Ugh— I was so stupid— sometimes, I wish I could go back and tell myself that I could draw after school and after my schoolwork. Once the rows change, we get our notebooks with our names on them, and then those are our accurately assigned seats until otherwise said. Unfortunately, this happened the very next day. I have a feeling everyone knows who got swapped.

Literally EVERYONE ELSE was in the SAME SPOT. I HAD TO SWAP WITH SOME KID IN A CORNER SEAT AT THE VERY BACK!!!

Hm? What’s this?

Oh, hi Juno. I’m telling my life story!

…why?

We apparently need it!

I see… can I take a listen?

Sure! Just read over Ammi’s notes to catch up.

Thanks.

Mhm!

Anyways… where was I… oh, yeah. CORNER SEAT. Get this— my caretaker didn’t even say anything about this, but apparently he also had to stay by my side AND MAKE SURE I DIDN’T MESS AROUND. UGH. Like, five-year-old me didn’t understand why, so I wasn’t mad about it. NOW I AM. I hate home so, so much… by the way, fun notebook fact—

—why are you literally switching up that fast—

—our notebooks had just our names on them. None of the honorifics. Some of the kids joked that our best friends, parents or caretakers had to write our names for us, since only people close to you or your classmates could refer to you with just your name. Everyone assumed it was either. I only had my caretaker, who was with me all the time, except for during the test… so I figured it was him.

It was none of the three mentioned above. Some guy just did it.

Oh, two things—! First, we obviously didn’t actually joke about the names on our notebooks. Because none of us knew what an emotion was at the time, which changes later. Secondly, that stupid entrance exam was my first taste of Aeronian HELL. It wasn’t hard— the only thing hard about it was trying to focus. I drew on my hand for more than half the time.

You really like drawing, huh…?

No. I don’t think anyone knows what a drawing even is in Aeronia. I just scribbled all over my hands and papers… which probably made it seem like I had a terrible mental illness even more, since none of what I did was normal.

Yeah, I had to teach you what a drawing was! I still have our first drawing together.

I didn’t know art could be so technical, too.

Eh. That was just a few tricks on how to make things look nicer.

That was fun, QD.

It was!

Let’s continue, yeah? We don’t have a lot of time. No tangents unrelated to the topic.

But, wasn’t that a little related…?

Jay, you know what I’m talking about.

Mhm…

Alright then. The second day… the professor had to actually instruct me to my seat, since I never thought it’d be in the back. Which made everyone stare at me. Which made everyone see where I walked to. Which made everyone saw my caretaker next to me. Which made everyone stare at me for the rest of the day. Which made me a distraction— which made me punished for it. I had to sit in after class for another three hours and do some extra learning. Unfortunately, I had to sit at the very middle and very front, since that was the only way the teacher could see what I was doing. Later on, I had to do this about everyday, since the teacher barely trusted me at all… he always asked me to read out loud, too! He even said since it was just him in there, it would be alright… sometimes I like to think that there was at least someone else like me in some other class. Someone I could relate to? But there was no one. I was just a rare malfunction, but I could still cause everyone else to break.

Like how I did during our next two grades— like… the second grade, I believe. I got better at doing what I was supposed to, and while people moved up a seat or two occasionally, I still sat in the back. Our first group project was approaching, and it was time to pick our groups. We were always able to choose them, since smarter kids gravitated towards each other and everyone’s performance still turned out the way it always had. This was when I learnt that our class… was weirder than Aeronian standards.

Our head student instantly turned around to me when she heard the call to stand up and look for three other partners, even though I remained seated and refused to move. My caretaker was probably about to get fired, too. I mean— he didn’t— but he’d definitely get blamed for my behavior.

***

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“…”

“…mine is Kyian. You’re gonna work with me. No one else is gonna take you, so I figured I would. Think of me as a savior.”

“Kyian, I wanted to work with him.” The head student suddenly appeared next to the two.

Kyian turned to the other boy. “Who do you wanna work with?”

“Let’s all work together, okay?”

“Ohh, good thinking, Rea.”

Rea nodded. “Thank you. Do you not know his name?”

“He never told anyone on the first day. Why didn’t you?”

“His name is Hiraeth.”

Kyian turned his head to the side. “Are you his caretaker?”

“Yes.”

“Why doesn’t he talk? Why does he get ink all over himself? Have you ever thought about taking his pen away?”

“We’ve been trying to—“

“—you don’t need to explain. We’ll work with him anyways. Hiraeth is a great name. There’s a few other Kyians… and other Reas… but I haven’t heard Hiraeth before. It’s unique. It’ll look good on our project.”

“We can make it the biggest thing on it. That would get us some extra points, wouldn’t it? If it looks good…” Kyian pointed out.

Rea shook her head. “No, Kyian. That would make us lose points. The professor doesn’t like Hiraeth.”

“Maybe it’s because he uses himself as a notebook.”

Another kid walked over. “Rea, can I—“

“Work with us? Sure.”

“No. I don’t want to work with you.” The kid pointed at Hiraeth. “Bye.”

“Oh, bye.” Kyian waved.

Rea’s face looked a little stranger than it should’ve. “Why… didn’t he… want to— to work with us?”

“It’s not you, Rea. It’s Hiraeth. He’s the worst in the class.”

Slowly but surely, Rea started to sniffle.

“Rea, come here.” The caretaker commanded with a smile.

“O—okahh—-hhh…”

The caretaker held her left hand, and pressed on the injector on it.

Soon, Rea’s face was back to normal. “Oh… thank you.”

“Of course. Next time, be careful. You don’t want to let that happen again. Someone could get hurt.”

“Thank you again. Sorry about that.”

“It’s no problem.”

Kyian’s face also got stranger. “Why did your face look weird? Why did you start making those sounds? What’s going on?”

“Kyian, it’s very dangerous to make your face go like that. Don’t do it.”

Hiraeth’s head turned over to Kyian, curious.

“How do I not do it?”

The caretaker was now dealing with thousands of problems. “When you breathe, just do it slowly and fill yourself up with air.”

“Okay—!” Kyian started to get nervous.

***

“Our emotions were suppressed.” Hiraeth explained. “That’s why you guys had to teach me what they were.”

Vera suddenly smiled, recalling the moment. “Oh, yeah! Then you started to freak out about freaking out! That’s because you thought it was dangerous to ‘make strange faces’, huh? Then you cried for hours! And you thought you were gonna die!”

“I hate you forever.”

“What? It was funny!”

***

“There you go. All better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Rea turned to Hiraeth, tapping him to get his attention. “Are you okay, too?”

He stared.

“I’m going to take that as a yes.”

“We still need another partner. We’re wasting our time dealing with Hiraeth’s talent for getting other people in danger.”

“He doesn’t have that talent.” Rea turned to Kyian.

Refusing, Kyian countered. “Yes, he does. Ven didn’t want to work with us because he was in our group. Then, that made you get strange. It started because of Hiraeth.”

“Oh. It did.”

Hiraeth planted his head on his desk.

“But, I chose to work with Hiraeth because I want to be his friend. He doesn’t have any. Let’s be his friends.”

Kyian shook his head. “I don’t want to be friends with Hiraeth. He’s going to get me in trouble, then the professor won't like me anymore.”

“You sit on the edge, Kyian. He already doesn’t like you.”

“At least I’m on the second row.”

“I’m in the first.”

“I’m still better than you.”

“Can I see your grades?”

“You’re very unprofessional.”

“—said the professor to your research paper.”

Kyian’s face got strange again. “I’m still better than you.”

“Then take my seat.”

The caretaker wanted to die more than anything right about now.

“Look, you’re making strange faces. You have the talent for danger.”

“Hiraeth gave— me it. He’s— a disease—“

“—I don’t want you to work with us anymore.” Rea closed her eyes, turning away from Kyian and forcing him to talk to her hand. “Find another group.”

Kyian looked like he was about to burst. Instead, he took deep breaths, calming himself. Then he walked to find another group.

The caretaker sighed with relief, immediately pressing on his injector.

***

Rhine chuckled. “Is that like taking a shot after some stressful work day?”

“No, it was more like my caretaker also got too emotional. Probably because of the stress… anyways, he had to hide that, so he injected himself.”

“Wow.” Kindle grimaced. “You do have a talent for danger!”

Hiraeth smiled and nodded. He found it funny now. “Yeah. Any time I was involved in anything, everyone around me started to show their emotions. I think I was either too difficult, or too funny.”

“Sorry, funny? Like, people laughing with you?”

“Yes,” Hiraeth raised an eyebrow as he turned to Vera. “Am I not funny?”

“Not at all! I’ve only ever laughed at you.”

“I make good jokes!”

“Uh? No you don’t?”

“Whatever. You act like a child, anyways.”

Vera rolled his eyes. “At least I’m having fun.”

QD butt in. “Hiraeth, don’t you act like a child, too?”

“There’s a difference between trauma making you act up and then just being stupid, like Vera.”

“Do the story thing, okay? I liked it better when you were talking about how you sucked.”

***

“I’m going to ask the professor if we can just work together. I don’t think anyone else would like to work with you. Sorry.” Rea promptly turned around, then up to the professor to ask him about their group.

Hiraeth waited.

In the meantime, his caretaker bent down to him. “Hiraeth, make sure you do your own work in the group, too. Rea’s grade also depends on you. We’ll talk about this once the school day is over.”

Staring at his caretaker like he always did, Hiraeth continued to wait for Rea.

She came back with two other kids. “We couldn’t work alone. There’s enough people for groups of four, so that’s what we have to do. This is Leya, and this is Aleti. They’re going to be our partners. Say hello.”

Leya nodded a hello. “Hey. Do I have to work with you?”

“I don’t want to work with him.” Aleti turned to Rea. “I wanted to work with just Leya. Everyone else is either too stupid or they already had a group.”

Leya and Aleti were both in the front row.

“I agree.” Leya eyed Hiraeth. “He’s the worst in the class. He’s going to bring our grades down.”

Rea’s face got strange again. “Everyone keeps saying that. I’ve heard it a thousand times. If you two were really smart, you’d know that. You should move to the back row.”

“Rea, sometimes you’re smart. And other times, you’re informal and dumb. This is one of those times.” Leya blankly stared at her. “Why would you pick him in the first place?”

“He’s interesting. I wanted to look at him closer, since my friends swarm me during break time. Wouldn’t you two also like to learn more about him?”

Aleti looked over at Hiraeth. “The first thing we’d need to learn is his name.”

As if asking if he wanted to answer, Rea turned to Hiraeth. Once she received no answer, she said it herself. “His name is Hiraeth. I think it’s unique.”

Suddenly, Leya nodded. “Very unique.” At times, she wanted to impress Rea. This was one of those times. “There’s probably thousands of Leyas. I’ve never heard of a Hiraeth before. Who gave you your name?”

Hiraeth said nothing.

“I forgot you don’t talk. Why doesn’t he talk?” Leya turned to his caretaker.

“He—

The clock’s chime struck. The school day was over. Students poured back into their desks without question.

“You’ve all received your project guidelines. They’re due tomorrow. Please get together with your group to work on them.” The professor announced.

“Thank you, Ade!” The children hummed in unison.

“You’re very welcome. Dismissed.”

Rea came hopping over to Hiraeth, already dressed in her cape and carrying her school bags. “Where were you born? Is your room big?”

The caretaker answered this. “His room is very big.”

“That’s good. I was born outside, and so was Aleti. Leya was born inside, but she has parents and a smaller room. Do you have parents?”

The caretaker answered once more. “No, he does not.”

“Okay. That means no one to quiet down for. I’ll call Aleti and Leya over.” Rea waltzed over to them. She always forgot there was no running in the classroom.

The three girls spoke for a while. Then, Rea came back with the response.

“They wanted to work at my place, but I said it was best that we worked at yours. I honestly don’t know why they wanted to work there… it’s a little far. Anyways, give me your room number, and we’ll come over with some materials and dress into our room clothes. You can do the same. We’ll give you time. See you later.” Rea promptly waved as she took the room number from Hiraeth’s caretaker.

***

“Hey, when are we actually gonna go to Aeronia?” Kindle raised an eyebrow. “Are we just gonna listen to your stories?”

Sipping from a glass of… uh, QD’s weird drink concoction, Hiraeth processed the question. “We need information, don’t we?”

Rhine nodded. “Yup. We’ll just have to listen a little more. All in good time, Kindle.”

“Ugh, thanks. I feel like these notes are gonna be a bit boring. When we read them later, it’ll probably bore us to death.

“Hey… don’t… critic…ize… my… notes.” Ammi finished her sentence, sticking her tongue out with concentration as the carpal tunnel returned.

***

“Hiraeth. Tomorrow, you’re not going to school.”

Hiraeth suddenly turned to his caretaker.

“You won’t be taking any injections for the next three days. That means you can’t go outside, otherwise you’ll risk putting your classmates and others in danger.”

Hiraeth clung onto his caretaker’s leg.

“I know, this came out of nowhere. You won’t get hurt, though. There’s checkups soon. All your classmates will get theirs. You’re a special case, though. This means you must stay in your room and be polite. I’ll bring your schoolwork, and I’ll teach you myself.”

I had checkups more often than other kids did. I had twice as many. Later, I’d learn that I was an extremely rare case in Aeronia, and they wanted to learn more about me… which sickens me a little, especially after how the checkups made me feel.

“Can you get into your room clothes by yourself? I’ll get your work from your professor. Don’t mess with anything. This won’t take very long.”

And with that, Hiraeth’s caretaker was gone.

Hiraeth never wanted to make his caretaker start making strange faces, although he did it quite a bit. Whenever Hiraeth did the opposite of or did exactly what he was not instructed to do, his caretaker made strange faces. This unfortunately highlighted Hiraeth’s ability to create danger wherever he went.

In order to avoid any of that…

Hiraeth changed into his room clothes, brushed out his hair, washed his face, and organized his reading bed and books. It took a great deal of effort, since Hiraeth barely wanted to move at all. He felt he could think of much more important things.

When Hiraeth’s caretaker came back, he saw Hiraeth all neat and sitting politely on his reading bed. His caretaker made a strange face, despite all of Hiraeth’s hard work.

“Nicely done, Hiraeth.” He sat down next to the small child, patting its head. “Sometimes, I think you can do much more than everyone thinks you can.”

Hiraeth simply stared.

A knock was made at the door.

“That would be your group mates. I’ll clear out a space for you four to work on. Be polite, and I’ll let you read a book tomorrow.”

HIRAETH REALLY WANTED TO READ A BOOK. HE HAD TO BE POLITE.

Hiraeth sat still, but practically vibrated with joy and excitement as his groupmates were let in.

“Hello.” Rea’s voice echoed. “Oh, wow. This room has many rooms. It’s huge.”

Leya’s voice rang out next. “It’s enormous.”

“Hey, shouldn’t we keep it down? What if we disturb scholars?” Aleti echoed the loudest.

Hiraeth gladly couldn’t hear anything else. He assumed it was his caretaker talking in his usual low voice. The noise always bothered Hiraeth. Oh— his caretaker—! Hiraeth had the feeling he was making a strange face, since he felt weird after he was told he was to be awarded with a book if he was polite. That mean he had to take an injection, just as his caretaker always said.

In a few seconds, the three girls were in Hiraeth’s first bedroom.

“Do you have two of these?” Aleti ran up to Hiraeth, asking quietly. They were allowed to run in rooms.

“Yes, he has two.” His caretaker appeared behind Aleti.

She nodded. “Ohh, good. I have two. One is my parents’. The other is mine. Is the other room for Hiraeth, too?”

“Yes,”

“Woah, how lucky.” Leya projected, echoing throughout the room.

Hiraeth calmly closed his eyes.

Rea set out some materials. “Let’s start the project. Can we get a blanket?” She turned to the caretaker.

“Of course. Do you prefer thin or thick?”

Leya hopped over to the caretaker. “I like thin.”

“But I like thick.” Aleti countered.

“I also like thick.” Rea agreed.

Hiraeth liked to play with the thicker wool, so his choice was clear.

Unfortunately, he kept poking the blanket while everyone else did their work.

Aleti noticed this. “Hiraeth. Aren’t you supposed to be writing on section five? Where’s your pen?”

Hiraeth realized that he’d forgotten his pen at school.

However, he still looked around for it, as if he didn’t want to show his incompetence.

He found it next to his leg. Maybe his caretaker took it for him.

Hiraeth picked up the pen, and began to write. Slowly.

“Write faster.” Aleti looked over at his writing, clearly distracted. “Why aren’t you writing any faster?”

Ignoring her, Hiraeth kept writing at his usual speed.

“Does he have a hearing problem? Is that why he never talks in class?” Aleti asked his caretaker.

“His hearing is fine. He just likes to make sure every letter is perfect.”

And every letter was perfect… for a second grader.

Leya crawled over to Hiraeth’s paper. “Wow,” she exclaimed bluntly. “you have perfect penmanship.” It was a sincere compliment.  

Rea also started to write slowly.

Leya and Aleti noticed this, so they began to write slowly, too.

“Leya, Aleti. Can you write faster?” Rea stopped to ask.

“What? Why? You’re writing slowly, too. Why can’t we?” Leya put down her pen.

Pausing to finish writing a word, Rea spoke. “That’s because I’m going slowly to think about this next section. I wouldn’t go quickly through it.”

“Ah, smart.” Aleti nodded. “Then… we’ll think slowly, too.”

Rea shook her head. “No. You guys would get home too late. I always get eleven hours of rest, and I know how to pace myself. You should get your eleven hours, too. Without a clock, it’s impossible to tell the time… I wouldn’t want to be the reason you two were late— all because you wanted eleven hours of rest.”

Leya suddenly nodded. “Yes. I want to get eleven hours of rest. I’ll work on my pacing.”

“Tomorrow, right?” Rea’s tone seemed more of a warning than a question.

“Tomorrow I’ll work on my pacing.” Leya reannounced.

The four worked on their project. Of course, Rea’s work was perfect… but it was less than usual. This time, Aleti had the most done. Then Leya… then Rea… and then Hiraeth.

Cleaning the workspace, Rea thanked everyone for their hard work. “Are we confident in our work?”

“I am.” Leya nodded. “We’re not presenting this tomorrow, are we?”

Aleti shook her head.

“That’s good. Thank you, everyone. I’ll be going now.” Leya picked up her school bags and pen.

Hiraeth’s caretaker patted Leya’s head. “Do you need an escort home? I can call a guard for you.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Aleti piped up. “And me, too.”

Rea blinked, then patted herself down. “Oops. I’m forgetting my injector fluid. Let me check my cape for it. I’ll be back.”

“Alright. Don’t trip on the stairs.”

Leya and Aleti made their way to the door, then both were escorted to their homes, as Hiraeth and his caretaker waved goodbye.

Rea stayed behind. She turned to Hiraeth.

“Hiraeth. I liked staying at your room to work. You’re a good person.” She took the pack of fluid from her pocket. “I had it all along. Isn’t that strange? I wanted to say goodbye without anyone else looking. I want to be your friend, but I don’t want people making remarks about it behind my back. That would move me off of the middle seat. Next time we have group work, I’ll work with you.”

Hiraeth stared at her.

“You’re interesting. And a little strange. I want to learn about you. I’ll even write a book about you. Goodbye.”

***

Kindle’s eyes gleamed. “Wow~! How romantic! If someone said that to me, I'd marry them on the spot!”

“Uhm.” Hiraeth started to blush and glow. “We were eight years old, Kindle. I doubt she meant anything romantic by that.”

“Whatever. I still think that was pretty sweet.”

Rhine thought for a minute. “For a bunch of second graders, everyone is extremely blunt. You had projects and research papers by then?”

“Yeah. Ugh, later years were the worst… we had crazy amounts of work to do, and I felt like I could never catch up. My caretaker always had to point me in the right direction, or catch me up on things… remind me about my schoolwork and my notes…” Hiraeth rubbed his eyes. “And with the abnormal amounts of everything else I had to do… I miss him…”

QD perked up. “We’ll be able to see him! When we go back to Aeronia…?”

“There’s a chance he’s dead, though.”

Vera made a little noise. “Dead?”

Chuckling, Jay teased Vera. “Did you already start getting attached to him?”

“YES. I’m not one to lie,—“

“—yes you are—“ Ammi groaned.

“—so let me get this straight. I would love a guy like that to help me out. Like— the cool dad? He’s like a butler or something! Asking you about everything you could’ve ever wanted, brushing your hair for you, preening your wings, making sure you had everything straight, brushing your hair for you, reading you stories, making sure you always had your materials with you— can I just say that I really would like it if someone brushed my hair for me?” Vera finished with a sigh.

Kindle slightly scrunched up her face with disappointment. “Why would he be dead?”

“Because of me.”

“Oh, so it’s your fault?” Kindle inquired. “I mean no offense by that.”

“Yeah… after my checkup, which sucked, by the way— since I wasn’t allowed to sleep or eat or go outside— he told me something.”

***

“How was it, Hiraeth?”

Hiraeth said nothing.

“You look terrible. Do you want to read a book with me?”

Hiraeth said nothing. He didn’t even stare up at his caretaker.

“I know… I’m sorry…” His caretaker closed the door to his room as they entered, taking off Hiraeth’s cape and hanging it on the cape hanger. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

Hiraeth walked away.

His caretaker looked at the box next to the door. He somehow opened the side panel, and ripped out a wire while absorbing the shock. Then, he healed his burnt hand. He turned to Hiraeth, now sitting on a couch.

“What’d they do? Do you want to tell me?” He sat down next to the wide Duracell battery shaped idiot child. Hiraeth’s nose was promptly booped. “Did you eat anything?”

Holding in all of his answers, Hiraeth cried them out. It was his first time crying. He was naturally confused, but he still felt like it happened because of how he felt.

“Don’t make strange faces like that.” His caretaker picked him up and placed him in his lap. “It’s okay. You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

Hiraeth wouldn’t stop crying.

“Hira… what you did was important.” His caretaker rested Hiraeth on his chest. “Let me tell you something, okay?”

Hiraeth nodded.

“There’s no one else in your class like you. There hasn’t been for a very, very long time. You like to write on yourself and you like to do your work only at times you feel like it. You prefer to rest later and then go to school later.” His caretaker stroked his hair. “You never talk, but you pay attention when you want to. The government doesn’t like that. They have eyes everywhere…”

His caretaker looked at the door.

“…but not here. Not right now. That’s why I can tell you this. Hira, if they think you can’t do schoolwork or behave like every other child, then they’ll…” He swallowed hard. “…they don’t want you to affect or influence anyone else, so they’ll kill you. You’ve always been so, so close to it.”

Hiraeth stopped crying.

“Your ‘talent for danger’ is your way of being different. Whenever you come into the conversation, people talk about how different you are. And that makes them do strange things, like make strange faces. The government thinks these strange faces are distractions from work. All they want from us is work.”

His caretaker started to make a strange face, too. Water started collecting in his eyes.

“When I started to work, they told me that if I became ‘attached’ to the child I took care of, then they’d kill me. But I got you. And you’re so easy to get attached to… everything you do makes me want to look at you. I don’t know the word for it…”

***

“The word was ‘love’.”

***

“…and if they saw you couldn’t be handled properly— if you made one mistake— they’d kill you. Then what… I… think when I see you would be gone. If you die, I would never forgive myself. It would be my fault— I would think so, and so would the government. Even if you couldn’t help it. We’d both be dead. And any child who behaves just like you do will die too, no questions asked. So… please. Put up with it, for us. I’ll always help you. You’re like my own child.”

Hiraeth tugged on his caretaker’s shirt.

“Just live like this with me, forever. Would that be alright?”

“…yes, I think so.”

His caretaker stopped. He wiped the water from his eyes.

“Sorry that I’ve been bad. I don’t want anyone to die.” Hiraeth looked up at his caretaker. “I just have a question.”

“Uh— yes?”

“Is it okay to make strange faces?”

“To me, yes. Strange faces are wonderful.”

“And also, did you cut the cameras?”

“…you saw that?”

***

“Okay, Young Sheldon. What the FUCK WAS THAT?!” Vera screamed. “YOU STARTED TALKING WITH YOUR FULL-ASS VOCABULARY AT THE WORST TIME!! YOU RUINED THE MOMENT!!!”

Hiraeth frowned. “I didn’t want to keep him in the dark anymore.”

“And what the FUCK was that question? ‘did you cut the cameras?’” Vera mocked Hiraeth in an Eric Cartman voice. “YOU LAME ASS!!!”

“Vera, can you shut the fuck up for a second?” Hiraeth spat.

QD blinked, then turned her head to the side curiously while still blinking, like an Office character.

Rhine turned to Kindle, both staring at each other horrified.

Ammi nodded as if she knew this would happen.

Jay passed out.

Vera raised an eyebrow.

“Nice.” Juno gave Hiraeth a thumbs up.

This was Hiraeth’s first curse word.

“I think we can now understand how monumental ‘first times’ are. I spoke to my caretaker because I trusted him, and I bet he was very happy because of it. No matter what I said.”

Jay blinked back to reality. “woah… guys… I can’t see… all my blood is rushing to my fingers… what just happened…… augh megabird above what just happened”

Slowly turning back to Hiraeth, Kindle peeped a question. “hey did you get an A on your project?”

“There’s a different grading system in Aeronia, but we got the equivalent of an A.” Hiraeth nodded to Ammi, as if to continue her notes. “So… time passed by, and I had gone through several projects with Rea, despite Kyian’s everlasting warnings to stop working with her. Me and Rea seemed to get distant, but every time she came over, she always assured our bond was growing stronger. Sometimes, I think about how weird kids are— how incoherent our sentences were. Rea’s way of never telling me the truth or what was going on reminds me of that. She did whatever she felt was socially okay. Although, those were all shaped by Aeronia’s own social rules. When we were… 15, the time for lots of change and class nominations came along.”

***

“It’d be funny if I could choose you, Hiraeth. Even though you sit in the back. Do you think the professor would allow it?”

Hiraeth stared at Rea.

“Yeah, he’d probably throw out your votes. It’s a shame… Your writing is eloquent. You would make a great Head Scholar.” She nodded to Hiraeth, acknowledging his talent. “Vote for me, okay? I’ll vote for you. I don’t think anyone else in our class deserves it, anyways.”

Swinging his legs from his reading bed, Hiraeth turned to his hand, scratching weird symbols onto it.

“Oh, are you excited to finally submit our own work to the libraries? I’m thinking of majoring in AstraTime. Do it with me, so we can start the school year together. We can even work on our beginning project.” Rea started to scratch symbols onto Hiraeth’s hand, too. “What are you writing on your hand? It looks like lots of lines.” She held up Hiraeth’s scratched hand, turning it around in the light. “Does it hurt? Your hand looks a little red.”

Hiraeth shook his head.

“Look, your injector has more fluid than mine. Do you refill it often?”

Hiraeth nodded.

“What if everyone had two injectors, so they never ran out of fluid? Would that be nice? I think I’d like that. I’d walk into school, the most prepared out of everyone. What if you walked into the classroom with two injectors? Do you think everyone would think it strange? Everyone in class thinks so highly of me, but so lowly of you. Their reactions would differ based on who wore two.”

Hiraeth’s clock chimed.

“Oh, this moment is over. I should get home so I can rest. We’ll need our rest, especially while we’re writing works for the libraries. I don’t want Exhaustion to come and sneak up on me. Have a good rest, Hiraeth.”

Hiraeth waved goodbye.

Rea promptly hopped off of Hiraeth’s reading bed, and made her own way back home.

Hiraeth’s caretaker said his goodbyes behind Rea, closing the door and ripping the newly wired camera wires. “Hira,” he called out to the upstairs bedroom. “come down here.”

Hiraeth wobbled down the steps, still getting somewhat used to his wings— they’d burst into growth recently.

“How was the checkup yesterday? I barely had a chance to talk to you. You were so tired.”

Looking down for a moment, Hiraeth collected his thoughts. “It was okay.”

“Do you mean it?”

“No, but I don’t want to talk about it.” Hiraeth looked away. “I’m sorry.”

His caretaker patted his hair. “It’s perfectly alright. Normally, I’m not supposed to ask. Unrelatedly, someone should come in soon to fix the cameras. Let’s work on something for now.”

***

“Did you ever talk about the checkups with your caretaker?” QD seemed puzzled. “You don’t seem like you did.”

“I never did. I hated those things so much… like I said, they were frequent and they sucked.”

Rhine turned her head to the side, as if she pieced together something. “Do you think that they took you off of sleeping, eating and the injections so you could act as your normal self? You know, to learn more about why you seemed so different?”

Hiraeth nodded.

Jay’s gaze softened. “What did they do? Sorry to ask.”

“Ugh… it was like torture. I never want to relive any of it. Thinking about it…” Hiraeth’s face tangled with emotions. “…I can already feel all of it, all over again.”

Vera made a noise, covering his face with his hands. “Urk— I think I can feel it, too. It’s grossing me out…”

“Don’t imagine it!” Kindle snapped into Vera’s face.

Ammi stayed quiet, but turned to Juno occasionally.

Rhine’s eyes flew from side to side, then she closed them, deep in thought. “Sorry, Hira, but can you tell us about what actually happened?”

“What? No, don’t force him. That’s probably some trauma he has.” Juno gave Rhine a stern look.

Vera nodded, suddenly on Juno’s side. “Yeah! I was about to say that.”

“No, no you weren’t.” Kindle groaned.

“What? Yes I was!”

Rhine turned to Hiraeth for his answer.

Hiraeth struggled with his words. “…just preparing for it was terrible, too. The fact that I also barely ate at all in the first place never helped. After the checkup near class elections, what Rea said really happened. That’s when I got my second injector, for focus. I think they just wanted me to stop getting distracted by the time I was supposed to submit things for the library. I mean, it worked— it was wonderful. But they barely accepted my work in the first place. Rea, who had been the Head Scholar by then, had all of her work always accepted, never returned back to her.” Hiraeth came close to tears. “They returned my work so many times.”

***

“Hiraeth, your work.”

Hiraeth swiped his papers out of his caretaker’s hands. All over, the work was deemed unusable. He read over the notes. “But— but this is all okay! It’s all the truth! Why are they cutting this part out? And this one makes up the whole report! I— I worked so hard on this one!” Hiraeth started to make a strange face. “I double and triple checked— they told me— I wasn’t right— this was incorrect— they TAUGHT US THIS IN CLASS!!!” Hiraeth started to rip up his papers.

“Hiraeth— no, don’t do that—“

“WHY NOT!?”

“Shhh, don’t be loud.” His caretaker took his left hand, but Hiraeth took it back.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!!” Hiraeth ran up the stairs.

His caretaker had to rip out the wiring of the cameras again. “Hira, come on!” He followed after him.

Hiraeth was under his reading bed, loudly ripping up the paper bit by bit.

“Hira, please don’t ruin your work.”

“No one’s— gonna use it anyways— I’m— so bad…” He started to cry.

His caretaker had to drag him from under the bed, and Hiraeth still shielded himself with his wings.

“It’s okay,—“

“—IT’S NOT OKAY!!!”

His caretaker peeled his wings away from his face. “Hira, please look at me.”

Hiraeth did the opposite.

“Please?”

“NO.”

“Hira.”

“NO.”

“Hira. Don’t be upset.”

“B-but— if I don’t submit— good work— I—“

His caretaker closed his eyes. “I can talk to them. If you want, we can even have your professor or someone else tell you what to put on reports.”

“…I hate… everyone. I want everyone to die.” Hiraeth sobbed. “I want it to be just us.”

“Even the little kids?”

“…yes.”

“The little kids with the tiny little wings?” Hiraeth’s caretaker dug his finger into the mess of Hiraeth's wings, all to find his nose and give it a boop. “Those kids?”

Hiraeth bit his caretaker’s finger.

His caretaker made a pained noise, biting his lips as he pulled back his finger. “Hira—!”

“I HATE YOU, TOO!!”

His caretaker also started to make a strange face as he healed his finger. “Don’t act like this.”

Hiraeth groaned. “No! I’m never ever good enough, for anyone! Not even you! You never had anything good to say about me! It was always— ‘Hira, work on your behavior’ or ‘Hira, pay attention in class’—“

Full of a strange sense, Hiraeth’s caretaker pulled Hiraeth’s wings from forming a shell, then yanked on Hiraeth’s left arm to inject him three times.

***

Kindle’s grip tightened on her hands. “You got him really angry, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I feel bad. I apologized to him later.”

“What about that whole injection thing? That’s gotta be some level of betrayal.” Vera cocked his head to the side, interested in his favorite character’s sudden development and in betrayal.

Hiraeth sighed. “I'm still a little bitter about that. He had to restrain me and inject me a few more times, since I kept acting out.”

Kindle went wide eyed. “Like an animal?”

“…mhm.”

“Oh.”

“I’m not proud of my later years. Especially since my caretaker left, and I had to start making decisions on my own. Which is… rarely a good idea.”

***

“Bye, Hira. I’ll miss you.” His caretaker gave him a hug as they spoke.

RECORD SCRATCH!!!

“Hey, wait. I think we’re missing something! Ammi, can you write ‘record scratch’ before I cut in? Thanks.” Kindle put her elbow on a pillow, leaning over to Ammi like some Cool Guy.

“Uh…huh…”

Kindle grinned. “Yeah.” She was loving the Cool Guy vibe she gave off. “So, Hira— this seems like a big stretch. A whole piece seems missing! Like, what happened later on? What did Kyian say to you whenever there was a group project? So many things happen in just the school years of your life! It’s… a whole experience!! You can’t take out that much life stuff!!!”

Hiraeth thought for a moment. “Sorry, Aeronian school was and still is the most boring thing the Sea has ever had its grace of making.”

“Whaaatt!?!? School, no matter how boring, takes up the entirety of your beginning life. And for you, Hira— nearly all of your life!! Something in school must’ve tied to something that didn’t happen in it, at least.”

“Well…” Hiraeth closed his eyes, sorting through all of his memories. “They did try to lobotomize me…”

Vera grimaced. “Ew???”

“Yeah. And then… there was this one time where me and Rea did things we weren’t proud of, but that was when I was a little older. Warren also came along… that was before Rea and I… he came after my caretaker left…”

“And what about that papercut thing you said you’d get back to?”

“I think that’s irrelev—-“

“—-wait, what about Warren?” Vera sunk back in the pillows, knowing very well he still felt terrible for killing Warren. Yay.

Hiraeth smiled weakly, shifting his head to the side. “After my caretaker left, it was around the right time for my classmates to also get rooms in the Academy. Especially since elections, which Rea obviously won. Because all us kids were on our own, we got guards in front of our doors. They were supposed to be stoic and stone-still at our doors, sometimes coming in to check up on us. Especially me.” Hiraeth shifted his head to the other side, resting it on his hand. “Warren was my guard. And I was really curious about him… I got attached, just like my caretaker had gotten attached to me.”

I would try to make him face me, but guards weren’t supposed to look at whoever they were guarding until some time had passed. Either way, I’d spend about ten minutes each day trying to get Warren to look at me. Everything felt a little weird when my caretaker left, since no one was there to guide me, or check up on my studies. My everyday schedule fell apart… and when I tried to make my own routine, I would barely even get up to start on it. So… I guess… Seeing Warren as a second caretaker I could get to know, I relied on him— even though he had no idea what I looked like.

Sometimes, he’d come to my room to ask me things.

“Ade, have you finished your latest report?”

“…”

“Ade…? Are you alright…?”

I would never respond. In this way, I was both avoiding him and trying to grab his attention. Maybe I was quite difficult… I constantly felt compelled to do certain things, without knowing the reason why.

One day, I got really bored doing a report. I never liked to take my injections, because I just saw it as something that I would only hinder my ability to write— no matter how hard I wanted to fiddle with the buttons. That’s why I was bored. So, I went to my door, opened it, then tried my luck to get Warren to look at me. I was ready to deploy my greatest tactics! Then, Warren disappointed me by simply standing still, and staring me down.

Making him see me for the first time actually made me sad. I didn’t get a super cool journey with him, ending in a long gaze into each other’s ey—

“—-Hira, y’know how gay you sound right now?” Vera frowned. “I’ve never heard anyone say anything gayer.”

Jay slid his hand over Vera’s mouth.

“hfhmph.” Vera crossed his hands, defeated.

Uh… yeah. Thanks for the comment.

***

“…hello, Ade. It’s nice to finally be able to see you.”

Hiraeth made a strange face, looking at Warren.

“Ade? Do you feel well?”

Hiraeth blinked rapidly, waving his hands around, motioning to Warren he was feeling quite alright.

Warren didn’t get this.

“Oh— don’t worry, I’ll get someone to help.” Warren nodded to Hiraeth, pushing him in his room, locking the door behind him, and running off to get help.

***

“And that’s the story of how my injectors started emitting monitored doses! Oh, and also the story of how Warren and I saw each other for the first time.”

Vera would’ve commented something like ‘Hira that’s lame’ or ‘Hira you’re such a dumbass’, but Jay had gotten so intrigued within the stories that he’d forgotten he was shutting up Vera’s mouth.

Kindle sighed. “Is anyone else gonna talk, or do I gotta again?”

Juno shook his head. “Nope, it’s all yours.”

“Good.” Kindle took a deep breath in and out. “Wow, that escalated quickly! Hira, when are we gonna get to the fun parts? Y’know, where you met me and QD and all these other losers?”

Hiraeth motioned for her to settle down. “I’ll get there in a bit. There’s something else I have to say, too.”

***

“Hira, I’ve got some new info!” Rea bounced over to him, taking his pen out of his hands and snapping his head over to face her. “They’re… burning books. And reports.” She opened her palm. Ash coated it.

Hiraeth blinked, running a finger along her palm, getting his very own ashy finish.

“Yeah, right? They’ve been doing that since, like, the dawn of PsyTime! And we’ve never known! That’s why your earlier reports were all marked off! Time is being rewritten to fit this— this neat Aeronian model! Nothing bad, no irrational lashing out, no… this…!” Rea waved her arms around. “Your body tingles, and your brain starts spinning around in your skull— your lungs start to cough out in this rhythm— then your stomach cramps— and you make strange faces! I’m calling these symptoms ‘sensations’. They’re taking away our sensations, Hira! Our wonderful sensations! I… I like these things!”

Hiraeth wondered if all strange faces were sensations.

“I know— you’re thinking ‘sensations are dangerous, Rea. The government warned us against this.’ with your most unsensational face and tone. But… but this! This going UP and down with my words, Hira! It’s…” She started to cough out her own rhythm. “It’s—! Hira, it’s a sensation!”

Hiraeth eyed her up and down. He was straight-faced and unamused.

“Ever since your guard called for help, you’ve been… your talent for danger is gone, Hira. Your talent for making everyone else feel sensations is lost! You made me feel a sensation when we first spoke… I’ll never forget it.” Rea took Hiraeth’s left hand, eyeing his injectors. “I haven’t needed to wear these in a long time. Ever since I became Head Scholar. Since then, I’ve gotten sensations. But… you’re not. I wish… there was a way… to take these off for you.”

Hiraeth looked back to his work, continuing to write.

“Why are yours… stuck on? Mine had this adjustable strap— we all had adjustable straps! We could take them off whenever! You don’t have the strap! What did you do?” Rea suddenly became… stern…? “Did you do something wrong? There’s no hope of getting these things off! But— I know— that there’s some way we can do this!”

Hiraeth brushed Rea’s hand off of his.

She burst out. “HIRA! Do you know what you’re DOING!? Just months ago, we were figuring out all these things— these loopholes in our lives! The… emptiness I had after I became Head Scholar… we were figuring it out! I… I still think like I’m nothing, Hira. I still think that no one can ever please the government or the Elders, no matter… how many books they burn, or how many people I see die by trial. They’re all guilty! Nothing makes them…  congratulate us. Thank us for our work. They… made us like this.”

Hiraeth didn’t bother listening.

“These stupid capes, too! No matter how hard we try, these capes tell everyone a different story! If I didn’t have this— Head Scholar pin— I’d be nothing! They don’t even look at us, Hira! They never looked at you! Only… only to mock you! They never saw how interestingly wonderful you are!”

…

“How wonderful you used to be.” Rea spat. “Can’t you just— TALK?! FOR ONCE!?! NORMALLY!?” She pushed Hiraeth off his chair.

…

“Oh, no—! I’m sorry, Hira!— I— the sensation—!”

Hiraeth collected himself, brushing off whatever invisible dust there was on him. He turned to Rea. With a straight face, he was confused.

“Do you— believe me? Forgive me!” Rea crossed her arms over her chest. “Did that… I pushed you… what did it make you think…?”

“…R…”

“YES?! R!?!” Rea suddenly jumped over to Hiraeth, curious as to what he’d say to her.

“Rea, leave me alone. You’re disrupting my work. I need this report to be finished by the next moment.”

Rea FROWNED. HARD.

“WHAT?! I SPOKE FROM… MY SENSATIONS!!! DID THAT TELL YOU NOTHING!?” She wasn’t pleased with Hiraeth’s first words to her.

“Your ‘sensations’ are informal and a bother.” Hiraeth shook his head. “At least I got better. You’ve gotten worse. You’re acting just like I had.”

“But— I liked that!”

“No one else does. I don’t like it.”

“You’re—!”

“—Rea, your ‘emptiness’ wasn’t new to me. I never took my injections as a child. I was always empty, and I was always so strange. I like it better this way. When you take your injections, the emptiness goes away. You should try it. So… in short, I don’t care. About you, or about anything we used to do.” Hiraeth seemed to get even more distant. “I’d like it to stay that way. I never wanted to be your friend.”

Rea’s blood boiled. “You— I—-“ she tightened her fists.

“I’m done talking. No matter how much I’ll try to summarize my thoughts, it’ll never be enough for you to stay still and listen properly.”

“YOU’RE JUST TALKING TO ME LIKE EVERYONE TALKED TO YOU!!!” Rea snapped. “Do you think I’m STUPID? Do you think I’m as much of an idiot as YOU!? We were working together— on things that mattered to US!!! NOT TO AERONIA! THEY’LL NEVER CARE ABOUT ANYTHING WE DO! LISTEN TO ME!”

Hiraeth threw his pen at Rea. “No. Stop making strange faces and noises.”

“UUGGHHH—-!!!!” Rea stomped up and down. “I’M GONNA THROW YOU INTO A FIRE!!!” She squared up, closing the gap between her and Hiraeth to stand on her toes and scream at him. “I’LL— PUT YOU ON A TRIAL!!! THEY’LL KILL YOU— AND I WOULD ONLY SIT BACK AND WATCH IT HAPPEN! THAT’D BE GOOD, WOULDN’T IT!?”

Hiraeth shut his eyes, putting his hands over his ears. “Rea— you’re— too loud—!”

“I DON’T CARE!! HOW ABOUT THAT, HUH?! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU, EITHER!!!”

Hiraeth turned away. “Loud—!”

Rea began banging her fists on Hiraeth’s back. “YOU— MAKE— ME—-“

Hiraeth started to cry.

Upon hearing this, Rea stopped. “H—Hira?”

“You’re— making my ears— feel— weird—!”

Rea cocked her head to the side, quelling her sensation. “Oh…! Hira! Did you… but… don’t the injections silence the sensations?”

Hiraeth hid himself in his wings.

“What’s this? Why are your eyes turning into rivers?” Rea walked right around Hiraeth, looking into his eyes. “How curious…!”

“No— it’s not…” Hiraeth tried his best to stop looking at Rea. “How… could you…?” He started to itch his arms, as if the sensation would stop.

“Hey, Hira! You can stop it now. I think I’ve collected enough information. When something is too loud, a new sensation washes over yourself, and makes you water your eyes! Maybe it’s an evolutionary adaptation to tell Aeronians that the current area is too noisy, and for health benefits, to stay away! How’s that?” She beamed.

Hiraeth wouldn’t stop crying.

“Okay, you can seriously stop. It’s also pretty loud.”

***

“Honestly, I don’t know exactly why I started crying… but the hitting and the screaming did hurt.”

Rhine nodded. “You have an extraordinary low pain tolerance. That could be it.”

“Or,” Kindle suggested. “you could’ve been overloaded and overwhelmed. Usually, when I’m overwhelmed, I start crying. It’s just… humanoid nature!” She snapped, finding a good word to fit the Khan, Adret, Aeronian, Skid, human…spirit and plant things in the conversation pit. “Hm, we need a neutral term. Humans aren’t always the bosses of everything.”

Vera pulled Jay’s hand off of his mouth. “Yeah, I’m way cooler than Rhine and Ammi combined!”

“No. You’re really not.” Rhine frowned.

“Let’s digress.” Suggested Jay, trying to prevent another race war amongst the train’s passengers.

Hiraeth nodded. He also wanted to prevent another race war. “Yeah. So… Rea started to become a little like me. I started to give up on what we had, since I didn’t feel comfortable… being… alone…? I’ve done more thinking about it, but I can’t really place a pin on what happened.” He sighed, pushing his glasses up to his head. “I don’t know…”

Ammi added her two cents, putting down the notes for a while. “We all do things like that! Y’know, when I was writing Second Chance,” (italics— yes, it’s a book now. Don’t read it.) “I thought that I had to have a reason for everything you guys as my characters would do. Especially you, Vera. You’re difficult.”

“Like— in what way???”

“I kept thinking that… you needed something to really make you sad, or that once you figured things out— it was all figured out. But… the road to hell and back isn’t linear. It’s bumpy… emotions are crazy! They overrun logic, reason, and truth. I could kill Kindle with a brain explosion if I wanted to, simply because she ate the last yogurt cup her mom made.”

Kindle made a face that exclaimed ‘I knew it!’.

“But… at the end of the day… Kindle didn’t deserve it. I was being too harsh. I had no reason to blow her up! I just… let my anger take over me…” Ammi scratched the back of her head, moving on. “I’ve also been trying to figure out myself. It’s not easy. It’s been years. There’s so many things people say, so many contradictory quotes and conflicting interpretations of situations— all telling you what life is, and all this advice. Just some more rules for life... Emotions are difficult. You can’t get them right, at all. Especially if I told you that you’d never understand how much all of this really does mean to me. Anyways, that’s what I think.” Ammi finished with an indifferent shrug.

Hiraeth pulled his glasses back onto his face. “Thanks, Ammi. That was some nice insight.”

“Mhm. Didn’t do much, did it?”

“Hehe,” Hiraeth smiled weakly. “I wasn’t lying, but I would be if I said it unlocked a part of my brain I never knew existed.”

“Welp, you know what they say.” Ammi picked up her writing materials once more. “You can’t tear off a thin piece of paper using words.”

Vera frowned. “I don’t think anyone says that.”

“Ammi does,” Rhine pointed to the girl she was talking about.

Looking off to the side, Hiraeth escaped back into his own mind, rolling along the pitch darkness that he could only describe as a smooth, infinite water mattress— despite never laying on a water mattress.

Words waved in, like the gentle lapse of water.

I hope it’s all okay…

A response took a while to wash ashore.

…nothing’s ruined yet.

I still have a chance.

But… I’m worried that I should’ve just stayed put.

If I knew about how terrible life was,

then I would’ve gone back.

Hiraeth tossed to the side, bouncing along the vast abyssal remains of himself— the water mattress.

Was it better I gave everyone else a fighting chance…?

He tried to stand up, but noticed he couldn’t walk anymore.

Another responded waved in, an electric blue that seemed darker along the space.

Why do you care?

Where would you begin?

Focus on yourself for once…

Make yourself feel good…

That’d be nice…

Hira?

Look at what you did! You broke him!

Hey, it’s not my fault.

Sea to Hira. Sea to Hira. Come in, Hira.

Don’t poke him like that.

Bleghbleghhhhhh

Ew! Stop it!

Hold on can I take a picture of that

NO!! That’s RUDE!!!

I’m gonna slap him okay

yea do that

Hiraeth was jolted awake. “Ouch!”

“And he lives!!” Kindle rejoiced, hovering over Hira. It was clear she was the one who slapped him.

Hiraeth rubbed his cheek. “That really hurt…”

Chuckling to himself, Vera eyed Hiraeth teasingly. “Yeah, ‘cuz she bitch slapped you. Do you even know what a bitch slap is?”

Hiraeth opened his mouth to answer, but Vera ignored this and continued talking.

“It’s when someone slaps you the hardest that they can. But, y’know, since Kindle slapped you…”

“HEY! Are you trying to say I’m WEAK!?”

“Smartass. Look who caught on.”

“I’m gonna kill you with a rock.”

“PFFT— WOW.”

“I’m SERIOUS!!!”

Juno tapped Hiraeth on the shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I was thinking about something, but I guess I might’ve fallen asleep. Probably because I stayed up all night reading this new book! Have you read it? I mean, knowing all of Earth’s history, you probably have! Lemme explain—“

QD leaned forward to face Ammi, blocked by Rhine and Kindle. She made a gesture, then flicked her eyes to Hira.

Ammi nodded, shrugged, then smiled and pointed to her head to frown.

QD flinched back, face contorting with confusion. “I have no idea what you just said,” She whispered.

“Let’s talk somewhere else,”

“Huh?”

“Let’s talk somewhere else.”

“What?”

“QD, come make lemonade with me!” Ammi stood up suddenly.

Rhine turned to her, the only one who wasn’t in any conversation. “Can I come…?”

“No.” Ammi put it plainly.

Rhine rolled her eyes. “‘Kay.”

QD got up to follow Ammi.

***

Ammi and QD retreated to Ammi’s room. She opened up the window, locking the door for good.

“What did you want to talk about?” QD asked, tilting her head to the side. Her hair started to flow in the direction the Sea had come in through.

Stars and glitter started to fill the room, as well as a purple tint found only in the shadows of a summer’s day, under a tree.

“Uh… something tells me something bad is gonna happen to Hira.”

QD nodded. “Yeah, I see it… he kinda just… went out cold.”

“I mean, I know that. Anyone could gather that from Hira just suddenly falling asleep. I just feel like it’s something else— way bigger. And it’s not gonna go away.”

“Welp, it can’t be any worse than what you wrote in your story. What was that for, anyways?”

“Ugh. Nothing. Still! That was just a story. This is real life.” Ammi’s tone heightened, like a kindergarten teacher talking about the difference between a square and a circle. “I don’t really want anything bad to happen to you guys! I actually care much more than you’d think.”

QD sighed, smiling. “I know. Well, then tell me about Hira. I care about him too, y’know.”

“Right! So, it’s got something to do with Aeronia… but I can’t really see what happens.”

“Ugh.” QD became worried. “But we need him more than anyone…”

Ammi reciprocated QD’s feelings. “I just don’t want him to get hurt again. In any way.”

QD became silent. She spoke up after what seemed like a reasonable time of consideration. “Well, then! You’ll just have to stick with him!” She beamed.

“What.”

“Yeah! Come with us on the mission!”

“NO. I DON’T WANNA!!! I— I gotta stay here! And… check progress! And sort through the Glass and all the files… then the samples that Rhine and Kindle brought back!” Ammi nodded through each task. “Mhm! All of this! If I don’t stay here, none of that” She flailed her hands around in the air, indicating what ‘that’ meant— the previously mentioned tasks. “will be done!”

“Uhm, Ammi, we know nothing is gonna get done with you.” QD pointed out. “Plus… don’t you wanna be cool? With cool powers?”

Ammi’s face burned, getting red. “You know I’m only human… I can’t do any of the cool stuff you guys do.”

“Rhine’s ‘only human’ too!” Reasoned QD. “But she can fight better than any of us.”

“That’s ‘cuz she’s a perfectionist with a mindset of a robot.” Ammi rolled her eyes.

“I see why that was her turning point in your story…”

“Well, what!? What do you expect from me? To suddenly get better? That takes time. Time we don’t have.” She groaned. “Practice… I know that…” Ammi floated around in the air, twisting to lay on her stomach— far away from the conversation.

QD cocked her head to the side. “You’re already pretty good at what you’re pretty good at.”

“you’re making no sense again…”

“Look, we have all these people from all these worlds. All our friends! And they all help out in their own ways, don’t they? Have you ever seen Juno? Of course you have— and he’s the most delicate little snowflake in terms of physicality. But he came on that mission… remember? The one that doesn’t exist anymore…?”

Ammi twisted around, back to facing QD. “Yeah…”

“And he helped out, for realzies! Then— Vera. Vera’s too impatient to do anything. That’s why Rhine takes his place in that, because she’s good at following his ideas. Then Kindle. Kindle is good at literally anything but fighting. And Hira, he’s super clumsy, always in his head, and probably a drug addict. But he’s good with history, and he can find these patterns and behaviors that we can’t. And Jay, and Danann, Suns— ooh, they’re full of talent— and Trillix! They’re all really valuable! Even if we all suck at something, someone can fill in that hole. Missions give us a place where we can all help out in some way. Why don’t you come along?”

“…okay, but what am I good at?”

“That’s easy. You’ve got a great imagination, and even though it only works in the Sea, you use it to adapt and change quickly according to the situation you’ve already thought of. You can do much more, too. You’re pitch perfect, great at all types of art and writing, really good at flattering people, really good with minuscule details and you’re a great actress with an even better fake smile.”

Ammi smiled. “Oh, thanks!”

“No problem.” QD returned a smile. “So, did you just want me to give you praise, or…?”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll come on the mission.”

QD beamed. “Yay!!! Remember, stick to Hira! If this thing you’re talking about turns out to be true, then I feel like you’ll be able to help out.”

***

“Are we all done here?”

Rhine nodded. “Yup. At least, I think we are.” She turned to Hira, confirming the end of the storytelling.

“Yes. I don’t think anything else is important to tell.”

QD smiled, hands flying to hips. “Good! Now, we gotta get planning. How do we re-enter Aeronia? We’ve got the Glass and its Link… that hasn’t changed… but, our teleportation location should. Wasn’t it burnt down…?”

Suddenly deciding to be helpful for once, Vera popped into the conversation. “Yeah, and pretty badly, too. I don’t think I helped out on that, hehe…”

“Ugh, great. Where’s the next best location?” Rhine asked Hira.

He answered with some thought. “Maybe Rea’s place. It’s outside of the Academy, which doesn’t help… but it’s the safest option. I don’t know the coordinates, though.” Hira then looked around for Juno. “Uh, can Juno check it out with his whole spirit vision thing…?”

“I don’t think it works that way.” Vera shrugged. “I mean, we can always go back to your room with a ruler… and… a vague sense of how far Rea’s room is.”

“That would be 16.7 kilometers.” Hira smiled. “We had to calculate a while ago for t—-“

“I really don’t care.”

“Ugh, whatever. Rhine, 16.7 kilometers.”

Rhine jotted down the information on a band hologram. “Got it. From the current coordinates the Link is on… it could be anywhere along the perimeter of this circle.” She spun the hologram to face Hira. “If you know the distance, then I assume you must know which direction her room is in when inside yours. North will be the direction we face when we use the Link to enter your room, and behind us will be South. Base it off of that.”

“Uhm… lemme remember…”

“Also, we need to figure out how to maintain convincing disguises, if needed. I’m not letting any of you do what you guys did last time.”

Kindle, much like Vera, popped into the conversation. “Oh! I remember that! QD and Ammi kept turning into each other, Vera kept turning into catgirls—“

Vera fumed. “Shut up! That was just a stupid phase! You kept turning into an older, hotter version of yourself!”

“So~ you agree I looked pretty sexy—“

“NONE OF THAT HERE.” QD covered her ears. “I do not need to remind myself of that. And Kindle, don’t say that word!”

In response to this, Kindle rolled her eyes. “What? There’s no precious widdle baby ears we need to protect here. I’m the youngest. And do not tell me Hira’s basically a baby.”

“Can we get back to the original topic? Thank you.” Rhine took the reins back in her hands. “Since none of you are allowed the bands’ disguise privileges, all disguises must be made ourselves. Or, at least make yourself look convincing. For Vera, this won’t work. The same goes for Myst. The rest of us might just be able to pull it off— but Hira, you have to be careful. If I remember the explanation of the trials correctly, you had only experienced the first day. They know you’re gone, and since Vera made his presence very clear—“

“—ugh, what?—“

“—they’ll be looking for you. Any disguise you take must be extremely convincing.” Rhine typed out a few notes on a new hologram. “Got it?”

Hiraeth kept on looking over the hologram Rhine had handed him earlier. “Mhm… sorry, I’m still trying to determine the direction.”

Rhine gave Hira an encouraging smile. “Take all the time you need. However, it’ll need to be extremely accurate. If you’d like a… Glass image of the teleportation point now… I’ll give it to you.” She offered with some reluctance. The image of the current teleportation point.

“Sure. There were a few things me and Rea did to keep in contact, so I think I might be able to find one of them in the image…” Hira returned a smile.

Rhine nodded, opening a few more holograms and finally handing a small tab over to Hira. “Here, take this to the atrium to view it.”

“Got it.”

QD hopped over to attempt to read Rhine’s holograms. “So… we need to figure out the location and disguises?”

“Yup.”

“If we ever need it, Ammi’s pretty good with makeup… maybe she can help out?” QD suggested with a smile. “She’s coming for this mission! I’ve just decided!”

“Ew…” Vera scoffed, wringing out his hands as if they were Ammi infected. “Why? She’s only good for useless writing…”

QD waltzed over to Vera, tapping him on the head. “And you’re only good for fighting…”

“That’s not useless.”

“Topic, anyone?” Rhine groaned, taking the liberty to look up at the two bickering like an old couple.

Kindle giggled to herself. She couldn’t think of any stupid joke to butt in with, so she just sat by and watched.

Turning to Rhine as if she was caught red handed, QD nodded to confirm the continuation. “Yup. Sorry. So… for effective disguises… we’ll definitely need lots of costuming, huh?”

“Exactly… ugh, I don’t feel like sewing and designing… we’ll have to ask Hira where to steal some clothes from later.”

“Costume design is my passion.” Ammi, like Vera and Kindle, appeared out of nowhere. It was a force of habit from the Incompetent Table. “I can do it for you…” She whispered with elegance.

Rhine shrugged. “I’d still have to sew and buy all those materials… it’s probably unnecessary for this mission, as long as there’s just somewhere to steal clothes…”

Ammi sighed. “I wanted to try out that new thing, though…! D’you think I’d be good at it? I have a feeling that I would be, and a feeling that this feeling is entirely BS and I’m gonna mess up a buncha really nice fabrics and thread.”

Always one to comfort, QD nudged Ammi and informed her of other positive opportunities. “Well, Jay’s taken up some hobbies recently. One of them is sewing together clothes or whatever you call it!! You can do that together!”

“…after the mission…”

“After the mission. That’s right.”

“…eh, I’m leaving. I need to spend quality time working before we go…!” Ammi instantly grabbed her phone out of her pocket, opening up the notes app.

Rhine gave her the side eye as she waltzed away. “We have bands. Why does she use her phone…?”

“She thinks she’s immune to carpal tunnel and she’d like to test her limits?” Suggested Vera.

“Whatever. Let’s keep planning. One of you look for Hira. I don’t mean to rush him, but he’s taking absolutely forever.”

Kindle piped up. “On i—-“

“—-I’m going.” Vera spun around, almost instantly taking Kindle’s place.

“Hey! Does he think he’s the main character or something…?” Kindle groaned, folding her arms and puffing. “He gets on my nerves…”

QD shrugged. “Maybe this is one of those times where he suddenly decides to switch up his personality again…?”

“Maybe. Although, those bursts never end well.” Rhine tapped away on the holograms. “Alright… next, we’ll need to set our priorities straight— what’s the main issue we want to solve?…”

Meanwhile, Vera went off to the atrium, calling Hira’s name. “Heyyyy, Hira! Rhine said you gotta come back or something. Did you get the direction?” He rounded to the atrium, full of unreasonable memories for him, and was met with the Glass’s generated plane of the current teleport location.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good look— since the original location was in Hira’s room. His, since then, burnt down room. With all his stuff. And all his work. No one was a fan of losing their stuff… Hira especially. Vera actually paid attention to his stories.

“Oh… huh. This doesn’t look so good, does it?” He smiled, tapping Hira’s shoulder. “…got the direction?”

Hiraeth turned to Vera. “Mhm. I’ll go talk to Rhine.” He seemed quite indifferent at the view.

“Great. Let’s go together!” Vera tried to mimic how QD usually cheered people up, beaming and clasping onto Hira’s hand as he dragged him along.

Hira bobbed along behind him, seemingly lost in his head.

The two stopped.

“…sorry, Hira…” Vera slowly turned to face him. “…it’s difficult to see that, isn’t it…? I wish you never did. It brings back bad memories.”

Hiraeth shook his head. “I don’t want to do this mission anymore.”

Vera blinked. “That’s not my decision to make. I’m sorry.”

“I’d rather stay here.”

“You can ask QD about that. Or Rhine. I mean, they wouldn’t listen to me if I said it… so, it’s gotta be you.”

“I don’t want to ask them.”

Scratching the back of his head, Vera’s face scrunched up with the ‘sorry, bud’ face a dad would make to their 8-year-old white son. “…then… nothing would change…? Hira, look— if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I don’t think they’ll force you.”

Hira flared into Vera’s eyes, his own slowly widening. “No… I think they will.”

“They’re not that mean! C’mon, it’ll be alright!”

“I… can’t…” Hiraeth never broke his gaze from Vera.

This made Vera quite uncomfortable. Hira barely acted strange. There was definitely a side to him that Vera and the others were vast strangers to.

“Hira…”

“I’m gonna go… y’know, to my room here.” Hira let go of Vera’s hand. “This is the direction.” He gave Vera a slip of paper, which looked a little old— definitely torn out from a notebook. All sides were ripped. It was folded four times, neatly.

This really creeped Vera out. Where the hell did he get a piece of paper…? The atrium was nowhere near the rooms, and Hira was definitely staring at the Glass’s image for a while. “Hey, Hira? Where’d you get this?”

“From the ground.”

“And…” Vera opened up the note, reading it. The direction was surely there. “…where’d you get a pen to write this?”

“Don’t ask me stupid questions. I’m going.”

Vera stared off after him.

“Okay…! Get some rest and think things over, alright? Don’t push yourself too hard!” Vera smiled and waved Hira away, while walking off himself. But in a very disturbed manner. Then, he returned back to Rhine, QD and Kindle after walking through several halls.

Kindle was the first to notice his return. “Hey. How was it? Going to the cool place? Seein’ Hira?”

“It was okay. Can he not come on this mission?” Vera raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms and leaning on QD. “He doesn’t want to.”

Shaking her head in immediate disapproval, Rhine took a break from endlessly typing on the holograms. “No. He needs to come. You can’t just have everyone out of your way when you feel like it.”

Vera groaned. “Okay, whatever. Anyways— what’s up? Do I get to do any fun stuff?” He leaned into the holograms, reading over Rhine’s incoherent writing. “Wow, so much for grammar!”

“It’s a work in progress. We still need to get confirmation from Hira on half of this stuff. Didn’t I tell you to bring him?” Rhine turned to Vera, her motherly tone kicking in. “Where is he?”

Handing Rhine the piece of paper with the direction, Vera shrugged. “He went to his room. Y’know, the one in here. That’s why I asked if he c—“

Ammi, after a brief, knowing glance at QD, burst out into a yell. “I’LL GO GET HIM!!!” And with that, she sped off.

“What’s her problem…?” Sighed Vera.

QD pointed her eyes up to the ceiling. “She’s got the feeling something bad is gonna happen to Hira.”

“Hm. Well, she’s usually right with this stuff… in all the wrong ways.” Rhine commented as she continued writing, opening the slip of paper and calculating the location of Rea’s room. “Here it is. These should be the coordinates… but the Glass Link has never been outside of the Academy, so all I have is that. No images… nothing. Be careful we don’t teleport on a coffee table or something, heh.”

Reminiscing, QD chuckled. “Remember when Jay teleported into a sewer once? I remember that.”

“Ohhh, yeah!!!” Kindle nodded furiously. “And he was whining about wanting to get actual new skin! I don’t think he feels clean, even to this day.”

Jay, who had been there the whole time, groaned. “Okay. Thanks for bringing that up. Now I don’t feel clean anymore. I’m gonna go get a new skin, be right back…” As quickly as he appeared, he disappeared.

QD and Kindle simultaneously faced each other to giggle like stupid idiots.

***

“Okay! Done. We’ll review this with Hira… which reminds me, Ammi never came back with him.” Rhine confirmed, biting her lip in thought. “Hm, d’you guys think something’s actually up…?”

“Uh, yeah.” Grumbled Vera. “It’s obvious.” His reasoning behind this was mostly based on the fact that the Point of View swapped from the plan making group to him and Hira, and also that Hira was acting weird. Mostly the latter. “Do we need another person to go there and check up on them? You don’t think they’re f—“

QD butt in again. “I don’t think so! They’re not ffffffine.” She squinted over to Vera. “That’s the word, wasn’t it?”

“Sure. Let’s go with that.”

Rhine seemed to get lost in the past. “Whoops… you don’t think it was because I literally gave him the view of all his hard work burnt down?”

“YOU WHAT!?!” Kindle shrieked. “RHINE!!!”

“That was to find the direction! I’m sorry— I thought he’d be okay, or like— brush it off or something!”

Kindle cursed, shaking angrily. “I KNEW it! You really don’t care!”

“We’re DONE with that. Now’s not the time.”

QD took matters into her own hands. “Okay— yes, this might be Rhine’s fault— but yes, we are done with that and we promised that you would stop accusing and ticking people off like that, Kindle.”

“I don’t understand why you have to solve everyone’s problems when you butt in like that.”

“Don’t say that or I will LITERALLY turn you into Primordial soup.”

Vera slipped away.

“Empty threat~” Kindle teased.

Rhine rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get so defensive over Hira. It was an honest mistake. We won’t boil you alive over your mistakes, so don’t do that to us. Got it?” QD chided.

Taking a brief silence, Kindle finally nodded. “Fine. That was stupid though.”

“I agree.” Rhine dipped her head to Kindle in understandment. “I should go check up on him, then.” She walked off, swiping her holograms to QD and Kindle for review all at once.

The two waited until she was gone.

“I never thought I’d see it… the day Rhine admits to a mistake.” Kindle shrugged, a pleased and yet indifferent face.

QD looked after her in a sense of wonder. “Yeah. At least someone here is helping themselves grow…”

***

Vera stared at the plans as if he was actually reading them.

“Vera. Are they good?” QD asked him after five minutes of no response and dead staring. “Vera. I’m starting to get worried.”

“Uhhh.” Vera squinted, like he was trying to read the notes better. “Why does Rhine’s uppercase ‘t’ look like an uppercase ‘j’?”

Kindle sighed. “Uppercase ‘j’’s don’t look like that.”

“Dude. Yes they do. Your handwriting is just… bad.”

“What?! My penmanship is terrific! You’ve gotta be mentally insane if you write your uppercase ‘j’’s with a line at the top!”

Groaning, QD took this as a direct attack to her, too. “Thanks, Kindle. That means a lot.”

“HEY— it’s okay when you do it! I just don’t like Ve—“

“—we got Hira.” Rhine came in with Hira and oh yeah also Ammi or whatever

Kindle suddenly brightened up. “Yayy! Why’d it take you forever?!”

Hira blinked slowly. “ionno” he hummed.

“Translate?” Kindle turned to Vera.

Vera said nothing.

“You look tired! What did you do?” QD pounced at him with another question.

Again, Hira blinked slowly. “I’m just… a little drained.”

“…uh huh. Thanks for answering.”

“No problem…”

Catching up to her thoughts, Rhine spoke after a while. “Do you want to go over the plan? What do you think we’ll need? Of course— if you want to go over it now.”

“Mhm. Let’s see…” Hira walked over to the holograms, then read them carefully.

There was three minutes of silence.

Three minutes of silent silence was broken by Kindle, the least silent of the group. “Hey, Hira? Why does it take you forever to read?”

“…I’m just wondering why Rhine wrote this uppercase ‘t’ like an uppercase ‘j’…”

“Guys, can we stop talking about my handwriting? We ALWAYS bring it up when we review the plan. It’s been ruining my self esteem.”

“Uh, look.” Hira pointed to a few lines. “Here… there’s no way we can get disguises. I honestly have zero clue where those are. Either way, we’ll need them. Aeronia is chock-full of cameras— everyone knows every move you make… our only option is to blend in.” He turned to Rhine. “I can tell you what materials we’d need to make our own. And… you already know about the honorifics system we use?”

“Oh, yup…”

“We’ll need everyone to act natural if we want to blend in. Or— at least Aeronian natural. Which means that we’ll need everyone to memorize the honorifics system… and we’ll also need to drop a few people to just being plain stealthy. Like— Vera.”

Vera groaned. “Why do we always zero me out like this?”

Frowning, Hira explained it like it was obvious. “First of all— you’re blue. Secondly, you’ve got major anger issues.”

“Excuse me??? I can take care of that when I want to!”

Vera’s further rageful comments were ignored. “If we can do that, then I think we might be set. Oh, except for this part. And that one. And this? I can fix this later. Especially this alternate entrance where we try to get in through that thing QD’s been working on…”

Rhine nodded throughout the entire conversation. “Got it. Okay— I have some notes on the system Hira was talking about.” She turned to the others. “If you can study it up, then I’m sure we’ll have no problem with it, hm? As for the costumes…”

“Costume design is my passion.” Ammi muttered.

“Uh, yes. You can help, Ammi. Here’s the notes…” Finished Rhine, opening a hologram and displaying it neatly in front of everyone.

Kindle nearly dropped dead upon the sight of them. “WHAT IS THIS?!”

“…” Hira turned to Kindle slowly. “…please don’t say anything bad about it.”

“WHY DO WE HAVE TO CHANGE PRONOUNS AND HONORIFICS DEPENDING ON THE THIRD AND FIRST PERSON?!? THAT’S BULL!!”

Hira’s eyes closed themselves. “I’m tired. Rhine can answer any questions. She knows.” Then, he walked off, back to where he came from— his room.

QD blinked. “Huh. That’s… quite the few titles… which one would I use?!”

“Probably this one.” Vera pointed to ‘none’— reserved for those under the age of three.

“Well… you’d probably use… ah— that one!!!” QD pointed to one reserved for only the dead and those who have committed terrible atrocities.

Kindle giggled to herself. “Hira’s using that one, too.”

“And I thought my stupid joke about being racist was bad…”

Rhine snapped her fingers like she was gathering the attention of a bunch of giggling third graders when learning about the solar system— eventually leading to learning about ‘Uranus’. “Focus! This is where you learn about how to not die. So learn.”

Vera rolled his eyes. “Ugh… but you know me! I wouldn’t be able to focus on this for as long as I need to learn even a fraction of what’s here… so… can I opt out? Pretty please?”

“Rhine, tell him he can’t!!” Kindle burst out. “He’s trying to admit to his mistakes so he can easily manipulate you into thinking th—“

“—well, according to what Hira said…” Rhine paused for a moment, eyeing the plans, making changes, and circling routes. “…here. This is our best path so far.” She displayed them again, this time with a list at the side of the finalized groups everyone was to be in.

“Hira and Ammi will be in the same group. They’ll also be blending in— while the rest of us start off with stealth, they’ll blend in. That will stay the same the entire time. Then, it’s me and Kindle. We actually break off from stealth while…”

***

“Woah, what is that?!” Jay, awestruck, stared at the honorifics notes. Okay— maybe not awestruck. It was a little horrifying.

QD’s eyes glazed over the notes one last time. “Uhh… notes. Apparently, everyone but you and Vera have to memorize them. Lucky.”

Jay’s expression blinked to relief. “Oh, good. Have fun. I’ll bake us something, bye~!” He was glad to get out of there.

“Nope! You can’t. You’ve got other things to do.” A sly smile grew on QD’s lips as he handed Jay a notecard.

He was once again horrified. “Wh…why…?”

Yes— why do anything on paper when they had holograms? Truly frightening.

“…oh, but I’m not even good at sewing yet…”

“It’s a learning opportunity. Try it. Rhine can give you lessons.”

Lessons from Jay’s wife? Okay! Lessons from Rhine? Not okay!

“Oh…”

***

“‘Got the Glass!” Vera burst into the portal room. “Let’s go already!!! Is everyone else ready?!”

Rhine nodded. “Yup.”

Kindle, who felt the need to answer right after Rhine did, spoke up. “Me too! Ooh, how do I look?” She twirled around, bouncing her now short hair in her hands. She was already loving her costume.

“Ugh. You look fine.” Vera eyed the length of her hair, holding onto his own for dear life.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

QD giggled. “And me? How do I look?”

“You actually look really cute.”

“Aw, thanks. I couldn’t say the same for you.” QD fluttered her lashes.

Hira anxiously bounced around behind them. “Rhine? Can I go get a mango before we go?”

Hearing her name and processing the question, Rhine scrunched up her face in confusion. “…now? Y’know, Aeronians don’t eat. And we have to go as soon as possible— so you’d be eating the mango on the way there… so…”

“I promise I’ll be quick! Please?”

“Fine.”

Hira instantly ran off. Mango. Get it?

This made Ammi borrow Hira’s anxiety for a bit. “Hey, can we get this over with? I’m nervous…”

“First mission?” Vera teased, as if he was a seasoned warrior.

“Yes.” Ammi responded genuinely. “How does it usually go?”

QD gave her a comforting smile. “No one dies! Sometimes, we do get a little injured. However, that’s mainly for when we deal with the Rip, and unexpected events occur due to the anomalies. You especially won’t get hurt. There’d have to be the most unlikely occurrence to even begin to unravel each scenario where you’d get hurt— even a scratch!”

“…huh?”

“Just think about it.” QD patted her head.

“…huh…”

Vera looked over to the portal, fiddling with the Glass in his hands. “Can I put this in now?”

Rhine perked up. “Yup. We’ll have to test out the location before we all enter, too. Does anyone want to volunteer?”

“Oh, I can.” Jay gave off a golden smile. “It’s my turn, anyways. Remember that list we made?”

Kindle giggled, eyeing the Glass as Vera entered it into the portal “yup… I remember who was right before you, too…”

Vera chose not to elaborate, as he was met with a judgy Kindle stare.

“Portal’s ready~!” Vera pulled the lever and the portal blinked to life. “C’mon, c’mon!!”

“Why are you in such a rush today?” Jay was getting a little suspicious.

Vera sighed. “I just wanna make racist jokes quicker. Now, c’mon!! Test!!!”

“Okay…”

Jay walked into the portal.

Anticipation hung in the air.

Jay came back right behind Vera.

“VERA!!!” He fumed. “WHAT GLASS DID YOU CHOOSE!?”

Vera erupted into laughter, suddenly grabbing onto Jay and shaking him.

“Ugh—!” Rhine’s eyes started to water, the disgusting smell of sulfur filling the air. “Was that the stupid SULFUR WORLD????”

Kindle started to cry. “holy shit the smell’s gotten stronger since we last went”

Jay tried to call himself down by breathing, but all he could inhale were infuriating sulfur fumes. “Okay— that’s fine. It was funny. No one got hurt.”

Vera slowly started to back away, still laughing like crazy. “Wowwww— I was preparing myself— for a fight… hehehehehhh……youstillsmelllikeshitthough”

Jay’s smile returned, but it was quite demented. “Shall I go grab the correct Glass?”

“Please.” Rhine covered her nose. “Please do.”

QD hadn’t taken another breath the entire time. “Hey, should we open a window…?” She spoke from the inside of her shirt.

Kindle raised an eyebrow. “No, that’d kill everyone.”

“Right.”

“Hey, I found it!” Jay called out. “It wasn’t that hard to find.” He teased, directed at Vera.

Vera scoffed. “Dude, whatever—“

Making his way to the portal and taking out the previous Glass, Jay thought of all the punishments that could possibly be given to Vera. “Hm, you can say that now…”

“Ooohohohohooo!!! That means you’re in trouble!” Mused Kindle, honestly ready to see Vera genuinely regret his decisions.

The Glass was entered and the lever was pulled.

“Okay, now we can test this out. Vera, why don’t you go ahead?” Jay pushed him closer to the portal.

Vera shrugged, figuring this was probably the best punishment he could’ve been given. “Sure.”

“HEY! Is that his punishment?! Make him eat ROCKS!!!”

“Where’s Hira? He went out for ‘just a mango’, yeah?” QD looked around. “Is he invisible? Is that a new thing he can do?”

Ammi ran a hand through her hair, only to remember it now ran short. “Uh… I don’t know… is he okay? I’ll go get him!!”

Vera appeared. “It’s good. I saw a picture of a girl with blue hair in this room. I’m pretty sure that’s Rea.”

Rhine held Ammi down by pressing her hand on top of her head. “Nope. Last time you did that, you two didn’t come back.”

“Sorry… I had to make sure Hira was okay.”

“Hm?”

“Yeah, you didn’t come until then— but he—-“

“—-sorry!!! I stress-ate like five mangoes!!! And now my stomach’s all full… and I can’t really move around that well, so I think I’ll just sit this out for a bit.”

Vera turned to Hira, his expression quickly changing.

“Dude!!! We’re literally about to go!!! Get over your tummy ache!!!” Kindle flailed her hands around wildly, as if that would get the point across.

Hira shook his head. “Sorry, it feels like I’m about to die…”

“DUDE!!! You’ll get over it!!!”

“Yeah, how bad can it be? Isn’t your pain tolerance really low…?” QD raised an eyebrow.

Looking off to the side as if an orchid of excuses would appear out of the blue, Hira shrugged. “I don’t know. But I really can’t take it…”

“Y’know, if you feel like that— sure! I’ll just take over your part! I’m good at killing things!” Vera proudly put his hands on his hips.

“Didn’t you want him off the mission before…?”

“Wait, I kill someone?”

Vera nodded. “Yup! It’s all part of the plan. You’re gonna go kill the fucking losers that run your government. That was part of the sub-section assassination!”

“…the Elders…?”

Rhine’s eyes darted around the room. “Am I hearing this right? Vera read the plan thoroughly and Hira didn’t even read his own parts? Did a skinwalker get loose?”

Eyes going blank, Hira thought intensely. He then grew an uncanny smile. “Oh… okay… oh— yikes… my stomach, hehe… well… uh… if I have this much of an important role…” His face lost all emotion. “I’ll just bear it.” He pointed to his stomach. “I mean, I guess I’m the only one who can.”

Revenge… that’s what this is to me now.

The thought gave Hira a rush. He was full of spontaneously murderous energy.

I have a chance…

Deep inside him, he already felt like a psychopath.

“After all, I do know Aeronia the best.” He shrugged, weakly smiling.

“Huh, okay…” Rhine returned a smile. “Well, I guess that settles it.”

There’s no way they could’ve believed that! I was totally faking the whole stomach ache— ugh, the transition to ‘yes’ wasn’t smooth at all…

He was once again watching dark blue words roll in.

They’ll definitely be onto me… especially after Ammi saw me… but no one’ll believe Vera, in anything he says. He tried helping me earlier, but I’d rather him stop that now…

Everything happening in the outside world dulled— but the sounds and the feeling of walking, gesturing and smiling blurred into a loud rage.

I might have a chance…

I should’ve read the plan…!

If I could try, just one more time…

When I came here…

Even when I walked into this place, with everything so new and bright around me…

I…

Brought myself…

I never changed…

He entered the portal subconsciously.

I’m still my old self…

That ‘old self’…

Is quite the greedy person.

Maybe I could… just try…

Try it one more time?

It couldn’t hurt any more than it has…

That’s the problem with destroying it…

I’d still want it…

I’ve gone without it…

And I’ve always wanted it…

“Okay, we’re here… any possibilities?”

“Yeah… in three minutes, there’ll be a way for us to get out and into the Academy, just the way Kindle likes it.”

“WHAT??!!! YAY!!! I GET TO HIDE IN A BOX!!!”

I NEED it now…

I’m nothing without it…

I’d be dead…

Then what?

What would I be doing?

Nothing…

It’s saved me so many times…

Just try…

One more time…

It can’t…

Hurt…

***

“Okay, we’ll wait here. We can simply walk out whenever.” Hira nodded to the others.

“Great! See you there. Read the plan over, okay?” Rhine sternly commanded.

“I will.”

“Good.”

And with that, they were off. It was just Ammi and Hira.

Like a serial killer, Hira’s smile faded into a stoic look. “Tell me what to do. I’m not reading that.”

“Oh— okay… are we taking our roles this seriously right now?”

“Well, you’d know!” Hira put back on an ecstatic smile. “Don’t you like acting?”

Ammi’s smile returned from the depths of anxiety, and she beamed. “Yeah! I just wanted to see your usual personality one last time, hehe.”

That’s funny. The blue words lulled on the shore.

“Okay. Serious.” Hira waved a hand in front of his face, returning to his role. “What do we need to do, Haen?”

“Oh— uh…” Ammi ran through the honorifics system in her head, then put on her own show. “Ade, there’s no need to be so formal with me. But, if you’d like, Haen can run through our schedule for today.”

Hira nodded. “Thank you. Let’s do that, shall we?”

“Of course. She advises that we head to the Academy either by foot or through a means of transportation. The latter is preferred. There’s a highly likely possibility that Kade-Rea will be in a governmental meeting at this moment and for the next three. That will give us some time to meet Kade and discuss our next moves with her.”

“I see.”

“If, along the way, Ade meets anyone he should be alert around, then it would be advised to use the safe code he had Haen set up for him.”

Hira nodded. “Please, let’s continue. However— before this… do you possess any knowledge on combat?”

“Yes, Haen used to be part of the Guard. However, Haen prefers the humanities, and it has led her to this position.”

Silence.

“Wow, I’m actually quite impressed. That was really good.”

Ammi smiled. “Thanks! I took some time to learn AstraTime… and it hurts me to think about it…”

“I could tell…”

“My research had to be a little more complex to play this role, hehe.”

Hira shrugged. “You did nothing short of a good job. Now, don’t forget. No emotion.”

“That’d actually be quite easy…”

“Let’s go.”

They exited the… house, although it was called a ‘room’. Then— to Aeronia. The outside. Hira had never been before. He actually had no idea where to go. All he knew was… look at the Academy, and just keep walking to it. Which might get confusing, and leave him and Ammi prone to Negative Aura Points.

Luckily, Ammi was able to flag down a carriage.

“Excuse us. May we ride to the Academy?”

“Of course.” The driver eyed Ammi and Hira.

Both of them, being in full disguise, were unrecognizable as who they were before. Especially Hira… he had a full on makeover.

They simply looked like two members of high society.

As they entered the carriage, not another word was spoken. They were simply carried through the streets, and thus, their destination.

Ammi had expected to see at least some form of segregation— but those in their first and second lives walked about the streets like they lived there. Seemingly, there was nothing wrong with Aeronia. At eye level, this place was perfect. Hira seemed to fit right in. She wondered about herself… then those wonders trailed off into wonders about Hira. What was his life really like? They had his stories… but everything seemed different. Like his life wasn’t as easy as it had been until now. He looked like he wanted to die.

They made it to the Academy steps without any trouble. As if awaiting their arrival, bells rung— an uncountable amount of times. They walked up the steps without any words, into the Academy.

The entrance was astounding. A large chandelier, red carpets, twisting steps, pillars of ivory, gold and gleaming gemstones…

None of it amused them, however. Hira and Ammi simply walked up more and more steps.

Hey, Ammi. How’s it going so far?

She received a message.

It’s alright. This place is giving me anxiety, though…

Ah, I see. It’s different from what you expected, even with the pictures. I understand.

Yup. Is there anything I should know about?

Two things. First, that whole chorus of bells outside was basically a suicide count.

Oh.

And finally, 99% of the gems here are people.

Wow… thanks for dropping those bombs.

Anytime. Walk two steps behind me.

They made their way up endless steps and through endless halls… It was like Hira knew every detail about every brick laid to make the Academy.

Ammi, you’re getting tired. Keep up.

Right, sorry!

Ammi pulled energy from the depths of Energy Hell.

But, it’s not like anyone can see, right?

Uh-huh. Even the cameras…?

Oh… forgot about those.

Hey, if we see anyone, we’ll ask them where Rea is. Even if the possibility was highly likely, we might’ve done something wrong by accident.

Uh… it’s still quite likely… Are we sure we want to do that?

Yes.

I’m having trouble seeing who we’re walking into, but it’s someone.

That’s fine by me. Logically, it’s not anyone I know too well. That would be like… finding a four-leaf clover.

Alright.

They traversed each hall, Ammi desperately praying for a breather.

Then, they finally crossed paths with someone in the hall.

“Excuse us.” Hira dipped his head towards the man— a second life. “Is it possible to tell us the location of Kade-Rea at this moment? She requested that we give her a few project documents.”

The man paused for a moment. “Kade-Rea… I believe she’s in a governmental meeting currently. However…”

Hira held his breath, while Ammi was taking several.

“…do you not recognize me?” The man turned his head to the side.

“No, apologies.”

“Ah… that’s a shame… Hiraeth, do you m—“

“—-CRAP!!!” The image of Hiraeth’s old professor flashed in his mind, then compared this man and him.

IT WAS THE SAME MAN.

“I— DON’T SAY A WORD!” He instantly lost his cool.

The man shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t need to. But I’d like to ask… what did you do to get in this much trouble?”

Hira paused. “NO.” With a sudden rage of adrenaline, he grabbed Ammi’s hand and rushed away.

“SORRY! YOU’RE A COOL DUDE!!” Ammi called to the professor as she was dragged along.

He shrugged, walking off.

I MESSED UP!! YOU— YOU SHOULD’VE WARNED ME!!!

Sorry! It wasn’t anything I could see!

WELL— NOW WE’RE GOING TO REA’S ROOM!!

Okay—-!! Wait—!? Isn’t her room outside?!

They rushed up steps and halls— until they finally were met with a large door. Hiraeth simply opened it, then made his way inside, shutting the door behind him. He went to the small electronic box at the door… only to find his job was done for him— it was completely disabled.

“Ugh— okay— we’re alright… this… is Rea’s office. It’s not the ideal place to teleport to… meetings usually happen here. Just not governmental meetings….” He sighed, feeling his chest to find his pulse. “We’ll have to wait for her in here…”

“Okay… I’m sorry, Hira. I could’ve looked harder.” Ammi scratched the back of her head. “Hey, at least we used a setting spray for your makeup! No amount of sweat could get through that…”

Hira blinked several times, as if processing. “Yes… sorry for blaming our run-in on you… that’s not a very good thing to do…”

Ammi shook her head. “No, I’ll do better next time! I promise!”

Hira turned to Ammi, worried. However, he took this. “Okay. Just… rest with me…”

Ammi nodded.

After some time, Hira groaned. “I could’ve pretended that wasn’t me…! That was so stupid…”

“I wouldn’t have believed it, personally. The job only makes slight differences… oh, but your eyes look different now, so that would’ve changed a few things…”

Hira blankly slid his back against the wall, laying down. “Ugh… it’s over now… but… they’ll be looking for us…”

Ammi fidgeted with the prop injector she had on her left wrist. “Hey, this thing is getting really sweaty. How’d you live with it…?”

“…and it’ll make it so hard to go with the plan…! I… fucked it up… for everyone else…” He subconsciously took a look at his own prop injector as it was mentioned. Actually— wait.

It wasn’t a prop, rather one of two of his old injectors. Rhine had been planning to analyze them, after taking them off Hira’s wrist from the first trial day. She’d removed the needle on the one Ammi wore… but… Hira told her she’d done the same for his, when she hadn’t…

Oh…

…hahah…

The words came back.

I’m… pfft…

He stood up, walked over to the box at the door, then started to mess with it. He filled up the injector with more solution. Then, he promptly pressed his injector furiously.

“…better…”

“Hm? Hira?” Ammi picked her head up. She’d copied Hira, laying down just as he did. “What’d you say?”

“I just feel much better now.” Hira nodded to her. “We’ll have to get in character once again. Keeping up the facade now would surely help later, no? That’s more character work. It’s useful.”

Ammi gave Hira a good, long look. “Yeah!” She smiled, the suspicion washing away. Then, she entered her serious mode.

“Thanks.” Hira sighed, counting down until he could feel the effects hit him.

…wow…

I think I’ve forgotten how much I missed this…

It feels… like nothing…

…that feels good…

He sunk down into another hole, hitting another high.

Much better… I can do the rest with this…

The door opened, then closed.

“Why are you in my of— OH, HIRA!!” REA’S weirded out reaction to Ammi disappeared the moment she laid eyes on Hira. “I thought you were DEAD!!! Although, they did say we should be on the lookout for you, so I kinda doubted it… what’d you do this time?”

“‘Brought in outsiders. They’re just friends.”

“Hey.” Ammi nodded to Rea coolly. “Do we gotta keep staying in character? I wanna say hi to Rea properly.”

“No, but I will.”

Rea raised an eyebrow. “You… seem like you know the sensations.”

“They’re called emotions, actually. And I am feeling the emotion happy! Happy to meet you.”

Rea welled with curiosity. “Oh, I can learn a lot from you.”

Hira interjected. “From me, too. I practically already know everything.”

“Sure! I didn’t know outsiders brought the true name of the sensations… what else do you bring?”

Ammi grinned. “A plan.”

“Ooh, strange faces and a plan. For what?”

“To kill the Elders and establish a new government!”

“Uh— why…? Ours… is perfectly fine…”

“Well, we kinda already know about all the other unfavorable stuff, too. Plus, don’t you want more people to know about sensations and feel them?”

Rea sighed, relieved. “Yeah… I kinda want them to die, too… but… if they’re going, then all the other members of the government are going with them, aren’t they?” She asked, a member of the government.

Feeling like a super secret spy already, Ammi disclosed the information. “Not you! You’re basically on our side! Hira’s told us about how you guys are basically rebels.”

Rea grinned, the title like a badge of honor. “Yeah… okay, then! If you have a plan, let’s follow it! What’s first?”

“Well— that was finding you. That’s done… however, with some complications… With that said, we’ve been seen for sure. Hira even made a big reaction.”

“Reaction?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Uh, chemical reaction?”

“‘Different kind of reaction. But, yeah. We need to be more careful now. No one else can see us.”

Rea bit her nails. “Huh…”

“Oh, by the way… I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity right now! I’ve only heard of you when Hira talks about you, but you were always so cool!”

“Hm, I might need to study some of your vocabulary…” Rea smiled, confused nonetheless. “Well— about the sudden stealth, I can help. Me and Hira worked on a few of those types of… missions. Where do you need to go next?”

Hira’s heart fluttered upon hearing this— for some reason.

Ammi ran the plan through her head, start to finish. “We’re gonna go find Hira’s caretaker! I mean, if he’s not dead. We included that in the plan because he also seemed like he was on our side.”

“So… do you invade places and try to bend them to your will…?” Rea gathered only this.

“What? No! We try to fix things. There’s so many reasons why we need to do that here. Things are good— and things are bad.” Ammi tried to remember how they explained morals to Hira. “Uh, things that are mistakes and things that are correct. Bad things are mistakes. Lots of bad things— mistakes— are being made in Aeronia. We’re just trying to solve them.”

Rea raised an eyebrow. “Because it benefits you?”

“Because it benefits everyone else. That’s what we do. Happiness— a good emotion— should be given to everyone. Good things make good emotions. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that emotions are good and bad. They’re just something we have…” Ammi delved into deeper territories. “That’s actually quite complex… we don’t have enough time for that! So, if you could, help us find his caretaker? Y’know, if he’s not dead.”

Running through this information, Rea nodded. “Okay. Good thing. He’s not dead! I actually had to bargain to keep him alive. Part of me knows that Hira’s behavior isn’t all that poor guy’s fault…”

“oh… did he go through a trial?”

“Yeah, two days’ worth.”

Shit… Ice collected in Hira’s veins. Typically, there were three days in each complete trial, with a few exceptions. By the second day, you were as good as dead— if you weren’t by the first. The third day was just to make sure that you did, in fact, die.

“Is… that bad?”

Rea nodded. “I have little understanding of ‘bad’. However, I believe that it is.”

“Yes, it’s bad.” Hira commented. “I’ve been through one day.”

“Oh, yikes! I forgot you did! But— you look really good.”

“I haven’t been here. I’ve recovered.”

“What was it like?”

“I’d prefer not to say.”

“Oh.”

“Ammi, a trial is basically being a punching bag. There’s nothing with justice about it— that’s another coverup. Rea, I assume you’ve been to some?”

Agreeing, Rea hummed. “Yup. They’re a little… ah, I don’t know how to say it… but I know I’ve done just as much— if not more— than those on trial. Especially since most of it is little things they get tried for.”

“I feel like shit.” Hira turned to Ammi. “I did that to him. They think it’s his fault I turned out this way. Whatever I am… it’s apparently a problem. ‘A talent for danger’.”

Ammi didn’t reciprocate much emotion. “He’s alive. That’s good, isn’t it? He’ll forgive you. He’s like your dad! And you’re like his son!”

Rea thought about what those words could mean.

“Sure.” Hira groaned. “Let’s go get him.”

“Oh, alright! Now?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ll be off! C’mon, stop doing that pose.” Rea pointed to Hira, still laying down. “No time to waste!”

“Yay!!! Time to find Hira’s dad!”

“Hey— is ‘dad’ another word for ‘caretaker’?”

“Pretty much.”

“Yes, I got it right!”

Ugh, it’s wearing off…

I’m actually quite surprised Rea didn’t say anything about my silence.

But… I’m glad nonetheless.

Hira pressed on his injector a few more times.

Maybe I need something stronger… this isn’t doing it the way it used to.

***

“Ew!! I was stuck with a bunch of wet sacks! It felt like every second grade girl’s sudden obsession with fake pets made out of Ziplocks with water in them…”

Rhine dusted herself off. “Not sponsored.” She winked at the cameras.

“I was stuck in a bunch of packing peanuts… I didn’t know Aeronia made them…” Kindle shuttered. “I ate a few, though. It was getting a little cramped.”

“Kindle!!! Aeronian packing peanuts might be dangerous!! And definitely NOT made with cornstarch!” QD warned as if Kindle would get pancreatic cancer from it.

Kindle simply shrugged. “Hey, at least they tasted a little good. Mostly bland, though. I regret nothing. Anyways, what did you get trapped in?”

“Oh, we’re asking this now? Well, I also got stuck with wet sacks.”

Rhine nodded. “Same. Why does Aeronia like wet sacks…?”

“I got stuck with small, rectangular, empty boxes. And they weren’t even packaged neatly! They were simply… dropped into the box. I tried to organize it a bit, but I probably gave myself a crack in my shoulder blade…” Jay frowned. “It was a bad experience.”

Vera, who had picked up one of the sacks, became quiet. He spoke up about his findings, however. “It’s… some sort of solution? Like… bagged drugs, hehe.”

“Oh, I get it.” Rhine looked around them. “This is the drugs room. Wet sacks? Injector fluid. Those empty boxes? Probably their second packaging. Hira told me they came in little white boxes.”

Jay perked up. “I was with little white boxes…”

“We were sitting in DRUGS?!” QD exclaimed, being unaffected by bagged drugs physically— the same could not be said mentally.

Vera hummed, smiling. “I wanna hit it.”

“NO ONE DOES DRUGS.” Rhine had to set the rules straight. “The rules on the Train are the same here. They apply. Please, no drugs. If someone was high, who knows what they’d do?”

“But, like, they only make you lose your emotions! Can we just try once?”

“No. The effects might differ for non-Aeronians. You could… do other things by accident.”

Vera rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll be reasonable for once.”

“Yayy!” Kindle cheered. “What are we gonna do about all these drugs, though? Shouldn’t we take them out or something…? If the plan works, the citizens won’t need these anymore.”

Rhine nodded. “Yeah. We just need to find out how…”

Jay turned to QD. “An idea?”

“Nope.” She responded. “I actually don’t have anything right now. Sorry.”

“It’s all good. We still need to do something about this, though.” Jay looked over the expanse of literal bagged water drugs.

Kindle grunted, putting her brain to work painfully. “Okay— uhhhhhggghhh… we can… just kinda shove them all back into a micro portal, using a Link. It’ll take a while, but we don’t need lots of people to carry out the other tasks we set up. For example, I don’t need to go with Rhine… even though it would be preferred. And… Myst— ah, Jay— you don’t need to go with QD. You’re pretty good with stealth and assassinations, but I think QD should get in some of her own experience for once, and she’d fit in quite well. That means we’d have to switch the plan right now. Rhine. Contact Hira once he gives you a safe signal. Oh, and Vera. You just don’t switch up any roles.”

Vera nodded. “Sweet.”

“Are we sure I can handle assassinations…?” QD seriously doubted herself. “Jay’s suited for this perfectly.”

“Ugh, you did fine when I taught you.” Vera interjected, clapping QD’s back. “You even have Visionshaper. You’re like Jay, just more… hm, Aeronian looking. It’s all good.”

QD’s face became uncommonly red.

“Kindle, you’ll stay here, won’t you?” Rhine was already on the plan changes. “Ah— Hira gave the signal just now. But, yeah, are you shoveling drugs today?”

“Yeah, I can’t exactly fight. Plus, if this place is a downtime-like area, then I can manage the plan and what we need to do next!” For once, Kindle was okay with staying put. “When Hira mentioned lobotomy, I decided I’d stop trying to play hero here.” She grinned wide. “Though, I’d kinda like to see what my brain’s up to half the time…”

Jay chuckled. “I don’t think they’d do that.”

“I think they would.” Vera monotonously commented.

“Ah, hold on… I’m talking to Hira. Do you guys need to say anything to him?” Rhine turned to the others, clearing up a few hologram tabs on her band.

Jay nodded. “Yes. Could you please ask if he’s doing alright? It’s understandable that Aeronia would bring back bad memories for him.”

“He was also acting off when we were about to leave.” Vera commented.

“I wouldn’t worry about that.” Shrugged Kindle. “He’s a little bipolar, y’know?”

QD suddenly plunged into crisis. “wait can you be a little bipolar or does it not work that way”

Vera scratched the back of his neck “True…”

“Okay, Hira said that Rea has an office. They’re there now, but they were spotted by his old professor beforehand…”

“Wow, talk about coincidence. I think Ammi did a good job with the makeup.” Jay shrugged. “Especially since the last time Hira saw his professor, he must’ve grown quite a bit.”

“Yup… so… now Ammi is talking with Rea. They’ll go find Hira’s caretaker apparently, so we should brace for that. Where do you guys think he should go?”

QD examined the room. “Maybe here? This could be a meeting place for us. Especially since it’s pretty lowkey, and Jay and Kindle will be here. I couldn’t think of a brighter way to be introduced to us, no?”

“I know, we’re the best.” Kindle beamed, roping Jay into her narcissism. “We’ll also answer any questions he’s got! Best Host Mode— activate!!”

“Great. Now, that micro portal…” Rhine waved a hand to QD, continuing her spree of messages with Hira.

QD received the gesture. “Yeah. Here…” She opened her band, dabbling on the tabs a bit. “After we’re done with this, let’s create a Direct Link… I don’t want to waste too much energy on this. It could take some time to recover…” QD placed her palm onto the floor, then lifted it up as if it had gotten magnetized to it. A small portal appeared. “What about the boxes?”

“I personally don’t need to analyze them. Maybe… they can be recycled?” Rhine smiled, admiring her very ‘Good Person-like’ suggestion.

Jay admired the suggestion, too. “Yes. We’ll simply need to learn what for, too. Anything that it’s made of can be of some use, as long as we find it. Like those hydrogen atoms we found binding together that trash in the last world. It made great fuel.”

“Yup! So, we’re taking them, too?” Kindle was ready to dump the first load of boxes, whenever she was commanded to do so.

QD nodded. “Yup.”

“Ugh… this kinda reminds me of hoarder behavior.” Vera shook his head. “Yeah, yay. Recycling. With a bunch of boxes on the Train…”

“Well, we’ll see what they’re useful for soon enough. Like… a few more figurines, right?” QD teased Vera.

“Last time you tried making a figurine, it ended horribly wrong.” Vera scoffed. Unfortunately for him, he still kept the horribly wrong figurine on the top of his shelf.

Kindle’s face bundled up in sheets of smug. “You guys always seem like you’re a couple. Are you guys… into each other…? In more ways than one…?”

“We’re on a mission, Kindle. Try to be a little more serious. Even though I doubt your head full of dirt could even attempt it. And anyways, QD’s an annoying bitch. I hate her.”

QD stabbed Vera’s oblique with her fingers. “I don’t mind Vera.”

They stared into each other’s eyes.

“Hey, if you two want to kiss, do it now.” Kindle sighed. “You gotta go kill people.”

“No kissing. No thanks. No.” QD violently squeezed Vera’s face with her hand, then shoved it away.

Vera groaned. “Ow, man…”

“Rhine, is the revised plan done?” QD turned to her.

Rhine stayed quietly hyper focused. “…uh-huh… just this last bit… and I’m still talking to Hira.”

QD shuttered. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this.”

“Why?” Kindle’s attention had been looking for something to grasp other than shoving drug boxes and bags around. “I wanna know!!”

“It’s just… the vibe, y’know? Aeronia actually seems way more dangerous than we thought.”

Jay quietly listened while he actually did his job.

“I mean… what they did to Hira? Couldn’t he have fought back? He knows how. Instead… he never said a thing about even thinking of that. And… that girl? Vera?”

Vera knew exactly who she was talking about. “Oh, that Cara woman. She really fucked up my throat… it was… a little scary.” For once, he looked smaller. “Damn, I can’t believe it, too…”

Rhine started to show her concern. “You’re right. Did Ammi say anything like this?”

“Yeah. She told me that she’d think something bad would happen to Hira. That’s why I asked if they could be in the same group together.”

Vera nodded. “I like Hira, and he asked me if he could be exempt from the mission. I wasn’t asking because I hate him.”

From the mountains of drugs, Jay made a noise. “Oh, I think we might’ve messed up.” He called from the caverns.

“Awwhhh, I don’t want him to get hurt because of us!” Kindle whined.

Rhine’s concern grew to the point she’d stopped revising the plan. She turned to the others. “Him and Ammi took a while before he came to go over the plan the first time. When I went inside, he really didn’t look good. He was tired, for sure…”

“Maybe that was the bad thing?” Kindle asked hopefully. “Now I don’t wanna shovel drugs! I wanna help out!!”

“That just means we have to finish this as quickly as we can.” QD concluded.

Vera placed a hand on her shoulder. “What if that isn’t possible? Like… one of us gets just as hurt as Hira did? Something gets tied up? A whole segment of the plan is absolutely destroyed?”

“I… would consider us to be pretty adaptable people. I mean, we just adapted here, so…”

“Plan’s done. Also, I finished speaking to Hira. They’re about to set off. We should get moving, too. Be careful. Blend in— pretend you’re… like a secret spy.”

Kindle grinned wide. “Awweee yeah. Secret spies. We’re the lame secret spies.” She gestured to her and Jay, trying to mix hope into the mood. “Let’s go, you guys!! Carry out those assassinations like crazy!!!”

“Thanks. Here’s the plan.” Rhine slid holograms over to the others. “Go over the parts quickly.”

Vera nodded through each paragraph he’d read. “Okay, got it. This seems pretty solid.”

“God, how fast can you read?!” QD was honestly a little shocked. “Uwwaaahhhhh, okay… I got it.”

“Good. See you two later. Keep an eye out for safe signals.” Rhine turned to Kindle and Jay.

Jay smiled. “Our pleasure. You can count on us.”

“Yeah! We’ll take care of other minor affairs. Also, would it be possible to set up a small medbay here? It seems like we might need it.” Kindle confirmed with Rhine.

She gave the go. “Yup. Make sure you also transport the drugs somewhere safe if you’re able to fit down in the micro portal.”

“Mhm! Stay safe, you guys!”

“See ya!” QD waved, clasping onto Vera’s hand before dragging him out of the room, onto their own missions.

“Oh— bye!” He called before they disappeared.

Rhine suspiciously washed her eyes over Jay and Kindle. “Jay, make sure Kindle doesn’t try any of this.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“OF COURSE I WOULDN’T!!! It’s— a joke, half the time.” 

“Yeah. Half the time. Stay safe.”

“You too.” Jay waved to Rhine.

“Bye-bye!”

***

“I honestly don’t know how we can get across… but I can help brainstorm.” Ammi nodded to Rea and Hira.

Rea rummaged through her memories. “I have a few things in here. Since it’s technically my room in the Academy, me and Hira hid lots of objects that could help us become stealthy— or at least disguise ourselves as unimportant people. Let me look for them.” She then proceeded to run off to another room within the room.

Ammi smiled. “Progress!”

Hira ran a hand through his hair, simply watching.

“Hira, do you have any ideas?” Ammi then turned to him, hoping to include him.

“No.”

Ammi tilted her head, expression becoming blank— yet it seemed full of curiosity. “Are you scared of being here?”

“Yes.” He instantly lied.

“It’s okay. We’ll all help you! Especially when you finish off the mission for us. If you need any help at all, I promise I’ll do my best!” Ammi held out a pinky to Hira.

He glared at it, like a high school bad boy with a hardcore drug addiction. As it turns out, half of this analogy accurately describes Hira. Then, he intertwined his pinky with Ammi’s. “Okay. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

“Hehe. Smile!” Ammi proclaimed as if she was about to take a photo.

Hira did not smile. He simply stared at her intensely.

Ammi became very silent after this.

“…” She shifted uncomfortably. “… … …” Obviously, she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Wow, talk about making it awkward. Bitter words were found at the shore.

The two were left in silence until Rea arrived with a cart and clothes. “I’m back!” She examined Hira and Ammi with a somewhat expectant look. “Hey, didn’t you two say you were friends? Why so quiet? Are you really friends?”

Ammi turned to Hira.

He looked at her, then suddenly realized she was asking him to answer. “Oh, yeah. But we’re the kind to be comfortable in silence together.”

Ammi nodded. “Mhm.”

Why did we need to lie about that?

What? Were you not comfortable?

After your reaction— or lack thereof, yeah.

That’s a shame.

“Wow, I didn’t know friendships could be like that. Are there many different types?”

Ammi smiled. “Yup! We’ll tell you all about it!”

“Ooh, I can’t wait! First— we have to get your plan done. I know where they’re keeping Dion, so I’ll take you there with this!”

It was a cart. A costume lay on the top.

“…what’s this for? and wait who’s dion”

“Rea, this one never worked.” Hira bluntly replied.

Rea seemed quite offended. “Well— it never worked when Nyia the cleaning girl came along! But— now— it’s Rea, the Head Scholar, with a cart of her finest books!” She wore a gleaming smile, posing next to the cart. “Here’s the catch— half of the cart isn’t even books! It’s Aeronians!”

Ammi giggled. “Great idea, but I’m not an Aeronian! I’m a human.”

“I don’t know what that is.” Rea raised an eyebrow. “You look like a first life to me. Is that like a human?”

Hira nodded. “Yes, except there’s a few physical differences. So, do we get in this cart now?”

“Yup! Just… mind your wings. It was only meant for one person to fit, but you’re small enough, aren’t you?” Rea looked over at Ammi. “By the way, you never gave me your name.”

Ammi perked up at the realization. “Oh, yeah! My name is Ammi!”

“Hello, Ammi. You already know me, so let’s skip that part. Alright— now that that’s all over with, let’s get going!!”

Hira sighed, not ready to share such uncomfortable and limited space. Nevertheless, he got inside with Ammi.

“ouch. this is really cramped.”

Hira shuttered. “I don’t like the way this feels…”

“What?! You guys can’t complain! We have a person to save! C’mon!!” Rea closed the fake lid on them, and then the cart started to move.

Inside the cart, it quickly became even more stuffy and uncomfortable than before. Especially since Hira kept staring Ammi down.

“Hira stop looking at me” Ammi pleaded in a whisper.

“I’m not looking at you”

“Yes you are you’re staring straight at me”

“You’re being too loud quiet down”

“Ugh just close your eyes”

“No”

“Hira please you haven’t blinked his entire conversation”

Hira blinked.

“Is that better for you oh great one”

“Yeah just do that again but do it really really slowly so your eyes are closed like 90% of this ride”

“Oh come on you’re being such a bother right now”

“Who even says such a bother dude like shut up”

“Wow that’s incredibly rude”

“Hira I just asked you to stop looking at me can you do that please”

“My eyes are closed right now I literally have no idea what you’re talking about”

“Wait is it my bad”

“Yeah maybe because my eyes are closed”

“Oops sorry”

“It’s okay”

“But you really don’t look like you’re closing them”

“Oh really I’m sorry”

“No it’s okay”

“You can touch my eyes to confirm if you’d like”

“Uh that’s a little gross but I think I have to take up your offer on that”

“Alright just don’t try to poke them out”

“Please don’t make this any weirder than it has to be”

Ammi shifted around, then tapped Hira’s eye.

“Damn that’s closed”

“Yeah”

“Well now it doesn’t look like you’re staring at me anymore”

“I guess we have to feel it to believe it”

“That’s what she saidddd”

“I’m going to kill you with a rock”

The cart bumped into a wall.

“OH MY GOD SHHHH HIRA BE QUIET”

“Ammi did you really just say that”

“ya”

Then, multiple metal-like sounds emerged from the great beyond (outside the cart), footsteps and more… then the cart began to move again, until it came to another stop.

“It’s safe to get out!” Rea knocked on the cart.

Ammi burst out of the cart like she was hiding in a comically large birthday cake. “WHEWWW! That was a TERRIBLE experience.”

Hira rose from the confining box. “Hopefully we don’t need to go through that again.” He rubbed his left wrist.

Rea noticed the gesture. “Hira, you only have one injector now.” She then looked at Ammi. “Ammi, you have one. You guys aren’t supposed to share.”

“Oh, no. We disabled both of them. They’re just to disguise ourselves better.”

Rea’s eyes glittered once the ordeal was explained. “Ahhh! I see! You’re also dressed as an assistant. I was a little confused when I found out you were an outsider. Hira, did you find out where they make clothes…?”

“No. We had a friend do them. I just told her the designs from my memory.”

“Wow! Making clothes yourself? I never considered that. It looks just like the real thing, too. I can’t believe it. I commend the woman who made this.”

Hira nodded, attention being driven elsewhere.

“Anyways, just at this door is where Dion is.”

Ammi jumped, noticing her question of who Dion was had gone unanswered. “Who is Dion, anyways?”

“He’s Hira’s caretaker! Did he not tell you his name?”

“Nope. But— if he’s behind this door— then we gotta make Hira look like Hira, so he can recognize him!! His son!!” Ammi suddenly lit up. She rummaged through her satchel, then took a bottle of makeup remover and a soft, circular cotton pad. She applied some remover to the pad, then motioned Hira to bend down to her height.

Rea was full of questions now. “What is that?”

“It’s a bottle of liquid that removes makeup. This cotton pad is so that we can use the liquid to remove the makeup in a simple swipe!” She began to wipe off Hira’s face.

“Ah… what’s makeup?”

Ammi slyly smiled. “Here, I’ll show you.” She finished wiping off every last bit of makeup on Hira’s face. “Tada!!” She turned the pad to face Rea. It was covered in foundation and bronzer… and other makeup products. “That made—“

“—-woah, Hira! You look more like you now!”

“Yeah, that’s the power of makeup. Sometimes people use it to look prettier.”

“Prettier?”

“That’s a whole social construct we’ll explain later… but yeah, here— I used makeup for a disguise! Anyways— no more time to wait!! Hira, go say hi to your dad!!!”

Hira snapped. “He’s not my dad. He’s just some guy who was supposed to help me when I was a kid.”

Ammi’s expression was wiped from her face. Then, she grinned smugly. “We’ll see what you say when you see him.”

Hira stared at Ammi, then turned to the door and opened it.

Inside, a man dressed in attire much like Ammi’s, was simply sitting down. He turned to the door as it opened.

“Hello.” Hira walked in, shutting the door behind him.

“hey did he just shut us out” Ammi called from outside. However, it was barely audible.

The man tilted his head to the side. “Hello. Hira?”

“Yes.”

“I somehow don’t believe you.”

Hira fidgeted with his fingers behind his back. “How would I make you believe?”

“If I could feel you, to see if you were real— maybe that would work.”

Hira held his hand out to him. “Here, take it.”

The man held it. “…well, it’s warm. That means you are alive. But your eyes look different. And I still don’t believe you.”

“My eyes are different now because… that’s how they were always supposed to look, I suppose. I think they make me look… a little more like an adult. What do you think?”

“I think they suit you. But… Hira, I still can’t tell if you’re real.”

Hira’s chest fluttered. “Why not?”

“You don’t seem like yourself.”

Unfortunately, the dose Hira had just given himself before getting here wouldn’t wear off anytime soon.

“Maybe I grew up too fast. Don’t you think I look different entirely?”

“Well, that I do think. You’re taller, of course, and your face is… less wide.”

Hira started to blush. Maybe he was wrong— the dose ran out pretty quickly. “Yeah, but I’m really eating a lot now— so I’m still a little wide in the face.” He smiled.

“I don’t know what ‘eating’ is, but I’m glad you enjoy it.” Dion nodded. “…I believe you a little more now.”

“If you’d like, I could answer some questions you have. That’d explain a little more, wouldn’t it?” He walked over to Dion, sitting down next to him. “Anything you give me, I bet I can answer.”

Dion thought for a moment. “How are you alive?”

Hira rested his head on Dion’s shoulder. “I escaped before my second trial day. Lucky, huh? Hey, how are you alive?”

Dion made a movement akin to the small puff people make when they laugh, though he never really did laugh. “It’s not like I lost the ability to heal.”

“Oh, that’s right! Your fingers would always look so perfect because of that. You’d keep burning them on the wires, but simply heal them back into this perfect almond-looking tip…”

“What’s an almond…?” Dion asked.

Hira realized what a pain he must’ve been to teach. “I can tell you later. Any more questions for me?”

“Yes. Do you prefer thick or thin blankets?”

“I actually prefer thicker blankets, because I like to bunch them up into weird patterns and shapes. What about you?”

Dion ran a hand through Hira’s hair. “I’d be fine with whatever you like.”

Hira’s heart welled with emotion. “Do you believe in me now?”

“Nearly. I just don’t understand it… I was certain you’d died.”

Hira paused for a moment, then pinched Dion’s cheek.

“Uh— what was that?”

“I thought if you’d gotten hurt, you’d understand you weren’t dreaming or hallucinating.”

Dion laughed this time. “Hira, I really don’t understand what that is! Where’d you learn all of this?”

Oh, that’s right.

He can’t explain denial… The words like bottled messages finally became useful.

“I can teach you! It’ll take a while, but I’ll do it.” Hira put a hand on Dion’s other cheek, turning him to face him.

Dion grinned. “You’re dangerous. You’re making those faces. Didn’t I tell you not to? Because— now you’re making me make them, too!” He then began to laugh again. “Oh, and now I even sound dangerous, don’t I?”

Hira nodded. “Do you believe me now?”

“Not entirely, but do you really want to rush it? I think I’d rather take this slower.”

“Oh… that’s right.” Hira grinned wide. “I didn’t realize we could do this like that.”

Dion patted Hira’s head. “It’s okay. I’m here to open you to new possibilities and help you learn.”

Hira gave him a hug.

Dion stopped. “What’s this?”

“Something good, don’t worry about it.”

“Well, how did you find me?” Dion’s own injections seemed to have worn off. He sounded quite curious now. “And how did you open that door?”

“Rea showed us the way. The door… I simply opened. Actually, I don’t know why I thought it was open in the first place— but it was.”

“Huh. The door is locked.” Dion turned to it. “Do you think I didn’t try? I didn’t want to die.”

“It’s probably a door that locks from the inside, and remains unlocked outside.” Hira shrugged. “It’s alright. Rea and another friend of mine can help us.”

Dion raised an eyebrow. “What if they’ve been caught, and now we’re stuck in here?”

“…that… would be at least better than being alone. And anyways, we’d go straight to the Elders. I’m trying to kill them, so it all works out.”

“Hira—?! No, they’ll kill you for sure!” Dion grabbed his face. “I just got you back. It’s been so long! I haven’t seen you since they assigned you a guard... if you died trying to kill the Elders, I’d feel incomplete… then die with you.”

“At least I tried, right? But… I’m stronger than I look. I’ve been training myself, and I even have really strong friends! If anything goes wrong, then I think we could work together.” Hira finished the thought.

Dion still seemed far from convinced. “I think I’d have to physically restrain you.”

Hira puffed up his cheeks. “Didi, it’s not gonna be hard. And don’t you want them to go through what they put us through?”

“Oh, that’s true… I actually really do…”

“I’ll be careful,” Hira added to sweeten the deal.

“Ahhhhh… sure. But really be careful.”

Hira nodded. “Can we go outside now?”

“Yeah.”

Ammi, are you still waiting?

Yeah. What are you guys doing?!

Oh, we’re done now. Can you open the door…?

Why can’t you do it yourself?

It locks from the inside.

Oops! Okay, opening it!

“By the way, you look really good. Did you heal yourself up?” Hira stood upright, reaching out a hand to Dion to help him up.

He grabbed onto the help. “Why wouldn’t I…? I think I could’ve kept going with that method forever, but unfortunately for us— the third trial day exists.”

The door clicked open.

“That’s right…” Hira thought to himself.

“Hey— woah is THAT Dion?” Ammi examined him up and down. “Why does he look so young?!”

Dion tilted his head to the side. “You know my name. Has Hira told you stories…?”

Hira blushed. “No. She just knows your name. This is Ammi.”

“Hello, Ammi. Do you want me to be formal with you? Usually, Hira doesn’t like it, so I always ask his friends too.” He dipped his head respectfully.

Ammi shook her head wildly. “Ew— no— I really don’t like it. It makes me… uh, mad.”

“Mad is something half of us don’t know about.” Hira explained.

Dion then turned to Rea. “It’s been a while. Your hair’s gotten longer, Rea. What’s that about…?”

“Hi, Dion! Yeah, my hair actually makes me have this sensation— I prefer it this way. I didn’t actually train or anything, though…” Rea twirled her hair in between her fingers. “What do you think of it?”

“As long as you like it, I’m fine with how long it is.” He grinned. “So… where do we go now?” Dion turned to Hira. “Have you finally made a schedule…?”

“Yes! I have a schedule.” Hira rushed to stray away from the topic, as if it was embarrassing baby stories.

Ammi, however, didn’t. “He actually didn’t make it himself, and he didn’t read it, either!”

“Hira.”

“Whatever— it’s fine… I read other things. There’s no reason to punish me for it.”

“You should have a little more structure in your life.”

Rea giggled, speaking to Ammi separately.

“I do!”

“How was it when I had to leave you?”

“Perfectly fine. I did things everyday. Important, helpful things.”

“I can't see that happening.”

Hira couldn’t tell when he’d stop blushing, but every time he did, he simply glowed brighter and brighter. “Didi, don’t say that in front of Rea and Ammi…” He lowered his voice.

Dion chuckled. “Sorry, Hira. It just makes me feel warm inside. I personally like it, but I’ll stop if you want me to.”

“Yeah… thank you.”

“Of course.”

Rea turned to Hira. “Done talking? Ammi told me you have to rendezvous with someone to make sure Dion gets out of here safely.”

“Huh? Who said that?” Hira asked the Ammi whose back was facing him.

Ammi spun around. “Rhine. I sent her a safe signal a while back. We were speaking about how we could keep Dion safe. Also— the plan was updated. You might wanna check it out.”

Hira blinked. He just knew Dion was silently joking about it. “Okay.”

“Also, Kindle and Jay have set up a safe space and a small medbay, since they came under the impression that Aeronia is way more dangerous than we thought it’d be. Any injuries can be taken there!”

“Anything else?”

“Nope! Just meet Rhine at the specified location. Here, it’s on the map.” Ammi slid a hologram out to Hira.

Rea jumped back. “Woah! It’s… so cool…! Is this like a floating sheet of paper?”

“…maybe?” Dion turned to her.

“Any and all questions will be answered later,” Ammi exclaimed like a carnival operator.

“C’mon, Rhine’s clearing up a few things! You know how quick she is, so let’s get there as fast as we can, too!”

Hira nodded, confirming the location on the map. “Okay. I know exactly where this is.”

“Good job.” Dion clasped his hands together lovingly.

Hira started glowing again. “Th—fanks you,”

***

Left

Right

Straight up

Now actually go up

Then a right

Rhine peered through a vent, down at a meeting room full of high ranking officials. She grew a twisted smile, reaching for her belt— or more specifically, what was attached to it.

A small grenade-like ball, with a weak plasticy shell. She patted it to ensure it was still there, then for a pack next to it. She opened that up, taking a screwdriver from it, unscrewing the vent in front of her. Rhine found it hard to believe that Aeronia actually had screws… usually, most worlds didn’t. Her screwdriver was missing its work desperately. Once the vent was off, she slowly slid it off its place, putting her screwdriver back. Only then did she reach for the ball attached to her belt. It was promptly thrown down into the room below.

The ball burst open, sending a plume of blue powder flying into the air.

Rhine took the mask hanging from her neck, then fastened it on as she watched the people below sputter and cough, before shortly dropping ice cold— dead. Rhine then dropped from the vent, rolling as she reached the ground to soften her fall.

“Hello? Anyone still alive?” She called out as she kicked the bodies around. “No? No one? Aw, that’s a shame… I was hoping I could talk to a few of you.” The little joke amused Rhine very much.

A small cough appeared from under a table.

Rhine whipped out her gun, then made her way over. “Oh, one of you seems to still be with us.” She found the person, barely alive, surely enough under a table.

“Hey.”

The person took one look at Rhine before straight up dying.

“Huh… now that I think of it, talking to myself like this is actually quite embarrassing, especially if someone turns out to be alive afterwards…” Rhine blushed under the mask, awkwardly making her way out of the room, but not before a quick bit of laughter.

***

Huuuumaaannnn.

Vera grimaced, trying to become human.

Ugh, I actually think it would be better if I could be human again… how the hell does QD do it so easily!?

He pinched his cheeks, and pulled onto them as he sauntered through the halls.

I could really run into one of my targets right about now…

Vera was quite the expert in bounty hunting. He usually did it for fun, too. But this time— instead of hunting, he felt like waiting for the prey to run into him. Especially because he was a little preoccupied with… y’know, becoming human. Maybe if he didn’t try, really super duper hard. Maybe the universe would be all like: ‘oh wait he doesn’t care? Okay fine’ and turn him into a human if he went ‘that’s whatever I have more important things to do I don’t care’. Yeah. That seems like a good plan. Vera folded his hands behind his head, as if he was laying down on a sunny field of daffodils, and walked through the halls this way. He saw it in an anime once. Plus, Aeronians didn’t know what anime was anyways (Hira does not understand it)— so he wouldn’t be made fun of here!!

“I mean, it’s chill. I like being blue anyways.” Vera commented to the universe. “Actually— it’d be a shame if I wasn’t blue. I kinda like it more than being human now! If the universe screwed me over right now…”

An Aeronian scholar who was walking by in the halls had heard every word.

Vera had the sinking feeling of being caught blue-handed. “Oh, hi!—” The sheer embarrassment made him stumble back, and slightly drop closer to the ground. “—hi.”

He’d successfully became human!

The scholar’s eyes slowly widened at the sight. “Who are you?”

Vera blinked. “I’m—“

UHHHH

“—Exhaustion.” He nodded to himself, as if that was a great answer.

“Why… are you wearing that?” The scholar pointed to Vera’s clothes. Of course, they changed with his form… It was simply a shirt, sweatpants, and a jacket tied at the waist. Oh, and like, the other essentials, like shoes and socks and more.

Vera became self conscious, then looked down to his clothes. Honestly, he’d forgotten he was a boy as a human... it seemed easier to look down now. “Oh. That’s because it’s a great outfit for killing tired Aeronians, much like yourself. Why else do you think you’d see me?” He smiled sinisterly, running through the story about the so-called spirit Exhaustion that Hira seemed quite terrified about.

“Am— I getting tired…?”

“Yup.”

“But… I just came from rest…”

“Sorry, but that wasn’t enough rest.”

“You’re going to kill me now, aren’t you?!”

“Well, it’s more like… leave you in a state kinda like rest, but without the… place you rest in. I’m just gonna make you drop to the floor.”

“Wait! But I still have a research paper I need to submit by today!”

“Really…?”

“Yes…”

“Uh… alright, I’ll let you go. Just… rest for… a reallllyyyy long time, okay? And tell your friends to tell their friends to rest too, unless they’re high-ranking government officials. They— uh— they’re very stubborn to kill, and they don’t need much rest anyways.”

The scholar nodded furiously. “I thank you kindly, Exhaustion.”

“please don’t ever say that to me again”

“Of course!!” The scholar stumbled off, running away as fast as they could.

Wow… that was easy. Vera felt quite wholesomely proud of himself, until he tripped on air and became Adretian again.

Okay. Whatever. That’s fine.

Ugh, wait— I have a JOB TO DO!!!

Vera quickly ran through the targets in his head, then raced after the scholar.

“UH, WAIT! COULD YOU DO ME A FAVOR AND TELL ME WHERE… THIS FEIR DUDE IS?!”

***

“Honestly, I can’t believe they had us sit in there for all that time… I felt like I’d drop any second.”

“Yeah. Here, read this one over.” The second life handed his friend a submitted work. “This one generally makes good papers, but sometimes they’re questionable. I just make cuts without lettering them to the writer.”

“Okay…” The other second life skimmed through the pages. “…this one seems okay, but I’d remove this line about the former government. I think it sounds like they’re praising it.”

“Huh… I thought that was just a fact.”

“Still, we’re supposed to take it out if it makes anything but what we have now seem inferior in any way.”

“Alright.” The second life took the papers, removed the staple, copied the papers, then made the adjustments to the new copy by neatly slicing out the words. They were promptly tossed into a tub full of other papers and words. They took the old, uncut copy. “I’ll take this one over to the old library’s drop off. ‘Be right back.”

“Fine by me. Don’t die!”

“I won’t, idiot.” They walked off.

The second life that remained in the room sorted through each paper carefully, slicing words or sections off of reports— sometimes even entirely throwing reports out while writing names down. They hummed to themselves, though they weren’t humming any song. Maybe they were humming the tones of conversation.

After a while, they began to realize their friend never returned back to work. “Hey, Ceran. Are you done?” He called out. “You promised you’d help today. We had that crazy vacation last week. It’s time to come back to work, y’know. ‘Can’t slack off forever…” They walked out from behind the sorting counters, then proceeded to look for Ceran in the halls that led to the drop offs. “Ceran! I’ll let the Head Scholar know about this if you don’t come out now… Ceran? Ceran!” They warned.

The hallways seemed eerily empty, despite them always being empty— especially these ones. It seemed like one could go through their whole career as Liane before they’d find someone in the sorting halls.

“Ceran, you really need to get back to work. I’m not lying— I’ll tell the Kade.”

Ceran didn’t respond.

His second life friend made it to the drop offs, and he turned the corner to find the old library’s drop off.

Once he’d found the drop off, he’d found Ceran, leaning over into the drop off hole as if he’d slipped and his eye had fallen in there— and he was trying to get it out.

“Ceran! You idiot! You’re gonna fall in! Did you lose something?!” His friend grabbed him by the back of his collar, then dragged him out of the hole. “You—“ The second life immediately became silent.

Ceran’s eyes were rolled to the back of his head, and his neck— freshly cut— gushed blood all over his clothes.

“—-AGH—!! CERAN!!” His friend stumbled back, wiping his hands on his clothes like they had the plague, and as if wiping your hands on your clothes got rid of the plague. They began to sweat wildly. “Who— oh— we need— guards in here—! I knew they shouldn’t have cut our funding!!” They took slow steps back, eyes darting all over the scene. “You— said—- that you wouldn’t die! I— didn’t mean that you would— but— oh, wait! Now it looks like I did this!!! Oh no— they’ll put me on trial— I— don’t even have—“ Without realizing it, they’d stumbled back into a wall. “—wuh—-“

The wall grabbed onto the second life.

“AAGGHH!!” They instantly jumped up, going paler than the paper they cut.

The wall wrung its fingers around the second life’s neck and made a clean, deep cut into the soft flesh of his throat.

The second life fell to the ground, already pooling blood before he’d hit it.

“Whew!!! That was so scary, I thought I was about to die!!!” QD flailed her arms about. “Aaagghhh—-!!!! Gross! Middle aged losers— ew— I can’t believe I did that— but I CAN’T BELIEVE I EVEN TOUCHED THIS GREASIES IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!” QD was great at exaggerating— and, as it turns out, assassinations.

***

Rea pushed a cart of books with extreme difficulty. Also, the cart of books… had a lid? And it wasn’t closing properly? And there was a bunch of wooden blocks on the lid that were prop books, along with several real books that had gone somewhere inside the cart— under the lid— and other places, like the floor.

“Rea. This really isn’t working.” Hira commented bluntly, shifting around to get further from Ammi (who seemed to have a problem with staring again) and closer to Dion. “Can Ammi get out here? She’s not a convicted felon.”

“But I get so tired walking around these halls! It’s like the cardio workout in my nightmares…”

“I’d offer to walk, but what Hira said is true. We’re both convicted felons.”

Ammi groaned. “Rea, can you help out here?”

Rea decided she’d let the three argue themselves, but she’d been pulled into the argument too… “You can ride on the lid!” Well. That answer came easier than Rea expected…

“Ohhh!!! Great idea! It’s like riding a shopping cart in the grocery store… fun.”

“I have no idea what a grocery store is.”

“Yeah, me neither— what’s a shopping cart…?”

Dion and Rea mumbled over each other, obviously confused.

“Questions later.” Hira sternly reiterated, sinking back into the cart with Dion as Ammi exited.

Ammi then closed the lid, and hopped right on it. “Hopefully this can take my weight.” She turned to Rea jokingly, sitting lotus and getting comfortable.

Rea pushed the cart along.

“Uh. Rea. We’re gonna hit that window.”

“Oh, really? I can’t see it… you’re blocking my view because you’re sitting like that.”

Ammi suddenly blushed. “Wuah— sorry!!! I’ll… uh…” she thought of a good way to sit as Rea brought the cart to a stop. Then— it hit her. She laid on her back, draping her limbs along the cart dramatically, like a dying maiden in dire need of a true love’s kiss as her wrist lay on her forehead in devastation. “bleghh,” Ammi finished the stunning move off with an even more stunning and extremely flattering noise.

Rea smiled, nodding once. “This is good!” She then made a sharp left, moving away from the window and back to struggling to push several pounds of books… and a dying person.

Inside this cart was totally nothing but books.

“Hira, did you ever finish your final exams?”

“Yes.”

“What did you get?”

“It was a good number, I just can’t remember it.”

“Did you get… 2890?”

“Uh… no.”

“What about 2900?”

“Maybe? It was somewhere around 2900…”

“Oh, good job. You must’ve studied for quite some time, especially with your schedules that you’d made while I was gone.”

Okay, I really can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic about that. Hira greeted blue words on the waves.

“Thanks.”

“Of course.”

“Hey, what did you get on your final exams?”

“I got a 2989.”

“Woah, what?”

“Yeah. I can remember what I got, since I’m very proud of all my hard work I put into studying.” Dion teased, even though he had no idea what that was.

“Didi. You’re doing it again.”

“What?”

“You’re embarrassing me, but it’s… embarrassing me in front of lots of books.”

“Yes. I figured that we could just talk about those things with the two of us. You know, so we can appreciate our memories together.”

“What’ll you do next…? Make a scrapbook…?”

“Hm, like a book of us? That sounds like a really good idea. Would you make it with me?”

“Sure.”

“I didn’t expect you to say yes…”

The cart came to a rigid and bumpy stop. Dion’s arms flew to Hira, holding him in as if to protect him from the cart exploding. However, it didn’t explode. It simply came to a hurtful stop.

From the outside, Ammi’s pained voice rang out.

“Owww, Rea…!”

Rea responded.

“Sorry, friend. I was never good at stopping this thing.”

“Oh, hey Ammi.”

A new voice was heard.

With this new voice, Hira pushed on the lid. “Hey— Rhine?”

The lid opened and Hira emerged.

“Hira!” Rhine gleamed as she smiled. “How’s it been? Anything bad happen yet?”

Hira frowned. “No.”

“Rhine, where did you come from?!”

“I’ve been waiting, leaning on this pillar.” She pointed to a pillar right next to her. “You guys took quite a while. Anyways, you must be Rea!” Rhine pointed towards the one and only.

Rea nodded enthusiastically. “Yup! I admire your stealth.”

“Thank you! Now, what about your dad?” Rhine pointed a finger gun at Hira.

Hira made a face at the gesture and word choice. “He’s not my dad, but he’s here.”

A voice from the cart called out. “Hello. Do you want me to come out, or should I stay down while you talk?”

Rhine seemed a little drawn back by the response, chuckling to herself. “I had a feeling you’d be like that.”

Hira sighed. “You can come out, no one’s gonna die if you do.”

Dion stood up. “Well, I knew that. I just felt like you might’ve needed some space to talk. Hello. You’re Rhine?”

“Yup!” Rhine nodded. “I’m just gonna take you to our safe zone. Do you mind?”

“No, not at all. I’m Dion, by the way. Your hair impresses me. I don’t know what to think of you.” He smiled weakly, like he was afraid of getting something wrong.

Rhine’s hand flew to her hair subconsciously. “My hair always looks great, doesn’t it…?” She breathed with wonder, lost in a world of being pretty. “Oh— yeah, Dion’s a great name.” In reality, Rhine kept thinking of ‘Dior’. She had the strong feeling she’d call him that by accident.

Dion simply smiled once more.

“Okay… well… off you go.” Hira put a hand on Dion’s back, slightly pushing him forward. “Bye-bye.”

“Hira, why don’t you let me get out of the cart first…? Then you can push me. It’d be much safer, I think.”

Hira started freaking glowing and blushing again, a great sign of embarrassment. Wow, imagine glowing in front of your crush… anyways. Hira let Dion out of the cart, squishing to the sides to make sufficient room. The mission was a success!! Dion was out. Thus, Hira followed.

“Okay, now you can push me.” Dion turned back to Hira with a gentle smile.

Hira’s face flushed. “It— was a joke…! I thought you knew that…”

“Oh. If only I knew what a joke was…”

“Rhine. Take him.”

“If you say so!” Rhine patted Dion’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Alright. By the way, are you the friend that can make clothes…?”

“Yeah, I actually…” Their voices trailed off.

Ammi and Rea giggled to themselves.

“Hira, you keep shooing your dad off…” Ammi teased.

Hira would’ve blushed if he could blush any harder than he was. “He’s not my dad.”

Rea shook her head. “No, I think he is…”

“Rea! You don’t even know what a dad is!”

“Well, I think it might be a guy who took care of you, right?”

Ammi nodded. “Yeah!”

“That’s the same thing as ‘caretaker’.”

“The main difference is Love.” Ammi added with a philosophical smile.

Hira and Rea both gave Ammi equally confused and traumatized looks.

“uhm… I— I don’t know what love is— but…” Rea began. “—h-how—how. How did you get your…” she waved a hand over her face. “Your voice. How’d you get your voice to do that.” She nodded slowly, concerned.

***

“Hello. Have you heard of me before?” Vera cornered the higherup he’d found.

The higherup stared at him, uncomfortably eyeing Vera— Adretian. “No… I’ve never seen anything like you.”

Vera grinned, bearing his teeth. “Why don’t I show you something else you’ve never seen before?”

The higherup became perpetually confused. “That is…?”

While Vera took his time to respond, the higherup had already dropped dead.

“Ew…”

“QD?! What the HECK?! That was my kill!!”

“You two looked like you were gonna smash. I couldn’t bear looking at that.”

“Are you homophobic?”

“No!! I just thought it was super gross…”

Vera rolled his eyes. “Okay, whatever.”

“Plus, you’re wasting time when you toy with people like that.” QD finished, shaking her head. “That’s hyena behavior. Aren’t Adrets supposed to be mountain goats…? You live in Mini, anyways.”

“First of all, it’s not toying. Second of all, aren’t Khans supposed to be monkeys? You’re supposed to like bananas.”

“Wow, you think you’re so great, huh?”

“Says the idiot who’s acting all high and mighty after killing my target.”

The two were at each other’s throats instead of doing their jobs, like always.

“You weren’t even gonna kill him!”

“Yes, I was! You just gotta let me have some fun.”

“Didn’t we agree Aeronia was dangerous?!”

“For green beans like you, maybe.”

“Why are we even arguing?! No one’s gonna read a bunch of filler! That was the last version’s part.”

Vera put his hands on QD’s shoulders. “You’re right. For once.” He thought momentarily. “Do you think Hira’s having fun right about now?”

QD paused, blank faced. She then slowly shrugged. “Maaayyybbeee…?”

“I bet he is! It’s his turn for a story, so he’s gonna be taking all the main points…”

“Do you think someone’s skimming through this text right now?”

“Woah, QD. What the fuck.”

“It’s to grab the reader’s attention! Sorry…”

“That won’t work! We’ll need something different…”

A higherup behind them was intently listening in on the conversation. “Hey, you know you two aren’t making yourselves very hidden…? We just found loads of bodies. Are you trying to destroy our government?”

QD threw her sword at the higherup, completely missing.

Vera sent a beam of fire to burn the higherup alive.

“Anyways, got any ideas?”

“A PoV change seems like a great solution.”

The screams in the background were a perfect addition to the conversation.

“Yes! Good! We can also change the PoV right when this gets interesting… that usually leaves me reading more.”

“Uh, what would you know…?” QD tilted her head, raising an eyebrow with a teasing smile. “You like slice-of-life.”

Vera frowned. “Can you change the PoV?” He inquired, ignoring the insult.

QD nodded. “With some concentration, yes,”

“Good! Then let’s play a hand game waiting for a hoard of higher ups with really great combat skills to confront us!”

“You got it!” QD readied her palms for an intense game of Patty Cake.

The game commenced. Vera and QD seemed to match each other’s pace— both rising and falling in speed in the exact moments and magnitudes as the other. They were Patty Cake Champions. Nay, Patty Cake Soulmates.

Just as the turns were tabling, a group of higherups who had noticed the lack of peers at their neverending governmental meetings (along with the notice of intruders) met them in the hall.

“L-look at their aura! What sorcery are they commencing?!” A rather frightened higherup mentioned their intense Patty Cake session.

A strong-willed higherup responded. “Don’t let them destroy your battle sense. It’s what they want. Let’s get rid of them— and quickly.”

“On it!”

The game of Patty Cake had ceased upon the arrival of the player’s opposers.

“Well, well, well. We’ve been waiting for your arrival.” QD teased, already regretting (eh, not really) her use of ‘well, well, well’. “‘You wanna piece of us?”

“Uh, QD…? Did you narrate these last few paragraphs…?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re making these guys sound a lot less scary than they are…”

“Really? Maybe that’s the confidence boost we need!”

“No. QD. They look like they’re actually gonna fucking murder us, and you can’t fight OR listen to my directions for jackshit.” Vera put plainly.

QD blinked. “Oh.”

The higherups wasted no time in attacking while they conversed.

It would be a long battle.

***

“You can’t take the Elders alone.” Rea affirmed, pushing along the cart and talking to the hidden Hira inside. “All three of them? No way! You’ve gotta let me help you, at least somewhere.”

Hira stared at his injector, already empty. He turned his wrists to admire it. “I’d like to be the one to kill them.”

Ammi became concerned at this response. “Really? You’re not gonna get any closure from it, y’know…? We just decided you’d be the one to do it because Aeronia’s home base to you. Plus, on Rhine’s official and totally unbiased chart of our combat skills, you’re third. Right under Vera and herself.” She looked off to the side. “Honestly, that’s scary. I’d be scared if I was an Elder.”

Wow, really? It was hard to tell if those words were sarcastic, even with a closer look as they washed ashore.

“Thanks.”

“I don’t think you’re taking it to heart…”

Rea swerved the cart around in an attempt to stimulate intellectual thought. “I’m pretty close with all three of them. I know what they do, what they like and don’t like… they helped me out in combat, too. That’s why I haven’t cut my hair in a bit.”

Heart racing at the comment, Hira desperately asked questions. “What? Are they strong? How strong are you? If you can tell me what th—“

“—hey, calm down… your eagerness is really making me feel like this is a bad idea. I can’t explain it…”

“Scared? Like the situation you’re walking into makes your stomach feel like flying or sinking, and your heart beats quickly. Maybe walking into an important meeting you’re totally not ready for.” Ammi explained. “Or something like that.”

“Ohhh,” Rea began to smile, understanding the feeling now. “I get it. What an emotion…!”

“It’s a part of life. It’s not bad. None of the emotions are bad— just some people like others better. Usually, people don’t like this one— fear. Being scared or startled—“

“—Get back on topic.” Hira commanded, tearing at his hair while totally hidden under the lid. “Please.”

Rea and Ammi shared looks.

Ammi shrugged, worried. “Okay. But— the Elders— it’s not something you have to face alone. We can change the plan, y’know?”

“I want to face it alone.”

Ammi started to feel the emotion she’d just described. “…don’t push yourself.”

The cart monotonously rolled along.

Rea turned to Ammi. “I’m starting to think he’s under the impression he can do anything he wants.” She spoke softly.

“I can see why you think that… we’ve gotta keep him safe from it.”

Rea nodded, saying nothing more.

Since they’d arrived, Ammi had acted oblivious to Hira’s intentions. But she refused to bring them to light— worried Hira would finally explode.

Rea, too, wasn’t a stranger.

***

“They’ve actually never told me their names, so for this purpose— I’ve come up with some!” Rea held out a small paper. “Okay we got ‘Ice boy’, ‘ughhh this meeting is making me so bad’ and ‘apathetic loser’!”

Ammi stared at the paper like Rea was crazy. “We can just shorten these to ‘Cold’, ‘Bored’ and ‘Loser’.”

“I don’t think you understand the definition of art…” Hira nudged Ammi. His lack of emotion made it sound like he was being serious.

“Hey, I thought we wanted to stay on topic.” Rea teased without knowing what a tease is. “Here’s the thing… Cold likes to burn things. Maybe that’s because he wants to feel warm for once, ehhh?”

“That was a joke.” Ammi provided the necessary information.

“What I mean by that is… our reports of history usually get filtered out to make everything seem more favorable— like our current Elders are supreme leaders, and nothing is wr—“

“—She knows about propaganda already. Just tell us what we need already.” Hira interjected. “Quickly.”

Rea realized her mistake of running off into a tangent. “Right! Uh— Cold basically burns reports to go into the library, but there’s always an uncut version in the old one. That’s where he usually is. The old library. There’s a small spot where he personally burns all the cuts and books. He’s even got people to save the burning job just for him. He’s good at combat, but still the weakest out of the others. He likes to fight with fire— literally— which is part of the reason why he’s both weak and strong. Get it?”

Ammi blanked. “Kinda.”

“Great! Finally, he’s got a thing for attractively perfect people. Work that in when you’re fighting him, alright, Hira? Anyways, he should be slowly burning things in the old library soon. I think Hira can take him.”

Hira thought for a moment. “He’s… got pale skin and really dark eyes, yeah?” He turned to Rea.

She nodded. “Yeah. He sounds like he would, cooped up in the dark with fires all day.”

He had the most fun.

“When do we leave?” Hira sternly inquired.

Rea thought for a moment. “Whenever you two want.”

Ammi turned to Hira. “It’s your call. I’ll just go with you wherever.”

Hira nodded. “Okay. We leave now.”

“Alright! Just get back in the cart. Since we’re in an office, then the libraries should be nearby. The old library is much further than the current one, though. We should be fine… just a little more walking.”

Ammi smiled, looking at Hira like it was a fun adventure. “Great! Let’s stop wasting time, then.”

***

The code was ‘OLIGD’. According to Rea, the letters meant nothing important. The three entered them into the box meant for the code on the bottom right of the three-tiered fountain in the foyer of the 27th floor. Afterwards, a lever in an empty room on the 13th floor was to be pushed, then one would climb back toward the 35th floor to a governmental office room, behind the 18th bookshelf in the filing room to the right of the two corridors. It had to be the 18th bookshelf on the fourth corridor in the filing room, after two rights and a left. One would start counting the bookshelves after three steps, making it the 19th bookshelf in reality.

Rea couldn’t remember these steps, so she wrote them down on a piece of paper. I mean, who’d be crazy enough to even think about memorizing it…?

Cold guy would.

Behind the shelf, there was a descending stairwell to a dark library— lit solely by fiery lanterns. The smell of mildew and humid paper infected the air. Another odor was noted, but what it was was a mystery. Although, it seemed quite familiar to Hira.

“So, he’s here somewhere…?” Ammi took Rea’s hand, then Hira’s. This act bound them together in a three-person wall that introverts would dread while walking on the sidewalk.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, I know this place like the back of my hand. How to get here— not so much…”

Hira rolled his eyes in the dark. That was already made clear.

Hira’s sudden rudeness was most likely a side effect of a nervous ecstasy, mixed with the injection wearing off. Maybe even a little agonizing anxiety.

Okay, a lot of agonizing anxiety.

He shuttered, ice clogging his veins. “Good. Let’s get there quick.”

“Mh!” Rea hummed cheerily. “I’ll just stay back once we find him, ‘cus I don’t want them to start suspecting me… even if Cold’s gonna die here.”

Ammi turned to Hira, smiling hopefully. Yeah, as if that would give him courage.

But… the gesture was needed. Truthfully, Hira had no idea if he’d be able to actually kill an Elder.

Even if he really wanted to.

And he really, really wanted to.

Rea led him and Ammi through each hallway. The lingering feeling that some of these books and reports were nonexistent— or only half existing, like Schrödinger’s cat. And that all of them contained the truth. How everything really was. It felt so, so extremely desolate. Unfortunately, that was childhood and life.

A burning, far from homely firewood smell filled the air. It was musky and thick. It was also a hint.

“Go. He’s there.” Rea tapped Hira’s back, pointing to an open area. The smoke thickened, and so did the anxiety-induced blood clot in Hira’s pulmonary artery.

Hey, wait. Is this actually happening…?

It doesn’t feel like it.

I wanted to do this quickly—

—but… I don’t know…

…I want to be sleeping peacefully.

Hiraeth felt his stomach churn and mix.

Let’s get this over with.

Yeah.

Then I can sleep…

His anxious thoughts faded, folding into anger and sadness.

He walked towards the smoke.

A raging fire cooked and burnt paper and hardcovers and ash.

“Hey. What, you wanna fight?” ‘Cold’s head turned over to Hira. “I mean, we could just get this over with.” He stood up, swirling around to face Hira.

Hira’s eyes suddenly widened at the sight of him.

“What…? Don’t look at me like that.” ‘Cold’ unfurled his wings, flapping them once to put out the fire behind him.

It became totally dark. Even the lanterns surrounding them had been blown out.

Hira’s mind raced far too fast for him. He pulled out his weapons, providing golden light in the damp darkness.

It was just in time, too. ‘Cold’s fist banged against Hira’s shield.

Hira pulled out his spear, holding it close and dashing back to attempt a combo. He scanned the darkness for Cold, but none of his glowing weapons bounced light off of him. It seemed like he’d disappeared.

He then appeared, slinging fire around like he was doing insane party tricks.

HollLLLYYYSSHIIIIITTTTTT

Hira started to hyperventilate even just looking at Cold’s weapon. He wasn’t even using any of his magic. Cold proceeded to sling the fiery mass tied on a string towards Hira.

Hira blocked it with his shield, then attempted to close in on Cold by watching the sling and circling him.

However, this proved to be nothing short of ineffective and stupid. Hira had nothing to do but block the sling, and Cold took sufficient steps back as he led Hira through their playing field.

Fuck it—!

Hira ran toward Cold, shielding himself with immense hope and also yeah his shield sure

Cold smirked, tossing his weapon from one hand to the other as Hira closed in. When Hira was about to bash into him, Cold pulled the sling over him, dragging him to his chest and poofing away Hira’s shield.

“I wonder if you knew what you were getting yourself into.” Cold commented slyly, using his knee to kick Hira’s jaw into his skull.

Upon impact, Hira’s vision flashed black and white splotches, and blood immediately gushed into his mouth. Hira coughed his out, wiping at his mouth furiously. He wasn’t being very smart about this battle.

Cold then snapped another kick to Hira’s head, then a punch that thrust his head to the right. This was followed by another kick that thrust Hira’s head to the left. Blood flew through the air. Cold then grabbed Hira’s face, pulling him closer to look at the pathetic mess.

“Awwwh, I’d never get tired of this face.” Cold teased, examining the look from every angle as he calmed the sling in his other hand.

Hira pulled out a dagger, thrusting it into Cold’s stomach. The grip on his face suddenly faded, and Hira snatched the sling away from Cold, swirling it around the two of them quite destructively. A flicker of fire caught on Cold’s shoulder.

Cold stumbled back, instantly patting away the fire. He gave Hira the death stare. It was clear he wanted his sling back— but with a bleeding stomach, the actions to get it back were quite limited.

Because of this, Hira took the opportunity to attack. He summoned his spear, ready to charge again.

I need time to think about this, but I can’t let him do the same…

Hira swung his spear towards Cold. Cold summoned his own shield, nervously eyeing the sling as he blocked a flurry of Hira’s swings.

I can put out the sling’s flame, but that’d make it harder to end this the way I want…

Hira put away his spear, then reached for Cold’s hair in a jabbing manner.

Cold grabbed Hira’s hand before it managed to get close.

In response, Hira simply used his other hand to grab onto Cold’s hair. This worked. And with that, he proceeded to pull a ‘highschool girl fighting her enemy (the popular or scenemo girl) in the halls after another feud’. Hira dragged Cold’s head down, then tripped him by kicking his shins mercilessly with his boots. His boots, specifically designed for breaking things, like doors, with your toes.

Cold instantly fell on his stomach with an ‘oomfph’.

Hira proceeded to toss the sling onto Cold.

Cold began to stand up, back in flames. His face gave the impression that he was going down only to bring Hira with him. He reached for Hira, burning shoulders heaving.

Hira’s only thought was to run away, so that Cold would run after him, attempting to end both their lives in flames. However, he wanted to deal with this quickly, so he smacked away Cold’s grabby hand and kicked him away. This somehow worked.

Actually, this whole battle was a mess— this whole plan was a mess, but it worked.

…Anyways.

Hira summoned his spear— hopefully for the last time— and stabbed Cold in the stomach once more.

Cold trembled, trying to grab onto Hira and the spear as if it would save him. None of this worked, so he simply fell to the floor, burning and bleeding.

Huh. Maybe I just got really lucky…

Hira stared at Cold like he’d find an answer from him.

Grimacing and quietly bearing the pain, Cold looked up and met Hira’s gaze. His eyes told Hira just how lucky he was.

Oh… Hira simply stared back. He wouldn’t look away.

“SAY SOMETHING!!” Cold demanded, bleeding and burning away.

Hira’s lips curled into a smile without his permission. He then stomped on the burning remains.

Soon, nothing was felt— except for the strangely familiar smell.

While Hira was wondering how he didn’t speedrun lung cancer from the fire Cold had lit earlier, tasting the blood that poured into his mouth, he realized what the smell was.

He ran back to Rea and Ammi, who’d called out his name after they heard the noise die down.

“Hira! You did i—-woah what’s up with your jaw.” Ammi took a nice, long look at him.

Wow— why am I even third on that chart? Hira distracted himself with different thoughts, really hoping he didn’t waste all the fluid on the calmer moments as he’d done.

“Yay! We knew you could do it! I mean, it seemed like a no-brainer, since your face is quite symmetrical.” Commented Rea, who still didn’t know the word for being pretty, but did know that Cold liked pretty faces.

Hira nodded. He clutched onto his arm like a monster.

“…are you hurt…?” Ammi’s eyes flicked from his arm to his face.

Let’s just get out of here. It’s musty and hard to breathe.

“Hira?” Ammi wanted her confirmation.

I’m all good.

Hira’s cheeks flushed as he began to take in unsteady, short breaths.

Rea stared at him, definitely concerned.

The smell was killing Hira. He shook his head, then paced off.

“Wait! Hira! Do you even know the way back?!” Rea reached out for him, then motioned Ammi to follow her as she chased after Hira.

Hira broke into a sprint, trying to find the exit on his own. He tried to retrace their steps— but his vision was plagued by the vision he’d used in the past. Hira raced through each turn and each memory. He didn’t see where he was going, but he felt like he was running for an eternity.

Soon, he tripped on something— the stairs. He scrambled up them, pushing the bookshelf of files off the entrance.

Outside of the library, he felt safer and much more at ease. Though the smell still lingered, it was far, far away. All he had to do was keep running from it.

“HIRA!!!” Rea’s voice echoed through the halls of the old library.

Hira hopped over the shelf, then through the hallways of more filing cabinets and bookshelves. He had to find somewhere decent to hide.

After traversing monotonous files and mundane colors, Hira finally found a spot he felt fit. There, he sat down, hugging his knees, to take a rest. He wiped the blood dripping from his twisted mouth, eyes welling up with tears. His breathing seemed like the loudest thing in the world at the moment, but at least his clothes were comfortable and he could rub his arms to get a sense for reality.

I can’t do this.

They’re gonna kill me.

It wasn’t supposed to be that easy.

Why did he look at me like that?

I just got lucky.

For once in my life, I was lucky.

Hira ran his hands through his sweaty hair, rubbing the back of his neck.

I can’t do this.

And the smell…

I’m gonna throw up.

I can’t help it.

His eyes flew to his bloodied shoes. He pinched his palm, trying to control his breathing. The thought of breathing made it worse. Hira began to cry.

The smell…

They’re gonna kill me…

His hands crawled to his face, clutching onto it as tears rolled onto his fingers. Shoulders heaving from his sobs, Hira fell deeply into his personal hell.

It’ll never get any better.

I’m going to die here…

I never escaped…

I’m so sick of these lights…

Sterile…

Hira squeezed his eyes shut, warm blood trickling from his chin as his decisions jutted from his stomach to his throat.

“Hira!” Ammi’s voice echoed. “C’mon! What’s with the sudden attitude change?!”

He’s dead.

It was impossible to laugh how he wanted when Hira was tormented by himself.

“Hira!” The voice drowned itself with the distance.

I hate them. I hate them.

I want them to die.

I want to melt them away.

But the smell…

So, I’ll die here…

Hira’s neverending thoughts of his death tired him to the point of unseeable return. His head hit his knees and he let himself sink.

***

Hira woke up, Ammi sitting right next to him. He lifted his head towards her.

“Again?” She questioned .

“I’m sorry.”

Ammi shrugged. “It’s fine, I don’t mind. You weren’t here for long. Rea just had to leave because she had another meeting.” She held out a hand to him, asking if he needed it. “I’m worried about you, though. If you don’t want to go through with this, then you don’t need to. Just do what you can.”

Hira paused. “I’m not backing down. It was the smell.”

“You…? Well— what about the smell?”

“Burning flesh, like the trial room.”

The realization pulled Ammi’s empty hand back. “Ohhhh.”

Hira nodded slowly.

“Uh… your… mouth. It’s pretty messed up. I’m assuming you didn’t do that yourself, huh?” Ammi grimaced simply looking at it.

Hira felt around his mouth to confirm the damage. His tongue felt nonexistent, and his jaw out of place. A few teeth were loose. “Uh-huh. It doesn’t hurt to talk, but it’s a wonder how I can do that clearly at this point. Nothing else hurts.”

“I think your jaw is dislocated.” Ammi stated the obvious. “You’re also covered in blood.”

Hira definitely noticed the cracking, dark blood that covered him. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Yeah. I’m messaging Jay to let him know that we’re coming. Y’know, we knew you’d get hurt, but… maybe not to this degree. I think we felt we had Aeronia under our control.”

Hira simply nodded.

“Sorry, Hira.”

“You don’t need to be. I knew what I was getting myself into. I just needed more time to prepare.” He avoided Ammi’s gaze as he stood up. “I know what I’m doing now.”

“Okay… let’s go. I just got Jay. He said that he’s on the Train— he got there through a micro portal. Kindle’s actually doing work for once. If you’ve got a plan to go do something while we wait for Rea, then I’ll accompany you.”

Hira nodded, hoping Dion was at the safe spot alone.

“Here’s the location. Can you take us there?” Ammi handed him the map and its mark.

“Yeah. I don’t want to use the cart again, though. The Elders already know we’re here. It’s just a matter of time until we meet.”

What are the odds…?

***

“Uh… can I at least use a few mantras…?”

“—no—! Stay still!” Vera grunted, blocking an attacking beam of light, then snapping and tearing the limbs off of his opposers.

QD sighed. “I thought we’d be cool together…”

“Ugh. After the threshers? No…”

“What?! I did what you asked!!”

“You got the othe—“ Vera cut himself off, returning to battle as he fought somewhat unfairly with his contracting.

QD watched the battle, bored. “Wasn’t my fault. The damn thing just looked over at us. I thought they were supposed to be stupid.” She waited for a response as she watched Vera on, being cool or whatever.

He finally got rid of the last opponent, dusting himself off— unfortunately, this didn’t work for the blood. “Y’know, you’d be helpful if you could do anything but hold a fight for barely three seconds.”

“At least I’m working on it…”

Vera sighed as he walked over to QD. “I know.” He spoke softly, but returned to his natural anger when he spoke again. “If I let you fight now, though— you’d mess me up! Then you’d get hurt, and I’d have to drag your dead weight around until you got better!”

“Like that one time in Songseeker?”

“Gods, that place is just like Ireland…”

QD put on her best charm. “I’ve gotten way better since that time, actually. I’m nearly at the level of our perpetrators we saw that time! And plus, I’ll make you whatever we want once we’re done with this mission! Even steak!”

Something about the way QD played out her sentences made Vera smile like an idiot. Also, he really wanted to eat steak again…

“Fine.” He let out after some thought. “But you have to listen to everything I tell you.”

“On it~!”

***

“A… squeezed, purified and now inorganic organic life form as discolored water that I put into my mouth…?”

Kindle nodded wildly. “Yeah!!! Try it!”

“How do I…?”

“Just like the water and the tea. It’s no different.” Jay commented, comfortably popping his head out of the micro portal.

“I see…” Dion examined the apple juice he held. “However, it’s in a box. And there is a small, white and bent tube attached to it. Should I use those?”

Kindle perked up. “Oh, that’s a straw! Here, just put your lips on it like… uh…” She ran over, frantically looking for a spare straw. There was a thought about using her finger, but it was quickly discarded as Kindle felt that it would feel terribly wrong. “Like this!” She suddenly puckered up her lips, then pointed to the tip of the straw as she ripped it off the box and unpackaged it. She returned to a normal, smiley face. “Put your lips on it… and… breathe in through your nose…?”

Dion watched the Kindle Spectacle unfold. He then took the straw from her hands and took the juice box. After reading ‘insert straw here’, Dion felt quite well prepared. He successfully drank the apple juice.

Kindle’s eyes welled with tears at this emotional moment. “And it took Hira two weeks…”

“He’s like that. Usually, picking up abstract concepts is easier for him. By the way— why would you call him ‘Hira’…?” Dion added to his statement.

“Uh…” For once, Kindle wanted to give a better explanation than just ‘a nickname’. Dion wouldn’t be able to understand that, anyways. “It’s a lot quicker than ‘Hiraeth’. Also, we’re all already great friends. Formalities aren’t necessary!”

Dion made a strange face. Like the early stages of jealousy, but not quite there yet. “Huh. You certainly haven’t known him for more than four years, no?”

“…I’ve got an idea for our next topic.” Kindle giggled weakly. “But— first, let’s make chairs out of these boxes! My legs are killing me!”

“Oh, are they?” Dion’s eyes flicked to her legs. “Why don’t you defend yourself?”

Kindle frowned.

Dion, in response, nodded as if he was jotting down scientific data. “That was my impression of lying for conversational enrichment. Do you like it?”

“Uh. Yeah. That’s another topic idea…”

***

Rhine watched the two argue below her.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“What do you mean?! It’s so damn simple! Just use your stupid Gale— or even your sword! It’ll work.”

“Uhhh… no…”

“WHAT TH——-uuuhgghhgghhhhhwhatthefuckdoyoumeanbythat.”

She concluded the two were doing their work in their own ways. Rhine continued her adventure through the vents, already seeing the jokes Kindle would make about it— and how Vera would tell her to shut up a thousand times. This scenario was unfortunately common and old.

Next…

Rhine checked her band’s list for the remaining names. There was a note— ‘about like five of these dudes are probably dead but ion know their names figure it out’. It was a very Vera note. Oh well. They’d probably meet up with Hira and Ammi again, so Hira could tell them the names of those who died.

Three…

Hey, Rhine!

Rhine received a message from Ammi.

Yeah?

Tell Kindle to unblock me.

Oh… remind me why I added that feature…?

You didn’t. QD and Kindle figured out how to mod the bands again, remember?

I’ll yell at them later. Anything wrong right now?

Hira’s acting like a lone wolf stereotype right now, but other than that— we’re good. We just need to get him fixed up. He fought the first Elder… I guess he didn’t have a good plan, or wasn’t in the right headspace— so he got a little hurt. But he finished the fight quickly. I didn’t expect any less.

That’s good. If he isn’t doing well mentally, just give him some time to talk to Dion. I’m sure they’ll understand each other better than we do.

Mhm!

Anyways, I’m getting to Kindle.

Good.

…

This user has blocked you. Kill yourself.

What the fuck…?

She blocked me, too.

Oh. Maybe Kindle isn’t the person we should’ve contacted first, actually… the plan said Jay was staying there too, didn’t it?

Yeah. Go talk to him.

Alright— sorry! What are you doing right now?

My job. QD and Vera are making it harder to be efficient, but it’s alright. Just as Rhine said this, she spotted a target below as she crawled through the vents.

I get that. It’s probably QD’s fault, huh?

Maybe. Rhine thought for a moment. I’ll message you later, alright? I found a target, so I gotta go down and figure out all this stuff…

Okay! Sorry for taking your time.

You’re all good, so don’t apologize. See you.

See ya!

Rhine stared down at her target for quite a while, then navigated through the vents to find the outside of the room her target was in. She swapped tabs on her band, switching her disguise to be a little less power consuming. The lingering feeling this would take a while didn’t go away.

There…

She hopped out of the vent, then stealthily put on her disguise. Finally, Rhine entered the door. Eyes on her target, she waltzed over to him. “Excuse me— I was given task to find you by the Elders. They merely gave me your face and not your name. Would you mind telling me it while you follow me?”

Her target looked at her up and down. “What for?”

“They’ve simply asked you for some much required assistance in your field. I didn’t question it, so I don’t have much information.”

“I’m supposed to be at this meeting with the Head Scholar.” The target accusingly placed onto Rhine. “You seem like you’re lying to me.”

Rhine shrugged. “Say what you will. It was the Elder’s orders, not mine. And it’s a shame— it was quite urgent too… however, I understand. Let’s wait for the meeting together.”

The target pulled back. “Oh, you’re in this meeting, too?”

“Yes. I’ve been assigned here by the Head Scholar herself. I was willing to take the risk of being late, too. Can you believe it? Right before my promotion, too. But the Elders would surely understand.” Rhine added. “May I at least get your name?”

The target’s face would’ve suddenly drowned in anxious shock if he wasn’t high. “Hm… well, if you believed we had enough time… I’ll come along. My name is Feir-Kyian. Let’s leave now, shall we?”

Kyian. Hira had a classmate named that. Maybe they knew each other…? But of course, Rhine knew it was an unlikely coincidence. Though, she liked the possibility quite a bit.

***

“Hey, it’s Hira. Can I come in?” Hira gently knocked on the door to the makeshift medbay. He wondered how the place looked, actually. Maybe it sucked… but Dion could heal, so that was all that mattered.

The door opened softly.

“Hello, Hira. Y—“ Dion’s look went from enjoying the company to blank in an instant. “…your face.”

Hira covered his mouth with a hand. “I know. That’s why I’m here.”

Dion looked over Hira’s shoulder, towards Ammi.

She shook her head, as if answering the question she received from Dion’s look.

“When Jay told me that you’d come to get healed, I never expected dislocation.” Dion waved Hira in, waiting for him to walk ahead before he closed the door. “But I can fix that.” His tone returned to its natural cheer that could only mean obedience here. “Just don’t expect it not to hurt, okay? Oh— and me and Kindle made chairs out of these boxes. They’re actually quite comfortable. I wouldn’t let you sit on them if they weren’t, you know.”

Hira simply stared at the room they surrounded themselves in.

“Hira? What are you staring at?” Dion turned to him, simply curious.

WOW. “Is this the room used to store injector fluid and its packaging?”

Dion nodded eagerly. “Yes. It’s obviously kept somewhere, but this place makes it seem like it’s the only storage in Aeronia.”

“Do you think they do different things before they’re given to us…? Like… are they super-fresh right now?” Hira eyed a few completed packages.

“I’m not sure. I also don’t know what ‘fresh’ is. You… could give it a try…? You know, I haven’t had an injection myself in quite some time.” Dion added. “I wouldn’t want one, anyways. I don’t even have an injector.”

Hira started to sweat. “Yeah. Maybe I won’t try, either.” He turned to Dion, smiling. “Though… maybe after you heal me…?”

“If you wish.”

COOL. COOL, COOL, COOL, COOL, COOL. “Alright. I’ll think about it.”

He was so normal about needles and injections.

Dion nodded. “Good. Would you like to ask me anything?”

“Yeah, where’s Kindle?”

“She’s in the way, way, way back, making a castle. She told me so. I admire her ability to create masterpieces with simply soft, plastic boxes. Now…” Dion pointed to a nicely crafted chair. “Please take a seat while I tell you about all the things I’ve learnt today.”

Hira nodded, sitting down. He was obviously pretty nervous. Especially after he heard (thousands of times) how Rhine dislocated a shoulder and her leg while fighting with her enemies or whoever she hated I don’t know and then she said that putting her limbs back where they were supposed to be hurt like hell but she did it and she won the fight anyways.

“Water is… to drink. So is tea and apple juice. I personally like water. Tea and apple juice are strong, no?” Dion placed his hands on Hira’s cheeks, asking him stupid questions to distract him from the impending doom. “Not physically, but in the way you'd describe an opinion based report. A… personality, right?”

Hira started to get extremely nervous. “I—guessshh?” He concluded, chubbed cheeks messing with his speech more than a dislocated jaw ever could.

Dion agreed with a hum, positioning his fingers for ultimate relocating awesomeness (that sounds really weird). “Maybe you’ll teach me what it really means later. I find it ironic that I always used to teach you, and now you’d be teaching me. I actually had this experience—-“ Dion clutched Hira’s jaw, twisting it back into place. “—-with an old friend recently, and it—-“

“AAAGHHHHH——-!!!”

“What? Does it hurt?”

“YES!!!”

Dion shrugged, relaxing his grip and gently holding Hira’s face. “It shouldn’t anymore. I didn’t mention the blood you’re covered in, but may I ask now?”

“It’s just mine and some other guy’s. The blood on my shirt is… ugkh… mine…” Hira felt bad for ruining Rhine’s delicate recreation of his old clothes.

“Was the other’s an Elder? Let me guess, the youngest one?”

Hira’s eyes flicked to his clothes. He felt really bad. “Yeah… it was okay.”

Dion listened intently. “Good. He’s dead, right?”

“Yes.”

“Open your mouth.” Dion tapped his cheek after he made sure Hira’s pain went away.

“Why…?” Hira reluctantly asked, slowly opening his mouth anyways.

Dion shuttered. “Because you probably bit your tongue when you got hit… oh, I see I was right. And you ask ‘why’.”

Hira blinked. He would’ve protested if Dion didn’t shove his hand in his mouth.

“It’s a little weird, I know. But think of this like that one time when you put that piece of paper in your mouth. This is a similarly dire situation.”

Ugh… he didn’t have to remind me…

Dion finished after a few seconds of silence. He took out a handkerchief, wiping off Hira’s mouth and then his fingers. “Okay, done. Wasn’t so bad, was it? Are you hurt anywhere else?”

Hira was unsure if he could swallow or not. “No. I’m all good.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Dion dipped his head to Hira. “Well. Off you go. More fighting, surely. Come back when you get hurt again, or if you just want to talk with little, poor me. Lonely me. Me who misses you dearly. Me who is still unsure if you even exist…”

“Didi.” Hira lowered his voice. “I’m fine.”

Dion shrugged. For living with no emotions his entire life, he seemed to be full of them. Especially teasing and dramatic ones. “But not me. Not me…”

“Do you… want me to confide in you or something?” Suggested Hira, awkwardly smiling. The truth is, he had planned to do so once he arrived— but he felt embarrassed to start gushing about his troubles. Something told him he’d only end up sounding like he wanted pity.

“Yes. If you don’t mind?”

Uhm… “I don’t know…” Hira knew that saying this would definitely tell Dion something was wrong, but he’d rather have it that way.

Dion gave him some time to think. Then, he began with his own troubles. “I can tell you some of mine. It would certainly ease the tension, especially since our problems are likely to have the same root.”

“Sure…” Hira slowly nodded. At times, it seemed like Dion never had any problems. There surely must’ve been— especially before Hira was born.

“Alright.” Dion clasped his hands together, taking a seat and gently folding them in his lap. “Ammi will be alright out there, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’ve got everything covered. Hmm… you know… it seems like whenever you’re about to rest from the trials of your life, you’re simply thrown more mercilessly. Before you, I had many troubles. While I was taking care of you, I had many troubles. For about two years after I had to leave you, I finally got rid of things that had been bothering me for years.” Dion thought for a minute. “Well, here we are. I figured that after you were to be left on your own… you’d finally learn everything I’d taught you. You’d never get in trouble ever again. And you seemed so promising and true to this thought, too. It was a surprise when I’d been told you went on trial. Actually— not much of a surprise, really, but I thought that if you ever were to go on trial, it’d be right after I left. Four years is good enough, don’t you think?”

Hira looked down. “I tried. I’m sorry.”

“That’s all I’d ask for. Hopefully you weren’t trying your best.” Dion teased.

“Yeah.”

“Did you think about me? During my trial, I endlessly thought about you. If you could understand how attached I felt to you the first time I held you, you’d understand how much pain I’d gone through when I was brought to trial. The last time I saw your face, you still looked quite young. All I could think about was how young you felt to me. You weren’t just some baby I’d been assigned to take care of. You were my baby. The one person I’d stayed by for half my life, took care of as I put every fiber of your soul into their wellbeing, I even made sure you…”

Hira’s guilt piled up into a massive mess that he was sure could only be cured by hardcore, frequent drug intake.

“…I guess it’s hard for me to say exactly what I really mean by that. I just wanted to know you were okay, even if I knew death must’ve been anything but peaceful. Remember… hmm. Actually, do you mind if I could tell you something else?”

“No, not at all.” Hira shook his head. “You don’t need to ask. Just tell me.”

Dion nodded graciously. “Thank you. If I’m being honest, I had the worst feeling that you’d experience a trial far from the normal type. With how different you were behaviorally, I knew that they’d try to figure out why. You know what that means, don’t you?”

Ohh… he’s right… Hira suddenly felt sick. “I’m scared to say… I don’t think I could, even if someone gave me a lifetime supply of mangos.” He spoke casually, unaware of how Dion had no idea what a mango or what being scared was.

Dion didn’t question it this time. “The government can do whatever they want. I don’t know why they gave us the option to go through with it— then actually listened to our refusal. If I hadn’t known what the surgery— if you can even call it that— was… then I might’ve just said yes.”

Hira’s heart skipped every beat. “Oh.”

“But, we’re in the future, aren’t we? We’re lucky for that.” Dion looked worried, or concerned that the reassurance wasn’t enough. “My deepest apologies… even if they aren’t deep enough.”

“No…” Breathed Hira, lowering his voice. “It’s not your fault, don’t worry.”

“If you say so…” Dion decided to move away from the blame game, and back on topic. “I actually had a friend who’d done it, but he never got any better. They actually considered him as a threat to society, and instead of killing him like he’d wanted to do before, they tried to fix him with the same thing. It never worked, so they had to kill him. But it wasn’t the way he’d wanted to die.” Dion looked back in his library of memories. “He was a scholar. We were part of the guard together, but we both decided it wasn’t a good choice for us. I didn’t mind to die just as myself. He wanted to get to his second life. He worked really hard… but I think the pressure got to him. If he was ever going to be a second life, I’m sure his final moments ruined it. For a really long time, I was sure you’d have it done, too.”

Agh… “Really?” Hira seemed like he was on the verge of tears.

“I’m sorry. I tried my hardest.”

If he’d warned me back then, I’m sure I would’ve killed myself. 

“I’ll stop talking. What about you?”

“No, wait. Tell me what else you did during the trial. Was it painful?” Hira literally leaned on the edge of his seat.

Dion blinked. “Yes, it was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced.”

“That’s not fair! It’s not your fault that I did this! And we haven’t seen each other for four years, so they can’t blame you for anything!”

“To them, it was my failure to teach you as a child.”

Hira’s face gave way to disheartened feelings and disappointment in himself.

“I don’t care, though. As long as I’m still alive. I also took it as a way to spite the Elders. Don’t we all know they love to see ‘criminals’ pay for what they’ve done in pain? I simply let them see none of mine. It was worth the extra hurt… and anyways, it’s not like they took away my healing.”

To Hira, Dion was the model Aeronian. Strong willed and… most possibly the most obedient person he’d ever met. It wasn’t fair to him at all…

He thought for a moment, locking his gaze with Dion’s. “I’m sorry. I can’t say anything but that.”

“Don’t apologize. As long as you’d gone on trial for a good reason, even if the Elders didn’t like it.”

Hmm… if saving the Sea was a good reason, then yeah.

Dion finished with a simple nod, as if understanding that everything he’d said was correct. “Now, please. You.”

Crap, where do I begin? “Uhm… I’ve been quite lonely, and I’ve been in immense pain for a really long time. I’m also scared of Aeronia and how I have to kill the Elders. I feel unsure about my skills, so I’ve been questioning myself too much. I thought I had a plan, a goal, and I thought I could do this properly. I get too emotional. My life is a mess because I keep getting panic attacks. Oh, and I also think I might have a drug addiction. That’s it.”

“Hira, my poor baby!” Dion suddenly began freaking out. “Oh, that’s awful! Am I able to help in any way? Please?”

Hira looked concerned. “Why?”

“Why not? You’re not thinking about me embarrassing you, aren’t you? I would never, especially for this. This must be a great struggle.”

“Di, I’m 100% certain you don’t know what half of my problems even are.”

Dion shrugged. “Is that it? I can learn. Should I ask your friends t—-“

“—-NO.” Hira commanded, more angry than worried about them finding out.

“…okay, I won’t. But… because of this, I believe you won’t get any better. Pressure can really cause many more problems.”

He’s… “But I can’t let them know! They think I’m this… cheerful idiot with a crazy love for history. I mean, history is cool— but it’s just… I don’t go crazy over it! That’s more problems, actually. My personality is fake, I think my friends are catching on, and I get so bored every day that the only thing I’m entertained by is my anxiety that just makes me cry myself to sleep. At first, waves of fear felt like something I could tease myself over— just so I could feel something— but now I’m making myself so paranoid I get scared over things that I know aren’t things to be scared over!” Hira rambled on and on, crushing his fingers together like it was the least amount of punishment he could give himself.

“Hira.” Dion called his name, lending him a hand.

Hira looked at the hand, nearly forgetting what Dion asked him every time he held it out like that. Hira nodded as tears welled in his eyes. He took Dion’s hand.

“It’s not the end of the world!” Dion teased, massaging Hira’s hand the way he used to whenever Hira got cramps from writing. “With or without your friends, I’m sure we can figure out how to alleviate your stress. It’ll take time. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though. One at a time, we’ll work together to make sure you’re relaxed and calm. Got it?”

Hira sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes with his other hands. He nodded. “I’m shorrrryy…..”

“Please, don’t apologize. I’m happy to help you with anything. We’ll also talk about your hygiene later.”

“Wuh—uh?” Hira blinked rapidly.

Dion nodded. “Oh, it’s true. You haven’t used any of the products that I left you, and it shows. Please take care of yourself.”

“Okay…”

***

“Finally… after all these years…” Kindle admired her beautiful castle. The glory of it was outstanding.

…

Meanwhile, Jay’s production slowed down. There was no way he’d meet the quota in time. The government would take all his belongings soon.

Simply put, Jay got sidetracked trying to figure out where to put the drugs.

He had put them all in a neat pile… which was easy to do, since Kindle’s work flow had also seemed to die down. Well… if she wasn’t doing any work, it meant that he could also take a break. Maybe just for a bit. A measly five minutes. Yes, that would be enough. Plus; when he tried to contact Kindle (since it was clear she wasn’t doing work), it gave him a message that read; ‘This user has blocked you. You’re a grown man, why do you dress like a twink?’. The insult didn’t bother him in the slightest. Maybe he liked dressing up like a twink.

Jay nodded to himself, agreeing that he’d spend five minutes— no more and no less—- on a break. He went to his secret marshmallow compartment. The secret to its location was that he kept it in his room, inside the same place he kept all his other… personal belongings. The closet.

Of course, this was stacked full of different types of marshmallows, to match the mood of any day. Today— the large, white marshmallows. A classic, but jumbo-sized. The finest gold could buy.

Okay, if this break is supposed to last for five minutes… I should make it the best five minutes ever.

Jay eyed the other box in his closet. The personal belongings.

Yeah… maybe… that’s a good idea…

He reached for it, juggling the marshmallows in his other hand. Finally, the box was pried open. He searched through the collection.

Hmm… this one was a limited edition… but I got this one a week ago…so I guess I shouldn’t use the limited, but rather my newer ones… though, what’s the use if I just look at the limited? I’m meant to actually use it for what it’s for… oh, Megabird, this one’s actually really good! I forgot about this… wait— what if I just took all three? No one’s stopping me. I’m on break.

Jay grabbed Vanilla Ocean Mist, Roses and Peach, and finally— the best of them all. Starry Liilies of the Valley. His favorite scents.

Yay! This’ll be great!

Jay first spritzed Vanilla Ocean Mist on his wrist. The scent filled the air.

This one’s really good. Ten out of ten. Everyone loves this.

He opened the marshmallow bag, then popped one in his mouth. He let it melt (which was quite easy), then swallowed.

Hmm… these ones taste better burnt… ooh, wait! Vanilla Ocean Mist is a great combo with Sweet Jelly Flame! I gotta go get that one!

Jay then proceeded to lose three hours eating marshmallows and smelling perfume.

***

“Thanks for waiting, Ammi. Did you get scared alone…?” Hira exited the room, smiling softly.

Ammi shook her head. “Nope! I gave this guy a look, though. I think he was a guard… he kinda had the same get-up as Warren did. I’m not entirely sure what I looked like, but when we locked eyes, he stepped a few feet away.”

Hira didn’t know what to make of this information. “…good?”

“Uhh… I’m still a little worried, though. We don’t have the cart.” Ammi shrugged. “There’s cameras everywhere. The Elders could just track us down! I don’t know why we didn’t ask Rea for the rest of their weaknesses and strengths, y’know?”

Hira shrugged, checking his hand. “She’ll be out soon. All meetings end at Q, so this’ll end at Q3– but since the sun—-“

“—-I don’t understand AstraTime and I never will.” Ammi shuttered just hearing him explain. “Can you… tell me it in… regular people time? For us dummies…?”

“Uhm… I don’t understand your time, either. AM and PM are demons sent from hell, and why is it base 60, anyways? What’s 24 even supposed to mean here? Then it’s zero and twenty-three o'clock… I think…”

Ammi frowned. “Is Rea coming soon…?”

“Yes…?” Hira checked the time again. “You know what, this doesn’t matter. I’ve thought of something that’ll give us the edge in a battle, so let’s go get it.”

“Oh— yeah! Cameras… let’s go quickly!” Ammi nodded furiously, running along with Hira.

“We need to find a guard.” Hira’s eyes scanned the hallways. “You barely run into anyone here, though… at least it’s usually a guard.”

Like a light switch that finally turned on in Ammi Corportated ™️, Ammi blinked with an idea. “The guard I gave a look to! He walked this way, and it wasn’t very long ago that he did! Follow me!” She led the way, running as fast as her stubby legs and short endurance was willing to take her.

Hira followed right behind. Lucky this corridor’s so long… if we have to split apart, then I guess I should take the stairs at the end… then I’ll call her…

They made it to the end of the corridor, no guard in sight.

Ammi, go to the left. I’ll go up the stairs. Remember where you came from. If I message you, then come back to me. What does the guard look like?

He had pale skin and white hair, but he’s not an old guy. Think of genderbent QD!

I don’t want to. See you.

Hira didn’t bother running up the stairs— he flew up. Etiquette sucks! Hell yeah!

In the distance, he saw a guard with white hair.

Good. He was already coming up with several excuses and lies for the blood he was covered with.

Ammi, I see him!

“Hey! You! Guard! Stop!!” Hira called out to the boy.

He looked like he was thirteen when he turned. “Oh—! Uh!” His eyes flicked to the blood on Hira’s… everywhere. “Ade! What do you need?” The guard stood straight.

“You must know where the tranquilizers are, yes?”

“Uhm… yes. May I ask what for?”

“We’ve been researching a new technique for effective combat skills.”

The guard nodded. “Is this real blood?” He pointed to Hira’s clothes. “Sorry to bother.”

“No, it’s alright. It’s simply a test. It’s all fake. Can you take me to where the tranquilizers are located?”

“Of course. Do you have an assistant with you?”

Hira nodded. “Yes. She’ll be up in a second. She has very short legs, so I’ve been thinking of switching her out… though she is quite helpful!”

The guard looked over Hira’s shoulder, spotting Ammi. “Oh, I think I see her. Alright, then you two follow me.”

Quickly, run up to us! And remember, two steps behind me.

Ammi made her way over, following the instructions she was given. Wow, Hira… this is so tiring…

It’s not the end of the world. You should get out some more, so it’s not as hard to run. Why don’t you workout with me and Rhine sometimes?

Ugh, you can’t be pushing me about fitness now… we’re on a mission!! Lecture me later…

Hira simply followed the guard ahead of them.

They were led to a room, then given a card from the guard.

“This is an Opal Clearance, so just use it to get in and out whenever. Take what you need. Rest well, you two.” And with that, the guard walked away.

Ammi took a look at the aforementioned clearance. It was a thin, card-like slate of opal. “Huh. So, like a keycard…? Also…” She triple-checked the guard had gone. “…he really just let us in?”

Hira swiped the card. “Of course. I’m a second life. And I’ve also got an assistant. Why should he question me? Plus, guards don’t get paid enough to care.” He shrugged as the door opened. “They’re actually not paid at all. None of us are…”

“Seems dystopian enough.”

The two entered the room, and it looked much like the room of drugs/medbay/currentfunganghangout. Only… it was much more organized. There were neatly lain rows of darts and their shooters, on tables under glass containers.

Ammi raised an eyebrow. “This reminds me of ice cream parlors… ‘ooh, choose your flavor’…”

“I’d like the most lethal flavor.” Hira scanned the menu. “My plan is to tranquilize or possibly kill our opponents with these to make it easier to fight. Of course, it’ll be easy to land a hit… I’m sure of it.” He thought back to… unsavory times from long ago.

“I’m glad you remembered these. It’s been worrying to watch you fight.” Ammi looked over the tables to find one that she’d like the have… y’know, just got the heck of it. “Ooh, this one looks cool!” She pointed to a shooter she’d liked, smudging her little girl fingers all over the glass.

Hira moved to the selection. He hovered over the table, examining. “This one is quite complicated to use. Not ideal.”

“Blegh.” Ammi frowned, eyeing the shooter as if it was her soulmate. “Can I take it? I wasn’t just looking for you…”

Hira blinked. “Oh, sure. I mean, we could take everything here if we wanted.” Thinking for a moment before he spoke agajn, he continued to look for an ideal dose and shooter. “Sorry… you sometimes confuse me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You kinda… remind me of an actual assistant. It’s just in the way you’re dressed, though. You even cut your hair.”

Ammi shrugged. “It was getting too long, anyways. I have noticed the way Dion asks you things, too. It’s like he’s your servant.”

“That’s actually what he’s supposed to be. He just really likes his job, though… so he enjoys it as if it was his own decision.” Hira found a good shooter, so he opened the glass case to take it out. He eyed it a bit.

Ammi frowned. “That’s sad. Does that mean you had authority over him as… like, a four year old…?”

“Yeah, I’m a second life. You saw that guard. He just believed us because I look this way.” Hira turned to Ammi, noticing how she hadn’t opened the case to the shooter yet.

She blinked, trying to pry the case open after the look Hira gave her. She failed. So, she continued to talk. “Of course, Dion had the final say in a few things, didn’t he?”

“Only if I was acting up. Otherwise, I did what I wanted. It was like that the entire time… Didi even made sure I was comfy, or that my skin was soft and my hair was combed.”

Ammi’s cheeks puffed up. “didyoujustcallhimDIDI???”

Hira realized what he’d said, then started to glow with embarrassment. “Hey—! You can’t even open that stupid case. Don’t talk to me like that.”

“I’m not your servant, dude.” Ammi teased, leaning on the case like a middleschool bully.

“What, don’t you call your dad any nicknames, too?”

“No! I just call him dad.”

Hira frowned, turning to look for ammo. “Who cares? He calls me Hira, even though he’s supposed to refer to me formally. It’s not the craziest thing in the world.”

“Yeah, but ‘Didi’??”

“I couldn’t ever say his name right! It just stuck, okay?!”

Ammi shrugged. “Sure.” She tried her luck with pulling open the case again. You can guess what happened. “Can you at least say his name now?”

Hira found a good case of ammo. “Of course I can.”

“Then say it!”

“For you, no.” He opened the case and grabbed the ammo.

“I guess that’s fair…” Ammi eyed the case. “This thing is stuck, but I loosened it. Get it open, please?”

Hira walked over, promptly opening the case with ease. “Get it.”

Ammi lit up. “Ooh, yay! Thanks! I’m glad we got over our differences.” She nodded, taking the shooter and happily hopping to tables of ammo.

“Me too.” Rolling his eyes, Hira followed her to open another loosened case.

“I want this one!! Look at the color!” Ammi rubbed her fingers all over the glass above a cream colored case. “I think the darts’ll look preetttyy. Here, lemme loosen the case!” She tried to pry the case open once more.

“I will get it for you.” Like a robot (rather, monotonously), Hira spoke and opened the case, then handed Ammi her desired flavor of killing. “Here is your case of ammo. Do enjoy.”

“Thanks. Now, to wait for Rea?” Ammi admired the case of ecru. “She told me where to meet, but I forgot it already…”

Hira frowned. “One move of incompetence after another…”

“Wait— I’m trying to remember… I think it was somewhere… near…”

Lemme check the time. Rea could be waiting for us right now… Hira opened his band, rushed with relief as he noticed there was still plenty of time before she left. “I mean… it’s important no one knows she’s been gone from her duties… so I guess she can’t leave…”

“Huh? ‘You talking to yourself?”

“Yes. Continue remembering.”

Ammi scratched the back of her neck. “I did. I can’t remember the directions… just how the place looked.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry! You know I’m only good with looks and not with names… or directions. I have to run this whole track in my head to remember where to go…”

Hira groaned. “At least tell me you can see something soon…?”

Ammi lit up. “I can! We might get lost. And it’s very likely. We should go back the way we came.”

“Ugh—?! What? I’d rather tear my wings off! I’m taking us back to that office, near the old library. There’s a shortcut there. You’ll probably recognize the area around it! Easy! Then we can get back to Rea. Good? Good. Great, let’s go.” Hira rushed through his wave of annoyance before it reached its peak.

“Oh…” Ammi thought for a moment. “That works, too!” She smiled weakly, clutching onto her precious items of mass paralyzing capability. “Here, put your stuff in my bag.” Fun fact: this bag has only been mentioned one other time! We have it. It’s real.

Hira handed Ammi his ammo and shooter. “Thanks. Follow me.” He headed off for the door.

“Wait a minute—!!” Ammi was still juggling her own choice of weapon and ammo, quite distracted by the thought of ‘ammo’ and ‘Ammi’ sounding quite similar— and ‘ammo’ is actually ‘ammunition’, which has an ‘i’ in it, meaning Ammi could make her name out of the word. She thought it was pretty cool. But it was also pretty distracting. “—-uhhh, got all our stuff in!! Coming!!”

The two made their way out of the room, and Hira swiped the card again to close the door to it.

“Alright… now we just have to go all the way back…” Hira walked ahead.

Ammi shrunk a little. “Okay…”

***

“It’s certainly over here… I think.” Rhine tried to buy herself some time to plan exactly how she’d kill this man without getting caught.

Kyian followed her with doubt. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

“Of course I do. Sometimes, I get a little lost… but when I see something I recognized while walking, I’m pushed in the right direction. Like that pillar over there.” Stated Rhine, pointing to an average pillar with no distinguishing features.

“Huh.” Kyian stared at it for quite some time. “While we walk, why not hold a conversation for a bit?”

Rhine nodded to agree without words.

Kyian thought for a moment. Conversation topics. “So, you said you were assigned to this meeting by the Head Scholar?”

“Yes. She and I are on a name-basis, you know.”

“Ah… well done.”

Trying not to smile (it was just a habit of acting by now), Rhine thanked Kyian. “Thank you. May I a—-“

The ringing of a bell, exceedingly loud, cut Rhine off.

Kyian’s head immediately turned around. He probably got scared… but it looked like he was concentrating. His face changed. “Oh, no.”

“The bells?”

“Did you count incorrectly? They found an Elder dead!”

Rhine blinked. The panic began to show on Kyian. Soon, she felt like everyone else would panic, too. “What?! That’s terrible!”

Kyian’s face calmed. “I know.”

It seemed like… he was back to normal. Rhine had to follow this. She had a lead as to why. “That just means…”

“That the meeting is cancelled. We can’t meet the Elders, and we can’t go to the meeting with the Head Scholar. They’ll be busy.”

Rhine shrugged. “Oh, well. Where should we go…?”

Kyian thought for a minute. “I’m not sure. Let’s head to my room, maybe. It’s close enough, and we can resume work or take a break.”

No? Rhine had never heard of the word ‘break’ being used in Aeronia. It was always ‘rest’— sleeping. While you were awake, all you did was work. “A… break?”

“I forgot… you were getting promoted at this meeting, yes? You get more benefits… like breaks. I’ll show you.”

Rhine nodded. “I’d like to learn about those.”

She made a mistake. She didn’t want to admit it, but she started to feel guilty about having to kill Kyian. Hira, if this was the same person he knew, told her about him as a child. That made everything worse. The two looked about the same age, too. Even worse. Now, he was basically inviting her to… well, something. But she was sure it’d be fun— something corrupt officials do. Hopefully he made her hate him.

They stepped through the halls, Rhine simply following Kyian’s every step. How many people got lost in these things…?

“Here’s my room.” Kyian opened a door out of nowhere— it seemed like the two were about to pass this one by.

Rhine peeked in. “Alright.” She let herself in.

The door closed behind the two once they were both inside.

“Let me show you this.” Already on the other side of the room, Kyian held out a small container made of plastic. He unscrewed the tab… and took out a bubble wand. “Look, isn’t this so curious?” He started to blow bubbles.

What.

“Hehe, they can fly!” Kyian popped them as they danced in the air. He was acting just like a child.

Dazed, Rhine watched the bubbles float in the air. She was sure that corrupt government officials would have much more unwholesome ideas of fun. This was actually just blowing bubbles. “Wow… this is unbelievable.” She dully responded, purely out of dumbfoundedness.

Kyian seemed to have even more treasures. Behind him was a small drawer. This was evidently where he got the bubbles from… he opened the drawer, and pulled out a small dish, food coloring, and water. “Look, this is my favorite.”

For a good two hours, Rhine and Kyian watched water mix into color, bubbles float by, flowers be drawn, and jump ropes be tossed.

***

QD and Vera just so happened to be standing under the largest bell they’d ever seen when it was rung several times.

“AGHHH—-!!! WHAT WAS THAT?!?” QD screamed at the top of her lungs, practically vibrating at every chime.

Vera shoved ice into his ears. Yes, what a great idea.

The bell’s chimes had no visible end in sight.

“WHY DOES THIS PLACE HAVE RANDOM TIMES FOR BELLS RINGING?!”

Suffering immensely, QD and Vera simply had to wait for the chimes to end.

Luckily enough (though for what seemed like after an eternity), the bell stopped.

QD flopped to the floor. “uggahhhhh…”

Dealing with a new problem, Vera melted the ice in his ears and hopped on one foot to get the water out of each side. Though, whenever he did it, more water was pushed closer into the other ear… “Holy— shit—. QD, you okay…?”

“Maybe…? Everything’s ringing…”

“Gods. We’re lucky that we didn’t go deaf from that.” Vera smacked the side of his head multiple times.

Pulling herself from the floor, QD groaned. “I might’ve.”

“Ugh… what were we doing again…?” Finally, Vera got rid of all the water in his ears.

“Assassinations…?”

“I don’t know where we left off at, though. Were we tracking someone?” Vera held out a hand to help QD stand properly again.

QD blinked multiple times, taking the offered help. “Oh, do you think these bells have… forgetfulness powers?”

“No.” Vera frowned, letting QD go instantly. “That’s stupid. The stupid ringing was so intensely traumatic that I can’t remember a thing.”

“Forgetfulness powers…”

“Sure. Let’s just hope that ringing doesn’t mean anything bad for us.” Vera turned to the camera.

QD did the same, nodding enthusiastically (or as if to finally shake out the last bell vibrations.) “Yeah! That’d be horrible!”

***

Hira and Ammi both ended up back in front of the meeting room that led to the old library when the bell rung about a thousand times.

Counting the chimes, Hira slowly got more and more anxious. “Oh… crap…”

“What is it now?” Ammi looked around, trying to remember the meeting spot Rea gave her.

“I think they found out an Elder died…” Hira’s voice lost emotion as the bells continued to chime. Once they stopped, he was full of depression. “…yeah, they did.”

Ammi jolted up. “What the hell?! That means— we just barely missed whoever was in there!” She frantically pointed to the meeting room’s door. “Someone found out!! Instantly!!! Oh— you don’t think it was Rea— do you?!”

Hira’s sudden loss of hope was turned into offense. “What? Do you? That’s stupid. She would never.”

“I’m just theorizing. Aeronia seems like a dangerous place, y’know?”

Conflicted on whether or not he would agree, Hira held his tongue on the matter. “Let’s just do what we came here to do. Get us to the meeting place quickly, because Rea suddenly has a lot of work to do.”

Ammi huffed in agreement, determined to remember. “You got it! Here…” She dashed through the halls like a little kid’s sudden boost of energy in the supermarket isles. Her head spun around frantically, looking for any signs to help her locate the spot. Then, her eyes widened as she pointed to the end of a stairwell, far down the hall and to the left. “Yeah, under this spot!”

Oh… “She could’ve just told you…” Hira muttered to himself, following Ammi’s curved path in a straightened direction.

“Huh? Said something?” Ammi called out to him.

“Uh, yeah. This was just one of the places we used to meet up in. All I was thinking was that she could’ve told you it was the place under the stairs, which you could then tell to me.”

Shrugging yet making herself comfortable in the spot, Ammi watched Hira near the area. “Maybe she thought you wouldn’t remember that anymore. Hey— could you hurry up? I thought we had no time to lose!”

Hira rolled his eyes, exaggerating his movements to seem like he was going faster. “Alright.”

Once Hira and Ammi both hid themselves underneath the stairs, all they had to do was wait for Rea.

Ammi had a stupid, anticipating grin that you’d get from trying to sleep the night before the best day of your life.

Hira noticed this. He wondered what made meeting Rea after— what, an hour?— so special.

Ammi bumped against Hira’s shoulder, then snuggled up to him.

“What?” Hira patted her away like she was a bug.

“I was getting a little sleepy. Sorry.”

Annoyed, Hira knocked her head back onto his shoulder. “Fine, but don’t actually fall asleep.”

“Thanks,” Ammi warmly replied, more deeply grateful than peppy and cheerful.

Hira ignored his own words and closed his eyes, drifting off into snork-mi-mi-mi-land. Once it had you in its grasp, there was no coming back.

“Hira! Ammi!” Rea yelled more than she whispered.

Jolted awake without a sense of how much time had passed, Hira blinked the sleepiness away from his eyes. “What?”

“I thought you two died!”

Hira turned to Ammi. She’d fallen asleep, but who could blame her…? “No, we were just sleeping.”

“Mysterious…” Rea scratched her chin, unaware of what sleeping was. “Hey, is that playing fake dead? You two were really convincing!”

“Just get to the point. Don’t whisper that loud, too.” Hira laid a hand on Ammi’s head protectively.

“Right, sorry! Look, they found out that we killed stupid Cold. Nothing escapes these guys, huh…? But— yeah, you knew. I have to tell you what I know, but it won’t be as in-depth as I hoped. Listen carefully.”

Hira nodded, leaning in subconsciously.

“Okay… uh… I think Bored is basically our middle here. Loser is the oldest. Wait, was that our nicknames for them? Nevermind— Bored is stupid. She asks a lot of questions, and all of them are rhetorical. It’s like she’s waiting for you to give a bad answer so she can mock you and make you wonder how smart you are. She doesn’t like to fight how we usually do, like Cold… she prefers longer range weaponry that you actually have to pick up to use. You can use that to your advantage. Once, we sparred with ropes— it didn’t end well. If you can get her to get interested enough in you, she’ll be more focused on making you think you’re stupid than actually fighting you. Get her with this. Sometimes, she likes to hang around outside of classrooms— remember? I think it’s to just bask in how much smarter she is than actual kids… Then, Loser. She’s the worst. Her hair is so incredibly long, like— are you kidding me?! Honestly, she never told me her age… but I was guessing more than 800. You really have to watch your step here, because she barely has any weaknesses and is quite precise. She’ll use anything she can, as long as she can control it easily. Metal beams in the ground, the hidden chains, tiles… pillars and windows, if she’s losing really bad. That’s how you can tell she’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants. She keeps a great distance from any of her opponents, and she always fights from her throne in the trial room. If you can get close enough to her… maybe she’ll get dazed, and that could be a weak spot. She’ll sometimes throw wise words to make you want to give up. Good luck, okay?”

Hira nodded throughout the talk, wondering what Rea thought the denifinition of ‘not enough time’ was. Once she was done, he felt the urgency to ask her a question even though he had none. He took his shot anyways. “Hey, Rea.”

Just as Rea had spun around to leave, she turned back to him with a gentle smile. “Yeah?”

“Uh…” Hira forgot the fake question he was going to ask the moment he compared Rea to an anime girl twirling to face her lover with tears in her eyes at the end of the series. “…thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” She turned to leave.

“No, wait again.”

“Oh? Why?”

“When will the Elders be by themselves again…? Y’know, so we can fight.”

Rea thought for a moment. “I heard this meeting lasts pretty long, even though they’d just be appointing me. Rest well until… let’s say for the next 50 moments.”

Hira blinked wildly. “50?!”

“Yeah. Sorry, is that a problem…? I could try to ask th—-“

“—-no, no, it’s okay. I’m actually really glad… I’m so tired.”

Rea reached for Hira’s head, then patted it. “Don’t collapse, okay? See you.”

“Bye-bye.” Hira waved to Rea, who had gotten around to leaving again.

When she was gone, he wondered if he could rest here with Ammi, unnoticed by everything else.

If he’d gone back to see Dion again, that’d mean he’d have to go all the way back, and that’d be a waste of time…

…but it’d be a pretty good waste of time. In fact, it might be better to have everyone else take a break, too. They were all pretty hard at work. Hira would send a message to Jay so he could ask the others about it…

Hey, Jay? You there?

Hira received no response, which was quite surprising.

Rhine, I have a question.

Another surprisingly empty response.

Vera!!! Answer me!!!

No one replied.

This user has blocked you. Kill yourself.

Oh, thanks…

QD? You there? No one else is.

Hira anticipated a response, even if it was to be sent three seconds later in a quite dramatic manner, like the movies. Of course, all because he contacted QD last.

But, even if his sudden comparisons of a few things to movies and shows so far, he recei—-

Hira! Sorry, what? QD replied, just like in the movies!

Oh, I was going to ask a question… but now I have a different one. Do you know what everyone else is doing? Not even Jay or Rhine responded.

It took a good amount of time for QD to reply. No.

(Huh, what a shallow answer…)

No? What about you?

G

Huh?

Fighting

Hira would’ve audibly gasped and nodded in great understanding if Ammi wasn’t still sleeping.

Oh, sorry. I’ll talk to you later, okay?

Wait, I might need your help.

Hm? Are you fighting with Vera right now?

Yeah, but we’re losing pretty badly. He actually just told me to talk to you. We had to hide behind a pillar and everything…

Hira’s anxiety spiked. Why?

Some really strong dude… Vera told me he’d handle it, but I don’t think he can.

Really? I don’t know if I can help you out…

I mean, anything’s fine— backup… or heals… maybe even an update on where everyone’s at in the plan?

Right… wait, weren’t Vera and QD supposed to be doing their own things? How’d I assume they’d be together…? I already killed an Elder, but they found out… so that bell rung.

That was YOU?!

Yeah, sorry.

We just figured it was for the time, or something not so bad… that means they know we’re here. I don’t even want to know how Vera did on stealth…

Y’know, it would be a perfect time to mention, too… I originally messaged the others to ask if we could take a break. I can’t move on with the rest of the plan because the Elders will be appointing Rea to replace the dead one. I didn’t think it was fair that everyone else would be working while I took a nap or something…

QD took a while to respond.

Sorry, swapped out with Vera for a bit. Can you go call someone to help us while we speak?

Hira turned to Ammi. Yeah, but I might be a while. Can you hold on?

Yup. So, a break?

Is it a bad idea?

No… I think we need it, really. We’ve been at this for a bit. If you can manage to get the others, we can work out for how long we’ll take a rest and what we can do in the meantime. Here’s our current location— I’ll send it out. Thanks for messaging!

No problem. See you in a bit.

Yea

Hira took a while to process QD’s last message, as if it was her final word. Then, he carefully picked up Ammi and held her in his arms as he walked out from under the stairs.

“wuh.” Ammi blinked, turning to Hira. “Sorry…” She whispered, already awake and aware of the situation.

“No, it’s okay. We’ll take a break anyways…” Hira was dead sure they’d get at least six hours of sleep, though he wasn’t quite sure what hours were— even now.

With Hira’s response, Ammi gladly drifted back into sleep.

I don’t know why…

Some time later, Hira appeared at the door to the current safe room. He gently knocked.

Dion opened the door. “Hello, Hira. Do you need to be healed again?—-oh no, is it Ammi?!”

“SSHHH.” Hira ironically shushed Dion the loudest he could.

“Wh—what?”

“She’s not dead. She’s just taking a rest.”

Dion raised an eyebrow. “Oh, how curious… sorry for the assumption. Come in.”

Hira nodded, walking into the safe room again. He was met with a peculiar sight. A guard was sitting on one of the boxes, clutching onto his stomach… surrounded by apple juice.

“That’s a guard. He tried coming in because— oh, you know— room inspection. But I couldn’t allow that. I didn’t have any weapons or anyone to ask for help, so I used confusion as a tool! Apply juice is very confusing. Even one small box is enough to make me wonder so many things. I thought, why not multiple?”

Hira was shocked. He honestly didn’t think that Dion would come up with something like this… it seemed so stupid. The most surprising thing, however, was that it worked. And wait— “Hey, Di, did you just say ‘apply juice’?”

“Oh… did I? Isn’t it something else?”

The guard groaned, then fell over.

Hira seemed quite concerned for this guard, who had nothing to do with any of this. “That’s besides the point… you didn’t make him drink all of those, right? Where would you even get them from…?”

Dion’s face hardened with concentration, though it was unclear what for. “Are you not supposed to… drink all of these juices? There are 27.”

“27–?! His stomach is… oh, all in one go?!”

“Yes. Be quiet, remember? Isn’t Ammi taking a rest? Why do we have to be quiet, anyways…?”

Hira gave the guard, who was on the verge of massive high fructose corn syrup shutdown, an extremely apologetic look. “For someone who’s never eaten anything, he’s taking it surprisingly well… but… 27…”

“uagh.”

“Well… that’s not the point— I came here because… I can’t really take on the Elders now, y’know? Even thinking about trying to sabotage that meeting… nothing ends well.”

Dion nodded. “I understand. So, you’ll be taking a rest here?”

“Yes.” Hira let out a sigh of relief.

“Very well! I see Ammi’s already getting started. How did she do that in your arms…?”

Looking down at Ammi as if she really was falling asleep by a miracle, Hira formulated his answer. “She’s quite the good sleeper.”

“Sleep…”

“Ah, besides the point. Do you know where Jay and Kindle are?”

Turning to the back of the room and to the micro portal, Dion shrugged. “Kindle hasn’t come back from making her castle. I haven’t seen Jay in quite a bit. I think he’s dead.”

Oh, that’s right… Kindle technically hasn’t been working this whole time. Whatever, she’s still gonna get tired… and… Jay…? “Jay is dead?”

“I don’t really think that. Though, with the time he’s been gone, you’d start to believe it.”

“Huh…” I’d understand that… he was sorting out the rest of the… uh, drugs… so he’d spend time to make it perfect. Y’know… why are we even taking them…? “What about Rhine? Have you seen her since you came here?”

“No, I’m sorry.” Dion shook his head. “Do you need anything else?”

Hira thought for a moment, then he suddenly remembered that QD and Vera needed help. He was wasting time talking to Dion. “Uh— yeah, take Ammi and make sure she stays like this— and don’t make any loud noises.” He handed Dion the sleeping Ammi.

“Aww… she’s such a sweet child, yes? I’ll make sure she gets a good rest.” He booped Ammi’s nose, which nearly made her wake up. Dion blinked, jolting back after Ammi made shifting movements. “Oops. What does this mean…?”

“—And don’t bother her, okay? If she asks where I am, just tell her— I— I don’t know, make up a story.”

“Don’t worry, I will. I’m very good with stories.”

Hira smiled, a little less tense than before. “Thank you, Didi. See you.”

Dion dipped his head. “Goodbye.”

Briskly exiting the room in a way that said there was something to do and yet there wasn’t any urgency to do it, Hira waved his goodbye and opened the location QD sent him on his band.

I can fight… but they probably need someone to heal them up, too… wait, but don’t they need to heal differently…? So confusing…

Thoughts and ‘I don’t know why’s racing, Hira made it closer and closer to his destination without realizing it. The sounds of battle were like ambient noise, and Hira was tuning them all out.

“Hira!” QD called out once she’d spotted him. She waved from behind a pillar.

Hira looked over instinctively. “Oh— hey!” He grinned wide, bouncing over to QD.

“Why’d it take you forever? You have wings, y’know…” QD patted his shoulder, grinning despite some of the wounds she’d received.

“Sometimes I forget I have them.” Hira shrugged awkwardly. “You’re really hurt… I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner…”

The two squatted down to hide from the battle behind them a little better.

“No worries. We just didn’t expect this to be the battle it’s been.” Looking over her shoulder, QD watched Vera and their opposer battle. “After a while, we got the hang of this guy’s style.”

Hira nodded, watching the battle himself. “Yup. I can tell he’s in a similar position as Cara was in… probably the reason why he’s giving you a harder time.”

QD hummed pensively. “Well, Vera’ll be glad we got rid of him, then…”

“I can battle him too, y’know! Like I said, I killed an Elder. All I have to do is plan this out before I get into it.” Cheerfully, Hira explained his fighting technique like he had nothing to lose.

“Cool! Then you gotta go help Vera!!” QD shoved him along playfully as they stood up. “For once, he’ll finally fight with someone competent.” She smugly smiled.

Hira gave QD a thumbs up, summoning his weapon and heading over to Vera, while still remaining under the radar. The first thing he noticed was the length of their opposer’s hair. It nearly touched the ground.

Both Vera and the attacker noticed Hira at the same time as he neared.

“Just— help out, okay?” Vera called to Hira as he frowned, then pausing the fight to turn to his opponent—- equally as done as he was. This was becoming more of a chore than a threatening situation.

Hira nodded, ready to go.

Their opposer sighed, eyeing Hira. “It’s like you keep multiplying… actually— I’m leaving. Goodbye.”

Vera’s face brightened up like he’d done exceptionally well on a test he thought he’d failed. “We did it!”

“How easy!” Hira’s surprise was strong, but not as strong as his urge to scream at the top of his lungs because of how many times he had to run around these stupid halls. “I’m not complaining, though.”

This was a lie.

QD appeared from behind the pillar. “You guys know we have to kill him, right?”

“Oh.” Vera became his disappointed, angry self again. “Ugh… I just forgot ‘cuz— y’know, we usually just get attacked, so it’s always better to run off…”

Another QD and Vera thing…

“It’s all good. We can fix that later!” Hira grinned as he put away his weapon, giving Vera a look as he examined his wounds.

Noticing the wandering eyes, Vera debated on whether or not to make a suggestive comment. “It’s alright, I’m not hurt so bad.” He’d gone for non-suggestive.

Hira raised an eyebrow, thinking otherwise. Vera and QD both seemed quite beat up, but that was to no surprise. Their opponent was quite strong. “What about that cut on your head?”

Vera itched his forehead, covering his hand in even more blood. “It’s not so bad.”

“Then why’d you guys ask for help?”

QD shrugged. “Because we missed you!” She teased, playfully elbowing Hira.

“Really?” He blushed, embarrassed.

“You’re in a good mood.” Vera turned to Hira. “Did you kill all the Elders already?”

Hira shook his head. Maybe I should dial the cheeriness down…

“Expected, honestly.” Vera frowned.

“Let’s just take the precautions we need, y’know… it doesn’t matter how long it takes.” QD added.

Hira chuckled weakly. “Yeah! After all, I’m really trying my hardest here…”

“Oh! Yeah! Speaking of working hard… Hira suggested we should take a break! He won’t be able to do his job for a while, so he figured that we could all lay low for a bit.” QD turned to Vera, relaying the idea from earlier.

Vera blinked, looking at Hira curiously.

“Those bells meant that they know an Elder died. There’s gonna be a meeting to appoint a new one, which so happens to be Rea. Since the Elders are gonna be in a highly secured meeting room together… I mean, you get it.” Hira explained nonchalantly. “So… yeah. Break. I need some time to think about my plan for each battle, too…”

QD’s look asked Vera what he thought about it.

“Sure. I mean, I’d rather do this…” He tried to paint the picture that he was really committed to work. “…but I guess it’s not a problem to rest.”

“If you really wanna keep going, then you don’t have to take a break. It’s really only applies to Hira, y’know.”

Vera shook his head, then realized that only furthered his migraine, so he stopped. “What? No, Hira would be lonely sleeping all by himself. I’ll also sleep. With him. Together.” He grinned, this time being suggestive without meaning to.

QD slowly nodded. “Uh-huh…”

“Well… all we need to do is call Rhine back, then we can decide if we’ll stop for a while. Jay and Kindle won’t message me back, but they’re definitely not dead— and we’ll know where to find them.” Hira nodded to QD and Vera, confirming everything was all good. “In the meantime… why don’t you two patch up some of your wounds?”

Vera nodded as he received all the information. “Sure. C’mon, QD.” He used his thumb to flick a blue flame onto his pointer finger, then lit it on the ground.

“Yayy!!” QD promptly sat down by the makeshift campfire.

They looked like they were ready to roast marshmallows… (huh, marshmallows.)

Hira examined the act with great confusion. “Is this how you guys heal yourselves…? I mean, Rhine said something about it, but I never really asked…”

QD nodded wildly, ready to explain everything in the fullest and greatest detail. “Yeah! So, there’s actually a few different ways we c—-“

“—-GUYS… GUYS… YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS…” A familiar voice sobbed from behind them.

Hira jolted, turning to it paler than before.

Rhine was waving to them from across the hall, sobbing her eyes out with… some guy.

“Yay! Nap time.” Vera proceeded to flop on his back.

QD looked over at Hira. “Uh… hey, that’s some guy… what’s going on?”

“No. Clue.”

Rhine came closer with this guy. “OKAy— sO.” Her voice broke several times, as she wiped away her tears she didn’t mind not hiding. “Look…” Composing herself quickly, she began. “So, I was hanging out, trying to kill this guy, yeah?”

This guy’s expression went blank. “What?”

“Yeah. And, like, I was trying to lure him away while learning his name so we could get his name down and mark him as dead, right?”

“Oh— hey, Hiraeth.” Some guy waved to Hira.

“Helloo.” Hira waved back.

Rhine’s face lit up as she pointed around and waved her finger like old guys do when they hear a political opinion they like. “See! Another thing!”

QD became quite uncomfortable in this situation. “Rhine…?”

“Right, right! I’m getting to that part, just wait! So— I was like: ‘sir I’m with the Elders and the Head Scholar weneedya.’ And he was like: ‘nooooo,’ and I thought to myself: ‘wow this guys a total asshole.’ Anyways— I got him alone, then I was waiting for a better spot to kill him—-“

“—-This information makes me feel bad, why’d you need to kill me?—-“

“—-and then that stupid bell rang.”

Vera scoffed from the floor in agreement.

“So, I was like, what’s that. And he said elders blah blah death, and I thought to myself, ‘yeah I’ve been thinking about those things recently too’ and also I realized something but that’s for a later time. Basically, this dude invites me to his place, and then we have a bubble party? And we draw flowers? And then we do this density thing where you put soap, water—-“

QD waved her hands around in the air to slow the conversation. “Wait, wait, wait. I think there’s something missing. How did that happen. How— how did that… escalate into a little tea party?”

“That’s unnecessary. Anyways, what I’m saying…” Rhine’s face instantly changed into an expression that said she’d been pleading with a heartfelt narrative. “I used to be bad, y’know? If the ‘good guys’ wanted, they could’ve killed me whenever— and I’m sure that’s how I would’ve died, no matter what I did. If no one gave me the chance to turn around or even hear me out, then how would they ever know that they killed someone just like them? With the same loves, ideas, hobbies and feelings… when the cold blade of justice slices your stomach, it’s the same as butchering an animal. It cuts through your flesh all the same.”

Hira turned to QD, mouthing ‘what’.

QD quietly shrugged as she made sure Rhine didn’t notice.

“Kyian’s just been doing his job. These people we’re assassinating— save for a few— aren’t necessarily bad people. They have the capacity to change, y’know? When their actions come to light… the sense of right or wrong does, too. Every sense of normalcy in killing others is denounced— the same sense that they understand as they die to us. So…” Rhine prepared to pitch her idea. “…why can’t we just help them?”

QD’s face softened.

“Uh? Why should we?” Vera called out. “It’s a waste of time. No one cares.”

“Why’d you listen, then?” Hira remarked.

QD nodded, really feeling through the decision. “I thought you were being crazy, Rhine. That’s actually a really nice reason… and a great thing for you to think of.”

“ARE WE ACTUALLY LETTING THIS HAPPEN?!”

Kyian lit up. “I’m not dying?”

“No. Don’t worry.” QD shook her head with a soft smile. “You’re right— let’s only kill who we need to. And…” She turned to Kyian. “You can help out. What’s your name?”

Kyian blinked, surprised by the lack of formality while being addressed. “Oh— Kyian. I’m a—-“

“—-great! Just Kyian is fine.” Hira grinned, patting his shoulder.

“No…?” He asked Hira, still hung up on formality.

QD clasped her hands together hopefully. “We’re all friends here.”

“Gods below…”

Rhine’s entire day was brightened more than a glass of really expensive red wine after medication would do for her. “Wait, seriously? I kinda tried to pour my heart out there for real this time, but I burst in unseriously…”

“Yeah! Why not? And him and Hira are already friends, see? I recognize his name. They also look similar in age.” QD then blinked, adding in the obvious reasoning. “Oh, and they didn’t address to each other formally when they greeted. Actually, they greeted halfway through your talk, so…”

Hira nodded. “Great! We have a bit of catching up to do, anyways.”

Kyian dipped his head in agreement. “That’s right. I hear you went on trial? Are you trying to dismantle the government and kill everyone because of that…? Oh, I won’t even mention your bloody clothes…”

Hira grimaced.

“Well, we’re killing because your government is actually really terrible and you’re doing bad things without realizing it. It seems like imperialism, but this place actually really sucks.” QD pointed out.

Hira shrugged. “We do this a few times a year.”

“Oh, how fun.” Kyian nodded like a woman at a casual party, waiting for this middle aged man to stop talking about himself for once and just hand her his business card so she can get the hell out of there, except it was with polite intention.

Rhine grinned from ear to ear, relieved this actually worked.

“Hey, Rhine… by the way, I won’t be able to attack any of the Elders for a good amount of time. So… we were wondering if we could take a break?” Hira asked with a little smile.

“Sure. I don’t see why not. Why’d you have to ask me…?”

Vera jolted up into a sit. “Hey! Wait! Didn’t you say you were blowing bubbles and all that shit with this guy? We’re not including you in our break time!”

Rhine frowned.

“Uhm, of course— if you want, you can still do a little here and there while we rest. I just think we should lay low from now on until we get back up to go.” QD added cheerily.

“Yeah, got it. Hira, how long is this wait of yours…?” Rhine turned to him.

“50 moments or more.”

Kyian’s jaw fell. “That’s so much!”

Rhine, in awe, turned to Vera and QD. “That’s two days.”

“YES!” Vera kicked his feet as he flopped back onto the floor.

“I feel bad for Rea, though…” Hira thought for a moment.

QD nodded in agreement. “Same here. Do we need any of her help anymore?”

“No. She gave me everything I needed already… maybe we could send her a gift basket!” Hira’s eyes lit up.

“Huh, I just noticed that fire.” Kyian pointed to the blue flame behind QD and Hira. “You guys confuse me.”

***

“REALLY?! WERE WE THE ONLY ONES DOING ANYTHING USEFUL?!!?” Vera fumed.

“No! I was being useful! I found out what to do with a buncha those boxes.” Kindle had her hands on her hips with pride, relishing in weaseling her way out of being in trouble.

Vera looked like he wanted to pick her up and drop kick her. Instead, he turned to Jay. “What about you? What’s your excuse?”

“I think you should respect your elders.”

“Shit, man.” Grumbled Vera, his knuckles losing their color.

Dion looked down, then picked his head up. “I’m sorry, I should’ve helped out more, too. I moved a few more bags to the portal, though…”

“NO.” Vera eyed Dion angrily, as if he was his boss. “Do NOT do ANYTHING. STAY STILL. SIT DOWN.”

From twelve feet away, QD and Rhine admired the display of unnecessary Vera stupidity no one needed more of while also poking the nauseous guard.

“He’s funny.” QD cocked her head to the side.

Rhine raised an eyebrow. “This guy, or Vera?”

QD smiled.

Off to the other other side, Hira and Ammi looked out of the window, down at the decorated edge of the Academy. It seemed much like a town square with its size.

“Y’know…” Ammi concluded after a brief silence. “We’ve had enough running around being sad! Let’s go to the Beach Episode!”

Hira raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Yeah! How every show has a filler episode where the characters go to the beach and have fun!”

“I know what it is. You saying that…”

Ammi shrugged. “Oh, well. We’re doing it anyway. Let’s go to the beach!” She snatched Hira’s hand, then tried to speed off.

Hira stood completely still. Disappointed in Ammi’s terrible snatching ability, he slowly turned to her and asked the big question. “Where’s the beach?”

“Oh.” Ammi stopped, eyes blinking wide with realization. “I don’t know. Aeronia has no beaches, does it…?”

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve never seen any. I’ve also been outside once in my life, and that was today.” He paused. Then he checked his band. “Yesterday.”

Ammi groaned, tossing off her grip on Hira’s hand. “Man, I wish we could just… make beaches.”

The silence lasted for a while.

“We can make beaches!” Ammi clapped her hand together, practically vibrating with excitement. “Thanks, Hira!”

Hira turned back to look out the window. “Yup.”

Ammi burst her way back to the others, then proudly proclaimed. “We’re going to the beach! C’mon, pack up and get your swimsuits!!”

She was met with silence.

“Great idea!!! I’m going NOW!!!” Kindle scramble off to collect her items.

However, this attempt was futile. Vera caught her by the back of her collar, holding her up like a mother cat holding her kitten by the scruff. “There’s no way we have any beaches here. Plus, we can’t just go outside.”

“True… but it would be a great way to take a break…” Rhine’s mind flew off to the wonders of a beautiful beach day. Clear, turquoise waters, pearly white and fine sand, a delicate umbrella and equally elegant tent providing exquisite shade, a warm breeze to cool off, an ice box full of Coke and $300 dollar wine, golden rays of sunshine perfect to get a tan, ice cold refreshing waters, a snug swimsuit and a sturdily soft, thin collared shirt to toss over after facing the rushing waves that brushed against her skin and exfoliated them quite nicely, a large-brimmed hat with a lace bow—-

“—-we can make a beach.” Ammi grinned.

Of course, Dion was the only one qualified to be in this conversation to have no knowledge of a beach. He had to ask. “What’s a beach?”

“You’ll see, you’ll see! Guys, go get ready!!! I got this!!!” Ammi flailed around. “I’m gonna make the perfect beach!”

Vera seemed totally lost until his face lit up. “Ohhh! That’s right, you can make a beach! Yeah! Let’s do it!”

“What?” QD was still lost, then looked around as everyone else got the memo while nodding to themselves or growing smiles. “Hey, what!?”

***

Ammi had focused all of her energy onto creating the perfect beach world. It was a small one, and the tropical island background behind them was an animated wall, but it worked. If there was time later on, the world would be furnished quite beautifully and to the others’ every beachy need. This was a habit of the Sea’s… ‘greatest’ architect.

For now, this great architect fell straight back to sleep on QD’s chest as she lounged on a beach chair with Vera beside her.

“QD! Let’s hop into the water, c’mon!”

“No. Ammi’s asleep, and I’d never go in it anyway. I like making sandcastles.”

“Okay.” Vera seemed quite entranced by the decision and decided to sit next to QD. He was enjoying his time.

Kindle popped right over to the two, soaked in water and kicking up sand from all around her. “Hey! Are we making a sandcastle?!”

Jay, right beside her, spat out the incoming sand. “Please, Kindle, don’t spread sand everywhere! I’m getting glass in my mouth…”

“And on the COOKIES.” Rhine snarled, hangrily chomping on more 80% M&Ms and 20% cookie dough cookies.

“YAY!!! Sandcastle!!!” Enthusiastically reaching into her large beach bag and bringing out an infinite number of castle-shaped pails and shovels, Kindle already had generated thousands of castle ideas. She also took some from her previous castle brainstorm session, where she made the perfect design for the plastic box castle. “Vera, Vera! Let’s go! We’re making a castle for the QUEEN!!!”

“The— Queen…?”

“Yeah, QD!”

“Oh. Yeah, for her!” Vera turned to QD, giving her a really cool thumbs up.

Kindle buzzed with excitement. “Lemme get dried first!! QD!!!!! Our Queen!!!! Dry me off!!!”

QD’s eyes widened, startled by the noise making machine. “Uh, yeah. Just stand off to the side so I don’t cover the mean old people with sand. Y’know, just the way they like to stay.”

Kindle giggled, turning back to Jay and Rhine (who heard the comment perfectly clear) and rushed over to the other side.

QD pointed a jet of wind at Kindle, watching as she spun around and patted herself off from sand and water.

“Got it!!! Thanks!” She beamed, going right back over to her bag to throw on lengthy black shorts and a rainbow decal t-shirt.

“Uh-huh,” QD sleepily returned, already nodding off.

“Vera! Go fill up this bucket with water!” Kindle tossed him her biggest bucket.

Vera groaned. “What? Why me? I wanted to be the sand guy.”

“I just dried myself off.”

“Wh—-“ Vera blushed with anger, realizing why she was so eager to do that now. “—-Gods, I hate you.”

Kindle giggled again, filling up a few buckets as she watched the Water Guy go get Water.

Halfway across the world (under an umbrella), Hira angrily sat with his dad (Dion).

“A bit of actual sun would do you good. You look like a sheet of paper.”

Hira buried himself deeper in the shade. “No. I found out I got a sunburn from just going outside for the first time. And I was in a carriage!”

Dion sighed. “That’s sad. Do you need some protection? What’s it called again?”

“Sunscreen. I’m already wearing some… it’s SPF 600.” Hira thought back to what the bottle had said. “Ooh, can I have some?” Asked Dion, genuinely curious. “I’d like to try.”

Hira handed him the bottle, right next to him like it would be from now on.

Dion opened it, then tested some on the back of his hand. His skin turned a shade lighter. A whole shade. “Oh, wow!” He admired this. “This makes me fearful.”

“How unfortunate.”

The tone of Hira’s voice made Dion’s face scrunch up like a lemon. “Well, I’ll go out in the sun. I won’t get burnt.” He proceeded to step out of the shade, basking in his light tan glory.

Wow… this is so fun. Hira wondered what English people did on beaches. Sunny beaches. If he knew, he’d do that right about now.

“HIRAAA!!” Kindle, the savior of fun for all, called to him. “Come on!! Help us make a sandcastle for the glorious queen!!!”

Hira looked over suspiciously. “What?”

“Yeah! Our queen! It’s supposed to be QD!!”

“Shh, our queen is sleeping.”

Rolling her eyes at Vera’s comment, Kindle continued to beckon Hira over with flailing hands. “C’mon! It’s not gonna kill you! Beaches tend to be nicer when Ammi makes ‘em!”

Hira thought for a minute, then stood up to walk over while contemplating the response. “Ammi’s made beaches before?”

“Yup!” Kindle patted down a spot in the shade of an umbrella, right next to the pile of sand (sandcastle). “She likes the idea of the beach. She’d never go into the water, or touch sand with little bits of seaweed in it… thus, Ammi Beaches were born! And then Ammi Beaches later got sued for terrible working conditions and practices.”

Examining the spot before sitting down, Hira was very concerned as to what the hell happened and why legal action was taken against Ammi Beaches. He was actually rather curious. In spite of his true feelings towards the malpractice of this business, Hira decided how he’d react to this as who he wanted to be. “Pppfttt, what?” His laughter broke his speech.

Kindle beamed as if he’s given her the award for ‘Greatest Joke’ simply by laughing. “Oh, yeah! It’s true! Ammi decided that her workers didn’t really need any more than the minimum wage, for starters.”

“Are we talking about Ammi Beaches again?” From under the large beach tent, Rhine leaned over to the three sandcastle crusaders from her seat at a small table with Jay. “I even hired the best lawyer for her, but Ammi still managed to fuck that up…”

“HEHEHEHEEEEE~~” Kindle giggled her head off, creeping out everyone around her casually. She then suggested the brightest idea she’d ever had, and presented it quite suddenly. “Let’s bury Vera!!!”

“WHAT? I thought we were making a castle for QD!”

“Reeelaaaxxx, we can use the sand we dug to bury you for making an even cooler castle! Because ours SUCKS.” Pointing accusingly to the pile of sand that Vera and her had built, Kindle reasoned. “Plus—- I think Hira would have fun. Wouldn’t you?”

Hira nodded enthusiastically with a quaint smile.

Vera rolled his eyes, turning to Rhine as if she would defend him.

She would not. She also nodded enthusiastically.

“Fine, but not too deep, okay?”

After thirty minutes (the dedication, people!), Vera was chin-deep in sand.

High fives were tossed all around the crew that buried him, consisting of Rhine, Hira and Kindle.

“Yayyy! We did it!!!” Kindle celebrated, high-fiving and snapping pictures of the concerned and buried Vera.

Hira grinned wide, returning high fives. “This was actually really fun, you guys!”

“Yeah, now let’s go in the water!” Rhine’s childish side had returned from the bottom of the deepest pits of her trauma. She tossed off her collared shirt, standing proud in her bathing suit. “Let’s see who can go the furthest in the waves~!”

“AWWWW YEAAAAHHH!!!!” Kindle spun around, racing to the ocean on the scalding sand. “C’MON!!! HIRA, WE’LL TEACH YOU HOW TO HAVE FUN!!!!!”

Laughter bubbled inside of Hira for the first time in a while. “O—okay! Just— be gentle?” He suggested.

Rhine snatched his hand. “Ppfffft, you’ll be fine!”

“YAAAYYY!” Kindle sped off into the waves.

Rhine and Hira laughed their way toward the horizon.

“Guys.” Vera croaked as they ran off. “Help? It’s— getting hard to breathe—- J—Jay?! Help?!”

Jay leaned over to Vera. “Hello. Do you want a cookie…?”

“No! I wanna—get out! I thought they’d unbury me right after they finished! Can you— do that?”

“Uhm… I’m sorry. The sand is just… a little too…”

“What? Sandy?!”

“Yes. Also, this atmosphere is really hot… I think I’m melting this chair…” Jay stood up with some difficulty. “Oh, I was nearly stuck to this chair.” He walked away from it, forgetting he didn’t have any sandals on, and melting the sand below him into glass.

“JAY!!!” Vera squirmed, trying to get out of the pit.

“Oh…” Jay frowned. “Sorry! I tend to get quite hot…” He tried to move his legs, but they were stuck to the base of glass, making him look like a plastic army man. “Well… now we both can’t move.”

“I’M GONNA DIE HERE!!!!” Exasperated, Vera squeezed the air out of him in his disparaging shout.

***

“Ouch—!!” Hira swatted away Kindle’s poking hand like it was a fly.

Kindle, in response, giggled. “Maybe you should get a stronger sunscreen.”

“I put on SPF 600!”

“Yeah, do you think that’d be enough for someone who’s never seen the sun before…?” Rhine handed him his sunscreen bottle, then sat back down in her chair.

Hira frowned.

“Well, at least you look like you got a good tan! Under all that irritated skin…” Muttered Kindle.

Dion took the sunscreen bottle from Hira’s hands, then opened it for him. “Yes, you look a lot less pale. How about me?”

Hira shrugged, extending his palm to squirt out some sunscreen onto it. “A little.”

“Yeah! A little.” Kindle hummed in agreement, nodding as she examined Dion. “Still, you can’t expect to get super tan in just eight hours.”

Rhine raised an eyebrow. “No, I think you can get tan enough…” She suspiciously commented.

“Shoot, how much time is that?” Hira began to look worried.

“A lot.” Rhine answered.

“What—?! We spent so much time in the water!!” Hira freaked out, forgetting all about applying more sunscreen.

Kindle giggled again, but this time smugly— like this was an inside joke. “Yeah, and I nearly threw up.”

“As long as you had the fun.” Dion grinned, a new thing he was learning, as he took some sunscreen from Hira and rubbed it onto his cheek.

Hira gently pushed away Dion’s hand and applied sunscreen by himself, taking off his glasses to cover his face. “Yeah. It’s ‘had fun’.”

“Had fun. Well, that’s quite pleasant, isn’t it?”

“I think you use words in funny ways…” Kindle admired Dion like he was an exotic animal.

Dion didn’t know what to do under the gaze, so he smiled more. “As long as you’re happy, then yes. I do use words in funny ways.”

“Uhhh… I think the sunscreen is broken.” Hira rubbed it over himself thousands of times. “Shouldn’t it also help with relief from sunburns…?”

Rhine shook her head. “It doesn’t cure it, but a few people have said it helps with the pain. Usually, aloe vera tends to help out more. It varies from person to person.”

“Hehe, vera. Vera.” Kindle smiled to herself like a laid back surfer dude. Then, she looked like she experienced man made horrors beyond her comprehension. “VERA!!!” Her head snapped over to the tent.

Jay was no longer there, and Kindle couldn’t spot Vera’s head among the sand…

QD, asleep the entire time, woke up to Kindle’s shrilly scream. “SHUT UP!” She turned to Kindle, full of Sleep Rage.

“QD!!!! WHERE’S VERA?!?”

“Right here!” She pointed to the ground. “PLEASE, be QUIET.” QD promptly turned away and went back to sleep.

Rhine, Hira and Kindle all shared the same look. ‘We fucked up’.

“What about Vera…?” Dion innocently asked.

Hira scratched the back of his head uncomfortably as Rhine and Kindle bolted over to the Vera Burial Site. “We buried him chin-deep into the sand before we went in the water. We forgot about him.”

“Oh, no! How terrible! Is he alright? Does the sand hurt?”

“Maybe it makes it harder to breathe…?”

Sounds of Kindle grunting while trying to pull Vera’s head out of the sand infiltrated the quiet air. “GET OUT!!!!”

“KINDLE!!!” QD screamed as if she was having a tantrum.

Vera groaned. “I’m alive, don’t worry.”

“PH——phew.”

Giggling to herself, Rhine watched, amused.

“Sorry we forgot you…” Kindle started to move the sand around Vera out. “Hey, ‘we’ is the right word to use, yeah?”

“As long as it doesn’t involve me.” Jay, appearing from nowhere and holding an ice cream cone, turned back to sitting back at the table as he eyed Rhine’s sweets.

Hira began lifting Vera from his sandy prison as Kindle dug. “Yeah… are you alright, Vera?”

Vera nodded humbly. “Yup. I can’t get mad at you guys…”

“Why not?” Kindle sounded like she wanted to be yelled at.

“Sand prison has humbled me for the rest of my life. I’m finally a changed man.”

Ammi stirred, sleepily making sly remarks and muttering. “It doesn’t seem li—-“

“—-WHAT THE HELL!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE SLEEPING!!!!” Vera’s embarrassed freak out led to another angry episode, and also his total escape from the pit.

Collective laughter rang out. Everyone was having a good time.

“Hey, let’s crack open a watermelon!” Rhine suggested. “We can also have a volleyball match, then set off fireworks.”

Kindle’s eyes lit up. “Ooooh! Good idea!! Let’s get some rubber bands for that watermelon!”

I’ve never done any of those before… Hira thought with a smile as he waltzed over to Dion, away from the others for a bit and back into the shade.

Dion had gone to sit under the beach tent. “Hello, Hira. Do you still feel like you’re burning? I can help.”

“No, I’m alright.” Hira lied as sat down with Dion, his head already slipping from Dion’s shoulder to his lap. He hummed to himself and began to relax. “I haven’t slept in a really long time…”

“Rested?”

“Oh. Yeah. Di, where will you stay after we… y’know, fix things?”

Dion ran his hand through Hira’s hair, pondering the question. “I don’t know. I have nowhere to go. If anything, I would like to stay wherever you stay.”

Right. Probably because he wants to fix me. Ugh… and I actually just forgot about that… if I can… “Why? I’m old enough to be left alone.”

“Is that so?”

Hira started to glow immensely. “Didi.”

“Apologies. Having you back makes me quite eager to say such things.” He patted Hira’s forehead. “Yes, I’m starting to think that we’re both still alive.”

“Uh—?” Hira sat up, nearly hitting his head on Dion’s chin.

“Did I say something confusing?”

“Yeah. Explain?”

Dion gently nudged Hira back into his lap. “Of course. Unfortunately, when I saw you, I’d been convinced I’d died. This is because everything has been very new to me, and I’ve had to learn a great deal of things. None of it seemed real.”

Hira, concerned, frowned with a disheartened expression.

“Even you had changed. You had many new friends, freely expressed emotion, spoke often, and had changed in many ways. I thought you were very different. Then, you revealed to me that you were much, much more different. And you look so old and tired, don’t you think?” Dion put a hand to Hira’s cheek.

Hira stacked his own hand on Dion’s, closing his eyes to embrace his touch. “Yes, I look much worse than before… but to the others, it seems barely noticeable.” His mind began racing with thoughts. He felt terrible for making his mistakes and bringing Dion down with him. If he would, he’d go back and never make them— even if it meant never seeing Dion again. “Wait, what did you say?”

“I haven’t said anything.”

“No… you said ‘freely expressed emotion’.”

Dion’s hand flew to his mouth. “When?”

“After ‘you made many new friends’ and before ‘spoke often’.” Hira pulled Dion’s hand away, giving him a suspecting face of scrunched up confusion.

Dion shook his head. “I’m sorry. I never said that.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Hira sat up once again, then pulled himself away from Dion. “I know what you said.”

“Why would you ask me what I said if you say you know?”

Hira had a hard time piecing together that sentence. “Can’t you just tell me? What’s so bad?”

“I can’t tell you because I have nothing to hide.” Dion declared with the perfect poker face.

“Have you forgotten about my memory?” Angrily, Hira brought up the fact.

Dion looked unfazed. He shook his head. “I haven’t…”

“Then you know I remember exactly what you said. Tell me what you’re hiding.”

“HIRRRRAAA!!!!!!! WATERMELON-VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!!!!!” Kindle screamed to him. “C’MON!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Hira stood up, waving over to Kindle with a smile. “Coming!” Finally, he turned back to Dion. His expression clearly said their conversation had only just begun.

***

“WAKANDA FOREVER!!!!!!!” Kindle screeched as she snapped the left over watermelon shell, clean of the crimson fresh fruit. She then took the cleanly split half of the third watermelons burst open that night and wore it as a helmet.

QD watched her with content. “Why ‘Wakanda Forever?’”

“It was the only thing I could think of saying. Hey, why aren’t you at the grill?!”

“Jay said he could take over. I’ll vomit all over the crap if I smell it, too… either way, he says using his own fire would add more ‘love’ to it. Hey, what about Vera’s fire? Do you think the meat would taste more passionate…?”

Kindle was more caught up with the vomiting part. “Uh. Sorry? Vomit?”

“I’m not vegetarian because I’m a sucker for life or whatever. I can’t have meat, I’m allergic.” Shrugging like it was normal to puke your guts out over a chicken thrown into a fire, QD grinned.

Kindle slowly nodded. “Uh-huh. Anyways, I think Vera’s fire would purposefully have poison in it.”

“Ya’ think…? I’d actually love to try a bit of his cooking, actually… he’s got good survival recipes, but last time I checked, none of them were any good.”

“Hehe, try a bit of his mea—-“

“Ugh! Don’t even finish that sentence!”

At the grill a few paces away, Jay was having fun with temperatures. “Rhine, can you do the math for something…?”

“Uh, sure. Math for what?” Carelessly ruining her appetite with more 80% M&Ms 20% cookie cookies, Rhine piped up to answer.

“If I wanted to cook a steak with a single flame, how hot would that flame have to be? And how should I control the flame?” Jay turned a few pieces of meat on the grill with a knife, examining them for the perfect ratio of cooked to uncooked.

Rhine turned a few M&Ms around in her mouth, crunching and swallowing once she had her questions. “Okay, wait. First, what prompted this? Second, you’ll have to tell me to what degree you’d like the steak to be cooked. And third, I had a friend who studied thermodynamics in college and he killed himself. That last one is just a funny thing I thought I’d share.”

“Oh, no…” Jay frowned, putting a hand over his mouth in disbelief. “How terrible… my condolences.” He spoke as if he wasn’t on the verge of killing himself two months ago.

“What about the questions I asked you?!”

Waiting for food because he was extremely hungry, Vera bounced his legs in a beach chair that began to fold in on itself. “Uuuuuuuuaaaaagghhhh, when are they gonna be done?! I’m so so so so so hungry!!”

“If you want some so bad, why don’t you help cook the meat…?” Ammi leaned against his shoulder in her own seat. It wasn’t folding, but it was sagging.

“What’d you think they’d say if I offered to help, man?”

Ammi looked to the side, then churned out her scenarios. “They’d say no, obviously, and for a lotta reasons. Like— we can’t trust you with anything, you’re probably a bad cook, you’re also kinda really super st—-“

“—-wow, you really hate me, don’t you?” Vera asked monotonously.

“Nope. I’m just thinking how everyone else thinks.”

Vera sighed.

Hira appeared behind the two with a very polite “Boo!”

“Hey, Hira.” Ammi turned to him with a grin.

“Hira!” Vera beamed as he turned to his bestie best best friend in third place.

Hira narrowed his eyes in playful maliciousness. “Hello. I didn’t scare you, did I?” He asked in more of a doubting himself way rather than anything else.”

Vera shrugged. “Not very scary, but there’s room for improvement.”

“Thank you, Vera.” Hira blushed, already much more apparent as the sun began to reside. “I’d let you make a meal. I’m curious as to what flavors you would bring out.”

“Heyyy! Take that into account, Ammi.”

“Sure… maybe a few people would be interested in what you’d have to offer.”

“See! Y’know, once— I made one of QD’s favorite snacks! That was recently… since I was kinda bad at cooking before… anyways, not the point. She loved it.” Vera wore the experience like a badge of honor. It was, in a way, to him.

Hira raised an eyebrow. “What was the snack?”

“Uh.”

“Yeah, what’s the snack?”

“It was super special!”

“Vera, that’s not an valid description of food. Either that, or I’ve never heard of a dish or snack named ‘super special’ before.” Hira giggled.

“It— it is that name.” Nodding with certainty, Vera played with locks of his hair.

Ammi counted on her fingers. “Was it something with garlic or salt? Was it a drink combination? Oh, how about noodles? Stir fry? Ahh, potatoes, weren’t they? Thin, circular slices, baked in a tin-foil wrapped tray, and they were drenched in oil, weren’t they? And probably very crunchy, too.”

Vera shook his head and hid his shock. “No, it was super special.”

“That’s her special dish, though. It was her first attempt at making fries at home… not really the way to go about it, especially with the circles and all…”

“It’s amazing, okay?!?!!”

Hira watched the two bicker and became very, very hungry himself. It occurred to him that he probably hadn’t eaten in ages. His closest guess was around 90 moments. That was quite the long time… hunger, however, wasn’t his only concern as his anxiety peaked and spiked. He groaned, then patted himself down and rubbed his wrists.

Vera turned to him, cutting off his conversation with Ammi the moment he heard Hira. “You okay?”

Hira stared at him with his unforced expression. “What?”

Seeing this, Ammi began to sweat.

“Yeah!” Hira grinned. “I’m just hungry… I haven’t had anything for a while…”

Vera slowly nodded. “Mhm. I forgot to bring my usual snacks.” Instead of sounding lighthearted, he sounded more concerned, as if the mood had been shut down.

Finding Ammi staring, Hira turned to her with a shrug and a grin. ‘No big deal, huh?’ and ‘Keep your mouth shut.’

Ammi nodded with a returned smile. She suggested to Vera. “We could go pack some, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, but QD keeping that tiny portal open really drained her. She slept like a baby, did y’see? I don’t want to see her all tired again… or grouchy, hehe. So— uh— let’s not go get them.” Vera finally joined the smiling group.

Hira hummed. “Whatever you say~! Oh, don’t you and QD have a thing together?”

“No.”

“Hehee.” Hira chuckled with Ammi. They were all thinking it— just no one thought it was an actual relationship dynamic possible between the two. Vera’s sudden defensiveness arose suspicions, though…

“I mean, she’s my friend, but she’s not even that pretty. And she’s annoying as hell. And really touchy. I just want my personal space, y’know? But she’s super clingy and she thinks that every argument ends with a smile or a pat on the head while you’re not looking, then gives you a stupid shit-eating grin.”

At the mention of a shit-eating grin, Ammi made her own as she figured Vera’s sudden increase in defense was quite unexpected and yet expected. “Oh, you think so? QD, what do you think?”

“I thought my grin was cute.” QD spoke from behind Vera. “You said so!”

“QD—!”

QD took her seat on the sand next to Vera’s chair, counting herself as part of the conversation now. “The only thing I agree with is that ‘just friends’ part. If anything, you’re the one who always asks me to h—-“

“—-hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhelp you with the. Groceries?”

Hira looked at the others with a blank stare. “This got very weird.”

“I think it’s interesting.” Ammi rested her head on her hands and her elbows in her lap. “Let’s get on this topic, shouldn’t we?”

“Wwwhy.” Vera straightforwardly mumbled his question.

Ammi shrugged. “‘Fun. Anyways… Hira!”

“Me? What are we gonna talk about? Why am I being put on the spot?”

“Have you ever kissed anyone? Or did you ever have a crush on someone?” She got wayyy too close for comfort.

“Uhm.”

“Go on! Tell us!” Ammi twirled a clump of hair in between her fingers.

QD rolled her eyes. “You can’t just ask. You need to play a game!”

“Got any?” Ammi responded with disappointment.

“N-no.”

“See? Hira, speak! You don’t have to use names, just… be as lowkey as you want.”

Hira scratched the back of his head. “Uh… I guess it wouldn’t hurt… maybe getting a few things off my chest would be nice. Okay…”

Vera leaned in, which was a little out of character.

Whuh? What do you mean?! I’m kinda interested in this stuff…

“…uhm… yeah, I have.” Hira lit up the recently approached night. “B-but. That was only once.” He began to glow even brighter. “Well. Twice.” He became a flood light. “I’ve kissed a lot.”

“WOAAAHH!!!” QD pointed wildly. “YOU’VE— kissed BEFORE!!!”

“Shut UP!!” Hira cringed.

Ammi nodded, as if everything had gone to a plan, or as if she expected this. “Boy or girl or other?”

“Uh, it was a girl…”

“Lame.” Vera rolled his eyes.

“But… I… uh… since I think I can say this…”

Vera leaned in even closer.

Hira, who was about to speak, leaned back and blushed an unbelievable amount. “Well—? Uh.”

“SAY IT!!! SPILLLLL!!!!” QD bounced around insanely. “I wanna know.”

“Now I don’t want to say it!”

“QD! You bitch! You ruined it!” Vera turned to her accusingly.

“Hey! You were the one who leaned in!”

“Half of the time, that’s subconscious!”

“Sub!”

“Hira, just whisper to me!” Ammi suggested.

“O—okay.”

“WHAT?!?” Vera and QD screamed as they held onto each other like spooked cartoon characters.

Hira whispered the juiciest secret of his life to Ammi, who shifted and blushed and squinted her eyes with delightful pleasure of knowing the truth.

“OH MY GODS OH MY GODS DOWN BELOW UNDER THE SEA YUN’SHUL’S WISHES MIDWINTER WHAT IS IT?!”

Ammi have Hira a smug look.

“Don’t say it. Don’t. I’ll murder you.”

Vera suddenly pulled Ammi off of her chair and into his lap, protectively holding onto the bearer of sacred knowledge. “Say it.”

“Hira, what’ll you give me if I don’t say it?”

Hira was at a loss. Maybe grant her immunity if she said any other of his secrets…? Saying that out loud wasn’t the best idea. “I’ll let you frolic around on my fluffy blankets.”

“Hmm, I could do that myself. Though, it wouldn’t smell like you…”

“Ammi?!”

“Relax, dude! All I’m saying is that you actually smell quite nice. I like your cologne.”

Vera nearly spit out his nonexistent drink. “PFFT, COLOGNE?”

“You wear some, too.” Ammi grinned with satisfaction, barely turning her head to do the damage.

“Urk,” Vera made a very disgruntled, frustrated and embarrassed noise.

“So… anything else you wanna offer?”

“UUUUGGHHH TELL US ALREADY!!!!”

“M-m…” Hira had nothing special to him. Nothing special he was interested in, either… it was just a few video games with Ammi, but… “I’ll help… you with your farm funds?”

Ammi shook her head, even though she knew exactly what Hira was talking about. “I play at my own pace. I’m decorating right now, so I’m not interested in money.”

“Damn it.”

“Nothing else to give?”

“My wholehearted attention, affection and I’ll also be your servant for three years.”

“You’ll never commit. Also, I’m sure I’ll get a much more expansive offer from QD to simply go against your own.”

“Uh— as much as I’d like to hear the secret, I’m not doing anything for you. I think the pleasure of letting a secret out is enough for you…”

Ammi giggled and made her weird face again, where she blushed hard and narrowed her eyes in some sort of delight. “Yes, it is…”

“Ammi…!” Hira began to run the back of his neck, desperately looking for something she’d want to not let the secret out.

“What? You wanted to tell everyone in the first place, so what’s the matter?”

“It’s become much, much bigger now. And it’s so risky, because he’s…”

“Hira’s got a MASSIVE crush on this guy he knows really well.”

“WOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! HIRA!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Vera grinned. “I knew it, you’re gay.”

“WHAT?! NO!” Hira promptly blinded literally everyone within a thirteen mile radius.

“Is ‘guy’ used as a blanket term here?” Kindle appeared, wearing Rhine’s glasses and her collared shirt in a classy business style. “Or are you gay?”

“Guys.” Hira pleaded.

“With only one other… man,” Kindle nodded to Vera, eyeing his figure with her suspicions. “I suppose ‘guys’ here is used as a gender-neutral blanket term to refer to several or more people.”

Hira groaned.

QD swooned with excitement. “Oooh, but only one person can confirm.” She teased Hira.

Hira held his burning face. “And…?”

“I’d give him something he really wants to tell.”

“Wh—ich is…?”

“Something he’ll find out about once he talks.”

“You can’t do that!!”

“Unlike you, I’m being smart about this offer. The added bonus is that you get to know just exactly what you’re being given, rather than needing to endlessly guess within your silence.”

Ammi shrugged. “It’s a boy. You guys could’ve asked me.”

“AMMI!!!”

“AAAAAAAAHH!!! REALLY?!”

“Yup! I think…”

Hira fidgeted around, diving his head into the protection of the inside of his shirt as he screamed with embarrassment. All the others could even attempt to make out was ‘why did I ever trust any of you to begin with’.

“What is a crush on someone?” Dion turned to the others, hands on Hira’s shoulders as he stood behind him. “It must be quite important.”

“It’s when… huh, how do you explain love…?” Vera turned to Kindle, their expert.

“Love is…”

Ammi began, as if she knew what love was. “The willingness to do anything for a person, to the point where even the slightest of their flaws are blinded by their physical attractiveness or other factors. There’s different kinds of love, like sexual att—-“

“YIKES! STOP IT!!”

“Pfft, she can cuddle and run her hands through your hair, then practically explode at the word ‘sex’.” Vera rolled his eyes, teasing QD.

Kindle, who suddenly became quiet, wondered if Vera had experience.

“Ah… physical attraction?” Dion cocked his head to the side. “To imagine someone as beautiful, or to imagine them on you…?”

“WOAH.” QD turned away, sincerely wondering how Dion already knew that.

Hira, concerned in the way a therapist looks at someone who needs better help than they could ever provide, turned to Dion. “Di, what do you mean by that.”

“I’ve felt love before. Once, I had a friend from the guard, and every time I looked at him, I couldn’t help but want him to grab me and—-“

“—-STOOOOPPPP.” QD shrieked, but with more ‘no, omg, really?!’ than ‘please stop I’m too asexual for this’.”

“Is it not normal?”

Vera scoffed. “Like father, like son.”

Ammi found this comment very funny, bursting out into laughter as she repeated it to herself over and over again, though not quite in the exact comedic tone Vera had given. “Ppppffft—— father—son—-gay as hell—-“

“It’s normal.” Kindle nodded as she analyzed the situation. “Just a question, did you two ever get together?”

Hira stood up, then took QD’s hand as he lifted her from her seat. “Let’s go.”

“Wait I kinda wanted to hear”

Hira and QD were gone, walking over to Jay and Rhine, who were still cooking for some damn reason.

Dion giggled as he watched the two drag themselves away from the conversation. “Yes, if I’m interpreting ‘getting together’ correctly.”

“Hey… what do you interpret ‘getting together’ as…?”

“In Aeronia, it’s a bit unwholesome to say. I’ll find myself too flustered before I can even start explaining!” Dion grinned, then his smile twitched and nearly faded into a frown. He caught himself, and began to speak to cover up the sudden change. “He was very nice. Though… he’s dead now…” The frown returned. “Hey, would you children be interested in a story?”

Vera blinked. “Sorry for your loss, but I wouldn’t classify myself as a kid…”

“STORY TIME?!” Kindle took Hira’s empty seat, right under the storyteller. “YAY!”

“Hmm, I wonder what the story is about…” Ammi said out loud, obviously hinting at a very intimate implication. “Do you think Hira and QD would join?”

“Maybe, but Hira’s heard this story before. I’m sure he’d pass, no matter how much he likes it… though, if he still considers it a favorite, I think he’d enjoy telling it with me.”

“Aw, so with that… I’m guessing it’s not a story about how you got whisked away into a passionate love scene with your little guard dude…?” Vera frowned. “I might go join the others…”

Dion shook his head. “Don’t be sad, I promise it’s interesting. I recite it when I’d like to have peace of mind or calm myself.”

“Huh, two emotions in one sentence.” Ammi grinned. “You’re catching on really quick, Didi!”

At the mention of his nickname, Dion blushed as he realized it didn’t come from Hira. “O-oh…?”

“TELL THE STORY!!!”

“Oh, yes— apologies. “Allow me to not delay this request any further.”

“YESSS.”

Dion cleared his throat, sitting in Hira’s chair and folding his hands in his lap neatly. He leaned forward, as if he was about to reveal an old fairy tale, or a story heard out on the sea. “Once, there was an ambitious scholar. He was considered the best— and not only of his time. This scholar was highly revered for his excellence and expansive knowledge… However, it was rumored that he was to die soon, simply because he was in search of the elusive third life. This worried many people. Some said that even the beginning of his knowledge was far too complex to understand— and they wanted answers.

To share his knowledge, his prized possession, the scholar began to write a scroll on thin sheets of gold. He worked on the scrolls for many, many years. Finally, when he was done, he carefully placed his three scrolls on the empty shelf above his desk.

The people wanted to read these golden scrolls, of course. Some began to plot how to steal them. Top scholars of the time started to fight over them, claiming it was tiresome to do so all the while. They figured they deserved the scrolls, being the recently passed scholar’s closest friends and colleagues. However, they didn’t want to work for them. Sometimes, spars would break out in the halls. None of them ceased, however— the Elders wanted the scrolls, too. Thus began a series of attacks and raids against the top minds of Aeronia. Anyway to make another work for the other, bringing a win on a silver platter, was the ultimate goal. These people waited and fought.

Eventually, the scrolls started to come in the possessions of three scholars. They all died shortly after, in retaliation.

Scholars began to team up, skillfully tricking each other in various ways. Their relentless fighting and eventual murders awakened the ‘spirit’ of the owner of the golden scrolls. “If you want my scrolls so badly, then you must work for them. Only then will you see their truth,” He declared, echoing through the halls.

If the master of the scrolls said so, then it surely was to be done. He knew best, of anyone.

They began to relentlessly work— all of them. Instead of taking the hard work of another, they all began to focus on their own ways to get the scrolls. Either devise a strategy to keep it in their arms, skim through every single letter and detail in the scrolls when they had them, or gain the approval of the scholar so that they would be the true owner of the scrolls. The fuss and mess over such scrolls— one must wonder, are they really worth it? To squander every last bit of hope for the small chance the circumstances will go as intended, landing the treasures one desires in their hands?

Eventually, the competition for the scrolls died out, much to the anger of their writer, and the final scholar obtained all three scrolls.

“Finally, I have them!” He proclaimed, gently gripping onto each precious roll with a glint in his eyes. “I can have the answers to everything! I’ll be the most knowledgeable! I’ll be the best!”

Day after day, he scoured each scroll for every drop of wisdom without break.

Then, one day, the vengeful spirit of the master scholar came to the scholar, nodding off into mania. The spirit promptly appeared as all of his writings were understood.

“Do you understand it all now?”

The scholar grinned, basking in the image of the spirit. “Yes,” He proclaimed. “are you here to grant me your final teaching?”

The spirit said nothing, turning his head up to eye the scholar pitifully. He lent his hand out.

Holding onto it with a twisted type of pride, the scholar shivered with joy before he dropped dead.

The spirit of the master scholar had decided to kill the remaining scholar.

“After all you’ve done, you should be content with never knowing.” He spoke to the silence, drifting into the air.

Afterwards, it’s been said that every Aeronian is born with the remnants of the fight for the Golden Scrolls, making them all guilty of the competitor’s wrongs and murder. This way, the master scholar, Exhaustion, can visit them to make sure they’re content with never knowing everything.”

Dion finished, leaning back and closing his eyes with a smile. “It’s not the kindest of stories,” He breathed out. “But… it… helps me relax. I read it to Hira once, and he began writing about it just because he was quite infatuated with the story.”

Kindle giggled. “Hira writes fanfic about history? That’s like personifying… like, the United States.”

“People do that.” Ammi shrugged.

“Great story,” Vera commented, putting his hand around Kindle— then quickly pulling it away in embarrassment when he realized he wasn’t sitting next to the person he thought he was. “Uh—uhm. Do you have his stories saved…?”

“Of course I do! I had to keep them a secret… you know, we’re not exactly allowed to write anything the government doesn’t see.”

Kindle groaned, putting a hand on Vera’s lap in some sort of stupid retaliation for his accident. “Boooring!”

Vera picked up Kindle’s hand and gave it back to her.

“Hey, are Rhine and Jay gonna be done anytime soon…?” Looking over at the two with Hira and QD, Ammi’s stomach grumbled. “I’m a growing girl… I need food…”

“Me too! I’m also a growing girl!” Vera grinned, tapping Ammi on the shoulder.

Kindle scoffed, tossing her hair onto Vera and rolling her eyes. She leaned onto his lap. “Okay, carnivores. Go eat dead things.”

Vera stiffened. “Lettuce-muncher,” He muttered in response.

Ammi giggled, teasingly eyeing Kindle, who frowned and sat up. She turned to Vera, standing up, and followed him like a good little enthusiastic sister. They’re not siblings, though. I just wanted to make it clear that that was an analogy. We good? Good. Let’s move on.

“Thanks for the story, Didi!” Kindle hopped up and burst after Vera and Ammi.

Dion waved decorously, realizing now he would be referred to as ‘Didi’ by the youngsters. He sighed, putting a hand over his beating heart and recited the story in his mind again and again.

“RHINE! Rhine! They’re HUNGRY!!!” Kindle pushed her friendly friends forward.

Rhine raised an eyebrow. “I was wondering why it was so peaceful… I see it now.”

“Hiya!!” Hira waved with a beaming smile. “We were calling you earlier, didn’t you hear?”

Vera frowned suddenly. “What.”

“Mhm~!” QD mused, teasing the others by eating from a bowl of salad she was holding. She swallowed before continuing. “We figured you guys weren’t hungry anymore.”

Groaning, Vera folded his arms.

“Don’t worry, everything’s still warm.” Jay smiled, hands properly behind his back. “We figured you all would be talking for a while.”

“Aw, you were supposed to keep up with the joke!” QD sulked, moodily chewing on leaves.

“YAY! THAT MEANS FOOOOD!!!” Ammi bounced around, going from 0 to 100 real quick.

Kindle made her way over to the salad. Salad.

Vera clapped with glee. “Ah, I knew it! I always get what I want!” He grinned at QD.

QD remained quiet, looking at Vera as if to ask ‘really?’.

Scoffing, Vera responded by whisking QD away to their own conversations with a cheeky smile.

Soon enough, Dion waltzed over and learnt how to eat. Fun, isn’t it?

The stars shone on the beach’s waves and reflected beautiful glistening colors like glowing shadows across the sand.

Vera, having his fifth helping, admired this and commented to Ammi. “You did a really good job with this…”

“Thanks! I needed a creative outlet. I’m thinking about developing this as a place of relaxation…”

“Ooh, are we about to light the fireworks soon?” Hira suddenly bounced up from his seat on the sand.

QD turned to Rhine, riding on the same question Hira asked. “Yeah, let’s go! Light ‘em up!!”

Putting down her plate, then covering her mouth to chew before she spoke, Rhine thought about the request. “…shure.” She muffled as she swallowed.

Some time passed, Rhine and Vera setting up the fireworks. Surely, to light fireworks, you’d need an explosive duo… Jay was probably a better fire-starter candidate, but he didn’t wave his hands around wildly in the air enough, and was therefore unqualified.

Meanwhile, Kindle buzzed around everyone and ran into the water and back several times because she had no purpose.

“Hira!!! Hira!!! Come in the water with us!!! You were so much fun last time!!!!”

“Uhm, us?” Hira teased Kindle, scraping his fork on his plate to make that terrible noise this action makes.

Kindle grabbed his fork, then threw it at QD. “Hey! Meanie. Just— c’mon!”

Hira shook his head with a smug little smile. “Nope. I’m dry now… I can’t get wet again.”

“THEN— I’LL MAKE YOU!!!!” Kindle attempted to drag Hira out to the water, but failed miserably. Her joints made popping noises before she full on whiplash-flip-flopped onto the sand. She groaned.

“Ha-ha.” QD grinned, rubbing her forehead, recently having experienced fork impact.

“LOOK!!!!!” Vera screamed from the fireworks as he lit one with his finger.

Dion covered his ears, leaning against Hira. “He screams quite loud… I thought for sure someone just had gotten themselves in a great deal of trouble, but it’s only Vera… screaming…” He jabbered on as the first firework popped into fiery colors.

“I think this is the only time Rhine would authorize fireworks, don’t you agree?” Hira turned to the Kindle, lying on the sand still.

Kindle scoffed and cackled. “Yeah! Hey, join me on the sand if you’re so afraid of water. The view is even better here!”

“I don’t want to get sandy.”

Dion jumped into action the moment he heard this, pulling a towel out of nowhere and placing it comfortably behind Hira.

“Thanks,” Hira laid back. “Okay…” He evaluated the credibility of Kindle’s statement. “This definitely hurts my neck less. I can’t stop thinking about the sparks falling onto us, though…”

“It looks like they’re over the ocean. We’re fine.”

Hira fluttered his wings to get more comfortable. “You think?”

“Yeah! Don’t worry!” Kindle beamed, eyes glinting with wonder as she turned to Hira. The dark shadows on her face illuminated suddenly by the popping of more fireworks, displaying colors and patterns that seemed to transport her to another dimension— and with this sight, it felt like Hira was following her into their own journey.

Definitely… She considered him a best friend.

Hira’s eyes widened, Kindle still smiling like the night had all the time in the world.

“Rhine’s made sure they’re safe, I bet!” She put a hand on Hira’s wing.

He wanted to cry.

“Hey! Ammi! How are the fireworks looking over there?” Kindle sat up and broke the mystifying breeze that swept over Hira.

Ammi turned to Kindle in the dark, her own mystified face giving more ‘unsettling” than “wondrous”.

Kindle laid back down again. “Okay.” She whispered, silently noting to not ask Ammi as many questions as she had been asking so far.

Hira began to laugh. “What? She give you the death stare?”

“Pfft, something of the sort.”

“Heheh.”

“By the way, this was a great idea! Relax-y time!” Kindle nudged Hira.

“Well, I only decided I wanted something like this when there was a period of time that we wouldn’t be able to do anything in. Then I thought about sharing it with everyone, since it was kinda all our mission… and you guys seemed to be working hard.”

“True, true! I can’t argue with you!” Kindle paused. “Honestly, can’t you tell this wasn’t as they planned?” She began to lower her voice.

Hira became alert. “Hm?”

“Yeah! If I hadn’t heard them discussing it, I wouldn’t be so suspicious right now!”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s clear, isn’t it? Rhine likes to deal with things in the sense that she gets to do every small detail the way she wants it, yeah?”

“Mhm.”

“She just said: ‘okay, I have an idea! Let’s kill everyone!’ And usually— she likes violence, yeah— but usually, she wants the info… or… like, test subjects. I didn’t think it’d be her idea to kill anyone. I thought Ammi would come up with it, since she usually predicts things… and she has no clue how to plan like Rhine or QD can.”

“Yup. They just go about it the way Rhine does. Sometimes.”

“It’s not well-thought out, the plan. It’s messy”

“I was getting that, too! Why’d they think I can fight? I really can’t! I’m only ‘third’ because everyone else can’t even lift a finger— it’s too heavy for you guys. No offense.”

“None taken.” Kindle put her hands behind her head and exhaled deeply. “But, you get it? It’s weird this time.”

“Mhm. You don’t think it’s because of me, do you?”

“Totally! No offense. Hehe, I said it this time.”

Hira shut down. “None taken.”

“Not in a bad way, though!” Kindle noticed his voice shift. “It’s more— like… they wanna protect you? That’s what I’m guessing, anyways. I would protect you, and I can’t even do that. It’s saying a lot. You’re very likable.”

Stomach sinking, Hira chuckled. “Thanks.”

“Of course!”

He wanted to cry.

“Still, it’s nothing bad,”

Stupid… likable…

“but I felt like you should know.”

And… he was a liar. Ugh! Vacation! How was he this stupid? No matter where he went, to a new world or a new place, he always brought himself. He could never leave behind who he was. He was disgusting…

“Sorry about bringing it all up.”

Even if he wanted something, he couldn’t bring himself to keep thinking about it and go for it. Even if he was addicted… he had nothing to himself. He was empty.

Hira tightened his eyes like he was on a rollercoaster.

Why did these things eat away at him at the worst times? Like whenever the universe felt like teasing him, or whenever it was bored. Just turn on Channel Hiraeth. People loved to see others get hurt, right? At times, it was funny. Entertain… oh, what an idea.

“Wanna”

Yes he was likable, but he was boring. Like a ‘nice guy’. Nice guys— they never got laid, too! He had to be exciting. Maybe if he made little accidents every now and then, like the idiot he was already painting himself to be, then he’d get laughs? And… now, he wanted someone to hold… he wanted a boyfriend, or a girlfriend— or anyone to kiss. He wanted to feel loved, so maybe, if he filled his thoughts with a partner, he’d simply become the person he was turning into. He wanted to vomit.

Hira put a hand over his mouth, clutching onto his face.

“just”

Why did these things eat away at him at the worst times? He wanted to cry. He wanted to vomit. Kindle was right, it’s messy. So, so messy. Because the world wasn’t focused on anything but him. Anything but tease and hurt him and make him hurt himself.

“talk”

The tears came to his eyes. His stomach lurched.

Was there God? Everyone spoke of him. Should he believe in God? It seemed like God was in everything. ‘Oh God’ and ‘Gods below’ and even ‘Megabird’ and the stars. Nothing to his name. Not even a God he would be a slave to. Could that save him? He was stupid. Why did he decide to fake this? Would God tell him an answer? He’d rather get high and pass out right about now. Even being hungover would be better. Maybe he’d try for an afterglow again… drugs…

“Just calm down.” Dion whispered to him.

Hira opened his eyes. Dion’s hand had been on his forehead, but for how long?

Kindle was gone.

“Are you still caught up in your troubles?”

Hira made a feeble little noise.

“Aw.” Dion frowned, feeling Hira’s forehead. “You’re alright. I’m still here.”

“Can you not touch me?” Hira grimaced, the anger in his tone rising.

Dion took his hand off, watching Hira’s face scrunch up in his pool of pain. Hira groaned. This prompted Dion to place his hand back onto Hira’s forehead, to which Hira gave no protest. He even held onto it.

“…I don’t expect you to understand.” Hira, exasperated, gasped to the best of his ability. “It’s— this…” How would he explain vomiting…? Oh, well. He’d rather describe it the way he always used to. “It’s… too loud. And…” He wanted Dion to hold onto him. Maybe to fill the gap a partner would? He just needed to feel real.

Dion nodded, stroking his hair. “For the last few years, you never said anything bothered you anymore. I’m glad you’re saying something about it now.”

Hira yelled at Dion in his head. He wanted him to shut up. He wanted Dion to leave for forever. He groaned again, holding onto his head.

“Do you need to relax? I can help.”

Kill Dion. And kill everyone else. And leave just himself. The popping of the fireworks beat into his head— reminding him of the popping and spiking of Rea’s voice. Someone needed to beat him to death.

Stop this, and focus on work. And stop everything. Stop suffering. Stop being feeble.

Hira sat up, his world spinning. “No, I’m fine.” He grinned.

“Please, you can be honest.”

Who are you to ask for me to be honest? Liar. Everyone should die. No one is good enough for me. All anyone wants from anyone else is to be served. I’m not different. But I’m— at least I’m nice. And not annoying about it. Anyone— just anyone— make sense for once. Be readable. Don’t make him look for… everything. Normal. Be normal.

Everything from inside him gagged into his throat. Hira bent over, jutting to the sand to not make a mess. Then he realized he shouldn’t. He thrust himself back down and laid on the towel again. His throat was burnt by the acid in his stomach.

“Hira?” Dion was at his side immediately again. “Oh, I’ve seen this… with the apply juice…”

Hira held onto his face, pulling on his skin. He resisted crying and melting down. He asked for too much. He still had to do work. He had to get back up and smile. The night’s cover of darkness wasn’t enough— it was constantly lit up by the fireworks.

A block in his throat. Maybe it was better to vomit, and let the acid burn it away. His head throbbed. He wasn’t breathing, and his head begged for oxygen. Again and again… all this whining was so irresponsible. Just finish the mission. Just get on with it. He groaned.

The night melted away, suffusing into his vision. When he opened his eyes, he felt alright.

The water flooded his head. The problems he told Dion about, the problems he had with the mission, his constant pleads to feel normal while acting abnormal… he had too much on his mind. There wasn’t anyway he could bring himself to tackle it, though…

Just move on, okay? Forget it.

You have something to do.

Act normal.

No one wants to see you cry or slack off again.

Remember your assignments.

Don’t act dangerously.

Be like everyone else.

Any attention to yourself is an embarrassment.

But, stick out.

So the teachers can congratulate you.

And one day, you’ll be great!

You’ll even be the Head Scholar!

Then no one will doubt you ever again.

Just blend in.

Forget the childish behavior.

Ah…

Most of it came from his childhood…

His very, very normal childhood.

***

Grabbing onto something… thin and rubber, like a wire… and everything burnt. Slipping in a small pool of something red that never stopped collecting around him. He was bleeding again. He was resting. And lonely. And jealous. Envious about everything. Broken in every way. Normal.

Cold, too. And hot. Sweating and burning. This story is about him, after all.

If that light brought him back… he was too lazy to reach for it.

He woke up in a stale room.

“Please, hold still. It only takes a minute.”

His eyes were red. He felt like he had to run, but he was tired. He hadn’t rested in so long. Why was this always torture?

“But… don’t worry. I think they’ll understand. We’re just gonna have to stick together from now on.”

Okay… I believe you.

“You don’t talk a lot! That’s funny. Why not? C’mon, why why why whyyy?”

Uhm…

I’m dreaming, aren’t I? So… wake up. It’s easy, because it’s not real… just… it feels better. There’s no consequences.

The sound of waves assaulted Hira’s ears. They were far and quiet, but it was still surprising.

“Hello. Do you feel any better now?” Dion grinned, laying at his side.

Hira tried to sit up and be normal. His limbs wouldn’t move. “Yes.”

“Good… I didn’t want to rest before you got better. It’s not like I can, though… it’s very hard. I’m tired, yet doing ‘sleeping’ just doesn’t come easy. What about you?”

Uhm… “It’s fairly easy. I do it quite a bit. I can teach you.”

“Some other time. Everyone else seems to be resting. I asked if we could stay here, since the noise and how… unseeable everything is would make it easier for you to talk to me.”

Talk. Hira’s heart leapt. “Yes,” Every moment he moved his mouth, he felt slower.

“If you need it, of course.”

Hira wanted to tell him it was alright. But he could no longer move anything.

Minutes past.

Hira felt Dion’s hand creep into his.

***

It was the break of dawn. Hira woke up. He still couldn’t move. His eyes were barely opening. Exhausted, he tried to wake up his body. Nothing worked. Everything was going fine.

Dion hadn’t said anything, though he knew Hira was awake.

Death seemed nice.

***

“Hira’s sleepy… so, so sleepy.” Kindle poked him.

Rhine checked her band. “We’re good on time. Let’s let him rest.

“I’ll stay with him. You guys can go ahead and do whatever you’d like.” Smiling and presentable, Dion commented.

“YAY! Let’s go make something cool!!!” Kindle turned to Ammi, excited for her to do all the building work.

“Okay.”

Hira listened to them speak, eyes closed. He wondered how long he’d stay in the sand like this.

***

“He’s been asleep alllll day! How come he didn’t come over?!”

“I’m assuming he’s just very tired. He’s got quite a bit on his mind, hm? Rest is good for him.”

“Mhm.”

“Still, I would’ve wanted him to play with us.” Ammi added. “We had a lot of fun. Sleep is nice, but…”

Kindle seemed quite offended. “Nice?! Sleep’s the best!”

“Huh? Weren’t you the one just complaining about that?”

“Aaaghhh, life goes on, Ammi!! It’s all about the present!! Who cares about what I said?!”

“When he wakes up, ask him if he needs anything from us. We’ll have to get going soon.” Rhine turned to Dion. Then, she paused, as Kindle and Ammi continued to argue. She made her way to Dion and whispered.

“Yes?” He leaned in.

Rhine said something Hira couldn’t hear. He tried to hone in all of his eavesdropping skills… no use.

“HIRA’S SQUINTING!!!” Kindle alerted.

Ammi groaned. “He’s gonna wake up! Be quiet!”

“We’ll see you three later, alright?” Anyone could tell he was smiling, just by his tone. “Let’s set off together as soon as we can.”

“Thanks, Dion.”

“No problem!”

“You made him mad! He’s shooing us away!”

“Uhhh, not my fault!”

***

Groaning again. Hira moved an arm back.

“Do you need help?”

Hira laid back down, grimacing at the words. He tightened his eyes.

Dion stood on stand-by.

Hira slowly adjusted to the surroundings again. The sun was burning him— in the way that he was simply hot. He squinted his eyes open. He was in the shade.

“I was told water is good for when people are injured. You know, just to drink. I figured…”

Hira turned to Dion. He held out a glass of water. The only thing Hira questioned was how he got a glass here. On the beach, a water bottle would be more suitable…

Oh, are they even on the beach anymore?

Yes. Hira took another look around.

He took the glass from Dion.

“I’m sorry.”

“…Why?” Hira held the glass up to the waves. His water became blue. He liked it.

“I haven’t been helping you in the way I’d like to.”

Hira thought about it for a moment. “I never expected you to fix everything wrong with me. I never expected you to even start.” He spoke with a softer-than-usual morning voice.

Dion didn’t know how to respond to that. He put a hand on Hira’s forehead. “You’re very warm. Rhine taught me something about temperatures and foreheads… but I’ve already forgotten.”

Leaning into Dion’s arm, Hira hummed ‘is that so?’.

“I know, I should’ve paid more attention. Oh well.” Dion pulled Hira closer. “How do you feel?”

Hira exhaled. Then he was hit by a bus of his anxiety and depression and literally everything else.

“I was better before.”

“Ah… you’ve been asleep for so long. Did you know?”

“How long?”

“Hmm… I was thinking around 18 moments.”

Hira’s eyes jolted open. “Wh—what?!”

“Yes! I’m very surprised.”

“We— I… no more wasting time! Where are the others?” Hira looked around frantically.

Dion held him steady. “Relax. They’re not here. But, we still have some time. You don’t want to go back to Aeronia now, do you?” He teased him with gentle pokes.

“N-no.”

“And don’t you want to stay with me?”

Hira’s face flushed. “You’re very clingy.”

“I don’t know what that means.” Dion laid his head on Hira’s shoulder, looking up at him with baby doll eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll stay. You like that?”

“Oh, I don’t mind your presence. As long as you do what you want.”

Hira had the feeling he was tricked.

The two sat on the beach and exchanged conversations, Dion toying around with Hira’s hair or his sleeves or preening his wings… the list went on. They spoke about how their time without each other was spent, or about people they met and things they were interested in. Hira didn’t feel like bringing up how he knew Dion had lied to him. He also felt that Dion would constantly deny this, even if he tried apologizing for being rude to him about it. There was no need to apologize for something that had never happened, anyways.

QD appeared behind them some time later.

“Heyyy! Hira’s awake!”

“Hello, QD!” Dion waved.

Hira nodded and grinned. “Yeah! Ugh, I guess I’ve been so tired of all that fighting…”

“Makes sense. We’re ready to go back now! C’mon!”

“Alright!” Hira tried to stand up as quickly as he could to show his happiness and alertness. Nothing would be wrong if you weren’t dwelling on thoughts.

Dion helped him up. It seemed like Dion knew about every truth there was.

“Rhine was thinkin’ about the plan…”

Oh. That’s right. The plan. Was Kindle right? Of course she was. She was some sort of a genius, wasn’t she? He’d been knocked out for a long time. That was wrong. That was something wrong with him. And Rhine was there twice— so if Kindle was right about the plan being centered around Hira and his protection, then the plan would be changed. And it was.

What else did Kindle know?

Did she know about his secrets?

Can she tell?

Ammi was with Kindle.

Did Ammi tell Kindle?

If Ammi told Kindle, Hira would kill Ammi.

And he meant it.

Was he really that good at hiding things?

Surely, no.

He had to get better.

He thought he knew what he was doing.

Now… it seemed he wasn’t right.

Just another game for him to learn to play…

He’d just have to get better at it.

Espe—-

Dion poked Hira.

“Whuh?”

“The portal.” QD turned to Hira, then motioned to a portal she’d opened up. “I’m using quite a bit of energy waiting.” She chuckled.

Hira, glowing already, briskly waltzed into the portal.

“He’s still a little sleepy.” Dion smiled as he walked through the portal with QD.

She nodded. “I can tell,”

Soon, they were back at the storage room.

“Listen up.” Rhine commanded mercilessly. No one even had time to sit in a carefully constructed box chair… “We’re changing our course of action.”

“Is that just another way of saying ‘plan’? ‘Cuz if it is, then I don’t know why I bother reading those before we head out. Especially if they’re gonna get changed, anyways.” Vera rolled his eyes, leaning over a plastic box chair that QD waltzed into when Rhine started to speak.

Rhine frowned. “I’m just swapping out a few roles. I’m thinking of keeping you here, now that I think about it.”

Vera sighed.

“Since this has been taking longer than expected, we’ve decided to swap out a few roles in sake of conserv—-“

The lights cut out.

Rhine’s voice died out in confusion.

Jay was quite a warm source of light.

“WE’RE GONNA DIE!!!!!!” Kindle squealed. She was obviously joking, but in a second, Hira grabbed her like she was being kidnapped.

“Shut UP.” He whispered with fury.

Dion gave him the side eye. His furious side eye. Visible in any time of day. In any corridor… Hira missed that.

Nonetheless, it was Dion’s way of telling Hira he was in trouble. Either from him or someone else.

Hira blinked. “Sorry! I got a little scared.” He looked down at Kindle with a gentle smile. She could see this because Hira started to glow with embarrassment.

“Hira, what just happened?” Rhine turned to him, expecting answers.

Hira’s mouth opened to speak, but he honestly had no clue.

“Security function. It’s usually for only large threats. I believe that the Elders finally consider us one of those large threats.” Dion nodded as he answered. “Be careful. No one’s allowed to be out at night.” He added with a sort of sly tone.

Hira couldn’t believe he knew what night was.

Why do they even HAVE the word?! And for it to be ‘night’, out of all things??

His light dimmed out as he became more furious and less embarrassed.

Rhine inhaled. Then she exhaled, though deeply. “Change of plans.”

Vera shifted angrily in the dark.

“Jay, you go out.”

“Aren’t I a walking torch?”

Rhine nodded. “Yeah. Scan the area.” She turned to Dion. “Any guards out that we should be worried about?”

“Yes. The strongest, unfortunately. Those who specifically carry out the Elder’s will. Be very, very careful. Usually, they bring matches with them wherever they go… don’t burn yourselves, okay?” He added with a more motherly and caring tone this time.

Jay grinned, and the light grew brighter. “Oh, I like where this is going.”

“Great. That means Vera’s going out again.”

Vera silently punched the air and accidentally hit QD’s head.

“Owie.”

“Ugh, don’t make me feel bad.”

“Of course… you’d be nothing without QD, so she’s coming too.”

QD turned to Vera, and they both smiled like idiots.

“Oh, wait. Ammi goes with Hira.” QD added.

Rhine raised an eyebrow. “Because…?”

QD shrugged.

“Oh… yes, Ammi goes with Hira. Then… the rest of us stay here.”

“Even you, Rhine?” Kindle asked mischievously. “‘Cuz. Y’know. Fightin’. And stuff.”

“I have things to do. You guys don’t need me right now. And if things go terribly wrong, I can always stitch everyone up.” She grinned. It was always either terrible torture or medical malpractice.

Agreeing on the current roles, they came to the next part of the plan that needed repair.

“Hira and Ammi will still chase after the Elders.”

“They should be roaming the corridors…” Dion added.

Hira jolted. “Urk—“ And that was all he said.

“Okay, then be mindful of that. If it gets too tough, call someone over. QD and Vera, eliminate any threats around you… Jay… uh…”