"So if x is equal to 4.5 then y is.... Mmm... I should have paid more attention..." A certain troubled teen was at a desk by the mathematics bookshelves, whispering to herself in solitude. Due to her melancholic mood the past few days, she had a hard time reviewing notes that lacked some information -- ones she did not take note from spacing out about her dilemma during class. Hoping that the materials in the library could hopefully explain things better, it was still difficult to browse through all the mathematics books for a certain topic she had to study. It was certainly going to be a long day of study at the library.

With the first day of tests incoming the day after, Shizuka was in a panic. While she may have had notes from the past lessons that were well written and organized, she had been slacking off from her studying duties to drown herself in her hobbies in an attempt to forget the loneliness she felt. It will pass soon enough, the maiden thought to herself, just as it did the other times in the past. Today, her mind was preoccupied with the exams tomorrow, no room for those other thoughts. There was no need to worry about her part time either since the manager understood that exams are important and gave Shizuka a week off.

The raven haired girl sighed and stretched her arms up, mentally exhausted from the cramming of studies. Her hidden eyes wandered off for a moment to see if anyone she knew had come to the place to study as well.

Alexei nodded at Akane's suggestion but it seemed his point was lost on her. She had gone off on a tangent keeping his request in mind.

"I fully agree with everything you said, Balailaka is also a personal favorite but that's beside my point. Remi, Balailaka and women of their ilk make strong and fascinating central or important characters but they are far from the soft, mischievous and flirty tomboy princess I intend to make." he said, collecting his thoughts for a moment.

"You see, I don't have much interactions with people or a healthy social life. As far as observing women is concerned, I only have my sister, Inoue and a few women that work the construction site with me and they are hardly the kind that I can base the character I want. So, I requested you to help me on it since you seem to be pretty popular among the female populous of the school. I have seen a few fangirls running in a tizzy in my few visits to the cafeteria." he said with a brash smile on his face but he didn't probe her.

"I just want you to give it a shot, if you are free. I'll be thankful for it, I can do up your betas and backgrounds as compensation if you want." he said in a low tone. There was a little more discussion, the other girl didn't seem really into making her own manga but it could be seen that she loved reading it.



It had been rather quite in town for a few days. Some sharply dressed men had also come in and asked his supervisor to halt the construction work that he was currently involved in.

Strangely, Akane had not been to school on Friday nor did she turn up for a gander to MMA club on Saturday, Alexei was a bit unsettled by it all but with the pressure of the term exams approaching, he willed these thoughts aside and tried to focus hard on the biology text that lay before him. He had decided to utilize this free time to study for his exams. Elena too had followed him to the library to revise on her texts. Her English test was coming and she looked really prepared.

Alexei took a glance around when he noticed a familiar mop of hair. Curious about the identity, he waited for the head to reveal the face it was hiding under the mop. Soon he was rewarded, the figure looked up and around and he caught sight of a familiar face. He didn't say anything so as not to cause commotion in the library but he waved lightly at her. Hopefully, she saw him and he didn't end up making a fool of himself.

Ryan woke up that morning with a big yawn and his normal daily routine. He had nothing to do today so he made himself some breakfast and took extra long to eat. The house had never felt more empty than it did now. He left his food unfinished on the table and headed out in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt. It was currently a very hot day.



Ryan walked into the library with a backpack and his Student ID. He still had quite a bit of studying to do so he sat down at a table and began reading his book on Japanese. He saw another girl reading the school textbook on Math and tilted his head. Ryan sometimes forgot that math was a little hard for people other than him.

MAY 7TH 2015, THURSDAY
Evening

Sato ignored the look from Rokurou's father as he was guided through the Ishihara household and into Rokurou's room on the second floor. Slamming the door shut behind them, Rokurou flopped down on the middle of the hardwood flooring. Sato stared at him for a while before the brawnier teen gave an order disguised as a question. "Take a seat?"

He complied, quietly positioning himself across from the club president, school bag set on his lap. "So, uh..." Sato started, looking around before continuing, "is this really where you study? In the middle of the room?"

Rokurou leaned back, planting his palms down behind him for support. "Is that a problem?" The boy's attitude annoyed Sato to no end. There wasn't even a desk or table or anything to make use of. Just the cold hard ground. It was easy to see why Rokurou was known as dash-two's biggest dunce.

Pulling his textbooks out from the bag, Sato set up the floor before them the way he always did for studying. Rokurou picked up the book closest to him and started to flip through it, but Sato snatched it out of his hands immediately. "Don't just take whatever you want... Let's start with your weakest areas so we don't have to worry about you failing those. What's your worst subject?"

Rokurou scratched at his ear before looking at the textbooks with a dull look on his face. He eyed the books for a couple seconds. "All of them." Sato groaned, to which Rokurou replied with a tired sigh. "I'm not going to force you to stay," He said. Sato stopped scribbling notes onto some random piece of paper stuck in a textbook to look up at Rokurou.

"Oh… uh, sorry. I didn't mean anything. You're just not being very cooperative." Sato lowered his brow. He wasn't even sure why he felt bad. Everyone always joked about Rokurou's shitty test scores... It wouldn't be nice to be known as the 'stupid one'. Even the teachers played fun about it. "Let's start with math. I'm pretty good at it so it should be no problem to explain."

---

MAY 8TH 2015, FRIDAY
Early Morning

Ba-dum
TSSSSSS

Sato awoke in a panic, falling away from the wall he was sleeping against as he gathered his surroundings. They had passed out in the middle of the study session. He pushed himself onto his feet and stretched his back, which was sore from being slumped over like that for so long. A paper stuck to his arm. He pulled it off and looked over at where the loud sound had come from. Rokurou was playing with a drumstick, seated behind the drum set in the corner, only boxers and a form-fitting black shirt on. An interesting way to go about getting him up. "Why do you have all these instruments in your room?" Sato asked, noticing the variety Rokurou had. There were the drums, a few guitars, a keyboard, and what looked to be some kind of woodwind.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rokurou tossed the drumsticks onto the ground and walked over to the door, twanging one of the strings on an electric guitar on his way there. "I like 'em. School's in ten by the way." Sato wanted to tell him that wasn't what he was asking, but Rokurou was already gone. It took Sato a moment to process the second part of what the prez said...

Ten minutes?! He literally just woke up! Sato didn't even know how long it took to get to school from Rokurou's place! This was going to the be the first time he was late in a year! Not wasting time, Sato gathered up all his books, shoving them carelessly into his school bag, before rushing out the door. Unfortunately Rokurou was right outside, and it was a direct collision. Sato was the only one to stumble. "Gotta go right now immediately!" Sato said, zooming through and out of the house. The Ishihara family seemed a little confused when they saw him, and Sato assumed they hadn't known he'd slept over. There was no time to explain.

---

Sato felt dirty. Not mentally, but physically. He'd done absolutely none of his morning ritual and he just felt shitty. Not to mention passing out with his nose actually in a book. Luckily, class was finally over, and he was free to go home and take a shower or something. He was set to leave, but then he noticed Rokurou enter the room. It was at that moment Sato decided to join the crowd tomorrow.

"Hey man," Rokurou said, locking Sato into the interaction. "I think you have some of my shit. One of the teachers bitched me out because I didn't have my notes or whatever."

Sato fished out some papers and handed them over. He'd taken them by accident that morning, mistaking them as his own considering his writing was on them. "Well, they're really my notes, but here. Don't lose them."

Rokurou flipped through the papers for whatever reason before flashing Sato a thumbs up. He turned to leave. "Hey," Sato blurted out, eyes to the floor, stopping the older boy before he could exit the classroom. Rokurou raised one eyebrow in response. "Do you want to study again tonight? You definitely still need it."

Rokurou gave a little grin, the same kind from yesterday. "Sure, man. I appreciate it."

"Alright, I'll meet you at your place in an hour or so. I already know we're going to be up until two figuring out trigonometry again." Sato replied with his own Hashimoto type of smile.

---

MAY 9TH 2015, SATURDAY
Evening

"Oh won't you cover my skin with your sun-kissed light,"

It was the weekend and Sato was doing something he hadn't done in a while: karaoke. After spending yet another night trying to absorb as much material they could in one sitting, Rokurou decided to take him and a few of the other archery guys out to sing, not study. Everyone seemed to be really into it except for Sato. The teen was fixated on something else entirely.

"There's a bonfire burning tonight,"

Maybe it was some weird burn-out aftermath from studying too hard, but Sato's eyes couldn't not focus on anything more than the movements of the others in the room. The way his lips moved as he followed the lyrics, the motion of their hands, the sway of shoulders,

"We could be all right,"

But he wasn't really registering what he was looking at it. The only thing his mind could fathom were the words ringing in his head. They weren't the words being sung or the things his eyes followed, but a familiar, yet unplaceable, voice.

"Evaline, Evaline, Evaline, Evaline..."

Except he couldn't even understand what was being said. All that he processed was a ringing in his ears and a disconnect in his being.

"Hey!" Sato snapped back to reality, blinking twice, and turned to the voice. Rokurou had seated himself beside Sato, trying to catch his breath. "I've been belting it for six songs now! Get up there and sing some, Sato!" Rokurou said, pointing back over to the karaoke machine. While he came without the intention of actually singing anything considering how bad he was at it, Sato pushed himself up regardless and searched for a good song.

---

MAY 10TH 2015, SUNDAY
Midday

With midterms the next day, Sato was studying yet again. He couldn't justify taking the day off after having wasted the other day singing karaoke. While Sato personally felt he was pretty set, it wouldn't hurt to review everything one more time and helping some of the other archery kids while he was at it seemed a good idea. Studying with others was a lot more tolerable than doing it alone. Besides, tutoring Rokurou was actually proving to be good for his own studies. Explaining the material to such an idiot took some work, after all.

Though his pen moved, his head wasn't in it. All the kanji became unintelligible lines after a while so Sato just leaned back in his chair and stretched, closing his eyes for just a second. He couldn't shake the feeling that something big was going to happen to him soon, and it kept distracting him from what he was trying to focus on. That feeling yesterday…it had to have some kind of meaning. Or maybe he was just overthinking it. Regardless, he wasn't going to get anything meaningful done, so Sato looked around the library for no reason. He spotted that Dragunov guy from Drama club, but nobody else really stood out. With a sigh, Sato returned his attention to the table.

It wasn't too shock, but everyone was distracted from their books by whatever was on their phones. Sato stared at them boredly before one of the girls passed a hot pink cellphone over to him. He tried his best to hide his surprise when he saw a photo of 'Saki'. He scrolled through the photo album, looking at all the photos of people. There was that Noboru kid doing some anime pose in the mall (shirtless), some photos of a kid in the park swinging weapon. Some of them weren't too bad but others gave him some second-hand embarrassment. Sato passed the phone back to the girl after he was done.

"I can't believe they'd hire a drag queen at the maid cafe," One of the guys said.

"It's so creepy!" A girl replied. "But did you see that loser at the mall? What a weirdo. Can you not bleed on us?" And the others repeated things of the same fashion, mentioning other instances of such weird people.

"Sato," Rokurou addressed him, arm propping up his chin. The inkling of a smirk on the corner of his lips. "Lame, right?"

Sato looked up from the table. "Yeah. I can't believe they don't have anything better to do than go freak it up in public." He couldn't read the expression on Rokurou's face and it annoyed him. The whole conversation at the table annoyed him. Maybe it was because they were addressing what he had done as 'creepy' and 'disgusting', but everyone talking shit about random people doing what they wanted to do pissed him off. He rose from his seat, chair squeaking a bit as it slid backwards. "I'll be right back," He said.

The teen walked away from the table, books in hand, and over to some random book case to give the illusion of looking for a new material. Unfortunately he ended up in math hell, which was the subject he'd went over the most with Rokurou. He wonder down the bookcase before noticing a familiar girl. Though he knew it was kinda creepy, he couldn't help but look at the question she was whispering about. It took him a moment, but it was easy enough to solve. "Y is 2. You missed a step here," Sato said, pointing to the equation Otonashi had been working on.

"Ah… forgive me for butting in, Otonashi." The boy gave a little bow, just in case she still deemed him rude for his intrusion. "If you don't mind me asking, what year are you in? This stuff seems pretty basic."

Chiaki was rather enthralled by the appearance of this world. She admired the gothic style alongside her comrade and new found friend Leiko. She was called upon by Rui-kun to be apart of today's mission, she eagerly joined and was ready to help in any way possible.
"Excellent I get to aid in the rescue. I'll try my hardest and attempt to help to the best of my abilities."
Holding her thorn whip in hand she smiled and tilted her head out of cuteness. "I'm rather new to this, so I hope I don't slow you all down!"

"It'll be fine... As long you know how to use your Persona...", he responded. Her face plus the whip was a clashing image. One one hand cute, the other hand sadistic... Well at the very least she's quite eager to tackle this dungeon. That was a plus, high morale, maybe it'll balance out Matthew's up and coming fear. Once the party was ready, they headed on in.

---

As they stepped into the manor, they looked around and it was... Well-kept. Huh. The floors were clean, the carpet was pristine and it was a semi-bright lighting from the chandelier above the entrance hall. The walls were however, adorned with pictures. Caricatures and silhouettes filled them, the people within were not identifiable at all, but you can clearly tell who and what the characters were. It seemed to be telling a story, and as they followed it with their eyes, they would realize it was like a comic strip of wall mounted paintings, telling the story as you walk down the hallway.

"Oho... Oh... This place isn't so ba-",

*THUD*

"AAAAAD NEVERMIND!", Matthew almost jumped from his position.

The door slammed shut behind them followed with sinister laughter. The voice was identified as a girl, but beyond the laugh, there was no more. No words... Like Chiaki's dungeon, it seemed this shadow had more presence over the entire dungeon than ones before her... Not to mention, this one seemed to control the dungeon too. This could get difficult.

"Well, let's do what we came here for", said Rui, keeping point. Leiko though seemed to be rather enthralled with the story along the wall, and seemed to be taking it in as they went, while Matthew shrunk to the far back of the party.

With the midterms coming up soon despite Sieg's parents constant various teachings and educational trips. Really just one educational lecture after the other, they still made him study up despite the fact that he could probably at this point give questions even the teacher had no answer for. So of course they drove him down to the library and gave him specific instruction to spend most of his day here studying. So even though he promised they still had a back up plan in the form of his various servant watching the exits. Just to make sure he doesn't walk away and say he was there most of the day. So walking into the building he got the books for the subject he would need most help with, that being the lovely world of science.

Taking the couple of book over to a table, he could easily make out a few students from Warakuma. One being Alekei that he saw at the drama club. To be fair it would be hard to miss someone that big at a drama club. At his table he heard a somewhat familiar voice helping this student out, he believed his name was Sato. He only had a bare minimum conversation with him, and that was when he dropped his papers everywhere. He himself couldn't help but look at the answer he helped on. "Hes correct." Sieg simply stated before looking back down at his notes and the textbooks.

Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Public Library | Sunday, May 10 2015

The library was rather crowded this day - unsurprisingly, seeing as the mid-terms were coming up and the library was the best place to study for them if one wanted to use more than just one's own textbooks. To that end, most of the library-goers happened to be students; their noses buried in books of various subject. Kotori also happened to be among them - standing before one shelf containing various books on English, she already held two in her arms whilst scanning the backs of those she had left standing to see if there were any others that might be of interest in her studies. Though she usually scored well enough, she still felt that it might be best to get a little extra outside input instead of just relying on the school textbooks - something she'd already done for the most of these last few days.

That, combined with her notes from classes was usually sufficient - but with the usual atmosphere around school when big tests came up, she still couldn't help but feel a little nervous too. Most of her classmates' topics of conversation came back to it sooner or later - at least those that were present, as she remembered that Akane had been absent both Friday and Saturday. Hoping the other girl hadden gotten a cold at such an inopportune time, Kotori took down one book from the upper-most shelf - one of the few times she was glad to be a little on the taller side, seeing as she didn't need to get on tip-toes to do so; if only barely - before opening it to glance over the table of contents to see whether it might be relevant. Shaking her head lightly when that turned out to not be the case, she put it back before deciding to make do with what she already had and looked around for an empty table to sit down at.

Doing so, she saw one or two classmates together with their friends poring over what looked like math books at one table. At another, a young man sat alone - Kotori's gaze quickly wandered on when she noticed the sharp-dressed man's scowl that seemed like he really didn't want to be here. Oddly enough, he hadn't been the first such person she'd seen about town - they seemed to have just popped up out of nowhere from one day to another. Looking further, she recognised a familiar, if mostly hidden face in Shizuka, her clubmate from Agriculture Club. She was just about to raise a hand in greeting when a boy stepped up behind her and spoke to her - it looked like she'd come with study partners as the boy at the same table looked up too. Rather than interrupt the three, she came to the conclusion that none of the nearby tables were empty - the final two were occupied by a blue-haired boy with a backpack at his side and, as she realised a moment later, another familiar student in the form of Alexei.

She was about to raise a hand in greeting a second time - when she stopped half-way as she remembered the rather odd sight that he'd been the last time she'd seen him in the Flowershop a few days ago. She still didn't know what that had been about - but not only was it now already a few days in the past, but she didn't exactly feel like it would be very appropriate to inquire about such a thing. Furthermore, he wasn't alone - beside him was another girl and they both seemed focused on their studies. Only at a second glance did Kotori notice that the girl's features had a distinction to them similiar to Alexei's that made it evident that she too wasn't from around here - which, given that he'd ordered flowers for both his mother and sister, made the conclusion that she was said sister an easy one.

Given that she didn't want to disturb any one those present in their studies but also needing a table to read on, Kotori decided on a seat at the Dragunov siblings' table; her hand lowered from its previously half-raised state as she approached the table, readjusting her glasses as she did. "Uhm..." she started, her voice even more quiet than usual given that they were in a library. "Is... this seat taken...?" Kotori asked, glancing between the two - whilst at the same time avoiding a direct greeting as she wasn't sure if it wouldn't be rude to either greet only one but not the other or embarassing instead if she had been wrong about the girl's identity after all.

Alexei Dragunov | Warakuma Public Library | May 11th

It seemed that he did end up being the fool. He quickly settled down with his texts again, focusing on the text when a light whisper caught his attention. He turned to look at the familiar bespectacled form of his benefactor standing near him burdened by a few texts that she held comfortably.

"Ah! Kotori-chan." he said turning to stand up and move his material and chair a bit further to accommodate the new member of their table.

"Please, be my guest." he followed, pointing at the chair. Hearing the words, Elena too looked up from her books to see the gentle looking younger Shirohane and shifted her materials to her side to make more room for the older girl.

"That's my baby sister, Elena." Alexei said motioning at her as he looked at Kotori.

"She's the girl behind your much loved bouquets." he said to Elena who smiled brightly on learning of the fact. She waited for the girl to settle down before gently clutching her hand and giving her thanks.

"Thank you, Senpai for all those wonderful bouquets. I hope to be half as good as you someday." she said with admiration.

The enemies that took form here were similar to footsoldiers from a medieval period, and occasionally supernatural monsters. Chiaki fared well with her whip, while Rui took the front with his sword. Leiko and Matthew stayed in formation around the back. The way to the second floor was easy, and as they ascended however... It was... Darker. Things began to become more decrepit, old, worn down, some of the paintings that told the story at this point were becoming dirtier and more marred with dirt or mold, and dust set in on the bits of furniture that laid about.

The team decided to take it a little slower, the horde of enemies present on the first floor no longer pestered them, but it was uncomfortably quiet here. As soon as they stepped into a large round room adorned with paintings and peeling wallpaper, a wild cackling laughter broke out in the entire room, and furniture began to fly about. There was a suit of armour in the very middle of the room, large, but it seemed to be missing some parts, like the gauntlets and parts of the greaves. A sword stuck out behind it.

As the chaos continued, crimson lights began to emerge from the candles and paintings and began to culminate around the suit of armor and soon bits of armor that were not within view began to fly in and merge with the armor in the center. Each piece connected by red black energy, as well as a substance similar to most shadows, and soon standing at a dozen feet tall before them was a shadow knight, picking up its sword and readying itself for the party. As its form completed, the furniture flying about the room dropped right out of the air, and the large knight shadow let out a battle cry before it charged.

Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Public Library | Sunday, May 10 2015

As the older student looked up, recognising her and speaking her name, Kotori gave a bow in greeting - only to be too late to stop him from clearing up the table; not able to say that she really wouldn't have needed much space at all. "Ah, thank you, Dragunov-senpai," she said as he gestured to the empty seat - even as the girl beside him too made some space with her own books. Giving another small bow in thanks at that, Kotori placed her books down as Alexei motioned towards the girl and confirming Kotori's assumption of her being his sister.

As she sat down, Alexei in turn introduced Kotori as the one who made up the bouquets which were delivered to her every day. Looking up in surprise at him, her eyes were drawn to her hand before she could speak up when she felt it being grasped - by a rather joyful looking Elena who expressed her thanks and more. Rather unused to the sudden action and attention, Kotori quickly glanced around before lowering her gaze to the table. "Ah, uhm, that... I-I think my mother would be more deserving of y-your thanks, D-Dragunov-san," she spoke quickly - and truly, as it was indeed her mother who did most of the work on the ikebana bouquets for customers and had been the one to deliver them to the hospital.

At that thought, Kotori glanced back up at the girl before her - she didn't seem to be sickly or showing any sign of requiring any prolonged stays at a hospital. Furthermore, she couldn't recall having seen the girl before - neither there nor at school, which would indicate the girl to be younger; as further evidenced by the way Alexei had referred to her. It was only then, after the immediate surprise of the sudden attention started to subside that Kotori realised that she hadn't even fully introduced herself; leading to her giving a small bow as well as she could with the table before her. "Ah, excuse me. I'm Kotori Shirohane. I go to the same school as your brother," she said - not needing to add anything about her family's flowershop seeing as the other girl evidently already knew about that. With that out of the way, Kotori stole another glance about - hoping that they hadn't drawn any more attention or disturbed any of the other library-goers.

Recently, there has been word that Akane's been missing for the past few days...Some say that she's the latest victim of the whole "kidnapping" escapade that's been haunting the town recently. It puzzled Ayano, why high school students? There was no particular rhyme or reason, nor was there any pattern she could sense...What she does know though, is at the very least they come back safe and sound at the hospital. With a sigh, Ayano thought less of the disappearances and more about her studies.

Aside from the usual troubles with Math, the girl also had slight troubles grasping the concepts of Physics. The girl groaned as she tried to solve the word problems in her textbook, she thought to herself, "Whose great idea was it to combine Math and Science in to one?!" She slumped in the table as she lazily wrote down the formula and tried to solve. "Wait...I think I got that one mixed up...Or was it the other way around?!" Flipping a few pages back, it turns out that her formula was wrong and that she had been doing computations incorrectly. With a grunt, and a sullen expression on her face, Ayano picked up her eraser and began to erase her previous formula.

Minutes passed and after what felt like an eternity, Ayano grasped her head and looked down at the paper she had on the table...Despite a few wrong answers, she seemed to have gotten most of the questions correct. Her lips pursing into a slight smile, she felt like she was almost ready to take on the midterms. Deciding that she's had enough of numbers and formulas, Ayano began to sit down the chair in a more comfortable way, her eyes darting back and forth. "Hmm...Maybe I should borrow a book, while I'm at the library and all..."
She had been meaning to pick up various reference books to help with her studying, but maybe some fiction books wouldn't hurt?

The knight shadow barrelled through the party formation almost instantly and forced everyone to split. Chiaki's whip would only bounce off the armor, but a magic attack retaliation for Matthew and Leiko would be able to make it flinch even a little, but that wasn't enough. Fortunately this made it turn its back, and Rui could see that there were in fact cracks along the back of the armor.

"Those cracks...!",

"Yeah, they might be a chance to do some damage", he responded. He motioned Chiaki to keep moving to another flank and get its attention, while Leiko and Matthew fled for their lives as the knight charged them initially. Before it could corner them though, Chiaki managed to get its attention. As soon as it raised its blade, the sound of wind and a blade cutting steel rang throughout the room, as it stopped in its tracks. Its armor splintered, but it seemed whatever Rui had done was not enough, though it seems he realized this, and instantly he came through to the front, slashing at the neck, lopping the helmet off. The red cracks began to deepen, and finally stop... However the knight was not yet done. With Rui's back turned to it, it raised its blade once more as a headless knight. Matt shrieked in fear which warned Rui of something strange happening, giving Rui a chance to turn around and see the blade swinging right for him. Just in the nick of time, he managed to block the blade with his sheathed katana, the scabbard taking the brunt of it, and his Persona beside him blocking at the same time. After a few moments where the blades grinded against one another, Rui managed push it back. Immediately following that was a barrage of spells from Chiaki, Matt and Leiko, before he cut it down the middle using Askr.

The knight began to crumble and splinter, the red ethereal energy beginning to dissolve into the air and leave the armor. There was silence as it turned once more into lifeless damaged armor.

"It-I don't feel anything left of it. Good work! Let's keep pressing on"

"Understood", he responded.

---

"There's a throne room here...?", after beating the knight, and getting to the third floor, they had to fight through a gauntlet of shadows down one single narrow corridor, that told the last bits of the story on the walls. The main character in it was beginning to become more and more anguished as it went, but soon it appeared it became repressed... It felt like a happy ending, with the locking away of the anguish, but it wasn't satisfactory... In any case, there were large double doors at the end of the hallway, and upon entering, it made itself clear that this room was a throne room. In front of them was a familiar scene, just a different person. Rui immediately recognized who it was... Akane.

As her gaze browsed about the library tables, Shizuka sighted a familiar pair of foreinger siblings, the Dragunovs. Noticing the wave towards her too late, her wave back and soft smile towards the elder Dragunov were missed as his eyes dropped back to the book before him. Embarrassed that the other had not seen her gesture and therefore made it seem like she waved at no one, her hand immediately dropped back down as if nothing had happened. While doing so, the freshman noticed a fellow classmate, another foreign studrnt, in the vicinity as well, taking a glance at her with a tilt of his head. Despite being a little confused at his reaction, she decided it was only polite to greet him as her head slightly bowed towards him in a polite gesture.

Once not much else had caught her attention, Shizuka was about to return the direction of her eyes towards the notes before her when a familiar voice suddenly spoke from behind her, "Y is 2. You missed a step here." Due to the shock of a voice responding to the whisper to herself, the raven haired student let out a short "EEEEK!", followed by an angry chorus of SHHH from the other library goers. Feeling bashful and ashamed from being warned, her petite hands covered her lips as she sunk into her seat a little. A short moment later, her head turned towards the source of the voice to find Sato, which explained the familiar tone. The other voice was unrecognizable and upon laying her eyes on him, Shizuka established that it was not a person she had met before.

With an apologetic bow of her head, she started to speak, "Pa-Pardon me for that li-little shriek, I just hadn't e-expected anyone to actually respond to my inquiry. Um... I'm actually still a freshman, are you two possibly of a higher class level...?"

Akane Hanazawa // Manor Of Creation

Waking up, she was overcome with an intense headache, particularly in the back of her head where she was struck. Reminded of that incident, she whipped her head around but no one was there. It was too dark to make out anything beyond her, but she had a creeping feeling she was being watched. Someone has to be there, lurking about in the darkness. No doubt in that it was her kidnappers. Probably enjoying her current state. "I know you're there, show yourself!" she shouted into the dark.

While there was a response, it wasn't quite what she was expecting. Instead of the sounds of an approaching figure, she was met with a wild, if not crazed, cackle inside her head. "The ones you seek are not there, for it is only we, or shall I say 'I'?" As the 'voice' began talking, Akane continued to search for the one behind the voice, not yet willing to conclude she gone crazy upon hearing her own voice. "Who are you? What are you?" she demanded, only to be met with another laugh.

"Who am I? I'm sure you can tell. Who else has the same voice as you? Don't want to believe it? You can look and look and you still won't find anyone else here. I'm you, to be correct, I'm what you try to pretend doesn't exist, your true self."

"Whoever you are, if you plan to continue using my voice, you could at least tell a better joke. I may be considered odd, but I'm surely not crazy. Honestly, my true self? As if you know anything about me or what I'm like."

Feigning a sigh, the voice continues. "Of course I do, you are me and I am you. Who else would know you better than me? Hell, I know you better than you do, only natural really. Well, let me enlighten you. Selfish, Calculating, Cruel and to top it all off, you're all Alone.... That's what you truly are like."

"As I thought, you don't know anything. You can hardly call someone who helps others selfish and cruel, honestly, what's selfish and cruel about saving others? And just what exactly have I done that would be considered calculating? Setting that aside, I'm far from alone."

"My oh my, did you seriously say all that with a straight face? I'm impressed that you even believed all of that! Though, it's quite sad that you can say all that and not understand why. Poor poor Akane, going around playing hero actually still thinking she's there to 'save'. When are you going to realize that you can't save anyone? For 'me' do drop the act, it's really not convincing."

Getting annoyed. "Act? What act? It's no act. This is who I am, I help people who are in need. I have saved countless people! I'm not playing at anything---!" she nearly shouted before restraining herself.

Laughing, "And this is where the 'Selfish' bit comes in. Honestly, did anyone literally ask you to save them? Did they say 'Akane, please help me.'? No? Wake up, you and I both know you're unfit to save anyone. Surely you haven't forgotten about all about little 'ole Tatsumi already?"

"..." Just as she was about to raise her voice to speak, as soon as the voice uttered that name, she froze.

"Can I take that silence to mean that it's starting to come back to you? About the time we decided to play hero and the fact we nearly killed him? Seriously Akane, whether he was a bully or not, wasn't that going a bit too far?"

"I...I... d-didn't m...." stuttering as she trailed off as memories of that day started coming back at full force. Grabbing her head, her eyes grew wide. All she wanted to do was save her classmate from a notorious bully...She didn't mean to keep swinging...It's...It's just that when she started hitting him, something....something in her snapped, she was overcome with this strange feeling and couldn't stop herself. She wasn't trying to kill him.

"Aren't heroes supposed to make things better and not worse? Not to mention someone who couldn't fight back anymore! Forget about being the hero, you seemed more like a villain to me!"

"It..." Wasn't my fault, she tried to say outloud but couldn't. Why couldn't she? It was an accident right, things like that just happened, right? "I'm......no villain....Saved....He-" she began mumbling.

"Hero....Just how much longer are you going to keep this up? Please...All you are is a copy - a fake, trying to be someone else."

"I'm no Fake! I am me and no one else!" She yelled, seemingly finding her words again as her anger grows.

"Oh? So you're not trying to be just like big brother? Come now, be serious. You saw how he swooped in to save you, like he always does, and you thought you'd just try it out, huh?"

Hearing the mention of Akito, she stiffened. Akito.... he was always saving her from something and that night....that night....she owes him everything..."Shut....Shut up..." Clenching her fists....

"And this is where the rest comes in. It's all just to please yourself, to make yourself feel better, as if doing so will allow you to atone for what you did and be like brother. You're just a brute that uses the act of 'saving' as an excuse to fuel your real desire to fight, which is something considering your fear of repeating that tragedy..."

"I said....Shut....the hell....up!!! We may share the same voice and the same memories, but let's get one thing straight, You...are not me!" she yelled back, not noticing that a group of people, including Rui were watching.

It was then things grew quiet. As if she said the magic words, Akane fell to her knees and gripped her head harder than before as she was subjected with an unimaginable pain, a splitting pain. It was as if...as if there was something....something inside her that wanted out. Soon she'd find herself being unable to move her body, like it wasn't hers anymore.

Sato cringed a little when the girl let out a yelp of surprise. Yeah, that was probably a little wrong of him to butt in like that. Though, that Sieghardt guy joined in on the Third Year Math Hero game, so he felt less bad about it. The other people at the library shushed her, and Sato stifled a giggle. He sat down a seat away from Otonashi, tossing his books on the table with an ironic amount of force. "That was inappropriate of me to intrude like that, you shouldn't have to apologize."

"A first year, huh...?" Sato said, resting his chin on his palm. "If I recall correctly, we're both third years. Midterms are the monday after next, right? I've been studying so much lately my hands hurt from writing..." The boy fiddled with the pencil that was resting on top of his math textbook. There were still scribbles on the cover of it from when he studied with Rokurou, so he picked up the writing utensil and quickly erased whatever it was that Roku had illegibly scrawled down when Sato was looking away. Whatever it was it obviously wasn't important.

Sato was about to open his mouth again when a tap on his shoulder got his attention. He turned in his seat to see Rokurou standing before him. "We're shoving off," He said, pointing back over his shoulder. "I'm gonna go get me a milkshake, you want in?"

Sato simply nodded. "No, I'm good. Thanks for the offer though." The teen looked down at the table, just so he wouldn't have to look at Rokurou more. He was so… something. Just something about that guy bothered and distracted him. Sato whipped open the nearest book and picked up that pencil again. "I'm still studying. See you tomorrow, Rokurou."

The boy took the cue and walked off with a shrug, doing a little walk-jog to catch up with one of the other guys in the group. Sato's eyes ran down the page without really reading anything, forcing him to try to read it again. Instead of grasping it, he just got more frustrated, so Sato closed the book again and rubbed at his eyes with his palms. Pushing the book to the side, Sato turned back to Otonashi, tapping his pencil on the desk. "Do you need any help with this? I think I'm done studying my own material for today."

People were beginning to pour in as time least on and Ryan moved onto Math. While it's far from his worst subject, probably his best as a matter of fact, he still needed to study all of this material he had missed during the transfer. He opened up his new book and began scanning the pages. This was promptly interrupted. Ryan jerked as he heard a scream coming from a table nearby. He dropped his book on his foot by accident, a heavy book at it, and let out a quiet curse. He looked up and saw some girl being harrased by two older guys. Ryan glared at this interruption with a crown and shook his head. One of them stopped and began his own studying but then spoke up once more. These people were annoying, it's not like they were the center of the world. Other people study here too! Ryan picked his book up and let out a deep sigh.

"Excuse me, could you refrain from being so boisterous? We are currently in a public library you know. Where people study. In peace." Ryan glared at the guy before he opened his book back up and continued his reading. Honestly some people were just so rude. No respect for the sanctity of the library. What was the rule on exponents again?

"I will surely take her to Shirohanedono to convey our heartfelt thanks as well. In fact, I'll do so today itself." Alexei said on the mention of the owner of Shirohane store by Kotori. A shriek then caught him unaware as he turned around to see its origin. With a passing of a few comments the situation soon subsided. Sato seemed to be well in control so Alexei didn't bother much with it. He returned to his own material as Kotori introduced herself to Elena.

"I am Elena Dragunov-Tenjiro, Alexei's sister and currently studying at Wakahisa Middle School." she said with genuine joy in her tone. She still clasped Kotori's hand lightly without regarding the other girls comfort. It was also interesting as how she seemed to go to a private school. Though there were similarities between the siblings, there were also marked differences. Elena looked to be really soft and cuddly looking, her skin pristine and well kept and a gentle elegance emanating from her while Alexei looked closer to animals than humans with a rugged toughness and unkempt looks.

"You also have English as the first midterm?" she asked suddenly.

Sieghardt Kasumi- Warakuma Public Library- May 10th

He didn't return to his studies for long as shortly after his comment the girl let out a yelp which shocked him to the point of almost falling out of his chair. Of course the sudden outburst caused the others at the library to shush her, while Sieg re adjusted himself in his seat as Sato would sit down at the table and would state she had no reason to apologize. "Yeah.... didn't think you would scream like someone in a horror movie." Sieg commented as he looked around at the annoyed looks on everyone's face. Although he had to admit her sudden shock and being blamed was a tad bit funny.

Sieg would simply listen on as she mentioned being a first year and wondering what their own years were. Sato would do the explanation on that to which Sieg nodded. "Same year, just different classes though." He would add and chuckle at Sato mentioning his hand hurting from all the writing. "I feel like my heads going to explode from all the educational trips I was forced on. Yet we only got more writing to do, until the midterms are over. So good luck hanging in there." Sieg would say before looking at his textbook and grumbling. Of all the tips his parents could have forced him on, the one he would need help in most was the one he got less time at. Well its a good thing he gave up trying to understand their thought process a while ago.

As he continued to read from the science book he heard Sato mention helping the female with her studies which was a kind thing to offer. Probably for the best to accept it to if she truly didn't understand math that well, it was one of those subjects that if you didn't get help for when you start to get confused... Well it would bite you in the ass later on in life. Another male would speak up telling them to be silent which made him chuckle as he looked at the book. "We got scolded." Sieg commented smirking a bit as he started to read an entire page of symbols and numbers. "Well fuck you too science." Sieg mumbled that bit as he stared at the page of symbols.

---

As Masa approached the library, he couldn't help but give a subtle sigh. Having spent the rest of the week volunteering and assisting at other locales within the city, it seemed that it was the library's turn for his attention. On his way home the day before, he met with the manager of the building who asked for his help with maintaining the place. Despite his frustration and fatigue, Masa begrudgingly accepted before heading home. Standing before the doors, the boy would give pause before letting himself in and eyeing about the innerworkings of the building. Ironically enough, the library didn't seem quite that rushed. In fact, it was rather mild crowd- despite the sudden shriek that greeted him. Turning his attention towards its origin, Masa would notice several other students from his school that were still studying for the upcoming exams.

Sighing slightly as he ran a hand through his hair, Masa would begin to move to the front desk, “Figures,” he’d whisper to himself, quickly digressing into his thoughts, ‘Maybe they won’t notice. I said I’d help out around here, so I guess I’ve got no choice... It’s not like I have anything better planned.” With one last sigh, he’d report in to the librarian and take a cart filled with returned and left over books. At once, he’d make his way to the furthest space from the other students, placing the books in their correct position on the shelves without so much as a word. Yet, he caught himself continually glancing over to the studying students; shaking his head free of the silly thought of communing with them before going back to his task.