With spring starting with a blast, the freshmen of Shinnou Academy found it a little less than easy to adjust to their new surroundings with majority of them being traumatized from the student council’s own version of an ‘opening ceremony’. But with things essentially calming down, the students lives were peaceful for a few weeks…
Despite the seemingly serene nature on the island, unsourced tension could still be felt in the air. As the weeks pass, the teachers kept getting busier and busier as they are forced in emergency meetings, leaving the students to have self-study sessions where they could do whatever they wanted. But as the days passed, sights of shadows and missing townsfolk had plagued the island, with majority of the adults keeping it from the students in order to not cause a panic.
Shirasagi Hijiri, however, didn’t want to sit still and keep the students in the dark.
Naru, Rion, and Mizuha were all called out in front of the library through ‘love letters’ that were discreetly placed in their shoe lockers. There, they meet Hijiri, a CORE trainee and university student who seemed to have a problem at hand. Despite their initial hesitation in following the man, he convinced them to talk to him in a study room inside the library in order to avoid any prying ears from listening to what seems to be a dire problem that the man needed to tell.
With a long-winded discussion, the three students learned of several heavy things that a normal teen was probably not ready for. According to Hijiri, due to a rip in the school’s barrier, intruders had managed to come in the campus and suspicious movements have been seen all around the island. Missing townsfolk were unreported and dark creatures in the forest roamed, but what was more surprising was that the mysterious disappearances had been occurring since fall last year. Why? Why was this allowed to happen, the students asked, wondering how the school and the organization has allowed this occur in what was supposed to be a safe haven, but even Hijiri did not know the answer. More importantly, he knew that specific students were being stalked by ominous shadows seen by the student council president, which alarmed him when he realized that the intruders must have moved on to targeting the students. He didn’t know what to do at first, only that he desperately needed their help in keeping the students safe, especially when CORE had been pressuring the school staff and student council into inaction and silence.
With only himself and his beliefs in hand, Hijiri approached three bright-minded students whom he believed to be perfect candidates in helping him in his cause. After a lengthy discussion about the reasons why CORE might do such a thing, he finally got their agreement to help them keep an eye on the targeted students, hoping that this choice wasn’t a mistake.
Spring 23
The Greenhouse: A Tortured Spirit
Today was calm for the most part. Reports from the three students came in earlier, with one of them seeing a shadow stalking one of the students. Hijiri decided to visit Aimi in the greenhouse, a bit surprised when he saw two new faces that he never associated with the girl until now. They introduced themselves as Momoka and Lynn, seeming to be good friends with the brunette. He was going through his rounds on the island, checking for any suspicious activity, and the greenhouse visit was supposedly one of his last ones. He engaged the three girls in a chat, until he realized that there was something attached to his own shadow. The greenhouse lights were bright and vibrant, casting strong shadows , but his certainly had something else in it.
Hijiri decided to leave, but as he did, Lynn was the first one to notice the ominous shadow, boiling after the man. Momoka soon noticed it too, eyes widening in horror when they both realized that it couldn’t possibly be good. Hijiri disappeared in the distance, with the two deciding to try and go after him. Aimi was the last one to see the shadow, bolting past the greenhouse exit with Momoka and Lynn following behind in order to try and warn him..
In their pursuit, they are blocked off by an ominous but pitiful looking entity, slamming its hand down the ground in front of them and sending Aimi flying backwards and almost slamming onto her friends. As soon as they realized they seemed to be in danger, they were all frozen in fear. Chasing after Hijiri seemed to be of least priority now that they had to worry about themselves.
Facing the creature, it was an old weeping tree, moaning out distorted pleas from help. It seemed pitiful… but dangerous. It took awhile for the girls to realize, but it seemed to be controlled against its will, constantly groaning in pain as it lashed out at them when it couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully, Lynn’s anthropomorphous plants helped them calm it down, giving the girls time to decide their next course of action. With Momoka and Lynn wanting to save it when it showed itself as a poor, tortured creature, Aimi hesitantly relented to her friends’ wishes.
They manage to find the source of the tree spirit’s pain, finding an ominous looking bug implanted on the back of the tree’s head with its legs and fangs firmly impaled onto the tree. It took awhile for them to stop the tree’s movements as they tried to get the parasitic bug off. With Lynn’s help, the erratic tree spirit that was being controlled by the evil creature was immobilized. Momoka managed to get most of it off, but with it being persistent, it took a final stab from Aimi using a mutated rose thorn before it finally let go of the tree and evaporated into a shadowy smoke.
With them all being spent and their contrecoeur’s effects rendering them incapable of pursuing Hijiri as they lay helpless on the ground. Huifen, who sensed something wrong with her barrier, came soon after only to find the three girls exhausted from the fight. They were immediately taken to the clinic, but not before seeing the seemingly dead tree’s form evaporate as well and leaving behind a small creature.
Taking notice of the small creature, Huifen recognized it to be a woodsprite that she saw the week prior. It was the same sprite that saved her and Fraisier’s students when the barrier was tampered by one of the students, making her feel guilty for its current state. It seemed to be almost at the verge of death, until Momoka healed it enough for it to recover its former stamina.
It took a few days to improve the students' well-being, with all their contrecoeur's effects being harsh as they have used new skills that their body weren't used to. In their drifting consciousness, flashes of green and the scent of plants pass them on their beds.
Spring 24
The West Ram Forest: Dangers that Deceive
After the incident yesterday, Huifen decided to finish the student profiles during her last class in Caneles for the afternoon and deliver it to Hijiri at the library. However, due to an emergency meeting needing her attention once again, she asks Hibiki, Hanae, and Fei to deliver the three boxes of papers as she went off her way towards the meeting room.
On their way out of the library, the three students encounter what seems to be a weird and injured ram. Out of concern, the three look over despite HIbiki’s apprehension. The ram urged them to follow it into the West Ram Forest, a trail of blood followed its footsteps causing the students to follow the creature immediately out of concern.
The three students entered deeper into the forest, finding the injured ram seemingly dead in a clearing. They all approach it to check up on its vitals, with Hanae reaching a hand to it. Things take a dark turn when the ram suddenly turns and shoots poison thorns at the three, with Hanae’s palm being impaled by a few. Its form changed into a monstrous shadow, separating the three by slamming the two boys away from the poisoned Hanae.
The atmosphere in the forest darkens, the lights that shone through the tree’s foliage now gone as their surroundings became almost pitch black. With their lives in danger and the poison in Hanae slowly making its way to her heart, the three try to navigate around the monster in the darkness when they realize that it was blind and can only follow sounds that it could hear. Along the way, the ramwalker managed to get ahold of Fei’s scarf and bit off pieces from Hibiki’s clothing. Fei and Hanae manage to reunite first, with the poison almost nearing Hanae’s heart and killing her. HIbiki, who struggled against the monster’s grasp caught up after a while and managed to extract the toxin in time before the poison completely got through Hanae’s heart.
With Hanae finally being mobile again, they devised a plan to get away from the blind ramwalker, realizing that there had been weird rustles from the opposite end of their location that was catching the monster’s attention. Fei decided to try and immobilize the creature, with all of them agreeing to not fight it as it would be too dangerous to do so. After discussing their plan, a Kumaram who had been helping in distracting the monsters from the shadows suddenly appeared in front of them, along with many other Kumarams that were all ready to help get them to safety.
The Kumaram instructed them through gestures, letting Fei immobilize the creature as they all surrounded it and deleted its existence from the earth by eating it. Fei succeeded, however, with the ramwalker struggling against his coeur, Hanae and Hibiki had to run first as Fei remained to engage in what was a battle of wills between the student and the monster. As Fei’s stamina lowered, the monster managed to turn its head to their direction, breaking its neck and making it look even more monstrous. Hearing the running footsteps of the kids, the ramwalker discerned their location and managed to shoot out a barrage of large, poisonous thorns their way. Barely missing the other two, and almost impaling Hibiki just as he turned and saw it coming his way. Luckily, the Kumaram that told them to run managed to get in between the boy and the thorn in time, opening its mouth and swallowing the projectile before it dropped down on the floor, seemingly dead.
Hibiki ran to it in concern, hoping that the ram didn’t die for his sake. To his and everyone’s surprise, the Kumaram suddenly grew in size, the poisoned veins glowing through its wool with intensity. It allowed the students on its back, with HIbiki retrieving the freezing Fei and getting all of them on its back. Hanae remained alert, using shields to secure their positions on the Kumaram’s back as it ran out of the forest.
Looking back to where the monster was, they could only see the herd of Kumarams all eating its shadowy self with the ramwalker screaming in agony, its master watching from a few yards away before he decided to abandon the creature.
Meeting them as soon as they exit the forest was Hijiri, who was looking all over for the three when Huifen mentioned another shift in the barrier. He immediately got them all to the clinic in the Palais de Coeur, but not before the Kumaram XXL shrunk and spat out a red, ruby-like crystal that was the solid form of the poison contained by the thorn it ate.
With the three finally out of immediate danger, they were treated as the two boys’ contrecoeurs affected them horribly. Hijiri left them after a while, needing to report on the attack with his associates.
Spring 25
The Observatory: Speculations
With Hijiri meeting Naru, Rion, and Mizuha the past few days in order to report on observations about the targeted students. The three discussed the attacks on the three girls on the 23rd and the other three just the day before, realizing that the frequency of shadow appearances did not affect who was on top of the intruder’s priority list. Fei Rosendahl did not have a shadow tailing him as far as they saw, but they speculated that it was because the intruder was already done studying the target and knew their daily routine by then.
Another topic that was brought up was the fact that the targeted list of people were Users who had abilities proven useful for stealth missions, with them being able to be discreet about the use of their abilities without anyone finding out unless someone with a sensory coeur or someone who knew about them detecting the active abilities.
Naru wondered why Mizuha and Rion were not being targeted despite their apparent talent and potential. They all believed that it was due to being from big families that had more than enough power to look after them, but this theory was immediately dismissed when they noted that Lilianne Iversen was also a target despite being from a family with a wide medical influence.
The team wondered about the lack of activity on the current day, but figured out that it was in order to prepare for tomorrow. Spring 26th, the day that they speculated to be the big day where the intruders would attack the rest of its targets. The students asked to help in protecting the targets, but the senior denied their offer in order to keep the three safe. Hijiri warned them sternly to not do anything dangerous, wanting to keep the three safe and seem uninvolved to the organization and the intruder’s eyes….
Spring 26
The West Ram Forest: The Doll's Laughter
The students’ mornings started off with a shock. Particularly Saiun’s and Shion’s, when they ventured into the West Ram Forest in order to take pictures of Kumarams and other interesting creatures. Before they realized it, they were suddenly being pursued by a girl with sharp tendrils, attacking them at every turn as the rambabies also attempted to pull them away and get them to safety.
The two ran away from the creepy doll, with it laughing as it pursued them. Its attacks were easy to dodge, but Shion was injured in the process as he tried to fend it off with his brother. With Shion reaching his contrecoeur limit soon, he urged Saiun to use his thunderstorm in order to rid the doll or at least buy enough time in order to aid their escape. After some time of convincing, Shion finally managed to get his older brother out of his fearful thoughts and use his ability.
At the end of it, the two were on the ground, barely injured but suffering from their contrecoeurs. The thunderstorm only proved to be effective in paralyzing the doll, but not killing it. Right when they thought that all was over for them, the doll suddenly exploded right in front of them, its body and blood splattered around.
Upon a closer look, Shion realized that it was a doll…. Made out of a real human corpse. It had stitches around its body and its movements were certainly anything but alive, but with the monster finally being dead, it seemed that they were finally safe for now.
Hijiri came in to see them worn out, taking them to the clinic and warning them about the intruders targeting Shion. The senior warned them to exercise caution and keep an eye on each other, however, it seemed that the two willfully misinterpreted his words as being allowed to be in the same class as each other….
The Academy: A Warning
After this incident, Hijiri reported about the attack to the school’s administration and caused the school to finally send out a public service announcement to each student, warning them about the possibility of danger being near and announcing the attack that had just happened.
The Highschool Building: An Unexpected Admirer
Nothing else happened for a few hours, but Hijiri became a bit more desperate. With the targets being clueless about the dangers that surround them, it would be hard to exercise caution and avoid getting others involved in the school’s current problem. He immediately sent a letter to Shuichi and Kyo, hoping to talk to them about the issue as they seemed to be high n the priority list. Unbeknownst to him, his letter that he discreetly placed in Shuichi’s locker had been tampered, with it leading the time manipulator to the back of the school building where it was dark and devoid of people. Kyo, getting the original letter, met Hijiri in front of the dormitory building with Yuha as they made their way to try and rest for the day. Hijiri had a horrible feeling when one of the targeted students didn’t arrive and wasted no time in filling the two students in about the problem.
Kyo and Yuha, despite being apprehensive at first, discerned that he wasn’t lying through the latter’s help. With Kyo realizing that he accidentally brought in an uninvolved person in the mix, he immediately tried to get Yuha to move back into the dorms, but realized that he might be their only way in finding Shuichi by using his ability to sense any feelings of distress in the area.
With luck, the two found Shuichi while Hijiri immediately ran for Remiel’s help. Entering the scene, they realized that the three of them were all in grave danger. Shuichi, who had been led to the back of the school building was earlier met by six-legged crawlers, all surrounding him as they ominously laugh and whisper at the poor boy. He had made an attempt to escape using his coeur, but with Yuha and Kyo entering the scene, he knew that he couldn’t exactly just ditch them.
As the crawlers encroach on the three, they were toyed around with by the monsters but weren’t exactly fatally injured by them. Before long, a figure stepped in and introduced himself as Johen, the master of the monsters that had been roaming around and attacking targeted students recently.
The three try to fend the crawlers off, with their master making his way towards the three as he mocked them. Toyed with them. Played with their hearts. After a long, gruelling struggle and with Shuichi’s asthma active, Johen decided to finally stop and take them to what he called ‘home’. Kyo and Yuha struggled to protect Shuichi, with Kyo’s body losing form as he became more riled up at Johen’s taunts. Yuha attempted to heal Shuichi in order to ease his suffering, attempting one final attack at the red-haired fiend by amassing their anger into a psycheblade. He swung at Johen, with it ultimately being a futile attempt as Johen merely breaking the blade and even broke Yuha’s wrist.
With the three finally being incapacitated, Johen healed Shuichi and stopped his asthma attack in order to prevent him from entering the afterlife too soon. He ordered his crawlers to carry the three, preparing to leave as they lacked any more stamina to struggle, but before he could exit the campus, Hijiri and Remiel entered, barring him from leaving with the students.
Realizing that he couldn’t fight against Remiel and take the students at the same time, Johen conceded and exited through his void-like portal, being outnumbered by the two and his crawlers evaporating into the air due to Remiel’s holy abilities. However, Johen dragged their consciousness in the void with him and gave them a final word.
“I’ll be back. For all of you.”
The Highschool Building: A Gust of Wind
Hijiri soon followed after, knowing that Johen couldn’t be giving up so easily on his targets. His worst fears came to reality when he saw Lilianne and Yamato taken right in front of his eyes, being knocked out and flown away by an invisible force that seemed to be one under the fiend’s control as well.
Seeing that there were two other students nearby that saw the kidnapping from up close, Hijiri immediately shouted at them to get back in the school building just in case Johen planned to take another pair by force. Tatsuya and Arisa were both shocked at what they just witnessed, with their schoolmates suddenly disappearing into the sunset sky as they were dragged back in the building by the panicked senior.
Out of breath from the running, Hijiri rested for a moment at the school’s entrance as he explained the situation to the two bystanders. With them being shocked at their friend’s disappearance, he wanted the two to go back to the dormitories and keep safe, until he realized who they were and what their coeurs were, he wasted no time in trying to enlist their help.
According to his previous meetings with Rion, Naru, and Mizuha, they’ve all concluded that the intruders must be operating mainly in the West Ram Forest and that their ship must be docked around the same side. The only problem was that they now had to find the ship with Lilianne and Yamato being abducted, needing to make haste before the intruders attempted to leave the island’s waters.
The Docks: Unexpected Aides
Hijiri, Tatsuya, and Arisa made their way towards the docks, with Hijiri keeping himself hidden knowing that any sight of his face would prompt the intruders to immediately run off and leave. He depended on Tatsuya’s clairvoyance ability to look for the correct ship while Arisa attempted to distract the ship crew, giving them panic buttons in the scenario that they were suddenly met with danger. They managed to find the ship, fortunately. However, on their way back to the school, the tram in which they rode on suddenly got attacked by humanoid looking pawns, showing that their small trip to the docks did not go unnoticed by one of the intruders.
The two students struggled fending them off, with Hijiri helping them at first until one of the pawns managed to get its hands on the blonde’s head, snapping his neck and making him fall over as he seemingly died. The students were left to survive on their own, with much difficulties as Tatsuya was suffering from mild concussion simultaneously due to the crash. In desperate measure, Tatsuya triggered a newfound skill to his ability: reading the movements of his foes ahead of time. Right after, Arisa followed through her friend’s endeavor and activated a higher strength, smashing three of the pawns in front of her in one strike. Both, however, quickly suffered from their contrecoeurs.
When it looked like all hope was lost for Arisa and Tatsuya, Hijiri’s voice suddenly echoed with a prayer once more and managed to rid them of their attackers, summoning a gale to cut up the pawns in pieces before they got to the other two. He was alive! With Arisa and Tatsuya, they slowly made their way back towards the academy and left the broken tram behind. Hijiri apologized to the two for making them go through something as horrible as they did, but Arisa forgave him and thanked him for the experience that they earned.
Spring 27
The Docks: In the Dark Waters
After reporting to Naru, Rion, and Mizuha through text the previous night, Hijiri made his way for the docks and remained there as he waited for his fellow trainees to execute the rescue mission. However, he realized that the ships were leaving soon… Hijiri had to think of something and fast. They already found the ship, but stalling its departure through outside means such as barring any ship from exit into the open sea and away from the island would definitely garner suspicion. Not only with the villains, but the townsfolk as well. Everything had to be incognito otherwise Lilianne and Yamato might not make it out alive.
Approaching Aleksei and Yui who were both nearby and remembering what their abilities were, he asked for their aid in order to stall the villains’ departure, asking Yui to destroy the ships engine with her telekinesis and have Aleksei look underwater for any possible means of escape. The two students didn’t want to do something so dangerous at first, but when Hijiri told them that two students were currently stowed away in the ship, they immediately relented and changed their decision, agreeing to help.
Yui entered the ship, making use of the crates in order to avoid detection and got to the engine room. She started attempting to bust the engines, but due to her coeur leaking and being somewhat uncontrollable, she had a hard time breaking the engines and broke the things around them instead.
Meanwhile, Aleksei scouted underwater for any vessel that the villains might use for escape, swimming around in the darkness and finding one that seemed to be the glass screen of a camouflaged submarine. Before he realized it, a monster that seemed to be a poorly imitated version of a fairy-tale mermaid appeared and pursued the boy, attacking and preventing him from surfacing up to safety.
As Aleksei struggled against the thing and his contrecoeur reaching its limit, Hijiri realized what was happening due to loss of communication and immediately used a prayer to send Aleksei help. The corpse mermaid quickly gained on Aleksei, but before it even got within an arm’s reach, a force tackled it down, sending the monster down to the seabed before the unexpected arrival wrapped its arms around Aleksei in a protective embrace.
The water nymph, Erudite, answered Hijiri’s calls for aid in order to allow Aleksei to escape. Instead of immediately escaping with the boy, the willful nymph decided to use Aleksei’s ability, guiding him into doing the same as the corpse mermaid’s main method of attack which was sending sharp projectiles that targeted him. The nymph helped his aim by keeping the monster in place, skillfully controlling the water and coaxing Aleksei to get rid of their intruders. The boy succeeded, killing the corpse mermaid and having Erudite bring him back to the shore.
HIjiri greeted the two worriedly, surprised when Erudite told him what happened underwater and reprimanded the nymph for not taking Aleksei up to safety right away. By making Aleksei use a new skill, his contrecoeur activated and thankfully Hijiri was ready with a bucket in order to prevent him from vomiting on his uniform or making a mess on the sand. Yui, was still in the ship, however, leading the three to worry about her progress and prompting Aleksei to ask Hijiri to send her help as well. However, due to Hijiri’s prayers being limited and how sending a creature inside the protected ship might cause the villains to be alerted to their reconnaissance mission, the trainee realized that he couldn’t. Erudite seemed to have an idea as to what was happening to the girl, and told them to keep on waiting as she was on her way out.
After breaking the engines using a broken pipe when she realized that she can’t rely on her coeur, Yui finally made her escape back to the three, but was blocked by what seemed to be the same humanoid pawn that attacked HIjiri and the other two students in the tram just the day before. It came after her, attempting to choke her and erase her from existence. Yui struggled to fend it off with just the pipe and was lead to try and use her coeur again, somehow managing to crush its head with pure telekinetic force as it tried to choke her to death.
With the pawn now dead, Yui sped out of the ship and leapt out into the open sea. Somehow levitating as she made her way towards the other three and crying. Hijiri approached her, glad to see her safe. Her contrecoeur also activated however, and it led her to accidentally vomit on Hijiri’s pants and shoes, with the senior not seeming to mind the accident at all…..
Hijiri attempted to take the two to the clinic, but Erudite stopped him and reprimanded him due to his carelessness. With the two being injured, the nymph argued that Hijiri would make them sicker and might even infect their wounds due to the bile that stained his clothes.
Erudite surprisingly stayed around long enough to look human and went as far as accompanying them to the clinic. She didn't stick around the school for long, however, since she felt that the Rampaca might think she was imposing or chasing after Hijiri again, but her concern was more than genuine for the two students.
After a while, she decided to return back to the sea, with Hijiri waving her off before he looked at the arrival of his fellow trainees. It was time to rescue Yamato and Lilianne.
The Observatory: Engulfing the Stars in the Void
While Hijiri attempted to stall the ship’s escape, Naru, Rion, and Mizuha met once again at the observatory in order to discuss their possible plans and to listened to Naru’s theory about the organization that seemed to be after the students. ‘Who are they?’, was the topic of the day’s meeting. At this point, Naru was sure that the students weren’t being abducted for no reason. It was not merely just for kidnapping more users. It was to sell them as well.
When they all gathered, they realized there was nothing else to do about this. They knew their motives, where they mainly operated, and where their ship was- but they had no way of helping anyone with their current ability. However, they knew one thing they could do: steal their attention and buy Hijiri some time to stall the ship.
With this realization, the shadows that loomed around them suddenly came to life, engulfing the observatory and barring any form of escape or entry. Before them, Johen appeared and told them that he had been aware about their involvement about the investigation in his organization’s activity all long. He was one with the shadows, his shadowy void-like portal being a way for him to hear everything and anything that happened as long as he had access to the location.
The three students were not surprised at the sudden turn of events, but it didn’t change the fact that Johen intended to erase their existences for meddling. They recognized the man to be the cause of all the problems on the island and prepared to try and survive against him, working together knowing that they couldn’t possibly live with fighting him and the parade of a hundred demons that he seemed to have brought with him.
They struggled against the mob of monsters that all attacked them due to Johen sending shadowy spikes that shot up from the ground towards their way, forcing them to separate and lose a defensive position against the fiend.
With Mizuha as their only line of defense and offense, Naru and Rion tried their best to protect her and prevent the monsters from coming near her as she helped defend the two. Johen took notice of this, and separated the two boys further from her, taking an interest in her abilities as well as her role amongst the three.
As Rion and Naru are separated further from her, Johen managed to put his hands on Mizuha’s neck, lifting her up as he strangled her. His interest was short-lived, remembering that his co-worker seemed to be interested in Mizuha and wished to turn her into a doll. The same went for the other two boys, making the villain wonder if this was worth it. However, in the midst of him trying to kill Mizuha, the other two managed to close in their distance and forced him to throw Mizuha into a wall and distanced himself from the three as well.
Johen’s new summons were easily dispatched enough through normal means, but a resummoned ramwalker shot poisoned thorns at the three, injuring and grazing them as they managed to dodge. With the ruckus in the observatory, Johen’s plan wasn’t only to eradicate them, but to catch the rest of the campus residents’ attention as well. With a snap of a finger, he opened a large void that covered the whole floor, with everything and everyone that wasn’t him and his summons slowly sinking into it and becoming drained of life.
Just as he started the transfer to the lifeless void, Charmeine and Orion entered through a window, burning the shadow that occupied it and came to the student’s rescue. Johen recognized this as the student council president finally making a move against him, but found it ultimately futile as the differences in strength between him and mere students was overwhelming for the latter. He kept on stalling, however, waiting for the teachers to arrive and stop him.
As the others tried to escape, another doll similar to Saiun and Shion’s incident appeared through a void in front of Orion and the rest as reinforcement. It seemed to be there to prevent their escape, specifically targeting the ice-user while Rion and Naru made their way up the third floor of the observatory, taking Mizuha with them along the way and hiding behind the large telescope.
Orion tried to escape the sinking observatory by creating a wall and a flight of stairs for the students to walk on, delaying what Johen called as the inevitable. Their senior told them to come up with a plan while Charmeine distracted Johen and tried to face him one on one. Remembering that there were hidden passageways that a certain ramologist used to get around the observatory without being in the sight of students, they all decided to use this to sneak up on their attacker. Using Rion’s new scent that heightened the senses, he helped Mizuha go around the maze-like passage and hopefully come back safe.
Mizuha led the sneak attack, traversing through the hidden passageways and coming across a small room, just in time to see a peculiar-looking ram being dragged off through the wall by a bunch of Yuurams. It froze when they made eye contact, but immediately pointed at a small grandfather clock and showed her the way by speaking… human. This shook the girl a little but she immediately made her way towards the clock and found a good spot to aim at Johen from. She used the poison that was spreading through her wounds, transferred it at the tip of her hair and sent her sharp, poisoned hair towards him, who merely allowed her to do so.
When he realized that they tried to sneak up on him, Johen seemed more pleased than angry at the students’ wits. Pulling out Mizuha’s impaled hair from his body and pulled at it, attempting to drag the smart little cookie out into the open as his interest in her hair grew further. Thankfully, Charmeine cut it off before he could pull any further and hurt Mizuha more.
With Charmeine edging to her limit and the observatory almost two floors into the void, Johen summoned another spike that rose up to the telescope and pierced through it and the roof. When the observatory and whoever else was in it seemed completely done for, Remiel entered once again, using his coeur to negate the effects of Johen’s voice. Forcing the observatory back up, left with a husk of what the first two floors used to be, only with pillars that were strong enough to hold up the large telescope that sat on the roof.
Huifen appeared by the three students’ side and erected a barrier, preventing the encroaching monsters that tried to harm them. She led their escape, with Naru clearing the way and Huifen keeping the barrier up as she held Mizuha on her back, pining straight for the nearest emergency exit.
Cacey arrived with his boombox, singing a tune in order to get rid of the monsters on the lower floors and prevent any more from pursuing the ones that tried to escape. His attempts succeeded, with the monsters also unable to avoid Remiel’s attacks.
Johen faced off against Remiel once more, but with the former getting injured from a cross that’s burned onto his back. Despite claiming to have waited for Remiel, Johen found his mission over as soon as more than one teacher arrived, with reinforcements entering the scene and blocking off any more attempts at pursuing the red-head with an army of humanoid pawns that stampeded their way to protect him. The doll, meanwhile, seemed to be on its final minutes as it claimed to be exploding soon. Johen disappeared into the void once more, but not without completely wrecking the observatory and destroying the telescope even further.
Realizing the parting gift, Remiel immediately erected barriers around himself and all those that were still present within the ruined facility. As it said, the doll exploded in the middle of the observatory. Its body parts scattered and blood splattered onto the interior, giving off a horrible death-like smell for anyone who had the unfortunate nose to sniff it..
Huifen and the students managed to leave through the emergency exit, with Naru looking back once more to see the carnage that they had left behind.
The day ended with the principal and student council president sweating bullets at the destruction of the observatory. That building was expensive to build, hence he decided to employ Huifen's help later in order to restore it... along with some construction workers for the broken telescope of course.
It seemed that Johen had fled back to his ship, with the other CORE trainees finally arriving, it should prove to be of no struggle just to save the two kidnapped students. Huifen, meanwhile, led all of them to the clinic in order to get them patched up, laying down the unconscious Rion and Mizuha on the clinic beds, and then forcing Naru, Charmaine, and Orion to sit and rest on one as well.
The news about the rescue mission should arrive soon, but for that minute, the students were urged to rest and hope that all that they had worked for was not for nothing.
Johen's Ship: Despair and Hope
Yamato and Lilianne woke up in a dark crate, both realizing that they were most likely knocked out and abducted. Yamato, being scared of the dark and small spaces, immediately urged them to try and get out after hearing their captors outside talking about unpleasant things that might happen to them. He tried to find ways with Lilianne, fighting his own despair with Lilianne’s positivity as they attempted to get out. After a while, they finally managed to break free from the metal crate, with Yamato slashing one side of it open and allowed their exit.
The noise that Yamato’s actions made attracted the attention of the guards, causing the two to suddenly need to hide and maneuver their way towards the exit. The darkness of the storage room helped mask their figures as they used whatever was available to hide in, going from under the dusty shelves, hiding under grimy clothes that covered packages, hiding behind crates and inside barrels just to avoid being caught as the guards all looked for the two.
The guards got too close to Lilianne’s position and finding out where she was, but thanks to her quick wits she managed to throw an object somewhere far away in order to lure and distract the guards from her position, allowing her to catch up to Yamato who was already by the stairs. As the guards were all distracted, they bolted up towards the upper deck, thinking that they might finally be free from their prison.
Spring 28
Johen's Ship: Sowing the Seeds
On the first minute of the 28th, Johen arrived at the upper deck through his portal, his usually amused face being basically nonexistent. Seeing that the guards he left behind on the ship were all at a panic about the two students that managed to escape, he was anything but satisfied at his guard’s incompetence, sending them all away as he waited for the two on the upper deck. The only place they would go to was here, of course, as there were no other exit available coming from the storage section of the ship.
Yamato and Lilianne arrived and saw him, meeting his eyes that contained a silent rage. They knew it wouldn’t be this easy, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t going to at least try and fight. Johen engaged them in battle as a form of destressor from his previous visit at the observatory, summoning a vine monster in order to whip the two disobedient kids into discipline as he mused about their importance. Yamato put up a fight, with Lilianne supporting him from behind. But while Yamato distracted the vine monster after Lilianne finally managed to immobilize it using a cage, he realized that Johen was practically a few steps away from the scared girl, fear emanating from her as rage did with him.
In a swift motion, Yamato immediately stood in between them, warning Johen to not come any closer to Lilianne as his wings rose up defensively against the man. For a moment, Johen was shaken at his bravery. Actually, he was even moved. Knowing that the two were strangers first and foremost, the red-head did not expect for them to be so protective of each other and caused the smile to return on his lips, finding his bravery and willingness to protect a stranger to be extremely touching. He tested Yamato’s bravery even further, as he wrapped Yamato in a black shroud and set him to the darkest place in his mind, where the boy’s worst fears sat in, and moved towards Lilianne once more when Yamato couldn’t move anymore.
Despite the fear that Yamato had, he managed to overcome his fears thanks to his sister, friends, and Lilianne’s previous support and attempts at giving him hope while they were stuck in the darkness. Lilianne, in worry for the boy, attempted to try and redirect his fears, with Johen trying to stop her and grabbing her hand that touched Yamato. This proved to be a bad move, however, as all the fear that had engulfed Yamato was redirected to him through Lilianne, giving him flashbacks of what he, himself, hated and feared the most.
This was more than enough for Johen to snap, only being frozen for a moment before grabbing Lilianne’s hair, pulling it up as she apologized and begged for his forgiveness. Her skill was interesting, but he was certainly not pleased at what he was just shown. His anger rose and allowed a shadow to cut the girl’s face, but holding back due to the fact that it wasn’t part of the mission to kill an Iversen.
Yamato came back from his inner mind, seeing Lilianne being hurt by Johen, but unable to try and save her due to the fiend threatening to hurt her. His warning was interrupted, however, when a flash of lightning forced itself through the barrier and landed with impact, sending Johen flying away. He managed to stand on his feet, but before he realized it, he was surrounded once more by CORE trainees this time. With Hijiri surrounding him along with Aeron and Flam, Raiha and Shouko were left to tend to the two victims and try to get them to safety.
Johen, being ever so persistent, confused them with a skill that switched all of their positions and jumped on a high platform, eyeing Lilianne and Yamato with obvious interest. Despite the failure to abduct the students, the man did not seem fazed at all. It was a test from him, a close-up analyzation of the targets that he wanted to acquire in the future. They were not ripe for the taking yet, and he acknowledged this and used the experience as data for the future.
He declared his intent once more, before falling backwards off the ship and into a void, leaving the trainees and students with the echoes of his last words.
“Sow the seeds for me to harvest the fruits.”
With that, the two students were whisked to safety by the core trainees that arrived. They were immediately taken to the clinic and patched up, along with being given light things to eat considering they haven't been fed during their captivity.
It seemed that the intruder's trace on the island had disappeared.... Or so the principal sensed. For now, everyone can rest as it had been a long, long week.
Spring 29
The Clinic: The Recovery
With the intruders on the island finally being driven out and the two kidnapped students being rescued, the past few days had been of ceaseless rush for the school doctor. Students had been rushed in for recuperation from injuries and contrecoeur effects for the past week, making the room resemble something akin to a hospital's emergency room instead of a humble school clinic. Thankfully, there were no lack of beds at all and it had space for everyone that arrived.
Some students just got there, some had been there for days, some tried to leave but they were ushered back for more check-ups by Hijiri, wanting to make sure that they were all completely fine.
With most of the students being unaware of what happened, an announcement had been made about the recent events through a school-wide intercom.
“Dear Students,
The past few days had been hectic as the school was attacked by intruders. There had been multiple casualties and injured students who are currently recovering in the clinic. Fortunately, things have now calmed down as the intruders have been driven out.
Early curfews will remain temporarily and students are still advised to move with caution. More news and information about the event will be released soon.
Thank you.”
When going around campus, no one would miss the wrecked observatory with a large black spike emerging from the rooftop. It was almost utterly destroyed. But approaching it was off limits as workers and staffs attempt to fix the school's most expensive building.... Rumors of blood and innards being splattered all over the interior had spread, but no one could really confirm this as the whole perimeter around it was sealed off and guarded with Wanrams and CORE Agents.
The injured students and targets mostly gathered at the clinic, coming back every now and then for check ups and the like. Majority of them seemed to be recovering well as their friends visited them and talked to them. It was necessary… especially after going through such traumatic things. Thanks to the school doctor, Erin, they all have been recovering fine, but with the school and more importantly, CORE, finally being pushed to announce the dangers that lurked on the island, things weren’t going to be quiet on their side for some time….
Spring 30
The Palais de Coeurs: End of Spring
After the events that had unfolded the past few weeks, an assembly was finally held at the Palais, with majority of the students present and the rest being able to watch from their mobile devices or televisions through an island-wide broadcast.
On the platform was the student council members, all with grim faces as the president stepped up in order to speak.
"After the events that had unfolded the past few weeks, an assembly was finally held at the Palais, with majority of the students present and the rest being able to watch from their mobile devices or televisions through an island-wide broadcast.
On the platform was the student council members, all with grim faces as the president stepped up in order to speak.
With the school’s affairs being extremely frantic before the intruders that plagued our island finally being gone and students that got involved and injured in this incident, CORE has finally allowed us to speak up on the matter that concerns everyone that lives here.
First, we’d like to address the school’s silence on the matter with utmost honesty. In order to avoid panic on the island, we decided to keep the truth hidden from the students, but as this proved to be a horrible choice on our part, I would like to apologize for the lack of action that caused so many wrongs against all of you.
Since fall last year, there had been incidents of missing townsfolk being reported and suspicious shadows being seen on the island. I personally have seen them and have reported about them, but due to the nature of the case, we have been unauthorized to release any confidential information about it. But when the school year started, shadow sightings became more frequent. The Kumarams reported mysterious creatures lurking about the forest, only ever observing from the shadows.
While we put our staff members on high alert, knowledge about this was not allowed to be released to the students, as much as the school wanted to. We understand all of your sentiments and we have heard them loud and clear. A fair warning should have been given, and it was something that we could not not deliver due to our lack of authority on the matter.
But after an incident concerning the barrier last week, the intruders managed to go through with their plan and the shadows emerged from the forest. It seemed that the forest was their limit before the barrier broke, but due to the rip, a lot of them gained the ability to trail students and put the intruder’s plans into motion, causing the series of attacks and abductions during the past week.
As for the identity of the organization that targeted students, CORE has finally decided to release information about them after this incident. It is a criminal organization that goes under the name of “Gillebhráth”, with their main motives to be the abduction and trafficking of Users. Before the island-wide attack had occurred, they caused multiple distractions around the world and kept the battle-ready agents on the island lacking, with only a trainee left and the barriers as a form of protection.
Second, is CORE’s involvement, or lack thereof, on this matter. We cannot speak for them, but Shinnou Academy’s staff is unaware of the their plans as we were only instructed to keep silence. This isn’t to shift the blame onto CORE, however, as they have their own way of doing things. We as an institute that is supposed to protect the island’s inhabitants and students, have failed all of you with our lack of transparency and choice of complacency.
For this, we apologize. But we also thank the brave students that helped us prevent the worst from happening while our hands were tied.
In the future, we have no plans of keeping any more incidents and news from the student body. At the moment, our news site is being fixed up in order to keep all of you up to date about our PSAs and any possible danger that might be lurking around the island.
With this, should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to approach us or the staff. We will be making efforts in rebuilding the school observatory and getting the security on the island at maximum alert in order to avoid any repeat of this in the future.
Again, we sincerely apologize for everything and thank all of you for your understanding."
The broadcast ended, leaving the watchers pondering on the matter. After the opening ceremony, the student council wasn’t too trusted by the student body, but as summer drew near and the season changing, they all hoped for that to change.