Lily Wong Ch. 29

Chapter 29

Tiger Hunt

"There's a tiger by the Science Building, but it looks like it's just there for a quick stroll. Head over there quick before it goes away."

From the safety of her dorm room, Tanja had her eyes glued to her computers that showed her every inch of the school grounds. Beside her on the bed laid her smartphone on speaker so she may speak with her hands free as they danced across the keyboard at almost impossible speeds.

"Got it," said Lily. She was riding on a flying carpet high over the school, phone in hand to her ear. 

By her command the carpet made a turn and she soared down to the Science Building. It didn't take her long before she spotted the beast slowly making a turn at a corner. But before completely disappearing to the side, it stopped and turned, and then bolted.

Lily swore. The beast had noticed her and was making a break for it. 

She urged the magic carpet to fly faster and zoom after the tiger, catching up just in time to see it disappear at another turn.

"Oh no you don't!" Lily shouted.

She quickly reached the corner the tiger had disappeared around. But as soon as she made the turn herself, the tiger pounced on her.

Startled, she shrieked. "Eek!" She raised her arms over her head as the tiger lashed out. A wall of light appeared out of Lily's bracelet and wrapped itself around her, taking the attack in her place. But when the tiger's paw struck the wall, Lily was sent flying back and hit the ground.

"Lily!" Tanja cried through the phone. "Are you okay? Answer me!"

Lily remained silent, her heart pounding fast and hard. She was not only overcome by a sense of dizziness, but also a wave of fear that made her nauseous. Honestly, she felt like throwing up.

She hated the idea of actually fighting a full-grown tiger. She wanted to run away from it, badly. But then images flashed in her mind, memories of her friends now as cold stone statues and the fact the only way to save them was those charms the tigers all wore.

Fear of losing her friends forever pushed aside her fear of tigers and gave her renewed energy to go after the tiger again. 

After getting back up, she took a look around and swore. The tiger was no longer anywhere to be found. Looking around some more, she found her phone lying on the grass, no worse for wear except a little wet from dew. Tanja's voice could be heard squeaking from it. The phone's speaker mode had probably been turned off when it fell.

Lily scooped the phone up, put it to her ear and told Tanja on the other end, "I'm okay. But the tiger's gone. Did you see where it went?"

"It went bounding over to the next building to your left," Tanja told her. "You can still catch up to it."

Lily was already flying on her carpet again. She swooped over to the shorter box-shaped building next door, circled around it once and spotted the tiger running around the left side and disappear around the corner.

Once again, she chased after the beast. And when she turned the corner, it was there waiting. But this time, she was ready for it.

The moment the tiger pounced and swiped its paw at her, Lily swerved away out of the beast's reach. And then, she stood up and jumped off the carpet. She landed right on top of the tiger and clung onto tufts of its fur as it lurched and bucked around to try and shake her off. Her legs flailed about, but she hung on tight until the tiger tired out.

Once the beast paused to catch its breath, she seized her chance to grab hold of the glass ball charm on its collar and yanked it off. Smoke exploded out of the tiger's fur and Lily fell to the ground. Pain shot up her elbow.

"Ow!"

She gingerly sat up. Looking around, she noticed the tiger gone. Lying on the ground in its place was a plush toy.

"That's one down," Lily muttered to herself.

The next tiger, according to Tanja was lingering behind the Castle.

Learning from her earlier battle, Lily landed a few feet away where she wouldn't be noticed. Inspired by a comic book, she asked the bracelet to erase all sound around her and make herself invisible. The bracelet complied and Lily's hand disappeared right before her very eyes. She tried testing the spell out some more by shouting, clapping her hands and stomping her feet, but nothing could be heard.

Satisfied, she finally went over to the back of the old building that served as the heart of the school where she found the tiger laying down, apparently napping.

This is my chance! Lily thought to herself.

Slowly, she approached the beast, tiptoeing despite knowing she would make no sound anyway. She was just a foot away when the tiger suddenly lifted its head and opened its mouth wide.

Startled, Lily froze and was about to retreat when she realized that the tiger was only yawning. When it was down, it lowered its head back down and resumed snoring with its collar's charm tucked beneath it.

Now what do I do? Lily wondered. She racked her brain for a few minutes, but then came up with an idea.

She had the bracelet shine a ray of blue light around the tiger which slowly lifted the beast up into the air. But almost instantly, the tiger's eyes flew open and it jumped to its feet with a roar.

Her spell broken, Lily sprang forward and reached out. The tiger reared its head back, but with magic boosting her speed, Lily was in time to snatch the charm off its collar. Like the first one, the tiger disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a plush toy.

"That makes two," Lily said. "Alright Tanja, where's the next one?"

The next tiger was in the green house where plants of all shapes and sizes lived normally under the students' care. There were the usual colorful flowers and ferns, but also vegetables like carrots and potatoes, trees with fruits like apples and oranges, and a field of herbs for tea. 

Lily found the tiger lying in the middle of a paved circle surrounded by white steel benches that the plant life's caretakers used during breaks. Tanja had explained that the tiger had crashed through the front doors of the building, but Lily could see as much when she walked through the gaping opening over broken glass and bent steel. Unlike Tiger #2, Tiger #3 was wide awake and staring off into space.

Perhaps it was enjoying the scenery, Lily thought. She, herself, found the surrounding plants to be very pretty, their leaves practically shining under the light of the blue moon.

As she wondered what to do next, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.

"Hello? What is it, Tanja?" she whispered.

Tanja's voice came through and said, "I just got an idea. Think you can do this?"

Lily nodded as she listened to Tanja's suggestion and went, "Uh-huh, uh-huh. That's . . . actually a good idea. Let's try it!"

And then she leaped out from the bushes she had been hiding behind. The tiger jumped up, startled. But before it could flee, Lily slapped her hand on the ground and shouted, "Vines!"

Light flashed from her bracelet and suddenly, dozens of large, thick green rope-like plants burst out of an explosion of concrete bits and dust. They swung over the tiger and in the blink of an eye trapped it in a tight, tangled mess.

The tiger bit and pulled at the vines with all its might. But no matter what it did, it could not break free. The vines had been reinforced by a force field of magic energy that glowed blue around the writhing beast. 

Still, the vines' protection would not last long. That's why, as soon as the tiger was ensnared, Lily leaped and then dropped down, sliding across the floor. She passed beneath the tiger, through a tunnel the beast made with its legs, and reached up, snatching the charm off its collar.

"And that makes three. Two more to go."

Lily pulled out her phone again. "Alright, Tanja. Next."

**********

Perched on the edge of a nearby building's rooftop, the blue parrot watched as Lily scurried out of the green house. It heard the sound of rustling cloth, giving away that someone was walking up to the bird from behind. But knowing who it was, the bird did not bother to turn or look. Its eyes remained glued to the girl down below as she flew off on a magic carpet.

"How goes the child?" spoke the Schemer.

The parrot replied, "Doing a lot better than I thought. I expected her to turn into a blubbering mess when her friends turned into stone before her very eyes, but she was quick to start doing what needs to be done. Not only that, she's already gotten three out of the five charms. She'll be done long before the sun starts to rise. I must say, she's a lot more powerful now than before."

"But not enough," said the Schemer. "She needs to struggle some more."

With another flutter of his robes, he walked away and disappeared.

**********

Lily was on her way to the school gym while riding her flying magic carpet when suddenly a bundle of cloth appeared in front of her. It was a person dressed in robes whose face hid beneath the shadow of their hood, floating down like a marionette on strings dropped down onto the stage by giant hands above. No introductions were needed. There was only one person Lily knew dressed like that. She had only met him once before, but it was an unforgettable meeting.

"Schemer!"

"It has been a while, Lady Sapphire," said the antagonist.

Lily glared at him and snarled, "Unless you're here to say you'll undo the curse on Oliver and the others, get out of my way."

"Don't worry, child," said the Schemer. "I will be out of your hair shortly. I just came because I was worried this challenge was too easy for you."

Lily's face flushed red with anger. "Easy? You think chasing after five runaway tigers is easy!?"

The Schemer nodded and then pointed a black gloved finger at her. "Take a look at your phone."

"My phone?" Puzzled, Lily glanced down at her smartphone and her eyes flew wide in surprise. Rapidly, the time shown on the phone's lock screen changed. After a few seconds, the big, bold white numbers showed one . . . two . . . three hours had passed. And then it stopped.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on!?" Lily shouted, phone pressed to her face and right over her eyes. "What did you do?"

Coolly, the Schemer said, "I suggest you take that phone off your face. That's really bad for your eyes."

But Lily didn't care and asked again, "What did you do?"

The villain explained, "I slowed everything in the Blue World, including us. It is basically no different from fast-forwarding time, but much easier to do.”

"He's not kidding," Tanja said to Lily's phone's speaker. "I still have access to the Internet and all signs point that it's almost morning! Time really did speed up!"

“Why would you do that?” Lily shouted indignantly.

“Why, to make it harder for you to rescue your friends of course! I am the bad guy, remember? Now, you only have a few minutes before sunrise. If you do not gather all the charms in time, your friends will forever remain stone statues!”

The Schemer then cackled wickedly as he slowly rose up to the sky which had noticeably gotten brighter, a clear sign that night was soon changing to day.

"Good luck!"

The Schemer gave Lily a cheery, mocking wave and then disappeared in a flash of blue light. Lily had to turn away from the brightness. When she looked back, the Schemer was gone.

"That . . . that . . . !"

Lily had a few choice words she wanted to call the Schemer. But she swallowed them all back down, telling herself that now was not the time for futile insults. She still had two more tigers to find and not a lot of time left to find them.

"Tanja, is the tiger at the gym still there?" she asked on the phone.

Tanja replied, "It is. But hurry! It's already leaving!"

Lily was already flying on her magic carpet again and headed straight for the gym building as fast as she could. She reached it just in time to see the tiger running across the field towards the forest beyond the wall.

Like before at the green house, Lily used her magic powers to make vines burst out and wrap themselves around the tiger, tethering it to the ground.

"Yes!" Lily cheered. "Now I just have one more to go!"

Or so she thought.

One second the tiger laid pinned down on the grass. The next, there was a flash of light and it disappeared, only to reappear a few feet away as free as a wild bird.

A stunned Lily cried out, "What in the world?"

Tanja's baffled voice came out from the phone's speaker. "Did that tiger just teleport? Since when do tigers teleport?"

The Schemer's voice came from the sky and said, "Oh, I forgot to mention that I gave the remaining tigers superpowers. They can teleport and do a whole lot of other stuff."

"Ugh! WHY? JUST WHY?"

The Schemer didn't answer Lily's scream at him in the sky. Instead, he mockingly sang, "Tick-tock, tick-tock. The sun's almost up!"

His cackling faded, leaving Lily's face as red as a tomato as she bit on her lower lip. The corners of her eyes were moist.

She quickly rubbed her eyes dry with her sleeve and turned to see the tiger bounding for the wall again. Lily chased after it while commanding the bracelet to bring out more vines again and again. The tiger hopped left and right, jumping out of the vines' reach. One vine managed to snag the tiger's leg, but it just teleported out of the snaring plant's grasp. Not even a net made out of metal mesh could hold it down long.

Desperate, Lily jumped off the carpet and dove down to the tiger below. But just as she was about to land on top of it, the tiger disappeared in another flash of light and she hit the ground instead.

"No!"

Lily looked up and spotted the tiger getting close to the wall. In moments, it was going to jump over and disappear into the forest, beyond the school cameras' range. And with the dense foliage of that particular neck of wilderness, even with Tanja's drones, it would be hard to find the beast again.

But before the tiger could leap out of school grounds, nearby lights suddenly turned on, shining a ray of white light directly into its eyes. That was Tanja's doing, she came up with the idea while racking her brains for a way to help out beyond just navigation.

The tiger reared back with a pained howl. 

"Lily, now!" Tanja screamed.

Lily scrambled back up and ran. Through her mind, she spoke to the bracelet.

I don't care how, just get me to that tiger!

The bracelet answered with light flashing from its jewels. In the blink of an eye, Lily found herself right next to the tiger. Only later after her adrenaline rush died down, Lily realized that she had teleported.

All her thoughts were on the charm dangling off the tiger's collar. As soon as she saw it, she reached out and grabbed it. The charm snapped off and the tiger transformed into a plush toy.

"That's it!" Lily shouted. "Just one more! Where is it, Tanja?"

"It's at the main road, headed for the main gates. No, wait! Now it's by the boy's dorms!"

Lily stopped the flying carpet and made a turn.

"Now it's in a first floor lecture hall at the history building!"

Lily turned again.

"Now on the roof of the music building! It just keeps jumping from place to place with that teleportation power!"

Shoulders slumped, head tilted back so her face pointed to the sky, Lily moaned, "Now what do we do?"

She felt frustrated enough to throw her phone down.

"Hold on," said Tanja. "It looks like it's teleporting around in a pattern. If I can just figure the pattern now, I can figure out where it'll be next. I just need a little bit of time."

"We don't have time!" Lily snapped. "We need that last charm now!"

"I know!" Tanja snapped back. She turned right and left, up and down, down and up, and left and right, looking from one computer monitor to the other. "So, it started there, went there, popped up here, and . . . Got it! I know where it'll be! Head to the history building, Mr. Lin's room. Hurry!"

"Uncle Viceroy's classroom. Are you sure?"

"Positive!" said Tanja. "The tiger'll be there in a minute, so you gotta get there fast!"

"I'm already here," said Lily, sitting on the table beneath the movie screen her uncle always used for his lectures.

Tanja blinked. "Wow, that was fast. So you can teleport now?"

"Looks that way," said Lily. She glanced out the window and then gave her phone a look. Time was running out for her and her friends. "Hey, Tanja, are you sure the tiger will - ?"

Up the back the room elevated from the teacher's podium, there was a flash of light and the tiger showed up. Lily acted as soon as she saw the light and appeared next to the tiger in a flash of her own. She reached out to grab the charm, but it jumped away before she could touch it.

The tiger crouched low with a noticeable halo of light around its fur. 

Realizing it was going to teleport away again, Lily cried out, "No!"

But before it could disappear to who-knows-where, a classic shrill school bell rang and startled the tiger. Its concentration lost, the teleportation spell broke before it could be triggered.

The bell also gave Lily a jolt to the heart, but she was quickly snapped out of her stupor by Tanja who screamed from the phone, "Go, Lily! Go!"

Lily dropped the phone and leaped. At the same time the phone hit the floorboard, Lily's outstretched fingers wrapped around the charm hanging from the tiger's collar and yanked it off. In an instant, the tiger disappeared again, but this time it left behind a plush toy in its place.

"I got it! I got the last one!"

"Great!" cheered Tanja. "Now hurry back to the others!"

"On my way!" 

Lily turned to put the charm in the pouch with all the others when suddenly, the whole world started spinning like it was in one big, supercharged washing machine. She tumbled over and hit the wall with her shoulder before slowly sliding down to her knees.

"Lily? Lily! Are you okay?" Tanja's voice came through the phone's speaker full of worry.

Lily shook her head furiously, but could not get rid of the vertigo hanging over her head. Her fingers also felt weak and numb, making it hard for her to pick the phone back up and faintly replied, "Yeah. I'm fine."

An unconvinced Tanja argued, "You don't look fine."

"I'm fine!" Lily aggressively repeated herself. Her legs felt like jelly, but she managed to stand back up and happened to glance up at the window. "Sun's almost up. Need to get back to that jungle. Break the others' curse."

**********

The Schemer had a clear view of the room from a nearby rooftop. He watched as Lily disappeared in a flash of light like the tigers did earlier, and then turned around only to run into a wall of blue feathers.

He slowly turned to see the parrot in its giant form looking back at him with a stern gaze.

Coldly, the parrot said, "I think she's had enough for one night, don't you think?"

The Schemer replied back with a, "Hmm." And then he turned and walked away.

**********

With the power of the sapphire bracelet, Lily went from her uncle's classroom at the history building to the platform between floors at the Castle in the blink of an eye. She slapped her hand on the painting of the tiger and was once more whisked into a jungle where her friends still stood frozen in stone.

After taking out all the charms she had collected, she placed them bunched up together on the floor. And then she shouted to the sky, "Okay! I got all the charms! Now what do I do?"

She didn't get an answer back, but she didn't need one. Almost as soon as she asked, light shined from all five charms. It got so bright that Lily had to look away for a bit.

"Huh? What happened?"

Hearing voices, Lily peaked over her shoulder, and then did a full one-eighty turn.

"Guys! You're okay!"

Beside herself with joy, Lily jumped and caught Oliver, Viv and Eddie in a hug. They and the other Sapphire Society members were completely back to normal. No longer covered in cold stone, but actual warm flesh and blood.

Oliver, Viv and Eddie gaped, bewildered. But then they returned Lily's hug with an embrace of their own. The other members watched.

"So . . ." Hassan spoke up, breaking the heartfelt moment. "What did we miss?"

Everyone gave him a glance. Some rolled their eyes, while others giggled.

But when Viv turned back around, that was when she noticed something was wrong.

"Lily? . . . Lily!"

Lily had fainted.

<== Chapter 28

Lily Wong Ch. 28

Chapter 28

Cameras and Drones

"No, no, no, no, no." Lily looked at the face of her roommate, permanently frozen in stone. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Oh, wait! The bracelet!"

That's right, she thought. The magic bracelet will sort everything out, just like it has done before.

With renewed hope, Lily pulled her sleeve back to expose the bracelet, held her hand out and gave the order. "Bracelet, turn everyone back to normal!"

A curtain of light flashed from the bracelet and draped over the statues. But nothing about the statues changed after the light faded away.

"Bracelet, turn everyone back to normal!"

Again, there was a ray of light. But again, nothing changed.

"Bracelet, make them not statues anymore!"

It was just a repeat of history.

Again and again, Lily commanded the bracelet to cure her friends of their petrification. She tried wording her orders differently, but it always resulted in the same way: complete failure. And with each failed attempt, her frustration mounted until they reached a breaking point, and she just started screaming at the piece of jewelry around her wrist.

"Turn them back to normal! Turn them back to normal! TURN THEM BACK TO NORMAL!"

She dropped to her knees on the grass, hands grasping Viv's cold stone shoulders.

"Turn them back to normal!" She let out one final whimper as her head hung down.

Tanja stood back a few feet away and watched, mind racing but unable to muster up a word to say. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud flutter of wings, and she turned to see a great, big blue parrot behind her. An eye-popping big blue parrot taller than her dad who was often mistaken for a pro-basketball league player.

"The bracelet will not work," it said. Its voice sounded like a chorus of men and women speaking at the same time. You are still too weak to break curses of this level." 

Without turning, Lily softly spoke. "What do you want?"

The parrot sniffed and said, "Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to speak without looking at who you're talking to?"

Lily whirled around and snapped, "Happy now?"

As soon as it saw Lily's face, the parrot's eyes flew wide for a moment as if surprised. But then it cleared its throat and looked away. "Ahem! There is a way for you to break the curse and turn everyone petrified in stone back to normal."

Lily leaped to her feet in a fit of feverish excitement. "Really? How?"

The parrot nodded its head and replied, "Look behind you."

Lily turned. Floating around her friends like stringless balloons were the tiger dolls. Bright blue light flashed from the bubble ball charms on their collars and in the blink of an eye, the tigers went from cute plush toys to huge, living beasts that let out a chorus of fierce roars.

"Eek!"

Startled, Lily shrieked and fell backward.

The parrot sniffed and mocked Lily. "Hmph! You're not going to save anyone like that, Lady Sapphire."

Lily turned and glared at the parrot. "What is that supposed to mean?"

The parrot nodded to the tigers again and said, "The charms on those tigers are the keys to turn your friends back to normal. You need to collect them all in order to break the curse. But I wonder if you can. Word on the grapevine is you have a problem with tigers."

Lily threw another hateful gaze at the bird. "You ARE doing this tiger stuff on purpose after all!"

"Of course," said the parrot. "We're the bad guys of this story, remember? What bad guy would not take advantage of their enemy's fears or weaknesses?"

"Have you been spying on me?"

The parrot snorted. "You really like asking questions with super obvious answers, don't you? Anyway, that's not important right now. What is, is that you don't have a lot of time. If you are unable to collect all the charms before sunrise, then your friends will be stuck in stone forever."

"What? No!" Lily cried in dismay. "You can't let that happen!" 

Coldly, the parrot looked at her and fired back, "No, Lady Sapphire. YOU cannot let that happen. Whether or not your friends will be saved hinges entirely on you. Their fate is in your hands. Now, the only question is will you meet their expectations as a hero and save them or fail and doom them to spend eternity as lifeless pieces of rock?"

Lily rubbed her eyes dry with the sleeve of her blazer. And then with another angry glare at the bird, she said, "That's not going to happen."

The parrot sarcastically stated, "That's some confidence you have there, child. But even with the power of that magic bracelet, don't think it will be easy. In order to get those charms, you have to fight a whole bunch of full-grown tigers."

"It doesn't matter," said Lily. "I'll do whatever it takes to save everyone!"

"Then show me you can!" shouted the parrot. "Tigers! Prepare for battle!"

The tigers answered with another round of fierce roars. They all faced the lone girl with glowing, blue bracelet and crouched down low, ready to pounce on her. Lily glared back just as fiercely. 

She was, of course, still afraid of the tigers. But that fear was pushed aside by an even stronger feeling: the determination to save her friends. And with that determination, she took a brave step forward towards the tigers. More growls rumbled out of the tigers and then they . . . 

. . . turned and ran away as fast as they could until they disappeared into the bushes.

"Huh?"

Lily blinked and stared baffled at their receding tails.

The parrot was equally surprised and yelled, "What the hay-hay?"

Clearly, he expected the tigers to do something else.

But there should really be no surprise the tigers would cowardly flee. After all, just a few minutes ago, while the tigers were just plush toys, this happened:

Erin had said, "Do we need to gut these tigers open?"

Melody had said, "Want me to go get my sewing shears to disembowel them?"

And finally, Lily had said, "I think a nail filer would be enough to tear open their stomachs."

Not exactly the sort of thing you'd forget when someone's talking about their plans for you.

"Hey! Come back here!"

Lily took off running after the tigers, diving into the bushes. She was followed closely behind by Tanja, leaving the parrot alone in the jungle.

The big, blue bird blinked and then quipped, "Not part of the plan, but I guess it'll do."

After diving into the bushes, the girls found themselves flung out of the painting and back onto the platform between staircases in the Blue World version of the Castle in a tangled heap.

After pulling herself free from Tanja's limbs, Lily stood up and turned her head right and left, up and down. But she couldn't see the tigers anywhere and swore. "Where'd they go?"

"Look!" cried Tanja, pointing at the floor. "Those scratch marks look like they came from claws. And they're leading downstairs!"

"Nice catch!" said Lily. "You go find someplace safe to hide!"

And then she rushed down the stairs with her feet pounding loud banging noises. She jumped over the last five steps down onto the lobby floor and followed the trail of scratch marks outside where they split into different directions and faded into the night. 

Frustrated, Lily groaned and stomped her right foot down hard.

"Great! Just great!"

She glanced at her smartphone to check the time. Seeing that there was not much before dawn, she conjured a broomstick from her bracelet and was about to set off flying to search the whole school for the scattered tigers. But she stopped when she heard a set of rapid footsteps thundering towards her and someone call out to her to wait.

Lily turned to see an out-of-breath Tanja.

Annoyed, Lily asked, "Didn't I just tell you to find someplace safe to hide?"

Tanja didn't reply right away. She took in a few deep breaths and then wheezed out a reply. "I . . . can . . . help!"

Lily gave a sharp, "No thanks. I'll take care of this on my own."

Tanja took in a few more deep breaths and argued, "You won't find them all in time."

"I can track them with the magic bracelet," said Lily.

Tanja pointed out, "It'll take too long to do that and go after them by yourself."

"I don't see what difference one more person, especially someone with no magic whatsoever, will make."

"I don't need magic," Tanja said smugly. "Don't worry. I'll keep out of trouble. If this Blue World really is an exact copy of the real one, then I just need you to get me back to my room and I can handle the rest from there."

"And just how will you do that?" asked Lily.

"No time to explain," Tanja said. "You'll just have to trust me I'll get the job done."

Her own dorm room would be a good place to stay safe in, Lily supposed. "Okay, fine!"

She turned the broomstick to a floating magic carpet.

"Hop on!"

Tanja obliged and climbed onto the magic carpet. Lily had the carpet fly straight to the dorms. After climbing into her room through the window, Tanja quickly booted up all of her computers and a couple of drones she pulled out from beneath her bed. Her fingers danced over the keyboard as she leaned over it, putting her face close to the computer screens on her desk.

(Note from the author: That's bad for your eyes, so don't do it.)

"Found them!" she excitedly announced as Lily hopped into the room.

Lily blinked. "Really? That fast?"

"Take a look, if you don't believe me," said Tanja. She scooted aside to give Lily some room.

Lily came closer and was instantly blown away by what she saw. She could see every inch of the school at every conceivable angle.

"Is this the school's camera system? You have access to that?"

"Yep," Tanja said proudly. "And that's not all."

She hit a button on the keyboard and the drones she set aside took flight.

"Whatever the cameras can't see, the drones will."

"How-?"

Tanja cut Lily off and pointed out, "I'll explain everything later. We got more important things to worry about, don't we?"

Lily checked the time again and then nodded. "You're right. It looks like there's a tiger close to the dorms, so I'll start with that one."

She climbed back onto the magic carpet that was left floating out the window. But before taking off, she froze for a second and then stuck her head back into the room and said, "Hey, Tanja?"

"Yeah, Lily?" 

"Thanks. For the other times too."

Tanja's fingers stopped for a second. And then she turned. But Lily was already gone.

<== Chapter 27

Lily Wong Ch. 27

Chapter 27

The Tiger Trap

After passing through a big iron gate that appeared out of nowhere, a plush toy suddenly came falling from the sky into Lily's arms. The plush toy was a tiger. But since it looked more like a kitty cat, Lily had an easier time keeping her cool.

She and Oliver looked around the science building for a bit, but after finding nothing except for the plush toy, they decided to regroup with the others who also got tiger plush toys after overcoming an obstacle.

"I knew it!" exclaimed Oliver. "These plush toys must be a clue. They may hold a hint to where Tanja is being held prisoner."

"But what kind of hint?" asked Erin. "I looked ours over, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Do we need to gut these tigers open?"

"Phrasing, Erin," said Hassan.

Melody offered, "Want me to go get my sewing shears to disembowel them?"

"Seriously, Melody?" Hassan moaned in dismay.

"I think a nail filer would be enough to tear open their stomachs," said Lily.

"You girls are just brutal!"

"Ahem!" Oliver cut in with a cough. "There's no need to dissect those dolls. I already have a pretty good idea where we need to go next. Follow me!"

He took everyone back into the Castle. As soon as he started going up the stairs, Lily realized where they were headed. It should have been obvious. These dolls were tiger dolls. And what was one place in this school that definitely had a tiger? 

That was, of course, the section between floors where there was a painting of a tiger eternally frozen in a fierce roar.

Looking at the painting sent a shiver down Lily's spine. But sure enough, as soon as she laid eyes on it, she spotted a change to the painting. A small, but really noticeable one that stuck out to her. At the top, left hand corner behind the roaring beast was a blue birdcage. In that birdcage was a girl.

Viv gasped. "It's Tanja! And she's moving! She's moving inside that painting!"

Indeed, in what should be a still painting, the caged girl was frantically waving her hands and soundlessly screamed as if she could see the viewers outside and was calling out to them.

"Does that mean what I think that means?" said Eddie.

"I believe it does," said Oliver. "Tanja's been trapped inside that painting."

I was afraid he was going to say that, Lily thought glumly to herself. But, well, at least we found her. And she looks like she's still okay, albeit trapped in a cage with a tiger roaming outside it.

"How do we get her out?" she asked.

Oliver asked back, "Can the bracelet do something about it?"

"Let me check." Lily held the bracelet up to the painting and light flashed from its jewels. But nothing else happened. "That would be a no."

She had hoped the bracelet could just pull Tanja out of the cage and painting altogether, but it was no surprise it was not going to be that easy.

"So, now what do we do?" asked George.

"We'll have to go into the painting to get her out, I guess," said Melody.

"But how do we do that?"

A voice suddenly cut in and replied, "That is easy."

Everyone whirled around to see a big, blue parrot perched on the railing. It looked at them with its beak upturned in a clear show of contempt. 

Lily cried out in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

The parrot haughtily went, "Hmph! I thought that you lot wouldn't have the brains to figure out something so simple, so I decided to kindly save you all some time and give you the answer. Simply touch the painting to enter it and rescue that captured child."

Lily gave the painting a glance and felt another shiver down her spine before returning her gaze to the parrot.

"So I just have to touch it? That's it?"

The parrot nodded.

"Hold up, Lily," Melody cut in. "It could be a trick. There's no way we can trust that face-stealing rat with wings."

She threw the parrot a hateful gaze. The parrot met it with a cool and indifferent gaze of his own.

"Your bitter and long-lived grudge is misdirected," it said. "I was not the one who made that book steal your face."

Melody argued back, "But you're on the same side as the guy who did!"

"Be that as it may, you have no choice but to listen to me," said the parrot. It pointed its beak to a big antique clock hanging on the wall. "You're running out of time."

"It's right," said Lily. "You guys stay here. I'll be right back."

Oliver frowned in dismay. "Come on, Lily!" he said. "We've come this far together. We're not about to back down and let you handle everything by yourself now. Especially when there's a high chance you'll have to deal with that tiger."

"What's the tiger got to do with it?" asked Lily.

Viv snorted. "It's pretty obvious that you have a problem with tigers, Lily. Just seeing pictures of them got you acting weird ever since that time with the bronze tiger."

"I thought I was the only one who noticed," said Oliver.

"We all noticed it," said Hassan.

"Well this is embarrassing," Lily grumbled. Her cheeks flushed red.

Melody overheard and could not help but chime in. "No it's not," she said. "Look at me. I'm a library helper, but I can't help but get nervous around books. Every time, I need to poke them with a long stick to check if they're alive before I touch them because I'm afraid they might pounce on my face."

The parrot cut in again with a loud, "Ahem!" When all eyes returned to it, the bird said, "This display of friendship is nice and all, but need I remind you again that your time, and the captured girl's time is limited? I highly suggest you get on with it."

Its remarks earned the blue bird scornful looks, but it didn't care and simply sniffed before flying away.

Lily greatly disliked that parrot, but she had to admit that it was right. There was no time to waste. 

She took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. And then she turned to face the tiger painting. Reluctantly, she held her right hand out to the beast while standing on her tippy-toes. Viv held Lily's free hand with on of her own while the other held Eddie's. Eddie held Oliver's, and Oliver held Melody's. One by one, the Sapphire Society made a chain of held hands. And then, as soon as Lily's fingertips brushed against the tiger's black snout, bright blue light flashed from the painting's brass frame. The jewels on her bracelet flashed its own light in response.

Lily felt a pull on her arm as her fingers sunk into the painting as its surface rippled around her hand like a pool of water. 

"Whoa!" Before she even had a chance to fight back, she flew into the painting the blink of an eye, pulling the others in with her and was flung onto a patch of grass before being dogpiled by the rest of the gang.  "Ow! Can't . . . breathe!"

"Sorry! Sorry!"

Everyone quickly scrambled off the pile as fast as they could and then helped Lily up to her feet. All around them were tall, twisting trees and bushes with large, dark green leaves. From beyond the jungle plants came bird shrieks and monkey howls.

"You okay?" asked Eddie.

Before Lily could answer after getting air back into her lungs, a loud roar made everyone jump and turn to see a huge tiger crouched down before them, teeth bared in an angry snarl while a low growl rumbled out from its throat. No one dared to take their eyes off the beast. Lily, especially, was frozen with her mind gone blank in fright.

But then a cry snapped her out of her stupor and she looked past the tiger to the half-oval cage behind it that contained the young girl.

"Guys!" cried Tanja. "You're here!"

"Alright, what's the plan Oliver?" asked Viv.

Oliver replied decisively, "Us Sapphire Society will deal with the tiger. Lily, you just focus on getting Tanja out of that cage."

"What? No! I should be the one to -!"

Oliver cut Lily off and said, "If this challenge is anything like the last couple of challenges we've faced, you're probably the only one who can open that cage. The rest of us are much better suited to making sure nothing gets in your way."

"But-!"

Lily tried to protest some more, but then, this time, Hassan cut in and shouted, "No time to argue, guys! Here it comes!"

The tiger pounced.

Lily was instantly pulled away as everyone dove out of the huge beast's path. 

Viv gave Lily a literal push and shouted, "Go!" And then she turned to face the tiger which was wrestling with Oliver who had suddenly grown three times his original size.

Everyone else screamed at Lily, "GO!"

Left with no other choice, Lily ran to the cage, leaving her friends behind to deal with the tiger so that she could liberate Tanja from her prison. She could hear them shout and scream over the tiger's roars. But she did not look back and kept on running, pushing her muscles to pick up the pace. 

After throwing herself against the cage, she grabbed the metal bars and pulled with all her might. The bracelet's jewels lit up in response to her wishes and granted her the super strength to pull the door off its hinges and throw it aside with a scream of effort.

"Come on!' she shouted, reaching her hand out.

Tanja took it and allowed herself to be pulled out of the cage.

With a grateful smile, she said to Lily, "Thanks."

Lily answered with just a nod before turning around and shouted, "Okay! I got Tanja! Game's over! We won! Stop the tiger!"

"That won't be necessary, as you can see," said Oliver. He was sitting on top of the tiger, pinning it flat on the ground with his bottom.

"Well, that was quick," Eddie said with a smug smile. "See, Lily? We can handle ourselves just fine on our own."

"What are you acting all proud about?" Viv asked. "You didn't even do anything."

"Hey, I did plenty," Eddie said. "We got through all those obstacles and the tiger easy-peasy. Right guys?"

The rest of the Sapphire Society cheered, "Yeah!"

All of them, except for Oliver who wore a frown on his face.

"That was easy," he said softly. "A little TOO easy."

With how ferocious the tiger looked and despite his new giant size, the detective thought he'd at least get a scratch or two, but the tiger's punches didn't even hurt. In fact, they felt soft and ticklish.

Speaking of that tiger, Oliver peeked down and then his eyes lit up in a panic.

He jumped up and cried out, "It's a trap! Everyone, get away!"

But it was too late. The tiger's body swelled up like a balloon and then went - 

POP!

A cloud of blue smoke exploded out, stopping short of Lily and Tanja before disappearing. It all happened so fast, Lily didn't even have time to blink. And it unfortunately did not end there.

Lily gasped in horror. "Guys! No!"

Before her very eyes, stone took over the gang, spreading from the bottom of their shoes all the way to the top of their heads, freezing them in place. Some of them saw what was happening to them and reached out to Lily before turning completely. Others were still looking down at themselves when petrified.

Lily rushed over to them, screaming, "Guys! GUYS! Viv! Eddie! Oliver! Please! Say something!"

No matter how much she pleaded, her friends would not answer back. They no longer had the ability to, now that they were statues. 

<== Chapter 26                                                                      Chapter 28 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 26

Chapter 26

Hide and Seek

"I applaud your bravery, child!" shrieked the ghost of the matron. "You arrived sooner than I expected. And I see some new faces. Allow me to introduce myself to them! I am the ghost of the matron that haunts this room."

"Yeah, yeah," Lily cut in, acting rather brazen. "You can drop the act. We all know you're not actually a ghost. Just give us back Tanja!"

The matron's ghost cackled again.

"How cheeky of you!" she said. "But you cannot fool me. I can smell the fear in you. You reek of it!"

Eddie lifted his arm up and sniffed under it while wondering aloud, "Did I forget to take a shower again?"

The others took a step away from him.

"Anyway," said the ghost while giving Eddie the skeleton's version of a side eye, "you wish to rescue the spying girl? In that case, you must complete my challenge."

"Figures it'd come to that," Lily mumbled under her breath. And then to the ghost, she asked, "And what is the challenge this time?"

"The challenge is simple," said the ghost. "I have hidden the spying girl somewhere in the school, in the dimension called the Blue World. You have until sunrise to find her. If you cannot find her in time, she will be lost to the mortal world forever!"

"So it's like a game of Hide and Seek, huh?" Lily said.

Oliver, however, was skeptical. "There's no way it can be that simple," he said. "I wouldn't put it past the Schemer to lay traps to get in our way."

"Smart boy," quipped the ghost. "You are correct, young detective. All throughout the school property and lairs of the Bluestone family are obstacles that you must overcome to move further ahead."

As if it wasn't going to be hard enough to find one person in a big place like the whole school, Lily silently complained to herself. But she wasn't surprised. It was just like the Schemer to try and make things as hard as possible for her.

But that doesn't matter, Lily thought. It didn't change what she had to do. She was determined to save Tanja, no matter what got in her way.

"Got it," she said. "Let's get this over with then."

Suddenly, a voice cut in, shouting, "Hold it! We're joining too!"

Lily and the others whirled around to see the whole library helper team standing at the door.

She couldn't contain her surprise and shouted, "What are you guys doing here? How did you guys get here?"

A bit smugly, Hassan replied, "Same way you did, of course! With magic!"

"We haven't been practicing magic all this time for nothing, you know," said Alejandro. "We're part of the Sapphire Society too, and it's about time we started acting like it."

"Besides," added Melody, "I still haven't paid you back for the favor you did for me. Now's a good time as any for that."

"You guys . . ." Lily was truly touched that they would go this far for her. But seeing them put themselves in danger for her sake was the last thing she wanted.

As if he read her mind, Oliver spoke up. "Lily, you can't shoulder everything yourself. And you're not going to dissuade us all from joining, so please just accept our helping hands."

Lily looked around her at everyone. She could see they were all determined to stick around no matter what she said and sighed.

"Fine," she said.

"Well, you heard all that, didn't you?" Viv said to the matron's ghost. "We're all joining this game of yours, and we won't take 'no' for an answer!"

"Fine by me," said the ghost. "It makes no difference how many of you there are. Just try and overcome my challenges if you can!"

With a wave of her bony hand, a circle of smoke appeared next to her with a hole within it that seemed to lead outside to the courtyard in front of the Castle, except everything outside was glowing blue.

The ghost gave a theatrical bow, hands gestured to the hole, and then said, "Now, please enter if you dare."

Everyone gave each other looks. Lily couldn't blame the others for being reluctant, this being their first time entering the Blue World. She hoped they would take this chance to back off. But to her disappointment, they didn't.

Alejandro was the first to step inside, followed closely by Melody, and then Hassan and George. Oliver went in next with Erin. After that were the Waller twins.

Once everyone else was through the hole in the circle of smoke, Lily gave the ghost one final look. The ghost stared back at her with her empty eye sockets.

"Yes?" she asked. "Do you have something to say?" 

Lily shook her head and replied, "No." And then she stepped through the hole herself. Once on the other side, she found the others all gawking everywhere.

Oliver let out a low whistle as he looked up. "You weren't kidding how everything's blue here. It's as if I'm seeing everything through a pair of blue sunglasses."

Eddie stared at his own hand in wonder, going, "So weird."

Lily checked the time on her phone and then called out, "Come on. We don't have much time left. We need to find Tanja fast!"

"Got it," said Oliver. "We'll divide up into pairs. Eddie and Viv, you go that way. George and Alejandro, you guys search around that way. Melody, Erin and Hassan will look over there. Lily, you and I'll explore ahead. We'll meet back here when we're all done. Any questions, concerns, objections?"

There were none.

Oliver looked around, gave a satisfied nod and then reached out. One by one, each member of the Sapphire Society stacked their hands on top of one another.

"Okay," went Lily. "One . . . Two . . . Break!"

"Go Sapphire!" 

Lily watched as they all went their separate ways, enduring a knot in her stomach as they disappeared out of sight. She was reluctant to tear her eyes away even after they were long gone.

"Don't worry," said Oliver. "They'll be fine."

"I hope so."

And then she followed Oliver down the road.

Eddie and Viv raced back to the dorms.

After reaching the lobby, Viv stopped and announced, "We'll split here."

Eddie asked, "You sure that's a good idea?"

Viv raised an eyebrow at her brother and replied, "Two words: girls' dorm."

"Split up, it is then."

So Eddie went by himself to the boys' dormitories while Viv went to the girls'. Viv headed straight up to Tanja's dorm room, thinking it'd be a good place to start looking. She had just reached Tanja's room door when suddenly - BAM! Brick walls dropped down from the ceiling at either side of the hallway and over all the doors, trapping her in. On the wall that covered Tanja's room door, words written in cursive and gold appeared that read: 

"The only way out is through."

Viv softly read the words aloud and then quipped, "Well that's pretty straightforward."

She looked around and saw that the other brick walls had the same words on them in matching fancy, gold cursive.

A few months ago, she'd probably freak out, screaming her head off while thinking she'd be trapped in here forever. But now that she's learned a little bit of magic, there wasn't an ounce of fear in her. And she knew the perfect spell to get out of this trap. It was even one of her mother's favorites, according to her journal.

The magic spell was a simple one. All Viv had to do was speak the magic words while imagining all the magic energy in her veins flowing to her right hand. As soon as it started glowing a deep orange color, she balled her fingers into a fist, raised it behind her head and then swung, while screaming, "GIRL POWER!"

Viv wasn't sure why that last part was important, only that her mom's journal said it was absolutely needed.

As soon as her fist connected with the wall - BOOM! Not only the brick wall, but the door got blasted off, frame and all. Pieces of wood, stone and plaster were scattered all over the floor and bedding, along with a thick layer of dust. Some of the many computer monitors in the room had cracks on them, likely struck by flying debris. But Viv wasn't all that worried. She saw for herself that whatever happened in the Blue World had no effect on the real one, so she could break whatever she wanted here without getting into trouble.

"I should check out the spell books later to see if I can make a Blue World of my own," she thought aloud. "Seems like a good place to blow off some steam."

She stepped inside through the hole she made and took a look around. But she was disappointed to see nothing out of the ordinary.

With a frustrated sigh, she grumbled, "Looks like this place is a dud after all." 

She was about to turn and leave when she suddenly heard a loud click noise, followed by a shrill creak. Viv spun around to see the closet door open and out tumbled a stuffed doll. It was a blue-furred tiger. Well, everything in this world was blue, so that was nothing weird. What was weird was how the closet door suddenly opened on its own.

Judging by the sound, the closet was definitely firmly shut. Something made that door handle turn before it opened.

"Which means that something, or someone, wants that doll found," Viv muttered to herself. 

Slowly, and cautiously, she reached over and gave the doll a light poke. She waited a couple of seconds and when nothing happened, poked it again a few more times. Nothing happened still, so she picked the doll up by the nape of its neck and gave it a look over. There was really nothing out of the ordinary about it, but it may be a clue to finding Tanja. So Viv decided to take it with her, punched her way out of the bricked-off hallway and went back down to the lobby where she found her brother waiting for her.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

Eddie reported, "Got trapped in by a bunch of brick walls while looking around the second floor, but I got out easy."

"What'd you do?"

Very proudly, Eddie replied, "I melted them all with heat vision like Superman. What about you?" 

"Same," said Viv. "Brick walls appeared out of nowhere, but it was when I went to visit Tanja's room. And I used Mom's favorite Girl Power Punch to get out of it. While I was looking around, this fell out of Tanja's closet."

She held up the tiger doll for Eddie to see. His eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "I got a doll that looks just like that. After I melted the walls into goo, this fell down from the ceiling."

He showed his sister his own doll.

"I guess that does it then," said Viv. "These dolls must be some kind of clue."

"But a clue to what?" asked Eddie. "Where Tanja might be?"

Viv shrugged and replied, "Maybe. Let's meet back up with the others."

Eddie nodded. "Got it."

Unbeknownst to them, as they ran back to the Castle and top speed, they were being watched through a mirror floating in the air by a man sitting in a big chair, in his big office full of old-timey furniture. He was dressed in sharp black robes with long flowing sleeves with a hood that cast a thick, impenetrable darkness over his face. Several other mirrors floated around the one showing the Waller twins, each one revealing the actions of the other members of the Sapphire Society.

George and Alejandro had their way blocked by a pool of lava, but they overcame the obstacle by transforming into eagles to fly over it before soaring straight to the gym. Melody, Erin, and Hassan created walls of light around themselves as they pushed through curtains of dancing electricity towards the music building. As for Lady Sapphire herself, she and Oliver found their way into the science building blocked by a huge iron gate that refused to open unless the girl poured enough magic power into a big, magic crystal ball. It was just like the crystal ball back at the Sapphire Society's hideout.

Perched on a stand behind the old man was the blue parrot.

It asked, "Don't you think you are going a bit too easy on them this time around?"

Without looking back, the old man replied, "Not to worry. It is all part of the plan."

"By the way, I have been meaning to ask, why are you dressed in that ridiculous getup?"

"Naturally, old friend, because I plan to make an appearance. It is about time the Schemer show up again, don't you think?"

The parrot shrugged. "Whatever you say. You're the author of this silly story. Do as you see fit. It is already too late to fix it anyway."

"Hmph!" The old man sniffed indignantly. "There's no need to rub it in. You made it clear plenty of times already that I'm no Shakespeare. But that doesn't matter."

"Oh? Are we nearing the end already?"

"Perhaps," said the old man. "As long as my calculations are right. But even if not, the next will be the last."

Fixing his gaze on Lily as she and Oliver passed through the gate, the old man added, "No matter what, I will not wait any longer."

<== Chapter 25                                                                                   Chapter 27 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 25

Chapter 25

Night at the Castle

Eddie trudged his way back to the library feeling somewhat disappointed.

Earlier, he had gone over to Director Bluestone's office to have a word. The others may have ruled the director out as a suspect in this whole evil Schemer thing, but Eddie suspected he must at least know more about what's been going on, especially about his mother. Eddie had hoped to learn more about his mother during her time in Bluestone Academy, and hopefully unearth more clues about her disappearance and current whereabouts.

Almost as soon as he knocked on the front door, an old man's voice replied back, "It's open!"

Eddie went inside to see the white-haired man sitting behind a grand office table, hands clasped over a sheet of paper flipped blank side up.

"You are . . . Mr. Edward Waller, are you not?" the old man said. 

Eddie nodded. The room had no lighting except from the sun shining through the window over the throne-like chair, casting dark shadows that gave a feel of mystical eeriness.

Remembering what he came here for, Eddie mustered his courage and softly spoke up, "Director Bluestone?"

"That is my name, yes," the old man replied. With a gentle smile he asked, "Do you need something from me?"

Eddie nodded. "It's about Mary Ann Duskbell."

Director Bluestone's smile quickly turned into a frown, and he said as a question, "Mary Ann Duskbell? That's a name I've not heard in a very long time."

"She's actually my mother," said Eddie. And then, after taking a deep breath, he went on to explain his involvement with the Sapphire Society and the Schemer, and how he found his mother's journal in the Sapphire Society's old secret hideout.

After listening, Director Bluestone sank down in his chair and with a regretful sigh, said, "So you're mixed up in this Schemer mess too. And you believe the Schemer is responsible for your mother vanishing?"

Eddie nodded. His heart beat fast and hard as he waited eagerly to hear what the director had to say next. But his spirits quickly sank when the director said this:

"I'm sorry, Mr. Waller. But I have no idea what happened to your mother. Her disappearance is as much a mystery to me as it is to you."

"That can't be!" Eddie could not stop himself from shouting. "Your family owns this school. You've been running it for years, so you must know about the Sapphire Society and that Mom was in it! The Schemer and the Society are enemies, so he must have done something to her. You must know something about what happened!"

But the director remorsefully shook his head and said, "When I heard your mother disappeared, I tried everything in my power to help find her. But my efforts were fruitless."

"I . . . see," Eddie said. "Sorry to bother you."

And then he left the office, disheartened that he had hit another dead end in his mother's mystery.

He entered the secret chamber of the Sapphire Society and discovered he was not the only one in a gloomy mood, finding Lily and Viv sunk in their armchairs with their eyes cast down in glum. Lily looked especially terrible.

"What's got you two with clouds hanging over your heads?" he asked the girls. 

That was when he heard what happened to Tanja.

"That's . . . pretty serious," he said. "Any idea where that ghost took her?"

Oliver spoke up and said, "Assuming everything Tanja said to the girls is true, the so-called ghost likely took her back to the storage room at the Castle. We should start looking there."

So to the Castle, Lily and the others went. Since the Castle served as the heart of the school where much of its behind-the-scenes work took place, there was no way for them to look around until after everything was locked up during curfew. And since the whole Sapphire Society would be too big a group to sneak into the Castle, it was just Lily, the Waller twins and Oliver. Lily expected the others to complain about being left out of the action again, but to her surprise, they simply accepted being benched without a word.

To be honest, Lily wasn't thrilled to have the others joining her this time. She would rather look for the ghost and rescue Tanja on her own, worried that if the ghost went berserk like the tiger did, her friends could get seriously hurt, which was the last thing that she wanted to happen. The thought of facing the ghost also scared Lily, but she was not about to abandon someone in trouble. Especially when there was something she could do to help.

Once it was lights out, Lily and Viv snuck out of their room through the window, using a magic carpet to fly around to the boys' respective dorm rooms. Despite how much scarier the situation currently was, Lily couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic. It's been forever since they last did something like this. Not since their very first adventure together, in fact.

After picking up the boys, under the cover of night, the gang flew over to the Castle. They entered through the back entrance which Lily unlocked using the magic power of her bracelet. She peeked inside but with the lights off, the halls of the Castle were just impenetrable darkness.

As the one who knew the Castle best, Oliver took the lead, using his phone's flashlight app to light the way. But even with such a powerful light, Lily felt creeped out and shivered as she and the others tiptoed through the quiet, empty halls. In some ways, the Castle at night was even more chilling than the forest the parrot had first used as its hideout.

This must be what it means for a place to have a whole different vibe at night, she thought.

It didn't help that the portraits of past men and women of the school looked down on the intruders as if to frown at them with disapproval.

After reaching the top floor and making a turn to the right, Oliver suddenly paused. and frowned.

Noticing a frown on the older boy's face, Lily got worried and whispered, "Something wrong?"

Oliver quickly replied back, "It's nothing. I was just wondering what sort of business Tanja had up here. People don't normally pass by the storage rooms up here since they're really out of the way, so I thought it was a bit weird that she'd be around that area."

"Maybe that's where she had business at?" Viv suggested.

"Maybe," said Oliver, but he didn't sound convinced.

Suspecting something, Lily asked, "Do you think there's something more to Tanja than meets the eye?"

Oliver nodded. "There were a few points about her from your story that I found suspicious. But I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it."

"I wouldn't worry about it," said Eddie. "We can just ask her what's up after we rescue her from that ghost."

"Right," said Lily. "On that note, let's hurry."

They quickly reached the end of the hall where the supposed haunted storage room was located and they went inside after Lily unlocked the door with her bracelet's magic power. The former matron's room was rather cramp thanks to all the boxes, shelves and old wardrobes stuffed inside collecting dust. Many of the stuff, Lily wagered, could easily be over fifty years old. 

I wonder what could be in some of those boxes, she thought, glancing down on one crate as she slipped by it. She couldn't help but be curious.

Suddenly, Eddie cried out, "Hey, check this out!"

Thinking he might have found something important, Lily whirled around. But he was just looking at a painted portrait of an old man in a three-piece suit hanging on the wall.

"Come on, Eddie!" groaned Viv.

Ignorant of the others' dismay, Eddie excitedly asked the others, "Doesn't this dude look exactly like the director?"

"Now that you mention it, he does look like Director Bluestone," said Oliver, coming to take a closer look. "But it can't be him. You can see from the date on the bottom that it's way over sixty years old. This must be one of his ancestors. Still, it's amazing how the two of them look so alike. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that Director Bluestone was actually over a hundred-fifty years old!"

"Who knows?" said Eddie. "Maybe he really is that old."

"Don't be so rude, Eddie!" Viv scolded.

Annoyed, Lily hissed, "Guys! Focus! We're here on an important mission! No getting side-tracked!"

Oliver, Eddie and Viv hung their heads in shame and said, "Sorry, Ma'am."

They continued to tiptoe further into the room, wading around essentially abandoned old stuff until they reached the center of it all. 

"Okay, we're here!" Lily shouted. "Come out!"

Viv flinched and looked around nervously. "Is it really a good idea to do that?" she asked. "Calling out the ghost, I mean?"

"Better than waste our time trying to look for her," Lily mumbled.

But despite Lily's reckless call for the ghost, nothing happened and all remained quiet until Eddie suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, just wondering, what are the chances that some of the stuff in here is magical?"

"Could be," said Oliver. "The Castle's not only the heart of the school, it's also where the school's owners, the Bluestone family, calls home. So much of the stuff here's probably theirs."

"Speaking of Bluestone," said Lily, "I've noticed the way you always take the director's side whenever one of us brings up the chance that he might actually be the Schemer. It's like to you, there's just no way he could be a bad guy."

"Well, of course!" Oliver shouted loudly. "Julius Bluestone is one of the nicest people on the planet. He's always trying to help as many people as he can, in whatever way he can. He's donated lots of money to charity, up to three-quarters of the money he makes each year. He made a scholarship that got lots of children from poor families into good schools, not just this one. And he even goes around to tutor students himself whenever they have a hard time with their school work."

His raised voice startled Lily, and the passion he brought forth nearly swept her off her feet. She couldn't help but take a step back.

"Whoa. No need to shout like that."

Turning sheepish, Oliver murmured, "Sorry."

"You must really like Director Bluestone," said Viv. "I'm guessing he was a big help to you too?"

"Oh, certainly," said Oliver. "I would even call him my hero."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

Bang! Crash!

Startled, the gang whirled around.

"Who's there?" shouted Lily.

That was when clouds of whitish-blue smoke billowed out from behind the boxes and spun around in front of her with a glow bright enough to light up the whole room and take away the need for the gang's phone lights. The tornado of smoke swelled up to the ceiling and then popped like a balloon to reveal a skeleton wearing an old-timey black dress with a white apron. Long, wavy hair draped around her skull. As the skeleton's bottom jaw bobbed up and down, a loud, shrill lady's cackle echoed over the howling wind that swirled around the room's occupants.

It was the ghost of the matron. She had finally shown up.

<== Chapter 24                                                                        Chapter 26 ==>

CSC V3 Ch. 2

 

*****

Omoyo

*****

The name's Homura, but most people call me by my family name, which is Omoyo. And like Oota probably told you already, I'm a psychic.

My power let's me know what other people are feeling inside. It might sound like a cool and useful ability, but it can get as annoying as hell when I'm close to people who, shall we say, aren't having a great day.

Take this one for example:

I was walking home with the other CSC members in what was usually a quiet and chill afternoon when suddenly, I was hit with a wave of bad emotions, a mixture of surprise, fear and anger. The whole world suddenly went spinning and I toppled over from vertigo.

"Someone's in trouble," I told the others. "I think they're being attacked!"

Mirai and the others exchanged looks. And then Mirai asked, "Do you know where?"

With a shaking hand, I pointed where I figured the wave of anger came from.

"There," I said.

Isaneko turned to Yuna and asked her, "Sense anything over there?"

Yuna nodded and frantically typed into her phone.

"There are two people. One is moving away. Another is not."

"We need to go after that guy, fast!" I shouted. 

It was pretty obvious the one moving away was the attacker while the one not moving was the victim. We could not let the attacker get away.

However, Mirai shook his head.

"It's too late," he said. "Anyway, the victim's more important. Isaneko and I'll check on them. Oota and Yuna, you stay here with Homura. Keep your eyes peeled in case whoever's the attacker decides to come back."

He and Isaneko then ran off before anyone could get a word in.

*****

Mirai

*****

Isaneko and I ran as fast as we could to the general direction Yuna and Homura pointed. I bumped into corners at almost every turn and toppled trash cans more than once along the way. Admittedly, I was frantic and was more focused on getting to the victim of the attack as fast as I could than my surroundings.

A crowd was already forming by the time we showed up. Me and Isaneko slowed down and then exchanged looks. We tried to approach the crowd as casually as we could, and then I called out to a nearby girl who wore our school's uniform.

"Hey!" I said to her. "Know what happened?"

Startled, the girl jumped. But she quickly relaxed when she saw that we were from the same school.

"We were just passing by when we saw the crowd and wondered if something happened here," Isaneko lied. "Do you mind telling us?"

"Oh, sure!" said the girl. "I just got here myself, but . . ."

*****

Hisao

*****

A short while after Mirai and Isaneko ran off, I heard sirens pierce the quiet skies. All of our phones got pings, alerting us of a group text from Mirai telling us to head on home first. I also got a separate message from him asking me and Yuna to stick with Omoyo until she got home first.

Sending a separate message was useless because as soon as we volunteered to keep her company until she made it to her house, Omoyo scowled and said, "Mirai put you up to this, didn't he?"

It put her in a foul mood, but nonetheless, me and Yuna followed her to her house before heading back to our own. Needless to say, I was on guard the whole time until I was inside and bolted the front door.

The next day, the school was abuzz with news that a high schooler had been attacked. Even I, with my head always low and my eyes stuck to my phone, could sense the jitters from my classmates around me as they talked amongst themselves in hushed whispers during the minutes before class started. No surprise everyone was on edge given the one particular detail about the crime that stood out to me:

The victim had been attacked with a steel drain pipe.

A chill ran down my spine when I saw that in the news article on my phone. It brought back memories of another time when people got attacked by a pipe-wielding maniac, the notorious serial killer called the Piper.

I actually had a face-to-face run-in with the Piper some time ago and even won a fight against him. It was mostly thanks to my superpower though, which I used to put up a shell of psychic energy around me and made me pretty much indestructible. But even though I was invulnerable, fighting that psycho was very scary. I was only able to stand my ground against him because I was in what Mirai called a berserker state which happens when either me, someone I know, or someone just in front of me is in danger.

Knowing the attacker's weapon was a drain pipe made me worried that there might be another Piper on the prowl again. You see, the Piper I fought was not acting alone. He had a partner who shared the same sense of sick and twisted fun he did. The guy was also dealt with and both of them should be in jail right now. The fact there was more than one Piper alone was enough to make me wonder if there might actually be more of them out there somewhere.

That possibility had become several times more likely with this latest incident.

Fast forward to lunch, me and the gang were gathered in the clubroom, answering a summons by Mirai for a meeting that could not wait until after school.

"Let me start with the good news," Mirai said. "The guy's still alive."

"Yeah, we know," Omoyo said. "The news said as much this morning. Got anything else to add?"

"Nope," replied Mirai. "I only know about as much as the newspapers know. But we did see the guy get carried off in an ambulance."

"It looked like his arm took the worse of the attack," Isaneko said. "He won't be playing any sports anytime soon, but that's still better than ending up as a corpse in the morgue."

"Funny you should mention that," said Mirai. "Earlier, I ran into our friend, the King of Kendo," (translation: the Kendo Club Captain) "and while we were having a Conference of Kings," (translation: a friendly chat between club presidents) "the attack came up, and he mentioned that the victim was a member of another school's Kendo Club."

"No kidding?" went Omoyo. "Is he sure?"

Mirai nodded and replied, "Positive. Despite the heavy rivalry, the Kendo King's established a network for swordsmen across all the great na - Ow!"

With a smile, Isaneko asked pleasantly, "Mirai, can you please tone down the melodrama speak? I think I told you this before, but it's utterly annoying."

I couldn't see anything under the table, but it was clear even to me that Isaneko must have stomped on Mirai's foot. Hard.

Omoyo agreed with Isaneko and said, "Yeah, Mirai. I can barely understand a thing you're saying."

"Come on, you two," Mirai croaked. "How long have you known me? You should get what I'm saying by now."

"Anyway," said Isaneko, "to sum everything up, our school's Kendo Club Captain heard from another school's Kendo Club Captain that the victim of yesterday's attack was one of their members."

"Why's that important?" I asked.

"Because, my dear Watson," said Mirai, "when it comes to solving crime, any detail counts."

Omoyo frowned. "Are you a demon lord or a detective? Pick one!"

Mirai smirked and said, "Why can't I be both?" And then he boldly declared, "I am anything and everything! Mwa ha ha ha!"

His act only elicited exasperated groans from the rest of us. 

Despite the buzz garnered by news of an attack by what could be a new Piper, the day went on like normal. We went to class like normal, chilled at the clubroom after school like normal, and then left together like normal. However, for the second day in a row, the normalcy of the day was broken as we made our way home.

As we were headed down a road that was deserted except for us like always, Mirai suddenly stopped to whisper something to Isaneko.

Curious, Omoyo asked, "Everything okay?"

Mirai gave Isaneko a rather worried look, but Isaneko just casually brushed him off and replied, "It's fine. Mirai just saw something interesting in my future."

"Really? What?" I asked.

But Isaneko just said, "You'll see."

We continued further down, and then I felt a tug on my sleeve and turned around.

"What is it, Yuna?" I asked my cousin.

In response, she pointed ahead to a lone man in a gray blazer leaning against the wall with his left hand stuffed in his pants pocket. He looked up from his phone and turned our way, eyes rolling over us until they honed in on Isaneko. 

On closer look, I estimated his age to be between his early to mid-fifties, maybe younger. For all I knew, his dark, sun-dried skin could just be giving the impression that he was older than he actually was. He was pretty big with a stout build, clearly a man who got a lot of exercise.

We all stopped and our eyes met his. And then he swaggered over to us, stopped just about a foot or two away, and gave us a look over once more.

I was, of course, a bit nervous and alarmed at the way he just approached us.

With a sneer on his face, he said, "Yo."

I turned to Yuna and shouted, "Pull the alarm! I'll call the cops!"

Yuna nodded and took out her keychain alarm while I dialed the emergency number on my phone.

"Wait, wait, wait!" the man cried out, pulling out his wallet. He flipped it open and flashed it to us. "I AM a cop! See? See?"

The top flap held a picture I.D. card with his name while the bottom flap had a gold badge pinned on it. Those two things combined confirmed that the man was an officer of the law.

"The name's Serimachi," said the police officer. "I'm a police detective investigating an attack that happened yesterday. I think you might have heard about it already in the news?"

"Of course," said Mirai. "Everyone at school's talking about it. Right, Isaneko?"

"Indeed," Isaneko said.

"Isaneko, huh?" Serimachi once more had his eyes on Isaneko. "Could you be Aika Isaneko, the face of Angel Support?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Angel Support? What's that?"

"It's the company my mother runs," Isaneko explained. "And yes, I'm that Aika Isaneko, the mascot of Angel Support."

"You didn't seem like just a mascot for the company though," said Serimachi. "Rumor had it you had a much bigger role in that so-called company."

Isaneko shrugged. "All I do is show my pretty face at meetings and maybe do a trick or two. That sounds like something a mascot would do."

Serimachi's eyes narrowed. Judging by the look on his face, it seemed his mood was going south. I had no idea why, though. 

"Remind me again, what does Angel Support do?" he asked.

"Well," Isaneko said, "like the name hints, it's a financial and investment support organization. The company offers financial advice and investment opportunities for small businesses and individuals. Oh, and I think they also handled loans as well. There might be some other stuff, but it's hard to keep track."

"Really," Serimachi said with a raised eyebrow. "I don't recall the company starting out that way, though."

"Well, I remember it used to be more like an unofficial club, basically a gathering of sorts for people going through something tough in their lives," Isaneko responded coolly.

Serimachi didn't seem to like that answer, given the way his face twisted. 

He opened his mouth as if he had more to say, but then Mirai cut him off and said, "You're asking an awful lot about the company Isaneko's mom runs, but what does that have to do with the attack that happened yesterday?"

Serimachi gave Mirai a sharp glare, but Mirai just responded back with an innocent smile. 

"Right, sorry." The police detective quickly regained his composure and returned to the matter at hand. "I heard that students from your school were there at the time of the attack and wanted to check if you happened to see anything."

Mirai gave the detective an apologetic smile and replied, "Sorry. We happened to walk by the scene of the crime, but it was already over by then. We did run into someone from our school who happened to live in the area who told us she heard yelling and came out to find a guy our age but from a different school lying on the ground.

"We also managed to get a look at the guy. He was pretty banged up, but it didn't look too bad. He was still awake at least."

"I see, I see," said Serimachi as he jotted down notes on his small notebook. "That lines up with what we already heard from other witnesses. But I'm curious. What were you doing around that area in the first place? Seems a bit far out of your way home."

"Why, Detective," went Isaneko. "You sound as if you already know where we live."

"Well, I am a detective you know," said Serimachi.

"Wow!" Isaneko cried out in false wonderment. "Detectives are so amazing! To find out where we live in an instant of learning our names. It's almost like you have psychic powers."

Her sarcasm was so blatant, she may as well have announced it. And it put Serimachi once more in a foul mood.

"Hey, is it okay we go now?" Omoyo asked. "It's getting kind of late and we don't want to make our parents worry."

Serimachi gave Omoyo a glance, who glanced back at us. The police detective followed her gaze and I just stared back without saying anything, not sure how to act.

An exhale escaped Serimachi's throat while his mouth was closed. And then he said, "Thank you for your time. If you'll excuse me."

After giving a short bow, he walked away. Omoyo scowled at him when his back was turned.

"What's up with that guy's attitude," she complained once he was out of earshot. "Did you see the way he looked at Isaneko? It was as if he was itching to arrest her!"

"It can't be helped," Isaneko said softly. "I'm a bad girl after all."

She sounded wicked-playful, but there was something melancholic about the way she spoke. And it left me and the others speechless.

<== Chapter 1

CSC V3 Ch. 1

 

*****
Hisao
*****

I, Hisao Oota, stood clad in black protective gear, holding a bamboo sword in front of me firmly with my two hands. Standing opposite of me was a taller figure in matching gear. My opponent was Watanabe, vice-captain of the Kendo Club. We stood several feet apart, eyes locked through our helmets. Over our heads were sounds of clashing wood and battle cries from our peers.

"Yah!" With my own battle cry, I lunged at Watanabe and our swords met with a sharp clack.

But despite the way it looks, me standing in an arena, dressed in armor and sparring with a leading member of the Kendo Club in a building commandeered by said club, I was not a member myself. I'm a member of the Community Service Club.

Megugami High's Community Service Club, as the name suggested, was a club where its members did community service related stuff. Me and my clubmates did volunteer work like picking up trash at the park, reading picture books to little kids at the local library, or helping out our school's other clubs when they're shorthanded like the Kendo Club was right now.

That said, I have absolutely no idea why Mirai, the Community Service Club's president keeps sending me of all people to the Kendo Club. This is nothing to be proud of, but I am terrible at sports. Well, not exactly terrible at them. But I definitely wasn't good at them either.

Pow! After receiving my attack, Watanabe pushed me back. A split second after our swords detached from each other, Watanabe's sword smacked against my torso with a side swipe.

An exasperated sigh escaped from Watanabe and he pulled off his helmet to show me his frowning face.

"Come on, Oota," he said, calling me by my family name. "At least try to put up a fight. You've practiced with us for almost a year now but you've barely improved at all!"

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think, Watanabe?" 

We turned to see the president and captain of the Kendo Club walking up to us.

"I'd say Oota's improved a bit since he started out," he said. "He's putting up a better fight against the newbies now."

Watanabe pointed out, "That's only with one newbie, and that newbie never held a sword in his life before he joined last month. And that's not good enough. If we want to get to the nationals, we need to practice with people who can actually make us sweat. Especially at an important time like now. I don't know why Mirai keeps sending us this weakling."

"Well, it's not like we're the only ones who ask the CSC for help," said the captain, using the short name for the Community Service Club in English.

"Still, I think any of the other members are a better fit to help us out than Oota, don't you think?" said Watanabe.

The captain shrugged and said, "No choice. We'll just have to make the most with what we get."

I said nothing and just listened to the two talk about me as if I wasn't there.

But then the captain turned and called out, "Oi, Miyamura! Sakamoto!"

Two kendoists paused their duel and one replied, "Yeah, Captain?"

The captain said, "Switch out. Miyamura, you're with Watanabe. Sakamoto, go with Oota."

Honestly, I was a little offended, but there was nothing I could really say to my defense. Besides, I had already gotten used to it.

After my time with the Kendo Club was done, I cleaned up, got changed and then headed to the clubroom where I planned to just chill with some smartphone games until it was time to go home. I was walking down the hall when I heard a loud noise up ahead.

"Whoa!"

A guy had tripped over a bookbag left lying on the floor. Around him, some students giggled.

One of the guys laughing said, "Sorry, man. You okay?"

He might not have meant to, but he sounded a little bit mocking. The guy who had tripped certainly thought so. And probably because of that, there was a misunderstanding that snowballed in the worst possible way.

The guy who tripped glared at the guy who laughed and then accusingly screamed, "You did that on purpose!"

The guy who laughed, scoffed and said, "No, I didn't. But leave it to a Yamimura to make false accusations."

I thought it was just an accident and the guy who tripped was jumping to conclusions too. But the guy who laughed definitely could have handled things better.

Unsurprisingly, the guy who tripped, called a Yamimura, yelled, "You calling me a liar, Soushu scumbag?"

The guy who laughed, a Soushu, fired back, "You see any other lowlife Yamimuras around here?"

No one was laughing anymore and for good reason. We could all see where this was going.

The Yamimura lunged and lunged at the Soushu and grabbed the Soushu by the front of his shirt. I spotted electricity crackling around the Yamimura's free hand as his fingers balled into a fist.

Seriously!? I thought. Right here in public!?

I wasn't really surprised to see a human generate his own electricity like a Pokemon. Truth is this town is full of people with some kind of superpower. Hell, everyone in the Community Service Club had a superpower, me included. But that didn't mean it was okay to just whip our powers out in the open. Superpowers are supposed to be a secret to the rest of the world after all. Not to mention really dangerous to use in public places. Someone will definitely get hurt if nothing was done. 

Sadly, sights like this has become very common lately. Fights were always breaking out either on the streets or here at school. It stemmed from a political rivalry between three families and their supporters, the Yamimuras, the Soushus and the Shirogamis. The conflict between the Yamimuras and the Soushus was especially heated and spread down to the kids who barely had anything to do with the politics other than whose family is with who.

Those three families, by the way, are all superpower users.

It looked like things were about to take a dangerous turn if nothing was done, so I rushed back down the hall and hid behind a turn where I prepared to deploy my own superpower, a nifty kinetic type power called Psychokinesis. With this power, I can control psychic energy however I wanted. Like, for example, before things really got dicey, I was going to make a wall between the Yamimura and Soushu and separate them.

By the way, superpowers, or psychic powers, could be separated into two broad types: Kinetic and Sensory. Kinetic powers are powers that are physical, like moving stuff around with your mind, shooting lightning out of your fingers or (in my case) make a force field. Sensory powers are more about sensing things like seeing things most people can't, reading people's mind or seeing the future. Traditional psychic powers, basically.

I was just about to make the wall spring up between the two boys. But suddenly, we were all interrupted by an angry shout that made everyone jump out of their skins.

"HEY! BREAK IT UP!"

I turned to see a middle-aged man wearing a black necktie marching through the hall while wearing an angry scowl in his face. He was followed by another man in a sports jersey who joined him in separating and detaining the out-of-control students.

With the teachers showing up, everyone quickly dispersed. The Yamimura and Soushu followers weren't so lucky and were quickly caught before they could get away. As the ones who started the commotion, they were sure to get an earful from their parents later.

Confident that the teachers had everything under control, I decided to book it and find another route to the clubroom. It took longer and further than I would have liked, but eventually I made it to what was pretty much like my own personal sanctuary.

Like any other clubroom, the CSC's room was small, box-shaped with six classroom desks clustered together for a round table conference. One back corner of the room was occupied by a white board, pushed aside to allow natural lighting from the windows. Low shelf cubbies took up a whole side of the room, atop of which a huge mascot elephant head laid staring blankly back at me with soulless, plastic eyes.

"You're the only one here, Yuna?" I asked the girl sitting on the left side in her lonesome. She's my cousin and around the same age as me.

Yuna looked up from her phone and nodded. She quickly typed a short sentence which was then read by a female robot voice.

"I heard yelling."

Because of an accident a few years back, Yuna lost both her mother and her voice. After being released from the hospital, she's been living with me and my family.

"Oh, it's nothing," I assured her. "It's just the Yamimuras and the Soushus going at it, AGAIN. The teachers already took care of it."

Yuna rolled her eyes and made a face that said, "Ugh!" And then she said through her phone's app, "I feel sorry for Yamimura and Soushu."

The Yamimura and Soushu she was talking about were the actual children of the Yamimura and Soushu families. Discord between their two families aside, it seemed like both Yamimura of Yamimura from Yamimura and Soushu were trying to reign in the chaos. More often than not, whenever trouble brewed between the two groups, they're the ones trying to stop the fighting.

That said, they were as antagonistic to each other as their gangs were and probably avoided each other on purpose.

Suddenly, Yuna turned to the door.

"The others are almost here," she said.

It wasn't that she got a text from them or anything. Like I said, everyone in the club's got a special power. Yuna's is a sensory type that lets her pinpoint where a person is. She's basically a human sonar and GPS tracker.

And no sooner did she announce the others' approach, the door flew open and in burst a guy a year older than us who laughed maniacally and said, "Mwa ha ha! Rejoice, servants! Your Demon Lord has returned!"

That was Mirai, the president and founder of the Community Service Club. And as you could see, he can be a bit dramatic. Well, VERY dramatic. 

He was followed closely behind by two girls. 

The shorter girl with the straight bobbed hairstyle was Isaneko. She looks and acts all prim and proper most of the time, but don't let that fool you. Beneath that act, she was a wicked and mean trickster who reveled at others' misfortune. Misfortune that she sometimes caused herself.

With a smile, she looked at me and asked, "Is something the matter, Oota? It looked like you had something to say about me."

A chill ran down my spine and I quickly stammered, "N-no! Not at all!" 

I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd think Isaneko was a mind-reader, which she is not. As far as I knew, the only power she had was telekinesis, the ability to move things with her mind.

Behind Isaneko, the tough-looking taller girl shivered too. She's Omoyo, another member of the Community Service Club. With her power to sense the emotions of others, she must have picked up on Isaneko's wicked nature surfacing.

Isaneko looked at me with her nose turned up and went, "Hmmm? Well, whatever."

She shrugged her shoulders and then walked over to the head table. The chair slid out on its own as if pulled by an invisible ghost, and she sat down.

The head table, by the way, was usually where the leader sat. In other words, it was Mirai's seat.

Mirai, however, didn't seem to mind and took over the desk at the right. He remained standing and waited until everyone else sat down.

Once we were seated, he slammed his hands down on the table and said, "Alright, my four Demon Generals. Let me hear your status reports."

Our club meetings are usually very brief. We let each other know what happened with our volunteer work, listen to any announcements Mirai has, and then, if there's nothing else to talk about, we do our own thing for the rest of the afternoon. You already know how I was going to spend that time. If I got no homework, I just streamed TV shows or played games on my smartphone all the way until the end of the day.

That was my daily life in a nutshell. I go to school, sometimes help out other clubs, do homework and then watch videos or play games in my free time. Pretty normal, boring stuff apart from, you know, the superpower thing. And the local political turmoil.

When it was time to go home, we all packed up our stuff and headed out together. The world was bathed in yellow afternoon light by the time we got out of the building.

We were all headed the same way as the sun sank down into the horizon, taking the same twists and turns we've taken almost every day. I could hear scattered chattering from our surrounding peers. But that eventually faded the further down the road we went, until there was just the occasional bird song and the rustling of leaves against the wind from nearby trees. It was almost as if the Community Service Club members were the only humans left in the world. 

Truly, just another peaceful, ordinary day. Well, mostly anyway.

But then something happened to shatter that peace. And it started when Omoyo suddenly screamed and stumbled as if someone had hit her in the head.

"Aah!"

Mirai rushed over to her in alarm and cried out, "What's wrong? Keep it together, Homura!"

He reached out a helping hand, but Omoyo refused it.

"Forget about me!" she shouted. "Someone's in trouble. I think they're being attacked!"

                                                                                                             Chapter 2 ==>