“Any addendums?”
Mirabelle finished explaining the whole sequence of events from beginning to end. Naturally, as the other tensed up one in the room, Stephen was quick to respond.
“Gilbert’s willing to forgive you for blindsiding him as he’s indebted to you, but I don’t owe you anything. I follow Gilbert’s orders because he’s my boss, but given what you’ve done to manipulate us, I’m not inclined to make moves on your behalf any further.”
“Do you think you’re allowed to terminate our alliance?”
“I have said nothing of the sort. I will continue to support an alliance with you, but this ain’t a one-sided alliance, so we won’t just go along with what you say—Mona and I sure as hell won’t anymore. However, as your ally, if I judge that you truly aren’t throwing us under the bus next time, I’ll gladly lend my assistance.”
“So in other words, you’re laying low from now on?”
Stephen scowled at Mirabelle’s on-point deduction.
“I admit that whatever happens in Korolev doesn’t measure up at all to the debt that he owes you. Gilbert’s alliance with you is still solid, but your recent breaches of trust means that now, whatever happens in Korolev, is also something we’ll no longer care for. In that sense, yes, we’re laying low—we’re bracing ourselves.”
He restated his disdain for Mirabelle’s actions and his determination to no longer accede to her demands at face value. He wanted nothing more to do with Mirabelle’s plans, which had extended outside school. Sure, she gave him the opportunity to take control of the Liguro family in order to play the game of politics at Korolev Senior, but additionally he saw in her the capacity to throw anyone and everyone to the wolves to get her way. Fortune might not be so kind to him the next time. Stephen himself could be unscrupulous too, but only in a narrow context—a physical fight. Mirabelle was obviously cut from a different cloth.
“I see. Well, then I must try doubly hard to get you to move next time.”
“I’m fine with that. I’m just not giving you a free pass like this time. Allying with you is like allying with the devil.”
“My, I’ll take that as a compliment. But, I do think it’ll be difficult for me to use your help from now on, in any case. I think Gilbert will be protecting Mona as much as possible in the coming days, don’t you think?”
Stephen grimaced. He shouldn’t be pissed off since it was obvious what was coming next, but it was still vexing for Mirabelle to say it all the same.
“No shit. We know whose orders you’re obeying, so it’s only natural that Mona and the current AC are next on the chopping block.”
“On that point, can I ask one thing? It’s the only question I have. Who will replace Mona, if she gets overthrown?”
Donovan interrupted nonchalantly, to which Stephen cast him a dirty glare. However, it was an important question nonetheless.
“Originally it should have been Scarlett, but now that she’s in student council, that’s no longer possible. No, I think you should know him better than me, Don. If I’m reading the faculty’s intentions correctly, he’s the most likely person to succeed Mona.”
“Hoho, so it is true. They arranged for him to return, eh? That’s a huge problem for you too, isn’t it, Mirabelle?”
It was Mirabelle’s turn to frown. For the first time, she seemed reluctant to continue the conversation.
“Which is why I have questions for both of you: what will you do about his return, and are you willing to help me if things turn for the worse?”
Stephen and Donovan looked at each other, slightly hesitant to answer. However, they were also keenly aware of what troubles were to come, if that person returned.
“Do you know which class he’ll be joining?”
“I’d assume he’d return to his original Class D. After all, he’s the faculty’s most likely candidate for the AC chairmanship, so Class D, the class of club presidents, is the most logical answer.”
Another silence passed over the four strongmen and strongwomen of Korolev Senior. Currently they, in addition to Mona, were the most powerful individuals at their school. Even so, if Mirabelle’s prediction was correct, then they were in for a great ordeal very soon in the future. Ariel sighed internally at how things had come to this.
“I’m supposed to be helping him, in accordance with the faculty’s wishes, but I don’t intend to actually do anything about it. You can count on me to do the same as I always have—the bare minimum possible.”
Donovan was the first to speak up.
“So, you’ll support him instead of me when you’re forced to take a side?”
“You can’t say that, Madam President. We’re the faculty’s arms and legs, so we have the same job. That makes him our ally, supposedly, right? Or are you saying you’re going to make an enemy of him? That sounds contradictory to our mission, doesn’t it?”
He sneered, but Mirabelle remained stoic.
“Supporting him in his coup is one thing, but you’re well aware of his personality and pedigree. There’ll definitely be problems besides putting him in power.”
“For you, maybe, but not for me. I’m not a girl, and I have no beef with him. But if that time ever comes, I’ll do whatever I want. It’ll depend on what’ll benefit me.”
Mirabelle sighed. Inconvincible, it seemed.
“I see. I’ll have to be content with this much from you. Then, Stephen, what’s your answer?”
Stephen was also unrepentant.
“He’ll be going after us to take over the AC, but you’ll be helping him out with that, right? Don’t think that gives you any right to ask us for help.”
“You don’t have to be under my command. I would like you at the very least to not align with him, when the time comes when he inevitably makes an enemy out of me.”
“In that instance, if he doesn’t do anything to us, I see no reason to intervene. Like I said, we’re gonna be laying low. Have fun dealing with him on your own.”
“So, can I count on you?”
“Not gonna answer that. If you want to use us through Gilbert, though, go ahead and try.”
Innocuous enough as his declaration was, he was implicitly challenging Mirabelle. It was, for all intents and purposes, a negative answer. Mirabelle sighed once more.
“Well, if that’s the case, then it can’t be helped. Laying low is a good idea.”
It really couldn’t be helped. Even Mirabelle had to admit that her moves ruffled too many feathers with Stephen and Gilbert. However, she didn’t regret it at all. It had served her and the faculty’s objectives in record time, leaving behind a weakened Class A, and only Mona’s faction and the AC left to dismantle.
She also expected the two bosses to not give away any of their intentions for the future, but it didn’t hurt to try asking them. If either of them had any inkling of wanting to continue negotiations, then it could’ve been possible for something to be brokered in her favour, but since they didn’t, at least the thing she could take away from this conversation was that both sides were unreliable for her future confrontation with that certain returning student, who paradoxically she should be helping.
“If that’s all, then please excuse me, Madam President.”
“I’m leaving.”
With that, another two students vacated the student council room. The sisters who remained finally relaxed, but only somewhat. Obviously, it wasn’t only the men who had a bone to pick with Mirabelle. Ariel had many reservations about everything that was going on, too.
“Welcome back. I suppose everything went well for you, considering your Hearts candidacy being made official. Congratulations.”
“Why, thank you, Ariel.”
Mirabelle sat back down in her seat with her hand to her forehead and eyes closed, as if she was infinitely exhausted. It was hard work, after all. However, Ariel had no intention of letting her sister off the hook. There still was a very important discussion to be had.
“Not to be rude right off the bat, but you have some explaining to do. I’ll leave the case about the AC’s future for some time later. Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. The Records Office. Is the faculty really intent on shutting it down?”
“Correct. After considering what the senatorial trials have revealed, they decided to cut off intelligence exchange to the PSC. As collateral damage, this intelligence exchange will be cut off for the Records Office as well.”
Without opening her eyes, Mirabelle explained in a tired voice.
“If the faculty doesn’t give us that information, then there’s no point in maintaining the office at all. You know full well that we rely on it for the Records Office to function properly as a secret police. Sure, we can maintain the informant network we have in place, but in actuality it only fills in gaps. It doesn’t form the basis of our intelligence data. Plus, it’ll only sufficiently cover the third-years.”
So, despite the length of her absence, Mirabelle was well aware of what the undersecretary’s concerns were. In essence, the student council’s administration was to lose its arms and legs, reducing its role to only minutes-taking. While Ariel also functioned as an attorney general, it only came up once in a while, and was not a day-to-day duty. In all likelihood, all personnel would be moved to the treasury or the SLO to take on more “general” student council jobs there. A one- or two-man show led by Ariel would be enough to perform these reduced duties. Ariel agreed tacitly.
“Certainly, without the input of the faculty’s intelligence, it would only be a matter of time before the Records Office would lose its effectiveness.”
“And so, to preempt this, the faculty is planning to confiscate most of the records, current and historical, from the Records Office today after school. Student profiles, clandestine minutes, secret documents, plans and files—they’re all going away. The secret police will really be no more. The only things we get to keep are the Assembly’s and our own student council’s minutes.”
“Uh-huh…”
“If there are any files of interest, it’s best for you to copy it out by hand before the end of today.”
An eerie silence followed. They looked each other in the eyes, both expressions rigid as steel.
“I see. So you used me to prosecute the PSC—Gilbert’s PSC members—without mercy, just so the faculty can use this opportunity, the corruption scandal, to cleanse the PSC of Gilbert’s men. At the same time, they also used it as an excuse to force the student council to shut the Records Office down completely, as a part of their plan to bring all of the student government to heel. The result is that, instead of you, I was the one who earned the ire of Gilbert’s faction in your place, and then my position on the student council is effectively voided. In summary, I unwittingly sealed my own fate—a fate created from your two hands.”
Ariel’s voice was steady, but there was a rare, seething rage right underneath the calm surface. Mirabelle noticed it, and found herself even more exhausted than before. She realized that her plans had gone too far. Ariel was never the one who got even remotely angry. The few times she ever did, were serious incidents that warranted unfettered indignation.
“I cannot deny that characterization of the events. It is as everything you said.”
“You knew I was the only one out of the three of us who could put a stop to you if I wanted, so you went after me first, to reduce my influence and power in the school, right? Bia and Scarlett could never outmanoeuvre you, or even disobey you for that matter. You took advantage of my non-interventionist attitude to corner me before I noticed what was going on. From now on, you can move freely within the school without worrying about me interrupting your plans, right?”
“…”
“You knew I would side with Kato and the Elites. I implicitly revealed as much when we all agreed to let you ride the Ferris wheel with Kato—we agreed to maintain the status quo, but then you went behind our backs to bring Mayumi here? I can’t even imagine which one’s the excuse, to force Kato’s hand to break the status quo, or to execute on your plan to aid the faculty in taking control of the school.”
Without knowing all of Kato’s thoughts, there was still a non-zero chance that Mayumi could push Kato enough to make a rash decision, especially if Kato thought something else of his latent and oblivious affection for Mayumi. Ariel couldn’t rule out the possibility that Mayumi was not only a ticking time bomb for the school’s anti-neutrality protests, but for their circle of friends too. It eventually proved half-true for the latter: the status quo was broken, just not in the way that they imagined, in that Kato would be the main cause of it.
“So now I’m too late. My authority in this school is compromised, and my capabilities limited when I want to protect Kato or the Elites in a pinch from you and the school. I truly regret not taking action earlier.”
“…but, you usually don’t bother with that, don’t you?”
If it were an outsider, or even an Elite who countered with that, it would be a completely sensible deduction. Personally, Ariel was quite emotionally detached from their circle’s relationship dramas. However, it didn’t mean she wasn’t a participant entirely. She still had a little bit of skin in the game, and this indignation showed how her friends were, deep down, quite dear to her.
“If I wasn’t around to tie up loose ends from the shadows, Kato wouldn’t have been able to keep everyone together for this long. I think he subconsciously knows this too. It’s precisely because I’m the impartial one that the rest of them remained in line.”
Tooting her own horn in the meanwhile, Ariel continued her torrent of accusations unabashedly.
“On the other hand, what have you done in the past seven or eight years to earn you a right to have any say in our group? You went off on your own to pursue Hearts candidacy—for your own sake and no one else’s—and then disappeared for years on end, just so you can come back now to basically tear us apart? Let’s set aside the fact that I was chosen to inherit the family business instead of you. Since I was already second in line after you, I’m in no way angry because of that.”
It was crucial—since Ariel was the one making these accusations—that she made it clear her discontent was not because of Mirabelle taking off, reneging on her responsibilities to her family, and subsequently pushing said responsibilities onto Ariel. Given Ariel’s position, she would’ve eventually taken them on in some capacity anyway. She needed to unambiguously make out that this point was completely separate from the next, in order for Mirabelle to understand the depth of the mess that she made.
“When we negotiated that Ferris wheel agreement, I was the one who showed you mercy, not the other way around. It wasn’t some kind of unfair deal I imposed on you because we thought it was funny to see you separated from Kato, or that I was trying to one-up you in favour of Bia. The fact that we even considered your request was more than you ever deserved. You are the one who owes us.”
At that, Mirabelle was shocked. She now understood why Ariel was furious.
“At the start of senior high, you were lucky that Kato had instantly welcomed you back into the group as if nothing had changed. You do realize that in any other circumstance, being estranged for this long doesn’t normally get you a free pass like this, do you? And you have the gall to ask us for a favour like that. Honestly, I was disgusted. If Bia wasn’t scared of you, I would’ve rejected everything on the spot. As your sister, I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you treat us as nothing but accessories to your selfish wishes, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, to say the least. So, I’ll say this.”
Ariel took a deep breath in before she let every last drop of emotion in her tiny body out.
“I don’t need someone who’s going to leave us for good just a little under a year from now, to completely shatter my circle of friends. You don’t have a horse in this race, but I do. I want us and the Elites to be together for the remainder of this year, so that after we graduate and go our separate ways, in ten years, twenty years, or even longer, we’d still be the good friends that we are now. I believe Bia and Scarlett think the same, but none of this matters to you, now, does it?”
“N-no, I—”
“Don’t even try denying it. Your Hearts candidacy was only contingent on Master Suvorov’s discretion. There’s no need for you to do any of this, but we both know why you did.”
Mirabelle was livid. Her beautiful face was distorted by fear, disbelief and shame. Her hands trembled, grasping at the empty air.
“To avoid the memory wipe that came with Kato and Evie’s entry into the Hearts, becoming a Hearts candidate wasn’t enough, obviously. You either needed to become a nomenklatura that dealt with the Hearts, or become a Heart yourself. Alice is able to do the first thing because of her and her family’s position in Eternia, and her personal friendship with Evie. If I’m to guess, she’ll become Evie’s handler.
“But our family isn’t in that kind of position. We’re Auxirian nobility, for heaven’s sake. So, the only possibility for you was to become a Heart—or more precisely, become someone who has all the credentials to become a Heart. That credential is Hearts candidacy plus a strong recommendation from a kabinet, or from a proxy of Lady Eterna.”
Becoming a Hearts candidate was like making it to a waiting list for an interview after an employer validated your résumé. Becoming someone who has all the credentials to become a Heart, then, was analogous to succeeding the interview and accepting the offer of employment. Once the first day of the job rolled around, you would become a Heart.
The kabinet was the topmost layer of Eternia’s hierarchy, answering only to each other and the leaders themselves. They were, essentially, the equivalent of the top of the aristocracy, and only the leaders could appoint new kabinets.
“For Kato, Evie and Teto, Ms Romana fulfills that role as Lady Eterna’s direct proxy. That’s why Ms Romana is even here in the first place, to oversee them and recommend their Hearts candidacy.”
Obviously, the trio were special candidates in that they were set to be Hearts from very early on in their life. Skipping the selection process entirely, they were guaranteed membership in the Hearts, so even Ms Romana’s proctoring was only a formality. That was why the memory wipe was a certainty for the Elites.
As an aside, the memory wipe was only applicable to the situation around young, Eternian-bred, newly-initiated Hearts. It didn’t apply to Hearts candidates who were promoted to Hearts membership later in life. Logistical concerns aside, it was done for the young ones because the appointment was lifelong, so a clean break from their past was easier to execute upon, in order to prepare them for their long, predetermined future.
“So, you went to Mr Guilford-Fong, the Class 3-A homeroom teacher, to fulfill that role for yourself. He’s the only kabinet at our school that would be willing to make such a recommendation. His recompense is to use your capabilities to change the fundamental laws of this school according to his will—or rather, the faculty’s will.
“If you’re successful he’ll recommend you, and then Lady Eterna will decide on whether to approve of initiating you into the Hearts or not. Once that happens, you’ll have all the credentials to become a Heart, and thus have the justification to avoid the memory wipe. They won’t force it on a person they’re going to make a Heart out of. That’s why you’re doing all of this. This is the entire basis of your intentions. You desperately wanted to chase after Kato, and if nothing else, for Kato to remain in your memories.”
That was the final nail in the coffin. Even as the bystander of their circle, Ariel was able to see through all the way to the bottom of the ocean. She was indeed an exceptional person, but of course, even of her own admission, she couldn’t make use of her genius properly. It was too late for her to effect any change to the current state of affairs.
“And since you’re becoming a Heart, our memories of you, like with our memories of Kato, Evie and Teto, will be sealed away too. How convenient for you. Not only were we broken apart by your dirty scheming, but we’d even forget that you did this to us. Congratulations. You won’t have to bear any responsibility for your actions. All I can say is that this world is terribly unjust.”
Ariel’s cold gaze shook Mirabelle to her core. She had only seen this once before, at the end of middle school, aimed towards Kato. That realization froze her in place, unable to speak a word. It felt as if the room closed in on her, reducing her field of blurry vision to the petite platinum-haired sister in front of her.
“I really don’t get you sometimes. You’d go this far to get your way, and yet you couldn’t say anything to him when you’re actually with him? You’d mention Bia’s name instead? Are you daft?”
Ariel was, for once, showing a face of pure malignance. It was an expression of someone who was absolutely fed up with the thing in front of them, and wanted nothing but for that thing to be exorcised from this world. Everything she had said up until this point was within the realm of reasonable grievances, representing her fellow sisters Bianca and Scarlett too, but this latest stab was personal.
“Sorry, but don’t blame Kato. I pretty much made him tell me what happened on the Ferris wheel. He doesn’t know about our agreement either, so don’t worry about that. I wouldn’t have cared otherwise, but you had to be a scared little bitch and chicken out like a pussy. You’re cold-blooded enough to throw our trust and our friendships into a ditch, but when push came to shove you couldn’t even follow through with your selfishness. The Elites were destroyed so you could deliberately sabotage your own attempt? Do our livelihoods mean nothing to you?”
“…”
“And don’t even try to think that that was some convoluted way of paying back Bia. It had nothing to do with her. You knew Kato and Bia had something going on between them, and you wanted him to make a definitive decision on it—you wanted him to give up on it. In other words, you were afraid he wouldn’t, and afraid of being rejected because of it.
“No, that’s not all of it. You chickened out also because when we were negotiating that time, Bia was being whiney. Afterwards, you were scared that what she has for Kato, and what she claimed she already has, is more than what you have. You were scared that he would actually choose Bia, so you elected to choose her for him. Deluding yourself into having influenced his choice in some capacity won’t hurt as much as a direct, unequivocal rejection from him. What a pathetic excuse for the most powerful woman in Korolev Senior.”
Ariel caught and half-corrected herself despite being quite agitated from this confrontation. She reeled her emotions back in, taking another deep breath in and rising from her seat steadily. She had said everything she wanted to say, and so there was no more reason to stay.
What had happened, had already happened. There was no turning back the clock to redo what went wrong, so Ariel could only make her way to the door and leave Mirabelle behind. What she wanted to do now was to plan for the future, and for a future that she wanted. A future with her friends all in one piece. In that case, her flesh and blood quadruplet-sister, Mirabelle, was her unexpected opponent. She couldn’t afford to sit back and observe anymore.
Shortly after the door closed on the student council room, gentle sobs lightly shook Mirabelle’s frame. She sat dumbfounded, overwhelmed by the beating she took from Ariel. It was far beyond what she could ever imagine from her.
Even as the bell sounded for the impending start of homeroom and first period, Mirabelle remained seated, trying desperately to reconcile with what Ariel had said. Despite the grief she was suffering through, she didn’t regret the path she had taken. She was prepared to take on all of this sadness and broken hearts—and that was what she was doing. Ariel’s words gouged deep into her heart without mercy, but she was determined to bear it all the same. That was what it took to become a Heart on her own—to have the resolve to abandon all that she held dear.
After Kato and Bianca left the Class A leaders behind in the AC headquarters, they immediately made their way to the fourth floor, locking themselves in one of the empty classrooms so that no one—especially teachers—would accidentally walk in and disturb them continuing the conversation from the AC.
The dusty scent of nature slowly decomposing the unused classroom didn’t register with the unwanted intruders, who were solely focused on their own predicaments. Kato sat down on an old wooden chair after he swept away a layer of dust with the back of his hand.
“I’m sorry.”
However, it was Bianca who was the first to speak up. She stayed by the door, leaning backwards into the wall next to it.
“I don’t blame you. Ariel didn’t say anything about it to me either, so it must’ve been something you couldn’t say anything about at all until now. It makes sense. Once she became a Hearts candidate, it also became public information, so everyone adjacent to her position will find out. If she and Gilbert were students of the same master, then it stands to reason that he found out first.”
Eyes closed, he rubbed his temples, still trying to take in this revelation. He couldn’t believe Mirabelle deceived all of the Elites for all these years, especially his own people, who were supposed to be in the same mafia underworld she was trying to join.
Sure, no one had any business to know all of those who were aspiring to become one, but those undergoing the intense training required to become one would eventually catch the attention of someone in a position of authority sooner or later, and unless they were extra careful about it, that information usually made its way outside in one form or another. The fact that it didn’t, meant the Jupiter family pulled many strings and took many precautions to not let people know that their most outstanding daughter would abandon her noble heritage to join the organization.
However, once one became a Hearts candidate, that candidacy would be made public to the kabinet and related individuals. It was inevitable, since from that position a Hearts candidate could only obtain a recommendation to the Hearts from a kabinet. Kato’s family, while not kabinets, were special existences to the organization; they could be privy to such information if they so desired.
Bianca breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Well, then that’s good. I was worried you might tear my ear off or something.”
“Not yours. None of this is your doing anyway.”
Kato shook his head, still bewildered.
“I’d imagine you need to talk to Ariel, not me. I don’t have the power to affect any of this, but Ariel might.”
“Well, we’re gonna have a conversation with her later to exchange intel, but before that, there are still a few things I wanna confirm.”
He opened his eyes and continued.
“Mira wants to join the Hearts. If she does get selected to become a Heart, she must also accept a memory wipe to all those close to her, including family. How did the rest of you take all of this?”
“I…obviously, we didn’t know about it until, y’know, that time. The adults didn’t want to tell us, I guess, and for good reason. Initially, I thought it was fine. I get to finally forget about being her shadow, I thought. It was later that I became frustrated, after I found out what happens to the one joining the Hearts.”
“She wouldn’t be subject to the erasure of her memories at all. Right?”
“That’s right. She’ll be the only one who’ll remember you. When I found out that’s what would happen, it made me really upset. I was thinking to myself, why am I always the incapable one in comparison? I can’t do anything, yet Mira was able to go out and forge a path for herself.”
That path, however, meant being absent from the Elites for many years. For the rest of the Elites, it was as if she moved away to a different school, visited them on very infrequent occasions, and then finally moved back during high school. It was not even full time, only reappearing as she desired, as was the case for the past month and a half.
“I’m sorry…”
Kato apologized sheepishly, but Bianca shook her head quietly. He remembered vividly, back at the end of middle school, that she found out about the erasure from him in the most acrimonious way possible. In retrospect, he realized that Bianca must have taken it much harder than he had previously thought because not only was he being downright unreasonable at the time, but Bianca had instantly, and finally, understood why Mirabelle was trying to join the Hearts—to avoid exactly what Bianca had to confront.
“It’s fine now. To be honest, I was probably too influenced by Letty at the time. Maybe I could’ve found a more level-headed way to deal with it, than let Letty’s emotions get to me.”
“Letty…”
Kato sighed exhaustedly. Because Bianca had always been together with him in some way or another, there was always opportunity to mend fences. She was very special to him, so eventually he would’ve came to his senses and found a way to do so. It just so happened that Eon expedited that in a very melodramatic way.
Letty—Leticia—was also someone quite special in her own right, and also was at the centre of their troubles at the time. But, she was no longer in Korolev district. She left immediately afterwards, leaving no opportunity to reconcile with her, and considering her different position from Bianca, there was probably no way to do it even if an opportunity presented itself. Leticia was the first time that Kato felt immeasurable regret over.
They gave themselves a moment of silence for Leticia’s sake, before Kato continued.
“Why did Mira want to become a Heart?”
“Are you really going to ask that?”
Bianca was somewhat exasperated at that question. On the other hand, Kato was quite serious, and he was taken aback by Bianca’s reaction.
“…but I wasn’t that kind of a person to her at the time, was I? She made the decision to become a Heart a long time ago, even before Mayumi left us. It was around the middle of third grade that she slowly stopped coming to school.”
So he wasn’t that dense, and he obviously had some idea about it. It would have been stranger if he didn’t. But at the same time, Bianca knew firsthand that without directly affirming such notions with the other party, it was a never-ending sequence of worry, doubt, anxiety and indecision. That loop of guessing and second-guessing each other’s true feelings was both stressful and exhilarating for the budding relationship.
“What I can say is that I thought—well, everyone else too, thought—it was the same deal with you and Mayumi.”
“Hmm…”
Kato could only hum at that implication. He was also a little embarrassed as he was incredulous. Bianca saw an inkling of that, and it was her turn to sigh.
“Don’t underestimate the Elites. They can see these kinds of things as bright as day.”
“So you noticed it at the time, too?”
Her heart skipped a beat. He stared intently at her, as if the question he just asked meant much more than what it appeared on the surface.
“I didn’t think of it too much at the time. Y-you already know that it wasn’t until much more recently that it became something that mattered to me…”
“I-I guess you’re right…”
Noticing her bashful voice, he also subconsciously stammered. He realized his question was not taken at face value, so he let the subject drop. Bianca, too, hurriedly went back to the initial subject.
“Ariel and Scarlett didn’t think too much of her joining the Hearts either. At least for Ariel, it wasn’t until Mira brought Mayumi back that she had something serious to say about it.”
“Figures. That makes sense.”
That was very true. Historically, Ariel was particularly close to Mayumi, and so she was fully aware of Mayumi’s capabilities. She couldn’t take Mirabelle’s machinations with Mayumi lying down, especially now that it had turned so many things on its head.
“What do you think of Mira joining the Hearts, Kato?”
Earlier, when Gilbert revealed to Kato about Mirabelle’s bid for Hearts candidacy in his place, he also said that he was originally disconcerted by Mirabelle’s intent on following the faculty’s direction so closely. If her candidacy only relied on Master Suvorov’s discretion, then she didn’t need to be so aggressively siding with the faculty, or even at all.
However, Gilbert later found out—or rather, wrested from his homeroom teacher that he was in fact proctoring for Mirabelle’s entry into the Hearts proper. Obviously, Hearts candidacy was not her final destination. With that final piece of information, Mirabelle’s movements behind the scenes finally made sense. Of course, it didn’t explain why she was aiming so desperately for the Hearts in the first place. The only reason they could surmise—and unknowingly, it was correct—was because of Kato and the memory wipes.
Normally, one pursued joining the Hearts for many other reasons. Fame, prestige, status, pride, or even pure vanity. There were also other extenuating circumstances that led to Hearts membership, such as with Kato’s family. That was why even though the four of them came to a plausible reasoning, Bianca being the most sure of it, they still second-guessed if it really was the only reason, especially when it was a decision made when she was so young and with the family’s tacit endorsement.
“I can’t say. I don’t know enough about Mr Guilford, or Mira’s position with regards to that. Hell, I didn’t even know she was doing this until just now. But if she’s planned for it for this long, knowing her, it’s pretty likely she’ll succeed, if we assume Lady Eterna doesn’t reject the recommendation.”
Unexpectedly, Bianca was all squeamish again, clearly meaning the question in a different, more personal way. She had to put it in more precise words. Bravely, she stepped forward, and stood resolutely in front of him.
“I mean, what do you think of Mira being able to remember you after you become a Heart yourself? You’ll be in the Hearts together, too. Isn’t that, y’know, good for you?”
“Good for me?”
As she loomed over him, he echoed her simple question, instantly realizing what she was trying to ask. It had nothing to do with the situation at hand. It was probably something she had been endlessly anxious about, and even more so than the fact that Mirabelle was able to retain memories of Kato.
To put it simply, she was asking about his feelings for Mirabelle.
“I…I—!”
Kato was infinitely tongue-tied. It occurred to him that, despite everything they had been through together, she had never ever asked him that question. It was immensely commendable for Bianca to not have done so for this long.
When he looked up, he saw a deeply sorrowful longing in her gaze, as if she was already sure that he would agree with her presumption. He couldn’t look away from the wistfulness in her eyes that, unforgivably, reminded him of Mirabelle.
Bianca, seeing him continue to be at a loss for words, began to despair. Second best once more, she thought. As she tried to give up and shift away, Kato suddenly sprang forward to grab her around the waist, pressing his face to her soft belly.
“—!”
She gasped in surprise and instantly froze at the strange sensation of the awkward contact. There was a ticklish giddiness to it, but she was more distracted by Kato himself. She couldn’t fathom what this could be about.
Kato, unfortunately, had no idea why he reacted this way either. When she was about to turn away, he instantly felt a creeping feeling of fear in his chest that threatened to fill his heart with a numb, black void. He reached out instinctively to combat this emotional disease, as if Bianca was his solace.
Thankfully, it only took a few moments to collect himself. He stood up from his seat, but he had yet to let go of his hands around her waist. Within his slack embrace, she looked upwards at his face in a daze, his intense stare like a heatwave sapping the energy out of her.
“…no matter how I feel about her, I can’t choose her right now. I won’t choose her until I’m forced to at gunpoint. And not until I’ve gotten over my feelings for you, Bia.”
Kato finally pieced together his words for her to hear; or rather, he allowed himself to say whatever came into his mind as he trained his eyes intently on Bianca’s delicate face. It made sure they were words meant only for her, and that there were no falsehoods in it.
As her eyes started to well up in tears, she reached for his face with trembling hands and caressed it tenderly. Her heart was pounding so hard that she thought her blood was going to spill out of her chest.
“Can I…make it so that you’ll never get over it?”
She whispered ever so gently, tingling yet searing his ears like a feather dripping with poison. He almost buckled as his heart melted in the delirious fervour of her corrosive love.
“That’s what you’ve set out to do from the start, right?”
And in a complete reversal, hope flooded into her expression like a blossoming flower. The euphoric high of pure bliss took over her senses for a moment, blacking out the distant sound of the morning bell. Within it, she set her emotions free, and leaned in to kiss him deeply on the lips.
Trapped within her hypnotic reverie, Kato, perhaps against his better judgment, returned its passion tenfold in both space and time, defying all expectations of their ill-fated circumstance.
Inside the inner sanctum of the school’s infirmary, the remainder of the Elites crowded around Eon’s bed. Early morning sun filtered through the open window onto the several other beds that were vacant, as they chose to put him in the corner away from the window.
Yui and Franco had come here with Eon in their arms, who at the time was barely holding onto his strength in his legs. When they got to the infirmary’s visitors’ waiting area, the school nurse wasn’t even on duty yet, so they had to barge into the main office using a master key that Scarlett handed them. They quickly tossed him onto a bed and tried to make it as comfortable for him as possible.
Once Cecilia, Caius and Mayumi were dismissed, they along with Scarlett and Alice quickly made their way down to the infirmary, with a quick pit-stop by the girls’ washroom that Mayumi had been using her future sight in. By the time they joined with Eon and co., the school nurse had arrived and was, strangely enough, hugging onto Eon’s inert body tightly.
“Oh, what a dumbass you are, Eon. Why do you have to be such a dumbass, little brother?”
“Katia-je, you don’t have to call me a dumbass like that twice.”
The tall, slender nurse with a black, rounded bob cut was none other than Eon’s older sister of three years. She had already finished post-secondary education and was currently working part-time at her alma mater that was this school. She donned a nurse’s white laboratory uniform, complete with hardened-cloth overcoat and trousers, and finishing with black rain-boots.
“Don’t you dare use that honorific as mockery, cockface. Address me properly.”
“Yeah, yeah, you can fall over and die, too.”
Katia let go of him and smiled brightly. The newcomers to the Elites were utterly flummoxed by the exchange of profanity, but for those who knew Katia and Eon, this was par for the course. It was also clear where Eon’s maverick streak came from.
“How many hours did you look into the future?”
“A few hours at most.”
“What about the headache? Is it worse than the other times you’ve used it?”
“Unfortunately, yes, it is.”
She frowned.
“Then you’re also getting old like me. It’s best you don’t exert your eyes like this from now on. At your age, the comfortable maximum I recommend is about fifteen minutes. Do you feel funny anywhere in your body at all?”
“No, nothing funny at all, just exhausted.”
“That’s good news. There shouldn’t be any lasting damage in that case. Still, don’t do anything this reckless again, brother.”
“Yes, yes, I already know, sister. You’re the great foremother of precognition.”
Katia’s rainbow-coloured eyes softened, relieved that Eon was listening to her quite obediently. If they were anything like when they lived at home together, it would’ve taken an episode of bickering before they reached a consensus.
“I only use it to look several seconds into the future nowadays. I don’t even want to deal with fifteen minutes of suffering, and yet you chose to look hours into the future. You really like to lie in bed, huh?”
“Sorry, but can you lecture me later? I need to pass out, thanks.”
“Any second now, brother.”
Right before, she gave him sleeping pills to induce the mental shutdown required for sleep. The physical recoil from the future sight brought exhaustion and pain, but not the kind that encouraged sleep, so by chewing on sleeping pills they could pass through this cycle while unconscious.
And as if right on cue, Eon fell asleep comfortably in the nondescript hospital bed. Katia smiled lightly, and turned her gaze toward the present Elites. She looked at them in the eye once each, unwavering and fearless.
“I can see that the group has expanded quite a bit. I’m Katia, Eon’s older sister, and these kids’ babysitter a long time ago. I may be young, but that’s because I skipped three grades ahead. I work in healthcare, and started here part-time just this school year. Thanks for taking care of my little brother.”
“Yes, Katia-je.”
Caius, Mayumi and Scarlett bowed deeply, showing the true nature of their hierarchy. Alice seemed to have noticed first—if Katia skipped three grades in the Korolev district, then it must mean that she was precocious, a prodigy, or both. It was, of course, the latter.
“So from what I heard, we’re trying to cheat on an exam, right? And you ran into a trap set by the PSC?”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“I can’t believe you guys. You knew I was here six years ago. They already have a case study. Can’t you put two and two together?”
Her stunning eyes made a great impression on the newcomers, which helped sharpen the daunting combativeness in her expression and voice. She already heard what had happened earlier from Eon. Mayumi continued to answer.
“With all due respect, I was already the subject of this kind of surveillance back at Regia Miriam. I’m well aware of the dangers.”
“And you can’t come up with adequate countermeasures even with foreknowledge? I’m very disappointed in you, Mayumi. My brother is a lost cause because I know his weaknesses, but you, of all people, should be able to win. I would definitely be able to win.”
With that remark, the newcomers were wholly incredulous at Katia. They couldn’t believe that instead of chastising Mayumi for trying to cheat on an exam, as any employee of the school should do, she was disappointed that Mayumi couldn’t do it better.
“But we got off scot-free! We even hid the exam answers and retrieved them from the washroom afterwards without any of them noticing!”
“If your condition for victory is success at any cost, then you might as well go back to the family farm and till the fields for a living.”
“I…I’m very sorry.”
Mayumi bit her lip at Katia’s scathing assessment of her performance. With that, Katia sat back down in her wheelchair with a satisfactory expression.
“If you understand, then that’s fine.”
Like a child being singled out to guilt-trip their wrongdoings, Mayumi hung her head in disgrace. The crew was similarly silent and forlorn, now fully aware that not only Katia was their venerable senior, she was the Elite’s ultimate boss. She was like a mafia’s branch leader, while the Elites were just one of the gangs of thugs under her patronage, and Mayumi was one of those gang leaders she needed to discipline.
“…Katia-je, do you hate me?”
Mayumi spared a momentary glance at Katia’s motorized wheelchair before she shifted her eye back at Katia.
“No, I don’t. What happened to me was all of my own accord. I now understand exactly how difficult it is to have and live with a painful, chronic illness, so I won’t hate someone who found a way to overcome something I’m unable to. You are fortunate that Kato was prepared to sacrifice himself for you.
“You had it worse than me. Your life was at stake. I may be in varying degrees of pain all the time, but I can manage it up to a point. Technically speaking, I had it much better than you.
“Though, I have one more thing to say as your senior and former babysitter. Not only does Kato go out on a limb for you, but Eon is also willing to do the same.”
When Katia smiled gently at her and eyed Eon sleeping soundly in his bed, Mayumi finally connected the dots and figured out why Katia was strict with her.
“The blood and sweat they poured into the sacrifices they made for you, aren’t trivial. So, please cherish them, Mayumi.”
Despite the distraught-filled frown stretched across her porcelain features, Mayumi didn’t hesitate to answer.
“I’m so sorry! Truly sorry! Please, allow me to apologize!”
Mayumi got on her knees and begged for forgiveness. Even the old guard in Caius and Scarlett were taken aback by the degree of humility. They watched Katia slowly drive her wheelchair around and towards her office desk as she maintained her thin smile.
“I told you, it’s fine, Mayumi. Even knowing those risks, I chose to do it myself. You don’t have to blame yourself for what I did.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that I owe you, too.”
“If you insist on making good on your sins, then there’s only one thing for you to do, right? Make it up to the people you actually owe it to. Think about how to do it on your own, with what you have.”
Katia gestured to her unconscious brother on the bed. Mayumi spared a glance at Eon too, and she nodded solemnly as her determination slowly returned.
“…I understand, Katia-je.”
“All right. That’s all I’ve got to say. Then, all of you guys, shoo. There’re too many people in here already. Eon’ll be fine by lunchtime, don’t worry about it.”
Filing out of the infirmary quietly, the Elites headed for their classrooms through the hustle and bustle of the school hallways, coming alive as first period approached.
“What was that about?”
Alice asked sharply the moment they passed inside one of the auxiliary stairwells, mostly directing the question at Mayumi and Caius. The group stopped, as the other newcomers also found the confrontation both baffling and intriguing. Caius answered first before Mayumi had a chance to.
“When Mayumi first disappeared, we didn’t know where she went. It was Katia-je who helped out and indirectly foresaw her death.”
“…?”
Yui, Franco and Cecilia, too, gave Caius a weird look, of course not privy to the details of their past.
“It isn’t a coincidence that both Eon and Katia-je have future sight. The operation of her future sight is similar to Mayumi’s though, but much stronger—she can see directly into a specific time in the future without first going through the immediate future.
“And unfortunately, Katia-je suffers from the same destructive condition as Mayumi. It’s not as bad as Mayumi’s case—her eyes are proof that she has a wholly working special ability, being able to use it at her own discretion. So, instead of having a heavy burden on her body due to a malformed power, like with Mayumi, Katia-je’s was just a case of the future sight being too great for a normal human body to endure.”
For Mayumi and Eon, their future sight worked like a cassette tape, needing to fast-forward or rewind based on what they wanted to see. However, Katia’s powers were so much more convenient than theirs. She could drop in at any time in the future she wanted, almost like a needle on a gramophone record.
“She found approximately where Mayumi was, what was happening and some of what was going to happen to her. Afterwards, Kato and Evie tracked her down based on Katia-je’s descriptions. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We have one friend about to die, and another friend’s family member permanently injuring herself for our sake. I’m not sure how Eon feels now, but back at that moment, I didn’t think it went over with him very well. It was really complex, to say the least.”
That explained why Eon was so apathetic to Mayumi’s return to Korolev. While she was an infinitely irreplaceable friend, she had also been at the centre of his elder sister’s disability, no matter how much Katia insisted it was of her own doing. Given my personality, this would’ve happened to me sooner or later, just under a different circumstance, Katia had said nonchalantly. I can be glad that it helped someone from dying in an undeserved condition.
Interestingly, this bit of trivia forced Alice to re-evaluate Eon in a more positive light. While Eon was tightly connected to what had happened to Mayumi that time, it was merely adjacent to the drama that followed Mayumi, Caius and Kato. Eon’s claim that he had no skin in that game was terrifically accurate, much more accurate than one would give him at face value. Rather, he had a very personal, one-to-one set of mixed feelings with regards to Mayumi.
“Her current form with this half-disability was the direct result of that reckless use of her future sight in that incident. Her body couldn’t take it, and now she lives with a wheelchair and with chronic pain.”
The newcomers were stupefied. It meant that Katia had been handicapped since middle-school-age. Needless to say, her recklessness caused no small amount of grief for her family. At the same time, the Elites had to face Mayumi’s imminent death as well. Alice now understood the depth of the burden Mayumi must carry, and part of why she returned to Korolev and did what she did. It really wasn’t just about herself. It was all about the original Elites. Mayumi had a score to settle with the Elites, as she once told her.
“I see. I understand.”
When Caius finished matter-of-factly, Alice replied in kind. Even the trivial mystery as to how the Elites were able to find out about Mayumi’s condition was such a heavy burden that it dwarfed and even belittled her own inner turmoil. No wonder the Elites were such exceptional people, Alice thought.
“Then, what are you planning to do about it?”
Alice turned to Mayumi, who was still somewhat spaced out from before. However, after hearing Alice’s question, she replied with something unexpected.
“I’m going to face all of them head-on. All of you head-on. I can’t be running away forever.”
Ever since the equinox, Mayumi had been quite outwardly melancholic. As it had been for years, the unrelenting forward march of time did nothing to assuage her aching heart. Those close to her, especially Cecilia, could see that her spirit was thoroughly broken.
However, in this moment, the fire in her eye shone once more. There were no more clouds in her gaze, and no more hesitation in her movement. The re-encounter with Katia brought back a vigour befitting of the leader of the Elites. Surprised, Alice gasped.
“I-is that so? Good for you, then.”
Satisfied, Mayumi turned to continue climbing the steps. The conversation dropped abruptly, giving an eerie feel to the quite large group present. There was a strange feeling of anticipation tingling at Alice as they ascended the stairs back to the third floor, to which an explanation for it very quickly appeared before her.
While the 3-B and 3-F classrooms were both in the west building, the 3-B classroom was all the way at the end of it, while the 3-F classroom was situated near the centre where the open atrium was. When they made it to the fork in the path separating the two destinations, Caius, Mayumi and Cecilia followed Scarlett onwards to the 3-B classroom, leaving Alice, Franco and Yui behind.
It seemed like the scene was just as jarring for the other two newcomer Elites. As they watched their backs recede into the hallway, it felt as if the Elites had been completely split apart. Back at the equinox, there were only splinters beginning to form, but they were still a whole, as flawed as the situation was. Now, the difference in classes and classrooms finally drove home reality. The splinters gave way entirely and the whole thing fell apart.
“So this is it, huh.”
Franco shook his head glumly, and turned to head for the 3-F classroom. Yui followed him quietly, also sombre from the loss of the original Elites. For what it was worth, they each had their own, lasting history with the original Elites, unlike the case for Alice.
Alice could only hold her head high and grit her teeth. As someone who cherished her friends and reciprocated their loyalty, it saddened her to see them go. She hoped that Mayumi’s newfound purpose could bring a change for the better.