“Where do you think you are right now?” The old grouchy woman asks.

“We’re in the guidance office again.” Blair answers carelessly.

Ms. Malupit sighed heavily. “Yes, again. The three of you, AGAIN. Right. After. Your. Classes. This. Afternoon. May I just remind you girls, you are supposed to submit your essays to me. PERSONALLY. Now, tell me, have you even written your essays?”

“Was there such a thing?” Primrose blurts out while munching wafers.

“These girls will be the death of me.” Ms. Malupit mumbles while wearing a distressed expression. “It seems that they have no intention of changing anything. This isn’t going to work the normal way.”

Silence envelopes the whole room while the girls stares at each other. Primrose nonchalantly continues on chomping more wafers. She finishes one, and then opens another pack.

“What?” Primrose asks as everyone fixes their eyes on her. “I’m not giving you any. Buy one yourself.”

Ms. Malupit shakes her head. “As for today, I’ll leave you in charge of cleaning all toilets in Alapaap building. Classes are over so there won’t be any student left. Also, don’t forget to join at least one club before this week ends. Now, go.”

“Yes ma’am.” They answer in unison before leaving the room.

They proceed to the storeroom in Alapaap building to get the cleaning materials. There they meet one of the Janitors. He appears to be in his mid-twenties with cleanly shaved face; wearing a light brown uniform with white linings, consists of a polo, pants, apron and tennis shoes.

“What are you girls doing here?” The janitor asks while grabbing a map.

“We were told to clean the toilets in Alapaap building, sir.” Azalea responds politely. “Would you mind if you accompany us at least at the beginning of our task?”

He stares at them for a while then he smiles. “No problem, girls.” He passes the maps to each of them. “This machine here will spray the cleaning liquid.” Taps the five feet tall machine behind him and then points behind it. “All you have to do is map and then clean it right here and then map again. Continuously until the toilet floor is clean. Follow me, I’ll show you the way.”

“Ah! Before that, what is your name, sir?” Blair asks enthusiastically while following the janitor on the way.

“My name is Kris Wyvern.” He looks back and then leads the way. “I’m just one of the five janitors in charge of keeping the campus clean and orderly.”

They arrive at the toilet in the first floor. The boys’ CR is on the left side while the girls’ is beside it on the right. Kris checks one of the two cleaning machines behind while Azalea and Primrose watches. Out of nowhere Blair brusquely opens the door of the boys’ CR charging in.

“Alright let’s get this over with!” Blair shouts like a kid.

From the inside, there are a couple of boys screaming.

“W-what the--!! Are you an idiot?! This is the boys’ CR!” One growls furiously.

“I know.” Blair answers casually. “Well, I thought there won’t be any students left here though. Sorry.” She chuckles.

“Are you retarded?!!” The other is flustered and blushing.

Upon hearing the commotion, Kris goes inside. “Excuse us.” He says while dragging Blair out. “Girls, leave the cleaning of the boy’s CR to me, you can do the other one.”

“That would be a problem, that uptight old woman said we should clean all toilets.” Primrose says while taking another bite of her cheese stick.

“I can take care of that much. Just follow my instructions and you’ll be fine.” Kris says then he lets out a deep breath. “Also, stop eating for a while.”

Kris and the girls proceed into their respective cleaning areas separately. The girls’ CR seems to have been maintained well. All they have to do is to map the floor, check if each cubicle is working properly, and then take the trash out.

“I’m tired.” Primrose says while dozing off.

Blair supports her back. “Whoa~ How could you sleep anywhere?”

“Ah--” She yawns and then continues mapping. “K, hurry up. I want to finish this early and eat some deserts before going to bed.”

“We also want to finish early.” Blair pouts. “But we still have three toilets to clean after this. So, could you like stop mopping the same area over and over?”

“That isn’t the main problem.” Azalea says and then stops mapping. She fixes her eyes on the two girls. “This isn’t just a simple work or punishment for us.”

“What do you mean?” Blair’s eyes glitters. “Will a murder mystery happen next?”

“I sure don’t wanna deal with that.” She answers raising her brow. “Rather than that…” Her expression turns serious this time. “Do you have any plans about that club thing Ms. Malupit talked about?”

Blair rolls her eyes to the side. “I don’t really give a damn about clubs.”

“I’m not interested either.” Primrose answers nonchalantly in monotone. “As someone from the red zone joining clubs that isn’t led by a red is almost impossible. I don’t want to join any of those red-zone clubs, they’re all stupid.”

“I don’t want to get dragged by club activities either but we are required to be in one.” Azalea adds putting the map aside. “If we don’t abide by the rules then who knows where they would throw us in? So, I have a proposal to the two of you.”

They fix their eyes at her anticipating what kind of plan she has in mind.

“Let’s make our own club!”

“OKAY!” Blair agrees immediately with enthusiasm dropping her map on the floor with a clacking sound. “I like that idea! Let’s get out own club where we practically do nothing!”

“Well… If we are going to do nothing, then I guess I’ll go with the flow.” Primrose agrees without much thought.

“I sense no objection here, it feels weird.” Azalea tells herself. “Joining an already existing club is a hassle. It’ll just be in the way of my quiet life here.”

“So, how do we start a club?” The red head excitedly inquires.

“First, we need to get at least five members.” Azalea explains. “Then we need a name for the club, some objectives, plans and blah blah… We’ll pass some new club proposal or something to the student council and then we’ll wait to get it approved.”

Blair picks up her map on the floor. “I don’t get much of it, but okay.”

“I can get my brother to join. Then we’ll only need one more… and the other stuff you’ve just said.”

“She can’t remember it all. Was she even paying attention?” Blair mumbles.

“You’re one to talk.” Azalea sighs quietly. “I’ll go look for the fifth member and then everything else will just fall into its place.” She adds with renewed confidence and then she continues on mapping.

“You seem very confident.” Primrose follows in mapping while giving Azalea a cold distrusting look.

∞×∞

After having breakfast, Blair just notices that Azalea has vanished. She looks around the cafeteria but she cannot find her. When she goes on ahead into the classroom, she is not expecting to find out that her friend did not go to the class either. She could have informed her about it. Since there is not much time left, she decides to simply sit in class.

Meanwhile, Azalea is roaming around the library. She is searching for something or someone. She spends most of her time in the morning walking around without discovering anything in particular. An hour and half before lunch time, students from class 1-A storms in the library. She keeps her silence on the second floor while watching them prowl around the ground floor. She lingers a little longer. She takes a book and then she strolls into a table occupied by a certain person.

“Hello,” she greets while skimming on the book’s pages. “We meet again.”

The boy lifts his head and sets his dark topaz eyes to look for the owner of that familiar voice. “Ahm… Hello… you’re the one I met before… Azalea?..”

“I’m glad you still remember me.”

He forces a shy laugh while scratching the back of his head.

“It’s your library free time today, huh.” She continues. “You’re an esper right? With psychometry, right?”

“Y-yes?”

“I want to invite you.”

More than being nervous, he looks confused. “Invite me for what?”

Azalea smiles slightly. “I and few of my friends wants to start up a club, so I thought you might be interested. We need one more person to reach the required number. What do you think?”

“Umm…” He pauses while processing every word that was said just now. He does not know what to answer. He hangs his head low, blankly staring at the book he is reading. “Why me?”

“You are one of the most interesting people I’ve met since I came to this place.”

His face is full of surprise. He stares at her speechless.

“Do you have other plans arranged already?” She continues to ask while looking straight inot his eyes. “Or is it that you’ve already joined another club?”

“N-no--…” His tone is deep while he keeps his head down. “I’m not sure what kind of club I could join. I don’t have any particular hobbies. All I can do is see an object’s memory, nothing more.”

“If you hold someone while looking into the object’s memories, could you… like pass the visions to that other person too?”

He suddenly lifts his head. “How do you know that?”

“I’m just guessing. There are just some very rare cases where some espers could pass the vision too.” She smiles genuinely. “To think that you are one of those very rare kinds! Do you not realize how great that is?”

“Are you simply saying that to get me to join your club?”

“Hmm… Maybe.” She chuckles. “I’ll really feel bad if I just leave you behind… Also, how bad could it be?”

“I feel like I’m being scammed right now.” Tristan turns in full suspicion. “Do you have anything in your past that you want to discover using psychometry? I can help you here now, if you want.”

Azalea fishes something out of her bag. “My father was a Rune Adventurer, this was his glasses.” She explains showing a pair of black framed glasses. “He wore it almost all of the times until he disappeared. My mother kept it as a memento. It got some tricky spells on it so that somehow functions like simple toy.”

“So, those glasses have a lot of memories about your father’s adventures.” He stretches out his hands which are covered by white gloves. “You want me to look into it investigate what might have happened to him?”

“I’d love to.” She answers but then she pulls the glasses back. “You might see what happened before his glasses was separated from him. With your help, I might discover what exactly happened to him… but I think we are ready for that.”

Tristan could not argue with what she is saying. He has his own set of bad experiences looking into an objects memory.

“There’s something else that I want to ask a favor from you but I need another person’s help for that. I wasn’t really planning to specifically disturb you until I found a person with that ability.” Azalea adds driving Tristan’s unease away. “I’m not going to force you to look into it for me. I may still be able to find someone else.”

“So, basically you don’t have any specific need for me now. You can ask me that favor anytime so I don’t really have to particularly join your club, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t specifically need you right now.” She puts the glasses back in her bag. “It’s just that since we’re friends, I thought I’ll ask you to join us.”

His jaws drop. “I see… Because I blurted out something unnecessary.”

“I guess it can’t be helped if you got other plans.” Azalea stands up.

“Is it alright to trust her?” Tristan asks himself while watching the girl in front turning her back away from him. “As much as possible I don’t want to use my power anymore. I’m not even supposed to be here but my parents pushed me to try this school.”

“Wait!” He raises his voice to reach Azalea who is a few steps away already. “What kind of club is it? I’ll join if--”

Azalea hurries back cutting him mid-sentence. “Then you are very lucky, our club’s general objective is to slack off. I’ll contact you again soon.” She laughs teasingly and then leaves immediately.

“Slack off?” Tristan whispers while he is left confused. “I should have asked more about what kind of club she wanted to create. I haven’t really agreed to join yet.”

After lunch break, Azalea looks for Blair but this time she cannot find her. It seems that she skipped the afternoon classes.

During the time everyone is having their lunch, Blair is strolling around the recreation area where there are a lot of red-zone students. It appears that they spend their breaks here instead of getting in contact with students from the other color zones. Everyone in the area gives her a vigilant piercing glare as she breezily walks in and past all of them. Her destination is the forest and she could careless how other people see her. On her way, she does not notice that one of the guys from the red follows her deep into the forest.

“Hey--!” A hoarse voice calls out as it comes closer. “Red head who casually walked past the recreation area over there!”

Blair looks back and saw a boy with light brown hair and scar over his right eye. “Wow! You got some badass looking scar on your face? How did you get that?! Also that’s a badass necklace. Where’d you get it?” She jumps excitedly closer to him.

“H-huh?” The boy feeling anxious takes a step back. “Do you remember me?”

She stares at him keenly. “Hmm... Have I done something to you?”

“I thought I’d be easily remembered because of the scar on my face.” He says with a mix feeling of disappointment and relief. “Last weekend… Umm Alti’zien, I mistakenly hit you. I just want to apologize.”

“Aha! You’re that guy!” She raises her voice after refreshing her memories. “That punch was quite something you know. You’ve really made get my guard up! I was anticipating a follow up so I was preparing for a counter attack.”

“I can’t believe it… She was too fixated on my stance anticipating my next move that she didn’t pay attention to my face.” He thinks.

“Hey, hey, how about we spar right now? No one’s around so we won’t be caught, right?” She cheerfully suggests then she jumps back and stands on her fighting pose.

“I didn’t come after you to spar, I’m here to apologize remember?”

She frowns and then relaxes her arms down. “I heard you but… My wound’s already healed, besides I really want to know how you were able to hit me that time.”

“You heal fast?” He furrows his brows peering at her lips that were supposed to have been wounded. “Do you have some great regenerative power or something?”

She laughs cheerfully. “My friend who is a mage healed me.”

He rubs the back of his head. “So, you managed to get yourself a friend, huh.”

“What do you mean ‘I managed?’ Do I look that unfriendly to you?” Blair pouts and then stands on her fighting pose again. “Alright, take this!” She says while swinging her right fist.

“Hey, stop it!” He uses his palm to block it but he is caught off guard when the fist went through his hand and almost hits his face. “W-what the hell--!!” He then instinctively takes a couple of steps back.

“I-it worked this time.” She says in awe as she pulls her arm back staring at her fist. “My D-shift worked just fine now, how come you were able to hit me that time?”

“What in the world is she doing? I’ll get in trouble if someone finds out that I’ve picked a fight with the green.” Emil panics.

“Hey err… what was your name again?” She continues nonchalantly.

“You should’ve asked my name first before you ask me to spar, are you an idiot?!”

Blair scratches her temple while snickering. “Sorry, sorry… I’m Blair Lisiantha, what’s your name?”

“Emil Franz Dreo.”

“Alright let’s continue sparring then!” She swiftly goes back into her stance. She is about to charge but Emil does not seem adamant to continue. “What’s wrong?”

He sighs in distress. “I told you, I’m not sparring with you.”

“What a letdown.” She relaxes her pose while looking down, feeling defeated.

“She’s like a kid.” Emil mutters looking at the slouching red head. “Okay, just tell me what you are feeling so hyper about?”

She raises her head with a wide smile and then she prances speedily towards Emil. “Then… What kind of technique did you use that time, when you hit me?”

“The way you say it makes me feel more like douche more than I already am.” He mumbles turning his head to the side while covering half of his face with his hand. “About that… I’m a mage and my specialty is amplifying the surface strength of any objects. I can’t amplify the surface strength of living things, just the non-living ones.”

“Then that time you used that ability too?”

“Yeah” He stretches his right hand enveloped by thin black gloves. “Here try shaking my hand.”

Blair grabs his hand and then squeezes it. “It’s as if your hand is covered by steel… It’s weird; my D-shift won’t go through.”

“Huh? What’s D-shift.” Emil wonders.

“I’m an esper, it’s what I call my ability.” She smiles naively. “It’s a shortened term for Dimension Shift. I can partially go to a different dimension near this current one, making me able to… err, look like I’m slipping through stuff.”

“Are you fine giving me that much information even though we’ve just met? I’m from the red you know.” He asks with dim looking eyes.

“I can tell you are a good person without looking at something like that.”

“I’m practically in this zone because I have criminal records, you know.”

She looks down on their hands. “Look, you are holding my hand just fine, you’re not crushing me even though you can and you have the chance.” She holds his hand with both of hers. “Does this mean we’re friends now?”

His eyes widens as he sharply pulls his hand away. “Something is definitely wrong with you.” He turns his head away to hide his flushed face.

“What? You don’t want to be friends with me?” She asks curiously while trying to catch his gaze. “Ah! How about you join our soon to be club, too? We won’t be doing much so I think you’ll like it there. Don’t worry, you won’t feel alone there, you have me and there would be another two from the red who are joining. So, it’s not a bad idea, right?”

“Okay, alright.” He holds her shoulders down to keep her still while maintaining distance from her. “I’ll join with whatever it is.” He pulls his phone out. “Here, contact me anytime.”

“Great.” She says exchanging their numbers. “Why don’t you come with me, I’ll go feed some cats. Look, I brought a lot of cat food.”

“Cats? Deep in the forest?” He is doubtful but he follows anyway.

They arrive in a part of the forest where a small shelter is made out of the surrounding leaves, twigs and branches. A lot of cat and other small animals are there. Q is also taking his leisure time on top of a tree branch. It seems that Blair is taking care of those little animals every time she skips her classes. Emil is dumbfounded and could not utter a word of refute over such strange behavior. They spend their whole afternoon in the area, feeding and looking after those little balls of fluff. The place seems to be too peaceful, like a sanctuary in the middle of the busy and noisy vicinity.

Spending those times together makes them feel more comfortable around each other. Only that Blair remained oblivious while Emil sees her as someone very different from his initial impression. Before the sun sets completely, they went back to the academy grounds, away from their secret sanctuary. Emil escorts her until they go past the recreation area where a few leering red zone guys are hanging around.

Around that time, Azalea is also strolling outside the green dorms. She is looking for Blair. This time, she does not want to get in trouble with the dorm supervisor. She is going to look around the recreation area and when she is walking near the red dorms, she sees the girl who is always helping out in the library getting dragged around by a group of three guys into the side of Irog building, between the red dorms. They are all from the green-zone however she felt an air of discomfort around them. It appears to her that they are picking on the girl simply because she looks meek and easy to push around. Azalea continues on calmly while observing what kind of action the girl with apricot hair would take. In accordance to her resolution, she plans to act appropriately to keep the cause of unrest to minimum. However, like the wind carrying the stormy clouds, a flash of red stains her line of sight. She watches as Blair rapidly runs, charging towards the group with her eyes burning with fury.