“Make sure not to leave anything behind,” said Gaius, who was triple-checking his possessions and his bags. Nakama and Isabelle made some little sounds in assent, but they were clearly more confident in their preparation than Gaius. The boy didn’t really care all that much — other than one-of-a-kind items, anything else could be solved with money.

Even fighting, to a certain extent. Single-use artefacts that dealt heavy damage or provided extensive defences, when used in rapid succession, was guaranteed to strike fear into anyone’s heart…and was also Gaius’s method of getting Nakama through the combat tests at the Phrontistery of Scientific Reasoning. He’d created some modified Straight Shots a few months back, as a backup against Scorpio, but since they weren’t used back then…

Slapping on around fifty Palisades for good measure, Gaius had instructed Nakama how to carry out the test after he returned from being a walking disaster for Heritage’s snowpyres. She would bury them with money.

And if that failed, well, she had Stone and Lightning with her.

As for Isabelle…well, before Gaius came trotting along, she was the youngest Knight in all of Orb. So that was that. Of course, the boy had made sure to give her whatever artefacts he’d saw no need for — there was a whole bunch lying around in the Library, items he’d looted from stragglers in Heritage in a robbing spree back then. Now was a good time to use them.

“I think I know the answer,” said Gaius, “but are two of you ready to set off?”

“Ready!”

“Anytime.”

Making sure that the letters of recommendation were tucked in his pocket, Gaius patted Nexus, who was sitting on his shoulder, and said, “Let’s go.”

“Very well!” The sculpture cricked its neck. There was another one with Nakama, for good measure, but it seemed that the artificial intelligence preferred inhabiting only one in such a state. “Time for us to wreck the bellcurve!”

The familiar howling gale picked up as darkness fell once more, but this time, Gaius noticed that Nakama and Isabelle weren’t all that nervous. His little sister (and Isabelle’s too, now that he thought about it) immediately sat down on the ground, although Gaius himself wasn’t sure what the ground beneath them was.

“Come to think of it, is it dangerous if we stick our hand into the darkness?” Isabelle asked.

“Of course,” said Nexus. “We’re just moving at extreme speeds. If you place a sword out there, a few things can happen. One, the sword gets wrenched out of your hand, breaking your wrist in the process. It might hurt someone as it appears in Orb too. Second, the blade fractures, sending broken metal fragments whizzing through the air at the speed of light. Third, your body is dragged along with the sword. Half of your body would end up in a rock or something, while the other half breaks apart from the sheer strain.”

“I-I see.” Isabelle smiled nervously, before reaching towards Nakama and placing her at the very centre of their little safe zone. “Don’t touch the darkness, okay?”

“I wasn’t planning too. It looks scary, like the dark places when I was dreaming,” Nakama replied. “You should sit down too! Don’t touch it!”

Gaius watched the two girls talk about the darkness outside, and felt a bit speechless about where the conversation headed to. It was quite fascinating — both of them were talking about the dangers of touching the dark space outside their little area, and then to the dangers young ladies faced when walking alone at night, and then to the sort of dreams Nakama had yesterday.

The only thing in common was that they all had to do with darkness, but how they even made a jump from one of the above topics to another was an answer that Gaius couldn’t derive.

After a few minutes of travelling, the darkness gave way to a world of green. Sunlight trickled through the heavy forest canopy, and the smell of fresh earth entered Gaius’ nose as the three landed in a small clearing. Nexus had evidently chosen a rather private spot for their return, and Gaius approved of his choice. Taking a deep breath, the boy caught a falling leaf and smiled.

“Nice place.”

“Isn’t it?” Nexus replied. “I spent a few minutes on the Map of Stars to find this great spot. There’s no one nearby, and it’s not too far from Elysium either.”

“Unfortunately, there really aren’t any flowers around here,” said Gaius. “It’s just trees, trees, roots and more trees. Could have made a little floral necklace or something.”

“For who?” Nexus asked.

“For the two of them?” Gaius replied, confused. “Why that question?”

“Oh, no. Just look at Nakama, won’t you?” Nexus said. “She has a better idea than a floral necklace.”

“Hmm?” Gaius turned to look at her, at Nexus’ prompting, and he blinked twice the sight of a little Nakama, complete with an adorable flower on her head, came into view. Isabelle was making rounds around her, her eyes alight, and it was then that the boy knew that the Knight’s sense of aesthetics aligned with his own entirely.

Upon spotting Gaius’ gaze, Isabelle asked, “What do you think? She’s cute, isn’t she?”

The boy gave a thumbs-up. “Definitely. That one little flower makes her the perfect picture.”

Gaius had to restrain himself from squeezing Nakama’s cheek — it was not the right place, and Isabelle’s ministrations had already made her somewhat unhappy. With his strength of will alone, the boy turned away from Nakama, and took to the skies.

“Let’s go to the phrontistery first,” he said. “The admission test should be in a few hours, and we don’t want to be late.”

“Of course,” said Isabelle. “Come on, Nakama, hop on!”

The three of them left the forest, and looked out at the nearby Elysium. Gaius could feel a small thrill in his chest — he couldn’t give it a name, but it probably had something to do with the fact that he was about to enter a real school. With Nakama and Isabelle.

Of course, the time spent at Heritage Basestation didn’t count, because there weren’t any exams, or school events that he’d seen at Kishi Gakuen. And more importantly, Isabelle wasn’t there back then.

“Let’s go!”