It had to happen right after I was peacefully enjoying the scenery in The Library. It wasn’t Hosuke or Kaym. Those two were busy talking about the recent events during our qualifier. It wasn’t even Blax or Rulend. Those two along with Rider and Lore were registering the new books that was coming into the library. So who would it be?

“Seeeniooooor!” It was Serena.

I can’t believe she really called me that. I understand she called me that because of my seniority. But can’t she at least not shout it out inside a library? She could have just said it properly and not make a song. I know she loves music to the point that her ability was called Beats. An ability that uses her minispeaker to unleash the power of music. Specifically modern music.

There she was, approaching me while banging her head in sync with the music she was hearing in her headphones that she wore. I wonder what kind of music that totally made her head bang a lot like that.

“Hey, senior, senior.” Serena jumps around in front of me.

I put down my newspaper and said to her, “What do you want, Serena?”

“What kind of chocolate do you like?”

“Chocolate?” Why would she ask that, I thought to myself. “As long as it is chocolate. I don’t mind at all. Is something wrong?”

Serena joyfully moved her body around and cheerfully replied, “Nothing at all.”

This girl was not okay, I thought. But I wouldn’t know that after what she will be doing in a few days from today. In fact, that upcoming day deserves a mention later on. In any case, Serena leaves the Library after asking me that question. Just as I was about to continue reading my newspaper, another one appears. Thankfully, it was not as annoying as Serena.

It was Nif this time. She was another of our juniors for those who already forgotten about her since she kind of made a short appearance earlier. She also made a hidden cameo by using her Digital Assist to help me out during the qualifier.

“Um…Senior…” she nervously asked me.

“What is it, Nif?”

Suddenly, she jumped a little. I didn’t shout or anything. I just said normally and calmly. I didn’t even made a weird tone that could scare her or anything. Then again, this is Nif we’re talking about. She was always this shy.

I calmed her down, “Hey, something wrong, Nif?”

I tried to use one of the techniques to calm a person down. Which was saying the person name. Over and over until she calms down. Well, not repeatedly saying her name of course.

“It’s alright, Nif. Here, take a seat.” I invited her to sit next to me.

I waited until she gained her composure. She took a deep breath and lets it out gently.

She calmly spoke what’s on her mind, “Senior White…how are you today?”

That’s it? All that build up for a greeting? To be honest, I’m not mad at all. It’s Nif. You have to expect something like this to happen. I gave a sigh and answered to her.

“I’m fine. How’s your day?”

“Unpleasant.”

“What? Why?”

“I kept hearing people talking about The Seven Month War right after our teacher was teaching us about world war.”

“How can a lesson about the world war can turn into The Seven Month War that happened years ago.” I laughed.

“Someone just mentioned about it then the whole class started talking about it. It was very unpleasant.”

Her tone was very sad from the way she said that. I fully understand why she would say something like The Seven Month War to be unpleasant. Lots of lives were lost in front of our very eyes when it happened. It was a terrible seven months that we had to experience and endure.

“It’s okay, Nif. It was all in the past. You can forget about it.”

“Yeah. I know…I guess I should continue with my duties.” Nif decided and went to her duties as usual.

I brought up the newspaper that I put down and continued to read it. There were a lot of things being reported in the news. The economy was falling down? I guess that’s what happens when you have a leader that lies to their people. If you happen to be leading something, you have to make sure all of your promises were fulfilled. A leader shouldn’t let his people under the dark. They should be truthful and open up to them. Tell them what’s going on and they might understand. If they don’t then we just have to face the fact that you’re not needed.

“White!” Kaym interrupted me. “You single-handedly got the wand without any help?!”

I shushed him and said, “You do know this is a library right? To make things even worse, you’re a librarian. What the heck.”

“Sorry, sorry. I was just surprised of your accomplishments.” Kaym pleaded back to me.

“It’s alright, Kaym. I know that the things I’ve done would be the talk of the week in our circle. The others couldn’t stop talking about how I ended the game abruptly without a fair warning at all. Thanks a lot, Blax.”

“I heard that…” Blax’s voice was heard from a distance.

We both looked at Blax who was actually doing his duties at the front desk along with Rulend, Rider and Lore. We didn’t notice all of them were at the front desk when we entered the library. They might be inside the storage room when we entered earlier.

“Forget about him. Let’s talk about how you did it, White.” Kaym turned back to the topic.

“How I did it? It was simple really.”

I told Kaym about how I manage to get the wand without any help. It all started with a nice setup that Haz provided for me. The Infinibot, or as I like to personally call one of my own, Seven, was one of the setup. Seven was very useful in this round because Seven was able to turn into a drone that looks almost like Zone’s drone.

How do I watch Seven’s live recording? I got the help of an outsider. It was non other than Nif Ferel and her Digital Assist ability. She was with me throughout the qualifier by staying inside my watch. At certain times, I would start a topic and talk to her only to have a short respond. I guess it is better for me not to talk at all since she was too shy to talk with me. At the very least, she talks a lot whenever it concerns about her analysis of the game. She warned me about nearby enemies, incoming hazards, and also gave me a brief analysis on any potential team that will win the qualifier.

I ended up learning a lot of people’s accomplishments, downfalls and rises thanks to Nif. I’m glad she was able to freely talk without being worried a lot about almost everything. She just need a little assurance from her friends and I did that brilliantly from the looks of it. But even if I did all of that she will always return to her shy self whenever it was a stranger. It’s not that big of a deal that she would be nervous around those that she doesn’t know. That’s the most basic thing in Stranger Danger 101. Of course she would be careful of it. But her nervousness was to the point where it was almost impossible to interact with her. At least I am as awkward as she was in a way. At least there was something that I can understand about her. Because I was also like that. Even during this time.

Anyway, both Seven and Nif helped me progress through the qualifier. After a few minutes of looking around, Nif told me she detected an unknown signal around the area. I figured it would be the wand and went there to get it. But it was just another fight between two groups.

I decided to leave them for now and headed to where the wand was situated. As I was about to grab the wand, Wakana suddenly shows up in front of me. After a little bargaining, I helped his team to find a wand and that was when Wakana came in and interrupted Hosuke and Airi who were trying their hardest to get the wand even though I already got mine. This was why we should have used the comm. device that Haz made. But Haz wasn’t there that morning. If only we found the comm. device that he kept inside his lab. Either way, we won in the end.

“That was amazing, White.” said Kaym.

“The only problem with all of that was that we wasted our energy.” Hosuke joined in.

“Like I said. It was all Blax idea for all of you to be in the dark.”

Blax approached and said, “Alright. alright. I think we’ve had enough of this conversation don’t you think?”

“Yeah. I’m tired of it already. Thanks a lot Blax.” I said it in a sarcastic way.

“Now then, Kaym. If you would be so inclined to go and do your duties now.” Blax’s tone suddenly changed.

“Uh…yessir.” Kaym got up from his chair and went to do his librarian duties.

“What a lazy bum. And he’s suppose to be our junior. What a bad example would be if people found out about him not doing his duty.” Blax went back to the front desk.

“That only leaves the two of us.” said Hosuke.

“Is something wrong with that?”

“No. Not really. It’s just that everyone was busy and here we are relaxing.”

“So you’d rather do something than relaxing?”

“No, no, absolutely not.” Hosuke shakes his head. “I mean…I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah…I’m lost. Let’s just forget about this conversation.”

As we were about to end our conversation, someone else approached us.

“I heard you two wanted to do something.”

We looked and saw Mrs. R was talking with us.

“How about you two help me out with something?”

TO BE CONTINUED