We’re back to where we are in the present but there was one catch. It was already the month of July and The Battle Mage, Escher has been sealing the whole school for months already. Everyone and even the police tried their best to put a stop to this madness. With all has been said and done, there was no gleaming light of hope for us to even break the seal that covers the entire school. We don’t even know what was going on inside that place. I hoped that Escher didn’t just do the same thing like he did a few years ago.

Yes, it has already been almost half a year since the principal decided to reveal his true self. What have we been doing? Figuring out a way to get in, of course. Haz made a lot of prototypes that could break the seal but not a single one of his prototypes yields any promising result. Things were getting dire by the time it was June. Haz suddenly ran out of idea and decided to kick the bucket and quit from finding a way on how to break into Escher’s dome.

Meanwhile, Airi has been assisting Haz for a while but then he gave up on April and left. He decided to find a different way to help out. He went to find some of his contacts in the city and figure out some way to handle the situation. With that in mind, Zone, Lore and I has been hitting the books to find anything about Escher’s seal. We’ve searched high and low. We’ve ventured every library in the country and not a single one of them mentions anything about what we need.

Here we are on the first day of July where we decided to head back to our headquarter and give an update on the situation. When I arrived, I saw Haz was sitting on the couch with a bowl of potato chips next to him. He looked a bit different than the last time I saw him. The last time I saw him was two months ago. He doesn’t wear our school uniform for once. In fact, not even me. It has been a while since we studied at school since the school was pretty much lock itself away from the world.

“Hey there, Haz. How are you doing?” I greeted Haz.

Haz glanced at me and replied, “White…long time no see, my friend. Got anything for me?”

“Unfortunately, no.” I shake my head to him and joined him at the sofa.

“I figured that would happen.” Haz continued to eats his chips. “Want some?”

“What happened to your lab coat?” I noticed that he wasn’t wearing his signature lab coat.

Haz stood up from the sofa and said, “You noticed? Well as you can see right now I’m donning something different.”

Haz displayed his new outfit that was pretty much just a lab coat that was dyed in black. It looked all raggedy and torn up. I bet that was actually his old lab coat that he has been wearing all this time.

“What the heck happen?” I wondered about Haz sudden change.

Haz picks up the bowl of chips, “A lot has happened. I got blown off by a bunch of inventions for the past months and I don’t have the time to clean up my coat. This happened.” Haz went to the counter at the end of the room and opens a drawer, “I’m out of ideas, White. I feel like I’m being useless to you. To everyone. That’s what happened.”

“All these time skips and you’re now a different person. Are you sure about your decision?”

“Don’t talk to me about decision, White. That’s something only someone like you would understand. I only look for result and I will choose all option I was given in order to achieve a result. I’m not like you. Having to choose the best possible thing we could do without knowing the exact result.”

“You need to stop this, Haz. This isn’t you.”

Haz resupply another packs of chips into the bowl and said to me, “Enough, White. We can’t do anything. We can only wait. Just like what happened last time. We can only wish that they make it out alive. Here, eat up.” Haz invited me to eat his chips.

I accepted his invitation but I still feel that this whole situation was getting sour. Maybe I just haven’t faced what the people outside of The Seven Month War felt back then. Here I am right now sitting next to an inventor who gave up on inventing anything new in this quarterly messed up headquarter. Yeah, a section of the headquarter was still all messed up thanks to the seal.

As we continued to look pathetic, Zone and Lore made their way here and it looks like even they have changed their fashion sense. Zone now wears a freaking trench coat with a fedora. He looked like a fictional detective trying to solve a mystery. Or he could even be a mysterious fellow who sells interesting stuffs right under his trench coat. Meanwhile, Lore now dons a t-shirt with a vest over it. He also wears a pair of finger-less glove.

“What happened to you guys?” I asked them.

“Oh really?” Lore replied, “At least you look normal than everyone here, White.” Lore comments on my casual clothing that consist of just an average sweaters and slacks.

“I’ve been undercover for the past few months looking for information. I have to look discreet.” answered Zone.

“You are not being discreet. In fact, you are attracting a lot of people on the way here.” commented Lore.

“What about you? You started to have a hobby for fishing?” Zone replied back.

“Dude, it’s only a vest and I’m not even wearing a hat or a short trousers. How can I look like some fishing enthusiast?”

“Okay, you two! Why don’t you come here and eat some chips with us.” Haz interrupts.

Zone shrugged, “Sure why not.”

“No.” Lore stopped Zone. “Go get changed, you freak.”

“Fine…” Zone went out to find something different.

Lore sits down on the couch and joined us. We were watching the television by the way. It was airing the latest Eastern Animation show that started airing for 2 months already. I find that the animation made by the people on the east was rather intriguing. It was a mix of cartoon and realistic. But sometimes it can be heavy on either side. It depends on which studio decides on which art style they want to do for their animated show.

“I’m back and look who I found on the way.” Zone returns with a more less distracting outfit while also bringing in the returning Airi.

“What’s up, everyone?” Airi greeted us.

“Nothing. Just nothing.” replied Lore.

Airi replied back, “Can’t you be more positive, Lore?”

“I’m sorry for being negative. It’s not like there is anything new for us other than this TV show we’re watching.” Lore sarcastically answered.

“What is up with everyone. Everyone is so tense here…gosh.” Airi looks around the barren headquarter. “And why do look like that, Zone?”

Zone changed to a more acceptable outfit this time. He now wears a decent trench coat that doesn’t look like those detectives. It’s a more better trench coat alongside a cap and what seems to be a piece of clothing wrapped around his neck. He was probably using that to hide his face or something..

“This is more discreet and normal, right? At least, I wear something realistic.”

“You look like a guy who watches over dogs that loves to hack all over the place. Especially with that Cheat ability you have.” Airi commented.

“Well, that’s the idea. But are you really wearing that?” Zone picks apart Airi's fashion sense.

Everything looks normal to him. Other than the fact that he now wears a freaking cape on his left shoulder. It’s not even a full cape like those super heroes we watched on the TV. It covers his left shoulder and elbow that’s for sure. But why?

“Is there a reason you need to wear that cape?” I asked him.

“This cape is important to me. It has its history.”

“Take. It. Off. It looks bad for my eye.” said Lore.

“It’s non of your business, Lore.” Airi pulls the cape away and wraps around and turned it into a belt of some sort.

Now Airi looks like he has a tail or something. At least it’s not really a tail that arches to his back. It’s more arching to his left side. It looks decent to say the least.

“Now that everyone is here…Why don’t we talk about updates then?” I stood from the couch.

“Can we hold on to that for a while? This show is getting interesting, White.” Haz stopped me.

“God damn it. Fine. It is interesting.” I sat back.

The five of us went on to watch some animation that was made from the east while eating some chips. We looked very pathetic. What the heck was going on with the time skip…

TO BE CONTINUED