I stopped on the bridge, and closed my eyes for a long moment, hoping to quell the unease I felt. When I opened my eyes, the world around me was still alive and vibrant, not dead and decaying below a sky of baleful grey, and my body showed no signs of crumbling away.
Coming to a stop on the bridge, I looked down at my hands, turning them over slowly, and flexed my fingers one by one, judging them to be in working order and showing no signs of decay. When I looked up and peered at the Academy far ahead of me beyond the end of the bridge, rising from Telos Island with unremarkable grey-white walls, it displayed no signs of breaking apart. The world around me was indeed as it should be, except today was Monday and I had no recollection of the weekend having gone by.
So what the Hell happened to me?
If the dream was an actual occurrence, if I had really participated in The Game, then that meant I had indeed perished and this wasn’t reality but the Afterlife. However, when I gazed out across the harbor and city skyline rising above the shoreline, I found that conclusion a troubling prospect. It made no sense for the Afterlife to be a copy of Ar Telica, unless this wasn’t the Afterlife but an intermediary point between realities such as Purgatory.
However, I couldn’t accept that either, and the reason was standing in front of me expressing mild concern.
“Hey, Cass. Snap out of it.” Tobias had turned back. “What’s wrong with you?”
If this was Purgatory, then Tobias had no reason to be here…unless something or someone wanted me to believe he was here.
I felt myself break into a faint frown as a thought pushed its way to the forefront of my mind. “Mat, do you remember your weekend?”
“What? Of course I do.”
I nodded slowly, feeling both reassured and unsettled by another possible answer to my circumstances. “You said you paid my dorm apartment a visit but I wasn’t there. Why? If you could track my phone with yours, why come to my apartment?”
“Because the app said it was inside your apartment.” Troubled, he took a long breath. “Where were you all weekend?”
“I have no idea.” Before he could question me, I hastily asked, “Why were you trying to find me?”
He blinked and appeared uncomfortable. “When I heard the news spreading that you were the Silver Blue Princess, I worried about how you might react.”
“You thought I would hurt myself?” I sighed. “Oh yee of little faith.” I patted my chest. “If I can survive the Zombie Apocalypse, I’m sure I can survive anything.”
For a moment, he looked genuinely puzzled. “What are you talking about?”
I heard muffled laughter in the ocean breeze and my heart skipped several beats.
Before me, Tobias shook his head as he shoved his hands into his trouser pockets like some delinquent student might. “I was worried some of the guys might come around—”
“—and beat me up,” I blurted out with a stiff neck and shoulders, too afraid to look around while the memory of that ghostly laughter echoed in my ears.
He grimaced for a moment, and averted his eyes. “Actually, I’m not so sure about that….”
“Huh?”
He turned away and resumed walking toward the Academy. “Come on, we’re wasting time.”
I watched him for a moment before following after him, unwilling to be left behind despite so many students commuting along the length of the bridge.
If this wasn’t the Afterlife or Purgatory, and the dream was real, then it meant only one thing: I had died and been resurrected, and as a consequence of returning to life I had brought something back with me from the Other Side, and that something was the ghost that now haunted me.
Yes, I was convinced a ghost was stalking me, and consequently my spirits began a slow, spiraling descent into an abyss of darkness and despair.
- III -
Trailing behind Tobias, it was fair to say I trudged the remaining distance to the foot of the bridge, and stepped onto Telos Island. Ahead of me and beyond the wide cul-de-sac stood Telos Academy.
Viewed from overhead, the main Telos Academy building resembled the icon for the power button on most photronic appliances that had a standby feature – a line running partially into a broken circle. The long narrow building running into the larger circular building was home to administration. The broken circle of the Academy building housed the classrooms and assorted function rooms such as chemistry and physics labs, home economics, music rooms, and other art facilities. The gym and aquatic center were built separate to the east of the main building, and the two large sporting fields were situated nearby.
The northern half of the circular building was allocated to the high school students, while the middle schoolers occupied the southern half; around six thousand students in all. As the population of Ar Telica steadily grew, and the city-state expanded further into the terra-formed lands, more students were expected to attend the academy, one of eleven such schools within the city-state’s borders. With this in mind, Telos Academy was constructed to house a couple of thousand more attendees, so a large percentage of the building consisted of empty classrooms yet to be opened to the student body.
There was a north and south side entrance to the Academy grounds, essentially on either side of the administration building that intersected through the broken circle of the main school building. Middle schoolers would enter the school through the south-side entrance, while high schoolers came in from the north. Walking slightly behind Tobias, we approached the north entrance that in many respects resembled an automatic highway tollway, except that students had to swipe either their identity cards, phones, or press their palms on the scanners at baffle gates in order to gain entry into the school building.
As we drew near the entrance, I looked around as discreetly as I could, and caught the eye of a number girls and guys throwing furtive looks my way, alternating between me and something displayed on their phones. I swallowed and started to duck my head but then noticed we had company awaiting us – three girls dressed in the uniform of first year high school students, and they were three girls I recognized in a heartbeat.
Felicia waved at us with a hand high over her head, then strode toward us with an effortless grace that was born of great strength courtesy of her exhaustive training regime as Vice-Captain of the Judo Club. Trailing leisurely behind her was Angela Letrois, who wore a faintly troubled smile on her lips. Surprising as it was to see the two girls, it was doubly shocking and worrying to see Class Rep amongst them. Anri Shirohime’s beauty was marred by the dark emotions swirling over her face, but she brightened at sight of Tobias and broke into a bashful blush. However, whenever she looked back at me she did so with a poorly veiled glare that radiated envy with every aspect of her beautiful visage.
I sighed and slumped my shoulders as the perfect portrait I once beheld of her broke into smaller pieces.
“What is up with her?” Tobias muttered.
“With who…?”
“Class Rep.” He threw me a sidelong glance. “Why does she have it in for you?”
I looked up at my best friend of three years and sighed yet again. “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“She sees me as both an obstacle and a means to an end.”
“What? Why?”
“Because she has the hots for you.”
Tobias stumbled and almost fell. When he recovered his footing, I saw him stare at me in disbelief, but I kept walking toward the school’s north entrance.
Life is so unfair. Well, at least I still have Mercy. That’s right. Mercy won’t disappoint me.
Refraining from unleashing yet another despairing sigh, I came to a stop a handful of steps later in front of Felicia – who I will point out was not wearing her cartoon grin. Instead, she looked at me grimly.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Huh?” I blinked at her in surprise, not expecting those words for a greeting.
Felicia ran her gaze over me. “You look okay
, but are you all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you ran out of the booth on Friday like a cat with its tail on fire and its hairs on end.”
I felt my mouth drop open, but could do nothing to close it.
Angela stopped beside Felicia, her worry not as blatant but visible nonetheless. “Ronin, what happened in there?”
I shook my head slowly at her while frowning, and succeeded in closing my mouth.
Angela exhaled slowly then took a quick breath. “What happened in the booth? You ran out and we chased you but you looked like you’d seen a ghost…or worse.”
Felicia nodded faintly. “I had no idea you were so fast. You left us behind. That and the fact we lost you in the crowd.”
My feelings began to tumble dry and it was quite the mix. I was confused by what they were telling me, but also disbelieving of them as well.
Angela’s lips made a funny shape as though she was mulling something. “Why didn’t you answer our calls? We left messages.”
My eyes widened guiltily as I remembered the messages I’d deleted. “Sorry….”
Felicia crossed her arms under her noticeable chest. “Ronin, what happened? You can talk to us. We’re not your enemy. And we’re not strangers either.”
“I died.” The words came out suddenly, catching me by surprise.
The girls in front of me, including Shirohime who was trying to keep her face unreadable but failing dramatically once Tobias joined us, regarded me in silence before Felicia asked, “You died?”
Involuntarily, I looked down at my hands again, before looking up at the girls. “I can’t quite explain it…but I died.”
Angela cocked her head slightly. “What can you explain? I mean, I know you were scared silly because you ran so fast we couldn’t catch you.”
Shaking my head slowly, I replied, “The game was real and I died. But now I’m not so sure anymore. I mean, I’m alive. I’m here. A person doesn’t die and then resurrect.” I took a deep shuddering breath. “Maybe it was all a dream. Just a horribly realistic dream. Or an unbelievably realistic game.”
Tobias edged close to me and I felt his gaze as peered down at me. “What are you talking about…?”
I shook my head and refused to answer him.
“I left you messages too,” he added.
I rolled my shoulders uncomfortably. “Yes, I know. I’m sorry.”
His gaze narrowed making me feel more uncomfortable, and I averted my attention in the hope of escaping it.
Felicia started rubbing the top of her head, a nervous gesture of hers. “How do you feel now?”
I frowned and searched my feelings. “I feel okay. Confused, but okay. I guess I’m still wondering if I just imagined or dreamt it all. I must have. But it was so real. So horribly real….”
With a pensive frown, Angela asked, “But isn’t it meant to look and feel real? I mean, I thought that was the whole point of those games.”
That was certainly true, and yet I felt that the game I’d experienced wasn’t like that and I found myself thinking about the conspiracies surrounding the Gun Princess Royale where some people claimed it wasn’t a virtual game. Having experienced something that I couldn’t dismiss nor explain, was there some truth to those conspiracy theories?
A thought abruptly stood front and center in my mind. “Do you know a first year girl by the name of Tabitha? Tabitha Hexen? I think she’s in class One-Eff.”
After a short while searching their memories, the girls shook their heads to varying degrees, and my shoulders rose and fell in disappointment, but I decided to check the school registry later.
Angela and Felicia exchanged a long look, before the latter said, “Well, I guess you probably know by now.”
Puzzled for a moment, I realized she was changing the subject and flinched as I feared what she’d say next. “Know about what?”
“About Silver Blue,” she answered. “That evil witch spread the news thick and fast.”
This time I winced hard. “Is it bad?”
“Yes and no. Weird is more like it.” Felicia scratched a cheek and smiled nervously. “Let’s just say there are supporters and detractors.”
“There are supporters?” After a moment, I asked, “Am I going to be beaten up or not?”
“Probably both,” she admitted.
“That doesn’t make sense. It’s either one or the other.”
“Ha ha. You’re right,” she laughed and smacked her forehead. “My bad.” It might have been in jest, but unfortunately she lacked the humor to pull it off.
“So why are you here?” I asked, sincerely puzzled to find them waiting for me at the school’s entrance.
Felicia looked startled. “Well, because we’re your friends, and we were worried about you.” Then she gestured to Shirohime with a palm of her hand. “Class Rep was adamant that we escort you into class.”
I stared at Felicia in disbelief. “Are you serious? Class Rep suggested that? Bosom Pillow Class Rep?”
Shirohime bristled but held herself back when Tobias muttered, “Bosom Pillow?”
Felicia smiled and hurried to diffuse the situation I’d deliberately sparked before it turned into a fire. “Ha, ha. Surprised, right? Anyway, since I’m partly responsible for last Friday’s encounter with the Witch, I agreed to help out.”
Tobias exhaled loudly. “Would you please not call her that?”
Felicia narrowed her eyes at him. “Give me a good reason not to.”
“Because I’m asking you…politely,” he answered in a weary tone.
Shirohime noticeably took a deep breath. I say noticeably because when she did so her magnificent bosom swelled up to even more glorious proportions, and she hastily stepped in front of Tobias and turned to face Felicia and Angela.
“Yes, I feel that you should refrain from being derogatory,” she declared. “Please, respect his wishes.”
All of us, including Tobias, stared at her with wide eyes.
For a moment, I wondered if Felicia would mention Shirohime’s school girl crush, but then she sighed and slumped her shoulders. Wearily shaking her head, she muttered, “Fine. Whatever. I don’t care anymore.”
For his part, Tobias continued to stare at Shirohime and the longer he did, the redder he grew.
“Mat, are you blushing?” I asked him.
“Huh?” He waved his hands at me. “No—of course not. What reason would I have for blushing?”
I pointedly stared at Shirohime, who was turning red herself while facing away from him, then back at Tobias. “Sucks to be you, right?”
He gave me a strangled look, knowing quite well what I meant.
Felicia recovered her vigor with alarming speed, and clapped her hands. “Okay. Can we settle down now?” She reached out and spun Shirohime around so that she faced Tobias. “That includes you.”
I thought Class Rep would burst into flames as she faintly trembled.
Dear gods this girl had it bad for Tobias.
My feelings turned into molten lead that weighed down my innards. “Yep. It really sucks to be you…,” I muttered under my breath.
Felicia punched a fist into a palm dramatically. “So, as I was saying, we’re going to escort you and keep you safe today. And tomorrow. And probably for a week…although club activities start this week so I can’t be your bodyguard after class. We’ll leave that in his hands.” She pointed at Tobias for a heartbeat.
I stared at her, then gave Letrois a questioning look. “Are you part of this too?”
Angela half smiled. “I’m back up. I get to scream very loud and call for help.”
Felicia’s head bobbed. “Believe me, she’s a real screamer.”
For some reason, Angela began to grow red with embarrassment, probably because Felicia had no restraint, so I raised my hands quickly in an effort to spare her. “Okay. I get it. Please stop.”
To my surprise, Angela flashed me a victory sign and said, “Actually, I’m backup
since I belong to the Jujitsu Club, three years running.”
That I already knew, but her announcement made me wonder about Class Rep. I gave her a reluctant look. “Let me guess, you belong to the Karate Club.”
“No,” she snapped quickly. “I do not partake in any such brutal and barbaric activities.”
Felicia snorted. “Barbaric? Oh, please.”
Planting a hand regally upon her chest, Shirohime declared with gusto, “I belong to the Tea Ceremony Club.”
“…heh…?” I whispered.
Beside me, Tobias muttered, “It’s fitting but somewhat disappointing….”
Shirohime paled and her hand dropped limply at her side. “Dis…disappointing…?”
Felicia rubbed her brow. “I agree. Can you imagine if she was a member of the Karate Club? The three of us would be the most powerful clique of all the first years. Hey, maybe we could one day rule the school!”
Despite her ashen complexion, Shirohime weakly offered, “The…the Tea Ceremony is a traditional and revered practice throughout the ages. The serving of tea is representative, no I should say, symbolic in many ways of—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Felicia cut in brusquely. “We get it. It’s something only cultured young women do, or those without any hand eye co-ordination.”
“What?” Shirohime gasped out loudly. She quickly regained her composure and folded her arms under her large bust while glaring openly at Felicia. “You think it’s easy? I dare you to try it.”
Felicia jerked sharply and stared wide-eyed at the Class Rep. “Okay, maybe I will.”
“And you’ll have to dress the part as well,” Shirohime added. “No half measures. Do it properly or don’t do it at all.”
Felicia was quiet for several heartbeats before breaking into a wide cartoonish grin. “Challenge accepted.”
Tobias blurted out absently, “Cultured girls are rare these days….”
Almost at once, Shirohime straightened and nodded sharply. “Indeed. That is why I believe I should set an example, and recruit as many girls into the—”
“But they can be so dull,” Tobias added almost in afterthought.
Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One Page 16
