Chapter 25: The "Mission"

"I think the director might be trying to hide the plane crash accident I was part of.", I said.

"Bingo! I am guessing you are smart enough to figure out what I will be asking you to do for your little mission, if you will.", she said.

"… Yeah. It is probably something relating to protecting that secret. And the reason you probably chose me was because I am directly related to said secret."

"Bingo again."

"Can't you just burn the document telling all this information?", I asked.

"Nope. Not an option. Or else we would be in serious trouble for destroying important evidence."

"And hiding it is fine?"

"No rule against it.", she said, shrugging.

"So can I hide the documents myself? Like in my room?"

"Yup.", she said. "On the day before the meeting, I'll give you the documents."

"Are there any more people accompanying the directors?"

"Yeah, they are a few more, but Darus is the most relevant person out of them because he is the biggest threat.", she said. I could have sworn I had heard the name Darus somewhere… where was it…?

"Do you know of Darus's talent by any chance?"

"Nope. All I know is the rumors say it is quite brutal.", she said, sipping the coffee she brought.

All of a sudden, something clicked inside me.

"Hey Daphne. Can I have the folder to Lucia once more?"

She handed me the folder. I opened it to Lucia's page.

Name: Lucia Coppola

Ah. Darus Coppola. I remember seeing that name on the news one day.

It was the name of an infamous teen serial killer. He had allegedly killed 16 people from his school, including teachers, before getting caught. It was all over the local news for one very simple reason. He was put on death row, as a teen, being the first teen to be put on death row in 2 decades.

Only god knows how the serial killings were kept hidden. The news was apparently broadcast to my region only. It was kept hidden to avoid scaring tourists, but some part of me knew it was a glorified cover story. We lived in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to attract said tourists.

What tourists were they talking about? Looking back at it, the people in my region were quite weird… everyone there had a screw loose, to the point where my parents seriously considered moving out of there…

But I was getting sidetracked. The most important part of this was that I was now dealing with a serial killer.

Not just that. He apparently evaded the police for long enough to kill 16 people over the course of a year. He was definitely smarter than your average Joe.

And to add to that, he now had nihilism. Just adding nihilism to your attacks would turn your attacks fatal. And Daphne said his talent was 'brutal'.

My palms were getting sweaty. I hadn't even met him yet, and I already felt nervous.

Well, that was a future me problem.

.

.

.

Training had ramped up considerably for some reason. It was as if a tournament was going to take place. Was it related to the meeting coming up in 2 days?

That reminds me… Cecilia. My new roommate was also now busy, although she wasn't in any batch. I saw her go to the infirmary once. I guess Daphne is tutoring her till she is ready to join a batch.

I sat down on a bench nearby. It was a break period from our training, so I was going to try and take full advantage of it obviously.

Normally we would have half the day training, the other half studying and researching, if you knew how to research. But the higher-ups told the moderators to make sure everybody does training and nothing else.

The last time that happened was when there was a tournament between different branches in combat. But last time we were at least warned in advance.

This time, there was no warning, no announcement. Just a ramp-up in training. If that wasn't suspicious, I don't know what is.

"Heya Maria, what are you thinking?", a girl said, coming towards me while panting.

The girl in question was Danne. She was quite a frail girl, but she looked perfectly healthy from the outside. Her hair always had this luster to it, reflecting brown in sunlight.

"Nothing much. I'd be more concerned about you, Dani. You look as if you are about to collapse."

"And if I did, my prince charming Maria would carry me to the infirmary, right?", Danne said.

"How could I not do that to my liege?", I said, sarcastically.

"At least you know who to respect.", she replied.

"Where is everyone else?"

"They are probably in the cafeteria. I guess we should have worked harder to avoid being held back during the breaks.", she said, sounding tired.

"Let's just go, we are done with our punishment anyway.", I said, grabbing her hand.

"C'mon now slow down…!"

"You did 20 rounds around the practice area, what's 1 more?"

"Oh shut up now, will you?", she said, as I slowed down to let her catch her breath. She apparently had anemia, and worse still, there was a geas on her since birth, weakening her body even more.

"How is your new roommate doing?", she asked. "Seeing as how you aren't complaining about her nowadays, she must be getting better now, right?"

"Cecilia? Yeah, she is fine I guess. I have to clean up after her. She has about 5 sets of clothes, and is still unorganized as fuck. But I have grown used to it by now."

"My my, haven't you matured. I haven't met Cecilia yet, but I already have to thank her.", she sighed.

"I have always been mature."

"She hasn't gotten allowance or a camp pass yet, has she? I doubt she even knows what that means. Poor thing. Why didn't you tell her about it?"

"If Daphne hasn't said anything to her, why should I?", I said, pretending like as if it was a valid argument. "Wait did you just ignore me-"

"Oh yeah, did you hear? Darus is coming to our branch for a while, for the meeting.", she said, swiftly changing the topic.

"That pretty boy is coming?", I said, kind of looking forward to it.

The two of us had met during a tournament a few months ago. We chatted about before our matches and became somewhat close acquaintances. He was quite fun to talk to, and that is disregarding his looks.

"Yep.", she said. She also knew him, so I guess she was also looking forward to meeting an old acquaintance. "Why is he coming anyway?"

"Do we really need to know?", I asked. It was kinda suspicious that he was coming here all of a sudden, but it wasn't my business to pry into what he was doing.

We entered the noisy cafeteria. It was packed, with people chattering about and the sounds of metal plates deafening the room.

"Maria! Dani! Come here!", I heard my friends call the two of us from across the cafeteria.

"Lemme get some food and then I'll join you!", I shouted back, heading to get my food.

"What are you going to get?", Danne asked, as we were standing in line for food.

"I dunno, I'll just take whatever looks good.", I shrugged, looking over to what was there.

…

After eating and finishing my work for the day, I headed back to my dorm room, exhausted.

"Hello there…!", Cecilia greeted me, sounding happier than usual, while fixing both our beds. She was quite responsible once she got the hang of things.

"How are you doing?", I said, getting my clothes and immediately heading into the shower.

After taking a shower, I decided to sleep immediately. The punishment for not completing the training regiment on time was brutal, so my muscles felt sore.

As both of us lay on our beds, in the middle of the night, Cecilia initiated a conversation.

"How is your training coming along?", she asked, clearly out of boredom.

"Fine I guess. I failed the training regiment our instructor gave us, so I had to run an extra 15 rounds and do a shit ton of exercise. My muscles feel like death."

"How is your training like anyway? Like do you fight with each other through the dream realm?"

"We sometimes do, but we nowadays, we just use up most of our training time for stamina and stuff."

"Aren't you so lucky…", I heard her mutter.

"Oh yeah? Well then Miss Unlucky, what do you do for training?", I said.

"Daphne murdering me in the dream realm multiple times.", she replied back. I could hear a slight tremble in her voice, but she was stronger than she initially let on. The first few times I got a dream realm death, I felt sick to the stomach.

"You'll be fine, as long as you don't feel sick that is.", I replied, not realizing how cynical I sounded.

"Oh yeah, do by any chance have anyone you know coming here for the director's meeting?"

What a strangely specific question. How did she know about the director's meeting anyway? "Yeah actually… I know this one dude named Darus. He is a really chill guy, if you want to meet him.", I said.