A Calm Night Before The Storm

A pleasant woodsy aroma flowed into Evy’s nose as she slid open the back porch door. The light gust of wind against her face refreshed the irritating sensation in her eyes. She took a deep breath and then exhaled as she rested her arms against the porch’s railing.

The deep open blackness before her was calming. Although it wasn’t the same, this scenery gave her a nostalgic sensation of home. It hadn’t even been a week since she left, and she was already missing it. She wondered if she really could stay this far from home for the next five years.

Evy grumbled before purging that question from her mind.

This is all she ever wanted. McKinley had been a dream school for her since she was little. She’d been heartbroken when she realized how costly it’d be to move just for her to attend. At some point, she’d given up on coming to McKinley altogether, but that’s when a ray of hope appeared—and now she was here.

She couldn’t squander that chance.

All in all, she couldn’t complain about this place. Of course, school could still be an issue, but she still had a few days to worry about that.

If she had to be completely honest, she had to say that—

“It’s…nice here,” She whispered with a sigh.

“It is, isn’t it?”

Evy jumped at the unexpected voice. She was still a little shaken from the events earlier in the day, her heart couldn’t handle more surprises.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya,” The Pantherian woman, Ina Tsutsumi, said with a grin. Her apology seemed less genuine seeing as she joyously trotted over to Evy without a hint of remorse.

She wore plain red pajamas with the sleeves and pant legs rolled up to her elbows and knees respectively. Her hair was tied up in a bun that just barely peaked above her, near the back of her cat ears. Her slippers slapped against the wooden porch with every step.

“Oh, I-It’s fine,” Evy turned back to the forest-like scenery before her. Ina leaned on the railing and looked out into the distance too.

A long silence came between them. Only the subtle wind and chirping crickets served to fill the open space.

“How’ve you liked living here?” Ina finally asked.

Evy flinched at the question, but quickly responded, “It’s…It’s good.”

“Miss home yet?”

“Um…a little.”

“Heh, yeah I can imagine,” she said before looking over the porch and onto the grass below. Her body made a ninety-degree angle over the railing then quickly snapped up and looked at Evy, “I remember when I first moved here.” She let out a long, exasperated sigh. “It was such a pain living here by myself.”

“R-Really?” Evy struggled to speak, but she didn’t want Ina to think she didn’t care, “When did you move here?”

Ina grinned before pointing at Evy, “When I was your age!”

“Huh?” Her eyes widened before asking, “Did you…move here to go to McKinley too?”

“Did you forget how I met your mom?”

“You met at McKinley?!”

Ina smiled and nodded.

Although she hadn’t told her much, Evy’s mom did mention Ina was a good friend of hers. The one thing she never would’ve expected, but she probably should’ve, was that they met at McKinley.

“Guess she didn’t mention me much, huh?”

“N-Not really.”

Ina laughed wholeheartedly, “Yeah, no surprise there.”

“Wait, are you saying you moved here alone?” Evy asked in amazement.

“Yep! At least for my first year. Your mom and I actually became roommates every year after that.” Ina looked off into the distance. A thin smile came over her while her eyes filled with reminiscence. “That’s also when I first met my husband…” she trailed off.

Evy wasn’t told directly, but she had an idea that Ina’s husband, and Araldo’s uncle, was no longer alive.

Ina chuckled, “Actually, my husband and I met because I was helping him get with your mom.”

“R-Really?”

“Yeah,” she laughed, “He was too embarrassed to do it himself, so I was like a mediator between them.” She looked longingly into the distance. “I guess…all that time together made us fall in love by accident.”

“I-I see…” Was all that she could respond with. Evy never personally felt in love, and the only guys who’d asked her out did it as a prank. She was lacking extensively in that department. But the way Ina looked while retelling her tales of love gave Evy a longing for something similar.

A few seconds of silence passed by before Ina finally slapped the railing, “Well, here’s to hoping you have a great school experience. McKinley is really something, let me tell you.”

Evy nodded.

School was something she really hoped worked out for her this year. Back in her hometown, she wasn’t looked at fondly by the people around her. She was the black sheep of the class—an outcast. Few people even tried talking to her, and when they did, it was obviously forced.

She got used to it after a while, but now that she was in an entirely new place, she didn’t want those fake conversations and fake relationships anymore. She wanted true, honest bonds with those around her.

Her outbursts of mean comments had plenty to do with her unpopularity, maybe entirely so. Her response to extreme nervousness had always been to lash out. Not on purpose, obviously, but that didn’t matter to those around her.

Just the simple fact someone like Araldo still spoke to her after all her outbursts felt like a breath of fresh air. She wasn’t fully sure about Araldo’s feelings for her, but all she could do was pray that he didn’t secretly hate her or was forcing himself to be with her for some reason or another.

As if reading her mind, Ina started, “Oh, and by the way, I apologize for anything Araldo says to you. He really means nothing bad by it, he’s just not good at dealing with new people.”

Evy shook her hands, “N-No, no, I know…but…I’m no different.”

Her mind always replayed back those memories of the people she insulted. Those bonds she inadvertently ripped apart with her words. She couldn’t bring those back, but she had a chance now. Everything was aligning academically and socially.

If anything, things were going way too well.

Ina laughed. “Oh I’m sure that’s why you two get along. You’re two sides of the same coin.”

“W-We don’t get along!” Evy accidentally let out. She covered her mouth, “S-Sorry…”

“Don’t be,” she patted Evy’s back, “Still, I think you two might be able to learn from each other. Kokoro is a bit too boisterous for either of you two to share a perspective. You two have much more in common than either of you realize.” She let out a mischievous grin. “Still…you do what you want.” She shrugged, “If worst comes to worst, you can even ignore him outright.”

“…”

Evy didn’t have to, nor wanted to, feel that way towards Araldo. He might’ve teased her a lot, but he never outright did anything bad to her. In fact, just him taking her to the ruins had been the nicest thing anyone had done for her in a long time.

Especially someone who wasn’t family.

Letting go of her back, Ina turned and began walking back towards the door, “Well, I’ll leave you be now,” her footsteps slowly moved further away before coming to a stop. “You already took off your lenses, right?”

“Oh, y-yeah.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure there’s no lights on,” she said before opening the sliding door. “Goodnight, Evy.”

“G-Goodnight, Mrs. Tsutsumi.”

Evy couldn’t help but smile at the thoughtfulness of her new guardian.

As a Terranyx, she had to wear lenses in her eyes that block out light at all times. Almost any amount of light would be painful to see and would make her day-to-day life a nightmare. It really didn’t help that she had extra sensitive eyes.

Those were the tradeoffs for having second-to-none night vision.

She let out a sigh.

Evy sat there thinking about what Ina said, but she didn’t really know how to take it. She’d never had a friend, at least a proper one, so she felt that at this point if Araldo held negative feelings toward her, their relationship was far from salvageable.

Then it hit her.

“…Learn from each other…” she whispered back Ina’s words.

After thinking it over for a while, she flicked herself in the arm, nodded, then went back inside to put her lenses back on.

---

My stomach rumbled, interrupting my studies.

I wasn’t one for a midnight snack, but after not eating much all day, and having to eat the barely edible food Kokoro cooked up, I was willing to make an exception.

I finished up the page I was on before closing the math book. There wasn’t much reason for me to study math seeing as I was above everything taught at my grade level, but there was always something that dragged me back in.

A curse some might call it.

Pulling away from my desk, I stood and headed for the door. I turned the knob and it creaked open…

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Standing there with wide eyes and a shocked face was the horned girl I’d spent all day today with. Her hand was raised in a fist, moments away from knocking.

Her face reddened quickly and evenly, but her body didn’t move a muscle.

“So, you wanted to talk?” I asked while preparing myself a quick snack. I say quick, but in reality, it took a bit of time to prepare.

Ze’Seki stood nearby, leaning against a wall. She watched me speed from one side to another, from the stove to the counter and back. She told me she wanted to say something, so I concluded I could hear her out while I cooked.

“Y-Yeah…”

“Alright, what about?”

“…I…I need your help…”

“Help?” That wasn’t something I imagined would ever come out of her mouth. “Will it involve us being trapped in underground ruins again?”

I poured the mixture of egg, milk, salt, and onion into a small pan. The sizzling from the pan and the aroma that came with it filled the kitchen.

“…Maybe…”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe…”

How would one go about replicating that situation? As far as I knew, we were probably the only people in the world who’d had an experience like that. For as weird and a little exciting as it might’ve been, I didn’t want to risk that again.

“Y-You’re good at math…right?”

Now that’s a transition. I didn’t appreciate how she knew that though. I’d never told her that tidbit of information.

“Who told you that?”

She fidgeted with her fingers, “Back in the ruins…the problem on the wall…” she was breaking up her sentences like she had a bad connection, “you finished that really fast…and that was math.”

“You’re making some leaps in logic if that’s all it took for you to think I’m good at math,” I tried to dismiss her true statement.

“…Kokoro told me too…”

Like on cue, the toaster popped the two halves of a bagel I’d put in.

And now I had been caught.

I sighed, “Of course she did…”

With all the ingredients finalizing cooking, the mixture of scents was starting to conjoin to a single delicious smell. I couldn’t help but hear Ze’Seki’s stomach let out a low growl.

Her face reddened and she started talking to cover up the sound, “I-I also heard you’re not good at history…”

So everything was being revealed about me.

“Kokoro slipped that information in too?”

“Oh, so I was right,” she held her chin.

I had been played. I was but a fiddle in her hands. A toy. A buffoon. A—

I sighed, “…so what are you getting at?”

“A-Are you that much of an idiot!?”

And now her switch had flipped. I really couldn’t tell what made that happen, but now she would be more of a pain.

With all the ingredients finally done, I began to combine them into a single piece.

“Let me spell it out for you,” she pointed at me, “You’re good at math.” She pointed at herself. “I’m bad at math.” She repeated those motions as she said, “You’re bad at history, I’m good at history. Made the connection yet?”

“I did, but I don’t appreciate your condescending tone.”

“Would you look at that, you do have a brain,” she clapped once.

“My feelings can be hurt you know?”

“Doubt it.”

With my snack done, a bagel filled with egg, cheese, and bacon, I took a knife and made my way to the dining table. I motioned Ze’Seki to come with me.

We sat down across from each other. I took the knife and carefully cut the sandwich in half. Leaving one half on the plate, I took the other one and slid the plate towards Ze’Seki.

“Here.”

“Huh, b-but I didn’t—”

“You’re hungry, right? Just take it.”

Without another word, she nodded and slowly picked up the sandwich. She bit into it with a soft crunch from the bread, letting her eyes go wide as she chewed.

“Its…really good…”

“Right?” I proudly said, “It’s simple, but I’ve been trying to find the best way to perfect it.” I bit into my own half.

We sat silently for a few seconds, but after a while, Ze’Seki looked at me and asked, “So…what do you say?”

Realizing she was asking about her proposal, I had to admit, it was really tempting.

I mean, I was getting a two-in-one deal here. Not only would I get a history buff to teach me, but I’d get to exercise my teaching abilities too—Arra knows I need that.

McKinley became my dream school after I decided to become a teacher like my uncle. He recommended me to come to McKinley since their teaching program was the best in the country and he was one of the teachers there.

I promised him I’d eventually get to McKinley and be one of his students, but obviously, that promise would have to forever go unfulfilled.

But this was a good chance, right? Having some experience, no matter how small, was better than none. In that case, my answer should’ve been simple. There really was only one answer I could go with—and yet…

“…I’ll think about it…” was all that escaped my mouth.

After finishing our snack, we each went to our respective rooms. I told her I’d give her an answer tomorrow, but I didn’t feel like my answer would change.

I studied for a few hours after that. It was probably three in the morning before I got any sleep.

But if I knew what was going to happen, I would’ve never gone to sleep. My only consolation being that it was probably inevitable—

I was probably dreaming, or at least I hoped I was. But nothing about this place felt like a dream. The arid air and the metallic scent permeating the large room. The walls were rough rocks and rubble laid throughout the perimeter.

It looked like the aftermath of a battle with pieces of armor and weapons scattered throughout.

“What is—”

“I apologize for the inconvenience.”

I nearly jump-turned backward.

Sitting by the corner was a man. His black hair parted from his forehead. Wearing all black, the only color came from the armor on his arms, leather straps, and certain sections of his torso. Across the right side of his chest was a piece of metal with a stylized “A” crudely carved into it.

He looked straight out of a medieval fantasy story.

The sharp features and gaze pierced my soul, freezing me on the spot.

“Don’t be afraid, I can do very little to you…especially now.”

Regardless of what the man said, his aura alone was enough to terrify me to the bone.