✧ Chapter 46 ✧

“I’m so buzzed right now,” exclaimed Chelbie.

Styra, Chelbie, and Eternika were staring at the massive structure that was Dream Academy High from underneath the variety of colorful trees within Paradise Park. Even at this time of the autumn season, it had this feel of spring and summer combined. The three were invisible amongst the lively crowd of people walking past them, but there was a question of how they would enter the building and meet up with Aoki, Hiroto, and Miri without making them look like they were talking to air.

“I agree with your assessment of the place. The question becomes how do we meet up with these new acquaintances of ours? Perhaps you two can go in using disguises. Meanwhile, I could visit both Cherry’s and Ararima’s homes. Once I’m done with those, I’ll look around Paradise Park for any traces of them just in case,” suggested Eternika.

“Better than nothing I guess. All Chelbie and I need to do is play the role as new students to the school. That means we’ll have to somehow convince them that we are eligible to join,” mentioned Styra.

Chelbie chimed in with an idea to help counter their concerns.

“That’s way too easy. With the powers we have now, there’s a way for us to sneak into their systems and add new names to their database. Like spies creating undercover identities. Hisa taught me a lot about how that stuff works.”

With this plan in mind, Eternika thought up a better way for them to achieve this plan.

“Compass would be our best option in this scenario. I will contact him regarding this matter so he can infiltrate Dream Academy’s information and even hand us the identification required for you two to enter.”

Knowing that accessibility was going to be critical in order for them to get into the building, the three went through the process of formulating backup arrangements with Compass behind-the-scenes in case the meetup were to go sour.

After an hour of discussion and preparation, they were finally ready.

Both Styra and Chelbie wore the appropriate uniforms which were the most obvious part of their disguises. This included gym clothes since PE was also part of this school’s curriculum. Staff were surprised that they had never seen these “new students” before upon confirming their registration as valid. There was no denying that everything was falling into place for The Judgment Warriors as expected.

Since Compass had looked over the database, he was able to compute when and where Miri, Aoki, and Hiroto would be throughout the entire day. Finding a time for the conversation to take place seemed to be around the 1:40 PM to 2:00 PM mark (which was basically lunchtime). According to the schedule, Cherry and Ararima were also expected to make an appearance.

However, the biggest challenge would be actively participating in the school’s classes before they could even get to that point. Having to wait that long was going to be a lot harder for Styra than Chelbie because time could essentially slow down for her if she wanted it to. She wasn’t going to be able to time travel, but the only certain upside to this was being able to go faster and outthink present situations.

Their first class of the day together was Astronomy with a teacher named Ms. Suyo. Compass told them that Ararima and Cherry were specifically going to be here for the start of that day. When they arrived at Elective X-4 however (which was on the ninth floor), it was becoming more clear that they weren't there.

During that moment of realization, Styra decided to use her powers in between that time to figure out more about how the classrooms were constructed. From the way it looked, each one was represented with a letter (ranging from A to Z) and a number (ranging from 1 to 10). For the total of nine floors, she was able to pick up on how a majority of the schedules worked. The school did have elevators, but they were normally crowded in-between classes. As a result, the stairs were the other available option. The school allowed thirty minutes to walk to four different rooms all at once.

Time worked a bit differently across Animearth compared to StarSpace from her observations. Flipping through one of the school calendars pinned to a bulletin board, she was surprised at what she saw:

November 7th, 2024.

So that was today’s date in this specific time zone. Only two more days before the next month. Going farther down, she counted out 27 hours per a single day in Animearth. Quite longer than StarSpace for sure. Turning past each page revealed there were 36 months in a year. Out of all of those days, one in particular caught her eye.

The Day Of The Dark Sun.

She was mildly concerned after seeing this. Whatever that holiday was supposed to be, it gave her a bad feeling. As vague as its meaning would be to her, she was sure either Miri, Hiroto, or Aoki would help to explain the details.

Running back to the class in no time as if nothing had happened, she walked inside with Chelbie as their teacher gave them a warm smile.

“Oh dear, I’ve never seen you two here before. Are you transfer students?”

“Yeah, we’re sisters who came from the same schools and applied for this one,” replied Chelbie.

“Alright. In that case, would you like to briefly introduce yourselves to the class? After that, you can take one out of the four available seats for right now.”

Four empty seats… Styra knew the first two were for Cherry and Ararima. The desk behind Hiroto would be a perfect spot to get Cherry’s attention if she ever came in. That logic mostly derived from what Miri said earlier, so it made perfect sense to sit there anyways . Finding Ararima’s seat wasn’t that tricky for Chelbie either. It was nearest to the window, in the second row, and right behind Miri. Since she also reviewed the seating arrangements and operations of each scheduled class with Compass, Ararima would also be likely enough to notice her eventually.

Walking up in front of an empty pedestal, Chelbie immediately began to introduce herself under a different name and identity first.

“Hi y’all, my name is Aikono Tsukura. I came from Augustine Elementary and I actually don’t live too far from Centreplex City. I love anything that deals with sports and I’ve won a lot of skating competitions. I also love vehicles. My favorite types are monster trucks. I’m just a fanatic for anything that has wheels. Otherwise, I really look forward to making new friends here today.”

Once Chelbie was done, she sat in Ararima’s seat, laid her new backpack beside the desk, and folded her hands in anticipation of what Styra was going to say.

Styra was a tad bit nervous because she never attended a school before like Chelbie did. The rules were especially very strict. Although Compass taught her how to approach visiting this place as well, she was going to have to hold back a lot of who she was. That wasn’t going to be easy if Voltaze were to cause yet another crisis unexpectedly like the one that happened in Wisteliah. It came to her attention that if he were to find out that Compass had reserved power from The Eternal Light Of Surreality, the robot would die instantly. The implications of that bond also felt risky. This further caused her to question if Compass sucking its power out of Voltaze was an ideal choice.

In retrospect, what Compass said suggested that this Eternal Light was being bullied into submission by the others to join Voltaze’s side. When that confrontation would come, was Compass really going to be able to help them stop him?

She knew what Eternika had told her. The Eternal Lights couldn’t destroy one another, but they could certainly contact Prism. Without a doubt, she had a feeling that the “Master Of The Omniverse” was initiating another secret scheme. Voltaze’s actions were fulfilling that goal if Prism sent him to destroy her without revealing anything specific about its real intentions as The Lucid Light. The only way left was to persuade Voltaze to stop.

Blitzing through all of these thoughts in her mind, she put aside her fears and finally stepped up to share this altered identity she created with the entire class.

“Hello everybody. I am Emiru Tsukura. I love to travel the world and explore places. I suppose you could say I have a fascination for nature. My favorite hobby is gardening and—“

Glancing at every student in the room, her self-awareness kicked in as she noticed how bored almost everyone looked beside Chelbie. Was she saying something wrong? It made her sensitive. This was the part of her life that defined who she came to be. The fact that it aligned with her knowing that not everyone was going to like what she liked, maybe she was better off not saying more than was necessary. Even if that meant hiding her true emotions that surfaced in Wisteliah.

“That’s all I wanted to share.”

Upon walking to her desk, she was happy to see that she would be sitting right next to Chelbie who gave her a thumbs up for trying. In a way, it made her feel slightly better.

For the majority of that time in Dream Academy High, they had to do multiple mundane assignments while waiting hours upon hours for either Cherry or Ararima to at least show up. However, it didn’t take long for them to assume that they were either absent just for the day or missing. It got to the point that when it was lunch, Styra and Chelbie were becoming extremely concerned.

Sitting at one of the cafeteria tables closest to the window, Chelbie was eating slowly from her gourmet plate of food. Meanwhile, Styra sat there with nothing but a sense of hopelessness.

“I can’t believe we came here only to suddenly find out that Cherry and Ararima are nowhere to be found,” said Styra.

Chelbie recollected herself before sighing in disbelief.

“Eh, I’m sure we’ll find ‘em tomorrow. Besides, look on the bright side. At least we can talk to your other new friends about this stuff. Plus, you know who is going to tell us about where they live once we get back outside...”

She had a point. While there wasn’t a single trace of them in Dream Academy, Eternika was their initial backup. Perhaps the weapon had convinced them about their situation now, right?

During this conversation, Styra turned around to find Miri running up to them while Aoki and Hiroto walked casually towards the table they were sitting at.

“There she is! By the way, don't worry Emiru. I understand the whole thing with your name. We recognized you the moment I pointed out your hairstyle. Hiroto said it was cute,” said Miri with a mischievous grin on her face.

Hiroto, who was hearing this, began to get flustered and defend himself from the strange accusation.

“Seriously? Not this again. First Cherry, now her? Not trying to be dismissive or anything, but I can speak for myself. I’d never say something that extreme, right Aoki?”

“Well, you do keep staring at that seat for some reason before Astronomy class even starts…”

The frustration building within Hiroto proceeded to fester as he knew the both of them were playing around with him.

“Why do I even bother trying to tell you two anything? Emiru, don’t take it personally. They’re just trying to mess with us.“

While the gag routine between these three was getting hectic as usual, Styra wasn’t really in on the jokes being delivered. She was more anxious about finishing the day and talking to Ararima and Cherry. For right now, her best bet was to focus on the question that she wasn’t planning on holding in any longer.

“What is The Day Of The Dark Sun?”

At that moment, the group became dead silent. Even Chelbie had to stop eating because she was curious as to what she was talking about.

Breathing calmly, Hiroto sat down in front of Styra with his hands balled up against his forehead while heavily leaning both of his elbows on the table.

“The Day Of The Dark Sun was when our world shifted from orbit for approximately 27 hours. Our sun had lost its light and as a result, a sort of curse emerged from it all. Have you ever heard of Candiere’s Cafe?”

“Not that I know of.”

“It is this weird video game that takes place in a cafe simulator. After the events that occurred with our sun reverting back to normal somehow, the game blew in popularity before gaining a reputation here at our school for causing the deaths of many students.”

“You’re kidding… How is that even possible?” asked Chelbie.

“We don’t know. Everything revolving around it is superstition at its worst. Currently, it comes around every year. It used to come every month though. That was six years ago.”

A wave of panic began to surge across Styra’s body. She was as stiff as a fossil because this made her not only suspect that both Ararima and Cherry probably died during the day this curse took effect.

It was more of the fact that she was likely the cause of the curse’s origins.