The Hidden World

Sneaking around was harder than Yuna had expected. In the dark and silent field, she felt as if everyone was watching her. She made no noise, but thought that every heartbeat of hers could be heard. Because of this, she decided to take it cautiously and crept across the Meadow like a cat stalking its prey but at half the speed.

‘No one should know where I am and what I’m doing right now,’ she calmed herself as she tiptoed. ‘And no one would be able to see with this light.’

Ten minutes later, she arrived to the entrance of the Headmaster’s Castle. This was where all of the faculty lived and where all private Academy information was stored. And it was going to be the starting point for Yuna’s investigation into the golem incident.  

Yuna knew that the locations that she entered on campus were being tracked by the watch on her wrist. But she was willing to risk it and hope that they didn't check all that often. She cracked opened the entrance and slipped inside the well lit castle. Glancing around, she saw no one and started up the stairs.

The reason why she was in the Headmaster’s Castle was simple. Yuki had told her that the perpetrator for the golem attack was most likely a teacher. The castle was where all of the teachers of the Academy lived and worked. Because of this, it was the most logical place to start an investigation if the attack was in fact done by an Academy instructor. With that in mind, she went into the office of the first teacher on the second floor.

What she was searching for, Yuna herself wasn’t quite sure. She was investigating but at the same time, she didn’t know what she was investigating. All she planned to do was look at whatever was available to her and record anything that looked suspicious to her.

For the next hour, she went about the various offices of the teachers of the Academy. They were all organized the same way with one desk with a computer on it and some shelves on the walls. Other than that, most rooms were quite barren and bland. Yuna was glad for this as it made her job much easier.

But after the first five rooms, she was beginning to become nervous. She had found nothing of interest in those offices save for a small picture of a woman that might have been that instructor’s wife. Yuna didn’t know if her lack of discoveries was because there was nothing to find or because she was missing something that may be blatantly obvious.

‘Yuki would be really useful at these times,’ she thought as she flipped through some notebooks.

In the left wing, Yuna finally found something of interest. On the tables of some of the teachers, she found written plans for the school year. Through them, she discovered that the hunt in the forest was set up by the first year teachers and given approval to by the headmaster. That meant that the main suspect was going to be one of the first year instructors.

In another room, she thought she had found something but it turned out to be a false alarm. One office had sketches and schematics for what looked to be golems and Yuna had gotten excited. Then she dug through some more papers and realized that this was one of the craftsmen instructors at the Academy and that it was merely this person’s job.

‘Ah well,’ she thought as she went back to the door.

“It’s here?”

Yuna’s heart nearly popped out her of chest as she put in great effort to not gasp. A noise now might prove fatal to her later.

“Are you sure?” the deep and unmistakably male voice spoke again.

‘Why is there someone here?’ Yuna thought, panic quickly swelling through her. ‘Calm down. Calm down. He doesn’t know I’m here. I just need to find a place to hide or to ambush this man.’

She looked around the room for any place where she could possibly hide and only one option appeared before her. It was the desk where all the papers were located as well as all the useful information that a person might possibly be looking for if they were to enter the room.

‘Well, crap,’ she thought. ‘There aren’t any other better options. I hope he doesn’t turn on the lights.’

Without wasting a moment, Yuna dove under the desk and tucked her feet in. She was surrounded by wooden panels and the only way for someone to see her would be to go behind the desk and look under. And that was what Yuna hoped the man outside would not do.

She heard a click and light flooded into the dark room. A giant shadow loomed in front of Yuna and she sucked in a quick breathe as she heard footsteps approach her. As the thumping of shoes on fabric became louder, the man continued to talk. Yuna realized that he was talking to a communicator of sorts.

“On the table, right?” he said.

‘No, not on the table,’ Yuna replied, her breathing quickening.

The man went to the desk and began to rummage around the papers on top of it. Yuna could hear the sound of paper sliding across wood. Then the man seem to have found what he wanted and began to walk away from the table. She relaxed and let out a small sigh.

The man stopped walking and talked into his communicator again.

“Yeah, yeah. I got them,” he said. “The schematics for the golem right? Hmm? Yeah, don’t worry. I know.”

Yuna heard the door open and then close. She waited a couple of minutes before she started to creep out from under her hiding place. Her heart was still pounding and she could hardly believe that she was unnoticed. Then she started to head toward the door before a the sound of a throat clearing stopped her right in her tracks.

“I’m glad you came out yourself,” the man who didn’t leave said. “Makes things much more easier.”

She didn’t reply. Yuna’s mind went blank as she tried to come up with a way to get out of this mess that she had just gotten herself into. But no flash of inspiration hit her.

The man didn’t say any more and pulled out a knife. Then he started to walk nonchalantly toward Yuna and stuck out like a viper. Yuna’s hand shot up and swatted it away with practiced movements and the man stepped back.

“You have training,” he muttered.

He attacked again, but this time with a ferocity that wasn’t there before and Yuna fought back with all her might. But her opponent was too experienced, too skilled for her to even defend against. Red slashes appeared about her arms and her clothes were torn.

The nonstop defense began to tire her and soon her arms began to feel like dead weights. She was nearing her limit and accepted it. There was no way for her to get out of this outside of a miracle.

Then knocking came from the door and the man froze. Yuna turned to see the handle of the office begin to turn and thrown open with a bang to reveal no one in front of it.

“What the hell?” the man said, dumbfounded. “Who—”

His next words were cut off by a staff that appeared out of nowhere and slammed into his stomach. With the staff, can the outline of a lithe person clad in black. And this person began a beatdown on the man that was nearly going to Yuna a second ago.

‘Amazing,’ she thought as she watch the one sided battle.

In a few minutes, the man laid on the floor, his face a mass of red marks. Yuna’s miracle stood calmly over the man and began to rummage through their clothes.

“What are you doing?” she asked hesitantly.

The person in black didn’t respond and instead took the papers and something that she couldn’t see from the jacket of the fallen man. Then the person put the papers back on the desk and tossed the other thing toward Yuna.

She caught it and saw that it was a pendant connected to what looked to be a gold chain. The pendant was of a silver snake with green eyes.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

Yuna’s savior looked at her and she saw that a black metal mask covered their face, making it impossible for her to guess what they were feeling. Then the person wrote something on one of the papers and left without a word.

‘Thank you,’ Yuna said in her mind as she watch the person vanish.

She went back to the table and saw what the person had written in excellent penmanship. It said only a simple phrase.

“Shikaku.”