The Hidden World

Yuki spent the night racing around the school campus, trying to see if there were any more suspicious people. When there were none to be found, he went back to his dorm.

He placed his staff in his closet and changed out of his clothing. Then he removed his mask and dragged himself back out to the living room. Akira was now awake and was looking at him with a perplexed expression.

“Where were you?” she asked.

“Out saving an idiot,” Yuki replied as he flopped down on the couch next to her. “Good thing I spied on her.”

“Yuna?” Akira asked.

“Yeah, her,” he confirmed. “She thought it was going to be a great idea to go investigate an attack by herself.”

It must have been pure luck that Yuki had decided to track her at just the right moment. When he saw that she was walking slowly across the field he knew immediately what she was trying to do. The clues were already there from their previous interaction in his room.

And so, he created a mask which took him a bit of time and threw on some black clothing in order to hide himself both in the dark and from being recognized. He ran over there and was then notified by Uriel that Yuna hadn’t moved for the last five minutes. When he heard that, he quickly went to the room she was in and noticed the sounds of a scuffle happening in it. To distract the people inside, he knocked loudly on the door which worked wonderfully.

He casted a spell much like the one he did for his hidden daggers and opened the door. Then he proceeded to beat the crap out of Yuna’s attacker, venting his annoyance at having to do this into the man.

“Uriel?” Akira asked, interrupting his story.

“Ah, yes. I finished the AI,” Yuki said. “Say hi, Uriel.”

“Hi~!” she said as instructed, her voice coming out of the television.

“Oh, you’re in there now?” Yuki asked.

“I’m literally everywhere, boss,” Uriel replied. “Is that girl your partner in life?”

Yuki thought about that question for a little.

“Yeah,” he replied, thinking about how he’s bonded with her. “Have you looked through all of the information I fed you?”

“Nope. Not at all,” she replied with slight giggle. “It’s too much for me to do in a couple of hours. Tomorrow I’ll be done though.”

“Alright.”

Yuki turned back to Akira and found her to be a bit red in the face.

“What’s wrong? You’re red,” he asked. “Do you feel sick or something?”

“No no,” she answered quickly. “Just, partner. I mean, that’s great. You finished your project.”

‘Oh, she was embarrassed by that?’ Yuki realized. ‘But we are partners for life. We have been since I was born.’

“Yes, I finished,” he said out loud. “Uriel here will be our partner. Uriel, you’ll listen to anything Akira says. Understand?”

“Got it,” she replied.

“Akira, don’t abuse her,” Yuki said.

“What do you mean?” Akira asked, tilting her head.

“Never mind then,” Yuki answered. “Let’s get back to Yuna and her poor attempt at espionage.”

Yuki then proceeded to explain the part of the impromptu rescue mission that was not of annoyance. After he had beat up the attacker, he searched him to see if he had anything or use or of value. First, he had found the papers that the man seemed to have stolen from that room. Yuki quickly scanned through them and saw that they were designs for golems. He immediately understood what was going on. Then he found the pendant and everything clicked into place.

“What do you mean?” Akira asked.

“The pendant was the symbol for the Shikaku,” Yuki said. “And that means that they were the ones that were behind the attack.”

“Them?” Akira said with a slight growl.

“Yes, them,” he said. “They were stealing the plans for a golem from a teacher at the Academy. Or they made it look like they were stealing. This means that they are responsible for what happened in the forest.”

“Why would they steal plans if they already made a golem before?” Akira asked.

“They made a golem, yes. But the schematics were for a different design,” Yuki explained. “The plans outlined a more sophisticated and stronger golem. It wasn’t complete but they were most likely trying to get their hands on it so that then they could complete it. Then they would have used it to attack someplace, most likely the school again since their first attempt failed.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

Yuki tapped on his watch and a screen was projected from it. He started tapping on it, typing up words as he spoke.

“Well, we now know that there is someone at the Academy with connections to the Shikaku,” Yuki thought out loud. “We know this because there is no way someone would know about research being done by an Academy instructor unless they know the teacher or it was the instructor themselves. This means that we now have one suspect or at least a person of interest.”

“The instructor that used that office,” Akira finished.

“That’s right,” he agreed. “Uriel, pull up whoever was the owner of that office.”

“Well the owner of that office was the Academy but I understand what you mean,” she replied. “Let me see. The instructor is a middle aged elf male, age seventy three. Name is Ludwig Youth which is a horrible name. He likes cats and goes to strip clubs when his wife isn’t there.”

“That is a horrible name and how do you know all of that?” Yuki asked.

“People put the weirdest things in their computers,” she said.

“So that guy is probably out of the question,” Yuki said, moving on. “Seems much too carefree for someone that wants to hide. He seems to be having a comfortable life as well and would have no reason to plot any attacks. Especially against the people that are paying him.”

“Agreed,” Akira said. “Uriel, please show us who are this person’s closest correspondents?”

“Alrighty then,” Uriel said. “Closest correspondents. Mabel, Nataru, Harris, Kern, and Bartholomew.”

“That last name seems very random,” Yuki commented.

“Because I made it up. The first four are the ones from what I can see that Ludwig spoke to the most,” Uriel said.

“We are going to put the first two as the main people of interest,” Yuki said as he typed their names. “They are first year teachers and so are the ones that most likely planned that day.”

“I don’t think Mabel would do that,” Akira said.

“That’s your bias speaking, Akira,” Yuki gently reprimanded her. “Even if you like her you need to keep things in perspective. I think she’s a low possibility but still one nonetheless. She might be unsatisfied with her standing in the Academy as she is a support mage. That could be motivation. Nataru, I’m not sure but I need to research him and his background. Or really, Uriel is. Can you do that for me?”

“Anything for you, boss,” she said. “I’ll get right to it once I finish processing all the data I got from Raphael.”

“Alright, thank you,” Yuki said.

He closed his watch and yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. Then he started to stretch as he stood there in the living room.

“I’m tired now. I’ll be heading to bed,” he announced. “After I get ready that is.”

“I’ll go to sleep too then,” Akira said.

“I can’t sleep,” Uriel added. “Guess I’ll work then.”

“And we appreciate it,” Akira comforted her.

“Aww, thank you,” Uriel said. “I’ll disappear now. Bye~.”

She stopped talking and Yuki went to the bathroom to get ready to go to bed. After taking a quick shower, drying his hair, and brushing his teeth, he went to his room and flopped onto the bed. Akira was already there with her face on a pillow.

[Tomorrow is Saturday,] she said, her head not moving.

‘So it is. I don’t have anything to do, just as I promised,’ Yuki responded mentally. ‘Is there anywhere you want to go?’

[As long as I’m with you, I don’t really care,] she replied.

‘Then we’ll just wander around again,’ Yuki planned. ‘Those are the best type of trips. The ones with no plan.’

[Seems good.]

‘Good night, Akira.’

[Good night, Yuki.]