The Hidden World

Bzzt bzzt

Yuna slapped the watch that wrapped around her wrist to stop its vibrating. It was the morning and time for her day to start. Today was the last day of her weekend—they had Monday off this week—and the first day where she wasn’t being slammed with pressure to do things. The captain had just told her the day before that she didn’t need to continue her investigation into the golem incident. So that meant that all she had to do was live a normal school life and improve her friendship with Yuki.

‘But why do I feel so unsatisfied?’ she thought, stretching her arms as she sat on her bed.

It wasn’t that she was unhappy about being excused from the investigation. If anything, she was relieved about having one less responsibility. But she still felt a lingering sensation of discontentment. She wanted to see the case finished. She needed to know who orchestrated the attack and why.

‘I can’t investigate, though,’ she thought. ‘The captain told me not to and if I did that would be against direct orders.’

Still, she felt that she was the one that needed to complete it. It was her who started it so it was only natural that it was her who would finish it. It also didn’t help that she had her case taken away the moment she had her first real clue as to who the perpetrator was.

‘I need to talk about this with someone,’ she decided as she stood up from her bed. ‘So I can clear my mind. Then I can make a decision.’

She exited her bedroom and went about her daily routine. As she did this, Yuna thought about who this “someone” should be. Who she could talk to about her worries and struggles without feeling embarrassed. She didn’t have much of a list. There were only two people that fit this criteria: Yuki and her captain. And her captain was out of the question because he was the cause of her current struggles.

‘Yuki it is then,’ Yuna decided. ‘I did want to see him before anyway. I still have that mission to do.’

Before she did so, she went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Then she changed her clothes, brushed her hair, and made sure that everything in the room was nice and tidy. Once she had confirmed this, she took a deep breath and walked out of her dorm.

The walk to Yuki’s dorm took less than a minute. He was only a floor above her own dorm. When she was in front of his dorm room door, she took another breath before knocking loudly on the wooden entrance.

“Who is it?” a muffled voice called out from behind it.

“It’s Yuna,” she replied. “I want to talk about something with you.”

“I didn’t even eat yet,” Yuki answered back. “Why are you here so early today?”

“It’s almost 9:00. It’s not that early,” she said. “Could you please let me in?”

After a few seconds past, the door slid open to reveal Yuki dressed in pajamas and his shoulder length hair a mess. He rubbed his eyes and yawned gently before giving Yuna a critical look.

“You want something to eat?” he asked. "I just woke up. My hair's a mess."

“No, I’m good,” she answered. “I ate before I got here.”

'He care's about his appearance,' Yuna noted. 'That's different from the guys I know.'

“Okay,” he said as he turned around and walked deeper into his dorm. “I’ll just cook for myself then. Have a seat and we could chat in about ten minutes or so.”

Yuna followed behind him, gently closing the door, before taking a seat on the living room couch. She glanced around Yuki’s dorm and noticed that some more things had been added since the last time she was there. There was a gaming console that rested underneath the television. On the glass table in front of her, she spotted a curious looking device that was the size of a phone.

After almost exactly ten minutes, Yuki walked out of the kitchen with a plate of eggs and toast that he set down on top of the glass table. He pushed aside the curious device without a second thought and began to eat.

“You can talk as I eat,” he told Yuna after he swallowed. “I'll listen and give you a reply once I’m done.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied. She paused to gather her thoughts. “I just wanted to know if you discovered anything new about the golem incident. Like about the person behind it or the motive.”

Yuki looked at her as he chewed. Then he swallowed again and gave out a long sigh.

“I thought you had a story,” he said, putting down his fork. “This conversation won’t go as smoothly now since I have to eat and talk at the same time. Is that okay with you?”

Yuna nodded.

“Alright then,” Yuki said. “So you want to know if I found any information about the golem attack. To put it simple, no. No, I did not. But because you brought up the topic, I assume you might have found something new?”

She fell quiet as she carefully considered her answer. It was true that she had discovered something new. And she knew better than anyone that Yuki was quite smart and would be a great help in solving the case. However, she didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of sharing what would probably be classified information to a civilian.

‘Well it isn’t my case any more,’ she thought. ‘I don’t think the captain would care about things he doesn’t know.’

“Yes, I did find some new things,” Yuna said out loud. “And some things happened to me as well.”

“Like what?” Yuki asked as he stabbed his eggs.

“I was, um, exploring two nights ago,” she started. “While I was doing that, I was attacked by a man.”

“Exploring, hmm?” Yuki repeated, his eyebrow raised. “You mean investigating.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, looking away for a split second before refocusing on Yuki.

“Don’t try to hide it,” Yuki said. “I won’t report you. I’m doing my own investigation of sorts.”

“Really?” Yuna asked. “You won’t tell anyone?”

“Why would I?”

Yuna thought for a bit, asking the same question to herself. Why did she think that Yuki would report her? He was the one helping her. He was also the one that gave her the first lead she had.

“Yes, I was investigating,” she admitted. “I went to the Headmaster’s Castle to snoop around. You told me that someone in the Academy staff was the most likely suspect and so I went to the rooms of the instructors to look around. In the room of one of the instructors, I heard the voice of someone outside. I hid and then a man walked in. He took what looked to be schematics for some sort of automaton or golem and pretended to walk back out. His trick worked and he managed to lure me out of my hiding place. A fight ensued and as I was about to be killed, a knock came from the door. This distracted my assailant and gave time for whoever was knocking to mount an attack. My possible rescuer defeated my attacker easily and gave me a pendant. Then he wrote something on the schematics and left.”

“What did he write?” Yuki asked.

“Shikaku,” Yuna said. “I don’t think that should mean anything to you.”

“Mean anything? No,” Yuki agreed. “But do I recognize it? Yes I do.”

“You know who the Shikaku are?” Yuna asked, her eyes widening.

“Yes. When I was on Earth, people told me who they were,” Yuki said. “They are a guild that specializes in assassination. They mainly work off of commissions or kill for their own benefit.”

‘Wow, that’s about as much as I have,’ Yuna thought. ‘And even that amount of information was hard to get. The captain didn’t seem to want to tell me.’

“Yes, that’s them,” she said. “It seems that the person who saved me believes that the person who attacked was from the Shikaku. That would make sense since the man was wearing a pendant that had the emblem of the Shikaku on it.”

Yuki didn’t reply and twirled his fork around on his plate. He had finished his meal during Yuna’s retelling of her night. He looked up and opened his mouth.

“Things got more complicated then,” he said. “And dangerous.”

“Yes it did,” Yuna agreed.

“I don’t know why the Shikaku are involved in this, but I do know that they were the ones behind the golem attack now,” Yuki continued. “The fact that they were trying to steal more golem blueprints point to the idea that they might be planning for another attack.”

“That would make sense,” Yuna said. “But I’m confused as to why they would attack. There was nothing that they could gain from killing a group of first year students.”

Yuki nodded his head.

“Yes, but what if they were commissioned?” he countered. “Then they wouldn’t need any other reason other than money.”

Now it was Yuna’s turn to nod her head. That was true.

“And if they were to attack again, then we need to know where they will target next or when they will attack,” Yuki said. “I can only think of one event in the near future that they might strike.”

Yuna thought to herself for a little. If the Shikaku wanted to attack, then they would want to do it at a time when the Academy was most vulnerable and at a place where there would be a lot of easy targets. Then the announcement from the day before came to her mind.

“The tournament,” she whispered.

“The tournament,” Yuki repeated. “That would be the most likely target. Easy to access since it’s open to the public. Many people gathered in one place.”

“Then what are we going to do?” Yuna asked, half panicked.

“I won’t be able to do much,” Yuki replied. “You might be able to. You’re strong. But in order for you to be able to compete against the Shikaku, you need to train harder. Get stronger.”

“How?”

“I would recommend that you utilize the training room during your free time,” he answered. “You know what I’m hinting at, correct?”

“Yes, I think so,” Yuna said. “For the next two months, I’m going to have to train the hardest I’ve ever trained in my entire life in order to have a shot at stopping the possible attack on the tournament.”

“I hope you can do it,” Yuki said. “People are depending on you.”