In Polaris, it always feels like it's sunny.
Dahlia shaded her eyes with her hand,trying to give her eyes some rest from the scalding fireball in the sky. So far there hasn't been rain but according to Lemon, there will be a storm next week. Dahlia's read about tropical storms, not factually but more from the novels she read at Pilin. Dark clouds and swirling tornados turning paradise to purgatory in an instant, but her interest in seeing one rivals her fear.
That can't be said about the training she is doing.
After doing the run around the track, everyone was tasked with practising and honing their precision on dummy targets lined out on the field. Now this was easy for Dahlia, at first. The static dolls were child's play for her tentacles. To fully envelop and barely restrain but not crush, but after Coach Letty used her superpower on them, they were now running around and evading as if they were alive.
While Dahlia could certainly get the targets, being consistent was something else. Every second her tentacles were free she felt more and more like she was drowning and the black water would begin to seep from her nose, suffocating her.
Despite having them for a long time, given her world's clear stance on dark magic she could only do it in private and without a teacher she had to figure out everything herself. She could never push herself in fear of passing out and someone finding her drowning in her own(?) black ichor.
Letty would pull Dahlia out every ten minutes, to give her some water and a bucket to 'throw up' her black water into before Dahlia would start again only for the cycle to repeat. Plopping won on the benches for the sixth time she watched everyone else complete their tasks with less stress than her. Those who had abilities like Shinji and Suto were firing off using their respective powers but for those who lack that kind of ability, such as Tansol and Yume, they were using various different objects such as pellet pistols and balls to train their precision.
Dahlia could feel herself hit a wall. It seems no matter how much she practises, she still gets exhausted after just thirty seconds of using her tentacles. As she tried to think of a solution, Coach Letty sat down next to her looking to chat.
"So Dahlia, it seems you have an issue with your stamina as well as that strange side effect of that black stuff coming from your body."
Coach Letty was a middle aged woman, with slightly grey hair but not from age. It seemed that being born with more varied hair colours was normal in this world. She was a fast talker and had an accent that made everything she said sound like a statement.
"Yes, coach. I can't seem to fix it."
"Hey." said Letty sternly, "Nothing needs 'fixed' just improved, see tomorrow I'll have you not take the track and see if it's because of your stamina."
"Yeah." Dahlia said. She was sure that it likely wasn't. Everytime she would use her power she could feel her brain become cramped as something seemed to fill it and it's that feeling that leaves her sweating like she ran a marathon in a parka.
Suzuki had come over to see the two chatting and joined their conversation.
"Dahlia," he said, "have you ever tried releasing just one of your tentacles? Perhaps that would make it easier for you to manage?"
It was certainly something she tried but it felt impossible to hold it back. She was already just barely not crushing her targets, trying to restrain it further felt like a monumental task.
"Maybe but it feels impossible to." Dahlia looked down, slightly glum, "It's like it's either all of it or none of it."
"Hmm." pondered Suzuki.
"I think I know what you're thinking." said Letty.
"Yes. I'll prepare that for tomorrow."
"I can do it for you professor." Letty offered.
"Oh no need coach, I can handle it myself. By the way, I heard the news during lunch, congratulations." the man said with a rare smile.
"Oh," gasped Dahlia, "what news?"
Letty seemed to smile when asked and looked almost proud as the next words came from her mouth.
"I am due in six months." she chirped.
"My goodness!" the girl exclaimed, "Congratulations! Is it a boy or a girl?" The exhaustion from before seemed to fade at this wonderful news. Dahlia got the impression from Letty that she had been trying for a while though she wasn't sure where that came from.
"A boy."
As Coach Letty continued to chat about the child and when she was planning maternity leave, Dahlia made a quick realisation about the news.
If Mrs. Nere is pregnant, then that means she can't be the faceless!
Recalling back, Dahlia remembers that one of the signs that Alice mentioned about faceless is that they are unable to procreate. But Dahlia didn't hold her breath as she might be missing something.
I'll tell Tsumi and Lemon and see if I'm right in crossing Mrs. Nere off the list.
- - -
The lesson wrapped up with Suzuki and Letty giving their assessments and what they want everyone to improve on. Soon Dahlia was leaving the academy from the gate where she was walking before she heard the voice she was dreading the whole day.
"So~ what kind of flowers do you like? Roses, carnations?" Rolo said teasingly, his next word with a smirk, "Dahlias?"
The blond boy had strolled up behind her, hovering beside a couple inches too close. Dahlia was still very much annoyed over the whole bet and didn't want to have to deal with talking about it more especially when she was still feeling good from Letty's news. With the elegance of a swan, the girl closes her eyes, upturns her nose slightly and gives the boy a response.
"I apologise Mr. Debore, but while I will honour punishment, I will not be trying to enjoy it." her voice was cold and distant. Her disinterest worn on her sleeve.
Rolo had overtaken her, spun around and walked backwards with her, "Please, don't call me Mr. Debore, I don't want you to feel so stiff and official with me."
"I am sorry, but I will find that hard to do." her demeanor was still up as she tried to walk past him.
"Why's that?" asked Rolo, getting in her way.
"Because I don't court with fools."
"Court? Why milady," he replied, mimicking Dahlia's manner of speech, "I am no- agh!"
Rolo had fallen backwards, losing his footing on the steps going down the hill and stumbling down a few. Dahlia was about to ask if he was fine, but kept her composure and stepped past his fallen body as he tried to pull himself back up.
Dahlia reached the bottom of the climb to the academy and began walking home only for Rolo to catch up with a blink of an eye.
"Wait! I still, *huff* have more to say." he breathed.
Did that stumble take more out of him than it looked?
Dahlia kept walking. She knew if she even humoured him, he would take it as a sign she was interested, something she had seen many other girls at Pilin make the mistake of. Rolo still persisted though and began to plead some more for her to slow down.
"Here! *huff* how about another bet?" his voice edging on begging.
Dahlia turned and immediately spoke with a slight twinge of frustration. "And what exactly can be offered from you that I would need?"
"Well.. what would you want?" he asked, his lips curling slightly.
Dahlia stood for a moment and thought. Then she assured herself with what she wanted. "For you to do as I say as long as I am here in the academy."
"Sure! I can do that, I can be your knight, princess."
"And to never call me that again." she said immediately, the boy's lips shutting just as quick. "What would you receive in return?"
"Well.." Rolo walked around her as he spoke, "Seeing as how I have to do anything you say, how about you have to try your best to convince mom and dad to stay here in Polaris."
"No." said Dahlia and began to walk again.
"Oh don't tell me you don't already like it here? The sun, the smells…"
"It isn't that," she spoke, even though the constant heat isn't for her, "it is that I have to leave after the end of the Polaratus."
"Well I'm sure you can convince them to have you here in a dorm house. Tenha and Yume both live in one!" he reasoned.
"No. My plans have already been made."
Dahlia made distance as the boy kept shouting after her, "I'm sure I'll convince you somehow!"
- - -
Back at the house, Dahlia explained the day she had, bar the end with Rolo to avoid the taunts of Lemon. As the news of Letty's pregnancy was said, Tsumi and Lemon seemed happy about it.
"Great job Dahlia." said Tsumi, he and Dahlia in the kitchen whilst Lemon was in the living room lying on the sofa, the open floor plan not hindering their conversation.
"You mean I didn't miss something?" inquired Dahlia, slightly surprised with herself.
"No. If what you said is true, then Letty Nere can't be the faceless."
Dahlia followed up Tsumi's assertion with a question, "Why is it that the faceless can't procreate? If they can mimic a person to their 'genes' then surely it can create more of itself?"
"Not quite." says Tsumi, "According to Alice, when the brain waves are sent across the Plane of Dreams, the information doesn't send the information to replicate with it."
"Why is that? Wouldn't it want to spread?"
Lemon leaned back on a sofa and spoke as well, "Back when it was just me, Alice and Gregortz, it did. But Orange Earth soon learned to not make that mistake."
"A mistake?"
"Its broken off parts went rogue one time and started to fight back against the main hive, so from now on it seems to only send out guys who can't replicate so it doesn't have another rival like the Green Sky and Purple Sea." Lemon explained.
"I see. But surely just a pregnancy or something to the other can make it more convincing?" the girl suggested though she's not sure what for.
"That's the sacrifice it made for it, as well as regeneration." answered Tsumi.
"Regeneration?"
"Yeah. You know what cells are, right?" the man asked.
"Yes, I was informed of them by Ms. Rika, they power machines right?"
"Ah, no, not those ones, biological cells. Have they taught you biology in the academy yet?"
"Oh yes! I remember they mentioned something about them being the 'building blocks of life'?"
Tsumi leaned back on a counter and took a moment to think through what to say.
"Yes well, the Orange Earth cells, or OE to make it brief, are special. They have the ability of being able to mimic and change to match any cells desired by the OE at the time. When they split, they can be whatever they want which makes the OE very adaptable.
And it's because of that adaptability that makes even one of them hard to kill since they grow back so quickly and stronger than before, all of them, except the faceless. When the brain waves from the OE hits its target, it turns all of the current cells in the person's body into OE cells integrated into their body.
Essentially it transforms a person instantly into being made of normal cells, to OE cells. However…"
Dahlia interrupts, "Because the faceless can't reproduce, it means it can't grow more cells meaning.."
"It can't regenerate new ones. Now, we lose cells everyday just by naturally existing but the OE cells are more resilient so they don't lose them naturally but they can through force, such as…"
Tsumi waits for Dahlia to fill in his words and while she is stumped for a moment, she realises the faceless' weakness, "Through having children or getting hurt! Wait, then can't we just, um, hurt people to find out if they are a faceless?"
"Not quite," said Lemon. "Tried to in the past but they're sly little things. If you cut them with a knife, they will bleed and scab and do all of that but that's because the 'OE' cells can adapt to what is needed at the time, including wounds if needed."
Dahlia jumped in with another suggestion, "But wouldn't they eventually run out of blood to expel?"
"They can, but it would take a long time, they could turn their liver to blood, their bones to blood, anything to keep the illusion up. You also have to remember that most people would bleed out long before a faceless would." the woman pointed out.
"I see," said Dahlia, a bit glum. She had thought she might've had an idea but it seems to have fallen flat.
"Hey cheer up sweets, you're not the only one with leads at the moment." the woman smiled, Dahlia walking over to her at her sofa.
Tsumi had left the kitchen and gone upstairs, coming back a minute later with the laptop to see if the backdoor he made earlier in the day was ready to be exploited. Meanwhile Lemon closed her eyes and Dahlia could see the shifting of them under her eyelids.
"It seems that one of your classmates is doing something after dark." said Lemon
"Who?" Dahlia asked.
"That Panoi girl, she went somewhere on the tourism side of the island according to the weedling I set in front of your school." the woman said, eyes still shut.
Tsumi drank from a mug and asked Lemon a question, "How far did you follow her?"
"The tourism sector of the island. Couldn't keep up with the foot traffic." the woman complained.
"Why is it important that you know what Panoi is doing?" asked Dahlia.
"Her dad said that she comes late every night, wondering if she is doing what I think she's doing. Meanwhile I have some info on the parents of your classmates." she smirked, opening her eyes and took
Lemon held a piece of paper high up for Dahlia to grab as she didn't want to move from the sofa. Dahlia took it and began to read through it. It had the names of all of the parents of the class and whether they were currently on the island or not.
Firstly, much like Dahlia expected, Yume and Tenha's parents aren't on the island. The same is true for Rolo, Tansol and Burrus, which will make it hard if there has been a change in their behaviour. According to the letter though, all parents attend, either in person or over video, to a meeting every month for the parents of the Highlights.
Those whose parents are on the island include Zannos, Suto, Shinji and Panoi.
"I'm hoping to find out more in a meeting next week. Tsumi, you want to come?" shouted Lemon into the other room.
Tsumi had just entered the living room with the laptop and answered Lemon's shout. "Think it might be better if I use it to try and get into the school, take a look at this."
He sat down on the sofa, Lemon shifting from her comfortable position to let it happen. The two girls then crowded around the man to see what the laptop was showing. It showed a series of files and records about every student in the school as well as the security systems.
"Anything linked up that could tell us what's down there?" asked Lemon.
"No, but if there is, it's likely on a different network than the school's." Tsumi answered. "But there is something interesting here I notice."
"Oh? What do you see?" the woman quizzed, leaning further into the screen.
"Earlier today I overheard Professor Suzuki talking to Principal Daltis about rumours of ghosts in the faculty bathroom. I tried seeing if there were any recordings facing that bathroom but here is where things get strange." the man started.
"Let me guess.. Nothing there?" surmised Lemon.
"Not just there but all the way to the faculty elevator, the ground floor elevator and to a fire exit out of the way. Not just a blindspot here Lemon, but an entire blind path from the third floor bathroom to the ground floor fire exit where it seems no cameras can see them."
Tsumi made sure to go over the footage that he should be in, but wasn't thanks to Rika's Blindspot device. He made sure to edit the footage where he was opening doors. While he was invisible his actions weren't so he still needs to create some tiny 'glitches' in the recording.
"Then it seems that that is likely where you get beneath the academy," guessed Lemon.
"Yes. But I can't do it too soon. Still don't know what's down there. I have another investors meeting early next week so I can plant a bug in that bathroom to keep an ear out for anything suspicious then." he laid out, explaining his plans.
"What about medical records?" asks Lemon, "Anything we can use to help tell the faceless apart?"
Tsumi sighed before he opened up the page, "Unfortunately no, all of Dahlia's classmates are at peak health, not a thing wrong with them, though I did notice something else strange in the records."
"What?"
"Here. Most of the student records seem to have their genes recorded."
"Isn't that normal for this kind of school?" asked Dahlia.
"Maybe, but here's the thing.." Tsumi brings up Dahlia's medical record and the same is mentioned for her, including her own DNA genetic data marked down.
"I never gave them that." the girl gasped quietly.
"No we did not."