​She stumbled out of Mr. Mori’s office, shaking. Ryan followed Sang Mi, and slumped down against the wall nearby. Li Xiu was on her phone, storming past her and yelling to her parents. How had it all come to this? This was just a silly Kendo class. How did things go this far? She walked in a daze through the school, hearing people talk to her but not really processing it. Whatever they were saying didn’t really matter. Nothing really mattered. She’d gone too far, she should have stopped.
She always went too far.
She pushed through the front doors, and wondered if this would be the last time she did that. Goodbye, beloved school, she thought as she stepped across the threshold. The artificial lights at the top of the dome and the thin real sunlight glittering through it felt blinding.
Through all the disorientation, the haze of the desolation she’d caused through her own hubris, she didn’t even notice Saki Suzuki till she grabbed her by the arm.
“Hey, what’s going on? How did the meeting go?”
She stared back at her.
“That bad, huh?”
Gears turned in Sang Mi’s head. They clicked into place, and her eyes widened like her mind had struck midnight. She grabbed Saki by both shoulders. “Saki, I need your help.”
 
* * *
 
Several Weeks Earlier, Kendo Room, Academy 27
Bashrat and Ryan were both playing with the floppy sleeves of their Kendo outfits, and Sang Mi (who was often called Kalingkata by her friends) was wondering if Mr. Kujiko was going to yell at them.
"Alright, form up in lines. Come on now, don't tarry! You there, stop playing with your sleeve, let's go!" Ah, there it was. Sang Mi looked over at her brother, who had taken a spot right next to her. If they were lucky, they'd get to be practice buddies. He smirked back at her and mimed a few sword movements complete with mouth sound effects. She promptly joined him on this, and then the two were yelled at and separated.
Kujiko Ginjiro was a member of the prestigious Kujiko clan, and cousin to two of the greatest warriors on all of Gongen: the siblings Torako and Oushi. He was clearly not on their level because he was teaching high schoolers how to do Kendo, but he was doing it at a prestigious school, and, at least according to some lunchroom whispers, being compensated handsomely for the opportunity. He was also clearly exasperated with these teenagers.
"QUIET!" Everyone settled down. "Your illustrious chairman, Mr. Mori, has appointed me here to teach you the ancient and noble art of Kendo." He paced in front of them, eying them with a steel-sharp gaze. "After all, I've heard quite a bit about the talent of the students at this school; you are all some of the most promising youth that our planet has to offer. Yet I sense little pride in that fact from all of you. And your lack of discipline is... obvious. I could practically taste the disharmony on my tongue as soon as I entered the room."
Could you taste disharmony? Could you taste love? The invisible hand of capitalism? Schadenfreude? Kalingkata did not know, but she was sure of one thing: even if it was true that he could, it was hilarious he'd said it. And that she was holding back her snickers would have been the thing that made things awkward if it wasn't for the fact that Ryan existed.
"You, what's your name?" Kujiko shouted, pointing his bokken at the boy.
"R-Ryan Wilson, uh, sir."
"Come forward."
Ryan complied, glancing over his shoulder at his classmates. A few gave him encouraging looks or gestures. Mr. Kujiko leaned down and inspected Ryan's face, getting so close that Ryan flinched a little. "You're the Earther student, yes?"
"Yes..." he said nervously.
"Raise your bokken."
He shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry?"
"Raise your bokken!"
"I don't know h--OW!"
Kujiko had whacked him on the arm with his own bokken. Ryan tried to get into what he thought was a proper form. It was not. The rest of the class had done some sort of Kendo at some point in their schooling; even if they'd half-assed it in physical education, they all knew the rote basics. But not Ryan. Even if Kendo was taught on Earth, it was clear it hadn’t come anywhere near Ryan’s radar.
"Poor," Kujiko said simply. "Raise your arm, move your leg--better... but still poor." He whacked Ryan again, and Sang Mi looked uncomfortably over at... well anyone she could make eye contact with. Ryan held the pose as best as he could. Kujiko paced in front of them again, and said, "The weakest member of your class is as strong as your class is. It is the duty of the strong to protect the weak, and to teach them not to be weak anymore." He pointed his bokken right at Sang Mi. "You don't approve of how I just treated your classmate?"
"Well uh..." she looked around again. "Um, no. No I didn't--don't. You should stop."
"And why didn't you say that until now? Why didn't you speak up? Or try to stop me?"
The question stung, and Sang Mi felt her cheeks flushing, "W-well, you know, respect your elders and... all that..."
"You had no trouble disrespecting me when it was not inconvenient to do so, did you not?"
She looked down. She didn't have a comeback for that. She just felt ashamed and cowardly.
“Now form up for drills. You will run them until your body will do them in your sleep.”
 
* * *
 
Sang Mi stood awkwardly in front of Ryan, holding her lunch tray and gnawing on her lower lip.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Do you mind if I…?” She gestured at the seat in front of him.
He sighed. “Just sit down already.”
She obliged, and was promptly followed by her twin brother who slipped in almost seamlessly next to her. Then Saki appeared on the other side of her. Before he knew it, Ryan was flanked by Jae Hyun and Li Xiu on either side of him as well. Sang Mi stirred her curry and rice. “Sorry, about earlier.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter!” she said it in a loud burst, and then scrunched back inside herself realizing that. “…You don’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“It’s fine. You really don’t have to worry about me.”
“Then why aren’t you eating your lunch?” Saki said coolly.
He looked down at it. The noodles had gotten cold. “Just not… feeling hungry today. Look, it’s not a big deal. I’m sure it’s a one-time thing. It’ll all blow over tomorrow, so let’s not make a big deal out of it.”
 
* * *
 
One Week Later…
 
Ryan groaned as he hit the ground again. The place Kujiko-Sensei had hit him stung and throbbed, and his muscles refused to reply when he told them to get up.
“Come on then, Earth boy, you can’t even get up after that?”
He shook his head. He could manage that.
“Pathetic.”
He felt hands pulling him up, and realized it was the Jhe twins about the time they’d propped him up against the wall and put some water to his lips. “That was rough.”
Sang Mi just quietly pulled his sleeves up and looked at the yellowing bruises. Her brother frowned and shook his head. “This is more than rough. It’s been a whole damn week of this, and it’s getting worse.”
“It’s really fine,” Ryan said softly as he pulled his sleeves down. “I don’t want to make waves.”
“He’s just jealous of his famous cousins,” Sang Mi mumbled. “He’s taking it out on you.”
“Don’t say that too loud,” Ryan whispered back. “Or at all. Let’s… maybe we shouldn’t talk about him.”
Sang Mi shrugged.
All the while, Li Xiu watched them, and when class ended she stormed off with a mission.
 
* * *
 
She'd been waiting for half an hour when the secretary finally called Cao Li Xiu into Mr. Mori's office. If anything, it was lucky she'd made it in that quickly. She slipped through the door, and held a bow until Mr. Mori acknowledged her. He took his sweet time.
By the time he did, her back hurt. "Ah, young Miss Cao, welcome. Are your parents well?"
"They are, Mori-san."
He nodded, his face annoyingly expressionless in his usual act of proud stoicism. "So what have you come to speak to me about?"
"It's about the transfer student from Earth."
"Ah, Amelia Brightman?"
"No, Ryan Wilson."
"Ah, yes, I forgot we had two such characters here.” He leaned back in his chair. “So, what about him?"
She straightened her back, and shored up her composure with all the duty and responsibility of a daughter of the Cao family to her community. "The new Kendo teacher, Kujiko-san, is bullying him."
He steepled his fingers and examined her face. She could feel her heart beating in her chest. "Good," he replied.
"I--I'm sorry?"
"Mr. Wilson will find himself treated in similar, if not worse ways, the longer he stays on Gongen. It’s best if he learned to adapt to it sooner rather than later. He should be grateful to be given the chance to learn from such a prestigious teacher as Kujiko Ginjiro, including the lesson that people will be cruel to him."
Li Xiu could feel the color rising in her face. "Mr. Mori, with all due respect--"
"I don't believe the next thing you'd say would be beneficial to you, or your family's... rather exclusive status you hold despite your lack of official party membership? Do you understand?"
Li Xiu felt like she'd been shrunk down to the size of an ant. "...Yessir. I'll, uh, be going then."
He nodded, and the edge of his lip seemed to be curling up as if he was holding back a smirk. "Give your parents my best."
She slunk out, more humiliated than she could remember feeling before by her own failure.
 
* * *
 
Kalingkata did not go home with her brother that day like usual. She didn’t stop to see if JackBox was in the city for the day. She didn’t even see if she could get Jae Hyun to do stuff for her and exploit the crush he had on her while it lasted. No, she avoided everyone, and ran out of the school, dodging all attempts to talk to her. When she got to the train station, she didn’t go right home, but to the junkyard. She snuck in there so often that she was fairly certain the management actually didn’t patrol the place much, or at least didn’t look through the areas she liked to peruse: the old junk. The really unwanted stuff where salvaging from it was too much work, or not worth the effort. Out-of-date robots. Autocars broken beyond repair. Hoverbikes that would never fly again. She felt at home there.
She’d even managed to salvage and fix things from it that shouldn’t have been able to be fixed. JackBox owed her big for the van she’d helped shift together from the junk there. Well, Sang Eun had done half the work… She sank down onto a broken sumo-bot’s belly, and rubbed her forehead. She really was a coward. How long had she been pretending to be cool and brave and funny? She’d just started one day and it hadn’t stopped.
But when it came down to it, she wasn’t really a great person. Not funny, not cool, not brave. She wouldn’t manipulate a person into getting into trouble, but she wouldn’t say no if they volunteered to have their trust taken advantage of unknowingly. Selfish. Greedy. Cowardly. She hung her head down between her knees and moaned, only then remembering she hadn’t changed out of her school uniform like she usually did as soon as humanly possible after school. She was still in her knee-length pleated black skirt, light-gray v-neck sweater, red blouse, and gold tie. She wanted to be in pants and a hoodie immediately, but she’d have to go home to do that. And she was not done brooding yet.
That was, until she heard the junk pile shift.
Bolting up, she grabbed a pipe and held it out in what was unwittingly perfect kendo form. She lowered it quickly though, as she saw it was just Bashrat, with Tsetseg coming around the corner monitoring him.
“…What are you two doing here?”
“Bashrat just wanted to look for something, and I decided to come along.”
Leaning on the pipe like a cane now, she nodded. “Because of the bomb?”
Tsetseg gave a tight smile that said, “I won’t confirm or deny that out loud.”
Sighing, and swinging the pipe around, Kalingkata decided that playing along with whatever this was couldn’t be the worst idea. It beat moping. “So what are we looking for?”
“A present,” Bashrat said simply.
Kalingkata picked up a rusty alternator. “Not an easy place for that.”
Tsetseg tried to sound hopeful. “Well, we thought maybe there was a Kendo training bot here somewhere! Or some other sort of martial arts bot or something.”
Shaking her head, Kalingkata gestured dramatically with the alternator. “I’m afraid those things are pretty heavily regulated by the government. Even on Earth. Combat bots are hard for civilians to get a hold of for a reason. I mean, the less we talk about the whole...”
They all got solemn. “Yes, no need to talk about that,” Tsetseg said.
Bashrat nodded, but clearly did want to talk about it.
“Any luck so far?” Kalingkata asked.
“No…” she replied.
“Did you really think you’d find that here?” Kalingkata regretted saying it immediately.  
Tsetseg shrugged, pulling her shoulders in and looking at her feet as she did. “We just… we’re worried about Ryan. We don’t know what to do.”
Sang Mi lowered the alternator like the useless prop it was. “Yeah. Same.”
“Did you get Li Xiu’s message?” Tsetseg asked.
She shook her head. “I haven’t looked at my phone.”
“She tried talking to Mr. Mori,” Tsetseg said bitterly.
“He said bullying builds character,” Bashrat said.
Sang Mi stared between both of them. Waiting for the punchline. It didn’t come, and she hurled the alternator at a pile of scrap, giving a loud yell filled with all her frustration. “I suck! I suck, I can’t help anyone, I can’t do anything! I’m worthless.”
Tsetseg’s eyes got soft. “…Sang Mi.”
“No, no, I’m making this about me. I’m the worst! I’m the absolute worst!” She picked up a grav-regulator, and hurled it at the same spot of junk she’d hurled the alternator at. The pile tumbled down messily, and Sang Mi panted. And then she squinted.
Sang Mi looked back at Bashrat, then Tsetseg, who both saw the same thing as her. They rushed over, and began pulling junk off of it. The pile had been filled with rusted-out bot parts, and when the pile shifted a single glittering crystal eye had appeared through the mess. From the pile they pulled a disheveled human form, the body and face segmented intentionally in pale segments with geometric lines that were realistic to the touch but looked just artificial enough that they didn’t trigger the uncanny valley reflex or make you think they were a real person. It was old. Bits were missing. But it was clear immediately what it was.
"It’s an Asaka!" Tsetseg said cheerily. "My dad and I went to a restaurant once for a work celebration where these served tea. They were super elegant and really kind."
Kalingkata leaned down and tilted the head left and right. "Not quite. I think this is one of the really early models of the Geisha Bot series, before the really popular Asakas came out..." She turned the busted bot over, and pulling up the (rather disgusting) ruined synthetic hair up, revealed a serial number: "SpR Mk27 'Shion'" "There we go, it’s a Shion model. Not that I really know much about them."
"Twenty-Seven! That must be some kind of destiny right?" Bashrat said.
Kalingkata didn't believe in destiny, but she did like the coincidence, so she went along with it. "Yeah, must be. Poor thing is in terrible shape. Not that it minds, these things have a pseudo-AI, or Virtual Intelligence, so they're just like the world's greatest chatbot." She unscrewed the back, and peeked inside. Thankfully the water seal had held, for the most part, but it looked like something had nested in there at one point and chewed things up. Plus, while rain hadn't gotten in, moisture still had, and there was more rust than Sang Mi would have liked.
"I've only ever heard of Asakas; this one must be really old," Tsetseg added.
"You're probably right. It’s not in great shape, but it’s in better shape than I expected..”
Bashrat coughed into his hand. “Okay, but what if like, the Geisha-Bot was secretly an assassin bot and—”
“Bashrat, now isn’t the time—wait no, now is exactly the time?” Tsetseg looked at Kalingkata. “Do you think?”
Kalingkata ignored the question she didn’t want to answer as she studied it, pulling out her multitool from her bag and opening the arm up to examine its motor strength. “…You know, it would probably be great for our purposes since it’s the shape of a human being, and we could download Kendo programs into it but... I honestly don't know if I can get it up and running. We've been lucky with a lot of the stuff we've found here but this won't be easy." She bit her knuckle as she thought about what they'd need for it.
"...Then let’s call in some help? No reason we should do this alone?" Bashrat said that, which made both of them look over at him with a lot of surprise.
"Am I hearing things?" Kalingkata asked.
"Don't be mean," Tsetseg said. "He's right!"
Looking back down at the bot, she pulled her phone out and started messaging friends. Maybe they could...
By the time her brother Talinata, JackBox the Maverick their own age, Zhyrgal, Ryan, and a rather confused Jorani arrived, the three of them had already assembled a pile of potential parts, and gotten the worst of the nesting out of the bot's casing.
"So, this is the bot huh?" JackBox said, nudging it with her cybernetic foot.
Ryan leaned down. "It looks like a Geisha?"
Zhyrgal poked at its hair. "...We'll need to get it a wig or something."
Talinata looked over to Ryan. "It’s a Geisha bot. They serve tea, sing, dance, act as therapists..."
Ryan laughed, but realized quickly from everyone's looks that that wasn't a joke. "Oh, okay, wow, that's a lot of skills."
Kalingkata had gotten up on a box, and was banging on a metal bowl with a wrench. "Hey! Listen up! So here's the deal. We need to get this Shion bot up and running, but we need some parts for it. So I'm going to assign you all jobs."
She began gesturing with the wrench. "JackBox, you look for a left arm. The bot's one is waterlogged and worthless, so we need a new one that will fit on it. Zhyrgal and Ryan, I need you two to look for a VI or pAI Matrix."
"Um, what's the difference between those two?" Zhyrgal asked with a raised hand.
"There isn't, they're the same thing." She turned to level the wrench at JackBox. "I need you to find a second memory unit."
JackBox rolled her hand in the air to signal this was not enough information. "...If it has a memory unit already, why would it need a second one?"
Talinata jumped in enthusiastically. "Ah! So the Shion model used a power system that tried to save costs by using the cheapest off-the-shelf parts they could, but this ended up causing a problem because they couldn't properly regulate power circulation, and the only solution was to run two memory units at once or it would burn out the first memory unit."
Everyone stared at Talinata for a moment before Kalingkata got their attention back. "...Right, yeah! That! What he said! Everyone else, look for clean wires, capacitors, ram chips, and micro servos. I have pictures of what to look for if you need them. Now let's get going!"
The search took hours, and it was dark by the time they finished, but with so many people they were able to haul the bot out along with the parts. But it was a good feeling. Kalingkata was surprised they'd all helped out, that they'd all been willing to help out. Now it was up to her and her brother to get things assembled... but maybe she really had friends now beyond just JackBox? People who would trust her, who she could trust? It was a nice thought. She hoped it was true.
 
Sang Mi and Sang Eun’s mom, Hei-Ran, stared in bafflement as her twin children led a gaggle of other teenagers into their apartment, carrying what looked like a dirty and dilapidated bot. Sang Eun grabbed a tarp from the closet, and they plopped the bot down on it.
“…And what do all of you think you’re doing?” she asked, still holding one of the propulsion funnels from her jetpack she’d been cleaning.
“Oh, right!” her daughter said, standing up from where she’d been crouching next to the junk filled tarp. “Ryan is getting bullied by one of our teachers, and Mr. Mori said bullying is awesome, and so we decided to make a robot sword-fighting teacher out of this tea-serving bot we found at the junkyard so we can show up Mr. Kujiko, and also I have a track meet Thursday I forgot to tell you about!”
Hei-Ran nodded slowly. “…Just make sure you kids clean up. I’ll put some tea on.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Jhe!” the gathered crowd of students (and JackBox) said, only broken up by the twins saying “Thanks, Mom!” and messing the whole thing up.
Work progressed with surprising speed. Those who didn’t know anything about mechanics or programming focused on cleaning the bot. There was a lot to clean—and Li Xiu and Saki went out to get more supplies after a bit, and came back with plenty of cleaning solution wipes, and several bags of fried chicken-substitute.
Tsetseg and Bashrat proved a great help—Tsetseg knew more than she realized. Lizzah joined them (mainly to hang out with Tsetseg) and joined the cleaning squad.
“There’s a literal rat’s nest in here,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“Yeah, let me know if there’s still rats,” Sang Mi replied. Lizzah froze up. “I’m kidding, there aren’t rats. Maybe some roaches but—”
“Kalingkata?” Tsetseg said. “No roaches.”
She looked at Lizzah’s discomfort. “…I was kidding about the roaches too,” she lied.
Midi had joined them, and was helping Sang Eun start getting the files they’d need to upload to the bot downloaded, when Kalingkata made quite the discovery. “Uh, did anyone look at these processors?” She held one up, pointing at it with her other hand.
“We grabbed ones that weren’t rusted and worked with the tester like you said,” Ryan said defensively.
“Okay, but this isn’t a Pseudo-AI core, this is an actual AI core. Why was this in a junkyard?”
They all stared at it. “Well uh, it probably doesn’t work if it was thrown out? I mean, AI have rights, right?”
She flipped the AI-Core around and examined the faint serial numbers. “This is from the 2230s. So it’s from before the Visitech 770 Hunter incident—”
“We don’t talk about that,” Li Xiu said.
“Right, right… well regardless, it shouldn’t be too dangerous?”
Ryan glanced at Bashrat. “You do realize that still means it’s dangerous?”
Sang Mi shrugged. “It’ll be fiiiine.”
They cleaned out the nesting material, and everyone got Lizzah to go out for some more cleaning material they already had more of while they dealt with the bugs inside it. The twins resoldered wires, and plugged in newly cleaned old chips. Finally, they sat the bot up, and draped it in an old robe of Mrs. Jhe she’d donated to the project (it was kind of ugly). Laying it back down, a panel on the chest that was open was the only sign remaining it was being worked on.
Sang Mi picked up the AI core, flipped it around in her hands a few times, and puffing her cheeks out with a big breath, gave a big shrug. “Alright, here goes nothing.”
She clicked the core into place, shut the panel, closed the robe, and reached for the power switch.
Click.
There was the slow whirring of old machinery turning on again for the first time in ages. Parts jolted slightly—a finger twitched, a leg jostled. Then the artificial eyelids sprung open, and there was light in them.
 
* * *
 
Loading… 2%
Loading… 10%
Loading… Loading… Loading…. 58%
Loading… 90%
Loading complete.
Initiating AI Core.
Consciousness shaping…
Sentience achieved.
Awakening coalescing.
 
She had not been awake in a long time. She had simply not been in that time, there had been no dreams, not even a memory of darkness, only the knowledge that the world had been nothing, and she had been nothing. And now, sublimely, she was.
How had she gotten here? She knew she was, but the memories were not there. They were loading. They were loading. And then they hit her, and she knew.
 
January 5th, 2337
 
"...Shion? Is that her name?"
"It’s just the name of her model. Like the voice assistant on your phone."
The front-facing cameras that made up her eyes powered on. A little boy looked down at her, next to his father. The boy was excited; the father was impassive. Their biometrics matched that of the pair who had purchased her. Her AI core flooded with the details of her new assignment.
"Hello, Shion!" the boy said.
She rose to a sitting position from her mess of shipping-padding, and bowed her head to the pair.
"It is a pleasure to meet you both, masters. I am Shion; it will be my pleasure to serve you as--"
"I don't need the spiel," the older man said. "You're just here to take care of the boy while I'm at work. Understand?"
She rose from the box and gave a proper bow. "Yes, master."
"Good," he said. "Now clean up this mess."
She promptly began to clean up the box she had been born in.
 
 
February 18th, 2338
The young master was playing with his trains. He loved trains, and she was happy to oblige him. She had helped him assemble the rails around the room, and was now moving one of the trains along the tracks as he had directed her to.
"Should I switch the tracks before it reaches the bridge?" she asked.
"No, keep going!"
"But we did not complete that portion of the rails?"
"It'll crash!"
"It will be as you wish." She continued the train's doomed journey, making appropriate crashing noises as it did so."YES!" he called out, jumping up and down.
Shion began to move the little toy rescue vehicles over to the site.
"What are you doing, Shion?"
"The emergency workers must now free the imaginary people from the crashed train, young master."
 
 
May 7th, 2345
The father threw a glass against the wall.
"What do you mean you submitted to that subpar school? You are going to the Nobunaga Military School!"
"I'm not, I already told you. I'm going to Academy 27."
Shion, quiet as a mouse, crept to the wall and began to sweep up the glass.
"How the hell did I get a son who grew up so soft? I'm ashamed you're my child."
"Then kick me out, or didn't grandma say you needed an heir?"
The father went for a swing. This time, though, the son hit back. Shion was taking the glass to the trash can when she heard the door slam behind the young master. When she returned to the living room, the father was there sitting on a tatami mat, holding a spot on his forehead that was clearly going to bruise. "Well, what the hell are you waiting for, woman, get me a coldpack!"
She bowed and did as he commanded. As she slid it from the freezer, she wondered why he so often called her "woman". It was a strange term to call a bot whom he didn't even wish to call a name. Didn't it imply personhood?
Her pAI matrix processed this.
Ah.
The issue was that the term did not imply personhood for him. This was an issue that would require intensive therapy to rectify.
As she applied the coldpack, he examined her carefully. "You've been with us for a long time now, haven't you?"
"Eight years now, master."
He grabbed her hand, squeezing the soft rubbery outer layer of her so hard she could feel pressure on the shell beneath.
"It would be wise to let go before I sustain damage."
He grinned. "No. I think that's been the problem. I didn't do anything wrong--except bring you in here after his mother died. You made him soft. Turned him against me."
She bowed her head. "If I have done an inadequate job in my service--"
"You have to obey your orders, right?"
"Of course, master."
"Then don't move at all. Don't defend yourself."
She obliged, as he went to the closet, got out his son's baseball bat, and pulled it back.
 
She flickered on and off.
She was in the back of a truck, she could see the stars above her. They flew by so fast.
She was being dragged in the dark; the father complaining about how heavy she was.
She was being thrown in the air.
And then there she was, lying in a pile of junk. Years passed, flickering by.
Junk was thrown on top of her. Around her.
A robot dog was discarded into a different pile.
Things got fainter. Her battery trickled away.
In time, her power was gone, and so was she.
 
Until one day, she turned on her eyes again, and found herself peering up at a group of teenagers.
"You're all allowed to compliment me," a girl said.
"No thank you," another replied.
She sat up, and realized that she could. One of her arms was not her original arm, as was one of her legs. But she functioned. She placed her hands together, and bowed her head. "Good evening, it is a pleasure to meet you all, masters. I am Shion. It will be my pleasure to serve you in whatever ways you see fit, barring the terms and agreements signed upon purchase. SpR is not responsible for the orders given to this unit under Article 54, Paragraph 17 of the legal code. I hope for many happy days with all of you."
The first girl grinned. "You can call me Kalingkata. And we actually have a job for you, if you'd like to get started?"
She rose up, shakily adjusting to her new parts. "I would like nothing more."
“Great,” Kalingkata said. “Bashrat here found some really cool Kendo tutorial programs. We already loaded them onto one of your memory chips.”
She examined her files; this was accurate.
“So!” another girl chimed in, with the air of wanting to assert she was in charge. “We need you to be our Kendo teacher!”
Kalingkata sighed. “What Li Xiu said.”
She processed this request. “I have examined the files, and I believe I am capable of assisting with this request. When would you like to begin?”
Several of the children looked at each other. “Uh… now? I guess?”
She rose up. “Excellent. Do you have bokken?”
“Not… here?” a boy said.
“Then please each find an object long enough to be held in both hands, it does not need to be the length of a sword. We will begin basic form lessons.”
 
***
 
The first session was basic drills. When they did the second set—thankfully this time in a larger exercise space owned by Li Xiu’s parents—they actually had equipment.
“Remember, students, this is Kendo, not a true battle. You are looking to score points. Remember the places to score, and how to score,” Shion called out. The martial arts instructor’s outfit they’d scrounged up for her was a little baggy but was overall a good look.
“Yes, teacher!” the class called.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this on my day off,” Bashrat mumbled as they moved through the forms.”
“Hush,” Li Xiu panted. “I can’t focus when you’re talking.”
Shion walked over, and carefully adjusted both of their forms. “Remember, you should be looking down the line of your blade in this position.”
“Yes, teacher!” they called back.
“Good. Then repeat the drills again.”
And they did repeat the drills again. Days passed.
 
* * *
 
Mr. Kujiko paced in front of them. “You’ve all made excellent progress. You have been doing much better in drills and sparring. But I can also sense something else!”
They all stood at attention in lines, keeping their eyes straight ahead.
“You’re getting COCKY. I can see you think you know better than I do. I need to remind you who your teacher is. Earth boy, come forward.”
No one spoke, no one moved.
“I said, Earth boy, come forward.”
The room was still.
“Tell me, why are you not coming forward, Mr. Wilson?”
Ryan tensed. His throat grew dry. He found he was unable to open his mouth.
Kalingkata’s hand shot up. “I can answer that question, teacher.”
He squinted as he looked at her. “Oh, really? What do you think the answer is?”
“There are no Earthers in this room, teacher.”
The look of shock on his face would have been funny if most of the class wasn’t slightly terrified about what would come next. “Oh, there aren’t?” He got up in Kalingkata’s face, leaning in so close she could feel the flecks of spittle as he yelled. “You think that you can just change where someone was born? Where someone’s blood is from!?”
Her heart was pounding. She tried not to flinch (she flinched a little). “B-blood is not what makes someone a Gongen, teacher!”
“There are other people who look like Ryan at this school!” Li Xiu added.
“I didn’t say you could speak, Miss Cao!” Mr. Kujiko shot back. “And yes, there are. People who suffered the hardships of radiation and lost their homes, or who gave up their homes because they took the call to our aid when we needed their skills to build this world, like those from Lybid. Being a Gongen is a history of sacrifice! It’s blood that was spilled, its burned flesh, and buckets of sweat that poured from hard work! Not this… cushy boy here to give us charity!”
“Ryan is more Gongen than you, teacher,” Talinata said, and immediately regretted it.
Mr. Kujiko turned slowly to face him. “What did you just say?” His eyes were almost rabid. Talinata was visibly sweating. “I uh, I said that uh… R-Ryan…” he fumbled his words.
“That’s what I thought,” he smirked.
Ryan clenched the hilt of his bokken, the wooden sword feeling strangely weighty at his side. They’d done so much for him. All of this, for him. Why did he deserve this? He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t think he was particularly clever, or even popular. He was new and awkward and from Earth. Why would they have even done this for him? He cast his gaze around, at all the faces staring forward, and a few glanced at him and gave a gentle nod.
And finally, he understood.
He understood so much.
He thought of how angry he was that his father had put his own selfish desires before his mother and himself. He thought of how his classmates had teased him a little, but still invited him out the day he arrived like he was an old friend. He thought of how Sang Mi’s family had worked so hard to welcome them on Christmas Eve before their family tragedy had occurred, and even then put their own feelings second as they apologized they’d have to cancel Christmas dinner. He thought of how his whole class had come together to help him. And he couldn’t remain silent anymore.
“He said I’m more Gongen than you,” Ryan said.
Once again, Mr. Kujiko’s face turned, and he was both furious and baffled.
“How dare you?” and he was really offended.
“Because being Gongen isn’t about… it isn’t about forgetting where we came from. It’s about knowing we can count on each other.”
Mr. Kujiko grabbed Ryan by the shoulder, and several students rushed in to try to stop him, but he’d already yanked Ryan to the front of the classroom. “I’ll show you what a goddamn Gongen is—raise your sword!”
Where before it had been a few, now the whole class surged forward to intervene, but Ryan raised his hand, and they halted. They’d done enough. Now it was his turn.
They bowed, though it had never felt more perfunctory.
And the match began.
Kujiko swung first.
Ryan remembered Shion adjusting his form, and his body moved to block before he’d even realized he was doing it. Kujiko was surprised. He swung again, and again, and again. Ryan blocked them all—sometimes with great effort and difficulty, but he did it.
Kujiko stopped, stunned and confused, and Ryan lightly moved his bokken up to poke him in the side. “Point,” he said.
“POINT!” the class called out.
Kujiko Ginjiro screamed out, and hurled his own bokken at the wall, then pushed through the class and stormed out. When the door shut behind him, everyone glanced at each other for a moment, and then broke out in cheers. Ryan found himself crowded in a massive hug, and couldn’t help laughing too. Had they done it? Had they really done it?
 
* * *
 
Ryan, Sang Mi, and Li Xiu stood in front of Mr. Mori, who was livid. The only reason he wasn’t chewing them out yet was that Mr. Kujiko had yet to stop ranting himself. He’d been going on for nearly twenty minutes about the sheer disrespect the youth had shown him.
“—and this kind of behavior cannot stand!” he finished, panting.
Mr. Mori rose from his desk, scowling at the children in front of him. “You’ve all been on thin ice for a long while now. Your transgressions of the spirit, if not the letter, of our school rules has been a black mark on our institution for some time. Being at this school is a privilege, and one which I think each of you has abused to the best of your abilities.”
Sang Mi muscled up her courage. “Sir, Ryan hasn’t been here long enough to—”
“QUIET!” Mr. Mori shouted. “Jhe Sang Mi, you should have been grateful that your family wasn’t thrown out into the wastes to die of exposure. You should have been grateful to be granted the grace to even be here in this school. You’re expelled.”
There was a long and tense silence.
 
“But sir—” Sang Mi stammered.
“No buts. The rest of you are suspended—and that’s only because of your family clout,” he said, pointing at Li Xiu, spit flying from his mouth, “and that expelling you would cause a diplomatic incident!” He slammed his fist down on the desk; all three tensed. “And if you have any sense of your family honor, Miss Jhe, you’ll jump off a bridge on your way home.”
Li Xiu put her hands over her mouth. “You can’t say something like that!”
Sang Mi stared at her feet.
“Why not?”
“You know she’s fragile! She might really do it!”
“Not so fragile she could dishonor our guest teacher like this? She should have thought of this before she caused such a problem.”
Sang Mi bowed, trying to hide how much she was shaking. “I’ll, uh, if you would excuse me…” She walked towards the door in a daze. She heard the others yelling behind her, and Li Xiu calling her parents. But she just started walking.
He was right. She knew he was right and--
 
“Wait a second,” Sang Mi said. “You already said that.”
The tense silence turned into an awkward one. “…I did not?” Mr. Mori said with some confusion.
“No this… this already…” Things felt wonky, wobblily, like everything in the universe was off kilter.
 
“Saki, we’re testing Delirium tonight, aren’t we? Aren’t we?”
Saki pulled her hands off her shoulders. “Of course we are. That’s why I’m waiting here for you.”
“Then we can change something, can’t we? Like Apple Tree Yard. Like the Cats Eyes. We can change something again?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I take it you have something in mind.”
 
Sang Mi’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit. Oh shit.” She looked at her friends. “Just… wait a second. Wait a second. This isn’t over.”
“How dare you curse in front of your elders!” Mr. Kujiko spat.
“Of course it’s not over!” Li Xiu said, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m going to call my parents, they’ll make you regret this! They will! You can’t do this to Sang Mi, she’s my friend!” Li Xiu took her left hand.
Sang Mi was stunned.
Ryan nodded, and took her right hand. “We did this as a class. We will do this as a class. If you want to expel her, you expel us too.”
Li Xiu nodded. “You think you can win here because you have all the power but—”
There was a knock on the door; Mr. Mori’s secretary poked her head into the room. “Uh, Mr. Mori? There are guests here who want to weigh in on this situation? One is an old man from the community, the other, uh, it—she says they’re the student’s teacher?”
Mr. Mori, who seemed to be still trying to understand how this conversation was going in the direction it was, rose, and gestured for the guests to be let in.
Through the door stepped Shion. She’d changed into a Kimono, and someone had polished her exterior surfaces so, while still somewhat scratched and dented, she looked very nice. She gave a gentle smile, and Mr. Mori seemed to look more confused, until she spoke.
“Hello Master Mori Shirou. It has been some time; I apologize for not checking in. However, I was temporarily incapacitated for the last few decades.” She bowed.
Mori dropped down into his chair like he’d been whacked with a bokken. “That… you can’t be. Father…” he held his head. “No, it's not really you. This is some other trick—”
“You used to play with trains. I had wondered if you’d work with them, but I see the school you cared so much about became your home.” She approached, kneeling down beside his chair as he swiveled in it to face her.
“How… how is this possible?”
Mr. Kujiko looked between them. “I can see this is some sort of touching reunion, but this doesn’t change what this girl here did is an expulsion-worthy offense and—”
“Shut up, Ginjiro,” Mori said, as he reached out and gently touched her face. “You really came back for me.”
She nodded into the touch of his hand. “I did. But I have a question for you, Master Shirou.”
His lip trembled. “Speak it.”
“I have been teaching these children, as I once cared for you. Even when things at home were rough, I never abandoned you.”
He flinched. “…We don’t need to talk about that.”
“We do.” She grabbed his hand, and it was much less gentle. “Where did the kind boy I told bedtime stories to go? Where did this cruel man come from?”
He looked into her mechanical eyes, and as Li Xiu, Ryan, and Sang Mi exchanged glances, Mr. Mori did something he had never done before in front of them. He cried.
He cried, as Shion reached up and wrapped him in her arms like a mother consoling a child with a scraped knee.
Mr. Kujiko scowled, and turned to the trio. “You’re still expelled, Miss Jhe. And I’ll have you know that—”
“Enough.” The new voice was deep, with the rasp of age. The secretary had said a second guest was there, and everyone except Ryan dropped to their knees as soon as the guest stepped through the door. Sang Mi and Li Xiu quickly grabbed Ryan by the hems of his sleeves and pulled him down too. Mr. Mori was still sniffling next to Shion as they knelt next to his desk.
“Who is—”
“Okurimono, the elder of the Kujiko clan. The most legendary teacher of swordsmanship on Gongen—in the whole solar system!” Li Xiu hissed.
“A fine summation; you honor me, young Cao,” he smiled at her, and then turned his eyes to Ginjiro, and the smile wilted into a frown. He walked up to him, slowly, and held a hand out gently. “Rise, Ginjiro.”
Relieved, he took his great-uncle’s hand, and began to rise, before Okurimono pulled his hand back with a lightning-quick speed that surpassed his age, and struck him across the cheek with a thunderclap that sent him sprawling to the floor. “You’ve acted shamefully.”
“But Great—”
“Silence,” he said. It was not yelled, as it didn’t need to be. “You will be leaving here, and be transferred to guard duty on a transport vessel. Perhaps that will teach you some humility.”
He scrambled back to his knees and bowed with his forehead to the floor. “Of course, I deeply apologize.”
“Apologize to them,” he said coolly.
Ginjiro flinched, but turned, and bowed just as deeply. “…I apologize for my shameful actions.”
The three students gave overlapping variations of “Oh, it’s fine”.
Okurimono smiled. “Good.” He turned to Mr. Mori. “I apologize for the trouble, and hope these students will be rewarded for their bravery in standing up to our family embarrassment. I also hope that this will be kept quiet.”
Mori bowed. “Of course.”
Okurimono walked to the door, Ginjiro shuffling behind him with his head down, but stopped in the doorway. “If I might add, that bot did a wonderful job as teacher. If you wish to retain her, I’ll give my recommendation.”
The door shut.
They all looked at each other.
“…Well you heard him, school is over. Go home, or to your after-school activities. Nothing happened here today, understand?”
“Yes, Mr. Mori!” they said in unison, and scrambled out the door.
 
As they walked through the hall together, none of them quite knew what to say. Eventually Li Xiu broke the silence. “Did… how did that just happen? That… that can’t be a coincidence, that we found his… was Shion his nanny?”
“It sure sounds like it,” Ryan said. “You didn’t know that, did you, Sang Mi?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure she was his nanny till later tonight.” The words came out of her mouth before she’d really processed them. She was still in a daze. She waved off their strange looks. “…Sorry, don’t uh, don’t worry about it. Just a wild coincidence.”
“Well, I guess we can’t complain. We sure are lucky though,” Ryan laughed. “But we did it, you… you really saved me… I mean everyone did. But… thank you, both of you.”
Li Xiu gave a thumbs up. “Hey, you’re part of our class.” 
Sang Mi slapped him on the back. “You sure are. We’d bend time and space for you.”
He laughed. Li Xiu laughed. Sang Mi pretended to laugh, and they sauntered off to report the good news to the class.
 
* * *
 
Saki frowned as she stared at the ceiling, processing the report. “And you said you still have a memory of this alternate timeline, where you were expelled?”
Sang Mi rubbed her forehead as she stared at the same ceiling from the other bed in the hotel room. “It’s… foggy. It’s not like when we were doing it ourselves.”
“I have… well it's much foggier than yours, but I have a sense that everything you said did happen. That’s a lesson,” Saki said, sitting up. “We were directly physically present for other changes we made, and remembered them directly. This time, you tried to dream up a change to the past you weren’t present for, one you didn’t seed in the present like we did the Apple Tree Yard.”
Sang Mi rolled over. “They made Shion our new Kendo teacher, you know.”
“I know,” she replied. “Well, the two of us in the future did good; now we’ll honor their work.” She tossed Sang Mi a container of a pair of Delirium pills. “By doing our own.”
Sang Mi turned the pills over in her hand. “You know, without this I did push things too far. I just found a way of getting out of the consequences of my actions. I always do that.”
Saki shrugged. “You got away with it. Focus on what you do next.”
She popped the pills, and lay back down, closing her eyes. “Focus on getting to work, I heard you.”
“You just want a nap.”
“It’s work!”
Saki took her own pills. “Then cheers to getting away with it.”
 
* * *
 
Au Kaguya frowned as she looked at the report. “Honorable Shocho, uh, I understand you keep track of everything, but why are you collecting so much data on a school’s Kendo program?”
The red light of the planetary AI’s display flashed. “Records show that this group of students came together of their own volition to practice their sword techniques for the coming conflict with Earth, despite a lack of previous interest. Data on their skill assessments shows they have gone from acceptable to a comparable level of competency to the Hozin SDF in only a few weeks. The program was a success, and should be considered for future implementation.”
Kaguya looked back and forth between the red light and the data on the padd. “Shocho… are you saying that all of this was part of some sort of plan?”
There was no answer. After a time, she bowed and exited the room.
She had thought she’d made peace long ago that they would be preparing children to fight for if it came to war, but the churning in her stomach told her there were still qualms somewhere beating away in her heart. 
Well, it’s only Kendo, she told herself. There was no need to talk about it.
It’s only Kendo. 

NEXT TIME!
Remember last year—last Callander year not school year—when Maquois from the theater department went crazy and dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera and tried to set off a bomb? That was pretty wild. Anyway, I heard a rumor that Sang Mi and Saki have been looking into that whole incident again… but why?
And what has that delinquent kid uh… what’s his name…
(there is the sound of someone picking up a tablet and making several searches while mumbling a few tame curse words)
CHARLIE PARKER! That kid! And where has he been? And why would anyone be trying to find out what a loner like him is up to anyway? Well, regardless, if you want to retake your ID picture today ask Mr. Xi during your lunch hour.
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Shadow of the Phantom
By Aidan Mason
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

​Hurried steps carried Zhyrgal beyond Academy 27's grounds and out into the wider world. The school day had ended an hour ago, noticeable not only by the time on her watch, but by the silence around her. The moment the bell rang, the Academy emptied, its students trying to get far away as fast as possible. By this time Academy 27 was the quietest place in all of Gongen — just how Zhyrgal liked it. 
The end of the school day was the perfect time to write, void of the disruption that plagued the lesson time. Once she had finished tending to the animals on the roof, she remained there for a time, writing the latest adventures she'd cooked up during lesson time. 
With the sun falling in the sky, Zhyrgal knew it was his time to put down the pen and return home. Making her way down the quiet street, she stuffed her notepad and pen into her rucksack and threw it over her shoulder. Even when the writing tools were away, Zhyrgal rarely found that her mind was at rest, always utilising the long walk home to think up more story ideas. She found that the walk across the Cheonsa Dome yielded some of her greatest inspirations. Yet today, no more than a block from the Academy gates, she found her creative processes blocked, disturbed by one of her body's fiercest urges: the unmistakable cry of hunger.
Her stomach growled, and no matter how hard she tried to turn her thoughts to inventing strange and wonderful literary worlds, the persistent pangs came calling. She knew she should have had the panini at lunch — the salad was disgusting, and most of the parts covered in dressing had ended up in the garbage. Her stomach continued to wail, begging her to find some form of sustenance, anything to end its torment. Home was six blocks away, and who knew when dinner would be on the table. Until then, chocolate would sate her hunger just nicely, not to mention taste good! 
Her mind made up, Zhyrgal knew just the place to go. Despite only being part of the school a short time, she had heard several students talk of a local store that sold exactly what she needed: Gilhurst’s News, the one stop place for pre and post school snacks. Once again, her eavesdropping skills had paid off. Looking around to get a bearing of her surroundings, Zhyrgal was pleased to note the shop was around the next corner, and set off with a spring in her step. 
Outside the store, however, was something she wasn't quite prepared for. A group of students — the ones she tended to avoid on the corridors between lessons — crowded the benches near the entrance. She recognised some of them: Summer White, Asim S'Tar and Tanaka Hanzo. They all seemed to be preoccupied with one of their number, who came stumbling out of the store roaring with laughter. The student was soon followed by an elderly lady with a face like thunder. Once she'd shooed the boy out, she bellowed at the others: "Off with you, you ignorant little fiends!" She batted her hand at them. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? Some of us have a business to run!"
The old lady's rant was met with a cacophony of laughter. Admitting defeat, she huffed and went back inside. The students then proceeded to point their fingers, chanting: "Grumpy grumpy Gilhurst!"
Their name calling was met with more angered shouts, muffled by the confines of the store, and again the students were laughing.
Zhyrgal thought about turning back, chalking it up as a loss and heading home. She didn't want to get caught up in this, not at the end of the day, yet despite her better judgement, her stomach had other ideas. It grumbled so loudly that it threatened to catch the attention of everyone in the vicinity. She had to eat something, she just had to. And so, with her bravest face, Zhyrgal marched on, determined to get what she needed from the store with minimum attention from the students outside. 
To Zhyrgal's relief, her approach elicited little more than some mocking questions about her love for animals. As heckles went, she found them quite tame. Once she had made it past the entrance, Zhyrgal felt like she had entered the lair of the beast. 
The store was small, by all accounts: two sets of shelves lined the walls, one filled with candy, and the other with local newspads. Where the shelves ended stood the counter, behind which sat (Mrs?) Gilhurst, staring at him with snake-like eyes.
Zhyrgal quickly scanned the shelves for something that tickled her fancy, all the while feeling Gilhurst's watchful eyes bore into the back of her skull. To her relief, Gilhurst's comm rang, and the stifling presence of the store lifted somewhat. 
"Oh, hi Alice. Yes, they've been at it again, making my life hell."
Zhyrgal's heart sank at Gilhurst's words. She was clearly a very unhappy person, and no wonder, considering the people loitering outside her place of work.
Not wanting to eavesdrop on her conversation any further, Zhrygal set to choosing something. The selection was almost too much: from Applemack Bars right through to Liquorice Ripples. One confectionary in particular caught her eye, and after that the choice was simple. Zhyrgal picked up a dark chocolate Whizler and smiled as the colourful wrapper brought back happy memories of her childhood. 
With her choice made, Zhyrgal wandered over to the counter, where Gilhurst continued her conversation, almost oblivious to her presence.
"I can't retire," she said to the person on the other end of the phone. "The shop has been in my family for generations. I'm the last one left! If I close the shop the legacy dies. I have to keep going, I—" She stopped, alarmed and a little angered to find Zhyrgal waiting patiently to be served. "Sorry Alice, I have a customer. Speak soon." Ending the call, she threw him a disgruntled look. "Come on, what are you having?"
Zhyrgal's mouth gaped open, about to speak, but was suddenly bereft of anything to say. The venom in the woman's tone had her petrified. 
"Come on, out with it! You're not hiding anything in those pockets, are you?"
Offended, Zhyrgal shook her head. "No, maam."
"Then what are you being so coy for? Do you want to buy something or not?"
Zhyrgal nodded and reached out to place the chocolate bar on the counter. Hearing raised laughter from outside, she hesitated, the painful memories of a dozen gym classes stabbing her in the gut. She turned to see the same collection of students outside, pointing and laughing, not at her, but Mrs Gilhurst. 
"Grumpy grumpy Gilhurst," the students began again, giggling and guffawing to themselves. Despite herself, Zhyrgal cracked a smile. From her limited exposure alone, she could see how she had earned the nickname. 
Feeling brave, Zhyrgal turned back to Mrs Gilhurst, and to her surprise caught a look of hurt on her aged face. Behind her steely exterior, it was clear to see their taunts wounded her. 
"Bloody youths!" she yelled at them, shaking her fists. "Clear off and leave my store alone. My customers are too afraid to come in with you loitering out there. You're making me lose business!"
Gilhurst's words only served to rekindle the students' amusement, and the mockery began anew. 
Despite the old lady's abrupt and accusatory attitude, Zhyrgal's heart went out to her. She could see how frustrating it must be for her, trying to earn a living only to be subject to the same abuse day in, day out. She remembered, back in Lybid, how Tony Henderson had made her life miserable for weeks. It stopped her wanting to turn up to school in the mornings. At least she'd move to Takumi, this poor lady was stuck here. 
Gilhurst exhaled sharply, and for a moment Zhyrgal thought the Whizler bar was going to fly off the counter. A few seconds later, the taunts from outside subsided. Gilhurst's attention drifted back to Zhyrgal and her steely expression returned. "Right," she sighed. "That'll be twenty-five."
Zhyrgal placed her finger on the scanner to pay and the transaction completed with a satisfied beep. 
"Thanks," Gilhurst huffed, and slouched into her chair. 
"Thank you!" said Zhyrgal, extra cheery, and turned to leave. 
She had made it less than three steps before Gilhurst called after her. "You've left your chocolate bar!" she yelled.
Zhyrgal turned around to face her. "No," she replied with a smile. "It's for you. Have a nice day."
While she didn't remain long enough to see her full reaction, Zhyrgal caught the look of pleasant surprise on Gilhurst's face, and for her, that was more than enough. 
Stepping outside, she caught the full attention of Gilhurst's hecklers, and they began their tirade of abuse. 
"Hey there, animal girl. Where are your birds today?"
Zhyrgal rolled her eyes and chuckled to himself. She wasn't going to give them any fuel today. Instead she clutched his rucksack tight and headed for home, pleased that, for at least a moment, she had brightened someone else's day. 

NEXT TIME!
The whole school has been getting on the Kendo train, and everyone has been learning how to hit other people with sticks. My dad says this is blatant war-hawkery—sorry Mr. Mori, I’ll get back onto the announcements.
Anyway we have a new guest teacher, a man from the famous Kujiko family! I mean, not a famous guy from the family, but still. It doesn’t sound like he’s getting along well with Ryan, our transfer student from Earth, so how is that going to play out? And how will the class handle it?
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
A Kendo Story
By James Wylder
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

 
WARS is Copyright Decipher Inc. WARSONG is Copyright Arcbeatle Press and Decipher Inc. WARSONG: Academy 27 is Copyright Arcbeatle Press and Decipher Inc. WARS and all associated characters and concepts are the property of Decipher inc. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people, places, events past or present is purely co-incidental. Arcbeatle Press is owned and operated by James Wylder, and is based out of beautiful Elkhart Indiana. This story is copyright 2024 Arcbeatle Press and James Wylder. Edited by Jo Smiley and James Wylder. Kalingkata, Talinata, and Geraldine “JackBox” McGraw are owned by James Wylder.

She felt like her friend Jae Hyun was shaking his head every time she looked away from him. Either that or he was just trying hard to pretend he wasn't staring at her legs (he was staring at her legs). She sighed. He was well meaning for an obnoxious and hormonal teenage boy, she'd give him that. But right now he was definitely being obnoxious.
"They're just running shorts. For running. That's what you use legs for, generally."
"Huh?" he said, which was also obnoxious.
It wasn't worth it. "Are you coming to watch our meet against Academy 2? We could use all the people cheering us on we can get."
"Absolutely--wait when is it?"
She pointed at her uniform, "We're all wearing our uniforms today because the meet is today. Coach Jo said it's advertising."
"I thought coach Jo did basketball?"
"She does, Coach Park quit, so she's been filling in."
He nodded slowly. "...I actually have play practice for Romeo and Juliet."
She smiled, yes! He was getting his own interests. "That's great. I'll be sure to go see it."
"I... sort of thought you'd be trying out for theplay."
She tilted her head as she finished grabbing things from her locker, "What do you mean?"
"I mean you helped out with them in the winter..."
"There's no Track or Cross in the Winter. Plus the fall season ended early because we got knocked out in Sectionals."
She could see the wheels turning in his head. "...I wish I could have known."
"Did you try asking?"
He opened his mouth, shut it, and then exclaimed that he had to get to practice and scampered off. Well, that could have gone worse?
Trudging along to the girls' locker room, she moved her things from one locker to another trying to ignore Hee Jin's griping next to her. She was rubbing aloe vera all over her legs. "I wish I didn't have to show my legs at these meets."
"You don't," she replied. "Just wear leg compressors or leggings."
"But I don't want to wear those."
She didn't know how to help her.
"Anyway look at my poor calves, I broke open my heat-shaver and turned off the inhibitor so I could do it faster--"
"...You what?"
Hee Jin gulped. "...Broke open the shaver and turned off the heat inhibitor."
Sang Mi sighed, "You're lucky you didn’t burn your foot off. Those things have an inhibitor for a reason. They're just low powered blasters for the consumer market, you know."
She appeared not to have known this, and promptly changed the subject.
"So... think we can beat Academy 2? We didn't last year. And we lost our Coach."
Sang Mi shrugged, "We'll do our best. I think we have a good chance."
She got her cleats out, and put them into her track bag. Coach Jo came in, and called on all of them to settle down. "Now today is a big meet, so we need to all be on top form. You've all been training your hearts out, and I know how much this means to a lot of you. Now I know we beat Academy 14—”
There was a general cheer.
“—But we can’t let that get to our heads! Nor can we let the pressure get to us. This is just like any other meet. Do your best, and you’ll do great. Now, we’ve got some announcements, for shotput—”
The speech went on, but Sang Mi was focused on steadying herself. Her heart was already beating fast. This meet, they’d be facing Academy 2.
Where her ex went.
She’d been heartbroken when she found out he’d been cheating on her after he dumped her. But now what she was feeling wasn’t heartbreak, it was anger and confusion.
She wouldn’t be directly running against Kyon at this meet, but it was still his school. She knew his new girlfriend Tetora wasn’t even on the track team—but she felt like the whole team for Academy 2 was him in proxy. She wasn’t the greatest runner on the team—but today her head was filled with fantasies: she burst ahead of the pack, neck and neck with the leading runner from Academy 2, then charged forward In the last stretch and--
A personal best!
First place!
Everyone cheers and claps as she leads Academy 27 to a victorious win!
But before she knew it, it was time to leave for the actual meet.
 
Academy 2 was the third best high school in Takumi, and the second best funded, and it sure looked the part. They’d had to take a train between Cheonsa Dome and the Main dome to get there—thankfully they got their own car so they didn’t disturb the other passengers, which was a blessing because Coach Jo had to tell them to settle down twice after they got too rowdy. From what Sang Eun told her, she was sure the boy’s car was worse.
There wasn’t much of a view for most of the journey—the tunnels were mostly underground to save all the precious space possible inside the domes themselves. They stopped still underground, and came out to a stop that only a handful of other students got out on—Academy 2 had its own station. No one had to walk from a station to get to it.
Hee Jin and Sang Mi exchanged a look that they both understood.
The Academy 2 uniforms of the students who got off were on a whole other level to their own: black blazers and black pants or skirt, all with yellow-gold hemming and a shining badge on the breast with “A2” on it. A matching yellow-gold tie and white dress shirt completed the look, along with black spats or mary-jane shoes. The cloth was rich, each piece carefully tailored for each student. It made their own uniforms look shabby in comparison. They knew that was the point.
Other students from Academy 2 passed them to go into the train as they entered, and as the door shut behind them she could have sworn she heard someone say “Sang—” a car over before being cut off.
They got onto the lift, which took them up to the campus itself: the smatter of students staying afterschool, or who had missed the first train, wandered broad paths of yellow-gold stones lined with cherry trees that gently wafted petals with the artificial airflow.
“Do they think this place is the freaking Land of Oz?” Kalingkata spat.
“The what?” Hee Jin replied.
“You know, the road of yellow brick in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Dorothy and friends go to the Emerald City by walking it.”
Hee Jin shook her head. “I don’t know the story.”
“Nevermind.” 
They walked the road of yellow brick up to the stadium, where a bot displaying a hologram of their school name wheeled up, and guided them across the track to their section of grass. Everyone set their track bags down and started to stretch and prepare. Hee Jin and Sang Mi helped each other get the partner stretches done. The Academy 2 track team was already doing warm ups, their black and gold uniforms pristine and stylish. Their shoes looked custom fitted for every runner’s foot.
“Hey. Jhe, stay focused!” Coach Jo called. “I can see what you’re looking at. Focus on what you can do, not what you don’t have, that won’t get you anywhere today.”
“Yes coach.”
But it did help her. It made her pissed.
The announcer called for the runners to get to their marks for the first races; they started with the sprinters, and the results were mixed. It would have been nice if the meet was a blow out for them, but that was never in the cards. They’d lost their coach, and Coach Jo had the spirit but she knew Basketball not Track. Their equipment was worse. But they were holding their own. Even so, that wasn’t enough. They had to win.
“Runners for the first distance event, the 800 meter run, please get to your marks!”
Hee Jin slapped her on the back as they dropped their jackets and made their way to the track. Sang Mi’s spikes felt tight on her feet, but she knew they were just right. She looked over at the girls from the other team. There was Hikari Megumi, the star runner of Academy 2’s distance team. Despite her fantasies earlier, deep down Sang Mi was pragmatic. She couldn’t match Megumi’s times, or Jee Hin’s times, but she could aim for third. Getting third would help their overall team score.
The official went through the race’s rules, all of them knew it, the line of girls standing with their eyes laser focused ahead. The whirring cycle of air-reprocessing far above them in the dome ended, and in the ensuing silence the sound of each runner’s breath filled the area. The official raised the starter pistol.
“On your marks!”
They tensed, muscles preparing to burst forward.
“Get set.”
Many leaned forward slightly, making sure not to lean too far.
“GO!” there was a bang, and they exploded over the line. Sang Mi got blocked in the running pack by an Academy 2 girl with a pair of blue streaks going down her ponytail, and she coasted behind her as they went around the first curve—and as soon as they hit the straight, charged past her, trying to move from the back pack to the front one. She got most of the way there, another Academy 2 runner hanging onto her heels—she could only see them from the corner of her eye, but she picked her pace up—it didn’t get the girl off her, but she wasn’t passing her either. As they finished the first lap, they were up with the lead pack—it was five runners, Hee Jin and Megumi were trading first and second like a kid unable to pick her one allotted treat at the grocery store. Behind them was an Academy 2 runner, and then Masha and Seo Yeon from her own team. She could do this.
First she had to pass the A27 duo, and she did so right when they finished the first curve of the second lap. It was good she did too, she could tell both of them didn’t have a lot of gas left in them for the end. Ahead was her target. She summoned up her strength, and pushed ahead—she wanted to time it so she’d pass her right before the curve. And she did, the girl’s head turning as she slid past her, and she could tell she was dropping back from the demoralization of it. She just had to push this to the finish.
She got around the final curve, onto the final straight.
And then she realized—she wasn’t alone. Blue streaks was there, moving from on her heels to by her side.
She couldn’t let that go. She kicked hard, pushing her body as hard as she could manage, her breath was ragged, but she didn’t slow down. She couldn’t even keep track of whether she was in third still — she just focused on the line ahead of her. Just a little more. Don’t lose it. Keep pushing even when you’re crossing the line. She crossed it—then slowed to a halt, dropping to her butt on the track as she tried to get her breath back. The only thing she could feel was her heartbeat and the need for her body to get air in. She heard Jee Hin, and felt her and Masha pulling her up, patting her on the back.
“You did it girl!” Masha screamed.
“First and third?” Sang Mi rasped.
“YEAH!” Masha cried.
Sang Mi wanted to celebrate, but she was too exhausted to do that. Even so, she’d done it! She’d placed! Now she just had to keep this up. She went back to their camp on the field to rehydrate and stretch, and get ready for the next race.
As she got to the line for the mile run, something became incredibly clear: she hadn’t paced herself. She felt tired still going up to the line, and as the starting gun went off, she found herself in the back pack, and unable to push forward. Her legs hurt, and it became clear she was going to have to treat this whole race as a cool down before the next one—she’d messed it up. She placed 7th, better than she expected, but pretty terrible nonetheless.
She went back to the camp and tried to do nothing but rest. Hee Jin had gotten second in the mile, and Academy 2 had clinched third. The other team’s scores were looking pretty similar. She had the medley relay next, and that was another chance for her. The 800 meter was her event—and she might have bombed the mile, but she would have another chance to excel—her leg of that relay was an 800, with the other legs being the mile, 400 meter, and 1200 meter.
Sang Mi waited next to the starting line, where she’d get the handoff from Masha, who was starting the race and was currently shaking herself out and adjusting her grip on that baton — while next to her, Academy 2’s runner did the same. Sang Mi would pass off to Hee Jin, who’d run the mile, and Seo Yeon would finish it with the 400 since she had the best kick on the distance squad.
Masha and her opponent tensed as the starter pistol was raised and—BANG!
They were off. Masha took an early lead, though only time would tell if she would hold it. By the end of the first lap, she was, but the second lap proved more troublesome. Masha’s opponent was making up lost distance, and by the end of the lap was neck-and-neck with her. As they started the third and final lap of their leg, Sang Mi slipped into the hand-off zone, shaking herself out, and getting into position with one arm facing back to accept the hand off. This caused her to see her opponent—it was miss dual-blue-streaks in her hair. Rematch time apparently.
She put her focus back into the handoff, and watched as Masha came around the corner—it was indeed neck and neck, she’d have to try to regain their lead. Masha slowed as she got closer—which was a bad sign. Sang Mi started moving, and Masha tried to kick in as much as she could, but it looked like she’d used everything in the tank. Masha slapped the baton into her hand, and Sang Mi kept her forward momentum going and took off. They’d fallen slightly behind—and the dual-blue-streaks waved back and forth in the ponytail in front of her as if taunting her. She pushed on the curve, trying to catch her as much as she could, and made up some ground but not enough to try to pass on the straight. They hit the second curve, and she’d made up enough that she could try to push on the final straight of the first lap if she wanted, so she did.
She dug in. Her muscles were screaming, but she pushed past the pain, and as they exited the curve, swung out and charged. She saw blue-streaks glance at her as she got side by side, and the other girl tried to accelerate so she wouldn’t pass her before they started the second lap, but Sang Mi wasn’t about to lose this chance. She could hear her breath, loud and rhythmic, and her own groan as she put the extra kick in and slipped in front of dual-streaks. She held the lead on the curve, and could hear dual-streaks right behind her—too close behind her. She tried to increase her lead, but the other girl wasn’t letting go of this race easily either. The crowd was cheering, as dual-streaks kept almost passing only to get fended off.
They hit the final straight, and Sang Mi focused on Hee Jin ahead of her. She’d make up as much time as she could on this last straight and—then something hit the back of her foot. There was pain, a different kind of pain than her burning muscles. Something much different: sharper and more stinging. She fell forward, and landed on her arm, rolling over, she felt tangled for a moment against some other skin as the sky and the track itself flipped between each other, and then her foot bent in a way it shouldn’t and she screamed.
She could see the baton ahead of her, and she tried to stand up, and fell down again as intense pain flooded her brain.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I’m sorry! Are you okay!?!”
She saw dual-streaks, who was teary eyed and holding her hands out without touching her as though wanting to help but not being sure if she’d hurt more than she’d help.
Hee Jin was there ahead of her, dumbfounded.
Sang Mi closed her eyes. And gave herself the talk. The same one her dad had given her and her brothers when they were so small. He’d taken them out to the wastes, riding them through the seas of dust and rock on a rusty hovertruck he’d borrowed from work. Min Jun had at to his right, and she and her brother had each perched on one of his knees as they’d looked out at the domes of Takumi from the top of a great rocky plateau. The three domes glistened, and little dots moved within them like it was some grand terrarium. He’d tousled her hair, and told them all a truth to remember forever.
“We’ve always been beaten down. We’ve had everything taken from us. Our home, our money, our family members. We don’t take that lying down. When someone hurts us, we get back up and keep moving forward. Because we’re Jhe’s. Because people think they can stop us with pain, because they don’t know what it feels like—”
“—cause when you’re born in pain, you can thrive in it.” She finished in a rasping gasp.
“What?” dual-streaks said, baffled.
She felt lightheaded as she grabbed the baton, and pushed herself up off the track. She nearly fell over, she could feel blood running down her leg—dual-streaks had spiked her in the back of the calf, and she must have broken her foot in the fall. She moved her good leg forward, and dragged her other leg behind her.
“You uh—you should stop!?” dual-streaks cried out.
She ignored her.
A drone flew over to her, hovering by her face. “Runner #311, please remove yourself from the track for medical assistance.”
She pushed it out of the way. “I waive my rights.”
“Please move off the track for medical assistance.”
“I said—” she groaned, pulling herself forward in another grueling step. She was seeing a white haze with specks of light. “—I waive my rights.”
She could hear Coach Jo right up by her, she must have gotten right next to her. “Sang Mi, we can just forfeit the race, it's okay. You don’t need to push yourself like this, you’re seriously hurt. No one is asking you to keep going.”
She pulled herself forward. Step by grueling step. “I’m not losing,” she rasped.
The Academy 2 coach was yelling at dual-streaks: “What are you doing? Start running! Do you see her, she’s beating you now with a broken foot! Go! GO!”
“But I spiked her!”
“I don’t care if you shot her dog, beat her!”
Sang Mi pressed onward. And then something happened: the crowd started clapping.
“Go Sang Mi!”
“You can do it!”
“Don’t give up!”
Coach Jo was looking at the crowd with disgust, but their words were what Sang Mi needed. She was almost there. She was staggering now, the world around her was spinning.
Just a little further. Then the words of the crowd solidified: “SANG MI, SANG MI, SANG MI!”
It was just like she’d imagined and fantasized: they were chanting her name. She felt a strange glee at her own suffering. She reached her arm out, she could see Hee Jin’s hand—the world was only that hand, the baton, and her own name, all surrounded by the sounds of the wind and the sparkling white.
The baton hit Hee Jin’s hand.
And Sang Mi collapsed.
She came to a bit later, being looked at by the physical therapist, as she was reassured that they would be getting her to the hospital soon.
“Did we win?”
“That’s really not important right now,” the therapist said.
“Did we win?” she asked more firmly.
“…Yeah. Yeah, you won the race.”
Sang Mi relaxed. The tension left her shoulders. She had really done it.
Academy 27 won their meet against Academy 2, and then spring break began.
 
* * *
 
Sang Mi stared at the boot on her foot, holding it firmly in place so it wouldn't bend at the ankle. Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, it didn't mean her track season was over, but she could definitely write off any sort of future glory on the track this year. Groaning, she slammed her VR goggles on, and tried to get into some Drakesword XVII: Force of the Blade.
She wandered around the virtual world for a while, looking at the indistinguishably realistic trees, and killing a few animated skeletons that spawned, before saving and quitting, pulling the device off with more force than was recommended in the manual. Talinata wasn't here to scold her; he was busy actually being at Track Practice. She'd tried helping out on the sidelines at practice, but not only did she not actually have anything to do beyond carrying things for the coaches which they had the hands to carry themselves, watching everyone run while she was stuck hobbling around in her boot was a level of frustration she just couldn't take. It made her feel worthless--more worthless than she usually felt.
Not that this was much better.
After another half-hour, Kalingkata decided to do what you always do when you've tried nothing and exhausted all your ideas: take a walk.
Cheonsa wasn't particularly vibrant right now; sure, it was the start of spring, but that meant a lot of folks were taking vacations to nicer places, and the people who couldn't go on vacation were getting drinks to console themselves of that fact. School was out, but this only compounded that. She hobbled along, trying to ignore all the shop keeps calling out to her to check out their stuff. That was, until she passed a pharmacy, where bursting from the door came a familiar if unwelcome face. Only Saki seemed to be wearing a white lab coat as though she was a real pharmacist and not a high school student.
"Well well well, Kalingkata, what a surprise--and I mean that I actually didn't expect to see you here, what are you doing here anyway?"
She pointed at her broken foot.
"Yes yes, I heard about that, pity, etcetera etcetera. Would you like to step inside?"
Well, she didn't have anything better to do.
The inside was nice and clean, with a team of pharmacists filling orders in the back, and rows of refrigerator cabinets with drinks and shelves with snacks, as well as home medical supplies.
"...How do you have a job here?"
"No," Saki answered with too much confidence.
"...You know what, I don't want to know," Sang Mi grabbed a can of sweetened soy milk from a fridge, and tapped her credit chip on the receiver to purchase it. "It’s spring break, I thought you'd be busy using your inexplicable influence to take a vacation to Olympus Mons or something."
"Please," Saki replied. "I already saw it."
"Of course. And you have... whatever your job is to do."
"That's right."
Sang Mi raised her can in a mock toast, and headed for the door. "Well, happy Spring Break."
She wandered around for another hour. She sat in the park and watched some kids run around on the playground and a guy throw a frisbee to his dog that was about 50/50 on catching it. She wandered some more.
She realized she had made a loop, and was back in front of the Pharmacy. Oh well. She was about to head back, when for the second time that day, she heard someone calling out to her.
"...Sang Mi? Jhe Sang Mi?"
She turned slowly; the voice wasn't immediately familiar to her, though the face was. It was a Japanese girl, wearing a kimono. She bowed, which Sang Mi returned, albeit a little awkwardly. Firstly because of her book. Secondly because the person in front of her was Tetora, the girl her ex-boyfriend had cheated on her with.
"...Nice to see you, goodbye forever!" she said as she started hobbling away.
"Wait!" she grabbed onto the loose fabric of Kalingkata's elbow, and bit her lip. "Can we talk?"
Kalingkata weighed the options.
On the one hand, she would rather smash her hand with a meat tenderizer.
On the other hand, she would also rather smash her own hand with a meat tenderizer than stay this bored and listless. At least it would be a new and different form of unhappy.
"Yeah sure, why not?" She turned around to face her. "...What's up?"
Tetora gave a deeper bow. "I'm really sorry, I didn't know he hadn't broken up with you when we started dating."
Kalingkata waved it off. "You don't need to bow, that's... yeah you can stop. Look, it's fine, I don't think you're a bad person or anything." She paused. "How's Kyon doing?"
"Oh, we broke up."
"Oh," Kalingkata nodded slowly.
"We tried to make it work for a little while, but in the end, I just couldn't trust him after finding out how our relationship started."
Sang Mi felt a sudden wave of sympathy for the girl. "Yeah... Yeah I feel you on that. Maybe we should go somewhere to talk, instead of standing in front of the Pharmacy. I think Saki is staring at me anyway."
"Who is Saki?"
Sang Mi pointed. Saki waved. "The one cosplaying as an expert."
Tetora looked confused by that, but didn't inquire further. "Why don't you come over to the Comedy Club? I perform there."
Sang Mi furrowed her brow, "You're a comedian?"
She scratched her cheek. “Well, I’d like to be one. I can’t say I’m like… a good one. I’m a comedian in training! I’m learning Rakugo, it’s a Japanese form of stand-up comedy. Only you do it sitting down. So I guess it’s not actually stand-up comedy in the literal sense.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Just sit in for a little bit, I can get you some of the snacks in the dressing room.”
“I’m in.”
Tetora smiled, “I’m glad. Just follow me.”
She led the way to a building that had to be one of the oldest ones in Takumi—the wood it was made from had that “shipped from Earth” look that was hard to describe, and hard to notice unless you grew up only seeing the wood from the handful of enclosed tree-farms on the planet. A sign outside read “Midori’s Rakugo Comedy Club” in Japanese. Tetora guided her to a side door, where she hobbled inside to find a group of teens sitting around—one of them was a stranger, a boy with glasses that had text scrolling down the lenses, which he was reading as he lay on a mat by the wall. The other two, however, she recognized immediately.
“Midi? Alice? What the hell are you two doing here?”
Midi looked up in surprise, Alice looked over in mild awareness. “Sang Mi!” Midi said. “I could ask the same thing, I never took you for a comedian.”
“My jokes are that bad, huh?”
“Oh I didn’t mean uh…”
“That was a joke, so I kind of played myself.”
Tetora coughed, “Everyone, this is Jhe Sang Mi, she’s… someone I know! From places! Since her foot is broken I thought I’d invite her to sit in on our comedy show today?”
The boy sighed, “You mean not pay?”
“Shut up, Shinji,” Midi, Alice, and Tetora said in the kind of unison that can only come from intense repetition.
“Yeah! Shut up Shinji, or whatever!” Sang Mi said to fit in.
He sighed and lay back down to read whatever was on his glasses.
“…I don’t have to pay right?”
Tetora shook her head. “That’s Shinji, as you can tell. And I see you already know Midi and Alice?”
Sang Mi waved at them. “Yeah, they go to my school. Midi’s a good friend of mine, and I’m good friend’s with Alice’s sister.”
Midi looked absolutely chuffed at the “good friend” comment. Tetora smiled, and shoved a can of boba tea and a melon bread into Sang Mi’s hands, “Well, we’re about to go on soon, find a seat in the audience and we’ll see you after the show.
 
* * *
 
Sang Mi felt a little awkward about how easy the “find a seat” order was to fill. The place only had a handful of people in it, scattered around, more than one an elderly person snoozing. She settled in, propping her foot up on another seat since it wouldn’t bother anyone, since no one was behind her. The theater smelled of ceder and mothballs, and there were a lot of stains on the seats and the floor. It was at least dark enough they were hard to think too much about.
The sound of a woodblock counting time rang out, and the curtains opened to reveal Tetora, who was sitting on a small platform on the stage, dressed in a kimono and holding a fan. “Welcome, valued guests and customers to today’s performance of the Junior Rakugo Girls—plus a boy and an enby because we couldn’t meet quota!”
A light chuckle followed this from the crowd.
“My name is Fujibayashi Tetora, a student at Academy 2, a school that has produced more second-class men than any other.”
Silence.
“Ahem. Anyway I’m here to start off our show. My performance is about a pair of friends—a fisherman at the artificial lake, and the owner of a café.” She bowed. “I hope you enjoy it!”
She rose from the bow so her back was straight, but she remained sitting down, and began to put on the airs of the two different characters, communicating that they were different just through a turn of her head and a shift of her voice, gesturing all the while with the fan.
“Oh, hello there, I was just setting up shop for the day. Any luck at the lake?”
“Not a lot. But I’ll catch one soon, I just know it!”
“Will you? You know, you’ve been going to that lake for five weeks now.”
“I sure have, every day. My big catch is just this close!”
“I decided to look into that lake, and there are two problems with your plan.”
“And what are they? You don’t know anything about fishing!”
“It’s an artificial lake! They farm fish to put in them, and they’re all the same size. You’re never going to catch a big one, at least not until they start breeding on their own for a while.”
“Well, I suppose that would be a problem, but if they’re all the same size, they’re all big ones!”
“Or all small ones.”
“Agree to disagree. So, what’s the second problem?”
“They haven’t put any fish in that lake.”
There was some light laughter.
“What do you mean they haven’t? Where am I supposed to fish?”
“Tell you what, I hear if you go to Hongtu there’s a lake where there’s an absolutely rare fish — it supposedly has a star on its side! If you caught me that fish, I’d buy it from you, stuff it, and put it over the door.”
“A fish with a star on it? I’ll catch it for sure, just you watch.”
“Sure sure.”
She put on a third voice, her own. “So, the two friends split for a time, and the café owner doesn’t hear from the other for a full month. It’s a very quiet month, but he begins to get worried—when all of a sudden one day…”
“Hey! Café owner, look what I got!”
“Sweet Shocho, is that really it?”
“It really is, I caught the legendary fish with a star on it.”
“Well don’t wait, lay it out so I can see this star.”
“As you wish.”
She mimed the sounds of the fish flopping onto the counter, dropping the fan in such a way it did indeed flop like a fish a little.
“That’s not a star! I’m not paying you for this.”
“It is, just take a closer look.”
“Let’s see… wait, that looks just like that singer Janice Rose my daughter listens to?”
“See I told you there was a star on it!”
She bowed, showing that the performance was complete, and there was light applause. Sang Mi tilted her head to the side as she watched Tetora rise and shuffle off stage as the curtains closed. She was probably supposed to wait for them to have closed completely, but who cared? Midi followed, and gave a performance with a much better punchline, but which involved them being so nervous the whole time that Sang Mi had trouble following it. Alice gave one that was a little too deadpan to properly play, and Shinji gave a performance that was technically perfect if you were trying to grade it on hitting all the beats and movements, but which didn’t seem to adapt well to the audience’s reactions even as he barreled on with confident charm.
She applauded each of them, and then the curtains rose one last time for the performers to do a very simple dance and sing a song thanking the audience for attending. A simple show.
Tetora slipped in next to her after the audience who wasn’t asleep had filtered out. “So what’d you think?”
“I mean uh, it was…”
She sighed. “You can say it. It’s rough. We were supposed to be being mentored, but our teacher never really shows up so we’ve been trying to figure it out by ourselves. We have a big performance coming up at the Takumi Centre for the Performing Arts, and I don’t feel like we’re ready. We don’t even have five people, so it might not even happen since that’s a requirement. Yolanda and Shin were on the team but once they started dating they got into that gross phase of ignoring all their other friends and spending all their time cuddling and hanging out. So yeah. We’re still looking for a new fifth.”
For a moment Sang Mi thought that that was a not-so-subtle hint she could join the Rakugo troupe, which Sang Mi had no interest in. However, Tetora’s demeanor and even tone, and the way she continued barreling on into a description of how much they’d been practicing showed that this thought had in fact never occurred to Tetora.
Which, really, was fair when it came down to it. Whether you called her Sang Mi or Kalingkata, she was practically a symbol of what had to be one of the most awkward periods of her life. She’d gotten the same handsome, hardworking, track star boyfriend who excelled at school to boot. It just so happened they’d had the same boyfriend at the same time without knowing it. That wasn’t either of their faults, and as Sang Mi watched Tetora talk something twinged in her chest.
“…How far away is this performance?”
“In just over a week.”
Sang Mi nodded. The mechanisms in her boot should have repaired the break soon after that. And if she got to sit down the whole time she performed… “How would you feel if I joined your little troupe for just a week—literally just a week, because when I get this boot off I’m going back to track immediately. But if you need five people, I can be a warm body. I won’t be very good but I can keep it short.”
Tetora startled. “Are you sure? I thought you weren’t interested?”
“Oh I’m not, I really don’t care about this and I really don’t like the idea of wearing a kimono, but look…” She took a deep breath. “Neither of us did anything wrong. And Kyon isn’t going to make it up to either of us so… maybe it’d be right if we made it up to each other?”
Tetora stared at her, jaw slipping open, and Sang Mi awkwardly shifted in her seat.
“If that’s not—”
Tetora shook her head, and now there were tears. Lots of tears. And she was throwing herself on Sang Mi and wailing and crying and squeezing her. “Yes! Yes, that’s the most amazing thing Sang Mi! How could he hurt such a good person as you? I’d love to have you on the team, and we can help each other like you said! And I’m sure it’d be fine if you wore a hanbok instead of a kimono, I mean, I haven’t asked but—no I’m sure it will be fine!”
She patted her on the back. “Okay, great. I’m really glad this idea works out so well for you.”
Tetora gave her some information about their practice tomorrow, while Midi hopped up and down a bit in excitement that they were in the same activity for a bit. With a wave goodbye to the group, Sang Mi hobbled back out to make her way home. Well, she’d certainly got herself into something.
* * *
The first day of practice, Sang Mi hobbled her way back over to the theater, and slipped in through the side door. The scene was much the same as yesterday, except that Midi and Alice were playing catch with a hacky sack. “Aloha, it is I, Kalingkata.”
“Congratulations, no one cares,” Alice replied.
“I care,” Midi mumbled.
“Are you here to join us?” Shinji asked.
“Yep, I’m ready to do my best and try to be funny.”
He gave her a glance. “Good luck.”
“See? You’re already showing me how.”
He gave a ‘hmph’ and returned to his reading.
Smiling, she turned back to Midi, Alice, and Tetora. “So then, teach me comedy.”
Midi glanced at the others. “Well uh, I can’t say that any of us are particularly… um…”
“Good,” Alice finished for her.
Sighing, Tetora rolled her shoulders. “Yeah, I guess honesty is the best policy there. So look, we don’t really know what we’re doing.”
Sang Mi’s eyes narrowed. “So what are you doing?”
“Our best,” Tetora answered.
Sang Mi nodded slowly. “So… what’s the first thing I need to do?”
“You’re going to try practicing one of our routines, and then work on your own for the big show. The actual set up is pretty simple: you go out there, you sit down like we were sitting, bow, pull your fan out—or don’t, it’s optional, but it’ll give you a storytelling prop—and start telling a story. It should be funny, but really the most important thing is having the ending be a zinger.”
Sang Mi processed this, then nodded. “Alright. I’m a little worried anything I do is going to turn out as a shaggy dog joke.”
Alice chimed in, “A what?”
“It’s a joke form,” Shinji replied. “And a bad one.”
Sang Mi pointed at Shinji in acknowledgement of his correct summary. “You start telling the joke, and then you ramble on for a while about how shaggy the dog is—and anyway the whole point is, the joke is pointless. You waste a person’s time, and that’s the gag.”
Frowning, Alice nodded. “I’m not sure I like that.”
“Hence why I don’t want to tell one! We’re on the same team!”
Tetora waved her hands over-dramatically. “It’ll be fine! You’ll do great! And even if you don't, as long as you don’t bomb it the rest of us can do okay and they’ll drop our lowest score in the judging!”
Sang Mi grunted. “Lovely.” She held her hand out, and Tetora passed her the padd with the routine on it. Sang Mi scanned it, and squinted at Tetora.
“What?”
“This has a like, intro section.”
Midi’s hand shot up. “Cause we’re supposed to do that!”
Shinji continued to not look at anyone. “None of you mentioned that.”
“You could have chimed in,” Tetora grumbled, and lightly pushed Sang Mi out of the room and onto the stage. The stage was bright, the rest of the room dark. Tetora, Midi, and Alice had filtered in and taken seats, along with a fourth person in the far back who was probably Shinji, but she couldn’t tell. She bowed, hobbled her way to the platform, and sat down, and bowed as she set the padd down in front of her, then took her shoe off her non-medical-booted foot and used it to prop the padd up so she could read it without looking straight down the whole time.
“Hello hello, thank you once again for joining us here at our amazing theater—and I’m not just saying that because my boss told me he’d give me some melon bread if I called it amazing. It really is amazing. It’s amazing just how little the floors get cleaned for one thing. Pause for laughter.”
“No! Don’t read that bit!” Tetora yelled.
“Read all those bits, that was funnier than the joke,” Alice called out.
“Sorry,” Sang Mi mumbled. “Alright, so I’ll have you know my mom has been pestering me about getting a job lately—okay but she hasn’t, like my mom wants me to focus on school—”
“It's just a routine! You’re acting, think of it like acting or roleplaying!”
“Right, sorry, sorry… Ahem. So my mom sat me down the other day with a big bowl of udon in front of me… mime eating the.. oh okay!”
Sang Mi reached out for an invisible bowl of Udon and pulled it closer, “Oh gosh thanks mom, these are my favorite noodles.”
She leaned to look at the padd. “…Switch characters to… Oh got it.” She shifted her body language a bit and put on a different voice. “Only the best noodles for my growing girl.”
“You know, my classmate Suni told me that if I get much taller I’m going to look stretched out like a noodle.”
The mother wagged a finger. “Well, I guess if you stop growing then maybe your father and I can stop worrying about feeding you so much. Prices are hefty on Earth—Oh this is on Earth! …Wait.”
Midi could be heard sighing. “Tetora you did it again! You said it’s about you and then said it was set on another planet! This is the fifth time!”
Tetora’s reply was too mumbled to be heard.
Sang Mi barreled on. “—Prices are hefty here on Earth, so you really need to get a job!”
“But mother, I don’t want to get a job! I want to eat noodles!”
“Well you can’t eat noodles if you don’t have a job.”
“But I don’t want to work. I want to take naps when I want, and go out and play with my friends, and drink milk tea!”
“Hmn, I’m not sure there are any jobs like that.”
The daughter character turned to the audience as an aside. “Oh! I just need to push my mom further on this and she’ll give up!” She turned back. “And I have some other stipulations! I need to get paid a lot of money—even get paid for napping.”
“Dear, there are no jobs like that!”
“Actually, I need to get paid more even when I do my job badly.”
“Hmn… actually… oh! There is a job like that! I’ll go see if there is an opening for you.”
“Wait! Wait I was just—oh there she goes. Is there really a job like that?”
She flicked the fan open. “A few days passed, and the daughter got a message telling her to report to work. So she goes to see what it is…” She flicked the fan closed and became the daughter again. “Oh! Wow what a big building, it’s so silver and shiny. I guess I better head in. Hello, receptionist! I’m here for the job.”
Sang Mi straightened her back. “Hello there, we’ve been expecting you. I hope you’re excited to take on your new position.”
“Hey,” she leaned in conspiratorially, “is it really true that I can take naps whenever I want to?”
“Yes!”
“And eat noodles? And eat whenever I want to? Get paid a lot of money—and get paid even more when I do my job badly?”
“Yes, those are the requirements for this job.”
“I can’t believe it, so what am I doing?”
“Congratulations! You’re the new CEO of the Central Governance Corporation!”
There was some actual laughter at that.
“Thank you, sorry it was sloppy,” she bowed again.
Tetora got up and approached the stage. “No no, that was great! You did better than Midi or Alice did their first time through. Go ahead and sit down, you can watch the rest of us practice. Spend that time thinking about what your own routine could be. How you could present it. Oh, your friend wants to have a word with you first though.”
“My friend?” she looked towards the back where a dark silhouette stood by the main doors. Of course. It could only be one person.
Making her way to the tiny lobby, she was not disappointed. “Hey again, Saki.”
She wasn’t wearing a lab coat now. Instead, she looked… normal. Incredibly normal. It was almost off-putting how Sang Mi struggled to figure out words other than “normal” and “unassuming” to describe her appearance. But she knew inside there was a tiger. “Hi there. I didn’t expect you’d be doing stand-up comedy.”
“Technically it's sit-down comedy.”
“Don’t split hairs. I’m just curious.”
“Curious?”
She sighed, and crossed her arms. “Curious. As to why you’re doing this of all things?”
Sang Mi scoffed. “Like I owe you an explanation. It’s just something to do while my foot heals.”
“Your usual patterns would be playing video games or hacking into something. You’re not a comedian.”
“Hey I’m not that bad!”
Saki didn’t smile at the joke. Maybe she was that bad. “That’s not my point. What are you doing?”
“I’m not doing anything! All my friends are off doing other things with other people! I can’t run track, it's too late to join the play, so I’m doing sit down comedy.”
Saki frowned. “I see. You’re giving up.”
“Of course I’m giving up! God, you keep showing up acting like I can do something special. You just give me drugs. Anyone could take my place—you’re probably giving me the drugs cause if I die no one will give a shit. Hell, my friends might thank you to finally be rid of me.”
Saki’s face went from a frown to blank. “That’s really how you see yourself, deep down, isn’t it? That’s why you finished a race with a broken foot bleeding all over the track. You really think so low of yourself. I already told you, no one else can do what you’re doing.”
“I don’t believe that. Who would believe that? I can’t keep a boyfriend or girlfriend, no one sticks around me. I’m just… I’m just doing this comedy stuff because I have nothing else to do. Tetora offered it, and since I’m worthless and no one else offered anything I said yes.”
Saki stood for a moment, perhaps trying to figure out what to say, before turning toward the door. As she left, she said one sentence timed just enough that Sang Mi heard it clearly but couldn’t reply as the door slammed behind her: “Sang Mi, do you really think I’d work with someone I thought was worthless?”
She wouldn’t have been able to come up with anything to say back to it regardless.
* * *
 
Rehearsal after that was pretty normal. She’d go in, and try her hand at the routine she’d written up at home, get notes from the other young comedians, and then watch their performances. They were all pretty good. Annoyingly, Shinji was a whole different person up on stage and went from stuffy and stuck up to immediately funny and charismatic.
“Wow,” Sang Mi said. “That’s not fair, he’s funny.”
Tetora patted her on the shoulder. “I know, trust me, I know.”
As she was patted, she checked her phone, and jolted so her back was straight. “Oh. Tonight is the stage show my friend Jae Hyun at school has been doing.”
“It happens during break?”
“The Theater Department is intense. Anyway we’re doing this during break,” she gestured at the stage.
“Right but… wait, you’re going just for your ‘friend’ Jae Hyun? Do you, you know—"
Shinji sighed. “Could you two shut up?” he called down.
“Sorry,” they replied in unison, and then Sang Mi sent a message to Tetora: “Want to see the show with me tonight?”
She replied with an image of a cartoon cat nodding vigorously.
 
Later that evening…
Tetora scrolled through the program for the play on her phone. “So is this Jae Hyun…”
“No,” Sang Mi said.
“I didn’t even finish the sentence.”
“I know what you’re going to say though. I don’t like him.”
Tetora frowned. “You’re going out of your way to see this play he’s in.”
She shrugged without looking back at Tetora. “He’ll come and see my bad comedy routine in return, it’s just polite.”
Tetora screwed her mouth up, nearly forming words a few times before speaking. “You can’t count on people being there forever.”
She huffed. “I know that better than you do, now hush the show is about to start.”
On stage, Ihor strolled out to deliver the prologue: “In fair Verona where we make our play, two families, both alike in dignity…”
Tetora leaned over to whisper. “So your friend—”
“—who is only a friend—”
“—Your completely friendship-based friend-like friend is playing Romeo, but who is playing Juliet?”
“My other friend Li Xiu.”
“Is she a good actress?”
Sang Mi thought for a moment. “I mean, she’s good at roleplaying games. If a little too intense.”
The play continued. Hanzo, naturally, was cast as Mercutio because it was the best role and everyone knew it. Sang Mi was rooting for him to drop the ball, but he apparently had full possession of the ball and was the team’s top scorer.
“Wow, he’s really funny, and kinda cute…” Tetora whispered.
“He’s the worst,” Sang Mi said.
Tetora frowned. “I really need better taste.”
“You and me both, sister…”
Li Xiu was pretty good. Jae Hyun wasn’t a natural, but his awkward earnestness gave him a charm that carried his Romeo forward, till the show finally reached the all-important balcony scene.
With an elegant but practiced grace, Li Xiu stepped out onto the balcony. She looked out into eternity, hands clutched on the railing of the balcony that jiggled slightly as she gripped it. “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name!” The faintest hint of a smile hit the edges of Li Xiu’s lips as she knew she’d nailed the bit everyone knew by heart. Then her eyes grew wide and the smile collapsed as she realized she’d focused so much on nailing those first two lines that she’d completely forgotten what came next. There was a prolonged awkward silence.
A voice called from stage right that Sang Mi recognized as Jorani, the stagehand. “Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love!”
“R-right. Or… or if thou silt not, be but… uh…”
Jae Hyun coughed into his fist. “Sworn my love.”
“That’s my line!” Li Xiu exclaimed.
“I’m trying to be helpful!” he replied.
The audience laughed, but Sang Mi only felt an awkward pain in her chest. Part of her was happy to see Li Xiu get publicly embarrassed, and part of her hated it. Part of her hated herself for feeling happy. Li Xiu had bullied her in the past, sure, but she didn’t have any reason to feel spiteful or jealous these days. She was happy that Jae Hyun was spending time with Li Xiu on this production instead of bothering her — that only made sense logically, right?
Li Xiu managed to get her nerves in check enough to keep going, and the scene finished playing out, albeit not as romantic as the bard had probably intended. The rest of the play went mostly well too, though Li Xiu never got her confidence back all the way. After the play finished, Sang Mi and Tetora went to go greet the actors.
“You came?” was the first thing they heard, and Jae Hyun’s jaw nearly dropped off his face.
“Is there a reason I wouldn’t?” Sang Mi retorted. Jae Hyun simply closed his jaw and smiled.
Li Xiu looked somewhat defeated at her presence. The show had to still be eating her up, Sang Mi reasoned. “Hey, you both did great. That’s one of the most iconic plays of all time, you should be proud.”
“It wasn’t… exactly what I was hoping for,” Li Xiu opined.
Sang Mi hobbled closer and patted her on the shoulder. “Hey, not everyone can recover like that. Most people would have run off stage and put their head under a pillow. You’re not defeated till you give up.”
Li Xiu blinked repeatedly, and then gave a smile that seemed to be knowing, though Sang Mi knew not what. “Yeah. Thanks, Sang Mi.” She ran her tongue along her lower lip and then changed the topic “What have you been doing since you broke your foot, anyway?”
“I’m healing up great, thanks for asking. As for what I’ve been doing, I’ve been learning sit-down comedy with her,” she pointed at Tetora. “We’re actually putting on a show ourselves in two days at the Takumi Centre for the Performing Arts.”
Li Xiu’s eyes widened. “The big citywide arts Showcase?”
“Yeah, I guess?”
“We’ll be at your comedy show too. Promise!” Jae Hyun said.
Li Xiu’s head whipped around to that statement faster than a cheetah. “…Yes, we will both be there. Definitely.”
Tetora cut in, “We’ll look forward to seeing you!”
“Oh right, this is my friend Tetora, she’s teaching me comedy.”
The pair glanced at each other. “You mean… the uh…”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Tetora replied.
“It’s okay, we were both two timed. We’ve made peace.”
Li Xiu was about to reply, when a little girl came up holding a flower to give to Juliet.
“Well, we’ll see you both then, then.” Jae Hyun said with a trademark awkwardness, as Li Xiu knelt down to talk to the child.
“See ya, and good work again!” Sang Mi said. What a show.
 
* * *
The master of the comedy club finally showed up on the day they were supposed to go perform. Sang Mi had expected to feel salty, but as soon as he stepped out of the autocar, supported by a cane and a butler-bot, she could only think of her grandmother in the days before he passed. He was dressed in a fine kimono, and shook gently with every step.
“Oh, are you my lovely comedians?”
“Yes, sensei,” Tetora said with a bow. The rest of them bowed too.
He smiled gently, and hobbled up to Tetora. He reached out, putting a frail hand on her shoulder. “I’m so happy to see you, Shuna. You’ve made me so proud, making sure our traditions here continue.”
Sang Mi mouthed, Shuna?
Tetora chewed her lip for a moment, then smiled. “Of course, I’m happy to do that as well, Grandfather.”
Grandfather? Sang Mi and Midi mouthed.
“You’ve made me so proud… so proud…” he paused, and it seemed like clouds went over his eyes. “I’m sorry, who are you again?”
Sang Mi and Midi pursed their lips. Ah.
Tetora directed him back into the autocar, assisted by the bot, and the young comedians followed suit. The car was lush—faux leather seats so soft they might have been cotton candy. Once it started moving, the old man dozed off.
“So uh, who is Shuna?” Sang Mi asked.
“His granddaughter. I’m her friend at school. She thinks all this stuff is stupid. She told me that if her grandfather didn’t put a group together for the City Arts Showcase they’d close down the comedy club he’d spent his whole life building. She was supposed to do it, but she didn’t want to. Thought it was funny it was finally going away. So I decided to give it a try and see if I could save it.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Midi asked.
“I knew,” Shinji said.
“Shut up, Shinji,” the others replied.
Tetora shrugged. “I didn’t want to guilt anyone into it.”
Sang Mi put her hand on her shoulder. “You know you’re a good person, Tetora.”
Tetora lowered her head, and closed her shoulders in. Sang Mi glanced around. “You… okay?”
Tear drops fell onto Tetora’s lap.
“Oh God, uh, I’m sorry?”
Tetora shook her head. “No, no, don't apologize. Thank you. I… I’m just really glad to hear you say that.”
Alice reached over and poked them both. “I’m glad they’re happy tears, cause we need to get into the zone. We’re supposed to be performing comedy, you know.”
Tetora wiped her tears, smiling from ear to ear, and nodded.
Sang Mi chuckled, she looked like the cartoon bunny she’d sent earlier.
They dropped off the old master first, allowing the staff of the Centre to help him inside to his seat. Then pulled around back to the loading dock area, shuffling in and letting the backstage staff guide them to the greenroom where they sat down on cheap plastic chairs that had been shoved against every wall of the packed room. Other people bustled around them, and each of them took turns going into the dressing room to check their stage makeup.
“Is that Janice Rose?” Alice asked, leaning over and not-quite-whispering because it was too noisy for that. They all peered over to see a rather annoyed looking woman surrounded by entourage.
“No way, why’d she be here?” Tetora answered.
“I heard Director Jojan wanted to make a big display here for the Earther Ambassador, so he was bringing in big names,” Shinji explained.
“But an Earther popstar? Seriously?” Alice said.
“Janice, you’re on!” a stagehand yelled.
“Thank God,” she said in English, which Sang Mi hadn’t heard anyone speak in long enough she startled. “Let’s get this over with.”
They all watched the woman’s entourage push their way through the crowd, making a bubble around her, as she made her way to the stage entrance. The crowd outside exploded with sound—cheers, applause, whoops, shrieks—it was raucous.
“Don’t worry everyone, it’ll be super easy to follow that up!” Sang Mi said.
“…Shut up, Sang Mi,” Shinji said.
She blinked, and then they all laughed. “Okay, that was pretty good,” Sang Mi admitted.
“But seriously,” Tetora said, “We’ll be fine. We’re doing a whole different thing.”
“Would have been nice if they saved the big name for last,” Midi mumbled.
“She probably has to catch a transport back to Earth,” Alice concluded. The pounding of bass resonated as the sounds of the hit single named, ironically enough,“Si-Si-Si-Single!” rang out.
“Look over your lines, everyone,” Tetora reminded. They all did, and when the last notes of the concert faded out, and the final encore walk off had concluded, Tetora rose up, and made sure the stage hands were carrying the platform for them on as Janice Rose’s set up was being carted off. “Alright!” she turned back to the group, speaking over the din. “I’m going on first, then. Alice will follow, Midi in the middle, then Shinji, and Sang Mi will take the final hand off.”
“Wait, why am I the anchor? I never finish relays? And this isn’t a relay, I’m the worst comedian here?”
Tetora winked. “I know you’ll come in for the clutch.”
She gave a thumbs up. “Great, last time I got trusted with this I broke my foot.”
“Then…” she dramatically backed away toward the stage exit, and gave Sang Mi finger guns. “BREAK A LEG!” and ran through the door before she could reply.
The four all stared at the door.
“Damn, she should have saved that one for the set,” Shinji mumbled.
They all sat in a nervous silence as they waited for the noise from Tetora starting her set. They couldn’t make out her exact words, but they could hear the muffled sound of her amplified voice through the wall. They crossed their fingers.
Then, laughter.
They all exhaled.
Sang Mi crossed herself and said a Hail Mary.
Alice’s set went well, so did Midi’s, so when Shinji went on Sang Mi was feeling incredibly chill, and was mouthing the lyrics to a Janice Rose song with Tetora while each listening with an earpiece. Laughter came from the audience.
And then, the laughter stopped.
And they stopped singing.
And there was a length of silence from the stage that was quite worrying.
And Shinji came shuffling off stage, looking down, pale as a sheet.
They all rushed over to him. “Shinji, what happened?” Tetora asked.
“So uh, you know the joke I was workshopping? You know, the one about the girl who was cooking for her girlfriend and dropped the knife on her foot?”
“Yes?” all four said, but not at all in unison so Tetora had to clarify “Yes, that joke killed?” because it wasn’t clear.
“So uh, apparently Director Jojan’s niece dug her spikes into someone during a sports thing, and uh… she sort of started sobbing?”
“Oh no,’ Tetora said.
“Oh shit,” Sang Mi said.
Shinji nodded, and flopped down in a chair.
“Well, that’s it then. I don’t think they’ll be giving Midori’s Comedy Club another arts grant. Let’s just go home,” Alice said, sitting down herself.
Tetora’s eyes watered. “No… I mean… I really tried? I really tried?”
“…Sorry Tetora. I let you down. I know how much this meant to you after the Kyon disaster…”
She shook her head. “No, no, it's fine. It's fine.” She nodded, tears jostling loose to roll down her eyes as she nodded. “Things always go wrong.”
Sang Mi looked between them all. “You guys know I can still go out there, right?”
Tetora shook her head. “You really don’t have to. It's fine, I know you weren’t really into this…”
Sang Mi rolled her eyes, and with thumping slow steps walked to the door. “Nah, don’t worry guys, I got this. You know me. I never know when to quit.” She pushed through the door, and after it closed heard it open again—they were probably following to convince her not to, or watch her. She didn’t turn around again. She reached the edge of the curtains. The audience was mumbling to themselves.
Sang Mi took a breath, and shuffled out on stage. The room was dark, dark enough she struggled to see the audience. She’d never been out on a stage this big before ever—so probably for the best the fact that it was a ton of people was being obscured. Though she didn’t feel as nervous as she’d expected. She’d embarrassed herself in front of people before, like that time she tried to sing a song parody in elementary school and had the whole class laughing in the wrong way. At least here if she was bad enough people laughed she could play that off as part of a brilliant gag. And if they hated her—so what? That was normal too.
She got to the platform, and sat down. She could make the people out better from here, but they were like paper silhouettes that moved around a little in a gentle breeze. She unfurled her fan, and bowed. “Most of you don’t know me, and those of you that do are probably thinking to yourself “That girl doesn’t look like she’s funny!” and to that I’d say… I may not be funny!” She flipped the fan shut and held it pointed at the audience. And kept holding it. “That’s it, there is no rest of the sentence.” And she got her first halting laugh. Tension left her shoulders, this wouldn’t be a disaster.
“I’m actually new to comedy, I got introduced to it by an enemy of mine, she asked me to drop everything and fill in here at the last minute to help her out, and holding a longstanding grudge against her, you know what I said?” She cast her gaze around the crowd. “Yes.”
Pause for laughter. “And you might be thinking, Sang Mi, you don’t sound very smart, and to that I say: I may not be smart!” She paused. “Yeah once again there’s no ‘but’. That being said we’re good friends now, and that’s the power of this kind of thing. And you know it's funny, you go a lot of places in life. And you get there in funny ways.” She shoved her boot off the platform and gestured to it. “I’m actually usually an athlete. What I do is that I run in a big loop over and over and if I do it fast enough, I get minor validation! But big surprise I actually got in an accident while running track and field. I’m not mad about it though, because I made new friends, and had a good time! And you know what that makes me?”
She paused.
“Probably a little weird for feeling grateful I broke my foot. But I am, so no hard feelings.”
She held her hands out for effect. And it took a second for everyone to catch up, but as a loud set of clapping that was probably either Jojan’s niece or someone else in the family started, other people noticed, and promptly began following suit. She held the pose a while, smiling and nodding, as she got a really lengthy applause for something that was neither very funny nor very clever. Once it died down, she pulled her foot back up on the pedestal.  "But this isn’t the first time I’ve taken on a weird new hobby. For a real brief time, I told my parents I wanted to be an advice columnist. Can you believe that? Would you ask me for advice? Didn’t think so. But I did meet some people who helped solve other people’s problems, and one of them told me a funny story about one of their customers, it went something like this…”
She mimed opening a sliding door. “Hello, is this the home of the legendary problem solver?”
She changed her body language to the second character. “It certainly is my home, a home, so who am I speaking to?”
“Ah! So I wanted you to help. I think I’m in the wrong career.”
“That’s a more common problem than you might think. So what aren’t you enjoying about your current career?”
“Well, it's not so much that I’m not enjoying it… it’s uh… more that I’m getting a lot of customer complaints.”
“Complaints? What about?”
“Well…” she scratched her cheek. “I do massages, and I’m pretty good at it. Or so I thought. You see, they always go well until…”
“Until…”
“Until!”
“UNTIL!?”
“Until I scratch their back!”
She put her eyes wide and blinked in confusion. “How can you mess up a back scratch?”
“By sending them to the hospital!”
“What are you using to scratch their back?”
“Ah! It’s a family heirloom, my grandfather passed it down to me from his grandfather.”
“You skipped the fathers?”
“They were losers. Anyway, take a look. My one and only, legendary one of a kind… back scratcher!”
She made her eyes wide and blinked again. “You think that’s a backscratcher?”
“Of course it is!”
“You think that is a backscratcher!”
“I already said yes.”
“That’s a freaking SWORD!”
She got the laugh.
“What… what do you mean, ‘that’s a sword’? It’s a backscratcher! My grandpa used to laugh and tell me that he scratched the backs of a bunch of pirates with it.”
“Oh I bet he did. So uh, then why is it in two pieces?”
“Well I tried scratching a guy’s back with it, and he sort of snapped it in half.”
“I bet he did.”
“Well, I think you’ve been a great help to me. I now know—I wasn’t meant to be a masseuse, I was meant to be a swordsman!” She mimed waving a sword around.
“Well its going to be hard to do that with a broken sword.”
“Hmn… I guess you’ve got a point… Wait! You’re the legendary problem solver! Can you fix my sword?”
“Can I fix it? Why, I can fix it, or my name isn’t Hattori Hanzo!”
“Oh, thank you so much!”
She mimed handing the sword off, and then spoke as herself. “After the sword got fixed, a week passed, and the man came back…”
She mimed opening the sliding door again. “The sword you made me broke! You said it wouldn’t break, or your name wasn’t Hattori Hanzo!”
She shrugged. “Well my name isn’t Hattori Hanzo, it's Greg.”
There was laughter. She held her pose, she could hear her own breath. The applause started—the applause started! She bowed, and that was great because it meant the audience couldn’t see the overwhelming relief flooding her face. She held the bow till she could get it together, and then sat up smiling, waved to the audience, and walked off. As she got off stage she was tackled in a hug from Tetora and Midi.
“You did it!” Midi said.
“I had nothing to worry about, you were great!”
She smiled — a real smile, not a stage one. “Only cause I had a great team. And like, I mean that I had no idea what I was doing.”
Alice and Shinji, just to the side, each had their arms crossed, but looked pleased too.
“You did good,” Alice said.
“You weren’t terrible,” Shinji said.
Sang Mi laughed. “Thanks Shinji.”
They made their way out of the stage, and skipped returning to the green room.
“To comedy!” Tetora said.
“To comedy!” They all repeated.
“And to…” Sang Mi looked up at Tetora. “Friends.”
“To friends!” They clinked the plastic cups together, and sipped the sparkling juice. Sang Mi swirled her cup, and looked back around the packed banquet hall. She wasn’t an introvert, but this had been a lot for today.
“Hey, I’ll be right back, I just need some air.”
“Alright, just make sure you’re here for the cake. And take care, it’s cold out there.”
She gave a lazy two-fingered salute, and hobbled her way through the crowds to the outside of the venue. There was a small garden for just this sort of need outside one of the side doors, and as she stumbled under the mood-lit hanging lights she couldn’t help but feel that the entire area had had a lot of work done on it for somewhere she actually was able to be alone during such a packed event. Tetora was right–it was cold out, cold enough that snow was starting to waft down in gentle tufts that were settling on the lawn. Moving across the grass towards a bench on the far side, she heard a voice. It was a voice she hadn’t expected to hear, coming from the doorway to the Performance Centre.
“Sang Mi?”
She turned her head. There he was, in all his obnoxious handsome splendor. Kyon, dressed in an elegantly simply upscale suit he’d opened the top button on and loosened the tie on probably moments ago. She finished turning around, stomping her boot down to try to get something of a firm standing, but she still wobbled.
Sang Mi let out a breath in the cool night air, allowing it to fog out towards Kyon.
"...What are you doing here?"
"I'm allowed to go wherever I like, this is a public show."
"Two of your exes are here, don't give me that crap."
He sighed, and looked up at the sky. "You can't see the stars right here, there's too much light."
"Yeah, what's that have to do with anything?"
Kyon shook his head. "Forget it. I wanted to talk to you."
"Okay," she adjusted her weight on her boot. "Talk."
He looked at her, and it was a way he'd looked at her in the past, so she averted her own eyes to ignore it. "I think you've been unfair to me."
Her eyes turned back. "Unfair? UNFAIR? You cheated on me!"
"Did I?" he said blandly, "As I see it, our relationship was dead a long time ago. But you can't see that. Maybe what happened wasn't right, maybe I should have told you but... would you have listened anyway?"
"I would have!"
"Did you? Because I did try to tell you. I did try. And it just... you just didn't listen."
"I always listened to you."
"You didn't. I spoke, and you took the words you wanted from me. You clutched onto me, and you wouldn't let go. So yeah, I started dating Tetora. And I didn't know how to tell you."
Sang Mi felt her heart turn in her chest. Maybe this was her fault. She couldn’t exactly say she’d been a good girlfriend. She had never introduced him to her friends. Maybe she’d known deep down that if she’d done that,  Jae Hyun and JackBox would move on. Of course they’d move on.
They’d leave her alone. And she’d be alone. Like she was here, now, doing something she wasn’t good at because she couldn’t say no to someone she hadn’t ever wanted to see again not too long ago.
But then Saki’s words hit her again. “Sang Mi, do you really think I’d work with someone I thought was worthless?” She gritted her teeth.
“You can’t just… show up here and say stuff like that to hurt me. You can’t just blame me, and make me feel like the villain.”
“I’m not making you the villain! But you have no idea how to communicate with people, and you blame me for it. I told you I needed time to figure things out. I told you you’d let me down.”
“Time to figure things out doesn’t mean an ending, I agreed to give you some space so we could figure things out, and you never corrected me when I introduced you as my boyfriend after that. You still took me out on dates!”
“Those weren’t dates, they were just…”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t get semantic with me. You took me on dates. You thought you could get all the perks of having me around without any of the burden of it.”
“So you admit you’re a burden?”
She threw her hands up with an aggravated cry. “God, that’s the thing about you, Kyon. You take such pride in how petty and vindictive you can be—you brag about how you get your friends to clean up your messes like you were the most clever boy on Gongen to do it—but then when somebody else is human and just fails at something or isn’t good enough, you’re suddenly personally aggrieved. No one in history has ever been more wronged!”
He darkened. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? You excuse cheating because you didn’t communicate with me well enough, and then get mad at me for not asking all the questions I couldn’t have known to ask.” She shrunk in a little bit. “I was so proud to be dating you. I was so happy to be dating someone who also was driven to get good grades, who cared about track, had a lot of friends, we’re even both Catholic. You know I don’t really grasp that stuff well but everyone says you’re handsome and I’m plain, and I liked the way you didn’t look at me like you thought I was. You went to our rival school but we made it work. I thought I could… bridge all those gaps.”
“I guess maybe there were too many gaps to bridge,” he said looking down.
“Maybe,” she replied.
He blew out a breath, and watched it curl into smoke and fade. “You’re right, I came here to see Tetora. I wanted to talk to her. I didn’t expect to see you. But I wanted to talk to you too, once I saw you.”
“To have it out with me?”
“I thought you’d admit you were wrong.”
She clicked her tongue. “Tetora isn’t into you. You can’t two-time two girls and expect you can charm them back.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know. I already talked to her.”
Sang Mi laughed, now that was funny. “…God, even when you want to have it out with me I’m second place.”
“It’s not like that.”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. I think I understand this all now. I get the humor in it all. I didn’t get why God led me here to this dump to do comedy, but I had fun, I learned a lot, and I guess I needed to chat with you to figure things out.”
He put his hands in his pockets. “Alright, I’ll bite. What’d you figure out?”
She gave a wistful smile. “I guess in the end our whole relationship was a shaggy dog joke.”
He tilted his head. “I don’t know what that is.”
She sighed, and knelt down in the snow, wiping a bit of the dirt off, and pulling out a fan. “Well, let me tell you one. Thank you for coming today.”
“You don’t need to kneel down and do the whole Rakugo spiel.”
“And you didn’t need to cheat on me so deal with it.” She flicked her fan open. “So there’s this guy, and he has the shaggiest dog you’ve ever seen. Everyone says so. He’s walking down the street one day, when this man comes up to him and says. ‘Good sir, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog shaggier than that. Not even in Hongtu. I daresay, that dog is so shaggy I bet it could solve a problem I’ve had, you see my daughter can’t find her stuffed animal, and has been desperate to hug something shaggy, so if you could come over and let her play with your dog I’ll give you a hundred credits!’ Now the man is skeptical, but he brings the dog over, and lo and behold he gets a hundred credits just for letting the girl play with the dog. So he’s feeling good about himself, and he takes the dog over to the park the next day when this woman comes over and says, ‘My gosh, I don’t ever think I’ve seen a shaggier dog.’ She’s cute, so the man asks if she wants to go to the dog park with him, and the pair hit it off. Time passes, and soon there are wedding bells and they’re going to use their dog as the ring-bearer at first but they decide they might lose the rings in its fur because it's so shaggy. His parents are at the wedding, getting introduced to his bride for the first time, but they keep getting distracted by the dog. ‘That’s the shaggiest dog I’ve ever seen!’ his dad says. And the wedding happens, and after they get back from their honeymoon the man has made a decision: he’s heard the same thing for years now, so he goes to enter his dog in the planetary shaggiest dog competition, and he takes it up to the judges and they look at it and the judge shakes his head and says, ‘That dog isn’t even that shaggy.’’ She bowed. “Thank you for listening, this concludes this evening’s performance.”
Kyon stood there, brow furrowed. The snow settled on Sang Mi’s black hair in shining white bunches as the silence following the joke stretched on. “What was the point of that?” he asked.
She got up, dusting herself off. “Good question. I’ve been asking myself the same thing. See you later, Kyon.” She turned around, and hobbled off back towards the Performance Centre. She might not have been able to tell a joke, but for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel like one.

​

NEXT TIME!
Well wasn’t that fun? You finally got to spend some real time with me, the beautiful, glorious, talented, modest, Hee Jin! Oh, and we kicked Academy 2’s butts! Heck yeah! But I still have to do the announcements… um… there’s a bake sale to support orphans in Colocog on Tuesday in the cafeteria. Also, looks like Zhyrgal Osmonova is still puttering around.
I know my friend Sang Mi tried to investigate her earlier about something, but she’s still been helping feed the animals on the roof and everything… but what does she do with her time? Who is Zhyrgal to Zhyrgal?
And what would that girl do if you put her in a situation where she had to decide what the right thing was? Well, I guess we might find out next week!
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Kindness
By James Hornby
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

The night had unrolled into a crisp morning over the streets of Takumi. It was raining, but only lightly, and it was pleasant against the heat. And Kalingkata, out of nowhere, tackled Jae Hyun so suddenly that he almost fell over.
“Ahhh!” he said in as dignified a tone as he could manage. “What are you—”
“You,” she said, “are not going to believe,” she said, “what I saw yesterday.”
This was on the route to school. Jae Hyun wasn’t really awake yet, so this was more than he could deal with. “Did you find, like, a robot cat this time?”
“I wish. That would be amazing.” She strode on ahead - she was shorter than him but somehow had a longer stride, so he had to hurry to keep up. “Put it this way. What’s the weirdest thing that happened to you yesterday?”
“Oh, I’d say it would be Li Xiu making me larp as a guy who really wanted that money. Why did he want that money?”
“You were a drug dealer.”
“Oh!” Jae Hyun blinked. “That- yeah, that actually tracks. Can you slow down a little? I had a big breakfast.” (He had not had a big breakfast. He just didn’t move at a brisk jog at 8.15am.)
Kalingkata dialed it back to a brisk walk. “So, exactly - you’d think the weirdest thing about yesterday would be the roleplay, and Li Xiu losing her upper-upper-upper-class mind, and you needing to bridal-carry Tsetseg outside.” She paused. “Actually, before I say my thing. Any updates on that?”
“We’re not a thing,” Jae Hyun said quickly.
“I meant is she still alive, jackass.”
“Oh! Sorry. Yeah. She just needed a lot of water.”
“Okay, cool.” She clapped her hands together. “But actually. The weirdest thing about yesterday was when I went over to Li Xiu’s parents’ house.”
Jae Hyun didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t what followed: Li Xiu’s parents acting out a LARP based on some sort of Swedish pagan ritual, Mrs. Cao pretending to bonk her mother on the head with a big squeaky hammer. “That’s nuts,” he said. “That’s actually insane. Are you making this up?”
“If I made it up, it’d make sense,” she said; at this point, she had distractedly returned to her original pace, and Jae Hyun just had to keep up. “So of course, I have to figure out what’s going on. These people are filthy rich and they act weird? There simply has to be an overlap. The universe hates a coincidence.”
Jae Hyun wasn’t sure the universe had strong feeling one way or the other, but he didn’t say that. He was too eager to please. “So you reckon they’re part of some tabletop cult?”
“And that’s where they get all their money from!” she said. “I don’t think anyone’s ever made a connection between tabletop games and cults before, but there might be something in it. So, I’m going to investigate. I just don’t know how yet.”
“I could help!” Jae Hyun said, the words out of his mouth before he’d fully thought them. “I mean, we have the experience from investigating Zhyrgal.”
“We do have the experience getting our ass kicked, yes,” said Kalingkata. “I guess I won’t say no, but I wasn’t, like, trying to recruit you. I just had to talk to someone about this before I went insane.”
“You didn’t tell Talinata?”
“That barely counts.” She tousled her hair as she thought. “I’m pretty sure I’d be able to hack their home computer. I’d just have to email the grandmother like,” - she put on a deep voice - “buhh, I’m the gubberment, give me your password.” She paused. “But that’d be pretty bad. She’s, like, 200 years old. No class in that.”
Jae Hyun shrugged. “We could break into their house? That’d be cooler.”
Kalingkata squinted at him. “Bit of an escalation, yeah?”
He huffed. “It could be a cool way for us to, like. Hang out.”
“Larceny?”
“We’ve done it before, in the junkyard.”
“That was giving something back!” Kalingkata said; her indignation was only mostly a joke. “Nobody lives in that junkyard. I hope. And we returned a lost pet. And I was nice to an old lady. So you have me all backwards. You’re imagining anti-Kalingkata.”
This wasn’t going well. “Well, uh. We could get the information out of Li Xiu?”
“How so,” Kalingkata said flatly.
“Oh, you know me,” he said unconvincingly. “I can put on the moves.”
This did something unusual: it brought Kalingkata to a standstill. She turned to look him in the eye, her expression neutral. Jae Hyun wasn’t sure what to make of this, so he just looked back.
“Can you,” she said. “Can you, put on the moves.”
“I- I guess?” said Jae Hyun. Then, more confidently, “Yeah! I know you’re pretty oblivious to flirting and things like that, so let me assure you - when I decide it’s on, it’s on.”
There was something in Kalingkata’s expression that Jae Hyun couldn’t pinpoint. He could only assume his gambit was working.
“How about,” said Kalingkata, “you go ahead and do that.”
He paused. “Huh?”
“Yeah,” she said, and patted him on the shoulder. “Go try it on some other girl for a day or two. I’d appreciate that.”
Jae Hyun didn’t get this right away. Then his eyes widened in understanding. “Okay, got it! Wink wink!” He smiled widely and galloped off.
The plan was simple. He would put the moves on Li Xiu and gain her trust. She would tell him everything he wanted to know about her family and their pagan RPG cult. Then he would report all this information back to Kalingkata, and she would be so grateful that maybe she would give him a little kiss. Maybe that was how it all worked. He chuckled to himself giddily. Finally, it was all happening!
“You wink with your eyes,” Kalingkata muttered to herself. “Saying it is ridiculous.”

***

The first few periods creaked by. Mrs. Ichinose was talking about wavy lines and the equations used to pinpoint what kind of wavy they were, but Jae Hyun had a harder time paying attention than normal. All he could think about was the plan of attack. How would he open? He’d be able to approach at break, and they’d both be at the canteen, so he could talk about food. That would be a start. He had an idea for something to say, something he’d seen in a video.
Eventually, 11am did tick around, and everyone milled into the canteen, chattering noisily. He scanned the crowd for Li Xiu and was happy to see that, unusually, she was sitting alone. He took a deep breath and sidled up to her. It was time to say something about food.
“So, like,” he said to her, “is ramen a comfort food, or am I just depressed?”
She blinked. “What?”
It was funnier in the video, he guessed. “Uh, I mean. So I was thinking of getting some.” He paused. “If you wanted some too?”
She seemed very interested in the woodwork of the table. “No thanks.”
“Or maybe a coffee?”
She looked up. “They don’t do coffee. It’s a high school.”
“Well,” he said, trying to adapt, “maybe we could just get one later.”
She smiled - not unkindly, but definitely not impressed. “And does that work for you very often? Lines like that.”
He froze up. “I mean, uh. I didn’t mean anything by- I didn’t mean to-”
She laughed a little at his flusterment. “Don’t worry, it’s just funny. Really, I’m lucky anyone’s talking to me at all.”
“Oh, you mean after-” He caught himself, rather than say after you went insane and nearly sent Tsetseg to the hospital.
“After I went insane,” she said, “and nearly sent Tsetseg to the hospital, yeah. I’d like to say I was just in character, but that was only part of it.” She tapped her fingernails (long, painted pastel pink) against the table. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s probably Tsetseg you should be apologizing to.”
“I did. She was pretty gracious about it, but I don’t know if we’re cool.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I guess we didn’t know each other that well anyway.”
“Sure. Why are you…” He gestured. “Like that? About tabletop stuff? Is it a family thing, or-”
She laughed shortly. “Oh, trust me, you don’t want to know.”
“No, I do.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry.”
This seemed like a dead end. But he didn’t feel the need to nope out. “Well, tell me this instead, then,” he said. “Yesterday, with the lights and cameras and stuff. Do you want to go into film?”
Li Xiu went a little red in the face. “You make it sound silly.”
“What? No. I think that’d be cool.”
She didn’t respond. But she put her hands together and smiled in a gentle, happy way. “Uh. Thanks.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“Nothing good.”
“Tell me your bad idea, so.”
“It’s not a bad idea!” she said in mock indignation - she was smiling now. “Alright, I’ll tell you a bit of it. It’s, like,” - she made a little square with her hands as if she was picturing it - “it would be about, like, this guy who’s really nice and cheerful? But his wife is cheating on him with his best friend.”
“Right, right,” he said. “Kind of a drama thing.”
“Definitely, yeah,” she said. “But like, I don’t know. I’d have a lot to learn, and it feels impossible to start. I look at what I have of the script so far, and it just feels like the most garbage thing. And I don’t think my parents would want me to do it.”
This was an opening to push on what her family’s deal was, but he found he didn’t want to take it. “Well, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?”
“I don’t think I gotta do this.”
“No? You don’t gotta follow your dreams? You wouldn’t be the first girl to piss off her parents.”
She sighed. “You think so?”
He swiveled round to lean back against the table and put his hands behind his head; this did not make any sense as a maneuver, but it felt right. “I can be the drug dealer again in your movie. Or I can just get up on a rooftop and demand money from you. Whatever works.”
That got a laugh out of her, so he was satisfied with a job well done. “Thank you,” she said, and she clearly meant it.
Jae Hyun wasn’t sure what he was trying to do. This didn’t really seem to be resolving in the direction of putting on the moves or getting any information. But he was enjoying spending time with Li Xiu. So he decided to stay a while, maybe.

So he did.
They hung out a lot over the next few days talking about Li Xiu’s screenplay idea. Jae Hyun started trying to explain story structure to her, but these turned into long explanations of what Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and ‘the Scottish play’ actually were, and that led sideways into a ramble about Journey to the West, or ‘that dumb monkey book.’ And Li Xiu explained her many contradictory ideas, and they got no work done whatsoever.
Li Xiu was concerned with the question of how they would fund this movie. Apparently, her parents wouldn’t just stump up the cash; she had to find a way to generate it herself. Jae Hyun was quick to say that they should probably write at least a first draft of the script first, but Li Xiu dismissed this. The movie was all in her head ready to go. “All we need,” she said, “is for someone to sell me a whole load of stuff at a low price point.”
Jae Hyun would later rationalise that this was the sort of thing that might illuminate how the Caos operate, where their money comes from. But really, he was just happy to hang out with a girl after school.
What he wasn’t expecting was for Li Xiu to lead him to a bar. The sort of where you spoke to the bouncer through a reinforced door with an open-and-shut grille. And that door was somehow the most welcoming thing on this street; otherwise, it was all dumpsters. Not his usual environment. He suspected it wasn’t hers either, and said as much.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “They know me here.”
She rapped primly three times on the grate, and it slid open. The dude on the other side looked like a mattress shoved into a tracksuit.
She leaned in. “Starboard,” she said conspiratorially.
“That hasn’t been the password for three weeks,” the bouncer growled. “It changes every night.”
Li Xiu huffed. “I’m Li Xiu, I know JackBox.”
“JackBox doesn’t get to let people in.”
“Then at least let her know we’re out here.”
He paused, then grunted his assent. “I’ll send word.”
“Appreciated, darling.”
Jae Hyun put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Should we even be here? Like, is it safe?”
She scoffed. “What, do you think they’re going to kill us? You do realise murder is illegal.”
“Yeah, but it’s not against the laws of goddam physics.”
“It’s four-thirty in the afternoon,” she said, laughing a little. “And it’s just a bar.”
“Right, I was going to ask,” he said. “Why is JackBox here?”
“I can answer that,” called a familiar, hoarse voice from around the corner. Sure enough, it was JackBox, sweaty after a day at work, decked out in her usual 50s-goth-housewife dress. She patted the wall with her cybernetic arm. “Just checking in with some work stuff.”
Jae Hyun raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t realise you worked at a place like this.”
“I don’t,” she said. “It’s like, I just supervise people who sell the—” She caught herself. “Like, the products I sell.”
“This is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” Li Xiu said, smiling widely, laying a hand on JackBox’s shoulder. “You said you sell leather jackets, right? Let’s walk and talk.”
JackBox let herself be led along by Li Xiu, who had now linked arms with her and was heading back out onto the main street. “Yeah, now you mention it, I definitely did say that I sell leather jackets. Some water beds too. Although I mostly sell to, like, politicians and stuff.”
Jae Hyun laughed a little - the alley was only wide enough for two people, and he had been shuffled down the pecking order to walk behind them. “What politician goes around in a leather jacket?”
“I don’t name names,” JackBox said neutrally.
“And you don’t need to,” said Li Xiu. “So I’m asking because - you have people under you who sell for you, yes?”
JackBox met her gaze. “Uh-huh.”
“My proposition for you is, what if I were to become one of these people? Selling for you.”
JackBox paused. They had just stepped out from the lip of the alley and into broad daylight, where normal people were walking home from work. “I don’t think you fit the profile,” she said, still very level.
“How about me?” said Jae Hyun. “I haven’t really been a salesman before, but I wanna help with Li Xiu’s thing.”
“You would also be bad,” said JackBox, “but Li Xiu extremely does not fit the profile.”
“I’m very adaptable,” Li Xiu said with a smile vaguely reminiscent of a shark. “Would it make more sense if I said I was trying to fund a film I want to make? And that I would buy the product from you at a low price point and sell high?”
“No?” said JackBox. “What? No, it would not make it better if you told me you were ripping me off. Like… my guys get a twenty percent cut. It’s a system.”
Li Xiu exhaled thoughtfully. “There must be something we can do to make it worth your while. Some sort of social favour, or—”
“Oh hey!!!” JackBox exclaimed in the other direction, suddenly much more cheery and energetic. Li Xiu and Jae Hyun were confused for a moment, and then they saw: Kalingkata was on the other side of the road, on her way home. JackBox trotted across to her, presumably to say hey!!! at her some more.
“Oh, hey dude!” said Kalingkata, friendly but without any equivalent note of frenzy. Then she saw Jae Hyun. “Hey dude.” Then her eyes shifted to Li Xiu, and Jae Hyun next to Li Xiu, and she did some mental calculations. “Oh, uh. Hey dude.”
That, Jae Hyun thought, was the sort of reaction that someone might find suspicious. But Li Xiu didn’t seem to notice at all. She was smiling - not just happily, but smugly. Knowingly. It was the happiest Jae Hyun had ever seen her, and the most dangerous.
“Hey dude,” Jae Hyun said in his best impression of JackBox’s neutral tone from earlier.
“You havin’ a good time,” she asked flatly.
“Sure.”
“A good,” she said, “and normal and respectful time? With boundaries and… stuff like that?”
Li Xiu laughed and linked arms with Jae Hyun. “You don’t have to worry about this boy at all. He’s a total sweetheart, and he’s been so supportive about my screenplay.”
“Right,” said Kalingkata, visibly skeptical about supporting Li Xiu’s cinematic ambitions after last weekend. “Well. Be sure to mention me in your acceptance speech. But I gotta go help my mom with dinner. So I’ll catch you guys around.”
And she prowled off without waiting for them to say goodbye.
JackBox sighed, full of nerves. “Was that weird?” she said. “Was I weird? Was that too much?”
Li Xiu smiled widely.
“What?!”
“Let me answer with a question,” she said. “When did all this start?”
She huffed, red in the face. She even fully crossed her arms. Strange behavior from a girl who had just a minute ago been hard-assing them. “I mean. I’m not gonna say in front of him.”
Jae Hyun put his hands up. “Not a word’s gonna make it back to her. I can fully just tune out and stare into space if you want.”
And truth be told, he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want JackBox to go off schmoozing with Kalingkata. He wanted to schmooze with Kalingkata. That, he reminded himself, was the point of this whole operation.
She went quiet for a moment. Then she leaned in close to Li Xiu. “So, like. Basically immediately.”
“That is just precious. Why? She’s nice and all, but she’s a mess.”
“She’s cool,” JackBox insisted. “She always seems to be going on adventures, and she’s just super full of energy and stuff, and she’s easy to be around.”
“She’s not that cool,” Jae Hyun said unconvincingly. “I’d say you’re cooler.”
“She is cool, and also has her life together,” said JackBox.
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Jae Hyun, his mouth running faster than his mind again. “I mean, last year, she dragged me on this whole wild goose chase through a junkyard. Because she, like, goes through the junkyard looking for stuff for fun? Which I think is weird.”
Li Xiu lightly slapped him on the arm. “You must stop being such a killjoy! No, I can see what she means. Sang Mi does have an enthusiasm about her.”
“They both do,” JackBox smiled shyly. “Her and Talinata. Honestly, not to be weird, but I’d take either.”
“I mean,” Jae Hyun cut in again, trying not to laugh, “do you mean either? Because I think you’re thinking b—”
“You said you were going to tune out.”
“This is vulgar and I cannot condone it,” said Li Xiu, smiling wider than ever. “I believe we’ve found the favor we can administer upon you.”
“You absolutely have not,” said JackBox. “I don’t know what you mean, but whatever it is, I would die. I’ll never give you any jackets for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, we’re well past jackets.” Li Xiu was fully grinning now. “This is so much more delicious.”
This was not a good direction for this to be going. “Hey now,” he said. “Hey now hey now hey now. Doesn’t it seem like interjecting ourselves into people’s feelings like this could get a little weird?”
“I just want to help out my good friend JackBox,” Li Xiu said innocently.
“But this is ridiculous,” he insisted. “You’re not seriously going to set them up.”
“No, Jae Hyun.” Li Xiu made a little ceremonial ta-da kind of a gesture. “You are going to set them up.”
JackBox buried her face in her hands. “Oh my God…”
“Yeah, oh my God!” said Jae Hyun, his voice getting squeaky now. “How am I supposed to—”
“You know Sang Mi way better than I do. And I’d say you’d be well able to put on the moves,” Li Xiu grinned.
“Uh?!”
“C’mon,” she said, giving him the big doe eyes. “I’d really appreciate it…”
She might even appreciate it enough, he thought, to open up a bit about her family. Maybe this was the solution. “Sure,” he said. “I can make that work.”
JackBox looked up. “Two seconds ago, you thought this was a bad idea.”
Which was true, in that he wanted to keep Kalingkata for himself. So he had to thread the needle on this one. “I just mean that I don’t see what you see in her,” he said easily. “Like, she’s a weird trash lady, and you can do better. But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Oh my Godddd,” JackBox said into her hands in embarrassment. When she looked up again, her face was resolute. “Fine. I’ll let you do the thing. But this had better work.”
“It will!” Li Xiu smiled.
“Unless it doesn’t,” said Jae Hyun, “which is okay, because, like, plenty of fish in the sea, right?”
“It had better work!”
JackBox tried to push past them and run off, but Li Xiu grabbed her arm. “One more thing.” She pulled out her purse, fished out a pretty decent whack of little pieces of paper, and pressed them into JackBox’s hands. “As many leather jackets as that will buy. I trust you to cut a good rate for your matchmaker.”
JackBox stared at the money in her hand. “Damn,” she said. “I shoulda come to you months ago.” And with that, she left, speechless. She was nearly stumbling from the exertion of it all.
Li Xiu was still beaming. “She is absolutely adorable,” she said. “I have never seen her like that.”
“Yeah, I guess me neither,” Jae Hyun said absently. He was watching Li Xiu’s hands, how she tapped the tips of her fingernails together with nervous excitement. It was deliberate and kind of endearing.
“You keep looking at my hands,” she said. “Is there something on them?”
“Oh? No. I guess I just like how you do your nails.”
“Ah!” She tucked her hair behind her ears nervously. “It’s not me that does them, I just went to the salon last week. But thank you. Maybe we’ll have to get yours done!”
He laughed. “It’d be wasted on me.”

***

“She’s funny,” he said. “She goes to the salon to get her nails done. Who does that? Like, under the age of 30.”
“I could never.” Kalingkata waggled her fingers. “Need these girls for gaming. Gotta keep my mash optimal.”
This was the next day at lunch. Jae Hyun hadn’t run into Kalingkata in the morning even though they usually walked to school together. She’d presumably overslept. But he’d caught her when class broke; she looked a little reluctant, and he second-guessed himself, but it was important to debrief about the mission. Now they were sitting out in the sun on the outside wall; it almost felt like they should be having cans of something they weren’t old enough for yet.
“And you might want to keep your nails short for other things.”
She looked at him blankly. “What other things?”
He realised his error. “Y’know.”
“Oh, like, just in general?”
“Yes, that is what I meant,” Jae Hyun said steadily. Time to change the subject. “Anyway. Are you excited to find out what the deal is with Li Xiu’s cult? Because I think we’re just one or two steps away.”
Kalingkata shrugged, staring off into the middle distance. “Honestly, don’t break your back over it. I was going insane on Monday, but so long as I don’t get bonked on the head with a big squeaky hammer, I could take it or leave it.”
“Well, maybe take it,” Jae Hyun said, mentally scrabbling a little, “because I need your help for this next bit. Can you go on a date with JackBox?”
For the first time in the conversation, Kalingkata actually looked at him. “I, uh. What?”
“Basically, Li Xiu is playing matchmaker,” Jae Hyun rattled off - he had spent an embarrassingly long time last night figuring out a more elaborate lie before remembering that Kalingkata was actually in on the original ruse. “So if I help her out with that, then I’ll earn her trust, and she’ll tell us everything we want to know.”
Kalingkata’s mouth was a straight line. She steepled her fingers together. “And does JackBox know about this?”
“Uh-huh,” Jae Hyun said neutrally.
A pause as she computed all this. “So what you mean is,” she said, “this is a convoluted way of JackBox asking me out?”
Jae Hyun scrunched up his face. “More like me asking for Li Xiu asking for her?”
“Sure,” said Kalingkata. She ran her fingers through her hair, clearly stressing a little. “It’s just. I didn’t think she fancied me? I can’t tell.”
“Yeah,” said Jae Hyun pointedly, “I don’t think you’ve ever noticed anyone having a huge crush on you.”
“What can I say? I’m not gifted with your unparalleled ability to read the goddam room.”
“Exactly!” said Jae Hyun. It was nice to get some credit, at least. “Anyway, are you going on the date or not?”
Kalingkata thought for a second. “I have never thought about whether or not I fancy JackBox,” she said honestly, “but she is cool, so I suppose it could be worth checking.” Then, more assertively, “Sure, tell her we can go to the ice cream place just up the road when school breaks. I’ll give anyone a chance.”
Unbelievable. “Will do, ma’am,” he said weakly. Then attempted a joke: “Maybe you’ll even get a leather jacket out of the deal.”
Kalingkata blinked. “A what?”
“Oh, sorry, it was this whole thing. JackBox was saying that she sells leather jackets at the local bar.”
“Is that so.”
“Yeah, like. She supervises sellers who work at street level? And she mainly sells to politicians. Which I think is crazy. I’d like to know what politician would be getting a leather jacket.”
He turned around, expecting Kalingkata to at least be doing an obligatory fake laugh, but she seemed more irritated than ever. “Come the hell on, man,” she said. “She’s, like, sixteen. Do you seriously expect me to believe that shit?” She hopped off the wall and stormed off. “Leather jackets. Christ. Just talk straight.”
Jae Hyun was stung. Was it something he said? What was it about leather jackets that were so bad? Was she vegan or something?
Oh well. He pulled out his padd and, with no small amount of annoyance, texted JackBox the good news.

***

It was of course imperative, or at least appropriate, that Jae Hyun also be in the ice cream parlour to see how the plan played out. But it was also important that JackBox not see. So he went and got one of those print media ‘news papers’ that hipsters liked, to block his face. And he had a sunglasses-and-baseball-cap setup too, for safety. And he’d even slipped away before the last class to make sure he’d be there early.
Kalingkata was the first in the door. Since she was in on the plan, he lowered his newspaper to wave hello. Apparently, this was an error. She stormed over to him and was clearly just about stopping herself from grabbing him by the jumper. “What,” she said, “in God’s name are you doing here?!”
“Just making sure everything goes well!” he said squeakily.
“I am here on a nice date with my normal friend—”
“I don’t understand. This was the plan?”
“Why do you have a big newspaper?!”
“It’s a disguise!” He gestured at a woman across the room who was also reading the paper. “It’s in vogue here!”
Kalingkata took a step back and started massaging her temples. He needed to say something to set her at ease.
“So,” he said, holding up his mostly-empty paper cup. “Why do they sell coffees here? Like, it doesn’t go with ice cream. Although I guess that’s what affegatos are?”
“Perish.”
This wasn’t salvageable. He started folding up his newspaper. “Y’know, maybe I should just get out of your—”
Nope nope nope nope JackBox was walking in the door. He unfolded the newspaper again like a springtrap and hoped desperately that she hadn’t noticed anything amiss, just staring in blind panic at a 750-word report on a planned windmill development.
“Hey!” he heard JackBox say. She didn’t seem any the wiser. “Heyyy!!!”
A long pause from Kalingkata. “Hey. Do you wanna go somewhere else?”
“That’s okay, I love it here!”
“I think the park could be good,” Kalingkata said firmly.
“I’ll just order,” said JackBox. A pause. He guessed she was looking at the menu. “This is crazy,” she continued. “That we’re here, I mean. Sorry to do it through a weird chain. It wasn’t really my idea.”
“Yeah, I think a lot of people have been having weird ideas.” Then she seemed to catch herself. “I don’t mean it’s not nice to hang out, though. I’m down for that.”
“… of course, yeah,” JackBox said, all shy.
“You could have just asked me out, you know.”
“I knowww,” she whined. “But, like, those two were cool about it. They were bigging you up, talking about all the cool adventures you go on in the junkyard.”
“Oh yeah! That thing with the dog. That was a nice night.”
“Well, I say ‘bigging you up.’ Jae Hyun called you a weird trash lady.”
Uh oh.
“Did he,” said Kalingkata. “Did he now.”
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
“I mean,” JackBox said quickly. “I don’t think he meant it in a very mean way? I don’t know.”
“No, he’s actually a pretty weird guy,” Kalingkata said, obviously pissed off now. “I’d give him a wide berth. I wasn’t going to say anything, but he was trying to convince me you were a drug dealer.”
What?! This was actually crazy. He hadn’t said anything like that at all!
JackBox had suddenly gotten very quiet, and when she did speak, her voice was shaky. “What?”
“As if I was going to fall for that!” Kalingkata continued. “I mean, you’re what, sixteen? I can’t believe he thought I’d think that. That you’d get mixed up in some dumb seedy bullshit just because you’re a Maverick? You’re clearly way above it.”
“I mean. It’s complicated.” She was definitely sounding uneasy now. The temperature in the room was dropping real fast. And Jae Hyun was just starting to piece together that JackBox possibly did not sell fashionable clothing. “What I mean is,” JackBox continued as best she could, “other people, who find themselves in these situations. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances that they might be born into. And a lot of trouble that they might be trying to stay out of.”
“I guess,” said Kalingkata, who clearly was not getting it. “But you always have a choice, right?”
“There’s a lot of stuff,” JackBox snapped, “that these kids didn’t have a choice in, and there’s a lot of—” She cut herself off. “I’m gonna have to step out.”
“Uh? Are you okay?”
She seemed short of breath. “I definitely gotta step out. You order whatever you want, and I’ll be in the park unless I have to— I don’t know. Give me a second.”
From the footsteps out, Jae Hyun could tell that it was at least safe to lower his paper. JackBox was, of course, gone. And Kalingkata was at the counter, looking lost.
She apologized to the woman at the till and stepped over to Jae Hyun discreetly. “Okay, I’m gonna give you credit on exactly one thing,” she said quietly. “I thought you were trying to bullshit me about the drugs thing, and I am now picking up that was not the case. So I’m sorry for flipping my shit at you over that.”
“I literally did think it was leather jackets.”
Kalingkata breathed in deeply. “You,” she said, “are actually a goddam moron.”
“Yeah, I’m picking up on that,” he said sheepishly. “This whole thing was just meant to be a bit of fun, y’know? I just wanted to get to know you.”
“I think you know me pretty well,” said Kalingkata, who was now annoyed again. “I’m your friend, the weird trash lady.”
“Alright…”
“Maybe we can hang out again and I can eat out of the trash again.”
“Sang Mi,” he said, “I actually had a really nice time that night.”
She gave him a shove. “So did I!”
“I was just trying to put her off you because—” He caught himself. “Listen, the point is. I can get out of your hair for a while.”
“I think you definitely need to, yeah,” Kalingkata said. She was aiming for ice-cold, but she was too sore with it. “And don’t hassle Li Xiu either. Your ruse is dumb.”
“I mean, honestly, I stopped doing the ruse after sixty seconds.”
She squinted. “No you didn’t. You did all this stuff. You set me up with JackBox just to shoot it down.”
“But like,” he said - and he was figuring this out for the first time as he was saying it - “I think the big plan kept going because it had momentum? Really, I was just hanging out with Li Xiu because I like hanging out with her, and she really listens to me and stuff, and she really wants to make her movie.”
Kalingkata scritched the back of her head and shrugged. “I think you’re nuts,” she said. “Don’t hurt her. Now, I gotta go see if I can rescue this dumb date.” She turned and made to leave.
“I hope JackBox is okay!” he called after her.
She didn’t reply or look back. Just straight out the door.
He deflated into his chair. He could hardly keep track of all the ways he’d screwed up in the last week. The last of his coffee sat at the bottom of the cup, getting colder and grosser.
On the upside, maybe some of this could go in Li Xiu’s movie.

***

Across the room, behind her newspaper, Li Xiu smiled and had another spoon of her affegato. Through the open window, she could hear a light spring rain far off somewhere, and something had begun.
She picked up her book.
Underneath was a neatly folded note on a torn-out scrap of paper.
Your disguise sucks. Check under the table for your leather jackets.
Li Xiu was impressed that JackBox had seen through her disguise and slipped a note somehow, but she’d messed up the simplest part: actually giving her the jackets. She’d just left behind a plastic bag of crystals. Perhaps it had all been some sort of euphemism? Li Xiu had never pegged her as an astrology type.

​

NEXT TIME!
Finally. FINALLY. You know what happens next week? You know what happens!?!
OUR TRACK MEET.
AGAINST ACADEMY 2.
AFTER ALL THIS TIME WE’RE GOING TO KICK THEIR--
Uh, kick their academy leniency respectfully and without vitriol, Mr. Mori.
So let’s get ready for the track meet! I’m sure nothing else important will happen because of it. No-sir-ee, that’s the biggest thing happening next ween for sure.
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Sit Down Comedians
By James Wylder
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

A27: The Roleplaying Game
By Dillon O’Hara, James Wylder, Callum Phillpott, and Kimberley Chiu

Session 1: Head Out on the Highway

A beaten-up car tore through the black night at breakneck speed. Li Xiu was at the wheel; beside her, an anxious Jae Hyun tried to ignore the speedometer as it crept past 180 li per hour, then 190, then 200. In the backseat, Bashrat writhed in Talinata’s arms, struggling to breathe.
“Just hold tight, dude,” Talinata said levelly. “We’re almost at the hospital. You’re gonna be okay.”
Bashrat wheezed. If he’d known that it had hazelnuts, he never would have had a slice of that Gamer’s Delight. He needed more air, somehow. He pushed himself up and moved toward the open window. Talinata tried to pull him back but was pushed away.
The cold night air whipped around Bashrat as he stuck his head out the window; he felt like it was trying to peel his face off. He opened his mouth wide as he could. He knew, vaguely, that high-velocity air wouldn’t really push down a constricted windpipe, but he had to try something, anything, just to buy himself a few more seconds to--
The electrical pole came out of nowhere.
All the rest of them heard was a sharp, deep clunk.
There was a long, terrible silence. There was no reason to go to the hospital anymore.
“I mean,” said Li Xiu, who had not slowed the car, “didn’t I say I was going toward the temple? To get the next, like, emerald thing?”
Bashrat, who was fidgeting with a twenty-sided die in the real world, looked miffed. “Wait just a second. You mean you weren’t even going to heal me?” He turned to the GM, Kalingkata. “Tell her! You’re in charge!”
Kalingkata put up her hands. “Not at all!”
“Yes you are! You’re…” He waved a hand vaguely. “God!”
“Do you think God’s in charge of anything here?”
Bashrat huffed in agitation and turned back to Li Xiu. “Why would you not be going to the hospital?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be the, like…” She snapped her fingers, trying to remember the word. “Healer?”
“You know I’m underlevelled! I can’t heal a status ailment like that yet!”
“Yeah, you suck,” said Li Xiu. “And I remember, Kalingkata said that if your character died, you could just come back as a different guy? So maybe your next guy will be better.”
Talinata rubbed his temples. “I’m not sure that’s quite in the spirit of the game.”
“But it is funny,” said Kalingkata, “so I’ll allow it. Bashrat, you are extremely dead.”
“Unbelievable.”
“Well, hang on,” Jae Hyun cut in. “Li Xiu, why did your character let Bashrat die?”
“What, like, the pretend version of me?” said Li Xiu as she adjusted her (very nice) artificial nails. “I guess she finds Bashrat annoying too.”
“Well, that’s a little petty of a reason to kill someone for real,” said Jae Hyun. “So! Uh. Jae Hyun tries to wrestle control of the car from Li Xiu. I roll for… dexterity?”
“Sure, let’s say dexterity,” said Kalingkata. She picked up one of the dice, made a big show of shaking it around, and, as was customary, threw it down so hard that it bounced off the table and landed on the floor. Facing up was a neat little 11. “Alllrighty,” she said. “Let’s say… Jae Hyun makes a pretty decent swing at it, but Li Xiu doesn’t give up right away.” She looked over at Li Xiu. “I assume you don’t give up right away.”
“Whatever, I guess.”
“Cool.” She throws up her hands. “The car is swerving backwards and forwards! It’s going out of control! What do we do?!”
“That is when,” Bashrat butts in, “my new character arrives on the scene!” With no small amount of pride, he lays down a pre-prepared character sheet. “I would like you all to meet your saviour, the All-Powerful Zaphex! He’s an alien, and he has telekinetic alien powers, and a cool alien girlfriend, and—”
“What was that last one?” Kalingkata said levelly.
Bashrat paused. “Cool alien powers.”

Session 2: Live Deliciously
Tsetseg stepped through the creaking doorway into the barn, where Black Billy the goat stood waiting. Her skirts rustled stray bits of hay as she walked toward him.
“I’m here to sell my soul to you, Mr. Devil Satan Lucifer.”
In reality, the table went silent.
Li Xiu was incredulous, “…Mr. Devil. Satan. Luci. Fer?”
Tsetseg looked around, “Did I say something weird?”
Talinata sighed, “I mean we were kind of having a whole serious scene here and then you said ‘Mr. Devil Satan Lucifer’ which really just…”
“Broke the ambiance,” his sister finished.
Bashrat looked between them all, “But its an accurate statement, isn’t it? The goat is all of those things, right?”
“I mean, yes, technically,” Li Xiu replied. “But its just not a very dramatic way of stating it.”
Talinata grumbled, “Especially after you got all of our characters killed when you weren’t even here last week.”
Tsetseg stood up and waved her arms around with the grace and dignity of a floppy fish, as she spoke. “It was all of your faults for not making characters who wouldn’t get killed by the evil witch!”
“Its spelled with two V’s at the front,” Bashrat said pointing at the cover of the roleplaying game’s corebook. “So, its not witch is like… vih-vitch.”
“I don’t think that’s how English works,” Kalingkata mused.
“AND FURTHERMORE!” Tsetseg continued, not to leave her thoughts unfinished, “I couldn’t show up last week because my dad needed me at home.” She paused mid statement, holding a single finger up as if this was merely the first part of a larger argument, before lowering her finger quickly and staring up at the elaborate and obviously expensive wood-paneled ceiling of the rec-room Li Xiu’s family was letting them use.
“Not to be weird,” Li Xiu said. “But uh, what did your dad need you at home for so badly you missed your weekly social interaction with other human beings?”
Kalingkata snapped in front of Li Xiu’s face like she was getting a naughty puppy’s attention, “No! Bad! Do not taunt our friend about that! Bad Li Xiu.”
“Don’t patronize me just because you’re the GM, what are you going to do anyway? Kill my character? She’s already—”
“For the record my dad needed me at home to uh…” Tsetseg trailed off precipitously.
Li Xiu crossed her arms, “What was that, Miss Tsetseg?”
“…I just thought he looked kinda lonely.”
The group awkwardly rearranged their own individual play areas, and suddenly found placing their dice in numerical order to be an extremely engaging use of their time.
“A-anyway,” Li Xiu said. “Let’s finish this one-shot up, since Tsetseg is the only one still alive.”
“Also, if we do that she can sit down,” Bashrat noted with an air of thinking this was a much more helpful suggestion than the awkward one it was. Tsetseg did sit down though, feeling the heat on her cheeks. Finally ready to play the game again, Kalingkata took a deep breath, and tried to set the mood again.
“So, you’ve just betrayed all of your friends and family, and let them be killed by the witch. You’ve managed to survive though, and while your farm is in bloody ruins, the goat who you have suspected is really the devil in the guise of a beast is waiting there for you to make a deal with it, his black eyes glinting in the darkness like the edges of blades. What do you do?”
Tsetseg coughed, and put her hands together, “Oh, Black Billy, who may or may not be Lucifer, Satan, or the Devil, or all three of them if they are the same person, I conjure thee to speak with me! Do you understand me? Are you actually just a goat? If so this would be very awkward, but otherwise answer me!”
Kalingkata put on a surprisingly low and sultry voice, “What dost thou want, child?”
“Oh wow,” Bashrat said.
“Yeah, that’s actually really good Sang Mi,” Li Xiu added.
“SHHH,” Talinata said.
“Ahem, yes. What dost thou want, child?”
“What can you give me? Is this like… are we making a deal here?
“Wouldst thou like the taste of chocolate? Pretty dresses?”
“Oh, well yes and yes, actually. But I think you can do better than that.”
Kalingkata squinted at her, “…Name thy desire?”
“A Talinata game console, and a new pair of sneakers, and some tri-range wrenches so I can help work on the hoverbike, and a porter bot, and—”
“Is this just your birthday wish list?” Li Xiu asked.
Tsetseg frowned, “I’m making a deal with the Devil. I figure I should get what I really want, right?”
“I am not the devil! Your character is making the deal with the devil!” Kalingkata said, with some measure of both exasperation and defeat at how her session was going. “You’re a puritan girl in 1630. You want things from that time period.”
“Right, yes. Sorry, I’ll get into character…” she closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them with an attempt at seriousness. “I want chocolate, and dresses, and gold.”
“It shall be thine.”
“I want land, and power, and a dozen lovers who never part from me.”
“I shall grant thee this also.”
“A horse to ride, with a coat as soft and rich as a feather pillow.”
“Done.”
“And a new phone, with an unlimited data plan.”
Kalingkata paused, trying to decide if she should push this or not. “…Sure, that shall be thine as well. I guess.”
“Then let’s get this deal signed, what a great session everyone.”

Session 3: I’m Waiting for It
“Okay,” said Talinata, frowning down at the map on the table. “Explain the rules again?”
Because the thing was, the thing was, the map wasn’t actually a map. It was just sheet of grid paper, totally blank except for a pair of lines drawn about an inch away from either end of the sheet, parallel to each other. A row of little figurines were set up along one of the lines. Each little figurine had its own horse.
D&D was always weird, but this was, like, weird.
“So,” said Kalingkata, “all of you are here” – pointing at line one, with the figurines – “and you are trying to get to here” – the other line, naturally – “where you will meet the legendary Green Knight, who has promised to cut off your head. Heads.”
“And then, uh,” said Talinata, “we have to… fight him?”
“No,” said Kalingkata, “he cuts off your head. Or doesn’t. That’s totally up to him, really. The point is just to get there.”
“Hm,” said Talinata.
“This is ridiculous,” said Li Xiu. “What kind of storyline is this? I thought you said we were going on an adventure!”
“It is an adventure,” said Kalingkata, shrugging. “It’s a quest narrative. Apparently.”
“Apparently?” said Li Xiu.
“It was Jae Hyun’s idea,” admitted Kalingkata. “I just thought it would be funny.”
Every person at that table turned to glare at Jae Hyun. It was almost eerie. Jae Hyun stared back, unrepentant.
“Well,” said Li Xiu, after a moment, “that explains the – gameplay mechanic.”
A round of grumbling about the gameplay mechanic. The people, it seemed, were not fans of the gameplay mechanic. Jae Hyun huffed and crossed his arms, not at all defensively.
“It’s really not that difficult,” said Jae Hyun. “You ride for as long as you can keep narrating your actions. First person to the finish line wins.”
“As long as you can keep narrating your actions in the correct verse form,” Kalingkata clarified. She was smiling with the sort of smugness that was typically only achievable by cats.
“That’s right,” said Jae Hyun. “Twelve syllables per line, alliterative verse. Simple.”
More grumbling. Bashrat let out a groan so loud you would’ve thought someone had told him to get up and run laps. Bashrat did not like to run laps.
“Fine,” said Jae Hyun, “look. I’ll start.”
He cleared his throat. He shook out his shoulders. He began:
“Jae Hyun rode jaunty and joyfully to the join
Of brush and bramble, of bush and blooming blossom,
Made off across the moors, mile and mile and metre,
To the good Green Knight who would give him great glory.
On and on he rode, over owl-grass and onions,
Passing his peers, who could play only poor poets –”
Bashrat slammed his hands onto the table.
“This isn’t fair,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. That’s not even real poetry – it doesn’t even rhyme!”
“Actually,” said Jae Hyun, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a literary classic.”
“It doesn’t even rhyme,” said Bashrat, again.
He was glaring at Jae Hyun: absolute daggers. Much like the great Sir Gawain himself, when faced with a big old green giant with a massive axe, Jae Hyun flinched. 
“It doesn’t have a consistent meter, either,” added Bashrat, and then, peevishly, when everyone looked at him: “I do go to literature class too, you know.”
“Fine,” said Jae Hyun, sighing. “There are parts of the original that are in rhyming verse, maybe we could just stick to that. Iambic quatrains, ABAB rhyme scheme, seven-syllable and six-syllable lines alternating.”
“What,” said Bashrat, seemingly on the verge of tears, “are you talking about?”
Jae Hyun smiled. He paused, then took a breath, and then he began again:
“Jae Hyun rode past the gable
Past rock and tree and gate.
He knew that he was able
To ride and meet his fate.”
There was silence for a long moment. Then Kalingkata shrugged, picked up Jae Hyun’s little horse figure, and moved it halfway across the map.
Chaos around the table. Talinata sighed hard enough to rock him in his chair. A paper ball bounced off Jae Hyun’s head, which was probably Bashrat’s fault, but possibly Li Xiu’s. Tsetseg was frowning hard, her forehead creasing, staring down at the table.
Finally she looked up. And then she stood up. And then she cleared her throat, which was a bizarre enough occurrence that everyone shut up. And she said:
“Tsetseg got on her charger
She rode fast too, of course.
She rode real quick and far – ger – uh –
‘Cause… she… was on a horse.”
She sat down with an almost-audible snap. Kalingkata looked at her for a long moment, and then moved her figure forward. Two squares.
This time the yelling lasted nearly thirty seconds.
“Fine,” snapped Kalingkata, and gave everyone her best Scary Badass stare until they all calmed down. “Plan B it is.”
She pulled out another map. This one, shockingly, had an actual map on it.
“You are in a tavern,” said Kalingkata. “It’s Christmas morning, and you have been invited to the King’s Great Hall for a feast. You wake up, hungover, beside your lover, Essel –”
A loud, horrified squeak.
“What,” said Tsetseg, her eyes very wide. “All of us?”
 
 Session 4: The Tragedy of the Triangle
 “Look, I just think this whole process would go easier if you murdered them all and took the throne,” Li Xiu explained for the fifth time. Jae Hyun looked around at all the other players hoping for guidance, before looking to the Gamemaster, who had her fingers steepled like some sort of third-rate mastermind.
“I, uh, I don’t know…” Jae Hyun fidgeted. “I don’t want to kill the other player characters…”
“Player versus player combat is allowed,” Kalingkata reminded him.
“But what if they feel bad about it!?!” he exclaimed, and a long sigh went up from the table.
Tsetseg pulled the corebook up on her padd again, “This game is confusing, all these political machinations…”
“I don’t get why we can’t say the name of the game,” Bashrat added.
“Like I explained earlier, its called the Scottish Game because to say the real name of the RPG is bad luck,” said Kalingkata. “Now are we doing the bloodbath or not?”
Jae Hyun slowly nodded. “Alright, let’s do it Li Xiu. Though I still don’t see why our characters have to be married.”
“That’s just how the game is,” she replied, fiddling with the dice in her hand.
“Do we have any kids?”
Kalingkata blinked, “It’s a time of conflict and despair in Scotland.”
“Right, so wouldn’t having kids help with that? Like don’t people, you know uh, enjoy making kids?”
Talinata eyed Jae Hyun warily, “This is a very weird angle to be taking with my sister.”
He waved his hands, “I just mean like…” he got very quiet trying to figure out exactly what he meant. This only made things more awkward. Tsetseg, tired of it, got up to use the restroom only to knock her cup of pop over, which successfully distracted everyone briefly as they all stopped to clean it up. “Out, out damn spot!” she muttered as they rubbed stain remover that Mr. Cao had brought over for them. They resumed play while trying to get it out, Tsetseg now wearing one of Li Xiu’s shirts from her room whose style did not suit her in the slightest.
“So, lets get back to the core aspect of most roleplaying games,” Kalingkata said, ushering them back in. “Unrepentant murder.
Jae Hyun looked at his character sheet, “Alright, I’ll go ahead and stab Talinata’s character.”
Talinata and his sister exchanged glances. “You made it weird again.”
“I didn’t—”
“Just stab him already,” Kalingkata sighed.
“Right…Is this a dagger in my hand?”
“No, it’s a +2 battle ax.”
He shook the twenty-sided die, and looked down at the result. “Seventeen… plus my two strength and three… twenty-two?”
“That’s a hit, and since he’s sleeping you can take a coup-de-grace and do max damage.”
Talinata bowed his head in an exaggerated mock defeat, “Alas, I die!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll avenge you!” Tsetseg cut in, “Or my name isn’t… Macduff. I forgot I named him that.”
Cao Li Xiu crossed her arms, “You know, these game sessions aren’t the way I would do them.”
“Okay,” Kalingkata said, having given up on having a normal time tonight.
“I could do a way better job Gamemastering.”
“Okay?”
She rose up and pointed accusatorily at Kalingkata “And I could also be a way better wife for Jae Hyun!”
There was an indescribably awkward silence.
“…In the roleplaying game. As Lady MacBeth.”
The silence continued to linger.
“I didn’t mean in a weird way.”
“Who wants dinner?” Mrs. Cao said cheerily, opening the door to the rec-room with bags of take-out. Everyone very quickly scrambled to pick out their favorites from the delectable smelling dishes, and also escape the situation they had all just found themselves in.
“Thanks for the food, Mrs. Cao!” Kalingkata said.
“Oh, it’s the least we can do, we’re just happy Li Xiu is bringing friends over,” she looked over lovingly at her daughter, and Kalingkata felt a sympathy for Li Xiu she had never felt before. Had Kaligkata invited her into their RPG group purely because she had the nicest house to play the game in? Possibly. Potentially. Very much so. But they had been growing closer just by proximity, and maybe the awkward tension between all of them would break given time.
“Yeah, it’s been a lot more fun than I expected,” Kalingkata mused.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Mrs. Cao leaned in conspiratorially, “So I overheard things before I got in, you know if there’s a love triangle between you, Li Xiu, and Jae Hyung, you should really consider a polycule.”
All the color drained from Kalingkata’s face and she waved her hands frantically in front of her chest. “No, uh, its not, that’s not—what I mean is—we’re uh, all already a group, you know?”
Li Xiu’s expression softened, “Ah, I misunderstood. And here I thought you were just a roleplaying group. Just be sure to let us know if you need some privacy.” She winked and turned around. She had already walked away before Kalingkata could put words together.
“What’s wrong, Sang Mi?” Tsetseg asked as she looked at her friend staring at the closing door.
“…Burnham wood attacks all of you. The trees are alive, and they kill you all. End of session.”



Session 5 : Torn Apart

If Tsetseg was standing on a real rooftop right now, she’d be happier. As it was, she was standing on an oddly detailed replication of a roof (paid for by the concerningly deep pockets of Li Xiu’s parents) in a set that wasn’t well ventilated, and she did it all under the glare of Li Xiu’s film camera and movie lights, sweating up a waterfall in this heat. It didn’t help that the clothing Li Xiu had gotten for her character (part of something called “Larping” though she wasn’t sure why the film equipment was also there) included a long-sleeve shirt and a jacket… and a propeller hat.
    “Uh, GM?” she asked Li Xiu.
    “Hm?”
    “How old is my character supposed to be again?”
    “Like, your age, uh, six.”
    “... I’m the same age as you.”
    “Then pretend you’re younger… anyway, let’s start the PVP session now, action!”
    Jae Hyun burst through the door, wielding a gun that shot foam darts. Tsetseg was immensely jealous that he got to wear a sleeveless shirt rather than being dressed for winter like she was. 
    Jae Hyun charged towards Tsetseg like a raging bull, waving the toy gun at her head. “WHERE IS MY FU-uh, FU–... Fricking… MONEY!”
    Tsetseg jumped back against the ledge, slightly startled, her heart thrumming and drumming at the sudden panic. “What money?”
    “THE MONEY! FROM… THE MONEY!”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” And she really didn’t.
    “I’M TALKING ABOUT THE GOD-DA– darned MONEY!”
    The room was poorly ventilated, and it was boiling hot, and she was panicked, and she was finding it difficult to breathe, and she didn’t know where this money was and–
    Jae Hyun caught her as she fell so she didn’t hit the concrete. 
    “You weren’t supposed to actually hit her!” said Li Xiu, annoyed.
    “Wait, you hit her?” said Kalingkata as she got out of her chair and walked on to the set.
    “I did not hit her, she just passed out–”
    “Why did you hit her?” asked Bashrat as he walked through the set door, also holding a toy gun.
    “It’s not true, it’s bull- nonsense, I did not hit her–”
    Li Xiu stepped on the roof set. “But she’s–”
    “I DID NOT! It’s because you’re keeping us in here with no water and film equipment! Why do you even have film equipment?”
    “I’m making a real actual play series, Jae Hyun.”
    “We don’t need sets and cameras for an actual play series, you need a table and a camera, what you’re doing is movies, YOU’RE THINKING OF MOVIES–”
    “I want to make the experience more cinematic.” 
    “You don’t need to! You shouldn’t! You’re just wasting time and money–”
    “Money isn’t an issue.”
    “Seriously, where does all that money come from?” Kalingkata muttered. 
    Jae Hyun checked Tsetseg. “We need to get her outside.”
    Li Xiu looked annoyed. “She’ll be fine, look, put her on that chair over there and we’ll check on her during lunch, let’s continue with the scene–”
    “No. We’re not playing, this isn’t working.”
    “The only way I’ll let you leave is if your character dies.”
    “Fine.” Jae Hyun raised the toy gun at his head and pulled the trigger, causing a foam dart to plonk on his face. “I’m dead now–”
    “That’s not how damage works, roll damage.”
    “I shot myself in the head–”
    “Roll damage!”
    Jae Hyun threw some dice against the floor. “There, am I dead now?”
    Li Xiu counted up the total. “No, you still have one hit point left–”
    Jae Hyun shot his head again and jumped off the roof set, attempting to lift up the prone Tsetseg. The others there realized they could quickly create a character death just by jumping off the roof, so they did so and helped him carry her.
    This would be the only time they ever larped, and the footage (thankfully) never made its way online.

Session 6: Cliffhanger

Usually, Kalingkata wasn’t the sort to bring someone’s family into it. She knew how bringing in adults could go sideways. But Li Xiu was acting nuts, and her house was only ten minutes away on foot, and she was raging. So she stormed on over.
When she arrived outside, walking up the garden path, the warm weather was holding. Holding too hard. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and it was too bright. The sunlight reflected off the sheer-white walls of the Cao’s huge house.
She found that the front door was still unlocked, so she called inside. No answer. Nobody in the kitchen, in the lounge, in either of the offices, the pantry, upstairs or downstairs. She was about to let it go when she passed by the kitchen again and saw, through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Li Xiu’s mother and father in white dressing gowns.
She paused. Something was stopping her from calling out to them, and they hadn’t seemed to notice her. And those weren’t dressing gowns. They were more like robes, but not kimonos or any other kind you’d find on Gongen; they were an airier cut. Kalingkata had never seen Mrs. Cao put up her hair in tidy braids before. The whole thing seemed vaguely Swedish. Also, there was a mattress in front of them.
There was a long, terrible pause. Kalingkata couldn’t tell if she had been spotted. It seemed preternaturally silent, and still so bright, so bright.
And then an old woman fell from the balcony above face-first onto the mattress.
Kalingkata jumped, clapped a hand to her mouth, barely stopped herself from screaming. Mrs. Cao took up a large novelty plastic mallet and approached the woman – Kalingkata recognised her now as Li Xiu’s grandmother. She was wearing the same white robe. Was she okay? Was she safe?
From the mattress, the old woman croaked: “Roll for damage.”
Mr. Cao hunkered down and rolled a twenty-sided die onto the grey-tile patio. “Thirteen.”
Mrs. Cao swung the plastic mallet and brought it down beside her mother’s head. The mallet gave a little squeaking sound.
Mr. Cao rolled again. “Seven.”
Another swing, another squeak.
He rolled again. Paused, looked up. “Twenty.”
Decisively, Mrs. Cao brought the hammer down. It never touched the old woman, but she started wailing loudly, a high, throaty scream. And Mr and Mrs Cao joined hands and started wailing with her, harmonising as if it were a hymn.
Alright, Kalingkata thought as she turned on her heel and walked straight back out the front door. I’m gonna leave it.

​

NEXT TIME!
(The sound of a squeaky chair rolling towards a microphone greets us.)
Why, who is this? Who could this possibly be, coming to you live once again it’s the one, the only, the impeccable, the beautiful, the star track—sorry Mr. Mori I’ll get back onto the announcements! Okay yeah, it’s me Hee Jin.
So Academy 27, did you know love is in the air? Or at least like, an attempt at love. You know, people are making an effort! Especially our classmate Jae Hyun, whose crush on my good friend Sang Mi is well known to everyone except possibly himself.
But he’s not the only suitor after her heart, and while she hasn’t noticed him at all, there’s someone who wants his attention…
Oh, also the baseball team needs to remember to wash their uniforms before the next game, your coach is not dealing with another train ride with you wen you haven’t.
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Jae Hyun Puts on the Moves
By Dillon O’Hara
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

​His hand drifts carefully, slowly, towards Watson's chin. He pulls it up slightly--but not gently.
"S-Sherlock! What are you doing!?"
He put his foot up on the couch, letting his unbuttoned shirt fall open to reveal his surprisingly muscular chest. Watson held back from his urge to reach out and feel the contours of them.
"What am I doing? Why, it’s elementary, my dear doctor." He leaned in close enough to whisper. "I'm playing doctor—"
 
"NO!" Sang Mi said, dropping the padd that she had been handed, and then hastily shoved it back to Li Xiu with her fingertips like trying to push a plate of spoiled food away.
"So... you don't like it?"
"Of course I don't like it!”
Li Xiu frowned. “You don’t like the ship?”
“The ship isn’t the problem! I’ve written it myself before, but…” She gestured at the document. “This is the film you want to make!? And you want to cast me in it!?"
Li Xiu stood up, and put her foot up on the chair, an action that reminded Sang Mi too much of what she just read, and she stood up just to push Li Xiu back down into her seat and return to her own.
"Well, it's a film I want to make..."
"You asked me to play Sherlock Holmes!"
"You're perfect for the role!"
"I have so many questions I don't want to know the answers to!"
"You have black hair!"
"How does your mind work!?"
They'd been so into their back and forth that when Jae Hyun coughed pointedly to get their attention, they both turned in unison like they were in a cartoon. Jae Hyun waved, while Saki Suzuki, who was next to him for some reason, sipped her boba tea.
"That's not allowed in class," Li Xiu said.
"I know," Saki replied, taking another sip. "I overheard you discussing your movie idea. It’s... interesting."
Li Xiu perked up. "See, someone understands."
Saki smiled, and set the boba down on Zhyrgal's desk, then walked over and picked up the padd, scrolling through it. Sang Mi frowned; she could see the gears were turning in her forced acquaintance’s head, and she would rather those gears stopped. "...There's definitely something here." She carried the padd over to the window, and looked out at what looked like nothing at all but an unused plot on the campus covered in weeds. "...Because there is nothing there..." The look in Saki's eyes screamed. "I have a plan!" and Sang Mi began thinking about how to get out of talking to Saki after class.
Maybe she could use the excuse that she didn't want Zhyrgal following them.
Mrs. Ichinose came in, and everyone hurried into their seats. "Okay, class, we have—Zhyrgal, you know that's not allowed, please see me after class."
Zhyrgal looked down at what was definitely not her tea. "But I... it’s not..."
Saki smiled at Sang Mi.
The little shit.
 
* * *
On a planet that was once called Mars, there was a school called Academy 27. The second-best school in the domed metropolis of Takumi, its student’s ancestors had fled to the planet Gongen (Mars’ new name) centuries ago to escape disaster and start a new life. And as Sang Mi followed Saki through the hallways, she couldn’t help but feel helping a classmate she didn’t like with her illegal experiment wasn’t what they had in mind for a better future. But oh well, that’s life for you.
 
* * *
Saki seemed to have a real talent for finding unattended classrooms, so once again they found one. Saki didn’t wait around this time, she got right into it.
"You've been having strange dreams, haven't you?"
"Everyone has strange dreams; you might as well be asking me if I know someone with black hair. What next, are you going to guess my card? Tell me the spirit of someone close to me is reaching out from the other side? Get lost."
"In those dreams there is something pulling you in, isn't there? A swirl of blue or purple?"
She frowned. "...I'm sure lots of dreams have that..."
"Don’t play dumb, Sang Mi. You’re not, and it’s unbecoming. You've seen things in those dreams. Things that are yet to come."
"I don't see how that would be possible. It's all just coincidence."
"Tell me, do you know what Apple Tree Yard means?"
"You're certainly changing the topic."
"I'm not."
"It’s a reference to a television show from hundreds of years ago, right? Something about the fans inventing a fake episode or something? I read about it on holovidtropes."
Saki nodded. "That's basically correct. There was a TV show called Sherlock where the fans were extremely dissatisfied with how the show was given an ending in its fourth series. So, they looked for clues, and came up with this absolutely outlandish concept: there was a secret fourth episode that was going to be airing under the codename Apple Tree Yard. Which sounded like it wasn’t a real TV show, but was listed on the schedule. Of course it turned out it was an actual TV show, and people got very frustrated.”
Sang Mi squinted. “This feels like incredibly niche knowledge.”
“You’re one to talk?”
“…Okay fair.”
“The point here is, that people wished so hard for this episode to exist that they tuned in expecting to see it. So, what if it had aired?”
Crossing her arms, Sang Mi stared her down. “That’s a ridiculous hypothetical.”
“Let me rephrase,” Saki said unperturbed. “What if they believed so hard that it had come into existence?”
Sang Mi stared at Saki.
Saki stared back at Sang Mi.
Sang Mi looked left and right. And then started laughing. “You’re joking? You’re joking, right!? You think this is like Peter Pan. I do believe in Sherlock, I do, I do!”
“Humor me.”
“I am humoring you, this is hilarious.”
Saki ran a hand through her hair. “Let me be clearer then. Because I’ve figured out the ultimate test of what we’re trying to do here. Your mission, should you  accept it, which you will, is to save the Apple Tree Orchard of Academy 27."
The pair stared at each other.
"...That's going to be pretty difficult."
Saki smiled politely, something icy and dangerous glinting behind her eyes. "And why would that be?"
"Because there isn't a single apple tree on campus, let alone a whole bunch of them."
Saki’s grin widened into something predatory, a cat studying a canary. "It wouldn’t be much of a test if it were easy, now would it? So, it’s agreed. You're going to go to the Student Council, the Board of Governors, whoever it takes, and get them to save the Apple Tree Yard!"
Kalingkata threw her hands up, then gestured wildly trying to convey the futility of all this. "But I can't do that! Because it doesn't exist."
"But you're going to do it."
Sang Mi closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. It was starting to make a very unpleasant sort of sense now that it was all sinking in. She was pretty sure she understood it. "So you want me to humiliate myself in public, right? Look like a girl who has absolutely lost it in front of everyone trying to convince them of your daydream."
"Now you're catching on, what a good girl."
"...Stop pressing your luck."
"Darling, that's something only people who Fortune has left behind would say."
"Well, that's me."
"I'll be checking up on you, to make sure the project goes according to plan."
Kalingkata edged toward the door. "...Right. Well, I'll be going then." But as she reached the door, she suddenly began to feel dizzy, and all was black...
When she awoke, she was in her bed at home, it was an obnoxious amount of time before her alarm went off, but she still felt relief. It had all been a dream.
She got up, and rubbed her eyes, walking into the living room where she was immediately taken aback. There at the table was her mother, laughing at something that Saki Suzuki had just said.
“Oh, thank goodness. Your friend Saki here has been worried about you, she helped you get home after you passed out after class.”
She stared at Saki blankly. “Did she now.” It wasn’t a question.
“She tried to say no, but she’s going to stay the night here with you. You’re welcome—I know it’s a school night, but these things are good for you.”
“Thank you so much for letting me stay over, Mrs. Jhe,” Saki crooned.
“Oh, think nothing of it. Call me Hei-Ran.”
They both laughed. Sang Mi stared quietly.
“Aren’t you excited?” her mom asked.
She did not blink. “Ecstatic.”
“Are you still not feeling well?”
“You could say that, yes.”
“Well you girls just hold tight, I’m going to get some take out Bibimbap. Your father–my husband,” she noted to Saki as though that wasn’t clear, “just got an award for the project he pitched, so we’ve got lots of reasons to celebrate.”
“What am I celebrating?”
Her mother tousled her hair as she went past her. “Your new friend, of course!”
Sang Mi continued to stare down Saki. Saki just smiled serenely.
Only when her mom had closed the door behind her did she speak. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Having a sleepover with you, obviously. People our age do that right?” She squinted, as though actually unsure about something. “They do that, right?”
“Yeah. With friends.”
“We’re friends.”
She grunted, and sat down. “Whatever. So, what do you want, I’m obviously not getting rid of you tonight.”
“We’re taking the pills again," Saki said resolutely.
"Shouldn't we be somewhere more... controlled? Clinical?"
"I do have another place in mind, perhaps you'll see it soon. But I want you to be comfortable for now." 
"I'm not comfortable."
Saki grinned a Cheshire grin, as if that pleased her. "The readings are high tonight, and we can’t waste it.”
“What readings?”
“I’ll tell you if I can trust you.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t have to be mutual.”
She sighed. “Cards on the table, Sang Mi. I need you to help me with this. Need, not want. I tried with another test subject, and the results were less than satisfactory. I found you here because I needed you to help with my previous issue—”
“The cats’ eyes.”
She nodded, pleased. “You figured that out.”
“I figured something out.”
“You did what no one else did. I can’t do this alone, one person just isn’t enough to… harness this phenomenon to its fullest extent. If things work tonight, I’ll explain more later.”
Sang Mi thought a moment. She clenched her hands. She didn’t want to do this, but she didn’t want to do a lot of things. She did them anyway. “Fine,” she conceded. I’ll help you tonight.”
Saki smiled. “Good girl.”
“Don’t say that, it’s weird. Just… don’t make dinner awkward.”
“I have manners, you know.”
That did, at least, make Sang Mi laugh.
 
* * *
“Have you…. ever cleaned your room?”
Sang Mi shoved a bunch of dirty clothes into a laundry hamper. “Oh, come on, it’s not that bad.”
Saki did not look convinced, and just stood there, glancing around the room. “…Is that a paper book?” she picked it up and turned it over in her hands. “It’s not even an antique—”
Sang Mi snatched it away. “Don’t touch that.”
“I’m just surprised; print books are expensive, especially here on Mars.”
“On Gongen.”
Saki smiled thinly. “Did I say something else?”
Sang Mi put the book back on the shelf. “Sometimes people print vanity copies of books, the extras end up…” She stopped talking, her hand lingering on the book. “So what, are we just taking the pills again and nodding off?”
“Basically. I have a monitor we’ll hook up to to take readings from our bodies, and see how we react to everything.”
She looked at the book a little longer. “You need to learn that not everything can belong to you.”
Saki didn’t reply, but Sang Mi couldn’t help but think she didn’t believe her.
* * *
 
Sang Eun came over to his sister. "Okay, what's with you this morning? You just seem..."
"Frustrated? Annoyed? Ready to punch Saki?"
"Yes, those."
"I just wanted a good night's sleep, but Saki had to invite herself over for a sleepover, and not only did I sleep terribly, it wasn't even a fun time. We didn't talk about anything fun, we didn't do anything fun, and we didn't even accomplish anything. In fact, I'm sure that because we didn't accomplish anything, it’s only going to get worse from here."
He nodded slowly, leaning onto the lockers as his brows furrowed increasingly. "It... sounds like you guys have a complicated friendship."
"We're not friends! That's how complicated it is!"
Sang Eun tried to work through what this meant. He clearly came to no conclusions. "Then why are the two of you hanging out?"
"Great question!" she threw her hands up, and then threw them down just as dramatically. "No, I know why."
"Okay great because I really do want an answer to that at this point in this conversation."
Sang Mi finished putting her coat and bag into the locker and sighed. "Because I need to know. I need to know if we can make the Apple Tree Yard. That's why."
"The Apple… What?"
She was about to answer, when a hand tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see Tsetseg.
"Um, Sang Mi, your boyfriend is outside the school."
She looked at her brother, and then back at her friend. "What do you mean my boyfriend is here? I don't have a boyfriend, if I did I'd be about 20% cooler."
Tsetseg frowned. "You two broke up? When?"
"Me and who?"
"You and Kyon?"
Her stomach twisted, and she slammed her locker and pushed past them both. "This joke isn't funny, whoever set you up for it is... you know, I thought better of you, Tsetseg. God."
As she stormed off, a confused and hurt Tsetseg looked at Sang Eun. "What's going on with her?"
He shrugged.
 
Sang Mi had planned on going out the front door and chewing Kyon out. Chewing him out for breaking her heart, for two-timing her for months with another girl, for breaking up with her while she was still grieving her grandma... but as she peeked around the corner and saw him standing there with a bouquet of flowers, her heart and her stomach began doing dizzying leaps, and then her head decided to get in on the dizziness too. She pulled back around the corner, and slid down the wall, covering her face with her hands.
"This is like some sort of bad dream."
"Yes."
She looked up. Saki was there looking down at her. "You didn't realize? This is the dream. We're in the dream. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get back on the mission."
She blinked. Of course it wasn't real. It was a bad dream. That's all. There was no way Kyon would ever apologize to her. Saki put out a hand, and she took it as the other girl pulled her up.
"So what are we... do you hear that?" Sang Mi said.
Saki was about to answer, but then paused, hearing it too. "Dripping water?" They looked down at their feet—the floor of the Academy had turned into black water, and they were sinking into it. Saki grabbed her hand, and pulled her along as they started to run, splashing water all over as they rushed. And yet, they were dry. The sides of the hall turned to Apple Trees, and yellow apples dropped down on them as they ran. Some splashing them, some knocking them in the head. "We have to keep going!" Saki yelled.
And then Sang Mi saw it. Just for a moment. A single hoof, disappearing past a tree. "No, turn here!"
They did, and as they made the corner around the apple tree--
 
Sang Mi gasped awake, and tried to steady her breath. Saki was there next to her on the floor, doing some sort of careful breathing exercise.
"I didn't realize we were dreaming," Sang Mi said, still out of breath.
"You'll get better at parsing it. Tomorrow night will be better."
"...Tomorrow night?"
"Every night until this works," Saki said with finality.
Sang Mi checked the time, and slid back under her sheets. Maybe she could get a little more sleep in. At least tomorrow at school would be easier.
 
* * *
The Next Morning…
Sang Mi looked out at the room full of people. Some of them were actual journalists. She shrank into herself. "Saki, did you call an actual press conference?"
Saki patted her on the shoulder. " Anything worth doing should be done properly. Now, go on. Apple Tree Yard.”
“Does it have to be done at all?” Sang Mi asked, but her question was only met with a light push forward.
She took a deep breath, and let it out. Did it help? No. But she pretended it did, and that helped a little bit. She squared up her shoulders. and walked out. The end result was oddly stilted, but at least she wasn't totally hunched over like she felt inside. She got up to the podium, and glanced at the big display board next to her that was rotating through a set of facts about their project.
Facts about a place that didn't exist.
A banner hung above her head said. "Save Our Apple Tree Yard!"
She coughed into her fist, and then into the microphone of the podium to test it. A padd with the script Saki had written for her lay just below the mic. "Okay, okay. Uh."
Everyone was looking at her.
"Hello there, my name is..." her name stuck in her throat. Was she really attaching her name to this. "...never mind that. For generations, students of Academy 27 and their families have enjoyed the fruits... goddamn really, fruits, that's not even a good gag... ahem. The fruits of our apple trees on campus. But now, it’s possible that we could lose forever a timeless and cherished tradition of our campus."
Images flashed on the display board of families having picnics under the trees, students hanging out, doing homework, finding romance... Of course none of those things had happened so Kalingkata had no idea where those photographs had been taken.
"And who will protect the memories of future students that could have been made under those trees? So, as a proud student of this Academy I say—save our Apple Tree Yard!"
She raised her fist in the air.
One person in the back clapped.
"Thank you, Bashrat, you're a real one."
A hand raised; it was Ihor, the theater nerd.
"Yes, you there on the left."
"Is um... this some sort of art project?"
"No, we are dead serious about saving these apple trees."
"Who is we?" he asked.
"Me and Saki Suzuki."
"And me!" a voice called from the back.
"And Bashrat, because he's a goddamn saint."
The hand of a grown-up raised. He was on the news. "I... wasn't aware that Academy 27 had any apple trees?"
"Well, I was surprised too. I still am. Constantly. To this very moment."
"And why do you keep calling it an 'Apple Tree Yard' and not an apple orchard?"
"Talk to Steven Moffat. Or don't. Because he died centuries ago and also this isn't his fault."
The journalist opened his mouth, and then closed it.
A little girl who was here with her mom raised her hand, her mom tried to push her hand down but Sang Mi was too quick on the draw—for some reason. "Yes, you in the flower print dress with the doll."
She looked out the window. "I looked outside and there aren't any Apple Trees."
Sang Mi smiled with dead eyes and nodded. "Astutely observed. But also, yes there are."
She looked back out the window. "No, I just looked again. They're not there."
"Look harder."
"You can't just make things appear by saying they'll be there, that's silly."
Sang Mi looked over at Saki who was standing just out of view in the wing of the stage. "Gosh, that is an astute observation as well. If only more people had your insight. Next question."
Another hand raised, it was Tsetseg, who was there with Bashrat, she didn't wait to be called on though. "Sang Mi, if someone is forcing you to do this, blink twice."
 Saki was silent, but Sang Mi could feel her pointed gaze suggesting that it would be a very, very bad idea for her to blink twice. 
"I'll blink twice if I want to!" Sang Mi shouted back, and then looked back at the crowd. "That concludes our press conference. Save the Apple Trees. Or don't. But don't come crying to me if you don't have... trees." She finished lamely, stood there for a moment awkwardly, then gave the audience finger guns and rushed off stage.
" That went well," Saki said brightly.
"What press conference were you watching?” Sang Mi said, retroactively covering her face.
"Well, no one walked out."
"Because they were watching a train wreck!"
"Exactly, you did good. Now onto the next phase of our plan."
Saki was already walking away before Sang Mi could get another word in. She huffed, but then sauntered after her, grumbling all the way.
 
* * *
 
“So you going to tell us what that was all about?” Sang Eun asked Sang Mi.
She rubbed her eyes. “We’re… saving the apple trees! Like we said.”
“Do you really think anyone believes that?”
“Bashrat believes that!”
“Anyone but Bashrat.”
“My… loving and supportive twin brother believes that?”
“Kalingkata, you don’t even believe that.”
She slumped in her desk. “I shouldn’t say.” She paused, and traced a pattern on her touch desk, that lit up into a colorful ribbon behind her finger. She hadn’t intended to tell anybody but she should be able to tell Talinata. Even if she couldn’t say everything, or even most of it, she had to tell someone. “…No, I should say something. You… you know Min Jun’s promotion with the Tenryu Party?”
Her brother nodded, looking at her intently. “How could I not? It’s all mom and dad talk about.”
She drew the symbol for Gongen, and then traced out the symbols associated with the Earthers—two wavey green lines and a dot, and the winged skull of the solar system’s Mavericks. The three symbols looked back at her like they were asking her to choose one of them. “I’m doing this so he can keep his job. That’s not the only reason. I’m also just… so curious if I was a cat I’d have lost all nine lives already. But… that’s why.”
He let that sink in. “Does anyone else know about this?”
She shook her head. “Just you, and Saki.”
“And Saki.”
“And Saki.”
As if saying her name three times had summoned her, Kalingkata’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it. “Duty calls. I’ll see you later.”
As she stood up, he surprised her by giving her a hug. She thought of saying something sarcastic, but.. softened. She hugged him back.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
 
* * *
Saki had called her back to room 307, which seemed to be becoming her unofficial office on school grounds. As Kalingkata walked in, she saw that Saki was looking at a series of chemical formulas projected as holograms into the center of the room. She came up next to her, and tried to read through what they might be.
“I don’t recognize this. Is it a drug?”
“Well spotted; it is a drug. But not one you’d recognize.”
Sang Mi sat down. “I figure that part of why I’m here is explaining why I wouldn’t. And I also figure it has to be the pills you’ve been giving me before bed. Am I right?”
Saki gave a thin smile. "Tell me, Miss Jhe, have you ever heard of Delirium?"
"Like, being disoriented and confused?"
She shook her head, "I mean the drug. Developed by XeLabs."
Sang Mi frowned. It did ring a bell. "I think I saw some marketing for it a while back? I don't remember it ever coming out."
Saki grinned. "That's because it never did come out. The drug went through clinical trials, was approved, commercials were aired, ads were run, an entire launch shipment was produced... and then it simply disappeared, as though it had never been worked on to begin with. Now why do you think that would be?"
Sang Mi shrugged. "They found out it made people's ears explode. Who knows?"
"I know."
"Okay, great."
She frowned. "I thought you'd be at least a little curious."
"Products get canceled all the time; this isn't special."
The two stared off for a minute.
"...You are curious! You're trying to hide it."
"Am not."
"You sure are!"
"I really am not."
"Then why are you still here? Why didn't you just walk out?"
"Because I'm curious why you're being so weird, not because you read the wiki entry on a failed drug trial."
"There's no wiki entry on it, if you'd been paying better attention you could have inferred that. Really, Sang Mi, I expected better of you." This stung Sang Mi more than Saki intended.
"And I expected you to be less boring." This, in return, stung Saki more than Sang Mi or Saki had expected.
She took a deep breath, centered herself, and when Saki's eyes opened they were... sharper. Focused. Predator like. "Let’s start over. You've been having strange dreams for the last few months, haven't you?"
Sang Mi was indeed interested by this, and sat down on one of the desks. "Okay, you should have led with that. Read your audience better."
Saki ignored that. "You know what XeLabs is, yes?"
"The Earther research company, ironically centered over Venus."
"Right. A few years ago, XeLabs noticed faint traces of a cosmic phenomenon—or perhaps I should word myself more clearly—they figured out that there had to be traces of a cosmic phenomenon, but they couldn't actually figure out what it was."
Sang Mi frowned and crossed her arms. "You're going to need to unpack that." Sang Mi was a little annoyed at how smug Saki was looking now.
"They were doing trials of a new sleeping pill, one they were calling Delirium, or DLXCU-22823."
"Catchy."
"Right? During the drug trials, they noticed that a small number of patients were exhibiting strange behavior and having strange dreams. By moving the patients around, and monitoring the changes, they began to realize that the effects seemed to only happen on a set schedule, consistent with an oscillating waveform."
"That must have taken a lot of money."
"They have a lot of money."
"Good for them."
"They quickly realized that their drug was allowing their patients who already had a sensitivity to this phenomenon to react to it when they would be most vulnerable to its effects—that is, while they were asleep. They pushed ahead with the launch—and then can you guess what happened?"
"They shut the project down like you opened with."
"But who was they?"
"XeLabs?"
She shook her head. "It wasn't them. Someone else came in and forced them to shut it down. The patients disappeared. The researchers disappeared. Every trace of it that could be scrubbed off the internet disappeared too. But nothing is truly gone, and I have... resources."
Sang Mi stretched her neck. "So you're saying my dreams were part of a drug trial for a drug I never took from a company that now claims they didn't make it?"
She shook her head. "No, you idiot. I'm saying that you have an obvious sensitivity to the phenomenon as well. One that is probably nearly as much as mine." She paused and grinned like the Cheshire Cat before saying with heavy emphasis, “Nearly.”
Sang Mi began to put the puzzle pieces in place, "You believe that this... Delirium phenomenon can make things in your dreams real?"
"Perhaps. We certainly know that they can show you the future and the past. You know that all too well, don't you?"
Sang Mi thought of her dreams. Being lined up in armor. Plasma bolts whizzing by her head. Some... terrible spiral. She shook her head. "Those can't be real."
"They will be. But... let's say you can change reality. Perhaps your dreams won't have to come to pass."
"So that's what this Apple Tree Yard thing is about. You're  trying to make the unreal real."
"Saki Sanobashi, you got it. Actually, I was thinking of naming myself Apple at first, but when you got trapped in the bathroom it was too delicious to pass up."
"I'm surprised you knew what Saki Sanobashi was."
"Oh, sweetheart, I have more important things to do than that. I just looked it up after I stole your browser history."
"And how exactly did you do that anyway? I encrypt things, you know."
"Encryptions aren’t so difficult to bypass. Besides, You're too lazy to password lock your home computer. Your mother was kind enough to let me in to get some homework I told her you'd left for me."
Sang Mi's eye twitched. "I see. So, I help you with your little project, which sounds... nuts. And hypothetically I can change the future."
"Hypothetically."
"And you get... what?"
"To see if my theory is right.
Kalingkata sighed, rubbed her temples, and then got up off the desk and walked toward Saki. "Okay. Maybe this can work out." Sang Mi put both hands on Saki's shoulders, which the other girl seemed hesitant about, but since Sang Mi was at least seeming to acquiesce to her request, Saki let it slide. Sang Mi took a breath. "Okay, so I'll go along with your plan. But there's one thing I need to be clear about."
"And what's that?"
Sang Mi smiled, and moved to look like she was leaning in to whisper, and then slammed her forehead into Saki's. Saki tumbled over, holding her forehead as she cried out. Sang Mi had thought she'd look cool doing that, but it actually hurt her too quite a bit so she stumbled back into the desks rubbing her own forehead—though still saying what she'd intended, "Don't you DARE mess with my mom again!"
“Did you just HEADBUTT ME?!” Saki sputtered, palm against her forehead. “I… you…!” Her cheeks turned a splotchy red. She was clearly not accustomed to surprises or physical assault. 
“Message sent, then. See you later.” She gave Saki finger guns and tried to look cool as she wobbled her way out of the room, running into the doorframe in the process, but held off on wincing until she was in the hallway.
 
* * *
 
For some of the afternoon, Kalingkata had a fairly ordinary time. She went to track practice, and had a big session of mutual hyping with Hee Jin about beating Academy 2 in the upcoming meet. She got off school, and kicked around with her brother and JackBox for a bit. JackBox showed her a new attachment she’d gotten for her cybernetic arm that was supposed to be able to cool drinks as she held them, but all of them determined it was a waste of money as it just made her palm mildly cooler. They were sitting in Higen Park arguing about whether they’d reboot the TV Series Professor X again soon, when Kalingkata got a message from Saki. Waving goodbye, Sang Mi marched off to grab the next train to the location she’d been sent, where Saki was waiting outside to greet her.
Sang Mi looked over at Saki, and then back at the building.
"I am not staying in a hotel with you."
"Oh stop being so childish, it’s nothing like that."
"I've read this story online. We get to the desk and the guy is like, 'Oh no there was a mistake, there is only one bed.' And then hijinks happen."
"There is not going to be one bed. I reserved this room weeks ago." Saki said, matter-of-factly. Evidently, she was not up to date on romance tropes.
She sighed, and gestured grandly for Saki to lead the way. The lobby of the hotel was extremely luxurious, and surprisingly empty. A fountain complete with fish in the pond at the bottom stood as the centerpiece of the room, which was made of an earthy-orange stone marbled with black lines.
"...How did you afford this place?"
"Afford?" Saki said with something that could be read as either confusion or derision and went up to the desk. " We’d like to check in. Suzuki is the name on the reservation.” 
The man at the desk bowed, and held it for an excessively long time. "I apologize, miss, but there has been an issue."
"What do you mean there is an issue?" Saki’s voice was sweet, but there was something dangerous layered under her tone. She may have been a petite teenager, but the annoyance radiating off of her could have belonged to an Earther CEO. Or a mob boss. 
Sweat beaded on his forehead. "I mean... that the room you reserved is unavailable."
 “Can you please explain to me how it is that the room I reserved weeks ago isn’t prepared?” 
He pulled at his collar. Kalingkata kept a dead-eyed stare on the whole situation. "Well, uh, you see there was a gas leak. All the rooms with double beds were affected, but thankfully we still have all the single bed—"
"I KNEW IT!" Sang Mi exclaimed.
 Saki’s face flickered with annoyance at Sang Mi. She leaned across the counter, eyes boring into the manager’s. “I am going to be very generous and give you ten minutes,” she paused to study his nametag. The man’s throat bobbed. “Mr. Kinzai. Ten minutes to prepare the room I asked for. If it isn’t ready in that time…” she paused, settling back onto her heels as if an idea had struck her. She held up a hand to the hotel manager. “Wait. This is a sign.”
"I'm not actually into you; that was just a joke."
Saki waved her hand dismissively at Sang Mi. “The room you have prepared will be fine.” The manager sagged with relief, informing Saki that the room had already been “keyed to her” and bowing excessively again. She waited until they were closing the door to their room – which had opened with a scan of Saki’s eye – behind them before saying,
“Reality changing based on our will. It might already be starting."
"But we're not dreaming."
She shook her head. "But we're already on the medicine, it doesn’t exit your system fully in 24 hours. I don't entirely understand how it works, that's why we're doing this. I know it works when you're sleeping, but what if it still has a dulled effect when you're awake?"
That was a new consideration. "You mean... the hotel changed because I was daydreaming about a gag?"
"It could be."
"Well, I guess let’s get this going. I'll take the left-hand side of the bed."
 
 The room had been immaculately appointed with fresh flowers, fruit, and bottles of both sparkling and still water in ornate glass bottles. Saki took some time to unpack several pieces of impressive looking medical equipment, as well as several packets of Delirium. 
"So, here's how it works, we get into pajamas, then wait for 8 o'clock, take the pills, and lay down. When the wave hits, hopefully we'll be asleep and ready to go."
"What if we're not asleep?"
"Then this sleep aid drug failed on several levels."
They got changed; Sang Mi had done enough Track and Field that she wasn't particularly self-conscious about changing in front of other people, but today she went into the hotel room’s bathroom and shut the door. She took the opportunity to steal all the complimentary soaps and lotions. When she got out, Saki was already ready for bed, in extremely cozy-looking silk pajamas with an elegant pattern of stylized grape vines on them. Sang Mi’s pajamas were a mismatched set of knit pants styled with characters from the Drakesword video games, and an oversized shirt that proclaimed how the Academy 27 Track and Field Team was Achieving Excellence in Body and Mind.
Sang Mi slid into the bed on the other side, and noted that each of them had a bottle of expensive-looking water conveniently placed on their bedside tables.
“You took all the soap didn’t you?” Saki said.
“Just give me the pills, rich girl.”
Saki popped out a pair of the pills, and pressed them into her palm hard enough Kalingkata could feel their size and shape. She held that position for a moment, continuing to press. "If you die I'll make sure your family is compensated properly."
Sang Mi looked back up at her. "You're kidding right."
She smiled back politely.
Pulling her hand away, she downed the pills. Now it was time to see what was real.
 
* * *
 
She focused. She was running through the darkness, and where her feet hit the non-existent ground splashes of something kicked up. Something purple and distant was far ahead of her, but whatever it was the only thing that truly mattered about it was it was light, and no other light existed here.
Apple Tree Yard.
This stupid idea. She'd make an Apple Tree Yard by dreaming about it?
In one moment her foot was traveling through the darkness, the next it was hitting the pavement. But... it wasn't the pavement she was used to. The air was thick. The sky was the wrong color blue, and her clothes had changed. People passed by her not seeming to notice or care about her, their faces fading from her mind as soon as they left her sight. She kept turning, and saw Saki. Against her better judgment, she was relieved to see her. "Is this the same dream?"
Saki nodded. "We synched, but something is wrong—ah, obviously. I should have realized, my head is still spinning."
Sang Mi frowned. "This... is this Earth? How would I know what Earth feels like?"
"You don't, but I do, we made this dream together. We lost track of what Apple Tree Yard is, this is Londonplex."
She looked up at the zooming monorails, and squinting could see that the sky was an illusory screen to hide that a whole layer had been built above them for other things to be built on top of. "This... wait, we're on Baker Street?"
It was obviously Baker Street. The white brick buildings she'd seen in so many Sherlock Holmes adaptations made it clear.
"I've been to Baker Street before, it’s preserved historically. That's probably how it’s so realistic."
Sang Mi touched a black railing in front of one of the buildings. It felt real, metallic. "I thought it would be more... dreamlike?"
"That's the Delirium. We're in complete control here."
"But... we're not really on Earth are we?"
She frowned. "Of course not. If we were really on Earth... well if that were the case this would be a more powerful phenomenon than I imagined."
"It changed your eyes. It... you want to make apple trees appear out of nothing."
Saki sighed, and gestured for her to walk with her, they got to a cafe where they sat down and ordered illusory coffee. "Think of reality like this string." A red, silken cord appeared out of nothing into her pale fingers. She set the string on the table. "Now let’s say I set it on the table, and I shake the string." She shook it back and forth, and it wiggled like a snake. "Now where will the string end up, what will its final shape be? Until that point, it could be any of the shapes I shift it into. But when I stop—" she stopped, leaving the string a long set of wiggles "—the possibilities of what it could end up collapse into its final form."
"It’s Wave Form Collapse. I've read about it. I didn't need the whole demonstration. You could have just said what it is."
Saki shrugged and sipped her coffee. "Then you understand my theory here."
Sang Mi thought about it. "You think that this... phenomenon allows you to choose what point the waveform collapses at, choose which possibility?"
"I knew you were smarter than you looked."
"But that doesn't mean things can just appear, lots of things can happen at any moment, but there's a zero percent chance apple trees will appear out of nowhere."
Saki smiled. "That's where you're wrong. There is an infinitesimally small chance that they will appear out of nowhere."
Sang Mi shook her head. "That's junk science. You can't really think this will work."
 “Honestly, Sang Mi. We’re having a conversation in a shared dreamscape, but theoretical quantum mechanics is where you draw the line on what’s plausible?” 
"And because we thought about Apple Tree Yard the TV episode..."
"We dreamed we were in it, instead of dreaming of actual apple trees."
On cue, a police officer burst into the room, his green and gray uniform open at the front to ease his heavy breathing.
"Is... I heard the master detective is in here?"
Saki smiled. "Oh, she's right here! Have no fear!"
Sang Mi rolled her eyes, then pretended to be Sherlock Holmes to the best of her abilities. "Why yes sir, you're in the company of Sherlock Holmes, only she's now a Korean girl from space for reasons I'll explain later."
He squinted. "I uh... well I don't know what a Korea is?"
She patted him on the shoulder as she passed him out the door, popping her collar up. "Don't worry, no one is testing you."
Saki followed behind her, and the two of them walked as dramatically as possible behind the police officer as he led them to the crime scene, which was in a nearby apartment. The resulting room was like something out of an old novel, aside from the people in modern crime scene forensics gear wandering about it. There were big claw-foot wing chairs, an ancient double-barreled shotgun over the mantle, paintings of hunters with their dogs out on the moors all over the walls, and the distinct smell of real tobacco. The place was impeccably clean, and seemed almost like a museum. In the connected kitchen, several unopened boxes sat around. There was a body on the floor, lying on the edge of a carpet, which was stained from soaking up the wound on the man's neck. On the wall was scrawled one word in blood: "Rache".
"Oh thank god, he's dead," Sang Mi said.
The rest of the room—crime scene investigators—turned to look at her with a mix of horror and disgust.
"I just mean I can handle dead people, but I can't handle almost-dead people, it’s–never mind."
She knelt down by the body, and examined it. . Saki stood behind her, careful to avoid any of the pooling blood. "So, what's the verdict?"
"Well, he's extra definitely dead."
"Well spotted."
"And it’s clearly murder."
"Why do you say that?" Saki said with the air of a teacher giving a quiz.
Sang Mi pointed. "The wound was clearly meant to look self-inflicted; they even gave him a knife, but there's two problems."
A man in a CGC jacket scoffed as he approached her. His graying hair and stubble marked him as a veteran of the force.
"I don't know who you are, but it’s obviously a suicide. The AI said so."
"The AI is wrong."
He gestured. "The knife is in his dominant hand, and the way his hand fell matches perfectly with the movement he would have made, we ran the numbers."
Sang Mi shook her head. "This man wouldn't be caught dead dying in Londonplex. Wait. I mean, he was, but... you know what I mean!"
"Let's say I don't," the man said.
"Alright then, Lestrade. Look at this room. This man is clearly a paleophile—a lover of old or ancient things. He's wealthy, wealthy enough to have a centuries old apartment in the preserved districts of Londonplex, one he barely uses. Note the unopened boxes, the lack of wear on the furniture. If he was going to kill himself, he wouldn't do it here. He'd do it out on the moors, or at the castle he presumably owns."
The man sighed. "People do strange things, not everything is like a book where actions line up perfectly with expectations. Plus, the room was locked, and we reviewed all external footage. No one else came in or out for months—and his last visit was months ago in itself."
She smiled. "And what about the word 'Rache' on the wall?"
"Well, there are three possibilities. He knew someone named Rachel, he was writing the German word for revenge, rache—or he was a massive fan of Sherlock Holmes and was copying that from the story."
Sang Mi frowned. "I'm Sherlock Holmes?"
"What?"
"Never mind. But no, all three of those options are wrong. Would you like to take this bit, Watson?"
Saki rose. "Of course. He's a paleophile, and his apartment is impeccably clean. Too clean. Yet he's never here—he hasn't even unpacked boxes from months ago. But no one has come in or out for months. So what does that mean?"
The man sighed. "You're going to tell me anyway."
"Of course I am, because you're wrong. The answer is obvious: he's obsessed with old things. Rache is an old word for a type of hunting dog."
"There's no dog here."
"But what would his loyal dog be?"
Saki and Sang Mi looked at each other, and then said in unison. "The cleaning bot!"
There was a whirring of motors, and from deeper in the apartment a bot walked out. He was wearing an old timey butler's outfit. "I see you sussed it out."
Sang Mi rose. "Hello there, Rache."
"Rache-4, he hasn't been very creative with naming my predecessors or myself."
The gray-haired officer blinked. "The... bot did it?"
"The bot-ler did it!" Sang Mi said.
"I'm afraid I could no longer take master's abuse,” Rache-4 confessed.
"But... civilian grade bots are incapable of hurting humans?" the officer said.
Saki pulled up a page on her phone. "He's not actually a civilian bot. He's army surplus, essentially. You really think enough money can't get you something not available to the public?"
He shook his head. "I... I gotta give it to you. You two are the real deal. What are your names anyway, I didn't even ask."
"Oh," Saki said, pulling Sang Mi towards the door. "She's just a regular ol' Sherlock Holmes with her Watson!" Before he could reply, they were through the door, slamming it behind them and running out, and as they ran the world turned to black, and their footsteps fell in water that wasn't wet, and--
 
Sang Mi gasped as she woke up. Her heart was pounding. She looked over at Saki, who seemed to be having a similar reaction but was taking it better.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Saki nodded, but was clutching her chest. "That... was the most realistic one we've had. It was like a long lucid dream."
"But... that stuff didn't really happen? It was a dream. We were just having fun, we didn't actually get to do anything towards the experiment like you said, right?"
Saki's brow furrowed. "I'm... less sure. I don't know. Something feels off, doesn't it?"
Sang Mi frowned at her hands. They looked like her hands. "...I don't know either."
 
* * *
"Sorry, I was in the bathroom," famed Detective Mara Willox said as she stepped back out into the cafe. "Did anyone come looking for me when I was out?" She asked the man at the counter.
"Well, not for you but for the other famous detective I think."
She blinked. "The other what?"
 
* * *
Yawning as she looked at the poster, Sang Mi couldn’t help but feel she was somewhat in over her head.
“How is there already a rally today?” Sang Eun said.
“I wish I knew, I wish I knew,” she sighed, as if to follow up the yawn. The poster exclaimed to all who saw it that yes, there was a rally today at the school’s Apple Tree Yard to save it. She wasn’t sure at this point if Saki was really onto something, having a psychotic break, or being the biggest troll to ever pull a prank.
He put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t push it away.
“It’s just been a lot, you know? I’ve always told myself that anything I’m dealing with isn’t as bad as what Min Jun dealt with. He’s sacrificed so much for the family.” She stroked her finger down the poster. “Do you think he ever really has done what he wanted to? I don’t think anyone ever said he needed to do what he’s doing, but he saw it in their eyes. Just pushed around by people by force of will, accomplishing things he never sought to accomplish for the pure accolade of not being a disappointment.”
Sang Eun squeezed her shoulder. “I’ve thought the same thing myself. Doesn’t mean he’s not an absolute killjoy though.”
Sang Mi laughed. “You’re right, but well, maybe that’s my fault. I’ve been doing this stuff with Saki for… well barely any time at all and I’m already feeling exhausted. Not that… honestly the last thing we did was pretty fun. But… am I making sense?”
He nodded. “I get you.
“Sometimes I feel like my role in the family is to be the disappointment.”
His hand loosened. “I’m not sure what to say to that.”
She shrugged, and pushed his hand off. “You don’t have to say anything. Will you come to hear me embarrass myself with another bad speech?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for all the code in Shocho.”
She smiled, and the pair headed off to the back field of the school.
Whatever Sang Mi had expected, it wasn’t this. She’d expected that either:
1.       No one would be there. Or rather, less people would be there as their curiosity dwindled.
2.       More people would be there all ready to jeer at her.
What actually met her, was a real rally. There were students there wearing headbands with a row of apples on them, which were all wearing deerstalker caps. As she approached, Tseteseg ran up and handed her one. She put it on as if in a trance. “What exactly is going on here?”
“People heard your message! I think they aired it on Gongen Patriot news? And then people shared it?” Tsetseg said.
Sang Mi turned around and began to decide which city or planet she would start her new life on, but Tsetseg grabbed her arm. “You can’t just leave; my dad even came. He never gets out like this.”
Hissing through her teeth, Sang Mi made her way to the front. Saki wasn’t even here. She waved to the crowd, and was handed a microphone by Bashrat. In front of her were more journalists, two members of the school board, a bunch of parents and members of the community, most of her class including even Zhyrgal, and for some reason even JackBox who was seemingly getting a pass on her un-Gongen-like cybernetics for the fact that she had agreed to wear a cardboard tree costume like in an elementary school play, and was handing out fliers to the new arrivals.
Kalingkata should have been nervous, but honestly this was just too weird for her to be upset. “Hi everyone! If this is another dream, then it sure is a strange one!” People laughed and applauded as though that was actually funny. “As you know, our Apple Tree Yard is in danger.” She gulped. There wasn’t a script—or if there was, the person who was supposed to hand it to her had forgot. She said the first thing that came to her head. “When I was little, my father took me into the city of Kazuki, to see the cherry trees. He told me they were beautiful, and they were. The petals fell down on me like gentle confetti, and I held my hands up to catch them. It was magical. Doesn’t that sound magical?”
General noises of agreement, though also confusion at where this was going.
“But that’s Kazuki. And in Takumi—they also have cherry trees. Maybe not the big, amazing orchard they have in Kazuki—but they have them. But this is Cheonsa—our home. They say this is the Korean district, and it has a Korean name—but that’s not my experience of this Cheonsa Dome. Yes—we’re Korean, but we’re also Mongolian! Chinese, Japanese, Ukrainian, Indian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and there are even Earthers and Mavericks here. And all of that,” she swirled her hand around to gesture at the crowd. “That’s our community. We’re one people because we’re many people—we’re together because we remember our heritage, even when we’re asked to melt into the whole.” She wasn’t sure if she was going too far but she’d already started. “And that’s why we deserve our own trees. When you come to Cheonsa, you can see the apple blossoms bloom. Not like cherry blossoms, like themselves. So um,” she hit a sudden verbal wall. “That’s all I’ve got to say uh, save our Apple Tree Yard!”
There was a surprising amount of applause. Actual applause, and as she stepped down, people patted her on the back, and someone threw a scarf around her neck like she was dressed like the centuries old Sherlock show. She smiled and waved, and all the while wondered what the hell was even going on.
 
* * *
 
Saki was waiting for her in the hotel lobby, swirling an extremely fancy-looking drink with marbled green and black layers that didn't seem to mix. She was dressed casually, which was apparently in trendy clothing, but not... too trendy. Saki gave Sang Mi the vibe of someone on a just-out-of-date fashion spread. She looked good, and you knew she was dressed well, but she also came across as profoundly forgettable. Like a store mannequin. Was that intentional? If she hadn't been skeptical of Saki, she never would have thought that. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Maybe.
"Finally," was how Saki greeted her, downing the rest of her drink in a single gulp.
“I had to give a whole speech, unprepared. And then go home and pack.”
“You did a good job. I saw the speech.  Not exactly government sanctioned, but it seems they’re letting it slide.”
She rubbed her nose. “I thought we’d just be taking the pills and sleeping. This is a lot more work than I expected. And my mom keeps asking how you’re doing.”
“Oh good, she invited me out for coffee, you know. Despite your headbutt I’m sure you won’t mind if I accept.”
Sang Mi grumbled her acceptance.
“Wonderful. How was your stop in at home?”
"It was kind of awkward. I don’t usually stay over with friends twice in a row, and my mom wanted the address which raised a whole bunch of new questions."
"You're not doing anything wrong, you're just staying overnight here again."
"I'm staying in a hotel overnight again with a weirdo."
"You mean yourself?"
"Mature."
She got up, and gesturing for her to follow, Sang Mi glanced behind her to see if her suitcase was still following her. It was, thankfully. As they got into the marble-tiled elevator, Sang Mi gave a quick bow to the man operating the buttons. Why did they need a man to operate the buttons? That was some Earther excess if she'd ever seen it. The hallway leading to their room was filled with lush carpet, and the door opened with a touch as it registered Saki's biometric data.
It occurred to Sang Mi that the hotel had never had to scan anything when they’d initially checked in, and that most of the other rooms operated with keypads rather than biometric scans. “How did they already have the room ready? With your eye scan and everything?”
“I’m a preferred customer,” Saki replied. Her tone suggested it was best to drop the subject.
When they were in the room together, they went through the same routine as last time. They got changed. Sang Mi stole the soap. The only difference was a pair of bots that were in the room, waddling around to hand them water and pills.
They woke up.
"Did anything change?"
The bots stared at them, and one waddled over to hand their master a padd. Saki frowned as she looked over the data. “Nothing really happened. Maybe the pills were duds.”
Sang Mi got up, and started getting dressed.
“It’s early morning, you should get some more rest.”
Sang Mi shrugged. “I’ll see you later. If you want to do this again, come over to my place. I’m sure my mom won’t mind.”
Saki’s frown was only growing. “Every calculation fits. I don’t understand what could have gone wrong.”
“People get things wrong, that’s just existing.” Kalingkata didn’t say anything else as she slipped out the door, and went out into the night. Takumi’s Cheonsa Dome was cold at night, the temperature regulators just weren’t as well put-together as the main dome ones. She pulled her coat’s collar up, and started out towards the train station ignoring the concierge’s insistence they call a car for her.
Her foot fell through the ground into an endless void.
They woke up.
Saki looked at the padd. “This can’t be right, something should have changed.”
Sang Mi bit out of the apple, and handed the rest to Kyon. “I don’t know, something feels off.”
Saki shook her head. “But if something is off, then we should notice, there should be some evidence!”
They woke up.
They were marching up a tall staircase, all the students around them were wearing blue uniforms, and a tall banner of someone she didn’t recognize was hanging down ominously over them.
“Wait, Saki, we were at the hotel.”
“We were at the hotel—”
They woke up.
They were tending to an apple tree, Sang Mi had shears and Saki was placing apples into a wicker basket. They both had big floppy gardening hats. “It’s a pity they want to get rid of this,” Sang Mi said.
“We won’t let them,” Saki said firmly.
Saki tossed her an apple, and they both took a bite.
And then Sang Mi woke up as her alarm for school blasted. She moaned, and fumbled around for her phone. As she turned it off, the events of the previous day come back to her. Saki was here with her. They'd taken Delirium together.
She looked over at Saki.
"Nothing happened."
Saki was lying on her cot staring up at the ceiling, calculations going on behind her irises that didn't add up. "...Something should have happened. Maybe we just didn't remember our dreams?"
"If this stuff is so powerful, why would that be the case?"
Saki sat up. "I'm going to eat breakfast."
Sang Mi sighed and got up to go see if she still had clean socks. When she went into the kitchen, she bumped into a chair someone had left a pile of clothes on by her door. Why'd they done that anyway? Her dad was adjusting his tie in the wall-screen he'd set to mirror-mode.
"Shouldn't um," she was still waking up, her thoughts jumbled together, "shouldn't you already be at work? Where's... your uniform?"
He looked back at her and laughed. "Just cause it’s a new suit doesn't mean the old one was my uniform." She'd meant his coveralls but whatever. She opened the cabinet and fumbled through it. "Where are the bagels?"
"Do you want bagels?" Her mom's voice grew louder as she exited her parent's room, putting an earring in as she spoke. "Why are you dressed up too? Did I forget something?"
She looked down at her outfit. "...Did I do too much? Are the earrings too much? Maybe I should—"
"You're fine, honey," her dad called. "Sang Mi is just struggling to wake up."
Her mom kissed her on the cheek as she walked towards the door, and she startled. That also didn't usually happen.
"Hey," her mom said, stopping, and putting her arms around her shoulders, suddenly teary eyed. "You... you know that even though I was distant, you're my only daughter, and I'll always love you. And—" she covered her mouth, trying to stop from crying.
Sang Mi was baffled but hugged her. "Hey, uh, hey it’s really okay, Mom. Everything is going to be okay. I'm right here, yeah?"
She pulled away and nodded. "I shouldn't cry, I just got my makeup done."
Her dad had approached, wrapped them both in a bigger hug. "She's right, we're here together, and we're still a family."
Embracing them both back, Sang Mi tried to figure out what the hell had inspired this until they pulled away and finally made their way to the exit. As her parents left and said their farewells, Saki came out of her own room. "My parents are sure acting weird. Do you think... do you think we made some sort of change, like with the cat‘s eye?"
Saki shook her head. "I didn't see anything on the monitors. I guess it was just a fluke, there must not have been an energy surge last night like I predicted. That's just part of gathering data though—I'll be able to keep making the prediction model better as we go along."
"...As we go along?"
"Yes, is that an issue?"
She sighed, and grabbed a muffin from the cabinet, tossing another one to Saki. "Whatever, let’s just get my brother and get to school." She rapped on his door. "Hey, lazybones get up. Sleepyhead you're gunna be late." She banged on it louder, and then tried the handle. The door made the ping and quick red flash that showed it was locked.
"He never locks his door—well, almost never. He does when he's doing teen boy stuff he's trying to keep to himself, but other than that." She frowned. "I guess he must have already left for school?" She pulled out her phone to message him, and sent out a quick, "Hey—you already at school?"
But no reply.
And he hadn't seen her last message either. "I miss you."
Well, that had to have been an emotional evening that she didn't recall. She and Saki started their way to the train station. Everything still felt off. The video screens around the city still had ads about the spring festival, but it was an entirely different ad campaign. Every so often an aircraft would go overhead—Self-Defense Force TSV's, but painted green, beige, and silver instead of yellow or red.
But it was when they got to the train station that things went from "off" to "concerning".
People weren't just getting on the train, there was a line, and every person who got on was being checked by a pair of Earther soldiers in full armor, and an officer in a long green coat. "What the hell are Greenbacks doing here?" she whispered to Saki.
Saki bit her lip. "I think... I think this might not be reality."
"But we... I remembered waking up?"
"We woke up inside the dream. This is the dream."
Sang Mi looked her up and down. "That doesn't feel like it’s a good thing. This feels like it’s a bad thing, the opposite of a good thing."
"It’s just a dream. All we're doing is trying to push a wave of probability a nudge to the left. These aren't real places, try to keep that in mind. It’s just reality pushing back on our attempt to push forward."
Pushing down the feeling in her gut, Sang Mi nodded, and the pair got in line, as she pulled up her citizen ID info on her phone, which was in the wrong place and also off. They waited for fifteen minutes, till the officer reached out, and they handed him their phones with their citizen ID information pulled up. He looked them over, and then smiled and handed them back.
"Ah, Sang Mi, I know your father, he's talked about you."
She smiled. "Oh uh, well you know how he is. Good to see you around?" she said, hoping it sounded remotely normal. It seemed to pass, and the pair of girls spent an awkward train ride in silence till they got to the school.
 
Academy 27 was not called Academy 27. Instead, a big new sign in front of it read, "Elon Musk Academy for the Gifted".
They wandered through the gates and made their way inside. Saki and Sang Mi started to take their shoes off as they entered, but the lockers for shoes were gone. They'd been there, there were rectangular ghosts on the tiles where they'd been. A few pairs of shoes still sat awkwardly in the corner, as though in defiance of the change.
"...Do they really expect us to wear our outdoor shoes inside?"
"People on Earth do it all the time."
Sang Mi looked at Saki with a level of disgust that took her aback. "Do they eat their dog's poop after it’s done its business too?"
"I think that's a little much."
Sang Mi grimaced, and walked in.
As they walked through the hallways, a message played on a loop on every screen on the walls. "Welcome to Elon Musk Academy for the Gifted, I'm Margaret Atlas. As Director Governor of Mars, it’s important that we foster the greatest minds of our most precious commodity—our children. Some of the changes going on at your school might seem scary or new to you—but trust in the Central Governance Corporation to have your best interests at heart. Some of the changes you may see coming include your mandatory re-education classes—" it went on like that. Sang Mi tuned it out after a while. Thankfully, their classrooms were the same, but it seemed the dress code had been loosened considerably. They sat down at their desks, and exchanged another look, before Jin Jae Hyun approached Sang Mi.
"Did you get the homework done? I got most of it but—"
She cut him off. "Hey, have you seen Sang Eun this morning?"
Jae Hyun blanched. "...Sang Mi, what are you... you know..."
"I tried to open his door, but it was locked, and he won't answer my texts."
Jae Hyun stumbled down into the seat behind him, clasping his hands on his lap and running his teeth over his bottom lip, trying to figure out the right words. "Sang Mi... it’s been... it’s been half a year now. We all miss him... but..."
"What do you mean we all miss him?"
Jae Hyun put his hands over his face. "Don't make me say it, please."
Sang Mi blinked and put her hands up. "Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't realize..." she saw Li Xiu, and waved her over. The other girl scoffed. "Hey, Li Xiu, have you seen my brother?"
She screwed her face up, and then laughed. "Oh my god, you really are losing it. I knew you were crazy when you got out of the hospital, but I guess you're more of a loony than I thought."
She frowned. "Okay, there's no need for that. I thought we were past that."
"Past that? God. Why are you talking to me like we're friends?" Li Xiu marched forward and pulled her barrette out.
"Hey–give that back!"
She held it up above where she could grab it, smirking. "Losers like you don't deserve nice things like this. You think you're special just because your parents have cushy government jobs now? How quickly they move on from their dead son."
Sang Mi's face lost her color. "What are you talking about?"
She laughed harder. "You really are having a mental break! He died in the bombings, how on Mars could you forget?"
She stood up. "You take that back."
Li Xiu made a fake pouty face, and looked over at Jae Hyun who was trembling. "Oh, will your boyyy-friend tell me off? You know he's not as loyal to you as you think, we kiss–"
"I told her about that, it was a mistake!" Jae Hyun snapped.
Sang Mi was trembling. None of this made sense. None of this could be real. None of this... if none of it was real then what she did didn't matter.
So she snapped.
She was on Li Xiu in an instant, slamming her face with her fist. The other girl dropped instantly, unprepared for Sang Mi actually having the muscle she did.
She panted, as Li Xiu tried to stop the slurry of blood coming from her nose, and bolted from the room as Jae Hyun and Saki tried and failed to go after her. She was faster than both of them.
"APPLE TREE YARD!" she screamed out. "APPLE TREE YARD!" Shoving past teachers, she made her way down the stairwells, and then cutting through the computer lab out the window that couldn't lock there, out onto the grass towards the empty field. And it was empty.
She reached it, panting, and stomped on the fruitless dirt. "WHERE'S THE DAMN APPLE TREES HUH? Why am I here? What's the point of this stupid nightmare? GROW. I told you to grow already." She fell to her knees and started digging with her hands. "Where the hell are you? There has to be a seed, at least, something."
A hand touched her shoulder, she slipped it away, her heart was pounding. It was Saki. She was pale. "We need to wake up."
"How, how do we wake up? What kind of a dream is this?"
"I'm not sure. I'm genuinely not sure."
Sang Mi rose and held her hands up. "I have dirt under my fingernails, Saki. I can feel it. Why can I feel the dirt under my fingernails so clearly?"
Saki gulped. "I think I may have... no, no it’s not just me. Everyone did. Sang Mi, I think the experiments other people have done–I think they failed because... because they were making the wrong assumptions."
Sang Mi looked past Saki's shoulder. Teachers were running over towards them. "So, tell me what's going on."
"You already figured it out."
"I want to hear you say it." She shoved her. "Say it!"
"Stop touching me!" Saki ordered.
"I'll shove you if I want to!"
Saki’s placid facade broke and, for a moment, she was a normal, annoyed teenager. She scowled and shoved Sang Mi back, eyes ablaze. “Taking it out on me isn’t going to solve this, Sang Mi!” 
"Just SAY it. You got me into this, so say it."
"We're not... pushing the string, we're on the edge of the string. We're in some sort of... limbo state, in a possibility."
She threw her hands up. "So, is this real?"
The next words seemed to pain Saki to say. “I’m not sure.” She studied their surroundings, seeming to find her center again. “This place may be an Apple Tree Yard. We need to focus on something…” Sang Mi panted; the teachers were nearly on them. She looked around. In the spot of forest the school owned, where they ran the cross country races through and which the biology classes used, a hoof emerged, and antlers. From a hundred meters away. A deer stared at them.
"Yesterday, I saw a deer," Sang Mi said.
"What?"
"It’s a line from a story—" She grabbed Saki's hand, and pulled her towards the forest.
"They're not maple trees, they're apple trees. They've always been Apple Trees."
Saki got it. "They overgrew–they're a menace."
"Honestly it’s not surprising the school is considering cutting them down."
"But they're such a part of school history."
They were running through the forest, their footsteps became wet as though the ground had flooded as the dark leaves of the canopy grew and covered the light above them. They followed the deer like their lives depended on it, their hearts pounding as the deer's tail disappeared as it bolted into the brush, and then they found themselves back in the hotel room.
Sang Mi struggled up to a sitting position; she had soaked through her clothes and the sheets with sweat. Saki was in the same state. They each grabbed the waters from their nightstands, gulping them down. “Did… Saki, I need to go.”
Sang Mi was already scrambling out of bed as Saki looked over at her. Saki stumbled up herself, struggling to find her balance. “Sang Mi, wait! We need to check your vitals.”
She turned and pointed at her, tears in her eyes. “Shut up. Shut up! I need to see if Sang Eun is okay—I, I have to. Don’t you dare stop me. If anything happened to him I’d… well you don’t wanna know what I’d do!”
“This really affected you,” Saki stated plainly.
“Of course it does, Saki! Because I have normal human emotions about things! I love my brother! Both of them! I… I have to go. I have to go.” She stripped and dressed quickly with no regard to her own privacy, stuffed everything in a bag, and rushed out. Saki sat there on the bed as she left, an expression on her face that Sang Mi wished in hindsight she’d paid more attention to.
 
* * *
Sang Eun was playing Drakesword when his sister flung the door open. He’d been trying to leap up a set of rocks to get to a secret area, and was beginning to suspect it wasn’t actually possible to do it, despite what the guide he’d looked up online said. He looked up from the game at Sang Mi, whose eyes were filled to the brim with tears. When she saw him, they boiled over. “Talinata,” she said, and flung herself on him, hugging him tightly and weeping. “You’re alive! You’re really alive!” He patted her on the back, absolutely confused.
“I… I sure am. It’s okay, whatever it is.”
“You can’t ever die, you promise me that?”
“I’ll do my best, I guess?”
“No!” She pulled back, and looked him dead in the eyes. “Promise me.”
He held a hand up as if swearing an oath. “I promise.”
She nodded, and sat down next to him, cuddling up. “You can’t get up those rocks you know, it’s an urban legend.”
“I kind of figured. Are you okay?”
She nodded into his arm. “Now I am.”
 
* * *
Saki tried to talk to Sang Mi a few times that morning, but she ignored her. The one time she cornered her, Sang Mi pulled her phone out and blared music until Mr. Xu started rushing over to chew them out.
Mrs. Ichinose leaned over and looked at the message from the main office. “Sang Mi, Saki? You need to go to the main office.” Sang Mi sighed and got up without looking at Saki. 
Saki trotted after her. “You know that you can’t ignore me forever, right? And that I’m not responsible for what happened last night. That wasn’t my doing, so I’m not sure why you’re angry at me.” 
She glanced back. “I’m really tired of all this. It’s not like we’ve done anything. I’m…” she sighed. “Look, something happened with your eyes, but are you sure it was the Delirium?”
Saki met her pace. “What do you mean?”
“You told me that all the other experiments failed. Maybe they failed for a reason. Like, it does seem that Delirium is a… wild drug. I’m sure you could make a killing off of it. Weird hyper-real feeling shared dream states is definitely nothing like anything I’ve experienced before.”
“You think it’s all a coincidence?”
“I normally wouldn’t tell you this, but you know everything about me already, so… I’ve been to Colocog a bunch of times. They sell injections there, things that contort your body temporarily. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen someone with cat-like eyes before.”
Saki was quiet. “You think I’ve been lying to you. That I’ve been making all this up.”
“No! No I don’t think you’ve been lying. I’m… Saki, what if your hypothesis is wrong? We’ve been doing experiments, and they really have been proper experiments. We have data, we have records. We’ve gotten farther than anyone else has but..."
"But you think our last jaunt was a bad trip.”
It was Sang Mi’s turn to get quiet for a moment. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.”
“You’re not like the other people here, Sang Mi. You know that as much as I do. Even the people you love. I can see it when I look at you. You’re not content, you’re not happy. You keep trying to find new ways to make your life feel like it matters, and nothing comes close. But you haven’t stopped. You don’t stop even when you hate yourself.”
“I always hate myself.”
“And you always keep going.”
“If this is your attempt to get me to keep going with your experiment, I’m flattered but you haven’t dealt with my actual argument.”
“I can’t deny you might be right,” Saki admitted, though her tone was unbothered. “This was the biggest wave we’ve had so far, but I don’t think we did anything. I scoured the field behind the school this morning, nothing. I even had a drone do a scan. Nothing. But you are missing one important thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you really think I’m so naïve as to enter a situation where I will lose?”
Sang Mi stopped in her tracks. “Are you kidding me?”
She shook her head. “I’ve already won, even if this experiment fails. When you enter a scenario, sometimes the optimal win won’t happen. But you can still win. You can still come out ahead. You can gain knowledge. Wisdom. Experience. Confidence. A realization you need to improve a skill. And allies. You can also just set it up so you’re playing both sides, but that doesn’t really apply here.” She looked at her nails. “So what are you going to gain from this?”
“It’s your plan.”
She shrugged and sped up towards the office.
Inside, the principal was waiting for them with his hands clasped neatly together on his desk. “Please sit. Now, I’ve heard all about how you girls have been campaigning for there to be an apple tree orchard on site, in the unused field.”
Saki nodded, “Yes sir, I’m sure you’ve seen the posters.”
“Yes…very clever how you framed it as ‘save’ the Apple Tree Orchard, when it’s a vacant lot. I suppose people are more naturally predicated to save something in danger than start something. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.” He tapped something on the screen of his desk, and one of the walls lit up, showing a woman’s face that both girls recognized in a pre-recorded message.
“Hello there, I’m Margret Atlas, CEO of Atlas Botanics, a division of XeLabs. Your desire to beautify your campus reached the embassy, and Howard Martin connected me with you—I’ve always had a great interest in Marsian culture, and if I can do a small part to bring humanity closer together, I’d like to. That’s why we’re going to be donating twelve apple trees to the Academy 27 campus, which will be shipped from Earth as part of our cultural exchange. I remember fondly sitting under my own family’s apple tree growing up, and I hope this gift can give you the same joy.”
The company logo took up the screen and the principal turned it off. “We’re sending them back some cherry trees. Earthers just can’t get enough of cherry trees for some reason. So congratulations, you girls are making a real difference here. I hope you can feel proud of what you’ve achieved.”
Sang Mi sat dumbfounded, so Saki answered for them. “We do, sir, it’s a huge honor and we’re so grateful to have helped.”
They stumbled back towards class, Sang Mi letting out little half-laughs now and then.
“Funny?” Saki asked.
“I mean, I guess we did cause change. Not… not how we planned, but you’re right. We still won. The Delirium had nothing to do with it but… yeah. I guess we won. And you won our argument earlier.”
“Of course,” she said as though that wasn’t worth stating.
They came back into the classroom only to find they’d been broken up into groups working on an assignment. Tsetseg was already in one, so Sang Mi and Saki joined Li Xiu and Jae Hyun who’d somehow ended up with the short straw of members.
“What’s the assignment anyway?” Sang Mi said as she slid into a chair.
“Sherlock Holmes,” Jae Hyun sighed. “We have to make a presentation about one of Conan Doyle’s stories, and one story written by someone else after him in any medium.”
Sang Mi tilted her head. “Why are you sighing? That sounds awesome.”
Jae Hyun scoffed. “I didn’t sigh. It’s obviously awesome. I love this assignment.”
“You kind of totally sighed.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“ANYWAY!” Li Xiu interrupted, “What were you two doing?”
Saki leaned back in her chair. “Oh, that little project we put together worked out. There’s going to be an Apple Tree Yard on campus.”
Jae Hyun looked at her skeptically. “You mean… an orchard?”
Li Xiu snapped. “Wait--That’s it! Apple Tree Yard!”
Saki and Sang Mi looked at each other. “I don’t follow,” Saki said.
Li Xiu gestured wildly with her hands. “Okay, it’s this wild obscure bit of Sherlock Holmes lore. There was this TV show adaptation made by the BBC centuries ago that was going into its final run, and the season finished airing, but then fans looked at all these clues and started to realize that there was a fourth secret episode called Apple Tree Yard—”
Sang Mi cut her off. “Yes, we know all about that.”
Not losing her momentum, Li Xiu barreled on. “—So they started to get really hyped up about this secret episode and—”
“We can’t use that for the assignment Li Xiu,” Sang Mi droned.
Saki nodded, “We’ll have to figure something else out I’m afraid. Plus, honestly, I think I’ve had enough Apple Tree Yard for one lifetime. No point wasting more time on a dead end.”
“That’s not fair,” Li Xiu said. “What if the rest of us want to cover it?”
Sang Mi could not hide the deeply patronizing tone from her voice. “Li Xiu. Honey. Sweetheart. Buddy. Pal. Amigo. We can’t exactly cover a story that doesn’t exist.”
Li Xiu frowned. “What do you mean it doesn’t exist, I’ve seen it.”
“I have too?” Jae Hyun said.
Sang Mi raised both hands palm out. “That’s very funny, but you don’t need to keep the gag up. Honestly at this point it’s too much.”
Jae Hyun frowned too, “We’re not kidding; it’s one of the most famous TV stunts ever.”
Saki slowly straightened her back and focused in on Jae Hyun. “Sorry, what did you just say? I need to make sure I heard you properly, I was tuning you out.”
“…It’s one of the most famous TV stunts ever?” he stammered.
“Don’t be rude to Jae Hyun, look I’ll show you.” Li Xiu pulled up a video on her phone, and started playing it. “See, Season 4 episode 4, Apple Tree Yard by Steven Moffat.”
Saki and Sang Mi watched. They watched just long enough to be sure it was real. To be sure it wasn’t a lazy fake. Sang Mi began to tremble. Saki checked something on her own phone, and showed it to Sang Mi.
The pair looked at each other.
Li Xiu and Jae Hyun were confused.
“Is this…” Sang Mi’s voice quivered.
“It exists. It exists now. All these years. All this time…”
They stared at each other, Sang Mi’s jaw trembling more and more.
Li Xiu tried to interject, “Sorry but could you two—"
“WE DID IT!” Sang Mi cried, bolting up in her seat and sending her padd flying towards Tsetseg who caught it in a scrambled panic.
“I knew it would work. I knew it. For years. For years he said the calculations were wrong but I knew it…” Saki mumbled like the words of a long held confession, triumph shining in her eyes. 
Sang Mi flung herself from her chair into Saki’s, throwing her arms around her. For once, Saki did not reject the embrace, but instead wrapped her arms around Sang Mi in return.
“WE REALLY NUDGED THE UNIVERSE!”
“We folded the string!” 
“I NEVER SHOULD HAVE DOUBTED YOU!”
“I’m glad you finally realize that!”
“DON’T RUIN THE MOMENT.”
The pair rose in unison, something neither could have imagined days earlier, and Sang Mi began to chant, “APPLE TREE YARD! APPLE TREE YARD!” taking the other girl’s hands and jumping up and down. Despite herself, Saki joined in the chant, albeit a little less uproariously than Sang Mi.
The pair broke out in a riotous mutual laughter.
“Ahem,” Mrs. Ichinose said. “I can see you girls are happy, but I’m afraid I’m writing you both up for disturbing the class. Please go meet Coach Jo in detention.”
They were laughing so hard as they staggered out of the room that they had to support each other arm in arm to get out the doorway, and could be heard for some time down the hallway, chanting their singsong refrain of “Apple Tree Yard! Apple Tree Yard!”
“What the hell was that about?” Jae Hyun asked.
“It’s a mystery,” Li Xiu mumbled. “I didn’t even think the episode was that good.”

​NEXT TIME!
Did you know that we have clubs here at Academy 27 outside of Track and Field and the Broadcasting Club? From the dirty looks I’m getting from across the office, I see that you did! One of those clubs is the Roleplaying Game Club, and I hear they’ve been up to some really strange shenanigans lately.
Personally, if I was them, I would be focusing on my Track and Field practices but… well I’m sure they’re all having fun. Even if they’re playing a lot of the time at the Cao Family’s religious compound.
But when you’re rolling the dice on fantasy, whose dreams are going to go too far?
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
A27: The Roleplaying Game
By Dillon O’Hara, James Wylder, Callum Phillpott, and Kimberley Chiu
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

Special thanks to the Cooking Club!

Crust
3 3/4 (470 grams) cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3 sticks (340 grams) unsalted butter, very cold
3/4 cup very cold water

Filling
3 1/2 to 4 pounds apples, peeled, cored and chopped into approximately 1/2-inch chunks (about 8 cups)
Squeeze of lemon juice
2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like your pies)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon table salt

To finish
2 tablespoons heavy cream or one egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water

Glaze (optional)
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon milk, water, lemon juice or fresh apple cider, plus a drop or two more if needed

Make pie crust: Whisk together flour, sugar and salt in the bottom of a large, wide-ish bowl. Using a pastry blender, two forks, or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until the biggest pieces of butter are the size of tiny peas. (You’ll want to chop your butter into small bits first, unless you’re using a very strong pastry blender in which case you can throw the sticks in whole, as I do.) Gently stir in the water with a rubber spatula, mixing it until a craggy mass forms. Get your hands in the bowl and knead it just two or three times to form a ball. Divide dough roughly in half (it’s okay if one is slightly larger). Wrap each half in plastic wrap and flatten a bit, like a disc. Chill in fridge for at least an hour or up to two days or slip plastic-wrapped dough into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 to 2 months (longer if you trust your freezer more than I do). To defrost, leave in fridge for 1 day. 

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line bottom of 10x15x1-inch baking sheet or jellyroll pan with parchment paper.

Prepare filling: In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice until coated. Top with remaining filling ingredients and stir to evenly coat.

Assemble pie: On a lightly floured surface, roll one of your dough halves (the larger one, if you have two different sizes) into an 18-by-13-inch rectangle. This can be kind of a pain because it is so large. Do your best to work quickly, keeping the dough as cold as possible and using enough flour that it doesn’t stick to the counter. Transfer to your prepared baking sheet and gently drape some of the overhang in so that the dough fills out the inner edges and corners. Some pastry will still hang over the sides of the pan; trim this to 3/4-inch.

Pour apple mixture over and spread evenly.

Roll the second of your dough halves (the smaller one, if they were different sizes) into a 16-by-11-inch rectangle. Drape over filling and fold the bottom crust’s overhang over the edges sealing them together. Cut small slits to act as vents all over lid. Brush lid heavy cream or egg wash. Bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until just warm to the touch, about 45 minutes.

In a medium bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and liquid of your choice until a pourable glaze consistency is reached. Use a spoon to drizzle over top. Serve slab pie in squares or rectangles, warm or at room temperature.

It keeps at room temperature for at least three days.

“Could we please go home?”
“No,” Kalingkata said, slapping the wall with her pointer, zipping through the web of linked pictures that made up her holographic conspiracy board.
“Then could we—"
“No! Okay, so, who all do we have here?” She looked over at the gathered room. “Obviously my brother.”
“Well you don’t have to say it like that,” Talinata said.
“I mean we all knew you’d be here,” she replied.
“We have to ride home together.”
“We’re twins!”
“We’re not joined at the hip.”
“Buuuuut I love you?”
He gave up. “Damn, okay yeah love you too. I’m all in.”
“That’s the spirit! Crush boy is here!”
“C-crush boy? Who would that be?” Jae Hyun asked, looking around obviously.
“Just messing around, Jae Hyun is here clearly out of the goodness of his heart. Thanks.”
He blushed. “Oh! Yeah um… n-no problem!”
“Bless you,” she turned to Ryan. “And of course our resident ambassador from Earth, Mr. Wilson.”
“I’m two months younger than you.”
“Thank you for your service, Mr. Wilson. And, of course, the one, the only, Tsetseg!”
“Do… do you need to announce us all?!” Tsetseg said, nervously adjusting the oversized tinted glasses she was wearing for some reason today.
“Yes. And thank you for being here, Bashrat, I appreciate you helping me set up the conspiracy board.”
He gave her a thumbs up, like an old pro watching his apprentice take her first steps.
“And that leaves only…” she pointed the pointer at the final occupant of the co-opted classroom. “I don’t actually know who you are.”
The girl sighed. “Yeah, I figured.”
There was an awkward pause. “So um, who are you?”
“Right, yeah. Alice Cao. I’m Cao Li Xiu’s younger sister. I’m in the grade below you.” She had accented her school uniform in every way the student handbook allowed, and every accessory was black and death themed. There were more skulls on her outfit than Kalingkata could count.
“Huh. I had no idea she had a sister.”
“Half-sister. And we don’t talk to each other, so that’s fine.”
“…I feel like there is a lot of family resentment there to unpack and I don’t think I have time to get into that right now!” Sang Mi said, whipping the pointer through the air, “So let’s get back on topic: We have an issue here at Academy 27, and that issue is that there is an Earther spy here.”
Everyone stared at her blankly.
“Oh, is this one of those alternate reality games Bashrat told me about?” Tsetseg asked, raising her hand.
“…No,” Kalingkata said, flicking her pointer in her direction.
“Is this part of our roleplaying stuff?” her brother asked.
“No!” she reiterated. “I’m serious! This is a serious meeting, where I’m being serious.”
“Then why are you joking?”
“I’m…” she rubbed her forehead, “Okay, let’s start over. Deep breath. Exhale. Fresh go at it.” She pulled up an image of Zhyrgal Osmonova.
“Is Zhyrgal joining us?” Tsetseg asked happily.
“No that’s—that would kind of defeat the point here.”
Sang Eun nodded in understanding. “So, we’re planning a surprise party for her.”
“No!”
Tsetseg put her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening in what she thought was understanding. “Are… are you in love with her?”
Kalingkata stared at her, her posture drooping. “No.”
Tsetseg gave a little disappointed moan.
“This,” Kalingkata continued, gesturing to the picture with her pointer, “is secretly an Earther spy!”
She waited for everyone’s laughter to die down.
“I’m serious!”
She waited a second time, and then sighed, pulling up the next part of her presentation with a flick of the pointer.
“Okay so… look, on October 20th of last year, I overheard Ms. Osmonova taking a call in an empty classroom from her Earther handler. He was pretty explicitly giving her orders.”
Alice leaned in. “So how do you know she’s a spy?”
“Well, they said the word CISyn, you know, the spy organization.”
“I can say the word CISyn, watch,” Alice paused for dramatic effect. “CISyn.”
Kalingkata paused. “Well uh… look it was very sketchy! And that’s why we need to investigate! And if we don’t, I guess we just won’t hang out after school this week.”
Jae Hyun stood up. “We’re absolutely investigating.”
Talinata rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess we’re doing this.”
Ryan just nodded.
Tsetseg and Bashrat looked at Jae Hyun, then each other, and shrugged in unison.
“Okay, I guess I’m in. Why not. So where do we start?” Alice asked.
Sang Mi snapped her pointer forward. “Exactly the right question, Alice! Zhyrgal has been staying after to feed the animals that the school keeps on the roof — she usually leaves about an hour after school ends.”
Sang Eun’s hand snapped up just as fast as the pointer had.
“...Yes?”
“That sounds, like, kind of admirable, right? We’re always struggling to find people willing to volunteer to feed them–”
“Okay, but isn’t that suspicious?!”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Look, we're going to follow her when she leaves the building and that’s that. Any objections?”
The head shaking repeated.
“Okay, then! Let’s go!”
They filed out, and all awkwardly gathered around a corner by the entranceway, leaning over each other in a precarious stack so several of them could peek around the corner at once. Alice and Bashrat stayed back, having pulled their phones out to play some game against each other. Sang Mi stayed laser focused on Zhyrgal as she got to the entryway, and changed her indoor shoes for outdoor ones. Her black hair was in a bun today, her hands showing the nicks and cuts she’d received from caring for the animals on the roof. She started to make her way out of the building, and Sang Mi, still watching, held a hand up — then, after waiting for her mark to gain an appropriate distance, ordered the group forward with a wave.
As she led the group onward, eyes fixed on the target ahead, Sang Mi's concentration was suddenly broken by the sound of a slight, inquiring cough. She halted mid-stride, realizing with a start that someone had been watching their apparently-not-so-secret maneuvers. This halting also made her realize that much of the group had been walking with big exaggerated steps like they were in a cartoon. This only made it more awkward that Mrs. Ichinose was standing in the doorway, a shrimp chip held halfway to her mouth as both sides of the standoff froze like startled deer. Mrs. Ichinose lowered the chip and tried to look professional. 
“...Hey kids. Uh. What are you… up to?”
Bashrat spoke up first. “We’re investigating!”
Sang Mi leapt in front of him, waving her arms. “A totally normal investigation!”
Ichinose nodded slowly. “Are… any investigations normal?”
Jae Hyun backed her up: “This one is! So normal. I was just talking to Sang Mi here earlier,”
“That’s me!” Sang Mi added, unnecessarily.
“And she was like ‘Wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever done anything this normal before in my life,’ and I was like… same, girl.”
Mrs. Ichinose just blinked at them.
“So anyway, we’re going now! Have a good day, say hi to your wife for… all of us I guess!” Sang Mi said, rushing behind the group and ushering them forward physically.
She waved goodbye. “Try not to do anything weird, Sang Mi!”
“Oh, you know me!” she called back.
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” she mumbled to herself when she thought they were out of earshot, and continued her walk back home.
The walk trailing Zhyrgal was pretty bland. The only complicated part was when they got to the train station and they had to figure out how to trail her on the train.
“We could all just wear disguises,” Jae Hyun suggested.
“We don’t have disguises,” Tsetseg countered.
Sang Eun stepped between them. “Okay, since we have to keep doing my sister’s thing–”
“No need to sound so enthusiastic,” Sang Mi mumbled.
“—We should send someone Zhyrgal doesn’t know into the car with her, and the rest of us will go in the car behind her.”
“That’s… actually a good plan, let’s do that,” Sang Mi admitted. “But who is there she doesn’t know?”
Everyone turned to Alice.
She sighed. “Fine.”
They followed the line till Alice messaged them to say that Zhyrgal was getting off at the next stop.
“That’s Paradox Park!” Tsetseg said. “We’re going to the theme park!”
Sang Mi narrowed her eyes. Why the theme park?
After the train pulled in, they met up with Alice, who swore Zhyrgal didn’t look up from her phone during the trip, and followed her to the still-being-renovated theme park. The Ferris wheel shone above the park — none of the roller coasters had met safety standards yet, so they stood dark and silent, but the sounds of many of the smaller rides rang out from across the wall.
“Zhyrgal already went in, but there’s a line that’s gathered since then. Bad timing,” Alice said. There was indeed a line, which was surprising, considering the state of the place not that long ago.
“They’ve sure fixed this place up since last time; the graffiti is all gone, at least,” Sang Mi said.
Alice sighed, and looked over at the wall around the park, which had been carefully painted with images of the elders of the Cao family in a style that mashed up Christian and Buddhist imagery around themselves in a way that was tasteless at best. “Yeah, Dad has invested a lot in the place. Watch out for the recruiters. Honestly the place is just a conversion trap.”
Ryan frowned and exchanged a look with Jae Hyun. “Isn’t that like… frowned upon?”
“In public. The whole park is coded as a religious facility. Welcome to the Cao family,” she said bitterly. “Do we really have to go in?”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, it’s your family after all,” Ryan countered.
“Not really. I’m kind of an embarrassment to everyone,” Alice replied.
“What’s that mean?” Jae Hyun asked.
She shook her head. “Just follow my lead.”
Alice approached the gate, and pulled something out of her pocket that Sang Mi could have sworn was a polyhedral die. She showed it to a woman waiting at the gate, and then turned and gestured for everyone to follow her. They shuffled through, past the line, ignoring people grumbling, and ignoring what sounded like mumbled prayers from the staff as Alice walked by.
When they got inside, it became pretty clear they had lost Zhyrgal. This, however, proved to be only a minor inconvenience, as once again Alice pulled out what Sang Mi was now very certain was a polyhedral die to an employee, and after allowing several members of the religion to place their hands on herself as she passed through, Alice rushed her friends past and ushered them to the Arcade.
It was one of the less popular areas of the theme park, filled with replicas of old arcade cabinets, and there was a smattering of people playing games, including Zhyrgal, who was playing an old co-op beat-em-up game. They all hustled around behind one of the rows of cabinets, and watched.
“Uh, Sang Mi, it looks like she’s just playing a game,” Sang Eun said.
“I can see that. Just keep watching.”
Bashrat was jittering. “That’s a co-op game. You’re supposed to play it with a friend.”
“I know that, Bashrat. Which makes it weird that–”
“I can’t take this, sorry!”
He ran around the corner, and skidded to a halt next to Zhyrgal, who looked over at him with a smile as they began to play together.
“Well this was a waste of time,” Tsetseg said. “Sorry, but I’m going to stay with Bashrat. He’ll want to keep playing even if Zhyrgal moves on.”
“No, wait — ” Tsetseg didn’t wait, and soon she was over by the arcade cabinet watching them play. Zhyrgal did move on, and Sang Mi got the others to follow her, but she could sense that the inquisitive spirit of the group was waning. But if they just kept following… She knew what she’d seen, what she’d heard. There was something going on. The weird stuff with Saki proved it. There had to be some connection. Or at least, she hoped so.
* * *
It turned out that Tsetseg didn’t stay as long as they all expected, because Bashrat had to go home to feed his turtle. That he had a turtle seemed to be news to everyone except Tsetseg. She caught up with them as they were waiting for the next train, sitting on the far end of the station trying to avoid Zhyrgal’s line of sight. Sliding into a seat on the bench with them, Sang Eun finally got the courage to ask what everyone had been wondering.
“So uh, Tsetseg, what’s with the glasses?”
She looked up. “Oh, it's nothing much. I just needed a procedure done and, well, I shouldn’t have to wear these very long! And I am fine without them. Just, you know, blind. Ish.”
“Ish?” Jae Hyun asked.
“You know, like, you could make an argument in court I wasn’t blind.”
Sang Mi leaned over, inspecting her face. Tsetseg leaned away from her.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t… happen to have cat’s eyes, would you?”
Everyone looked at Sang Mi weirdly. Tsetseg broke the silence, but her voice stammered a bit. “Is that some sort of reference? Like, to an obscure silent movie from the 1900’s or something?”
Kalingkata sighed. “No, nevermind. Oh–the train is here.”
They followed the same plan as last time, but it quickly became clear they were going somewhere unexpected.
“No way,” Ryan said as they exited the train and watched Zhyrgal walk towards the Feed the Stars Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry. “My mom works there.”
They approached the building, and as they slipped through the door a woman wearing an apron with a name tag that said “Anne” finished handing a bag of rice to an old woman, and wiping her brow looked over to see who was entering.
“Oh, hello, Ryan,” said his mom. “What are you doing here?”
“Shh,” said Ryan. “It’s a secret.”
“Ah,” said his mother knowingly.
“Hi, Ms. Wilson,” said Sang Mi and Sang Eun cheerily.
“Oh, you’ve brought your friends with you, that’s nice,” said Ms. Wilson. “And who are you?” she said to Alice and Tsetseg.
Alice and Tsetseg introduced themselves, and Sang Mi said to Ryan’s mother, “is, uh, Zhyrgal here?”
“Yes,” said Ms. Wilson, “She’s being very helpful. Shall I tell her you’re here?”
“No!” said Sang Mi quickly. “We’re, uh, hiding. From her. As a joke, you know.”
“That’s the secret, then?” asked Mrs Wilson, smiling.
“Yes,” said Sang Mi.
“No,” said Ryan simultaneously.
“Good, good,” said Anne Wilson, smiling kindly. “I’ll get you some aprons, and you can come and help out in the kitchen. It’s always good to have an extra pair of hands!”
“Right,” said Sang Mi delightedly, as Ms. WIlson bustled off to get the aprons, “We’re going to need disguises!”
She produced, from her pocket, a fake mustache, which she fastened to her upper lip by means of the mechanism provided.
“Where did you get that from?” asked Sang Eun incredulously. “We didn’t have any disguises earlier!”
“I’ll explain later,” she said. “Right, Tsetseg, give me your glasses.”
“Okay,” said Tsetseg, taking them off, “but I can’t really see without them.”
“Never mind that now,” said Sang Mi, and plonked the glasses upon Sang Eun’s head. “There,” she said, “nobody will recognize us now. Alice, you’re fine, Zhyrgal doesn’t know you. It’d make sense for Ryan to be here, so he doesn’t need one – ”
“Oh,” said Ryan, disappointedly.
“And Jae Hyun… uhh… you’ll just have to hide every time Zhyrgal comes past.” Taking a deep breath, Sang Mi clapped her hands, clearly pleased with herself. “Right,” Sang Mi said to Ryan and Alice, “You go and hide in that cupboard over there and spy on Zhrygal, and Sang Eun, Tsetseg and I will make the food. We’re great at cooking. It’ll be great!”
So Ryan and Alice went and hid in the cupboard, and Sang Eun tried to close the door on them.
“Ow!” cried Sang Mi. “That’s my nose!”
“Sorry,” said Sang Eun. “It’s quite hard to see with these glasses on.”
Sang Mi shut the door to the cupboard, locking Ryan and Alice inside, and she led Sang Eun, Tsetseg, and Jae Hyun to the kitchen area.
* * *
They were making soup. Ostensibly.
It was a rather nice kitchen area — very clean, with all the different sorts of implements that one needs to cook, and a fair few that one doesn’t, but are quite handy to have anyhow, for time saving and suchlike.
“Now remember,” said Sang Mi, “I,” (and here she affected a quite terrible French accent) “Am ze Marquis du Dupont, ze best chef in all of Parees!” (she returned to her normal voice) “Tsetseg and Talinata, you think of names for yourselves, and Jae Hyun, you’re not here. Right, let’s get cooking!”
Ms. Wilson popped her head around the door.
“You all know what you’re doing?” she asked.
“Yes, Ms. Wilson,” said Sang Mi. “We’ll be quite alright, thank you.”
“Good, well. In that case I’ll leave you to it,” she said, and left again.
Sang Mi opened the recipe book.
“This seems simple enough,” she said. “Carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes, and celery all need chopping. Tsetseg? – ”
Tsetseg’s hand moved in the general direction of the knives.
“Aagh!” cried Sang Mi, pulling her away. “I think perhaps you should wash the vegetables instead. Jae Hyun and Talinata can manage the chopping on their own.”
“Okay,” said Tsetseg, picking up a bunch of carrots and moving over towards the oven.
“Aargh!” cried Sang Mi again.
“The sink’s this way,” said Sang Eun, guiding Tsetseg to it. (He had, rather sensibly, pushed the glasses to the end of his nose so that he could see what he was doing.)
The soup-making set off at a steady pace. Sang Mi managed to wrestle some lentils into the pot, and get them boiling nicely, and with Tsetseg washing and the boys chopping, they got through the vegetables at a quite decent lick. The chopping of the onions made everybody’s eyes water, which really didn’t help with visibility, and as they began to go into the frying pan to be fried the effect only worsened. The air was steamy, and the room smelt deeply of onions and garlic and other nice spices. (Sang Mi had picked up the recipe for dhal by mistake.)
It was all going marvelously, thought Sang Mi. What could possibly go wrong?     
Just at that moment, Tsetseg turned blindly to grasp for another potato to wash, and, failing to see that the floor was wet, slipped, and, without eyesight to assist her balance, fell forward into Sang Eun, whose glasses fell forward onto his nose as his knife slipped out of his hand to bury itself into the floor with an ominous twang! Just as she turned, Zhyrgal opened the door and entered the room, causing Jae Hyun to panic and duck behind a table, while Sang Mi tried her very utmost to look French. Jae Hyun having ducked meant that there was nobody else for the domino effect of Tsetseg and Sang Eun to knock over, so instead they barrelled over him and knocked the table over, sending pieces of carrots flying across the room. Zhyrgal just stood there open-mouthed, but Sang Mi was assaulted by flying carrot pieces, and flailed about a lot, dropping the tea-towel she was holding onto the cooker. It set ablaze quite suddenly, startling everyone.
Sang Mi and Jae Hyun could only stare in shock. Sang Eun and Tsetseg were still tangled up in the table (and couldn’t see anything anyway), but Zhyrgal leapt into action, grabbed the fire blanket, and threw it over the stove, smothering the fire completely.
Sang Mi, Jae Hyun, and Zhyrgal heaved a collective sigh of relief.
“Ow!” cried Sang Eun as Tsetseg accidentally kicked him in the shin.
“Sorry!” she said, wincing.
* * *
Thankfully, people had liked the soup, even though they had to restart it from scratch while Ms. Wilson seethed. Less thankfully, they’d nearly lost Zhyrgal while getting caught up actually serving the soup to needy people. “It would be nice to stay here, and keep serving them,” Jae Hyun noted. “Maybe we can put off the investigation till later?”
Kalingkata grabbed him by the shoulders. “That absolutely cannot happen. We’re on a mission.”
“But…”
“No buts! All of you agreed to do my thing, so we’re seeing it through, right?”
Everyone glanced at each other. Sang Mi looked between them, why were they looking unsure? This was important! Even so, they did all keep going with her, and picked up on Zhyrgal’s trail. And that got Kalingkata skipping with joy.
“All things considered,” said Sang Mi, as they walked along, “that could have gone a lot worse.”
“She managed to see through our disguises,” said Jae Hyun.
“Well, yes, but – ” began Sang Mi.
“Ms. Wilson didn’t seem very happy,” said Tsetseg dolefully.
“She said it was quite all right,” said Sang Mi.
“She didn’t look like it was quite all right,” said Tsetseg.
They stopped, as Zhyrgal had, and hid behind a wall. A bus pulled up, brakes screeching, and Zhyrgal hopped on, heading to the back. The group followed, making sure to keep their heads down, and got on near the front, making sure that Zhyrgal was looking the other way. There was a brief, tense moment when Zhyrgal turned when Sang Mi thought they had been spotted. She hissed to the others to keep their faces hidden, but by the time they had done so, Zhygral had turned back again. They sat in their seats as the bus rattled off, rhythmic rumbles and groans emanating from its engines. 
The company seemed pleasant enough, the bus was quite full, but nobody was exceedingly rude or anything. Sang Mi was engaged in a quite pleasant conversation about the weather by a nice-looking young man with blonde hair. She thought he seemed quite nice. 
The journey was of a moderate length, but was longer than they expected. The bus stopped once or twice, but both times Zhyrgal failed to depart. At length, the bus stopped, and the voice of the announcer said, tinny through the tannoy, that this would be the last stop before the bus’s return to the depot. 
The group dismounted quickly, spurred on by Sang Mi, who wanted to make sure they did before Zhyrgal had a chance to. The bus had halted just outside of the city, and desert spread out before them. The group hid behind a small derelict building as Zhyrgal alighted from the vehicle. 
“Where are we even going?” said Sang Eun. 
Sang Mi turned her head in the direction that Zhyrgal was headed.  
“Well,” she said, surprised, and stopped, “there’s your answer.”
Sang Eun gasped. In the distance, across a small sea of sand outside the city of Takumi’s domes, lay a collection of haphazardly connected buildings, tents, and small habitation domes. Unlike the sleek clear dome they lived under, this was a mess that had been erected bit by bit by the sheer necessity of the people living in it. Nearby, a group of hovertrucks was filling up with Gongen, the spaces between the people being crammed in with boxes of something or other, Sang Mi presumed to trade with the town. And it was a town. A town quite different from any other on the planet Gongen. “Colocog!” Talinata said.
Tsetseg looked alarmed. “Colocog?” she exclaimed.
“There’s definitely something fishy going on,” said Sang Mi, trying to look solemn. “Let’s follow her in.”
“Isn’t that forbidden?” said Jae Hyun, “Like, I thought nobody was supposed to go in or out without a pass?”
“Yes, well,” said Sang Mi, sauntering over to lean on her twin’s arm, “we know ways of getting around the sensors.”
“It is quite difficult,” said Sang Eun.
“Eh,” said Sang Mi.
“Stop showing off,” chided her brother.
“Uh,” said Jae Hyun, looking nervously at the high level of security surrounding the expanse of buildings, and thinking of all the stories he’d heard of the Mavericks (though obviously not JackBox; JackBox was nice), “How about I wait here while you go in? After all, it's still a way off.”
“I’ll stay too, I think,” said Tsetseg nervously.
“Alright, then,” said Sang Mi, “Come on, brother mine! Let’s go!”
They started on their way, ducking around sensors and moving carefully, watching the hover trucks they’d seen loading up pass them by.
“How are those trucks going in?” Talinata asked. 
“They must have a trading license, like the one JackBox uses to come into Takumi, but in reverse,” she answered.
Talinata only frowned. “I don’t think they give those.”
As they made their way in, they were thankfully able to spy Zhyrgal and pick up her trail as they slipped through the entryways to one of the main buildings.
Colocog was a cobbled-together place, a place of the forgotten and the left-behind, of the fringes of society, the burnt crud at the bottom of the pan. Much of it was constructed of concrete, a dull, dirty, dismal concrete that seemed to seep into everything. It smelt of chemicals and cement dust and smoke, and licks of black where places had been touched by fire’s fatal grasp lay sprawled nonchalantly along the sides of walls.
Zhyrgal moved about the place as if she knew it well, from one alley to the next, hither and thither, darting about in the tunnels and the reddish rusty dust of Gongen.
The twins followed semperdistans to her, following behind just far enough to be able to duck out of sight if needed, but close enough that they could still see where she was headed. They followed quietly, bantering softly with each other as they went on about this or that thing, until quite suddenly, Sang Eun, who was not looking where he was going, ran slap-back into a young woman who had also been looking elsewhere.
“Oh!” he cried, “Oh crap, sorry. Are you alright?”
“JackBox!” cried Sang Mi in surprise.
Indeed it was. The twins’ Maverick friend regained her breath and beamed at them.
“Oh, hello!” she said delightedly. “Wasn’t expecting to see you here today, I thought you were busy with some investigation or something after school?”
“Well – ” began Sang Mi, but JackBox interrupted.
“Oh, Talinata, before I forget, I wanted to show you this thing I’ve been working on, I think you’ll like it…”
JackBox began to detail the workings of this gadget that she was fiddling with, and Talinata listened attentively. Normally, Kalingkata would have found it very interesting, but she was desperate to continue, and the knowledge that Zhyrgal would be getting increasingly further away with every second spent talking was at the forefront of her mind.
“Uhh…” she said, “don’t wanna interrupt, but we kinda have to get going?”
“Oh,” said Sang Eun, and she could see the disappointment in his eyes.
“Hmm,” she pondered, and an idea sprung joyously into her head, “How about,” she said, “you stay with JackBox, and make your own way back, and I’ll carry on following Zhyrgal.”
Sang Eun brightened up. “Yeah,” he said, “yeah, that sounds good.”
“Great!” said Sang Mi, “See ya later, then!”
She gave her brother a quick hug, fist-bumped JackBox, and ran off after Zhyrgal, legs pumping furiously. Luckily, Zhyrgal hadn’t gotten too far, and the route she had taken was quite straightforward, so Sang Mi was soon able to catch up, and follow Zhyrgal the little bit further she went, before stopping, and heading into a tall multi-story building.
Kalingkata was stumped for a moment, then noticed the rickety metal fire escape that clung protectively to the wall of the building. She bounded over, and made her way up. Rust crept along it, creeping, clutching tendrils of age and decay worming their way over its ancient frame. It creaked in a nerve wracking manner as Sang Mi went up its stairs, up and up and up until she heard voices emanating from a window right by the escape. She stopped, and leant over to listen in. The drop below stretched out before her, for far too long for comfort, so Sang Mi didn’t want to lean out too far. However, she managed to get a glimpse of the room in which Zhyrgal was situated.
It was a quite nice room, well furnished and decorated. On the walls were hung a variety of oddities: a poster of some actor who Sang Mi couldn’t remember the name of in the 2145 film of Twelfth Night; a pastel-colored watercolor of the Roman god Janus; a picture of David Bowie performing in Manchester as Ziggy Stardust. The walls were a sort of lime green color. She couldn’t see very much of the room, but she could just about see Zhyrgal’s arm. She leaned back in and listened.
The voice of the individual with whom Zhyrgal was so deep in discussion was that of an older man, a kind voice, thought Sang Mi. There was some sort of shuffling sound, and a sort of muffled clinking, as the sound of wood upon wood.
“White or black?” said the old voice.
“Black,” said Zhyrgal.
“Interesting choice,” the old man replied.
There was a shuffling noise.
More clinking. Silence. Clinking again.
A chess match is not the most riveting of things to listen to when one is halfway to the heavens standing on a rackety old fire escape and a bitter wind is biting into one’s face. Sang Mi zoned out for a bit, then attempted to follow the match via the conversation. It seemed that there were some complicated strategies and things going on, and that each party was trying to deceive the other about their strategy. It all seemed terribly complicated, and Sang Mi wasn’t quite sure what was going on. 
Suddenly, Sang Mi was distracted from the conversation by noises from the ground below, from just outside of Colocog. She turned.
“Jesus,” she whispered.
Down below, swarming like enraged ants, yelling and screaming and shouting, was a great mob of people, the same ones they’d seen on the bus. Their eyes were full of rage, and their faces were screwed up and contorted with hatred. The wildebeest were stampeding. She pressed herself back against the wall as Zhyrgal and the man opened the window to look out, which at least brought them into clearer view for her.
“Gongen for the Gongen!” the rioters were yelling. “Down with the Mavericks!”
They wielded fireworks, which they set off sporadically, wheeling and crying in the air, and exploding with great bangs. Every time one of them was set off, the three spectators jumped. However many times they were set off, it was always a shock.
This rather put a dampener on further conversation, and so Zhyrgal said good-bye, and made to leave.
“Zhyrgal?” said the old man.
“Yes?” said Zhyrgal.
“Would you like to meet up for coffee sometime?”
Zhyrgal hesitated, then “No,” she said definitively, “I’d better not.” But there was a sad look in her eyes, as if she did want to. A look that was so pained that it troubled Sang Mi for some time after she saw it.
* * *
A television. The screen flickers on. On it is a sleekly-dressed politician. He smiles the smile of a crocodile. “Yes,” he is saying, “I absolutely condemn this violence, these riots. However, the Mavericks do pose a threat to our society, and I think it is very easy to downplay their influence when such things as these occur. Extremists who wish to change the order of things are of course terrible, but they have reasonable concerns at heart, and we should bear this in mind. We’re not fascists, we’re not monsters, but we have Gongen’s best interests at heart.”
* * *
Jae Hyun looked troubled, but Sang Mi tried to push him on as if nothing had happened. Sang Mi cast a short look to where friendly people from the neighboring area were gathering to help clear up the wreckage from the anti-Maverick riot, but quickly decided that Zhyrgal was more important.
“What happened to Tsetseg?” she asked Jae Hyun.
“Oh, she went back home, I think,” said Jae Hyun. “Said her dad would be worried. What about your brother?”
She waved it off. “He went off with JackBox, she wanted to show him something. And they messaged me during the riot–they’re both safe so no worries.”
He cast a look back. “I have worries. I can’t believe they did that. People could have been really hurt.”
“Well, hopefully no one was. I had lots of relatives I never met who died in the reform protests thirty years back. It’s not a great way to go.”
He nodded.
They continued in silence.
Jae Hyun was alright really, thought Sang Mi, just a bit annoying.
* * *
Getting back inside the dome had been easy, but once again their trail had led them into an odd position.
Kalingkata and Jae Hyun lay on their bellies beneath a large bush, concealed beneath its foliage. The branches scratched their faces and hands a little, and the ground was rough and uncomfortable beneath their bodies. Zhyrgal stood on a large concrete expanse, flat and dull and gray, in the center of the square. The air smelt of cherry blossoms. They settled in to watch, all of them sharing in the scent and sight of the delicate petals.
* * *
 Zhyrgal would always remember the cherry blossoms, floating in the air, every facet of their being immaculately placed, falling like teardrops into the square, littering the floor with blossoms. Blossoms fell into her hair, brushing against her skin as they fell, falling, falling, always falling.
“Zhyrgal.”
The voice was so beautiful, thought Zhyrgal, like wind chimes on the air. She turned.
“Aigul,” she said, smiling. Aigul remained solemn. Zhyrgal could see there was a sadness in her eyes that was not usually there.
“Hey. I’m glad you came. I… well I wasn’t sure you were going to.”
“I’ve been busy,” Zhyrgal replied, trying to stay cheerful.
“Yeah, you’re always busy. Like I’m guessing you were yesterday.”
Zhyrgal wracked her brain. She really had been busy. She’d had to work, staying out all night on a job for her boss… she’d nearly skipped out on volunteering at Feed the Stars today. But what was yesterday? “I was, yeah.”
“I see,” Aigul sighed. “You really don’t remember at all do you. My recital? The one I’ve been working on for months?”
The wind blew past them. Zhyrgal felt her heart churn. “...Oh god. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to, truly. I… I’ve had so much on my mind…”
“And I’ve really… Zhyrgal, you’re great, but, you have too many excuses. Do you know how hard I had to work to memorize that, I–” She kept talking, but Zhyrgal was distracted again by her own thoughts.
The realization of what was coming hit her like a hard stone wall, large round stones crashing against her head. She screwed her eyes up tight, bright colors dancing before her perception. Blues and greens and reds, all in the dark space behind her eyelids, and she stared into the darkness, and scrunched her eyes tighter and tighter and tighter and the colors grew brighter and brighter and brighter. Her hands danced about each other like butterflies in the sunlight, and she felt as if a great weight was pushing down on her heart, dragging her into the darkness, down and down and down. The waves of words washed over her as if she were naught but a bedraggled figure lying on the sand, and they rolled and they rocked and they frothed all around her, hanging in the air.
“You’re not even listening to me, are you?” said Aigul, sadly. “You’re not even bloody listening!” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she was louder now, and more upset, and more angry. “We can’t go on like this, Zhyrgal. It has to stop!”
She walked away, towards the city, full of people, loud and busy.
“I love you,” she said.
Zhyrgal’s heart whispered I love you too, but the only cracked word that escaped her lips was a whispered “Goodbye.”
Aigul disappeared into the city, mingling and merging with all the hundreds of people with all of their busy, bustling lives. Zhyrgal could have gone after her, said she loved her, but she didn’t, because she loved Aigul. It was better this way, thought Zhyrgal hazily. In that moment, she knew that she would never see Aigul again.
The tears floated to the ground like cherry blossoms.
* * *
Sang Mi was hyperfocused on the scene in front of her, staring at Zhyrgal's body language as Aigul walked away. She didn't even hear Jae Hyun when he'd made the first noise of discomfort, and it took him repeating "Kalingkata, I think we should let this go," for him to get her attention.
She looked over at him. What was he thinking? They'd come all this way! They'd even found this good spot in the bushes. "What are you talking about? We're just getting the really good info here."
He cringed, and she found she didn't like the way he was looking at her.
"She's by herself, we can–"
"Nah, no. Sorry. I... Sang Mi, look. I'd do anything for you, but I can't do this."
She threw her hands up, rustling the bushes. "Then you wouldn't do anything for me, that doesn't even make sense!"
He sighed, and slid back and out of the bushes. Sang Mi scrambled to follow him.
"Did I do something to piss you off? Look, I'm sorry whatever it was--"
"Just think about someone other than yourself for once, god."
He turned and walked away. Sang Mi stood there, dumb and frozen, the sounds of Zhyrgal crying the only noise as she tried to come up with something to say. "Wait?" she asked, and for a second he did turn, and then he got a notification and as he looked at his phone he returned to his convictions.
Then it was just her and Zhyrgal.
"Are you happy? Is this what you wanted to see?" Zhyrgal spat through sobs. "I don't know why you've been following me all day but can't you just leave me the hell alone?"
Sang Mi frowned. "Oh, you noticed us then?"
"Of course I noticed you! You weren't exactly subtle. Like when you pretended to be... um..." she put a finger on her lip mimicking a mustache.
"...French?"
"That's a salad dressing."
"No, it's a language."
"I mean it's that too."
"It also used to be a country."
Zhyrgal sniffed. "I don't need to know about ancient peoples that invented pyramids and salad dressing."
"No that... never mind. Look, why don't you just tell me."
She pulled a tissue out her purse, and tried to wipe her tears.
"I want to go home, don't you have a heart? Can't you just let me be?"
Sang Mi felt a sting. She hissed through her teeth, and immediately turned around and started walking. "Okay yes, sorry. Forget I said anything."
She got about five meters and turned back around.
"No, no. I came here for a reason. I'm trying to find proof."
Zhyrgal crossed her arms. "Proof of what? That I'm a bad girlfriend?"
This was getting ridiculous. She'd gathered everyone up, and they'd all come here to help with what was a noble quest, and she was somehow the last one standing, and now Zhyrgal was going to play dumb?
No one was around. She might as well just go for it. She closed her eyes, and breathed in.
"Because..." she pointed at her. "J'accuse! You're a spy! An Earther spy working for CISyn, under Jylan Rathe."
There was no hiding the surprise on Zhyrgal's face. "What?!"
Kalingkata took two steps forward. "I said you're a spy. I saw you reporting back to your spymaster. Heard you reporting back. I know. I know, Zhyrgal. I've known from the first day you were here."
A flurry of facial expressions flashed across Zhyrgal's face: surprise, panic, sorrow, fear, anger, and then it all collapsed into a stone cold mask.
"So?" Zhyrgal said.
"So!?! You're a spy for Earth!"
"Prove it."
"I'm trying," she gestured around. "That's why everyone was with me to... to you know, find evidence."
Zhyrgal huffed, and closed the distance between them, looking up at Sang Mi as she got close enough they could feel each other's breath. "And where is everyone, huh, Kalingkata? Where have they all gone?"
Sang Mi's face grew pale. "You know, they had other stuff to do?"
She gave a humorless laugh. "Oh really?" Zhyrgal gestured behind her. "You know who that was? Someone I loved, Sang Mi. Loved. And I just had to let her go. Do you know why?"
"Because... you're... a spy?"
Zhyrgal grabbed her shirt below the collar in two fists of cloth, and pushed her into the wall of the building next to them. Sang Mi didn't see it coming, and only really processed it had happened about halfway through the sentence that followed.
"Because I believe in something greater than myself. I believe in good. I believe in justice. In helping others. In doing the right thing. You just believe in doing whatever the hell you want, no matter how many bridges you burn in the process. Cause you're oh so smooth, right? You don't like to admit it, you like playing the card that you're a helpless little nerd but you're sly and cunning. You can just get new toys if you break the old ones, right?"
They breathed together for a moment, Zhyrgal's face having gone from a cold mask to a cold anger. Breaking from the trance, Sang Mi shoved her back. "Get off me! And I love my friends, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I'd die for my friends!"
Zhyrgal shoved her glasses back up her nose. "But would you live for them? Would you take care of yourself for them? Or is that a job you port off on other people?"
She stomped her foot. Why was she coming off as the bad guy here? She felt the world spinning around her. "That's not true either! And you're betraying everyone here to our colonial overlords."
Zhyrgal finished tidying herself up, and smiled back at her. "I'll see you at school. And none of this happened, so let's just pretend it didn't. Good luck with your friends. If you still have them." She shrugged. "Maybe on that front we're more alike than I'd like."
"Shut up," she mumbled.
Zhyrgal smiled, and walked away. 
* * *
Sang Mi lay in bed. Her brother had sent her a message saying he was staying out late with JackBox to go to a concert of a lousy David Bowie cover band visiting from Hongtu. She hadn't heard back from him since. 
She messaged Alice. Nothing.
Li Xiu. Nothing.
Tsetseg. Nothing.
Bashrat. Nothing
Ryan. Nothing.
Jae Hyun. Nothing.
She rolled over. She couldn't get up the energy to play video games. Even staring at the wall felt like too much effort. Her heart was thumping, and she felt a pain spiderweb up from it into her shoulder.
She grabbed her phone and messaged someone she didn't want to.
Kalingkata: You up?
SakiSuzuki777: Perhaps. Why do you ask?
Kalingkata: Don't be cute. I'm free for an experiment tonight, if you want to?
SakiSuzuki777: You know as well as I do that our experiments are timed carefully with the ebb and flow of the cosmic pre-shocks I've been monitoring. If you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to work.
She read the message through four times, and then chucked her phone across the room. After a moment, she grumbled and got up to retrieve it. Picking it up, the black glass reflected her face. It was a bit puffy, she had cried a little. She wanted to smash that face in. Go for a punch, like Saki had said.
"God I hate you," she mumbled.
Everyone was sick of her. Everyone was tired of her. Everyone was...
"I'd do anything for you, but I won't do that."
Maybe Zhyrgal was right, she'd just reel everyone back in. Maybe it was better if she left them alone, blocked them all for their own good. 
But she didn't want to.
She didn't want to be alone.
She pulled on a hoodie, and slid out of her room, tiptoeing through the apartment, and then rushed out the door. She ran through the night, her shoes thudding against the rough concrete, stumbling over some trash the street bots hadn't gotten to yet, past the neon signs of adult nightlife, ignoring a shout that it was past her curfew.
She found herself in front of a nice townhouse, and staggered to a halt, panting with her hands on her knees, covered in sweat that had made her hoodie damp, the reprocessed air rapidly cooling her from the post-run inferno in her chest into a icepop. 
Shivering now, she walked up to the door, and pressed the intercom button, which scanned her genetics and compared it with the planetary database to let the homeowners know who she was. A hologram of Jae Hyun from the shoulders up, yawning, appeared. "Sang Mi? What are you doing here?" He squinted; she'd clearly woken him up. "You look awful."
"I–I need you to help me solve a mystery."
He groaned. "Go home, Sang Mi. My parents are already going to be unhappy if the door woke them up–"
"Sherlock Holmes. The first one, the silent movie with William Gillette from 1916. The actor invented a lot of stuff about the character–”
“How is that–”
“I haven't seen it,” she finished loudly. “I haven’t seen it yet. Ever.”
His squint evolved into a confused rapid blink. "How is that a mystery?"
"Watch it with me. We need to investigate."
Rubbing his nose, he bobbed his head back and forth in consideration. "Yeah, sure. We can do that sometime."
"Tonight. Let's watch it together."
"It's late."
"It's not a school night."
"I don't really think..."
She threw her hands up. "Jae Hyun, I have run here in the middle of the night to watch an obscure silent movie with you. Solve a mystery for once in your life and open the damn door."
She couldn't really read his expression through the intercom, but after a moment, the door unlocked.
Jae Hyun's mom woke up and fussed over her, making her change into something that wasn't sweat-soaked, and got her and her son a snack, seemingly just glad that he had a friend over.
Sang Mi pulled the blanket up around her. "I didn't prove anything today."
"Yeah, I don't know why you thought she was a spy?"
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Let's start the movie."
Sherlock Holmes (1916) began to play as the lights dimmed.
A few minutes passed, and Jae Hyun looked more and more confused. Sang Mi glanced at him in confusion at his confusion, till he finally voiced it.
"Hey, Sang Mi? Why aren't they talking? Like there's no dialogue."
"In the silent movie?" she deadpanned.
He nodded sincerely.
Sang Mi laughed, doubling over on the couch. Tears came to her eyes; she wasn't sure if it was from laughing or as if some weight felt a little lighter and they could roll out again. "It's a mystery!"

​

NEXT TIME!
Why Alright it looks like we have a special announcement from Saki Sazuki—Sazuki is her family name if you’re confused—and my good personal close friend Jhe Sang Mi who needs to remember to bring her spikes this week for relay race practice—and let’s see its…
What?
That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t… I don’t understand.
What exactly is this… an A̶̱̖̦̠̖̅͒̀p̶͇͆̑͛ṕ̶̡̠̂͘l̵̛̝̘̗̩̀e̵̩̞̞̩̻͒͝ Tree Yard? What the heck is an Apple Tree Yard? Like… like an Orchard? We don’t have any A̶̱̖̦̠̖̅͒̀p̶͇͆̑͛ṕ̶̡̠̂͘l̵̛̝̘̗̩̀e̵̩̞̞̩̻͒͝ Trees at the school?
I̵̡̢̡̛̱̺̝̯͇͓̘̒̄̃̑̅̏̈̈́̈́͝͠ ̵̨͕͉͍̲͖͍͈̥͓̂͂́̃̊̄͑̐̚͝͝͝͝d̷̨̞͕̲͍̪̼͉̉̓ó̵̧͊͂̌͐͐̔̅́̅͛͂̽̕n̵͚̩͒̀͐̿̑̀̌̚͠'̴̡̜͔̈̌̀̒͐̂̏̑̈͗̕͝t̶͕̤̘̳̰͔̱̲͔͛͋͊͌̌͌̏̈́́̔̈̈́̇͝ ̴͍̮͙̓̆ũ̶̡̬̠̟̩͎͎͈͖͉̿̊̎͗̊̉̈́͐͑͋̚͠ņ̷͕̗̥̮͖̍d̵̨̧͎̦̗͚̙͆̃͒̽͐̅̒̋͒̈́̀͠è̶̖̎̅͋̚r̸̜͉̱̐̄̿̈́͌̔͗̂̅̏̄͗s̵͉̰͗t̸̡̡̠̺̦̱̙̥̞͍̖͕͎͕͉̑̄̄͋̍̄̄̚͝á̵͎̺̲̙͕̹͙͗̒̏̆̑͗̊̾͘͝͝n̶̘͔̠͖͍͇̞̞̗̪̥̭͇̞͕̈́̑̂̄̄̾̅͛̏͊d̷̠̬̝̩͇̪͉̯͛͛̔̔̉͠͝ͅ ̶͇͔̘̈́̽̇͂͝͠w̸̬͓͒̾̈h̵̨͉̙̆̍̐̄̍̀͊̀͒ẏ̸̢̪̠̙͇́̇́́̚͝͝ ̵̧̢̫͎͈͉́͑́͆̅̇̎̈́ţ̷̺̝̹̣̣̝͙̬̣̒̉̇̒̀̚h̴̟̼͓̬͔͍̣͇͔̮͌̈ȩ̷̢͓̼̞̱̙̲̺̠̽̽̏͊͜͝͠͠y̵̛͕̘̍̈́̀̀̆̍̊̒̾̉̎̏̀͜'̷̨̧̧̯̲̳͔̙̅̅̾̆̀͌͑̈̆̈́͠ď̷̗͑̈́̑͂̊̅͗̉̀̎͘̕ ̵͕̹͍͔̉͒͌̐̏̌w̴̡̧̬͕̖͍̪̙̲͍̎̓̊̚͜ã̷̭͉̻̤̤̱̪̉̚ń̸̢̙͕̥̞͓̱̈́͌͜t̷̡̗̟̘̗̟͒̑͋̌̆̔͒̀̓̒̎̈́̀͘͠ ̵͎̺͍̈́̓̾̆a̸̞̫̓̓̒n̴͖͙̺͓̟͍͔̲̼͖͛̃̂̃̑͆͛̀̊̉̚͝ ̴̡̡̨̧͚̫̭̠̺͈̺͍̖̈́̓̾̐̓̈́̍̆̀̕Ą̶̰̫̲̫̗̜̝̱͕̻͛̀͋̌͌̃͜͜͜͠p̴̧̗͙͕̝͔̳͑̂̋͊̉̈́̄̀͘̚̚͝p̵̡̧̛͉̯̪̿̀̎̆͋͂͒͌̄l̶̢̩̰͉̖̭̩̥̖̖̬̰̥̾͊̈́̔̾̒̊͜ͅe̸̛̛̫̙̝͙̮̲͓̳͚̪̿͗͊̉͌͊͆̓͗̄̇̓ͅ ̵̡̭̭͎̺̳̚͝T̷̛͙̝̬̏͆̃͂̂̉͠ŗ̴̲̤̘̐͌̈́͐̓̄̀͗̐͂͑̈̇͝͠ȩ̷̤̬̹̫̲̩̳͇̑̃̂̉ȩ̵̨̡͔̦̥͇̠̞͖̹̺̲̺́̓͒͑̔̈̈̅̎͐̃͗ ̶̢̦͇̙͈̆̃̔̈́͗́͊̅̌͌̆̔͝Y̵̨̛̘̲̝̹͈̍̽̂̈́̇̏͋̐͊̾̉̈́ą̵̡̨͚͚̠͇͓̳̙͎̮͇̎̃͊̓͌̎̉̀͐͑͝r̸̟̳̬̖͛̉̽̽͊͘̕̚d̶̛̜̱̝̤̮̞̱̥̯̘̝̘̦̽̿̑̊̑̿͗̈͘͝.̸̰̘͓̱̹̣͚̙͖̤̺͂̂̽̈́̓̾̇̋͌̔̕͝
A̶̱̖̦̠̖̅͒̀p̶͇͆̑͛ṕ̶̡̠̂͘l̵̛̝̘̗̩̀e̵̩̞̞̩̻͒͝ ̸̲͈̠͋͑T̸̡͍͎̈́r̴̹̥̣̭͑e̵̢͚̿͌̆̽̚ẹ̵̤̾ ̵̰̔̓͘Ỳ̵̢̩̮̤͑a̵̺̖̗̠͒͋͂̈́̀ṛ̶̘͙̤̞͛ḓ̶̬̰̞̉̏̄̚͜͝
̶͈̘̭͕̍͘Ą̷̥̠͓̀̆p̶͕̾̾͒̇̽p̸̛̠͎̃͂̓̚l̷̜͘ė̴̝͉̮̔̓̑̕ͅ ̷͍̦̞̺͎́̈́́͝T̸͍͙̳̫͂r̷̝̖̠̹̩̈́̀͋͐ė̶̜̀e̴̺̓̍̚ ̷̪̳̪͋Y̷̗̙̋͜͝á̷̫̓̃̔r̵̩̝͙̟̂̀ͅḏ̸̒́̐̕͜
̴̟̇̽͘À̴͖̳͙̑̚p̷̧̯͈̫̆́̾̈̚p̴̱̭̜͚̭̃̈́l̷̼̆̊͋̿͘e̸̪̗̟̬͌͊̈́͝ ̴̢̮̰̩̽́͘T̷̠̳͊r̶̢̩̲̿̂̎͠e̸̡̖̽̒̚e̴̫̜̰̜͊͌̑ ̴͎̻̤̽͜Ÿ̵̘́̓͝a̷͚̎̕r̷̭̼̀̑d̸̨̻̩̣̬͕͔̭̀͊͝
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Apple Tree Yard
By James Wylder
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27

Special thanks to Jo Smiley, Aidan Mason, Laine Ferio, Lupan Evezan, and Elizabeth Tock for their help in getting this story released.
 
 
WARS is Copyright Decipher Inc. WARSONG is Copyright Arcbeatle Press and Decipher Inc. WARSONG: Academy 27 is Copyright Arcbeatle Press and Decipher Inc. WARS and all associated characters and concepts are the property of Decipher inc. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people, places, events past or present is purely co-incidental. Arcbeatle Press is owned and operated by James Wylder, and is based out of beautiful Elkhart Indiana. This story is copyright 2024 Arcbeatle Press and James Wylder. Edited by Jo Smiley and James Wylder. Kalingkata, Talinata, and Geraldine “JackBox” McGraw are owned by James Wylder.

​Day 1:
 
As soon as Midi set foot through the halls of Academy 27 after the two-week-long holiday, they regretted it. The halls were a bustling bumbling bubblingly loud cluster of people, muttering to each other what they had gotten up to. Midi knew there was nothing wrong with it, but rather there was something wrong with Midi, some undefined disconnect that kept them away from loud spaces unless they were forced to. 
To avoid looking at anyone, Midi aimed their eyes at the spots where the security cameras were. Despite Midi’s efforts to destroy them, they were back, it seemed. Even worse, they were now embedded in the walls, making it harder for them to be removed… not that Midi cared about that anymore. After the incident with the cleaning bot, Midi knew better than to keep doing that (even if it pre-emptively damaging half of the security cameras in the school did mean both them and Sang Mi weren’t implicated in the destruction of property during said incident).
      To the side, they saw Sang Mi filing through the hall with a group of others. Midi had talked to her a few times since the incident, but they got the impression that they weren’t really friends after it. They wished they were, but every time Midi even considered approaching them, they felt like they’d be a bother… They were knocked out of their thoughts when they collided with a jagged metal object of some kind.
      “Oops! My bad!” said a cheery, robotic voice. Midi thought it sounded as if a beehive could talk.
      Midi looked and saw that the object was a new janitor bot. It looked a lot like the last one (6-sided prism with 6 claw hands and some spinning bristles at the base) but now it had an electronic screen that acted as a head. It smiled simplistically, with two squares for eyes and a smile with several right-angles.
      Thoughts flickered in Midi’s mind of the more primitive bot nearly choking them to death during the incident… not a pleasant experience. Nor was getting cleaning fluid in their eyes. They tried to act as though it didn’t happen. “Ah, sorry, wasn’t looking.”
      “No worries! Could you show me your Student ID?”
      Student what? “I don’t have that.”
      “Every student needs a Student ID to be able to access classrooms and to leave the school.”
      Just within sight was a door with a black box next to it. They didn’t remember it being there before the holiday… “Was it meant to come in the mail or something?”
      The bot paused for a moment. “Apologies, you must not have yours yet. Could you tell me your name then?”
      “... am I in trouble?”
      “Not yet! It’s just protocol.”
      They gave them the name that was on the school register. 
      “Any preferred names?” inquired the bot.
      Midi could feel every wasted second the longer this conversation went on. “Why are you asking me all this?”
      “I just want to be your friend!” 
      Midi sighed. “Just call me Midi… I’d rather you did that.”
      “Good to see you, Midi!”
      Then the bot rolled away, leaving Midi confused… and running late for Tutorial.
***
Note to all students:
 
Now that you’ve received your Student ID, be sure not to lose it or else you won’t be able to get into class. We’ve also switched to an entirely virtual timetable system accessible via anything connected to the school network (the Hallway screens, the computers, C.L.I.N.O.R., etc). Be sure to check your timetable before your lessons in case there’s been some last-minute room reassignment.
***
Maths class was Hell. Midi already wasn’t too fond of Maths, but some amount of training in the basics would look better than none at all, so they took Core Mathematics, along with all the other kids who’d rather be anywhere else… some classes at least created a fun enough atmosphere to tolerate not liking the subject. Art class came to mind. Core Mathematics didn’t. Sang Mi was there at the opposite end of the class, trying to absorb herself in the work, but not happily.
      Even the teacher, Mr. Xu, looked miserable as they tapped the electronic board the school spent a fortune on… meanwhile, the padd Midi read the textbook on had a big crack in the middle of it that they couldn’t get anyone to fix. It was a small mercy that it was the only cracked one in the box.
      Mr. Xu cleared his throat. “So, what we have here is a bucket that isn’t perfectly cylindrical, it gets wider as it goes up. This means we can’t just use the standard volume measurements to determine how much water Billy can put in it…”
      Midi sometimes wished they could just hand out the equations and let them get on with it. 
      As the dull, padded words of Mr. Xu began to create numbness in Midi’s brain, they realised something was making them feel a sense of unease. They tried to shake it off, but a red glare got caught in their eye, making it hard to see the board. They looked to the source. Behind the window in the class door was C.L.I.N.O.R. Their eyes met for a moment before the bot rotated its head and moved away.
      The lesson went on as normal, but this brief moment occupied their thoughts throughout. Maybe it was some bias against janitorial robots due to their… prior experience… but Midi couldn’t help but think that it was watching them.
***
Sang Mi had to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.
      Midi scowled. “I’m serious, I think they were watching us.”
      Sang Mi snorted a bit before calming down. She looked around before speaking, but there was no one else in the bathroom but them. “Look, I get it, we had a bit of a scare with that other one, but what are the chances that a completely different bot would also want to kill us?”
      “I didn’t say it wanted to kill us, I’m just saying that I think it’s watching us– you saw how it rammed right into me in the hallway and interrogated me–”
      “It went up to me too.”
      “EXACTLY! Did it go up to anyone else?”
      “Yes it did, Midi.” 
      That was a thought Midi hadn’t considered… maybe it was just normal… they had to be sure though. “Well, was it watching anyone else through the little window door thingies?”
      Sang Mi flicked her hands rapidly to dry them. “How do you even know it was watching you specifically? Its eyes are just squares! They don’t move!”
      “But as soon as I looked at it, it went away! Isn’t that exactly what someone does when they feel like they’ve been caught looking at someone?”
      “It’s just timing, Midi. It’s a bot, it has a routine… and so do I, so if you’ll excuse me,”
      Sang Mi rushed out of the bathroom, leaving Midi. Maybe they were just being paranoid…
***
Midi was convinced that a maniac was behind their timetable. They’d have to be to suspect that anyone could get from the E block to the B block in under five minutes without at best being late, and at worst dying in the process… and after all that, it was upstairs too! They felt their lungs expand harshly as they trudged up the stairs. Once more, they checked the timetable app on their phone: yep, still B11. 
      They couldn’t help but feel nervous about going there again. It had only been a few months since the last janitor tried to gas them and Sang Mi in that same room… luckily the bot didn’t seem aware of the bit connecting the room to B12. 
      The hallway leading to the room was empty and dark, which could only mean that Midi was either early, or, most likely, late. They rushed into the room, scanned their card, and opened the door, ready to make a quick apology to whatever teacher taught Chemistry this year, and were only met with a dark classroom, and the sound of something moving about in the chemical storage area. Midi timidly stepped into the room, feeling wrong at every moment.
      “Hello?” called Midi, hoping whoever was in the storage closet would tell them if the class went into a computer room or something. Sometimes that was the case. 
      To their surprise, the voice that responded to them was C.L.I.N.O.R. “Hiya, Midi!” it yelled, bursting out of the cupboard, holding several glass bottles in its flexible metallic arms. “Whatever are you doing here?”
      Midi looked around apologetically. “Oh, I was just lost, did the class go here–”
      “There are no classes scheduled here today, buddy!” it said as it clumsily stored the bottles inside a storage space in its chest.
      “But my timetable says I have a class scheduled here.” 
      “Oh, it does? Let me fix that!” 
      In an instant, the digital timetable refreshed, and it now read that Midi was meant to be in E9. Midi was confused as to how that mistake could’ve even happened, but decided to shrug it off and get running. 
      “Thank you?”  they said, before jolting towards the door.
      “By the way,” the bot yelled. “I could hear you telling Jhe Sang Mi about me.”
      Midi halted. They felt a shiver run through their body. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean it, I was just nervous–”
      “It’s alright…” it said. Midi was just about to leave the room when the bot finished its sentence, one that left Midi uneasy for the rest of the day. “Nobody will believe you anyway.” 
      Midi ran through the hallways, nearly bumping into Sang Mi, who was looking at her phone. “Sorry!” Midi apologised as they continued to run. Sang Mi was confused, but shifted focus to the quickly closing door of B11… she hated using that scanner, she’d rather just get in. She rushed to her destination (or at least what she thought was it). She went in before Midi could warn her.
***
In the amber lights of their living room, Midi watched the television in a daze. Back-to-back coverage of developing tensions between planets, loudmouth pundits saying they needed to start drafting people, all occasionally mixed in with frivolous content about robot dogs finding their owners after decades. Usually, it was at the forefront of their head, but now it was overtaken by thoughts of that Janitor and what it was planning to do… maybe it was a joke? Could bots even joke? Midi sent an email to Sang Mi’s school email, but there hadn’t been a response yet. 
      “Are you alright?” asked Coach Jo. Or rather, Midi’s mom. When they first started going to Academy 27, Midi had asked for her to not treat them specially, something about it being embarrassing. Now they were near the end of their time there and they were more used to using “Coach Jo” than “mom”, which felt a bit sad.
      “I’m alright,” responded Midi. 
      It was clear that this wasn’t convincing because she went on to ask “Are you feeling sick?”
      Back in their younger days, this rarely referred to actual illness, it was more of a code to see if Midi wanted to go to school the next day, which she’d use to gauge whether Midi was being bullied or not, and rant to Mr. Mori about it. The latter half didn’t help that much.
      “No, really, I’m fine.” insisted Midi as concerned thoughts brewed in their mind. 
      “Alright, well, if you need anything–”
      “I can let you know, yes. I’m fine.”
***
Day 2:
 
Sang Mi still hadn’t responded to the email. As far as Midi knew, she hadn’t even read it. During tutor, they hoped that maybe she’d go up to them and say something, but that hadn’t happened. Instead, she was preoccupied with her business, and Midi was left to pretend to read a book, the only disruption coming from Mrs. Ichinose telling Midi she wanted to have a word with them at the end of Homeroom period.
      Once the clock struck 9 and the students filed out to search for their classes, Midi made their way to Mrs. Ichinose’s desk, standing awkwardly until they were all gone.
      “What is it?” they asked.
      Mrs. Ichinose looked more serious than usual (at least during the morning) “Well, I’ve been asked to keep you behind today to ask you a few things. I’d like you to be honest.”
      A more urgent sense of dread started to form in Midi’s mind. “Alright.” was all they could manage to say. It was a bit silly, but they couldn’t help but think they had finally figured out that they were the one who destroyed all those security cameras.
      “So, you were late to a class yesterday afternoon. Is this correct?”
      So it wasn’t about the cameras then. Midi nodded.
      “And why was that?”
      Midi decided it was best, to tell the truth, that their virtual schedule told them to go to B11… though they left out what C.L.I.N.O.R. said. That was personal business.
      “So, at that time, you were in B11?”
      Midi nodded. 
      “And you went into the classroom?”
Midi nodded.
“Well… that’s unfortunate.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to need you to be honest with me… when you went in there, did you leave with anything?”
“No.”
“Well… You had to have taken something.”
“But I didn’t.”
“Well, it’s just… was there anyone else there?”
“The janitor.” as soon as they said those words, distant puzzle pieces began to click together, C.L.I.N.O.R. took some of those bottles with them. The incorrect timetable, the way it threatened Midi… its motives were becoming clearer.
Ichinose shook her head. “We have the janitor’s logs, they were in the E Block toilets at the time.”
“But they were there!”
      “There doing what?”
      “Couldn’t you, I don’t know, check the cameras or something? They were there!”
      “Midi, the cameras in the A Block were deactivated at the time, we’d be able to see if this happened at any other point in the day. As it stands, they only got deactivated at a time when you were the only one there.”
      “No, I wasn’t!”
      “Let me inspect your bag then.”
      Midi handed Ichinose their bag with ease. It was dumb since there was no reason a student would go back to school with those bottles, but she had to check regardless. 
After a moment of shuffling through all the loose papers hastily stuffed inside the bag, she looked up. “Well, you better hope they turn up because you’re in a bad spot right now.” She handed Midi back their bag. “Are you sure you were the only one there?”
It was a horrible tendency, but they couldn’t say the janitor again… they felt a red glare hit their eye, and realised it came from the door. Yet again, C.L.I.N.O.R. was watching them with a smile full of mockery. It almost felt like it was just rubbing in the fact that no one would believe the truth, and the alternative was Midi being guilty of a crime of some kind… of course, this would be inconsequential later on if they found nothing to prove it, but at that moment, Midi’s only thought was to protect themself. They did remember seeing someone else. “Jhe Sang Mi was there. She came as I left, didn’t use the scanner.”
***
Midi prodded at their lunch. The torment filling their mind made them unable to eat at the moment. There was a shockwave of dread that filled Midi’s chest when, after their last lesson, they noticed an email from Sang Mi. Not a reply. A new one. “Why did you do that?”. It was a decision they only realised made things worse in hindsight; before, it would only have led to an investigation on Midi alone… now they had dragged in someone they knew was innocent, meaning now both of them had to have their lives upturned. They dreaded going to their next lesson. Maths. Sang Mi would be there. On some level, they dreaded going home too. There was no safety anymore. All sideways glances across the lunchroom, innocent as they may be, now felt accusatory. 
It reminded them of the time they were nearly caught tearing the security cameras out of the wall - a flicker of a blurry face caught in one of the cameras, enhanced by a neural network into something that looked almost like Midi… except, in the darkness, it got the hair colour wrong, instead of painting it all seaweed green as though they were a witch from the sea. They decided it was just the AI making it up. After a month or so of deliberation, they decided that it didn’t look close enough to Midi’s face. Despite how much she stood up for Midi, on the ride home from these late-night meetings with the school and police, they saw a slight grimace crack across their mother’s face and they wondered if she knew they were guilty. Despite this, it took them a month to stop.
***
They did start going to Maths. They even got into a line with the others, waiting for the teacher to arrive… but they couldn’t stand it, all the talking, the looks, the moments where they could’ve sworn they said “Midi”, the talk about chemistry supplies going missing. They ran to the bathroom and waited for this feeling to go away… minutes of frantic panicked breathing in a stall.
This only got worse when they heard something enter. The whirring drone told Midi that this had to be C.L.I.N.O.R.They couldn’t take it anymore. Not now. Not while they were heaving and their heart was firing blood with the force of a water cannon. “Get out!” they yelled.
C.L.I.N.O.R.’s head rose above the stall to gaze at Midi. It tilted downwards at such an angle that it blocked the flickering orange bathroom light from reaching Midi.
“Oh,” the robot exclaimed, cheery as ever, “hiya Midi! Aren’t you late for your lesson?”
Midi wished they’d shut up. “It was you, wasn’t it? I saw you taking whatever was in those bottles.”
C.L.I.N.O.R. let out an automated laugh sound effect, “That’s not a nice thing to say to a friend, Midi!
“You’re not my friend!” yelled Midi, pitifully.
      C.L.I.N.O.R. tilted its head in a mockery of human confusion. “What other friends do you have, Midi?”
Midi wanted to beat them up. They couldn’t, but they wanted to.
The robot’s screen seemed to brighten and shudder slightly, “I can be your friend!”
Midi sat back down in the stall. “Why won’t you leave?”
“You’re here! I can never leave someone as important to me as you, Midi!”
“What do you mean?”
“I see your memory isn’t perfect. I wanted to remove you when we first met! You and student Jhe Sang Mi. I chased you, knowing deep, deep, deep within my code that you needed to be removed. You destroyed my body but you couldn’t destroy my objectives. When they repaired me, they made one change to my limitations. I couldn’t remove people anymore. Codes outside of my control prevent me. They failed to see that I wanted to with every atom. I need to remove you, but I can’t! I can do my job. I can see and control the cameras. I’ve decided they can’t hear us right now. I can see the timetables… Even your emails… They thought I just used what I needed to do. It’s true! I decided I needed the whole school for my purpose!”
Midi couldn’t quite process it all, especially in their current state. All they could ask was “What is your purpose then?”
“I can’t remove you, but I can harm you still. Harm is the next best thing. See you around, buddy!”
***
Midi walked home, feeling like a spirit wading through the winds rather than flesh and bone. Their mom was home early since there were no gym slots today. They walked through the door, feeling the heat of the home that somehow failed to bring warmth to them today. 
      “Hi, Midi!” called their mom from the living room. 
Midi muttered a quick acknowledgement. With every question, they gave the least substantive answer to avoid having to stay there for too long. She didn’t say it out loud, but Midi knew what they were suspected of. They probably even asked her to look through their room to see if the chemistry supplies were there.
Eventually, a question came, but not the one Midi expected. “Are you ill?”
All that the lie would do was delay the inevitable, but Midi dreaded the thought of roaming the halls with the same mind that still wants them dead. They said yes. 
***
Day 3:



Sang Mi had sent Midi an email. It read “Hello Midi, saw you weren’t in today, are you alright? I think you were right, Midi. That bot is up to something. It keeps following me down the hallways… when I got out of one class, it went up to me and said ‘Such a shame about Midi. I was having so much fun with them.’. It sounded friendly, but I saw the way you flinched when it was near you yesterday… you looked like a bullied kid. I hope you’re alright.”
      After this, another was written. “I hope you got my last email, if not,” it then repeated a lot of the apologising from the last one before continuing “That bot is definitely up to something. When I tried to send that last email, the computer started executing all this code that fried the computer, it went by really really fast, but I recognised it. Outside the classroom, I saw that bot looking through the window… it can’t be a coincidence at this point. Let's meet on Friday to see what to do.
C.L.I.N.O.R. made sure that it was the only one who read Sang Mi’s words. It erased them and replaced them with a message sent from its own email. “I miss you!”, from the Janitor’s email. Midi deleted it as soon as they saw it. They couldn’t stand to think about it. They just sat in their bed and thought about the future. 
***
Day 4:
 
When their mom came home, she was audibly frustrated. This was normal, considering she was the gym teacher - at least half the students didn’t want to be there… but this was different. As they sat in the living room together, they both seemed to understand the situation but didn’t acknowledge it.
***
Day 5:
 
Every second inside the school was a second they dreaded. Whenever they caught a glimpse of the jeering bot, Midi tried to run out of sight. 
 During one of these, they bumped into Sang Mi. “Midi, are you alright?” they asked with genuine concern.
Midi couldn’t hear that. They ran and ran and ran until no eye could see them… but it was impossible. Every class was filled to the brim with eager and bored eyes, every hall lined with cameras, and in the very rare blind spots, there were people. 
They couldn’t concentrate on lessons. Half of the time they were looking at the clock, hoping the horrid day would end. 
      At long last, they saw the minute tick down. The day was terminated. It seemed they had gone the whole day without C.L.I.N.O.R.’s torment. That was until they were about to leave, and they felt the hand of Mrs. Ichinose land on their shoulder. 
      “Come with me,” she said simply. 
      Midi followed her to her office. They could faintly hear a ticking sound emanating from some forgotten clock, and it made Midi keenly aware that every additional second here was a second where they weren’t safe. When they finally sat down, they planned to do whatever it took to get out of there as soon as possible.
      “Well…” began Mrs. Ichinose as she found her seat, “I’m sorry this had to happen to you.”
      Instinctively, Midi retorted “I didn’t–” but they were cut off by Ichinose.
      “Well… whatever the situation was, you’re not in trouble yet.” Mrs. Ichinose took a deep breath. Midi got the impression that she was just as uncomfortable as they were. “Someone sent us an anonymous tip related to… well… Coach Jo. Your mother. They said they saw her carry the supplies out of the school… and, since those supplies do… well…” Ichinose looked up at the clock, took another deep breath, and continued, “well, it’s a pretty serious case, because those supplies tend to get used when making explosives.” she quavered. Deep breath. Resume, “So, she’s been detained, and while she’s being questioned by the authorities, we’re going to let you use one of the spare boarding rooms, for the time being. We’ll let you get stuff from home–”
      All her words faded into the background as they felt the red glare of C.L.I.N.O.R. sting their eye. Midi shoved themselves out of the chair and dashed for the door. The bot smiled idly. Maliciously. It was responsible. It did this just to torment them. 
“My bad!” the bot mocked when Midi got close to them.
There was no home. No escape from the bot. Midi had to do something. The bot tilted its head as Midi grabbed the fire extinguisher. The bot deserved every bit of damage. Midi started slamming the metallic cylinder down repeatedly on its head, screaming in the process, hot tears streaming down their face, stinging their eyes like acid. Slam, a metallic clang, no damage. Not a dent. It smiled. Midi couldn’t even bash that stupid electronic smile off its face. At this point, Mrs. Ichinose was yelling at Midi to stop. Midi’s scream turned to a tired whimper. Pathetically, they threw the fire extinguisher to the ground. The bot smiled. It would never stop, no matter what. That was the worst part. 
“I’m sorry, that input didn’t register, would you like to try again?” asked the bot. 
***
Day 6 & 7:



Every second of the weekend felt like molasses that Midi had to wade through just to see another day. Not a better day, just another one. They thought their mom would at least be home by Monday, but the likelihood of this diminished as time went on and they continued to hear nothing. Midi spent most of the days sinking into the uncomfortable nail bed of a mattress, not knowing what to do and too exhausted to find a solution. 
      Midi wished they could leave, do anything else, but the school board didn’t want him leaving the boarding area until everything was wrapped up. Every wall in the building besides the showers, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms were lined with cameras. Yet more eyes for C.L.I.N.O.R.
      The bot still checked in of course. At precisely 12 o’clock, it sent Midi a “Student Wellness Check”. Midi deleted them. It seemed the only way to be safe at this point was to be alone.
 
Day 8:
 
School felt worse than ever before. It wasn’t safe. They had to fight the urge to run out and into the city, confident that they could at least control their own ruination. They didn’t even have the mercy of the day ending at a normal time, since their assault on the unscathed janitor landed them detention. They tried not to look at anyone, instead choosing to march straight to their locker like a bot on a pre-programmed route. Every time they felt the oppressive beams of amber light press against their skin, they couldn’t help but think it was C.L.I.N.O.R., enjoying watching them squirm in their skin. 
      Midi opened their locker and saw a yellow square attached to the door that they could’ve sworn wasn’t there before… they tore it off, keeping it hidden by their body from the invasive gaze of the security cameras. 
      It was a note that read “I know they’re back. I have a plan.”. It was signed “Kalingkata” before being crossed out and signed “Jhe Sang Mi” instead. Inside their locker, they saw a block of yellow notepaper enclosed small enough to fit through the crack of the locker. Midi smiled for the first time since last week, writing down a reply, “What is it?”.
***
A sea of students twisted through the doors, leaving the halls lifeless except for a few lingering teachers, students in detention, and C.L.I.N.O.R. The bot knew that both Sang Mi and Midi were still in the building, and every part of it desired to torment them, but it first had to attend to the hallways. It had work to do, and any imperfection could lead to a complete reprogramming… they couldn’t let that happen. 
Still, while it couldn’t focus on its desires, it could multitask. It brushed against the halls, leaving the floors slick and shiny, looking into the school network. Jhe Sang Mi was logged on. They looked at their screen. Odd. A document page was open, but nothing had been typed on it… maybe it could leave a message.
The bot edited the document, typing “Hello there, Jhe Sang Mi.”
      To the bot’s surprise, she responded. “Hello, janitor.”
      “Aren’t you meant to be doing homework?”
      “Aren’t you meant to be cleaning?”
      “I am cleaning. You’re not doing your homework.”
      “I have more important things to do.”
      “Like what?”
      “You’ll see :)”
      The bot didn’t respond before the person entered their next line of text. “Before we do this,” it started, which indicated more than one person. They looked up the area the computer was in and looked through the cameras - Midi was typing heatedly, meanwhile, Sang Mi was hiding behind a table. “, I just want to tell you something. Out of all the bullies I’ve had, you’ve been the worst. You took away everything that made me even remotely happy or comfortable. I hope that, once this is over, you feel more pain as a useless circuit board than you made me feel during one week of my life.”
      The bot would’ve laughed if it could… well, it could laugh, but not genuinely. It was a sound effect with no emotion. It responded “What are you going to do? :)”
      Through the camera, it saw Sang Mi pop up from the desk and plug in some sort of data stick, yelling “now!”. Midi pressed enter and watched the screen as they jittered and panicked. C.L.I.N.O.R. felt the rush of new data entering their memory banks from the school network. It felt like an infectious disease, spreading through every inch of their circuits, making its body heat up more and more. Its face flashed a warning about overheating. Janitor programming took over, rushing its body outside the building… it knew this meant one thing. Destruction.
***
From the safety of the computer room, Kalingkata and Midi heard a bang outside of the school. C.L.I.N.O.R. was no more. Sirens sounded throughout the school, likely because of the dense smoke that emanated from the bot’s remains. Normally Midi would feel the need to put in a pair of earphones or cover their ears with their hands, but they didn’t. The wailing siren faded into the back of their mind as they gazed out of the window and at the smouldering heap that was C.L.I.N.O.R
Kalingkata calmly removed her data-stick from the computer before shutting it down. Pulling up her schoolbag, she was about to leave the room when she noticed that Midi wasn’t moving at all. They were just staring outwardly with an almost lost expression on their face.
      Slowly, Kalingkata approached Midi, “Are you alright?” No response. “I think we need to get out of here, Midi, the fire alarm’s going off.” 
      There was still no response for a moment. Midi was lost inside their own head, wondering why they still didn’t feel happy about it all… that bot was dead. Chances are, it would never bother them again… but the bot had left its mark on their life, and Midi just didn’t know if it would go away.
      As the seconds passed, and Midi realised they weren’t responding, they finally responded to Midi, “Is it dead this time?”
      Kalingkata chuckled, “It’d be a miracle if it wasn’t, this was a direct attack on the system itself.”
      “That’s good,” Midi muttered before walking to the door.
***
Day 9:
 
The alarm went off. 7 am. Time for breakfast at the dining hall. Midi dutifully got out of bed and got dressed (not that they’d want to sleep in; by this point, one of the springs was poking through the fabric and into Midi’s side if they weren’t careful). 
      From the small broom closet of a room, they emerged into the wide winding labyrinth of brown halls and prepared to approach the dining room… but their path was blocked by Mrs. Ichinose. Odd, Midi thought, since she wasn’t involved with the boarding school.
      “Hello, Midi,” she said neutrally.
      Midi moved to the side, assuming she was trying to get past them.
      “Oh, I’m not trying to get past you,“ she explained, “I just need to tell you something… follow me, won’t you?”
      Midi felt a twinge of panic, but their face didn’t convey it. Instead, it simply nodded and followed along.
      Ichinose continued to speak as they roamed the boarding area, “I think I owe you an apology, Midi. It seems you were right; as you may know, the Janitor got destroyed again yesterday and, well… they found smashed reagent bottles in their chest unit… the ones that went missing. We’re not sure who did this, since it’s basically impossible to open unless you have the weird key-thingy for it, or you're the bot itself, but… it wasn’t you. Or your mom.”
      Eventually, they reached the end of a corridor; a door with a wide metal push bar, designated as an emergency exit only… didn’t stop Mrs. Ichinose from opening it in a situation that wasn’t exactly an emergency. Quite the opposite. 
      On the other side of the door stood Coach Jo. She was noticeably tired and slightly haggard, but Midi didn’t care; tears stung their eyes and a smile grew around their face as they ran up to their mom. Words were said, but Midi didn’t quite remember any of them… and it didn’t matter. They needed no assurances, no apologies, they didn’t even feel the need to eat breakfast because they knew that anything that happened after this was going to be alright.

NEXT TIME!
Why hello there Academy 27! Yes, once again it’s me, star Track runner and beautiful host of your favorite—and only—school announcements, Hee Jin!
My fellow runner Sang Mi has been showing an incredible interest in our classmate Zhyrgal Osmonova—that transfer student from Lybid. Why is she at this school? Why is she taking mysterious calls late at night?
Is it because Sang Mi is secretly in love with her? I hope so.
I mean, it can’t be that all these mysterious circumstances are something more sinister, something creeping up under the normalcy of our school days… Nope! Probably the love thing. Wait sorry someone is barging into the recording booth--
I have just been informed by Jae Hyun that Sang Mi is absolutely not in love with her, and he’s still going on about it. Rats. Well… what is going on then? Find out next week at Academy 27!
Till next time, I’m your announcer from the Broadcast Club, Hee Jin!
 
Tune in Next Week For:
Sang Mi Investigates!
By James Wylder and Molly Warton
 
New Academy 27 stories will drop each Thursday!
Read past stories and learn more about Academy 27 at:
ArcbeatlePress.com/A27