A New Player

Away from a life turned upside down, a girl in a black witches hat, with her blonde hair spilling out from under it, and a dark blue cloak that covered a formal white uniform. In her right hand, she held a staff, and around her waist was a book-carrying belt, which held up a rather bulky book she clutched tightly.

If someone was to cast one look at her, one word would come to mind before all else:

Witch.

Yet despite being on a crowded sidewalk, not a single person paid her any heed. She was neither invisible nor trying to hide, yet her odd appearance caught no eyes or odd stares, and she continued about her business.

The girl outfitted in witches' clothing clutched the book on her waist, as her face darkened.

"I can't allow them to get their hands on this grimoire...!"

⸻

"Well...we can't see anything physically wrong with him." The doctor noted, peering into Sekai's open mouth with a small pen light.

"All of the water has left his lungs, there will be no breathing complications. The hair is something else entirely, we have no idea what's causing it to do that." The doctor explained to Hidoshi,

"Thank you, Doctor Hira." Hidoshi nodded, Hira seemed to be unaffiliated with Serpentine, but what he was saying so far completely lined up with Hina's story, only reinforcing the elephant in the room.

Hidoshi and Sekai left the hospital in contemplative silence before Sekai finally spoke:

"Dad, I'm going to die, aren't I?" Sekai stated, it wasn't a question, but more like an observation,

"Don't say that!" Hidoshi slammed his fists against the wheel of the car. "I...If you can live for the next three days then I can get help!"

"Help from where?" Sekai asked, and his father paused before saying:

"...Hina Susumu."

"Hina Susumu...the girl from Serpentine?!" Sekai said in a mix of shock and outrage,

"She said that if you can live for the next three days she might be able to treat you...I don't care about what she's done if she can save your life!!" Hidoshi argued, and Sekai was taken aback.

"I'm sorry...it's just that..." Sekai lapsed into silence, and Hidoshi nodded.

"I know that you two have a history that I'm not fully aware of, but I'm willing to do anything to save you...so please, don't give up yet." Hidoshi quietly begged, staring straight at the road ahead as tears quietly ran down his face.

Sekai didn't respond, but Hidoshi continued: "Here, take this." He extended a wrist-mounted timer to him.

"What is it?"

"A timer," Hidoshi stated, as if that explained anything, but in a way, it did.

It was how long he had left.

⸻

"You believe that this boy has the potential to be like Ruiko?" The voice on the other end of the line stated in barely masked skepticism.

"Yes." Hina replied, "Believe me, we will see within the next 70 hours."

"And if he's not?" The voice replied,

"Then nothing of value will be lost. And we continue as planned." Hina replied,

"How do you plan to observe the situation?" The voice asked,

Hina smiled a little at that, "Two birds with one stone."

⸻

"...what is this?" Ruiko asked, taking a look at the set of papers in front of her.

"Your new identity. You're finally getting what you wanted." Hoshida shrugged,

"I don't get it. Why now?" Ruiko asked,

"Glad you asked," Hina opened the door suddenly, "See...we need you to attend a very specific school. Kotono High School."

'Kotono High School...I've heard of it?' Ruiko had heard of the name somewhere, but couldn't place a finger on it.

"It sounds familiar," Ruiko said simply,

"It should, it's the high school Sekai attends."

Ruiko almost slapped her head, she hadn't just heard of it, she had been there.

"Yeah," Hina nodded, "We need you to keep an eye on Sekai, he's caught the I.K."

Ruiko paled, "If he's caught the I.K then why is he in school!? We should be treating him!"

"Calm down," She tapped a digital timer on her wrist, which was currently on 62:23:11.

"He has three days, then we will likely judge him as an Immune." Hina stated, "Until then, we need him interacting normally, I can't have any random doctor pumping him full of medicines, otherwise they might kill him by accident."

Ruiko wasn't sure how to react, on one hand, if he became an Immune then he'd be subjected to much of the same things she was.

On the other hand, if he wasn't an Immune...

Ruiko looked over the file once more,

"I'll try for you..."

Her words on the bridge came back to her, and her face tightened in determination.

"When do I leave?"

With that response, Hina smiled, today was shaping up to be a really good day.

"Well, before we do anything - you'll first need one of these..."

⸻

The following morning, Ruiko stood in front of the school, Hina had styled her hair to hide her horns, so one side draped down over her face and covered her left eye as a bang.

She walked ahead, not staring at anyone.

'So this is a "high school"...' Ruiko thought to herself, looking at the campus.

Unbeknownst to the new student, she had already drawn more than her fair share of admirers. Boys stared at her with timid blushes and lewd gazes. Girls were drawn to her shining silver hair and eyes with a jealous curiosity.

All of them wondered who the new girl was.

⸻

"Woah, Sekai, you disappear for one day and suddenly you decide to dye your hair?" Sekai noted, scanning the silver streaks in Sekai's hair.

"Decided to go with something different." Sekai lied, he didn't want to burden his friends with the knowledge that he might be dying soon.

"Nice watch, by the way." Hokura, who was flanking him on the other side noted, prompting Sekai to quickly tuck it in his pocket.

"Let's get to class, Mr. Omuria is ruthless," Sekai said quickly, increasing his pace and prompting his friends to stare at each other with confused glances, before following after their friend.

⸻

When they got there, Antei was already seated, along with most of the rest of the class. Antei raised an eyebrow when she saw Sekai's increasingly silver hair, but didn't respond.

"Hmm..." An elderly man stood at the front of the room, scanning over an attendance sheet one last time, he looked up at his homeroom class.

"Let's see...today, we will be having a new transfer student entering our class." The man announced, Mr. Omuria squinted slightly before reading off the name.

"Will 'Ruiko Atarashi' please stand up?"

Upon that, a girl who had formerly kept her head down stood up in front of the class.

Sekai looked up to look at the girl, then Sekai's eyes widened as he recognized her face.

'About the same height...different hair style but the same color...there's no way!' Sekai thought to himself incredulously, but his fears were only confirmed by the following words from her as she turned to face the rest of the class.

"Hello, my name is Ruiko Atarashi - I hope we can all get along."

Antei's subsequent reaction effectively covered the emotion both her and Sekai we're feeling.

"Huuuuhhh?! What are you doing here?!!!"