Chapter 09: Preparation

- "Um, Hey, Cyrus."

Cyrus looked up at the source of the voice and yawned. He looks sleepier than usual today. The lunch break's just started, so Cyrus was getting ready to go to the library today. It's a very quiet and comfortable place to study or just sit and take a little rest.

- "Ugh, are you okay? You look like you could use some sleep," a girl is standing in front of him, looking a little weirded out. Cyrus knows her. It's Sayori Kanzaki, not long ago Cyrus found her lying unconscious in a forest nearby and took her to the academy medical.

- "Ah. I remember you. You also like apples, yes. How's your leg?"

- "What." Sayori couldn't figure out what apples had to do with her.

- "Nevermind that. You needed something from me?" Cyrus took a small carton of milk out of his bag and put a straw in it.

*"Woah, what's this apathetic vibe coming from him? Or is he simply just tired? Why? And milk? Is that his lunch?"* Sayori became a little embarrassed because of the lack of interest from Cyrus's end.

- "Well, you see, it's about the academic commissions. If you don't mind me asking, do you have a team already?"

- "What team?"

- "So I take it you don't. Good, that's a relief to know." Sayori looked more relaxed now. She took a deep breath, "Would you like to team up with me? I, um, as you know, I'm new here and still can't find any team mates yet. You're new too, yeah? So why not team up? This way we'll be able to complete higher rank commissions." Sayori looked at Cyrus, waiting for his response.

*"I don't think I need a team right now."* But then he looked at her, *"But it seems like she's the one desperate here. I guess....mm."*

- "Are you in desperate need of a partner? Do you find it hard to deal with higher rank commissions hard?"

- "What? What kind of a question is that? Of course I find them hard to deal with alone. Isn't that the point of "higher ranks" ? They ARE harder. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm weak, okay?"

- "but the highest rank available to the students is only "A" though. Well, doesn't matter," Cyrus replied.

- "Only? What? A is THE HIGHEST ranks students are allowed, okay? Even most class 5s have trouble dealing with these commissions." Sayori kept talking, but it didn't seem like Cyrus was listening to her.

*"I can guess why she came to me of all people. Well, whatever. It's not like she's bothering me anyway."* Cyrus looked at Sayori.

- "What class are you?"

- "Oh, yeah I should've told you at the beginning. I am a class 4 spirit knight. What about you?"

- "I'm a battlemage, class 5 as of now."

- "Wait wait, you're a class 5?! Why do you not have a team yet then? Don't you like teaming up with others? If that's the case, this won't work out either will it?" Sayori looked confused, kinda anxious and a little sad at the same time.

- "Well, sure, why not."

- "Huh?"

- "Sure, I see no reason not to team up."

Sayori stared at him for a few moments, as if trying to process what Cyrus means. Then it clicked on her mind.

- "Oh! Really?! Great!" Sayori looked extremely happy. Somehow Cyrus got a feeling that this person gets happy from the simplest of things. That, or she really doesn't know how to make friends so she's just happy that at least Cyrus doesn't mind having her around. Honestly, Sayori actually thought she'd get rejected given she's a class 4 and Cyrus a class 5, but it seems Cyrus doesn't care much either way, so she was relieved and a little happy that she got to team up with someone strong and from her experience so far, reliable.

For the next couple of minutes none of them said anything, Cyrus kept drinking from the carton and Sayori just awkwardly looked around, as if watching Cyrus drink milk like a kid with a bored expression is making her somewhat uncomfortable. Cyrus finally decided to break the silence.

- "You do know that an official partnership reqires paperwork right?"

- "It does?" Sayori blinked a couple times.

Cyrus sighed. "We can do it later today, after the classes are over. Stick with me after class."

- "We still have time, why not now?"

Cyrus looked down at his desk, *"Well, there isn't enough time left to go and do something meaningful in the library, so I'd rather get some actual solid meal for lunch."* Then he raised his head and looked at Sayori, "I don't think you can get anything done during lunch hour." He looked and sounded more and more tired with each minute that passes.

- "You look kinda sick, are you sure you're okay? Do you need to go to the nurses office?"

- "You look kinda skinny, had lunch yet? If not, let's get something to eat first," Cyrus got up, "Just liquid isn't cutting it for me anymore."

He looked at Sayori, "You can tag along if you want to, considering you have no one to hang out with."

"Yo-you are being brutally blunt, you know?" Sayori gave a bitter smile, but followed Cyrus anyway.

And that's how they ended up being teammates.

After classes and the paperworks, Sayori had nothing else to do for the day. Cyrus had already parted ways with her, and comissions accessible to students will not be issued till the evaluation tests. So at this point Sayori was pretty much free do to as she liked.

- "Let's see, I guess I can go shopping, I do have to buy foods and stuff. Wait, no. Maybe I can just eat out tonight. Yeah," Sayori looked enthusiastic, "that's right. I should also invite Kaoru then." It's not like Sayori really doesn't have a single friend at the academy, she does have one. Kaoru is Sayori's childhood friend, and currently her only friend at the academy. Since they're in different sections they don't get to hang out during the class hours. She took out her phone and started texting.

- "Have you," Yami looked at Lisa Akane, "ever thought of the misplacement of existence within the timelines?"

Yami and Lisa were in the library. It was already afternoon and the classes were over for the day. Yami loves reading, so he regularly drops by the Library after classes are over, to check on anything new that interests him. There's Mr. Owarin in the library, always present. Sometimes there are other teachers, like colonel Lionheart, or Lisa Akane for example, these are the ones Yami is better familiar with. Today happen to be one of those days, Yami dropped by the library and found his teacher studying quietly at a corner of the room, her head buried in a book Yami doesn't believe he's familiar with.

- "I haven't. Study of dimensional analysis doesn't fall under my subject, but while that doesn't stop me from researching various different topics, even then what you speak of is actually quite a complicated subject for me. Why do you ask?"

- "I've been thinking recently about this, well, theory. It sounds silly, but there's this old theory that stats you can exchange two objects of equal value between two different timelines without making a shift in them."

- "Yeah, Falmin's theory of time rift. What of it?"

- "Well, if that's true, you can technically - hear me out now - technically, replace something with nothing as well."

Lisa closed her book. Her eyes went wide and round. "What are you on about, Yami?"

- "It's still just a theory, and may even be proven incorrect. But still, it all comes down to how you define "nothing". You know, when you're dealing with time, equal values are actually constant. "Nothing" in this context doesn't literally mean nothing, it means something that has equal fundamental value but zero relevance, or incidental value so to speak."

Lisa didn't speak for about a minute straight and just stared at Yami, as if she's trying to organise her thoughts that she's about to tell him.

- "You do know", when she finally spoke her voice was a little cold and straight, "that Falmin's theory is still just a theory, and haven't been proven to be applicable as of yet, right? And although it's not directly forbidden to work with this side of timecraft, people who know tend to agree that it's not the best thing to work with, and certainly not at your age." Lisa looked directly into his eyes, "I know you have been granted the privilege of working with archmages because of your "exceptional" skillset and all the effort you put into your works, but even at your level of skills you won't be able to handle mastery level spells, not even close yet. I would suggest that you work with something more suited to your level as of now."

- "You aren't wrong, I know that. And don't worry, I'm not really working on this, it's still just in my head. And yeah, I do know the risks of timecraft. Sorry for worrying you like that."

- "As long as you're aware, it's okay. Well, enough of that. Where is Mirai? Hmm? Hmmm?? Aren't you two inseparable? Hmmmmm??" Lisa Akane was back to being her usual jolly self, and started teasing her dear student about his "best friend".

- "She's sparring. She gets those sparring invitations every single day nowadays. Geez, people really think they can beat Mirai in hand to hand combat." Yami laughed.

- "Don't be so sure. She still has much to learn, and so do you." She got up, seemed ready to take her leave. "Well, I'm leaving, you should too, it's going to be late otherwise."

- "So you partnered up with this...Cyrus guy, huh?"

- "Yeah. I mean, of all the people in the academy, he's the only one who I happen to have met before besides you. And he did help me back when I was injured. So I thought It'd be better if I could team up with someone who's at least known to me, even if a little. And the guy is trustworthy, I think."

*"Well at least he asked me today about-"* Sayori suddenly got a bit confused, *"-my....leg?"*

Sayori and her friend, Kaoru were at a restaurant right now. Dinner, of course, was the main reason, but they hadn't have the chance to get together in awhile, so they did have some catching up to do as well.

- "You're too naive, you know?"

- "Why do you say that? Are you saying I don't need a team?"

- "Nope. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is evaluation tests are within less than a week. Depending on your results and which class you end up in, you WILL have to pick at least two other teammates from your class which will be your permanent team for the year. Now, have I made myself clear as to why partnering up with someone now is pointless?"

- "Well, I'm not saying you're wrong. But I still need the money, and of course, without comissions there is no pay. Part time jobs are not an option as there's always classes during the day and skipping too many classes causes credit deduction. Classes during the day and comissions during the night is how it has to be, as it's supposed to be." She stirred her drink with the straw. "But Kaoru," Sayori looked at her, "I'd like to how it'll be, the evaluation test and the whole grouping the students. Alastair Wolfe is currently our administrator, he did explain everything the first day but", Sayori looked a little embarrassed, "He streched the whole explanation so much that half of it went over my head."

- "Okay so I'm just going to breeze over it so listen. Forget everything about the class sections. You get to choose where you want to go but you at least need to have the results accordingly. A, B and C are the 3 sections. section B acts as a department in on itself. Don't get confused just because it's labeled as a section of the same class because it really isn't one. There are actually 2 sections, A and C. B is for keeping new students isolated till evaluation tests. A is for field workers and C is for researchers or for those who don't plan on being an actual Sirius after graduating. Usually section A gets around 20% of the students, and C gets around 80% based on results every year, regardless the students are willing or not. After all of that, you need to officially submit an application along with any two other students to form a group." Kaoru finished everything in one go and took a deep breath. "Well, one more week, I'm in class A. You get into class A as well, we can team up, okay?" She said with a playful grin.

- "You seem confident in your words?"

- "Well, I'm better suited for fieldwork rather than lab work, so it has to go that route for me. And I'm strong." Her grin widened.

- "Well, I don't think I can argue with that. Anyway, Nicolas Crowley also mentioned something about a scholarship of sorts for a few selected students?"

- "Ah that." Kaoru straightened her back, "that's no scholarship. Teachers at the academies, yeah all the academies, usually take in a few pupils every few year if you manage to impress them. It's a one in a million chance, there's no guarantee that they'll even pick one. For example Edward Lionheart, the colonel haven't chosen a new pupil in last 2 years. Alastair Wolfe also hasn't picked one in 2 years and he has the least number of pupils, only 1. Lisa Akane and Nicolas Crowley picked only one students each last year, both of them are now second years. It's extremely hard to get chosen."

They both kept silent for a bit.

- "Yeah, it's extremely hard to get chosen." Kaoru repeated herself.

- "Mmhmm," Sayori responded while munching on her food, "well, the crowd must be tough. I'll just have to go full try hard mode I guess. Eh nevermind that. We're going shopping after this. I still need to buy this month's ration."

- "Saying that it's interesting would be an understatement. It's...weird. Weird, but in a good way."

- "Are you talking about the evaluation test?"

- "The Red forest. It's recently been sealed off. Authorized personnel only."

- "Mm yeah. I remember. What about it?"

- "It's weird in a good way," Nine repeated himself.

- "Meaning?" Yami doesn't sound too interested, he knows Nine sometimes just thinks out loud, and those don't always make sense.

- "Meaning, we have to get in. They have something trapped in the forest, and they don't want us to find out about it."

- "You do realise that you're not making much sense, right? Who are "they?" Why do you think "they" have "trapped" something in the red forest? Start speaking human language if you're talking to me."

Nine looked like he got a bit irritated.

- "The academy you dum fuck, who else? More than one at that. I'm willing to bet that Dawnstar is in on this along with Nightfall."

- "What....makes you say that?" Yami seemed a bit interested at this.

- "I saw Dr Frank and Tucker in the campus today. What do you make of that?"

Yami seemed a little shocked at this. "Dr Frank? Frankenstein? Here? Really?" He averted his eyes, looked like he was really thinking hard. "Well, while that doesn't prove anything, Dr Frank coming to Nightfall is an interesting news in on itself. Must look out for more information regarding this. But first, why are you so interested in the red forest incident? Want to sneak in?" Yami smirked.

- "Hmm? Hmmm??" Nine smirked back.

-"In all honesty, I also had my curiosity. That just spiked up with the news of Dr Frank being on the campus grounds. Well, if we ARE doing this though, keep it a secret, even from Mirai. We're on our own on this"