Arc 1 Chapter 9: What We Discuss At The Table

Today was a day off for all students in the academy; as such, Yukina decided to spend some time at Lily's tavern before it opened. The tavern was dubbed the 'Foxtail Tavern' by Lily. "I'm glad you could stop by; here, I'll get you something to drink. Do you want a Cerv-"

"Oh, I don't drink alcohol; also, isn't it too early in the day to be serving that?"

"Well, since you are off from the academy today and we both don't have any customers at the moment, I thought we could use a couple of drinks." Lily placed a bottle back onto the shelve as she didn't want to be the only one who drank alcohol. Instead, she just poured both of them a glass of Uva juice and sat down at the same table Yukina was sitting at.

"So, you really can't make weapons?"

"Nope, I've tried, from Altian longswords to Tsuyoshin katanas. They look the part but don't function as actual blades." Whilst Yukina and Lily were discussing the struggles of being a blacksmith, a familiar red-headed Vulpian spoke up.

"So, are you gonna introduce me to the owner of this establishment?"

"Oh, Lily, this is my friend Akko." Yukina gestured her hand at Akko, who was standing in the doorway. Akko gave a causal wave before sitting next to Yukina. Lily waved back before speaking.

"It's nice to properly meet you compared to the last time you were here."

"In my defense, we were late for our classes."

"Oh, that's right, you both are Arcanists. Tell me, what's it like to learn about magic?" Lily said as her eyes seemed to sparkle as if she was greatly interested in wanting to learn magic.

"Well, most of it has been basic things like understanding and manipulating arcane energy to produce various spells," Yukina explained before sipping the cup of Uva juice that lay before her on the table.

"Yuki, you always seem very knowledgeable about various magicks and donums. You some kinda Arcana professio?"

"No, I just pay very close attention in class. Most of the concepts seem to come naturally to me. Maybe it's a special donum of some sort. Anyroad I invited Adeo along too.

"You what?" Akko shouted, causing Lily to promptly cover her ears. Yukina sighed as she knew she would have to explain to Akko the importance of having Adeo with them at this makeshift meeting. Once Adeo had joined them, albeit after Akko and Adeo had a trivial argument, Yukina finally revealed the news to them.

"There's a scientist who works at the academy as the head of the scientific research named Dr. Aldmin. I suspect he's been creating, inkindled, and using us as experimentations..."

"That sounds awful..."

"Judging by what you said, my guess would be that he convinced the school to let him in, in the hopes of finding some cure to our 'disease'."

"Man, those inkinnles? Let's just kick their ass and the doc's ass!"

Adeo interrupted as he stood on top of the table. Yukina's eyes narrowed in response, not having the mental energy nor the ability to care enough to correct him, as Akko clapped her palm to her face.

"Anyways, the reason why I gather you all here is that this is the most inconspicuous place for us to have this discussion. Seeing how it's a tavern and all."

Yukina scratched her head, now stumped at the realization that they should probably do something about this before more students share Pamela's fate.

"Obvious, we can't say anything to the instructors as only certain ones would have the slightest inkling on what's really going on to even approach the idea of believing us..."

"Yeah, I don't even think involving the instructors is a good idea, to begin with." The quartet sat at the table, wondering about possible solutions to this dire dilemma. Lily, who knew little to nothing of the problem, could only hope that Yukina and the rest figured it out while keeping themselves safe.

"Is there anything I could help with?"

"Well, you could come with us today; we can easily get over the gate and past the knight guards. Wait, Lily, what's your arcane affinity?"

"I think the last time I checked, it was water."

"Yeah, for sure she's coming with us!" Akko interrupted with a smirk on her face illuminating with confidence. Lily smiled as she sheepishly rubbed her arm.

"While she can help keep us alive in case of a confrontation, Adeo and Akko, you two should be fending off any inkindled that would impede us." To Akko's surprise, Yukina had considered what role Adeo would play, considering his lack of knowledge on anything that wasn't fighting; as such, she gave him a role suiting his expertise.

"Yeah, I could do that for ya; after all, you guys are pretty weak."

"What was that?" Akko shouted in response, slamming her hands on the table.

"Anyroad, let us not waste any time and get right to work on stopping Dr. Aldmin!" Yukina pumped her fist in the air, excited yet still having the same stoic expression.

The quartet made their way to the school gate and collectively decided to use Akko's 'alley-oop' method of getting over the school fence since Yukina didn't trust that Adeo could carry them all over the gate by flying without dropping somebody. Once Yukina and Lily were heaved over the gate, Akko and Adeo leaped over the gate so and landed without a sound to be heard. A certain cyan-haired Vulpian followed them to the school.

"They are going inside?" She muttered to herself before heading back to the front of the building and requesting the knights to let her in under the notion that she had forgotten some paperwork inside.

Yukina and the group made their way towards the back wall of the building, which housed a metallic brass-like door. The achromatic-haired Vulpian inhaled before putting her hands on the handle and turning it to open the door. She was met with a daft of warm, damp air, the scent of rust invading her nose. Yukina instinctively backed away before shaking her head, reaffirming to herself that this had to be done. The group descended the rusted metallic staircase, and each footfall echoed in the diagonal corridor of the flight of stairs.

"M-Miss Yukina...a-are you sure we should be down here...the stinks of rust and rancid blood..."

"Then all that means is we're going the right way...although finding this area was too simple..." Yukina had her suspicion about this place. Why would the door be where there was the least amount of security and stand out from the rest of the school's architecture with no signs to discourage trespassing?

The group made their way to the only door waiting at the bottom of the staircase. The door had the same architecture as the one they encountered at the beginning of this endeavor. The only difference is that this one had a small glass window which can be seen through from both sides. Yukina looked into the glass to see the man without animal-like features in the same lab coat she remembered. The Brown-haired Virian scientist opened the door and looked at the group.

"What are you guys doing here during your day off and at the entrance of my research facility?"

"Don't play coy...you planned Pamela's death, didn't you?" Yukina questioned Dr. Aldmin, which got him to click his teeth in response. Before he could say anything, Akko was already fed up with his antics and rushed past everyone to ram her fist into his gut. The doctor didn't move, not the usual reaction from those who Akko struck.

"Surprised? I knew someone would attack me, so I decided to make a suit out of Adamantite. Virian technology truly is a wonderful marvel." Dr. Aldmin used this opportunity to back up from the entrance to his laboratory and pull the lever next to the door. Two doors inside of the lab opened up, releasing two human-sized inkindled. They groaned in anguish, awaiting their next feast.

"Akko, Adeo!" Yukina signaled them to take care of the two abominations while she walked to Dr. Aldmin, making him back into a corner.

"What are you going to do, kill me? That'll make you a murderer; you'll be a criminal!" Yukina didn't budge, as killing him was never her intent. She knew that Dr. Aldmin could only rely on the inkindled which were being dealt with. "Besides, I'm the hero of this tale. Sacrificing a few to save the many, I research these monstrosities so we may have a way to rid our star of them once and for all!"

"So that gives you the right to use the students as your guinea porcus?" Yukina questioned as Adeo and Akko had finished dealing with the inkindled; they walked over to Yukina.

"Yes, I lured you here for that reason!" The Virian exclaimed, digging under his lab coat and pulling out a brass firearm, aiming it at Yukina. "But I have to get rid of you!" He pulled the trigger, and the shot echoed throughout the laboratory. The Achromatic-haired Vulpian used Fulgur Corpus to increase both her perception and body to be able to react to the bullet. It barely grazed her hair as the bullet would have traveled to Lily, who was behind Yukina; she had already ducked by the time Dr. Aldmin pulled out the weapon, so the bullet ricocheted off of the wall, then the ceiling, and finally nested itself in the cranial cavity of the shooter. A crimson fluid ran down Dr. Aldmin's face as his corpse slumped to the ground. The group stood collectively in silence, coming to the realization that their plan to apprehend the mad scientist had failed.

"Shit, we gotta go!" Akko yelled before everyone rushed back to the stairwell. Once they were back at the entrance, they were surprised to see Ms. Kojima speaking with the Headmaster, probably explaining what she saw while in the stairway.

"At least she'll vouch for us, so we don't get arrested, but we're probably getting expelled..." Yukina said with a heavy sigh.