Chapter 142: School Visit
“What a wonderful afternoon; the sky is clear, the birds are chirping–”
(“ And you are stalking ”)
Says the one who is doing that to me.
(“ Your deflection makes little logical sense for this situation ”)
In the distance, using my skill, I could see Mella walking out of class along with her classmates. Mella had told me who they were before, so I recognised them.
I had been a little busy. I did some more training and tried learning anything about the newest leads of Dominous Hood, saying hello to Beatrice and the hunting coworkers. I even took a few new jobs to stretch the new muscles.
I knew Mella had been keeping my existence overall quiet with her friends, and I, without being asked, helped by staying out of sight. Not being home when friends visited or staying away when her friends visited the hospital, where I took a step back. Leaving the moment they entered from the other side of the room, where an empty bed was.
We’ve talked about it, and so I knew she had some complicated feelings about the topic.
She wanted me to have peace from everything, as PLS, Person Lost in Space, I was in a position where I could be a magnet for media attention. Which was why there were many precautions in place to prevent that information from spreading widely.
Still, Mella was afraid to tell her friends.
What if my peaceful life after all the trouble I had been through was interrupted again? Though those thoughts were more relevant after my first time coming back. Now, Mella was less worried about that. She still would like it if I weren’t harassed by the media, but she felt more confident in me.
Though now that I had my domain where I could fuck off to once I figured out the easy way back, well, more easy ways back.
Now, the only reason she hadn’t really talked about me was because she was way too awkward about it. She confessed that she had no idea how to say, ‘yeah, my sister has been alive for over a year, and I just hadn’t told you’. Which I found hilarious, and so I was going to help her fix that problem.
“Mella is having a blast, good for her.” I obviously hadn’t watched Mella’s school activities in the past, but from what I had seen, whenever she brought her friends home for some sort of activity, she had made friends.
It is good that she has had a good school life.
When I compared Mella’s school life to mine, it was night and day. I had people who I would consider friends, but like, they weren’t really friends, just good acquaintances. I only made real friends after school and when I started working.
In comparison, how Mella acted around her friends was much more genuine than how I was around the people I interacted with. I had already seen how they were ready to come to her aid, so, might as well say hello to the new and old ones.
It took over thirty minutes before Mella even looked ready to leave the premises of the school. She was too busy chatting with friends and eating some last-minute goods they bought from the canteen.
Probably time to say hi.
I watched as Mella and her crew got up from their spots and slowly walked to the south exit to the school. So, I go up from my spot to meet them there.
Irene, Elka, Sam, and Mike.
“Melly… Are you sure I can’t borrow your notes?”
“Elka, I’m currently using Irene’s notes; I cannot give them to you without her permission.”
Irene said, “Why are you asking her while I am standing here?”
Mike replied, “Because you told her no, about how many times?”
“Damn, that’s a lot.”
Elka pouted, “It’s not my fault.”
Mella said, “You ate all of her food…”
“Again… not my fault; it happened to be in front of me when I was bingeing.”
“Says the person who slid down the table.” Mike finished his drink and chucked it into his bag.
Sounds like they are having fun…
Irene said, “You can’t make any excuses, so study and take notes yourself; it is better for your brain that way.”
“Then why do you let Mella?”
Irene smugly said, “Important reasons.”
Elka whispered, “Give them to me so I can wipe that smug look on her face…”
“Elka, I do have my own notes… It's just that Irene’s are better.”
Time for the star to show.
I took a few steps forward, which meant I entered the school’s grounds. “Afternoon, Sis.” I waved. “How was school? Studied like a good little girl?”
My voice was loud enough for a certain someone to notice, and her head immediately locked onto me like a cat being caught stealing snacks.
“Ceella?!” My appearance was a massive, blunt blow to Mella.
“What?” I asked, “Didn’t expect to see me here?”
“Yes! Wait, I mean, why, argh!” Mella short-circuited.
“Ceella?” Irene asked, “Your sister is alive, Mella?” She tugged Mella’s sleeve, trying to figure out if this was real, a prank, or something else.
I walked, with my hand out, “Yo, you must be Sam, Mike, and Irene.”
They all awkwardly shook my hand, not knowing what to do.
“..I…” Irene asked, “Didn’t we meet before?”
I replied, “Eh, I don’t remember.” I knew I remembered Elka before; she was someone Mella knew from the start of her schooling journey, but not well.
Elka asked while tugging Mella’s other sleeve. “Why didn’t you tell us she was alive?”
Mella shyly said, “I-I was going to… but you said you couldn’t keep it a secret.”
“When I have I ever–ah….” Apparently, she remembered the time they had some sort of conversation. “Uh…”
“You said nooo?!” Irene was staring daggers at Elka.
“I-I-I didn’t know it was about her!” Elka said, “That was a year ago anyway.”
“She has been here for a year?”
“Nope, I was here for a short period of time before being catapulted into another portion of the universe, which took a year to get back from.”
“...” None of them knew what to say to that.
Then, “This is your sister… she is tall…” Max compared our two heights. “Are you sure you are related?”
Mella rebutted, “Are you related to your brother? You're the same age, but he is built like a house.”
They got into a quick argument due to my height.
“Well, it is good to see you are having fun. Dinner is leftovers from lunch, Mella, soooo, see you later.” With a single step back, I was already off the school’s grounds.
“Wait! You can’t just leave like that!”
A string of Starlight appeared across the ground: ‘yes I can’.
I returned home after my wonderful visit with Mella, and because she promised to hang out with friends, I had plenty of time to myself before I had to deal with the aftermath of my actions.
Varias… Any other details you can give outside of the ones you provided yesterday?
Espoiramissa gave me a long talk the other day, discussing Spiritual Beings and then the situation with Varias. It was a learning experience, and I learned Spiritual Beings did shit all really in my world. Some made Witches, others had fun with artefacts, and some did both, but overall their impact was negligible.
The reason was, these beings were just too powerful for Existence at the moment. Existence was still in the process of fully forming into whatever its true form was going to be, by merging the two halves that had split and developed in their own ways.
Espoiramissa described it as an honour system, but that terminology felt strange to me. The reason they didn’t excessively intervene was so Existence could finish its development. If they acted without restraint, Existence would crumble before its new form was completed and high likelihood they would all be destroyed.
(“ No, I do not know the location of its domain or its primary focus, besides some form of spiritual manipulation is likely ”)
Espr’s latter theory was due to the fact that, well, an arrow was teleported into me. I was slowly getting an idea of the restrictions being on this Existence entailed for my abilities, and I was actually in it. Varias’s attack came from beyond the space I was fighting in.
Varias actions above were considered unacceptable. They weren’t going to be killed for anything, from my understanding, but they were certainly going to be punished.
It also made it confusing how strong other Spiritual Beings were, as Espr said I had nothing to worry about because I wouldn’t reach that level of strength in a long while.
How about that crimson projection, any relations?
(“ No. Hongdartingusiosa would not associate with Varias. Mostly Spiritual Beings do not associate with each other; there are exceptions, and some do communicate, but unless there is a reason, most will stick to their own corner of existence ”)
That’s the bastard's name? Fuck, I thought Espoiramissa could be a mouthful.
I have never said my name wasn’t weird.
Anyway…. No news at all, huh? Damn.
(“ The chance they will show for your future fun time session is low, there would be a few eyes on that and Varias would be caught easily ”)
Not impossible, but argh…. What a weird situation.
There was still the massive question of why the bloody star would even attack me in the first place.
(“ No idea, could’ve done it because he thought it was interesting and worth the risk. He would know he wouldn’t be dying from such a simple action, because no matter how bad you are, what he did was considered only just above the acceptable line ”)
(“ I do hope Varias does show, you weren’t the only one they made mad after all ”)