The room was held in sterile white and the chairs and desks which had been placed in neat little rows were made of combinations of shiny, silver metal and white wood. Each chair had either a light, translucent raincoat draped over it or an equally translucent umbrella placed in close vicinity. There were no windows but illumination instead came from strips of LCD lamps on the ceiling. About twenty students were present, their ages somewhere between fifteen and sixteen.
Yuri in his dark gray, hooded jacket was sitting in one of the back rows. Janusz in the chair next to him had stopped paying attention a while ago. Janusz was playing with his Nintendo Switch hidden under his desk from the teacher and fellow students alike. Well, except from his immediate neighbors but they wouldn’t tell. From time to time Janusz absentmindedly tugged on his plain white t-shirt as if to air it in the heat of the windowless room.
Yuri brushed some of his long, mousy brown hair out of his eyes, a color, he thought, that made him look stupid. He eyed Janusz whose curly, dark black hair was almost completely covered by a blue baseball cap that he wore backwards. Yuri thought that Janusz had never seen a baseball game in his entire life and if he did, he wouldn't understand the rules. To Janusz's defense neither did Yuri.
He stopped observing Janusz on the very peripheral of his vision and turned his attention to the front of the class room again, where Mr. Cyrus held up a short, wooden board for one of the students. A small number of other students also had wooden boards lying in front of them or held them in their hands and stared at them intensely. There was no wooden board on Yuri's desk, instead he had a questionnaire.
Describe the visual appearance of Seer-eyes once they reveal themselves. Further explain their capabilities and average range of object penetration in untrained individuals, was what the first question read.
Janusz was still playing his game, however he was looking at it through the surface of the desk, basically undetectable or so he may have thought.
“Janusz, I am glad that you are so comfortable using your Seer-eyes but could you stop using them to play your game and instead focus on the intended training?” Mr. Cyrus asked with a slight amount of annoyance in his voice. His black button down shirt and pants made it almost look as if he was wearing a suit. Janusz was startled for a short moment before he retorted:
“You only caught me because you used your own Seer-eyes, isn’t it against school regulations to spy on students?”
“Isn't it equally against school regulations to play games in class in the first place?” Mr. Cyrus said completely unimpressed. “Be glad I don't take it from you.”
There was a Beretta M9 pistol strapped to Mr. Cyrus's hip. He was obligated to wear it for these particular lessons.
He might be young for a teacher but he is well suited for the job, a tough nut without really looking the part, Yuri thought. Mr. Cyrus was fair looking with short hair almost as dark as Janusz's and he was tall.
“Since you seem to be insufficiently challenged by the current exercise, why don't we make it a bit more difficult for you?” Mr Cyrus said as he came walking up to Janusz's seat. “How about you try looking through three wooden boards at once?” He had gathered Janusz's board and two other ones from the desks of nearby students and now held them up for Janusz.
Janusz gave up his resistance, sat up from his slumped position and focused on the stack of wooden boards that Mr. Cyrus was holding in front of his face. Janusz's pupils widened from concentration. And then his iris' turned a bright red and the white of his eyes became black as coal. The amount of concentration needed to penetrate the three wooden boards with his gaze had revealed the real appearance of his Seer-eyes. Upon witnessing this unnatural change to his classmate's eyes again, Yuri's stomach clenched as he was overcome by the familiar feeling of unease.
This should not be, he thought.
But things did not stop there, something else happened. The texture of the blackboard at the far end of the room seemed to boil, then the wall ripped open in an oval form, creating a portal to somewhere else. Howling wind that carried rust colored dust and sand obscured most visibility of the place beyond the portal. The temperature in the room had dropped almost immediately. A black object slightly larger than a man, that seemed to previously have been propped up against a wall, now tilted slowly towards the room given that its support had been erased by the portal.
The class had frozen in a mixture of surprise and terror as they could finally identify the object. It was a diamond shaped black coffin. It fell into the room with a loud thud and the portal closed, once again only showing the undamaged blackboard and wall of the classroom.
The Beretta pistol had appeared in the hands of Mr. Cyrus who had quickly positioned himself between the coffin and his students. Hardly a moment later the door was flung open and five young men burst into the room.
The man in the front, almost a boy still, might not have been older than eighteen. He was dressed in a more casual fashion compared to the other four newcomers in their slick light gray uniforms. The leader of this group instead wore a plain gray button-down shirt. An identification tag was pinned to the front of his shirt and it read: “Chief of Internal Security, R. Dolya”
He scowled under heavy brows and his hair color was the same as Yuri's. The expression on his face was somewhere between boredom and annoyance. Glancing at the coffin he took his hands out of the pockets of his light gray shorts which barely reached his knees and approached it slowly.
Armed with MP5 submachine guns, the other four men followed behind him as the class stared on in silence. For a short moment Yuri could see how a long knife materialized in the hand of the leader before it went out of sight. Yuri grimaced as bad memories flooded his mind, memories of an identical looking kitchen knife with a black handle he would rather not think about.
The man had stopped in front of the coffin, the other four beside him with their guns at the ready.
“Can you look inside?” the leader asked Mr. Cyrus who shook his head, he was still aiming his Beretta pistol at the coffin.
“I am not able to, Security Chief Roman. It is shielded too well”, Mr. Cyrus apologized.
Roman stared at the coffin in silence. “Take it”, he said, addressing the men who had come with him.
“Are you sure Security Chief, without knowing if it's empty or full?” one of the men objected.
“I said take it”, Roman repeated his order. Hesitating the four men took hold of the coffin with an expression as if it might bite them. As they carried the coffin outside, Janusz stood up, his eyes had returned to normal.
“I am sorry Security Chief”, he stammered, “I was concentrating really hard and-”.
“You were concentrating on the wrong thing”, Roman interrupted him without even looking at Janusz, while he proceeded to leave the room. Janusz fell silent and sat down again.
The girl sitting at the desk to Yuri's right bent over to him and whispered in his ear:
“You never told me that your brother is the Chief of the Internal Security.” Her pale face was framed by two chin-length bangs and the rest of her sand colored hair was gathered in a very short pony tail.
“I never told you that I have a brother to begin with. Because I don't have one”, he replied.
“But his name tag reads “Dolya”, it's just like your surname. He also looks a lot like you. Are you really not related?” Yuri ignored both her question and her confused expression.
Tucked in the breast pocket of her red and black plait shirt Yuri spied a pair of big, black sunglasses. The girl's name was Sora and Yuri knew that she was a “Dreamer”. The risks associated with that ability were enormous and because of that people generally tended to avoid her. Yuri and Sora were partnered up in self-defense class but they had never really talked much with each other. Thinking of self-defense class further soured Yuri's mood.
She is nothing but an annoying obstacle to overcome, he thought.
“That concludes our lesson on Seer-eyes for today I think and we should hurry back to the school. Just because we had this little interruption does not mean that your other classes have been canceled”, Mr. Cyrus addressed the class. The look of worry still hadn't left his face when the bulk of the students rose from their chairs and grabbed their raincoats or umbrellas. The sounds of their footsteps on the white stone floor echoed faintly as they left the classroom and Yuri noticed Mr. Cyrus watch his students go in silence.
*
The students made their way through the corridors of the Headquarter of the Internal Security, the white and metallic aesthetic that had been present in the classroom carried over into the rest of the building. Yuri caught up with Janusz, who had left the room as soon as he could and was passing the many white, wooden doors along the corridor.
“Are you doing alright?” he asked Janusz, who only now noticed Yuri's presence.
“Yeah, I think so... This has never happened to me before”, Janusz answered.
“It has happened to others, I mean that's why training with Seer-eyes is held here at the Internal Security's HQ and not at school. Here we at least have people who can respond if something comes through an accidentally opened portal”, Yuri said.
“I know”, responded Janusz, “But until today I never thought it was really necessary.”
“I bet that's what the teachers initially thought too, but it can take just one really bad event to change someone's perspective”, Yuri claimed. “They never told us what exactly happened that first time but the rumors say that a bunch of students died back then. Can you imagine that?”
“I really don't want to”, Janusz let him know. A reflection in one of the corridor windows caught Yuri's eye. Sora hurried past both of them and gave Yuri a smug grin.
“Of course she is happy”, Yuri grumbled, “Next is self defense class and she gets to beat me up again.”
“Don't complain, at least your partner is a girl”, Janusz said.
“Is she not even aware that if she messes up my grade it negatively impacts my chances to join the Expedition Corps or does she just not care? Damn her weird competitiveness! Do you know how annoying it is to keep losing against someone who is shorter than you?” Yuri had to say in regards to that.
“I don't”, Janusz responded, “Because I keep losing no matter who I am partnered with. And Sora is hardly any shorter than you. And you are still going on about wanting to join the Expedition Corps. So far I just humored you but are you actually serious?”
Yuri stopped in his tracks and forced Janusz to do the same.
“I just can't stand it here”, Yuri said, “You know what I mean don't deny it. This stupid creepy feeling that permeates everything here. Joining the Expedition Corps to help find a way back is the best thing I can do.”
“Just because they say that a way back must be somewhere in the Nether does not make it true”, Janusz said and started walking down the corridor again. Yuri followed after him with the slightest amount of hesitation.
“This time I am gonna beat her, you will see”, Yuri proclaimed.
They passed the guards posted at the front entrance and stepped outside into the streets of the 5th Outpost with its white stone buildings. The building housing the Internal Security itself was blocky with big glass doors. Like the government buildings that were also present in the 5th Outpost it was more on the modern side in comparison to the older buildings like the library, whose architecture was neoclassical and reminded Yuri of ancient Greece. They still had quite a walk before them that would carry them all the way through the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Outpost back to the school at the 13th Outpost.
*
Bright light streamed in through the huge windows of the gym hall, making its pale yellow walls appear almost white.
“No, no”, Mrs. Orlov said while showing a female student the correct movements. She was a muscular woman in a white Keikogi training suit and with short blond hair. She was kinder than she looked but she took the self defense classes she taught very seriously. He did not want to get on her bad side, Yuri once saw her smash a brick with her bare hands.
Even though by now these classes were just a remnant tradition that had been established during the civil war days some twenty five years ago. Mrs. Orlov mostly taught a combination of Karate and Brazilian Jujitsu. Despite there not being any real need for martial arts anymore, the Expedition Corps still prioritized students that showed great promise in these classes.
With graduation fast approaching, it had been only two weeks ago when a pair of recruiters from the Expedition Corps had shown up to observe one of Mrs. Orlov's classes. At that time Yuri had been defeated by Sora in a humiliating fashion that he still had not forgiven her for.
“Turn your waist when you punch, do you want to tickle him or do you want him to feel pain?” Mrs. Orlov continued her instructions.
“Pain!”, the girl enthusiastically shouted. Yuri believed her. He had problems of his own, lying flat on his back, struck down by one of Sora's kicks. From here he had a good look at the strips of LCD lamps lining the high ceiling, which seemed impossibly far away. The white floor mats felt cool under his hands. His head hurt badly although they all were wearing protective gear.
So much for “This time I am gonna beat her”, he thought. Strands of his brown hair were plastered to the sweat on his brow and he was panting with exhaustion. In contrast, Sora standing above him, hands on her hips and a smug smile on her lips, seemed to be neither exhausted or challenged by him at all.
“Good work as always Sora”, Mrs. Orlov said, who had shifted her attention to them. “Some fine competition you are Yuri, don't neglect your training or the Expedition Corps might just pass you up”, she scolded him before she moved on.
Sora was by far the most skilled martial artist in Mrs. Orlov's class but Yuri wasn't too shabby either. He worried that one more official loss might push his grade down into the middle of the pack. That would definitely not grant him any prioritization by the Expedition Corps recruiters.
It's just not fair, Yuri thought, Sora was already trained before she ended up here. Still lying on the floor mats he muttered: “And they say that “Dreamers” are physically weak.”
“You mixed up physically and mentally again and I am neither. I won second place in a region wide martial arts tournament back when... well you know ”, Sora said offering him a hand. Yuri reached out to grab it but Sora pulled her hand back just before he could reach it.
“Get up yourself, silly”, she laughed. Yuri almost said a word that started with “B” and ended with “itch”. Instead he asked: “Wait, you came in second? Who could have beaten you?”
“My older sister”, Sora said with a grim expression on her face. “I have never been able to beat her. And I never will.”
“What's with that defeatist talk?” Yuri asked in surprise. “In this class there is not a single person who is a match for you. You could take out someone twice your height and weight. If anyone here could become strong enough to beat your sister, it would be you.”
“You don't know what you are talking about”, Sora responded. All previous smugness and cheerfulness had vanished from her face.
“Get up Yuri, so I can knock you back down again.”
*
After school on his way back to the dorm, Yuri stopped and looked up at the sky like he did almost every time. It had been the equivalent of three years since the day he had arrived here but he still never got used to what his eyes were presented with. A sky of pure darkness reaching in all directions without a moon or stars. The sky descended all the way down to the ground and made the horizon appear as a wall of blackness.
In front of the square, pale yellow gym hall stretched a lawn of unnaturally green grass that reached up to the horizon. Here and there at seemingly random places, various kinds of solitary trees grew from the lawn. The horizon was not far at all and only deserved its name in terms of its appearance. Yuri could only see about 300 meters in any direction that wasn't blocked by the red bricked school buildings or the blockier buildings of gray stone and metal in which the new faculty were trained. Where Yuri could see, the always shortcut lawn ended in the black void of Nowhere. On one of his first days here he had gone all the way to the edge, touching the invisible barrier and staring into the darkness.
How can it be so bright without a sun or moon? Where is the source that keeps this area alight?, Yuri wondered like he had done innumerable times before. Even though there was no visible source of light, the entire school area was always bright as if filled with daylight. It was the same everywhere. The outer edges of each Outpost were a zone of darkness that was not reached by the light. This discrepancy between light and dark was all that remained of the concept of day and night. The lack of clouds made it impossible to predict the occasional paradoxical rain that always fell with the same average velocity. It was always rain and never snow or hail. Because of that people carried umbrellas and wore raincoats whenever they went outside. At first that had seemed very odd to Yuri but it had become familiar to him like many of the other strange and nonsensical phenomena which seemed to be fundamental parts of the Outpost's reality.
The first involuntary colonists had found a grove made up from trees of all varieties at what would later be called the 11th Outpost. Only after cutting a sizable number of them down did they notice that none of the seeds they had gathered from the local trees and plants took root in the soil of any of the Outposts. Not only that, the seeds themselves disappeared after three days in the ground. Cutting down trees was banned from then on. Eventually the colonists observed that new flowers and trees would just randomly sprout at places even when it had been previously confirmed that no seeds had been buried there. There was also not a single animal to be found anywhere throughout the Outposts which added pollination to the ever growing pile of unanswered questions.
Equally as strange was the question where all their electricity came from. Nobody Yuri had asked about it knew the answer. He assumed it had something to do with the rain and groundwater or some such thing. As far as anyone could tell the Outposts were not physically connected to each other but the conclusion that each Outpost had its own source of power seemed absurd. As Yuri walked further towards the dorms and down the gravel pathway that connected the school buildings, the crunching sound of tiny stones beneath his sneakers and the rustling of his raincoat were all he could hear in the otherwise deafening silence.
*
Yuri entered the dorm room that he shared with Janusz, who was sitting on top of the bunk bed made of dark brown wood, playing with his Nintendo Switch which now also was blaring repetitive electronic music. His legs, in dark blue shorts, were dangling idly from the edge of the bed. The walls of their room were paneled in dark walnut wood.
“Could you at least turn the music off?” Yuri asked as he took off his raincoat and proceeded to hang his bag over the back of a chair. “I've had to listen to this crap for nearly every day of the past three years, how can you even stand this?”
“I like it”, Janusz said without pulling his eyes away from the screen. “It's familiar. A tiny piece of home.” “Besides”, he added, “What are you going to do if I don't turn it off?” Yuri had sat down on the lower bunk, grabbing the gray bag from the chair again.
“I've got my drawing pad in here and my pens and markers, you know what I can do with this.”
Janusz paused his game and looked up. “You know that it's not permitted to use abilities outside of classes, not to mention destroy other students' properties.”
“I could draw myself a nice hammer and smash that annoying thing to pieces”, Yuri went on.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Shut up, I know you won't do that”, Janusz called his bluff.
“Right, I won't”, Yuri admitted, “But I should.”
“What you should do, is to better direct that mischievous way of thinking elsewhere”, Janusz advised. That one sentence made a light bulb turn on in Yuri's brain.
“Janusz, you are a genius”, he said.
“Oh God, what have I done now?”
But Yuri wasn't listening anymore, he had gotten up from the bed and then sat down at one of the dark, wooden desks beneath the window. Staring at the empty page on his drawing pad in front of him he had gotten an idea.
Sora, I will show you how to win a fight that you can't win. I won't let you push my grade down into mediocrity, he thought and began drawing.
*
“Your movements seem sluggish today, did you not sleep well?” Sora, in her red protective gear, greeted Yuri. They were getting ready to face off against each other again in self defense training. Their performance today would determine their final grade for this class.
“Nope, the opposite”, he said “I am feeling great.”
“But give me another moment”, Yuri continued as he waited for Mrs. Orlov to walk past them to inspect some of the other students' fights. Once she was far enough away Yuri signaled Sora that he was ready.
“Good luck to you then Yuri”, Sora was wishing him.
“Good luck to you too Kuroi-san”, Yuri replied, addressing Sora by her surname in respect of her partially Japanese heritage. His words almost immediately drowned in a short burst of Sora's laughter.
“I don't need luck to beat you, but thanks for your concern”, she said. Yuri simply smiled.
“Go!” Sora shouted and attacked with the same kick to the head she had used yesterday, Yuri didn't move. The kick connected flawlessly with his blue headgear but unlike previous times he was not completely thrown off balance despite the kick knocking his head to the side.
She really puts power behind those but that's not enough this time.
Sora's look of confusion was the sweetest thing Yuri had seen in days, he used the moment of surprise to rush in, grabbed her by the shoulders and swept the legs from under her.
“How?” she asked, laying on the floor mats almost sounding afraid. “That's impossible, I am not weak. I am not that weak!” Yuri didn't answer and instead held out his hand, Sora tried to grab it without thinking and only caught air as Yuri pulled it back.
“Get up yourself, silly”, he said with a smile that instantly froze as he noticed the tears in Sora's eyes. She quickly got up and stormed off without a word. Next to him sitting flat on his ass Janusz started laughing.
“Shut up!” Janusz's laughter turned into a chuckle before he said: “You have no idea what you just did, do you?”
“What do you mean?” Yuri asked.
“My eyes may be good but my ears are working fine as well, I heard some of the rumors”, Janusz replied.
“Are you getting up or what?” Janusz's sparring partner, some big, brutish looking guy, inquired.
“Nah, I am fine down here. Find someone else to beat up”. The boy just shook his head in disbelief before he walked off.
“What rumors?” Yuri finally asked, “I never heard a single thing said about Sora besides the usual Dreamer horror stories.”
“So you don't know the thing about her sister? I assumed she might have told you herself.”
“I found out only yesterday that she has a sister at all and that Sora still has not managed to beat her in a fight. Is there something else?” Yuri wanted to know.
“Had, not has”, Janusz said, still sitting on the floor mats. He had lost his earlier cheerfulness.
Ah, shit. Not mentally weak, Yuri thought, that stupid liar. I wanted to teach her a lesson, not make her cry.
“And by the way, was it really worth it cheating compared to the migraine you will get later?”
“Just because you get a free pass to join the Expedition Corps because of your stupid Seer-ability doesn't mean that I won't do what I have to” Yuri said.
“It's not a free pass you asshole, unlike you I am not left with a choice!” Janusz said with noticeable anger in his voice. “I wish we ended up with each other's abilities instead.”
Yuri ignored that little outburst, he and Janusz had clashed over this topic many times before.
“I really do hope this was worth it”, Yuri muttered. Before Yuri could ask anything more regarding the rumors about Sora's sister, Mrs. Orlov had appeared before them.
“Get on your damn feet Janusz, you can lie down when you are dead. I know you think I don't expect anything from you but you're wronger than wrong about that. Twenty push-ups, hurry!” she said in her booming voice. Janusz grimaced but did as he was ordered to. Mrs. Orlov turned towards Yuri.
“Where is Sora?”, she asked. “Gone”, Yuri answered without offering any more of an explanation. “I take it you won then”, Mrs. Orlov noted, “Either miracles do happen or you finally got serious. Took you only until the very last day but I guess you made it into the top third, congratulations.” Yuri said nothing.
I deserved a spot in the top third. It's not like I dethroned Sora from the first place.
“I need to have another talk with that girl”, Mrs. Orlov sighed, “She can't always get like this whenever she loses.”
*
After school, when Yuri had gone back to the dorm, he took a look at the drawing he had activated before he went to self defense class. It was a sloppy drawing of himself surrounded by a bubble in which he had written “Fullbody Kevlar Armor”.
“Painters” were not only able to create physical objects, they could also use words and symbolism but it was much more difficult and exhausting. That was the reason why he had not wasted any energy on properly drawing himself although it would have increased the effect. Yuri picked up the paper and ripped it in half. The heavy feeling of the symbolic armor he had been wearing vanished from his shoulders but now he was paying the price for what he had done.
Close to the inner corner of his left eye, the pain set in. It was approaching unstoppable like a train and Yuri knew there was nothing that could help him now. The exhausting effect of a Painter's ability set in when the drawing was destroyed, leaving it activated for a long time would increase the exhaustion and pain and in the worst case could end up killing the Painter.
These unpleasant and dangerous side effects were not exclusive to just Painters, every person suffered these consequences from overusing their abilities. There were rumors that there could be additional side effects unique to each ability type. Skilled Painters could deactivate a drawing through physical contact and concentration alone so they were able to reuse their drawings. Yuri had not reached that level of ability yet. He fell into bed waiting for it all to be over
*
The next day was a Saturday or the equivalent of it, of course no one knew what day it really was on Earth or even if Earth had vanished in the meantime. They simply had adopted Earthly measures to make it easier for all of them, 24 hour days and seven day weeks, 365 days a year. The whole system was pretty unfaithful as there were no natural indicators for telling time in Nowhere.
Someone had just arrived with a working wrist watch and that had been the basis after which all other created clocks had been set from then on.
Yuri had somehow survived the negative side effects of having created and used a symbolic drawing. It had been bad this time and he swore not to use further symbolic drawings unless either absolutely necessary or until he had more gradual exposure to it. He had heard that it was part of a Painter's training in the Expedition Corps.
He was walking around outside in the school area, after he had abandoned Janusz who had been too busy with his console game to hold an entertaining conversation. Yuri walked below one of the archways that lead to a square yard which was boxed in by the red bricked school buildings. Under one of the few trees that were sprouting from the lawn, he spied something red. He looked closer and recognized Sora in her button-down plait shirt sitting and leaning on the trunk of a giant chestnut tree, her translucent umbrella propped up beside her. She was wearing her sunglasses and Yuri could not tell if she had seen him or not. He walked over to her. Apparently she hadn't noticed him before, as she only looked up as Yuri was standing right next to her.
“You did something, didn't you? There's no way you could have beaten me in a fair fight. I am not that weak that you could beat me with your current skill”, she said looking away again.
Why is she so obsessed with being strong?
“Real fights aren't fair”, Yuri brought forth.
“Point taken”, she sighed, taking off her sunglasses. The redness of her eyes betrayed that she had been crying again. The color of her iris' was a pale mixture of blue and gray, like coins that had been lying in the rain for a very long time. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the trunk, sitting in silence before speaking again.“I think I remember we arrived here on the same day”, Sora said, shifting a little and putting her sunglasses back on.
“You are probably right about that”, Yuri answered. Right now he really did not want to think about that day. Sora just looked at him in silence.
“Aren't you scared of hanging out around me like the others?”
“You look pretty awake to me right now, should I be worried?” Yuri asked.
“Dreamers don't actually need to be asleep to enter Dreamstate, closing our eyes and just zoning out is enough”, Sora explained. “Man, you have no idea about nightmares”, she claimed with another sigh.
“I've got my own”, Yuri replied, a mental image of the kitchen knife floating through his mind.
“Yeah, but mine are real”, Sora protested, “Do you know how it is to see the creatures in the “Nether”? Are you afraid to go to sleep or even to close your eyes and let your mind wander? Possessions by Puppeteers may be very rare but they do happen. Do you know that's the reason why Dreamers don't have roommates? They lock our doors at night and there is an armed member of the Inner Security posted before it. That may protect the other students but in the case of possession the Dreamer either gets shot by the guard or the Puppeteer forces the Dreamer to commit suicide. Do you have any understanding of what it's like to live with that?”
Yuri had been stunned into silence. Now it made a lot more sense to him why Sora was always looking so pale and tired.
“You are a “Painter”, right? What do you have to live with, blisters on your fingers?” Sora asked with bitter cynicism in her voice.
“Perfectionism and migraines”, was all Yuri muttered as a reply. He wasn't sure but he believed he heard Sora scoff.
“Possession, is that what happened to your sister?”
Sora froze before she said: “No”, Yuri was almost unable to hear it.“My sister never made it to here.” Yuri realized he had said the wrong thing and quickly apologized:
“Sorry, I didn't want to tear open old wounds, actually I wanted to apologize for yesterday. I shouldn't have cheated.”
“What exactly did you do?” Sora asked. “I used a symbolic Armor”, Yuri confessed.
“Armor? You cheap bastard! What material?” she asked further, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Kevlar.” Sora let out a bitter laugh. “Kevlar? What are you, stupid or the riot police?”
“It worked didn't it?” Yuri replied slowly, getting angry himself. Sora laughed on but it sounded more friendly this time. She grinned and then said: “Don't think I forgive you that easily but buying me something to drink will at least be a start.”
*
The rattling sound of the cans falling out of the metallic gray vending machine next to the school entrance seemed unusually loud to Yuri. He bent down and picked them up, taking a look at the spare coins he still held in his hand. More gray than silver and without any faces or numbers on them, just different sizes. He got up and threw one of the cans towards Sora,who somehow managed to catch it although Yuri had caught her off guard.
“Careful!” she scolded him following with a threat: “If it had fallen down I would have forced you to open that can right in front of your face.”
“Then I am lucky you caught it”, Yuri replied, opening his own can and taking a sip from it.
“Damn lucky you are indeed”, Sora agreed, sitting down and leaning on the wall next to the metal doors with their dark toned windows. She opened her can as well. Both of them drank in silence until Sora said:“Try to imagine if that orange soda had been materialized by a “Creator” who hates the taste.”
“Not very pleasant, it would taste horrible for all of us.” Putting his spare coins back in his pocket Yuri said: “It's kind of weird how they never bothered to put some people's heads on these, not even Clement Waite's or Belete Diro's.”
“It's probably just laziness”, Sora replied, “Only the minters know how to turn the materials into coins. Further physically reshaping each individual coin would be way too much of a hassle. After all, they don't have a minting press.”
“Mrs. Orlov said that I made it into the top third in terms of grades for her self defense class. That should get me into the Expedition Corps fairly easily”, Yuri let Sora know.
“You don't deserve to be in the top third”, Sora said, “Not the way you are now. You are stupid for cheating just so you are basically guaranteed to end up in the Expedition Corps. Why were you going to such lengths in the first place? If you had been caught you would have ended up at the bottom of the list.”
“Isn't it obvious”, Yuri said surprised, “I want to get out of here! This place just isn't right, everybody knows it but hardly anyone talks about it.”
“There is no guarantee that there's a way out to be found in the Nether”, Sora brought forth.
“Now you sound just like Janusz!” Yuri exclaimed, annoyed.
“Half the remaining followers of the Church of the Divine Harvest believe that being stuck here is the whole point, a way back to Earth would contradict that”, Sora continued.
“The church no longer exists and I don't want to hear anything about religion or about being stuck here forever”, Yuri informed Sora. “If you don't believe there is a way back to Earth in the Nether then why are you so damn competitive when it comes to joining the Expedition Corps?” Yuri wanted to know from her.
“It's not that I necessarily don't believe there's no way back, I just don't really care. I just want to prove myself”, she answered.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
But Sora did not grace him with an answer. Instead she said: “I pity Janusz and the other Seers. The Switchers don't have it much better. We at least want to join the Expedition Corps. They say it's voluntary but we all know they don't really leave them a choice. Janusz's fate was decided the moment he ended up here.” Yuri grimaced at her use of the word “fate”.
“If you so desperately want to find a way back, you could also have aimed to join the Research Department of the Inner Security”, Sora remarked.
“I can't do that”, Yuri said while an image of Roman Dolya floated through his mind and without offering Sora any more of an explanation. They both did not say anything for a while.
“Last night I entered Dreamstate again, saw the creatures again, was there again. First I saw the more humanoid ones, the Coffin-Dwellers. I believe someday I can get used to the sight of them but then I saw some of the other beings.” Yuri noticed that Sora's hand, pressed against her sunglasses, was trembling.
“What do they look like?” he asked.
Sora turned her head and looked at him, her eyes hidden behind the infinite black holes of her sunglasses. “Try to give insanity a physical form, they look like all the things, like nothing at all.” She stood up. “You shouldn't have asked.” Sora dusted off her jeans, again looking at Yuri.
“Thanks for the soda”, she mumbled. “I better get going now, see you in class or whenever.” Yuri said nothing and only watched as she made her way back to the girls dorm.
*
Beneath an arched overhang and sitting on the short flight of stairs leading up to the boys dorm he found Janusz who, to his surprise, wasn't playing a video game but reading.
“How did your little chat with Sora go?” Yuri was greeted.
“How do you even know? Can you read minds now?”
“You know no such ability exists, I just know you well enough. I could see it all over your face that you were going to apologize to her”, Janusz said. “Or maybe I just happened to overhear two girls walking by who were gossiping about seeing you two together”, he added with a grin. “You know my eyes are great but I've got pretty good ears as well. They did not seem happy about a Dreamer getting attention.”
“We were just hanging out and talking”, Yuri said.
“So did you apologize to her?” Janusz wanted to know.
“Yeah, but I'm not really sure that she has forgiven me yet.” Yuri thought for a moment before he continued: “I guess things don't seem too bad.” He squatted down to get a better look at the cover of Janusz's book. “What is it you are reading there?”
“The Magician's by Lev Grossman. Even I eventually get bored of playing video games all day”, Janusz stated. “I saw Oswald walking around earlier, he looks more worried about the whole coffin incident than I'm feeling by now. Besides, everything went well that time”, he let Yuri know.
“The whole worrying doesn't fit Mr. Cyrus but I get it. After all, something did come through the portal you created”, Yuri commented.
“The coffin is now in the safe hands of the Internal Security, maybe Mr. Cyrus is just upset that he could not see inside. Even with the best Seer-eyes next to some members of the Expedition Corps, there are still shields he can't see through. The coffin is probably empty anyway”, Janusz said to that. “Still, I am a little bit surprised he did not call me in for a talk, that should fall into his duties as our guardian. Guess he's too busy with other things.” Janusz turned the page but stopped reading shortly after.
“I was surprised with your brother showing up personally, him being the Chief of the Internal Security and all that. I heard that many of the other Internal Security members are jealous of him because Sekine Kasravi mentored him and he took over the position after her unexpected death. Roman seemed-”
“Like an asshole?” Yuri interrupted him. “And he is not my brother. I don't have a brother, get that in your head.”
“Keep saying that all you like, I still don't believe you. You actually look very similar.”
“We are not similar at all”, Yuri claimed. He stood up straight again and walked past Janusz up the short flight of stairs. With his hand on the handle of the dark wooden door, Yuri turned. “Don't mention him again.”
*
