A small trip

I had made it to our classroom, after spending most of my morning cleaning up in the infirmary. My body was still weary after the dungeon dive and my eyes were swollen after the night. All in all, I was a mess, but I still forced myself to come to class, mostly as a symbolic action to show myself that I would be able to move forward, no matter how fucked up the circumstances were.

Sitting in the classroom, I awaited the arrival of my classmates in silence, trying my best to not let my thoughts wander into a dark place. It wouldn't help if I started wallowing in despair, but it was hard not to. It just hurt so much knowing that this might just be a useless endeavor that could end in the biggest tragedy possible.

However, I still couldn't just give up my own happiness without trying. It was a selfish thought to not want to give Misa up. even though I knew what the results could be, and if something were to happen to her, I knew that I would never forgive myself.

"Miren!"

"Huh?! What?!"

A sudden voice woke me up from my trance, coming from Lindsey, who looked at me with a bit of a frown. "I'm talking to you! I was asking you how your body was feeling..."

Her frown changed into a bit of a sulk, something I couldn't help but find pretty cute. It was pretty funny seeing the usually cold woman act like a child, but I had too many things to worry about to appreciate it fully. "It hurts, but I'm fine."

I didn't have anything else to say, and although I felt a bit guilty about not showing any sort of enthusiasm to converse with her, I couldn't care less right now. There were more important things to worry about.

****

[Sarah's Pov]

"Hey, Lindsey..."

"Hmm? What?"

Me and Lindsey were attending mana manipulating class, one of the few courses we had in common, currently having a sort of self-study session in the form of meditation. However, there was something else that occupied my mind right now.

"Say, did Miren say anything to you? Maybe something about what happened after our dives..."

Yesterday I had clumsily said a lot of stupid things about Miren, and although he said he would forgive me if I took him to the infirmary, there was something strange about him this week. It was as if his eyes had reverted to the past, just deep, soulless orbs of black. Even if I didn't want to believe that my rude words had been the trigger for this, I couldn't find any other explanation.

Lindsey took a second to think about it, but in the end, she didn't have a good answer to give, "No, in fact, he didn't say much of anything to me yesterday or today. It's as if he doesn't want to talk with me at all..."

'Is he angry at Lindsey as well? No, thinking about it, maybe he felt like he got betrayed once again... This might be bad...'

I knew that Miren wasn't a bloodthirsty killer, but I was also very well aware that he wasn't a fully stable person as well. The radical changes that he had shown in less than a year couldn't be called anything else but absurd. From an extreme introvert, barely talking at all, to starting to show his friendly and somewhat social colors, then to a jaded youth that didn't trust anyone.

I did feel like he was a bit more stable now than at the beginning of the semester, most likely thanks to Lindsey's presence, but there was no telling when he might snap again.

"Sarah and Lindsey, no talking during meditation!"

Our teacher had returned, a small little gray-haired lady called Mrs. Stone, with looks that made most people feel like she would be more suited to living at a retirement home. Now wanting to upset the old granny, we switched our focus back to our meditation.

****

Tuesday had arrived, and I was currently trying my best to manufacture my little purple bunny with my mana, however...

"Fuck!"

Things weren't going well during my lesson with the principal. It was as if my mana didn't listen to me anymore, as if it deliberately chose not to do as I wanted it. The urgency I felt only grew stronger for each failed attempt at creating my little electric bunny, knowing that I didn't have time to struggle like this.

Not to mention that I was already feeling stressed because I had to improve my mana control before continuing to strengthen my mana grade. Since returning to the academy, I hadn't improved my mana even in the slightest.

My master had only been sitting beside me for both of our sessions this week, for some reason not wanting to give me any guidance at all. Internally, I knew what he was thinking. I knew it too well, that I was acting hastily, almost desperately because of my want to get stronger as fast as possible.

However, I couldn't calm myself down. No matter how much I tried to fight these emotions with logic, they wouldn't go away. As if reading my internal conflict, my master stood up from his seat and opened his mouth, "Miren, that's enough. You are done for the day."

"But, old man! We have only been here for an hour? Don't we have a lot of hours left before the time's up?"

His eyes sharpened at my rebuttal, but the voice he let out was gentle, "Do you really think you will be able to make progress like this? You are not in a state to cultivate your mana right now, thus I have something else planned."

"Something else? Like what?"

I didn't know what he was planning, but if there was something that could break me out of this negative spiral, I was all for it. If there was one thing I was sure of, then it was that my master had an incredible amount of experience. If he was thinking that we should pause the training, then that was most likely the right choice.

The old man started to accumulate mana in order to teleport us back to the academy, making wild winds start to blow around us. As his white hair floated in the air he gave me some instructions, "You are going to go home and pack some clothes, just ordinary training wear should be fine. Then we will meet up again at my office at 18.00. Do be sure to tell the people around you that you will be missing for a couple of days so they don't have to worry."

Our bodies warped through time and space, and we had returned to his office.

"I will see you here later then, young hare."

As I took my leave, my thoughts had already concluded what his plan was, although I just had a general idea of it. We were going on some sort of trip to shake up my mentality. As much as it sounded like a cliché, I could only trust my master.

Pulling up my DAD, I was thinking about sending a text to Lindsey, telling her about my upcoming vacancy, but somehow, I couldn't. Maybe it was because I didn't feel like she needed to know, or maybe it was because of the fact that I didn't want her to question the reason behind the trip. Maybe I just didn't want her to know that I was, in fact, just a pathetic small man who couldn't even control his own emotions.

No matter the case, I didn't tell her, justifying my actions with the thought of 'Mike will probably tell her anyway.' It was the thoughts of a coward, but in the end, those were the thoughts I chose to have as I made my way back to the Aquarius.

It didn't take long for me to pack my bags, and I ended up returning earlier than scheduled to the principal's office, not wanting to stay around the Aquarius or the academy grounds in fear of someone noticing me.

"Already back? Well, if you don't have anything else to do, let's get going."

I wasn't even surprised when my master was already standing next to his fireplace, already expecting my arrival. As we both had our things packed into our spatial inventory, neither of us carried any bags, and the principal hadn't even changed out of his normal white robe.

"So, where are we going, master?"

"We are just going to see an old friend of mine. An old friend that happens to live in District 1."