The Investigation

Seraphina stared down at a beaten Azazel. He'd bled out until collapse again. He challenged Arlo and had an even worse showing than before. This time she witnessed it out of coincidence as she walked through the halls. Azazel challenged him to a match, but he looked defeated from the moment he got there. To begin with he couldn't move his arms very well, she could tell that he'd trained too much before fighting and tore his muscles training. Elaine had to heal him and drag him to the infirmary again as a bloody mess. 

The riots had stopped for the most part and things were evening out in Wellston… except now, any time a low-tier rioted they were met with groups of Elites or Mid-tiers, which meant there were a lot more casualties on the lower-tiers side of things. To think this whole mess started because of a bad conversation on the school roof. 

"Seraphina if you could make your way to the principal's office."

She knew what it was about immediately. A few days ago, John had lent her his copy of UnOrdinary, an illegal book that had inspired the rise of many vigilantes – illegal enforcers that were being killed by a group named Ember. Unfortunately she left it unwatched for too long and Elaine, her roommate saw it on her bed when she went in to give her some food. 

She was then forced to burn the book before anyone could find it. This call to the principal's office was surely about that. She walked to the principal's office with a lazy stride. She could take her time to get there.

An explosion to her right mader Seraphina sigh and turn her head. Vritra, who had somehow gotten free of all his restraints was beating up Gavin, a mid-tier. 

One hand gripped Gavin's collar. The other, explosions cracking on it and wind around it. "I promised I would only strike you once. So grit your teeth." To anyone but Seraphina, Vritra's fist would have looked like a blur as it dug into Gavin's stomach. The loud sound of something going off was all the warning anyone got before Gavin was flung to the wall. His shirt was ripped and singed, his stomach gaining a blackish-blue look to it and the surrounding location was lacerated with winds. "If I catch you bullying anyone else, it won't end with one punch. so pick yourself up and go to the infirmary. Bitch."

Did he have to talk with growls? It felt as though his teeth were constantly clenched and he couldn't separate them fully so he growled to give emphasis? Maybe it was the way his lower fangs were growing out. What made Seraphina widen her eyes as she passed by was the fact he defeated Gavin so easily, the only way one would be able to achieve that was if they were in the Elite category… but for him to have reached elite in under a month should be impossible.

"Well, not my fight…" Seraphina walked away with her hands in her pockets. She opened the door of the headmaster's office and stared at Headmaster Vaughn's eyes. He had his signature smile and neck-beard. Sitting next to him were two members of the authorities, no doubt. Their clean attires and formal vestuary could only lead Seraphina to think so. 

They stood up and stared at her with seriousness. One of them was a truth-teller, but then who was the other? One had mint hair and yellow eyes whilst the other had salmon pink hair and blue eyes.

"Ah, Seraphina! Please sit." said the headmaster. He kept composure and smiled as usual. Seraphina did as he asked and sat down comfortably. She had prepared beforehand because she was aware Arlo would pull off this stunt eventually, even still she felt uneasy. "No need to look so tense. You're making me nervous." 

His happy-go-lucky attitude and closeness made things a lot more comfortable, but it also felt prepared and artificially constructed – as if it'd been in his best interest to research applications and methods to ease others. 

"This is MIss Nadia. She's here on behalf of the Authorities and she is going to ask you a set of questions." He signed over to the mint-hair woman that had stood up. If she was the lie detector what was the salmon-haired man next to her for? He stood there with his arms crossed. Nadia put a recording device on the headmaster's desk and pressed record.

"This is an official interrogation. You are expected to answer all questions with honesty. Any false response you provide will be detected, and will result in immediate expulsion from Wellston Private High School. Is that understood, Miss Seraphina?" The recording device was always something they used during interrogations like these. Seraphina had heard rumors that Authorities could provide false testimonies and use them as legitimate evidence because their word was worth more than who they interviewed. 

That fact made the hair on the back of her neck stand on their ends. If Nadia were to say she was a vigilante, there was nothing Seraphina could do but let herself get expelled, because her ability was lie-detection she could claim Seraphina was lying and that was it. Seraphina had to believe they wouldn't lie for her to get out of there, and that realization made her palms sweat. 

"Well?" Nadia took Seraphina out of her stupor, and made her lower her head as she stared Nadia in the eyes. 

"Yes."

"Let's begin," her eyes began glowing, indicating her ability had been activated. "We were informed that you had ownership of the book UnOrdinary. Is that true?"

"Yes." All Seraphina could do for now was to tell the truth. She first had to gauge how Nadia's ability worked. Did she read memories or the mind? Did she detect lies? Or did she detect deception? Something can be true but a deception, or they can be false because one can't recall. What if one couldn't recall what happened?

"For how long have you had this book?" This was a simple question, but Seraphina couldn't answer it straightforwardly.

"I can't remember when I've had it exactly," she observed Nadia's reaction. She narrowed her eyes. It was not a lie, she didn't know the exact date and time she received the book from John. If she could see deception, read memories or surface thoughts she would be caught. If she couldn't, then her ability was less fearsome and could only detect blatant lies. If the latter wasn't the case, Seraphina had a few more answers to narrow down her ability to better adjust her answers to not incriminate John. 

There was no change in expression. Did she know? No, she would have certainly told Seraphina to leave Wellston if she could tell Seraphina was lying. It was risky, but the odds were on her side so she decided to take the plunge. Besides, Seraphina was a High-tier, one of the strongest in the country, if she were expelled from Wellston she would simply move to another school with just as much or similar prestige. 

"And where did you get this book from?" Seraphina didn't want to implicate John, so she took a small pause while leaning back. She sighed to dissimulate that she was annoyed at these questions.

"Last Saturday, I was walking home from Kovoro Mall. Suddenly I noticed I was being followed by someone invisible and fought them off, ran. By the time I had gotten back to the dorm, the book was already in one of my shopping bags." Seraphina looked at Nadia, observed her reaction, she nodded and put down the files. The other man next to her took a deep sigh of displeasure, he didn't want to be anywhere near here and it showed in his impatient foot-tapping.

"Where and when did this incident take place?" 

"The bus stop near the park around 8 PM, I think."

"Who else was with you at the time?" What kind of question was that? How did she know there was someone else with her during the attack? She never mentioned her friends? Had she asked to see her reaction? Seraphina wasn't sure, she had been stumped.

"Now now, Miss Nadia. My students are all very busy people, especially right now." Principal Vaughn was getting tired of the questions, he stared at Nadia with the corner of his eyes in displeasure. Did he have a past with the authorities? He was smiling, but his eyes told another story. Did he save Seraphina from that question because he knew it might implicate more trouble for Wellston's image? Or did he do it out of kindness? She couldn't tell. "Please respect their time by asking questions that are relevant to the topic at hand… I am sure your partner is getting tired of waiting as well."

Her partner leaned onto the headmaster's desk and practically sat on it while crossing his arms. Vaughn didn't seem to find it amusing, shooting some glares at the back of his head, but ultimately didn't say anything.

"Yes, apologies." She was very respectful to Vaughn, it was most likely because much like Seraphina, he was a High-tier. "Where is the book now?"

"I destroyed it."

"Did you read it"

"Yes, I did."

"Did you share the book or its contents with anyone while you read it?"

"I did not."

"Final Question. What are your thoughts on the content of UnOrdinary" For whatever reason the face of Vritra, then of the bloodied Azazel came to the forefront of her mind. Seraphina drew parallels between them. The main differences were their tiers, how they acted too… Well, the only similarities were some of their actions and how both of them inspired idiots into rioting for more rights for low-tiers.

Still, SeraPhina grinned, thinking back of her conversation with John where he had asked her something similar.

"I thought the idea was absurd." She shared a high-tier helping low-tiers out of the goodness of his heart? What was the point? Nothing would ultimately change. Why should she go out of her way to help people who would never thank her? It'd be useless.

Nadia sighed and smiled, dropping her hard-boiled detective persona. All of that tension because of a book, the authorities must be running out of things to care about. 

"That's a relief. Now if you could step out for a moment." Nadia turned her head to the Headmaster and nodded.