12 Stars

"So, what's your story?" Jane asks, continuing to gaze at the lake, which is a brightly shining reflection of a full moon.

"My story?"

Jane chuckles lightly, "Yeah, your story."

Saint got caught off guard by that question, he himself isn't sure what his story is.

"Well… uh… where do I even start?" Jane begins gently holding Saint's hand after he responds clumsily, but she continues to gaze at the scenery.

Saint, determined not to show Jane that he's nervous, tries to act calm. He clasps Jane's hand,

"Um… I don't… I don't really know… ever since I was little, my father had been filling my thoughts with what I thought were conspiracies. I pretended to listen, but now I see he wasn't lying. Even though now I found out he has been keeping secrets from me, I want to know if he had a reason… I hope he isn't too worried about me…" Saint says calmly, he felt at ease finally opening up to someone.

Jane listened intently, she was a genuine soul, Saint felt more of a connection to her than anyone else.

"Maybe he kept things from you not to hurt you, but because he knew you weren't ready to see the full picture yet." Jane responds, still holding hands with Saint, she glances at Saint momentarily,

Saint listens to Jane, he looks out at the lake, taking in the scene before him. It's peaceful.

"Or maybe he just wanted to protect your sense of peace for a little while longer—like, if you didn't know what kind of world you were really in, you could still feel normal... at least for a bit."

Saint is quiet for a moment, thinking about Jane's response, before lightly responding,

"I don't know… but thanks, I'm glad we met…"

Jane removes her hand and gets up, she smiles back at him,

"I'm glad too, we should chat more sometime, but not today. It's late… walk back with me?"

Saint stares for a second before getting up quickly,

"Yeah."

…

As Ari is chasing after Lotus and another student in a prison hallway, they cut a corner into the cafeteria, when suddenly Ari runs into a wall,

'What the-?'

The surrounding air distorts, shifting into his old room, it's dark, and quiet as he's laying in his bed.

'My- my old home?'

He carefully gets up and heads to his door, it's locked, he can hear faint arguing behind the door.

"I'll never claim him as a member of the Star Clan! He's already 12, Maria. He can't use Mana yet!"

Ari recognizes that voice, it's his father. Current head of the Star Clan. This is a flashback from his past.

'Dad?'

This moment is when Ari learned out his father had been unhappy with him falling behind his siblings, Ari was the second-youngest child and least developed at the time.

'These… these are my memories…'

Ari's eyes widen in shock, this was a student's ability. He saw this happen to Saint, It's Ayce's ability!

'Ayce, he traps people in their repressed memories!'

Ari closes his eyes and focuses his Mana into his brain, this is how you break illusionary techniques.

He drowns out the arguing behind the door and vigorously attempts to break out.

This is often a hard procedure, like finding the right puzzle piece in a thousand-piece box.

Minute after minute passes by and Ari is starting to sweat, beginning to grow impatient and slightly panic,

'Come on…'

When he finally finds the light in his mind, he rushes all his Mana into the light, overwhelming it, causing the illusion to break.

Ari falls to his knees, breathing heavy, he takes a moment to catch his breath,

'Crap… that took a lot of energy… I could have died…'

He checks himself for any injuries but notices none major.

'No fatal injuries?' He thinks to himself, confused,

He looks around and sees that it's now daytime. Ari had been trapped in that illusion for hours in the real world.

'Fuck! He got me…'

Ari then sees Lotus and the student that was fleeing from him yesterday, laying unconsciously on the floor, he quickly rushes to Lotus, checking his pulse,

'He's alive, probably still stuck in the illusion… seems like Ayce did me a favor.'

He checks Lotus's pockets and grabs his card with his name on it.

1/5 targets eliminated.

Ari walks out of the cafeteria and sees students still going at it in the main cell block area, surrounded by countless defeated students.

'I'm beat… if I run into someone strong, I'm gonna lose, better avoid conflict for now…'

He sneaks across the battlefield, when he then notices some cells are locked, and students sleeping inside…

'They're resting, but how? Won't they lose like this?'

Ari gets confused, he runs up to his cell, and locks himself inside,

'It works… and it looks like I can't use Mana inside, I can get rest like this… I'm assuming the cells don't unlock until nighttime. Which loses me a lot of time too…'

Ari sits on the bed and ponders,

'Well at least I got one down, if I get one everyday I should pass…'

…

Meanwhile, Saint gets woken up by Prince standing tall by his bed.

"Wake up princess, time to start training!" He says flashily,

Saint stares at him, just woken up for a brief moment before turning around in his bed, continuing to sleep.

"Hey! You little brat! Get up! Prince yells,

Saint dismisses Prince in his sleep,

"Alright… so that's how you wanna play…" Prince laughs mischievously,

"Well then! I'll tell Jane you're too tired to train and won't be joining us…" Sarcastically,

Saint jumps up from his bed,

"Jane? Wait, Jane is joining us in training?" He asks excitedly,

"No, but now that you're awake, we're starting." Prince says, turning into a serious tone, he's trying not to laugh.

Saint stares at him annoyingly.

"Alright… I'll be out in a second, give me a moment."

Prince smiles charmingly,

"That's the spirit! Meet me out front when you're ready!"

…