Setting: The Student Council Room, July 30th, 199 NWC, ~4:00 PM
After getting back from the library, Hibiscus had read up on the Old Gods with Nick Fjordan's books. After an hour or so, she and Lyka had left to get lunch, and returned back to the room, their bellies full.
And after a few more hours of reading, Hibiscus set her bookmark into the book, and stretched. Lyka was looking up at the ceiling, looking extremely bored with nothing to do. Hibiscus wondered why Lyka decided to hang around at times like these if she was just gonna complain about being bored, which-
"
Man, fuck this shit. I'm bored as all hell!" Lyka exclaimed.
Right on que.
Hibiscus sighed, not bothering to tell her that she could leave any time she wanted, and instead looked at the time: 4:02 PM. Maybe it would be good for Hibiscus to take a stroll as well, and have Lyka not be bored.
Picking up her bag, Hibiscus brushed off her skirt, "
I'm gonna go to the student council room!" She announced with no prior warning, raising her hand and pointing at the door to signal more adventure.
Lyka, who wasn't one to like the student council, gave Hibiscus a blank stare, and then shrugged, "
You know, maybe I can pick on some poor sucker like that one frog-looking kid."
Hibiscus pouted, not wanting Lyka to do that to someone, but she opened her pocket to let Lyka fly into it, as they both left the dorm room.
Following signs, Hibiscus made her way to the student council room. Once there, she knocked on the door, hoping someone would tell her to come in, and if they did, she would enter.
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"Come in~"
A female voice resounded from the other side of the door. Upon entering, she'd notice two people. Fenton, and the owner of the voice that called her in.
Fenton Trask
"Hey!" Fenton enthusiastically called out to her as she entered.
Sona Báthory
"I don't recognize you... You must be from class 1B! Is there anything I can help you with?"
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Hibiscus waved at Fenton, "
H-Hello again~!" She nervously said, and waved to the other person as well, "
H-Hi! I'm Hibiscus Oswald, f-from class 1B…" Hibiscus trailed off, unsure what to say, or what to ask for, but then felt rustling in her pocket. Knowing that it was probably for a bad reason for Lyka to appear, Hibiscus tried to cover her pocket, but Lyka slipped out, the agile, cunning devil thing.
Lyka went over to Fenton and smiled smugly, poking at his head from all kinds of angles, "
You know~" Lyka said to him, while Hibiscus's face grew red and she called out, "
L-Lyka, please! I-I am trying to talk to them!"
"
I wonder what kinda plate they serve up with frogs around here? You ever had frogs? Pretty yummy~!" She said, licking her lips and still poking fenton, while Hibiscus shouted at her, "
L-Lyka! That's rude, please stop!"
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Fenton, being as he was, seemed to actually consider the thought for a moment.
"I'm pretty sure they don't serve frogs here, but I think there's a restaurant in town that serves both snails and frogs and whatnot. It's pretty expensive though, and I don't think I'd like it." He wouldn't let her poke at his head though, gently trying to wave her away at first and actually swatting her away like a fly if she'd keep trying.
Sona added on to it.
"I wouldn't go there, as I'm pretty sure they secretly serve Fairies as a delicacy."
"Wait, isn't that forbidden?" Fenton seemed genuinely surprised.
"Shouldn't we go and put a stop to that?"
Sona just sighed.
"It was a joke." Although Fenton still seemed confused, she headed over to Hibiscus to observe her from up close, before extending a hand.
"I'm Sona Báthory, the student council president."
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As Lyka contemplated whether or not she was actually joking, and even thought about going there to check, she stopped poking at him to fly around back to Hibiscus's pocket, where Hibiscus quietly shook Sona's hand, "
I wonder if I can learn something from you about Lyka… Haha…." She said, nervously laughing. Then Hibiscus remembered why she even wanted to come here in the first place, "
O-Oh! I remember! I wanted to talk about Essence!" Hibiscus said, "
S-She told me some of her spirit's powers before, but I wanted to find out the others for myself! So I wanted to investigate her!" Hibiscus said excitedly.
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Unless Hibiscus had a few years of patience, Sona wasn't the best person to give advice regarding Fairies. Being pretty self-aware about it, she remained silent with regards to Hibiscus' first statement. She raised an eyebrow with regards to Hibiscus' question.
"Investigating the investigator? How odd~ As fun as it sounds, I'm not sure if I can help you all that much. We've kind-of got an unspoken rule that we don't pry much into each-others lives." Although barely noticeable, Sona quickly narrowed her eyes and glossed over Fenton while saying it, before defaulting back to her normal expression.
"You could always try asking her spirits, of course, and if it's just about her magic, you could try finding someone she's once teamed up with in combat."
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Hibiscus thought about it a bit. That was true, asking someone she's had combat experience with before would be a good help, but Hibiscus had no idea who that could be even. Maybe some fight would start in the school soon and Essence, but pure chance, would be around to stop it or something like that. A world ending threat could also be one, but what are the chances of that happening?
But Hibiscus came all the way to the Student Council room, she wanted to learn SOMETHING there. Hibiscus pouted a bit, before deciding to ask Sona, "
O-Ok then… What about you? I'll investigate you instead!" Hibiscus said, trying to put a smug smile on her face but failing miserably as her face turned red just staring at someone else's eyes.
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Sona laughed.
"I'm afraid I've already got my own fan-club wiki and whatnot, so I'm the least interesting person to investigate." She then turned a bit more serious, once more glossing over at Fenton as well.
"Besides, not a lot of people like it when others try prying into their lives." All the while, Sona just started back at Hibiscus, as Hibby slowly started to turn red.
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Hibiscus felt embarrassed from the fact that her investigation attempt failed, although she couldn't tell why. Well, it might have something to do with Fenton's wish or something, maybe he tried too hard to pry into other peoples' lives. Maybe with that, he wouldn't mind others looking into
his life, "
A-Alright then. W-What about you, Fenton? I-I'll investigate you instead!"
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"Me?" Fenton sounded pretty confused.
"What is there to investigate about me?"
"Oh, I completely forgot!" Sona suddenly exclaimed.
"We should be the ones investigating you! Your class has a new teaching method, after all. How has class been so far?"
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Having her plan backfired once again, Hibiscus shrunk into a nervous wreck, with Lyka staring at the other two from her pocket, "
Man, the student council really is full of assholes."
Hibiscus then tried to think of anything they learned in class, then remembered the 'new' teaching method they learned, which was extremely unorthodox, "
W-Well… We were sent into battle really fast. I was only a student for 3 days before going into battle. We were supposed to fight a Witch's familiars, but a spirit who was being chased by an angel led an angel right to us, and we didn't really have a choice but to defeat it. T-That's really it, we didn't do anything other than that."
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"Hmm... Yes, I heard that much." Sona paused a bit, getting a bit closer to Hibiscus to watch her from up close.
"De you think it was fair for your class to be send out on a mission that soon?"
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Hibiscus thought about it a bit, then shook her head, backing away a bit nervously from Sona, "
W-Well, for me personally? No. I really didn't feel ready to take a mission like that. Especially with how little training as a mage I received before the mission started. Some others were enthusiastic, b-but I think most of the opinion was that we shouldn't do it. I-If we had gotten another week at least, maybe...." Hibiscus said trailing off, not sure where to go with the rest of her story
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Deciding not to peruse the fleeing Hibiscus, Sona placed a hand underneath her chin as she thought.
"Hmhm. Yet you guys still defeated even an angel. What a predicament..." She trailed off at the latter part.
"In any case, do you like painting? I teach some classes at the school across the street, but others are free to drop by as well~"
"Uhm, Sona..." Fenton interrupted, as he was pretty aware of where things might end up going if painting got mentioned.
"We should finish up our parts for the tournament, and we've still got a list of complaints to go through."
"Ah... right.."
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Hibiscus tilted her head, wondering about the painting classes. She didn't know what Sona meant about the angel killing being a predicament, so she ignored that part. It also seemed Hibiscus came at a bad time, as they had work to do regarding the tournament, "
The tournament?..."
Hibiscus vaguely remembered reading about it, but not entering due to her prowess as a mage being less than subpar. Well, maybe she could do cqc? Not that well mind you, but probably enough to at least show some potential?
Deciding that she'd watch one of the tournaments later to see how it went, Hibiscus waved her hands at the two of them, "
I-I'm sorry if I caught you at a bad time! I-I'll be going now, but I'd love to come see your classes! I painted a bit while at home, but I'm not an experienced painter, and I'd love to learn!" And if the two didn't make her stay, Hibiscus would leave the student council room to leave them to their work.
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"Alright~ The schedule is up on the web, just look up 'the joy of painting' and you'll probably find it!" Considering Fenton only waved goodbye, Hibiscus would soon find herself back out into the hallways after Sona's reply.
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Hibiscus sighed after she got out of the student council room. She had been going looking to get some information, but it seems she was the one who got interrogated instead.
Lyka perked her head out of the pocket, glaring at Hibiscus, "
Painting? Seriously? You might have painted a bit at home, but you were definitely exaggerating when you said "wasn't an experienced painter". You were waaaaaay overestimat-"
"
I-I know!" Hibiscus said, interrupting her. In truth, while Hibiscus did paint at home, she was dreadfully terrible at it. She had tried only learning from books, but books didn't do anything to help her learn to paint. She thought maybe if someone taught her directly, she could paint a lot better.
Hibiscus sighed, she'd just have to look up that "joy of painting" thing later. For now, she was interested in the tournament.
Making her way through the school, Hibiscus looked for a poster for the tournament. She did find one, and it turned out a few people she knew were in the beginner: Londo. Elisa. Almeida. Rainer… Suilen. Ryan. Maybe she could go and watch a few of them. Although with how the rules said you could do a match at any time, that might be hard….
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Nuha Eszes
As Hibiscus was looking at the tournament posters, she was approached by an older looking woman; whom was likely a professor. She silently got closer to Hibiscus to stare over her shoulder, looking at the same poster Hibiscus was looking at and trying to follow her line of sight to figure out what specific parts the girl was looking at. She suddenly broke the silence.
"Ah, the beginner matches." Despite the fair chance that she'd startle Hibiscus, the girl and her spirit would feel an odd sense of familiarly regarding this women, Lyka slightly more so than Hibiscus, even though neither of them would be able to place it. The more they'd think about it, the more they'd feel like they were blanking out on it, the same feeling you had when a word was at the tip of your tongue, yet you just can't recall it.
"It'll be fun to see if there is new talent among the first and second years, don't you think so too?" The woman asked.
"Or are you joining in yourself?"
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Hibiscus jumped when someone talked over her shoulder. This person must have been trying to give her a heart attack if she snuck up on her just to talk about the tournament. Hibiscus took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, "
Y-Yea… I-I was just looking to see if anyone I knew was joining, so I plan to w-watch them…" Hibiscus muttered, "
I-I can't fight by myself, so-"
"
Sure you can! Just stab them a bunch and heal yourself when you're hurt!"
Hibiscus didn't seem comfortable with that idea, and sorta shrugged it off, looking back at the teacher, then squinting, "
Er, Um… H-Have we met somewhere? You seem familiar."
Lyka popped out of Hibiscus's pocket then also squinted, "
Yea, I'm sure I've seen you somewhere. Who are you?"
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"Oh~ I think that happened before, a mage with healing powers joining a tournament. When they were up against a mage focused on defense, the match kept going for half a day~" The woman cheerfully explained it, out of the blue, seeming to shrug off any discomfort she might be causing (or being oblivious to it).
"I'm professor Eszes, designated teacher of class 2C, so you've probably seen me roam the hallways at one point or another." It didn't fully explain things, but that seemed to be all they'd be getting.
"And who might you be?"
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Lyka didn't really seem satisfied with the answer, as she slunk back into Hibiscus's pocket, and Hibiscus was still confused on how'd she remember a face without even noticing, but the professor introduced herself, so Hibiscus did the same, "
M-My name is Hibiscus Oswald. My spirit is Lyka. We're from class 1B."
Hibiscus also wondered about that tournament matchup, could she actually participate in a tournament? It would certainly help her 1v1 scenarios with how she could handle opponents that her team could not. Certainly she had practiced in gym, but if she was in a real situation, she honestly could not tell how that would go...
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"Oswald, you say? That sounds familiar." Nuha seemed to be trying to put a face to the name.
"Are there more Mages in your family?"
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Hibiscus nodded in response to the teacher asking that, "
Y-Yes, my father and mother were both mages."
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So the kid's parents were both Mages? How oddly similar to the situation of her and her husband. Well, there was the 'were' rather than the 'are' in that statement. Wait, she thought she could recall something.
"Are you by chance the daughter of Katoru and Jessie?" There weren't that many retired mage couples around with Oswald as a surname, so it was a pretty fair bet.
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Hibiscus looked shocked as the teacher just said her parents' names, "
Y-Y-You know my parents?! Y-Yes those are their names!"
Did this teacher serve with her parents? How well did she know them? These were questions that Hibiscus had to know, and ask she did, "
H-How do you know them?!"
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She smiled.
"Yes, we weren't in the same class, but they were in the Academy around the same time as I was, so I've seen them around a fair few times in the hallways. Oh, and I think we did a few of the same courses in the upper years." Her smile faded.
"It's a shame about what happened to your father though, or that nobody ever figured out how it happened."
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Hibiscus smiled at knowing she was conversing with someone from her parents' past. This meant she might have know a lot about her parents and what kind of things they did. Was her dad in any clubs? Were they in the student council? How did they meet? All these questions that she had could finally be answered. Her father had always refused to talk about his life from school, and what exactly his power was. Her mother had told her that her power was being a ranger or something to do with a bow. She didn't go very much in depth. Hibiscus decided that her first question would be about her father, "
About my father, he never said anything about his power. He wanted me to know as few things about Mages as possible, hoping I wouldn't become one, so he never told me. He still refuses to tell me for some reason… What was it?"
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Nuha was silently debating her options. If Katoru had refrained from telling his daughter anything about his magic, maybe she would be better off respecting his wishes? On the other hand, if he wished for Hibiscus to have nothing to do with Mages, he had clearly already failed in that regard. Maybe that made it an equally solid option to just play with open cards? She settled on something between both options.
"I don't recall a lot about his magic, but I do recall he used blood for it. It was quite the odd thing." Truth be told, she did recall some things, but she didn't desire to go into any specifics.
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Hibiscus froze at the mention of it, "
B-Blood?!" Lyka then popped out of her pocket, "
Blood? The fuck was your dad doing with a blood power?" Lyka asked, flying out of the pocket onto Hibiscus's shoulder, "
Like father like daughter, eh?"
Hibiscus didn't know what this meant, but she'd probably have to ask her father about this later… But for now, her enthusiasm for learning about her parents waned. If her father hadn' even told her they had the same powers…
Hibiscus then decided to move the topic onto another topic, while Lyka laid face up on her shoulder, "
S-So. What's it like in class 2C?"
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As Nuha feared, even saying the magic was about blood was already a big revelation. It's a good thing she never swore to keep any of his secrets. However, she didn't like the fairies reaction tho this revelation.
"Mind your language." She scolded the fairy.
As for class C, she shrugged.
"Normal, I guess." Saying more would be an invasion of her students' privacy. Not that such a thing would stop her, but it was as good of an excuse as any.
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As Lyka flipped off the teacher without Hibiscus's knowledge, Hibiscus merely replied, "
I-I see…" And after that, Hibiscus was silent, unsure of what to say. Instead, she looked back at the tournament matchups.
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With the conversation coming to a halt like this, there was no possible recovery. Nuha figured she'd better continue on her own way.
"Well, I'll be off, goodbye~"
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Hibiscus nodded, still looking at the tournament poster. She opened up her phone and messaged three separate people: Londo, Almeida, and Suilen. She asked the three of them if she could watch their tournament battles.
Londo replied that his first battle was already over, but she could watch his solo battle on the first!
Almeida didn't reply for a while.
Suilen didn't reply at all, and wouldn't ever. Hibiscus would later learn that she was no longer at the academy.
Hibiscus then sighed, deciding to go back to her room for now. Nothing happened on the way back, but Hibiscus did check that joy of painting website that she was told to look at earlier. Maybe she'd go to one of these classes someday.
Once she got to her room, Lyka floated out of Hibiscus's pocket, flying to her bed and pillow that she usually rested on.
Hibiscus sat on her bed, sighing once again, thinking about what the professor had said: About how her father had the same type of magic she did. Hibiscus held her phone in front of her, composing a message. Then she sighed for the umpteenth time, laying back on her bed, clicking the send button without looking at it, to her father.
"Why didn't you tell me you had the power of blood?..."
And although Hibiscus texted him this, he did not respond, leaving her to lay on the bed silently, wondering if her father will ever tell her the full story…..
(Start of Turn: +5 
