I stare at my over-the-top nice hand writing on the paper, the pencil pressing down against the paper lightly.
..Hmmm.. Does this make sense? Or should I explain it without the—
"Hey, Monika?"
-ES, hi. Can you wait for a bit, I'm trying to figure something out.
"Um.. I can't, we need to talk."
Can we talk later please? I really don't want to mess up Sasha's homework.
"Why? I thought she was mean to you guys?"
She is, but I just— Ugh..
"Are you okay?"
Yeah, sorry. It's just getting kind of hot in here.
"Well, she did activate a heat spell."
I guess so.
"Anyways, I need to talk to about the thoughts you were having. There was one that-"
ES? Like I said, I'd love to talk about this, but you're kind of distracting me at the moment.
"-...But, Monika-"
ES, please.
"Fine." ES audibly sighs in defeat. "If that's what you want."
Thank you.
I exhale in relief before gently picking up my pencil off the page again. Only this time, the room is noticeably a lot warmer then it was before.
How hot is it going to get?
I glance up from my paper and look at the others, who are contently working on their own work. "Do you guys feel it?"
Natsuki looked up from her paper to meet my eyes. "Feel what?"
Sayori nods, also stopping her writing. "The room getting warmer."
Natsuki waited for a moment, a blank look on her face as she stared at a random point in the air, trying to concentrate on the room. But she shook her head, confused. "No..? I think Sasha lied to us."
"How can you not feel it?" I ask, surprised. "It's kinda hot in here."
"I think you're messing with me." Natsuki narrowed her eyes before rolling them and dismissing herself from the conversation as she looked back down to work again.
"No, Natsuki, the room's actually getting warmer!" Sayori exclaimed. "Isn't it cool?"
I smile, glancing at her. "Sayori, the room
isn't cool, it's warm."
Sayori blinks for a minute before giggling, and going back to her paper. I nod and return back to Sasha's.
Let's hurry up and finish this so I'll have time to do my own.
....
Mmmmm..
I.. I can't concentrate..
"Well, if you can't concentrate, then we should have the talk I wanted to have."
That's not it, I mean it's just really hot.
"Why is the room getting so hot again?"
It's a spell that Sasha put. It needs to be activated when we write this.. I don't know, it's just homework I guess.
"Well, maybe if you-"
"..Ugh..." I gently drop the pencil on the page and rest my head on my hand.
"Are you okay?"
Yeah, sorry. What were you going to say?
"..Uhm.. Never mind."
"Are you okay?" I glance back up to notice Yuri worriedly staring at me.
I chuckle slightly, sitting back up. "Yeah, it's just really hot in here."
Sayori nods. "It has gotten kind of hotter then it was before, huh?"
Natsuki shrugs halfheartedly. "I mean, I guess it's gotten kind of warmer."
"'Kind of' is an understatement.." I mumble, glancing back down at my paper.
"Is everyone almost done?" Sayori asked, holding out her completed two sheets of paper.
Yuri nods, her finished papers in front of her. I slightly fidget in place, realizing I haven't finished my own yet.
Natsuki sighs, leaning backwards on her hands. "Isn't there something more fun we could be doing right now?"
"Come on guys!" Sayori exclaims. "Isn't helping friends fun?"
Natsuki narrows her eyes at Sayori, gripping onto her pencil tighter. "They're not our friends Sayori."
"Well they could be." Sayori has a determined gleam in her eyes as she stared back at the smaller girl. "And maybe if they were, they wouldn't be so mean to us!"
"Okay, but how can friends be mean to each other?" Natsuki asks back. "That isn't a friendship."
Sayori sighs dejectedly, gently shaking her head. "Natsuki.. Maybe they're scared of us not liking them. Maybe it's all an act."
"Or maybe it's just them being actual jerks." Natsuki growls back. "And if it's an act, it's working pretty well."
I try to pick up my pencil to continue working, even if the two are arguing. But the room instantly is covered in another wave of heat, hotter than before, making me wince and drop my pencil once again.
"You need to stop trusting people Sayori." Natsuki crosses her arms. "People are going to walk all over you, and they'll use you."
"But Natsuki! We've never even given them a chance!" Sayori whined.
Every time the room gets hotter, it feels like every cell in my blood is getting pricked by a needle. It's true that I wasn't fond of really hot weather, but I never had problems like this with the heat before.
Actually.. Is this even normal?
"Sometimes I think you should be a little nicer." Sayori said sadly before gasping and frantically shaking her head. "I'm sorry Natsuki, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!"
"Sayori, how is that going to hurt my feelings?" Natsuki rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I need to teach you some real roasts to use in defence.
"But why would hurting people's feelings be used as defence?"
Dammit... Is Sasha overheating the room on purpose..?
My body immediately tenses up when something attacks my shoulder. Well, not attack per say. I glance up and behind me at Yuri who is looking even more worried then she was before.
"Monika.. Are you sure you're okay?"
I nod slowly. "Yeah.. Why wouldn't I be? It's just a little bit of heat.."
"Do you want me to open the window for you?" She asks quietly, moving to stand up.
But I quickly shake my head, my body feeling too weird to even try and reach out to her. "No, it's fine. Really."
Natsuki chuckles, shaking her head as she gently pushed Sayori. "Come on! You know I'm not cute!"
Sayori giggles, returning back to her original spot after getting shoved. "Yeah you are!"
"Sayori!"
And to make matters worse, a headache begins to pound inside my brain loudly, it almost buzzing in my ears.
"Do you want to get some water or something?"
No, I'm fine.
"You're really not."
Fine.
I slowly move to stand up, just able to get onto my feet before the wind makes my headache throb tenfold, and the feeling of getting stung increases throughout the rest of my body.
I only realize that I've lost balance as I notice Yuri grabbing onto me, slowly letting me rest on the floor.
"Sorry.." I quietly say to her. I slowly try to get back up to a stand, but I realize she's keeping me on the floor. "What?"
Yuri sighs, slowly closing her eyes before opening them again. "What do you need? I can get it for you."
I smile slightly, shaking my head. "No, it's fine Yuri. I can get it mysel-"
"Monika, you can't even stand."
"She's got a point."
"Look, it's just really, really, hot in here." I explain. "But that's supposed to happen since this is a heat spell, so.."
"But you're not supposed to be sick because of it." Yuri responds back. "I can open the window and-"
"Woah!!" Sayori's loud gasp grabs our attention. I glance over to see her staring at Natsuki, who for some reason had her fire wings and cat ears.
After glancing around herself with confused eyes, the pinkette shrugged, glancing at me and Yuri. "I dunno. It just happened."
"Isn't it cute?" Sayori asked with a large smile. She crawled over to Natsuki and kneeled behind her, gently petting the top of her head.
Natsuki crossed her arms. "Get off of me, you idiot!"
....
Why does she..?
No, it's fine. She can.. Sayori can go to whoever she wants.
It's not like—
"Ugh.."
Sayori's eyes immediately lock onto mine. "Moni? Are you okay?"
Why does everyone keep asking that?
"Because they know you're not okay."
Then what's the point in even asking?
"I don't know. It's probably a human thing, you figure it out."
"Yeah, I'm okay." Even as I say this, I can't help but lean back against the wooden frame of the bed tiredly.
"Well.. Okay." Natsuki stretches her arms out before sighing. "How do I get rid of.. These things?"
"How did you even get them in the first place?" Sayori asked, gesturing towards Natsuki's wings.
The smaller girl shrugged. "No idea. I wasn't even thinking about it."
"Are you sure?" Sayori asks again, tilting her head slightly as she does when she's confused.
Natsuki nods. "I mean, I was just thinking about how warm the room was getting. But it's gone down a bit so.."
Gone down a bit??
"How has it gone down?" I ask, slightly wincing as I move my head up. "It's still really hot in here."
"Over dramatic much?" Natsuki rolls her eyes. "It's not even that bad."
Sayori shakes her head. "No, it's still warm, but it's not really hot." She then moved over next to me. "Maybe you're sick?"
"Sick? I don't feel sic—!" I flinch as Sayori moves in front of me and moves her hand on my forehead. I can't tell if I feel worse or better that Sayori's this close to me right now.
But she doesn't stay close as she immediately retracts her hand. "Monika! You're burning up!"
"Huh..?"
"Like really, really burning up!" She shakes her hand as if it was burnt and continues to look at me worriedly. "I don't think you have a regular fever."
I shake my head. "I don't have a fever. This only started after Sasha started to heat up the room."
Sayori frowns worriedly. "So you've been like this for almost twenty minutes?!"
"Sayori, that's not what-"
"What do we do??" The blue eyed girl stood up and frantically looked around the room. "What if you die because of being too hot? What if Natsuki never goes back to normal? What if the air becomes solid and turns the heat into fire and our papers get caught on fire— No! What if the whole school gets-"
"Sayori, shut up for a minute!" Natsuki exclaims, waving her arms frantically in front of her. "Whatever's causing that to happen to Monika is probably the same thing that's made me.. I dunno, transform."
"Probably.." Sayori sighs as she calms down, sitting back in the floor cross-crossed. "So, it's the heat then, right?"
Yuri nods. "It would make sense. Natsuki's the Fire Element, so that would probably mean she would adapt to the heat easier."
"But what about Monika?" Sayori questions, glancing in my direction. "We're not the Fire Element, yet she's getting hurt by it more."
"Maybe it's because you're the Earth Element."
What does that have to do with this though?
"I mean, aren't plants and relatively the entire planet weak against fire? You could be as weak to fire as strong Natsuki is able to adapt to it."
That.. That would make some sense—
Another sharp wave of pain rushes through my veins, and I bite my lip to conceal any emotion or expression of the pain I'm feeling to the others.
"ES said it might have to do with my Element.." I'm able to finally say, trying my hardest not to wince at the pain as I move my head up.
"That's could be true!" Sayori exclaims, nodding. "I mean, Natsuki gets hurt when she comes into contact with water, so it makes sense that you'd be bad in fire!"
"But there's no fire here. It's just heat." Natsuki says, glancing around the room, confused.
Yuri's eyes stay on the floor as she thinks.
"Maybe there's a certain temperature it needs to get before it gets too hot for you to deal with just as a regular human?"
Natsuki sighs shrugging. "I just wish someone would explain this to all of us."
"Yeah.." Sayori mumbles, but suddenly shakes her head as if to clear her mind. Her eyes suddenly pierce into mine, making me feel slightly embarrassed by the sudden attention. "Do you want some water?"
Well, that's what I was trying to get before all of this really started to happen..
"Yes please." I slightly nod, not moving too much incase the pain begins to get worse again.
Sayori smiles warmly, jumping up to a stand. "Roger that caption!" And with a playful salute, she runs into the bathroom to gather some tap water.
Yuri turns to Natsuki. "Can you try and change back?"
Natsuki shrugs while shaking her head. "I've been trying too, but I just can't get these thin ha to go away." She gestures to her ears and wings before she sighs and closes her eyes, presumably concentrating to un-transformer.
Yuri nods in understanding, quietly thinking to herself.
Should we ask Sasha to stop the heat or something?
I knew it was a bad idea to trust her. Unless she didn't really know that she's doing this..?
Maybe she really doesn't. Maybe she-
..No, this pain isn't making me think straight. She obviously did this on purpose. She's not exactly a master at Witch Magic, and in order to keep the room heating warmer, she'd have to keep concentrating on it.
Either she's really good and has no idea what she's doing right now, or she's doing this on purpose.
Either way, there's got to be something I can do about going out on a really hot day. I don't just want to feel over the top pain all the time.
"Aha, summer's gonna be-"
There's a sudden noise coming from the door that surprises us all. The sound of someone knocking impatiently on wood.
Please don't let that be who I think it is.
The moment I stop thinking about her she shows up? That's rather inconvenient; I don't want to be thinking about her all the time. If I'm thinking about her all the time, can I really say that she's gone away from us?
But this isn't the time to be thinking about this!
With a small surge of energy, that soon becomes a slight feeling of getting a sugar rush due to surprise and adrenaline, I stare worriedly at the startled Natsuki, who still hasn't become fully human yet.
Yuri stood up awkwardly and faced the door, only to turn to the bathroom where Sayori was. "Uhm, S-Sayori..? Someone's at the-"
"Just hold on a sec!" Sayori yells from the bathroom. "I'm just washing my face a little before I find Monika some water!"
I can't move my body to see where Sayori is at the moment, but I can hear the bathroom sink running, and I can tell she's probably behind it.
"Washing your..." Yuri mumbles something before widening her and immediately rushing over to the bathroom that held Sayori. "Sayori, don't!"
"Uwaa!" A startled noise comes from Sayori. "Yuri! Why'd you do that for? I was just gonna wash my face!"
Natsuki's ears bend in anger as she turns and shouts into the open door bathroom. "You idiot! Don't you remember what happens if you touch wat-"
"Helloo?? I can hear some yelling in there! Just open the damn door!" A sharp feminine voice yells from outside the door and into the hallway.
Great. It is Sasha. I throw a panic look over to Natsuki as she looks back at me nervously. Sayori and Yuri rush back into the main room after hearing Sasha's voice from outside.
"What do we do? I can't get rid of these things!" Natsuki hissed quietly, staring at the door.
"..Then you hide." Yuri decided, Natsuki glaring up at her.
"What? Where?" The pinkette scanned the room. "It's not like I can hide in the bathrooms. She'll notice that one of the doors are closed and insult me until I lose my cool and come out looking like this. And the last time one of us hid in a bathroom when we were trying un-transform, it turned into a mess." Her last sentence is obviously directed to me as she shoots me a cold glare.
I narrow my eyes at her. "That wasn't-"
"Girls, please don't fight right now!" Sayori exclaimed hurriedly, glancing quickly at Natsuki. "Can you be your little cat version?"
"I can try." Natsuki grumbled, closing her eyes quickly as for concentrating. I also close my eyes, another heat wave washing over the room.
"Can you guys open the door already?" Sasha yelled from out of the door. "You know what? I'm coming in!"
I quickly open them again to just see the door start to creek open. Sayori runs over to meet Sasha while Yuri grabs Natsuki, (Who has become a small black cat with wings,) and moved over to the bed.
"Ow- Yuri, what the he-"
"Shush and just get under the bed." Yuri demanded quietly, pushing her underneath the bed frame.
My eyes focus back on the door, where Sasha stands, her two friends standing behind her. Sayori moves in front of her nervously. "Oh, Sasha, hey!"
"What took so long-" She immediately recoils with a smirk. "Wow, it's really hot in here."
"Ehehe.. Y-Yeah." Sayori nods, a small wave of cool air from outside in the hallway pouring into the dorm.
But she immediately crosses her arms, a look of confusion and annoyance washing over her features. "If it's so hot then why didn't you come to find me or something? The whole reason I'm here late was because I was waiting."
"Oh- Uh.. We didn't think about that, ehehe.." Sayori presses her index fingers together bashfully.
"I don't how it's possible to not think about that, but whatever." Her sapphire eyes scan the room quickly only to settle on me. "What happened to you?"
I wince as I force myself to sit up. "N-Nothing.. What happened to you?"
"Oh ha-ha." She scoffs, pushing past Sayori to kneel in front of me. "What? Are you not good in heat or something?"
"You made this room hotter than it should be, didn't you?"
I only get a smirk in response from her. "So I finally know your weakness. Maybe I should just set the whole the room on fire and leave you to die? This world would probably benefit from losing a nobody."
She stands up as I slowly make my way to a stand as well, everything in my body telling me not to. "So you're threatening us now?"
"I mean, it's true isn't it?" Sasha asks back. "Aren't you just a worthless nobody?"
"Aren't you just a waste of space?"
"Guys!" Sayori rushes over to us, gently gripping onto my shoulders so I stay upright. "I don't like fighting!"
"Hmph, whatever." Sasha crosses her arms and turns away from us.
Sayori sighs, either in relief or frustration before smiling slightly. "Sasha, do you think you could stop the spell now please? We don't need it anymore."
"Did you finish our homework?" The girl asks, glaring down at Sayori.
Sayori nods. "Uhm, yes, but-"
"Then we'll take it now."
"We'll give it to you after you stop the spell." I say, slightly leaning on Sayori.
Sasha groans impatiently before sighing and turning around. "Fine." She gestured for Megan to step beside her, which she did. The shorter girl was holding a book, (Presumably Sasha's Spell book,) and handed it over to her.
While Sasha flipped through the pages, Megan's eyes darted around the room. They widened, however, when they landed on something. "Woah Sasha! You're so good at this!"
Sasha stops flipping through the book to glare at her friend in slight confusion. "Why bring this up now?"
"You made actual fire!" She exclaimed.
What?
Sayori and I turn around to see what she's looking at. Just poking out from a corner out from under the bed Natsuki was hiding under was a slightly light and shape of a few flames.
How can she make flames? Surely this isn't hot enough to— Oh.
I'm not exactly sure how bad Natsuki is as hiding as a small cat that she lets one of her wings out from under the bed.
Yuri, who was standing beside the bed, looks down to realize Natsuki's wing poking out from underneath and fidgets with her hair. "Um.. That's not fire.."
"It sure looks like fire to me." Megan chirps, folding her hands behind her back, proud of her findings.
Sasha raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying that I'm not skilled enough to make fire?"
By the way Natsuki's wings stiffens, I can visibly see her tense up, probably wishing she could come out for a comeback.
Yuri shakes her head. "N-No, I'm not. It's just a.." Yuri pauses for a moment before looking up. "A hallucination."
"Hallucination?" Sasha repeats. "How is that a hallucination. It looks real."
"Many hallucinations sound or look real to people hallucinating. When you enter a room with a drastic change in temperature, especially heat, a part in your brain called the-"
"Okay nerd, we get it!" Sasha groans as she rolls her eyes. "I'll change the temperature back, geez."
"The flames will go away when the room is cooler, right?" Megan asked.
Yuri nods slightly, earning a blissful from from Megan. I watch as Yuri sighs softly, but is still slightly smiling. I'm assuming she wanted to be interrupted just to get them to change from the topic of Natsuki.
That's.. Not a bad plan.
While Sasha mumbles some sort of spell to stop the room from heating even more, Yuri swiftly walks in front of Natsuki's wing to shield their view from it and lifts one of her feet back, lightly kicking Natsuki with it.
Natsuki must've gotten the message as she probably folded in her wings, as it was hidden away again.
The room immediately begins to cool down, my headache and the rest of the pain subsiding and fading away with the heat.
After a moment, Sasha snaps the book closed and hands it to Megan, who quickly stuffs it back into the bag she held.
Sasha crosses her arms impatiently. "Also, we came here for our work."
"Oh! Right!" Sayori exclaims, hesitantly letting go of me so she can pick up their completed worksheets and hands it to them.
I slightly lean backwards and against the bed as I'm just re-gaining my balance now, as Sasha gets her homework.
"I guess that's it. See you four at the cafe tomorrow~" She smiles sickeningly and a feeling of dread washes over me.
Patrisha suddenly steps forward for the first time in the whole interaction, her blue eyes scanning the room. "Four? Where's Natsuki?"
"Yup! We absolutely can't wait to have you there!" Sayori cheerfully skips up to them, pushing the confused girls out the doorway. "Alright, thanks for the help, have a good night, good luck tomorrow, byeeeee!"
She slams the door shut as they are in the hallway. Immediately she sighs, slumping down to the floor against the door. "Man, what a day."
"Okay, what the crap Yuri?" Natsuki's voice becomes louder as she crawls out into the open, fully human. "Did you have to kick me?"
Yuri rolls her eyes. "I wouldn't have if you had hid yourself properly."
"It's not easy, you know!" Natsuki stands up, putting her hands on her hips defensively.
"How? You're literally a little kitten."
"With wings!"
Sayori jumps up to stand. "Guys, it's alright! All that matters is that we didn't get caught, we finished our homework, and we're all still alive and okay!"
Natsuki's eye suddenly meet mine. "You feeling better?"
I nod, as I am feeling much better. "Yeah, thanks. I think we might've been right when it had something to do with the heat."
Natsuki nods. "Yeah probably." But her eyes furrow in frustration. "But who didn't lock the door? Sasha wouldn't have gotten in if the door was locked!"
"Natsuki, it's not anyone's fault." I say to her, although it was strange of us that we didn't lock the door after they left. It doesn't really matter, considering all of us were in the dorm anyways.
"Ehehe~ Don't worry Natsuki! Super hero mermaid Sayori is on the case!" The coral pink haired girl giggles as she turns around and walks back to the door.
She's about to lock it, however, when the door quickly opens, it slamming on Sayori's face. Sayori, stunned and surprise, stumbles backwards, falling onto the ground.
"Sayori!" I yell, trying to stand up again. "Are you okay?"
"Owwie.." Sayori places her hand on her head in pain before giggling. "Yeah, I'm okay..!"
I look up to see the culprit of hurting her. Standing in the doorway, looking down at Sayori worriedly was..
Mrs. Smith?
What is she doing here again?
"Wow Mrs. Smith!" Natsuki yells, annoyed. "Just keep swinging the door open, why don't ya?"
"I apologize for any damage or chaos I have caused upon you." She says, bending down slightly to help Sayori up to a stand. "But I have important news."
Natsuki tilts her head, smirking slightly. "Another vision?"
"No. I am ready to help you now."
"Ready to help us?" Sayori questions quickly before grinning. "You're gonna train us again! Awesome, we missed you a lot!"
"I thought you couldn't train us again before?" I ask, fully standing up. "Why now?"
"Before, I needed time to really think about this all. I've finally made a safe spot and a few things that will help you train with your magic less noticeable to any predators who would be looking for it."
"Predators? What predators?" Sayori asks nervously, walking back beside me.
"The Dark Essence, for example."
"Oh yeah." Natsuki slightly chuckles. "I forgot he existed."
"Natsuki, this is serious." Mrs. Smith narrows her glowing eyes at the pinkette. "You all, with the rest of this universe, could be in serious danger if we don't get you four strong enough to deal with it."
Natsuki sighs, dropping her hands to her sides. "Okay, okay! I never said it wasn't serious."
"Anyways, I would like to show you what I have been working on and how I can train you." She turns around and walks out into the hallway. "Please follow."
I'm still kind of surprise that she's back, but if she can help us, it'll be better then us almost burning down the entire forest.
I hope.
I nod at the group and quickly walk to follow Mrs. Smith in the hallway. The others quickly follow behind as Sayori closes, (And finally locks,) our dorm room door.
As we walk down the maze of dark lighted hallways, Mrs. Smith turns her head to look at us. "So, what have I missed since I was not around you? Has anything magical happened since last time?"
Natsuki crosses her arms, smirking. "You could say just a few things happened, yeah."
I chuckle, rolling my eyes. "Man, where do we even start.."