Rising Shards

Whatever Corinani needed the group’s help with, Marmalade surmised that it clearly couldn’t have been too dangerous, as she gave them practice batons instead of the usual bloodsabers. She had brought them to a void node that looked like it was made entirely of warehouses on a long pier. Looking over the edge of the pier proved to be a bad idea, as they were very high up, and the ocean was made of what looked like microchips for some reason. A majority of the others working on the pier were Kanibari, all in the same dark blue jumpsuit uniform as they went from warehouse to warehouse, moving crates, loading crates onto forklifts, all sorts of crate focused stuff. Each warehouse had a number on it, starting with high ones and getting lower the longer the group walked.

“I bet this is what happened to Aira when she ended up on that big thing with Ovie,” Iris said, kicking some garbage along the floorboards. “Politely accept following a teacher or whoever into the void, and wham, you get kidnapped. Wildfire Hearts style.”

“I’m not gonna kidnap you, don’t say that so loudly!” Corinani hissed as a few workers glanced their way.

“And yet I go along with it,” Iris continued. “Maia and me, we just wanna get this over with, but I’m not sure why you three came along.”

In perfect sync, Iris and Maia looked at the others.

“I…guess I just want to help?” Marmalade shrugged. In her mind, she’d been thinking about things too much lately and it had her head all buzzy. This seemed like the perfect get away from her looping thoughts not getting her anywhere to understanding anything, mainly focused on a certain someone she shared a bunk bed with.

“I figured it’d be a void thing, and sometimes I get some inspiration from the weirdness, so I’m looking at this as an art excursion rather than helping anyone.” Michi said.

“I was bored and curious what you were up to,” Roux said.

“Wait…” Corinani stopped in her tracks and counted each member of the group. “Why are there five of you now?”

“I just said I was bored and curious what you were up to, so I followed you here!” Roux said. “Listen for once…”

Corinani’s face twitched. “Buddy system can’t be implemented with five students…” She muttered to herself. ”We can’t let this go like the last time I had an odd number of kids with me on a trip...”

“I have two hands, you know,” Roux said. “Buddy me up with Marmalade and Michi. I’ll maintain their safety.”

“Sure, just make sure to not lose sight of anyone.” Corinani said. “Hold each other’s hands if you need to!”

“Please don’t actually hold my hands.” Michi said to Roux.

With the buddy system in place (Iris noted how nice it was that nobody questioned Maia and her being paired up shortly before getting into a whisper fight with Maia about hand holding), the group arrived at a golden warehouse with a big number “1” emblazoned onto its doors.

“Alright, so we’re meeting with the chick who runs this whole place,” Corinani said. “I dunno if she has a real name, but everyone here calls her ‘Snowglobe.’ I think it’s because she’s as cool as ice, hee hee.”

No one in the group laughed.

“Are you in like super debt to her or something?” Iris asked before gasping. “Are you going to sell us to this boss lady to pay off your super debt?”

“No, this isn’t anything like that!” Corinani said. “But I have a job with her that I wasn’t able to finish the last time I was here.”

“So you’re pawning us off on this job.” Maia said.

“No, I’m having you help with it!” Corinani said. “Big difference. Now…everyone just be cool, OK?”

Corinani led the group inside.