Rising Shards

Another huge dumbass school change, I thought I’d be numb to it, but after a few days to think about it, I realized that this one could seriously mess some things up for me. I doodled in my notebook during Corinani’s class, as she gave us twenty minutes to ”debate amongst ourselves” about what this meant for the schools, saying she didn’t want to have much class work to do because she was going on a vacation right after. My mom was going on a trip too but there was no way it was with Corinani, but the idea of that was funny at least.

”I’m a bit disappointed that Kitty didn’t sing, I know I’m probably the only one,” Marmalade said. ”Moving (the) Hell On DX is a banger, the original release was terrible but the director’s cut is incredible.”

If anyone else was gushing about Kitty Kilander I probably would have made fun of them, but it was Marms, so I mostly let it slide.

”I don’t know how you can enjoy Kitty after like five seconds of seeing the real her,” I said. ”Or her on TV, isn’t she always like this?”

”Eh, separate the art from the artist type deal, maybe?” Marmalade said.

”Maybe,” I said. ”You get her autograph yet?”

”Haven’t worked up the nerve to,” Marmalade siad.

”I’m curious as to why Caya wasn’t present,” Lillia said.

”I guess she’s at Falling Shards helping them move junk already,” Oka said. 

”Did you know about this at all?” Zeta asked.

”Berin said something was coming but couldn’t say what until this morning,” Oka said. ”He told me he’s debating if he’s gonna go over there when this is done or transfer to some job here. I personally don’t care either way. I guess at one point in all of this, they were talking about moving Falling Shards all the way to East Valataran, that could have gotten real messy.”

”No!” Zeta said. ”Then if your dad stayed at Falling Shards, would you have had to move?”

”Maybe, but I probably would have convinced him to let me stay,” Oka said. ”I would resort to violence to stay at the same school as you, boo.”

”Aw!”

”It was weird seeing Soleri up there,” I said. ”Dang, remember when he was our biggest problem?” 

”No,” Marmalade said.

”You weren’t even here yet, dude would not leave us alone,” I said. 

”He really had it out for me, all because I liked Raina Starlight!” Zeta said. ”At least, I think that was why.”

”Well, glad we’ll be getting away from him,” Marmalade said. ”That Benta guy always does something weird, though. I mean sure, Peachy Peachy graduating is miserable and I’m super depressed about it too, but I’m sure she’ll go indie! Everyone else in her gen has so far.” Marmalade said.

”I’m not sure what this is about, but I support the enthusiasm!” Oka said.

Marms explained it to me when the news of that broke, some vtuber changing companies or something. I didn’t fully get it, but Marmalade made stuff I didn’t get sound interesting. 

”Why do you think they’re doing this now?” Zeta asked. ”This seems out of nowhere.”

”Eh, I kinda figured something like this would be coming,” I said. ”Falling Shards is just getting too big.”

”What do you mean?” Zeta asked. ”Wouldn’t this school be bigger, since we’re like, two schools now?”

”I mean,” I pulled out my phone and searched for videos of the school mat ball teams. ”The Falling Shards sports teams get like five times as many hits as Rising Shards does.”

”We should kill them,” Oka said.

”Who? The viewers? The sports team?” I said.

”Sure,” Oka said.

”I’m with Oka on this one,” Zeta said.

”Well, anyways, that’s a big part of it I bet,” I said. While I was holding my phone out, I got a message from Aira that I had to quickly cover, and I hoped I was subtle enough about it. I didn’t really need to, it was a completely safe text, but the others might start asking questions about things that might lead them to my devil business, which I was still not ready to talk about with them.

”Hi, Kalei. Can we talk somewhere private after school?”

I’d been meaning to go to Falling Shards to check on Syval. Ever since the camping trip, I’d barely heard from him. He and Aira said they were OK over texts, but that didn’t really convince me. And now if Falling Shards was moving, things might be different for our little Tokickaman trio. Well, Syval could fly and Aira could teleport, so worst case if we went out doing superhero stuff again we’d just have to plan out where to meet up, right?

We agreed to meet up at Falling Shards to presumably talk about everything going on with the school move. I hoped I’d get some answers from them about whatever the hell happened when we were fighting in that void city, too, with Aira and Syval losing control of their powers.

A slight issue popped up, though. I was fine with Marms tagging along, but somehow Zates and Oaks found out where I was going and wanted to join in. I met up with Marms first, but Zeta and Oka were a bit behind her.

”Yeah, I forgot about the whole thing and said we were gonna visit Falling Shards,” Marmalade said, explaining the somehow. ”Hey, are we gonna be good on this excursion? You want a diversion or something so you can go alone?”

”I think we’ll manage, they’ll get really suspicious if we avoid them now,” I said. ”We’ll figure something out when we meet with Aira.”

That worked as a rough plan to me at least.

”Where the frick is Lillia?” Oka asked. ”She said she was free.”

While we waited for her, Zeta went off on a weird speech in a way only she could.

”You may be asking yourself, why would I want to come along to this?” Zeta said. I wasn’t asking, but I let her continue as she was pretty amped up. ”Falling Shards isn’t exactly my jam, obviously. But I heard some scuttlebutt that  if someone that’s going to move wants to stay here they can, or go to the new Falling Shards. They have some time to decide, of course, but I think this could be a prime opportunity to crack some eggs, you get me Marmalade?”

She winked at Marmalade, who understood immediately.

”Oh I didn’t even think of that!” Marmalade said. ”You think we can get anyone before the deadline?”

”I think if we team up, we could!” Zeta said.

It was oddly forward of Zeta, but maybe finding out she had another sister that despised her lit a fire under her ass to...do whatever this was.

”I wonder if Sandwich and/or Not-Sandwich are staying,” Oka said. ”They’re about the only two gents I have any respect for.”

”I dunno, but if we see em, make sure to ask,” I said. 

I told myself this wouldn’t be anything major like the camping trip. I’d just check in with Aira about this, we’d figure something out about Zeta and Oka not hearing anything they shouldn’t about my devil business, and nothing major would happen with said devil business.