"Have you finished Valkyria Chronicles yet?" Hugo asked, breaking the silence as they ate breakfast during recess.
"No," Mica replied darkly.
"And the book? The last time you told us about
Legends
, you were already finishing it."
"Well..." Mica began, remembering how the night before, while trying to distract himself, he had gone looking for the idea for the book's ending that he had written down in his notebook, only to find it wasn't there. "The last few days haven't exactly been for that."
"Yeah... And how are—?"
"Enough, Hugo. I'm not in the mood for anything other than eating my breakfast," he said, only to immediately put down his sandwich and cover his face with his hands. "Honestly, I'm not even in the mood for that."
"Nothing about your father?" Hugo asked, changing his tone.
"No, and my mother won't stop pretending in front of us that everything's fine, that it's probably because... I can't even repeat it. Nothing but excuses that make no sense."
"Don't worry. When we find the person who attacked Sarah, I'm sure we'll find your father and everyone else who's disappeared and is still alive."
"What makes you think all of this is that person's fault?"
"Well... What makes you think it isn't? You guys saw James Howard in Sarah's world yourselves. Today I saw Mr. No's missing-person poster, and he was in Sarah's world too. Everything points to these
Dimensions
, as Cat calls them, having a lot to do with this."
"But what does my father have to do with any of this? He doesn't—" Mica stopped for a moment. "He does play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends. Do you think the attacker could be one of them?" He asked, his mood and expression changing completely.
"If it's one of them, it's definitely Eddy. That guy has always looked weird," Hugo joked.
"Uncle Eddy's the nicest one of all. One Christmas, he gave my brother and me swords as presents."
"See what I mean? What responsible adult does that? Eddy's a bald, single forty-something who smells bad, gives swords to children, and if he could, he'd ride to the office on horseback in full armor," Hugo said, barely holding back his laughter, which Mica, for his part, let escape.
"I remember when we went camping once, a long time ago. My father rented some kayaks for us to use on the lake. Uncle Eddy spent an entire week building one because he wanted to show us how the Vikings did it. The poor thing didn't even last ten minutes in the water."
"And remember that time they invited us over to play a campaing with them? At their house? Eddy said we were old enough to kill our first dragon and convinced your dad—"
"Oh no. How horrible. My dad got really mad that time... Although I'm sure Uncle Eddy didn't mean to do it."
"Wow, but what a mistake. He moved his giant TV from the game room and put it in front of the table to give us some atmosphere for the session."
"I think my dad was the Dungeon Master that time. I remember the look of disbelief he gave Uncle Eddy when he interrupted the game to move the thing."
"And when... and when..." Hugo continued, struggling to hold back his laughter. "And when he hit play..."
"The nastiest porn we could never, ever have imagined existed," Mica finished after his friend finally succumbed. "Yeah... Horrible. Then he didn't know how to turn it off. My dad insulted him and dragged us out of there."
"Good times."
"Yeah."
Silence reigned between them for over a minute as they returned to reality.
"What do you think Cat's doing?" Hugo finally asked.
"I don't know. She told us she'd explain after class."
"Come on, Mica. Keep your spirits up. We'll put an end to this and find your dad. I promise," Hugo told him, earning a smile from his friend while, inside him, making it impossible to keep the darkness of a painful memory from consuming him.
"I promise,"
his brother had told him long ago.
"I promise, and I'll keep it. Because that's what heroes do."
"All right, what we're going to do is infiltrate the administrative archives," Cat began, standing before her four friends who had gathered in the school gardens twenty minutes after class. "Our target is the file of the 9B student, Sarah Gutierrez. We need her address so we can gather the Adventurers' Group once again."
"Like I already told you, Cat, we don't need all these people to pull this off," Jacob cut in. "You've got me. I can go in and get that thing as if I were walking into my own house. And we'll still have time afterward to go grab something to eat."
"He's right," Tomás said. "He's very good at going unnoticed."
"Because he's a fucking criminal," Mica exclaimed. "Cat, can't you see that—?"
"Silence. I don't need any of you explaining what each person is good at or not good at, much less the reasons why," she clarified, directing the last part at Mica, who merely grumbled. "I've made this plan trusting in each and every one of you and your... qualities," she said, this time looking at Jacob.
He adjusted his pose on the bench, looking more confident.
"We'll use my powers... Okay, the powers Rini attributes to me. And we'll travel through the Dimension straight to the middle of the archives room."
"But... What are you talking about? Did you figure out how to teleport us?" Hugo asked.
"I've been practicing, trying to understand how Sarah ended up in the basement when she was right next to us when she opened her Dimension. I've realized that we actually can move around inside one if we want to. It's just difficult to calculate the distances."
"But wouldn't that make it harder too? I think I'd rather avoid a few teachers than the... obstacles we might find in the Dimension," Mica offered.
"I think I'd rather run into another Dragon than have Mrs. Mildred catch me sneaking into her offices," Hugo said with a laugh. Tomás laughed too, but no one else did.
"The Dimension isn't necessarily the fantasy world we saw whenever Sarah transported us into it," Cat said, raising one hand and snapping her fingers. Nothing happened. "It's more like a blank canvas, ready for a Master to begin painting on it. Or at least, that's how Rini explained it."
"And why all the drama? You're starting to sound like Sarah, snapping your fingers and all that, but without the results, it seems" Hugo cut in.
"We're in the Dimension, idiot," Jacob told him.
"Wait a second." Hugo jumped to his feet and looked all around him. "But... We're still at school."
"More like, in my reinterpretation of it," Cat explained, and suddenly the grass in the courtyard turned violet and the sky red. "Here, I can do whatever I want."
Everyone followed Hugo's example, staring around in surprise.
"But if you have absolute control... why was Sarah attacked?" Mica asked.
"That's one of the important questions. Even Rini doesn't know."
"So that's why we walked all those hallways during recess. You were counting your steps," Jacob began. "How did I not realize it? You were..."
"Taking measurements, yes," Cat confirmed. "The replica in my Dimension will be exact, so we'll be able to reach the archives without any problem."
"You really are incredible."
"Then what are we doing in all this?" Hugo asked, interrupting Mica before he could even begin to say anything.
"Obviously, there are places I couldn't measure. If I could have gone into the archives to see what everything was like in there, I would have looked for the file right away. So from a certain point onward, we'll have to infiltrate the old-fashioned way. Besides, I have no way of knowing whether there'll be teachers or janitors where we appear, so I'll need to quickly pull some of you out so you can act as lookouts and report back once you return to the Dimension."
Cat snapped her fingers again, and they returned to the real world, where the grass was green and the sky blue.
"And the attacker?" Tomás added.
"Yes, the attacker is the final point. I'll need you in case—"
"Oh! So this is where you are!" a familiar voice exclaimed in the distance.
Rose reached the group at a jog, a smile on her lips.
"I'm so glad I found you all. I wanted to apologize for what happened the other day, but since I don't have any of your contact information, I had to wait until the weekend was over. Look, I brought you brownies," she said, holding out a considerably sized box.
Hugo didn't wait for anyone else's reaction and got up to take it, letting out a whistle of surprise when he saw what was inside.
"You didn't have to—" Mica began, but Rose interrupted him.
"Of course I did. I behaved badly the last time I saw you. You invited me to play, and I ruined your game by making it all about me."
"Not at all," Hugo said, already with his mouth full of brownie. "That campaign was saved thanks to you."
"Ah, don't go that far, silly. You could have done much better without me. I'm sure of it."
"Honestly, you were a big help," Tomás commented, getting up to take a brownie as well.
Mica nodded, but didn't eat. Meanwhile, Jacob and Cat remained at a distance, watching the newcomer with displeasure on their faces.
"So, Mica, sorry to interrupt, but... Are you busy?"
"No, not at all."
"What do you mean, no? Mica!" Cat exclaimed.
"Well, yes. We have something to do, but right now I'm not busy."
"Oh! Are you going to play again? Would you mind if...?"
"Hey, it's not a bad idea for Rose to join us," Hugo blurted out as he devoured a second brownie.
"Yes, it is. We don't want her on the team," Cat said.
"Well," Mica began. "My understanding is that you know very well what each person is good at and what they aren't, as well as how to identify their...
qualities.
" His voice dripped with venom as he glanced sideways at Cat. "I don't think you can help seeing Rose's
qualities
, considering she saved us several times in the previous campaign."
Cat turned red, though Mica couldn't tell whether it was from embarrassment or anger.
"That's true, Cat. Rose is incredible," Hugo went on, oblivious to the true purpose behind his friend's remarks. "I think she'll be a great help to us."
Tomás nodded.
"No, guys. I don't want you to pressure her," Rose said, raising her hands in surrender. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable, Cat."
"Does it really make you uncomfortable, Cat?" Mica asked.
"Whatever. Let her do whatever she wants," Cat replied. "If the group wants her to join, I'm not going to start fighting like some little girl."
As if they had all agreed on it, silence reigned for a few seconds. Seconds in which Cat and Mica's eyes never left each other. Seconds in which the tension grew. Seconds in which Mica felt that he had just done something terrible, but there was no turning back now.
With a stab of guilt he refused to acknowledge, Mica turned to Rose and nodded, welcoming her. She answered with the most adorable of her smiles and a wink. Yet not even that was enough to soothe what he was feeling.