The school had transformed overnight. Streamers in the academy colors ran the length of every corridor. Someone had hung lights along the ceiling that caught the morning sun and threw small circles of gold across the floor. Students moved through it all with the heightened electricity of people who had somewhere to be later and were already living in the anticipation of it.
Yusuke was not living in the anticipation.
He was looking for Einstera.
He had been looking for Einstera since first period and she had not been in first period, which was unusual because Einstera was always in first period, always early, always in the same seat with her notes already open before the instructor arrived. Her absence was a data point. He was collecting data points and none of them were adding up to a location.
He found Toshi in the east corridor leaning against the wall eating something from a paper bag with the contentment of someone who had no competing obligations.
"Toshi." Yusuke stopped. "What are you doing here."
"Visiting," Toshi said.
"You don't go to this school."
"I know." Toshi seemed unbothered by this. "But Burajiru does. And apparently he has a girlfriend now and I want to see if she's right for him." He looked at Yusuke carefully. "You look panicked."
"I'm not panicked."
"You're walking like you're panicked."
Yusuke straightened slightly. "I'm looking for someone. A morpher. Her name is Einstera. She's Plum's sister. I was going to ask her to the dance and I haven't been able to locate her all morning."
Toshi's expression shifted into something that was trying not to be a smile and losing.
"The Broken Server," he said, "cannot find one girl."
"She's avoiding me," Yusuke said. "Which is a different problem."
"Why is she avoiding you?"
"That's what I'm trying to determine."
Toshi finished whatever he was eating and folded the paper bag with the care of someone who had been told not to litter by someone they respected. "She's probably somewhere in the building. Academy like this, she can't have gone far." He looked at Yusuke. "You like her."
"I want to take her to the dance," Yusuke said.
"That's the same thing."
Yusuke didn't answer.
Toshi pushed off the wall. "Go find her. And tell Burajiru I'm here — I want to see this girlfriend before the dance."
Yusuke found her at 11:47.
The hallway outside the gymnasium was being decorated by a student committee, long tables with centerpieces being arranged, the dance floor inside visible through the propped-open doors, someone testing the speaker system with intermittent bursts of music that started and stopped without warning.
Einstera was at the far end of the hallway reviewing what appeared to be the centerpiece arrangements, which was not a task that had been assigned to her and which she appeared to have invented as a reason to be standing in this specific location doing something that looked purposeful.
Yusuke saw her.
She saw him see her. She morphed into a wolf.
She ran.
Yusuke "You gotta be kidding me, what did I do."
Through the gymnasium doors and into the organized chaos of the decoration committee where she was immediately absorbed by the crowd of people carrying chairs and arguing about table placement.
By the time Yusuke reached the doors she had been redirected by a committee member to the complete opposite end of the gymnasium and was now discussing floral arrangements with the specific focus of someone who had discovered a genuine passion for floral arrangements approximately forty-five seconds ago.
Yusuke stood at the gymnasium doors.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He looked at the crowd.
The Opening of the School Dance. Evening.
The academy's main entrance had been transformed.
Students arrived in a continuous stream, the outfit competition already drawing a crowd near the doors where two students with clipboards were recording entries. Music came from inside, proper music now, the speaker system having resolved whatever disagreements it had been having with itself all day.
Yusuke stood near the entrance in his dance suit, dark, fitted, the kind of thing that had been chosen with the specific care of someone who had done research on what was appropriate and then slightly exceeded it, and watched the arrivals with the patience of someone who had been watching things all day and was prepared to continue.
He saw Plum and Burajiru from a distance.
He stared for a moment.
Burajiru was in a fluffy teddy bear costume. Plum was in a white chicken suit. They were holding hands and walking with the complete confidence of people who had made a decision and were at peace with it. Several students stared. Burajiru waved at the ones who stared. Plum waved too. They went inside.
Yusuke made a note to ask about that later.
Then he saw Einstera.
She was standing at the edge of the entrance area in a dress that had clearly been chosen with care and was clearly being worn by someone who had then spent the walk here reconsidering the entire evening. She stood at the threshold, not quite inside, not quite outside, with the specific stillness of someone making a decision they kept unmade.
She looked at the entrance.
She looked at the students going in.
She turned to leave.
"Einstera."
She stopped.
Yusuke crossed to her. She had her back to him and didn't turn immediately and he gave her the moment.
"Did I do something," he said.
She turned. "No."
"Then why are you hiding from me."
The question was simple. Not accusatory. Just the question, placed between them with the directness of someone who had been collecting data all day and had arrived at the only question the data produced.
Einstera's face did something complicated.
"It's Xiu," she said.
"What."
"She..." Einstera stopped. Started again. "Can I speak with you alone?"
The classroom was dark except for the light coming through the window from the academy's exterior lighting. They stood at the front of it with the dance music faintly audible from the gymnasium two corridors away.
Yusuke looked at her.
He noticed, in the way he noticed things he wasn't specifically cataloguing, that the dress worked. That she had chosen well. That the specific way she was standing in the low light was, he filed this observation and returned his attention to the conversation.
Einstera looked at the floor. Then at him. Then somewhere between the two.
"I was sleeping and doing naughty things" she said. Her voice was very even. The evenness was doing significant work. "And Xiu caught me. And I wasn't just doing naughty things I was ..I was, saying a name." She closed her eyes briefly. "It was embarrassing. And then she used it to blackmail me into sabotaging Plum's outfit for the dance. She wanted Plum to look bad so Roxer would pay attention to her instead."
She exhaled. "So I took Plum to the store and I told her everything she tried on was ugly and I made her buy a chicken suit." A pause. "It was cowardice. I let someone blackmail me into being cruel to my own sister because I was embarrassed that you might find out I .." She stopped.
"And now you know, it was your name I was saying" she said. "Which is more embarrassing."
Yusuke looked at her for a moment.
Then he closed the distance between them and kissed her.
It was brief. Certain. The kind of kiss that doesn't ask a question but makes a statement and trusts the other person to receive it.
Einstera's heart did something her training had not prepared her for.
"It's not a big deal," Yusuke said. "Don't let something like that bother you."
Yusuke was composed, he showed no emotion.
Einstera looked at him.
The embarrassment was still present but it had lost its structural integrity, it was still there but it no longer held the same weight, the way a thing loses weight when someone you respect treats it as small.
"You're such a kind man," she said.
Einstera said to herself. He kissed me. He's so stoic, handsome, I don't even think he was effected by what I said.
"You're a kind person too Einstera.." He paused.
Yusuke turned and smiled.
Then he stood up.
Einstera's eye drifted downward, she grew comically wide at the sight of the bulge in his pants.
She Recalibrated. He reached out his hand. "Einstera. Will you come to the dance with me."
She looked at his hand.
Then she stepped forward and went into his arms and hugged him with the specific completeness of someone who has been carrying something alone for a long time and has just been given permission to put it down.
Yusuke stood in the dark classroom and let her.
After a moment she pulled back. She was blushing. She looked toward the door, toward the sound of the music coming from two corridors away.
"What about Burajiru and Plum," she said. "They're dressed as animals."
"You don't have to worry about that," Yusuke said. He offered his hand again, properly this time. "Those two love each other too much to care what anyone thinks about them."
Yusuke turned to walk to the door but she grabbed his hand "You should wait a little bit."
His pants still bulging
Yusuke "Maybe you shouldn't hold my hand."
She quickly let go of his hand her cheeks burning red.