I woke up to ay bed, the sunlight shining through the window in my private suite in the infirmary, casting a soft, gentle glow across the room.

  It was a lot more spartan than the dorm rooms, but it had its own bathroom and mini-fridge, as well as a rge ft s TV mounted on the wall. A single door led out to the main hallways, while another led to the private bathroom in the suite. There were also ets with medie and a mirror and a few other miseous things.

  A handwritten note had bee for me on the nightstand, along with my Nexus phone and a small tray of food oable by my bedside.

  Good m sunshine ?,

  Sorry 'bout leaving you alone, but I've been up since six in the m and couldn't wait around for you to get up, too. Besides, I figured you'd want to get some pead quiet anyway after what we went through yesterday.

  You should probably get ged a some food in your stomach before heading down to the nurse's station at the end of the hall. Ember's gonna be waiting for you.

  Also, the others were worried sick, but I told them to let you sleep. I've never seen a bunch of kids more relieved that their cssmate was alright than I did with you, Sienna. It makes me happy that we've got such great people here with us. They might be rough around the edges, but they're okay after all.

  I'll see you soon.

  XOXO - Big sis.

  P.S. Here's your dorm room key back, by the way. Sorry for intruding.

  P.P.S. That was a terrible pun. You owe me pizza for that.

  I s that, rolling my eyes with a small chuckle. That made me happy, holy. She was trying to act as if nothing had happened, even after the bombshell of a secret she had just revealed.

  It was... f, and made the reality of what we'd gohrough a lot more patable.

  I took a few mio stretch out all of my sore muscles before hopping off of my bed and pig up my Nexus device. It was fully charged and ready to go. I tur on, swiping away the lock s, and romptly bombarded with notification after notification.

  I had gotten added into a new group chat, and it had blown up with a ton of new messages over the course of the st day or two, most of which were just people cheg up on how everyone else was doing, and if anyone else was hurt. It was titled 'Tesseract's Happy Campers Club' and included every single magical knight cadet that had been forced into Tesseract's irial.

  Everyone was ated for in the group, even me.

  Aurora had sent a series of emojis of hearts, bandages, and a thumbs up to everyohat was hurt to tell them she'd pit to heal people when her mana recovered, while a 'Rhea', Willow, and even 'Sunny' had been messaging everyoo che their well-being. A few people were asking about me and my well-being, too.

  Cw Strawberry had also messaged me directly, telling me she was really worried, and that I should message her back as soon as possible. Her st message was sent at about 1 AM, and had been obviously left on read.

  I frowned a little at that, and sighed, closing the messenger for now. It was overwhelming and I couldn't even think straight at the moment. It was all just so much to take in.

  Instead, I focused my attention back to the note and key, frowning as I looked down at my gown. I stepped in front of the mirror, and did a full-body check over my body.

  My skin was pletely spotless, as if the attack from the monstrous... wendigo thing had never happened in the first pce. I was no loransformed, and the gash in my throat had been healed. I couldn't see a scar, nor could I see a wound anywhere.

  The thought of what I had been through was... surreal, to say the least, and my brain was struggling to make sense of it. I tried not to think too deeply about the events that transpired, and instead chose to focus on the fact that I was still alive, and that... I had a home to return to.

  I had people that were worried about me and were looking forward to hearing from me again.

  It made my heart ache a bit.

  My phone suddenly chimed, and I looked down to see Cw Strawberry's avatar pop up with a new message.

  >Hey... I see you finally checked your messages. I hope you're alright... please let me know as soon as you get this message! I'll be here, okay? No matter how long it takes, just send me a quick reply or something so I know you're okay.

  > ...

  >Pretty please?

  My lips thinned into a frown and my brow furrowed.

  She'd been w over me si night. I could tell that from the time stamps of her previous texts.

  It made me feel really guilty.

  I walked ahead and slid on some slippers that were o the nightstand, walking up to the door that ected my suite to the hallway. It swung open easily, and I poked my head out.

  It looked... pretty normal. Disappointingly so, even.

  It was a lot more sterile than the dorm hallways were, and there were no decorations or pictures hanging on the walls. It retty barren in terms of decor, but it seemed niough, and it was .

  I looked around, and my eyes quickly nded on a lone girl also in a night gown sitting on a benot too far away from my room, furrowing her brows at her phone. Her medium-length bck hair fell over her shoulders as she leaned forward, and she was wearing gsses that rested atop the bridge of her nose.

  She retty in a traditional way, with a heart-shaped face, soft jaw, rge eyes, and a visibly athletiderh her gown with well-toned legs and arms poking through. The girl looked like she was about my age, too, and her body nguage indicated a pretty anxious nature.

  When I stepped out, she gnced up at me with curious brown eyes and tilted her head slightly in aowledgement.

  "Oh, er, hey there..." she greeted me.

  "Hi."

  I blinked, walking up to her. I didn't know what else to do or say.

  "Um... nice weather we're having," she said awkwardly, looking around in a slight panic.

  "Y-yeah."

  "..."

  "...So... how'd you end up in here?" I started.

  "Oh! Me? Um... this pce is only for people in the program, right?"

  She gnced up at a sign that I hadn't noticed when I'd first walked into the hallway.

  'Transformations are permitted, but please refrain from using active abilities in the ward. Thank you!'

  I blinked in fusion, looking back to her.

  "Uhh... right." I said.

  She sighed in relief, rexing her shoulders. "I'm still a bit low on mana right now, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal though, right? We're all well... you know. And recovery slows to a crawl when we're transformed."

  I blinked. "...Oh. Er, right."

  I... didn't know that tidbit about transformations and mana, but I just filed it away for ter.

  "Eh, hehehe. My mom would kill me if she knew I got my cover blown Day One, you know?"

  I took a seat across from her on a benot sure where Emberline's office was, but feeling too tired to care. "Yeah, I know what you mean. So you're here because you were hurt or something?"

  "Y-yeah! Yeah. Yeah. You?"

  "Mm. Same."

  "Nice, cool. Well, not really, but you know what I mean."

  "..."

  "Sooo... what's your name?"

  "I'm... Sienna. You?"

  "I'm Ichigo! It's, umm... it's a pleasure to meet you, Sienna," she smiled awkwardly at me. "What year are you in? I haven't seen you around before."

  "First."

  "Ooh, same!"

  "Oh. Nice."

  "Yup, it sure is," Ichigo nodded slowly.

  We sat in silence for a bit.

  "Hey, so, umm... were you with Strike's group or Tesseracts? Both groups wound up with a couple of people in here," she started, giving me a sheepish grin. "I heard Strike had some sort of round robin tourhing going on with the entire css, and it got pretty wild, and well, I was in Tesseract's group. It was..." Her voice trailed off. "Well. A shitshow."

  "Oh. Yeah. Tesseract. Um, I was there." I answered quietly. It was still fresh in my mind, and it made me flinch thinking about how close we had e to dyierday. "That'd be my sed brush with death, I guess."

  "Oh! Oh, gosh. Yeah... I took some pretty bad licks myself," she mumbled, scratg the back of her neervously. "Are you feeling okay now? Do you want some water? I get you some water."

  "Nah, I'm alright, thanks."

  "Alrighty. Well, let me know if there's anything else I help you with."

  I nodded silently.

  "Um, excuse me. I do have some texts to reply to since I've been unscious all night, so just give me a sec," I said.

  I pulled out my Nexus, and she nodded uandingly before turnitention back to her phone.

  "Sure thing," Ichigo said. "Feel free to hang around for a bit, though. It was getting a bit lonely here anyway."

  I smiled gratefully at her before typing out my respoo Strawberry's messages.

  > I'm okay, sorry for the dey! Had a rough night and needed a while to recuperate.

  Ichigo's phone suddenly pinged and her head snapped up as she reflexively jerked. She frantically grabbed at her phone and fumbled with it for a sed, and I saw a familiar green i light up her s before it disappeared behind her night gown as she swiped it open.

  I blinked, looking up at her. She blushed, hiding her face behind the phone, and then slowly looked up at me. "Hehe. Sorry. Um. I be a bit awkward sometimes."

  I raised a brow at that. "...Right."

  "Uh... you alright?"

  "I-I'm okay, just embarrassed," Ichigo squeaked, her voice crag a bit as she spoke. Her words came out a little too fast and a bit squeaky, almost as if she was trying to hide the fact that she was embarrassed.

  I raised an eyebrow at this. She was being very odd, and her behavior reminded me a bit of... someone.

  She tapped away at her phone for a minute, her face growing redder and redder, until eventually she stopped typing, took a deep breath, and tapped the s. Then, she immediately dropped her phoo her p, burying her fa her hands aing out a soft whine.

  My phone immediately buzzed in my hands, and I gnced down, my brows shooting to my hairline as I read the text Strawberry had just sent.

  > Oh, thank God! Don't apologize for taking time to take care of yourself, you dummy! ?

  I couldn't help but smile a little as my phone chimed, my cheeks turning slightly red from embarrassment. Her message made me feel better already, and I quickly tapped a reply.

  > Hehe. Sorry for being a dummy ?

  "Eh?!"

  I looked up from the s when Ichigo gave a start and jumped up from her bench as her phone buzzed in her p.

  The two of us just stared at each other, Ichigo's eyes wide open.

  "W-wait a minute..." she stammered.

  I stared back, my eyes slowly growing wider as a lightbulb went off in my head.

  I looked down at my Nexus and opened my chat log with Cw Strawberry again, quickly tapping out another message to firm what I thought might be the case here.

  >Test.

  Her phone buzzed again as I hit send, and her eyes went wide as she stared at me.

  She picked up her phone and checked her messages, looked at me with a blink, and then checked her messages again.

  Then, she turo face me, and I met her gaze head-on, my lips tugged upwards in a slight smile as her mouth hung slightly ajar, her fapletely red and her expression one of shod fusion.

  She picked up her phone and checked her messages, then checked her phone, and then checked her messages again. Then, she turo face me, and I met her gaze head-on, my lips tugged upwards in a slight smile as her mouth hung slightly ajar, her fapletely red and her expression one of shod fusion.

  "Wait. Are you...?"

  I shrugged nonittally with a sly smirk. "Probably just tal timing?"

  "Oh?" she said, quickly tapping away at her phone. She quirked her eyebrows and fshed me a doubtful frown.

  My Nexus chimed as a new message came in, and I checked the s again, this time seeing an image attached to the test chat message.

  The picture showed Strawberry's avatar with fming eyes, and underh it, the words read...

  > Your turn to brace yourself, bitch.?

  A feeling of dread suddenly washed over me as I felt my stomach , and I quickly gnced back to see Ichigo looking at me with the smuggest grin on her face as my phone chimed.

  "W-wait, don't do anything r—" I held my hands up in a panic.

  The hing I knew, I heard a painfully loud 'pop!' sound followed by a bright fsh of pink.