บท 36: 36. College Girls
Ren and her companions spent almost an hour wandering around the campus, inspecting the strange and wondrous sites of a magical college, before Astolfo cheerfully admitted he didn't actually know where Jack was and why didn't he ask the Master of Raven Tower?
The summoned ball of foxfire didn't help the atmosphere when Jonathan said, "What? You're all the way over here? No wonder there's—well, come along." They followed the foxfire back to the other side of the sprawling campus to one of the long four-story dormitories, where a loose clump of people had gathered to watch something that clearly concerned them.
The something turned out to be a young man with blond hair and a stressed smile plastered across his face trying to catch Jack with his school jacket. Jack had lost her overcoat somewhere and her underlying garb of vest and panties seemed to worry most of the observers. Murmurs of "That poor child," and "What did he do to her?" and "Should we tell the dean?" and, most curiously, "Oh, Flat, what have you done now?"
Meanwhile, Jack, looking like a confused but desperate cat, darted away from the blond man as he tried to drop the coat over her. She seemed attached to the dormitory, however, because she didn't flee through the observers but only stopped out of the man's reach.
"Come on," said the blond man, speaking through gritted teeth. "You've got to be cold like that, right?"
"Nuh-uh," said Jack, looking around nervously. Her gaze passed over Ren without a flicker of recognition, and Ren's heart sank.
Hyde chortled. "Who's the pretty boy?"
Astolfo only shrugged, putting his hands on his hips, but the ball of foxfire barked, "Flat!" Everybody present reacted as if electrified. The crowd immediately scattered and Flat jumped and then cowered.
"Master! I was just trying to get some clothes on her!"
"Leave the Servant alone, Flat," said Jonathan's voice severely.
Sulkily, Flat said, "Easy for you to say, you're not going to be punished by a swarm of girls if she gets harassed by some pervert."
With a snort of laughter, Hyde said, "What do you think you are, kid?"
Ren crouched down to look at Jack. The child stared back at her uncertainly.
"Where are your knives, Jack?"
"Here," she said, and moved her hand to show one of the four she habitually armed herself with. "Who are you?"
Instinct, and the dreamike memory of what had happened when she'd told an enchanted Cú she was his Master, made Ren hedge around that question. "A friend. Why are you out here all alone?"
Jack scowled and looked away, as if she'd decided to ignore Ren. But then she stole a glance at her and blurted, "Too noisy inside. Too many rich ladies squabbling and we're not supposed to kill them. Ritsu said we could play outside as long as we stayed near the building."
Bitterly, Flat said, "They collared me and told me to keep an eye on her until they were done." He then added, "Which I wouldn't have minded at all except she's practically naked."
"Ritsu?" Ren glanced up at the looming dormitory.
"Ah," said the ball of foxfire softly. "The little one almost instantly rejected her assigned Master, imprinting on Ritsu instead."
Unable to resist indulging a morbid curiousity, Ren asked, "Did anybody die?"
The foxfire bobbed up and down in a shrug-like movement. "The students are volunteers and only their reflections are present within the ritual space."
It was an odd non-answer but it was enough for Ren to realize that she didn't owe anybody any apologies for the consequences of messing with her Servants. She returned her focus to Jack, who was both twisting her hands together around the knife she still held, and glaring at the world. If Ren could get close enough to give Jack the hug she so clearly needed, she could guide her the same way she had with Cú, but Flat had demonstrated how challenging that could be. She didn't have the aid of the power of the Command Seals, but on the other hand, Jack wasn't currently trying to kill anybody.
"You have pretty hair," she said, just to nudge things in the right direction.
Jack gave her a skeptical look. "Why're you talking to me?"
"Uh. You remind me of somebody I know. Flat, no—!" But the blond student with no apparent sense of self-preservation had snuck up behind the little Servant with his jacket out. Jack whirled, slashing with her knife. She sliced through the jacket neatly, and she sliced through Flat, too. Ren certainly saw the blade pass through the space where Flat had been, anyhow.
But Flat jumped backward, yelping in surprise rather than pain, and no blood stained his uniform's white shirt. He did pat himself down frantically before slumping as the tension drained out of him. Meanwhile, the ball of foxfire hissed while both Hyde and Astolfo laughed their idiot heads off.
"You're supposed to be out after being struck like that, Flat," scolded the foxfire. "If you keep breaking the rules, you're never going to graduate."
"It's not like I cheated, sir," protested Flat. "I just adjusted the magic a little."
Ren was suddenly uncomfortably reminded of Merlin, which pushed her into saying to Jack, "Will you take me to meet Ritsu, please?"
Jack looked her over and then nodded. "Okay. But they can't come."
Hyde scowled and Astolfo pouted. Ren sighed at them both. "You can come in if I scream."
"You'd start a riot if you did go in," advised Flat. "Women's dorm, you know. They're like Furies if you do 'em wrong."
"Hah," said Hyde darkly, but before he could further share his thoughts, Ren hurried inside the dorm with Jack.
The dorm lobby was dim after the bright outdoors, and the few young women passing through barely gave Ren and Jack a look despite their outlandish clothing. However, when they were halfway up the second flight of stairs, a girl above them shrieked and three of them came flying down the steps to surround Jack.
"There you are, you naughty little sweetheart," scolded one of them. "Mustn't play truant."
"We've put together the most adorable outfit for you!" said another.
"It'll even match your cute knives," said the third.
Ren paused, her heart in her mouth, waiting to see if any of them got slashed. But although Jack looked extremely put-upon, she didn't attack. Instead she gave Ren a desperate look.
"Excuse me," said Ren promptly, making her way through the cluster to Jack's side. "She's taking me to see Ritsu."
All three young women looked at her, and then the first, a girl with bouncy chestnut curls said cheerfully, "You can come along too, then. Come on, Jackie!"
But Jack hung back as the girls flowed around her, reaching out to take Ren's hand. Startled, Ren froze, and then shook her head. The physical contact part had been easier than she expected, but she couldn't do the mindtouching now, with these noisy strangers around. Instead, as they climbed the stairs together, herded by the girls, she asked, "You don't want new clothes?"
Jack whispered, "Kinda do. But they're so loud. Like bad mommies before they're bad."
Ren couldn't parse this and knew she needed to. "What do bad mommies do?"
Jack was silent until they finished climbing the stairs and their escort started herding them down a broad, extremely lived-in hallway with laundry hanging in open doors, duffel bags in the hall and complex thaumaturgical calculations written on the walls with random notes in different handwriting.
"Some bad mommies hurt you and throw you away," said Jack in a low voice. "But the worst bad mommies lie about it first. They tell you they'll take care of you, and then when you're being dragged away, they don't even notice."
A chill ran down Ren's spine. She didn't have to ask to know that in Jack's world, mommies were not permitted to make mistakes. Even if Ren did manage to guide her out of the enchantment, would she even understand what had happened? Or had Ren lost her trust forever?
"All right, you scamp," said the girl with chestnut curls. "Here's our room. We have the most adorable outfit for you." Fearlessly, the girl picked Jack up and twirled her around, before saying over her shoulder, "Miss Ritsu's the next door down, helping people with their homework."
Ren narrowed her eyes as Jack was bundled helplessly off into the girl's room. She was having a harder time with this situation than she'd realized. She could no longer be certain that the stealing of her Servants had happened last night and in fact she wasn't even sure what last night meant here. And she couldn't help feeling like despite her sulky expression, Jack was better off here with apparently dozens of big sisters to spoil her.
Careful… came Cú's sleepy mental voice. It's all a lie. The only true thing here is our bond to you…
Ren frowned, her steps arrested by Cú's words. But surely it wasn't all a lie. Jonathan's ball of foxfire had led her first to Cú and then to Jack, with bonus Ritsu. Unless there was a deeper game afoot than she'd seen…
The spell, said Cú silently. It's got a life of its own. Uses what's around it. It really wants to use you.
Slowly Ren continued down the hall, stopping outside the next half-open door. A buzz of laughter and conversation emerged. When Ren peeked in, she saw half a dozen young women sprawled on the floor with books, binders and little kits of magical implements, while upon the bed near the window sat Ritsu in a slightly oversized version of the older girls' uniforms. One of the other students knelt next to the bed while Ritsu inspected a notebook before smiling as she handed it back.
Ritsu… but she had golden fox ears poking out of her orange hair, which twitched and turned toward the door. Her vivid eyes sparkled. "Serendipity! You decided to transfer in after all?"
Ren froze once again. Cautiously, she said, "Ritsu… you remember me?"
Ritsu gave her an exasperated look. "Of course I remember you. Even if you're a brat sometimes, you're still my sister."
Ren's hands and feet felt cold, and her head started aching. She leaned against the door frame. "I'm not your sister."
Ritsu wrinkled her nose at Ren and gave a little grin to the girl nearest to her. "See? A brat sometimes."
All of the students stared at Ren curiously, and the one closest to Ren said, "Aren't you proud of your sister? It's so rare for a prodigy of her caliber to come along."
Ren closed her eyes, her stomach twisting, remembering Ritsu's repeated complaints about not being appreciated at home. She'd told Jonathan she'd consider staying if Ritsu truly wanted to stay… but this wasn't true.
Was it?
Ren couldn't remember her own past. Absently she felt her own head. Maybe she was a dragon girl just as Ritsu was now a fox girl. Maybe everything in the Summoner's Castle had been a dream. How could she tell?
Not so good, muttered Cú.
No, thought Ren. I remember you. But I don't know how to fix this.
The trick she'd done with Cú definitely wouldn't work on Ritsu, and Ren wasn't even sure she ought to try. Was it right to drag Ritsu, clearly in her element, back to a dying world? Was her world even dying, or had she been wrong to trust Jonathan about that?
She needed advice, advice about magic and illusions, from somebody she trusted.
Cú's dematerialized wince was tangible. I wish I could help you instead.
Ren worried her lip, glancing at Ritsu laughing with one of her companions. Then one of them looked out the window and said, "Hey! There's some kind of fight going on out there!"
Instantly, all of the students crowded to the window, flinging it wide so they could lean out. Ritsu stood on the bed to peer over their heads and then gave Ren a strange little smile. "It's your friends. I wish Jekyll would come back…"
Hyde and Astolfo. Ren's lower lip trembled. "I have to stop them. I'll… I'll come back to talk to you more later, Ritsu, okay?" She phrased it as a question, but she fled without waiting for an answer.
Bursting out of the double doors of the dormitory, she saw only the new, larger cluster of students watching the fight, although she heard the clashing of weapons and Astolfo's laugh. A moment later she caught a glimpse of Astolfo flipping backwards above the audience's heads.
Frustrated, angry and afraid, she made her way through the crowd, noticing but not really processing how it seemed to part for her. As soon as she could see Hyde and Astolfo both clearly, she cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted, "Hey!! Stop that!"
Astolfo, mid-lunge with a sword in hand, windmilled his arms as he skidded to a stop, and then fell on his butt, while Hyde, twisting around his opponent, converted the move into a flip that left him kneeling almost at Ren's feet.
Ren was neither impressed nor soothed. "Well?" she demanded.
Astolfo's sword vanished and he put his hand behind his head as he started laughing. "Hyde got bored and wanted to go find you so I thought I'd entertain him."
"You were upset," muttered Hyde, his head down. "Figured I could help one way or another. All these fake people. I could have cleared them right out."
Ren pushed her fingers through Hyde's fair hair and watched his shoulders tighten further. She didn't want to encourage him, but they'd given her the shove she needed to extract herself from a situation she'd lost all control over.
Astolfo hopped over, landing like a frog. "Where's Jackie? And Ritsu?"
Her fingers clenching in Hyde's hair, Ren said, "I… I can't free them yet." Taking a deep breath, she forced the words out. "First, I need to talk to Merlin."
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