The next day, Tuesday, the bell had already rung and Shii barely made it into class on time. Immediately upon arrival, he noticed that Rineri wasn’t present while most other students were. Suspicious and believing something was up, he left for the dorms again in order to check up on him.

He arrived at the room number before taking a deep breath. He hoped that Rineri wouldn’t comment or think about his bandage and bruise ridden body too much.

A couple knocks—and even more knocks—later still no response came, a loud thud of slamming on the door echoed through the room. Rineri was still not woken, the girl however woke up and sat up. She was laying on Rineri’s chest, having been stuck as he leaned on to her at start, when he fell unconscious. Looking to the door, she stood up from the bed and walked to the door, still in the same poorly made clothes, only now it would fit more in a private room.

“Greet?”, she said as she suddenly pulled open the door, staring straight into the eyes of Shii, before turning around and looking to Rineri. She put together a fact that they seemed similar in age, right before stepping aside, not even leaving a moment for Shii to respond, returning to Rineri. She sat beside him, poking his shoulder continuously to try and wake him up for Shii.

Shii staggered back after the appearance of the girl registered in his brain, he became startled and embarrassed as he quickly spoke,

“S-Sorry, didn’t mean to intrude on your private life…” He quickly amended his actions and looked at the sleeping Rineri.

He finally stepped in and approached Rineri after noticing that the girl’s attempts to wake him up were futile. He put his palm on Rineri’s forehead in order to shake him but—

Fshhhh zzzst. A distorted and dark fume escaped from Shii’s hand and converted into a minor blitz upon reaching Rineri, sending a minor shock directly into his brain.

A sudden opening of his eyes, Rineri came to see Shii with his hand on his forehead. Grabbing the forearm, he pulled Shii’s hand off his head and sat up straight, having a static glimmer in his eyes, right before seeing the girl and realizing that not only Shii was beside him, but the girl was sitting in his bed next to him…

“W-wha..w-w..”, Rineri started to blurt out, having his face gain a blush of the highest level.

“Sorry…I didn’t mean to intrude on you two but…as we speak, we are 12 minutes late for class already” Shii told Rineri with both a confused and tired expression—as if he had barely gotten any sleep.

“No elf, elf no elf more”, the girl blurted out, looking at Rineri as her hands rubbed a bit of the sleepy sand from her eyes. She laid down her head on his chest again, having no clue of what was happening here.

“C-class.. I…” His memory was refusing to link a to b, taking a while before suddenly a flash of the past, right when the sign fell, replayed in his head and he remembered that he never climbed the fence. Looking over to the girl, he only had a single choice now…

“Shii… H-help me…”, as he inhaled deeply, a bruise on his chest showing from the shredded part of his shirt that now showed with his sitting straight. “S-she… She was being… H-hurted by.. By.. others…”, as explaining further did give another few spikes of pain. He wasn’t able to fully regenerate, since he only now gets the real feeling of it, having no more adrenaline.

Shii involuntarily flinched upon hearing Rineri’s sentence as the memory of being kicked into the ground flashed in his mind. He covered half of his injured face once more as he started to think after getting a grasp of the situation,

“Okay… But, keep it only between the two of us… We can’t have anyone else selling us out on day 2 of school…” Shii slowly replied, partially regretting his reckless actions.

“T-thank you..”, Rineri left the bed, having the girl lay fully under the blanket, who was still unable to follow the conversation due to the lack of linguistic knowledge. 

Rineri walked—stumbled—to the door, before taking a deep breath and holding his hand out to the door. A symbol, a “Հ”, appeared on his door, before the sudden atmosphere seemed to feel more tingling. It was due to Rineri’s static area, using his manipulation of energy to mask the girl's presence and so on for the teachers…

“W-we ne—grunt—need a scapegoat story for…”, Rineri spoke, pointing to both his wounds as well as those of Shii. His normal shyness was still slightly visible, but it came out less and less due the situation calling for direct measures.

“We… duked it out?— No… We competed in athletic ability and fell from stairs…?” Shii suggested a few ideas half-heartedly as he was overwhelmed in both stinging pain and a bad mental state.

“That would have a fair chance of being believable to the others, with my background being to prove my skill… And that you are the first other human I’ve seen since, could have triggered some… Agreed, that is the manner of plan we should take, now to make the story completely fit together, what details… where… when… Who won and who lost..”, Rineri started to quickly say, this was one of his thinking sessions, but out loud, as it took around 24 seconds at least.

“Somewhere isolated would probably be a good idea. Crowded areas will increase the odds of us getting caught by other students”, Shii said before changing the subject. 

“Now, before that, you need those wounds wrapped up”, Shii told Rineri with a pause, “wait, I’ll bring you some”, he continued and departed for his own room through the empty hallways. His heart beated in anxiety as they were not only running late but also suspicious.

Upon entering the room, Shii quickly arrived at his desk displaced in front of the window and pulled open a drawer. The drawer was containing a first aid kit and…the mysterious referral token from last night. Shii recalled the event and swallowed in befalling, heightened anxiety. It was not the sudden meetup that had him feeling down, it was the words he briefly spoke that gave Shii the chills.

“This world is like a play, everyone is wearing a mask—you can’t trust them blindly.”

  “I understand what he’s saying but…” Shii broke off and returned back to reality—he had to get the bandages to Rineri. After taking a deep breath, he took the kit and left the room after closing the drawer securely once more. 

“I’ve returned. Here, take this”, Shii told Rineri while holding out the box in his hands. He looked slightly worried but had calmed himself down significantly compared to just a few moments ago.

Rineri took hold of the box, immediately taking care of bandaging his wounds and taking his eyes towards the girl, who had fallen asleep—as Rineri’s cheeks gained another blush—with his thought about leaving her here.

“I-if we l-lock the door… She won’t leave?” He questioned Shii, scratching the back of his head a bit. He was flustered, shy, tired, wounded, hesitant, … Many things all except sane, making his normal manner of thinking far from what it is now. 

“I don’t think she has any intention of leaving for now… But we need a way to communicate with her… She is like a child right now so we have to find a way to explain this in a way that a child can understand…” Shii speculated as he did not know the actual solution. Thinking had settled him down and distracted him from the worrying topics, causing his tone to return to normality.

“Right.. S-she is a bit less communicative than me— oh yeah that's a problem… But she will stay here I guess… She stayed there with me at lea-I-i- mean-”, as he turned away, walking to the door, he opened it and made a strange squeaky sound.

“Let’s give her a codename for now…Something that’s not suspicious…” Shii started thinking of a name that they’d be able to say in public. “How about Rikka? It’s based on your name so people will believe it’s you”, he suggested to Rineri, looking at him.

“F-fi-ne!”, he said in a louder tone, already walking into the hallways towards the classroom. His sight wasn’t that great yet, but he didn’t want to be a red tomato any longer and took a left turn without checking directions.

Shii followed behind Rineri, his expression turning sour sometimes from the constant stinging pain radiating from his injuries. He sweated slightly in anticipation of the scolding and suspicious looks they’ll get for blowing up their second day.