There was a lecture hall in the lab that I was glad could be moved over to our new locale. It wasn't anything special, but it was cozy, and it was where we'd have lessons from time to time, usually from Mother, but other teachers and guest speakers joined as well. When I arrived to hear what Mother wanted, it was just myself and Sai present.

Sai was in the second row, with a pile of crumpled up papers in front of them. A small trash can waited at the front of the room under the whiteboards. I sat as they threw a few paper balls towards the can before I had to join in as well. We idly chucked the crunched up paper, as I kept score in my head until I realized Sai was way better at this and was crushing my point total.

"Just us?" I asked.

"Caeda and Chickadee went to some roller derby arcade thing," Sai said. "Do you even want them here?"

"Not really," I said. "How about the others?"

"I dunno," Sai said. "Actually, wait I think Ash went with to the arcade. I dunno about the others. I just heard from Octa that we're meeting and headed over. I've been at this like fifteen minutes?"

"Why are you here so early, though?" I asked. "No assembly to avoid this time."

Sai told me earlier that they skipped the assembly as they'd gotten wind about it being a Falling Shards thing, and while they were pleased the boys' school was moving, they did not have the fever of the other students wanting to run around the "new" area nor did they have any guys there they wanted to see off before the move.

"Mother says she's just a few minutes late, but she'll be here soon," I said after getting a message from her. Sai didn't immediately answer, or have any kind of reaction whatsoever, which was a reaction in itself. "What?"

"It's nothing," Sai said.

"There isn't anything to worry about," I said.

"Worry isn't my...again, it's nothing," Sai said.

I didn't press it further, as my mother finally arrived, with Esther and Charmaine with her.

"Kinda tense in here," Charmaine said. "You two have a fight?"

"It's nothing," Sai said.

"What, did you tell Ana that Zeta Faleur's not that bad or something?" Charmaine asked.

"It's nothing!" I said.

Mother finished setting up her computer, and brought a projection up. Usually, she'd show us the locale in the void we'd be visiting, but this time it was a map of the campus.

"Another monster for us to take down?" I asked.

"Potentially, I'm not sure," Mother said.

"Did one escape the void? And we're the only ones strong enough to take it on?" Esther said.

"I'm not sure on that either," Mother said. "I received a strange signal on campus this morning, and have found its source. There seems to be some kind of anomaly with Penteldtam."

All of us groaned.

"This sounds like busy work, Mother," I said.

"Right, like he probably got some weird cologne on that makes him reek so bad it's coming up on your signals."

"I would be more upfront if it was busy work, and I'll handle the paperwork," Mother said. "There's a strange energy reading that's interfering with my studies, and it seems to be coming from him. Tail him and find out what it is."

"And then what?" Charmaine asked. "Are we gonna beat him up again?"

"That hopefully won't be necessary, but if there's a void monster in his vicinity, I want it defeated." Mother said.

"Maybe he's haunted," Esther suggested. "Maybe he...picked up a ghost or something?"

"How do we defeat a ghost?" Charmaine asked.

"Your first mission is simply intel, figure out anything you can about the anomaly," Mother said. "I'll be monitoring the mission as I would any void excursion, so you can check in with me at any time."

With none of the others available, the four of us left for Falling Shards. Structurally it was just a mirror of Rising Shards. I had zero interest in boys, so I hadn't given much thought to the sibling school on campus outside of having some of the boys in classes. At Wildfire Hearts, the student population was heavily skewed towards female, so this whole move would merely put everything to a more familiar dynamic.

We had to push through the crowd just to get in. What was everyone doing at Falling Shards? Surely exploring this school wasn't that interesting.

"Where do we even start?" Sai asked.

"Octa didn't give us the coordinates, just a general space where the anomaly is," Esther said. "So...ask around and see if anyone's seen Penteldtam?"

I growled when I spotted someone up ahead.

"I don't think it's that bad an idea," Charmaine said.

"Not that, Esther's plan is fine," I nodded ahead to where Zeta chatted with her friends. "Mother didn't mention that Faleur would be here."

"Ana, relax, everyone's here," Esther said.

"At least Stella is away on a vacation," I said.

"How do you even know that?" Charmaine asked.

"I keep tabs, I have sources," I said.

"That's more than a little disturbing," Esther said.

"Sai? Back me up?" I said.

"I didn't tell you anything about Stella going on a vacation, leave me out of it," Sai said.

"Tch," I said. "Fine, I was going to try and ruin Stella's day by returning a book with pages I'd ripped out, but the librarian informed me that she was away."

"Now I'm really upset, you wrecked a book?" Esther said. "Not only that, a library book? That's horrible, Ana."

"Whatever! I found out they were discarding it anyways. It was a fruitless and pointless gesture all around."

"Still," Esther said. "I want to rescue that poor book."

"Well, go check the library then, I'm sure it's still in the bin they left it in!" I said. "It's not this library, if that wasn't obvious, it was the main one."

"Ana, you are reaching 'time to take deep breaths and chill out' mode," Charmaine said.

"I am very chill," I said. "Ack, of course they're going to the library." I watched until Zeta and her friends were out of sight. "So we're not checking there."

"What does that even mean? Because we were talking about libraries, that they're copying us or something?" Charmaine said.

"You know..." I said.

"I think that was an 'Ana says something out loud without any real thought behind it' moment." Sai said.

"That would make sense," Esther said.

"I didn't even get to explain my reasoning," I said.

"We got it, though," Charmaine said. "Let's just check the library."

"But I just said we're not doing that!" I said.

"We can avoid Zeta, I just have a feeling that's where Penteldtam is." Charmaine said.

"Penteldtam? Why are you looking for him?"

Ovie Chirhart approached, flanked by her regular companions Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila, and her new-ish allies in 09 and Narkissa. I was still surprised that Ovie and Narkissa were getting along, at Wildfire Hearts I'd seen the two get into fistfights more than once.

"Devil business," Esther said. "Real boring, you wouldn't like it."

The other devils weren't fans of Ovie, but I always liked her. She had so many fun stories about Zeta.

"We just saw him is all," 09 said.

"Tch, don't just give that away," Ovie said. "Make them earn it." She squinted at me. "P.D. is the type who likes to withhold information, isn't she?"

"Oh," I said. I hadn't checked in with her since my mask had come off, and I never told her about my identity. "I..."

"Don't get me wrong, I think it's beyond hilarious Zeta has a secret sister that despises her," Ovie said. "But you shouldn't keep secrets like that from a friend."

"Sorry..." I said. "I really am. But the circumstances...Mother wouldn't..."

"This is a waste of time," Charmaine said. "Will one of you that isn't Ovie just tell us where Penteldtam is and we'll get out of your hair?"

"He's on the far side of the library, not like in it but wandering around outside it," Narkissa said.

"Risa!" Ovie spat. "Why'd you just tell them?"

"Because you're just adorable when you're angry," Narkissa said.

"I! That's...!" Ovie's face turned red immediately.

With her flustered, we snuck away. I made a silent promise to myself to make things right with Ovie somehow.

We spotted Penteldtam right where Narkissa said he'd be, but none of us were expecting the state we'd find him in.