When the Stars Align

Chapter 17

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"Who here can tell me when the 'beginning' of modern art in Japan took place? Both the time period and the name of that era?"

You were frustrated.

"Yes, Iida?"

Absolutely and positively frustrated.

"I believe it began in the year eighteen sixty-eight and was called the Meiji Period!"

Unequivocally and unconditionally frustrated.

"Correct! Now, can anyone tell me how many of these art periods took place? Any other titles we can think of before diving straight into Meiji?"

'God, taking notes is the worst...'

Today was Saturday, the last day of the first school week. A total of three days had gone by since the Press incident, but you still couldn't let it go. You had spent a majority of your time looking over the school schematics when you weren't busy with class work, trying to find answers in the beat up old page periodically now.

After you'd been informed of the damage the front gate had gone through, you theorized that it had to have been someone from that group that the Commission were so desperately looking for. The destruction left behind was similar to the many pieces of evidence they had back at base, so there was no denying that at least one of them had been apart of the nightmare outside. Even if the President was willing to entertain the thought that other sources were at work- a lengthy discussion that you'd rather not relive just for the sheer humiliation you had felt when she talked down at you from her upturned nose- you had a gut feeling that you were on the right track, just lost in an endless sea of possibilities.

What was once just a light retracing of possible opportunities and steps had become an obsessive back and forth. It had gotten to the point where you paced the school halls over and over again after school, looking for entrances and exits that could've been used by the figure inside the Principals office. You always came up short, way too many natural mishaps that would've outed the person from the beginning coming into play for it to have been a natural walk in.

Regardless of who it was or wasn't, the person responsible hadn't worked alone, it just wasn't possible. But who was the one providing insider knowledge and how did they work together? The school didn't have a back entrance that could've been exploited, and what with virtually everyone at the front, there was no way they snuck in that way. Plus, there were no outstanding figures in the crowd, nothing on campus had been damaged aside from the gate itself, and none of the Pros could report to being under the influence of an outside Quirk that could've contributed to the break in.

It didn't make sense.

Huffing, you closed the notebook on your desk. You'd lost your place in the lesson now that your mind had begun to wander, and it would be useless try and keep up now. There would be too many blanks left unanswered to be able to teach yourself on your own later.

Ironic, wasn't it?

Thankfully, Modern Art was the last class of the day and you would all be let out soon to enjoy the one lone weekend away from school. It would be nice, you figured, to get away from the stuffy halls that mocked you now.

'Did they have invisibility on their side, like Hagakure does...? If so, to what extent could it be used...? Maybe they had a Quirk that lets them go through things...? A shrinking Quirk...? Teleportation...? Or maybe they had just walked in when everything went haywire and nobody noticed a thing due to being preoccupied...'

Opening the notebook once more, you flipped to the very back, looking over a rough sketch of the whole campus you'd created. You'd gone over it in class various times before, drawing out ideas and miniature characters to represent the various forms of security that should be hard and near impossible to pass by.