Bloody Moon

Chapter 9: The First Manipais

"Let's do one more quick roll call, just to reassure ourselves," Lydia said with her hands outstretched in front of a translucent blue board, tapping the things she viewed in her mind with her Majikis. "Alya?"

"Here."

"Andrei?"

"Preezent."

"Athena?"

"Here."

"Axel?"

"Alive, unlike those losers."

"B-Blaze?" Lydia's voice was getting shaky now.

"What Axel said."

"Stop scaring Lydia!" Lily yelled. "Don't you know how terrifying it must be for her?"

"It's not our fault she's blind," Flair rolled her eyes. Lydia's frown deepened, but she continued.

"Carl-l-los?"

"H-here."

"C-C-Carolynn?" Lydia was hiccuping now.

"Here," Carol replied, walking over to Lydia and rubbing her back, calming her down. Lydia moved her hands over the board, sorting names into something that looked like categories to Maki. He looked closely, and he could see he was right. One category for the living, which all of their names were in. The other one was empty, the category for the deceased, but they all knew it would have names soon enough.

"Flair?"

"Here."

"Lavender?"

"Alive, thank you very much."

"Lily?"

"Here!" she piped up, hoping to cheer Lydia up. Some of the tension disappeared from Lydia's face as she took a breath and continued.

"Maki?"

"Here," he responded. A small smile spread on her lips, comforted by the fact he was here. Then she gulped as she saw the name after the next name.

"Mar-g-g-aret?"

"Here," she replied as she walked out of the kitchen, carrying a cup of water in her hands as she walked over to her. Both Margaret and Carol gently helped her swallow the water while Flair and Blaze snickered and whispered to each other, mocking her.

"M-Matthew?"

Matthew's soul leaned against the wall in the corner of the room, guilt in his eyes as he knew Lydia wouldn't be able to hear him. Tears started to form in her eyes, and Carol resumed her comforting process, signaling her to continue on. Maki had already made a list of how to help her every time he saw Lydia cry. She didn't need to suffer anymore.

"Orchid?"

"Here."

"Paco?"

"Right here."

"R-Riley?"

Riley's soul wasn't in the room, but he knew it wouldn't have helped anyways.

"S-S-Sage?"

"Here."

"A-all right," she concluded. "Two are d-dead, and fifteen remain. Now it's time for the testing. But first, I need to confirm y-your identities."

All five professors were in the room as Lydia spread her hands, blue mist flowing from her hands. It spread until it covered everyone and everything in a blue aura, giving them a hazy blue tinted vision. Maki squinted as he saw sweat form on Lydia's forehead as she expanded her board and started creating notes, moving them around.