Project J and the Time Walker

Chapter 3 We Get New News

Chapter 3
We Get New News

M I K E

Seeing that all of the hot glares on us, I knew that our new school year in the Nightingale Academy was going to be harsher than I thought.

Since Riesa and I were assigned in section 9-B while the rest of the team were in the top section in their own grades, things were a lot harder for the two of us. The two of us needed to defend ourselves against our oh-so-perfect classmates without the others help during our classes.

Cadence already warned us about our reputation getting worse than before. Since our team got disqualified in the Diamond Joint Training last February, the other students were blaming us for the school’s defeat.

Even though that the former president of the Student Council was already kicked from her place (deserve), I couldn’t deny the fact that the tide that she created was unstoppable. Our only option was to accept Professor Villa’s request so we could escape our schoolmates' eyes as soon as possible.

I held my uniform and shook it to cool myself down.

Summer just came, but with all of the eyes glaring on my Riesa, I felt that we were already in the middle of the summer. Luckily, our uniforms were didn’t have long sleeves, unlike our winter uniform.

Our uniform was similar to our PE uniform. It was a white polo shirt with a Nightingale Academy logo, dark-blue sleeves, and collar with the same color as the sleeves. For males, our uniform was paired with any dark pants (except ripped jeans), while blue skirt for females.

“Good morning every one! I’m going to be your professor for this new school year and I just want to say that I . . .” our new professor began.

She then ordered all of us to answer a few worksheets to assess our skills and intelligence in many fields.

Since we were already in the ninth grade, it was important for us to plan for our senior high and what course we would took. Honestly, the test was pretty simple. It covers our lessons from eight grade and some philosophical questions.

After the professor took all of our worksheet, she then walked out from the room, making our high school life more difficult. The moment our professor stepped out from the room, our classmates started gossiping about Riesa and I, even though they clearly knew that we could hear them.


“Darn, this school year sucks! Even that annoying former president of the Student Council is now gone, her followers multiplied like a bunch of rat!” Sally shouted because of frustration and anger the moment she entered the club room. Her head was heating up as I noticed her special energy raging inside of her, giving a faint-blue aura around her.

Ever since Adrien defeated Death, I knew that our special abilities and special energy capacity was improving rapidly. It was improving rapidly, to the point that we could match the top students’ firepower in no time.

Unfortunately for us, special energy control was in another story. Since our special energy capacity and special abilities were growing rapidly, the whole team was struggling to control our special energy.

“There’s no point in complaining. We still need to focus about the things we need to do. Our schedule is already packed with sort of stuffs, so we need to focus on it,” August commented as he took quick glances at May.

May looked a lot better than the last time we saw her. Her energetic face already returned as her cute-contagious smile was plastered in her face. Without my observation and deduction skills to help me, I would not had noticed that she was just acting the whole time.

King Alfred already warned us about May acting like she was alright.

The others seemed to notice May’s acting (except Sally, Harvy, and Ronnie of course). Unfortunately, even they though they noticed her acting, they didn’t made any direct approach so May wouldn’t felt intimidated.

“So what we will talk about today?” Calyx asked before he and the rest sat in their chairs.

After we returned from the Diamond Joint Training, we joined the Demon Research Club. That was why these meetings like this was quite normal for us. And even though we knew that the club had a bad reputation, we didn’t even falter in our decision.

“By the way, what do you guys think about Professor Villa’s lead? I sense something weird when he said that they already got a lead,” Riesa concernedly asked.

Just the other day, we heard mention Professor Villa that he got a lead on the investigation something related to Adrien. We still didn’t know what lead he was talking about, but it sounded big. Unfortunately for us, we never heard about this lead after we heard him mention it ones.

Cadence went silent. She opened her mouth but no words came out from it. Cadence then averted her gaze and said the words, “I’m still not sure about it, but I guess they already got answers about our remaining questions about Adrien.”

“But why didn’t he tell us?” Riesa asked curiously.

“Whatever his reason is, I guess he is doing this for our own good.”

Even though we already got answers about our questions about Adrien's history, as days passed we realized that there were things left unsolved. One of these questions was who the person who enrolled him to the academy.

Unfortunately for us, it was a fact that Adrien was too sharp at keeping his secrets to himself. He even barely left any notes about the questions we were looking for. However, due to May’s condition, we couldn’t speak about the subject feely before.

“Speaking of Adrien, what do you think is happening in his home dimension?” May asked while her blue eyes were looking down at the table. “What do you guys think about what is happening out there?”

Silence conquered the atmosphere.

Ever since Adrien told us that it was highly likely that he came from another dimension, we never talked about Adrien’s family in the other dimension. And due to all of our current problems and the fact that we didn’t know how to travel through dimensions, we didn’t have any leads.

August held May’s shoulder and smiled at her “You okay?”

The princess looked at him and smiled back. “But of course.”

Even though there was a smile on her face, it was clear as day that he wasn’t okay. And that fact that I was raised in Timog Region and studied in Southern Academy didn’t help me ignore May’s facade.

I looked at the others and noticed that they too noticed May’s facade.

When Riesa’s black eyes met mine, she broke into a smile similar to May’s. I have a strong feeling that she too was thinking the same thing in mind. However, that fact that she and May became closer, I knew that she felt more pain seeing may like this than I did.

Cadence cleared he throat “Let’s return back to our work.” She then placed a map of the Crystal University in the table.

I hadn’t went to Crystal University before so I was so curious on how their school looked like.

Unlike the Nightingale Academy and Southern Academy, all of Crystal Academy’s students were commuting from home. This was the reason why the university only composed of one big building.

“By the way, how we will travel to Crystal University?” Sally nervously asked as she stared at Cadence.

Oh my god. I don’t want to travel using that teleportation ability again.

As I slumped my shoulders internally in agony inside, Cadence fell into a deep thought. The others seemed to be nervous as well, since they didn’t want to experience the dizziness that we got after we used Cadence’s teleportation ability ones again.

“I haven’t visited Crystal University, so I believe that Dad will ask Professor Alcantara to bring us there.”

Hearing her answer, all of us sighed in relief. Ronnie, on the other hand, tighten his fist and tensed up, like he would go into a war or something. I could sense the radiating determination in him, which was pretty rare and confusing.

“So is that mean, we will travel using his van? I heard rumors that his van could do a lot of things a normal van couldn’t. I even heard that the van even had guns that could affect demons.” Riesa tilted her head as she tried to imagine what would the van looked like.

As a researcher myself, the topic caught my right eye. I mean, guns that were enchanted to fight demons would be a revolution! Unfortunately, all my hopes shattered into pieces after Nicky told us that those rumors were just exaggerated.

According to her, her dad was still experimenting to enchant complicated small weapons like guns. On the other hand, it was true though that his dad had a van that could do a lot of weird things.

Oh well, at least I still have the van to research on.

“For now, I think it will be the best for us to prepare about our new task. After all of us went through, could see a future where things will not go through in a way we wanted it.” Cadence stood up and folded back the map before she placed it back inside of her bag.

Then packed her other things and faced the door.

“Wait. Where are you going?” Nicky asked.

Cadence turned around. “I need to check the library. If we are lucky, there might be hidden information in there about the existence of other dimensions.”

It was then when I realized what Cadence was up to. She wanted to get back on her feet and lead the group ones again. After all, it would be a problem if Calyx would get sick due to overwork.

A small smile formed in my face before I knew it.

It just gave me joy seeing one of my few friends trying to get over about her depression. And the fact that Riesa was smiling wildly after noticing Cadence’s true intentions added a huge fact I was smiling, even for just a little.

May stood up and genuinely smiled at Cadence. “If that so, then we will like to follow you.”

Seeing May trying to do the same thing that Cadence wanted to do even bought more joy to me. My other friends seemed to feel the joy that I felt because all of them were smiling wildly, especially Riesa.

Together, the ten of us went straight to the library with smiles on our faces.

While we were walking in the hallway, we just ignored the sharp glared surrounding us. Many students were gossiping about us in the hallway. Luckily, we all got used to it so we didn’t even bother paying attention to them and the fact that there were fewer of them made me more relieved.

Luckily for us though, the library was quiet. I couldn’t even see the librarian anywhere. She probably went to Professor Alcantara and Professor James about the enchanted tool she was developing to help the library.

“Let’s just get this over with.” Cadence sighed in frustration and immediately went to work, while the remaining nine of us followed her league.

With all of our hard work we putted in searching for books, we didn’t find anything in the library. With disappointed look in our eyes, all of us decided to walk back to our clubroom while letting out disappointed sighs.


I stretched out my aching back and arms to lower the pain. I sat back in my chair as I stared at Riesa who was holding a picture that she got in the library. I tilted my head in confusion and took a peak in the picture.

The picture was about a mysterious guy standing the top of the academy. With the darkness in the background, I couldn’t completely see what the guy looked. As I quietly observing the picture I suddenly heard Sally clearing her throat.

“I know the two of you began dating a few weeks ago, but please don’t forget that some of us are still single.” Sally pouted at us.

Hearing her words made me blush. Realization slapped me right in the face. My face was too close to Riesa’s, to the point that I even felt her warm breath and lips. My face burned as I quickly returned to my seat.

I took a quick glance at Riesa and noticed her blushing cheeks. On the other hand, the others were laughing at us and endlessly teased us because of our relationship as a couple.