Arcana Academy: Sin's Pressure.

Chapter 9-What now?

With his footsteps echoing in the hallway, Istar took a large breath with his head leaning back. He was thinking about Polka's fight and how everything seemed good at first. The teamwork was good enough, not great but enough, along with how she didn't give up at the end. But to the Golem? The Golem who had suddenly become stronger even with all the fights that had happened before hers? Something didn't feel right to him. It made his chest tight as his blood boiled when he couldn't find the answer.

Although if there was one thing he knew, it was that Oga had done something to the Golem. At the time he was so close to it and even had his palm sticking out towards it as if he was calling for something. Istar shook his head and clicked his tongue. All of the thinking he was doing was starting to mess with his head.

"What's the point of all of this...why the hell am I even worried." He scratched the side of his head, "She's fine. I'm sure she is."

"Hey, You!!" He heard a girl's voice scream down the hallway, "HEY!! UH POLKAS FRIEND!!"

Turning around, Istar saw the same blonde-peach-headed girl, covered in bandages still, that was in the nursery, "Oh, you're Nene right?"

"Ye-yeah...," She was clearly out of breath and he could tell despite her trying to be in composure, "Anyway did Polka say where she was going?"

"No, why?" His chest was tightening up once more.

"I can't find her anywhere. When I got back from getting some snacks, she wasn't in the nursery anymore. I even went to check our dorm rooms and she was gone."

"Damn it..." He then cursed under his breath as he started to dash the way Nene came from.

"Hey, where are you going!!?" She yelled out.

'To find this damn girl!! You do the same!!"

He didn't think for a second about what came out of his mouth and just ran off. Parts of him blamed himself as he didn't see through her. Whispering to himself how much of an idiot he was. He pulled himself around the corner to see that Polka wasn't there. Then another corner and found nothing. Istar then started to run towards the stairs, jumping off parts of them and hopping over the railing.

He continued to run around the floor until he was out of breath, sweat dripping off his forehead. Cursing under his breath once again, he pushed himself up from his knees and continued to run, "Come on, gotta be at the 3rd floor at least or somewhere."

Istar rushed down the stairs once again and ran through the hallway. But a small whistle echoed in the hallway. He didn't even notice that the sounds of his footsteps and panting were muffled.

Down the hallway was a small brown-haired girl. She was the one whistling down the corridor as she playfully skipped along the way. Although she wasn't wearing a school uniform like how he and how everyone else were. A thought in his mind echoed that she must've been in the higher ranks. But he quickly swiped that out of his mind when there was something more important to him right now.

But right as he passed by the small girl, time felt like it had stopped, or more like it had slowed down. The girl was right next to him, still whistling, as she was in the middle of a skip. Then a voice came out, it was soft and playful, and she said, "To your right."

He took another step and time felt like it had come back. Istar turned around, only to see the girl was gone. As if she wasn't even there in the first place. Biting his tongue, he went off to the side and looked out the window. Goosebumps ran over his arms as he saw a girl walking on the bridge. He didn't know if it was Polka or just some random girl that was going somewhere.

He didn't know.

But he wasn't going to take that chance.

Istar opened the window and hesitated as he put his hand up. A part of him would rather not yell out of a window and take the chance that it isn't Polka...but the other part, "POLKA!!!!"

His face was somewhat red, sweat going down his face with an awkward look, he saw the girl turn around. A small twitch came from the top of her head and that's when he knew it. Istar took a footstep but then stopped. Polka was going back to walking, not waiting or stopping, and if he had gone downstairs, he would know that it would take too much time.

An idea came to him and he backed away from the window. Squatting down, he took a deep breath in. "Hesitation leaves to defeat..."

He touched the wall and readied himself. Then in a second, he dashed out the window. His heart dropped as he didn't see any form of platform to try to run on or break his fall. But as he fell, other pillars were going down toward the ground. A stream of wind came underneath his feet and a platform and he jumped off of it. Then another and another as he reached for one of the pillars.

Fixing himself, he dashed down. Living in the swamps and its terrain had him get used to an unstable platform. But just as he reached the end of the pillar, he jumped off but his foot slipped and he came crashing down onto the bridge.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?!!" Polka yelled out as she ran back towards Istar.

Before he could even pick himself up, Polka pulled him to his feet and shook him, "WHAT! WHY! WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH THAT THICK HEAD OF YOURS??!!"

"WHAT'S GOING THROUGH MY HEAD?? WHAT'S GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD??" He yelled back, "You're gonna leave already? You're giving up just like that?"

"...,"Polka looked away. Her painful, angry face was obvious, "What do you expect? You saw how I was in there. You saw how easily I broke down just by a simple damn lecture...I failed and didn't pass the damn stupid pit thing...I know you heard what he said. 'If we fail, we're expelled.' And I messed up...Nene is expelled because I failed."

If Istar had to be honest with himself, he didn't think he was able to get this far. If anything, he didn't know how to comfort someone: let alone know how to even talk to someone. He could see the pain in her face but didn't know how to deal with it. He could tell that she was getting impatient as she was waiting for an answer

He tapped his foot and opened his mouth but as soon as he could say anything, Polka sighed and then turned around, "Sorry to worry you. Tell Nene that I'm sorry for failing."

She started to walk off once more and all he could do was stand as she walked away.

"At least stay for my fight then." He hated himself for saying it.

"Why?"

"It's been years since me and you talked, and as soon as you leave then I got no one else." His voice hesitated as he said that but he forced it all out.

Polka was silent but then asked, "Are you fighting now?"

"No." He then looked away, "I actually don't know."

"So you could be fighting right now and you could be missing it." A disappointed sigh was let out.

"Yeah..."

Taking a deep breath, she started to walk, "So? Are we going?"

Istar lost their grip on his hand and walked on the bridge. "Yeah."

"You should be running, you know."

"Yeah, that's right." He looked behind as she stopped.

Looking up towards the pillars he slid down on, a blast of wind pushed off his feet and he started to leap back towards the window he had opened.

Polka looked at the red-tipped-haired boy and whispered to herself and looked at the end of the bridge, "You're an idiot." 

Arcana Academy: Sins Pressure.