The Paradoxical World: Phantom's Academia

(Chapter 7: Traveling Field Trip)

Heheh, it's finally the rainy season, and it's beginning early this time around. We also have a school field trip, first and second-years only. That means Hannah, and I get to be together. Also, Emma, Ken, and Carmine, but that's beside the point. The third-years stay at home, since it's on a weekend. Actually, today's the field trip, and actually, I forgot to pack. I frown, and scurry around the room. I drug out my suitcase beneath my bed, and heard soft knocks. "Just a minute Hannah!" I replied. "How'd you know it was me? Eh? You're still packing?" Hannah walks in.
"I forgot to." I forced a smile, throwing in a spare uniform.
"Don't just throw it in there. It'll wrinkle, I'll fold whatever you give." Hannah folds the uniform, and smiles as she does it. I sigh gently, "alright." Hannah folded two uniforms of mine, and I threw a jacket, rain boots, underclothing, brush, deodorant, shampoo 2 in 1, extra uniform, and more underclothing.
"Done?" Hannah turns around, as I looked around frantically.
"Y-Yeah.. I think so." I nod.
"Don't forget to get dressed. I'll be waiting by the door." Hannah smiles as she leaves. I threw on a uniform, grabbed my phone, money, and rolled down my suitcase. "Ready." I grin. "Wait for me!!" Emma runs down the staircase, it's a surprise she didn't fall.
"You're running late too Emma?" Hannah looks surprised.
"I forgot to pack." She frowns.
"So did Audi, heheh." Hannah chuckles.
"Whatever.. Lets go." I make a face. We all rushed out, taking that North Quad path. Into the main building, and headed to our left. To that transportation quad. We made it barely in time, the train was still boarding and we quickly got in line. They sat us in a booth, as we waited for the train to take off.
"So, where are we going again?" Emma questions, looking at the seats.
"Somewhere to sightsee." I looked away. I think.
"It's a place called, "Throne Tyranny" it's supposedly where the Queen housed. I think it was a castle, they turned it into a museum now." Hannah explains.
"Hmm." I hummed, and crossed my arms.
"Oh, the Queen herself? That's cool! Why'd we pack clothes than?" Emma straightens her face.
I shrug, and looked at Hannah.
She smiles, "we'll reach a bus station heading south, and we'll ride that at 8:30 tonight. Stay the night onto the boat we'll board, and than continue to the museum." She finishes.
"It's an island?" Emma's eyes sparkled.
"It's going to take this whole day?" I frown, and crossed my arms.
"I'm glad I woke up on time.." Emma sighs in relief.
"You woke up late, AND forgot to pack?" I smirk.
"Yeah.." She frowns.
"What an air-head." I smile, and take a seat by the window.
"She's just playing." Hannah whispers to her.
"I see." Emma forces a smile and takes a seat across from me. There was only two seats on each side of the booth. Hannah sat by me, heheh.
[Carmine Orangee]
Well, it's not all that bad. Is what I thought when I boarded the train. Instead, I get stuck with this idiot tyrant. "Heheh, so do you two know each other?" Ken forces a smile at us. "Nope." We retort, looking away from each other. "I see. Enemies at the core." Ken nods to himself.
"What are you on about?" I rose an eyebrow at him.
"You, and this girl. It's clear you don't like each other in the slightest. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Ken Suchago." Ken introduced himself to the tyrant.
"Disciplinary Vice Captain, Carly Lockhart." She smiles at him.
"Tch." I furrowed my eyebrows. Out of all the students, I get stuck with this twerp.
"Disciplinary committee? Shouldn't you be with the other members?" Ken questions.
"We decided to disperse." She replies.
"Oh, I see." He nods. I sigh heavily, and stared at the window, as a droplet of water spits down.
[Dakota Anvilory]
"Wh-Where is everyone?" Collins walks in with a frown.
"Field trip." I look up at him from my bowl of cereal.
"Oh, oh yeah." He nods, and looks away blushing.
"That field trip took away our fun." Mia walks in the dining room.
"Huh?" Collins looks over at her.
Hm? She has no glasses on, so weird~
"We are the least talkative people." Mia looks away.
"I-Is that a bad thing..?" Collins frowns.
"Not necessarily.." Mia sighs. "We're the oldest, and most maturest." She declares.
"Hm?" Collins forces a smile, he has no clue what she's on about.
"..." I ate another spoonful.
"Forget it.. There's no point. I'm going back to sleep." Mia walks away, as Collins tells her  goodnight. What she said was true, we are the least talkative. I drank my milk, is it a bad thing?
[Emma Valkyre]
I feel like a third-wheel! I frown to myself, as the two talked. What's worse is that Audi seems completely absorbed, when she talks to Hannah. I look out the window, and noticed the rain sprinkling. "It started raining.." I said to myself. "It is." Audi gazes out the window. "It's going to storm." Hannah looks over her. "It certainly is pouring down." You can hear the rain droplets explode as they hit the window, along with the train's roof. "Snacks anyone?" A cart attendant came by. "Oh, want anything Hannah?" Audi looks down at Hannah. The cart was filled with sweets, and had a built-in cooler. The two pick, and choose what's inside, and I watched them as Audi turns to me. "How about you? I'll get it." Audi looks back at me with her piercing eyes.
"R-Really?" I blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, go ahead." She smirks. I decided upon a bag of sweet bread, and a bottle of juice. Audi pays up, as she sits back down, and Hannah hands her a treat.
"Thanks Audi, but I could've gotten it myself." I purse my lips.
"That's master to you." Audi grins, and takes a bite of the treat.
"Really? After two months, still?" I frown, looking away.
"Maybe one more favor, and you can call m-." Audi was interrupted, by Hannah stuffing a cookie in her mouth, along with a chuckle.
"Call her whatever you like, Emma." She smiles angelically at me.
"Of course." I chuckled. I guess Audi isn't too cold. She is scary though, so I wouldn't want to be on her bad side.
[Ken Suchago]
The rain began to pour down, as we waited to get to the bus station. It's going to take at least four hours on train, six hours on bus, than we're gonna stay the night on the boat. Shouldn't be too bad. Carmine fell asleep, along with Carly. I smiled as I laid back, they're like children.
[Audi Moncraoe]
Eventually, two hours had passed, and we were all dead silent. Hannah fell asleep against me, and Emma was spacing out over there. Her head tilting down, time from time, forcing herself to stay awake. I had no problem, probably because I'm just used to waiting? I shrug, and felt my phone vibrate. I took it out, a text message. From Skunk, ha, finally she talks to me! "Hey Audri! (⌒▽⌒) sorry I haven't been talking to you lately... I miss you already! ( ; _ ; ) it's so quiet, and Ciel is annoying as ever! All he does is hurt me (・Д・)ノ then he meows and runs away too. Oh, did you get the money? (o_-)*wink*" hm, Ciel's acting up eh?
"Stop feeding him fish, that's why he's so aggressive. And yeah, I got the money, thanks again Skunk. Everything's going steady, you know those nosebleeds I got when I was younger? They came back a lot." I smiled as I sent the text. I laid it on my lap, and looked down at Hannah. I think she causes them, but it might just be my health. I saw Emma finally falling asleep against the window, she had crumbs on her face, and I couldn't help but stare at them. Right below her lip, that doesn't bother her? My hand vibrated as Skunk replied.
"But he likes me more when I feed him fish. ('･_･') eh!? Those nosebleeds came back even worse!? Do you need medical treatment? Am I going to HAVE TO COME OVER THERE!?" She texts.
"No, of course not. If something did happen, I have a doctor who'll check me up. Don't worry too much, I know how to control them, sort of." I looked away.
"That's good.. Uh, just be careful. ('･Д･) and if something DOES happen, I have someone over there already too. (＾∇＾)" eh? She does?
"And who is that?" I frown.
"A secret~ （＾ω＾）" I sigh, I'm going to ignore her. The phone vibrated, vibrated, and vibrated. I blocked her number, and sigh to myself. Just have to wait for the bus transfer. Another hour flew by, and the train finally eases to a stop. "Attention ALL Phantom Academia students, ALL Phantom Academia students, disembark the train, and keep within your groups, we'll have a head count, and board the train upon arrival." The PA announces, as I headbutted Hannah awake. "Ow!" She clenches her head with a frown. I smirk, and pushed Emma's hand. "Hey, we're leaving!" I shout, as she jumps up awake, having her arms up in defense. "Oh? We're leaving." I chuckled, stepping by the doors, and saw our students heading left. We managed to squeeze in together, and got out into the freezing train station. Teachers counted us slowly, and checked twice over their clipboards. "Alright! Everyone inside!" The teacher's rounded us in, as we walked in by hordes. We waited idly amongst the chatter, and filled up the benches. "I saw the train time wait. It was delayed, for at least an hour." Emma yawns.
"An hour?" I make a face.
"Oh well. At least it's warm in here." Hannah smiles to herself. I sigh gently, and stood beside them, the bench was full already.
"You can sit down, Audi. I'll stand." Hannah begins to stand up.
"No. I'm fine." I shook my head, as she looks up at me. I force a smile, "I'll just sit on your lap if my legs get tired."
"Really?" Hannah smirks, as we laugh.
[Collins Evereice]
Hm, oh! that's it! It was a six, not a nine, oops. I shut my textbook, ah, that's it for studying. I need to take my time on them. I take a deep breath, and sighed. It really is quiet without those five. I turned in my TV, and it was talking about news of a new research about cars, and safety. That's good, I smiled at the reporter, as I heard knocks against the door. "Coming." I muted the TV, and answered the door. "Y-Yes?" I force a smile, and saw a girl with pajamas on. She looks surprised at me, and her cheeks turn red. Who is this? "I'm sorry. Wrong room." She laughs, and scratches her head. "Could you point me towards Mia Oouro's room?" She smiles at me. Blue hair, and why is she dressed like that.. Mia's friend? "Across the hall.." I point pass her, she shakes my hand, and grins. "Thank you for your help, and cooperation." She walks to Mia's room, and enters. She reminds me of Emma, sort of. She's a third-year no doubt, that, or she didn't reach the train on time. I walked back into my room, and the mirror caught my attention. Huh? HUH?!?! I blushed, and stared at my eyepatch, and hair clip. What the hell?! I-Is that what Angel did?! I.. I left it.. For all this time.. I never realized it, I put this eyepatch on and off over fifty times, taking a shower, washing my face, cleaning it. Angel, how could she? I sniffle, and frown at the mirror. My eyepatch had a red medic sign, my left side bangs were clipped back, with a bandage-style clip. I blushed, I look like a girl.
[Mia Oouro]
"Shouldn't you be there with the rest of the Student Council?" I question Tori.
"Hm? N-No, I'm a third-year, they wouldn't allow me. So, I sent my other members to hold order, and the whole Disciplinary Committee is there too." Tori crossed her arms and nod.
"I see. Are all the DC members young?" I click my glasses.
"Yeah, you'd be surprised. The oldest is a second-year, just like the rest of them, and that's the captain, Gavin Frayr." She nods to herself.
"Gavin, so that's his name." That's Carmine's number one, most- Ahem, never mind, that's his business.
"Sorry to intrude like this." Tori forces a smile.
"No, it's not a problem, but, getting lost in the woods, and ending up here?" I smirk at her. She was dressed in Audi's shirt, and wore a pair of my shorts.
"Heh, I tend to get lost easily. Especially when the rain starting pouring! Thank you for lending me these clothes by the way, and.. Who's shirt is this? It's definitely not yours." She ruffles the collar, and airs it out.
"You don't think it's mine?" I rose my eyebrows. She's the first to realize this, well, to bring it up.
"No. It doesn't smell like you, it smells.. Well, it's mixed in with yours." She sniffs the sleeves.
"Eh~ You recognize my scent, Tori?~" I smirk, and covered my mouth. I snapped a picture of her sniffing the shirt.
"Eh? M-Mia.. Wh-What was that?" Tori frowns, and looks at me frantic.
"Nothing~" I look away. "So, any thoughts on the other smell?" I ask.
"Don't drop the subject. Why'd you take a picture!? Is it a guy's shirt?" Tori frowns.
"No way." I swept my hand.
".... Who's then?" Tori eases down, and anxiously awaits my answer.
"It's Audi Moncraoe's." I replied, and scroll through my pictures.
"Audi Moncraoe? Female. What year? Never mind, this size and other household members present, a second-year. Why do you have her shirt?" Tori questions me.
"Here, that's Audi." I smirked and showed her the picture of Audi passed out in the pool of blood, which happened two months ago.
"What the hell?" She looks strangely at it. "I-Is that blood?" She gulps.
"Yup. You should've seen her, especially how Hannah reacted." I smiled, and exit my phone.
"..?" Tori looks at me questioningly. "That doesn't answer my question.." She forced a smile.
"I dunno. I think it got mixed in my laundry, or I stole it." I said the last part quickly, as Tori narrows her eyes at me. "Hm." She rose her eyebrows, and looks to her left out the window. "Oh, the rain sure is coming down."
[Ken Suchago]
Hm, it seems I've gotten lost. I look around, the train station's completely empty. I just came back from the vending machine just by the tracks, and came back to nothing. I gulped, and stepped outside, watching busses pass by. I saw several students glance at me, they didn't even have the slightest care! One even laughed at me! "Wait!" I frown, a tear hanging down. I chased after the bus into the pouring rain, but it ignored me, no!~ I frowned, and dropped my shoulders. What did I do to deserve this? I looked down past my feet, trudging under shelter. I stood still, then fell down to my knees. "Stupid fruit bar!" I threw it down, and clenched my eyes shut. "Um.. Are you alright?" A soft voice raised my attention. The light of the sun blinded me, as a pure and angelic face stares down at me. "A.. A Goddess!" I rushed up, and clasped the Goddess's hands.
"Eh?" She backs away, and forces a smile. I saw more clearly, the Goddess had bright blue eyes, and red cheeks. "Get off already!" I felt a boot to my face, as I hit the ground. "A-Audi! That wasn't necessary!" The goddess shouts. "He was being too grabby. Besides, something like that wouldn't hurt this idiot." The boot retorts. I prop myself up with a groan. "Ken? Are you alright?" The goddess looks towards me. The sun was covered by a cloud, and her face was revealed. "He probably hit his head, and forgot us." Another voice behind the boot chuckles. "Shut up. We don't have time to play around, hurry and get up Ken." The boot says to me, as I shook my head, rubbing my eyes. "Huh? Hannah? Audi? Emma? What.. What are you guys doing here?" I frown at them.
"We missed our bus, as you can see." Audi sighs.
"We're stuck here.." Emma gulps.
"Just clam down, one of us might be from Ixton, so they'll know a way around." Hannah forces a smile.
"Ugh.." I throw myself up, as Hannah hands me my fruit bar. I stared down at it, as the three talked. I clenched it, and stuffed it in my jacket.
[Audi Moncraoe]
"So, who's from Ixton?" Ken looks up at us.
"I'm from a mountain region.." Emma looks away.
"I'm from Frenzdon." Hannah frowns.
"Oh? Really? I would've never guessed." I look at Hannah surprised.
"Yeah, I was raised on a farm." Hannah looks up at me uneasy. I narrowed my eyes at her, and saw her eyes shone over. I cleared my throat, sat my head on hers, and wrapped her neck with my arms, my way of giving her a hug. 
"I'm from Ixton. My house isn't too far from here either, actually." I mentioned.
"Really?" Ken looks surprised.
"We're saved!" Emma grins.
"..." Hannah grabs my arms, and huffs a faint cloud.
"The rain will be a problem though." Emma looks beside us, under the train station's shelter.
"Yeah." Ken nods.
"My house is a couple blocks ahead, in an apartment building. We're gonna have to run, to avoid getting drenched though." I explained.
"Fine with me!" Emma pats her grins, like an idiot.
"Lets go!" Ken chuckles.
"Ready?" I look down at Hannah.
"Yeah." She nods, and looks up at me.
"It's several blocks ahead, take a right when you see a stop sign, and the building is called Ozik's Apartments, can't miss it. The only tall building down the street." I gave them the directions.
"I'll beat you all there!" Emma laughs, as she runs off with amazing speed. "Such speed!" Ken runs out, and nearly slips over a puddle. "I'm good! Haha.." He laughs it off.
"It seems to be our turn." I approached the edge.
"Yeah, you'll catch me if I fall right?" Hannah smiles, and runs out.
"Huh?" I lightly blush, and chase after her. I frowned at the pouring rain, my hair's ends are soaked already. I covered my head with my arms, as I followed behind Hannah. She runs pretty slow, but she seems to be enjoying herself. This rain is freezing!
[Ken Suchago]
I grin, and glanced back, woah! I can't see anything. The rain makes it's own haze. I squint my eyes, I can't even see those two, maybe I should slow down. I look to my right and saw cars passing by slowly. I should wait for them, they did the same for me after all. I backtracked to the last road, and spotted Hannah, with the cutest smile across her face. She was running across the road, and I saw headlights shining at her body. I heard the car's motor rev up, and my heart raced. "Hannah!!" I shouted, as my vision was slurred by the tires screeching. I clasped my ears, and stood my position. I quickly glanced up, and saw nothing. I looked at the road where she passed, there was fading red liquid, being washed away in the rain. I gulped, and rushed by the heavy rain. "Hannah!!" I screamed, as I saw her. Her face was speckled in blood, and there was arms wrapped around her. I pant, and staggered towards Hannah. She frowns, and cracks her eyes open. Audi was hugging her close, her head over Hannah's, and her arms shielding Hannah's small body. I gulped roughly. "Are you alright?!" I questioned. "I'm fine.. Audi." Hannah turns around as Audi falls backwards onto her back. "Audi!" Hannah clasps to her body, and screams out her name.
"Huh?!" I crouched down, and saw no marks of injuries on Audi. "Dammit.. We-We have to reach her apartment!" I gulped, and threw her on my back.
"Audi.. Sh- W-We need to all an ambulance!" Hannah stares at me with tears welling from her eyes.
"She's fine! Trust me! There's no blood on her!" I shouted. She clasps my collar, and furrows her eyebrows at me.
"What if she's really hurt!?" Hannah screams at me. I-I've never seen her like this. I shook my head, "we just have to get her out of the rain. The ambulance is on the whole other side of town. It'll take at least an hour to reach us! We need to get to her apartment, Hannah." I looked down at her, as she wipes her tears away, and glares up at me.
"Fine." She sniffles, as I started to take off running. Hannah follows me, and I spotted the stop sign Audi mentioned. I ran over there, and Hannah spotted the building.
"About time you guys!" Emma smiles closing her eyes at us. "Eh?" She opens her eyes, as they shrunk, and tears start to formulate. "Is.. Is that Audi?" She says emotionless. "It's all my fault." Hannah cups her hands over her eyes. Emma approaches. "No way.." She says, and collapses down. "No.. This.. This all.. Heheh." Emma looks down, shaking her head. "Dammit.. What room is she in?" I looked down at the two, neither of them responds, they're torn apart. I gulped, as a woman comes in closing her umbrella. "Audri..?" Her eyes narrow at Audi. "Audri!!" She elbows my stomach, and sends me a heel to my back, knocking me to the ground. "Who the hell are you?!" She glared at me, holding Audi bridal style.
"Ouch.." I groan, she.. she hits hard!
"Audi! She's hurt!" Hannah approaches the woman. She gasps, and signals us to follow her.
[Room 104: Ken Suchago]
I take a deep breath, and breathe out. My back, and stomach ache in pain. I looked up from the dinner table. Hannah, and Emma sat across from me, and the seat beside me was empty. She served us tea, and she takes a seat at the head of the table. "So. What happened to Audri?" She pounds a fist on the table, and glared at us. Hannah winces, and Emma chokes on her tea. I gulped roughly, and glance up at Hannah.
"It's my fault!" Hannah rises up, shouting.
"So, it was you?" The woman pierces a look that strikes fear onto onlookers, she's scarier than Audi!
"I.. I shouldn't have been playing." Hannah sniffles. "I wasn't paying attention.. *sniffle* If only she'd let me go." Hannah wipes away tears.
"It was a car accident." I gulped, staring down at the brown liquid.
"Car accident?" The woman's voice repeated.
"It's raining, no one could see. Hannah would've died if the car hit her. Audi saved her by grabbing her back, she must've gotten hit somehow." I sweat nervously.
"I see." The woman stands up, and catches our attention. "The blond had blood on her face. If what you said was true, Audri would've had a noticeable wound. It was probably the driver's doing, hmm." She walks away, and enters the room she put Audi in.
"Who is she anyways?" I frown at the the door.
"Does it matter? What about Audi? Will she be alright?" Emma frowns.
"I don't know.." I look away, I hope so, Audi's strong isn't she?
"..." Hannah remains quiet, as she looks down. Her eyes empty, and her face was melancholy.
"I'm sorry, Hannah. I.. I could've done something." I looked away, gritting my teeth.
"It doesn't matter." Hannah says with a blank voice, she shuts her eyes, and looks down. She gates me.
"..." Emma looks over at her, and back to the bedroom's door. The woman comes back in, and sits back at her seat with a heavy sigh.
"For now, I forgive you. So what are your names, and relations to Audri?" The woman looks at us.
"I'm Ken Suchago, we're roommates, and friends." I answered.
"I'm Emma Valkyre, Sh-she's an important friend." Emma forces her tears back.
"..." Hannah looks over at the woman, with her melancholy eyes. "No need for you to speak." The woman shuts her eyes. "I'm Shannon Moncraoe." She crosses her arms, and smiles.
"M-Moncraoe? Are you her sister? Aunt? Cousin? Mom?" I question. Although, they don't resemble very much.
"Yeah. Audri will wake up later. For now, I'd like to hear your stories." Shannon puts her arms on the table, and gives us looks. So what was her relation to Audi again?
[Collins Evereice]
I yawned, and glanced at my clock. Eh? It's already 9:17. I shut my book, and looked at the roof. I wonder if they're having fun. I smiled to myself, and prepared my bed.
[Mia Oouro]
Tori ended up spending the night in my room, and I couldn't help but wonder, what were the others doing right now. Probably sleeping, Tori mentioned they'd stay the night on a boat, and arrive at the museum tomorrow. I have a bad feeling about all this.
[Dakota Anvilory]
(Asleep since 6)