This ain't a diary, this is a - mirror?

Chapter 41: What was that about...?

"What in the... what was that about?!" Elena growled after managing to get to her paws. "Is he always like this?!"

"Well, no... in fact, his usual personality is probably... anything except that. But I don't know him that well, so..."

"It could be mind control or some sort of memory erasing magic, as I suspected earlier. Only a very experienced or powerful animal could have performed magic like this without some sort of item to channel their magic, so... I don't think it could've been another student."

"So that... dog he talked of earlier... it couldn't be them?" Sharon asked, still looking slightly dazed.

Zephyr shook his head. "I doubt it. If only he had finished his sentence about what the dog was holding... Maybe it could've been another type of magic?"

"Hmph." Luna snorted. "Well, whatever it was... Sam."

"Huh?" Samantha asked, slightly startled. "Uh, me?"

"You're in the same class as him, right?" Luna questioned. "Get some answers from him as soon as possible."

"Uh... I'll try." Samantha replied, still slightly overwhelmed.

Luna relaxed and took a deep breath. "Well, I'll deal with him whenever we find him. I don't think there's anything we can do now... We shouldn't let it ruin our day."

"Huh, I never thought you would say something like that!" Zephyr smirked at his sister, his mood suddenly lifted. "I didn't realise you were one for optimism."

Luna huffed. "Shut up. I just want to get on with it and get some food."

Elena nodded. "Alright." She took a deep breath. "I... Well, I don't think anyone's injured, so let's just buy our stuff and leave to get dinner."

Samantha's mind had already wandered off somewhere else, but she managed a small nod. She followed the others out of the aisle in an almost dream-like trance - what happened? Was he... not supposed to tell us that? Did someone control him?

Eventually, they found the cashier. They paid for their food and immediately left the store, still uneasy about Kane's actions. The tension finally faded when they reached the brightly lit, busy streets.

"Well, about food, I found this restaurant online and it seemed pretty good." Sharon offered. "On average, it was rated around 4.3 stars."

"I don't care as long as it's food." Luna eyed their bags of snacks hungrily. "If we don't get there quick, I might raid the snacks right here and right now."

Zephyr hugged the bag of snacks closer to himself and glared at Luna. "Don't even think about it."

Sharon was already trotting down the street. "Come on guys, this way!"

---

Thankfully, they'd had dinner without any interruptions. They paid for themselves and left the restaurant in a considerably better mood than before.

"You know, I heard that there are going to be more students joining our classes in the next week or so." Sharon commented. "I overheard something about it while passing by a few teachers."

"More students? There are already too many people here," Luna groaned. "I'm not ready to deal with more."

"Where's that optimism from before?" Zephyr joked, earning him a slap in the face with Luna's tail. "Shut up."

"I wonder if any of them are here right now." Elena remarked, looking around. "Do you think there'll be other species?"

Sharon's eyes lit up. "Ah, about that! I heard that there'll be a lot of other species since their acceptance into school was delayed or something." She sighed and shook her head. "I suppose it's about that thing in the past about the other species being lesser than dogs since there were... less of them. I hope the other students take to the new students - if they're other species - nicely."

"That's... nice of you to say." Samantha offered, after a long second of awkward silence.

"Uh, thanks?" Sharon chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Well, we'd better get back to our dorms. It's a school day tomorrow."

Elena sighed. "Ugh, school. Well, it's been fun hanging out with you - thanks for inviting us out."

"No problem!" Sharon smiled, then turned to face the bickering siblings. "Hey, guys, stop fighting. We're still in public."

The two reluctantly separated, still shooting each other glares or taunting looks as they walked.

"Yeah, thanks for inviting us." Samantha bobbed her head awkwardly. "And I'll try and find Kane at Science... whenever we have Science."

"You'd better. I'd like to have a few words with him myself." Luna growled. She took a few deep breaths and shook herself off. "I don't like being pushed around by strangers, after all."

"Please try not to go and beat him up at once if you do see him before Samantha asks about today, okay?" Sharon asked, flashing Luna her best puppy dog eyes. Luna scowled, but her expression softened and she nodded. "Hmph, fine. I'll... try."

They separated when they arrived at the dorms. They waved goodbye to Zephyr, who left to go back to his dorm, then to Sharon and Luna, who disappeared down the corridor a few minutes after.

Samantha opened the door with her key and closed it behind them once they both entered the room. Elena dropped her bag of snacks on the floor and immediately went to grab clothes. "I'm going to shower first. My fur's all sweaty and I desperately need to change."

"Eh, sure." Samantha flopped on her bed. "I'll get around to sorting out the snacks later. Just give me five minutes."

The bathroom door closed and the sound of water running turned on. Samantha stared up at the ceiling and stretched out her limbs. Finally, she reluctantly pulled herself to her paws and trotted to the bag of snacks.

"Hm... so, er, which were mine again...?"

---

{{ Dear Mirror,

I probably shouldn't have let Elena shower first. She's taking forever... as usual. Well, I've sorted through the snacks that we bought - we went snack shopping with Luna, Sharon and Zephyr just now.

Oh, yeah, right. Apparently we'd wandered a little too deep into the shopping mall - you know, where there's basically no one there and it's kinda creepy and stuff - and we came across Kane. Like, the guy from my Science class. Apparently, his power is to 'mute' everything or something... something about sound, anyways.

He didn't seem to remember how or why he went to the shopping mall, and that he'd either lost control of his power... or that he'd been using it on purpose. Or something. I don't even know how to explain it. He told us that he'd spoken to a girl... then he woke up there.

When Zephyr asked if the girl was holding anything, he went all weird again and ran away. We couldn't chase him down since... you know, we couldn't leave people behind, so I'm planning to confront him about it the next time I have Science.

Hey, you, er, Author. You claim to 'know everything' or something, so do you know what in Esbia happened back there? I mean, you probably don't, since you didn't even experience it. Why am I asking you about it? Hmph, whatever. I'll just... ignore you for now, then.

Actually, I do know. However... I can't tell you.

Hmph, come on, this again?! Seriously, you claim to 'know everything' but apparently you 'can't tell me'. How convenient.

If you say so. Now please, don't let me 'interrupt' you. Go on.

Ha. Very funny. Well, 'all knowing Author', you claim to know everything... but you've apparently missed out the fact that, well, that was it.

Well, there's a lot of other things you could've said.

Whatever you say. Well, I'm going to go and get ready to shower. Goodbye. }}