Sarah patted my hand as I rolled her chair over to where Lei, Kun, and the others were.

I took a deep breath. "Sorry for running off like that. You probably wanted to hear what the girls had to say, didn't you?"

The princess held my hand tightly and shook her head.

I smiled. "Thanks for understanding, Sarah."

"Sarah! Nyima!" An said, waving cheerfully at us.

"Is something the matter?" Lei asked, blinking as he looked at me.

I shook my head and smiled. "I'm fine now."

He looked down at Sarah and chuckled. "Did you cheer her up?"

Sarah nodded.

"I wished I had a buddy like that!" Kun said, swinging his arms behind his head.

Hikaru laughed. "You want me to console you?"

"Yeah, feed me honey beef!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes and snickered. "Yeah, I don't think I will."

Kun chuckled and patted his back. "Good thing I'm not in low spirits then!"

"You triplets and your honey," I said, sighing. Well, at least Yen was less obnoxious about it.

Sarah nodded.

Lei and Kun pointed at each other and laughed. "Honey sweets life!" the two said in unison.

"Creepy!" Carter said, backing away from them.

Huo rolled his eyes, but I wasn't sure if it was at Carter or the boy triplets.

"What's creepy?" a pair of twins said, popping up behind Carter.

"Wahh! There's more lookalikes!" Carter yelled, jumping forward.

The two waged their fingers at him. "We aren't just lookalikes. We're Tashunke and Tasunke! Also, we're your seniors, so you better not be rude, ya hear, kid?"

Carter nodded.

"Never thought that anyone would see the twins as scary," a young man with long black hair said, crossing his arms.

Orion put a hand over his heart and sighed. "They almost gave me a heart attack last year."

"Nice of you to join us, Tahoma. How was the nap?" Ayawamat said, smiling at his cousin.

Tahoma grumbled.

"Rare of you to sleep in," Yuzuki said as she and the others joined us.

"Yeah, usually it's us!" Tashunke and Tasunke said, chuckling.

"That's not something to be proud of," Yen said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah," Huo said, glaring at them.

"Scary!" the twins said, backing away.

"Can we get going now?" Kanja asked. "We're going to be late for homeroom. We need to get our schedules too."

"You're right," Yuzuki said. She held out her hands and formed a vortex. "Everyone, form a single file line!"

"Woah, cool!" Carter said, running in.

Huo sighed. "He doesn't listen, does he?"

"We better go after him, before he gets lost," Lei said, running after Carter.

I waited for the others to jump in before following after them. It would've been stressing to get through the crowd with Sarah in tow. Unfortunately, Yuzuki's portal spat us out near a more crowded and noisy space, the school plaza.

"Couldn't she have picked a better place?" I asked.

Kun nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty hectic. Maybe more so than last year." He and Lidia surrounded Huo, pulling him away from the masses.

"Huo, calm down," Lidia said, patting him on the back.

Was his condition acting up again? Koukyuu hadn't specified, but she did let us know that Huo was sensitive to noice. As was Carter, as difficult as that was to believe given how loud that boy could be.

Sarah pointed at him.

"Right," I said, bringing her closer to him.

"My ears won't stop ringing," Huo said, wincing as he cupped his hands over his ears.

Sarah furrowed her brow.

I sighed. If only I had a sound-canceling spell. Tamara and Yen had both wandered on ahead, so I couldn't ask them if they had any they could use for Huo. Lidia and Sarah should've gotten the kid some headphones. Carter had some on him. If not, he would keep running into situations like this and last night's when I freaked him out.

What to do? I would've lent him my headphones, but I had left them back in the dorm and the portal had already closed. Water made sound travel easier, not block it, so a water barrier would've worsened things.

"I got an idea!" Kun said as air spun around him. "I can fly us up to the roof!"

Sarah smiled.

"That's a good idea!" Lidia said.

"Only issue is that the schedules are in the gymnasium in the first floor," I said, sighing. A smile dotted my face. "However, we could drop him off in homeroom and get his schedule for him."

"Another good idea!"

I let go of Sarah's chair and backed away. "Kun, I'll leave Sarah and Huo to you! I'll go get their schedules and yours!"

"Okay!" Kun said, forming a sphere of air around Sarah, Huo, and himself.

Huo winced and clung to Sarah.

Sarah patted him on the back.

"Poor Huo," Lidia said, frowning.

"You're not going with them?" I asked, turning to look at her.

She smiled. "I was thinking that I could get his schedule for him. That way you can focus on getting the princess and Kun's."

"True. Well, let's not waste any more time here."

Lidia nodded.

The two of us rushed into the school, well as much as we could given the number of students. I could see now why Nine Petal had limited the number of foreign students for this year. There were more natives to account for.

"Stay close," I said as we lined up. Well, 'lined' as it was all over the place.

"Got it," Lidia said, walking shoulder to shoulder with me.

"Nyima, Lidia!" Hal said, waving at us. "Where's the princess?"

"Kun took her by air. They're going to the homeroom, assuming it's the same class as last year," I responded.

"They're lucky then, not having to get squished or wait in this sorry excuse for a line."

Lidia huffed and crossed her arms. "If you saw what I did, you might not think that."

Hal gasped. "Did something bad happen?"

I took a deep breath. "Sort of. Huo had another sound-induced panic attack."

"It is more like overstimulation," Lidia said.

Hal sighed. "Surprised he didn't have one when we were fleeing from the Hierarchicans."

"Huo can be dependable during crisis. For some reason, his overstimulation takes a backseat."

"That's weird," I said, furrowing my brow.

"He was very tired afterward, though."

Hal scratched his ear. "We all were. But for those of us fighting, it was in the magical sense. War has a heinous impact on kids. Especially those who already experiencing challenges."

And that's why Iah gave himself up. They couldn't continue fighting any longer. If he hadn't, we wouldn't only have been missing him, but Hal too. Worse, they both might've been erased for good.

"Uh, you are a kid too," I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

He laughed. "True."

I sighed. "You, Ver, and Iah shouldn't even have been involved in the war."

"True, but Vermeil and I couldn't let H.E.H. continue occupying Sera."

"You wanted revenge for what Aida did to Sarah, didn't you?" Lidia said, frowning.

Hal nodded and clenched his hands into fists. "We also wanted to restore peace to your homeland."

Lidia smiled. "Well, I can't say that you shouldn't have done so. If you hadn't appeared when you did, those of us from the orphanage would've been shot by the Hierarchian military."

I put my hands on my hips and smiled. "At least some good came out of your time there," I said.

Hal looked down. "Yeah, but there are still so many more people who need saving."

"Leave that to the adults. I know this sounds harsh, but you'll only get in the way."

He closed his eyes. "You're right. We did get in the way of the adults. If I hadn't told Iah to have gone back then maybe Dad and the others could've figured something out to have stopped Jianguo. Like how Xun, Mom, and the others had done for his wife."

Lidia shook her head. "You also bought them valuable time on several occasions." She stepped forward as the crowd finally began to move once again.

He sighed. "Did we?"

I took another deep breath. "It's not useful to dwell on such stuff."

"You're probably right." Hal gasped.

I frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I realized, how does Kun plan to enter from the rooftop? It's locked."

Lidia and I blinked. He was right...

My phone vibrated.

"Is that them?" Lidia asked as I reached into my blazer pocket for it.

"It is Kun," I said, swiping the screen. "Huh..."

"What?" Lidia asked. "What did he say?"

"They're in the classroom. He also sent this picture." I turned my phone and showed them a picture of Kun holding up some hairpins victoriously.

Hal laughed. "Good old Kun. Guess he doesn't wear those just for fashion, huh?"

I smiled. "Seems that head of his is good for something other than making jokes and thinking of honey on a twenty-four-seven basis."

Lidia sighed. "I'm glad for Huo and Sarah, but how long until we get our schedules?"

"Could take half an hour or more," Hal said, staring at his tablet.

She lowered her head. "Couldn't they have handed them to us in our dorms or sent them digitally to those with devices?"

Hal shrugged. "Nine Petal might be tech savvy, but they are also oddly traditional about this stuff."

"That's an odd combo if you ask me."

I chuckled. "You're right."

"Indeed," a voice called out. The three of us turned and saw Koukyuu. "As Hal said, Kyuu Seishin loves its technology, but its bureaucracy is still stuck in the previous century. The same goes for the administration of its schools, public and private. The recent budget issues haven't helped either, making it harder for my brother to reform it."

"Your brother is the school dean?" Lidia asked.

Koukyuu smiled. "Guess that neither Sarah nor Hal told you. Yeah, Dean Shin'en Zettai is my big brother!"

Lidia giggled. "You sound awfully proud of him."

Our teacher turned away. "Well, he is my big brother."

I chuckled. "I wouldn't know that feeling, being the oldest," I said, stepping forward.

"I know it, but only thanks to Dan!" Hal said, grinning.

Lidia lowered her head.

"You okay? Why the long face?" Hal asked.

She turned away and rubbed her arm. "I was thinking of Dyl, my big brother..."

"You have an older brother too?" Koukyuu asked. "Biological or one of the kids at the orphanage?"

Yikes, and people called me direct!

Lidia sighed. "My blood brother. He helped take care of me after our parents died. He... he wasn't fond of the idea of us growing up in the orphanage, having heard tales of the abuses in some of the other orphanages."

"Did he not go with you?" Hal asked.

"He eventually did, but he left when he turned sixteen to join the army. None of us have heard from him again. Not even the princess could figure out what happened to him."

"H.E.H. might've gotten to him," Koukyuu said, turning away.

Lidia cusped her mouth.

"The idea hadn't occurred to you before? I thought it was an obvious assumption to make. Especially after what happened to Nia."

Lidia's arms dropped. "Brother joined the army for her sake. If the same fate reached him then..."

"Could be they killed him. Or maybe, Sera holds a dark side of its own," Koukyuu said, walking away. "Well, I better get going! Have to prepare stuff for my class!"

A dark side? Did she mean what I thought she did?

Hal hugged Lidia as she began to tear up. "It's alright. It's all just conjecture. He could've just isolated himself to protect you."

That was possible. It wouldn't be too different from what that knucklehead prince did...

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**