There was possibly nothing more dangerous than having a very convincing wordsmith in the academy.

Words have power, which is why the pen could rival the sword at times. While the sword taunted and stabbed its target, the words, spoken or written in ink, seeped into the mind and manipulated its target. Children and teenagers were akin to blank canvases, so pliable that words could mould their minds into any shape and form.

Mental pain was more agonising than physical pain. You could see people get pricked by a needle, registering that as pain. You could see people giving in to malicious thoughts and wielding a penknife right at their wrists. With the power of technology, people didn't have to meet face to face to chat or argue. Sometimes, you misinterpret others because you fail to read their emotions through the words they type. Cyber-bullying and flaming could very well jeopardise people's lives too.

Zayn knew that much. As a writer, he honed his pen well, hoping to spread positive messages through his thrillers. He wanted to expose the harsh truths of the world. In Healer Killer, he focused on the effects of cyber-bullying and the mastermind's pursuit of vengeance. And what of Yvette? Was it vengeance she sought?

Could it be... about Dad? Zayn creased his brows. Wait. Ever since Dad died, Mum's been emotional. Yvette and I aren't very close so we don't talk much or know much about each other. It's like we're almost strangers.

The more Zayn contemplated about it, the more he questioned Yvette's motive and plans. Somehow, he could not erase the feeling that he was directly tied to the whole Exitium Cult incident. Did he infiltrate the cult? Did he stop the ritual? That part had yet to come to him. If he was Amity's partner, surely he did stop the ritual?

Was he born with a Singularity or did it develop later in his life as if a part of puberty? Was it only unique to the twenty-three of them?

"Zayn, you're spacing out."

He pushed the voice away and knitted his brows. In Healer Killer, the ending of the story saw the survivor living for a while, consumed by guilt and driven by fear, and taking his life. It was a bloody game of Hangman in which each dead body was a mistake that propelled him to place his head on the noose. He left not a trace of Healer Killer as he smashed all the players' phones into bits and pieces of scrap. As his eyes rolled into whites, the first player to die opened the door to his room to collect his corpse and whispered, "I have completed my revenge."

Now, Zayn thought of Loralei, of the possibility of her faking her death. No, that's not possible. He watched her die.

"Zayn, you're spacing out."

Zayn did not shift his gaze. His surroundings were blurred, distant. The boy seemed to seal his breath. His thoughts ran on, about Valencia being his mother, the strange cruelty of a mother held hostage by her daughter, and him as a younger brother, having his memories erased.

It's most likely about Dad. Mum— no, Valencia's friend dragged Yvette to the church some time after that mishap. Then, Amity and I were told to infiltrate the church, so we're there throughout the ritual. Somehow, everything about that night is still blur...

"Zayn!"

The boy in question snapped his head at the voice and his surroundings grew clearer. The boy in front of him had brown hair and dark brown eyes that stared at him. He could feel a burst of anxiety and perhaps, anger.

"Sage." That was all Zayn could say.

"Are you alright?" Sage closed his laptop, his eyes not once leaving his roommate.

"I..."

"You?"

"Can you follow me? I want to meet Valencia."

Sage didn't know when it began, but some of the students didn't care about the honorific 'Madame'.

"Why? Is it because of Jade?"

"No." Zayn shut his eyes and laid on Sage's lap. "Yes. Her Singularity can cure basically everything. If Valencia snuck her in, that means she might want Jade to heal her, right?"

"I guess so," Sage said when Zayn opened his eyes. "If that's the case, why can't Jade heal Mei?"

"That's what we're about to find out."

「」

Mei did not know how her bottle of Geodon just vanished when she woke up. Jade told her that she went to Valencia's office but there weren't any bottles of it.

"Why don't we go to the school garden?" Jade tried to cheer her friend up. "Ciara and Jo wants to sleep more so we'll meet them later."

"Okay."

Sounds good. Jo seems to have something to say, so she's probably not as passive I thought. Mei hummed. Sayo's voice never returned, and all that remained were the 'benevolent voices'. Mei didn't see Sayo anymore either. Somehow, she felt emptier.

The walk to the garden wasn't long and the plants were still blooming well despite the cold weather. It had been a year since both girls entered the garden and now, everything seemed to be the same. Flowers of various shapes, sizes and colours sprung from bushes and wet soil. The garden was still as silent as it was a year ago.

"The flowers now have labels on them," Jade said. "They are all so beautiful!"

"They have sages here too. I wonder if Sage likes them." Mei paused in front of some vase-shaped shrubs, the pendulous, trumpet-shaped flowers catching her eye. They came in shades of red, yellow, orange and white. "An ornamental plant."

"You like it? It says here that it's called brugmansia. If they had the labels here last year, we'd actually know so much more."

"You know how I can't seem to live without my medicine? And that the powder is each capsule is less than the usual Geodon pills?"

"What do you mean, Mei-chan?"

"I don't think I'm eating medicine. It's brugmansia extract." Mei sucked in a breath. Wyatt gave it to Jade, right? That strong believer in science. How could I not realise it sooner?

"Huh?"

"Sometimes, I feel so confused and I have diarrhoea and migraine headaches from time to time. My mouth is usually dry and I have to drink lots of water. The voices, you said they are auditory hallucinations, and Sayo is a visual hallucination. These match the effects of ingesting brugmansia. Temporary insanity."

"You mean, you're not schizophrenic..." Jade scratched her head. "That's why I can't heal you."

"I don't understand. What about my thoughts?"

"Maybe you are born with disorganised thoughts? No, you could be schizophrenic."

"And Valencia?"

"She never asked me to heal her. She's religious, you know it, Mei-chan. She says Wyatt is more of a devil than an 'alter'."

"I think, she really has it." Mei bent down to look at the brugmansia flowers. She crouched and shifted her body sideways to face the purple and red sages. She touched the soil and sniffed it. "Jade, can you heal me of the effects of brugmansia? You have to direct Restore to the cause in order to use it and we know what it really is now."

"Okay." Jade placed her hands on Mei's forehead and a ball of light emerged, hitting the skin before dissipating into tiny sparkles. "Done." She gazed at Mei. "What are you looking at?"

Mei dug the soil with her fingers and felt something hard, a putrid odour swirling into her nostrils. In the soil used to grow sages was a phone amongst some clathrus archeri, the sprawling fungus seeming out of place as it unfolded its five elongated slender arms to reveal a pinkish-red interior covered with a dark-olive spore-containing gleba. There was no password needed and Mei quickly accessed the messaging app. There was nothing. She went on to look through the notes in the phone. Whose was it? Why was it there?

Tonight is the worst night of my life. I killed a boy's Aegislash with my Pokémon. I can't take it anymore. Luckily, the ritual was somewhat successful and I could flee. Yvette, the other co-leader, fused the Aegislash's genes with the boy using a pair of DNA splicers and disposed of the Pokémon. That's what I saw before I left.

It was a diary, Mei figured. Jade gasped beside her, finding the situation rather gross. Mei read the first diary entry.

It hurts a little, but Blade is there with me. I love my Gallade and Shrike the Gengar. I had been so cold previously but now I give him a nickname. I have friends I can trust. Sometimes, I see shadows out of nowhere and my head hurts. My heart hurts. I tell myself that everything would be okay, that everything would be fine. It's like I'm born a liar. One hour ago, I sank into my shadow and I was so scared. So paralysed. But they were there for me. Thank you Blade. Shrike too.

"This is... Sage's phone?" Jade muttered.

Mei read the tenth diary entry.

Today, Yvette observes me again. She is nice I think, but she hates black people. She hates them a lot. Anyway, Blade and I are the best pair (Shrike left us). We are not scared of her.

A woman Tarocchi Gardner (weird name) is the leader of the cult. She tells me to try using my power and train myself. She says I am special for a seven year-old boy because I am first to get a power. Also, she does fortune telling.

But I know I'm not born with that power. They call it Shadow Scar and tell me I can manipulate shadows and I can be invincible. I don't know but the day I got this Singoolaritee thingy, my other friend Shrike went missing. Shrike never came back.

"Sage was experimented on? But he was so young!" Jade said.

"That means we're all subjects."

"Human experimentation is immoral though. Why would they do that?"

"I don't know. I wonder if we have the same weaknesses as the Pokémon they used on us." Mei got up. "They kidnapped us and experimented on us. They have no care for morals.

"We humans created ethics and morals. In the past, no one cares. They hunt and kill as much as they want. When the Pokémon fought back, the humans thought they ought to create rules other than the law of the jungle. But, when you want to survive, when you want to preserve your kind, you throw morals out of the window. 'It's not something we can afford in times of survival,' they say."

"Mei-chan, what do we do? What can we do? This is bad. We need to stop Yvette. She might be experimenting on innocent people again!"

"We give this phone to Sage," Mei said between breaths as she walked out of the garden. "Then, we figure out a way for everyone to escape this Arceus-forsaken island."

「」

Sage left the office with Zayn and Blade, empty-handed and dejected. How was it that there was nothing in Valencia's office? Was it all in Yvette's room?

On their way down the flight of stairs, Zayn stopped, and Sage and Blade followed suit.

"Where did Valencia and Yvette go?" Zayn asked.

"Probably Kalos."

Zayn took a step forward and two girls entered his vision.

"Sage, we were looking for you!" Jade skipped a few steps. "We found something that might help you."

Blade's eyes landed on the phone in her hand and he fell. His knees felt weak.

"Blade, what's wrong?" Sage turned to the Gallade. In his peripheral vision, a boy with short brown hair ambled down the corridor, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone. The boy turned to walk up the stairs and elbowed Jade. The phones in their hands fell off their grips, and Ferro caught them swiftly.

The screen of the mysterious phone glowed and showed the most recent diary entry. Ferro scanned the words and scrolled through the other entries. Blade tried to stand. Sage cocked his head sideways.

Ferro's scream was earth-shattering and heart-breaking.