The Simulacrum - Chapter 42 - Part 3 & 4

Part 3

"Morning," I greeted Josh when I reached my desk.

"Hi," he returned the greeting with a lazy wave of his hand, not even bothering to change his slacker posture in his seat. "You are late."

"I had to pick up the girls on the way, and we kind of lost track of time," I explained myself as I put my bag down onto the desk.

"Go ahead and explode, you normie," he told with an annoying grin plastered on his face, and I automatically rolled my eyes.

"That was not only a tired old meme, but it also isn't even applicable to me. F minus, see me after class."

My friend let out a mild, noncommittal chuckle and deflected by asking me, "Speaking of your girlfriends," he said while putting an obnoxious amount of emphasis on the 's' at the end of the word, "where are they? I didn't see them come in."

"Judy said she had to go to the toilet. As for Elly, she is probably still pestering my sister."

"Pestering?" He raised a rather elegant skeptical brow, as if just to mock my own efforts in the field of eyebrow-raisoligy, but I refused to let it bother me. "Are they fighting again?"

"Nah. If anything, they are too friendly." Josh still looked skeptical, so I dismissed him with a quiet 'you will get it when you see it' whispered under my breath as I sat down. "What about Angie and the class rep? I am not seeing them anywhere," I inquired while deliberately glancing around.

"They left to get some papers for the teacher," he said as he slouched even lower in his chair. "Something about a questionnaire about the cultural festival before Christmas I think."

"Wait, we have cultural festivals?" I blurted out a surprised question the moment it surfaced in my mind, and Josh responded with a firm nod.

"Yeah, it's on the week before winter break," he clarified while finally returning into a more sensible sitting position. "If it goes like last year, then first we will have an open day on Thursday, where the parents sit in during classes, then the actual cultural festival happens on Friday, where every class has to set up a stall or an attraction, and then on Saturday evening we are going to have the Christmas ball."

"Really? Sounds like it will be a busy weekend."

"Yeah," Josh spoke with a tired sigh. "Last year we had a haunted house in the classroom. It was okay. I only had to move the sets with the other guys," he reminisced with a nostalgic smile, but then his expression quickly clouded over and he added, "but then I had sore muscles all over and could barely move the next morning, and then Angie got mad at me because I couldn't accompany her to the Christmas ball."

"So it's like a prom?"

"Something like that," Josh shrugged.

"And Angie invited you to it?"

"Yeah. She said something about how she couldn't bear the thought of her childhood friend being a wallflower at the ball, so she would sacrifice herself and accompany me even if it would completely mess up her plans for the evening. Then, when I couldn't go because I could barely walk, she refused to talk to me for a week. Girls can be weird sometimes."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I wrote off my friend's denseness induced misconceptions with a slow shake of my head, but then I fell silent for a moment as I ruminated on an idea. "Say, Josh? Now that we are speaking about girls being angry at us and whatnot, can I actually ask you for a bit of advice?" I asked him in the end after long and arduous consideration.

Granted, asking him of all people in regards of women-troubles might have sounded monumentally dumb, probably because it was, but I had to consider my options, and since my only other male 'friends', by a loose definition of the word, were a giant half-ram muscleman and the father of one of my girlfriends, my choices were rather limited for this kind of discussion. As such, I decided to bite the bullet and ask Joshua, sink or swim. I mean, even a dense clock is right twice a day, so it was at least worth a shot.

"Sure," he answered without hesitation. "If I can help, I will." He momentarily paused here and then hastily added, "However, I cannot promise I won't make fun of you in the process."

"How gracious of you to warn me ahead of time," I grumbled aloud, yet my friend only gave me a toothy smile in return. I let out a small sigh and ultimately said, "So, here's the deal: yesterday I went out and tracked down the guys who ambushed you in the afternoon, during which I got a tiny bit injured. Nothing major."

"Oh," Josh responded by once again raising a supremely executed, curiously raised eyebrow. "I was meaning to ask about the band aid on your face."

"Yeah, I will have Angie take care of that…" I muttered, then after a momentary pause I added, in a tired whisper, "Geez, just how many times have a repeated this explanation already…?"

"Excuse me?"

"Nah, I'm just grumbling," I told Josh while shaking my head. "Where were we?"

"The point where you got injured," he clarified.

"Right, there. Okay, so here's the thing: After I came back home, Judy got really mad at me. As in, genuinely angry. We already made up, I think, but it still bothers me." Josh gave me a look that told me he still didn't get my point, so I decided to be blunt. "To put it simply, I get her point. She doesn't want me to get hurt. I can see her point, as I don't want me to get hurt either. I mean, duh, right?"

"Right," Josh nodded, though he still seemed a little lost.

"So now that we are clear on that, I also get why she was mad at me. I think it's something called 'anger born of worry' or somesuch; you might have heard about it? Anyhow, I really don't want Judy to be angry with me, but I already know that I will inevitably have to take risks in the future, which means she will get angry over it. However, if I don't take such risks, then we might get blind-sided by even bigger threats, and if I get hurt then, she will be just as angry with me. It's a total Catch 22, I tell you."

"And how exactly can I help you with this?" Josh finally cut in, and based on his still confounded expression, my explanation of the problem was less than stellar.

I took a deep breath, tried to reiterate my point, but at last I just deflated with a sigh and told him, "Honestly, I don't know. I am open to any and all suggestions."

"Hm," Josh let out a low noise and he pondered for a couple of seconds. "You said that you will inevitably have to take risks. Are you sure about that?"

"Let's just say that there are things only I can do, meaning I must do them myself," I told him a tad bit cryptically.

"Okay, then why don't you try to keep it a secret from her?"

I gave my friend a cutting glare and replied, "That's just a recipe for a disaster. Don't even joke about it."

"Fine, fine! No need to bite my head off, geez..." Josh complained with an annoyed grimace. "So you can't hide it and you can't avoid it. Can't you at least lessen the risk of whatever this thing is that only you can do?" I gestured for him to continue this train of thought, and after taking in a shallow breath he leaned closer and told me in a whisper, "For example, when we were ambushed yesterday, the girls told me to stay safe, but I couldn't just sit still while they fought those Sprocket robots. I didn't want to get in their way, since they are obviously way more experienced in this kind of situation than I am, so in the end I stayed back and only used the wind blast spell that Lili taught me to support them as much as I could."

"And how exactly is that applicable to my situation?" I asked the million Jen question.

"I can't put it into words well," he muttered on while scratching the back of his neck. "What I am trying to say, I think, is that if you already know that you will be in danger ahead of time, then you should show her that you are trying to lessen it with your actions. Like, if you know you are going to be in a situation where you might get injured, then get some padded clothes or armor or something to show that you are aware of the danger and you are doing your best to mitigate it. That way she will be less worried, and even if you do get injured, you can point at it to prove that you tried your best to avoid it."

"That's... actually some really good advice," I mumbled as I digested his words. 

"Is it?" he asked back a little sheepishly. "I still don't think I managed to put my ideas into words properly."

"No, I understand your point perfectly," I reassured him with a genuine smile. "Thanks, man. I owe you one."

"Don't mention it," he replied with an honest smile of his own, but then it immediately turned mischievous when he added, "But if you really want to thank me, you could always treat me to some foie gras."

That was the point where my smile vanished faster than a toupee in a hurricane. 

"Don't tell me we actually have that in the cafeteria..."

"We sure do!" he told me with a toothy grin. "How about we have lunch there for a change?"

"We can't," a new voice denied his suggestion, and quite harshly at that, making Josh jump in his seat in surprise.

"Hi, class rep," I casually greeted the sneaky newcomer. "Are you sure you are a mage and not a ninja?"

The class rep hastily glanced around and then reprimanded me with a low, "We are in public."

"Nobody is paying attention to us. Also, let's backtrack a bit first. Why can't we eat in the cafeteria again?"

"It's not about food," she told me firmly. "We need to meet on the rooftop at lunch break. I have important things to discuss."

"Such as?" Josh asked back with a glint of curiosity in his eyes, but he was quickly shut down by Ammy.

"Not here. Too many onlookers," she told us in a hushed voice. "Let me repeat this, just to be clear: don't go to the cafeteria, we must all meet up on the roof."

Her insistence was a little suspicious, but at the same time she sounded genuine enough, so after a moment of hesitation (which she obviously noticed) I gave her a big nod.

"All right. Lunch on the roof then," I confirmed, and only then did she stop frowning at me.

"Also, stop talking about things you should not talk about in public, while in public," she warned me and then she turned around and headed for her desk. I followed her with my eyes for a few seconds, then I let out a deep breath and glanced over my shoulder back at Josh.

"… What are you doing?" I inquired after taking in the sight of my friend looking into the invisible distance with a look of sorrow in his eyes.

"I really wanted to try foie gras," he answered with a despondent voice, prompting me to let out a groan in response.

"I am happy to see you are back to normal after all that happened recently, but I didn't miss your obsessions with using me to pay for your overpriced food."

"It's not overpriced!" Josh denied my words with such vehemence it even startled me. "Authentic foie gras is made from the livers of French Mullard ducks specifically bred from this purpose and fattened up by gavage! It's one of the world's foremost delicacies!"

"Just one question," I interrupted as I pointed my palms towards him to keep Josh at bay. "What the hell is a 'gavage'?"

"Oh, that's just the French word for force-feeding the ducks with a feeding tube," he explained as matter-of-factly as if it was common trivia.

"Isn't that animal abuse?"

"I suppose," he admitted, albeit a little reluctantly. "I've heard it's illegal to make it at most places, and that's why it costs so much to import foie gras."

"In other words, its supply is low, so it's overpriced," I concluded, and Josh gave me such a hurt look in return that I couldn't help but shake my head and add, "Fine, I will buy you some artificially fattened Mallard liver or something. Are you happy now?"

"It's Mullard, but yes," he told me with a shit-eating grin.

I let out an only ever so slightly exasperated sigh and then turned away from Josh. As they say, the more things change, the more they remain the same…

Part 4

"The weather is surprisingly mild today," I noted to no one in particular as we walked under the metal doorframe of the rooftop access and into the open.

"I'm still a little cold," Judy told me as she very deliberately shortened the distance between the two of us while we still kept walking side by side. I already knew what that meant, so I stifled a low chuckle and gently wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her even closer. She let me do so without any complaints, and she might have even breathed out a comfortably little sigh in the process as well.

"Does this mean you are officially no longer angry with me?" I playfully asked her, and my dearest assistant let out a huff in return.

"It just means I am colder than I am angry right now," she retorted and pointedly turned her face away from me.

"Dooooormooouse…?" I cajoled her for a second, but since she only huffed in indignation made entirely transparent by the fact she was still sticking to me like my shadow, I continued with, "I already promised I will be a good boy. Can you forgive me please?"

My girlfriend glanced up at me and was immediately taken (or shocked, one or the other) by my best puppy-eyes impression and, at last, she relented by saying, "Fine. You are on probation until further notice; just stop giving me the bedroom eyes."

"What? These are not bedroom eyes!" I protested with all the righteous indignation of the falsely accused.

"So you are telling me you are not interested in me? Probation extended."

"Aw, come on. Not this again…"

Fortunately it was around this time that Angie and Elly also exited the roof access and so I quickly greeted them before my dear probation officer could find more reasons to roast me. However, before I could get a word in, the princess suddenly pointed a familiar (and lately rather rare) accusatory finger at the girl clinging to me.

"Hey! We agreed that today's my turn!" she exclaimed as she made her way over to me and grabbed hold of my free hand, a process which was made slightly more complicated than necessary by the large, multi-layered lunchbox she had in her other hand.

"The early bird catches the Chief," my assistant stated with the verbal equivalent of a disinterested shrug.

"But I couldn't get here earlier because I had to bring our lunch!" My draconic girlfriend's protests were further emphasized by her waving the large box around like it was weightless. 

"Oh, right. In that case, I suppose you are entitled to your share of cuddling," Judy declared as if it was obvious.

"So? Why aren't you letting go of Leo yet?"

"It's cold," she stated again as she nuzzled even closer to me.

"It's not! It's actually…" Elly began, but then a moment later her eyes lit up and he declared in high spirits, "I mean, yes, it's obviously cold! Brrr! Leo, warm me up too!"

Before I could respond in any shape or form, she practically flung herself at my chest, almost throwing all of us off-balance. Thankfully my well-honed girl-catching reflexes didn't let me down, and I managed to grab hold of her and pull her into a one-handed embrace.

"Careful there. If you want to snuggle, just say so. I'm big enough for two."

It was at this point that my ears picked up a series of snickers coming from nearby and I glanced up towards their source.

"Awww… You guys are so cute together!" Angie teased us with her usual wild abandon that knew not the face of mercy, her sharp words cutting into my fragile emotions like not particularly sharp things cutting into not particular solid stuff, and a long story short, my face might or might have not gotten a tiny little bit flushed. Thankfully there was no photographic evidence, so I could easily deny it to my grave.

Anyhow, I glanced around the empty rooftop, with only our slowly swelling group on it, and I couldn't help but wonder aloud. 

"Where is the class rep? Wasn't she the one who really wanted us to come here?"

"Last I saw her, she was going down to the basement," the princess told me with her head still buried in my chest. "I saw her through the first-floor window," she hastily clarified, though she didn't really need to.

"And what about the others?"

"Josh went down the stairs to get Neige. They should be here any moment," Angie answered my question while glancing over her shoulder, and lo and behold, it was the moment when the two missing sheep have returned to the flock.

"Hi guys," Josh greeted us as if we haven't seen each other in a while. "Hey, Leo? Did you know that the cafeteria offers packaged meals that we can take home? Even for premium menus? Just sayin'."

He accentuated his last sentence by a frankly cheesy wink, and I couldn't help but let out a soft groan at the sight.

"You will get your stupid up-marked duck liver, okay? Stop pestering me already!"

"It's not stupid." Josh's retort was lacking in impact, and for the better, I'd say, as I really didn't want to get into another argument about his culinary tastes at the moment. Afterwards he also glanced around and asked, "Where's Ammy?"

"Good question," I replied under my breath.

In the meantime Elly finally slipped out of my embrace and she, along with Snowy, began to unpack her lunchboxes onto a nearby bench. The morning bonding session apparently worked unexpectedly well, as the two of them seemed to be getting along swimmingly. 

We spent the next couple of minutes with inconsequential small talk about schoolwork and other mundane things, carefully avoiding anything related to the supernatural zaniness suffusing our lives as of late. I am not going to lie; it felt really nice to just chat about random stuff instead of any heavy topics. But then of course, such a nice, cozy atmosphere couldn't have lasted long, as just around the time when we were about to sit down and start snacking from the lunchboxes (they were big, but not big enough for six meals for six people), the access door abruptly opened, revealing an entirely expected face in the process.

"Why is the roof so high?" The first words coming out of the heaving class rep's mouth were somewhat baffling, but not as much as the large, matter silver briefcase she was carrying using both of her arms. It was the kind that you would see in one of those tacky TV game shows to stand in for money. Anyhow, it seemed pretty heavy, and I was about to walk over and help her carry it, but Josh beat me to the punch. She gave the guy a shy, appreciative smile in return. It was an expression she hadn't shown me for ages, and I was entirely happy about that. I could do with a little less scowling though. Anyhow, for some reason she took out a large key and she promptly locked the only door to the roof, which inevitably raised a few eyebrows, including mine.

"Everyone is here. Good." Her eyes swept across our group clustered around the bench, and it looked like she was about to continue when her gaze snapped back and she muttered a confused, "What are you doing?"

"… Are you talking to me?" Elly asked while using one hand to point at herself. Her other hand, at the moment, was quite occupied with petting a certain younger sister of mine.

"Of course I am talking to you," Ammy stressed with an expression that hovered in the borderlands between baffled and exasperated and she ultimately squeezed out, "Why are you… why are you stroking her head?"

"Oh, that? It's for building kinship," she stated like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You should try it, it's amazing! When you do it, it's like all your worries in the world melt away!"

"Really?" Angie suddenly chimed in from the side, her eyes all but sparkling with interest. "Can I try it too?"

Elly sent me a questioning gaze, so I told them, "Don't look at me. Ask Snowy if she minds or not."

"Uuuaa…" My little sister was apparently in a tight spot for a moment, but at last she nodded, and without any further ado, the Celestial girl immediately trotted over to her side and began tousling her hair, prompting her to let out another soft sound.

"You have to be gentler," Elly chided her as she moved Angie's hand away and straightened Snowy's hair a little. "You have to do it like this," she instructed her, and after following her lead, the resident hyperactive girl let out a soft giggle.

"You are right, it's strangely calming."

"It's the magic of little sisters," I told them with a sagely nod.

"Hey, Josh! You have to try this!" Angie prompted her somewhat uncomfortable childhood friend, but before he could do or say anything, the class rep cleared her throat so loud I was afraid she hurt herself in the process.

"Please stop that and pay attention to me. This is important."

After she gained everyone's attention (with maybe the exception of Angie, who was for some reason still rubbing my sister's head), Ammy dramatically pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and stated, "Just yesterday, you have been attacked by an unknown group!"

For a few seconds there was a kind of awkward silence hanging in the air, but since everyone seemed too confused to say anything, I decided to break the ice by a rather subdued, "So?"

Ammy glanced at me while doing that thing where she somehow managed to adjust her glasses in a way it felt more menacing than staring a Faun in the eye and she said, "How can you all be this defenseless just a day after the fact?!"

"It wasn't that big a deal though," Elly muttered while casually plucking a piece of fried fish from one of the boxes on the impromptu table. "Not to mention, Leo already has them in his palm."

"Figuratively speaking," I hastily added, but I still received a withering frown from the class rep all the same.

"Stop joking around. Whoever these people are, they pose a real threat. Just the fact that they managed to operate on the island without our School's knowledge means they must be well-organized and dangerous, and they are probably after Joshua." 

I had my objections on the tip of my tongue, but after some consideration, I ultimately swallowed them back down. I was curious about where she was going with this, so I subtly prompted her to continue. For some odd reason she kept eyeing me in a blatantly suspicious manner, but when I didn't say anything, she finally seemed to resolve herself to continue.

"So, as I was saying, we are facing an unknown threat that could strike us at any moment. I talked with grandfather about this, and while he said we cannot afford to spare any School personnel to guard you 24/7, he allowed me to use the resources of the artificer department."

"You mean those weird guys with the glowing orb?" Josh cut in, and for once his dreaded critical brow of skeptical incredulity was pointed at someone else other than myself.

Now as I thought about it, the last (and only) time we visited the School under the school, the rest of the gang took a guided tour of the facilities while I was having my discussion with a certain smug arch-mage in his chambers. I had Judy describe me the place, and the most vivid part of her report concerned the huge circular chamber with a giant floating orb of some blue material in the middle surrounded by concentric circles of workbenches. Her description actually sounded strangely sci-fi, and so it left a bit of an impression on me.

Anyhow, Ammy turned to Josh and countered his eyebrow with her patented adjustment of her glasses and she forcefully stated, "They are not weird. They are very nice people, and they are also very passionate about their work."

"Yes, but they talked weird and they wanted to take Lili's blood and even took all kinds of measurements," Josh continued his argument unabated.

"Indeed," the class rep nodded as if she was waiting for him to say that and she picked up the metal briefcase by her feet. "It was for this." Saying so, she clumsily undid the simple locks and opened up the lid of the case.

The inside was padded with a kind of spongy black material, and embedded in it were five small objects. At first glance they looked like oversized toy wristwatches made of some cheap plastic, and each of them was colored differently and… and…

"Oh no…" I whispered under my breath, but it seemed like no one could hear me.

"We have already discussed the inconvenience that barriers pose when transforming in the past," the class rep spoke to the group, completely disregarding my probably quite shocked appearance.

"Exploding clothes?" Josh ventured a guess, and she nodded with approval.

"Precisely. Since we could be attacked at any moment, it is important that you would be able to respond immediately without having to worry about your modesty being compromised afterwards."

"So you brought us watches?" Elly inquired as she leaned forward to inspect the items in question.

"They are not watches," Ammy denied while she walked over and set the whole briefcase onto the bench beside the lunch box. "They are minor artifacts enchanted by the best of our artificers."

"Really?" Angie peeked over her shoulders and let out a soft 'Ooooh!', as if what she was seeing was really impressive.

"What do they do?" Josh asked next and, following his lead, the rest of the group also crowded around the bench… well, except for me and Judy, that is.

"To put simply, they are specialized summoning tools. Upon activation, they remove all clothing items worn by the user and store them in a pocket space. After that, they immediately summon a full suit of defensive gear tailor-made for the user and enchanted with various protective wards. It is similar to my own combat garment, except without any customization."

"What exactly does that mean?" came the next question from Angie, her body language clearly broadcasting that she really, really wanted to try out this new 'toy' in front of her.

"The artificers already had to work overtime to finish them so quickly, so right now they should look very simple. According to the description they gave me, it should be a form-fitting, mono-colored body-suit with protective wards and designed not to interfere with natural barriers, allowing the users to use their abilities without fully transforming. They also have handy helmets with face-masks, in case you are in public and you need to hide your identities."

"Oh nooo…" I once again whispered, but only Judy paid any attention to me, and even she only did so briefly.

In the meantime the class rep took out one of the non-watches and handed it over to Elly.

"Be careful. Each and every suit was made using your individual measurements for a perfect fit, so make sure you don't accidentally mix them up. Thankfully the artificers had the foresight to color-code each of the artifacts." I was just about to let out another big no, but then the class rep added, "Also, the suit themselves are color-coded as well," so in the end I decided to go with a huge no instead.

"Nooooo…"

"Chief, stop that. It's annoying," Judy chided me, but I only gave her a curt 'No.', so she rolled her eyes with an expression that said she didn't even know why she bothered with trying. 

Meanwhile, everyone picked up an article of their own, including the class rep. At this point she turned to the two of us and she showed us a remorseful expression.

"Sorry, but we couldn't make suits for you two. We didn't have Leo's measurements for the fitting, and as for you Judy, since the triggering mechanism requires some form of magical input, it would be useless for you." She paused here for a long moment, and then she hastily added, in a voice reminiscent of the old, slightly awkward class rep, "B-But don't worry! I asked some people for passive protective talismans, they just take longer to make! I didn't forget about you, I swear!"

"It's okay, I believe you," Judy told her, though her words still felt like they had a hidden edge to them. Apparently Ammy didn't notice, as she let out a relieved breath and faced the rest of the group again, who wasted no time and were all wearing their new toys on their wrists already. Speaking of which, just what the heck were these things called again?

Judy must have read my mind, as the moment the question reared its head in my mind, she immediately voiced it.

"What are these artifacts called?"

The class rep glanced back at her and told us, without the slightest bit of reservation, "The artificers called them 'Transmorphers'."

It was at this moment that I glanced down at my girlfriend and whispered to her, "Well, that's it then. We are screwed."

"Chief, could you please stop being so overdramatic?" she whispered back. I thought about it for a moment, and I decided to reply in the only way that was fitting for the situation.

"Noooooooooooooooo…"