Early in the morning, before school starts, Lily is walking towards school and spots Tarutaru walking with Aoi. Lily waves at them and approaches. Tarutaru waves back, Aoi nods.
"Morning, Lily!" Tarutaru shouts.
"Good morning, blondie-chan," Aoi says and nods.
"Morning you two." Lily replies.
"Oh, have you two even met? I forget who knows who." Tarutaru says.
"Ah, I think we’ve seen each other around, and we met that one time at the cafeteria, right blondie-chan?" Aoi faces Lily and says.
"Yeah, I think we saw back then, but not much. My name’s Lilia, but everybody just calls me Lily. It’s nice to meet you."
"Ach, proper, blondie-chan, proper." Aoi says and smiles at Lily. The bells toll for lessons to start soon. "Oi. That’s our sign to go. See ya around you two, I gotta slip, I need to be early, we have an exam." Aoi waves at them and runs away. "Blondie-chan! Come find me one of these days, I gotta talk to you, and I need to tell you a thing or two." She shouts from afar and then runs inside.
Later, after lunch and when afternoon recess is over, Lily walks around and ends up in the 3rd Grade hallway and spots Aoi leaning to a wall, reading a book. Lily walks towards her.
"Richter-senpai…," she says nervously.
"Ah, blondie-chan! Eh, you don’t need to use -senpai here, we're not in Japan, you know…"
"I know, it’s just.. Feels natural because you use honorifics with us."
"True, and I don’t mind. Just, you don’t have to. But please, just Aoi is fine. Anyway, you had a question?"
"Yeah, I mean, I don’t know many Naturals. I don’t think there are that many at all, eh? I only know about You, Mr. Weller and.. Cotton Candy. But somehow you don’t… seem like a Natural? Ah, sorry, I meant nothing bad with it, just that Mr. Weller is so strict and doesn’t seem to care about anyone, Sometimes Cotton Candy seems like she’s not even human, she is so cold and doesn’t seem to care about anything, but—- You, you are so friendly and happy, you seem like you’re so different?"
"Ah, yes. Well, Mr. Weller is just a wrinkly old man, I think he’d be strict even if he wasn’t a natural, he isn’t even a high power one.. Oh, you probably don’t know they class us according to our power?"
"Power level?"
"Yeah, that’s one reason I can be relatively free with my feelings and what I do.. I’m only classed as a Level E Natural. We have six levels, from F to A. Fs are people who are really Naturals, but don’t really differ from Talents, they sometimes even need to learn spells like you do. We E-Level Naturals are the common - as long as you can call anything to do with us common. Most of the Naturals in the world are level Es. Our feelings become a problem only when they are really strong, like hate and deep sadness. Then there are the other levels. There was a level C in the 3rd grade when I started and he was almost as cold as Rosie-chan, but he did school work though. It’s much more difficult for the Bs to control their feelings and even a small bit of sadness can be dangerous. You remember the story the teacher tells you about the sad one who died? That person was a level D Natural if I heard correctly. The crater near the lake was a level B one."
"And Cotton Candy…?" Lily asks and looks down, blushing slightly.
"Rosie-chan.. Well, for context the school has had one level A Natural come through us decades ago. The school administration knows of another A level. They are that rare. Rosie-chan.. Rosie-chan’s an A. I think. Though it could be…"
"It could be… what?"
"It’s just… I don’t know if it’s my place to say even, but I know Rosie-chan, she wouldn’t mind if it’s you.. You see, the way they gauge our levels is they do this test and then this magical gadget thingy displays some numbers and they assign you a level. When Rosie-chan did her test, the device blanked out. And I happen to know that on that morning Rosie-chan was feeling anxious, so she took some pills to calm her down."
"So.. she blew up the meter while she was… sedated?!"
"Yeah… The school is actually quite afraid of Rosie-chan, and.. I don’t think Level A even begins to cover what Rosie-chan can do. That’s why… That’s why Rosie-chan must be extra careful. If you scare her suddenly and she reacts in self-defense without thinking… I don’t really care to think what could happen. I think we all should do our best not to cause Rosie-chan any additional grief…"
"Yes.. Rich—- Aoi-senpai, because we’re all humans and we can’t lock up our emotions for ever.. What do you Naturals do then? Do you have some way to release locked up feelings safely or…?"
Aoi grins a knowing smile. "So you like singing too, eh?"
Lily blushes, Aoi laughs gently
"Don’t worry, I’m just teasing.. Yeah, some of us do. Some... don’t. There are people who just bottle up them as they come and hide them deep within. Those people usually explode accidentally before they get old even. And I’m not talking metaphorically, the crater near the lake was not always there. It’s a sad story that I might tell you some other time. And yes, it’s for releasing emotions. It’s usually something artistic or expressive for us. I dance. I dance until I can’t anymore and fall asleep on the floor. It’s very.. Liberating."
"That’s.. that’s kind of beautiful."
"I guess you can see it that way, for most of us it’s a strict necessity to keep living, but.. Some of us enjoy the activities in and out of itself."
"Do you, erm, happen to know anyon—"
"Blondie-chan... you’re transparent. Yes, I do. But as for your question that you didn’t speak out loud - Yes, she sings. Once you’ve heard it one time, you can never quite forget the sound. It’s… otherworldly."
"Yeah…" Lily blushes, waves her hands around and shakes her head, "No, I mean, I can believe that, not that I have heard anything or… Don’t mind me, I—I just need to go now. I have.. Stuff to do. Thank you for the answers senpai!" Lily leaves in a hurry, Aoi stays there, smiling after her.
"You’re so easy to read, blondie-chan. Rosie-chan, you’re in it for good," Aoi mutters under her breath, closes her eyes and smiles widely.
ns 18.68.0.105da2
