After the puppet was defeated, Jody noticed something strange happening to its body.
From the center of its torso… a hidden compartment suddenly opened up—from the inside—and something was crawling out.
"…?!"
Jody aimed an air bullet at it, but then realized the person coming out wasn't a stranger—it was Syd Barrett.
"Syd?!"
"Jody…"
But he wasn't alone. He was dragging out the unconscious body of Seraphina as well.
"Syd?! What happened?! Why were you inside the puppet?!"
It didn't make any sense. The puppet wasn't even big enough to hold two people.
"This damn puppet… it had some kind of special hollow space inside. It stuffed me in there… then eventually tossed Emo in after me, too. I tried to open the damn thing from inside but nothing worked. Freakin' nightmare."
Jody wrapped an arm around Seraphina's body.
"Don't worry. She's just unconscious. A slap or two and she'll be fine."
"That compartment…"
Jody looked toward the space Syd had crawled out from. It looked like… a portal—like a doorway to another dimension.
"What was it like inside?"
"Pitch black. But huge."
Syd looked around the room.
"Whoa… you wrecked this place fighting that puppet?"
"Well, it was really fast…"
"No kidding. That thing was insanely fast."
Jody walked over and placed a hand on Syd's shoulder.
"Thank you, Syd… for leaving your energy behind."
"I knew you could handle it."
They looked at each other. Jody gave him a grateful smile.
"Ugh…"
"Seraphina?"
Jody gently shook Seraphina after hearing her groan—she was waking up.
"Jody…?"
Seraphina glanced around the room.
"I was watching your back… and then suddenly everything went black. What happened…?"
Once she could sit up on her own, Jody let her go—but still stayed close, keeping an eye on her.
"I'll explain later…"
Jody turned to Syd Barrett.
"I still don't get it. Why could that puppet move on its own?"
"Why don't you ask your principal?"
Syd pointed behind Jody, and when she turned, she saw a short, middle-aged man—Principal Collins—crawling out from under the guest table, trying to sneak toward the door.
"No one told you Jody's got super hearing, huh? Or were you too busy cashing checks to bother finding out, huh, Principal?"
Collins looked toward them. All three students standing there were easily at least ten centimeters taller than him. His brown aura was beginning to fade… and the marionette sigil on his body was cracking.
"P-please! I'm begging you! Don't hurt me!"
Despite his pleas, Syd had already grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up off the ground.
"Seraphina… I know you just woke up, but could you go recreate the doorknob and lock so we can shut the door properly? I don't want any interruptions."
"…Sure…"
"And both of you… if you don't mind, I'd like to invite you to help me settle a score with this old bastard. What do you say?"
When Syd said that, Collins saw the three students smiling down at him—smiling like they'd been holding this in for a long time. They stepped toward him together.
"With pleasure…"
At that moment, Principal Collins knew… his fate was sealed.
After the "chat" with Principal Collins:
"180504, reporting in. The principal is a power user. His power isn't in himself—it's in an object. A wooden marionette. He can control it remotely… and the hollow inside its torso is some kind of dimensional pocket. A massive interior. It can only move when no one's looking. I repeat: only when unobserved. We've got enough evidence to nail this cow-head principal. Sending it all now."
[Copy that. We've received your data—including the next target.]
"I dug through his emails and had a little talk with the guy. He spilled everything. Total coward. Said the map and strange symbols on his computer were just copies. The real source? Mr. Lake. He said those symbols are some kind of 'coded message' that supposedly leads to an organization. One that's probably… working against us."
[Another enemy faction, huh? Got it. I'll alert HQ.]
"I pressed Collins further. He claimed he didn't know what the codes meant. Tried to crack them but failed. We got to him before he made any progress. Asked him about the Disk—he didn't know much, just said Lake was the one who passed the Disk to the priest here. Could be a lie… but he and the priest seem like mid-level pawns."
[No worries. I've already dispatched another team to clean up after this one. They'll send back a report after they interrogate the target again.]
"Understood."
[All the evidence we need to shut down the school is in place. Just waiting for the right time to announce it. When that day comes, they'll know we're here.]
"Absolutely."
[Over and out.]
"…"
Click.
Syd removed his earpiece and walked out of the shadows, heading back to the school café.
There, Jody and Seraphina were already waiting.
There was no need to explain the attention they were getting—the whole café was buzzing with confusion. After all, it wasn't long ago that Seraphina was known for clashing with them… but now here she was, chatting with them like close friends.
Seraphina cast a sharp glare at the surrounding students as if to say, "What the hell are you staring at?"—which was more than enough to shut them up.
"Syd… you just tied Principal Collins up in his office and walked away? Won't that be a problem?"
Jody asked, worried.
"Nope. Because the moment he laid eyes on me, his fate was sealed."
"…What do you mean?"
"There's another team. They're taking over from here."
Syd pointed to the crowd behind them.
When Jody and Seraphina turned, they saw the usual bustle of students. But amid them was a pair—one man, one woman—both in dark glasses. At first glance, they looked like teachers. But then they nodded at Syd in silent acknowledgment.
Syd nodded back.
The pair walked off in the direction of the principal's office.
Jody and Seraphina stared, stunned.
"…Who are they?"
"They're the cleanup crew. Their job is to extract Collins and take him to the hidden base for further interrogation. The priest got picked up too—I just didn't mention it. That's their job. Ours is to keep investigating."
When the two girls turned back, they saw Syd holding a slice of Jody's toast in one hand, and Seraphina's tea cup in the other.
He hadn't stolen everything, but he did swipe just enough from each of their plates to be annoying.
"…I don't feel safe," Seraphina muttered.
"And what's your definition of 'safe,' exactly?" Syd asked.
"…I don't know. But it feels like your people can reach me whenever they want… I feel like I'm in prison…"
"The best prison is one that convinces the prisoner they're free… that's our world."
Syd popped the toast into his mouth, chased it down with Seraphina's tea, then placed the half-empty cup back on her tray.
"Hey! If you're gonna take it, at least finish it!"
"Come on, I left some for you."
"No thanks! Gross!"
"Haaah…"
Syd turned to look at Jody. They both smirked, exchanging knowing glances—fully in sync with their silent judgment of Seraphina.
But the English girl wasn't clueless. She could tell exactly what they were thinking.
"Hey! You stole it, Syd! And now I have to apologize to you?!"
"'Now I have to apologize to you'—uh huh, of course. Rich people like you never wanna share stuff with us commoners anyway."
Syd mouthed the words mockingly, taking another sip of her tea with the most irritatingly smug expression imaginable. Seraphina really wanted to punch his face in right there and then—but she knew it'd be pointless. She'd probably get countered.
"Cut him some slack, Seraphina," Jody said.
"Syd has to eat light, or else he'll be stuck with greens for dinner like yesterday."
Pfffft—
Syd nearly spat his tea out.
"Greens? Like what, salad?"
"Yep."
"Huh? Why?" Seraphina frowned, confused.
"Cripple-legs over there took over my fridge. It's pathetic."
"What? Why'd she do that?"
"'Took over' is a bit much. Let's say I'm helping him manage his diet."
"Manage his diet?"
"His eating habits are a disaster. If I let him eat whatever he wants, he'll probably end up dying of clogged arteries. This is the least I can do."
"Jody, are you like, a fitness coach or something?"
"Well… I do know a thing or two."
"Wait… you go to the gym?"
Seraphina sounded surprised.
"Yeah."
"Ah, that explains your figure…"
Seraphina felt a twinge of jealousy. She looked at Jody's body, then glanced at herself.
She felt like she couldn't measure up—even though, in truth, their physiques weren't all that different. But since Seraphina didn't work out, she was already mentally defeated.
"Syd, do you go to the gym?" the American girl turned and asked the half-blood boy.
"No need," he replied flatly.
"…Jody, why are you asking weird questions? This guy kicks people for a living. That's basically a workout on its own."
"Exactly. And you're next."
"WHAT?!"
"So what? I'll chuck a burger at your face in return."
Syd took a bite out of his burger and sighed.
"God, the food here sucks. So ass Macca's better."
"I think you just don't like Western food. At this rate, the chef's gonna cry. What do you prefer? sticky rice with mangoes?"
Even though Jody could see he was scarfing it down anyway…
"You're saying weird stuff again, Jody… You're acting like—… Oh my god! Syd's half-Asian, isn't he?"
Seraphina lit up as if she just made a groundbreaking discovery.
"Thailand, right?! Did you know I've been there before? When I was eight."
She said it proudly.
"Oh yeah? Phuket or Pattaya?"
"…Ayutthaya, thank you very much."
Seraphina shot him a dirty look. She wasn't even Thai, but she knew what those other places were known for—and hated being lumped in with every other basic tourist.
The fact Syd didn't ask where, but instead defaulted to "Phuket or Pattaya" was basically an insult.
"Oho… this one's not your average tourist, huh?"
"I'm not some trend-chasing foreigner, okay? England has beaches too."
Even if she ultimately ended up in Cha-um… she kept that to herself.
But Syd didn't quite believe her.
How was it possible to visit Thailand and not go to the beach? Unless…
"You went to Cha-um, didn't you?"
"Ah…."
"..."
"..."
"Thought so."
"Whatever! At least it wasn't Phuket or Pattaya, was it?!"
Seraphina raised her voice to cover up her embarrassment.
"Do you go back and forth between Thailand and Australia a lot?"
"Not really. I live in Thailand mostly. But yeah, I fly back to Oz now and then."
"How long've you been in Thailand?"
"Since I was three."
Jody looked amazed.
"Wow… then your Asian side must be stronger than your Aussie side."
"In Thailand, the worst thing you'll deal with is mosquitoes. But in Australia you get mosquitoes, kangaroos, dragonflies, and big-ass spiders in your bathroom. Take your pick... oh and that fucking bird too."
"…Okay, that's…"
"And don't forget—Australia's the only place on Earth where you can walk to 7-Eleven barefoot."
"You're Aussie… so how come your English sounds American?"
Jody asked an actually interesting question.
"Started off Aussie, but all my friends speak American English. After a while, I just picked it up."
"Friends?"
Jody raised an eyebrow.
"You mean…"
"Yeah. The people in my line of work."
Seraphina put down her new cup of tea after a sip,
" I can't even imagine what kind of person it takes to be your friend."
"Someone better than you."
PFFFFFFFFT!
.
.
.
Wooden Puppet
The ability of Principal Collins takes the form of a wooden puppet. It can move at incredibly high speed, but only under one condition: it must be in a blind spot, or outside the line of sight.
At the center of the puppet's torso is a hidden compartment that serves as a pocket dimension, capable of holding up to two people inside.