Tsumi came back early, finding nothing useful from Dr Gias' house that he didn't already know. It was cordoned off but it seemed they truly did get everything there. Taking a seat in the living room, Lemon poured him a drink and the two sat to chat.
Their talk was mostly about Litis and what would happen if he were to attack at any moment but Tsumi posited that because of the fact they are unaware of their ability to flee this world, they will take their time when gathering evidence on them.
Soon enough, Dahlia comes home and the two immediately try to read her from a distance.
"Are you alright Dahlia?" asked Tsumi.
Dahlia breathed in and took off upstairs. Though she was comforted a lot by Rolo, she realizes that she still needs a moment alone to pull herself back together. Once the sound of a door gently closing is heard upstairs, the two talk some more.
"See, made it worse." remarked Tsumi.
"What?" exclaimed Lemon, setting her drink down on the coffee table.
The man sighed. "The kid had too much on her mind from last week and now she has to deal with a tournament next week."
"Honestly it's not as if she has to win. I already got mine over that evergreen prick." she snided.
"You need to talk to her again." he said in a near order.
Lemon looked down at the floor, taking in a small sigh before deciding she had to fix this. "Fine." She got up and quickly made a sandwich to bring up with her.
Meanwhile in Dahlia's room, the brunette was still focusing on the words Rolo had said about her. That she isn't perfect. It's hard to describe her feelings. On one hand she feels happy at being seen as normal and not like some strange force.
On the other hand though she can't help but feel something stir deep inside like she somehow feels insulted by such the notion she could be anything other. It almost disturbs her how illogical the feeling is yet it feels better to feel it than the other.
*knock knock*
With a quiet bang on the wood, Lemon opens the door a crack and peeks in to see her. "Hey, sweets, so you want to talk about what's wrong with you?"
The bluntness and slight rudeness of the question almost caused Dahlia to fall over but settled for sitting down on the bed instead. She knows now that Lemon never really cared about hiding what she thought but it was still a shock every time she spoke frankly.
"What is wrong with me?" the girl repeated. "Don't you think that's a bit too much?"
"Everyone has something wrong with them. You seem to have it worse at the moment." noted Lemon as she set the sandwich she made on the desk and sat on the chair facing it, turning the seat to look at her.
"And what makes you believe that?" the brunette questioned.
"Tsumi said so." she replied.
"Hah." Dahlia weakly laughed.
"Look, I'm bad at reading people." she stated. "Scratch that actually, I'm bad at empathising with people."
"Isn't that something that a villain in a story book normally has?" Dahlia noted, recalling many tales from home about how evil almost never showed love.
Lemon twirled a finger through her hair and crossed her legs before continuing, "Well I still know when something's wrong it's just.. when I was a kid, like you, I had a hard time reading the room. It led me to rubbing people the wrong way a lot."
Dahlia listened as she watched Lemon reminisce.
"In the end," she sighed, "it led me to being left out of a lot of polyad stuff. Felt mean." Lemon licked her lips as she thought through her next words, "I'd like to say that it didn't affect me but, yeah, it did. It made me hate talking to people, at least those I've barely met, which only made things worse, especially when everyone compared me to my sister who was the complete opposite of me."
Lemon stopped fiddling with her hair and turned her focus back to the girl, "Look Dahlia I know it may seem like it's easier to just shut up and let everyone walk around you and yeah it is but nothing fun comes from something easy done."
Dahlia looked down from the woman's lilac eyes and at her hands. She was unsure on what to say but she will try.
"I thought everyone was pushing me away." She said, "Back home, besides my family, everyone acted like I was some kind of unfeeling golem. I thought I was doing something wrong. I still think I'm doing something wrong."
"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. Can't know until you try to at least talk. If you don't then you already have your answer." Lemon advised.
Dahlia still looked down at her hands. They had gotten paler. Despite being near constantly in the sun her hands have only gotten more blanched. She can't tell if it was her mind playing tricks on her or she's turning into something else now that she feels this dark power in her grow stronger.
"Do you think I look any different?" she asked. "Like from when we met?"
The polyad looked her over, studying her for a moment before her eyes seemed to widen for a moment. She looked like she had something to say but stopped. "No. Not really. Could do with a bit more sun though."
She could tell she was trying to comfort her. Dahlia didn't know what was happening or why it was happening now but it's better to get this first mission done, talk to Alice and see what it was. That sounded like a plan. But first she needed to make things right.
"I guess I'll try to get out more." the girl said. "I'll talk to some of my classmates and apologise."
"Great… so.. are you feeling better?" Lemon said, her face showing uncertainty at whether she did it right.
"Yes," the girl smiled. "Lemon, I am. Thank you."
"Great! Then I'll just step out and leave you to it." she spouted as she sauntered out of the room, closing the door.
Left to herself, Dahlia went to bed after her homework and enjoying her sandwich, the words of both Lemon and Rolo going through her head.
I should ask Rolo what's best in this world for apologies.
- - -
The next day Dahlia got up extra early to go to the dormitory. She was going to look for Rolo because she knew she needed his help in buying some things before school had begun.
It was her first time at the dormitories and it was daunting just how huge they were. Naturally Polaris is a learning institution first and a city second so it needed to house all of the international students coming in.
As with everything in this school, it was all separated by merit with the Highlights getting an entire floor to themselves even though there's only four people living there. It took a moment of looking around but she found which room was Rolo's and took the elevator up to him.
On the way though, she had stumbled into someone she was not ready to see yet.
"Yume!" Dahlia exclaimed as the girl had just gotten in as well.
"Dahlia…" the other girl said back. "Why are you here in the dorms?"
"I was looking for Rolo to ask him something." the brunette responded.
"I see." the girl nodded, seeing the button for the Highlights floor pressed.
Once the doors shut it was just them and the tropical elevator music, singing away as they rose up. Dahlia wanted to say something, anything that could get them out of this awkward feeling of silence but she couldn't think of much. So she settled to be frank, like Lemon, and just speak her mind.
"I'm sorry," she started. "About what happened with the tentacles."
The frizzy haired girl turned her head over to listen, her eyes studying her face. She didn't say anything but it was clear she was expecting more to be said.
Dahlia began to explain herself. "I don't have a lot of control over my power. I didn't even know it could do all of that. If I did, I wouldn't have done it. I hated how I made you feel and how much of what I did, I know is unforgivable. I'm really sorry for it all."
She made sure not to make it sound like an excuse. She never tried to say it was someone else. She didn't even ask for an apology because she knew how selfish that might sound. That and the annoying rumbling in her mind made her choke on the idea that she had to ask for anything.
The girl made sure to keep her head down, looking at the buttons. She didn't expect for anything to be said but Yume spoke anyway. "Thank you for that Dahlia but I'm going to need more time to think. I know some part of this was my fault-"
Dahlia turned her head up quickly. "No Yume it wasn't! I should've had more control! If I did I might've not almost… hurt some- Coach Letty." She looked away. "I might've killed Coach Letty."
"Yes. That was close to happening but… I need more time." she said, stepping out of the elevator immediately now that it had reached its stop.
The brunette followed after her and stood outside the elevator, watching the frizzy haired girl walk back to her room. She couldn't tell if that went well or not but she hoped it did.
Dahlia went on down the corridor towards where she remembered Rolo's room was. There were only four rooms occupied here but there was enough for everyone in the Highlights class to stay if they so chose, so it took her a moment to find where he was.
She found him and briskly knocked on the door after looking herself over once to make sure nothing was out of place. It took a few moments but the door opened up to a tired looking Rolo who seemed to do a double take when he saw the girl suddenly standing in front of his door.
"D-Dahlia?" he stammered, blinking at her.
"Hello Rolo." she greeted. "I had wanted to talk with you about-"
She had then noticed that he seemed to still be in his sleepwear and not at all in his uniform. It was strange seeing him outside of anything that wasn't his uniform or what he wore on their date but that wasn't what concerned her. It was the fact that by the bed head, the tired eyes and the fact his face wasn't washed that he had literally just woken up.
It wasn't that long until school and it was clear everyone else was up getting ready so this was a shock to the early bird.
"I'm sorry did I bother you?" she apologised.
"What? No, no, no." he stuttered out, waking himself up quickly and trying not to look tired. "I was just doing some push ups in here and I didn't want my uniform ruined."
"I see." she of course didn't believe him. "Well, I wished to ask if you could help me with finding some things to apologise to the class with. I'm not sure what is acceptable in your culture."
"Okay, um…" he rubbed his eyes a little. "Here give me five minutes."
He closed the door and Dahlia was left there confused a bit for the next five minutes until stumbling out, brushing his hair, was a more dressed Rolo in his school uniform. "Okay, there's a shop I go to for apologies and it's not that far from the school."
"Thank you." the girl thanked and the two went off.
- - -
Arriving in class at the earliest possible, Dahlia and Rolo sat at their desks as they looked through what they got. It was mostly sweets and chocolate along with some cards to write apologies into.
"Is this really enough?" she asked, unsure if this will suffice.
"Look, let me be honest. You're not going to get everyone to forgive you right away. Some might but others won't. This is just to show you feel sorry." he explained.
"You say all this like you know a lot about it." she pointed out, taking the cards and starting to write into them.
"Haha, yeah…" he uttered. "Tends to become a skill when you break hearts."
That reminded Dahlia, she had a question she wanted answered. "Can you tell me when you are planning to break mine?"
There was a momentary look of shock on his face. "Oh, so you're telling me you've-"
"That wasn't flirtation. I was wondering how long it takes for you to end a relationship?" she clarified. It was something she was genuinely curious about. "And how you end one."
There was a bit of concern when she said that last part but ignored it for now. "Usually I end a relationship because the other person doesn't get it. I don't want anything serious." he answered. "I don't like long term. At least until I'm older."
"Why's that?" she asked.
"That's something personal. I'd rather not talk about it." he responded, looking like he really doesn't want to talk about it.
She decided to accept that answer. "Thank you for that then. And how about ending one?"
"Well… normally I'm just honest. Tell the other person how I feel." he stated. "You're not planning to…"
"No. Not at all." She lied so easily.
"Oh? Planning to try and make things long term with me?" he smiled.
"Not at all." she replied. "No, I mean. We aren't a couple at all. I was just curious more about yourself because you're my friend… I hope."
There was a pause in the boy's face as those words were said. She couldn't tell precisely what they were but she thinks some of it might be… pity. Oh, he's pitying her. Well that doesn't feel good. But then again, she really needed someone her age to talk to, even if it is only for a fleeting amount of time.
"You are my friend." he said. "I hope we stay friends."
"T-thank you." she stuttered a little, feeling happy she had finally made a proper friend her age. But then a brief feeling of sadness washed over her, realising how fleeting it was.
It was after that, the class started to pour in. As they did, Dahlia made sure to give them the apology card and their choice of treat. For most of everyone they seemed to accept it, whether or not they forgave her though was a different story.
"Thanks Dahlia." Tansol said, receiving his, a bittersweet look on his face.
"T-t-thank y-you." Burrus stammered, taking the gifts.
"Thank you for this Dahlia." Yume uttered, seeming to find her warmer since this morning.
"Thank you." Suto responded, calmly and without much of a tell on his face whether he meant it.
"Thanks!" called Tenha though Dahlia felt like some part of it was ingenuine.
Then there was the last person, Zannos. She could've just not given him a gift but she knew that doing that will make it look like she was glad he got hurt. Dahlia didn't like the boy but at the same time she was thankful to him, it was his punch that saved everyone from herself.
"Zannos." she uttered, standing small in front of the giant green haired kid. "I would like to thank and apologise to you. Thank you for stopping me when I lost control and sorry for hurting you in the first place. I don't hope to be forgiven right away but I do wish for this to be the start." and she handed over the card with her message and some chocolate.
He looked down at her and picked up the gifts, opening the card to look them over. He didn't say anything more and just threw both of them in the trash bin in front of her before bumping past her to his seat.
Okay. Not accepted.
She kept at the front of the classroom because she had one, technically two, people left to give a gift to. When the bell rang and everyone had settled down, Suzuki walked in only to be surprised by Dahlia who had made the same apology as before along with two gifts.
"Can you please pass this on to Mrs Letty, professor?" she requested after his apology.
The older man just took the cards and gifts and seemed to accept both. "Thank you Dahlia, I'll be sure Letty gets this."
"Thank you." she said with courtesy and returned to her seat. She could feel the eyes on her again but unlike before they felt slightly lighter. It wasn't complete forgiveness but it was a start, she hoped once more.
The day went on as usual, ending with training where Suzuki guided her over to the usual water training chamber she had gotten used to. She could do this part on her own now and it was really helping her keep herself from choking on the black water for a little longer. She still didn't know the mechanics behind it but she guessed it has something to do with her state of mind.
In fact that seemed to have a lot to do with her power. When she focused on a target, her tentacles wrapped around it and because she thought of everyone else, they wrapped around them. She wasn't to risk doing that training again, not with anyone near her but right now she was alone.
Maybe she could try it here in the water.
Or maybe not. I don't want to try that again.
Then there was something new. After she used it for the first time, a change in everything around her. Things felt quieter, muted, darker. Like the room was lit up by the sun and a dark cloud had just rolled over it. Everything looked dimmer and she couldn't tell why.
Then there was her senses. She could feel when people were looking at her and when she looked at them it was like she could tell exactly what they felt. Not emotionally but their exact sensations. She noticed it today when Tansol got a paper cut and she could feel the pain on her own fingers.
She still gets it whenever she thinks about him.
Is it some kind of mindreading? Should I tell Lemon and Tsumi about this?
Maybe but it might be better to wait for Alice. She'd know better.
And then there was the final thing. You.
Of course referring to the fact there was some kind of narration over everything. She only heard it sometimes when she was alone and nothing else to distract her. It might be her going crazy or it might be something else, the source of her dark gift perhaps. Either way, she didn't know what to make of it, or how it could be useful.
Except maybe…
…How I knew what Tsumi did at Dr. Gias's house?
He never told her he was there. Well he did say he was going but she didn't know the results until she came back and when she did she almost swore she heard someone speaking out about his success in that endeavor.
It has to be mind reading then.
Likely. Or maybe something more incredible.
"Dahlia?" someone called which caused the girl to panic under water and jump to get out.
"Y-yes?" she uttered, coughing a little.
"Sorry!" apologised Yume, "I didn't mean to interrupt you, I just wanted to talk to you about… are you okay?"
"What do you mean?" Dahlia questioned, climbing out of the vat.
"Well it's just… you look a bit paler than usual." she noted. "Are you sick?"
That's another thing to be concerned about.
"No, I'm not. I think it's a side effect of my power." she excused. She technically wasn't wrong.
The girl stepped over and placed a hand on her forehead just to be sure. "You seem to be fine. Do be careful."
"Thank you." she replied.
"No, actually, thank you for the apology today." she said, taking a couple steps back out of her personal space. "It meant a lot to me. I know you could've easily not done anything but you did and I know that must've taken a lot."
"Rolo helped a lot with that." she mentioned, not wanting her friends accomplishments to be ignored.
"Yes, he does seem to like you a lot." she smiled.
"So does this mean we're friends again?" hoped Dahlia.
A truly sweet smile formed on Yume's lips. "Yes Dahlia, I hope it does. Though I'm not sure if Tenha has forgiven you yet. She tends to hold grudges if Zannos isn't any hint."
"Yes." she laughed bittersweetly.
"Do you want to train together after school?" she asked, keeping her smile.
"I'd be happy to." Dahlia replied, smiling back.
"Then see you then! I need to get back to Suzuki's training." she called, leaving the brunette girl be.
Alone in the pool room Dahlia felt a sense of elation go through her. Yume had finally forgiven her and even asked her to do more training after school. That second part has never happened before. Truly things were going great.
Except maybe one problem.
And that was the constant fear that she was the faceless. She hasn't thought about it much since she got here. Tsumi and Lemon talked about it all the time but unlike them, they haven't spoken with the suspects like she has.
What if it was Yume and she was luring her out to kill her. That was a terrifying thought. Her power would also be dangerous in the hands of such a calculating creature. Maybe that's how it knew where the security cameras were.
But then there was some other people who could do it better. Such as Rolo and his teleportation…
I don't want to think that.
Because if it were true it would mean everything he's said was a lie.
Then tell me, right now. You can see things I can't, right? Is he the faceless? Just him and no one else, please.
She pleaded, hoping for a response that could satisfy her or a hint on whether or not she could truly trust him.
The voice gave her nothing.