The ice pack was a cold, useless weight on her forehead. Normcore leans against a corridor pillar, sighing as the sun sets in the distance. "It wasn't that bad" Kentaro had insisted, yet it was Masaru who sang a different tune. The nurse prescribed rest, which left her with only one option: torture by music theory.

  She clears her throat and lifts up a lyrics book.

  “Kimi no aiba… what the hell?”

  The black notes swam like fish upon the white paper. Her singing was bad enough, but yet the notes read like hieroglyphics.

  “Is this supposed to be a B or a C?” Her face practically presses itself to the book, her tail swishing in confusion. “Is that supposed to be on the line or in the space?”

  “F… A… C… Wait, is that for the lines or the spaces?” She rotates the book sideways. Shakes the paper a few times. Her ears practically plaster against her skull in resignation. “Whatever, I’ll just ask Saru later.”

  She snaps the booklet shut. The choice was clear: disobey the nurse for a training session or die of boredom. Her eyes drift towards the track where several others are running. Frustration bubbles up inside her before a loud WHAP echoes through the air, Norm having chucked the ice pack against the ground.

  She stomps on it twice for good measure, feeling the ice shatter beneath her feet.

  Every wasted minute was a minute she couldn't spend preparing for the Unicorn Stakes. Every second of boredom was a second that fat bastard was still in charge. She reached the West wing of the training building in a huff, throwing the door open in a fury. She wasn’t sure what she was gonna do, but she had to do something.

  A streak of yellow light peeking through the doorway catches her eye, causing her to freeze.

  “Huh? There’s still someone here at this time of day?”

  A soft, powerful hum of machinery fills the air, growing louder by the second as she approaches. The treadmill was on its highest setting, heavy footsteps thundering with a rhythmic thump.

  A foreboding sensation of unease rises in the back of her head as she reaches to push the door open. She writes off the sensation as paranoia-

  Wait.

  She recognized the footsteps.

  Her hand stops inches from the entrance. Her ears, once lazing about, shoot upright and point straight towards the door.

  She really wasn’t imagining it. They were powerful, rhythmic to a robotic degree, unwaveringly landing with perfect precision between each step like a metronome. She could practically see the ribbon-like hair fluttering through the walls. She could envision the burning hatred in her eyes. Those powerful steps were the same ones that approached her with a loathing fury before knocking her to the ground.

  She could never forget the sound of those steps.

  Normcore instinctively backs away from the doorway, her heart thumping through her ribs. Cold sweat covers her forehead as she peeks through the crack instead.

  It was her.

  Katsura races down the treadmill as if trying to disassemble it with the strength of her steps. Sweat glistens on her forehead, her legs straining as she practically tries to advance on the surface beneath her moving at fifty kilometers per hour. She could see her eyes reflected through the glass on the far end of the fitness room, and they burned with a vitriolic blaze akin to an out of control forest fire.

  “Damn it!” A roar rips from Katsura’s throat, causing Norm to jump. “I’ll crush you, you stupid white-coat!”

  In her rage-filled fever, she somehow manages to pick up speed once more. Her ragged gasps are audible across the room, Norm’s eyes widening as Katsura’s arms turn into a blur and the rhythm of her steps become jumbled. She leans even farther forward, her nose practically pressing against the dashboard, her feet kicking against the belt hard enough to send sparks flying.

  “On second thought? Staying put doesn’t sound too bad.” Normcore mutters to herself, a sensation of resignation washing over her. She turns to leave, yet her hand subconsciously reaches for the doorknob before she could realize.

  Click. She pulls the door close.

  The silence in the air is deafening. Norm stands in place, frozen like a deer in headlights, her brain short-circuiting in the sheer stupidity it had consciously applied. The sound of machinery comes to a halt.

  She doesn’t dare move. She doesn’t dare breathe. Maybe if she stayed still enough, Katsura would chalk it up to the wind and go on with her-

  Her ear twitches. Someone was approaching the door from the inside. Her heart practically shoots out of her throat, panic flash flooding her systems in an instant.

  She bolts.

  It’s not a calculated spurt of speed. Normcore flies into a frenzied sprint, her footsteps skidding against the floor as she practically falls over around the first corner she comes across. Hearing the sound of fleeing, Katsura’s footsteps quicken as she beelines for the door.

  Bam. The door practically flies off its hinge as Katsura bursts into the corridor, still panting and glistening with sweat. She catches a glimpse of Normcore’s shadow going up the stairs.

  “You! Stop!”

  Who was it? Why were they here? What did they hear? Her heart thumps with a burning sense of dread, almost humiliation. The timing was far too suspicious.

  Whoever it was, they had something to hide.

  Her powerful footsteps slam against the floor as she launches into pursuit mode, her arms flying out behind her as she covers the hallway in a split second. As she rounds the corner, she spots the ends of a shadow going up the second flight of stairs to the second floor.

  “Stop right now or you’re dead!”

  Heads turn in the schoolyard as Katsura’s furious roar reverberates in the air. Normcore screeches to a halt on the top of the stairs, her head flailing left and right in search of an escape. The next set of stairs was at the end of the corridor- she had no time to get there without being seen.

  Katsura ascends to the top, her legs straining from the climb. She looks right- a dead end. Then left, spotting a long, winding hallway of classrooms. She thunders towards the corridor at the end, then suddenly freezes. The thread of logic had snagged her by the neck, for no one could have covered that distance so quickly.

  Skrrrtch. Thud, thud.

  Her head swivels back around as she spots the flicker of movement behind her. Something just darted out the first classroom and down the stairs.

  “You damn—!”

  Thud. Normcore flips over the railing and lands straight at the bottom of the stairs. She bolts out the West wing and into the main courtyard as fast as her feet can carry her, praying that Katsura isn’t crazy enough to jump from the second floor. She had maybe two seconds of a head start.

  “Out of the way!” Katsura shoves aside a gaggle of astounded onlookers as she rounds the corner, practically sending a poor girl flying. She hits top speed in two seconds flat, bolting into the courtyard.

  A large plaza opens up before her. A fountain in the center, two buildings to each side, and no sign of the one she was chasing. More students were staring now, but she didn’t particularly care.

  “You!” She demands, pointing her finger at the first student she sees. The girl flinches. “Where did she go?!”

  The question need not be repeated twice. The girl holds out a shaky hand, her finger towards the direction of the Cafeteria- first building on the left.

  “Sorry! Sorry!”

  Normcore sidesteps a dish cart, dodging students left and right as she attempts to maintain her top speed. The crowd was noticeably thicker near the dining area, one which she had hoped to blend into. That thought held for about five seconds before she realised how much she’d stick out from exertion alone.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “What’s your proble— ow!”

  A commotion practically explodes from the bottom floor. There’s a loud shriek, followed by a crash, then the furious footsteps of Katsura ascending the steps. Normcore’s heart pounds in her chest, her lungs feeling like they’re on fire. For a second she debates jumping out the window, then she imagines the furious look on Kentaro’s face and cans the idea.

  Don’t be seen. Don’t be seen.

  All semblance of composure had long left her soul. She gives a few frightened breathless pants, her ears pinned to her skull like a cornered animal. Her tail tucked itself between her legs so tightly it practically disappeared.

  She rushes- nay, bolts- through the thick crowd amidst the gasp of onlookers, before arriving at the serving window where the kitchen staff worked. In the gaze of a dozen astonished onlookers, she throws herself over the counter and lands on the marble floor with a thud.

  “What the—?!”

  One chef yelps, nearly dropping the plate he’s holding. He was clearly not expecting a silver-topped umatorpedo to deliver itself headfirst into a sterile area.

  “Sorry!” Normcore apologizes profusely, throwing open the back door and into the food prep area. The cafeteria is left completely silent for a few moments, then broken by the absolute pandemonium that is Katsura sweeping through the hallway.

  Her arrival is accompanied by a loud “Move!” Followed by the yelp of someone being shoved to the floor. She arrives at the doorway, her ribbon-like hair ruffled and messed up alongside her clothing. She bore an expression so deathly murderous it sent a collective shudder through the crowd.

  “She… She went over the counter.” One girl gulps, pointing at the service window, praying that Katsura’s ire would not befall on the innocent.

  Katsura stomps over, stopping by the entrance. The bewildered chef looks at her, then at the door behind him. Before he can respond, however, a door opens and slams down the hall. Like a switch had been flipped, Katsura’s head jerks around.

  She abandons her interrogation post and flings herself back at the doorway, stomping on a table and sending meals flying. The screech of students in the distance sends a jolt of terror through Norm’s body.

  The crowd thins out as she rounds a corner where two stairwells loomed. Her momentum, a frantic, unthinking thing, carried her to the right. She grabs for the railing, misses, and lands hard on her stomach. Panic gave her strength as she scrambled upright, realizing down was no longer an option. Her legs tremble beneath her as she noticeably slows.

  The top floor is practically abandoned. She looks around- nothing but more classrooms. She turns, and only then does she realize with a sinking heart: the only path down lies behind her.

  Katsura’s steps are deliberate. She can feel dozens of eyeballs gazing into the back of her head. Her eyes follow the gaze of the students at the end of the hallway- and they look up. A small smile forms on her lips. The game was over.

  “About time.”

  She rounds the top flight into an empty hallway, four classrooms to her right. This time, she would not fall for the same trick. She walks along the hall, feeling up each doorknob before pressing against the door. The first three were locked.

  The fourth does not move. It had been barricaded from the inside.

  She drives her shoulder against the door, the entire frame shuddering with a loud thud. She drives her shoulder into it again, the resistance giving slightly with a violent shudder against the door. Something was pushing back against it.

  “Come out. Resistance is futile.” She says through the door. “I promise won’t kill you… if you don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  Silence.

  “I’ll give you five seconds to make a decision.”

  Her voice is cold, dripping with finality. Any decision foolish enough to oppose her would be punished with five times the charge.

  “Five.”

  The door does not budge.

  “Four.”

  The only sound in the air remains hers. She lifts her chin, her gaze bearing into the solid wood before her.

  “Three.”

  BAM. A full-force charge, her body a battering ram. The door splinters inward with a deafening crack, flying open to reveal a broom and a chair clattering to the floor. Her shadow ominously elongates in the doorway, her eyes spotting a broom and a chair being thrown halfway across the room.

  “Well,” she muses, her voice dripping with mock approval as her eyes sweep over the perfectly aligned, empty desks. “You’re smarter than you look.”

  She closes the door behind her with a click, slowly pacing towards the teacher’s desk. Each step is loud, deliberate, echoing deafeningly in the silence. She comes to a stop before the blackboard, then leans down aggressively towards the space below it.

  Nothing.

  “You’ve hidden yourself pretty well. Fortunately for me, I’m quite good at rooting out the vermin from their little hiding spots.” She rises, continuing her pace around the room. Her eyes settle on the two large storage closets at the back. “You see, my teammates…”

  Crunch. She throws the door open hard enough to rattle the supplies within, several old pieces of chalk falling out and onto the floor. The voice drips with contempt, yet there bore a trembling note of excitement buried deep in her speech.

  “...have a habit of hiding from training they don’t particularly like.” She closes the cabinet with an almost gentle softness, continuing as if nothing has happened. Her fingers brush over the handle of the second, her gaze settling against its dust-covered doors.

  Crunch. The warm gold light of sunset floods the inside of the second cabinet as the door is jerked open. Katsura’s gaze lingers on its contents for a second before closing the doors once more.

  “And so, you see, I’ve got this… intuition of sniffing out the pathetic runts.” She chuckles to herself as she turns back around. She slowly and deliberately marches towards the curtains, throwing them open with the grandeur of a matador.

  She releases them, letting the dust settle back down into the air.

  “Do you want to know how?”

  The question isn’t one to be answered. It’s an invitation. Her long shadow menacingly lingers upon the floor as she turns her gaze towards the ceiling. The ribbons, elongated by the streaks of sunlight through glass, twist themselves into long, curved daggers.

  “Because I can feel their fear.”

  She moves to the cabinets by the blackboard, the ones installed in the walls. They’re unceremoniously flung open one by one, her mere steps rattling them ajar.

  “The fear of pain. The fear of failure.”

  She kicks each one close.

  “I know precisely how they think. How they panic. How they bolt.”

  She moves towards the blackboard, shifting it aside and revealing stacks of dusty textbooks. Without a word, she slides it right back and moves towards the far right corner.

  “But for that, I must know who it is I am dealing with. After all, the one who fails to consider her opponent wins only half the race.”

  She comes to a sudden stop by the window, gazing out at the sunset.

  “The more I thought about it during our pursuit, the more desperate you became, the more I was certain that there could only possibly be one answer.”

  Silence. The edge of Katsura’s lips twitch softly, a yawn escaping her.

  “Well… since it’s you who’d been listening, I figured there’s nothing I have to worry about.”

  A shadow falls over Normcore as she leans out the window, Katsura’s eyes bearing deep into her terrified gaze. A hand gently wraps around the wrist she was holding onto the windowsill for dear life with, causing her entire body to jolt like she had been struck.

  “Hello, white-coat. Don’t fall now.”

  “Ow!” Masaru jumps as she nurses her finger. A droplet of red seeps from the spot where she had poked with a needle. The sharp pain jolts her wide awake, her heart beating wildly.

  She’d been peacefully working on her dresses when she was hit with an overwhelming sensation of dread. That split second of focus wavering had drawn blood from her pointer.

  She hastily stows away her work and shoves them back into the drawer. She thought the sensation would go away if she stood up and stretched, yet every cell in her body continued to scream in terror.

  She rushes to the railing and looks over the school grounds. The evening was ordinary as usual, students loitering about, chatting, bickering, even fighting amongst themselves. Still, she couldn’t shake the sensation that something terrible had happened.

  “Sorry! Sorry…” Masaru shoves her way down the stairs and into the thickest crowd she can find, her ears swivelling wildly around for even a hint of something gone wrong.

  She’s met with only the mundane- classes, races, training. The lack of affirmation does not calm her but rather agitates her further, her tail swishing incessantly between her legs.

  “Did you see the girl that jumped through the device window earlier?” A whisper catches her ear.

  “Really? No way!”

  Masaru halts on the spot. Her ears swing around faster than she can turn her head.

  “Oh my goddesses. You should’ve been there. This girl with silver hair comes in looking white as a ghost and practically throws herself into the kitchen. Then, moments later, that mean black haired girl comes barging through like-”

  Masaru had heard enough. She bolts across the schoolyard and beelines for the cafeteria as fast as her legs can take her. She clambers over the stairs and into the thick of the crowd, straining her head over tops as she searches for the familiar grey strands.

  She pokes her head through the cafeteria. She searches her way through the hall. As she rounds the corner in a hurry, she spots a familiar figure descending the stairs.

  Katsura practically struts her way down, indifference plastered over her face as she lets out a yawn.

  “You!” Masaru yells. “What did you do?!”

  “Hm?” Katsura looks down, stopping dead halfway in her step. “Nothing. I caught your friend spying on me, so I caught up with her and had a little chat. She’s not as invincible as she thinks she is.”

  Masaru’s lips curl into a ferocious snarl, her teeth audibly grinding against one another. Her fist ball up hard enough for her nails to draw blood, her eyes bearing a loathing hatred so deep they practically glow.

  “Y-You- You promised you’d leave her alone!”

  “I promised no such thing. Do not impose your wishful thinking using me as a vessel.” Katsura glares right back, her voice dripping with venom. “Now pipe down. I wouldn’t fancy causing a scene if I were you… Forger.”

  Masaru’s breath catches. Her body trembles with rage, something red hot bubbling and boiling beneath her eyes. Katsura calmly walks into and past her, the two brushing shoulders as she practically knocks Masaru over. She imagines throwing the first swing then and there… a sucker haymaker straight into the back of Katsura’s skull.

  Then she snaps right back. Norm needed her more. She clambers up the stairs and rounds the doorway to the classroom, spotting the silvery figure slumped against the windowsill.

  She looks… deflated. Like a beach ball that had all the air pumped out of her. Her blue eyes were dull, devoid of their usual glimmer, as if someone had ripped the life out of them.

  “Norm?” Masaru’s voice trembles. “What… What the hell happened?”