Secrets of Light Academy

Chapter 12: Silverburrow

SOLIS

"Silverburrow? Sounds like a village from some fantasy novel." Aoi commented, violently brushing his hair around to make it look somewhat organized. We were all a complete mess after that trip through the portal.

"We're in Silverburrow, huh... Did the headmaster tell you that?" Hiroto turned to me. "Or was it that thing?" Hiroko popped up behind me, pointing to the guide.

"Yeah... It's got a GPS feature. And here's an overview of our mission." I showed it to them. It really seems like it would come in handy. The mission overview is very detailed and marks the location we have to return to and when. "We don't have too much time, so we'd better hurry."

We gathered together and made our way out of the alley and into the street. It's relatively busy, but not overwhelmingly so. Using magic in an area like this would still be risky. There are a few seagulls here and there, and the air is warm. The guide mentions this town is near a small beach, which makes sense.

"So how are we actually going to do this?" Aoi broke the silence.

"Solis can use her magic that finds people." Hiroko went on to fix her hair. "Wulfush wafaraund unchil wefayn shomefing." She mumbled, with her hair bands jammed in her mouth as she pulled back her wavy dirty-blonde locks. 

"We'll just walk around until she notices something weird," Hiroto spoke clearer. "Let me hold those." He took her hairbands while she fiddled with her ponytail.

They're right, I can use my Shadow Preception. If I need to find a witch hunter, I'll just scan for numbers over fifty. Problem is, there are more people here than I'm used to and I'm having a hard time focusing. 

"W-wait... Isn't this too much work for Solis? She's the group leader and she has to find the witch hunter all by herself. What is anyone else doing?" Nebbia asked. The other group members paused for a second and stared him down. "NevermindI'msorryInevershouldhavesaidanything..." He edged closer to me, hunching over nervously.

"Thanks for worrying, Nebbia. I'm fine, really." I smiled.

"The dweeb's right, this is gotta be a lot of work for you. So go ahead and let me be the leader instead." Yoru stretched out her long arm from behind me and snatched the guide away. 

"Hey! Be careful with that-" I turned, but instead of fighting for it, I let her take a look.

...

....

She spun it around, fiddled with it, tried to bend it.

"Yoru, are you..."

"Just gimme a sec!!"

...

The twins sighed in agitation. "Have you ever even used a smartphone before?"

 Yoru ignored them and continued playing with it. Suddenly, the bright screen darkened completely.

"... What did I do?" She looked back at her reflection on the black surface.

"Oh no, you broke it!!" The twins exclaimed. "How will we explain this to the headmaster??" They gasped. Yoru's eyes widened.

"It's broken?" She screeched. "C'mon, work you piece of junk..." She banged it onto the wall a couple times.

"STOP IT." I took back the guide. "That's not funny, Yoru. Do you want the screen to crack? This is our first mission, do you know how much trouble we'll get into?!"

I rubbed the corners of the guide and ran my fingertips over the sides. I gasped and almost dropped it.

"Yoru!!" I turned to her. "How are we going to explain this right here??" I pointed to a long crack running across the back of the guide. The group leaned in to look.