Keiji and Diamond Tiara arrived at school rather fashionably late, and they both went their separate ways when they headed off to their respective first classes of the day. But before he could get there, he was stopped by a familiar face.
“Oh! Keiji! Hey, hey, hey!” Sonata stopped on a dime and turned her head in his direction before walking over. “I’m soooo glad to see you! I was getting worried when you never answered my calls or texts!” she pouted while holding up her phone.
“...Oh that’s what those are?” Keiji pulled out his phone and saw that he had dozens of unread messages. “...I could never really figure out how to use this damn thing. Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Sonata replied as she threw her arms around him to give him a hug. “I’m just glad you’re okay after all we’ve been through. Thanks for saving us last week. You’re the best, you know that?”
Despite the praise, all Keiji could do was sigh and idly accept the embrace. “...Yeah. Sure. No problem,” he replied with a defeated tone.
Sonata pulled back, and took a proper look at him, giving him a concerned stare. “...Something wrong, little bro? You don’t seem too happy today.”
“I’m good, I’m just thinking about some stuff--got a lot on my mind, ya know?” he replied while scratching the back of his head. “Need to make sure none of this stuff happens again…among other things.”
“Ah, pffff,” Sonata replied with a raspberry while wiggling her fingers, “There’s no way you can prevent everything bad from happening. That’s what we’re here for--!”
Keiji narrowed his eyes and stared at her blankly for a moment. “Shinken ni--for real? That doesn’t exactly help inspire confidence, Sona.”
“Oh nonono! That’s not what I--” She grit her teeth with a panicked expression on her face. “W-what I meant is that we all have each other’s backs. So you don’t need to try and do everything yourself.”
“Yeah…I guess so,” the vampboy folded his arms and kept walking, “Even so, it still feels bad when not everything pans out the way you want. As if you could’ve done more but…”
Sonata reached a hand out to him as she followed. “...You wanna talk about it, Kei?”
“...Nah. It’s nothing,” he muttered under his breath, “Nothing you can deal with anyway. So there’s no point in asking for help.”
“Oh…um…” Sonata stopped, and allowed Keiji to walk on by himself. “Well, if you need anything, let us know, okay?” And once he rounded the corner of the hallway, she was left alone, and sighed to herself. “Darn…”
Moments later, Aria approached her from the hallway behind her. “Yo, Sona. What’s goin’ on? Why the long face?” In an instant, her expression turned cold as she balled her fist, “Did somebody hurt you? Who was it? Bring ‘em to me.”
“Nono! It’s nothing like that!” the blue siren quickly cleared the air. “It’s Keiji. He seems a bit…off today. Like something’s eating at him. But he didn’t tell me anything.”
Aria relaxed herself as she thought it over. “Hm…well, he’s probably just stressed over these last few weeks. I wouldn’t blame him. Shit’s been rough since he kinda had to save us all with help from the other guys.”
“What can we do?” Sonata asked, “We can’t all be there for him at once all the time…”
“Nah, but I’ll handle it,” Aria said as she interlocked her fingers and cracked her knuckles. “I’ll see what’s up with him. I’m good at getting answers out of people. You just focus on your classes, okay? With the summer festival coming up, we’re gonna need all the good grades we can get to keep that looming dread off our ass.”
With newfound hope, Sonata replied with a smile, “Oh…alright, Ari. I hope you can handle it.”
“Pfft. At this point, I’m prepared for anything,” the violet siren smirked with confidence.
Later in Aidon’s class…
Sunset and Twilight were the first to appear in the man’s classroom due to a rather…eager request they had in store.
“Professor! Professor!” Twilight squawked as she opened the door with a hysteric set of dilated pupils, “Can I be the TA for this class? I know all about how this magic is working; it’s due to The Aether!”
“Oh no ya don’t,” Sunset playful jabbed her friend out of the way with her hip, “You’d go into so many side tangents that the class would fall asleep from your overly technical terminology.”
Twilight paused, and shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah. You’re right. I would. But still--!”
“Ahem,” Aidon called out to them both, “I’m more than willing to allow you both to help. We’re going to need as many hands on deck as we can get. The summer festival is approaching and it feels like a prime spot for nonsensical mayhem.”
“The what-now?” Twilight asked.
“Summer Festival for Canterlot City,” Sunset went on, “We hold one every year--it’s usually based on Far Eastern traditions with kimonos and other junk--I’m just in it for the food.”
“Ohhh--like that sushi place you work at the mall?” Twilight rolled her eyes from realization.
“Something like that--anyway, we’re getting off topic,” she looked at Aidon, “I’m ready to get crackin’, sir.”
Seemingly from out of nowhere, Twilight had pulled out a series of charts and graphs. “I’ll be needing some of your chalkboard space for this, Professor.”
Aidon placed his palm over his face and shook his head. “...Oh dear Solomon’s Key…”