They were not going to close Amityville.

Arel had managed to buy them some time—and perhaps another chance—with this examination stunt, and Xiu intended to make the best of it. She had never felt so determined or ready for a test, but at the same time, she never felt so terrified either. This wasn’t just any ordinary exam anymore—depending on whether everyone did well or badly, this could end up affecting what happened to their school.

She had considered all the examinations carefully—which suited her best? Which would she be able to excel at? Healing and defense was completely out of the question for her. Physical was...pushing it a little. A written examination was doable, but worrisome since she hadn’t studied (and didn’t know what they would ask in the first place), and the last exam...

Hexes and spells—and illusions, like one of the FEAR abilities that Xiu had first developed. Truth be told, she had rarely, if ever, used it here in Amityville, but she had a few years of practice with this particular ability ever since she was young. She would be a bit rusty, that was for certain, but of all the choices, the baku placed her confidence in the idea that this would be the best.

So, she got ready, hands clutched together in front of her and eyes squeezed shut. In the middle of battle, she would ordinarily just throw a shabby illusion out there for the sake of speed, but it was different for this exam. Since there was no rush—or at least, no threat of an enemy attacking her within the next second or so—Xiu decided to take her time. Breathe in, breathe out. In, out, in, and out.

Her FEAR ability—or the “Waking Nightmare” as her parents had explained to her—affected anyone within a two metre vicinity of her, and was typically used to surprise and stun an opponent. For a few seconds, the illusion would warp the victim’s surroundings into a reflection of one of their greatest fears. Individual people would see different things.

First things first: she made sure that there weren’t actually any students standing in her vicinity while she did this. Bogeymen were fine (or anyone judging this exam), but not another student.

For the sake of being able to determine for herself how she was doing, Xiu had decided to subject herself to the effects of her own illusion. Was she happy about this? No, not really—really, who wanted to face some of their fears, even if only for a few seconds?—but there wasn’t any choice. It had been so long since she actually did this, so actually being able to see how she was doing would help a great deal.

That was, if she didn’t freak out too much at her own nightmare, at least. When she was finally ready, she took a long, deep breath, and slowly opened her eyes.

There was a strange glowing aura to the pink eyes, but the look in them was also blank—distant, even. Though her expression was impassive, the ghoul gave a little shudder, her hands balling into fists at her sides. To someone standing outside of the two metre range, that was all that they saw—a little baku shaking and clenching her fists. Those who stepped in too close would subject themselves to a waking nightmare of their own, and Xiu...

Xiu was, at present, trying to keep calm and keep silent, repeating to herself over and over again that this was just an illusion, and that she was the one controlling it here. She tried to ignore the Hunters advancing on her, or her badly-injured friends who were sitting in cages all around her, pleading and grasping at her skirt through the bars. The illusion was only supposed to last a few seconds, but when you were actually trapped in it, it felt much, much longer.

Concentrate, Xiu, She urged herself, lips pressing into a thin line, Don’t let the illusion break. Maintain it for those 10 seconds.

She struggled to hang onto the illusion as long as she could, but the whole scene around her suddenly began to flicker, like a skelevision with bad reception. At first it was mild—it started with some static—but then it became more violent, people becoming more and more distorted. Finally, the illusion shattered completely, bringing Xiu back into reality.

7 seconds—that was how long she had managed to keep the illusion up. That part at the end—with the fading—was never supposed to happen. It was likely just a consequence of lack of practice for all this time, but aside from that...she had actually hadn’t done all that badly. At the very least, she hoped that she had done well enough to earn a decent score on the exam.

That was her part of the examination—hopefully the others were having luck with theirs as well.

[ SCORE: 10 ]