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"I will be counting on you for taking care of Maria," Seijin said as she too looked at Lucy's dorm, "If she gets worse, you can call me, even if I have nothing to do. I can only provide my advice; have her rest, stay away from medication, and try to keep an eye on the bumps on her back. ...As well as her humor, that seems to be her primal symptom, if it really is the cards bothering her."

"If you need anything call me, don't hesitate, or just text me whatever works~" Seijin smiled warmly and patted her student on the head,"Don't forget to rest yourself~"

--------Sometime in the morning . . .

Heidi was holding a folder with various papers, she pushed her glasses before struggling a bit to knock on Samantha's door. "Samantha...?" she called, "Hey, its me, Heidi!"

---
Maria had fallen asleep close to Lucy, and they had probably been like that for a while peacefully unconscious. Until something woke Maria up, she yelped and trashed, either shoving Lucy off the bed or herself onto the floor. She was once more in cold sweat, clawing to sit up, breathing heavily as if she had ran a marathon.

".... Samantha?" Heidi didn't hear much from inside, and , on gut instinct she moved to turn the door knob. A bit surprised but mostly concerned , the girl opened the door to peek inside , shyly at first before seeing Samantha on the floor curled up.

"Samantha!" She dropped her papers and folders, shoving past the door (and closing it on the action) as she moved to the girl's side,"Are you okay?"

Seeing as how that was a dumb question, and that she was looking at Sammy curled and cradling her side, she slid her arms under the girl's frame and easily, carefully lifted her up to her own bed. She rested Samatha down on the bed, and asked,"Where do you hurt; is it your side?"

- - -
"A-a-...ah--" Maria put a hand to the side of her head before putting the other parallel. She held her head for a few seconds, before looking to Lucy a bit dizzily,"L-lucy-...?"

It took her brain to catch up a bit and remind her she had come to her friend's room when she had felt faint, and a little more to inform her she had fallen asleep in said friend's bed. Slowly, she relaxed and her breathing slowed to normal. "Ah y-yeah, 'm fine. . ."

Despite just having slept through the night like a rock, her eyes were overshadowed by dark circles, and she, perhaps, looked more exhausted than when she had fallen asleep. Maria wasn't leaned on the wall, in fact, she was a bit hunched forward as she looked at Lucy's tangle,"Sorry, didn't mean to knock you off the bed-"

"Ah- A nightmare? You seem in pain, Samantha," Heidi staid, but seeing as how she was asked her motives to be there she responded," I did some research last night, that's all, about things that could cause your hair to turn white all of the sudden and uhm on the cards. The latter was much more difficult because... things get hidden- but I found ah--"

She turned and began to pick up the papers she had dropped as she had entered the apartment,"Its not much but I figured it could give us a start; a few of the people involved in the incident with cards a while back actually attend our school."

". . .Do You smell that?" Heidi stood looking around for a second, before moving to Samantha's closed window and looking outside. Out below the room she saw Tabitha walking out in her basketball jersey. "Uh. . ."

- - -

"Yeah, I'm fine." Maria tried to crawl out of bed carefully, having staid motionless through Lucy's silence,"I'll go to m dorm now. Thanks for the company." She slowly got out of bed, bracing on it as she started to try and straighten out

The motion caused a severe pain, and made her cringe, her face twisting in recoil, but she pushed fully straight. Maria's knees shook for a second, but she forced herself to take a step forward before slowly making her way to the door. About half way there, the pain in her back suddenly hit her again with renewed strength, making her stagger a second.

" Oh for ******** sake--! " Maria snarled and hugged her arms around herself. Letting out a small pant, she doubled over, baring her teeth trying to force her self up right again, only to get stuck at a certain angle.

"Ah, It's ... nothing..." Heidi was wathin intently as Tabitha walked away from the building and out of sight. Whatever it was she smelled faded away within a few seconds of that."It must be... one of my allergies," She muttered to herself before noticing Samantha behind her.

"Oh!.... I am not sure of that's how It'd work," Heidi responded belatedly,trying to shake the little situation off her mind," I didn't finish reading all the reports I found, since I fell asleep, but one of them mentioned the incident ended as suddenly as it began. I brought a copy of the papers over incase you were curious about them yourself. I found a good amount of things for such a forbidden topic!"

- - -

Maria shook her head as her ear buzzed. Her sight didn't refocus till Lucy knelt in front of her and took her shoulders. The kendo captain suddenly had her right hand over Lucy's left forearm. "No."

Her grip was horribly strong for someone in her state, and her nails dug into Lucy's skin. Her eyes glowed with some internal fire, some sort of rage, and they pierced intensely into Lucy's. It was something Maria had never shown to Lucy; rage, anger. "No. I am not going to the doctor, and I don't want Kazuko anywhere near me. And now listen to me."

"I want you to get away from me. I can't stand it how bubbly you are, how loud and obnoxious. Everyday, you act like the world is dandy, when its in rubble," She had pulled Lucy surprisingly close with her grip on the blonde's arm, and her words were hissed through clenched teeth. Maria's other arm was still wrapped around herself, "I honestly have no patience left for you, so get away, leave me alone. And stop following me around like a creep!"

With her grip on Lucy, she pulled herself up. The push was enough to get on her feet, and Maria managed to half trip to the door. She fumbled with it before opening it, walking out and slamming it loudly.

A few seconds after there was a second slam in the building, which was Maria slamming the door to her dorm.

"Well... its data in cyberspace, it is easy to get when you have a psychiatrist's keys to big storages of medical information and important people as friends," Heidi said , coming after Samantha to the desk,"Some was in level five security, other was rumors in the internet. . . It was a matter of looking in the right places, that's all."

The bespectacled girl looked over the papers over Samantha's shoulder, "It's odd, there is a couple people mentioned here, but what I found interesting, the well-seen and constantly repeated ones are staff of the school. Jurou Taisei, the Literature Teacher, Kazami Yuuka, the Biology teacher, Kazuko Seijin our Calculus teacher, and Yao Senshi the History teacher. There is a few students mentioned as well, Koudo Hazumi and Okashii Noraneko, who from what I get got involved in some heavy stuff with another two students, uh.... Amaraida Katrina, and Eremis Farona. . . That is what I remember anyway."

- - -

The phone rung and vibrated on the night table. Seijin patted a bit and looked at the caller ID. If Lucy was calling it must be serious. Concerned she answered, while she rubbed her face,"Hai, Lucy, what is the matter?"

"Wrong? Something happened with Maria?" The teacher sat up as Lucy's shaky voice came across the speaker, and as the blonde muttered this or that, she jumped out of the bed and collected her dorm's keys, which she stuffed into her sport short's pocket, "Give me a minute, okay, I am on my way."

She closed the door to her dorm and kept Lucy on the line as she went down the hallway. Guessing right she opened the door herself, hanged up and closed the door,"Lucy?"

The teacher was her student's dorm in a record time. Her silvery hair was up in a ponytail, and she sported a t-shirt of her home university. Her bare feet were silent as she came over to Lucy, kneeling infront of her. She put a hand to the girl's cheek and began to peer over the her.

Easily, the calculus teacher spotted the bruise and nail dents over Lucy's soft skin, her eyes met her student's as she asked, "Did she hurt you? Are you okay?"

"Looks like we got where to start. If Ms. Kazuko admitted the power of her cards then maybe she can tell us what she knows, further more, if you come to her. . . Well she'll already know you are having problems and will be more compelled to fess up whatever she may know!" Heidi said as Samantha patted her deck.

"As for the students, well I looked them up in the school's files (Yes, I am a bit of a hacker in my spare time) and came up with over all profile on these four," Heidi said, ruffling the papers for a specific sheet,"I know for a fact Noraneko and Hazumi are well known delinquents of the school, they used to be close till... they suddenly seperated. Farona is a member of the theatre department and Karine is a violinist in the orchesta. Farona and Karine are close friends from what I pieced from the incident."

---

"Lucy, calm down, okay? I am right here and I won't let Maria hurt you, you hear?" She now placed both hands on her student's face,"We know this isn't the real Maria. My student would never do anything to hurt a fly, much less you who she holds to such a high esteem. You said it yourself, students snapped with the cards, and it finally got to Maria."

" Now, do you have any idea where she may have gone?" Kazuko asked,"I will go after her, and try to subdue her before she gets herself hurt, Lucy, And I want you to stay right here, try to rest and relax. Stay close to your phone incase she or I call you, and report to me whenever you hear or see anything, or if you get scared, alright?"

"Elemental, Dear Samantha! Think of it this way," Heidi tapped her temple with a finger,"There people have gone through what you are, and more importantly, survived it. If we hunt them down then we can interrogate them about how they did it and how they stopped the incident."

"If they did it, we sure can, it will be a matter of asking and piecing what they all know," Heidi nodded to herself crossing her arms,"Ah- is your head hurting again? You look in pain."

---
Seijin looked intently back at Lucy. The girl had resolve under her fright. Even if she said no, Lucy would insist because that was the kinda girl she was.

She nodded and stood, holding Lucy's hand to help her up. "We will check her dorm then, since it is our one and only clue, " The teacher headed towards the door,"Hopefully she will be there still; and let us pray she is calmer." The teacher walked out onto the hallway and around to Maria's room. She knocked quietly.

"Maria, Its me, Seijin," She would announce," I would like you to open this door this instant." Inside there was the sound of movement, as if someone was getting in or out of bed. Afterwards Silence.

"Maria. This is an order, If you do not open, I will force my way inside, you have to three to do so." Seijin stood squared, as if challenged by the silence.

"One."


"Two."


"Thr---"

There was a loud thud and the sound of clatter. Seijin jumped a bit and blinked,"Maria?"

"...."

"Maria!" No response.