Basket Day
An hour earlier.
It was the day of the regular study session Simon had promised to the Class A members. He arrived at the meeting spot a little early.
Lately he had become a walking headline, so he preferred to avoid crowded places like the campus library or cafés.
The others understood his situation, and so they had agreed to gather in an empty lecture hall on campus.
"Hup."
Simon pushed four desks neatly together, pulled out a chair, sat down, and took a moment to catch his breath.
Looking out the window, he saw flowers blooming brightly across the campus garden. White and pink petals fluttered down, and near them, students lounging on picnic blankets chatted and laughed together.
A lazy weekend campus scene.
Nice.
Simon drank in the pleasant breeze and inhaled deeply.
Tududududu.
As he sat resting, he caught the sound of dainty little footsteps outside the lecture hall. Simon could tell exactly who it was from the footsteps alone.
Glancing toward the corridor-side window, he saw a scurrying crown of a head, with a single strand of lavender hair sticking out and swaying side to side.
Soon the lavender hair passed by the window. There was a long hesitation at the door before a cautious knock sounded.
"Yeah, come in."
Creeeak—
At last the wooden door slid open, and Camibarez, dressed neatly in her uniform, entered with a swish of her skirt.
"Hi, Simon!"
She beamed at him, holding up a basket filled with jellies, chocolates, and the like.
"It's Basket Day! I wanted to get into the spirit, so I put this together!"
"Huh?"
She trotted over and held the basket out to him.
"Please accept it, if you'd like!"
"Ah. Yeah. Thanks."
Simon accepted the basket brimming with snacks, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple.
What holiday was it today, again?
For someone from a mountain village, occasions like this were always tricky. It was hard to keep up with trends, and if you didn't know about one, you dreaded the looks that said, 'You seriously didn't know?'
Still, pretending to know when he didn't felt rude, so he worked up the courage to ask.
"Cami, I hate to admit my ignorance, but... what's the occasion today?"
"It's Basket Day!"
She answered in a voice that bloomed like spring.
"It's the day when you fill a basket or a wicker hamper with snacks and give it to someone!"
"O-oh, I see. Thanks for telling me."
"You can put them in a pocket too, like this."
Camibarez pulled a small candy out of her uniform pocket to demonstrate.
"It started in the Kalos Kingdom! They say it's about filling the gift with love and good fortune!"
Simon nodded along as Camibarez chattered away like a busy little sparrow.
The Dark Alliance, after all, was a union of the Four Kingdoms, and a school like Kizen—packed with students from every corner of the continent—had the peculiar burden of observing the holidays and events of every kingdom.
"Sorry, but I don't have anything to give you."
"That's okay! Basket Day is normally when girls give gifts to boys anyway!"
"Ah, I see."
His head swam at the thought that sooner or later there'd be a Cake Day or an Accessories Day, and he'd have to return every favor he received.
Creeeak—!
"Heeey!"
This time it was Dick, sliding the door open as he entered.
He had a huge paper bundle slung over his shoulder and a sandwich—evidently grabbed from a nearby convenience store—clamped between his teeth. Ever since stepping down from the Student Council, he'd apparently been busy running a business in Rochest.
"Simon! Cami! Long time no see, you two!"
"Dick!"
Camibarez held up yet another basket and showed it to him.
"Basket Day! It's a gift!"
Thump.
Dick dropped the sandwich right out of his mouth. Then, overcome with emotion, he dropped to one knee and seized the basket with trembling hands.
"I-is this really mine?"
"Of course it is!"
Dick made a show of wiping his eyes with a quiet sniffle.
"I knew it—Cami's the only one who remembers me on holidays. Thank you!"
"Ahaha. It's really nothing, you know."
Dick placed the basket on the desk with evident pride, let out a cheerful hup, dropped into a chair, and thumped his own back.
"Ah, but thanks to Cami, I'll have to treat my dormmates to noodles when I get back. Simon, did you get anything?"
"Yeah. From Cami."
"Hahahaha! Same as me, huh? Eh?"
Dick was snickering away when he suddenly noticed something and reached out.
"Wait, what's that sticking out of your uniform pocket."
"?!"
Simon belatedly looked down at his own pocket. It was stuffed full of spiky little sticks; when he reached in, they turned out to be all candy. He pulled out a whole fistful.
"Ah."
Simon laughed awkwardly.
"Now that you mention it, I did bump into an awful lot of kids on the way here."
"...Khh. May every popular boy drop dead."
Dick dragged his palm down his whole face.
Before long, Meilin breezed in with a cheerful "Heya~" and greeted the room. Instead of a basket, she handed Simon and Dick each a luxuriously designed pudding box—which, on closer inspection, had a little basket drawn on the lid.
Apparently that counted, too.
And so the four of them, having observed this strange student holiday, settled into their seats around the desks and turned to the original purpose of the gathering: studying.
"Hey, guys. Did you hear?"
Barely ten minutes in, Dick spoke up with a smirk.
"Word is the 2nd-Year Group Exam is about to begin."
"Ugh."
Meilin, who was busy working through a workbook, shot him a sidelong glare.
"I'm only on question two!"
"We should take it easy on studying, it's the weekend."
Camibarez fluttered her wings with curiosity.
"I heard a rumor that the Group Exam is the 2nd-year version of the 'island survival assessment'! What kind of exam do you think it'll be?"
"Well, isn't it lucky that I went and narrowed down a few candidate locations!"
As if he'd been waiting for exactly this, Dick spread a map across the table. When it covered up Meilin's workbook, fire flickered to life in her eyes.
"Serin Island, Chenon Island, the Garaon Archipelago, the Rehlon Archipelago. Add in the rest, and that's eight spots total. All of them are places where Roke Island's own logistics have moved directly."
Curiosity piqued, Simon craned his neck forward to study the map.
"Looking at the map alone, I have no idea which of these they'd pick."
"Right, the map alone won't tell you. But if I had to name one thing all eight candidate islands have in common!"
Dick grinned and wiped his mouth.
"It's that no human could live there—hell, even monsters would struggle to survive. Which means the theme of this Group Exam is probably 'survival,' just like first year!"
The Group Exam came in several varieties—competition, cooperation, survival, and more. Dick had his money on survival.
Eventually Meilin sighed and set down her quill.
"We already did survival in first year, so it'll be cooperation, you idiot."
"I have a reason for being sure it's survival! For one thing, after the first semester ended, there were fewer expulsions than expected. Just a handful of underperformers out of the lowest-ranked squads, right?"
He shaped a number with his fingers.
"Right now there are 370 students in the entire second year, second semester. That's way too many survivors. As everyone knows, Kizen normally takes about 1,000 first-year entrants, whittles down to around 300 in second year, and about 150 by third year. Our class is unusually packed."
"And so," Dick continued, "the consensus among the old-timers and the teaching assistants is that this Group Exam is going to thin the herd, if only to bring the student body back in line. It'll also put a little fear back into our lazy second-semester routine."
"Hmm."
"So this is no time to sit around cramming! What you need to do is sharpen your survival-focused dark magic!"
The speculation sounded plausible enough that a ripple of tension ran through the room.
Dick, who had been holding forth enthusiastically, noticed his friends' expressions and cleared his throat with a hollow cough.
"Er, maybe that wasn't the right thing to ramble about on a happy Basket Day?"
"No, I think it's good to know ahead of time and prepare."
Simon said.
Meilin gave a thoughtful mm and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Even if it sounds convincing, it's still just a fool peasant's guess. Until the school officially reveals the exam details or the theme, there's not much point preparing for any one thing."
Camibarez nodded.
"Exactly! Until then, all we can do is study hard and raise our own capabilities. And I think that'll help us survive too!"
"That's our Cami! Back to the books, then!"
Meilin's position won out in the end. Everyone picked up their quills and threw themselves back into their studies.
But the quiet scratch of quills didn't last long. Meilin snapped her quill in half, brimming with pride.
"Argh, those little—!"
A crowd of students outside the corridor window was peering in at Simon. Judging by the absence of badges, they were first-years.
When Simon gave them a resigned smile and a wave, a squealing chorus erupted out in the corridor.
Frozen.
Meilin strode over and pressed her palm against the window. Frost spread across the glass, blotting out the view outside.
Once they could no longer see in, the sound of the students shuffling away drifted through the wall.
"Must be nice, huh?"
Meilin grumbled. Camibarez stole a glance at Simon, then lowered her eyes and went back to her workbook. Dick smacked his knee and roared with laughter.
"These days, wherever you go, talk about Simon is just the baseline!"
"...No, I genuinely don't get it. Why is he MORE popular now than when he was Student Council President?"
"Ah, you just don't see the obvious!"
Dick raised a palm toward Simon as he explained.
"Formerly: the parachute 2nd-year Student Council President, Simon's backup for Eisel! Currently: the ex-Student Council President who stepped down for the school's sake! And above all—the challenger to Demon King Ballack. Where else are you going to find an image makeover that dramatic?"
Having gushed it all out in one breath, Dick leaned in close and dropped his voice.
"And on top of that, the Ballack Council's reputation on campus is going down the drain right now. You know what they're up to? The first-years have been making noise with protests and whatnot lately, so the council is deliberately stacking the schedule to keep everyone too buried in school business to look their way. They're even drafting the club budgets for second semester—friendly clubs get money showered on them, hostile clubs get slashed. They're just doing whatever the hell they want!"
"Hmmmm."
Simon thought for a moment of Fitzgerald, president of the Mutant Club.
It made him feel guilty to imagine his friends suffering on his account.
"I think our social club's president is worried about the budget too."
Camibarez said, her face clouded with concern.
Dick nodded and picked up where she left off.
"They said if we submit our appeal documents in good faith, they'd 'reconsider' the budget. You know what that means? It means rattle your little bell and beg! They've got it in for every campus organization they don't like."
"And another thing."
Meilin chimed in.
"They've seized control of the campus press to quietly build Ballack into an idol, and they're ordering the third-years to drill the second-years with brutal discipline. Isn't it a bit childish to throw your weight around the second you grab power?"
"Which is exactly why our Student Council days are getting re-evaluated!"
Dick's eyes turned to Simon.
"When we ran things, there wasn't a single problem. Everyone's just waiting for you to drag Ballack down."
"Hey! Don't go piling pressure on Simon!"
"No, no—it's not pressure, I'm just telling you how campus opinion stands."
Simon closed his eyes with a low hum.
"I had no idea the Ballack Council had gone that far."
"They're building an empire of malice. Most of it is probably the handiwork of their VP, Sota Psyche."
Dick looked at Simon.
"The bottom line is: watch your back, Simon. Public opinion is on your side, so they can't openly do anything to you—but knowing Sota's personality, he'll be hunting for any crack he can exploit."
Simon nodded.
"Right. Thanks for telling me."
* * *
That afternoon.
Simon finished the study session, ran a few errands, and returned to the dormitory.
Night had already fallen.
Toto went to wash up, so... hm?
Just then, he noticed something slinking across the dormitory floor from the bed.
At first he thought it was a bug, but it turned out to be a single Corpse Spider that had come to visit.
"No way?"
The Corpse Spider wove its forelegs up and down and wagged its rear in a flurry of gestures, explaining something. Only then did a wide grin spread across Simon's face.
"Everyone's back!"
The Ancient Undead who had set down Mur's warship in Frost Field had apparently returned safely to Roke Island.
It looked like he'd finally get to see the whole legion gathered in one place for the first time in ages.
"I'm heading out right now!"