The fluorescent lights hummed their eternal, maddening song.
Hoshimi stood in the corridor outside Lucy's room, his hand raised to knock, his violet eyes fixed on the chrome door as if it might reveal its secrets through sheer force of will. Behind him, the common room sat empty, the remnants of cold tea and half-eaten toast still scattered across the table where the others had gathered hours ago.
[Sarah's deliberately trying to hinder the investigation, but she doesn't seem like the the type of person to kill Audrey without good reason, what I should do now, is gather information, and why they would ever kill Audrey]
He knocked.
Three soft taps.
From inside, a muffled voice.
"Coming!"
The door opened a few seconds later, revealing Lucy Walker in a state Hoshimi had never seen her. Her long dark blue hair, usually so carefully arranged, was pulled back in a hasty ponytail, strands escaping to frame her face in chaotic wisps. She wore an oversized sweater, gray, worn, clearly not designed for public consumption and her crimson eyes were slightly red-rimmed.
"Oh," she said. "Hoshimi. I-" She stopped, suddenly aware of her appearance. Her hand flew to her hair, then dropped, then flew up again. "I wasn't expecting you. I mean, Neila's in the bathroom, so if you need her-"
[I was coming here to get Neila, but since she's here as well, I guess I'll try to pry some information from her]
"Actually," Hoshimi interrupted, his voice flat, "I need to talk to you. Alone."
Books aligned on the shelf by height rather than subject. Pens arranged in a ceramic mug by color. The bed was made with precision, corners folded at perfect forty-five-degree angles. A small plant sat on the windowsill, its leaves gleaming with recent misting.
[This place is rather neat, it's that midget's room after all]
He ran his finger along the door frame.
[Not a single speck of dust either, I guess at least she keeps her room clean]
Lucy's eyes widened slightly. "Alone? But Hoshimi said, I mean, you said everyone has to be in pairs. For the investigation. For safety." She glanced back into the room, where the sound of running water could be heard from the small bathroom. "Neila will be out soon."
"I'm aware." Hoshimi didn't move. "I'll talk to her later, for now I need you."
Something flickered in Lucy's expression.
"Okay," she said quietly. She stepped into the corridor, pulling the door mostly closed behind her. The click of the latch echoed in the empty hallway. "What is it? Is it about the spy thing? If it is, I'm clearly not, of course I'm not, why would I be? You know me, I would never ever do such a thing."
Hoshimi studied her for a long moment. Lucy Walker.
[She's getting nervous, but this doesn't mean that she's the killer, I guess she gets stressed easily, unless I release the tension in the air, she's just gonna stay nervous and I'm not getting anything out of her]
"Relax," Hoshimi said, his voice deliberately softer than usual. "I'm not accusing you of anything. I'm just... gathering perspectives. Trying to piece together what happened during the invasion."
Lucy's shoulders dropped slightly, but her fingers continued to worry the hem of her oversized sweater. "Oh. Okay. That's... that's fine then. I can do that. I'm good at perspectives. I have lots of perspectives." She paused. "What kind of perspectives do you need?"
"Let's walk," he said, already moving toward the common room.
Lucy followed, her bare feet silent on the cool floor. She'd left her shoes behind, he noticed.
The common room was empty, exactly as he'd left it. Hoshimi settled onto one of the worn couches, gesturing for Lucy to take the seat across from him. She did, perching on the edge cushions like a bird ready to take flight at the first sign of danger.
"I'm not accusing you of anything," Hoshimi said. His voice was calm, deliberate. "I need information. You're one of the few people here who might have it."
Lucy's brow furrowed. "Information about what?"
"The invasion. The spy. Audrey's murder." He paused, letting the words settle. "You were at the Mirlo estate. You fought alongside us. You saw things."
"I saw a lot of things." Lucy's voice was quiet. "Most of them I'm trying not to remember."
"That's exactly why I'm talking to you."
She looked up at that, her crimson eyes meeting his with something like surprise. "What do you mean?"
"The invasion," he began. "You were in the Zenith with Sophia right? When you woke up, what did you see?"
Lucy's brow furrowed. "I've already told this to the VP. To the investigators. I woke up in my room, alone. The door was open. I heard fighting. I ran toward the courtyard."
"Where were you when the invasion started?"
"In my room. Sleeping. Like everyone else, obviously. Where else would I be?" Lucy's brow furrowed. "I woke up in that weird hallway, the Zenith, I mean and then Sophia was there, and we walked around for what felt like forever, and then she blew up a door, and then we walked some more, and then she blew up another door, and then-" She stopped, realizing she was rambling. "Sorry. I'm not very good at summarizing."
"You're doing fine." Hoshimi leaned against the wall opposite her, adopting a casual posture meant to put her at ease. "What happened after you woke up from the Zenith?"
Lucy's expression shifted.
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed.
[Guilt?]
An expression crossed her features before settling into uncertainty. "I... I don't really remember much. Just flashes. The fighting. People screaming. And then it was over, and Sophia was standing in the courtyard with all those weapons behind her, and everyone was staring at her like she was..." She trailed off.
"Like she was what?"
Lucy's cheeks colored slightly. "Like she was a superhero. You know? From the comics. The ones where the hero shows up at the last second and saves everyone and everything is okay because they're there."
[Hero? That's the last thing I'd describe her as]
Hoshimi raised an eyebrow.
"Do you know much about the witch hunts?" she asked.
Rather unexpected.
Hoshimi's eyes narrowed slightly. "The historical persecution of witches? Before the Academy system was established?"
"Yes." Lucy leaned forward, her crimson eyes gaining an intensity he hadn't seen before. "Not the official version they teach in classes. The real stories. The ones that got buried."
[Where is she going with this?]
"I know the basics," he said carefully. "Witches were hunted nearly to extinction. The Primordial Witch Rouge was responsible for the worst of it. The seven main witch clans sealed her away, but not before most of our kind were wiped out."
Lucy nodded, but her expression suggested this wasn't enough. "That's what they teach. But there's more. So much more." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "My mother, she used to tell me stories. About witches who fought back. Who tried to stand against Rouge and her hunters."
Hoshimi waited.
"There was one," Lucy continued, her voice taking on a dreamy quality, "called Elara. Elara Shaw. She lived during the worst of the hunts, when entire villages would burn suspected witches alive just for having unusual eyes. She was just a girl, maybe sixteen, when the hunters came for her family."
Lucy's eyes met his. "She fought. She was barely trained, her mana barely awakened. She fought with courage. Stood in front of her little brother while the hunters advanced, knowing she couldn't stop them, knowing she was going to die." A pause. "The hunters killed her brother and took her away to be burnt, but she managed to escape and lived in seclusion. She was a genius, probably the strongest during her time, but she lived alone and died alone. How lonely is that?"
The fluorescent lights hummed.
Lucy's expression flickered. She pulled her knees up, hugging them to her chest. "I keep thinking about Audrey. About how she died. About whether there was something we could have done differently."
"There wasn't."
"You don't know that." Lucy's voice was sharp, sharper than he'd ever heard it. "None of us know that. We weren't all there. We all failed."
Hoshimi didn't respond.
"I've been reading," Lucy continued after a moment, her voice softening. "Old texts. Histories that aren't taught in classes. Did you know there were witches who tried to reform the system from within, even back then? Who thought they could change things by working with the humans instead of against them?"
"They're all dead."