The morning light shone in through the window
Hoshimi stood in the corridor outside Seraphina's room, his violet eyes fixed on the chrome door.
[I feel sleepy, I guess the fatigue from the invasion finally caught up to me]
The words of the others circled in his skull like trapped birds, each one offering a different piece of the puzzle.
[Dominic's being weird. Something's off with him. His eyes flicker blue sometimes, like someone else is watching.]
And then there was Sarah.
[I had this strange obsession with tearing the limbs off bugs.]
"Maybe she really is just a weirdo."
He knocked.
Three soft taps.
No response.
He knocked again, harder this time. "Seraphina. It's Hoshimi. We need to talk."
A long pause. Then, muffled through the door
"It's early. Can't this wait?"
"No."
Another pause. Longer this time. He could hear movement inside, the soft shuffle of feet on carpet, the creak of a drawer opening and closing. Then, the click of the lock.
The door swung open.
Seraphina stood in the doorway, her pink hair loose and tangled, falling around her shoulders in a messy halo.
She wore the same oversized sweater from yesterday, the sleeves swallowing her hands completely, and her amber eyes, usually so sharp, were dulled with exhaustion. Dark circles carved hollows beneath them.
There seemed to be something on her face.
But he couldn't put his finger on it.
Guilt.
"Hoshimi," she said. Her voice was hoarse, like she'd been crying, or like she hadn't used it in hours. "What do you want?"
"I need to ask you some questions." He didn't wait for an invitation, stepping past her into the room. "About yesterday. About the aquarium. About what happened while you were there."
Seraphina's face went pale. "What do you mean? Nothing happened. We just looked at fish. Edward and Dominic were there the whole time. You can ask them."
"I intend to." Hoshimi moved through the room, his eyes cataloging everything. "After I'm done with you."
It was neater than Kira's room but messier than Neila's, a middle ground.
Books on magic theory were stacked on the desk, their spines cracked, their pages marked with scraps of paper. A cup of cold tea sat beside them, a thin skin forming on its surface.
And on the nightstand, next to the bed, was a small notebook.
Noticed.
But Hoshimi noticed the way Seraphina's eyes darted to it when he passed, the way her fingers twitched at her side like she wanted to snatch it up and hide it.
"Is that your diary?"
"No?"
"Fine, I'm not touching it anyways."
"Dominic and Edward," he said, turning back to face her. "You spent the whole day with them. Did anything unusual happen? Anything that seemed... off?"
Seraphina's brow furrowed. "Off how?"
"Anything. A conversation that seemed strange. A moment when you weren't with them."
Her expression flickered. Just for a second, just enough for Hoshimi to see. Then it smoothed back into careful blankness.
"We were together the whole time," she said. "Except when Edward went to the bathroom. And even then, it was only for a few minutes. I was with Dominic the entire time."
"So nothing happened. Nothing unusual."
"No."
Hoshimi studied her face. The way her eyes wouldn't quite meet his. The way her hands had disappeared into her sweater sleeves, hiding her fingers, hiding the nervous twitch he'd seen in them a moment ago.
"You're lying," he said.
Seraphina flinched. "I'm not-"
"Something happened at the aquarium. Something you don't want to tell me." He stepped closer, not threatening, just present, just there. "I'm not here to accuse you of anything, Seraphina. I'm just here to find out a couple things. Take your time, take as much as you need, I'm not here to extract information out of you, all I want is to know a couple of things."
He paused, letting the words settle.
"If you know something, anything, that could help, I need you to tell me."
Seraphina's jaw tightened. For a long moment, she was silent, her eyes fixed on a point somewhere over his shoulder, her hands still hidden in her sleeves. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"Nothing happened," she said. "We looked at fish. We talked. We came back. That's all."
Hoshimi waited.
"There's nothing else to tell."
He nodded slowly. "Then you won't mind if I ask Dominic the same questions. And Edward."
Something flickered in Seraphina's expression.
"You can ask whoever you want," she said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. "At the very least I didn't notice anything off, I'd tell you if I knew, after all this was the thing you asked me to help you about right?"
"I'm sure they will." Hoshimi turned toward the door, his footsteps silent on the carpet. "One more thing."
Seraphina looked up.
"Sarah Williams," he said. "What do you know about her?"
The question seemed to catch her off guard. She blinked. "Umm? I barely talk to her."
"She visited you yesterday. After the aquarium."
It wasn't a question. Seraphina's face went white.
"How did you-"
"She was in my room last night. Knocked some books off my shelves, made a mess of my things. Lucy was supposed to watch over her, I figured that she must've gone somewhere else before she came to my room." He paused, watching her reaction. " Sarah has a rather particular mana signature, her's is like a horde of bugs rather than a liquid or gas, first thing I came in here is drop my mana to the floor to feel for her residue."
Seraphina's hands, still hidden in her sleeves, were shaking now. He could see the tremor in the fabric, the way her whole body seemed to be vibrating with suppressed tension.
"She didn't tell me anything," Seraphina said. Her voice cracked on the last word. "She just... asked how the aquarium was. Made small talk. That's all."
"Really?"
Seraphina didn't answer.
Hoshimi studied her for a long moment.
Seraphina had dark circles under her eyes, she couldn't quite meet his gaze.
"Seraphina," he said, his voice softer now, deliberately so. "What did she tell you?"
He let the words hang in the air, watching her face, watching the war play out behind her eyes. For a moment, just a moment, he thought she was going to tell him. Her mouth opened, her lips parted, and something flickered in her expression that might have been confession.
"Nothing."
"You think I'd trust that?"
"It's private."
"I need to know."
"It has nothing to do with Audrey and the deaths right now."
"Really?"
Then the shutters came down.
She twiddled her thumbs as her face flushed.
Fine! You goddamn stalker. You wanna know what we talked about!?"
Hoshimi nodded slowly. "Yeah."
"Okay." She walked up to him, pressing her finger against his chest, Her face was crimson. Not pale but red with embarrassment, the color spreading from her cheeks to her ears to the base of her throat. "I like a certain boy. And I guess she managed to figure it out..somehow. I guess she wanted entertainment or something! So she said that she was going to hook me up with him."
She stared down at the floor, her hands shaking from embarrassment. Her feet refused to stay planted on the floor.
[Huh?]
Hoshimi was bewildered.
[That's it? Some girls talk? The hell did I come here for? It doesn't seem like she's lying either, she said something that clearly embarrassed her, so I doubt she's feeding me false information]
Hoshimi sighed.
"So, Dominic."
"Yes, wait umm…"
"Anything off you noticed about him?"
Something in her expression shifted. The embarrassment didn't fade.
"Oh." She tapped her fingers against the desk, taking her time, thinking. "That's what you wanted to ask."
Hoshimi waited.
She was quiet for a long moment, her eyes distant, her fingers still drumming a nervous rhythm on the wood. When she finally spoke, her voice was softer, more careful.
"Nope," she said. "Nothing's wrong with him. From what I can tell."
He studied her face. The way her eyes had gone distant. The way her fingers had stopped drumming, gone still. The way she was looking at something he couldn't see.
"You hesitated."
Seraphina's eyes snapped back to his. "What?"
"When I asked about Dominic. You hesitated before you answered."
"I didn't-" She stopped. Her hands disappeared back into her sleeves. "I'm just tired. We were all tired yesterday. He seemed fine. Normal. He made jokes. He looked at fish. He was..." She trailed off, her voice fading.
"He was what?"
"He was Dominic." She looked away. "That's all."
Hoshimi filed that away. The hesitation. The way she'd looked somewhere else when she said his name. The way her hands had gone still, like she was holding something back.
[The boy she likes. Must be Dominic]
"Seraphina." He waited until she looked at him. "I guess it's my fault for getting involved in your girl's talk, but just be careful of Sarah."
Something flickered in Seraphina's expression.
"I know what I'm doing," she said.
"Okay."
He turned toward the door, his footsteps silent on the carpet. At the threshold, he paused, looking back.
"One more thing."
Seraphina looked up, her face still flushed, her eyes still wary.
"Edward," he said. "He went to the bathroom. How long was he gone?"
Her brow furrowed. "I don't know. Ten minutes? Maybe fifteen. Why?"
"And when he came back. Was he different?"
Seraphina's expression flickered. "Different how?"
"Maybe quieter?"
She was quiet for a long moment, thinking. When she spoke, her voice was slower, more deliberate.
"Now that you mention it," she said, "he was quieter. I thought he was just tired. We'd been walking for hours after all."
"Hoshimi."
He looked back.
Her face was still red, but something else had crept into her expression now.
"You said Sarah was in your room last night. That she made a mess of your things." She swallowed. "What did she want?"
Hoshimi considered the question. The books scattered on his floor. The way she'd knocked them down one by one, watching him watch her. The way she'd looked at the red-covered book, the one with the golden lettering, the one that had caught her eye for reasons he still didn't understand.
"Entertainment," he said. "She wanted entertainment."
Seraphina's face went pale. "That's what she said to me. That she wanted entertainment. That she was going to help me because it would be... fun."
Hoshimi waited.
[Yea that seems like her]
He looked at her, standing in the middle of her room with her pink hair tangled and her face pale and her hands hidden in sleeves that were too long for her.
The corridor stretched before him, identical doors on either side, the fluorescent lights humming their eternal song. Hoshimi walked slowly, his footsteps silent on the polished floor, his mind churning through what he'd learned.
[My money's on Dominic. Sarah could be a suspect, but I think she's just eccentric]
He stopped outside Edward's door. Listened. Through the thin walls, he could hear nothing. No movement, no breathing, no sound at all. It was as if the room was empty.
[Edward was gone for fifteen minutes at the aquarium. He came back quieter. Wonder if that has to do with anything]
He raised his hand to knock, then stopped.
He turned away from Edward's door, walking back toward his own room. The corridor seemed longer than before, the doors more numerous, the lights brighter. He passed Lucy's room, heard nothing inside. Passed Neila's room, felt the faint thrum of her barrier, the same one she'd woven to keep him out.
At his own door, he paused.
[It's definitely Dominic isn't it?]