Earl looked up at Erin.
'What?!' He thought in shock. 'I didn't even see her move!'
Erin appeared to be in the same exact pose she was in a second ago. The only change was that her pupils were now glowing an icy blue. Around him, Earl's friends all looked on in terror, as Shizuka stomped towards them.
"I have been searching for my little Tsu-Tsu ALL DAY." Shizuka growled, as she approached them. "And no one will tell me anything."
Shizuka continued walking forward. As she did, Layla subconsciously moved out of her way. Soon, Shizuka stood right in front of Earl's group.
"Apparently, Peter Chuck was the last person to see him on the base." She growled.
Shizuka reached down into the holster at her thigh, and withdrew a sharp needle the length of her fingertip down to her wrist.
"Now, you can either tell me what I want to know now, or I can force it out of you in my Interrogation Chamber!" She growled.
To Earl's right, one of his friends gulped.
"Wait!" He yelled, causing Shizuka's face to snap to him. Seeing the intense glare, the student almost pissed himself.
He gulped again.
"I…I'll tell you everything!" He replied. "I don't know where Peter is! He was supposed to meet up with us a while ago, but he never showed up!"
Layla took a step forward.
"What is Peter hiding?" She asked.
Earl snapped his head towards him.
"Shut up, Ben!" Earl snarled. "If you say any more, you're out of the gang!"
The now-named "Ben" snapped back to him.
"Yeah, screw you, Earl!" Ben retorted, fear in his voice. "This woman's a psychopath on a good day! I don't wanna see what she's like when she's pissed!" Ben snapped his head back towards Shizuka, Erin, and Layla. "We're not sure exactly what happened, but we heard that he pushed Quinn and Vorden into a Portal!" Ben replied. "I don't know why Hikiko is missing, as well! I swear!"
Earl grit his teeth in frustration. He was the one behind everything. He and his group had been the ones to give Peter the instructions after Mono brought him back from the second-year building the other night. When they had heard that three students had vanished, and that Vorden and Quinn were among them, they thought that Peter had done what he was told.
However, unknown to them, Peter had actually only managed to push Quinn in. Vorden and Tsukuru had merely jumped in after him.
Shizuka narrowed her eyes at Earl. She could tell that he was the leader of this group. She pulled her arm back, hand gripped around the needle, and drove it deep into Earl's left collarbone, directly in the middle of a nerve cluster.
Earl's eyes went wide, and he screamed in pain.
Shizuka leaned in close to him.
"If Tsu-Tsu doesn't make it back, I'll throw you into the dungeon myself!" She whispered into his ear.
She then violently wrenched the needle back out, and walked out of the training room. As she did, Erin began to walk away, as well.
Seeing this, Ben's eyes widened.
"Wait!" He yelled. "Aren't you going to free us?!"
Erin stopped for a moment. She then glanced back at him.
"The ice will melt in a couple of hours." She replied coldly. "Or, maybe someone with an Ability will come to help you. This is your punishment for making me wait. You should have told this girl what she wanted to know straight away."
As Erin continued walking off towards the exit, Layla quickly followed after her. As they walked, Layla gulped.
"That was…intense." She thought.
Erin narrowed her eyes. She looked down at her sword, still in its sheathe.
'Hikiko, you'd better make it out of this alive.' Erin thought.
However, Layla had something else on her mind. Did Peter really push Vorden and Quinn into a Portal? And if he did, then why was Tsukuru missing? Did he jump in after them? Layla thought back to how Tsukuru had jumped in to save Amelia during the incident in the assembly hall last week. If he had been willing to do that for a perfect stranger, then he probably would jump into a Portal after his actual friends.
Layla gulped. The thought of those three ending up on some random, unknown planet filled her with dread. Even worse, she feared that Quinn might have…grown hungry, and had no choice but to…dine on one of the other two.
Just then though, as the two of them were walking down the hall, they saw someone approaching them from the other side, walking down the hall from the opposite direction.
And the person…was Peter.
Instantly, the group of three froze.
Seeing Layla standing there, Peter immediately tried turning on his heels, and running back the direction he had come from.
However, Erin reached out, and grabbed him by his collar. She then lifted him into the air, and made a sharpturn towards the nearby left wall. She slammed him into the wall. While still holding him, frost began to appear on her hand. Ice spread out from her hand, covering Peter's whole upper torso. Before long, the ice had completely encased Peter's chest, pinning him to the wall.
Layla narrowed her eyes.
'The direction he was heading…he was heading towards the training room.' Layla thought. 'Was he heading to meet up with that group of boys?'
Seeing Peter's strange actions, Layla was starting to think that maybe what that "Ben" boy was saying was the truth. Still though, she wanted to hear it from Peter's mouth.
"Peter, tell us the truth." Layla replied, causing Peter to look at her. "Did you really push your three roommates into a Portal?" She asked.
Peter remained quiet for a moment.
"Only…Only Quinn got pushed through." Peter said in a defeated tone. He glanced to the side. "The other two…they jumped in of their own volition."
Hearing this slightly stunned Erin, but Layla had pretty much assumed that Tsukuru had jumped in on his own.
Slowly, Layla began to approach Peter.
Seeing this, Peter bit his lip.
"What are you going to do, hit me?" Peter asked. "Because, trust me, I've already had my fair share of pain! Nothing you could possibly do would be worse than what Earl did to me to make me do it!"
Erin narrowed her eyes. She formed a small, needle-shaped ice pick in her hand.
"Really?" She asked, holding up the piece of ice. "I'm pretty sure that I can think of quite a few places where I could stick this to make you want to kill yourself!"
Layla then motioned for Layla to put the ice pick down. She was starting to think that Erin had…problems. She then looked up at Peter.
"Peter, I thought you were all friends." She replied. "Every day Quinn would ask how you were. He told me that if I ever saw something strange, to come and tell him. Why didn't you just tell him, or at least tell us what was happening?"
Peter was quiet for a moment.
"I thought that I could handle it myself." He muttered under his breath.
It was barely audible, but Layla had heard it.
Peter then let out a bitter laugh.
"Besides, do you know what would happen if I did tell you?" He asked, before looking back at Layla. "You'd go beat them up, and they'd just come back for revenge. But they wouldn't target you, her, Peter, Vorden, or Tsukuru. They would target me." Peter grit hit teeth. "You guys can't protect me twenty-four-seven!" Peter replied. "And even if you do, what about after we graduate?! Don't you understand? My life was already decided before I even got here!" Peter then broke down into tears. "I didn't want to do it! But I didn't have a choice!" He cried.
Layla clenched her fists, and was ready to punch Peter in the face. She couldn't believe that after all Quinn had done for Peter from behind the scenes, that Peter could do this. And even though she didn't like Vorden, she could tell that he and Tsukuru cared for Peter, too. Seeing Peter's crying face, Layla sighed. She brought her arm back down to her side.
"You're not even worth hitting." She replied.She then looked up at Peter. "Peter…you disgust me." She replied. "You always have a choice."
***
General Nathan had a slumped posture as he headed towards the usual meeting room. He felt like a death-row inmate walking towards his own execution. Before he even opened the door, he could hear Sergeant Shizuka screaming.
"I'M GONNA FUCKING RIP OUT YOUR STILL-BEATING HEART, AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR GODDAMN THROAT!"