The bus drops them off an easy block away from Charterton Valley High, the place where Felicia is going to start her new and normal school lifestyle. In walking distance, they'll make it with just moments to spare if they hurry.
"Hey, hey, come on! Let's get moving!" she chimes, taking Benimaru by the hand once more.
They exit the bus and back into the city streets, resuming their fast-paced scurry toward their destination. There are fewer pedestrians at this time, which means fewer potential victims of their clumsy, hastily hurrying with no regard for any other person around them.
At last, they reach it. The school is even grander than when Felicia first visited it with her father for her initiation meeting. The pristine pearly white bricks layer to make up the walls and the elegant first impression the building itself puts out. Tall white pillars at the main entrance along with a gray stone staircase that seems to ascend into the heavens. The structure, six floors high and as wide as three football stadiums, is newly built for a sole purpose: give its students a reasonable sense of the real world upon their graduation. A fence lining the perimeter is equipped with state-of-the-art security systems and cameras. There are two front gates each one located near the front corners of the fence, allowing students from different sides of the city to enter the premises.
At this point, a small handful of students are still entering through the open gates before they will be automatically closed in the next several minutes. Felicia and Benimaru somehow make it amongst the last bits of the crowd who are pouring into the school. Once they're passed the gate, they both stop to catch their breath, huffing and leaning over with their hands on their knees, and receiving some discerning stares from those who dare to look back at them. Thinking they're so weird, let alone different, the other students choose not to approach them, but they still begin whispering behind their hands to each other about the duo's strikingly odd appearances.
"Woo-hoo! Alright, we made it," Felicia enthusiastically shouts at the top of her lungs, "This is going to be great!"
She starts making her way toward the front doors when Benimaru's hand abruptly grabs onto her wrist and makes her stop before she goes too far. She looks at him as his head was still looking downward and his hair covered his eyes.
"Huh? Something wrong? You know, at this rate, I'll be late!" Then she gets a good look into his eyes once he lifts his head, "Hey, what's with the weird face?"
"You sure you'll be alright without me?" Benimaru asks.
"No need to worry. She's got me," says Reynardo from inside Felicia's bag.
Felicia shushes him.
"Oh please, I'm not a little kid," she tries to reassure him, "I don't need you to babysit me like one. Besides, it's only for like several hours, so don't worry about it."
"That's exactly why I'm worried. Everyone, including you, ought to know by now you are the master at getting into trouble in just about everything you do in record breaking times."
"Is that what this is all about?"
"I'm just saying you're the one who wanted to come here, but that means you need to behave better. Even one slip-up can jeopardize all of this, and I don't want to see you get sad over it."
"He does have a point, Mistress," Reynardo comments.
Felicia then harshly pulls back her hand out of Benimaru's grip, "Jeez, it's like you don't even believe in me! Have a little faith, will you?"
"Look, I just—"
Felicia puts her index finger on his lips. She says, "No. No more negativity. How about this instead? You stop worrying, nothing will go wrong, and you'll make a big fancy feast for dinner tonight as a celebration?"
Benimaru opens his mouth about to say something that may contradict her every natural move, but Felicia immediately cuts him off before he can get a single word out.
"Look, it's my first day of school here, so even if I screw up something, it's not like they're going to resort to some major punishment." She makes it sound like she is going to get in trouble upon entering the building.
"Okay, but—"
"No buts. Nothing bad will happen. I promise," Felicia then gazes into Benimaru's bright orange eyes, leaning her face into his while standing on her tippy-toes, "And now I'll also need you to promise me that you'll stop worrying so much."
It's an effortless win on her end of the battle. Once she ever makes him promise her anything, he always becomes powerless to refuse upon her flirty yet comforting gestures toward him. Never in all his time of serving the Limoxberg family has Benimaru been able to deny one of Felicia's promises.
He sighs, shifting his head away from her big blue-eyed glare with a slight blush across his cheeks, "Alright, fine. You better make good on this, you know."
"Oh, I will. See you!"
Felicia then turns back to the school and happily skips quickly toward the main entrance. She gives him a final wave of the hand and then a thumbs up shortly afterward, a gesture to assure she will be just fine, before disappearing behind the front doors.
Benimaru watches her enter the building to ensure himself she will be safe inside. He is not permitted to attend school with her, but it always claws at his gut as to when she'll get in trouble next and to what sort of predicament it'll be. Not that he can do very much about it now, though. As much as he hates to admit it, she made a fair point.
He shouldn't have to worry. He just shouldn't.
But he also knows that Felicia has always found a way to get into trouble before now. Just from doing the simplest of things, she always takes the wrong turn. So surely, with so much that's at stake here, she'll do it again. All he can do is wait for that to happen.
Suddenly, his cellphone in his pocket begins buzzing, indicating that he's getting a call. Without bothering to check the caller ID, deducing it must be Felicia's father, Latham Limoxberg, calling him from the cottage, Benimaru quickly presses the answer button and gives a brief, "Hello?"
There is a slight pause before the person on the other end, who is indeed not a member of the Limoxberg family and should not have access to his phone number, speaks loudly and with a sinister cackling between his words, "Hahaha! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?! I'm right, aren't I, Kurogane?!"
Benimaru's blood runs cold. He recognizes that voice. A voice he wishes he'd never have to hear again.
Taking a minute to muster the courage to do so, he asks in a gravely stern tone, "How did you get this number, Kinoshita?"
"You shouldn't underestimate my talents, Kurogane," Kinoshita begins, "Anyways, thought I wouldn't find out about you ditching your duties back home and running off to England? You make that kind of noise, I'm going to know it one way or another. Or did you forget?"
Benimaru swallows a lump in his throat.
"But don't worry, my little darkling," Kinoshita continues, "I'm so gracious and you've got so many loyal colleagues here putting in a good word for you that I've decided to give you another chance. If you do one little thing for me, all will be forgiven.
"I have an associate positioned at coordinates I'll be texting you shortly after this call. They have a special assignment. Just. For. You. I hope to hear results within three days. If not, there will be consequences. Don't disappoint me, Kurogane."
The phone hangs up on Kinoshita's end.
Benimaru lowers his hand holding the cellphone all the way down to his side without pressing the end call button. A text comes through with a dinging noise. But he stands there, dumbstruck, for the next few minutes. His head is bowed, and his fists are trembling.
Just then, an elderly security guard working for the high school arrives on the scene and approaches Benimaru. "Excuse me, young man. You aren't allowed to be on these premises. You need to leave right now."
Benimaru suddenly turns around and starts sprinting off the school grounds, seemingly all in one swift motion.
"Well that was fast." The security guard comments to himself.