*
27th October, Monday, 11508
It was an average morning in school. The sky was casted in blue, the clouds swirled with imperceptible movement, artificial lights illuminated the classrooms. 3 weeks have passed since the class trip, while it was absurd to speculate, they figured the encounter with Aster might have been a coincidence.
Aster, the evolved ogre Trace dubbed a Remnant, must have been patrolling around the Manukia commercial zone. These 3 quiet weeks were proof of that.
"Alright, you'll be getting back your tests now. These 3 weeks might have been a gauntlet due to how many subjects you have, but I'm proud to say that at least for Linguistics you guys did not slack." (Ms Lily)
Coincidentally, their homeroom teacher also taught them in the linguistics subject. It shouldn't come as any surprise since it was part of her prerogative as the homeroom teacher to have prolonged exposure to her students. Teaching them one or two subjects came with these set of responsibilities, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say homeroom teachers have a far higher workload as they handle duties outside of teaching their subject.
Of course none of these are much of a concern now, over the year they have had gone through much, whether they wanted to of not. That is not to say Ms Lily is negligent, she was well liked by her students. The reason for some of their grimacing visage... Lies in their educational results.
"... A pass, about 60%...I barely made it to the median..." (Yggdrasil)
"Haa~!? There's no way you got 80%, I got 77.5!" (Sariel)
"Hey! Just because you can't do it, doesn't mean I can't!" (Arin)
She examines her own answers once more over the backdrop of their bickering. Their voices veiled by her lost of attention, as if behind thick glass, was muffled before reaching her mind. What went wrong? Why were her results so different from Lastia's. If it was math or science where rote memorisation was an undisputed majority of the curriculum, she would have done amazingly. Creative subjects like linguistics were where she was weak at. According to others it was normal to be good at one thing and bad at others, it would be more strange to have uniform grades throughout the subjects she was taking.
"... Because of how I am, it's hard to create something brand new." (Yggdrasil)
It comes as no surprise that she's basically an A.I that exists without a physical body, at least not until she possessed Lastia. As she was formed by {Feed}, she was exceptionally compatible and didn't face much rejection physiology from her corpse. She settled almost immediately and was allowed to take her time in assimilation, whereas any other spiritual entity would collapse before they could even assimilate at their own pace.
As an AI, she was trained on human data. The first data set that gave her a faint ego... Was Lastia's memories. The second data set was the interactions she had with Arin inside the realm of the curse. Each time it was like moving up the ladder one step, developing her ego into something more human like. As an AI she had always possessed an id, an independent ability to make decisions. But without the ego, the personality, she would be left in inorganic stasis without the desire to make any decisions, like a computer without an owner.
"Haa~" (Yggdrasil)
She sighed deeply, inevitably catching the attention of the other 2. They seemed to have some sort of affinity to constant conflict between each other. Though in times like this, they wouldn't miss a single hair splitting from Yggdrasil. They were oddly observant... At times. It was trivial, enough to pass off as a joke. She had considered delving into it, but maybe they were just very worried? After the battle with the Super Satellite they were already on edge, and after that encounter with Aster where they were helpless to help Yggdrasil...
One could say the biggest gripe they have is with their own inability to save their friend. Regardless of how strong Yggdrasil was, she was forced into a 1v1 situation. It was a nightmare scenario to be frank, she just happened to be strong enough to survive. Who could predict the outcome when she gets abducted again? That's when, everything started to change.
A magic reaction. With a fraction of a second, Yggdrasil ducked to grab her textbook-
And a massive chain split the air apart, on its tip was a gleaming blade that exuded coldness with how polish it looked. A weapon forged for the sole purpose of killing, it ended in a pointed tip much like a needle while the base of it looked like a dagger segregated into 4 surfaces. A diamond shaped cross section that slowly melded into the tip like a cone. The guard was also sharpened to an extreme degree, each chain looked segmented as if it was easy to break with bare hands, but they boasted a durability no human can whittle.
An attack? Where's the 'event'. Yggdrasil stared at the ground, it was still the usual grey marble that marked the entirety of the school building. Another magical girl? There were ways to bypass an 'Event' when attacking with magic. The simplest way was that the perpetrator wasn't a Trace. Looking at the source of the bladed chain, it had shot through the large touchscreen at the front from another room and crossed straight through the middle, only stopping short at her seat.
She can deal with it without transforming, after all she wasn't Lastia but Yggdrasil. She hasn't tested the limits of the body, if she hit too hard her flesh might just explode. At least her perception speed was able to reach C grade. This was likely due to the spiritual factor of Yggdrasil handling the computational strain. In other words her mind could move faster but it's a mystery if her body could keep up. No, her body likely could keep up. It just wouldn't last. This was not something to be 'tested', in a human body she might die instantly.
In this case, how did she get tracked? It was a foolish line of questioning. They weren't exactly hiding their magical girl activities, but there wasn't any activity in the past 3 weeks... By this time, everyone had looked over, terrified at the spectacle. A wave of murmurs and terrified yelps brushed over the classroom.