Josephine stormed the event expecting chaos.
What she found were Achusoi lined up calmly at various stations.
Medical Legion students checked vitals, administered tests, and smiled every now and then.
Everything looked perfectly legitimate.
Too legitimate.
Think, Josephine.
If there's a drug in circulation, where would they hide it?
She remembered the highlight of the banner hanging outside the hall
The free Riftguard
She watched an Achusoi student receive their injection, saw them roll their shoulder and comment on feeling great.
Contrary to what she expected.
Josephine slipped past the main stations toward the back area, where supplies would be stored.
Her footsteps were silent and her breathing controlled.
Years of training made stealth second nature.
This is technically another legion's territory
she thought, glancing around.
"Medical and Combat don't exactly have the warmest relationship. If someone catches me snooping without a darn good reason..."
The legions were competitive by design.
Virelia fostered such rivalry cause it pushed it's students to excel regardless of the area.
A door marked–
"STORAGE - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" stood ahead.
Josephine tested the handle.
it was unlocked.
"Amateurs."
Inside, boxes lined metal shelving units.
She found what she was looking for quickly, crates labeled
"RIFTGUARD - STANDARD DOSAGE."
She grabbed one box, testing the weight.
"Get the sample and get out"
Footsteps echoed in the hallway outside.
Josephine's heart rate spiked, she clutched the box and bolted for the exit
Her cassock jerked backward.
Her legs kept moving but she went absolutely nowhere, much like a cartoon character running in place.
"What are you doing?"
Josephine recognized that voice flat and emotionless voice immediately.
She turned slowly.
Luna stood there, one hand gripping Josephine's cassock.
Her dark eyes giving unimpressed through wire-rimmed glasses as if she'd just caught a child stealing cookies.
"Luna! how did you...."
"I noticed you the moment you entered."
Luna released her grip. " You stood out like a sore thumb."
Josephine's spy fantasy crumbled into dust.
"I blended in like a..."
"You were staring at the ceiling vents. Then you pretended to tie your shoe three times in a row."
"But..."
"You wear loafers Josephine, it doesn't have laces."
Josephine's morale flatlined.
They sat in the back office, sharing a box of doughnuts Luna had apparently stashed for her break.
"Sister Jewel contacted you huh?" Luna asked, biting into a glazed doughnut with zero emotion showing on her face.
"Yeah, said there's an illegal drug in circulation and all leads point here."
Josephine picked at a chocolate doughnut without really eating it.
"I was skeptical when I heard it..." Luna pulled out a small case containing vials of clear liquid with faint purple tints. "But I collected samples of the Riftguard anyway. Also monitored the students who received injections. So far, they seem normal. No adverse reactions, nor any unusual behavior."
"So maybe the intel was wrong?"
"Or the effects are delayed." Luna set the case on the desk between them. "The Riftguard was definitely contaminated with another substance. I can see it under analysis. But what it does..." She paused. "That's the question."
"I'll bring these samples to the Golden Chalice research division. They have better equipment than Medical Legion."
"Good idea." Josephine stood, brushing crumbs off her cassock.
Through the office window, she could see the main event area.
Huey and Alessia seemed to have left.
Her chest tightened.
"Something wrong?" Luna asked.
"No, nothing. Just... saw something that soured my mood."
Luna stood as well, adjusting her glasses.
"I know what it is, and you should get your head out of the clouds. Boys aren't a priority right now."
Luna was already walking toward the door.
Josephine's hand moved, grabbing one of the Riftguard syringes from the case and pressed it against her arm.
The fastest way to find out what it does.
She injected herself.
Luna turned just in time to see the empty syringe. "Are you crazy?"
Josephine dropped the syringe in a disposal bin. "If something's wrong with it, we'll know immediately."
"And if it's a fatal or irreversible effect?!"
"I can handle it." Josephine walked past her.
Several moments passed and the event finally ended.
Josephine and Luna headed back together.
They walked in silence for a moment, Luna leading the way back toward campus proper.
"Distractions," Luna said suddenly. "They'll do you in faster than any Variant."
"Huh, why did you suddenly bring that up"
"You've been zoning out and your pneuma is fluctuating"
"My pneuma is...."
Josephine grabbed Luna from behind, arms wrapping around her in a tight hug.
She squeezed her chest.
"Luna!" Josephine's voice was too loud, too enthusiastic. "You're so amazing! I love you so much! And you know what? I don't need any guy! I've got you! My perfect, socially awkward, beautiful Luna!"
Luna went completely rigid, her face flushing red.
"Your boobs are bigger than I thought! Have you been hiding them?
"Josephine, let go..."
"Never! We'll be together forever! Best friends forever!"
Luna felt the purple aura before she saw it. Josephine's pneuma was spiking erratically.
"Oh no."
Josephine went limp and immediately unconscious, hitting the ground.
Luna caught her, adjusted her glasses, and sighed.
"This is why we don't inject ourselves with unknown substances."
Meanwhile at the party,
The rampaging Wheeler was finding Dante a tricky target and taking blows from his attacks at the same time.
"He's done." Dante walked forward "I know there's a limit to how much pneuma that thing can absorb, and judging by the way he's not trying to eat my attacks anymore?" He grinned.
"He's hit it."
Wheeler squeaked weakly.
Dante's eyes blazed gold. "Let's end this."
He summoned a dice, it spun in the air and landing a double 6
"Overload!"
His already insane amount of pneuma doubled.
He spun the roulette wheel again, landing the cannon and fired.
Wheeler had no choice but to try and swallow the attack.
The squirrel's eyes widened and His translucent body began glowing, brighter and brighter.
unable to contain the influx....
Wheeler exploded.
Dissolving into scattered particles that drifted through the air like snow.
Willy tumbled backward, hitting the ground hard.
Dante loomed over him. "Sorry mate, but this is where you....."
He stumbled to the ground before he could complete his sentence, the aura around him fluctuating.
Dante's eyes dimmed as his pneuma plummeted, the drug's effects wearing off all at once.
Gasping, he needed the pills.
They'd rolled across the floor when he fell.
Dante crawled forward, his hand outstretched.
A thin arm enlogated arm stretched toward the pills and pulled them away.
Amaya stood over him, her hair disheveled and her blue skirt torn.
Meaning She didn't run.
"Maya?" Dante's voice cracked. "Baby, please I need those...."
The look on her face expressed her emotions better than words could have;
Disappointment.
Dante's face twisted, his desperation quickly turning to rage.
"GIVE ME THE FUCKING PILLS!"
A wooden plank connected with the back of his skull.
Willy stood there, breathing hard, piece of broken furniture in his hands.
Maya's legs gave out immediately after.
The pills had enhanced her Aeon type crest enough to stretch her arm using her crest past it's usual limit.
Now the effects were crashing, and her pneuma depleting rapidly.
Willy dropped the plank and caught her before she hit the ground.
The last thing Dante saw before unconsciousness claimed him completely was Maya in Willy's arms.
Taken aback to his earlier years before starting at Virelia, Dante had just fallen short of the cut off to make it into Combat Legion.
His father said looking away from him
"Do you realize you have Rodriguez blood running through your veins??"
Dante's only other option was the commerce legion, a safety net for failures like him.
He tried and God he really tried. Excellent grades and even managed to connect with the highest class of the society.
But every time he walked past the Cube and saw combat legion students going at it...
It hurt, it really hurt.
Then he met Maya.
A girl he was willing to change everything for.
Cut his hair the way she mentioned liking once, started being more outgoing and tried to make her laugh.
But she only ever saw him as a friend.
He sat alone in a corner of campus, one day watching Combat legion students celebrate another tournament victory.
That's when the figure appeared.
Couldn't really recall their face, just a silhouette.
But they held out a hand, and in it.....
Purple pills.
"Here, take this." Offered the figure.
Dante stared at the pills.
"What do they do?"
"They make you Everything you want to be or rather I say everything she wants you to be."
He didn't need to think twice after hearing that statement.
Dante's eyes slowly opened, cutting his flashback to an abrupt end.
The ceiling was familiar and so was the arch shaped window at the corner.
This was a Galileo Hall dorm room.
He could hear voices nearby.
"Where's....."
"—taken to the hospital. The pills did a lot more to her than to you."
Dante's head turned and his vision finally cleared.
He saw three people; Willy, A beautiful girl with glasses and long black hair.
And one other.
Judging by his pneuma level, an Achusoi no doubt
But the way he stared at Dante with those cold blue eyes.....
Dante tried sitting up and Failed.
His pneuma was completely depleted. "I hope no one else got hurt at the party?"
"I did some digging and the pills consumers," Alessia said, consulting notes on her phone.
"They're all showing similar symptoms; pneuma depletion, psychological distress, some kind of dependency already forming even after just a single dose."
"Dependency?" Dante laughed bitterly.
"Yeah. That sounds about right."
Huey stepped forward, his blue eyes studying Dante with unsettling focus. "Where did you get those pills?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"It's clear they're doing a lot more harm than good, and you're well aware of this." Huey's tone was calm.
"And if you don't help us, more people end up like you and Amaya."
Dante closed his eyes, and remembered her face
"I've been a distributor for a while whose already ruined quite the number of lives." He opened his eyes.
"I guess it's the least I could do to try and atome for my sins."
Willy exhaled in relief.
Alessia started recording on her phone.
And Dante began to speak.