3 bar menu

Petals and Owl – Part 01

We go back in time.

A few days ago, at the beginning of autumn, St. Marguerite Academy.

Autumn was slowly descending like an invisible spirit on the vast, French-garden campus surrounding the huge U-shaped school building. The wind, cool and slightly humid, rustled foliage that were beginning to turn to a yellowish green. Leaves scraping against each other produced musical sounds as though from an instrument.

“The woman opened the window of the carriage and looked outside. She had just passed the cemetery. A hazy moon was the only light in the darkness. And then…”

Like a gust of brisk wind blowing through a dreary landscape, there came a girl’s voice, forcing itself to sound terrifying, though tinged with energy and vigor.

“And then… She saw the owner of the eerie footsteps that passed the carriage.”

In the middle of the girls sitting in a circle on the lawn in various poses was a female student with short blonde hair, blue eyes as clear as the summer skies, and a remarkably bright aura. She dropped her voice low for a horrifying effect. The people around her were her classmates, listening intently to her story, their faces a little scrunched up.

The female student—Avril Bradley—raised her voice.

“She saw… that it belonged to a cow running on two legs!”

The girls shrieked in unison, then giggled and poked each other. Avril nodded in satisfaction and patted the book in her lap, titled ‘Ghost Stories: Volume Three’, with the palm of her hand.

“Now it’s your turn to tell a scary story,” she told the girl sitting next to her.

“I’m not sure I can top what you just shared.”

“Oh, come on. I’m…” Avril trailed off.

She lifted her gaze and looked into the distance. The sun had lowered a bit, and the garden was bathed in rosy dusk. She spotted a small oriental boy emerging from the twilight, walking with his back straight along the gravel path.

“Kujou…”

Avril craned her neck as she watched the boy with jet-black hair and eyes—Kazuya Kujou. Her short blonde hair bobbed in the autumn breeze.

She looked harder so the boy would notice, but Kazuya walked on methodically, oblivious to her gaze. He was holding a bouquet of chic and pretty purple flowers. Avril’s eyes slanted sharply.

“What’s wrong, Avril?” a girl asked.

Avril turned her head. “I-It’s nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. Curious, she turned her eyes back to the path. “Huh?”

Kazuya had vanished in an instant, and there was only a rosy dusk.

“He’s gone!”

“Hmm? Who’s gone?”

Avril shook her head repeatedly. Frowning, she flapped her arms around.

“He was holding flowers…”

The wind blew, rustling the leaves.

The girls resumed telling stories. Avril giggled, toppled back as she laughed, and sometimes glanced toward the direction Kazuya had disappeared to.

There was only a gravel path paved with white pebbles, a tiny bench, and a large flowerbed as tall as an adult. The boy had disappeared completely like magic.

---

The next day.

It was yet another beautiful day. It was hard not to fall asleep during classes.

Avril was looking out the window, her cheek resting on her palm. Soft sunlight fell on her short blonde hair. She blinked sleepily.

“Hey!” sounded a cute voice.

Avril turned her head back to the classroom and saw Ms. Cecile throwing a piece of chalk. Tracing an arc in the air, it landed on Avril’s head. She blinked.

“Eyes inside, Avril. We’re in the middle of class.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Avril cast her gaze to her textbook. Then, realizing something, she looked at Kazuya, who was sitting diagonally in front of her.

Just like Avril, Kazuya was looking out the window with a melancholic expression on his face until moments ago. It was an unusual behavior from the earnest boy, who always listened to the class more attentively than anyone else.

I wonder what’s wrong? Avril pondered. Is something bothering him? He seems out of it, which is rather unusual. Oh, yeah. He suddenly disappeared yesterday. Hmm… Ah!

She clapped her hands.

Ms. Cecile turned at the sound and saw Avril looking up at the ceiling, lost in thought. She raised another piece of chalk.

“Avril!”

Avril nodded to herself. When something’s bothering Kujou, it’s either because his father or his brothers are mad at him… And…

Her face turned grim.

“The Gray Wolf,” she said aloud. “He’s thinking about the Gray Wolf. Argh, I hate her so much! Hmm?”

She felt something fall on her head, so she reached for it. Yet another piece of chalk. She looked at the platform up front. Ms. Cecile, frozen in a throwing pose, was giving her a hard-eyed stare behind her round glasses.

“Avril,” the teacher said. “You’re blanking out, clapping your hands, and mumbling to yourself. I understand that you’re at a sensitive age, but we’re in the middle of class right now.”

“Yes, Ma’am…”

“A student’s duty is to study. When I was your age, I studied every day and was the brightest one in school.”

Ms. Cecile looked a little uneasy. The students did not say anything, but they looked at her suspiciously.

“As such, Ms. Avril,” she said, trying to get rid of the awkward atmosphere. “You will stand in the hallway.”

“What?”

“The teacher’s word is absolute.”

“But Kujou was looking outside too.”

Kazuya, vacantly resting his face on his hand, gave a start. He looked over his shoulder. “What? Me?”

Avril nodded repeatedly, her short blonde hair bobbing up and down each time.

“I’m going to stand in the hallway with Kujou,” she said. “Then I will ask him why he seems so out of it today. Who did he give those flowers to yesterday? He looked so happy. The nerve! And then…”

“Th-There’s more?”

Avril pulled Kazuya’s hand and dashed out to the hallway. The teacher’s eyes flickered in surprise as she heard Kazuya’s downcast voice.

“I’ve never been made to stand in the hallway,” he said. “I-I represent my country. I have the duty to… Ouch! Stop pinching me!”

---

That evening.

Once again Avril witnessed Kazuya magically disappear from the garden.

“It’s a curse! Mandrakes are cursed root vegetables. It’s used in cursing rituals, and looking at it will get you cursed. It’s a staple of ghost stories.”

“Cursed?!”

“That’s right!”

“Really?”

“Get away from the mandrake!”

“Kyah!”

While Avril was pulling the leaves of what looked like a mandrake, a cursed root vegetable that she and Ms. Cecile had found in the corner of the garden, Kazuya walked by. She called out to him, thinking that even though he was an easygoing kid, a boy should be reliable in times like this, and pulled him over to the mandrake.

As was his habit, Kazuya was as calm as an elderly man.

“It looks like a daikon. Or maybe a turnip, or a carrot.”

And then he left. A while later, when Avril pulled out the mandrake with Ms. Cecile, he returned with steady footsteps. While she was throwing the mandrake around, screaming, Kazuya once again disappeared.

“H-He’s gone!”

Just like yesterday, Kazuya vanished near a large flowerbed as tall as an adult.

Avril mulled it over. Dusk was approaching.

“The Gray Wolf,” she concluded. Nodding to herself, she stood up. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m sure the Gray Wolf is behind this. Call it a woman’s intuition. That flowerbed looks suspicious.”

Slowly she approached the flowerbed. It stirred like a living creature, and petals riding the wind struck her face, as though telling her to stay away.

Avril let out a yelp. The damp petals stuck to her cheeks and forehead, feeling cold, then slowly fluttered down her uniform and onto the ground.

Avril raised her head, her lips pursed tight. There was a brave look on her face.

“Hmm…” She thought about it a bit. “Let’s just get in there for now.”

Then, without thinking too much about it, she jumped cheerfully into the pathway between the flowerbeds.

Later…

“Wh-What’s going on?”

After a long and arduous struggle, almost getting lost, Avril staggered back outside, as if pushed by some mysterious force.

---

The next day. A sunny weekend afternoon.

Avril saw Kazuya disappear in front of the flowerbed again.

And today, he was in high spirits, humming a tune as he walked down the path with a plate of lemon cake and yellow flowers.

Avril rolled up her sleeves. “All right. I already have an idea what’s inside the maze, but I’m gonna investigate anyway. It seems like getting in is not that easy.” She nodded with confidence. “But I’m the granddaughter of the adventurer Sir Bradley! Adventures are my forte. Then again, being fully prepared is a must before embarking on one. I should head back to the dorm first and pack some stuff.”

She dashed enthusiastically toward the girls’ dormitory.

---

“Adventure essentials, first: food. Second, drinks. Then a map and a flashlight. Also, it might get cold, so a jacket.”

Avril’s room, located on the first floor of the girls’ dormitory, was cluttered with items, thrown upward to the ceiling and falling onto the bed. A classmate with blonde hair tied into pigtails walking down the corridor stopped in her tracks and peered cautiously into her room.

“What are you doing, Miss Bradley?” she asked.

“Preparing for an adventurer,” Avril replied easily.

“Teach will be all over your case again. Your room is a mess. We’re always reminded to keep our rooms neat and tidy.”

“…Ahuh.”

“I heard Ms. Cecile’s room is always spotless. She said so herself. We should follow her example. That’s a lot of stuff. Where are you going?”

“I’m going on an adventure in the garden. Wait…”

Avril bounced out of her room, carrying a large backpack and a flashlight. It looked like she was planning to climb high up in the Alps. She was holding a map of the village in her other hand.

“I don’t think I need this one, though. It doesn’t have a map of the garden itself.”

She threw the map on the bed and bounded down the hallway.

“An adventure?” the girl said curiously. “That is not something a lady does. You are an odd one, Miss Bradley.”

“How rude. I’m not odd, I’m extraordinary. I have my grandfather’s adventurer’s spirit in me.”

“What?” The girl watched Avril go, bewildered. “Ah!” She trotted after her. “Is your grandfather perhaps the adventurer Sir Bradley?”

“What, you didn’t know that?”

“The one who disappeared in a balloon ride?”

Avril’s face darkened a bit. “Yes.”

“I can’t believe it.”

Avril turned to the girl. “I’ll have you know, my grandpa was a fine gentleman, a brave adventurer, and a fighter who kept attempting the impossible,” she argued. “Sure, he met a tragic end, but still…”

The girl’s cheeks had turned a rosy red as she stared at Avril.

“…What is it?” Avril asked.

“I can’t believe it!”

“Hmm?”

“I’m a big fan of Sir Bradley! You don’t know? He’s very popular with the ladies of Sauville.”

“R-Really…” Avril was taken aback.

“Please share stories about your grandfather sometime.”

“S-Sure.”

She took out a piece of chocolate she had in her pocket as emergency ration and took a bite, then left the dormitory.

The sun had long since set, and the darkness of night was beginning to shroud the garden. Soft moonlight was falling on the gravel path. Students were in their respective rooms, studying, doing whatever they wanted. Cool water trickled down the fountain. Feeling all alone, Avril hurried to the flowerbed.

The flowerbed maze loomed high as it always did, looking down at Avril. An owl hooted. Clouds drifted by, veiling the moon. For a moment, darkness enveloped the area.

Avril’s ears caught a sound. A girl’s indistinct whisper. A dark, resentful murmur. Yet somehow sweet. Soft as a sigh.

The presence of a human being.

It was probably the truly extraordinary, shining golden girl hiding inside the maze. Fear gripped Avril. But she gritted her teeth and took a step forward.

A chilly, damp wind blew.

Petals stirred and blew against Avril like colorful scraps, stopping her proceeding. The clouds slid away, allowing moonlight to pierce the darkness once more. A pale orb in the night sky. Avril shivered. She brushed off the damp, slightly smelly petals from her face with her right hand, and then raised a flashlight in her left.

The flowerbed maze was shadowy, as though darkness itself had opened its jet-black mouth.

Flowers stirred in all directions with every gust of the wind, as if mocking Avril. The air was thick with the girl’s presence, like damp and sickly flowers.

“Okay, here we go.” Avril nodded determinedly.

An owl hooted again.

She started walking.

The darkness quickly swallowed her long and graceful figure.