I half-stood, half fell backwards in my chair when Hina asked me that.
"WH-what are you talking about?" I stammered.
"Ryu!" Yuki cried, floating to my side.
Hina, on the other hand, remained perfectly still.
Perfectly posed. Her right hand rested patiently over her left.
"I'm sorry, Andrew," I heard her smile under the black veil. "Or should I call you Ryu, now? I don't know how to make myself any clearer."
She lifted her right hand towards her veiled face, then opened her empty palm towards me.
"It is possible, after all, that you don't know. I was simply asking. It's your record, and you're free to look at it if you like."
She studied me a second.
"Perhaps your adoptive parents never told you about yourself."
I shook my head. What game was Hina playing at?
Obviously, she was speaking in riddles. I looked around her office as I stood back up and returned to the chair in front of her desk.
I looked for anything that could link Hina back to Lana, but I saw nothing.
So I tried the direct route.
"Lana?" I asked.
"Lana?" Hina asked. "I'm sorry. I thought your problem was with 'Ken', is it not? Or did you want your file?"
I blinked. It couldn't be that easy. Could it?
"I'd like to see my file," I said.
Hina nodded, and gestured towards the filing cabinet.
And I watched in silent, screaming horror as more than a dozen spiders crawled out of her sleeveless qipao.
Hina simply sat there, but I could see, tiny tremors as they wormed their way out of her qipao.
I tried to sense any vibrations as they touched the ground. Eww…
They were real, and they were crawling on the ground.
At least, they looked like spiders. Spiders from Salvador Dali's nightmares would fit better. They moved like spiders, scuttling across the floor on innumerable legs, but the rest of their bodies only suggested spider.
They were more like a dream of a spider, brought into horrible reality and irreversibly twisted by the birthing process. Yet, they crawled towards the filing cabinets, onto them, and into them. A moment later, they brought a plain, manila folder, "Andrew Ryu Kazeyama" neatly written in block kanji on the label, and laid it on her desk.
I felt a chill at my left side, and saw Yuki had floated closer to me.
"Ryu, keep those things away from me," she whispered.
I wasn't sure what I could do to help. "I'm right here, Yuki."
"They won't touch you," Hina said.
With one finger, she slid the folder towards me. "Take a look. It's yours, after all."
I looked at it suspiciously.
"Andrew, please. I don't have all day to entertain you. I have an entire school to watch. And, as you well know, the student body here is 'unique.'"
I opened the folder.
And inside were my application papers.
Filled out in my own handwriting.
Applying to Crescent Moon Academy.
Under species: Human (Black Dragon Spirit)
"What the hell?" I asked myself.
Immediately, Hina stirred. "Andrew! This is a school, first and foremost! You will watch your language in my presence."
A chill ran down my spine. She didn't even have to raise her voice a fraction. I could feel the threat hanging in the air.
Like an insect on the end of a spider's web.
"You see now, why I asked, don't you? It's in your own handwriting. Black and white. Don't you know what you are?"
I shook my head.
"And don't you see why Ken is so angry at you? Knowing what he is. You know he's an orc. They're prone to violence, and yet he's here trying to learn how to fit in with humans."
I looked at the paper in front of me trying to make sense of everything.
"Help me out, please. Ma'am," asked Yuki. "What do you mean?"
I could hear Hina's veiled smile. "Yuki Fuyuzora. A voice from the past. Very well. But promise me you'll leave soon."
I looked up at her from across her desk.
"As I said, I have a school to run. I'm expecting a phone call from a concerned parent."
She folded her hands neatly on her desk.
"I don't pretend to know why you wrote 'black dragon spirit' on your application paper and then came in here asking me if I knew what you are."
I blinked. Oh my god. That was exactly what I did.
"I'm not trying to be coy, or mysterious with you, Andrew. But, I know this: you chose to call yourself 'Ryu' when you came to this academy for whatever reason. You like dragons. Maybe you think it's 'cool.' Now, Ken, an orc who recognizes power and dominance, sees his position threatened by an outsider who comes to his school and makes waves on campus."
I tilted my head. "So, can you help me deal with Ken?" I asked.
She leaned forward, slightly. "I wasn't aware that you needed help dealing with Ken."
Hina turned her veiled gaze to Yuki.
I saw Yuki flinch. "You have friends, Andrew. I let you have help in your fight against Namazu, didn't I?"
I remembered the fight from yesterday. "That could've gone so bad," I said.
Hina didn't move an inch. "And yet, now he's your friend. You taught the entire student body an important lesson about honor, friendship, and showing your true character. Let's hope they learn."
Yuki wasn't having it. "Ryu could've been killed!"
Hina nodded. "Yes. I can't prevent that. Even if we had a strict 'No Fighting' rule, like a regular 'human' school, every single one of my students would still die eventually, wouldn't they? Nothing can prevent that, whether they fight or not."
I realized I was holding my breath. I let it out.
"But, if they get to see what a fight really is, then, maybe, some of them will understand. Experience is a good teacher, not a kind one."
Hina reached out a single finger, pointing at the folder and then at her desk.
"I can't let you leave with that, Andrew."
I put the folder and my application back on her desk.
I had to ask. I might never get the chance.
"Hina-sama? What's under your veil?"
She didn't move. Again. Her unnatural stillness mirrored Shion, but for the way Shion seemed to shut down. Hina seemed more like a puppet on a string, waiting to move.
"I'd be happy to show you. But…"
I took a slow breath. "But?"
"You'd never leave my office."
I heard Yuki gasp.
"Do you think that you're the only one in this room who has secrets? Who has something they'd rather not share? Something hidden? Hmm? Every single student in this school, even the ghost beside you."
I nodded. "Okay. That's a good point."
But I wasn't finished.
"What do I do about Ken?" I asked.
I felt the air in the room grow sharper. Deadlier.
"Do you think that's for me to determine? My patience is growing thin. Use your head, Andrew, like you did against Namazu. I'm sure, from your limited perspective, that you feel like you're the victim and Ken is a bully."
I scoffed. "He is a bully."
"Perhaps. And perhaps you're not the only victim in this situation."
I got up and started walking out of Hina's office.
"…perhaps your only mistake was forgetting that."
I walked out of Hina Suiren's office feeling as disoriented as if Shion had fed from me again.
"What are you going to do, Ryu?" Yuki asked.
A moment later, I somehow found that Yuki and I were standing in Black-Withers Hall's main foyer. The twin main doors lay to the left of me. And I imagined myself running outside, taking the forest path, and making the damn tunnel let me out.
Then I pictured Azuki walking the twisting, labyrinthian halls of Crescent Moon, calling out for "Ryu-sama," her glassed fogging with tears.
I sighed. "I need to get to class, Yuki. I'm going to find Inego and see if he can help."
I started walking towards my first period literature class.
That's when I saw Ken's tall, lanky goon leaning against the hall, skipping class. As soon as he saw me, he smirked.
And that was when I lost it.
"You," I said, pointing my finger in his face. "You guys have some kind of problem with me or something?"
He actually chuckled. "Oh, that's rich. The mighty dragon of the windy mountain has deemed me worthy enough to talk to?"
I paused. "What are you talking about?"
He snorted. "Just that you're never around. You pop up here for school, then you take off like you're too good for the rest of us?"
He spat on the ground. I felt the ripples when his spit hit the linoleum. Wet. Heavy. Gross.
And whatever the hell he'd been chewing was brown.
"You worry an awful lot about where I am."
He narrowed his eyes. "You want to do something about it, dragon, or are you just gonna blow smoke?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Another fight?"
He rolled his eyes. "Forget the school's rules. Same spot in the woods. Or are you too much of a coward?"
"Ryu, don't. You could get expelled!" I heard Yuki warn.
I curled my lip into a sneer. "Same spot. You tell that Porky Pig-looking piece of trash that Ryu Kazeyama, the dragon of the windy mountain, isn't a coward."