Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

Inside a storeroom, Katika rummaged through a draw, tossing random gizmos across the room before abruptly diving into the draw with her legs flailing about. Maxwell raised a hand to pull Katika but Katika fully dived into the desk, making Maxwell defeatedly lower his hand as a loud thud reverberated from the desk.

"What are you even looking for?" Maxwell grumbled. Katika popped her head out of the draw like a whack-a-mole.

"I'm looking for that spare Hunter Bureau-issued phone I had lying around," Katika announced agitatedly as she continued rummaging her hands through the desk. Maxwell rolled his eyes, taking a long breath as he watched Katika climb out of the desk and close it behind her.

"You mean the one you left on your desk at the academy?" Oleka asked with a snarky and half-hearted tone. Katika froze before tightening her grip on the draw's handle and lowering her head. She rested her head on the desk before laughing as she swung her head back.

"Oh yeah... totally slipped my mind," Katika muttered before turning around, "Say, Zalro... wait a minute.". Katika swung her head around the room, puzzledly murmuring at the lack of Zalroth or Kuuyasa being present.

"They left while you were messing up the storeroom," Maxwell uttered as he rubbed his forehead. Katika, with an elasticated look on her face, defeatedly grumbled as she slumped her arms to her side.

"What! Why?" Katika blurted out.

"Kuuyasa was complaining she was hungry, so Zalroth went to get her food," Oleka remarked as she leant against one of the metalic shelves, shaking it before the sound of glass shattering shrieked through the room and making Oleka shoot her eyes open, "Whoops.". Maxwell let out a long defeatedly pessimistic sigh as he called the both of them natural disasters while the bureau workers looked around at the trashed room in defeat.

Meanwhile, Zalroth strolled down the streets of Freedom City while repeatedly tossing a Circle Hexal(an octagonal colourless opaque crystalline coin with a glowing circle symbol on it) into the air and catching it in his hand. Kuuyasa circled Zalroth like a moon orbiting a planet as Zalroth walked.

"Bearkery~ Bearkery~ Bearkery~!" Kuuyasa exclaims in uttered glee as she continues to orbit around Zalroth. Zalroth smirked in amusement at Kuuyasa's chanting.

"So, they were that good were they?" Zalroth asked. Kuuyasa halted her orbiting. She turned to face Zalroth with a shocked and offended look on her face at Zalroth's mere implication that the Golden Bear Bakery's products were anything below perfection. Zalroth smirked once again and tilted his head at Kuuyasa as she pouted at him.

"My apologies, I clearly don't understand their greatness due to my ignorance," Zalroth said with a playfully serious tone. Kuuyasa sternly and seriously nodded her head while stating she was glad Zalroth understood his error in doubting the greatness of G.B.B.'s products. Kuuyasa turned around to continue walking but halted mid-step before glancing to her side.

"Is it a Gate?" Zalroth asked as he dropped the Circle Hexel into his Hunter's Card before placing the card into his hair. Kuuyasa frantically nodded before pointing in the direction of the Gate.

"Yah, I even sense one of my sisters ~," Kuuyasa stated before looking ahead of herself and began walking towards Golden Bear Bakery. Zalroth raised an eyebrow before fake coughing to get Kuuyasa to look back at him.

"Don't think we're going to ignore the gate after you mention a bombshell like that," Zalroth stated. Kuuyasa pouted while grumbling she wished she'd mentioned the Gate after getting her pastries. Zalorth watched Kuuyasa pout as she waddled over to him before he snickered and said he'd let her get the pastries if she could beat him to the bakery. At hearing Zalroth's challenge, a burning fire lit up in Kuuyasa's eye before she booked it, running like a certain money-loving crustation, straight for the Golden Bear Bakery. Zalroth lightly chuckled in his head before briskly walking after Kuuyasa as he whistled to himself.

A little bit later, elsewhere, Chronia(carrying Nola in her arms and Minia on her shoulders) and Alice walked across the intersecting white-tiled plaza section at the centre of Dragon Star Academy: a circular city estate with five different provinces which appears like a five-pointed star from above(there's a red, a blue, a green, a orange, and a purple province). As she pulled her suitcase behind her, Alice strolled up to the towering marble water fountain and stared up at it.

"Neat," Nola mumbled as she stared at the fountain before giddy smiles formed on her and Minia's faces.

"You think so?" Alice asked, "Well, just so you know this isn't any ordinary fountain...". Alice stopped mid-sentence as an overwhelming sense of dread overcame every fibre of her being. She slowly rotated her head in the direction of the suffocating pressure only to see Zalroth standing before the fountain with Kuuyasa sitting on his shoulders while eating bear-themed cookies. Alice slowly blinked as she stared at Kuuyasa before she reached into her pocket when she felt her phone buzz. Alice checked her message app and opened the chat messages between herself and Oleka.

"If you see a guy with long silver hair, has the complexion of a person scared to death and is accompanied by a humanoid kid kaiser beast, let me know," Oleka's message read. Alice glanced between her phone and Zalroth, as he was asking Kuuyasa if the Gate was nearby. Alice raised her phone and snapped a picture of Zalroth before sending it to Oleka.

"This guy?" Alice texted. A set of three bouncing dots appeared by Oleka's icon.

"Yeah," Oleka texted before more bouncing dots appeared by her icon, "Headmaster Neuvana told me to ask if Zalroth is trying to break into the fountain.". Oleka raised an eyebrow before responding.

"I mean I heard him mention the Gate in it,". Alice watched as multiple bouncing bubbles repeatedly appeared and disappeared over and over again before Oleka abruptly called to Facetime her. Alice itched her head and answered only for Katika's screaming voice to come blasting through, making Alice jump and almost fling her phone into the air.

"Would you mind not yelling, I'd appreciate not needing to otolaryngologist again," Maxwell said over the phone as he talked to Katika. Katika groaned over the phone before she muttered an apology to Maxwell.

"Can you put Zalroth on the phone?" Katika said as she forced a calm voice. Alice nodded and walked over to Zalroth. Zalroth turned his head while Kuuyasa turned her head in the opposite direction to continue observing the fountain.

"Mr Zalroth, Headmaster Neuvana wants to talk to you," Alice explained as she pointed her phone screen at Zalroth, giving him a clear view of Katika with her face right up against the camera. Chronia waddled over to Zalroth and snickered at seeing Katika on the phone.

"She's almost as bad as you with that camera angle," Chronia snickered, getting Zalroth's to half-heartedly huff from his nose.

"You act like your photo-taking skills are any better," Zalroth remarked as he handed bags of cookies to Nola and Minia, "So, Katika, what did you wanna say?". Katika pulled away from the phone's camera and rubbed her glaring eyes.

"How did you figure out there's a Gate inside the fountain?" Katika asked sternly, making her agitation ooze through the phone.

"Kuuyasa sensed one of her sisters," Kuuyasa stated. Katika sighed over the phone.

"That's not too surprising... but to think there was a kaiser god inside that Gate," Katika mumbled, "Fine... I'll give you permission to enter but you can't enter until I've given you a Hunter Bereau-issued phone, you hear?". Zalroth nodded and said he wouldn't unless something he couldn't ignore occurred, making Katika grumble under her breath.

"You're almost as infuriating as Rina," Katika muttered before hanging up as Maxwell was in the middle of saying Katika is one to talk.