On a night when the sun had gone dark, and the planet was facing away from it to begin with, Will-O-Wisp Academy was left in near-complete blackness. The students who stayed there had all gone to bed, as had most of the staff. Aside from the lanterns hanging in the hallways, just close enough to each other to see the next one, the only sign of light was in the crack underneath a certain doorway.
That and a round, persistent red glow making its way through the hallway, occasionally stepping under the torchlight long enough to reveal a bronze robot with a single electronic eye and three fingers on each hand.
When the robot reached the doorway, he stopped in front of it, knocking three times.
"Come in," Called a tired male voice.
The robot opened the door, to reveal a man with curly blond hair sitting in front of a desk piled high with papers. "Mustard. Have you gotten any sleep tonight?"
The man sighed and shook his head. "I have to finish grading these essays by tomorrow, I don't have time for sleep." The robot considered pointing out that Mustard hadn't needed to wait until it was almost the start of the new term to get started on this work, or maybe not assign essays the length of a novel to begin with, but his old classmate had never listened to him before, and that probably wasn't going to change anytime soon. "...By the way, Mokka, since you're up, could you get me some coffee?"
"I am not your assistant," Mokka replied, same as he always did when his friends started acting like this. "I am actually here for two reasons. One: Your sister wants me to convince you to sleep."
"Not happening." The response was immediate, even though Mustard's hat was worryingly close on the desk to a candle.
"She thought you might say that. She also authorized me to render any and all electronic equipment inoperable until you have attained a healthy sleep schedule." And while eight centuries had not been anywhere near enough to figure out the twins' capabilities, Mokka felt it was safe to say that, while Mustard had many talents, speaking with the Machinery Spirits was not one of them.
"...I'll go to bed early tomorrow." Close enough. He'd make sure to drop by, though, just to be safe. "You wanted something else?"
"Well, I was supposed to pass out paperwork to prepare for the start of the new term, but I believe it can wait for tomorrow." Mustard's shoulders drooped in obvious relief.
And then his hat caught fire. Mokka suspected that some of the students wouldn't be getting their essays back.
Unlike her brother, Ketchup had all of her paperwork for the new term completed by the time Mokka saw her the next day, and had the newspaper open in front of her. "Is there anything I should hear about?" The robot asked.
The brunette shrugged. "Well, the latest attempt to make gummy creatures a protected species failed... There's a missing person's notice for Souffle Rainbow- I hope Cider's okay- and a few others, but I don't think we know any of them... Prices for spare parts are up again, you probably shouldn't get into any major scuffles... And the Kovomaka Historical Society is still complaining about certain things from when we were in school." Not that they had any need to know what had been going on back then.
Still, Mokka was aware that Ketchup might not have seen it that way, if only because she'd been cheeky enough to do her thesis on the different types of Enigma and their powers. Even gotten interviews from Candy and Vanilla for it.
...Well, okay, she'd interviewed Candy and asked Ganache to question Vanilla, but it was the same basic thing. "In fairness, I believe I am the only one who has an actual gag order." It was just that, for some reason, nobody really liked talking about their little stint as child soldiers.
"Yes, but if we did anything to set back his family's reputation, Ganache would kill us." That was ridiculous. The man wasn't even on the planet.
"That would require him to hear of it," Mokka pointed out. "Not that I am saying you should overturn eight hundred years of history and the reputation of our workplace. Just that it is possible."
"Is this really your workplace?" Ketchup asked, the deep violet of her eyes actually flickering away from her paper for a moment. "It's not like Biscotti pays you or anything. You just... hang around without anywhere to go. I'm not even sure you officially graduated."
Of course he'd graduated. He had a degree in spiritualism hung proudly over his maintenance station and everything. "I have tasks to complete here. Is that not enough?"
"...I don't have enough caffeine for this," The woman sighed. "Look, all I'm saying is, you love traveling. Used to talk about it all the time back when we were students. And now you're here without any official job description and you haven't even bothered learning to use the full extent of your power. Just because the Starsign of Erd is only fully powered for a fifth of the year doesn't excuse not using it."
"Like you use all the aspects of your power?" He knew there were still things the twins were hiding from the world. Between them, he'd seen just about every type of magic that corresponded to a type of spiritualism, but they still denied having any type of innate power. It was just one of those things that didn't seem to be worth questioning anymore.
"This isn't about me." Not the type of fervent denial he was used to. "Look, I've seen a lot of students fail to reach their potential. And it's sad, because they could do so much if they just tried for it. Like Kirche's brother's kid. I don't remember the name..."
"Pico?" It was an easy name to remember, both because of how long he'd been a student and because Mokka had gone to school with his uncle. Ketchup probably just didn't care enough at the moment.
"Right. Pico Pintail. He doesn't apply himself, he doesn't even think about what he wants to do in the future... unfortunately, he seems to take after his father in that regard. Anyway. When it comes to the Machinery Spirits, I'm not saying you don't know what you're doing. Earth Magic, however? We always knew you had that potential, but you've never tried to realize it. Not once, in all these eight hundred years. And I get that isn't all that long for an immortal robot, but... You could be learning. You could be exploring the solar system. I think there might even be some ruins on this planet we haven't fully excavated yet. So why are you sitting around and ferrying paperwork for Biscotti?"
He didn't actually have a good answer for that. Aside from maybe that Blueberry had vanished centuries ago and never come back, but it wasn't like the idea of that sort of risk was anything new to them.
Ketchup didn't wait for him to respond, either, turning to some other sort of work that she'd want to finish ridiculously early.
Somehow, this was entirely expected of her.
Most of the time, when people were to look at the man named Biscotti, they would see nothing but an educator, albeit one that was rather politically active. Mokka had thought something similar for a time, before he'd learned the truth. That the man in front of him was, in fact, Gran Degree, the most powerful wizard in the solar system.
It was easy to forget, when the possibly-immortal man had set aside combat magic for the sake of his students, but Mokka never allowed himself to. It was safer, that way.
"Ah, Mokka." The man who had bought him from that curiosity shop so long ago greeted him. "Do you have the paperwork?"
"Yes. Even Mustard managed to complete it within a satisfactory timeframe." Surprisingly, it had been Madeleine who had needed the most prodding this time. She wasn't that much older than the members of his class, so her mind couldn't be going yet...
"Ah, I see. And the applications for new students?"
"For once, we should be able to admit all of them, so long as they show magical capabilities. We appear to be under the maximum this year." Which meant, of course, that the principal would listen for rumors of talented young wizards, and try to convince them to come to his academy. He had a tendency to do that sort of thing. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."
"Oh?"
"I was wondering if I could perhaps sit in on a few classes on Starsigns this year." He wasn't going to admit it was because of Ketchup, of course. Nobody needed to know that he was just as terrified of her as anyone else.
Biscotti didn't take long to consider it. "Well, it isn't as if you'd be taking anyone else's spot. It's a good thing you brought it up this year, though. You remember what it was like last year." More applications than the school's maximum capacity, at least half of which were pranks.
"If that ever becomes a normal year, I believe the twins and I will be walking out." Because it would be nice to get to travel again.
"And I assume you'd take Pistachio with you?" Some of Mokka's surprise must have registered, because Biscotti continued. "He finally agreed to come back and lecture this year. I don't think he's ready for a homeroom just yet, but I'm sure it will be good for all of you to see him again."
Himself, some handpicked students... and Pistachio becoming a member of the staff? At the very least, this next year would not be boring.
