Lucky Rabbit

Dinner was salad, chicken, tea, and a tiny cupcake with a fresh cherry precariously balanced on a mound of icing. Mr. Farrier introduced himself, pretending it was the first time he’d met either Thaniel or Pandy, then proceeded to make the children feel welcome and safe by telling them rambling stories about his life as he prepared dough for the next day’s bread. By the time they’d all finished eating, Thaniel and Geraldine were nearly asleep in their cupcakes, and the school was quiet.

Isidor and Thaniel made their way through dim halls and back to their room just in time for the gentle chime announcing lights out. The lamp turned itself down until only the barest flicker lit the room, and the two boys changed into their nightclothes in silence.

Thaniel had been holding tight to Pandy, not even putting her down during dinner, and now he settled her on his bed before slipping beneath the covers. Only then did he blink tired eyes at her and murmur, “Good night, Bunny. Will you…be here in the morning?” Pandy leaned forward, brushing his cheek with her whiskers until he giggled and his lashes fell into shadowed sweeps.

Usually, Pandy waited until Thaniel was well asleep before hopping down and hiding beneath the bed to practice her skills. Tonight, however, she remained in place, coming as close to resting as she could, lying snuggled beneath Thaniel’s arm, pondering events as she knew them.

Before today, Pandy would have said that this world – the world of Gacha Love, or close enough – held no real surprises for her. Yes, the events of the story wouldn’t take place for almost three more years, but she knew what led up to them, and therefore what was going on now. Didn’t she?

Thaniel and Lian’s father was investigated for breaking the laws regarding what he was and wasn’t allowed to do as a Dark mage. The game never really delved into the how and why of that, it was simply implied that he was a Bad Man, or at least an insane one.

Lord Captain Reedsley was the soldier sent to the Dunning estate to look for evidence. During the search, The Father vanished, never to be seen again, and Thaniel died when a fire started, burning down half of the manor. Killian blamed Captain Reedsley for Thaniel’s death, as well as his father’s – though that was never proven – which led to him summoning a demon, corrupting his Light magic to Dark, and eventually beginning a killing spree which at first seemed random, but was actually him picking off the people involved in the raid on Dunning Manor.

While all of this was happening in the background, Clara Reedsley began her first year at Condor, where she met a variety of characters, including Killian and the four love interests. She spent the first several months learning the ins and outs of school life and forming new relationships, which eventually led to the Midwinter Ball, where she danced with the boy with the highest Affection stat. In turn, this led to an invitation for him – or them, if more than one boy had an Affection of fifty or more – to join her at Reedsley Manor for winter break.

After they returned from the Reedsley estate, things started to take a dark turn. Clara’s maid was one of the first to die, and when Captain Reedsley sent a guard to protect his daughter, the guard died, too. The library was broken into, with the thief stealing a number of forbidden tomes and murdering their draconic guardian. A series of clues led to the realization that a dark cult had sprung up on the school grounds, and Dark elementals began to attack, killing still more people. Only powerful Light magic was truly effective against these monsters, and Clara and her partner – or partners, if you managed to have more than fifty percent Affection with multiple boys – began patrolling the grounds, fighting back.

Only after one of the boys – whichever one had the lowest Affection stat – was murdered did they learn that Killian was behind it all. When confronted, he revealed his hatred of Clara and her family, but he was injured and ran away, but not before swearing to summon a demon army and wipe the country from the map.

The queen called up an army, but Clara was afraid her father would die if he went to war, and of course Light magic was the most effective against Dark. She and her lover snuck out to confront the demon, there was lots of fighting, blah blah blah, they confronted Killian again, and this time he was possessed by a demon, raising his stats considerably. Clara defeated the demon, and everyone lived happily ever after. At least, they did if Clara had made all the right choices during her playthrough. There were a number of ‘Good’ endings, but only one that led to Clara’s marriage to her chosen beau.

It was incredibly complex for an otome game, and there were people who claimed it was more of a role-playing game instead. Pandy could definitely see their point, especially when the deaths and fighting started, but up until then it was the definition of otome, except that it included details that other pay-to-win games produced by unknown companies never bothered with, like the myriad of books scattered throughout.

Nowhere in any of that did the game indicate that anything particularly nefarious was happening before Killian got triggered by the arrival of his enemy’s daughter. Yes, sure, Killian was doing something naughty enough to lose his Light magic, but he wasn’t hurting anyone other than himself. He was portrayed as an anti-social bookworm more than anything else, really only noticeable because of his good looks and the fact that he was considered one of the five Princes of the school.

So what in the ever-loving fallen soufflé was going on here? Thaniel was still alive, The Father was dead – through no fault of anyone from the original game – and right now, Lian should be lying in his own bed at Kestrel, dreaming of large books and zero interruptions. Pandy was even hopeful that Thaniel might be able to convince Lian that peopling wasn’t so bad after all. Maybe he and Clara would-

No. No, that wasn’t what she should be thinking about. Focus, Pandy! Who was working in the background even now? Was it possible that ‘Killian the Villian’ hadn’t come up with his plan all on his own? Had someone else been behind it all – someone the game never even hinted at? Were they the ones who had hired the Shadow Exchange? Because Pandy didn’t believe for a moment that the Exchange were the true villains. They were thugs and minions, in it for the money, not to bring down the very country in which they worked.

Mind churning, Pandy rolled over, eyes landing on the dark mound that was Isidor, lying beneath his blankets. Tempest’s box was tucked into the space beneath his bed, and for a moment Pandy would have sworn she caught the flicker of electricity, arcing inside the box.

What was the tortoise, anyway? Pandy remembered the god saying animals on this world didn’t have magic, but Tempest obviously did. Moreover, she wasn’t alone. Pandy didn’t think her eyes had been playing tricks on her when she saw Brook melt through the fence, and now that she thought about it, there was definitely something strange about Miss Cupcakes. What kind of kitten followed a human around everywhere she went? That made sense for a dog, like Lord Winston, but a cat? Cats were the ‘belly before biting’ type, the ‘sleep on your face’ type, not loyal, friendly pets.

No, Pandy felt like she knew less than ever, which made her very, very nervous, given that the god’s magic was out to get Thaniel. Did she have to worry about the boy being abducted and turned into an evil Dark mage now? Apparently the answer was yes, because whoever Ms. Wellington’s employers had been, they obviously valued immediate retrieval of a young Dark mage over not only Ms. Wellington’s cover, but also whatever long-term plan they’d had for Eleanor.

Flopping over again, Pandy stared into Thaniel’s sleeping face. It really was unfair how adorable he was, not only outside, but inside. Yes, those golden curls, long lashes, and blue eyes screamed ‘angelic’, but somehow, in spite of losing his mother and essentially being abandoned by his father, he was still kind, thoughtful, and generous. A little too smart for Pandy’s own good, maybe, and almost certainly more aware of the effect of those big blue eyes than he should be, but a good kid. Definitely not a fierce proto-villain like his brother.

Giving up, Pandy rolled to her paws and hopped down off the bed. If her flip-flopping like an undecided omelet hadn’t woken Thaniel, neither would her departure, so there was no reason to continue festering in her own uncertainty when she could level up her skills instead.

But after just a few iterations of the Bite/Heal cycle, Pandy found herself bored and frustrated again. Yes, she wanted to know what would happen when she reached level twenty, and it was so close now, but it was like trying to exercise for exercise’s sake. You knew it was good for you, but what was your brain supposed to do with itself while you puffed out another half mile of painful jogging, or forced yourself through those last ten pushups? For Pandy, the answer had always been, ‘focus on the misery of the moment’, which wasn’t exactly conducive to continuing the activity, and she found herself back in that mindset now.

All right, it was time to try something different, and she did have both a new skill and twenty-seven Corruption Points, thanks to the fact that poor Thaniel had had a pretty terrible day. Hopefully she wouldn’t need them, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Pandy drew in a deep breath and thought,

Shifting Faces has already been used today. You have 00:09:21remaining. Would you like to use it?

Pandy thought, though she cringed a little. She had really hoped to be someone else next time she used the spell, but if there were only nine minutes left of being Ms. Wellington, she could handle it.

Unfortunately, she underestimated the Shadow’s girth, and found that her body abruptly filled rather a lot of the vertical space available to her. Her chest and stomach pressed against the slats of the bed much as Keros’ ridiculous pecs had, and she was glad she didn’t need to breathe. She didn’t, did she? Looking like a human didn’t actually make her alive, did it?

Experimentally, Pandy held her breath, watching the countdown on the spell as the seconds ticked by. Having a clock really was very convenient, though she should probably be doing something more useful with her time than waiting to see if she would pass out from lack of oxygen. When the timer reached seven minutes, and she was still just as comfortable as she had been when she stopped breathing, she decided that she was, in fact, just as undead as ever.

Well, suddenly returning to life when she was human-shaped was probably a bit too much to hope for, so Pandy wasn’t too disappointed. What was she supposed to do now, though? She wanted to know what would happen when the spell came to an end, but she was rather uncomfortable, with what she thought was probably a spring digging into her left breast, and her legs bent at a very awkward angle so her feet didn’t protrude.

She turned her attention to the rest of her stats, hoping they might tell her something she hadn’t had time to notice before.

Name: Pandy

Race: Human? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: 1/1

Mana: 14/19

Stats▾

Strength: 13 Intelligence: 12 Agility: 15 Pain Tolerance: 1Skills▾

Hop: Lv.15 (30/55) Bite: Lv. 19 (24/91) Scratch: Lv. 11 (2/19) Minor Heal: Lv. 19 (44/91) Wings of Glory: Lv. 1 Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 Shifting Faces: Lv. 1     00:06:40Boons▾

Ismara’s Blessing IMark of KerosCorruption Points: 27

First, the obvious. Her race was now Human, rather than Rabbit, but the System seemed just as uncertain as ever whether that was accurate. She was still marked as Deceased, but she still thought that holding her breath had been a worthwhile experiment. After all, the System clearly didn’t know everything, as evidenced by that question mark after Human.

Was anything else different? Pandy didn’t think so. No new skills or stats appeared while she was in this shape, nor did she lose Hop, Bite, or Scratch. Which made sense, really, since humans could do those things, too, just maybe not as well as rabbits.

Less than five minutes left now, and Pandy debated the value of biting her lip or cheek and healing it, just to be doing something other than watching time pass. Really, couldn’t the System have some kind of built-in mini-game or something? Maybe a little spaceship game where her Corruption Points shot tiny ellipses at the words above? Hopefully, she watched the letters and numbers hovering in the air in front of her, wondering if the System would take the hint, but no such luck.

Three and a half minutes, and there was an itch just behind her right arm that was getting out of hand. Pandy wriggled, trying to scratch it on the floor, but the smooth wood had no effect. She wiggled again, then again, and somehow she was out from under the bed, scratching frantically at the itchy spot until she became aware that she was being watched. Looking up, she met Isidor’s dark eyes just in time for the spell to end.

Shifting Faces complete. Shape selection finalized. You may choose another form to copy at level ten.

Well, that wasn’t good.