Lucky Rabbit

Pandy just couldn’t bring herself to use Bite rather than the knife, so she focused on Minor Heal for the rest of the night, only stopping once an hour to test Shifting Faces. Six hours later, Minor Heal had reached level twenty-two, she had forty-three more Mana, and she’d also noticed that her Mana pool was refilling much more quickly, so apparently that was a hidden benefit of increasing…something she didn’t have the mental energy to figure out. Frankly, she was so bored at this point that even her inner monologue was speaking in a monotone.

Still, she poked her nose out from under the bed, noting that the time was now almost six-thirty. She was overdue to try Shifting Faces again, but she didn’t even really care. She didn’t care about much of anything, in fact, except that she finally understood why the human mind needed to sleep. She’d been so focused on what she was doing for so long that she thought the numbers on her stat screen might actually be burned into her retinas.

Flopping over on her side, Pandy rolled back under the bed, thinking rather hazily that she probably counted as a ‘dust bunny’ by now. There wasn’t actually much dust beneath the bed, but she was a bunny, rolling roundly about in dark spaces, and surely that was enough.

she thought glumly, only to be shocked into sudden awareness as her human-bits expanded to fill the space that her bunny-bits had not.

 Casting of Shifting Faces successful. Shifting Faces is now level 2.

Pandy actually let out a small, quiet, “Woohoo!” before realizing that she was producing real sound from her real human throat. At this point she attempted to clap her hands over her mouth, only to discover that she couldn’t bend her arms that way, since they’d been above her head as she rolled across the wooden floor.

“Ow,” she muttered as one of the bed slats scraped her elbow, then thought, because now she was just wasting her precious time. A moment later she was rabbit-shaped and fully conscious for the first time in at least an hour, so Pandy hopped out and stared up at the clock again. Six o’clock. Why six o’clock? If the System was going with the ‘arbitrary reset time’, why did it pick that time? What happened at six o’clock?

Clara woke up. Of course the day started when Clara woke up. Not that that was always at six. In fact, most of the time, Clara woke when the bell rang at seven, just like everyone else. But when there was an early-morning event, it always started at six. On the other hand, there were several events that went long after midnight, so that time really had no particular meaning in the game. In hindsight, it made perfect sense – though, honestly, seven would have made just as much.

None of that mattered right now, though. No, all Pandy cared about was that Shifting Faces was level two, which meant it was time to check her stats for the thousandth time that night. Pandy crossed her toes and thought,

Name: Pandy

Race: Rabbit? (Deceased)

Age: 24

LF: -7/1

Mana: 8/82

Stats▾

Strength: 18 Intelligence: 12 Agility: 20 Pain Tolerance: 1Skills▾

Hop: Lv. 20 Bite: Lv. 19 (44/100) Scratch: Lv. 11 (2/28) Minor Heal: Lv. 22 (254/370) Wings of Glory: Lv. 1 Verdant Surge: Lv. 1 Vita Herbalis: Lv. 1 Spark: Lv. 1 Shifting Faces: Lv. 2     01:29:36Boons▴

Corruption Points: 95

No change in stats, sadly, but the glowing red numbers instantly told Pandy what had changed. She had gained an additional half hour of human-time. So not only could she use Shifting Faces starting at six, before most people would be awake, but by the time she reached level ten, she would be able to spend five hours a day as a human. If she wanted to. Which meant she could still pretend to be Ms. Wellington. If she wanted to.

Pandy winced at the realization. She had spent a fair amount of post-midnight time trying to decide how to break it to Thaniel that she wouldn’t be able to be his teacher after all, but it all hinged on the fact that she couldn’t. Not that she didn’t want to, she wasn’t able to. So sorry, Thaniel. Let there be hugs. And maybe some tears, which she would wipe away with gentle affection, and totally not store in a small vial somewhere in case she needed them later. Not that she had a vial, but where there was a will, there was a way.

Of course, Pandy was the adult, so she could always just say she didn’t want to. Wasn’t going to. Adults let children down all the time, right? Thaniel certainly knew that, so he probably wouldn’t even be surprised. But he would be disappointed, and for the first time in a very long time, Pandy found that it really mattered to her if she disappointed someone. Not just because she would get fired, or grounded, or not get to go on that field trip her foster parents weren’t willing to pay for anyway, but because she didn’t want to let Thaniel down.

Which meant she had to try. Even if she failed, she had to try, because Thaniel was the kind of person for whom trying actually meant something. His life hadn’t exactly been easy, but he kept trying, never giving up even when things were hard, or sad, or just really annoying. Which meant Pandy couldn’t give up either, even though she really, really wanted to. And the first thing she needed to do was go back upstairs and be Ms. Wellington again for at least long enough to make Timon go away. 

Pandy hopped toward the door, then paused, looking back at the boy in the bed behind her. Golden curls spread across his pillow, a little too long and in need of a trim. Dark lashes shadowed his cheek, and one small fist lay beneath his chin, where a faint glimmer of drool caught the light. Hopping back, Pandy thought,

Shifting Faces has already been used today. You have01:29:36 remaining. Would you like to use it?

she said firmly, and she stood there in Ms. Wellington’s skin for only a moment before she summoned the less fancy outfit from her inventory and felt its weight settle around her. Pandy had never been one for skirts, but something about the weight of the many layers of fabric around her legs was comforting as she strode over to Thaniel’s bed and crouched beside it. Gently, she stroked a sweaty curl back from his forehead and brushed her lips over the spot where it had rested.

“See you soon,” she murmured, then straightened again, turning for the door. As she did so, she caught the glint of Isidor’s dark eyes, where he lay still and silent, staring at her in something that might have been astonishment. She laid a finger across her lips, then crossed to the door, opening it and slipping through into the dark hallway.

Her clothes went into her inventory an instant before she thought, A glance at her stats showed that she had only lost a little over a minute of her time, but as far as she was concerned, it was well spent.

There was no one in the halls as Pandy passed through them, but when she hopped past Ms. Davenport’s room on the girls’ floor, she could hear the sounds of soft footsteps inside. So the supervisor was awake, but probably not dressed yet, since those sounded like bare feet, not the hardened leather soles of the shoes in this world. Good to know.

As soon as Pandy pushed her way through the door leading out into the foyer, however, she knew she was in trouble. While no one was in the foyer itself, there were already uniformed staff members in the dining hall, setting tables with fresh tablecloths, folded napkins, and neat arrangements of plates and silverware.

She could tell by the smell that the kitchens were in full swing as well, which meant she couldn’t go back up the way she’d come down. Someone would almost certainly see her before she reached the stairs, and she had no doubt that they, like Chef Farrier, would return her to Thaniel. She also couldn’t pretend to be Ms. Wellington, who was supposed to be confined to her room, if not her bed. Which left only one option.

Her eyes measured the stairs that swept up from the foyer to the second floor. She could tell how rarely they were used because the carpets were still in pristine condition, while the ones in the entryway were gently worn. Students weren’t allowed to use these stairs unless they were summoned, and the staff almost never used them either.

If they were like the ones at Condor, those steps led directly to the chancellor’s office, and they were for the use of visiting noble parents, not students or staff. Clara had seen the parents of her love interests – and, occasionally, her enemies – sweep up those stairs, but she herself had never stepped foot upon them. That meant Pandy had only the vaguest idea what she would find up there, but thanks to the school map included on the Gacha Love website, she did know there was another door leading out of the office and directly into the hall with all of the other offices. That was the one actually meant for students and staff.

Unfortunately, the chancellor’s private suite also connected to his office, which meant it was possible that he would be in the office, or have the door open so he could see what was happening in there. What were the odds of that, though? Who kept the door to a semi-public space open when they were getting ready for work?

Before Pandy could get past the thought that the odds were always against her, no matter how unlikely the alternative seemed, she heard a creak behind her, and knew her time was up. Ms. Davenport had just opened her door, and there was no way those sharp eyes would miss a fluffy bunny butt propping open the door to her hall.

Pandy dashed out, racing across the foyer so quickly that her claws got caught in the beautiful blue and russet carpets, flipping the edge up as she hopped onto the bottom step. She couldn’t stop to fix it, though, because she would be in clear view of anyone looking out of the dining room.

Instead, she continued up, hopping two or three steps at a time, until she reached the landing that connected the two sets of stairs and led to ornate double doors in the center. Another carpet was spread across the polished wood, this one even thicker and more luxurious than the one below. Clearly, this was meant to reassure parents that their money was being well spent on the education of their children.

The doors seemed to be solid, heavy wood, with the image of a falconet carved into them. The bird almost managed to look more majestic than adorable for once, but the intricately detailed puffy feathers around the head and throat destroyed the illusion. In the end, the bird looked more like it was sleepy than dignified. A bronze plaque was split in half along the junction of the doors, and surprisingly simple lettering read, AUGUSTUS BLACKWOOD, CHANCELLOR.

Pandy glanced left and right, just in case there were some extra doors here, possibly including one that would lead directly into the teachers’ hallway. To her complete lack of surprise, no such door presented itself, leaving her with the two that now lay directly before her.

Hands. She needed hands. There was no way she was going to jump up there, swaying and thumping against the door as she attempted to spin the knob enough to open the door. If Chancellor Blackwood wasn’t already awake or in the room, she would absolutely attract his attention with her antics. And what would he think when the door swung open to reveal a rabbit dangling from the knob? There was no way she could talk her way out of that, even if she could talk.

So, hands it was.

Shifting Faces has already been used today. You have01:27:58 remaining. Would you like to use it?

Just for a second. Ten at most. Open the door, go inside, close the door, then cross the room to the hall door, which should be on her right. Open that door, exit into the hall, close the door, and change back to Bunny. Done.

Only as she reached for the doorknob did Pandy realize that, one, she’d forgotten her clothes, and two, the office might well be locked. In fact, it was probably locked. What kind of school administrator left the door-

Click.

The knob turned beneath her hand, but Pandy hadn’t turned it. Instead, someone on the inside of the office had done so, and there was only one person that could be. She was about to come face to face with Chancellor Blackwood, and she was naked. Again.