Chapter Text
Chapter 16: Treasure Hunt?
'Amitie's late.' Silvana thought. She wanted to give the bag of candy to her directly in private. Leaving it gift wrapped on Amitie's table would give off unwanted signals to everyone around her. If she doesn't show up soon Sil might eat from this mighty tasty looking bag of candy for herself.
Akuma allowed the class to lollygag as they pleased until Amitie's status was known. Ms. Accord had something special planned, and Akuma made sure he wanted he read her instructions right.
Sil played discreetly with Arms' hand inside her bag. One downside is that Arms isn't alive like Carbuncle or even Puyobuncle, so it be embarrassing for a sixteen-year-old, who's already in class with at most a student that's a year younger than her, to be playing with a plushie.
"Sorry I'm late, guys. I was looking at my feet instead of ahead, so I couldn't see where I was going." Amitie sounded deflated. Sil must've dealt a harder blow than she thought.
"How are you feeling, Amitie? And on a side note: What kind of excuse half-hearted is that!? Ma, ma, kuma, kuma!"
Amitie winced. "But it's true Mr. Akuma. I swear."
Akuma cleared his throat. "My apologies for the outburst. Take your seat. If you're not feeling well feel free to take your homework home and rest. And work on your excuses next time."
"Ms. Accord asked me to send every one of you on an errand. Apparently, she hid something that was her grandfather's somewhere on this map, but she can't remember what it is, other than it's wrapped in a sheet with Primp's Wing on it."
"I went to the trouble of making copies of the map if you want to go alone. I figured the location out already and will go visit that place if any of you are gone for too long. You have four hours. And please be careful, ma, kuma!"
*Outside*
"Hi Am. Um… Wanna team up?" Sil felt super awkward asking, and it showed.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Get real, ‘cause we’re not friends! Why should non-friends help each other?”
“You want the pragmatic answer or the answer everyone benefits from?” ‘Smooth move, Sil. that’ll comfort Am.’
“None, I already, solved most of these puzzles. I wanna try this alone.”
“You did? Nevermind I got som-”
“Let’s Puyo!”
“Wait! Not now!”
*One Fever match later…*
Sil was paralyzed with fear.
As soon as she could move her arms again she checked for her mask. It's still on her face, and just as deeply buried within the Nuisance Puyo as herself.
It was now when she realized she used her shield as a crutch. So she won't have to relive it. She got crushed by a comet amount of Puyo. "A-Am musssst-t hafffff gottten l-luck-cky. Ssssshtoopid pheverrr, neffferrr aggain…"
She didn't know for how long she was out this time. Judging by the sun it looked like an hour at least.
Looks like Sil had to do the thing she was certain she was the best at: Stalking. But Amitie had a head start… To make it easier on herself Sil decided she needed to get to the end goal earlier. And await her there.
But she wasn't familiar enough with Primp's layout, clever enough to solve the puzzle or had time to solve it. 'Why would you make maps like this anyway?'
After she overheard Raffine saying to herself that four-eyes has the answer, something Sil would've figured out on her own, she beat that snob so she can beat her at asking/beating the other snob over the correct answers.
But preferably Sil wanted to do this in as little battles possible. Sil came up to Klug reading his book. The smarty-pants teased her with help and beat her over the head with his intellect. As Klug's ranted with his eyes closed or gloating at the sky, Sil noticed that out of Klug's book, that its red bookmark played charades with a lot the answers.
"…imself wasn't an inspiration to m-"
"Eh, thanks nice and all, Klug. But I don't need your info anymore, nerd. My nefarious clown magic made you utter the answers without realizing it. Thanks, bookworm." Sil winked at the bookmark, the bookmark smiled and waved bye. Klug felt unclean.
Now assuming that there were no misunderstandings and the red thing didn't lie. Silvana had all she needed to solve the location.
*Somewhere else…*
"Fiddlesticks… I must be lost." Amitie told herself that critical information. The coordinates of the puzzle brought her outside of the circle it was supposed to be in. "What if I misspelled Catacombs? I can't do anything right…"
*Later, back at Sil…*
"Shoot me… I don't tell me I missed my mark. Was it Oslo or Oloso or Osolo Cemetery? Or was it Cemetery of whatever, it would actually fit if that was the case. Who puts crossword puzzles on a map to show the way?!"
*An hour later*
Those two ghosts aren't here today it seemed. Good. Amitie's nerves were challenged enough by this map daring her to go inside the Catacomb.
She entered. The place was as lively she imagined, but not as small. Quite spacious actually, it gave the dead some more breathing room. Amitie lit a torch to see in the dark.
In the next room was presumably the thing she looked for. A sheeted rectangle bigger than herself with the School's logo on it! Amitie almost didn't recognize it as it was upside down.
"I'll prove to Sil I'm not a dumb ditz, but just… um… uh… I hate feeling like this…"
"Myew got some myighty confidence there, Amitie."
Amitie gasped, someone overheard that. It was an evil sounding male voice.
Behind her appeared a pair of big yellow evil eyes. "Who… Who are you?"
"I'm the Prince of Darkness, defmeownder of these catacombs."
"But you're not the Dark Prince. He's wicked in two ways, and his ey-"
"Silence! You've dist-purr-bed the tomb of mya brethren and the riches I guard, meow."
"Uncool, did I break in the wrong tomb? But that looks like the thing Accord was looking for."
"Myews. Accord?" That fondled the eyeballs' curiosity. The room lit up to reveal a cat's silhouette attached to the eyes. "In that cmyase if mew can beat little ol' me at Puyo Mewyo. Win you can have that but also some of this treasure." The blot grabbed something out of its body. "Of course if you tell any purrrrson about where you got this I'd come for you in a one-to-one physical battle, with my claweinspiring purr-wer." The monster sharpened its free claw and narrowed its eyes. "I trust mew to get that I'd be the one who'd make you squeak in that mess, meoight?"
Amitie gulped. She agreed to the monster's terms and conditions.
*Meanwhile, outside…*
"This must be it! The entrance is already opened. Am must be down there." Sil picked up the noise of popping Puyo.
"Blizzard!"
"STAAAArrrdust Whip!"
Voices echoed through it. One of them was definitely Amitie. The other only sounded vaguely familiar.
“Hey, Sil.”
“Eeep! Sig, don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Sorry. Is this the place?”
“I think so.”
“I lost Lidelle on the way. I wanna give it to her to give to Mr. Akuma.”
“And you can, but I need to go inside.”
“Not now, Sig!” ‘Please say go. Please say go. Please say go.’
“Should we battle it out?”
“Of course. No wai- The battle. Already. Started… AND IT’S FEVER?!?”
“Oops. Sorry.”
*Silvana won*
Sil sighed with relief that it was almost effortless. "Go to school, Sig. I'll be there." Sil jumped down the hole. 'It's finally time.' She patted her bag. Skipping ahead here, in the room Amitie was in was an unfortunate victim buried in Puyo.
"What happened here?"
"Nya~aa~aa~" Whatever was buried underneath, it was delirious. Sil decided to help him out. "I can help myself neow, thank mew. Meowmitie has taken what you're looking for…" It pointed at that door. "It leads to a shortcut to Nahe Woods and its scratching posts."
"Okay, thanks."
*Back at School…*
"Here you go, Mr. Akuma. I think this is it." Amitie hoped she was right.
Akuma was inspecting it.
“Hmm. It does fit the description. Where did you find it?”
“In a spooky tomb in the cemetery.”
“Well, congratulations! Did you figure it all out on your own?”
“Eh, it was nothing, I help mommy and dad lot with these kinda puzzles. A lot of trial and error, though.”
“Good job regardless. I’d reward you if I had anything to give besides my congratulations.”
“Aaaw… Okay.” ‘What a tease.’
“Perhaps you can ask Accord for a reward. Now go play outside until the rest return. I’ve got an idea what Accord wants me to tell all of you. If my assumption of what this is correct, of course.”
“Okie dokie.”
Amitie skipped off, feeling a bit better about herself.
"Let's hope this isn't what I think it is…" Akuma made sure it was safe first.
*The designated time…*
"Sorry I'm late, I was stuck in a dungeon and I did my best to find the exit." 'That was the longest shortcut, ever.' Sil was slightly exhausted from the running.
"You're actually just in time."
"Oh…"
"No matter, you're here, we can begin now." Akuma told her. Sil sat down, she failed her mission today.
As Akuma began building up the next lesson, Sil noticed an envelope on her desk. It read: "To Miss S. Pierrot, read ASAP."
The envelope wasn't enclosed, good thing ripping it open would've caused too much noise. Inside it was a letter that read:
"You may not like this lecture, and I shall not sugarcoat it. Please, for your own safety please refrain from reacting, and keep your emotions in check. You're free to converse with me about it later. Should you want to, of course.
Akuma"
Sil slipped the piece of paper in her pocket, wondering what it meant. It didn't last long, looking at the shape of the thing Amitie found she felt like she was gonna die of pressure, among other things. "Oh nooooo…" She mouthed…
"…ry, I made sure it is safe. In fact, it is inactive." Akuma removed the special sheet off. It's a fancy looking mirror.
Most were curious, but not impressed. "But, Mr. Akuma, how is that gorgeous mirror a danger?"
"An excellent question, Raffine. This is a rare type of mirror that creates amoral duplicates that will think they are the ones they are copies of. With the overall purpose is to make your loved ones indirectly hate them. To put it simply."
"How come it doesn't work right now? It's standing in front of Miss Ami, so shouldn't there be a creepy clone of her?"
"Because, Lidelle." Mister Know-It-All answered before Akuma could. "It needs energy from Amethyst Pearls to function, it fuels it. Mr. Akuma said it was safe, didn't he? He must've drained it of its power."
Sil never actually knew how exactly she was created, it's very educational. But to learn she's partly pearl energy she… She didn't know what to make of it… Best to leave it to think about it later. She still had an entire guilt trip to sit through… She had a feeling that be the least of it.
Akuma tried to correct Klug. "It was already drained, I can't drain Amythest Pear-"
"Amethyst Pearl? Like this one?" Amitie pulled the shadow beast's treasure, it was directly in the mirror's light.
Both Sil and Akuma without missing a beat, tackled Amitie to cover her up. "AMITIE! NOOOOOO! (KUMA!)" But they hit each other instead. Since Sil's has more mass than Akuma, she tackled him into the wall.
Once again Sil was unconscious.
To be continued...