Flying Snow Velvet

Tap, tap, tap.

Lynae sprang up from her seat as soon as Mo Bai came out of the infirmary.

"Well? How did it go? Are you okay?"

She looked him up and down.

"I'm fine."

Mo Bai smiled, but a moment later, his smile grew strained.

"Lynae, here's your leave slip. Mo Bai, here's yours."

Nurse N.A.N.A. approached them with a smile.

"Thank you, Ms. N.A.N.A."

Lynae cheerfully took both leave slips, then turned to find Mo Bai staring at her with dead eyes.

"Ahem. Want to go for a ride?" she ventured.

Lynae wasn't sure when it had started, but she'd noticed that Mo Bai, like Rover, had a problem with her skipping class to go riding.

"That's because Rover and I are worried you'll have so much fun that you won't earn enough credits to pass your exams."

Mo Bai had read her mind. He held his head and sighed.

Heaven knew what excuse she'd used to get N.A.N.A. to approve her leave this time.

Still, he didn't turn down her invitation.

Vroom—!

Soon, Mo Bai and Lynae were riding along the road beside the academy.

"I haven't gone for a ride in ages! It still feels as good as ever!"

Lynae spread her arms on her motorcycle as though embracing the breeze.

Technically, she wasn't supposed to leave the academy while she was grounded. But with a leave slip this time, she could wander around outside for a while.

Besides, although she was grounded, Lynae had defeated the Voidworm. The academy was largely willing to look the other way.

Mo Bai watched her release the feelings she'd kept bottled up for days, and the corners of his mouth lifted.

When she did something she loved, her cheerful nature made it easy for others to share her joy.

But Mo Bai had come along for more than just her company. There was something he wanted to ask.

"You've been at the academy much longer than Rover and I have. Is there a female student here with pink hair in a single ponytail and golden eyes?"

He meant the pink-haired girl he'd seen earlier in the hologram—the one who had helped him.

Now that he thought about it, he had seen her before.

She looked almost exactly like the pink pixel girl on his motorcycle's display, who had also lent him a hand.

He wanted to meet her.

She seemed to know something about the Remnant Star Society.

"Pink hair and golden eyes? Oh, you mean Flying Snow Velvet, the famous singer who used to go to the academy?"

"Flying Snow Velvet?"

Lynae's answer caught Mo Bai off guard.

It sounded more like a stage name.

"You're new, so it's normal that you haven't heard of her. I'm not into following celebrities, but I've got a few of her songs on my ride's playlist."

Click.

Lynae turned on the music.

"Even if we're meant to fall apart"

"I will gaze at where you are for all time"

"Bon voyage"

English lyrics. Mo Bai hadn't expected English to exist in this world. Had it survived from a previous civilization?

The melody sounded melancholy, though the meaning was easy enough to grasp.

The singer was grieving because the person she loved was about to leave her.

Yet beneath that grief, she stubbornly vowed to watch over her wherever she went, before wishing her well.

"Is she still at the academy?" Mo Bai had noticed Lynae say "used to."

"No. She disappeared a long time ago. The academy sent out a huge search party, but they never found her..." Lynae sounded sad.

Mo Bai frowned deeply at her answer.

If she had disappeared, then what had he seen earlier?

A ghost?

There was clearly more to this.

Ring, ring!

Lynae's phone rang.

A Tacet Disc could serve as a Terminal for communication, but Lynae clearly preferred the more portable phone.

"Lynae! Where have you run off to this time? You've barely been back at the academy, and you're skipping class again?!"

A teacher roared from the other end of the call.

Apparently, even the Voidworm's vanquisher couldn't get out of attending class.

"But I have a leave slip—"

"A leave slip? Don't think I don't know you cooked up another excuse to get N.A.N.A. to approve one!"

Lynae tried to argue, but the teacher cut her off.

The teacher clearly knew her habits well.

"Right, that's enough. I can see where your ride is. If you don't turn around within ten seconds, you'll see what happens."

The teacher hung up before Lynae could answer.

"Ah, looks like my lovely ride has to end here."

Lynae turned to Mo Bai with a miserable expression and waved her phone at him.

"That's a good thing. If Rover were here, she probably wouldn't even have come riding with you. She'd tell you to get back to class," Mo Bai teased.

In his mind, Rover always carried herself like a senior or an elder.

"All right, then. Enjoy riding alone. And don't neglect your health, okay?" Lynae said before leaving.

Perhaps because of Mo Bai's earlier mishap in the hologram, she didn't fire back at him this time.

"I know, Voidworm Knight."

After that last tease, they took different roads at the fork.

Screech—!

After parking, Mo Bai headed for the academy's screening room.

The teachers and students were all in class, so few people were around, and no one was using the equipment.

Mo Bai found a port on the screening-room equipment and loaded some data from his Tacet Disc.

It was all Flying Snow Velvet's music. Before they parted, he had asked Lynae to send him every song she had.

Hum—

Once everything was ready, Mo Bai sat alone in the audience and quietly watched the screen.

In the end, he still knew next to nothing about Flying Snow Velvet.

"Meeting you in that swirling snowfll's"

As Mo Bai began to think, one of Flying Snow Velvet's songs started playing.

It was the one Lynae had played for him earlier. He thought it was called "Voyage Star's Farewell."

Mo Bai wasn't looking for Flying Snow Velvet over anything important. He just...

"the most beautiful thing ever happened to me"

He just wanted to thank her. After all, she had helped him twice.

"It really sounds sad..."

That was Mo Bai's verdict after listening. Then he left the screening room.

He didn't know what had happened to Flying Snow Velvet herself, but he could tell the story in the song had a bad ending.

He didn't like stories with bad endings.