The conversation is still fresh in her mind as she flips over another page. A hushed silence trails over the library save for a few stragglers searching for books, Danon Fantasy buried face-first in a textbook across the table. She has at least four pens and six highlighters in different colors scattered across the table, and her notebook looks like something straight out of Cyberpunk.

  Unlike Danon, however, Norm's mind isn’t on the homework she’s supposed to be doing.

  “This Gran Alegria…” She mutters softly, her phone propped up against the open spine of her textbook, “She’s really bad news.”

  Her voice catches Danon’s attention, whose ears flick up with a surprised twitch. She peeks over her textbook and throws a puzzled look at Norm.

  “Gran? What about her?”

  “Uh- Ah!” Norm panics and fumbles, sending her textbook crashing to the table. Several heads turn in unison as she fumbles around, snatching her phone up before it can fall. She seizes up like a deer in headlights, her pencil slowly rolling across the table.

  “Ah… ahem.” She clears her throat, a blush coming across her face as she gives a sheepish scratch to the back of her head. “Tapes. I’m reviewing tapes.”

  “Race footage…?” Danon’s fingers give a soft flick, causing the pencil to dance around in her hands in a loop. Her left eyebrow goes up almost immediately. “Norm, you’ve got… How much work to catch up on, exactly? Are you sure you should be reviewing race footage right now?”

  “I already know all this stuff anyway!” She hisses back in protest, planting her hands on the table defiantly. She snatches up a worksheet, flattens it, and passes it over the table. “See? It’s already done.”

  “Really?” Danon blinks. “Then… Surely you don’t mind me quizzing you on the answers.”

  “Do what you must.” Norm leans back, shutting her eyes with a smug grin before folding her arms across her chest. “I know this stuff like the back of my hand.”

  “Who unified Japan at the end of the Sengoku period?”

  “Oda Nobunaga.” She declares.

  “Oda began the process, but he didn’t finish it. The correct answer is Tokugawa Ieyasu.” Danon doesn’t even hesitate. “In what year did they begin the Meiji Restoration?”

  A single droplet of sweat rolls down her forehead.

  “Eighteen Sixty-Three.”

  “Wrong. It’s Eighteen Sixty-Eight.”

  “C-Close enough.” Norm replies. “Give me another.”

  “Name three clauses in the postwar constitution.”

  Norm falls silent, the corner of her mouth twitching. Danon throws her one glance before continuing.

  “Who commanded the Genji during the Genpei War?”

  “Minamoto!”

  Norm finally blurts out an answer.

  “One out of four correct.” Danon sets her worksheet down. “If this was a test, you’d be getting a grade of twenty-five percent. That’d be seventy-five percent less than someone who ‘knows this stuff like the back of her hand’.”

  She slides the worksheet back across the table.

  “T-That’s not fair! You grabbed the Japanese History one! That’s the only one I’m bad at!” Norm huffs and snatches it right back, crumpling the paper slightly in the process. She glares over the page one more time and slams it face down. “Okay- Try me again. I’m ready this time.”

  “Anything on the curriculum is fair game.” Danon rocks back in her chair with a sigh. “A teacher wouldn’t give you second tries either. It’s like a race. You don’t just get to ‘try again’. If you fail, you fail.”

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  Norm glares at her across the table, her ears sharply upright and turned forward.

  “Fine.” Danon pulls the worksheet and puts her head on her elbow. “What was the purpose of the Sakoku policy?”

  Norm’s hands tremble on the table as her eyes slowly narrow.

  “T-To improve diplomatic relations with Europe.”

  “Incorrect. Sakoku stands for ‘locked-down country’.” Danon’s reply drives right through her back like an arrow. “Who was the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate?”

  Norm’s lips start to quiver as she glares down, cold sweat starting to trickle down her forehead.

  “Tokugawa.”

  “No. It’s Minamoto again.” Danon sighs. “What political event triggered the Boshin War?”

  “The assassination… of… Archduke… Franz…”

  Danon’s eyes look up from the worksheet with a deadpan gaze. She says nothing.

  Norm’s ears flatten against her skull.

  “...Ferdinand.”

  The silence that follows is deafening.

  “Would you like your worksheet back?”

  Danon’s voice comes out low, quiet. Norm collapses onto the table with a resigned sigh, deflating like a punctured balloon and feeling her soul leave with it.

  “...Yes, please.”

  She gingerly rotates the piece of paper over, staring at it as she puts a hand to her head.

  “That doesn’t make sense. I wrote all this down yesterday.”

  “You need to re-call, not just re-read.” Danon lifts a finger. “Memory doesn’t work well when all you do is skim.”

  “But that’s so much woooooork.” Norm throws a textbook over her face and spins in her chair. “Japanese history isn’t what’s on my mind anyway. I’m trying to figure out a strategy I can use to beat Gran Alegria in a Mile race…”

  “Is that why you were watching her debut race?” Danon fishes a green marker out of her pencil case and draws another line across her notebook.

  “How many of those do you-” Norm’s expression twists into one of bewilderment, staring out at her from beneath her textbook. “-Nevermind.” She shakes her head. “She seems dead set on knocking me out of the Oka Sho. Something about her just didn’t sit right with me at the time, and when I reviewed the-”

  She leans a little too far back and suddenly feels void.

  “-Whoaaa!”

  The chair comes crashing down in catastrophic fashion, loud enough to cause Danon to flinch. She grabs onto the table in panic, only for her grip to slip and take her notebook with her. A loud RIP echoes through the air as she ends up on the floor with both legs in the air and a chair on top of her, wheels softly spinning with a creak.

  Danon tosses the onlookers an apologetic glance before standing up and peering over the table.

  “-as I was saying,” Norm suddenly springs up, pulling on the table as if nothing had happened, “my hunch was right. It’s not just that she’s a good runner. She’s got an incredibly strong final kick, and in addition to that, her speed and power are both extraordinary.”

  Danon blinks in bewilderment as Norm pulls her chair up.

  “Which means she isn’t someone I can out-compete, at least, not physically.” She slams her notebook on her desk, tossing aside the torn page and flipping through it frantically. “If we’re looking at raw physical condition, the only place I stand on equal footing with her is speed. From what I can see, we end up at roughly the same pace after we kick into top gear- but I’d lose in a straight-line footrace since her power is greater than mine.”

  She lets out one quick breath.

  “But that’s okay. I’ve been here before.” Norm’s eyes twinkle with a feverish blaze of frenzy. “I had to fight this opponent of mine back when I raced in Iwaki. Her name was Oscar. She was really strong. Like- absurdly strong. I had to kind of cheat to beat her by doing this thing the dirt runners use-”

  Warmth trickles down the side of her face from her temple, bringing with it a tingling sensation. She ignores it and presses on, her body practically vibrating in excitement.

  “Uh… Norm?” Danon gingerly whispers with a wince.

  “-But long story short, I can’t rely on that now. I have to either get myself into a more advantageous position before we start our final kicks, or I have to find a way to increase my power. If I can solve that-”

  “Norm.” Danon whispers again, a little louder this time. She’s got a slightly horrified expression on her face.

  “-then I think I’ve got a 60-40, no, 70-30 chance of beating her! Don’t you think something like this is so much more exciting than history?”

  Norm finds herself panting, out of breath, her heart hammering in her chest. Her head feels a little light, but that didn’t matter- she’s grinning ear to ear like a maniac. Her unhinged rant echoes into silence, her tail slowly settling into place from the frantic swishing it had been doing moments ago.

  A chill suddenly runs down her spine, feeling everyone’s gaze fixated firmly on her. Her heart skips a beat.

  She wasn’t that loud, was she?

  “Norm.” Danon whispers again, her face pale, lifting a finger and pointing at her forehead. “You’re bleeding.”

  “Huh?”

  She slowly lifts a hand and presses her palm to the side of the face. Immediately, she feels warmth and something sticky.

  Her hand comes back red.

  “We should…” Danon gulps. “...probably get you to the infirmary.”