Chapter 595 Strange Mishap?

The Academy Twelve grew silent as Victor scanned the room. Victor was right. The Academy Twelve wasn't what it was when they first started their terms in the group. Vickie sighed as she accidentally moved the slide to the next screen. A video started to play of "Lee Seng" complaining as he did his check up.

"W-what is this…?" A Third Year member asked.

"Do I have to do this?" Lee Seng asked, looking at the doctors.

"It's just a check up." A doctor answered. Lee Seng sighed and nodded.

"Fine. I don't know why they have to be this extensive…"

The scene abruptly cuts to it begin dark. Lee Seng rushes out, blasting the glass and falling into the night. Manny stands, baffled at what he sees. Victor, on the other hand, doesn't show anything. His mind swirls with questions as Vickie quickly tries to stop the video and looks at everyone.

"I— I don't even know what that was." Vickie told them. "How'd that get in there?"

"Did someone tamper with today's meeting slides?" Connor asked, looking around.

"It was a last minute thing." Sara replied. "It's led by Vickie, so it must've came from her."

"I honestly don't know how that got there." Vickie truthfully told them. "Chang's whole thing was a last minute thing. I didn't even make a slide for it. We were still on the title slide. I only had…" She flicked through the slides, noticing that all her work was there. The video had somehow squeezed itself in. "Strange. I didn't…"

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" Manny stood up. He was angry as some members of the Academy Twelve whispered amongst themselves. "You don't like Lee Seng one bit especially after lead head Tank over there wanted to beat the shit out of him during Transfer Hell weekend!"

"Hey!" Noah barked. The massive fourth year stood up and started to move towards the scrawny healer. Manny moved forward, no fear. This was clearly a set up in his mind.

"Enough." Victor lifted his hand. Water formed around him, shooting and separating the two as members of the Twelve stood up to separate the two. "It doesn't help that we're literally fighting with each other. We're the Academy's Twelve. The student council in charge of making sure the students' voices are heard but the rules are held to their standard. Do you two really want to break some rules because of a video that might not even be true?"

"Not true?" Sara spoke up. "That footage was taken from the lab! The surveillance footage even has his logo on it! How is this fabricated?"

"Right. It does have the Creator's logo on it!" The group started to mutter.

"I—I really don't know how that got there, Vic." Vickie turned to look at Victor. Victor sighed and removed the water.

"There isn't anything to vote in regards to Lee Seng. Gossip will always happen because he is a bona-fide celebrity. Let's just move on. The video could be nothing. Probably a weird slip up. Onto the next topic, Vickie." Victor motioned to Vickie, sitting down.

"But I…" Vickie's eyes went towards Manny who was moved back to his seat and sat down. Today wasn't at all what she thought it would be.

'Who could even do such a thing?' Vickie wondered.

It was a stressful day for Keng. It was his first day of actually attending classes. Everything he did was based off of what Lee Seng did. He talked to all of his teachers, who told him similar things after asking if he was alright.

"I'll send you an email on all the stuff you missed. I'll give you extra time to catch up, but please do not fall behind in class. Your grades might have taken a hit because of your disappearance, but it doesn't mean you should lax. Now's the time for you to catch up, okay?"

It was all the same to Keng and by the time school was over, he was completely stressed.

"100 hours of training for both of my training courses." Keng told Ritsuka. "And like two months worth of homework I don't even know if I'm capable of doing!"

"You'll be alright, dude." Ritsuka patted Keng. "You probably have his brain and everything he did. You could possibly understand all of these things with time. Don't stress too much about it. I'll help you as much as I can. As for training, we'll just have to devote some extra time into it. Didn't Icarus say you could do jobs as part of those hours?"

"Yeah…" Keng nodded.

"That's great then! We can get some creds while also getting the training done! It's a two birds with one stone kinda situation!" Ritsuka clapped. Keng nodded. Ritsuka was right. He needed to not look at this so negatively. He had to tackle and ace being a great student for Lee Seng's sake. While he was catching up, he would find time to figure out Lee Seng's whereabouts.

"Oh!" Keng looked up at Ritsuka. "What time is it?"

"Uhhh, almost 4pm. Why?" Ritsuka glanced at his watch.

"Can I borrow your phone? I need to call someone…" Keng groaned.

"Your friend?" Ritsuka asked. Keng nodded. Ritsuka handed him the phone as they popped out of the hall into the lunch room. Keng lifted the phone for Ritsuka to put his finger on it. Ritsuka unlocked it and Keng dialed a phone number he had randomly memorized and clicked call. The phone rang for a bit and then clicked.

"Hello? Who's this?" Calis's voice asked.

"Calis, it's me. Keng." Keng whispered.

"Huh? I can't hear you. Who are you?" Calis asked. Keng sighed and looked around.

"It's Keng! K-E-N-G!"

"Oh, Keng! Why're you calling me on a phone? Weren't we supposed to meet soon anyways at the designated area?" Calis asked.

"Yeah, but—"

"Lee." Ritsuka tapped. Keng ignored him, but Ritsuka continued to tap him.

"What?" Keng looked up. "Why are you—" Number Four stood in front of them with Number Three in tow.

"Hey." Scarlet waved at him. She looked over at Ritsuka and nodded at him, too. "Hope I'm not interrupting your call. I can wait."

"Oh, uh…" Keng gulped. "One moment." He turned, covering his mouth onto the phone. "Calis, I gotta go. The Numbers are here."

"What? I thought you were gonna—"

"Well, let's just meet at the place this evening like usual. I'll grab the phone from you, okay?" Keng told him.

"But, I gotta tell you —"

"Bye." Keng clicked the phone and turned back. Scarlet and Alex were making small talk with Ritsuka as Keng came back and handed the phone to him.

"Where's your phone?" Alex asked.

"Gone." Keng replied.

"We should get you a new one, then." Scarlet suggested.

"Why are you two here? Do you need something from me? I got a crap ton of homework to do." Keng groaned. Scarlet and Alex sighed, moving over to him. Ritsuka watched as the two Numbers stood in front of Keng. He stepped off to the side as Alex pointed behind him.

"The Numbers wanna see you. Well, the Creator wants to see you." Alex told him.

'Ugh, crap. This isn't the best time!' Keng thought to himself.

"I just came back from a check up yesterday. What more does he want?" Keng asked. The two raised their eyebrows.

"We heard about the police report but nobody was supposed to come for you. A messenger was sent out to tell you about today's meeting. Did that not happen?" Scarlet asked.

"No…" Keng glanced at Ritsuka who was on his phone. Keng's eyes went back to Scarlet and Alex. He didn't want to be with any of the Numbers. One of them would know he wasn't Lee Seng. "I got taken by a woman who claimed she was a bodyguard of the Creator's. Eliza Queenie."

For a moment, Keng thought he saw Scarlet and Alex's surprised faces. He blinked and they were looking at him the same. 'Am I seeing things?' Keng wondered.

"Dunno who that is, but it wasn't one of our men. A little birdie should've told you all you needed to know. You've even met him yesterday. He's the guy who called the police for you." Scarlet motioned at him.

"Oh." Keng nodded, slowly. "Him? He was the… Messenger?"

"Yeah. He told us you weren't there when he came for you. He managed to catch your friends and they said you left with a large group of guards… Who would've done such a thing?" Scarlet asked, tapping her chin. "Enough with that, you gotta meeting with us. Let's go."

Scarlet and Alex flanked him, pushing him forward as Ritsuka looked up. "You're going with them?" Ritsuka asked. Keng looked at Scarlet, who was already nodding.

"Gotta steal your friend for a bit. It won't take too long if you wanna meet him over at the First Year building." Scarlet told him.

"Sure thing, Number Four. I'll tell my friends that he's going with you guys." Ritsuka nodded. "See you later, Lee Seng."

"Ritsuka!" Keng hissed quietly. His eyes raised as Ritsuka gave a neutral look to him. "Help me!" Keng mouthed.

"It'll only be for a short time." Ritsuka waved. "Be a good boy. Don't make trouble. You need to rest." Keng and the two Numbers moved to the front exit. Students watched as they ushered him towards an idling car waiting for them. Alex opened the back seat door and waved Keng in.

"Yo!" Carter turned and waved from the driver's seat.

'Crap…!' Keng groaned. 'What the hell is happening?!?'