The morning mist swirled through the garden balcony outside their shared dorm, where an acoustic hum played like a heartbeat muffled behind the glass. Lyra stood by the window, VIVA's soft chime ringing in her mind like a warm breeze.
"Your Harmony Score has stagnated," the AI said. "The professors are observing. The next evaluation will determine whether you're progressing… or merely surviving."
Inside, the mood was unraveling.
Kai sat on the couch with his guitar across his knees, not playing, not tuning—just staring. The quiet tension in his jaw was louder than any chord.
Rin paced like a caged thunderstorm, her hair up in a chaotic knot, drumsticks spinning in agitated loops between her fingers.
"This isn't working," she muttered. "We can't keep losing like this. Our rhythm is off. Everyone's out of sync."
"We just started," Lyra said, her voice as gentle as she could make it. "It takes time to build—"
"Time?" Rin stopped cold. "You know what time is in this place? A ticking clock over your head! If we don't prove ourselves fast, we'll be expelled—or worse! Erased! You think I'm gonna let some fancy magic school toss me out again?"
Kai stood slowly. "Then leave."
The words landed like a cymbal crash. Rin blinked.
"I didn't mean—" she started.
"I'm done pretending this is going anywhere. I joined because I thought… I don't know." He looked at Lyra, the weight in his eyes unspoken. "I thought maybe your voice was different. But a nice voice doesn't make a real band."
"Kai," she said, heart pounding. "Wait—"
But he was already walking out.
The door shut like a final chord.
Rin slammed her sticks onto the floor. "Damn it! I didn't—He didn't—" She dropped onto the arm of the couch and buried her face in her hands. "This place messes with you."
Yuu hadn't spoken once. He stood by the corner window, hands in his pockets, face unreadable as always. When he turned, it was to Lyra, not Rin.
"We need structure," he said softly. "We need songs that suit us. Not covers. Not improv. Arrangements."
Lyra swallowed hard. "Right…"
"Someone has to be the backbone," Yuu added. "That's you."
She nodded slowly. "I'll… I'll start working on something original."
Yuu nodded once and left to practice on his own.
Rin remained silent, knees pulled to her chest now, chin resting there.
"Don't let him quit," she said. "I know Kai's annoying, but without him… the sound's hollow."
"I won't," Lyra whispered.
That night, long after the others had gone to sleep or disappeared into their own corners of the campus, Lyra sat on her bed with her notebook open and VIVA glowing softly above it.
"I want to write a song," she said.
"Then let's begin," VIVA answered gently.
"But I don't want it to be just pretty. I want it to mean something."
"Do you want pain?" VIVA asked. "Redemption? Hope?"
"All of it," she said, closing her eyes. "I want the world to hear the pieces of me that cracked and kept singing anyway."
She began to hum.
VIVA analyzed the melody, giving soft suggestions, adjusting the chord flow, refining transitions—but never intruding. Never overwriting.
Her voice wove together the memory of the exam scandal, the sting of betrayal, the nights alone, the door glowing in the alley… and the fragile, chaotic warmth of the people she'd begun to love in this place.
She didn't know how long she wrote. Hours. Maybe all night.
But when she looked down, the paper in her lap wasn't just full of lyrics.
It was hers.
The first original song of Soul Sync.
And if she could just get them back in one room… they might just survive this place.
END OF CHAPTER 13