The Academy, Part 6

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The Academy

Part 6: A Wish

"Well, that was weird," Cassie said as the group headed toward the exit of the gym. "Why give us such a cryptic answer?"

"Indeed," Emily agreed. "Why say 'what you're looking for' like it's an object, and then give a description that sounds rather like a person?"
"I think she knows the whole story, but didn't want to spare the time to tell it," Astra said. "Trust me—I've got an instinct for when someone's annoyed."

"Well, she was still helpful!" the wolf-girl said. "Once we go to the library, we can sort this whole thing out."

They exited the doors of the gym, and then everyone, simultaneously, paused as if uncertain which direction to go. It was normal for Emily to not know where to go, but now all three of the girls who'd been leading her from one place to another had stopped, too.

"I assume..at least one of you knows which way the library is?" she asked. Back at her home school, the library had been built back when books were the only way to get most important information, so it was gigantic, and placed very centrally in the campus, to the point that directions to a lot of other buildings tended to use it as a reference. Beyond the obvious bookshelves, and check-out counters it had lots of study rooms, a couple of big rooms for presentations, a computer and/or printing lab for students to use, and various other related services and resources had also wound up being located inside. However, it seemed that The Academy's history was a bit different.

"No clue~," Astra answered first.

"Uhhmm..heheh..?" Halley seemed to really be thinking about it, but she clearly had no idea either.

"I could swear I was given a tour of every building on campus after my interview," Cassie said, crossing her arms and folding her ears back as she tried to think.

"Well, then—there must be a campus map somewhere? Posted on a sign, or online?" Emily suggested, getting her own phone out. It was still a little strange to find herself so instinctively reaching for her purse instead of a pocket.

"The cleaning club's never been asked to clean the library up? Dust the shelves or something?" Astra asked the catgirl.

"Nnnot that I can think of. Or—I haven't at least, which, it'd be a pretty big coincidence for it to be just me for so many years."

"Guess we better be ready for a pretty dusty place, then," Halley said.

"Hmm..." The campus map Emily was able to find...didn't list a library. It had the cafeteria, the gym, the dorms, and plenty of other buildings. She'd referred to this very map in preparation for the trip to the conference, and now recognized the dorms, the cafeteria, the gym, and the building where most of the talks were to be held. There was a "study building" which was also listed as having computer labs and other functions that she would usually associate with a library, but...

"Nothing that says 'library' on this map at all. But..." Turning the phone where the others could see it, she pointed at one small building sitting in an out-of-the-way corner of campus. "This building isn't labeled as anything. Ordinarily I would think that was for some sort of maintenance purpose, but then Cassie would know about it."

"Aand I've never been there," the catgirl agreed.

"Aha! Great work, Emily!" Halley said excitedly. "That must be it! Or, at least, a new place to explore anyhow!"

"Worth a shot," Cassie said, shrugging.

"Well, lookit that," Halley said, pointing at the sign above the building's door. "Says 'library', plain as day. Wonder why it don't say that on the map."
"Never mind that, let's go inside!" Cassie said, hurrying toward the door. "I've still got work to do before supper, and this little curiosity trip has taken far longer than it should've already!" The wolf-girl was about to say something, and—seeming to sense it—the catgirl whirled to point at her with a severe glare on her face. "Don't you dare!"

"Pffheheh..." Guessing at their simultaneous thought regarding curiosity and cat(girl)s, Emily giggled quietly before following Astra inside.

"Welp..this is a library alright," Astra commented, looking around. "Nobody at the front desk—guess borrowing books is on the 'honor system'?"

"There's a sign-in," Emily pointed out. "Anyway, I suppose a place like this could enforce returning books by magic if it wanted."

"Maybe I'll test that out later~," the Kitsune commented.

"Astra, focus!" Cassie said. "We're looking for a person here, right? Or at least something that can be short and brown-haired."
"So: Not a book," Emily said. "Now listen you three—even though there don't seem to be too many people here, this is a library. So, please, try to keep it down?" Halley and Cassie nodded, and then the catgirl reached up to grab and lightly tug on one of Astra's ears until she did the same. With that, they split up to look for their mystery person.

Peeking through the shelves, Emily noticed some wooden stools and desks scattered around here and there. There were also rolling ladders attached to each of the taller bookshelves to allow access to the upper shelves. At one point she did stumble upon someone, a girl hunched over one of those tables with twenty or so pieces of notebook paper with messy handwriting all over them, some books behind the papers, currently busy scribbling even more of that same handwriting onto another piece of paper. But she was blond and looked to be on the tall side, so the redhead quietly went past behind her. If this place was so hard to find, then it was also a good place to do thinking in silence, away from both noise and prying eyes—and she had no intentions of bothering someone who wanted that.

Somehow, the four of them converged on the end of the very same aisle, Emily approaching from one bookshelf while the others appeared from behind the one on the other side. Turning to look, all of them could see the same thing. It was a short girl in a school uniform: White top with a red ribbon tied around the collar, short black skirt, leggings only up to her knees. And she had gorgeous, deep brown hair coming down to nearly the hem of that skirt. She was most of the way up one of the shelf-ladders, carefully placing a book into the top shelf.

The four of them exchanged a look: This had to be the right person...right? They came closer, but she seemed too intently focused on reshelving a few more books near the top to notice them. "Um, excuse us," Emily said quietly to get her attention.
"Oh?" She turning her head to one side and down to face them. "Hello there~, sorry I didn't notice you earlier," she said, her voice high, cute, and friendly. She nimbly scrambled down the ladder to floor level, hopping past the last couple of steps so her shoes hit the floor with a light clop sound, and turned to face them. "Not too many people visit the library this time of day, soo, it's when I usually do the stocking. Ah—I'm the librarian, if that's not clear 'nuff," she added with a quick nod. Now that her feet were on the same floor, it was easy to see that her height was about midway between Cassie's and Halley's.

"Nice to meet you," Emily said—even though the girl hadn't actually introduced herself yet. "I'm Emily; I..just first came to The Academy today."
"I imagine it was quite the shock," the librarian said with a friendly nod. "Always is, it seems. And your friends?"

"We're not—!" Cassie started (a bit too loud), and cut off into a soft "mrowh!" when Astra's tail curled across hers in an obviously intentional interruption.
"I'm Astra," the fox-girl offered, "This is Cassie and Halley. Not that that's any of our real names, but I suppose you know all about that, miss—?"

"Ohh, dear, where are my manners?" the librarian said. "Leah." She stepped just close enough to offer Emily a hand to shake, so she reciprocated. The handshake was gentle and friendly, much like everything else about the girl. Really, Emily was having a hard time thinking of anything remarkable about her at all. She just seemed like a nice, ordinary girl—their collective overall circumstances notwithstanding. "Soo, to what do I owe the visit?"

"Well—Sean said...or at least suggested, that you might know something we were wondering about," Emily said. "The...effect this place has, on anyone who comes to visit. For this kind of physical transformation, and especially the accompanying mental effects, some powerful magic is involved. And it has an apparent sense of purpose to it, and the rules appear to be able to change somewhat, which suggests a conscious agent is involved. It...to be honest, it makes me nervous to be under the thumb of a power like that and not really know its motivations for certain."

"The rest of us are just curious," Halley added helpfully.

"I see..." Leah nodded slowly. "Well, you're quite a brilliant girl, aren't you, Emily?" she said with a genuine, bright smile. "What's your main area of study, if you've got one?"

"Err, mathematics. I, came here originally to attend a conference starting tomorrow."
"Ahh, right," she nodded, "I remember helping process the application forms for that. Now let's see..I think the best way to answer your concerns is with a story. Perhaps you'd all like to sit down first?" she offered, gesturing to follow her as she headed toward one of the unoccupied desks.

"Now then..." Leah softly cleared her throat. "Once upon a time..."

---

There was an old archaeologist. Retired, in fact. He had made all sorts of important discoveries, and while archaeology wasn't a glamorous field like physics or computer science that could make people celebrities, he was well-known and respected among his peers. He'd been a professor for quite some time, seeing many generations of students, and was now an emeritus. While he wasn't so involved in active research anymore, he continued to watch the progress of his field—and of other fields—with a keen interest.

Something that had embittered the man back when he was first starting out was a sense of elitism that pervaded his field. The old, established archaeologists were always in charge, telling everyone else what to do. They were not just the mentors, but the gatekeepers for anyone else who wanted to make new discoveries or theories. Certainly, to some extent, it had to be this way—the people who knew what they were doing had not merely a right, but a responsibility to guide the next generation toward doing things the correct way. But the sense of power, authority, and entitlement that some of the man's superiors had clearly developed disgusted him. He even witnessed the outright abuse of that power, to terrible ends. People got hurt, and the field of study suffered as a whole! And so, he paid his dues, sucking up to the ones in charge, only so that he could later shoot down their most ridiculous theories, and in some cases expose their most heinous abuses, once he himself was well-respected. And that was just what he had done.

Now that he was retired, and had a curious ear to the ground on a number of other subjects...even though he didn't understand much of the material in those subjects, he quickly learned that the elitism that plagued his field was far from unique to it. Those in charge, with not necessarily knowledge but primarily the reputation of having knowledge, were often all too happy to lord it over the next generation. Promising young talent that could've greatly advanced the field would vanish away because of such behavior; he'd seen it happening himself, even when he was doing his best to stop it. This would have just been one of the things he rattled on about to his younger peers and those who had replaced him, one subject of conversation among many that the old archaeologist could bring up at the occasional formal dinners, if not for what happened near the end...or rather, what otherwise would have been the end of his life.

While he still had the mobility to do so, the old man occasionally volunteered to properly clean, prepare, and catalog new objects. Not the big, important things that might get press or be presented at museums, but a few droplets of the sea of miscellanea that, despite their historical importance, nobody had the time quite yet to look into in great detail. It was in this capacity that the old man happened upon a small, ancient oil lamp—not functional according the notes it came with—and, as usual, set to carefully cleaning it off with a cloth.

Anyone who's read enough fantastical stories might be able to guess what happened next. One moment he was running cloth carefully across the lamp with a gloved hand, the next smoke was pouring out of its opening as though it were lit—no, far more smoke than that! And the smoke didn't disseminate through the air like it should have, didn't set off the building's smoke alarm—no, instead it insisted on illogically forming itself into the shape of a tall, handsome young man with a dark complexion, dressed in ancient-Arabian-styled garb. And the strange smoke-made man looked positively elated to be impossibly standing there in front of the old man.

"Mortal!" He spread his arms out wide. "Congratulations, you have freed me! The great Artoszatsar, from my long imprisonment!"

The retired archaeologist was still a little too deep in shock to respond. Actually, he was thinking that his latest set of medications might be interacting in a way that made him hallucinate, and so he was trying to keep his breath steady and hoping he wasn't about to have a heart attack before this episode was over.

The strange man dropped his arms to the side. "Well—your surprise is only understandable! How could such a great being as I be trapped in a humble lamp like that? How is it that I'm speaking the same language as you, despite the fact that I was stuck in there several centuries before it was even invented? Never mind that—the powers of a Djinn are as mysterious as they are incredible!"

"Arto..szatsar, was it?" the old man said after a long pause. "You're real?"
"Heh-hey, as real as you are!" he said, very gently punching his emancipator's shoulder. Since the old man could feel that, he at least ruled out this being a purely visual/auditory hallucination. "Now, I'm sure you're aware of the legends. Djinn such as myself are well-known for granting wishes, and I'm no exception! My overflowing gratitude at your freeing me requires that I do so, in fact! But we are no less well known for ensuring the results of granted wishes are interesting!"

"Uh..yes, of course."

"So, as another result of my overflowing gratitude, I will do you a favor, my friend! Rather than having you wonder what the catch is, I will tell you up front! In fact, I intend to grant two of your wishes. However!" He put up an index finger dramatically. "You must tell them both to me first! For I will grant both wishes with the very same magical act! Said act will grant the spirit of your wishes, but I will also be looking for a way to make it as entertaining for me as possible! Is that clear enough?"

"Er...yes, certainly."
"Then, I will grant you a moment without distraction to consider your wishes carefully!" he announced, and then crossed his arms and stayed silent until the old man's response.

Assuming that this was real—even as he accepted that he might very well just be dreaming right now—the old man thought about what he might wish for for a long moment before reaching a conclusion. Perhaps this genie would even find these wishes entertaining without too much modification.

"All right then, since there's two wishes—I'll make one for myself, and one for the rest of the world," he said.
"I like the sound of this already!" Artoszatsar said encouragingly.

"For myself—I'd like to be young and healthy again, full of pep, able to learn and think and move around like I used to."
"Understandable! Mortal life looks like such a pain!" the genie said. "But I admit that would be tragically boring to me all by itself!"

The archaeologist nodded. "For the world, I wish for...a place, a peaceful place of learning, freed from the restrictions of authority, status, and power. A place where everyone is equal—everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student—and learning from others, the free and open exchange of ideas, is paramount. That's my earnest wish. I hope it's not too complicated, but I suppose there's plenty of room for interpretation in just how you accomplish that."

"Indeed there is—indeed! Now that's an entertaining wish! A real challenge, even! Hmm..."

Putting his hand under his chin, Artoszatsar considered the two wishes for a long moment. "To be young again...peaceful...and, everyone is a student..." He lifted the hand off his chin a moment later, declaring: "Aha, I've got it! You'll positively love this, I guarantee it!" Then the Djinn reached that hand forward and snapped, the sound of it seeming to audibly echo and visibly ripple out from the point where his thumb and middle finger had slid across each other. This rippling appeared to warp the space around them, changing the pair's surroundings into the interior of an unfamiliar library. It would later become clear that this was the two of them changing locations, not the genie altering their original location in any way besides the two's removal.

"Here we are, your 'place'!" Artoszatsar announced dramatically. "This is but one of many buildings in this 'place', which I invite you to explore! And you'll find your eternal youth coming along shortly! So—enjoy!" With that, the Djinn erupted into the smoke that seemed to have originally formed him, and it flew away in all directions, making its way out to the doors and windows of the building and seemingly going straight out through them, irrespective of how open or closed they happened to be.

With the strange supernatural entity gone, he felt as though he was standing in an ordinary, if deserted, library. The sense of unreality from the presence of a literal genie was in one sense gone, but the fact that he was in this place rather than the one he'd been a moment earlier still stood as proof that it had really happened. While trying to process this, it also occurred to him that Artoszatsar had said 'eternal youth', which was seemingly more generous than what he'd asked for; he'd wished to be young just once more, not indefinitely. But then, being young again would be somewhat soured when he eventually aged back to how old he was now, so perhaps the intent was to fully grant 'the spirit' of the wish.

A strange feeling brought the old archaeologist out of this train of thought. It was a very faint tingling, an almost electric feeling racing around across his skin that made him shudder just slightly. This sensation made him feel slightly...excited; he could feel his heartrate picking up slightly from it. He felt awfully stiff all of a sudden, and found himself reaching his arms up and stretching, arching his back slightly. There were a few pops, and a warmth spread through him as the aches and soreness of age vanished away. Next, he felt the hair atop his head shifting around slightly, and when he reached a hand up to brush through it, he found it noticeably softer and thicker than a moment before, the thinning toward baldness that it had done in recent years completely undone. The excitement he was feeling picked up a little more as understood: He really was getting younger!

Looking down, picking at his clothes and twisting his body around, he could see most every sign of age disappearing from his form. He rubbed a hand across his face where he was used to finding uneven wrinkles, and they were only briefly, faintly present, then gone and replaced by fresh, young skin the next time his hand brushed across. "H-hahah..this is real? Unbelievable!" he said. No, he had to be dreaming—but then why did everything seem so largely coherent? And why could he physically feel it? While he had his hand up near his face, he even tried pinching his cheek pretty hard—"Ow!"—and it hurt, but it didn't wake him. By now, he felt physically like he had in his early twenties, if not even better—more full of energy than was certain he'd ever been before! "Th-this is amazing! How..?"

The now-young man's question was interrupted by a sudden, second wave of tingling. This one was noticeably stronger than before, but no less electric, causing him to shudder somewhat violently for a second. He worried: Was it not over? Was he—going to be younger than this? He hadn't exactly specified that he still wanted to be an adult, and it would be characteristically mean for the wish to result in him being permanently stuck at the age of ten. But the genie had said he'd 'enjoy' this, and surely understood the intent of the wish...

The tingling seemed to fade all but his scalp for a moment, growing a bit stronger there, and suddenly he felt the just-thickened hair growing rapidly longer and longer. There were bangs spreading out along his forehead, several locks playing their way down past his ears to his cheeks, and he felt even longer tresses landing across his shoulder, then his upper back, then his lower back. Twisting around, he could see the cape of voluminous, deep brown hair spreading out behind him, and even caught it in the act of gaining some three or four more inches of length! "Huh, this...? My hair..?" he mumbled confusedly, reaching a hand up to brush and twirl some of it between his fingers. It was curious; the soft locks felt rather nice between his fingers, and he felt strangely..proud of how it looked? Even though, of course, it had to look strange—besides the fact that he hadn't made it look that way in the first place.

Seemingly done with his scalp, the tingling now raced directly down his spine, making him shudder once more. This was followed immediately by a different sensation spreading out from there to encompass his entire body, a sort of inward pressure that started out weak but quickly grew stronger. "Aa~aah..?" His perspective noticeably sank as the books and shelves all around seemed to rise up around him. "Wh, whaa~at's..?" His voice began to sound..smaller, somehow, as its pitch rose with each utterance it made.

Somehow, he didn't feel like he was really getting younger—and yet he was definitely shrinking! He looked down as he felt his shirt slipping across his shoulder, and found himself slimmer than before, his frame visibly narrowing inward. "Mm~mmngh..?" His shoulders, his waist, his arms and legs were all getting thinner and smaller; reaching a hand up toward his face, he could see it shrinking too, the fingers becoming shorter, smaller, and more delicate.

"I-I'm, mm~mmnhh..?" His voice sounded like a young boy's by this point. The tingling he'd thought gone before seemed to have reappeared down between his legs, and his just-youthened manhood seemed rather..stimulated by this sensation, making his heartbeat pick up once again and his face heat up with a blush. "Mnn~nh, aah, aa~ah..!" Even as the pressure shrinking the rest of him eased off, he found the tingling giving way to a strange tugging, slipping sensation down there—and now that was what was shrinking.

His shirt's collar now showed off most of his left shoulder, and its hem was down to his thighs, which was perhaps just as well since his pants and underwear had both abandoned him, each one slipping off in turn during the rapid shrinking a moment ago. The legs down there, now that he was looking, seemed so very slender and soft, every last trace of body hair gone from them; the neckline his oversized shirt's collar showed off was no different. It was like..it was just like a young girl trying to wear a much taller man's clothing. Because...!
"Aah, aa~aah..!" The stimulation between his legs seemed to only intensify as the thing that felt it became even smaller. His voice lilted up into a high, cute soprano tone—a girl's voice for certain—and he felt he understood at least a little bit of the genie's way of making this wish of his interesting. "Aah, mmmMMMMNNn~nnh..!" It was tugging away; he didn't have much longer to be male. But—he found that he really didn't mind that so much. After all, he'd lived a pretty full life as a man; why not see what the other side had to offer? Especially when..he was going to wind up so very cute!

This was the very last thing he thought as a man—how cute he was about to be—and then with one final tug, she found her sex fully and completely changed. Immediately she was assaulted with a sharp, intense wave of feminine pleasure, and the girliest sounds possible emerged from her mouth: "Aah—AAH—aAA~AAAA~AAAHHH~HNNNnnnh...!" Her little legs wriggled together as her thighs gently puffed out, growing thick and shapely. Then her hips pushed their way out to spread the top of her legs apart, her bottom growing ever so slightly rounder to grant her a nice, girlish figure.

"Haa~Aahh, hff, mnn~ngh..!" She continued to squirm as the fuzzy feeling between her legs intensified again, a second wave hitting her just as her chest tingled sharply, then pushed itself forward, quickly budding into a pair of small, girly breasts. She gasped, then let out another helpless "Aaa~AAHHnnn..!" as those small breasts bloomed forward, growing into a respectable pair of globes—not especially huge, but big enough to match her shrunken size and make her a fully-grown, adult woman.

"Hh, hff...mmmn~nnh.." The new girl panted and let out a soft sound, thoroughly enjoying the afterglow of that sudden burst of pleasure. She could feel her shirt shuffling around across her body, the underwear and pants that had abandoned her suddenly pulling themselves up her legs again only to shift and shuffle around once they got there. In no time at all, she found herself dressed in a girl's school uniform: White shirt tucked into a short dark skirt, a bra and a pair of panties beneath them. And she felt strangely certain..that her name was Leah.

While it certainly hadn't been her name before, she thought: It's cute! It definitely had a nice ring to it. She...couldn't quite remember what her name used to be, actually, now that she thought of it; but as an understanding of where she was began to fill her mind, she already decided that she didn't really need that old name anyway. It was time for a fresh start!

"...Standing there in the library, the old man found himself becoming young again. At first, he found himself very much like he'd been in his early twenties, but that only lasted a brief moment. Then he suddenly found himself shrinking and changing, and before he knew it he'd become a young girl instead—a cute girl, with long brown hair, dressed in a school uniform. She'd become the first student of The Academy."

"And...I suppose that'd be you?" Emily asked.
"Mm-hm," Leah nodded. "Although...if any of you convey this story to other curious students, I'd appreciate if you left out those last few, identifying details."

"So, basically," Cassie said, "the reason for this whole Academy and everything is just, 'a genie did it'!?"

"Easy there~," Astra said, reaching across to gently rub the catgirl's ears. Over her softly meowing, the fox-girl continued: "There are plenty of things you could explain as 'a Kitsune did it', but knowing the intent helps still helps put things into context. Or, in this case, what wishes were being granted."

"Indeed," Leah nodded. "I've since come to understand a little more about the mechanisms which the Djinn set in place here to grant those wishes. Basically, The Academy is what some who study magic call an 'enchanted land', a nexus of self-sustaining magic kept up by both the natural energy of the trees and such encircling it, plus a certain amount of magical energy 'donated' by each resident. And there are a set of rules determining the magic's effects on the land, the buildings, and anyone entering or leaving the place."

"From the way you talk, I guess you don't have much say in those rules?" Halley asked.

The librarian gently shook her head. "It would defeat the purpose for me to have any real power. I do have a slightly deeper connection to The Academy due to it being 'my wish' that it grants, but nothing that I could leverage for authority over others. That said, there are essentially two categories of rules here—the immalleable, and the malleable."

Cassie headtilted, one of her ears pointing sideways. "Mally-what?"

"Ah, sorry—that is, some rules can be changed, and others cannot. Certain..'requests' can be made of the magic itself, including changing the former. That is why, for example, pictures and video from here can now be shared with the outside world without interference. It had become a popular request on The Academy's website among attending students, and with the dropping of the Veil, that rule hardly seemed necessary—so I gathered signatures and submitted a form requesting that they be allowed."

"Seems like it wouldn't be all that hard to figure out who certain people are with that, though," Astra said. "Actually—Cassie and I know exactly who each other are whether we're on campus or not."
"You must have left together, or entered together, right?" Leah asked. "That's how things are meant to work. Those rules are mainly there to encourage everyone to think of each other as equal. I believe this was the right decision—not only would enforcing overly stringent identity-obscuring rules be too much of a strain on The Academy's magic itself, it would just lead to people looking for loopholes, which might lead to them breaking everything. As it stands, it's enough for everyone to understand the purpose of those rules and try to work within their spirit. It does help that this place also weights people's minds slightly to encourage thinking of ourselves as female students, and to prefer collaborative efforts slightly more than otherwise."

"So, this magic..it does alter people's minds," Emily said apprehensively.
"Well—as I said, it's a slight weighting factor; it's nothing one couldn't resist, and it pulls back rather than pushing harder if it's resisted for a long while. There's occasionally a very strong-willed student who mostly thinks of herself as a boy throughout her stay here. But—more to the point—the effect leaves folks' personalities and motivations fully intact, and disappears entirely as soon as one leaves."

"So—hangon—back up a sec," the wolf-girl interrupted. "You said you submitted a form? As in, to this place's magic?"

"Right," she nodded. "There are a number of forms available to handle various standard requests, for example, hiring someone to a new position," she said, gesturing lightly Cassie's way. "Plus a 'non-standard request' form. Anyone who wants to ask The Academy for something just puts one of those forms in the 'administration' mailbox. I have some intrinsic knowledge of how best to fill them out—again, because this place came from 'my wish'—and I don't mind using said knowledge to help out, but anyone can."

"Could you..is there a way to ask if I can keep this body everywhere? Without havin' to go on field trips or anything?" Halley asked.

"Yes, although you have to permanently give up your entire previous identity for that—name, appearance and all," Leah replied. "The Academy then adds a new last name to your 'student name', and makes your student form also your default one. Sean was actually the first person to want something like that; after the request to permanently keep her new look went through, the 'last name request form' appeared as a new standard one."

"Well, that's no trouble for me," the wolf-girl said, "I was dying of cancer before coming here, and faked my death so no one would come looking besides. Sooo...would ya mind helping me out with that?"

"Not at all~," Leah said with a friendly smile.

"First, however, do any of you have any other questions I can help you with?"
"Oh! Where's the money I get paid for doing my job come from?" Cassie asked.
"Well, The Academy has a mailing address and a bank account out in the 'real world', and some 'alumni' started donating to it a couple of decades ago," Leah shrugged. "There's no way to directly access that money, but a short while after the money started coming in, some new forms appeared for requesting contract work, applying for long-term employment, creating new job positions, etcetera. I put in one myself not long after they appeared, since I was already working as a librarian and thought getting a little pocket change for it wouldn't hurt."

"I think that is everything," Emily said. "The thought that an individual being can have the power to just..make a place like this with the snap of a finger still disturbs me somewhat, but at least I understand The Academy itself well enough to stay here...somewhat comfortably for the duration of the conference."
"Glad to hear it," Leah said. "Hope you enjoy your stay~!"

---

And there we have it: An explanation for The Academy's existence, as silly as it is. The main "conflict" of the story is resolved at this point, but we're not quite through. I have one more part to finish things off with a proper denouement. After that, this story will be fully complete! Now, I'm not sure whether or not I'll revisit The Academy as a setting in the future; it's certainly an established location in the same universe most of my captions take place in, so it wouldn't be out of the question for a caption to take place there, or another story to mention it off to the side. Regardless, I'm satisfied with the story I've written, and happy to have something I can call fully complete at the same time as it comes out, despite its length. The total size of this story (in the document editor that I typically use) comes out to exactly 45 pages, which is an appreciable length for a seven-part short story, I guess?