Kira!!★

Read my carrd right here:https://kirakirarinrin.carrd.co/ before following please!!! thanks. Just some simping professional,Call me Kira|22|She|They|He|Agender|1,61| Ensemble Stars|Idol things|Music| Elsword|Hypmic| Br|Homestuck.

[kirarinlovesidols]

Oh uh, some ppl actually read what i write, huh.

So abt that...i’ve tagged my things are “KirarinWritting” now so it should be easier to find.

[i-will-write]

how i sleep knowing i write shitty fiction but at least don’t use chatgpt

[kirarinlovesidols]

Book 1 chapter 3.

Taglist: @coffee-or-hot-cocoa , @m-majoko , @ghostlysyntaxed , @justanormiewhoreads

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You swore you would be able to hear a pin drop in this awful silence.

Just Ace staring at Riddle trying to come up with some excuse but to no avail and the housewarden himself, arms crossed, uniform perfectly ironed and spotless, a terrifying smile and eyes that glared daggers at your classmate.

This is such a nightmare, what is one supposed to do in this situation?

“A-Ace, apologi-” You were about to tell him to apologize when Cater tried to somehow lighten up the mood or divert the attention to him at least.

“Hey, Riddle! What's shakin', pal? You're lookin' adorbs, as always!” Holding his phone as if trying to take a picture of the person he called “adorbs” the ginger immediately regretted even saying anything.

“Hmph. Cater, keep running that mouth and you'll lose it - along with the rest of your head.” The boy called Riddle said with no hesitation.

He was scary.

You’ll add living in ramshackle instead of heartslabyul in your list of things to be grateful for.

“Sorry, sorry! My bad!” Cater immediately backpaled back to his seat looking like a kicked dog.

“Hm? ain’t this the rule-crazed guy that collared Ace?” Grim said without a care in the world.

At that you caught him by the scruff bringing the cat closer to yourself, of course he struggled and tried to claw you but due to the angle, couldn’t.

“I’m very sorry! he didn’t mean that.” Yep, barely your first day as a prefect and your only student is already causing problems.

Riddle who seemed to ignore your presence until now looked at you with what you assumed to be judgement.

“I suggest you keep that monster on a leash, it’s bad enough he ruined the entrance ceremony.” With every word uttered by him you felt more and more like a child being scolded.

“Hey! who’re you calling monster, i’m the great Gr-” You covered his mouth.

“The headmage's habit of tolerating rulebreakers like you is going to send this entire campus spiraling into chaos one day.” He sighed, images of the first day flashing on his mind. “Those who break the rules should have their heads removed immediately, without exception.” You couldn’t help but flinch, watching as his eyes landed straight on Ace.

You knew that he was talking about his signature spell but…it didn’t sound like that. It sounded like he was ready to execute everyone on a whim.

It reminded you of the Queen of Hearts you heard about earlier, you wondered if he’s trying to somehow emulate her cruelty for whatever reason it may be.

“Dude, seriously? This guy looks like a wimp, but talks like a monster!” The older heartslabyul students looked at him dumbfounded. You yourself had to wonder if Ace had any capability of thinking before speaking.

However it seemed like the housewarden decided to ignore his rudeness, graciously continuing his warning.

“The headmage may have forgiven you, but if you break any further rules, I assure you I will not.” For someone with such a babyface Riddle sure had a mean glare.

“So, uh, listen, housewarden, sir... Any chance I could get you to remove this collar?” Really? out of nowhere like that? didn’t he agree to an apology? there’s no way this is going to work, Ace is way too reckless.

“I had intended to remove it once you'd taken an opportunity to reflect upon your crimes.

But I've not detected so much as a hint of remorse in the foolishness I've heard you spout today” — a smile made its way to his lips as if to mock his junior — “So I think I'll let you keep that for a while.”

Yeah ok you couldn’t even feel bad for Ace, he walked straight up into that one.

Before the younger ginger could protest you immediately used your other hand to keep him quiet, talking anymore would just make his “sentence” worse.

“Don't worry. The freshman curriculum is more focused on magical theory than practice.

And your inability to use magic will help prevent incidents along the lines of what happened yesterday.” Riddle seemed pretty content with that solution judging by his expression.

“Now, if you've finished your meal, you should quit gossiping and prepare for your next class.

Rule 271 is quite clear: "One must leave the table within fifteen minutes of completing their lunch." His smile morphed into an intimidating glare yet again.

You swore you could see a weird glint coming from his magical pen, no, calling it glint wouldn’t be very accurate, it was more like….for a split second the red jewel became duller, little black dots showing up as if dirt had wormed it’s way inside it.

“You DO understand what happens to rulebreakers, I trust?” You had your eyes glued to the magical apparatus waiting for it to happen again if you hallucinated out of stress;

Noticing your attention lied elsewhere your classmate removed your hand from his face.

He sighed  “More insane rules…” Of course it was only to say more stupid shit.

“I believe you mean to say, ‘Yes, Housewarden!’ “ Riddle’s voice rose in tone.

“Yes, Housewarden!” Even Deuce who had nothing to do with it was intimidated into saying what his upperclassman wanted.

You could only compare that exchange to the mahamatra’s training you saw a few times. They were just students not a military force, what was the point of being this strict? you truly couldn’t understand.

“Very well, then.” However Riddle seemed satisfied.

“Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them.” Trey said, trying to do some damage control.

After that you observed as he walked away mumbling about lemon tea and sugar cubes as if he didn’t utter atrocities that would make anyone do a double take if not filled in on the context.

You could half-heartedly hear as  Cater, Deuce and Grim had an exchange about how Riddle had issues and how scary he was, the black haired boy saying to not disrepect him.

Your attention was focused on the rest of the cafeteria, more specifically some other heartslabyul students who did all they could to either hide themselves or the violation of some rule.

“Is the housewarden gone?” 

One of them had emerged from what seemed to be under the table.

“I totally just broke rule 186, "Never eat a hamburger on Tuesday,I don't know what I would have done if he'd caught me! *Sigh*... I wish he wouldn't come here so we could at least eat lunch in peace.”

While another one could barely eat his meal, dark circles under his eyes and a tired expression.

Just what was happening in this dorm that would make people so afraid to the point of hiding and lying? this can’t be normal.

You felt a knot on your stomach.

But you didn’t know if it was because you felt bad for the heartslabyul students or if it was due to having to watch someone in power essentially abuse it, ignoring obvious cues of downfall.

History really was doomed to repeat itself, you thought.

“Riddle managed to secure the housewarden title before the end of his very first week at school.” You snapped back your attention to Trey’s voice.

“I know he can come off a bit harsh, but he's not a bad guy. Everything he does, he does because he thinks it'll improve the dorm.” He looked sad but there was something bothering you.

Why did it sound like he was making excuses for Riddle?

“Would a good guy go around putting collars on strangers' necks?” Grim asked, having skedaddled away from your grip and now sitting on the table again.

“The dorm won’t improve like this though…why is he so strict? At first I thought he was just diligent but I think this is too much.” You looked at your hands that happened to be curled into fists.

“This won’t end well for both sides, can’t you say anything Trey?” Your plea fell on deaf ears however as he looked to the side as if avoiding the topic entirely.

“I can’t.”

You wanted to ask why.

“Anyway, what's the deal with the collar? why does it just shut off magic like that?” Grim interjected.

You decided to let it go, maybe pressing on a matter that was none of your business wasn’t very polite.

“Hm? You're curious about Riddle's signature spell?” Cater asked, clearly doing his best to help with the topic change.

Your ear twitched at that.

“Signature spell?” You could guess what it was by the name alone but explanations were welcome.

“That means, like... It's a spell that only he can cast, right?” Deuce sounded unsure despite what he said making sense.

“I doubt he's the only person in the whole world...But yes, a signature spell is a magical ability that is, generally speaking, unique to its user, You'll learn about them in class soon enough.” Trey happily entertained your roommate’s question if it meant not having to speak about that again.

“Riddle's signature spell allows him to temporarily seal away the magic of another.

The spell is named…” — The older ginger got up from his seat and raised his hands as if to emulate a ghost — “Off With Your Head!” You grimaced at that poor choice of a name.

What’s the point of naming a spell only he can cast something so…brutal?

“Even the name is completely psycho!” You had to agree with your cat, it kinda made you uncomfortable even.

“To a mage, losing the ability to use magic is about as painful as losing your head completely, which is why all of us at Heartslabyul House try hard not to violate Riddle's rules.” Even with Cater’s reasoning you couldn’t quite get how that justified such a name.

“Isn’t that a bit dramatic? I'm sure you can still do a lot of things even without magic.” You shrugged.

“HUH?! That's easy for you to say! it isn’t you who currently has their magic being held hostage!” That one seemed to have ticked Ace off.

“Besides you already have a signature spell, right? those weird projections you just make pop out of nowhere?! so you wouldn’t understand my pain!” You nervously tried to calm your classmate down as Trey, your savior, interjected.

“I heard about that...how does your signature spell even work Rukkha?” At that your body froze as the attention was redirected to you.

“Oh yeahhhh! I totally wanna take a few pics of it, it seems like it would go viral easily!” Cater had his phone prepared and everything.

“Uhhh…it’s…i guess…you could call it a signature spell in a sense only i can use it…? but…uh..it’s hard to explain, i’ll tell you another time, haha!”  You prayed they wouldn’t press into it further.

You can’t just tell them you’re essentially a being whose powers come from a tree in another world.

Sensing your distress in an almost uncanny way Trey masterfully drew the attention back to himself.

“Anyway, as long as you are following the rules, Riddle isn't so scary.” He winked at you as if repaying you for not prying into his stuff earlier.

You sighed in relief and thanked the archons Ace and Deuce’s attention span was as short as a golden retriever’s puppy.

“Speaking of which - are you still not gonna let me into the dorm until I buy a tart, Cater?” Oh right! Ace had a point! there was still the thing with the tart to solve.

“Don't @ me, but... yeah. That's rule 53, so my hands are tied. Also, Riddle always looks forward to having the first slice of a tart.,so if you want him to forgive you, you had better bring a whole tart!” The older ginger could only shrug as he laid down the conditions.

“What happened to ‘We're all from the same dorm, let's try to get along?’ Throw me a bone here!” Ace cried in disappointment at his upperclassman’s betrayal.

“That's one thing. This is another.” Cater sounded strangely professional as if he had resigned to some dark fate.

“A whole tart has gotta be pretty expensive.” Deuce tried to count on his fingers only to give up mid-way.

“Seriously? I don't have that much money!” Ace looked at his wallet already fearing the worst.

“I wish I could help but…money is tight right now due to…” — you pointed to the feline in front of you, his face smug as if he wasn’t the entire reason you had no money to begin with.

“Then why not make one yourself? Trey made those three tarts by hand, after all.” What a great idea! that way you wouldn’t have to spend money!

“Well it would certainly be cheaper!” You said a bit excitedly.

You’ve never had the chance to bake before and in the brief period of time you had of freedom you only got to taste what Greater Lord Kusanali would make you sometimes.

“You made those tarts, Trey? That's incredible! That was like something you'd find at a bakery!” If anyone looked closer they would notice how Ace’s eyes seemed to shine as he remembered the taste of the baked good that started it all.

“Heh. I appreciate that. We do have most of the stuff you'd need, but...I'm afraid I'll need something from you in return.” Right, but of course.

Everytime you think any of these people are nice there always seems to be some kind of catch behind it. God, you gotta stop hoping.

“You're gonna charge me to make it?! What kinda racket...?!” The younger ginger got up from his chair, ready to start an argument.

“Nah, I wouldn't take money from a freshman! But Riddle wants a chestnut tart next, so I'm gonna need you to gather a ton of chestnuts.” 

Alright that seemed easy enough.

“Like that's any less of a hassle. But... fine. How many do you need?” Ace rolled his eyes, always needing to get the last say as always.

“Well, it's for the unbirthday party, so... Probably two or three hundred?” Trey did a little mental calculation before stating the obvious.

“Did you say HUNDRED?!” Deuce and Grim couldn’t quite grasp it, however.

“Why are you surprised? chestnuts are tiny, of course you would need a lot of them guys.” You said, shrugging your shoulders.

“And don’t forget they're all gonna need to be boiled, shelled, and pureed!” The vice–housewarden added to the boys’ chagrin.

“Alright, I'm gonna head ou– MYEOWW! C’MON!” As soon as your roommate jumped down from the table to try and run you picked him up by the scruff again with practiced speed. You’re starting to get the hang of it.

“You’re not going anywhere mister.” Yet again you sounded like a mother scolding a child.

“I'm leaving to- ah! Dammit! I thought that if I sneaked past I would be able to escape!” You also made sure to grab Deuce’s uniform jacket with your other hand to make sure he wouldn’t try.

“You’re also staying here.” You sighed.

It was tiring being the only responsible one amongst them.

“Nice one Rukkha! trying to run huh?! you heartless cowards!” Ace gave you thumbs up and you just nodded.

“Hold up! Haven't you ever heard that food tastes better if you make it with your friends? This'll be a memory to treasure! It could even be your chance to make a splash as a cooking blogger!” You had a feeling Cater just wanted to take pictures of the tart once it was done and gain uh…traction on “social media” as he called it.

“Don't tell Riddle, but chestnut tarts are at their tastiest when eaten right out of the oven. And the only people who get to experience that culinary privilege are the ones who make it.” Trey pitched and he made it harder to refuse, not like you were planning to.

“Well, when you put it that way... Come on, humans, let's do this!” Yep, as you thought, the mention of food was enough to get this stupid fucking cat motivated, you should’ve used it to your advantage earlier.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You then proceeded to go to the woods behind the campus in search for the main ingredient. You didn’t think this school could get any bigger but here we are! A smile graced your face as the gentle light of the sun passed through the leaves of the trees, highlighting the aesthetic of the place.

Soon enough you saw some chestnuts laying around, you assumed it was school property and ok to use, however they had spikes. You couldn’t exactly carry them with your bare hands so you, Ace, Deuce and Grim all decided to try and see if there were any kind of tools or supplies inside the botanical garden.

Again, the place was huge.

And gorgeous.

To make the search faster the suggestion of splitting came up and you agreed, albeit a little nervously due to not knowing a single thing about the structure of this place. What if you got lost?

Well…no use worrying about it, you had a task to complete and were nothing if not determined to fulfil it.

As you looked around for something that could help you noticed how your cat immediately honed in the ripe fruits they had all over the place.

“Grim, remember what we came here for? don’t go touching or eating anything, pleas- huh?”

You stopped mid-way as you felt like you just had stepped on something.

“Hey…” 

A literal shadow loomed over you as you felt your stomach drop.

Just what the hell did you do this time.

“You got some nerve steppin' on my tail and just walkin' away!” A quite deep voice made itself known that what you had stepped on was indeed a tail.

Fuck.

Did you somehow manage to get in trouble with a teacher or something, again?!?! god you just want to curl up in a corner and forget you exist.

“Are you the groundskeeper? Not sure you oughta be talkin' to students that way, pal.” You could hear Grim talk to the person, not helping your situation in the slightest.

“Ain't nothin' worse than bein' in the middle of a good nap and havin' some jerk step on your tail.” The person sounded obviously annoyed.

“Turn around and look at the person whose nap you interrupted at least.” With that a hand grabbed your shoulder and turned you around.

Your body flinched and your eyes darted around everywhere, slowly but surely making their way to the stranger’s face.

“Finally feel like acknowledging me, huh?”

Oh.

The person, the man…didn’t seem like a teacher at all.

You were scared for nothing.

He seemed to be a…lion demi-human.

His long dark brown hair cascaded over his shoulders, complemented by his emerald eyes, and dark skin.

He looked quite…striking?....was the word?

You found yourself taken aback slightly, enough to not notice his face coming dangerously closer.

“You... I know you. You're that herbivore from orientation who has unstable magic.”

What. the. fuck.

“W-Wha? don’t just smell people! That's rude!” Your cheeks got a bit pink from shame.

You didn’t smell bad, right? you showered today even if Ramshackle’s water was ice cold.

“Ugh…you smell like…grass and flowers…makes my nose itchy.” He sniffed as if trying to hold back a sneeze.

Well, you WERE born from a tree branch.

“Well I can't say it would be fun to hurt someone helpless like you and a girl nonetheless…so…gimme your furball, i’ll rough it up a bit until i feel better.”

At that Grim hid behind your legs.

“Ugh…what’s up with this guy?! when he looks at me, it makes every follicle of my fur stand on end…” 

What did you being a girl have to do with anything? confusion was what broke you from the weird “trance” you found yourself in.

“I’m sorry about stepping on your tail, I didn't quite pay attention when walking. But I can't just allow you to hurt Grim, I'm sorry.” You said hoping to god it would be enough to deter him from this nonsense.

The man didn’t like that though.

With a sour look on his face he extended his hand expecting you to plop your roommate on it.

“No one gets to stomp on my tail and just walk away without payin' the price. I'm in a bad mood on account of bein' woken up from my nap, too. That's gonna cost you a tooth.”

Just what was he on about? Sure you stepped on his tail and that must’ve hurt but there’s no reason to be this mad! the people here were way too volatile for their own good, it was genuinely exhausting to keep up with it.

“Is that really necessar-” A voice interrupted you before you could properly finish.

Both you and Leona turned around to see a smaller boy with dirty-blonde hair.

“Leona! There you are!” He seemed to be looking for the man who almost crushed Grim with his bare hands. You mentally thanked him for saving you from having to possibly watch a homicide or even worse, from having to cause problems.

“Huh?” Leona let out a disappointed sigh as his body language shifted to a way tamer form of annoyance.

“I knew I'd find you here! We got after-school classes today, remember?” The new person seemed to ignore you for whatever reason and kept telling his…you presume  upperclassman, off for being late to class. “Ugh... And now I've got this guy on my tail…” The lion demi-human’s tail swished quickly in a show of exasperation.

“Leona, you've already had to repeat one year. If you get held back again, we'll be in the same grade!” Y’know what? you felt like you were clearly either intruding or seeing something you weren’t supposed to see. You wondered if this is how people felt when you lectured your cat.

Taking advantage of their bickering you slowly tried to slip away but of course demi-human’s sharper instincts and abilities are hard to fool.

“Next time you lay foot in my territory, let’s say…i won’t be as nice.” Was all you heard him say before being dragged away by his junior.

You and Grim both got slight goosebumps from that threat.

All you wanted was to find some gardening tools and now you had possibly someone on your tail, no pun intended, ready to smite you for breathing wrong inside their territory wherever that might be.

“You really need to stop wandering around Grim....for your sake and mine.” “The great Grim does what he pleases.” Right, of  course.

You breathed in and out trying to exercise patience, something you knew Greater lord Kusanali was great at! you though? you had a lot to learn still.

“Yo, guys, we found baskets and tongs.” You hear Ace’s voice in the distance which meant you could finally leave this pleace.

“What in the world happened to you two?” Deuce asked, gesturing to the few stray hairs sticking out of your head, clearly out of stress.

“Uhm….” You looked to the sides thinking about how to explain what just transpired.

“Oh, right, the chestnuts! We gotta gather those chestnuts so I can get my tart on! We'll fill 'em in on the crazy groundskeeper while we forage.” It seemed like the boys’ presence reminded the cat of what you even came here to do in the first place.

“So…here’s what happened…” As you walked with them to the woods behind campus you described the situation with your roommate sometimes chiming in about how the lion guy was stupid and how he wishes he could teach him a lesson.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

“...And then he peaced out, just like that!” Grim said with conviction.

“Yeah, no way was that guy the groundskeeper.” You heard Ace say from behind you as the tree he was picking the chestnuts from was closer to yours.

“How do you even land yourself in these situations, dude? is that on purpose or what.” You swore you could hear  one of his eyebrows raising to question you.

“No, I SWEAR it’s not! I just wish I could get along with everybody! why is it so hard!”  You pinched the bridge of your nose in obvious despair.

“Ugh…don’t say something so cheesy like that out of nowhere…” Yeah, it’s best to ignore Ace’s allergy to feelings overall.

“Who was the guy anyway?” Asked Deuce from the tree on your left.

“Y'know, now that I think about it, he WAS wearin' the golden vest of that Pajama-clog dorm.” Grim put his paw to his “chin” in a thinking pose.

“Pajama... clog? You mean Savanaclaw?” Deuce corrected him before you could.

“You know….I'm starting to think that there's an awful lot of delinquents here at Night Raven…”  The “spade” boy looked around as if checking for danger.

And you couldn’t agree more.

You had a feeling the teenagers in this world had way too much penchant for chaos.

After what felt like 10 more minutes Ace chimed in.

“All right, that should be enough chestnuts. Let's get these baskets over to Trey!”

You nodded happily holding a basket full of the goodies. They were strangely cute! you think you like chestnuts.

“Myahaha! Now that we're all gassed up, it's destination: Flavortown, baby!” The cat seemed way too happy, running around as you walked back.

“Please help next time, Grim…” You doubt he actually would but c’mon, it’s only fair.

After that you went back to Trey as you planned but of course the pain was only starting. According to him you needed to peel the chestnuts and considering just how many you got you could swore you felt your blood pressure drop.

You couldn’t even use your powers to help you as moving small objects with it was way too hard and you didn’t feel like cheating, so in solidarity to your now magic-less friend, you used your arms and…why the fuck did you even agree to this.

At first it was all fine but after what you counted as 30 chestnuts your arms started hurting.

This was your lack of physical prowess showing, absolutely pathetic.

By the end of it all your fingers suffered some accidental cuts due to your clumsyness but also due to the spiky shells of the ingredients.

“There! Finally got 'em all pureed!” Ace sounded proud of himself but you? you rested your head on the counter, your dominant arm completely limp as you wanted to express properly how it felt after so much straining work.

“My arm is killing me…” At least your friend Deuce understood what it was like!

“Nice work. It'll be all the sweeter for your pain!” You felt the green haired teen rest his hand on your head, gently patting it.

His hand reminded you of the few times you got the same kind of affection from the Greater lord. It kinda made your heart ache, the touch was similar.

The greater lord always wished she could’ve done more for you, to free you perhaps. Which is why she would always sneak in and give you things, tell you stories.

You…missed her.

And yet you also resented her.

It was like a voice inside your head spoke up.

Your breathing caught in your throat but you were determined to not show what was going on inside your head.

No you don’t resent her, that’s….that can’t be right.

Anyway such thoughts don’t matter, you should really come back to reality by now.

“Oh! sorry! I usually do that to my younger siblings, you kinda reminded me of them.” He immediately pulled his hand back.

You lifted your head and straightened your back, smiling at him.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine.” You said quickly to make sure no one noticed any weird behavior on your part.

Still…Trey was sharp so you could see his mouth open and then close, probably thought against prying and you thanked him for it.

“ Man…The smell alone already has me droolin'...” Thank god Grim is the way he is.

Quick, take advantage and don’t make the mood heavy.

“Hmmm…! now that you mention it…yeah! it smells really nice!” Despite your intentions you genuinely thought the smell was great. 

“I’ve never had it so I'm excited to try!” You wondered just how it would taste! sweet? bitter? sour? salty? well it was a tart so it had to be sweet, surely.

“I just need to add butter and sugar to the chestnut paste, and a sensible splash of oyster sauce - that's my secret ingredient!”

Deuce, Ace, Grim and you all did a double take.

“Oyster sauce?!” All your voices in unison said incredulously.

“Yep. The umami of the oysters gives the cream a deep, savory flavor.” You all watched stupified as he grabbed a bottle  from the cabinet and put it on the counter.

“I use this one here: Walrus-brand Young Oyster Sauce.All the best bakers use it in their tarts.” Your eyes went to his face and to the cartoon Walrus on the bottle then to his face again and back to the bottl- yeah we get it.

“Really? But isn't oyster sauce like, super salty?” Deuce questioned in obvious confusion.

“Some folks put chocolate into curry, don't they? Maybe it's the same idea.” Ace seemed to have come into terms with the idea.

“Is that right? I haven't had oyster sauce, I'm not sure.” You were so confused however Trey seemed so sure of himself you…guessed it made sense.

All of you nodded to each other, apparently convinced the stupid idea was true, fully expecting that thing to be put inside the mix.

However the third year couldn’t hold it anymore, the urge to laugh.

“Pfft... Ah ha ha ha! I'm totally lying! No one in their right mind would put oyster sauce into a pastry.” He was laughing so much he had to hold his stomach.

But of course, why did you even believe that in the first place?!?!?!

“What?! So you were just yankin' our chain?” Ace looked incredibly offended while you felt your face slowly morph to red, your ears drooping slightly.

“Uh…right…right…there’s no way! haha…” You’re supposed to inherit the divine throne of the god of knowledge yet here you were, falling for a stupid obvious prank.

You had such a long way to go it’s not even funny.

“Ah ha ha! I mean, if you'd used your brain, you'd have realized how ridiculous it was!

Let that be a lesson to you. Don't believe everything you hear.” The green haired boy looked amused by your embarrassment so to add salt to injury he patted your head again as if teaching a child a lesson.

You wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

After that you cleaned your throat and tried to recompose yourself as Trey continued with the process of baking. Though apparently he had gone haywire with the paste due to the amount of chestnuts and didn’t realize there wasn’t enough cream to mix it all together.

So you ended up having to go buy more, more specifically you are accompanying Deuce as per his request.

You walked together through the main street with the school store being your common destination. Grim who was curled up against your neck insisted on coming along due to “”””needing a break after all that stirring””””””. It was a miracle he even helped with that considering not even a single paw was lifted to gather the chestnuts.

After a few minutes of walking you saw a little shop, has this always been here?

Deuce knocked on the counter to get the attention of the shopkeeper and followed by greeting whoever was responsible for it.

“Hello, can I get some he- Whoa. This shop is wild. They have crystal skulls, grimoires, taxidermied... Uh, I don't even know what animal that is!” His eyes seemed to swim around the shelves and the walls while you just averted yours from the taxidermy, you weren’t a fan of that particular practice.

“You think they really sell cream here?” The monster who used your body as essentially a warm water bottle asked and you had to agree. Would this place even have what you needed? but on the other hand it also looked like it could have anything so who knows.

Then as if prompted the shopkeeper suddenly showed up out of nowhere. 

All three of you flinched and took a step back as you looked at the dark-skinned man who wore a top hat and a black apron.

“Greetings, my stray imps, How fare you today?” His peppy voice made you think of a radio host, he exuded charisma.

“Welcome to Mr. Sam's Mystery Shop. What among my humble selection interests you?

A charm from a secluded land? The mummified remains of an ancient king? A cursed tarot card?” He gestured to the goods on the shelves in a rapid-fire way as he mentioned each suggestion of items.

“Myah! I wasn't expectin' this kinda selection.” Grim seemed taken aback at the sheer vastness of the merchandise and you were too. You guessed this shop’s biggest selling point was possibly anything you ask for, can’t quite judge a book by its cover.

From an entrepreneur’s(not that you were one) standpoint it was smart to throw your hat in multiple rings but you knew not everyone could pull it off properly, it was impressive, really.

The only person you remember who also had this approach to merchandise was Dori Sangemah Bay.

You had a feeling they could get along if they met.

While you admired the stock, Deuce had bought all the items in Trey’s list so it was time to go.

“Until next time, my little imps. Do come again! Ciao!” You waved your hand to say goodbye but before you could say thank you the man vanished in a cloud of purple smoke.

You’re starting to get used to this kind of thing, maybe.

Anyway

It was time to go back, the light of the sunset gently hitting your and Deuce’s backs while you walked to where you were needed.

You insisted on carrying one of the bags yourself to be fair however you aren’t that strong physically for starters which was a disgrace as the next heir to your throne. So unfortunately you had to give up and let the boy carry all of them.

He did say he had a trick of carrying heavy bags but you still felt slightly guilty about it so you asked how it worked.

“There’s…a trick for that…? how?” It probably had something to do with using one’s back or other muscles properly to not overload the arms, you weren’t sure.

He then nodded and slowly a fond smile took over his lips as he kept his eyes locked on the way since the ingredients are incredibly fragile he couldn’t afford to trip.

“Yeah. My mom always used to stock up at sales, and the bags would get ridiculously heavy.

I was the only man in the house, so I got to do all the heavy lifting, and- Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to monopolize the conversation.” Deuce apologized, looking guilty.

“Oh no no! Don't worry!” You interjected. 

“I appreciate you telling me about it! seems like you helped around a lot.” It was genuinely delightful to be trusted with information about his family, you felt…important? It was a nice feeling.

At your compliment his gaze immediately turned to yours, guilt still visible if not worse than before.

“No, it wasn't like that at all. The truth is, I-” Something collided against him preventing his sentence from being completed, like it’s very common to happen here. God forbid anyone speaks what they mean clearly with no interruptions.

And not only him! something collided against you as well but thankfully you weren’t holding anything.

You were fine.

However.

The eggs you just bought weren’t.

They were now scattered all over the ground, it’s contents dripping from the basket.

Welp.

What a nightmare, truly.

Could things get any worse?

Yes they could! In fact you realized what you collided into were people and not just anyone! it was the dramatic weird duo from the cafeteria!

Just great.

Just as you would expect they opened their mouths and immediately started complaining.

“You're the jerk  who broke the egg yolk on my carbonara and ruined my chance with a pretty girl!” Oh so that’s what they meant back there.

You sighed.

First of all, why was he talking about you as if you weren’t standing right there and why did he think his measly “flirting” was going to work? You don’t get teenagers.

“You meant OUR chance” His friend spoke up, offended to be excluded.

“Either way I've had about enough of you punks. You need to learn your place!” 

You sighed louder.

Why must every single little thing escalate to fighting in this place, please, can you have a day without someone demanding to square up?

Deuce protectively stepped in front of you like before in the cafeteria and glared at them, matching their violent energy.

“You're the ones who darted out at us from around a corner! And you picked a fight with us at lunch over an egg that you were still totally able to eat!” the boy’s voice raised slightly with every accusation.

“It was quite unnecessary, truly.” You added out of spite which only seemed to rub salt on the duo’s wounds.

“And now you've destroyed six of OUR eggs!” Your friend pointed to the mess on the ground that used to be an ingredient for a tart.

"Yeah! He's right!” Grim hissed.

“S-So what? You sayin' that was our fault?” You raised a brow.

Now.

As the next god of wisdom you’re supposed to abide by a saying.

“There are no stupid questions”

But this? 

This was a VERY stupid one.

“I am. Please reimburse us for the eggs. And then apologize to the chickens.”

You slowly turned your head to look at Deuce.

Reimbursing the eggs was a great idea to peacefully solve the problem but…apologizing to the chickens seemed a bit too much.

“Ooh, look who's got his big boy pants on. You sure are makin' a big deal outta some stupid eggs.”  It escalated further, doubling on the pettiness.

“What?!” That seemed to tick Deuce off though.

“They haven't even touched the ground, so they're still edible. Quit whinin'.” 

HUH?

Have they SEEN what happened?

DO THEY KNOW GRAVITY EXISTS?

They were SHATTERED, they were LAYING there LITERALLY! gooey mess and all and if nothing was done about it the smell would permeate the lungs of anyone who passed by.

It made your brain hurt.

“You can’t possibly be serious.”  You pinched the bridge of your nose in pure disappointment.

“I’m sure you can understand what we’re saying so…just please give us the money and get it over with.”

You extended your hand and was pretty much prepared for them to plop whatever money they hand on it but of course people at this school hated logical peaceful solutions and it didn’t happen how you expected.

“Nah, I don't think so. If anything you two should thank us for savin’ you the trouble of crackin’em!”

Ok so now what? you weren’t sure what to do so you looked at your friend who seemed to be trembling with some kind of rage.

“Deuce…?”  You called out worriedly, your hand reaching out to touch his shoulder but then he finally said something.

“That ain't funny.”  A whisper through gritted teeth.

“Huh?” The petty duo didn’t seem to get it.

“I said, THAT AIN'T FUNNY.” 

Oh no, the switch flipped.

“You don't get to call my eggs stupid. You don't get to call ANY eggs stupid! Those eggs may not have gotten to be chicks, but they were gonna make some amazing tarts! Do you get it yet? DO YOU?!” 

His voice got increasingly louder and you could even see him cracking his knuckles.

You could feel cold sweat starting to form on your forehead by the second.

“No wait…Deuce!”

You tried your best to deescalate the situation and unfortunately got ignored, it was too late.

 “You owe me six eggs. If ya ain't gonna pay me for ‘em, then you're gettin' a bruise for each one!” 

His voice boomed through the main street and it made you flinch. 

The intensity of his anger caused you to stay away from the entire thing, even if you thought he was going too far you also didn’t feel like getting too close. So you watched him beat them up enough to the point they ran away begging all chickens in the world for forgiveness.

You and Grim looked at each other debating on whether or not to approach him.

However…he was your friend, it wouldn’t sit well with you if you just ignored something like this. So you finally got closer and asked:

“Uhm..Deuce…? Are you alright? what was that…?” His breathing was heavy for a few seconds before finally settling and that’s when he seemed to go back to “normal”.

“I did it again, didn't I...? ARGH! I was dead-set on becoming an honor student this time, too!” Again? So did he get like this before?

You and Grim made a noise of confusion and that was all the cue the black haired boy needed to reveal everything.

“When I was in middle school, I was pretty wild, I cut school all the time and got in fights, I called my teachers names, hung out with bullies, bleached my hair...I blasted around tight curves on my Magic Wheel…” 

Oh…so he was a delinquent…that explains a lot about how sometimes his behavior would shift. It must be difficult to get rid of such bad old habits.

What’s a magic wheel though? you would ask later, right now it didn’t matter.

He sighed heavily running his hands through his hair, messing it slightly, frustrated with himself.

“I'd show off my magic to kids who couldn't use it yet... I was a total punk.”

You grimaced slightly at “showing off his magic to kids who couldn’t use it yet”. The implications of showing off is something you didn’t really like…or…imagine but he managed to see the error in his ways so that was a good thing.

“So you were only a little more annoying than you are now?” The cat asked in a sarcastic tone.

You didn’t agree with the term annoying but....you found it slightly harder to imagine considering you only know the Deuce you see in front of you.

“Well…sometimes it seemed like you acted a bit rough but I never thought you were a bad person.”

You smiled while lowering your body to be closer to where he was, since punching the ground was his way of showing frustration at the moment.

He still refused to look at you though, taking a big inhale before exhaling as if trying to calm himself and speak.

“But...one night, I saw my mom talking on the phone to my grandma. She was trying to hide from me, but I saw her, and I could tell she was in tears…She was saying how she must have been a horrible mom, and that maybe she never should have tried to raise me by herself.”

Your hands that rested on your knees clenched.

“That had nothin' to do with it! She hadn't done anything wrong. It was all me…so…When the carriage came to take me to Night Raven College, she was so happy for me…I decided then and there that this time, I wouldn't do anything to make her cry, this time, I'd become an honor student - someone she could be proud of! And I already messed it all up!”

You had to end that train of thought immediately so you did what greater lord Kusanali did for you in the little times you could meet before you were confined.

Slowly you raised your hand and rested it on his head, moving it from side to side.

Yup, headpats.

They made you feel a bit better back in the day and right now you wanted to comfort him.

“I don’t think you messed anything up, Deuce.”  To be honest he was already a bit stunned at your actions and the way the setting sun framed your face and shone on your hair didn’t help at all.

The boy’s face got redder and redder as he heard your words.

“Violence…isn’t good but I'm sure you already know that. It’s ok to be angry when the situation calls for it! your mother would be proud of you.”

“Yeah! it’s not like you need to put up with everything just ‘cause you want to be an honor student! I was ready to crush them myself!” Even if a bit intense, Grim did have a point.

But you weren’t sure if he was listening judging by how slightly unfocused his eyes looked..and his face was…red?

“Deuce…?” You snapped your fingers in front of him a few times and suddenly he got up and put some distance between both of you.

He held his chest with a hand while coughing into another, trying to recompose himself.

“A-ahem! i-i guess you guys are right! haha..! thanks! I just hope those chicks can rest in peace…”   He tried to change subject immediately so you wouldn’t notice the fact he thought you looked like something out of this world for a few moments there, his heart rate was through the roof.

You did think his behavior was weird but brushed it off.

Though something you couldn’t brush off was the thing about the chicks.

“...Deuce…eggs don’t hatch unless they’re fertilized…these ones weren’t gonna hatch regardless…”

That was elementary school level of knowledge, didn’t they teach that here?

At your words he did a double take and looked at the ruined eggs on the floor with a mouth wide open as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Wha- WHAAAAAT ?! Are you kidding me?!?!?!"  

His voice resonated through the main street as you pinched the bridge of your nose.

Explaining this was going to be…something.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

[kirarinlovesidols]

Book 1 chapter 2.

Taglist: @coffee-or-hot-cocoa , @m-majoko , @ghostlysyntaxed , @justanormiewhoreads

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You never thought you would thank the strange force above that sent you to Twisted Wonderland but here you are, looking like you were hit by a carriage and surely feeling like it too.

You were thankful the sages have no idea where you are cause surely they would’ve used your shameful display as an excuse to humiliate you further. 

You sighed as you felt the bones on your back crack slightly due to your try to stand up properly. Fuck walking, your legs felt like they were about to fall off, you would be floating the entire day if you had to.

The other students didn’t particularly mind that you chose to hover though, as they’re already familiar with another student who does that as well.

“Let's see, our next class is…” Different from you Deuce looked fine despite the incredulous amount of exercise, so much so that he even had time to worry about what comes next.

“This so-called magic academy feels a lot like a lame, ordinary school.” As you all walked, Ace kept his arms behind his head, his hands comfortably locked with each other giving an air of nonchalance.

“It's not exactly what I expected, but at least this collar won't be much of a problem after all.” For someone who walked up in the middle of the night to whine about not having magic he sure was ok with it.

Though you had to agree.

Somewhere deep down you were expecting this school to be more…magic-y? like you read in novels from inazuma before.

What you did so far is not very different from what the Akademiya has for it’s students(if you ignore P.E, of course).

“You with me on that, Grim? ...Hm?” You were expecting to hear the cat’s squeaky voice or at least a noise of agreement but…things have been way too quiet.

Oh no.

Oh hell no.

As if in sync you and the ginger turned your heads back only to see absolutely nothing, no sign of him.

This can’t be happening.

“WHAT? IT HASN’T… IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN 2 MINUTES, WHERE IS HE?!” You shouted in panic looking like a frantic mother who just lost her child.

“Oh! Look out the window! I just saw a ball of fur running across the yard!” Deuce, your savior, pointed to the wide grassy fields of the courtyard and yup, there he was.

“No no no!” You literally felt like crying, this could not be happening right now.

Then, much aware of your gazes on his back Grim smirked  before making his intentions even more clear to the world.

“Haha! no way am I puttin' up with this boring routine day in and day out. I'm Grim, Sorcerer Prodigy, and I don't need no one to teach me how to blow stuff up!” You were already having a breakdown over what his last “”””escapade”””” ended up with.

You don’t need a repeat of that.

“That’s not how it works! oh archons Grim…why can’t you just sit still?...” You could feel your vision start to waver as your eyes watered slightly due to the combination of physical and mental exhaustion.

“Boy, that guy is not a fast learner.” Deuce whistled as he gave your roommate a last look before redirecting his attention to you.

“Not a good look to lose your only student on your first day as prefect. Want help catching him?” Ace brought one hand down and pointed to the window using his thumb.

You immediately light up.

“Seriously?! you would? yes! thank you so much!” Your long ears twitched in happiness as you wiped your eyes with your uniform’s sleeves.

Ace trappola must be twisted.

Cause even though your happy and relieved face made his heart jump it still didn’t mean he was going to go easy on you, this is NightRaven not Royal Sword.

His kind face morphed into a cruel smirk like when he mocked you and Grim on the first day.

“Y’know…I do love the chocolate croissants at the co-op.” 

Oh.

God.

You have no friends.

“C’mon dude at least  pretend to be nice? that said I'd do it for an iced latte at the cafeteria.” Deuce might be nervous around you but hey! it was free food! and you would be happy again after they brought the cat back so what’s the harm in talking about rewards sooner?

Hypocrites, both of them.

You bit your lip to restrain yourself as your happiness dangerously threatened to turn into anger.

But you weren’t going to do anything of that sort again, no. You’re better than that, you have to be.

“Fine. Just please…help me? i can’t do this again.” You pleaded in defeat.

The boys smiled at each other looking awfully like they had accomplished something big, Deuce even used magic to materialize some nets to catch the menace you share a bed with more easily.

“Pleasure doing business. Now, Deuce, shall we clean up the mess made by the worst prefect to ever set foot on campus?” That hurt you a bit.

You noticed how Ace liked to give you a hard time, he did that to his fellow dorm mate as well but that was totally uncalled for. You already knew you weren’t doing fine, he didn’t need to remind you.

“Man give her a break already, would you?” Even if the dark haired boy tried to tell him off, he still didn’t bother correcting his ginger friend.

You really couldn’t catch a break.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

“Wooo! Lunchtime at last!” You could only sigh as you had put Grim on “””””baby jail””””” which was just your arms, you were stuck carrying him to make sure he wouldn’t run anywhere else.

Yes he did try to claw the shit out of you, yes it did hurt, yes you had to go to the nurse’s office to see Mr. Crewel who also happens to work there.

“Whoa! they got some good-lookin' grub!” You made sure to hold him considerably high so he could see what you could choose from.

“I know there’s a lot to eat but make sure to only pick what you can stomach, Grim.” You didn’t want to see him sick but also you had to pay drinks for Ace and Deuce so you had to be frugal if you wanted to have living expenses for the next month.

Thank god you don’t really need to eat, it means you can save more that way.

“Look how fluffy those omelets are! Ooh, grilled chicken! And a bacon-and-egg tart!” The cat ignored your advice and simply pointed to the many food options with glittering eyes and a bit of drool on the corner of his mouth.

“Shhh! Dude, inside voices! Where was this energy earlier today?” Ace shushes your roommate, rightfully so, as you could feel people’s stares boring into your soul. You were a bit too tired to properly care though.

Shyness be damned but these muscles are screaming.

“Hey hey Rukkha!, grab me the grilled chicken! There's only one left!” You put him on your shoulder and proceeded to grab a plate so you could get what he wanted.

“And an omelet too. And that jelly-filled bread. Just fill your whole tray with 'em!” You did the exact opposite grabbing only one while looking at him with a disgruntled expression.

“Grim i won’t fill this entire plate with th-oof!” That’s when you collided with something. Thankfully the food was still safe, it would’ve been a waste otherwise.

“Hey! Watch where you're goin'!” Coming down from your initial panic over wasting food you look to see what exactly you bumped into.

“M-my carbonara! You broke the yolk!” An angry voice said.

Oh.

So you bumped into aaaa…..”problematic” looking student.

“Whoa, that's messed up! Pokin' the egg is the best part! You better make this right, girliel!”

Correction, students.

Uhm…what is one supposed to do in this situation? the first thing that came to your mind was raising the white flag of defeat.

“I-I’m sorry! it was an accident, we didn’t really see you…there’s a lot of people here after all…” You gestured to the rest of the cafeteria which was indeed kinda packed.

“Who the fuck cares about that? you ruined my lunch!” The delinquent in question pointed at his carbonara that to be honest was perfectly fine and tasty looking.

You raised a brow at that in confusion.

What was the point of being dramatic over that? if you had got it all over the floor you would’ve got it sure but that didn’t happen.

Still you just decided to go along with it since this was probably your lack of sympathy compared to Greater Lord Kusanali. You had to make up for it somehow.

“Uhm…if you’re that upset then is there something i can do to make you feel better? buy you another one maybe?...” Your ears drooped slightly making you look like a kicked puppy.

Anyone else would’ve thought it was adorable and let you go.

However these are delinquents, they have no brains.

“Hah. You sure can! say…what about we hang out afterschool? go to some nice place, play a little. Whad’ya say?” The boy who was acting awfully petty about an egg yolk earlier now acted like a completely different person.

“What…?” You said as his hand snaked around your waist in an awfully intimate way.

You didn’t feel very comfortable about this.

What would Greater Lord Kusanali do in a situation like this one instead? 

Who’re you kidding this kind of stuff wouldn’t have happened to her period cause of how much respect she inspires on others.

“Hey! hands off my hench-human! and your lunch ain’t ruined at all, quit with the drama!” Grim who was stuck to your shoulder watching all of this happen hissed and swatted at the boy, trying to get him away.

That made you a little happy to see, maybe he cared after all.

“She’s still not done filling my plate, let her go!”

Oh but of course.

“Be quiet cat! no one is talking to you, fuck off” the friend of the petty guy told your roommate off immediately.

“Listen! i don’t know what you mean but if you want me to treat you to a restaurant as repayment then that’s fine! no need to fight.” You tried your hardest to de-escalate the situation..  

“Alright stop there.” Deuce’s voice came from behind you.

“She’s clearly uncomfortable and didn’t get half of what you said.” He then stood in front of you protectively.

“Huh? and who are you? her prince in shining armor? do you wanna go punk?!” The petty one whipped out his magic pen as his friend followed suit.

You could only watch in horror as Ace put a hand on your shoulder and shrugged as if any of this was normal.

Why is everyone so violent?! you don’t understand.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

About 5 minutes later the boys were done with their “fight”. You would be shaking in your boots at the prospect of another incident but luckily nothing got too out of hand so you won’t be seeing Crowley today.

Thank god.

You now sat with your little group at one of the tables in the cafeteria watching as they ate.

“I can't believe this,Textbook bullies at an academy that's supposed to be famous for producing exceptional mages…” Deuce seemed disappointed at that fact.

Well there’s bullies anywhere, really.

You remember very well how rumors would go around in the Akademiya and how you could sometimes hear stuff from one of your rendezvous as Katheryne.

“Aw, get over it already. It's time to chow like the wind!” Grim brushed the black haired boy off with a happy sounding voice.

“Please try not to choke…” You looked at the cat full of worry.

“This omelet is as fluffy as a cloud, and practically burstin' with cheese!” Oh! it’s good to hear that the food is as good as it looks.

Maybe you should eat something tomorrow?....

“So, I saw your guys' dorm, but what are the other ones like?” Grim pointed his paw at his classmates not bothering with table manners.

In any other situation you would’ve scolded him but what he mentioned was interesting. You would be lying if you said you weren’t interested in the other dorms.

Deuce perked up to answer, however, he never got to as a very familiar peppy voice made itself known. “I'm sure you're familiar with the statues of the Great Seven? Night Raven College has a dorm themed after each one.” You looked to the side only to see Cater.

What.

How did he get here so fast.

You weren’t the only one who got startled by the older boy’s appearance as Ace almost fell from his chair in an almost ironic repeat of the fall from earlier today.

“Bwah! You're that guy from this morning!” 

“You tricked us into paintin' those dumb roses!” The cat miraculously remembered to swallow before making his disgust known.

“ ‘Tricked’ is such an ugly word. Do you think I wanted to spend MY morning painting roses?

It's dorm policy! I was just following orders.”  Cater didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered, even twirling his hair on his finger.

“C’mon guys it wasn’t that bad! he needed help!” And you also managed to have fun in the process so what’s the harm? 

Ok, maybe some roses turned out burned and others blue but you weren’t going to think about it.

“And he was just grinning like a fiend all the while.” The dark haired boy crossed his arms as he narrowed his eyes.

“Now, now, Deucey. Outside of the dorm, I don't care what rules you follow. Here, I'm just a friendly mentor figure!” The “fiend” winked which only seemed to tick his junior off more.

“Please. Do NOT call me Deucey.” You yourself thought the nickname was quite cute but it would make sense for a teenager boy to want to avoid things as such, puberty and all that.

“Ah ha ha. That's how Cater shows he cares.” A deeper voice followed suit in a friendly manner which caused everyone to turn to the owner of it immediately. 

“And who are you?” Ace lifted a brow already preparing for a second round of delinquent drama when the new person,a tall boy with green short hair and hazel eyes protected by glasses spoke up.

“Ah, I should introduce myself. The name's Trey.” He had a clover marking on his cheek similar to the other heartslabyul students you knew. Was it makeup? obligatory maybe? a rule? you thought it was curious.

“Trey Clover. I'm a junior at Heartslabyul, like Cater here. And you must be Rukkhadevata, right? the new prefect from that dump of a- ah, I mean, the ‘rustic" dorm’.”

You didn’t even blink an eye at that one.

At least he had the decency to call it rustic instead of a dumpster straight up to your face, not that he was wrong but you know. Maybe you didn’t want salt poured over your wounds.

“I heard the whole story from Cater. Thanks for looking out for our boys yesterday.” Trey held his hand to you, a familiar motion. You held out yours as well squeezing his gently in a handshake.

“It’s been…an experience!” You felt like a teacher watching their students go home back to their parents, a weird feeling.

“I don't recall inviting you to sit with us…” Ace didn’t seem to like being treated like a child however.

“Hey now, we're all from the same dorm, right? Let's try to get along. Here, gimme your digits.” Cater then proceeded to use that… strange rectangular little “box” of his to copy some kind of ‘number’ code. He then came to you fully expecting you to have one.

“Uhh…i don’t have one of…those.” You pointed at the object in his hand.

At that moment it was like time stopped and everyone sitting at the table looked at you as if you had grown a second head.

“What…?” You were starting to get nervous, did you say something wrong? you weren’t familiar with this world customs yet.

“For real? I've read about luddites like you, but never imagined I'd meet one in the wild!” The older ginger boy just laughed and took a pic of your dumbfounded face before showing it to you.

“Have you been living under a rock, dude?” The younger ginger inquired quite worried.

“Isn’t she fae? maybe where she comes from they don’t deal with technology much.” Trey filled in.

“Oh that makes sense i guess!” Deuce seemed very much convinced.

You though? You couldn’t get a single word in.

At least not in a way that wouldn’t straight up incriminate you and make it obvious you came from another world. You were familiar with the concept of fae, teyvat had similar things.

Such as the anemo archon being a wind sprite but you couldn’t really afford to correct them on it cause it could make things way more complicated.

So you chose to remain quiet.

“I know a place that sells the latest models cheap. How about you and I go on a phone-shopping date?” Cater wiggled his eyebrows at you and winked getting a bit too close for comfort.

“Oh? is that how they’re called? phones? interesting! what do you use them for?” It seemed like Cater’s intentions went over your head as you could only focus on figuring out how that machine worked, he didn’t seem upset about it though.

“Oh my god we have to start from there, huh?” The younger ginger face-palmed before pulling out his own phone and going on a lengthy explanation(with the help of his senpai) about how it worked, why they used it and why you should have one.

You were pretty sure you needed one now if your goal was to gather as much information as possible and find a way back home.

“Anyway we got sidetracked so before you get into the other dorms, I wouldn't mind learning a bit more about ours.” Ace said as he was already mid-way through his lunch – “Like, what's the deal with all this "Queen of Hearts rule number whatever" junk?”.

You yourself wanted to know since from the little you heard it seemed like their dorm was overly rigid.

“I'm sure you're familiar with the legendary Queen of Hearts already? She had to rule over a kingdom of weirdos, and did it by emphasizing order and making strict rules.” Trey said matter-of-factly.

“Oh…i see…” So she had no idea how to rule and no interest in understanding her people but one thing was clear to her, they were ‘weird’ so binding them with rules was easier.

In your conception that was an absolute flaw, that’s no way to rule. The queen of hearts should learn from Greater Lord Kusanali.

“Our dorm, Heartslabyul, is an homage to her. By tradition, we wear armbands with the red and black of the Queen's dress. And we live by the rules she created.” Cater scrolled through the app called “Magicam” he had talked about earlier in the explanation to you.

“Pfft. Can you make me any more bored?” Your roommate surely didn’t hesitate to speak his mind.

“Grim, you asked, be nice.” You made sure to put force behind your last words in an empty threat, not that he needed to know it was empty.

“Now, the degree to which we adhere to the rules depends on the sitting housewarden. Past wardens have been much more lax.”  Finally tired of his scrolling the heartslabyul veteran rested his head on his hand paying attention to everyone.

“Riddle though? He doesn’t mess around. Basically, you could say that we're honoring that tradition to the utmost extent possible.” Trey explained with a strained expression on his face, you wondered why.

You didn’t know much about Riddle so you didn’t know how to see him. Was he justified for trying to uphold the rules as much as he could? rules are important to maintain order, you agree.

But there were also times where they had to be broken for the greater good, just what case is this one?

“Ughhhh, just my luck then.” Ace’s shoulder slumped.

“So what are the other dorms like, then?” Grim asked immediately, not even letting his classmate wallow in his own misery for a few more seconds.

“As Cater mentioned earlier, the dorms of this school are themed after the Great Seven. We have our dorm, Heartslabyul, modeled after the strictness of the Queen of Hearts.” 

Concept-wise you were struggling to understand what was the point of making a dorm based on strictness and rule following. It sounded like it was noble at first but you can easily imagine the amount of problems that could arise from it, Ace was an example even if he was in the wrong.

“To run down the rest of them for you, we have… Savanaclaw, based on the persistent spirit of the King of Beasts. Octavinelle, based on the benevolent heart of the Sea Witch,Scarabia, based on the mindful personality of the Sorcerer of the Sands,Pomefiore, based on the tenacity of the Fairest Queen,Ignihyde, based on the diligence of the king of the underworld And finally...Diasomnia, based on the noble spirit of the Thorn Fairy.” He listed all dorms as if he had done that multiple times before, oddly good at explaining.

“Oh, i see….” You would make sure to remember them all.

“All those names are way too long! How's anyone supposed to remember 'em?” Of course your little buddy had to complain, classic Grim.

“Ah ha ha! Well, you get the idea. Want to or not, you'll learn them soon enough.

Cater said confidently.

“At orientation, the Dark Mirror picks a dorm for you based on the essence of your being.

As a result, each dorm ends up with a distinct sort of... flavor, we'll call it.”

The essence of your being? that seemed complicated but interesting. Could the mirror look into someone else’s soul? you wondered how did it work.

“Flavor, huh?” Deuce muttered to himself as he looked at his classmates.

“For example, look at that guy.” Trey pointed to someone a few tables away from yours.

Your group immediately followed suit and stared at the specific direction.

You could see a boy who seemed very muscular and had what seemed to be…wolf ears? a demi-human.

“That rough-and-tumble vibe he's got has Savanaclaw House written all over it.” You were starting to get the ‘flavor’ Trey talked about.

Was it was about their personalities and values as well? not only soul reading? very curious.

“No doubt. That dorm is full of scrappy guys who are into, like, working out and fighting.

How should I describe the vibe...? Macho dudes? Gruff big brothers? Something along those lines. The black and gold armband is another giveaway.” Cater didn’t seem particularly fond of Savannaclaw, you wondered why.

“Huh. All right, so what about that guy with the grey and purple cord wrapped around his arm?” The cat pointed much to your embarrassment.

“Grim, stop pointing!” You quickly went to grab his paw.

“He's gotta be from Octavinelle House. And the student sitting at the table in front of him has a red and gold armband—Scarabia colors.” Trey looked at both of you and said with a smile, he looked amused by your antics.

“Those dorms are for the smart students. They're always neck-and-neck in the academic rankings. Ah, but the current housewarden of Scarabia doesn't seem to be all that great of a student…” Cater mentioned casually.

Oh so it’s not like every housewarden will follow the “essence” of the dorm, huh? 

“And here Cater goes, off on some tangent.” Ace rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Ha. You learn fast but let's get back on topic. You see the flashy one with the purple and red armband? Those are Pomefiore colors.”  The older dark-green haired boy pat Ace’s shoulder lightly to get him back to pay attention.

Trey acted like a teacher or older brother sometimes….you noticed.

“Whoa! The girl with the potion books, I really like her!” Grim seemed enchanted almost.

“Huh?!” You turned your head quickly to take a look at the “girl” he mentioned only to see a person with short fluffy silver-like hair.

“Wait…Grim….” You started before Deuce immediately jumped in.

“What's she doing in a boys' school?!” He said without thinking twice.

“You two are such morons, we have a girl right here. Plus, there wouldn’t be a reason for another one.”

“Oh right!” Deuce really didn’t seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

You giggled nervously at their lack of attention, you were an exception enough as it was. There wouldn’t be another one.

After that you heard more about the only two dorms left, being Ignihyde which seemed to be a place full of introverts who were into technology and Diasomnia who you didn’t manage to hear much about due to a remark of your lovely ginger classmate who claimed to see a little kid.

“Ah, we do get some child prodigies here. But that guy there is no kid. He's a junior like us. Name's-” And then suddenly all of you hear a voice.

“Lilia. Lilia Vanrouge” 

“WHAAAAA!?!?!” Everyone except you screamed in surprise at the new figure who was essentially floating in the air upside down.

You literally almost fell from the chair, the only thing stopping you was the person who just presented himself as Lillia Vanrouge.

“Be careful there, little miss!” He said with a smile.

“T-Thank you!” You cleaned your throat to recompose yourself as you tried to ignore how deep his voice sounded, the sheer gap between his appearance and how he sounded was surprising to say the least.

“Wow! H-he just teleported!” Grim looked to Lillia and then back at the group as if wanting to ask ‘DID YOU SEE THAT?!’ “

“I understand my apparent age interests you? As this bespectacled fellow accurately noted...

Despite my fresh-faced, boyish good looks, it would be inaccurate to call me a "child." The diasomnia student giggled as he finally corrected his posture, standing straight or better yet, floating straight.

“"Fresh-faced," huh….” Trey seemed like he had more to say but chose not to.

“You need not gawk at us from afar. You may feel free to speak with us directly. We are schoolmates, are we not? All of us at Diasomnia House welcome you without reservation.”

He politely bowed and gestured to his fellow members, a boy with snow white hair who looked very tired and a boy with green hair who had a very sharp gaze.

You felt like he had his eyes glued to you, analysing somehow.

So you decided to pretend you didn’t see it, yup, no more stress with random people.

“Forgive me for appearing above you during your meal. I do hope we can speak again.” 

Were the last words you heard of Lillia before he disappeared and appeared again now back at his table.

“Their table has got to be over twenty yards away from ours. And they overheard our conversation? That's WAY creepy!” Ace shivered dramatically.

“You better watch it then, don’t call them creepy like that.” Even if you wanted to agree, that green haired fellow was scary.

You proceeded to learn about how the “gimmick” behind Diasomnia is that it had a lot of students who were good at magic, their dormleader even being one of the top 5 best mages in the world.

You imagined if he could be compared to an archon since most people didn’t seem very keen on talking about him much less approaching him.

And just like that the conversation which was essentially just some educational exposition about the dorms immediately changed it’s subject to Riddle due to a comment made by Cater and Ace never missing an opportunity to complain.

“He collared me for eating one slice of tart! All his rule obsession is outta control!” The ginger punched the table lightly as he didn’t want to make much noise.

At that you just sighed.

How many times were you going to go over this? they both had things they were right and wrong about, there’s no point in whining about i-

“My rule obsession’ is ‘outta control,’ is it?”

And suddenly it felt like everything froze.

Oh NO

Your face slowly got pale as you watched the disaster unfold before you.

“You bet it is. Riddle's just a petty tyrant who leans into the whole "rules" schtick as a pretext to keep everyone under his puny thumb!” Ace kept going.

There’s no way this was happening right now.

“Ace! stop! he’s right there!” You raised your voice slightly out of frustration for his lack of awareness.

The collared boy slowly looked behind him only to be face to face to a VERY not happy Riddle. Even though he was smiling it didn’t reach his eyes at all.

“Oh, fuck.”

Your facepalm evolved into outright hiding your face with both hands.

You couldn’t see this anymore.

Why couldn’t things be fine for 5 seconds?!

You’re so tired.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Sorry for the wait.

This chapter was supposed to come out like WAY back in november but i got swept up in christmas and new years' increase of workload at my job lmao. But at least i got some more chapters ready so uhhh enjoy update ig.

[lemonrini]

[briskchips]

WHAT'S THAT PUPPET BOY?

[sexysilverstrider]

IM ACTUALLY LOSING MY MIND

[nadastic]

happy (belated) 10 year anniversary to 1bitheart!

[kirarinlovesidols]

And I'll never leave.

[kirarinlovesidols]

It hurts being inside a fandom that's fucking dead.

I'm looking at you 1bitheart, I'm still a diehard fan even after all these years..... And there's no content for it....ig I'll have to feed myself eventually....

[kirarinlovesidols]

It's been a bit but let's just say that writing a long story while being a 21yo employed college student who has a backlog of games and does courses for extra credit on the weekends surely wasn't a good idea 🥴

But I'm almost done with the next chapter and the next ones are already thought of so it should flow smoothly when I have time to ACTUALLY write.

[tanmu-u]

🤍💤

[morally-earl-gray]

this is really weird but part of my aroace experience is viewing allo people like a scientist would view a living specimen in an experiment

its like. they do something and i observe and note their behavior. i know this sounds super fucked up but here is something that happened today:

my sister was showing me her texts from her boyfriend and he was saying stuff like "if u want i can spray a shirt with my cologne to give to u" or "i'll give u my hoodie to wear"

and i just looked at her and said "people exchange clothes because they like each others scent? fascinating." and i felt like a freaking scientist observing a new species' behavior. i promise its not as weird as it sounds. im not uncomfortable with romance/sex (for other people), i just have no idea how it works.

im curious do any other aspecs have experiences like this? or is it just me?

[kirarinlovesidols]

Book 1, Chapter 1.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

On that night you didn’t sleep well at all.

Your limbs ached in soreness, even blinking hurt. And on top of that you had a nightmare…or a normal dream? you couldn’t tell, it kinda diverged  in the middle to something else entirely.

You could divide it in two parts, the first being something you know very well. 

Your past, your home.

“Are you sure she could inherit Greater Lord Kusanali’s throne?”

“You saw her, she’s volatile and unpredictable.”

“Not only that but she doesn’t even have the knowledge necessary to be the god of wisdom, i’m afraid she’ll never be appropriate for the position.”

You could hear them, you were quite literally about 5 feet away.

They didn’t care about you, how irritating.

It’s all about Greater Lord Kusanali…

Would it be better for you to act…like her? if…if you mimicked her behavior would you be praised?

Would you…be enough?

Somewhere inside your mind something clicked, they didn’t need you. They only needed her so you would search for her company, observe her, emulate as much as you could.

Still…you wondered why was she so kind to you? did she pity you? did she enjoy your presence? you reached your hand to her as if to ask before the scenery of the Sanctuary of Surasthana disappeared and so did the floor you were standing on.

You fell, fell and fell until you ended up in a garden full of…cards? soldiers? who were all singing as they painted white roses with red paint.

You watched in confusion before realizing you couldn’t interfere with the scene before you. It was like you were a bystander, a spirit watching from the shadows as they kept working, singing in harmony and stopping all at the same time when a little blonde girl wearing a blue dress with a white apron and a black bow on her head asked them why were they doing what they were doing.

Why, that was such a stupid question.

Cause if they didn’t they would lose their heads.

That sounded way too violent to you.

How could a ruler expect or demand respect or loyalty if their subjects were constantly terrified? it was a disaster waiting to happen.

And with that, you woke up.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Your eyes shot open as you heard an incessant knocking on your front door.

Oh.

So it was a dream after all.

You were starting to wonder where you were.

“Myaaah... Hey Rukkha...I know it's the middle of the night, but I think we've got a visitor. Maybe it's those pesky ghosts again? They just don't know when to quit.” You looked to the side only to see Grim loafing on the pillow you both had to share.

It was pretty cute but you would probably get scratched if you said that.

“Wait..it’s still night?” You looked to the window next to the bed and surely enough you couldn’t see a single light.

Well that explains why you felt kinda horrible other than the soreness on your muscles.

You were probably having a hard time adjusting to the new environment if that dream was anything to go by.

Seriously this is why you don’t like sleeping.

The knocks started getting more and more insistent though so you finally got, albeit slowly and painfully, dragging Grim with you against his will(for your safety). You let him wrap himself against your neck as an apology and bask on the warmth there, it seemed to work well enough to placate his rage.

“I’m coming, i’m coming….” You say loudly as you walked down the stairs, each step hurting more than the next.

Opening the door you raise a brow as you see it was someone very familiar.

“What are you doing here at this hour…?” You asked starting to wonder if something went wrong back in his own dorm.

“You have NO idea what i just went through, just let me in all right?”

You stepped to the side so he could enter but most certainly now missing the huge metal collar on his neck, what the hell was that?

“Ace? It's the middle of the night! Oh, what happened to you?!” The boy’s voice took Grim out his sleepy stupor.

You both watched as Ace took heavy angry steps to the living room and threw himself on the couch, putting his feet on the table with a sour look on his face.

“I can't go back to Heartslabyul House. I'm joining your dorm. For good.” Huh?! you were mighty confused.

“But why? what happened?/Myah?! Come again?!” You and Grim both said in unison.

“I ate a tart.” Ace sounded incredulous, almost as if he couldn't believe what just transpired himself.

Both you and Grim looked at each other and then at the boy, clueless.

“You did what now?” You narrowed your eyes wondering if he was playing on prank on you or something but honestly? No prank would involve putting such a weird collar on your neck yourself.

“I ate a goddamn tart, that’s right.” He rolled his eyes as he repeated himself.

“I was a little hungry, see, so I went down to the dorm kitchen and found some tarts in the fridge,three whole tarts! Big ones, too!” He made sure to put emphasis on the “big”.

“So i ate a tiny slice” For some reason you had a feeling it was NOT tiny “And the housewarden showed up out of nowhere like a ninja or something and put this collar on me!”

Oh.

Grim looked at the boy with pure disappointment.

“So…The point is you're both terrible?” The cat used a paw as a headrest while still curled on your neck, looking bored out of his mind since to him the problem seemed to be obvious.

“Grim!” You scolded him.

“What? i’m right though!” 

“WHAT? don’t you think it’s insane to be put on what’s essentially ‘magic timeout’ just for eating a slice of a tart?! and there were three whole tarts! THREE! It's not like he could eat 'em all himself! C'mon, you KNOW this is messed up!” Ace held up his three fingers to maximize the drama as he tried to convince Grim of his point.

“Magic timeout? you can’t use magic?” You leaned in a bit closer to him trying to examine the collar on his neck.

You couldn’t feel magic energy like they could since this world was different from yours, the most you could feel was elemental magic energy when they DID use it. Still…there was an ominous feeling in your chest as you looked at the metal contraption.

“No! it must be part of his magic repertoire or something, it’s annoying as hell.”

You leaned back again before looking at him with clear pity in your eyes.

“It does seem a bit…extreme…i don’t think eating a tart was that bad of an offense to deserve having your magic sealed away…but still! you should’ve asked if it was ok to eat!”

You put your hands on your waist getting ready to enter scolding mother mode.

“I mean, if there were three of 'em, they were probably for a party.” Your roommate says before excitedly getting up and pointing a paw to the sky — “Lookit that! I'm, like, a master detective too!”  Your scolding mode faltered slightly due to the urge to giggle but you weren’t going to give in.

“A birthday party, huh...? i guess…that would explain it….” The ginger looked to the side trying to avoid your judgemental gaze.

“Whatever the tart was for doesn’t matter, what matters is: did you apologize?” To anyone seeing the scene without context they would probably think it’s hilarious to see some girl wearing pajamas floating with a cat on her shoulders trying to nag a 16 year old.

“Man... I thought you'd be more sympathetic! I'm a victim of the housewarden's tyranny here!” He wasn’t going to admit it but you looked very cute in your pajamas and yes he expected to get pet on the head or something, not that he’ll let you know.

“But you stole food! That ain't cool!” Grim clearly had very strong feelings on the matter.

“Well…maybe if you apologize for stealing he’ll apologize for exaggerating! surely!” You smiled hoping for the best.

“You don't go messin' with another man's meal...Hey, wait a minute! I just realized I never got those cans of tuna the headmage promised me!” At that you just sighed.

For a creature that could speak and was able to use elemental energy somewhat well Grim still had a long way to go.

“He didn’t promise anything,Grim. I think you heard him wrong.” To be honest you would rather say ‘You clearly made that up’ but it wouldn’t be nice.

“No it didn’t my ears are 10x better than any of you human’s!” He was right about that at least.

Your antics were interrupted by a loud groan coming from Ace who made sure to be extra dramatic.

“All right, all right. Fine. I get that I should apologize. But you're coming with me, Rukkha. This was your idea, after all.” Maybe your cute face would convince Riddle more easily, his plan was flawless.

“Sure! i’ll help you!” You gave him a thumbs-up.

“Anyway, you got a place for me to crash tonight?” He finally got up from the couch, looking around the lounge and grimacing slightly due to how terrible the state of the dorm was.

“You were serious about that? Outside of the bedroom me and my hench-human use, this entire dump is buried under a foot of dust. So if you wanna crash, you better start cleanin'! “

You already accepted that “Hench-human” is the closest of “friend” that you’ll ever get when it comes to this flaming pyro cat.

“Dude, no way! I hate cleaning! Just let me stay with you, Rukkha. I'm real slim. I won't take up much space.” He was joking of course, you wouldn’t allow Ace to sleep with you but he still wanted to try…and maybe see if he could fluster you.

“Sure! i don’t see why not! i would feel bad if you had to sleep on the couch anyway…it’s not…” You gesture at the obvious wreck falling apart you called a couch.

Aaaand a spring just popped out…wow….

“Tch. You’re as flexible as a-WHAT?” He couldn’t believe his ears.

DID YOU JUST SAY YES? 

He didn’t.

He didn’t really think about this possibility and now he has no idea how to proceed.

“Yeah? it’s fine. Grim doesn’t occupy that much space anyway, let’s go.” You said already floating upstairs, ignoring the cat’s protests to share a bed with the person he fought just hours ago.

Ace just audibly gulped and shakily walked upstairs, following you.

He had no idea if he had just hit the absolute jackpot or doomed himself to a sleepless night.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Sleepless night huh? the ginger was anxious for about 10 minutes before absolutely passing out, tiredness hitting him like a truck.

And he would’ve liked to remain sleeping, however, an insistent knock on the front door of Ramshackle woke him up.

“Duuude... Who is pounding on the door at this hour?!” He murmured still refusing to open his eyes.

Jesus couldn’t a man sleep for 5 more minutes? was that a crime? specially when the pillow is soft and perfectly warm.

Wait.

Nothing in this dorm was perfect.

Ace’s eyes shot open only to see his own arms wrapped around your back, hugging you to his chest.

What. the. fuck.

His face immediately burned as a crimson red blush appeared.

This was totally his fault.

He remembers you both were a respectable distance away from each other, your back facing his.

But then there was a problem.

He moves a lot in his sleep, fucking hell, how would he explain this?

Truly he didn’t know what was worse. You and Grim still sleeping away or the insufferable knocks that were getting stronger by the second, did this person plan on taking the entire dorm down?

It’s all fine though, all he needs to do is…to let you go…and…not…uhh…not stare at your cleavage, yep, easy task.

So as he moved his body away you suddenly stirred, which needless to say sent him into a panic resulting in falling down.

“Hm…? Ace? did you fall from the bed?” You yawned before asking the boy who seemed both relieved and mortified.

“Uh…yeah…the…knocking startled me! yeah!” That sounded BEYOND lame but he would rather die than let her know what just transpired.

“You’re such an idiot.” Grim looked at him disappointedly from his high place of choice (your shoulder).

“I don’t wanna hear that from you, you fucking fur ball!” Ace said through his teeth glaring at the creature, ready to throw down.

“Ok, let’s not fight first thing in the morning you two....there’s someone waiting downstairs…” You rolled your eyes and got off the bed already floating due to how much your leg muscles were killing you.

As you walked down to the lounge you could literally see the sunlight shine through the cracks of the wood on ramshackle’s walls. 

God….

There was so much cleaning left to do still. You couldn’t see very well due to the lack of light last night but this was just atrocious, there were particles of filth and dust flying everywhere. And the forceful knocking on the door did NOT help, you were afraid it was going to just give up and fall apart altogether.

“Bleah! Every hit kicks up a dust storm! I'm coming, I'm coming!” The ginger said in the middle of a coughing fit.

Putting your hand on the handle you opened the door only to see Deuce who was a second away from punching your face since you opened the moment he was about to “knock” again.

You and Grim flinched slightly back in response.

“Oh shit- i mean…darn it! i’m sorry!” The dark haired boy panicked as apologies fell from his lips.

“Ugh. Deuce…” Ace seemed to be disappointed or annoyed, you aren’t sure, at his classmate’s presence.

“So, you ate the housewarden's tart.” Deuce made sure to shake his head to the sides as he stared at his friend — “You really are an idiot, Ace.”

In turn the other flipped him off — “Oh, shut up! Like you're one to talk! Anyway, uh... Is he still mad?...”   He being the housewarden, you supposed.

“Not at all. Maybe a touch irritated, if anything. A few of our dormmates overslept this morning…But only three of 'em got your treatment.” Your eyes widened at the sheer stupidity of that claim.

“That’s…i think he’s still angry then, Deuce…” You felt like it was kinda obvious that things weren’t ok yet if he had collared more 3 people.

“Angry? a touch irritated?!?! he’s going on a rampage that’s what!” You slowly raised a hand to pat his back, trying to comfort him.

You had a feeling this was going to be a loooong day.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

“Move it! Outta the way!” The squeaky voice of a creature made way through countless students.

“Night Raven College student comin' through!” Yep, it’s Grim.

You pinched the bridge of your nose as you hovered just a few centimeters above the ground, watching how excited he was about the whole ordeal.

Well to be honest you two attracted way too much attention and you weren’t particularly fond of that.

The only girl(that came from another world mind you) and some cat with a lot of attitude and elemental energy.

You were very much soldiering through people’s whispers and looks(also trying your hardest to ignore the rude comments about your skirt) but you wish Grim would just stay put for a bit even if his excitement was endearing in a way.

“Oh? Did my collar catch your eye? It is way better than the one you're stuck with!” It seemed like he was bullying Ace.

“You know, the one that makes it so you can't use magic?” —- the smug look on his face was horrendous — “But hey, the school could always use another janitor! Bwahahaha!” 

“Grim…that’s not nice, stop that.” If you got a coin everytime you had to scold this cat you would be rich by now.

“Nah, let him talk shit. When I get my magic back, his hide is first up on the chopping block!” His bullying’s victim seemed to be hellbent on keep the cycle going it seems.

“Didn't the headmage JUST tell you yesterday, no more incidents?” You nodded rapidly agreeing with Deuce.

“Regardless, you're not going to be able to participate in class if you can't use magic so  why not just apologize to the housewarden? It's a small price to pay for having the collar removed.” He shrugged as if it was the simplest thing in the world and to both of you it was.

“Aaaaargh! I hate this so! SO! Much!” You did feel bad for your friend, you weren’t going to pretend you didn’t.

Despite being in the wrong you were sure the housewarden exaggerated, surely apologizing would do the trick.

After that all four of you followed Ace to Heartslabyul dorm.

You had to admit.

This place was absolutely stunning! so many roses and things shaped like hearts, it was very cute. It also had a bit of whimsy to it, very different from Sumeru’s architecture that was for sure.

If you had to compare maybe it would be more similar to fontaine’s designs in buildings? you only saw a few books on those.

“Dang, this place is swank! This is nothing like our dumpster of a dorm.” Grim(who was back at using you like a personal vehicle after getting tired of walking himself) gasped in amazement as he observed what seemed to be the garden of the dorm.

“Well…our dorm is not ideal but don’t call it a dumpster…it’s rude to Crowley.” Even if it was true.

It’s best not to do any comparisons, you could end up feeling envious.

In the distance you could see someone with…ginger hair, slightly lighter than Ace’s, humming as he painted…roses?!

????????? Wasn’t that counter productive? wouldn’t the petals just break? Roses were known for being incredibly fragile after all…maybe the flowers in this world are sturdier.

“All these  gotta be red, or it's "off with my head”!” You felt a sense of deja vu.

Finally noticing the presence of your group the mysterious ginger boy turned to take a look.

“Huh...? You guys need something?” He asked with a playful smile resting on his lips, his eyes seemed to scan every single one of you.

“What are you doing there?” Asked Ace in confusion.

“Are you blind? I'm painting these roses red, duh.” Holy archons did NO ONE in this world know how to be nice? that was just unnecessary.

“What? Why?!” It was Deuce’s turn to be confused.

“Ah ha ha. So naïve, you put the "n" in newb.” — The stranger mocked in a sing-song-tone as he tried to go back to his task, keyword tried. He did an immediate double take, his eyes wide.

“Hold the phone, I know you! You're cute fae girl and the freshies who broke a billion-thaumark chandelier and nearly got expelled for it, yeah?” He got down from the ladder he was sitting on to be able to properly reach the roses with a flawless jump.

You sighed in despair.

You did not want to be known for that.

“That chandelier is gonna haunt us till the day we graduate, isn't it?” Ace facepalms before sighing just as tiredly as you.

“And you! You're the one who ate the housewarden's tart that same night!” The other ginger pointed at his fellow kin trying not to laugh.

“You guys are THE hot topic around campus! I've gotta get in on this fleeting fame.” He immediately pulled some rectangular…weird object from the pockets of his pants and got closer to all of you.

“I'm just gonna grab a selfie real quick...It's cool if I post this on Magicam, right? Gimme your names so I can tag you.” You did NOT understand anything he said on that order.

What is magicam??? what is a selfie??? and why did the weird device suddenly flash for half a second..? was it…a kamera?

“I'm Deuce Spade.”

“Ace.”

“I'm Grim, and that's my hench-human, Rukkha.” The three followed with the weird request of giving their names but you still had no idea why he wanted yours.

Also, you couldn’t catch a break.

“You mean ‘FRIEND’ Grim…friend.” Maybe if you corrected him everytime he would just give up and refer to you properly.

“Uploaded! Sweet.” — Your narrowed your eyes as you stared the thing he had on his hands, he seemed to be tapping it.

“Oh, I'm Cater Diamond, by the way. I'm a junior here at Heartslabyul. But Cater is fine. Or Cay-Cay if you're cray-cray!” He did a little wink and did a peace sign.

“Soooo nice to meetcha!” Cater had already put away his strange device and put his hand in front of you for a handshake.

“Oh…uh…nice to meet you too, Cater.” You smiled nervously. He seemed to be a bit high tension and you are not good with people like that.

He stared you down from head to toe almost as if sizing you up before nodding his head.

“Ah, you're the prefect of that so-called Ramshackle House dorm, right? Like, I can't believe you actually live there! feels kinda awful that a cute girl has to be inside that dust paradise though.” He directed his pity ridden gaze at you, smile never budging.

“It's all gloomy and looks like hot garbage on Magicam. No filter could salvage THAT dump.” He grimaced as memories of the place filled his mind.

WHAT IS MAGICAM.

“Y'know, you've done nothin' but diss us here, pal!” Grim got obviously ticked off by the junior’s choice of words.

You were about to mediate AGAIN to prevent a possible fight to break out but the exact contrary happened.

“Gah, what am I doing? I don't have time to chat! The party's tomorrow. If we're not ready, it's "off with my head"!  And with that Cater scurried back to doing the job entrusted to him.

Though almost as if a cartoon light bulb had appeared on top of his head and lit up, he looked at your group again.

“Hey, you kids wanna help me paint some roses?” Huh? did he need help?

“Yeah, uh... Why are you doing that exactly?” Your collared friend asked, a hand resting on his waist.

“Because red roses are so much more photogenic! Or...something...? And after that, I've gotta start getting things ready for the big croquet tournament.” Things at heartslabyul were hectic, you concluded.

“And that means coloring all the flamingos.” The older boy sighed and you just raised a hand, right to ask an awful lot of questions. However it seems like you and your roommate are in bigger sync than you thought cause he asked exactly what you wanted to know.

“You're colorin' flamingos now? Isn't anything the right color around here?!” Grim raised one paw to gesture to the dorm as a whole.

No, you wanted to know why were they painting animals. You hoped it was animal friendly dye at least.

After that shocking revelation you ended up going with the flow and helping Cater to paint the roses.

Ace and you were stuck with buckets and brushes since he couldn’t use magic and your powers weren’t particularly useful for that.

It was weirdly therapeutic though…you almost wished you could do it all day! it gave a sense of accomplishment when you were done with one.

You had to be careful though. Grim wasn’t exactly good at magic that wasn’t hurling fire balls everywhere so needless to say some roses were burned and Deuce himself turned a few of them blue instead.

Oh you were a bunch of walking disasters, there’s no way.

All that painting resulted in Ace asking why the roses couldn’t just be white instead since they were pretty regardless.

You agreed.

It ended up being a tradition of the Queen of Hearts to have the flowers be specific colors for specific events.

It sounded nice but you kinda felt bad for the people under her rule who had to do this to an ENTIRE garden everytime there was some kind of celebration.

To each their own, you guessed.

Cater mentioned the housewarden, Riddle was his name, who seemed to be very strict about traditions.

Considering Ace’s stunt pissed him off that much you saw that fact coming from a mile away.

Still you were here today for a reason so you nudged your friend to ask about his housewarden, only to be told he was not there at the moment.

And that there was a rule about replacing whatever item that was stolen.

A very reasonable rule in your opinion and you would’ve just nodded your head and kept going with your day.

But of COURSE things weren’t going to be that easy.

The junior had the duty to get all of you out of the dorm since, y’know, you didn’t really have the tart with you.

Ace being the stubborn teenager he is didn’t accept it just like that and you had to end up protecting him from Cater’s magic and attempts to grab him.

What you did not expect was how no matter how much time passed he never got tired or gave up.

Almost as if he was everywhere at once….

Needless to say your efforts were useless and you got kicked out without being heard.

On top of that there’s also the fact this ordeal took way longer than it should’ve and now you’re all running late to the first class, just great.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Finally settling inside the classroom, you sat near Ace and Deuce. You only knew them here afterall.

Still you were happy your teacher seemed to be a figure you already knew.

“My name is Divus Crewel. You may call me Master Crewel, Now, take your seats. Class is about to begin. We're going to start with the basics.” His gaze fell on you for a few seconds before going back to the class.

You smiled a little, feeling less nervous about things.

Crewel was the one who was responsible for preparing your clothes, you heard from Crowley.

He had a weird way of speaking but was incredibly nice to you and felt bad you had to be essentially on your own inside an all boys school. You would be ok though, probably.

“And by basics, I mean beating the names and distinguishing characteristics of one hundred herbs and poisons into your tiny brains.” Your teached raised his whip-like wand menacingly.

“The mycelia are another matter. But eventually, I'm hopeful you'll be able to take a walk without putting anything poisonous into your gaping maws.” You could hear a few students gulping loudly in fear.

Though this was oddly familiar…you were sure you heard about how the chief of the forest rangers of Ghandarva Ville was extremely strict and particular about people knowing poisonous plants from normal ones.

Would that really be a problem here? it’s not like twisted wonderland was surrounded by nature like Sumeru, you think.

“Huh. So... does anyone know what a mycelia is?” Deuce whispered from his seat next to both you and Ace.

“I've never been one for like, memorizing what things are, ya know?” Already with his head resting on his hand like he was listening to the most boring thing ever, Ace shrugged.

“All I care about is how to tell the yummy plants from the yucky ones.” Grim chimed in, puffing out his chest in some confidence you had no idea where he got from.

“It’s part of the structure of fungi guys, y’know…mushrooms?” You answered matter-of-factly.

“You’re such a fucking nerd.” Said Ace with no hesitation.

You rolled your eyes.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Professor Crewel’s class was pretty simple, nothing you hadn’t heard of before. You were familiar with plants due to your nature as a branch of Irminsul but also due to studying so much about them when you could.

After that you went to history class and this one was what you were most interested and excited about.

You needed to learn more about this world if you wanted to get out, it had nothing to do with your particular nerdy need for knowledge, perish the thought.

The teacher, Mozus Trein, held a grumpy looking cat and seemed to be very experienced. You hope to learn a lot from him.

And so you pay attention to the best of your hability while trying to make sure your cat isn’t going to try fighting with your teacher’s cat. You had no idea what Lucius was meowing every now and then but it surely had Grim seeing red.

Eh, it probably was some kind of feline dispute so you brushed it off.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You truly wondered what kind of god did you anger to get shown a hell crafter specifically for you.

Physical Education.

Really? you were SORE all over.

And you had the stamina of a 5 year old if not worse, there’s no way you’re surviving this class.

You tugged nervously on your jersey tracksuit coat(also kindly provided by professor Crewel) as you looked at the teacher of this class.

This man was absolutely jacked, almost like the eremites back in your world.

He flexed as he explained how a diet of raw eggs helped him achieve that shape.

You weren’t interested in getting that muscly.

“Bleah. The forced exercise is bad enough, but meatheads like this guy drive me nuts.” Ace seemed to be done with everything already, in a different way though.

“Finally! A subject I'm good at!” Deuce cheered and only him.

“Explain to me the appeal of runnin' around in circles! Do I look like a hamster?” Grim complained as he positioned himself on all fours, getting ready to run.

You though? you wanted this to be over.

[...]

You could barely run a single lap without wheezing and gasping for air.

You swore you could feel your classmates look at you with pity, just how bad were you at sports?

And you didn’t do any better during the 100-push ups asked by teacher Ashton Vargas.

By some miracle he decided to allow you to do sit-ups instead, maybe it would be easier, right?

…..

No

It wasn’t.

You could barely do one.

Not only you had “extra weight” to deal with but gravity felt overwhelming.

“C’mon dude, you gotta do at least one.” Said Ace who was already on his fifteenth.

“I’M….TRYING….!...NGH….” You answered with a strained voice, sweating bullets and face red due to the strain.

Never have you been humiliated in such a manner and you hoped to all archons above to not go through this ever again. This school is filled with evil people, you're sure of it.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Oh boy finally starting book 1!!! lesgooooooo!

Also obligatory reader fit check.

>Pajamas

>For P.E

Anyway boy oh boy can't wait to get to the conflict, i sure have things planned for it lmao.

Also taglist: @coffee-or-hot-cocoa , @m-majoko , @ghostlysyntaxed , @justanormiewhoreads

[kenchann]

ive been meaning to draw this www 🎃👻

[kirarinlovesidols]

Love Interests and some discussions.

Hello y'all, good morning, noon or evening. Today i would like to finally address the elephant in the room that is: character's ages.

So i'll rip off the bandaid and be clear: i'm not changing them, they're remaining canon.

Yall are prolly thinking "But in't mc 500???? isn't that bad? why not age them up!" 

For two reasons.

1: These boys and their behavior is extremely juvenile most of the time, i don't think the first years suddenly being 2 years older should happen without significative changes in their personalities. Yes, i'm aware that 2 years is barely enough time for someone to change much specially teens(I'm turning 21 like next week and i have trouble reminding myself i'm not a minor anymore, that's how little this shit can change if at all). But due to the nature of NRC and the ppl in it these characters would undergo so many things in their lives inside these 2 years that it doesn't feel right to me to make them act the same or even worse speculate on how, for example, older Ace or Epel would act without canonical material for that.

2: Wheter people like it or not NRC is a HighSchool. Yes, yes i know that y'all are probably going "WHY IS IT CALLED COLLEGE THEN". 

*Sigh* Y'know, eve since all we had for this game was the jp website and Malleu's illustration where he's rising from his coffin and nothing else i just had the feeling english speakers would have trouble with the school's name.

You see, college can mean "school" in other countries, not necessarily university.

I know that cause i'm brazillian, we literally have the word "Colégio" which is a synonym for Escola(School). In japanese it's essentially the same and that's a mistake made by JP Disney who didn't consider this when naming NRC.

Japan has many synonyms for school and since college can mean school they didn't think too much about it despite having a very different word for university (Daigaku).

And i'm a firm believer that relationships between some immortal being and a human is always going to end up in some kind of difference and if you're gonna problematize it you're gonna end up not ever watching or reading ANYTHING anymore, specially Lillia stans.

Like? Kamisama Hajimemashita fans? cooked

Inuyasha fans? cooked!

And the list goes on.

Why would i need to feel guilty about it if i'm not writing smut.

Like this a sfw story, these characters are NOT going to fuck.

People need to stop assuming that every relationship in fanfiction is going to end up portraying sex.

The most i'll do is some passing suggestive thought or so cause these are teenage boys, everyone knows how they are and the puritan parade can go cry louder abt it but everyone knows teens, it is what it is.

But that's MY personal take on it on MY story so ofc ppl can and are free to have whatever other views about this topic, as long as we're all respectful, mature and civillized.

Anyway now that that is finally out of the way we shall talk about the love interests.

Romantic Love Interests:

Heartslabyul: 

Riddle Rosehearts

Ace Trappola

Deuce Spade

Savanaclaw:

Leona Kingscholar

Jack Howl

Ruggie Bucchi

Octavinelle:

Azul Ashengrotto

Jade Leech

Floyd Leech

Scarabia:

Kalim Al-Asim

Jamil Viper

Pomefiore:

Epel Felmier

Ignihyde: Idia Shroud

Diasomnia:

Malleus Draconia

Silver

Lilia Vanrouge

Platonic Relationships: (Characters here are to be seen in a sibling or friend light)

Cater Diamond

Trey Clover

Vil Schoenheit

Rook Hunt

Ortho Shroud

Sebek Zigvolt

Also about MC's behavior, yes it's sometimes supposed to be wavy or ooc.

Sometimes she'll do or say things you would think she wouldn't do, it'll be explained why later.

Consider this a form of foreshadowing.

My writing isn't stellar so i do advise to keep the bar y'know kinda low as this is mainly for fun despite trying my best. 

[kirarinlovesidols]

Prologue Final.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You wondered how did things come to this.

Crowley dispersed the students who were watching the chaos and away from prying eyes he laid down how disappointed he was with you. A small part of yourself screamed about how it wasn’t your fault but was that really true? you had one job and that was to watch over Grim to make sure he wouldn’t get in or cause any trouble. Yet you failed.

In your opinion the punishment you got was lenient considering how you “””“helped””” to ruin a literal historical figure’s statue.

Yes you could’ve stopped both Grim and Ace if you wanted to, if you got serious. But…you wouldn’t be any different if you did. You didn’t like flaunting your powers  and you weren’t particularly good at fighting much less did you enjoy it.

An archon should be benevolent...Greater Lord Kusanali doesn’t like to inflict pain on living creatures, while you? when you had robbed Grim of his freedom you didn’t feel anything. No pity but no pleasure. It was probably a bad sign, you really weren’t fit for inheriting the divine throne.

You sighed as you watched your fellow resident of Ramshackle eat. Didn’t he feel bad? is it just you? maybe you’re the weird one? you weren’t sure.

At least the cafeteria itself was…nice…bustling with students left and right all talking about something. In your daze you failed to notice how Grim’s mouth was moving. Oh, you’re not listening…you better get back to earth then.

“I'm already exhausted from a full day of cleanin'. I can't believe we still gotta wash a hundred windows!” He seemed to be taking out his frustration on his food.

“You wouldn’t have to if you just let Ace leave.” Oops, you didn’t mean to sound angry there. Maybe you were a little bitter about it, just maybe.

“I wasn’t about to let that human boy talk about me like that!” You rolled your eyes. That attitude is exactly what got you two in trouble.

“What's buggin' me is, Ace ain't even here yet! To make us wait, after what he did... Grrr!” Well now that he mentioned it the ginger was indeed late…you decided to take a look around to see if you could find him but to no avail.

“Well…let’s give him more fifteen minutes, he might be busy with something.” You wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but also you didn’t want to believe he would just bail and ignore his responsibilities like that.

15 minutes later…..

“And now he's super late! I bet he up and bailed on us!” Truly, at this point you were pretty much the only ones left inside the cafeteria. It was weird to say the least.

“C’mon Grim, he wouldn’t do that…probably…let’s look for him, he could be lost!” Wasn’t he new to NightRaven? yeah! he could just be lost or something.

The cat just looked at you wondering if you were stupid or just naive. He concluded it was both but didn’t say anything.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You two walked inside multiple empty classrooms to check and see if he could be in there and guess what’s the result? absolutely nothing. Almost like the boy had disappeared.

The monster seemed to be scanning this room in specific, maybe his gut told him it was the right one? “Hey! Ace! Get over here! Try to hide from me, will ya! Huh... Maybe there's really no one here?” He wondered outloud as he walked around and you just followed.

“Oh, I wouldn't say that, I'm here.” You jumped at the sudden voice which caused you to hit your leg on a chair only to fall to the ground when you tried to cradle it.

You definitely couldn’t catch a break.

Also why does this hurts so bad!

“W-who said that?” You asked still unfortunately contorting on the ground out of pain.

“Bwaaah! That painting just talked!” You were about to tell Grim to stop messing around until you raised your head and yep….

That was…a painting….speaking….

Oh my god….

Is this also a byproduct of this world’s magic? you were starting to think there was nothing they couldn’t do.

“Yes, and...? Is a talking painting really such an oddity at this school?” The person inside the painting raised a brow as they looked down at you two. “The lady in the portrait on that wall talks too. As does the gentleman in the portrait on this one. As long as a painting has a mouth, why wouldn't it be able to talk? Is that really so strange?”

The pain caused by your clumsyness had finally subsided so you could easily answer that question.

“Well…usually a painting is someone’s creation…in a sense that wouldn’t allow it to speak so…yes? i wouldn’t consider it normal…” You felt like you had accidentally hurt this person’s pride somehow by saying that but could they really blame you?

The person or “not-inanimate object” let out a deep sigh, it seemed already used to such words.

“Well, your "Normal" and my "normal" clearly differ. Shall we agree to disagree on the matter? Now, you seem to be searching for someone.” Yup, you indeed were.

You explained to the painting about Ace and luckily they had seen him, finally a light in the dark.

So you just bid farewell and went to the direction they told you.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

Inside a room full of mirrors, each with the name of every dorm, was the boy the cat and the girl happened to be searching for.

“Yeah right, like I'm gonna wash a hundred windows.” Maybe he would’ve been more inclined to do so if you made a cute face and begged for it but even so there was the chance he wouldn’t, who would really? “I'm just gonna go back and—” literally centimeters before getting inside one of the many mirrors he heard the squeaky voice of the creature who got him in trouble earlier today.

“AHA! GOTCHA, PUNK!” It was running on all fours, zooming in his direction. 

Well, fuck. They found him.

“Shit! they saw me!” Not far behind the ginger could see you have a bit of a hard time to keep up, maybe you didn’t have enough stamina.

“Stop right there, pal! No fair gettin' a head start! Wait!” Grim said as soon as he noticed the human making a beeline to the exit.

“Who in their right mind would ever wait?! Seeya!” Ace smirked as he ran. How hard coult it be to outrun some cat and a girl who looked like she was on the verge of passing out?

“No way are you gettin' out of this! You think I WANNA wash windows?” It wasn’t about wanting it was about having to. They literally were told to do that as their punishment so why couldn’t these people just accept it and move on? Why did these boys need to make your life more difficult!

“Outta my way!” Ace almost ran over a boy with dark hair and a spade tattoo on the left side of his face, kinda familiar huh?

“Hey! What gives?!” The dark-haired boy yelped as he barely dodged the guy who was essentially his classmate.

“P-Please! s….Stop him!” You said stopping momentarily near him to catch your breath. You weren’t built for this,your lungs felt like they were going to burst.

He didn’t notice at first but aren’t you the girl at the ceremony? oh boy…he didn’t know how to interact with women who weren’t his family members properly…so as soon as you raised your head and he could see your big green eyes properly he just…felt his face get undeniably warmer.

He had to calm down, you asked for help and helping others is surely what an honor student does so he put some distance between you two so he could be less nervous and asked.

“You want me to cast a spell to stop him?”  You nodded rapidly.

“Like, freeze his legs? Or bind them with a rope? Or maybe I could... Hmm... No…” And now he got way too much inside his head, you were going to lose that troublemaker!

“I don't care how! Just do something! Anything, QUICK!” Grim yelled pointing at Ace’s back that seemed to get further away by the second.

“Anything?! Anything, huh...All right! Here goes anything! I summon thee... something heavy!”

Y’know.

Out of all the things he could’ve summoned.

You didn’t expect much less mean.

A cauldron.

“Bwaaah?! Wha?! A pot?!”  A literal CAULDRON popped out of thin air and fell on Ace. 

Your eyes widened in surprise as you screamed in horror.  “WAIT! I DIDN’T MEAN TO CRUSH HIM TO DEATH!”  Oh my archons, what would you even tell Crowley if this…this…stupid ginger boy got hurt? he would kick you out for sure and you would lose your only chance to find a way to go home!

“Ah ha ha ha ha! Look, Rukkha, look!” In one hand you were kinda happy he finally said your name but in the other hand you were pissing your pants out of fear for the consequences.

“That Ace guy got crushed beneath a giant cauldron! It squashed him flat! Aha ha ha! That's what you get!” You thought Grim’s mocking was a bit out of turn here, you might as well have killed the guy.

“Grim, PLEASE, don’t laugh! he might be really hurt! if that happens what do you think Crowley will do to you, to us?” You were not only scared for yourself but also slightly starting to get fed up with these two.

At that he rolled his eyes and pointed at the boy in question who already had crawled away from the heavy object, still in pain though.

“He’s fine, see?” Ok, thank god Ace is fine.

“A cauldron?! I wasn't expecting that. I may have overdone it this time…” The dark-haired one whispered to himself as he expected his almost homicide attempt as if it was nothing.

You walked towards your punishment buddy and give him your hand so he could get up.

“Owwww! What are you bothering me for? You guys coulda just banged out the work yourself!” As soon as he noticed your worried face he took your hand, hesitantly, and got up slowly. He would feel that tomorrow for sure.

“Because it’s not right! you’re also included in the punishment of washing a hundred windows so stop running and let’s please get it over with.”  You just want some peace and quiet for a while, was that asking for too much?

Hearing the word a hundred seemed to surprise the fellow with the spade tattoo.

“You have to wash a hundred windows as punishment? What the heck did you do?!” He stared at Ace incredulously demanding an explanation.

“I was just screwing with that furball a little. ...Okay, and the statue of the Queen of Hearts got a teeny bit charred. Sue me.” He crossed his arms and looked to the side, trying to minimize how problematic this was.

“Ace, it was not a little.” You corrected him which caused him to let out a sigh.

“You damaged a statue of the Great Seven?! No wonder he flew off the handle at you!

After you managed to get into THIS school, how could you get in trouble on the very first day?!” Yes! that’s exactly how you felt! how did any of this happened exactly?

You felt like this one guy was sensible.

“Oh, shut up. Who are you, anyway?” Asked the ginger with a tone that clearly showed his patience was running thin.

“My name is Deuce. Deuce Spade. Don't you remember your own classmate?” All three of you looked at Ace who just shrugged. You guess he didn’t pay attention. Not surprising.

“Well, Deuce! I’m Rukkhadevata, you can call me Rukkha. And this is Grim.” You pointed at the cat who seemed to be scanning the room for some reason, you ignored it though.

“Thank you for helping us catch him! it was very kind of you.” You genuinely meant that as most of the people you have met so far haven’t been exactly friendly.

Deuce didn’t seem to be doing so good, however. His face exploded in red again as he tried to find the words to answer you.

“N-No no! it was nothing…it’s…just the duty of an h-honor student…” He couldn’t handle how your doe eyes and long lashes blinked at him cutely, he’s going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t calm down.

Ace has to hold back with every fiber of his being to not tease his classmate about getting embarassed just from getting a “thank you” but for some reason he didn’t want to get on your bad side much more.

“You say that but you don't remember my name either, do you?” Ace wanted to ignore this gross display of shoujo manga scene so he immediately got on Deuce’s case.

“T-that’s not the point! You shouldn't try to shirk an order from the headmage!” The dark-haired one thanked his classmate inside for that, he needed to act normal again or you would think he’s weird.

“Yeah, yeah, message received... Fine, let's bang out the windows already.” You couldn’t agree more.

“Ok, let’s go Grim–” You were only talking for a few minutes. And he’s already gone, you did think things were awfully quiet.Why must everything be SUCH a struggle.

You couldn’t even bring yourself to complain about your stupid pyro cat being gone, all you could do was sigh in disappointment.

You’re going to snap and soon.

“The furball! He's gone!” Yeah, that’s a very nice observation Ace.

“Ah ha ha ha! I'll let you two handle the rest! See ya, suckers! The great Grim is going to be cleaning nothin’.” You’ve never felt like this before, this feeling.

“You caught me so YOU could run away yourself?!Hey! You there! Uh... Juice?” It’s almost like it’s coming from the pit of your stomach…

“My name isn't "Juice". It's Deuce! With a D!” You can’t do this anymore.

“This is partially your responsibility, you know! So help me catch that little furball!” All you wanted was to be able to be nice.

“How is this my responsibility?!” Seems like you can’t after all.

“Grim's other janitor friend seems to be out of it. That means this is up to you and me!” Greater Lord Kusanali….you’re terribly sorry for what you’re about to do.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Using your ability to fly you sped after Grim. You couldn't bring yourself to care about the other two who were already trying to catch the creature.

You just had one thing in mind.

Getting this animal to behave.

The monster had a smirk on his face as he ran, he wasn't built to do such lame stuff! He was supposed to be casting multiple spells and being cool! Right?

He shouldn't have looked back.

He only knew you for a day but your usually big eyes never looked so…menacing. He felt like prey.

All he could think to do was to somehow jump on the chandelier and use it as a shield, surely you wouldn't want to destroy property.

At that you grit your teeth, there really wasn't anything you could do without breaking it.

You could barely hear the world around you, all you wanted was to wipe that stupid smirk off his face.

And despite having such long ears you sure as hell failed to notice Ace and Deuce talking about how to get the cat down.

Which resulted in an Ace being flung in the Chandeliers direction and it falling down completely.

That only worked to fuel your anger further as you zoomed back down and quickly materialized multiple walls made out of your dendron energy in quick succession. They formed one of your cube prisons however there seemed to be something off about this one in specific. It started big but was getting smaller.

Before Grim could scream and demand to be let out, the walls started closing in, following the movement of your hand that also happened to be closing into a fist.

You let out a sigh.

“Now listen here you shitty bootleg of a pyro slime. You WILL listen to me and you WILL help cleaning this entire mess.” Your eyes narrowed as they glowed with that dangerous glint of yesterday.

“You don't have a say in the matter.” At this point Grim was being crushed due to the lack of space inside the little prison, looking absolutely terrified.

“So are you going to make it work or are you going to keep being difficult?” Your fist closed completely very quick as if to show him what could happen if he said no.

As soon as he was given enough space to breathe again he just nodded rapidly.

“Good.”

You released him and crossed your arms, your expression still sour.

They both made a mental note not to anger you, ever.

Ace caught a second of your sharp gaze and felt a chill go up his spine as a light blush dusted his cheeks. 

Why did you look hot when angry? What.

He was so confused but there was a worse crisis in front of him right now.

The fucking.

Broken.

Chandelier.

Just what the fuck.

Are you four going to do about this.

“Deuce you complete and total moron!

We got Grim, but we broke the chandelier! If the headmage finds out about this-”

Why the fuck did he mention that man.

“If I find out about... what, dear Ace?”

All four of your heads turned into Crowley's direction.

Snapping out of your angry daze your normal expression came back only to immediately replaced by one of pure regret.

How could you let your anger get the best of you like this.

You broke another very important item, again.

No wonder you got locked up.

You're a brat who can't control her own emotions.

No one needs that inheriting the divine throne.

“YOU. THREE. AGAIN. What have you done this time?!” The headmage looked very upset.

“Myaaah...she’s so scary….” Grim still isn’t over what just transpired so he chose to hide behind Deuce’s leg.

“Burning a statue wasn't enough for you? Now you've destroyed a chandelier?! Enough. All of you are expelled.”  Yep, there it was.

You’re absolutely done, cooked, pulverized, dead.

All because you couldn’t be calm and act like a normal person.

This was just too much, you couldn’t deal with it.

Tears trickled down your face as Crowley’s sermon kept going on and on. Apparently Ace and Deuce were trying to get him to change his mind but you really couldn’t pay attention to that.

Not when you felt like you ruined everything.

.   .   .    .    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .    .    .    .

Then…a hand grabbed your wrist.

“Hey, stop crying.”  Looking up you see it’s Ace.

“Leave that for later. Headmage said we have a chance, so leave your tears for later when we’re back.”  He smirked and pulled you with him to the mirror chamber.

Oh…

Maybe…

Maybe you should try believing him…?

You’ll try…

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

“So….we just need another mage stone, right?” You asked as you walked a little behind.

Both boys just nodded.

All of you got sent to the Dwarf’s mine in search of a mage stone, you had to bring before tomorrow or you would all be expelled.

You were slightly happy that there was a way but still upset about earlier, rightfully so. And this creepy forest wasn’t helping you feel any better.

“So this is the Dwarfs' Mine... Long ago, this mine was flush with magestones.” Oh…you wondered what happened exactly for such a prosperous mine to be just left abandoned like this.

“Urgh... Who knows what lurks in there now?” Grim had reservations about getting inside it.

“Probably just bats.” You shrugged, voice cut and dry. You were still angry at him.

He flinched slightly and got closer to Deuce who outright shoos him away from his leg.

Feeling the mood get bad again Ace interjects just in time, what a savior.

“Look, I can see a house. Let's see what the people there have to say.”  You looked at him in confusion. There’s no way there’s people still living here, who would live in such a tenebrific place?

Regardless you got inside the cottage, only to see exactly what you expected. No signs of anyone alive.

“Hellooo? Is anybody home...? Must be empty. It looks like it's been abandoned.” Deuce said as he looked around.

“Bwah! I got a spider web on my face! Ptchoo! Ptchoo!” You giggled lightly at that, it was funny but Grim isn’t forgiven yet.

“Look how tiny these desks and chairs are. Did children live here? One, two... Seven! It's like a clown car in here.” You had to agree, this entire place was absolutely minuscule. “It’s more like this entire place is small…i think i’ll step outside, my back hurts from hunching down.”  You weren’t particularly small, you were average around 1,70cm but being inside such a cramped place wasn’t good for your spine. Specially considering you had to deal with extra weight.

It only now dawned on you how being well endowed in the chest department was inconvenient. You didn’t care much before since you never had to do anything except sleep but so far? your shoulders kinda hurt.

After a few seconds the others left the house as well, a bit of frustration clear on their faces.

“Well, this isn't getting us anywhere. If we're gonna find a magestone, it'll be inside the mine.

Let's head inside and take a look.”  Ace said before doing a quick stretch and casually walking in the direction of that nightmare pit they call a cave.

“You wanna go inside THERE? It's pitch black!” You raised a brow to the cat’s cowardice. “Grim shouldn’t you be able to see better in the dark?” You crossed your arms feeling a bit scammed.

“I’m not a cat! of course i can’t!” He stomped the ground in anger.

Sure, you’re gonna pretend you believe him.

“What, are you scared of the dark? Pathetic.” Ace didn’t even need to look the feline in the eye to say that, he could easily tell he would lose it.

“Myah?! I'm not scared of anything! I'm taking the lead. You all follow me!” Grim ran inside the cave like the dumbass he is without considering the dangers.

“He’s so easy to rile up, it’s hilarious.”  You guessed the ginger wanted to use your roommate as a walking torch since he had flames on his ears.

And it indeed proved to be effective! in a small range, at least…you just would have to be sure to stick together so you wouldn’t get lost.

You kinda hated the inside of it more than the outside, why is every place in this world such fontainian horror movie material, you’re so tired.

Then a disembodied voice made itself known.

You immediately grabbed Ace’s arm who just blushed in shock.

It took a herculean effort for him not to think about your…uh…yeah, he already failed.

Soon enough the source of the noises made themselves known, more ghosts.

Couldn’t they just…not show up at all? you’re in a bit of a time limit here!!!

You stop using Ace as your emotional support and moved back since there isn’t anything you could do against ghosts. Yes, it makes you feel useless but everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, you just…have…many.

There’s a huge problem though.

Fighting these ghosts isn’t taking your group anywhere.

LITERALLY it’s almost as if the universe was against you, trying to stall or buy time somehow.

“If we stop to fight, we'll never get anywhere. Let's just keep moving.” You nodded as you agreed with Deuce.

There’s no point in fighting them, all you have to do is get the stone and come back.

“Sure, but don't act like we voted you team leader. The only reason we're here in the first place is because of that stupid stunt you pulled.” There’s no way Ace went there.

You were in the middle of running away from spirits and he had the guts to start a petty child fight, there’s no way.

“Oh? I'm pretty sure this all started because you tried to shirk your window-cleaning punishment!” You could easily see the vein popping on Deuce’s forehead as they for SOME REASON decided this time was the best to fight.

“So, we're bringing up ancient history now? Then if you wanna get down to brass tacks, this all started when furball torched that statue!” Ace pointed at the cat running behind you.

“Myah?! Maybe you shouldn'ta made fun of me, then!” Oh my god they’re all missing the bigger picture.

“Guys, guys! focus! stop fighting! we’re here to get a mage stone or we’ll be expelled by tomorrow! please stop.” You beg in a rushed voice.

“Yeah, which is why we don't need him ordering the rest of us around. It gets old real fast.” You let out a big exaggerated sigh to express your frustration.

“That’s not important right now! what matte- wait.”  You stopped and looked to the side on a particularly dark path inside the cave. You heard something, it was faint…but…still noticeable.

“...iiivvv... ...oooouuu…” 

“Huh?!” All of you inquired in unity.

“Wh-where's that comin' from?” The ginger stepped back a little, not a good look on him since he was grilling Grim about being scared earlier.

“...neeevvvaaa... ...iiivvv... ...ooouuu…”

“Sounds like... it's getting closer…” Deuce narrowed his eyes as if it would help him see better in the dark.

“It might be another ghost…” You said putting some distance between yourself and whatever the fuck it was as well.

“Stooonesss... Stooonesss aaare miiiiine!”

And there it was.

A type of monster you’ve never seen before showed up in front of you.

Some kind of…tormented being… revealed itself from the darkness. It had no eyes, no mouth yet it was able to speak. It’s head? it seemed to be some kind of broken flask oozing a weird black sludge.

Honestly? it looked like something a child would be afraid of and tell their parents was inside their closet but the fact it held a pickaxe, a big one at that, made your heart rate skyrocket. It had a weapon.

“Myaaah! No one said there'd be monsters! Let's get outta here!” Grim’s high pitched scream broke everyone’s fright spell as you all turned back and ran.

“That thing's super creepy! But didn't it just say something about "stones"?!” Oh, no, no, no no no.

“Ace? it has a pickaxe! please don’t be suggesting what i think you are suggesting! it could tear us all apart with a single swing!” You never experience such raw fear in your life.

Being afraid of the sages was one thing, being afraid of disappointing people was another. However being chased around by something that could literally kill every single one of you was just way past the line of what was ok.

“Stooonesss... ...nevvva give stooonesss...!” The creature swung the mining tool wildly as if trying to catch any of you but all it was accomplishing was creating sparks that lasted seconds.

This thing had a lamp on it’s other hand, this was a HAZARD.

“So there ARE still magestones here!” Deuce had a relieved smile on his face despite the sweat forming on his forehead.

“Myaaah... Even as a master sorcerer, I... I don't think I can take that thing down!” The cat sounded so terribly out of character that if you weren’t still kinda upset and terrified you would’ve laughed.

“But we need a magestone or we'll get expelled! I'm going in!” The dark haired boy stopped and pointed his magic pen at the monster who was getting dangerously close.

“NO! That’s not a good idea!” Yes you were happy Crowley gave you a second chance but this was madness! dying over it wasn’t worth it!

Being the reckless idiot he was, Deuce started attacking the lovecraftian horror. The rest of you couldn’t just leave him alone so you tried your best against it.

Ace with his wind, Grim with his fire and when the monster waved it’s pickaxe in retaliation you put up a barrier to protect them.

Needless to say you were in a stalemate.

“This is NOT working!” You said as you almost fell to the ground after defending a particular nasty swing. It was trying to break your barriers through sheer force and you don’t know how long you could keep up.

“It's like nothin's even hurtin' it!” The cat said in frustration.

Then the light coming off of the monster’s lamp happened to reflect on something on the back.

“WAIT! did you guys see that sparkle?!” You hoped you weren’t hallucinating.

“Behind the monster! There's something sparkling in the mineshaft!” Ace pointed at the small sparkle that appeared everytime the light hit the wall on a very particular angle.

“Could that have been a magestone?!” Oh for sure, there’s no way it wasn’t.

“GWAAAAAAAH! Nooo giiive yooouuu stooooooone!”

Yep, that told you exactly what you needed to know.

“Human!, we need to book it, and fast! That thing's gonna pound us into tuna paste!” Your roommate pulled slightly the pants of your overalls to get your attention.

He was right, you needed a plan.

“Let’s retreat for now!” At that you all went back to running.

You ran for a good while but you could still hear the monster’s furious cry as it watched it’s prey escape.

“This should be far enough, I think?” Grim fell to the ground in exhaustion.

“Owww... What was that thing? No one said there'd be anything like that!” Ace clutched his chest trying to calm his erratic breathing.

“That was no normal ghost, that's for sure.” Deuce was the only one who didn’t look that tired, maybe he had better stamina than all of you?

“Let's just give up and go home. I'll happily take the expulsion if it means never having to fight that thing again.” The ginger said as he sat on the ground to get proper rest.

As bad as it was you kinda agreed. It just wasn’t worth getting hurt for…plus they had families, right? it would be stupid to just risk losing all of that.

“What?! Nuh-uh, not happenin'! I'd rather die than get expelled from Night Raven! How can you give up when the stone is right there? Also didn’t you tell her to believe in you? own up to it!”  The dark-haired boy refused to give up, clenching his pen on his hand.

“Pfft. Big talk from someone who's not even half the mage I am. You want that stone so bad, go get it yourself. I'm out.”  As soon as his classmate was about to leave Deuce yelled: “Oh YEAH?! Fine, go back to your coop, you big chicken!”  What.

“Whaaaaat?! Who're you callin' chicken, huh?!” You did a double take. Just what happened to Deuce.

“Whoa, Deuce... Is it just me, or did you, like, turn into a totally different person just now?” Even Grim got up from his resting spot to point that out, just what the hell happened? did he snap?

“Huh?! *Cough* *Cough* Sorry... Lost my cool for a second there.” You just looked at him pitifully. He’s probably stressed from the whole ordeal, you were too, a lot.

“Ok, ok, so…now what?...” You sighed and prompted everyone to give their two cents on this situation.

“Can't you guys just blow that thing up with magic?” Grim suggested as if you didn’t just try that.

“Grim we just  tried that. It didn’t take any damage, remember?” You really had to be reminding him of the obvious constantly it seems.

“Plus using magic at a greater scale, or using different types of magic - those things require training.” Deuce said as he looked at his closed fist, maybe regretting his lack of strength?

“Yeah, that's why magic academies exist, duh.” You rolled your eyes at Ace’s sassyness.

“It takes a lot of training before you can snap your fingers and turn your thoughts into magic.

And the more flustered you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes.” He looked at his own magic pen as if deep in thought.

“Oh…it seems tough for you guys then…” You didn’t imagine it was that hard for them. You just thought about doing something and did it, it wasn’t half as complicated for you.

But then again their magic seemed to be able to do much more than harvest elemental energy like it was in Teyvat so you assume that’s fair.

“Huh? it isn’t like that for you?” They looked at you as if you had grown a second head.

“No? i just…think about what i want to do and…it happens.” You shrugged.

“Oh hell no, don’t tell me you’re one of those genius types….” Ace groaned in some kind of annoyance.

“That’s so cool!!!” Deuce had the exact opposite reaction, his eyes shined with curiosity and admiration?

You didn’t like that much attention on yourself so you just diverted their attention immediately.

“Anyway, what are we doing?” You tried your hardest to hide the teeny tiniest little blush on your cheeks.

“Well…we need to find some way to defeat that creature and get the magestone.” The “spade” boy cupped his chin as he tried to think.

“Yeaaaaah. Just like the time with the chandelier, right? You "found some way," and now here we are. We just fought that thing and it creamed us. So what exactly is your plan here, genius? Because I sure don't trust you to improvise!” At every sentence the “hearts” boy pointed at his classmate’s face as a parent would to their child.

“What?! You're the one who-” Oh no…..

“Aaand they're at it again.” Grim said in disappointment.

You though? you were losing it again, there’s no way this is happening.

“UGH JUST…SHUT UP!”  You stomped your feet on the ground and without realizing you channeled dendro energy into it, which caused some vines to sprout randomly.

They both gasped as they instantly stopped, they still remember what you did to your last “victim” after all.

Said victim scurried off to hide behind a bush, there’s no way he would deal with your weird magic again.

“Can’t you just…stop fighting for 5 seconds?! you aren’t children anymore, frankly this is as embarrassing as it’s annoying!” Your ponytail started to come undone due to your frantic angry movements.

Which only pissed you off more since your hair was so bizarrely long.

“Listen! i agree with Ace! getting hurt for some…some..honestly irresponsible almost suicide mission is crazy! but…”  You clutched your chest as if in agony— “But…i…i don’t want to get expelled after all! i don’t have anywhere else to go, alright?! so….”  You tried to get your breathing under control again.

“Can’t we just….work as a team? it could go well…but if you guys keep fighting we’ll never know.” You have a cowardly streak? yes but there’s a limit to how much one can lie to themselves.

“Team up wiith Loosey-Deucey? No way. He'd get me killed!” Ace stomped on your heartfelt feelings while looking at you as if you suggested killing his mom.

“Like it'd be some treat for me to work with you?!” Deuce clearly had to stop himself from punching his classmate.

You sighed.

Breathe in….breathe out….

“I have a plan but it won’t work unless we work together.” You were serious.

“"Work together"... Is that some kinda joke? You always say the lamest things with the straightest face, Rukkha.” God you were going to scream, or hit Ace, whatever happened first.

“Agreed. No way could I work together with him.” Deuce you’re very close from making our Lesser Lord break her “Not ever hitting” someone vow.

“Yeah, but... Gettin' expelled on the first day... That's pretty lame too. Maybe even lamer….” FINALLY! SOMEONE WITH A BRAIN! even if it’s a flaming cat.

The boys looked at each other at a loss for words, you guessed they agreed with Grim deep down.

“Ok, what’s your plan?” Ace rolled his eyes and rested his head on his hand, a sign he was willing to listen.

“Thank you! was it that hard?! anyway, it’s risky but if we do this….”  You then proceeded to explain your entire plan to the group.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

You four now stood in front of the cave going through the plan again to make sure nothing would go wrong.

“Henchman... Is this plan of yours really gonna work? I'm sca- I mean, I'm a little... uh, hungry.” Grim tried his hardest to hide his shivering legs, oops, paws.

“It could! it’s a bet but we’ll have to make our own luck.” You smiled at him, your eyes brimming with determination.

He took your expression as the sign and got inside the cave again.

“H-hey, monster! I'm uh... I-I'm over here!

Grim will be the bait.

Hey! why do i have to be the bait?! 

Cause’ you’re smaller and faster, you can dodge him easily, right?I-I guess you’re right.

“Grrraaawrrr! BEGOOOOONE!” The monster locked in on Grim just like you expected.

“He's comin' our way! henchman!” He nodded as he ran, luring the monster straight to you.

“Thanks! over here monster!” You then diverted it’s attention to you.

“Grrurgh? Thieeef thiiis waaay tooooo... Neeevvva giiive stooones! Neeevvvaaa!”

Then i’ll bring the monster over to Ace so he can meet up with Deuce.

You ran as fast as you could, Grim right beside you, trying to get the monster the furthest away from the mine as possible.

“OVER TO YOU ACE!”  You shout before barely jumping out of the way of it’s pickaxe

“Gotcha! HEY IDIOT! I’M RIGHT HERE!” The boy smirked as he readied his pen.

“Begooone! BEGOOOOOOONE!”

He ran until the specific spot Deuce was waiting at.

That’s when Deuce is going to summon a cauldron

A CAULDRON? WHY?

Didn’t you notice how that pickaxe is way too sharp?Well, yeah. It tried to behead me.

No, no! i meant how it’s weirdly well maintained.

What does that have to do with anything?

Well! when the blade hit the walls of the cave it created sparks, right?

You don’t mean…?

Exactly.

“Get 'em, cauldron!” With his pen pointed at the sky, Deuce summoned a cauldron. It rapidly fell in the monsters direction.

“Grrraaawrrr!” It did exactly what you hoped it would. 

With a wide swing it used it’s pickaxe to hit the object away from it’s head. However it was sloppy and the other side of the tool hit the glass of the flask it had for a head, making the black sludge ooze out even more.

That wasn’t your goal though, what’s important is that in that split second you had to give the sign.

“You fell for it.” With a smirk you extended your hand and yelled: “DO IT ACE!” 

The ginger summoned his wind. It blew any sparks that were created by the impact of metal against metal in the monsters direction.

“YOUR TURN FURBALL!” He called for Grim.

So you’ll burn it alive?

We don’t even know if it’s alive in the first place.

Yeah, that’s the plan.

Wouldn’t that cause a forest fire?

Yeah but i have a way to avoid it.

“YOU BETTER CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY! THIS IS A GIFT FROM THE GREAT MAGE GRIM TO YOU!”  

He inhaled as deep as his small lungs allowed and quickly spit fire on the creature. 

“Gwaaah?!” 

It cried in confusion as the clothes it was wearing ignited.

I don’t know what that black liquid is but i’m betting it’s flammable.

All we’ll need is a single spark

Then Grim’s fire will just make it stronger.

It had jinxed itself with it’s sloppy attack and now the flames only got intense with the second.

“Nailed it! The plan's workin'! now end it Rukkha!” Grim jumped in excitement as he “passed the baton to you”.

“Yeah! leave it to me!”  You quickly put your hands on the ground.

This was something you could always do back in Teyvat but hesitated on trying here since you weren’t sure of how much of your powers you retained.

Vines shot from the ground and held the creature still, now you had to act quick since the fire could easily burn them away.

Your domain is dendro, plants, the earth.

You weren’t just going to let some beast ruin your chance to get back home.

“Now stay there!” With a flick of your wrist 4 neon green walls rose from the ground and closed around it.

You guys know how i can make prisons, right?

Yeah…Well if i take away the oxygen, fire shouldn’t spread.

“GRAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”  The beast howled in what you assumed to be pain as the flames and smoke worked in tandem to destroy it.

“Haha! How does that taste huh? that’s what you get for underestimating us!” Ace mocked the monster from the safety of the outside world.

“It’s not the time to mock it, just go grab the stones!” You said flinching slightly as it seemed to refuse to calm down, the word “stones” only fueling it’s despair.

“Waaait! Nooooooo!” The monster hit the walls of the cubic cage as if trying to escape.

Sweat dripped down your face as this was essentially a resistance test, he would try to break the barrier at any cost and you had to keep it up.

Good luck.

“That's it! That's a magestone!” Deuce shouted from the cave.

“Dooon't tooouch thaaaaat!” It now used it’s both hands to bang against the walls which were starting to crack.

“GUYS? Maybe you want to be faster about it? it’s going to get out!” You yelled in absolute panic.

Thankfully they just had managed to get a hold of what you needed.

“C’mon let’s bounce” Grim said as he ran.

You nodded before taking your hands out of the soil, causing the prison to disperse, and going on a sprint.

The monster could barely stand but it still could crawl so that’s what it did, terribly fast.

“Are you kiddin' me?! It's still coming! It’s like a roach!” Ace exclaimed in horror.

“It's too fast! It's about to catch us!” Deuce could literally feel the smell of scorched fabric getting closer, it was awful.

“It’s weak though! we can defeat it!”  Pouring your last bit of strength on it, you touched the ground again and summoned more vines to keep it still.

“Aw, fine! Let's just smash the thing. Try not to wet yourself, Deucey!” Ace smirked at his now, definitely, friend.

“Same to you, Ace!” Said Deuce before summoning multiple cauldrons.

They made a horrible noise as they fell however the weight was no joke and it succeeded in smashing the monster’s head for good.

It stopped struggling.

Broken and what was left of the black liquid poured on the ground.

You did it.

You won.

“I think... we won? I think we did it!” Grim said in disbelief.

“All right!” Deuce cheered punching the air.

“Woohoo!” Ace didn’t lose in excitement.

“Gimme a victory high-five!” The cat extended his paw to you and you did even worse.

“WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! WE’RE FREEEE!!!!!!!!” You outright grabbed him and hugged him to your chest.

Ok, calm down, you’re gonna kill him if you hug any tighter.

“C-CAN’T….CAN’T BREATHE….” You heard his faint voice and immediately stopped.

“O-oh, sorry!” You gave him an apologetic smile but didn’t let go just yet.

After all that you don’t think you care about what happened anymore, you’re just glad everything went well. Fuck being mad.

In the distance Ace and Deuce glared at the cat. That lucky bastard!

You never intended to leave them out though.

You put your roommate on your head and ran towards the boys, jumping into a hug.

“Oh i’m so happy! Shared adversity really does brings people together, huh?” You had your arms wrapped on the neck of each, it was pretty much just a group hug, except they weren’t hugging back due to going fucking catathonic for 4 seconds or so.

“Uh... I don't think that had anything to do with it…” Deuce said trying his hardest not to think about how soft your hair felt on his cheek. Wait was that weird? Was HE weird?

“Y-Yeah! Spare us the clichés, Rukkha!” While Ace was again going through a terrible time, your face was way too close to his neck, maybe don’t breathe there for the love of god.

“There's no "together" here! We won 'cause of me! This is all from me bein' a magical genius!” Grim smirked and pointed at himself which just looked comical since he was sitting on your head, looking awfully comfy.

“Y'know... I hate to admit it, but... We mostly won because of your plan.” Ace murmured sofly. Teenager hormones be damned he had to give credit when it was due.

“Yeah... if you hadn't managed to keep your cool and tell us all what to do, we never would have got this magestone. Now I won't get expelled. And wow, is THAT a relief!” Deuce nodded escaping his shyness miraculously, we’ll see for how long though.

“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’m just glad no one got hurt.”  You finally let go as it was getting way too long for a hug.

“Yeah, yeah, lessons were learned, et cetera. Can we just go home already? I'm wiped.” You could agree with your ginger friend there, you needed a shower, pronto.

“Usin' all that magic made me hungry! Huh? What's this?” Grim jumped from your head landing perfectly on his foot, y’know as a cat does, and proceeded to look for something.

“Hm? what’s that Grim?” You crouched to take a look at what he had found.

“Is that a part of the monster we just beat? It looks like... a magestone? But it's black as coal! I've never seen one like that before.” The dark-haired boy analysed the stone in confusion.

“What IS this? It smells amazing!” What Grim did next surprised everyone.

“Are you insane?” Ace asks with his hands on his head.

The fucking cat.

Ate a rock.

“NOOOOO! SPIT IT OUT, YOU’LL GET SICK!” You immediately tried to grab him and failed, he was getting too good at predicting your movements.

“Oooooogh... Urrrgggh... That... was AMAZING!” What?

“Rich in flavor and full-bodied... Like sweet, fragrant flowers burstin' into bloom on my tongue. A whole field of 'em! Right in my mouth!” He jumped in happiness as he described the atrocity he just put in his mouth with the same vocabulary of a food critic.

“Are you sure you’re ok…? this can’t be normal….” You looked at him worriedly

“Myah ha ha ha! Man, was that great! Don't worry about me. I don't got a weak stomach like you humans do.” He just laughed and expected all of you to accept he just ate a fucking rock.

“Hmph. We'll see if you're so smug when you're sick later tonight.” Ace said already walking in direction of the portal to NightRaven.

“Archons! don’t say that! i don’t know how to take care of him!” You prayed to whatever god was listening he wouldn’t wake you up in the middle of the night cause he threw up everywhere.

With that…you returned, marking an end to the dwarf’s mine adventure.

⟥────────✤────────────────────⟤

“Pardon?! You're telling me you actually went to the Dwarfs' Mine in search of a magestone?” Crowley stopped signing whatever documents he had on his table for a moment.

“Uh…yes didn’t you tell us to?” Why was he questioning that.

“I didn't expect that you'd seriously do it.And never in my wildest imaginings did I think you would actually return with a magestone! And here I spent all evening preparing your expulsion documents.” You couldn’t believe that.

You felt absolutely betrayed.

“Are you serious?! While we were fightin' some crazy monster for you, you were expelling us?!” Grim hissed, rightfully so.

“"Monster"...?” The masked man let go of his pen and raised his head so he could listen properly.

“Yeah. There was a monster, all right. A big, nasty one. It nearly killed us!” Ace made sure to exaggerate that one.

“Would you kindly relate this story in full?” Crowley asks crossing his arms.

Explaining what happened took exactly around 10 minutes and as soon as you mentioned you had to work together the man instantly burst into tears.

“Oh, gracious... Ohhh... Ohhhhhhhh!” Were you really watching a grown ass man cry?

“Uh…are you ok mister Crowley..? do you need…a tissue?” You asked awkwardly trying not to look at him.

“What is this guy's deal?! Burstin' into tears in public? At this age?!” You turned to scold Grim.

“Grim! people can cry at whatever age alright? maybe he’s just stressed! be nice!” Yep, you were back to your usual banter.

“In all the decades I've worked at this school… The day has finally come when the students of Night Raven College have joined hands together to defeat a common foe!” The headmage cheered as tears ran beneath his mask.

“Whoa! No! No way would I join hands with that guy!” Deuce pointed at Ace with a disgusted expression.

“Okay, one, there was no joining of hands. Gross. And two, exactly HOW old are you, headmage?” Ace made sure to almost retch to insult his friend even more.

“At this moment, I am moved beyond words. This incident has proven my hopes were justified. Miss Rukkha… my doubts are allayed! For you... You possess the talents of a beastmaster!” You raised a hand to point at yourself, you were confused. “What? what’s that…? what’s that supposed to mean?” What was he even yapping about.

“My students have all been selected by the Dark Mirror for their exceptional talent and potential. But great talent begets great pride and big egos. Most are so self-reliant and self-centered that they never even consider cooperating with others.” The man had no qualms about roasting his students in front of you, truly demonic.

“You make it sound like that's a bad thing.” Grim interjected.

“Because it is, Grim.” You answered quickly only to get a “hmph!” from him.

“But you, Miss Rukkha, possess strange unstable magic.Yet in spite of that - or perhaps because of it - you were able to convince those who CAN use proper magic to work together for a common goal. The everyday, humdrum mundanity and simplicity you possess may be exactly what Night Raven College needs!” He sounded so happy and proud of what he said but all you could hear was that he still thought your powers were unstable and that you were futile as a person.

You’ll choose to ignore that, at least he gave you a place to stay.

“But... none of those words are good things?” Yeah, thanks Ace.

“Miss Rukkha...I am convinced that people like you are necessary for the future of this school. My educator's intuition tells me so.” He got up from his chai and straightened his coat.

“Trappola, Spade - I hereby revoke your pending expulsions! Furthermore, Miss Rukkha...

I am granting you the qualifications necessary to attend at Night Raven College!” He clapped his hands lightly as if to congratulate you.

What

That word literally invaded everyone’s brains.

Ace, Deuce and Grim all screamed it in absolute shock.

“An…actual student…? i get to stay?...”  Oh wow…you did it, you don’t have to worry anymore.

“Of course. This is extraordinarily kind of me. However, there is one condition, be sure to train your magic according to the classes. The mysterious nature of your magic is, for a mage, unacceptable. You would not be able to adequately pursue the school's curriculum!”

Holy fuck you’re going to blow a fuse at this man someday.

“As for you, Grim...Your actions today have made it clear that you possess sufficient talent to become a mage. In light of the total sum of your respective circumstances, you and Miss Rukkha will share a single enrollment at Night Raven College.”

You immediately turned to Grim with a big smile on your face.

“Myah... Myah... Rukkha, I... I finally…” He ran straight to you so you crouched and held his paws.

“Yeah! you did it! i told you you would become a great mage!” You’ll think about how you literally almost crushed him to death later.

“MYAAAAAH! I FINALLY DID IT!” You were so incredibly happy for this stupid cat.

“Accordingly, I will now present to Grim the magestone that is issued to every student here.”

With a snap of his fingers a ribbon with a magestone dangling from it appeared on Grim’s neck. He looked so cute.

“Heh! A magestone, eh?!” He seemed to like how the little stone shined against his dark fur.

“You too Miss Rukkha.” Maybe it was to match Grim but you got a stone as well, except it was dangling from a choker instead.

“Oh, wow…thank you!” It was pretty neat, you’ll say.

“Ah, sweet! I look awesome! A magestone collar, to be worn only by the legendary archmage, Grim!” You watched happily as the cat showed off his new look.

“You're not listening to anything I say, are you? Miss Rukkha. As you can plainly see, Grim remains oblivious to the customs of human society. You are to keep a tight rein on Grim, and ensure there are no further incidents!” You nodded your head at Crowley, this time you would make sure to watch him properly.

“Wow, that's quite the promotion. From janitor to student to prefect, all in the span of a day.” Ace whistled in surprise.

“Oh, I see. So if your dorm is just you two... And the headmage himself is putting you in charge of Grim, that makes you... the dorm prefect.” Oh! Deuce had a point, you guess you’re Ramshackle’s prefect now.

“I’ll do my best!” Your smile was a bit too bright and doing things to Ace’s heart so of course he had to ruin it.

“But knowing how clumsy you are you’ll probably get overthrown by Grim or something.” A smirk rested on his lips.

“I’m not clumsy! stop being mean!” You pouted but knew it was all in good faith.

After that you were also entrusted with something called a ghost camera, an item that was able to play moments captured in photos.

You were absolutely thrilled to have it since Kameras were still kinda new back in Teyvat so to see one that could just…be used in such a way was beyond amazing. Still you found the reason why Crowley wanted you to have it weird.

Apparently he wanted you to keep an eye for troublemakers? you guessed? well, sure.

Since you had to study and find a way to go back home you could surely also find time to help him.

Either way you’ll figure it out.

You have friends now and one hell of a roommate!

Your story in NightRaven has just begun ~

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Holy fuck i am TIRED, MY WRISTS ACHE BRO, WHAT THE FUCK.

I’m proud of how this chapter turned out though, even if i hate my cringy ass writing.

I would once more like to thank you guys so much for the hearts, comments and reblogs.

I never expected my silly story to be liked at all so seeing this is just surprising to me.

Anyway tomorrow i’ll talk abt the love interests and address the elephant in the room that is:

Ages.

Some ppl might not like my stance on that topic and that’s fine, i just hope to not wake up to death threats, that would be ridiculous.

ALSO DON'T QUOTE ME ON HOW PHYSICS WORK WITH THE CAULDRON AND THE SPARKS OK? I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT, IT'S MY STORY AND I GET TO WRITE ABT IMPOSSIBLE SHIT.

Also here's a little bonus of little Rukkha and her wardrobe so far.

Done on picrew cause i'm not good enough at drawing yet.

It's just bad i couldn't add her green streaks but lmao it's ok.

Also you would never guess i was listening to fucking megaman music while writing that fighting scene, absolutely hilarious.

Anyway taglist: @coffee-or-hot-cocoa , @m-majoko , @ghostlysyntaxed , @justanormiewhoreads

[themaskinthemirror]

During the Halloween holiday at NRC :

Yuu : *running away to Ramshackle with Skully's portrait* YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME!

Crowley : *running after them* THAT PORTRAIT IS SCHOOL PROPERTY! GIVE IT BACK PERFECT!

Adeuce : *also running after them* YUU COME BACK WITH THAT PORTRAIT!

Skully : *talking through the portrait* Go go my dear friend! They can never catch us!