Chapter Text
“Man, teach’ is really kicking my ass here,” a girl grumbled, giving a sigh as she slung her bag over her shoulder. The city streets slowly lit up as the streetlights turned on, the stars beginning to flicker into existence in the sky. “You! Yes, you! Stop breaking into the restricted room! You don’t have clearance to use those for your project! Man… Don’t they know that breakthroughs come from the unconventional?” She sighed once more, running a hair through her ponytail.
“What-ever. If they didn’t want me in the stockroom, they should have put a better lock on it. Not my fault it’s so easy to lockpick,” she gave a quiet huff, shaking her head. “Time waits for no one.”
She sighed, kicking a rock on the side of the sidewalk vindictively, turning her glare onto it. “I don’t care about these stupid regulations. If I keep following known procedures, how am I meant to make any progress? You don't discover something unknown by repeating what everyone else has done.”
A large, black feather fell from the sky, landing in front of her.
She lifted her head up, glowering at the sky, the action jostling her glasses. “There must be more than this provincial life… More than waiting for someone to recognize what I could do… What I would do.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw a raven perched on the lamp of streetlight, its beady eyes glowing... gold?
She adjusted the round frame of her glasses, squinting to see if she was seeing that right, thin golden rims catching the streetlights as a sudden, rapid clip-clops behind her caught her attention. “Eh? What in- Oh, shit!”
She had done a lot of things in her life so far. However, getting hit by a horse and carriage, in the middle of a city was a first.
—
Chapter I: Raven Paradox:
Arises from the question as what counts as evidence for a truth of statement; observing objects that are neither black nor ravens may formally increase the likelihood that all ravens are black even though, intuitively, these observations are unrelated.
If magic is observed when you know magic to not exist in your world in a capacity beyond myth and story, does observing it then truly suggest that you are in another world?
—
Ah, my dear esteemed benefactor…
My proud, beautiful flower of evil.
You are truly the fairest one of all.
O magic mirror, thy wisdom I entreat…
Reveal unto me the visage I seek…
You, whose image the Dark Mirror did beckon forth…
If your heart bids it, take the hand of the one reflected in the mirror.
As flame reduces even the stars to ash
As ice seals away even time itself
As great trees swallow even the sky
Fear not the power of darkness.
Now—demostrate your power.
To me. To them. To yourself.
The twelfth hour grows long, and time is scarce.
Keep your grip steady, no matter what may come…
Never let go of that hand.
—
The girl groaned, sensation that had been dutifully evading her slowly coming back. Coming back was perhaps a bit generous- there was a rather persistent haze in her mind that would not leave no matter how much she tried to clear it. She felt tired, the type of exhaustion that penetrated straight to your bones. She yawned, stretching her arms.
Thud.
She scrunched her nose in confusion, her mind somewhat feverish. She could have sworn the wall was farther away from her bed.
A single thought managed to break through the haze she was in.
Wait a moment, she realized. I was…
Blurry memories swept through her mind- a vague recollection of walking down the street, the night breeze blowing through her low ponytail, and a rather menacing silhouette that she could not yet place appearing out of nowhere. Sudden pain, and–
Oh. I got hit by a… Carriage… she thought blankly, not quite comprehending. The realization hit her a second later, and the panic finally set in. I got hit by a carriage! Shit! Am I dead?!
Her eyes flew open, and she was greeted by complete darkness. Understandably, that was quite the opposite of what she wanted to see. She was more hoping for the white sterileness of a hospital, considering that she had gotten hit by a horse and carriage like a poor rendition of an 1800s tragedy play. She’d even take seeing the roadside scenery of where she had gotten hit over wherever she was.
“Hello?!” She called, reaching around, only getting more panicked as she was met by rather tight walls on all sides. Crap, is this a coffin?! I’m not dead! But I’m standing upright! Since when have coffins been positioned that way? “Hello? Can anyone hear me?!” She yelled, fists banging against the side in front of her, which she hoped was the door.
“I better hurry up and get that uniform before someone spots me…”
She paused, terror replaced by confusion as she heard another voice. A boyish, nasally voice that was suspiciously close to where she was.
… What? She thought blankly, her mind latching onto one word. A… uniform?
“Urgggh... This lid weighs a ton!” The voice complained, and she blinked, realizing whoever was out there was trying to open the lid.
And suddenly–
Everything glowed a bright, terrible blue.
“Try this on for size! Mya-ha!”
Blue flames seeped through the door, and she screamed in reasonable alarm as the lid was blown off, throwing herself forward and rolling onto the ground to avoid an unwanted rendition of a brazen bull, revealing a gray furred cat that stood in front of her, hints of smoke and blue fumes still escaping his mouth.
“You, human! Give me your uniform, now!” The gray cat demanded, pointing a condemnatory paw at her.
She just about threw her hands up in the universal gesture of a surrender before she did a double take.
The talking cat is the one demanding my clothes. Wait a moment, a talking cat is demanding my clothes!
“A talking cat?!” She exclaimed incredulously, eyes widening in bewilderment as she scrambled to stand back up. “Huh?!”
“How... How DARE YOU! I am no CAT!” The… apparently-not-a-cat shouted in offense, puffing out his chest as he stood on his back two legs in an eerily human manner. “I'm Grim, sorcerer extraordinaire!” He declared, putting his paws up in the air
She blinked slowly. “Now I know I have to be dreaming.”
Talking cats who breathed fire did not exist. Those were stories, not an actual fact. It didn’t take a genius to know that the scene playing out was biologically impossible. It was a strange dream– that was all. Now, if she could wake up, that would be lovely.
“I’m no animal! Tch! Whatever. You… human! Just gimme your uniform, and be quick about it! Cause if you don't...you're gonna regret it!” The cat-thing… Grim, as he called himself, demanded, pointing one paw at her once more in a manner that was probably meant to be menacing.
“Uniform?” The girl echoed, finally processing what he wanted from her, before looking down and gasping in surprise. Those purple and black fancy looking robes were not what she was wearing last. It was undeniably not the outfit she could vaguely remember putting on this morning.
Huh. This really is a weird dream.
She quickly looked up, before she froze. She was in a large, dark and ominous room with floating coffins, one of which she had apparently been in. The worst part was the rather large mirror in the middle that was also hovering.
“What sort of dream is this? A talking cat and floating… morgue? Where is the logic?” She wondered out loud before screeching in alarm as she was forced to jump to the side to avoid a wave of blue flames thrown at her.
That’s really hot! Wait, how am I feeling sensation in a dream–?!
“Well keep dreamin', 'cause I ain't no cat!” The proclaimed Grim retorted. “Now gimme your robes!”
He took a deep breath in, and as pattern recognition suggested she was about to get more fire blown at her, she, in favour of not getting flambeed, turned around and bolted.
—
She had never been much of a runner, but as it would turn out, running for your life turned out to be excellent motivation to start.
She didn’t pay much attention to her surroundings, although she was vaguely aware she had run down hallways with torches of green fire (burning the copper sulfate constantly could not be safe; perhaps the fumes had to do with the rather peculiar decor in this place), through a courtyard with apple trees, all in an apparently futile attempt to lose the flaming-throwing cat who had a strange fixation on the robes she was wearing.
Finally, in a valiant last ditch effort, she ducked into a building, which turned out to be a rather large library. With more floating objects. Books and some other trinkets she could not name, to be precise.
Unfortunately for her, it seemed her luck finally decided to run out. One wrong turn later, she found herself in a dead-end, walls of books on the shelves too high to climb to get out. She spun on her heel, facing the gray cat who had been pursuing her.
“Foolish human! Did you really think you could slip away from ME? Now, unless you wanna get burned to a crisp, take off that–”
In the same moment that she grabbed the nearest object, which was a heavy encyclopedia looking book, and threw it as hard as she could, she saw the faintest shadow of something whip through the air.
CRACK!
“Me–YOUCH!” Grim yelped, and as the book she threw hit him and fell to the ground, she saw the cat had been trapped in a… Whip? “That hurt! What gives?”
“Consider it tough love,” a new voice suddenly interjected, and she spun around with wide eyes that only widened further upon seeing where the whip had come from. “A lash of love, to be precise.”
A man with ebony hair walked forward, wearing an elaborate greatcoat over a black suit with blue accents, black feathers curling out from the blue collar, with the tips of the coat cut in a way that was reminiscent of bird wings. There were three small mirrors attached to his hip, with four dangling keys attached to them. That was not to mention the top hat he was wearing, where another three keys and mirror charm were attached.
She finally looked up to his face, and gawked. A half-mask that resembled a raven’s beak covered the upper half of his face, golden irises peering out from the holes. “Ah, I've found you at last. Splendid. I trust you're one of this year's new students?”
She was far too overwhelmed by all of the new, unknown variables to form a proper response. Waking up in an unfamiliar location, inside a coffin. A flamethrower personified as a cat. Floating objects. And– Did this man’s voice not sound familiar?
“My proud, beautiful flower of evil…”
Where had she heard that before?
“My, were you ever eager to make your debut,” he continued, glossing over her silence entirely. The golden orbs suddenly narrowed, and she got the vague sense he was about to chide her for something entirely not her fault. “And bringing a poorly trained familiar with you? That is a clear violation of the school's rules. Surely, you must know better.”
She had never been so annoyed to have been correct.
“As if I'd serve some lowly human! Now lemme go!” Grim snarled, gaining enough sense back to start thrashing in the whip entangling him now that the surprise factor of the man’s sudden appearance had worn off. The unnamed man did not seem overly impressed by this.
“Yes, yes. Rebellious familiars always say that. Do be quiet for a bit, won't you?” He drawled with a content hum, gesturing vaguely with his free hand, and golden claw rings that she had not noticed earlier gleamed in the dim lighting. The whip tightened, covering the cat’s mouth as he continued to make angry, albeit now muffled, noises.
He turned back to her, giving an overdramatic sigh, as if she had truly inconvenienced him by being lost. “Dear me. Of all the students I've dealt with, you're the first with temerity enough to open their own gate and step out of it. Does the very notion of patience elude you?” He asked rhetorically, not waiting for an answer as he stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder, subtly shepherding her onwards and out of the library. “No matter. Your orientation has already begun. Let us return to the Mirror Chamber.”
“Hold on!” She protested, digging her feet into the wooden floor as she turned to look at him, eyes widening. “Orientation?”
She got the impression he raised an eyebrow behind the mask, but that might have just been her. “You awakened in a room full of gates, did you not?” He asked, titling his head but continued without waiting for her to reply. “All of the students here at the campus arrived by passing through such gates. Although typically the students have enough restraint to wait until I open them before waking up.” He explained oratorically, but she had a suspicion that the last comment was a scolding towards her. Just maybe.
“So the coffins are meant to be gateways?” She asked in bemusement. She wasn’t sure why she had focused on that part of his explanation when there were more important questions to be asking, but the absurdity of it all had her out of sorts.
“The design is intended to symbolize a parting with your former world,” he replied, nodding in approval at her. “And a rebirth into a new one.”
Something about that statement had the hairs on the back of her neck raising up.
Former world… A new one… The heat from the fire… Pieces of the metaphorical puzzle started slowly connecting in her mind, and she did not like the picture it was creating.
Am I… not dreaming…?
“But now is not the time for such prattle,” he interrupted her thoughts, attempting to push her out of the library once more. “You've a student orientation to attend! Go on, now. Make haste.”
“Wait a moment!” She protested once more, stumbling over her feet. “First, tell me, where am I? And secondly, who are you?”
He paused and looked down at her with a sudden bout of scrutiny, golden eyes narrowing. “Hm? Have you not fully regained consciousness? The time-space teleportation must have addled your memories… Well, these things happen, I suppose.”
Time-space teleportation?! “These things happen”?! What the hell is this guy talking about? This is absurd!
She wrung her right hand around her left wrist, nails digging into her skin, and she hissed in quiet pain. She looked down, and felt herself become rooted in place.
Very real pain pulsed from the point where very real red blood dripped down from where her nails had cut into her skin.
A talking cat… magic fire… all of this… Is it real?
“I shall explain it to you while we walk. Truly, my magnanimity is boundless,” He continued pleasantly, oblivious to her darkening expression as she attempted to piece together her thoughts. “Come along now. Greatness awaits.”
—
“This is Night Raven College, an institution for students the world over who demonstrate a rare aptitude for magic,” he explained as they walked through the courtyard, gesturing theatrically around them as he spoke. “It is the most prestigious academy of its sort in all of Twisted Wonderland. And I am Dire Crowley. Having been entrusted with its care by the chairman, I serve as headmage.”
“Twisted… Wonderland…? Magic… Academy?” She repeated slowly, a feeling of numb detachment slowly setting in as the reality of her situation became clearer, suspicions she did not want confirmed being proven true.
“Oh, dear. Your memories must be truly scrambled if you cannot formulate a lucid connection between any of these things,” Crowley said with a faint frown, bringing a hand up to his chin thoughtfully as he observed her. “Perhaps your confusion was what agitated your familiar into acting out on your behalf. If that does not clear up, we will have to get you to the infirmary after orientation is complete.”
That was not what she wanted to hear.
Grim made a series of muffled noises, still taking offense to being called her familiar. He was ignored by the other two parties.
“But, yes, magic. Only those who the Dark Mirror perceives as having a talent for magic are admitted to the college. Those who are selected are summoned to the campus through those gates, which can appear anywhere. A black carriage bearing one such gate should have come to meet you.” The Headmage continued to explain, gesturing vaguely with his hands he spoke.
She felt as if the carriage had hit her, rather than having “met” her with dignity and grace. But she didn’t have a chance to clarify that before he continued.
“That black carriage serves to receive a student chosen by the Dark Mirror,” Crowley added brightly, nodding to her. “It too bears a gate that connects to this campus. And as you know, sending a carriage to meet someone on a special day is a time-honored tradition.”
“Time-honored tradition where?” She asked, a hint of hysterics entering her voice. It was a tradition in this… Twisted Wonderland, apparently. “Look, Mr. Crowley, I think there is a huge misunderstanding going on now–”
“Nonsense, young man,” he said dismissively, waving his hand through the air, before putting it back on her shoulder, guiding her along. “You were chosen by the Dark Mirror. That means you are meant to be here. Now, let us attend your orientation.”
Wait a moment, ‘young man’?
Yes, a misunderstanding was most definitely occurring here.
—
“–More importantly, does anyone know where the headmage went? He disappeared midway through the ceremony…”
Voices floated through the grand doors as they got closer to the Mirror Chamber, slowly becoming clearer. There was a low chatter audible from the room, certain voices seemed to rise above the rest in both volume and clarity.
“Some headmage he is.”
“Maybe he had a tummyache?”
“I most certainly did not!” Crowley practically squawked in offense upon hearing the innocent question, throwing the doors open as he stepped in with one hand, the other hand still on her shoulder as he guided her in as well, still dragging an entangled Grim behind them. “If you must know, I was searching for the new student who'd failed to show for orientation.”
She felt a sudden kinship to a specimen being dissected as countless eyes landed on her at the Headmage’s words.
She had never really experienced any general anxiety from being around crowds, or being the center of attention. She caused enough accidents in her high school science labs- some on purpose, others not– that being publicly chided in front of a crowd didn’t really invoke any strong feeling of embarrassment or anything else of the such. However, this feeling was something entirely new. There was innocent curiosity in the gazes set upon her, yes. But there was also genuine hostility. She was not experienced with that feeling of genuine hate, and she didn’t particularly relish in that feeling.
“You are the only one who has yet to be assigned a dorm. Step up to the Dark Mirror, and be quick about it. I'll watch your weasel.” Crowley said, pushing her forward. She recovered just in time to not trip over the ornamental robes, grimacing as she looked down the walkway to the mirror on a slightly elevated platform.
This feels like the textbook example of Murphey’s Law, she thought with a grimace, hesitantly walking down the aisle. She looked around as she walked, silently observing the room. There were more rows of benches with other youths sitting on them, all wearing the same robes, than she could count at first glance. There were more of the floating coffins around the room, just like the one she had come out of as well. However, as she walked, she noticed one bench up front with five figures sitting gave off a different feeling. Authority. Importance. Arrogance. She quickly looked away. This is a disaster waiting to happen. I’m not meant to be here.
She finally got in front of the mirror, and couldn’t help but flinch back when a face appeared the moment she stopped walking.
“You, standing before me. State your name.” The rather ominous talking mirror demanded plainly.
What the hell? Her jaw fell slightly.
After a couple moments of silence she realized the mirror was actually waiting. “You…?” She repeated blankly, too far gone into muted hysterics to comprehend. Did it mean her? It took another moment to realize, yes, obviously it did. She wasn't thinking straight. Or really thinking at all.
“Yuu,” the mirror echoed, seemingly having taken her murmur of you? before her bewildered pause as an answer. She blinked in realization, opening her mouth to quickly say that wasn’t actually her name, only to be cut off. “The nature of your soul is… Unclear to me.”
“Eh?” The newly dubbed ‘Yuu’ gapped, blinking blankly.
“What did you say?” Crowley demanded, taking a few steps forward until he was practically face to face with the face in the mirror. She glanced at the headmage, whose expression was unreadable in the lighting. Or maybe that was because of the mask. She could hear whispering in the crowd, and she tilted her head back, trying to discern if anyone knew what was going on. Blank stares. Wonderful. No one else knew what was happening either. She turned back to the mirror.
“I sense no magical power from this one. Soundless. Colorless. Shapeless. Utterly vacant,” the mirror elaborated impassively, seemingly apathetic to the way her pallor got paler by the moment as its verdict continued. “Therefore, no dorm would be appropriate.” The face in the mirror vanished after making its final pronouncement.
The words felt as if they were a judge’s gavel that landed with finality, sentencing her for a crime she hadn’t known she had committed before a vindictive jury.
Well, obviously I don't have magic! I could have told you that!
Crowley examined the mirror, not touching it but fluttering about in obvious distress that his artifact had somehow called on someone without any magic.
“Are you suggesting that the black carriage went to receive a person who cannot even use magic? But that is absurd! The student selection process has not erred once in its centuries of existence!” Crowley began rambling, gesturing rapidly between her and the mirror as if it could hear him.
“Mmmph! Nnnrgggh…” Grim struggled in Crowley’s whip, before finally managing to free himself, much to the alarmed squawk-like noise of the headmage. Yuu yelped as the cat-like creature jumped onto her shoulder, using her as a stepstool, before leaping off onto the ground. “ME! Let ME have this student's seat!”
“Not so fast, you hyperactive weasel!” Crowley shouted, the glowing yellow eyes behind his mask narrowing as he pointed his finger at the cat. “Mister Yuu, do calm down your-”
“Unlike that human, I can actually use magic! So let me be a student here!” Grim continued, ignoring Crowley as he posed smugly, before giving a vicious grin, paws on his hips. “Look, I'll show you! My spells're the cat's meow!”
Yuu, who had by now at this point associated Grim breathing in deeply with the equivalent of the trigger of a flamethrower about to be pressed, preemptively ducked.
“You!-” The redhead sitting on the frontbench began to yell, before he paused, wide gray eyes widening further. “Everyone get down!”
Crowley must have realized it too, because she could see the yellow orbs narrowing to pinpricks behind that bird mask. He opened his mouth, but before anything could be said-
FWOOOOOOSH!
Yuu looked up just in time to see blue flames fly above her head, cursing lowly as it nearly set alight the fringes of her hair. The curtains above her, on the other hand… They were not as lucky. If she had ever wondered how well expensive velvet took to fire, the question was answered, with a resounding very well.
She stood back up, quickly brushing off her knees, before looking around incredulously. Perhaps predictably, the crowd had descended into chaos. Students were racing for the door, screaming ringing out through the room as people tried to avoid the flames.
“Maybe we ought to get out of here, Juice,” a ginger boy with a black heart painted onto his face said to a blue haired boy next to him, who spun around on his heel with a glare. “It’s not Juice, it’s Deuce!”
“Oh dear. Oh, dear,” Crowley murmured next to her, remarkably unphased for someone whose institute was in the midst of being burnt down. He held his hand out, and in a small flash of light, a key-like staff with a golden raven handle appeared. He tapped it against the floor, as if trying to catch the attention of anyone listening. “The school will be engulfed in a sea of flames! Someone, capture this rogue raccoon immediately!” He shouted, looking around for aid.
Yuu sweatdropped. “... Is that not your job?” She asked awkwardly. She was dutifully ignored.
“Awh, the party has barely even started yet!” A white haired boy yelled back with a cheerful grin. A dark haired boy looked marginally more stressed than his companion, standing in front of the red-eyed boy, visibly on guard. All of his caution seemed to go to waste a moment later, when a spark hit the white haired boy’s robe, and his rear was set aflame, earning a series of alarmed yelps. His companion jolted, reaching out to the white haired boy.
“Kalim!” The dark haired boy barked, gesturing in the universal come here motion.
Kalim did not heed the other’s signaling.
“Someone help, my butt’s on fire!" Kalim’s voice trailed off as he jumped, and began running around, subsequently away from the person next to him, who only gave a bone weary sigh.
Yuu forcefully pulled her attention away from that pending metaphorical trainwreck waiting to happen, looking around the room, visibly nonplussed. Her attention next landed on two rather tall teal-haired boys who were walking around, seemingly unbothered by the destruction around them.
“Uh-oh, Azul has vanished.” The slightly taller one commented conversationally, not paying attention to the other students that ran the other way past them who were running for the door.
“So he has,” the other agreed, his pace just as languid as his companion’s as he turned to face the other. “But where would he have disappeared to in the midst of all of this chaos?” He mused, although he did not strike Yuu as being concerned to any degree.
“Pardon me, Headmage,” a voice suddenly chimed from next to Crowley and Yuu, and she jumped in surprise when a boy with glasses appeared from behind Crowley. “I believe I may be of some assistance here.” The boy brought a hand up to rest on his chest, his other hand behind his back. “If you’ll allow it, I’ll gladly take on the unenviable role of apprehending and torturing this poor, unfortunate little soul.”
Something about those last words set off alarm bells in her mind. They seemed eerily familiar; but as to where she had heard them before, Yuu could not place.
“Azul’s the GOAT,” she caught someone saying in the distance, and she turned towards the voice, pausing, mildly befuddled when she saw a hovering tablet and not a person speaking. “Scheming his way to better grades and special treatment. Wheeheehee!”
“.. Zooming this shitshow was an option I could have taken?” Yuu muttered under her breath as she stared at the tablet, then yelped as she was forced to dodge a piece of flaming debris.
“- what do you say? For the sake of the school, I would happily scar-” she turned back to the two next to her, before watching as the white-haired boy who got set on fire a few minutes prior absolutely body, for lack of better word, the newly named Azul, plowing him over as he ran onto the scene, earning a grunt from Azul as he was thrown onto the ground.
“Azul-! Anyone! Someone put this butt fire out, I can’t take it anymore!” The boy screamed, before running off once more before anyone could actually do anything, practically screeching as he did so.
Yuu stared incredulously. She couldn’t help but wonder if the fumes under the fume hood had finally gotten to her from research work, because there was no way this was real. She looked at the back of her hand, more specifically at the now blood-crusted scratch. The way it still stung.
It was still very real. Which was exactly the problem.
“What in the blazes is going on?!” Crowley’s cry broke her out of the spiral, the man also watching the chaos unfold around them. He tapped his staff against the ground thrice more, as if trying to regain order. “Someone put out these flames!”
Yuu, who had been nothing but selectively ignored since meeting the eccentric headmage, did not bother to waste her breath and reiterate that she was pretty sure it was his job to do that.
“Silver! I thought I told you to keep both eyes on him!” A very loud voice caught her attention once more, and Yuu was greeted by the sight of a green haired boy getting up an aptly named Silver’s face.
“Hey, I’m trying!” Silver snapped back, bristling at the accusation.
Suddenly, Yuu heard the creeeaak of metal giving out from under its own weight, and she looked up in time to a flaming metal lantern falling from the ceiling towards her.
Before she could even react, she was abruptly tackled to the side as the metal lantern hit the ground where she was standing mere moments ago, with an ear-splitting crack as the glass panes shattered in a glassy rain. Yuu gave a surprised gasp, trying to get the air that had been knocked from her lungs back in. The person who tackled her rolled to the side, standing up.
“You okay? Are you hurt at all?” The boy demanded, and Yuu nodded on reflex, before doing a double take. Are those wolf ears? And a… tail?! She couldn’t vocalize her thoughts, only gaping silently. Thankfully for her dignity, the tall boy didn’t notice, turning to the front bench with a faint growl.
Yuu followed his gaze, before balking once again. A boy with lion ears lounged lazily on the bench without a care in the world, as if the flames around him did not exist. He was completely unbothered to the point of pure apathy.
“Tsk. Dumb herbivores,” he grumbled under his breath, an ear flicking in discontent as he tilted his head back ever so slightly. “Hey, Ruggie. Wake me when it's over.” He drawled, closing his eyes.
A boy with hyena ears, Ruggie, if she heard right, snickered as if that demand was the most amusing thing in the word. “Sheeheehe! Sure, thing, Leona. You relax.”
“Really? The great hunter sitting on the sidelines? Even though the prey is a great, big juicy snack?” A handsome boy with a purple fade in his blonde hair interjected, raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow as he strolled towards Leona, who simply flicked an ear in response.
“Hm? Waste of my time,” Leona replied dismissively, seemingly content to leave the matter at that. “You go enjoy yourself.”
“Me, hunting?” The handsome boy looked up from where he had been idly inspecting his nails, before running a hand through his hair, flipping it back. “Goodness, no. How uncouth.”
Were those… Sparkles?!
“Beautiful,” a whispered murmur a few feet away from her caught her attention, and Yuu flinched back, caught off guard. Another tall boy, this one with a blonde bob, appeared to be intently watching Grim set fire to the chamber, seemingly not very inclined to stop the raging cat. “Monsieur Fuzzball est magnifique. And to set ablaze not only the room, but the very hearts of those who surround him– Je suis vraiment impressionné!”
Is that guy speaking French?!
“Come on now–” a lavender haired boy a few feet away from her began, only to scream as Grim spewed blue flames at him. “Gah! Cut that out, you dang hairball!”
“What the hell is up with this school, man?!” The ginger haired boy with the black heart makeup from earlier exclaimed, although whether it was to his companion or merely said outloud was unclear. It was a sentiment Yuu shared completely.
“It’s already a complete mess!” Juice, if Yuu remembered right, added, cyan eyes wide as he looked around rapidly.
“Did you hear that? They’re not familiar with our game.” A boy with a diamond on his cheek remarked mischievously, gesturing vaguely towards the other boys with card makeup, tilting his head to give the green haired boy standing next to him a wink.
“Cater,” the boy with a clover under his eye reprimanded, staring tensely ahead of him, a strangely haunted look on his face. “No one here is playing around.”
Cater made a soft huh, before following the other’s gaze and tensing as well.
Yuu, having finally stood up from the ground where she had been knocked down earlier, looked to where the other boys were staring and froze.
A red haired boy stood in the center of the chaos, hands clenched into fists, visibly furious. Perhaps even that was too tame a word for what he was feeling. If wraith could be personified, the boy would be the picture-perfect image of it. Slowly, he walked forward, his posture almost regal as his heels clicked against the ground.
“First, a wrongful enrollment, and now a monster intrusion,” the boy seethed, his voice nearly a low growl, not once pausing in his crusade towards Grim. “They’ve ruined our entrance ceremony, and for that, there will be consequences.”
Finally, he stopped walking as Grim was merely a few feet away from him, and the manically laughing creature paused, before turning a taunting grin to the raging redhead. “Hm? I thought all of you were running away, myaha!” He then stood up on his back two feet, bristling as the grin turned into a sneer. “You think you’re some kind of tough guy?”
“You misunderstand,” he said, and the sheer amount of underlying fury in his voice had Yuu frozen in place. “I am the judge, jury, and executioner.” Gray doe eyes narrowed menacingly. He made no effort to lift a hand or move.
Grim scoffed, crossing his paws over his chest. “Hmph. You talk big game for a little brat. Let’s go then!”
He inhaled deeply, before expelling his breath as blue flames erupted, barreling towards the boy, and–
Perhaps in another universe, a braver, far more noble “Yuu” would have ran forward, and pushed the unmoving redhead out of the way to safety.
In this universe, she made no effort to move.
She had always been more of the observation type; self-preservation overriding whatever magnanimity she had. She was more prone to watch a reaction play out then interfere, more content to let an experiment run its course.
The redhaired boy suddenly whipped out a pen, at the same moment pointing it at where Grim was behind the flames, and then roared.
“OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!”
And suddenly, the blue flames that had been on a crash course to collide with the boy dissipated into nothing.
Grim seemed momentarily bewildered by his flames having flickered out of existence, and he puffed back out, inhaling deeply and then blowing-
Only for nothing to happen.
It seemed at the same time Yuu noticed the object, Grim also became aware of the new heart-shaped collar and lock sitting snuggly around his neck.
“MYAH?!” Grim sputtered, paws immediately going up to try and remove the collar, only to no avail. He tried pulling it over his head, the second attempt failing just as spectacularly as the first. “What is this thing?!”
“The Queen of Heart's Rule 23: ‘One must never bring a cat to a formal affair’," The redhead recited dutifully, looking marginally more relaxed now that Grim seemed pacified to some degree, although he was still very clearly pissed. “Your very presence here is a violation of order. You will vacate these premises immediately.”
Queen of Hearts… Isn’t that from a story? Yuu flexed her fingers, latching onto that detail’s familiarity as tight as she could to mull over it later.
“But I ain't a cat either!” Grim protested, bright blue eyes widening in clear offense. “Don't try to collar me! I'll burn it right off! Huh...? Wh–what gives? My fire ain't workin'!”
“Until I deign to remove that collar, you won't be using any magic. You're naught but a pet cat now.” The redhead sniffed haughtily, putting his pen back in the holter on his belt.
“M–meoWHAT?! I ain't nobody's pet–NOTHING!”
“Oh, you've nothing to worry about there. I certainly have no interest in having you as a pet,” the boy said dismissively, turning on heel and walking away from the cat-thing. “The collar will disappear once you're removed from campus.” At those words, he turned a truly scathing glare onto Yuu, and she couldn’t help but flinch back at the sheer intensity conveyed.
“Ha–HA! Good show as always, Riddle. Your signature spell locks down any magic. It's quite handy,” Azul strode over casually to the other, much to the clear irritation of the newly named Riddle, having seemingly recovered from being knocked down earlier. “I've just GOT to have it—ah, I mean, I've just got to have respect for it.” He gave a theatrical bow in a flair of showmanship that did nothing to hide the smirk on his lips, earning a scoff from the redhead who rolled his eyes.
“Mister Yuu!” Yuu gave a surprised yelp as Crowley was suddenly in her face before she could catch more of the conversation, pointing an annoyed clawed finger at her. “Was I not clear that you are expected to take responsibility for your familiar? Now discipline your—”
“For the love of all things holy, that cat is not mine!” Yuu snapped, throwing her arms up in the air in clear chagrin. “I have never seen him before in my life! I've told you repeatedly! And for that matter, I still don’t know where I am, why I am here, and my name isn’t—”
“The weasel is not yours, Mister Yuu?” Crowley interrupted, an almost sheepish tone entering his voice. Yuu’s eye twitched at the interruption, but didn't try to correct him or voice her grievances again. Something told her it would be a losing battle.
“No,” she ground out through gritted teeth, the constant accusations taking her already poor day from bad to worse. “He is not.”
“Oh...Is that so?” The Headmage coughed into a fist, gesturing vaguely. “Ahem. Then I shall have it expelled from campus. I shall even spare it from being served as dinner. My, but I AM kind.” There was a brief pause where nothing happened. “… Someone take this direbeast away, please.”
“No! Let me go!” Grim thrashed as a few people Yuu did not recognize wearing ceremonial robes picked him up, walking out of the worse for wear room. “You better remember my name! I’ll go down in magic history, just you waaait–!”
The door shut with a slam behind them, cutting off Grim’s wailed woes, and a momentary silence filled the room.
“Well, that was quite the unexpected fracas. I hereby declare that orientation has concluded,” Crowley said conversationally, clapping his hands together. “Housewardens, please escort your students back to the dorms.” He paused for a moment, looking around with a frown.
“...Hm? Come to think of it, I don't see Housewarden Draconia of House Diasomnia anywhere.” He mused, tapping a finger against his cheek in displeasure.
“And that surprises you? Dude's a total recluse.” Leona drawled, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.
“Wait a sec... Did anyone even invite him?” The white haired boy who had been on fire earlier asked, red eyes wide as he looked around, seemingly fine despite his earlier struggles.
The handsome boy from earlier narrowed his eyes at the other boy, twirling a strand of hair around his fingers. “If you're that worried about him missing out, maybe you should have told him yourself, Kalim.”
Kalim laughed somewhat awkwardly, looking away as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Maybe, but I don’t know him all that well either…”
Yuu could hear apprehensive murmuring from students in the crowd, but she didn’t have much time to consider it as a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Ah. Just as I'd expected,” the boy said, sounding somewhat disappointed. Yuu blinked in surprise at how deep his voice was compared to his deceptively cute appearance. “I figured I'd come down and see for myself whether Malleus had made an appearance. But once again, he was evidently not informed that his presence was required at an official ceremony.” The last comment sounded less disappointed and more annoyed, crimson red eyes narrowing as he looked around the room to give pointed looks at the figures who had been sitting in the front row earlier.
“You have my sincerest apologies. I assure you, this oversight was in no way intended as a snub.” Azul said apologetically as he brushed down his ceremonial robes, although he did not look to be all that sad.
“I mean, you must admit, he's not exactly the easiest person to strike up a conversation with.” Riddle added flatly, clearly annoyed he was being perceived to be at fault for the absence of Malleus.
The boy with the deep voice sighed, bringing a hand up to cup his cheek. “No matter. All who were assigned to House Diasomnia, follow me. I just hope he doesn't sulk about this...”
As the students began filing out of the now somewhat destroyed Mirror Chamber, Crowley finally turned back to Yuu, clasping his hands together behind his back.
“Well, Mister Yuu. This is a most unfortunate turn of events. I'm afraid that you will not be attending Night Raven Collage after all. Surely you realize that I cannot very well admit a student with no magical ability to my academy.” The Headmage said apologetically, spreading his hands out in the air.
“I assure you, sir, I will be just as happy to get home as you will be to see me gone.” She promised vehemently.
Crowley hummed in response, seemingly torn between relief that she would go easily, and faint offense at the implication she did not want to be here, gesturing at the charred coffin she had come out of earlier. “I am relieved to hear that you will go without a struggle. Truly, your reasonableness is like a beacon shining in the dark. Now, worry not. The Dark Mirror will see you safely home. Please step into the gate, and visualize the place you whence you came.”
Yuu lifted her robes up slightly, and carefully stepped back into the coffin, closing her eyes.
Where I came from… She thought silently, mulling over the thought as if to taste it. Images flickered through her mind like a slideshow. Countless hours spent tinkering and restoring mechanical objects and electronics, experiments done in the hidden sanctuary of the backshed with stolen chemicals as she poured over borrowed textbooks from the nearby university library. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
It wasn’t exactly home. But it was close enough.
“O Dark Mirror! Return this soul to where it belongs!” Crowley recited, tapping his staff twice against the floor.
“...”
When nothing occurred, Yuu pried open one eye, looking over to Crowley for an explanation. The expression on what she could see of his face suggested he was just as confused as she was, metaphorical feathers ruffled at the Dark Mirror’s noncorporation.
That was not what she wanted to see. It was not inspiring confidence in the endeavor of her getting home.
“... Ahem. L–let us, er...try this again. O Dark Mirror! Return this soul—”
“There is no such place.” The Dark Mirror’s voice interrupted Crowley’s spiel robotically.
“What?” Crowley and Yuu asked simultaneously, his golden glowing orbs seemingly widening with surprise once more. Yuu stumbled out of the coffin as she nearly ran over to the mirror, seconds away from shaking the floating artifact down for answers.
“There is no place in this world where this soul belongs. None.” The Dark Mirror declared pitilessly, the face disappearing as the mirror deactivated a moment later without another word.
Yuu’s face reflected in the mirror a moment later. She hadn’t seen herself since the whole ordeal had begun. The hood of the ceremonial robes cast a shadow over her face, shrouding most of her features. The dim lighting faintly illuminated the thin round golden frames of her glasses, strands of brown hair that had escaped her ponytail peaking out from the hood. Her face had a paler than usual pallor, a glazed look in her eyes.
She almost didn’t recognize herself, despite having seen her face in her bathroom mirror earlier that day.
“How can that be?” Crowley asked, breaking her from her ruminations, blinking as he turned to her, putting his hand up to his heart in theatrical distress. “My, but today is a veritable cavalcade of impossible phenomena!”
“This has never happened throughout my long tenure,” the Headmage admitted a few moments later when she did not verbally respond, putting his hand out to his chin in thought. “I must confess that I am at something of a loss. Tell me, young man, from what land do you hail?”
“I’m from Minnesota.” Yuu answered dutifully, not even attempting to correct his assumption of her gender this time, finally turning away from the mirror to look at Crowley.
Crowley stared at her silently, an assessing look on his face. She could not read the emotions flickering through those glowing golden orbs.
“The United States of America?” She tried, sounding more desperate than she cared to think about. Sure, she had considered a different world being a possibility due to magic being real, but that had been nothing more than an intrusive thought. She had been hoping she had just suddenly ended up in some Harry Potter-like secret society. Crowley shook his head slowly in response. “Earth?!”
“I'm afraid I am not familiar with such a place,” Crowley said slowly, holding his hands out in a placating manner as her face went pale. “I am intimately acquainted with the origins of every student who has ever come here, and yet... This mysterious homeland of yours eludes me.”
Crowley looked at her solemnly, seemingly coming to his own conclusions in his head. Wordlessly, he put a hand on her shoulder, and began to guide her out of the room.
“Let us go to the library and look it up, shall we?” He said with a quiet sigh.
—
“Nothing!”
Yuu, who was sitting on the chair with her knees up against her chest, ducked down just in time to avoid accidently getting hit in the head when Crowley threw his hands up into the air in annoyance.
The Headmage slammed a huge book closed, setting it in a pile where six other books had been searched. The library table was getting rather full at that point– an apparently standardized world map of Twisted Wonderland sat spread out across the table, next to her crude drawing of a rough map of Earth, with an emphasis put on the details of the United States. “Just as I suspected. Not only do your country’s names not exist on the world map, there is no historical record. None!” He turned towards her, the beak of his raven mask somewhat intimating in the dim light. “Now, are you quite sure you come from such a place, Mister Yuu? That wasn’t some sort of lie, or jibe?” He pressed.
Yuu grit her teeth, throwing her hands up in the air in a mirror of his previous actions. “I wouldn’t lie about that!” She snapped. “Nothing makes sense here, sir. I just want to go home and pretend this was all a bad dream.”
Crowley paused, looking at her with a strangely intense look that had her shivering in discomfort. “Oh? Nothing makes sense? If you could elaborate on that, Mister Yuu? It may just aid you in your endeavor to get home.”
“Magic isn’t real, sir.” Yuu said plainly. Crowley took one look at her and laughed, before pausing, as if waiting for the punchline.
There was no punchline. If there was, Yuu was the butt of the joke in this cruel comedy.
Crowley frowned, shifting in his seat to face her fully, pushing the stack of books further to the side of the table. “If you are joking, I do ask you refrain from making such tasteless jokes, young man. Magic is a truly sacred thing and is not to be taken lightly–”
“I’m being serious” Yuu insisted, looking up to meet his eyes. “Where I'm from, magic isn't real. There's no scientific basis of it ever existing. Talking cats aren't real. Magic academies, floating books! None of this should exist! It– It doesn't make sense! It's like some twisted fairytale came to life!” She seethed, curling her hands into fists so tight blood threatened to leak out of the crescent shaped indents.
“I see,” Crowley mused, seemingly choosing not to address what she was saying at the moment, but she wasn't stupid enough to think he wasn’t going to bring up her obvious skepticism at some other point. “I am sure this may be hard to believe, but if you are truly not lying, an alternative universe is the only plausible scenario, Mister Yuu. I assure you, magic is a very real thing here.”
“It's… just a hard thing to wrap my head around.”
“Even seeing it so far? With Mister Roseheart's impressive display, and the direbeast running rampant?” Crowley asked, giving off the impression he was raising his eyebrow.
“It was really hard to process in the moment.” Yuu said defensively.
“Then allow me to be the one to show you, Mister Yuu, the power of magic.” Crowley held out his hand in front of her, and she blinked.
“As flame reduces even the stars to ash,” he began, and Yuu paused, entranced, as orange embers formed above his open palm, sparking as they were coaxed into a ball of floating ball of flames.
Wait a moment.
“As ice seals away even time itself,” the flames smoldered, ice shards forming from the ashes. “As great trees swallow even the sky…” The ice melted, a rose forming from the water droplets.
I've… heard this before
“Fear not the power of darkness.”
The rose’s petals dropped, withering in the air, until nothing but a void-like orb remained. He clasped his hand around the orb, before closing his fist, snuffing it out.
“To me. To them. To yourself.”
Was he… that voice?
“Well, my dear child? Are you a believer yet?" He asked, amused.
Yuu did not reply. Instead, she chose to address the far larger elephant in the room.
“Is that even possible?” She asked quietly, finally looking up to stare at him despondently. “Being summoned from another universe?”
“Being summoned from another universe?" Crowley hummed thoughtfully, leaning back in his seat. “Why, nothing is impossible, dear child. There are stories throughout the history of Twisted Wonderland of such things happening. In fact, the Uninvited Guest herself was said to have tumbled through the rabbit hole from another world. However, stories after that time are few and far between, indeed.”
Yuu frowned. The Uninvited Guest… A rabbit hole… Isn’t that from the same story with the Queen of Hearts? And now that I’m thinking about it, isn’t the saying “poor unfortunate soul” from another book as well? Something about a…
Crowley cleared his throat, the interruption unravelling the flimsy connections she had been forming in her head, although whether it was unintentional or not she did not know. “Let’s see… Show me everything that you brought here with you. Do you have some form of identification, a driver's license perhaps? Or even a...shoe? You do seem a tad bit... empty-handed.”
That was a valid concern that had not even crossed her mind.
Yuu immediately started patting herself down, the patting only getting more frantic when she realized she didn’t have anything. Not her bag, not her wallet, and not even her phone that she had held in her pockets.
“... Nothing,” she confirmed, somewhat nauseous at the thought of her items being who knows where. She lifted the robes slightly, looking down. “... These aren’t even my shoes!” It was somewhat embarrassing how her voice cracked in distress at the end, but at least it hadn’t been worse.
Those had been her favorite combat boots. They had heels. Now she was wearing some flat dress shoes!
Oh, and her wallet and phone were missing. She’d probably come back and find she had been robbed, and fraud was committed in her name or something like that. That was a concern too. But it felt somewhat violating that even her shoes had been changed without her consent or knowledge. Her missing items, she could get back, but that feeling would stick with her even after.
It wasn’t just about shoes, damnit, but the shoes were a pretty big tipping point.
Crowley’s expression seemed to momentarily twist, seemingly ill prepared to deal with any display of vulnerability from her. “Err– there, there,” he reached over, awkwardly patting her shoulder, as if afraid it would make her worse. “This is rather troubling. I did say I couldn’t have a magicless student in my academy, but I cannot possibly throw a young child with no knowledge of this world, nor a guardian out onto the streets…” He trailed off, lost in thought, if the way the golden orbs seemed to go slightly distant meant anything.
“Ah! I know where you can go!” The Headmage exclaimed brightly, and for the second time in the past ten minutes, Yuu had to duck in order to avoid getting hit in the head as he threw his hands up into the air.
“There is an aban– ah, a vacant building within school grounds that used to be used as a dormitory. If tidied up a little, I’m sure it can be used as a place to rest your head. I wouldn’t mind lending it to you for a while. In return, you will be tasked with searching for a way back home during your stay while I too, look for your way home myself.” Crowley explained to her merrily. “Ahhh… What a wonderful person I am! The very epitome of a generous educator, in fact.”
Yuu peered at him scrutinizingly for a couple moments before perking up.
“Headmage Crowley,” she began. “... Thank you. You could have just thrown me out on the streets without any regard to what I’d do. But you didn’t. So… Thank you.”
Crowley stared at her a couple moments, and the lack of flair and dramatics so uncharacteristic of what she knew of him, she wondered if he maybe had not heard her. For a moment, she could have sworn the hand on her shoulder had flexed.
“Crowley?” Yuu tried again.
“You truly are a beacon in the dark, Mister Yuu,” Crowley said, the pompous demeanor returning just as suddenly as it had disappeared. A wide smile spread across his face. “Your honest kindness is like a star in the dark night sky. I can see now, your arrival here was a truly mistake. The Dark Mirror’s power was responsible for your arrival here. It is merely the proper thing to do.”
Yuu blinked blankly. “... What does general politeness have to do with confirming that my arrival is a mistake?” She asked, baffled as she tried to make sense of his flowery rambling.
Crowley did not answer her directly. “Now, let's get you to your lodging. It is getting quite late, after all.”
Yuu did not press more, instead allowing him to guide her out.
—
It could be worse, Yuu silently repeated in her head over the internal screaming. It could be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse–
Perhaps if she repeated it enough, she would believe it.
She was not sure if this was a step up, or a step down from just being thrown out.
Either way, she silently took back everything nice she had ever mistakenly thought about Crowley.
“Isn't it delightful? Right, scoot inside now. There you go.” Crowley said smoothly, quite literally shepherding her in. Yuu grimaced at the screeching sound the door made when opened, the sound grating at her ears. She couldn’t help but wince the moment she got a proper view from the inside. Rottened floor boards, broken windows, flipped over furniture, spiderwebs, dust everywhere.
Yuu sneezed.
“This should keep the elements at bay for the time being,” Crowley declared, and Yuu very carefully resisted the urge to break into hysterics. It would have been kinder to simply kick her out and let her fend for herself. “Now, I should return to my research. Do try to find some way to busy yourself. But don't let me catch you wandering the campus! Ta-ta!”
“Mr. Crowley, one minute–” Yuu called, eyes widening, but it was too late. The door shut behind him. Her left eye twitched. She couldn’t tell if it was from the dust or sheer, unadulterated annoyance.
It felt like he was doing the equivalent of stuffing a problem into a closet, hiding it out of sight and out of mind and then hoping it would resolve on its own.
The only problem with that solution was that she was very much a sentient and living problem, and unfortunately, would not disappear if left to her own devices long enough. However, she would probably die, but that was more of a problem for her than him.
The girl sighed, running a hand through her hair. “It's like a desolate snowscape. Only with dust…” She groaned.
Yuu sighed a second time, and granted herself ten seconds to scream. When that was over, she stood up, and took her surroundings in once more.
It was still as bad as it was two minutes ago. It was perhaps the equivalent of opening the fridge, shutting it, and being surprised when you opened it again a minute later and the snack you wanted had not magically appeared. Absolutely nothing had changed. A light pattering began to hit against the building, and she paused. “Rain,” she murmured out loud at the realization before frowning. “... Just my luck. You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Yuu looked around for anything of use, before she finally saw a lightswitch on the other side of the room. She carefully walked over rotten floorboards and dust bunnies in her journey to the lightswitch, flipping it up, and resisted the urge to curse it out when no lights turned on.
“For the love of…” She groaned, rubbing her now dusty finger on her robes. She looked around, before her gaze landed on the fireplace. She briefly considered the pros and cons of lighting a fire for light and warmth, before deciding the fire-hazard of a building, if it could even be called a building anymore, was more than likely to go up in flames if she even tried to light a small fire in its current state.
Well, that's a no-go. What else is there? Yuu wondered, squinting, looking around once again.
A fourth overlook of her current surroundings proved to be more fruitful than the previous one– it yielded an old transistor radio on a table that barely appeared to be holding up under its own weight, a strange mirror with eight scratches in it, old books scattered across the floor, and a half opened cabinet drawer. Deciding that searching through the drawer held more merit than the possibly already ransacked room, she walked over, peering into it.
“Duct tape… screwdriver… Pliers… Must be a hardware cabinet,” Yuu murmured to herself, shifting through the items. “Paperclips… A broken mirror shard? And a… Flashlight! Score!” She beamed, pulling the flashlight out and shaking off the dust. She pushed down on the button, only to frown when a light momentarily flickered into existence, only to be gone the next.
“Is the battery dead…? How long has this place been abandoned?" She wondered incredulously, before she groaned at the thought of her only viable source of light not working. She reached back into the drawer, pulling out the screwdriver to unscrew the panel on the side of the flashlight, before grimacing at the sight of the visibly aged battery.
Whatever. It’s alright. I can improvise. I’m good at that, Yuu thought determinedly, then pausing. “If the battery is the issue…” She trailed off, her gaze landing on the transistor radio. She reached across the table, fumbling around with the dial, until by a stroke of luck, the sound of static entered her ears.
She grinned victoriously, pumping her fist in the air. “Perfect! This battery works!”
The racing train of thought through her head was interrupted before she could get any farther in her muses.
“GWAH! It's pouring out there!” A boyish voice screeched, and that was all the warning Yuu got before the cat-weasal-whatever-he-was jumped through the window.
Yuu stared blankly for a moment. She gingerly set the flashlight and screwdriver back down onto the table that the radio was on. Then, remembering the series of events that led to her almost getting set on fire at least four times, she picked the screwdriver up in case she needed a projectile for self defense. She turned back to the proudly standing Grim in front of her. “... Didn’t the headmage throw you out?” She asked slowly.
Grim snickered, putting both paws on his hips. “Bwahaha! That look on your face is priceless! Like a bat that got blasted by a water gun,” he snickered, seemingly interpreting her bamboozled silence as fear, awe, or something else among those lines. “As if I wouldn't just sneak back onto campus the second I escaped pryin' eyes. You all have no idea what I'm capable of! I ain't givin' up on goin' here just 'cause I got kicked out one measly ol' time. And if you think otherwise, you don't know Grim!”
“... You’re right, I do not know the Great Grim,” Yuu conceded. “I met you literally an hour ago. And you tried to steal my clothes. Pardon me for not having the greatest mental image in mind. With that in mind… Guards! GUUUARDS!”
Grim gave an alarmed noise, jumping in front of her, waving his paws in the air as if it would get her to stop screaming faster. “Hey! No! Bad human! BAD HUMAN! Ain't you gonna ask what I'm doin' here? That's what you people do, right? Talk about feelings and stuff?” He yelped, bright blue eyes wide with alarm.
She paused, considering that. “... I think most people do.” Yuu agreed thoughtfully, momentarily thrown off.
Grim scowled at her. “Just what kinda human are ya if you don’t know what you do?! It wouldn't kill ya to listen to me! Right?!”
Yuu stared, blinking, somewhat offended but self aware enough to acknowledge the beast was just rightfully calling her out as the girlfailure she was. “Wow, you talk a lot.” She muttered. Grim ignored her.
“I was born to do this! I'm a magical prodigy who's got the makin's to become one of the greatest mages who ever lived!” The cat-like thing declared. “So I've been waitin' and waitin' for that black carriage to come for me. And yet… Hrmph! That Dark Mirror's got no eye for talent!”
Yuu stared for a moment, his words striking a tender chord in her. Waiting and waiting for someone to recognize his talent.
Yuu understood that feeling of waiting quite well.
“That's why I took the initiative and came here myself. You humans don't understand what a mistake you're makin'! Not lettin' me in is a great loss to the world!” Grim declared.
You don't understand what I could do, if you'd just let me!
Yuu decided that maybe, just maybe, letting Grim stay wouldn't be the worst idea after all.
“Mrrao! C'mon, scoot over! I'm getting dripped on here! Bwah! Another hole in the roof! These flamin' ears are like my trademark, y'know? I can't let 'em get doused!”
Yuu snorted, but indulged the cat, observing him with the amusement of someone watching an animal exhibit at a zoo. “Good luck,” she offered dryly, deeming the cat to be no threat now that he had monologued. “I think you’d stay drier if you went outside.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help Grim all that much. A few drops of water dripped from the ceiling where she was sitting a moment ago, and the direbeast made a distressed sound. "I dunno why you don't just magic those holes away. You could have it fixed in half a jiff.”
Yuu raised an annoyed eyebrow, eye twitching as she watched a sneer cross his face.
“Ahhh, right. You can't use magic at all. Pffft, man you're useless.” Grim jeered, cackling with laughter as he taunted her, one paw on his equivalent of hips as he raised the other paw to point at her.
“Cat, if you have nothing of value to offer, cram it,” she hissed, earlier empathy being popped like a balloon, replaced by aggravation at the taunting, ignoring Grim’s indignant cry of I’m no cat! “You can go ahead and magic those holes away if you're so great. I have better things to do.”
She turned her attention back to the flashlight, and glanced back at the transistor radio, resuming her earlier musings. As the rain picked up in intensity, what little light that remained slowly dimmed, leaving Grim’s flaming ears and vaguely glowing eyes as the only sources of light.
… I really need a flashlight. I cannot rely on this overgrown talking cat, or whatever he is.
“Grim, do me a favor and come over here,” Yuu ordered after a moment, making a vague come here gesture with her fingers with one hand, the other pulling the radio closer.
“Mwah? Why would I listen to you?” Grim asked petulantly, crossing his paws over his chest.
This guy… “Why, I thought aiding a mere plebian in desperate need of aid would be well within the capabilities of a great mage!” Yuu suddenly exclaimed, clutching her hands together above her heart, Grim letting out a surprised mrwah! and fluffing up at her abrupt cry. I might be laying on the dramatics a little thick, but… Whatever gets Grim to work with me. “But if it is out of your capabilities, I will relent–”
“Are you saying I can’t do it? No task is too hard for Grim, sorcerer supreme!” He quickly exclaimed, his fur no longer pricking up from her sudden outburst as he regained his composure. He jumped onto the table, and they both watched with bated breath as the table wobbled dangerously under his weight, before it settled once more. “What do you need the Great Grim’s assistance with?”
“Just sit there and look pretty, kitty,” she replied with a hum, the intrusive thought of hey, that rhymes, entering her mind before turning her attention back to the radio, leaning forward to unscrew the back panel on the radio.
“I’m not a cat!” Grim repeated vehemently, before he stopped bristling, watching her with begrudging curiosity. “What are you doing?”
“The flashlight battery is dead, and I need the flashlight to work,” Yuu began absentmindedly, before frowning, taking it out of the radio. “Damn. It’s a nine voltage battery. Oh well. That just makes it take a bit longer.”
Grim blinked. “Eh? What are you talking about?”
“Flashlights usually use triple AAA batteries, which have a voltage of one and a half volts,” Yuu immediately began, by now used to explaining her thought process out loud reaching into the drawer to pull out the pliers. “This radio over here was using a nine volt battery. Now, here’s the thing about nine volt batteries- most of them are actually a series of six individual one and a half voltage cells.” She squinted her eyes in the dim lighting, carefully prying the metal casing of the battery off, and once that was done, setting the pliers down and taking the plastic wrapping off by hand.
She held up the linked cells in the air, gesturing vaguely at them with her other hand. “Now, if I separate these, I, in theory, have six triple AAA batteries. But, because the internal nine voltage battery cells are shorter than a triple AAA battery, I need something to bridge the gap to complete the circuit. Aluminium foil would work just fine, but now I just need to find it…” she trailed off thoughtfully, before picking the pliers back up and using them to cut the batteries apart from the connectors.
Grim blinked, a blank expression on his face that suggested he had either not been paying attention, or most of that went over his head. “I don’t understand what half of that means, human. Why not just put the big battery in the flashlight and call it a day?”
Yuu sighed. “Because I don’t need another unpredictable firestarter to happen in my life,” She answered dryly. “Can you go look for and bring me aluminum foil?”
Grim scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “And why should the Great Grim be reduced to such menial labor?” He asked with a huff, narrowing his bright blue eyes. “If you had a few cans of tuna, I’d maybe be singing a different song. But I don’t even know where it is.” He added a moment later.
That… was a fair point.
It took fifteen minutes of rummaging through the desolate mess that could have been at one point called a kitchen before Yuu managed to find salvageable aluminum foil, which she stuck outside a broken window to let the rain wash the dust off, and dried it on the ceremonial robes she was still wearing. Perhaps it was a disgrace to the sophistication of the robes, but they served as a pretty good towel.
After carefully inserting the battery cell into the flashlight, she gently rolled a strip of aluminum foil up tightly, and slipped it between the battery terminal and the spring contact. Then, without further fanfare, she screwed the panel back on, pointed the flashlight behind her into the darkness, and turned it on.
Golden light emitted from the flashlight, illuminating the face of a semitransparent ghost that was hovering directly behind her, hallowed eyes inches from her face.
Yuu screamed.
“Mryah!” Grim screeched, bristling with much similarity to the cats he denied having any connection with. “G-g-ghosts?!” The feline cried out, and Yuu barely had a second to stabilize her footing, stumbling when Grim suddenly launched himself at her, climbing onto her shoulders as he deemed her an ally in opposition to the ghosts.
“Hee hee hee... Bwa ha ha ha ha ha.” Cackling rang out throughout the ruined dorm, and Yuu scrambled backwards, just barely containing the urge to chuck her flashlight at the ghost, a chubby spirit with no defining features besides the blue eyes that shared a strange similarity with the color of Grim’s.
“We haven't had visitors in ages!” A second, unidentifiable voice echoed throughout the room exclaimed gleefully before she had more time to entertain the thought of similarities, and a moment later, a skinny ghost formed, a ghoulish grin on its face.
“Oh, I'm just itchin' for new friends!” A third ghost declared, much alike to the others, appearing from nowhere and laughing all the while.
“Ah, hahaha!” The three ghosts laughed in unison, like a jumbled, off-putting choir Yuu wanted no part in.
“We just want a new ghost to play with!” The larger ghost cackled, the smaller one next to him giving a jolly laugh. “What do you say, buddy?”
“Eeeep!” Grim shivered against her, a rather pathetic whimper escaping him. Yuu shared the sentiment, and reached up to give him a pitying pat.
Apparently, the concept of being pitied due to a perceived fear was enough to get Grim back on his high horse, and the beast fluffed up, puffing out.
“I’m a master sorcerer! I ain’t afraid of no ghosts!” Grim declared, inhaling, and then blue fire shot out from his mouth. Both the ghosts and Yuu made varying noises of alarm, the latter quickly pulling the direbeast from off her shoulder and holding him out in her arms like he was a fire-sprouting hose.
The next few minutes were arguably some of the longest of Yuu’s life, which was saying something.
“To your left! Ten o’clock!”
“Missed by a country mile. Heh heh heh!”
“RRRGH! Hey, human! You gotta be more clear with your directions! I can't hear you!”
“I am being clear as day! It is not my fault you are incomprehensibly daft and cannot tell left from right!”
“OoOOoh, secret talk? I want it, c'mooon!”
“MYAAAH! NO! You stay way, way back!”
“Twelve o’clock and three o’clock! Grim, fire!”
It was like a demented pokemon battle.
Trying to direct a firebreathing cat that refused to listen to even the simplest of directions would have been annoying as is. But being unable to do anything herself, because never in her life did she think ghosts would be real, was the cherry on top of her very miserable cake. Yuu was on her last, very frayed nerve.
So when Grim was spewing fire at two of the ghosts behind them, and one of the ghosts spawned behind them, Yuu was not ashamed to admit she tossed the fire-breathing cat at the two ghosts like one would a javelin, before in a panic, spinning around and attempting to sock the ghost in the face.
Yuu was not sure who was more surprised. Yuu, at the sudden sensation of numbness that travelled up her arm, or the ghost, who seemed more caught off guard than anything at a fist going through his head, and disappeared mostly out of discomfort.
“Mahaha! That actually worked! Good going, human!” Grim cheereed, before turning around and spewing fire at where the ghost had been for good measure, forcing Yuu to duck lest she get toasted by mostly friendly-fire as well. “Mwah-haha!”
“Grim! Watch where you’re spitting fire!” Yuu hissed, eye twitching as she readjusted her glasses, standing back upright. “You’re going to burn this firestarter of a dorm down with me in it!”
“Myrahaha!” The sentient firestarter in question ignored her reprimanding,
“Gah! We gotta get out of here, before we disappear for good!” The same ghost that Yuuke punched declared, and in a cold breeze, the three disappeared as quickly as they had come.
There was a momentary, beautiful silence in which there was no ghost was cackling, no Grim screeching, and even the storm outside seemed to subside.
“We… won?” Grim questioned after a moment, before perking back up, a wide, toothy grin stretching across his face. “Aw, geez, I was scared outta my–” He cut himself off with an ack, as he caught sight of Yuu’s smug grin, hands propped on her hips. “I mean, of course those ghosts were no match for the Great Grim and his henchman! I suppose you were pretty okay, too.”
“Henchman…?” Yuu repeated blankly, a victorious smile falling from her face before her eye twitched slightly. You know what. Maybe I walked right into that one. She only gave another sigh, and resigned herself to the title. And then, her gaze landed on her still tingling arm.
She could hear Grim start monologuing in the background, presumably continuing his rambling, but it didn’t register as her ears began to ring, the shakiness in her knees becoming prominent as the adrenaline wore off.
Yuu, ever since arriving in this forsaken place, had seen “magic”.
First, the floating coffins she arrived in. Grim as a being; blue flame thrower and talking beast all in an eccentric cat shaped package. The redhead in the ceremony who summoned the strange collar. The boy with the deep voice who appeared from thin air. Crowley, using his “lash of love”, and the eerily familiar words he spoke as he gave her a magic show.
Yet, none of it had truly registered until her arm had gone through that ghost’s face. The numbness still faintly lingering in her veins had been the physical proof it was all real. It had been something she could actually interact with.
Perhaps she could be called overly distrustful, an infidelic cynic, even, having seen it, and yet still not truly believing it. But Yuu had always been a firm believer in believing nothing you hear, and only half of what you see; unless she could confirm it herself, she would always be a skeptic.
And now…
Well. As the reality of the situation began setting in, she only wanted to cry, just a little bit. Because what were the odds she, a magicless girl, from another world, would end up in another world, at a magic academy?
Astronomically low.
It was so low, Yuu couldn’t possibly believe her ending up here was just by a chance fluke.
“Never let go of that hand.”
“Henchman? Are you alright? The ghosts didn’t getcha too bad, did they?” Grim asked in something that could resemble concern if she squinted her eyes and tilted her head to the left, and Yuu blinked, looking down at the furry creature who was staring up at her.
“... Just existential dread, Grim.” Yuu replied, a shaky breath of air escaping her.
Grim’s nose wrinkled. “Existential dread? Is that a snack? I’m hungry.”
The comment was enough to earn a choked-up laugh from her.
Yuu decided there was one positive thing. It could physically not get any worse than it already was. And maybe with this obnoxious cat by her side, things could possibly be bearable too.
“Good evening, Mister Yuu! In another gesture of my immense kindness, I have brought you dinner! Food from Night Raven’s esteemed chefs working at the cafeteria, of course.”
Yuu turned just in time to see the Headmage waltz through the doors, a bag of takeout in one hand, and the other clutching his hat, as if he had been fighting the storm outside to make sure it would not fly away.
She could also see the exact moment he caught sight of Grim, and did an abrupt double take, golden orbs widening behind the mask.
“Wait. That's the creature we ejected for causing trouble at orientation!” Crowley shouted, dropping the bag onto the ground as he pointed a finger at Grim accusingly, who perked up with a smug grin. “Mister Yuu! What is that creature doing here?!”
Nevermind.
Perhaps Yuu had spoken too soon, and in her exuberance had tempted fate. By making the reprehensible mistake of daring to hope, she had subsequently invited Murphy's Law to take its dues.
She took everything she said back. It could get worse.