Name
The exam was held in a large, auditorium-like room. Every seat was taken by a student, trying to fill in the questions. Some scratched their heads or bit their pencils in thought. One or two had fallen asleep on their desks. The subject wasn't exactly the favorite of most students and they often found it boring.
An hour into the exam and Ryou was done. Studying had paid off but now he was bored, leaning on his hand and absently chewing his pencil, a bad habit of his. The pencils never lived long. He had read through his answers and wanted to leave but all examinees were required to stay at least an hour and a half. The time just seemed to drag by in a very slow pace.
He looked around to see what other people were doing, carefully not to seem like he was trying to cheat. Nothing interesting was going on and even the person who took care that no one cheated looked bored out of his mind. Ryou recognized him as his curing teacher, a nice guy but a bit of a... Well, the students called him 'Professor Brain Damage' because that was what his lectures caused, brain damage.
Ten minutes to go, Ryou cheered in his head, happy to get out of the classroom. If only the clock would move faster... Suddenly the sound of the door opening and closing caught his attention. The teacher stood up and went to meet the one who just came in. Ryou turned his eyes on the person and he couldn't help but stare. The new person had the same type of white hair as he did but it was much wilder and where Ryou dressed in light colors, the person wore completely black. It had to be the new teacher, seeing how Ryou had never seen him before. He had heard stories from students that had had his class and if he could trust the hearsay, the new teacher was a different story all together.
Professor Brain Damage didn't look happy and Ryou hoped that he could hear what was being said, but if the unhappy frown and the arrogant expression told him anything, Brain Damage didn't like the new teacher and what he was saying. Soon the older man stomped out of the classroom, clearly unhappy. Ryou frowned in confusion and chewed his pencil in thought. The new teacher had some say in things it seemed. Brain Damage was one of the older teachers and no one bossed him around easily. Ryou glanced around before reaching out to see what sort of power the teacher had. Technically, that wasn't allowed during an exam, but one couldn't really detect something like that.
Ryou fell off his chair with a loud thud. "Aaah!" The commotion caused people to look at him and he blushed from embarrassment. The teacher, who had been writing something on the blackboard, turned to look at him too and Ryou could feel a spike up in his already powerful aura and could have sworn that his eyes flashed red.
Ryou stood up, an awkward smile on his face, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled and could hear a few snickers from the other students. "I just kind of... fell off." Ryou glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that he could leave now and sighed in relief. "Excuse me..." He started to back up his stuff. Some students whispered with each other and laughed quietly.
"If you don't go back to your exams now and shut the hell up, I'm going to remove you and fail your pathetic asses!" came the harsh voice of the teacher and everyone instantly did as they were told.
Ryou was grateful that everyone stopped staring and made his way down to where the teacher's desk was. The teacher had finished his writing on the board and looked over his work. It seemed to be some kind of ritual pattern and Ryou remembered seeing one in one of his books before but there seemed to be something wrong with this one.
"I thought you were leaving. Just put the paper on the table."
Ryou snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that he had been staring at the pattern with the exam still in his hands and the teacher was staring at him. He found himself lost in the burning eyes. His eyes were brown too but not like that... Ryou remembered the feeling that had made him fall off his chair and it was much stronger when he stood so close and his senses were still open. It nearly knocked him off his feet. Ryou had always been sensitive about things like other people's aura, and that was why he was so good at healing.
"Hey!" the teacher snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, as if to break a curse and Ryou jumped back.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I just um..." Ryou stammered. "There's something wrong with your... pattern over there..." he quickly said, as if that would explain everything. The teacher raised an eyebrow.
"Do you know what it does?" he asked, indicating the pattern on the blackboard. Ryou took another look at the thing with a slight frown. It dawned to him now what was wrong with it and it was better to be flawed than work.
"It sucks out the souls in this room and I suppose it also creates some kind of portal..." Ryou finally said and looked back at the teacher who nodded in what he guessed was approval.
"Now what's wrong with it then?" the teacher asked and Ryou got the aching feeling that he was being tested. And he had just passed one test too. He got a piece of chalk and stood up on a chair, adding something on the outer rim.
"These would have to switch places too." Ryou got off the chair and pointed at two symbols. He felt a bit insecure under the gaze of the teacher and just waited him to say something.
"Impressive. Well, for a lower level student," the teacher finally said with a smirk. Ryou wasn't sure if he should be pleased or insulted so he just ended up feeling the mixture of the two, which greatly resembled confusion. He put his paper on the desk finally and got ready to leave. He got to the door when he was called back.
"You, wait a sec!"
"Ryou." Ryou turned around to see what he wanted now, introducing himself because he didn't want to be called 'you'.
"Whatever, Ryou." He waved it off. "My advanced dark arts class is in this classroom next period, come check it out."
The boy was a bit shocked by this and stumbled backwards a few steps. "What? I c-can't do that, I have curing next period."
"So what? I get you a permission slip so that old man can't get on your case. You come see how those idiots do in class."
"Well, I-."
"Good, off you go then."
Ryou stared for a while before turning on his heels and exiting the room. He obviously didn't have a say in this, not that he wanted to go to curing but still.
He reached his locker and opened it before remembering that he didn't need anything from there because he wasn't going to class, or not to the one he was supposed to. There was something on the bottom of the locker, though, and as Ryou picked it up, he saw it to be a permission slip. He blinked, closed the door and pocketed the slip.
"What's that? Did you get a love letter?" came a teasing voice behind his shoulder and he sighed in annoyance.
"No, it's not a love letter. I got a permission to be absent from curing next period." he explained to his friend and roommate, Malik. The other boy flapped his small fairy wings a bit. He somehow believed that Ryou had a secret admirer every single time he got some sort of piece of paper.
"Since when did permission slips start to appear in lockers?"
"Since people started to draw transporting circles on them." Ryou took out the slip again and showed the tiny magical circle on it before putting it back into his pocket.
"Someone is going through a lot of trouble to get you off class. Who is it?" Malik asked eagerly. It wasn't easy to do a transporting circle that small.
"The new teacher, he wants me to come to the advanced dark arts class. I guess I made a pretty good impression or something." Ryou shrugged as if it wasn't that big of a deal, when in reality it was. That kind of thing just didn't happen, it was an unspoken rule.
"Either that or he has the hots for you," Malik just stated and Ryou had to wonder how could he just say things like that like it wasn't a big deal.
"Uh, I don't think that's it."
"My theory is just as likely as yours," the other argued. "I can ask him if you want."
"Do not under any circumstances do that," Ryou hissed. His friend amazed him sometimes. "What would you say anyway? You can't just go and ask things like that."
"Of course I can! 'Hello mister new teacher, do you happen to want to scre-'"
"Malik!"
His friend just laughed at his flushed face and angry expression. "Ok ok! I was just kidding! No need to take everything so seriously, sheesh!"
Ryou pouted and refused to talk to him for the rest ten minutes they had till class. Then he hurried to show the slip to his actual teacher before he had to go to the classroom 103, which was the advanced dark arts classroom.
xxxxxxx
It turned out that Professor Brain Damage wasn't very fond with the idea of letting Ryou go to a different class, even though he had a permission. His lecture of how he shouldn't have anything to do with the new teacher, since he was a warlock and Ryou was a mage, thus leading to the fact that the subjects they studied had very little to do with each other, had caused Ryou to be half an hour late from the class. How the lecture had taken half an hour of his time was a complete mystery.
Ryou knocked on the classroom door and waited for someone to open it. He just hoped the teacher wouldn't be too pissed at him; he seemed to be the type to get angry easily and maybe curse someone.
"You are late," the teacher hissed at him after opening the door and Ryou flinched at the tone of his voice.
"I'm sorry. My teacher gave me hard time and didn't want to let me go..." If he hadn't been looking at his shoes, he would have seen the other roll his eyes.
"Idiot... Well, what are you waiting for? Come in already." He stepped away, letting Ryou in and went back to his teaching just like nothing had happened. Ryou noticed that all the students were packed in the back of the room, as far away from the front where the teacher was as possible. Ryou sat in the front row, near the windows. He didn't want to go near the other students because they were whispering with each other and glancing at him with a bit of hostility. Mages and warlocks weren't exactly the best of friends in this school though some of the warlocks were nice and easy to be friends with but Ryou guessed it was just because of prejudgment.
"Is there a problem?"
Ryou snapped to look at the teacher who was looking at his class with a raised eyebrow, no doubt having noticed that the class' attention was on Ryou and not on what he was trying to teach.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with the rest of the goody squad?" someone asked from among the students.
"If you have a problem, you take it up with me," said the teacher, leaning casually on his desk. "I asked him here. See the pattern on the blackboard? He actually knows what to do with it and that's exactly why you all have to make an essay titled; 'What does it do, what's wrong with it and why was I so incompetent that I couldn't solve it when a lower level mage could'!" He yelled the rest of the sentence and the class shut up, some were glaring at Ryou as if it was his fault that they had to make an essay. Ryou had always known that some day it would pay off to read advanced dark arts books in his free time.
"And make it at least five pages."
The class groaned.
Ryou had a strange sense of pride from that on, he even raised his hand a few times to answer the questions though he wasn't sure if he was supposed to participate, then again, he didn't know what he did there in the first place. The lesson was much more interesting than curing would have been and Ryou found it to be fascinating so he just listened to every word that escaped the teacher's mouth. He had absently started to chew his pencil again and his eyes became half lidded as he listened in some sort of trance. Suddenly someone pulled the pencil out of his mouth and he looked up only to see the teacher, whose name he still didn't know, holding his pencil and inspecting it before turning to look at him.
"You really shouldn't abuse your pencils like this." The teacher sat on the corner of Ryou's desk and the boy blinked at him, confused.
"Um, could I have my pencil back?" he asked carefully. The teacher smirked down on him.
"Sure." He placed the pencil back on Ryou's lips and he confusedly took it back in his mouth, a faint tint of pink on his nose. "The class ended five minutes ago, by the way."
Ryou blushed full force now in embarrassment and quickly gathered his stuff to leave. On his way out of the door, he finally realized to take the pencil out of his mouth.
xxxxxxx
Bakura sat on his bed in his room in the teacher's dormitory, which was a smaller wing attached to the building. He was correcting a pile of small tests he had forced his students to do. It had came as a surprise of course. He had to find out the true level of his new students somehow and besides, he just loved to see all the students squirm when they saw what kind of questions the test had. It hadn't been an easy one and much to his disappointment many had only gotten their name right.
He frowned in annoyance again when some idiot had written the most ridiculous answer. Obviously most of these people weren't good enough to match his high standards. Bakura had gotten some complains from the other teachers about his methods but he couldn't care less what they thought, it was none of their business how he chose to teach his students. The little idiots would just have to learn to deal with it, and learn the basics of magic while they were at it. When he was through with them, every single one of those brats would be more than ready to pass the advanced state with ease.
Though there seemed to be some hidden talent in the school as well... That Ryou kid had really managed to get his attention by pulling off his ritual magic pattern test with so much ease. Too bad he wasn't his to teach... What did a student with so much potential do in the mage line anyway? Bakura had to admit that he had no idea what kind of mage powers the boy had, as he had never seen him in action. The only idea he had was when the kid had reached for him back in the exam and he had taken the change to see his powers as well. It was there but buried because of lack of practice. If it would be up to him, that Ryou would go through some serious training, but it wasn't and obviously the other teachers weren't going to do anything about it. Such terrible waste of talent...
The reason why he even bothered to care was that he held magic above all else in importance. He didn't exactly have anything else in his life. That kind of waste of potential just made him angry.
"Damn idiots... Can't even see what's right under their noses..." Bakura mumbled to himself. Then, while he was busy mumbling, he got an idea. It made him grin wickedly, which was never a good sign. He summoned his personal favorite evil spirit to get some information for him. He was feeling a bit lazy and what's a better option than to get something else to do your dirty work.
"Just you wait little Ryou..."
xxxxxxx
Ryou hadn't seen Malik the whole day as they had been in different classes but when he entered their shared room at the end of the school day, he was instantly assaulted by the curios blond boy.
"Ryou! Finally!" Malik shouted as he bounced, half flew, to his friend once he went in the door. "Tell me, is it true?"
"Is what true?" asked the now confused Ryou. Malik sometimes hung out with the gossipy people and always knew everything that was going on, though it wasn't true half of the time.
"I was just talking with some people and they say that the new teacher is totally drool worthy, though a bit jerk-ish, and that he has some kind of thing for you."
Ryou nearly choked on his own saliva. "What?" He coughed. "That's not true!" he managed to yell.
Malik tilted his head to a side. "Which one?"
"Eh?"
"Which is not true, the teacher's drool worthy-ness or that he has a thing for you?"
"The second one!"
"So he is hot?"
"Er..." Ryou blushed just a bit. "I don't know about that..."
"Ok ok, I lay off now. I can see that you're in denial right now so I'll just have to pester you about it some other time."
Ryou glared. "I'm not in denial." Malik just waved it off and started to ramble on about something else and Ryou flopped down on his bed, listening with half an ear.
"...so of course everyone is talking about him now, and especially those who had had his class already..." Malik's voice faded away as Ryou started to sink in his own world.
"I heard he's only eighteen, can you believe that?" Ryou just nodded like he was listening. "...he doesn't normally mention his name but I heard from someone who stole his file that it's Bakura something..."
Ryou nodded again. "I see... Bakura..." He hadn't really heard what the other had said, except for the name. It somehow left a pleasant tingle in his mouth. Malik stopped and looked at him strangely.
"Ryou?" he tried.
"I see..."
Malik sighed. "Look Ryou! A flying pink elephant is about to fly through our window!"
"I see..."
"And it's rider is a bathing suit wearing gorilla!"
"That's interesting..."
Malik scratched his head, thinking up a way to get his friend snap out of it. "Oh my god! Someone just burned all your books!"
"I- What?!" Ryou yelled and looked around in panic, only to see his friend rolling in laughter. "Malik, you idiot!"
"I had to get you out of it somehow," Malik choked out between laughing fits. Ryou crossed his arms and glared until Malik had the sense to stop laughing.
"Ok, I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "Hey, I think we should go to the cafeteria to have something to eat." Malik just knew that food could cheer his friend up.
"Let's go, I'm starving!" Ryou jumped off the bed and started to head down to the cafeteria. Malik rolled his eyes but followed shortly after. Ryou was like a brother to him but some times he just didn't get his love for food and learning.
