Late at night, Barrel heard a knock on the door and hopped off his bed to answer it. On the other side of the door was a girl with long black hair with little cat ears protruding from the top of her head. She had a relatively grumpy look on her face and looked around the room with examining green eyes. Her gaze landed on Sola, who was currently sprawled over his bed, snoozing away with a bit of drool running down from his mouth.

Disregarding that she was in a boy's dorm room, the girl entered and kicked Sola. He woke with a start and raised his hand to throw out a spell before realizing who kicked him. "Yuzuru, did you have to kick me?"

She smirked and replied, "You know who you are. It was entirely necessary." Barrel was laughing as he shut the door. Losing the smile on her face, Yuzuru sat on the bed next to Sola and laid out a few sheets of paper. "Here's the science homework we were assigned yesterday. I've answered all the questions for you and put down some notes for you to go over afterwards, too."

"Thanks a lot, Yuzuru," he said gratefully. His tone shifted, showing a bit of nervousness afterwards. "But did you have to come all the way into the boy's dorm to bring these?"

Yuzuru laughed briefly, saying, "What? Are you nervous that there's a girl on your bed?" She hopped off the mattress and headed to the door, opening it and stepping out. "I'll see you two later in science class." After that, she shut the door.

/Yuzuru

The girl headed down the darkened halls of the boy's dorm, making sure to avoid the occasional student that passed by. She stayed silent, keeping her footfalls light as she headed out. It was pretty easy to make it out of the boy's dorm without getting caught.

Yuzuru was running to the girl's dorm now, confident she'd make it back before anyone outside of her roommate noticing she was gone. That is, until she heard someone call out to her.

"What do you think you're doing outside at this hour?" Long bright pink hair, fluffy cat ears protruding from her head, a pair of pink tails at her waist, a strange white outfit that seemed a bit big for her, and a sucker in her mouth that smelled like alcohol. It was her science teacher.

"Mo-! I mean…Ms. Mercury…" Yuzuru started. She knew that this woman couldn't be lied to. She was always able to see through someone and cut them off when they were lying. "I was in the boy's dorm paying off a debt I owed one of the students," she answered frankly. "He'll be turning in his science homework tomorrow."

The woman stared her down for a full minute before holding open the door to the girl's dorm. "Get your ass in there and get to your dorm room," Ms. Mercury shot.

Yuzuru stepped inside and rushed to her room. The moment she got inside, Aria ran straight to her. "Did you get the homework to Sola? Did you get caught at all?" Yuzuru noticed that Aria had stopped herself from asking further questions, so she took that as a sign to go ahead and answer.

"I got the homework to him. Don't worry, though, I wasn't caught by any boys or anything, but I was caught coming back to the girl's dorm. Ms. Mercury was there, so I told her what I was doing. You know I can't lie to her. Thankfully, I doubt she'd tell anyone." She chuckled at the look of disappointment on Aria's face. "Don't worry about it." She ruffled the girl's hair and went over to her bed, throwing herself on top.

"You wanted to ask another question, right? Go ahead, Aria."

After getting permission from Yuzuru, the words burst from her mouth. "DID YOU KISS HIM?"

"Huh?" Yuzuru raised her brow at Aria, who immediately slapped her hands over her mouth, suggesting she might regret asking. "I told you before, we're not dating. We've only ever talked to each other for a couple days at this point."

Aria couldn't help but continue. "Yeah, but when you were falling down that hole and he came in, rushing to your aid, it was so amazing! It's like something right out of a romance novel."
"Aria, I swear, you need to stop reading that lovey dovey crap. Just go to bed." Yuzuru laid back and threw her sheets over her. When she was sure Aria wasn't going to say more, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

/Next Morning

Sola and Barrel had headed for their assigned classes, splitting up to head separate ways down the halls. Sola headed for the science lab, stopping when he noticed Ms. Mercury standing outside the classroom. "Hand in your assignments, runts," she demanded to every student entering the class. Sola couldn't help but smile, knowing that his assignment today was going to get a passing grade this time.

He handed his in and headed into the class, taking a seat at his own table. Yuzuru was at the same table, as well as Haru. "Hey, Yuzuru! Thanks again for last night," he whispered to her.

"I already told you, I was paying off that debt," she replied just as quietly. She didn't seem to be in too good a mood at the moment. He was going to ask her about, but then the room door slammed loudly and the teacher went over to her desk.

"Alright, you brats, open your textbooks to page two-twenty and keep quiet while I grade your work," she barked. After that, the only noise from her mouth came as occasional grumbles about taking the job she had.

Not long after, the sheets came back to the students. Sola's, much to Haru's surprise, got a passing grade. "Woah! Nice job on this one, Riptor," he said with an impressed chuckle. Then the two boys looked at Yuzuru's assignment to find red zero on the top left-hand corner of her assignment.

"Thought so," Yuzuru said.

"Woah, hold on," Sola said. "What's that about?" He had raised his stare up to meet Yuzuru's face.

"Ms. Mercury caught me when I was coming back to the girl's dorm last night," she said, lowering her voice to a whisper so no one else in the room could hear her. It was lucky for her that hardly any Beastkins were in the class during this period. "She knows that I did someone else's assignment and I'm pretty sure she knows it's you, Sola. I think this is her way of punishing me for doing that. You still get a pass, but I get a fail."

Sola pushed his chair back as he shot up to his feet. The teacher glared at him from across the room. "What is it, lizard boy? Got something to say to me?"

"Just one thing," he replied, lifting up his assignment. A magic circle materialized in the area over the back of his hand and a flame burst through his hand and burned the sheet of paper to ashes. "I think I made myself clear."

The teacher clicked her tongue in annoyance, her brow furrowed with a ticked expression. "Crystal clear, actually." She turned to Yuzuru, her face returning to its vaguely grouchy state. "I want you to stay after class, Yuzuru. I'd like to double-check your assignment."

Sola sat back down in his seat just as he felt his face sting. "Ow! Haru, what the hell was that for?"

"S-Sorry, I don't know what came over me," he said sincerely. "What was that about? Did…Did you seriously do that in front of the Iron Witch?" A piece of chalk flew across the classroom and thwacked Haru upside the back of the head.

"I don't think I need to remind you further that I despise that nickname, Shishigami," she said, saying Haru's last name with a bit of venom in her tone. "Just like that loud-ass dad of yours…Alright you little runts, time to get started!"

/Luna

Luna's first class of the day was Health Class with Ms. Faye-Ling. Unlike Ms. Mercury, who Luna's brother had to deal with every morning, she was incredibly sweet towards all her students and didn't get too mad when they made mistakes. Although, there was that one time she came in acting weird after she lost all her pet food for her tiny panda, Lao Tzu, and had to go purchase more, which happens to have gone up in prices lately.

Even still, the nurse was a good teacher to have…most of the time. Luna's attention today, however, was not entirely focused on Ms. Faye-Ling. Kazu had nudged her gently until she finally tore her eyes from the teacher. Luna tilted her head to the side as if to ask him what he wanted.

"Luna, I wanted to know," the boy whispered. "Have you seen Yuu anywhere this morning?" When Luna shook her head, he looked around the class himself. "Where is she? She usually comes to talk to me before heading to class.

Luna began scribbling away on a blank sheet of notebook paper before passing it to Kazu.

Maybe she woke up late or something. I'm sure she's fine. She just couldn't see you in time.

Kazu smiled a little. "Thanks, Luna," he said. "And you're probably right. I'm probably worrying over nothing."

"Excuse me, you two!" Litchi had noticed that they weren't paying attention. "If you two are done, I'd like to continue the lesson." The two nodded their head and Kazu gave a verbal apology on both their parts since…well, Luna couldn't.

However, it seemed as though that Luna wasn't finished yet. A boy behind her tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, little girl," he whispered. Luna didn't turn around to acknowledge him. She knew who he was and she wasn't intent on conversing with him. "Come on, don't ignore me. It's rude."

Luna heard a snap and a click. She didn't want to know what the sound was, just as she didn't want to know what he had to say. She paid attention to Ms. Faye-Ling and tried to ignore the kid behind her.

"Alright, if you wanna ignore me, then that's fine. But when we get to the gym, I'm going tear you down. And I really hope you like Ms. Big-tits over there, because when I'm done with you, you're going to be spending the weekend with her, and then some."

"Ma'am, can Luna switch seats?" Kazu called out. "Arn is making her uncomfortable." He glared at the blonde kid sitting behind Luna, having heard the whole thing. Before Litchi could respond, he leaned towards Arn and whispered, "If you do anything out of bounds, you're the one that's going to get sent to the nurse's."

"Whatever you say, rodent," Arn laughed.

/Later that day…

"Alright, guys, get your butts in gear," Mrs. Nanaya shouted. "Today's gonna be nothing but sparring! Get your weapons, fists, and Ars Magus ready!" Her announcement was met with most of the students cheering. However, the only ones who didn't were Luna and Kazu, both of which were keeping an eye on Arn.

"Alright, kids, get paired up!"

Ko and Sola immediately dashed for one another. They'd been waiting for a spar day for weeks. Arn grabbed for Luna, but Kazu grabbed him and pulled him away from her, tightening his grip almost hard enough to break it. "Hands off her," he said.

"As you wish, rodent," the blonde laughed. He pulled his arm, and Kazu, towards him before lifting his left foot and slamming it into the Beastkin. He knocked the wind out of him, making Kazu release Arn's arm. After that, he followed up with a high kick to Kazu's face, knocking him to the floor.

Unlike other Humans, Arn was much faster, matching speeds with an average Beastkin. "What? Is that your fastest?" Kazu coughed.

"Hey! I didn't say you could start yet!" Mrs. Nanaya shouted. It was as if she had gone unheard, though, as Kazu retaliated by socking Arn in the chest hard enough to send him back a ways across the gym floor.

"How was that?" Kazu asked, huffing.

After clearing through the students gathered, she saw who Kazu was fighting. "Arn Griffon," she called out. "I thought you were banned from sparring matches. One more punch and I'm sending you to your sweet little daddy." To emphasize that statement, she popped her own knuckles. "But, hey, I'm a reasonable woman. So I'm going to give you this one chance to back off now."

Arn laughed as if what she said was the funniest thing in the world. "Really, Mrs. Nanaya? Fine, I'll back off your precious little boy, but I'd like to ask a question first. Is it because you're our teacher? Or because you're his mommy?"

"This mommy is about to kick your ass if you keep this up," she warned.

Arn raised his hands in mock surrender and walked to the far wall. "Fine, fine. Look, I'm gone."

Mrs. Nanaya sighed and turned to the other students. "Alright, hurry up and finishing pairing so we can get started."

Author's Note:

Welp, here I am in Tennessee and I'm writing anyways.

How was the second chapter? Any better? Any worse? Any feedback is appreciated. I'd like to know what you guys think of how I write or how the story is written so far. Not much to say today.

Reploid7,

Signing off.