Thirty three minutes ago.
The scent of smoke was humiliating but what pissed her off and exhausted her most wasn't the incident. It wasn't her fearsome professor, hell, it wasn't even her annoying lab partner. It was the many, many little and big things all adding up together and enveloping each other and weighing down so damn heavy she would be happy if she could just collapse in peace sometimes.
She was fed up and sick and tired of everything. It would all be so much better if it would all end and she wouldn't, they wouldn't need to carry on anymore.
Midway to the dean's office, she stopped and the person following her did so too.
"Must you always be behind me like this? I'm not going to run away you know."
The person behind her stepped forwards and put her book down with an ambiguous smile. "Oh? So sorry Nami, I was probably too absorbed in my book and didn't see where I was going."
The quiet hallway was empty except for the two lone shadows standing in the setting sunlight. The two girls stared at each other, exchanging undecipherable looks.
"Hm, I guess that's why they say that a good book can lead you anywhere," the dark haired girl finally said when no reply was given.
"Yeah, the haunting feeling never ends, does it," Nami said continuing on her long walk to hell. "Robin."
They walked the rest of the way in mutual silence.
Twenty eight minutes ago.
"Whew, I got lost after walking around this huge maze of a dorm. But now I'm finally here." The boy in the straw hat stood in front of a large wooden door holding its key.
The numbers 306 were stamped on the door frame matching the ones on the key. "Hmm, the numbers seem different, maybe Gramps changed his room or something. Ah well, here I go." He said, inserting the key and unlocking the door.
The first glance around the room made his eyes light up like the fourth of July. "Whoa! Gramps never mentioned he was this rich! It looks like a king's room! And it's huge!"
From the gleaming teakwood flooring to the elegant paisley patterned cream wallpaper and a glittering chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, everything screamed of luxury and expensive taste. The furniture was all dark ebony and marble, with simple decorative touches here and there to form what resembled a model room out of a high-end interior design magazine.
"I wonder if he got promoted or something. Oh! There's the kitchen! Whooooaaa! Rice crackers! Meat!"
In his excitement, he rushed into the kitchen without bothering to close the door.
Twenty five minutes ago.
A skeleton was languidly strolling down the hallway when an earsplitting scream pierced his ears in a sonic shockwave.
"GET OUT OF MY CLASS THIS INSTANT YOU DISGUSTING MALE!" A female voice shrieked at the top of her lungs from inside a classroom. "HOW DARE YOU TRIP AND TOUCH ME YOU LOW, FILTHY CREATURE!"
"Yes my lady! But this is a class I've always dreamed of attending-" A male's voice exclaimed in what sounded like hyper enthusiasm.
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU! I ONLY ACCEPT FEMALES IN MY CLASS! THIS IS WOMEN'S STUDIES! AND YOU ARE A FILTHY MALE!"
"But madam! I'd be glad to learn all the secrets of women! Even if I'm a guy I'd put my entire heart into learning the secrets, the s-secrets of, w-women-"
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Y-YOU! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING! GO TO THE DEAN'S OFFICE! RIGHT NOW!"
Loud crashing ensued from behind the door and the skeleton could barely step back in time when the doors were slammed open and a blond blur was sent flying out from inside.
"Um, are you alright?" The skeleton asked, seeing as how the blond guy who had been kicked out of the room appeared to be sprouting blood from his nose while wearing a twisted expression of bliss.
"DON'T EVER SNEAK INTO MY CLASS AGAIN!" The owner of the angry female voice strode out of the classroom and when the skeleton looked up he was struck by one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen in his life.
"Ah, Miss," He said, bowing to the fuming lady before him.
"May I see your panties?" He asked politely.
The woman's face was quickly approaching a dangerous shade of red and she was about to scream back a reply when someone exiting the nearby bathroom stalls beat her to it.
"What! Hell no! Just cause' I couldn't find my pants this morning doesn't mean you're welcome to stare at my underwear!" The guy who had come of the bathroom said, folding his arms and glaring at the skeleton crossly from under a swaying blue cowlick.
The four people stared at one another before the blue haired guy spoke up after putting two and two together.
"Oh wait, you weren't talking to me. Sorry, I guess I'll be going now," He said, stepping past the blond guy lying on the floor. "By the way, dude, you might wanna clean yourself up a bit, you've got blood all over your shirt."
He had only taken five steps away from them when the echoing scream behind him confirmed his fears that he would never make an escape in time.
Twenty one minutes ago.
"Crap! I can't believe I forgot that they've blocked this flight of stairs since some guy destroyed them in a fight. We have to go past the professors' dorms to use the other stairs." Usopp said to Chopper in front of a barricaded pile of rubble. "They killed the elevator too, jeez."
"Ah! It was the creepy guy who did it!" Chopper said, quivering a bit. They turned and made their way back towards the other flight of stairs.
"Oh Chopper, you know him too?" Usopp asked in mild surprise.
Chopper nodded his head furiously. "Yeah! He's in my class and has this creepy smile whenever he's slicing and inspecting the organs…" He trailed off, the memory making his fur stand on end.
"Huh? He's in your class? I thought he's doing Electromagnetism. I see him in my classes now and then and he's always playing with this scary looking arm weapon-thingy, can't say it doesn't look cool, though."
"Eh? No, you must be talking about the other guy then! I only know of T-"
"Shhhh! Wait, I think hear someone!" Usopp said in a hushed tone, ducking behind a trash can. Chopper stopped in his tracks beside him and they peered down the empty dorm corridors.
"It doesn't look like anyone's there – Oh! That door is open!" Chopper said, pointing towards a wide open door with the numbers 306. "We should go…"
"Stop! I have an idea!" Usopp said grinning wickedly as a thought formed in his head. "Hey Chopper…You do realize what this place is right?"
"Um, yeah, the professors' dorms? We'll be killed if we entered one of their rooms!"
"Aha! But if the door's open and no one's outside, we could sneak a peek in and never be found out! Think about it! The brave Usopp managing to sneak inside a professor's room! We'd be so amazing!"
Chopper clapped his hooves together enthusiastically, getting into the idea. "Oh! We'll get to see what's inside and live to tell the tale!"
"Uh huh!" Usopp said, rubbing his nose in smugness. "Let's head on a brave adventure, Chopper!"
"Okay!" Chopper replied. The two friends crept inside the room and shut the door quietly.
"Wow! Everything looks so expensive! I wonder who stays in here, oh shoot!" Usopp yelped when his arm brushed against a cat shaped clay ornament and sent it crashing to the floor.
"Oh my Doctorine! You broke it!" Chopper said in alarm, grasping at his face in terror. The duo jumped in shock and screamed in unison when a head wearing a straw hat popped out from round a corner.
"Hroo Achroo? Hwarer hrooinging Magrumfus?" Straw Hat asked in suspicion through a mouthful of rice crackers. He ended in an audible crunch and swallowed when something caught his eye.
"You broke my Gramp's stuff!" He said with eyes wide as dinner plates and scooted over to inspect the broken clay pieces faster than Ivankov could wink.
"W-we didn't m-mean to!" Usopp stuttered, gesturing around wildly with his arms.
"We are so sorry! We were just passing through and the door was open! Please don't tell your Gramps!" Chopper cried, kneeling on the floor in despair.
Straw Hat stood up and gazed at the terrified expressions of the two who were huddling together in a ball of lanky arms and fur.
"Oh you're that talking reindeer, cool! Anyway, it's alright," He said while digging a finger into his left nostril. "My Gramps hates cats, someone probably gave him that as a present and he was probably secretly hoping it would get smashed by accident. What are you doing here? Were you hungry too?"
Usopp and Chopper exchanged looks with each other. "Ah yes! Of course! We were starving and we thought there'd be food here so we, uh, came in through the open door! Not that we thought it would be fun to sneak into a professor's room of course! Ahahahahaha!" Usopp said, laughing nervously.
To his amazement, Straw Hat bought into his lie completely without a hint of a doubt.
Straw Hat grinned at them widely. "Oh is that so? There's still some juice and salad left in the fridge. I finished everything else and the last of the rice crackers, hope you don't mind."
"It's fine! Thank you so much! We'll just get some juice and be going in a minute!" Chopper said and pulled Usopp with him in the direction of the kitchen.
"Ok, I'll be in my Gramp's room!" Straw Hat called after their rapidly retreating backs.
Once in the kitchen, Usopp wiped at his sweating brow in relief. "Phew! I thought we were gonna die!" He looked around the kitchen and was stunned by the sight. It looked as though a bear had rampaged through the place followed by a swarm of locusts. The cupboard doors were all wide open. Empty bowls and plates were littered all over along with ripped open food wrappers, boxes and the fridge door wobbled sadly on its hinges. Straw Hat was right, a salad bowl filled with raw brussel sprouts and asparagus and a bottle with roughly one mouthful of apple juice was all that was left from the carnage.
"Who the hell is this guy?" He asked, walking over to close the fridge only to have its door fall off completely.
"We'd better go now, Usopp!" Chopper said in an urgent whisper.
"Hey you two! Come up here! You won't believe what I found!" Straw Hat's loud voice called out from the direction of the bedroom.
"You know what Chopper? Since it's his granddad's place and he all but invited us here, we've got our backs covered right?" Usopp asked. "We could check out everything and if anything goes wrong we can push the blame on him!"
The two of them mused over the logic and after finding no fault in it, ran towards Straw Hat's location at top speed.
After all, who wouldn't kill to see what the inside of their professor's bedroom looked like?
Fifteen minutes ago.
"Hmm? This doesn't look right, I thought it should be this way…Or was it that way…Where did I come from again?" A guy with fuzzy green hair stood in front of a room, rubbing his chin in thought. There was nothing stated on the door except for an empty spot where the name plate should have been.
"Ah it doesn't matter so long as I get my nap," He said to himself, opened the door and walked right in.
Seeing two girls in the room, one reading and another resting her head on the table on folded arms, he put his thoughts to rest. Surely this was the student lounge given the fact that there were two students here lounging around.
Neither of the girls looked up at him when he closed the door, walked to a random table and propped his legs up on it to indulge in his long awaited evening nap.
Twelve minutes ago.
"Crazy ass woman! What's she got against me, there's nothing wrong with my dressing! She needs to get her eyes checked!" A guy with a blue cowlick grumbled under his breath as he led the way to the dean's office with a skeleton pulling along an unconscious blond guy.
"I agree with you on that, actually, there's nothing wrong with wearing underwear outside," the skeleton said from behind him.
"Precisely! That's what I'm talking about!" Blue haired guy said.
"Yes, if all the girls started following your trend, it would be fabulous."
"At least you get where I'm coming from, damn it, sending us to the dean's office, what a bitch! Hey whaddya' know, there're people here already." The blue haired guy said, pushing the door open to find two girls and one guy inside the room.
Dumping the blond guy unceremoniously on the floor somewhere, he strode over to a seat near the snoring green haired guy and sat down next to the skeleton.
"What time do you think the principal will be coming?" He asked the skeleton.
"I don't know, they say he's out with some of the other professors in the town for the festival." The skeleton replied, placing his violin case on the floor.
"Geez, we can't do anything but wait, huh. What a bore."
