AN: This fic is dedicated to Shadowstep1019, lost but not forgotten.
This is my own take on and rewrite of "Dark Schools" by TehBrovakiin, who I apologize to for using the main character Dark.
In case you're wondering, Originally, Dark was the chosen undead. I've instead adapted him to be a mix of the Chosen Undead, Bearer of the curse, and the Ashen One.
This is a Dark Souls boarding school/high school au primarily, but will feature characters from other Fromsoft properties such as Demon Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. And Elden Ring when that comes out.
THISISATRANSITION
"DAAARRRKKK!"
Dark was awoken by his brother's screaming. It was a shame too. He was having the greatest dream about some game that unfortunately did not exist. It was called something like "Dark Souls" a dark fantasy rpg where the world is edgy and bleak, named after him of course.
"What the fuck do you want Oscar..." Dark tiredly said as he prepared to roll over and close his eyes once again. What was Oscar even screaming about? it was probably some dumb shit like needing him to kill a bug in his room or something.
"LOOK AT THE CLOCK! WE'VE GOT TO GO!" Oscar said, starting to ferociously brush his teeth, undoubtedly hurting his gums in the process.
"SHIT!" Dark said, looking over to his clock, which read 6:15. School! He totally forgot! They had to get to the train in time so they could get a ride to the capital, and into Fromsoft Academy, one of, if not the most, prestigious Boarding School in their country. They had to get to the opening ceremony so they could get into their dorms in time.
Dark jumped out of bed, joining Oscar in frantically getting ready. Brushing his teeth thoroughly, and putting on his uniform. He slung his light bag onto his shoulder, and followed up with his giant dufflebag full of personal items. Really mostly just his console collection, and his collection of posters and decorations he'd put in the dorm. The large bag dug into his shoulder. Once he saw Oscar get his bag on, the two nodded and ran, but not without Dark first picking up an envelope in his room, labeled DARK in his dad's handwriting.
Dark and Oscar ran out of the house and down the road, to the train station. Both gave a large sigh of relief as they boarded.
The train ride was long, but eventually it stopped and they both were sure they could make it in time now.
Many students followed in the same direction. It seemed that many academy students had used the train. First class was full of them in the Fromsoft Uniform. It was easy to recognize, since it consisted of a Blazer and a skirt for girls, and pants for boys. It was in three different colors, a dull green for first years, a light tan for second years, and a navy blue for third years.
7:45 His watch said, and Dark and Oscar were on time.
It was a long walk from the station. The capital city was, well, urban, and large. To avoid the navigation they would have to do they just followed the students with navy blue uniforms, since they would know where they're going.
The academy was on a hill, and once the academy was in sight behind the buildings, they knew they had made the right choice.
They both paused to take a look at the academy in the light. It truly was grand, a beacon of Instantly, the two daydreamed for a second.
Shit!
By the time they snapped out of it simultaneously their eyes drifted elsewhere and the Third Years were nowhere to be found. Or anyone else for the matter.
"Fuck! How are we gonna get there now! Oscar!"
"Shut up Dark!" Oscar snapped, "We both weren't paying attention!"
Dark facepalmed, and scratched his head.
"It'll take too long to ask for directions like we planned. If we go towards the school, we can just go around until we find the entrance."
The two continued on their way. Dark's plan actually worked, and they found a path that seemed to lead to the academy. Something didn't feel right to him, and this seemed like the back of the academy, but it still works right? Not like they'd get robbed or anything. The back gate was in sight and no one would try something that close to the school-
"Give me your money!" A british accent shouted, hopping out of a bush like a cop hiding behind a sign.
God Damnit.
Dark sighed.
The thief had a button with an H on it, and a First Year Uniform. He had no weapon of note, not even a fighting club weapon, but appearing to just use his fist to threaten Dark. Dark looked to his left for Oscar, but he was long gone.
"Fuck."
Dark grabbed his wallet and sighed.
"How much to fuck off?" He asked, like he always did.
The thief seemed unsure. He was trying to think of a number when Dark answered his own question.
"What about ten dollars."
"Ten dollars? Is that all you got?" He questioned.
Dark shrugged.
"I got here on a grant, that's all I got." Dark lied, pulling out a ten. "All that's in the bag is sheets."
"Alright then."
The thief seemed okay with the money and was about to leave when-
"AAAHHH!"
A scream of pain came from higher on the trail, enough of one to make the thief look to the side.
"What the-"
Dark looked to him. Dark wasn't particularly strong, but the thief was smaller than him and distracted. And the asshole had the audacity to try and rob him.
Dark pulled back his fist, and hit with all of his force into the back of his head. He didn't go down, but he grabbed his head in pain. Dark grabbed onto his Blazer and raised his fist.
"How many people have you robbed here?"
"I don't know! We don't keep track!"
"Give me all you've stolen." Dark threatened, "What do you mean by "We"?"
The First Year was confused, as if Dark was supposed to know what he was talking about.
"Y'know, the hollows." He said, pointing to his H Badge. "We're a gang."
Dark was confused, but didn't care.
The hollow reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet. Dark released him and he ran off, somewhere down the trail. Whoever he stole it from was probably closer to the academy.
He started walking to the gate in sight, and he was getting close. Soon he'd be at the ceremony and into one of the buildings. Dark looked around, and he saw a girl. She was probably the owner of the wallet.
"Hey!" He said, calling out to her.
She turned around. She was a second year, and keeping in the tradition of strange headwear in Fromsoft, she had some sort of slim headset on directly over her eyes, and long blonde hair in a braid.
"This is yours right?" Dark asked.
Her look turned from confusion to extreme annoyance.
"Yes." She said, placing out her arm for the wallet.
Dark handed her the wallet, noticing the presence of fresh blood on her knuckles, and thought back to the scream that distracted the hollow. He cringed for a second, but ignored it. It wasn't his problem.
"Thank you." She said before walking off.
Her tone was nice and all but Dark had the sinking feeling that she was pretty fucking mad at him for some reason. She should be at least a bit grateful that her money had been retrieved right?
THISISATRANSITION
Dark walked through the open gate and the expanse of the academy was huge. It was large, decorated, with hedges and tree's and all. There were many buildings, but thankfully every student was provided with a map of the academy. It sunk in that he would live there for basically the next two years, until graduation.
He didn't go to his first year here. No one did, the school was renovated for an entire year and all of them had gone to a nearby high school instead. Opening was a big deal this year.
All of the students were on the other side near the front, and were funneling into the auditorium for the presentation. Dark walked over and stepped into the building. The auditorium building was full of loud speaking and conversing between students, and he struggled to find who he was looking for, Oscar.
The auditorium had numerous seats, so much that a large amount would end up empty. There were three sections of the auditorium. The bottom middle was a direct look at the stage, and the left and right portions were elevated. The left was a sea of blue uniforms and the bottom was a large amount of green uniforms. It was probably separated by class, so Dark went right, where he was sure he'd find Oscar.
Picking him out through the crowd, dark went through and sat next to him, hitting him on the back of his head when he arrived.
"Ow!"
"That's what you fucking get for bailing on me!"
Oscar frowned.
"You know, I don't have an obligation to get robbed with you!"
Dark groaned.
He thought about this opening. Would it be like last year at the other high school? It was long and boring, and Dark even fell asleep during it. He'd never heard this one, but Lautrec has said Fina described it as a "Don't be an asshole or else, fuck you, follow the rules" kind of speech, with plenty of "Strive for excellence because we're supposed to be a good school, and you'll make us look bad"
The Auditorium's lights soon went off, and the principal walked onto the stage. Principal Gwynevere.
"Wasn't Gwyn the principal 2 years ago?" Dark asked.
"Yeah, his daughter's taking over for him starting this year."
Dark looked to Gwynevere and remembered something else Lautrec had told him about her. "Amazing Chest Ahead" He said.
To be fair, it was true, but Dark was too fucking tired to care, and was rapidly falling asleep. That didn't stop him from spotting Oscar oogling at her. And the rest of the second years around him. He was half expecting an exaggerated cartoon "AWOOOGA" sound to play. Gwyndolin, wherever he was right now, probably wouldn't be too pleased to see everyone staring his sister.
"Good morning Students!" She said, "And to the Third Years, Welcome back! It's a shame we couldn't have your Second Year here, we've undergone some pretty large renovations since last year!"
Dark was starting to close his eyes and fall asleep.
THISISATRANSITION
"Dark!" Oscar said, shaking his brother roughly.
Dark opened his eyes.
"What do you want..." He said, still half asleep.
"Fighting club!"
Dark was at full attention, and became full awake promptly. He yawned and looked intently at Gwynevere, who had just finished speaking for a very, very long time, judging as Dark's watch was set a whole 45 minutes later after he had fallen asleep.
"With the new renovations to the academy, we now have great improvements to the fighting club!" Gwynevere finished.
The leader of the fighting club was next, and Dark knew him all too well.
Artorias.
The most popular kid in school, so much that he accidentally created a club and cult around him, and so important he became the leader of the fighting club, by far the most popular extracurricular at the academy.
"You might know me, I'm Artorias." He said, Dark hearing a great deal of cheers all around him. Looking to the source, it was obvious. All of the abyss watchers and their stupid fucking hats. No more than pawns of Artorias. That is, if he bothered to give a shit about them more than half the time. "On your school map, you might have seen our various new buildings, including a new arena for organized matches. I plan on a total increase of the club, and formalizing the system. This year, expect to see the fighting club help and do events for our clubs at the academy, provided they have enough members."
Artorias gestured to his side, and a first year handed him an object. His signature greatsword.
"I highly suggest students join us. Unlike Fromsoft West High School, where us Second and Third's were for a year, Fromsoft ACADEMY has enough resources for our grandest year yet! We've already gained the membership of 10% of students! and we are open for more!"
"All the fighting club requires is a "weapon" which can be ordered from our fighting club from many options, and an agreement to fight." Artorias said, grabbing his greatsword with both hands.
Calling out to the same first year who handed him the weapon, the student walked in front of Artorias.
"There's two types of matches. A standard fight is a match where there's two win conditions."
Artorias raised the greatsword quickly and stretched out his arms. His grip tight on the sword, swung diagonally towards the poor student, connecting with his head with an audible noise from the hit. The First year was flung directly to the ground and hit the hard wood floor loudly.
"Fuck!" Dark said to Oscar next to him. "Think he's okay?"
"No. He got hit full force in the head by Artorias." Oscar replied.
"And a standard fight is won like that. One "fatal blow". To the head or chest." Artorias said. "And if this were a total fight on the other hand, I'd have also won. You'd need to get your opponent to fall onto the floor."
"BOTH of these have to conform to the two main rules." Artorias put up two fingers. "1. ONLY weapons approved by the art club. and 2. No fighting off of Academy grounds."
Soon the assembly was over. After Artorias was done with beating the shit out of the poor Freshman, some other clubs came up and didn't even attempt as much effort as he had. The only thing of note for the rest of it was Oscar getting excited for the "Space club" whatever that meant, and that he had signed up beforehand to join with Solaire.
Next, Him and Oscar went to get their student ID cards, printed from the pictures they took a week earlier. They also had their dorm room's onto them. They were supposed to go to their dorms anyways afterwards, and it certainly was great that Dark and Oscar would be together, since the academy was supposed to put family members together if possible.
They were in the second building for boys.
"I hope we get with nice people, like Solaire." Oscar said.
"Or at least not assholes. I can think of several people I don't wanna live with for the next 2 years." Dark replied, "Lautrec, Any Abyss Watcher..."
The list went on and on until they reached their floor. Their door was a bit away from the staircase, and the two were overjoyed to finally relieve the burden of weight they carried around.
Dark opened the door and...
They were greeted with the sight of a large expansive dorm. hardly surprising considering this academy, and Dark and Oscar were finally relieved.
The dorm room was large, with a circular couch in the middle around a table, functioning as the main lounge area. To the sides Dark could see three doors. Each was for a bedroom, containing space for two.
The couch pointed to a fake fireplace, which was empty on top, showcasing screws for a mounted television onto the wall, with no tv in sight.
This looked like a nice place, minus the absence of a television, and Dark soon thought about it. It was gonna be his home after all.
Dark and Oscar went to the door furthest to the left. They'd claim it, since they were the first to get there.
As they opened the door, what (or who) they saw was clear. Lautrec lounged on one of the beds on his phone. He'd already decorated the room. A few posters of women covered the walls near his bed and a worryingly large stack of "manga" was on the dresser.
"Hey gent's. Surprised I got a dorm with you both." Lautrec said, still keeping eye contact with his phone. "Just claimed this room."
Dark and Oscar went out of the room, and slammed the door a bit too hard closed on the way out.
"FUCK!" Dark screamed, punching a wall dramatically, only hurting his arm greatly in the process.
"It's alright. I'm sure Lautrec's awfulness will be balanced out by some decent people." Oscar reassured.
Going to the next room over, the two started setting up.
Dark started taking out all of his game consoles, and taped his posters to the wall, mostly a combination of video games and anime.
Oscar's side of the room was instead decorated with more sentimental items. Using the shelf in the room, he cluttered it with multiple 3d scientific models.
Dark went out to the living room, and put all of the consoles and wires onto the fireplace.
"Shit, Gwynevere really removed the TV's?" Dark said, annoyed. "In the pictures they were there!"
"Just check the envelope!" Oscar said from the room.
Yeah, it should have enough to buy a new tv.
Dark pulled the envelope out of his bag and started to read.
DARK,
I left you this letter because I want you to have some parting words from me until summer break. I have already ordered your longsword from the art club, and you should be ready to pick it up once you have gotten into your dorms. I'm pleased you are doing an extracirricular and are doing something with your life. I know becoming a hermit after graduation is somewhat of a epidemic for youth these days, and you were definitely at risk. Take care of Oscar. He is weak willed and unable to fend for himself.
I have money enclosed. Ask me for more and I'll send it. Enjoy these days, because it's a downfall after your schooling days.
Love, Dad.
Dark finished reading the letter, and took the money enclosed. He crumpled it angrily and looked around for a trashcan. Once locating it, he threw it and missed, ignoring the now litter on the ground.
"Fuck this, I'm going to the common room." Dark said, raising his voice so he was sure Oscar heard.
He went down the buildings stairs. Strangely enough, the common room's for each of the four buildings were built downstairs. After his legs were thoroughly sore and tired, he followed the loud noises directly to the common room and went down the steps.
It was immensely crowded.
The common room, in contrast to the formality of the dorms, seemed to be designed for comfort, and gaming?
The room had many led's, and had a gigantic tv mounted onto the wall, the only one in the building. The other space of the room was occupied with comfort furniture like beanbags surrounding the television. The room was in a structure of layered floors, lower towards the television.
On the walls were various school related things and excellency awards, heavily contrasting the look of the room.
On the wall near the entrance was a plaque that read BOYS COMMONS ONE: MOVIE LOUNGE.
Makes sense.
Now focusing on the crowd, a large amount of students were cramming the room. On the tv there was a large super smash bros match going on, and next to the television there was a lone switch dock.
In a bean bag chair, surrounded by other students playing was a girl Dark knew well. Quelaag.
Dark went closer to her, being one of the few guy students willing to.
Quelaag was most well known for being psychotic. She was alright once you go to know her. She was a delinquent, not in the social outcast way Dark was, but more in the "vandalize school property" way.
As Sonic was launched into the sky after taking too much damage, the match was over and the students near her moved to the side.
"Next Seven! Wait your fucking turns!" She yelled.
"Quelaag?"
She turned to Dark, and smirked.
"Nice you're here Mason. I was wondering when you'd show up."
"It's Dark... How did you get the tv to yourself?"
"Yeah whatever your edgy emo self chosen name is- I heard about the room and I came right away."
Dark looked to her feet and saw a large bag. She hadn't even gone into her dorm yet. Explains how she came here first.
"Want to play? I can secure you a spot."
"Nah. Smash fuckings sucks." Dark replied. "I need to go get my longsword anyways."
THISISATRANSITION
Soon Dark left, and headed to the club hall. It was pretty empty, but that was to be expected. Everyone else was either decorating their dorms or hanging out.
Once he made it into the building and to the fighting club, he was one of three people in the room.
One was the guy at the desk. He had seen him on the teacher list as simply ANDRE. No last name or anything. He was supposedly in charge of making plans for and approving weapons, and he looked the part of a true blacksmith.
The other person was a second year.
He was strange compared to the other students. Instead of medieval headgear or just hair, he had a cap in a downwards point, with a weathered wing like formation at the back. All of his face but his eyes were covered by a thick black bandana.
"Please! I made it myself, it fits all of the safety standards!"
"This is a rare case Hunter. I need to see the plans for this "Trick weapon" you've made."
Hunter pulled out several papers, and laid them out onto the desk in front of him.
"Theres the saw cleaver that can turn into a cleaver, a threaded cane that can turn into a whip, and the axe with the really long handle."
Andre inspected the papers carefully.
"Fine. I suppose these are allowed."
Hunter walked out triumphantly with a stamp of approval placed onto each paper, and another onto his student ID, and Dark went to the desk.
"I'm here for a longsword. I'm Mason Souls." He said.
Andre looked down a list and went to the back room behind him. He emerged with the custom sheath with the sword inside, which dark immediately touched to feel.
"There it is. I need your student ID."
Dark handed it over.
Andre took it out of the laminate for a second to stamp the back. It was handed over soon after.
"There. Now it can be carried with you at all times."
THISISATRANSITION
Dark made it out of the club hall afterwards and into the dorms.
Once he entered, there was Solaire struggling to carry a large tv up the stairs.
"Hello Dark!" He said, "I'm quite glad we have the same dorm room! Oscar informed me of the situation and I came quickly. Also, my arms are beginning to give out and I would really appreciate some help."
Dark went over and helped carry the load. One floor afterwards, they opened the door and carried it through.
Once inside, two students, undoubtedly the last members of their dorm were sitting on the couch.
One of them was Hunter, the guy from the club hall. He was busy drawing out for some kind of other "trick weapon"
The other guy was just reading on the couch, ignoring much around him. His id was hanging off his neck, and it read SEKIRO.
THISISATRANSITION
Everyone got acquainted afterwards due to Solaire's insistence on a "introductory exercise" and afterwards everyone vaguely knew eachother.
Sekiro went back into his and Hunter's room for the rest of the day while Dark and Solaire, with dibs for carrying the tv, put on some standard action movie with the star Havel "The Rock" Johnson. Oscar and Hunter joined in, and Lautrec stayed in his shared room with Solaire, either having an argument with Fina, or doing unspeakable things inside of the room.
Ultimately, it was boring, and Dark got out his diary to make his entry for the day. Tomorrow was their actual first day. Where they'd go into their homeroom classes, and then go to the rest.
Dear Diary,
Today I went to Fromsoft Academy. It was boring. Unfortunately, Summer is over and the next extended break from this is in Spring I think. Dad isn't even letting us come back during summer. He's basically forced us to live here.
Also, Fighting club's first meeting is tomorrow. The first event we're doing is next week for the art club.
I hope I don't run into those "Hollows" again. They're more annoying than anything. I'm also not looking forward to any kind of school in general.
THISISATRANSITION
AN: First chapter of the rewrite done. Decided to overhaul the fighting club, central plot, and setting to make this better. Headset girl is Firekeeper. Also I'm taking a lot more inspiration from the original Dark Schools to expand on and finish what he started.
Chapters are posted to FFN and AO3 to Lilhotpocket69420. Ao3 will be updated later because this is written on FFN Mobile. New chapters will be posted frequently.