Time was something bland.
A whimsical thing that moved according to its own rhythm.
Sometimes, it was too fast.
Other days, it was too slow.
And one day, it completely broke down.
His circumstances couldn't be weirder.
He was trapped in another world. The calendar didn't match, nor the names of most places.
The most sinister part was waking up in a coffin with a weird raccoon-looking creature. In a room with strange lamps and floating coffins. It looked like something taken from a satanic sect.
Well, it could have been fun, but Yuu didn't have that type of dark humour.
Yuu never believed in magic, the only stuff he knew was media and magicians' illusions on TV. Old videos of David Copperfield and that polemic guy with a mask who revealed the secrets of most tricks.
And now, he was in a school where paintings tried to confuse students*, he had to deal with the most unexpected roommate in a dormitory full of ghosts and had a library where the books levitated. The most similar thing he could ever have imagined was Hogwarts and yet his imagination didn't manage to complete a quarter of it.
Yuu went to a school inside a castle. People used mirrors to cross from one place to another. Students performed genuine magical spells.
It was supposed to be a mistake. But the headmaster was shady and something warned Yuu of not pushing the issue of his return to home too much.
His roommate was another thing entirely. Grim.
The cat-racoon creature was supposed to be his other half, as Dire Crowley said they counted as One. The headmaster also stated Yuu would be the prefect in charge of the Ramshackle Dormitory and his roommate's behaviour.
It was easier said than done. First, because gaining a position on privilege in an elite school was a poor payment for obvious kidnapping. Second, because Grim had a terrible temperament and lacked self-control.
There was also the fact the place was ruined and it took them a while to tame their other ''roommates''.
The first nights were a mess. Yuu and Grim would be awakened due to strange noises and floating objects. But then, his partner would eventually become accustomed to it and the same happened to Yuu. But he would never forget how annoying it was to wake up and find his uniform clothes messed up, to return from class and their bedroom to be disorganized.
Thank luck, Ace and Deuce would be there for them to help. The fact their dorm leader, Riddle Rosehearts, had a terrible temperament probably had a lot to do with it at first. But Yuu didn't mind it.
His other friends were living in a different dormitory, but he still appreciated them. It was nice to have people who wanted to associate with you, who asked how you were, about your homework, about your family…
Yuu felt pain in his chest.
He had a home in another world.
Obviously, things were very different in Twisted Wonderland. The hardest part was the fact Yuu came from a world where a pandemic was striking the whole planet. For it was March in Yuu's world**, yet it was September when he appeared in Twisted Wonderland*** during the entrance ceremony for the beginning of classes. Six months. The year number strangely matched, and it was odd.
What had happened during those six months? Was it all a dream?
But things felt too real.
At first, his life felt like a bizarre mix between dreamlike situations and crude reality. Yuu was alienated from his home, friends and family, during a time of disease, in a setting that seemed like a twisted copy of his own world and living off the charity of an eccentric headmaster.
Naturally, the currencies didn't match, nor some of the dates or celebrations from his world. The newspapers were different, the same happened with the brands of the school's store.
It took him a while to note Christmas and Halloween still happened, and the seasons passed as normal, too. There were facts of pop culture he couldn't share with his friends, same with data or books he liked.
In that sense, Ace and Deuce were a blessing. His friends tried to adjust themselves to Yuu's struggles, even though it was hard for them. Yuu avoided talking about his home as much as possible but sometimes, some things would slip past his guard. The fact Grim sometimes seemed curious didn't help, but his roommate was too self-centred to mind too much in Yuu's personal life and in that sense, the boy found the selfishness of his partner rather alluring. Even if sometimes, Yuu would have preferred Grim to be a bit kinder.
Sometimes, it felt like babysitting a child.
Deep down, Yuu knew it was useless to worry too much about his old life in a new environment where he lacked power to directly change his situation. And to be honest, he also found part of new life rather engaging. He didn't have magic, yet had to monitor Grim's classes and accompany him there. Professor Crewel once even admonished Yuu, telling him he would still have to learn the material even if it had no use for him, as education was important.
Yuu would be lying if he said that having magical powers was uninteresting, but, to watch all of your classmates doing their stuff while he had to check on Grim messing things up was a source of envy to him. Some students even picked up on him due to his lack of magic, even if Grim (and Deuce and Ace too, if they were present) stood up for Yuu.
Yes, there were times when even Grim could be kind, too.
Grim and he were counted as One student. During practical classes, Yuu would be assisting Grim, unless the teacher told them to work apart. For theoretical classes, both would be separated as ''you can work independently on the material, it helps to think''. Yet, their grades would be counted as One. For library visits, Grim wasn't allowed inside the place due to his blue flames, so Yuu would be the one to do the research for homework they would later complete together. For most of Crewel's classes, they would share cauldron and potion tools. For flying classes, professor Vargas enchanted a room for magicless Yuu and brought a small one for Grim.
It was almost as if the professors were well prepared.
It wasn't hard for them to figure out how to make things work for both Yuu and Grim.
Weeks passed as school life flowed. Yuu soon found himself submerged into schoolwork. The fact Night Raven College was considered an elite institution didn't help: unlike his classmates, Yuu and Grim were learning things for the first time and the exigence was high.
Ace would complain every once in a while because of the lack of a female population in the school. There were female fairies doing housework, but most were small and the ones who weren't, ignored the students. Yuu learnt there was a town outside the school, but visits were restricted and he didn't have any relatives close to signing his authorization anyways. So, his new life involved the lack of interactions with girls. He didn't have much experience on the subject, but an elite all-guys school felt oddly weird. Like Dead Poets' Society movie, but without Robbie Williams to cheer things up. Professor Trein was an old and strict man, who was accompanied by his sinister-looking cat.
Yuu couldn't help but remember Mrs Norris, Argus Filch's cat from Harry Potter. But Lucius was a male cat and Professor Mozus Trein was a learned and well-dressed old man. In truth, Yuu couldn't help but compare some things to Hogwarts. Divus Crewel was an extroverted fashionable man, unlike Severus Snape, although both shared the sadism.
Also, Harry Potter felt oddly far away, concerning its age and the fact the author said quite a few mean and questionable things to the LGTBQ+ population, but the truth was Yuu was drawn away to another world before he could learn more about the subject****. Growing up and out of the things that you were raised with, questioning them and finding out not all fit into real life as you fly out of the nest was part of the experience of maturing.
It wasn't like he had his previous friends with him to further debate the subject.
At least Yuu got to see the end of Game of Thrones before being taken away. It was truly disappointing and he felt vexed at remembering that.
And so, life for Yuu and Grim went on.
Dire Crowley would sometimes call for Yuu and Grim to collaborate on school issues, after all, they would be freeloaders if they didn't help.
The first time it happened, both Yuu and Grim (especially Yuu) called the headmaster on for the fact Yuu wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place, but the man still got the pair to do what he wanted. Carrying heavy stuff, cleaning, helping with building maintenance and assisting teachers and domestic personnel were among their duties. And aside from that, both slowly worked on fixing the conditions of the Ramshackle dorm. Luckily, the three ghosts whom they lived with would sometimes assist them, and soon Ace and Deuce started to aid them, even if the results often were messy.
But, deep down, Yuu decided he didn't mind the company. His friends were cheerful.
Theirs was a relationship that solidified through bizarre events: a monster of ink who chased them in some weird abandoned mines while they looked for a magical stone, support over the fact that Riddle Rosehearts, the leader of Heartslabyul dormitory, behaved violently towards his juniors, and the moment when Rosehearts went berserk over Yuu's friends and he found himself improvising a way to arrange an order of positions for Grim and the other students there to fight Rosehearts down.
Those events left Yuu two useful pieces of information:
First, despite his lack of magical abilities, he was apparently good at strategizing.
Second, the shady headmaster truly was hiding information up his sleeves.
And, among the weird events in Yuu's life, he also had learned his dormitory was sometimes visited at night by a weird student who liked to roam around.
*One of Divus' dialogues is a warning for the students about not paying attention to the portraits in school.
**The game came out in March of 2020 and, to be honest, it really helped me to cope with my first lockdown.
***If I recall correctly, it is during September when kids start school in some countries of the northern hemisphere.
**** Let's not forget: Yuu & co must be around 16-17 years. That's an age when you are still educating yourself.