It all started rather innocently. A charming student with olive skin invited Yuu to his dormitory and then… things got weird.
He could not explain what happened and only understood it much later.
Yuu and Grim had to spend weeks inside Scarabia's dorm. An exotic and foreign place of sand and heat, new smells and fantasy-looking decoration. It was as if someone had taken the setting of Arabian Nights out of the book.
Yuu had learned of something wonderful: a true magical carpet. A carpet that could fly. The boy never thought he would get to experience the night sky that way. On the air. With the cold wind caressing his body and the feeling of adrenaline through his veins. Kalim Al-Asim was a genuinely generous person, but he also had suffered strange mood swings that ended up being caused by the vice leader of Scarabia.
That summer, Yuu learned many things. And his bond with Grim had grown in a manner both of them could not understand. Despite his energetic and plucky exterior, Grim turned to have a sad past, or perhaps, his selfish personality was a result of that. Yuu saw his companion in a different light from then on. He didn't ask questions because Grim stated he didn't want to touch that subject anymore. It must have been so sad to be all alone… with the coldness and no one close for providing affection.
Yuu didn't know much about monsters nor their living conditions. He ignored the existence of magical monsters until his apparition in that world. All of his knowledge of Twisted Wonderland came from classes and books and his own experiences at the campus. But college life is not the life of the real world.
The second thing he truly appreciated of Grim was the way his cat-looking companion could be very stubborn when he wanted to. Grim helped them escape carving a tunnel with a spoon. On his own.
Talk about will force.
Their situation at Scarabia was truly erratic. If it wasn't for the aid of the carpet and the Octavinelle trio, Yuu didn't know what would have happened. And there was something truly funny about seeing sea creatures who preferred the cold visiting the ruthlessly hot desert. Yuu had to praise their ways. Azul, Jade and Floyd didn't fear the situation and helped to fix the mess.
There was something deeply magnetic about Jamil Viper's Overblot. Snakes on his hair, rare clothes and his voice distorted to that of a possessed demon. How he catapulted Yuu & co to the cold desert outside. Up until then, Yuu never would have imagined that each mirror hid a small world for the students to live in, with its own environment and climate. Azul's comment had left the boy frozen.
Jamil's Overblot was something that caused deep thought in Yuu. He could not begin to imagine how it would be to live in a society of castes where your place in the world was determined by whose parents you were born from. Every attempt at independence and natural self-expression would be severely limited. A jail in many aspects. To Yuu who only spent strange weeks trapped inside Scarabia, only a small idea of what Jamil must have gone through formed in his head. Kalim was a good person, yet that goodness of him came with a good amount of naïvety.
And selfishness.
The third thing Yuu learnt about was the surprising loyalty of his friends. He didn't know Night Raven College was placed in a secluded island of a pompous name. Nor the problems Ace and Deuce had to go through after they heard of Grim's and his predicament after they tried to reach for help outside. Seeing his friends again after living a rather dissociative experience in a magical foreign place felt like a warm liquid falling down Yuu's chest.
Theirs was a true friendship. He had never experienced such loyalty before.
Yuu truly was a happy boy.
In the end, Yuu and Grim returned home. They missed most of their resting time during the holidays and didn't manage to complete the task the headmaster asked of them. Thank luck, the ghosts of Ramshackle did it for them. And saved their skins of unwanted responsibility, for Yuu didn't want to explain the Overblotting and kidnapping situation to Dire Crowley when all professors were suspiciously absent from the dangerous scenes.
The warmth of the Scarabia dormitory was a huge contrast with the snow outside the school. Even Yuu's home wasn't as hot as that place.
But they were home at least.
Home sweet home.
Even the ghosts made Grim happy. It was a relief to see Ramshackle dormitory in the winter landscape. The spirits also had good news: it turned out that the headmaster's promise of a feat to celebrate the end of the year turned out to be true.
And the group celebrated.
But the truth was that nothing prepared Yuu for the abrupt surprise of a boy with red eyes hanging upside down. Like a bat. Yuu had a vague recollection, but he wasn't sure. Living in Scarabia for so long made the boy feel disconnected from some of his memories, it was like returning from a long holiday and feeling strange in an old routine. Things felt far. Things felt like a distant memory. Things felt artificial.
The boy who hanged like a bat made a strange comment, about Yuu 'being back'. But he didn't pay much attention to it because he yelled. The noise naturally came from his mouth. And the strange student complimented his scream. Things in Ramshackle usually were slow and calm (with the exceptions of Ace and Grim). Even the Horned Guy's visits were courteous and sober.
That boy was weird. A grave voice that was more fitting of an old man than a child-looking teenager. Some hairstreaks were magenta dyed.
He looked rather frivolous.
The visitor introduced himself as Lilia Vanrouge, the vice leader of Diasomnia dorm. At least he stood on his feet when he spoke.
Yes, the green uniform was from that dormitory. Yuu shared some of his classes with Diasomnia students but didn't interact much with them.
Lilia Vanrouge looked gaudy but spoke with formality. His gestures were precise and confident. He had pointy ears and an elegance that turned strange in contrast with his small stature and odd hairstyle. Yuu couldn't exactly pinpoint what was missing, or what was wrong, or what was so weird.
Lilia took the initiative in the conversation and he looked accustomed to doing such things, because to Yuu, following the exchange became as natural as breathing.
Lilia spoke about a holiday card from an individual whose identity he refused to reveal and gave it to the boy. The paper was thick and 'Happy holidays' was written in elegant calligraphy with black ink. An ominous castle that looked taken from a cheap horror movie was the decoration. No traditional Christmas motifs. No strident red and green pictures. No Santa Claus.
Lilia made a strange comment about the sender being all sulky because no one invited him to any holiday parties (again) and requested of Yuu to include the mysterious sender the next time he had a party with his friends. Then, he wished a happy holiday to the boy and disappeared in sparks that didn't look different from those Tsunotarou used to end his visits to Yuu. He had to admit, Lilia carried good vibes with him.
Yuu looked at the cards. The initials M.D. were written on the paper.
He truly had no idea about who on earth would be the sender. Yuu didn't know people outside the College, he had no relatives or friends in that strange world… But Grim's calls distracted his thoughts: the food was warm, they had a celebration waiting and it was better to leave the snowy garden rather than catch a cold.
Yuu and Grim only had a few resting days before school started again. They used them to clean the dormitory and have sleepovers with Ace and Deuce. Since Riddle wasn't around, the boys would frequently spend their free time in the Ramshackle Dormitory. Reunions, horror movies, videogames and books: Yuu and Grim deepened their knowledge on the culture of Twisted Wonderland. The group had managed to start sharing private jokes and Yuu was deeply grateful for having something to share. The alienation didn't feel too threatening now.
It was a new home.
Despite the Ramshackle dorm being abandoned, Yuu and Grim found cards and old board games. It was a joy to share them with his friends. Deuce knew a lot of trivia facts and Yuu had to admit some games were truly interesting: some involved magic, so Grim and Yuu would play as One. There were horror and mystery games, one looked suspiciously similar to Jumanji and Yuu discovered chess existed in Twisted Wonderland, too. But the boys ignored the last one, for they found it boring and slow.
Yuu and Grim also found some money stored in the building. The amounts weren't big, so they didn't tell the headmaster and kept it for themselves. Some were mandols, others seemed foreign or very old: round and square coins, bills with different shapes and strange symbols. Some looked like things Yuu never saw before, not even in his homeworld.
How old was the Ramshackle dorm? Who lived there before Yuu & Grim?
How old was that magical college?
Yuu knew Azul Ashengrotto collected coins as a 'gentleman hobby' as he liked to call it, but Grim and he decided it would be wise to avoid the leader of Octavinelle as much as possible.
One of the first things they did was to stock themselves with ramen noodles at Sam's store. The man explained he had put the soups on sale since the students were at recess and winter was going to end soon.
Sam was a relaxed and cheerful man. He had a cool accent and always seemed to know when and what his customers would need. He attributed it to his Friends on the Other Side and Yuu and Grim decided it was better to not ask. There was something in Sam's eyes every time he mentioned his supposed allies. The pair noted other students and the professors didn't inquire much on the fact and decided it would be wise to remain silent.
It was nice to have something warm to drink, something that wasn't tea or instantaneous coffee. The flavours were varied: spiced, fish, chicken, meat. There were tuna-flavoured ramen noodles and Grim was joyful. He kept all of the tuna ramen noodles for himself.
And so, they spend the last week before classes on their own.
It was the calm before the chaos of having Ramshackle Dormitory invaded (again).