Chapter 1: The Student of Tragedies

Headmaster Gon meets Sage for the first time in person inside his office. He is happy to see the young wolf in front of him. Though Sage has a timid expression, Gon still tries his best to talk with him. Sage seems to be in no mood to speak to the headmaster, but he does bows down to show respect. Gon notes to himself that Sage is quite shy, he looks like he has little to no interest in speaking. "What's your name, young fellow?" the headmaster spoke.

Sage attempted to not make any eye contact. He later placed his hands together and twiddled his fingers. The little wolf began to speak. "M-my name is... S-Sage," he said with a very low-level voice. It was still audible by the headmaster since they are in front of each other. Their height differences are completely abnormal as Sage is quite shorter than the average grey wolf. He stood at a height of 5'5 while Headmaster Gon stood at comparable 5'10.

Gon was content with his arrival at Cherryton High. "Ah, the gifted student himself, Sage-san. It's a pleasure to meet you, I am the headmaster here at Cherryton High. We yield great results in our students." Headmaster Gon showed him around the school and explaining its regulations and expectations. He walked with Sage to the dorms, they were separated by two areas. One side was for male students, and the other was for female students. Gon showed him to his specific dorm where he had to share with someone he does not know. Sage felt nervous, as he lacks any social experience with anyone, that wasn't his family. Gon remembered earlier about Sage, but he said to embrace the experience once and he'll get used to it. Gon knocked on the dorm's door and another student appeared in front.

The student saw the headmaster and bowed, "Good morning, headmaster." The student allowed Headmaster Gon and Sage inside. "You will be sharing a dorm room with another student."

His roommate is a brown-furred dog and showed his hand to Sage, he was expecting a handshake. "Hey, it's nice to meet ya." Sage had no idea what that hand gesture meant, and stayed silent. "You don't do handshakes? That's alright," as he slid his hand to brush his fur back. He went back to cleaning the room before tomorrow began.

Gon explained the issue, "Sage is quite the shy fellow. I hope your behavior does not affect his stable behavior negatively." He acknowledged that statement. "The new school semester starts tomorrow, make sure you are not late to your first day, Sage." Gon left back to his office.

Sage took off his shoes at the entrance and sat on his side of the room. It was in complete silence as none of the two wanted to speak. Sage sat on the bed and opened up his books to see what he had to do. He wasn't interested in any social conversations with his roommate. Mainly he kept up with his studies and leisure reading. Sage got up from his bed and left to explore the school on his own. He was halted at the door by his roommate when he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Hey," he said and Sage turned toward him. "I never said my name, I am Ryoma. What is your name?" Ryoma waited for a response.

The wolf fully turned around and finally spoke to him once. "S-Sage." Sage turned back around to open the door. Ryoma noticed that Sage is quite a nervous person, but he knows that he will change eventually. "Alright, have fun now, I'll still be cleaning the room up." Sage left the dorm room to continue exploring before tomorrow.

Everything that he already experienced was changing faster than he could adjust. His one-day before school was already affecting how his thoughts would change when he met someone else. Where would he start was the question. Sage was already outside the dormitories and walked on the pathway towards the school's entrance. He was later ambushed by a much larger random student out of nowhere and pushed Sage onto the ground and started yelling at him. "What are you going to do about it, nerd?" The bully began to beat Sage and his glasses came off. Sage could not see a thing and could not defend himself anymore. "Beating you up is like my personal fun time hobby." It sounded like a first-year student who came to settle down on campus. From the sounds of his voice, it was a masculine tiger as Sage heard.

"Stop it, please!" Sage pleaded. His cries did not convince the bully to stop his attacks. There was nobody in the halls to witness the attack. The bully kept hitting, kicking and punching Sage until he was bruised up. He asked for Sage's money, but he didn't have any on him. "Looks like someone is about to get beaten up." He was about to throw another punch when someone grabbed his arm.

He turned around and looked at another wolf who was much stronger and bigger than him. "That's enough," his voice was gentle and kind. He intervened in the situation and stopped the bully. "Pick on someone your own size," he shouted. The bully felt no remorse for his actions. He was just happy to be able to attack someone innocent for the first time. The tall wolf crouched down and gave his hand to Sage. "Hey, are you alright?"

Sage grabbed his hand and thanked him. "Y-yes, I am alright." He got up and dusted himself from the ground. Sage bowed down to the wolf, "T-thank you, wolf-san," he replied nervously.

"The name is Legoshi, you must be a first-year student here, right?" the tall wolf said. He then noticed his glasses have fallen to the side of him. "Oh, that guy must have knocked these off." Legoshi picked them up and handed them back. "Here you go," Legoshi mentioned that this is his second year at Cherryton High. This was another one of those incidents he encountered multiple times today. That bully he scared off was the same one who attacked 2 other individuals, Legoshi asserted. "You'll be alright, he won't come back for you again."

"Thank you again, Legoshi-senpai." He quickly introduced himself, "My name is Sage." Sage kept to himself that Legoshi wasn't that bad of a person, and was very opened toward him.

Legoshi was in shock to hear the name. He felt sort of, happy to hear and see the person in front of him. "Your name, Sage-kun, I hear it all the time on the media." Sage's face went from a gloomy to a gratified expression. Someone at this school already knows who he is and he is happy to have met them. "Do you oftentimes get bullied for your intellect?" Legoshi wondered.

He nodded his head as a response. Not a very talkative kind of person, Legoshi thought. Sage probably doesn't get much social interaction with other students because of bullying. "I've noticed that you do not like to speak a lot, is that your normal behavior, Sage-kun?"

"I-I grew up only speaking to my siblings," he said while putting his hands into his pockets. Sage was not used to this much social interaction and admitted that talking to Legoshi is the most he ever had from outside of his family. He was honest and thanked him for talking to him for this long. Normally, he would have just left immediately after the incident he just had if Legoshi hadn't been there. "I am grateful that you showed up, you remind me of someone I used to know."

Legoshi looked back with a confused stare. It struck his curiosity, "Who would that be?"

Sage replied, "My oniisan, Damien." Sage went on to explain his times before now. "Damien was always there to protect me whenever I went to school and back home. One day, I was being beaten up by bullies because of my imperfect traits and behaviors as a wolf. I had no intention of allowing my carnivorous instincts out and I cared about my homework and such. When I was born, I have extremely poor eyesight for a wolf and had to wear these large round glasses which everyone thinks looks silly." Probably one reason why he wasn't considered a threat or an issue by many. Which also concluded why he was bullied by many other students. Sage continues, "Damien walked with me to school and stayed by my side until we got back home safely from those bullies." Sage compared Legoshi as his older brother. They did something quite similar just now, he realized. One, Legoshi intervened to stop the bully and two, helped him back up onto his feet as Damien did. Unfortunately, his story turned down a dark path one day as he continued to speak.

Legoshi interrupted, but he was quite attracted to the story. He didn't want to be on school grounds to listen to it. He wanted to show Sage around certain places as they talked about the same story. "Let's go somewhere while you tell me your story, Sage-kun." They crossed the streets and strolled through the city.

Sage had agreed and walked with Legoshi to a nice place. He started back where he left off when they passed by a bookstore, "Oniisan, one day started to become ill and he was unable to walk or even stand up. He clung to his bed and eventually became bedridden with an unknown sickness. Oneesan had called doctors over to diagnoise what the problem that was occurring. They said his health was declining and causing his movements to be impaired and he couldn't recover." Sage began to tear up while saying the story. His voice began to shake and break apart trying to speak to Legoshi. "I-I stayed by his side while he was dying, I-I didn't want him to leave me, but he told me one thing. He said the reason that I am not strong is that I lack faith in myself. Those were the final words he told me before his passing." Sage wiped the tears out from his eyes and apologized for crying.

Legoshi patted the young wolf on his back and declared that the apology was unnecessary. "It's alright, Sage-kun, I am here for you. C'mon, let's get something that will cheer you up. There is always room for happiness in life, your life at school will change your expressions a lot."

"T-Thank you, Legoshi-senpai. It means a lot to me." Sage exclaimed happily. "I remembered Damien's words and took them for granted. I've never met my parents but I stayed by my siblings' sides for as long as I can. They meant a lot to me growing up." Sage and his older siblings were orphans growing older, they stayed by each other's sides for many years growing up to create a bond between them. "Damien acted like a guardian and my oneesan, Rikku was my mentor growing up. She taught me all the basics and I took it for granted."

Legoshi smiled, "So Rikku-san, she was the one who got you to where you are now?"

Sage nodded and responded, "Yeah, I am very thankful for oneesan for gifting me her knowledge. She suddenly disappeared one day when I came home from school, I never saw or heard from her again." His life as a child was filled with tragedies; never met his parents, his brother died from an unknown illness and his sister has vanished mysteriously. He has admitted to living with these troubles but has gotten over the majority of it over the past years. "I'm sorry for making such a sad scene, forgive me, Legoshi-senpai."

Legoshi placed his hand on top of Sage's shoulder. "Nonsense, they are great stories, it's something good to remember others by. Everyone holds a story deep inside of them that they normally don't tell anyone, but this is an exception." Legoshi took a deep breath and narrated, "Around last year, there was a student by the name of Tem. He was an alpaca from our drama club who was murdered by one of our classmates. He was a good friend, and he had his everlasting moments at school." Legoshi remembered them quite well. "I remember delivering his love letter to someone he once liked, her name is Els and she was quite happy to read the letter."

After telling each other of their stories, they finally arrived at the place Legoshi was going to. Legoshi showed him inside, they saw a lot of people but Legoshi went to a specific part. "Sage-kun, this place serves food and bubble tea. You'll definitely love it here, and you will meet new people." He showed him the way to a certain table where there were more people. "Sage-kun, meet your new friends."

The look on Sage's face was very priceless as he could not contain his joy. The people he saw were happy to see and hear from the special student. They gathered around and saw a new addition to their friend group. Sage was happy to have his reserved nature to be beaten by good people. He met the close friend of Legoshi, Jack. He was very pleased to meet Sage for the first time. "Hello, I am Jack, nice to meet you, Sage-san." Jack held out his right hand toward Sage but just like earlier he didn't know what it meant. "You never performed a handshake once? Let me demonstrate to show you."