Legend of the Dragon Kid, Book 1: Welcome to the Owl House

by Element Writer

Ryuji Frank, a 16-year-old human/witch hybrid, is boy met with troubles, mostly caused by a terrible curse he inherited from his mother. To help him with this, his father sends him to the Boiling Isles to live with a witch known as Eda the Owl Lady who could help him. With his human friend Luz joining him to become a witch, Ryuji's days in the Isles becomes full of adventures.

6. Chapter 3: I was a Teenage Abomination

Chapter 3: I was a Teenage Abomination

Morning at the Owl House. It has been over five days since the incident with the puppet master demon Adegast, making it mine and Luz's first week here in the Boiling Isles. Since that "quest" incident, I've been keeping a much more careful eye on Luz, as well as Eda, Juniper, and of course King. In those three days, it had been a bit uneventful, aside from the occasional squabbles with the guard. But right now, today was the time to relax. I was laying on the couch, just thinking about some things. One of them was what Adegast had said to about me and Eda, that he knew that Eda would trade her life to save me, a reason of which he claimed I didn't know about. The look she was giving when Adegast said she was lying to me had shown to be supporting his words. I had just given a sigh when…

"There you are!" Looking over toward the sound of my human friend's voice, I watched as Luz, Juniper, and King walked over to me, the witch girl coming over in her pajamas. "Been wondering where ya been."

"Oh, hey, guys." I said to them.

"What are you doing laying on the couch?" Juniper said to me.

"Nothing. Just thinking." I told them.

"Thinking about what?" Luz asked me.

"It's just what Adegast said back there when he got us all trapped." I said. "He said that he knew Eda would come to rescue me."

"Well, yeah." Juniper said to me. "You and Luz were his bait, so he knew Eda wouldn't let anything bad happen to you and come to get you out of that trap."

"Yeah, but he said that she would especially come to save me." I said. "The way he was talking, it was Adegast was saying that Eda would have given up everything just to save me. He also said that there was something she wasn't telling me which was more of the reason why she would go to such lengths for me. By the way she reacted, I'm starting to think she is hiding something from me. That look she had was almost the same look my dad got when I asked about my mom."

"Yeah, I see your point. Mom has been one to keep secrets." She told me. "She's told me a few things about her life, but there's a lot of things she hasn't told me. In fact, I had the same thing happen with her when I asked her about my dad."

"Oh, speaking of which, I've been meaning to talk to you." I said as I sat up before pointing to Juniper's necklace. "It's about that stone you're wearing around your neck."

"You mean my birthday gift from my dad?"

"Yeah, that's not an ordinary stone. That's a Firestone."

"A Firestone?" Juniper was confused by this, much like Luz.

"What's a Firestone?" Luz asked.

"It's a special stone used to help people control their fire magic. It was used to hold the power of dragons of the fire element, but now are used for anyone possessing magic of that element." I explained. "Now that I've said that, Juni, do you have problems with your magic?"

"No. Well, except for one." Juniper told me. "Before we got this back, I did sort of use this weird fire and start torching things whenever I got mad."

"Weird fire?" I asked out of curiosity about this before she surprised me by holding her hand and making this dark red flame appear above her palm. "Whoa!"

"Yeah, when Wrath took my necklace, I used to set all of Bonesborough on fire. This is why people call me the 'Demon Flame'." She told me before she got rid of the flame by extinguishing it with the clutch of her hand. "If you say this stone makes sure I don't go 'Fire Berserk Mode', guess it just means my old man was looking out for me. How did you know what it was anyway?"

"Because it comes from Armro." I explained to her. "During my visits there, I've seen many people who possess powerful fire magic wear Firestones like that one. If your dad got that for you, maybe he came from Armro."

"Wait, you saying my dad is from that place?" Juniper was surprised by this.

"I'm just saying it's a possibility. Won't really know unless you go there."

"Yeah, like Mom will let me go there. Unless we fix the problems we have right now, she told me we aren't leaving the Boiling Isles."

"Speaking of Eda, did she say where she was going?" Before I got any response, Eda came bursting through the door.

"Hey, kids!" Eda said to us, looking really pumped up. "Found something amazing on the beach! Want to see it?"

"Yes, please!" Luz anxiously answered.

"Beats sitting around doing nothing." I told her.

"Nope. I'm good." Juniper waved her mother off.

"Oh, come on, Juni. You'll like thiiiiisss!" Eda singed while wiggling her eyebrows, making her daughter sigh in defeat.

"Alright, fine. Just let me get dressed." Juniper said before she started walking back to her room.

"Oh, cheer up, Juni." I told to the witch girl. "She just wants to show us something. How bad can it be?"

---

After Juniper got dressed, we all headed out to the beach and were shocked and disgusted by what Eda was so eager to show us.

"I take back what I said." I said as me and Luz looked with disgust while Juniper had a blank expression.

"Well, kids?" Eda asked, eagerly nudging her apprentice with an elbow before motioning to what was in front of us. "Did you ever in your life think you'd see something as breathtaking as this?"

What she was referring to was this giant worm-like animal with a mouth that looked like the back of a starfish but with six teeth, black spines on its back, and orange bulges towards the tail end. Obviously, it was dead which just added to how disgusting it was.

"No… not really." Luz nervously said, not liking this one bit.

"Yeah, this is far from 'breathtaking'." Juniper commented.

"Eda, what the hell is this thing?" I asked, still disgusted by this.

"This is what we call a Trash Slug and nothing is more inspiring than it." Eda told me as she walked over to the corpse.

"What's so inspiring about this?" I asked her.

"Glad you asked, Ryuji." She said before she explained. "You see, the Trash Slug makes a home from what others thrown by the wayside."

"You mean it makes a life out of trash?" I asked her as she reached inside the slug's mouth.

"Kinda like she does with what humans throw in the trash." Juniper added under her breath.

"Basically, yeah." She said as she pulled out a rubber chicken before tossing it aside. "It does for a while until—blam!" She slammed her fist into her palm, making me and Luz flinch. "It gets blasted by a wave one day and croaks from all the salt. And then we get to sell the stuff it ate."

After hearing this and she offered a pickaxe to us, I actually gagged at the thought of digging through that carcass, just as grossed out as Luke and Luz.

"No way." Juniper said, backing a bit from the pickaxe. "I'm not mining some dead slug for junk."

"Please don't make me do this." Luz begged, slowly backing away in fear.

"Aw, come on." King said setting up a little towel for him to lay on. "It's not every day you get to go to the dump and pick apart a garbage carcass."

"Ah, nuts to all of you." Eda said, swinging the pickaxe as she mined the slug.

"Eda, exactly…" I said, pausing at each swing Eda took at the slug. "Does this… help me with… my curse?"

"Tolerance." Eda said as she stopped for a moment. "Your curse comes out when you're angry which you get whenever someone picks on ya. You especially need to watch it if humans are around you. I can see you're disgusted by this, which is a good thing in this situation. Disgust leads to anger which is what makes this perfect for you to learn how to control your anger."

"Well, this still doesn't make anything better." I complained. "I mean, digging out a dead animal for trash to sell to suckers? Come on!"

"Look, I know you aren't exactly comfortable with picking out things from a dead animal since you're a real animal lover, but you have to deal with stuff that is just as bad." Eda told me. "Axel once told me how you went into a dragon rage when you saw a couple of kids picking on a dog."

"It was a puppy and they were mistreating it!" I told her. "If I didn't step up, the little guy wouldn't have made it."

"Yeah, I get it. Honestly, I would have done the same. But this just proves my point. You ended up using your powers. You're just lucky it was just a couple of punks who saw you like that. Otherwise…"

"Yeah, I see your point." I said, calming down a bit and feeling a little surprised. "Wow, I didn't I'd get a lecture from you."

"Yeah, well, somebody needs to if your dad's not gonna." Eda said before she spoke to Juniper. "By the way, Juni, most of the stuff you like that I got for you actually came from Trash Slugs like this one. Really good stuff is in the belly." Juniper perked up at this.

"Out of the way, Mom!" Juniper said as she rushed over, using her magic to make a revving chainsaw appear before she went to the gut with a grin on her face.

I looked away as the way she was cutting into the slug looked just like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After she was done, I saw the slug's stomach now had a large open gash with all that it ate spilling out as the witch girl who was now covered in blood made the chainsaw disappear.

"Alright, goodies! Come to Mama!" Juniper said before she dove right into the guts of the slug.

"Works every time." Eda said as she then went back to mining.

"Uh, Eda?" I said, pausing at every swing given to the slug. "I know that you're… a great witch and all… but maybe we can do… something less gross?"

"Yeah, I wanted… to talk… to you… too." Luz said as she came up. "I get that you're… busy teaching Ryuji… how to… manage his curse… but you promised that… you would teach me… how to be a witch." Luz added. "So we've been thinking… what if… we try… some new lessons… for my apprenticeship?"

"Yeah, I was thinking… much the same." I added. "A little change of pace… for teaching Luz… magic would be… good."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Eda asked as she kept on digging.

"Like… maybe read ancient scrolls… learn some spells or… mix together some potions."

"Not a bad idea." I said, liking what Luz was suggesting. "I don't mind… learning from some… ancient text on… magic."

"Ugh! That sounds like a bunch of magic school stuff." Eda groaned in annoyance.

"Magic school. Blech!" Juniper said with disgust as she poke her head out of the slug's mouth.

"Wait, there's a magic school here?" I asked, surprised by this.

"Like winding towers, cute uniforms, dark plots that threaten your life kind of magic school?" Luz added, excitedly.

"Yeah, we got a bunch of them around here." Juniper confirmed as she pulled out a frisbee before throwing it off into the distance. "But they're worse than that Harry Potter crap."

"Mm‐hmm. What's worse is that they force you to learn magic the 'proper' way." Eda added before she turned to face me and Luz. "But magic isn't proper, it's wild and unpredictable. That's why it's so beautiful."

"Yeah, sometimes it's great not to focus on making a spell perfect when it can come as you go." Juniper said. "Think less about how it looks and just do it."

"See? Juni gets it." Eda said to us. "And nobody knows how to learn as you go better than me."

"I get what you're saying, but maybe Luz would actually learn how to do magic by going to one of those schools." I said to her.

"Oh, she doesn't need those schools. I didn't finish school and look at me!" She said as she then picked up her pickaxe and she smiled at us. "Who wouldn't envy where I am right now?"

"Do you want an honest answer from me?" I bluntly said from seeing how she was standing in a pile of garbage. "Eda, I'm not so sure that not finishing school was the best choice, especially considering where you are."

"Ugh! You sound like my teachers." Eda groaned in annoyance.

"Then it looks like I'm giving you some advice." I told her.

"More like a bunch of crap." Juniper said as she stepped out of the slug and walked over to me.

"Hey, I'm just speaking from my dad, who's actually right about how to teach someone magic." I told her.

"How would he know? He's a human." Juniper retorted.

"Hey, he learned all that he could from magic school, the same stuff which is part of the magic you're so impressed by."

"What? No way."

"No, I'm afraid he's right." Eda said as she walked over. "Sure, the guy is a bit strict on rules, but he knows all about using powerful magic. He even haves a palisman to prove it."

"Wait, he haves a palisman?" Juniper said with surprise.

"Yeah, which is why I trust his teachings on magic." I told the witch girl. "It's because of that I know seven types of magic and how far I can go with it. He taught me how not to go out of bounds with my magic. He even taught me how to use my sword. All the hard work and practice I did manage to pay off."

"Yeah, he was top of the class." Eda said to me.

"Well, I don't think he can top my mom." Juniper put in with a smug. "She actually homeschooled me and I bet I'm just as strong you because of her."

"And just as reckless too." I said, Juniper's smug becoming a look of shock before turning into a glare. "If I was taught like that, I would've been exposed! Living in the human world means you can't freely just show off your magic whenever you want. You have to know how to control that magic and use it perfectly and safely, following M.R.C."

"M.R.C.?" Juniper asked with confusion.

"Yeah, M.R.C." I then explained what it stood for. "As in 'memorization, repetition, and conduct'. Those are the rules of which Dad taught me and I live by, magic or otherwise in education."

"Nuts to that." Juniper bluntly said. "You might like it, but I'm more into E.I.L.: experimentation, innovation, and, uh… laughing at tools. Like you!" Juniper's laughing really pissed me off as I couldn't help but growl at her.

"Okay, easy, you two." Eda said, stopping the fight before it began. "Nothing good will come out from you two getting at each other's throats."

"Yeah, by the way," I said before we looked to Luz who looked uneasy as she stood next to a pile of odorous trash and slug guts, "you said you would teach Luz how to do it, but you still haven't taught Luz anything about being a witch. If you don't teach her something soon, I might as well stop cooking for you."

"Okay, hold on." Eda said before she walked over to Luz. "Uh… Hey, Luz. Here's a lesson: a good witch is resourceful."

"Resourceful? How?" Luz asked before Eda grabbed her hand.

"Like this." Eda answered, sticking Luz's hand into a puddle of green slime until the girl pulled out something round and covered in slime.

"A greasy slime ball?" Luz asked, disgusted and confused.

"Use your slime ball wisely, young witch." Eda said as she tried to sound wise before she turned to me. "Okay, Ryuji. Let's see what you get."

"No way! I'm not sticking my hand into dead animal guts." I said before pointing at Juniper who was digging in a pool of slime too. "Unlike your daughter, I know how to keep myself clean."

"Oh, don't be a prude. Sometimes you got to get your hands dirty to find get some good stuff." Juniper said before she pulled out a silver dollar. "Hey, a human coin!"

I gagged a bit before speaking to the witch girl. "And that's where the phrase 'filthy money' comes from."

"Oh, that reminds me. Ryuji! Juni!" Eda said, rummaging in her pocket and taking out some money before giving it to me. "Go into town and pick up supplies for dinner."

"Ooh, ooh! Yes! Your King demands food!" King ordered.

"Anything to get me out of slug guts." I said before whispering to Eda. "There is enough money here to buy food for everyone at the house, right?"

"Yep." Eda said to me. "Now go grab Juni before we lose her in the slug."

"Right." I said before I called out to the witch girl. "Come on, Juni! I'll need you to help me with groceries!"

"Awww! I was just getting into it." Juniper complained.

"Juni, just go with him." Eda told her. "I'll make sure to grab stuff you'll like and get it to you when you're back at the house."

"Ugh! Fine." Juniper said as she walked out with slime on her. "But I'm not gonna be much help since I forgot my cloak."

"What are you talking about?" I asked before she used a spell circle and she was surrounded in a poof of blue and orange smoke. When it cleared, she was nowhere to be found. "Juni? Where'd you go?"

"Down here." Looking down, I saw this little orange cat looking up at me with a smile and a pair of different colored as it was covered in slime. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"What the… Did you just use a spell of both Beast-Keeping and Illusion Magic?" I said, surprised by this.

"Well, yeah. What better disguise than an animal?" Juniper told me. "When I don't have me cloak, I use this to get around without being spotted."

"And you chose a cat, why?" I asked her.

"What? I said it was the purr-fect disguise." She jokingly said, earning a groan from me.

"Oh, dios mio!" Luz said as she came over and picked up Juniper before giving her a hug. "You're so cuuuute! Why didn't you tell me you could turn yourself into such an adorable thing?"

"Same reason King tries asking me for help with you." Juniper said as she was being squeezed. "Just so you don't squeeze me to death."

"Okay, Luz. Don't crush my helper for the day." I said, using my magic to pull the witch girl out of Luz's grasp.

"Thanks, DK." She told me.

"Don't mention it." I told her as I smiled. "Also, I got to thank you for making it easier to clean you."

"What?" She said before I dowsed her with a water spell to wash off all the slime, the girl coughing from it. "Hey!"

"Don't start. I'm just getting you cleaned." I said before using a spell circle to blow wind at her as a means of getting her dry. After she was completely dry, I then watched as her fur puffed to where she now looked like a little ball of orange fluff. "There. Nice and clean." With a growl, Juni then threw the silver dollar at me face which caused me to drop her. "Ow!" After I recovered and Eda caught her daughter, I kneeled down and picked up the coin that was thrown at me before putting it in my pocket.

"Okay, enough, you two. You can fight when you get home." Eda said as she grabbed her daughter and rubbed down her fur before giving her to me. "Just make sure you come back to the house with food."

"Got it, Eda." I said to her.

"Yeah, we got this, Mom." Juniper said before she climbed up to my shoulder. "Come on, DK! Let's get some grub!"

"Guess we'll see you girls and King back at the house." I said before I spoke to Luz. "See ya later, Luz."

"See ya and be safe!" Luz said to me, doing her best to smile.

"We will." I told her before walking off towards Bonesborough.

[No one's view]

As Ryuji walked out of sight with Juniper riding on his shoulder, Luz then lost her smile she forced on herself as the disappointment she felt from not learning magic in the past week remained.

"Okay, back at it!" Eda said as she grabbed her pickaxe and went back to the carcass. "We'll get into the stink nodes first."

"Actually, if it's okay, I think I'll head home and look at pictures of animals that are still alive." Luz said as she began to walk backwards.

"Oh, okay. Suit yourself." Eda said to her. "I guess Ryuji would need some help getting the groceries into the house. Knowing Juni, she might stick in that cat until he cooks dinner."

"Okay, thank you. Then I'll see ya back at the Owl House." Luz said before she went over to King who was in lying on his towel while wearing a set of plastic shades before the human girl rubbed his belly. "Love you, King. You little beach peach." King giggled at the attention he got and sighed in contentment as Luz stopped and left. Eda was confused by this for a moment before she shrugged it off and smiled.

"Well, more for me then." Eda said as she then continued digging through the slug. "There we go. Alright." She then tossed out a tuba which then landed right on top of King's head, the little demon begin to struggle as he tried to get it off. "This is awesome!"

---

[Ryuji]

After getting into town, as we walked towards the market to get some food, me and Juniper talked about what had transpired today.

"I can't believe your mom wanted us to pick apart a giant dead slug." I said, speaking out my frustrations. "I get that she was using that so I would get thicker skin and not be so easy to set off, but how does that teach Luz anything about magic?"

"Hey, my mom is just trying to see if Luz is willing to learn. Helping her dig out something disgusting is a good way to see how much determination." Juniper said, trying to justify her mom's actions. "Plus at least you got a human coin."

"Yeah, something of which only matters in the human world." I said to her, taking out the coin she dug up. "It has no official value here in the Boiling Isles."

"Hey, you can still keep it for when and Luz go back." She countered.

"Still, not really brightening this whole experience. We've been here for a week and Eda hasn't taught me anything like Dad said she would or even anything about magic to Luz."

"She told her to be resourceful."

"Yeah, with a piece of garbage. Hell, she hasn't even shown Luz how to cast even a single spell."

"Well, what do you expect? Me and her are on the run from the authorities."

"Still doesn't mean she can't take the time to actually teach Luz. My dad expects me to come back, causing the least amount of trouble with my curse. And I can't justify for having Luz stay here unless she shows him some magic. We can't just wait around and hope that she decides to give her a lesson one of these days."

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, you two said there were magic schools around here, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, maybe instead of waiting for Eda to teach her, I should look for one of those schools for Luz and she can start learning from there."

"What? You want to take her to some preppy school for witches and warlocks? There's no way they'll take a human in. They'll probably eat the first chance they get."

"Not if I join with her. My dad told me he went to one of these schools for the summer and, if your mom was telling the truth, they'll be sure to let me and Luz take classes there."

"Really? But you already know so much magic."

"Yeah, seven types of it. But my dad told me that there were other kinds of magic here that he couldn't teach me. Wouldn't hurt to check those out. Who knows? Maybe then I'll know all the magic there is on the Boiling Isles."

"You do know Mom won't let you go looking for those schools if you ask her, right?"

"Which is why I'm not gonna tell her."

"What?!"

"Relax, I'll tell her me and Luz are gonna learn magic at one of the schools after we enrolled."

"DK, you can't just go into a school and ask to take any class there."

"How would you know? You're homeschooled."

"Did you think I didn't try it out for myself?"

I stopped when she said that. "Wait, you actually tried magic school?"

"Well, duh! Did you really think I actually went with homeschooling for sixteen years straight? I once got tired by how Mom was teaching and tried to go to her school Hexside."

"Hexside? That's my dad's school!" I was once again surprised.

"Might be how him and Mom are buddies. Anyway, I went in there to see if I could really get my magic game up. Only thing I got was knowing how bad it was which is why I'm telling you not to waste your time going for that."

"Juni, come on." I said as I then kept on walking. "You and I both know that the schools are the only way Luz will know any kind of magic that you and me can do in time."

"DK, I know you want Luz to be a witch, but the schools aren't really gonna be good for her. They're almost as bad as that summer camp her mom wanted to send her."

"You're just saying that because you don't see the wrongs in Eda's teaching methods. It's obvious you dropped out after getting in trouble so many times."

"Hey, I'm serious! Those schools are no place to learn anything. Besides, what's wrong with my mom? At least she knows how to have fun."

"She is irresponsible, lazy, and clearly has no sense of conduct where it matters." I then stopped at an alley as I continued. "She's selling old junk to make a living and barely anyone wants to buy her potions and elixirs. Honestly, do you really want to end up like her?"

"Ugh! You sound just like Lilith."

"Lilith?" I was confused by this.

"Lilith Clawthorne, my aunt. The same witch who talks crap like you."

"Aunt? Clawthorne?" I was surprised once again. "Wait, Eda has a sister?

"Yeah, another reason why I say Luz is better where she is. It beats having a pole up her ass like you and Lilith!"

"Hey, watch it, Juniper!"

"What? It's true."

"Juniper, Luz cannot be taught in magic like that! She needs teachers who know what they're doing!"

"Who are you to say that's what's best for her?"

"Who are you to say that she can be okay learning like she is now?"

"The only reason you want Luz to go to those schools is because that's how your old man taught you!"

"And the only reason you want Luz to stick with Eda is because she's like you and lets you be careless!"

The two of us then glared at each other, growling for a moment before Juniper calmed down and made a compromise.

"Okay, let's flip for it." Juniper then pointed with her paw at the silver dollar in my hand. "Heads, I'll help you and Luz go looking for the preppy magic school so you can ditch me and Mom and learn magic the way you want. Tails, you give it up and stick with Eda and let her teach Luz. Deal?"

"Deal." With that, I then flipped the coin in the air and I caught it after it came down. After I placed it on my arm, despite my prayer for it to be heads, I was struck with shock as we both saw it was on tails.

"Ha! Tails!" Juniper said, feeling proud of herself. "Tough luck, DK. The coin has spoken."

"Let's just get the groceries and back to the house." I said before we heard a loud roar.

"What was that?" Juniper asked with surprise.

"Sounds like it came from down there. Come on!" With that, I then ran into the alley where I found the source of the commotion: a griffin trying to take a satchel from an elderly man.

"Unhand my satchel, you vile beast!" the man said, the griffin roaring before it flung the man against the wall and knocked him to the ground.

"Juni, stay here!" I said as I took Juniper off my shoulder and put her gently on the ground.

"DK, wait!" Juniper said before I drew out my sword and charged at the griffon as it spread its wings to attack while the man recovered.

With one slash, I stopped the griffin's attack, leaving it to the fire blast I sent that knocked it away in an instant.

"What the…" The man said as we stood between him and the griffin.

"Sir, stay back!" I told him as I was ready to fight. "I'll take of this."

After he allowed me, I started my fight with the griffon after it recovered. It looked at me before charging, swinging its claws. I moved in front and blocked the griffon with the Saisho.

"That stance…" I heard the man gasp, but I kept my focus on holding the creature back. It tried to leap at me, but I managed to stop it by using my foot to create a spell circle to cast a spell.

"Back off!" I said as I then kicked at it, using my spell circle to send a blast of wind that knocked the creature to the ground.

Seeing it pick itself up, I then rushed over to attack it where the griffon saw me and flew at me. Seeing it was going to attack, I then got to work on casting another spell, one that would help me dodge and win this fight.

"Enhancement Magic: Wind Dash!" I said as I used the spell on myself, allowing me to speed past the advancing claw while leaving a gust of wind behind me.

After doing that, I then began circling the griffon and it wasn't long until a tornado was created and prevented it from going anywhere. Hearing the griffon roar, I knew that I had it cornered and got ready to move on to the next step of my plan. Circling around it was actually just a way for me to pick up speed as I would need it to finish it off. Now that I was fast enough, I then used it to quickly ricochet off the walls of the alley until I was right above the griffon. After a brief moment of it searching for me, I grinned as I decided to reveal myself, my Saisho's blade glowing as it was then engulfed in flames.

"Up here, birdbrain!" I yelled out as I got the griffon to look up before I aimed the flaming blade at it, gripping the grip with both hands. "Attack Magic: Flame Dragon's Roar!" Sending off a blast of fire that took the form of a dragon's head, I watched as my spell slammed the griffin down to the ground, the impact causing an explosion and what little wind current left of the tornado to burst through the alley.

"Amazing." I heard the man say in awe after I landed safely on my feet, looking to the griffon as the smoke cleared and the flames disappeared from my sword.

In that instance, the griffon got up and looked at me with fear. After a moment, I then gave a slight "Boo!" and the creature then spread its wings and flew away.

"And don't come back!" I yelled at it as I gave it a warning before remembering why I fought it.

Turning around, I saw the man I saved was dressed in a dress that looked like my big bro's college graduation gown with a long black robe with a gold yoke, a black cape, gold trims at the sleeves and hem, and a blue stole draped over his shoulders along with what appeared to be an imp mask on his face.

"You okay, sir?" I said to the man, checking on him.

"Am I okay? I'm more than okay!" he said to us, smiling proudly. "Young man, that was some of the most amazing display of magic I have ever seen!"

"Why, thank you, sir." I said, touched by the compliment. "It was nothing."

"And might I add that is an impressive sword." He said, motioning to the Saisho.

"Oh, my Saisho." I said, before I then held the blade in one hand and the grip in the other. "Yeah, it's pretty cool. This thing's got me out a lot of pretty good jams."

"I can see that." The man said to me. "And the fact that you created a strategy using two different elements in one attack is remarkable."

"Oh, that? I just came up with that on the fly." I told him as I put the Saisho on my back. "I just used what I was taught."

"Still, it is very impressive." The man said as he examined me. "Interesting. I've never seen a human perform magic before."

"Oh, you noticed the ears, huh? Well, actually I'm half human. My mother was a witch."

"A hybrid. That explains it. I'm even more surprised that I haven't seen you around Hexside before."

"Hexside?" I asked in surprise. "As in one of the most prestigious magic academies in the Boiling Isles?"

"The very same." The man confirmed.

"Then, considering how you're dressed, are you a faculty member at Hexside?"

"Indeed I am and, mind I say, it is your lucky day that it's me you have saved." The man said.

"Really? How so?"

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Hieronymus Bump, principal of Hexside."

"Principal?" I was in awe at this. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. My name is Ryuji."

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Do mind me asking, but where exactly did you come across that sword?"

"Oh, my dad made it for me."

"Well, then your father must be quite the blacksmith."

"Yeah, he's one of the best." From there, I then remembered the griffon. "By the way, what was with that griffon from earlier?"

"Oh, that. Just an untimely meeting with a wild animal. The Griffon-Wrangling Coven should do a better job in keeping them out of our streets."

"So that's just a random encounter?"

"Yes, and quite the uncouth one at that. If you are interested, I could show you to Hexside so that you can see what it can offer."

"Really? You would show me around Hexside?"

"Why, of course. It is the least I can do after you saved me and used such impressive magic."

"Well, then I got nothing else to say but—Ow!" Feeling something forcibly cling onto my shoulder, I turned to see Juniper on my shoulder, the witch-turned-cat sinking her claws there as she glared at me. "What?" She then motioned to the side, silently telling me that she wanted to have a word with me. With a sigh, I then tried my best to smile as I turned back to Bump. "Excuse me, Principal Bump. Seems my cat here wants to have chat with me. I'll give you my answer once I'm done."

"Oh, don't worry. I understand. Go right ahead, I'll wait right here."

"Thank you." I gave a nervous chuckle as I walked a bit away from him before pulling Juniper off my shoulder as she let go and held her in my hands, giving her a glare as I whispered to her. "Juni, what's up?"

"DK, are you kidding me? You're still going for the magic schools?" She whispered back to me.

"What? He's just repairing me for saving him." I told her. "Besides, Hexside is the school my dad went to. I can't miss the chance to see the place he learned magic from."

"You don't have a choice. Mom told us to go shopping for groceries and then head home, not to run off to those schools." She reminded me. "I won the coin toss, remember?"

"We can shop later. Come on, it's just one little look around. We'll be back before Eda even knows we're gone."

"Read my lips. We are not going on a school tour."

"Come on, Juni. How am I supposed to tell what Hexside is like if I haven't been there? Let me just check it out. If the school is like you and Eda said it is, we'll head back to the house and I won't bother you again about it, okay?"

It was only a moment before Juniper gave a sigh of defeat. "Fine. Let's see the magic nerd school."

"Great!" I said before I put her back on my shoulder and I then walked over and spoke to Bump. "Principal Bump, I would very much like to see what Hexside is like."

"Wonderful. Then follow me." Bump said as he led me out of the alley, the excitement of seeing the magic school my dad went growing like the smile I had.

She then walked down the stairs before she took the plate from me and walked down to the kitchen. Taking the other dish in both hands, Luz and I looked at each other as we were both confused by this.

---

[Ryuji's aside]

What? This is the magic school my dad went to when he was my age. Of course I get all giddy for it. After hearing all about the fun he had there and all the friends he made there, I always dreamt of what my experience there would be like and now I get to see it. I got a good feeling about this!

---

[No one's view]

On the way to the Owl House, it was really quiet as Luz walked through the forest and she glared down at the slime ball Eda had her grab earlier.

"I can't believe this. If magic's just all about digging for slime balls, maybe I don't have the stomach for it." She bitterly said to herself as she put to ball into her pocket. "Been one week since I got here and I hadn't learned a single spell or anything. I know it ain't everyday a human comes into the Boiling Isles wanting to be a witch, but that still doesn't mean Eda can't put an effort into teaching me. Maybe if I should just quit."

"Don't turn back now!" said a random female voice that seemed to echo through the forest, voicing out encouragement. "You can do it! You can!"

"Uh, hello?" Luz said, following the sound of the voice.

Poking her head through a bush, she found the voice belonged to a short, young female witch with light skin, a sort of full-figured body, and short dark gray-blue hair wearing a pair of round gold and black-framed glasses over her olive green eyes. She was dressed in some sort of uniform consisting of a gray tunic with a dark gray belt, a black hooded cowl held by a gold pin, and black boots. Under the tunic, she had on a magenta-sleeved shirt with matching leggings. Right next to her as she sat on a rock was a book, a backpack, and a wooden wheelbarrow with a large stone cauldron in it.

"Oh, a little witch girl." Luz said with interest, trying to keep her voice down as she hid in the bushes.

"Come on, Willow, you can do it." The witch girl said as she stood up before she started pacing around, apparently giving herself a pep talk. "Even if you get a bad grade, it's not a reflection of you as a witch. And my parents are right. There are better opportunities in this track. Now stop worrying and get to school!" Her demeanor changed as she heard a snap and looked down to see stepped on a flower. "Oh, no! I'm sorry, little friend!"

After getting her foot and kneeling down to the flower, the little witch now known as Willow then closed her eyes as she then created a green magic circle that gently rained small specks of green magic onto the flower. Luz watched in awe as the flower sprouted back to life, Willow smiling as she healed the plant with her magic.

Luz wasn't able to watch long as she heard something coming in the direction of Willow. Ducking back down, the human girl watched as another wheelbarrow rolled in while coated in a magic aura. Another wheelbarrow with a cauldron rolled up in front of the young witch coated in glowing green energy. On top of the cauldron was another young witch who was reading a book titled Magic 101. The one who owned and rode it was another young witch reading a book titled: Magic 101. She had pale skin, chin-length aquamarine hair with brown roots and a brown feathered-like patch at the front tied into a small ponytail, and golden eyes. She was dressed in the same uniform as Willow, only with a gold star-shaped badge that said "Top Student" on her cowl.

"Willow." She said as she looked down from her book, closing it as the magic surrounding the wheelbarrow beneath her disappeared. "Wow, I almost rolled into ya. You should really make yourself more noticeable." After she jumped down with a light chuckle, Willow canceled her spell and the flower collapsed.

"Hi, Amity." Willow bitterly greeted back, standing up.

"Uh, shouldn't you get to class early to prep your…" Amity was interrupted by a rattling coming from the cauldron in Willow's wheelbarrow which caused both the cauldron and the cart to tip over and spills out a puddle of purple sludge which had a single eye wash up before it blinked in front of Willow, Amity looking at Willow with disappointment. "Oh, Willow. You don't have anything to show, do you?"

"Witch Drama!" Luz whispered as she watched Willow lift up her hood with a blush of embarrassment.

"This is why people call you 'Half-a-Witch Willow'." Amity said with a sigh as she walked up to Willow before a rattling was heard from her cauldron, making the witch smile. "Oh, looks like someone wants to say something to you." Amity walked over and took the cover off her cauldron before she stood in front of it with her arms crossed. "Abomination, rise." At the snap of her fingers, more of the purple sludge rose from the cauldron and formed into a human-like creature possessing three eyes with two on one side which leaned down over to Willow with a groan.

"You're a star." It slowly said as it drew a black star on the witch's forehead.

"Aww! It's like mine." Amity said as she tapped her badge. "But much smaller and meaningless. As top student, it's my duty to tell you to keep at it." She then put her arm around Willow's shoulder. "Even you could get a passing grade someday. Abomination, cower." With that, the creature sunk back into the cauldron before she then put the cover on. "See you in class, superstar." She then wheeled off with her wheelbarrow with a smug look on her face, Luz sticking out her tongue from disliking how Amity treated Willow.

"'See you in class, superstar'." Willow said as she mimicked what Amity said before rubbing off the star with a growl. "I hate when she does that!" Luz then frowned as she felt bad for the little witch. Willow then began to rant in anger. "I hate making abominations! I hate getting bad grades! Ugh! I wish I didn't have to deal with all this!"

After she closed her eyes with a growl, she shot them open as they were glowing green, much to Luz's surprise. After this happens, the flower Willow tried to heal sprouted back up before large, thorn vines sprouted out of the ground, one of which ensnared Luz by the leg and pulled her over to Willow. Hearing her scream, Willow turned around and gasped at the sight before her, her eyes losing the glow and the vines going limp as they lay on the ground.

"Oh, no! No, no, no, no!" Willow quickly said as she rushed over to Luz. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

"It's okay." Luz said in reassurance as she got the vine off her leg, ignoring the scratches she had on her leg. "I wasn't hurt that bad." Luz became confused as Willow looked at her closely in a way that made the human girl uncomfortable.

"So… circley…" Willow said, causing Luz to cover her ears in a panic as she saw the witch girl was looking at them before the witch gasped in realization. "You're human!" Willow was very excited as she helped Luz up before circling around her. "A human on the Boiling Isles! This is incredible! How'd you get here? What are you doing here?" Before Luz could say anything, a bell suddenly tolled out in the distance, causing Willow to become saddened. "Oh, I'm sorry. I can't stay. I have to go and disappoint my teacher. It was nice to you, human." Willow then walked over to grab her book before she then walked and got her wheelbarrow back up.

"Wait!" Luz said, causing Willow to look back at her. "Willow, right? I'm Luz and what you did with that flower and those plants! I mean, I've seen Plant Magic before, but that was…wow!"

"Thanks, but…" Willow said with a smile from the praise before quickly losing it. "I'm not even supposed to be doing plant magic. My parents put me in the Abomination Track in school."

"Wait, school? Like magic school?" Luz asked with interest, Willow managing to nod her head even from being uncomfortable at how close Luz was to her. "That's so cool! I have a teacher but her methods are bit… untraditional. She probably wouldn't let me enroll, but I wish I could spend one day there."

"Yeah, and I wish I could get a passing grade for once." Willow said in a depressed tone. "Then people would stop calling me 'Half-a-Witch Willow'."

After she kicks at the pool of sludge and causes it to groan, Luz soon gains an idea after she looked at the puddle.

"Hey, I know how we can both get what we want." Luz spoke up.

"Really? How?" Willow said as she watched Luz pick up some of the sludge.

"By making me your abomination." Luz said as she splashed herself with the sludge.

" What? " Willow said as she couldn't believe what she was suggesting.

"It's easy. I'll just make myself look like an abomination and make it look like you made a perfect one. I'll get you a good grade and you get me into magic school. It's perfect!"

"Oh, I don't know…" Willow said, not sure about how to respond to this.

"Don't worry. I saw that girl's abomination thing. It's just a chunk of stuff that talks weird. I already talk weird, so I'm sure we can pull it off. Trust me, this plan will work." Willow giggled a bit with a blush at Luz's personality.

"Okay, it's a deal. Luz." Willow said before the two shook hands. After they broke the shake, they looked to see the sludge had stuck their hands together. "Whoops! Abomination goo." The two girls then tried to pull their hands apart.

---

Back on the beach, Eda had just finished digging out the rest of whatever the slug had to offer and was tying a large knapsack of what looked like orange fish eggs to her staff.

"Not a bad haul." Eda said as she finished tying the sack on. "That oviduct was loaded."

"Ah. So lose apprentice, Axel's child, and your child, gain garbage eggs." King sarcastically commented while sitting on a pile of garbage. "Fair trade."

"I didn't lose anything." Eda said with a scoff as she turned to him.

"If you don't teach Luz right, you will. And you'll lose Ryuji too if you don't teach him anything about his curse." King said, sticking to his claim. "I'm honestly still surprised you hadn't lost Juniper yet. And, when you do lose them, that's when I come in. Make them my apprentices!"

"Ha! And what would you teach?" Eda said with a laugh. "How to get stuck in the arm of sweater?"

"Hey, that only happened once!" The demon claimed. "No, I'd teach them about demons. How to identify them, talk to them, raise an army with them and tear apart the world!"

"After they tear you out of the sweater arm, right?" Eda was clearly amused with his claims.

"You think you're so smart!" Fed up with it, King jumped off the pile and walked toward the witch. "Well, why don't we make a little bet and see who makes the better teacher?"

"Okay. But I'm obligated to remind you that I only use our bets to utterly humiliate you." Eda said, pulling a book titled Eda + King One-Sided Wagers as she knelt down and opened it to reveal pages of charts with checkmarks on Eda's side while King's side was void of any, a sign of him not winning a single bet. "Especially considering that you've never ever won. Not to mention you also lost every single bet you made with Juni."

"Yeah, I lost before, but I know I won't lose this time." The little demon said with determination.

"Okay, so how about this?" Eda then took out an egg from the sack, holding it up to King to reveal a small Trash Slug inside. "I'll give you this Trash Slug so you can prove you're a better teacher than me. Teach it to be your loyal soldier and Luz is all yours."

"What? The human?" King was shocked by what he was receiving. "What about Ryuji and Juniper?"

"I'm not letting you teach my daughter. I have my limits." She told him bluntly. "Besides, Axel sent me to help him with his curse. If he found out that I let you teach him, I'll never hear the end of it. Anyway, if you fail, I change your name from 'King' to… 'Mr. Wiggles'."

"Well, when you lose, you'll have to… wear a shame hat! And sleep in the shack and never come into the Owl House again! Ha!"

"Deal." After writing down everything said about the bet along with her signature, Eda turned the book to allow King to stamp his paw onto it, leaving a print.

After that, she closed the book and put it away before tossing King the egg. Though King was ready to catch it, the egg landed on his head and broke, the little slug sliding down his head before he caught it in his paw. He glared at Eda as she walked away with her staff, the witch giving out a mocking laugh.

She then walked down the stairs before she took the plate from me and walked down to the kitchen. Taking the other dish in both hands, Luz and I looked at each other as we were both confused by this.

---

[Ryuji]

Soon after accepting his offer, Principal Bump escorted me to Hexside and me and my brother were in awe as we faced an amazing school that looked like a castle mixed with a college building made.

"Welcome to Hexside, School of Magic and Demonics." Principal Bump declared as we walked up the stairs and through the door.

"Sugoi!" I said, blown away by the majesty of it all while Juniper gave a look of indifference. While looking around, I looked to find a warlock about mine and Juniper's age as they scratch a locker door, causing an eye on it to open up to reveal it was a sort of demon that opened its mouth and handed the warlock some books with its tongue. "Whoa! Demon lockers! So cool!"

"Tell me, Ryuji. You two seem pretty skilled in the art of fire and wind magic." Bump said as we kept walking. "Are there any other kinds of magic you know?"

"Oh, yeah. The spells I just showed were just the tip of the iceberg." I told him. "I know Bard, Oracle, Plant, Construction, Beast-Keeping, Healing, and Illusion Magic."

"Oh, my. I saw you were skilled in magic, but I didn't think you would have knowledge of other track courses as well." Principal Bump said, impressed by this.

"Track courses?" I asked, curious about this. "You mean the learning experience is divided?"

"Of course." The principal answered. "Here at Hexside, we have all different tracks for students to follow. The types of magic you know are actually seven of the tracks we have here."

"And I guess those multicolored uniforms they're all wearing show which track each of them are in?" I asked as I saw students pass by, each one wearing different colored sleeves and leggings.

"Correct." Principal Bump confirmed before he list the tracks. "And for each track comes a different type of magic to learn. I would suppose that the tracks you would be interested to learn from are the Abomination Track and the Potions Track, yes?"

"Well, yeah." I told him. "But I guess you don't allow students to take more than one track here, huh?"

"On the contrary, we do have the option for you to take more than one track. This brings us to one track I think you might like. I always save the best for last." With that, Principal Bump smirked as we walked through an entryway into an open area and I gasped in awe at the sight of students with azure sleeves and leggings around the place, two of them were doing what I recognized was a combat practice. "Welcome to the Warriors Track, the only track which allows one to practice any form of magic they choose."

"The Warriors Track. Awesome!" I said before I then looked at the students and saw they all had a weapon on hand, each either having a sword, an axe, a lance, or a bow. The weapons that the two clashing had were a sword and an axe. "Hey, they got weapons just like me!"

"Of course, every student who participates in the Warriors Track is given a weapon which can utilize their magic." As Principal Bump told me, the student wielding the axe then slammed it into the ground as it was glowing, sending a shockwave to his opponent who then jumped out of the way. The sword-wielding student then thrust his sword as its blade was glowing too, sending a blast of fire that knocks the axe wielder to the ground.

"Okay, this has got to be the coolest thing I've ever seen!" I said before I then followed Principal Bump through another entryway and into a hall full of pictures of different groups of students which I knew were class photos.

"Yes, the Warriors Track is a sight to behold." He said to me as I looked at each photo. "It was only thirty years ago that this track was added to the learning curriculum of every school here on the Boiling Isles and it has become one of the greatest tracks of all."

"Thirty years ago?" It was then that I turned to my right and one photo caught my eye. Walking over to it, I saw it was a boy student close to my age with combed down brown hair and brown eyes who smiled proudly as Principal Bump held out a plaque to him. But the boy wasn't a warlock. Seeing he had human ears, I recognized who the guy was. "Dad?" Juniper was even surprised by this.

"I knew I recognized your fighting technique." Principal Bump said as I turned to see his grin as he walked over to me and was surprised by how close he was to us. "The only person who has magic such as yours would be the child of Axel Frank, especially if they wield a Star-Rank weapon such as yours."

"So you knew my dad." I said with surprise.

"Why, of course." Principal Bump answered. "Your father was one of my prized students."

"And he was in the Warriors Track?"

"Oh, he wasn't just in the Warriors Track." Principal Bump explained. "He is the one who founded the Warriors Track."

"My dad created this track?" I was surprised as I didn't know this at all.

"Yes. During his time here at Hexside, your father saw that it was unfair that his fellow students could only learn from one of the original eight tracks, especially considering that there was only one coven that allowed its members to use all forms of magic."

"The Emperor's Coven." I knew exactly who he was talking about.

"As such, he worked towards developing a way in allowing students to learn from more than one track. His diligence and determination in ensuring a fair learning experience for his fellow students and all future witches and warlocks soon gathered others to help him in his cause. His actions were so great that even the Emperor himself took notice. Before long, the Warriors Track was then added, giving us the tenth track that we have now today. It was because of it that he graduated from Hexside as one of the greatest students."

"Wow. I had no idea."

"Yes. Which is why it's a shame he didn't become a coven head." What Principal Bump said shocked me.

"Wait, what?" I couldn't help but laugh at what he told me. "Okay, that's a funny joke. My dad, a coven head? Ha-ha-ha! No Fire Dragon had ever been dumb enough to be the head of one of the main nine covens."

"I'm afraid I'm not joking, Ryuji. Your father did plan on being a coven head and they're aren't nine main covens. There are ten."

"Ten? What's the tenth coven?"

"The one of which this track represents…" Bump then guided me out of the hall where we reentered the building, stopping in front of the entryway before motioning above. "The Warriors Coven."

I gasped upon looking up to see an azure banner that had a symbol resembling a sun with a crescent within it and a sword in front of it. I was in beyond disbelief.

"The Warriors Track… haves its own coven? I… I don't understand."

"You see, Ryuji, when your father created the track, he had sought on making his own coven. Emperor Belos agreed to this and was even set on making him the head of it."

"He never told me that." Taking this in, I soon gained one question. "But if my dad was supposed to be the head of this coven, then why isn't he one?"

"There was a little fallout during his coven initiation ceremony. Your father had refused to become the head of his coven and abandoned it. While it hadn't been considered as much for a Fire Dragon to refuse joining a coven, Emperor Belos declared that your father had broken the law by not properly joining a coven."

"But that doesn't make any sense. My dad takes pride in what he does, especially with things like this. Why would he work so hard to make a coven only to just abandon it?"

"For that, no one really knows. All we know is that he did and the Warriors Coven was then added to the Coven System as the first branching coven of the Emperor's Coven."

"Branching coven? I thought you said it was a main coven."

"It is. As the only branching coven of the pristine Emperor's Coven, it is considered a main coven. In fact, most of the students scouted for the Emperor's Coven are from the Warriors Track."

"I see. So who runs the Warriors Coven now?"

"Well, after your father left, the Emperor assert command over to one of the first members of the coven: Eliphas Duskerman."

"Duskerman? As in the family Duskerman, one of the Noble Three?"

"Why, yes. And Eliphas was honored to take on such a role."

"Huh. So Belos gave the coven to a runner-up." Wanting to change the subject, I decided to ask him one question I'd been waiting to ask him. "Um, mind if I ask, but was there another student with my dad? Like a witch named Marilyn Clarkson?"

"Marilyn Clarkson?" Bump thought for a moment before he answered. "No, I don't recall anyone by that name. I think she might have been from a different school."

"Are you sure?" I was surprised by this. "My dad said she was from Hexside."

"I'm quite sure. Why do you ask?"

"Well, she happens to be my mom. I just hoped I bumped into someone who knew her."

"Oh, I see. I had no idea. Considering seeing you myself and knowing your father, I had thought that you would be…"

"I would be what?"

Bump paused for a moment before he spoke again, giving me a smile. "Oh, nothing. Anyway, let me show you the rest of Hexside. It truly is wonderful to have you here. It has been too long since Hexside had a Frank walk through these halls."

"I can see that, considering the impression my dad gave to this place."

"Along with quite a legacy, something I hope can continue."

"I guess you want me to enroll?"

"Well, yes. But it is ultimately your choice to enroll or not. But you must know that I sense greatness in you. With the right help, I believe you could become a great warlock, much like the great witch who graduated from Hexside: Lilith."

"Wait, Lilith? As in Lilith Clawthorne?"

"Well, that was her name before her graduation. Now these days, she goes by Lilith Duskerman."

"Lilith Duskerman? She married into the Duskerman Family?"

"Yes, and the lucky fellow happened to be no other than Eliphas himself."

"Juni, why didn't you tell me your aunt was married to a coven head?" I whispered to the witch on my shoulder.

"You didn't ask." Juniper whispered back.

"That's because I didn't know you had any other relatives."

"Ah, there's one of my best students." Bump said as we looked over to see him motioning over to a witch with green hair and with magenta sleeves and leggings who was walking around. "Miss Blight, come here please."

From this, the Blight girl then rushed over. Getting a good look at her, I saw that a patch of her hair was brown in a three-tip feathered shape, had the green of her hair tied in a ponytail, yellow eyes, and seemed to have the same body figure as Luz, especially in chest size as the cowl she was wearing had shown that. Though she ran over excitedly, the girl recomposed herself as soon she got over to Principal Bump's side.

"Yes, sir?" She calmly asked.

"Miss Blight, I'd like you to meet Ryuji." Bump said.

"Uh, hello." I said, feeling a little nervous.

"Ryuji, this is Amity Blight, one of the best students in the Abomination Track." Bump said brushing it off. "Ms. Blight, would you mind telling these boys why our school is the best?"

"That's easy. Because every student here has everything to reach their full potential and are willing to do what…" Amity said before she noticed something. "Wait a minute, what is going on with your ear?"

"Oh, this is? It's nothing." I told her.

"You are a warlock, aren't you?" Amity asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"Half warlock." I told her. "On my mom's side."

"It is true." Bump said to her. "And he happens to be the son of Axel Frank."

"Wait, as in the Axel Frank?" Amity said with surprise. "The human who founded the Warriors Coven?"

"Yeah, the very same." I told her. "Been told if I enrolled here, I could become a big shot like him."

"As long as you can keep up with the work." Amity bluntly said.

"Hey, I happen to be a Grade-A student back where I'm from. Plus, there's a class where I can actually get into a fight and not get in trouble. It'll be easy for me." I said with confidence before I turned to Bump to tell him the one problem I had with this. "Well, Principal Bump, I can honestly say I'm interested in Hexside. But…"

"Splendid! Now, come along." Bump said as he stood behind me, putting a hand on my free shoulder. "We have a lot of ground to cover before we can fill out your enrollment papers."

"But, Principal Bump…"

"Come along." Bump said, pulling me away before I could finish.

[No one's view]

Unknown to them, someone who had heard everything from close by was watching as Principal Bump pulled the hybrid down the hall, a glazed look in their icy blue eyes.

"Seriously?" the mysterious figure said with displeasure. "That's supposed to be the next generation of Franks? What a joke." With that, they then walked away out of sight.

[Ryuji]

As I was being led down the hall after I gave up trying to talk to Bump, I heard a yelp and pulled myself away from Bump to look around, only to see a witch girl with short black hair wearing glasses and a uniform like Amity's standing next to a wheelbarrow with a cauldron inside.

"Is there something wrong, Ryuji?" Bump asked me.

"It's nothing. Just thought I heard something." I told him, brushing off my curiosity as I allowed him to give me a tour.

[No one's view]

Unknown to him, as Ryuji walked away with Principal Bump, he was being watched. The one watching him was none other than Luz who was hiding in Willow's cauldron, peeking from under the lid to watch him leave. After he was gone, Luz gave a sigh of relief as she wasn't discovered by her friend, knowing how mad Ryuji would be if he found she snuck into the magic school.

As Luz slunk back down into the cauldron, Willow was at her locker. With a tickle of her fingers, the locker opened its eye and mouth before unrolling its tongue and presenting her with some books, the witch taking a copy of the same book Amity had. It was at this moment that someone bumped into her. Turning around, she saw it was a warlock of short stature who looked like he was African American with dark brown hair of lighter shades. Unlike Willow's pink shirt and stocking, his were colored light blue. The reason he had bumped into her was that he was reading a teen magazine that clearly originated from the human world.

"Oh, hey, Willow." The warlock said to her.

"Hi, Augustus." Willow greeted back. "Reading more on humans, I see."

"Yeah, and you would not believe them." He said as he turned his focus back to the magazine.

"Humans? Psh." Willow said as she grew a little nervous, worried about him finding the human hiding in her cauldron. "I haven't seen any. What?"

"Did you know that humans nail barbed wire to their kids' teeth?" Augustus said as he showed her a picture of a human girl showing off her braces. "But why? Maybe to make them magnetic."

"Actually, it's for storing treats." Luz spoke up from inside the vase, causing Willow to become pale as Luz unintentionally revealed herself while the small warlock raised a small eyebrow in confusion.

"Okay, Augustus. I'm gonna show you something." Willow said as she put her book down and took the lid off the cauldron. "But you have to be cool."

"I can be spool!" He stuttered before correcting himself. "I-I-I mean, cool!"

"Okay. Abomination, rise." Willow said as she gave the signal for Luz to emerge.

"Ta-da! I'm an abomination!" Luz casually said after she slowly rose up from the cauldron while covered in abomination goo.

"Luz, that's not how Abominations act." Willow said to her while Augustus dropped the magazine in shock as he saw Luz's ears.

"No, No. It couldn't be." The warlock said in disbelief, feeling his own ears.

"Uh, is he okay?" Luz asked in confusion.

"Oh, he's fine. This is just the first time Augustus has met a human." Willow explained. "Actually, he's the president of the Human Appreciation Society. Most witches and warlocks aren't able to spot humans right away, but Augustus is an expert."

"Where are your gills?" He asked.

"Don't have any, but I know an Augustus back in the human world." Luz said to him. "We call him 'Gus'."

"Gus? Nickname? Human nickname? Gus? Call me it." Augustus said, clearly excited and happy about it all. "Wow, Gus." It was then that he realized what Luz had said. "Wait, 'we'? As in your friends? Are there others with you?"

"Well, yeah, one. But he's only half human." Luz told him. "Ryuji's… around. He's got a big bro who's half human like him, but he's someplace far from here. Yeah, their mom was a witch and their dad is a human." This made both Willow and Gus gasp.

"You mean, hybrids? Those exist?" Willow asked, amazed.

"This is the best day of my life." Gus said before he started looking around. "Where is Ryuji?"

"I… Don't know." Luz said, not wanting to say that she saw Ryuji in the school as to avoid Gus from trying to find him. "He went to the market, but I haven't seen him since." Just then, as the school bell rang, it is revealed to be a demon who screams as it rang.

"I've gotta get to spelling class. See you guys at lunch!" Gus said, heading of waving goodbye.

"I got get to spelling class. See you guys at lunch!" Gus said as he headed off, waving goodbye to Willow and Luz.

"Alright. Into the darkness you go." Willow said, Luz playfully hissing as she slunk back inside the cauldron.

---

[No one's view]

Back at the Owl House, determined to win his bet with Eda, King was trying to train the slug into becoming his minion by using dog treats to do so after managing to find a box of them.

"Aw! Who's a good Prince Junior? Who's a good guy?" King said as he waved a treat in front of the little slug

"Hey, Mr. Wiggles." Eda called out as she relaxed at a table with a black mug that said "#1 Bad Girl" in white. "You're not gonna teach it anything doing that."

"It's called positive reinforcement, Eda, and it works wonders." King said before he slug ate the treat and grew twice in size. "Ha-ha! See? Now watch this." King then pulled out another treat before pointing at the Owl Lady with it. "Prince Junior, attack Eda! Knock over her drink! Mess up her hair!" The slug wasn't listening as it was only focused on the treat.

"Oh, no. Please stop." Eda said, not showing concern from knowing nothing would happen to her.

"Well, I haven't seen your student in forever." King said while the slug snuck the dog treat out of King's paw. "For all we know, she's not even loyal to you anymore."

"Ha-ha-ha! You wish." Eda chuckled before she then grew curious at noticing the absence of the three teens. "But, yeah. Where is she? I haven't seen Ryuji or Juni either."

---

Back at Hexside, Willow and Luz were in a classroom that only had a few students present, Willow and Amity being two of them with the green-haired witch sitting in the front row with a confident smile while a nervous Willow sat in the row behind her.

Their teacher was a short, gremlin-like creature with pointed ears, a round, beak-like mouth with two fangs on the top row of his teeth, a pair of noticeable cheekbones two claws on each foot, narrow eyes that hid behind his round framed, orange-tinted glasses with no temples, green, chin-length hair with a large bald spot on the top of his head, inward-facing green eyebrows, and a small green beard. His outfit consisted of a black shirt and pants with an oversized purple coat with a red lining and a light silver bow tie around his neck. He was being carried by a mauve-colored abomination that had its mouth closed.

Right now there was a student presenting her abomination and there were boatloads of feet all over it.

"Hmm…" The teacher said as he examined a student witch's abomination which looked like a pile of sludge in three different shades of purple with a groaning head on top and toes sticking out in all sorts of different places. "Too many toenails in unexpecting places. Fail!" With a look of despair, the witch then wheeled her abomination away as she went back to her seat. "Pathetic. The biggest abominations are all of you! If the next abomination is a failure everyone gets extra homework for a month!" The other students, save for Amity and Willow, spoke out in dismay at hearing the punishment from their teacher before he cleared his throat to silence them. "And the next one to come up is…"

"Excuse me, sir!" Amity said as she stood out of her seat. "But I'm ready to present. Abomination, rise!" At her call, her abomination emerged while doing a ballerina pose, amusing the teacher.

"I've always saved the best for last, Amity." The teacher said with a chuckle. "You'll have to wait your turn." With that, Amity sat back down and her abomination slunk back down into the cauldron. "How about… Willow?"

The other students muttered in dismay upon hearing this, one even saying "Not Half-a-Witch Willow" while the said witch pulled her hood over her head.

"Don't listen to them, Willow." Luz said as she peeked from under the lid. "We can do this."

Luz's thumbs up managed to give Willow a bit of confidence as the witch then got up from her seat and wheel her cauldron over to the front of the class.

"Uh… Abomination…rise." Willow nervously said before Luz punched the cap off, making the class flinch as the human girl then jumped out of the cauldron with a twirl.

"Ta-da!" Luz said, doing her best to have a brainless expression on her face before everyone gasped in shock upon seeing this. Even Amity was shocked.

"Abomination, bow." Willow said and Luz did that while still putting on her act.

"Very impressive." The teacher said with an impressed smile. "But does it speak?"

"Abomination… speak?" Willow said.

"Uh, I maybe your abomination, but your my a-mom-ination." Luz said, improvising as she cuddled up to Willow. The witch's fellow students cooed as they found it adorable, all except for Amity who couldn't believe this was happening as the teacher laughed away.

"'A-mom-ination'! Splendid wordplay! A+!" He said as he painted the grade on Luz's forehead, making the students cheer and Amity furious.

---

With the scream of the school bell who coughed from no doubt doing it so much, Willow and her classmates all then left the classroom which had "Abominations 101" edged onto the top of the doorway. Before Willow got too far, she was met by her teacher.

"Wonderful work today, Willow." The teacher said as Amity walked out of the classroom. "Looks like we have a new top student."

"What?" Amity said in shock as she dropped her books. After her teacher takes the badge off her and gives it to Willow, Amity growls in anger.

"Uh, thank you, sir." Willow said as she wasn't expecting this, the teacher nodding before he walked off.

"Hey!" Amity said as she stood behind Willow with a glare and her arms crossed, the spectacle witch being taken by surprise from how fast Amity rushed over behind her without her notice. "Last time I saw you, your abomination was mush. What did you do?"

"I, uh… took your pep talk to heart, Amity." Willow answered as she tried to come up with an excuse. but Amity wasn't buying and crossed her arms.

"I bet you did." Amity said before she started walking backwards, seeing through her lie. "I got my eyes on you, Half-a-Witch. You may fool everyone, but we both know who the real top student is." Amity growled in frustration after she bumped into a student, continuing to walk off without bothering to apologize as she went around the corner.

"Uh-oh. I think Amity is on to us." Willow said with worry.

She then walked down the stairs before she took the plate from me and walked down to the kitchen. Taking the other dish in both hands, Luz and I looked at each other as we were both confused by this.

---

Back at the Owl House, after a while of waiting without sight of Ryuji, Juniper, or Luz, Eda goes over to Hooty, exiting the house while slamming the door open and causing Hoot's beak to hit a wall.

"Hooty, have you seen Luz, Juni, or Ryuji?" Eda asked him with concern.

"Haven't seen Juni, Ryuji, or Luz, but I heard Luz's tiny mouse feet walking close by. Or that might've been some mice." Hooty told her. "Anyway, someone started moving in that direction." He then started nudging his head. "Hoo, hoo‐hoo, hoo."

"Are you trying to point or…" Eda said, confused by what the house demon was trying to do.

"Look at the weather vane!" Hooty said before Eda looked up to said weather vane and saw where it was pointing.

"But the only thing in that direction is…" Eda gasps before running off towards that direction. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Before long, Eda was at Hexside. Stopping and looking through a window, she saw what looked like a kindergarten class, showing her one of the things she hated about school: blind obedience.

"Alright, class. Recite your runes." The teacher said.

"Krom, Zix, Elgrim, Zenomide." The kids recited.

"No." Eda said with a look of horror before moving to the next window to see the high school classes.

"Heximal system time! Let's get memorizing!" The teacher said as the students took notes, another thing she hate about school: pointless busywork.

"No!" Eda said before she looked to the next room and saw Luz and Willow writing notes, her worst fears being realized. "No! Why school?!"

"So what do you think of our school?" Hearing Bump's voice from the next room, Eda moved to the next window and saw a sight that made her day worse.

"It rocks!" Ryuji said with Bump leading him down the hall while Juniper sat on his shoulder.

"You know, one time, your father sent four students out that very window." Bump pointed to one window.

"Wait, my dad?" Ryuji said with a surprised chuckle. "Wow, he hated bullies too. Like father, like son."

"Hopefully not by the extent he showed." Bump told them. "One time, he had actually created a potion that turned a few students bothering others into mice."

"No way! Seriously?" Ryuji said as he chuckled, Bump nodding to confirm this.

"No! Bump, you sneaky old vulture!" Eda said, shaking her fist. "I got him first!"

She then walked down the stairs before she took the plate from me and walked down to the kitchen. Taking the other dish in both hands, Luz and I looked at each other as we were both confused by this.

---

[Ryuji]

After a while, lunch came around and Principal Bump showed me to the cafeteria which actually look like the cafeteria me and Luz had back home.

"You mind if we take a break from our tour?" Principal Bump asked me. "I need to head to my office for a bite to eat."

"No problem. You wanna meet up after lunch?" I answered, Bump nodding in response to my question.

"I see a bright future ahead for you, Ryuji." Bump said before walking away. "With the right teaching, you could be as great as your father someday."

"Wow! Did you hear that, Juni?" I said to her with a smile. "He said we can be as great as my dad."

"Yeah, I heard." Juniper said with a nonchalant look. "Only thing I didn't hear was you telling him that you were under the care of my mom."

"Hey, I was trying to, but he barely gave me a chance to say anything." I told her. "Still, I have to say this place is amazing. And you said it was awful."

"Oh, what? You're gonna say I was wrong?" She said to me.

"Well, I wouldn't say that." I told her, remembering what I just learned. "I like most of it except…"

"Except what?"

"It's the fact that my dad had made a coven of his own around here in the Isles. Sure, I would want to be a part of something my dad started, but not if it's part of the stupid Coven System."

"So you hate that system too, huh?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? From what my dad told me, the Coven System is the worst thing to be in. Things would be better off without it."

"Amen to that." Juniper said before she gave a gasp of shock. "Uh… DK?"

"I know." I said, just as excited as he was. "I can't believe Eda said this place was awful."

"What?" I said before looking to where she was, my eyes widening as I gasped in shock.

Right at the table we were looking at, we saw the same witch I saw earlier sitting with a warlock who looked a bit younger than her wearing sky blue sleeves and leggings, the cauldron between them at the side having a purple slime-covered Luz leaning in it.

"Hey, do humans eat PB&Js?" the warlock asked as he pulled out a sandwich.

"Oh, my gosh! I haven't eaten all day. Please give me some." Luz instantly said as the warlock split his sandwich in half and Luz ate hers.

After she ate it, I saw she looked over at us and gasp before quickly sinking back into the cauldron.

"You haven't even told her about this place and your girlfriend already snuck into Hexside." Juniper whispered to me.

"Shut up!" I said at the same volume. "Come on, we need to get her out of here before somebody sees her.

"I saw that!" Looking over, we watched as Amity leaped onto the table with anger. "Abominations don't eat!"

"Too late." Juni said, feeling the same worry as me.

"Oh, no, Blight!" I said as the witch girl growled while Willow tried to calm her down. "If she exposes Luz, it'll be all over the place!"

While looking around and trying to come up with a way to help Luz out of this mess, I managed to spot a little warlock with a bald top head being carried by this light-colored blob monster that reminded me of a Faceless. Seeing how he was dressed, I smiled from seeing he was a teacher as I found a way to help Luz.

[No one's view]

Back at Willow and Gus' table, after failing to calm her down, Willow and Gus then watched as Amity angrily walked over to the cauldron and get on her knees before yelling into it.

"I know you're in there! You can't hide from me!" Amity said as she then reached into the cauldron and pulled out Luz before shaking her, the human girl keeping her abomination act. This causes a scene that weirds every other student out. "What are you? Who are you? I want answers!"

"Amity Blight!" With that, everyone looked to see the Abomination Track teacher as he was carried by his abomination, said teacher with a disappointed glare at the witch girl on the table. "I suspected a twinge of jealousy, but this? This is just sad."

"But I… Look at it!" Amity said as Luz groaned, the human girl still acting like a brainless abomination.

"Report to Principal Bump's office." The teacher said with a pointed finger.

"But…"

"Now!" He said, causing Amity to leave while grumbling to herself.

"Phew! That was close." Willow said in relief.

"Yeah, that was close." Said a familiar smugly voice. "You're lucky DK got that teacher over here before you got into real trouble."

"Yeah…" Willow said before she froze in shock and turned around to find Ryuji at her cauldron with a nonchalant look on his face. Ryuji then pointed down in front of Willow and she looked to see Juniper still in her cat form.

"Hi." Juniper casually said with a smug look on her face. "Now mind if we have a word with you two? Along with your 'abomination'?"

"Having fun in there, Luz?" Ryuji asked while looking down into the cauldron, Luz giving him a nervous chuckle.

"Oh, hey, Ryuji." Luz said, sounding nervous.

"Wait, Ryuji?" Gus said before he saw Ryuji's ears and gasped. "Human ears!"

"Mind introducing us to your new friends, Luz?" Ryuji asked as he arched a brow.

"Willow, Gus, meet my best friend in the whole world, Ryuji." Luz said as she did introductions. "And the cute little cat is our witch friend Juniper."

"Hey." Ryuju waves.

"What up, my fellow witches?" Juniper casually greeted.

---

[No one's view]

Back at the Owl House, King was still "teaching" the Trash Slug who had now grown immensely in size to obey him, still feeding it doggy treats. Due to it growing so big, King had to feed it a large hand fulls of treats.

"Roll over!" King said as he threw some and the slug ate them, but it didn't do the trick. "Yes! Heel!" It didn't obey him, but instead kept following him because the little demon kept throwing food for it. "Yes, yes!" He kept throwing more treats at it even as he then noticed Eda had come back with a look of despair. "So, you found your runaway student?" Eda didn't answer. "By your expression, I can tell Luz has gone and found herself someplace else to learn and probably Ryuji too. Which means… I have won!" In his cheer of triumph, he threw a few treats which the slug then ate.

"Yes, great. You won." Eda said, too sad to even care. "You have a giant soldier thing and I have nothing. Congrats."

"Oh, Eda. Don't say that." King then walked up to her with his paws behind his back. "At least you have this!" He then pulled out a dunce cap with the word "shame" written on it before cackling away, Eda groaning as she then takes it before walking inside of the shed, all while King continued to laugh. "Oh, it's so good to win." Once he was finished laughing, he turned back to his Trash Slug. "Ah, well, Prince Junior. Training complete. Go forth! Make the world tremble at your feet—or worm stubs." The slug didn't move and only stared at him. "Uh… Go forth?" He still got no response which then got him to realize the slug wanted more treats. "Oh! Right." King chuckled as he tried to pick up the treat box and shakes it, only to get crumbs. This causes the slug to hover over him with a growl, King becoming terrified as he knew what was about to happen. "Uh-oh."

---

[Ryuji]

After meeting Luz's new friends, I decided for us to go somewhere else so we could all have a private chat, managing to find that place in the Abominations 101 classroom which was only occupied by cauldrons full of abominations.

"So you're part of a club that is all about humans?" I asked Gus as I wheel the cauldron Luz was hiding in into the classroom, surprised to hear such a club existed.

"Yep and I know a lot about humans." Gus proudly told me.

"Not as much as me and DK obviously." Juniper bluntly said.

"Juni!" I said, not like how rude she was.

"What? Just saying." Juniper shrugged.

"So, Juni…can I call you that?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, I don't mind." Juniper told her.

"So you're not actually a cat, but look like one because of a spell?" Willow said.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, it's just I've never seen magic like that or you attend Hexside. Did you learn it from another school?"

" Nope. "

" Then how do you know magic? "

"From my mom." The disguised witch replied, scratching the back of her ear. "I was homeschooled which was way better than this place."

"Homeschool? That's actually real?" Gus said, clearly never heard of that before.

"Yeah. I was homeschooled in magic by my dad. Now let's move on, shall we?" I said before deciding to get an explanation out of Luz, taking the lid off the cauldron. "Okay, Luz, coast is clear. You can come out."

"Whoo!" Luz exclaimed happily as she got out of the cauldron. "Who knew it would be warm in there? I'm a sweaty little abomination."

"Honestly, Luz," I said to her in absolute disbelief. "I can't believe you snuck in here."

"Are you surprised?" Juniper bluntly said to me. "She was practically over the moon when Eda told us about this."

"Well, I'm surprised you're here." Luz said. "How did you guys get here?"

"I saved the principal from a griffon and now he's giving me a full tour." I said before gesturing to her.

"Yeah, and I just hitched along to keep an eye on him." Juniper said before gesturing to Luz. "Now you gonna explain why you're here and covered in abomination goo?"

"It's just part of a plan me and Willow came up with." Luz told him "She needed an abomination and I wanted to see the school, so we're helping each other."

"Wait, so you're pretending to be like that thing that was carrying that teacher back there?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm not very good at those." Willow said with a frown, where I felt sorry for her.

"Oh, my goodness! A real hybrid, right in front of me." Gus excitedly said, circling me. "Humans and witches hardly even associate with one another, let alone have a child. Is it true there's another one like you?"

"If you mean my big bro Ben, then yeah." I told him before I turned to Luz. "Already telling people about me, huh?"

"What? He just wanted to know." Luz said with a smile and a shrug.

"Luz, I'm already being targeted by the Emperor's Coven as it is." I told her. "You can't just tell people about me like some piece of gossip."

"Oh, it's fine. They're my friends."

"You just met them today! Honestly, I'm surprised that Willow even accepted this offer."

"I don't see why not." Willow said to me. "And, for once, I got a passing grade."

"Yeah, but that's only because everybody thinks Luz is one of those abomination things." I told her. "What if they ask you to make another one like what Luz is pretending to be? That Blight girl has already seen through this charade. Which is why it's best that we get Luz out of here as soon as possible."

"What? But Willow was just showing me around." Luz said with shock.

"Luz, I know you and I know that you won't be able to contain yourself much in a place like this." I told her. "You may have gotten lucky this far, but that luck will run out."

"Oh, come on, DK." Luz said to me. "This a great plan."

"While I will admit this is clever in a fiendish sort of way, this isn't a great plan."

"Can't you just let me stick around for a little longer? We could tour the place together. As soon as we're done, we'll head on out, okay?"

"Luz…"

"Come on, Please?" She clasped both hands together.

"No." I crossed my arms.

"Pleaassee?" I watched as she tried to use the puppy dog eye trick. While this trick had worked on me before, I knew I had to keep strong.

"Read my lips." I said, ignoring the blush I had while getting into her face. "N-O. No."

"Pleaaaaase?" Luz begged as she somehow managed to put on a much more adorable look, making me flinch as my heart clenched at the cuteness.

---

[Ryuji's aside]

Geez! I really can't say no to Luz when she gets like this. This is why I never can win an argument with her.

---

"Okay, okay! We'll continue touring around." I said, accepting defeat in the argument. "But we are leaving the moment we're done."

"Thanks, Ryuji! You're the best!" Luz said as she rushed me into a hug.

Though surprised by this, I still couldn't help but smile at how happy Luz was as I then returned the hug. This lasted for a moment before I then started to get a little uncomfortable.

"Uh, Luz? You can let go now." I said to her.

"Wish I could, but, uh… I think I'm stuck." Luz said as I felt her try to move her arms only for them to be instantly pulled back around me.

"Uh-oh." I said as I tried to move my arms to find them pulled back to Luz. "I'm stuck too. What's going on?"

"Yeah, thing about abomination goo: it's actually really sticky." Juniper told us before rubbing the back of her head with a nervous smile. "Probably should've told ya that before you two hugged."

"Yeah, you should've." I glared at her before me and Luz tried to pull ourselves off each other. "Little help here?" Willow and Gus then came over to get me and Luz unstuck with Willow grabbing Luz and Gus grabbing me. It took a moment, but we managed to stretch the goo enough to where the strand of it between me and Luz snapped, all four of us falling to the floor with me landing on the warlock and Luz landing on the witch. "Well, looks like both of us will need a shower after this." We all then shared a laugh before we all got back to our feet.

"Well, at least I now got one good memory being in this place." Juniper put in with a smile. "Which is saying something the last time I was here."

"Wait, you went to Hexside?" Luz said to the disguised witch with surprised.

"I thought your name sounded familiar." Gus said as he looked at Juniper with awe. "You're Juniper Clawthorne, the niece of Lilith Duskerman!"

"Yeah, that's me." Juniper rolled her eyes, displeased from being called that.

"You have an aunt?" Luz asked, surprised once again.

"Yeah, Lilith's actually—oof!" I was about to tell Luz Lilith was Eda's sister when Juniper leaped at me and smack me with her paw before she landed on the ground. "What?" Seeing her shake her head, I then realized that she didn't want Luz to know Lilith and Eda were sisters.

---

[Ryuji's aside]

Okay, judging by how Juniper is glaring at me like Big Bro would whenever I asked about some questions about Mom and her side of the family, I can the thing with Eda's sister isn't something Eda would be willing to talk about. Knowing Luz, telling her this would only get her in trouble, especially if she keeps questioning about it.

---

"Lilith's actually…" Luz asked me with confusion, wanting me to finish.

"She's actually… married to a Duskerman!" I said as I decided to leave out the part about Lilith and Eda being sisters.

"Wait, Duskerman? Like one of the great witch families you told me about?" Luz said with eyes full of awe.

"Yeah, that's right. Lilith used to be a Clawthorne but got married to a warlock named Eliphas Duskerman." I said before I then went on to a different subject. "And that's not all we found out. Remember when I said that my dad went to this magic school?"

"Yeah. I still can't believe we're where your dad learned magic!"

"Yeah and that's not all he did. Turns out there aren't nine learning tracks anymore. There's this tenth track called the Warriors Track and my dad is the one who founded it!" Luz gasped at what I told her.

"Your dad created a way of learning magic?"

"Yeah, and he apparently even created his own coven."

"Wait, the Warriors Coven?" Gus asked before his eyes widened with realization. "Wait, what did you say your name was again?"

"My name is Ryuji Frank." I answered, causing him to gasp.

"No way! You're the son of Axel Frank? The Fire Dragon?"

"Yeah, I am." With that, he and Willow looked at me in disbelief.

"I can't believe it! First, I meet a human here on the Boiling Isles." Gus excitedly said. "Now I find myself with a hybrid son of Axel Frank!"

"You guys know my dad too?" I asked, surprised by this.

"Are you kidding? Every witch has heard of Axel Frank!" Willow told me. "He is a legend, even at Hexside!"

"Yeah, and everybody's heard his story." Gus said as he then created a spell circle, causing a miniature scroll to appear in front of me. I looked to see it show a few articles on my dad like a phone with a web search. "After transferring to Hexside over thirty years ago, young Fire Dragon Axel Frank went on to do great things."

"Wait, hold on. Transferring to Hexside?" I said, pausing him for what he just said. "I thought he always was a Hexside student."

"Actually he didn't." Gus told me. "He actually transferred here from Saint Epiderm, the biggest school on the Isles."

"So he was going to a different school before Hexside?" I was in disbelief after hearing this.

"Yeah, and he made the right choice. Scholarships there are not cheap." Gus said before he continued. "Anyway, almost just after he did, Axel put together and started a new class that let students like us to learn how to use more than one type of magic, more specifically in how to do it in a fight. Wasn't long until it was made a part of the learning system and became known as the Warriors Track. After making the new track, Axel went on to create the Warriors Coven, a new branching coven of the Emperor's Coven." I then gained a grim look from the mention of the Emperor's Coven. "But, just when his coven was announced as part of the Coven System, Axel suddenly fled right before he could be named a coven head. After that, he disappeared without a trace and no one has seen him since. As to why he abandoned a coven he would so hard to make before it could even begin, no one really has a clear answer."

"I do and I can tell you that the claim about what happened at his coven ceremony is wrong." I told him as he took that scroll, feeling a little pissed by what I was told. "My dad didn't abandon his coven, he ran away!"

"Um, isn't that the same thing?"

"No, it's not, because the reason he ran away was because of what happened to his coven!"

"What do you mean?"

"Gus, do you really believe my crap? There's no way my dad would ever conform to anything involving that stupid Coven System!"

"Wait, are you saying that the reason your dad left was because of the Coven System?"

"Yeah, obviously! Why do you think he created the Warriors Track or even wanted to start a coven in the first place? My dad did this as a means of giving magic independence back to the Isles, independence which the system took! Belos no doubt saw that and took over the coven so it would bend to his system. My dad didn't abandon anything. He left because he couldn't take the unfairness of the Isles." After panting a bit, I saw that my outburst had left everyone in shock.

---

[Ryuji's aside]

And I just went a little too far. Sorry you guys had to see that. What Gus said really touched a nerve.

---

"Sorry, didn't mean to shout." I said after I pulled myself together, feeling really ashamed by what I said and how I said it.

"No, no. It's all good." Gus said to me with a reassuring smile. "I did kinda told bad stuff about your dad even though he was a great guy. I would totally get mad too if anyone talked about my dad like that."

"Thanks." I said with a relieved smile.

"Still, pretty cool that your dad made his own magic track." Luz said as she came over to me. "So what about your mom? I bet she was pretty great too."

"Well, that's one problem." I told her. "I asked if she attended Hexside, but Bump told me my mom never attended this place."

"What? But didn't your dad say him and your mom met here?" Luz asked, just as confused as me.

"Yeah, which is really bothering me, especially considering the lead I had to finding her is nothing more than a dead end."

"Oh, well at least you got to learn more about your dad." Luz said as she then smiled at me, raising her hand. "That's a plus, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it is." I smiled back as I then high-fived her.

"What was that?" Gus asked with curiosity.

"Oh, that? It's called a high-five." Luz told him, Gus not really getting it.

"It's a human thing." Me and Luz said at the same time, the two of us looking at each for a moment before giving each other smiles and sharing a laugh.

"Here, just slap your hand against mine." I said as I held up my hand to Gus. "It's a gesture of greeting and celebration." Gus slowly reached out and hit my hand before I then watch him smile before he did another high five.

"Oh! Oh, my." He continued doing it. "Oh, man! What a rush!"

"Okay, don't do it too much with the same person. Kinda loses meaning if you do." I told him before the door suddenly opened.

From there, we watched as Amity walked in and she wasn't alone as she stepped aside and Principal Bump came into the room. Luz quickly slumped down to her knees as she put on her abomination act.

"Good afternoon, students." Bump greeted us.

"Principal Bump?" I said, surprised to find him here. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, Ryuji. I see I wasn't the only one with curiosity." He told me as he walked over. "Ms. Blight told me about Ms. Park's abomination and I had to see this for myself." After walking over to Luz, I watched as he then grabbed her by the chin and began examining her. "Hmm." Looking over to Amity and seeing that smug of hers, I glared as I saw she had put us in a situation that I couldn't save Luz from. I then turned back to them as Bump was done checking her over. "Abomination, rise." Luz obeyed and stood up. "Abomination, lie."

"Uh…" Luz said before she quickly spoke a few on-the-spot lies. "Viral fame is a worthy pursuit. Your cat would never eat you if it got the chance. Chemtrails are real…"

"Oh, no, abomination." Bump said with an amused chuckle. "How strange for it to get the command wrong."

"Well, to be honest, you weren't very specific with the command." I said as I walked over with a nervous smile, trying my best to help Luz so she wouldn't be exposed.

"Good point. I see you inherited your father's mind." Principal Bump said before he motioned to a table close to the door. "Abomination, lie down." I became just as nervous as Luz, Juniper, and our new friends as she then went on and lay down on the table, me, Bump, and Willow gathering around her. "So very lifelike. When Ms. Blight told me about your abomination, I had to come by, see what she's made of."

"Oh! I-I-I have the list of ingredients right here." Willow said with a stutter as she searched her pockets before Bump stopped her.

"No. We were hoping…" The principal said before he pulled out a knife from his sleeve, "for a closer look." I gasped in shock from hearing Bump wanting to dissect Luz.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said, getting up in front of Bump. "You're just gonna shove a dagger into this abomination just like that?"

"Don't worry, Ryuji. This is only a quick search. It's not like it can feel anything." Bump said before handing the dagger to Willow. "Willow, I'll allow you the first cut." Willow smiled to hide her shock as she then leaned over to Luz while I stepped back over to Gus.

"Uh… you can't just cut open a human, can you?" Gus whispered, causing me to shake my head in panic.

"Willow, go ahead and make the first incision." Bump said as he put a hand on Willow's shoulder right before Juniper hopped up, ran across the table, and snatched the knife from Willow, the witch carrying it in her mouth. "What?" I then watched as Juniper used a spell circle to rid of her disguise, the smoke clearing to reveal her back to her original form which surprises both Amity and Bump. "Juniper?"

"Sorry, Bump," Juniper said after she spits the knife to the floor, "but class is cancelled for the day!"

"Wait! Principle Bump!" Gus called out, grabbing his attention as he held up his hand. "Uh… high five!" With a smack, he knocked over three cauldrons, spilling abominations onto the floor where they then took shape. "Run!" With that, I then grabbed Luz and ran out the door with Juniper and Willow while Bump and Amity were distracted by the approaching abominations.

[No one's view]

"They're getting away!" Amity said, pointing to the four as they ran.

"No, they won't get far." Bump said before he walked over to a wall and made a big spell circle, soon pressing both hands against the wall which causes energy to erupt from the spell circle along with a whole bunch of different red glowing rune-like symbols to appear as they started filling the whole room.

[Ryuji]

After getting far enough away, we all stopped to try and catch our breath.

"I think we lost them." I said as I panted.

"This is all my fault, Willow." Luz spoke up. "I just wanted to see what a real magic school was like."

"Well, how do you like it?" Willow asked.

"It's lovely, actually." Luz answered before she looked to me. "How about you?"

"Well, I'm not exactly open to joining because of the Coven System." I said. "But, despite that and before Bump was about to dissect you, it's awesome." We all shared a laugh before Willow spoke up.

"Okay, we should get out of here before…" Willow was cut off as these runes started to appear before the entryways were blocked off with red magic barriers. "Bump seals us in."

"Crap." I said, knowing we were now trapped.

She then walked down the stairs before she took the plate from me and walked down to the kitchen. Taking the other dish in both hands, Luz and I looked at each other as we were both confused by this.

---

[No one's view]

Back at the Owl House, Eda was wearing the shame hat she got from losing her bet with King as she sat against a door inside the shed as she was sulking from not just having lost Luz, but Ryuji and her own daughter as well.

She felt that, deep down, she messed up and it cost her own apprentice and Ryuji. Sure she was weird, but the girl had a lot of spirit and determination for a human. Eda could very much relate to her since she herself was a weirdo and others shunned her away because of it. Another thing they had in common was that they both had only one person in their lives that ever wanted to understand them. She had no doubt Ryuji hated her for not keeping her promise to teach his friend magic or anything he needed to help with his curse, a problem only she knew was a terrible experience for the boy. In all honesty, the way Ryuji was with Luz reminded her of the moments when she was that young, back when she had that certain person in her life: Juniper's father. Considering he couldn't be there as a part of the life of their daughter, a result made by their love and their love alone, who only had a necklace as the one thing she had left of him, just the very thought of losing her only daughter scared her every day and she wouldn't know what to do without her. All of this made her feel that she failed as a teacher. She thought she would continue sulking in silence until…

"Eda, help me!" King screamed as he ran into the shed, closing the door behind him before rushing over into Eda's arms in fear and something began pounding at the door.

"Trouble with your student?" She asked with a smug look, figuring out what was going on.

"Yes, yes!" King instantly replied in fear as the slug kept banging against the door.

"Are you sure you need my help? Maybe he just wants more of your brilliant lessons." The door then shattered as the Trash Slug broke in with a roar before moving inside and snatching King by the tail.

"Please, help me!" King begged as he was getting dragged. "You can call me Mr. Wiggles!"

Smiling from what she needed to hear, Eda took off the shame hat and she grabbed her staff before she jabbed it hard over the slug's mouth, forcing it to let go of King who whimpered while hiding behind Eda's leg as the slug retreated outside.

"Okay, Mr. Wiggles," Eda started as the small demon climbed up her shoulder, "here's what we're gonna do."

---

[Ryuji]

Running as fast as we could, we tried to go through an entryway, but were too late as they were all sealed off by barriers.

"Damn it!" I said before I turned to Juniper. "Juni, you've seen this before, right? Is there any way to get through this barrier?"

"Sorry, but that old man's magic too strong." She told me. "Plus, the last time I escaped, it was because of my fire magic and I can't use it unless you all want to get flame-broiled."

Seeing a shadow appear, me and the girls turned around with gasps as we saw Bump right behind us along with three abominations walking over to us.

"I got this!" I said as I grabbed my Saisho and got into stance with my sword pulled back, wind gathering around it. "Attack Magic: Wind Dragon's Roar!" With one thrust of it, I sent a blast of wind shaped like a dragon's head at them, pushing Bump back to a wall and sending the abominations out the window Bump said my dad sent four students through.

"Nice one, DK!" Juniper said, impressed by this.

"Yeah, that was awesome!" Luz added.

"Wow. Even a real half-witch is better than me." Willow said as she frowned, slumping down a nearby pillar. Seeing this, I then went over to her out of concern.

"You okay, Willow?" I asked her.

"Well… no." Willow told me. "It's just that, ever since I started at Hexside, I've always messed up. I mean, the only reason we're in this awful mess is because I didn't know how to make an abomination. I can't do anything right." Hearing her vent, I really felt sorry for her. She kind of reminded me of myself a while back. "Amity's right. I'll always be Half-a-Witch Willow." From this, I then kneeled down and said what she needed to hear.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up like that." I told her as I put a hand on her shoulder. "So you may have a few fumbles. What matters is that you tried and you keep on trying until you succeed, no matter what people say. I mean, look at me. I'm only half witch and had some people doubt I could do anything, but it never stopped me from doing magic. And I've even managed to put to good use."

"Ryuji's right. You're Full-Witch Willow and you're great." Luz added before she pulled out the slime ball she got earlier. "Someone once told me that great witches are resourceful. It worked for Ryuji and I'm sure it'll work for you. You just have to try and do what you do best."

From this, Willow looked up in disbelief and saw the reassuring smiles me and Luz were giving her, her eyes looking like they were about to water. Just when I thought she was going to shed tears, she looked at the slime ball with surprise.

"That's it!" Willow said with a smile as she grabbed the very thing Eda gave Luz.

"What? That greasy, slime ball?" I asked her.

"It's not a slime ball, it's a seed! If I can get it to grow, I can get us out of here!" Willow explained before she turned to Luz. "Thank goodness you had it on you."

"Yeah, good thing someone told me to hold onto it." Luz said as she smiled in realization.

"Yeah, once we get out, I got to apologize to a great witch." I said with the same smile.

"Hate to ruin the sappy moment, but we still got an angry principal after us." Juniper said as she pointed to Bump who had got back up and was marching over to us. "So, Willow, you think you can work with this seed?"

"I'll try." Willow said before then placed the seed on her lap and made a green spell circle over it. "Please… grow!"

After a moment, large and thorny vines emerged from the seed and spread out everywhere, taking out a boatload of abominations and ensnaring Bump before pinning him to the ceiling. After the vines stopped growing, I looked around and was stunned in awe as I saw the whole room we were in surrounded in vines, some even having flowers blooming on them. It made me feel like I was in a greenhouse.

"Sugoine!" I spoke out in awe before I turned to Willow. "You were able to this the whole time and stuck to the Abomination Track?"

"Um, yes?" Willow said with concern. "My parents said I had more opportunities in the Abomination Track."

"Well, obviously they're wrong!" Juniper said with a smile.

"Yeah, if they thought that, it's no wondering you're struggling with abominations." I told her, sporting the same smile as the Clawthorne girl. "You're attuned to Plant Magic, not Abomination Magic. I think you could do better if you tried the Plant Track."

"You really think so?" Willow said with surprise.

"Hell, yeah. I mean, look at all this!" I told her. "You managed to cover this whole place with vines and even got flowers blooming on them. You made all this just by using one little seed. It took me years to get my Plant Magic this strong. If you can do this without as many lessons as I had in Plant Magic, it's obvious you got a great future as a witch in Plant Magic."

"Remarkable." I heard Bump say as I looked to see him looking at the vines in awe, no doubt surprised to find one of his students was this talented in Plant Magic. Because of this, the spell he cast was canceled as we saw the runes disappear and the barriers along with them.

"There's the exit!" Luz instantly said, making Willow put down the seed before all stood up.

"Let's get out of here!" I said as we tried to make a run for it.

"Not so fast!" Amity said as she stood at the exit, stopping us with a glare as she tore a vine off her. "I'm not letting you get away so easily! Abominations, seize!" From this, me, Luz, and Juniper soon found ourselves fighting against an army of abominations with me cutting a couple of them down with the Saisho, Luz punching a few, and Juniper blasting some away.

"Good lord! What the hell is her problem?" I said, shocked by how pissed off Amity was.

"She must be mad because I took this badge from her." Willow said as I looked over to see she had a golden, star-shaped back that said "Top Student" on her cowl.

"Give me that!" Juniper said as she took the badge and walked up front with anger. "Hey, Blight! You want this badge so badly?" Holding it up, I watched as she then crushed the badge into a little gold ball of metal, leaving Amity in shock. "Here! Now you can have it!" After Juniper tossed the badge at Amity's forehead, the Abomination Track growled before roaring out in anger, more abominations forming before they approached us.

"Juni, get back!" I said as I got in front of her, ready to use my Saisho.

"Ryuji, wait! You don't need to do this. What would your father say if he saw you walk away from all this?" Bump called out, making me pause. "You are a Frank. You can still live up to the name and make your father proud. You can still join Hexside."

Looking back at him, a part of me did want me to take up on Bump's offer since Dad did join Hexside for a reason and I could've followed in his footsteps. But then I remembered that the path also led to the reason why he couldn't come back. Besides, my dad sent me to Eda for a reason. At first, I thought that Eda was just using me for free food by promising she would teach Luz magic, but it turned out that Eda was actually a good teacher and I was wrong to doubt her. Looking down at my reflection in my sword's blade, I knew my answer for all this.

"You're right about a few things, Bump. My dad did do great things at Hexside and, as his son, I can follow in his footsteps." I said as I looked forward with determination, clutching the Saisho's grip. "But because I'm a Frank, it just means I can carve my own path. While my father would have like me to attend the place where he had so much fun when he was my age and learn more magic than he could teach me, he would never want to me to ever walk out on my friends as he never walked out on his. Thanks for the offer, but I'm gonna have to give a big, fat 'no thanks'!" Looking at Amity, I saw her looking at me with a raised brow in confusion. "Just who the hell do you think I am? I'm Ryuji. I'm not my dad." Taking the grip in both hands, I then brought it back as I prepared to slash with it. "I'm me! Ryuji the Dragon Kid!" Hearing the hollowing of the wind as it surrounds the blade, I was ready to show both Bump and Amity what happens when you mess with a Frank. "Attack Magic: Wind Cloak…Tempest Slash!" With that one swing, I sent a powerful gust of wind which slashed through all the abominations and sent Amity straight to the floor.

[No one's view]

After hearing Ryuji's answer with an attack to emphasize it, Bump looked with absolute shock as Ryuji stood there for a moment, seeing fainted images of a young Axel along with a witch girl who resembled Juniper but dressed in a Hexside uniform with yellow sleeves and leggings standing next to him with Axel to Ryuji's right and the witch girl to his left.

"Seems as though he's just as much like her as he is his father." Bump said with a depressed sigh.

[Ryuji]

After taking care of Amity, I then walked over to Luz who looked me with awe as much as Juniper and Willow.

"Come on, Luz. Let's go." I said. But before we could move…

"Abominations, seize!" We all then watched as the abominations rose back up. When I turned to see if Amity got back up, I only saw her unconscious body as she was carried away by one of the abominations.

"Wait, if she's not doing this, then who…" I said before Juniper spoke up.

"Over there!" Looking to where she was pointing, we saw someone standing behind one of the entryways. We couldn't see their face, but we saw they had icy blue eyes as they gave us a cold glare and possessed a black lance which was glowing in a magenta light.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me." I said as the abominations continued their approach. "A Warriors Track student with Abomination Magic?" From there, we watched as Willow made a large circle and, with a grunt, crossed both of her arms, making the thorn vines trap the abominations. "Willow!"

"All of you, go! Get out while you can!"

"But what about you?" Luz asked with concern.

"I'll be fine." She told us. "I may get detention, but at least none of you will get dissected. Go now!"

Though I didn't want to leave her behind, after seeing we didn't have much of an option, I quickly put my sword back on my back before I then grabbed Luz and put her on my shoulder.

"What? Ryuji?" Luz said with surprise.

"I'm sorry, Luz, but Willow's right. We need to get out of here!" I said to her before turning to Juniper. "Let's go, Juni!"

"Right behind ya!" Juniper said as we both then rushed out as fast as we can.

"No, Willow!" Luz said as we rushed out the front door, Willow using the vines to close the doors behind us. "Ryuji, put me down! We have to go back for her!"

"Luz, we can't. We're too outmatched." I told her as we kept running. "Besides, we're gonna come back, but with help."

"He's right. We know someone who can help, remember?" Juniper added.

"Oh, right! Eda can definitely help! Let's get to the Owl House fast!" Luz said as she got the hint. "Also, Ryuji, you can put me down now."

"Oh, right." I said, blushing from the position we were in as I then put her down and let her run with us.

---

[No one's view]

Back at the Owl House, Eda was fighting with the Trash Slug, jumping to the sides to avoid incoming burning slime balls. She ran forward and smacked it upside the head. The slug moved forward, making her back up to the front of the house and hit it with the bottom of her staff. As this was going on, up above the entrance, King was struggling to get a barrel into place.

"Pour the salt now!" Eda said, looking up at her roommate who had managed to get the barrel above where the Trash Slug.

"Baby boy!" King sadly cried out, making the slug look up at him before it roared and opened its maw, the sight of its teeth making the little demon narrow his eyes. "I have no son! Eat salt!" He then pushed the barrel over, causing salt to pour into its mouth. After consuming the salt, the slug instantly shivered at the taste before screaming away as it shrunk back down to it original size, the slug whimpering away after Eda stamped her staff in front of it. "Yes! I did it! I'm amazing! Aah!" King's cheers in victory and bouncing up and down led to him falling off the roof above the door where he was then caught by Eda, the little demon chuckling as he rubbed the back of his head. "You helped too. You are a good teacher."

"Thanks, King." Eda said before she instantly lost her smile. "Just wish Luz and Ryuji thought that too."

[Ryuji]

After running for a while, we finally managed to get back to the Owl House where we found Eda in front of it while holding King.

"Eda!" I called out as me, Juniper, and Luz ran to her.

"Mom! Mom!" Juniper put in Luz then grabbed both Eda and King in a hug.

"Luz? Juni? Ryuji?" Eda said, confused by this. "What's going on? Luz, why are you covered in slime?"

"Eda, we need your help!" I told her before explain as fast as I could. "We got into a little trouble at Hexside and we need to help us save the friends we made there!"

"Wait, hold on! Slow down!" Eda said as Luz let go of her. "What happened?"

"Well…"

"Luz! Ryuji! Juni!" Hearing those familiar voices, we all looked to see Willow and Gus running over to us.

"Willow? Gus?" I said in surprised as Luz ran over and hugged them.

"Okay, is anyone gonna tell me what is going?" Eda said, confused by all this.

"It's a long story, Mom." Juniper told her.

"Guys, how did you find us?" I asked the two Hexside students.

"We followed the abomination goo." Gus said, pointing to a trail of abomination goo from where we just ran from. "Some of it got off your clothes and made a trail for us."

"Oh, okay." I said before I then remembered what had happened. "Wait, how did you escape from the school? You didn't get expelled, did you?"

"Actually, that's just it. Principal Bump let us go after I explained everything to him." Willow told us. "He was so impressed by my plant work, he's switching me to the Plant Track!" Looking at her uniform, I then saw that her sleeves and leggings were no longer pink but green.

"Guess everything is perfect for you now." I said, smiling proudly at her.

"Yeah, thanks to all of you." Willow said to me. "And I'm gonna give it my all and get a passing grade."

"That's what I like to hear." I told her.

"Wait, what about Amity?" Luz asked.

"Last we saw when she came to, she asked if today could count as extra credit." Gus informed us, getting a laugh out of me.

"What about that guy with the lance?" Juniper asked.

"Oh, Xander?" Willow told us. "He was gonna go after you, but Principal Bump told him to let you go."

"Great!" Luz happily said. "I can't wait to see some more action, the next time I sneak in." Gus and Willow winced at what she said.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked in concern.

"Well, about you sneaking in Luz…" Gus said as he pulled out a poster. "You are kinda, sorta… banned." After Luz took it, we saw that it was one of those banned posters that I've seen in clubs or restaurants with Luz's picture on it.

"That's my girl!" Eda cheered out, Juniper clearing her throat at what she said. "Uh, sorry, Juni."

"Let me guess: I'm banned from Hexside too?" I asked.

"Yeah. Sorry." Gus said as he gave me a banned poster with my picture on it.

"Well, saw that one coming." I said, not really caring. "After what I said to him, I doubt he'll want to see me again. Of course, I wasn't planning on going back."

"Wait, what?" Eda said to me with surprise. "I thought you were happy there. Bump was giving you a red carpet tour."

"Well, Hexside did have things that I'm used to, but I came to realize there are parts of it that I don't like." I told her. "Besides, I need to lay low and joining a school where my dad is a celebrity isn't really gonna help."

"Atta, boy." Eda said, giving me a friendly punch in the arm. "This just made my day. My kids are here to stay!"

"But we could come here and teach you what we learned." Willow said as she put a hand on Luz.

"Aw, that would be nice. But…" Luz said as she then looked to Eda. "I have a pretty great teacher already."

"Yeah, speaking of which…" I said before I spoke to Eda with a look of shame. "Eda… I'm really sorry for what I said. I don't exactly like how you do things, but I know you're just trying to help us learn. I was wrong to question your teachings. In fact, your lessons are what saved our lives."

"Yeah, your lesson worked! Keeping junk in my pocket really came in handy." Luz put in. "I'm sorry for trying to ditch ya to learn from somebody else. I should've given this a chance before trying anything. I promise never to do that again and listen to you better. That is if you let me."

"And I promise to try to be more patient and try what you think can help me with my… problem." I said to her. "That is if you're willing to give me another chance."

Eda was silent for a moment as she looked at us in awe before she placed a hand on her heart and smiled at us.

"Ryuji, Luz… you don't even need to ask." Eda said, causing us both to smile before we then rushed over and hugged her. Though surprised, she managed to hug us back. She then spoke out to Willow and Gus. "Ya hear that? Luz and Ryuji are my students. Back off, academy twerps." We then broke the hug. "Okay, now let me see those posters." We then handed her the banned posters. "Ah, baby's first wanted poster. It's just like when my little girl got hers." She then patted Luz's head a bit before patting me on the head. "Good job, kids. Looks like I taught you something after all."

"Well, we have a good teacher." I said before Gus spoke up.

"Uh… you high five with your hands, not your head." From this, Juniper walked over to him with a glare before she then flicked him in the head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"For ruining the moment." Juniper bluntly told him.

After saying our goodbyes to Gus and Willow and the two Hexside students started their way home, me and Juniper stayed behind as Eda, King, and Luz walked into the house, me reaching into my pocket to pull out the silver dollar.

"Guess this thing was onto something." I said before I turned to Juniper. "You were right, Juni. If I'm gonna get control of my curse, sticking with you and Eda is where I need to be."

"That's what I like to hear." Juniper said as I put the coin away before we joined everyone in the house.

"Hey, by the way, what's for dinner?" King asked, making me and Juniper lose our smiles as we stood there.

"Oh, no." I said as I realized what we forgot to do.

"We forgot to go grocery shopping." Juniper said, realizing this as well.

"What?" Eda said as she turned to us with anger. "Juniper! Ryuji!"

"DK?" Juniper asked me with fear.

"Yeah, Juni?" I said, feeling much the same.

"Think it's not too late to go shopping for food?" She said, hinting me that she wanted to run.

"No, I think we still got time to do that." I said before we then ran out of the house and out to Bonesborough as we tried to avoid Eda's wrath.

Well, that was not what I expect my first time at a school in the Boiling Isles was gonna be. I now have no leads towards finding my mother, but I'm not gonna give up until I find her. Pretty sure me and Luz made some enemies out of Amity and that Xander guy and we may have been cut the chance of going to the school my dad went, but that's okay. We already got a great teacher. If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have made it out of Hexside alive. Life is always full of ups and downs, so I shouldn't really complain, especially when the ups or even the downs end up helping us in the end. As much as anything, I think we both have come to appreciate Eda's help and are looking forward to our continuing stay at the Owl House. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to see Luz cast her first spell. I can't wait to see what she'll teach us next. DK out!

---

Author's Note: Hey, guys! I hope you all like the new chapter. Ryuji and Luz sure made a good impression on Hexside. And Ryuji got to learn more about his father and what he did in the Boiling Isles. Though it seems that Ryuji had reached a dead end in finding his mother, but I got a feeling he's going to figure out where she is. I bet you're wondering who the voice actor of Xander is. Unfortunately, I'm afraid revealing the voice of that particular character won't be revealed until he makes his actual appearance. In the next chapter, see what happens when Ryuji and Luz find out why Eda is known as the Owl Lady. That's all I got for now. Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me what you think of it. See you all in the next chapter!