I am really surprised that it took a day to grade the score the tests because I was utterly convinced it would be a week. I don't know where the fuck up in my perception of space-time is or maybe the Universe is fucking with me. I still feel shitty, but I'm getting tugged along by Grim who is literally far too excited to see grades.

Considering the tragedy that IS his grades…

We're getting to Crewel, at least, and he does not seem pleased, as per usual. I don't think anything makes this man happy and if there is something? I do not want to know what it is.

When's lunch? I'm the one that's starving. Ugh, this is going to be one of those awful, long mild illnesses where I feel cranky and sore for days, then the fever actually hits, I get big-sick for like two days, and then it lingers in bad feels for awhile. I hate everything.

I had breakfast too.

We are there so terribly early that we've beat Ace and Deuce. I take my seat, and sit back. They're soon here—looking a little nervous, instead of that weird brazen confidence from yesterday.

Good, things are as they should be.

Deuce is chowing down on a clearly Trey-made morning pastry, while Ace sets down his on his desk, and hands me a box.

"Trey made you two some." Ace said.

Oh, Trey is an angel.

I open it up to find the strawberry cheese danishes, handing one over to Grim who is sniffing the air.

"Oooo that smells so good!" And down it goes.

I casually take a bite, and it IS divine. I usually have raspberry or cherry, but this is a good one. I wonder if he's using us as taste testers again. I'll ask, but I clearly do not mind.

"Mmmm, I'll thank him when we see him later." So, so good. My day is now nice. "And thanks for bringing them, Ace."

"Yeah, yeah, I owe him a few." I bet, Ace.

Now, unfortunately Ace has made a horridly fatal mistake. The problem about food is leaving it down long enough for Grim to snag it. This is the error that the heart-faced freshman has made, because before any of us can blink… Grim's eaten Ace's too.

"Oh my fucking God, Grim." I sigh…

And Grim takes off, tearing down the hall.

"You FUCK! You ate my DANISH! GET BACK HERE!" I hear Ace running down the hall after the fire demon creature that could be a cat.

"Nya-hah! Snooze you lose, loser! Your NAME wasn't on it!" Grim. We have such a long way to go with you.

"You LITTLE FUCK!" Ace shouts.

Deuce and I follow. "...Wow… ...these two again…" Deuce sighs, like he isn't a trouble maker in his own right.

"Should we pre-call Crowley?" I ask.

"No! He's YOUR student, and YOU'RE the Housewarden! Why don't you put a muzzle on him so he doesn't steal food?!" Ace complains.

"I've thought about it." I admit. "But he doesn't steal my food very much anymore…"

"It was out in the open!" Grim claims.

"You saw me set it down on my desk! You KNEW I was about to eat it—I had to give you two YOURS!" Ace argues. "So START RUNNING! I'm going to PELT you with my wind magic!"

"Oh yeah!? You're going to get a taste of my FIRE magic!" Yeah, so here's the typical start of a fight with them, mhm. Fuckers, both of them. But Grim and Ace have magic and I don't have a counter.

"Drop a cauldron on them, Deuce." I suggest, and take another bite of my danish.

Wow, I am in a mood.

The two of them suddenly stop.

Wait.

What?

"You know what? I'm not. I might break a window! That'll be so bad…" Ace is… acting weird?

"Y-yeah… that's pretty smart, Ace. Let's not… it's… really immature anyways! And we're Night Raven College students. We're above that!" Grim… is acting weirder.

I am concerned.

"… If you-" Uh.

"...Huh… they stopped fighting… how odd." Deuce has use of the brain cell today I see. "There's not even a teacher, or the Headmaster here to stop it.

Yeah. I'm in werido land now where they've grown up a little. And you know what? I'm not questioning shit. Instead, I'm going to go back to the classroom and sit down like a good student and wait for Crewel to give us our tests scores and be horridly disappointed in how far Grim drags down what would be a wonderful grade.

"Yep, let's go wait for our doom." I'm headed off while they talk. I'm going to live in my fantasy world and not figure out what might actually be going on because not only do I feel grouchy, but I also have a weird sense of impending doom suddenly and that's never a good sign at Night Raven College.

The bell rings, and we're all settled in without incident. Things are good. Things are wonderful. Nothing is wrong with the world and I will stay in fucking denial for a bit.

"Dogs, sit!" The bell rings, Crewel is in normal form. I want to know who does his hair. I want a trim… maybe some proper bangs? Oh, face framing too, that'd be really nice. "—now, for your tests, students. In order by your numbers."

The boys are excited about it and my brain breaks a wee little bit.

Something's wrong with the universe and there's no more danish to take me out of it.

Fuck.

Oh God they cheated.

He goes through the numbers, and we all get our tests. Wonderful. I see the lovely, beautiful 90+ mark that was my grade at the top… and then I look below to see our comb…

Combined?

Wh.

An… An 85?

iAn 85/i?

How.

How?

I.

Ace speaks and draws me out of it. "I got a 92! See? See? Eat that!"

Deuce gasps. "An 88?! I've never gotten above an 80 before!"

"Look! We got an 85 because of MY genius!" Grim. No.

But.

HOW?!

How is the combo an 85? How the actual fuck is that an 85?

I.

I'm broken. Something is terribly wrong in this Universe. What's going on?

Wait. ALL of their grades are super high…

Uh.

"Grim… how…?" has crashed.

Rebooting…

…

…

…

Function restored.

"I don't have to take remedial lessons!" Deuce cheers.

"You should send that to your mom." I suggest; I mean he will eventually but the sooner the better.

"Yeah!"

"—I see that all of you have studied hard, your grades are far better than the last quiz…" Crewel starts. "Suspiciously so." Ah, there it is. Big frown. "And the class average is so much higher than usual…" Was there a cheating ring and I didn't know about it?

"Suspicious? How?"

"Every singe freshman scored an average of ninety on each test." Crewel states. "Professor Trein said that your scores were higher than he's seen all year." That makes sense.

"...That's not good…" Why is that not good Ace.

Uh oh.

"Now, remember, the names of the top fifty performers in the freshmen class will be posted by the end of the school day on the score board in the Interior Hallway." Crewel states. "Now take a seat and settle down dogs, we still have much to learn this semester."

So, we're getting the results soon—and no one wants to pay attention in class because of it. Well, that's what Crewel gets for starting us off like that!

"DOGS! SETTLE!" He yells at one point—and yeah that is some sort of weapon he uses. I can't entirely fathom what it is, but I don't like it. Is child abuse not a thing here? Actually, considering the personalities—of course it isn't.

The average for the grade is 90… that is suspicious—and it's what occupies my mind until the bell rings and everyone rushes out like a hoard. Grim has an advantage of his small size as he darts out, leaving me to gather the books and haul stuff along. As per usual, sure, but in all honestly I am not surprised; he's eager to get to classes, which I think really means he's just eager to get the day over with—and all that.

I am thankful when the school day ends. Even if we're a hoard of freshmen running to the postings of the scores. I notice, too, with our upper classmen that there's some weird uneasiness I can't describe. I do not like any of this—but at least lunch made me feel better. Getting food and eating outside, alone? Can't be beat. I think I just need some rest and decompression. Probably a lot of stress going on right now.

I can't believe it's, what, October…? It boggles my mind how fast time flies… It's not been THAT long, but long enough that…

I don't know.

"Ooo! There's the top fifty! My name should be there!" I doubt that Grim. But sure, let the poor thing hope.

"If the average is 90 or more—I should be top fifty!" Uh, no, Ace.

By looking at it, most of the top fifty all scored a 500/500 total, which means it's none of us.

Grim's looking through the scores, "What?! I'm not up there?!" Why is… aw. He's so upset.

"I'm not there either…" Deuce is so disappointed… he probably let Riddle down.

"….Wow… how did all of these tops scorers make 500/500? More than THIRTY made perfect scores!?" Ace is… freaking out. Yeah, it is weird.

Suspicious and weird.

"Flawless scores?!" Deuce and Grim shout in surprise.

Did they mean to say perfect? Are these two idiots? Yes, yes they are. Oh, there's a flare of the cranky. I really need to take a day and chill this weekend. Maybe send Grim off to Heartslabyul.

"I have a bad feeling about this. A Crowley-involved feeling about this." I say with a sigh, this is definitely how another heaping pile of bullshit starts. I'd like my break first, thank you very much.

"—but if I'm not in the top 50 I'll be breaking the contract!" Grim shouts.

UH.

WHAT. CONTRACT?

I slowly turn to look at Grim. "What contract?"

Is it even legal for him to get into a binding agreement?

"Contract? Grim—did you-?" Ace. Oh no.

The three dumb asses are all panicked.

What contracts? What is going on here?

"Ace… you didn't do it too, did you?" Deuce… what is going…

"What did you three fuck up?" I ask, and I feel absolutely exasperated because this is how bullshit starts.

And suddenly with magic a bunch of tentacles appear out the top of peoples' heads. I mean actual strange, wiggling, odd purple with flared-out purple tip tentacles and once more I wonder if I'm in a hentai dream and this is not what I'm into so the fuck is going on here psyche?

Because let's face it none of these three are my type. At all. Not in a million years. Especially not the fuzzy one. Talk to Coach Vargas about that furry stuff, not me.

I still cannot look that man in the face.

There is this brief, beautiful moment of silence as everyone takes in the unfortunate circumstance of their life of the weird tentacle on their head.

"ACK! The HELL is this?! W-why is there an anemone growing out of my head?!" Uh. Oh. So that's an anemone—but how does Grim KNOW that?

"Grim—you made a contract too!? Cheater!" Deuce, a cheater, is accusing another like-individual.

"And you too Deuce! Cheater! You've got one on your head!" Ace is in a ihe who is without sin cast the first stone/i situation here and he definitely sinned.

No stones for any of you—I get the stones.

"So you three fucked up." And I'm probably going to have to fix it.

Of course, Grim is attempting to pull it off, and I assume: eat it. "Why is it so hard to—ow! Ow! It won't come off!" Yeah probably because it's a magic tentacle.

"What is going on?" I am exasperated.

"Ah—here you three are. Figures—it's so noisy." Jack approaches, and he does NOT have a tentacle (anemone) on his head! So he must not be part of the… whatever this nonsense is. It's nonsense. "What are you doing?"

The head things might be a good clue.

I wait.

"Did you make a contract too, Jack, with-?" Deuce starts. "—I don't see one on your head!"

"You're the studious type?!" Ace. Looks can be deceiving.

And unlike these three assholes, Jack is very straight-laced.

"What are you even going on about? And… what's that thing on your… heads…" He finally noticed. Ten points to Jack.

I shrug.

I'm lost too.

There's a contract. They violated its terms. Now they have tentacles (anemones) on their head like a bad hentai.

"They're… it's… uh—what's going on?!" Grim starts to panic and that means the plot is unfolding, doesn't it? "Why is it pulling me by the head?!"

"It's pulling so hard! Ow ow ow ow! What's it trying to do, rip my head off?!" I am… mildly concerned with Ace too.

"Fuck! I-is this absolute submission?!" Deuce screeches.

And many, many students, like pretty much everyone here is pulled away. Uh.

It's a ghost town. It's like Jack, myself, and… one or two left.

The.

Fuck.

"The hell is this? Are those anemones… leading them—dragging them somewhere?" Jack is just as confused and bewildered as I am. "...It's pretty stupid."

I sigh. "Let's go follow the stupid."

"Why are you asking me along? This is none of my business." Jack protests.

"I might need a little support since I'm still suffering a pretty bad head wound and all the other scuffles from the Spelldrive Tournament." I say very plainly. Actually I know we're headed into bullshit and someone needs to have magic and it's NOT me.

"You're getting way too used to this school saying things like that." Jack crosses his arms and huffs. "Using that to your advantage… fine. I'll go."

"You're right." I reply. "I don't know if it's a good thing or inevitable."

"That's the problem." Jack shakes his head. "I'm just wondering what's going on—not like I'm concerned or anything." I was expecting a ibaka/i in there from the tsundere, but Jack let me down. "Don't get the wrong idea or anything, okay?"

"Promise." I smile, and we head off to see the groaning heard. Huh. There is a LOT of people. This is like the entirety of the freshman class.

We follow the huge swell of people to the Hall of Mirrors. This tells me that a student is behind this. So what dorm is it this time?

"We're in the Hall of Mirrors—so where are we going?" Jack asks.

We hear several students from about every dorm whine and complain that they thought they were going to be the top and fell short.

"I—I just thought it was a couple idiots—this is—this is hundreds!" Jack's surprised, but for some reason I'm not.

"Huh."

"There's sophomores and juniors too—and they're being gathered around the Octavinelle mirror!" So we know where our culprit is because Jack's tall and can see above all of those people and their tentacle heads.

"So a multi-grade problem…" I comment. "Shall we?"

"Let's go." Jack gestures.

And off we go through the mirror, in line with a bunch of complaining students.

The mirror is… covered in decorations of tentacles and shells. The silver carvings are beautiful—and the stairs are lined with shells and coral. I even spy a sea star. The mirror glows again and again as people use it as their gateway to the unknown contract holder.

We're soon on the other side,a gorgeous pathway under the sea. The dorm is gorgeously made out of many shells and an unknown stone. Coral all around—beds of seaweed and strange decorations. It all takes my breath away as we're in this glass-looking tunnel that shows us everything. It's—oh my God it's beautiful. I cannot believe I think we're at the bottom of the ocean or something. My ears pop and I don't even care.

"Incredible! This is amazing—this is just a part of Night Raven College!" Jack's right, and we're both bright-eyed freshmen.

No one else is appreciating this.

He's so bright eyed and smiling too. But the beauty ends and he sighs, rubbing his hair a little. "We're on enemy territory, No, let's be careful—keep guarded. You don't know when someone will strike." But he's walking slightly ahead of me, like he's guarding me.

That's nice.

The pathway is beautifully decorated with stone, with design of shells and swirls on the ends. The pathway shows the coral reef outside and all of its brilliance.

Eventually, the purple stone has a beautiful pattern of a blue design throughout. The majestic nature… wow.

A sign at the entrance to a building greets us: Monstro Lounge.

And what else do we find but a ritzy bar-like lounge with a beautiful view of the sea outside. I would love to sit here and watch the marine life.

The dim lighting of the place gives it such an elegant feel. The smell of it has the barest scent of salt.

"So why gather all the tentacle-heads here?" I know they're probably anemones and this isn't some weird hentai but considering the weird stuff this could still be a dream.

It's not. My head has a nice fresh throb from the head wound to tell me that. It's only been a week or two since the Spelldrive Incident, right?

Ow.

"It's… one, two-or-so hundred students here… which… is a… restaurant?" Why didn't we know about this, Jack?

"What a way to get workers." I am probably wrong.

"Monstro Lounge… and where are our idiots?" Jack KNOWS he's part of the squad now! HAH! TAKE THAT TSUNDERE!

The lights dim, and the spotlight shines on a male of middling height, with silver hair and… is… is he dressed like a 1920s mobster? Oh my God he is. What is this, cosplay? Is this a joke? Is this the undersea school mafia? I see those wingtip shoes! But where are the pinstripes? I see a CANE! He has a cane.

That's definitely a classic fedora and not a trilby too. No neck beards here.

I. I didn't think that was a risk, either.

"It is sad to hear, unfortunate, that this group was unable to make the top fifty for their tests." So this smooth-talking mobster-wanna be asshole is the contractor or at least the representative of the contractor. "Welcome, all, to the Monstro Lounge. Do I need an introduction? Probably not. But—again, let me introduce myself to you all: I am Azul Ashengrotto." Oh. The Housewarden.

"I am both Octavinelle's Housewarden and the manager of this cafe, the Monstro Lounge, and from this day forward: your master." And there is the wide-eyed, crazy-grinned look of someone absolutely unhinged. We are THREE FOR THREE on Dorm Leaders with fucking problems.

Here we go again.