Grim, Cater, Riddle, and Devon made it to Class 2-B's homeroom in no time flat. Grim charged into the room first, Devon following a step or two behind to make sure nothing was lit on fire. "I know you're in here, Ruggie Bucchi! No point in hidin'!" the little monster shouted.

Ruggie's ear flicked toward the sound of Grim's voice as he looked up with a bored expression. "Hmm? Ugh, it's just you guys. Listen, I can't give ya back the sandwich. It doesn't matter how many times ya ask."

"Ruggie Bucchi," Riddle called as he and Cater stepped into the classroom as well. "We'd like to talk to you about the accidents around campus involving Spelldrive players."

"Hmm… Why do I get the feeling this isn't gonna be a pleasant conversation?" Ruggie mused.

"Care to step outside with us for a sec?" Cater asked.

Cater's question was phrased as a request, but tone of his voice as well as his unsettling expression (his eyes had narrowed dangerously while his friendly smile remained) let Ruggie know it was anything but. Ruggie knew he had no choice but to comply. He sighed and stood up. "Alright, alright, I'll cooperate. Can ya knock it off with the threatening aura, please?"

The group led Ruggie out into the hallway. Once they were out of the way of anyone trying to get into the classroom, Riddle turned to Cater, Grim, and Devon and lowered his voice so only they could hear him. "Alright. We don't know the specifics of Ruggie's Unique Magic, but he cannot be given the chance to use it. I'll be casting Off With Your Head and-"

"Hmm? Are you sure you oughta be usin' such a powerful spell without your magical pen, Riddle~?" Ruggie asked teasingly.

Riddle shot Ruggie a confused look. "Huh?" He glanced at his blazer's breast pocket, only to see that his magical pen had, indeed, vanished. "What the-?! My magical pen is gone!"

"Yours is gone too, Cater!" Grim exclaimed as he pointed his paw at Cater's equally empty breast pocket.

"Crap! Are you serious?!" Cater shouted, digging through his other pockets in a vain attempt to search for his own magical pen.

Ruggie smirked as he held up the two magical pens. "And that, my friends, is how you can tell who had a cushy life growin' up. Y'all's pockets were ripe for the picking! I was hoping for a little more of a challenge."

"Fgnya! But we didn't even see you cast anything!" Grim exclaimed.

"Shishishishishi! C'mon, gimme some credit! As if I'd need magic to pull this off!" Ruggie gloated as he turned to leave. "I don't have any more time to waste with you guys so I think it's about time I made my exit." He gave them a mocking salute before running off down the hallway. "Bye-bye~!"

"Hey! Hold it!" Grim shouted.

"Grr… Stop right there! I'll have your head it you don't!" Riddle ordered. "[Off With-]"

"Riddle, stop!" Cater exclaimed, holding his arm out in front of his dorm leader. "You only just got all the excess blot out of your body; it's way too dangerous to use your Unique Magic without your pen!"

"Looks like we're doin' this the old-fashioned way," Devon said as the four took off down the hallway after Ruggie.

The group managed to follow the hyena down to the first floor, but he still maintained a healthy lead. After turning a corner, they spotted two familiar figures talking nearby, snippets of their conversation reaching the quartet's ears as they got closer.

"Pfft! Man, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw your flamingo-feeding duds. Who knew they even made hot pink leopard print!" Ace teased.

"Sh-Shut up!" Deuce replied, his cheeks flushing as he crossed his arms defensively. "That's the only pink thing I own, okay?!"

Ace got one more laugh in before calming back down. "Even after the dorm head let up a bit, there's still all these weird rules we have to follow." He shrugged. "Ah well. It's still better than it was before."

"Acey! Deucey!" Cater called out. "You guys have the best timing!"

Ace and Deuce looked up just in time to see Ruggie rush past them, closely followed by their friends and dormmates. "Whoa! What's going on, guys?" Ace asked.

"The culprit responsible for the accidents has made off with our magical pens!" Riddle fumed, his face as red as his hair and twisted into an expression of rage they hadn't seen since his Overblot. "You two are to help us catch Ruggie Bucchi at once, dorm leaders' orders! I'm sure you know what will happen if you don't…"

"Wait, what?!" Deuce asked, confused.

"Why are we getting dragged into this?!" Ace added as he and Deuce started running alongside everyone.

"This could be your chance to get a spot on Heartslabyul's Spelldrive team!" Devon said.

"Okay, great, but how are we supposed to catch this guy?!" Ace asked. "He's way too quick."

"I have an idea," Devon assured them. "Riddle, Cater, and I will head up to the second floor. Grim, you go with Ace and Deuce. Try to herd Ruggie into the courtyard. It doesn't matter which direction, just do your best to get him there."

"Right!" Deuce shouted as Devon, Cater, and Riddle split off and took the nearest staircase to the second floor.

Ruggie glanced back to see only Ace, Deuce, and Grim following him now. "What happened to the rest of your little pep squad?"

"Doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna catch you myself!" Grim boasted.

Ruggie let out a huff of laughter, not at all winded from all the running he'd been doing. "Really? I'm supposed to be scared of a couple freshmen and a raccoon? You guys already look exhausted and we've barely even started! Shishishishi!"

"Grrr…! How many times do I have to say it?! I ain't no raccoon!" Grim protested.

"Worry about that later, Grim! Let's go!" Ace ordered.

Ruggie led them on a chase through most of the first floor, making abrupt turns down various hallways with ease and never losing his speed or momentum. He tried a couple times to take a staircase back to an upper level but one of his pursuers would block his way with magic. Ruggie managed to maintain his lead over the freshmen, but he had to admit that they were keeping pace with him reasonably well. "Ya know, I thought Heartslabyul were just a buncha wimps on account'a all those tea parties," Ruggie called back over his shoulder as he ran. "But ya know what? I take it all back. Color me impressed."

"We're gonna wipe that smug smirk right off your face!" Deuce declared.

"Can't you just do us a solid and let us catch you? I'd rather not lose my head to the dorm leader," Ace said.

"Hmm. Then it looks like you'll just have to try harder to catch me," Ruggie retorted as he kept running.

By now, the boys were starting to get winded, unused to all the prolonged running and dodging. Deuce had always been confident in his stamina but it was clear now that Ruggie far outclassed him there. They were slowly but surely falling further behind the hyena. Deuce knew their window of opportunity was closing…so he did the only thing he could think of. "How's this for trying harder?!" He pointed his pen and a large cauldron dropped right in front of Ruggie, forcing him to stop dead in his tracks.

"Yipe!" Ruggie yelped as he jumped backward to avoid getting crushed. "O-Okay, yeah, that one caught me by surprise." He turned around to look at them, smirking when he saw their faces. "But I can tell that was the last trick up your sleeve just from looking at you. Be honest: you guys are on your last legs, right~?" With that, he ducked down the nearest hallway.

"How is he still so perky after all this running?!" Ace panted incredulously. "At least this hallways leads straight to the courtyard. Hopefully whatever Devon has in mind will work."

"So why exactly did you want us to head up to the second floor, Dev-Dev?" Cater asked as he, Devon, and Riddle stopped at one of the windows overlooking the courtyard.

"Because the guys are gonna be chasing Ruggie into the courtyard and I can't keep any eye on all the entrances at once," Devon explained as she pulled her staff from her bag, Zephyr merging with it as soon as it was visible. "Help me keep an eye on the courtyard. The instant Ruggie shows up, I wanna know about it."

Everyone was silent as they kept an eye out for the beastman in question before Cater suddenly nudged Devon, pointing down at one of the entrances. "I see him!"

"Nice! Thanks, guys! I'll take it from here," Devon told them, tossing Cater her bag as she hopped up onto the windowsill with her staff in hand.

"Hold on!" Riddle interjected, his expression a mix of concern and resignation. "Just what are you planning to do?!"

"Meh. Probably somethin' stupid," Devon admitted. "But as long as it bags us a culprit, it'll be worth it." She gave them a quick salute. "For Night Raven College~" She vaulted off the windowsill before they could say anything else and began running along the outside ledge. "You ready for this, Flapjack?"

Riddle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he and Cater watched Devon vault across various outcroppings. "That girl is going to make me go grey at an early age. What could she possibly-" He glanced over at Cater, only to see him hanging out the window with his phone out. "Cater, what in the Queen's name are you doing?"

"Taking a vid for my next Magicam reel, obviously~!" Cater chirped, never taking his eyes or his phone off Devon. "Dev's cute enough to go viral any day, but something like this is absolute gold! I can definitely see why her brother thinks she's a video game protag."

"I still don't know what that means, but at least with you filming, I'll have something to refer back to when I scold her for this reckless behavior," Riddle replied.

"Is this really the best you guys can do? It's three against one!" Ruggie taunted as he ran out into the courtyard with Ace, Deuce, and Grim behind him.

"What is with this guy?!" Ace yelled. "He's way too fast."

"It's not even just that he's fast," Deuce added. "He's also stupidly acrobatic. We've barely managed to slow him down."

Grim huffed and puffed as he struggled to keep going. "I don't even think I can catch him."

"Ha! This is a cakewalk compared to the backstreets of the slums!" Ruggie called out to them. "You guys are too-Whoa!" He was stopped in his tracks when a…cloudy void of some sort opened up on the ground in front of him. "The heck is this?"

'I know what that is,' Ace thought, looking up just in time to see Devon leap from the outside ledge of the second floor of the school. She used her staff to open up another portal right in front of her before she could hit the ground, popping up out of the portal in front of Ruggie and blasting him back a ways. The orb on the top of the staff began to glow a soft pink as the roots of a nearby tree burst out of the ground and bound Ruggie's legs, causing him to fall to the ground.

Ruggie blinked up at Devon. "What the heck was that?!"

Devon smiled and held up her staff. "Wisp magic~! Pretty impressive, right?" Her expression turned serious. "Given that you took off the second you found out what we wanted to talk about, I'm assuming you're the one that caused all those accidents?"

Ruggie shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean, even if I was, how are you gonna prove it?"

"Huh?" Deuce asked with a frown.

"You don't have a shred of evidence that I was the one who hurt those guys," Ruggie pointed out. "Did anyone see me use magic?" He smirked. "And even if they did, did they manage to get a picture or take a video? You have nothing to tie me to anything."

The four freshmen shared a glance. As frustrating as it was to admit, Ruggie was right. "Okay, so we don't exactly have any hard evidence, per se…," Ace conceded.

"Is Savanaclaw really so scared of losing that they aren't even willing to try and play an honest game?" Devon asked. "You guys are a lot of things, but I didn't think you were cowards too."

"Cowards, huh?" Ruggie repeated. "Where I'm from, that's a compliment." He laughed. "Shishishishi! Maybe try to have all your ducks in a row next time you decide to chase after me, yeah? Though somethin' tells me that'll be a tall order for you guys."

"Grrr… This guy's so frustrating!" Grim whined.

"Welp, this game of tag's been fun, but I think it's time to call it a day," Ruggie continued. He looked over at Devon before tossing Riddle and Cater's pens to her. "There's those magical pens I nabbed earlier. Would you be so kind as to let me up, kitten?" Devon rolled her eyes at the nickname but held out the staff, allowing Aloe to unwind the roots from Ruggie's legs. He stood and dusted himself off. "Better luck next time, master detectives~!"

"Tch. He doesn't have to be such an ass about it," Ace grumbled as they watched Ruggie run off.

"Riddle's gonna have our heads…," Deuce said as he shook his head.

"Maybe not. We got the pens back, after all," Devon pointed out as Zephyr emerged from the staff. "Hopefully he won't be too upset." She looked in the direction Ruggie had run off in. "You guys heard him say 'next time', right?"

The sound of approaching footsteps caught their attention. "So you guys still haven't learned your lesson, huh," Jack commented.

Ace's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Hey, here's an idea: how about next time, you give us a hand instead of just watchin'! Savanaclaw upperclassmen are seriously screwed up!"

"Why are you all stickin' your necks out for other people's sake like this?" Jack asked.

"For other people?" Deuce repeated.

Jack brought a hand up to rub the back of his head. "I mean, if you were lookin' for revenge because a friend of yours got hurt, I'd get it, but-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ace interrupted. "Your read's a little off there, bud."

Jack paused. "Huh?"

"Who said anything about doing this for other people's sake?" Ace asked.

"We're just trying to score some points with the dorm head so he'll let us play on Heartslabyul's team," Deuce explained.

"Exactly. We want our shot at the big time!" Ace added.

"Yeah, yeah!" Grim agreed. "The headmaster asked me and Devon to figure out what was goin' on. We would've refused outright, but he said we'd get to play in tournament too if we caught the culprit!"

"I mean, it really does suck what happened to Trey, but if that means there's an open spot on the team, you'd better believe I'm gunnin' for it," Ace said.

"Hmph. I never trust people who just suffer needlessly for stranger's sake, but…," Jack said, crossing his arms and smirking at them. "You guys are absolute scum."

"Yeah, and what does that make you?" Ace fired back. "It sounds like you knew your dorm was doin' something shady and that Ruggie was causing this mess."

Grim's eyes widened in realization. "That's why you were so sure you wouldn't be targeted!"

Jack was silent for a moment as he mulled something over in his head before squaring his shoulders and speaking up again. "Oi, assholes. Fight me."

Devon blinked. "Well, that escalated quickly. What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"The best way get the measure of a person is through a good, old-fashioned throwdown," Jack explained. "If you can prove to me that you're not all bark and no bite, I'll tell you everything I know."

"For real?" Ace groaned. "This is gonna be such a pain…"

"Speak for yourself!" Deuce replied eagerly, a smirk on his face. "Keepin' things simple, huh? I like the way you think, Jack!"

Grim jumped at the gruffness in Deuce's voice. "I don't think I'll ever get used to how fast his bad-boy switch flips sometimes."

Devon's gaze flicked between Deuce and Jack before a smirk broke out on her face. "Ya know what? Sure. Let's do this."

DJ muttered to himself as he jotted down some notes for his Creative Writing assignment. He was currently sitting on a bench a ways off from the entrance of the school. The area was nearly deserted save for a couple of freshmen passing a football to each other on a grassy area nearby. He'd hoped coming to this spot would help him focus, but he couldn't keep his mind from wandering. Ever since the day he and Dominic had experienced those intense pains in their heads, the day Dominic said he saw ink blots covering some sort of red crystal, something had felt…off with both brothers. Neither could explain exactly what the problem was, or if it was, in fact, a problem, and they'd been able to act like nothing was wrong to everyone outside the family, but something had definitely shifted that day.

"Don't concentrate too hard, man. I think I can smell your hair burnin'," called a familiar voice. Mason plopped himself down next to DJ before he could even look up. "Whatcha workin' on, anyway?"

"Hey, Mason," DJ greeted. "Just this outline for Worth's class."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you took that writing class this semester," Mason recalled. "Is the outline your whole assignment?"

"It is and it's not," DJ replied. "He wants us to do a big full-length original story for our final project, but he's broken it down into parts that we turn in over the course of the semester to help make sure nobody waits until the last minute to do it. This outline is for that big project. We can tweak the story as the semester goes on, but Worth wants to know we're thinking about it, at least."

"Seems like a tall order for a class of high school kids, if you ask me," Mason commented. "So what's your story gonna be about?"

"The specifics haven't been hammered out yet, but basically it's about these two college friends," DJ explained. "They drifted apart after graduating, but they reunite when one of them, Meghan, invites the other to her upcoming wedding in a fictional New England town that I have yet to name. At first everything seems fine; Meghan seems concerned about something, but the protagonist, whom I've been calling Casey but haven't settled on an official name for, just assumes its pre-wedding jitters. But then, on the day of the wedding, when it's time for Meghan to walk down the aisle, she never shows up. Since she's a girl from a working class family and she's engaged to a man from the wealthiest family in town, plenty of the wedding guests already assumed she was just a gold-digger and ran off, but Casey quickly figures out that something's wrong when they go looking around for clues."

"Oooh, so it's a mystery story, then? Nice! So, if the wedding guests are so dead-set on writing Meghan off, does that mean Casey's on their own trying to find her?" Mason asked.

"Not exactly," DJ replied. "They find a few allies willing to help them, so they aren't alone. The real problem is that once they start poking around to see who might have it out for Meghan, they end up digging up a lot of people's secrets. Turns out the idyllic little town isn't such a paradise, after all. It's a really twisty, turny story."

"And you just thought of this off-the-cuff?" Mason asked.

DJ chuckled bashfully. "Ah…no. I've actually been knockin' this story idea around for a while but I was never confident enough to actually write it. Dev and Dom are the creative siblings, ya know? I'm nowhere near as good as they are."

"Neither of your siblings write, though," Mason pointed out. "I highly doubt Devon's ever coded a thing in her life and Dominic's nowhere near Devon's level when it comes to art. You may not be as skilled as Dev and Dom are at their mediums of choice, but it sounds like you've got your own creative specialty. I won't lie to you, I'm kinda hyped to see how this story of yours plays out."

"Y-You are?" DJ asked uncertainly. "I thought it sounded kinda…generic. That's part of why I was hesitant to write it at all."

"It's a classic mystery, my guy. There's a reason the classics work as well as they do," Mason assured him. He smiled. "Besides, you know I'm a sucker for stuff like this! I wanna know what happens. What happened to Meghan? Is she even alive? What's the town hiding? I demand answers, DJ! And I'm not gonna get them if you keep talking yourself out of writing this thing!"

DJ laughed and was about to reply when a shout of "Head's up!" came from nearby. He and Mason looked up just in time to see the football the freshmen had been tossing to one another hurtling in their direction, specifically right at Mason's face. Mason appeared to be frozen and there wasn't any time to move him out of the way before the football could hit him. Without thinking, DJ stood and swatted the ball away. As soon as his hand made contact with it, a strange sort of energy welled up in his chest before moving directly to his hand. DJ had never felt anything like it and, even though he was barely able to put any strength behind his attempt to deflect the ball, it still flew several yards in the direction he'd smacked it in and landed harmlessly in the grassy area. For a moment, everyone stood in stunned silence. DJ felt his hand tingling and his eyes widened when he glanced down and saw what looked like a vague outline of what appeared to be a gauntlet of some sort encasing his hand and a pink aura surrounding it.

"Holy hell, are you guys okay?!" one of the freshmen asked as the other took off after the ball. He didn't appear to notice that DJ's hand was glowing; in fact, neither the freshman nor Mason seemed to be able to see it. "I'm so sorry! I was trying to see how far I could throw, but I got distracted while I was aiming."

"It's cool, man," Mason assured him.

"Y-Yeah, no harm done," DJ agreed, finally tearing his gaze away from his hand. "Sorry I knocked your ball so far away, though. I was just tryin' to keep it from hitting my friend."

"Don't even worry about it," the second freshman replied as he came back with the ball. "If you could knock it that far just by backhanding it, I can't wait to see how you play when you're serious. The homecoming game's in the bag with an arm like yours!"

DJ laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Heh. I don't know about that. It might have just been the adrenaline. But I appreciate the vote of confidence, guys." 'I also have no clue what that was or how I even made it happen.' He glanced down at his hand to see that the aura had faded. 'Maybe it was just adrenaline.'

Mason checked the time on his phone. "Alright, DJ and I gotta get to homeroom. We'll see you guys later, okay? Take it easy." He and DJ waved goodbye to the freshmen before gathering up their stuff and heading into the school. "Dude, that was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen! I had no idea you could do that!"

"Trust me, neither did I," DJ replied. "All I could think about was keepin' you from getting' your face rearranged and then I just…" He mimed smacking the ball away.

"Aww~! You're like a mom lifting a car off her kid," Mason commented. "It looked like your eyes changed color too, for a second there."

DJ blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I think it was probably just the sun reflecting off your hair or somethin', but it looked like your eyes were glowin' pink for a minute," Mason told him.

DJ nearly stopped in his tracks, barely managing to keep his face from betraying his shock as he and Mason kept walking. He looked down at his hand again. 'Okay, seriously. What was that?'

"I gotta admit, you guys are slightly better than I thought," Jack commented in between pants. He'd just been on the receiving end of punch in the gut by Deuce, having been shoved into Deuce's fist courtesy of a kangaroo kick to the back from Devon.

"I was thinkin' the same about you," Deuce panted back.

"Your punches hit straight to my heart…," Grim said between breaths.

Ace rested his hands on his knees. "You guys are getting way too caught up in this." He leaned against Devon for support. "Y'know, I don't even care about getting picked for the stupid team anymore. I'm done."

"So…what? Do we all just hug it out now?" Devon asked.

Jack took a deep breath. "Alright. My conscience is clear. I'll tell you guys everything."

Ace blinked. "And how did…whatever this was…clear your conscience exactly?"

"I'm crossing a major line here, y'know," Jack reminded them. "I'm about to betray my own dorm." His fists clenched as he glared, keeping his gaze on the ground. "But I can't take this anymore! I don't care how powerful my opponent is; I want to face them using my own power! I put myself through the wringer training for this tournament because I was excited to see how far I could go. These underhanded schemes are makin' me sick! A victory won through treachery means nothing! I want to claim my spot at the top using nothing but my magic and my own two fists!"

"Geez, this guy's a totally pain in the ass," Ace muttered to Devon and Grim.

"Pretty hypocritical that he called us scum for tryin' to stop Ruggie for our own gain," Devon agreed. "He's motivated by his own self-interest too."

"I…I get you!" Deuce shouted excitedly to Jack, pressing his fist against his chest. "I totally get what you're feeling!"

"Sounds like we've got our own pain in the ass," Grim snarked as he flicked his tail at Deuce.

Jack took another breath before crossing his arms. "Ruggie's Unique Magic forces whomever its cast on to copy his movements. He's been controlling the victims to move in ways that cause them to get injured in what look like accidents on their part."

"Hmm. That explains how he was able to get Grim to hand over his sandwich the other day," Ace realized.

"Grrr… Now I'm angry all over again!" Grim exclaimed. "I'll never forgive anyone who steals food from me!"

"Hold on," Deuce interjected. "Wouldn't someone have noticed if Ruggie was making odd movements near the victims at the times of their accidents? Wouldn't that look suspicious?"

"Ruggie hasn't been acting alone," Jack told them. "I'm willing to bet that most of Savanaclaw is in on what he's doing."

"For real?" Devon asked.

"Like you guys pointed out, Ruggie would've been found out pretty quick if he was moving strangely on his own. Our dormmates have been acting as living walls and providing him with cover," Jack explained.

"The whole dorm is in on it? But…why would they take things this far?" Deuce asked.

"Well…how well you do in the tournament can have a big impact on your future career, right? I guess I kinda get where they're comin' from," Ace empathized.

Jack fixed Ace with a withering glare, his posture rigid and challenging as a threatening growl escaped his lips. "Grrrrrr!"

Ace flinched and took a step behind Devon. "Whoa! Geez, there's no need to bare your fangs like that, dude! I was just sayin'!"

"Hmph!" Jack scoffed. "What does the future even matter if you aren't willing to show what you can do now with your own power?! But the one I really can't stand in all this is our dorm leader, Leona Kingscholar! The guy's got more talent than he knows what to do with, but he refuses to even use it!"

Grim nodded. "I have to admit, I was kinda surprised at how tough he was as a Spelldrive opponent. Wasn't really expectin' it since he's so lazy and all."

"Right?!" Jack agreed. "He's got all that strength, so why doesn't he try to polish it?!" He shook his head. "I still remember watching him play in the tournament three years ago. When I was accepted into this school and placed in Savanaclaw, I thought he and I would be tearin' up the Spelldrive field together!"

"Uh-huh…" Ace leaned closer to Devon and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You hear it too, right, New York? It sounds like he's just whining about his dorm leader…"

"But it also sounds like he admired him quite a bit before all this started," Devon finished. "Yep, I was getting that vibe too."

"The incidents so far might seem inconsequential but I'm positive they're hunting bigger game here," Jack continued.

"Bigger game?" Deuce repeated.

"I think their real target is Malleus Draconia, Diasomnia's dorm leader," Jack elaborated. "The guy's an absolute monster on the field and he's pretty much led Diasomnia to victory single-handedly for the past two tournaments. Thanks to him, Savanaclaw lost in the first round of both tournaments without scoring a single point. Plenty of the upperclassmen are still nursing a pretty serious grudge over that."

"That's gotta be frustrating, especially for a dorm that's usually at the top," Deuce empathized.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "And their humiliation was broadcasted to the entire world. I understand wanting to retake Savanaclaw's glory," His gold eyes hardened into a glare. "but I can't just sit back and let them use underhanded methods to do it!"

"So you think they're planning to do something to Diasomnia on the day of the actual tournament?" Ace asked.

"Yep. So I'm gonna stop 'em myself!" Jack declared.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Riddle said as he and Cater walked up to the group. Cater handed Devon's bag back to her while Devon handed over their magical pens. The Ramshackle staff immediately shrunk to its smaller form as Zephyr emerged from it and Devon placed it back in her bag.

"Dorm leader! Cater!" Deuce greeted.

"I cannot allow one of our school's most important traditions to be tainted by someone's personal grudges," Riddle continued.

"What should we do then, Riddle?" Cater asked.

"We have no solid evidence against Ruggie that proves he was responsible for the incidents so far or that he was acting on Leona's orders, so we can't take this to the headmaster just yet," Riddle explained. "They'd easily refute anything we said if we tried to accuse them as things stand."

"So you're sayin' we have to catch 'em in the act," Ace reasoned.

"I have an idea on that front," Riddle said. "First, we-"

"Hold up," Jack interjected. "I just shared information with you. I never offered to team up."

"Seriously? And after everything we've been through?" Cater snarked.

"I said I was gonna take my dorm down on my own and I meant it," Jack replied as he turned to leave. "See ya."

"Because you've done such a wonderful job stopping them up till now," Devon sassed at Jack's retreating back.

Jack stopped in his tracks, turning back around to fix Devon with a menacing glare. "You wanna say that again?"

"Why? You heard me," Devon replied, completely unfazed.

"And there's that New York bluntness," Grim muttered under his breath.

"I'm not trying to make you mad, dude, honest," Devon assured Jack. "I'm just sayin' that the smart wolves are the ones that know when it's better to hunt in a pack. Seems like this is one of those times."

"Dev's got a point," Deuce agreed. "Your chances of taking on your entire dorm and winning seem…not that great."

Jack looked between Devon and Deuce for a moment before heaving a sigh. "Fine. I'll hear you guys out. But if I don't like your plan, I'm out."

"Every time I think this guy couldn't be a bigger pain," Ace mumbled.

"I'd say his stubbornness is right up there with yours, Acey~," Cater teased.

"Then if I may continue," Riddle said. "First…"

"I see…," Ace said as Riddle finished explaining his plan. "I'm startin' to think we might be able to pull this off. Very nice, dorm head, very nice!"

Deuce nodded in agreement. "Leave to dorm leader Rosehearts to come up with something like this."

"Looks like I'll be keeping myself busy until tournament day getting all this prep work done," Cater added.

"I'll be counting on you," Riddle told him. "Take care not to draw any suspicion.

Cater nodded before looking at Jack. "What's the verdict, Jack? You in or out?"

Jack crossed his arm. "Well…it's not a cowardly plan, at least." He straightened up and cleared his throat. "I'll help you out. But just this once."

"All about posturin' with this guy, huh?" Grim commented.

"Who cares? Let's just get back to the dorm," Ace replied. "I am beyond exhausted right now."

"And I'm starvin'," Grim added as he hopped onto Devon's shoulder.

"Hold on a moment, freshmen," Riddle said. Everyone stopped and turned to face him. "Because of the information it yielded, I'm going to overlook your blatant disregard for school rule number six: 'Personal fights are strictly prohibited on school grounds' this one time. However…" He leveled a stormy glare at the five of them, his voice stern. "Rest assured that if it happens again, I will be taking all of your heads. Am I understood?"

"Y-Yes sir. We're so sorry," Ace, Deuce, Devon, and Grim chorused.

"…Y-Yessir," Jack added quietly, his head dipped.

Riddle nodded. "Good. Let us head back to the dorm." He turned his attention to Devon, his eyes narrowing again. "As for you… I'd like you to explain to me what in the name of the Great Seven made you think it was a good idea to jump out of a window and then off the school roof! Do you have any idea how badly you could've been hurt?! I have never-"

"I always though your dorm head was a weakling 'cause of his size but…," Jack whispered to Ace as they watched Riddle lecture Devon while they walked back to the Hall of Mirrors, Devon helpless to do more than rub the back of her head and smile sheepishly. "Man, that guy's terrifying."

"Right?!" Ace agreed. "He looks like he'd be a friendly little hedgehog, but he's actually got the quills of a porcupine! Best to try and stay on his good side. New York's usually pretty good at that but-" He gestured toward Devon and Riddle. "I guess not even she's exempt from his temper."

Later that night, a gaggle of Savanaclaw residents gathered in the dorm lounge for an impromptu meeting.

"So Ruggie, what's this I hear about those brats from Heartslabyul chasin' you around this afternoon?" Leona asked with a mocking smirk. The expression dropped almost instantly, hardening into a glare instead. "This is why I told you to make sure you didn't leave any evidence behind, you moron!"

"I-I didn't! Honest!" Ruggie argued. "I'm not sure how they managed to figure out it was me, but it had to be some kinda fluke. They don't have any evidence to implicate anyone, so there's no need to worry."

"Tch. I paid a hefty price to that nasty little octo-punk for his help. If anything goes wrong, I'll fry you up and eat you myself," Leona warned. "Be prepared."

"Don't worry about a thing. Prep for the main dish is going just as planned," Ruggie assured him.

"We'll have those Diasomnia jerks squealin' for mercy in no time!" one of the Savanaclaw residents chimed in.

"Aah man, I can't wait to see how all this plays out!" Ruggie said excitedly. "I wanna see Malleus Draconia on his knees in shame in front of Leona. The whole world's gonna see our victory…" His short tail began to wag slightly. "Even a lil' ol' hyena like me could get a big name scout!"

"The pro leagues are gonna be beggin' us to join 'em!" another Savanaclaw resident said.

Leona chuckled. "Lookit you guys. Gettin' all jazzed up like you've already caught your prey."

"Your popularity's gonna skyrocket too, Leona!" called out a voice from the crowd.

"Yeah! Then everyone back in the Sunset Savannah's gonna know who's really better suited to be king!" added another.

"This and that have nothin' to do with each other," Leona remarked quietly.

"Hmm? You say somethin'?" Ruggie asked.

Leona shook his head. "Nothin'." He yawned. "I'm goin' to bed. Scatter."

"Yessir. 'Night, Leona," Ruggie said as he and the rest of the Savanaclaw residents filed out.

Leona waited until the sound of receding footsteps faded into silence before he spoke again. "The world isn't gonna be turned on its head just because of some tournament victory…"

Ending Notes: And now all three of the triplets have had their powers alluded to. Devon's has been show more or less in full, of course, but Dom's was hinted at long before Devon's was. The boys' powers haven't manifested in full at this point (since their world has no magic and all) but I really hope it'll be worth the wait when they do. I know I'm really excited to show them off.

The story DJ's writing is actually a reference to 'Veil of Secrets' a visual novel from an app called Choices.

The next chapter is going to be Devon going with Riddle and Cater to fill Diasomnia in on their plan for tournament day. Devon's gonna get to see Horns again!

Oh my gosh! Have you guys seen the Tsum-Tsum collab going on on the TWST Japanese server?! How adorable are those little guys?! You know what this means, right? I've gotta do something for it here. It probably won't be for a while because I've got a ton of material to cover and I'd like Devon to be on friendly terms with more of the boys first...as well as something else I have planned to happen for when I cover the Ignihyde arc. I'd really like to write the boys Tsums interacting with Devon and her getting a Tsum of her own (maybe she somehow finds Tsums of her brothers as well just to add to the chaos). I can totally see Tsum!Devon just…attacking Crowley the moment it sees him and managing to rip out one of his feathers before bouncing away all proud of itself. Meanwhile, Tsum!DJ is headbutting any of Devon's LIs who get too close (especially Jamil; it really has it out for him for some reason) until it runs into Tsum!Floyd and they start headbutting each other for funsies and Tsum!Dominic is trying to hide from all the people…except for Devon, Idia, and/or Ortho.

Thank you all so much for reading! As always, feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome. Geekinthepink, out!