Chapter 57
'Am I floating? I feel like I'm floating.' Odette thought. 'Floating in the clouds?' The clouds soon filled her entire field of vision. She came back a pair of golden gates with a lighting bolt across them. The gates open and she went through. She saw there was a party going on, a baby shower. The happy couple were cooing over a cute baby.
"I haven't been this choked up since I got a hunk of moussaka caught in my throat." Said a tall dark guy with flaming blue hair. "Hey Zesus."
The entire party stopped.
"Hades! You took a break. You need take more breaks or you'll work yourself to death. HA! Work yourself to death. I kill myself!" Zesus laughed as did the rest of the party. Then party went back to normal.
"If only." Hades mumbled as he walked away.
'Another weird dream?' Odette thought as she began to wake back up.
"Ey! Hey Odette! Wake up already!" She heard Ace snap then gently shake her.
Odette's eyes opened up and she saw Ace and Deuce standing above her in their dorm uniforms. She sat up, she was back on her bed in her room. "Wait, what?" She muttered as she looked around.
"C'mon you can't go falling asleep when you're the one who called us over at this hour." Ace grumbled shaking his head as she got off her bed.
"I was certainly surprised to hear from you so late. What's this about Grim going missing?" Deuce asked looking concerned.
"When did I fall sleep? I was looking for Grim and..."Odette began but winced and reached for the back of her pounding head.
"Whoa hold up! What happened to your hand? It's all scratched up so are your arms! Wait am I understanding you right?" Ace began but Deuce cut him off.
"No way GRIM did that?!"
"It looks worse than it is but Grim did scratch me." Odette said looking at her tore up hoodie sleeves and her scratched up hands.
"Let's head to the lounge for now Crowley's here too. We gotta get that hand patched up stat." Ace said leaving her room.
"Ah right good call we'll get you seen after we talked to the Headmage." Deuce added taking her down to the lounge.
Odette explained her night to them after everyone left.
"So the mirror in your room connected to another place and you spoke with a large eared creature named Mickey. After you conversation you noticed Grim was missing and went to look for him. Then when you found him he acted uncharacteristically aggressive and lashed out at you, Mhhhh." Crowley repeated.
"Grim was eating another black rock off the ground." Odette informed him trying to recover any details she could about her attack. "He didn't look like himself neither."
"A black rock you say?" Crowley asked raising his eyebrows from behind his mask.
"You mean like the one he housed in the mine at the start of the school year?" Ace asked.
"Yeah." Odette confirmed.
"Now that you mention it grim also scarfed down the black stone rock that fell onto the grass when Riddle overbloted." Deuce added.
"But he didn't freak out back then. He just ate it. What's the deal with those black rocks anyway?" Ace asked
"I didn't witness any of these incidents firsthand so this is purely conjecture. But I suspect those black rocks were blot crystals." Crowley concluded.
"What are blot crystals?" Deuce asked.
"I believe a quick refresher is in order. Overblotting occurs when a magic user accumulates more than they can handle. Blot as you know is a waste product of using magic. It's highly toxic and contains stagnant magical energy, during such incidents blot manifests in the shape of the practitioner's dark emotions." Crowley explained.
"And when you wanna get someone out of an overblot you gotta rip that manifestation away from them right?" Ace reconfirmed.
"At least that's how we've gotten all the overblots to return to normal so far." Deuce added.
"Just so one must sever the link to the manifestation to free the magic user. My understanding is that when the manifestation fades the condensed blot can crystallize." Crowley continued.
"Seriously?" Ace exclaimed.
"Magestones themselves can form when magic flowing through the earth or air happens to crystallize. Blot is essentially magic runoff so it stands to reason that It could solidify as well. Granted I've never witnessed it personally. Overblotting itself is exceptionally rare mhhh." Crowley explained.
'Exceptionally rare tell that to the 5 guys who overblotted this year.' Odette thought arching eyebrow. "Is it really that rare?" She asked.
"Okay, lemme see if I got this straight blot is bad for people even in small amounts and the black rocks are hyper condensed versions of it right?" Ace asked.
"Yes." Crowley nodded.
"Which means if someone goes around snacking on them it's gonna mess with them." Ace pointed out.
"Grim went berserk because he ate those rocks?" Deuce asked.
"Bear in mind this is all speculation it's also worth remembering that while Grim can communicate with us he's still a monster, him going berserk may be his true nature. The second day of the culture fair is tomorrow. We can't leave a dangerous monster on the loose especially if he's already injured someone." Crowley said as he looked over Odette's injuries.
'That bull!' Odette thought and was about to say so when Deuce cut her off.
"Dangerous! But this is Grim we're talking about!"
"Believe me I have no desire to condemn him in such a manner. Monster or no I gave him the benefit of the doubt and admitted him to the school, but we can't ignore the possibility that he may no longer be fit to remain on campus." Crowley said as he made his way towards the door.
"Hold on what are you saying?" Ace called after him.
"Regardless, we must assemble the faculty and Housewardens and capture Grim. Posthaste." Crowley stated turning back towards them.
"Oh geez." Deuce groaned.
"I had best be going now. Odette don't leave this dorm, Trapploa, Spade return at once to Heartslabyul. After all they could mobilize any second." Crowley ordered them mumbling the last part.
"Come again?" Odette asked
"Oh nothing gracious there's no rest for the wicked." He said then left the dorm.
"He said Grim might not be fit to stay on campus. So what they're just gonna label him a menace now?" Ace asked turning towards Odette.
"Grim would never,...I mean sure he's a glutton who's never of self control and he can be really selfish at times. But he'd never intentionally hurt Odette or any other student without reason. Surely he wouldn't,... probably I guess." Deuce started but began to ramble as he looked at Odette's shredded hoodie.
"Dude you're not helping. Look monsters are feral. I've seen news stories about them attacking human towns and stuff, the headmage isn't being unreasonable." Ace stated.
"Ace you can't mean that." Deuce countered looking a bit disappointed.
"But Grim's hung out with Odette for the past 6 months and he's been just fine. And we've gotten along with him too." Ace said.
"You guys just lived with him for the last month." Odette reminded them.
"Yeah you're right and all our classmates are comfortable around him." Deuce said.
"So, what's the plan what do YOU want to do Odette?" Ace asked looking serious.
"I don't want to lose Grim over this, and I want to talk to him face to face." Odette said pushign herself off the fireplace she had been leaning against.
"I had a feeling you'd say that. Well let's go bang out this search and find that frustrating fur ball." Ace grinned following Odette.
"That's what I'm talking about, we need to find Grim before the others. That's cat's gotta a lot of explaining to do." Deuce sated as they left the dorm.
At the main street Crowley gathered most of the Housewardens."And that's brings us to the task at hand. We must locate Grim and take him into custody. I've already dispatched the teachers." Crowley explained.
"So Grim injured Odette?" Vil asked raising an eyebrow.
"Huh? I can't just picture him doing that." Kalim yawned.
"I was excepting something a little more urgent than finding a lost kitty cat. Can't believe you dragged me outta bed for this." Leona grumbled.
"The culture fair is still going on it's imperative we apprehend fro our visitor's safety." Riddle reminded him.
"My, my, Grim never misses an opportunity to cause trouble whenever we have a big event?" Azul sighed shaking his head.
"Malleus is out for an evening scroll I'm here in his stead. I admit I'm not great at finding things but I suppose another pair of eyes can't hurt." Lilia shrugged.
"Question! Does it matter if the target is alive when we bring him in?" Ortho asked.
"Of course it does! You're to bring him in alive and also unharmed as much as possible." Crowley exclaimed.
"So if we rough up the target we fail the objective K. Eh, I'm sure Ortho can handle a Grim quest EZPZ." Idia bragged from his floating tablet.
"Heh heh I've got a detailed map of the school which includes all doors and underground passages. My IR Scans should locate him in no time." Ortho added.
"I'll leave you all to it then." Crowley said as he left.
In the woods behind the campus Ortho quickly found Grim, still in his manic form.
"Bio-reading located with 15 meter radius height: approx 70 centimeters, magic detected, confirmed as target. Commencing capture." Ortho read out. He easily captured Grim within seconds.
In the process he knocked Grim out who returned to normal.
"Target has creased moving. Scanning vitals, pulse and breathing normal, no physical distress or threat to life detected. Mission: Capture Grim complete. Reporting back to administrator." Ortho reported as he scanned Grim.
"That takes care of Grim capture RTA. Wait no, with Ortho it'd be more like TAS. Well, whatever. You speed ran it, that's what counts. Guess we gotta report back to the quest-giver now." Idia informed him.
"Got it. I'll return to the dorm as soon as I hand Grim to the headmage." Ortho said picking Grim up.
"Is the school's already abysmal ratio of warm cuddly cats about to get even worse? That's just tragic. Can't they just suspend him and make him write an apology or something?" Iida sighed.
Back at main street Ace, Deuce and Odette were looking for Grim.
"Grim! Are you there!?" Deuce shouted.
"Pipe down! The headamage told us to go back to our dorm remember? You know that if the housewarden hears we snuck out after curfew it'll be 'off with our heads'." Ace hissed.
"Oh right Here Grimmy I've got a can of tuna for you." Deuce whispered.
A ringing breaks the silence.
"What part of pipe down don't you oh that's Odette's phone did they find him?" Ace asked as Odette answered her phone and put him on speaker.
"Hello?"
"Odette, the Shroud brothers from Ignihyde have successfully captured Grim." Crowley informed her.
They all looked at her phone in shock.
"How fortunate they did it so quickly. If they hadn't I would've been forced to cancel the culture fair and then Ambrose would've had my guts for garters. AHEM but never mind that. Grim is no condition to talk at the moment. We'll question him as soon as he comes to. I'm also considering having a third party look into the matter. Hence, I can't allow you to speak to Grim in the interim. I'll be in touch soon." Crowley stated then hang up quickly before she could argue with him.
"Did he say Grim's in no condition to talk?" Ace asked as she hang up and put her phone back in her kangaroo pocket.
"Maybe he put up a huge fight when they captured him." Deuce suggested.
"I'm worried sick, I hope I can see him soon." Odette sniffled as she looked down at her now wrapped up hands.
Thanks for reading. I hope it enjoyed this chapter. We're now into the Ignihyde Arc and what a start it is. I hope you stick around.