Chapter 50: ?: title ideas destroyed

It just happens one day. It happens swiftly, before anyone even has a chance to notice. And then... It hits!

''This is bad! This is very bad!''

''Who did this and why!?''

''All that time wasted!''

''Teach is gonna rip into me for this!''

To an outside observer, the halls of Primp High looked as if a disaster had broken out and well, it certainly felt that way for the students.

No matter the grade, everywhere teens scrambled around the halls, trying to find some sort of solution to their shared problem.

The case of the destroyed homework.

''Just wonderful.'' Marvett threw her arms up in frustration.

''There's no way we'll get it done again before classes start either.'' Lagnus sighed in complete defeat.

"Let's calm down. They've never punished us for this. And they never will."

'...We had homework?' Sig thought to himself, but chose not to ask out loud.

The friend trio was at just as much of a loss as everyone else at the school right now. No matter where one looked, every single student was in a state of panic, frustration or in some cases, anger.

One such example stomped his way into the school. It was a short human boy clad in pink.

''Unacceptable! Whoever is behind this shall face judgment for their heinous crime!''

Salde Canarl Shellbrick
High Class Thrill Seeker

The young noble was visibly seething with anger. There was not a single lead to who was behind this dastardly deed and why they felt compelled to do it. Or even… how.

Not like he'd find any answers in the middle of this chaos either. His foul mood only got worse at the noise, shoving and yelling around him.

''I demand to know why there is such a commotion!'' He finally got agitated enough to yell out. Not that anyone even noticed or paid attention though.

The young human boy shrugged his arms. This was most unusual indeed.

''Something is going on. Perhaps there is a link somehow.'' He began to ponder, the strange happenings of the day happening back to back could not be a coincidence.

''Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!''

Salde was quickly ripped out of his thoughts at the distinct sound of a red fish, with human arms and legs, screaming.

An oddly specific description. One that amazingly enough, did fit well on a certain someone in school.

''Suketoudara! Calm down and approach me this instant!'' He called out to his human, freshman friend.

Luckily for him, the fish did take note of him.

''Small fry! My homework got fed to the piranhas!''

Suketoudara
Fry for a Fish Guy

''So I was correct to assume there is some connection. The same happened to me.'' The pink boy deduced, surely he was getting somewhere.

Suketoudara for his part was still stressed out as can be, a far cry from the chill attitude he prefered to uphold.

''Everyone in this school of people has had this bottomfeeding thing happen to them! I can't even bribe anyone with a free show of my hot dance moves, because of it.'' Suke lamented.

''Everyone, huh? Surely there must be some way to deduce a culprit?''

''Nu-uh. I've been swimming with this school for a year now. Ya just gotta flounder or swim dealin' with it.''

Salde's eyes widened at that news. That was the last thing he expected to hear. ''Surely you jest, there is no way this is true!'' He tried to be in denial about this awful news.

Suke could only shrug. ''It's the whale truth, small fry. And unless you're snapfishing a picture of your homework every time you think it's going to happen there ain't narwhal ya can do 'bout it. I heard some rumors what's to bla-huh?'' The aquatic fellow stopped himself at the sudden sound of soft sobs nearby them. Salde could hear them too.

A familiar mermaid in blue, sitting in a controllable barrel of water on wheels had joined the duo while they were talking.

She sniffed. ''Did it happen to you too?'' She asked the boys, looking visibly anxious.

Serilly
^ Fragile

''Sure squid, Serilly. You don't look good though.'' Suke observed, with a concerned tone to his voice.

Serilly took a bit to calm herself down to speak more. Stifling some sobs to try and not complete panic.

''I'm afraid of what the teachers will say….and the crowded, hectic halls, it's too much… Wh-what if my barrel gets knocked over?…'' The introverted girl did her best to not hide her face in the water out of sheer instinct.

Seeing his friend so worked up got Salde out of his agitated state. He went up to her and gently took one of her hands into his own. Serilly looked the boy into the eyes, feeling herself innerly warm up at the sheer gesture.

''Do not fret. The whole school has the same problem. We are in this together.'' He assured her, with an unusual degree of mature rationality for his standards.

Serilly blushed a little at it. Suke's supportive thumbs up next to her helped too.

''You're right. I just get nervous so quickly.'' She admitted, not like both of them didn't know already though.

''Hey, no sweat. Say, I've got us a killer whale idea just minnow; Let's find us a more quiet place and go from there, 'kay?'' Suketoudara proposed.

Both of his friends nodded and thus, the trio of a human, a mermaid, and an Holoskan pollock with human limbs began their search for a less busy place.

In the meantime, in the floor above, Panotty wandered through the now less panicked masses, quietly by himself.

''Darn. I guess Yoko wasn't just imagining those destroyed homework stories last year…'' The short elf talked out loud to himself.

In many ways, he was more troubled by not believing his friend than he was about the missing homework. Pranking others regularly has its way to make you apathetic towards that kind of trouble.

He'd talk it out with Yoko later as soon as he got the chance. For now, he had to squeeze himself through the panicked students to reach his locker at last. This was one of those times where being small proved to be beneficial for once.

Panotty just kept dodging everyone, hoping to get it over with already. It was not too much time later that he could hear some screams.

Following the shrill sounds, he could quickly make out a trio of elf girls in white sheets and a familiar, short boy in blonde.

It was exactly who he thought it was. Alucard was pulling a struggling Merigu by the hair and tried to fend off Shosu, who tried as much as she could to fight back. Emii meanwhile was sitting on the ground, paralyzed in fear, likely having gotten shoved down by the young bully earlier.

Despite the appalling nature of his behavior, nobody stepped in. Everyone was too caught up in their own affairs to show some needed civil courage. Panotty couldn't stand to watch it any longer.

''We don't know who did it eithe-owowowow! It's not our fault!'' Merigu yelped out in pain every time she felt her hair being pulled. It didn't help that the short blonde boy had a good grip that made it really hard to free herself.

''I don't #$%&!# care! If I'm gettin' into trouble then someone's gotta pay!'' The just a tad unhinged freshman yelled, knowing well nobody was paying attention to what he did. A perfect scenario for a bully that wants to unload his anger.

''You prick, *huff*, stop it right now!'' Shosu yelled right back, slowly running out of breath as Alucard continued to swat away her punches.

Emii for her part buried her face in her hands. Whimpering and afraid of when he'd come to target her. He already shoved her on the ground, so it was just a matter of time until he'd notice her again.

It was at that moment that Panotty entered the scene, totally unnoticed by all the involved parties and without any big words, punched Alucard in the face.

The bully found himself stepping back a bit at the sudden pain he felt, making him lose his grip on Merigu, who took the chance to run off to Emii, who finally dared to look up. Shosu for her part used the chance to slug Alucard in the stomach, which neither Panotty nor her sisters objected to.

They refrained from beating up on him even further though, they'd risk being no better than him if they did.

The angry blonde, vampiric elf took a bit to even recover from all of that. Coughing and stumbling a bit from those surprise attacks. Lifting his head again, he saw Panotty and Shosu stand in front of him. Merigu stood behind, with her hands protectively around Emii.

The one he quickly fixated on was Panotty, which did not go unnoticed by the sister trio, though Panotty wasn't phased.

''It's you, treehugger.'' The young bully spat, with a tone of thinly veiled contempt.

''What is your damage, Alucard?!'' Panotty didn't even bother asking anyone else, just letting out his bottled up distaste for the boy.

''Heh, Alucard. You should know I go by Vampire now…'' The bully attempted to convey the message in a threatening and dramatic manner.

The keyword being attempted, because Shosu, Merigu and even Emii burst into a giggle fit upon hearing that. Greatly displeasing Alucard.

"What?" Shuso smirked. "Just your subspecies? Was Bob not threatening enough?"

"Or Tool?" Panotty snarked.

"Ha! High Five!" Panotty gleefully jumped as high as he could to slap Shosu's hand.

''Cut it out! It's gonna be an awesome gang name, you wenches just have no idea!''

Panotty only shook his head in irritation, something that would have usually set Alucard off even more, but somehow, it instead felt…motivating?

He got himself to stand back straight, supporting himself by putting a hand on the wall near himself. Looking towards the prankster close by, a spark began to glimmer in his eye, coupled with a smirk that spelled trouble.

''You're on my list. Just so you know.'' Alucard smugly pointed towards Panotty, while leaving the scene, never looking back and quickly disappearing into the crowd.

''This kid has issues.'' Shosu spoke for everyone involved.

''I'm just glad it's over. You okay, Emii?'' Merigu loosened her hold on the youngest sibling to face her more directly. Shosu also turned to check on her.

''I'm okay now. T-thanks for helping us.'' Emii spoke out to Panotty, who for his part gave her a thumbs up, that made her ease up and return it with a smile.

The four freshmen got into talking a bit, not even noticing that another classmate had seen most of what happened.

''First the destroyed homework and now everything is in disarray. Panicking crowds, pent up aggression, this isn't right.'' The deceptively tall student crossed his arms, trying to make sense of how all of this happened.

''Something or someone has disrupted the order of things…" Squares mused. "There has to be a way to figure out what it was.''

It wasn't just the students who were all caught up in the current situation though. Principal Akuma sat in the teacher's lounge rubbing his plush temples in frustration. With him were some of his most trusted colleagues, Satan and Ms. Accord.

''To think we thought we'd be spared from this mess for one year! Kumamamamama!"

''He wasn't or hasn't learned his lesson from last time. We can't even tell the students we are aware of this being a problem.'' Satan bemoaned and Akuma couldn't agree more.

''Indeed. If word comes out that this pest is causing this then we'll never recover our public rep! Kumamamamama! We must keep pretending to know nothing until this is solved lest the school get underfunded.'' Akuma hated to admit to this being the only realistic way to handle things.

''Unfortunately. As usual, I did give word out to the others to not force any punishments on the students. Not even that foul mouthed, bullying, disrespectful snake…'' Satan muttered the last part to himself, doing his best to mask his distaste for the student in question.

Accord calmly sorted some papers in the meantime, mindful to be quick and efficient about her work as always.

''It is unfortunate all their work goes down the drain each time it happens, but perhaps it may be good to look at this as a learning experience for the students.''

Both men in the room gave her a different look, Akuma looked like he could burst a plush vessel. Not the first unorthodox teaching mentality she has voiced, though. Not even the first time she made a case for this phenomena.

''You make it sound like you approve of this.'' Satan said to her in a more casual manner, he knew his friend well enough to not be phased by it.

''I do not, but perhaps some can take a lesson in quick and spontaneous problem solving away from it. While the circumstances aren't desirable, it makes for a valuable skill to develop.'' Spoken like a true teacher and neither Satan or Akuma felt there was anything to argue against the core principle of her thought process.

''I understand your viewpoint, but this is still a problem we need to fix.'' Akuma faced the window, shining the morning sun into the room, allowing himself a calm moment to keep his nerves in check.

Even so, the thought of whoever did the deed once more did not leave his mind. Then again, neither did his determination.

''I will find you, Popoi! Kumamamamama!''

Authors' Notes:
HUSK: Yoko left her homework at home. So it's safe.
And now that we've reached the 50th milestone, what do you think of the fic so far? This chapter, or the fanfic as a whole.