Chapter Text
Mori woke from his slumber sweating and panting, eyes dilated. Instead of suddenly sitting up and gripping his sheets, his forehead met a solid structure. He thought back to the events before this and realized that he was still in the coffin from before and he was almost fine, physically. Mori began to gently press against the soft, plush velvet around him, feeling all around the enclosed space. His hands immediately retreated to his chest once he heard the sounds of soft paws hitting what sounded like a tiled floor.
The noise reminded him of when he and his mother were closer. They owned a cat together. Mori’s mother was in favor of naming him “Wilhelm”, while Mori preferred the name “Jacob”. They eventually came upon the name “Giles”, though the reasoning behind it, he could not remember. It was later in life, some time after the poor cat died, did Mori realize that the names that he and his mother originally fought over were, coincidentally, the names of the Brothers Grimm.
Mori’s mind came back to reality once he felt a sudden heat on his chest. A bright blue glow entered the box through a tiny crack on the side, and the glow and heat engulfed the coffin once the lid of the coffin fell open and gravity did its thing. The moment the lid fell onto the ground, Mori fell with it, landing on his face.
Mori hissed in pain, “jeez, you could’ve at least warned me before opening up the damn-“ He cut himself off once he came face to face with the perpetrator. “What the fuck!?” Mori’s eyes widened and he covered his mouth, his voice coming to a whisper, “sorry, I meant to say ‘what the fuck?’”
In front of his was a small little cat-like creature. Honestly, Mori couldn’t tell what this thing was. It seemed to be a normal cat, but with blue fire for ear fluff and the tail of a cartoony demon. He couldn’t help but be reminded of the live-action Cheshire Cat, just without the stripes and with more fire. The thing was also standing on its hind legs, which was slightly unsettling. As they looked into each other’s eyes, they could sense that they both shared a similar confused sentiment towards each other
“What!? Why are you up!?” The demon-cat-thing spoke with a high pitched, cartoony voice. The sudden personality change startled Mori and he flinched away slightly.
“Oh god, the cat talks,” Mori whispered under his breath, somehow loud enough for the demon-cat to hear it.
“Just who are you calling a cat?! I am the Great Grim!” Mori simply nodded in response.
“Uh huh, got it,” Mori stood up and took a look around the room, noticing coffins, similar to his, floating vertically from the ground, “just where am I?”
“Hey, don’t ignore me! Less ignoring more giving, human! Gimmie your clothes!” Grim yelled from the floor, following Mori as he examined the fancy room that looked like the one he saw in his dream. Mori turned around to meet Grim, surprised by what he said.
“What did you say?”
“I said to gimmie your clothes or get burned!”
Mori did a double take before running away once he saw Grim open his mouth and release a bit of blue fire. Mori crashed through large doors, entering halls held up by pillars and arches that looked down at a large courtyard and auditorium-like classrooms. Unfortunately, having taken a wrong turn, Mori winded up in a library, filled with books on shelves and books in the air. Mori was in a library, the most flammable place imaginable. As Mori grieved at the loss of the books, he heard the door to the library open behind him, revealing Grim.
“Silly human, did you really think you could slip away from my nose? Now, gimmie the uniform if you don’t wanna get ro-OW! What was that for?! What’s this rope for?!” Mori turned around to thank his savior but, once again, the only thing he can do is be confused.
Before him stood a strange elf-bird-man thing wearing a crow mask. His outfit was interesting to say the least. It was sparkly and overwhelming and Mori prayed that the person in front of him was just a very eccentric person. He wore a sparkly black vest and a colorful coat over it. The strange thing about the coat was that the stranger wasn’t even wearing it correctly. His arms didn’t go through the arms of the coat, yet it didn’t fall from his shoulders no matter what happened to it. Yellow eyes pierced through the holes in the crow mask, giving the man a supernatural feeling, of course the pointy ears could also do the trick.
“Consider it a lash of tough love!” The weird bird man said. Mori slowly backed away with instinctively bent knees. He looked, and felt, akin to a small, feisty animal being cornered by a predator.
“Ah, there you are. You must be the missing student. Come now, you’re late-“
“Who are you?” Mori snapped defensively, not letting the stranger finish. His fingers were spread apart and hooked, similarly to how a cat would prepare to scratch something. Unfortunately, the stranger didn’t answer him and only complained about Mori’s apparent ‘disobedience.’
“Not only are have you left your coffin early, something that I find quite confusing, but you’ve also brought an untrained familiar with you, which is a clear violation of school code,” the man bent down to look at Mori, one could say that he was looking into his eyes but the man’s gaze somehow passed them, “hm… how curious. No matter, we must return to the Mirror Chamber at once!”
The man took Mori’s wrist and dragged them through the halls of wherever they were and paused in a courtyard when Mori said, “but you still haven’t told me who you are yet, I don’t even- what are you talking about and where are you taking me?”
“Hm? Have you not gained full consciousness yet?” The man sighed, “Well, these things happen. I suppose I must tell you, for I am gracious,” the man boasted. He explained that the place that they were in was called “Night Raven College,” a prestigious academy for those with a rare aptitude for magic. He, Dire Crowley, was the “headmage” of the school.
“But magic doesn’t exist?” Mori mumbled under his breath.
“It seems the timespace teleportation has done a number on you… no matter! Your memories will reassemble in due time. Magic has always existed in this world, and it is what this academy is based on. Only those who the Dark Mirror perceives as having potential or already strong magic can attend here. Those who are admitted are summoned through those gates you saw earlier, and those gates are transported by carriage. Now that that’s out of the way, we must be off!”