Chapter Text
Throughout October, the atmosphere at Night Raven College had become gradually more festive. Halloween was a relatively minor affair where Yuu was from, but he'd heard about how some places celebrated it like this. According to Trein, it was something akin to a holy day for magic users in Twisted Wonderland. The first year prefect could have done without the long rundown of the origins of the holiday and how the present-day customs differed and why. But then he supposed that it was the same with most holidays in his world as well.
"The ghosts are all in a really good mood lately," Yuu said at lunch one day early in the month.
"Don't put it so nicely!" Grim objected loudly. "They're playing lots of pranks and they're being really loud!"
"I've wondered this for a while, but are you two really okay living there?" Ace asked, sounding more awed than concerned.
"The ghosts are the least of the problems in that building," Yuu replied with a shrug. He was more concerned with the leaky roof, the rusty nails sticking out everywhere, the broken furniture, and the fact that he'd had to get a part time job so that he could start paying for repairs little by little. The cleaning was fine but not even being able to get help with the repairs? What the heck, Crowley?
"If you say that, it's just more concerning you know?" Ace sighed, now sounding more exasperated than anything else.
"If you're so concerned, help me pay for the repairs," the Ramshackle prefect shot back with a wry grin.
"Not a chance." The expected response.
"Why did you even say anything then?" Grim asked, getting a nod in agreement from Deuce.
The topic drifted a bit - which classes were annoying, how club activities were going, a brief debate about whether or not Crewel's hair was natural - before Yuu finally brought up something that had been on his mind.
"The second years all seem really busy," he pointed out. "They keep disappearing. Not even just one or two classes, but like all of them. Is something up?"
"Oh, that," Deuce replied. "One of our senpai told me that every year the second years use the old school building to create a sort of "test of courage" for the first year students on Halloween."
Ah, now that was familiar territory. Though Yuu was used to doing his tests of courage during the summer season.
"The third years don't participate?" he asked.
"I'm not really sure," Deuce admitted. "You can always try asking one of them?"
Yuu had become acquainted with a lot of students from all grades since coming to Night Raven College, but out of all of the third years he always found Cater and Trey to be the most approachable. Possibly just because he was over at their dorm so much to see Ace and Deuce that the whole of Heartslabyul had more or less adopted the young prefect as one of their own.
When he asked about third years regarding the test of courage, Cater laughed, muffled with his hand as he'd had food in his mouth.
"That was fun last year~" he declared after swallowing. "I still have pics on my MagiCam. Just search #testofcourage on my account."
That wasn't helpful as Yuu still didn't have a phone in this world, and he was already working more shifts than he wanted to be without having a phone bill.
"It was pretty funny at points," Trey agreed. "Cater, if you find that picture of Riddle again, send it to me."
"Trey-kun!" Cater affected a scandalized tone without bothering to try to keep a straight face. "You can't possibly mean the one he ordered me to delete, right~?"
"So, do the third years participate?" Yuu prompted, trying to get back on topic.
"Ah, not really," Trey replied. "It's mostly just to give the second years something fun to do, make good school life memories and all. Going through it is sort of a rite of passage for first year students too."
"Third years can go in if they want though!" Cater chimed in. "If you ask real cutely and act all scared, I bet you could get somebody to go in with you, easy~"
"I live with ghosts," Yuu pointed out, monotonously.
"Well, we do have some... uh, "unique" second years this year," Trey said, clearly having struggled to find a diplomatic descriptor.
After letting that sink in for a minute, Ace spoke up.
"I mean, it's not gonna be dangerous at all!" he said. "It's a school event, so there's supervision and guidelines and... right?"
Both third years took a moment to think, prompting Ace to follow up with, "Okay, this is taking an awfully long time!"
"I'm just trying to think of how often we actually got permission before implementing something," Trey told him.
"Not a lot," Cater replied. "They didn't check up on us a lot either."
"Clearly, this can only go well," Yuu said, feeling very tired despite Halloween still being a few weeks away.
“Hey, don’t worry~!” Cater assured him. “It’s not like anybody’s ever died during this event! Not on record, anyway.”
“They could have done without that last bit, Cater,” Trey scolded lightly before addressing the first years again. “At the very least, no one got hurt last year or the year before. Besides, the first years who do it get to go to the party in the evening with the second and third years.”
“The party?” Deuce asked. “I thought first years weren’t allowed to go to it.”
“Not by default, but you get a medal for finishing the test of courage,” Trey explained. “It serves as a kind of pass for first years.”
“I haven’t really heard a lot about it,” Yuu admitted. “What kind of party is it?”
“It's pretty normal for a Halloween party,” Cater said, tilting his chair back a bit. “Everybody wears costumes, there’s lots of food, lots of music, we get to stay up all night, and there’s this game where a lot of people take turns dancing with somebody.”
“What’s the point in two guys dancing together though?” Ace asked.
“Ace-chan, you would be so much cuter if you knew when to not speak,” Cater said with a heavy sigh, as if lamenting his kouhai’s inability to be cute.
“There’s lots of food!?” Grim cut in before Ace could respond.
“Ah, yeah,” Trey replied. “It’s kind of like a buffet.”
“Hey, you!” Grim said, addressing Yuu from where he was perched on his shoulder. “We’re getting one of those medals, no matter what!”
Yuu knew better than to try to persuade the monster otherwise. The first year prefect had learned to pick and choose his battles carefully with Grim.
“Okay,” he replied. “But that means,” he added quickly, looking at Ace and Deuce. “You guys are coming too! I’m not letting you say no, so don’t bother trying.”
The two Heartslabyul first years, having learned how viciously stubborn Yuu could be, had no argument for him.
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"Hey, did they use the old school building for the test of courage last year too?" Yuu asked Ruggie one evening during a lull in activity during a shift they shared at Mostro Lounge.
"Hmm? Yeah, I think they always used it," the second year Savanaclaw student replied. "Why?"
"I mean, until this year they had a perfectly creepy unused dorm complete with ghosts," Yuu pointed out. "Why didn't they use that?"
"Dunno." Ruggie shrugged.
"I believe it was because it was a health hazard to allow students inside the dorm in the state it was in," a smooth voice spoke from behind them.
A little while ago, that probably would have made Yuu jump but he'd grown used to it.
"Hi, Jade-senpai," he said, turning his head to look at the Octavinelle vice-dorm leader.
"Oh yeah," Ruggie said, turning around to lean against the bar counter. "That makes sense."
"My sympathies," Jade said, addressing Yuu with a smile that looked anything but sympathetic.
"So... a health hazard to let students wander around in..." Yuu trailed off before giggling creepily, sounding far more annoyed than amused. "Yeah, sounds about right."
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Each dorm chose a theme for their costumes before starting on them. It seemed that, too, was a tradition. While their dorm was an unofficial one at best, Yuu wanted to make sure that he and Grim would also have costumes that matched each other.
Sewing wasn't exactly the young prefect's forte, but it didn't seem right to get students from other dorms involved when they were already working hard on their own costumes. After a long night of brainstorming with Grim and the Ramshackle ghosts - and shooting down anything that sounded too complicated - Yuu decided on a concept that he could begin working on soon.
It really wasn't anything special, especially when compared to some of the other dorms; not particularly elegant, exotic, or frightening. Yet, it felt astonishingly appropriate.
Grim's costume was simple enough. In fact, it wasn't that different from how he usually looked. Yuu had simply made him a new ribbon for his collar in solid pink. Mostly because he had vehemently objected to wearing anything much more than that. Luckily for him, the concept the Ramshackle prefect had settled on did in fact have a normal cat in it.
Alice in Wonderland may have been just a little too on the nose, but it was simple. Which meant it would be cheap and thank goodness because Yuu had enough money troubles as it was.
A blue Alice dress with white apron, two white petticoats, white stockings, and black lolita round-toe shoes. A wig would have completed the look, but they didn't attend a magic school for nothing. Yuu had to ask very nicely and promise not to shed in classes before being granted permission, but he got Crewel to allow him to use the lab to make a potion for hair growth.
Alice and Dinah were ready for Halloween.
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When the day finally did roll around, both Yuu and Grim were awoken in the morning by the Ramshackle ghosts. The three of them were truly in a good mood recently and while that did mean an increase in their pranks, it also meant an increase in their benevolence. They'd been quite helpful in helping Yuu get his costume ready.
"Thanks again, you guys," the first year said, high-fiving each of them in turn, despite his hand just passing through their transparent forms.
"Don't worry about it," one of them said. "We're members of this dorm too, you said so yourself!"
"True," Yuu replied, remembering bringing them out to play Magift before the tournament. It was a shame they hadn't gotten to see the game through to the end.
He chugged down his potion before heading out for the day. It would start taking effect within several hours, so people would definitely notice his hair growing but to ensure that it was completed in time for the party, taking it now was for the best.
"So, ready for our test of courage?" Ace asked at breakfast.
"I'm ready!" Grim declared. "I'll beat that test and then I'll be able to eat all I want at the party!"
"It really is just food with you..." Ace grumbled.
"It's good that he's consistent though," Deuce pointed out before answering the earlier question. "I feel like this whole thing might be fun. These are the kinds of memories we're supposed to make while we're still students, after all. The kind of thing we'll remember for the rest of our lives."
"Ugh!" Ace groaned. "You're such a good boy, Deuce- kun !" He put a sarcastic emphasis on the suffix. "I'm gonna lose my appetite if you say stuff like that so seriously."
"If you do, I'll finish your breakfast for you," Grim offered.
"Like hell, you will!"
"So early in the morning and already it's loud over here," said a slightly exasperated voice. Riddle was approaching their group to sit with them. "I didn't even have to look to know it was you."
"Sorry~" the rest of them collectively apologized, only to receive a sigh.
"It's All Hallows Eve," Riddle reminded them. "It makes sense that you want to have fun, but don't get carried away." Looking at both Ace and Deuce now, he added, "You know what will happen otherwise, right?"
While it might not have been Riddle's place to discipline Yuu or Grim as they weren't members of his dorm, the other two were quite familiar with the shudder that went through them when getting that look from the Heartslabyul dorm leader and they nodded.
"Good," the second year said with a small smile before starting to eat. While not as strict about time spent at the table as he had been before, Riddle still liked to finish his meals in a timely manner.
"Senpai, did the test of courage turn out well?" Yuu asked him between bites of his own breakfast.
"I was working on it," Riddle replied as if no further answer was needed. He continued anyway, "I wouldn't allow anyone to cut corners with it." After a pause, he added, "... Especially after last year."
Yuu thought back to that picture that Riddle had supposedly told Cater to delete, feeling curious about what exactly happened the previous year. He wondered for a moment if he dared to ask the redhead, but he decided that no. He didn't dare.
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Being a Saturday meant that there were no classes going on that day, so there was free time until the test of courage was opened to the students at 10 o'clock. Several first years ended up there early anyway, just to get a good look at it from the outside.
The old school building was largely unused for anything besides storage and the occasional club activity. It usually looked just like an old but pretty normal building. Not particularly decrepit or anything. From the outside, it still looked like that. The exceptions being the small booth set up at the main entrance and the fact that the windows appeared to have been boarded up from the outside.
"I wonder if that's wise," Yuu mused, looking at the boards and thinking about how much damage would be done to the exterior once they had to pry them off.
"You shouldn't worry about that," Jamil replied from behind the booth, being assigned to setting things up out there. "That, at least, is something you could fix with magic."
"You know," Yuu began, "after being told so many times that magic can't fix certain things, I just started assuming that it won't fix anything I see that broken."
Jamil's back was turned, so the first year couldn't see his face, but he could hear the smile in his voice as he said, "That's fair enough."
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The closer the time got, the more curious first years were milling around. Yuu met up with Jack before either Ace or Deuce showed up. There were small rule pamphlets being passed around now, detailing how the test would work.
The objective was to explore the building, look for clues, and find the place where small medals were being kept. Exiting with one was enough to clear the test of courage. The only restrictions were that property destruction, violence against anyone inside, and use of magic as an extra light source were prohibited. Groups could be between 2-5 people.
"That's seriously it?" Ace asked, passing the pamphlet off after skimming through it once.
"I doubt they'll make it easy for us," Yuu said, thinking of all the very, as Trey had put it, unique second years he'd met so far at Night Raven College.
"Scared?" Ace teased. "Don't worry, I'll hold your hand~"
"Ace, I live with ghosts," the prefect reminded his friend, giving him a blank stare. Yuu was also fairly certain that he'd seen scarier stuff at work than whatever would be in there.
Apparently taking Ace's teasing seriously, Deuce stepped closer to Yuu and said, "It's fine. I'll make sure nothing gets too close to you."
"No, like I already said, I-"
"Give it up," Jack sighed. "They really aren't listening."
"You guys, we need to stop standing around and go get one of those medals!" Grim shouted at them. "I'm going to that party tonight and I won't let any of you get in the way of me and that buffet!"
"He sure does get serious whenever food is involved," Jack observed.
"Right!?" Ace agreed.
Getting in the line that had formed in front of the booth, Yuu turned back to Jack. "So, you're coming with us then, right? That'll make five."
The Savanaclaw first year grumbled a little, nothing particularly coherent, before saying, "Either way is fine. I'll go with you if you're asking."
"You know, it's okay to just say you want to come with us, right?" Ace asked him.
"Shut up!"
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The line moved along slowly. Apparently, they were only letting a specific number of groups in at a time to avoid having too much hallway traffic.
"... Yuu, I've been wondering for a while," Jack began.
"Hm?" The smaller boy turned around to look at the other.
"What's going on with your hair?"
Bringing a hand up to touch his hair, Yuu could feel that it was indeed starting to get noticeably longer. Jack, standing behind him, had probably watched it grow in real time.
"I'm growing it for my costume later," he explained as they neared the front of the line.
"You still haven't told anyone what you're going as," Ace complained. "You've already seen everyone else's too!"
"We're going as-" Yuu covered Grim's mouth before he could give away the surprise.
"The impact will be bigger if you don't know ahead of time," the prefect replied cryptically.
Once the group ahead of them went inside, theirs was free to approach the booth. It didn't surprise Yuu much to see Azul had volunteered to take the role of manning it.
"So, the five of you-" the Octavinelle dorm leader began, "-Ah, but Yuu-san and Grim-san are counted as one student, so you only need to bring back four medals." He wrote their names down on a sheet keeping track of who had gone in and which of them had come out successfully.
"Just read over this and sign it before you go inside," Azul said, handing each of them a copy of the same paper.
Before even looking at it, Yuu spoke up, falling into uncharacteristically formal speech. "Senpai, certainly you understand the trepidation that I feel at being asked to put my name on anything that you have given to me, yes?"
"You wound me, Yuu-san," he said with a chuckle. "But if you must know, I did not write this up. These have been a part of the tests of courage since long before I arrived at this school."
The first years looked over the paper together. Indeed, it did just seem to be a sort of waver stating that they had read the rule pamphlet and, more worryingly, that if they were to suffer some sort of heart attack or stroke from stress induced by fright, neither the students inside nor any staff members of Night Raven College were legally liable for it.
"Is that a real concern?" Deuce asked, looking more than a little perturbed.
"I believe it is simply insurance," Azul replied. "After all, no one has ever died during a test of courage. Not on record, in any case."
"When you say it, it sounds even sketchier than when Cater-senpai said it," Yuu mumbled, signing the paper regardless.
The rest of the group followed suit with degrees of hesitation before returning the documents to Azul.
"Then," the merman began, quickly looking over the signatures, "have fun inside. And... be careful, of course."
"Let's go!" Grim exclaimed, jumping off of his perch on Yuu's shoulder and leading the way inside, leaving the rest of them no choice but to chase after him. Hopefully he wouldn't get too far ahead before they caught up...