Chapter Text
Night Raven College, or NRC for short, has been a school of many unexpected surprises, some for the better, some for the much worse. The school and the students of NRC have always been their own worst enemies However, if there was anything that stayed true, it was that neither the school nor the students can be harmed by outside forces. No matter what happens, no physical harm will come to the school or its students.
Brisking down the hallway, Deuce was rushing to his next class. He had forgotten his homework and textbook at his dorm earlier; now was his chance to grab them. If he came to class without his homework, he would be put through the wringer by one of the teachers, or even worse yet, by Riddle. Just the thought of that made him shudder.
When he was about to reach the classroom, he suddenly heard a voice calling his name out in the distance.
“Hey, what’s up, Deuce!”
“WHAT!”
Startled, he looked behind him and finds Ace, Grim, and Yuukin heading toward him.
“I scared you, didn't I!” Ace teased obnoxiously.
“No, I wasn't. I just got startled, that is not the same thing.”
“You were scared! Don’t deny it,” Grim joined in, shouting obnoxiously.
Deuce let out a heavy sigh as he watched Ace and Grim tease and laughed at him. He glanced over at Yuukin, who only gave him a silent shrug in response. He let out an annoyed sigh, “Fine! I got scared! What is it that you want anyways?”
“Okay, fine,” Ace said still trying to keep in his laughter. “So anyways, an honor student like you must have already prepared your notes for today’s test right? Be a bud and share it with us, c’mon!”
Professor Trein was holding yet another magic history test today. Deuce swore he had studied for this test. He even took some notes as well! But as he ruffled through his bag, he began to dread that he may have forgotten his notes for today’s test in his dorm too. At this point, Ace was starting to notice his futile attempts.
“You’re kidding, right? Seriously, you forgot your test notes of all things?” Ace said, perplexed.
Grim glared at Deuce with a puffy look after he heard Ace. “Oh, come on! Out of all of the things you forgot to bring, it was the test notes again?”
Deuce was left briefly startled but unaffected by Grims’s jab. “I was in a rush. I couldn't have gotten everything that I wanted. Give me a break for crying out loud.”
“Dude, chill. I just need the notes. I don't want to get my head chewed off again,” Ace replied.
Deuce thought for a brief moment before he realized, “You guys have not studied for the test at all, haven’t you?”
The originally rowdy area suddenly fell silent following Deuce’s statement. Ace and Grim glanced at each other with a nervous look as if they were caught red-handed. Grim attempted to butt in but Ace covered his mouth before he could say anything dumb. “We were busy with other classes, I swear.”
“Uh-huh,” Deuce responded in sarcastic disbelief, “Try telling that to Professor Trein when he hands you your failed paper. Imagine what Riddle might do.”
“Hey, don’t hold it against me! We both know that.”
“There was sufficient time to study for the test, you know,” chimed in Yuukin.
“Oh, so you are siding with Deuce now?” Grim interjected.
“I’m not taking sides, I am just making observations. Besides, I for sure had a pretty normal week for once.”
“Easy for you to say, I have had a terrible day alone!”
“Oh, so little Grimey had a terrible day today, huh,” snarked Ace. “The only thing that happened was that they ran out of tuna casserole before you could have some.”
“Hey, don’t rub it in my face, I really wanted it badly!”
Deuce watched as his friends went off-topic and devolved into mindless bickering, and couldn’t help but feel amused. He eventually had to bring them back to the topic or else it would be a long time before this charade ended. “Well, I better head off now, I better get back to the class before Riddle has my head off for not being on time.”
Ace looked on with a sour look, “Uh, yeah speaking of which, we better act on that now because he is coming.”
Deuce turned around his shoulder to find Riddle stomping down the hallway with anger in his eyes. “Oh shoot!”
The group moved a single file line at the side of the hallway in an attempt to move out of Riddle's warpath. Deuce attempted to greet Riddle, but the dorm leader dashed past them without a single acknowledgment. Deuce looked as Riddle’s back disappeared past the corner in confusion. “Huh, that’s strange.”
Ace approached Deuce, giving him a vigorous pat on the back, “Don’t fret, Deuce. Riddle is probably upset with someone again, as long as it’s not at me. Come on, let's go.”
Deuce let out a huge sigh, “Alright, let’s go.” He still had an odd feeling about what happened, however. This was a common sight to see Riddle in a fury, yet he never seemed that oblivious about his surroundings before. Either way, Deuce eventually managed to put aside his nagging thoughts and tagged back to his group.
Riddle vigorously stomped down the hallway, checking his surroundings to be sure Floyd wasn't following him. He couldn’t see Floyd, but he could hear that maniacal laughter, calling out his nickname with a devilish voice. These sounds have always lingered in Riddle’s mind like nails on a chalkboard. Floyd had always been a menace ever since his enrollment, but this week he was at his absolute worst! Causing problems and damage every day to Riddle and Heartslabyul, his honorable dorm! Even when Floyd was explicitly banned from entering their dorm! This was. The. Last. Straw! If he ever made contact with Floyd's slimy face again, not only will he chop off his head, Riddle will make sure to rend apart his body as well, even at the cost of violating the queen’s rules.
Perfect timing, he spotted Jade and Ruggie at the other end of the corridor. Hopefully, he could persuade Jade to control his twin brother, and stop this chaos once and for all. Riddle made his move, quickly shuffling in front of the two of them “JADE, FOR THE LOVE OF THE QUEEN, PLEASE KEEP YOUR BROTHER AWAY FROM ME!”
“Oh, why hello to you too Riddle. I see that you’re in good spirits today,” Jade said smugly.
“This is not the time to be messing with me right now! Floyd has been pestering me non-stop throughout the week and he has caused damage in Heartslabyul. This is the last straw; you better do something or else I will have your head as well!” yelled Riddle furiously.
His face swelled up like a cherry about to burst. He was not in the mood to negotiate, yet Jade and Ruggie seem to think otherwise, it was difficult not for them to reveal any amusement. However, they still needed to be careful not to take anything too far lest they really incur the Heartslabyul Housewarden’s wrath.
“I do wish there was something I could do, but Floyd is so unpredictable and set in his ways, that not even I can get a handle on him,” Jade said with concern, but his grin showed otherwise.
“No, that is not a good enough answer! All I am asking is you keep your brother away from me. And if you aren’t even going to take me seriously, it is going to be off with your head!”
Just before Riddle could do anything, he heard a brief chuckle come out of Ruggie’s mouth, who was trying to hold in his laughter. For a split second, the atmosphere turned awkward, even Jade began to show some more concern in his eyes.
“Oh, you think this is funny? Well since you have decided to be quite the jokester, how about I shut that mouth for you? OFF WI- “
“Wait, wait. Now hold on a moment here,” Ruggie said, interrupting him at the right time to explain himself. “It’s just that- you have been at odds with Floyd for such a long time, I thought you would have figured out what to do with him by this point. I never would have thought that you would be going to others, especially Jade, for help.”
Riddle's cherry-red complexion finally cooled down, but his pink face didn’t look any happier. “Are you serious? This is Floyd we are talking about! I have tried plenty of methods already. I could still use every trick in the book and it still wouldn’t have kept him away. Tell me, if you think you are so smart, then what do you think you would have done in my shoes?!”
Immediately after Riddle’s little outburst, a devilish voice came into earshot, creeping through the walls with Riddle's nickname on the breeze. Riddle could feel a chill running up his spine as he heard the slimy voice “Oh no, not now…”
As much as Ruggie and Jade were amused with Riddle’s situation, Ruggie wanted to prove a point that he can do a lot more than he let on. He came up with a plan quickly, “Here, Riddle, how about you tag along with Jade to your next class, and I’ll distract Floyd for long enough for you to get away.” He briefly glanced over at Jade and exchanged a subtle wink, to which Jade responded with a silent yet sinister smirk.
Riddle hesitated, he knew Jade was way more unpredictable and not any better than Floyd, worse even, but he had to get out of this situation fast. “Fine, I’ll do it. Anything to get away from Floyd.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to bite,” Jade said with an innocent look.
Riddle kept his distance from Jade as they darted off together, weary that Jade may also try and pull something. He certainly had that look in his eyes.
Ruggie didn’t wait long before he saw Floyd. He seemed to be wandering down the hallway aimlessly, his expression mischievous, yet with no signs of malice. Floyd's eyes brightened upon seeing Ruggie, one of the first people he recognized in his search.
“Oh, hi there little Remora!” Floyd said to Ruggie with whimsy.
“Hey there Floyd,” Ruggie responded. “You look curious today, what’s up?”
“I found little Goldfishie out and about again. I wanted to play with him, but he ran away from me again,” Floyd said with a pout.
“Oh, you mean Riddle?”
“Yes! Have you happened to see Goldfishie anywhere?”
Pretending as if he cared, Ruggie looked to his back just in case Riddle and Jade were still around the vicinity, before turning his gaze back to Floyd, “Ah right, I don’t think I have seen Riddle anywhere today, sorry about that.”
“Ah man, I really wanted to play with him, I’ll try and look for him some more.”
Just as Floyd was just about to move on, Ruggie stops him quickly.
“Wait! Hold on for a moment,” said Ruggie, cutting him off.
“What do you want now, Remora?” Floyd replied with a sudden annoyed look.
If there was one thing that Ruggie won’t deny about Floyd, it is that he is not someone to irritate. Floyd’s eyes looked as if they could kill. Ruggie had to be very careful with his wording or else he could make things worse. “Haven’t you been searching for Riddle long enough by now? That could get boring after a while, won't you say?”
“Well, if you think that’s boring, then what else can I do?” Floyd replied, still looking miffed.
Ruggie thought briefly before coming up with a suitable answer, “How about you and I race, the first one to reach the school store wins.”
Floyd took a minute to ponder his decision, he was really wondering what he would instead do. “Is there going to be a reward?”
Ruggie tensed up for a moment not wanting to pay or give him anything, but knowing his opponent, he knew that he wouldn’t settle on just praise. “Uhhh fine, the loser will have to treat the winner to dinner.
“Deal. Don’t cry after I empty your wallet, little Remora~”
The two shook hands as they quickly prepared to take off, but before Ruggie could do anything else, Floyd was already sprinting past him, in the direction of the school store.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Well, whatever happens, Riddle owes him one, even if he loses this race.
With an overabundance of stress and unease, Idia frantically stumbled all over the school with his hands full of unidentifiable gears and gadgets. Yesterday, Ortho warned Idia that he had sensed a dangerous entity in the atmosphere. He never really paid mind to Ortho’s warning at first, thinking that it could be a technical malfunction on Ortho’s radar. Idia had no motivation in leaving his room to check out the blip that Ortho warned him about, he just wasn’t in the mood to be managing any problems and assumed that this was just a large storm. It wasn’t until Ortho’s sudden disappearance, that Idia came out of his room in a panic. There were no signs of Ortho anywhere, not even through any of Idia’s tracking signals. Around the same time, the sky became stormy, and tremors began occurring periodically through the walls.
Frantic and anxious, Idia searched throughout the entire school to find a place with an open, yet private enough area to create a signal to search for Ortho. He slogged throughout the school, but everywhere he turned had too many people. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, only focusing on what he could see in front of him, so he didn’t expect to slam into another student. He was slammed back by the force and looked up only to discover that the person that he ran into was Malleus.
Idia stood back petrified. The last person he had to bump into was Malleus himself, but it wasn’t Malleus he wasn’t inherently worried about; he was more concerned about his goons.
“HOW DARE A MERE HUMAN LIKE YOU DEFILE THE PRESENCE OF OUR YOUNG MASTER!” Sebek roared menacingly. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?”
His yelling was loud enough to draw the attention of the entire room. As everyone began to slowly back off, and with Sebek quickly gaining up so quickly, Idia wanted to flee more than ever. Instead, he was petrified in place with fear, speechless.
“Idia did nothing wrong, Sebek, Lord Malleus was not hurt. There is no need to attack him,” said Silver, attempting to manage the situation.
“I don’t care if he didn’t harm him! It was a major breach of the young master’s privacy, and will not be tolerated!” Sebek barked back.
As this was happening, Malleus could be seen with an uneasy look, as he looked down with his hand on his forehead, “Sebek, Silver, please stand down –”
Sebek was closing in inches away from his chest, close enough to send shivers down Idia. Yet a foreign emotion began to spark within Idia as well. Just getting out of his dorm alone took a lot of effort, yet he is only making all of this effort for one purpose: to find Ortho. Any squandering at any moment could result in a game over, and all of his efforts would be all for nothing.
“No! I won’t stand down,” Sebek continued, “This human violated your privacy, and now he will pay the consequences.”
“No,” Idia said sternly.
“What did you just say to me?” Sebek asked, suddenly dumbfounded.
Idia placed his fingertips on the top of Sebek’s chest, pushing him back lightly. “No. I said no. Back off,” Idia said before swiftly shuffling away.
With nothing but desperation to get away from the situation in mind, Idia ran away as fast as he could, refusing to look back. It might be just his imagination, but he thought he could hear Silver’s voice, saying, “What in tarnation just happened?”
Idia quickly found and entered the door to the school bathroom, slamming the door behind him. His heart was pumping like a petrified rodent. Catching his breath, his muscles begin to relax and his heart rate slows down. Now that he was thinking more clearly, he could focus on his main objective. He took a moment to peer around the restroom and confirmed that nobody was in there. “This place will do,” he said to himself.
He swiftly grabbed his equipment and laid it on the grimy floor, beginning to repair the satellite without hesitation. The rusty thing had bid its due and was practically falling apart. Ortho has been by his side long enough that he has had no need for the tracker, yet now with the potentially dire circumstances that are coming his way, he desperately needed to find Ortho, and protect him before any more NPCs give him trouble.
As he made further progress in fixing and rearranging the parts, over time, he could feel the suspense growing. He will soon be finally able to search for Ortho, who will have some explaining to do!
This game for him was going well, yet, before he was able to win this level and win this rare achievement, he heard the door opening and the footsteps of someone walking in. The entire game was ruined.
“Geez, why does service have to be completely out now, of all times,” said the guy gruffly in the distance.
“Oh no! Why now?”
“Waaah! Idia?”
“Cater?!”
Why him of all people?! Idia could clearly distinguish Cater’s voice, Cater was very bad news. At this rate, he would talk to Idia to the point that he would never get the satellite done!
“What are you doing down on the bathroom floor, Idia?” Cater asked, perplexed.
“Something important. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No no. You are all goodie. I just… never expected you to be on the bathroom floor.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” Idia silently mumbled to himself.
For an ever-so-brief moment, the atmosphere was quiet and awkward. Cater had a look of hesitance, almost as if he knew this normally happened, yet Idia would have gladly kept it that way. Cater pondered for a moment before sighing in disappointment, back slouching against the wall.
Even Idia could sense the sorrow in Cater's eyes. Idia would have felt bad for him if any of it was his business. There was a satellite that needed to be finished, there was no time for this “sentimental talk.”
“Have you ever thought and asked yourself why people can get so hurtful?” Cater then asked.
Idia could feel himself tensed up upon hearing Cater speak. Idia clearly did not want to engage Cater, but knew he had to mutter out some kind of response, “Uhh, no. What gives?”
Cater had a brief look of shock before attempting to try and take back what he had said, “Oh, it’s nothing much to write home about. It’s just internet discourse, that’s all.”
“Okay…” Idia replied suspiciously. “Yeah, Cater. I don’t know if you know this, but this is the INTERNET we are talking about! It’s a bunch of bozos who like to believe that they are right and will go to great lengths to prove as such. You of all people should know that this is the survival of the fittest, right?” Idia knew he was being harsh by saying this, but was willing to knock some sense into Cater, and give him a taste on how he sees the world.
“Well, yeah, but sometimes I like to think I can try and reason with these people.”
“Have you even been listening? These people can’t be reasoned with, and there is nothing you can do to change that. The best you can do is to suck it up and just let it all pass.”
Cater looked as if he was pondering for a split second before looking back towards Idia, “Hmm, I guess you have a good point. Alrighty then, that helped a lot. Thank you so much, Idia!”
Idia looked back at Cater with a sense of bewilderment. One moment he was all pessimistic and the next he was back to his regular cheery self as if nothing had ever happened. But there was no time to think about this, Idia had a satellite that he needed to finish fixing, so he quickly shook those thoughts away. “‘K, no probs. Now if you can excuse me, I have some business I need to attend to, thank you very much.”
“Okie then,see you and good luck!” Just about when Cater was about to leave, he backed up to ask one last question, “Oh, and by the way, what was it you were working on again?”
Idia let out a large sigh as he ran his hand down his face “Ortho has been missing and I am searching for him.”
“Ah okay, alrighty then… WHA-”
Finally, at class, Deuce and Ace made their way to their seats. Deuce glanced around the classroom, watching as Professor Trein gave snake eyes towards Ace, and at the door where his peers were walking in from. Deuce saw Epel and Jack coming in together, and he thought he could use those last few minutes to say hi to them before class began.
“Epel, Jack, hey!” Deuce shouted.
Both of them took notice, and after waving back, they made their way to sit next to Deuce.
“Hey, how’s it going, dude?” Jack asked with excitement.
“Nothing much really. I barely missed my study guide and homework at my dorm so I was in a bit of a rush to make it there.”
“Oh boy, that must suck. At least you actually managed to grab them in time,” Epel chimed in.
“Haha yeah. I am especially glad that Riddle didn’t catch me.”
“Good! If Vil would have caught me doing the same, he would have definitely ripped me a new one as well.”
“You guys have strict housewardens?” Jack joined in jokingly.
For a brief moment, the trio laughed together, but quickly stopped, it would be best if the professor doesn’t catch on to them. As Deuce thought for a moment, he realized this was a great time to ask Epel and Jack about something.
“Oh, by the way, I was wondering if I could ask about something?” Deuce asked.
“Sure.” Both of them replied.
“Before we got into class, Ace, Grim, and I were talking about going out to the town this weekend, I was wondering if you wanted to join us?”
“I don’t think I have anything planned for this weekend, so sure, might as well,” Jack said. “Oh, but I think we have a track meeting on Monday, so that is something we can’t miss out on.”
“Okay great that sounds like a deal!” After that Deuce and Jack gave each other a fist bump. “How about you, Epel? How does everything look for you?”
Epel hesitated for a moment and didn’t know what to say, but eventually, he found a way to put his words together, “I do wish I could come, but Vil is trying to hold this dumb monthly etiquette training that I have to attend, I don’t know how long that is going to be.”
“Okay then, yeah no worries!” Deuce reassured. “There is no rush so you can come out whenever you feel is best.”
“Sounds great! Hopefully, I can possibly ask Rook to convince Vil for me to come out with you guys afterward.”
There was not much more time for talking until the bell rang, and upon hearing the sound of Trein clearing his throat, the class fell silent. Now with class finally beginning, the test was about to commence.