Chapter Text
Chapter 1
It's dark. All King can see is an endless sea of black, yet he feels stuck and contained. Tucked under his armpit is his trusty light green pillow decorated with a dark green leopard spot pattern. King moves around to see if he can find out where he is, or what is going on.
‘It's a coffin,’ King concluded before hearing a loud yell cry out.
“What?!! You ain’t supposed to be awake!” A different voice yells out.
There’a a lot of movement and noise before it goes quiet again.
‘Am I meant to stay inside this coffin? He said awake, not dead.’ King thinks before spitting to feel it land on his leg. ‘Gross. But now I know I’m standing upright, and not about to be buried.’
A quiet click was heard in the silence, and the coffin door opened to reveal a tall man with a bird mask and hat staring right at him. A bit stunned, King takes a better look at him to see a grey cat tied up in a whip and a young boy dressed in a dark robe with purple and gold accents standing behind the man.
“Look at him! He stayed in his gate unlike you and your familiar!” The masked man cries out to the young boy, gesturing wildly at King.
“He’s not my-” “I ain’t his-”
“Never-mind that!” He responds, rudely interrupting the both of them. “As I am so generous, I, Headmage of Night Raven College, will be leading you to your student orientation. Now hurry, you are quite late!”
Glancing at the young boy, all King can see is confusion in his eyes. He looks down to see that he, too, is wearing the same robe as the boy in front of him. King slowly floats out of the coffin, clutching his pillow tight to his chest, and he flys next to the young boy following the Headmage. The boy looks a bit shocked at Kings flying, but he starts a conversation anyway.
“Hey.. I’m Yuu. Do you know what’s going on?” Yuu spoke.
“I’m..Harlequin” King decides as just saying King would be odd, “I'm sorry but I’m just as lost as you are.”
“All I know is that this is a magic school in a place called Twisted Wonderland.” He kindly informs King, “His name is Dire Crowley, and the weasel is called Grim.”
“Was that coffin the gate the Headmage was talking about?”
Yuu quickly nods before pausing his steps. King also stops and they both watch as the Headmage put his head against the door, eavesdropping the following room.
“Is that all for first-year dormitory assignments?! Listen up, new students. Here in Heartslabyul, I am the rules. Break them and it’s off with your heads!” Ouch
“Ugh… This stuffy ceremony is finally over. We’re going back to the dorm. Savanaclaw, follow me.” Lazy much?
“To all new students, congratulations on entering the academy. Empty your life here to its fullest. As the dormitory leader of Octavinelle, I will support you to the best of my ability.” Oh they aren't staff.
“By the way, where did the Headmaster go? He flew out right during the middle of the ceremony.” Eavesdropping
“Abandoning his post… I wouldn’t blame him.”
“Hey, I dunno about that. What if he got bored?”
“ Where could the Headmaster possibly be?”
“Maybe he got a stomachache or something?”
Slamming the door in the most dramatic way possible, Crowley yells out, “Most certainly not! We had two missing students, and I, ever so gracious, led them to the ceremony.”
Heads quickly turn to the door to see the Headmage with a cat in his whip and two students trailing behind him. The entire crowd is in seven different sections, each and every one of them wearing the same robes as Yuu and King with the hoods up (minus the tablet). Yuu quickly pulls his hood up, embarrassed by all the attention they are getting while King kept his hood down. A redhead is glaring at the two of them while a person with Lion ears (?!) poking out yawns.
“Now,” Crowley turns to Yuu. “Please step in front of the dark mirror to be assigned your dormitory, I’ll watch your weasel.”
“I-Yessir…” Yuu hesitantly replied, walking toward the mirror.
Standing in front of the mirror, a reflection of green flame appears before a mask is seen in the mirror. Both King and Yuu jump backwards at the appearance of a mask in the mirror.
“State thy name,” It orders.
“...Yuu”
The mirror stares at Yuu completely silent before announcing, “The nature of your soul is unclear to me. You have no magic, not a single spark. The color, shape, all are nothing. Therefore, you cannot be suited into any dormitory.”
‘Yuu looks like he expected that,’ King observes. ‘He must have known that he was magicless. Although everyone else is in a state of shock.’
“Impossible! There has never been a mistake in the student selection in a hundred years. An Ebony Carriage would absolutely never meet someone who doesn’t possess magic!” Crowley screamed in shock.
Grim, taking advantage of it, wiggled free and exclaimed, “Why don’t I just take his place! I have magic, I’ll prove it!”
“Duck!” A short red head yelled as soon as Grim started shooting out fireballs from his mouth.
Before the fireball could make any contact, King sent his pillow to intercept the fire. Grim, with its eyes closed, kept shooting out fireballs that the pillow caught with each flick of finger from King. King could see that he was gaining more attention the more fireballs he was stopping with his pillow. A boy with silver hair and glasses had a big grin at the sight of a student floating and effortlessly moving his pillow to shield the crowd.
Calming down from his initial surprise, the red head yelled out, “OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!”
“Gyah!” Grim cried at the sudden appearance of a black and red heart shaped collar on his neck. “Whatever, I’ll burn it off… Eh! I can’t use my fire?!”
“Law 23 of the Queen of Hearts: One shall never bring a cat to a festival.” The redhead states, grabbing the cat by its collar. “You won’t be using your magic anytime soon thanks to my collar.”
“But I’m not a cat!”
Yuu looks out in shock at the sight of magic and cruelty to an animal while King, along with the silver-haired boy, looks impressed with his magic.
“Wow, as wonderful as ever. Any and all magic gets sealed by your unique magic, Riddle.” The silver-haired boy sporting a pair of glasses and business smile claimed.
Riddle hands Grim over to Crowley to which he turns to Yuu, shoving Grim to his face, telling him, “You must discipline it. It’s your familiar after all!”
“He’s not mine,” Yuu stressed. “I tried over, and over to tell you that, but you kept either interrupting or ignoring me.”
“A-ah, so you did..” Headmage stamers before looking down at Grim, “Well then, we must kick you out. You won’t be turned into stew, for I am gracious. Someone help me, please.”
Riddle takes hold of Grim again to throw him out with Grim yelling to the crowd that he will become the strongest magician ever. As soon as the door shuts, the entire room explodes in murmurs of a crazy fire cat, a magicless student, and a weird boy that floating on the pillow that easily stopped all the fire.
‘It seems like being magicless is uncommon’ King thought, ‘What kind of magic is used here? They were wondering about mine. What is Twisted Wonderland? How do I get back to Diane??!”
As King panics, Riddle returns empty handed, and Yuu moves back to stand next to King.
“Now let's sort out your dormitory.” Headmage says to King.
“But I’m really not a stu-”
“Hurry now. We don’t want to keep everyone waiting”
King reluctantly nods before flying over to face the magic mirror, landing softly before it.
“Say thy name,” It commands once more.
“Harlequin”