Chapter Text
Bright light consumed Grim’s vision as he tried to escape the room he had broken into. He only wanted to take a random uniform and become a student at a super high rated magic school! Why was their weird mirror going all haywire?! Wasn’t it just supposed to sort the students into their dorms? Why was it even able to make such a bright light? Why were students dropping like flies? None of it made sense!
The angry red haired guy who put the collar on him was the first to fall. Grim noticed this instantly since the collar had vanished from his neck when the boy closed his eyes. “What?!” the human he had tried taking the uniform from shouted. “What’s going on?!” He cried out as he looked around at the chaos.
More people fell, first a boy with a heart marking and then a boy with a spade marking. After those two, a guy with a diamond marking fell, a green haired guy with glasses following suit mere seconds later. Creepy!
“Leona!” A boy called out, though Grim couldn’t see who it was, the speaker was too far away to be seen through the light flowing in the room. The dire beast could hear more bodies fall to the floor as the light grew more and more blinding.
Nearby, the dire beast saw a guy with glasses stumble into a taller one’s arms. He seemed to stay awake for a few seconds but ultimately slumped over, he would have fallen if the tall guy hadn’t carefully lowered his body to the floor. The tall student held a hand to his head, an identical-looking boy mimicking the action as they fell next to the glasses guy in quick succession.
He looked around and could make out another figure falling, a shorter one running up to him and shaking him. It wasn’t long before the second person fell forward, landing on top of the first.
Scared, the monster hid behind the legs of the boy who he had been chasing less than an hour beforehand. The screams of panicking students didn’t help calm him in the slightest, his paws holding on tighter as he closed his eyes. The light hurt to look at by that point and there was nowhere in the room he could turn to without being met with the blinding rays emanating from the mirror.
A hand landed on Grim’s head before he was lifted up into someone’s arms. His eyes shot open and he looked up at the person who picked him up, ready to yell and kick and scratch. “Hey! Don’t pick up the Great Grim like this!” He started before taking in the expression on their face.
It was the same boy he had just been hiding behind, now with a smile on his face as he held Grim in a way that felt almost protective. He said something that Grim couldn’t make out, the noise of the room too much for his ears to handle. The dire beast's complaints died on his tongue as he hid his face in the boy’s chest, seeking solace from all the noise and light.
The boy holding him tightened his grip as three more bodies fell. A loud bang had Grim further cowering into the protective embrace, a robotic voice saying something he couldn’t make out before there was a clang of a metal body hitting the floor.
There was a call of a name and footsteps echoed through the chaos. Grim turned his head to try and peek at whatever the source was but went back to his hiding spot as a super tall guy with horns fell to the ground, three people surrounding him and falling one after another. He thought he could make out the word ‘father’ at some point but his ears could have been playing tricks on him.
The arms holding him loosened their grip, causing Grim to look up. No, no way. The boy had a dazed look on his face, his eyes falling shut as he swayed dangerously. “Hey!” The dire beast hit the boy’s face with his paw as he fought to escape the hold he was in. “Let me go! Don’t fall!”
His words fell on deaf ears, the boy swayed and fell backwards. As he fell, his arms dropped to his sides, giving Grim an escape before he landed on the ground. It was a close call, but now his protector was asleep just like the rest! “Wake up!” He called out, shoving the boy’s face and shaking his arm. “Get up!”
There was no response from the sleeping boy and Grim growled, about to wake him up by setting him on fire. The flames built up in his mouth but before he could release them, he fell on top of the sleeping figure, his eyes forcing themselves shut against his wishes.
The room that Grim woke up in was not the room he had fallen asleep in. He had been at Night Raven College, ready to take a student’s spot and become the greatest mage in the world. This weird room was not, in fact, the Mirror Chamber of Night Raven College.
Grim looked around and noticed that there were a bunch of people in the room with him. He was the only one awake, everyone else laying scattered on the floor between rows of chairs. Some of the people still asleep were people he had seen fall unconscious during the orientation ceremony. Had they all been moved after all the chaos with the strange light?
Next to him lay the boy who had picked him up, his face scrunched up in sleep as though he were uncomfortable. Served him right for almost falling and crushing Grim! The dire beast hit his face in an attempt to wake him up but the boy didn’t move. He tapped even more but still received no reaction. With a huff, the dire beast moved on to try and wake up the others.
Not a single one of them stirred.
It wasn’t scary. Grim wasn’t scared, not in the least. He was just fine! The Great Grim didn’t get scared over such things like magical lights and being alone in a room of sleeping people. In fact, him waking up first just proved his ultimate strength! He was better than all these people that were still knocked out. Nobody could beat the Great Grim! However, he was getting bored, so he began to explore the room to distract himself from his bored-ness. That was all. Definitely.
The room had a giant screen of some sort in the front, rows of chairs lining the room with a path in the middle for going between the rows. There were steps on the path as each row of chairs went higher and higher. In the back, at the top of the steps, were two doors that Grim tried to open. Neither door would open so he tried setting them on fire, only to realize that he was unable to produce flames. It was like that red haired boy’s collar was still on him even though he wasn’t wearing it anymore!
With his lack of success with the doors, Grim went back to exploring each row of chairs, trying once more to wake up each boy he passed. None of them budged.
Were they locked in? Trapped? Neither of those ideas appealed to the dire beast and he sprinted back to the magicless boy before he could think too much about either one. He growled at the still sleeping boy and went back to hitting him in the face in an attempt to wake him up. His hits were relentless but did no damage, his soft paws not made for injuring people when his claws were retracted. Seeing as the boy still refused to wake, Grim quickened the pace of his taps.
Finally, the boy groaned. “Wake up!” Grim shouted after the boy tried to shove his paw away.
“Five more minutes…” The boy mumbled as he turned away from Grim. He seemed to reach for an object that wasn’t there. “What the—?” His eyes shot open and he looked around. “Where—? Who—? What—?” He cut himself off before he could get any actual questions out.
Grim simply stared down at him with a glare. “About time! Get up!”
“A talking weasel?” The boy murmured as he stared up at Grim with zero recognition in his eyes. Did he hit his head or something? Did he not remember Grim?
“For the last time, I ain’t a weasel! I am Grim the Great!”
The boy sat up, the sudden motion making Grim jump back slightly. “What happened?!” He held a hand to his head. “I was having the weirdest dream and then people started falling. There was a weird mirror thing and a bright light.” He rubbed his temple. “Grim? Oh, right! You’re the weasel that tried to steal those weird robes I was wearing!”
“I’m not a weasel!” Was the human deaf? Could he not even understand what Grim was saying? “I am Grim! Future extraordinary mage!”
“Right, sorry. My memory is all fuzzy.” The boy’s hand moved from his head and he held it out for Grim to shake. “I’m Yuu, it’s nice to meet you when you’re not setting everything on fire.”
Grim huffed at the words but shook the offered hand. “I can’t use my flames or I’d have been outta here by now!” He complained.
“What? What does that mean?”
“It means I ain’t got my magic! I can’t break us outta here!”
“What?!” The boy looked around and seemed to only just realize where they were. “What is this place? Where are we? It looks like a movie theater.”
Grim wished he knew, he wanted to blast the wall with fire and escape, but no matter how much he tried, no flames formed. “I dunno what a movie theater is but I know we can’t get out.”
“Well this just gets better and better.” The boy sighed and stood up. “I’m gonna look for a way out, maybe you missed something.”
Grim glared at the boy for daring to imply that he would miss something during his search. “Go ahead! There’s no way out!” He stomped off to go try and wake up more people, starting with the ones that looked strong. His first victim was the super tall guy with horns.
Nothing.
The super tall green haired guy who looked pretty muscley was his next victim.
Nothing.
Okay, maybe the guy with Silver hair that was asleep next to the tiny guy with pink in his hair would wake up!
Nothing.
No, instead of all of those better options, the tiny guy with pink hair was the one who woke up. Grim hadn’t even been trying to wake him up! One moment he was leaning over the silver haired boy and the next moment he was pinned to the ground with angry red eyes glaring down at him.
“What were you doing with Silver?” The boy growled, sending fearful shivers down Grim's spine.
“I was just tryin’ to wake him up! We’re all trapped in here and I thought he could help!”
His eyes immediately softened and the hand holding Grim down released its pressure. “Oh.” The boy pulled Grim to his feet and dusted off the fur that got messed up in the exchange. “My bad, I thought you were attempting to harm my dear underclassman.” He said the words so casually, as if he didn’t just scare the fur off of Grim mere seconds ago.
“What’s going on?” The boy, Yuu, ran over to them. “Oh! Someone else is awake! Think you can help me find a way out of here? This place looks like a movie theater but there’s no exit and Grim can’t use his magic.”
“How concerning.” The nameless boy stood up and looked around. “My name is Lilia Vanrouge, I’ll gladly help you with finding a way out! What are your names?”
“I’m Yuu, this is Grim.” Yuu pointed at himself when saying his own name and pointed at Grim when introducing the dire beast. “It’s nice to meet you Lilia, we’ll try to catch you up while we search.”
A low groan interrupted them before they could begin their search. “Lord Malleus?” A deep voice spoke in a quiet tone before the green haired boy sat up and shouted. “LORD MALLEUS?!”
Yuu and Grim both covered their ears while Lilia just let out a laugh. Grim wasn’t so sure about this group of people being very helpful but it seemed they were who he was stuck with.
Great.