Chapter Text
"Ugh... My ears are still ringing from that guy..." she grumbled under her breath, hand reaching out to rub her ear as she walked down towards the Hall of Mirrors. Seriously, that Diasomnia freshman was incredibly loud, it hurt to just listen to him. It didn't help that she had to listen to him drone on and on about their housewarden. Like, yes! He's very cool She sighed.
"Still..." she trailed off as she looked at the emblem of her dorm tied to her arm.
"State thy name."
"Ace Trappola." She stood in front of the mirror, the face staring at her intently. She didn’t falter, not one bit. Dressed in the ceremonial robes, all eyes were on her. Expectant. Analyzing. As if they were trying to eat her alive.
"The nature of thy soul is..." Ace secretly crossed her fingers together. Heartslabyul would be nice, as it was the dorm her brother was in when he was studying in NRC. Though she wouldn’t Pomefiore, either.
"Diasomnia!" The mirror announced, and Ace's eyes widened. No way. No way! Did she really just get into Diasomnia?! The dorm with the strongest students?! With THE Malleus Draconia?! You had to be kidding!
"I still can’t believe I got into Diasomnia..." she murmured. She really thought that she'd get into Heartslabyul, like her brother. But no, the Dark Mirror placed her in Diasomnia. The strongest dorm. It was baffling. But, she supposed it had to be related to her powers, in a way.
'It is the dorm where faes usually get sent to the most, isn’t it?' she thought, scratching the back of her head 'Whatever. I'll simply go back to my room and start taking care of the venus flytrap Flora gifted me. I should probably look into the diet, too. Now-'
"WATCH OUT!" Ace let out a yelp when someone collided with her, sending her tumbling down to the floor, a weight settling on top of her.
"Ow..." she let out, blinking. There were a pair of eyes staring right back at her, confusion in them, and way too close for comfort. She blinked again.
"Deuce! Are you okay?!" a voice called out.
"Ah- Uh- I-I'm so sorry!" the person on top of her scrambled up to get off of her, face flushed in both embarrassment and apology. He had short, neatly-combed hair is dark navy blue, with short side swept bangs, cyan eyes, and a big spade drawn over his right eye. His uniform was crimson red, and she recognized the Heartslabyul colour and the armband. Ace huffed as she got up.
"You oughta watch where you're going." she huffed in annoyance, placing a hand on her hip "What normal student comes barrelling down out of nowhere?" she asked.
"I-I didn’t see you, I swear I didn't mean to!" the boy, Deuce, she assumed was his name, insisted.
"We don't have time for this!" Ace looked behind the boy, seeing two girls standing there. One was taller, with short, black hair that barely reached her nape and bright brown eyes. The shorter one had long wavy bleached hair and dyed streaks held in a side tail on the right side by a colorful scrunchie, tanned skin, and bright eyes.
'Those are the two magicless girls that the Dark Mirror summoned...' Ace thought, her gaze sharp. And here she thought that they'd end up getting kicked out, or something. But the Dark Mirror was the one who brought them here. They were chosen to attend Night Raven College, despite not having magic.
"We have to catch Grimmy!" the blonde exclaimed "He's supposed to help us clean the windows!" Grimmy? Who the hell is named that?
"Grimmy?" Ace repeated.
"We have no time to explain." the taller girl said "Sorry for dragging you into this, but could you help us?" she asked. Ace's brows furrowed.
"Why should I?"
"Because we have no magic, and it'd be helpful to have another mage on our side." she immediately responded, as if she had expected that to happen. Ace sighed.
"Sure, but let’s make this quick, I got things to do."
"Grim, get back here!" the taller girl called after the furry creature that was running around the street once they were able to locate it. Ace blinked, watching closer. This was the same cat thing that had crashed the entrance ceremony. Grey fur with a white patch at his chest and pink paw pads, electric blue flames blazing from his ears, a black-and-white striped bow tie torn at the ends around his neck, a tail shaped like a pitchfork. The same damn cat. Huh. So the Headmage also let it stay?
"No!"
"Hey, furball! You better stop right there!" Ace exclaimed.
"Shut it, explodey head! Who even are you?!" the thing talked back to her. That wasn't what pissed her off, though. No, it was what that creature called her. Explodey head.
"Explodey head..?" she repeated, eye twitching. Oh, she was going to send it flying to the heavens, she was going to make sure of it!
"Follow me, Juice!" she ordered as she began chasing after it immediately.
"My name isn't 'Juice'! It's Deuce! With a D!" she heard the boy say. As if she cared about that right now! That furball was going to get it! He still followed after her though, using spells to try and stop him. They both were, while the two magicless girls were running right behind them. But that cat was just dodging and dodging, like nothing! What the fuck!
"Dang it! Why does it have to be so fast on its feet?!" Ace cursed as the cat jumped and dodged her spell.
"What if we try splitting up and cornering him from both sides?" Deuce suggested. Ace deadpanned at him. This was a one-way street. What the hell was he talking about??
"And split up how, Mr. Genius?" she retorted. He blinked, taken aback by her sarcasm.
" Uhh... Umm... Well..."
"That's what I thought." she huffed.
"Less mumbling, more moving!" the blonde girl urged "Grimmy's getting away!" Shit! Fucking hell! Ace let out a groan. Screw it, she's using her wind magic! Obviously, she's not gonna transform, but if she wanted to get this over with, then she had to be smarter than this, like Tecna always advised her.
"Rush of the Gale." she murmured under her breath, stretching backwards her palm. Wind magic concentrated around it before it sent her barrelling forwards, right towards the damn cat.
"What the hell?!" she heard someone exclaim, probably one of the girls. She didn’t focus on that, she focused on her target as she flew past. She twisted her body, using a gust of wind to stop herself from overshooting it even more before she launched herself towards the damn cat.
"MYAAAH!" it cried out, jumping over her. Ace grunted as she fell face first to the floor, face meeting the concrete hard. She groaned.
"Ow..."
"Are you okay?!" the blonde girl asked as she hurried over to her.
"Yeah..." Ace sighed as she sat up, wiping away any dirt or blood "That plan backfired, unfortunately."
"It was a good attempt." the black-haired girl said, helping her up.
"He's getting away!" Deuce exclaimed. Ace felt his brow twitch. Oh, this little shit!
"GET BACK HERE YOU CAT!!"
They continued to chase after the cat all across the school building until they ended up at the cafeteria. The fuckass little creature had climbed up onto the chandelier. "Argh! Stop jumping around like that!" Ace exclaimed.
"Heh heh heh! Catch me if you can!" the cat cackled, like if it had won. As if! Ace was not gonna give up until she got to smack that thing on the back of the head! Kiko was better than him!
"No fair climbing up onto the chandelier, you coward!" Deuce exclaimed "That's too high up... I haven't really learned flight magic yet... What could I summon to hold onto him...?" he murmured.
"Maybe you can use your wind magic to boost yourself up?" the black-haired girl suggested.
"Rush of the Gale is too risky." Ace shook her head "It's too fast, and I'd crash onto the ceiling or the chandelier. And that thing looks old." Old and frail. It could fall at anytime.
"Maybe we really should call the Headmage..." the blonde sweatdropped.
"Oh! That's it!" Deuce snapped his fingers. Ace blinked.
"Did you come up with somethi- Oh, hey! Stop! What are you doing?!" she cut herself off when Deuce pointed his magic pen at her "Why are you pointing your pen at me?!"
"Because I'm going to launch you." he told her. And he said it so calmly, too! What the hell was going on in his mind?!
"You're going to WHAT?!" the blonde squeaked.
"No way does this end well." the black-haired girl shook her head, frowning.
"Are you kidding me?! Don't you dare try it!" she protested, but he didn't listen. Her feet left the ground, and she began to move her limbs in a frantic movement.
"Bwaaah! Put me down! Put me down!" she exclaimed "Seriously, do not launch me! Abort! ABORT!" she pleaded at this point. It was always the last thing she'd resort, but right now, with her mind in overdrive, it just happened.
"Just make sure to grab him tight." that was the only thing Deuce said to her, making her eyes wide in horror. Oh, you had to be kidding her... He was a meathead!
"I've got him in my sights, and... Go!" he swung his pen, and she flew. Without her wings, she was launched.
"BWAAAAAAAH!"
"MYAAAAAAAAH?!"
Ace crashed directly onto the chandelier, hitting her head and her face . Her body began plummeting down to the floor, making rather fast contact with a loud thud. Wasn't the worst of falls, since she's had them worse while in her fairy form. But it still hurt, y'know. She groaned, bringing a hand to her temple. It felt like her head was going to explode, really. And she didn't even get to grab the cat. Just great. What a good plan Deuce had. Really, just the best plan ever made!-
"WATCH OUT!" Ace looked up, seeing the chandelier plummeting down. Down to where she was. Her eyes widened as she quickly used her wind magic, flicking her wrist in a circle. Gusts of wind quickly wrapped around her, as if to form a shield. The chandelier made direct contact with the wind, being sent into the air. The cat creature landed right on top of her.
"Are you okay?!" the blonde girl asked as she scurried over to her, kneeling down by her.
"Could be worse... Nothing broken, thankfully." she grunted as she sat up, looking at the cat. He was all curled up on her lap, tail swishing nervously. She paused. Oh. Now she felt bad. And now she was even angrier at Deuce. Her face ached, so it was most likely bruised from impact. She felt around it, wincing at a few spots. Great. Just great.
"I cannot believe you just did that!" she snapped at him, who flinched like a guilty child.
"Oh, right! I probably should have come up with a way to soften your landing after you caught him..." And that was what he was worried about?! Really?! She would have been fine, being in the air and the wind in itself is her specialty! Musa really was right, boys were fucking stupid at times! She was going to throttle him!
"You complete and total moron! That's not what I'm talking about!" she gently gave the blonde (she really needed to learn her and the black-haired girl's names) the cat and then stomped over to the boy "Can you not think before doing something mountain levels of dumb?! Why would you launch me?! We could have borrowed a broom and flown up to the chandelier! But NO! You decided to be stupid and now the chandelier is broken! Great job!" he was shrinking with each word that came out of her mouth. Which, good! These were the consequences of his actions that she got dragged into!
"I-I-"
"What have you done this time?!" the Headmage's voice boomed throughout the cafeteria. Ace looked up, eyes wide. Oh, shit. He looked pissed.
"You four again!" he snapped at them "Damaging a statue wasn't enough for you? Now you've destroyed a chandelier and harmed a fellow student?!" Damaging a statue? They damaged a statue? Like, one of the statues of the Great Seven?! Genuinely?!
"You guys did what?!" she exclaimed.
"He started it!" the cat pointed at Deuce.
"I didn't!"
"Yes you did!"
"Can we please calm down?!"
"But!-"
"Enough. All of you are expelled." Ace's jaw dropped as the Headmage pointed at all of them but her with his staff. All of them?!
"WHAAAAAAAT?!"