Chapter Text
Well this is a fun place to be, Yuu thinks to himself sarcastically. If only there were anything I could do except just sit here and look pretty.
Upon entering the Housewarden meeting, there had been a long few seconds of everyone else in the room awkwardly staring at Yuu.
Yuu had shuffled in place for a moment before raising his hand. “...Hey guys. I’m the, uh…Ramshackle Prefect.”
“Headmage Crowley,” Riddle said, turning to the man sitting at the head of the table, “Yuu made a very good point that he should be part of these meetings as the Housewarden of Ramshackle.”
“Can one even be a Housewarden without students to ward?” the boy with the glasses said thoughtfully.
Yuu raised his eyebrow at the boy; he simply smiled back, infuriatingly smug.
Any god out there, please tell me how to get through this meeting without getting ragebaited, Yuu prayed, despite not being religious.
Crowley had hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose you make a good argument…okay!” He pointed right at Yuu. “My dear prefect, if you would please sit next to Rosehearts.”
And so, here Yuu is now, awkwardly sitting right in between Riddle and…one of the other Housewardens that he doesn’t really know.
Well, kinda. This is the guy that almost rocked Yuu’s shit back in the botanical garden while they were gathering chestnuts for Trey’s tart—but all Yuu knows about this guy is that his name is “Leona.”
Jack’s Housewarden, then, Yuu notes. His eyes roam over the other Housewardens, categorizing them based off of the color of their arm bands.
Cater had given Yuu a rundown of all the dorms, so he’s able to recognize the Octavinelle and Scarabia Housewardens. The Octavinelle Housewarden is standing, saying something about a “planning committee” and “kiosks.” Yuu would pay attention, but the moment Azul Ashengrotto - as he introduced himself at the beginning of this little speech - started talking about important things, Yuu’s mind just wandered off.
It’s not his fault! His mind is physically incapable of paying attention to anything like this!
The Scarabia Housewarden turns to Leona and says with a bright smile, “You got those invitations too, right, Leona? We could have run into each other when we were kids!”
Leona scoffs. “Who knows? And also, who cares?”
Holy bad attitude, Yuu internally winces in second-hand dejectedness for the Scarabia Housewarden.
The Pomefiore Housewarden starts to mutter to himself about his makeup, and Yuu turns his attention to him. He’s…unreasonably pretty, to the point where Yuu has to wonder if he’s some type of model. However, Epel’s countless rants about him float through Yuu’s head, and he purses his lips. I mean, he doesn’t seem that bad, but I guess looks can be deceiving.
Riddle sighs and shakes his head. He leans over and mutters to Yuu, “Pomefiore is the only house that regularly calls timeouts to fix their makeup.”
Shit, if I looked anything like that guy, I’d be fixing my makeup every ten minutes too! Yuu can't help but think to himself.
“How can you be so excited to be on TV?” the…floating tablet says.
Yuu blinks. Why is there a- you know what? Nevermind. That’s not even the weirdest thing I’ve seen here. There isn’t an armband to look at for the literal tablet, but going off of the blue color, Yuu’s going to assume that this is the Ignihyde Housewarden. Idia Shroud, Ortho’s older brother, according to the humanoid.
Azul Ashengrotto - and yes, Yuu is now committed to mentally referring to this guy as his full name now - clears his throat, and Yuu promptly spaces out again. Truly nothing against this guy, Yuu just hates business talk.
Yuu mentally swipes the chat away to focus (kind of) back on the conversation.
Crowley is talking, “...concerning the Diasomnia Housewarden. I think that we should induct him into the hall of fame to keep him off the field entirely.”
Yuu had noticed that Malleus Draconia hadn’t been present the moment he stepped into the room - based off of the many pictures of the guy that Sebek has sent to the Soulbond chat - but at those words, he wonders if Crowley had purposefully not invited him. But why would they want to keep him out of the tournament? Is he just bad with magic?
“Ever since Mr. Draconia has enrolled here, no dorm has been able to score a point against him!” Crowley continues.
Yuu blinks. …Okay, definitely not bad with magic. He probably could have inferred that, considering Sebek’s high praise of the guy.
“It did feel completely futile when we faced him,” the Scarabia Housewarden admits.
“That dude totally breaks the game,” the tablet murmurs. “It’s like he has cheat codes enabled.”
Holy chronically online.
As everyone starts to discuss this, Yuu opens up the Soulbond chat.
“...pretty sure my head can’t beat Malleus’,” the Scarabia Housewarden mutters.
“I don’t doubt that,” Leona shrugs flippantly. Damn. “But mine can. Sure, in a battle of brute force, no one can beat him—but in a battle of wits? That’s a different story.”
“Intriguing,” Azul Ashengrotto murmurs.
“The King of Beasts won his throne through cunning and persistence,” Leona continues. “You should all be wrackin’ your brains to come up with a way to beat him! And whoever figures that out will be sittin’ real pretty on the world stage.” His eyes flit to everyone in the room. “Are you going to let a one-in-a-lifetime chance be snatched out from under you?”
“For once, Leona is making perfect sense,” the Pomefiore Housewarden crosses his arms. “That plan is utter nonsense. It reeks of some kind of unconscious bias on your part, Headmage, and I despise that sort of thing.”
As everyone voices their agreements with Leona, Yuu opens the chat again.
“I think we all have our answer,” Leona is saying to Crowley.
Crowley sighs dejectedly. “Fine, fine. But if this year ends up being a repeat of the last two years, he’s definitely going in next year.”
“It won’t be a repeat of the last two years,” Leona promises.
Yuu suppresses a shiver down his back. That look in Leona’s eye…it isn’t just simple confidence or determination, it’s something more. Darker.
…These guys are weird, Yuu decides. But at least I know Riddle…?
“Where is Malleus?” the Pomefiore Housewarden asks with a raised eyebrow. “Wait…did everyone forget to invite him again?”
…
“Ah,” Riddle says, ducking his head in embarrassment.
“Oops!” the Scarabia Housewarden laughs.
Yuu sighs. Very weird. But oh well—might as well keep coming to these meetings.
“So are we serious about this?” Yuu asks the group seriously. “Are we actually doing this Spelldrive Tournament together?”
“I’m not joining,” Sebek says curtly.
“We know,” everyone else replies.
“I think we should do it,” Ace shrugs. “I mean, hey, I know damn well Housewarden isn’t letting me join Heartslabyul’s team.”
“I’m down!” Epel nods. “You guys are way more interesting than the other Pomefiore students. Those guys’re so obsessed with lookin’ ‘pretty’ and all that sissy stuff.”
Yuu pauses, turning to Epel with a raised eyebrow. “...That’s not a bad thing, Epel. I’ve seen your Housewarden, that guy is gorgeous.”
“Putting effort into your appearance isn’t a bad thing,” Jack agrees.
Epel withers under both of their questioning stares. “No, you guys are right. It’s just way too stuffy in that dorm! So I’m playin’ with you guys.”
“I…want to think about it for a bit,” Jack admits. “It’s not that I’m opposed, but I am still a Savanaclaw student. I want to try my hand with them first.”
“Understandable,” Deuce nods. “I want to do the same with Heartslabyul.”
“So you guys are putting your dorms over your literal Soulmates?” Yuu asks, sighing dramatically as he leans on Epel. Epel steps to the side and Yuu goes down flailing.
“So when Sebek does it then it’s fine, but when we do it then it’s bad?” Jack deadpans.
“I’ve set a precedent that I value my dorm over you all,” Sebek shrugs.
“What a prick,” Ace clicks his tongue.
“We must focus!” Ortho claps his hands. “Yuu-san, I would be honored to join Ramshackle’s Spelldrive Team.”
Yuu hums in surprise. “I thought you were with Ignihyde…?”
“I changed my mind,” Ortho replies happily.
“Does your brother know?” Epel asks.
Ortho pauses. “...Yes!”
Yuu raises an eyebrow but doesn’t push. “Ok, so that’s Epel and Ortho…Ace?”
“Yeah why not.”
“Cool, so counting myself and Grim, that’s five of us.” Yuu notes this down in his notes app. “Also, you guys wanna sleep over? I have a packet for Alchemy that I’ve been putting off.”
“...The packet that’s due tomorrow?” Jack says slowly.
“I’m a procrastinator,” Yuu shrugs. “So is that a yes?”
“Hell yeah!” Epel cheers. “I’ll go grab my stuff right now!” And with that, he sprints off towards the Hall of Mirrors.
“...That guy was way too ready to go grab his stuff,” Ace squints at the figure still running up the hill from Ramshackle.
“Well, I’m down to study,” Deuce nods. “Ace, let’s go get our stuff.”
“Whatever.”
“You guys wanna join?” Yuu turns to the last three.
“...I suppose I can spare a few hours,” Sebek hums, checking his watch.
“Same—I was planning to study for History of Magic,” Jack nods. “I’ll be right back, I need to go grab my stuff from my dorm.”
“Ortho?” Yuu turns to the last member.
Ortho nods. “I would love to! Let’s go!” And just like that, he floats right into Ramshackle.
…I guess he is a humanoid, so he doesn’t need stuff like food, Yuu thinks to himself.
Even after about a month or so of attending Night Raven College, Epel isn’t ashamed to admit that he still doesn’t really get how the scheduling system works. Sometimes he has classes with only first years, sometimes it’s a mix between first and second years, and sometimes it’s a mix of all three years. It literally makes no sense.
So, here he is, partnered with Jack in a mixed first-second year Alchemy class. Now that Epel’s in the Spelldrive Club, he can recognize a few familiar faces; that one Pomefiore guy that only focuses on his “aesthetics” during practice, that one Savanaclaw hyena Beastman that’s super fast, and that one Heartslabyul second year that’s absolutely trash at aiming.
[ Three pinches of pixie dust. ] Jack instructs. [ You know, you’re pretty good with potions. ]
[ It’s just like cooking. ] Epel shrugs. He sprinkles the pixie dust in, and they both back away as a large pink fume explodes out of the cauldron. [ I dunno, I’ve never had trouble with potions. ]
They’re practicing using the ‘call’ feature of the Soulbond, as it’s a lot faster than the actual ‘chat’ feature. Especially after Riddle’s Overblot; even though it probably won’t happen again, it’s good to get used to using it just in case of emergencies.
At least, that was Yuu’s reasoning. Epel’s fine with it; it just makes him and Jack look cooler, because to everyone else, they’re not communicating at all and still managing to get the potion perfect.
Suddenly, there’s a shout, and commotion breaks out from somewhere behind Epel. Jack’s ears perk up and his head snaps towards the direction; a second later, he’s grabbing Epel’s sleeve, yanking him in the opposite direction. [ Epel, move! ]
[ Jack, what the- ]
Boom!
Epel turns his head to find one of the cauldrons knocked over, an acidic green liquid oozing out of it, and someone covered in it from head to toe. It takes Epel a moment to realize it’s his Pomefiore upperclassman that’s on the Spelldrive Team; one moment, he’s standing there—and the next, he sways over dangerously.
Luckily, Professor Crewel is there in an instant to catch the student. “Everyone, out,” he commands, and all of the rest of the students quickly shuffle out of the classroom.
[ Jack, what happened?! ] Epel asks over the commotion of all the students whispering about what just happened.
Jack’s eyebrows furrow. [ …It was weird. The cauldron was fine, but then suddenly, that guy pushed it over. Completely out of nowhere. ] He jerks his head in a specific direction, and Epel follows the movement. His eyes land on a Diasomnia second year, who’s staring at his hands in shock, his face pale; it’s the guy that had been partnered with Epel’s teammate.
[ He looks guilty—like it could have been an accident. ] Epel says slowly. [ But…but it’s not like cauldrons are light. He had to have been using force to push it over. ]
[ Yeah. ] Jack agrees. [ It’s…weird. ]
And Epel couldn’t have known it yet, but this wouldn’t be the first time a ‘weird’ occurrence like this would happen.