Chapter 5: Chapter 5: A Shitty Day
Words that made absolutely no sense spilled from Iruma's mouth. They were that. Just words. And yet, my skin started to crawl as the first one left his tongue. It was as if the very air had turned slimy.
I shuddered and looked around. The other students were acting odd. They were trembling and doing their best to hold something back. Was it so much of a surprise that I started to panic a bit? What had happened? What was going on?
I prepared to rise from my seat. This wasn't normal. The air was thick as molasses. My muscles tensed.
The students shot to their feet.
"Hell yeah!!!"
"Holy shit!"
"That was amazing!"
The students roared. Primal shouts of joy and excitement echoed through the gymnasium. I didn't know what to say.
"This guy's badass!"
"Doesn't he know what that spell does?!"
"Of course he does! It's why he did it!"
"He's got some balls!"
Spell?
Someone rushed up to the stage. Panic and fear were clearly on the boy's face.
…
I stood there, shocked at what he said. A forbidden spell? Iruma had just chanted one of the most dangerous forbidden spells? Why? HOW?!
"Your arms and legs would have been blown away if you'd made a mistake!"
The boy quickly turned, changing his worried look into one of admiration.
"Not bad, though! Good job!" he said and gave Iruma a thumbs up. "that was kind of cool!"
I was going to kill Sullivan.
————————————
"A fucking anti-trip charm?" I balked. "That's what the 'great' forbidden spell does?"
I wanted to scream. Magic was real, but apparently, it sucked. Either that or maybe someone was drunk when they made that spell.
"H-Ha… yeah," Iruma grumbled, eyes falling down to the ground as we walked through the halls. "It was kind of scary…"
No shit. I'm more pissed than scared, though.
"Just don't read any of the crazy stuff that demon gives you," I said with a sigh. Did we have to start treating everything as if it were a bomb? I guess this was a good reminder of how crazy that old bastard was.
"Forget about that," Iruma said with a sigh. "What's our first class? I kind of didn't pay attention."
Class?
…
"Hell, I wasn't really paying attention either," I said with a shrug. "I'm not really all that interested in school."
Iruma's lip rose into a tiny smile.
"It does kind of suck, but we should at least try to fit in." He shivered and took a quick look around. "We've already gotten a lot of attention, after all."
Silent eyes bore into Iruma's back. Just about everyone we passed took a moment to stare at him. Was this part of Sullivan's plan? What even was his plan?
"I guess standing around would make a bigger scene," I said with a grumble and nodded. "We should probably ask someone or something."
Iruma nodded.
"We can split up and-"
"Nope," I said and cut him off right there. "Not letting you go off alone in this place."
There were literal demons just walking around. That girl over there had snakes for hair! Heck, there was an eight-foot-tall guy that looked like some sort of dragon!
"I-"
Something crashed into me. It didn't hurt and was actually a bit soft.
"S-Sorry," a sensual voice called out from behind me. I turned and found a thing looking at me. It was wearing a girl's uniform, but it didn't look like a girl. It was like some sort of starfish crossed with a cone or something. Her body was a mix of pink and purple.
"Don't worry about it," I said with a shrug.
This "girl" had a single eye and no nose. She also had incredibly long eyelashes. What was she?
She paused for a moment.
"You're cute," the girl eventually said.
…
What? Huh? Cute? Who?
"Are you talking to me?" I asked incredulously. Was this some sort of prank? Iruma had told me about this sort of stuff. Girls were cruel creatures that tricked and made fun of boys by pretending to confess to them. Was this it?
"Of course," the strange "girl" said and winked her three eyelashes seductively. Ha! As if that would work on me.
"Not interested," I answered and turned around. This wasn't the time for stupid pranks. "Iru-"
"…"
What. The. Hell! Where was he?! I looked away for a minute! Why was he always so damned good at disappearing like that?!
"I-I'm sorry," the strange creature asked, surprised at my blunt answer.
I didn't give her a second thought and walked away. God damn it, Iruma!
———————
Iruma was many things, but easy to find was not one of them. I'd never once beaten him in a game of hide and seek when he was actually trying. That probably wasn't what was going on now, but it didn't help my mood. That was the thing with Iruma. He was kind, and generous, but also caused all sorts of grief for those that cared about him. He'd often get into trouble "helping" others.
It was usually my job to get him out of those messes because his parents sure as hell didn't care.
"Oh! Do you mean the guy who did the speech?" the short, green-haired girl asked with a toothy grin.
"Yes," I grumbled. "Have you seen him?"
"Nope!" she replied with a smile. "But I'm sure you'll find him!"
She was no help either. I shook my head and asked the next person to walk by. The blond guy was playing some sort of game, so I almost gave up after asking him once. He clearly wasn't paying attention.
"Huh? Oh! I think I saw him leading that honor student off to a duel or something."
"A what?" I hissed.
"Oh man, you must really be sheltered if you don't know what those are," he said with a laugh. "You know? The thing where you fight another person? They're fun to see!"
"…"
"I think the honor student might have been a bit pissed about having his speech stolen from him. Want to go place bets?"
"Where?" I asked, my voice low.
"Huh? Oh, the courtyard on the east side of the school."
I nodded and bolted past him. There was no time to wast-
"Hey! You're going west!" the blond kid called out.
West?
"What's the difference?" I grumbled. "East means right, right?"
"Like, what? No? East is east and west is west!"
Yeah. Ok. I'd officially run out of patience.
I walked on over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Take me there."
East? West? It didn't matter. I had a guide now.
The kid blinked and then let out a laugh.
"You're a funny guy, you know? Alright! Come on, it's this way!"
That was usually enough to scare people into doing what I wanted. I mean, he was still doing it, but he wasn't scared.
This whole place was full of weirdos
"Name's Shax, by the way. Who are you?"
"Lee."
—————————————-
Iruma and I were alike, but also a bit different. I had no gripes saying he was smarter than me when it came to most things. I sucked at math, telling directions, and a whole much of other things. But I knew a lot more about the world than him. I knew how people would lie, steal, cheat, and abuse their power whenever possible.
Iruma knew a bit about this too, but he clearly wasn't smart enough to keep it in mind all the time.
Why the hell would he follow someone to a fight?! Obviously, he wasn't the one to start it! Here I was, worrying so much about him and trying to keep him out of trouble and he was doing stuff like this! Couldn't he have just talked to me about it? I'd have kicked the shit out of anyone that messed with him!
"You look pissed," the blond guy leading me said with a frown. "What? You wanted to go and see how tough the honor student was?"
I bit my lip and held my tongue. There wasn't a point fighting with this guy. He was the one taking me to Iruma, after all.
"I-"
A deafening explosion struck the nearby window. The glass cracked but was otherwise ok. I ran up, pushing it open. What I saw made my blood boil.
That pampered flop was throwing fireballs at my little brother! Iruma was shaking like a leaf, but he jumped away from each of the guy's attacks. Like a ballerina, he weaved in and out with expert precision.
My little brother was good at dodging- almost supernaturally so, but he couldn't keep it up forever. I jumped out of the window, ready to charge at the idiot who'd tried to hurt Iruma.
I didn't need to. By some quirk of fate, Iruma managed to get his legs around the idiot's neck. The two fell to the ground and there was a crack.
Did he just…
Iruma's eyes shot open and he jumped away. His opponent was on the ground, clearly unconscious and he probably had a messed up neck too.
I didn't know what to say at first. What the hell just happened?
———————
The first day was far from over, but Iruma had already made a name for himself. First, he was bold enough to chant a forbidden spell during orientation. Secondly, he "effortlessly" handled an honor student. Apparently, that guy was from a famous family or something.
It didn't matter to me all that much. Point was, just about everyone knew who "Iruma" was. Our idea to "lay low" had crumbled before the first day was even out.
This was definitely the sort of "bad luck" that cursed the both of us.
…
At least neither of us had been hurt.
"I'm sorry," Iruma whispered. "Someone needed help with directions, and before I knew it I wound up there…"
I wanted to scream.
"Don't worry about it," I said with a sigh. "Look, just try not to leave my sight."
He blinked and furrowed his brow.
"Lee, I know this place is dangerous, but I'm not a little kid."
Seriously? He chose now of all times to start growing a spine? It was the sort of thing I always wanted for him, but now wasn't the time!
I sucked in a breath and turned my attention back to our "class." It wasn't really a class. I'd say it was more of a tour. They were showing everyone around and then we'd have more free time to explore the campus.
This place was more of a castle than a damned school…
"I need to take a shit," I told him flat out. The girls behind us gasped and then started whispering amongst themselves.
As If I cared.
"Try to stay out of trouble, ok?"
Iruma smiled sweetly. It was that kind of smile he did that sparkled sometimes.
"Will do," he said nervously and gave me a thumbs up.
We didn't have arguments very often, but they still happened. I just needed a bit of time to de-stress while I took a crap.
Unfortunately, the world wasn't so kind as to let me have that. Finding a bathroom was easy enough, though i did get lost a bit.
"Hey, this is my spot. Get lost, freshman."
A tall, muscular demon stopped me when I tried to enter one of the stalls. He looked like that green guy from that one movie that loved his swamp. Shiek or something?
"Look, I'm just here to take a dump. I've had a very stressful day, so can you just let me have this?"
He must have been twice my height. The demon jiggled as he laughed.
"Get out before I kick your ass, kid. Find the bathrooms on the other side of the school."
…
Ok.
I calmly walked up to the bathroom's sinks and turned them on one at a time.
"What the fuck are you doing?" he growled and stood over me menacingly.
"Just making it a bit easier to clean up." And with that, I punched him in the face. Once. Twice. Thrice. He was like one of those stress balls I tried to get Iruma to hit once. Yeah. Very pliable and fun to hit!
"S..w..y…"
He gurgled out.
Oh, right. I didn't want to hurt him too badly.
"I'll call a teacher or something," I said and stepped over him, opening one of the stalls. "Let me just take a crap real quick."
Just in case, I left the door open so I could see him. Didn't want him dying on me, after all.
"Ah… that feels great," I said with a satisfied smile.
There really wasn't anything like a good shit to work out some stress.
I guess beating up some demon's ass helped too.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone