Chapter 8: OUR HAPPY TEACHER ALMOST GETS US KILLED
Ms. Happi looked happy. She walked in, like "alright class, settle down." She wrote her name in big letters like: "MS. H-A-P-P-I." And, she wrote a small phrase below: "not H-A-P-P-Y", as if telling the students, spell her name correctly: no if's, but's, or "y's."
See, something was up with her. Ms. Happi just had this vibe – you know, the kind that's like 'hey, I get paid pennies, but I still love my job!'
For one, she looked genuinely excited to teach teenagers.
She tied her chestnut-brown hair into what she probably thought was a stylish bun, but looked more like a messy bird's nest. Her hands, which could double as a walking advertisement for a boot store, were decked out in glossy nails each painted with tiny, boot designs. She reached up to play with her boot-shaped earrings – because, apparently, one can never have too many boots, right?
And she was wearing boot-themed accessories everywhere… even on her boots.
"Boot-iful, much?" a student called out, snickering.
Ignoring the comment, Ms. Happi twirled around like it was her first year teaching, "It's so nice to meet all of you. Welcome-ahHH!"
She fell. A chalk fell, too. It hit the student who had called out.
Yeah… must've been an accident. Ms. Happi apologized.
"Um, Ms. Happi," The student, who had just been hit on the head, said, "There's this weird floating thing in the classroom."
He pointed to a fuzzy, white ball in the middle of the classroom, which had started to blink.
"Oh, don't worry, that's a yaoguai," Ms Happi said. "What's it doing out here?"
"Should we be worried?"
"No, it usually only eats humans," Ms. Happi said. "Oh, that's right, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm a history teacher at this…"
The friendly yaoguai looked like some sort of fluffy animal. It had these cute little horns and white fur like a dog. It had stubby little feet and stubby little hands. It even giggled cutely.
"...prestigious school, and what better way to start then with a history lesson about Yoguai…"
The friendly yaoguai… opened its adorable mouth, and inside, the students could see a thousand sharp teeth. It roared, and out of its mouth came several smaller versions of itself. It burped shyly, like "guhhh!" Aww, cute.
"Yaoguai, also called Yokai in Japanese, are an amazingly diverse species. Not all of them look like this or like to eat little kids. Some of them are nature spirits…"
Ms. Happi started ranting, but to Steven, it sounded like "nur-wub-blub-words…" Did she forget there was a murderous monster… sorry, murderous monsters in the room?
"Who freed me?" The yokai asked, its copies echoing its words excitedly.
Steven hid his head. He recognized that scraggly voice. The pot from earlier–
"Us," Lucius raised his head. "Hey Steven, why are you hiding your head?"
Note to self: get as far away from Lucius as possible during a life-and-death situation.
"Thank you for freeing me!" The Yokai-thing said cutely. "Do you mind if I eat one of you guys?"
"No, not at all," Lucius said politely, "Eat Sinclair first."
"What, why me?"
"You'll be tastier. You can turn into a snake?"
"What…??"
"But I smell something more delicious here." The Yokai sniffed, like it had caught on to the fact there was a premium, gourmet meal here.
Steven sank further into his seat. Why him? Why could monsters always tell he tasted good?
'No matter, time to eat." The Yokai said, its little copies nodding their heads. They charged ahead like little volleyballs heading straight to their prey.
The swarm of identical monsters pounced on the front row of the students.
Steven closed his eyes, half expecting to see Lucius & Sinclair turn into the Yokai's dinner.
When he opened his eyes, he saw…
Most of the students at the back of the class, trying to shoo the monsters away.
The issue was that these yokai-things seemed invulnerable to physical attacks. One of the students threw a frying pan to no avail. Lucius was throwing these spears of light and trying to make a "yokai-shish-kebab", but those little things were just too good at dodging. The little yokai kept trying to nibble Sinclair, but the green-haired boy was not about to let himself turn into "snake-sashimi".
On the sidelines, Ms. Happi was happily rambling about how this yokai could make "clones", and that they too, could try making "clones" for a school project, soon. First, of all, Steven didn't know what a "clone" was. Secondly…
There was a monster aiming for his head too.
A boot flew in the air, knocking the monster out of the way, and suddenly a suction filled the classroom. All the yokai monsters screamed like a little harmony of wails, like "save yourself!" and "foiled again!" and "my breakfast…"
"Noooo…" the Yokai screamed, the voices growing smaller.
"Oh, look at that," Ms. Happi said, picking up her boot, like her students hadn't almost turned into a yokai's bento box. "Attendance is next. Kindly… raise your hands!"
The teacher swiped her desk.
Not to clean the dust off, no, but to activate the sensor on top. A light flashed and - Ztt! - out came a thin, see-through 'smart-panel'. Just this plain, boring holographic display—the kind that's found in every decent classroom.
Forget about the holographic-smart technology, or whatever…
What Steven really needed was a nap.
He fell asleep again that morning to another weird dream.
It started off normal enough: There were strawberries. Then raspberries. Then blueberries crumbles—a type of pie-cobbler thing—
Steven was about to take a bite, when he realized that he wasn't alone.
"Ah, now that… that is divine."
Steven turned around to check out the source of the voice.
The words came from a compass-looking figure with hands and gears, bolts and parts, metallic hands and legs. Steampunk-looking one second… Modern and holographic the next…
…The figure looked like it was building itself together over and over again, like a perpetual rube Goldberg machine—like a never-ending line of falling dominos, but never satisfied. "Mmm…"
Steven watched the figure eat his pastries. He tried to grab one, but his hands slipped through. And the figures in the room didn't seem to be able to see him.
"I wish I could go down to Earth." The compass figure said again, "I just can't get enough of this delicious blueberry crumble."
For a lonely figure in a faraway place outside time, it sure did enjoy its pastries. It took a quiet sip from a cup, before placing the cup down.
Beside it, a girl spoke.
"Yes, yes, I know." It grumbled, looking at the girl, whose features were shown clearly and vividly, and needed no description, "Stop mothering me. I am too old for this. [clunk-] Remember, I'm older than you by an eternity, so I'm more mature."
The girl spoke again.
"Well, the other g_ds wanted to kill you, but I told them to give you a job here. I saw your potential so do not presume to backtalk, missy."
The girl rolled her eyes. She handed him a report.
"Let's see… so you know the boy died in a rift… dungeon, backstabbed [thunk-] by his best friends, ouch… you're trying to find him, but you don't know where he is?"
Dungeons? Rifts? Steven was so confused. The girl next to him, meanwhile, had turned her head into premium bobble-technology.
She nodded.
"[Tick-], do I look like some kind of 'Find My iCont@ct'?" The figure fingered through the report, causing the sheets to flutter away in huge droves. "Ah-ha! Looks like s_meone powerful [clank-] is messing with time… again. Normally, that boy would have died and reincarnated or sent up or down. And you were asked to bring him in?"
She nodded.
"I think I know what's happening here. You can't go back to apprehend him before he gets backstabbed because that's his… ah, destiny, but you also can't follow the trail of his time anywhere. It is as if a c_rd has been severed."
She nodded.
"Well, I think it's obvious. Wouldn't the boy be seeking revenge now? I mean, come on! Replaying this same, tired tale! He'll return to his younger days where he first meets those shifty [-clickin] backstabbing bastards, most likely in a different guise, pretending to be someone else, so that he can stab those little '[-ack]-holes' and if you play 'spot the differences' with each timeline, you'll be able to figure out who the imposter is." The compass cackled.
"You've done this, right? Can't. You. Look. Further. Ahead-" The compass stopped.
She whispered something and handed another file over.
The compass read it…
"…oh." The compass frowned the only way a compass could. It whirled and fell apart.
Boy? Time? Spot the differences? The words went into Steven's ears and out the other. He imagined a chocolate croissant in his hands.
Voila! It appeared, thankfully. He started to nibble before realizing that the dream hadn't ended.
The girl turned, as if to face Steven.
"Well, you heard them," The girl said. "If it follows the same path again, we will all be screwed."
"Good luck," She continued, "I wish I could do more, but this will be up to you. Find Rain."
The last few words seemed to trail off along with the dream, "find—before—the storm." At least, that's what Steven caught before he woke up again.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone