A Solicitous One

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|| CHAPTER 35 | A Solicitous One ||

"A soul that worries over its death, and a breath that holds anxiousness towards the life it bears within its wings.

"A solicitous one, they say. A pair that's been broken apart, and came back as a new piece altogether.

"Little one, tell me, what do think about your worries? Do you drown yourself in them? Suffocate in the hands of your anxieties that choke you to death. Or do you fight them? Face them head-on and for the rewarding peace to stay and linger with you until the next one arrives?

"Either way, we all have different ways to cope with our worries.

"Fret not, for no path is the right route for all to walk on."

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Shizuka suddenly stood up, calling out for the new student as she walked towards him.

The said elf brightened up at the sight of his dear Shizuka, planning to hug her once she arrived at his desk. But what he didn't expect was her slamming her hands on his table while peering close to his face.

Blinking, Cyth couldn't process Shizuka's words.

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"Replace me."

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"Eh...?"

"Huh...?"

The whole class was left dumbfounded at the two words she just said.

"Okay–– wait, what did you just say?" Cyth asked once again, trying to comprehend what the female just said. He was so sure that he was hearing things, but that was NOT confirmed when the female Ichijou repeated her words.

"Replace me. As class representative," Shizuka cleared up with a straight face, showing her seriousness in the matter.

"Wha––?! You can't do that!!" Yuzuru exclaimed in panic, trying to get his sister to keep being class representative.

If Cyth was to be the class representative, the whole class would probably be in chaos. Moreover, they didn't know how good the light elf would be able to take care of them all.

"Uh, yeah, I can."

"No, you can't!"

"Yes, I can."

"You can't!"

"I can."

"No. You. Can. Not." Yuzuru stated his opinion firmly, hoping that his sister would give up on not wanting to be class representative, despite clearly having the most vote. However, deep down, he knew that it would take more than that to defeat the stubborn Shizuka.

His stern look was met with a sly grin. Suddenly, shivers went down his spine as he shook slightly. Yuzuru noticed how time stopped almost immediately for a second when Shizuka's smile widened itself into that of a Cheshire Cat.

'I got a bad feeling about this,' Yuzuru kept to himself, trying hard to think about what Shizuka was planning on doing.

"Fine, then." Shizuka crossed her arms and turned to look at Cyth once more, a scheming look visibly plastered across her doll-like face. "Then, as a class representative, I will now pass my position to Cyth. Problem solved~!"

Yuzuru stared at his sister with his jaw dropped as the latter skipped back to her seat without a care in the world.

In the midst of both the Ichijou siblings' verbal quarrels, Cyth celebrated with a proud grin while jumping up and down. The whole class slouched down as they melted into their seats, spirits gone with no hope of clearing their title of the year's most chaotic and problematic class.

'WE'RE DOOMED!!'

Isseiris and Asuma mused at their behaviour, as the latter clapped his hands to get the children's attention.

"All right then, so the class president will be Cyth and Isseiris will be the vice~! It's settled now that th––"

"Wait, wait, wait, Teach!! Wait for just a second!! We can't just let the new kid be the class representative!" Elloise complained to Asuma as he stood up from his seat.

"We're bound to be doomed if he's class president!!!" Zannera also added.

Orion also shouted from in front of him, "He even hugged a girl and invaded her personal space!!!"

"Hooo~??"

"Fufufufu~"

"I think someone's got a cr––"

"HUHHH?! WANT ME TO BEAT YOU UP?!!" Orion got up and tried to beat Avangenille, Yllfore, and Nerea. He didn't care if they were girls, he was going to beat them up!! Until... "OI, LET GO OF ME!!"

"Oh, that will not do, Orion! You can't just beat up girls just because you're angry!" Cyth held him back as the angry male became more furious.

"WHAT?! I DON'T WANNA HEAR THAT FROM YOU, YOU DAMN GOLDFISH!!"

"But I never beat up girls though."

"YEAH! YOU JUST INVADED THEIR PERSONAL SPACE LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!!"

"Haha, this year's newbies are all unique I see, hahaha~"

Asuma watched his students argue as he elegantly sipped his tea, which... appeared out of nowhere... Again. Silently pouring another cup, he offered a cup to Shizuka, who stood nearby, only to receive a nervous laugh from the girl.

"Ashitaka-sensei, I'm surprised you can be so outgoing when your class is a whole chaos right now," Shizuka pointed out in hopes of the man breaking the fight going on. She tiredly let out a small huff and grinned.

The khaki-headed man laughed along, giving Shizuka her portion of tea whilst finishing his own. "Nah, it's fine. It's better for the class to get along and interact like this rather than having a serious and dull one. Don't you think so too~?"

"That is a... valid point, Ashitaka-sensei," nodded Shizuka hesitantly as she finally agreed to his peculiar reasonings.

"Don't just sit there! What kind of teacher are you?!" Kishi exclaimed at his over-relaxed teacher, trying to get the two troublemakers away from fighting each other.

Mizuto held Cyth back from unknowingly provoking Orion further, struggling to do so when the elf was an unstoppable chatterbox.

"Ashitaka-sensei! You're supposed to break them up!!" supported Mizuto towards Kishi's statement.

"Hahaha~ Ahh... Youth~!"

The whole class deadpanned at their teacher's antics, deciding to let him be since he's hopeless. Shizuka sighed and walked towards the two rowdy, loud, obnoxious, annoying–– okay, I'll stop here. Ah-hem, PRECIOUS and BELOVED classmates of hers.

She separated the two by walking between them, holding Cyth's head back, and placing her other hand on Orion's shoulder. She spoke, "Come on, break it up. Cyth, be on your best behaviour and don't cause trouble, please. You're the class president and the class representative. That means you represent ALL of us."

Shizuka then looked at the golden-blonde elf seriously as he gulped. His body tensed up, seeing the platinum-blonde-haired girl so serious. He hesitantly nodded before the female finally let go of him. Turning her head towards the vivid red-eyed male, Shizuka then said, "And you, mister..."

She paused for a second, choosing her words wisely, before continuing, "... Just... try to hold yourself back. I appreciate your worry, but beating up girls–– or boys–– isn't very nice."

Shizuka left for her seat and flopped down in exhaustion after giving those firm warnings. The whole class stared at her in amazement and surprise. They finally sat down after Asuma told them to. They went on their day in silence. It was peaceful for the platinum-blonde-haired girl–– until her brother shouted.

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"Oi! What the hell did you do to my book?! Yuzuru shouted at Cyth as he just winked at him. A star could be seen when he winked, and Yuzuru's veins popped.

He chased the golden-blonde male around the room. The class was just too tired to deal with their antics as the current teacher tried to calm them down.

But he failed miserably.

"Gracious Gaia... When will I get some peace and quiet?" Shizuka mumbled to herself as Avangenille and Arnettia laughed.

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It seemed to be a daily activity now after school, that she drew whatever she experienced at school.

Ignoring how the winds blew her papers away and messed the floor, Shizuka stretched her limbs before she got her pencil out.

Opening her sketchbook, she turned to a new page. Drawing a scene of three boys. Probably inspired by her brother, her angry classmate, and the annoying gold-head. For the first time, she secretly thanked the light elf for giving her some inspiration.

A boy with spiky hair, holding a bat while wearing some uniquely coloured and detailed clothes. Another one beside him, a few inches taller, while winking at the other boy. The third one raised his fists and was ready to punch the winking male anytime.

Shizuka closed her book as she seemed to run out of ideas. She only filled out one page of her sketchbook today and she's already worn out for some reason.

Now that she thought about it, today was just mostly about chaos and whatnots. Though it was just a 'normal' day, Shizuka quietly admitted that she did enjoy their rowdiness and loudness.

It would be too dull, just like Asuma said.

Shizuka left her sketchbook on the desk as she went down for dinner, forgetting that she had yet to touch her meal.

When the platinum blonde-haired girl left the room, two figures appeared. One of them was a familiar yellowish-white-haired male and the other was the red-haired demon.

Seimei looked through her sketchbook, awing at every drawing. As he reached the last page, he smiled gently and looked at the red-haired demon.

"Looks like she got some new friends... You have nothing to worry about, Rean-san..."

"'Rean?' Did you just call me by my nickname as well?"

"Well, Shizuka-san did call you so," Seimei reminded with a warm smile curling up his lips. Even the almighty Avrean couldn't get angry at the former Keeper when faced with such a smile.

"Sheesh. I bet my blood that the others are gonna call me that too." Avrean clicked his tongue, trying to keep his annoyance at bay whilst met with Seimei's sweet smile.

The Keeper chuckled at the demon's response. He was known to react like so when called upon the nickname their master had given him. He admitted, it was fun teasing Avrean once in a while.

Another one of Shizuka's contracted spirits appeared beside the former Keeper. A dirty-blonde-haired fox to be exact, known as Shiroyuubi. He grinned widely at the two new spirits as he glanced at his master's sketchbook.

"Ho?? She drew new ones today too, huh?" Shiroyuubi looked at the sketchbook for a while before turning to the two males.

"Rean seemed worried about our little Master~" Shiroyuubi teased the demon as he blushed furiously, turning the same shade of red as his hair.

"Wh–– What?! No, I'm not!!! I just heard some spirits talking about the stars telling them about an upcoming big disaster, or s-something!!!" Avrean defended himself, trying hard to explain himself.

"Oh? The stars?" Shiroyuubi stopped teasing the poor demon and his face turned plain. He turned to look at Seimei to confirm the demon's words. As the former Keeper nodded, he sighed and looked at the demon.

"Well, we can't really do anything about that now, can we? Let's just leave this to Shizuka and wait for her command. I'll tell her about this later. But, first..."

Shiroyuubi got closer to the red-haired demon, wiggling his eyebrows at him, "Soooo... What do you like about our master~? Hmm? Hmm?"

"Wha––?! I told you, it's not like that––!!" Avrean could see Seimei's shoulder shaking slightly as the former Keeper had his back against them. His face turned redder and redder every second. Steam came out of his ears as he shouted at them, "GRRR–– WOULD YOU STOP IT ALREADY?!"

"Stop what~?"

"Stop teasing me, you damn fox!! And Seimei, stop laughing!!"

Shiroyuubi and Seimei burst out laughing, with the former laughing hysterically at the sight of the steaming red-haired demon. The fox clutched his stomach while hitting his master's bed.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHH!!! LOOK AT YOUR FACE!!! IT'S AS RED AS YOUR HAIR!!"

"HUUUHHHHHH??!! Why would I like the Grand Summoner anyway?! She literally kidnapped me!!!"

"Then why are you blushing? Hmm?" Shiroyuubi asked in between his laughs, wiggling his eyebrows again at the blushing male.

"FIGHT ME, YA' FOX!!!" Seimei held the demon back as Shiroyuubi continued laughing at the furiously blushing demon.

"OH, WAIT 'TILL MASTER HEARS ABOUT THIS!!!" Shiroyuubi dashed out of the room while wiping away tears of joy. Avrean, the red-haired demon, was on his tail like a beast chasing after his prey.

"OH, YOU ARE SO DEAD!!!"

'Someone's a tsundere~' Seimei thought to himself as he laughed following the two spirits downstairs.

|| CHAPTER 35 | A Solicitous One - To be continued... ||

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