"So, what are you going to do now?" Ying Hui questioned curiously.
"I say we sneak out and take a look." Xiao Li answered.
"That's breaking the rules." Lotus responded with a smirk, "For now, let's worry about access to the library and the rest of the books. I still have a lot to learn once school starts."
Ying Hui sighed as she touched Lotus's hair, "It's a pity that you had to taint your red hair in black. It'd be very eye-catching when paired with your purple irises."
"That's exactly why Lotus doesn't want to leave it alone." Xiao Li responded with a frown, "Geez. Annoying woman."
"What did you say?!" The little girl cried with a scowl and was ready to slap the boy across the face.
"Enough, enough." Lotus smiled, "Let's worry about these things after we finish school here. You wanted to see what an upper-level school is like in this world, right?"
"That's true..." Ying Hui admitted reluctantly as she gave the boy another glare before hopping to Lotus's other shoulder, "Hmph!"
Lotus smiled wider, "Tomorrow morning, Yuu will be up to clean the school if what the headmaster said is true. We'll accompany him."
"But don't you have to join the other dorms tomorrow for the tour?" Ying Hui questioned curiously.
"Idiot." Xiao Li scolded with a look of annoyance, "There are at least 200 students roaming around campus. How could the dorms show the entire school to the newer students without running across each other. There should also be some rivalry amongst the dorms as well. It's no doubt that by the time they finish it would've been brunch by then."
"Who are you calling an idiot?" Ying Hui scolded, "What did you do when those ghosts appeared earlier, huh? Point at them all day as if waiting to be slaughtered before them."
"Shut up!"
"Okay, okay." Lotus sighed, "If arguing is all you're going to do, it's better that you two return to the ring. First, I'll need the soul gathering pill. Then, you can see everything from inside the ring later."
"Right." Xiao Li responded and handed the man a purple round pill the size of half her thumb.
After swallowing it, she brought the two back inside and began to study her books a bit more.
That morning, she left her room with ease in her school uniform rather than a ceremonial black and purple robe and, after cleaning the furniture of a desk and a chair, went to meet with the human boy she had seen the night before. However, what surprised her was that none of the dorms could take her in, according to the letter the headmaster left for her on the table before the dorm entrance, not because of too many hyper students to handle but because none of the dorms have the time to specially include a student with no magic.
Moreover, it was suggested that she went ahead to class instead at the right time.
Lotus smirked as a voice entered her head.
"It would seem that someone had mistaken you for that useless boy." Ying Hui noted with a giggle, "How foolish of them."
Lotus's smirk turned into a sigh as she responded telepathically, "Either that or they don't want to risk having to find trouble occurring in their group of new students."
"What a mess indeed." Xiao Li agreed with a sigh.
It was then that Lotus saw the black hair Yuu walk out of the room and, having nothing to do, she followed him from behind with her ability on. She soon noticed that the cat called Grim was with him. Guess the headmaster had second thoughts?
After walking into a yard, she found that the two have made it to a large open space with stone path lined up with seven statues. She had read them on the books back in the library. Aside from the chubby Queen of Hearts with the hearts wand in hand and little gold crown on her head, there was also a lean and vicious-looking lion with a scar on his face making it easier to remember that it was the King of Beasts called Scar. There was a fat woman with octopus legs who was called the sea witch who offered contracts as long as the other could pay the price. Lotus believed her name was Ursula?
Another was a tall figure with a snake staff and large hat and feather on his head with a goatee beard. The man was a sorcerer of the sand, but Lotus doesn't quite remember his name either. There was a woman with a beautiful appearance and crown on her head. The woman was a queen who had the will to remain the most beautiful woman in the world without any hesitation. She was also rather professional with poison.
There was another strange figure that looked to be a man with flaming hair. It's said that he's the lord of the underworld where evil spirits crawl. However, his characteristic of sincerity was said to have won over many beasts and titans to follow him.
Finally the horned woman with a long staff. That woman with the staff and long robes is said to be Maleficient. The strongest of all the sevens.
When Lotus found a branch she was willing to get onto to watch the scene, a boy suddenly appeared. With her ability, they didn't get a chance to see her as Lotus watched the boy with the red hearts on his face and orange hair sticking out like a real bed head. After she heard them talk about the statues, she noticed that the other had begun insulting the black cat, Grim, which started a fight creating a huge tornado of blue flames.
Seeing this, Lotus whistled, "Not bad..."
"They're gonna be in trouble." Ying Hui noted curiously.
Sure enough, the tornado had ended up charring the red queen statue. It wasn't long before the headmaster suddenly appeared and scolded the three giving them the task to wash a hundred windows as punishment. Ying Hui sighed, "I told you."
"That guy is apparently called Ace Trappola." Lotus noted curiously before following two to the cafeteria.
The place was wide full of empty tables and benches with a lot of pretty branch-like chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings.
With class being all on the areas of the classrooms, Lotus finished class rather quickly and left to join Yuu and Grim in the cafeteria. With her magic ability on, the two didn't notice her entering the room with them. There was floating paintings that talked in long conversations. However, the guy called Ace never appeared. Curious, Lotus went ahead back to the classroom of lined up table and chairs to speak to one of the talking paintings and asked, "Good afternoon. Have you seen a boy with orange spiky hair and a red heart on his face?"
"That boy?" the painting with the mustache man responded, "Yes. He left the cafeteria and went to the hall full of mirrors."
"I see." Lotus smiled, "Thank you, sir."
With a wide smirk, Lotus left the room and headed to where the boy with the red hearts on his face was heading. It wasn't long before she saw him sneaking through the halls. Lotus smiled and stalked after him quietly. With some thought, she pulled out a vial of liquid in the halls with there being no other people around in the halls.
When she pulled out the cork, a strong scent of heavy and sweet fragrance drifted in the air. Ace lifted his face with a raised brow, "Is someone baking or something? Nah. It's too far from the potion lab too. Gotta hurry before they catch me."
Lotus sighed as she hurried closer to the young man when the boy tried to hurry faster. Lotus followed after him effortlessly. When they arrived at the hall, Lotus smirked when he heaved a heavy sigh of relief, "No way I'm washing a hundred windows. Gonna head on home..."
"Heeey yooouuu!"
With a wide smile, Lotus stepped back and saw the black cat dash through the halls with Yuu following close behind him. Ace gagged in shock, "Geh! Found me!"
"Jerk!" Grim yelled, "Hold up! I won't let you be the only one to escape!"
Ace grinned triumphantly, "I'm not going to wait around for you! I'm outta here!"
With that, he ran to one of the closest mirrors as Grim shouted, "It's not fair for only you to get out of it! I want to skip out too!"
"How annoying..." Ying Hui heaved a heavy sigh.
During this time, a boy with blue hair and black spade mark on his right eye was walking away from the mirror with the heart shape emblem over the archway.
"Outta my way! Outta my way!" Ace shouted when he saw him, "Guh... Why do my legs feel so heavy all of a sudden?"
He rushed past a surprised blue hair boy and hurried towards the mirror.
Closing in on him, Yuu called out hurriedly, "Catch him please!"
"Magic to capture someone?!" the boy said in bewilderment, "I should freeze their legs, no, how about restrain them? Or I could... Um..."
"Anyway, I don't care how, just hit him hard! Hurry!" Grim called out.
"Anyway?! Any... way..." The boy gritted his teeth and swiped out his clear gem pen pointing it towards Ace, "Anything is fine so come on! Something heavy!"
It was then that a large, black cauldron fell ontop of Ace's back crushing him onto the group. As Lotus sighed with a smirk, she could hear Grim's cackle, "Check it out! Ace is flat as a pancake under that cauldron! So lame!"
"I didn't think I'd get a cauldron. Did I overdo it?" the blue hair boy stated curiously as he removed the cauldron with his magic.
Ace then struggled to get up painfully as Lotus gave him a hand, "Man, that hurts... Than-!"
When he turned to Lotus, his eyes met hers to which soon caught onto her sharp purple pupil eyes. He then turned back to the blue hair boy and the incoming two as if not having seen her, "You should be fine. Those 100 windows should be clean in a flash."
Yuu catching his breath rebuked calmly, "That's not something you do 'in a flash'!"
"Washing 100 windows as punishment..." The boy said with a sigh, "What in the world did you all do?"
Reluctantly, Ace briefly explained in detail of the mess they've created that morning shocking the blue hair boy as Lotus soon noticed the black cat making a getaway from the corner of her eyes. However, seeing that Yuu hadn't noticed yet, Lotus felt rather mischievous.
It'll be better to teach the young boy to see how much he'll have to keep an eye on when he's on campus with the cat.
Having been shocked that the three had accidentally charred the Queen of hearts statue in disappointment, the boy shook his head in understanding before Ace demanded an intro from him.
"I'm Deuce." Deuce replied slightly offended as he crossed his arms and glared at him, "Deuce Spade. Would it hurt to remember your classmates' faces at least?"
"That's if he wants to." Lotus smirked as she said a loud.
"Um," Ace pointed out in confusion, "You haven't memorized them either."
"A-Anyway!" Deuce spoke up, "If you were ordered to by the headmaster, that means you take it seriously."
"Yeah. Yeah." Ace responded as he scratched the back of his head, "Understood... Then let's get it done and over with."
It was then that the three of them felt something was off as Yuu frowned upon the unusual quietness, "Grim is being oddly quiet."
It was then that it dawned on the three of them as Ace shouted, "That furball is gone!"
They heard laughter from an open window and the four of them saw Grim outside at the stone road with the statues shouting with a sneer, "I leave it to you all! Bye-bye!"
"That dumb cat!" Ace cursed aloud, "He made me take his place!"
Ace turned to Deuce, "U-Um, Juice?"
"I'm not Juice. Deuce! Deu!" Deuce exclaimed angrily.
"You're partly responsible so help us catch that furball!" Ace pointed out bluntly.
"Why me?"
Ace pointed to Yuu, "This deadweight can't use magic so he doesn't count! Let's go!"
As Ace dragged Yuu and Deuce through the halls, Ying Hui spoke up, "Those guys are a classical comedy duo..."
"It's a little annoying though." Xiao Li noted with a frown.
Lotus sighed as she pulled out her book and headed to the cafeteria.
"Where are we going?" Ying Hui asked.
"Back to the cafeteria."
"Why?"
Where would you want to be out of the reach of people if you were a cat?"
There was a moment of silence aside from her steps as Ying Hui's voice said in understanding, "Oh..."