"We'd like the things written here." Deuce responded handing the tall man his paper.
"And some cans of tuna!" Grima called out to which Lotus picked him up by the scruff.
"No!" Deuce scolded firmly, "We don't need any tuna!"
"What, what?" The guy called Sam who ran the Mr. S's Mystery shop smiled when he read the list, "Whip cream, eggs... A nice sweet line-up. Ok! Coming right up."
"Oooh!" Deuce's eyes widen in amazement, "He really has them."
Lotus shrugged and pulled out her book before continuing her reading about alchemy and medicine.
It wasn't long, however, when Sam returned with plastic bags of the things he read from the list and handed to them next to the register, "Sorry 'bout the wait. It's a bit heavy, you got it?"
Lotus put away the book and walked over following after Deuce who began paying for the items.
"If you order now you can get a 1/100 size floating platter to carry your purchases for 30% off." Sam advertised a loud.
"What's that?!" Grim cried out in astonishment when he saw a floating plate in midair, "It sounds cool!"
"W-We're fine!" Deuce interrupted, "Time to go, Grim!"
After scowling at the cat, Deuce dragged Grim away as Lotus and Yuu helped him carry the stuff.
"Ffnya!" Grim cried in disappointment like a child throwing a tantrum over a toy, "I wanna hang out more!"
"Ok, ok!" Sam waved with a wink, "Make sure to come by again, my little demons! Bye!"
It was only after reading the Main street with the statues that Deuce finally began to settle down the cat.
"That store was crazy." Deuce admitted in awe.
Grim clicked his tongue, "Stingy Deuce."
"Who are you calling stingy?" Deuce narrowed his eyes on Grim with a glare.
"Yuu?" Lotus looked to Yuu who was struggling behind and she walked over to help him, "Here, let me help."
"It's fine. It's fine." Yuu struggled despite his words.
Deuce hummed in thought before stating, "Supervisor, that bag of cans looks pretty heavy. I'll carry it. I'm used to carrying heavy stuff."
Taking it from him with a smile, Yuu said with a look of surprise, "That's something you get used to?"
"It looks like you usually buy a lot when you go shopping, then?" Lotus looked to him curiously when she heard this.
Deuce nodded, "Yeah. My mom always buys more than we need during time sales, and I get stuck carrying all the heavy stuff. Since I'm the only boy, it was my job to take care of anything requiring strength..."
He then looked up in surprise, "Oh, my bad. I've just been talking about myself."
"Helping around the house is pretty great." Yuu pointed out with a smile.
"...That's not true..." Deuce responded nervously as they continued walking, "I've always made mom..."
It was then that two dark figures dashed out from behind the statues and bumped into Deuce. Lotus narrowed her eyes as she saw the familiar figures she had seen this afternoon in the cafeteria. Loud cracks could be heard as a few eggs exploded in the bad with a loud crack. Lotus sighed and turned on her ability.
"Ahh!" Grim cried out, "The eggs!"
"Shit!" Deuce hissed in shock, "Half of the eggs are destroyed! There's eggs all over the bag."
The silver guy turned to him with a scowl, "Hey, you! Watch where you're... wait..."
The guy frown deepened, "You're the fools that wrecked the egg in my carbonara earlier."
"It's you guys again!" The red hair guy pointed with a smirk, "You can't catch a break!"
Deuce argued with a scowl, "You were the ones who jumped out from behind the corner. At lunch, it wasn't like you couldn't eat the egg anymore but you still came to pick a fight... Just now, you destroyed half of our eggs."
"And?" the silver hair delinquent sneered with eyes glistening in anger, "You sayin' it's our fault?"
"Yes." Deuce responded bluntly, "Please pay for the eggs. And please apologize to the chickens too."
Lotus raised a brow when she heard what came out of Deuce's mouth at the end when an idea popped into her mind. Could it be...
"Hm?" The other student stared at him with a wide growing smirk, "You're getting all worked up over eggs."
"They didn't hit the ground, right? Don't sweat the small stuff." The other silver guy smirked when he heard this hoping for revenge.
"We saved you the trouble of breaking them." the red hair guy said with a laugh.
Deuce's face was behind the bags so those two can't really see it, not to mention Yuu who was standing behind Deuce. However, Lotus and Grim could see the change in his expression as Lotus frowned and set down the bags next to Yuu.
"...to laugh about..."
Lotus could hear Deuce's voice and her frown deepened.
The two delinquents look to him in confusion as Deuce finally exploded out of his character, "This ain't something to laugh about! You don't get to make decisions for us! These eggs... Instead of becoming a chick, they were gonna make us a delicious tart!!!"
Finally, the guy exploded as Lotus caught the bags, Deuce had randomly pushed to the side without looking.
"Wh-What's this guy's problem all the sudden?!" The delinquent called out in bewilderment nervously.
"If you don't wanna pay for the six eggs you broke..." Deuce cracked his knuckles, "I'll punch you six times instead."
"Whaaat?!" The silver hair jumped in shock when he saw Deuce stepping forward to them.
It was then that a fight began to which Grim and Lotus didn't have any chance to jump in to help. When it was over, the two fell onto the ground as the silver guy shouted, "T-This guy is straight up mad! That wasn't just six hits! Liar!"
"Let's get the hell outta here!" The other screamed and scurried off, "I'm sorry to all chickens!!!"
"Apologize 100 times next time you eat eggs! Dumbasses!!!" Deuce hollered and was about to give chase when Lotus put the bags down and grabbed a hold of him with her ability gone.
"W-whoa now!" Yuu called out in shock and also placed the bags down to restrain him.
Without thinking, the guy threw a punch to which she caught with ease and called out to him, "Deuce, it's over. They've learned their lesson."
Panting from the fight, Deuce was slowly returning back to his senses and, when he did, was shocked to find himself with his fist in Lotus's grasp. He jumped back with a look of dismay and shame.
"What's gotten into you?!" Grim called out still stunned.
"Grim..." Lotus hushed him quiet with that one call and watched Deuce with a frown.
"I-I screwed up..." Deuce muttered in shock not willing to look at them in the eyes, "I vowed that I'd definitely, definitely be an honors student this time...!"
"Eh?" Grim said in shock and walked over to Deuce's side with a look of concern Lotus had yet to see before.
"In middle school, all I ever did was screw around..." He confessed dejectedly, "I constantly skipped school and spent all my time getting into fights. I disrespected all my teachers, hung around with sketchy upperclassmen, and bleached my hair to death. Even ran around all over the place riding a magical wheel."
A magical wheel was that automatic two-wheel machinery, right? Lotus feel like she's seen one before at one time.
"I was a terrible person that went as far as to use magic to lord over those who couldn't." Deuce added with a scowl on his face.
"Just now you went full bad boy on those guys!" Grim stated in admiration.
"I never would've guessed." Yuu noted in surprise when he heard of Deuce's past.
"Then, one night... I saw my mom hiding away in tears as she called my grandma." He said with a frown, "'Was the way I raised him wrong? Would it have been better if he had both parents?' She was wrong. Mom never did anything wrong. It was all me!"
There was a moment of silence as Deuce continued, "So, when the carriage from Night Raven College came to get me, my mom was so happy and I don't want to make her cry again. This time, I'm going to be an honors student my mom can be proud of... Then I do this. Shit!"
As he cursed at the end to himself, Grim hummed curiously and began, "But, y'know... Does being an honors student mean you have to grin and bear everything?"
"Huh?" He looked to Grim in confusion.
"Those delinquents deserved another 10 punches if you ask me!" Grim stated with a frown and cheered soon after, "You fought them off before I could, though."
"Yeah, that's right!" Yuu stated with a firm nod.
"You guys..." Deuce looked to them in surprise.
"Honor students get mad too." Yuu pointed out.
Lotus nodded with a sigh, "You know, I'm relieved. The things you've done in the past can't have been a good thing to you. So, you plan to change that. We get it. However, bottling your emotions away isn't a healthy way to do it. With no outlet, those emotions will grow and it will explode at some point, which could be uncontrollable. Not to mention, if a student only cares about their studies and just take in the insults without fighting back, those people will just come back thinking you'd be a good pushover. An honor student that can fight back and be themselves is one that many can look up to. So, it's okay for you to get mad."
"Really?" Deuce smiled when he heard this from them and breathed a sigh of relief, "Heh heh. May those baby chicks rest in peace."
"Um..." Yuu hesitated, "I hate to say this, but there won't be any chicks."
"Ehhh?!?!?!"Deuce cried out in bewilderment.
"Oh, you didn't know?" Lotus raised a brow with a mischievous smirk, "Hens will lay eggs regardless if there was a rooster or not. Only when the rooster is around will there be a higher chance for there to be chicks, but eggs that don't have the word fertilized on the label mean that there won't be any chicks. Most of the Supermarkets' eggs and the one from the school shop don't really have any chance of there being chicks."
"You've gotta be kidding me?!?!?!" Deuce cried out in shock.
Seeing the guy collapse and Yuu frantically trying to snap the dazed Deuce out of it, Lotus stifled a laugh after dumping the harsh truth on the guy with Yuu. The guy will have to know it sooner or later, right?
When they returned, Ace looked up with a wide smile upon seeing them, "Oh, you're finally back. That sure took a while."
"Let's finish this up." Trey responded and brought over the bowl.
Just as Lotus was about to go and help Yuu and Trey, she felt a strange sensation and turned to them with a frown, "I need to get some things done back at the dorm. Sadly, I most likely won't be when you guys finish, so I'm going to get going right away. Grim, don't burn the kitchen down in any shape or form. I'll see you and Yuu back at the dorms."
"I won't!" Grim scowled with his arms crossed over his puffy chest.
Lotus then hurried out the door with her ability back on. Feeling a little fatigued, she brought out a pill and threw it into her mouth. It was something to help replenish her energy as she hurried back to the forest in Heartslabyul dormitory.
Sneaking past the dormitory, she could hear a loud shout from behind the walls.
"Off with your head!"
Lotus frowned and looked to the window to find that Riddle had once again cast another collar upon a student that looked to have been a freshman. Lotus frowned in thought wandering if it was a normal thing but realized that it probably hadn't been so if Trey and Cater was always by his side. Lotus frowned as she saw how the boy acted out of line with a look that was almost out of breath before he turned away to leave the halls. An almost irresistible itch appeared in her chest to which formed a scowl on her face.
She turned away and left the dorm building as quickly as possible not wanting to come into conflict with the dorm leader should he catch her. Before arriving at the place, she frowned and took out an appearance changing bottle and drank it down. When she was done, her face was more masculine appearance-wise and her figure a little taller. However, a large birthmark appeared on her eye making her look like a panda from one side matched with the silver hair. She sighed when she saw this in the waters of the fountain before hurrying to the forest.
When she arrived at the spot deep in the forest, she saw that the guy there had already started growing in strength which she could feel surprising her for the first time to feel someone overpower her. She frowned and pulled out a concoction she had planned to which she splashed right on the guy.
"What?!"
The splash surprised, not just him, but the kirin as well as it jumped up in bewilderment. The kirin reared up and kicked in bewilderment after having smelt it and backed off. The guy, however, wasn't lucky as Lotus jumped in with his whip. However, that proved useless. Perhaps she should've used the reptilian potion in the first place?
However, now wasn't the time. The enemy is aware of her presence and could sense her killing intent lunging at her direction with a long blade in hand. She scowled and rolled away from him just in time to miss his strike.
"Damn it!" The nascent soul cultivator scowled and hollered, "Come out you little coward... Hey, you! Hurry up!"
The kirin cried out to which, Lotus quickly took a leap of faith and pulled away the mask of the man's face revealing a large scar across it.
"Shit!" he cursed and tried to reach for it back.
However, it was useless as it disappeared along with Lotus. The man scowled as he said aloud, "Don't blame me for doing this, child. I also have a life to live, after all. Now!"
Suddenly, the kirin cried out in pain as a bolt of lightning struck where Lotus had stood earlier. Had she been a second later, she could've become charred as well...
However, it was then that the sword was thrust at her again and she didn't have the time to withdraw as the sword struck her arm cutting the flesh. She stifled back a yelp and scowled.
Wasn't careful enough!
Scolding herself quietly, she had already seen the kirin rear in for a kick to which she quickly jumped aside. She could see that the man has caught on to the splatter of blood and followed in the direction of the beast's eyes. She jumped back into the trees quietly and pulled out a needle to which she flicked towards the man. However, seeing the man had already seen this and had set up an array right under his feet.
She frowned as she saw that the man was already prepared for this from the beginning. With a scowl, she could see the guy form a ball of fire and toss it straight at her to which she jumped into the trees and threw her white and black beads at the guy and the kirin. The kirin jumped back to dodge as the other white bead hit the man's barrier and vanished into the earth. She was about to summon the rain to make the dissolving faster, but Lotus froze in place.
If she bring out the rain now, it could affect the roses in the rose maze!
She recalled the effort her friends of four had gone through to help with the preparation and the boy that would probably turn red should he see this. Even if he didn't find out it was her, Ace and Deuce would probably have a more difficult time. She grimaced as the blade of the man's sword flew out of his hand and hit her dead in the shoulder.
"Damn it..." She scowled and crouched down as the ability in her eyes fade from lack of energy.
The man in black smiled at the sight of the injured boy with a sigh, "Finally, got you."