Chapter 9 : Homeroom

It was silent for a few seconds, Duri peeped at all the eyes staring him down intensely. 

The teacher, Sensei Haruto, was sitting at his desk, taking his glasses off. He had short grey hair, grey eyes, and a goatee.

He stood up, saying, "Duri, you're late…on your first day."

Duri responded, "And who the hell are you?"

"I'm your homeroom teacher for right now."

"...My bad. Sorry."

"And why is your outfit like that?"

"What's wrong with it?"

Duri had his school shirt tied around his hip, with his short sleeve black t-shirt showing.

Duri explained, "It got uncomfortable."

"...Hmm. You're Marshy's son…that's expected. Anyway, it's good to meet you, Duri. I hope we can have a good three days of homeroom together until the exams, and after, new classes."

"Yeah."

"Now, could you tell the class a little about yourself?"

"Why? I probably won't even be in the same classroom as them again."

"You never know. Come on, it's okay."

"Mmm."

Duri looked at all of the students' eyes that were staring at him.

Duri cleared his throat, sat his black school duffle bag around his shoulder, and said, "I'm Duri. Thanks to that damn nerd Kazuma, you all know that I'm a human shadow hybrid. I come from the Shadow realm, got here when I was six years old. I like beating people up and fighting, training, pain, and baths. I have an unknown power level, and I have an obvious birthmark on my cheek. And if anyone disrespects it in front of me, I will smash your head in. That's all I got."

Suddenly, Kazuma raised his hand all excited and what not. 

Duri pointed at Kazuma, "You, the rat."

Kazuma pleaded, "I'm sorry I told everyone, Duri! I'm just like, a big fan of the shadows, and I just couldn't hold it in for myself!"

"Whatever. I'll let you off the hook this time then."

"So have you ever killed anyone?!"

The class turned to look at Duri in curiosity; Seven, Nine, and Tek were focused in too.

Without hesitation, Duri answered, "Yes. I have. Two people actually. But they were bad. They deserved that shit, I sent them on a first class trip to hell-."

Haruto interrupted, "Ohhhhkay, that's enough for right now, haha. Let's let all the other students introduce themselves."

Duri asked Haruto, "Aye, where the hell am I sitting?"

"Over there, in that desk, beside Tek."

Duri and Tek looked at each other, then rolled their eyes.

Duri gripped his bag, and began walking to that desk, everyone was still staring at him on the way there, Seven was staring the most though.

Duri sat down at the desk beside Tek, and he sat his bag to the side.

Duri looked out the window to his left, and thought, 'I wanna leave.'

To the right of him, sat Kazuma.

Kazuma whispered to Duri, "Oi..Duri."

Duri replied, "I'm not talking to you."

"Are you going to watch the power tournament at the arena tomorrow night?"

"I have training to do."

"But everyone is going. Literally the entire school. Well, half of them. You could probably go and get yourself a girlfriend."

"Girlfriend, huh?"

The rest of the class started to introduce themselves, doing icebreakers to let the class know a little something about them.

Kazuma stood up, saying, "I'm Kazuma, and I have a high power level! I'm gonna compete in tournaments all my life, and I'm gonna become rich too and help my family! I'm pretty strong, I like pizza, fighting, and playing dodgeball."

Seven stood up when Kazuma sat down, and she said, "I'm Seven, but most of you already know that. The end."

Haruto said, "Come on, you could give us a little bit more than that, Seven."

"Mmmm, no that's pretty much it."

Seven sat down casually, looking at Duri, and Duri was looking at her.

The next person to stand up was Tek.

Tek said, "I am Tekeshi. You are all fools."

He sat down, and started to read a small black book. 

Haruto sighed, "Ugh, hello Tekeshi. Who hasn't gone yet?"

Next up was Nine. 

Nine stood up, put her fists together, and grinned, "I'm definitely Nine. Yeah it's a cool ass name. Remember that shit too, when I win the power tournament, you'll know who to answer too."

Nine sat down, and one boy dapped her up, fist bumping her.

Haruto says, "Thanks Nine, for that interesting icebreaker. Anyone else?"

A boy stood up this time, by the name of Ren-Ren. He had wavy ear length black hair, brown eyes, and a black beanie on his head. He was around 5'5.

He said, "Hehe…I'm Ren-Ren. Blood is amazing…hehe…fighting is delicious…I will rule this world and everything in it! I am the main character! You are all side characters!"

Duri interrupted, "Not to be an arrogant shit, but I think I'm the main character."

"Nooo, I am! Hehe! Haha!"

Haruto sighed once again, "Thanks for that, Ren-Ren. Have a seat now."

Ren-Ren clicked his teeth, then sat down in his chair, plucking at fingers and his legs tapping.

Standing up next, was a girl named Jiyu. She had pink hair in two bushy pigtails, and orange eyes. 

She looked nervous, and she said with a soft voice, "Umm…H-hi. My-my name is Jiyu..I hope you're all doing well, to-today. Please be kind with me-me. I love to cook, I love nature and animals and p-plant life, and I love forging things and creating gadgets…"

Haruto went, "That was good, Jiyu. Very good."

Jiyu nodded, and she sat down at her desk. 

The rest of the other students in the classroom introduced themselves, and this went on for about 4 more minutes.

After all that, Haruto was walking around the classroom, passing out pamphlets to the students, sitting the pamphlets on their desks.

Duri asked Haruto, "What the hell is this?"

Haruto responded, "A rule book. You will all take a few minutes to read them. I know you're all heard this a million times, but they are seriously doubling up on this school after all of the fighting and outside battles that have been going on. So read over that, and we'll move onto the next motion. Begin."

The students began reading over the rule book, but Tek was reading his small black book, and Duri was looking elsewhere.

Instantly, Seven raised her hand, and Haruto answered, "Yes, Seven?"

"May I use the restroom?"

"Yeah go ahead."

Seven got up from her chair, and she made sure to walk behind Duri's desk. She slipped a note down Duri's chest, and she walked out of the classroom.

Duri noticed, and he looked at the paper, opening it up.

It read :

"Come to the bathroom in four minutes."

Duri looked up, and watched Seven leave, and he felt Kazuma staring.

Kazuma nudged with a whisper to Duri, "Oooo, I see how you are…hehe!"

"Nudge me again and I'll kill you in front of everyone."

"You got one of the most popular girls in school to slip you a note! What does it say?"

Duri's cheeks were red now that he thought about it. He never had a girl give him a note before, especially to invite him to the bathroom.

Duri said to Kazuma, "N-none of yer business. Read that pile of paper on your desk."

"Big fan…by the way. I look up to the shadow men!"

"Ew, when you say it like that, it sounds very damn stalkerish."

"Sorry! Sorry! Okay, I'm reading the pamphlet as we speak!"

"Do that."

Two minutes passed by, and everyone was still reading. A dude with half blonde and half black braided hair looked at Tek, tapping his shoulder.

Tek answered him, "What?"

"They're gonna make the drop later during lunch in 2 days…"

"Why then? I have things to do."

"All you do is sit in silence and read books and act all emo."

"I am not emo. I'm different from you fools."

"Dude, come on.."

"I'll go. That's what I joined for, right?"

"Yeahhh, that's the spirit my man."

"And oi.."

"What?"

"What do you know about that boy? With the birthmark?"

"He's Marshy's son I hear."

"Son of a host..interesting."

"He's spiked your interest? You of all people? You're a cold bastard."

"If he is the son of a host with a unique shaped birthmark, he has interested me. I do not like him either way."

"You don't like anyone, bro."

"Exactly. I am of my own."

Another 2 minutes went by, and Duri raised his hand.

Haruto called out to him, "Yes, Duri?"

"Let me go to the damn bathroom."

"That's…not how you ask."

"May I go to the bathroom?"

"Yeah go ahead, and hurry back."

Duri immediately got up from the chair, he got up out of his desk, walked to the door as the eyes of the other students followed him, and he left. 

Duri saw the bathrooms at the very end of the wall, and he started walking down them. As he walked, he saw some faculty and staff members walking past him.

They nodded and smiled at him, but Duri only gave them a little nod.

Suddenly, Duri heard a voice. A loud voice in his head. It was the voice of Zabel.

It said, "I will have your power…Duri!"

Duri smacked his own head, and replied, "Leave me the hell alone, I'll kill you when I see you."

Two janitors saw Duri, thinking he was talking to himself.

They asked, "You okay kid?"

Duri replied, "Mind your business….sorry…yeah I'm fine."

Duri kept walking down the hallways, thinking, 'New year, new school life, same old shitty problems. Zabel's been in my head for years, trying to torment me with his words. Pretty cool fucking power, right? No. Even in dreams, I see him. I see him reaching out to me, wanting to take me in. As I always reminded myself, I'm gonna avenge everyone from my realm. Especially my best friend, Jae. I've been training ahead with Marshy ever since I came to earth. I've been bruised badly and broke a lot of bones in the process. I'm still trying to perfect my shadow abilities. And when I do perfect them, I'll be ready to go to the Arcane realm myself, and slaughter everyone. Of course, Marshy doesn't know that.'

The bathrooms were pretty big, on the left side it was the girls, and on the right side, it was the boys.

Duri looked at the boys bathroom, then walked all the way in.

As soon as he opened the door, here came Seven, throwing a huge punch at him. Duri ducked down to dodge it, grabbed her arm, and threw her towards the wall.

Her back slammed against the wall, but she didn't falter. She took tiles off the wall and started throwing them quickly at Duri.

The tiles were coming in hot at fast speed, and Duri was dodging them easily, asking, "Oi! What the hell is your problem?! Do you WANT to die?!"

'She's just not throwing these tiles aimlessly…she has a plan.'

More tiles came, and out of nowhere, above Duri, Seven was dropping the heel of her foot near his head.

'Above me?!' Duri thinks.

Duri jumped off the wall in an instant, spun around, and caught Seven's leg with his own leg.

They both spun like a coin in the air, and pushed off of each other.

Duri and Seven both slid back away from each other, and two purple powerballs appeared in Seven's hands.

Duri asked, "Seven…is your name right? Yeah, um, why the hell are you attacking me?"

Seven responded, "I just want to find out something."

"Find out what?!"

"I can only find out if I fight your ass, chill out dude."

"Nah…you attacked me, I won't chill out."

Duri's eyes went full white, and a black smokey aura circulated around his arms and legs, and even forehead. 

Duri continued, "Remember the rules, right?"

"Fuck those rules."

"I was thinking the same thing. I've been itching to kick someone's ass today, and you happen to slide in front of me, idiot."

"You talk cute."

"That sweetness isn't getting to me, Seven. I don't get distracted that damn easily."

Seven smirked, "Hoh?"

She made her powerballs go away, and she said, "That's what I needed to know. That's all. Peace out."

Seven gave Duri the peace sign, and started leaving the bathroom.

Duri looked confused, his eyes went back to normal, and the black aura around his body went away.

'What the hell was that all about? The heck is her deal?'

Walking back to the classroom, Seven looked down at her ankle, and saw that it was bruised with a purple color.

She thought, 'Damn…he got me good. He's pretty strong alright.'

In the bathroom, Duri felt his ankle, and he lifted up the pant leg, seeing that his ankle was a little reddish purple.

'She's strong. If Marshy see's this, she'd be so mad.'

After actually using the bathroom, Duri walked out, and headed back to his classroom.

Seconds later, Duri walked back in, and Haruto was going over the pamphlet. Duri went to sit back down at his desk, and listened to the teacher.

(1 hour later)

[Cafeteria]

The cafeteria was pretty spacious, and there were 500 students in there eating already, getting their food, laughing and horse playing with one another, taking selfies, or scrolling through the Bloggerz app and other social media websites.

"Wow! Look at this!"

"Are you going to watch the power tournament at the arena tomorrow night?!"

"Hell yeah, it's gonna be epic!"

"Oi! Come sit with me!"

"I just hit 7k followers on Bloggerz!"

"Have you all seen the boy with the birthmark? I heard he was a hard ass!"

"I wanna fight him! He seems pretty capable!"

"Yo…let's let that Duri kid sit with us."

The lunch line was long, but it was getting shorter and shorter every few seconds because the lunch ladies were serving the food really fast. 

Duri was in line, and he had a bento box of food. And it was pretty stacked.

He was walking out of line, and he saw Seven and Nine sitting with a bunch of popular and pretty girls.

He looked to the left, and saw Tek sitting with a bunch of wanna be thugs. In which, they really were thugs to be honest.

A lot of people were looking at Duri, but he didn't care.

(1 minute later)

Duri walked onto the rooftop to eat his food, and he saw Kazuma, Ren-Ren, and Jiyu up there, eating together too.

Kazuma looked at Duri, saying, "Duri! You're here!"

Duri turned around to walk away, saying, "Nevermind."

"Wait, don't leave!"

Duri stopped, and he turned around, "Don't talk my ear off when I'm up here. Got it?"

"Haha! Got it!"

[Northern Honshu]

There were a lot of temples around the area, decorated splendidly; there were at least 30 out there, with innocent bystanders running for their lives.

"Run!"

"Go go go!"

"Yeah, the hosts will handle this!"

Standing side by side in the middle of the field of temples, was Marshy and Xenon.

Xenon was still smoking a cigarette, and Marshy had her hands in her pockets.

Marshy said, "Any moment now."

Xenon added, "I'm getting impatient…oh, here she comes."

Bursting out from underground, was a 15 foot mythical beast. It had a spider-like body, a human face, and a big belly, and it had spikes all over it, with grey horns. The beast was dark grey and black, and it was laughing.

Marshy said, "You got a lot of nerve coming here."

Xenon added, "You must be able to talk, you're awfully strong as to what I'm sensing from your ugly ass."

The beast replied, "Hellooooo….I'm just here….to feeeeed….I need humans as fuel..…"

Marshy answered, "Yeah, no."

Marshy and Xenon got ready to fight, all while looking like they didn't care.