Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths: Chapter 3; Results Stacked

The new opening plays as before the chapter title "Chapter - 3; Results Stacked".

Ace, Deuce, Yuu, and Grim are in the hallway looking for the results with a bunch of other students as soon as the bell had rung.

Grim tries to look at the scores through all the students as he asks "Okay, where am I in the top fifty?" Ace seems worried as he asks himself "With an average score over 90 we've gotta be in there, right?"

Grim floats as he looks at all the scores and says "First ten places…nope. Twenty…nope. Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty…nope." as he goes over who's in what place.

After looking at all of them he exclaims sadly "Wait a minute – I ain't in here at all!" Deuce says upset "N-neither am I…" Ace sees something else as he tells them "Hooold up. There's a list of the total scores each top achiever got across all subjects."

As Ace reads it, he gets extremely surprised and shouts "The top thirty scored perfect marks – 500 points!" This makes Deuce and Grim both shouts "PERFECT MARKS?!"

Deuce, Ace, and Grim look worried although Yuu doesn't notice as she puts a finger to her chin and asks curiously "Something's definitely fishy here, right?"

But they don't hear her and are instead just extremely worried. Proven by Grim shouting "B-but if I don't make it into the top fifty, that counts as a breach of contract!" Hearing that both Ace and Deuce now seem to know something as he asks "Wait, "contract"? Oh no. Grim, did you…?" But doesn't get a response as Deuce asks "Judging by the look on your face, Ace, don't tell me you also–"

But he is cut off by a magical light shining from a lot of student's heads, including Ace, Deuce, and Grim.

When the light fades a sea anemone is seen on each of their heads. The anemone is blue at its base and purple at the tip which looks almost like a flower in a way, the anemones are also rather long. As Grim's ends at around the same point his ears do as well.

Grim yells "MYAH?! What in the world?! A sea anemone just sprouted outta my head!" after he sees it once the light had faded. Deuce then shouts at Grim "G-Grim, you made a contract too?! You big cheater!" Ace shouts at him "Yeah, whatever, Deuce. You're just as guilty, keepin' your friends close and your anemones closer over there!"

But Grim hardened his face as he declared "I'll just give it a quick tug, and…" his voice trails off as he closes his eyes while trying to actually yank the anemone out of his head. But just as he starts to he stops as he shouts "OW!" in pain. Then nearly in tears, from both the situation and pain he then shouts "It's not comin' out!"

Yuu is also in a panic from this sudden strange development as she asks them "What's with the influx of sea life?!" as she looks around and sees a whole bunch of students also with the same anemones on their heads.

Just then Jack walks up telling them "I came to see what all the commotion was."

But when he sees their anemones he asks "Why am I not surprised it's you guys? What're you doing?"

The first thing they did is Deuce asking him "Jack, did you make a contract too?" But then looks up at Jack's head and yells "Wait… You don't have an anemone!"

Ace is equally as surprised as Deuce, as he says "So much for looking like a bad boy." Then as he points at Deuce he yells "You're more of a square than Loosy-Deucey over here!"

But Jack is equally as confused as Yuu is as he asks them "Okay, what? I'm completely lost here. What are you talking about, and what are those things growing outta your heads?"

Grim starts to try and explain "Look, it's, uhhh…" but isn't able to do much as the anemone starts to pull him in a certain direction, which makes Grim shouts "MROW?! What now?! This dang anemone's yanking my head!"

Ace and Deuce's are also pulling them left. Which makes Ace shout "Oww, geez! It's gonna rip my noggin off!" Deuce shouts "So when he wrote "absolute obedience." this is what he meant…!" they're all trying to resist the painfully pulling aren't for long as the anemones start to yank them so hard they have no choice but to follow as they shout in pain "AaaAAAaaaAGH!!!"

Jack is surprised as he observes "What now? The way they were walking, it was like the anemones were pulling them in that direction. Is a picture that stupid still worth a thousand words…?"

Yuu tells Jack slightly worried "We'd better follow them." as she tries to grab his hand to drag him along. But Jack asks "huh? Where do I come in here? This is none of my business."

Yuu makes a pouty frown before smiling mischievously, teasingly asking Jack in a bit of a baby voice "Are you scared?"

This makes his ears flatten as he asks her annoyed "Who're you calling a coward?!"

But after he sees her smile he huffs before telling her "Tch. You're starting to fit in around here a little TOO well."

But then she changes to the begging eyes which makes Jack look away and rubs the back of his head as his tail is seen slightly wagging before telling her "Fine. I'll keep you company for a little while, at least."

Yuu nearly jumps for joy, seeing that he warns her "Let's get one thing straight, though – this is purely out of curiosity. I wanna see what caused this. I couldn't care less about those guys. Just so we're clear on that." Yuu shows him a knowing smile but makes a line across her lips to show that she won't be telling anyone.

Jack looks away and starts walking in the direction the other three of the group had gone as Yuu quickly follows behind him.

The screen then fades to black as "To be continued" plays before it fully turns off.