Book 4 - Schemer of the Scalding Sands: Chapter 41; A Poisonous Preview

The screen turns on as the next chapter title plays "Chapter 41; A Poisonous Preview".

Yuu blinks her eyes open as Grim wakes up with her. The cat monster yawns before happily commenting "That was the best sleep I've had in ages!"

But his usual temper is very quick to come back as he complains to Yuu "Hey, Yuu. You stepped on my tail while I was sleepin' last night, didn't you? Watch where you're walkin' from now on, would ya?"

But Yuu seems out of it, as the last thing she remembered was passing out on the floor only to wake up on her bed again. As such she had assumed what had happened was nothing more than a dream but Grim's complaint made her know that it wasn't.

She stared at Grim as she mumbled under her breath "So Mickey wasn't just a dream after all… Where does the other side of that mirror even lead?"

Grim waved a paw in front of her face as he asks "What're you gawkin' at me for?"

Yuu then shakes her head as she fully snaps out of it.

Grim notices and says "You are SO weird sometimes. Anyway, it's back to fire-tendin' duty for us today. We should drop by Scarabia for some grub afterwards!"

The two then started to head off.

…

The screen goes black as the words "And so the holiday vacation came to an end…" appear before changing to a snowy version of Main Street. Luckily the actual main street is cleared of snow, which is now mostly pushed to either side.

…

There is also a thin black card that says 'January' shows about what point the time-skip put us at.

Grim and Yuu meet up with Ace and Deuce there. Ace sees and greets them first "Heya, Yuu. Happy New Year!" Deuce greets them next "I see you guys all the time, but it feels like it's been years for some reason.

Grim smugly laughs before telling them "Clearly you missed me over break!"

Just then Jack walks up and tells them "Oi. Don't stand around blocking traffic." Ace asks in surprise once he sees Jack "Whoa, Jack! Did you get a tan?"

Jack takes a look at his hands as he questions "Did I?" to himself. He then rubs the back of his head as he says "I spent most of my holidays skiing, so it might be from that." Ace then further asks "Huh, it snows a lot where you're from?"

Grim is on the ground and pretty much bounces around their feet asking "What's skiing? I wanna try it!"

Deuce seems to be having some trouble keeping Grim away from his feet, as he tells him "Grim, stop trotting around underfoot!"

But as he's moving away from the area Grim's in, he bumps into someone and makes the other fall to the ground because of it.

Epel makes a quiet "Ah…" noise in response.

Deuce apologizes and puts a hand out to try and help him up "Whoops, sorry about that! You okay?" Epel sniffs twice. Deuce kinda freaks out at that "Wh-whoa! Y-you're…crying?!"

Ace then mocks Deuce in a high pitched voice "Profeeesssooor! Deuce is bullying a kid from another class and making him cry!" Deuce then whips his head around and yells back at Ace "That's not funny, Ace!"

Deuce then turns his attention back to the fallen Epel, further asking and trying to help him "Did I hurt you that badly? I am SO sorry. Here, lean on my shoulder. I'll get you to the nurse's office."

Only for Epel to curse "Rgh… Dagnabbit…!"

This makes Deuce ask "Huh? Dag-what…?" Epel lets out a noise of surprise at that before hurriedly getting up and running away by himself.

Ace says "Aaand he's gone." while watching Epel run away.

Jack then informs them "He's in my class. If I remember right, he's from Pomefiore Dorm. His name's Epel Felmier."

Deuce seems to try and remember that, saying "Epel from Pomefiore…"

It then cuts to a very luxurious ballroom in Pomefiore dorm.

There were large windows across one of the long sides and mirrors across the other. The whole place was mostly white with some gold accents to it. It also seemed to scream luxury as despite it just being a ballroom, mainly for dancing practice, there was a crystal or maybe even diamond chandler in the middle of it hanging from the roof.

Vil is seen inside of the ballroom saying "So, he got away."

He then calls out "Rook! Are you there, Rook?" Just then Rook appears, seemingly out of nowhere, asking "You called, Roi du Poison?"

Vil orders him "Capture him and bring him here. Now." Rook bows as he tells Vil "Oui. As you wish, my liege." Before disappearing again.

Vil then says "I'll never let you escape… I'll stop at nothing to be the fairest of them all." with an annoyed and kinda dark expression on his face.

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