I Really Hate That Guy!

"Trick—Trick!" The hoarse voice of a professor that only grew louder with each call echoed across his class room, meeting the ears of all but one sleeping child.

"Ye—s Fiona I'll have some—more pancakes please." The child muttered in his sleep, relaxing peacefully on a stack of books he employed as his pillow.

"Tch, of every food pancakes?" The teacher voiced softly in an irritated tone. He then reached for a white substance under his board.

"WAKE UP YOU RUNT!" He Yelled, sending a chalk whistling through the air at incredible speeds.

It collided hardly against his target's forehead rousing the child up from his sleep.

"I'm up!" The young boy hastily replied as the class erupted into laughter.

He proceeded to rub the red tomato that was currently his forehead flinching in pain at contact.

Trick then rattled his head from side to side in order to eliminate any elements of drausiness that still held him captive, causing his golden blond hair to dance in the air briskly.

'I haven't gotten a wink of sleep since last night.' He depressingly thought, rubbing the dark circles that drew across his crimson red eyes. A result of sleep deprivation.

'Not since I had that uneasy feeling.' He shut his eyes to reminisce the previous night but drifted almost to sleep yet again.

"Tri—TRICK!" The teacher yelled once more seeing him almost fall asleep.

"Get up and answer the question!"

"Yes sir!" Trick replied sharply as he stood upright.

There was an awkward silence as Trick's gaze met firmly with that of his teacher.

"Wh—at?" The professor questioned at the boy who stood silently, his eyes unshaking from his.

"What exactly—was the question." Trick nervously replied causing a young girl to ram her palm against her forehead as she looked disappointingly at her friend.

At this, a soft chuckle was heard from behind the class spearheading other laudable laughs that spread throughout the room.

"You know, you frustrate me kid." The teacher placed his palm on his face, rubbing through it tiredly.

"But I'll say it one last time so listen carefully—"

"The question goes like this." He continued, his formerly irritated face adopting a stern look.

"How do you identify a VOID BEAST?"

The rowdiness of the crowd was brought to a hold as every student focused on the serious question asked by the teacher.

Trick too took a pause, his face being the most serious of them all.

He contorted his face in a manner so serious that even the teacher took a step back in shock.

'This kid, his face is so serious.' The professor voiced out within his mind.

'I've never seen a face as serious as that, NO not in my 5 years of working at this junior high'

'Did the question really touch him that much?' The teacher still observed the stern crimson eyes of the child.

Everyone in the classroom was shaken by the serious demeanure Trick put on, waiting quietly in curiosity of what the boy would say next.

Everyone except a girl who once more buried her face in her palm, her Orange hair swaying gently as she shook her head in dismay.

'You Have exactly no idea of what to say, do you Tricky?' She thought, lifting up her head to see how her friend's situation would play out.

'I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA OF WHAT TO SAY!' Trick yelled out in a stream of multiple thoughts.

'My best bet is to just keep a stern look at the professor and hope he'll tell me to take a sit out of sympathy.' 

'Yes, YES that could wor—.' He rejoiced mentally being quickly interrupted mid celebration.

"You seem to know a lot on the matter, could you please enlighten us on your story?" The teacher grabbed a handkerchief wiping up little bits of tears that welled up in his eyes.

Tears of joy that his formerly unserious student finally had something to say.

'Damn it!' Trick's mind raced for an alternative, a solution to not listening in class, an answer to prevent him from looking stupid in front of his classmates.

Trick's eyes strayed eying everything, everyone and everywhere in sight.

'Search for anything that can link to the answer!'

But he found nothing. Even looking at the board all he saw were useless scribbles of an entirely different topic.

'Artifact smithing?' Trick squinted his eyes some more.

'How does that have to do with Void beasts?' 

He continued in his pointless search for clues and just when he thought it was over, a much needed conversation hit him.

'Ahh.' Trick's eyes immediately glimmered with hope.

'Master Astravan already taught me this!'

He dove deeper into his memories, thawing more and more until he remembered the exact conversation he had with his master.

"Trick listen up and listen up good." His master voiced.

"You see with doors opening up almost everyday you might encounter a void beast someday, or quite possibly have to say something about them in class—" His master looked up, thinking of a probable scenario.

"Say their identity for instance. But if you don't know what it is you'll just end up looking stupid to your classmates, or even worse dead to one of those beasts." His master continued.

"So that's why you have to listen up good—"

 His master then adopted a serious demeanor.

"In order to identify a void beast you have to $&$$&& $&$$ #### $#$##."

'What?' Trick thought in question as he heard gibberish in the form of words he could not make out.

Almost instantly, the reason behind his master's strange mutters hit him.

Trick yelled out in his mind as the important part of the memory he tried to reminisce was blurred. He reached out even more into his memory for answers but what he found disheartened him even more.

"Now that you've listened attentively you'll know how to avoid a void beast while also preventing looking like an absolute fool in class." His master chuckled aloud, patting on Trick's head mirthfully.

'NOOOOOOOO!' Trick was agonized, he had completely forgotten. 

Be it as it may, even though Trick didn't listen much in class he was extra attentive whenever his master spoke. So it was even more painful that he'd forgotten that conversation.

'I'm gonna have to wing it.'

'I'll just have to forget about hints, memories or answers.' He continued in his line of thought.

'Cause right now I'm forced to use my greatest ability.'

'Right now I have no choice—' Trick let out a wide cunning grin.

'But to trick the answer into them.' He finally concluded his plan. He was now going to trick the answer in—he was now going to do whatever what he said meant.

Trick let out a cough, clearing his throat.

"You see, when trying to identify a void beast it is peripheral to note that a void beast is indeed a dangerous beast and failure to identify it is very very dangerous." He let out a cocky smile as the teacher leaned in closer to his reply.

'First step ENDLESS RAMBLING.'

"You have to realize that void beasts have been in existence for centuries and have punished humanity for millennia!" He politically vented, ramming his fist into his desk.

'Second step EVASIVE RESPONDING.'

"You being a very intelligent man know full well the scars void beasts can inflict on human society don't you professor?"

'Third step ENDLESS GLAZING.'

The professor nodded in affirmation, resting his back against his wide table.

"For this reason must the creatures from the void be devoid of victory, being pushed by humanity to whence they once came."

'Fourth step POETIC CLOSURE.'

A victorious smirk made its was to Trick's lips as he gave a finishing bow.

"Thank you!" He added, finishing his speech.

"…"

"…"

Silence washed over the room for a few seconds being broken by a single clap by a student.

The student then paused seeing his peer nod in disaffirmance this very act causing a slightly shorter delayed calm.

"Mmm." His friend mumbled inaudibly, burying her head completely into her palms in shame.

Immediately, the silence was tossed out the window as the students laughed Trick to stupor. Their chuckles being so loud that it even doubled their previous laughs.

"Whence they once came? Ha!" A student mocked a part of his speech and others followed suit, getting lines he earlier said but tweaking their voices to make it sound much more stupid.

"That was complete garbage." The teacher slapped his palm over his face so hard that his face began to bleed a little under the impact.

Trick paled, dumbfounded at both the loud chuckles and the critique he currently faced.

'HOW CAN THIS BE?' He lifted his head up observing the scornful smiles his classmates expressed at his own expense.

"And I almost fell for it thinking for once you had something sensible to say." His teacher let out a sigh.

He then snapped his fingers repeatedly until he got Trick's attention.

"Jus—just sit down and pay attention this time."

Trick shamefully took his seat, his eyes firmly fixed on the floor.

"Does anyone know the answer?" The professor asked, instead getting a chilling silence from the once unruly class.

"Tch, so all of you are shrimp brains then? So no one besides my two star students Charlotte and Mage know the answer?" 

He confessed bitterly turning his attention to an orange haired girl and a mysterious boy that sat unmoving since the class began.

"Mage, can you please educate these dummies by telling them the answer?" The teacher's eyes finally gleamed in faith, as he stared at the boy slowly get up to his feet.

'Why Mage?' Charlotte voiced out in her thoughts as she watched her perculiar classmate get up to his feet.

He brushed through his hair with his hands as he stood up. It was dark, just having some strands as well as its edges bathe in a dark blue hue.

The boy then opened up his eyes revealing a strange yet dazzling mix of two contrasting colours.

His azure blue eyes gleamed like the sky in his right as they adopted the same level of shimmer his emerald green eyes usually adorned at his left.

"Void beasts have been known by humanity for centuries or even longer according to ongoing research." The boy started.

"And though their origin does remain a mystery, we have been able to know other notable things about their nature and how to determine them."

"These ways include their form." Mage opened up his arms, introducing a gesture with every sentence for the students to better follow his explanation.

"Unlike many monsters, void beasts are usually dark shadowy beasts that have either black or red shades of colour." The teacher nodded with a smile fully invested in his star student's explanation.

"Their vocalization is another key factor, since monsters don't talk, any beast that is seen trying to mumble words has a higher chance of being a void beast." Mage then put his hands to his chin, a little lost in thought before continuing.

"And the most obvious characteristic of a void beast would be—" Mage took a glance at Trick, staring at his classmate whose eyes shone with a bright crimson gleam.

"THEIR VILE RED EYES." He finished, as both he and Trick were locked in a stern gaze.

The teacher as well as the students erupted in applause for the boy's brilliance. He and Trick being unbothered by their noise continued their fixed unshaking stare down unbeknownst to their peers.

'That Mage.' Trick observed the innocent smile the boy threw in his direction.

"I REALLY DON'T LIKE HIM—"

"NOT ONE BIT."