Author's note: Heya beautiful people! I was approached by someone like a week or two ago wondering if I did commissions and after thinking about it for a moment, I decided to give it a go. Obviously, I gave it my all, and I'm quite proud of what I cooked.
Either way, here it is, I will post it here and on QQ for now, just to see how it is received. The commissioner liked it and I hope some of you do too. I'm excited to hear what y'all think and would appreciate your opinions.
Now, for the question you might be having. No, it won't change my usual schedule of two or three chapters a week, I will maintain that, and this is like a side dish, even if the commissioner asks for more, I would do it when I either have the time or my work from uni is not that pressing. Usual updates remain and will stay my focus.
Now, about this story. It's mainly a Rosario + Vampire/ DxD fic, just that the Academy is a university for obvious reasons. The plot at first will focus on R+V, then jump at DxD, but some characters will appear earlier.
As for the powerset, the MC has Ace's power, growing into it, for very obvious reasons if you know Kamen Rider. I had to deep dive into their lore, and damn if it's not juicy.
Either way, let me know what you think!
AMD chapter goes live tomorrow.
The Crimson Cross.
Chapter 1: When the Bell Rang.
Third Person PoV.
Tokyo, Last Bastion of Humanity. 2055.
It wasn’t a good sight. For humanity, good sights weren’t a thing anymore.
And that wasn’t even the worst part. It was that they didn’t even have someone to blame for their situation.
At the start, one year before this fateful day, there had been an easy target.
Everyone blamed Ace Ukiyo.
It was human nature, after all. A way to find comfort in trying times. But Ace didn’t feel a single moment of anger at the thought.
Humanity had always needed something simple to cling to when the world began to collapse. And he knew humanity better than most.
They usually weren’t apocalyptic situations, but considering that it was exactly what was happening, Ace understood it even more.
Nothing was simpler than blaming the one man always at the center of everything strange.
The Riders were no longer rumors; the knowledge came to the open on that fateful day that a whole country was erased from the face of the earth before anyone could react. Everyone remembered that day vividly, how the economic monster of the United States of America disappeared under a bright beam of light.
Then the masks, the armor, and the impossible battles against monsters that could make many army veterans shiver in fear became the norm, with everyone thanking the heroes who fought on humanity’s side.
After that, the stories surfaced quickly. No one knew who had posted the information online or what he gained from it.
And in the end, the why wasn’t even that important. Only that they existed.
The Desire Grand Prix. The games. The many deaths that had been rewritten by the managers every time they restarted the timeline for their own sick pleasure.
But the information that shook the world like a storm was none other than the name of Ace Ukiyo.
The name that spread across what remained of the world with no signs of stopping. The news network dragged every single scrap of footage that had somehow survived over the years, or the hidden knowledge of his many reincarnations as he participated in the game.
From photos to videos in the modern age to ancient drawings of the same figure, that same fox mask.
Always the same man.
A man. A mortal-born man, son of a Goddess of creation, who turned into a godlike being.
People were afraid, and humans didn’t take that knowledge lightly. It became the norm to blame him since everything started with him.
Because if he had never been born… If the Riders had never existed…
Maybe the invaders wouldn’t have been interested in the timeline. And maybe, just maybe, humanity would still have cities. Not only ruins where once settlements had been.
Maybe the oceans wouldn’t be littered with wreckage, and the continents wouldn't have been systematically destroyed. All to bring a single man low.
Maybe Tokyo wouldn’t be the last place humans were safe.
For a few months, it was all they could say. At least until the war truly began. Where the invaders showed how inefficient human warfare truly was.
The days the skies filled with ships that ignored every law of physics that was known to man by that time.
Then other cities fell.
Shanghai fell on October 28, 2054. The Riders made a dent in the invading forces, but they were soon overrun. That was the fateful day humanity began praising the Riders.
For four days, four champions of humanity held back hordes upon hordes of mechanized monsters and interdimensional beings.
Until they fell. Until they were erased from human perception by the invaders.
Brazil lasted two days. Over two hundred million people dead in less than 48 hours.
Britain? Britain didn’t even last twelve.
And suddenly, the argument about whether Ace Ukiyo had started this whole nightmare felt painfully irrelevant.
Because while governments collapsed and armies were shattered by the enemy forces, while the world’s greatest weapons proved as effective as a candlelight against the things pouring out of the sky, there was one man who led a group of chosen ones to fight.
The Riders.
The Heroes.
Ace never appeared on broadcasts; that was Neon Kurama’s job. The peppy woman who always had a hopeful smile at the start.
That hope faded day by day.
She always defended Ace’s decisions, always had his back.
Because he never defended himself against the accusations.
He simply fought.
Again. And again. And again.
Every time the invaders pushed toward the final safe zones. Every time something slipped through the defenses that the remaining nations had managed to assemble around what little civilization humanity still had left? Ace was there.
When the world burned, Ace Ukiyo was fighting in the frontlines.
When cities fell, he was the last one to leave them.
And when humanity finally ran out of ground to retreat to, when the war shrank until the entire fate of the species rested inside a single sprawling metropolis surrounded by walls of steel held by futuristic technology and desperation…
He was there too.
In Tokyo. The last bastion of humanity.
The final city left on Earth that still had life.
And if the people inside those walls still whispered his name sometimes, it wasn’t with the same anger it once carried.
Blame had a way of fading when survival itself became a luxury.
Besides, there wasn’t much point in blaming anyone anymore.
Because even with the Riders fighting at the front lines, even with Ace Ukiyo standing at the heart of every battle like some ageless guardian that refused to abandon a species that had once cursed his name…
Everyone knew the truth.
The walls of Tokyo weren’t holding.
They were only postponing the inevitable.
Ace Ukiyo.
Tokyo.
There was barely any sound left across the battlefield. And it said a lot that Ace Ukiyo no longer felt grief.
He didn’t even feel exhausted. Nor tired of all the death.
He had grown accustomed to it since the war started.
They couldn’t defeat him. He was just too good for them to kill him.
But that wasn’t the intention of the invaders, and Ace knew that all too well.
They wanted to break him. To make him give up and follow their commands.
And after the last battle? They were closer than anyone had ever gotten.
But he wasn’t planning on giving up. That wasn’t like him.
Ace always considered himself someone with an iron will. He knew loneliness. Through thousands of years of life, reincarnation after reincarnation, he had seen his loved ones die; he knew loss all too well.
But seeing how the wind moved through the broken skyline of Tokyo, carrying ash, dust, and the scent of burnt blood?
It brought a different meaning to the word loss.
The ruins stretched for kilometers in every direction. Towers that had once defined the last human city were nothing more than rubble. A monument. A gravestone for a civilization that finally ran out of luck.
And in the middle of it all stood Ace.
Just… observing.
His hands rested inside his pockets. His shoulders relaxed, nothing like his brother in all but blood.
The only one left.
But the battle around him had already finished.
The dust began to settle after his last attack. He had pulverized much of the bastion after the cowards used some bioengineered disease to kill everyone inside.
That was their final attack. Like the cowards they were.
And humanity was helpless. Knowing nothing would change if he just rewrote time again, so was Ace.
The dust rolled under a casual wave of his hand, showing the shattered streets and bodies of the invaders and his last allies.
Ace looked first toward the place where Tycoon had fallen.
Another brother… simply gone.
There was no body left to see. Only a broken patch of asphalt and the imprint of Tycoon’s shadow after he was hit by a disintegration beam. The only proof that his friend ever existed.
A good friend. Someone who believed that peace could be reached between the invaders and humanity. Naïve, sure, but one with a good heart.
One that Ace respected from the bottom of his heart despite the muted emotions.
Ace’s eyes drifted past the imprint.
Keiwa Sakurai had always believed that, even when the world proved him wrong time and time again.
Then he looked in the other direction, where Neon had fallen.
Where she had been erased from existence before Ace could stop it.
Not even his only friend left could remember her. Buffa was sitting down next to him, looking around with so much hatred pouring out of his body that it was almost palpable.
He didn’t have much left.
Michinaga Azuma was breathing with difficulty against the pavement. The gurgling of blood as he coughed copious amounts of it. His armor was barely holding together, one entire arm gone from the shoulder down.
What remained of him was drenched in blood that soaked through the cracked plates of the armor and pooled beneath him.
Ace didn’t always like him, feeling that Buffa was too sentimental most of the time.
But he also had an iron will. More than anyone else.
So, he wasn’t that surprised when Buffa turned his hateful eyes in Ace’s direction.
Looking down at Ace’s pristine armor, he scoffed, his eyes blazing with fury.
“I told you,” he rasped out.
His voice was rough, and he coughed even more blood from the effort.
He showed no sign of caring anymore. “I told you this would happen. That you shouldn’t have stopped by just getting rid of the DGP. You had to get rid of everyone instead.”
“I told you they would never leave us alone,” he dropped his head against the cracked floor.
“I know.”
It was the only thing that Ace could say.
It was a soft tone, barely above a murmur. But despite that, it carried over the ruins like the world wanted them to be heard.
He wasn’t defending himself. He never did, and Buffa didn’t expect to hear an apology from his rival.
He didn’t know what he was expecting, in truth.
Buffa stared at him for a moment, then looked at the sky.
The opening sky.
More and more spaceships covered the sky. Too many to count.
Light bathed the ruins for a moment as figures materialized in front of them.
Dozens of them. Then hundreds.
And the strongest ones.
The ones above even Suel.
One stepped forward. One that even made the last two feel embarrassed at how much better and stronger his armor felt.
Its design was almost human. A smooth plate with a smiley face drawn into it, almost mockingly, featureless apart from that.
His voice echoed across the ruins, just like Ace’s.
“And the game finally ended,” his voice was smooth.
The armored man then tilted his head, “It’s time we repeat everything once more, don’t you think, Ace?”
Ace didn’t respond.
“The VIPs loved this episode, my friend. We got the highest ratings since the show was created!” he laughed brightly, “there are talks about turning it into the usual. What do you think? Are you ready to accept your place under us? Just like your mother was before you?”
It sounded curious. Excited. But the worst part was the deathly wonder about what the answer would be.
He didn’t care about humanity in the slightest.
But Ace already knew that.
“You were always pieces on our board, Ace Ukiyo. You just had a looser chain than the rest of them.”
Buffa guffawed, spitting blood and laughing even harder.
And Ace tilted his head curiously at him. He had never heard something so raw coming out of him, despite how heated he got most of the time.
“I’m done listening to this shit,” he shook his head amusedly, nodding at Ace with what felt like thanks for a life worth living.
He pushed himself off the ground even as his body trembled from the effort. Pieces of his armor fell on the ground with a definitive thud.
His legs wobbled, but he didn’t care.
With one arm left and half his organs failing, Buffa charged.
A broken Rider running straight at beings stronger than even the gods. The ones who destroyed the world for their amusement.
It looked almost heroic.
Then the man raised one hand.
And a bright flash filled the ruins for less than a second.
And Buffa was no longer there.
He didn’t even make a sound. Erased, as if his life never meant anything in the grand scheme of things.
And there was only silence. With only Ace remaining from humanity’s side.
He sighed, looking at the empty space Buffa had filled seconds before.
He didn’t know what to feel. What else was there to do? Just another life, another time playing for the amusement of the people from the future.
Then he cocked his head, curiously. Toward where Neon had been.
She always wanted to avoid violence. The opposite of Buffa. Her ties with the DGP group meant she always hoped for peace between humanity and them.
Between humans and the sick fucks enjoying their suffering, planning a complete genocide just for laughs and ratings.
Ace heard her counsel, just like Tycoon’s. Buffa always hated that.
But… had Buffa been right?
There was no point focusing on regret at this point.
Ace lifted his head, and the reflection on the machine’s mask showed a flinty look in his eyes.
“I never accept defeat,” he shook his head, “Never have, never will. It’s not who I am, and you know that.”
“A shame,” the masked man nodded, looking like he already expected such an answer.
Then Ace saw himself smile in the reflection.
No, it wasn’t exactly a smile. But it was close enough.
“I think I have a different wish.”
Somewhere far away, beyond the broken skyline and the pieces of humanity collapsing, a sound rang out.
An ancient sound that everyone present had heard multiple times.
It was familiar enough that the masked man with a battalion at his back took a step back in fear.
What was the sound, you may ask.
Why? Of course, it was bells ringing.
Third-person PoV.
The Void.
There was no light where they existed now.
If it could be called existence.
There was no darkness either. The only thing present was the absence of everything that had once defined their reality.
No longer was the cosmos filled with stars. Time no longer moved under their whims.
There were no planets in the void, no ground beneath what remained of their forms.
Yet, they were still there. They would always be there.
Not whole, that didn’t apply anymore.
Only their consciousness.
The scattered minds of a whole race that once played with reality because their lives were boring.
The ones who enjoyed what the DGP once did. Now turned into fragments of what once was the brightest civilization there was.
They never knew what death meant. They never experienced it.
Biology was a mere suggestion to them, the same as reality.
But this wasn’t death.
It was erasure.
The moment the blasted fox made his final wish.
He didn’t even have the courage to face their army on his own. To have an entertaining one last stand.
He just wished for everything to end.
The Grand Prix. The games. The endless cycles of worlds they had carefully curated and reset for millennia. Their race.
Ace Ukiyo was a coward. He didn’t dare to face them.
The entire multiverse was erased by his final wish. Entire artificial universes had dissolved into nothing as the structure that sustained them vanished under their disbelieving eyes.
All erased by a jumped-up mortal.
The fox had won.
Or had he?
Because they survived. They always survived, even if it was the biggest setback they had suffered, from what the data said.
The remaining wills gathered into the nothingness, following the loud presence of something in the void.
It stood in the center of the void. Untouched.
The wills prostrated before it.
“We failed,” one at the front said.
It wasn’t sound. There was no body for that, but the meaning transmitted itself through the emptiness.
“Our kind was affected by the wish. He diminished us.”
Another one took the front.
“We didn’t think he would do something like this in any of our scenarios. He erased everything, including himself and everything that he loved.”
“He changed us,” another wisp said neutrally.
Every will fell silent when he spoke. He had been one of the minds that had created the system that they used.
Now it was nothing but a mere wisp of itself.
“Look there,” it said quietly.
Their attention shifted towards the distance.
And for the first time since the bell rang, the remnants of the future civilization saw what Ace Ukiyo had created.
The void was not empty anymore.
From nothingness, something materialized.
And expanded, without stopping. And their presence was no longer welcome.
From the center point of nothingness, reality was starting once more.
But not with them. Even now, even the most powerful of their group, including the untouched presence, felt reality pushing him away.
An unscripted reality.
Universes soon bloomed into existence, and planets followed. Galaxies spiraled outward as the newborn stars ignited for the first time.
“So much life,” the first one said in wonder.
“Think of the games,” another one murmured.
“Not anymore.” The untouched presence lifted his head. The mechanical body twitched in the void for a moment.
Over eight meters tall, humanoid. With seven eyes glowing on its cracked mask. “He is pushing us away even now.”
“What will we do, brother?” one presence that had stayed silent asked neutrally.
It didn’t sound worried, and the weight of his will felt almost on par with the untouched one.
A presence that dwarfed every other one gathered but one.
“He created something new. Something we hadn’t seen before,” the mechanical being murmured, “and he thinks he can deprive us of it.”
They watched the new universe spread until it filled everything.
The possible conflict excited them. But there was a problem.
They couldn’t enjoy it anymore. As it was their right.
“He unmade us. But he gifted us something beautiful,” the figure tilted its head.
Then he brought his hand low, and space shattered, opening a fissure.
“We are no longer welcome. But there’s much more outside.”
“But think of what we can see here, brother,” the strongest will said after a moment of silence.
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t come back, older brother.” He laughed.
The sound was cold, sharp, almost mocking.
“But we are not in a state to overpower the rejection.”
“We are no longer what we once were. But that just means we need to change. Like the ones from the past.” He intoned grandly, holding all the wills with his robotic arm. “Our names were erased, but it’s just a start.”
A new kind of energy was born at that moment. One they didn’t have a register for in their vast database.
One that did inexplicable things just by existing.
The being stopped for a moment, as if considering something.
Then, it nodded. “We are Melvazoa.”
Reality stuttered at the proclamation, and every will felt the weight of his presence grow impossibly fast. The unnamed energy gathered across its body before it was consumed by the mechanical lifeform.
“And now, we’ll be known as the Evies.”
The wills stuttered for a moment before going still.
“And this universe will be ours once more. Once we have regained our strength, all thanks to the gift from that Fox.”
Its consciousness expanded, reaching into the newborn cosmos as it learned every detail of the new existence.
“And this will be our domain.”
The rift closed behind them as he pulled his whole race with him to unknown parts. But Melvazoa knew one thing.
They would be back. Because they didn’t know defeat.
And next time, there would be no fox to stop them.
When their presence disappeared, and the hole in reality mended itself, life stuttered for a moment. And that day was when Draconic Deus ignited its first light.
Ethan Cross.
Tokyo, 2007.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I couldn't help but frown at the unfamiliar ceiling.
It was the first thing I saw every single day for the last two weeks… and I still hated it. Ever since the move.
Just another reminder of what I had lost.
The new sights didn’t matter, nor did the new people I could meet, or even the amazing cuisine that the Japanese hid from me back home. None of that made me feel the slightest bit excited.
It wasn't home. Not yet, and judging by how I was feeling, I doubted it would ever be.
Mum liked to say that I was dumb for acting this way, but I couldn't help it.
They had ripped me from my old life. My friends, my girlfriend… Hell, even my damn studies. It was to the point that I missed that! And I hated school.
I couldn’t help but feel resentful.
It would pass. I knew that, but it still stung.
As beautiful as Japan was shaping up to be, it didn't compare to England.
The food was better, though.
I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, not wanting to get out of bed and face another bullshit day this would probably be.
Ever since Dad’s and Mum’s work forced them to move here to open a new manufacturing plant for the corporation they worked for, my life had been a bit worse.
I was about to enter university, damn it. It was my damn time to have fucking fun and my wild years after acting like the proper posh boy during high school.
And now it wouldn't happen.
The Japanese seemed painfully polite. And I didn’t expect to have wild moments here.
All that respect rubbed me the wrong way. Why on earth were they bowing to strangers for whatever shit they did was beyond me.
That didn’t even mention how I was forced to learn the language in such a short time.
It wasn't fun, but I had always been good at learning new things.
A miracle, Mum called it. A gift from God.
I called it rubbish.
But it was a good opportunity for my parents, and I wasn't cruel enough to deprive them of it. Yes, I was pissed, but I loved them, and once I realized that they were ready to drop the chance for me, I couldn't help but accept.
So here I was. Suffering.
Staring at a ceiling that wasn't mine, in a country that wasn't home, with a future that looked suspiciously like the opposite of everything I'd planned.
Fuck my life.
I finally dragged myself upright, running a hand through my hair and squinting against the morning light bleeding through curtains that Mum picked for me.
Why in the world I needed curtains covered in nine-tailed foxes was beyond me. But she had fun buying a bunch of shit during the first week, so I let it be.
The worst part was that we were catholic. Well, mostly my parents, but it was funny that my mum was buying me things from another religion.
The nine-tailed foxes were like messengers of the Japanese Gods, right? I wonder if she knew that, or if she just thought the tiny foxes were cute. Could be either, honestly. She was a bit of an airhead.
But as much as it amused me, it immediately died when I looked at my desk.
The fucking belt was back.
I stared at it with a fed-up expression. I was done, and the world didn’t make sense anymore.
I knew that the damn food had to be spiked with something to taste this good. They were fucking drugging me!
I was always clean, and I always kept my desk spotless. It was part of my charm. Or at least Mum liked to remind me of that every chance she got.
So I knew with absolute certainty that my desk had been empty when I went to sleep.
I ignored the impossible belt for a moment, closing my eyes.
At least my parents were earning suspiciously well this time. I still didn’t believe how much the company offered as an increase, but it was worth it.
I wasn’t happy, but I accepted it, and I had to admit that my stress went through the roof with everything going on.
That’s when I first saw the belt appearing out of thin air. For a while, I thought I was hallucinating. It was possible, right?
Well, it wasn’t like that, and the belt was real. Even my parents said it would look cute on me.
It absolutely wouldn’t. It was white and gold mixed surprisingly tastefully, but it was weird.
It was mechanical, for starters. And big, and I wouldn’t wear it even if someone paid me for it.
It looked like someone tried to mix jewelry and children’s toys in one single product, and it had no business sitting on an eighteen-year-old’s desk that didn’t order whores around as a side business.
I didn't need a gaudy thing to attract attention. I did it by myself already.
Even more, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone thought I was a pimp if I wore the damn thing.
The first time it appeared, I'd put it straight in the bin. Didn't think twice.
It was on my desk the next morning.
I tried the outside bin after that, burying it under so much trash and closing the lid. Hell, I even stayed watching when it was taken away by the workers.
And surprise, surprise, it was back on the desk by sunrise.
At first, I suspected that my parents were playing games with me, trying to see if they could make me crazy. But Dad didn’t have time with how busy he was, and Mum, who stayed at home most of the time for now, wouldn’t enter my room without my notice.
Not after the last time she embarrassed us both when she found my girlfriend Gabrielle and me fooling around.
Two days ago, I decided that enough was enough, and I walked twenty minutes to the river and threw it. I watched as the water took it away.
And it was back. Pristine as ever, like all my effort was in vain.
At this point, I had to accept that the conventional methods of disposal weren’t going to work. And the worst part was that the only catholic church around my house was abandoned. I couldn’t get an exorcism, even if I wanted one.
And I didn’t trust the ones from here. These ghost buster scammers offered their service around the city.
"Still here then," I said.
It didn't answer. Obviously.
I stood up, went to the kitchen, and made myself a proper cup of tea because I was British and some things were non-negotiable regardless of what inexplicable objects had decided to take up permanent residence in your life.
The belt was still there when I came back.
I didn’t know why, but it felt like it was mocking me.
I sat across from it with my mug, watching it curiously. Magic had to be real because it was the only thing that explained this thing. That, or even the food from the grocery store was laced to the brim with some substance and not only the restaurants.
If it was the latter, it would make more sense even if there was a bigger problem.
The worst part was that I was no longer surprised. A week of waking up to the same impossible thing, and my brain had quietly gotten used to the craziness.
That was what told me that things were really wrong, because I hated giving up.
"Right," I said finally. "What do you want?"
It just sat there.
I drank my tea and went back to ignoring the belt. So what if magic existed? I had better things to do.
I wanted my university life, dammit. Why we had to move right after university enrollment closed was just the cherry on top.
Later that day.
Ethan Cross.
The walk back home felt like pure defeat.
And no, while my parents drove me everywhere back in Britain, I wasn't fat. I was average, so it wasn’t because I was tired.
I was, just not because of that.
Tokyo had many universities, which was supposedly good for me. And it fucking wasn’t.
The house was barely twenty minutes away from the admissions office on the first campus I visited. I had spoken with them by email while I was in Britain, and they said they would give me a chance to enter despite the late admission.
And it was all bullshit.
It was the third time I had visited, trying to speak with the person who had spoken with me all those months ago. He wasn’t available even once.
I already knew the walk by now, every corner I could take to make the suffering pass faster, every vending machine that had the delicious food and interesting drinks, every salary man that walked the streets, and even the few, but present gangsters in some streets.
And it was all for nothing.
One thing that caught my attention was the dead look many of the salarymen had as they walked down the street.
I used to find it curious. Now I understood that look.
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was on my face.
Every university in the area had already closed its enrollment period by the time we arrived in Japan. We knew it would happen, but we had hoped some place would give me a damn chance.
I had hoped that exceptions existed. Back in England, it would have been costly, but possible. Here? I was seen as scum for hinting at that option on some campuses.
Three different women today had bowed politely and explained, in very understandable English, that there was nothing they could do. It weirded me out because the three different women had the exact same mannerisms. Like they all learned how to do it in the same place at the same time.
Despite my anger, I stayed polite because I was raised that way. It pissed me off, but as much as I hated it, I was starting to realize that I might lose one year.
By the time I reached the house, I circled between anger and sadness about my situation, to the point where I just felt drained.
Mum was in the kitchen when I came back. She took one look at my face and didn’t say anything, which meant she was looking for her words. To let me down gently.
My suspicions were correct, because she dropped what she was doing and put the kettle on instead.
I sat down next to her, staring at the empty space as she prepared the cups and set them next to me.
“Ethan, baby?” Her hand was on my shoulder by the time I turned my attention to her.
“Don’t, Mum,” I sighed. “I’m not in the mood.”
“You know bottling things is not healthy, Ethan,” she smiled sadly, “I wouldn’t want you to do something stupid. We have time, baby. A year is not much in the grand scheme of things.”
“I’m not an idiot,” I rolled my eyes.
“You had a face, love,” she tittered softly.
“I did not,” I lifted the cup and drank eagerly. Hers always tasted better than mine.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, Mum,” I sighed once more, “I understand that it's only a year, but I had hopes, you know.”
“Of what? Crazy parties? A girl? Maybe two?” she grinned as she smacked my arm playfully. “These girls aren’t ready for you, baby.”
“Heh,” that brought a grin to my face.
It helped to lift my mood, marginally. She had always known how to do it since I was younger.
Was I so easy to please? Nah, that couldn’t be it.
“Doing nothing for one year would drive me crazy, though,” I pointed out, “already am, to be honest.”
I thought back to the magical belt in my room.
“But we will be here for you. We aren’t blind to what you’re doing for us, Ethan, and we will help you in everything we can.”
“One can only hope,” I nodded, “At least the belt might be useful for something if nothing works.”
She glared at me and smacked the back of my head. She knew I was just joking.
Dark humor was my safety net when I was too stressed.
“Wait for Dad, yes? We can speak later.” She stood up to prepare dinner.
Hm… suspicious. She dropped the subject too fast.
As soon as she did so, the front door opened.
Dad came in with the widest smirk on his face, one I hadn’t seen in years. The last time was when he gave me my first bike, like ten years ago.
He was looking pleased beyond belief, and honestly, I was filled with hope. Because he barely kissed Mum’s lips before he turned his attention in my direction.
He was holding a pamphlet.
“Good news, kiddo!” he hugged me tightly, almost lifting me from the seat.
Mum shot me a look, a knowing smile growing on her face.
“William,” she pushed Dad softly, “explain first.”
Dad chuckled, “Found a university that would accept you, kiddo.” He put the pamphlet on the table. “Yokai Academy. A private institution. While I couldn’t find any info online, they are genuine. I already called, and they accepted you!”
My mouth opened for a moment before I narrowed my eyes and looked at the pamphlet.
It looked like something made during the Second World War. The photo of the building showed a haunted castle of all things. With a fog that almost covered the whole place.
What the fuck did Dad sign me up for?!
The name also tickled something in my brain.
“Aren’t Yokais like the demons here in Japan?” I tilted my head, “Did you just enroll me in a satanic university, old man!”
I lifted him by the collar, feeling the strain on my arms but beyond caring at this point.
“Really?” he asked worriedly, but then he laughed. “They do play with the scary theme quite a lot, no?”
“This is serious!” I rolled my eyes, letting him go. “Where did you get this thing?”
“A weird old man dropped it when I was walking back home,” he shrugged as if that made sense. “Pure luck.”
Right… luck. Was it here that all my bad luck for the last month turned into something?
“What did they tell you, then?” I slumped in my seat.
I couldn’t believe I was accepting this, but the other option was wasting a year of my life.
“It’s a lived-in university to start,” he hedged, “three years for the diploma, and they do have what you wanted to study. It’s quite cheap.”
“That all sounds good, too good to be true,” I deadpanned at him, “And I know that tone, old man, explain properly.”
Dad murmured something so low and garbled I didn’t understand a single word.
I looked at him, staying silent.
Dad rubbed the back of his head and shared a glance with Mum. “It’s in the suburbs, like five hours away from here. You’ll have to stay there for half a year and will only return when the semester ends. And we can’t go with you, nor visit.”
“Then how am I supposed to get there?” I asked, feeling even more weirded out.
Was I about to be sacrificed to some demons? Because all these red flags were sending alarms in my head.
“There’s a bus that will pick you up… in two days. If you want, that is. If you don’t, then just stay here with us,” he smiled guiltily. “I should have talked with you first, son. I apologize.”
“This is either the worst idea you ever had,” I deadpanned at my Dad, “or the second worst.”
“What was the first?” He tilted his head.
“Dragging us to Japan,” I said dryly.
He had the audacity to look offended.
I looked between him, the pamphlet, and the house before I grabbed it.
“I’ll let you know tomorrow. I’m not feeling that hungry.”
“Ethan?” Mum grabbed my hand gently, “Pick whatever you want, dear. We have your back.”
I nodded, then dropped into my bed.
Two days later.
Ethan Cross.
The bus passed next to my house at six am sharp.
At least I didn’t have to walk to the middle of nowhere for a stop or something. I didn’t think I could handle any more red flags, especially if they hit me directly in the face.
This whole opportunity stank no matter how much I tried to explain it.
I was the only one, and the driver was a creepy fucker. I was thankful he didn’t say anything more than we needed to make one last stop.
I was already regretting accepting this.
I said my goodbyes to my parents that morning, and it was… nice. Mum cried, but she’d refuse it had ever happened. Dad was more focused on getting ready for work, which was no surprise.
I didn’t get angry or sad. He was like that.
The magic belt was hidden in my main bag.
It wasn’t because I had a change of heart or anything like that… it had simply been there when I packed, and I learned by now that even if I took it out, it probably would find its way next to me the next time I checked my things.
And honestly… having a magical belt at hand might be useful if this ended up being a satanic way to find poor souls to give to demons for superpowers. If nothing else, the damn thing weighed enough that I could probably smack their teeth away before running.
I was surprised that another poor sod was going to get scammed, just like my family.
Or maybe it wasn’t a scam, and I was imagining things.
The next stop was a small house on the other side of Tokyo, and a Japanese man around my age got on the bus. He had four bags with him, two fewer than me. The driver helped him by putting them in the back.
He looked sheepish, but also surprised that someone else was here.
He bowed his head as soon as he was in front of me. Ugh. I hoped he wouldn’t get offended when I didn’t use honorifics.
“Tsukune Aono, nice to meet you.” He smiled nervously.
“Ethan Cross,” I nodded, “You couldn’t find another place either?”
He laughed, embarrassed, “I’m quite average, I fear. What about you?”
“Hm.” I looked at him for a moment, “If it’s not obvious, I’m not from Japan. I arrived too late for regular admission, and this was the only place that accepted me.”
“How did you learn about it? I couldn’t find anything on the internet,” he looked curious.
“My dad found a pamphlet on the street,” my lips twitched.
His eyes widened, “mine too.”
We looked at each other for a moment.
“We’re probably getting killed, then.” I sighed, slumping on the comfy seat, “It was nice meeting you, Tsukune.”
He laughed nervously, but before he could reply, the road got even worse as soon as we left Tokyo. The trees grew thicker, too, and it felt like the sun didn’t reach the ground like before.
The clouds rolled from somewhere. Thick, grey, and blocking the whole sky at once.
I watched it for a while.
“Does this look normal to you?” I turned my head to my new friend.
“No,” he shook his head.
The driver laughed creepily, showing that I wasn’t wrong with my assumption.
I was around eighty percent sure we were about to be sacrificed.
“Good. I thought I was seeing things.” I sighed, sharing a look with Aono.
Hours passed mostly in silence, but soon we entered a tunnel. It felt like forever until we saw a ray of sun. It was absurdly long, and for some reason, I felt something weird in my skin. Like a shiver I couldn’t explain.
I had an itch to grab the belt just in case.
But I ignored it with practiced ease. I wasn’t usually this pessimistic.
And soon, we arrived.
The building looked the same as the one in the photo, which was good because it showed it was real.
It was also bad, because the bad feeling got even worse. Grabbing our bags, we got off the bus as the driver gave some creepy parting words I didn’t even pay attention to.
Aono’s reaction told me that perhaps I should have, because he went chalky white for some reason.
It was really weird, but something on the back of my mind kept me distracted from focusing on him.
It felt wrong. It smelled wrong.
Not bad, exactly. In a way, I had expected to smell corpses or some shit like that when I saw the academy was real, but something was nagging me, and I couldn’t name it.
The bad feeling disappeared almost instantly. No, it didn’t disappear exactly, instead, something caught my full attention.
Why the fuck did something impact against my left side with enough force to send me down hard against the dirt? I tried to put my hands to stop my body from rolling, but I just cried out when the dirt and stones cut through my palm.
Instead of focusing on the pain and the extra weight on top of my chest, I just stared in confusion at something that didn’t make sense.
Why was a bicycle wheel spinning inches away from my head?
My hands grabbed something soft and I heard a grumbling moan that didn’t come out of me.
I ignored it, staring at the cloudy sky.
What a damn brilliant start.