DALNO: The Beginning

CHAPTER 5: Successful Second First Day Of Class

June 10, 3142, Four months after the Bomei Elementary School ceremony. Vincent, inside his consciousness at the mask’s environment with the sealed being now comprehensible by its mask. The mask sighs in boredom as Vincent walks toward it.

“What exactly are you? My guy”, Vincent positively asks.

“Huh?” blankly replied by the mask.

“Like, what kind of being are you?”

“Why do you care about such information?”

“Eh, I dunno, maybe you could be my friend or ally or something”

“Not a chance for a mere vessel”

“Wellll, could I get your name at least?”

The mask sighs, moments after, a grunt is heard. The mask looked to its front, a terrified Vincent got struck by a yellow streak of lightning towards his head, making the mask shocked.

Vincent fell to the flesh-like grounds and held his head with both hands, grunting continuously from pain.

Vincent screams in an attempt to restrain the pain, the mask thinks it's an act and remains cold. The moment the mask’s eyelid is close to blinking, the environment that represents Vincent’s conscience switches rapidly.

Despite the speed, the mask began to flinch as it managed to see several glimpses of scenarios.

With it showed up mixed up projections in his consciousness with overlapping multiple screams of the same kid and male vocals, the sound of dripping crimson liquids of copper, sheering sounds of sharp metal, ear demolishing explosions, rapid gunshots, and a cry of a purple-haired child crying over two beheaded figures with one being gray-haired in a black jacket and the other being cyan-haired with a lightning ahoge in a black vest with Homura’s national crest.

Vincent finally stops screaming. With it, the mixed-up catastrophe the mask is currently witnessing paused too. Vincent is gasping to recover, the mask stood frozen with a blank expression from everything he saw.

The moment of gasping is finished, but Vincent still lies face-down on the ground. The projections began to move in reverse with its chaotic overlapping pile of sounds being played in reverse as well as revealing a song of men’s agonizing cry of massacre bloodshed and becoming a high-pitched shriek of women and children as it reverted faster.

While the mask uncontrollably listens to this dreadful song, his matter starts to react, starting to be absorbed as well to the reversion of the unorganized events. In his state of shock, his body is unreactive, his brain can’t react, with just a stare with muscles unable to hide from discovering the scenarios.

The environment goes dark, darker than the mask’s matter. The breeze is the screeching voice of people, with the mask stuck in the middle. As the voice goes higher, to the point of the mask shrinking while releasing blood, A whisper of a man-toned child says quickly near his ear.

“You are one of the pawns, elevated one”

The mask woke up sweating and looked around rattly. As he gasped, he sighs in relief that he was back to the original mask environment. Even though his nerves have calmed, his brain is flooded with millions of tangled puzzles that even his mind is unknown to such concepts.

What are those?

I-I see,

A pitch dark figure unconscious,

In front of a white figure over a pile of four corpses.

The second,

The same figure is looking toward a mass of people,

As many as five planets would hold,

With a cloaked wizard-looking figure on its back as it is holding a sword,

In a serious expression.

The third,

Is the figure again,

In a middle of a warzone,

With ten white figures on its back,

And the fourth,

The fourth—

“It seems it is school time, huh?”

Hearing a familiar voice, the mask gasps and instantly looks up, shockingly witnessing Vincent that’s already in the motion of standing up straight while scratching his head. But something is off, as Vincent now has a group of hair strands standing out as bangs.

“What the hell happened?” questioned the mask in a cold sweat.

“I’ll go now, I don’t want to be late… Especially on my first day, Mo— Mask”

Vincent began to be glitchy and disappeared in an instant with an after image of him slowly closing his eyes while the bangs disappear in a frame-by-frame manner, the mask feels puzzled in a face of maximum shock. A whisper then echoes around the mask’s own environment.

“Don’t worry… I will make things right this time”

Vincent suddenly woke up from his sleep with a horrid face as if he had a nightmare. Breathing heavily, he rubbed his eyes and looked towards his hanged calendar to his left. There, encircled with a red marker, June 10, was Vincent’s first day in high school.

He then got himself ready and went to commute, running to the Homuran Academy addressed in Koko, Homura.

On the school grounds, seeing so many people and several looking at him made him nervous and excited, while their anonymous intentions gave him chills.

He went inside the spherical establishment and witnessed the Academy’s enormous interior. He looked around the school and it was like a paradise, classical with its checkered floor pattern, twenty stylistic corridor hallway, four-story building, and the said motif is as fabulous as it sounds.

Vincent ventures more, and finds the Cafeteria with any food he wants, A whole floor full of room for two’s with toilets, and an unknown roommate.

There is still more but Vincent canceled his ongoing venture as the alarm rang throughout the whole Academy.

Students and teachers start to walk towards their respective classrooms while Vincent is left out, currently confused about what classroom he’s going to, and is stuck like a little kid at the center of the spherical interior, shakingly taking steps.

"Yoo… are you lost?" A sinister voice was heard.

Vincent got shivers through his spine and slowly turned around. His purple eyes edged out as he saw a man in a Homura Academy Teacher Uniform with a mask that covered his eyes while wearing a smirk.

[Homura Academy Teacher Uniform - Consists of a tuxedo-like Dyneema vest, black slim neck-tie, and white half-folded long sleeves beneath with matching-colored slock pants. The vest and the pants come in two varieties: Burgundy and Black]

"Who are you?" Vincent asked, with confusion lingering in his eyes.

"You… don't know me?" The man replied, he then smirked and laughed.

Vincent was still confused, yet joined the laugh afterward in nervousness trying to maintain a positive atmosphere.

"The name is Ren, Professor Ren. You are Vin Chen Aishte, right?"

"I-It’s Ashite, sir" Vincent replied in a stuttering manner with a silently shocked expression. 

Professor Ren then laughed and smiled while patting Vincent’s left shoulder with his right hand. Vincent scratched his head in confusion and sweat of nervousness that is colder than before.

"Well, you're in my class Vincent, and in my class. Only tough students can pass through it. If you move as slow as a pussy, you're dead as a rodent… Like my brother."

Vincent nodded aggressively with internal suffering while Ren started to walk him comically towards his classroom with a childish giggle.

Oh, god,

Who is this blindfolded monstrosity,

His face meant peace,

Yet his presence meant chaos,

Help?

If only I could shout such words right now.

Both got in the classroom, Vincent saw a bunch of students inside, a total of twenty-four people, some were talking to each other, some were doing nothing, and a few were playing around with their Arcanae ability.

“Yo everyone” Ren delightfully said with a wave from his right hand and holding Vincent from his left. “Sorry I got late as this kid got lost in the school’s majestic interior”

The students blankly stared in silence at Ren, the boys gaze suspiciously at Vincent with some stares meant to observe him head to toe which made Vincent uncomfortable.

“So may you perhaps introduce yourself toward these masses, boy?”

Hearing Vincent’s approval, Ren then went to a vacant chair and sat down menacingly with his left leg over the other, right arm laying on the desk, left arm laying over the chair’s top rail beside him, and head leaned slightly to the back, with a confident smirk.

Ok,

Pull yourself together,

You can do this Vincent,

This is the first day,

Where my bloodline’s lives,

Will go downside up,

Vincent takes a deep breath and opens his competitive gaze towards the first twenty-five people he has to meet after the span of twelve years.

“Uhh— ha— Hi Everyone, The name is Vincent Ashite, I joined this academy because—”

"Very Understandable Vincent, Now go sit there with that emo boy" Professor Ren cuts in standing straight up, clapping speedily with a joyful face.

Heh heh, Why

Vincent, with a sarcastic, playing-along, smiley face, went and sat down in confusion while Professor Ren discussed the rules in the Homuran Academy.

Everyone pays serious attention to the mentioned rules with some taking up notes and some glimpsing towards the only Ashite in the room, suddenly…

Ren pauses and grins, grabs his desk, throws it onto the window shattering the glass, then laughs maniacally at random in front of the startled students, and lastly proceeds to slam the blackboard with massive impact and laughs again.

"Students, It’s time for my favorite part of this Academy… Introducing each other", Ren said loudly with a sinister grin.

One of the students raised his left hand, stood up, and identified himself as Shrilled X before the distracted laughing Ren could ask so.

“Why do you break so much stuff on the first day of class, sir?”

Ren leans his back to the destroyed board with his left hand in his pocket and his right hand touching his blindfold. With an evil grin, Ren mischievously stares at Shrilled X. He lowers his right hand and raises it towards the same height as his face with a gesture of one finger up.

"Because… It's free real estate."

A combination of black and purple Arcanae hexagons start to appear from Ren’s fingertip and spread across the room’s grounds. The black and purple hexagons materialized into a black substance, slowly engulfing the room, turning the surroundings as dark as the night.

Shrilled X leaves himself sweating with confusion overflowing from his face as the students tremble covered in the same expression.

Ren stood straight and explained the rules with excitement in his tone.

"By 1v1 fighting, the two of you will get to know each other better. Your powers, personality, and capability to fight are introduced while the pair of you are fighting. The one that gets the most damage proceeds to the next student until the time ends. The time starts when the two of you are actually fighting. End time: five minutes.”

“If you kill or faint a student, the one who did that will get EXILED… Just kidding”

“If you want to? Do it as I can just heal you with Continuous Seal: Heal anyway which from the name implies, it heals someone your palm is aimed at by repeating five to ten certain hand signs until the desired condition has been reached.”

“If you don't want to fight. I’ll fight you with the other students who withdraw from this 1v1. And the most important thing… Introducing yourself.”

“When the time runs out, hug each other out like homies”

The darkness completely consumes the room, the students are getting paired by the surface where they stood, making borders that lead to their first opponent.

Vincent recognized his opponent by its swirly black hair, named Karuma Jen Reiss with the Arcanae Black Pocket whose family name is known for its steal-based ability.

After a moment, the pairing is done. Ren leaped into a chair and stood up straight with both hands inside his pocket.

“Alright, kids, time to sta—”

“Who are you even, sir?”

Ren silenced for a while, chuckles, and laughs at the question from the boy in a black hooded jacket.

“Where are my manners”

Ren laughs more in a sinister way, destroys the chair he’s standing in one leap, and replies in a sharp tone:

“I am Ren Darkfright, the Commander of HSMA in the Asoko Squadron, Located and living in Asoko, Homura, which is just above Teki, Homura, where Aishte lives. I have an addiction to sweets, and have the Arcanaes of Void and— which makes me able to manifest and do anything related to void… And, your homeroom teacher”

[HSMA - Acronym for Homura Secret Mission Agency: An agency where Homura’s confidential tasks were executed]

The girls rapidly write Ren’s biography along with a suspicious fangirl-like villainous giggle and flashy eyes with some drooling out saliva with heart-shaped eyes instead. After hearing no sound of scribble, Ren walks to the blackboard and leaned his back towards it once more.

“Aight, as no more questions were left unanswered, let's start… The Exam”

Ren finally started the fight, the sound of chaos overwhelmed the silence of desperate students trying to end the event as fast as possible.

Karuma rushes to the unguarded Vincent with black Arcanae hexagons surging from his right hand. With a scream, the hexagon’s flow went invert, absorbing instead of releasing.

“Nice to meet you, Vincent… Goodbyeeee”

As Karuma is about to aim the absorbing hand towards Vincent’s terrified face, a faint breeze of wind occurs and is felt by both. Karuma suddenly collapses alongside a faint chime sound of a fading Arcanae hexagon.

Vincent, hearing this familiar rhyme swiftly raises his awareness, goes to a stance with a hunting glare, with hands ready to produce Arcanae hexagons from the veins to materialize his going-to-use weapon.

“Punch, kicks, everywhere it seems,

noise, annoying voice, a rumble fight it is, right?

Devil?”

Vincent heard a sinister voice, he instantly stepped his right foot forward and turned his upper torso to the left. As he’s about to materialize his katana for defense, he gets hit by a kick meaning his lack of time.

At the same moment, he got the face of the sinister voice’s identity. A boy with cyan hair and lightning ahoge in a dark crimson scarf over a brown coat.

The kick’s impact led Vincent flying, amidst raising his sword in mid-air, the boy hit Vincent again in an instant barely letting Vincent create a block.

Vincent got continuously hit by the boy instantly with blocking at a minimum as his body can’t keep up with the boy’s speed nor with his defensive and retaliation motions but his eyes are still on track of their position.

Just,

A second,

For a ground TOUCH.

Vincent touched the ground with his foot, at last, jumped while spinning the katana with his body. At the room’s highest, Vincent drew his gaze downwards and witnessed the boy already reaching his foot.

With rage on his face, Vincent’s katana dematerialized and scattered through the whole fighting space via hexagons, with still a menacing face.

Sword Style, Manipulate: Rushing Barrier

Vincent smiles hysterically as if everything has gone according to his plan.

“Gotcha, BITCH”

Slashes started to connect the Arcanae hexagons to each other forming a sphere, it made the boy swiftly leave Vincent while dodging the slashes.

The ability is ongoing, Vincent made this chaotic scenario a chance to analyze the blurry, full-of-motion boy with his common eyesight.

What are these movements?

Even I can’t catch up with my eyes,

Its movements are complex, making its attacks look unpredicted.

Can I beat such a guy?

No, I’ve already started this,

And now I have to commence forward.

But, shit

This is one hard opponent.

A sound of cut flesh is heard from Vincent’s left and gaze’s towards it immediately. Just as he heard, scattered blood appeared in mid-air. Vincent then smirks in question and stops the ability.

Vincent then lands with a liquid-like sound from the void grounds. Then, a piece of red woolen fabric falls wavy in his front. He picks it up and senses a presence at his back. Turning back, he saw the boy looking down, showing its five-centimeter cut at the back of his hand with a cold face which left Vincent alarmed.

“Impressive, for the work of a devil, am I right?”

The boy then raises his head towards Vincent and flicks his hand making the leaked blood splat speed to the ground.

“Who — the hell — Are you?” Vincent asked in seriousness.

The boy removes his scarf, wraps his injured hand, and sighs, opens his arms up wide, raises his head slightly with a cold dandelion gaze aiming towards the cold-faced Vincent.

“I am… a Lissclion”