… to meet you," Hiori said shyly, fidgeting with his fingers as he spoke in a small voice almost unhearable from the far back of the classroom where all three of the other students stood alerted by the presence of the overwhelming curse, which only made a rattling sound.
Tek— Tek—
Only a shadow seemed to stand on stage, a shadow of one who shouldn't be walking the world with anyone but himself.
"Are you seriously trying to get someone like that into our class, Mr. Hara?!" Ito said loudly, her voice cracking as another wave of pressure came when Hiori took a step forward.
She clicked her tongue, knowing with that amount of pressure, even a class 2 magician like herself would have no chance against it… At a glance, the curse haunting that boy on the stage had the same amount of flux as Mr. Hara himself, or even more, so if that was the case, the curse would be at the very least class 1 or more likely class 0.
"Exactly, you said it perfectly," Hara exclaimed, snapping his fingers before throwing up several seemingly random emotes and thumbs up in the air. "Hiori here will be this advanced class's fourth student this year."
"Hiori-kun~" An eerie voice crept from the shadows as a mouth came from the ground, its teeth were as paper, and its skin pale as snow.
"Is that the curse?" Fujimoto said as he staggered back, clutching the string in his hand harder, his finger tips digging into the sides like he was prepared to cast it.
Ito spat the piece of gum out of her mouth, like a bullet, it spun and pierced through the still air with a woosh.
"Grah?!" Hiori yelped, tumbling back as the gum made bullet passed his ear, barely missing by millimetres, and dug itself into the wall behind the blackboard.
Clapping softly, Hara lightheartedly tapped Hiori's shoulder, "Alright then, let me make some introductions, they will be your classmates for the rest of the year, assuming you don't go beserk and I'll have to execute you, of course." He said jokingly as he pointed to the brown-haired girl who just spat the gum at him, standing in the far back of the room, still cautious and on guard.
As Hara talked, the curse went back into Hiori's shadow, its presence almost disappearing in the instant.
"That's Saki, she awakened not that long ago but has risen through the ranks quite quickly. She should be able to brief you on all the things you need to know about the raw properties of flux and the curse."
Turning his gaze to the left of Ito, Hara winked as Fujimoto, who grimaced in response, slightly loosened his grip on the string as Hara held onto Hiori's shoulder.
"That's Nagi-kun, he's uhh rather sensitive about his personal life, but he's quite nice when you get to know him better, he's been here for the longest, so be sure to treat him like an old man." Hara joked, whispering in Hiori's ear.
"And the last one over there is Alexander, he's still under classification as his technique had developed into a rather peculiar case, hence the higher-ups of the magical society in general had yet to decide where they rank," Hara explained, pointing at the dark-skinned, muscular man who stood with his arms crossed, his presence holding a sort of authority.
"Then if we are all ready with partnering up, let's get to the afternoon practical taijutsu class," Hara said excitedly as he clapped again.
"Saki and Hiori, you two will be paired for today, and Nagi and Alex will be in a pair."
Both Brown and Fujimoto nodded simultaneously as they rotated and stretched their shoulders.
Hiori walked closer to Ito as she consistently backed away, her gaze cautious.
"Um," Hiori bowed, his body stiff, "Hope we can work well together later."
Ito only responded with a puff from her nose and the whisper of 'Hmph'.
***
"That new boy is cursed, isn't he?" Alexander asked in a slightly unnatural accent as they walked through the wooden corridor.
Fujimoto side-eyed him before gulping down a mouthful of saliva, "Let's just hope he doesn't go crazy on us… If he does, I doubt any one of us would live to tell the tale."
"Oh, scary," Ito remarked as she clicked her tongue, "Why would that stupid man put me with a monster like that? Nagi-san, shouldn't you be in charge of something as unstable as that thing?"
"That teacher of ours probably just came up with the plan on a whim, you know how he is." Fujimoto answered, " Well, good luck with him, I guess… I'll be praying for you on the other side."
"Gah— Useless asshole," Ito responded with a puff as the pink bubble coming from her lips popped.
"I guess I'll meet you on the other side as well," Alexander said before catching up with Fujimoto, who put up a hand to wave goodbye.
Later that day…
"Alrighty, we're here," Hara said as he dropped Ito and Hiori on the ground.
Thump— Hiori landed face-first into the floor, "Was that really necessary?" He groaned as he pushed himself back up with his rather skinny arms.
"You'll get used to it…" Ito responded softly, brushing off the dirt on her hands, "He does this every time he teleports us to a different location."
"So you'll be fighting a fiend today," Hara said as he casually walked forward, his two students still slowly getting up from the ground, "... Or was it a curse that they said?" He muttered to himself.
"Well, it's not that it'll ever matter," He said as he turned around, shrugging his shoulders casually, "The curse or fiend or whatever it is would be class 3, so you two should be more than ready to restrain it without much trouble."
"Huh? We're fighting a curse?" Hiori asked quickly as he got off the ground.
"Yes, I haven't told you yet, have I? Ahh— When you have that much to do, a little thing like this wouldn't be stuck on your mind." Hara replied as if it were just something small.
"Oh yeah," He continued as if he had just remembered another thing, "Here's your student card, it'll be important to have it with you at all times."
Hara handed Hiori the card, placing the warm piece of plastic firmly in his grasp.
"Toodles then, I still have some unfinished business elsewhere, so I'll be seeing you at the end of the day back at school," Hara said before disappearing into thin air.
Hiori blinked at the place Hara stood moments ago, "Huh? What was that? This feels like a fever dream…" He muttered as he rubbed his eyes.
"Well, this isn't a dream; that man is just an idiot who lets us do all his dirty work," Ito's voice cut in from the side, "Anyways, let's go, I don't want to work over the clock, they don't pay us any extra for that since we are still students."
Hiori turned around and quickly caught up with Ito, "Senpai, so what is this restraining business?" He asked as he followed her into the gate.
"Had the idiot not told you yet?" She answered before sighing loudly and slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand, "So in our world, there are curses and fiends that can only be observed by those who have experienced a magical awakening, AKA, have a certain amount of flux in their body. Those people sometimes become magicians, like us right now, our jobs are to kill and or restrain these fiends and curses alike before they affect any of the normal people in society. And don't call me 'senpai'."
"Oh," Hiori replied, although he hadn't understood fully, but he did understand the part where she said curses that can't be seen by the normal human eye; he had seen such a thing, maybe too much and too close.
"I'm sorry for calling you that, senp—"