Noroi

Chapter 8: Christmas Eve (New Beginning Arc)

"Zale? Are you okay in there?" His mother called out, checking up on her son as she was doing something on her phone.

"Yeah. I'm doing fine! Don't worry. I'll be coming down in a second." Zale didn't know what to do, but stood there and think about his dream. He stopped thinking after he received a text message from Juniper, saying 'Wanna meet up later? Janus will also be coming. Vallin might be coming later on. Morpheus just declined outright.'

Zale quickly replied, 'Sure, what time?'

'Roughly around 1 minute from now. Don't be late!'

Zale instantly turned his phone off and placed it on his table. He smacked his head against the table too.

He decided to change outfits since he was still in his school uniform. He was looking through his clothing before eventually deciding on his favourite, the Yellow Pikachu Hoodie with the Pikachu shorts.

Once changed, he made his way downstairs as his mother eyed him up and down. "You...are wearing shorts in winter?"

"Yup!" Zale replied, already getting cold, so he decided to randomly jog on the spot. His mother realised but sent him outside anyway.

He was sprinting through the streets, he had only just noticed that he had no idea where the location was. So Zale ended up in every store down the street. He came to a stop as he was out of breath. He didn't want to pull his phone out since his hands were nice and warm inside his Pikachu hoodie.

"Damn Zale, you aren't looking good." A familiar voice could be heard as Zale looked in the direction of the voice and saw Vallin waving his hand. He was also out of his school clothes, wearing one of his winter outfits instead. a dark coat with a button on his collar shaped like a cross. He wore this over a light shirt, dark jeans and a belt. He also wore dark boots.

Zale waved back as they approached each other. "It's because I'm lost. Juniper invited me to a meeting, but I forgot to ask for the location."

Vallin placed his hands in his pockets. "Ha! You look like you visited every store in the street with your inconsistent breathing."

Zale nodded. "Well, I did. Good guess. Wait, you weren't just watching me, correct?"

Vallin slowly turned his head to the side, looking away from Zale. "Maybe." He looked back at Zale before he could reply. "That isn't important. I'm also coming to the meeting, but I'm quite late, so we better hurry up and hope that they are still there waiting for us."

Zale nodded with a smile. "Righto!"

Magic Council, Ranked Meeting Room

After the meeting was finished, only Crowley and Kiryu stayed behind to talk more about his request. "Is that high-school girl strong or whatever?" Kiryu asked.

"Not for you. She's decent enough." Crowley scratched his head, almost like he was trying to think over what he was going to say next. "I only want her dead because of Zale."

"Huh? Who?" Kiryu kept asking questions even thought he didn't care about this request and would do it in an instant if he could. The only thing that kept him here was Crowley.

"Zale Alrich. A boy who attends Mahou Academy. It's been reported by our 'scout' that he was been closely witnessed as being close friends with a girl, Juniper Taye."

Kiryu couldn't hold back his surprise. He heard about her before, but his mind couldn't recall the specific reason why.

Crowley closely examined the reaction of Kiryu, he let out a sigh and crossed his right leg over his left leg. "Well, that should be expected. Juniper Taye has a complicated history with us."