Stars Under the Oni mask.

Chapter 5: Troublesome Trio

After school, Hoshi walked back to the cafeteria. She kept a grip on her fuzzy companion, who was complaining about the situation.
"This wouldn't have happened if you had just kept your cool.," the teen girl said and kept walking.
"He insulted us directly!," the little monster shouted, "He insulted me!"
"I would have thought great mages would have thicker skin than that.," Hoshi commented and stopped.
They had arrived in the cafeteria.
"I'm sore from cleaning all day, and now we have to wash more windows!," Grim complained.
Hoshi rubbed the monster's muscles to try and ease his pain, "We just have to suck it up and do it."
Grim huffed, "Where's Ace?! He's supposed to meet us here to help us!"
The mask wearing young woman stopped rubbing and looked at the monster, then the door. She and grim waited. And waited, and waited.

Grim finally had enough, "NOW HE'S SUPER LATE! He must have skipped out on us to not do his punishment!"
"That's it. We're going to find him, that boy needs to take accountability.," the teen girl said and got up, "I'm gonna drag him back here myself if I have to."
Her bones creaked a little, but she ignored it. She was fine with manual labor from her previous world. She did have to clean a lot back there too. Grim hopped off of his bench and followed her. They went to a classroom that Grim smelled Ace in.
"Ace! You bastard! Don't make us do your work for yo-," the monster stopped when he saw there was nobody in there, "It's empty."
"Wrong.," called a voice.
The monster and girl looked up to a painting looking down at them.
"Aagh! It talks!," Grim screamed.
"And? A talking painting is not that unusual in this school.," the painting replied, "All the portraits in this room talk."
"It's a little unusal for us. I am from somewhere that doesn't have talking paintings, nor ever heard of them.," Hoshi explained, "so it is odd."
"Your usual and ours are different, so we'll leave it at that.," the painting said, "You are looking for someone?"
"Yeah, a Guy named Ace.," the feline like monster said, "He has messy red hair and a heart painted on his face."
The painting's face grinned, "Ahh! I know him! Freshman, first day, he went back to his dorm."

"Grahh! He is ditching his punishment! Which way?!," Grim demanded.
"Please. He's in big trouble.," the masked girl added in a kinder tone.
"Since you were nicer, young lady, I'll tell you. The door to the dorms is in the eastern building, in the hall of mirrors.," the painting replied.
Hoshi bowed, "Thank you very much, sir!"
The Grey monster hissed, "Let's go after him, Yuu!"
"Right!," the pale blonde replied with a nod, "Thank you so much again!"
The painting smiled as they ran off. The girl carried grim on her shoulder, his claws dug into her skin and bandages. Her body shook off the pain she felt earlier as she had a new directive: Find Ace. She felt fortunate as she saw familiar reddish hair duck into a building. She quickly turned and started running that way, preparing her masculine voice to keep her real identity a secret. She was ready to knock his legs out from under him with a low kick when Grim shouted alerting him.
This caused Ace to start running, right towards another student. This new boy had dark blue hair that looked almost black and blue eyes. The boy was more neatly dressed than ace and had a spade over his right eye.
"Hey! Stop him! He's shirking cleaning duties!," Hoshi yelled out in a deeper voice.
The student looked panicked. He panicked a bit and then summoned a large black object that fell on top of Ace. The large object turned out to be a cauldron that crushed Ace, knocking him flat on his stomach.
"Ah, was that too much?," the blueish haired boy asked.
"No, it was perfect.," the mask wearing girl answered and pushed the cauldron off of Ace and picked him up.
She threw him over her shoulder, he was surprisingly not that heavy..
"Aggghh! Why are you bothering me?! You could do it yourself! Put me down you demon!," the red haired boy fussed.
"Headmage's orders. Shut up. If you don't behave, then I'm making you do some of my portion!," Hoshi snapped, "We're washing those one hundred windows! Whether you want to or not."

"You have to wash one hundred windows? What did you do?," the blue haired boy with the spade on his face asked.
"Burned the statue of the Queen of Hearts.," Hoshi answered and put him down, however she kept his arm twisted behind his back.
"Owowowow! Yeah, after this fuzzball blew fire at me!," Ace groaned.
Grim hissed, "You started it by Mocking me! Oh yeah and Yuu as well!"
The young man with the spade on his face looked horrified, "Of course He's pissed! You damaged one of the statues of the Great Seven! How can you get into trouble on the first day, after getting into THIS School?!"
"Shuddup! Who the hell are you anyway?!," Ace demanded, "Let me go already, your mask is freaking me the hell out!"
"I'm Deuce. Deuce Spade. Do you at least remember your classmate?," the spade boy introduced himself, "Uhm..."
"Oh don't tell me you forgot my name!," The red haired boy snapped.
Hoshi let Ace loose, except kept her hand on his sleeve.
"Nevermind! You should not ditch a punishment given to you by the headmage!," Deuce scolded.
Ace looked a little dejected, "Fine. Fine. You caught me."
Hoshi did not loosen her grip on his arm and looked around, Grim was gone. The little monster used the opportunity to escape! The young woman huffed and let go of Ace to run after the Grey monster. Ace and Deuce ran to follow her.
"You had me caught so you could skip work?!," Ace yelled, "Hey, uh, Juice!"
"It's not Juice! It's Deuce!," the dark haired boy corrected.