Of Knives, Magic and Moons [twisted wonderland/assassination classroom]

[02] every waking moment

Every waking moment of his life, Rin wanted to ask, just what did he do to deserve this.

Nothing apparently— most likely he offended some god in his previous life. At least that would explain his terrible luck.

He stood in front of Crewel, a member of staff at NRC as well as the medic for more serious injuries. Rin massaged his shoulders after gently dropping his belongings to the ground.

The man in front of him looked as if they were going to have an aneurysm. To be honest, it looked kind of like the expression his mom would have when he forgot to dry his hair after taking a shower.

If this was any other situation, Rin would've found it unbearably funny. But right now, he couldn't bring himself to muster any semblance of joy.

How did it come to this?

.

.

.

If Dire had any sort of expectation of how the entrance ceremony would go, it was effectively shattered by the last student who went up.

When the boy had walked up to the magic mirror, Dire couldn't help but feel a sense of genuine curiosity. What house would the boy be put into? To be the first human to shake up the entrance ceremony in the way that they did... of course he would look forward to seeing how things would go!

Rin Hattori. What an enigma they were.

An odd name, but Dire wasn't so surprised. He's seen many kinds of names in his years— at most, the name seemed to be from the far east. Rare, as most who lived in the east tended to stay in the east. For some reason, the magic mirror guided less students from those areas, even when it invited students from all over the world.

Everything was fairly fine. The magic mirror seemed to take longer than it did for others to ask the starting 'state thy name', but other than that, things seemed to be going decently well.

It was only when the Mirror of Darkness started speaking in Old Trade, did things start to take a turn.

It was useful to note that in all the years he's been acquainted with the mirror, it has never, not once, spoken Old Trade.

It was an old artifact, sure, but it was also one of the more stubborn ones. Many had come from all around the Twisted Wonderland to further their knowledge of the dead language, but try as they may, none were able to make the mirror respond in the language.

So, imagine his surprise when it does exactly that for this new student. What was special about Rin Hattori, that made the mirror speak the ancient language so readily?

The mirror didn't seem to speak very fast, but even then, Dire could only recognise a few of the words.

Beautiful, soul, far, home, choice, maketh.

His proficiency in the dead language could be considered top-tier, but by the will of the Seven, even he could not understand the words fully.