Ace's sudden change of behavior made the four girls pause. "Ffgna~!!" Grim gasped. And that smile immediately fell from Ace's face as he began to burst out laughing at the bewildered and angered expressions on the girls and Grim's faces. "Pfft... Ahaha! I can't bear it anymore! Ahahahaha!" Ace guffawed.
"Aren't you the guys who went crazy at the entrance ceremony? You were summoned by the Dark Mirror even though you can't use magic, and you, a monster, weren't called but still trespassed." he wheezed, pointing at Grim. "Man, it took everything I had not to lose it at the ceremony."
The girls have never felt so embarrassed in their lives as they all felt their faces flush red. Alice just wished the ground would swallow her up whole. Kira clenched her fists as she glared at Ace irately, her shoulders shaking with rage.
"Come on, dude! Really?! You can't be serious right now!" she thought as she gritted her teeth. Grim felt the same as her as he glared at Ace and growled at him. "Whaaa?! You're a rude one!" he shouted. "So, in the end, you weren't allowed to enroll here and now work as janitors? Haha, how lame." Ace laughed.
Any hope that the girls had on making a new friend was immediately shattered before it could even soar. Poor Alice felt her heart break and the tears brimming in her sky-blue eyes.
Her shoulders trembled while Aria and Jazmin tried to console her. Meanwhile, Kira and Grim were both shaking with pure anger, their blood boiling. "What did you just say?" Grim growled. Despite this, Ace continued his teasing, this time with a slight look of annoyance on his face.
"On top of that, you don't even know about the Great Seven. How ignorant can you be? As I recommend you go back to kindergarten before coming to Night Raven College." he teased. Kira and Grim both glared furiously at the young teen and were getting angrier with each passing second.
"Pfftkuku...Gunnnnnuuhuhuhu~!" Grim growled. "Th-There..." Alice started to say. Ace then sighed as he had his fill of teasing. "I thought I'd just mess with you a bit, but you really blew my expectations away. Unlike you five, I actually have classes to attend." he said with a self-centered smirk.
"Keep this school squeaky clean, janitors~♪" He then turned around and began to walk away. His ears then caught the sound of someone weeping. As he turned back, Ace noticed the tears falling from Alice's eyes as she sobbed quietly.
Seeing her cry like that, it made Ace feel kind of awful about what he said, almost made him want to apologize. Aria patted Alice's back, trying to comfort her. Finally, Kira couldn't stand it anymore and she stomped her feet towards Ace, making him freeze.
"You...!" Kira snarled as she raised her hand above her head. All of a sudden, there was a resounding slap that reverberated through the air... and Ace stood still in his spot, stunned as his head had jerked to the side, revealing a stinging red palm-shaped mark on the left side of his face.
Grim and the other girls' eyes were wide with utter disbelief as they saw Kira standing in front of the boy, her right arm extended and her palm open as she indignantly glared at him, her tears brimming in her carnelian red eyes. Ace stared at her; his cherry-red eyes wide with shock as he touched his cheek.
"You think we even wanted to be here in the first place?! If we could all go home, then we would!" Kira shouted, making him flinch. "But right now, we can't! Do you have any idea what all of us went through?! You can't even understand how terrified we are right now!"
Startled by her roar, Ace stumbled and fell flat on his butt. He just stared up at Kira in disbelief, not saying a word. Kira glared at Ace before she sighed and furiously wiped the tears from her eyes. "But who cares anyway? Just go! Go to your class and leave us alone." she snarled softly.
Ace blinked at her, still a bit stunned by how hard she slapped him. He didn't mean to take his joke that far. Looks like he really struck a nerve this time.... He then stood back up and scowled at Kira. "Fine." he quietly said before he turned to leave. "See ya."
Kira stuck her tongue out at him before she turned around and walked away. The other girls all turned and left, trying to forget the whole scenario and get their job done and over with. Grim, however, refused to let this end peacefully.
Nobody insults him and gets away with it! "This jerk! He's just gonna say that and leave! I'm ticked off now!" Grim shouted as he squirmed in Alice's arms. "Grim, please. Let's just go." Alice said, struggling to keep the cat creature in control. But Grim managed to wrestle himself out of her arms and went charging towards Ace.
"Grim, NO!" the honey blonde-haired girl shouted. Grim growled at the terracotta-haired boy and unleashed his fire magic. "Funnnnaaaaaah!" he screeched as he spat out his jet of fire right towards Ace, aiming for his head.
Ace's eyes widened as he quickly jumped back to avoid getting burnt. "Oh! Watch out! What're you doing?!" he shouted in surprise. The girls quickly ran up to them, grabbed Grim and tried to pull him away. "Grim, stop it! Please!" Aria begged. "He's not worth it! Stop it!" Jazmin shouted.
But the cat monster was adamant on getting his revenge. "It's what you get for making fun of me! I'm going light up that fire-head of yours!" Grim yelled with a smirk on his face. Alice gasped silently upon hearing that. Ace threw an insulted glare at the cat-like monster.
"Fire-head, huh? Heeeeee. You've really got guts picking a fight with me." Ace said with a scowl as he reached into his breast pocket and grabbed a jeweled pen, the same kind of pen that Riddle had used at the entrance ceremony to collar Grim. "You too. I'll turn you into a puffy, little toy-poodle!"
"Ffunaa!" Grim growled indignantly at Ace before he spewed out a large fireball towards him. Ace smirked as he easily dodged it. "Uh-oh, gotta watch out. Take that!" he said as he waved his jeweled pen at Grim. The red gem on his pen glowed brightly and magic sparkles surrounded it.
Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind sped towards Grim, nearly blowing him away and sending the four girls tumbling to the ground. The wind carried the flames, twisting them high up into the air and then, extinguished them with a poof.
Ace crossed his arms as he smirked. "This guy is using magic to blow wind all over the place! It's making my flames dance around!" Grim exclaimed. As the four girls recovered from the wind blast, they then noticed that several students had started to form a crowd around Ace and Grim, witnessing the fight taking place.
"What's happening? A fight?" one student asked. "Yeah! Get 'em!" another student with animal ears shouted, pumping his fist into the air. "Hey, knock it off!" Kira snapped. "Oh, please don't encourage them!" Alice pleaded.
The four disguised girls knew that they have to stop this fight before someone got seriously hurt. This was hardly the time to get distracted. The four girls all quickly stood up and tried to disperse the crowd. Then they turned back to the fight. "Grim, stop it! We're not supposed to cause any trouble!" Aria shouted.
But Grim ignored her. "A flimsy little fire like that won't hit me." Ace said with a cocky smirk, enraging Grim even more. "What? Brace yourself!" Grim snarled. Soon, a big crowd of students surrounded the dueling duo and began cheering on the fight.
As the four girls tried to avoid getting hit by their attacks, they tried to put an end to the brawl. "Grim, stop it! Ace-kun, please stop taunting Grim!" Alice begged, but the two boys either refused to listen to her or were too caught up with their fight to do so.
The poor girls didn't know what to do next. They had never been in the middle of a fight before, especially an intense magic one like this. None of them had any idea on how to stop this, but they have to. "This is insane! We have to do something before someone gets seriously hurt!" Jazmin said anxiously.
At that moment, bright blue flames began to swirl around Grim as the wind blowing with a force of a hurricane surrounded Ace as he gripped his magic pen. "Eat this!" Grim snarled as he blasted another fireball towards Ace.
"Hmph! And I just change the trajectory with wind like... that!" Ace said with a smirk as he pointed his pen at the oncoming flames, conjuring a blast of wind to blow them away. Unfortunately, the wind sent the fireball flying straight towards one of the Great Seven statues.
As soon as the fireball hit the Queen of Hearts statue, it scorched the statue pitch black. After seeing what he did, a horrified Ace gasped in utter shock. "Aaaaaah! Crap! The Queen of Hearts statue is charred!" he screamed.
"It's because you're blowing the fire around! Just let me fry you!" Grim shouted. Kira then bonked his head with her fist. "Grim, shut your gob!" she snarled. "Oww!" Grim moaned, rubbing his sore scalp. "You really think someone is just gonna let you fry them?!" Ace angrily asked.
"Enough!!! Just what is going on here?!" a loud, commanding voice suddenly rang out, making the crowd of students all flinch. When they saw a fuming Headmaster Crowley marching towards them, the students all panicked and quickly fled the scene, leaving Ace, Grim and the girls behind.
"Guh! Headmaster...!" Ace gasped in horror as Crowley marched towards them with a very displeased look on his masked face. Crowley's furious scowl deepened as he looked at the five students before him. Jazmin released Grim from her grip before the four girls all stood up straight.
The little cat monster and Ace both paled when they saw him and grew fearful of what he was going to do. "He's going to tie us up with the 'lash of love'! Get outta here!" Grim shouted as he tried to run away, but Crowley was having no patience for this.
He immediately unhooked his whip and struck Ace and Grim's butts with it. This time around, it hurt just twice as much. "Owwwww!" Ace yelped as he grabbed his aching butt. "Ffgyaaa! Two days in a row hurts!" Grim yelled out. Kira secretly smirked. "Serves you right, tuna breath." she thought.
"This is my Lash of Love! It'll be another hundred years before you can outrun me!" Crowley said harshly before he turned towards the four girls. "I told you four just yesterday to "not cause any trouble", didn't I?" he asked. Ace, Grim and the four girls all hung their heads shamefully.
"Then you go and char a statue of the Great Seven! You seem very much eager to be expelled to me." Crowley said that last part towards Ace. Ace's cherry-red eyes widened with fear. "Wait! Anything but that!" he shouted frantically.
"And you four," he said sternly as he turned back to the four girls, "this is not how you supervise Grim." The four girls all flinched and shrank away from his angry gaze. Kira shut her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. Aria and Jazmin both cast their eyes towards the ground. Alice clenched at her uniform jacket.
"We...We're...We're very sorry...sir..." she whimpered out. "We did try to stop them..." Aria added meekly. Crowley then pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a frustrated sigh. "My goodness..." he muttered before he turned back to face Ace and crossed his arms. "You, what's your grade and name?"
"Ace Trappola, first year." Ace replied with a dejected look on his face. "Then, Trappola, Grim, and you four! As punishment, I order the six of you to wash 100 windows around campus!" Crowley shouted. The five students and Grim all gaped at Crowley in disbelief. "Eeeeeeeehhhhh?!" they all exclaimed.
"Nyaaa?! It's all cause this joker was making fun of us!" Grim protested, pointing at Ace. "He's not the only one to blame, Grim. We've tried to stop you, but you didn't listen." Jazmin pointed out.
"Eeeh?! Me too?!" Ace exclaimed. Crowley nodded. "Most definitely! After school, meet in the cafeteria. Understood?" he asked with his arms still crossed. He definitely wasn't leaving any room for any argument.
Ace and Grim let out dejected sighs while the three girls all bowed at him. "Yes, sir!" the girls chorused. Kira gritted her teeth before she let out an irritated sigh. "Sure." she said, rolling her eyes. "Fiiine..." Ace sighed dismally. "Nothing but misery since yesterday!!" Grim whined.