The hall was already full by the time they get there. Loud chatterings with wails of disbelief stood out from the crowd. The trio doesn't seemed to notice about it and were too caught up to see the board that posted the top 50.
Yuu peeked at a random student who was too busy talking to himself, "I can't believe I'm not in the top 50 with my marks. That damned Azul!"
"...?"
Yuu doesn't understand what's going on. They were not sure what's Azul got to do with the marks but the trio might have some answe–
"–PERFECT MARKS?!" Deuce and Grim's yell knocked Yuu off from their thinking.
"B-but if I don't make it into the top fifty, that counts as a breach of contract!" Said Grim with realisation.
Yuu blankly stared at Grim. They didn't need to ask, the answer came willingly. They looked at Ace and Deuce's expression and true enough, they both were also in the same spot.
Yuu was not amused. So this is the trouble that Yuu had been braced and never asked for and the trio is directly involved with it. It wasn't a surprise anymore. They just have affinities for causing one. One does not simply separate trouble and the troublemaker trio, they're just meant to be.
"Wait, "contract"? Oh no. Grim, did you...?"
"Judging by the look on your face, Ace, don't tell me you also-"
'Bwooop!'
Something strange just grow on their head. Everyone who was complaining earlier had those strange thing growing on top of their heads as well which proved that not only the troublemaker trio had done this "contract".
Yuu looked at the thing that was purplish and blue in colour, ignoring the fight happening between the trio. The thing looked flexible and there seem to be something that resemble a flower at the top.
"...."
'This... Isn't this a sea anemone?' Yuu tried to recall the sea anemone they had seen before in a picture book. 'It's different than the book but it's definitely right.'
"I'll just give it a quick tug, and...OW! It's not comin' out!" Yuu saw Grim tried to pull it only for him to flinch in pain.
"Stop pulling it. That thing is probably part of you now." Yuu adviced, ignoring the horrified looks on their face.
Yuu's was expressionless as they usually were but that gaze alone managed to radiate an air of dissapointment aiming toward them. The ADeuce duo averted their gaze, unable to face Yuu head on.
The plan to impress Yuu which both of them had made in their heart without each other knowing backfired tremendously. Ace could only rubbed his nape while Deuce looked like a kicked puppy.
"I came to see what all the commotion was. Why am I not surprised it's you guys? What're you doing?" Said Jack. He was not impressed judging by his expression. His eyes kept looking back to the anemone that just jiggling funnily when they moved around.
Deuce jumped in surprise, "Jack, did you make a contract too? Wait... You don't have an anemone!"
Ace scoffed, "So much for looking like a bad boy. You're more of a square than Loosey-Deucey over here!"
Jack frowned and his ears were pressed back, "Okay, what? I'm completely lost here. What are you talking about, and what are those things growing outta your heads?"
They were reluctant to answer. Jack sniffed as if trying to find something and suddenly, he was looking at Yuu.
'Oh, he's looking for me.' Yuu just realised that.
Jack was a little bit surprised, Yuu could tell with the way he straightened his spine and ears standing up in alert. He must have been surprised to see Yuu was just right there however, he only rose his brows, silently asking Yuu to explain.
Yuu didn't need to, Grim was explaining for them until he suddenly yowled in pain and said the anemone was yanking his head.
'Pain...?' Yuu suddenly went serious.
"Owww, geez! It's gonna rip my noggin off!" Ace yelled, his body was visibly tilting to the side where the anemone seemed to tug them along.
The same goes for Deuce, flinching in pain while holding his anemone back as if it would help to stop it from tugging even harder.
"So when he wrote "absolute obedience," this is what he meant..." Deuce trailed off with horror.
Everyone started to scream, causing Jack to be surprised and his tail bristled. Jack and Yuu saw that the trio and the others who have anemone on their heads began to walk in the same direction. The trio expression was in great pain causing Yuu to stiffen.
"What now? The way they were walking, it was like the anemones were pulling them in that direction. Is a picture that stupid still worth a thousand words...?" Said Jack with furrowed brows.
He looked down to where Yuu was only for him to see an empty spot. His eyes darted to Yuu who was silently following them.
"Huh? Hey, what are you doing?" His feet move unconciously on their own as he followed after Yuu.
Jack frowned at Yuu's lifeless eyes staring at the crowd, his answer just left hanging in the air.
Jack doesn't want to follow anymore seeing as it's not his business but there was something odd with Yuu's behavior currently.
Yuu was strange in his opinion. He found it quiet hard to detect him even though Yuu was just there right infront of him. It was as though they were not there at the first place.
And that was strangest thing. He was a wolf beastman, he have a sensitive nose compared to humans. He found it strange how he didn't notice Yuu at first, only to be surprised that they were right there all along. It was like Yuu will make their existence known if Jack wanted to find them.
If he happened to set his eyes on Yuu, Yuu was always so quiet and sometimes spaced out randomly, something that Jack figured they have done a lot. He wondered what was Yuu thinking or day dreaming about to the point of dismissing reality.
His eyebrows furrowed in conflict before making his decision.
"Hold on a second, I'll be following you. I am curious what's going to happen to them."
Yuu only glanced for a second before ignoring him.
They all walked together, following the wave of students with anemones on their head. Jack thought that it was ridiculous that no one was nearby to witness this scene.
"Oh, it's the Hall of Mirrors... The place that leads to every dorm." Commented Jack absently when he noticed where they were heading.
His ears flickered when he heard another students from different dorms crying out.
"I was so sure I'd make the top fifty!"
"Blast it all, I've been had! That cheating cephalo-punk!"
"My school life is doomed now. Doooomed!"
"Huh? It's not just the three stooges... There are other students here with sea anemones coming outta their heads. I'm seeing some sophomores and juniors in here, too. And they're all going through the mirror leading to Octavinelle Dorm."
Yuu only stood still, they didn't answered him again. Jack could only dart his eye back and forth to the crowd and Yuu in concealed worry or else he might lose sight of them.
It was when the crowd was almost empty that Yuu began to move to the mirror, sparing a listless glance at the decoration of the mirror which seemed to be made of eels, tentacles and a shell as well as the dorm logo and name.
They dreamt of stormy sea before, of mermaid and prince and the two eels. The same goes for the previous dream, like the queen of rose and the lion that wanted to be a king.
It was unmistakenable that the dream predicted this and began to bring forth trouble.
Their gaze became cold and he entered the mirror. They were aware that Jack was following suit. Once they passed through, the atmosphere changed into something more of a calming sensation with a hint of sosphicatedness.
They were underwater and before them was stretched halls with fancy hanging lights and clear large glasses separating the ocean and dorm like those from an aquarium they've seen from afar.
Despite being deep underwater, there was still lights surrounding the area to the point where they can see a few variety of school of fishes swimming around.
"The whole dorm is underwater? For real?! Night Raven College is so cool!" Jack lose his composure at the sight, staring wide eye at the swimming colourful fishes with awe.
His tail began to wag before the said person closed his mouth, feeling a bit shy. He feigned a cough, "Just remember we're treading on another dorm's turf. Keep your wits about you."
He said that but his tail was still wagging. Yuu took no mind to it, continue to move forward until what seemed to be the Octavinelle's lounge-turned-to-restaurant welcomed them.
It wasn't quiet of course, not with hundreds of people huddling in the same place, waiting for something.
"There's gotta be a hundred-no, closer to two hundred people here. What is this place, anyway? Some kinda coffee shop? "Mostro Lounge"? Where did Ace and the others go?"
It was one sided conversation as usual but Jack took no offence. He examined Yuu's expression to gouge out what they thought of but their expression remained flat as a stone.
"Well, well. What do we have here? A band of misfortunate souls who failed to break into the top 50."
Both of their gaze immediately zeroed onto a fancy clothed male. His hair were silver and his eyes were blue like ocean. He had a business smile plastered on his face, one that Yuu was familiar back at their world.
By his side was the familiar pair of twins, Jade and Floyd. They were eyeing the students predatorily, scaring those on the first row.
'So this is what he meant by "see you later"...' Yuu thought.
"Welcome to the Mostro Lounge. I'm sure you're all WELL aware of who I am, but let's go over it again anyway." The male smirked and he took off his hat and introduced himself like a gentleman would, "My name is Azul Ashengrotto. I am the housewarden of Octavinelle Dorm, the manager of the Mostro Lounge cafe, aaand... as of today, you have to listen to everything I say."
Jack mouth went agape, "say what?"
"You made a bet with me, and subsequently lost. As per terms of our contract, you are to devote yourself to my service until such time as you graduate."
"Hey, hold on. This is all a huge scam!" Someone spoke up and they both recognized it immediately whose voice that belonged to.
"You're...Ace Trappola, a freshman, if memory serves." Azul squinted his eyes and then crinkled into an eye smile, "Your accusations are insulting, frankly. I upheld my end of the bargain and provided you with an impeccably flawless study guide for your exams. If you used it properly, you should have scored at least a 90."
"Yeah, and I did. I got a 92!"
"Why, that's wonderful news! I'm delighted to have been of service."
"But you never told me you'd given the same study guide to this many other people!"
"Yeah, Ace is right. No study guide could help us break into the top fifty when the deck's this stacked!" Deuce chimed in, following by Grim angry protest.
"When everybody else is scorin' over 90, even with my 85, my spot in the rankings is no different than when I was failin'!"
Azul only shook his head in dissapointment, there was mockings that was barely hidden in his honeyed words, "Have you boys never heard of client confidentiality? "I want an easy way to score high marks. I don't want to flunk out. I want to goof off until the night before the test..." All of you fools-I mean, gentlemen-had your own reasons for seeking my help with your finals."
Azul continued again with not so innocent smile, "Details such as who made a contract with me, what kind of contract it was, and why it was made... That's all privileged data. Who am I to divulge someone's personal information to a third party? I am a man of integrity, thank you very much. You will find this exact topic covered extensively in the non-disclosure agreement clause on page 127 of your contract. I simply abided by its terms."
Yuu was bored with his long speech. He talked too much flowery words with it's poison hidden on plain sight. Truly fitting of a business man way of talkings. Such person is always the type that took advantages in the most unfortunate situations.
Yuu knew, they have seen that kind of person a lot back in their world and that alone is enough to determine what kind of person Azul is.
"O-okay, then what happens to the fire magic I put up as collateral for the study guide?" Grim asked unsurely.
His question was met with backups from what seemed to be Pomefiore and Scarabia.
"Y-yeah! And what about my water magic?"
"Give me back my signature spell!"
"What's this? Have you really forgotten the terms of your contract? "I will provide you with a final exam study guide. In exchange, you will leave one 'personal specialty' in my possession." "Should you earn a spot among the school's fifty highest achievers, your power will be returned to you..." "...and I will continue to provide you with study guides for all exams until such time as you graduate.""
Azul sneered before a haughty smile replaced it in a second, clearly looking down on them. "However, in the event that you do not earn a spot among the school's fifty highest achievers, "...you will act with absolute obedience to me until such time as you graduate." As outlined in the contract, I now control every part of your beings down to every last hair on your heads. In other words, your powers are mine, to return or not as I please."
Ace yelled indignantly, "That ain't fair!"
'....No wonder Grim and Ace weren't fighting with magic.' Yuu thought and they averted their gaze to look at their shoes.
They will not lie, they felt dissapointed that the trio had fell for such trickery. Who knew that the time when Yuu left them alone for a day and so, they had use the chance to made a contract and taking a risky choice in bargaining something so important as their unique magic just to secure the top 50.
How ridiculous.
They t̸̡̲̥͊̄̾́͑͘ḩ̴̗͎͉̥̍̂͛̃̑̽̀̀ͅͅa̸̡̧͔͚͕͓̳̠̋͘t̵̡̢̛̺̻̦̺̜̞̓͊ ̷̙͕̱̎͗̒̓̏͒͗͝ͅp̶̗͔͇̺̭̣̃͜ẻ̴̬̟̖͕̙̼́͌͛̽͆̿͠r̸͎̦̱̤̺̰͌̍͊s̶̻͚͉̝̯̍́̽ỏ̸̟͐͘͜n̷̛̥̙̪̹̪̹̙̬̍͆͗͝ had been fooled once and wouldn never fall for such low scammings like that anymore. In fact, why would they do so when they can obtain it with their own effort?
Once again, Yuu felt like something cracking before their eyes, like a stone hurled at a mirror, creating web cracks. The feeling of apathy seeped in, leaving them indifferent to everything.
There were still the urge to help them to lessen the pain but Yuu managed to smother it down temporarily.
Their eyes are now looking everywhere in disinterest. They didn't even questioned what had came over them.
"Y'know, I've been listening to this whole spectacle...and ALL of you disgust me!" Jack shouted suddenly.
In an instant, everyone's attention was on them both. Fully aware of what's going on, Yuu slowly move behind Jack as if to cover themself from prying eyes.
"J-Jack?! What are you doing here?" Deuce stammered
"Oh, are you...?" Azul then frowned when he noticed the lack of anemone on his head, "No, I don't see an anemone on your head. I'm afraid we're having a staff meeting right now. If you don't have a stake in this matter, I must ask your leave for us to sort this out internally."
Jack growled, clearly disagree with what he said, "Grrr... You think I don't have a stake in this? I was planning on studying on my own and out scoring these guys in a fair competition. And now you've ruined that. I think I DO have a stake in here!"
Yuu forgot that out of all people they have met in this school, Jack have moral and a sense of justice. And now hes acting on it. His growls even fiercer like he was trying to challenge them.
Yuu have nothing to do here, they don't know Grim, Ace or Deuce and that goes the same for Jack. They should return back to the dorm and go to sleep or something.
"Henchman? Jack? Are you here to save us?!" Grim shouted in a hopeful tone. Yuu who was getting ready to leave didn't managed to get out quietly. They averted their gaze, fully ignoring him.
"Don't get me wrong. I'm disgusted with every last one of you. Why would I side with the slimeball offering shady backroom deals OR the guys who chose to let others do their work for them?" Jack questioned them and also indirectly calling them stupid for not seeing what's wrong.
Ace grumbled, "what are you here for, then?"
"Actually, I think Jack's right. He's given me the wake-up call I needed." Said Grim solemnly, "if you wanna win, you gotta snatch that victory yourself! In other words... If I can snatch my contract from Azul by force and tear it up, it's null and void!"
'Oh would you look at that, his brain cell is finally working.' Yuu snarked mentally.
The other students began to chatter among themselves.
"Hey, now that you mention it..."
"Who needs specialties when we've got numbers?! GET HIM!"
Azul shrugged as elegantly as one business man would, "Dear me. I really didn't want to resort to violence, but alas. Jade. Floyd. Play with them for a bit."
Jade and Floyd who was quiet the entire time cracked a smile which slowly parted into a wide grin, rows of white razor teeth gleamed menancingly under the lounge's hanging light.
"Understood, sir."
"Oh man, I get to squeeze 'em all? Ha ha, niiice."
Chaos ensued, words cannot describe how chaotic it was with the way students kept flying in the air from being kicked and thrown by the tweels. Their strength was no joke at all seeing as Floyd chokehold both of them while kicking the others effortlessly.
But it seem not all magic were taken seeing as there were bunch of spells throwing around like fireworks. Most of those spells were aiming toward Azul but even those were deflected back by the floating golden contracts.
Yuu nonchalantly looked at those bunch of golden contracts floating around Azul glowed that casted different magic spell and deflected the incoming attack before raining offensive magic over them.
"Geez, what a bunch of wimps. They're barely worth squeezing." Said Floyd while cracking his neck, a satisfying pop came out.
Azul huffed, "It's like a whole school of feeble small fries."
"How many kinda magic can this Azul guy bust out? I call shenanigans!" Yelled Ace who suddenly stood up from laying pitifully on the floor.
"Did Azul's golden contract deflect all of your attacks?" Jack said with wide eyes.
Jack did not participate the fight and only watched by the sideline. He was, however, stunned to see the way Azul handled those who fought against him.
Deuce mumbled, "Argh. This is just showing me how hard I lean on my specialty normally..."
"Without his fire magic, Grim's nothing more than your garden-variety weasel." Ace shook his head.
Grim tried to protest that he wasn't a weasel but he was tired that he just flopped to the ground.
Azul chuckled and he show the Golden Contract, his chest puffed out with pride. It was the only colour that contradicted with it's surrounding which was full of shades of blue and purple since it's in the sea.
"You have all signed these golden contracts. An official contract is completely unbreakable, regardless of how many bodies you throw at it. No magic can harm this document in any way. Heh heh heh... As long as the sea anemones stay on your heads, you will have no choice but to follow my orders. Why don't you start by cleaning up the lounge? You can handle ingredient prep work afterward. Go on, now. On your feet and get to work!"
Ace whispered, "Is this for real...?"
Azul glanced at the tweels, "Jade. Floyd. You're in charge of instructing the new staff."
"Yes, sir."
"Yessir!"
Yuu watched as how they followed the tweels unwillingly into somewhere, probably to be given a specific direction to clean the lounge.
They saw that Azul attention was now on them and it lingered on Yuu much longer than Jack.
He was probably surprised that there was actually 2 people instead of 1 people currently witnessing a business man enslaving the students.
"You're... Jack Howl from Savanaclaw Dorm. And you're Yuu from Ramshackle Dorm, I believe?" He smiled charmingly, "I heard very intersting about you from Floyd and I can see what he means now but I would appreciate it if you took your leave now. Why don't you come by as costumers next time? You're welcome whenever you like."
'...Damn Floyd.' Yuu cussed inwardly but outwardly their expression was blank as usual.
Yuu nodded at the last part before leaving obediently. He's kicking them out but at least it was polite and he even suggest to come as customers instead.
Yuu would make sure to come. The trio kinda irritated Yuu this lately, maybe if they saw them struggle to work in the restaurant it will make Yuu in a good mood?
Who knows but wouldn't it be nice if they understood their misery for once?
-----
A/N:
Ace: *talking
Yuu: *stare
Deuce: *talking
Yuu: *stare
Grim: *talking
Yuu: *stare