Chapter 47: Eclipse

"He-Hey!" The guy was more than staggered. "I demand a duel!"

I sighed. "Look bruh, I don't really time for this. I've to buy dinner and eat it too. Very busy."

"You!" He flared but I just ignored him. "Huh! To think you were such a coward."

I stopped, turned back. "Do you seriously think taunting would work? Do I look like a two-year-old?"

He was getting madder and madder by the minute, but honestly, I didn't care.

"Why don't you accept, I'll even be the judge so it'll be legal." Dickville was coming from the opposite side with a smile.

"Sorry Dick, but as I said, I have other business."

He tried to smirk but he failed miserably at it. "Please, I implore you, call me Slak."

"You know, it's not that better, right?"

He sighed in resignation. "I'm aware."

"Fine, move Slak. I'm very hungry and also very irritated at the moment."

He moved. "Yeah sure."  He was surprisingly understanding.

"I will not be shamed by the likes of you!" The guy from the Bureau fumed with a lot of pent-up emotions. What happened to his cool guy attitude?

When he made an appearance in the headmaster's office he had a very different aura about him. But now, now he just looked like some miserable guy who just wanted things to go his way.

"Are outsiders allowed to do stuff like that at this school?" I asked Slak.

"Don't worry. If things get rough. The headmaster always cleans up after us. So-"

"SO?"

He smiled and stood between me and the guy. "So, go. I've been itching to punish some dickheads. Rose took my job and it's been nothing but too quiet for me for the last couple of days."

'If that were the case, why the hell didn't you stop that douchebag from punching Merin?'

But in the end, it did work out for me. Well, kind of. "Good luck." If the guy was offering me leave, I had no reason to decline. 

"Who gave you permission to leave?" Now the woman stood in front of me.

This was getting more and more annoying by the minute.

"Move. I've no business with you." My stomach wasn't rumbling. It was literally just screaming in pain. I was hungry and I was hungry, badly.

"But I do." Her mask covered half of her face. I couldn't really see her eyes but she did have beautiful lips. Probably double my age.

I didn't have my sword with me. And I didn't know where my lovely sword even was right now. I never asked, no one told me. So fighting with my powers alone was definitely not an option.

"Look lady-" Before I could finish she ran straight at me. She didn't have any weapons but I got the impression she wasn't going to fight barehanded either. 

'Looks like this is unavoidable.'  I released alpha particles first and prepared myself. I wasn't going to do anything reckless and just watched the woman.

Though she rushed in even just a second ago, she jumped back at the last second and maintained distance. Was she cautious of me?

"Gentlemen, didn't he already say, you are not supposed to do this in this school?" A female voice rang from above. Though at first, I thought it was Rose flying around, actually it wasn't.  It was the same middle-aged woman from the entrance ceremony. She had two eagle wings. She descended and the wings folded back inside her. "You two, please go about your day. I'll take it from here." She gave me and Dick a smile.

This was the first time, someone stopped my fight and wasn't actually angry with me.  "Some sort of senior teacher?"

Dick was right next to me. Though I promised to call him Slak, I was always defaulting back to Dick. 

"Yeah, that's the headmaster's wife."

'Oh.'

The headmaster was somewhere around sixty but this woman looked more or less forty. I guess looks really were deceiving.

"Lady Sylvia, you don't understand, we-" The man began. But then he just stopped. "What is this?" his face paled. "An illusion? But-" He sweated more than necessary and fell on his knees.

The same went for the girl who was trying to start a fight with me even just a moment ago.

"I trust this won't create bad blood between us and the Bureau." The wife of the geezer or rather Misses Sylvia looked at the both of them with fierce eyes. Her eyes were pretty but they looked like that of a predator. 

"Of course not." The man stood up and turned his back on us. "Come, Ash." His voice was awfully defeated. This felt a bit too easy. Was something wrong with school, or was it me?

At least we avoided some trouble. 

But boy was this woman scary. 

The girl with the guy also stood up and went past me. "You just made a big mistake." She was running her mouth a bit too much. "Our-"

"Sorry but I don't give a damn about you or your company." I really wanted to for the money but such wasn't the case anymore. 

And the fact that they wanted to experiment on me, was still very disturbing.

The girl stayed quiet and just followed the man. Both of them left.

"This is fairly normal. That man was once a student here too, my student to be specific. And that's why sometimes he feels like he can do whatever he pleases. Please don't let it bother you." Misses Sylvia apologized on their behalf and promptly took off. 

I was shocked for a second but recovered eventually. She was probably the only teacher here who was sane. Everyone else felt like just weirdoes.

"Thanks and later Di- Slak."

He scowled. "No problem. You can call me Dick if you want, but if I ever get the feeling that you're disrespecting my name, one week of suspension. Don't forget." There was a brief moment of finger-pointing and then he left. 

I didn't really mind all that attitude. Besides, I didn't want to make fun of him either. I had no reason to.

And with all that drama behind me, with a smirk, I went for the store at long last.

***

I ripped open a bun and eat it on spot. I didn't care if the employee gave me the eyes. At this point, he already knew I was just there to buy the bread anyway. 

After buying and paying the employee I came out of the store and it was already night. The lights from the posts illuminated the academy but it felt darker than usual. 

But boy did that bun hit the spot. I did buy chocolate milk too, so everything was settled for dinner. I'd bought extra too, just in case.

But really, why was it so dark? I looked up and there wasn't a moon. 

'But wasn't it supposed to have been full moon today?'

It was odd, very odd. 'Oh well.'

I kept on walking and there weren't many students out either. It couldn't have been more than eight. Something was up and I could feel it. But I didn't really care.

There were palm trees everywhere and I avoided them. But the lack of students kind of bothered me. It was possible that some random club was housing a party, and everyone was there. I didn't know what happened yesterday anyway. So it was very possible. 

The dorm was pretty far away from the store, so I had a long walk in front of me. I missed exercises for two days already. Yesterday, I was late and today I was too beat up. So walking around like this, wasn't so bad. And now that I had food in my stomach, the world seemed a bit livelier. Maybe not. 

But as I walked, I could hear faint gasps. And the sound was coming from the sky. There was also a distinct sound of wings. 

'But wha-'

My whole body froze when I noticed something up in the sky. It wasn't like the moon was gone. It was more like the moon was covered. Covered by something big, very big. And it wasn't human.

It was bigger than a plane, smaller than a battleship. And it floated with two giant wings. It was a frigging abomination of an elephant and a bat. And all it was doing, was flapping silently and floating around. 

It made little sound and I finally understood why no one was around me anymore. I didn't have a Holo, so if there was an emergency announcement, I had no way of knowing. So this situation wasn't implausible.

'This is bad… Weren't mutors like that were supposed to be only found in deep forests? What's it doing here of all places?'

Mutors in general were very rare inside habitable zones because they were hunted to almost extinction. But there were always new ones being born in the wild. But then there was the question. Why was this thing, here of all places?

Needless to say, I didn't really have any answers or even a means of thinking of an answer.

And then… I saw it. 'Is that, a person?'