As the middle of winder reared its cold head, students everywhere gave high thanks to the invention of heaters. This includes Class 1-X as well, and to attest to that was the presence of their most delinquent student: Ozgur, better known as Oscar. Although he refused to participate in class, everyone’s thought was that it was nice to have a full class attendance for once. Plus, for a delinquent, Oscar never actually did anything bad except for the skipping class parts.

That nice balance of peace came to a crashing halt.

It was time for lunch, and as usual Oscar was the first out of the door. Perhaps this particular habit of his was too much like clockwork, because the moment he stepped out of the classroom a spell circuit lit up under his feet. Hugh, who sat by the door, saw the circuit lit up and did what his instinct told him to do: drag Oscar out of the circuit at once. He basically saved his life, because at the next moment a pillar of fire erupted from the circuit. If Oscar had continued standing there, he would have become charred meat.

The fire pillar set off the fire alarm, causing the sprinklers to activate. It effectively put out the fire, but everyone was too stunned to complain about how wet their clothes were getting.

That was until someone sneezed.

It set off Oscar, who jumped to his feet, walked to the nearest table and slammed his fist into it. The loud sound caught everyone’s attention.

“Who is it?” he demanded. “I know it’s one of you. Someone’s been at my life for the past two weeks and I’m fed up with it!”

No one knew what to say to that, so there was only… silence.

Oscar loudly said a curse word and stormed out of the class’ back door, but not without dragging Hugh along by the collar. He barely managed to grab his bag. Roman came along too, announcing something about him being class rep.

Hugh checked his phone first and was relieved to see that the water did not seep into it. Then he addressed Oscar: “Ack, Oscar, I’m gonna fall if you keep pulling me like this.”

“Shut up!” Oscar yelled.

“Can we at least change our clothes first? It’s too cold for a wet uniform.” Hugh sneezed for emphasis.

Oscar paused at that, allowing Hugh to stand up properly. “… you didn’t think about that huh?”

“S-shut up I say!” Oscar whined.

“Roman, do you have any spare uniforms with the Student Council?” Hugh asked.

“No, but we have phys ed shirts and pants. That okay with you?”

“Let’s go for that,” Hugh decided. Then he checked his books. “Ah, thank goodness for water-resistant bags. My books are fine.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me anything?” Oscar asked, surprised.

“That’s for later. Let’s get ourselves comfortable first. We’ll get pneumonia if we keep standing around in wet clothes.” Hugh explained.

After changing into jerseys and passing their wet uniforms to the janitor (thanks so much madam!) they settled down in an empty classroom, making sure to turn the heating on.

“Man, wearing pants is weird after getting used to skirts.” Hugh commented.

“Why do you wear skirts anyway? I mean, all races with tails do, but you’re usually pale human right?” Roman asked.

“I’m a shapeshifter. It’s enough that my transformations usually rip my shirts, if I wore pants they’d tear too, or get too tight. Skirts are better,” Hugh gave a thumbs up to skirts.

Oscar put his head on the table with a loud noise. “Are you gonna ask me now?”

“Yes,” Roman and Hugh both chimed.

“So what’s going on here Oscar?” Hugh enquired. “Why do you think someone is after your life? And why do you think it’s someone in class?”

Oscar put a hand to his face. “It started out as harmless pranks at first. Things like the floor suddenly turning into sand, or random gusts of wind in the hallways that messes up my hair. There was even a rainstorm cloud that kept following me around recently. That’s why I went back to class. It stopped for awhile, but then it escalated to this… I think that person was just testing out magic circuits. They’re coming after me for real now.

Anyway, the reason I think its someone in class is because of that fire pillar circuit. As a Nefari I have a kind of sense of magic? This magic definitely feels the same as the pranks. I can’t explain it… but what really zeroed in things for me was that only someone in class would know my habit of leaving the class first thing for lunch.”

“And you’re sure it’s not me or Hugh?” Roman asked, amused.

“Hey, you’re a stupid straight-lace kinda guy, and Hugh saved my life. That means he doesn’t want me dead. So yeah.”

(This guy has some pretty simplistic thinking) was what Hugh thought.

Instead, he asked “Who do you think it is?”

“No idea. But I think whoever it is is involved with the Demon Hunters cult.”

Hugh raised his brows. “That's… way bigger than what we can handle. We should go to the Adventurer’s Guild, make a report-”

“No!” Oscar insisted. “I don’t want this blowing up into a big thing, and I don’t want bodyguards hanging around me.”

“This is a weird time to worry about bothering other people, Oscar,” Hugh insisted.

“That’s not it. I’m freaking annoyed at this person. I want to beat this person up before handing them over to the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Newsflash: those people would probably kill you before you could beat them up.” Roman shook his head and sighed.

“That’s why I have you both, right!” Oscar said, frustrated.

“I’m only here because you dragged my ex-roommate out of class,” Roman grouched.

“Then I’ll keep dragging him along then!”

“I’d rather not be dragged.” Hugh sighed. “Okay, I’ll help you out Oscar. I don’t approve with not going to the Adventurer’s Guild from the start, but I can’t just leave you alone. The Demon Hunters Cult is serious business when it come to Nefari. I hope you’re wrong…”