~1 week after the battle~
As Merlin was giving her monthly speech to the students, Kuro and the others were behind the stage prepping themselves for their introduction.
"Ahh, I'm nervous~" Bea fans herself with her hand as Levy helped her in making her clothes comfortable for the waist.
"ShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShit" Gran shivers in nervousness.
"Come on guys calm down now, it'll just be for this moment. Look at Kuro, he's chill, right?" Kenny tried his best to calm them down.
He looks to Kuro who is emotionless.
"Uhh Kuro?"
"What is it."
"... You alright bud?"
"Of course I am."
"... Kuro, you're too monotonous."
'Sorry sir.'
'AAAAAHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK AM I GOING TO DO!!!'
'I'm sorry sir, I couldn't fulfill your wishes.'
'Nonono, it's okay. Ahhhh I need to find a way out of this...'
Gran takes a closer look at Kuro and calms down.
"Kuro, you look like you've seen a war break down. You okay?"
"Hahaha, I'm fine Gran Mercse."
"Oyoy, some kind of spirit possessed you? You're too monotonous and you never say my full name."
"It will be fine." Levy literally slaps Kuro back to reality.
"As Kenny says, it will only be for now."
Levy suddenly grabs Kuro's shoulders, tickling him by massaging him. Because of this, the guide lost control of Kuro's body.
"Uwwaahh-!"
"Come on, where's the 'calm and collected Kuro that doesn't care about everything' at?"
"Please... Stop... Haaannggghhh..."
"""Heh"""
As Levy kept on massaging him, all the other 3's fear dissipated and joined in tickling him.
"Gahaha- No- Stop- Stop- GAHAHAHA-"
"I know we have started school a month ago, however, we were gifted with 5 talented individuals all mentored by the one and only Rai."
The moment she had mentioned Rai, the students that were on their chair, drowsy, lazy and wanting to get off, immediately became serious. The fact that 5 students mentored by Rai were all accepted meant that they will be the most dangerous opponents they would ever face.
"Give it up, for the new students!"
As the curtain rose and the students clapped their hands, they saw Kuro being tickled by a huge guy that couldn't be called a kid, a girl with a cute-yet-sadistic smile, an edgelord with a creepy smile and a serious girl that smiles, on the floor.
"GAHAHA- NO- STOP IT- I- ...!!"
As Kuro saw what's behind them, he smiled as he released his right hand and swiped across, making him do an elegant turn as he created a dense smoke screen. As Gran dissipated the smoke, they all stood proudly.
"""""Gaia's blessing upon all of you! We greet our seniors!"""""
Immediately, they bow gracefully.
"What the heck..."
"Oy, that guy's big!"
"Wait, are they the ones that showed up a week ago?"
"Hee... She looked sadistic before, but she actually looks cute."
"Woah... She's my type."
Many mumbles between the children had already occurred, many of which ignored their action before. They were cherry picking which one's theirs to take, totally ignoring Kuro since he's the least attractive of the 5.
As they finally picked which class to go to, they went their separate ways with the agreement to meet each other at the dormitories.
Kenny took the class for Earth element, Gran took the class for Archery, Levy took the class for Null element, Bea took the class for Lightning element while Kuro took the class for Close combat. Kuro just picked whatever.
As Kuro entered the auditorium with a slouch, everyone looked at him, curious as to who he is as to why he was able to learn under Rai. Was he powerful? Rich? Influential? A noble? Little did they know, it was just because of his sheer determination, imagination and knowledge.
As he sat down, he took his water gourd and took a big gulp off of it. Water spilled his uniform, luckily he chose black instead of white.
"... Wasteful."
Kuro looked to the source which was his seatmate, a small girl with a mechanical tail and pink hair.
"Umm... Who?"
"... Rin."
"Kuro. Well, this water won't run out anyways."
"... Really? How?"
"Enchantment and Permanency." Kuro then points to the sigils that were engraved into the bottom of the gourd bottle.
"... Wasteful."
"It isn't." Kuro drank more water.
"Isn't it more wasteful to not use magic more often than not? How is one going to get accustomed to it?"
"... I see. I didn't know."
'Wait what? Isn't that common sense?'
"Well anyways, I do me as long as you do you."
"... Okay."
As they waited for their teacher, Rin was reading a fantasy picture book about the hero saving the heroine from the seclusion of her parents, the king and queen.
"Can you read?"
She shakes her head.
"Haa... Want me to teach you?"
She immediately got near Kuro's face, "You will?"
"Y-yeah, I promise. But I can only teach you when I have the time though."
"... Thank you."
Kuro sighs then rests his head on the table. As he slowly drifted into sleep, the door suddenly opened and the teacher came in.
"I'm sorry for being late everyone, I was met with some circumstances, but it's all okay now!"
The girl with scarlet hair was fixing herself as she rushed into the podium.
"So, I'm Riel. I think that we have a new student here, correct?"
As she says that, everyone immediately looked at Kuro, who was hiding himself by "sleeping".
'Stop staring at me assholes.'
"So, care to introduce yourself to the class?"
"Kurooooo~"
Rin kept poking his cheeks as he slowly got mad.
"Alright alright, stop poking me."
Kuro stood up as he saw her smugly smiling. Riel signaled him to go to her. As he walked down, the other students were curious as to why he were to walk with a slouch. As he stood at the podium, he stood straight and cleared his throat.
"Good day everyone, I'm Kuro Aagney. As you've heard before, I was taught by Rai. However, I don't aim to be your competitor, I only aim to learn. You do you as long as I do me, I hope we get along up till the end." Kuro shouts as he smiles smugly while being a bit sleepy.
'How was that?'
Kuro then observed their expressions to see that they... Weren't positive in the slightest.
''This bastard thinks he can stand with us as equals after getting taught by Rai!?' must what they're thinking of right now. Good. NOW I HAVE MORE ENEMIES!'
Kuro laughed a bit, making Riel a bit worried.
"Arrrreee you okay?"
"Ah, sorry. I just remembered something funny. Don't mind me. So, am I allowed to go back now?"
"Ah, sure sure~"
As Kuro sat down, he laid down his head on the table again.
"... You're going to sleep?"
"Until something interesting happens, yeah."
"... Then I'll annoy you again and again."
"Don't you wanna listen to the lessons instead?"
"... No."
"Haa..."
And so, Kuro could never sleep in class as he listened to stuff he already learned from Rai such as ways of simple self-defense, but less in-depth and less efficient. All the other students were active, but some were distracted by Kuro and Rin's shenanigans.
"This must be where the dorms are huh? Thanks for guiding me."
"... Nn."
As they went there, they saw the 4 others outside, waiting for Kuro.
"Hoh, Kuro, picking up girls at the 1st day of school?"
"Shut up Kenny, I have a debt to repay and a promise to keep."
"Hoho, so our almighty leader already has a debt huh? I wonder... Is it nightly service?"
"Fucking horny virgin. Let's just enter."
"So it is?" Levy glares scarily at Kuro. However, before he could answer, he was cut off by Rin.
"And if it is?" She says with a smug face.
"""Wah-""" As all 4 became surprised, with Levy immediately blushing, Kuro did a karate chop on the 5's heads.
"Idiots, all of you! All I'm going to do is teach her how to read! And you... Don't say that! We're still young gosh damn it!"
As all 5 of them were scolded, the students that overheard Kuro's loud voice looked at them. Kuro, who was irritated by their stares created 2 barriers, with the middle space being filled with smoke. There, Kuro continued to scold them.
"Uuuuu... Why was I scolded as well?"
"That was revenge for annoying me earlier, hehe."
"Uuurrrr..."
Kuro then took out a blank book and wrote at high speeds. He wrote basic words that children can understand. He was only able to do this through 'Guide'. After less than a minute, he had filled in everything necessary with perfect penmanship that Shakespeare would be amused to read. But...
"... What's that?"
He was with a girl that couldn't read at all.
"Alright, here. I'll teach you now."
Kuro sat beside her and started reciting the letters. Kuro taught her for 3 hours straight as he kept drinking water due to continuous communication. However...
"Try to read this out-loud."
"Err... What?"
"Haa... This ain't gonna work."
Kuro laid down to the floor, mentally exhausted since he kept repeating the same letters again and again.
"... What time is it?" Kuro asks as he covers his eyes with his arm.
"... 1:00 AM. We should sleep now."
Kuro then stands up and stretches himself.
"Alright, you go sleep now. I'll go to my room now."
"... How can you get past the curfew guards?"
"Well, you see that room with a small fire?" Kuro points towards his room that has an eternal wick [1].
"I'll be going to that through here."
"Through the window?"
"Well, technically."
Kuro then lit a small ember on his finger and got sucked from within. He then reappeared in his room. He looked to Rin's expression to see that she was really surprised.
Kuro then sat on his bed, all alone.
"Well then, I'll have to train my mana."
Kuro sat on his bed, and concentrated on his mana. His mana pulsed away from him, then he created a mana negation field. Mana negation returns all mana to the source, which is Kuro. He repeatedly pulses his mana as it repeatedly came back to him. Like a beating heart, it was calm, it was steady and constant.
He kept repeating this until light shone to his eyes.
"Ah, it's morning now huh... School... Again..."
