The three of them walked toward the old building. Rai couldn't help but notice how close Niko and Lia seemed. He asked bluntly:
"Are you two dating or something? You've been chatting nonstop since the office. I'm not third-wheeling my way into this building."
Lia and Niko exchanged a surprised look.
"Look, Rai, right?" Niko said. "What if I told you we already did all of this yesterday?"
"And today's still Monday," Lia added. "We're stuck in a time loop!"
Rai blinked. "Come again?"
"You heard us," Lia said. "We've already done this once before. Yesterday. Which is today. Still."
Rai furrowed his brow. "Y'all are weird." He shrugged. "Though I gotta admit—I'm still not sure where I got this from." He showed them the torn pages from the grimoire.
"No way… YOU TORE THE GRIMOIRE?!" Niko gaped.
"HA! Serves you right, you zesty book!" Lia said, laughing.
"Ha ha ha, very funny..." a voice muttered.
"Come again?" Rai asked.
The grimoire popped into the air between them.
The three students jumped back, startled.
"Oh, so y'all wanna get lit? Turn me up then!" the grimoire snapped.
"Hey, that's not how you sounded last night," Lia said, folding her arms.
"Duh~ I reflect whoever I'm vibin' with, sugarplum." sassed the grimoire.
"Whoa. A talking book? That's sick!" Rai said, grinning.
The grimoire spun toward Rai and cursed.
"F— you! You ripped out a piece of me! You're one step above the Heartless Dragon!"
Rai raised an eyebrow. "Relax. You're a glowing, magic book or whatever. I'm sure you can fix yourself. But hey—if I sell this page, how much d'you think I'd get?" The grimoire zapped him with a jolt of lightning, launching him backwards with a loud POP.
"What the—?! How did you do THAT?" Lia shouted, eyes wide.
"Gurl, he ripped my page. Of course I zapped him. Ugh, boys…" the book huffed, floating gently into Lia's arms.
"Not that! How did you cast that without chanting?" Lia asked.
The grimoire tilted. "FR??? That's just magic."
"We know that's magic, but HOW?" Lia repeated. "You didn't chant or anything!"
The grimoire paused, clearly confused. "Oh, I get it. You're messing with me. Haha, funny joke, very funny..."
But the three students just stared back at it seriously.
"...Wait. You're serious?"
"We're not at a magical school," Niko explained. "It's a magical academy. We're here to learn magic. To study it. Embrace it. Most of us can't even use it yet. Unless you're a special case like Rai over there, who was born with chant-based fire spells," Niko added.
"See?" Rai grunted, brushing ash off his shirt. "I'm the 1 in a 1,000 type s—."
The grimoire looked stunned. "No way… Alright, Doo-doo!" it shouted at Rai. "Show me how you chant."
"Gladly," Rai growled, still mad about getting zapped. He stepped forward and pointed his hands at the grimoire. Niko and Lia quickly stepped aside.
"Oh, Fire Lord! Grant me your strength! Smite this mouthy book! EL FUEGO GIGANTE!"
A tiny fireball sputtered to life in his palm—maybe baseball-sized—drifted slowly toward the book with an almost whimsical pace—as if it had time to play three rounds of Uno before impact.
The grimoire stared. "You've got to be kidding me..." it sighed.
Then it flew forward and ate the fireball. All three students gasped.
"WHOA!" they cried in unison.
Rai dropped to his knees, bowing, "Teach me that, O Mighty Grimoire!"
Seeing Rai's 180 degrees change, the grimoire snapped,
"Oh, now you wanna be nice to me?"
"EEEEEK! Forgive me!" Rai squealed. "Here's your page!" He handed it over.
The grimoire slurped the page back into itself, now whole again.
"Do you have a name?" Lia asked, intrigued. "And can you teach us?"
"Ashbell. But just call me Bell, gurl. And don't go spreading it around." said Bell, as it drifted towards Lia embrace.
"MASTER BELL, PLEASEEEE!" Rai begged, still on his knees.
Seeing their genuine excitement, Bell floated proudly.
"You guys really don't know squat about magic, huh? …Lemme think."
Before he could continue, a slow clap echoed nearby.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" said a voice.
A boy and girl stepped into view. Rai's face turned pale.
"Uhhh... hi Sokka," he said, glancing away.
"Is that how you greet your seniors, Rai?" the boy said, smirking. "Are we crashing your little party?"
"Guys… meet the Deek twins. Sokka and Likka," Rai muttered.
"Indeed we are," said Sokka, slapping Rai on the back.
"Wait… your name is Deek? Like Deek?" Niko asked, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah. Named after our sea warrior grandfather up north. What of it?" Likka replied proudly.
"My condolences," Niko said.
The twins frowned, but ignored it.
"So… explain to us why you're playing with advanced fire spells without senior supervision?" Sokka asked.
"We saw Rai cast from the hill over there. Don't act dumb," Likka added.
"We were just—" Niko started, but Lia cut in.
"Mr. Mister told us to explore that haunted building to fix our grades. Rai came along in case something went wrong."
"Mr. Mister?" Likka turned to Sokka.
"Didn't Uncle Phil say he got fired? I don't even know who that is. They're probably bluffing."
"He's our new second-year homeroom teacher," Rai added.
"I don't remember asking you, boy," Sokka shrugged.
"Anyway, if you three have a death wish, be our guests. Just don't say we didn't warn you," Likka said.
"Our cousin Mike Rotch went in once. Came out broken. Now he sells shrimp at the docks," she said dramatically.
"Now scram! Off you go!" Sokka waved them away.
"Don't worry. If you explode or get mental like my cousin, we'll make sure you guys get a proper burial." Likka added with a smile.
The trio left, exchanging confused looks.
As they stepped inside the eerie building again, Rai closed the door behind them.
"What is going on? How did they not see Master Bell? He was floating right in front of them!" Rai muttered, clutching his head.
"Fufufufu... Ain't your master special, Rai-boi," Bell bragged.
"But after we met you, Mr. Mister looked really weirded out when he saw Rai holding you," Lia said.
"He did? I don't remember that at all… It's my first time seeing you, I think." Rai said, blinking.
"Don't tell me... Did you do something to them, Bell?" Lia asked, eyeing the grimoire suspiciously.
"Well... It's complicated," Bell shrugged.
The three of them stared at it, unimpressed.
"Let's just say there's a problem, okay? No need to be dramatic..." Bell deflected.
"Wait—so you're saying we've done this before? And I just showed up with your pages like it's normal?" says Rai.
Silence fell. Niko looked around the empty, cobweb-covered room again.
"Soo... what are we even doing here? Should we go back to Mr. Mister empty-handed?" Niko asked.
"Probably best," Rai muttered."And remember," Bell added, floating above them now like a looming warning sign. "No one can know I exist. Not anyone."
The three of them exchanged glances.
"We're so getting expelled…" they groaned in unison.
* * *