-=??? POV=-

“AHAHA!”

“We did it boss!”

“Just like you said boss!”

“GAHAHA!”

It was a night like every other, me and my big band of bads were in our little hidey hole celebrating our success.

Champagne bottles were opened, the finest wine was drunk, the most expensive and decorated mugs were tossed to the floor ad shattered, it was enough to cause even the wealthiest of nobles to faint.

But we didn’t care.

“AHAHA! I struck a deal with the devil and the devil with me! The devil has gone after the princess, she must already be dead!”

“Boss beat the devil and made them his handyman!”

“I still remember when the boss beat the devil in rock paper scissors, the most exciting thing I ever did see!!”

“GAHAHA! I knew old trusty rock would never lose! You lot! There’s no way the princess wil survive the devil, she’s the best assassin in the business!”

“”Yeah!””

“So drink and feast ‘til you drop! The reward we’ll get for the princess dying will set us all well for life, no matter what we do from here on out!”

“”Yeah!””

“Waitress! More drinks for everyone!”

““Boss!””

“Yes sir.”

Next to me came the waitress, carrying a silver tray covered in a multitude of mugs, each distinct from the others and containing equally distinct alcohol.

“Here you go sir.”

The waitress was a beautiful young lady, she wore the same clothes that all the other waitresses wore.

“Waitress I’m certain business would bloom for you if only your smile would do the same.”

“Hear that guys!?” Went one of my subordinates. “The boss has been reading poetry again!”

“Oh shaddup!”

“Look! The boss is red as blood!”

“Waitress, you better not let your smile blom or the boss’s third leg will surely follow!”

“”Ha!”” Went the whole room at once.

“... You damn sons of bitches.”

* * * *

*CLANG*

“Urgh…”

I woke up.

At least I think I woke up?

I moved my hands and felt around.

I was in a bed.

My eyes hurt.

My head hurts.

‘I must’ve drunk myself under the table yesterday… My men must’ve carried me back home…’

I runned my eyes and scratched my chin, then I simply rolled over in my big king sized bed to return to the land of sleep.

*thud*

“Fucking ow!”

Well so much for that, I must’ve rolled the wrong side cuz I fell right down at the floor.

“Ha… Well I’m already up so let’s at least go get a glass of water for the hangover… And was my floor always this hard?”

‘I thought the guys installed a full floor carpet just a few days ago…’

My eyes still hurt so I didn’t want to open them yet, instead I waved my arm around until I found the bed and used it to help me stand up.

“Oi you guy!”

“”Boss!?””

Why did they sound so surprised?

“Get me some water!”

*murmur murmur*

“Oi, what’s taking so long!?”

“Uhm… “ came the voice of one of my underlings. “Boss... have you, have you looked around?”

“What?”

“Uhm, looked around, have you done it?”

“I heard you the first time you wordy brat! Why would I-”

I open my eyes and look around.

I see the bed I was laying on.

I see the floor and the walls.

I see a little window.

And I see thatone of the walls is made of metal bars.

I was in prison.

* * * * *

-=Ronnie POV=-

“See, that went well didn’t it?”

“...”

“Well?”

“Alright alright! I admit, your method worked well enough!”

Lizz smile at my reply as we’re walking back to the inn, a small pouch of gold in each of our hands.

“I still wanted to hit them though.”

“Oh they would have been too weak anyways, you wouldn’t have been satisfied at all.”

*sigh* “I know I know… A woman can dream though yeah?”

“If someone heard you say you dream about hitting people the only thing they'd dream of is you suddenly revealing you're a man.”

“Hey! I've never heard you use that kind of retort before.”

“Yeah, some of the big bad band people were using them, made me feel inspired. Think I might even add them to my regular repertoire.”

“Oh joy…”

“Though those people had a bit more of a… a… a bit more of a poetic touch, it will take some practice to get good.”

“Long as you don't do said practice by keeping me up at night.”

“First of all you're already keeping yourself up at night well enough on your own. Secondly I also have things I need to do so I don't even have the time.”

“Thanks god…”

Following our banter we walked backed to the inn, I went into my room and put the gi back on while Lizz returned to her sprite form and snuck back into the other’s room.

-=Plush POV=-

It happened again.

I think this is the third or fourth time this has happened

I’m in a world where everything is made entirely of black and white.

But why would this happen all of a sudden when it hasn’t happened in so long?

Did I do anything different today? Anything that I haven’t done for a month?

‘Let’s see here… I was laying in bed falling asleep… Shiona had to go for a walk… And then I fell asleep?’

What did I do differently- I thought, until I realized.

‘Wait, I fell asleep? Yeah, I did, right after they left I fell asleep… Without using up my energy!”

Or so I thought, but-

‘But hang on, didn’t I use this back at this skill back at the Eastern lake city’s guild quarters after fainting from using up my energy? Well what’s different between that and this? Last time I materialized right next to my body, this time I’m…’

Looking around I find myself sitting on a grassy slope with my back against a brick wall.

‘Somewhere else? Maybe the distance changes how much energy I need? Maybe it drains so little when I'm near my body that it got restored faster than I could spend it?’

...

‘God I’m actually starting to sound half smart, Shiona and Cy must be having a hell of a great influence on me.That aside where am I?’

Looking around I once again confirmed that I was indeed on a grassy hillside with my back against a brick wall however looking at it properly I could see that it was so much more.

‘Is this a mansion?’

The house was as large as a high school from my own world and had large open areas, the kind of open areas that increase the price of a property at least ten fold.

The mansion had numerous large windows on each floor.

From the front of the mansion went a paved road that slithered down the side of the large hill that both I and the mansion were on.

At the base of the hill there went a stone wall all around, only breaking up where the slithering road met with the wall, there they had put a shining gate instead.

If I saw color it would probably be golden.

And did I mention how the road slithered down the hill? Well I meant it.

You see the paved path was literally a snake, it went from the front of the mansion down to the gate where its head was staring at the gate with two yellow eyes.

I looked around the corner I was sitting at and saw that the tail went into the earth right in front of the front doors.

It was kind of flat though, like, if you saw a cross section of it the snake would look like a sideways 0, probably to make it easier for carriages or whatever to stay on it.

‘Is this one of those golems that Charlie said her and her group fought? But they said it was shaped like a normal human though, albeit three times as tall.’

So I was on a large hill next to a large fancy mansion that had a snake road going from a fancy set of doors to a fancy gate.

Very fancy.

On the other side of the gate went a paved road, a normal paved road as opposed to the stone snake inside the mansion grounds.

The paved road went through a grassy field and into a forest, I could barely make out the roofs of some buildings above the treetops, the might be either in the forest or on the other side of it.

Recap, again, fancy mansion on a hill surrounded by a stone wall, weird snake-slash-road thing and we’re fairly far away from any town by the look of it.

‘Other than the snake nothing really seem to be wro… Did that forest just-?’

I look towards the autumn brown and orange forest.

Except it wasn’t orange.

It had turned purple.

‘What the hell…?’

So, everything I said before but add an enchanted forest.

Seeing this colourful landscape raised another question however-

‘Why…’

The green grass fluttered in the wind.

‘...is…’

The dark blue, almost black sky was filled with a bright yellow moon and the occasional cloud.

‘...there…’

The hillside had a few flowers.

‘...colour?’

While I was watching the scenery, unknown to me it had been being coloured in.

It happened suddenly, one object at a time.

Actually, suddenly is an understatement.

Faster than a blink, faster than the sound of the snap of a hand, faster than even an instant, it was so fast that despite looking straight at it I didn’t even realize the colour was there until just now!

‘But why? Why colour all of a sudden? The only things that have had colour before were the fruits of the copper tree and the ghosts on the necromancer island, what’s going on? Why everything?’

“Hello!”

‘!’

“Ah! Where’d’ya go!?”

Okay, fancy mansion, snake road, enchanted forest, town in the distance, and now girl with horns.

A girl with horns that I ran away from by phasing into the ground out of sheer surprise.

“C’mon man, I’m sorry for scarin’ ya so would ya com back up?”

She seemed friendly enough so I pokemy head back out.

Well, a couple of meters up the wall that is.

Can’t be too safe.

The girl’s skin was black as coal, her horns curled like a spiral and she had white curly hair.

Not white like old people hair, but actual proper white.

“Hey.”

“! How did you…?”

“Who are you? Do you live here?”

If he was able to see me then there must be a reason.

“What are you talking about?”

“Live here, do you do it?”

“Ehm, I guess? I mean, the dorms are on the other side but sure, I s’pose I live here now…”

“Dorms? Why would you live in a dorm if there’s this huge mansion?”

“What are you, bonkers? Why would anyone live in the school, only thing there is a bunch of classrooms and grumpy guards.”

“... school?”

“Yeah, school.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Is something the matter?”

“...Why am I at a school?”

“To learn I’d wager, why else would anyone be at the school? Other than teachers, guards and groundskeepers I s’pose”

‘Is it really that simple?’

“Well? C’mon then man, we’ll be late for the entrance ceremony.”

“Entrance ceremony? This late?”

I look up in the sky and see the stars twinkling in the dark vastness.

“I know right? It’s always been during mid day before but apparently one of the new teachers has a condition that makes it so he can only be here during night.”

“Really? So that means he can only hold his classes at night too?”

“Yup, gotta be one helluva teacher for the headmaster to change everything just to let him be here, me an’ my pals think he’s gotta be a vampire or somthin’.”

“Huh…”

“Well c’mon then, if you plan on stayin’ here then I’ll just leave without you because I really can't afford to be late, later man!”

“Alright.” I respond, however the girl has already run off before I could finish.

‘...Welp.’

Not having much else to do I get down from my wall and follow in the girl’s wake into the school through the front door, a couple of hallways, exiting the school through another door on the other side and then finally entering a large garden.

In the center of the garden was a stage where a few important looking people were gathered, and next to the stage was a large amount of chairs with students on them.

None of the students looked alike but at least they seemed to be wearing similar clothes at least.

‘Should I be wearing clothes like that too?’

Feeling a bit out of place I look around for an empty chair on the outside of the mass of chairs and started moseying my way towards it while looking down at the ground.

When I do I see my own purple clothed body.

Or rather I see what used to be purple-

‘Am I naked!?”

-only to see that my body was the same black color as my head.

‘N-no one is looking at me, and the girl from earlier didn’t seem bothered, so I guess that means I still don’t have a “thing”... Hang on, since when have I even had anything at all below the purple onesie at all!? Since when have I been able to take that off!?’

I was in deep thought as I walked up to the chair I’d found.

“Now then,-” Went one of the important looking people on the stage. “-those of you who have been studying with us before today may know that normally only the first years need to attend the entrance ceremony, however due to some major changes throughout the school we have made attendance mandatory for everyone. All the changes will be explained to make sure no one leave confused.”

‘Sure, I never actually TRIED to take the onesie off, but why would I have tried?’

“Now before we start I’d like to tell everyone something before you inevitably fall asleep, due to attendance being mandatory right now in the middle of the night all classes tomorrow will be canceled.”

“”Huzzah!”” Went almost all the students at once, thought a few looked disappointed while some had already departed to the starry dream lands.

‘I mean, the hunting claws skill worked on the onesie so I thought it was a part of my body.’

I had been walking very slowly to make sure I didn’t trip since I was deep in thought so I only now got to the chair.

Being as small as I am I had to halt my thoughts and climb the chair to get onto it before I sat down.

‘These chairs are incredibly uncomfortable.’

I kept twisting around and trying to get comfortable.

“Now then, some of you may have already heard that the reason we are doing this so late at night is due to one of our new teachers.”

‘Honestly what the hell is up with this chair, did I sit down on something or what?’

I slightly shift to the side and look at where I was sitting and see a black object.

I tug at the object and try to move it.

*tug* *tug*

‘This is…’

“Due to various personal reasons our new teacher is only available during nighttime, thus al his classes will also take place during the night.”

I follow the black object with my eyes…

‘Really, this night just won’t stop surprising me, since when have I had a tail?’

I adjust my newly found libm so that i sit at least somewhat comfortably.

“The new teacher will be taking care of the magic classes, both offense magic and support magic, though that’s not all, he will also be taking care of most of your other subjects as well. Hell, the only classes he can’t handle are history and geography.”

The important looking person seemed to be saying something important, though I was still thinking to myself.

‘Have I always had this tail? But how did it fit in the onesie then?’

“Now then, I would like to introduce this new teacher to everyone who is taking part in the magic classes.”

‘Oh yeah, what class am I even supposed to be a part of if I’m here to earn then? I didn’t exactly sign up for anything…’

“If the new teacher Plush could please come up on the stage.”

…

“What.”