~Meanwhile~

Ace, Deuce and Grim walked through the woods behind campus, their eyes lingering on the trees full of chestnuts.

"There's so many chestnuts all over the place! It's a forest of all you can eat Mont Blanc..." Grim awed. "Well, time to get picking...ow!" He reaches for one, only to get pricked unexpectedly. "The thorns pricked my paw!"

"We can't get them with our bare hands. It might also benefit us to get a basket or something to put them all in." Deuce suggests.

"The garden probably has what we need inside." Ace nods towards the greenhouse.

"Let's check it out."

———————————

Inside, the trio scan the place.

"Wow, it's bigger in here than I'd expect." Ace murmurs.

"I know right? Glad I was thinking the same." A voice peeks up. He turns to see Charlie walking up to them, a smile on her face. "So what'd I miss?" She asks. He was about to ask how she got out early and finding this place, but Deuce intervened.

"Not much, just getting some equipment to pick chestnuts. There's probably a caretaker in here. Lets split up and find someone." He offers.

"I'll go right." Ace steals.

"And I'll go left." Deuce follows. "Charlie, you and Grim can head to the back." She nods as she feels Grim hop up on her shoulder.

——————————

"Oh, look! There's so much fruit here! It all smells so good!" Grim coos.

"Don't even think about it." I snap at him and continue walking. But, I wasn't watching where I was going and ended up stepping on something.

I squeal and jump forward in fright as I heard a grunt.

"Did I step on something???" I worry. Turning around, I see...

"Oi. You've got some nerve stepping on someone's tail without saying anything."

Wait...that voice...

He's one of the guys from the entrance ceremony! The scarred one! Except without that hood hiding his face I can see now how he looks. And...he's got lion ears?! And a tail?!

"You the owner here? You seem like a rude guy..."

"Grim shhh!" I whispered scared.

"I was right in the middle of a nice nap, and you go and walk on my tail. This sucks..." the lion mutters.

"I'm REALLY sorry! I-I didn't even know you were there!" I apologize.

He stands and faces me, looking me up and down. "Wait...you're that herbivore that the mirror claimed couldn't use magic? Hmmm..."

Then he stepped really close and sniffed me.

All I could think was....What the fuck?! Why's he smelling me?!

He opens his eyes, a flash of shock passed by, but then faded as he smirked.

"Ah...there's actually a little somethin' in ya...but that power...it's still weak. No matter. I don't feel like taking on an opponent that can't fight back."

Without thinking, I started backing up, keeping my eyes on him.

"Geez, being scrutinized by this guy's making my fur stand on end." Grim paled. He hid behind my shoulder as the guy started walking towards us at the same pace.

"You expect me, Leona, to just let you walk away after stepping on my tail?" He smiles darkly, sending adrenaline through my veins. "I was having a pleasant nap and now I'm pissed. In exchange, I'll take a tooth."

"I said 'Sorry'! Is that not enough?!" I quiver, suddenly feeling walk behind my back.

Shit! I'm cornered!

"C'mon, we gotta run!!" Grim urges me. Just as Leona takes another step-

"Hey, Leona!"

"Hm?" Leona halts and turns to face the person behind him. I look over to see someone around my height, with dirty brown hair, grey eyes and light beige skin. He had what looked like hyena ears on his head. Looking at the similarities between the two, physically, I could only deduce they were in that Savanaclaw dorm.

"There you are! Time for you're remedial lessons, y'know." The hyena claims.

"Ugh...why're you here.." Leona mumbles.

"It's cause you keep falling behind, Leona. You keep at it with that, you'll be behind another year."

"Will you knock it off already? I don't need another lecture from you, Ruggie." Leona massages his head like he's got a migraine.

"Well I don't enjoy nagging you, either!" Ruggie's ears flatten in annoyance. "You'd have no problem if you tried. C'mon, lets move!"

With that, Leona turned to me and leaning kinda close, he warns, "Better watch your back if you get on MY terf again, Herbivores." He stalks off with Ruggie.

I let go of the breath I had been holding as soon as they left.

"Geez, I'm sweating bullets! What's with that guy?! He's scary!" Grim wobbles. I catch him in my arms before he could pass out.

"That's no caretaker, that's for sure..." I utter.

"Hey!" I sighed in relief as I heard Ace's voice. "We managed to find a basket and tongs over there!"

Deuce noticed the petrified look in my eyes. "What happened to you guys?" He put a hand on my shoulder.

"That's right! The chestnuts! Our tart'll get smaller if we don't get as much!

We'll talk about what happened while we get to work!"

——————————

Back outside in the woods, we relayed what went down with Grim and I.

"And that's what happened."

"There's definitely NO WAY that was the caretaker!" Ace claims.

"They were wearing yellow vests from what I saw and could only deduce they were in Savanaclaw." I recall.

" 'Savanaclaw'...is it just me or are there a lot of delinquents around Night Raven..." I hear Deuce think aloud.

Ace drops the last few chestnuts into the bucket. "The pile's pretty big! Lets get back to Trey!"

"Yeah! This tarts gonna be awesome!"

——————————

Trey greeted us as soon as we got to the kitchen. "Welcome back! I see you've got what I told you get."

"With this amount, we'll make a huge tart!"

"Peeling all those will be a challenge...but let's hop to it!"

"There's no end in sight..." Deuce sighs.

"It's all about preparation when it comes to sweets."

"Okay, okay! We get it! Lets just get it over with!" Ace pouts.

————————

After what seemed like hours of peeling and arms aching, Grim tried sneaking a few to eat in the process, we manage to get the last few chestnuts peeled.

Ace groans, "We're finally done with this stupid task!"

"My arms hurt..." Deuce winces.

"You're not the only one..." I sigh.

"Well, great job! You're hard work will make the treat all the more satisfying." Trey applauds.

Grim was lying down on the counter. "I'm full from just the smell alone!"

"Now we'll need to mix butter and sugar in the chestnut paste and add oyster sauce as the secret ingredient."

Okay...that's the weirdest thing I've heard as of now. I raise my eyebrow at the request.

"It's true. The savoriness of oysters adds depth and richness to the cream." Trey continues. He holds out a jar. "Here's young oyster sauce with the walrus' seal of excellence."

He's gotta be bluffing. I've never heard something so ridiculous in my life!

"Seriously? That's pretty salty..."

"Even chocolate I get, but in curry all the time, it might be good."

Then Trey starts laughing, "I'm joking. Oyster sauce doesn't belong in sweets."

What'd I tell ya? Bluffing!

"Screw you!! You said that with an honest face!" Ace shouted.

"Well, if you paused for a second to think straight, you'd fit the pieces together. Never accept things with a side skepticism. Best to study up!" Trey winks.

"He may have an honest face but he's good at lying..." Grim whispers.

"Now for the whip cream..." but then Trey stops.

"What's up?"

"You gathered too many chestnuts that I got ahead of myself and made too much Marron paste. There's not enough whipped cream to mix that in."

"I'll go out and get some! Is it at the school store?" Deuce steps up.

"You can find anything in that place so it should be there. Can I ask you to also pick up a few other things?" He lists what he needed: 2 cartons of milk, a dozen eggs, aluminum cups, and five cans of fruit.

"I don't think I can carry all that alone." Deuce turns to me, "Charlie, you mind going with me?"

"Sure." I accept.

"I'll go too! I'm tired of stirring flour endlessly!" Grim hops on my shoulder.

———————

From the walk towards the store, I explained to Deuce what happened from my punishment to leaving early, and he too was impressed by my actions.

We finally made it, as I eyed the sign above the doorway: Mister S' Mystery Shop.

We entered and took a look around the place, which totally looked like Madame Mim's from what I could recall, but there was more of a dark magic/voodoo vibe from the place.

"Pardon us...wow, this place is amazing! A crystal skull, grimoires...what kind of taxidermy is that?" Deuce awes.

I silently drink in the place.

"Greetings! My lost little demons, how do you fare?" I guess he's the owner. "Welcome to Mr. S' Mystery shop! How may I help you today? A charm for unchartered lands? The mummy of an ancient king? Or some cursed tarot cards?"

"We came for the thing written here." Deuce steps forward to hand over the list.

"And some cans of tuna!"

"Grim!" I scold behind clenched teeth.

"No! We don't need any tuna!" Deuce follows.

"Let me see!" Mr. S reads over what Trey had us pick up. "A nice sweet line up. Coming right up!" He disappears for a few moments. Then returns with what we've requested.

"Wow, he's fast!" I murmur.

"So he really has them." Deuce says in amazement.

"Sorry for the wait!" Mr. S winks. "It's quite heavy. You've got it? And if you order now, you can get a 1/100th size floating platter to carry your purchases for 30% off."

"Ooh! That sounds cool!" Grim smiles

"We're okay, thank you. Lets go." Deuce nods towards the door.

"Aw, I wanna stay here more!"

"Maybe another time." I promise him.

"Ok! Make sure to stop by again, my little demons!" Mr. S smiles as we leave.

——————————

It was afternoon by the time we got back to Maim Street, the sky lit up with a calming pink.

"That store was crazy..." Deuce shakes his head.

"Stingy, am I right?" Grim whispers to me.

"Who are you calling Stingy?" Deuce glares at him, but notices me.

"Hey, Charlie, the bag of cans looks pretty heavy. Let me take that for you." He steps closer to me, taking the bag from my grasp.

"You sure you can handle it?" I ask uncertainly.

"Yeah. My mother always buys more than we need during time sales and I always get stuck carrying the heavy stuff." He looks off. "Since I'm the only man of the house it was my job to take care of anything that required strength...." he looks back at me. "Oh! My bad! I've just been talking to myself." He smiled sheepishly.

"No, it's okay. Helping around the house is great. You must really care for your mom, don't you?" I smile gently.

"No, that's not true at all...I always made her-"

Without looking where he was going, some people crashed into us. I heard cracking and I look at the bag. Was that yolk?!

"Crap! The eggs!"

"Shit! Half of them are destroyed! Now it's all over the bag!" Deuce gapes, but it melts into a scowl.

"Oi! Watch where you're- hey! You're the one who wrecked my egg carbonara today! And you! You beat me up! I had to spend most of my time in the infirmary!" Silver scowled.

Oh great, it's them again!

"Can't catch a break, can you?" Red smirked.

"You're the ones who jumped out from behind the corner!" Deuce stood in front of me, almost like...he's protecting me...but I don't take my sight off the two in front of me, my eyes burning holes through their heads. "At lunch, it wasn't like you couldn't eat the egg anymore but you still came to pick a fight...Just now you destroyed our eggs..." I felt him hand the bag to me and could feel his anger growing.

"Yeah!" Grim backs him up.

"Oh? And you're saying it's our fault?" Silver mocks.

"Yes. Please pay for the eggs. And apologize to the chicken, too." Deuce commands.

"Hmm? You're getting all worked up over eggs." Red mocks.

"They didn't hit the ground, right? Don't sweat the small stuff."

"We saved you the trouble of breaking them!" And they laughed. But the more they laughed, the stronger I felt Deuce's aura grow.

"Uh, Deuce?" I ask starting to get freaked out.

"Stay back, Charlie. This could get ugly." I halt, staring at him. Those were the words-

"....to laugh about." His head was down, hair covering his eyes.

"Hm?"

"This ain't nothing to laugh about!" He screams, eyes completely full of fire. "You don't get to make decisions for us! These eggs...Instead of becoming a chick, they were gonna make a tart! Can't you see?!"

Uh...I dunno what to say.

"Geez! What's this guys problem?!" Red started shaking.

"If you're not gonna pay for the six eggs you broke...then I'll punch you six times!!"

"Huh?!"

"Prepare yourselves, assholes?!"

The next thing I knew, Deuce was a flurry of rage-induced screams and fists flying here and there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! This was a side of Deuce....I never knew he even had! What's going on with him?!

"T-This dude's insane! He gave more than six hits! You Liar!"

"Lets get outta here! I'm sorry to all chickens!!" The two picked themselves up and ran with their tails between their legs.

"Apologize 100 times the next time you think about eating eggs, Dumbassess!" Deuce shouted as they fled.

He huffed as they disappeared.

I could only stare in shock at what just went down. But somehow, I managed to find my voice.

"What is the matter with you?!" I back away, scared.

"What's gotten into you?!" Grim asked.

That seemed to snap Deuce out of it.

"Crap! I screwed up!" His face fell in disappointment. "I promised I'd definitely be an honors student this time!"

"Huh?" Deuce looked down in sadness.

"Back in middle school, all I ever did was fool around...I'd skip classes and spent all my time getting into fights...Disrespected my teachers...hung out with sketchy upperclassmen, and I bleached my hair to death...even ran around all over the place riding a magic wheel..." he stared at me. "I was such a horrible person that I went as far as to use magic to push around those that couldn't..."

"But what you did back there..." I start.

"You went full bad-boy on those guys!" Grim finished.

"It was kinda obvious..." I murmur uncertainly.

"Then...one night...I saw my mom cowering in tears as she called my grandma... 'Was it the way I raised him wrong? Would it have been better if he had both parents?' She was wrong...My mom never did anything wrong...It's all my doing! And when the carriage from Night Raven came to get me, my mom was so happy, I vowed to make her proud of me. And I'll be an honors student that she'll be proud of. Then I go and pull this....Damn it!" He looks away in shame.

"But...being an honors student doesn't mean you have to grin and bear everything..." Grim comforts. "Those assholes deserved another flurry of punches if you ask me! You fought them off before I could, though."

"He's right." I say.

"You guys..."

"Honors students have their outbursts at times, too. It's okay." I put a hand on his shoulder for comfort. He looks at me then smiles, relieved.

"Really?" He sighs. "Then, may those baby chicks Rest In Peace."