-previously-

"His Unique Magic allows him to put a curse on whatever he comes into physical contact with."

........

"Why do you even think you should be in a position to worry over others than yourself? You fail to make both ends meet when it comes to song and dance. The experience level between you and Potato 1 is opposite of one another. You just don't want to admit you're dragging everyone else down with you."

.......

"I already told Vil I would make an enemy out of him if a chain reaction were to start.....If either of you stand in my way in saving Epel, you regret it!"

........

"But nevermind that....I need to talk with you."

———————

The waves gently lap at the sandy shores, sea-salt filled the air as the sun almost grazes the ocean's edge, setting off a skyline of orange and yellow, with pinks and purples.

A motorbike sounds off closer and closer until it reaches the beach and screeches to a halt. Two figures clamber off the vehicle. One looking windswept, and the other completely unwinded.

"Great! We made it." Deuce smiled as he kicks the kickstand of the Magic Wheel and props it up correctly and swings his other leg off and over the side to get off.

Epel followed suit, releasing a choke of air from his throat he held back since they left campus. His hair stuck up in all different directions from the whipping wind as he tried to tame them back to how they were before. "D-Deuce-kun.....You sure know how to pull a Speed Racer than I thought.....it kinda scared me...."

"I-I did....?" Deuce froze up. "I thought I went at a slower pace than usual....Er, n-never mind that." He shook his head. "But Ignihyde really knows their stuff on how to build a custom Magic Wheel. S'got lotsa features that just getting used to riding made it seem more expert than it looked."

"But overall, the drive was a fun one!" Epel nods enthusiastic, when his smile fell. "You sure about this? We ditched campus without getting approval from a staff member...." This made Deuce freeze up. Fuck, he forgot that part.....

"Crap....the only thing on my mind was to leave campus ASAP, the whole 'getting permission' thing slipped by me....guess we'll endure the screeching later." He smiles lightly at the end.

"Maybe Vil and the others are fuming at the thought now." Epel couldn't help but laugh at the thought. The silence engulfed the two, the only sound was the waves on the shore filling the silence between them. He looks out and absorbed the ocean line with wonderous eyes. "You know....this may be the first time I've actually seen the ocean since I first came to the island."

"Well, NRC is located by the northern mountains after all...." Deuce nods, remembering a picture of the island he saw in a geography book.

"And Royal Sword is right by the southern shores....." Epel memorized until it hit him.

"W-Wait....are we....right by RSA?!" He turns around only to be met with a grandeur sight.

High above the hillside, and above the seaside, a castle of white with blue rooftops stands proud and majestic. Beside the gate's entrance is a white banner with black and beige tassels. Printed on are two horses standing on their rear legs. A sword in a block of stone stands between them, a crown perched on top of the sword's hilt. The stone, shaped like a castle tower, spells out the name in white block lettering: Royal Sword Academy.

"Oh my god.....I know it's suppose to be a school but it looks more like something befitting to a king!"

"I've only been able to see it as far as the observation deck can go on our campus, so it's my first time being up close to it as well." Deuce smiles. "The building itself is pretty majestic...."

"And all the senpais in magift club keep saying they're only prissy guys, just obsessed with looking good. And it's where Neige attends too...." but Epel wasn't heard. As Deuce faced out towards the beach, eyes shut as he breathed in and out, when suddenly-

"I'M NOT ONE FOR LOSING! YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Eh?! D-Deuce-kun! What's the matter with you?! Why are you screaming?!" Epel flew back in shock.

"YEA, I'M AS DUMB AS A PILE OF ROCKS, AND AS SLOW AS A TURTLE WHEN IT COMES TO UPTAKES!" Deuce kept screaming, Epel growing silent, watching him in amazement. "SO WHAT IF IT'S HARD LETTING GO OF MY BAD HABITS?! SO WHAT IF I RESORT TO VIOLENCE FIRST AND THROW HANDS WITHOUT THOUGHT?! I'M GIVING IT MY ALL IS WHAT MATTERS MOST!! THAT STUPID-ASSWIPE ACE KEEPS TAUNTING ME WHENEVER HE GETS A CHANCE! DON'T FUCK WITH ME!! ONE DAY, I'M GETTING WHAY I VY FOR, AND RUB IT YOUR FACES!!! I'LL SHOW ALL YOU FUCKERS YOU WERE WRONG!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

The bluenette was breathing heavily by the time he finished his screaming session, and silently noting that Charlie's swearing habit was rubbing off on him a bit. Not that he minded. She was the only one in the school who was his cheerleader. And if it meant having him ending up swearing like a sailor to his grave, then he'll take the risk, even if it's all for change. For him, his mom, grandma and her. "Phew....okay, I'm good now."

"Geez....Now I'm scared...." Epel quivers.

"For as long as I remember, I'd always come out to the beach when things took a turn for the worst.... And I'd feel better after screaming my voice raw." Deuce shrugs. "I've always been a slow learner as far back as I can think. No matter how many times I'd hit the books, my grades still end up below the average quota....I'd just make excuses that I wasn't good enough at all and kept finding the easy way out. Thoughts of, 'I'm not giving my all on this. So, of course, I'll never be good enough...anyone who would go all out is just lame'."

"I-Is that so....?" Epel listened carefully. Deuce nods and continued,

"I just fooled around for years, became a ravenous delinquent that made his own flesh and blood mom cry....then the day my acceptance letter for NRC came in the mail. That's when I began to believe if I was somewhere else, in a totally new place, I'd be able to become a new me that'll obliterate his unredeemable old self. 'My one chance!'"

"And....have you...?"

Deuce shook his head. "Not once. I may look the part of an honors student, but inside, I can't even scratch the surface. There's still traces of my past self locked inside. And nothings been changing how I thought it would. Yet....there's been one thing I realized after I came here...." Deuce smiled as faces of his upperclassmen flashed by. "The people who have strong attributes are the only ones working behind the scenes." Riddle, Leona..... "Even if it means they're embarrassing, unflattering, even unsavory....those that actually 'go all out' don't give in!" Azul, Vil.....

.....Charlotte.....

"That's why I wanted to talk to you." Deuce looked at Epel. "You and I are the same....you've got some things locked away that you want to say, but can't? I know how you feel. You vy for change, but you're getting nowhere...."

"Well....you're not wrong...." Epel admits sheepishly.

"I'm the only one with you here. Just built up everything inside you. And scream like you're angry at the world! You'll feel the weight off your shoulders immediately!" Epel looks at Deuce with some reluctance, but with his encouraging smile, he nods. "Okay, I'll try it once!"

Epel closed his eyes and followed Deuce's method of breathing in and out, building all his pent up frustrations, and he let it fly.

"JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE TELLING ME TO BE ALL CUTE DOESN'T MEAN I SHOULD EMBRACE IT!!!" This caused Deuce to back away a bit off-guard. "MY HOMETOWN'S SO FRICKIN SMALL THE COW'S OUTNUMBER THE PEOPLE!! AND I'M A FARM BOY?!?! DROPPIN' THIS ACCENT'S LOT MORE HARDER WHEN TALKING IS ROUGH ALREADY!! THE ONLY TIME I WANT TO ACTUALLY DANCE IS IS WHEN IT COMES TO A FESTIVAL OR A FIELD DAY!! HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S FASHIONABLE OR WHAT'S ELEGANT AND WHAT'S NOT?! NOT TO MENTION, I HATE ACTING CUTE!!! IMMA BE SOMEONE WITH MUSCLES, HEIGHT AND WHAT I CRAVE BEING!! SO FUCK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!!!" Epel huffed out of breath from the screaming rampage, too out of breath to notice the scared look in Deuce's eyes. "Okay......you're right: I feel better now!!!" he grins.

"U-Uh......I only got parts of that....is that your real accent?!" was all Deuce could utter. "Where did you say you were from again???"

"A small place called the Village of Harvest. It's in the mountains, North of the Land of Pyroxene. Ryo-chou told me my accent was too hard to dictate. I'm not allowed to talk like this in front of anyone else....nagging at me to speak like a proper person, lose the accent, and stop shouting....and I'm already sick of this crap!!"

"W-Well, since we first met....you seemed like someone reserved. And this....just proved me wrong!" Deuce laughed.

"Of course! Vil always snaps at me when I break one of the dialect rules. So I tend to zip it shut most of the time. I was also forced to wear that itchy shirt with the uniform because of him...."

"HE forced you to wear it?!....I know your dorm's not like Heartslabyul, what with all the rules and everything....but still: why's he making you do that?"

"It all started back in September....when the initiation ceremony was starting...."

- flashback-

In the crowd, Epel looked around silently from his place as other were whispering around him, while a new set of students were getting sorted.

'No matter where I look, I'm still seeing vain show-offs who had it easy growing up...' he thought. 'I was cursed like this and so many saw me as weak and fragile. Back home was much worse....but if anyone even thinks about runnin' their mouth at ME, I'll make em eat shit and tell em to take it back! Just need to make sure I'm not underestimated here as well....'

"You there. Newbie." a voice called out to him and he looks up to face Vil.

"Yea? You gots a problem?" Epel spat.

"What the hell is this? You're wearing the robes, robes that were seeped into tradition, like you got out of bed this morning. Button it correctly. Now!" Vil instructed.

'Wait....is he the Pomefiore leader?' Epel squinted. 'No way in hell am I gonna be in a dorm full of those fuckin' prissy and frou-frou dudes like him! He's tall and lanky....he might be a weakling unlike Savanaclaw's leader.' he smirked inwardly.

"Hmm, from a distance you don't seem out of place....but closer, you have such a porcelain face."

"Eh? The hell was that now?! You tellin' me I'm lookin' like a pretty girl?! And this is comin' from a guy who looks like a grandma!" Epel snickered.

Vil rolls his eyes. "Well, this is new...you' re completely offputting and not together as I had originally thought...the appearance, behavior, even your way of thinking is rebellious!"

"You wanna say that to my face?! I'll make you eat those words!!!" Epel threatened. But Vil was less than amused and sighed,

"Why must all the picked ones for this place be so short-fused...? Oh well, it can't be helped. As a senior of this establishment, it's my duty to teach you freshies how things are done here at Night Raven." without warning, Vil grabs Epel by the wrist, dragging him into the hallway. And not even five seconds later, when Epel was ready to throw hands, Vil had beaten him to the punch. Literally. One blow to the stomach was enough to make Epel fly to the ground, nearly hitting his head on the way down.

He hacked out his lungs, trying to get some air. 'The hell?! He took me down without the use of magic!!'

"Now listen here, Small Potato." Vil yanks him up. "The only rule here is that the weak will obey the strong. The Dark Mirror itself has yet to place you. But since you already lost this fight, you're obeying me!"

"Shit...." 'What's he gonna do to me!? Take one of my personal things?! Or force me to be his Errand boy?!'

"First, I'm fixing what you refused to do and that's fixing the buttons. NOW!!!" Vil rushes him. "And the belt! A low waist style for legs that are by no means long!! My word!"

"EGH! T-Too tight!!" Epel felt himself getting constricted by the belt being fastened like a snake around him.

"And now that hair. Why does it look like tumbleweeds?! it's all shaggy and unkempt!"

"You can nag all ya like, but jokes ahn you: I don't even own a brush...."

"And that language!! Is that really anyway to talk?!" Vil grew more irked than before.

"EEH! Ya gahts a problem with my way of talkin'?! Tellin' me to be more of a 'city boy'?!"

"Don't try and put words in my mouth and sidetrack, you little urchin!" Vil snapped. "It's not that I don't have a problem with your way of talking or where you're from, it's the attitude that's making me mad! It's fine to hold your place in your heart. But all that's important is the time, place and occasion. It's not at all how you should talk to someone above you." Epel grit his teeth and tried surpressing the growling he forced back. "Here, losers don't have the right to complain. If there's any rebuttals, save them for when you ACTUALLY beat me...is that clear?"

"....Yes, sir." Epel muttered with pressured anger. When Vil got the response he was looking for, he nodded, and turned back to go back inside the chamber. But stopped out side the doors and turned his head over his shoulder to speak.

"The Dark Mirror will know where you'll be from now on. If I were, you, I'd say your prayers if you land in Pomefiore. And when the moment arrives that you stand before me, Vil Schoenheit, I will make sure you're kept in line since today was just a taste of what's to come. Watch your back...Now get yourself together like I told you and hurry up!" He left without another word as Epel fumed,

"D-Damn you, you-!"

-end flashback-

"And that's how it began...."

"Y-You provoked your dorm leader into a fight?! And on the first day?!" Deuce shouted, startling Epel.

"D-Don't blame me! I was clueless to how powerful they really were!!!" 'I even hate to see how strong Charlotte is myself, more so!.....' "And don't think I forgot the rumor how you and Ace stood up to YOUR leader since the year began!!!"

"Uh, it wasn't exactly a fight....." Deuce sweats.

"Being considered tall, muscly and manly were the primary traits of being considered "strong" where I'm from....and since I look like this now, I was always ridiculed....but looking back on it, I guess Vil wasn't exactly poking fun at me...."

"No, I get what you're saying: you don't want to be underestimated since the beginning." Deuce sympathized.

"And ever since then, I've always had my lips shut when I was in his presence...I can't beat him no matter how much I try....."

"So that's what happened during today's lesson.....I guess Hunt-senpai was right: this wasn't just an ordinary fist fight."

"Vil promised he'd let me do whatever I wished if I beat him once....but there was nothing so far....I pray I can be stronger....."

"W-Well, at least you almost didn't nearly suffer his wrath by getting water dumped on you...like Charlie."

"Huh?!" Epel's jaw dropped. "She threw her water at him?!"

"She did it for both of us!" Deuce explained. "She told me she wasn't one to stand by on the sidelines and watch us getting put down by people stronger than you and I!"

"W-Wow....I never knew anyone in the school, a girl no less, could do something like this to Vil!!"

"Well, Charlie's definitely not like most girls...." Deuce chuckled awkwardly. "But, she, Asim and Hunt-senpai spoke with me before I left. They told me that you and I need to....we must protect the power that gives us strength within.....so, I thought what they meant by that, whatever counted as my power, and then it had me thinking....Charlie's greatest power is her voice. She tells me she uses it to stand up for the people who are oppressed and suffering, those that can't fight for themselves, even when her tongue can also can get her in a bit of trouble.... but that's how she was able to defy and stand up to Riddle, Leona, Azul and now Vil! She told me that 'disadvantages can be an advantage'.....or a flaw can really become a strength....and I think I know what she means.....maybe it's because of how much of a baka I can become and stay that way!"

"EH?! But I thought you said that was something you saw as a flaw, that you hated about yourself!"

"Well, yea....but it's also linked to the fact that I can take action without overthinking....I may not possess the book smarts to think about so many things at once....but what I lack is something that's made up for with another in the same circle! Once my mind's made up, I chase down the goal with all I've got! This must be what Hunt and Charlie were telling me about! A power that's unique within me; my weakness that really turns into strength!"

"Even if you say that....It's not sitting right with me..." Epel shook his head. "For me, it's my appearance....you're saying that having this cutesy face and stick-thin body is a strength....?" Suddenly, his phone began to chime. He took it out of his pocket. "Why's my phone....wait, why's my mom calling me!?" he takes the call. "Yes?"

"Epel!!" a female voice said from the other line. "Do you remember the apple juice your grandma sent you?"