Dusk, I hope you're happy, I think I burned myself out with stress trying to finish this chapter. *le dies* Enjoy!

"A Chinese zodiac applyfic, Act 1, Scene 3!"

"ACTION!"

----------------------------------------------------------

"Here are your dorms."

The zodiacs found themselves in front of a grand dorm room. More like a mansion, but they all decided to bypass that. After an unprecedented kidnapping, the sudden revelation of being generations-old zodiacs, then announcing they would have to train and go to school, it was no wonder they were feeling a bit... frazzled at the moment.

On the car ride there (yes, surprisingly, October could drive and he found a car that miraculously fit all of them), they received a call from Emp. "School will start in two days! After school, you'll meet Cal and Ea and they'll guide you to your training place. Good luck~!"

Then he hung up.

Apparently, he thought he had the guts to do so, because the poor phone ended up dead, then resurrected by magic.

"All of our phones are touched by magic, so that even if they get broken, they'll reassemble," October explained as he maneuvered nervously through the busy car-filled streets. From where Emp had dropped them off and to their dorm room was a staggering one-hour drive. "We learned that lesson after the phone deity actively filed a complaint of phones getting destroyed too often."

"That's useful," Everyone-who-had-broken-at-least-one-phone-because-they-were-pissed muttered, thinking to how many phones they had subjected to torture because of that.

"Yes, it is. December in particular likes the spell, helps him whenever February gets too much on his nerves," October said absentmindedly as he turned onto a new highway. "February's a sweetheart, but he really does love teasing everyone and watching them combust in a fit of anger..."

"They sound like absolute darlings," Nadia said sarcastically.

"Yes, they are, when they're not trying to slit each other's throats," October said. "OI, THAT TURN WAS ILLEGAL!" He honked the horn in a fit of anger. "Honestly, it would've been easier to take my car, because then they'd all part for us, but that one doesn't fit fourteen..."

"Um, so..." Partly to change the subject, and partly just because he was curious, Barry spoke up, "What's up with the Months? If I get it right, there's a male... and a female Month for each... floor?"

"That's right," October confirmed, relaxing as an easy topic settled. "We're all kind of one big family. That just so happens to not be in very good relations most of the time-last I checked, September, hmm, she was fighting with August, who, if I recall right, was arguing about womens' rights with January... or was it March?"

"That sounds horrible," Evon said earnestly. "I hate it when my siblings fight too."

"It's normal," October answered, swerving to avoid a car. "WHAT IS WITH THESE PEOPLE- Ahem, sorry..."

"I think that I shall like this country," Nagini said as more honking ensued. 

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"No, of course not, why would I be-YES, YOU IDIOT, OF COURSE I'M BEING SARCASTIC."

"Well, sorry!"

"YOU FOOL."

"Hey, can I call you sensei?" Vinh abruptly asked Chaol, who choked. "What?!"

"Well, I heard you know how to snap necks," Vinh confessed. "And I'd really like to learn. So, can I? Pleaaaaase?"

"What? Of course not!"

"I'll take that as a yes, sensei! I'm pleased to be your student!"

"Hold on, wait just a minute-!!"

The hour flew by as the zodiacs chatted, exchanged contact info (like all good friends do), argued, and barraged October with questions. (In the end, Vinh managed to trick Chaol into letting her be his student and he caved. Very reluctantly.)

Soon they were approaching a pair of large, golden-wrought double gates. The school's insignia was sealed onto the place where the gates connected. Behind that was a large, expansive campus, with an even grander school behind it. Of course, compared to COSD, it was nothing, but on its own it radiated wealth and literally the promise of a new life.

"This might be a bad time to mention," Evon suddenly spoke up as they maneuvered through the gates, "But I've never actually been to school."

Silence.

"WHAT?!"

As you might imagine, it took them some time to explain the basic concept of 'school' to Evon, but their explanation was cut off as they drove into the driveway of a lavish dormitory. It looked like part of the school, just cut off. "Woah..."

The inside was just as lavish as the outside. There was a homey-looking living room, an up-to-date kitchen, and even a balcony on the second level.

The dorms were like this:

Dorm 1: Dorian + Nagini

Dorm 2: Dracaena + Liesel

Dorm 3: Barry + Ryuu/Rita

Dorm 4: Evon + Nadia

Dorm 5: Chaol + Vinh

Dorm 6: Colt + Mason

[NOTE: I LEGIT USED A RANDOM PAIR GENERATOR FOR THIS. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SWITCH IF YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT YOUR OC TO BE WITH SOMEBODY ELSE. ALSO, JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE ROOMING TOGETHER DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE *necessarily* GOING TO BECOME SHIPS.]

While Nagini sniffed at having to be with Dorian, she rejoiced in the fact that the bathroom was also conveniently the closest to her. (There was one at the beginning of the dorms next to Dorm 1 and at the end of them next to Dorm 6)

On the other hand, Barry looked absolutely terrified at the fact that he was going to have to room with who he had already assumed to be psycho serial killers or torturers.

"Okay, before we go in, important question," Chaol announced. Everyone turned to him as he asked seriously, "Does anyone here have insomnia or is super bad at staying quiet at night?"

Evon was the only one who raised his hand. "I have insomnia."

Chaol groaned. "Of course it had to be you. And you're right next door too, ugh WHY universe just WHY did you have to put me next to the insomniac..."

"Don't worry sensei, I'll help you sleep!" Vinh chirped. "Want me to knock him out?" Evon suddenly looked very terrified.

"Vinh, darling, we discussed this," Rita said in a motherly voice. "If anyone is to knock him out, I'll be the one to be doing so." Her tone was sweet as sugar but her eyes were very dangerous, and once again Barry looked like he was regretting all his life choices. 

"Your rooms are designed to fit each of your needs and preferences," October informed them. "So you don't have to worry about anything. And in case you ever need privacy, there's a curtain you can use as a divider."

". . . Interesting..." 

"NOW, GO AND ENJOY YOUR DORMS!"

(Once they had left, October silently breathed a sigh of relief as the pressure of being the guide was lifted for a brief moment.)

- - -

Dorian's room was perfection, no a single hair out of line, with a gray/dark blue theme. There were minimal decorations aside from a picture wall, which took up a whole entire bedroom wall.

Nagini had the most luxurious of all items in her room. Literally, that was all. (See Dark's OC book-Chinese zodiac extra info-to see the pic of her room! Edit: It's no longer in existence so just use your imaginations. Thanks~)

"Hm, I like how neat your room is," Nagini relented. "Lovely."

"Lovely..."

"And," Nagini observed the picture wall. "That is a beautiful painting. Just lovely. The epitome of beauty. In fact..."

Dorian lasted about fifteen minutes before he got the heck out of there and fled to the safety of the boys' room.

- - -

"Since I'm rooming with you," Dracaena told Liesel as she pushed open the door, "I'll be sure to protect you."

"Uh... thanks?" Liesel didn't really know how to respond to that so she just followed Dracaena in where they faced the splendor of their rooms.

Dracaena's room was red, black, and gold. Her bed frame kind of had a dragon head on it. There were mannequins, a mirror and vanity, some posters of historical musicals, and a sewing machine. There were also a lot of ottomans and bean bag cushions, along with fairy lights in the color black. And-YASSSSS-a walk-in closet! "Aw-aw-SOME," Dracaena cheered. "They even got the fairy light color right!"

Liesel had a light, airy room, with pastel colors and lots of windows. There were lots of decorations, curtains, wall hangings/pictures, and of course, stuffed animals! And not just one, but two. And three. And four. Or actually, too many stuffed animals to count. "I like the light, I hope you don't mind that," She told Draceana, hugging a stuffed rabbit to her chest.

Dracaena winked at her, "Gurl, as long as you remain your adorable self, you don't mind my sewing and historical clothes, we'll get along juuuuust fine."

Yes, these two were a match made in heaven.

- - -

If he was being honest, Barry felt like he should sleep with one eye open. When he first saw the two, he'd thought they'd be relatively harmless.

Oh boy, was he wrong.

And now he was stuck being roommates with them.

"Oh, you don't have to be scared," Rita said suddenly, stopping briefly from chatting with Ryuu to tell him, one hand on her whip. "Roommates don't hurt roommates."

"A-Ah... but I'm not... scared?"

She gave him a deadpan look. "Ryuu's the observative one, but even I can see your fidgeting."

"Also, your heartbeat just gave you away," Ryuu chimed in, smiling.

Barry gulped. Yep. They're very scary.

However, he was mercifully distracted when he opened the door.

Barry's room was baby blue, with a mix of white and navy. It had large curtains, some mini plants, a work table-which Barry put his camera down on for later photography uses-and some shelving unit. "This is awesome," he marveled. It was just as he liked it, just like October had promised them. "What about you guys-" When he looked over to his roommates' room, he couldn't stop his jaw from falling.

Ryuu and Rita's room was first of all... covered in stuff. Piles and piles of things, random things. Barry spotted the glint of gold jewelry, crumpled up cash dollars with the funny faces drawn on them with black marker, crushed soda cans, diamond bracelets, and fancy celebrity magazines, many plush throw pillows, many stuffed animals, among other wacky things. Besides, that, though, there was large simple bed, a big desk, tall bookshelves filled with more random books and knick-knacks, and a round glassy chair hanging from a glowing rope from the ceiling. There were plants there too, glowing in the crevices of the floor. The windows were wide open and the walls were painted a mishmash of color. A large plush rug sat in the middle of it all-there was even an underground terrarium, covered in glass. 

(A.K.A. Pretty much my dream room. Minus all the stuff.)

"W... Where'd you get all that stuff?" Barry managed to ask.

Rita poked her head out of one mountain of stuff, a gold crown with pink tourmalines in it hanging off her head haphazardly. "Hmm? Oh, Ryuu's a hoarder. And me," She amended when Ryuu shouted at her about that from the bed. "Although I don't know why since he can't even see it. We kind of picked all this stuff up and it was in our apartment, but I guess it was transported here to remind us of home. Speaking of which- HEY, RYUU, CAN YOU SWITCH OUT MY CLOTHES OUT FOR CASUAL CLOTHES?" She popped back down and when she came back out she was redressed in a large pink T-shirt with a bunny on it, with matching oversized pants. "That's better." She adjusted the crown on her head.

Ryuu stood up from the bed. "We are not going to share a bed."

"Yes we are."

"No we are not. You kick."

"No, you do."

"No, you-"

(Ah, sibling love. It's beautiful.)

- - -

"I say this now," Nadia said before they entered, "That my room is most likely going to be messy. Or at least have a lot of Rick Riordan books." She narrowed her eyes at Evon. "If you don't like his books, then I'm going to yeet you out of the position of being my roommate without a second thought."

Evon held up his hands innocently. "Actually, I've never actually read any books, since I was pretty much on the run for most of my life..."

She blinked. "Oh." Not sure how to give a response that wouldn't sound too rude, Nadia just opened the door.

As she predicted, Nadia's room had a lot of books. At least two bookshelves full. Her room was painted light blue with gold accents. It was also... very messy. V E R Y, much to her despair. "對不起-I mean-sorry, my room's going to be really messy, Mister Chicken, so... gods above." When she turned and saw Evon's room, her jaw actually fell.

Evon's room was so messy that Nadia couldn't even tell where his bed was, and that was coming from her, the one who also had a messy room. Stuff was everywhere, with spare pens lying on the floor next to random books and worksheets-which she has no idea where they'd appeared from because she'd thought Evon hadn't attended school before. The room was painted in warm colors-an orangish-yellow-and white. There was also a pillow fort.

"This is... not going to work," Nadia said finally, nudging aside a chocolate wrapper. "We both have super messy rooms. And we just moved in. How the hell is there already so much stuff here?"

"Magic?" Evon tried, patting the pillow fort, and finding it fluffy, curled in it. "I don't really mind, though, emptiness is kinda scary."

"But..." Nadia hopelessly gestured around at the messiness, then shrugged, pulled out The House of Hades from one of the bookshelves, sat down, and started reading. "Okay. Let's just be sure never to let Mister Dog in here; he seems to be a perfectionist and would probably faint at the sight."

"What do you mean?" Evon asked from his pillow fort.

"I mean," Nadia said, leafing through the book and absently putting bookmark to mark that page before continuing, "I glimpsed his room and it is literally-well, the opposite of our rooms."

Evon laughed. "The others have interesting bedrooms, don't they?"

"Yep," Nadia popped the p, gnashing her teeth at whatever she'd just read before calming down. "Damn I hate that little b*tch- Ahem, apologies, if I ever start cursing or yelling in the middle of reading, I've probably just come across an interesting or an infuriating part. Or etc."

"No problem," Evon replied, picking up a pen and testing it. "Also, what do you think about this whole craziness?" 

Nadia looked up, curious for once as she adjusted her scratched glasses. "What do you mean?"

"Like, this all seems kind of sudden for me," Evon said. "The other week I was living by stealing and just barely scraping by, and now..." he gestured at the luxury around him. "It's like I died and went to Heaven. I just hope Adelia and Corvin are okay..."

"I'm sure they are," Nadia reassured him, wincing at her rather stiff tone.

"Yeah..." Evon said, voice trailing off as he looked out the window. So much luxury... it's hard to imagine that I can actually live in it now.

Feeling the urgent need for a subject change, Nadia cleared her throat and said, "Well, er, what do you think about everyone else? Thoughts on the other zodiacs?"

"Well..." Evon tilted his head as he thought. "Hmmm... the Rat siblings are a tad bit scary, but I don't think they can help it. Ryuu just seems like the naturally subtly intimidating type. Rita's a good kid, just don't enrage her." He shuddered at the memory of becoming a completely helpless and babbling baby. "I like Vinh; she's fierce and ready to pursue her ideals. Nothing wrong with girl power after all. I think that Nagini might be a good friend if she weren't so uptight and arrogant. Liesel's a sweetheart, no need to say that there, and Barry's probably just like her, just a bit more withdrawn."

Nadia nodded. "Yeah, we need to drag Barry out of his shell one day."

"In one word, Colt is dangerous," Evon continued. "I mean seriously who calls something dangerous 'parkour camping?!"

"Him, apparently," Nadia commented drily, nodding for Evon to keep going.

"Mason is... uh. I mean. He already messed with me once, so, uh." Evon didn't really know what to say, and he was trying to be polite. "Kind of annoying. And not very convenient-for me, that is. Dorian is... interesting. I feel like there's something more hiding beneath the troublemaker he ends up being with Colt and Mason, but I don't want to assume anything too quickly. Should I, uh, do you-?" 

Nadia waved a hand. "It's all right."

"Okay, then... let's see. Who's left?" Evon ticked off the people on his hands. "Ah, right. Let's see, in a nutshell the chaton is a chaton who I would prefer to avoid." (*Chaton = Kitten in French)

"Seem legit," Nadia commented, keeping her nose buried in her book. "Thanks for telling me that."

As Evon watched her flip through the book, curled up on her bed, he sensed a lingering past sadness from her and anxiety fade away a little, and smiled fondly.

"Anytime."

(*sniffling noises* <3 This is going to be the best brother/sister pair since the #LPS... <3 Also Dusk I hope I can repent my crime of forgetting Nadia now...)

- - -

"Sensei, after you!" Vinh said excitedly, holding open the door. 

"No, after you," Chaol replied automatically.

"No, no, sensei must go first!"

"But it's usually the ladies that go in first..."

"But you're my teacher!"

"I never agreed to that!"

"Yes, you did!"

"You tricked me into agreeing!"

"Same thing! Now, sensei, AFTER YOU."

"AFTER YOU, STUDENT."

"NO, I INSIST, AFTER YOU."

"UGHHHHH-"

They argued for about three more minutes before Vinh caved and huffily went in first.

Naturally, when they saw their rooms, they sort of regretted spending so much time outside (rather pointlessly) arguing about who should go first.

Chaol's room was simple room. It had a sleeping mat, a simple desk-which Chaol immediately tagged as place where he could write down methods to easily kill a person-followed by a large wardrobe (closet) which Chaol immediately tagged as a place to keep all his fluffy blankets and pillows (which he would either buy later himself, steal them, or convince their caretakers to get them for him.) There was a fluffy tiger plush toy too and a small lamp, along with many wooly balls lying around. Most embarrassingly of all, there was frame picture of his first adoptive parents. His heart twisted as he looked at it. In the picture there was a 5-year-old Chaol grinning with a fang poking from his upper lip, his old and wrinkled mother smiling as she held him in her hands with his father, that good ol' fisherman with a straw hat on holding both his wife and son bridal style. I miss you... Mom, Dad... There were also, disturbingly enough, many eroticas lying around, which Chaol assumed were for Nicolas and immediately tossed into the furthest corner of his room. Overall, the room had one simple mat with Nepalese embroidery on it, a chair and table followed by the pandora's closet-which Chaol hated. 

Vinh's room seemed like a typical bedroom, and was very neat. The walls were painted in grey and beige, along with green decorations. Then she looked under her bed and immediately stood up and tried assuming an innocent position. Chaol, of course, noticed this and eyed her bed warily. "Okay, what's under there?"

Vinh whistled awkwardly. "No-o-thing, why do you ask?" Chaol simply made a note to look under it when she wasn't paying attention or bribe her into doing so.

"Speaking of which!" Vinh quickly changed the topic and opened all the windows.

"Uh, why are you opening all the windows?"

"Just in case I want to escape, duh, sensei."

"But it gets cold in the winter, what're you gonna do about that?"

"I'll figure something out~ On the other hand, sensei, when do lessons start? Hm?"

"I TOLD YOU, GIVE ME TIME!"

"Okay~!"

(Ah, #1. Teacher and #1. Student...)

- - -

Mason's room was white and gold with yellow accents. The bed, which was next to a window, was nice and comfy. There was a large space for him, some climbing bars, and-a practice dummy!-along with a high tech computer.

Colt's room was rather simple, with an open feel with green-brown colors. There was also a large doorway that connected outside. "Hm..." Colt took note of the doorway"Since it's still pretty nice outside, I'm going to pitch a tent outside tonight. That okay with you bro?"

"'Course it is!" Mason said cheerfully, already up and swinging on the bars. "Bros support bros! I might actually join you outside sometime!"

"Great, I have a pretty sweet two-person tent anyway, and if I don't we can just prank Cal or Ea into buying us one," Colt winked.

Mason grinned mischievously. "YES. The only sad thing is that the third member of our Destructive Disaster Trio is really far away. Dorian," He explained at Colt's questioning eyebrow. "But he can always come over."

As if on cue the door slammed and Dorian stumbled in. "Ay dios mios, thank goodness, I was afraid Colt would be outside doing something dangerous again..."

"Not yet, not yet, my dude," Colt said, amused as Dorian flopped down on Mason's bed. "What's wrong?"

Cue long groan. "She complimented my room for about five minutes, then her own for about ten before I got the heck out of there. Do you know how lucky you are to be sharing with another boy?"

"Extremely lucky," Mason said, casting a bright smile to Colt who responded in kind. "And-Dorian, why are you covering your eyes?"

"Nothing, I just realized high-quality levels of purity is damaging to the eyes."

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? Colt, why are you laughing so hard? Huhhhh?"

(It is.)

- - -

"So... how's the roommate situation?" October asked them nervously as the zodiacs regrouped in the kitchen.

". . ." Silence as everyone tried to think up of answers that wouldn't offend their roommate.

Dracaena flashed a grin and a thumbs-up. "Great! Lil' Liesel here is gonna get around just great with me!" Liesel nodded, now holding a goat stuffed animal in her arms.

"My dude is my dude," Colt said, one-arm hugging Mason, who reciprocated and they did that handshake again.

"Sensei's sensei," Vinh chirped. She frowned. "Although. Wow." She turned and addressed Evon. "Was he always this grumpy?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Aren't you the one he tried to murder-Ow, ow, sensei! That hurts!"

"Our rooms are a disaster," Nadia spoke up. "If anyone ever wants try and wade through the piles of stuff and try to find Evon's bed, you're welcome to try to do so."

"Our room's full of stuff too," Rita said cheerily. For whatever reason she had kept the crown on her head. "We can compare and contrast someday."

"Their heartbeats say no," Ryuu said.

"Damn, we can't lie when you're around, can we," Dorian said.

"Nope."

"Sooooo," Dracaena quickly diverted their attention, passing out a bunch of papers around, "Here are our school schedules. Ryuu, since you can't read it, I'll read it aloud. Follow along people."

Dracaena started reading and the rest of them read the paper over.

𝒮𝒸𝒽𝑒𝒹𝓊𝓁𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝐿𝓊𝓃𝒶𝓇 𝒞𝒶𝓁𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓇𝒾𝒶 𝐻𝒾𝑔𝒽

𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅-𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔

𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚖 - - - 7:00 𝙼𝚜. 𝙱𝚎𝚔𝚘𝚛𝚊 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 14

𝙼𝚊𝚝𝚑 - - - 8:00 - - 𝙼𝚛. 𝙾𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚜 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 23

𝙻𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝙰𝚛𝚝𝚜 - - - 9:00 - - 𝙼𝚜. 𝙷𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚊 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 47

 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚂𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜  - - - 10:00 - - 𝙼𝚜. 𝚁𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚕 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 19

[𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴: 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚂𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚋𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚢𝚖.]

[𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴 2: 𝙰𝚜 𝙼𝚜. 𝚁𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚕 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚎𝚝, 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚠𝚘 𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜.]

𝙶𝚢𝚖 - - - 11:00 - - 𝙼𝚜. 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊 𝙺𝚘𝚜𝚗𝚎

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚑 + 𝚁𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 @ 12:00-12:30

𝙷𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 - - - 1:30 - - 𝙼𝚛. 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚜 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 13

 𝚂𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 - - - 2:30 - - 𝙼𝚛𝚜. 𝚃𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚎 - 𝚁𝚘𝚘𝚖 55

[𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴: 𝚂𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚋𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚜𝚎(𝚜).]

《 𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚍 @ 3:30 (5:00 𝚘𝚗 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈𝚂) 》

《 𝚁𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙱𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚜 @ 4:00 𝚘𝚗 𝙵𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚢𝚜, 𝚂𝚞𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝙼𝚛. 𝙻𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙼𝚜. 𝚁𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚕. 》

(FUN FACT, I USED A RANDOM FANTASY NAME GENERATOR FOR MOST OF THESE NAMES.)

"'Ranking Battles'?" Everyone saw Ryuu's eyes gleam in interest at that. "What exactly are they?"

"Not sure," Rita replied, flipping her paper back and forth, "But I really want to participate."

"Of course you do," Evon sighed. "But what I want to know is if they're mandatory or not. And before you start making chicken jokes again," He abruptly cut off Chaol, who had indeed been ready to fire off again. "It's mainly because I don't think everyone else has three extra powers like we do, and I don't want to us look suspicious."

"Ah, y-yes, about that," October piped up and the zodiacs turned towards him. In all honesty they'd nearly forgotten about the quiet redhead. "Emp had told me to tell you that you can choose one ability you want to showcase and use that."

"But that's impossible to choose!" Nagini protested. "I can totally best everyone, but I can't properly showcase my amazingness if I can only let them see one!"

"And what about abilities that are unconsciously always activated?" Chaol asked.

"That's not a choice for me," Ryuu shrugged, reclining back into a giant teddy bear. "I use my hearing to see, but it's not very good for fighting."

"Emp said because you can't see, he'll let you use another," October amended.

"Called it." In his eyes, Emp was way too predictable. But so very guarded... I wonder what happened to make him become like that... 

"This is a big decision," Mason tapped his chin, frowning. 

"Yeah," Nadia agreed. "I think most of our powers function together the best when put together."

"Conflicted, conflicted," Rita rocked back and forth as she thought, her nose fizzing into a couple of butterflies by accident. "I really like Dispersion, but other than that the other two skills can be Ryuu's. But I love age manipulation!"

"Maybe we could make a list of each ability's strengths and weaknesses?" Dorian suggested.

"Not a bad idea," Colt bemoaned, reaching over to grab a horse stuffed horse and banging it on his head in frustration. "Except I get the weird feeling that we're going to end up just as conflicted as before."

In the end, they ended up continuing to explain the school to Evon and all in all... pushed the problem of having to choose a power aside in their heads.

Then again, every zodiac went to bed thinking, School. Is. Terrifying. I don't want to go.

(Courtesy of the rather detailed explanations they gave Evon that now instilled a fear of school and teachers in most of them. And oof, that was a rushed ending, I apologize.)

XXX

Two days later, they found themselves standing in front of a door. Just. Standing there.

"Here's our homeroom class..." Liesel looked down at her paper. "I think."

"Room 14. It's our homeroom all right," Dorian confirmed for her. There was an awkward silence. According to rules, they were supposed to knock them go in themselves. But after going through the fancy halls, it seemed a bit inappropriate for them to just do so. The pressure was quite pressuring. 

October had dropped them off early that morning, then with a farewell smile and a promise that they'd meet again quite soon, he disappeared, leaving them to face the rather intimidating school on their own.

"They're apparently cleaning up the classroom to be 'presentable' for us," Ryuu announced, making several people flinch as he listened to the sounds of rushing feet behind the door. "The teacher should come out to greet us in three, two one-"

Right on cue (as usual) the door opened and a kind-looking teacher stepped out, looking slightly breathless. "Hello! You must be the new transfer students we've heard about. Give me one more moment, you can come in when I open the door again." She closed the door and they heard her yell, "Get yourselves together already, for goodness's sake!"

"Aren't you nervous?" Vinh as Liesel, who shook her head. "Yes, but you all are with me, so I'll be okay." Vinh turned to Barry, who nodded and smiled too. "Same here."

On the other hand, Evon looked calm, but his hands and neck were starting to sprout feathers. Rita noticed this and beamed up at him, patting his back. "Don't worry, if you feel scared, just remember what you need to protect!"

"Says the one with a steel whip," Ryuu said drily. "You're going to get in trouble for that one day."

"Ha, we'll see about that."

"I just hope they're worthy of being in my presence, "Nagini said snootily, and Dorian once again looked like he wanted to file a report about changing roommates. 

"Can't wait to meet new people!" Mason jumped up and down in excitement. Dracaena rolled her eyes at his antics, but she was smiling. 

"Somebody help me control Nicolas if he goes out of control," was the only thing Chaol muttered. 

The door swung open again and the teacher stepped out. "Right this way, please." She beckoned for them to enter. "Class," she said over the gasps and murmurs as the zodiacs stepped in. "These are the new transfer students. Please introduce yourselves."

As expected, Rita jumped up first, dragging Ryuu with her. She waved cheerfully. "Hi there! My name is Rita Raspad-Angela Chuutamu, and this is my brother Ryuu. He's blind, so treat him nicely, okay?"

"Don't speak for me, Rita," Ryuu said in annoyance.

A student raised her hand. "Is that... real?" She gestured towards the whip.

"Luna!" The teacher snapped, but Rita was already answering. She looked down at her whip. "Oh, this ol' thing? Yep, real as can be. Want me to demonstrate?" The entire class leaned back a little. Ryuu sighed, muttering something under his breath that sounded like, I've said not to raise the emotions of others around me too much so many times, but she never listens...

The teacher cleared her throat. "Ahem, so usually weapons are not permitted on school grounds, but for this occasion I have received for that she has permission to wield it."

Another boy raised his hand. "Were you part of the military?" He was, of course, referring to her military-style outfit.

"'Course not!" Rita laughed. "Or maybe so, you'll have to find out yourselves."

Mason was next. "Hiiii! I'm Mason Keyton-Houston Lee, and it's super super nice to meet all of you!

"Are your eyes naturally colored?" Somebody asked.

Mason tilted his head. "Hmmm... why, of course! Hey, wanna hear a joke? Why can't Cinderella play soccer? 'Cause she kept running away from the ball! Ah-ha-ha, get it? Oops, I accidentally gave away the answer again!" Some of the kids laughed, although some looked confused. 

Colt sighed and grabbed Mason back by the collar. "All right, get back here, you little monkey. By the way everyone, the name's Colt H. Philips. Nice to meet you, I hope we can all get along!"

Dracaena stepped up. "I'm Dracaena Jin Brinton. I like historical clothes and y'all have horribly lovely halls."

"Dracaena, not like that, like this." Nagini flounced up and looked down her nose at them. "My name is Nagini Devi, an honor you should've earned. It's a dis-pleasure to meet you, peasants." She flipped her hair and stepped back into line.

"As arrogant as ever..." Dorian sighed. "Gosh, I can see why they get along so well. Oh yeah, heya everyone, the name's Dorian Wolfe Rue-Sparre, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Liesel went to the front next. "Allo! My name's Liesel Von Woxhern, i-it's very nice to meet you all-"

"Just so you know," Nadia cut in, glaring at the students threateningly as she stepped forwards protectively over Liesel, "If any one of you so much as harm a single hair on her head, you'll have Nadia Zhen Zhu and all of us to answer to. Among many others in the comment section." Dracaena, Rita, and Vinh-the foursome being the leaders of the girl side of the LPS. "PROTECC!"

(*le gasp* Did Nadia just break the fourth wall? SHE DID AND SHE DID IT LIKE A BOSS-)

Liesel laughed. "Oh, don't be so serious, guys-guys? You're not being serious, right?"

"Of course not," Vinh smiled in a tone of voice that screamed that they were completely serious. "Hello, my name is Nguyen Kim Vinh, call me Vinh-that's V-I-N-H, by the way. When you're around me, remember a few rules-I don't tolerate any sexists AT. ALL." Her cheerful aura suddenly turned very dangerous. "Okay? Great."

Barry was next. "U-Um... my name is Bartholomew Thumper Radcliffe... but you can just call me Barry for short." He looked nervously at his friends.

Rita flashed a bright thumbs-up. "Go get'em, roomie!" Barry responded with a weak but grateful smile.

A student raised his hand and asked, "Is your hair real? Not like, a wig?"

"Jake!" The teacher snapped again, looking very embarrassed. 

"No, no, it's okay," Barry reassured her, relaxing a bit. "Actually, it's natural. I can't cut it or change its color. Believe me, I've tried, but it always annoying goes back to how it looks right now."

"That's sick," another boy said, and Barry jumped a little at the compliment. He smiled softly. "You... think so?"

"Oui, mon amie," Evon called, smiling at Barry. "You must have confidence in your hair. And yourself," He hurriedly added on.

Barry flushed pink and grinned. Several girls snapped a (mental) photo of Barry's very, very, very precious happy grin. 

Evon went after him. "Ah, b-bonjour, my name is Evon Lewis Bertand-Alborough, but you can just call me-"

"Chicken," Chaol snickered.

"Kitten," Evon replied without missing a beat. "Yeah, so just call me Evon. Want to go next, oh Great Lord of KittenLand?"

"Who taught you to be so sassy?" Chaol asked, but he stepped up anyway. "Hello, I'm Chaol Feline. You can call me kitten, but-" He winked flirtatiously. "-I only allow my closest lovers to call me that!"

(Everyone, cover your ears. Also, Chaol, you legitimately just kind of called Evon your lover. Dense boi.)

Everyone covered their ears, but it was futile as the next moment all the girls in the class did the three SSSs (Screaming, shrieking, and squealing) so loud that it would be considered a miracle if the entire school didn't hear them. The zodiacs found themselves pushed aside as the girls mobbed Chaol at once-or rather, they mobbed Nicolas. 

"Sign here, please, right above my heart!"

"Do you have a girlfriend? If not I'll gladly be yours!"

"No, I will!"

"Are you single?"

"Dimwit, she just asked that!"

"Well, he won't go out with a boring girl like you!"

"Excuse me, who are you calling plain? I've been told tons of times that I look just like ***insert some super-famous hot lady celebrity here**! What about you, huh?"

"That's nothing, I've actually been some modeling on TV!"

"Well, I come from a rich family!"

"Bullsh*t, like he'll care about that BS!"

"You have no chance, move aside!"

"No, you move!"

"No, you!"

"You!"

"Move it!"

(Blah blah blah... typical anime fangirling and vying for the Prince's hand... *bored as hell as I write this* *thinking of Yuki Sohma and his fan club while I write this too*)

(Also, of course Nicolas is gladly going along with the girls' antics.)

Out of the corner of his eye Dorian saw Rita... who looked furious.

Oh no.

A moment later she snapped and shouted, "HELLOOO [insert swear word and/or insult of your choice here, aimed towards your biggest enemy in your mind] GET BACK INTO YOUR SEATS THIS INSTANT! [repeat previous instructions] NEED TO KNOW WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME AND THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT TIME! WE ARE TRYING TO INTRODUCE OURSELVES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH." 

Predictably, the students went back to their seats.

The teacher awkwardly broke the tense silence by saying, "Ahem... now that introductions have been finished... let us move on..."

XXX

**ONE LENGTHY MORNING LATER**

"Arghhhh..."

Evon was tired out completely as he slumped over in his seat in the lunchroom. "Is this what you call school? It's terrifying."

"It is," Ryuu agreed, but before adding, "But that's because it's terrifying how these people can be such idiots."

"Says the scary genius," Colt rolled his eyes, plucking away the whoopee cushion Mason had tried to put under his butt and putting it on Mason's head. "My dear, dear, Mason. What have I told you about the whoopee cushion trick?"

Mason wilted. "It's not going to work on you..."

"That's right, darling. But cheer up, bear traps are infinitely better than whoopee cushions! Harder to sneak in, granted, but still."

"You know what was tiring?" Nadia spoke up, poking at her sandwich. "The fact that everyone kept on swarming us with questions. And that." She gestured with her fork towards Nicolas, who was surrounded by a gaggle of girls-his new fan club.

Nagini sniffed. "There's nothing wrong with worship. What I don't like is, though, their blatant interest in the wrong person and how ridiculous they are about it. Honestly, who squeals so ungainly upon first words?"

"Apparently them," Rita said drily, taking another bite out of her apple.

Right at that moment a pair of students approached them. Dracaena held up a hand. "If you're here to ask questions, sorry but no-"

"Actually... um, no," The boy said sheepishly. "Is it okay if we're just trying to be friendly?"

"Friends? With you? No, thank you-MMPH!" Mason clapped a hand over Nagini's mouth as he smiled cheerfully. "Of course! The more the merrier!"

"Have a seat," Dorian briefly looked up from his notes to say. It was just the first day and he was already studying and taking notes.

"Thank goodness," The boy sighed, sitting down. The girl smiled. "We were worried you wouldn't let us sit with you."

"And why ever not?" Rita asked through a mouthful of waffle. "You guys seem nice enough." Ryuu handed her a napkin, flashing a charming smile at them. "And thanks for not lying."

"Of course, why would we?" The boy laughed. "My name's Jake, this here is Luna."

Jake looked around 18 or 17, with a lanky body and messy tousled blonde hair-a cross between Mason's honey-blonde and Colt's brown. Luna looked younger, close to Liesel's age at 16 or 15, with fluffy-looking hair like a cloud, a pale pink color that matched her bright pale white-pink eyes. She looked rather day-dreamy and her hair also strongly resembled cotton candy.

There was a quick round of introductions. "So I've been wondering..." Luna launched into a series of questions. "Are you really blind? What's it like? Why don't you eat the beef? Are you guys siblings? Oooh, can I try out your whip? What do you guys think of LCH so far? Wow, are you looking at corsets? So cool! And hey, why'd you shave part of your hair-of course, it looks amazing, what a fashion statement-Why's your redheaded friend so weirdly popular? How do you think you'll do at the Ranking Battles?" (Neijre Hado style XD)

The last part was caught by Evon, who quickly cut off her stream of questions. "'Ranking Battles'? What are those, exactly?"

"Yeah, are they dangerous?" Liesel asked with wide eyes.

The two students' jaws fell. "You guys must really be new," Jake shook his head. "Have none of you ever attended school?"

Evon, Ryuu, and Rita simply shook their heads, while the others gave various answers. 

"In a different country."

"Busy with home stuff."

"I was getting worshipped, and besides I was naturally smart anyways."

"Didn't get a chance too..."

Luna's eyes widened. "Amazing..." Jake got more to the point. "Oh-kay then, I'll do the honors of explaining. Ranking battles are basically fights. Just like, not entirely violent and gangster-ish."

"Thank goodness," Luna sighed." "

At LCH-short for our school's name-you can earn a rank," Jake continued. "There's an overall LCH ranking, and there is also a ranking for each year. They're like, hmm, like friendly competitions. Two students on relatively equal levels will fight one another until one is unable to continue or has been pushed into a corner." 

"Beating up the other or being ruthless is strictly prohibited," Luna added. "Ranking Battles are watched carefully by the headmaster and all of his assistants. First-year students usually fight other first-years, and while it doesn't happen often, first-years can also issue a 'challenge' to a higher level student to rank higher in the overall IA ranking."

"The rankings of each week's battles will be sent to each student at the end of the week and the overall ranking will be posted on the far wall of the Great Hall," Jake kept on going. "Ranking Battles are most often fought one-on-one, but occasionally there will be team battles-like, three-on-three, but team battles are usually for festivals and competitions. The people in the top five spots are considered high rankers and receive ranking advantages-which is basically just homework or rule breaking passes."

"And what's the best, we get to watch the Royals battle too!" Luna's eyes were bright in excitement. "They're so cool to watch!" 

Jake snorted, smirking. "That's 'cuz you're in love with most of their powers-" Luna turned red and smacked him. "S-Shut up! I told you, it's my hobby, not love-!!"

"Excuse me," Nagini cut in, eyes sparkling, "But did you say Royals?"

"Yeah," Jake said, taking advantage of his long arms and holding Luna at an arms' length so she couldn't pummel him, "Over there." With his free arm, he gestured towards another table in the lunchroom. At the table were seated at least six people. However, there were some that stood out.

One was a boy, with watery-looking pale ocean-blue hair-lighter than Barry's hair color. Another was a girl with bright flaming reddish-pink hair tied in a long wavy ponytail. Then there was an irritated-looking blonde, and a sweet innocent-looking girl whose long thick pale blonde hair was in two high pigtails cascading down her back. All of them looked normal-they could've been one of the many students at the school-but something about their auras just seemed different. Something... otherworldly, almost, or at the very least, powerful.

Nagini turned to Dracaena and grasped her hands, her eye sparkle increasing. "There are Royals! Real and respectable ones, too, and around my age!" She turned to Jake. "What royal lineage are they from? Which family? Queen Elizabeth the Second, perhaps, or maybe even an Indian ruler?!"

Jake blinked, then laughed. "Woah, woah, woah. I think we're talking about two different things here. I'm talking about the ranks. Those four have the highest ranks in the school, so they're referred to as the 'Royals'."

The eye sparkle died a bit. "So... you're not talking in literal terms?"

"Nope. Sometimes some of them act like it, though."

Nagini wilted, eye sparkle disappearing completely. Dorian absentmindedly patted her back. He was furiously taking notes. "There there, roomie, I'm sure there will be more chances to find people in the same caliber as you."

"Thank you, but the way you're saying that makes it sound sarcastic."

"So what's this about ranks now?"

Evon jumped and few feathers fell as Chaol-thankfully, actually Chaol and not Nicolas-seemingly materialized out of thin air next to him, calmly drinking from a milk bottle.

"Bonne grace, don't do that," Evon muttered, clutching his chest.

"Are you two friends?" Luna asked curiously.

"Of course we aren't," They replied in perfect sync, smiling pleasantly and crossing their arms. The others muffled a laugh. In perfect sync, no less...

"Oh, so you finally escaped those girls, did you?" Ryuu smirked when Chaol groaned. "Yes. Gods, why didn't any of you stop him?! I told you to help control Nicolas..."

"We tried," Barry said apologetically. "But they pushed us aside and out."

"I strive not to become like that," Vinh, Rita, and, surprisingly, Luna said at the same time. The three looked at one another in surprise, then grinned and high-fived. "Heck yeah, GIRL POWER!!!" 

Chaol sighed at their antics. "Anyway, back to the question." He set down his milk. "What are these 'ranks' you're talking about?"

Jake's eyebrows rose. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, man, seriously," Colt said. "We ain't know a thing about ranks to spill the tea, sistah! Or, er, brother."

"Okay, since you guys are obviously newcomers," Jake said, pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil, "I'll break down the school's basic system for you."

"At the top of the food chain are the Royals, composed of a King, Queen, Prince, Jack, and Ace."

He sketched out a picture of the blue-haired male they'd seen earlier. "First, we have the King. The King is typically the strongest male student here, or the one with the most influence." Next he drew a picture of the red-headed girl. "On the other hand, the Queen is the strongest female student here."

Next was the pale blonde-haired girl and the blonde grumpy boy. "The Prince is a little lower than both. At the moment, it's occupied by a girl, so she's called the Princess instead. They're typically the well-rounded students with powers. And the Jack is the second-strongest male student in the school. They serve as backup. When the current King graduates, the Jack becomes the King."

Then there was a mysterious girl with dyed hair. "Finally, the Ace is the strongest in the school, even in the Royals. It's rare to come across one. Aces usually have restrictions so they don't cause too much havoc. They usually sit back and just watch and observe, they step in when they want and need to."

After that Jake drew three little people-two males, one with white-ish hair and the other with curly brownish hair, then a girl with cute little pigtails. "Below the Royals are the Advisors, who are the top three Rankers in the final Ranking Battle. They hold some power and they also tend to change. Like, a lot. Since it's easy to become an Advisor through the Ranking Battles, there are tons of people vying for the spot all the time."

Finally he drew a picture of him and Luna. "Then there are the Commoners, like Luna and I. We're just regular students like you are. Everyone starts out here. We tend to stay ut of the way and try not to get beaten a pulp by everyone else."

(I drew a little comic about this but haven't copied it onto the Ipad so... sorry...)

"Of course, those are the overall ranks," Luna added. "There are lots of ranks in between Advisors and Commoners-we people tend to get picked on by the Servants, who are the people in between those two ranks."

Ryuu looked at Rita. "Soo... game plan is: defeat everyone?" Rita nodded. "I'll help you study up on how not to blow up the school. Too bad; that nuclear weapon in the army looks really nice..."

"I could settle for being an Advisor," Liesel shrugged. "Doesn't sound that strenuous. But I'd only do it for fun, though."

Luna laughed. "Oh no, it's hard to be an Advisor. You have to protect your spot at all costs, because-"

"Because you can challenge people for their ranks!" Jake jumped in excitedly. "Especially in Ranking Battles, you can just directly issue a challenge. If you win, they have to give you their Rank. But you can't directly challenge one of the Royals," he added, noticing some of them perk up. "You have to first become an Advisor if you want to try. And people usually lose if they try otherwise, but it's super fun to watch!"

"Interesting..." Dorian muttered while taking notes.

"Speaking of which," Luna leaned forward. "I haven't gotten a chance to ask yet, but what are your powers?"

"Uh..." The zodiacs exchanged glances. Jake sighed. "Sorry about her, she can be kind of straightforward at times while pursuing her hobby. But I'm curious too, what powers do you guys have?"

Liesel cleared her throat. "Well, you see-"

Barry said frantically, "We can't tell you!"

Chaol snorted. "We need to know your powers first."

Ryuu sighed. "Is it really that important?"

Nagini flipped her hair. "I will repeat what the kitten said, I cannot tell you peons my trade secrets until I know yours."

And Dracaena finished with a, "You see-"

Thankfully, they were saved by the bell. Instantly Jake and Luna lept to their feet. "Gosh, gotta go before our next teacher kills us! Talk to ya later!" And they zoomed out of the lunchroom. The zodiacs all collectively breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew..."

"We really need to choose," Nadia pointed out.

"Yeah."

Needless to say, it was a very frustrating rest of the school day.

- - -

After school ended, the zodiacs met Cal and Ea in front of their dorms-and there was a quick round of hellos. "Are you all ready?" Ea asked. The zodiacs nodded firmly. "School was hell," Vinh shuddered. "This can't be any worse than that."

 Cal smiled wryly. "That's why I never attended school. Now, if you'll all gather around me..." They did as he told. Ea snapped his fingers and the zodiacs suddenly found themselves in front of a calm and leafy forest. ". . . This is where we're going to train?" Dracaena asked incredulously. 

"No," Ea said with a hint of glee in his eyes and voice as he pointed. "You'll be training up there."

The zodiacs followed his finger and their jaws fell when they saw where he was pointing at... that is, the top of the mountain. As in it was so tiny they could barely see it, the mountain was that tall. "What the F*CK?!" Chaol yelled. "How are we supposed to get up there?"

"I can teleport..." Barry mumbled, starting to do the calculations needed for that distance, before Ea cut in. "Actually, today you'll just have to go through one test. Tomorrow, though, you have to go through this entire mountain before you can reach the top.

Liesel squared her shoulders. "All right! I'm ready! Bring it on, mountain!"

"We'll be able to use our abilities, right?"Colt asked. 

"'Course you will-" 

"Aw yeah!"

"-But not for today's trial."

"What?!"

"Oh, stop whining," Cal sighed. "Y'all want to keep your four powers or not?" That shut'em up and Ea smiled. "Okay then." He twirled a hand and a water dragon formed before them. "Hop on. You won't get wet," noting some of the zodiacs looking uncomfortable.

Rita was the first to hop on, giggling. "Water dragon~! So cooool~!"

The others followed and soon they were zooming through the sky. They passed over the forest, a thunderingly tall waterfall, and all sorts of daunting-looking challenges. Finally, they slowed and landed. The water dragon dissipated and they found themselves in front of a tall set of stone-cut stairs. On either side was a bamboo forest, wind chimes tinkling softly from the stalks. As the wind blew through, the bamboo stalks seemed to sing.

"All right, we're here," Ea announced. "Now. Climb."

The zodiacs blinked blankly at him. ". . . Huh?"

Cal rolled his eyes, shoving Ea. "What this idiot means to say is, we're here at your first trail. The place where we're going to train is at the top of these stairs. Climb and reach the top with your own power. If you don't make it up or give up, you fail."

"You're too blunt..." Ea sighed, but Cal's words seemed to have done the trick.

"All right!" Vinh rolled up her sleeves, ignoring Dorian mutter of them saying 'All right' too much. "Time to show those sexist lỗ đít who's boss!" She popped a rambutan into her mouth. Colt started stretching his legs and arms. Dracaena transformed into a large dragon. Rita aged into an older version of herself, dispersing into butterflies then back. Chaol turned into a tiger then back, leaving his legs and arms transformed. Liesel ignited her Phantom Fighter, the primrose in her hair blooming.

Out of the corner of his eye, Barry noticed Ea and Cal hiding tiny grins and frowned. Huh. "First one to the top gets to call in a favor with the others," Dorian challenged them. Rita bared her teeth. "You're on." Evon simply sighed. "Honestly..." 

Nadia also noticed Ea and Cal's tiny smiles. She furrowed her brows, sensing something was up. "Hey, guys-?!"

"Ready, set, go!" Mason called cheerfully. The zodiacs, except for Evon, Nadia, and Barry, took off in a cloud of dust... only for the people who remained to hear a loud bang! and the zodiacs returned to the bottom, unharmed, but looking very confused. ". . . Huh?" Ea and Cal burst into laughter as they tried again... then again... and again to race up, only to bounce back every time. 

"What the hell's going on?!" Dracaena yelled, turning back into a girl. "Why aren't we going anywhere?!"

The two caretakers were too busy laughing to answer, and after another few minutes Ea collected himself enough to answer, "Ah... I forgot to tell you. No cheating allowed!"

Cal amended, "If you try to use your powers to skip steps... you'll end up going nowhere."

". . ."

"WHAT?!"

"You must climb with your power," Ea said, grinning. He started climbing, and no force threw him back. "Not by cheating and using your supernatural abilities."

The zodiacs blinked at him and Cal, as they started climbing together, only for Rita to break it. "Shut up, Ryuu!" Rita, who was back to child mode, yelled, and suddenly a loudly laughing Ryuu appeared. "Oh-that was-hilarious," he laughed, wiping away a few tears "You all looked like crickets in a glass box-Ow!" He glared at Rita, who'd just kicked his shin.

"I guess this means we have to start climbing," Nadia said, and followed Ea and Cap up. Exchanging glances, the rest of the zodiacs followed. 

○ ○ ○

Four thousand and ten hundred steps later, they still couldn't see the top, and they were all getting pissed. And tired as hell. The only one not tired to the bone was Rita, whose magically enhanced body also gave her superhuman endurance. Even Vinh, who also had endurance from the Ox, had to admit that that was a lot of steps to endure through. And she didn't have an apparently endless amount of energy like the little female Rat did.

"This is... unfair," Nagini panted, glaring as Rita looked down at the others, who were struggling. "I want... an enhanced... body... too..."

Rita looked at them innocently. "Want me to make you all older so you'll have stronger bodies?" 

"I am....seriously considering that," Vinh panted.

"You all stink," Ryuu grumbled. Even he was tired after having hiked up those stairs, but he wasn't about to show it. "And your heartbeats are annoyingly fast."

Chaol on the other hand was having another problem. Having (unconsciously) sniffed the other people's sweat and hormones along with it, to his horror he felt something go hard and he cursed. "Sh*t!"

Evon, who was taking it slow and steady, looking back curiously at his curse. "What's wrong? Worn out already, chaton?"

Chaol snorted. "You wish, chicken." He got a wry smile in return. 

Silently, though, he breathed a sigh of quiet relief, since Evon's hormones were at, like zero.

Nadia noticed that Liesel, who was probably the youngest in the group (excluding Rita since with her power it was impossible to tell what was her real age was) and after a moment's hesitation stepped back a little. "Hey. Need a helping hand?" Liesel looked up in surprise, smiling tiredly. "Normally I'd say no, but..." she glanced up at the stairs still looming seemingly tauntingly above them. "I don't want to fail." With a smile Nadia took Liesel's hand and together they continued.

"I can't even use... my Horse speed..." Colt panted. Dorian, who was hiking beside him, nodded and wiped some sweat off his brow. "I just wish my special ability could help more with physical activities... my Howl is only good for... fighting and stuff... although I'm lucky that I have increased stamina."

Mason glanced back at Nagini, who was starting to lag behind a little again. "Need my-"

She glared at him. "No."

Mason blinked a little at her sharp and hostile tone, then shrugged. "Okay then, suit yourself..." He moved forwards and started half-panting, half-talking to Barry as they continuing climbing up the now seemingly endless stairs. Evon glanced at the burning sun. "We've been climbing... or almost an hour... where is-"

"WHERE IS THE F*CKIN' TOP!?" By now even Rita was starting to feel annoyed-projected through her cursing. With her body enhancements, she wasn't feeling physically fatigued, but hearing the gasps and tiredness literally radiating from the others behind her, it was starting to trick her mind into believing she was tired too. Also, she didn't like how long this was taking WHEN THEY COULD'VE JUST SAVE SO MUCH TIME JUST BY USING THEIR ABILITIES!!

Finally, though, just when they all thought they were going to either murder someone or collapse into humanified puddles of exhaustion, Dracaena called out, "Hey! I can... see... the top!"

Looking ahead, the zodiacs saw that indeed they could, with the shadows of Ea and Cal waving at them from the top. The sight re-energized them and they climbed with more vigor than ever, until finally... finally... they reached the top of the stairs. 

"Y'all look like you're going to crumble away into dust the moment a tiny breeze blows by," Cal commented as the zodiacs literally collapsed onto a soft patch of grass. Their legs felt like gelatinous (BIG WORD OF THE CHAPTER: UNLOCKED) jelly and it felt like somebody had just sucked the life out of their lungs.

"Shut up," Colt groaned. "That was torturous." 

They rested in blissful silence and peace for a while, listening to the bamboo 'sing' and cooling down their bodies, before Ea ruined it. "Just so ya know, I forgot to mention that you're going to have to climb those stairs every day before training from now on."

"WHAT?!" If they weren't feeling so tired and worn out, most of the zodiacs would have murdered Ea at that point. Climb that? Every day? 

"It's official, we're gonna die," Dorian announced. "Gimme a good funeral, man."

"Okay, sure, I'll be sure to put flowers on your grave every day," Nadia replied sarcastically.

"Dammit..." Chaol sighed, ignoring the other two. "What in the world did we just do? Or, more precisely, what exactly are those stairs?"

"Those stairs are called the Steps of Patience," Cal said. "Every week or so all of us-the supernaturals who have time-will climb them, to discipline ourselves and to test our resolve. The Steps of Patience remind us all that supernatural powers are not everything. If you do not first learn Patience, you cannot ever move on to successfully learn everything else."

The zodiacs were silent as they pondered and took in this. Well, no wonder Cal and Ea seemed to climb them so easily-they were a lot older than they appeared, and if what Cal said was true then they'd been climbing these for tens to hundreds of years.

"Don't worry, the first time we climbed these we struggled just as much as you did," Ea added. "Although I must correct myself from earlier. The rest of the week you'll be taking your own personal trials, so you won't have to climb the stairs." Sighs of relief. "Buuuuut after that, you're going to go up these every day. Or once every two days or so." Moans of mixed emotions between annoyance between 'what-else-did-I-expect'. 

"Well, I can't blame you," Cal sighed. "There are one thousand, two hundred, and twelve steps on those stairs. And they're up a rather steep mountain." (Cal's number is completely accurate. Trust him.)

"Hey, just wondering," Ryuu asked, sitting up and starting to meditate. The other zodiacs, feeling a bit better now, also sat up. "How hard are these tests, on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being impossibly difficult?"

"Hmm... depends," Ea replied. "They're not going to be easy, that's for sure. Mount Jade-that's what this mountain is called-needs to make sure her inhabitants are worthy of being here before fully accepting them." Cal grunted. "You should probably prepare to be tripped or fall into a pit at least once. That'll stop once you finish the Jade Trials, though."

"And after that, you'll have the Zodiac Trials before becoming fully-fledged zodiacos!" Ea chirped.

Vinh groaned. "Dude. Are you trying to discourage us before we even start?"

"Don't take his words to heart too much, Ea's gotten a bit salty after a few millennia of being forgotten," Cal said, ignoring Ea's indignant squawk as he smiled kindly.

Ea smiled too. "If your intentions are pure, then Mount Jade should accept you quickly enough. Although," He looked at each of them. "If you have some dark secret to hide that will impact how this turns out, I suggest you best get them off your back right now, before you end up regretting it later." 

Chaol shivered; was it just his imagination, or did the fresh water deity's eyes linger on him a minute longer than they did with the others? 

Does he know... what I'm planning? 

If so... then...

Thankfully (or not so thankfully), at that moment they heard a loud crash, then Emp's familiar voice shouted, "Ah! May-kun, they're here! The zodiacs have arrived!"

The zodiacs turned and saw Emp running towards them, waving happily. Behind him ran another girl, who looked around 18 years old.

In no time at all a beaming Emp was standing before them-today dressed in shimmering ocean-blue robes trimmed in forest-green and embroidered with silver. His long hair was tied up in a ponytail with a braid in it. He stopped in front of them, looking down with a wide grin on his face. "Well? How'd you like the Steps of Patience?"

"Living hell," Nadia flopped back onto her back again. "Oh yeah, and he also need to give Dorian a funeral."

"It ruined my manicure," Nagini bemoaned. "And my hair."

"You'll live," Ep said dismissively, ignoring Nagini's squawk of protest (lots of ignoring going on today huh) as he said excitedly, "Anyway, today I brought along a special guest! I'd like you to meet one of the Months and also one of my favorites, May-huh?"

The girl ran up at that moment, huffing as she tried to catch her breath. "Mr. Emperor!! Please... slow down and wait..." There was no doubt she was the same 'May' Emp had been talking to yesterday, with the nervous voice and 'mr' at the beginning of his name.

May had short, light brown hair that ends above her shoulders in subtle waves, a brown ribbon tied in it. A pair of rather large round black-rimmed glasses perched on her nose. She was wearing a white blouse at the end of her sleeves. Over this, her shoulders were covered with a cream-colored shawl with an elaborate print of tree branches and leaves, along with tassels on the hem. She had on a light mahogany skirt with black fasteners at the top, black-and-white tights with a diamond pattern (although they weren't very visible as her skirt covered most of the pattern up), and simple, low grey boots.

When she saw them she jumped in surprise, then flailed around as she tried for words. "U-Um, ah..."

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet the female version of Yellow May, May!" Emp said dramatically. Said person looked around then waved nervously, half-hiding behind Emp. "A-Ah... it's nice to meet you all, Mr. and Miss zodiacs!" She bowed, a perfect 90 degree angle bow.

Colt laughed. "'Mr. and Miss?' We're just a buncha kids right now, no need for formalities!"

"Oh, r-right! Of course, I apologize!" May straightened, fidgeting with her shawl. Barry, seeing how nervous she was, instantly felt like she was a kindred spirit. The zodiacs introduced themselves to May, who looked about ready to faint once introductions were over.

"All righty then, please follow me! The glories of training awaits!" Emp turned and walked happily away, May running after him and telling him frantically to slow down and wait for everyone else instead of running ahead like usual.

"Is she usually that shy?" Ryuu asked Cal. "It's definitely not an act; her heartbeat was-and is-going a mile a minute the entire time."

Cal nodded. "Shy as a clam, that one, but she's hella smart." He snapped his fingers and a thick stack of papers appeared in his hands. "She wrote all these out-possible scenarios for if you decided to escape, what you'd do... everything, down to the tiniest detail. This one's yours. Or Rita's. Or whoever's, whatever."

Ryuu flipped through it, and coming to a bookmarked page he carefully traced out the words, "Scenario 19. If the target is indeed someone who could be potentially dangerous/harmful, pretend to be a new officer (Ea) and lead them to Ca who will be the 'hostage' Rat will be alone to freely negotiate with. If they say---" And so on. Ryuu raised his eyes. "Quite impressive." Maybe they'd get along after all, considering she wrote this before even meeting them.

Cal snapped again and the paper booklet disappeared again. "Yep, but she ends up writing really long essays as a result. The paper deity loves her, as you can probably imagine."

Ryuu tilted his head. "But doesn't that mean, in order to write out these, she'd have to spend a monstrous amount of time writing and planning and thinking?"

"No," Cal admitted. "It was only for a day's worth-she wanted to write more just in case, but we stopped her-so it only took her a couple of seconds."

Ryuu blinked. "Excuse me?"

"For her 3 minutes is 2 week's worth of planning and writing, so of course a day would be fast for her-her abilities helps with that."

Before Ryuu could continue asking questions, the training place came into view. It was at least two stories tall, made out of undecorated wood, aged to a mottled silvery-green by the elements and environment around them. Dark forked logs protruded from the ends of the gabled bark roof. The flanking buildings were long and slung close to the ground, just as simple at the main building. A low wooden platform edged the gray-green tiles of the courtyard, connecting the buildings. Overall, it was simpler and humbler than what most of them had been expecting-but something about it-maybe the wind whistling from the bamboo, or the peaceful aura it had-that just radiated survival. This place had stood strong against hardships upon hardships, and that was what made it beautiful.

When Emp pushed open the doors, the hall inside was just as breathtaking. There was a polished wooden floor that gleamed just like the surface of a lake with the sun shining on it. Banners made out of the multicolored silks fluttered from the soaring ceilings. Scrolls of fine paper hung from the walls, some painted with delicate landscapes, and some with graceful calligraphy. There were gasps when the zodiacs saw the walls-weapons hung there, a formidable amount hanging in ordered rows. All sorts of weapons-not just guns, but simpler and just as efficient-were there. Among the weapons were swords, daggers, tridents, spiked clubs, moon blades, and others-all sharpened and gleaming on the wall for all to see. Thick straw mats bordered in sturdy black cotton lined the walls below the weapons-a place to spar.

"This is where you're really going to start training," Emp said, clearly gleeful as he looked at their awed faces. 

"So," Rita was the first to recover, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the weapons on the wall. "What will we be training in first? Weapons? Hand-to-hand combat? Perhaps a few certain killing methods?"

"Or learning how to use some of these fine weapons?" Colt added.

Emp beamed. "None of the above! For your first day of training, you'll be..." He snapped his finger and all of a sudden the zodiacs found themselves inside what seemed to be a library. Wooden shelves stuffed full of scrolls and books towered above them. Wide arcing windows provided them an excellent view of the mountain and forest below. Soft mats covered the ground, along with some fluffy beanbags to sit and read in. In front of each of them was a low wooden table. On it was a piece of paper and a brush, ancient Chinese-style, but no ink. Just materials to make it-a black substance in a shallow white basin, some water, and a medium-sized stone. "Organizing scrolls, copying and writing words, and everyday chores!"

The way he said it, the zodiacs almost got tricked into cheering right along with him. Almost.

". . ."

"EXCUSE you?!"

Ea guffawed loudly and Cal elbowed him, but his lips were twitching as well. "Classic disciplinary lessons," Emp nodded sagely to himself. "May darling, unveil the Chores List, please!" May nodded and unveiled a scroll hanging from the ceiling.

CHORES FOR THE ZODIACS

- Clean house top to bottom

- Prune the environment (weed the gardens)

- Sharpen all weapons (by hand and stone)

- Gather water from the stream (every day/morning)

- Untangle ropes

- Clean up animal stalls

Among others.

"That doesn't sound too hard," Vinh reflected. "Moderately doable."

Emp smirked. "Sweetheart, you can tell me that again after you've completed them all."

Vinh started to stand up, rolling up her sleeves. "Challenge accepted-"

"But," Emp interrupted her, "You're not going to be doing them today." She hesitated. "I'm... not?"

"Nope!" Emp swept an arm at some of them. "The privilege and absolute joy of doing the chores will be going to... Nagini, Barry, Ryuu, Dorian, Nadia, and Dracaena!!!"

"What about the rest of us?" Evon spoke up, confused. 

"The rest of you," Emp said, addressing Colt, Mason, Rita, Vinh, Evon, and Chaol, "Will be sitting in here. Copying and studying. And writing all the glorious words I'll be telling you out."

"WHAT?!"

Both of the respective parties were horrified. The ones doing the chores would rather sit inside and write, and the ones sitting and writing would rather be outside and doing the chores. (Did I do that on purpose? Yes, yes I did.)

"That's right," Ea laughed. "What'd you expect?"

"You'll switch duties after 3 days," Cal said, elbowing Ea again. "And in all honesty, both of them are equally as a nightmare to go through."

There were many loud hisses, scratching, and cursing before Cal and Ea finally strong-handed the Chores group outside, leaving the Writing group inside with Emp and May.

Oh, dear.

XXX

"You... have got to be kidding me."

The Chories (The Chores group will be called this, the Writing one will be called the Writies) had chosen (after some debating) what looked to be the easiest task on the list of chores-pruning and weeding the gardens. But now they stood in front of a large, overgrown, wild garden... and that was only the first garden. 

"So... how should we go about doing this?" Dorian finally asked.

"Well, first you need to get water from the stream," Ea said. "Three to wash away the access dirt and bugs, the other three to use as drinking and washing water."

"Okay then, what do we use?" Liesel asked. Nagini was staring at the garden in utter shock, at a loss for words at the sheer dirtiness she would soon be plunging into.

Cal pointed. "You'll be using those waterjugs." 

The waterjugs in question, in fact, were big-Liesel could probably curl up and fit inside one if she tried-tall-almost higher than their waists-and heavy. They were made out of clay and... "Where are the handles?"

"There aren't any," Ea said. 

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Dracaena said sarcastically. "How are we supposed to hold and carry the jugs if there aren't any handles to hold onto?"

"Like this." Ea wrapped his hands around the jug-just below the rim, fitted snug as a bug. With an 'Up!' he lifted the jug up.

"I see..."

Nadia experimentally lifted one. "Huh, they're... kind of old. But I don't think they'll break..."

"What are you doing?" Nagini had finally snapped out of her daze. The question was directed towards Ryuu, who had knelt and held an ear carefully to the ground. 

"Shhh," he said, listening intently. A moment later he spoke. "The stream's not too far, just a little over 30 meters from here. But it's down a rather steep hill, and I'm assuming we can't use our powers?"

"Actually, you can," Ea corrected him. "But anything you break and have to redo is on you, not us!"

"Great, then if you mind I'm going to go check it out." They watched Ryuu disperse into a swarm of jet-black butterflies and flutter away.

"Too bad it's over 30 meters..." Barry sighed. "Then I could just teleport the jugs there and back."

Liesel picked up a jug and walked around experimentally, having to stop and set it down after about 10 large steps. "Yeah, wow, this is heavy..."

Ryuu landed and undispersed, looking disgruntled. "I don't get why Rita likes that skill so much... And I just confirmed that the report of where the stream is located is perfectly and entirely accurate, as usual."

"Gre-e-e-e-e-eat," Dorian exhaled. "I have enough strength to carry one, especially with my skill. What about you guys?"

"I can carry these, contrary to what you might all think." Ryuu lifted one up. "Have to have a strong grip... But these are super heavy, I'll admit."

"I'll be fine," Nadia said. "My skill lets me easily left a bookshelf with at least 200 books on it anyway."

"I can't use and wouldn't use my Phantom Fighter for this, because then when I unignite it and fall somebody would have to catch me," Liesel said, frowning as she toed her jug. "And I don't want to risk breaking the jug-or me, so I'll go with my flower power-up."

"Ah, I think I can help with that." Ryuu snapped his fingers and a shower of primroses fell onto a very surprised Liesel. "Wow, thanks!"

"They'll probably disappear after we finish getting the water, though," Ryuu admitted. "I need to know the basic shape, form, and function of at least one of the objects I'm switching in order to make a successful and permanent switch. In this case, I only saw the flower in your hair once. Doesn't help that I literally can't see and Rita's inside."

"This'll do, don't worry," Liesel promised, picking them up. Nagini walked over and started helping her. "None of my skills with help, I'm afraid," She begrudgingly admitted. "They're more suited for combat. I can lift them, though." To demonstrate she lifted up one of the jugs.

Dracaena was thinking. "I think I have a way to help, but y'all might not like it."

"Go ahead," Dorian encouraged her. 

"Well, my special ability, Collect, Combine, Create, lets me combine powers to create something new," Dracaena explained. She held out a hand and shimmering green lights surrounded her. A ball made out of the same lights appeared in her hand. "One of my skills is transforming into a fully-grown dragon. Unfortunately, that's out of the question since my dragon claws might not be the most delicate, and we're not supposed to destroy the jugs or, more importantly, the environment."

"Where does it say that?"

She pointed at a large sign. 'EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED, JUST DON'T HURT, DESTROY, OR MODERATELY HARM THE ENVIRONMENT. THANK YOU.'

"Oh."

"I like it," Nadia nodded.

"But," Dracaena continued, "I can combine it with Ryuu's dispersion to get..." The lights swirled around Ryuu, and another ball floated towards Dracaena's other hand, who pressed it together with the first. A ripple passed over her, and then she turned into an orangutan. "... Shapeshifting. And, I can transfer this energy and strength originally from my dragon form to all of you." 

She lumbered forward and, despite Nagini's protests, touched Nagini... which was a strange sight to see, since Dracaena was still in orangutan form. A similar ripple passed over Nagini and she blinked, flexing her hands. "Wow. I feel so... energized. This is... amazing." Then she scowled. "But just this time, all right? I don't need any help from peons like you!"

If orangutans could roll their eyes, the Drac-gutan in front of them did. She went over and did the same thing to Ryuu and Barry.

"You three both have bodily-enhancing skills," Dracaena told Dorian, Liesel, and Nadia. "So I won't give you an upgrade or I'll be the one fainting later."

Dorina nodded, rolling his shoulders. "Gotcha. Are we all prepped and ready to go?"

Lisel nodded, the primroses, which were weaved into a crown atop her head (courtesy of Nagini) blooming. "Ready!"

Barry nodded too. "Ready."

"Ready as I'll ever be for chores," Nadia offered. Ryuu just nodded.

"Okay then." On a count of three, they lifted the jugs into the air. "Let's go kill the chores!"

[EXPLANATION FOR HOW DRACAENA'S ABILITY WORKS: She can turn into a dragon, which is a mythical animal. One of Ryuu's skills is Dispersion, which lets him turn into another normal animal that travels or lives together in groups. By combining those two together she gets shapeshifting into normal animals, and through dispersion she can 'disperse' the strength to others-3 others + herself max. NothingtoseeHD, did I describe her ability correctly? Any changes needed? Thoughts?]

- - -

Cal and Ea were watching. 

"They really are creative, hm?"

"Yes."

"Maybe we should do this more often."

"Do what? Get the zodiacs early?"

"No, this! Callie's so soft! The perfect pillow for me to cuddle!"

"Wha-OI, YOU SH*TTY RIVER, STOP HUGGING ME!"

"Mm, nope. Cal-Cal's soft, like I said."

"AND STOP DRINKING FROM MY JUICE, DAMMIT!"

XXX

Meanwhile, the Writies were convinced that Emp had stepped into the disciplinary role way too much.

First, he'd made them sit in a particular way-legs folded neatly under them, backs straight. And they couldn't move or slouch-every time they did, one flick of Emp's fingers and they'd magically be straightened up again.

Then he'd dumped a pile of scrolls on them and ordered them to put them in order-that alone had taken two hours, because the scrolls were written in a strange nearly impossible to decode writing, and the scroll numbers just so happened to be buried within the lines of the writing. There was a lot of scanning and eye straining. After finally finishing that, Emp looked at the scrolls and nodded in satisfaction. "Good, good. Very nice job!"

"Yeah, that's great and all," Colt groaned, "But can we move now? Our legs fell asleep ages ago and it's uncomfortable!"

Vinh, Rita, and Chaol were holding their self-control by straining reins-needless to say, their restraint and patience were stretching thin. Even Evon, who considered himself a rather level-headed person, felt about ready to snap. Isn't this... a little much for the first day of training?!

"We've been like this for, what, hours?" Mason added, fingers tapping on the table. For someone with ADHD like him, the past two hours had been practically torture. 

"I want to go outside..." Vinh moaned. "Actually, you've only been sitting here for about one hour, not two," Emp corrected them.

"WHAT?!" (Again. This is happening a lot lately...)

May, who had left when they started, poked her head back in, waving shyly. "T-That would be because of me..." 

At the Writies' confused faces, Emp explained happily, "This is darling May's ability! She can slow down time, but only when she's thinking alone in a room! So she had to leave earlier in order to activate it."

"That's so cool," Colt said earnestly, eyes wide. "I'd love to have that power."

May hid again. "I-I-I-It's nothing really! As long as it's useful to help Mr. Emperor, I'll be happy..."

"That's nice," Chaol said, "But real talk now, can we please sit normally now?!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree," Evon agreed, shifting uncomfortably. 

"I third it!" Rita raised a hand.

Emp sighed. "Fine." He snapped his fingers and the next 10 minutes were the Writies stretching and resting their now extremely sore bodies. 10 minutes later, though, they found themselves once again seated at the tables. "Okay, rest time is over. Your next task is to copy these words." He unrolled another scroll. On it was written the words Honor, Duty, Courage, Truth, Respect, Loyalty, and Love-in Chinese. "Copy each of these a hundred times correctly and training will be over for today."

The words training will be over for today energized them. The words 100 times each did not.

"But... what about the ink?" Mason asked. 

"You have to make it, of course," Emp said it as if it were obvious.

Chaol groaned. "What else did I expect?" He was beginning to think that if this was mandatory for his plan to revenge, he would find out some other way that involved less pain and uncomfortableness.

"You have all the materials you need," Emp said, sitting back down in his portable, floating chair-which was just a mini version of the large blue lotus.  "And remember, correctly, or it doesn't count."

"I think I know how to do this," Rita announced after looking at the materials. "Ryuu did this all the time." She showed the others how to make the ink-by pouring water into the basin, then using the stone to crush the black substance into ink. 

This turned out to be no easy process. The black substance was by no means soft, and they had to make sure it wasn't full of clumps. Not to mention that most of them had never done such a thing before, and they had to do so for six sittings. It took them a good half an hour to get it done-but they were chatting and laughing as they did.

For the first time, almost all the hostility vanished, replaced by warm bonds slowly but surely forming between them. By the end of the half hour Rita had gained the nickname 'Momma Rat' for the rather motherly personality she took on, in place of her normal scarily-sweet childish one. They were all in better spirits as they dipped their brushes into the ink and started writing.

This time, instead of silence punctuated by an occasional groan or complaint or two, stores and jokes and banter flew between them. Occasionally Emp would float over and lightly hit one of them with a stick. "No, not like that. Redo that line of words, and this time put discipline into it!" or "Your grip is wrong! Fix it and redo!" or most commonly, "Backs straight!"

But this was diminished a little as they genuinely started enjoying being with one another. Before they knew it, when Evon glanced outside to check the time, he was surprised to find that the sun was setting-lovely reds, oranges, pinks, purples, and golds streaking the sky. 

"Oh, look at the time, it's already time to go! How're you all doing?" Emp was met with groans. 

"We're not even halfway through copying," Colt informed him. "Can we move now?"

"Of course!" Emp snapped his fingers and the group was lying on the ground and massaging their sore hands and bodies the next moment. With another snap of his fingers miniature lotuses scooped them up and they floated down the mountain. They admired the view as they descended, before coming to a gentle stop at the base of the mountain. The lotuses disappeared, and there was a flash of light before they found themselves in front of their dorm. 

"Oh... welcome back."

They turned to greet the Chories, but their jaws fell too quickly to speak. The other six were covered head to toe in dirt and looked like they had gone tossed violently through a mud, bug, plants, dust, wind, and manure thunderstorm or hurricane-and then some. Leaves stuck out of their hair and their clothes were soaked. Vinh was still squeezing water out of her hair.

"What happened to you?" Evon managed to ask.

"The chores happened," Dorian grumbled, picking a bug out of his hair. 

"I would laugh," Rita said, swaying on her feet, "If only I didn't feel like the slightest breeze would blow me away."

"Your hands, are they okay?" Liesel asked.

All of the Writies' hands were covered with black in and their clothes and arms were splattered too. "Psychological torture," Chaol mumbled, stumbling a little.

Ea waved when he saw Emp. "Oh, hey, hey! These people, for all their complaining, are surprisingly good at chores! They got through most of the gardens and sharpened all of the weapons adequately well in record time!"

"Good to hear," Emp beamed. "On my part, when pushed to, these people can sit for an impressively long time! Wait, but-" Emp peered around. "Where's Cal?"

"He fell asleep," Ea said. He drew aside a shimmering water curtain that materialized out of the air to reveal Cal sleeping peacefully on the water dragon. "The past few months' amount of work and stress finally caught up to Cal-Cal, I suppose."

"Well, I think it might have been worth it," Emps said, looking at the zodiacs, who were now sharing stories about each of the respective nightmares they'd just had to gone through.

"Speaking of which, don't you think you were a bit too harsh on them?" Ea asked, frowning. "It was overkill to make them clean the gardens when you know Spring or April or some other plant supernatural could've cleared it out in an instant."

"Ah, Ea, but that is precisely why," Emp said. His lips creased into a soft smile. "There is no better chance to create and strengthen bonds than through hardships, after all. While I was watching my six, I saw friendship-wonderful friends. Those twelve were pushed together under less than ideal circumstances, but yet I can see bonds growing. Slowly and hesitantly, yes. But they're there. The seeds of unbreakable connections have been planted, and they will grow with time. Did you not also see that with your own six as well?"

Ea looked surprised for a moment, then smiled as well. "... Yes. I saw it. And you have a good point, even if it's a sad one. Hardship connects all of us at COSD, after all."

"That's why I want them to bond," Emp said. "All of them have unrested souls that have been tainted too soon. I hope that the light that should've been with them will return, at least someday, to give them peace. But for now..." He looked at the zodiacs again and this time Ea saw the fondness he and Cal both had for them seep out. "I think they're going to become something that we've never seen before."

--------------------------------------------------

*dead*

Shoutout to overduelibrarybook89, whom I struck an impromptu deal with and that's why this is here. If you're not pleased then I don't know what will please you. [DETAILS for the same deal you can strike with me below]

THERE IS OVER 15,000 WORDS, SO YOU BETTER BE HAPPY.

Fun Fact: I also wrote most of this in my notebook during school then transferred it here. 70% in fact, that's why I finished it.

"And what the heck, why'd I squish so much stuff into this one chapter?"

"'Cause you wanted action more?"

"Ah, right. On that note."

POLL TIME!

☞ Raise your left paw if you want action and coolness from the characters. (NOTE: If you choose this, you might feel some kind of rush in the words and the story will move along quicker than normal. If you choose this, you will get to see our zodiacs show off.)

☛ Raise your right paw if you want some easygoing ridiculous schemes. (NOTE: If you choose this, you might feel like there's too much dialogue and the story will slow down much, much more. If you choose this, you will get to see our zodiacs goof off.)

Thank you.

Personally, I would actually rather save the ridiculous schemes for the calm after the storm (after things have just gotten perilous and we need a breather) but with action... I suck at writing action. TvT'

Either way, updates won't be faster or slower depending on which you choose. It takes just as long as it does for me to write miscellaneous things as it does for action and funniness, because-

For action it's harder because it's hard to write out all the things that can happen in a split second.

For funniness, it's harder too because it's hard for me to make it seem natural and not forced. And to make sure the dialogue doesn't go overboard.

Go ahead and choose.

(I will put this poll in the next chapter too)

- - -

Parallel Universes

Duh, there are more than one universes out there, what'd you expect from me? And COSD just so happens to conveniently have access to all of them. Parallel Universes, actually, is what keeps the COSD peeps on their toes-besides managing pretty much every single natural phenomenon in the world-because of the vast possibilities of what could happen. One world might have an all-out war happening. Another might have the apocalypse happening. Yet another might be an escape from reality. The only person who knows all of them and can go between the worlds easily is the 'God'. Remember earlier in the past chapter when May was busy? Yep that's right she was actually writing plans for wars happening in another universe, that wasn't a joke. We'll explore some worlds as we continue-especially two in particular, where I think I might just not-so-kindly drop out dear zodiacs into two right when things get perilous or interesting. FUFUFU.

Let's just say I will have a field day with Parallel Universes. As for why they're called 'parallel' when they're clearly NOT parallel with Earth, well, it's because it sounds cool.

- - -

I apologize if my writing style seems a bit stiff. It's kind of hard to write out strong emotions without it seeming obnoxious or not writing from first person perspective so I just decided it would be easier to write stiffly than to try and force myself to change it. 

Of course though, I'll still be loose and such when talking to you all-just when telling the story and action, it gets kinda stiff.

Now, an amazingly awesome meme by ichbinconfusion_2734

The Chinese Zodiacs in the race:

Rita: Heck yes Ryuu look we crossed first!

Ryuu: Oh that's gr- crap I forgot about the cat shoot-

Vinh: I always get second place smh

Chaol: Why am I even here

Barry: Isn't four an unlucky number in China though-

Dracaena: I ain't first but I ain't last so that's cool

Nagini: I would've been first if these peasants weren't blocking my way but okay

Colt: 7th place! Awesome I'm in the top 12!

Liesel: Yay teamwork!

Mason: Yay teamwork!

Evon: Yay teamwork now can I go home(The goat, monkey, and rooster collaborated in the race so that's why there's "yay teamwork")

Dorian: Okay. (internally: I could've done better)

Nadia: Hi sorry I came last I was too busy re-reading all the Riordanverse books

The cat: rEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Isn't it glorious? TOTAL PROPS TO YOU CONFUSION-

Also, I probably forgot to mention this, but I'm going to be taking the Cat. I'm gonna make him just like Kyo and all tsundere and~! 

HA HA NO.

BIG FAT NO.

I debated it but the role of orange-haired tsundere has already been gladly given to Cal. 

Notes:

#1. I promised an epic sleepover, and now it's up to you if you want that sleepover to happen in Chapter Four, Chapter Five, or later. 

#2. Look at me, I said that I wouldn't write another monster chapter like the first chapter AND NOW LOOK WHERE WE ARE

#3. Information on the deal.

☀ 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓-𝑭𝒐𝒓-𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 ☀

𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞. 𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬:

- 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐦𝐞. 𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫-𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭. 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞.

- 𝐃𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟-𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧. 𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞.

- 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞.

- 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐏 𝐎 𝐋 𝐈 𝐓 𝐄 𝐋 𝐘.

#4. A GREAT zodiac book to read is 'The Twelve' by Cindy Lin. It's not a Wattpad book but it sure as hell is awesome and it features the Chinese zodiacs! The inspiration for the training place was inspired from the one in there. Check it out!

That's all for now!

And, just for fun, what Chaol and Evon's 'Of course we aren't friends' convo was inspired from:

https://youtu.be/l9HUFkt1Gok

Start at 0:37.

Okay, I'm tired. The fourth chapter might take a little more time to publish because of how tired I am right now. If I missed anything, tell me here now, please.

Adieu and see you in the next chapter, thank you for reading!

-awakened-angel-chan