Hoshi's eyes opened. Morning sun filtered into her room, lighting the dusty room up. Particles floated in the air like fairy lights. The young woman felt a warm fuzzy mass against her arm. She looked to her monster companion that was sleeping next to her. The mattress had fallen through the bedframe, but it was comfortable enough. She looked around and saw the ghosts floating above her. She grabbed her mask and hid her face immediately.
"Hee hee hee! What's wrong? Shy?," the little ghost asked.
"No! I don't like people looking at my face! Something bad could have happened!," the teen snapped.
The gaunt ghost chuckled and floated over grim, "You two should be getting up to clean the school today!"
Grim rolled over to sleep more, only for the chubby ghost to add in on their teasing, "Go on, sleep in, you might find that you'll never hafta wake up. Like us! Ah hahaha!"
The sudden teasing made grim snap awake, the feline monster jumped off the bed and landed next to the girl. His muzzle was in a snarl.
"Yuu! The ghosts have returned!," Grim hissed, "Let's give 'em the usual!"
With Hoshi's direction, Grim was able to fight the ghosts that dared to threaten and tease them. The little monster's flames were able to beat the spirits back. Not that it seemed to fluster the ghosts much.

"We hear you two are going to be living here from now on! Hee hee hee! I hope you like pranks as much as we do~.," the skeletal ghost laughed
Grim hopped up onto Hoshi's shoulder and whispered, "We gotta get rid of these guys for good!"
The ghosts were about to make a teasing remark again. Only the sound of footsteps stopped both parties. The door to the room flung open, revealing the headmage. The crow masked man looked very chipper.
"Good morning, Yuu! How did you sleep?," the tall man asked.
"Pretty well.," the young woman replied, "But, don't you think it's a bad idea to barge into a girl's room? That goes for you as well, ghosts!"
The spirits looked a bit flustered and disappeared. The headmage pulled at his collar and cleared his throat before continuing.
"Well. I'm glad you are adjusting to a new world well.," the man said, avoiding her scolding, "Moving on, I need to give you the work assignments for today. I will give you some time to change into this, they are some gym clothes that were outgrown by some of our sophomores."
The headmage left, leaving the young woman time to change. Grim sat on the bed and faced away from the teenaged girl.
"Why do you hide your face?," the monster asked, "The mask is creepy and unnecessary."
"My family is cursed.," Hoshi replied, "I wear the mask to hide my cursed face from people. Bad things happen if my face and eyes are seen."
"I saw your face last night and I'm fine.," Grim replied, "I guess your family curse is a bunch of hooey!"

"It's not! I know bad things happened! I may not remember exactly what, but I remember that I made a promise to my family to never let people see my face.," the teen hissed as she bound her chest to hide the fact she was a female.
She wrapped bandages around her abdomen as well to make her look more masculine and to hide her shape. The platinum blonde brushed her fingers through her singed off hair, making sure she at least was somewhat decent while checking herself in the dusty mirror. Her two reddish orange antenna like hairs that stuck up seemed to look good. She noticed that she also had her magatama earrings in. A small memory came to her from looking at those earrings. Those were a gift from her grandparents when she was in middle school. Faces of people flashed in her mind, but she could not keep hold on what they looked like or who they were. Her memory of them faded as quickly as it came. The teen retied the mask onto her face, making the bell jingle.
She picked up grim, "Make me a promise. Please don't tell anyone what you saw."
"Fine, not like I remember what you looked like anyways.," the monster replied and sat on her shoulder.
The two went downstairs and got caught off guard by the headmage spraying them with something. 
"Ack! It got in my mouth!," Grim complained.
Hoshi coughed a bit, "What is that?!"
"Something I picked up to help keep your secret and you safe. It cost a bit but you can pay that off by working hard today.," the headmage said and held the bottle out, "Tada! It's a cologne that masks your female scent, making detection by scent impossible. This way, the beast men students won't figure out that you're a girl. Oh, aren't I just the best to think of this for you?"
The young woman took the bottle and looked at it. It seemed to be a normal perfume or cologne bottle, of not a little ornate. It did not really smell like anything. Perhaps a little like wood? Grim sniffed at her and sneezed.
"It works all right, she doesn't smell like anything.," The Grey monster agreed before rubbing his little body against her head, "That means that I get to make her smell like me now! You're my minion as of this point!"

Hoshi picked up the feline like monster from her shoulder, surprised to find his ear fire was not hot. But she held the little beast to her chest.
"What is the assignment?," the young woman asked the tall man before her.
Crowley seemed to be amused by the pair before him. The smile that he wore did not hide his amusement towards them. He snapped back to reality very quickly.
"You are to clean the campus today. But, the campus is quite vast and to clean it all will be a great effort without magic.," the top hat wearing man said, "So you shall focus on cleaning main street from the front gate to the library. Now I expect you to watch Grim here, lest there be another incident."
"Yes sir.," Hoshi answered, "I can't promise much."
"Do not fail me. You can receive lunch in the cafeteria.," Crowley tittered, "I do hope to see the fruits of your labor!"
The headmage left the two alone.
Grim snarled, "I'm not cleanin' nothin'. I'm here to learn how to fire off spells! Like bam and boom!"
The grey monster got a pinch on the cheek by the mask wearing young woman, "Grim behave. Otherwise you might be the one who's gonna be lunch. We can study after cleaning up."
Grim was not pleased and kept muttering under his breath. The teen ignored her companion and left the dorm they were graciously allowed to stay in. She found some cleaning tools and went to the front gate to start cleaning. She swept leaves away from the paved path and cleaned up some litter she spotted. Grim was begrudgingly helping with sweeping the leaves. It was a clear morning. Finally, they found themselves on main street. The sun was higher in the sky and some students were on their way to the main campus.

The two were mostly ignored by the populous, save for the odd mocking or curious glances. Hoshi kept her mask on and swept as Grim marveled at the statues.
"I never got a good look yesterday, but what's with the creepy statues? There's seven of 'em.," the cat like monster mused.
"Same number as deadly sins.," The masked girl answered back as she finally looked up to the statues, "Whoa. These are pretty incredible. A lion, a woman with octopus legs. A very pretty woman. A woman with horns..."
"Yeah, this one here looks like she has some real anger issues.," Grim said and pointed at one.
It depicted a large woman with a heart shaped fan and a small crown on her head. Hoshi snickered, grabbing her mask as the bells on it jingled from her movements.
"She's the Queen of Hearts, never heard of her?," the voice of a young man asked.
Hoshi looked beside her to see a young man standing next to her. She jumped back a bit, as did he from seeing her ferocious looking mask. He was a little handsome. Reddish orange eyes and hair that was fluffed up. He had a heart shaped marking over one eye and his uniform was unkempt but clean, a hard look to pull off well.
"Queen of Hearts? Is she some sort of big deal?," Grim asked.
"Well yeah. She was a queen who lived in a maze like garden of roses a loooong time ago.," the redhead replied.
Hoshi held onto her broom as she looked back up to the statue as the boy continued speaking.
"She valued order above all, so she was pretty strict. Not a single off color rose or a card soldier being out of step was tolerated.," the redhead said, "She gave order to a kingdom of madness. But nobody defied her, wanna know why?"
The redhead turned to the two, "Because the punishment was immediate decapitation!"
Grim wailed, "That's messed up!"
"A bit harsh...," Hoshi commented.
"Awesome right? I'm a huge fan.," the redhead grinned, "Besides, who'd follow a queen who was just kind all the time?"

Grim seemed to settle down, "True, a leader needs to be strong."
Hoshi continued to be quiet as to not alert the young man to what she was.
The feline monster spoke up again, "That aside, who are you?"
"My name is Ace, I'm a first year student here as of today! Nice to meetcha.," the boy made a friendly smile.
The platinum blonde young woman felt something off. He was not being fully honest with why he was speaking to them. Grim did not see this and kept talking.
"I'm Grim!," The little grey beast introduced himself, "I'm going to be a great mage one day! This is my ugly henchman."
Hoshi tapped Grim's head with her broom, warning him.
"I think you said it was 'Yuu', right? It's odd.," Ace commented.
"I'm nobody's hench- anything. But nice to meet you.," Hoshi said, disguising her voice to sound more masculine.
Grim was focused on the statues rather than work, "What about the lion with the scar on his eye? Is he important too?"
"Of course! That's the king of beasts. He ruled over the Savanna.," Ace explained, "But he wasn't born into the throne. He had to earn it with hard work and careful planning."
"Sounds like he was a schemer.," Hoshi commented as she continued to work.
This seemed to cause a little ire to the redhead, who continued to talk, "He decreed that hyenas would live with the subjects instead of being pariahs."
"Wow! He sounds wonderful, not everyone is able to look past status like that.," Grim commented.

The masked girl continued to work as Ace and grim discussed the statues, glancing up at the statues every once in a while. She stopped before the horned woman, the 'Witch of The Thorns' as Ace called her.
'Those horns... I remember seeing a statue with horns before. It was important to my family.,' she thought and reached out to touch the statue base.
She felt a small pain in her head as she saw a quick image. The image of a horned male statue, looking down at her with a gentle expression. A word flashed in her mind as soon as she saw remembered that statue.
Oni.
She held her head quickly as Ace continued to talk. She heard Grim call over to her and point at the pretty woman's statue.
"Don't you wish you looked this good?," the Monster Jabbed at her appearance, "Maybe if you stopped wearing that horrible thing, you'd be more appealing."
Hoshi shot him a rude gesture, "I'm working for you so we don't get in trouble. Don't antagonize me."
The monster grumbled and kept talking to ace. Until Ace insulted him. The redhead started to make uproarious laughter mocking the two.
"You are the two idiots who made the Orientation a mess! The magicless mistake the Dark Mirror summoned and the monster nobody summoned at all!," Ace jabbed, "It was everything I had to not burst into laughter right there in the ceremony! Now you rejects are janitors? Lame!"
The masked girl gripped her broom, she wanted to do something to shut this boy up.
"And you two don't know anything about the famous Great Seven! Talk about stupid!," the redhead continued, "Are you from some sort of backwater that has been isolated? Go back to kindergarten before taking a stab at Night raven College!"

"How about you actually go to class instead of teasing us?," Hoshi asked, turning her back on the red haired boy to sweep leaves and trash away from the statues.
Ace scoffed and walked away, Grim was fuming. The monster spat blue flames at the fiery haired boy. Ace was stopped in his tracks by a wall of fire.
"Not so fast, I'm gonna made your explody head actually explode!," Grim howled.
"Explody head? You wanna fight, short stack? Ballsy.," the boy scoffed, "I'll shave you like a showdog!"
Hoshi felt a pain in her head. She needed to stop it fast. Grim blasted fireballs of blue flames towards Ace, Who deflected with wind magic. Students who noticed began to gather, egging the two to fight more.
"You two, knock it off right now!," the masked girl ordered, "Grim! Calm down!"
The two did not heed her nor hear her. They were so wrapped up in mutual aggression and pride. Their fight drew on, culminating in Grim's flame being deflected into the direction of the Queen of Hearts' statue. This caused both to stop. The voice of Crowley boomed over the crowd, causing the students to scatter. Including Ace and Grim. The masked girl stood still as the headmage used his magic to lash the misbehaving students and her.
"I told you to have no more incidents and you char one of the statues?! Do you want to be expelled?!," The headmage raged.
Hoshi kept her mouth shut. She knew that a school full of boys was a hot bed for conflict.
"And Yuu, I told you to keep Grim under control!," the headmage scolded.
The teen girl nodded, "I'm sorry, Crowley."
Crowley turned to the red headed boy, "State your name and grade!"
"Ace Trappola. Freshman.," Ace replied.

"Alright! Yuu, Ace, Grim, listen up! As punishment for this, you're to wash one hundred windows!," the headmage scolded.
Ace and Grim were not happy with this, but Hoshi gave a nod. She was okay with this. She felt like this was something she could do. Like she had done something like this before. The red haired boy and the monster began to argue about whose fault it was. Crowley stopped their fighting and told them to meet him in the cafeteria at the end of the day. The headmage took his leave.
"This is all your fault, stupid Tanuki!," the red haired boy shot at the monster.
Grim grumbled.
"And you, Why didn't you try to stop him?," Ace shot at the masked girl.
He reached out to grab her mask, only for her to jump away. She held the broom out as a way to defend herself. She needed to keep him from touching her mask at all cost. If he saw her face, she knew he'd not only know she was a girl, but also he'd see her curse. The student left after scoffing at the two.
She felt a headbutt on her leg, looking down she saw grim looking up at her.
"You're supposed to back me up!," Grim pouted with little tears in his shining blue eyes.
The masked girl knelt down and placed a gentle hand on the monster's furry back. She fixed his black and white striped ribbon. She stood and got a small rag out of the supplies for cleaning. She reached up to the statue and began to wipe it clean of the blackening char. She tried to clean it with all of her might. This was at least what she could do. Grim's blue eyes looked at her arm, there was a red mark under the cut old gym uniform. Along with the purple mark of the previous night's whipping. He spotted several scars under that bruise.

Students had left. The two were the only ones there. The teen girl stopped trying to clean to pat Grim.
"Grim, I'll try to help you learn spells at the library. But we need to clean and earn our food.," the young woman spoke.
The monster looked mad, "Who does that darn Ace think he is?! He can't bully the great Grim!"
Hoshi shook her head and motioned the monster to follow her to keep cleaning. He followed her begrudgingly. They kept up with their work and cleared the street of leaves and trash. It looked very good afterwards. The young woman disposed of the trash in the correct areas and looked to the sky, it was a little after noon. She stretched and walked towards the cafeteria. She quietly passed by some students and teachers, keeping out of sight and quiet. The two got to the cafeteria, thankfully nobody seemed to notice them. (Y/n) went to the line to see what was on the menu.
"Do they have Lotus stir fry or maybe stuffed tofu packets?," she asked nobody in particular.
"Who cares, I'm hungry!," Grim fussed and hopped up onto her shoulder, "Just get something!"
Hoshi finally picked out a fried rice platter to share with grim. She saw the other selection looked similar to foods she had seen before. Another flash of memories hit her as she sat in the corner, out of the way from anyone else. She had seen food like those extravagant meals at a restaurant that her parents took her to once. The faces of her mother and father were fuzzy, but she could tell that her parents were happy and completely in love. The masked teen ran her fingers through her platinum blonde hair, being careful of the two reddish orange hairs that stuck up like antenna. She noticed the singed portions of her hair finally. She gave an annoyed look at Grim.

She and Grim ate together before they finished. She let grim have the most of the food, she didn't want to upset her stomach. After cleaning up she went to find something else to do with Grim. Hoshi stopped when a student stepped in front of her as she was walking back to the table she left grim at.
"I hope you have a toothbrush with you.," the student said.
The masked girl stepped back and shook her head. The student before her had green hair and golden eyes. His red glasses framed his eyes. He looked friendly, but the teen girl was hesitant. She made a stance that was able to defend herself if she needed to. The young man stepped back.
"Whoa now. Calm down. I'm not here to fight.," the young man said and pulled a toothbrush from his pocket, "I heard some ghosts earlier mention that you came here with nothing, so I wanted to give you this."
Hoshi took the toothbrush and looked at it. It was covered in a plastic wrap. She looked up at the smiling green haired boy and gave a small nod. He looked a bit confused before smiling again.
"Ah, I guess you're still on guard after this morning.," the young man said, "Well, I hope that we can get along. The name is Trey, by the way. Yours is Yuu."
Again, the masked girl nodded.
"Not really a talkative type I see, don't worry. I don't bite.," Trey smiled, "I need to get back so I can go to class. Have a good day."
Trey left and Hoshi waved at him before returning to Grim, who was chewing on a piece of food he more than likely snagged from someone who wasn't looking.

'Just what have I gotten myself into?,' Hoshi thought to herself as she went back to Grim.