Thirty minutes pass during their class period, and everything is already a mess.
The room and students are all covered in soot. Ashes fall from the ceiling and debris floats in the air. The twins use their robe's sleeve to cover their mouth and nose, blocking the burning scent that nearly chokes them to death.
The sight is horrendous, but it explains why smoke spilled out the door when Con-man opened it. Why he is also covered in soot. The only ones that do not seem to be affected by everything are the overgrown plants in their pots on the side. Even Dahlia and the teacher seem fine, not a speck of dirt on them.
Gem tugs on the con-man's robe to see him look down at her.
"Yeah?" He says to her, gold eyes shining under the dim light of the room.
Gem opens her mouth to speaks but her sister beats her to it.
"What happened?" Mini walks past the students, who are busy cleaning the room with mops and buckets in hand, and moves toward Dahlia.
Of course, X is not going to let those little troublemakers have their way. He slips past them and sits in the only seat beside his pet.
The twins glare at him, but he pretends to be blind and answer their question.
"Prof. Hannibal blew up the room while making a potion. I figured he may have done that to demonstrate something, but before he could do anything the students were already rushing to clean themselves." X shrugs at the end, not knowing what to do with the situation.
Dahlia doesn't notice her guardian's movement, as she stares warily at the twins. Especially the girl on the right, Mini. There is something dangerous about that girl, but Dahlia cannot put it into words. Only the feeling, like something crawling on her akin to a serpent wrapping itself around its prey.
She sticks closer to X, hoping this will make her safe from those two girls. As she thinks about her safety, someone loudly clear their throat at the front of the room, gathering everyone attention.
"Excuse me," Prof. Hannibal speaks with a nasal voice. He was tall, middle-age man with a beak-like nose and sharp eyes. "If everyone is done messing around, please sit down."
All the students sit down with a frown on their faces. Some students sits in uncomfortable silence, while a handful are still trying to wipe themselves clean. Prof. Hannibal watches all this by his desk. Ignoring X reluctantly having his knife wound being heal by Mini, Prof. Hannibal does not say anything but picks up the ingredients in front of him.
The students does not say anything, their eyes on the man's fluid movements as he puts monster parts into a boiling cauldron of chemical. The students secretly move their chair back, hoping there will not be another explosion. The twin sees this, but did not understand the other students' thought, as they didn't experience the first explosion.
As the Professor drops the last ingredients, the students drop and hide behind their desk. A white light flash with a bang from the cauldron. For a minute, the whole room is fill with white light. X on the side, hides Dahlia and the twins under him as best as he can.
When the flash was finish, the students slowly climbs up. Everyone eyes open wide in disbelief. They look at themselves, then the person next to them, and finally the classroom. Everything in the room, including themselves, are clean. No damages, debris, or soot in sight.
"Now, I hope none of you think this is magic," Prof. Hannibal watches them with contempt. "This class is science, where you will learn to make concoctions that can help you on the field, like smoke bombs or sleeping powder."
The Professor keeps speaking and the students listen in their seats. "Now, we'll learn how to make the soot bomb on a smaller scale."
Some of the students twitch at the thought of another bomb, but follows instruction. Tools already prepared for them since the beginning, all they had to do is find the page Prof. Hannibal recommended. The students starts to make the concoctions. Professor Hannibal comes around, looking over their shoulders.
Many students work in pairs, while few work alone. Of course, Gem and Mini will work together. Gem says the instructions and Mini does the work. That's how it works, even if they didn't need the book, they didn't want a teacher to nag at them about following instructions again.
When they are almost done, without Gem or anyone else watching, Mini slips the wrong ingredient into the pot. At first the pot trembles, eyes slowly gathers on it. Gem and Prof. Hannibal frown, but when the table starts to tremble too, they know this will not end well.
"Hid—"
Before the Professor can warn the students another explosion starts off with a bang! Amidst the confusion and "not again" one person is prepared for the worst.
Mini slips from her chair and moves to the window where Dahlia sits. The table they sat in is a four seater, a perfect arrangement to kidnap your desk mate. Dahlia struggles to escape Mini hold, but somehow Mini is able to drag her out without being notice.
As they reach down the hall, Dahlia fear only grows to a dangerous degree, enough to headbutt her kidnapper and run, but that's not enough. Dahlia didn't know where to go and she can hear footsteps coming closer. She tries to find an unlock door, but has no luck until she finds one door.
Mini walks from behind, touching every door the other girl may have tried to open. Finally, she reaches the door with the warmest temperature, it must be this one. She goes into the room, switches on the light, and looks around. The empty class looks like any with rows of benches and desks.
She moves to the first row looking under the desk, finding nothing. She stands and straightens up, ready to check other places. Suddenly from behind, a thick rope strangles her.
In the classroom, two small bodies struggles. Their ragged breathing fills the room silence, as they find themselves in a stalemate. Mini headbutts Dahlia, making the younger girl tumble back. Mini uses this opportunity and jumps on top of her, pinning the other child's hands with her right hand.
Dahlia kicks are futile as Mini rest the blade of her knife on the child's neck.
"Who are you and what is your connection to the Deserters!" Mini shouts
Dahlia stops. Her crying face turns unusually sharp, and the spell X cast on the girl's face disappears. Black cobweb decorates her face.
"You—" Mini says in shock.
Dahlia rolls over and switches position with Mini, pushing the older girl down to the ground. "What did you say," Dahlia spits out in anger.