Content Warning: Sexual Content, Gore
000
Metal, flames, and acid whizzed through the air, all of them missing their target, a single eighteen year old maiden. The woman was flying through the air so fast that the ground below looked like a haze of colors to her. Meanwhile, the Nucleus above was still clear to see.
The damsel traveling on the wind wore the Salt uniform of Khalid Al-Kimiya Academy, though the tie hung loose, and the jacket was being worn like a cape that hung on her shoulders. The outfit did well to accentuate her rather absurd curves. B102-W58-H90cm, proportions that had to have been designed by a perverted author.
And then there was her face. It was perfectly crafted to balance cuteness and sexiness to create an unrealistic benchmark of what it meant to be beautiful. Her limbs were slender, her dark skin was soft, and her hands were petite. It was as if the stereotypical ideal of feminine beauty, the platonic form of a 'woman' as defined by collective human bias, had been made manifest in lower reality.
Magenta hair went all the way to her thighs and had been feathered so the ends of the strands curved outward which made her hair spiky like a hedgehog. Her bangs were straight, and an arching ahoge went down to her collar bone. Big circle rimmed glasses granted solid vision to cyan eyes, and their gold color matched the maiden's hoop earrings and bangle bracelets.
Her two inch long fake nails were black, which was the same color as the complex designs made of henna that resembled vines traveling down her fingers, each tendril covered in a different kind of flower. Also, the vines on her middle fingers went all the way down the backs of her hands to form more extravagant patterns.
This lady, who remained fashionable despite being less than affluent to put it lightly, was Scheherazade, also known as Eve Scharfmann, also known as me.
I didn't have the confidence to praise myself much, but my appearance was something I could always be proud of.
Invisible lasers made from light refracted through lithium fluoride crystals headed towards me, but I sensed the temperature change of the oxygen and hydrogen in the air, allowing me to detect the rays and dodge them. I made sure that my luggage, which was flying behind me, juked and jived out of harm's way as well.
A posse of twenty Alchemists who were less than fond of me for being the Sultan's daughter had decided to attack me when they saw I was on my way to school. They were flying after me on hoverboards, and throwing every attack they could at me, but I dodged them all. Being able to sense the positions and conditions of the oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere allowed me to have a three-dimensional map of my surroundings in my head. It made keeping track of the myriad projectiles a simple affair.
The fact I was used to getting attacked by people also helped.
Clutching my purse to my chest, I kept on heading towards Khalid Al-Kimiya Academy. It was the first day of the new school year, and it would be the beginning of my first college year, so I didn't want to be late.
Two of the Alchemists following me raised their arms. A geyser of molten basalt broke through the ground and surrounded me in a sphere. The orb began shrinking to crush and burn me away.
Copying a technique from a friend, I created a cloud of strengthened oxygen atoms that I sent towards the atoms of the surrounding basalt. Each of the sphere's particles collided with one of mine, the molten material's atoms being pierced through. I blocked the explosion of energy released from the atomic destruction with a barrier of hydrogen.
The attacking Alchemists retreated from the detonation while I flew through it and continued towards the Academy.
I arrived at the entrance to the dome that contained the Academy campus. My pursuers gave up at that point, sending me their last few insults and obscene gestures before flying away.
More such insults came from the crowd of other arriving students, some of whom threw random objects at me that I blocked with invisible shields.
A few members of the crowd were looking at me with eyes full of lust rather than hate due to my hyper-idealized appearance. It was a body designed by an artist and author to be as appealing and marketable as possible, so it made sense.
I quite liked the gorgeous body my second life had granted me, especially since, unlike my first life, I didn't have to get any surgery to make it feel comfortable to live in. That said, I didn't really feel like any more of a woman than I did in my first life. Even before I got reassignment surgery during my original life, I already felt like I was a woman.
In some ways, my new body being so perfect without me needing to put much work in felt a little invalidating of my past efforts. I worked like hell in my old world to have a body that didn't feel incongruous with my mental image of myself, but then I died and was handed something even better. It was like I was being told that I had wasted my time transitioning in my first life. Still, I couldn't complain too much given I got to reincarnate into a body that felt good to be in.
Upon entering the Academy's dome, I ignored the hate coming from my peers and flew to the Salt dormitory. I checked in and went to the room I had been staying in ever since I left the broom closet I was originally assigned by the school.
The octagonal room hadn't changed much. There were more comics and manga on the shelves than there used to be, and there were hologram projections of animals, anime characters, and boy band members moving about the room or swapping between various poses. The circular bed at the room's center was converted to a triple bunk bed. The middle bunk, my bunk, had a curtain around it so I could feel confined while I slept.
Four people were on top bunk, three men and one notably pale skinned woman.
They were having sex.
Badroulbadour had arrived at the room first, and she'd once again brought some gentlemen to have fun with while forgetting to put any warning signs on the door.
Pan Hu was in his big doggy bed, growling as he looked at the men inserting themselves into his master.
Two of the guys noticed my entrance, the third too ecstatic from the blowie Badroulbadour was giving him to be aware of anything around him.
"Oh, shit. Uh." One guy looked between me, the other guys, and Badroulbadour. "I thought you said your roommates wouldn't show for hours?"
Badroulbadour slipped the penis out of her mouth. The owner of said penis regained his senses and finally noticed me.
"When's an hour?" Badroulbadour slurred before bursting into a giggle fit. She looked at me and waved. "Hey, babe. How's your sister doing?"
All the beauty mark sporting girl wore was a black bra and stockings. Her figure was even more curvaceous than my own, and her hair was in an asymmetrical pixie cut that resembled the hairstyle I had when we first met as kids. Her teeth had a yellow tint to them, and her whole body was gaunt to the point of being bony.
"You didn't mark the door," I texted Badroulbadour. "You also could have shot me a text."
"I forgor." Badroulbadour bonked herself on the head, her face becoming more cartoony as she winked and her tongue stuck out.
A single sniff and my nostrils stung from how much the room reeked of alcohol, or rather, how much Badroulbadour reeked of it.
I sighed.
"The entrance ceremony is in a couple hours. Why are you drunk?"
"I'm also high." Badroulbadour giggled. "I wanted to celebrate the start of the new school year. Also, I was bored."
"And you couldn't think of anything else you could do?"
"I did. I thought about going to a club, but I spent most of the break at clubs, so I stuck to finding some guys on crampus. I mean clampus. I meant crampus. Fuck. Campus."
"You gotta pull back on the partying and fucking and drinking. It's already gotten you demoted to Salt because your grades dropped."
"And it's thanks to that that I get to room with you and Morg!" Badroulbadour raised her arms.
It felt like I was looking at who I was back in my original world. After being forced to live as a weapon for Soushen Ji, and now that she didn't have to come off as appealing to influential people in the Laylan government for her mission, Badroulbadour was doing whatever she wanted. She finally had the freedom and resources to have fun in any way she could think of. Considering that she was already pretty flirty and forward despite her mission in the anime, it shouldn't have been a surprise that an unrestricted Badroulbadour would be a nymphomaniac.
"And it'll get you expelled at this rate. You'll probably get called back to Soushen Ji if that happens."
"And I'll officially declare my defection at that point," Badroulbadour said out loud.
"Remember we're in the company of people who aren't supposed to hear about what we're talking about. Loose lips sink the entire fleet."
"Oopsie poopsie." Badroulbadour put on a pouty face. The three guys listened to Badroulbadour's half of the conversation, their eyebrows occasionally raising, and their hands sometimes rubbing their necks in awkwardness.
"By the way, the Laylan government wouldn't be happy if you couldn't serve as their double agent anymore, so officially declaring your defection probably wouldn't go well."
"You're right." Badroulbadour pouted harder.
"So quit living so recklessly, it's bad for your health anyway."
"Yes, mom." Badroulbadour's words droned without feeling.
"I wanna meet up with Morgiana and Hussain before the entrance ceremony, so let's get out of here." I would have continued the scolding, but my mind had jumped me to another subject. My family could no longer afford medication for my ADHD, so it had once again become a significant problem for me, not that it ever fully stopped being an issue. If I brought it up to Morgiana, she'd probably have paid for the meds, but I didn't want to take advantage of her kindness.
"Shoo, boys, or we'll get grounded."
The three guys got off the bed, put on their uniforms, and left the room.
Badroulbadour dressed herself. She opted to leave out the suit jacket and tied the button up shirt right below her breasts to emphasize them and show off her midriff, along with rolling up the sleeves. The top few buttons of her shirt were also undone to show some cleavage, though the actual line was hidden a bit by her loose tie. She had gold stud earrings, finger rings, and a charm bracelet to finish her outfit.
"Aight, I'm ready." With full intentionality, Badroulbadour proceeded to fall over, Pan Hu dashing over and catching her on his back.
"Pan Hu isn't a horse you know."
"Yeah, because he's better." The blonde buried her face in the hound's fur. Pan Hu exhaled from his nose.
That poor dog.
Badroulbadour, Pan Hu, and I left the dormitory, the blonde still riding on her dog's back. I texted Morgiana, asking her where she was so we could meet up. There was no response, the text wouldn't even send in fact, meaning the signal was being blocked. This wasn't the first time this had happened, so we went to where Morgiana probably was.
We arrived at the Disciplinary Committee building. It was a ring of blue glass, and at the center of it was a lavish garden courtyard. The inside was full of students wearing blue armbands. A front desk sat in a large and undecorated room besides some seats against the walls. There was nothing in the way if some Committee members had to fly out of the building to stop a rule breaker or actual criminal.
"Hi, Arash." Badroulbadour waved at one of the students manning the front desk, a muscular man with an orange buzzcut and extra eyes all over his head. "Is Morgiana here?"
"When isn't she?" Arash leafed through papers. "She got caught with a sebsi pipe and some kief. Normally being caught with drugs and drug paraphernalia on campus would get her suspended or expelled, but she's getting a slap on the wrist again."
Being the Headmaster's daughter came with its perks, even if that fact was hidden from most.
"When will she be out?"
"Tonight. The slap is extra light since it's the first day of the semester. She'll miss the entrance ceremony, but I doubt she cares."
"She couldn't stay out of trouble for a day," I texted Badroulbadour.
"She is who she is. We'll see her tonight. We can go out and party!"
"What did I tell you before about the partying?"
"Why do you gotta kill the fun?"
Before I could respond, I got two texts from Hussain.
"I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him! I found him!"
The second text was the name of a location.
Instantly I forgot about what I was going to say to Badorulbadour. Hussain and I were anticipating the arrival of a new student, and Hussain had been hunting for them.
"Hussain texted me. He's in Khalid Plaza. Let's go."
Badroulbadour, Pan Hu, and I flew on my hydrogen over to a plaza right at the campus' center. It provided a perfect view of The Flask in nearly its entirety, and was surrounded by buildings that intertwined with or were even built into giant trees. There were multiple bazaars nearby, and many of the buildings were shopping malls or department stores. The plaza itself was part plaza, part park. Flat grassy stretches were ornamented with palm trees, topiary, and bridges going over brooks. This was the heart of the campus where students would meet up to hang out.
In order to avoid attention as much as reasonably possible given everyone hated us, we stuck to the rooftops. It took little time to find Hussain who was waving at us and jumping.
Hussain wasn't particularly tall, but he sure was buff. Each of his biceps were as big as his head. The feminine faced boy's suit conformed to the shape of his muscles. He didn't wear the jacket, but he did wear a black suit vest. Out of all my friends, he was the only one who was in Sulfur rather than Salt, so he had a red shirt instead of a white one. His blonde hair was a spiky mess like a shonen anime protagonist, his fingernails were decked out with rhinestones, and he had dangling heart earrings.
"Hey!" Hussain pulled me, Badroulbadour, and somehow Pan Hu into a hug. He even lifted us off the ground.
"Hi, Hussain!" Badroulbadour matched Hussain's enthusiasm. Pan Hu's jaws were opening in preparation to bite Hussain's head off.
"Hey," I texted.
"I missed you all so much!" Hussain swung us around.
"It's barely been a month."
"Where's Morgiana?"
"Detention."
"I should have known." Hussain let us go.
"She'll be out tonight."
"Then we'll celebrate her freedom when she's back!" Hussain flexed as he posed with his arms behind his head.
"I can get behind that!" Badroulbadour tried her best to imitate Hussain's pose while continuing to lie on Pan Hu's back.
After facepalming, I sent Hussain a private text.
"Where is he?"
Before Hussain could attempt to answer my question, we were interrupted by the arrival of some more students to the roof of the building we were on. Most were Disciplinary Committee members, but there were some exceptions.
Riding on a flying carpet was a group of five students who wore unique uniforms. The pants, ties, shoes, and jackets were white instead of black. These were the uniforms worn by the Student Council. In the anime, the Student Council President was actually Scheherazade, and Badroulbadour was the Vice-President.
This timeline's Student Council was entirely different.
It was a group of five girls of around the same age. The Vice-President was a mystery, her name unknown to me and her head hidden by a white niqab. All I knew was that she was in Mercury due to her blue shirt.
The President, however, I knew well. She was also in Mercury, and she was only four feet, eight inches tall. Her black hair was long, wavy, and covered in little white bows while her eyes were a vibrant pink that popped thanks to her black sclera from cybernetic enhancement. Other alterations to her body included long pointed ears and an extra two pairs of arms that floated around her that were actually drones she controlled with her mind. A big white bow sat atop her head. Poking out of her smugly grinning cat mouth was a snaggletooth, a yaeba.
This woman, the Student Council President, was Abirza, the president of Alf-Laylah wa-Laylah's daughter and the girl who assaulted me in my dorm room on my first day at the Academy.
"Dear oh dear. It seems there are some ne'er do wells gathering upon the roof of this building. You do realize this roof isn't a public space, yes?" Abriza covered her mouth with the back of her hand. "I know you all care little for the law or even common decency, but to misbehave on the very first day? How disquieting."
"Roofs need to have signs saying they aren't public spaces Alchemists can fly to, otherwise they're free game." Hussain raised a finger. "This roof isn't labeled as such. That's why we came to this specific one. Most of the others have signs."
"You mean a sign like that one?" Abriza made an exaggerated motion as she pointed towards a sign saying this roof wasn't a public space. Next to it stood a Disciplinary Committee member with a toothy grin.
That sign wasn't there before. Either it was a fake that Abriza's lackeys put there now when we weren't looking, or it was real and they took it down to bait my friends and I into coming here.
This was a trap. I bet it was some similar shenaniganry from the Council that got Morgiana to reveal the drugs she had on her.
Abriza had bullied my friends and I ever since she enrolled in the Academy. Her posse usually did the dirty work, and no matter how obvious it was that she was committing harassment, she never got in trouble because she was the president's daughter, and I was the Sultan's daughter. Every cruelty of her's was praised by the public who pretended that she was in the right or that she hadn't done anything at all.
One time, Abriza had me blocked from using any of the school's websites which prevented me from doing a lot of school work. I was punished for failing to get done despite my helplessness.
Another time, Abriza slipped drugs into my belongings and then got the Disciplinary Committee to search my stuff. I nearly got expelled, but Badroulbadour used her influence within the Laylan government to make it so instead I had to do community service around the campus. Having a spy as your friend had its perks.
There've been multiple times where Abriza and her posse have jumped me in public, and even then media outlets would frame things in a way that made me look like the bad guy, even as I refused to fight back.
Speaking of not fighting back, I didn't bother to now either. There was no way to prove the sign wasn't there when we went onto the roof. I accepted that Badroulbadour, Hussain, and I would be joining Morgiana in the Disciplinary Committee building.
"I'm too drunk for this." Badroulbadour groaned into the back of a growling Pan Hu.
"There has to be some way to-" Hussain, who was pinching his chin in thought, let his eyes wander. As they did, they spotted something in the courtyard that completely captured his attention.
Everyone followed Hussain's gaze to the center of the courtyard where several students were now gathering around a group of eight of their peers. Six were college aged Sulfur students. One was a slightly younger Salt student with a ponytail who was on the ground between them. She was crying and rubbing her cheek.
Lastly was a Sulfur student who stood apart. He wore his uniform without any modifications and he was decently tall. Black hair was styled into a two block cut with the sides cut short, but not shaved. The haircut made him look like a k-pop star, especially when paired with his handsome yet bland face, though it was hard to evaluate said face when his bangs were so long they covered his eyes like a self-insert dude in a hentai.
He looked like he did in the anime.
This was Daud, the main character of Al-Kimiya.
In the original anime, Daud was a generic self-insert to his core. He had no notable character traits beyond being a quiet and nice guy. There was a recurring gag of him liking to wander around, but he only had that trait so he could roam into plot important events or fan service scenes. If it weren't for him having a slightly more unique design than most protagonists of his ilk, Daud would be completely forgettable.
Despite being so dull, I wanted to see what Daud was like in this timeline, and Hussain wanted to be his friend, so we were anticipating this year, the year he enrolled at the Academy in the anime. Daud came from an impoverished family and he wanted to become a great Alchemist to make enough money to let his parents live in luxury as thanks for raising him. His motivation actually mirrored my own.
"This is none of your business, dude. Piss off." The speaker was one of the students surrounding the girl on the ground, a Mercury guy with a cybernetic lower jaw that opened and closed in multiple parts like an insectoid mandible.
"Sorry, but I can't stand by while someone is being bullied." Daud's voice was deep but soft.
"She's not being bullied," A Sulfur girl with twintails said. "We're just disciplining her."
"Please, elaborate."
"My mom makes a lot of substantial donations to this Academy. She has some influence thanks to that. I told this Salt girl that I could get my mom to pull some strings and raise her into Sulfur, but that she'd have to do me a few favors."
"Such as?"
"Running some errands. We made this deal a year ago, and she'd been doing as she was told up until now, but suddenly she's getting all uppity because she's still not in Sulfur." The pigtail girl crossed her arms. "How ungrateful is that? She's gotta earn it, you know? It takes time."
"This sounds like you were exploiting her. You made her your errand girl with the false promise of letting her into Sulfur some day."
"Dude, walk away." The mandible guy stepped towards Daud. "Or you're gonna have a bad time."
"I'll leave when you agree to stop bullying that girl." Daud didn't move a single nanometer.
"Last warning."
"I'm not moving."
The mandible man pulled back his fist which became coated in an armor of titanium before punching Daud right in the face.
It was like a baby hitting a brick wall with a feather. Not a single one of Daud's atoms reacted to the strike in any way. Meanwhile, the mandible man's gauntlet shattered, as did his hand. His fingers bent backwards at their joints, the man's palm squished like a juiced orange, and his own blood painted his hand red.
Daud had a smear of the now crying mandible man's blood on his face. He didn't seem to care.
As the mandible man dropped to the ground, the remaining five bullies took his place in attacking Daud. Spears of radioactive cobalt, invisible blades of neon, spikes of diamond, jets of bromine, and misty spheres of liquid nitrogen came at Daud from all possible angles, even right below him.
In response, Daud flexed his muscles. A single quick flex. That small yet swift movement carried enough force to create a shockwave of displaced air that blew away all the incoming attacks. Daud's clothes and even surrounding objects were unharmed, such was the precision of the movement Daud made. He could calculate exactly how to move his body to make sure the shockwave wouldn't cause any collateral damage.
Everyone watching the fight was still as stone, dumbstruck by the sheer might Daud was displaying without even using Alchemy.
The initial premise presented in Al-Kimiya was that Daud lacked the ability to use Alchemy, but was born with absurd physical ability. He managed to impress enough with these abilities that he was allowed to enroll in the Academy, but since he couldn't actually use Alchemy, he was stuck in Salt. Other students would constantly look down on and underestimate Daud for not being able to use Alchemy, but he would always make them eat their words when he showed off his physical might.
But it was upon remembering that premise that I became confused. Daud was supposed to be in Salt since he couldn't use Alchemy.
So why was this timeline's Daud in Sulfur?
"Please, leave the girl alone." Daud looked right at the girl with twintails, who jumped.
"Don't try and act like you're all that!" The girl hid behind one of her friends who tensed up. "So you're durable and strong and whatever! So what? We've got you outnumbered!"
"I highly suggest you surrender. I don't want to fight back." After Daud said that, something began forming above the plaza.
Silver and platinum shaped into a shimmering construct the size of a skyscraper. Its handle and cross guard were those of a greatsword, but what extended out from the guard and pointed down towards the group of bullies was unmistakably a chainsaw. Serrated teeth moved slightly, as if eager to begin running at full speed to shred something. The flat sides of the saw were ornamented with hundreds of lifelike statues of fair women in a variety of poses, along with gothic towers, doorways, and reliefs, as if cathedrals were growing out of the weapon. I wondered why Daud would evoke the gothic architectural style.
Then I wondered why Daud was using Alchemy.
Not only that, but he was manipulating two elements, a rare ability that only a few people such as myself and Zumurrud were capable of.
In the anime, it was eventually revealed that Daud secretly could use Alchemy, but it wasn't silver and platinum he controlled.
Daud's backstory was that he was the reincarnation of the Djinn King that terrorized Underworld with an army of djinn two thousand years ago. While the Djinn King was remembered as an evil human who became a djinn and was defeated by the Hero, the truth was more complex than that.
An army of Djinn suddenly appeared from nowhere and began trying to exterminate humanity. They were made of Elixir, also known as the Philosopher's Stone, an element that was unbound by physics and reality. Elixir could transmute any element into any other element, and could temporarily rewrite the laws of physics and logic. Sulaiman was an Alchemist born with the rare power to control Elixir, and so he and a woman known as Sinbad the Hero led the charge against the Djinn.
Unfortunately, Elixir was corruptive, slowly turning those who controlled it into djinn-human hybrids who could control djinn. That was Sulaiman's fate. He gave in to the destructive instincts of djinn, becoming the leader of the hoard trying to exterminate humanity. In the end, the Djinn King was slain by Sinbad, who was Sulaiman's lover.
With a semblance of his sanity restored in his last moments, Sulaiman used the reality altering powers of his Elixir to reincarnate himself two thousand years later as a human so he could live a normal life. Upon being reborn as Daud, he put seals on himself to restrict his djinn side at the cost of limiting his power. Now he was supposed to hide his control over Elixir and instead rely on his new body's superhuman physique so as to not draw suspicion that he might be the Djinn King born anew.
This timeline's version of Daud was likely using undetectably small amounts of Elixir to screw with reality and control other elements, but I didn't know why he'd do that. Getting caught using Elixir put him at risk of people thinking he was the Djinn King. Daud was overpowered with just his physical abilities, so why bother showing off like this? Was it to get into Sulfur? Why did that matter to him? Did he want status? Attention?
I wanted to keep pondering these questions, but my ADHD caused me to get distracted by other things, namely the way both Badroulbadour and Abriza were getting nosebleeds as they watched Daud give the bullies a blood freezing glare.
The chainsaw's shadow darkneed the plaza. All six of the bullies were shaking. Two wet themselves, including the twintail girl.
"H-Hey! Didn't you hear me before?" The twintail girl tried to smirk. "My mom's got influence in this place! Hurt me, and you're expelled!"
"If it means I can save that girl, then I don't care what happens to me," Daud said as the teeth of his saw began to spin faster until they blurred together and created a roaring sound that shook the entire campus. The air in the dome churned and turned into a storm that threatened to tear trees from the soil. Vibrations passed through me and induced nausea. Just being in the presence of such a powerful weapon was painful.
"Okay! We'll leave her alone!" The twintail girl ran away, the other bullies following her lead as they booked it out of the plaza.
The teeth of the saw slowed to a stop, the construct disappearing.
Daud went over to the girl on the ground.
"Are you okay?" Daud extended a hand.
"I think so." The Salt girl took the offered hand. Daud pulled her to her feet and she blushed, her gaze shooting downwards. "Thank you for saving me."
"I was doing what anyone would have done. It's not like I could have stood by while you were being abused. I'm glad you're okay." Daud smiled, sparkles appearing in the air around him. Blood shot out of Badroulbadour's nose like water from a pressure washer, and she wasn't the only one watching to react that way to Daud's gentle expression. "Would you like me to escort you to the infirmary?"
"N-N-No, that's okay!" The Salt girl bowed her head, a trickle of blood coming from one of her nostrils.
Everyone was either quiet or whispering about what just happened. Daud had put on quite the display, one that definitely got recorded and posted all over the internet. He'd made a strong debut, but unlike in the anime, the Daud before me wouldn't be ostracized for not being able to use Alchemy.
Despite the minor differences, Daud acted almost identically to his anime counterpart. It made sense given he already had an entire first lifetime to solidify his personality.
"Quite the first impression to make on your first day." Abriza and the rest of the Student Council descended to the plaza on their flying carpet. The president's daughter alighted from her vehicle before walking over to Daud with a long stride and the back of her hand on her hip. "You're strong, and a hero too."
"You're exaggerating." Daud rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sure there are plenty of students here who could have done what I did, and would have if they were in my position."
"So humble. You're quite the charmer. Don't worry about those disgraces to our Academy you scared off. I'll make sure they face appropriate consequences. I'm the Student Council President by the way. My name is Abriza." The pointy eared woman extended a hand. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"You're the daughter of the president. My name's Daud. The pleasure's all mine." Daud took the offered hand and shook it. "Now I'm feeling nervous."
"Don't be nervous." Abriza giggled as one of her floating hands offered a handkerchief to Daud. "Here, to wipe the blood off your face."
"Oh, thank you." Daud took the cloth and wiped off the schmutz left by the mandible man's fist. When Daud held out the handkerchief for Abriza to take it back, the Council President raised her palm.
"You hold on to it. Consider it a reward for your heroics. You can return it to me the next time we meet. There will be a next time, right?"
"I'd be honored."
As Daud and Abriza continued their little meet cute, the Disciplinary Committee members standing around my friends and I began to haul us off towards their base of operations.
"No fair! That bitch gets to hog the chad, and we gotta go to detention for nothing!" Badroulbadour whined.
"He's a pure hearted hero, and he's so strong! Daud's awesome in person!" Hussain was pumping his fists.
"In person? Where have you seen him before?"
"Uh, I saw him in a combat tournament! It was on the internet!" Hussain clapped his hands. "He won the whole thing and it was super radical!"
"Cool. I'll look it up later. Where can I find the vid?" Badroulbadour had a wide grin. Her eyes saw right through Hussain's untruths.
"I don't remember the name of the tourney, so it'd be hard to look up." Hussain's confidence endured while a cavalcade of sweat drops sped down every inch of my skin.
"I'll just look up Daud's name then, I'm sure I'll find it."
"That's the spirit! Don't let minor inconveniences stand in your way!" Hussain couldn't help but be encouraging, even when it was detrimental. Actually, it ended up being beneficial in this case, as Hussain acting in his usual supportive way when Badroulbadour threatened to fact check him made him seem like he was telling the truth.
The blonde hummed as her expression softened.
My friends and I were off to detention. We ended up missing the entrance ceremony. It wasn't the best way to start off the new school year.
Daud had finally arrived at the Academy.
My life would change due to him, and it would never change back.