The exam month had come. Yuu was in the living room with books and papers scattered on the table.
His injured hands, which were finally healed by a healing potion, held a pen in a strange manner, slowly dragging it across the paper, stopping for a few seconds before continuing. The hands noticeably became shakier and stiffer.
It seems that the healing potions don't heal everything. The crooked fingers are proof of that.
Still, Grim watched how Yuu struggled before the boy sighed and decided to abandon it to read the notes instead. In Grim's opinion, the writings were pleasing to his eyes, and he could understand them in one glance in comparison to the scrawling from before.
It goes without a doubt that Yuu was very smart and also hardworking. Even that two-toned haired teacher praised Yuu, occasionally giving him candies.
Grim looked at Yuu's hands and decided that he didn't want Yuu to ruin their first exam, so Grim would take the lead. They both are, after all, two-in-one student. It would be awful if Yuu didn't manage to score anything with those hands.
-
Grim noticed Yuu roaming around the room where he was at like a ghost haunting the place. Yuu usually doesn't stay in the same room, and if he does, he usually tries to erase his presence.
So therefore, him hovering around and gazing at him from a certain distance became annoying.
"What are you movin around for? You're botherin me," Grim huffed, looking away from the notes he obtained from a certain someone.
Yuu kept looking at him nervously, his sweat dripping and fidgeting with his fingers lightly.
"Are you sure you're going to do the exam instead of me...? I can do it," Yuu said softly, almost carefully.
"No! I can do it. I'm not that dumb! If anythin, you're goin to make us fail with those hands of yours."
"Oh, I'm sorry..."
Grim saw Yuu glanced at his hands for a short moment before hiding them behind his back, expression down as though he's shameful.
"So sit down! I'm gonna ace this exam all by myself!" Grim huffed once more after he said those words as if it would calm Yuu down.
-
Despite not doing anything troublesome like the exam, Yuu grew even more nerve-wracking just watching by the sidelines, fearing that Grim would mess it up, to which Grim assured confidently and exasperatedly that he won't.
His confidence only soared higher when he received high scores and he shoved it to Yuu, who flinched at the sudden action.
Grim dismissed it. After all, he did a very good job of it, so Yuu will definitely be impressed by it, so he held it up with pride.
"85...?" Yuu's voice trembled, and his eyes widened with horror. Grim heard Yuu mumbling from underneath his breath how the teacher won't accept this and will be angry.
Yuu began to shed tears when he saw Ace's and Deuce's marks but not from happiness as he expected. His expression looked frightened and alarmed.
"Hey, it's closer to 100. That's fine, isn't it?" said Ace, trying to comfort Yuu, who is not participating in the exam yet was unusually upset at their marks. "That's not a terrible mark at all!"
"Yes, it is... Master Crewel is going to get angry..." said Yuu with certainty and fear.
Grim thought that the three of them definitely have the same idea in mind at that time, but none spoke them out loud.
-
Contrary to Yuu's words, Professor Crewel does not punish them, but he does look at them all suspiciously.
And now, it's their turn to be scared. Grim didn't expect that all of them actually made a deal with Azul, that scammer!
Upon learning of this fact, Yuu's expression turned to be even more horrified. He hugged himself, and he began to bite the flesh between the thumb and the wrist, almost piercing through them and drawing blood.
Yuu seemed to be in his own world that his words became incoherent, but some managed to understand a few of what he's saying.
"Cheating, lies, not allowed, punished, beaten, angry, apologize..."
A story formed in their head in an instant, but Grim doesn't understand why they would get beaten for that alone?
His question remained unanswered because everyone who managed to strike a deal with Azul sprouted an anemone on top of their head and began to march to the Octavinelle dorm.
Yuu, despite trembling like a shaky leaf, remained still amongst the moving crowd, looking hesitant, as though he will end up in a terrible situation if he followed them.
-
Grim, Ace, and Deuce didn't see Yuu that much after they started working in the Mostro Lounge. Grim did meet Yuu at the dorm, but he hardly gave any attention and just dropped on the spot and snooze.
He had never worked so hard in his entire life, and that made Grim think that it's not worth making a deal with the devil.
But then he thought of the reason why he accepted, and he can only grumble loudly as his tiny paws washed yet another dirty dish.
Surely... this isn't as hard as...
He yowled as the water splashed on his face.
-
They met again during lunch after who knows how long, but Grim is exhausted that time seemed to blend together. The same thing goes for Ace and Deuce as they all dragged their feet to find their table, resisting the urge to sleep.
Yuu, who is somehow accompanied by a very decent Savanaclaw student by the name of Jack, easily spotted them and carefully sat right next to them. His eyes flitted across all three expressions as though he's looking for something, only to slacken the tension in his shoulders.
It did not last long when the Leeches twins invited themselves in, but Grim no longer took notice of this the moment the twins suggested that there is a way for them to be free.
Yuu needed to make a deal with Azul.
It did not last a minute; Yuu buckled instantly under their pleadings to save them. They all cheered, ignoring Jack scolding them.
"You know, for the first time, I think I'm ready to recognize you as our prefect," said Grim, feeling elated at Yuu for the first time.
The smile on Yuu's face immediately went strained, and his gaze was lowered. Grim saw his still injured fingers clenched tightly on his pants as though it wasn't hurt days ago.
"I'm... glad I'm useful," Yuu said.
Maybe Grim should have shut his mouth.
-
Grim still stayed on the bed, and Yuu on the floor.
Grim slept to the scent of salt and the quiet sobbings accompanying the cold night.
-
Grim sneaked out of the kitchen to the VIP room on the day Yuu came to make a deal, a trail of wet spots formed on the carpet as he made his way over there.
He heard voices, and he, who at first wanted to recklessly barge in, suddenly out of character, stopped to lean on the door so he could listen in.
"...You see, prefect, my understanding is that you have no innate magical power." Came Azul's voice.
"You're not gifted with a beautiful voice, nor are you heir to any kingdom. You also do not possess any outstanding and useful skills. You're an utterly run-of-the-mill human in every possible way. Considering the big ask you're making of me, I would need considerable collateral."
It was insults, no matter how many different angles and how many times he tried to listen. If it was Grim whom Azul had told that face to face, he would no doubt be blown up with rage and yell back.
However, Yuu only replied with two words, spoken softly and without stuttering as though he had known that a long time ago and had long accepted it.
"I know."
-
Since Yuu had put the ramshackle dorm as collateral, they both were kicked out of their only shelter into the cold night.
Ace, Deuce, and even Jack offered to help them. The Adeuce insisted Yuu go with them instead of Jack; after all, Jack is from Savanaclaw, and Yuu and that dorm don't mix well together.
Except that didn't happen.
Yuu followed Jack, and he let Grim follow Ace and Deuce.
-
His sleep that night was filled with snores, the rustling of someone moving in their sleep, and a faint smell of roses that was enough not to irritate his nose.
It felt strange that Yuu was not here.
He was awake for hours and he doesn't remember what time it was when he had fallen asleep.
-
Grim does not know what happened to Yuu that same night. But the next day, he spotted bruises blooming all over Yuu's body that Grim suspected some of his ribs might have broken. There were also a few band-aids here and there, and even the face was not spared.
Grim suddenly went mad over this, yelling at Jack, who followed Yuu guiltily. Even Ace and Deuce joined as well, occasionally scolding Yuu lightly for even choosing the place where most students beat him up.
"I'm sorry... I... didn't want to bother you," Yuu murmured, the injuries making him look even more pathetic.
Their anger didn't last long upon seeing this and told him to come to their dorm instead.
Yuu merely shook his head, "I won... fair and square. I'll do my part well."
Nobody knows what he meant by this.
-
They cornered Jack when he's alone after their attempted to steal the photograph failed.
"What does Yuu mean?"
"Why is he hurt like that?"
"What did you do?"
Plenty of accusations were thrown at him that Jack's stern expression twisted into something complicated.
What left his mouth only stunned them even more.
In exchange to live there, Yuu had to be a gopher and also fight and win. And win he did, even as his body is blue and black and his form is close to a deathbed.
There's no benefit in living there and winning said fight if being beaten up and being a gopher awaited him there.
Grim was right when he said that Yuu was a coward and an idiot.
A coward because Yuu cannot say no so he does what Leona said and an idiot for not realizing that there's nothing good that will bring to him in that place.
-
Despite everything, Yuu still went there.
But Grim supposed that there's another reason why he needed to get what Azul wanted to get the ramshackle dorm back.
-
Yuu came up with a plan on the last day when everyone is starting to lose hope. It was simple. Too simple just like the time he came up with in the Dwarf mine, yet it proved to be effective.
The day they initiated the plan also went smoothly that not even the closed museum could ever obstructed said plan with the help of Ace.
Grim rather liked a smart Yuu rather than an idiot, but it is too bad that this showcase of intelligence is very limited and not available most of the time.
But it was on this very same day that Grim realized just how truly smart Yuu is.
Grim had learned Yuu had done something to Leona for him to join his plan, a second plan that no one in the group knows. Yuu and the rest were simply bait, but who would have thought that both plans succeeded anyway.
Grim wondered why it's only time like this that Yuu started to take the lead when he's usually the one who is following and endured.
-
Azul overbloated after that; his lower half became that of an octopus and Grim thought that everything can be handled since they've beaten Riddle and Leona before.
This proved to be a bit difficult seeing as Azul had stolen half of their magic and used it against them. Offensive and defensive, he had it all much to Grim's displeasure.
Azul, just like Leona before, reached out to Yuu with one of those octopus legs the moment his eyes laid on him. Eyes dilated with anger and hatred, only to replace with malicious glee when he caught Yuu who stood still like a sacrifice.
Again with that.
Grim thought he imagined it last time but he really did it again.
Yuu cried and gasped for air as Azul choked the life out of him while everyone is screaming for his name.
Grim thought Yuu hated being beaten up, thought he's scared of it.
So why is he smiling?
-
Grim never got his answer, feeling quite lost and confused with how Yuu acted. The others seemed to know, seemed to understand what Yuu is thinking even if it's just snippets.
But Grim is not as smart as Yuu, so Grim could never understand what goes through Yuu's mind.
The moment the monster got defeated, Grim quickly ate the black magestone the monster left behind to distract himself.
Yuu was currently knocked out cold on the floor, surrounded by his friends who have disheveled appearances. No doubt, they will scold him when he woke up later.
-
They did scold him when he regained consciousness.
Yuu apologized pathetically and said that he was scared he couldn't move his feet. He shed tears and trembled upon being stared upon.
But that's not what Grim saw earlier. Yet, he kept his mouth shut anyway.