04/04/2023 - 04/04/2023

Pairing: None

Word Count: 2,032

Warnings: Mentions of an almost drowning incident (but it didn't happen, don't worry).

Gender: AFAB

In which a siren seems to be wreaking havoc in the deepest depths of NRC, and no one knows how to put a stop to it.

"Come down to the Black Sea, swimming with me..."

Again. That haunting voice singing yet again. It must be an Octavinelle student. All the sirens at NRC were in the oceanic house, but the question was, who exactly was it, spreading their haunting song around the school every damned night? Crowley had no idea. He had half a mind to put Y/N up to the task of finding out who their sirenic culprit was, but everyone had been nagging him specifically, so unfortunately, he would have to take charge himself.

The first thing he'd do tomorrow is round up all the students who had unique magics related to voices, and any siren students that existed at NRC. Surely that would help him pin down the chaotic thing that's been wreaking havoc for the past few weeks by enchanting random unsuspecting students with their voice and making them do silly things.

Crowley shivered, the song getting to him.

He could of course make his way towards the source of the haunting voice. That is, if the voice was actually one that could be pinned down in that manner. No. This was the work of one who had immense control over their voice and damn well knew what they were doing with said voice. Whoever the voice belonged to, they very well knew that no one could find the source of their voice merely by trying the follow the sound.

After all, isn't that how so many sailors met their demise?

Morning came, sending bright rays of pure, unadultered light straight onto Y/N's face, causing the poor thing to groan. Was one night of sleep akin to being dead truly too much to ask for? Apparently it was.

Y/N battled the urge to simply shove her face back into the pleasant darkness of her pillows and covers, but she had class soon, and she'd be damned if Crewel would be up on her case about her tardiness. It also didn't help that she could hear that god forsaken voice for a good chunk of the night.

Y/N thought back to the meeting the staff had to try and figure out how to pinpoint the source of the "haunting voice" as they called it and how Crowley roped her into helping him in this task that was supposed to be his.

Whoever it was singing every night, and charming students into committing silly acts, they clearly had no problem not getting enough sleep if they sang for a long time every night and continuing school the next day as though nothing had occurred.

Y/N slightly envied the ability to function fine without much sleep.

Deciding to be a responsible student, Y/N begrudgingly rose out of bed and walked to the bathroom, careful not to wake Grim up, to get ready for the day.

"One of the upperclassmen got charmed last night!" Ace yelled with far too much excitement than one should display in the morning.

"Indeed, I heard that he had been sleeping in his bed when he awoke to the haunting voice calling him out of bed, and before he knew it, he was soaking wet at the lake!" Deuce added.

Y/N frowned. Firstly, it was way too early to hear about this, but secondly, wasn't that a bit dangerous? So far, the haunting voice's pranks (if you could call them that) were simply small things such as that one time a Pomefiore student had woken up to their makeup done horrendously and a ghastly moustache drawn on their face. But this time, a student was lured to the lake, where they could have drowned, especially if they were still asleep.

This sirenic creature sure did like keeping people on their toes.

Before Y/N could sit down with her friends and eat her food with whatever peace she could muster, Crowley called for her to his office.

Great. Just what she needed this tiring morning.

Opening the door to Crowley's office, Y/N noticed that all the other staff were inside as well. Pushing down the urge to screech at the old crow with all her might (because breakfast was now forsaken because of him), she sat down at the empty chair at the table clearly meant for her. The impromptu meeting must be about the previous night's shenanigan.

"Ah, Y/N, thank you for making it here as quickly as you could." Crowley said with an uncharacteristically stern expression. "I assume you've heard about our mysterious siren's latest victim?"

"I just heard from Ace and Deuce. Is it true that the Heartslabyul student almost drowned?" Y/N asked.

"I'm afraid that it is. Though this particular...prank of theirs is rather odd." Trein spat out. "So far, their pranks were harmless in nature. Whether they were of good taste or not is besides the point, but they were harmless. And now, we have a student how almost drowned. It's in our good luck that he was an exemplary swimmer and was able to save himself once the charm rid him of it's grasp."

"Should I patrol the hallways tonight Headmaster?" Y/N questioned. It was a rather serious issue, and as annoying as it was, she didn't want any of the students at NRC to be in danger just because some kid wanted his stupid entertainment.

"Very good Prefect! That's the spirit! Before you patrol the hallways tonight, please go through the list of students who could possibly be our culprit. Since I'm so generous, I'll have someone deliver it to your dorm, that way you won't have to carry it all back yourself." Crowley said. Boy was he glad that he didn't have to go through that entire list-

Y/N's eye just about twitched. Feeling the urge to yell at Crowley to do his own work, she pushed it down so that she wouldn't cause a scene in front of the other teachers (whom she actually respected).

Agreeing to Crowley's terms, the Ramshackle prefect made her way back to the cafeteria, with only minutes left to finish her breakfast.

The day passed by agonizingly slowly, despite the numerous shenanigans her ragtag group of first year friends got into. Ace had messed up another one of his potions and ended up having Deuce sport a half black, half white hairstyle. Crewel was most certainly not impressed.

As Y/N sat in her dorm, pulling out the list of suspected students. They all had the ability whether it was because their unique magic dealt with pretty voices enchanting others, or because they were sirens. NRC had a policy with sirens, stating that they could not use their voices to enchant others at the school (for obvious reasons). But clearly that rule meant nothing to the mysterious haunting voice.

Sighing, Y/N groaned in frustration, raking her fingers through her hair, startling Grim.

"What's up with you Henchman?" Grim asked.

"It's just this stupid siren dude who's been wreaking havoc for the past few weeks. Because of their stupid self, I have more work because Crowley can't do his own goddamned job." Y/N said, exasperated. Grim nodded in consolation, figuring it best to not say anything unless Y/N would suddenly find fault with him and ban him from his tuna for a week.

Soon enough, it was night. Which meant the start of Y/N's patrol. Her friends were worried about her going on the patrol by herself, seeing as she was a magicless student, and assuming that she came across the culprit, who knows what they'll do to her? But Y/N assured them that she'd be fine and that she wouldn't do anything rash and put her life in any unnecessary danger. Her friends did that enough for her as it was.

Roaming the eerily silent hallways, Y/N felt a slight shiver run down her spine. It felt sort of itchy. She started whistling to entertain herself in her otherwise lonesome walk around and through the school.

Near the greenhouse, Y/N saw an Octavinelle student painting underneath the moonlight. Craig was his name. He was a first year, like her, and he was known for his artistic talent (at least when it came to painting). He had permission from the Headmage to do so, and was would be found at night outside of the school, painting night scenes (which were his specialty).

Y/N had seen him often.

Funnily enough, he was on the list Crowley had whipped up for her.

"Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment..."

The voice began its magic. Startled, Craig looked behind him, clutching his paintbrush close to him. He knew he should have listened to his dorm leader when he told everyone to be very careful, especially at night, what with the siren on the loose.

But did he listen? Of course not. Why would he? He was an idiot who was far too optimistic to have landed himself a position in Octavinelle of all houses.

Deciding it for the best to pack up his art supplies as quickly as he could and making a run for his dorm, Craig got started on exactly that.

Except within moments of starting to put his brushes away, he dropped them. His mind felt hazy, as though it were suddenly oh so tired and drowsy.

Before he could register it (not that he could register much in the first place), he started walking away from his unfinished painting by the greenhouse, and towards a bunch of bushes.

"Come little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of shadows..."

The voice sang again, luring the poor Octavinelle student to whatever horrid fate awaited him.

Y/N smirked as she saw Craig walk closer to her. The poor thing was completely out of it. Perfect.

Last night was an accident. She hadn't meant for that idiot Heartslabyul upperclassman to end up almost drowning at the lake. She'd lost focus for a few seconds because she thought that she'd heard something, only to find out that it was a silly little bunny staring eerily at her. But those few seconds of lost focus were enough for her plan to get drenched (literally).

Oh well. That was last night. This is now. What should she have him do?

Perhaps she could summon a hoard of angry wasps and have them scare Craig back in (don't worry, she' wouldn't have them hurt him; after all, she's not a monster).

And then, it hit her!

Deciding to tone down the singing, and instead opting to hum the tune to her latest "victim," Y/N made him follow her all the way to Ramshackle, and then mix red dye and glue together. Then, she poured it all over Craig's shirt, and found herself excited about all the chaos that'll ensue at morning when he freaks out about the "blood" on his shirt (before realizing that it is not in fact blood), and then telling everyone about the incident.

And so that's exactly what she did.

Y/N arose from her bed after sleeping, thinking to herself about how she really ought to lay off the pranks for just a few nights and get some quality sleep. But where's the fun in that?

Careful not to step on Grim who was still completely plonked out from her song from the previous night, Y/N made her way to the bathroom, getting ready for the day ahead of her.

There was a rather big uproar at Octavinelle that morning.

One of the more well known students from the house had apparently been the target of the previous night, when he was out painting, and the siren's silly prank on him was one that truly scared him when he awoke.

Noting the staff's frustration at the fact that the siren had struck again, but there were not one step closer to finding out the culprit, Y/N calmly ate her breakfast, as she listened to her friends buzz about the latest victim of the siren, not one being noticing the way her eyes flickered blue for less than a second.

Author's Note: So, I originally had a concept for this: TWST Yuu is secretly a siren but everyone thinks that she's just a normal magicless student, except she secretly wreaks havoc at school. Chaos at its finest.

The fic was supposed to be humorous, and filled with silly little pranks, but as I started writing the fic, it kind started to sound like a horror story? I honestly don't know what happened in the process of writing this fic, but at least I finished it!

This was one of many fic ideas I have written down, so be prepared for more! Also, I was honestly not expecting to have ended up writing 2000+ words for this fic-

I'd like to thank for giving me the idea for the name Craig for the Octavinelle student, because I cannot for the life of me choose names easily. Furthermore, I'd like to thank , because if she wasn't interested in reading this fic, I would have taken absolute ages to have written it.