Disbelief was written all over Jin's face, and his icy blue eyes glinted murder as he turned his head to Mary and continued feeling the stingy sensation from the unseen slap. "You slapped me" He muttered, low but with an underlying razor in his words.

Mary was almost panting, the irritation was like a roaring hellcat in spreading in her chest fueling anger. "Are you blind? It's exactly what I did," She clenched her fist, emerald green eyes narrowing as she met Jin's icy blue ones.

"That was quite the show, miss" Tohma chuckled, even doing a slow clap. "However while I did find it astonishing, you were also a fool to commit such thing"

An impact on the left side of Mary's head, like a whirl of wind and came a loud crunch. Jin's fist connected and almost left a huge dent on the wall only centimeters away from her head. "Your carnival show-off doesn't make you above anyone here, brat. Get out of here before I do worse"

"Oh? Where did all the bravado go? You are crumbling like leaf so suddenly, do entertain us more" Tohma added, smiling ruthlessly as he watched Mary's legs wobbled until she slid down on the marble floor. "Could it be that you are bluffing, Miss?"

Jin scoffed and his expression reverted back to disinterest after he made certain fear was imposed thoroughly to the unannounced guest in his bedchamber. "Get her lousy ass out of my room and don't disturb me, Tohma. Wake me up tomorrow"

Even before the Frostheim Vice-Captain could approach to get her out, Mary forced herself up quickly and darted out of the huge room. She ran across Lucas and Kaito but skirted around them as she didn't really want to be near them after what happened.

However, Lucas being genuinely concerned and picking up on the mood, he apprehended Mary, holding her shoulders before she could disappear. "Mary, why are you crying? What happened inside?"

"We thought we heard some weird-ass sounds," Kaito added, worry visible on his face and he wasn't being his comical self at the moment. Although he felt something grave occurred, he didn't have it in him to just come inside. Their House Captain was fearsome and intimidating.

Tohma followed out, closing the door behind him and seeing the freshmen, he had a small smile of curiosity playing on his lips. "The new little ones, you came here to give your unspoken support to Mary whilst she made a clown of herself inside?"

"I beg your pardon?" Lucas raised a brow, mildly displeased at the tone and mockery in their Vice-Captain's voice. He continued holding Mary by the shoulders, bringing her closer to him. "I apologize if we appeared here without notice, we came with our friend because she was given an important task by the professor. As we are also part of this House, we decided to accompany here in seeing our Captain"

The tall light-brown-haired male adjusted his monocle, amusement never vanished from his face. "Lucas Errant, the foreign exchange transfer, if you are talking like this you clearly did not know how things are dealt around here. For one, you cannot simply venture to the Captain's chamber casually"

"Shut it, man, you are digging our graves here" Kaito nudged the purple-eyed boy. "Let's just go"

But Lucas was not going to back down easily, "No, as part of this House, I believe our voices must be equal and you didn't know why she was here--"

"Luca, please" Mary held onto the front of his uniform, the heaviness was too much for her to bear. So much bullying and hostility already in this school when she was barely settled in.

Lucas compressed his lips into a tight line, albeit in disagreement of halting his words but Mary didn't look too good anymore. "I am sorry Mary" He held onto her hand, "Let's go"

--

No words were spoken between the trio as they sensed the gloominess of their red-haired friend. She didn't participate actively on anything and for the most part, her head seemed to be over the clouds but in truth, her mind was flying away to Twisted Wonderland—reminiscing the happy moments with friends, the times they worked together to deal with an over blot and more.

By late afternoon when classes were over, Mary slipped out in silence and didn't bother saying goodbye to the pair; it was a rude move when they did nothing but be nice to her however Mary's chest was hurting, she found it hard to breathe and she didn't want anyone to see the tears she'd release soon.

In the old Cathedral where she was asked to stay as her temporary dorm, Mary finally let out the cry she was holding back after the encounter with the couple of bullies, the new set of expectations which equaled to pressure and for being threatened by Jin.

What if he went for his face or beat her up legit?

She laid there in bed, curled up to the side. "...What am I going to do? This is so hard"

What would have her friends do if they were in her situation? What would Riddle tell her?

--

That late night, Grim was back in the Chancellor's Office and he wasn't looking anywhere good and the news he received tonight was just worse.

"You were saying I am meant to die in a year because of this curse" The raccoon-cat hybrid declared, his tone was void of anything. He wasn't angry or being his usual loud self, this update after going through multiple check-ups drained all colors in his body.

Chancellor Cornelius sighed, his eyes were staid as he sat behind his table. "Yes, it is what the Flower Anomaly did to you, and how you will die in a year remains a mystery but you are being weakened slowly every day, and the color of your fur is changing too. We never had a report before of an Anomaly causing another Anomaly this extensive damage"

Again with the damn anomaly label, Grim rolled his eyes at this. "I already told you multiple times I am not an anomaly, just because I do not share your standards" He huffed. "What of Mary? What did your Mortkranken children find out?"

"Hey now, those ghouls are not children and they are best when it comes to the field of Anomalous Medicine" The young-looking Chancellor countered but with his boyish kid appearance, it was hard to take him seriously. "About Mary...let's see" He shuffled some papers and brought one to the front, "I do not know how we are going to tell her though"

Grim frowned, "What do you mean? Do you plan in holding back on us?"

"No that's not what I mean, it's just the curse she got...huh, I thought Yuri was pulling a prank on us" Chancellor Cornelius became lost in his thought train, then he glanced at Grim across the office. The cats inside were already sleeping. "...See here, it was stated that her curse was different from yours, she will die quickly if consume by extreme stress and exhaustion--"

That made Grim stand up and although sick, some fire was still visible in his ears. "Quickly?! You gotta be screwing up here! Like she is going to die sooner?!"

"Hang on!" The blue-haired Chancellor exclaimed, flipping through the folder contents. "If Mary is completely consumed by negative factors, yes she will die--"

"That is what you said earlier!" Fvck this world and everything in it! Who gave such inconsistent and absurd curses?! Grim gritted his teeth, in his mind, despite being awake, he could still see that huge damnable eyeball in the middle of the blooming anomalous flower.

And he could also hear...sinister, taunting laughter.

What the heck?

Chancellor Cornelius continued, "Wait again! There is a way to counter her curse, although yes it's worse because the chance of her dying is possible to happen earlier than yours, it can be countered by consistent physical touch. Intimate touches are best option to reduce the probability of her death"

"HUH?!" Grim wasn't sure which one was worse—Mary dying earlier or the counterattack for her curse. "Intimate what now?!" He knew it, all those ghouls from Mortkranken House were nasty trash playing around with them.

However, despite the disbelief and how ridiculous it sounded, the Chancellor didn't look like he was joking. "She needed constant touch and amorous gestures from people, Grim--"

"Then I will hug her! Let me stay with her--"

"—No, that's not it, it cannot be from you since you are cursed too. This is going to be hard news to deliver but we must find a way to make her know." Chancellor Cornelius stated sadly. "Her bond and rapport with ghouls can be her saving grace from this curse"

Grim shook his head, palming his face. "I am not calling that a saving grace"

This Anomaly...whatever it was...Grim hated it to the core, it was fooling around with them like a massive predator playing with its food. He wouldn't sit back and do nothing, he'd find a means to know more about this hostile shit himself if this school wasn't going to be helpful.