Grim was also scared, but he somehow swallowed his fear and stepped in front of them. "A magician like me, the great Grim, is not afraid of ghosts!! Take this!" He exclaimed in a trembling voice.

He began to blow up fire the same way that he had done hours before at the entrance ceremony.

The ghosts easily avoided his attacks, it didn't help either that he kept appearing and disappearing to confuse him. 

In his astonishment, Yuu noticed that Grim had his eyes closed as he attacked. "Aim where you attack! At this rate you are going to set everything on fire!" He exclaimed.

"You shut up! Don't give me any orders!" Grim yelled angrily in response.

Yuu barely knew the monster, but he came up with a good idea to team up with him and defeat the ghosts together.

"Look at it this way! If you scare off the ghosts, the headmaster may see something in you as a magician!" He said. "Also, if we get out of this and it's possible for me, I'll give you a can of tuna as a reward."

Both proposals were just as tempting to Grim, but pride got the better of him. "I'm a great magician! I can do it alone!" He barely finished saying that when the ghosts began to approach with a menacing laughter. "You are such a bunch of cowards!" Grim exclaimed.

"Did I say one can of tuna? What about two cans of tuna after you win?" Yuu suggested. "Of course, be careful not to burn me or it will be impossible for me to reward you!"

Grim grunted between frustration and temptation to reward him until he made up his mind. "Hey, you! Tell me where the ghosts are!" He ordered pointing at Yuu with a paw.

"Count with me!" The human exclaimed before remembering the situation they were both in. "To your left! Look out!"

He was able to hit two of the ghosts squarely.

"It's hot!" Cried one of them.

"I hit it!" Grim exclaimed with satisfaction. "Okay, let's get them out of here!"

They continued like that: Yuu gave Grim directions to attack. They did not know how long it had been until the ghosts decided to surrender and fled in horror.

"Eh? We won?" Grim asked when they didn't return.

For the first time since he came to that world, Yuu felt an actual relief.

"Yes, we did it!" He exclaimed happily. "You are amazing, Grim! Thank you so much for everything!"

Grim sighed also in relief, with fear still reflected in his eyes. "That was scar..." He murmured before remembering to maintain his pride. "No! I wasn't scared at all! This was nothing for the great Grim! What do you think of that, ghosts? Was that all you could do?"

Yuu chuckled softly at the sudden change in attitude from his new partner.

At that very moment they heard footsteps behind them. The ghosts had no legs, so it couldn't be them.

"Good evening, young Yuu!" Crowley cheerfully greeted. "I have kindly brought you dinner! I left it for you in the living room..." He noticed Grim standing on the floor and his face changed. "Hey! You are the monster who wreaked havoc at the ceremony! I thought I threw you out, what are you doing here!?"

Grim snorted in annoyance. "I fixed the problem with the ghosts! Be grateful!" He replied proudly.

The headmaster frowned. "Eh? What are you talking about?"

"Some ghosts tried to attack us just a moment ago," Yuu began to explain. "So we teamed up to defend ourselves, I gave Grim directions to aim and he blowed fire. I promise we didn't burn anything!"

"Now that you mention it," Crowley said thoughtfully after hearing him. "There's some prankster ghosts living here, that's why the students left this dormitory and that's why it is now empty, I'd forgotten that, however..." He murmured. "The fact that you worked together as a team to get rid of them..."

"Don't say things like 'team' or 'work together'!" Grim exclaimed before turning back to the headmaster and pointing at Yuu. "He was just standing there. And I only did it for cans of tuna." He raised his paws as if he remembered something. "Ah! Speaking of which, I still haven't received my tuna yet."

Yuu put a hand to his forehead in disapproval and sighed.

"I'd like you to show me how you scared those ghosts away," Crowley announced.

"But we've already taken care of them!" answered Grim. "Before that, give-me tu-na!" He demanded.

"I'll act as the ghost," the headmaster said as he searched something inside his pockets. "If you defeat me, I'll give you tuna," he said, pulling out a small bottle. "Now then, transformation potion!"

He drank some of its content and, keeping his mask and top hat, he transformed into a little ghost before the eyes of the monster and the human.

"This day couldn't get any weirder..." Yuu thought.

"Eh!? I don't wanna!" Grim complained. "It's a pain and I don't want to team up with him again..."

"I don't know about you, Grim," Yuu said, "But the headmaster has offered you several cans of tuna in exchange... Besides, remember what I told you before: maybe he will see some potential in you as the great magician you are."

Once again, Grim grunted at the tempting proposal. "This is the last time! You absolutely, absolutely have to give me the tuna!!!"

It was a bit more difficult to defeat the headmaster in that ghost state, as he was moving much faster than the previous trio. However they managed to watch, point and attack as best they could.

After a long time, Crowley reached the point of exhaustion and returned to his original form. Yuu sighed after the great concentration he had to go through and noticed Grim, who seemed more tired than him. "How about this!?" Grim asked defiantly while panting.

Crowley looked at them as if he had witnessed something that was supposed to be impossible to happen. "I can't believe it, a person who can give directions to monsters," he said before considering it thoughtfully. "Actually, my teacher senses were telling me from the chaos of the ceremony that you might have a talent as an animal tamer or as a beast trainer."

Grim looked at him in surprise, Yuu in a questioning way. Was it so rare in this magical world for a human to work with a creature like Grim?

"Still..." Crowley muttered almost inaudibly. "Even if he really was that, this young boy doesn't look like he could endure a huge beast without getting eaten, furthermore..."

Yuu couldn't hear the rest, but frowned a bit. Although he could run more or less fast and had a good resistance, he was not very tall or physically strong, and more than once he was described as a cute-looking boy, similar to his mother and his sister. But he didn't like to be thought as a wimp or something like that.

He put those thoughts aside and looked at Grim, who was staring expectantly at the headmaster. He also thought about what they had just experienced.

"Excuse me, Mr. Crowley," Yuu woke him from his musings. "Is it possible that Grim can stay with me here in the dorm?"

He surprised him with his question.
"Eh? Let a monster live here?"

Grim was not indifferent either. "You..." He murmured.

"I would feel a little lonely in this place," Yuu explained. "I'm also afraid that the ghosts will come back and Grim would help me a lot if they tried to attack again. And even if we try to kick him out again, he could still come back without any problem. So... could he stay here? Please?"

Crowley weighed the reasons, the boy was alone in an unknown world with no one next to him. Besides, as he had just said, it would not matter how many times Grim was thrown out if he was able to return again and again.

"I guess there's no other choice..." Crowley sighed. "Okay, he can stay."

Grim's gaze lit up. "Eh? Really!? Am I going to be a student!?"

"However," Crowley continued. "I cannot let someone who has not been chosen by the Dark Mirror, let alone a monster, be a student." Grim lowered his ears and gazed in indignation. "And as for you Yuu, I can't let you be a freeloader here until you return to your world.

"Wow... talking about short-lived joy..." Grim complained.

"Let me finish talking," he said before returning to Yuu. "Considering that your soul was brought up here, the school must take responsibility as owners of the Dark Mirror, so I will allow you to live here without the need for payment, but other needs will have to be granted by yourself."

"How could I do that, sir?" Yuu asked him.

"Seeing that you have nothing in your name, I have a proposal for you."

Despite of him showing a kind smile, the young boy swallowed with concern. "What are you exactly going to make me do?"

"Come on, don't be like that," the headmaster replied. "I'll just give you cleaning and maintenance jobs around campus. From what I could see, you are good at cleaning," he said, thinking about how good the living room looked after leaving the boy alone. "Would you like to be the school janitor?" Yuu tilted his head in doubt. "With that you will have a special permission to be around the school, you can also investigate how to return to your world or other things in the library. Since I am very kind! Yes indeed! Of course, as long as you finish your work."

"Eh?! I don't want that!" Grim refused. "I want to be a student and wear one of those fancy uniforms, ya know?"

Crowley shrugged. "It's okay if you refuse, I'll just throw you out again."

Grim was horrified just thinking about it. "Fgna!? Okay, I get it! If I have to do it, I will!"

"Not that I have many options..." Yuu said. "All right, sir. I'll take the upon the offer."

"Very well," the headmaster declared. "So you two, starting tomorrow take it upon yourself to become the best custodians at Night Raven College!"

At that very instant, a noise coming from Yuu resounded in the place. The young boy frowned in embarrassment. He hadn't eaten anything since his arrival.

"That will be tomorrow morning, but now you should have something to eat before bed," Crowley pointed out. "You will need strength to work. Like I told you before, I left something for you in the living room, I hope you like it."

"Okay, sir. Thank you very much for everything..." Was the only thing that occurred to him to reply.

"Hey! What about my tuna!?"

"Give me time to look for it, little monster!" Crowley snapped. "Well, I better go now. Don't go to bed too late, okay? I'll see you tomorrow."

And he left again.

Yuu's stomach rumbled again. With a sigh, he walked back to the living room.

"Hey, human," Grim called him. "Why did you ask that guy for me to stay here? I thought you hated me for what I tried to do to you before."

"Eh? Oh, for the same thing I said before," he replied. "I'm sure you would come back even if they kicked you out, moreover I wouldn't feel comfortable if someone is forced to leave and I didn't do anything about it. And even though you tried to attack me before, you also helped me a lot with the ghosts, so I thought you could be a good company in this place."

"I..." Grim muttered, not knowing exactly what to reply to that. "I didn't actually want to hurt you, I just wanted to scare you into giving me that robe you're wearing." Yuu had almost forgot he was still wearing it. "So they would think that the Ebony Carriage came to pick me as a new student..."

"I see..." Yuu answered. "I admit that I was scared, I didn't understand anything of what was happening. And to be honest, I still don't. But we're still knowing each other, so and you didn't hurt me, so that won't make me dislike you or something"

They reached the living room, where a sandwich wrapped in plastic and two bottles of water were laying on the table.

"I hope it's with tuna..." Grim commented.

"Nope," Yuu said with a slight smile after reviewing the content. "It's with beef meat."

"Oh! Well, that will do!"

"We can share it. You can also keep one of the bottles, you must be thirsty after scaring the ghosts."

Grim looked at him in surprise, he did not remember the last time a human had received him with such kindness.

"I guess I'll take your offer," Grim commented proudly as he climbed onto the couch. "I must let my henchman regain his strength too." Yuu laughed at the comment. "By the way, what was your name again?"

Yuu sat next to him. "I'm Yuu. Yuu Oshiro." He stretched out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Grim. Now that we are going to live together, I hope we can get along."

With a bit of hesitation, Grim placed his paw on his hand to make a gentle handshake.

After dinner, they explored the bedroom a bit more. In addition to the living room, storage room, kitchen and dining room, there were two other smaller living rooms on the first floor, a study and four bedrooms, all of them with just one bed.

Grim insisted on sleeping in the same room as Yuu, who assumed he was afraid of the ghosts, but decided not to ask.

"This one looks good," the human said while looking closely at one in particular, which had a mirror over the fireplace. "It's not too messy, so tonight we just have to dust the sheets to sleep. We'll take care of the rest tomorrow."

"Do it yourself, I'm already very tired," Grim insisted.

"Come on, just help me shake the pillow at least. You can handle that much, right?"

"You weren't the one who attacked the ghosts! I'm physically exhausted, yanno!" He exclaimed dramatically.

"Okay..." Yuu sighed. "But tomorrow we'll work together to clean up, okay? Oh, I wonder if there is..."

He opened the closet, it was empty. He rummaged through the drawers in there and luckily found a long-sleeved white T-shirt and black pants that looked ideal for sleeping.

His robe had gotten a bit in the way of cleaning the living room, and with what he had just found something more comfortable.

Grim wasn't going to feel anything to see a human change their clothes, but he turned around as soon as he took off the belt of his robe. He still felt annoyed for not being able to take it for himself and having a chance at the entrance ceremony.

"Done, we can go to sleep now," Yuu said after a while.

Grim climbed onto the bed. "Hey what's wrong? You seem gloomy all of a sudden."

Yuu tried to stay positive since dinner, but now sitting up in bed he seemed worried about something. "It's nothing, I was just thinking about my family."

"Oh, do you have a family?"

"Yeah, in my world. I don't know how are they right now, and I imagine that everyone must be worried about me. My mother, my sister, my aunt..."

"The headmaster said you could find a way to go back, right?"

"Yes, he also told me that he would find a way too. Still..." He shook his head. "It's nothing, I'll think about that tomorrow."

As soon as he lay down on the bed, one of his legs cracked and knocked her off balance, scaring them both at the sudden movement.

"Seriously?!" shouted Grim.

"At least it isn't completely broken, we'll take care of that later," Yuu said after recovering himself, he felt too tired to deal with anything.

He wrapped himself in the blanket and tried to get comfortable. He noticed Grim curling up next to him and fell asleep in a matter of minutes, something he would have liked to do, since he had a hard time falling asleep that night.

The next morning they were awakened by the ghosts of the night before.

"Good morning," the larger ghost greeted with a gloomy smile.

Yuu was too tired to react to the same guys who tried to attack him the night before.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh. Don't you have to clean the school?" Asked the thin ghost mockingly while peering over the edge of the bed.

Still asleep, Yuu pulled his arms out of the blanket.
"I see you heard about it," he murmured, rubbing his eyes.

Grim meowed wearily.
"Five minutes more..."

"If you keep sleeping like this, you will never be able to get up again," the little ghost warned.

"Like us!" Laughed the big, chubby ghost.

Grim recognized the trio and reacted.
"Fgna!? You are the ghosts of last night! Yuu, wake up!"

The human boy snapped his eyes open at the exclamation, but didn't move from his place.

"Are you going to live with us? Then you will go through a lot of our jokes!" Laughed the thin ghost.

"We'll get rid of you again sooner or later!" Grim exclaimed.

At that moment the headmaster entered the room. Yuu finally reacted and hurried to get up. "Good morning to you both," Crowley greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

As a way to say no, Grim told him about the bed incident. "How could you leave this place so ruined?" He added. "And the ghosts woke us up! This is the worst!"

"Yes, sir. Everything is alright," Yuu lied as he didn't dare to say that he had slept horribly, fearing to show ingratitude.

"I see you can stay positive despite being dragged from another world. Wonderful! Well, I've come to talk about your first job."

In the living room, Crowley told them to clean the main street of the campus, since cleaning the entire school without magic would be difficult. "Young Yuu, make sure to keep a good eye on Grim so he doesn't cause any problems like yesterday."

"Understood, sir. You can count on me," he said, thinking it shouldn't be too difficult.

"I'm counting on you. You two have permission to eat in the cafeteria. Do your best in your work."

When he left, Grim snorted: "I refuse to clean. I want to go to class and bang! Boom, boom, boom! And to recite a bunch of awesome spells!

"You can study magic in the library when we finish the job," Yuu replied and Grim just grunted in response.

They took a broom, a dustpan, a bucket and a sponge and walked with them to what must have been the main street, where they found some statues of people and a lion.

There were several boys on their way to class, Yuu found it curious that he had not seen any girl among the students yet. Could it be an all-boys' school?

"It's ok, Yuu," he told himself as he tried to avoid any eye contact. "Don't feel intimidated by something like this, you are just someone who is fulfilling a deal..."

Grim, on the other hand, watched the statues in fascination. "Wow! I didn't get a good look yesterday, but whose statues are these? All of them seem scary," he pointed to one in particular of a woman in a voluminous dress. "Who could that woman be?"

"Oh, you don't know about the Queen of Hearts?" A young red-haired boy with a red heart mark on his left eye who was behind them asked.

Yuu was surprised, he didn't expect someone to stop to talk to him.

"The Queen of Hearts?" Grim repeated. "It's she important?"

"In the past she was a great queen who lived in the Labyrinth of Roses. She was someone who highly valued rules and discipline in everything, from the march of the Card Soldiers to the color of rose bushes. It was a world full of madness that was under her command!" he explained enthusiastically. "Why do you ask? Because or else it was off with your head!

"That's terrifying!" Grim exclaimed after swallowing hard.

"I like it! She's great!" The boy replied. "Nobody would listen to a queen who is good all the time, don't you think?"

"I guess," Grim replied. "It is better to have a strong leader. By the way, who are you?"

"I'm Ace, a freshman. Nice to meet you," he said cheerfully.

"I'm Grim, a genius who will become a great magician," Grim introduced himself. "And this skinny guy here is Yuu, my henchman."

Yuu thought he felt a tic in his eye, but hid his annoyance. "I'm Yuu Oshiro," he replied with the same kindness as the new acquaintance. "And I'm nobody's henchman."

"You've got an odd sounding name," Ace commented.

"Oh, you think so?" Yuu asked, slightly tilting his head.

"Yeah, I've never heard one like yours!"

Grim interrupted their conversation by pointing to the lion statue. "Hey, Ace. And this lion with the scar? Is he also famous?"

That way, Grim asked him about the rest of the statues and Ace told them about the legends related to the characters.

Grim listened in admiration to the stories as he looked at each of the statues. Yuu, on the other hand, began to have a strange burning feeling in his left shoulder while listening to them, as if something was amiss, especially with the King of Beasts, who had supposedly ascended to the throne with lots of effort and elaborate plans. This one was so strong that he needed to rub it hoping to relieve it without much success. The burning faded a bit with the rest of the stories, but did not dissipate completely until Ace finished telling.

"They're all so cool..." Ace commented before turning his kind smile into a mocking one. "Unlike certain raccoon!"

Yuu blinked a few times at the change in attitude. Grim was startled to realize that he was referring to him.

Ace tried to hold back, but he laughed as if he had just been told a hilarious joke. "I can't take it anymore! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" He kept laughing.

"What's wrong?" Yuu asked without hiding his concern.

"Aren't you the ones who got crazy at yesterday's entrance ceremony?" He asked with a cheeky smile. "You are the boy who was called by the Dark Mirror even though you can't use magic, and you, a monster, weren't called but still trespassed. It took me a lot to keep from laughing!

"What?! You're rude!" Grim yelled.

"And now you aren't allowed in and got regulated to be a janitor?" He asked Yuu. "How lame!"

Grim snarled furiously.

"Excuse me!" Yuu exclaimed. "But for your information, I have no choice but to work this way. So don't talk like you know anything about me!"

"Look who's talking about knowing nothing!" He replied with mock indignation. "You don't even know the Great Seven. What is your level of ignorance? I recommend you go back to kindergarten before you even enter Night Raven College," he said before laughing again.

Grim's fury seemed to reach its limits, which worried Yuu.

"I was thinking of just messing around with you guys a little bit, but you but you really blew my expectations away. Well, unlike the two of you, I have classes to attend," he said with a wave of his hand. "Do a good work cleaning the school!"

If Yukiko was with him, that Ace would surely be the next victim of her grudge, Yuu thought. But she wasn't there...

Besides being in an unknown world, he was now being teased for something he didn't want...

"Leave it aside, Grim," he told to the still furious cat-like monster as he rolled his shirt up to his elbows. "He is just an idiot, there are many more like him. Come on, let's get to work as soon as possible."

But Grim didn't hear a single word from him. "This jerk!" He exclaimed. "He says all that and he has the nerve to leave! I wont allow it!"

Realizing what was about to happen, Yuu tried to stop him. "Grim! What are you doing!? Stop it, it's not worth it!"

He had one thing to worry about even more seeing him run towards Ace and attack him with fire. He rushed to follow him, but it was late.

"Hey, watch out!!" Ace exclaimed, narrowly avoiding the flames. "What do you think you're doing?!"

At least the smile was gone from his face.

"It's what you deserve for making fun of me!" Grim yelled with satisfaction. "I'm going to set that red head of yours on fire!"

That bothered him.
"Red head? You have the guts to picking a fight with me." He took his pen with a red gem from his pocket. "Then I'll turn you into a stuffed-poodle!"

Grim was the first to attack and created a strong puff of fire, but Ace avoided it.

"Hey, watch that," the human told him with the same mocking smile as before. "Take this!"

He conjured what appeared to be wind magic and deflected the blue flares. Grim didn't like that at all.

The uproar drew the attention of the closest students.

"Eh? A fight?" Asked a concerned student in a uniform similar to Ace's.

"Yeah! Get 'em!" A tall boy with animal ears encouraged them.

Yuu was horrified to see that no one did anything to stop them. "No! Stop right now! Both of you!" He yelled, losing his patience.

But no one paid any attention to him.

"A little spark like that won't even touch me," Ace boasted.

"What have you said? You better get ready!" Grim yelled. "Eat this!"

"Grim, no! Stop!!" Yuu grabbed Grim the moment he blew out a thick blue fire, from which several flames were deflected by Ace's wind and reached into his arms to burn them on the spot.

He screamed, dropped Grim instinctively and flinched back in pain.

As the little monster turned to see what had happened to him, Ace focused more on the attack and with his wind magic deflected it, from all possible places, towards the statue of the Queen of Hearts.

Ace reacted and screamed in horror.

"That's what you get for deflecting my attacks!" Grim snapped at him. "Just let me fry you!"

"Who in their sane mind would allow themselves to be fried!?

"Enough!!!" Crowley's voice yelled angrily, approaching them as he drew his whip. "What's going on here?!"

The defiant attitude of both fighters changed into one of horror.

"The headmaster!" Ace yelled.

"He's going to roll us up with his 'whip of love'!" Grim screeched as he recalled his experience the day before. "Every man for himself!"

He tried to run away, but the headmaster hit him easily with the whip. He did the same with Ace.

"You wouldn't run from my whip of love in a hundred years! Didn't I tell you not to cause trouble? Now you go and scorch a statue of the Great Seven! I'd like to see you two expelled."

"Wait! Anything but that!" Asked Ace.

"And you, young Yuu! You call this watching Grim?"

Yuu had just watched the scene in horror as he held onto his arms.

"I'm sorry, sir," he apologized, looking away. "I really tried to stop them, but I couldn't." He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth after moving his right arm a bit.

The headmaster's gaze relaxed almost immediately when he saw him like that.
"You two, don't even think about moving from there! And everybody, go to class. There is nothing for you to see here!" He reached to Yuu. "Are you hurt? Show me."

Yuu extended both arms, the right one showing the more light red marks.

"Did you really try to stop them?"

The young boy nodded.

"Fortunately the burns don't look serious, but roll up your sleeves again, don't let them get worse." Crowley moved closer to Ace and Grim. "Not only do you burn school property, but you hurt someone in the process! You, tell me your name and school year!"

"Ace Trappola, first year," he said defeated.

"Okay, Trappola and Grim, as punishment, you have to clean one hundred windows all over campus," he said.

"What!? All this because this fool made fun of us!?" Grim asked indignantly.

"What!? Me too?" Ace asked the same way.

"Of course! After classes I want you two to start your punishment in the school cafeteria. Understood?"

"Okay..." Ace replied.

"I've had nothing but bad luck since yesterday!" Grim wailed.

Crowley intended to leave, but Yuu called out to him.

"Excuse me, Mr. Crowley, but what about me? Don't I have the punishment too?"

The three present looked at him in surprise.

"Of course not!" The headmaster replied. "Unlike these two, you were just doing your duty."

"I couldn't do it anyways, so shouldn't I be take responsibility for the damages?"

"Even if you're right about that, I can't punish you for trying. Besides, do you really think you can clean one hundred windows with both arms burned?"

"I could try. And even if it's impossible for me, I still have to clean up this place and continue to keep an eye on Grim."

The headmaster thought about what he said. "Okay, after cleaning the main street, you'll have to keep an eye on Grim and Trappola while they clean the windows, something you're not required to do. Of course, right now you have to go to the infirmary to take care of your injuries. You better go or they'll get worse, got it?"

"Yes, totally clear."

"Okay, in two hours I'll go ask to make sure you've been taken care of. You two, don't even think about getting away from punishment!"

With that he ended his reprimand and left.

[Published in 29-5-2021]