"Calm down, Riddle!" Trey was holding Riddle, pulling him back kicking and screaming from the front door.

"No!" Riddle screamed, trying to get off from Trey's hold. "Azul had gone too far! I'm going to-"

"You are not doing anything yet!" Trey looked back, grateful that they finally reached Riddle's room again. Quickly opening the door, Trey threw Riddle in and quickly locked the door behind him. Before Riddle could protest again, Trey knelt, gripping his shoulders.

"Listen to me." Trey shook his shoulder. "Riddle, listen to me!"

Riddle gripped Trey's hands. "Trey-"

"You can make this worse," Trey quickly said. Riddle let out a small gasp, not really expecting something like that would come out from Trey's mouth. Trey sighed, taking this small chance of silence. "Azul is basically in control of Jonah's action. If we mess with Azul, who knows what will happen to Jonah. There will be possibilities of him lashing out at Jonah because of our actions."

Riddle's breathing calmed down, letting it sink in. That's right. He couldn't be reckless or else Jonah might suffer the consequences.

The buzzing of a phone snapped him back to reality. Trey reached out for his phone in his pocket and saw that Jack just sent him a message, telling him that he had an idea.

"That's not going to work."

"Working so far!"

Trey looked up as Jonah swung down his sword but Crowley leaned away from getting hit. Compare to Jonah who mostly just offensive and rather stiff in his movement, Crowley moved very fluidly, spinning and hopping, managing to avoid every attack from a boy and never actually fight back, all defensive mode. Jonah jumped again, but Crowley stepped away, twisting his body so he was behind the boy. Jonah clicked his tongue as Crowley skipped backward. Taking his chance, Jonah turned around and swung his sword above his head, jumping into the air, and brought his sword down with a scream. But once again, Crowley stepped away. Jonah's eyes widened as he came crashing down, face planted on the grass and his sword slipped out from his grip. Jonah let out a grunt and quickly picking up his sword again and turned around–

–Only for him to scoot back at the cane pointed at him.

"Don't be overcommitted in trying to beating your enemies," Crowley said. "You need to find the perfect pacing of attacking and defending. Too much on one side will lead you to early exhaustion."

Jonah sighed. "Alright." He got up from the grass and stretched his muscle, unable to hold back a yawn.

"How about we stop practicing for tonight?" Crowley spun his cane, tapping it to the ground and hold it like usual. "Are you planning to stay here for the night, Mister Argentum?"

Jonah turned to Trey. "Did Riddle mention that I can stay here?"

Trey had his thumb and index finger on his chin. "He would probably let you. But unfortunately, we don't have any free room since our dorm hasn't had any expelled students."

Jonah nodded at him. "That's okay. I'll just go back to my room."

Crowley walked up to them and stood behind Jonah with a hand on his shoulder. "I'll take you back to the tower." He offered the bamboo sword to the smaller boy. "You can keep this. Even if it's not as sharp as your usual sword, but keep for our next practice."

Jonah took the sword and looked up to the headmaster. "When are we going to use a real sword?"

Crowley chuckled, ruffling his hair. "Practice first. We don't want you accidentally cut someone else's hand."

Jonah shook his head. "Fine..." he sighed, but there wasn't any malice in his tone. "We'll do it your way." HE turned back to Trey, offering his hand. "Thanks for today. I really need that talk."

Trey smiled, grasping Jonah's hand in his own and gave him a small handshake. "You're welcome. I'll let Riddle."

Hopefully, the three of them were doing fine in the ocean...

-----

The diving team wasn't doing fine in the ocean. Like, at all.

"They are worse than ever!" Cater shot a whirlwind toward their newest enemies, green-colored barracuda with teeth that can crush through bones. He gripped his upper arm which had some reddening scratches. He chanted a quick healing spell on himself before any blood seeped out.

"Yeah," said Jack, pulling back from the avalanche rock that he cast. "It's almost like they can't wait to get rid of us."

"[REDUCTO]!" Riddle frowned, watching the last barracuda erupted into green bubbles. "They were set just for us." He gripped his magical pen hard as he gritted his teeth. "Azul must've done something about this."

"But that can't be, right?" Cater pitched in, swimming to join the other two. "You guys didn't meet him earlier, right? There's no way he has the skill to change the environment."

"But then again, he has more than 200 students' powers from the contract," Jack said. "Even if he has that power, it still didn't make any sense."

Riddle sighed. "We'll figure this out later." He turned to the sea-urchin. "Jack. Where to?"

Jack nodded. He pointed his magical pen at the right. "I went-"

He paused. Riddle and Cater looked to the right. How come they never noticed the wall next to them? The only path through the wall as the cavern hole.

"This can't be right," Jack muttered. "It wasn't here earlier."

"Are you sure?" Riddle asked.

Jack nodded. "I didn't go through any cavern." He looked to the wall. It was quite tall. "There was no way I didn't notice this."

"Should we take the risk and go in?" Cater asked, looking at the both of them.

Riddle sighed. "We don't have much choice. Let's go."

Entering the cave, they were greeted by a wall of fast-moving, swirling bubbles. The three of them could feel the current was pulling them in. "I take it back!" Riddle screamed. "Get out! Get out!"

None of them protested. The three mermen tried to swim away but the current was too strong for them, pulling them into the vortex. Their screams were muffled by the powerful ocean current. They were being swept around like a ragdoll among the swirling water and a large mass of bubbles hitting their face. They tumbled head over tail down the narrow tunnel and they frantically reached out around him in search of something to grab onto.

Then it felt like they were being spitted out of a whale blowhole. Riddle suddenly found himself hurtling uncontrollably into a patch of seaweed and moss growing on the stone wall. The plants cushioned the collision with the wall, though Riddle still wound up pressed upside-down against it. The force of the current and the roaring in his ears diminished and everything suddenly seemed very quiet. Disoriented and dizzy, Riddle tried to look around him and regain a sense of himself as he slid slowly down the stone.

"Riddle! Are you okay?"

"Wh-What...?"

He saw a pair of blurry hands reached toward him and pull him back into an upright position, while the other pair untangled long strips of seaweed wrapped around his torso. Riddle shut his eyes tightly for a moment, vigorously shook off his dizziness, and then looked around him again with his eyes properly focused.

He found himself looking up into the faces of Jack with Cater holding him steady. "You okay?" asked Jack. "That looked pretty bad."

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, but... What just happened?"

"The current threw us somewhere," Cater said. "We... We don't know where unfortunately."

Jack hummed as he saw ahead from them with his glowing magical pen aimed toward the ocean floor for some recognizable clue. Riddle let out a groan as he massaged his temple. "Ugh, great," he muttered. "Now, we're lost."

"Don't worry, Riddle," Cater tried to cheer him up. "I'm sure we can't be that far from the museum."

"Actually..." Riddle and Cater looked up to Jack. His brow was ceased and he was growling, whether because of anger or just plain annoyance. "We are way too far from the museum." Cater and Riddle looked down at where Jack's magical pen was aiming. Their eyes widened in shock.

It was the same rock with the moss on one side.

They were back at the beginning.

-----

"So, even if you managed to scout the area, you still can't even reach the museum?"

Jack groaned, leaning against the wall as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I swear the path was clear in the morning," he said. "Senior Riddle had a suspicion that Senior Azul might manipulate the environment. But we can't be sure."

Leona sat on his bed, elbow on his knee and chin resting on his folded knuckle. "You have seen Azul's unique magic, right?" Leona asked, to which Jack nodded. "As long as someone signs a deal with 'It's a Deal', Azul'll be able to confiscate one of the target's magic. And if in the worst-case scenario, the target doesn't fulfill the conditions, he is bound to work under Azul indefinitely."

"You gotta admit that he's pretty amazing because the difficult conditions require skillful magic, even if it's still super shady," Ruggie said from the floor as he grabbed another of Leona's used clothes to fold.

"The confiscated magic is kept inside the contract and Azul can use it anytime," Leona continued. "I don't doubt that Azul stole a power that can change the area and set traps for you guys."

Jack growled at this, annoyed knowing that Azul was so powerful yet at the same time felt like they were being tricked. He had all those power from stealing from those gullible students who signed the contract, which made him a fraud to some degree.

"Well, now that you know that scouting more would be useless with the whole probabilities of Azul's changing the area again, what is your plan now?" Leona asked again, gaining Jack's attention back.

"Well, Jonah would definitely want to dive again tomorrow since he's convinced that we are making the potion tonight," the wolf-boy answered.

"He's trying his best to play stupid, I see," Leona muttered. He looked up to Jack, staring at him seriously. "If you keep on like this, your movement will be too predictable for Azul. He will definitely find a way to delay you from getting that picture. Remember, you only have two more days."

Jack nodded. "Well, what are you suggesting?"

Leona hummed for a bit as if he was thinking. But Ruggie knew that look on his face. Leona had already had an idea for a long time. "I say you still keep doing your plan of diving in. Now that you have a tail, you might have a tiny chance you can get away from the twins," the prefect started. "But, as back-up, you can think of a way to break that special contract first."

Jack blinked in confusion. "Breaking the contract?"

"There is no such thing as an 'unbreakable contract'," Leona added. "Even that Red Prince's unique magic may look invincible, but it's really not."

Leona nodded at him, already did his part in giving his hint. Jack looked down to his feet, trying to piece together the information they had. There is no way Azul's magic is all that powerful... There has to be a weakness... But they don't know...

Wait...

Jack looked up at his senior again. "Are you saying that instead of going against the Leech Brothers under the sea again, it would be better for us to go look for the contract's weakness?"

Leona's lips curled up into a smirk. "You've finally used your brain."

Jack frowned at him. "But, isn't that a bit like cheating...?"

Ruggie groaned at this. "Listen here, Jack." He got up from the floor and stood next to Jack, shaking his head disappointedly as he patted the wolf-boy's back. "We really appreciate you're being honest and all, but the way things are, you don't even stand a chance against Azul above ground."

Jack's ears went down. "That's..."

Leona laughed at Jack's innocent mind. "In the first place, knowing that those guys take advantage of clueless people means that they're evil in all sense of the word. There's no reason for you to hold back at all. It doesn't matter if it's cheating or if it's outside what you agreed on. It's your win as long as you nullify the contract."

Ruggie snickered. "Whew~ That's our Leona! You're bad to the bone!"

Jack raised an eyebrow at his smirking prefect. "You really haven't repented, have you?"

"At a time like this, do you really want to think about morals?" Leona continued. "Beside. I do not doubt that Riddle will agree with anything knowing his crush's freedom is on the line."

-----

"That's what he said." Trey showed the phone screen with Jack's message on it, telling them about the idea to find the weakness of the contract while the others dive in once again. Trey looked at the other four Heartslabyul members and one demon-cat on the table. "I have to admit, this is a pretty good plan."

Grim gripped the fur on top of his head harshly. "Argh! I still can't believe that Azul tricked us into thinking the contract."

"This is why you got scammed easily," Riddle huffed. "But I agree with Senior Leona here. It's better if we can find a way to destroy the contract as a second plan. If we can destroy them tomorrow, then we don't need to go back to the sea on the third day." He tapped his chin, thinking. "But we need to know where Azul keeps it."

"I think I know," Ace spoke up, making everyone to turn toward him. "He keeps it in a giant safe behind his desk. I've seen him open it. Oh!" He perked up and snapped his fingers. "And he also has this book."

Riddle raised an eyebrow at him. "A book?"

"Yeah. He keeps it in the safe too."

"Do you know what's inside?"

Ace, unfortunately, shook his head. "I didn't get a good look at it. But I think he was just doodling."

"It might be important..." Riddle hummed. He nodded to himself. Right. Better safe than sorry. He stood up from the couch, looking at the gang one by one with serious looks. "Okay. Here's the plan." He first pointed at the orange-haired senior. "Cater. You, Jack, and Jonah will dive once again to try and get the picture." Cater gave him a two-finger salute, then Riddle turned to point at his vice prefect. "Trey. You will join Ace, Deuce, and Grim in finding those contracts."

"Question." Deuce raised his hand. "How are we going to do that if Azul's watching us?"

"You can do it in the afternoon," Riddle explained. "Tomorrow after school, the prefect will have one last meeting before winter break, so Azul will be away from Mostro Lounge at least for two hours. In the meantime, the four of you can sneak in there." Deuce replied to them with nods of understanding, so Riddle continued, "Plus, classes are only for half-day and aren't mandatory in this last week, so Cater's team can dive early, then I'll give the signal from the prefect meeting for Trey's team to move. Any question?"

Everyone shook their head and Riddle nodded at them, satisfied with their answer. "Great. Get some sleep. We need all the energy we can get."

Don't worry, Jonah. We have this under control...

-----

Kalim didn't like the aura surrounding the current prefect meeting. It felt so cold and deadly. Some things that he noticed were Azul was smiling a bit too much, humming some tune that Kalim didn't recognize. Riddle kept staring at the Octavinelle Prefect, glaring like he was thinking about murdering him. Leona had his eyes closed, probably taking a nap before the headmaster arrived, but his ears were up and tail wagging lazily, prepare for sudden danger. Vil was on his phone but occasionally he glanced between Azul, Riddle, and Leona. Malleus wasn't here (dang it, did they forget to invite him again?), but Lilia was there in his place, but even the fae was watching them with sharp eyes. Seriously, the atmosphere was very unpleasant that Kalim had to sit closer to Idia's table.

"Hey," he whispered to the device. "Is it just me or does everyone want to kill each other?"

"It does look like everyone is waiting for the battle royale countdown," Idia answered. "It's very tense."

"I know, right?" Kalim whispered back. "Weird. What is wrong with everyone?"

Just then, the door to the Mirror Chamber was opened and Crowley stepped in. He must've noticed the downer atmosphere when he glanced at the prefects there. He cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. Crowley stepped to the front of the prefects. "All the prefects are here, I gather?"

Vil turned off his phone, looked around, and his gaze stopped at Lilia. "Seems like Malleus isn't here are usual?"

"I apologize," Lilia nodded at them. "I had seen him right during the break. And yet, he vanished as anon as the place of learning cashiered."

"Maybe he did it on purpose?" Idia spoke up.

Lilia tried his best not to look offended or even pout. "Don't say things like that. Us faes are some few bit divers from thou humans." He sighed. "Moreover, his terrible luck is quite bothersome."

Kalim laughed. "I feel you! I completely forget about meetings sometimes that Jamil has to remind me about them."

Lilia gave Kalim a warm smile, the turned toward the rest of the prefect. "So, please, allow this humble vice prefect to attend 'i his place."

"And what about the other missing person?" Azul spoke up and the temperature suddenly felt too cold for Kalim. "It would be a shame that Mister Argentum miss this important meeting."

"He had some business to attend," Riddle said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and glaring at Azul. "And I don't see you complain about him not attending the meeting two weeks ago."

Leona huffed a laugh, giving Azul a sideways glance. "Do you miss him that much, Octo Punk?"

The corner of Azul's eye twitched. "Oh, please, Mister Kingscholar," he said with a mocking smile. "I'm just worried that Mister Argentum is ignoring his duty as prefect. Even though he doesn't have any member besides that nuisance of a cat, he's still counted as one of us."

Riddle clenched his fist. He was about to stand up, ready to have a debate with Azul until he could rip that smile off his face, but the door to the Mirror Chamber was being opened once again and a familiar voice was heard.

Between all of them, Riddle and Leona had the most shock at the turn of the event.

"Please, Ashengrotto. Hold back your tongue." The prefect of the Ramshackle Dorm stepped in, wearing his proud captain outfit of a dorm uniform. "I'm here. Are you happy?"