Sirens blared from the school auditorium, crashing a middle school graduation. Metal walls rose from the entrance floor, cutting off access. The students casually chatted among themselves while the teachers called roll.
The announcements called four students by name to report to the auditorium. A boy with silvery-pink hair stared out the window from the second floor. He finally answered the phone that had been buzzing on his desk.
“Dude, where are you? The teachers are fuming.”
“Yeah, yeah, I'll take my chances.”
“Dude! It's a Tier Three Tear. If a normal student was caught they'd die a horrible, gruesome death... It's a shame. I'll make sure to show up for your funeral.”
The boy stared at the door. “I'll curse you from the afterlife. Call you later, Brax.”
“Wait, Lance—”
He crouched low, the stench of fish and shit filling the air. A large mere-folk walked into the classroom, blood dripping off its rusted trident.
“Hey, fishfa—” The trident whipped past Lance's face, sticking into the wall.
“At least let me finish my insult.”
Lance was already out the window, climbing to the fourth floor as the creature ran at him. From below he could see the Tear in space, placed conveniently by the pool. Water poured out by the barrel, accompanied by more sea folk.
The mere-folk, trident reclaimed, poked his head out the window before leaping. Lance jumped to the side, catching another ledge with his fingers as the trident slammed into the brick.
“Still too soon for fish to fly, huh.” Using it as a foothold, he jumped to the fourth-floor window and went into the classroom. It was the art room, seemingly untouched. From the closet, he could hear movement.
Seems I've found delinquent number two. He approached the closet with quiet steps, then—
“RAAA—”
A girl's voice rang out as a teddy bear jumped from the closet, attaching itself to Lance's face.
“Dude, come on, you can't be loud like that. The school's under attack, you know.”
“Lance... you...” She looked like a cherry tomato with that green hair of hers.
He pinched the teddy off his face, dropping it in her lap.
“I'm sorry, Mia, I'm sorry. But what's that thing?” Lance said, pointing at the bloodied teddy bear.
“Well, you see, I was on my way to the auditorium when I stopped to use the restroom. I was washing my hands when the fish monsters came in. One lunged at me, and it slammed into the sink when I slapped it.”
She slapped it? Maybe I shouldn't get on her bad side.
“Then I quickly pulled out my notebook and summoned Gumgum,” she said, holding up the teddy bear.
“When the other one came into the bathroom and threw its spear, he deflected it downwards and it stabbed the other one... then I just ran until I got here.”
“Wait—if you awakened, why do you even go here? Actually, I don't wanna know. So what do we do now? I could never leave a maiden behind.” Lance struck a pose alongside Gumgum.
“Well, I go to this school because my ability is kind of useless. I can't actually make any of my other drawings into summons yet.”
“Useless? A non-scientific ability is all the rage nowadays. Hang in there.”
“Well, I can do other things!” She grabbed Lance's hands and began going on about various things.
“Oh, and I painted the doors, so the monsters probably won't find this room.”
“Really? Great. I pulled an all-nighter, so just wake me up when something happens.”
Lance curled to the side and closed his eyes, already asleep.
“What? This isn't the time for that,” she said.
“Lance... Lance. Lance!”
“What, I'm trying to sleep.” Looking up, he saw Mia's face. This was clearly not the position he fell asleep in. She looked down, her long green hair curtaining his face.
“Morning, my star child,” another voice chimed in.
Lance tensed as he peeked to the side. Why's that witch here?
“Principal, as you can see, I was keeping Mia safe...”
“Really now,” she said with a smile.
Lance bolted for the window. “Get him!” she screamed.
A man with a sword on his back shot forward. As Lance jumped out the window, the man grabbed his leg. Lance twisted his body and loosened his pants before kicking off the man's face. He held up his middle finger as he fell.
The principal looked down at the pants-less Lance running down the street with a missing shoe. The courtyard was littered with mere-folk corpses, and a giant four-meter squid lay at the center.
“Ah man, I might have to ditch school for a while. We're graduating anyway, so it's not that important.” Lance threw off his wet sock and walked barefoot.
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