Idea of Anarchy
Truthfully speaking there was nothing I wanted more than to disappear into the nearest locker and leave not a trace behind to be found by anyone for any reason. Not even for the end of the world. Not to say folks eyes were on me, far from it, actually they were all fixed on the woman behind me. The "Angel" known as Althea.
"Do you have an invisibility function?"
"Pardon?" She squeaked.
I grabbed the collar of my "Dead by Daylight" hoodie and pinned her against an unsuspecting locker.
"You heard me woman; do you have an invisibility function?"
"I-I'm afraid not."
"Of course you don't. Why would you."
I let out a long, pathetic sigh, my forehead thumping softly against the cool metal of the locker right next to her head. My fingers uncurled from the fabric of my own hoodie, letting her drop back to a normal standing posture.
"Forget it," I muttered, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Just… try to look normal. Stop glaring at the hall monitors like they're enemy scouts."
"I cannot lower my guard, Adjutant. The hostility in this corridor is palpable."
"It's not hostility, it's puberty," I shot back, adjusting the strap of my backpack. "Come on. Stay close and keep your head down."
We walked the rest of the way to Homeroom 2B in relative silence, doing our best to ignore the whispers that trailed us like a bad smell. When I finally pushed open the heavy wooden door of the classroom, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.
It was a safe haven. Mostly empty. The early morning rush hadn't fully kicked in yet, leaving the room submerged in a comfortable, sleepy quiet. Matthew was already in his usual seat near the back, furiously copying someone else's math homework, while a few other nameless faces were scattered around the room, either glued to their phones or completely passed out on their desks. None of them had the energy to care about the mythical warrior currently shadowing my every step.
"Take the seat next to mine," I whispered, pointing to the empty desk beside my own in the middle row. "Sit down. Don't speak unless spoken to, and whatever you do, do not pledge your loyalty to the teacher."
"Understood," Althea whispered back, her tone deadly serious. She slid into the plastic chair with far more grace than it deserved, sitting perfectly rigid. Her back was completely straight, her hands folded neatly on the desk like a soldier awaiting a tactical briefing.
I slumped into my own seat, burying the lower half of my face in my arms, and watched the clock.
Slowly, the minutes ticked by. The classroom began to fill up. The handful of nameless faces multiplied, turning the quiet room into a dull roar of dragging chairs, slamming textbooks, and overlapping conversations. A few heads turned in Althea's direction, their eyes widening at the girl wearing oversized men's clothes, but the sheer, intimidating aura of a combat-ready Angel kept anyone from actually approaching her.
Then, the morning bell shrieked overhead.
The noise in the room instantly died. The heavy wooden door swung open with a dramatic creak, and the collective posture of the class stiffened.
Mr. Harrison stepped into the room. He looked exactly as Matthew had described him yesterday: a Demon in a cheap suit. He slammed his battered leather briefcase onto the podium, his sharp, tired eyes immediately sweeping across the room like a prison warden doing a headcount. They locked onto my desk—and the blonde anomaly sitting right next to it—for a fraction of a second before he pulled out his clipboard.
"Settle down," Mr. Harrison barked, his voice carrying the warmth of a gravel driveway. "Roll call. Speak up when your name is called. And Reach… it's an absolute miracle you finally decided to join the land of the living."
I wasn't exactly dead, just fighting an interdimentional monster while groping a woman without her consent, so not only is your joke invalid; the truth can also earn me some jail time. Oh, the cinema of it all.
"And you must be??" Harrison directed his question at Althea this time.
The entity- ahem, woman, in question looked at me with a curious look in her eyes. Like she waiting for me to give her the go ahead to introduce herself. I wanted to, really, but when I imagined how that intro went my mind and body just screamed "Hell to the No!" so I did introductions for her.
"Uh, she's my cousin." I blabbed. "She's visiting from abroad and I didn't want to leave her alone in the house because she'd destroy it."
See kids. The key to telling a successful lie is to add a little bit of truth to it. That way, when you're accused of lying you can bring proof of the truthful parts and the rest will fall into place like a nifty puzzle.
"Cousin?" he groaned. "Reach, this is a learning institute, not a day care."
"Says the grown man with extreme self-esteem issues."
"What was that." He snarled.
That was the sound of me challenging your authority. That's part of my character arc. Challenging authority.
"Nothing sir." I apologized. "You're absolutely right. This'll be my first and last time bringing her. My uncle should be back home really soon so I'll leave her in his….hands."
I didn't even wanna try to unpack that. Not even as a cheap joke. Seemingly satisfied with my apology, Harrison continued on with the class taking roll calls all around. As far as I could tell, nobody was absent and I was the only one who was absent yesterday. I had the Devil's luck but I just couldn't prove it.
After roll call, he opened his shiny briefcase to pull out a huge stack of papers. Not money -actual papers.
The papers made their way down the rows with the agonizing slowness of a ticking bomb. A flurry of rustling and muted groans followed the stack as it moved. When the kid in front of me finally slapped a crisp, white sheet onto my desk, I practically expected it to be a pop quiz on the Rapture.
Instead, it was a flyer. Or rather, a mandatory decree masked as a highly enthusiastic flyer.
At the very top, printed in bold, authoritarian letters, was the header: Ioponia High x Demon Hunter's Association: Mandatory Joint Education Initiative.
I blinked, rubbing my eyes just to make sure the lack of sleep wasn't making me hallucinate. Nope. The letters were still there, glaring up at me in stark black ink.
"What is this?" Matthew whispered from behind me, leaning so far forward his chin was practically resting on my shoulder. "They're bringing actual Hunters to the school? Are we getting drafted?"
"Read the fine print," I muttered, my eyes scanning the dense paragraphs below the header.
The document outlined a brand new, highly invasive curriculum designed to 'prepare the youth for modern survival'. Apparently, the higher-ups had decided that algebra and basic history weren't cutting it anymore. But it was the Why section that made my blood run cold.
According to the Association's declassified data printed right there on the page, the number of Demon manifestations across the globe hadn't just been spiking—it had been steadily, consistently rising for exactly fourteen years.
Fourteen years. As in, the exact amount of time I had been alive. I swallowed hard, the sour taste of my morning coffee creeping back up my throat. Coincidence. It's just a coincidence, Timmy. Don't flatter yourself into thinking you're the center of the universe.
But the next paragraph completely shattered whatever flimsy denial I was trying to build.
Due to the unprecedented, synchronized Demon incursions that occurred across every major global sector approximately forty-eight hours ago, Ioponia High will be instituting mandatory survival and evasion seminars starting immediately.
Forty-eight hours ago. Two days.
My heart did a painful stutter-step in my chest. Two days ago was Sunday. Two days ago, Jean had left for work, I touched the glowing mark between the cleavage of a sleeping stranger, and I was subsequently sucked into the Pantheon to fight an eight-foot-tall rotting grey Boggart.
While I was busy playing out a tutorial level in a parallel dimension, the real world had apparently been fighting off a coordinated, global Demon invasion.
"Adjutant," Althea whispered.
I jumped slightly, realizing she was leaning over her desk, her bright blue eyes locked onto the paper in my hands. Despite not knowing what a 'high school' was, she seemed perfectly capable of speed-reading English.
"Synchronized incursions," she murmured, her voice so low only I could hear it. Her posture, already stiff, went completely rigid. "The Void is testing the perimeter. They know the Reach has been activated."
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," I hissed through my teeth, frantically shoving the paper face-down onto my desk. "Do not say 'the Void' out loud. Do not say 'the Reach' out loud. We are normal teenagers. We are terrified of the Demons just like everyone else."
"But you are not like everyone else," she pointed out, completely missing the concept of keeping a low profile. "If the Demons are mobilizing, we must secure the Pantheon and begin your Ascension. We do not have time to sit in this room and listen to a civilian lecture us on subjects we are meant to destroy."
"Reach!" Mr. Harrison's voice cracked like a whip across the classroom.
I snapped to attention, my spine instantly straightening. "Yes, sir!"
"Is there something about the Association's directive that you and your… cousin find amusing enough to whisper about while I'm addressing the class?" He was glaring at me over the rim of his glasses, the entire room now dead silent and staring right at us.
"No, sir," I lied, my voice cracking perfectly to sell the image of a terrified, defenseless kid. "She was just asking… what a Demon looks like."
Mr. Harrison's sneer deepened, but he turned his gaze back to the rest of the room. "Well, she's in luck. Because the Association representative will be arriving in exactly sixty minutes to give a live demonstration in the gymnasium."