Assembly of the Anomaly (Shiro)

Going through the teleporter was not hard, as it was actually quite close to my house, surprisingly enough. I asked Achilles to lead me through the school, since he said he’d gone there when he was younger.

My sister accompanied me as well. Even though she said that she wasn’t going to go to school with me, since she was already twelve, she still seemed to want to look at the school.

“The name of this school is Race Equal Magic School, abbreviated as REMS or simply called the magic academy in most cases. I’m sure you can guess from the name, but all races under the goddess of life are welcome here, to learn and to practice.” Achilles spoke endlessly about the place.

To put it in a few words, this is REMS, a race equal school to learn magic, as well as practical skills. Many children choose to be adventurers, but there are an equal if not greater amount that go into practical and theoretical skills to better the world, and the school provides tutoring for those subjects as well.

The main school term is 8 years, taking a 5 year old until they’re 13, with an extra, optional 3 years of school that would bring you to 16.

The school normally takes children when they’re 5, but they accept any eligible candidates between the ages of 4 and 16. There are many reasons behind this, but the main one is that children without much mana will not develop as quickly, mentally, as somebody who has a large amount of mana. So some children will be able to work with the quadratic equation mentally at age three, and some may not be able to do it at age 12.

So, in even more basic terms, this is a school that teaches you what you want to learn and will take you in even if you’re supposedly worse than others.

All in all, it’s literally the best school that I could ask for.

Although, apparently I don’t have a classroom.

Achilles lead me over to the cafeteria, where children were getting their classrooms assigned.

It was mostly empty. Probably because of how early we came. I yawned. It wasn’t even noon yet.

“I’ll take him to the Principal, then… he’d probably know why this is happening.” Achilles was talking to the man on the black tower, who was the one who’d told me that I had no classroom.

I yawned again, and Alissa squeezed my hand to keep me awake. I really wasn’t up for all this walking. And the heat was making me tired…

He was a taller man, lanky and wearing a dark black lab coat. When he saw us come in…

“Oh! So we have the second piece now, huh? Welcome, welcome. Oh, you even brought company? I love company! Let them in too!” The man eagerly waved us into the large underground room.

There was a nip in the air that didn’t quite seem right, but I passed it off as a result of the room being underground.

The second piece? Who got here before me? And why did they tell him that we were in pieces?

“So I assume you’re the Principal?”

“To be technical, I’m the headmaster, but yes, I am.”

What’s the difference?

“So, who else is here?” I asked.

“Come on in and see, you’re letting the heat in.”

I sighed, before leading my group of three, the other two stunned silent at my casual conversation with the headmaster.

“And your name is?”

“Achelois.” “Kijo.” A skeleton and a devil with a glowing eye responded at once.

“Kijo aside, who are you?” I turned to the skeleton.

“Just a friendly dead woman.” Her voice certainly didn’t seem very feminine, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.

“Achelois, how did you get your name?” Achilles asked, his voice sounding much older than it usually did. It was as if he was speaking through gritted teeth.

“I believe you know the origin, Achilles. You’ve certainly aged well.” She seemed humored.

I turned to the old man.

His back sprouted two angelic wings, and his face seemed quite a bit younger. If not for the fact that his clothes and smell hadn’t changed, I wouldn’t have thought it was him.

“Achilles, you were an angel?”

“Damn straight I was. And this little lady here is one of the thirteen heroes. In fact, she should be the last of ‘em. She saved my life at the end of her battles nearly 534 years ago. I followed her and the other heroes, so that I could witness their final battle.” Achilles paused.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“What did you see there?” I asked.

“The heroes were powerless against the queen. The only reason they won was because she was weakened by age. Twelve of those heroes died that day. Every time they died, the bones that they had inhabited turned to dust, and their spirits swirled around the room in a raging storm. It obscured my vision more and more the more they died.” He looked up at the skeleton in front of him.

“But one of them kept fighting. I began hearing voices, some of them cheering for her, some of them telling her to join them. They shouted her name… thousands of times, as she used her mana to fight the Vepha queen. I remember standing there, the feathers on my wings falling out from the sheer force behind those calls. And I remember a solitary skeleton fighting on, seeming as if she didn’t even feel it.”

“Even now, I can hear them calling your name. Achelois. Achelois. Achelois… I can’t even remember how many times I’ve heard it. But, amazingly enough, she won. That tiny skeleton struck a fatal blow against the queen, and that black bile that flowed within the monster’s veins poured out on the floor. It rushed right by me, in a tiny river. That storm that swirled around you during that fight engulfed you.”

“And at that moment, I heard your voice. You cried for help.”

Achilles pulled out a small orb from his voluminous sleeves. It seemed to be crystal, polished into a perfect sphere. A storm raged within it, and cries could be heard. The air around it seemed to pulse, as if the orb had a heartbeat.

“Do you think you’re ready yet?” He held out that orb to Achelois.

She stared at it, and seemed to smile.

“No, I don't think I am. Do you mind holding onto them for a while longer…?” She seemed hesitant.

Achilles made a pained face.

“No, I don’t mind. But remember, you know how to find me. It’s just the opposite that’s difficult…” He muttered.

Nobody interrupted the scene. I don’t know about the others, but I almost didn’t feel worthy of interrupting the scene.

“No worries. From now on, it shouldn’t be that hard to find me.” Her voice calmed the mood and relieved that feeling of being unworthy. “After all, I’m becoming a teacher for a few anomalies in this world.”

As soon as I heard that, I snapped my gaze at her, questions running through my mind.

“Kijo, how much does she know?”

“Everything except the details of last time.”

I let out a long breath. I thought about what might happen. The consequences of this choice.

But of course, I didn’t have enough information to do it properly, so I simply sat down on one of the chairs that were sitting about.

I felt something strange, and shifted about for a second, until it went away.

“So now what…?” I asked.

“We wait for the others, I suppose. None of them should have a class assigned, so we’ve nothing left to do but wait for them to come over here.”

Kijo was right, so I simply sank into the chair.

It’s wooden. So uncomfortable…

I sent a gaze over to Alissa. Having known me for 5 years, she came over as soon as she saw it, and sat in the seat next to me.

I laid down on her lap, adjusting the chair with my legs to get the position right.

Comfortable, I purred in content before closing my eyes and going to sleep.

“Ah, what the hell is this? It’s actually a gel?!” I heard a yell.

“Somebody’s here? System, why didn’t you inform me!?” The headmaster yelled, throwing his hands in the air, running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

“Wasn’t supposed to inform me of random balls of mist my ass! You really didn’t find that suspicious at all!?” He shouted, responding to something I couldn’t hear.

“What’s going on?” I rose up, wiping my eyes and yawning.

“It would seem that something most certainly is.” A feminine voice answered me. I looked over, and realized that most of the seats in the room were now full.

“Who are you and why didn’t you wake me up when you came in? Now we need to do mass introductions, and everyone knows that’s the worst way to learn names.” I complained.

“We all know who we are. As for the names, you’ve made a fair point. However, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

That wording… so I have a genderbent body? How interesting.

I stood up and went over to her. I placed my hand on her thigh.

She showed me a thumbs up with a smile. I returned the gesture.

“So, what’s happening with the person trying to get in?”

“There’s somebody trying to get in, and the barrier is still up!” The Headmaster seemed to be in full panic mode.

“Then just take it down.” The dwarf commented. A sensible decision indeed.

“I can’t! He’s already taken a step into it! If I take it down now, any part of his body that’s still inside the barrier will be vaporized!”

The elf walked over towards the entrance.

“Hey, can you hear me?” He asked.

“Yeah, why?” A voice responded.

“Take ya’ damn body out of the barrier. We can take it down afterward.”

“Ah, chill. Give me a moment here, I’m a bit stuck… The blasted thing, why does it have to be like glue?”

A large hissing noise could be heard, before a small scale explosion.

“Ah, there we go. You got a healer in there, right? I can’t imagine nobody decided to choose healing, so have him come over here and patch me up once the barrier’s down.” The voice from the other side called. It would seem that he injured himself with that blast just now.

“Alright. Headmaster, take down the barrier.” The elf called.

Sunlight flooded into the room as the barrier disappeared.

The seraph, a halo above his head, stood up and walked over, a brown light congealing in his hand.

“Damn, you really messed up your leg, didn’t you? Heal.” The seraph commented.

“Well, you fixed it easy enough.”

A human walked in, pretty calmly.

“Heya guys… and girls. And skeleton? Should I mention races too?” There was a small pause. “It seems I’m a bit late to the party.” He flashed a smile I knew all too well.

After all, I’ve seen it in the mirror before.

“Now then, let’s all introduce ourselves.” The newcomer spoke.

“Well, I’m Sei, and-” Sei started.

“Hold up.” The demon interjected.

“What is it?” Sei asked.

“Well… how to put it…” He paused as he appeared to mull it over. “I believe we could all be the personas of who we were before. So, I’m thinking that sounds like something important to mention.”

“What do you mean?” The human asked, seemingly confused.

“For example, I’m the apathetic. Many of my emotions seem to be dulled.” The demon clarified.

Strangely enough, after hearing him say that, and looking at him, I felt that he was right.

“Ah, so that’s the feeling. Alright, so if we’re doing that, then we should all probably figure those out too.” The human spoke again.

The conversation continued for a very long time. In the end, we ended up figuring out a bit more about ourselves.

Dust, the Self Restraint persona. Human.

Eru, the Honest persona. Elf.

Sei, the Determination persona. Dwarf.

Myself, Shiro, the Catlike persona. Beastkin.

Yuu, the Reserved persona. Merfolk.

Ryuu, the Fun persona. Dragon.

Kon, the Languid persona. Spirit.

Gen, the Lovely persona. Elemental.

Fei, the Curious persona. Fairy.

Angelica, the Feminine persona. Angel.

Sera, the Righteous persona. Seraph

Namet, the Apathetic persona. Demon.

Kijo, the Sinful persona. Devil.

(It may be a good idea to mark the personas down. Introducing characters like this is the worst way to make them memorable.)

But now, the thirteen pieces were gathered.

It was the assembly of an anomaly, and an assembly of anomalies.