The day was going well. Classes haven’t been too stressful and the weather was good. Mukyu was Arsène’s only friend in the class, Arsène wasn’t really the type to talk to people freely or make friends easily. He was the silent type, only talking to people either when he wanted to or felt comfortable with. Mukyu wasn’t exactly much of a friend, at least he didn’t consider Arsène a friend. But Arsène still thought of Mukyu as a friend, since he didn’t have many other people talking to him or reaching out to him. The only other person that talked to Arsène was.. Lily. But she herself wasn’t much of a friend, in fact, she slandered and degraded Arsène verbally whenever she got the chance. It’s not like she hated him or anything, more like she enjoyed seeing his reaction or just him in pain. Other than that, Lily seemed to prefer talking to girls more than guys.

Arsène noted how Lily would kind of cringe or be uncomfortable when talking with men, but she still used her gentle and almost trust able facade every time she talked to someone besides Arsène. Of course, Mukyu could clearly see this facade and does not trust Lily, he doesn’t trust Arsène to begin with. Arsène was lost in a train of thought, wondering what to do. A few classes had passed and it was about to be noon soon. Arsène spun the pen he had in his hands, playing around with it in boredom.

He would occasionally look around the class, sometimes at Mukyu, who was too busy doing his own thing. Arsène didn’t dare or bother looking at Lily, knowing damn well she would say something to insult Arsène or say something out of the world.

‘Oh? You’re looking at me during the class? Perhaps you are in love with me or having some.. weird thoughts about me?~’

Arsène thought to himself. Would she say something like that, then he would shake his head and put on an awkward smile.

Yup, she is capable of saying something like that.

Arsène yawned as he looked at the time, it was 5 minutes from 1:10 in the afternoon. He was quite tired, not just from school but also the fight with Marbas the other day. He then looked at one of his fingers, looking carefully at it.

Not a single scar or trace left behind..

He thought to himself. Yesterday, when Arsène was cutting the vegetables, he had accidentally wounded his fingers, a small wound or cut of sorts. It wasn’t exactly deep nor was it shallow. It was a decent wound and was kind of painful. But Arsène would then learn of his new ability; Regeneration was an ability Arsène earned from absorbing Marbas’s. He wasn’t sure how exactly this ability worked, whether it was autonomous or needed the user to concentrate enough to heal themselves. Either way, this ability was quite valuable.

This meant if Arsène were to be severely wounded in a battle, he will still be able to heal himself and continue the battle. But he wondered, were there any side affects? Perhaps causing him to lose a good chunk of his blood or muscle fiber? Or maybe feeling tired after healing himself? He wasn’t exactly sure. Since the cut was small and didn’t take much to heal, Arsène probably didn’t notice any changes.

The teacher who was sitting and examining the materials, then looks at the time. She lets out a sigh of relief and gets up, walking out of the class. Arsène raises a brow as some students get up, chatting and walking out of the class. He then turns to look at Mukyu, who also turns off his phone and gets up from his seat.

“Why are you getting up?”

Arsène asks, confused and ignorant. Mukyu briefly turns to look at Arsène then looks back at his tablet.

“Oh right, you normally aren’t around the time when lunch begins. You sort of goof off or disappear most of the time.”

Arsène realizes, they had lunch. For the past week, Kami would make Ai call Arsène, asking him to come to the roof. Since then, Kami and Arsène would daily meet on the roof around this time, laying on the floor and talking. That would explain why Arsène didn’t know it was lunch time. In fact, this past week, he hasn’t properly eaten his lunch. The only time he had was when Ethan made him food yesterday afternoon after the fight with Marbas. He had been completely exhausted yesterday and almost forgot about it.

Arsène stands up, getting up from his seat as he followed Mukyu into the corridor. Arsène silently followed Mukyu as they slowly walked through the corridors. Arsène looked around, seeing students chatting or minding their own business. One male student was attempting to flirt with a girl but the girl didn’t seem to give a damn. In fact, she ignored the guy, guess the guy wasn’t a romcom protagonist!

Either way, Arsène looked around as Mukyu and him slowly made their way to the cafeteria. As they entered the cafeteria, Arsène’s slightly widened as he looked at the number of students present there. There were around or more than 100 students! Arsène gulped as he looked around, most students already grabbed their lunch and were eating away while talking to their buddies. While a few sat alone and silently ate their food.

Arsène looks back to see Mukyu had already started taking the food into his food tray. Arsène nervously took a food tray that was empty and clean, proceeding to stand before the food. Arsène lets out an audible gasp as a mechanical hand takes some food and places it in Arsène’s food tray. He shook his head and continued walking along the queue, letting the machine place food in Arsène’s tray. He would then look into the kitchen, behind the mechanical hands. He could see mechanical hands working and cooking in the back, busy with stuff. Arsène just shrugged it off as something common in HK-36. Though, the idea of machines working instead of humans, especially cooking, seemed alien to him.

After getting appropriate amount of food into his food tray, Arsène looked around before spotting Mukyu. He smiled as he made his way to the seat beside Mukyu, settling down as he put his tray down on the table. Arsène looked to Mukyu but his smile faltered as Mukyu was too busy playing something that his food was getting cold. Arsène sighed and turned to the tray, grabbing the spoon and eating his own food. The good was good and delicious, quite well made despite it being cooked by a machine. Then again, maybe it that good since it was made by a machine. But then again, he would prefer Kami’s or Ethan’s cooking over the machine’s cooking any day. He just prefered eating the food made by Kami and Ethan, it just had a different feeling to it.

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Arsène would then look around, then he spots a familiar face. Ethan was standing in the middle of the cafeteria, looking around. Maybe he was looking for a place to sit? Or maybe looking for a friend? Well either way, Arsène waved his hand in the air as he called out.

“Ethan!”

He quickly looked around to see if anyone looked at him, but no, everyone was busy minding their own business. Well, the cafeteria was quite noisy to begin with. Many people were talking loud to their friends, the room was filled with voices.

Ethan then looked at Arsène, noticing him. Ethan then smiles as he waves back, then slowly walking toward the table. Ethan would settle down beside Arsène as he looked at him.

“Thanks for this, I was having trouble finding any familiar faces to sit down and talk with.”

Ethan said with a nervous chuckle. Arsène simply shook his head, a smile on his face.

“It’s all good. You are my friend after all.”

Ethan’s eyes widened for a moment, then he look down, a deep shade of red over his cheeks as he hesitated to speak.

“Th-Thank you..”

He said awkwardly before starting to eat his meal. Arsène chuckled before turning and starting to eat his own meal. The food was good but Arsène felt like he would need 5 more rows of the amount he is eating to feel full. But he compromised. Since the other students needed to eat properly too and Arsène wasn’t that hungry.

A few minutes pass before students slowly start dispersing and leaving the cafeteria. Some left in groups, some in pairs, some alone. Arsène finished his meal as he left the food tray at a cleaning table, where a machine would take the tray, thoroughly and carefully cleaning it. Arsène stood silently by the entrance of the cafeteria, waiting for Mukyu to finish his meal. Ethan had completed his meal early as he had to head to class early.

Apparently, Ethan was a violin player and has been playing it for a while. And the next class for Ethan was the Musical class. Ethan was said to be an excellent violin player, able to play more songs or tune with perfectness. To an extent, Ethan was.. an ideal child or son of sorts. But Arsène was unsure whether Ethan had ever met his parents.

In fact, Arsène is unsure if any of the Numbered Children ever met their parents. Just as Arsène was busy thinking, he spots Mukyu slowly making his way to the exit of the cafeteria. Arsène smiled as he waved his hand, signaling his presence. Mukyu’s eyes slightly widen but he quickly composes himself, he then walks over to Arsène, looking at him.

“You were waiting for me?”

Arsène nodded, smiling pridefully as he put his hands over his hips.

“Of course! You are my friend. Why wouldn’t I wait for you?”

Mukyu sighs as he walks past Arsène, ignoring him. Arsène, though offended, just turns on his heel and starts following Mukyu back to their class. On their way, Arsène looks to his left to see Lily, she was busy talking to her new friends. But for a brief moment, she turns to look at Arsène. She looks smugly at Arsène, as if having an ill idea about doing something to him. A shiver runs down Arsène’s spine but she shakes his head, shrugging it off as a thing Lily would normally do.

Arsène then enters the class, walking over to his seat, he sits down as he lets out a sigh. Despite the good day, Arsène still felt quite exhausted. Was this a side affect of battling demons or using his armor? Feeling way too tired? Maybe it was, but Arsène chooses not to overthink it. He sits properly as Mukyu walks over and sits in his seat. For a few minutes, Mukyu just stares at nothing before pulling his phone out and playing on it.

Arsène just frowns.

At this point this is an addiction for him..

He thinks to himself. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but Arsène couldn’t blame Mukyu, in fact he was quite exhausted or even bored of listening to the classes, but not much can be done about it. For now, Arsène just had to play along and live this school life.

A few hours pass and its the evening. Arsène packs his bag as he looks to make sure he got everything. He then grabs his bag before waving his hand to Mukyu, which Mukyu simply waves back to while still concentrating on the phone. He then looks at Lily, who also waves her hand. Arsène reluctantly waves back before making his wave out of the class.

As Arsène slowly walked through the partially empty corridors, his phone starts ringing. Arsène halts, looking to his pocket, then pulls his phone out. His eyes slightly widen as he reads out the caller’s name.

“Yami..”

Arsène shakes his head and quickly answers the call, he puts the phone close to his ears.

“Hello? What is it, Yami?”

There is a chuckle over the other side, before Yami speaks.

“Well hello there, my dear son. How is school coming along?”

Arsène grimaces, something just didn’t feel right whenever this man chuckled or even simply spoke. But Arsène just sighs, before replying.

“Its been coming along fine. Why do you ask?”

Yami goes silent for a moment, before replying.

“I was just concerned for my dear son, since last week I got a complaint from the school that you beat up someone.”

Oh.. That fucking Zorome..

Arsène thought to himself before clearing his throat.

“That was just self defense, he was crossing the line. Besides, he brought a gun to the school, shouldn’t the faculty be concerned about that?”

Yami laughs over the phone.

“Ah, that’s the good ol’ Arsène, always defensive when it comes to yourself or your friends.”

Arsène thinks for a moment, what did Yami mean by that? Does that mean Yami knew of Arsène’s past? It was possible I guess, since Yami was there when Arsène first woke up. He shook his head as he replied.

“Is that why you called me? To waste my time?”

Yami chuckled, clicking his tongue.

“Now now, don’t get mad. I just wanted to deliver some news to you.”

Arsène tilted his head like a confused pup. But then asked aggressively.

“What is it?! Just tell me and get it over with.”

Yami chuckles again before the line goes silent.

“Another demon has appeared.”

*