It was the morning of a new day in the Demon World, the sun was up in the sky and small rays of light were shining through the curtain of Shiraki's bedroom. The bedroom was silent and dark, Shiraki was sleeping peacefully on her new bed when the time to wake up arrived. As soon as the alarm clock began to ring Shiraki quickly turned it off, now awake she stretched herself and got up from her bed.
"M-mmh.... this is officially my first day in the Demon World... let's how it goes then..."
Shiraki went to turn on the light of her room, her program was to take a shower and have breakfast in the canteen. With the light on Shiraki went to her wardrobe and took out a change of uniform and clean clothes, the uniform she used yesterday was in the washing machine so she needed a clean uniform for the day.
Shiraki left her room and turned on the living room's lights going to the bathroom, she wanted to properly wake herself up by trying the shower of her room.
Upon opening the bathroom's door and turning on the light, Shiraki saw that the washing machine was turned off, probably because it was done. Shiraki undressed and went inside the shower, saving the tub for when a more relaxed time. Out of the shower, Shiraki stretched herself with a relaxed sigh, she dried herself and went back to her room.
"Ah... I truly needed a nice shower, now time to get dressed, I wonder what they'll have in the canteen."
Shiraki began to dress in her room, first her underwear then her uniform, she tied her katana to her hip and prepared her bag.
"I don't think I'll need anything else outside a pen and a notebook, after all it's only the first day."
Done dressing she sprayed some perfume and turned off the light of her bedroom, she left the room and locked the door. Shiraki went to the entrance of her room and wore her shoes, after turning off all the lights and everything else, she left her room and locked the door, destination canteen.
On her way toward the canteen Shiraki could observe all kind of demons, both her dorm and the way for the canteen were crowded with students. Some demons had a human-like appearance like her while some others had a more demonic appearance with horns, wings and other kind of features. It was impossible to distinguish first years like her from the older students, but seeing all those demons and half demons gave her a first thought of what kind of people were going to be part of her class.
Arrived at the main building, Shiraki followed the flow of students going toward the canteen, signs were hanged on the wall indicating where to go as well. The hallways of the school were high, really high, and candelabra were hanging from the ceiling, the inner walls where of a dark purple with a black flooring.
Between arriving in the canteen and waiting her turn to enter, it took her some time before being able to order her breakfast.
"Good morning, student ID please."
"Here."
Shiraki gave her student ID to the demon at the entrance of the canteen, after checking her student ID the demon gave Shiraki her student ID back.
"What do you want to eat? Human food or demon food?"
"Human food please."
"For human food join the line on the right side of the canteen."
"Thanks."
Shiraki followed the demon's instruction and joined the line. The canteen was huge, the interiors were all white from the walls to the tables, on the right side of the canteen there was the human food kitchen, while on the left side there was the demon food kitchen. The line was going smoothly and quick, and plates were being assembled in front of the students and then handed over.
"Welcome to the canteen first year, what can I get for you?"
It was Shiraki's turn now, menus were exposed in the upper part of the kitchen, dishes from the cuisines of every culture of the human world were listed there.
"I'll take a Japanese breakfast if possible."
"Coming right up!"
Shiraki's breakfast was being assembled and cooked right in front of her, by using their element the cooks were able to cook dishes in a matter of minutes.
"Here you go, one traditional Japanese breakfast for you, seat where you want and leave the dirty dishes on the table near the exit on your way out, enjoy your meal!"
"Thank you."
Shiraki took the tray with her breakfast and went looking for a place to sit, the canteen was full of tables and chairs and it took her no time to find a place to sit.
As Shiraki sat down she thanked for the food and started eating, the breakfast was tasty and she was amazed that it was that good for being cooked in so little time.
Satisfied with her breakfast, Shiraki stood up with her tray and headed toward the exit, she left the tray on the table with the other dirty dishes and left the canteen.
"That was a curious way to cook... well now let's see where the speech will take place."
The speech was going to take place in the main hall, right outside the canteen there were signs pointing toward the main hall, other students were heading there as well. Shiraki followed the students and reached the end of the hallway, there the doors of the main hall were open and students were already picking their seats.
The main hall was huge, it had a stage and at least 600 seats. The main hall's entrance was located at the ground floor, but the hall was so big that the exit near the stage was in the second underground floor. A hall so big that was built using two floors, Shiraki never saw a room this big in her entire life.
From the entrance floor, stairs were going all the way down to the second floor, the stairs were in the middle of the room and to their sides there were the seats, 300 on the right and 300 seats on the left. Shiraki was slowly going down the stairs, looking at the other students and for a place to seat for the speech, at the moment only around 20 students were there and they were all scattered around the hall.
Upon reaching the end of the stairs, Shiraki sat down on the first chair on her left, she placed her bag on her lap and patiently began to wait for the hall to fill up and the beginning of the speech. Slowly the hall began to fill and even older students began to arrive and assist to the speech, unlike the new students they were free to either join the first years in the main hall or no.
The main hall was now full, all the seats were taken and some students were even sitting on the stairs. The hour of the speech finally came and a demon brought a stand to the stage, while he was leaving some other demons brought chairs on the stage and as they left, the teachers started to come on the stage.
Now that all teachers sat down, a chair was left empty as the last teacher instead of sitting went up to the stand, he cleared his voice and looked toward the students.
"Good morning everyone and welcome to the Demon School Cerberus Castle, my name is Ans Frudel and I'll be the history teacher for this year. The Principal was in charge of the speech but some official duties didn't allow her to make it here in time and I was put in charge instead, but she wishes you all a year full of experiences and she hopes you'll be able to feel at home in your dorms. From today you'll officially be first year students at the Demon School Cerberus Castle, demon lords and other powerful demons attended this school, you'll be able to study and live inside the best school of the Demon World, founded by The Demon Lord himself. In those years of school you'll learn how to use your powers, how to master them, the story of your world and everything you'll need to know in order to venture in the world once you'll graduate, 100 years has passed since the last demon lord was born, but who knows, maybe a new demon lord is already among us. Sitting behind me there are the coordinator of each class, each class has a coordinator and for any doubts or official business with the school, speak to them. Now then, I'll begin to announce the formation of the classes, upon hearing your name stand up and go behind your coordinator, when your class will be formed you'll be escorted by your coordinator to your classroom."
Ans cleared his throat and began to call the students.
"Class 1A, coordinated by the professor in demonic energy Hidit Thyne."
Hidit stood up from her chair and got off the stage, waiting near the exit as Ans was calling the students names.
As the students were called they went to stand behind Hidit, the class was almost done and the last name was called.
"And Shiraki Ryu as last student of class 1A."
When Shiraki heard her name she quickly got up from her seat and joined her class.
"Class 1A can now go to their classroom, I'll begin to call the students of class 1B."
"Well class you heard him, I'll now guide you to your classroom and give you a little tour of the underground floors."
Hidit opened the door and the students began to leave the main hall.
"This is the second underground floor, this floor is the archive floor while the first underground floor is used as storage for everything. Your class will be on the ground floor, second years are on the first floor and third years are on the second floor."
"How many floors does the school have?"
Shiraki asked as they were walking.
"The school counts a total of 6 floors without counting the underground ones. We are arrived at the stairs, our classroom is close."
Hidit answered as they reached the stairs to go to the upper floors, but at the same time the stairs were also going down, there were more than 2 underground floors. After reaching the ground floor they turned left then turned right after a couple of steps, the door of their classroom was white with golden details, together with a golden target with "1A" written on it.
"We are arrived my dear students, till the end of the year this will be your classroom, and if you turn around you'll be able to see the inner garden of the school, you'll be able to visit it during breaks or during the day, but let's enter now."
Hidit opened the classroom's door and made the students enter the class. The class had white walls with black decorations, on the left there was the teacher's desk while on the right the student's seats, the class's structure was similar to the main hall but instead of going down the seats were going up.
"Take a seat and get comfortable, that seat will be yours for the rest of the year, unless you'll trade it with your classmates."
Hidit went to sit on her desk while everyone picked their seat, Shiraki took a seat in the first row picking the one right in front of Hidit's desk.
"It fills me with joy to see new and young faces in my classroom, so let's learn the name of those faces. As you heard in the main hall my name is Hidit Thyne, I'm a professor in the field of demonic energy and now I'm a teacher in this school, I'll teach you what demonic energy is, how to use it and everything else you'll need to know. I'll be your teacher for elemental studies as well but during those hours another teacher will join us. Now, you know WHO I am, but you don't know WHAT I am."
Hidit took a piece of paper and a pen, she drew a sphere and placed her right hand on it, in an instant her hand entered inside the piece of paper and when she took out her hand, she was holding the sphere with her hand. The students were confused and amazed at the same time, Hidit's hand went inside the piece of paper as if she entered somewhere to grab the sphere.
"Liked what you saw just now? That was an example of what I can do, I am an Art demon, I can turn into reality what I draw and many other things, but I won't explain here everything I can do. Now that I've introduced myself it's your turn, I'll give this ball to a student, you'll introduce yourself with your name, what you are and a piece of information about yourself. Let's start from the top."
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Hidit threw the ball to the first student from the left, the student caught the ball and stood up.
"Hello everyone, my name is Mark Gunter, I'm 18 years old and I'm a lizard demon, both my parents are lizards as well and we live in the swamp area right outside the city, nice to meet you."
Mark passed the ball to the student next to him, the student stood up and introduced herself.
"Hi, my name is Sophy Bert, I'm 18 years old and I'm a harpy, I live in the city with my parents and my uncle is the owner of the 'Harpy's Breeze' restaurant near the train station."
Sophy passed the ball to the student next to her and so on. After everyone introduced themselves, the ball finally arrived at Shiraki's hands as she was the only one left.
"Hello everyone, my name is Shiraki Ryu and I'm 18 years old, I'm a half-human and half-kitsune demon, I was raised in the human world in Japan by my grandpa."
Hidit looked at the face of all her students trying to remember their names, nodding to herself.
"I see, we got some interesting people right here, now that we are done with the introductions we'll proceed to measure your powers."
The ball Shiraki had on her hand vanished in thin air leaving no trace behind, meanwhile from below the desk Hidit took out a box covered in a purple veil and stood up. Hidit tapped the blackboard on her left twice, and what looked like a leaderboard appeared on the blackboard.
"This is the leaderboard of the first years, as the other classes will begin to measure their student's powers they'll be displayed here, this leaderboard will display up to the first 100 students, meaning the first half of you first years. When the first name will appear on the board we'll begin as well and don't be sad if your level won't be as you expect, you are here to learn and as the year will go you'll grow stronger, today's power level will be only a memory."
"Teacher what's under that veil?"
"Under that veil there is the item that we'll use to measure your powers."
Hidit went back to her desk and lifted the veil, under it there was a black box with golden lines, Hidit opened it revealing a crystal sphere sitting on a red pillow.
"This is a 'level sphere', it'll measure the power of each one of you and give you a level, such level will be displayed on the leaderboard until other students will dethrone you. The leaderboard will be publicly displayed around the whole school, if your name won't me in the first 100 names they'll be in the integral leaderboard. The most common levels are white, green, blue, purple and red, white is the lowest while red is the highest, there are also more levels after red but you'll find students of such strength only among the third years."
Hidit sat on her chair and looked at her students.
"As I said before we'll begin to measure your powers when the other classes will begin as well, until that time feel free to do whatever you want, but be ready when it'll be time for the measurements."
With this kind of free time at hand, chatter began to fill the classroom as the students were using that time to socialize with each other, but not everyone was making the first move. The class was split in 2 groups, those that were socializing and getting to know each other, and those already burying their faces on their textbooks, Shiraki was part of the second group.
20 minutes has passed since Hidit gave her students their free time, finally the first name appeared on the leaderboard, meaning that the measurements begun. Hidit stood up from her chair and clapped her hands 2 times.
"Break time is over my dear students, the first name popped on the leaderboard meaning the measurements have begun, please go back to your seat so we can begin as well. Just like the introductions we'll begin from the top and we'll end with the bottom, Mark first and Shiraki last."
Everyone quickly went back to their chairs, when the last student sat on their seat Hidit made sign to Mark to come to her desk. Mark was now standing in front of Hidit, standing in front of the level sphere made him gulp.
"Have no fear my child, what you'll see today is just the beginning, don't let a low level ruin your mood. Place your hand on the level sphere and wait, when the result will be ready you'll remove your hand and open your eyes, but only after I'll tell you that, if you do it before the result is ready the reading won't be accurate. Now then, take a deep breath and place your hand on the level sphere, let's give a took to your level."
Mark took a deep breath and placed his right hand on the level sphere while closing his eyes, after a single minute the sphere changed color revealing Mark's level.
"You can open your eyes."
Mark opened his eyes and checked the color of the sphere: white, the lowest level. Saddened by the result, Mark went back to his seat with a grim expression on his face.
It was now Sophy's turn, she was a little nervous but the excitement of checking her level washed away any nervousness left.
"Excited my dear?"
Hidit asked while smiling at Sophy.
"A lot! I want to become stronger than my parents, so I want to know my starting point!"
"Good, then let's hurry! Close your eyes, take a deep breath and place your hand on the level sphere, when the sphere will change colour I'll tell you to open your eyes to check the result. The procedure it's the same for everyone, simple and fast."
Sophy closed her eyes and took a deep breath while placing her right hand on the level sphere, just like Mark the result was ready in a minute.
"You can open your eyes now."
Sophy opened her eyes and looked at the level sphere to check her result: the sphere turned green.
"So? Satisfied?"
"Yes! If I'm already green then I'm off with a good start!"
Happy with her result Sophy went back to her seat with a bright smile on her face.
After Sophy went to her seat another classmate went to measure their power. The power level's readings were proceeding smoothly, the leaderboard was updating continuously and half of Shiraki's class was done with the readings, it was in that moment that a particular name appeared on the leaderboard.
"Would you look at that, we got our first big name and colour on the leaderboard."
A student from class 1D took the first place of the leaderboard, currently ranking him the highest and currently strongest first year student.
"Teo Firma, class 1D, and it's level has been measured as red, we knew this year the children of some big families were going to study in this school, looks like he's one of them. There are some purple names as well but they look nothing compared to him."
Hidit was looking at the leaderboard as some names started to hold their positions, the students of green level were the ones that were changing the most. The readings kept going and the leaderboard was almost complete, other students of red level appeared but they didn't dethrone Teo from his number 1 place.
Almost everyone of Shiraki's class was done with their readings, only 5 students were left counting Shiraki, at the moment the highest ranked student of her class was a student named Akavran Duffy, a Dullahan from the human world.
It was finally Shiraki's turn, no more names were being added to the leaderboard that counted the following student's levels: 55 green level students, 25 blue students, 15 purple students and 5 red students. Shiraki was standing before the level sphere, wondering what was going to be her level, as she was placing her hand on the level sphere Hidit clapped her hands loudly, catching the attention of all her students.
"I thought Shiraki was the last student of the school that needed her level measured but turns out an even bigger red colour arrived, so now we have 6 red coloured students! The new one is Yuki Shirayuki from class 1C... oh I heard her name before, she's the heir of the Snow Peaks demons, I forgot about her for a moment."
"What are the Snow Peaks?"
Shiraki asked after removing her hand from the level sphere. Hidit turned her gaze toward Shiraki and answered her question while crossing her arms.
"In the Demon World there is a region called Snow Peaks, it's a region made entirely of really big mountains covered in snow, things like blizzards and similar are common events, it also never stop snowing in those peaks. That region is the home of a lot of ice demons, as there are wild demons around the mountains there are also different clans living there, the entire region is ruled by a single clan, and that clan is Yuki's clan. Yuki is the daughter of the current ruler of the Snow Peaks, also she isn't the only heir of a clan, except one all the other 4 red students are the heir of their families, there are probably some heirs around the purple students as well but they aren't probably from big families like the others."
"I see, looks like I enrolled during the lucky year."
"You could say it that way, it's only during those events that the school has this many red students as first years, on the other hand reaching the red level during the third year is more expected if the students train hard. When you students will become third years it won't be that surprising to have one or a couple of red students, each third year class has a least one red student, but there are students that can go even beyond red and become orange students, and there is currently one among the third years."
"So it's safe to assume that he's the strongest student of the school, that level almost feels like a goal to be achieved."
"Well my dear Shiraki, everything is possible if you put your heart and soul in it, but I think we talked enough, it's time for you to have your power measured. Just like your classmates did, close your eyes and take a deep breath while placing your hand on the level sphere, when the result will be ready I'll tell you to remove the hand from the sphere."
Shiraki looked at the level sphere, she could see what was behind the sphere since it was transparent, Shiraki couldn't tell if the sphere was hallow inside or if it was made of some glass-looking material. Shiraki closed her eyes and placed her hand on the level sphere, she took a deep breath and patiently waited for the result.
After the minute of waiting passed, the level sphere didn't change colour. Hidit was confused, normally the level sphere should've already changed colour, but there was no colour inside the sphere.
"Strange.... the level sphere wasn't stressed that much, why did it start malfunctioning now? If the level sphere was faulty from the beginning we'll have to redo all the measurements, do you feel anything Shiraki?"
"No I feel nothing, I have my eyes closed like you told me and my hand on the sphere."
"Guess we'll have to change it then."
Hidit reached out for the level sphere while Shiraki still had her hand on it, just when she was about to take it the colour began to change.
"Looks like it decided to finally work again."
Hidit retracted her hand and sat back on her chair, the level sphere was displaying a white level at the moment, but it was gradually becoming brighter and brighter than the usual white.
"It's not changing... wha-"
Not even the time to finish the sentence that the sphere gave off a dazzling light blinding everyone, Shiraki had already her eyes closed and Hidit was able to cover her eyes just in time but they got blinded like the rest of the class anyway.
That dazzling light caught everyone off guard, Shiraki and Hidit were able to mitigate the light a bit but everyone else saw the light with their eyes open. Every student was lamenting how their eyes were hurting, some tried to humidify their eyes but it wasn't working while some others tried to rub their eyes hoping the pain would go away.
Hidit opened her eyes and even if they were hurting a little, she wanted to see the result of Shiraki's measurement, when she saw it she couldn't believe to her eyes.
"S-Shiraki, can you please move your hand from the sphere and place it back?"
"Sure."
Shiraki did as she was told and kept her hand on the sphere, when she removed her hand the sphere went back to being transparent, but the moment she placed her hand back on it, the sphere turned once again into the colour Hidit saw the first time.
"There is no mistake then, that is indeed your power level, you can open your eyes Shiraki and check your power level."
Shiraki slowly opened her eyes and looked at the colour of the level sphere: the level sphere was shining of a golden colour.
"It's gold... what does that mean?"
Shiraki asked while looking at Hidit with one eye closed, the time to finish the question that all her classmates went to the desk to look at the level sphere.
"WHAT?! GOLDEN COLOUR?!"
"HOW DID YOU GOT GOLDEN?!?! I ONLY GOT WHITE!!!"
"WHERE ARE YOU FROM?!?! HOW DID YOU GOT SO STRONG TO BE GOLDEN?!?!"
Shiraki was being overwhelmed with questions by her classmates that weren't giving her the space even to breath, in order to save Shiraki from that situation Hidit slammed her right hand on the desk, and all the questions stopped.
"I know you guys are excited and curious about it, but you are too close to Shiraki at the moment, give her some space to breath would you? Also given your question you don't know what it means to have this colour as your result."
Hearing Hidit's request Shiraki's classmates distanced themselves from her in order to give her some space.
"No I don't, but given how everyone jumped at me at the desk I guess it's either something rare or special to cause such commotion."
"It is indeed, the last golden student this school has seen was around 600 years ago, such colour is a symbol of power and good fortune, it also means that you are particularly strong even compared to the other students, you are of a completely different league and the leaderboard shows it as well."
Shiraki looked at the leaderboard to see what changed, and there she found her name: her name was standing in the number 1 spot of the board, dethroning even the newer red student.
"I am first... wow."
"You have the level but you have yet to prove it, in this school you can challenge other students to duels and face them in battle, your power level could be as high as you want but if you can't prove it then it's meaningless. A white student that can hold his feet in battle can be stronger than a red student that never set their foot in an arena. Based on that chart you are currently the strongest first year student of the school, you should prepare yourself because sooner or later students will overwhelm you with duel requests to show their might and test yours."
"Arena? What do you mean?"
"Behind the main building there is the school's arena, practical lessons take place there as well as duels between students, in order to use it for duels the one who proposes the challenge must book the arena for the duel, you can't simply duel people without booking the arena. Duels can be used to settle arguments, prove yourself against other students, gain favors, there is a lot that can be gained or lost in those duels."
Shiraki crossed her arms and looked at the leaderboard, the leaderboard was broadcasted in the whole school meaning everyone saw her taking the lead, there was currently a total of 6 red students where 5 of them are heir of their respective clans. Shiraki sighed a little as she placed her right hand on her side while resting the left one on the handle of her katana, turning to Hidit with a little smile on her face."
"If they'll come for my head then they'll have to fight with toes and nails to get it, I never fought against a demon, there are things I also want to test so let them come."
Hidit chuckled a bit and stood up from her chair.
"What are you, some kind of soldier preparing to go in battle? At least looks like you got the spirit to enjoy your staying here."
As Hidit finished her sentence the bell began to ring, marking the end of their first day of school.
"Looks like our time together has come to an end, if you wish to know more about power levels and similar I invite you to come to my office in half an hour, your first day of school is over meaning you are free to explore the school and all the buildings of the complex. I'll see you later for those who will come to my office, now if you excuse me."
As Hidit left the classroom all the students began to pack their stuff and leave as well, instead of leaving as they were ready they stood at the entrance waiting for the others in order to leave all together. Just like the other students Shiraki finished to pack her stuff and was ready to leave with her classmates, as she approached the door it became clear that they weren't waiting for the others, but waiting for her, with Shiraki at the head of the group they all left the classroom. The first day of school came to an end with one of the most unexpected events that could happen, marking the beginning of a particular scholastic year.
END CHAPTER 4