10:10 A.M on the 8th of April 2024

After the sudden chat with the most singular grocery deliverer in Deneb… I finally entered the northern building of the campus: The Polar Cross.

“All right… the ground floor of the central area seems tidy as usual.

… Guess it’s time to go upstairs.”

This building contains most of the “art-based” clubrooms, evening courses, and most of the student recreation facilities of the whole campus, occupying almost a quarter of the whole area.

“1st floor…”

The most highlighted places are the theater where students exhibit themselves each year at the university talent competition, a big indoor gym furnished with a lot of pieces of equipment for fitness activities, and also the various musical laboratories.

“2nd floor…”

So…you’ll be thinking…why the heck a rotten being like me takes only naps in a cool place like this?

“3rd floor…”

Well…Let me ask you one thing: whoever told that this it’s a cool or nice place?

Yeah, I can understand that you could think:

Ehi, but this it’s an optimal facility where you can express freely your passion and artistic vein!

…and you know what….maybe you are true.

“And finally… I’m here, at the gate of madness on the 4th floor.”

But let me teach you first something, rookie:

Every form of freedom…comes from a rebellion.

So…what’s the first thing that you think when you combine students with rebellion?

“Now my role here…It’s to OPEN IT”

If you have said “gangs” as your answer… BOOM, HEADSHOT! That’s the right answer!

Once you open the secret door located on the floor signed with the number of death in the Japanese culture… what are you going to hear are the screams of angry thugs beating each other for maybe a stolen drink or a lost bet, loud electronic music pumping in the speakers and the overwhelming smell of cigarettes and alcohol.

Graffiti of all the sort of art styles decorate the walls of the area and lights of various colors illuminates the various facilities that you can find here: a little pub furnished with foreign alcohols, a fighting ring where people see who’s gonna kick the most number of asses, a dancefloor equipped with a console for possible DJ sets, and finally, an arcade containing cabinets of old-school games with also a betting angle with poker tables and slot machines.

Yes, this is the “secret” of the Polar Cross building… the never sleeping home of the deads, Tartarus.

Here, on the floor that the superstitious living in the outside world have so much fear of… the fools that are dead inside, saw hell with their very eyes or that become demons themselves founds a place to call home.

And so… here I don’t need to act and I can let my anger consume me.

After having finished analyzing and scout the hell of a place it’s the Tartarus, I started to approach the pub area.

Today seems there are fewer people than what I predicted.

Usually this place it’s already half full at this hour of the morning and it becomes completely packed around lunch hour… but it seems that now my hand's fingers are enough to count all the people that are right here at the moment.

Well, not that I dislike this situation.

Fewer students here mean fewer hotheads that want to pick a fight with me and also fewer students that could recognize me in this area.

And the persons that perhaps recognizes me but also frequents this place for quite a while… well, maybe they know their place and knows that it’s better to don’t mess with me.

But I think that I should stop worrying about trivial matters like this… since it seems that now that I sit my bottom on a stool in front of the bar counter, I attracted the attention of the barman behind it.

“Ashikaga… It passed like an eternity before your last visit. When it was the last time? Maybe before last Christmas?”

“Yeah, probably around that time. You can give me a can of the usual, Diego.”

Diego Reina.

This is the name of the Italian buffed man, with a maximum of one or two years in more than me, that is now taking out from the fridge inside the counter a can of cherry-flavored Cola.

He is not tall like that monster of Benkei, but his big muscles and wide shoulders surely can give you an idea of the bad time you are going to have if you mess up with him.

He wears a classic bartender outfit: he has a white garcon apron on top of a pitch-black waiter shirt but that has the first couple of buttons on the neck area undone, making partially visible the huge tattoo on his chest that arrives even on both the sides under his chin.

He also wears ripped black jeans, a couple of elegant brown shoes, and he has brown and extravagant spiky hairs.

But the most significant feature of this man is the sunglasses that he never takes off for whatever reason in the world.

For this particular, he is mostly known as the “No-Eyes Bartender”.

“Oh-oh, what do you have today Ashikaga? You stomped on some poop or something like that perhaps?”

The bartender of hell asks naively this question while making slip towards me the can of the drink ordered…but it looks like that he soon notices my slap-mark on my cheek…

“…Pfffff.”

And as soon I look at him, I see him restraining himself from mocking me but while keeping a smugging smile on his face.

“I know you still have eyes under those sunglasses…do you want me to take them out by force?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Ahahaha. My bad, I didn’t want to mock you…but it’s so unusual and amusing to see one of the feared Calamities having a cheek bruise printed on his face.”

I started to drink my Cherry Cola after putting the money to pay it on the counter while trying to keep calm instead of assaulting the bulky barman... that it seems to have a pretty good time while watching me drink.

“So, Mr.Brain Eater…how did it happen?”

“Well…how can I say it… I was doing my usual theatrical act and when I was going out of the class…well a pony-tailed girl slapped me in the face.”

“She was Miss Kamiya? You two finally decided to make it official?”

“Nope, you are wrong, dumbass! Do you think I will ever become her slave!?”

“You already are, coglione.”

“… I dunno what you freaking said, Brush Man, but I feel you said something unpleasant, you knock-off of a superhero.”

“AH, what you said, you brainless twerp!?”

The mood in the area suddenly became heavy.

I and Diego started to assault each other with insults, capturing the attention of the small number of other problematic girls and boys in Tartarus that seems to be eager to see a fight.

And also a big one between the feared “No-eyes Bartender” and “Brain Eater”…the guy rumored to be the one that beat the “3 Tartarus Calamities”, the 3 most powerful fighters in the University, and took the place of the same Diego once he decided to prepare drinks instead of fighting.

But unfortunately…no one ever saw the fight and so…this topic remain a mystery.

Our verbal fight started to become more intense and the heat in Tartarus starts to intensify… at the point that we attract the attention of another singular individual…that wears headphones.

“Ehm, could you please stop with this clownish spectacle? You are making my beer taste like “scheisse”.

I need to listen to my best symphonic metal songs to accomplish to even drink a single drop of it, you freaking “kartoffelköpfe!”

I and Diego both turned around when we heard the sudden words in “pissed german” coming from the entrance of the pub area.

And what we saw at first when we looked in that direction…were two empty cans of beer smashing in our faces at mach speed nearly knocking out the both of us.

“OUCH! Ohi, you freaking frankfurters eating bird, what the heck do you want!?

Even you want to fight me!?”

Diego's attention switched towards the man that shot the cans, now walking towards us.

Who seems to be the third entry in the massacre wears some dark blue mimetic cargo shorts, a black t-shirt with white slashes, and also white sprays painted on it.

On top of it, he has a dark blue and large leather jacket and he has long straight black hairs tied in a chignon making the tuft dyed in white that goes down on his right cheek and his gray eyes stand out even more.

His face, smile, and eyes look sly and mischievous…welp, not that is a new thing for German Crow.

“Hallo Levin, thank you for making me snap out from it.

Punching this idiot isn’t my plan for today.”

I start massaging my head hurting from the sudden hit while looking at the guy who did that.

And here you go... this guy is surely Levin Raben: 22 years old, German, a student at his 3rd year of university….and a member of the “3 Tartarus Calamities”.

“Hallo Ren, you seem you are having fun without me.

It’s not fair, you know. I and the dragon were waiting for you to come to the roof like usual… and when I start to hear some beastly roars down here... I find you blowing off us for the “blind hairbrush” down here. You know that the dragon starts to become uncontrollable once someone is late for a match.”

“Wait, wait. I’m already late?”

“Yes, you are. More of less of 5 minutes.”

“Shit…I’m dead.”

Raging Dragon: The third calamity of this university and the most fearsome one.

He is always in search of duels with a strong opponent.

And once the other fighter is late….well, let’s say that I will leave it to your imagination.

“OHI, I can hear you, you dickheads!”

The buffed Reina seems pissed after the fact that even Raben joined my side and started to insult the barman…at the point that the bartender is already making some loud cracking knuckles noises.

“Well, Levin…do you hear it as well? I hear something like a buzz in my ear.

I think... we need to move to later our greetings”

“Yeah, I also hear an annoying noise here. I think we should hurry upstairs?”

“Sure let’s go… and quickly!”

10:30 A.M on the 8th of April of 2024.

I, Brain Eater, finished my Cherry Cola and tagging along with German Crow... I accomplished to escape from the angry No-Eyes Bartender from the 4th floor of death.

Now I stand here with my companion in front of the door that leads to my destination: the rooftop.

On the other side…the most fearful student of the campus waits…the infamous Raging Dragon.

“Are you ready, Mr. Raben!?”

“Don’t worry about me, I’m here to only watch the match, after all, Mr.Ashikaga.”

“Are you betraying me?”

“I never said that I would join your side.”

“Tch…so I’m alone against the mad king, uh?”

I’m not gonna lie… at this moment I’m shaking.

But honestly…I don’t know if for fear or excitement.

Because…well, I’m also a freak that likes those things like my opponent.

“Here we go... IT’S TIME TO FIGHT!”

SLAM.