9 Chapter 8: Rude Awakening

Hazy vision fills Sanzo's eyes as he wakes up slowly. But as he opens his eyes fully, it was not a blue sky that greeted him, it was several females, who were dressed in school uniforms. As he raises his head to check that he was indeed surrounded, they all reacted and backed away instinctively. The colorless orb he had picked up in that previous place was slowly hovering around him. It seems that the unfortunate man has been transported to an all-girls academy of all places. Sanzo looks past the crowd of females and observes that he is in the courtyard, a fancy fountain sitting in the center, with benches under the shades of trees littered around the vicinity.

"What..? Where am I now?" Sanzo utters and attempts to stand up.

"Where did you come from, you fiend?!" One of the women speaks up suddenly, a brunette who doesn't seem to appreciate the presence of Sanzo. Before he could even react, the girl manifests what looks like a ball of ice from her hand and hurls it in the general direction of the young man. In that instant, Sanzo was going to brace for impact, readying himself to either be frozen solid or have parts of his body froze off by this attack. But the orb that has been patrolling Sanzo's general vicinity springs into action, moving at insane speed to catch the incoming ice blast. And once it does, the very existence of the attack gets absorbed into the orb, which gives it a nice hue of cyan.

"H-How..?!" The girl yelped in surprise at the spectacle before her. And the other witnesses shared a similar look and murmured about how it was either outrageous or impossible in chorus. But Sanzo was just relieved he didn't die at that very moment. His hands grow cold suddenly, he brings them up for him to view, and he can see the very same ice energy that was emitting from the brunette earlier.

"Well, this works too." He smirks and presents his open palm to the growing crowd before him. "I'm no fiend, I assure you! Now I shall be running away!" He exclaims as he charges into the crowd behind him, pushing and shoving the seemingly immovable formation of students out of the way before sprinting at full speed.

"We're not just going to let you get away with what you did!" The formation of students starts to give chase, "How dare you humiliate Master L'erechel just like that!" They started to hurl stray bolts and balls of elemental magic at the young man, which all end up missing due to how inorganized and rushed they were, and how Sanzo was running at a full sprint, bobbing and weaving as he saw fit for the level of danger he felt. And if any of their attacks would come anywhere close to harming him, the orb would just pivot to the precise angle it would strike, also being absorbed in the process.

Sanzo looks back at the mob behind him, going to try something dumb but it was his second-best chance to get them to stop trying to kill him. "Come on, I didn't even do anything to you!" He proclaims, but it falls on deaf ears. They were too preoccupied trying to catch up to the young man with glasses. As he turns back to see what's in front of him though...

He proceeds to collide with an unsuspecting metal pole, thus sending Sanzo to the ground in an instant, losing consciousness as well. Now he was at the mercy of the mob that he had angered.

***

Sanzo regains consciousness about half an hour later, immediately feeling discomfort on all four of his limbs. He wakes up to find himself bound to a chair by rope, and he is now inside what looks like an office. Considering there is a portrait of a woman hanged on top of the entrance door, it must be an office of someone important. A lush carpet covers most of the room's already pretty wooden flooring, and shelves filled with books lined up at the sides. Lastly, an office desk and a chair in the middle with a mountain of paperwork on top of the desk. This was the principal's office.

But despite how Sanzo was bound, the orb continued to hover around him, now displaying the original null color it had, making it transparent.

'Ice.' He thought, the orb immediately going to the cyan blue color it had after the conflict in that courtyard. And he could feel his hands freeze up again, the pure energy from the frost vaporing up into the air.

'None.' He thought, the orb then went back to default. The energy from his hands dissipated instantly, and the orb's color disappeared and went back to being transparent.

As he was about to rest back on his rather uncomfortable wooden chair, the front door slams open and two women enter. Sanzo drops his head and pretends to still be knocked out, wanting to delay his inevitable death some more until he can figure out something for him to escape.

The same girl from earlier, and now what looks like the principal of the academy were arguing about something. Sanzo listens in to discern any information he may gather.

"He's a serious threat to us all, Headmistress. He was... Summoned, the others saw it too. When I tried to probe his defenses, that sphere ate it completely!" The brunette was furious, her tone loud and very abrasive.

"Easy, Rachel. He probably has no idea as to how he got here, what that sphere does, and anything about this world. He is a magical anomaly... No one at that time was practicing any summoning, correct?"

"That's right, Headmistress."

"Then something else must have happened. Something much more serious than a magical incident. Let's just wait until he wakes up, then we can start conducting experiments-"

"Experiments?" Sanzo cuts the woman off, suddenly raising his head and getting their attention at the same time. Now being able to look at her face, this Headmistress looks to be a lot older than all of the females in the academy, but at the same time, her black hair hasn't even begun to lose color yet.

"Ah, you seem to have come to." The Headmistress snaps her attention to Sanzo. "What's your name, boy? At least that you should remember, right?"

Sanzo could lie about his name, but it's probably going to come back to bite him. They have all types of magic, maybe there's one that is a straight-up lie detector. And speaking of that, the Headmistress casts the very spell Sanzo was dreading of but covertly. If he lies, a crude odor will fill the room. If he tells the truth, nothing will happen.

"S-Sanzo Hisashi." He stutters a little as he speaks, partly bracing himself for a repercussion in the case that he was wrong for any particular reason. But alas, nothing happens. The room smells as elegant as ever, and the two girls nodded to themselves, he was indeed stating his true name to them. Something they did not expect at all.

"I see. So Mr. Hisashi. Do you have any recollection of anything before you were summoned here?" The Headmistress starts off the inevitable interrogation.

"None. I don't remember anything." He stated part of the truth. Sanzo did not want to mention the whole other plane of existence he had to go through before being supposedly summoned to this world. They might think he's an evil entity and would execute him there and then.

"Fair enough. But you arrived here with quite an interesting magical catalyst. Because if I do something like–" She stops mid-sentence and manifests a dagger made out of magical energy in her hand, and attempts to stab Sanzo with it. And right on queue, the orb collides with the dagger and through sheer force, sending the dagger out of the woman's hand and onto the floor.

"Just as the students account, this... Sphere is impervious to anything we can throw at it." The Headmistress huffed and picks the dagger back up and dematerializes it back into magical energy.

"This is great and all, but what are you going to do with me?" Sanzo asks, resisting in his binds as an added gesture.

"You'll be staying here in this academy. We need to study this power of yours very closely." The Headmistress says and unties the ropes that were binding the young man, allowing him to move again. He stands up promptly and regains his bearings.

"H-Headmistress! We can't let a man like him in Fleur De Lis! Can you believe how he acted in the incident earlier?" Rachel was blatantly against the Headmistress' decision, having some contempt against Sanzo for some odd reason.

"There would be no right way to act in a situation like that, Rachel. Anyone who is surrounded and cornered like he was would be overwhelmed like anyone else." The Headmistress, on the other hand, used common sense and was more understanding of the man's woes.

"In that case.. What if he sexually assaults one of the students? He can't be damaged by any of our magic, right? He will surely take advantage of that!" Rachel was very reluctant with the proposition and now was getting desperate.

"I am more concerned about being alive than mingling with any of the females here. It's not something I'm going to do just because I am practically invincible." Sanzo rebates, wanting to preserve his pride and image to at least the Headmistress in the room.

"Tch... Fine then, but the Masters will keep a close eye on him." Rachel was annoyed but had to give in.

"Masters?"

"There is a crowned Master in the academy in each form of magic. I, Rachel L'erechel, am the Master of Elemental magic. There's four of us in total, and I propose that we will monitor his every action in the academy." She flaunts in confidence.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. Mr. Hisashi, it's going to be a bit rough with these terms, but please bear with it. I swear the students won't treat you unjustly." The Headmistress bows slightly to him.

"Ah, it's no problem at all. I will manage more than fine. Thank you, miss, uh.." He was trying to get her name.

"Claire. But Headmistress is what the students call me."

"I see. I'm fine with these Masters following me around, as long as they don't invade my privacy." Sanzo crosses his arms and looks over to Rachel.

"Of course... Just don't go doing anything weird. But come now, I'll be showing you around the campus. Most of the girls have class so there won't be much of them to distract us." Rachel heads out of the office, waiting for him outside.

"I'll be going now, Headmistress. Excuse me." He bows in respect to her before joining Rachel outside of the office. They were in a hallway of a rather tall building. They go down several staircases to reach the ground floor.

"What building is this exactly?" He asks as he looks around curiously.

"The executive and administrative building. As you may have noticed the faculty and staff of the academy both reside and work here to make things easier."

They soon exit the building and find themselves in the courtyard once again. It seems the courtyard serves as a hub of sorts. Being exactly in the middle of the infrastructure and lead to the many amenities of the campus.

"Now this is the courtyard. Not only do students use it for leisure during breaks, but it serves as a dueling ground. The fountain in the middle is a mana pool, just stand near it and your energy will replenish rapidly."

"Oh, now that's why I got knocked out." Sanzo was instead distracted by the same metal pole he crashed into earlier.

"Hey, pay attention, Mr. Hisashi. I'll be asking you about all of the facilities in the academy at the end of the tour. You better listen, or else." She pouts.

"Alright, the courtyard is also a dueling ground." He recites what he remembers.

"I do have a question, though. Why is this magic academy exclusive to women?" He asks.

"Fleur De Lis used to be an academy exclusive to train witches. These witches are essential for any adventurer. They check any adventurer's stats, Tier, and traits. Eventually, there were too many. So the focus was changed drastically for an all-around magic academy." She brandishes a plaid brown book. "You also forgot about this. It appeared right next to you when you were supposed. Now let's take a look at your stats.."

"I don't get it, but sure." Sanzo shrugged, not digesting what Rachel said immediately, but got a general idea.

Rachel opens the book on the first page, closing her eyes and her index finger begins to glow, and she starts writing down on the page. As she finishes, she opens her eyes and views the result.

[ HP: 50

STR: 50

DEX: 50

MAG: 80

STAM: 50

DEF: 50

Sanzo Hisashi - Adventurer Tier: E

Level: 1

Traits: Steadfast, Magical Prodigy, Charmer ]

"Magical Prodigy..? And a magic stat that high..?" Rachel was in pure awe from the results and gave the book to Sanzo himself so he could see.

"This must mean something good, right?" He asked to make sure it wasn't a joke or a mistake.

"I have never seen that trait before, and that magic stat is almost as high as a Master of a type of magic. The Headmistress did see something within you."

"Where to next?" Sanzo got them back on track, holding onto the book with his right hand.

"The academy itself. Though we need to be quick and quiet so the students won't notice us. Come now." Rachel walks off and enter's the campus' main building, with Sanzo following behind once more.

"The first floor is where Elemental magic is taught and practiced. As you may know, messing around with nature itself can prove very destructive. That's why the walls and foundations are reinforced with several layers of metal. And to add a guaranteed means of safety, a permanent magical barrier has been established on this floor. Any magical energy that seeps out of the classrooms will just dissipate into the air." Rachel explains as they walk through the hallway, each room they pass by emitting quite a ruckus as students trying to control their elemental might can be seen through the viewing glass of the metal door. They could not stay for long though and went up the stairs to the second floor.

The hallways and doors of the second floor eased up on the amount of reinforced metal. Instead, extremely shiny magical crystals were rested upon podiums in seemingly every corner of the floor.

"What's up with the bright everywhere?" Sanzo had to shield his eyes from the pure saturation of the light that would shine in his eyes every turn they would take.

"That is because it expels all the Dark magic that would be practiced within those rooms. It's very dangerous, so this precaution is necessary." The brunette herself is unfazed by the almost blinding light of the hallways, meaning that she is used to it already. With the light being too much of a hindrance for Sanzo to view any of the classrooms, they decide to move on to the next floor of the building.

"Master L'erechel." They were stopped at the top of the flight of the stairs. It was one of the students, a female with green hair and a rather small figure. Definitely a few feet shorter than the average student in the academy. But now Sanzo just realized something. All of the students possessed an armband. A multi-colored one would signify that they were in the field of Elemental magic, a black one for Dark magic. Meanwhile, Rachel and this green-haired female instead had a badge that was on their right breast. Rachel's was a multi-colored one, while this new girl's badge was plain white. This must be one of the other Masters that Rachel was referring to.

"Master Viviane. What brings you here? Aren't you supposed to be supervising your class?"

"I can say the same for you, Master L'erechel. I was concerned about this report of a delinquent on academy grounds. The rest of the Masters are with me as well." The girl motions behind her as two other females emerge from out of thin air.

"Hah, I've been wanting to try that invisibility spell for a while now!" A cheerful-looking girl with bright pink hair beamed, holding a metal staff close. Her badge was colored cyan blue, her being the Master of whatever magic they witnessed just now.

"Master Mae, you are embarrassing us in front of the delinquent..." The other Master, having snow-white hair and a deadpan look upon her face. The badge she wore was colored black, making her the Master of Dark magic.

"Well, the delinquent will be... Er, detained within the academy for the time being. I have checked his stats as well, and they are horrifying." Rachel started to explain the situation to the other Masters while Sanzo was doing his best to stay out of view of the other women.

"Any traits that we should be worried about?" The pink-haired girl chimed.

"Magical Prodigy," Rachel states as she raises her arms and signs quotation marks in the air.

The other females' eyes widened almost in unison. And they took turns expressing their disbelief or excitement.

"There's no way a regular human being can have such a thing! I-Isn't he a summon from someone within the academy..?" The green-haired girl snapped.

"Oooh! He can be my little test subject for all these new spells!" The pink-haired girl was seeing the lighter side of the situation.

"A male in Fleur De Lis... He will be an excellent pin cushion." The last girl let on a sadistic grin.

"Can you all just not kill me? I don't care what kind of trials I'll be put through, as long as I'm not treated like an animal." Sanzo finally spoke up, repositioning himself from behind Rachel, to the center of attention of all the Masters in the hallway.

The corridor grew silent, but Rachel was the first to speak up again. "The Headmistress has tasked us to watch over him in his temporary stay. Make sure he isn't causing any trouble or sexually harassing any students."

"Why does the second part have to specifically be that...?" Sanzo asked in dismay but was ignored by the brunette. "Well can I at least know your names before I get blown up?" He asked further, looking back to the Masters.

"I am Noire Viviane, the Master of Light magic." Her green hair was tied to two buns on both sides of her head, and she has crimson red eyes.

"Louise Mae, a woman of your dreams, and the Master of Support magic!" Her pink her was tied to both sides of her head, and she has sea-blue eyes.

"Amber Faust, Master of Dark magic." Her white hair was short but covered her right eye, which was regular black.

They took turns introducing themselves before bowing in unison.

"Pleased to meet you all. I am Sanzo Hisashi... Well, that's about it." He bowed slightly and raised his head, the Masters raising theirs as well. "I just need to finish familiarizing myself with this place."

"So anyway, this floor is used for Light magic. As long as you're not a Dark magic user, you should be safe around here." Rachel walked past all of them, making her way to the stairway to the next floor. Sanzo and the others hurriedly followed.

"Mr. Hisashi, where is that orb that everyone has been talking about?" Louise immediately paced up to his side and started questioning him.

"Oh, the orb? Where did it-" He looks around him, and the orb reappears in front of their eyes. "There it is." It was awfully strange. The orb was visible when he was still in the Headmistress' office, and when he was distracted by other things the orb eventually just disappeared out of nowhere. But now it reappears when the mere thought of the object is brought up.

Louise meanwhile was completely perplexed with the spherical object. She tries grasping and holding it, but it simply snaps away from her hold and goes back to hovering around Sanzo.

"This thing is way too stubborn. Can you tell it to stop, please?" She pleaded to Sanzo desperately.

"I would if I could. But you should leave it alone, it might hit you." He wasn't sure if the orb could attack anyone that is disturbing it, but he wanted to be on the safe side of things and not be accused of assault on the first day.

The group made their way to the highest floor of the building. The metal reinforcement on the walls and doors have been removed completely, making it a plain series of school hallways to traverse.

"Now this is the floor where the Support magic is practiced. As you may have noticed, there is no magical protection here. Though with their current Master, it makes me want to place some down in secret." Rachel states as she views an ongoing class through a viewing slot on a door.

"That's pretty rude, Rachel! I'm just trying to make it fun for the girls, that's all." Louise retorts.

"That's cool and all," Sanzo speaks up to avoid a possible altercation between the two girls. "But where will I like.. Be experimented on? And who will be doing it?" He wanted to know in advance so that he won't get surprised by something unsavory later on.

"Good question." Rachel backed off of a classroom door and pondered for a short while. "Considering these examinations will be highly dangerous, I would say it's going to be held in a vacant room on the ground floor. And the Headmistress and us Masters will be conducting them, don't worry." She reassured Sanzo.

"I see, that's good. That's less of a chance I will be ripped to pieces. Now where to next?" He was still worried about his well-being, considering he's leaving himself to be a test subject involving magic.

"You'll encounter the cafeteria, garden, and auditorium on your own, so let's just go to the dormitories." Rachel ushers the group back down the building and back out into the courtyard.

"Mr. Hisashi, what was your life before coming to this world?" Noire was curious and wanted to question the young man.

"I was a student. Still am. Though magic does not exist where I come from." Sanzo tried to answer as vaguely as he could, not wanting to spill out his life story just yet. This does not seem like the right time for that. Noire simply nods but looks dissatisfied. She wanted to ask more about Sanzo but had to be patient for now.

"Here we are." Rachel proclaims and the dorm building was upon them. It was pretty large for a dormitory, being split into 4 sections that even connect to the other academy buildings for convenience.

"Master Faust, which dorm rooms should be free at the moment?"

Amber manifests a clipboard from dark energy that is visibly resonating out of her. Once done, the energy dissipates and she looks down to read the clipboard's contents.

"Building 1, Section 1, Ground Floor, Room 6. This is the only room within the whole academy that is currently vacant, Rachel. I also factored in the fact that you want to get close with the del-" Amber was cut off mid-sentence.

"O-Okay! So the place where the Masters are located, thank you, Master Faust!" Rachel raised her voice close to the point of shouting, also presenting a slight blush on her face but didn't show it as she was already practically jogging to the specified room Amber stated.

"What is it with Master L'erechel..?" Noire didn't seem to catch on to what Amber was teasing about the moment earlier.

"Oh, you're so innocent, Noire. I'll let you figure it out~" Louise, on the other hand, had the right idea and was smirking to herself about this.

Sanzo sighs and shrugs this off, refusing to comment on the matter. He did not want to cause any trouble, for now, he will pursue his ambitions of a harem later on. Maybe. But again, now is not the time.

The rest of the group follow Rachel and eventually reach the vacant room. Amber manifests a key made out of dark energy in her hand and gives it to Sanzo. "Don't lose it. Well until you can find me again, you'll be locked out of your room. So don't lose it anyway."

Sanzo was going to go ahead and unlock the room and enter, but Louise checks on a pocket watch she has and gasps.

"Oh dear, I need to get back to my class. The rest of you should be heading back too. But you Rachel, have fun with the deliquent~" Louise immediately dashed out of sight before everyone could react.

"Ah yes, my class requires some assistance with a project. My apologies, Master L'erechel and Mister Hisashi, I must be going!" Noire was the next to take off into the distance.

Amber hums in amusement and gives a little nudge to Rachel as she walks past her. "Good luck, Rachel. I'll be going now as well. If the delinquent is exceedingly naughty, I'll happily punish him for you." She gives a little giggle as she walks off out of their vision.

Sanzo is now only left with Rachel standing in front of him, looking more flustered as these awkward moments pass.

"L-Listen, can you come with me to the courtyard for something?" She finally speaks up, her voice shaky and she was visibly nervous.

"Oh, sure. If it's going to be a duel, you're going to beat me horribly." Sanzo agreed, assuming what she wanted to do.

"I-It's not that... Just go, hurry." She pouts and frowned a bit.

Sanzo complied and the two head back out into the courtyard. Specifically in front of the gorgeous fountain that was in the center. Sanzo was further instructed to stand a few feet away from her.

"So, what's this about?" Sanzo inevitably asked since the tension in the air was almost unbearable.

"I wanted to do this for a long time, okay? Just play along."

After a few more moments of silence, she abruptly turns around with a bright smile on her face, extending her right arm towards him with her palm out.

"Welcome to Fleur De Lis."