Trouble 11

Tabby purred in his owner's embrace. Its purring vibrated simultaneously with the steady beating of his owner's heart.

Ren stroked Tabby's head. His fingers expertly scratched some spots, making the frequency of the purr amplified. His thin lips formed a genuine smile.

The cat snuggled to Ren's body, only showing off its furry and fleshy butt while its head buried into Ren's chest. Tabby ignored Hikaru's curious look and drifted to sleep.

"It is alright to bring your pet to the assembly point?" Hikaru asked.

Ren's smile became even wide. He places a finger onto his lips, issuing a shushing gesture.

"You cannot possibly hide him...?"

"Whoever said that I need to hide him? Just bring him along with me. If someone asks, I can tell them that Tabby is a stray cat that had been wandering in the school's compound."

Hikaru rolled his eyes. No one would take such a lie except him. Ren is new to their school, so he didn't know some scary rumors about this place.

Their school produced many terrifying rumors, mainly related to the supernatural world and paranormal activity.

One of them was, no animal ever trespassed over the school's boundary. The sentence emphasized its meaning clearly. By no animal, it means there's no sighting of animals within the school's perimeter. Straightly speaking, the animals refused to approach their school's ground. Their limit is the front gate. Beyond that, it was impossible.

As strange as it was stated, animals such as cats or dogs refused to take even a single step inside their school. As if there was something within the building that scared them away. Even the migrating birds never fly above the school building. They deterred their way once they came around the school's sky.

The scariest incident happened when the Kois, which the principal bought at a high price, gruesomely dead. The one who discovered such a bizarre scene was a male janitor. He occasionally fed the fish as his side job.

One morning, the janitor had unfortunately found the bloody pond.

The innards and gills scattered messily among the debris inside the thick, red liquid. The fishes' remains float in uneven shapes with sharp teeth marks around the edge. It looked like something gnawed over the fishes but didn't entirely swallow them. The smell? The janitor took a week's absences, recuperated in his home with severe loss of appetite. He could no longer work and decided to quit his job and switch to farming. He was traumatized. Never once in his whole life seen such a devastating scene.

From then on, ungrounded speculations flew around about the bizarre incident. And, the news about no animal sighting inside the school had become viral in the school's bulletin, escalated into a more pressing issue.

The student knotted the incident with the priestess's warning at the beginning of their school day. They felt, in the future, something beyond their comprehension would emerge and endanger everyone.

Hikaru sighed. He glanced at Tabby again.

Animals had a keen instinct. They must have sensed something hiding inside the Dark Forest and decided to avoid the hot spot.

Ren and Hikaru leisurely walk towards the assembly point. Their faces expressed nothing, and both pretended that the villain who ignited the fire within the Dark Forest was not them but someone else.

Ren cleaned their dirty and smudged uniforms with a spell. The bruises on their faces tended accordingly. Before they joined the rest of the students, they had carefully scanned their surroundings first.

"What about the CCTV?" Hikaru asked again. He unblinkingly stared at the CCTV's camera and pursed his lips.

Ren's lips casually tugged into a smile. There's no hint of worry within those silver eyes.

"I had taken care of it. Don't worry."

Hikaru released a relieved sigh. His tense shoulders considerably relaxed.

"Oh. We're here."

After a long line, they finally arrived at the assembly point.

The place was bustling with noises; students chattering and indescribable murmurings echoed in the background. They seemingly discuss the recent fire in an exciting tone.

Those students stood according to their class and year. Since they were here, they parted their way as Ren is in Class 3A while Hikaru, due to his terrible reputation, was forced to stay in Class 3C. He could only come back to Class 3A after the midterm exam with a flying color result. Kaito willingly spent his time in Class 3C to accompany his friend. Besides, to them, the class position affected nothing. They treated this class replacement as a temporary holiday.

Hikaru silently stood behind Kazuto. Kazuto didn't seem to realize his presence until five minutes later. Surprise showed on his expressionless face, but soon it disappeared as fast as it came.

"Young Boss." He greeted him.

Hikaru nodded his head.

Kaito heard Kazuto's salutation, immediately turned around.

"Where did you go?" He asked in a low voice. He narrowed his eyes and scanned Hikaru from top to bottom. His golden eyes skimmed over his neat feature down to his way of standing. As if searching for any faulty points worth mentioning.

"The toilet." Hikaru calmly replied.

"Really? You went for almost one hour. What did you do there? Digging the ground?" Kaito didn't believe his words. He knew his cousin was hiding something from him. He didn't know what it was.

Hikaru's scarlet eyes seemed to express, "What else could you do in the toilet? Of course, that unmentionable thing!"

Kaito wanted to say something, but he didn't have evidence to support his claim. So, he wisely shut his mouth. He should be glad that the troublemaker appeared beside him without any injury.

Kazuto shrugged his shoulder and turned his attention to the front.

The president climbed the podium and started to fiddle with his microphone. He tested the equipment before switching it on again. His clear and calm voice washed over the antsy feeling previously brewing within the students' hearts.

"Good evening, my fellow students. And to our honorable principal and teachers." He bowed his head at the row of adults on the right side of the assembly point. "First, I'm grateful that our students had obediently followed the instruction and arrived at the meeting point calmly and steadily. The discipline integrated into every person's had finally borne a fruitful result." Seichirou's dazzling smile brightened the glum away as he felt proud and praised his fellow students accordingly. "Secondly, the fire that occurred in the Dark Forest under the investigation of the authority. Hence, it is advisable to never wander into the crime scene without permission. Or, you will get penalized even if you claim that you 'accidentally' step onto that place. You will suffer the highest demerit point, and this new rule is not negotiable. Do not disturb nor hinder the authority in doing their jobs. Understand?"

Chorus of "Understood." reverberating in the air.

Seichirou spoke another two or three things he deemed crucial before dismissing them. The students are encouraged to leave the school's compound as soon as possible. The school ended up early.

Ren played with his fringes and aimlessly listened to Seichirou's. He felt stabbing stares on his body coming from the front. Yep. It came from the furious Yuuya. Ren ignored his fierce glare and unwittingly distanced himself from the teenager that barely held himself from lashing out on the spot.

The twin undoubtedly noticed something, and their gazes darted from Yuuya to him, back and forward unceasingly. They wisely said nothing as they didn't want to rouse everyone's attention towards themselves.

Ren swept his eyes over the backyard of the school compound. He could still see wisps of black smoke blowing up to the sky. The fire had extinguished. The harm will never reach beyond the steel gate as Ren has already strengthened the invisible barrier surrounding the school. No matter how vigorous the fire was, ultimately, it would burn everything on that side only. Even if the wind furiously blew towards the school, the magical fire would only swallow the impurities within the forest perimeter.

Hence, Ren never felt worried.

The fire tornado created by him and his familiar had swallowed half of the mountain. The three of them were rushing to escape, and due to the enemy's innumerable numbers, Ren didn't perfectly control the blazing fire.

Due to their willful action, they destroyed the lush greenery and beautiful nature. Luckily, there's no living being on the Dark Forest. He didn't perceive the presence of any living auras across the forsaken forest. No animals existed inside the forest. One could say the forest is barren of animals.

Only trees and plants were slithering around, growing massively day by day, fertilized by corpses hidden beneath the ground. The forest is unsuitable for humans to venture, and it is good that they got burned away.

The negative emotions permeated thickly on the air would undeniably suffocate anyone to their death. Had it not been because of the support of his enormous spiritual power, Ren would collapse onto the ground due to the severe blight.

At that time, he shifted the effect of his protective charm onto Hikaru, guarding him tightly. He also continuously transfer his spiritual power towards him. That's why he was afraid to attack those ghouls. He was scared for his ability to suddenly cut off in the middle and endanger Hikaru's life. He could toss aside his own, but he would never harm the innocent. No matter who they are, either human or non-human.

Ren flexed his numb right arm. Ren is wearing long sleeves despite the hot weather. There's a reason for this abnormality, but he will mention it later. He loosened his cuff and slowly treaded the fabric, inch by inch, until his eyes laid on the purplish bruises that appeared like a black spot across his right arm.

Ren furrowed his eyebrows and hastily covered his arm again. Since he stood at the end of the line, with a little bit of distance from the last person, no one paid attention to him. Nonetheless, they haven't realized his oddity.

Well, except for Yuuya. He knew Ren hid something as he saw Ren's suspicious action of hurriedly covering his right arm.

Ren released an exasperated sigh. Removing the blight is an arduous task. Had the ghouls managed to touch him? Or the one who got them was Tabby?

Ren's eyes looked down at the sprawling sticky dumpling on his feet. Its white fur shone brilliantly amidst the specks of dirt as it was sleeping on the ground while coiling its long and flexible body around his leg. Ren didn't see any black spot littered on its fat flesh. So, the blight was not transferring from Tabby's to him. Then, from where?

Ren mulled over this problem for a while before letting it go.

Whatever. Ren was exhausted. He will think about this issue later.