The University of Curiosities

AmatsuOtaku

Professional fanboy
All manner of magical beings have been present in the shadows of human life for centuries. They had hoped to live collaboratively with the humans, to fit in, but it would seem that was not the case. Humans feared these powerful beings, often calling them 'dangerous' or 'unnatural'.

Nowadays the humans have grown to accept monsters and unique peoples as important parts of society. But, the hidden cities, the schools, everything they had built for themselves continued to be used. One of these places is the University of Curiosities.

The first day of a new semester saw hundreds of new and talented students appear. All sorts of magical creatures enrolled, from faeries to dragonkin to human mages. The school bells have rung, signalling the start of class. Students rushed to get into their classrooms and claim a seat.

(And so it begins...)
 
The teacher entered and announced they would have assigned seating arrangements. The whole class collectively groaned as they went to find their seats.
Since the University of Curiosities often had experienced students help the newcomers out, Pyro ended up next to a new student. She was excited to begin, but the newbie seemed pretty nervous. They hadn't spoken to anyone since they arrived.
Yami found their seat and sat down, pretty much ignoring everyone and ready for class to start.
 
Hiroko's soft shoes padded in and she sat on her chair, smiling sweetly at her new classmates. She smoothed her skirt as she surveyed the room, deciding who would be useful followers, and tried to guess what their powers were. She turned to the person on her right.
"Hello. I'm Hiroko Mori. What's your name? And what magic can you do?" Gathering intel was a very important part of her disciple search, as she didn't want to be at odds with anyone powerful.
 
Before they could answer, the teacher spoke up.
"Quiet down, class. I have to take attendance, and after that we'll take a bit to get to know each other. When I call your name, please confirm that you're here and tell us what you are. First off... Homura Hoshi?"

"Huh?" she hadn't been paying attention. "Oh, yeah I'm here! Call me Pyro. And what do you think I am, genius..." she opened her hand, palm up, and a large flame appeared in her hand. "Elementals for the win! I'm here all the way from Destiny Lake!"

The teacher sighed, wrote something down and continued down the list. "Yami Michi?"

"I'm here. Witch. From Star City," the 18 year-old witch replied.

"Alright. Kuro Natsuki?"

"I-I'm here..." the new student said quietly, partially raising their hand. "I'm... I'm just human, I think..."

The teacher continued, calling out names of students. "Hiroko Mori?"
 
Kaida fiddled with her hair, her wolf-like ears twitching nervously as she waited for her name to be called. She wasn't usually this nervous but seeing all these talented people made her feel un-worthy. She scanned the room, familiarising herself with her classmate's faces.
 
"Yes. I- well, I can talk to animals. But I'm not very good at it." She lied, taking a mental note of everyone's powers. If people knew she could control them, they might be able to resist her, and she didn't want that. Keeping her power was very important.
 
Pyro was bored and playing around with her pyrokinetic powers, making flames dance at her fingertips. The teacher gave her a stern look before continuing, "I'd better not find any scorch marks on the desks this year, Homura. Now, Kaida Otsuka?"
 
"Hi. I can shape shift, but it hurts a bit when I do," her tail swished behind her. "I'm from the country side but I moved here last summer,"
 
"Great, that's everyone. Now, some of you have been partnered up with students new to the district. Do you all know who you are?" A few students nodded, a few raised their hands in greeting or high-fived their buddy. Pyro was partnered with that new kid, Kuro, who seemed to be more than a little shy.

"Well that's gonna turn out great," Yami muttered, knowing Pyro could get a bit crazy sometimes. The new student had a tough semester ahead of them, especially if they were really as timid as they looked.

"You guys are expected to show the new students around campus. Show them where everything is, teach them the procedures. just help them figure out how everything works. That being said, I'm declaring this as a social period for you all. No homework or anything today, just keep the noise down."
 
"Hey, new kid! What's your name again?" Pyro sat on top of her desk casually, having been at the school longer than most.

"K-Kuro.. Natsuki..." they replied, looking down. Their face was half-hidden by their messy hair.

"Hey, look at me when I'm talking to you!" she said, startling the new kid a bit. They immediately sat up straighter and nervously looked up at her. "That's better. Kuro Natsuki, huh? Well, I'm your partner for this semester, so you'd better get used to it quick."

"I'd be careful, if I were you," Yami had approached the two of them without making a sound. Pyro jumped at the sound of their voice, startled, accidentally floating a few inches above the desk where she had been sitting. Yami smirked and continued, "Pyro's a bit of a loose cannon. This one time she set a teacher's hair on fire..."

"Maybe the teacher was being a jerk!" Pyro replied indignantly, sitting back down.

"Then there's that time you almost burned down the weapons shed. And the time you burned your homework, filling the whole classroom with smoke and forcing us to evacuate. And then the firework incident-"

Pyro cut them off, "alright, alright, I think they get it. So what if I'm a bit of a pyromaniac? Where did you think I got my nickname from?" a bright flame appeared in her hand again. "Being an elemental is awesome! We're just like human mages, except we don't need wands and staffs and all that magic-assisting junk. And as an added bonus, we're mostly immune to all kinds of stuff like mind control, because of the psychic elemental energy around Destiny Lake. Not that I need any kind of magical immunity anyway, my spirit's just too strong! I can do anything out of sheer will... or spite..."

"Pyro, the desk," Yami pointed to where Pyro had rested her hand on the desk. There was now a visible scorch mark from her misconducted pyrokinetic powers.

"Oh shoot..."
 
Hiroko's ears pricked up. Immune to mind control? Without even trying? If she couldn't control Pyro, then she had to get her on her side. She abandoned whoever her partner was supposed to be and went over to join the small group.
"Hi, I'm Hiroko Mori. I couldn't help noticing how cool your pyrokinesis is! I find fire so fascinating, and to be able to control it? Wow - 100% jealous." She laughed nervously, hoping they wouldn't see through her act.
 
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Kaida quickly checked who she was with, finding out it was Yami. She walked over to her, her tail knocking over a bag in the process.
"Hiya!" She smiled, trying to seem cute and friendly.
 
Pyro laughed, of course enjoying all the attention. "It's not just fire, I can control the other elements too. But fire is the best, obviously. So I hardly ever use the other ones."

"Just admit it, you're a total pyromaniac," Yami shook their head and turned to Kaida. "Oh, hello. I'm guessing you're my partner for this semester? Sorry, I forgot to check."

"Oh yeah, our partners!" Pyro had become so distracted by their conversation she hadn't realized Kuro had been silent the whole time. "Hey, Kuro? You good?"

The new student named Kuro, Pyro's partner, hesitantly spoke up; "There's so many people around... I- I can't deal with people... I want to go home..." they were clearly nervous.

Pyro nudged them with her elbow, "C'mon, it's not that bad. Besides, this is your home now. At least you have me to show you the ropes."

"But.. but you're a girl..." they looked down at the floor. "I'm no good at talking to girls..."
 
Kai bit her lip, trying not to laugh before turning back to Yami. "Yeah," She nodded. "What kind of witchy stuff can you do?" She asked, curious.
 
Other elements too? This girl was getting more powerful by the second! She had to keep trying. "Um, look, I'm really sorry if I'm intruding, but you seem really cool, and to be honest the exact opposite of me, so, if you're willing, and I don't sound too much like a seven year old... Would you like to be friends?"
 
"Friends huh? Yeah, whatever. Sure.." Pyro didn't really seem too interested, but then again she never paid much attention to anything.

"Mostly just basic magic and stuff. Summoning things, some curses and jinxes and the like," Yami replied to Kaida. "I can also turn into a cat for short periods of time. It's really fun to scare people with..."

"Yami, if you sneak into my room again I swear to whatever god there is I will end you," Pyro shot back, without even bothering to look at them as she spoke.

"You're burning the desk again," Yami ignored the outburst and smirked as Pyro jumped up. "Kidding."

"Not funny, you jerk!" Pyro tried to smack them but Yami grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

"Calm down, will you? You don't want to scare your partner away on their first day," they replied calmly, nodding towards Kuro, who looked like they wanted to run and hide. "You know, for someone who's naturally immune to mind control, you're pretty easy to manipulate. That's a weakness you might want to look out for," they let go of Pyro's wrist.

"Weakness? Ha! So what if I get angry a lot, that doesn't mean anything. I can just destroy anyone and anything that gets in my way! I'll just burn it all down!"

"Jeez, here we go again," Yami sighed, turning back to address Kaida and Hiroko. "Sorry about her. Pyro's a bit hard to deal with. I was her partner last year and trust me, there is nothing more annoying than constantly getting calls that your partner's burning stuff again. But when she says things like that, it's kind of scary, because we know she's actually powerful enough to burn down this whole school. That huge wildfire by Destiny Lake a few months ago? Yeah, that was Pyro after getting in a fight with her boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend," Pyro added, but didn't deny anything.
 
"Oh, right, " she laughed. The obvious pyromaniac wasn't being very responsive, but at least this Yami was. And they had unwittingly revealed something key to her takeover: Pyro's weakness. And it just so happened that manipulation was her thing.
 
"Yep! You wanna see?" without waiting for a reply, Yami shape-shifted into a little black cat. They meowed and looked up at the others.

"Ugh... I swear I see those beady cat eyes everywhere..." Pyro shuddered. "Sharing a dorm with Yami is a nightmare."

"Says you," Yami could still speak English in their cat form. "I still have nightmares about your crazy antics. That firework incident-"

"That was a year ago! Can we stop talking about that already? I know, setting off fireworks on campus was a bad idea but it was a holiday! We wanted to celebrate! And it wasn't only me, there was a bunch of other Fire elementals doing it too. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who accidentally set something on fire," Pyro protested.

"You entirely burned down one of the student dorms. The most damage anyone else caused was a small grass fire on the sports fields. You're so lucky they didn't catch you, you could've gotten in huge trouble."
 
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