Monster Bible CH1: The grabby professor

Scattered rays claw at the dull carpet within a plain dorm room. No books, posters, or even an askew chair at a desk. One might think the room was empty, had the lump beneath the covers of one of the two beds on either side of the room not began stirring. Opposite side of the room as the door, an eager feminine face intently slides out of the bed, eyeing the alarm clock atop the adjacent desk.

Reaching out to hover a hand above the clock on the desk stating 5:44. Hand swooping down at the first buzz as it strikes 5:45. A young woman's chestnut covered hair bounces about while she slides out of bed. Hair just barely unable to reach her shoulders while she fiddles with the mattress and sheets. It's clear she's making up her bed, but she even goes to far as to slip out a protractor from beneath! Using it as a guide for how she resets the bed.

Upon finishing, she slides the protractor back under. In few wasted movements, she stretches on her way to the dresser. Soft black socked feet silently sinking into the thick rug her tan legs carried her over. While technically her attire was just a sleeveless black undershirt, and what is technically referred to as 'granny panties' her youthful and modestly curved figure sports the high-waisted undergarment quite elegantly. Upon reaching the side of the room, she gives the uniform behind the door of the dresser a suspiciously longing stare, and a sigh.

Slipping the gold and black military pants on first, she then steps into her boots while fastening the buttons of the matching gold and black vest. Largely gold colored to refract light, with golden buttons and black scattered throughout the design. Such as around the collar, and pockets. She admires herself in the mirror on the backside of the door. Tucking that somewhat short hair into a bill-less cap with the mirror's guidance as her lips part.

"Candice! Come on, they're gonna do first inspection soon!" She shouts almost excitedly to the lump within the top bunk, drifting over to prod it repeatedly with a single, slender index finger. The stimulation forcing out sloppy rustling beneath the sheets.

"Noohoho! 6AM checks are so dumb... Classes don't start for two hours!" A whiny tone can be heard as feet scratch at the sheets from beneath, kicking them up repeatedly, rolling to the side of the bed to pop out her head out. "Huh? Keres, you're already dressed? Ugh... And you turned the light on..." The lazy girl mumbles, rubbing her eyes. Eventually climbing down the bed and turning back towards it, letting out a whine.

"How am I even supposed to line up all the sides! Urgh..." The lazy girl grumbles, dressed the same as the sensible one when she first woke up, her golden hair drifting further down her back than the one referred to as Keres'. "Fine. I'll do it this once, you just go get dressed." She gestures to the left side of dresser before slipping an arm under the bed. Pressing her tan, chubby cheeks into the mattress before the crinkling of paper elicits mushed lips, and a confused expression on her face.

"H-hey! What're you doing?!" Candice already began her vest on, struggling to button over her rather sizable chest as she calls over to Keres. "Looking for the protractor... They put them beneath each bed to help line it up. Hmm?" The crinkling of paper can be heard again before Keres pulls out a poster.

"Nooo~! Give it! Give it!" Candice gestures to grab it as she hops over, allowing her chest to overwhelm the not yet completely buttoned vest, undoing several buttons. Uninterested in teasing her new roommate, Keres complies and lets it pass over to her hand. Only able to get a quick glance of the man on the poster before Candice slid it into her desk by the bed.

The girls go on in silence while the bed is made and Candice saunters back towards the dresser to resume getting dressed. Where had Keres seen that guy before? That silver hair, that almost comical superman chest... She pondered it even as both girls waited near the door, dressed. Candice sitting backwards on the desk chair near the door, and Keres loosely standing at attention in front of the door.

"Ohh... That's the guy teaching the anti-monster course this year, right?" Keres finally breaks the silence, seeming to have recalled who it was. Candice returns her efforts to break the awkwardness with a just a light groan. "Yea..." Her face is a light hue of red, fiddling with her collar buttons. Unfastening and refastening.

"The Right Knight, huh~?" Trying to console the fidgeting young girl, Keres reveals some latent interest in the man as well, laying an amorous finger to her lips while she slanted her eyes up to the ceiling. "He's like straight out of a kid's comic. Super strength, human lie-detector, and the bane of all monsters and the Overlord himself." Candice's expression softens as her gaze slides over towards the girl before shyly falling to the floor. "Mm-... Mmhmm..." She replies lowly, nodding her head. Still somewhat embarrassed, though both of them seem to liven up in response to the sudden yelling outside door. Compelling both girls to stand at attention.

"Room Check! Wake up. Open up. Shut up... And hope I don't find any fuck-ups!" A voice outside the door shouts out. The volume increases with the sound of footsteps approaching their door. Dull thuds of what could only be fists upon hallway doors get progessively louder until their own door begins to quake, the deep tone of banged wood echoes in the tiny room while the girls tense up.

Candice's anxiety grows, struggling to re-button the collar she was fidgeting with as Keres went to open the door. "Morning, sir!" She swings the door and herself out to be perpendicular against the wall. Her fingers raised to her temple as she greeted the tall, simply dressed man.

His physique was svelte, and his eyelashes were even longer than hers! He certainly didn't seem like the typical military official. As her eyes trailed over him, that curious look on her face continued as she noticed he had no medals or any kind of uniform on. Wearing a somehow wrinkly yet so tight white undershirt, and at the bottoms of those sweatpants were feet! Bare, non-socked feet! At least they were well-kept...

Candice quickly came out and similarly saluted. The man presses his index finger between his eyes, as if to tighten glasses that weren't there before his hand recoils at the realization and falls to his side. Almost not surprisingly at this point, he didn't even notice Candice was saluting with her left hand!

The man rolls his neck lazily before launching his tired, droopy eyes in the direction of the students. "Some of you have probably noticed I'm not a military official. My name is Noba Hadi. I teach mythology here at Wonderdale. And we just recently undertook a change of staff... A little more change than staff right now, so I'll be acting as your wing commander and conducting this 6AM roomcheck crap." Keeping true to his word, the man makes his way to the rooms near the front of the hall. Keres' was one of the two last in the back.

His silky raven hair droops over his smooth, curry-colored forehead before it lifts away from the clipboard in his hands as he leaves the first room. "You're good." Hadi begins making his rounds into the rooms. "Good. You're dismissed." A disinterested stare on his face. Barely lifting up from the clipboard at all. Keres couldn't see if he went inside to tell for sure, but she doubted he was even checking very thoroughly.

"The free pass teacher is our wing commander huh? Luckyyyy~" The thin-necked male cadet directly across the hall whispers to the girls through a shielding palm while Hadi inspected a nearby room. Leaving Keres to ponder what he meant as she waited her turn. Eventually, Hadi would come to the males room before hers. Looking decidedly frustrated as he left.

Finally raising his head from that clipboard to view that cadet's smug face, puffing out his little chest as if victorious in some way. Feeling confident in his room, and from where Keres saw... And she had a lot of time to check, it did seem more than acceptable to her.

"Hmph." Hadi looks towards Keres, a suspicious look on his face before slowly turning back in the smug young man's direction.

Staring down to his clipboard, he takes a long, lazy inhale before finally breaking the silence. "Your bed's an inch off. Your trashcan isn't emptied, and there's a smudge on your dresser's mirror." He rattles off several citations, almost as if they were already written down. The young man recoils in shock, breaking his standing position to peak into his room, staring to the trashcan by the door. Apparently finding trash in it, but... Hadi could tell the bed was off from just a glance?! And he didn't even open the dresser!

The thin-necked man's reaction after he barrels in to inspect things himself seem to confirm Hadi's findings. "No wayyy!" Clawing into the sheets of his bed, eyes locked with a dumbfounded look upon his face.

"Since you know I'm the mythology teacher, you should know where my class is! I wanna be able to see my gorgeous face wherever I look in that room for my classes this morning! Make sure to get to it." Hadi orders the boy before slowly turning back to Keres, only taking a peak. Not even a step inside their room before giving them a cold stare.

"No way. Did he already find something wrong? He didn't even have to take a step inside for mine!" Keres whimpered in her mind, thighs fidgeting over each other as becomes self-conscious of herself despite having woke up so early and been so eager!

"...You're both fine. Dismissed." Hadi turns away from the bemused faces of the girls, waving his slender hand behind him before outstretching it above his head, giving a lazy yawn.

"Yuhhh... You're all dismissed! There's no morning drills, so I suggest resting up before your classes later." He shouts as he sees off the girls and the rest of the students, the majority of which returning to their rooms as Hadi walked back into the thin-necked man's room.

"Hey, pencil-neck. I'm gonna crash with you, so don't worry about cleaning up the classroom, Mmkay~?" Hadi finishes his little declaration in a singsong tone, closing the door. A predictably confused "What?!" Escapes the room before the sound of the lock latching in the door traps the young man inside with the odd teacher.

"What an... 'Interesting' teacher. Hah, I feel for anyone who's gotta deal with him all semester." Candice remarked aloud as Keres anxiously, silently, but intently returned to her room and made for her desk, flipping open a folder. "Oh, man. I thought his name sounded familiar..." She whined picking up and positioning the folder towards Candice to reveal her mythology professor was a one Noba Hadi.

"Hmm... Right, I forgot you said you were taking Mythology for your mandatory course." Keres nodded silently to Candice's response. A defeated look on her face. A nervous chuckle erupts from Candice as she realizes her friends agony. Both her hands wave at the air in an attempt to rile Keres' chin up from the ground.

"A-ah... I'm sure he isn't that bad! At least he's easy on the eyes, right~?" Candice seems confident with her attempt to console her friend, but Keres' eyes simply droop lower.

"He looks like a girl..." She pouts. The recently electric and lively Keres falls to lifelessly lay down. Arms sprawled above her head, pressure from laying the bed beneath causing her hair to overflow and slip off her hat.

That look of guilt returns to Candice's face for a moment before her eyes light up. "Well... today's only introductions so attendance isn't mandatory. Wanna go peek the anti-monster class instead?"

Keres snorts, sitting up with her lips tilted in a cheerfully suspicious grin. "You just wanna spy on superman-chest." Candice simply rolls her eyes away in response to Keres' accusation.

"Hmm, I dunno... " Keres bites her lower lip, feet shuffling as she ponders the idea.

"Aww, c'mon! It's just mythology!" Candice absentmindedly yaps out, eliciting Keres to huff and cross her arms. Turning to the side as she shoots Candice an indignant side-to-side shake of her head.

"Mythology is a mandatory now!" Keres mentions as she turns to pick up the hat upon the bed. "There's disaster control like you're taking for people to be effective as police and security these days..." Keres tucks her hair beneath the hat before turning around and sitting on the edge of the bed. Wagging her finger authoritatively towards Candice.

"Then, Mythology. Most people just take mythology if they want to go into more normal fields, but it's a necessary course for anyone living in this period where monsters and demons are real again!"

Candice just waves her hands dismissively, nodding her head in passive agreement. "And finally... There's Anti-Monster for those dedicated to defeating that pasty-faced purple-eyed menace, The Overlord and his army of-"

"I get it, I get it. But your major is military psychology. Everyone knows mythology is essentially just a free pass. That's why nearly everyone takes it." Candice interrupts, Keres in turn simply turns her head to the side disapprovingly. Though her eyes still roll about as she ponders Candice's argument.

"C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mo-!" Candice leans forward and begins shouting to Keres, unable to formulate a cohesive argument any longer. Merely shouting at her, palms held out as she approached to push at Keres before being cut off by the sudden sound of hard plastic smashing against the wall of a nearby room, plastic clacking at the floor notifying all whatever it was had been shattered into pieces.

"My 4DS!" The voice of that thin-necked boy from earlier follows. Eliciting curious and shocked looks from the frightened girls.

"Mnn-Tell em to keep it... Keep it down!" Hadi's grumply voice alone seems to paint a picture of what happened to the girls. A timid little squeak from Candice is the last sound heard from their room for a while. "Rowdy-ass jugheads..." Hadi mumbles loudly before apparently drifting back off to sleep.

"...You know where the Anti-monster class is?" Keres whispers to Candice. Who in turn replies with silent, hurried nods.

After rather silently relaxing in their rooms as they waited for classes to start, the girls make their way outside the dorm and prepare to head for the Monster Wing.

However, something catches Candice's eye. "Aww! Lookit his wittle backpack!" Right by the dorm door sleeps a wolf. As Candice noted, laid atop it's shimmering silver fur was a military issue dog backpack. Keres seemed more intrigued than enamored with the dog, laying her knuckle over her chin as she stood behind Candice who was now crouching in front of it.

"It seems well-trained. All these people walking by and it's not even budging." Keres remarks as Candice deftly combs through the fur atop his head with her fingers.

"Aww, you hear that? You're doin a good job! Who's doin a good job?! Who's doin a good-" Candice coos to the wolf before it's eyes open suddenly, jerking it's head away from Candice's petting hand. Leaving her dumbstruck, jaw wide open as Keres snickers behind her.

"Heh... Come on Candice, don't bug him while he's working! Let's get going." Candice hesitantly rises to her feet, eyes shyly resting on the dog as they began walking away.

"Hmhm~ Don't think this is over, puppy! After class I'll definitely make that tail wag so much you'll need to put rocks in that backpack to keep from flying away!" Candice waved as she stepped backwards with Keres before finally turning around and leading the way to the Monster Wing. Keres simply rolling her eyes at Candice's childish enthrallment with the wolf.

The monster wing building seemed far more luxurious than the others they passed. Large concrete pillars stand at each corner, the area is littered with benches and what seem to be storage sheds. Which were heavily enforced, with massive locks on them, adorned with odd markings. When they peek inside the window, they see the curved classroom. Silvery glints catch the eyes of the girls. Following them, at each desk, looked like... Pistols! A pistol at every desk!

"Whooaa! I didn't hear anything about those... Is it just for the AM students?" Candice remarked as they huddled near a corner window. Watching as all the students got settled. The class was largely male, only one discernible female near the back.

"Looks like just about a pistol each student exactly..." Keres mumbles before being hushed by Candice as a massive shadow approaches the door to the classroom. After it swings open, only a bulking chest is revealed. The massive man clearing well past 6 feet, having to crouch down to smoothly make his way inside. Luscious, silver hair bristles against the door frame before it falls ever so perfectly back into place.

His similarly silver suit struggles to contain the massive physique beneath, the drop-off from his chest to his waist clearly indicating this was a very fit man. This was a teacher? He didn't even seem much older than them... Early 20s maybe? No more than 7 years older than Keres. And on his right hand, was an armored gauntlet! A strap ran across his palm to secure the thin armor over his hand, fingers uncovered.

The class was quiet, sitting at attention as the man made his way to the middle of the room. Heavy, suspenseful thuds are the only discernible sound for what felt like miles before ceasing, leaving everyone around suffocated by the sudden silence. Fixing his tie, a displeased and uncomfortable expression on his face while he rolled his defined, thick neck. The shoulder pads of his suit almost made it seem he had two sets of them!

"Uhh... Ahem! Welcome! To Anti-Monster training. I'm gonna be your teacher, but... I don't have any history in that occupation, so you guys are gonna have to work with me, got it?" Sure enough it was the man from the poster. Candice was breathing somewhat heavily next to Keres, fogging up the corner of the window they were huddled by. Trying to hold back what sounded like a squeal.

"Some of you may know me as 'Right Knight' but-" Before he could finish, the students began clamoring and clapping. Keres rolling her eyes as the giant man gestured his hands downward to calm the class down. "BUT!" The boom of his voice would confirm his chest wasn't just for show. The lungs they housed were ridiculous in their own right! Immediately silencing all the enamored students.

"You will refer to me as Mr. Rivola." His smokey eyes roll over the room before falling to the pists atop the desks in the front row. "Now, those pistols are gifts from me personally! Partly to thank you for not skipping introductions..." He trailed off as the students began to break out into conversation.

"So these aren't from the school?"

"What a power move! Gaah, he's so cool!"

Keres and Candice slowly turned their grimaced faces to each other. Both thinking the exact same thing.

"Hope we didn't miss out on anything like those by skipping..."

Mr. Rivola's mouth and eyes shut while his an unmistakably irritated and dull growl rumbles throughout the room, his brow furrowed as he awaits the students silence. "...As. I. said! In part it's to thank you for that. However, these aren't just any guns. These are a new invention developed right here by our own mythology head, Noba Hadi." Atlas plucks one of the guns from a nearby empty desk.

"These are referred to as "Mary Pistols." They're essentially blanks which use a mysterious blend of holy water inside that's effective against most monsters. Even gods, or those you wouldn't think susceptible to just holy water."

The girls' eyebrows bucked with intrigue as they turned to each other. Admiring Mr. Rivola's show so far, though Keres' eyes trailed back towards her dorm while Candice's back to Atlas. Somewhat impressed that weird teacher from earlier developed such a helpful weapon.

Atlas stares around the room with a pleased nod. "Fortunately, it doesn't seem like many skipped introductions today. As I said... I'm not trained to be a teacher. I don't have time for all the crap that comes with it." His expression darkens, gritting his teeth and squeezing the gun from the empty desk with that massive gauntlet-covered hand. Shaking as it gradually shrunk into a fist over the gun. The screech of metal bending and crunching can be heard. And just before it turns to scrap metal in his hands. With a spine-tickling crunch, it fires a shot into the back wall, near the corner of the window the girls were hiding.

Eyes flared up, Mr. Rivola takes a sigh before his expression softens. "You're gonna need these guns to pass my class, so those who skipped like this one here... Already failed." He simply tilts his hand to the side, letting the gun slip and clatter on the floor. As if tossing away trash.

The shocked students would still be too frightened to say anything. Only able to cast surprised, confused glances and open jaws at each other. The girls were of course also affected, now huddled together beneath the window. Totally out of sight from the window now, whimpering on as they crouch on the ground.

"...W-...Wanna try sneaking into our classes?" Keres asked, shooting wide blinks towards Candice who quietly nodded. The girls then slide out from under the window frame, and off to their separate classes.

Keres assumed Mythology is probably so crowded, the teacher shouldn't notice when she sneaks in. It's by far the most popular course on campus, after all.

"...Huh?" Keres peeks through the window by the entrance. He had the screen up and people were taking notes... It was only supposed to be introductions, right?! God, it was so quiet. She was almost too scared to sneak in, but the way Hadi was gesturing his hands. The vibrant pictures on the screen at the front of the class, it was obvious he was teaching some fairly heavy stuff.
Luckily, there was an empty chair near the back, by the door that Keres could see from the window. Unlike Mr. Rivola's classroom, Hadi's was huge! It almost seemed like an event hall. She'd look through the door window, waiting for him to turn around before she tried sneaking in... Soon enough, he would. Fiddling with the laptop atop the desk, his back to the class as he seemed to be preparing another presentation.

"Okay... Now!" The door was silent as it opened, and Keres got to the seat without any issues! She didn't have her notebook or any materials, but most students didn't either as they also assumed it was just introductions. Hadi had yet to turn around. However, the door was still closing ever so slowly... Finally creating a loud metallic clank to echo through the giant classroom, eliciting a wince from Hadi. Keres would freeze up in response, but to her relief and surprise, Hadi wouldn't even turn around. Simply loosening up and returning to fiddle with his laptop.

"So, yea. We'll finish up with this." Finally an image of a typical red, horned demon appears on the screen. Hadi turning to face the class and take a seat, lifting his slender pant legs to lay atop his desk while he reclines. "Most, if not all monsters can possess objects." He yawns while turning the laptop towards him, pressing a single button on it. Bringing up a new picture of assorted weapons. Black swords, shields, and whips... And a silhouette of a human body.

"Monsters tend to hide this way when cornered, but you can also seal them inside and use them as weapons!" Hadi lets out a satisfied sigh before continuing. Leaning back to puff out what little chest he had. "This has allowed yours truly to develop the controversial 'cursed' weapons... Which the government is seriously draggin' their feet about usin!" Hadi grumbles a bit before he tilts his gaze downward, scanning the time on his computer.

"...Well, that's all for today." Hadi waves the students off. They promptly begin making their way out, clamoring and hurrying before Oba's eyes lock onto Keres as she turns to the door. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was looking at her, and for some reason she was frozen in place! "You..." He'd glare lazily, a droopy index finger extended in her direction. Keres winces and slowly turns around to confirm her fear that she was pointing to him.

"I have a photographic memory, y'know? Thought you could sneak in late just cause it's the first day?" Hadi feigns a chuckle, shaking his head side to side. "No. You stay. Everyone else, get out!"

Hadi beckons to Keres, overturning his palm to curl the index finger which pointed at her into him repeatedly. He continues this gesture as she makes her way past the sympathetic but otherwise unhelpful students brushing past on her way down.

"Oh, you're that girl from my wing right? What was your name... Don't tell me..." The metallic squeak against ceramic fills the room as he pushes out his chair to stand up. Beginning to circle her, arms folded against his back. As if inspecting her.

"Cadet Altea, Sir! Wing B! Majoring in military psychology!" Keres gives him a salute, body tensed up as she launches out the most relevant information about herself she could muster. Hadi stops in front of her, rolling his eyes and letting out a sigh. "Didn't I say I'm not military? What's your first name?"

"...Keres, sir." Still maintaining her salute.

"Yewck. At ease already, cadet... Hmm, Keres huh? Kinda like-Urk!" Suddenly, he clutches his chest, face twisting in agony. He hunches over, leaning into Keres. Broken, painful breaths are all that leave his lips before finally breaking her salute when the taller man's knees give in atop her.

"Wha-! Is this creepy teacher... Making some move on me? He's too young to be having a heart attack!" Keres' mind races as her face grows flush, body tense and unsure of how to respond. "Just don't give me some cheesy line..." She begs in her mind before his hand firmly presses down at her upper back.

"My... Heart..." He mumbles, to which Keres' eyes nearly explode out of her skull.

"No way! He's totally-...Huh?" Before she finishes writing off as a lecherous instructor, she feels him trembling. She also notices he's surprisingly light. He must be 6'2 to Keres' 5'6. Even with him pushing down on her, she doesn't feel weighed down much at all. She isn't particularly in-shape either.

Confused and worried, she guides the mysteriously light man to lay on the desk. As she feared, he didn't seem to be faking. Blood suddenly spurts out of his mouth with another cough, some even reaches her collar without her noticing.

"What... I-I'll go get help!" She swoops around before her wrist is yanked back towards him. His eyes are furious, not the eyes of a man on the brink of death. Suddenly, his other hand shakily grasps at her left breast! But, his eyes... They didn't seem like the lecherous eyes of a teacher. He seemed angry, desperate... It didn't seem like an intentional grope, his fingers lingered more on her father's medal than her actual breast. Regardless, she was frozen in shock.

Keres nearly collapsed as the door in the back of the classroom swings open, revealing a familiar figure.

The Right Knight!? What was he doing here? "Muh... Mr. Rivola help, I-!" As Keres attempts to turn back to Hadi... She finds nothing. Her eyes scan the room frantically. "What... Mr. Hadi was just here! He seemed really sick!"

"Really? Hadi was?" Mr. Rivola's smokey blue eyes scan the room with her, approaching the door behind the desk and taking a peak. "Hmm... I don't see anything."

"I'm serious! He was just- Huh? What?" Keres stops herself as she notices the amused look on Atlas' face. What was going on?

"Well, I hear Noba likes to mess with students. I wouldn't worry about it. I have... A sense about these things, I guess?" He'd even chuckle lightly, head thrown back a bit before his gaze returns to her. "Regardless, it doesn't seem like he's here at least. That's actually good for me..." Atlas' hands slides into one of his side pockets, pulling out the destroyed gun.

"I kinda broke one of his toys in a... Demonstration? Hah. Mind keeping this our secret?" A single dreamy eye winks in her direction before he slides the crushed gun into Hadi's desk. Silent, and confused Keres just stands there as he leaves through the door behind the desk. Hadi did seem like the type to play a trick like that... But was that all it was? Then, she'd notice blood on her collar from when Hadi coughed on her... It was too little to tell for sure, but it seemed real!

Keres gives a little huff, heading out the back door towards the main office. Where actual staff should listen to her! Outside was a dog laying by the window. The same wolf outside her dorm earlier! Except this time, it seemed happy and playful. Perhaps it was off-duty now? She let out a disappointed, longing groan as she walked past it, towards the main office.

It takes her a while to notice, but eventually her legs slow to the sound of footsteps behind her. Still rattled by the unnerving experience of her professor disappearing before her very eyes, she turns slowly. Jaws tightened, eyes wide as her head swivels towards the source.

"Huh?" To her surprise, it's that wolf dog. It's following her? Why? Keres walks a bit more, disregarding the dog. Even passing by some other students before realizing the dog was still following her intently.

She wasn't frightened. The dog's tail is wagging happily, as if happy to see it's beloved master. Keres turns and crouches down towards the dog, hesitantly reaching her palm out before the dog nudges into it affectionately. "Aww-haw~ Such a good boy! Are you really that same nasty wolf from this morning? Whose dog are you?" Keres becomes enamored with the furry creature, both hands cradling his head vertically now, simultaneously scratching his chin and an ear to elicit an almost audible tail wag.

"Ah!" She pulls herself off the wolf, straightening our her pants as she rises to her feet. "Nngh... I can't play right now puppy. Sorry!" Conflicted, she begins back towards the main office within view now.

"Huhhh~? But class is over! You promised!" A voice hits Keres' ears. It feels directed towards her, but as she slowly scans the area, she sees no one that could be talking to her. Her eyes eventually fall to the wolf with a half-suspicious grin. It's head tilted in curiosity, panting while it returned her gaze.

"Stupid...!" Keres took another quick look around before another voice echoed in her head. It was different from the one she had just heard. Older, and at least somewhat masculine. Hadi?! It was clearly close, and displeased. And before she could even ponder about the whereabouts of this voice's source...

A commanding whistle beckons the dog towards it's source. The wolfs ears perk up before romping over to the origin of the command just behind Keres. As she turns around, she'll find the wolf nudging it's head into the familiar tan hand of her mythology professor.

"...Professor Hadi? Where were you?! I was just about to alert the staff and...! I was seriously worried!" Keres takes heavy steps and launches an accusatory index finger into the curry-skinned man's direction. His dusty, cinnamon-colored eyes slowly come to lock on to Keres' with a certain level of indignation. Running a single finely groomed nail to wipe a stray black hair from his eyes before replying.

"Aww~ Well I appreciate your concern, but it's just as the chrome giant pointed out. It was just one of the many jokes I play on my students. Don't think too much of it. Mmkay~?" Hadi turns towards the dorm and takes a step while Keres takes a stomp, an audible breath foreshadowing her response.

"Seriously!? Should a teacher be playing those kind of tricks at a military academy? Someone could get hurt!" Keres' earnest stare repels against Hadi's attempts at continued eye-contact. Notably unnerved as he grumbles to himself.

"...Wait." While her tone lowers, as she raises a hand to cover her chest, turning to her side as she gives a suspicious look. "What was with you grabbing my chest, then?"

Hadi just freezes for a moment before deflating his chest with a sudden dismissive gasp. Raising his palm to his face, shaking side to side with a smirk. "Hah, just part of the show I assure you. If I wanted something to grab, I'd have paid that roommate of yours a visit instead... Candice, was it?"

Keres' eyes narrowed in offense, not just about his comment, but how he remembered Candice's name and not hers! Did he have a photographic memory, or just 'boobographic'? Truly though, with his soft features. Those flamboyant, and dramatic antics... She wasn't even convinced he was the sort to have any interest in women.

Hadi only lets out a scoff before continuing back to the dorm, wolf quickly following in tow. "Get offended all you want, I'm outta here." Keres merely rolled her eyes at his dismissive response, not wishing to lead off on too poor a foot with her professor. She'd mull over if she should tell Candice about her day, or not... That girl was so excitable.



"...He touched your chest?!" Candice exclaims after Keres finishes explaining her day, against her better judgment. Now attempting to grab at her riled up friend as she makes her way to the door.

"Wait! Where're you going?!" Keres shouts, arms wrapped around Candice's waist as she stomps through the dorm halls.

"Don't worry girl, I know what I'm doing~" Candice consoles the anxious Keres before banging on the wing commander's door near the front of the dorm. Sparking vicious barking from the other side of the door.

"Adolph, down!" That familiar voice shakes Keres' to her core. Losing her grip on Candice, and shyly retreating all the way back to her room, throwing herself under her covers. Whining in embarrassment.

Soon enough, the door opens and Keres only shrinks into the bed. Wishing to go unnoticed, but that hope is cruelly taken away by the sudden, swift tugging away of her sheets. Slowly, with a whine she turns towards Candice, giggling through a beaming smile which nearly blinded Keres.

"Too easy! He got all passive and dismissive at first, but as soon as I threatened to bring the Right Knight in to use his lie-detecting ability, he got all sweaty and caved!" Candice crosses her arms, nodding to herself, seeming quite pleased with herself.

"...Caved?" Keres hesitantly asks. Her eyes full of worry.

Candice chuckles lightly to herself before her eyes flare up in Keres' direction. "I got him to agree to personally tutor you! Now you don't need to worry about boring ol' mythology an-y-more!" Wagging her fingers to the syllables of that last word in front of Keres' still, lifeless face.

Keres' head slowly falls up, a long, pouting whine fills the room as she falls back onto the bed. "Th-thanks Candice... I'm gonna go to bed." Candice seemed to happy with herself, Keres just didn't have the heart to tell her how unnecessary that was. As Candice pointed out earlier, Mythology is already essentially a free-pass!

It's a very undeveloped field where the experts and students are still difficult to discern from each other. There's no complicated theories, codes, or formulas to worry about. In some colleges, all the students do is watch and review fantasy movies!

Keres decided she'd just let Hadi off the hook when they meet for their first session, at the end of the week.

"Nah." Hadi's face is emotionless as Keres stands in front of his door. Apparently rejecting her attempt to 'let him off the hook.'

"Huh...? But-!" Keres pleads before she's swiftly yanked into his room. The door shutting and locking behind her all on it's own! Chills run up her spine as the towering male sneers down to her. Those light brown eyes weren't anything special on any other man, but somehow they still managed to summon a gulp to slide down Keres' quivering throat.

"But... What?" He tilts his head. But it would be hard to see him as the innocently curious man his tone suggested he was while he nearly smothered Keres. Pinning her between his presence and the door.

Seemingly regaining her composure from his prodding, she takes a step back to lean against the door. Eying him suspiciously. "As I said, I believe it was just a prank. So you don't need to tutor me! Besides, it was just a light tap. It's not like I'm gonna press charges or anything."

Keres' eyes drift up to his before shyly darting away, and growing wide as his shadow overtakes her whole body. She can even feel his breath whistling at her hair as he steps deep to her side.

"Ohhh~? But your little friend was right. It wasn't just a prank. In fact, had that barrel chested buffoon not barged in..." His hand glides up her side to cup her chin, guiding her face towards his. "I assure you, it would've been more than just 'a light tap." His breath runs along her neck in bursts as a breathy chuckle escapes his nostrils.

His scent was all over the room earlier, but as he grew closer it became concentrated. Almost dizzying. Corrupting the originally soothing coconut scent with the musk of a working mans week.

Keres couldn't believe it! He was a total lech! Her lips could only quiver, with bits of indiscernible squeaks managing to escape. Eliciting only an even heartier chuckle from the man as he heard them.

Suddenly backing away a few feet, releasing her from his suffocating aura to sit upon the armrest of his couch at the side wall. An arm supporting him behind his back, jutting that svelte but irrefutably masculine chest through his suit. Raising an instructional palm to the air.

"A scandal or two isn't anything for someone like me to worry about." Those fingers of his snap, and just as they do Keres trips forward. Her head jerks back to try confirming what that pushing sensation was before her gaze returns to find herself on all fours, directly in front of the mysterious man once more. The wolf beneath the bed now in view, sleeping soundly. It didn't seem hostile at least. Maybe she could fight back?

"As you might've guessed, we're not gonna be studying." Those legs of his are all she can bear to see, now standing up before her.

"Give me your phone." Commanding she surrender her last lifeline!? Fear gripped the young woman's chest. It was too late for her to scream now, she couldn't muster up the courage. Worse yet, she didn't even have her phone! She left it in her dorm in the other hallway, not expecting anything like this!

"I-I don't have it on me..." Tensing up on the floor now, she cringes expecting an impromptu search of her body. Should she scream? He could probably silence her quick enough... And it was the weekend! Would anyone even hear her? She had to save herself! Clutching the medal on her chest, resolving herself to gather all her strength and courage into a single blow once he got close enough!

"Tch..." He growls, the knees in her view bend. She can sense his hand approaching her head. This was it!

Keres cries out, eyes closed as she outstretches her fist with all her might. Only having used the shadows on the floor as a rough guide to where his face was, when she felt contact on her fist... She was so relieved relieved! Eyes opening to see the man recoiling to lay on the couch behind him. Face scrunched up as he palms it.

"Nngoh! Wha-" He cries out, but before Keres can use this opportunity to escape... Something catches her attention. A scratch at the ceiling is heard before a tiny black drops down, falling to her feet.

"...A phone?" Keres stares down to the phone, case dented from the recent tumble it took. She sees a brightly colored animation, and upbeat instrumental music playing from it. "Brain Gauge?" Curiously, she crouches down to read the smaller text.

Designed by: Noba Hadi

"..." Keres just keeps staring at the phone. Her face frozen as her eyes drift back up to the man on the couch glaring at her. Still clutching his face, indignant eyes glaring at her.

"Did... You want me to test your game?" Keres hesitantly breaks the silence. Hadi merely nods his head slowly in response. Eyes staring at her through the fingers laying across his sore face.

"Well sorry, but...!" Keres finally lifts herself up, brushing the wrinkles out of her uniform. "It's your own fault! You can't pull girls into your room and start breathin' on em and demandin' their phones!" Hadi can't help but wince, eyes trailing away from hers as he stands up.

"Fine, whatever! Just take my phone and get out!" He lifts one leg over the other, sliding off a shoe to hurl past her, hitting the bed frame by the door. Startling the sleeping wolf beneath. "Some guard dog you are! Can't even stop a schoolgirl? Huh?!"

Keres slid away quickly after grabbing the phone, thinking the shoe was meant for her. The whimpering beneath the bed knitted Keres' eyebrows, giving a nervous chuckle as she fiddles with the lock before sliding herself through the doorway.

"Don't forget to actually play it, or you can forget about passing my class!" Hadi barked as Keres closed the door. Hurried steps contradict the gentle closing of the door as Keres speeds off. Leaving Hadi and his supposedly worthless guard dog alone in the room.

"...So, we don't need to worry about Him anymore?" That mysterious voice Keres heard earlier calls to Hadi. The wolf revealing itself as the source while shuffling from beneath the bed to Hadi's side by the couch.

Hadi simply stares intently at the door, giving his face one more rub before letting his palm fall to the head of the mysterious wolf. "I can tell she'll be a pain to control... But, we have no choice."

Keres simply fiddles with the phone. Trying to understand the game on her way back to her room while Hadi and the dog converse.

"That girl..." The air around Hadi disperses, his skin almost seeming to turn to dust before revealing a much shorter, younger, and paler version of the man which sat there before. His rounded face almost moon-like as a pair of glowing purple eyes come to sit behind a pair of glasses from his pockets. The eery violet aura around his eyes flicker before he clutches his chest in pain.

"...Is probably my only hope."