Chapter 5: Partners are Forbidden in Werewolf Class
In the Moonlight Courtyard, over a dozen werewolf students sat cross-legged on the grass.
Vic eagerly squeezed next to Enid, while Venom wriggled excitedly on his shoulder: "Finally, we get to see a werewolf transformation!"
Professor Greyback—a gray-haired professor wearing a monocle—adjusted his glasses and opened a heavy ancient tome.
"Today's lesson is 'The History of Werewolf Social Structure and Territorial Awareness Development.'"
"Huh?" Vic and Venom tilted their heads in unison.
Five minutes later.
"...During the Third Full Moon War, the Alpha wolf's urine marking method underwent a revolutionary breakthrough..."
Greyback's voice resembled overcooked oatmeal, sticky and suffocating in the air. Vic's eyes began blinking uncontrollably, his head feeling as heavy as lead as it drooped downward.
Thump!
His forehead gently rested against Enid's shoulder.
"Hey!" Enid instinctively tried to push him away, but her fingers paused just as they touched his black hair.
He had fallen asleep.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, dappling Vic's eyelashes.
Without his usual exaggerated expressions and noisy mouth, his sleeping face was unexpectedly... handsome.
The curve of his nose seemed meticulously sculpted, his lips slightly parted, his breath brushing against her collarbone with a faint chocolate scent.
Enid's face flushed bright red.
"Sinclair!" Greyback suddenly called her name, "Please recount the scent etiquette in werewolf diplomacy!"
"Huh?" Enid straightened abruptly, causing Vic to slide onto her lap with a muffled murmur.
The entire class of werewolves turned their gaze toward them.
"I—I mean..." Enid stammered, her fingers unconsciously twirling Vic's hair, "Using the third claw of the left front paw dipped in saliva..."
"Wrong! It's the right paw!" Greyback slammed the lectern angrily. Vic nuzzled against Enid's leg and continued sleeping soundly.
Venom quietly slipped out from Vic's sleeve and whispered in Enid's ear, "Want to hear about how he wet the bed until he was five?"
"Yes," Enid whispered, her face still flushed, her right hand somehow already holding Vic's.
...
Half an hour later, the theory class finally ended.
"Practical session." Greyback removed his coat, revealing a torso covered in scars, "Observe my transformation process."
Vic suddenly woke up, his eyes shining like searchlights: "Wow! R-18 content!"
Greyback's bones began to twist, fur sprouting wildly from beneath his skin. Just as he was about to complete his transformation—
"Professor!" Vic suddenly raised his hand, "When you transform without clothes, does that mean you're streaking in front of the entire school?"
The courtyard fell deathly silent.
Greyback froze in place, his half-human, half-wolf face flushing with a distinctly human redness.
"You..." his voice seemed squeezed through clenched teeth.
"And!" Vic continued digging his own grave, "Do your pants tear during transformation? If you wore elastic underwear, would they—"
"GET OUT!!!!"
Greyback shattered the lectern with one swipe of his claw. Amid flying wood splinters, Vic was lifted by the professor and thrown in a parabolic arc toward the courtyard gate.
"Wait, I haven't finished asking—"
Slam!
The gate shut violently, and Vic's face pressed against the door as he slowly slid down.
Venom emerged from his collar: "Congratulations, you've set the record for fastest expulsion from werewolf class."
The door echoed with Enid's scream: "Vic, are you okay?!"
And Greyback's roar: "Sinclair! Sit! From now on, you're forbidden from bringing your partner to werewolf class."
...
Kicked out of the werewolf class, Vic wandered the academy corridors, Venom draped lazily around his neck like a scarf.
"Where to now? Peek at the Sirens bathing?" Venom suggested.
"Too lowbrow." Vic waved a dismissive hand. "I've got a better idea."
Just then, the infirmary door nearby creaked open.
Wednesday emerged, her dark bangs slightly disheveled, the edge of a bandage faintly visible beneath. Her fingers pressed lightly against her temple, a flicker of irritation in her demeanor.
The perfect prank target.
Vic grinned, creeping up stealthily from behind, ready to startle her—
Then he tripped over his own untied shoelace.
"Whoaaaa—!"
He stumbled forward, hands instinctively shoving out—
Wednesday was shoved hard, stumbling several steps before regaining her balance. As she turned, her pupils contracted sharply.
BOOM!!!
A heavy Gargoyle statue crashed down from the roof, landing exactly where Vic had been standing—or rather, where she had been standing seconds before.
Dust billowed.
Wednesday stood frozen, her fingers trembling faintly.
"That idiot... crushed into pulp?"
"I should be pleased."
"Why... is it hard to breathe?"
Staring at the twisted form beneath the rubble, Wednesday suddenly realized her molars were clenched so tight it hurt—a physiological response not documented in her Anatomy notes.
"Wednesday! Watch out! Huh?"
Xavier rushed around the corner, freezing mid-lunge as if to tackle her.
He'd spotted the teetering statue about to crush Wednesday from nearby.
He glanced between the rubble pile and Wednesday beside it. She didn't need saving, but the other guy was probably dead.
Suddenly, an exaggerated wail came from the debris:
"Ow! My butt!!!"
Venom's voice emerged from the ruins: "Stop overacting. You didn't scream this much when those mad scientists sliced you into four pieces for experiments."
The rubble was shoved aside by a black ooze, and Vic staggered upright—his body nearly severed, his lower half twisted at a grotesque angle.
Xavier gasped.
Then, under their stunned gazes, Vic's wounds began squirming, bones cracking audibly as they realigned, muscle and skin visibly knitting back together. In under ten seconds, he dusted off his clothes like nothing happened.
"Whoa!" He twisted his waist. "Healed faster than last time!"
Silence.
Wednesday's expression was frozen, her lips pressed into a pale line.
Vic suddenly leaned close, tilting his head. "Were you... Worried about me just now?"
"Preposterous." Wednesday's voice was colder than ice. "I was merely calculating whether the Gargoyle's descent followed a parabolic trajectory."
"Oh?" Vic grinned, pointing at her hand. "Then why are you trembling?"
Wednesday jerked her hands behind her back.
Xavier finally found his voice: "What... what are you?"
"Me? No no no, I should say, we, sir, we are—" Vic spread his arms, as Venom's ferocious face with two rows of sharp teeth covered half of his face, "Venom!"
Wednesday turned and walked away, her black school uniform billowing like storm clouds before a tempest.
"Hey! Wednesday!" Vic called after her, "You haven't answered my question yet!"
Her footsteps paused briefly, and without turning her head, she threw back: "If you ask such foolish questions again, I'll personally test the limits of your regeneration."
But the tips of her ears... seemed slightly red, and beneath her black uniform, her fingers secretly dug into her palms, using pain to suppress some unfamiliar, squirming emotion like Venom.
She didn't understand this emotion, the burning sensation rising in her heart—like leaving a scalpel over an alcohol lamp for too long.
Vic glanced back at the Gargoyle sculpture on the ground. The trajectory of its fall really wasn't quite right. What was the parabola formula again? t times r-squared? Never mind, not worth thinking about.
Vic cheerfully followed Wednesday back to the dormitory, skipping along, clearly in high spirits.
Back in the dorm, urged by Venom, Vic fished out numerous chocolate bars from the toilet tank.
Then Vic simply sat on the dormitory floor, pouring chocolate into Venom's "mouth."
"Oh, my head is so dizzy."
Venom swayed its head and slowly transformed into a puddle of mud-like black ooze, occasionally burping chocolate-scented bubbles.
Vic unwrapped a chocolate and ate it, his eyes lighting up: "Awesome, liquor-filled chocolates. Little wolf girl has good taste."
"Mmm... Vic is an idiot..." Venom drunkenly mumbled, "Every regeneration consumes my chocolate reserves... making me go hungry..."
Wednesday's rapidly typing right hand on the antique typewriter suddenly stopped.
"So his 'Immortality' requires energy replenishment..."
"If he had insufficient energy after the Gargoyle fell..."
Click, click, click!
Wednesday continued typing, but much more slowly, seeming somewhat distracted.
...
In the art room, Xavier wildly waved his paintbrush, as a horrifying scene gradually emerged on the canvas:
Vic is bound by chains on a metal examination table, his chest pierced with numerous tubes.
A figure in a white lab coat holding a chainsaw...
Various organs floating in glass jars in the background.
"Damn it..." Xavier tremblingly covered the canvas.
Outside the window, a crow flew by carrying a chocolate wrapper in its beak.