I glanced around the room. Wind pressed against the curtains. Mia's steady breath warmed my arm.
I eased her aside and stood. The pain that had gnawed through my ribs with every inhale, gone.
'Wait.'
I ran a hand down my side. No tenderness. No swelling. I looked at her sleeping face and almost said it out loud.
'Nah. Can't be.'
I walked out and cleaned the house, then made breakfast and set it on the table before going back in.
"Hey. Hey."
She ignored me and stretched like a cat, boneless and unbothered.
A vein ticked at my temple. 'This little...'
"Wake up, ya sleepyhead!" I yanked the blanket off her.
"Ahh..." She woke, looked at me, froze.
"So cold," she mumbled, pulled the blanket back over her head, and went back to sleep.
"Come on. We have school."
"Don't wanna."
I walked out. Paused at the door. "Food's ready. Starting without you."
Silence.
Then, sheets flying, feet hitting the floor.
"Wait for meee!"
She scrambled to the table, breathless, and found me already eating. Her face fell. Her cheeks puffed up. Slowly turned red.
"How could you." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "How could you start without me."
"Alright, I'm sorry." I laughed. "I'll get you your favourite chocolate after school."
Her face lit up, then carefully reset back to puffed cheeks.
"I will grant you a pass," she said, with great dignity, "only if the chocolate appears."
"Deal."
After breakfast I went back to the bedroom. My uniform sat on the chair, the holes from yesterday sewn shut with uneven stitches. I turned it over in my hands, checking the patches.
'Should I pick up an extra shift today?'
I set it down. 'We need new uniforms.'
I dressed quickly and waited by the door.
She rushed out, still fixing her hair. "Did I keep you long?"
"No."
She stopped in front of me, squinted, and reached up to straighten my collar.
"You should at least look put-together." A small sigh. "You really need a girlfriend, Alec."
"That was a low blow."
"Hehe." She was already heading for the door. "Let's go."
I closed it behind us. We walked through town together until the roads split. She turned to say something, and I was already gone.
"Huh... Alec, wait!" She stood there a moment, staring at the empty street.
"I forgot to tell him about the evaluation today." A pause. Then, brighter: "I'll just show him my results."
I reached the school entrance and stopped.
Students streamed past, laughing, nudging each other, mid-conversation.
'Must be nice.'
I walked in. Hesitated at the classroom door for half a second, then crossed to my seat and dropped into it.
A breath. Then a slap hit the back of my head.
"Rich kid." Dylan leaned over from behind, forearms on my shoulders. "You got my money today?"
"I gave it to you yesterday."
"Yeah." He scratched the back of his neck. "I don't remember. So you're paying again."
"But I don't have anything left."
"Not my problem." His voice dropped, almost bored. "My shoes got soaked yesterday. My girl nearly caught a cold. Her meds aren't free, so guess who's covering it."
"Dylan, I swear I gave you everything..."
He stood. Raised his hand.
I pulled my shoulders in and held still.
The door slammed open.
"Seats. Now." The teacher's gaze swept the room and landed on Dylan like a finger on a bruise. "That means you, airhead."
A long beat. He lowered his hand.
"Yes, teacher." He stepped back. Leaned close as he went.
"You're dead after class."
I swallowed as a bead of sweat traced down my jaw.
"Alright." The teacher set her notes down and leaned against the desk. "We're continuing from yesterday. Who remembers what we covered?"
A hand went up near the window. She pointed.
"The sectors in demon hunting." The boy straightened slightly, pleased with himself.
"Good. So." She scanned the room. "What's a demon?"
Silence. Someone's pen clicked twice.
"Come on. This isn't a trick question."
"Entities that emerge from the abyss." A girl near the back, not looking up from her notes.
"Correct." She turned to the board and began sketching, a rough tear in the surface, shapes pressing through it from the other side. "The abyss is a spontaneous rupture. It opens without warning, and demons come out of it." She tapped the sketch. "That's where demon hunters come in. What do they do?"
A boy stood without being called on. "Limit the damage. Defeat what comes through."
"Exactly." She wiped her hand on her sleeve and wrote across the top of the board in clean strokes: GRADE 1 — GRADE 7. "Hunters are categorised into seven grades, determined by two things." She underlined them as she wrote. "Mana capacity. And ability strength. Both matter. Neither alone is enough."
A hand shot up from the middle row. "Madam, how do we close an abyss?"
The room stilled a little. It was the question everyone had been sitting on.
She paused.
"We don't." A few students shifted. "We contain the rupture, kill what escapes, and wait for it to close on its own. That's the job, not heroics. Management."
The word landed flat.
She was already gathering her things. "That's it for today. Tomorrow we go deeper into grade classifications and the rest of the fields." She clicked the board clean. "Head out for physical training."
The door clicked shut behind her.
My stomach dropped with it.
"Right." Dylan cracked his knuckles. "Where were we."
"Leave him alone." A girl near the window turned a page without looking up. "Your voice is giving me a headache."
Dylan stopped. Tilted his head.
"Takara." A slow grin spread across his face. "You're actually in class today. Didn't think I'd live to see it." He glanced toward the empty seat beside her. "Where's James?"
"How should I know." She slowly looked up. "Out making money, probably. Unlike some people."
Dylan's grin tightened at the edges. "Can't you see? I was making money too."
I grabbed my bag and slipped out while Dylan was still watching Takara. I made it to the demon corpse management building, still slightly out of breath when I pushed through the gate.
"Alec." My boss didn't look up from his clipboard. "You're late."
"I had school, sir."
He looked up then. Studied me for a moment.
"Yeah." He flipped the page. "Get to work."
"Yes, sir."