#campusqueen

It was another day at the cram school for the special dorm group plus a few others who attended the cram school by choice, and they had a lot of work ahead of them. While the normal kids only had 5 classes and worked from 6am to 2pm, the ones attending the special cram school had to work until 5, it hardly seemed fair, but nothing they could do about it, dropping out was hardly an option for some of them. Luckily it was the last class of the day.

That particular afternoon the strange groups of kids were reviewing lessons about the different kinds of creatures that were able to exist within the material plane, a.k.a the world of man.

With everyone seated at their tables as they listened to the instructor, who use to be a young Priest, the room was quiet, other then word being spoken by said instructor. Otis was writing notes, making a mental one to remind him to make a copy for Zero, who wasn’t paying attention.

No the hound boy was too busy sneaking glances at Ser, an albino teen who was sitting next to Dre, who seemed to be the white haired teens polar-opposite. In his mind, Otis thought it was a bit of an odd pairing, a teen with the blood of a hell hound, a creature who guards the hell gates, having a crush on a teen who was from a religious family, and probably same for the green eyed teen too, but he also thought it was cute too, so he never anything about it out loud.

In the row in front of them, Rosa was keeping track as best she could, while Desi on the other hand just drew in her sketch book, with an open bag of strawberry fruit gummies next to her, occasionally popping one of the little red snacks into her mouth. Eating in class was ok, so long as they didn’t make a mess or disturb the lesson, which was good, because the smaller girl was always eating. Thankfully Kumo was too busy sleeping to cause any kind of trouble today, thanks to them fining out oak ash makes him sleepy.

A few of the other students were either taking notes, not paying attention, or were asleep as the lesson went on. With the five already mentioned, there were fifteen students in all that were in that room alone, though the ages varied, the fox teen honestly wondered if it was a wise decisions to lump all the grades together for the cram school, but again, nothing he could do about it.

Otis let out a sigh and kept writing, and before he knew it, the bell rang.

“Alright class,” the instructor said as everyone gathered they’re stuff, “This weekend we’ll be sending a few of you out into the field for small jobs, dispersing lower level demons like gremlins and hobgoblins, and to inspecting grave sights and abandon buildings for spirit activity.” He told them before putting a stack of papers on the front desk.

“These are jobs for high school students and college students only, if you want to sign up, the forms are right here, other wise you are dismissed.”

A few of the students grabbed the forms to fill out, Otis included, “Zero, you gonna sign up too?” he asked getting out a pencil. “Course I am, sound like fun.” The hound teen grinned, his tail wagging behind him, “You realize this doesn’t give you permission to burn down a building again, right?” the fox asked recalling the first job they had been on together. “I know, I know, kill joy,” Zero snickered. “At least we got the job done right?” Otis just rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t that long ago per say and luckily the building was a ways out of the city. It was abandoned too, but since Zero hadn’t had a lot of practice with his hell fire back than, he had lost control and the place went up like a Christmas tree. If it hadn’t been for both of them being mostly fire proof, they probably would of gotten roasted, than Otis would have had to killed him out of anger. Otis was docile, but even he had his limits, and Zero more than once almost pushed him to them.

In the end they both got in a lot of trouble for the building being destroyed and were later sent to clean it up the ash and burnt rubble, if it weren’t for Kumo being able to eat stuff like burnt things and ash they would have been there all night.

(Fun Fact: Ash created by large amount of a Hell Hound’s Hell Fire can have the same toxic affect as volcanic ash, this isn’t always the case, but better safe than sorry)

Rosa and Desi waited for the two older students to finish filling out the forms, seeing as they felt better when they could walk back to the dorms with the older kids. But after what seemed like hours in her young mind, she spoke up. “What’s for dinner?” the green haired girl asked trotting over to them, as her tummy growled, “I’m hungry,” peeking over Otis shoulder to see what he was writing. She was a curious kitty and when wasn’t she hungry?

Otis chuckled, “How about hamburgers and french-fries tonight?” he said as he kept writing, filling out the questions, from what Desi could see it was something about blood type and who to call encase of injury and a few other things she could understand.

“Not Japanese?” Rosa asked playing with a lock of her teal tipped hair, “Nope, thought I’d try American, it’s been awhile. And don’t worry Zero, I’ll throw on some veggie burgers, can’t have you starving.”

Zero let out a chuckle, “Now I feel spoiled.” He couldn’t keep his tail from wagging though, Otis was always good at cooking, not matter what it was, that much was obvious, even if some people complained.

After filling out the forms and turning the sheets in, the two walked down the old tiled hallways of the old building and than down the stone paved road that lead them back to the dorms after pulling on some warm clothes. “The sun was setting low on the far off horizon, turning the skies all shades of violet, crimson, champagne, and marigold,” as Desi would often describe it as though she was the narrator of a story she had once read.

Students chatted with each other before a few of them went on they’re separate ways at the fork in the road, seeing as some of them lived in the new dorms, with was still quiet a ways from the old ones.

Most of the trees and bushes they passed while walking home were still bare of leaves and frosted over, being as it was still very cold out. The campus the school was built on was practically put in a world of its own, with small stores and cafes built here and there for the students to enjoy. That being said, the old dorms were one of the few places that hadn’t been remodeled and renewed, leaving it to be relatively old fashioned and a long walk from the main building.

Luckily the cram school building was also an older building and not that long of a walk. As they walked over the bridge which lead to the entrance of the dorms walled court yard, the fox set down the youngest sister, who had been sitting on his shoulders, letting the two girls and they’re yokia to run off towards the steps of the old red bricked building they were currently living in.

“Girl’s after you’ve put your bags away, ” Otis said raising his voice as he walked into the building a few feet behind them, hearing the echoing of they feet on the wood floor as they raced to get to their room, “Make sure to change out of your uniforms and wash your hands. After dinner I’ll help you with your homework.”

“Ok!” They shouted as the two turned the corner and to their dorm, and upon entering the old building, everyone was on their way back to their rooms, a lot of them tired from the long day. Luckily they only needed to attend cram school every other day.

After reaching their room, the two teens put their bags away, either hanging them up, or just throwing them on the bed, then changed out of their uniforms and into their street clothes. The standard uniform was a simple white button up shirt, black pants, and they’re choice of either a blazer, or sweater, which held the school’s crest, though obliviously that’s not what they were limited to. After he finished, Otis dug through his bag for a sec before pulling out a few papers, “Here are today’s notes,” the fox said handing a copy to the hound, “Thank you.” Zero replied smiling. “You really should pay attention, or you’re not going to pass the test next week.”

“I think I’ll be fine.”

“I’m not letting you copy off me…”

…

When the weekend rolled by everyone who had been accepted for the small jobs got a note in their mailboxes the day before, as well as instructions of what they were suppose to do and where to go. Otis and Zero were once again paired up to do a job seeing as they were better suited to work together due to they type of powers they had.

The two got read for the day ahead, brushing their teeth and pulling they’re hair back, like they did every morning when they happened to wake up at the same time. The night before they had packed their bags for the day trip and were ready to leave when it was time for the bus to pick them up. In the meantime Otis made sure everything was prepared for when they left. There wasn’t any telling when they’d be back, so the fox made it a point to make sure everyone in the dorm would be fed, having prepared lunches to be warmed up as well as instructions, and of course Zero teased him for being such a group mother. Otis just smacked him in the face with his fluffy tail.

By the time he finished making sure everything was in place, people started to wake up and enter the dining room for breakfast. Regrettably, Otis hadn’t the time to make a warm meal, so instead he set out a stack of bowls and boxes of cereal, Frosted Flakes, Captain Crunch and a few others, as well as fruit and pitchers of milk and juice. Any other day simple things like cereal were just for those who refused to eat what was made or for those who were too late for breakfast, either way, Otis worried if someone wouldn’t get enough to eat.

Zero gave him a soft slap on the back, starting the fox to the point his tail fluffed up, “Your worrying too much, they can last a day without home cooked meals.” The hound said taking a bite of his apple. “Yea I know, I still worry though,” Otis sighed petting his tail to make the white fur flatten.

The fox was the type to worry about people, especially when he was the one looking after them, mainly the girls, and especially at this campus. The dorms and the campus had demon warding charms to keep mid level demons out, though every once in awhile one would manage to slid through the cracks, and that’s what had his fur frizzed.

“Mornin…” Rosa yawned as she walked in holding her sister’s hand. “What for breakfast…?” Desi yawned rubbing her eye, “’m hungry…”

“Just cereal today, sorry girls, "Otis apologized and poured them both a bowl of cereal, Cocoa Puffs for Rosa, and Strawberry Crunch for Desi. "It’s ok,” they both said sitting down at the table. “Imma be gone today, remember your lunches are in the fridge and all they need to be is heated up,” the fox told them as he filled Kumo’s bowl with ash from the fire place in the reck-room. “And don’t go wondering around on your own and bring back a new pet.”

“Ok,” they both agreed as they ate.

“That my girls,” the Fox smiled patting they’re messy bed heads.

The door bell hanging over the front door entrance rang and Otis heard Queen say he was here. “Thank’s again for coming Queen,” The fox blushed as the other student walked in only to have the younger sister run up to him happily. “Sorry again for making you come so early, I can’t really leave these two alone.”

“It’s alright,” Queen chuckled picking Desi up. “You can make it up to me later.” He smiled with a wink making the other teen blush as red as a cherry.

“Let’s go romeo, now isn’t the time to flirt,” Zero teased pulling on the other’s tail snapping him out of it. “Zip it Zero!” Otis snipped flustered.

…

The time to go down the bus stop rolled around after a while, and after saying goodbye, those who were going on jobs left and than boarded the special bus to take them to they’re destination. Everyone would be spread out pretty far since it was all small neighborhoods and such surrounding the city by the sea. The place Otis and Zero were assigned to was a old house that was also a morgue, it had been unoccupied for awhile, but lately people had been seeing shadows in the windows and noises at night, and when trying to investigate, not only would someone feel the sense of danger shoot up they’re spine, but after leaving would get really sick a few days after, as well as having terrible nightmares.

“If I had to guess it’s a spirit who was woken up after a period of dormancy.” Otis said as he and Zero were dropped off a block away from the building, “Ok, but this place has been unoccupied for what? 5yrs? Why is it only waking up now?” the hound asked as his tail swayed back and forth, his hands shoved in the pockets of his ripped jeans. “That’s what we’re here to investigate, and then we have to exorcise it if we can.” The fox explained putting the work file in his bag.

They had learned in class that there just as many different kinds of ghosts as there are people, but one thing they had in common was that they fed on the energy and emotions of the living. But what Otis found odd was the fact that they were sending students, after all, a ghost with the capability of affecting a living person even after leaving their territory wasn’t something a low level spirit could do. Maybe he was overthinking it. The house itself seemed void of any and all life, even the grass around it was dead which crunch under they’re feet as the two walked up to the building.

By the time they walked up the steps of the old house they found that it had been boarded up with yellow tape netted up and down the doors and windows claiming hazard. The hound reached towards the door to grab the yellow tape only to pull back his hand, feeling it burn, “Well this is annoying,” Zero hissed rubbing his hand, the tape had shocked him like it was an electric fence. “Looks like the tape was charmed to make sure whatever is in there stays there.” Things like charms tended to sting even mutts like those two.

“You wanna bust it down, or should I?” Otis asked as his tail flicked behind him.

“I can do it.” The hound growled and the fox stood back. Zeros hands started to change, growing bigger and becoming more animal like as they turned brown from the fur that covered them. He pressed both palms to the sealed door despite the burning feeling and before long the charms were set on fire with bright green flames that turned the yellow tape to ash. But now with the charms gone, both demon teens could feel a surge of unsettling tension shoot through their bodies, causing the hound to quickly jump back out of instinct, as he bared his fangs.

“Well that was a rush,” Zero grinned feeling his body shudder as the adrenaline started to rush through him. Being of demon decent, both were affected a lot differently than humans, which could end badly at times. “Don’t do anything stupid,” Otis warned as he walked past the green and red eyed hound, smacking the back of his head to bring him down a bit as he went up to the door.

With one foot planted firmly on the ground, he used the other to kick in the door, using enough force to send the door and the boards that had been keeping it shut flying into the empty house letting the miasma flow out of the building, like he had busted down the floodgates. With how much was coming out, neither students were surprised ordinary people were being affected.

“Ugh, I got a bad feeling about this…” the fox muttered another chill running through him as he lit a soft blue flame in his hand for light, miasma was proof that something that didn’t belong in this world was in there. “I think we should call it in…” But the hound walked past him and inside of the creaky building. “It’ll be fine, it one ghost and there are two of us, we can take it.” Zero scoffed lighting a green flame in his hand, and Otis followed after him. “Don’t just go inside alone…” he growled making the other flinch slightly. Otis could be a very scary person sometimes.

The two went from room to room, sticking together from there on out, and part demon or not, there was a reason for the buddy system. Go at it together and you can watch each other’s backs, go at it alone and you might not come back.

From what they could see, who ever lived there 5 years prior had left in a hurry, most of they’re stuff was still there. That wasn’t a good sign, though both of them already knew that something was wrong before even entering the damn house.

Following the lay out of the house the two started to make their way to the basement, were the bodies of the dead were taken care of, all the while they could even feel eyes on them, as well as the feeling of being unwanted. Probably because whatever was here couldn’t feed off them the way it could feed off humans.

The deeper they went into the house the stronger the feeling of unsettlement grew, and the thicker the miasma. All the windows had also been boarded shut, leaving no light to enter the building over then the flames the two students controlled, which also burned away the miasma in the air so they wouldn’t suffocate. They saw the usual signs of haunting, like things moving or disappearing when you looked at them a second time, hearing footsteps, and so on.

“Any normal person would have dropped dead at this point…” Zero spoke up as he walked closely to Otis, other than the creaking they’re footsteps occasionally made, all the quietness was starting to bud him.

“Yea, but I can’t tell where it’s being emitted from-” Otis was cut off by the sound of doors slamming shut, first they were far away, but then suddenly it was the one right next to them.

“Looks like it’s trying to scare us away now…” the hound teen huffed, ghosts and demons loved using parlor tricks to frighten people and make them submit to them, but that wasn’t going to work, “Nice Try! We Aren’t Going To Scare Away That Easy!” he shouted, which he soon regretted after being thrown against a wall like a rag doll, having all the air knocked out of his lungs, making his fire go out as he dropped to the ground coughing. “Why do you feel the need to make it mad…?” Otis asked sighing. “Oh shut up…” Zero growled getting back up, more than a little angry now.

“Hey! Why Don’t You Just Show Yourself! Or Are you Scared!?” And that did it, if it wasn’t pissed off before, it certainly was now, because a moment after those words left his mouth, the wooden floor beneath the pair gave out, causing them to fall through with aloud crack.

…

He couldn’t remember what happened after that, other than a head splitting pain, and small lights flashing in his eyes as he woke up, his head dripping with blood from an injury sustained from the fall, “Ah… damn…” the hound hissed sitting up, his eyes quickly adapting to the dark, even without his fire he would see fairly well, but without it he could keep from gagging on the miasma he was forced to breath in, it left a very bitter taste in his mouth too. It wasn’t long before he spotted Otis laying a few feet away, rushing over to him as fast as he could despite his head hurting a lot, he let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the fox was breathing, however he was out cold. As he kept looking around to try and find a way out, what he could see was not very pleasant; it was no wonder they were dealing with one pissed off ghost.

They had fallen into a room under the house, and it was not somewhere even a hell hound wanted to be, at least in Zero’s opinion.

The room was filled with satanic objects used for dark rituals, but that wasn’t the worse part, no, the worse part would have to be the ugly as hell ghoul who was now staring at him like a statue. Looks like the ghost wasn’t the only one to get woken up…

“Whoops…” he gulped before quickly getting up, trying to ignore his head pains, though maybe staying still would have been better, because as soon as he moved, so did the ghoul.

Quickly he started calling out to Otis, trying to get a response, if he stayed knocked out; he was a sitting duck for this demon. Before he knew it though, the ghoul hit him in the side of his head, throwing the other demon across the room. That really would help his head injury.

“Otis! Could You Hurry And Wake Up!?” He shouted as loudly as he could, despite the throbbing headache and ringing in his ears, he did everything he could to ignore it as he got to his feet and using all his force and speed, rammed into the monster before it could attack the white fox. The ghoul howled as it was slammed into the ground, before it hissed at the green and red eyed teen.

“Answer me, damn it! My throat’s starting to hurt-!” he had to duck when the ghoul swiped its claws at him, but not without getting a scratch on his cheek as he kicked the demon hard in the chest forcing it back a few feet. “And I Could Use Your Help!” still no response from the other teen as demon went after them again, each time Zero forced it back, but every time it got a little closer to doing some serious damage as it went for his head and legs. His wound was bleeding even more now, messing with his focus as he tried to ignite his hell fire to burn the monster. However he couldn’t keep his focused long enough before the monster attacked again. It also didn’t help that the foul smell of rotting flesh and putrid blood was mixed with the musk of the miasma messed with his hyper sensitive nose.

The demon was like a snake the way it kept attacking, changing its position quickly before coming at them again, and bearing its rotted teeth and dirty claws. “Otis! Wake Up!” the brunet hound shouted gagging on the miasma, the gagging slowed him down for a moment, but a moment was all the monster needed to knock the candlestick out of the teens hand and leave a huge and fairly deep scratch in his side, causing the other to scream out in pain as he was sent to the ground..

There was no way he could take down this monster in his state. That’s why they were taught never to fight alone

Zero held his bleeding side and as the ghoul tried to take a bite out of him, used all his strength to kick the monsters head, sending it flying through the already tattered wall. He looked to Otis who was still unconscious, and let out a groan.

“Ugh, Sorry to do this to ya pal,” the hound teen said as a last minute idea popped into his dazed head, picking up the others tail, Zero quickly bit down on the white furred limb.

With a banshee like howl Otis’ blue eyes shot open, now fully awake, “SON OF A BITCH!” he screamed before pulling his tail back, “That Really Hur-!” as quickly as the anger had came it disappeared just as fast when he saw Zero on the ground in front of him.

Through the thick musk he could smell Zero’s blood as it leaked from his body. But before Otis had the time to to ask what had happened, he instead pulled the other behind him protectively as he shot to his feet, “Look out!” he shouted, his body moving out of instinct as the ghoul came at them again, and before either of them had time to process what was going on, the ghoul bit down into the fox teens forearm which he used to block the demons attack.

Otis wrenched from the pain, but gritted his teeth to bare it, “Son of a-!” he cursed, now he was really mad, “Let Go!” the demon’s jaw was broken open as the teen it had been biting landed a hard blow to the hinge of its jaw, forcing it to left go before receiving another rage filled punch to the side of the head. The demon an extremely angry hiss as it took a strike back from the ground, this time latching it’s jaws onto Otis’ side between his ribs and hipbone before the teen had time to react.

“Aaaah! Let! Me! Go!” the fox howled as his eyes glowed brighter than his flame that ignited of the demons rotted body like a bonfire. The creature howled in pain jumping back as it tried to put the flame out. However, a kitstune’s sacred flames aren’t put out so easily, if fact, only holy whine could put them out.

The teen fell to his knee as the monster burned in front of him, still biting the bullet to keep from passing out from the pain and the amount of energy it took to create a flame that big and hot by accident, and both teen were forced to listen to the monsters dying screams which sounded sickeningly human in it’s final moments.

“Zero… you ok…?” he asked between heavy breaths, “Could be worse…” Zero chuckled smiling weakly. “guess you were ight… we shoulda call… for back up…” the hound demon slirred as his vision started to go dark. Otis quickly started to dig though his pocket, and pulled out the emergency flare, and after aiming it up, he shot it off through the air. While normal flares were bright red and worked like a firework, the flares the students were given deferred greatly, for one they could be shot indoors and would still light up the area above where they had been shot, and could only be seen by people who could see the true nature.

“Well… when lost, just wait for help to find you…” Otis sighed laying down still holding his arm, god it hurt like hell, but luckily him and Zero were part demon, which meant they would regenerate and heal faster than humans, still it wasn’t like they had any kind of natural painkiller, and it was still take longer than they would like, so now he had to sit and wait, and keep his fire going to burn away the musk in the air around the two. Even though it meant draining his energy more in the meantime.

…

It felt like hours before anyone came to get them. Though thanks to Otis’ blue flames the miasma was cleared away, and the evil spirit was weakened and soon eliminated after help had arrived to rush the two teens to Sea Angel General Hospital.

Needless to say both of them got an earful for not for calling help sooner from their teacher, and a lot of angry shouting from Desi and Rosa who then started sobbing like crazy. They were told that from what the other’s had gathered from the house, a small cult had once resided there, using the blood drained from dead bodies to summon the ghoul after they used a living girl as an offering, though in the end the ghoul hadn’t stopped at her, and soon devoured all the other members of the cult, which would explain all the bones Zero recalled seeing while down there. Enraged by what had been done to her, the girl’s spirit turned into a phantom after feeding on the energy and emotions of people who were unlucky enough to try and living in that house, all the while the phantom kept the ghoul locked up to starve to death, until Zero pissed her off.

And so, with the evil gone, the two students were than paid for their work, and Zero and Otis were discharged later that day after they’re wounds had closed up and healed thank to their regeneration abilities.

Though despite all that had happened, for some reason neither felt all that phased by it, maybe it was just the fact that this was a normal thing for demons, and that version of normal was woven in they’re paranormal DNA. Or maybe they were both sure that they had each other’s backs and would learn from today’s screw ups too. Whichever it was didn’t really matter because they were both sore and tired from a long day, and were soon collapsed on their bed.

“Hey Zero…?”

“Yea Otis…?”

“I just realized something…”

“What?”

“We never ate the lunches I packed us…”

The room went quiet for a moment before both of them laughed tiredly.

“We’ll eat them tomorrow… I’m too tired to be hungry…” Zero groaned as he buried his face in his pillow.

“Yea…” Otis agreed, “Me too… Also…”

“What now..?”

“Thank’s for today, you’re a good guy…”