Electric Blue casually waved goodbye before heading off to who knows where.

  Damn it! It’s just one thing after another!

  First day of school, and I’ve already got 3 people who want to kill me. I never should’ve entertained the idea of attending! I need to run away.

  A rabid student who needs to be expelled.

  A magical trigger-happy teacher who needs to be fired.

  And a girl I’ve humiliated in front of her peers!

  I never should’ve entertained the idea of attending!

  Running away is my only option. I’m not going around and waiting for someone to kill me!

  But where do I go after that? I don’t know enough about this world to feasibly live on my own.

  Damn it.

  The running away plan will have to be put on hold. The biggest threat to my life right now is Electric Blue.

  Maybe I can get Mantle Red to relay what she just witnessed to Mr. Blonde? She is the only witness, but how do I do that?

  I need to resolve the issue of another person wanting to kill me now. I’ll need to convince Mr. Blonde to expel, or at least change Electric Blue’s schedule so that it doesn’t align with mine.

  After waving Ms. Mantle Red goodbye, I marched over to Mr. Blonde’s office for a few steps before exploding into a full sprint. Making measures to ensure the preservation of your own life must be done as efficiently as possible!

  …

  “Huff…huff…”

  I over-exerted myself trying to reach Mr. Blonde’s office as soon as possible, and now I’m exhausted from the running I’ve done. I probably could’ve reached his office sooner if I jogged there.

  Whatever, I just needed to explain to Mr. Blonde another predicament I’m facing, and hope he deals with it somehow.

  After catching my breath, I knocked on the door 3 times. After hearing his words of confirmation on the other side, I let myself in.

  He seemed to be occupied with documents. Possibly boring yet necessary office work that needed his attention.

  I looked at the door leading to his office’s storage room. I knew he kept a few things I had created. Although I could create whatever comes to mind, it’d be easier to use things he has access to, as it’s something we’re both familiar with, and it’d take fewer visualizations to broach my desired topic.

  Wait, no! I need to get to the point.

  I produced an identical replica of the simplified cube school model I used to express my wish for Water assailant to get expelled, before conjuring a doll with Electric Blue’s likeness and repeating the same ‘kick out’ motions with my hand.

  There was an unmistakable look of puzzlement on his face, a stark contrast to how he reacted to Water assailant. I guess his behavior was an open secret at this school.

  Yeah, looks like I’ll need to explain my point of view.

  He had the same idea, bending down to retrieve from a comic I created and waving it.

  I sat down at the round table and began to work.

  …

  The comic was short and simple, depicting the moments I first met Electric Blue to the moment she declared her intentions for my death in front of Ms. Mantle Red.

  The first four panels took up 2 entire pages. They were the first and second times I encountered her, a fish-eye zoom-in on her face as she was in a fetal position inside her igloo, emphasizing her horrified expression, and a wide shot of me standing menacingly as debris from my attacks floated in front of her, with my face obscured by darkness, my eyes and mouth only discernible by white, hollow circles and a crescent. The expression that this ‘me’ wore looked gleeful, as if I’d revel in her death. What followed were partial-page panels showing my guesses about the audience’s reaction, including the expressions of the blonde girl and the brown-haired boy, the old man running to intervene in the fight, and him escorting the crying girl with Electric Blue hair.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The second-to-last panel depicted me, back toward the camera, while looks of animosity, apprehension, and contempt were directed at me. In comic-like fashion, every person’s face was blank or shaded out, with pairs of eyes hovering above them expressing these looks. In my mind, it was meant to be interpreted as anyone in the crowd having expressions representing any 3 of the aforementioned feelings.

  The final panel was a 2-page shot of her Electric Blue confronting me with Ms. Mantle Red watching the exchange. Her face looked indifferent, almost emotionless, but the look in her eyes held a mix of hate and contempt, with a speech bubble filled with mini caricatures of her repeatedly stabbing my corpse. This panel was meant to express her open declaration to have me killed, not caring for any witnesses.

  After flipping through my comic to check for any details I had missed, I handed it to Mr. Blonde, who promptly started reading.

  I merely sat at the small round table and waited for him to finish. When he did, he gently put the book down and gave me a look of utter confusion.

  I took the doll of Electric Blue and set it upright on the circular table, before surrounding it in a cage of golden particles similar to Mr. Blonde’s golden orbs.

  His confused look only twisted further.

  I don’t know what you want from me! Electric Blue’s planning to make an attempt on my life, and you’re the best option I’ve got to prevent that entirely!

  I conjured a doll of Water assailant and made the kicking motions to its rear with my free hand, and he nodded. Ok, that settles my summoner’s bully.

  When I pointed to the doll of Electric Blue, he shook his head. I even made sure to repeat the motions of kicking her out on her doll a few times, but he stayed firm in his opposition against the idea.

  Perhaps there’s too much of a financial incentive to dissuade him. That, or fear of retaliation from another group. Maybe that’s why the old man hasn’t been fired for nearly killing me.

  Mr. Blonde gave an exaggerated wave of dismissal, speaking words I couldn’t make sense of.

  After leaving his office, I hung my head in defeat.

  …

  After putting away my coins, key, and map, I focused on the homework given to me in 4th period to take my mind off recent events, but gave up after being unable to read its accompanying words.

  Looks like I’ll have to live with a failing grade.

  Because of how I’ve been raised in my past life, I’ve made sure to always have above a passing grade, sometimes even an A or higher. I’ll have to abandon that mentality since I can’t understand what anyone’s saying currently.

  Shit! I’m already against attending classes against my will, but now I have to deal with lunch and 5th period!

  The expressions those students gave me were enough of an indication of how welcome I’ll be the next time I arrive. Lunch will be worse. There were over 100 students in the cafeteria.

  Perhaps it’ll be better if I just grab my lunch and go to the square garden arena.

  My summoner spoke words, getting my attention. He seemed worried,

  I’m glad he doesn’t show the same animosity. Wonder what he thinks about my ‘fight’ with Electric Blue?

  Actually, I’m his roommate. So if students hate me, then they’ll also hate him by association. I was fully prepared to have a terrible reputation, but the idea of dragging someone else down didn’t sit well on my conscience. Perhaps running away would be a good idea after all. I’ll remain the subject of those students’ malice and contempt, and my summoner won’t face unnecessary backlash.

  He grabbed the paper in front of me to take a look. As he analyzed, his expression shifted, as if deep in thought. His eyes scanned the paper with unmistakable focus.

  Does he understand what’s on the paper?

  If my summoner is knowledgeable on this subject, then it might be possible to go from failing grade to barely passing!

  But the way it’s formatted necessitates that I write answers in blank spaces. Even if he knows, the issue is that I need to write them.

  Every person who’s ever written with a pen or pencil has a distinct handwriting style. The more a teacher sees it, the stronger the association is between a student and handwriting. No way I’m getting him to write the answers. It’d be more convincing if I wrote them myself.

  What’s the best way to implement this plan? Wait a sec-

  I recalled a paper that copies paper across pink and yellow sheets. The problem is, I don’t recall if the yellow or pink is beneath the white layer.

  Such a simple thing, and yet I’ve forgotten it. Maybe it’s because it’s such a simple detail that I’ve forgotten it.

  The last time I remember it being used was in elementary school.

  I looked at the sheet my summoner was holding. He went to his study, prepared to write on it.

  Wait, I can-

  Without thinking, I ran up and grabbed the sheet before his writing tool met the paper.

  The easiest I can do is literally copy the sheet. Since everything prevalent was only on one side of the paper, I didn’t need to remember as much when I copied.

  I held the sheet in my left hand and looked at my empty right. Yellow, glowing lines appeared on top of the ink. Those lines lifted and moved above my right hand. A blank sheet was conjured beneath the yellow lines. Then, the yellow lines sank into the sheet, turning black.

  I perfectly copied my homework assignment.

  …

  My summoner wrote on the copy, and I copied his answers character for character. After that, we decided to shower. Well, I decided to shower after seeing him sniff in my direction and grimace. He simply followed.

  After cleaning up our bodies through necessary hygiene, we changed into our pajamas and let ourselves drift off to sleep.