King's Academy for the Prodigious

"You there, violent boy with the other boy in your hand. Stop that." You scolded him. "Bullying on school's ground is prohibited and will not be tolerated."

The violent delinquent dropped the boy in his hands. His eyes widened as he began to realize that you were speaking to him. The other students were watching this development.

You took this opportunity to close the distance between yourself and the boy, tentacles dragging across the cool stone floor. You adopted the stern teacher pose from your teacher's manual. According to it, the pose was a guaranteed way for your students to take you seriously.

"Now, what is exactly going on here?" You asked, the delinquent boy flinched, taking a step back. In the corner of the black pits you called eyes, the other boy breathed a sigh of relief. He also has his eyes trained on you.

"Who are you supposed to be?" The delinquent took this moment to speak first. His deep bass voice reverberated through still room.

"Can you not tell?" You asked, tilting your skull cage. Oh darn, it seems that your students don't even know who you are.

The boy shook his head.

"Why I am your homeroom teacher!" You pointed your fleshy hand to yourself. "Gigiluluga Xantha Telephyskal Zelotsusaka Belingula, but for some reason people from this plance can't say my full name, so you can call me Miss Gigi." You proudly raised your pale thorax.

"Miss?"

"What? That thing is a chick?"

"What is the meaning of this? Where's the hot female teacher! This was supposed to be the start of my cherry high school life!"

"Get a life, nerd."

"Shut up, you play children's card games!"

"Oh good, she's not competition. Biggsby is all mine."

"Huh? Sasha? You said something?"

"Oh nothing, deary~"

All at once, the class erupted into a cascade of noise and energy. Ah, that how should it be. While your teacher's manual recommended that you have a hold on to your students, it also recommended you create an environment where the students do not feel oppressed.

Honestly, you don't really understand the concept. How can you do one thing that is mutually exclusive to the other, but still do the other thing in tandem to the first thing?

What a strange way of thinking.

But never mind that, you still have a situation at hand.

"Miss Gigi, I will say it frankly, I'm doing everyone a favor if I beat the ever-loving shit out of that snake's face. Right here and right now." The delinquent jammed his fists into his pockets, tilting his chin at the smiling boy. His voice rumbled with barely contained anger.

"Ouch, that hurts, Zon. I thought we were friends. I mean, you, me, and these guys." The boy swept his arms to the side, indicating the three other students behind him. They look confused and scared. "We got along pretty well during the entrance exam. What gives?"

"What gives? What gives?! You know what gives, Tycho. You know full well what you did." The delinquent - Zon took a step forward. However, you held your appendages, stopping him from doing something that was totally against the school policy.

"Mister Zon, please calm down. You are disturbing the rest of the class." You tilted your skull cage to the side, showing him how much of a disturbance he was. Some students were crowding around you, including the couple and their three hanger-ons. Some of the students got their mobile handheld devices out, ready to use that photography feature you heard about. Even the eyepatched girl got down from your desk and joined in on the crowd. "If you have any issues with your classmate, please them bring up to the faculty or me. And beating up a student you claimed is a snake is not conductive to school's policy either. He have limbs, he can't be a snake. He's a lizard."

Perfect, just like how the teacher's manual instructed.

Zon's eyes widened in surprise. The other boy - Tycho sputtered in disbelief. A laugh came from the crowd, and before you knew it, the situation lightened up.

"Yeah, you're right, teach. I guess a lizard will keep on shedding its tail when it's most convenient to." Zon stepped down, not before throwing one last glare at Tycho.

"Hey, that was uncalled for. My fragile feelings are hurt, you know." The smiling boy replied with an exaggerated gasp, his hand on his chest indicating that his fragile feelings were indeed hurt. But going by his voice and tone, Tycho's feelings were not hurt.

Ah, this must be what that strange social phenomenon you read about - sarcasm. What a confusing concept. Why do mortals say what they don't mean?

"Your face is going to hurt even more if you don't shut your trap." Zon said from his desk, legs spread out, leaning back on his chair.

"Love you too, buddy. I'm sure we can talk out our differences later." Tycho replied with a wink. The crowd dispersed, each students going back to their desk now that the commotion was dying down. His ever-present smile did not quite reach his eyes.

"She should have punished Zon more. That guy is a handful."

"What are they fighting over anyway? We're friends in class so I'd certainly get them tickets at discount."

"Gods, can't they see that they will never be awesome as me? So why bother fighting over it?"

"Oh no! I hope Aodinia, Zeke, and Yu are alright, it must have been so scary."

The elegant, blonde girl's gaze lowered in intensity, from a raging blizzard to a cool breeze.

An intelligible string of indignant words from the eyepatched girl. Was she a pirate? You'd like to meet a pirate.

And lastly, a boo came from the spiky-haired boy playing card game with his muscular friend.

The three other students that were previously cowering behind Tycho were fettered. Limbs shaking and head turning, eye wide in confusion. Tycho flashed them a reassuring smile as he walked pass by. The two weak-looking boys, a scrawny and a chubby, and the mousy girl all let out a breath.

With that shenanigan settled, you walked to the front of the class, bringing out the attendance roster from your desk. As soon as the class period officially begins, your students quiet down and sat in their seat like good little students. You went through the attendance roster, noting down your students' appearance and what stood out about them.

For obvious reasons, the names Zon Maddem and Tycho Makaveli stood out to you. They were currently the two students that drew everyone's attention. You also recognized the eyepatched girl - Catala Ogurah Danic Randangian. You felt a strange kinship with her. You were not sure why, but it was there.

Just as you finished taking attendance, the school broadcasting system came on. A familiar voice emanated from the speakers above.

"Welcome to King's Academy for the Prodigious, students." Amet said. "I know that you all are stuck in vacation mode, but I plead you all to slow down and think carefully of what you will do from now on. Yes, that means not throwing a party or drinking copious amount of alcohol on campus. At King's Academy, we believe that students learn best from experiences, so if any cases like this ever pop up again, be assured that I will personally handle your education. That is all."

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed the glasses wearing boy - Kei visibly shrunk into his seat. One of his friends pat him on the back with a cocky smile. The pale, fanged girl - Steffina - continued to give him the stink eye. You really should talk to them about this lover's quarrel at some point.

Afterwards, homeroom proceed normally as the teacher's manual would like you to believe. There were some chatter and several students playing on their mobile handheld devices. But all in all, it was much calmer than earlier. Seemed like everyone exhausted themselves while rough housing in your room.

The agenda for today, you went through the each and every one of your students' introductions.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Akemi Hayashi! You may recognize me from the idol group Stardew Valley Drop. I like to sing and dance for everyone on stage! I hope that we all get along this year!"

"Hm? Who, me? Narshian Deen, you should have my name memorized because I am absolutely perfect."

"I'm Larissa Abelgor. I don't have many hobbies, likes or dislikes. I guess I am a pretty boring person."

"Lloyd Boltrun. I play sports I guess. My favorite one is water polo."

"Hello. I'm Biggsby Mason and I would like to get along with everyone this year. If you have any problem with math classes you can come to me for help."

"Ah, you're so kind, Biggsby~ Oh, right. Sasha Smalls. I practice archery."

Class went on like this, you tried your best to memorize and note down their general attributes. So many students! So many to keep track of! Wew, this was going to be a tough job

Finally, the bell rang, you dismissed them to their next class. However, you stopped a certain student from leaving of your classroom.

"Zon, I would like to speak with you later. Please drop by my class during lunch period." You asked worriedly. As a teacher, you needed to work with this boy lest he joined a gang and become a criminal.

Oh the horror.

To your surprise, Zon nodded civilly.

Yay. Maybe he wasn't a total lost cause just yet.

Now that your homeroom period ended, it was officially time for you to start teaching. You were hired as the biology teacher and you were quite sure of your knowledge on the subject. After all, your Greater Self was composed of so many species you can't even track of anymore. Surely, somewhere in there you can draw your information on the fauna and flora.

"Miss Gigi? The heck is a necromorph?"

"Miss Gigi, I'm sure that's not a griffon, that's a hippopotamus."

"That's a pelican, Miss Gigi. Not a parrot."

"Yes, Miss Gigi, platypi are a thing. I'm not sure why, but they are."

Oh right, your Greater Self was composed of all sort of creatures that fell into the rift of the Dimensional Cracks. Duh, of course they were not going to be Nexus-exclusive.

Well, on the bright side, you did educate them on creatures from different dimensions. You were not going to let this one little defeat get you down! You had a whole eight weeks ahead of you!

"Oh gods, we have eight whole weeks left with her."

Lunch time came, and Zon showed up as promised, a bag of food in his hand.

"So, teach, you want to speak with me about something?" The wayward delinquent asked.

"Yes, it's about your problem with Tycho." You replied.

Zon sighed, putting his bag of food on a table.

"Figures. Like I've said, I would do everyone a favor if I get to pummel his shit-eating face in." He cracked his knuckles to make a point. But you have no idea what he was trying to insinuate. "Bastard is a filthy lying snake who needs to be humbled."

"Violence is prohibited." You crossed your appendages, the pseudo-limbs sinking into each other.

"He deserves it, for what he did to me. I want to beat that waste of skin and make him pay for messing with me!" Zon growled, his fist instinctively slamming down. Once he realized what he had done, he quickly uncurled his fist and laid it flat on a desk.

"Sorry, I have a bit of a temper."

"Oh, that's fine. You mortals get very excited about certain things, I understand." You nodded. "Now, can you tell me what exactly he did to you?"

Zon looked to the side, refusing to meet your the black globes you called your eyes. Muttering something under his breath.

You leaned forward.

He leaned back.

You keep leaning.

He stepped back.

This wasn't working…

[] No! You're going to keep pushing this matter. You have to have him open up to you or he will keep getting into scuffles with Tycho. You need to show him that you're a reliable teacher that is always available to help.

[] Maybe you should back off. As a fellow solitary creature, you can tell that he wanted to be left alone. Maybe he would be insulted if you don't trust him to handle his own problem. He was a delinquent after all.

[] If he refused to open up, fine. Send him to the guidance counselor, Mr. Eagle. If he refused your help, then maybe Mr. Eagle will have a better chance than you do. He was the go-to person for help after all.

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And student's roster is updated!