Blaze moved through the corridors in a daze, the weight of the morning still pressing against his ribs. Orientation hadn't ended when the monster was dragged away. It followed him, stitched into every echoing step and wary glance. Every raised voice made him jump, every little sound rang in his ears the same way the monster's claws did.
And just for a moment, Blaze wondered,
"Am I really cut out to be a Monster Hunter?"
He was brought back to reality, noticing students clustered together as they walked, voices low but urgent now, the silence cracked just enough to let fear seep through.
They were talking about it.
Not loudly—not yet. But whispers passed from mouth to mouth like a whispered threat. Fragments drifted through the halls. "Did you see the claws?" "Someone died." "It looked at me too." Blaze didn't have to force himself to listen this time. The conversations found him on their own, and for the first time since the hall, his chest loosened slightly. He wasn't the only one still shaking.
Outside his first classroom, the tension finally broke. Someone laughed, sharp—brittle, and said, "That wasn't in the handbook." A few others snorted, relief bleeding into hysteria. Blaze turned toward the sound, adding quietly, "I thought it was a test at first." Heads nodded. A girl with an eyepatch and a distinctive scar under her right eye swore under her breath, and another student started to say something about the runes flaring—
"Enough."
The word cut through the hallway like a slammed door.
The instructor stood in the doorway, gaze sweeping over them, expression flat and unreadable. "Orientation incidents are not a topic for discussion," he said evenly. "Speculation creates panic, and panic gets students killed. Inside. Now."
The murmurs died instantly. Whatever openness had sparked vanished just as fast, students filing past the instructor without another word. Blaze caught a few lingering looks—shared frustration, shared fear—but no one dared speak again.
Introduction to Beast Theory did little to help. The instructor lectured on classifications and behavioral patterns, chalk scratching neat diagrams of teeth and talons across the slate. The irony wasn't lost on anyone. Blaze could feel it in the room—the stiffness, the way students flinched when claws were mentioned, the way questions died halfway to raised hands. When someone finally asked whether what happened earlier qualified as "controlled exposure," the instructor paused just long enough to make the silence uncomfortable.
"Next topic," he said, and moved on.
Combat Fundamentals was worse. Practice weapons were distributed without comment, metal and wood heavy in trembling hands. The instructor barked orders, correcting stances, forcing movement, refusing to acknowledge the fear bleeding through every motion. Blaze's grip slipped more than once. Each time, he saw the monster's eye again, unblinking and patient.
By the end of the day, exhaustion dulled everything. As Blaze left the training hall, he noticed a dark stain half-scrubbed from the stone floor, the water around it tinged faintly red. Proof that what they'd seen wasn't a shared delusion—just something they weren't allowed to name.
Students were willing to talk.
The academy simply wouldn't let them.
Blaze practically dragged himself upstairs toward the male dormitories. Every step felt heavier than the last, his legs ached, it felt as if the stone stairs themselves were pressing against him. He was exhausted—every fiber in his muscles screamed at him, begging for rest. All he wanted was to simply collapse into his bed and drift off into oblivion, where the memory of claws and screams couldn't follow.
He stopped at the door, thoughts of slumber washing away from him as he focused, hand still hovering over the handle.
He froze. It all hit him at once. Voices. Laughter. Low murmurs.
The realisation finally came over him.
This was a shared dormitory.
He shrugged it off, too exhausted and desperate for rest to care, and opened the door. Instantly, every head in the room snapped toward him.
"Was beginning to think the new roommate would never show up." said a boy with long black hair, leaning lazily up against the wall beside his bed, dark eyes sparkling with amusement.
Blaze blinked, taken aback, and muttered out a stiff, "Uh… yeah. Still learning where everything is."
The room was modest but cramped, four beds lined against the walls. A boy with a scar running across his cheek smirked up at him. "Oh so you're a first-year then. Rough day, huh?"
Blaze hesitated, he was sure that they knew about the incident from earlier, after all rumours spread like wildfire in places like this.
The black-haired boy grinned. "You don't have to say anything. We all saw it. Hell, some of us are still talking about it." He shrugged.
A small spark of relief flickered in Blaze's
chest. Maybe he wasn't the only one who was scared the floor would swallow him whole.
"You'll get used to it," declared the scarred boy with absolute certainty, tossing a small bundle of practice cloth onto the nearest bed.
The black-haired boy snorted in agreement.
"This school's not all bad."
Blaze allowed himself the tiniest smirk, though his shoulders remained tense.
"You got a name? Or should we just call you newbie?" asked the scarred boy, a hint of a smirk creeping onto his face.
Blaze hesitated, then revealed his name.
"Blaze Lucifer."
The black-haired boy let out a low whistle before speaking,
"Damn, your parents set you up for a sweet life with a name like that."
The scarred boy nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I gotta give it to ya—that's the most badass name I've heard in a while."
Blaze felt a spark of confidence for the first time since he'd left his village. He'd never really thought about how much of an effect just his name had on people.
"I guess it's a pretty neat name," he said, yawning at the same time. "Mind telling me yours?"
The black-haired boy responded first.
"I'm Akira Kojiro."
The scarred boy spoke shortly after.
"The name's Kai Fox."
Then suddenly, a quiet, soft voice spoke up from the corner of the room.
"…Tatsuya Tanaka…"
Blaze startled immediately. He'd noticed there was four beds, but hadn't noticed the other boy sitting in the corner, silently observing the entire time.
"S-Since when were you here?!"
he spluttered.
"This entire time."
Tatsuya declared casually, sitting unnaturally still.
"Yeah I'm just gonna head to bed…"
Blaze announced, refusing to address the creepy boy who seemed to be watching too closely.
He reclined into his bed, exhaustion finally pulling him under.
He had survived the day.
He just didn't know yet what surviving Beastfall Academy was going to cost him.