The morning sun filtered through the windows of Class 2-B, casting lazy patterns across the worn desks. Lukas Osiris sat near the back corner, his head resting on folded arms, eyes half-closed in what appeared to be his natural state of existence.
"Hey, Lukas. Lukas." A whisper cut through his drowsiness. "Are you awake?"
Lukas lifted his head slightly, turning to face Karl, whose messy hair stuck up at odd angles from where he'd been hunched over something on his desk. Karl's eyes were bright behind his glasses, that excitement of someone who'd discovered something interesting radiating from him.
"I am now," Lukas replied, his voice quiet and measured. He straightened in his seat, rolling his shoulders to work out the stiffness. The truth was, he hadn't been sleeping at all—he rarely did, not really.
"Check this out," Karl said, sliding his phone toward Lukas while glancing toward the front of the room to make sure their teacher hadn't arrived yet. "There's this new framework for implementing recursive algorithms in—"
"Karl, it's eight in the morning," Agnus interrupted from Lukas's other side, leaning back in his chair with an expression of long-suffering patience. "Not everyone gets excited about code before breakfast."
Karl huffed, pulling his phone back. "You say that, but you were up until midnight working on the homework."
"That's different," Agnus protested, though a slight flush crept up his neck. "That's practical and it was for grades."
"Sure it is," Lukas said, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. Karl's enthusiasm clashed against Agnus's pragmatism while Lukas sat between them, occasionally offering commentary.
"Besides," Agnus continued, ignoring Karl's muttered complaints about the beauty of elegant code, "we have that history test next period. Did you actually study, or were you too busy with the latest episode of that anime?"
Karl gasped, pressing a hand to his chest in mock offense. "I'll have you know I can multitask. I studied while watching the new episode of—"
"That doesn't count as studying."
"Does too."
Lukas listened to them bicker with half his attention, the other half automatically scanned the classroom around them. It was an old reflex, one he'd tried to suppress but never quite managed to eliminate. The way the light fell through the windows. The positions of his classmates. The two exits and the distance to each. The structural integrity of the walls, the floor, the…
He stopped himself, drawing in a slow breath through his nose. This was a classroom— a normal classroom in a normal school in a normal city where nothing was trying to survive a hellish place. Where the most dangerous thing he'd face today was the possibility of being called to answer a question he hadn't been paying attention to.
"Lukas, where are you?" Karl said, waving a hand in front of his face. "You're doing that thing again where you zone out and look like you're thinking about something really funny."
"I was thinking about lunch," Lukas lied smoothly, which wasn't entirely false. He is hungry. THe is so hungry he could probably eat a cow.
Agnus snorted. "You're always hungry. I don't know where you put it all."
"Fast metabolism," Lukas said, which was partially true. Years of training and constant vigilance tended to burn and stress him. Even now, months into his retirement, his body hadn't quite adjusted to the sedentary lifestyle of a normal student.
Not that his classmates would ever know about any of that. As far as they were concerned, Lukas Osiris was just another face in the crowd… someone who slept through most of his classes, maintained barely average grades, and existed in that comfortable space of being neither popular nor unpopular. Just... there.
"Speaking of lunch," Karl said, apparently having moved on from code and anime, "you guys want to hit that new ramen place near the station? I heard they've got this amazing tonkotsu broth that's been simmering for like, forty-eight hours or something."
"Can you afford it?" Agnus asked skeptically.
"I got paid for that website I built for my uncle's restaurant. For once in my life, I am not broke."
"That'll last about a week knowing you," Lukas observed and snickered.
"Hey, I'm trying to be responsible with my money!"
"Trying being the word," Agnus added.
Karl opened his mouth to retort, but his friends laughed without considering his feelings.
Just that, their attention, along with everyone else's in the classroom was drawn to the front of the room where the door had slid open. The volume of conversation that had been steadily building as students trickled in and caught up with friends didn't exactly drop, but it shifted, taking on a different quality.
Claude Ashford walked in first, his posture relaxed and confident in the way that only came from someone who'd never had to question their place in the world. His uniform was immaculate, his dark hair artfully styled, and even from across the room, Lukas could see the easy smile on his face as he said something to the girl beside him.
Levia Hartwell laughed at whatever he'd said, tucking a strand of her long black hair behind her ear. She moved with a grace that spoke of years of martial discipline. She was a kendo practitioner and her kendo trophies were legendary throughout the school. She carried her bag slung over one shoulder, the other hand gesturing as she continued their conversation.
Behind them came Faith Millwood, and Lukas watched as several heads turned to follow her progress through the room. She had that effect on people. It was the kind of beauty that seemed almost unreal, like someone had taken the platonic ideal of attractiveness and given it physical form.
She smiled at something Levia said, the expression warm and genuine and Lukas saw at least three guys in the front row stumble over their words mid-conversation.
Bringing up the rear was Benrick Stone, his large frame making the classroom doorway seem smaller than it actually was. Despite his size, he moved with surprising grace, the mark of someone trained in martial arts. His expression was serious as always, though Lukas caught the slight softening around his eyes as Faith made some comment that had the whole group chuckling.
They made their way to their seats. All conveniently clustered in the front right section of the room and continuing their conversation in voices just low enough that Lukas couldn't make out the words, not that he was particularly interested. That was their world, and this was his.
"Must be nice," Karl muttered, watching them settle in. "Being that popular, I mean."
"You say that like it's something to aspire to," Agnus replied, though his tone lacked any real bite.
"Isn't it?"
"Maybe or maybe it's just a different kind of cage." Agnus tapped his pencil against his desk. "Everyone is watching you all the time, expecting you to maintain that image. It sounds so exhausting for someone like me."
Lukas said nothing, but he understood what Agnus meant more than either of his friends could know. There was a freedom in being invisible, in being someone people's eyes skipped over without really registering. No expectations, no demands, no one looking to you to save them or fix things or be something more than you wanted to be.
He'd had enough of that to last several lifetimes.
"I guess," Karl conceded. "Still, it would be nice to have Claude's grades without having to study as hard as Agnus does."
"Some people are just built differently," Agnus said with a shrug. "No point comparing yourself to them. You just focus on your own thing."
It was good advice, Lukas thought. The kind of wisdom that came from someone who'd learned to be content with who they were, even if the world didn't necessarily celebrate it. Agnus would probably do well in life, whatever he ended up doing. Karl too, for all his scattered enthusiasm. They were good people, solid friends who'd somehow decided to adopt the perpetually tired kid in the back corner of the classroom.
He let himself relax into it, into the mundane rhythm of teenage life. Karl had pulled his phone back out and was showing Agnus something that was making him roll his eyes but smile despite himself. Somewhere near the front, Claude's group was laughing at something Benrick had said, his deep voice carrying over the general chatter. Levia was checking her kendo equipment bag, probably making sure she had everything for after-school practice.
The classroom door slid open again, and the chatter died down immediately.
Their homeroom teacher stepped through, and Lukas straightened slightly in his seat. Ms. Yumiko Kasahara cut an impressive figure—tall, easily clearing six feet, with her dark hair pulled back in a severe bun that emphasized her sharp features.
She wore her usual attire: a crisp white blouse and black slacks that somehow made her look even more imposing. There was something about her presence that commanded attention without her having to say a word.
She set her bag down on her desk with a soft thud, surveying the classroom with dark eyes that seemed to take in everything at once. Students scrambled to their seats, the last few stragglers rushing through the door before she could mark them late.
"Good morning, class," she said, her voice clear and carrying easily to the back of the room where Lukas sat.
"Good morning, Ms. Kasahara," the class chorused back with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Lukas joined in automatically, the words reflexive after months of routine. Ms. Kasahara was strict but fair, the kind of teacher who expected effort from her students but genuinely seemed to care about their success.
She began taking attendance, calling out names in that brisk, efficient manner of hers. Lukas half-listened, his mind already drifting toward what he'd need to do after school. And then…
The light changed.
It was subtle at first, just a slight shift in the quality of the illumination filtering through the windows. Lukas noticed immediately, his entire body going rigid in his seat as every instinct he'd been suppressing for months suddenly screamed to life.
Something was wrong.
The light grew brighter, and now others were noticing too. Karl's head snapped up, his eyes widening behind his glasses. Agnus turned toward the window, confusion written across his face. Near the front, Claude had half-risen from his seat, his expression uncertain.
"What's—" Ms. Kasahara began, but her words were cut off as the brightness intensified, no longer coming from the windows but from everywhere, from nowhere, from the very air itself.
And beneath their feet, beneath the worn floorboards of their ordinary classroom in their ordinary school, light began to seep through. Not natural light. Not any kind of light that belonged in this world.
The light was forming patterns now, intricate geometric designs that burned themselves into his vision even when he tried to look away.
A magic circle.
Lukas knew what it was immediately, recognized the configuration and the flow of energy even though he'd never seen anything quite like this before.
"Everyone stay calm!" Ms. Kasahara's voice cut through the rising panic, but even though she sounded uncertain now, her eyes fixed on the light blooming beneath their feet.
Stay calm because there was no reasonable reaction to the floor of your classroom suddenly erupting in mystical light.
Karl grabbed Lukas's arm, his grip tight enough to hurt. "Lukas, what's happening? What is this?"
Lukas opened his mouth, but no words came out. What could he say? That this was a summoning circle of complexity? That someone or something with immense power was reaching across the boundaries between worlds to yank their entire classroom into god-knows-where?
That his retirement was apparently over?
The light grew blinding, and the geometric patterns began to rotate, spinning faster and faster. The air itself seemed to vibrate with power, and Lukas felt it in his bones, in the space between heartbeats.
Students were screaming now, some trying to run for the doors only to find that the light had formed a barrier, a wall of pure energy that repelled anyone who touched it. Desks were overturning as people stumbled, pushed, tried desperately to escape something they couldn't understand.
Near the front, Claude had managed to make his way to Faith and Levia, his arms around them both as if he could somehow shield them from whatever was coming. Benrick stood in front of them, his large frame blocking their view of the circle, hands raised in a defensive posture that would do absolutely nothing against this kind of power.
Ms. Kasahara was still calling for calm, but her voice was lost now in the chaos. She'd moved to the barrier, pressing her hands against it, trying to force her way through, to reach help or safety or anything that made sense.
It wouldn't work. Lukas knew it wouldn't work. This kind of spell, this kind of power—once it was activated, there was no stopping it.
He felt Karl's grip on his arm tighten even more, heard Agnus saying something that might have been a prayer or might have been a curse, and in that moment, Lukas Osiris felt something he hadn't experienced in a very long time.
Not fear, exactly. He'd long since learned to function through fear. But something close to it. Something that tasted like regret and resignation and a bone-deep weariness that came from knowing that the quiet life he'd fought so hard to earn was about to be torn away.
The circle completed its rotation with a sound like reality itself tearing, and the light became everything. It swallowed the classroom, the students, the screams, the panic, everything.
Lukas's last coherent thought before the light consumed him completely was that this was going to be incredibly troublesome.