[INTERLUDE] [AU] Through a Mirror, Not Quite Darkly

Omake of first Twisted Wonderland missions. Reading those missions first is advised.

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Library

In a certain magic academy situated at the northernmost end of Sage's Island, it seemed as though a chaotic incident caused by three ridiculously powerful beings never happened. All of the school's facilities were intact and functioning, all its students and faculty went normally about their lives without a trace of memory of the disaster. All was well in the world.

A certain group of four sophomores however shared among themselves tales of a dream they all had the previous night and all remembered vividly. Protecting four people looking exactly like them from a monster attack wasn't the most bizzare dream they could have, but that they had the exact same dream on the same night was decidedly curious. Nevertheless, they set aside the issue in favour of one more important:

Meeting in the library after school in preparation for a History of Magic group presentation.

"I already tolja, if it ain't fer credits, no way in hell I'm takin' dis subject. 'S either Trein or Crewel, take yer pick," Ulrich Órfinn whined loudly to his classmate Iohann Ironwhisker all while scratching his fox ear with one hand and tapping his magical pen on the table with the other. "Elective my ass."

"Órfinn, I'd suggest turning your volume down a little and stopping tapping your pen; I believe you should've been taught basic library etiquette since a young age," from across the table, Cassia Kupferbäcker deadpanned as he readjusted the burgundy ribbon tying his long dark ponytail. "Besides, have you been walking around all day with your shirt buttons misaligned? You really do have no shame, don't you?"

Ulrich just rolled his eyes when Iohann asked, "Where's Morgan? What's taking him so long?" Then, as if on cue, someone with white hair in fluffy pigtails rushed in, not having changed out of Octavinelle dorm dress.

"Mister Cassia, I am terribly sorry for making you wait," said Morgan Platinfersken after nearly being hit by sundry flying books en route to the table. "Azul kept the entire dorm behind and didn't let anyone explain. He said anyone wanting to leave would receive a free hug from Floyd. We had to…"

Instantly, Cassia's attitude turned a perfect one-eighty. "I understand, Maury, no need to fret," he said, a sweet smile on his painted lips. "We're just about to start; why don't you have a seat?"

Cassia continued to dashingly smile and Morgan continued to blush like a lovestruck maiden, oblivious to the bemused stares their two friends were giving them from across the table. The two were master and servant with a habit of publicly displaying their closeness, not helped by their being classmates, choosing the same electives, and even always sitting next to each other in the cafeteria. One had powers above (read: the Dark Mirror) to thank that they were not in the same dorm as well – the school needed not experience mass diabetes.

"Ahem, let's not forget the real reason we're here," Iohann interrupted. "We haven't decided on a topic to present about, so let's do that now."

Ulrich hated History of Magic class, group assignments for it even more so. It seemed the lesser evil among the boring electives he needed to collect enough credits, but the droning teacher and his annoying cat killed whatever enthusiasm he might have for grand-scale magician wars and expeditions to lands rich in magical stone quarries. Not only that, group assignments were especially disastrous. He preferred exciting topics that had his blood pumping to ones other students were more likely to be well-versed in, and was more interested in wowing the class than going to the library looking up facts. Soon no one wanted to be grouped with him outside of his closest friends and his enthusiasm for this area of the subject wilted; now, amidst lively discussion by his three groupmates, he sat back and watched, waiting for the bore to end.

Absentmindedly, Ulrich reached out and grabbed a book that happened to float by and opened to a random page. The page confused him right away from having no illustrations whatsoever, just a short passage of text, but the content of the text drew him in and gripped his attention the more he read and reread. "Oi, lookit dis," he eventually said to his friends, interrupting their talk.

Suvian is allegedly a monster species. Members of this species apparently have no fixed physical characteristics, fixed habitat or fixed behaviour. The species allegedly is nigh-invincible and possesses the ability to override any and all laws existing in the known universe: laws of physics, biology, economics, sociology, etc. For example:

• A Suvian can come in the form of a mage with magic more powerful than all mages in Twisted Wonderland combined, and can perform magic at any desired frequency without ever accumulating blot.

• A Suvian can come in the form of a hybrid of animal species that cannot actually cross-breed, of an animal and a plant, or of an animal and an inanimate object.

• A Suvian can drastically change a person's character, behaviour, identity, etc. almost instantly, in many cases upon eye contact. For example, a female Suvian can cause a homosexual male to be sexually attracted to her. Several Suvians allegedly are not corporeal and possess people to do their bidding.

• etc.

To date, no proper research is available on this species.

"See dat? Ain't dat cool or what?" Ulrich said to his speechless friends. "A never-before-seen monster widda most unimaginable, most eldritch powers ever dat not even da strongest mage can stop? Like damn! How 'bout we do dis one?"

The other three stayed speechless a tad more, then Iohann gave him a painful elbow to the side.

"Are you mad, or can't you read?" Iohann said. "It says right here that there's no research on it; how will we find any info to present? Besides, I don't think I've ever seen this monster type mentioned anywhere else, even on the internet; this could well be a prank page somebody glued into the book for all I know. No wonder nobody wants to do group work with you, Ulli."

Ulrich sighed. Iohann then said, "I think we should go for the last one I suggested, the history of rainbow cottonpuff cultivation." with the twinkle that shone in his blue eyes every time he spoke of white bunnies and strawberry-flavoured candy floss. Cassia agreed, which naturally lead Morgan to agree as well out of loyalty to "Mister Cassia". Ulrich had no choice but to mutter reluctant agreement.

Even in a world of wonder and magic, high school was the worst.