Agnisotra: Origin Tails

We got led back to the dojo of Teppei. Nothing I tried worked on him. I was limited to non-lethal skills so I guess this was the result. I could have done more if I was out for the kill but I assume that is the same for him. We were keeping each other in check because Teppei could body my buddies easily and I assumed I could do the same with the other old man. We sat down to listen to the bullshit requests he would demand from us. Crissy and Hayley seemed to be excited.

“You guys were so cool! I didn’t know you were proficient in the sword, and your katana, it is so pretty!” Crissy orbited me and inspected my sheathe.

“You guys just keep surprising us; you can show all of it when we show you off to our friends! Hehe, they're going to be so jealous!” Hayley grinned; it seems like she has ulterior motives.

That old fart was tough.

And fast

You’re just slow…

Teppei was fast as fuck.

Yeah, I saw, quite impressive for a human,

And he’s old… what if he was younger…

Instant loss for me. Let’s see how much Raishin’s impulsiveness is going to screw us over.

I’m sorry…

Are you though?

“Well as you probably already know, your friend here had already agreed to whatever terms and conditions we would come up with so I won’t be holding back. I do realize that having you enrol here as students will be a waste of everyone’s time.” My face lit up, I looked at Raishin and he started dancing. “However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t become professors at this university!”

I’m sorry we’re too stupid to become professors.

I’ll be delighted!

Greg, shut up please! Teppei, we are too stupid to become professors, especially this guy here. I pointed at Raishin.

Also, our age is close to your students this is never going to work. A professor entered the room and handed some documents to Teppei. He briefly glanced over it.

“Agnis Hourai, also known as the Silver Torrent.” He started listing all my achievements and added what his colleagues had told him. He focused on my disruptive nature and how I effortlessly interrupted their magic circles. I got a bad feeling about this; I think I know where he’s headed with this.

“It is apparent that you have mastered control and disruption. We had planned to introduce a course called ‘Disruption and Evasion.’ But we could never find professors that were knowledgeable or skilled enough so we had to scrap this idea. As you have demonstrated in our fight, this doesn’t only apply to magic, but also other forms of combat. I am confident that you will do well. Congratulations you are the first professor to teach ‘Disruption and Evasion’ You can dub it ‘Crowd Control’ if you so please.”

Ugh, bringing my adventurer feats into this is cheating!

He shuffled the papers and took another glance.

“Gregory Sheru also known as the Obsidian Prince.” Raishin and I snickered.

“Proficient in archaeology, seals, and curses. You have cured the daughter of a nobleman of various high-tier curses, and you have lifted problematic barriers and erected useful barriers around small towns, important objects, important individuals, etc. Your knowledge of alchemagical potions also has gained recognition. While we do have enough professors in the alchemagical department we could use your expertise in ‘Seals and Barriers’ if you could become a substitute professor for ‘alchemagical potion synthesis’ that would be appreciated.” I can’t help to think that this description sounds as if Teppei is describing a Misha.

That sounds wonderful! Can I suggest having Agnis as a substitute professor for ‘Seals and Barriers’?

Greg, please don’t…

“That can be arranged.”

Nooo, Greg you asshole!

Payback for all the trouble you’ve caused me!

“And for Raishin…” Teppei looked at a sheet of paper but I could see it was relatively empty.

I would suggest enrolling Raishin as a student, he is a bit dumb though so he might need some extra care.

Hey! Isn’t there a course where I can teach how to blow stuff up?

I don’t think so…

“Hmm, maybe we should do such. Now I am not a demon so you will get something in return. I got interested in Agnis’ swordsmanship, I don’t mind mentoring you, I could mentor Raishin in the spear too. Sebastian can mentor Gregory with the hammer. Besides that, I’m not planning to keep you here for long, half a year will do. You can treat this place as your home, within reason.” He looked at Raishin. “And you might be able to pick up how humans behave because Chris told me that you guys imitate humans quite poorly…”

Oh getting mentored by the sword saint! This might not be so bad after all!

I agree.

What about me?

What about you?

I think we’re getting scammed!

And whose fault is that?

Meh.

I feel sorry for the professors that get him as a student. Do any of your courses have material on mythical and legendary beings?

“Hmm, we do have mythology but it is quite unpopular and we might not be accurate in that at all, I have only heard tiny bits about nine tailed spirit foxes but I never knew about three tailed shadow cats or six tailed lightning tigers. I won’t force you to take it over but if any of you are interested, we can arrange something.”

I would gladly take that role upon myself!

Right let the nerd teach the humans how the humans are a menace to most of the other species, good idea Greg. Now for the most important piece of information. What is the canteen specialty?

That’s what you’re worried about?

“Agnis will do ‘Disruption and evasion’, Greg will do ‘Seals and Barriers’ together with Agnis, and ‘Mythology’ was already on my list after this adventure. Ok, I will go apply for those courses! Let’s go, Hayley!” Crissy grabbed Hayley's hand after writing down some notes and dragged her to the door.

“Ooh, right we can be the first ones hehe, I bet they will fill up fast!” The chicks left in a haste leaving only Teppei, Raishin, Greg, 2 professors, and me behind.

“We have to do some paperwork, and make yourself comfortable on the campus, Chris or one of the professors will collect you at the end of the day to show you your dorms. I have one question; do you want to walk around as humans or beast kin? I apologize if this is an offensive question.”

I would prefer beast kin.

Me too.

Uhh me too then!

“Ok, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend showing off being mythical beasts but I can’t stop you if you do. Our students are disciplined so they are aware that the information of you being beast kin has to stay within the university grounds. We have a few non-human professors and students and this applies for them too. We want everyone to be themselves here.”

That is admirable! I do need to extend a warning though. This guy’s race is known for being pranksters, while this guy’s race are relatively self-centered. Greg pointed to us.

Teppei nodded and gestured that he had work to do so we left.

Never thought that I would become a professor.

Coming here was the best thing that has happened to us!

Well, you don’t know that it’s just a matter of time before this guy screws something up. I grabbed Raishin who was about to follow a female student and probably ask her for a date or something.

I’m more concerned about the students you will get. You are not going to turn them into monsters, are you? I can imagine them getting detached from normalcy after getting taught by you.

Occupational hazard.

We split up again to explore the university. It didn’t take long for Handguy to find me.

“I have seen the match and heard the news, nice to meet you, my name is John. I teach arcane magic.” He extended his hand. His normal hand. I shook it.

Agnis, sorry for messing you up but I did tell you that I wasn’t a student…

“That’s fine, it did seem the headmaster forgot to tell you that each professor gets their own room to prepare lectures and the sorts between the hours. Let me show you!” I followed John and he gave a small tour. It was quite boring. I remembered that I could have my tail and ears out so I did such.

“Whoa, a beast kin, is that why you are so fast?”

One of the reasons yes

It felt good to have my tail out. It was just 1 but that was good enough for now. It probably wouldn’t take too long for me to slip up and pop up more tails. I got led to a row of boring-looking cubicles.

“One of these will become yours after everything has been arranged. Do you already know how your first lecture will look like?

Lectures are boring, I will go full practical. Nobody is going to remember a string of words for half an hour. To expect students to remember all that is naïve at best.

“Hmm, that’s an interesting perspective, the lectures are in blocks of 45 minutes though, not 30 minutes. And how are you going to keep them up to date on the theoretical aspects?”

No clue, that’s a problem for the future me, now excuse me I need to scout out the canteen.

John is nice but a bit boring so I had to get out of the situation. I located the canteen but it had quite a lot of people. Most were students. Isn’t this still their holiday? Why are they hanging around on the campus eating my food?

I got some food and sat on the table. It was just simple pasta. It didn’t look bad but also not super good. Some students were causing a scene, just like the Misha academy. I wonder what they are up to. A [Fireball] flew at me and I dispelled it without any thought. Hmm, something like this had happened before. I should have dodged it…

“Hey dude, that was so cool! How did you do that!”

It was a fluke, I got lucky.

I seem to have attracted the attention of 2 guys and 2 chicks. The students that were causing a commotion were still fighting. Several professors came in to break up the fight.

Look those guys are getting their asses kicked by the professors, that’s way more interesting than me eating my pasta.

“Oh them, they always cause trouble. My name is Randy, what’s your name?” This Randy guy extended his hand and I handed him a tomato. He took it, unsure what to do with it.

Agnis.

The others also introduced themselves. I can’t handle so many names and faces at once. So dispelling fireballs is abnormal for Misha and humans alike. Why are these races so incompetent? Or am I the problem?

“Hey are you listening?” A blonde midget was talking to me but I noticed too late.

No, sorry, I’m very bad with crowds.

“But we’re with just the four of us…”

“Oh, Clarice, I think it’s like that saying, what was it? Four is a crowd?” Randy seemed to be the center of this friend group.

He seemed to be always smiling and he had a friendly face with red spiky hair. He looked a bit like Raishin but the red-haired version and probably way smarter. The chick he was addressing was short, blonde and wore her hair in a ponytail, she could pass for Hayley’s younger sister. She didn’t have Hayley’s figure though, she was also very short.

“We also noticed your tail and ears and were curious.” A tall brunette with sharp eyes but a friendly face pointed at my tail. She seemed to be the pretty one of the group.

“Hmm, he seemed to be a beast kin, however, I can’t tell from which subspecies.” And here was the stereotypical bespectacled smart guy. He even did the move where he adjusted his glasses. He was quite tall and handsome, maybe not so stereotypical, he doesn’t look like a nerd.

Right, maybe I should answer.

Well, my subspecies is quite endangered so it isn’t strange that you can’t tell

I wiggled my ears, and pointed at them. These are fox ears.

“Fascinating, so they didn’t go extinct.” Smartguy would probably be great friends with Greg. All of them showed great curiosity.

Is this perhaps the first time meeting a beast kin?

“Yeah! It seems uni had a beast kin professor in the past but that was way before we started studying here. I have to say, you look familiar, have we met before?” Randy seemed quite sharp. I hope he fumbles this and doesn’t know who I am.

The short chick clapped her hands. “Oh, I know! He’s that guy from the video! He’s the Silver Torrent!”

Crap.

“Wait! The Silver Torrent! Here! Whoa! Hey dude, wanna become our friend?!”

Please not so loud, you’re drawing attention!

Someone adjusted his glasses. “Do you know him, Randy?”

“Francis, this guy is an adventurer, he even made a new role! He is quite popular under the water users and new adventurer’”

“Water users?” Francis, the smart guy, adjusted his glasses. “Interesting, so you can not only dispel attacks without paying attention, but you are also adept in water magic? You have my attention; what courses are you following?”

Guys, really, it’s not a big deal, you’re hyping me up too much, I just want to eat my pasta…

“Oh sorry, you see these guys get easily excited.” The brunette seemed to be the voice of reason of the group and they all sat down next to me. It felt quite awkward because I was the only one eating and they were talking to each other.

“Hey, dude just tell me if it’s rude to ask but ehm, can I touch your tail?”

Depending on the type of beast kin you ask it is rude to ask. For my race, it’s not that rude but it is uncomfortable, it would be as if I would ask to touch your butt. If a friend or acquaintance asks it, it is fine, but if it’s someone that I’ve just met, it’s uncomfortable. For other races it might be the same as asking to grab their groin or an act of aggression.

I continued to eat while the 4 thought about the words I just said. I don’t want to become a walking attraction.

“So, we can’t touch it yet?” The short chick asked.

So, about those courses you asked about smar… sorry what was your name again? I’m bad with names, and faces and people and uhh humans, sorry.

Smart guy adjusted his glasses. “That is fine, I’m aware of the relationship between your race and humans, I actually have to commend you for being around us like this. And my name is Francis.”

Oddly enough my dragon move was successful in changing the topic.

I am not a student, so I’m not following any courses.

“Ooh, then tell me, what are you Mr. Fox?” The brunette leaned over and made eye contact. “Oh, some interesting eyes you have!”

Well, I don’t expect you to believe me, you will find out next week but apparently, I’m a professor.

“Wow that’s so cool dude! What are you teaching!”

Uhh, what was its name again, disruptive something, Teppei told me that I could rename it to ‘Crowd Control’

“Oh, shit! That actually makes a lot of sense! Yoo, guys lets sign up for that!” Randy got excited and his energy was contagious as the other 3 also started to become uselessly energetic.

“Huh, I don’t think we had a course for that?” Brunette cocked her head. “Hey, Randy, Clarice? What is crowd control?”

“What? You don’t know what that is Layla? Wait, let me show you the video!“ Randy got a tablet out and put it on the table and navigated through some stuff and played the video of when I fought against the skeleton army lead by that strange lich. Randy was commenting on the video while it was playing.

“Wow, that is really you in the video!” The brunette looked from the tablet to me, back to the tablet and to me again. I suppose my passive skill is messing her up as it makes it hard for people to recognize me.

Someone adjusted his glasses. “I have never seen anyone fight like that, I did notice that I don’t see you use any magic circles, care to explain?”

“Ooh, look at that blue fox! What a cutie!” Midget’s voice sounded as if it was almost going ultra sonic. I wish they could keep it down.

“Oh, my gosh it’s so cute!”

Right, I forgot that Nilah was very popular under the chicks. Is this what they call a chick magnet? Does a magnet steal mana though? The video ended and I got bombarded with questions.

“Guys, he can’t possibly answer so many questions at once, give him time and be concise in your questions!”

Thank you, smart guy, but there are still too many questions. I was wondering if I had the energy to answer all those questions.

“Ah there you are! Greg told me you would be in the canteen!” Crissy came over, grabbed my hand, and dragged me away. “I need to show you where you will be staying!”

I waved at the four that got left behind and silently thanked Crissy for kidnapping me.