The campus is still beneath the watchful eye of the moon. At this late hour, the hallways normally filled with the tumultuous hustle and bustle of students are now silent. Aside from the night guards manning their post in the shack by the front gate, not a single soul occupies the deserted school. The atmosphere could be called eerie, were there any people around to experience it. But thoughts like that are above the mental capacity of the tiny intruder lurking within the building.
The foreign entity scurries aimlessly through the grimy ventilation ducts, its whiskered nose snuffling at the ground. A being of pure instinct, it pays no heed to the filthy conditions within the vent, nor the winding path that stretches out before it. The only priority for this creature is to find and consume anything remotely edible that it can find. And no matter how many tiny insects, flakes of dead skin, and other equally repulsive morsels it devours, its insatiable appetite persists. The animal's meandering journey leads it ever deeper into the dark bowels of the school, until the path finally terminates at a slitted opening. The vent cover hangs loosely on its hinges, leaving a narrow gap in the corner. With no small amount of wriggling, the filthy creature manages to force its way through and clamber onto the pipe on the other side.
This room the animal now finds itself in is very different from anything else at the school. Unlike the pitch blackness of the unlit halls and classrooms, this space is filled with a faint blue light. The hum of unknown magics fills the air. Lining the walls and floor of the cylindrical room are hundreds upon hundreds of pipes, tubes and cords that interlink in some grand, complex design that few could even begin to comprehend. But many would be able to guess as to its ultimate function were they to follow the tendrils' path to the terminating point at the center of the room, where stands the hub of this intricate machine. A massive crystal looms over the organized chaos, glowing with cool cobalt light that pulses rhythmically as the many veinlike tubes connected to its base pump mana into its core. The resemblance to a massive artificial heart is not accidental; this fantastical masterwork of arcane technology could be said to be the very heart of this school, and the foundation upon which its peaceful existence is built. Each wave of energy that surges forth from the crystal blankets the school campus in its loving embrace, enforcing the precious stone's will upon its territory with absolute authority: no harm shall come to those within this dominion. Such is the reason this stalwart guardian was created. So long as it continues to exist, it will continue to protect its charges unquestioningly and without rest. All within the school will live peacefully under the aegis of the safety ward.
But of course, the small creature scurrying through the jungle of tubes and cables is far too stupid to know any of that. Such things are of no concern to a lower lifeform that exists only to eat and breed. And that's why when it finds a loose panel, it thinks nothing of gnawing on the colorful, tasty-looking cables within.
But unfortunately for the dim-witted animal, it is also too stupid to know not to chew on electrical wires. As its sharp teeth bite through the insulating material, electricity is sent coursing through its body. Sparks leap from the severed cables, a fault forming in the intricate system supplying the school's "heart" with magical energy. Of course, a few cut wires aren't enough to stop the crystal's unending vigil. Its latticed surface flickers for only the briefest of moments before returning once more to its usual pulsing radiance. But that moment of weakness is more than enough time for the high voltage to kill the pitiful creature instantly. Its corpse slumps upon the live wires, twitching erratically as electricity continues to surge through its fried nerves. With the dead body now outside the protective ward's scope of influence, there is nothing to stop the electric current from cooking the non-living lump of flesh from the inside out and igniting the layer of fur coating its exterior...
~~~~~
Monday
YOU ARE READING
Cover High/Pekora
Fanfiction(You) are a second-year transfer student at Cover High, a strange school where the bizarre is commonplace, the insane is mundane, and the rules and common sense of the outside world are null and void. Further complicating your already-eventful daily...
