Celeste Academy Oneshots

A Spooky Night: Halloween Special

Part 1

A cool wind swept through the Academy, chilling the bones of the students as they walked to their classes. The sky was cloudy, and the trees were losing their leaves.

Autumn had arrived in Valemnia.

Valeriana was walking with Courtney to an empty training ground, where they had agreed to spar. A very friendly spar. They had actually done a few after they made up and became good friends.

When they arrived, and started stretching they made small talk.

"It's been getting darker earlier lately hasn't it?" Valeriana commented. She looked over to Courtney to see her in the most perfect splits ever. She had learned Courtney was very flexible after watching her do several acrobatic like stretches.

Courtney replied, "It's because autumn has arrived in Valemnia. I believe it is approximately late October in Earth months."

Valeriana smiled and pumped a fist into the air.

"That means Halloween! One of my favorite holidays because you can be whatever you want to be."

Courtney looked at her oddly.

"What's Halo Wen?"

"No no, it's Halloween," Valeriana corrected her.

"Halloween is a holiday on Earth that originally was an event to ward off demons by placing scary faces carved into crops by their doors. It's turned into this mass media production where people dress up in costumes and go from door to door asking for..." Valeriana shuddered, "candy."

"How does an event to ward of demons, which by the way was through a very ineffective method, lead to children dressing up and begging for candy?" Courtney asked curiously. This event wasn't celebrated by Valemnians and was a new idea to her.

Valeriana just shrugged her shoulders.

"I have no idea. That's just how it ended up. Halloween is still considered a very spiritual day and lots of monsters and ghosts supposedly roam Earth during that time."

Courtney grabbed a wooden sword and tossed one over to Valeriana who thankfully caught it, not dropping like she could've.

"Well, I learned something new but it's time to do some more learning. Prepare to be schooled." Courtney got into a ready position and gestured for Valeriana to come at her.

Valeriana also got herself ready.

"You got that from me didn't you?"

Courtney smirked.

"You bet I did."

With that, they began sparring, clashing swords to train themselves for the future.

It went on for quite awhile, with generally Courtney winning most of the time considering her superior experience and an actual level and cool mind at the moment.

Their spars were unlike their first duel, when Courtney was enraged and used her Power Control. Valeriana didn't have any major tricks up her sleeve either, so they managed to keep their spars at a calmer pace.

When they finished sparring and were cooling down, Courtney spoke up while Valeriana was drinking water.

"You know, speaking of Halloween reminds me of a story I once heard. It happened at this very school. You know how in our line of work, people do die, not as often as they would in war, but there are those who die."

Valeriana nodded.

"That's true. You can't expect an everlasting battle against demons to not have casualties."

Courtney continued, "Well, you remember during the Summer Festival when the barrier was broken through. Supposedly it has happened before, several generations before our own. A demon was summoned into the academy. No one knows how exactly it happened or who did it, but the demon managed to get past all the teachers and students. It was around this time of year, in the middle of autumn. It was the middle of the night, and the demon snuck into the current Celestial Circle's building, which back then held the same purpose it does now. For some reason, it avoided the highest ranked rooms and went straight for the fifth ranker of that time, who was a prodigy commoner. Their name was Henedira Fawlo. She was taught to fight from a young age which is how she gained her spot as a fifth ranker and defended it for several years. She was in her last year at the academy and set to go straight to the Celestial Knights' Division. The demon slipped into her room and sneak attacked her, killing her instantly in her sleep. Henedira was usually an alert girl so many rumors were spread that the demon had powers relating to dreams or sleeping. No one knew what the demon looked like either, so there was a lot of speculation on that too. The reason Henedira was targeted was most likely because she was a rising star despite not being first ranker. Others say it was karma for bullying Direct Controllers, who she believed were inferior and had no use in the academy, being of the fire element herself. She hated them so much, that a few dropped out of the academy to escape her."

Valeriana covered her mouth in horror.

"That's so sad. I can't believe that happened."

"But it did. It's the way of life for a knight, to fight evil until you die or see yourself become consumed by evil. There's more to the story though."

Valeriana looked horrifyingly at her.

"There's more!"

"Yes there's more. Henedira must have been so upset at dying in such a passive way that people say they see her spirit roaming the campus looking for the demon that murdered her. Some have claimed to see her, with her fiery bright red hair and tan complexion from being from Arlandia. I assume she's rather disgruntled if she's still around. I thought I saw some signs of her while I stayed in that room. A book moved from where I put it, a lamp exploding randomly and for no reason, the table falling over suddenly. I'm surprised you haven't seen anything."

"That's ridiculous. There's no such thing as ghosts." Valeriana shook her head in disbelief and chugged down the rest of her water bottle.

"You never know. The next victim could be you, considering Henedira's hate for Direct Controllers."

Valeriana shivered, sudden chills running down her back.

"Th-that's impossible." She inwardly cursed herself for stuttering.

"Anyways, I better get back. I have some extra things to study for tomorrow's classes."

Courtney waved her off.

"Alright, but you better be careful. You never know what could happen."

On her walk back to the Twelve's residence, Valeriana mulled over Courtney's story.

"There's no way there's a ghost. It's impossible. But then again, this is Valemnia. There are gods, and I've met many mythical creatures that don't resemble any creature on Earth."

As she pondered and tried to convince herself otherwise, she didn't seem to notice the sinister shadow above her that followed her as she walked back to the Twelve's residence.