The Living Death (Celestia Chronicles 5/ R.E.A.P. Arc Book 1)

Chapter 18: Jeffrey's Team

Despite how chaotic his first week of learning at Zalkar's School of Magic was the next few months were tame in comparison. He settled into his new life nicely and despite what happened with Welk he was optimistic. His mother had actually began working at the school to help him adjust, giving him many one on one sessions to help he catch up to his peers. It helped that he made some great friends with the likes of Harvey and Tanya, who were quickly gaining notoriety as the school's perfect couple among their peers. 

He also found himself finding a friend in Hallia Croz, the psychic he met on his first day. Turns out that she was on the asexual spectrum like he and Tanya were. While he and Tanya were asexual, with Tanya being Heteromantic instead of Aromantic like Jeffrey, Hallia was actually Demisexual. Out of the friend group Harvey was the only Cisgender Heterosexual but he could care less about that kind of thing. He and Jeffrey quickly became best buds- and sharing a dorm room helped speed that process along.

His mind did often wander to what happened with Chuck as he felt incredible guilt over what had happened. He felt like a monster thinking about the incident, how he almost killed his childhood friend. He found himself wondering about what Travis had said- was magic really what was wrong with the world?

"I want a signature attack" Tanya declared randomly during lunch one afternoon, catching Harvey and Jeffrey off guard. The two looked between each other, as if having a silent conversation.

"Okay, I'll be the one to bite" Jeffrey said with a chuckle, "What do you mean by special attack?"

"Like how in anime the characters have that really over the top finishing move that they scream the name of" Tanya explained, "That! That is what I want!"

"Why do they even do that" Harvey asked.

"Because they made something all their own using their skill to protect others" Tanya said, a hint of longing in her voice, "I want something like that- especially if we are going to be taking on Lucifer."

"I told you two already that is my problem" Jeffrey said, not wanting them to get hurt with the mission thrust upon him.

"And we told you tough sh-"

"You sure you wanna finish that sentence Mr. Frink" Jeffrey's mom said walking towards them.

"I was going to say... tough... shrooms" Harvey tried to defend himself, poorly.

"Mo- I mean Ms. Sayger" Jeffrey addressed his mother, hoping she would defend his position, "Could you please explain why these two getting involved with my duties with Lucifer is a bad idea."

"I could if it was" Ms. Sayger said casually. "All reapers have had help, I myself became a sargi after meeting Peter. These two are already eager to help you and I think they have massive potential- if they didn't there would be no way I would have let them help with breaking you out of Welk Industries."

Tanya and Harvey both smiled at Jeffrey in an 'I told you so' manner.

"Anyway I was coming over here to have you hear this from me first" She continued. "Hallia Croz has dropped out of school, I know that she was a part of this friend group so I didn't want you to hear this from anywhere else."

"What happened" Tanya asked, as she started to rub the glove she wore on her hand.

"Her mother passed away recently" Ms. Sayger explained. "She's dealing with a lot of trauma and with her psychic powers she didn't want to come to school and be a danger to anyone if she had a flashback or something. She'll be returning once she has a handle on things but I don't think that will happen this school year.