Chapter Text
Bold text is Arval speaking or thinking or a transformed Shez/Sarah. Italics are dreams/flashbacks.
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After the demon anglerfish incident, many students expected to get back to their normal routine. It was hard to blame them, as things had gotten a little too exciting ever since Shez and Asta showed up. Unfortunately, everyone not familiar with Shez would learn the hard way that if he’s around, nothing can ever be “normal.”
If you were a student at Garreg Mach right now, you’d probably notice how dark it was. This was despite the fact that it wasn’t nighttime, it was just an hour past sunrise. The only light in the area right now was a big light shining down and illuminating one particular area. That area was where the fun was. Well, fun for some people, but others would either see this as crazy, stupid, or just downright weird.
Rhea had seen many things in her long life. If you were to ask who the most knowledgeable person on Fodlan was, many would immediately point to her. They weren’t entirely wrong either. Despite this, there were still a LOT of things that could surprise the archbishop, and right now, everyone was seeing one of those things. ‘I had thought that Sparda’s more comedic nature could never be surpassed. Leave it his descendant to prove me wrong…’ she thought, not quite sure how to feel about the scene in front of her.
She wasn’t the only one with multiple conflicting feelings. Every student from each of the three houses witnessed this event alongside some of the faculty. It was kind of hard to ignore everything being in the dark aside from one thing. Even Claude, who was normally on board for these kinds of shenanigans, had almost no words to say. No snarky remarks, no jokes, nothing.
Possibly the only two people who were not surprised by this were Sarah and Asta. The former because she had spent a lot of her youth with the person responsible for this insane event, and the latter because he has had to put up with this kind of behavior for months. Asta sighed and glanced over to the female Sparda that was standing next to him with her arms crossed and her eyes closed in exasperation. “Let me guess, he was always like this?” he asked.
“Unfortunately…” was the response Asta received. Sarah had almost forgotten just what our protagonist was capable of. “I swear, he’s like a child having too much fun with a new toy they had just received. I should NEVER have given him Yamato. I should have waited until the anglerfish demon came back and killed it myself instead of allowing HIM of all people to get that power.” She would never forgive herself for that.
You’re probably wondering who was responsible for all of this. Well, if you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s Shez. Yes, the demon hunter was the cause of this entire spectacle. “What spectacle?” you may ask. Well, in case you missed it, Shez defeated a demonic anglerfish that was consuming a lot of the normal fish in the monastery’s fishing hole. After it was killed, Shez gained a new combat style, which he simply refers to as, “Anglerfish” or “Angler.”
Now, Shez was always the type of person to immediately test out a new weapon or power if the opportunity presented itself, but surfing around the monastery on a school of spectral anglerfish was not enough. So, he got a bit more creative. And by creative, I mean completely over-the-top. Shez had essentially created an orchestra.
Shez stood in front of his own personally made orchestra with a conductor’s baton in his left hand. Where he got that baton was a mystery to everyone but Shez and Arval, who was doing everything in his power to not burst out laughing at what he was witnessing from within Shez. Shez had summoned a bunch of spectral anglerfish to act as a part of his orchestra, and he had somehow given them various instruments. But that wasn’t the craziest part. The most insane part was the fact that he had also gotten other fish from the fishing hole to become members of this little orchestra as well.
“HOW?! FISH CAN’T SURVIVE FOR LONG OUSTIDE OF WATER!” Lysithea shrieked, standing right between Asta and Marianne. A fair point, but really, she needed to stop questioning things when it came to Shez. You can say it’s illogical all you want, but Shez will find a way to pull it off.
There was a whole host of different fish involved, and all of them were arranged neatly in columns and rows. Loaches, carps, bullheads, pikes, you name it. There were a lot of fish in that hole, and they were ready to perform. Shez tapped his conductor’s stand with his baton and began what was possibly the weirdest yet also enjoyable anyone would ever witness.
Now, obviously, fish couldn’t exactly speak, but somehow, they were able to make sounds that resonated with the audience. Nobody could understand what the sounds meant, but at least they sounded nice. And the instrumentals were also a nice addition. Again, it was a mystery how those spectral anglerfish could play instruments, but nobody was about to question it.
Dorothea and Manuela, possibly the two people most well-versed in this kind of thing, expressed their expert opinion by simply watching with smiles on their faces. ‘I will admit, Shez is more musically inclined than I thought’ was their shared thought on the matter.
As the musical reached its finale, Shez used a bit of demonic magic to add a bit of flare to the show, which meant lights and harmless explosions shaped like fish. And with that, Shez turned to the crowd and bowed alongside the fish, receiving a round of applause despite the fact that most of them couldn’t even comprehend what they had just witnessed. Needless to say, this was definitely going down in the history books.
“Uh, Shez?” Caspar asked as he, Shez, and Petra made their way to the training hall. Caspar and Petra wanted to spar with the Sparda, and Shez obliged.
“Yeah?” Shez responded, ignoring all the looks every student and faculty member gave him as they walked by. It’s not that he wasn’t happy with all this attention, he just didn’t care to respond to it. Plus, it was nowhere near as bad as the attention he received after he defeated his sister. And besides, that orchestra thing was just something he did normally, so he didn’t see why that was a big deal.
“Were you always so…eccentric?” Petra asked. She had met plenty of similar individuals in her life, but none of them could compare to Shez. She wasn’t really sure how to feel about that fact either.
Shez just shrugged in response. “I guess, but I don’t get why that’s such a big deal. Seriously, I’m just having a bit of fun” he said as he used his quick reflexes to catch a love letter sent his way. How did he know it was a love letter? The obvious lipstick mark on it, that’s how. “Besides, the attention’s nice too” he continued as he waved the love letter in front of them.
Petra deadpanned at this. She wasn’t romantically interested in Shez at all, but even she had to worry a bit when it came to Shez being romantically involved. “Exactly how many love letters have you received since you arrived?” she asked.
Shez stopped for a moment to think. Putting a fist to his chin, he tried to recall the exact number. “Well, there was one time Cyril delivered about 69 of them to me, and Flayn gave me one that was from someone outside of the monastery, and the time I found about 34 all stacked up in my room…”
Petra raised a hand to stop him. Her face was one of slight disgust. “Enough, I don’t need to hear anymore…” she said, having the urge to gag. Honestly, this was too much for her. Yes, Shez was definitely appealing on many levels, but sneaking 34 love letters into his room?! How did they even get in?!
Petra’s eyes widened in slight realization as she recalled her own training under the thief class. Lockpicking was an essential skill if you were going down that route. She knew she wasn’t the only student in the academy training in that class, so she shouldn’t be too surprised. ‘Perhaps I should tell the faculty to make sure no student can break into each other’s dorm room so easily…’ she thought to herself as she and the other two entered the training hall.
Shez grabbed a small training dagger from the weapon rack and backflipped into the center of the room. “Fair warning guys, this won’t be easy for ya” he said as he prepared himself for the sparring match. When he saw Caspar and Petra get into a stance, he smirked. “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
“I still cannot believe our new member is capable of such…absurdities!” Ferdinand exclaimed as he lounged about with some of his fellow Black Eagles.
Linhardt had crammed his head into a book about crests to shut himself away from the outside world. “I swear, that demon is potentially even more loud and obnoxious than Caspar…” he muttered. Not that he hated Caspar for those reasons, but by the goddess, he could be too much to handle at times.
Edelgard had this odd look on her face as she stared at the letter she was planning to write but just couldn’t. Her mind was completely elsewhere, meaning she was unable to focus. Dorothea was the first to notice, and she couldn’t help but smirk. “Edie…is someone on your mind?” she asked in a teasing tone.
Edelgard blinked and snapped out of her daze, blushing slightly as she shook her head. “N-No, of course not…” she said, though it was obvious that she was lying. She rarely stuttered after all. “Why would I have someone on my mind?”
Hubert frowned deeply. She’s been so distracted ever since Shez’s “concert” ended. That mercenary had been getting a bit too close to Edelgard for his liking, especially since Shez hadn’t exactly proven he was entirely trustworthy. Hubert would be forever grateful that he helped with his master’s condition, but the main problem was that Shez was completely unpredictable. He was a wildcard, and while that may be beneficial should they finally make a move against Thales and the rest, Shez hasn’t exactly proven that he will obey every command he will be given. Still, Hubert trusted Edelgard’s words, so he’d do his best to try and trust Shez. “What Dorothea means is you have been in a trance ever since the Sparda’s little spectacle ended” he told Edelgard.
Edelgard quickly turned her head to the side to make sure nobody saw the extra red growing on her face. ‘Goodness, I cannot contain myself!’ she exclaimed in her mind as she tried to shift her mind elsewhere. She couldn’t help but think about Shez sometimes. She supposed it started ever since he blatantly said he’d side with the Empire, but after she was cured of her condition, she couldn’t help but think about him more and more. There was something about him that brought something so interesting to her life. His chaotic and outgoing personality, his kindness and compassion, and even the absurd stunts he would pull off that defied all logic were all factors, but there was something else that really caught her attention. ‘What is it?’ she thought.
“So, we can all agree that Shez is the most unpredictable guy here, right?” Claude asked as he and the Golden Deer hung out in the reception hall. The entire hall was talking about Shez’s stunt from earlier.
Asta snorted at Claude’s comment as he did some maintenance on his arm using the knowledge Arval shared with him. “If you think THAT was crazy, just wait a bit longer. Trust me, he always manages to do something even crazier” he said as he continued to work on his arm.
Lysithea, who was sitting beside Asta and observing how he worked on his arm, raised an eyebrow at the absurd notion Asta had given them. Her lips curled into a frown as she shook her head. “Impossible. Shez was able to defy the very laws of nature by allowing those fish of his to breath outside of the water they require. How could he pull off something any more absurd? It is just not possible!” she proclaimed, sounding a bit too confident in her words.
Asta finished working on his arm and turned to give his fellow deer a smirk. “Trust me princess, he’ll find a way.” His reward for his response was a dark magic infused smack to the back of his head, causing him to slam his face into the table, much to the surprise of the rest of the deer.
Lysithea’s left hand glowed with dark magic as she glared at the young demon hunter. With a huff, she got up from her seat and began walking away. “Do NOT call me princess” she told Asta before leaving the reception hall.
Asta rubbed the back of his head in pain as he watched her leave. “What’s her deal?!” he exclaimed, upset that he had been hit like that. “It was just a joke!”
Raphael leaned to his left and whispered in Ignatz’s ear, “Is this how love usually starts?” he asked, receiving an uncertain “maybe” from Ignatz. An ongoing bet between some members of the Golden Deer was about whether or not Asta and Lysithea would end up as a couple. As unlikely as it sounded, people like Hilda and Claude were fairly confident that it would happen.
Sarah was acting…pretty weird. She was normally cold and aloof, practically ignoring everyone around her, but right now, she was acting differently. She was constantly wearing this look on her face that said, “If you interact with me, I will kill you.” Plus, her eyes were constantly glowing, almost as if she was about to activate her devil trigger. Lastly, this menacing blue aura was constantly surrounding her, and it was beginning to scare some of the students.
Dimitri tried to approach the Sparda, but Dedue grabbed his shoulder and held him back. “Your highness, it would be foolish to approach her when she is like this. I do not wish to see you end up like Miklan.”
The reminder was enough to convince Dimitri to avoid Sarah for the time being. ‘Shez’s acts must have really annoyed her. Perhaps it reminded her of their shared childhood’ he thought. He didn’t doubt that Shez did everything in his power to annoy Sarah during their younger years. Sarah may have gotten used to it, but that doesn’t mean she liked it when it happened.
Unlike Sarah, other members of the Blue Lions found Shez’s little orchestra to be quite enjoyable. Sylvain couldn’t stop laughing when it was over, Ashe and Ingrid had to ask Shez how he did something so impossible yet so amazing at the same time, Felix couldn’t hide the small smile on his face, and Mercedes and Annette wanted Shez to teach them how to do that.
Needless to say, there were a lot of reactions to what Shez did, and everyone was expecting a lot more from him. ‘I think the Black Eagles will be the first to witness something else from him. After all, our first missions are coming up soon’ Dimitri thought. He wondered how each of the houses would fare with such powerful individuals working alongside them. The Blue Lions had Sarah, who was easily known to be incredibly strong. The Black Eagles had Shez, who had defeated the incredibly powerful Sarah. And the Golden Deer had Asta, and despite him not being on the level of the twin descendants of Sparda, he was still far above a lot of students and even most of the knights. This year was shaping up to be pretty interesting.