Chapter 0 - I dont think this is my classroom?

Sky woke up upside down.

Blood rushed to her head. Her vision swayed. The whole world blurred like a watercolor someone smudged with wet fingers.

“…Why am I upside down?” she muttered.

A beat.

“…This isn’t the music club.”

SNAP.

The branch gave way.

Sky crashed face-first into the dirt.

Pain shot through her jaw. Mud spread across her cheek like makeup applied by a drunk toddler.

She groaned and pushed herself up on shaky elbows.

Okay. Alive. Barely.

She wiped her face—and froze.

The sky above was wrong.

Too blue.
Too bright.
The clouds were enormous, perfectly shaped, like someone had drawn them with soft charcoal.

“…Huh,” she whispered.
“This is… definitely not school.”

The bushes rustled.

Sky whipped around.

Another rustle.
Another.
Heavy footsteps.

Voices.

“Oi. You smell that?”
“Yeah. Strong. Close.”
“Heh. Finally.”

Three men stepped through the foliage—

Except they weren’t just men.

Sky blinked hard.

They had ears.
Long, triangular, perched high on their heads.

Fox? No. Too broad. Dog? No… something in between. Predatory.

They were tall—massive, actually—muscles bulging under patchwork armor. Claymores strapped to their backs, chipped and stained. Two wore eyepatches. All three had scars.

Hunters.
But not human.

Sky backed into a tree.

What smell? What smell—

Then she saw the way they were looking at her.

Their nostrils flared.
Their ears twitched.
Their lips curled into hungry grins.

They were smelling her.

“Been a while since we found a stray human,” one growled.

Sky’s brain stalled.

Stray what??
Human??
As in… me??

Before she could think—

One lunged.

Sky dove sideways entirely on instinct.

BOOM.

The claymore slammed into the ground where her head had been. Earth cracked, exploding outward in chunks.

Her ankle twisted from the sudden movement.

Move, Sky. Move. Now.

“You missed, idiot,” one beastman barked.

The first snarled, ripping out a dagger. His claws extended—curved and sharp.

Sky grabbed the nearest branch—thin, useless, laughably small—and swung it.

It bounced off his arm like she’d tapped a wall.

She froze.

“…Oh. That did nothing. Great.”

“Don’t—don’t come closer!” she shouted, voice cracking.

They ignored her.

Predators didn’t listen to prey.

One charged again—faster—dagger raised—

A shadow dropped from the sky.

“Get out of the way.”

Wind exploded outward.

SHHH—BOOM!

All three beastmen were blasted back, bodies crashing into trees like thrown dolls.

Sky blinked rapidly.

A man now stood in front of her.

Mid-twenties.
Dark red hair, messy and wind-swept.
An eyepatch over one eye.
A tattered cloak.
A sword at his hip—

still sheathed.

He looked exhausted.
Eyebags.
Blank expression.
As if he’d seen too much and slept too little.

The hunters staggered up again.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” one roared.

They charged him together—
claws out, blades raised, snarling.

The red-haired man didn’t move.

Didn’t shift his stance.

Didn’t even glance at them.

His eye stayed on Sky.

Sky whispered:

“…Shouldn’t you look at the giant murder-men running at you right now?”

He didn’t.

The first beastman swung at his neck.

A killing blow.

The red-haired man tilted his head—
barely an inch—
and the blade whispered past his cheek.

Sky blinked.

When her eyes opened—

His palm was already on the beastman’s wrist.

Flick.

A soft tap.

CRACK.

The beastman’s entire arm convulsed; his weapon flew out of his hand like it was kicked by a ghost.

Before Sky processed that, the red-haired man placed his hand gently on the attacker’s forehead—

and pushed.

BOOM.

The beastman’s skull slammed into the earth.
A crater formed around his head.
The shockwave rattled the forest.

Sky yelped and nearly fell backward.

He barely touched him.
What physics is THAT?

The remaining two hunters stared at their leader buried in the ground.

One step back.
Another.

Then they bolted into the trees, abandoning everything.

Silence spread.

The red-haired man finally turned fully toward Sky.

Red hair.
Blue eyes—like hers.
A faint scar across his jaw.
A tired calm in his posture.

He didn’t raise his sword.

He hadn’t drawn it once.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

Sky opened her mouth.

Closed it.

Opened it again.

“…I don’t know. Am I supposed to be?”

He stared.

“…That wasn’t an answer.”

She panicked.

“I—uh—sorry—this is my first time being upside down today—”

He blinked slowly, as if buffering.

“…What are you doing here? You could have been killed.”

Sky swallowed.

Her brain sorted 900 thoughts at once:

Predators.
Not human.
World unknown.
Physics broken.
Man extremely dangerous.
I might be hallucinating.

But all she managed to say out loud was:

“…Standing.”

He exhaled.

“That was not my question.”

Sky whispered:

“…I miscalculated. I apologise.”

A long silence.

For the first time, his expression shifted—
just barely.

“…This is going to be troublesome,” he murmured.

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