His eyes got distracted by the big group again, this time a fight was erupting. The same midget girl that dared to challenge Hayato and beat him, the legendary stereotypical popular girl herself seemed to be in a verbal confrontation with this other guy that he hadn't seen before. She was aggressively attacking him verbally and he responded similar, though a little bit more on the defensive. She looked like she wanted to hit him and he looked like he was preparing to defend against it. That would be a dead game, he heard from Hayato that her offense was dangerous but her defense. If he really wanted to win he had to strike first and strike decisively. Though he never saw this guy before. Perhaps he was a high rank too. He definitely seemed older so it was probable true. That would mean that this would be a fight between two high ranked people. Joe's blood started boiling, a smile cracking on his face from just watching the situation. He took a few steps forward to get in close proximity of it all, noticing Hayato in the corner of his eye he gave no attention to him. Watching the situation and thinking about how to escalate it. That one popular girl threw the first strike, as he had predicted but the other guy was fast, faster than Joe. He was barely able to dodge that punch, seems like their speeds were kind of similar. Hayato got caught up it in all and caught a clean one in the face. Giving him a rough beating making him look like your average domestic violence victim. "Geez, you really did get your ass kicked. Didn't you? I'll count this as the second time. That means you got your ass kicked by a three foot girl twice.", Joe laughed at the situation. "Now I get why you want to be stronger", he teased. "That was for betraying me for the popular girl. I thought we were going to team up bro. What happened?" He looked around to see if he could recognize a cleric or a binder "Also, is there a cleric or a binder around this level? I heard I do good with them", he winked at Hayato because he had gotten that information from him.

Tsundere indeed! He visibly cringed with each thud as Hayato bounced along the ground, there were more than several onlookers now. Some of the students stared agape in horror at the scene after they narrowly avoided the human projectile, **"Look what you did! Mini-me!"** Ryouta exclaimed. He did not expect HIM, of all people, to come in between them. _Hayshel, maybe yew should come wiff me, and da udda guy go...wiff dem.._ Da udda guy? Maybe he meant Ryouta. **"I told you she was crazy man!"** He rushed over to check on Hayato, at least the guy was still breathing. **"Is there a Cleric around here!?"** He kept his eye on 'Hayshel', now he knew her name. He would remember it. Oh yes, he would remember it.

Soka burst into laughter, seeing one guy get knocked across the room. "Wow HAHAHAHA he got whopped that bad by a single punch," Soka laughed. "Ah, that cheered me up." He was going to walk over to the guy that got hit to see if he was okay, but someone else walked over to him so he would probably be fine.

(Accidental post)

Ryouta dodging her punch only made Hazel angrier, and at first it didn't even register that her fist still connected with something. It wasn't until Hayato tried to speak that she noticed. She sighed with frustration, and only came up with one word for him. "Idiot." She noticed the crowd that had gathered. She still really wanted to hit the pompous Magi, but she knew it wasn't worth getting into trouble over. But she still _really_ wanted to hit _something_. She shot him one last dirty look as he walked to Hayato. She followed, standing over the boy who she had accidentally injured. "You better get up or the next time I hit you it's going to be on purpose, you idiot." She already regretted offering him the option to go on an Assignment with him, but she was too deep now.

It was a little while after Hayato passed him that the elder male finally moved from where he stood. Mainly because all the students coming in were so pathetic he couldn't bare to watch them. They were the true newcomers, having little to no clue as to what they were doing. Sure some found it amusing to see them fumble about and fail to even perform one single attack correctly. But to him at least, it just wasn't worth witnessing. Once they'd gained experience and learnt something over the next few weeks then yes, it was all well and good. But before that it just wasn't within the elder's interest to bother with something so boring. And so for the rest of the day, the elder wandered like he did most days. Watching as others sorted themselves out, meeting others and getting used to life here. For today at least, the lithe male far preferred spending it alone before the chaos of assignments started up. No doubt there would be arguments, there always were, no matter if you were best friends with another or not. This was an academy after all, competition was natural. --- One of these days someone was going to get a bullet going straight through their body thanks to him.... It was safe to say from anyone that had seen the elder male in the very early hours of the morning, that he hated this time of day. Anyone who tried waking him up too early usually got a harsh glare or on a particularly bad morning; a kick to the gut. Ouch. Still the first day of actual classes wasn't so bad, no one disturbed him. So the lithe male woke up at a decent time. See? That was the one bad thing about being a student here, early class times. And oh kami did he hate them. Groaning as the tall male peeled himself from his bed, silver hair messy from the long night's sleeping. Obviously not one to stay very still while he slept, unless of course, he had someone nearby. It was odd like that, but that might have been due to his upbringing. Oh well. No use worrying over such a trivial matter now was there? Nah. Showering and dressing fast, it wasn't long before the male had headed down to breakfast. Although he could eat like any man, like a complete and utter pig if he wanted to. Most of the time here he didn't, plus not to mention it was a little weird to be doing unless you were among friends and considering his therefore lack of. That was a near impossible feat to achieve at this very moment in his lifetime. After half an hour and a decently sized breakfast now within his system, it wasn't long before classes were due to begin. Ugh. How dull. That was another problem, although not with the Academy itself. Things were a real bore when you knew pretty much everything you needed to graduate already, and tests were no fun when you could answer everything as easily as you could blink. Still, at the very least Shin over the past few years had _tried_ to look somewhat interested. Not that it worked for very long. At least the classes after lunch were decently entertaining, and any theory class he had was always an amusing chance to grill the teacher on how much they knew, and if he just might learn something he hadn't considered when facing an opponent before. Sadly today that hadn't happened at all. So dull. Still within the physical education class he did get a few laughs from it, as well as a few stares. One of his teachers asking him if he danced, considering how well he moved and how graceful he seemed to be. Despite being both male and very tall. He, of course, denied this. The lithe junior wasn't one for that sort of thing (oh yes he is, just in secret so no one knows) and even if he had been. He certainly wasn't going to blurt it out. Unlike some of the overly happy or hyperactive kids here, that just wasn't the type of person he was. Even so as the last class of the day for him came to an end with a resounding sigh of relief, the elder quickly making his way back to his dorm to grab his weapon before heading back down to the main entrance. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he really wished he hadn't come down here so soon... --- Yes. He knew many of the newer students would be down here. Looking to take on their very first mission, but that didn't mean others weren't up for grabs either now did it? Still, he'd managed to take note of a few C-rank missions that he could do at a later date before all the chaos seemed to start. Now not being one to look like a total idiot in front of others, the elder had simply gone to get a drink before looking over a few D-rank missions and accepting one and then....well.... all of _this_ happened. Not only were there far more people here then he'd imagined for the first proper day here, but they were people here that he'd seen yesterday. In fact most of them were, minus a few newer faces that Shin hadn't seen before. Still it hadn't been long and he had practically predicted it, then again it happened every single year so this was no different. That's right, a fight broke out. Did these new kids have no common sense or what? Or where they trying to get kicked out on their second day on Academy grounds? Honestly, it was so very childish. Then again, he wasn't considered the 'perfect' student himself. Far from it. He was a troublemaker at heart who also happened to be highly intelligent, a bad combination if you pissed him off. Which luckily never happened. The tall male had never lost his temper in the time that he'd been here, strange yes, but he'd been irritated or annoyed many times. But it had never been enough to make him loose what decency he had and go off on one. No. That was reserved for the morons who either did something so stupid, or were stupid enough to try and bring those closest to him as threats to get him to do something. Safe to say, it was well advised by even the teachers to other student to avoid this silver haired trickster when he was irritated. It wasn't a nice thing to be on the receiving end of. Eventually he had spotted a fight starting, it was merely verbal at first and that was perfectly fine. Let them argue as much as they pleased, it wasn't anyone's problem except those two. Yet again, fate loved to mess with his day. As the fight quickly turned violent, with a crowd gathering around to watch. Kami, were they stupid? Clearly so considering they were just letting it continue. Especially if certain teachers found out, they'd all be screwed and not just the two that were fighting either. "Baka, ryouhou tomo." *(Idiots, both of them.)* He muttered in an semi-annoyed tone. A punch was thrown, the boy he had seen yesterday, Hayato, went flying comedy style. Others went to help and as he carefully moved towards the large group and the lone male on the ground, keeping an eye on the red-headed female as she really did look like she was about to deck someone into the ground again. Luckily for him, she didn't and instead going to insult the boy she had just hit. Sure it was okay to be confidant, but having an ego this big was just a no no. Not that he wanted to pick a fight, but he wasn't so much of a coward that he would hide in the background with everyone else here. Walking over although still remaining a decent distance away for the moment, those who knew him from previous years quickly parted like the red sea at his approach. It wasn't that he was overly high ranking, far from it, but it was someone who many people generally avoided. That habitual smile he held was slightly thinner than normal as he looked over at the young girl and those around Hayato. While others talked and further glances were thrown about, the issue seemed to calm down on it's own, thankfully. Still, that kid did look like he could use a hand or at least someone who wasn't about to insult him every chance she got. Moving over and soon glancing down towards Hayato, he quirked an eyebrow curiously this kid sure had a habit of getting himself hurt and it was only the second day. "Ya alright down there?" The lithe male questioned, his tone now lighter than before. Perhaps more at ease because he knew he was talking to someone from his own culture. Maybe.

Hayato pushed himself up onto all fours, before giving his head a rapid series of shakes with a "brbrbrbrbrbrbr" sound. When he'd stopped, his injuries seemed to have just disappeared, save for the slight red spot on his jaw. He stood up, rubbing his chin with a wince. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks." he said to Joe and the silver haired boy from yesterday. "But yeah, let's all calm down a bit, huh?" He knew everyone was giving Hazel a hard time, but while she did need to control her temper there was a little bit of fault on the ones who had provoked her, too. "Not just Hazel, _all_ of us." He was a bit more stern this time, although he realized right after he'd spoken that if they wanted to probably everyone here could hand him his rear end on a platter. Still, he kept his expression firm. "Anyway, if we could get back to the Assignments, we're all looking for groups, right?" He looked over at Joe. "Sorry, Joe, I just kinda got swamped with people before you showed up. If you want, we'll still team up. Hazel, I'm really thankful for your offer, but after all this if you think I'm gonna cause you trouble I won't hold ya to it today or anything." He didn't want to put any more pressure on the girl, lest she blow her lid again. "My preference is for heading to the Blighted Woods and helping out that research station. It looks like the Cockatrice quest is really popular, but only five of us could even go for it. I'm a Knight, I'd like to have a Cleric and either a Binder or a Sniper in my group at least. What about everyone else?"

Everyone was really getting on Hazel's nerves, and now Hayato was too. "If you want, we'll still team up. Hazel, I'm really thankful for your offer, but after all this if you think I'm gonna cause you trouble I won't hold ya to it today or anything." _The nerve! A **beautiful **, **talented**, and **charming** girl offers to go on a mission with him and tihs is how he replies!_ She huffed. "It's up to you, Hayato." _What a jerk!_

Joe smirked at Hazel's words, she wasn't as untouchable as Joe thought when he heard the rumors. She was easy to draw out and was in fact even plans to go on a mission with Hayato. A relatively low ranked one too. She even looked flustered by Hayato's response but bit back any ill sound to answer with a submissive worded 'It's up to you'. He had seen the damage she could bring with a single punch but he really wanted to see her in actual combat. Look at what the hype is all about because he wasn't intimidated by what he has seen. Only from what he has heard. He might even try to fight her after everything is over. Just for fun. "Well me and this one summoner guy united. Could be fun, bring ex-beasts to beat the shit out of other ex-beasts. As long as they don't interfere with me kicking butts I'm fine with whatever he's doing. So you're still down to form a team? Well that's great. Lets look for a binder or a cleric, that would be incredible with our prowess. A knight, a striker and ten thousand ex-beasts being healed continuously while slaughtering their environment.", he rambled on. "Is she planning to join?", unlike the others, despite her hot temper he didn't have any ill feelings towards her. He thought it was amusing and he was down with her unless she blew up on him. Then she might be forced to catch deez hands and get knocked out quick. "Because someone experienced in the team is great as well."

"A Summoner? Oh cool!" Hayato said with a grin. "I've always thought that was an interesting ability. Reminds me of the Shin Megami Tensei and the Pokemon games." He looked around until he saw John, recognizing him because he had seen Joe speaking to him before, and waved the other boy over. Then he turned back to Hazel. The tsundere was strong with this one. If she were Japanese, she would have probably said something like "it's n-n-not like I w-w-want to go with you or anything, you BAKA!" Hayato sighed and shrugged his shoulders when Joe asked if she would be coming with them. "Yeah. I take back what I said before, Hazel," he began, rubbing the back of his head as was the nervous habit. "I thought at first you didn't really wanna bother, cause of how annoyed you seemed, but I'm gonna have to bother you for your help after all, sorry. Would you help us out?" If Hazel said yes, that would make four people, although they were all direct attackers. If they couldn't get a Cleric or a Binder, then someone who could attack from range like an Adept or a Sniper would be a good choice too. Hayato looked around until he spotted someone who looked like a Magi (Soka) and called out. "'Scuse me, over there! Yes, you! Are you a Magic Class, by any chance? Would you wanna do a job with us?"

Winnifired stared in wide-eyed shock with a grimace forming on her face as a brief fistfight suddenly erupted in the crowd of people. She hadn't been able to hear what conversation had started it, she simply saw the red-headed girl throw a punch and end up hitting the... same boy she'd done quite the number to in the match yesterday, apparently. Winnifred was about to step in and say something to try and stop things, though she wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to say in a situation like that, but it seemed that the small incident died down as quickly as it started anyway. In fact, it seemed like discussions about the assignments had resumed like normal. Well, more or less normal. Winnifred sighed, letting the incident pass. She looked back at the cleric, and studied the cockatrice assignment details again. "Well... I wonder just how many people are looking at this one," she said.

Soka finished watching the interesting event take place. _Seems like classes and missions won't be the only thing interesting around here. I better pick my fights carefully if I get on anyone's bad side._ He turned toward the entrance of the lobby again, when he heard someone calling him. _Hm? Is he talking to me?_ Soka turned and faced Hayato. He walked towards the male, "Me? Yep I'm an adept. Yeah! I'll come along. I've been searching for a party for a while." Standing near Hayato and the others, he offered his hand in a handshake to the male that had spoken to him. "Name's Soka. I'm new here."

"Fine, I'll help you, Hayato." She said, with a self satisfied smirk, totally unaware that he was playing into her ego. "I'll let you pick the Assignment, but make it interesting, and don't pick anything without fighting, or I'm not going." She said.

"Nice to meet you, Soka, I'm Hayato." With Joe, himself, Hazel, the summoner, and now Soka, they had a full party, provided someone didn't suddenly back out. "We're going to be headed into this Blighted Woods area. It's somewhere in Excaledvol, and they're trying to set up a research station. They'll need someone to clear the area of monsters. We don't have any Clerics or Binders, but I think if we watch each other's backs we'll be alright." Hazel confirmed that she'd be going as long as there was a fight, and Hayato nodded. "The description said they'd probably be low rank monsters, but they know the terrain better than we do and there will likely be several of them. I don't think you'll be disappointed with the fighting." OOC: Assuming Duthguy's alright with it, since everyone else seems set in this group, I'll go ahead and move us on. This will also give everyone else a demonstration of how future special assignments go. --- After everyone had grabbed what equipment they needed, the group met up in the entrance lobby again and then headed down a large central hall, where a few sets of double sliding doors led into identical rooms. Each room was a large cube, white tile on all four walls, the floor, and the ceilings. Immediately after entering, though, to the right there was another holoboard and in the center, a large circular pad big enough for them all to stand on. Hayato went to the board and entered the quest they'd taken, and a magic diagram of incredible complexity suddenly appeared on the pad. Several of its symbols began to rotate along the outer edge, clicking together with bright flashes of color, until the proper coordinates were aligned. While a way to permanently close off the two worlds had not yet been found, a method had been discovered of creating small rifts that would collapse on themselves after a set amount of time. Combining this with teleportation magic (a very delicate art that not many Magic Classes could use by themselves) allowed the Academy to send the students to any location on either world as long as they had the correct coordinates. The pads were locked unless one had taken a Special Assignment or had the proper clearance, however. Attempting a transport without the coordinates could very likely hurl someone into the black vacuum of space, or tear them apart in the limbo between worlds. The thought made Hayato do a double check that he had done everything correctly. When the group had all gotten onto the pad, the magic began to glow and hum, rising in volume slowly as the circle rose off the pad and began to rapidly spin. Then, with a blinding flash and a feeling like when an elevator suddenly starts up and you're not ready for it, they found themselves standing outside a large bunker type building made of slabs of concrete and sheets of metal. There were several adults, in a mix of magi robes and lab coats, running around doing various tasks, and when one noticed the students he ran over fumbling with a clip board. "You're just in time! We've just detected some Exbeasts on the move to the north east, right beyond that treeline there!" He pointed at where he meant. "Sorry to rush you, but we're in the middle of some very interesting data retrieval, and if they interrupt we could lose all our progress!" "Yeesh, right to it, huh?" Hayato said, looking around. True to the man's word, though, there was an ominous rustling along the border of the clearing, and he thought he saw something shadowy moving between the trees...

Hazel nodded at Hayato's choice. "I'm glad you picked something that at least sounds kind of interesting. I'm gonna go get my stuff, I'll meet you there." She said. She returned to her dorm. She didn't have any sort of 'armor' per say and just wore ordinary clothes. It didn't restrict her movement so it was fine for her. She opened up her trunk of weapons and after a moment of internal deliberation opted to grab her longsword. It was an impressive weapon, exquisitely crafted. The most notable part was the hilt, jewel encrusted, featuring a pommel in the shape of a wolf. She retrieved he scabbard, holstered her sword, and went to go meet Hayato and the rest of the party. She caught up with him on the teleportation pad. They arrived at the lab and they were already being ordered around. "No point in waiting, let's get to it." She drew her sword and approached the treeline.

Giving the blonde a nod while grinning happily, Rian was glad to already have one willing participant. Thinking on it, he figured it might even be possible for the two of them to handle the mission themselves given their skill sets. He could debilitate the ExBeast and cripple is movement while Winnifred piled away at it. **"A pleasure,"** he said softly, bowing somewhat before, **"I'm Rian."** He frowned a bit at Hayato's response but didn't really choose to otherwise comment. If that was the Assignment the boy wanted, Rian saw no reason to try and convince him otherwise. Before he could propose his idea to Winnifred though, several things happened in rather rapid succession. For some reason the older student decided to pick a bone with Hazel, though for what reason he personally couldn’t see. Despite not knowing the language Hayato and their senior shared, it wasn’t too hard to tell that it likely hadn’t been friendly. While he had been largely neutral over yesterday’s happenings, chalking it up to a senior being concerned for his juniors, but now this… And things only spiralled downwards from there on. As expected from what little he had seen of her, Hazel refused to back down while the, questionably now, older student simply continued to egg her on. Stepping away from the brewing confrontation, he shook his head slowly in disbelief before turning towards the blonde-haired gunner; the shit storm already pushed aside from his mind and its participants ignored. **“Don’t quite know,”** he admitted as he caught her looking towards him before he nodded away from the assignment board. **“Personally, one enemy is where I do my best and I think we could take the creature down ourselves if you’re willing. It’ll mean more rewards between ourselves, but we’ll have to get ready quick. Others no doubt will want to tag along if we dilly dally.”**

Joe didn't really need anything to prepare. He didn't wear armor and he didn't use weapons, he was ready as it was. So he just shadowboxed a little as everyone else did their equipment and warmed up his muscles for combat. He never heard of the teleportation pad, it was a pretty cool sight. The others had their little shiny weapons. Joe wasn't impressed. He knew he was about to fuck shit up regardless, this should be nothing but slaughter for them. They all were offensive focused and apparently they were low ranked monsters. All that Joe expected was a bloodbath and he was perfectly fine with that. As they entered the scene one of the researchers immediately caught them. Giving them a direction to where they are. Convenient. "I agree", he smiled at her. "He gave us a direction, so it's not like we need to search for something.", Joe pointed out. Already walking towards the north east. "Look out for monsters surrounding us but continue walking north-east without stopping unless you're sure you saw something.", Joe suggested while performing this same action.

Day 01 Haruka first day at school wasn't anything special, the usual ceremony at the start of every new school year unpacking in the dorms and the meeting of the group she does her assignments with. Her school timetable hasnt changed much from last year, her classes were seperated between night and day. It gave the opportunity to sleep during mid day and train at night after classes. But sleep was the last thing she needed, so training during the day and night wasnt a big problem to do. Her first night was peacefull for now since immediatly rushing to train is a bit to much, for now atleast. Day 02 Haruka has been sleeping well since a long time it gave her some comfort to be here in this school, it felt a little like a home to her. The daily morning excersizes were as usual for everyone. Still a lot of people had difficulties with it and stopped even before it started. She did her laps of running and took a shower in her dorm. Short after, she got to her classes which consisted of dodging hiding and knife trowing. The day passed on very quickly and it already free time was there for her to spent on training or sleeping. It didn't take long for her to decide what to do. Haruka went over to the assignment board to do some missions with who ever was around at the moment. Some rank B assignments would be fine for now, taking it easy for the first day was reasonable. When she arrived something seemed hugely off about this. The assignment board area was filled with students. Well it was predictable that this would happen, some of the students didn't pass because of their low rank and tried to keep it up a little this year. It made her think, only one tought went through her mind 'Way to forced' she moved through the crowd to the front and took a look at the assignments for today. It appeared there were only D ranking assignments. Which would mean all these people were probably around D rank. Well since she didn't have anything else to do, it would be fun to help some others maybe. Haruka wasn't that famous around the school for her rank or anything so most people wouldn't even notice that she was ranked A. Haruka quietly looked around her for maybe some younger shades that she could help.

"Hmm, maybe. Still, it might be a good idea to get one or two more people, you know?" Winnifred replied to Rian, giving it a few moments of thought. "I for sure wouldn't mind some a chance to get some extra rewards, but it can't hurt to have some extra helping hands. More safety in numbers and all that." Winnifred began looking around the crowd for any other students who may still be picking out their assignments or teams. "Of course," she added, "I'm fine with it being just the two of us if no one else does end up wanting to join us."

Ryouta had no choice but to honor a dying man's wishes, the boy was on a suicide journey. Even if he might have been doing it because he secretly had the hots for that child-psychopath, it was such a waste of life. Young, vibrant life. Gone. He silently mourned the passing. He stood up and turned to face the two speaking not-so-softly behind him, it seemed they were attracted to the same mission he needed. Listening to their discussion, it seems the Cleric was more interested in rewards than ensuring they survived. Ryouta, personally, was not too interested in the listed credits. But, like the girl said, a pair of helping hands would make things easier -for Ryouta. **"You've got the right idea, young miss."** He commented. **"You were there at the arena yesterday ....right?"** He faintly remembered someone with blonde hair. **"I'll be on this mission too."** He raised a handshake towards her and then one towards the Cleric.