~Gakuen Kill: Academy of Assassins~

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Rei really didn't want to be here. She really didn't want to be sitting in one of the many chairs planted and arranged in neat, symmetrical order, leading into a massive circle pattern around the central stage. She really didn't want to be in this slightly stuffy auditorium inside this massive castle stuck with a bunch of other would be assassins. She especially didn't want to be sandwiched between these two girls, one of which looked like some retro mummy while the other looked like a "grade A" neat freak.

But most of all, she really didn't want to be listening to the Head Director give out the same trite speech she gave out wherever she went. Of course though, even she felt the sheer strength and fortitude rolling off the Academy's leader in waves. Who wouldn't be able to sense such pure passion and raw intimidation?

"...as young and bright minds of the future, you will lead the new generation of assassins all throughout the world. And one day, you too will represent the name, pride, and doctrine of Riddle Academy."

And there she was. Saya Momoko herself, standing proud and tall behind her podium on the stage. Most, if not all the students and staff here would know her better by her calling card though, the Red-Eyed Assassin. Unfortunately, Rei knew her by another title. Big sister.

That last statement earned Saya a riveting applause as the First Years were baffled in amazement while Second and Third Years once again admired their Head Director. Rei merely turned away, not wanting to admit how rousing that speech was. Right then. Time to head to her dorm and settle in before reporting in for whatever team building exercise the Academy had planned for them. Rumor had it that every year, all the students participated in some massive school activity before starting official classes the very next day.

It was a sort of ice breaker initiation, so to speak. But as always, they had to report to the dorm rooms first and that meant crossing a labyrinth of different hallways and passages to find which one was hers. With the desire to be first and get a head start, she leapt out of her seat and moved like everyone else towards the exit.

Only when the ground began to shake violently did she pause in her step, crimson eyes widening as the very room began to shake with a passing earthquake. No…this felt too unnatural for an earthquake. Looking over to the stage, Rei saw her big sister casting a wry smirk down upon her audience, tapping her microphone.

“As a new class for a new year, let’s start things off with a literal bang. You are all dismissed and I expect you to be able to find both your dorm room and your roommate before the timer runs out.”

As if to answer her request, the humongous screen behind her used for presentations such as these whirred to life, displaying a red font countdown, the decreasing numbers like stains of blood. There was no telling what would happen exactly if that timer reached zero, but was anyone going to risk sticking around to find out? Probably not.

It didn’t help that all of the doors were being sealed shut and each of the staff were descending down into a lower level, the ground beneath their feet lowering before filling in the gaping hole it left behind. Saya’s eyes studied the no doubt panicked crowd, weeding out the ones who would take this situation calmly before zeroing in on Rei.

Red met red as their eyes stared at each other before she too descended into the darkness below, waving at her little sister as a last farewell. This time, Rei did roll her eyes as she looked around the massive auditorium for some kind of way out.

Only eight minutes remained. Not a good way to start the new semester.

Hunter leaned back in his seat as he listened to the surprisingly young Head Director's speech, the majority of his face shrouded in darkness by his wolf head cowl. His Bow and quiver rested against the leg of his chair, his War club hanging off of his belt beside him. His scarred arms were crossed as he listened, enthralled by her speech. He marveled at how young she was, he figured she would be wrinkled at least. But that was not the case as her red eyes probed the room.

"...as young and bright minds of the future, you will lead the new generation of assassins all throughout the world. And one day, you too will represent the name, pride, and doctrine of Riddle Academy."

Hunter pondered this sentence while listening, he wondered if after he graduated he would have some sort of obligation to the academy. It was clear his mentor never attended, Al being well into his 50's by now. He inspected the other students, some looked nervous, other look excited, but there was one red-eyed girl who looked quite bored that caught his eye. Red Eyes. He looked around the room, all students having normal eye colors for their race. But this girl had blood red eyes. Then he looked back at the Head Director.

The Red-Eyed Assassin.

Could it be? There were rumors that the Head Director had a sister, but he never took gossip too seriously. And yet, there she is. Hunter turned his attention back to the Director who had just finished her speech. He clapped with the rest of the school, though he regretted having not paid attention to the last part, which seemed to be particularly inspiring. The room was filled with movement and bustle as the school prepared to find their dorms. Hunter got to his feet and slung his quiver around his torso, taking his bow in his right hand. A passing girl stared at his exposed abdomen with a strange look, eye balling the scar in particular. She was covered in bandages, which was rather strange. Hunter thought nothing more of it and moved along with the crowd, maneuvering deftly through gaps. There was a large noise and The Head Director added one last thing.

“As a new class for a new year, let’s start things off with a literal bang. You are all dismissed and I expect you to be able to find both your dorm room and your roommate before the timer runs out.”

As if to answer her request, the humongous screen behind her used for presentations such as these whirred to life, displaying a red font countdown, the decreasing numbers like stains of blood.

Hunter's body tensed.

The staff was disappearing and the doors were being sealed shut and the tension in the room mounted. Hunter looked around the room and a thought occurred to him.

"They're gonna make us fight our way out of here."

Hunter knew he couldn't have just gotten into this school on the word of the tribe elder, there was a pre-school test.

And it was a fight for survival.

Pretty soon this room is gonna turn into a blood bath and anyone stupid enough to contribute to the fight is in for a rough time. But Hunter wasn't gonna go out like this. He started to slowly weave his way backwards through the crowd, away from the doors and to the edge of the room. He noticed giant wooden beams high above the students, his back hit the wall. The buzz of the room grew, people discussing and contemplating what to do next. He slowly withdrew an arrow from his quiver and tied the end of the coil of rope he always carried with him just below the arrowhead. He silently drew back, his muscled shoulders and arms rippling with the strength of drawback. He aimed the arrowhead at the beam above him and let go. The arrow whizzed through the air, the rope going with it. It hit the wooden beam with a dull thud. The rope hung beneath it, the end just above Hunter's head. He leapt up and grabbed it and started to rapidly climb it, his arms capable of the feat. He was almost to the beam and hoped he wasn't spotted. The chances were slim though, people rarely look up. He reached the beam and threw an arm onto the side of it, fingers gripping the iron braces. He yanked the arrow out of the beam and pulled himself onto it, his arms burning from the effort.

He laid on the beam, breathing with effort. He coiled the rope and clipped it back onto his belt and peeked over to see if anyone had spotted his expedition.

Mashuka was fascinated, though it wasn't all the director's speech. The entire auditorium, the whole castle even, was leagues beyond anything he'd expected. Two years in England hadn't raised his threshold of modern understanding much, given that he spent most of that time in the slums. He wasn't a neanderthal by any means, but a majority spent behind walls living in sand and dirt had his vision a bit narrowed beyond rifles and radios. And the knife of course. Firmly secured in its sheath at the base of his back it rested, and as was the old law with such blades, it would remain there unless it needed to be either cleaned, or...dirtied.

That wasn't to say the director wasn't inspiring, she was certainly a good speaker whether she believed in the words or not. He enjoyed that in people, a little energy, a little conviction, a little life. Besides, it wasn't like she'd be doing any of this if she didn't care, and by the end of it he thought the applause was well-earned. Evidently others thought so as well, standing ovations and happy faces abound told that he wasn't the only one excited to start a life here. Or rather, an education for a life.

As he got up to leave, intent to find his room and roommate, a heavy rumble took away the attention. Director Momoko it seemed was not finished, and as the massive timer began to count down his gut twisted up. Perhaps it was more than simply rifles and radios, because he knew enough to be wary of timers. He'd seen and heard distant explosions before, but he wasn't in any rush to see them up close, and if the auditorium was going up in flames then he wasn't going to be anywhere near it.

Mashuka looked around at the sea of chaos and panicked students, trying to see the forest through the trees. There'd be no use scrambling for the doors, if they weren't locked by now then they'd be too crowded to get anywhere near. Trying to open the teacher's escape hatches likely wouldn't go over well, but if they couldn't go down...

Worth a shot. "Excuse me, pardon, need this," he said, snaking through the crowd and gathering a few chairs in his wake. He found a wall free of most commotion and began to stack the seats he'd snagged, then grabbed a few more. Getting to the ceiling wouldn't be too difficult, a little boost would get him up without too many chairs. However he had a slight advantage that many others might not have access to, and if they couldn't find their own way out he had no issues sharing his. But if he was going to do that, the pile would need a good enough foundation to support the other students, and that meant more chairs.

Mairead raised an eyebrow at the new students and then laughed as she began looking for a way out. After a few moments of casually walking around the room, Mairead walked over to a wall directly underneath an air vent. Mairead noticed one of the first years making a giant pile of chairs with the obvious intention of rescuing more than himself and chuckled.

"The bloody fool's bein' kind. That'll get beatn' out of him in a jiff." She muttered to herself as she lined up the auditorium floor with the air vent. She knelt down to the floor and placed her palm in the corner of the wall and the floor as a pale green glow lit up her fingertips.

Mairead took a few deep breaths and focused, her green eyes turning almost black as a small crack appeared in the floor. The glow in Mairead's fingers got brighter and she stood up as a thick black vine with inch long thorns sprouted from the floor and snaked towards the air vent. A reddish glow came from Mairead's other hand and the thorns receded into the vine and the tip of the vine wrenched the grate from the air vent. She chuckled a little more and hoisted herself onto the vine, carefully willing it to stay strong. By the time she reached the air vent and crawled inside she was almost completely out of breath and quickly gave up control of the vine, causing it to wither and fall away from the wall. She took a moment to catch her breath before she began crawling away from the auditorium and trying to remember the map of the school well enough to navigate the vents.

After a few wrong turns Mairead found the hallway leading to the dorms and punched the grate off the vent, sliding down the wall and straightening her jacket once she stood up. She looked around for any other students and smirked as she began sauntering towards the dorms.

Katie Knox was delighted upon seeing such scenery. All these new faces and people, those were future friends and gossip buddies. She could just imagine it now, painting toenails with a few gal-pals, while discussing who the cuties were and the latest fashions and styles. As the director gave the speech, Katie was slightly distracted.

After all, with such future compatriots, she needed to make sure she looked good. So reaching into the glittery pink purse that hanged on her left, she pulled out a small make-up container. Of course she left her one of her pom poms right on top of the purse, after all she needed the hand free. Katie began examining her face with it, making sure that everything was A-Okay. So far, it appeared that everything was in order. However, the price of maintaining that meant that she was completely blind to the mentioning of assassinations.

Quickly she returned the make-up container back into her purse as she maintained a beaming smile. As the Director gave the last dialogue, she heard the sound of cheering. The cheerleader began bouncing up and down kicking her legs up behind her, as she gave out an enthusiastic "RAH! RAH! RIDDLE!"

This was going to be a good day, but she wondered where she was going to be staying. Katie didn't recall receiving any schedule paper listing a dorm room. Oh, but it appeared that the teacher was just mentioning where the dorms would be. In this speech there was something about a timer?

As the floor began rumbling, Katie found herself imbalanced as she landed flat down upon her face. "Oooowwiiiiieee..." All around her, people were running out in a mad spree. Katie slowly began to get up, before being knocked back down due to the various other students in their desperate fleeing attempts.

Eventually Katie found her way up, as she grabbed her pom poms, and looked to see if anything fell out of her purse. So far, it looked like she was safe. Katie tilted her head as she stared at the timer confused, "So, like does it determine which room we get?" She then glanced at the rampaging mob of students once more. "OH!" Katie came to a conclusion, "I guess they are just trying to get the choice dorms!" Katie peered around the room once more as she looked for potential openings.

Although he wouldn't mind being somewhere else, Satus felt an obligation to attend the introduction. Perhaps that stemmed from Satus' innate seriousness, or he was just afraid of the consequences of not turning up; the Head Director did carry an intimidating aura of sorts. Either way, he was there and he was listening. As per usual, the boy was surrounded by a light mist which would slowly rise and fall, it inadvertently served as a sort of distraction to a small portion of the First Years, but the Second Years and Third Years were somewhat used to seeing it by now.

"...and one day, you too will represent the name, pride, and doctrine of Riddle Academy."

Satus frowned at hearing the sentence. His loyalty definitely lied within his own clan, Mistvell. He had no intention of representing Riddle Academy in the future. At the same time, he didn't really want to say anything that would cause a scene in front of the Head Director. He also didn't want to be killed. The mist surrounding Satus became slightly thicker and colder in response to his apprehension, but he continued to pay attention to the speech anyway, out of necessity.

“As a new class for a new year, let’s start things off with a literal bang. You are all dismissed and I expect you to be able to find both your dorm room and your roommate before the timer runs out.”

With both the words of the Head Director and the timer itself, it was fairly easy to infer that there was about to be utter chaos in the auditorium. Hell, it was already happening amongst a portion of the First Years. Satus' perceptiveness allowed him notice a couple of students who believed going up was the way out, although Satus was not inclined to mindlessly follow that idea just yet.

Instead, the ninja stood and began to produce a fog which gradually spread several metres around him, filling a noticeable portion of the auditorium. He assumed that it would stop others from getting in his way, but it seemed to escalate the problem a bit. Some students who couldn't see began to bump into each other, causing even more chaos than what was happening before. Satus himself was not subjected to the vision impairment, and watched intently, waiting for someone to find a successful escape route.

Sayaka wasn't seated in one of the chairs she was squatted on the ground in front of the chair that she should've been sitting in, she just listened to the speech and didn't get a look of Saya, she just planted her hands on her knees and glanced over to Rei for a second and saw the girl next to her.

When the floor began to shake, Sayaka put her hands onto the chair in front of her and pulled herself up to see Saya and got a look of her long silvery hair, her icy looking pale skin, and her beautiful bright red demonic looking eyes, her body looked perfect in Sayaka eyes.

Then her perverted side took over and she stared at Saya's breast, the only thing she regretted was Saya leaving, when Saya waved to Rei, Sayaka mistakenly thought she was waving to her and waved at Saya hoping that she would have noticed her,"Only if I got the chance to see her badonkadonk, I bet it would've perfect in size and shape, damn it".

As soon as the ground began to quake and move, Sayaka felt someone trip over her getting past Rei and the ocd girl, Sayaka got out of the seat row and went to the aisle, she squatted down next to the wall and noticed the count down timer.

The bandaged girl looked to the screen and pulled out her silver lighter, she put a hand over the lighter as she tried to spark it." I wonder if it's a bomb ? If it's a bomb I wonder if it will make a large flash of light that vaporizes or just makes a slow burn after it explodes, we'll just have to see it." Sayaka spoke to herself as the lighter sparked and a flame appeared right by the spark wheel of the lighter, Sayaka covered the flame with her hand closely and stared into the blue flame that the lighter produced.

Addie watched the opening ceremony neatly seated on her chair, taking good care to not wrinkle her favorite outfit in the hard surface of the chair. She was feeling uncomfortably shy because of the huge number of students and all the noise, so she didn't paid much attention to the director's speech.

What she did was peer at the two girls that were seating nearest to her while humming a tune and swinging her legs to try to keep herself calm. The nearest one was a girl with short dark hair and blood red eyes that was scowling angrily at the director, this one Addie knew, since she was the girl her parents had hired to protect her while she was at this school, her name was Rei Momoko. The other girl was wrapped in bandages from head to toes, except for her long red hair, which got Addie curious about what had happened to her "Hmm... excuse me, are you ok?" she asked to the girl sitting on the floor.

Though the answer would have to wait as the floor began to rumble, throwing Addie off of her chair at the same time that a great commotion started to take place at the auditorium. Addie felt some people bump into her, and even someone spilling something on her jacket as the chaos spread further an further. Needless to say, all this got the shy, OCD girl completely by surprise and in her panic, Addie tugged to Rei's jacket. If the older girl turned to look, she would see that Addie's knees were shaking and tears welled in her eyes, just like a small child that got separated from her mother would do.

It had taken some time, about four minutes to be exact, but with the aid of a few now-interested students they'd managed to stack the chairs high enough to reach a vent in the ceiling. Though a glance to the side showed him that he wasn't the only one with such an idea, and after watching a red-headed girl ascend in a marvelous display of vines, he didn't feel as bad about taking the grate off.

"Alright, up this way," he said, climbing in. Roughly half a dozen students followed, but he hoped more would see the chair stack and open vent, then make the connection themselves.

The vents were dark and dusty, but tight spaces didn't bother him nearly as much as the possible explosion did. There were plenty of twists and turns, and none seemed any more viable of an option than the other. What was worse, none of the ones who had followed seemed to have any clues either. He supposed that was one advantage the upper years would have on the freshmen, knowing the school's layout seemed no less than crucial, especially if they were to expect events like this.

Something not too far off caught his eye, and as he crawled closer he saw that there were smudges in the dust, like tracks. Someone had come through here, perhaps the vine girl, perhaps some other student. Whatever the case, the trail led away from the auditorium, which was a better lead than anything else he could find.

They traveled on, each moment passed a reminder that their time was running out. At last he heard commotion below, far less than a crowd. The tracks were gone, but a few grates offered a good view of a hallway beneath them. Even if it wasn't the dorms, at least it was closer than the auditorium was. Mashuka took hold of the grate beneath him, and though it took a few good shakes, he managed to push it off. Or rather, push through it. His arms broke through the frail metal, and though the cover fell, he found himself toppling

"Holy-" he managed to turn as he fell, landing in a crouch before falling back on his rear. "Shit."

He pried the grate off of his arms with a foot, then moved to let the rest of the students who had followed drop, albeit with a bit more grace. When that was done they dispersed without a word, and when Mashuka got to his feet he saw that they were indeed by the dorms. Well, that had gone a bit better than expected, though he hoped he wouldn't get in too much trouble for busting the grate.

Hunter stayed in the shadows and watched the room below spring to life. He noticed several students piling up what seem to be chairs to reach a vent, while others ran around and others simply stood still. He looked around the the network of cross beams above the room and stealthily made his way across them, his boots barely making a sound. It seems no one spotted him leaving or they were just to slow to take the chance to kill him. Either way, he was sure the room would turn bloody soon enough. He reached a small vent above one of the cross beams, hidden away from the rest of the room. He grabbed it and ripped it off, tossing it behind him. He began to shimmy his way through the vents, taking multiple turns and drops. He reached an open vent and saw a red-headed girl pass below him. She was the red headed girl that can summon plants. Dangerous.

He reeled his fist back and smashed it into the vent, which went flying across the hall. He grabbed the edge of the vent and pulled himself forward, falling out and drawing his bow. He rolls to cushion to the 8 foot landing and turns at a combat stance crouch; years of experience leading him to have his arrow already nocked. He stares at the girl silently, who surely would have heard his entrance. His eyes are shrouded by his hood, so she couldn't see his surprise at how cute she was. He snapped out of it and asked

"Friend or Foe?"

“M’am, uh, are you sure about this?”

“Positive. Keep them fenced into one perimeter just as planned.”

Somewhere far away from the auditorium, the Head Director was watching the events unfold from the safety of a concealed room. All around her, screens illuminated the darkness with projections on every room in the Academy, monitoring the actions taken by the students. People in chairs and desks worked at blurring speeds, typing away commands and making sure the students were not put into any lethal danger.

Saya’s eyes lingered on one individual however, narrowing as she saw Rei being glomped by a girl with pale white hair. That must be the daughter then, the one whose family had hired her younger sibling to guard and protect her. The Head Director had already arranged for the two to be paired together in all their classes and even their dorm room. It was the least she could do given her history with the “Queen Bee’s” family.

“M’am, several students are escaping the auditorium through the air ducts. We have visual on Mairead Draigen and Mashuka Shamal. They're located in the Third and First Year dorm hallways respectively. Awaiting your orders.”

“Oh? I expected no less from Draigen but a First Year figuring things out? That’s really quite impressive. Alright, alert Donna and Izumi to take position. Have the Second Year guard on stand by and activate all the emergency fans in the air ducts. Keep the speed at minimal though. I don’t want to be teaching a bunch of bloody limbs, is that understood?”

“Yes m’am!”

It was just as Saya had instructed. The fans located in all of the air ducts began to whir to life, the force generated enough to slowly drag the students currently climbing back towards the large propellers. It was slow enough for the students to react but they would still need to act quickly. As for Mairead, someone would be waiting for her to ensure she wouldn’t escape so easily.

Back in the First Year hallway, the lingering students in the vents yelped as they too suddenly found themselves dragged back in forcibly. Some of them reached out for their fellow comrades on the ground level to reel them back out desperately.

“Oh ho, it’s so nice to finally be called into action by the Head Director herself,” a cheery voice said aloud. Soon enough, a girl calmly walked out from the shadowsand eyed up Mashuka with a devious look. With her black Kendo stick gripped in her hand, she pointed it at the First Year threateningly and stood her ground.

“Sorry love, but I’m afraid this is part of the initiation. Can’t just let you get to the dorms before I bash your skull in six ways from Sunday, oh ho! But hey, just pay attention and I’m sure you’ll pass the first pop quiz.”

Back in the actual auditorium, Rei glanced up to see that they had six minutes left now before whatever was supposed to happen, happened. She was about to plan some brilliant strategy when a familiar grip latched onto her arm. The “Bloody Bullet” couldn’t spare the time to pay attention to the other idiots around here with this nuisance caught on her.

“Addie-san…please let go. The more you crush my arm, the greater the chance we’ll get crushed in turn. Can’t you hack through one of these doors or something?”

It was then when she noticed the mummy girl from before wielding a lighter that spouted out blue flames. Blue flames? Maybe the match she held was special and they could possibly burn their way out of here.

“Hold on,” Rei said mechanically, gripping Addie’s hand and leading her over to Sayaka. “That match of yours…is it strong enough to melt a hole through one of the doors? You don’t need to know my name or this one here. Just help us and I won’t have to kill you.”

With that said and waiting for Sayaka’s response, Rei couldn’t help but overhear the bubbly delusions of someone that didn’t quite grasp the depth of the situation they were in.

“Please take this seriously. That timer is indication of a bomb in the room,” Rei said with monotone to Katie, setting an icy glare on her. “Must be an American," she muttered to herself, getting back to Sayaka and Addie.

In the halls something lurked, someone was there as the vents began to rumble about, someone waited at the dorms ready to stop anyone and everyone if needed, it was a girl she was considerably tall and junoesque in appearance, when she heard a commotion down the hall it was Mairead.

She was down the hall and around the corner, she heard the commotion that he made and broke off into a sprint, as she ran down the hall heading towards the assassin, she ran by a fire extinguisher and instantly grabbed it from it's case.

The second she rounded the corner and got a glimpse of Mairead and Hunter, she held the extinguisher in one hand and threw it down the hall like it was a football and the metal tool soared like one, Izumi aimed for her back not trying to kill the assassin on her first day of school, and not trying to disobey Saya's orders to her.

She never went to the opening ceremony and just waited in the halls ready for everything to happen and setting a trap for the first years knowing that they would try to escape through the vents or by breaking down the doors, she was midly surprised that someone went into the vents first besides breaking the doors down.

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Sayaka glanced at the ocd girl and the brooding girl as they approached her to ask of something, Rei the brooding one, asked if her lighter was strong enough to burn through metal because of it's blue flame." It's more than strong enough to burn through the door, but it's not something I would use on the door, I don't want to waste it's fuel." When Rei threatened to kill her Sayaka glared at her.

" You won't get far threatening others." Sayaka told them sounding a little mad that she outright threatened her for no reason." But I'll still help you." Sayaka spoke told Rei. The bandaged girl put sliver lighter in between her bandages then rolled up her sleeves revealing her flame throwers mounted to her wrist she walked over to the doors slowly hoping the count down would go off before she could reach the door.

She put one of her wrist up to the door knobs and blasted it with fire the metal quickly melted before the time could count down, and around her bandaged feet was melted pieces of metal that would melt the soles to anyone's shoes, when she was finished she pushed the door open, but didn't leave, she was really focused on what the count down would lead to.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire it seemed. Up above the whirring sound accompanied by the panicked shouts of students was enough tot tell that something was going wrong. At the very least he was out of it, but he still said a silent prayer for the safety of the others. If the director really was willing to off some of them, then that only made the ones alive even more valuable.

Speaking of, the chiming voice of another echoed down the hall. Mashuka turned around to see the kendo-wielding girl approach, wearing a grin that left him feeling like he wasn't supposed to share her glee. Sure enough she made it quite clear that she was not looking for the dorms, nor a roommate. Perhaps this was more in-line with what he expected at the academy, but he had certainly not expected it on day one, in the hallway leading to the dorms.

"Well, guess this is better a bomb," he said, offering a nervous smile. "After you then."

He left the knife back in its sheath, there'd be no reason to draw blood. Attempting to kill fellow students and staff didn't strike him as a very good way to introduce himself to the school, so if the encounter gained him a few bruises he'd at least be happy all parties had lived. Instead he stepped into a ready stance as he'd been taught to do, open palms held before him.

The girl looked strong, and he figured she knew how to handle the wooden blade well. If he was lucky he could disarm her, but something told him he'd spend most of the encounter on the defensive. He could practically feel the ache in his arms already, it was going to be a long afternoon.

Katie watched with quite a bit of confusion. So many students were continuing to panic for some strange reason. She was unsure what was so important about getting down-stairs to pick a dorm. Weren't those usually done by not running in a manic spree? She shook her head as she kept a good grip on her pom poms. It seemed odd. And Katie was wracking through her mind to come up with another answer.

However another girl yelled out to her. She spoke of a bomb? Katie tilted her head as she stared at the screen which held the supposed timer to the rumored bomb. Now why would a school openly have a bomb and make the students panic like this? This made no sense, until she had an epiphany. "OH!" She eagerly declared, basking in the newfound revelation. "It's a bomb-drill, like the earthquake drills in school!"

She once again tilted her head, and raised an eyebrow in a quizzical expression. Katie mumbled to herself."But isn't the standard procedure for bombs to wait until the bomb-squad arrives? ...Oh jeez, the others must not be doing so well in this drill then!" Katie peered forwards as she frantically waved her pom poms towards Rei, "Wait up!" And so, Katie proceeded to merrily follow the way that Rei was going.

Mairead raised her eyebrow at the hooded boy and crossed her arms with a smirk when she saw his arrow. She looked him over and quickly did a few calculations with his height and weight to make sure she could beat him if it came to that. She chuckled once at his demand and put a palm up.

"Friend or foe? There's a hard question ta answer in this school. Most of the time, we jus' start with names. Her eyes grew hard, like petrified wood, and her voice got a little colder "They call me the Rose's Thorn. Ye must be a firs' year, am I right?"

Mairead's ears pricked up at a whooshing sound behind her and in an instant she pivoted out of the way and pulled out her concealed daggers, the fire extinguisher barely scraping her left arm. She laughed when she saw Izumi and got into a offensive stance.

"Looks like the ol' Head Director's got another one on me. Hey, Izumi, ya remember last year?" A devious smile crossed Mairead's face and she rushed at Izumi with her Celtic daggers raised and an almost imperceptible glow coming from her right hand.

They called her The Rose's Thorn apparently, no doubt due to her ability with plants. He was about to respond when a fire extinguisher came out of nowhere, flying past Thorn girl and straight at Hunter. He leapt to the side, the extinguisher barreling past him. Now he was behind a column, watching two girls fight it out in the hall. A Dance of death. He thought she said something about The Head Director sending an assassin after her specifically, which must mean she was particularly skilled. He pondered whether he should slink away or jump into the fight. No, he decided he would observe the outcome, no use getting bloody until absolutely necessary. He was secretly rooting for the redhead anyway.

"They call me crazy, looooooop, Gotta gotta be crazy, loooooop..."

The sound of singing came from beneath a parked old-style station wagon as a pair of well-dressed leg were poking out from underneath it. On his back, a gold haired man sang along to an old song he put on from his phone, which sat beside his head. He sang along as he worked in a thick Korean accent, fiddling with a thick device. He paused in his song to take something out of a wrapper that was to his right, mumbling to keep up the rythm.

"Gotta geta l...o mum i try... mmmhmmnnm GOTTA GOTTA BE LONELY, OH OH OH, mmmaa---"

Just when he was able to pick the song back up and he was pressing a sticky material to the unweildly object resting on his abdomen, his phone stopped its song when it was interrupted by his ringtone. He took a quick glance at the phone, its light reflecting in his dark sunglasses, and pressed the answer call button, then turned on speakerphone as he turned back to his work, speaking in fluent Korean.

"Auntie, You shouldn't call when I'm on a job..." He kept his smile on, though his tone was distracted as he kept focus on what he was doing.

"Eeeh?" The voice of his middle aged aunt responded, sounding surprised and mildly disgusted. "You're still working on that job? Aren't you going to be late for the assembly at school?" The man puffed up his cheeks. Hmph.

"Not my fault the contractor wanted a bomb of all things on this guys car. Can you believe it, a bomb? Like we're in godfather or some shit. I'll have to doublecheck my skill sets listed on the webpage, because seriously theses guys didn't even give me enough money to buy the good sticky-clay." As he said this, the clay he had taken from the packaging was properly placed on the explosive and pressed to the underside of the vehicle. He held it there for a few seconds, fretting that it might come off.

"Watch your language."

"Sorry, Auntie. 'Like we're in Godfather or some... shit.'" He ended his sentence with a giggle, eliciting a sigh from his Aunt at his refusal to tidy up his vocabulary. He wiggled his way out from under the car, leaving the wrapping behind but reaching under once he was out to retrieve his phone. He sat with his back against the car, phone pressed to his ear and off of speakerphone. "Look, I'm okay, it just took me a while to do since I don't care for demolition or practice it, ya know? Not my thing."

"Well, I'm happy that you got a job nonetheless." His aunt sighed again. She was just worried about him. "Get to the school. You're probably missing out on... whatever assassins in training do for fun. Honestly, an academy for assassins, how ingenious! It removes the need for complete training when you enlist as an agent." He continued to smile patiently. She could go on like this for hours about her thoughts on the matter of an assassin academy, but she seemed to hold herself back. "Anyways, I just wanted to call and tell you good luck on your first day. I love you, Jun." He grinned at that.

"I love you too, Auntie. I'll do great." And with that, the call was ended. Jun stood up and dusted himself off before stretching and starting to walk away towards where he had parked his own car. He got into his sleek, shining black vehicle and opened his bank account on his phone. Hmm. They hadn't payed him yet. Well, he guessed, not everyone payed up fr--

The car he had just hooked up exploded not far away, and a burning hand landed on his own cars windshield. He chuckled and turned on the windshield wipers, which knocked the hand to the ground beside the car. Just then, a small 'ping!' came from his phone and caused him to look down. His account had just filled with credits for the kill. How efficient. Turning his car on completely, he sped away from the scene after turning on the radio, singing along in english to his favorite song just as it came on.

"It's not unusual to be LOVED by anyone...~"

-----------------------------

Jun stepped onto campus, or rather, onto the center of campus and looked around, smiling in search of anyone nearby. A curious 'Hmph!' came from his throat as he looked around, his glasses having been pushed up onto his head, which in turn had pushed his golden-colored hair back into a slicked look. Odd, where was everyone? He scratched his chin as he blatantly ignored the sound of chaos coming from the auditorium. He shrugged. Oh well! Guess that meant that he had first pick of the dorm rooms. He shoved his hands onto his pockets, whistling 'It's not unusual' as he started walking to what he assumed must be the dorms going by the building structure.

The panicked screams and shouts of the students in addition to many of the students running about in panic. Mostly due to the countdown, although a select few students were being affected by the fog that Satus had created. The ninja was still searching for an opening to exploit. He noticed the stacking of several chairs, although he didn't really want to shove past any hordes of students which were after the generous chair exit. That, and Satus automatically assumed it to be unstable anyway. Maybe someone would kick it over for the sake of it, but Satus had little time to ponder about what was going to happen to a bunch of chairs.

It was around this time that Satus noticed fire. Fire? In the auditorium already? The brief light it produced pierced through the sparse fog, atop of Satus' already exceptional eyesight. He watched with both surprise and intrigue as one of the students - a bandaged up student - seemed to melt a part of the door, and managed to open it as a result, but in spite of such a skilled usage of fire, the female assassin didn't appear to be leaving the auditorium for some reason.

If she wasn't going to capitalize on the new exit, then Satus would.

The ninja dashed across the auditorium towards the now-open door, and used the momentum of his run to jump through the doorway, past the girl. As he jumped past, he spoke.

"Thank you for your contribution, First Year." Satus said in a smug tone. He hadn't seen this person before, so he assumed they were a First Year. They were pretty easy to use, or at least that's what Satus believed.

Although, the momentum of his jump proved to also be a hindrance. While Satus had managed to get out of the doorway, he found himself hurdling towards a wall. Since he was in the middle of his leap, he couldn't manage to stop moving forward, and he impacted the wall with a loud thud.

The impact had definitely disoriented him a bit, but he did not want to reveal that to the bandaged girl. Satus brushed himself off, and headed in the direction of the dorms. It wouldn't be too difficult to recall the layout of the school. He was a Second Year, after all.

Minako had only joined this school as a second year, previously she would always disguise herself with random names at other schools as she grew up, all for the sake of finding her older brother. Minako listened to the speech as she hummed to herself, starting to already make up the plans of all the ones in the room. When they were dismissed Minako noticed the earthquake but didn't be alarmed by it, she simply gave of a smirk and looked around the entire room. "We're all trapped in here together? Perfect." Minako said as she looked to see people attempting to escape while others just sat their terrified fearing for their life.

"Onii-chan. Onii-chan. Which one is going to be my onii-chan~" Minako chanted to herself as she stood where she sat, staring at the other students struggling and even crying. Minako then took a look at the timer. "6 minutes before all of the Onii-chans blow up? Awww that'd be a shame." Minako said to herself as she then looked to others that were trying to open the steel door, but at last somebody got it open, who had red hair and blue eyes. "They got it open? Good job." Minako said as she started to walk towards the steel door, taking her time as others students were rushing out. "Aw, the Onii-chans are gone~" Minako said with a pout but when she arrived at the door she stopped to look at the red head, the blue head, and the white/silver haired girl. (Rei, Addie and Sayaka)

Addie was still a bit panicky when Rei asked her to try to disable the security system "I... I will try" she said trying to retrieve her cellphone from her pocket, only to let fall on the floor when someone bumped her again. Addie tried to pick her phone up, but the commotion was too heavy for her to do so. Thankfully, the bandaged girl was able to open the door with her lighter, but instead of leaving like the others, he stayed behind, gazing at the countdown screen.

"Are not you going to come?" Addia said as she finally succeeded in picking her pone just to noticed that it's screen shattered after it had been trampled on by someone. "Rei said there's a bomb somewhere, if you stay you might die. Don't you know it?" She noticed Katie "Are you not going too?"

After that, Addie turned to Rei "What should we do? Are we really oing to go and leave them behind?" As she waited for Rei's answer, Addie pulled a pretty handkerchief and started to wipe the dust and shoe marks from her phone before placing it back at her pocket.

Meanwhile, at the 2nd Years dormitory halls...

A surprise waited Satus, and anyone else who wanted to cross these sacred halls. It took the
shape of a girl wearing a black sailor uniform and a red scarf, while holding a chokuto sword
in one hand. "I'm Asamiya Kaede, member of the Black Class of the Student Council. I'm sorry but I can't let you pass, before Saya-san gives her word."

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