@TheWindel@Ashifili



“Oh ho, so you’ve got huge teeth too! Hey, can I call you Big Tooth? Hiya Big Tooth! Anyway, I didn’t really know you’re name… but it’s nice to know you just confirmed it for me. Besides, you totally look like someone fun to hang out with, you know? I bet you’re a smash at parties,”

Tatsu just sighs and growls at the nonsense this little girl was making. In reality this was just a nickname that was given from the ancient god of destruction, but alas one can call it a second name. And in the blink of an eye, Dana just disappeared from her grasp and teleported away, putting some distance between her and the other student who could probably cave her face in without trying. Tatsu was confused for a minute before turning to face her with another student, her eyes squinting in anger. In little time, Dana appeared atop Shinobu’s head.

She spared a moment to look down at the girl, waving with a grin before teleporting the both of them…right in front of Gojira. Stepping down from Shinobu’s head, Dana wrapped an arm around the equally shorter girl as if they were the best of friends.

“Hey Big Tooth, this is my friend Wallflower. She’s just a piece of trash, buuuuuut so am I! That makes us perfect friends! Hey, that makes us Super Trash! Anyway, we should all totally hang out some time or something.”

“Hanh?” The girl’s large eyes narrowed. “When did we become friends? And stop dragging me along with this bullshit, Dana. I have places to be.”

"Don't call me that." the giant woman growls at Dana as she eyes her angrily.

With that, she attempts to walk away from these two idiots, though they might as well follow her anyways. It was just then when Ellie began her announcement, in regards of teams. It went like this:

"Team 1: Juniper, Erisa, Kurenai, Shinobu."

"Team 2: Lloyd, Gil, Marith, Makoto."

"Team 3: Gyuuki, Charles, Tatsu, Charlie."

Wait... someone called out Tatsu? Gojira's real name? The two girls would know as the woman's head cocked directly at where the sound came from. Were they expecting her to come into this match? Regardless... one thing was indeed clear. She has unintentionally made herself at home within the Academy. Another annoyed growl comes from her maw as she is forced to find her teammates.

---

"So we're doing teams eh?" Lloyd thought to himself, "Too bad James isn't here anymore. Would've loved to bug him some more."

James happened to have been killed during the battle with the giant gunship, as well as Angel and Takastu as well. Lloyd was one of the only survivors of said attack, able to defeat him by simply luring it into a trap, where he blew up a building and made it collapse on it. It was a tough fight, but regardless it was a victory, with he still latching onto the card, King of Pentracles. He then proceeds to find his teammates as well...

Charlie looked rather despondent. He hadn’t got a card, he’d failed the test. Sure he still got in and apparently the entire group was said to have failed, but he couldn’t help but feel somewhat inferior. Still carrying the ‘dead’ hound drone around Charlie paid avid attention to Reiko’s words.

They all chose to be here and no matter what happens from this point on, it was all on their head. The groups were to be expected, the rules of the failed test and tarot cards made that quite apparent, so Charlie buried his disdain for group work and relying on others and accepted that this was how the academy worked and since he did choose to be here, he’d better suck it up and get to work so to speak.

However watching Reiko suddenly burst out and almost crush a guy’s family jewels... Charlie couldn’t help but press his legs together and wince. Watching Reiko walk off, Charlie saw her incinerate her gloves as she left.
A device to increase ambient heat? Or is are they specially designed glove for wet work? Toss them away and they burn up, leaving no evidence? An interesting material if that’s the case...

Mind whirring as he considered the possible technologies that created such an effect he almost missed the teams being called out.

"Team 1: Juniper, Erisa, Kurenai, Shinobu."

"Team 2: Lloyd, Gil, Marith, Makoto."

"Team 3: Gyuuki, Charles, Tatsu, Charlie."

Team 3? That seems alright. That being said the number had little to no bearing as far as he could tell and he was completely unfamiliar with his new team members. Looking about, Charlie did his best to try and find said team members trying to see who had reacted to what number.

“Gyuuki... Charles and... Tatsu” looking around Charlie went up to the tall woman seemed to have a tail “Hi, are you either Gyuuki, Charles or Tatsu?... You don’t look like a Charles if I’m being honest” smiling at the tall woman, Charlie readjusted the dog drone on his back as if it was a simple backpack.

That was… quite a lot to take in. Accommodations this, celebrations that. As of now all Makoto wanted was a hot meal and a decent shower. Food came first, of course. Snack bars with weird smelling raisins in them weren't going to be enough to set her growling stomach at peace. God knows where all of that bento box food from last night had gone.

It was when the very red woman (for the lack of a better description) began announcing teams that Makoto's ears pricked up.

"Team 2: Lloyd, Gil, Marith, Makoto."

"Uwah, are you serious?" Makoto exclaimed, loud enough for the people surrounding her to hear. She knew it would be unlikely for Gil to make it onto a team with her, but the fact that he had blew her mind. Seriously, what were the chances of that ever happening? There were two people who's names she didn't know, however. Someone by the name of Lloyd and another by the name of Marith. New interactions with new people were always fun for Makoto.

But first, food.

And getting past the guy she had just slammed herself in to. _{because that's how all amazing encounters supposedly happen.}

"Ah... Darn it. My bad. Didn't mean to slam into you like that. Really, it's the truth!"

That last sentence would hopefully cause her less trouble. Makoto wasn't one to purposely make enemies with someone; her truthful tongue just tended to slice people's self esteem a bit. However, there was something about this blondie that made Makoto a bit more cautious.

"By the way, you know anyone here going by the name of Gil? It's one hell of struggle trying to find your teammate in this swarm of students."

Forgetting to keep eye contact with this new encounter, Makoto scanned the smaller heads of the human sea. The girl then sighed.

One of the only situations where I wish I was taller.

@Lmpkio

Gyuuki

“She is right here silly Junjun” Gyuuki jested, pointing to Kurenai, though she didn’t blame Juniper for missing her, in this ever dark red world it was easy to miss her. The joke potential of the way Juniper worded things completely escaped the Youkai.

The punishment of a student near her made even Gyuuki share some of the pain, placing a hand on her chest and frowning as Reiko did her thing. “Never, ever, make that one angry” she thought. Soon after, the teams were announced:

"Team 3: Gyuuki, Charles, Tatsu, Charlie."

Well… She did not know any of those, what a situation! Team 1 had all the people she knew so far. Furthermore, Charles and Charlie, those two similar names confused her a bit. Someone soon approached her, thankfully the guy did not seem to hold it against Gyuuki due to her Youkai look.

“Oh hello” she said “I’m Gyuuki yes” the drone on his back made her touch the bruise on her hand and remember all the battling of earlier on the day “You are Charlie then right? Charles is right here, but I have no idea of who the Tatsu person is” she pointed to the man in a black suit who had just introduced himself.

To be completely honest, Juniper feel asleep during Reiko's big introductory speech. She was tired, bored and didn't really care at all for the grandeur of the building or the long, uninteresting speech that seemed to take forever. She wormed her way through the crowds next to Gyuuki and fell asleep standing up on her own two feet.

She was awoken by the red demon, who was distributing notebooks and maps to everyone in the hall. She woke with a start, yelping out a confused "22!" before rubbing her eyes and taking the pile of papers of the redhead. A few students nearby giggled quietly at her. It was all in good humour, and the Demon didn't seem too annoyed. She just moved on whilst the armoured girl flicked idly through the book. Maps and notes were alright, but the badge was something she was interested in. It shined nicely in the crimson light and fit nicely in her hand. It didn't really go with her armour, though, so she stowed it in her breastplate.

"Team 1: Juniper, Erisa, Kurenai, Shinobu."

"Team 2: Lloyd, Gil, Marith, Makoto."

"Team 3: Gyuuki, Charles, Tatsu, Charlie."

Of course, the teams! Fortunately she had been awoken before the teams were spoken of or else that would have been a real disaster. Let's see, did she know those names? There was hers in Team One, alongside Red. The other two, she didn't know. Lloyd was in Team Two and Gyu was in Team Three.
Wait, what?
Darn it! Why was Gyu on the wrong team? Silently, Juniper prayed she wouldn't have to compete against her friend, but if they wanted that top spot in the tower they were going to have to clash at some point.

Looking around, she spotted the Ox girl talking to a stranger. From her spot in the crowd, she wistfully raised her hand as though she could beckon Gyuuki back to her side with that gesture alone.
"Gyu? Don't leave me! Gyuuki! Nooooooo!" she whispered to herself, before turning away, saddened. She couldn't see Gaz. Beastie didn't seem to be here either, and Lloyd was doubtlessly going to meet his own team. That only left one option - she had to find Red.

Desperate, she looked around her to see if she could spot her team-mate. But June-bug was tiny compared to her peers and she couldn't see much amongst the veritable forest of companions. She started pushing through the crowd roughly, calling out as she did so.
"Red? Red!" the word sounded more and more frightened the more it came out of her mouth and she got more and more desperate as she searched but could not find the girl.

"Hey, watch it!" A dark-skinned girl yelled after her as she brushed past.
"Steady on! You'll hurt someone!" said a well-dressed young man as she threw him aside.
"Excuse me would be nice!" cried a small, feminine-looking boy as she practically knocked him out.
Juniper didn't care, she just kept looking for her friend and teammate. There were tears in her eyes that she wasn't bothering to blink back and several people gallantly stepped out her way when they saw her coming.
There! A scrap of crimson fabric! Juniper chased after it, trying to get a better look at what the scrap was attached to. The fabric became a cloak, which became a person. There was no doubt as to who it was and Juniper threw herself at them full-force.

One can perhaps scarcely imagine what ran through Kurenai's head as Juniper barrelled towards her like a bull - a pink, well armoured, absolutely tiny bull. The girl leaped at Kurenai and caught her in a tight hug.
"Oh, Red! Red! It's been horrible, just horrible! Promise me you won't leave me alone again! Promise!"
Tears fluttered down Juniper's pretty face, making it damp and sparkly as she held Kurenai with both arms, fuchsia eyes wide and pleading. Some passersby laughed at the girl, others stopped and looked on with affection or anxiety, others yet shook their head and moved on. One particularly daring stranger wolf-whistled and another, less daring stranger whispered a little too loudly about how they thought the girls were a cute couple.
But Juniper didn't care about that. All that mattered was that she had Red with her - that would get her through. Who cared if Gaz had gone walkabouts? Who cared that Gyu was now on the wrong team, fraternising with their potential enemies? Who cared that Beastie was nowhere in sight, and probably got caught up in some foul creature's jaws, her frail body being chewed up and spat out by a disgusting animal..?
She did! She cared a lot, and it came out in the form of her hugging Red like she was the last thing she had left in the world.

All in all, it had been perhaps a minute since the announcement of the teams.

@Double Capybara@KoL

It was a fairly simple task in the end. While Shinobu made a beeline towards the cafeteria and the smell of warm food, other students prioritized meeting their new team members. From what the doll-like girl could hear, it seemed that the test had quite a few fatalities as well, some students crying over their dead acquaintances and all that. Boo hoo, how sad. Shinobu scorned them, but kept her despicable feelings to herself. Fastening her badge to the front of her tracksuit, the girl got to the cafeteria early, with only a few other students ahead of her.

It was a large room, filled with long tables that were currently void of occupants. The openness of the area made her wonder if her voice would echo if she shouted out, but she refrained from it. No need to draw any attention to herself, after all. Quietly grabbing a tray, Shinobu blushed at the look of pity she received from the cafeteria server, as extra helpings of food were mounted on top of it. Apparently, they thought she was a little girl as well, seeing how a glass of orange juice was added onto this hearty breakfast of bacons, eggs, sausages, grilled cheese, hashbrowns, and croissants. Apparently, the lady thought that Shinobu was this scrawny because of lack of food. And while that may have been correct in the past, recently, she had been eating quite healthily.

Which didn’t have any effect at all on her stature.

So she was basically doomed to be a weak-ass, shinny-ass midget.

Shinobu sighed, walked towards a comfy spot in the corner of the cafeteria, and began to chow down. Though it was probably too much, at least the food was good, and she was hella hungry. Onomnomnomnomnomnomnom…

---

The innocence radiating from this Juniper staggered Charles to no end, such an adorable little soul bound to a life as a chaser. A pity really, the world could do with a few untouched individuals, but irony would have these dive into the unending bloodshed Charles knew oh so well. Before Charles could righteously greet the two with their names now acquired, the figureheads of the school gave off another piece of exposition. Nothing noteworthy was detected by Charles, but he'd soon lose this mundane feeling when this Gaz individual was submitted to a rather unnerving treatment by the uptight one.

Frozen in place and paler than ever before, as a man Charles could complete empathize with the boy's current condition. All the young man could do was keep his not so trustworthy smile with eyes closed while witnessing the whole event up close. At least what he could make out of it. The event flew by quickly, and Charles' mind no longer prioritized the little gift from his mother he was meant to offer to the headmaster. That could wait, yeah. Perhaps keeping a little distance from the staff would be wise, at least for the first semester. Stay on their good side if they talk to you, or just avoid all eye contact.

"Whew, authority sure knows how to as- ..."

Realizing he was speaking to absolutely nothing for Juniper rushed away to find this Red individual. In a comical way too. How unfortunate that they would not be in the same team. Speaking of which, the testicle smashing nightmare would quickly be voided thanks to this announcement. Though with this slightly bad news, something good emerged from it, he wouldn't have to search for all of them in a tedious manner.

'So, a Youkai huh? A pretty intimidating one. A babydoll face with the massive body of a beast. This'll be fun.'

The dwarfing female, half-cow Youkai who apparently liked sex according to Juniper, stood not too far from Charles at this point. She must have been just as, if not more, upset of the pink haired lass' departure. And before long, Charlie also showed up with an intriguing tool on his back. Just by looking at him, Charles could very well guess that this would be the brainy one. So now, only Tatsu was left to find.

"Miss Gyuuki, Mister Charlie, it appears we're going to be bound in a tactical team for at least this year. And I, for one, am gorged with excitement to finally meet you all!"

With him finally emerging from the background of milling individuals either finding their teams or just leaving, he first tried to make a decent introduction. Considering his classy attire, it'd come to no surprise that he'd go for the full dandyman act. Swiftly but with grace, he'd grab the female Youkai's hand and gently deliver a kiss to her knuckles, kneeling on one leg in the process. For Charlie, however, he'd present his hand and let the other male shake it if he so wished. Charles kept the same, unchanging grin that radiated with positive energy but with a tint of uneasiness hitting the more talented in character judging.

"My name is Charles Anderson, and I am 110% sure we can achieve great things together. However, we seem to be missing someone!"

He'd look at each side, less and less people filled the area, but he couldn't still gauge a 'Tatsu' feel among all these faces. Hopefully it wouldn't be that giant reptilian thing that wrecked havoc back there. Quite the eyesore when one relied on moving around with stealth when such destruction would be made by such a thing.

The announcement that he was a failure was irritating. Not frustrating, not aggravating, but irritating. As the prospective students gathered before the staff in varying states of emotion Gil was one of the few that remained calm and collected. Many complained, many blamed themselves, but Gil was thinking. The time limit hadn't been reached yet, he thought, half paying attention to Reiko's speech on their failure. Many even had their cards, including myself. What is her game? The answer to his question became apparent as the option to continue forward or to give up was presented. Ah, I see. So this is part of their test as well. First they tested physical capability and resourcefulness. Now they are testing fortitude. Those with weak spirits have been broken and won't continue, regardless of how well they did before. These people are just like my father said they were.

For Gil there was no thinking involved. He didn't need to contemplate his worth or how strong he was. There was only one thing on his mind: succeeding in his goal. He stepped forward with the other students who were confident enough to join the Akatsuki Academy after the berating speech. He waited silently and patiently, not even flinching at the senior instructor's abuse of one of the students. That was something he wasn't involved in so he didn't care much. It wasn't until the succubus decided to fill everyone in on who will be teamed up with who.

"Team 2: Lloyd, Gil, Marith, Makoto."

He recognized one of those names. Makoto was the girl with the sword that he ran into during the test. She has spirit and willpower. Seems strong enough. That's good news. Can't say I know who the other two are. Hopefully they aren't disappointing. He glanced down at the map he received from Ellie, quickly figuring out where he would be staying. The idea that the tower the dorms were in placed the teams corresponding to their performance didn't intrigue him much. Others may find a competition in that but Gil didn't care about petty things like that. A room was a room, and a school was a school. He was here to learn. As he began walking towards the dorms he spotted Makoto again. Only this time she had run into someone else, literally. A guy about as tall as Gil but with blonde hair and wearing some kind of suit. It took a second but Gil recognized him as one of the people who were getting rowdy the previous night. But he overheard Makoto ask the guy if he knew were her teammate was.

"I'm right here," Gil spoke up, approaching the two casually. "Can't imagine that I'm too hard to find." His gaze then went to Lloyd. Makoto was already familiar with his stoic, emotionless expression but he hadn't properly conversed with Lloyd before. He didn't seem like the type to be easily intimidated, especially considering he and Gil were about the same size, but perhaps the stone-faced Gil would be a little off-putting to him. That was something that Gil wasn't trying to do, as his actions often went against that. Such as right now, as Gil held his left hand out to give Lloyd a handshake in greeting. "Name's Gil T. Buckle. Weren't you about to start a brawl last night?"

@Jay Kalton@Lmpkio



She was a failure. Erisa not only didn't make it to the other side of the city before the test could end but she didn't even find a card during that time. She wasn't humiliated or angry with herself but disappointed. Erisa could tell that many of the others who were more emotional had varying ways of coping with their failed test but she honestly couldn't feel anything strong enough to prompt a visible reaction. If it wasn't for the fact that a choice was given for all the students to still join if they believed they were strong enough then Erisa would've accepted the results of the test and left the Akatsuki Academy forever. But since the option to attend was still there then of course she had to take it.

The flower spirit entered the school with the other confident students, though with her stature she was easily lost in the crowd. In fact she was barely able to see Reiko and Ellie when they were explaining the situation for the remaining kids. But she didn't need to see them to hear what they were talking about.

"Team 1: Juniper, Erisa, Kurenai, Shinobu."

Aw, I'm not with Gyuuki, she lamented to herself with a sigh. The ox-demon girl was the only person that Erisa really knew so far. But perhaps this was a good thing. While Erisa looked like a human it was her personality and behavior that always gave away she was a Youkai. Having more friends would be for the best and meeting new people would broaden her understanding of the human race. If these people were to be her allies then she would need to know them. This made Erisa wonder how people interpreted herself. Her personality was bland and her history was largely devoid of interesting substance. In fact nobody has ever found her interesting enough to ask about it. I suppose most people can't really relate to me anyways. They probably sense that...

She was brought out of her train of thought when the crowd of students began to disperse. The succubus had given her a map and a guide and now seemed like a good time to use it. The Academy had let her stay here for the past few days so she had a basic understanding of where the dorms were and where the cafeteria was. But now she got a proper view of the entire thing. A quick examination confirmed the school was bigger than she originally thought. But now wasn't the time for exploring. The water that Gyuuki had given her did a decent job at healing and vitalizing Erisa but it wasn't enough. She was still sore where she was shot in her side so a trip to the cafeteria was the next course of action.

A number of students had already made that decision before Erisa and she had to wait in a line as all the others got their food on trays from a lady behind a counter. It seemed most, if not all, were human. So when Erisa approached without a tray the food lady was naturally confused. "Just a big glass of water, please," the flower spirit requested. The woman behind the counter thought about it briefly before eventually obliging, handing the girl a big glass of water just as she asked. She took a sip as she began to walk away from the counter, already feeling her body energize. She held the large cup in both hands as she walked across the cafeteria, taking a seat at the least populated table. It only had one girl seated there, one which actually seemed to be smaller than Erisa. Despite that she sure had a large helping of various foods. Do all humans need to eat so much that the tiny ones even fill their trays? Erisa wondered briefly as she took a gulp of her water. After she set the glass down on the table she simply began to watch Shinobu eat her food awkwardly for a moment. Specifically it took her as long as it took to realize that she should probably strike up a conversation instead of creepily watch the human eat breakfast. "You seem very hungry," was her attempt. She didn't even see how strange she was behaving. Erisa figured all human interactions were pretty much like this.

@Ashifili

"I... I'm glad to see you again, Juniper, but-" Kurenai said, as she struggled against Juniper's hug, not because of the looks some people were shooting at them, but because the fact that the other girl was crushing her lungs, causing Kurenai to feel like this really was a breath-taking reunion. As a side effect of it, Juniper would have the chance of feeling that Kurenai's left leg was unnaturally heavy as well, which probably meant that it was probably another prosthetic limb, covered by Kurenai's pantyhose.

"We should concentrate on ourselves for now, I find it doubtful that we will have to fight the others. There's no need to treat Gyuuki as if she wasn't a friend anymore." The red hooded girl said, not even believing at what was actually coming out of her lips. When did she began to think so much about friendship and things like this, anyway?

"Let's just try and find our teammates, eat something and get some rest, if what the demon said is true then we will need energy, because it looks like we'll be getting a practical training from the beginning." Before long, Kurenai would be trying to drag Juniper to the lunch hall and finding a two girls there, one of them gorging herself before anyone else could come, just as Kurenai thought that would happen if they weren't fast, and the other merely drinking a cup of water, no doubt after having stuffed herself full.

After getting herself some food and sitting across from the unknown girls, Kurenai began to eat in her quiet usual nature and beckoned Juniper to follow suit, just sparing the time to say, "I'm Kurenai, and this here is Juniper. We are looking for our last teammates, if you know of them, please tell us." Before digging in her own meal, the faint smile of satisfaction for finally getting a decent meal in days in her face would be visible only if someone paid a lot of attention to her movements.



The following day...

Once again the few students that kept on were gathered, in the entrance hall of the Academy, this time at a more appropriate time, just before the sunset. Hopefully they were rested and ready for their new beginning. On this most solemn occasion, Ellie was... behaving just as normal as her announcement would make evident.



"Ahem!" Ellie cleared her throat loudly to gather everyone's attention, before continuing, "First, I'd like to say that this was supposed to be either Master's or Reiko's job to be here talking to you, but it turns out that Reiko is having, erm... girl problems and Master is still asleep. So, I gotta do their job... again."

"Either way, isn't it good that you're stuck with the hottest of the hotties once more?" Ellie winked suggestively, once more resting her devilish glare over Gil (or rather his big thing) of all people. When she was satisfied with her jokes, Ellie produced a stack of using her magic and said, "Well, today's announcement is that you'll be getting your team monitors for the rest of the year. After you have met with them in the courtyard, you'll be moving to the training grounds behind the Academy for a practical combat training under their instruction."

"Naturally, if you need anything, we will be there as well. Now, for what really matters", Ellie finished her announcement before clapping her hands:

"Under the threat of grievous injuries to myself by someone's shark teeth, Team One's monitors will Dana and Eos."

"Team Three will have Emilia and Lucille."

"And finally, for Team Two, Itsuko and... huh? It seems that Master forgot to add the last name here. Maybe it's meant to be a surprise or anything like this, who knows?"

"Anyway, kids, you're dismissed. Go rendevouz withy your monitors, now. If you need anything you can come to the faculty office. Now, shoo~" Ellie said after finishing all of her duties and wandering away happily to wake Aria in a very... unusual way.

---

Juniper released Kurenai when she realised she was squishing her. "Hehehe! Sorry bout that, Red. I'm just happy to see you, is all.".
She was overjoyed to see the girl. Now they were stuck with a load of strangers and separated from their friends, Juniper had the feeling she was going to be working incredibly close to each other. Nevermind that they had only met the day prior! From this point on, they were officially the best of friends!

Juni listened to what Red said about Gyu, then sighed "Yeah, I suppose. It's just, she's our friend, you know? I wish she was on our team...". She perked up straight away, though "Food! Good plan, Red! Let's do it" There would be no need to Drag Juniper to the dining hall. They may have had to drag her away, however, as she gorged herself on sweets, ice-cream and cookies. The staff must have burned through half their dessert supplies feeding Juniper alone.

That night, Juniper literally couldn't sleep in her own bed. Scared of being alone in a strange place, one might suppose. So she slept, you guessed it, next to her friend Red and in the morning she was snuggled into her like a baby with it's mother. At least she had the decency to remove her armour and wear some soft nightclothes, so it was like like being squished and more like being held by a giant pink teddy.

Evening passed and morning came, and once again the demon chick was the one handling their duties. They had been assigned monitors, people who would look after them. Dana and Eos... pretty names, but completely unknown to the little warrior.

Juniper had been introduced to Miss Erisa and Miss Shinobu over the course of the night. Shinobu was a quiet, self-deprecating sort, the one who referred to herself as trash and looked like a skeleton in a skin wrap. Juniper fought the urge to hug her and tell her it was okay, or do other motherly things to the poor girl. She had the feeling it wouldn't be appreciated. Still, she looked out for her.
Erisa was a pretty grey flower spirit. She had the same problem as Shinobu, that she was quiet and humble and though she wanted to seem outgoing and assertive, it wasn't working for her. Juniper very quickly found herself the loudest and most colourful member of the group - literally, everyone else was wearing dull greys and reds and she shone like a beacon in her pink and steel. Over the course of the night and morning, Juni quickly found herself becoming the team cheerleader, always with a smile and never a mean thing to say about anyone.

"Alright, team!" she began after their monitors were announced. "Let's go find this Danaandeos girl! Anyone know her?

A night passed, one that was spent sewing and sleeping. Whether it was a blessing or a bane, it turned out that most of her other teammates were quiet as well, other than that one super-excitable hyperactive pink-haired moeblob in fantasy armor that can’t shut the fuck up for half a minute. At the very least, her attentions were mostly directed towards the red-headed swordswoman, so Shinobu wasn’t in the spotlight much at all. She still pricked her fingers with the needle a few times though, whenever Juniper let out a particularly ear-grating exclamation.

In the end, though, Shinobu managed to digest her food without any problems, had some time for light exercise, got some ointments and bandages for the superficial wounds she received during the entrance exams, and finished patching up her torn pants. After that, she fell into a blissful eight hour sleep that was deep enough to block out the overt lesbian overtones that emanated from Juniper’s midnight ‘arrangement’ with Kurenai.

Ultimately, her impressions of her new teammates were…middling.

Juniper was hyperactive and stupidly strong.

Kurenai was quiet and even more stupidly strong.

Erisa was shy and also stupidly strong.

And, naturally, they were all taller than her and had fancier weapons than her Remembrance. Like, she could understand that Erisa, being a youkai, would have a bigass bow, and that Juniper, being a meathead, would have a bigass pick, but how rich was Kurenai, carrying around SEVEN FLUX-powered swords? She didn’t even have that many limbs!

There was no point in questioning it though. Maybe the sword maiden’s power was something stupidly strong as well, like Telekinesis.

With those envious, bitter thoughts hidden under a mask of neutrality, the doll-like girl arrived once more at the entrance hall of the Academy. The sun was about to set soon, which meant that it was now time for the ‘practical’ portions of Akatsuki Academy. It was written on the brochures, about how students were expected to do ‘missions’ in order to maintain or upgrade their status within the Academy.

Standing behind the rest of her rather impressive team, Shinobu closed her eyes and listened to Ellie’s innuendo-filled speech, sighing at how all this power has made the administration of the school rather lazy. Ball-busting Reiko, apparently one of the strongest Chasers, apparently had to deal with her period. Meanwhile, Headmistress Aria, an immortal presence that probably played a significant part in the battle against Tsukuyomi, was sleeping late.

God dammit, she was jealous as fuck, about how they could get away with lazing about like this.

As Ellie’s speech continued on, however, Shinobu’s pale complexion became even paler. It wasn’t about the fear of practical combat training, but rather that the monitors were going to be…Dana. Fucking shark-toothed, psycho-trash Dana. The same Dana that teleports fucking everywhere like a broken piece of shit and literally has weapons that can be summoned from fucking portals. The same Dana that’s probably going to teleport onto Shinobu while she was in some compromising position. Like hanging off the side of cliff or shitting out half her weight in the toilets.

God fucking dammit!

After a moment, though, the girl calmed down. Dana was just going to be a monitor this time. And a monitor didn’t get involved. So as long as Shinobu could shut out the heckling from the peanut gallery, it should be fine.

Yup.

Totally fine.

She nodded her head to confirm it, before speaking up.

“We won’t find Dana.”

A pause, for some added suspense and horror.

“Dana will find us.”

~Dana~

---

“You don’t know how right you are~”

It just so happened that the shark-toothed girl who Shinbou dreaded so had overheard her little quip. Dana was flattered by the obvious flattery, grin widened as she appeared right atop the other girl’s head. It wasn’t even a sense at this point but rather Dana just doing her usual rounds of scaring the shit out of Shinobu. It was all good fun, at least for her.

Teleporting off of Shinobu, she once again wrapped an arm around the equally short girl and snickered. A flash of her shark teeth glinted but so far the grinning traffic cone didn’t seem too malicious. That or she knew she couldn’t run amok with the other four standing there.

“Oh ho, good to see you again Shinobu! How’s our little entrance exam winner? Oops…was I supposed to keep that hush hush? Awwww, well, you know I can’t keep a secret for long with this mouth of mine. You know, I really can’t decide if you should live or die. You know, you’ll probably go to heaven so please don’t hang your head and cry…or something like that.”

Once she was through messing around with Shinobu, Dana finally turned her sights on the other three. Pink Head, Chibi Thing, and Ripoff Character…all great additions to the team! Trying to maintain a face of serious nature, Dana huffed and tried to puff her chest out and gave them each a mock salute.

“Alright listen up everyone! I’m not exactly sure what we’re supposed to be doing or even if this story is worth maintaining, sooo….you seem like a nice trope to pick on. What do you suggest we do now?” Dana asked as she pointed at Juniper.

---

Charlie looked curiously at Gyuuki’s horns and after nodding to himself as if confirming something, he put down the drone on his back and painted on a smile and shook Charles’ hand unsure what to do in such a situation. Group work was never his strong suit and although it seemed to be required, Charlie couldn’t help but groan internally. Not because anyone was untrustworthy or incompetent, assumptions like that were naive and petty, especially given Reiko's speech. It was simple self confidence on Charlie's part. The fact was that Charlie believed in his own competency and the unpredictability of others was rather undermining.

“It’s nice to meet you all. I’m sure we will achieve great things, but I doubt we will do them overnight. I mean sure, maybe, but it does depend partially on team composition and battlefield roles” looking around Charlie tried to spy Tatsu. It rang feminine in his ear and as others seemed to be gathering the powerhouse outside seemed to be her. She did look like a bit of a one trick pony, but that one trick did appear to be rather potent. The words “Power Overwhelming” came to mind when looking at her. Hell, he wished he had a trick that was half as tough as she looked!

“Oh? Supervisors? Emilia and Lucille. Nice names. I will enjoy putting faces to them later. So do we have a... dorm of some kind? Or for me to be a bit selfish, a workshop? Some gizmos need replacing and gadgets need repairing. Plus I want to see if I can Frankenstein Fido here~” stretching his arms above his head, Charlie felt more than heard a few creaks in his back, drones aren't light after all, and the sleeves of his lab coat slipped down, showing a few old burn marks from a soldering iron.

@Double Capybara@Savato@Lmpkio

@Jay Kalton@j8cob


Lloyd would begin walking along, trying to find his teammates, until suddenly bumping into someone. Unknowingly to him, it would be Makoto Kanemaru, one of his teammates. And he thought he was the only one that purposely slams into everyone...

"Ah... Darn it. My bad. Didn't mean to slam into you like that. Really, it's the truth!"

"Just leave the slamming to me next time." Lloyd jokes as he brushes his vest off.

"By the way, you know anyone here going by the name of Gil? It's one hell of struggle trying to find your teammate in this swarm of students."

"I'm afraid not..." the cheeky blonde responds until coming to his own realization, "Wait... aren't you Makoto? Seems like you've already found a member of the team after all!"

"I'm right here," then shouts a voice, in which happens to be Gill, "Can't imagine that I'm too hard to find."

It was then when Gil would glance over at Lloyd and held his left hand out to give Lloyd a handshake in greeting.

"Name's Gil T. Buckle. Weren't you about to start a brawl last night?"

Oh great. Someone still remembers that fight that could've turned ugly.

"Pffffft, nah." Lloyd responds with a carefree attitude, "That guy was just macho. He just wanted to be the big ole' alpha here. And yes, I'm Lloyd Lombardi, nice to meet you."

---

@TheWindel@Ashifili



Striding away from the group, she begins to find her teammates, still puzzled that she was actually called. She has several questions about this... many MANY questions as a matter of fact, but regardless, she needs to blend in. As she walks, her height would provide the advantage here, as well as the rest of her senses in tow. Her hearing then picked up a faint sound, coming from a girl nearby...

“Oh hello I’m Gyuuki yes? You are Charlie then right? Charles is right here, but I have no idea of who the Tatsu person is”

Those were two of her teammates, and the sound of their voice is coming from over there to the east. She slowly walks her way towards the two people, until hearing another voice.

"My name is Charles Anderson, and I am 110% sure we can achieve great things together. However, we seem to be missing someone!"

Looks like she didn't have to wait long to find them all in one place. As she approaches the group, she towers over them as she announces her presence almost ominously.

"Tatsu." she says with little emotion as she looks at her teammates.

Damn were they pretty small.

---

The next day, both Lloyd and Tatsu followed close behind in their respected teamms and heard about the monitors. Lloyd was slightly puzzled at the "surprise" monitor, and raised an eyebrow, but otherwise didn't truly bat an eye.

"Really?" he thought to himself, "It isn't like we're preschoolers or anything..."

Tatsu says nothing as she stands by her own group...

Okay, things weren't going as bad as Makoto had predicted with this blondie. Good.

"Just leave the slamming to me next time," the boy responded with a cheeky tone. Makoto sighed.

"Please, I'd rather you not. I'd probably just face plant onto the floor if anyone an inch taller than me happened to swoop in and knock me to the ground. Not that it happens a lot, though."

Where where her father's face palms when she needed them?

"So, no Gil yet, huh…" Makoto mumbled, folding her arms. She'd lost sight of him completely after she had been called in by the red eyed lady. Maybe it would have been best to stick around with him. He really didn't seem to mind, did he? And hey, it seemed she'd actually made an actual new friend. Yay.

"I'm right here," a familiar voice called out. "Can't imagine that I'm too hard to find."

"Well, that's a relief!" she exclaimed, looking towards Gil. "In a place like this, it is kinda difficult to search for the one you're on the look out for, even if they are six foot or over."

After that small exchange, Gil held out his left hand as a simple greeting. By the way she was staring down with anticipation, Makoto was probably waiting for Gil to electrocute the guy or something. What really peaked her interest when Gil mentioned the word 'brawl' to her new teammate.

"Pffffft, nah. That guy was just macho. He just wanted to be the big ole' alpha here. And yes, I'm Lloyd Lombardi, nice to meet you."

Ah. So he was the Lloyd that was mentioned earlier on. Well, all the better for Makoto, right? No need to go swimming in the sea of students and getting trampled over a bunch of ant-like teens. Who was it that was left now… Wasn't it some person called Marith or something?

"This nice to meet you too, Lloyd. The name's Makoto, by the way. Let's get along with each other, yeah? Getting into fights isn't my thing, really."

---

The next day came, and the other red eyed woman (out of the other 500 red eyed women that seemed to roam around the school) took the place of the four eyes that had given them a brutal lecture about being a true Hunter and whatnot. This time, however, the announcement was completely different. Team monitors… Not what Makoto was expecting, but it made sense after the alluring red head explained it all.

"And finally, for Team Two, Itsuko and... huh? It seems that Master forgot to add the last name here. Maybe it's meant to be a surprise or anything like this, who knows?"

"Eh? A surprise?" Makoto said, again, louder than she would've liked.

"So… I guess we're gonna have to look for this Itsuko person then…" she muttered, facing Gil and Lloyd. Cracking her neck, Makoto clasped her thick hair and attempted to tie it back up into a not so high ponytail.

"If it's practical training we're talking about, then we better get suited up before getting pummelled by more of those freaking drones."

@Lmpkio @j8cob