Sitting in the Pacific Ocean, an archipelago, 377,972.28 km2 large. From around the world, students flew, mostly on separate flights from wherever their homes were to Haneda Airport in Tokyo City Japan. It was not uncommon, of course, for students from around the same area to have met in the airport, or to have perhaps even met each other prior to even going to the school. In waves, students were flown into the airport.

Waiting outside the terminals, stood a man who appeared as if he would rather not be there. His eyes were wandering and if one looked closely enough, it could be noticeable that he was actually simply looking at all the girls passing through the airport. In one hand, he held a cup from one of the restaurants in the airport. In the other hand, a sign which read "SAOTOME DUEL SCHOOL" in both English and Japanese, speakers of other languages be damned. He was well dressed in a suite with a top hat, roughly in his late twenties. His facial structure, green eyes and brown hair were distinctly non-Japanese, and speaking English, he had an American accent. He introduced himself as Mr. O'Dell to his male students, though as Daniel to the females, students or not.

Students who were closer had the option of taking the train, which took about the same time, though with a slightly more scenic view with a few more stops along the way. Awaiting at the train station was an older man dressed in a black suit and tie, hat covering his head, noticeably bald when he picked it up to scratch. He appeared very old, roughly in his sixties if one were to guess. This man introduced himself as Mr. Inoue, and reeked of cigarette smoke. He also had a sign, signalling to students of the school.

The students were rounded up by these two instructors as well as the other students who had arrived earlier and managed to find the instructors. And once everybody was ready, they had left. The instructors, Mr. O'Dell and Mr. Inoue lead their groups into buses which they drove towards the school proper, the ride from the train station being much shorter. For those students heading from Tokyo, however, the trip was almost four hours between rolling hills, city scape, and as they approached, farm land.

The long bus rides allowed the students to get acquainted with one another, sharing phone numbers, emails, and the like as well as simply talking about where they came from if they spoke at all.

---

Filling in paperwork was relatively quick. After which, students were shown their rooms, picked based on their chosen major based on classes and preferences which they had already picked prior to arriving at the school.

The rooms themselves were spartan, single bedrooms with one twin-sized bed, an end table with a lamp, a wooden desk, a wooden chair, a small closet jutting out of the corner, and a sink next to the door. There was a window between the bed and the closet, the view depending on where the student's room was. The dorms each had two shower rooms- one for males and one for females, and one laundry room. That day, the students were all given freedom to roam the campus as they so chose, with of course, more free time to those who had arrived earlier on in the day.

The dorm buildings were all clearly marked with a statue of their dorm's mascot at the side of each of them. Nestled between the dorms and the cafeteria was a large courtyard garden area, several canopies interspersed between walkways and patches of freshly cut grass. Most of which were large open areas lined with tables and chairs, space left in the middle probably for individuals to duel one another.

For the most part, students had the day to settle in.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away...

Aya stared at her reflection in the window. She looked terrible. It has been a mistake to sleep aboard the plane, and her decision to come on the thing dressed in her school uniform had only made things worse. She'd spent the night tossing and turning in unfamiliar clothes, and boy did it show on her face. Her hair, usually curly and flowing, had managed to entangle itself into a black Gordian knot of criss crossing locks, and her eyes had the sunken look of a Verdun veteran. At least she'd managed to sleep through the landing. Everywhere around her, people were shuffling, pulling bags out of compartments and out from under seats, grabbing everything they could remember and shuffling out towards the exit. She waited until last, taking a few minutes to properly wake herself up, before rummaging around through some of the stuff people had left behind. Somebody had left a card stuck between an in flight magazine as an impromptu bookmark. Score!

Customs and immigration was easy, baggage claim was a pain, but before too long, Aya had left the air-conditioned space of the airport and stepped, blinking and unsure of herself into the bright and sunny day that surrounded Haneda airport like a big pillowy mattress. She was thankful to step inside the air-conditioned space of Saotome's school bus instead, even the few seconds she'd spent outside in this heat had made her start sweating like a pig. As if her looks couldn't have gotten any worse today; between the heat and the humidity outside, she wasn't so much wearing her uniform as much as she was stuck to the inside of it, like food in a clingfilm wrapper that was slowly shrinking and tightening around her.

She took a seat near the front. Always a safe choice, being close to where the adults nearly always sat, and since everybody else usually took a seat near the back, it was also likely not to fill up until the last few people got onboard. She sat down, conscienciously facing her body toward the aisle down the middle. You never got a second chance to make a first impression, and she could size up a few of her studants before they'd been officially introduced, try and pick out a few of the nicer kids and try to establish a quick friendship never failed to pay off.

CAAAAAAAAW

The lone eagle shrieked out before fading away into the overcast sky. What that bird left behind in its flight was a grey overpass which overlooked a closed roadway. Construction machines seemed to be left behind on some partially prepared ground. There was hardly a sound here except for when the air blew through.

And of course, the mechanical rumbling of an engine. The Ghoulish Rider, the Traveler of the Highway of Hell sat idly on his machine staring into the distance.

That mysterious figure of Japanese origins may have got Fyodor Leo Konstantinovich to attend this school, but there was not a chance that he would ever ride with those mundane non-Devil worshippers. Nor was that man going to get him to hang out with them on the grounds. But there might've been a more important detail Fyodor considered.

He needed to test suitable brooding spots for monologuing.

Fyodor got off the motorcycle and marched a few steps towards the side of the bridge. He stomped his right foot on the side of the overpass. He lunged both of his arms to the side as he entered into a soliloquy.

"GWAHAH HA HA!" Guffawed the Ghoulish Rider, the Traveler of the Highway of Hell. With his arms still extended, Fyodor swiftly slammed them together and intertwined his gloved hands in some mockery of a prayer.


"Oh Infernal Host, Almighty Devil.
Demon who brought me salvation
For you I provide this narration.
Flesh be torn
And blood be spilt.
I shall fill the graves with goodness.
Upon which we shall erect your throne.
Devil you shall be sworn
As the rightful ruler of flesh and bone."

"Amen."

Fyodor marched back towards his motorcycle and gazed back at what he was initially watching in the distance. The Duel Academy was waiting, and more importantly, his blasphemous quest which the Devil requested of him.

After a few revs, The Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Hell began laughing maniacally as he rode towards the school.

The quiet turning of the pages of a book and the sounds of the music emanating from her phone's earbuds were the only noises Ayami was aware of during her time waiting in the car. She found it much less of a hassle to ride on public transportation, though, insistent as her parents were on having someone drive her to the school instead; something about riding a bus or a train was considerably less motion sickness-inducing. Her home in Shinjuku would have been more useful if the school was within the prefecture, but complaining at this point was next to worthless. She had already made clear that she'd ride the bus over to her parents, but even so they still insisted on at least driving her to the airport...

Even if the subway was much more efficient. To give them credit, though, the lack of any major traffic jams en route made the trip less irritating (if not stalled by pedestrians as it would have been anyways).

As the car finally came to a stop, Ayami thanked the driver and placed a bookmark on the center of the page of the book she was on before clapping it shut and slipping it into her bag before exiting the vehicle. Walking around to grab her belongings from the trunk, the young woman nodded to the driver as she took the last of them out and closed the trunk, silently watching as he drove to... Wherever his next destination was.

With her bags gripped firmly in her hands, Ayami walked over to where all the other students were gathering, opting to remain silent as those around her continued to chatter amongst themselves. The heat was a bit of a nuisance, yes, but nothing too unbearable. She ignored the teacher who had been sent to pick them up for the most part, though; trying too hard to appeal and be 'intriguing' was, to her, quite a dull way of doing things.

When the students finally began to fill the buses, Ayami let out a sigh of relief, quiet as it was; it had taken far too long to handle such a thing, and she had honestly wondered for a while why they hadn't just sent them into the buses to begin with. It was a much better way of handling something like ferrying students off to the school, and since the administration was likely to just take attendance there, it would have been much faster to send buses off as they filled up rather than sending them all at once.

She had no room to criticize, though; maybe that was just how the school handled things. Maybe it was faster this way. Maybe it was because the drivers were probably hired for the job and only one knew the route by heart?

...All things considered, it was probably the last of that set. It wasn't as if she knew how schools operated that well, anyhow; far too tedious for her to entertain the though of even dealing with administrative issues.

Taking a seat near the front of the bus she was on (the back was far too unstable for her liking), the student-to-be quietly tucked her bags away and took out her book again, wishing to continue her read as the ride went along. If someone spoke to her, she would return in kind, but it seemed as if most everyone else was occupied on their own. No matter; reading alone was fine, too.

Carnel sighed. The airplane ride had taken quite a while, and now a bus was taking him to the duel academy. Frankly, he was tired from all the travelling. A few girls had wanted to talk to him, and he had politely apologized and brushed them aside. Right now, Carnel wanted nothing more than to get to some resting quarters and get some rest. Between the jet lag and the lack of proper sleep, Carnel could barely keep up his gentlemanly facade.

In the meantime, though, he was doing what he could to relax on the bus. Right now, he was looking through his cards; nothing relaxed him more than his collection. While he had brought only a small fraction of it, it was enough for the academy. He pulled out two cards from his deck, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 and Destiny HERO - Plasma, and smiled fondly. As the two boss monsters in his deck, he put a lot of faith in them. He knew there were a number of weaknesses that others could exploit and therefore defeat his deck, but that was the learning process in Duel Monsters. All Carnel could do was learn from his mistakes and try again.

Placing the cards back into his deck and putting his deck away, Carnel let his head roll off to the side in an attempt to get comfortable and get a bit more rest on the way to the academy. Taking slow, even breaths, Carnel tried to make himself relax and put himself to sleep. The bus ride certainly wasn't showing signs of ending anytime soon, so he might as well try to make use of the time as best he could.

Matt Ronwell stepped off the plane with a stretch, it had been his first time on a plane and the experience had been surprisingly... normal. Really it had been nothing special and he'd spent most of the time entertaining himself by playing with his deck of cards next to his snoring neighbor. His parents had expressed concerns over him going to the airport and riding the first time, but he'd assured them he'd be alright and was more than adult enough to handle it.

His distinctive hat sat proudly on his blonde hair and his yellows eyes glimmered as they scanned the airport. It wasn't difficult to find someone holding a sign for the duel school and he quickly headed over, his one relatively small bag of luggage not hard to acquire or bring with him. Mr. O'Dell introduced himself as more and more students came over, having also found the sign. Eventually O'Dell seemed to know when the desired amount had arrived and lead them all to a bus that they all proceeded to file into, leaving the cool space of the airport and entering the warm heat of the day.

Matt, not in a hurry, waited for the more eager students to hurry into the bus, eventually meandering in. There were scattered seats all over the bus still open and Matt headed towards the closest one, unsurprisingly in the front. A quick scan of nearby people revealed an already uniformed girl; a contrast to his own casual garments, who looked open to conversation. She also had rather messy black hair and clothes in a somewhat similar state. Matt vaguely recalled seeing her sleeping on the airplane, probably the reason for her rather bedraggled state, perhaps she could do with a conversation to cheer her up. He took a seat across from her and made eye contact, "I guess you're what they call a hot mess." He said with a wink and smile, his tone indicating the he was speaking jokingly. "Name's Matt Ronwell, Dark Magician house, or so I'm told." He said and stuck his hand out for a shake.

"C'ya later, Grandma!"

A young adult called out behind him, jogging in place with a gigantic backpack on his back. The thing was filled beyond what one would call physically acceptable and looked like it weighed twice the amount of that boy's bodyweight, but he carried it around like no problem. He was just so excited! On the other hand, the grandmother in question didn't look too happy to see her grandson so far off the doorstep. His plain, white button-up and black jeans were noticeably creaky.

"And what about breakfast or chores?!"
"Aha, sorry granny! I'm already running late, don't have much time!"
"By the gods... Then at least don't forget your lunch!"

The old, hunched over lady took something out of the apron that she wore, a wrapped up ball of... something. You couldn't tell what it was because of all the cloth it was wrapped in. She tossed it over to the young man, who barely caught it. The pitter patter of his feet started to rapidly increase as his adrenaline was getting to a new high.

"Alright, thanks a bunch! I'm gonna keep advancin' forward!"

And with those final words, the boy dashed off into the streets, leaving his grandmother behind to wonder why she deserved such a cruel fate.

...

Yuta lay collapsed on his bed, breathing heavily and feeling sore in the legs. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to sprint for hours at a time, on no breakfast, all the way to school. Especially when you consider he could've just taken a train to meet up with other students. Still, he got to Saotome just fine! ...Although, it may also have been a little early. Win some, lose some, right? Either way, Yuta couldn't just rest up all day in his room. There's an entire campus to explore, unpacking his things be damned!

Yuta grabbed his D-Pad off the desk he put it on, taking a moment to slide out his deck and look at it. These were cards he's accumulated over the years, and he was proud of them! Especially the monsters he'd come to rely on in his Extra Deck... He took out the small stack and fanned it out in front of him. The golden lettering on the sleek, starry, black background and all the amazing artwork on them... Yuta felt like he was going to have a great time at this school!

The boy slid his deck back where it belonged and dashed out the door of his dorm room. He made his way out of the Utopia House building, stopping briefly to admire the amazing statue of No. 39. This school was so cool, and rich! The boy dashed further into the courtyard area, where someone was sitting on the edge of a fountain and thumbing through his deck.

"Alright, I can duel him!" Yuta said to himself, fistpumping the air. As he did, however, he felt something from the side compartment in his D-Pad. Confused, the boy opened it up. Vertun was the top card on it, seemingly calling out to Yuta.

"...Huh? What's wrong, Vertun? Don't you want to fight this guy too?"

In response to the question, Yuta felt a sting in his left arm. His most prized card seemed to be against the idea... Ah, heck! C'mon, he finds someone to duel and then his own deck doesn't even want him to! The young man sighed in defeat and walked over to one of the canopies. He pulled up a chair, then sat in it backwards so he could lean on the edge of it. He'll just... watch for now. Maybe someone else challenges the guy to a duel and Yuta can watch. Maybe he'll even duel the winner! Yeah, that sounded nice...

She smirked a little at the newcomer's little joke. She had to. It was funny, and this guy who'd come out of basically nowhere had caught her off guard. His eyes were extraordinarily thin. That's what grabbed her attention first as she looked up into his pale and pointed face. Not too bad a face, she reckoned. She wouldn't mind too much seeing that face from across a kitchen table for the rest of her life. Vaguely familiar, too. Had she seen him somewhere before, in a magazine somewhere?

"Ehehehe..." She began, trying desperately to think of something witty. Having failed, she fell back on an old standard. "My name's Aya Tsukasa." She took his hand in hers and shook it. As they touched, the bus' engines sputtered and burst into life, sending the cabin space shuddering for a brief moment. Everyone appeared to be onboard, and the one of the people she'd thought was a teacher was sitting in the cockpit, hands on the wheel. Looks like they were leaving. She turned back to Matt and let go of his hands. "I'm in Utopia house. I heard that's like the second biggest one, after the Dark Magician. Izzat true?"

Marina's arrival was always preceded- or, as she would put it, heralded by the thick, mind-wrenching smell she gave off, made worse by the day's heat and humidity. It was a thoroughly awful blend of hot garbage, raw sewage, sour milk, and a strange metallic note that made your hair stand on end. Her odor was, simply put, a torturous and intolerable experience for all save herself, as Marina had no sense of smell at all. Birds dropped from the sky, plants withered, and a number of the frailer students were in danger of passing out. Not that she minded, of course- Marina was under the impression that this was the world's way of showing fealty to her, and she appreciated the gesture.

It was no surprise for those who knew of her, then, when Marina emerged from the bushes at the edge of the campus, a shimmering, visible haze of overwhelming foulness preventing anyone getting a good look at her from afar. Dressed in her best rags and grasping a battered silver disk in one hand, the sewer princess was fully prepared to greet her soon-to-be subjects. Her predatory gaze settled on the spiky-haired child near the fountain... and then passed over him, because he was obviously a gigantic tool who wasn't worth her time. The other boy seemed fairly interesting, though. Striding across the field and leaving a wake of ominously brown grass, she hip checked Yuta out of the way like the nerd he was and pointed at Fuubi with her free hand.

"You there, Japonski peasant! Be grateful; you stand before the almighty Princess Marina Viktorya Kohut, sovereign of all she surveys! Ah, but I am sure your pitiful peasant brain is already melting from gazing upon such radiance as mine, so I will be making this quick."

Marina slammed the disk into her pelvis, cables winding over and under her hips, clasping together in the back just above her tailbone. The entire assembly resembled an oversized metallic codpiece more than anything. A deck holder ejected from the side of the disk as a holographic field flickered to life just above the girl's navel. She folded her arms in a pose that positively oozed self-satisfaction.

"Duel me."

The Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Highway of Hell was enjoying his current motorcycle ride. He was amused breaking speeding laws of this land as he barrelled down straight lanes and hastily turned around curves. However this bit of illegal activities and hazardous driving practices were not nearly as enjoyable as it could be.

These roads were unoccupied. Konstantinovich knew that these roads could have decent civilian activity. He encountered a good amount of buses heading towards the school when he was initially riding, hell there were still a decent chunk when he left on a search for brooding. How Fyodor yearned for a convoy.

As this thought occurred to him, the old adage of his patron, 'speak of the devil' of his patron proved true. He spied one bus that was heading towards the academy up in the distance.

The Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Hell first checked on the black backpack on his back, before cranking the radio up to eleven. It started slow as Fyodor anticipated the melody. As the music began to pick up, Fyodor revved the engine once before barreling at breakneck speeds and approached the right side of the bus.

Now that he could be observed by the civilians, The Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Hell held out one arm and made a spinning motion to indicate he wanted them to roll their windows down. Fyodor didn't stay long on the right side as he passed the bus as quickly as he approached it. But that wasn't to say he left them. Oh no, Fyodor turned in a circle right in front of the bus driver and moved down the left side doing the same gesture.

Like a vulture, Fyodor circled the bus over and over doing this motion.

Yuta perked up when Fuubi approached him. Huh, the guy noticed he was there? Well, it's not like he did anything in particular to hide himself, but still... weren't they checking out their deck just a second ago? Oh, well, didn't really matter. Yuta put on his goofy smile and waved to Fuubi as he approached.

The way that the boy introduced himself took him aback, though. He wasn't expecting a deep bow like that, he figured people would be a little more easygoing. Fuubi introduced himself as coming from the Utopia house, which made Yuta do a quick double take.

"...Oh, cool! We'e from the same dorm, then! That means we're practically classmates, huh? Name's Kiryoku Yuta, nice to meetcha!"

Yuta reached out his hand to give a handshake to Fuubi, but halfway it seemed to jerk upwards. This had a reason, because Yuta's face started to scrunch up into something of disgust.

"Urgh... Yagara, do you smell-?"

Yuta was cut off again as the nauseating odor became stronger and stronger, followed by a voice which addressed Fuubi. Looking over in that direction - and away from the other boy's vomiting - revealed a really unkempt blonde girl. Not only that, but she wanted to duel Fuubi and not him! Ah... well, he did tell himself he was going to watch whoever wanted to duel his dorm mate.

"Hey, Fuubi! Do your best to create a great duel, alright? Show her what you can do!" Yuta yelled over as the two duelists took their stance, raising his fist up in the air to cheer for his new friend.

Rumi already packed everything she needed weeks before she had to go to the academy. Everything was in there: Clothing, toothbrush, pencils and other stationary, a whisk, rolling pin, cookie tins, cookie cutters, pans for frying up pancakes, pretty much anything a baker would take with her. Although it wasn't guaranteed she would be allowed to cook or bake, they were things she felt she needed to take with her anyway. "Never forget how you started," her mother always told her and she was planning on sticking to those words. Especially after she got a portable oven for her birthday one year ago, which she has tested and strapped the box of the back seat of her bike. She didn't live too far from the academy she was attending anyways, so she could take her delivery bike there if she left early.

Rumi quickly took out a few things she made: Breadsticks, bread loafs, cookies, pudding, and many other things. She wanted to leave a good impression on the others after all. Shortly after finishing everything up she hopped on her bike, making her way over to the academy. She swore she saw a boy running past her house earlier before she was getting ready to leave. She would've offered him a ride, but at the speed, he was running he would've already been at the academy before her.

Rumi's ride to the academy was a calm one. She wasn't in a rush, but she wouldn't mind getting there before anyone else was there. At her current pace, she would be just in time, however, and she really didn't mind being a little bit late. Rumi stopped briefly to grab one of her lollipops and put it in her mouth before continuing, she was rather fond of eating candy and other sweets during a bike ride.

Before she knew it, she arrived at the academy. Some people were giving her weird looks because of all the branding on her bike and the fact there is a mini-oven strapped to her bike. Not only that, but there was a rather large amount of food in her basket that still had its fresh smell coming out of it, even after all that biking.

As Fuumi purged his body of impurities and armored himself for this incredible battle, Marina spat vaguely in Yuta's direction, a gesture of disgust at his general air of cowardice and shit taste in hairgel. Of course, between the constant assault on the eyes, nose, and mouth her body was putting out, there was no possible way he could remain close enough to actually get a good look at the pair. This wasn't even going into the fact that the shimmering waves Marina seemed to give off were more than enough to scramble any visual of the duel. In short, any secrets either contestant held were safe- not that Marina was smart enough to keep secrets.

She drew five cards and snickered quietly to herself. There was no way one as perfect and capable as herself could lose to this- this relatively normal human being! She may as well give this poor child a handicap as, after all, he would be needing it.

"Be grateful, serf! I, the great and powerful Princess Marina Viktoryia Kohut shall allow you the honor of taking the first turn! Oh~ho-ho-ho!"

Matt was relieved, but not overly surprised, to see his entrance had gone over well. They shook hands and the whole bus rocked to life, though because of the driver not the handshake. They both leaned back into their seats and Aya continued the conversation. Matt simply shrugged, "I don't know about the size of the houses, but I wouldn't doubt that to be true. I've always had a interest in other summoning methods but using them never seemed convenient. The Utopia house uses XYZ summoning yes? So what type of deck do you use then?" It was only natural that a conversation between two duel students heading to an academy would quickly turn to the deck's they used. Unless of course some other event happened to- his chain of thought was interrupted by the sound of a engine revving and music blaring at them. "Hmmm?" What's more it didn't stop after a few moments indicating the source was still next to them. Somewhat curious, in a morbid sort of way, Matt looked out the window to see a motorcyclist in black clothing, on a black motorcycle, playing very loud black music. "Yo!" Matt shouted out the window, waving to get the attention of the motorcyclist. Clearly he wanted attention for some reason, though that reason was somewhat of a mystery for now. Perhaps he would tell them. Otherwise Matt would find himself closing the window quite quickly, as the music was quite loud and he could return to his conversation with Aya.

The methodical circling had fulfilled its purpose. The window was opened, and the man in the hat was clearly looking his way and shouting towards him. The stage was set, and the metaphorical curtains were opened. Behind the helmet, Fyodor Leo Konstantinovich had some manner of expression. But that was just between him and the Devil. Now that someone had answered his call, The Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Hell loosened his grip on the throttle and kept his position right next to Matt.

Fyodor quickly reached into his partially open backpack and pulled out a nice, solid, brick. As soon as he plucked it out he lobbed it straight at Matt's head through the open window. The brick made its flight and the Ghoulish Rider, Traveler of the Highway of Hell popped a wheelie and held out his left arm high in the sky and held out his middle finger.

After completing this obscene gesture he zoomed past the bus with the radio still rocking.

The message the motorcyclist delivered, was a hefty brick that was sure to break objects, cause pretty nasty injuries, and really just bring some good old fashioned damage. But that was not the singular purpose this brick held. Upon this brick were layers of adhesive tape wrapped around an illegal Duel Monster card. The card had a Skull Servant on it clearly laughing, and more noticeably "GHOULISH RIDER, TRAVELER OF THE HIGHWAY OF HELL" written on the card. "RED NOT DEAD? RETURN. RUSSIAN MOTHERLAND." was also helpfully inscribed on the tape.

"Pure Kaijus" She replied, before pausing for a moment, scanning her partner's face for The Look. There was always one, on every duelist's face the first time she mentioned her cute city-crushing critters. The Look always came out in different ways, a slight tightening of the jaw or glance downwards or nervous nose twitch. Every duelist had that one match where they'd gotten their boss monster out on the field lusting after life points only for it to be quashed by a Gamaciel, costing them the game. Aya lived for that look. Every time she saw it on the face of some Six Samurai sycophant so singularly set on summoning Shi En only to watch it be flattened by her pet turtle, she felt all warm and fuzzy inside. Even if they managed to claw back and win the duel afterwards, which they usually managed to do. The corners of Matt's mouth tightened a little, and his eyes became glassy and unfocused. It was music to her ears. She tried not to let the smug self satisfaction show on her face, until she realized that it wasn't aimed at her at all. He was looking behind her, and as she turned to see what it was she quickly found out why.

It was big, oblong, faintly reddish, and wrapped up in more gauze then a mummy. She shut her eyes, instinctively, bracing for the shattering sounds of impac-

-Thud-

She opened her eyes. The brick was gone. So was the guy on a motorcycle who'd, presumably, thrown it. The only thing that reminded the world of it's existence was a small faint three sided dent in the half-open plexiglas window that had, against all the laws of narrative practice, failed to shatter. Aya breathed out, turning to her companion in sheer relief. "Ohmygosh did you see that? It nearly hit us, ohmygosh!" She turned around in her seat, climbing the backrest of her chair, repeating her question in between bouts of "Ohmygosh" to the quiet youth sitting all alone behind them. If she was shocked by what had happened, everyone near her vicinity needed to know. "Didja see where it landed, the thingy? The brick?"