As she approached the grounds for the capture the flag game, Terri was doing bicep curls with two of the large weights she'd brought out of her room. She just continued pumping iron, awaiting the start of the capture the flag game- and trying not to laugh at the boy in the panda suit.

"A spar? Motherf...the crap are you using a goddamn sword for then?" was Zeke's reply to the ginger kid, openly gesturing at the naked blade, and more would have followed suit had the situation not been interrupted by some woman trying her level best to cosplay as a drill sargeant of some sort. Unlike the girl with the bat, who was apparently easily fooled by glasses and a cap, Zeke recognized her immediately, possibly because she was the last thing that made sense before he realized he'd died. "Oooh, hey, you're Miss Pukeshoes!", he blurted out, entirely unconcerned with how obviously anyone would rather move past such an incident.

And then what the woman said, the way she said it, actually processed in his head. "So, no, wait...fights are totally okay long as you're watching, is that what you're saying? Teachers set up fights?". Once again, his mind immediately went to the phrase "man what the fuck". What the hell was this afterlife, who the crap would set up some kind of dead children fight school thing? Who the crap would set up child fights at all? Well, Russians did, but this all didn't seem russian. This really was straight out of a cartoon. "Right, whatever, this is all insane anyway, what's the worst thing that could happen? What are we even doing here?"

@CondorTalon @tipssyCalibrator

---

"Wonderful. Then, let us depart right away," Frejya said, smiling to Jonathan after hearing his response.

The way to the assessment ground wasn't that far away, but it might be a little difficult to find since the institute's grounds were huge and you might be not sure which part of the grounds you were supposed to go to.

When she arrived at the scene, she saw that there were already a couple of students there, including her pupil Ryuuto. She saw how he was eagerly conversing with some of the other students, so she decided she would leave him alone for now. She also found that Asa was already there, and she seemed to be angry with something. The matter seemed to have been settled though so she didn't have to worry about that.

@Azereiah@tipssyCalibrator

Asa decided to ignore the kid's comment about her shoes, as there were more pressing matters at hand and she was already late as it was. "Alright everyone, gather up here!" Asa shouted as she gestured to all the students waiting around farther out as well. As she waited for the students to come closer, she explained what was going on. "We're gonna be doing an assessment test, and it's gonna be in the form of a game." she began to explain as she picked up the two flags lying next to her that she had brought with her. Both flags were about 3 feet with thin wooden poles, and one had a red triangular flag on it while the other had a blue one. "The game is capture the flag, and we'll be playing in that area right over there." Asa continued as she pointed over to a spot only a couple yards from where they were standing

The location had a large white box on the grass written with the chalky material used to mark a baseball diamond, and was meant to mark the section of the field where the game was going to be held. The box was about 120 feet long and 80 feet wide, and had an extra line going right down the middle. Due to the location, there were also a couple trees scattered about the space within the box as well. "There are two teams, red and blue. Both teams get a flag and a side of the arena which are marked by the line in the middle. The goal is to take the enemy flag from their side and bring it to your side without getting out. You're out if either you fall to the ground or one of the opponents puts you in a position where you can't get away, such as if they grab you. Once you're out you have to walk back to your team's side, and if you had the flag, the flag will be put back to the end of their side. And yes, powers are allowed of course." Asa finally finished explaining before dividing the kids up in teams

RED TEAM

Ezekiel
Akiko
Sumiko
Ryousei
Terri
Musashi
Rumi

BLUE TEAM

Brock
Bradley
Yasu
Shinichi
Clarabelle
Hana
Daisuke

Bradley began to assess the teams for a bit, thinking to himself. Despite being put in the same team with that rude, pink-haired lass, Bradley's sure he can make something work out of his team. He looked around, drawing his cutlass and pointing towards his team's side of the map.

"Alright, y'scallywags, on me!" Bradley called to his team. Today was the day he proved to them, no, to everyone that he is fit to be a captain! Once they are out of earshot from the other team, Bradley began to start explaining.

"Roight then, landlubbers, do the name's Bradley Drake Jr. It looks like they've got an extra member o'er us, so we'll 'ave to compensate accordin'ly! For now though, my plan is to split our team inta threes; cappers, midfields, and defence. That'a'way, we'll have two players inta every role. Cappers're self-explanatory, they go up and try for th'flag! Midfields stays aroun' the middle of the field and jus' starts a ruckus so they'll have a 'ard time gettin' at our flag. This could also be to stop them when they manage to get our flag. Defence stays wit' the flag, makin' sure no one else tries cappin' it!"

"Before we start choosin' roles, we gotta tell each'o'er our abilities. I'm plannin' t'pose as somethin' else in order to throw the enemy team off, but as far as my actual powers go, I've got control over water. Before I learned about m'powers, tho, I was always usin' my cutlass, and it definitely won't fail me now!"

"So what can all of ye'do, anyway?"

@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@Azereiah@Western Robot@Mercurial

---

---

Upon arrival, Jonathan waved goodbye to Professor Freyja Leden. She had business to attend to with the other staff in organizing the event and keeping things from getting too violent, and he had to catch up with some of the people he'd known from the previous year. Ryuuto was there, of course, as were Jun-Sang and Mina Miss Kasuke. He wasn't really familiar with Jun-Sang, but he had on occasion had to work with Miss Kasuke the past year, for better or for worse. He was sure he had a higher opinion of her than she of him, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to say hello.

And so he approached. He'd been through the routine of getting his ass handed to him for saying the wrong thing that day already, so he made a focused effort of taking Mina's Miss Kasuke's temperament into account. He still hadn't quite figured out how to properly address her, but he gave it his best shot anyway.

"Good morning, Miss Kasuke. Would it be alright if I joined you?"

@Silver Carrot@Hammerman

---

---

Brock smirked at Bradley. So this dumbass thought he was cut out to be a leader, huh? Maybe it'd go well, maybe not. It was a sound game plan, though, and he decided to go along with it -- it reminded him of his old crew's sports teams. It was looking like a good chance to get back into the swing of things, at least, even if he did take issue with the overly carebear-y rules list. So he took the time to get prepared.

"If you want to try to wrangle cats, that's fine by me, man. Just make sure you know what you're doing. I don't have a lot of faith in anyone who couldn't find a mile long building marked on a map, y'know, but I'll give you a chance."

The newspaper came out, and he kneeled down to set it on the ground. $2 in pennies came out too, which he sprinkled across the middle of the newspaper, and he started rolling the entire assembly up. The third and final ingredient, a water bottle, was placed on the grass next to the newspaper. While he worked on his paper, he responded to Bradley's suggestions with some restraint. He'd rather show off his powers in action than simply tell everyone.

"Getting too close to me is a really bad idea, so I'm going mid. Who's with me?"

@Cu Chulainn@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@Western Robot@Mercurial

Meilin Hua

"Seeing as the one who said that is a powerful telepath, its basically a dead giveaway, right?" She said to him with a giggle.
"I'm a little bit calmer now that i know this." she said, looking to the woods as they approached them.

"I keep forgetting that you're still a student. Time flies by so fast that I can't always tell the difference these days... I know that finding a spot may have been difficult without staff permissions, so I'd be willing to hold your classes in my old classroom if you need it."

"That would be extremely helpful! You have my gratitude! As you said, it would be complicated for me to find a place for me, being only an intern." Meilin said, looking to the old man with a smile.

"It seems we have arrived. Lets go, i think they may be already starting." she said, jumping out of the cart.
"Oh, it seems that Asa is already assembling the teams." she said to Daler. The cart was parked just outside the marked field, where the test would take place, so they were able to see the students as soon as the cart approached the field.

Some of the students were already getting ready, some wielding their weapons, discussing strategies... Well, almost all of them. One of the students was seemingly having some issues in understanding the situation. The student in question was a very big guy. Ironically, he looked like the person who wouldn't have a problem with a fight, due to the big, tough and scarred body.
Meilin felt a little bad about the situation the big guy was in, probably no one had explained him about the assessment test or what they would do on the Institute.

"Hey Daler, do you see the big and tough guy?" she said pointing to him.
"I feel somewhat bad about him. He looks a little confused about the test, he seems a bit... displaced around the others, doesn't he?" she asked.
"Wait me here for a second, i'll be already back. I think he only needs a some encouragement." she said, going inside the field and walking amongst the students.

"Hey Asa, can i ask you a favor? I'll be outside the field in a second. Some of the new students could use some words to encourage them. Just don't tell anything about me for a while, I'll be outside the field in before the match starts, i promise." Meilin whispered to her as she passed nearby, low enough to only her to listen.
"Don't think too much about it, nothing bad will happen, i can assure you. Just do your best and try to have fun." she said, getting nearby the big guy and giving him a pat on the back before walking away, looking at the other students.

Meilin kept around the students for a little while, hearing them organizing themselves, watchin how each one of them was preparing for the test... After some minutes, she discreetly walked outside of the field, trying to do so the other students wouldn't perceive.

"There are some very interesting students this year." she said when she got near Daler again.
"Some adorable ones as well." she thought to herself with a small smile. She couldn't help but to give another glance at at the young boy wearing a panda suit. He was so adorable.
"Lets see how the big guy will react. I hope that what i said to him helps him to relax a little."
"Any particular commentary about them? Any student that caught your interest?" she asked Daler.

@Zero Hex @Azereiah

---

---

"All of them, I'd say. Lots of very interesting stories behind them going by the admissions paper-Ahem. I didn't say anything about that," Daler said, finding himself slightly too at-ease and only barely catching himself before discussing students' private information, most of which he wasn't even supposed to have read up on.

"I will say that you made a good choice with encouraging the big one, though. He needed it. I'll also say I'm keeping my eye on the panda and the little girl on his team. The first person who messes with them is probably going to be a troublemaker," he continued. None of the students had signed confidentiality waivers (and none of them probably would), so Daler was being very careful with his choices of words.

"We've got the usual mix. Some rich, more poor, and a few delinquents like always. The thing that stands out to me most is that we've got so many children with Japanese names this past few years. Twenty years ago they were mostly Irish and Greek, and twenty years before that, they were mostly Russian and English. Feels almost like Channelers come here in waves."

Bradley grunted at Brock's insult to his navigating skills, pulling a parchment out of his coat. It's... something. Looks like a bunch of random lines, really.



"Alright, lad, if y'think y'can nav'gate better 'an I can, try readin' this map! M'father wasn't known for his drawin' skills, but he knows where the Institute is."

Bradley shook his head at the disrespect. He doesn't act too much on it, however, for the good of the team. So... the thing is a map, apparently. It doesn't even have a compass rose. Really. Holy crap Bradley how did you even get here? It will remain one of life's many mysteries

"I plan on goin' mid or being offence, but I'll wait for e'eryone else's preferred role before I make mine"

@Azereiah@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@Western Robot@Mercurial

woops doubleposted

Yasu Hirabayashi

Yasu was about to say something like 'Yeah, if we get to pick our teams' when the instructor showed up and told them which teams they were on. It was as though some mysterious force was pushing the two of them together....the thought of which creeped Yasu out. Bradley was tolerable company, but she didn't plan on spending all her time around him. It was probably just a coincidence though. The worst part was they were now saddled with Bradley, and even worse yet, Bradley was trying to take charge of their team. Fortunately, his plan was dead simple, so it didn't really bother her to follow it; it wasn't as though the plan relied on Bradley's intelligence to carry them.

Upon seeing Bradley's map, Yasu felt like she understood where his dumbass genes came from. Maybe she shouldn't be so hard on him if he was dealt a bad hand in life. The keyword there being maybe. "I'll take midfield with Brock. My lightning bolts can travel pretty far. You go bash heads up the front, Braddles." She reckoned it was only fair Bradley took point; it wasn't as though it mattered if anyone smacked in the head, as there was nothing there to damage.

@Azereiah @Cu Chulainn

Sumiko almost immediately moved to help the younger boy, but it looked like he caught himself pretty quickly, without too much concern... and on his hands! That was actually pretty cool, lending credence to Sumiko's theory that he was cool enough(and an adorable kid) to compensate for the ridiculous outfit and in fact elevate it to being cool as a result. She couldn't resist giving him the thumbs up after seeing that display, flashing a wide grin.

"That was awesome!" she brightly declared. Huh, a ninja too? Well, that certainly wasn't out of place around here, now was it? Glancing up, the brunette girl noticed they'd been divided up into teams... and she was on the team with this kid. That seemed like it'd be pretty fun! If he really was stealthy in spite of the panda outfit, he'd be great at capturing the flag, wouldn't he? Of course. "It's nice to meet you! I'm going to become friends with everyone and be a hero!"

There. That got her life's dream out of the way! For now... What to do about this game? She didn't have a plan in mind, but sometimes going straight and direct to punch through everything was the best plan! Not literally punching the enemy team, it wasn't a battle even if they could use their powers, but still!

@Dblade26

---

As her team was organized, Clarabelle sat without much movement, looking like a doll abandoned on the grass. The actual dolls quietly drifted around her, seeming to be totally unarmed at the very least. So, this was the team she had been assigned to...? It didn't matter to her. She would provide her own strategy, and that was that. Her friends would help her win this game. It didn't matter what anyone else did, it was her friends who would help her win it. She didn't care particularly much what the plan was, either, but she would still explain her intent.

Still smiling at the thought of using her dolls against the others, Clarabelle quietly rose to her feet.

"... My dolls will attack them... you can do whatever you want when they do that..."

@Azereiah@Western Robot@Mercurial@Cu Chulainn@tipssyCalibrator

Daisuke Kanzaki

@Cu Chulainn@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@Western Robot@Mercurial

---

Daisuke took a bit of time to arrive where the other students were since his curiosity had taken the best of him and taking a detour to explore the building didn't seem to be a bad idea. Now that he saw that they were divided into teams Daisuke went to where his teammates had reunited and saw some familiar faces. A good thing on his mind as he had some knowledge of their personalities and how they acted. Quietly joining the group Daisuke wasn't surprised at Bradley taking the lead spot, thought he was worried he would try some dumb strategy. Surprisingly Bradley had a good strategy, simple but solid, Daisuke's power wasn't exactly suited for long range attacks and he didn't think he would make a good attacker so he had to be a defender. "I'll be on the defense if no one minds, my power doesn't is a close range one and I don't want to take the spot of someone who can attack better than me, but I would take the spot if no one wants it" Daisuke didn't believe they could win, but the game will make for a good way of knowing what kind of powers everyone has, and who is the strongest.

And then, the assessment test started.

And it was CTF. Hmm... Okay, alright, he could jive with this. Ryousei looked around at the team, doing a mental inventory of his teammates.

Alright, let's see...

We've got the big guy from before, three cuties, aaand... two children.

And him.

"Well, this is just a ragtag team of misfits, isn't it?" Ryousei said, "Now, I don't know if anyone wants to take charge of this game, b-"

Then his train of thought was interrupted as he saw...

Holy shit what a hottie. And she was walking right toward them.

Was that outfit even legal? Ryousei simply stared Meilin as she said something to the big guy. What it was, Ryousei didn't really catch.

And then she was gone, just like that.

@13org

---

The boy just... stopped talking, and it didn't take long for Rumi to figure out why.

She waited until Meilin left the field before waving her hand in front of Ryousei's face.

"Uh... helloooo? Earth t' Swordy?" she said, "You were saying somethin'?"

---

Damn, someone caught him staring.

"Uh, r-right..." Ryousei said, before clearing his throat, "As I was saying, I'm going to be on offense, and I'm sure a lot of you will want to do so as well, but somebody's going have to stay on defense."

---

"Uh, well, I guess I could, but..." Rumi looked around, "I won't be able t' do it alone."

She raised her hand, opening and closing it a few times.

"I'm gonna need a partner. Does anyone here, uh... not mind me grabbin' onto them f'r a bit?"

@Zero Hex@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@clanjos@Dblade26

---

---

A plan was coming together in Brock's head. Morty Bradley came up with the sports team analogy, but he was getting a clearer picture of what the team was like. Morty Bradley had a sword and was clearly not the brightest, but seemed very enthusiastic. Yasu and Brock were mid as the roving beating squad. Doll girl looked like she had a few nasty tricks up her sleeves, but she didn't look very fast on her own, so she wasn't about to go grabbing any flags herself. Then there was Daisuke. Where the hell did he come from, and where the hell had he been? A few people still needed to join the party and put their heads together, but Brock would deal with that issue later.

"Alright, so Mr. Pirate over here gets to take his sword on offense. Yasu and I are covering mid, and Daisuke has volunteered himself for defense. Probably a good thing -- I wouldn't want that suit of his getting too dirty. You, with the dolls _{(holy shit you're scary)}... If those can go wherever they need to go, then you can stay on defense too. Don't want you near the front lines if possible. Who else am I missing? We should have... Two others coming. Where the hell are they?"

As he spoke, he finished rolling up the newspaper and bent it in half, forming a cudgel. The water bottle cap came off and half of its contents slowly splashed onto the newspaper club soaking it thoroughly, and Brock drank the rest before standing, makeshift weapon in-hand. He scanned the environment for anything suggesting that Shinichi and Hana were coming to join their strategic gathering. Of course, he hadn't the foggiest idea what either of them looked like...

Thwack.
He hefted the cudgel in his hand and tested it out on his other hand. Perfect. Two and a half pounds of what might as well be wood and coins, and only a few loose pennies fell out of the grip end.



@Cu Chulainn@tipssyCalibrator@VitaVitaAR@Western Robot@Mercurial@blumenk@Azereiah

AKIKO

Akiko was standing on her appropriate side with her teammates, doing some arm stretches and looking at the enemy team. This shouldn't be too hard, all they needed to do was rush in, get the flag and rush out before any of them could catch her. Easy, right? "Well I dunno what you guys are gonna do, but I'm just going straight for the flag!" Akiko said to her teammates, thoughtlessly ignoring any other plan they might've had. Her determined grin from before returned as he held up her baseball bat at the ready

HANA

Hana knew immediately that she wanted to take defense. She slowly raised her hand and spoke up. "Umm...I'll be defense too...i-if that's alright I mean..." Hana said nervously. Honestly, the main reason she wanted to play defense was really just cause she didn't want to deal with interacting with the other players that much, and she was pretty self conscious about using her power in front of others

With the plan agreed upon, Ryuuto headed off to the woods to observe the assessment. As he neared the group of first years, He extended his hand, and tiny strings shot out from his fingers, up towards one of the tree branches. They snaked around the branch until he had a firm grip, and then... "Reel In!" The core of this ability was Newtonian Mechanics. Equal and opposite reactions, all that good stuff. When he tugged on an object, the object tugged back, and what that ultimately meant was that the lightest object moved. Ryuuto, being a bit small even for a boy his age, had far less mass than the sturdy oak, so when he reeled in his strings, it pulled him up towards the branch. He caught the branch, climbed up, adjusted his glasses, and watched the newbies from the trees.

"Capture the flag, eh?" It was too bad he wasn't playing. His abilities were almost too perfect for it. Even veterans would have a hard time stopping him from grabbing the flag from across the field. But, perhaps these new students had a few tricks of their own up their sleeves. He decided to observe the blue team, and found the tree closest to their flag, hoisting himself up for a good vantage point. He didn't care if anyone saw him; if anything it would be best if they saw him watching so they didn't freak out and start throwing fireballs or something at him when the saw him. He could probably convince them he was an official if they asked...

He took out his phone and stylus, and proceeded to take notes. Captain Morgan immediately assumed the roll of team leader and proceeded to announce his skillset. Ryuuto frantically scribbled notes while an app running in the background translated his handwriting into beautiful Times New Roman. "Let's see... that thug guy looks like he's ready for a street fight... Lightening bolts, eh? I'll need to have lightening rods and insulators if I face her... A doll army? Now that's interesting. Let's see what those little guys do." And so, Ryuuto observed the Blue team, formulating strategies and counter-strategies, quietly wondering if they would even realize what he was doing.

"But what about fights?! I can just punch people and you're cool with that?! Can I punch people here?!" Zeke continued to ask of Asa, who had completely failed to address that a "faculty member" (herself) had more or less just told "students" they could fight under their direct supervision, to no avail. Her explanation for the game rules also felt nonsensical to him, but only because years of training grappling had taught him that falling to the floor and being grabbed are more of a temporary setback if you know what you're doing. So he kept asking: "But what if I can break out of being grabbed? And there's a ton of ways to force a standup too..."

Of course, Zeke's more or less reasonable questions fell to deaf ears as Miss Pukeshoes set up the teams and everyone started to plan their way around the game. He could see some kid twirling a sword on the other end. Seriously what the fuck was it with this place and swords. "Screw it, I'm fucking dead, can't get any worse, what the fuck does she mean powers I just punch people..." he grumbled under his breath as he went off to join his team and start preparing. He was about to pipe up when some chinese broad stepped to him and what did you know, she was dressed exactly like in a comic book: not very much at all.

Before he could comment on that, however, she just patted him in the back and said some completely meaningless stuff about things being okay and then walked away and Zeke was once more left dumbfounded and watching her go. And not exactly for the same reasons as Ryousei. "I, wuh, but...how the fuck does that help me! No this shit ain't okay there's too much sword around! What the fuck kind of school is this! I was better off in juvie...", he trailed off, realizing the futility of it all. Maybe this wasn't some cool ass animu afterlife and he was being harassed by demons or something. Fuck it, he was gonna take it out on somebody if he could.

Grunting and leaving no one a chance to say otherwise, he went and parked his ass right beside his team's flag. "THIS HERE FLAG'S MINE AND IF ANYONE TRIES TO GIVE ME SHIT ABOUT IT I'MMA PUNCH THE LITERAL SHIT OUTTA YA", he announced loud as he could and with as mean a scowl as he could muster. It was pretty loud and a pretty mean look. Today sucked. He was gonna do as little as possible and if anyone tried to get funny with him they were gonna get hurt. In a hurry.

@tipssyCalibrator @13org

---

After she split up with Jonathan, she joined the other teachers who would be supervising the assessment test. She looked at Asa explaining the test to the new students. The rules of the game should be simple enough, she thought. This would be a test on how well their control on their abilities were. It wouldn't be just a test about raw strength, or else they would've simply made them fight each other. And besides, it would be unfair to some students whose abilities weren't exactly meant for direct combat. Freyja considered herself to be one of those channelers. Her ability to create bombs would be most effective when she was paired with a front line fighter, someone who could distract the opponent while she laid her bomb traps.

After the explanation was over, the students quickly talked among themselves, discussing who would do offense and who would do defense. She supposed this test could also be seen as a test of teamwork. But she herself was more interested in what abilities the students possessed and how they would employ said abilities.

Speaking of being interested in their abilities, she noticed her pupil Ryuuto up in the trees taking notes with his smartphone. Really, she didn't understand why he needed to be up there to watch. They could just watch nicely from the sidelines like she's doing now. Maybe he just really wanted a close up view on their upcoming match.

@Azereiah

Mina didn't get angry or icy as Jonathon addressed her. From the little interaction they had last year, that was a good sign. She was standing near the school building, overlooking the CTF area, fountain pen and notebook in hand. So far, she'd already identified a few loud, brash boys she was definitely going to be avoiding. She wouldn't take notes on anybody's abilities, however, until the match started.

She glanced at Jonathon, then turned back to the field, and kept her eyes there as she talked. "I see no reason why you shouldn't join me. If you start saying anything annoying or weird, I'll walk away. I'm not the violent punching type." There was a flicker of a grin when she said that. She was already looking down on him and poking fun at his injury. Good start. "How is your nose, anyway?"