Gunryo Academy. A place where Battle Chips determined everything in the city for which it was named: Gunryo City. If you had no Chip, or if you had a really shitty one, your way of life would reflect that. If your Battle Chip was top-of-the-line, so was your lifestyle. It was a place where the strong had free reign until the Chair said otherwise, and the weak either gave up or tried their hardest to ascend through the ranks of the school and, by extension, the very city they lived in. Sometimes students would stab one another in the back, or make alliances. Sometimes they acted alone, needing only their own power. Sometimes they just didn't really care. The point of it was that Battle Chips determined life itself.

Meanwhile, it was about time for attendance roll in Gunryo Academy. Whether the students were here last year or the year before, or they were just starting this year, it was important to be here on time. Lest they face the wrath of the people in charge of keeping discipline in the school. In classes 1-B and 3-A, attendance call was just starting. The homeroom teacher of the latter would be calling the name of one Suwa Akira (and hoping to god she made it this time), whereas in the former...

"Kurosawa. Kokoro Kurosawa."

"Present."

"Next is...Minako. Minami Minako."

The day at Gunryo Academy was just beginning. It had been one week since the new year started, effectively making it one week since new arrivals had...well...arrived.

"Yeah yeah, I'm here."

This felt like a waste of time. But Gunryo Academy was Minako's only lead. So she simply stared daggers at the teacher, leaning back in her seat with her arms folded across her chest, her legs straight out beneath it, her jersey over her school uniform. The silver case containing her weapon sat beside her desk. She'd simply claimed it was... well... anything but what was actually contained inside it. A week now. She'd been here for a week. And in that week, well... no-one, not a single person, had seen Chiharu. Or at least, if they had, they weren't telling. It can't have been too long, but everyone was tight-lipped. Gunryo Academy... where battle chips ruled everything, huh? Well, that really gave her only one option, didn't it? She needed to get those battle chips. Minako would take out anyone she had to in order to get her battle chips, and her deck, and ascend until no-one would be able to stop her from finding Chiharu. She'd rip apart the whole school if she had to. Power struggles? Rules? Who the hell cared?

The only thing that was important to the black-haired girl right now was finding her sister. And Minako would find her, no matter what. No matter why she had disappeared, what had occurred, who she was with... Minako was going to find Chiharu and make sure she was okay. And then she'd start getting some answers. What was the Blazing Sword, anyway? She'd found it in the rubble of her parents' home... But right now that concern was far down on her list. Finding Chiharu. That was more important than anything else.

... Even if it meant sitting in class and attending Gunryo until she could get some chips of her own.

"Nagita, Makoto Nagita"

The forementioned Makoto straightened in his chair and raised his hand.
"Present"

The homeroom teacher moved onto the next name and Makoto relaxed back into his chair. This was his second year at Gunryo Academy and he'd only recently got his first battlechip, he'd had a chance, or so he told himself in the first year to get one but he'd messed up, he had to do better. Class 2-C was nice enough, Makoto was one of the few people with a battlechip in the class and so he'd pretty much been allowed to pick his own seat, he'd chosen a seat near the windows a few rows from the front, enough to show he was an attentive dedicated student, whilst giving him ample opportunity to drift off in his own thoughts if he wanted.

"Present," a rather... oddly suave voice said, announcing to the world that Akira had managed to find the damn school for once, and on time at that! Admittedly, it had required a three day head start, but she had successfully arrived at the right classroom with no time to spare. All in all, a commendable effort from the armed girl, even if most people had no such difficulty.

On the other hand, her method of arrival left something to be desired: opening a window from the outside and pulling yourself through it was not how you were supposed to find your way into the classroom. But it was better than having gone through a door and gotten lost inside the endless maze of corridors...

Internally, the white-haired girl found herself complaining at how everything wasn't in a straight line as she sat down... in someone else's seat. It seemed her ability to find her way was back to normal.

"Present.", Takeda said casually, not much emotion evident in his voice, but it wasn't monotone either. He was relaxed upon his chair, his head behind his hands with a facial expression that looked half asleep but was actually cautious and observing the people around him because of the lack of amusement that the homeroom teacher could bring him. He was sitting in the back, he could see everything everyone was doing, to a rumor being spread vigorously or a girl picking her nose. It was all for him to see.

"Present."

Her voice was just loud enough for the teacher to hear, from her position in the far corner of the classroom. She quickly retreated to the safety of a rather large hardback book - not that anyone looked Maki's way anymore. It was better that way. First year, her mere presence had drawn some attention but here in 2C, people had stopped caring. There were more important things to worry over, like impressing the Chair before they graduated. Once you were an adult, it seemed, that was it. You were stuck wherever you were now for the rest of your life, barring any rebellion and/or criminal acts. You had to climb the ladder now.

Admittedly, Maki was no different. Sure, her concerns weren't over advancement, and that lack of concern was unrelated to her current ownership of a Battle Deck and Battle Chip, but she still had greater concerns than any mysteries her classmates possessed. Whatever they were, they were probably none of her business and not a real threat to safety anyways.

"...Tanaka, Kazuki."

Kazuki's head perked up after hearing his name being called. He'd been daydreaming again, and not five minutes into the class. With a halfhearted wave of his hand, he answered, "Present," and felt a wash of calm as the teacher moved on to other students.

Kazuki's mind had been on other things besides roll call. Tracing a finger over the Battle Deck at his side, Kazuki's thoughts revolved around the device's potential with a Chip of his own. A few other students in the class had their own Chips, albeit low level. But Kazuki felt a tingle on envy that they had one at all. Without a Chip, the Battle Deck was a hunk of metal in his pocket, fit for little purpose other than a paperweight. He'd already spent a year at the academy without a Chip, and resolved to find one this year, although he had almost no idea how to start.

He sighed, tapping his hand on his desk. Either his luck would turn around this year, or he'd be even farther behind.

"Attention, students," buzzed a voice over the intercoms across Gunryo Academy. The voice was deep, booming even. "All students and staff are to report to the front courtyard immediately for a special announcement. Failure to appear will not be tolerated!" With that, the announcement ended with the audible click of an intercom...well, ending. It was time for a special school presentation.

Seemingly in perfect synchronization, homeroom teachers across Gunryo Academy turned to their class and all said something to the effect of "We'll pick up on this after this special announcement. Let's please make our way to the front courtyard."

Kokoro had no will to go along. But she'd heard rumors about what happened when a student did something that "will not be tolerated," and it would have been pretty stupid to make it all these years pretty much on her own just to meet a fate like what the rumors said. Purely in the interest of not finding out if they were just rumors, Kokoro - like any sane student - got up to her feet, pushed her chair in, and followed other students to where the front courtyard would be. Whatever this special announcement was, it must have been important if they weren't tolerating people not showing up.

Minako raised an eyebrow and looked upwards, towards the room's intercom. Some kind of mandatory meeting or whatever? It was probably some stupid-as-hell boring announcement that had nothing to do with her. At the same time, well... it presented an opportunity to ask some questions. And Minako needed a good chance to start asking questions. Besides, she didn't feel like having to deal with whatever they'd try and do to her if she didn't show. So Minako stood up, one hand snatching her silver case off the ground to raise it and rest it over her shoulder, so that it hung down behind her. With her free hand, she waved, as if waving off the announcement.

"Yeah, whatever..."

And with that, she turned and headed out the classroom door, following the flow of students to the courtyard. Now, now she might have a chance to find out what had happened to Chiharu. The other students sure as hell weren't helpful.

...Let's please make our way to the front courtyard."

Makoto grabbed his bag and made his way to the door. A small prickle of anticipation racing through him, a special announcement to the whole academy had to be something important, and when important things were happening one most often found the chances for promotion, whatever this was about Makoto would be in the thick of it! He was first out of the room and once in the hall he picked up his pace wanting to get a good spot in the courtyard.

Maki had cringed when the classroom intercom came to life - no premonition of what was to be said, merely annoyance at the monotone crackling of the speaker before the voice spoke. As the announcement went on, her stomach dropped lower until she was sure it was already in the courtyard ahead of her. Special announcement, failure to show up punishable - all of these bode poorly. Maybe a competition for a Battle Chip. Honestly, she wanted no part of it - but she also wanted no part of grabbing the Chair's attention for all the wrong reasons.

At least she wasn't the last one out. Middle of the crowd, where she could blend in as long as she kept to herself. Her Battle Deck was held close to her side- to be more conspicuous and warn people off, or to be hidden better, she couldn't be sure.

It was surprising a bit how many students seemed to want to be first there.

As the class 1-B made its way around yet another corner in Gunryo's winding hallways, getting closer to the entrance, Kokoro got a view of whatever was going on. Sort of. Not really. It must have been pretty big. One of Gunryo's elite was out there, standing on a large stage accompanied by one other student. Whoever that runt was. She recognized the bigger one; Archie van Zant. He was a major hotshot around here; Kokoro had only heard his name mentioned twenty times in the last week, nineteen times out of fear and one when he introduced himself to all the students that showed up at the start of every school year. This year, Kokoro was among the new arrivals.

It was as Kokoro herself turned the corner, however, that she walked face-first into something. After taking a moment to regain her balance, she locked eyes with the object. It looked like a guitar case or something similar, carried by another student. The girl looked familiar enough, but it was hard to tell from behind. Still, Kokoro did what she would have done anyway. Get kinda mad about it and say something to the person she thought was responsible; the one carrying this case. In particular, her specific actions were to walk right up next to the person in question, point at the case she was carrying, and say "Watch where you're swingin' that thing." Kokoro would have liked to hit her, but that felt like a bad idea if she was heading to wherever Archie van Zant was, if his reputation was anything to base her impressions of the guy from.

It was some kind of stage... and some kind of huge jackass on it. And some much smaller person or whatever, for the moment Minako's thoughts where on other things. Yeah, she knew some things about Gunryo... but she hadn't exactly been focusing on the student roster unless she thought they might help her find where her sister was. So while the bigger seemed vaguely familiar to her, she didn't recognize him on sight. She head some people mention a name, but she was so focused on thoughts of her sister that she didn't really notice. It was probably for this reason that she didn't realize someone was walking towards her until the collided with her case. Minako rocked slightly, and swiftly turned to face the perpetrator.

Who had just blundered into her like that? It's not like she was hard to see how something. And... it was a girl. A girl that looked pretty familiar... Kokoro? Yeah, it was Kokoro, from her class. She was pretty hard to forget, really.

But it didn't really matter who it was. She must've really not been paying attention or something.

Minako shrugged.

"Sorry," she began. She wasn't exactly regretful. Sure, she wasn't completely paying attention, but it didn't mean that she invisible or something. "But it looks like you weren't watching where you were going."

Naturally, with Akira being in the wrong spot, her normal guide didn't get to her in time... and the white-haired girl set off to reach the stage alone, thus ensuring that however she arrived, it would be either late or completely inappropriate. Those few people that grasped how terrible her sense of direction truly was were eternally glad that she wasn't stronger or with some other means of causing mass property damage, as she'd probably end up going through walls simply because she couldn't find doors.

And, of course, there was only one place that she could show up without being lost all day.

She was somehow on the stage, where even Archie loomed over her, literally rather than figuratively. "Ah, in the right place after all."

[hider]So, what's the chance that Archie actually knows who she is? I assume he shows up to class sometimes to count as third year. :p[/hider]