Opening my eyes, I could feel something soft and warm behind my back. Staring at the white and bright ceiling as a heavy feeling took hold of my body, the noise of a controlled button being spammed echoed through my ear. Did I lose?
“NOOOO! How are you so fast with those fingers of yours?!”
“Hah, Noobs like you will never understand…”
The pair kept complaining back and forth as I tried to get up from what looks like a black couch for three people. Looking around I could see a glass table at front of me on a large mat. Together with two people at the front of the TV playing the Playstation 4. A bright light shone from the window behind me and covered the small white room.
“Hey, he is awake” a feminine voice said, shaking the shoulder of the other person next to her.
“Oh, he is?”
As a window that said “Pause” appeared on the tv, the girl with the same outfit as Alicia stood up. Though this one had black hair that was short, with a braided hair to the left that reached her chin and a checkered cap together with her checkered stockings. This schools has a checkered fetish...
Now covering my vision, her brown iris point blank, as her aromatic breath and perfume engulfed the air. I said “Morning?”
“Hahahaha! Good boy!” She patted my black hair… “I’m Clover Heartfield, the strategist of Tower of Roses” she said, standing proudly as her mountains bounced. Alicia… I feel sorry for you.
“The sad guy over here is Vincent Walker, Gun Magician like you” she snickered as she poked the tall and muscular guy next to her. Glancing upon the blue iris and glittering head together with a lightning formed eyebrows, I waved at the military clothed guy. “I’m Noah Akatsuki”
He waved back “Vincent Walker, Gun Magician as you heard”
“By the way, I heard that you nearly beat our boss” Clover said as she sat beside me.
Yeah… I remember firing my bullet, but she activated a lightning barrier and then fired her own bullet… Cheater…
“Well cheer up!” She patted my back with her soft palm. Together with Vincent who held my shoulder, clenching his fist in the air as tears fell down. “You could have easily won if you had slotted your Magic Spells like her” He added.
I sulked… She didn’t let me prepare… I hope it wasn’t the grudge at the door… Anyways, to fix the problem that Alicia couldn’t.
“Hey, Clover”
“Yeah?”
“Is that the only Console you have over there?”
“Yeah, it’s my precious!”
“How many hours do you guys play with the console?”
“24/7!”
“Do you guys do any work to earn money?”
“No way, playing games is more fun”
“Oh, who pays the bills?”
“...”
Bound by a contract and oath, come forth! They tilted their head as my deagle appeared.
Aiming my gun towards the console, their their mouth gaped open, “BANG!”
The console shattered into pieces, tears fell out of their eyes, weightless the muscular guy brought me to the sky. “Noah! Why?! I thought we could be bros!” He questioned me with glittering blue eyes.
I avoided his eyes, “Alicia hired me” I said, recalling my gun.
“Nooooo!” Clover yelled, ran towards the remains, picking the pieces up and buried them in her chest “MEDIC!”, she cried a river.
Vincent who held me in the air, released me and was brought onto his knees at loss. He grabbed his head, trying to search for some hair to pluck out, though it proved to be futile...
“Tch, tch, tch… Guys, playstation 6 is out and yet you hold onto something so old…”
“But.. sniff…. You didn’t have to! They are, sniff… also so expensive!”
“How about we make a deal… Join Alicia and me, bring back the clan to its former glory and earn some cash to buy a new console…”
“But… sniff… this is a playstation 4! None is ever made anymore!”
I grinned, “Hah, a useless black playstation 4? I got a limited version coloured as a playstation 1 in my arsenal, if you want it, you both have to start working for me”
Suddenly they turned into puppies and massaged my knees with their warm cheeks…
That was quick… Heh, Alicia, your pawns is now mine!
Patting their head with a malicious smile, I could hear that someone opened the door to the room and walked inside “I’m back! Is Noa…..” Alicia’s face turned bright red, she turned around and ran out.
Tilting my head I took a second glance at my new puppies with glittering eyes, I facepalmed myself… Ah, what a misunderstanding…
“Fetch her!” I ordered them and with a salute, they ran with the wind.
A few seconds later, Vincent had tied her up to a chair at front of the couch as we sat there smirking at her.
“What’s the meaning of this, Noah?” She asked, struggling to get lose.
“Tch tch tch… It’s a Coup d'état as you can see.” I muttered in a sinister tone while steepling my fingers ”From now on, I’ll be the leader”
“You can’t! Not if I don’t agree with it!”
“Hahahaha! We’ll see about that”
I glanced at my pawns, “Vincent, Clover… Go for it…”
As they rose from the black couch, Alicia started to tremble as they covered her in shadows,“No, please, no…. NOOOOOOOOOOOAHAHAHA! Staph! ahaha”...
10 Minutes later of hell… For her at least.
The white flag was raised as the music of victory ringed in my ears.
As she sat there crying at front of me, trembling with her pencil on the form, I shrugged out of guilt… “Just teasing with you, ya know?”
She let out a cute “Eh?” and then glared at me like a predator. Trembling she made a sudden pounce at me even though we had spectators. “DIEEE!” Reaching my hand out for help from my pawns, they just shook their head and left the room… Traitors!
After they left the room, I quickly retaliated to the attacks with a hug. Trying to push me away, I kept holding her tightly as I stole her warmth “Calm down, do you care for the clan?”
She stopped with her attacks and held my shoulders as I sat there on the couch with her knees in between my own as she gazed upon me from above. Her long blonde hair tickled my cheek so did her tears that wet my face, I released her and said “I needed to know if it was worth saving your brother’s memento… Especially if I get dragged into your personal business without any rights to deny”
“I… I see… I’m sorry… It's my fault“ She said, scrubbing her eyes.
“So… can you get me some air to breath?” Not that I hate it, hehehe...
Burning she pushed me away as she stood up and sat beside me, staring at the wall with wet cheeks.
“Handkerchief?”
“Ah… yes…” She slowly took the newly cleaned handkerchief and embraced it with her puffy cheeks.
After a while as she played with it, I asked “Is it your brothers? I noticed the initials were K.O”
“Yeah, his name is Kevin Oak… He went MIA 4 years ago.”
Missing in action… Something everyone fears considering you will never know if they are dead or alive… Though, lets break this tense atmosphere. “Anyways” I gently brushed her hair, “Lets go find a mission for our clan, shall we?”
“But…”
“No buts, I have already solved the problem… Vincent and Clover will join us, they are probably waiting outside” I said, standing up and reached my hand towards her.
“Thanks, Noah” she smiled, held my hand and helped herself up.
“Heh, stand proud leader, as a pawn, who should I look up to if the king I follow look down?”
She nodded.
…
Now standing at front of the gigantic gothic styled tower connecting with other smaller ones through bridges that reached towards the blue skies, I nearly broke my neck trying to see the top.
“Well, I never thought that I would ever see this again…” Clover sulked.
Wait, are you implying that you have never stepped outside ever since you got that console?
“Me too…” Vincent added, scratching his shiny head.
What?! Madness! You can see this tower from anywhere!
Seeing my weird expressions, Alicia shrugged and stepped inside first.
Sulking, I followed her into the tower with the other two that glanced everywhere in amazement of their achievement. As we got inside, it looked to be more like a market than the headquarters for the students. Filled with all sorts of open vendors that sold equipment, upgrades and magic spells with tons of students flocking them. My eyes started to glitter. About time to upgrade my arsenal...
“Hey, Noah, since you are new… Want to take a look around while me, Clover and Vincent head up to the second floor?”
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Really? “If possible, yeah!”
She smiled, “See you above in a few minutes”
With a wave towards the group, I then joined the flocking birds and checked out the wares. A few minutes later, I went to the elevator, sulking… Sigh, all I could afford was the Quick Steps… At least I wanted a cool looking one like the Lightning Steps, not only that… I only have 7 Capacity on my gun, and the Quick Steps takes the whole slots!
“Ding”
The door of the elevator opened, revealing a circular room and counters at the middle. Looking around, I could see a lot of TV’s hanging on the ceilings revealing the latest news, and a few groups that waited at front of the counters for the secretaries to give them a mission.
“Noah!” Clover shouted, waving to catch my attention from a bench.
Waving back, I went to her and asked “So, did you guys find anything?”
“Yeah, we found a D ranked mission, I’ll brief the information when we get back to our clan room” Clover answered sitting next to Vincent.
“We are just waiting for them to put our names on the contract… And here she comes” Vincent added.
Turning around, I saw that Alicia ran happily towards us with a paper. “Guys! We have the contract, lets go back to the clan room and brief it”
Everyone saluted.
…
As I sat on the black couch together with Vincent and Alicia, Clover dragged a white board towards the front of us. Blocking the TV as we sat behind the glass table.
Puffing her chest with a “Ahem” she started to paint gibberish with a black marker…
After a while, she tilted her head and said “Done!”
What the heck is that… Alien language?
“Oh, we are searching for a man around his twenties in a haunted house, he has a few companions and it is a few miles from here” Vincent somehow decrypted.
You what mate?!
“That’s right, we believe that he works with more than 2 but less than 4. Not only that, they are all Level 3 Viruses”
“Level 3?” I asked.
Playing with her marker near her lips, she asked “You don’t know what I mean with level 3?”
I nodded.
“Well, the longer the virus lives in a host, the stronger they get. So far we have seen level 1 to level 7, whereas the 7 is the strongest. The higher the climb in the ladder, the more abilities they get”
“Right, so how strong is those level 3 then?”
“It depends on what type they are, but from what the investigators have gathered, these targets are team based. They are strong together, but weak alone. With our abilities it should be easy for a 1 on 1 battle, but together… I fear I don’t know, hence we should avoid eliminating them when they are grouped.”
“Right…”
“Anyways, The Order has provided us with earphones so that we can contact each other” She said, putting down 3 earphones for the left ear.
Picking on up together with the other two, I noticed that Clover clicked on a button said “testing, testing”
“Good, they works… Anyways, before we head out I need to know everyone abilities so that I can cook up a plan” She said, and put a globe like the one at the Male dormitory at front of us.
“Lets start with Noah”
Magic GunCustomized Crimson Black DeagleLevel 4Range Damage:45Melee Damage:15Speed:16Capacity:7Accuracy:20Weight:7 KGPenetration:5Defense:5Bullet type:Mana BulletsAttribute type:None
Spells equippedCapacity:7/7Quick Steps7
Rank F
One of her eyebrows raised, “Eh… Your Capacity is awfully bad…”
I shattered into pieces of glasses, “Well sorry about that…”
“Anyways, you still nearly won against Alicia… I presume you are good at hand to hand combat then? Considering you had no spells to help you against her lightning strikes”
“Yeah, since my Deagle has such a low capacity, my master trained my body instead..”
“Well cheer up! You traded the capacity for Power” Alicia added.
“Anyways, Vincent, your turn”
Magic GunStainless steel FNX-45Level 14Range Damage:27Melee Damage:10Speed:14Capacity:43Accuracy:15Weight:2 KGPenetration:6Defense:2Bullet type:Mana BulletsAttribute type:Flame
Spells equippedCapacity:43/37Flame Steps10/2Flame Barrier16/2Flame Blast4/2Flame thrower10/2Quick steps7Flame Grenades20/2
Unranked
“Pretty balanced I would say and you have halved spell cost for flames since the gun is the flame attribute. And you are strong with Blitzkrieg right?”
Vincent nodded.
HAX! I want a attribute too!
“Okey, Alicia”
Magic GunBlack H&K USPLevel 23Range Damage:30Melee Damage:10Speed:40Capacity:80Accuracy:25Weight:1 KGPenetration:10Defense:2Bullet type:Mana BulletsAttribute type:Lightning
Spells equippedCapacity:78/80Lightning Steps10/2Lightning Barrier16/2Chain Lightning10/2Lightning Bomb20/2Chidori20/2Quick steps7Lightning Trap16/2Stone skin15Lightning body20/2
Rank B
Silence broke out throughout the room.
“I forgot that you are strong, especially solo” Clover said, looking away.
“Praise me more” Alicia bragged, nose growing.
“Anyways… Remember that stats isn’t everything, experience is. This is the reason why Alicia nearly lost against Noah, because she is worse in hand to hand combat”
Alicia nose got chopped off.
“The virus we are eliminating today are level 3, never underestimate these viruses that work in teams. Walk with caution and don’t fight alone... Alicia...”
Everyone nodded to each other.
“Well… Lets go meet with the investigators that’s monitoring them... In Tokyo“