The orange flare of the early morning sunlight shone down upon the monolithic moving buildings erected all across the city of Tokyo. Smaller buildings of all shapes and sizes were scattered amidst the remaining areas, flashing with striking neon lights. Sounds of the moving city filled the air and soaring across the sky were giant metallic planes that looked like ships.
On the quiet streets of the Takai district in the southeast of Tokyo, flocks of students were treading on their route to school with dreary-looking faces. Even though it was the early morning, the tense atmosphere around the students seemed strangely macabre and it wasn’t simply because they had to go to school.
Turning into the corner at the end of the street, a large series of buildings caged by tall imposing walls revealed itself. It was something that looked more akin to a high security prison than a school, yet the words embedded in a sign along the front gates made the issue inevitably clear:
‘TAKAI MILITARY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL’
Amongst the students dressed uniformly in red and white walking into the school was a raven-haired boy with pale saffron eyes that looked almost as though they had been washed out.
The boy strolled through the open school gates with a bag slung over one shoulder, stepping into the grounds with an almost bored-looking expression, his eyes glancing around idly.
“Interesting…” The boy muttered to himself. “So, this is the infamous Takai Military Senior High School, huh…”
His attention turned towards the tall central building standing at the middle of the school, then his eyes narrowed.
“I swear I’ll bring this whole place down.”
~x~
“Class, please welcome Jun Machi, our new transfer student from Osaka.”
The raven-haired boy stood at the front of the class, skimming his eyes across the blank-looking faces of his new class, most of them not even bothering to raise their heads from their desk to look at him.
‘As expected.’ Jun thought inside his head. ‘They probably all think that I’m just new fodder. I guess things aren’t too different here in Tokyo after all.’
The teacher stood next to Jun, gazing around the classroom with stony black eyes that were perched behind the lens of black framed glasses. Despite the teacher’s tall figure, Jun was only slightly shorter than the teacher.
“Let’s see…” The teacher spoke in a tiresome tone. “Jun, how about you sit in that empty desk near the back over there?”
“Sure.”
Jun strolled over to the desk that the teacher had pointed out that was right next to the window of the classroom.
He stopped at his desk, glancing down next to him at the person sitting beside his desk.
“Yo.” Jun said in a voice that said he was merely performing a customary social etiquette. “Please treat me well.”
The person who was at the desk, a lanky boy with streaked blond hair and pale hazel eyes, glanced up at Jun, surprising him with a friendly smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jun.” The boy with blond hair said. “The name’s Eizo Yokota. I hope you will treat me well too.”
“Eh…” Jun let out a slightly amused hum, gazing down at Eizo.
‘He was one of the few students that had looked up when the teacher was introducing me.’ Jun thought. ‘I didn’t expect there to be anyone with such an optimistic-looking face in this prison of a school, but I guess I was wrong.’
Jun turned his head, sitting down at his desk quietly as the class began.
~x~
There were all types of students in Jun’s class, but what surprised him the most was that not all his classmates were above the average height and muscular frame of the average civilian. Sitting at his desk with his head rested over his palm, he glanced to his side, watching as half of the class streamed out of the classroom for lunchtime after the bell had sounded.
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“What are you looking at, Jun?”
Jun turned his glance sideways at Eizo who was staring at him with curious blinking eyes.
“Nothing.” Jun said, reaching into his bag that was propped up at the side of his desk.
“Ah, you brought lunch as well?” Eizo laughed lightly, reaching for his own bag. “What a coincidence.”
Jun glanced up at Eizo, watching him scramble inside his bag for a moment.
‘Does this guy really intend to make friends at a military school of all places?’ Jun thought to himself. ‘Is he really that naïve? … No, if he was truly that naïve, he wouldn’t have even been able to make it to this school…’
“I’ve never been to Osaka, but I wouldn’t underestimate our classmates based on their outer physiques if I were you.” Eizo said with a pleasant smile as he pulled out a boxed lunch from his bag and placed it on his desk. “Everyone here their own special talents and skills.”
Jun stopped half-way through pulling a sandwich out of his bag. Then he shook his head, returning to a sitting posture with his sandwich held out in front of him.
“Should had known that you weren’t just a happy idiot.” Jun said. “So, Eizo, was it? What is it that you’re really hoping to achieve by talking to me?”
“Don’t get me wrong!” Eizo laughed in an apologetic tone, waving his hands out in front of him. “I didn’t mean to watch you just then. It was just that I was planning to ask if you wanted to eat lunch together when the bell rang, that’s all.”
“Hm,” Jun hummed unconvinced, “Whatever.”
He unwrapped his sandwich, taking a bite as he glanced outside the window besides him. He could see students outside on the school grounds, some eating lunch, others walking around.
It would be a rather normal scene that one would expect to see at a school except if one were looking closely, they’d notice that more than half of the students dispersed around the school grounds were by themselves.
“You’re a SOLDIER as well, right?” Eizo asked from his other side, and Jun’s eyes flickered back at Eizo with an annoyed glare. “I guess that’s a stupid question.” Eizo laughed innocently for a second. “I mean, only SOLDIERs are enrolled in military schools after all.”
“Besides,” Eizo said in a more serious tone, but with the same amicable smile on his face. He raised an index finger, pointing to his peculiar pale hazel eyes. “The eyes are a dead giveaway if one is a SOLDIER.”
Eizo glanced across at Jun’s pale saffron eyes that were as sharp as a knife. "Supersoldiers that were genetically engineered at birth, enhancing all functions of the human body; speed, strength, dexterity, stamina... the mutation shown through your eyes is clearly evident."
“So is this supposed to be extra lunchtime lessons?” Jun said in an unamused voice. “As if I didn’t hear enough of that crap during class already.”
Eizo chuckled. “You’re quite defensive, Jun. Is it really that hard to believe that a classmate is just trying to make a friend?”
“Of course,” Jun replied, finishing his sandwich with his second bite. “This isn’t just a normal school, this is a military school. That means every single student here is going to be joining the ongoing world war upon graduation as specialised Japanese army forces under the SOLDIER project. There is no hope of a normal life for any of us here attending a military school.”
Jun paused, staring forward with sombre eyes. “Especially at Takai Military Senior High School. The top ranked military school in the country.”
“…”
Eizo watched silently as Jun reached for his bag, pulling out another sandwich that looked identical to the first one he ate.
“That is one way to look at it.” Eizo said. “And, I’m sure most of the people in this class would certainly agree with your thinking.”
Jun unwrapped his second sandwich, then took a bite, chewing as he listened to Eizo.
“However, since we are all destined for doom already, don’t you think that there might be those that are simply trying to have the most fun out of their short meaningless existence?” Eizo smiled, taking a bite of his boxed lunch with chopsticks. “And, what fun is it to stay closed up and live your life in isolation?”
“Heh,” Jun shook his head, “I’m surprised people like you haven’t already died already during any of the training they put you through in military school.”
“I guess you can say that I’ve been quite lucky.” Eizo laughed in response.
‘Yeah right.’ Jun thought, glancing at Eizo with fathomless eyes. ‘You don’t just make it all the way to senior high of military school as a SOLDIER by something as feeble as luck.’
“Also, on that topic,” Eizo said, “That’s exactly the reason why I wanted to talk to you.”
“Hm?”
“After lunch… is your combat match practical as a transfer student.” Eizo’s voice was suddenly serious, the permanent smile dropping from his face. “Do you know what that means?”
Jun was slightly taken aback by the shift in Eizo’s tone. “Yeah, we have those back at Osaka too.” Jun said. “Practice one-on-one fights between students in a class to simulate a real combat scenario.”
“Right…” Eizo nodded, his face grim. “Except at Takai Military Senior High School, and for transfer students in particular, it’s not really… practice…”
“…"
“I don’t know what possessed you to transfer to Takai Military Senior High School in the first place,” Eizo said, “But, every transfer student that transfers to Takai undergoes the combat match practical as an assessment on their first day arriving to this school.”
“Normally, a combat match practical will match you up against another student of equal strength in consideration of your combat aptitude records.” Eizo continued, grimacing. “But as a transfer student, you have no such records. As such, Takai’s transfer policy has been to select the best student in the class to match up against the transfer student for the combat match practical.”
Eizo stopped for a moment, his eyes turning downwards to his boxed lunch. “Really, the policy is there simply to allow the school to provide game for their best students to hunt down and kill. An exercise done in order to hone the combat capabilities of the school’s own students in an environment that is as close to real as possible.”
“…”
“Do you understand what I’m saying, Jun?” Eizo glanced across at Jun with a dark sober gleam in his eyes.
Jun stayed silent for a moment before the ends of his lips twitched into a grim grin. “You’re saying that I’m going to die, right?”
“Exactly.”