“Weapons ready.”

The homeroom teacher stood next to Jun, watching with indifferent eyes as Jun loaded the magazine into his glock, readying the gun for fire before slipping it into the belt next to his waist. Then he picked up the combat knife remaining on the desk in front of him, glancing at the edge of the cool black blade for a second before slipping it into the side of his belt as well.

‘Die?’ Jun thought to himself, remembering his conversation with Eizo at lunch. ‘Me? Heh, maybe. But there’s no way I’m allowing myself to die on the first day of transferring to this forsaken school. There’s still things I have to do before that time comes…’

The two of them were standing in an empty room at the basement of the school, lit by fluorescent blue light. An aluminium door with a small tinted glass laid behind them, where they had entered into the room from, and at the end of the room was a thick steel door with no opening to see what was behind on the other side.

“I have to get back to the class, but you’ve done a combat match practical before, right?” The teacher glanced at Jun with an expressionless face.

‘It’s just like Eizo said.’ Jun thought. ‘Normally, teachers are supposed to supervise a combat match practical closely to ensure the safety of the students, but this guy isn’t even trying to pretend like he cares. Just looking at his eyes, I can already tell that all he sees in front of him is a dead corpse.’

“Of course.” Jun replied dutifully to the teacher. “All SOLDIERs have had experiences with combat match practicals beginning from middle school. It’s part of the normal curriculum.”

“Right.” The teacher nodded, glancing dully behind him at the exit door. “Seems like you already know the drill then. I’ll leave you to it then, Kisho.”

“Jun.” Jun said, correcting the teacher.

“Jun.” The teacher shook his head. “Sorry about that. Too much kids to teach, you know. Anyways, laters.”

The teacher turned around, heading out of the room from the door they came in from, and Jun watched the door close behind the teacher before turning in front of him again to face the steel door at the end of the room.

“I guess this is it then.” Jun mused to himself, walking over to the steel door. “Once I’m through this door, the other student I’m up against should be in there, waiting for me.”

He paused, stopping behind the range where the steel door would automatically open. “The best student in the class…” He muttered with an amused smirk. “Time to see what he's like.”

Jun took a step forward, and the steel door automatically slid open.

~x~

Unlike the clean crisp white decor of the rest of the school, the combat match practical room was like stepping foot into a battlefield. A dark barren wasteland of a city stretched out in front of Jun and he took a step forward onto the centre of the cracked road, hearing the steel door close behind him.

He glanced back, not batting an eyelid at the fact that the steel door now disappeared from view behind him, showing only the road.

So far everything was going to his expectations. The combat match practical room was a randomised emulation of a battlefield environment using advanced simulation technology. The weapons he had received were standard; two glocks, a combat knife, and various other minor tools.

The only question now was finding the student that he was matched up against.

He pulled out an electronic device from his pocket, clicked a button on the side and glanced at the flashing screen. It was a Navi, short for navigator. A mapping tool used to trace out the user's surroundings up to a distance of 2 kilometres amidst other functions such as scanning for heat objects nearby.

Tapping his finger a few times on the screen of the device, a black map traced in white lines displayed itself, showing a number of red shaded dots and shapes on the map.

Then Jun closed the device, placing it back in his pocket as he walked ahead alongst the road. The smell of rubble and burnt asphalt filled the air as he glanced at the numerous fires burning around him on the road and buildings.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

That was one reason why the Navi wasn't simply a cheat tool that allowed the user to track down their targets. Heat interferences were replicated in the simulated environment, camouflaging body heat signals on the Navi.

However, there were other ways to track down a target.

~x~

Stepping down into a dark underground passage, lit by faint blinking lights, Jun walked alongside the wall of the passage, staring out into the distance in front of him. Eventually, he arrived at a large enclosed space filled with columns supporting the ceiling. This was a functional train station that was built next to an underground shopping centre in reality, but was simulated to appear broken down.

'If my predictions are correct, then this must be the place where the other student entered into the combat match practical from...' Jun thought to himself, glancing around. 'It's a pretty deep shot in the dark, but...'

"Arisu Tsuji."

A cool-sounding voice in the dark called out to him, and Jun jerked around to look at the direction of the voice.

'Impossible! I didn't notice them...?!' Jun thought, his heart suddenly rising. 'But, I...'

The sound of footsteps rushing to him filled his ears and before he could even take another breath, he was lying on the ground, glancing up at the eyes of his attacker with the icy cold feeling of a blade pressed up against his throat.

"Your name?" The girl up above him asked in a soft chilling voice.

'A girl?!--' Jun's breath froze when he saw the girl.

A face that appeared sculpted to perfection with skin as fair and as white as snow. Lips that protruded out slightly, painted in the hue of the purest pink, spaced underneath a slim dainty nose. Long black hair that spiralled from her scalp in a natural graceful manner, strands dancing from her head like fireflies. Her figure was petite yet flawlessly proportioned underneath her school uniform in an alluring way.

The girl was undoubtedly beautiful in all sense of the word, but it wasn't the girl's beauty that caught Jun's breath.

It was the overwhelming sense of dread that filled out even the deepest recesses of his mind, taking hold of him at the exact moment he glanced up into the girl's eyes. A striking pair of pale violet eyes that held a deadpan stare, yet reeked undeniably of death.

"My name, heh..." Jun chuckled, feeling a sweat drip from his temple. "...who gives a crap about that when you're in the middle of a FIGHT--?!"

Jun snapped the glock up from the side of his belt, knocking aside Arisu's blade, and the sound of gunfire exploded into the air, echoing blaringly inside the enclosed space as Jun continued to shoot into the darkness, trying to ensure that at least even one bullet would find its mark.

Her figure had disappeared instantly into the darkness on the first shot, but there was only a limited number of routes that she could had ran off to.

'Those columns though...' Jun thought, picking himself up from the ground to glance at his surroundings with narrowed eyes. 'Annoying. They're everywhere. She probably used them to shield the bullets. However...'

Jun reached for his belt with his free hand, pulling out a small black ball. He threw the object forward and it landed ahead in the darkness. Instantly, the object lit up, shooting rays of infrared light around itself in a quick circular motion as it continued to roll ahead.

That was an R-bomb. A bomb designed to track and subsequently follow mobile targets at a rapid speed. Although its destructive impact was weak, the R-bomb was ideal in this type of enclosed area where it would be able to search for targets hiding behind the columns.

'Not there...?' Jun thought, watching cautiously as the R-bomb continued rolling forth to nowhere before coming to a stop and the infrared light turned off. 'Then I--'

Suddenly, blood exploded from his neck.

~x~

Panting while hiding behind one of the thick columns around the space, Jun flicked out his Navi, tapping rapidly on the flashing screen with a bloodied hand. His other hand was holding onto the open gash on his neck, pressing as hard as he could to slow down the gushing blood that was leaking from his wound.

'What the fuck is she...?!' Jun thought, staring at the screen of the Navi with shocked eyes. 'Even though I set up microtrackers all around this place beforehand to secure my position, none of them are showing up on my Navi?! Did she destroy them all already?!'

Jun closed his eyes and turned off his Navi, trying desperately to control his staggered breathing so as to not reveal his location.

'I'm already one of the stronger SOLDIERs from back at Osaka, but this girl is just on another level. I've never encountered someone like her. Every move she makes is precise, every attack calculated and aimed for the vitals. It's like she can already see everything that I'm about to do before I even think--'

The sound of a blade slicing through the air came out of nowhere and Jun swerved to his side, just in time to dodge Arisu's blade as it stabbed itself in the column where Jun's neck had been mere moments ago. Then he pulled out his glock, aimed it at Arisu's head and shot. Just a millisecond before Jun's finger pulled the trigger though, Arisu's palm snapped upwards into the bottom of Jun's hand, pushing his aim astray.

"Y-you--!" Jun leaped backwards, trying to regain his distance but Arisu didn't relent. She shot forward with her knife, the blade gleaming across the air like a flash of moonlight and Jun dropped his free hand from his neck, blood splurting out as he ripped out his own combat knife from his belt.

'This is it!' Jun thought, feeling as though time was slowing down as he watched Arisu's blade dart menacingly towards him. 'If my knife doesn't make it in time to stop her blade, then I...!'

"It's over." Arisu mouthed quietly.

Jun's eyes widened, then suddenly bright red blood streaked across his vision.