“Classrooms are down the hall! Every teacher will take on two groups. Just sit anywhere.” Hairoguma issued his second command, causing a stampede down the hallway. The group decided not to move with the herd, confident in their own abilities regardless of the teacher. However, the animal kingdom is dangerous, and their isolation left them open to predators. Moving down the hallway, only one room was open near the end of the hall. A trap had been laid; now, all the group could do was walk into it. Pushing the door open revealed a room that was very similar to a normal classroom. Still, like the rest of the school, something about it seemed harsher, greyer, less in tune with humanity. Inside, another group was waiting for them.
A girl sat on top of one of the desks and faced the rest of the group. She was very attractive in a high-school kind of way, the image of an out-of-reach cheerleader. Long blond hair fell unrestrained to around her waist, a few silver tubes scattered around strands. Hair fell over her shoulders, but left her ears exposed to show off the piercings that ran up her ears. She only wore simple silver earrings, not wanting to stand out too much. An onlooker could easily identify her as one of the queens of the school by looks alone; an astute onlooker would notice her intelligent amber eyes and realize that she was less of a queen and more of an apex predator. Everyone except the new transfers, Eikou and Saki, recognized her immediately.
“Well, well, well, looks like we’re neighbors.” The girl dramatically turned around, revealing herself to be the mastermind. “How lucky.” She was snarking and dramatic in every way, it turned out.
“Shinju, this is just unnecessary.”
“ME? You accuse me of this? No, this was simply a product of the turning of the universe, the impeccably imperative will of a mysterious world. And you accuse me?! Takara, you’re talking crazy!”
“Don’t call me that. We aren’t friends.”
“Takara! I beg to differ! I’ve known you longer than anyone! You know, Webster’s Dictionary defines friend as-“
“Let me stop you before you compromise more of your family’s dignity. I don’t think they would appreciate the sight of a member of the distinguished Hagetaka family begging a member of the Yuzai family for friendship. It would almost imply that your family had developed some self-awareness.” This would’ve shut down the conversation if it had been anyone else, but Shinju Hagetaka was used to it. In fact, she was one of the only people in the school that stood up to Yuzai.
“Harsh. Very, very harsh! It doesn’t matter now, you’re stuck with us now! You might as well give in!”
“As you well know, I can do this forever.” In response, Hagetaka moved right next to Yuzai, filling Yuzai’s vision with her eyes.
“Forever…” That one word shook Yuzai, but she did not show it. Instead, she looked back with contempt, never wavering. “Well, forever is long and weary, so I might as well move one. Let me introduce you to my group, a.k.a. the greatest team ever assembled –“ her voice rose to a crescendo “-a.k.a. THE MIGHTY SWORDS OF THE VULTURE!” This announcement was just confusing. “Starting with myself, of course, Shinju Hagetaka, the fearless leader, we are by far the best group this school has to offer! Only outshone by the ever-serious Yuzai, I came second overall, making up for the already tiny deficit with superior social skills and the ability to think for myself!” Yuzai was going to argue, but then she remembered that she didn’t really care about what Hagetaka had to say. “Seconded by the ever-intelligent Toshiro Sekizawa, a man graced with the mind of a military genius and administrative messiah, a grand architect destined to run the world one day, we cannot lose! Out of all the talent coalescing in this academy, he distinguished himself with the undoubtedly impressive ranking of third overall!” Sekizawa did not seem to be enjoying the introduction. He was tall, standing at around 6 feet and only slightly shorter than Kaneshiro. His hair was grey and fell in a curtain swept to the right side of his face, diluted with falling braids and dyed with a yellow-purple mix. It mostly covered his right eye, which was covered by a single loop filled with glass; it was like a monocle, but without the falling chain and attached to the side of his face. His style was undoubtedly odd, but he held himself with such confidence in who he was that it was impossible to say he didn’t pull it off. He did not react to her statements despite her clearly waiting for him to respond. “Okay! Next, we have two trusted compatriots that I would happily leave my life to: Pawa Kumo and Chumon Ari! Reliable, responsible, and hypercompetent, these are girls who have stood by me in thick and thin, and can weather far more! Finally, we have…we have…what are your names again?”
“Are you kidding me!” The two final members shouted in disbelief.
“No matter! They can serve their purpose namelessly. Should the going get tough and the odds too slim to handle, they are to act as our shields of flesh.”
“We’re just meat shields?!”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
“Yes!” She said triumphantly.
“Can I switch, please?” One of the two last members said it quietly, realizing what he had just got himself into.
“Quiet! I am talking!” He continued looking on pleadingly. She looked back towards Yuzai. “You might as well surrender now!” She paused. “Okay, now I’m done.”
“That was a single sentence!”
“A sentence of the utmost import!” He sighed in defeat.
“This is not going to be a competition. School is for the purpose of personal enrichment, and you have already impeded it through your petty rivalry. It would be best if you could compose yourself,” Yuzai interjected. The statement sounded convincing enough, but both Hagetaka and Yuzai knew that was not going to be the case. The daughters of two rival crime families both known for their intelligence and talent going to the same school – it had always been a competition. Even if neither of them wanted it, they could not stop the constant comparisons. The room fell into silence as the two shared in the unsaid fact.
“Has anyone seen the teacher?” Kentaro eventually piped up, breaking the hanging silence. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. “Or know who is teaching us?”
“He’s new,” Sekizawa responded. “His name is Mr. Kondo.” As if the utterance of the name had completed a summoning ritual, the desk shook as the sound of head on desk rang through the room.
“Ow.” A man rose from underneath the desk. He looked young, not anything past early thirties, and wore long blue robes similar to those that samurai wore. His hair was long and a very dark blue, almost black, flowing over his face and down, but kept in check with a ponytail. On his side, a long blade was sheathed, completing his look of a swordsman that should have existed hundreds of years ago. The class stared blankly at him. “Is something wrong?”
Yuzai was the first to respond. “Are you our teacher?”
“I would presume. Why, am I in the wrong classroom?” He began spinning around and searching the room for identifying features.
“No. I just thought that this school had standards.”
“Thank you. I was impressed with myself, too.” Yuzai just sighed in response to this, putting her head in her hand. “Okay…school, teaching…teaching…okay! Announcements! You are all juniors in Soshiki Academy, so – wait, you are all juniors in Soshiki Academy, right? Okay, so do you all already know how this is going to function?” Only Yuzai and Hagetaka raised their hands. “It will function largely like a regular school, but with lessons focusing more on skills that are actually useful. Your grades will be almost completely defined by the points scored on your group assignments, which will be assigned weekly and are designed to test your ability to work as a team and in a real-world setting. If you are having any problems, feel free to ask me for guidance. Any questions?” Ushinawa raised her hand.
“Sir, why were you underneath the desk?”
“I was sleeping.”
“Why were you sleeping?”
“I got bored.”
“Sir, permission to speak freely?” Mr. Kondo was confused on why she kept calling him sir, but this was even weirder. What did she think school was?
“Granted?”
“You are an imbecile, sir. I hope that your skills are enough to compensate for your empty head, sir.”
“Who gave you the idea that you could talk to a teacher like that?!”
“You did, sir. About ten seconds ago.”
“Oh.” Pause. “Can I go home yet?”
“You haven’t even started the lesson yet, sir.”
“I thought that we didn’t have to teach anything in the first class. Well, at least I’m learning something.” The class collectively sighed. “Good day class! I think that’s enough for today. Before you leave, I do need to tell you about group projects. It is recommended, but not required, that you all set a time to meet daily. That time is usually a couple hours after school, but if you wish to meet on school grounds at a different time, put in a request for a different time and the administration will set aside a classroom for you. We’re going to be jumping right in, so I’m going to assign you your first assignment right now. I’ll email you an instructional handout later, but the general idea is that you are going to need to canvass an area that is controlled by a hostile organization and report back your findings. This will require you to go out at several different times as to track the different schedules of the organization. Now, the people in the area have been alerted to the drill and thus will not use force. A failure is considered anything that compromises the information that you collect, so essentially either failing to return the information or causing them to shift their operations, rendering the information useless. The grade will be based on the quality of information. This is intended to be the easiest drill of the year, so do not fail. A full report is expected in three weeks. Well, if you got all that, I’m leaving. Byeeeeeeee.” He did not wait for a response, instead leaving while he was saying “bye”.
“This year is going to be a disaster,” Kentaro said matter-of-factly. Thank you Kentaro! Astute observation! Without reason to stick around, the groups dispersed. Eikou and Kentaro left quickly, causing the rest of their group to feel the need to do the same. Hagetaka’s group stayed for a small bit longer so that they could exchange contact information, which the other group completely forgot. The school year had begun. It had not gone as anyone had thought it would. Eikou thought to himself that his mission had failed, but after hours of thinking about it, he managed to rationalize that it was still going, stronger than ever. His life felt a sense of purpose again. Kentaro was upset, but he recognized that he did not really have a reason to be. He was upset because a cute girl was crushing on him, poor him. Eikou was pretty cool, too, even with all his faults, so at least he wasn’t alone. Yuzai didn’t really care. She would carry a group by herself, so why does it matter who she was with? Ushinawa was happy, still thinking that Kaneshiro had confessed to her. Sure, he had tried to retract it, but it was only natural for someone to get nervous when they were laying it all bare. For all, it seemed like the oncoming year would be interesting, at least.