Wednesday [09/04/2019]

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There was a rumor floating around that drinking lukewarm coffee in the morning could possibly dampen the performance of one’s chakras for 24 hours. While Keith doubted such pseudo-science had any merit to it, the taste of lukewarm coffee certainly dampened his mood in the morning. Just the sight of the stuff in Heartland High’s faculty lounge was enough to demotivate him for the day.

Admittedly, Keith Forrester was always a bit less than enthused when he showed up for work.

“It’s never hot when I get here,” he said while glumly pouring himself a cup.

“Try showing up for work earlier then,” another teacher in the faculty lounge told him.

“It’s 5:30.”

“You’re supposed to be here at four. Homeroom starts in another thirty minutes. You not supposed to show up when the students do, Forrester.”

Keith shrugged while he put a finger to the drink’s surface. He held it there for a moment until wisps of steam began to rise from it. It wouldn’t make the coffee taste the same as when it was fresh, but at least it was warm again.

“Principal Hopkins told you about frivolously using chi campus…” another teacher lectured.

“Yeah, he tells me a lotta things.”

Keith didn’t look back as he headed out. He already knew the type of looks his fellow school staff was giving him. Any he crossed paths within the hall didn’t go out of their way to make small talk with him either, including the custodian. He was fairly certain his coworkers weren’t all that fond of him. Not that he could blame them. He wouldn’t consider himself the cheeriest guy to be around, let alone work alongside.

“How cheery can you actually be while working at a shithole like this school?” he grumbled to himself while approaching the stairs.

“Is that any way to talk about our lovely Heartland High, Mr. Forrester?”

A tired look came across the teacher’s face as he looked up at the stairs. Standing at the height of the flight to the 2nd floor was someone he would have rather not met on the first day of school.

“Juana Martinez… Just my luck that I run into a Lord this early in the morning,” Keith complained.

“You say that like you hate to see me.”

“Can’t say I love it either.”

She giggled as she strutted down the steps. She was not wearing Heartland High’s uniform, and neither was the entourage that followed her. As far school’s students were concerned, dress code was some myth the school board made up. Juana, in particular, was probably dressed the most fashionably dressed student on Staten Island, cultivator or not. Still, what Juana Martinez was most known for was not her immaculate fashion sense.

“Gotcha now, Jane!”

Suddenly, a student jumped out from behind the stairs and darted at Juana. He moved quicker than any of her posse could have reacted, but none of them would have made a move even if they could. They were not concerned or even surprised over the Warrior’s dynamic entry. Neither was the boy’s target.

“This is payback for last year, you bitch!” he exclaimed as his hand ignited with flame. “Have some of this Mortal Fire Fist!"

He struck at the back of Juana’s head, dead in its center. Though the fist landed, it hadn’t singed a single hair on Juana’s head. Her essence manifesting as a wall of her chi thinner than a pencil kept the burning knuckles from even grazing her.

Juana cast an annoyed look at her ambusher. “I was planning on getting through the day without fighting anyone, but…”

Without moving a single muscle, Juana roused her chi and blasted her attacker away with her essence alone. The student cratered into the wall, going unconscious on impact. They remained planted there for several seconds before flaking from the wall facefirst onto the floor. Keith gave a sympathetic look as he sipped his coffee. The boy most certainly wasn’t going to regain consciousness before the first bell rang.

Juana shook her head. “I'm surprised there are still Warriors at this school who think they can ambush me. Idiot wasn’t even D-Rank. All he had to do was respect the truce, but I guess some people just can’t control themselves.”

“Wait, did you say truce? Between who?” Keith asked.

“Between the Three Lords of Heartland, duh. We all agreed there would be no feuding between our factions for the first three days of school. Figures you were the last one on school staff to hear about this.”

“Hunt and Bronson really agreed to this? Shocked you three could all get together and arrange a ceasefire that easily… Or without a fight breaking out. I suppose you guys are saving all that aggro for Friday’s Battle Royale?”

“Look how clever my old teacher was! And to think, everyone at Heartland thinks you’re not qualified to teach.”

Honestly, even Keith himself wouldn’t completely disagree with that sentiment. Jane gestured for her clique to follow as she continued down the hall. She stopped for a moment and looked back at Keith.

“Oh, and another thing, Forrester.”

“Hmm?”

“We’ve been over it before, but I’ll give a refresher for the semester: I don’t wanna hear the name ‘Juana’ from you or anyone else at Heartland. That’s a privilege reserved for my abuelita. Here in this Jungle, I’m only known as… Queen Jane.”

Keith took a sip of his coffee. “Yea. Sure. Whatever you say, Martinez.”

Jane giggled as she strolled off again, her followers behind her. Keith continued on his steps, not giving much thought to what Jane had told him. The Three Lords all held self-appointed nicknames their affiliates were forced to address them by. Keith found it a bit silly.

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He wasn’t particularly interested in their little ‘truce’ either. It wasn’t the first time the Three Lords called for a ceasefire between their factions. Whenever Heartland High was threatened by other Jungle Schools, the Lords always made peace just long enough to be rid of the threat only to return at each other’s throats once again. Keith never recalled them ‘meeting up’ this early in the year though.

“Was the truce really all they set up together?” he muttered to himself as he entered his classroom.

His thoughts were disrupted by a surprising sight – a student. He was already seated, and in the front row of class nonetheless. Keith had never known a Heartland student that arrived to class so early before the first bell rang. Even more surprisingly, he was the only student in years that Keith had seen wear the school’s uniform.

“Morning,” the student greeted plainly.

“O-oh, yeah, morning. You new here?”

The student nodded. “Transferred in from Kansas.”

“Huh. That’s a big move. I’m Keith Forrester, your Homeroom teacher… and maybe something else too. I don’t know your schedule. What’s your name, kid?”

“It’s Isaac Moon, sir.”

“Hmm…” Keith took a sip of coffee as he headed to his desk. “Well, it’s nice to have a normal student for once. You don’t seem like the type to cause headaches, at least.”

“Is there a problem with the students that go to this school?”

Keith snorted. “A problem? Let me tell ya; even by Jungle School standards, the kids at Heartland are---“

Before Keith could finish his sentence, whoops and hollers began rolling in through the classroom windows.

“And speak of the Devil’s children…” Keith sighed while approaching one. “Guess that truce didn’t last too long.”

Curious, Isaac did the same. A brawl was taking place outside. Dozens of Warriors from various grades were duking it out within the center of a large crowd of students. By the looks of it, over 1/3 of the Heartland’s students were already present.

To Keith’s surprise, it wasn’t the three-way confrontation between factions that he was expecting. Out of the few dozen or so students who were fighting it out, they weren’t all fighting each other but rather two students that Keith didn’t recognize. While he certainly wasn’t the best when it came to remembering faces, Keith was sure he would remember students strong enough to dozens of Warriors from Heartland at once. Despite being terribly outnumbered, they were demolishing anyone who dared to come at them. And they did so without any Cultivation Techniques, only Martial Techniques.

“Damn those boys are ridiculous… Why haven’t I seen them around more?”

“Because they just got here. Those two are freshmen,” Isaac unexpectedly answered.

“You know them?”

“Kind of? The White kid – Drake I think was his name – helped me out two nights ago. I didn’t know either of them was enrolled in this school though. Didn’t know they were this good either...”

Nobody could have predicted for freshmen to be this dominant. It was rare for freshmen at Jungle Schools to be skilled enough to challenge their upperclassmen in any meaningful way. Their Martial Ranks and Core Stages were often too low. There was the occasional exception, and it became increasingly obvious that the duo were one such case.

Drake delivered a notably devastating declaration to the idea when he threw an uppercut at a senior’s jaw, launching him several feet into the air and plummeting back down over the wall of students that crowded around them. The students went wild, some with cheers and some with slurs.

Drake just gave a tired sigh to it all.

“Is this really all you guys got? I knew Heartland wasn’t exactly the greatest school on Staten Island, but c’mon... This is just gettin’ to be a waste of time.”

He swiftly dodged a Mortal Fire Fist a female student tried to ambush him with, countering with a swift kick to the hip that sent her cartwheeling across the grass. A yawn slipped out as he watched his partner deliver a roundhouse to another student’s face, sending him twirling through the air before landing facefirst in the ground.

“Yo, I think we went a little too hard on ‘em, Drake.”

“Too hard? We’re only freshmen. It’s not our fault these upperclassmen are all piss-weak. Man, we shoulda just enrolled in a school on North Shore...”

Dozens of upperclassmen were laid out all around the two. All their remaining opponents could bring themselves to do was glare anxiously at the duo. Their reluctance earned them a great deal of mockery from the crowd. Despite the jeers and insults, they were still unwilling to fight further. Keith assumed that this would spell the end of the brawl, but then he saw another student arrive from within the crowd.

His first impression of her was that she was pretty. Breathtakingly pretty, with the longest set of blonde locks he had ever seen on a student.

“Drake, CJ; are you two finally finished? Homeroom’s going to start soon,” she said.

Drake spit at the grass. “Yeah, looks like all this ruckus we caused was for noth---“

Before he could finish, a female student blurred past him to the girl and took ahold of her by the hair.

“This girl’s with you two? She’s your friend, right?” she barked. “Well, you two are gonna get real polite real quick if you don’t want me to slide this bitch!”

The boys blinked at her.

“Talk about a bad call…” CJ said, shaking his head.

“Can’t believe she went for Skylar’s hair first…” Drake muttered.

The female student looked confused by their responses. Then she felt her arm being grabbed.

“Don’t. Touch…” Skylar whirled the girl over her shoulder, making the air howl as she flung her. “My hair!”

The girl soared from Skylar’s grasp at a blitzing speed to the window Isaac was looking through. He barely ducked in time as she crashed through it. She slammed against the classroom wall before coming to a sloppy landing with her arm in a ‘compromised’ position and glass all about her clothes.

“Holy…”

“Damn. And windows at this school are all made of reinforced glass too,” Keith commented. “Don’t tell that blonde girl’s a freshman too? If so, I wanna know what pills they’re giving these kids in junior high these days. That girl over there’s definitely gonna need a trip to the infirmary when she wakes up.”

“Wait, you mean you aren’t gonna take her now?”

Keith gave Isaac a look. “Why would I do that?”

Isaac blinked.

“Look, I know you’re fresh and all that, but don’t forget this is a Jungle School, kid. Everyone here, including the teachers, has to adhere to Jungle Law. One of the most commonly known of which is that school staff are expressly forbidden from interfering in any manner in the battles between Warriors unless one of the Warriors is in danger of losing their life, or when severe brutality is on display.”

“How would taking an unconscious girl with a broken arm to the infirmary count as ‘interference’?”

Keith sighed. “If you care so much, how ‘bout you take her. I already got to sweep up the glass before class starts.”

Isaac stared incredulously his Homeroom teacher. Eventually, he pushed his glasses and went to retrieve the student. Without another word, he left the room with her in his arms. His teacher sipped his coffee in his absence.

“..Weird kid. How can he not understand basic Jungle Law?” Keith muttered to himself. “Even the students who attend ordinary cultivation schools know that much.”

He returned his attention to the events unfolding outside. Skylar was combing her fingers through her beloved hair, while the boys poked fun at her for her sensitivity to it. No one dared to make a move against them during this. Whatever the trio’s Martial Ranks were, they were certainly greater than whatever was common around Heartland High.

However, the student who arrived next was far above the common rabble they faced thus far.

Keith, along with the growing numbers of students among the crowd, all took notice of him almost immediately. He was hard to miss as he towered over every other student, including the other seniors. He was also built like a tank; similar to a prime Mike Tyson if he was a foot taller. Drake, CJ, and Skylar were marveling at his size even before the crowd of students made a pathway for him to pass through. He brushed past Skylar without sparing her a single glance. All of his attention fell upon Drake and CJ.

“So, you the ones raising all this hell. I was wonderin’,” the said. “You two know whose Warriors you were smashin’? Whose truce you were breakin’?”

“Heh… Course we do. You think we could enroll at this school and not know who the Three Lords of Heartland were?” Drake asked. “A 6’10 black dude who’s built like a battleship. Who hell else could you be but Iron Bronson? Was wondering when one of you Lords would take the bait.”

“…You already know who I am, but you still decided to try me? Who’re you supposed to be?”

“Me? I'm Anthony Drake, your soon-to-be Guardian.”