[3 September 2121- 12:45]
The NewsNet stage was lit with a bright background. A female anchor, Amelia, sat at her news desk staring blankly at the camera as she spoke, “It’s been three weeks since the top STAM agent Container Kawamiya Kyoushirou discovered a special drug that allowed mazoku to hide their mutated form. Not only did this drug solidify the widely believed thought that the mazoku were allied in a terrorist organization, but it opened the door for the potential to clear our Sectors of the dangerous mazoku. Yesterday, STAM began public testing for the mazoku drug.”
Her co-anchor, Ulrich, took over, “While this has been met with widespread approval there has been major push-back from Yong Guk Brown of the Bridge party and his many supporters saying in an interview, ‘We cannot subject the public to the kind of invasion of privacy that STAM purposes!’ In response, the Light Party called for Bridge Party members to undergo testing first.”
“After preliminary testing, STAM agent, Disposer Ichiro Seiji, gave reporters a comment on the future plans.”
The image cut from the two anchors to a young man. He wore a tight police issue STAM shirt with R2 etched onto the fabric of the chest, “While STAM is trying to develop a fast and cheap method for the testing of this drug, currently it is a slow and expensive process. One would have to have their blood taken and then there is a maximum 24-hour waiting period for the drug to change in its structure to become detectable-”
“Does that mean there will not be testing?” the interviewer asked.
The man named on screen as Seiji shook his head, “Testing will occur but only privately. Companies, businesses, or individuals can request the testing. Currently, if an employer requests the testing it is mandatory.”
“What about the government? Does that mean hospitals and schools and our politicians will not be tested?”
“That will depend on the legislation. As of now those in government and students will not undergo mandatory testing.”
The program switched back to the anchors. Ulrich continued, “The entertainment industry was the first to apply for testing and they are reporting a number of 98 and growing mazoku captured. This includes the famous singing idol “EEMU”, full name Ameera Umil.”
The woman continued, “Our own news agency has applied for the testing and for the sake of transparency,” she cleared her throat, “after revealing this information to our employees many have disappeared or handed in their resignation.”
The man cleared his throat before he concluded, “Those individuals’ information has been given to STAM for them to follow up-”
(Sector 1: Tenno Academy-The Roof)
Aku swiped past the video.
Beside her, Keiko cursed, “Schools are safe for now I guess...” she looked worriedly at Arisa.
Aku started, “Oh Keiko, it gets worse...” she flipped through news articles, “You remember the rumor about STAM looking for a 6th agent?”
Keiko’s face hardened, “You can’t be serious.”
Aku turned the screen to Keiko and Arisa. The article titled NEW STAM AGENT CONFIRMED FROM SECTOR 21
“Sector 21?!” Keiko threw her hands up and turned away ruffling her pink hair in frustration.
Arisa’s eyes widened, “They aren’t even allowed in the legislation! Aku didn’t you tell me they hunt mazoku there?”
Aku nodded and twiddled with the ends of her long blonde braid, “Apparently Lanse can do whatever he wants since so much focus is on the success of finding mazoku suppressant...”
Keiko turned back to Arisa, “You’ve stopped taking it right?”
Arisa stared at her feet, “I only take it when an uncontrollable shift happens...”
Keiko sighed angrily, “We’ve got to get you off MS completely. If they start student testing, we will have to leave the academy.”
“We can’t leave! We have to be in the system or else-”
“A 6th agent and MS was discovered,” Keiko’s voice was sharp, “This isn’t up for discussion.”
Aku nodded in agreement.
Arisa looked down defeated.
Looking down at her watch Aku attempted to bring the mood up, “We still have time before the break ends. We have that fancy bread, remember Arisa?”
Pushing herself from her bad mood Arisa smiled, “I could use something sweet right about now.”
Aku eyed Keiko to say something nice.
“I’ll grab some drinks and meet you in the classroom,” Keiko held the stairwell door open for them, “Strawberry milk Arisa?”
Class 2-A
Before entering the room Arisa took a quick breath. She had shared classrooms with them for over a year now, and yet she still felt anxious. Aku entered first, her gaze crossing over the entire classroom.
“AHH Ms.Kuma!” Their teacher caught Arisa before she could enter the classroom. He was carrying an extremely large stack of papers, “Will you do me a favor?”
Arisa held her hands out and smiled, “Of course!”
He spoke quickly and flustered, “Pass out the practice test to the class please?”
Arisa felt her insides tense at the job but she smiled through it, “Of course!” she took the test papers and bowed slightly as the teacher ran off.
She sighed, great. The knot in her stomach grew tighter. She leaned against the wall and took a deep breath to relax before looking down at the first name, “Egao Shoutarou. OK.” Immediately she pushed the paper to the bottom of the list. She entered the class room and started passing out papers matching up to the name plates on each student desk. Every now and then Arisa would come to one of their papers, so she slipped it to the bottom. Eventually, she ran out of papers and found herself looking down at Shoutarou’s name once more. With no where left to hide, she took a deep breath and walked over to him. “Shoutarou?” her voice was soft but she didn’t think she sounded too nervous.
“Hmm?” he looked up at her from his seat. He had bright orange hair that he kept pushed from his forehead, “Ah! Arisa!”
Her spine tingled hearing him say her name, “The teacher gave me your tests..” she held out the test to him.
He snatched it from her in a way that made her flinch, “Oh god! Did you look at the score? Is it bad?” he held the test to his chest protectively.
Arisa tried to laugh, “I didn’t look...” she looked down at the next name, “Ichiro Seiji...”
Shou held out his hand, “Seiji’s in the cafeteria recounting his heroic stories to his fan club. I’ll take it for now.”
Arisa handed it to him gratefully, “Moru Hiroto...”
As if on cue, two rows ahead Hiro’s head lifted lazily from his desk, his gaze fixed on Arisa through his long black hair.
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“Ah.” Arisa held the test out to him, “Here you go,” she tried to swallow naturally.
Hiroto covered his face with the test paper, “Thanks.”
“Arisa.”
She jumped at the sound of her name, “Ah, Aku.”
“Are those the tests?” she motioned for Arisa to walk back down the rows to their seat.
Arisa felt her nerves settle slightly, “Mhm for A and B”
“I’ll help you,” she took half of the stack from her, “Keiko is still getting drinks.”
The two walked across the hall into 2-B. Arisa looked at the name on the test and felt the ball in her stomach completely loosen as the blood rushed to her face. She coughed twice as she came up to him. “Kawamiya Kyoushirou...”
He was leaning back in his chair, staring blankly out the window. His expression was stern and serious. He turned at the sound of his name. His face softened, “Kuma Arisa.”
She felt her face flush and couldn’t find the words she wanted to say. She held out his test paper suddenly instead.
He took the sheet from her, “Oh thank you.”
She nodded quickly.
“Was there something else?” he asked as she stood there.
She jumped in surprise and waved the other paper around, “Uh- I- I just-”
He smiled gently at her, “Say Arisa, do you want to-”
Suddenly Aku snatched the paper from Arisa’s hand and slapped it harshly on the desk behind her own, cutting Kyoushirou off in his sentence.
Arisa’s eyes were wide, do I want to?? Do I want to what?!
“Keiko’s waiting,” Aku pulled Arisa from the classroom.
Kyou watched her leave with a smile but smacked himself on the cheeks lightly and whispered to himself, “What are you thinking Kyou?”
Arisa let out a lung full of air outside the classroom and held her hands to her face trying to cool off.
Aku flicked her on the forehead, “What is wrong with you?”
Arisa pouted through her pressed cheeks, “It’s not like I want to!”
Aku shook her head.
“Yo!” Keiko walked toward them with drinks. She saw Arisa’s flushed face immediately and sighed disapprovingly, “I thought you were going to keep her away from him?”
Aku shrugged, “It’s day time.”
Before they could walk in to eat their bread the bell chimed that the hour was over.
“Noooo!” Arisa whined, “The yummy bread!!”
Keiko handed Aku the drink she had gotten for her, “Oh well.”
Aku took the drink and dipped back into class 2-B.
Arisa reached for the strawberry milk from Keiko, but Keiko held it high above her own head.
“That’s not fair!!” Arisa reached for it on her tiptoes.
Keiko laughed but from her peripheral vision she saw the flash of green that circled around a student. She was short and wore a first year uniform. The student quickly slipped into the stairwell and the green circle disappeared with her, a mazoku?
Arisa jumped and snatched the milk from the distracted Keiko, “Hah!!”
Keiko’s attention turned back quickly as she laughed and prodded Arisa into class 2-A
Aku was sitting silently at her desk. She sensed Ryuichi taking his seat behind her and her gaze fell on Kyoushirou seated near the wall. Those two were different from the others. Not just by the cross-like mark etched into their uniform but by their jobs.
“All right class,” their teacher entered the class with several claps to invigorate the students, “We will get started with WW4 as scheduled today, but first-” he held his arm out to the door he had just walked through, “We have a new student joining us.”
Aku’s eyes darted for the door; she didn’t want to believe what her gut was already telling her. It must be th’ six’d…
A tall, thin boy walked in. His skin was a deep sun-soaked brown, he had a twisted half-grin on his face.
“I am proud to announce our class’ third STAM agent,” their teacher proudly introduced him, “This is Reikokuna Kenji. Please give him a warm welcome to Tenno Academy and to 2-B.”
Many eyes turned to Kyou and Ryu to see if they had known, but their expressions told them nothing.
“Nice to meet ya.” Kenji’s voice carried through the class and brought everyone’s eyes back to him, “I’m from Sector 21.”
There were whispers through the class and murmurs seemed to spring up suddenly.
“Fucking hi-rad’s-”
“How does someone like that make it here”
“A hirad in STAM?”
Kenji was grinning from ear to ear as the teacher hurried to sush the murmurings of the students.
Aku stared at him up and down. What’s th’s? Could it be?! A child of Mr.Black is scared of’a puny human? No way- no way yur scared…
“Well Kenji,” the teacher had finally silenced the murmurs in the class, “You can take a seat beside Ms.Ume.”
Aku rolled her eyes at the soft gasps from the class as she raised her hand to show who the teacher was referring to. I’m not afraid of anything.
End of the School Day [15:00]
Kyoushirou was waiting at the front entrance of the academy; he was always the first one out of the school. He leaned against the wall of the gate and tried to ignore the murmurs about him, “That’s him- Rank 1- Kyoushirou- the leader- the face of STAM-”
He sighed, you’d think they would be used to me being here by now…
“Yo Kyou!” Shou grinned as he, Seiji, and Ryu walked up.
Ryu walked with his head hung over the test results from their make-up test. Shou patted him on the back, “Don’t even worry about it Ryu. You did better than last time.”
Ryu groaned, “There’s no time to study for these things when we are out on patrols all night...”
Kyou looked behind them and saw Hiroto making his way over, “Where’s Kenji?”
Seiji looked around confused, “What do you mean? Didn’t he come out with you?”
“We lost him already?” Kyou sighed.
“You lost him,” Shou shifted his bag, “He’s in your class after all.”
Hiro walked past them with his hands in his pockets. He yawned widely as he spoke, “He ran out ahead of Kyou. He’s probably already at STAM.”
[15:32]
Keiko, Aku, and Arisa were walking from the Academy. Their apartment was near and the weather was still warm enough to walk. Arisa walked with her notebook open pointing at her own notes to ask Aku questions about the material.
Keiko walked beside them holding both her bag and Arisa’s.
“Ugh I can’t believe I missed this question! What a stupid mistake!” Arisa pouted at her 4 on the math test.
Aku chuckled, “It’s very like you to miss one point on a technicality though.
Arisa’s pout deepend, “You always get 5s, it's not fair!”
Keiko yawned, “I don’t know why you put so much effort into school. You get the same citizen’s card for getting a perfect score as you would with 3s.”
“That’s not the point!” Arisa folded her test into her note book and pushed it in her bag, but leaving the bag to Keiko to carry, “You would be a top student if you bothered to do more than just passing.”
Keiko shrugged, “I guess I just don’t see the appeal.”
Aku nodded, “Keiko would much rather hit things and do push-ups.”
Arisa grinned at the opportunity to tease Keiko, “For someone who doesn’t care you sure put an awful amount of effort into the school training.”
Aku smiled, “What’s her nickname again Arisa?”
Keiko groaned.
“No touchy!” Arisa jumped brightly.
“And why is she no touchy?” Aku prodded.
“Because her athletic records are so high no one can touch them!”
“Aaaaand?”
Arisa pointed to herself, “No one can touch her sister!”
The two laughed wildly as they came up to their apartment building.
“HAHA very funny,” Keiko brushed her hair back and pushed open the door for the others, “It’s only my actual job to protect you at the academy Arisa.” She locked the door behind them and checked the time ,“Looks like we’ll be right on time tonight.”
Arisa grabbed their bags and set them on the couch before switching the TV on, “Aku can we go straight to the hospital? I don’t want to ride the train today.”
Aku shrugged, “They don’t really like it when we just pop out of nowhere.”
“What about the alley behind the hospital?” Keiko suggested.
“That’d probably be fine. Don’t forget the curtains.”
“Ah!” Arisa went to the curtains and pulled them shut, “Ready?”
Keiko nodded and held out her hand. Arisa took it and they both looked at Aku.
“Aight. Hold your breath!” Aku grabbed their hands and pulled them into the shadow of the couch.