The voice that yelled finally climbed up the ladder and stood up on the roof, revealing a young woman wearing tactical gear― slim and minimalistic but not like a stereotypical woman with a gun you see on magazines or highly stereotyped movies. She was pretty and fit, gear suited for stealth, looking like a modern-day ninja.

“What do you think I’m doing?! He’s the one who ran away!” She came up to Athos and forcibly lowered his gun with a push of her hand.

“This is a pickup Athos! Not a fucking kidnapping!” She stared at the man with disappointment.

“Shooting them in the legs and letting them pass out before you? Why did you think the director put you in punishment for a week from last month’s incident?” Athos merely smirked back. I guess he wasn’t joking around… lovely.

“Athos, get Yuma and take him down to the car, I’ll do the rest.”

“Tch, this is bullshit…” He helped up the downed man, holding him by the shoulder. “Let’s get this over with then shall we?”

She sighed in reply and began walking towards me. I still had my gun up, eyes wide in fear and confusion. With each step she took forward, I took one back. She stopped, took a deep breath, and removed her gun from her body, slowly dropping it on the ground.

“I’m not here to kill or kidnap anyone, you just have to trust us… or, if it’s easier, just me.” Bit by bit, I started to calm down, taking slower breaths, lowering my weapon. She offered an inviting hand to me to give the gun over. Once the weapon was out of my hold, I fell down to my knees, let out a deep breath, and looked at my hands for almost a minute in total shock.

“There, see?” My head felt lightheaded.

“Sorry for what you had to experience and uh… this whole fiasco my mates caused.” She says softly, kneeling down and dusting my shoulder off. I still continued to stare down at my shaking hands. My veins were popping out, pulsing a pure blue. I know I have done questionable things in the past, but disarming a person and standing face to face against a man with a gun?― it was an immense shock to me.

She softly taps on my shoulder to grab my attention. “Hey, are you good?” I took a deep breath and looked up at her. With her eyes the color red… maybe almost crimson, she stared right at me, almost as if she was looking at my soul.

“No, I’m not looking at your soul…”

Huh? What…?

“How did you...” She chuckled and helped me straighten up, as I was surely a full-on wreck. As I checked myself for any dirt, she went back to get her gun from the ground and holstered it. I was sweaty, dusty, and miserable. She comes back almost immediately, grabbing my hand and shaking it forcibly.

“The name’s Jasper Rheins, the one supposed to be leading your pick-up crew. But obviously that didn’t happen correctly.” She says, exasperation evident in her words. I tried to gather my thoughts together and try to speak as normal as I could.

“Yeah… yeah, no shit... and what do you mean by a pick-up crew?” I looked around, mind swarming, the extent of everything that had happened finally hitting me. Unbothered by my confusion, she pulls out a piece of paper from her small bag along with a tablet, holding it up to my face.

“Hold on, I need to scan you.” She turned on the tablet and the camera attached clicked to life, examining my face and eyes. It went over my features a couple of times until finally stopping, a robotic voice saying simply: “Scan complete, Identity confirmed.”

She looked at my face, then back to the tablet and then back to my face once more. “So... Kizuato Akani right?”

“Y-yes, um... could you please tell me what exactly is going on?” Immediately after I asked, the tablet began to ring, getting a call. I guess I’ll never get my question answered. At this point, I just want to go home and get some rest, eat some food and enjoy what I have left in life. I looked at Jasper, who, for some reason, looked almost as nervous to answer the call. Is it really that big of a deal?

“Shhh! I need to concentrate!” How the fuck? I immediately groaned, annoyed by my confusion and lack of answers. She accepts the call, revealing a black silhouette on the screen.

“Ahhh director, how convenient! I was just about to-” She was suddenly interrupted by a very distorted voice, sounding like something that came straight from hell.

“Did you get him?” Jasper visibly didn’t look confident but she was trying her best to stay… well, normal.

“Oh uh, yes! Yes he- I mean we did!” Why is this such a big deal- oh, and she’s now giving me the death look. She must have some kind of supernatural power to hear what I’m saying. I’m just watching a so-called “leader” just nervously talking to someone that is merely asking questions… Well… possibly the fact that the voice sounded downright terrifying but, that shouldn’t be a problem if you talked to him already, right?

“Was there any problems dealt with?” She started to look very nervous, considering that she tried to laugh it off like there was no issue.

“Oh no there was no issue! It all went according to-” I interjected in her sentence, just pissed off to the boiling point. I just wanted to go home.

“Actually no! I was held at gunpoint! No one is giving me any answers to anythi-” In a flash, my gut felt like it was being twisted and crushed. Jasper had punched my stomach so hard that I fell to the ground, groaning in pain. Now I knew what it felt like to be Yuma when I kicked him down earlier. I looked up to her, still in pain.

“Oops… sorry! Just needed to relieve some stress.” She glared down at me, seething, looking like she was seconds away from killing someone.

“Hey! Augh... you bitch! What was that for?!” I tried to stand back up, clenching my throbbing stomach.

“Huh? I thought I told you to shut up!” She suddenly got into my face, as best as she could given the height advantage I had over her.

“What do you mean, prick? You fucking lied to whoever you are talking to-”

“The director?”

“Yes! And you haven’t tried to tell me anything that I need!” She stuck her finger right in my chest, pointing aggressively.

“Maybe because you don’t need to know anything yet! What are you? Some dense-ass protagonist?” We both kept barking at each other, almost getting physical, and arguing over almost nothing until we were finally interrupted by a horrific laugh on the other side of the tablet. Whoever it was, it sounded playful.

“Ah, you two are hilarious!” He clears his throat "Jasper, go easy on the kid. He’s just like every other first year.” Jasper finally lets me go, giving me a disparaging smirk. I dusted myself off and tried my best to compose myself. Jasper gets the tablet from the ground and dusts it as well.

“So, since you want answers, I’ll give you answers. Mr. Kizuato…” I already got my questions lined up to be said.

“Thank you. Just what is going on? How do you know me? Who are you people?” I really just hope I get what I want to know.

“So Mr. Kizuato, you are being picked up by these people because you have been selected to join us at our specialist academy.” The screen changes into a map, showing an island somewhere off the ocean. It was very small but grey and green, almost like the entire spot of land was a city.

“What is this academy? I didn’t even know that this place existed until just now...” The screen then follows up to a new picture:

-HEIWA ACADEMY-

STUDENT: AKANI KIZUATO

STATUS: ACCEPTED

My name was bolded on the screen under the big name, Heiwa Elite Academy. The status bar below my name showed “accepted”, colored in green. It was almost like I was being initiated into some top-secret organization. It doesn’t feel right, the fact that I am entirely sure that I did not sign up for this. I just know that something is up and it was nothing good for me.

“This academy only chooses students in Earth and Falsea who possess certain traits and talents that… well, benefit both that individual, the academy, and the world.” The screen changes into a picture of my face, almost like from the camera in the scanner that Jasper used on me earlier.

“We choose students with their unknown capabilities that could be put into good use and…” As he continued, a whisper came from the tablet, almost like a different person was talking to the director. The conversation lasted for a second, with the inclusion of aggressive whispering, it ended with a sigh.

“Looks like we might have to cut short, there is some important business that I have to take care of. Sorry about that.” The screen then transitions to the same silhouette earlier. “Jasper will take care of everything else from here on out. You can try to ask some questions, but she might not be able to answer all of them...” I sighed, knowing that I got the answer that I needed, albeit half-assed.

“Oh and one more thing, Mr. Kizuato...”

“You will be going to the island today. I want to talk to you personally…” I looked at the tablet in shock.

“Wait… today?! Like, not going home today?” I started to stress- pulling my hair and pacing around the roof. There was too much to think about right now.

“There’s no need to panic Mr. Kizuato… we have arrangements set up for your arrival. And really, you can’t say no to any of this since you have, well… maybe three guns ready to put against your head, but I don’t see any issues arising from that right?” I sighed. He was right. I guess I don’t have a say in anything.

“Jokes and threats aside, I would want you to come to my office when you have settled down. From there, I’ll give you the answers that you need… Obviously, there’s a lot of things that you don’t know, many of which probably should’ve been said years ago...” Jasper starts to pack up her things and once done, she makes eye contact with the tablet she has been holding.

“Director, we’ll start heading out now…” Jasper then looks at me, strangely serious. “I know this whole thing is a shit-show in itself but, everything is going to be alright in the end you know?” The tablet speaks for the final time.

“You’ve got to trust us, mister Kizuato, there’s no other way around it.” As if I really had a choice. Jasper says something to the director before hanging up. From here on out, I didn’t know how to feel, the mixture of confusion and worry piling up and prohibiting my other emotions from forming correctly. I was so conflicted at everything that I’ve been told, to what has been happening for the past hour, and quite frankly, I didn’t know what to do. It was like I’m on a train ride that leads to an unknown destination that I’m forced to go to.

“Hey Akani, we better start heading out. We’ve got a jet for us at the airbase and it won’t wait forever. Make sure you bring everything you have.” I grabbed all of my belongings and my bag that I carried along. I then started to realize something that I was forgetting.

“Wait! What about my stuff from my home?! I’m not going home!” She looked like she forgot to tell me something that she should’ve told me earlier.

“Yes, yes, about that. There’s another team breaking in and cleaning it out to bring as well. From your clothes to your filthy porn mags, they are all going to Heiwa.” She smuggly grins, enjoying how annoying she knew she was being, despite how stressed I was. I already know she’s going to be a pain in the ass if I end up being stuck with her, and that’s not even including the other two, Athos and Yuma. they themselves are already a headache without doing much.

We headed down to the street where there was an armoured car waiting for us. It looked almost like one of those SWAT carriers that the police use but with some slight color changes in the design, such as it’s lighter blue trim and matte black color. Both me and Jasper entered the car with Yuma laying down in the back. He was okay, all he wanted to do was sleep, which was understandable. Athos, on the other hand, was up in the front, seated behind the wheel.

“What took so long? We’ve been waiting for almost fifteen minutes!” Jasper threw her bags and gloves in the front seat at Athos.

“Ahh, quit whining. The director called me during the scanning. It wasn’t that long. Also you sir need to report to the head office for what happened earlier! I’m not trying to get yelled at tonight.” Athos scoffed from Jasper’s remarks.

“Ah I’ll take care that, you don’t have to remind me twice…” He starts up the car, rumbling it to life. “It’ll be an hour to arrive at the airbase, so I hope you grabbed everything.” Once I was seated behind Athos and Jasper to my side, we began our trek towards the airbase. I looked back at Yuma only to see him snoring. Jasper also takes a quick glimpse at the snoring man and pokes him on the cheek, seemingly trying to see if he was actually passed out.

“Just leave him be. You didn’t do that much to him with your kick.” She laughed under her breath. To be honest, when she is not being a total pain in the ass, she could actually be a decent person.

“What? I can’t be nice all the time?” The way she immediately jumped in right after my thoughts caught me off guard.

“Okay, answer me this time, how are you doing that? That’s like the fifth time that you've answered me without me even opening my mouth…” Athos gave a haughty laugh in the front, Jasper smiling all innocent at me. I was too damn tired to deal with much of anything right now, and with these people irritating me, it was just making it worse.

“Oh man, he really doesn’t know about shit.” Athos said with a final huff of amusement, finally calming down. Which was good because everytime he laughed, I could feel his steering sync with his compulsive laughter, drifting left and right.

“There’s so much to learn kid, there’s a reason why the academy chose you.” Athos suddenly took out a brown folder and chunked it right at me, hitting me in the face. It was sealed with the word “Confidential” on the front with a string binding it.

“What is this?” I started to unwrap the string, The paper felt quite bulky and heavy.

“It’s your information and everything about you, probably could learn a few things about what to expect at this school by just looking at it.” As I opened it up, I was greeted with a list of information with my name on top of the paper. From my biological stuff to my home. However some of the other things in that list were either missing or just not completed.

------

STUDENT: Akani Kizuato

Approved by: Heiwa Intelligence Division

Age: 18

Gender: Male

Blood: AB

Height: 5’10 / 177.8 CM

Birth Year: 2160

Birth Location: Hawaii, USA

HS Graduate: Yes

Heiwa Rank: 1st Year / Rank A

Division: Unassigned

Sei Score: N/A

Element: N/A

CS: N/A

Wep: Not Assigned

Room: Not Assigned

Team: Not Assigned

PU Team: Tigris Alpha

PU Lead: Jasper Loren Rheins

Information / Notes:

Tier 4 IP- must be kept safe at all times. Affiliation currently classified for the safety of person and affiliates.

Testing- Testing of individuals could not take place due to the security of the IP. Testing will be conducted at the academy with all accommodations. Individual also has limited skill, accommodations will be given to said individual to have a minimal and fair observation and evaluation.

Sei Evaluation: From HID, the individual has potential to have element to be used. Selection of the student has already been made.

Final Conclusion: Individual’s Element is unknown due to incomplete testing. Individual will be given appropriate Sei Crystal to activate element once evaluation is done.

The notes at the bottom were the things that Athos mentioned to me. What the heck is a Sei score?― and what “evaluation” are they going to give me? All of this almost looked like I was some kind of mutant from X-men and this was almost structured like Hogwarts. Jasper took the paper from my hand and turned into another section of the packet.

------

The page had all of my achievements and talents… and my disciplinary record? The whole page was listed from the beginning of middle-school all the way up from graduation. From my academic competitions to sport accomplishments… and reports of my terrible conduct throughout highschool. However, despite the long list of my record, right beside each achievement or record was a word lined in red saying “OMIT”. Everything on that list was omitted. So the reason behind this whole thing was now more confusing on my end. Jasper then pointed out the omits.

“You see Akani, as the director said, we don't just willy nilly choose anyone to attend the academy..” She hands me back the paper. “Heiwa is not only an elite school, it’s home to many specialized students that have their own talents. Talents in which not a lot of people possess. This academy didn’t choose you for your talents that you have shown, but the traits you may possess, something that you didn’t even know you had.” She pulls out a knife from her pocket, just inspecting it and cleaning it.

“A lot of people at this academy specialize in combat, just like me, Athos, and Yuma.” She puts her blade back into her sheathe.

“So what you’re saying is that everyone at the school has these so-called “talents”, in which most use them for combat... Sounds more like a private military company than it is.” She chuckles again but shakes her head in disagreement.

“Ah that’s what a lot of people say, mainly conspirators who’ve never actually stepped on the island. Yes, most of us specialize in combat but heiwa is also home of one the most extensive research facilities on this planet. From medical, technological, and military combat. It was where the discovery of these powers existed.” As time has flown by with the conversations with Jasper, nothing still lines up with anything that I know currently. From the pick up, to my rejections, to even the things I am hearing right now, I still have a lot of questions, but I’m not trying to annoy Jasper again, seeing as she might try to assault me again if I did cross that line.

I feel now that I just might as well accept it, there was little use in fighting back and escaping this mess. I might just as well figure out what the hell is going on when I talk to the director. I wonder who he’s like? Is he intimidating when you talk? Who knows.

My legs were sore and my mind was tired. We had a little less than an hour until we reached the airbase. Slowly, my eyes started to close and my mind drifted away to the low rumble of the car.