“Uh Jasper, She’s gaining on us!”

“You don’t have to tell me that!” The both of us were running through the campus, trying to reach the office before that girl starts to kill Jasper. Fucking hell, thank god I was still in shape for running this long.

“Up the stairs! The bridge will take us to the main building!” As our sprint to the office continued, I looked back again and this time, I saw the girl leap into the air and dashed over the fence, landing on top of the bridge

“What the???” She cut right in front of us, knives out and gun ready to fire.

“I know another way!” She pulled me in the opposite direction and the both of us ran for our lives from that psycho.

“YOU’RE NOT GETTING AWAY THIS TIME!” She began to come right at us, like a cheetah gaining on its prey.

“Get out of the way! Move!” People were shuffling and yelling in confusion as we pushed through the bridge. Jasper was still grabbing on to my shirt, to the point I started to feel the fibers rip and tear beneath her fingers. That girl is pretty determined to catch Jasper, it didn’t seem she was going to back down anytime soon.

“Jasper, you are tearing my shirt!”

“Sorry, but I gotta make sure you can keep up with me!”

“I ran track at school you idiot! I can keep up!” As I was still talking to her, I noticed one of her grenades were starting to slip out of her pouch on her vest. This time, it looked like a flashbang or some sort of non fragmentary grenade. Then I looked ahead of us, the corridor was almost there.

“Jasper! Let me go! I have an idea!”

“We don’t have time for ideas-” I pulled her hand out of my shirt and reached for her flashbang, causing us to trip and fall right under the corridor. We both tripped and fell, landing on each other. Bystanders looked at us, confused as what was happening. I had the grenade in my hands and looked at the girl. She was coming to us full speed but had some distance to cover.

“IDIOT! WHAT ARE YOU-” I pulled the pin and threw it towards the girl. It tumbled through the air, so perfectly it was headed directly to her face.

“RUN!” The both of us scrambled to get up and sprint down the hallway. The flashbang immediately blew up right in front of the girl, causing a huge ball of light to shine, blinding everyone around it. As we turned around a corner, I could hear the grunt and impact of the girl, falling down, confused of where we were. She aggressively yelled in frustration, echoing the tall halls that we were in.

---------

The both of us were panting, finally walking to the office. We had to take another route to the building to lose the girl, thank god that flashbang did it's job. The both of us were panting, grasping for air as sweat was pouring down on both of our faces.

“You should’ve said something you fucking idiot!” She punched my arm in response to the flashbang incident.

“Well, I did tell you, dumbass!” She started to laugh. That was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done my whole life. Fucking hell, two pursuits in one day? I can’t even comprehend my luck.

“I’ll be honest with you, that was pretty impressive. I wouldn’t even think of that while being chased!” She continued to laugh and spark conversation with me.

“Well it was just an impulse decision, I didn’t think it could work.” As we had finally reached the office, the tall double doors that made up the entire wall. Right in front of one of the doors, there was a metallic label that had the words “Director’s Office of Operations” in professional white lettering.

“Give me a second…” Jasper walked up to the label and pried it off from the door.

“What are you doing?”

“Just to make sure that idiot doesn’t know we are here!” I looked at her, puzzled by the words she had put out on her mouth.

“Does she even know where we are going?” She paused for a second.

“Y-Yes?” She then looked at the label, realizing her dumb mistake.

“You really don’t think before you do-”

“Shut up! It’s not like it's going to be suspicious in any way!” as she was about to put back the label, faint footsteps, almost like it was running footsteps, started to echo throughout the hallway.

“Those stupid scumbags, i’m going to rip their fucking eyes and let them see how it feels…” Fuck it’s that crazy bitch again. As I started to walk to the door, I was instantly dragged through the doorway by the collar. It felt like my neck was about to snap from the abrupt pull from Jasper.

She immediately closed the door and locked it, and barricaded the door with a small table right next to us.

“We’ll be safe for now-” We both looked up and saw Athos in his uniform, talking to a person behind a desk.

“Lieutenant? Kid? What are you two doing here?”

“What do you think? Came up here to bring him to the director.” Now standing tall behind the desk, was not a normal human being, but a robot?

“Yes I did…” He stood straight up, stiff but almost like vigilant, with his dark suit and coat hanging from his seat behind him. It looked menacing with the glowing lights on his head, like a mask with an aura being emitted.

“Would you mind though, explaining the purpose of putting my table in front of the door? And, what is that in your hand?” His voice sounded distorted, obviously like a robot but not to the point it was like an auto generated sound. It was more like a normal person talking if that makes any sense. Maybe he’s a cyborg or a humanoid?

I feel like that would be kind of rude to ask haha…

“Ah well… that would be a complicated story to explain…” She nervously chuckled and sighed. I guess she doesn’t know how to explain things well.

“Well, when you leave, please put it back.” Out of nowhere, the doors violently burst open startling everyone, except the director. It was the girl once again, this time she looked deranged, her hair was messed up, wobbling from that flashbang that I had thrown earlier. She was grinning, her jaw clenched up and eyes looking menacing… or maybe she was still shaken up by that flashbang. Her grunting and moaning started to grow into an uncontrollable rage, raising her gun directly on Jasper’s head.

“AGHHHHH!!! JASPER!!!” The both of us hit the floor, covering our heads. Athos tried to reach for his pistol to shoot back. She shot her pistol rapidly until her gun jammed on the third shot.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

*click…*

She kept on trying to pull the trigger, only leaving clicks and empty shots. Few more seconds and the clicking stopped. All that I could hear now was the panting and heavy breathing of the girl, from the subtle drops of debris from the bullet holes, to the painful grunting of Athos.

I looked up, the girl was still pointing her pistol in the direction where Jasper was supposed to be. She was wobbling and… she had her eyes closed? Does she not know how to shoot a freaking gun?

“What *agh* the fuck was that for???” Athos tried to get up but instead layed down, trying to alleviate the pain.

I stood up and looked around the room, which Jasper followed the same. One bullet hit the wall right next to the window, another one had hit Athos on the shoulder, knocking him back on the ground. The final bullet impact surprised both me and Jasper, to the point where we might question the girl’s fate.

She had managed to graze the Director’s mask, leaving a scrape visible to the naked eye. Right behind him, a single bullet hole in the window.

“Um…” I couldn’t comprehend the stupidity of the situation, and all I could do was let out some sort of humanized voice of some sort.

She had finally opened her eyes and looked around the room. “Huh…”

She glanced between me and Jasper, and the crippled Athos lying on the floor. She then looked at the director, eyes widening as she began to realize what had been done. The director subsequently reached towards his grazed mask, fingers tracing the small valley that had been left by the bullet.

“Uhhh…” She tried to holster her gun back but was flailing and struggling to put it in.

“Director sir, I can explain-”

He belligerently cleared his throat, startling and stiffening the girl in the middle of the room. As he flicked the residue off his metallic fingers, he stared directly at the girl, a threatening aura emitting around him.

“Miss Halsbrin…” The director’s voice didn’t sound so happy. The terrified girl slowly developed small droplets of sweat, dripping down from her arms.

“Y-Yes Director!” God, seeing this is making me feel uneasy.

“Would you mind explaining what you are doing here?”

“Ah- Um… you see…” Her words started to tumble like a bookshelf falling on top of her. She then pointed at us, angrily gazing at us.

“I chased down those two because um… they were carrying something suspicious! So I followed them and heard them enter this room! And the label was torn down so I didn’t know it was your office!” Everyone, including me, just looked at Tori, dumbfounded by the excuse she made. Obviously, no one was not buying it.

“Tori, you do realize that the majority of students carry a weapon of some sort in this institution, and other things that are already questionable in normal society. Give me a convincing explanation.” I knew she tried to think of another explanation with the nervous face expressions she was making. Eventually she gave up and broke in.

She exhaled, and turned her head again to Jasper.

“I… just wanted to duel Jasper…” The director crossed his arms and sighed. The disappointment from him felt so heavy.

“You do know the protocols of starting a duel, and you saw that the Lieutenant here was busy bringing my client right here.”

“Y-yes…”

“So I assumed you chased these two down all the way to my office. So in earth’s existence, why would you fire your gun so blindly?” I can already feel the heat from this conversation, mostly coming from the director himself.

“Jasper shot at me first! She’s the one-”

“Me? I wasn’t the one who completely leaped at me with their fucking blades out!”

“Stop it you two…” The director started to get agitated every time each of them threw an insult at each other.

“I WASN’T THE ONE WHO ABANDONED THE PREVIOUS MATCH-”

“EXCUSE ME??? I HAD MORE IMPORTANT STUFF TO DO, RATHER THAN YOUR WORTHLESS DUELS-” The two of them kept on bickering, yelling, and even to the point they were up against their faces, almost breaking to the point of an actual duel.

“That’s enough!!!” The director slammed on his desk, setting everyone’s attention to him.

“You two figure something out before I do because if I have to do it, you both are not going to enjoy it…” The girls let go of each other, dusting themselves off and backing away.

“Jasper, bring Athos to the infirmary and get him fixed up. Tori, I better see you do something else other than bothering people right now. If I see you ever do something this reckless, I will have you removed from this island permanently. Dismissed!” Tori immediately storms out the room as I hand Athos to Jasper. Finally the tension in this room had loosened.

“AGHHHH!” She yelled down the hallway in frustration, echoing outside the door. I can for sure say that this first impression is not looking very good for me. As Jasper and Athos left the room and closed the now busted door, it was just silent. Me and the Director. He sighed and sat down in his chair and leaned on his desk.

“Take a seat Mr. Kizuato, let's just start from the beginning… my apologies for not introducing myself earlier but here we are. Ylias Northren, Director and Head of operations of Heiwa Academy.” I shook his hand and sat down on the chair in front of his desk.

“Um, nice to meet you? Uh…” He chuckled in response to my confusion.

“Yes I know you are very unaware and you want some answers for the questions you have. This is what this discussion is about.” His hands clasping together, and his chin resting on his fingers makes me feel that nothing good is going to come out of this.

“I’m still forced to do this am I… I have no say apparently.”

“Well yes, and no to put it bluntly… the situation is complicated to say the least.” I leaned back and rolled my eyes and grunted. I just want this to be over.

“Let’s begin with why things are the way they are. This island and institution is home to one of the most highly sensitive research facilities out in this universe and houses a great handful of talented beings. When it comes to prestige and elitism, there are people on this planet that would want to take advantage of the technology and the infrastructure we have here. It would be very valuable to any person with malicious intent. So we had to secretly take our students and bring them here.” I scratched my head, confused as to why I’m here talking to him. That sounds like a whole kidnapping...

“But what does that have to do with me? It just sounds like you are just taking these people and doing something suspicious to them.” He laughed and shook his head in disagreement.

“No no no. As I have said earlier, we only pick a handful of people with certain attributes to be even chosen to attend this school. We would have their transcript immediately blocked from every university so they can’t get accepted and set up a certain pick up location to take them.” What the hell?

“That just sounds like complete blackmail! What if they don’t want to be in this university?” He leaned in, clasping his hands back again.

“Well, obviously we are an elite institute and only focus on the ones who perform at their best. If one were to not perform well, we would have to basically wipe their memory of this place and bring them back to their homes and have a secondary plan set up. Like have them go to a college and such.”

“So… Can I not go here then?” As much as this island was cool and all, I just had a bad feeling about it. I mean I am not paying for anything but… it just seems too suspicious. He pulls out a piece of paper, neatly folded up professionally and hands it to me…

“This is a document for authorizing your acceptance. Normally we would have our Intelligence division do the choosing, but you are a special case.” As I opened the letter, reading line by line, the name of a person I knew was popping out like a highlighted word…

… Under the authorization of accepting the chosen student (Akani Kizuato), all objections have been overridden and further proof of eligibility outside of Heiwa Intelligence Division has been provided by the UFFE Prime Minister...

Ellhis Kizuato.

You got to be fucking with me… My mother, behind all of this bullshit stuff.

“Now, now... before you get heated, you should read more and understand why.” He pointed to a certain section of the page…

After the fourth war in accordance with Batake Kizuato, all protection and supervision of Akani Kizuato must be kept. The student must attend Heiwa Academy due to security threats and danger of the kidnapping of student or attempt of assasination by MAC operatives. Identities of Ellhis Kizuato and Akani Kizuato have been changed slightly to accommodate these issues. But with recent increase of threats made to the Prime Minister, the need to put the student in Academy hand’s was needed urgently…

“Threats? Assasination? Kidnapping? That just sounded like what happened today! What the fuck are you talking about?!?” The director sighed as I started to progressively get heated. Nothing on this island makes fucking sense. Nothing about today makes any sense.

“Akani, you are a main target of interest by a lot of terror groups.” I stopped thinking for a second, gazing up at the directors eyes.

“What… does that have to do with me? Is it because I’m the son of the prime minister?” He clears his throat, and stands up. He closes and covers the window with the blinds, falling from the ceiling. The room instantly became dark, only with a hologram popping up from his desk.

The hologram suddenly opens up a figure.

“As much as I hate to say it, a lot of stuff has been kept secret from you..”

“What…” The human-like figure suddenly changed into a beautiful woman, almost looking like… my mother?

“Let’s start with your mother…. Her real name goes by Ellihisa Lyuna Kizuato the third. She was the heiress to the throne of the Falsean government on that planet. She was one of the first Falseans that landed on earth, the one that helped organize the UFFE. After that, the rest was history.” He then changed the hologram to another person.

“During the last days of the war, your sister, Ellie, was shot down in the attack of the Satan one. Despite being a casualty, the military counted her as missing instead of killed…” He kept on going and explaining everything that I had not known about the years I had been growing up. My heart started to pound faster, his words started to become more vague and distorted. I couldn’t focus anymore...

“...your father, he was the one to end the whole war. He killed the MAC leader in hand combat whilst sustaining multiple injuries. He sacrificed himself for the rest of the European front-”

“What does everything have to do with me being here! Why do I have to take all the misery?”

“Akani…”

“I lost half of my family, both Ellie and Dad and now my mother wants to take everything away that I tried to become?” I couldn’t control myself…

“Akani! Listen to me-”

“WHY DIDN’T SHE TELL ME ANYTHING? WHY WOULD SHE LEAVE ME IN THE DARK FOR MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE AND THEN HAVE ME COME HERE SO YOU CAN JUST FUCKING EXPLAIN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE AGAIN?” I slammed on his desk, panting and heaving completely overwhelmed by the pouring amount of information that I received. I can’t take it anymore, my emotions are just falling like an avalanche.

“I… don’t understand anymore… I lost everything… I don’t have a normal life...” I started to tear up,

“Look over here! Say hello…” The sound of a recorded video was playing in the room. The glowing hologram showed a small kid, a smaller version of me.

“Akani, come here! Say hi to your daddy…” That kid was running towards his father, right next to him, a little girl holding on to the father’s pants.

“Come here you little warrior! Agh here we go! Say hi to the camera…” Tears formed and trickled from my eyes. I walked towards the hologram, trying to get a closer look. My little self kept squirming around and laughing, looking at my dad and messing with my sister’s hair.

“Listen here okay? I know you want to be like your sister and mother, but you are still too young… When that time comes, I’ll teach you what it means to be a fighter, a strong defender of the world, the superman of earth. You like that right?” a small cheer and laughter was heard after his sentence. The video paused. The smiles of my sister, father and I were only left on the screen.

“You used to look up to your family… your father and mother always talked about you so excited to learn when we were deployed. Ever since your father and sister died, you just lost all hope.” I started to remember now… looking back at it, I always looked up to my family in their duties. Knowing my younger self, being the naive kid I was, all I could think was just joining with my family.

All of that just came crashing down after that war... that damned war. Devastated, unmotivated, I had nowhere to go. I didn’t know how to feel or what to do. All I had left was my mother, but even then. She wasn’t there for the majority of my life.

Fuck, I don’t want to even think about this again…

“There are reasons and intentions behind everything in life Akani, as much as it hurts, it has to be done. Your mother wanted to not only protect you but also give you an opportunity for you to be truly who you are.” I stepped back, confused on what my mother wanted me to be.

“What can I be? What I can be is what I want to be! I want to have a normal life! Some life that's… not this, doing what sketchy shit this school does!” The director puts his hands behind his back, and looks directly into my eye.

“Well, tell me what you want to be then. Do you even have a plan or a goal you want to reach?”

“I-” As I was about to speak, my mouth just stopped. I paused. The room was filled with silence and the subtle noise of the hologram and the outside life.

What I wanted to be… I had nothing in mind. I thought I had everything planned and set in stone in my life.

What did I want to be?

“You have nothing in mind is what your mind is saying.” I sighed, defeated and completely emotionally drained. I sat down on the chair again and put my head to hands, pulling my hair in complete stress. I don’t know anything… I don’t know anything about my life.

“I don’t know…” I mumbled under my breath. I kept on repeating it until the director held on to my shoulder.

“How about a compromise per say?” I looked up, as the director opened up the windows and turned off the hologram.

“If it involves me getting out of this place, yes I will listen.” I don’t want to be here. All I can feel about this place and what my mother planned is just bad news. Some more bullshit and unnecessary crap that I have to deal with.

“Not quite exactly, but here's my take…” I sighed and grabbed my belongings and headed to the door. I wanted to walk out and leave this place.

“One year…” I paused where I stood.

”One year is all I need. Your mother may not be happy about it but I’ll do the dirty work later on.”

“And what after? Completely brainwash me-”

“You may choose to leave this campus. We’ll have you set up at your preferred university and have your tuition paid off.” I looked back at the director, standing behind his desk, leaning towards me.

“My life is already miserable as it is… There is no point of trying to convince me.” I turned around and reached for the doors.

“Akani, once you step outside those doors, your reality is going to be more miserable than you are right now. There are people who can recognize you and take you for ransom with your background. The only reason you haven’t been kidnapped yet is because we covered your back for years on end. Faking your identification, location, everything! We can’t give you anymore protection after this.” He sighed, trying his best to convince me.

“Your life… it’s going to be shit either way regardless, but one is a lesser evil than the other whether you like it or not… it’s your choice.” There was an opportunity right in front of me and I had the chance to take it. All I was doing was let it slip by me. If it was true that I could be taken for ransom, then I have to stay here and do what I need to do. I don’t know why my gut was telling me no.

What the fuck am I going to lose either way…

“You said one year and I leave… Right?” He nodded, and leaned back relaxing his shoulders. I let go of the door handle, taking a deep breath, and stared right at him.

“One year. Nothing more.” He crossed his arms, nodded to his satisfaction.

“Well, let's get you situated then.” I groaned, emotionally drained, and completely defeated.

“Don’t worry, we’ll give you the proper training and preparation for life on this campus. You’ll need it.”