I sat back in one of the bus seats and watched everything pass by as the low hum of the engine allowed me to escape into my thoughts. The bus stopped for the next passengers, one of which was a girl who walked towards me. Looking at her uniform she was a student of G.E. High like me. She had long, strikingly dark blue hair with gradient red eyes that briefly made contact with my own before sitting down in the seat diagonally to me. Thinking nothing of it I closed my eyes and began to think.
Seeing the uniform reminded me that I'm a transfer student meaning I'm gonna have to introduce myself in front of the whole of my class. Being sixteen years old and turning seventeen in a couple of months, I'm transferring quite late into the seven year stay at G.E. High, meaning groups and friendships have already been established so I'll need to make a good first impression. Especially because I don't think my classmates will be pleased to have someone like me in their class.
Let's see. Hi, my name is Ishini and it's my honour to… no. If I say it like that I'll come across as a pushover. Hmm… Hi, my name is Ishini and I know what you are thinking but don't try and start something with me ok… No. I'll look like a real asshole if I say that.
"Hey, you mind if could borrow your phone quickly."
I was interrupted from my thoughts and opened my eyes to see an elderly woman ask one of the many other students in uniform if they could borrow their phone.
"Sorry lady but mine just ran out of battery and I'm going to use it when it's recharged." The student said pulling a portable charger out of his pocket.
"Is they're anyone else who wouldn't me borrowing their phone?" the elderly woman asked.
Unsurprisingly there was a long silence while no one offered up their own phone. I suddenly found myself looking over at the girl with the gradient red eyes wondering what she would do. She looked to be leadership material, possibly a president of sorts in the school? She had a commanding aura around her, not to mention the fact that she was also very attractive looking.
I then spotted the badge on her shoulder.
And judging by the symbol of a dragon head in the centre of the badge she is also apparently very powerful.
Aged sixteen to seventeen and already at the Rank of Dragon. Well, G.E. is meant to be one the best Ethation schools in both the human world and Valhalla.
The girl also did nothing, and the long silence continued.
"Here you can borrow mine." Said a younger looking male student, finally breaking the silence and passed his phone to the old woman.
As this happened the girl I had been looking at turned around, catching my gaze as I was turning to face the bus window. I felt her stare for a few more seconds before she turned back round herself.
Let's just hope we're not in the same class.
I closed my eyes again to return to my thoughts on what to say when I introduce to myself.
I stood outside the school as all the students passed me heading inside while I could hear the bus drive off. The school looked pretty normal. In fact, it was surprising how average it looked for supposedly one of the greatest Ethation Schools out there… Then again.
This school is pretty damn big I thought practically screaming in my head even though none of my surprise registered on my face. Like how can the school have such an average looking aesthetic but then be as big as the castles you read about in Fantasy Novels.
"Hey Lion Rank."
Considering that all the students that had passed through the school gates and I was the only one still standing outside I'm guessing that voice is referring to me.
"Hm?" I murmured as I turned round to find that girl on the bus with the gradient red eyes.
Now I'm not ugly but neither would I say I'm an extremely attractive person by traditional standards. I'd say I'm a little above average when it comes it good looks, I was tall and people have complimented me on my lean build and blue eyes but not many people come up to talk to me, especially people who look similar to a super model like this girl here.
"Is there something I can help you with?" I said bluntly.
The girl stared at me with her gradient red eyes boring into my own almost as if she was trying to intimidate me.
"Why were you staring at me on the bus earlier?" she said getting straight to the point.
"You want to know that?"
She nodded.
"To be honest you look like someone who could be a student council president and was wondering if you were or not. If you went to give your phone to the lady, I would think there's a high probability of that."
"Because the student council president is meant to set and lead example?"
I nodded.
"Well, you're wrong" she said bluntly. " Even if I was the president why should I give my phone to someone who was careless and didn't bring their own on a bus."
Interesting.
"Anyway, I could ask you the same thing. Why didn't you give your phone?"
"Simple reason" I said. "Firstly, I agree with what you said about being careless."
She raised an eyebrow as I said that.
"Secondly I'm not a fan of drawing attention to myself."
The girl took a few step closer towards me making it so we were only a few inches away from each other while she looked up into my eyes as if she was trying to figure out if I was lying.
"What's your name?"
"Ishini." I answered causing her to raise an eyebrow again.
"What's your surname?"
"Makirari."
There was a pause before she nodded like she was satisfied before then walking past me towards the school gates.
"What's your name?" I asked stopping her.
"Why should I tell you."
"Because I told you mine."
"Fair enough" she shrugged her shoulders. "It's Yumie Marble."
She then walked straight through the gates and out of view.
I paused for a moment as I processed everything.
Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be seeing her a lot?
I shrugged my shoulders before walking through the gates and into the school, thus beginning my new life.
After walking for a bit through the school I came across seemingly two separate buildings that looked like they were designated for different students. I took out a note from my pocket that would supposedly tell me where to go.
Let's see. Enter the building titled Upper and attend Class One - S.
I looked at the two buildings and found the one titled Upper on the left. I looked at my note again just be sure and shrugged my shoulders.
Seems to be accurate.
I entered through the doors and came across a very typical school layout with multiple corridors and lockers on the walls all filled with students talking with one another. I walked down the corridors passing all the students, most not even noticing my presence like I hoped however a few spotted me and narrowed their eyes along with other unwelcoming expressions.
Class Three – A, Class Two – A, Class One – A, Class Three – S.
I took note of each class I passed as I walked down the corridor of the different classrooms, counting them down.
"Take that!"
I turned round after hearing a shout and a crash.
A male student collapsed to the ground clutching their stomach as a big brute of a student, at least six foot four, with bulging muscles stood over him.
"Come now you said you'd have the money." He snarled with a grin. "Time to cough it up."
Yeah. I ain't touching that
I turned my back to the commotion, the smaller student cowering in fear as the brute gave a nasty grin before beating him relentlessly. I merely ignored it and
Oh shit.
We stood completely still, staring at each other, quite surprised as neither of us were expecting to be roommates nor expecting that I would ever see Yumie just barely covered up by a towel, basically butt naked. After a long while it was as if Yumie registered what was happening as her face transformed into one of horror while it turned beet red. I immediately felt a murderous intent and aura coming from her.
"In my defence," I said raising a finger. "You were the one who was careless enough to take a bath and run the risk of meeting your roommate in this look of yours. The roommate also having an equal risk of being a girl."
I probably shouldn't have said that as she raised her hand and aimed it right in front of me. The room got notably hotter as what looked like a mini sun the size of a tennis ball formed in her hand.
She's a Mage that can use Solar Magic? Looks skilled as well.
"SUNLIGHT BURST!" Yumie yelled and fired the blast at me.
I quickly leapt behind the sofa, the blast missing and slamming straight into the wall below the staircase. Somehow the wall did not blow up in an explosion of splinters and was only left charred a little bit.
"You know, trying to burn your roommate to ash isn't the best first impression." I called behind the sofa.
I looked up and saw another mini sun hovering in the air above my head.
"You have got to be kidding me."
I jumped out the way before the sun crashed into the ground before then sprinting behind Shion at a speed that from her perceptive would seem almost instantaneous.
"Look let's talk about this!" I muttered behind her.
Yumie whipped round but I grabbed her hand.
"Look it was a simple accident, calm down, I was not spying on you and we are roommates." I said blankly. "If you don't believe me, you can check the note from my envelope next to my bag on the sofa."
Yumie seemed to calm down as she saw the note lying next to my bag exactly where I said it was. The rage and embarrassment disappearing from her eyes.
"Ok I've calmed down; you can let go of my hand now." She said looking down at her feet as I released her.
"I'm going upstairs to get changed, we'll talk after."
I watched her turn round and walk up the stairs and into through the door first door on the landing before closing it behind her. I breathed a heavy sigh before falling onto the armchair beside the sofa.
First that Xander guy and now Yumie. Why is everything I want happening in the exact opposite way?
After a couple of minutes Yumie came back downstairs wearing some casual clothes and went into the kitchen area of the room.
"How are you with coffee?" She called from it.
"Coffee is fine with me, don't mind what kind it is either."
"Black coffee it is." I heard her mumble to herself.
After waiting another few minutes or so she returned holding two cups of coffee, handing me one before sitting on the sofa next to me.
"Think of this as my apology." She said, getting comfortable before taking a sip. She looked very professional.
"A hot drink apology for a nearly hot death. Sounds about right." I said taking a sip of my own.
"You're an Assassin Class, aren't you?"
I nearly spat out all the coffee in my mouth.
"How'd you know that?" I asked, recovering my composure.
"I didn't." She said rather smugly. "It was a suspicion that you've now confirmed."
"Got me there. How did you get that suspicion then?"
"Your speed." She said glancing at my legs. "The Assassin Class is designed for stealth and speed in order to make quick kills with as little trouble as possible. If you had a knife and we where fighting to the death just then."
She stared directly into my eyes.
"You could have slit my throat before I even blinked."
I laid back into the armchair before placing my drink on the side table, ignoring the morbidity of the comment she just said.
"I've met many Assassin Class Espadas in my life and you're definitely the second fastest I've seen."
"The fastest being The Beast King, Anes Blackstone, I'm assuming."
"Correct you are." She said taking another sip from her cup.
"You said you've met many Assassin Classes before. I'm guessing you either have a lot of connections or are quite well known, maybe even both." I said.
It was Yumie's turn to nearly spit out her coffee before then turning to look at me surprised.
"You don't know me!?"
She seemed quite exasperated.
"Does the nickname The Phantom Mage ring a bell?" She asked.
"Should it?" I replied raising an eyebrow. If I did why would I have asked for your name at the bus?"
"That's a fair point. I'm one of the Top Dragon Ranked Mage Class Espadas in the world and have been given the nickname The Phantom Mage because of the lack of people to land even a single attack on me."
"Scary." I said causing Shion to roll her eyes.
"I'm the Incarnation of the Lernaean Hydra which allows to me regenerate from most injuries ranging up to lost limbs. I also have one of the Seven Deadly Sin Skills, Gluttony which is an Active Skill that allows the user to absorb the power of any non-physical attack that is below the user's rank and temporarily stores/stacks it onto the user's own power, plus I have my Unique Skill Spectre."
"The name of that Unique Skill does seem familiar." I said looking up, stroking my chin in thought.
"At least you know of something that I own." Shion said with a sigh. "It's a Skill that makes me intangible, basically anything will pass right through me as if I was made of air."
"What's the time limit?"
"Hm?" Yumie raised an eyebrow.
"A Skill like that is very complex and would use up a substantial amount of Ethas meaning it would have time limit and presumably a cool down period which would be of similar length as the time limit itself." I explained.
Yumie smiled.
"Let's say what you said is correct, I wouldn't tell you anyway." She said. "An Espada should always keep their special cards close to their chest."
I raised my eyebrows for a second as a sense of nostalgia entered my mind before I wished it away immediately while shrugging my shoulders.
"Can't disagree with you there. It's a smart thing to do however didn't you just tell me some of your other Skills?" I replied.
"I'm not so arrogant to think that I'm the only Espada to have the Skill Gluttony. I'm sure there are many others who have the Skill as well, plus there are other regenerative and self-healing Skills out there." She said bluntly, standing up and walking towards the wall of a window and looking out at the evening sky which now started to turn orange. "Note that I didn't tell any of the weaknesses of the Skills either."
"Also, true." I responded, taking another sip from my coffee.
"By the way," Yumie said, turning around. "How powerful are you exactly?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Tomorrow we'll be taking part in duels."
"That should be obvious if you look at my shoulder." I said.
Yumie was suddenly an inch away from my face, her red eyes I could feel trying to seemingly peer into my very soul, reading me for anything she could latch onto. I stared straight back with my own blue eyes, not flinching, and continued to drink my coffee.
"Don't be smart with me Lion Rank." Yumie said in a deadly voice. "You've got a secret. You are labelled a Lion Rank yet you're in the top class of the school. That doesn't just happen."
"Your right, it doesn't. But I'm pretty sure teach explained why I am in that class though."
"I don't buy that." She said, her face completely blank. "Why are you really in that class?"
There was a long silence as we did nothing but stare into each other's eyes.
"Fine ok I'll tell you." I said putting my cup of coffee down. "Could you move back a bit? A girl being this close to a girl could very well lead to certain activities."
Yumie blushed slightly as she realised just how close she was to my face and put some distance between us.
"Teach wasn't lying with what she said." I explained. "That is completely true however there is a second one, that being that I'm from Valhalla."
Yumie raised an eyebrow at that.
"You transferred from Valhalla huh?"
"Yes. And the principle of G.E. High essentially wants me to compare the top students of this Ethation School to the top students from the Ethation Schools in Valhalla."
"I see. Ethation Schools from Valhalla are usually much better and house more powerful Espadas than the schools in this world. If you can claim that your school produces stronger Espadas than the schools in Valhalla, then you get more students wanting to come to this school and in turn make more profit."
Yumie said this while pacing back and forth like a concerned mother.
"I'm a spy basically."
Yumie looked at me for a few more seconds before nodding in satisfaction.
"That clears things up. One more question though." She said as she walked up the stairs before pausing halfway up.
"You seem to never run out of them." I said with a forced giggle.
"You don't have any limiters on, do you? I swear you were stronger in class than you are currently."
I narrowed my eyes.
"No. I don't possess such a thing." I said bluntly. "You were imagining things likely because of your suspicions of me which are now cleared up."
"Yeah, your probably right." Yumie said as she started walking up the stairs again. "It'd be pointless for a Lion Rank to have something that restricts their dead average power. Only Dragon Ranked Espadas or higher would need something like that."
She closed the door of her room behind her, leaving me alone, sitting on the armchair with the evening sky in now full form.
Yumie Marble, you sure are interesting. I'll need to keep an eye on you.
The topic of the duels tomorrow suddenly popped into my head.
That could be trouble. I hate losing
I looked up at the ceiling and closed my eyes.
Why does my highest priority contradict the one below it? I'm gonna have to think of some excuse to not take part in the duels.
I looked at the bright orange sky before taking one more sip of coffee before walking up the stairs to my room.