9

After the assembly, students flooded the halls, splitting into their newly assigned squads. First-years whispered excitedly about their first mission, second-years rolled their eyes like veterans of war, and third-years acted like they were above it all.

Squad 8 was assigned Classroom 3-C for their briefing.

Hikaru trailed behind the others, shoving his hands into his pockets. That weird flicker in the system still nagged at him. Ren's name had glitched for a second. But the system didn't make mistakes. Maybe he was just seeing things again. Immortality had that effect after a while.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Tsubasa shoved open the door, walking in like he was dragged here against his will and placing his tablet on a desk he was leaning on. "How long do we have to do this squad nonsense before they let us stop?"

"Come on, it's fun!" Kaede plopped into a chair, spinning it around. "Teamwork, friendship, explosions-"

"Those are three completely different things," Yuna muttered, already flipping through the mission briefing file.

Hikaru glanced at the last member of their squad. Hoshino Kuroya, who sat with his arms crossed, legs stretched out in a lazy sprawl. His broad frame took up too much space, and he hadn't spoken a word since they got here. He's known to be powerful in battle. Maybe he's here to balance them out for the lack of offensive abilities, since nobody in the group can actually fight monsters, except maybe Hikaru. And also the fact that they have Kaede, an underage student. Who even thought it was a good idea to have underage students take part in these missions?

Tsubasa groaned, rubbing his face. "Ugh, why do we have to work with a musclehead?"

Kuroya didn't even look at him. "Didn't ask to be here either."

Tsubasa narrowed his eyes. "Oh great, he speaks."

Kaede kicked her feet up on the desk. "You two should fight. Like a sparring match!"

"Absolutely not," Tsubasa deadpanned.

Ren had been quiet the whole time, sitting at the edge of the room, fingers lightly drumming against the desk. She looked like she was thinking about something, but she always looked like that.

Hikaru leaned against the wall. "So, what's the mission?"

Yuna adjusted her glasses. "Patrol. Basic recon. Shouldn't be dangerous."

Hikaru sighed, shutting his eyes for a second. Patrols were boring. That was good. Boring meant nothing would go wrong.

Then again, he was still alive. The world always failed him, all the way back from 500 years ago, the day he was born. That meant something was bound to go wrong eventually.

He sucked it up. Whatever. Maybe he just needed more sleep.

And if it wasn't the sleep, he'd deal with it.

***

The silence stretched.

No one wanted to be the first to actually take this seriously.

Tsubasa, having sat down properly, leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "So, do we have to pretend we care about this, or can we just show up tomorrow and hope for the best?"

Kaede raised a hand. "I vote we wing it!"

Ren shot her a look. "You don’t get to vote on that."

"Why not?"

"Because it’s a terrible idea," Yuna said flatly, flipping through the mission file again.

Hikaru let out a slow breath, his fingers tapping against his arm. His eyes flicked to the file in Yuna’s hands. Maybe he should actually pay attention. He was supposed to be the responsible one.

Not that anyone ever believed that.

Kuroya, still silent, finally leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Where is it?"

Yuna glanced up. "Hm?"

"The patrol." His voice was low, almost bored. "Where are we going?"

"Sumida Ward. Starts at the old subway station, loops through the abandoned mall, then back."

Kaede let out an excited noise. "Ohh, I hope we see ghosts."

"Why would you hope for that?" Tsubasa asked, appalled.

"They’d make things interesting!"

"You people are insane," he muttered.

Hikaru’s jaw tightened slightly. Sumida Ward is part of it, the Outer District. The less developed areas of the city. Of course, it had to be there.

He had history with that place. Well, where didn't he have history with at this point?

No one else seemed fazed. The others were still bickering, unaware of how fragile this world really was. Maybe that was for the best.

"So," Kaede kicked her feet up on the desk again, "when do we meet up tomorrow?"

Yuna checked the file. "7:30 AM. Mission briefing starts at 8."

Tsubasa groaned. "That’s so early."

"You can sleep after," Ren said.

Kuroya exhaled sharply. Maybe it was supposed to be a laugh.

Hikaru finally pushed off the wall. "Alright. If that’s it, I’m leaving."

No one stopped him.

Because, as far as they knew, this was just another mission.

But Hikaru knew better.

And the nagging feeling in his gut told him this was only the beginning. But was he going to do anything about it?

No.