Day One

          It is another beautiful day on this Monday morning. It doesn't seem like fall is right around the corner. Adrion steps out of his dorm, wearing his new uniform. He adjusts the badge on his purple blazer and steps forward, leaving his tie loose. The school campus is roughly a 30-minute walk away. Adrion gets a sense of déjà vu halfway through his walk. An arm wraps around his shoulders. "Good morning! How's it going? And don't you dare say no different from yesterday," Kazou shouts in Adrion's ear.

          "Same as yesterday," Adrion replies. His reply struck a nerve in Kazuo.

          "Why must you be like this," Kazuo sighs.

          "At least it's an indication he's doing fine," Ringo says as he catches up.

          Kazuo pauses for a second, "I suppose that's true. By the way. What's with the purple blazer? I thought 1st-years got a blue one."

          "Uhm, that's not true…. Blue is for those with the least potential, like us, who barely scraped by. Purple is for those who got a higher score like Adrion," Ringo tells him.

          "But Adrion nearly bombed the academic portion! No fair. We should get the purple one for acing that portion," Kazuo complains.

          Adrion smiles to agitate Kazuo, "they care more about power, so try and catch up with me. If you can, that is."

          "Ahhh, damn you. Just watch. I will surpass you soon enough," Kazuo yells out.

          The three of them reach the school campus and use their school ID to enter the gates. Kazuo and Ringo are both amazed at how spectacular and over-the-top the school looks like. Many students, like Kazuo and Ringo, are surprised at their first sight. The school spans a hundred acres of many different buildings and open areas. All the students are instructed to meet at an open hall for orientation. There are three separate ones, with the largest belonging to 1st-year students. The students are split depending on the color of their uniforms. Adrion walks to the side with students wearing royal purple uniforms, whereas his friends walk over to the navy blue side. Adrion immediately recognizes Roland and Honoka from the entrance exams wearing purple blazers. He also spots Alia, who is being treated like a queen by the other students. It takes a while for everything to get situated, but eventually, the director walks up on stage.

          The director clears his throat before speaking, "Welcome all 1st-year students of Cacumen Academy. I am the director, Goro Hirabayashi. Firstly I'd like to congratulate everyone for passing the entrance exam. Cacumen Academy is a prestigious school where all of you will be able to grow exponentially and become an elite in society once you graduate. Everyone, look to your left. Now look to your right. Out of the 1,200 students here, 90% of you are expected to be expelled for not performing to the school's expectations. You will have to perform better than 90% of your classmates if you wish to survive this grueling world that is our school. That is all from me. Good day to you, and good luck."

          All the students clap as the director walks away. A 2nd-year student walks on stage. Elegance radiates from her as she walks to the microphone. She has short dark purple hair and green eyes. "Hello 1st-years. My name is Josepha Evers, a 2nd-year student holding the fifth position in the Golden Plates." The crowd goes wild, especially the guys.

          Josepha continues, "I'll be explaining how things work in our academy to those who might not know. Let's talk about expulsions. As the director mentioned, you will fail if you do not meet the school's expectations. This includes numerous things. Firstly is grades. If you consistently keep getting low or failing grades, instructors can submit you in for review to be expelled. Breaking strict rules such as fighting, destruction of property, wounding others outside of regulated battles, or killing will result in immediate expulsions and possibly other consequences with the law. Lastly, the most common one for expulsions is not meeting the necessary point requirement. All of you will start with one hundred points. By the end of the first quarter, you will need 500 points. One thousand for the second quarter, 1500 for the third, and 2000 to be eligible for the advancement exam. Points are distributed through high grades in both lectures and lab assignments. The most any of these can offer is twenty points. The best methods for getting large amounts of points are through certain school events and regulated battles. If you hit 0 points at any point, that will result in immediate expulsion. There are also certain expenses that require points, so make sure you keep track of how many you have. That's it from me. You guys can now head to class."

          The students clap as Josepha walks away, then head to class themselves. Adrion slowly walks down the hall as he reads the class numbers to find out which he is in. He finds his classroom and opens the door. Most of the seats are already taken. There are three available seats, but only one catches his eye since it is next to someone he somewhat knows. He walks up to the seat and sits down. Most of the other students are flabbergasted at where Adrion chose to sit. He looks to his left, "so we're in the same homeroom."

          "I would appreciate it if you sat somewhere else," Alia tells him with a cold gaze.

          "Sorry. Since we're in the same dorm, you're the only one I recognized. Technically there are two others, but the seats next to them are taken."

          "Whatever," she sighs.

          Two other students rush into the class and sit on the last available spots. Moments later, the instructor walks in. Adrion recognized him as the proctor for his exam. A swole bulky man with black hair that's nearly a buzzed cut. He has a military background aesthetic, but it's unsure if he was in the military at any point.

          "Good morning, students. My name is Stephen Rivers, and I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next three years." He announces as he reaches for a marker. He writes his name on the corner of the whiteboard. "To make it easy on me, please stay in the current seat you guys are in for the school year." Mr. Rivers does roll call and writes names on a seating chart. "Today is a bit special, but you'll meet here every morning at 7:30 am every school day. We'll be here for an hour every day, and it'll be for giving you guys any announcements, answering any questions, or helping you with anything. You can catch up on other assignments from any other classes, or it'll be free time if you're all caught up. By the way, today there will be an event for all 1st-years. You'll all be let loose on the first stage of the beast forest. Your objective is to capture a beast, either dead or alive. The higher rank the beast is, the more points you'll get. You'll lose points if the beast is mutilated, unrecognizable, or if you don't capture one. You have the next two hours to prep or research before it starts. Once it does, you'll have until 2:30 pm to complete your search."

          Most of the class doesn't seem too interested in preparing. Some of the students talk about working together, but that's about it. Adrion rests his head on the desk and unintentionally falls asleep for the next couple of hours. He awakes to the sound of his classmates getting up. He quickly grabs his bag and follows them. They walk through the campus toward the large forest in the back. The students leave their belongings in lockers near the gates. All other 1st-year students gather around the multiple gates that lead into the forest. All the gates open simultaneously, and an alarm goes off.

          Students with sharper instincts, like Alia, Roland, Honoka, and others in their class, immediately rush in. The other students thought there would be more instructions and once they realize, they chase after the students ahead. Adrion stares at the forest from afar and gets a flashback from the forest behind his parents' home. He shakes his head and then strolls through the gate. Adrion is one of the last to enter the gates. He looks around and sees students combing through the forest. Adrion is far too familiar with traversing forests due to growing up near one and hanging out with his adventurous friends. Adrion starts picking up the pace and heads further into the forest. He comes across multiple animals like birds, rabbits, snakes, and deer, but no signs of any beasts.

          Adrion searches for an hour and ends up by a river. He walks along the bank of the river in the hopes of finding anything trying to drink the river water. After five minutes, he notices indentations on the soft dirt by the river bank. "Footprints," he says under his breath. He deduced something approached to drink water and walked away within the last fifteen minutes. The tracks disappear once they get further from the moist dirt near the river bank. Adrion walks to a denser part of the forest where the tracks are heading. He notices a large tree that sends a rush of nostalgia. He blinks a few times as he stares at the tree, then sees something odd. Long black hair sticks out behind the tree. An arm comes out and grabs the tree trunk. Cold sweat runs down the back of Adrion's neck. A head slowly protrudes out. First, the golden horns come out. Next, you can see pale skin emerging. Her black sclera eyes with golden yellow irises come into view. Adrion hears snarling coming from his shoulder, almost like a warning sound.

          "Guess it's not my imagination if you're reacting to it. Right buddy?"

          Her fingers drive into the bark with ease as her mouth emerges. A smug yet sadistic grin is plastered onto her face. Adrion takes a few deep breaths and feels something run down his right arm. He infuses magic into his left arm as a black fluid-like object comes out of the sleeve of his right arm. Adrion hears the bushes on his left shake. Out of nowhere, a large armored boar runs out squealing, almost like it's running from something. The black object immediately retreats into the sleeve, and a light ray flies out of the bush, hitting the boar behind its neck. The armored boar drops and slide on the ground stopping right in front of Adrion. Alia comes out through the bushes and approaches the beast. Once she spots Adrion, she looks at him.

          "What's wrong with you?" she asks.

          Adrion looks back at the tree and sees nothing. He looks back at Alia, "oh nothing. Still hunting."

          Alia turns to her left and sees the tree. She notices the damage on the bark of the tree trunk. She looks back at Adrion with a confused look, "whatever." Alia uses her magic to create a platform of light beneath the dead beast and lifts it into the air. She walks away in the direction of the gates to exit.

          Adrion continues looking at the tree, only to find nothing. He walks away from the tree in the opposite direction. Adrion walks mindlessly until he spots a clearing ahead. He spots Kazuo and Ringo looking around. He spots multiple carcasses on the ground. They're completely mutilated, but you can tell they belong to small beasts.

          "What's going on here?" Adrion asks.

          "I don't know. That's how they were when we got here," Ringo replies.

          "It's hard enough that they're hard to find, but now there's someone out there killing them so students can't get the points," Kazuo adds.

          All three of them hear voices in the distance. Adrion follows the sound, with the other two following him. Adrion moves some branches out of the way to clear the path. He spots his dorm mates standing. The three girls look around on the ground at dead, unrecognizable beasts. Adrion looks around and sees some purple fluid on the dead beasts. A slight sizzling can be heard on the flesh. The girls spot Adrion approaching.

          "That's how you found them?" Adrion asks them.

          "Yes. We heard the beasts making noises, so the three of us rushed here, hoping to capture them. I guess the noises were them screaming in pain," Ivika tells him.

          Adrion feels a pinching on his shoulder with a whisper. He looks out in the distance and sees the silhouette of other students hiding amongst the tree. Adrion faintly hears snickering as they walk away.

          "Looks like some students are trying to make it hard for others," Adrion tells them.

          Some of the girls gasp. Harper gets annoyed, "Why would they be doing that? That should be against the rules!"

          Adrion thinks for a second, "we're going to have to team up if we want to pass. We have less than two hours to capture a beast for ourselves. Ringo, you're the beast expert. What around here will we find in abundance and provide lots of points."

          "Beast expert?" Ivika asks.

          "My family is involved in handling beasts that are found in our region. My dad has taught me a lot of how to track them, handle them, weaknesses and advantages, etc." Ringo tells them. He rubs his chin as he thinks, "hmm, let's see. One does come to mind, but they're a bit dangerous. During our free time, I confirmed they're in the first stage as the most difficult beast."

          "And what is it?" Kazuo asks.

          Ringo seemed hesitant to speak, "Lightningrod Wolves."

          "Lightningrod…" Harper says.

          "Wolves?" Sylvie finishes.

         "I think I've heard of them," Kazuo speaks out.

          "I haven't dealt with one myself, but they're strong. The wolves are always in packs and usually found in underground dens. They generate electrical currents, which they use to paralyze or kill."

          "Can we capture them alive?" Adrion asks.

          "Killing one is already going to be hard. To capture six of them alive? Now that's insane."

          "We'll have to do it even if there is a slim chance," Adrion tells him.

          Ringo sighs, "Fine, but if anything happens, that'll be on you. To increase our chances, we're going to need bait. Preferably live bait. Next, we'll need to find an underground den and catch them by surprise once they take the bait."

          "Can you three explain your abilities?" Adrion asks the girls.

          Harper speaks up first, "I create an exoskeleton armor that enhances my strength. It's stronger when it's only my arms."

          "I can pull things closer to me. Like telekinesis,” Ivika says.

          Sylvie nervously speaks, "I-I can make vines that release a paralyzing toxin…."

          Adrion and Ringo look at each other.

          "Alright, I admit it. Our chances have increased," Ringo says.

          "We'll split off in groups of two. Kazuo, I want you to come with me to do something. For the other two groups, one will have Ringo to search for the den, and the other will have Sylvie to capture live bait."

          "I'll go with Sylvie!" Harper shouts. "I hunted with my father and brothers so I can be useful."

          "That leaves Ivika with Ringo," Adrion says. "Alright, let's go."

          The three groups run in separate directions to complete their task. Harper and Sylvie run towards the entrance to capture rabbits. They still see other students struggling to find a beast for the assignment. Harper signals to Sylvie to slow down and stay quiet. They walk away from where the students are since there won't be any rabbits near them. They walk for twenty minutes in the tall grass. Harper puts her hand in front of Sylvie, signaling to stop. She crouches low and notices a pile of small round dark balls.

          "Rabbit droppings," Harper whispers. She uses her hands to split the tall grass. "There," she whispers.

          Sylvie peeks through the grass and notices four rabbits eating and hopping around. She focuses her magic to her hands and raises them to aim toward the rabbits. Three vines spring out from each of her hands. The first vine misses, and the rabbit hops away. The other three rabbits turn their heads where the vine hits. At that moment, the vines wrap around the rabbits' necks. They struggle and squeal, with the vine constricting their necks. The thorns release toxins into them, and the rabbit slowly falls asleep.

          Harper runs to the rabbits while Sylvie wraps the vines around the rabbits' whole bodies. "I'm sorry little guys, but I want to pass," Harper says as she picks up two of them. Sylvie picks up the third one, and they both run back to where they planned everything.

          Ringo and Ivika run through the dense forest, avoiding tripping on roots or smacking branches. They encounter the river and quickly cross. They continue onwards towards the opposite side from where the entrance gates are.

          "So, what are we looking for?" Ivika asks.

          "These wolves are different from regular wolves. They like to create tunnels that lead to a large open area that is their den. So any large hole on the ground could potentially lead to their den," Ringo replies.

          "Okay, big holes."

          It's been forty minutes since they started searching. Ringo is out of breath and stops running. He pants and leans against a tree to rest. "This is such a gamble. There's no guarantee we'll find them. Damn it. Why did I go along with this plan?"

          Ivika returns once she realizes Ringo has stopped. "What's wrong?" she asks.

          "Just exhausted," Ringo continues panting.

          Ivika hears a noise in the distance. She tilts her head to look past Ringo and the tree by him. She squints her eyes to focus on what she is looking at. "What's that?" she asks.

          Ringo turns around. His eyes widen, "you gotta be kidding me." He spots a large wolf walking away from where they're at. It looks like it's carrying an animal in its mouth. It has a large grey coat and two small horns with rounded tips protruding from its head.

          "I'll track the wolf. You head back and bring the other here," Ringo tells Ivika.

          "Okay, but be careful."

          Ivika retraces her steps to head back to the other while Ringo slowly approaches the wolf. Ringo is careful not to make any noise and not get too close. Ringo takes a step forward and steps on a twig. The wolf hears the snap of the twig and swiftly turns around. It drops what is in its mouth and stares. It uses its nose to sniff the air but detects nothing. Confused, the wolf picks the dead animal up and continues walking away. Ringo sighs with relief. His skin returns to normal, and he proceeds to follow the wolf. Ringo had created bark around his whole body to blend in with the tree behind him.

           Adrion and Kazuo are sneaking around some bushes. After he looks around, he comes out of the bush with Kazuo behind him. "So, what are we looking for exactly?" Kazuo asked.

          "A little revenge."

          "Huh? What are you…."

          Adrion cuts him off by signaling him to be quiet. "We're close. Come on."

          They move forward close to a clearing in the forest. They see beasts that have been killed and tied up. Up ahead, they see three students, one touching the ground with both his hands. "Get ready he shouts." The one touching the ground gets up and swings his arms upward. Dark rope-like things are coming out of his hands. It almost looks like what is wrapped around the dead beasts. After a brief moment, a bunch of small beasts get dragged by the dark rope closing in on the caster. The other two look like they're getting ready to attack. One of the students launches a purple oozing liquid that immediately burns and melts the beasts. The beasts cry out in pain. The other student creates a bat-like weapon made of an odd material. He started Smashing away at the tied-up beasts to smash them beyond recognition.

          "That's just disturbing. Doing that while the beast is still alive," Kazuo says under his breath.

          "Yeah. Can you go to the dead beasts and deform them with your heatwave?" Adrion asks him.

          "Ahh, I see what you're planning now. I like it," Kazuo agrees. He leaves his blazer by Adrion and rushes in near the beasts. He looks as if he's constipated to charge up his magic and then releases it. "Come on. Come on!" Kazuo increases the output of the heat wave. The skin on the dead beasts changes color as it starts to crisp from the heat. Blisters start forming on the carcasses. Adrion creates a bunch of fluid in the shape of spikes. He uses his right hand to touch the liquid, which turns it black. He aims and shoots it at the beasts. Kazuo runs back to the bush and picks up his blazer.

          "Hey, what's going on?" one of the students yells.

          "Our beasts!" another shouts.

          The three students run towards the three beasts. Adrion spreads his right hand, and the spikes embedded into the beasts expand outward, destroying the bodies. Adrion and Kazuo make a run for it at full sprint. After twenty minutes, they return to Harper and Sylvie holding the paralyzed rabbits.

          "Finally. We've been waiting a while, and no one showed up." Harper shouts.

          "Sorry, I just need to take care of something. So the other two haven't returned?" Adrion responds.

          "Nope, nothi-" Harper gets cut off by the sound of shrubs moving.

          Ivika steps out of the shrubs, "Hurry, we might have found the den. The other guy stayed behind to track a wolf we saw."

          The group follows Ivika deeper into the forest. They cross the river and continue further in. Ivika slows her pace out of breath, "th-this is where we saw it. Just ahead from this tree."

          Adrion takes a look around and spots something on the tree. "This way," he announces. Everyone follows Adrion as he scans the trees.

          "Over there!" Kazuo shouts.

          Adrion heads in the direction that the arrow made of bark points to. Adrion glances past the tall grass and comes to an immediate stop. Everyone else does the same. Ringo is crouching up ahead, staring forward. Adrion tosses a small pebble next to him to signal to him. Ringo turns around and spots all of them. He waves over, signaling to get closer. Once they do, he points ahead at a hole on the side of a hill. Adrion turns around to grab the rabbits. Sylvie removes the vines around them. Adrion surrounds them in black fluid and sends them out toward the entrance. He removes the black fluid and signals to everyone to move out. They all spread out and approach the hole.

          Everyone waits a couple of minutes until the rabbits regain movement. Ringo throws a rock near the entrance to alarm the wolves. Wasting no time, seven wolves rush out of the hole and spot the rabbits. The sound of static emanates from the wolves, and the rabbits drop. Adrion looks at Ringo and sees him nod his head, signaling yes. Kazuo jumps down in the center and releases a heat wave that hits all the wolves. Adrion quickly sends black fluid to surround Kazuo as some of the wolves attack. The wolves fail to break through the black fluid, and Ringo shoots out make-shift bullets made of tree bark.

          "Yes! I got the sweet spot. Paralyze them now!" Ringo shouts.

          Sylvie sends out her vines to wrap around six of the wolves. At the same time, Adrion releases the black fluid around Kazuo and wraps it around the seventh wolf. He moves the extra wolf back to the hole and seals it. The wolf smacks against the black fluid, and the others drop to the ground. Sylvie runs with the six wolves, and Ivika pulls on them to help lighten the load on her. Adrion also creates a platform on each of them out of the black fluid. Between the three, they haul the paralyzed wolves and head straight for the exit. The time ticks down quickly. There is only ten minutes left. The group sees the gates ahead with the timer counting down. Ivika stops pulling on five of them and only takes one. Adrion also releases the platform on all but one and continues taking it forward. Sylvie leaves the vines wrapped on all of them but only pulls on hers to cross the gate. Harper uses her magic to create an exoskeleton around her arms to pick up her wolf. Kazuo and Ringo struggle to drag their wolves through the gate. They manage to cross in the last few seconds. An alarm goes off, signaling the end, and all six drop to the ground, exhausted. An examiner approaches them with a clipboard in hand. The vines on all the wolves wither away, exposing the bodies.

          "Oh, what the? You guys managed to get Lightingrod Wolves? And alive! That's crazy. How'd you guys pull this off?"

          Ringo answers, "If you hit them in just the right spot, it disables their electrical current. Luckily we had someone who could paralyze the wolves with toxins. The right knowledge and tools always make the job easier."

          "Well, there's no doubt you guys pass with flying colors. That's going to be 150 points for each of you."

          "Yes!" everyone but Adrion shouts.

          The examiner calls over for tranquilizers to return the wolves. The three students causing a mess, walk out of the gates with nothing in hand.

          "Oh wow, the only student to have come back empty-handed," says the examiner.

          "It's not fair. Someone messed with our good!" they plead.

          "Wouldn't have been an issue if you delivered it as soon as you got it. That's going to cost 75 points for each of you."

          Adrion gets up, "Let's go home and rest."

          Everyone gets up and goes to get their bags. They exit the campus and walk back to their dormitories. Halfway through their walk, Kazuo leans over to Adrion and whispers. "So who are these girls, and why are they still following us?"

          "The four of us are in the same dorm, along with Alia and a 2nd-year male student."

          It looks like tears of blood come out of Kazuo's eyes as he violently grabs hold of Adrion's uniform. In the angriest yet quietest tone, he expresses his feeling, "you're telling me you share a dorm with not one but four girls?!? You're dead to me man!" He runs off crying as he enters the premise of his dorm.

          "Well, see you tomorrow, Adrion. Bye." Ringo waves and follows after Kazuo.

          Adrion and the girls make it back to their dorm. As soon as they open the door, they spot Ichiro standing on the other side of the door, staring their way. "So, how was your first day?" he asks.

          "Stressful," Sylvie responds.

          "Tiring," Ivika says.

          "Terrible," Harper adds.

          "Nothing that I couldn't handle," Adrion finishes.

          Alia walks down the hall, "Good to see my dormmates passed. It would've been embarrassing otherwise."

          The comment hit the girls like an arrow through the chest since they passed with the help of Adrion and his friends.

          "We banded together for our beasts, and the examiner said we scored the highest," Adrion replies.

          Now Adrion's comment ticked Alia off. "Whatever," she says and walks off.

          Emiko sticks her head out, "Does anyone want cookies? I just baked them."

          The girls couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, we'll take some."