BAM!!

Kumiko went flying out of the academy building and onto the track field, crashing into the bleachers. Kimura backs up a bit as he runs down the hall and jumps out of broken wall, jumping towards Kumiko’s direction as he lands with a loud thud.

A small crater is then created from the impact, The dust from the ground settles as Kimura sees Kumiko wasn’t underneath him. He looked around to see Kumiko nearby, phasing in and out horizontally.

That’s not normal…

Kimura launches himself towards Kumiko, throwing a punch as the metallic fist just phases right through her head, taking a punch straight into my ribcage, even through the metallic covering, Kimura felt his ribs crack slightly.

He winced in pain as Kumiko grabbed his arms and threw spun around before throwing him straight towards Korvos who was watching from the cracked hole in the academy wall.

Korvos jumped towards Kimura as he dove over him as Kimura flew through and crashed out onto the rooftop. Korvos landed with a roll as Kumiko had already appeared in-front of him with a sweeping kick already in motion.

He raised his guard up towards the kick as the kick sent him skipping off the ground sideways, rolling across the ground as he flipped up onto his feet. His feet dragged across the ground as Kumiko didn’t let up on the initiative throwing punches as Korvos blocked and dodged them.

Kumiko then threw a left jab as Korvos raised his guard, expecting the hit as he was suddenly punched in the liver with a large amount of force. Korvos flinched at the power as Kumiko threw a left hook, going around his guard and smashing him across the temple.

Shit…

Korvos stumbled as Kumiko rushed again, throwing a combination of punches and kicks as she leaped up and slammed her knee up against Korvos’s jaw. Korvos was dazed as he took the punches before raising his guard up.

Kumiko then looked to the left as Kimura smashed her neck with a lariat, obviously pissed off now. Korvos lowered his guard to look as Kimura let out a deep sigh as he ran towards Kumiko.

She got back up on her feet quickly as she tried to do the same trick to Kimura, throwing a left punch as Kimura raised his guard to his face. She smirked as her hand phased through as she threw a right liver blow this time.

HUH…

Her eyes widened as she didn’t feel an impact, glancing over she sees where she punched was also phasing in and out. W-What the hell…! She was then met with a swift hook to the face, stumbling back a bit still dumbfounded by what had just happened. Kimura rushed in without saying a word as she tried throwing a punch again, this time Kimura swiftly slipped under her punch, somewhat re-creating their first interaction.

She knows that a counter punch is coming as she was ready for it, seeing the counter punch coming. She smirks as she makes her head phase through it, getting ready for an elbow counter. She launched her elbow at the back of his head as her elbow phased through his head as well.

She couldn’t believe this was happening as Kimura swiftly swung his lowered left fist straight up into her side, cracking three ribs and winding up slightly to launch a stronger punch at her face.

BAAMM!!!

The punch launched her flying across the field as she skipped off the ground and crashed through the exterior wall that went around the school. Kimura stood up firmly as he gasped for air, he held his breath that entire time.

That ability is unique…but a pain in the ass to get the timing down…

Korvos sighs in relief as he falls to one knee, other students rush over as they go to help Korvos again.

***

Back at the student council room, Wei-Hu was searching around and saw a broken window with a long ladder.

Why would someone break in…And how did they know this was the room…

Many questions filled her head as she searched the area, seeing that mostly nothing was touched. However, upon searching Korvos’s desk, she saw that all his cabinets were open. Pushing them in one by one, she saw that the only locked desk cabinet was busted wide open, broken off its hinges.

Someone knew that the Dried Red Siphon was stored in here…We normally keep stuff harmful or illegal in here…So…

Just as she thought of that, she heard a small rustle, looking up she saw nothing as something was off about the council room so suddenly. The air got more tense as she glared around the room.

I have a feeling…someone’s watching me…from up close and a far…

Wei-Hu wasn’t going to give up on her hunch as she walked away from the desk, slowly walking towards the broken window, pushing the curtains to the side so the air wasn’t pushing against it.

The more she looked at the window and its shattered pieces the more she noticed a small pattern forming.

A break into the student council’s room from the outside window while the council is still recovering…It seems too coincidental…all after the day of a big fight…

She steps back as she walks out of the student council room, searching and inspecting nearby as students were passing each other in the hall. A couple of students were helping rebuild the damage in the ceiling and the walls.

Wei-Hu scans the area once more, seemingly becoming desperate to find a clue on why this happened. C’mon…there must be something… She then spotted a student on the other side of the academy, standing in the walkway above the garden looking at her direction.

The individual looked feminine; her hair was a dark brown color from afar as she just lightly waved with a sinister grin. This gave Wei-Hu red flags as she bolted towards where she was, running and bursting through the double door, seeing the girl wasn’t there.

“Wha- Where did-”

She looked around frantically, seeing that the girl was nowhere to be seen. The other students looked at her with a bit of concern, their newly appointed Counter is looking a bit insane in the moment.

I swear she was standing here…

The bell rings however as She grits her teeth from the frustration, deciding to leave it open ended, heading back to her classroom. Just as Wei-Hu left the walkway, the girl walks out from behind a locker at the opposite end of the hallway Wei-Hu is walking, staring at her as her eyes shifts colors, taking on Suharu’s appearance before heading off.

***

At the Medical Longue on the second floor, The Doctor was using a small scanner that helped him detect any abnormalities. He scanned his entire body as he saw his jaw was slightly fractured and his ribs were cracked, Korvos was taking deep breaths as the Doctor put the scanner away.

“Your ribs, your left side is cracked, and your jaw has microfractures…How hard of a punch did you take?”

“I took a very angry punch and a mean leaping knee…Anything to help repair it?”

“Yeah, but only a small dose.”

“What is it?”

“It’s called Kelp Marrow, who would have thought Kelp would be a suitable substitute for filling in cracks.”

“No clue honestly…”

The Doctor gets up as he walks over to an overhang cabinet, opening it as he begins digging into the cabinet.

“Say, we never really got your name doc.”

“You didn’t pay attention to the orientation? It’s Dr. Hendrik Tuft.”

“Do you think anyone pays attention to the orientation in the first week…” Korvos explains to Dr. Tuft.

“…good point.” Tuft responds.

After searching for a little while, Dr. Tuft pulls out a long and slender bottle that looks like a repurposed wine bottle. He looks at the label as it says Pure Kelp Marrow, leaving the cabinets open as he pours the slightly foggy liquid into a small plastic shot cup.

“Here, drink it.” Dr. Tuft tells Korvos, handing him the cup of Kelp Marrow

“Drink? Isn’t that dangerous?” Korvos responds concerned, looking at the cup then back up at Dr. Tuft.

“Ingesting Kelp Marrow isn’t dangerous; it’ll make you constipated once it’s done but it’ll help your bones repair those fractures and microfractures.”

“A-Alright…” Korvos takes the cup of Kelp Marrow, taking a deep breath before he swallows and downs the shot cup.

The Kelp Marrow has a very bitter taste to it, almost too bitter to even ingest in the first place, however the aftertaste lessens very quickly almost like it wasn’t there. Korvos just hopes that this wouldn’t give him some kind of bacteria that’ll make him sick.

Dr. Tuft then puts the cap on the bottle of Pure Kelp Marrow, putting it away in the cabinet and then closes the cabinet door. He then turns his attention to Kimura and Kumiko; Kumiko was laying on the medical bed as she was unconscious.

“I don’t even want to know what the fuck happened to her.”

“…Tell me about it, we got out to commotion and then she was going all AWOL on us…”

As Kimura was ranting, Dr. Tuft squinted his eyes at Kumiko’s bruised face, taking out a latex glove and putting them on. This suddenly concerned both Korvos and Kimura as Kimura got up from his chair and got out of the way of Dr. Tuft, standing near Korvos.

“Something wrong doc…?”

“Yeah. Very wrong…” Dr. Tuft’s sudden tone shift was alarming.

Dr. Tuft leaned towards Kumiko’s face, keeping a safe distance as he grabbed a Q-Tip, dragging it across and underneath Kumiko’s nose and above her lip. Dr. Tuft then quickly walked over to his desk as he grabbed an eye dropper out of a container filled with water. Without wasting time, Dr. Tuft dropped water onto the Q-Tip, dropping only two drops of water.

Within seconds small red dots begin to form on the Q-Tip as it reacts to being rehydrated by the water, as it sparkles almost on the Q-Tip.

“…These are Red Velvet Siphons…Where did she get her hands on these…” He turned to look at Kimura and Korvos with a serious look.

Before any of the two could answer honestly, the door slides open as Wei-Hu stands there looking over at Dr. Tuft.

“Asuka had brought them to the Academy.”

“Huh? T-The girl I saved?” Kimura spoke up, remembering her soft and timidness from yesterday.

“How do you know of that?” Dr. Tuft questions Wei-Hu.

“Kumiko told me before she was blasted with a small balls worth of that thing…”

“So, this entire thing cycles back to Kyoushou Academy huh…” Korovs doesn’t sound surprised nor happy.

“……”

“Where’s the rest of it?” Dr. Tuft questions Wei-Hu.

“No fucking clue, I searched the area while Kumiko was dealing with Korvos and Kimura, not a damn trace was left.” She responded to Dr. Tuft’s question.

“However, we do need to know why a Kyoushou Academy student came all this way to Haven Academy with an illegal substance…” Wei-Hu ponders on that question.

“At this point…we might as well make an amateur IU (Investigations Unit)…” Korvos jokes.

“Well Wei-Hu, did you manage to figure out who the other person was? The one who Asuka was giving it to?” Kimura questioned her.

“No, it’ll take more than just three of us.” She responded.

“God…you guys are loud…” A feminine voice came out from behind a curtain.

Korvos, Wei-Hu and Kimura looked over as Suharu pushed the curtain to the side as she sat up, stretching a bit. Korvos sighed in relief as Kimura looked away slightly and Wei-Hu was just glad to see she’s alright.

“Well, we might have to put that little scuffle on hold Korvos.” Suharu tells Korvos.

“Why is that Suharu?” Korvos asks her.

“Don’t you remember what’s happening next week?” Suharu looks at Korvos with a raised eyebrow.

“Wha- ohh…oh right…” Korvos remembers now.

“What is it?”

“You’ve gone to the Middle Grounds before have you Kimura?”

Kimura remembers hearing the word but hasn’t gone over to wherever this middle ground takes place.

“Uh…not really but I’ve heard of it.” Kimura responds to Korvos.

“Think of it as a subliminal place in your brain when you sleep. Except there’s land, grass, trees, air, the sun, all the essentials for life, but there is no life where that place is and it spans endlessly even beyond where the horizon line is.”

“Huh…So somewhere in the void?” Kimura simplifies it.

“Pretty much but it’s much livelier than that since we’ll be there.”

“Oh, so what’s the deal with it?” Kimura questions again.

“Well…There’s a tournament that’s held once every Eclipse Cycle where all academies from all five archipelagoes go to fight and see which academy archipelago holds the title of the ‘best in the world’.”

“And it’s next week?”

“More like…three days.”

“Oh.”

Korvos nods a bit sighing as he looks over at Suharu and gets up, walking over to her. Both began chatting between themselves as Kimura turned to look behind him, seeing Wei-Hu and Dr. Tuft chatting as well.

Kimura makes his way out as he begins heading towards the middle of the garden, walking through the open double doors and walking onto the walkway. While walking Kimura looks up from his feet to see a lady standing on the other side, her hair was pitch black as her eyes gleamed a gold color.

She was sitting on the edge of the stone fence (or wall) as they both made eye contact. She was quite silent as the tension in the air between them was quite heavy, before Kimura knew it, he instinctively stepped back two steps, looking down to see a shadow just inches away from his feet.

“You have good instincts…” the girl complimented him, wearing the Haven Academy uniform.

“Who are you. I can tell you’re a Haven Student…”

“Who am I?” She giggles with a slight nonchalant tone as she stands up on her feet, “My name is Ayameko Ishida…”

“Ayameko huh…Kimura…Kimura Makoto…” Kimura responds, more cautious than before.

This is a weird feeling…it feels…it feels like…I’m staring right at a demon itself…

Kimura looked at Ayameko as the type of aura she’s emitting is giving off a threatening feeling almost like she’s threatening Kimura even from a distance. Ayameko just smugly smiled as she blinks, her eyes contrasting her demeanor as the shadow begins to retract.

“Can’t take a joke, can you?” She smugly giggles again.

“uh huh…” Still on guard he responds as he starts to lower his guard.

“I have no intention of fighting you, in a fight it’d be a draw…” Ayameko boldly claims.

“How would you even be able to tell? We’ve never fought before, nor met. This is our literal first-time meeting…”

Ayameko sighs at the sound of his words, “Staying on some kind of high horse huh?” She looks at him, her eyes sharpening at him.

“Ayameko, you’d lose in a fight if we ever fought.” Kimura also boldly claims.

She shakes her head with small chuckle, crossing her arms, “What? Do you want a play test? Not even half strength would easily take you out…”

“How about we test that then…” Kimura grew irritated.

“Oh? Did I strike your ego with that?” She faked her gasp covering her mouth softly.

Unable to contain his irritated anger at Ayameko, he lashes out by dashing towards her, his first mistake.

Ayameko smirks slightly as the shadow beneath her flings out from below, forming spikes that shoot out from the ground. Kimura barley sees this at the last second dodging out of the way as it grazed his arm, making a clean cut.

Kimura continues as Ayameko flicks her wrist to the left towards his direction, the shadow circling back as a shadow individual lunges out and tackles Kimura with immense force, pushing them to the garden below.

CRASH!!

A small crater was made within a part of the garden as Kimura got up, dodging several attacks from the shadow individual, taking a step back as he slipped around a punch, throwing a quick punch across where their cheek would be, however it seemed like it had no effect on it, somewhat shaking Kimura’s resolve a bit.

The Shadow Individual then spun trying to backhand Kimura as he ducks under it, Kimura throwing a liver blow as they catch his arm, punching his arm joint as Kimura cries out in pain slightly, they take advantage of this as the shadow individual then backhands his cheek as Kimura breaks out of the hold.

Wiping the blood off his lip, he looks up to see Ayameko sitting on the ledge, smiling down at them as her shadow seemingly goes underneath the bridge and down a pillar to ground floor.

Son of a bitch is playing tricks…

Kimura decides to take it seriously as Kimura rushes in towards the fight as her smile fades, the shadow individual matching his speed. This is where the experience is shown as both the shadow individual and Kimura aim at different spots. The Shadow Individual aims for the throat, preparing a Lariat as the Lariat misses, Kimura ducking under as he rams his fist up towards the shadow individual’s jaw, obliterating the head off the shadow person.

The body crumbles as it fades into the shadow underneath it. Kimura sighs slightly as he didn’t expect himself to take a fight seriously after such a long time. He looks up at Ayameko as she’s just clapping her hands slowly.

“So, that’s the true student of Ishimura huh? Bravo, you’ve impressed me.”

“Huh? What were you planning?”

“Planning? Nah I just wanted to see if the rumors of the Ishimura student being powerful was true, taking on a shadow individual from my shadow at close range is already impressive, but obliterating its head right off with me being it’s third eye on the field? That’s even more impressive.”

“So, this…was just some sort of test?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” She stands up as the shadow retracts all the way back up to Ayameko, “I’ll see you later Kimura.” She leaves as she heads somewhere. Kimura sits down to take a breather as he thinks to himself, man…what’s fucking up with today…Kimura took some time to let everything sink in as today was one hell of a day.

Nearing the end of the day, Kimura was in his room as he was sitting on his bed crisscrossed, looking at an old notebook as his roommate comes out of the shower and just lays down on his bed. His roommate sporting a space-like nebula hair pattern as his hair color and his eyes were comparable to stars being within as they were inconsistent.

"Man, how long are you gonna work on that thing...?" He asks him.

"Not that long, just get your sleep in Naoki." Kimura responds.

"Alright, suit yourself..." Naoki yawns as he reaches for the light, pulling on the lamp's lever as the light turns off.