Nerusona

Chapter 1

Prologue

Power is something that people are naturally drawn to. The greatest form of authority would be to be in full control of the world, and many of times such a desire had been sought after.

Not once had a single person been the leader of the entire planet.

Sometime late in the 21st century, a new attempt at world domination spurred nearly out of nowhere. Wars were inevitable; with the rapid growth of technology, many countries feared the damage high-tech weapons would deliver and submitted before any actual wars broke out. Some countries aligned with ××× hoping that they wouldn’t be regarded as enemies.

Those opposing ××× formed a unity among themselves and became the Resistance.

Those aligned with ××× became known as the Conquerors, and ×××’s goal for world domination was informally called the Conquest.

Before war even started, there was terror. ××× constantly announced to the world how they were going to one-by-one crush every country apart of the Resistance. Provoking fear was effective, and a few countries gave in and joined the Conquest. Some countries toppled from civil conflicts, erasing their names from existence.

Then came violence. War was officially declared between the Conquerors and the Resistance, and both sides lost hundreds of thousands of lives during the first decade of war. Advanced weapons were capable of wiping small countries completely off the map. It wasn’t uncommon for countries to switch sides because of the totality of the war.

After the second decade of the war, violence toned down—rather than repeatedly launching missiles and bombs at each other, the Conquerors and Resistance would march into one another’s territories in hopes of gaining land from the defeated faction. Near the end of the decade, many countries seceded from the Conquest to aid the Resistance. This enraged the leader of the country of ×××, and violence through weapons slowly increased again.

…

Children growing up in the third decade of war have grown up exposed to a plethora of violence and hate. Some children’s parents may recall when the war had first begun, while their grandparents may remember what life was like before the Conquest existed.

In the country of ○○○, children do not go to school to map out their careers and lives awaiting them; their futures are already preset for them depending on their academic achievements. Those better skilled with their minds move on to assist planning out battles and designing weapons. Those with physical potential become soldiers. Those who drop out of school become factory workers.

And in ○○○, the capitol is home to the most prestigious school: Shoudou Academy. It’s at the top of the line for training juveniles and shaping them into soldiers and workers for the Resistance. Only a select amount of people are allowed to join the school each year, given that they’ve paid the heavy application fee and have passed a lengthy test. Shoudou accepts any grade of children from elementary to high school. College is a nonexistent thing in ○○○.

The new school year approaches for Shoudou Academy. Some students are returning and moving up to the next grade while new faces will appear on campus. Everyone is fully aware that ××× could strike at any moment, and that students’ futures have already been set for them by adults. It’s up to the students whether to let their own worlds be conquered or seize and dominate their own.

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Part 1: April
Chapter 1
April 1st. Tuesday.

The campus was much larger than Tanaka had imagined.

He’d seen pictures of how tainted the Earth was outside of ○○○; most of the land had been reduced to dirt, large craters left from missiles and bombs stretched out for miles, buildings and skyscrapers were nothing more than rubble, and corpses of fallen soldiers were scattered throughout the war zones. Shoudou Academy was nothing like that. Massive, healthy trees stood near the entrance of the school as if showing off that life flourished inside the campus. Even though ○○○’s capitol had a futuristic design and was practically crafted out of metal, the academy looked as if it had been undamaged or affected by the war. The campus gate was already open, and dozens of students were already hastily making their way inside.

“Oi, Tanaka, come on,” called out a feminine voice. Tanaka had been standing in front of the campus, staring ahead as if in a trance. When a sudden hand latched onto his arm, he was brought back to reality. “I don’t want to get in trouble on our first day of school!”

The voice and hand belonged to his sister, Yamaguchi. Her dark hair was tied into twin pigtails, positioned lower than where her canine-like ears were. She and her brother looked like twins, both having nearly identical hairstyles and ears.

“I guess they’re really that obvious, huh?” said Yamaguchi, noticing Tanaka’s gaze on her ears. “I feel like everyone’s already staring at us. Let’s get going.” She tugged at her brother’s arm, dragging him into the school building. “Where do we even go…?”

Tanaka only shrugged. Like hell he knew.

Yamaguchi huffed. “Can’t you at least help me out? Use your eyes and ears or something. And your voice, too. You need to stop being so quiet all the time.” She let go of the male’s arm, gaze wandering left and right. “Argh, it’s like a zoo in this hallway!”

Indeed, it was like a zoo. Students meandered everywhere, often bumping into each other. Their voices overlapped one another, making it nearly impossible to pick up on just one voice. He turned away from his sister, wondering if stepping aside from the clutter of students would—

Auditorium.

That single word was all he managed to pick out.

When he turned back towards Yamaguchi, he had lost sight of her. Typical. Tanaka began to make his way through the body of students, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone with dog-like ears and pigtails. “Yamaguchi—”

“Ha. I bet you were worried there for a second.”

He turned around towards his grinning sister. “Everyone’s heading to the auditorium.”

“Good job, you actually did something useful.”

Tanaka returned to being silent and followed his sister into the crowd of people.

…

“Children of the future,” started the school principal, speaking with a loud and confident tone, “I welcome you to Shoudou Academy.” He was on the auditorium stage behind a podium, speaking out to the hundreds of students all seated in front of him. “Some of you already may be acquainted with our campus. Some of you may be brand new and took awhile to get here.” The principal was tall and had broad shoulders, and his hands were clasped together behind his back. “First of all, I would like to congratulate each and every one of you to making it here, as it is no easy task to be accepted into our academy. ○○○ is proud to have such students training to assist the Resistance.”

Yamaguchi, who was sitting adjacent to Tanaka, nudged her brother. “There has to be at least a thousand kids here.” She was immediately hushed by fellow students.

“I would like to remind everyone that even though Shoudou accepts children of all ages, your age does not determine how smart or how strong you are. For the first few weeks of school, you will all be assessed whether or not you belong into one of three categories: the Mind Division, for those who excel with their intellects; the Body Division, for those who excel with their physical strengths and abilities; and the Soul Division, for those who have both their brains and brawn balanced out. During these tests, you will all be staying in temporarily classrooms and review the history of ○○○ and the war.”

Yamaguchi nudged Tanaka again, mumbling in a quieter tone as the principal began to talk about ○○○ and ××× and the war. A couple of other nearby students began to whisper to each other too, probably bored of hearing the history of the war for the hundredth time.

That was when he heard it.

“Hey, did you hear about that rumor? That worthless kids come here at night and mysteriously disappear?”