"Alright Boys and Girls! Ladies and Gents! Lassies and Lads! It's time to devote yourselves to a new day here at Success Granted Academy!"
Kumiko shot upwards in her bed, hearing Shockbolt's voice. However after looking around she saw no sign of the fox, determining that his voice came from a speaker.
Standing up, She stretched her limbs and saw something she did not before. There was a bathroom connected to her room.
She trodded to her newly found bathroom and quickly put her hair up. She winced at seeing the mark on her arm from when her captor grabbed her.
Sighing she went back to the other room to toss on a fresh set of clothes. From there she slipped on a pair of her sandals and headed out.
Swiping the card, she stepped outside...
Only to duck from an upcoming fist.
What the-?!
"Oh goodness! Kumiko I am so sorry, are you ok?!" Looking up from her crouched position, Kumiko realized it was Hiroko.
Standing, Kumiko dusted herself off. "Hiroko?"
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I was about to knock but you stepped outside right as I was about to. Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm alright. So... is everything ok?"
"Yeah I came to get you since everyone is at the Gymnasium and waiting."
"Oh thank you! Would you like to walk together?"
"Why certainly. Let's go shall we?"
Walking side by side, the girls were in a comfortable silence until Hiroko spoke.
"You have anxiety don't you?"
Looking at Hiroko, Kumiko nodded. "Yeah, I've had it since-"
"Since your parent's death correct?"
Startled, Kumiko stopped and stared at Hiroko, eyes narrowed. Hiroko must have noticed the lack of footsteps because she turned around.
"How did..."
"I think you forgot. I'm Hiroko Kusu, the Ultimate Researcher. I researched all my classmates before coming here."
Feeling silly for being so suspicious, Kumiko turned pink. "Ahh right. Sorry."
"It's perfectly fine. In this kind of situation, I'd be more concerned if you weren't at least a little suspicious of people."
They both shared a light chuckle before continuing to the Gymnasium. Finally they reached their destination and headed on inside.
The other students turned to Kumiko and Hiroko, the former embarrassed by all the eyes on her.
"Hi everyone. Good morning." Kumiko greeted, polite and kind.
"Ayy morning sunshine." Minato flashed his pearly white teeth at her, making the other girls groan.
"Stop trying to get into every girl's pants, Minato." Yui scolded at the boy.
"Not my fault everyone is so pretty." He fluttered his eyes at her.
"Good morning Spitfire. How'd ya sleep?" Ryozo offered a lazy smile.
"I slept well Ryozo thank you. And yourself?"
"Eh, good as I could, I suppose."
"So, I'd like to make a plan with our... predicament." Kei announced, her words spoken with authority.
"Whatcha got, Anubis?" Kenta scoffed.
Within an instant, he had to take a step back, his head tilted upwards. And it didn't take a genius to tell you why.
She had charged forward, with her scepter under his neck.
"I do not care for your tone when addressing my sacred animal. Bite your tongue or I will cut it off. Am I to be understood?"
Everyone was quiet as Kenta shakily nodded.
"Words, impudent boy."
"Understood."
"Good." She withdrew her scepter. "Now I advise that we split into groups of 2 and explore what we can of this place. It may aid us to know our surroundings."
"I'm not opposed to it." Yui muttered.
"Might as well have as big of an advantage as we can get." Aiyana agreed.
"Alright. As long as we are in agreement, let us pair off."
"Kumiko go with Hiroko."
"Daisuke go with Minato."
"Benito go with Akiko."
"I shall go with Yui."
"Kenta go with Maika."
"Kaori go with Misaki."
"Jiro go with Ryozo."
"And lastly Gin go with Aiyana."
"Any objections?" Kei looked around and waited for a few moments. Not hearing anyone speak, she nodded. "Let's go forward."
Everyone split up from point forward, leaving behind only Hiroko and Kumiko.
"You ready?" Hiroko checked on her partner.
"Yeah hopefully we find a kitchen of some kind soon. I need to take my meds."
"For your anxiety right?"
"Yes. I have to take it with food or I'll throw up my medicine."
"Well hopefully we won't have to go long before someone finds it. So for the meantime let's look around."
"Ok."
The two girls walked through the halls, footsteps echoing the other. They saw the others investigate their own rooms o they went further to find their own.
Eventually they came across a door attached to a long room. Cautiously, Kumiko opened the door and gasped.
It was a dance hall, it seemed. Dance shoes were stacked accordingly along the wall and a boombox lay in the center of the room. The wall was a baby blue color and the floor had cream colored carpet, likely for protection when dancers fell.
And then Kumiko saw something that made her heart swell and her eyes sparkle.
Whip, but not any whip. It was a fire whip, next to a staff that Kumiko recognized.
It was the fire staff she had packed into her bag.
"Kumiko? Do you know what that stuff is?"
"Yeah, it's the stuff I'd use in my fire dancing performances." Trailing her fingers along the whip, she cracked it around herself, creating literal waves of fire.
Cracking it again, the fire dissipated easily and as she looked up to meet Hiroko's wide eyes, she grinned.
"I think I found my stuff." She hung the whip around her waist and grabbed the staff.
"Alright well as there's so many rooms to look through, let's go to meet with the others."
Returning to the Gymnasium, Kumiko was surprised that everyone else was already there.
"Fucking finally. Could you have been any slower?" Kenta grumbled.
"Now that everyone is here, who would like to go first?" Kei questioned.
"I guess we're up first bro." Daisuke spoke up. "Me and Minato found a pretty heavily equipped library. Lots of books everywhere and computers that are upgraded to be the best."
"Do the computers work to send messages or anything?" Hiroko asked.
"Other functions do, but all social media has been removed from the systems."
"Ok I guess now's our turn!" Benito said cheerily. "Akiko and I found a theater! It was super cool, and had a lot of flashing lights!"
Akiko gave a slight giggle at how upbeat Benito was. "There were theater costumes and a vintage recorder back there."
"I suppose it's our chance now." Yui pushed her glasses up on her nose before continuing. "I was with Kei when we found a Sauna and the connecting Changing room. Not much is special about it, a nice warm bathhouse basically. However in the changing room, theres lockers for each of us with our names demonstrated on each locker."
"As for the vulgar Kenta and I, we found a trash room of sorts. It has a giant furnace to burn just about anything." Maiko spoke haughtily.
"Okily Dokily! So, me and Kaori were checking around and we found what looks like a cafeteria! Right, Kaori?"
"Heh, yeah. After the others share their discoveries, we can take you there and I'll make breakfast for everyone." Kaori offered, flushing at the attention Misaki brought.
"Well Me and Gin were checking around and we found this mega big trophy room. There were a lot of shining trophies and ribbons placed there." Aiyana spoke, kindheartedly.
"Ok looks like it's up to us now. Me and Jiro found what seems to be a weapons room. Knives, axes, swords... all the works." Ryozo's raspy voice filled the air.
"And it looks like there are stairs to another floor but its locked to us. Which I'm sure that stupid fox will tell us why."
"Ok so now for Me and Hiroko I guess. We found a dance hall, and for some reason my fire dancing stuff was there." Kumiko said, thinking on how happy she was to have her stuff.
"Is that everyone?" Hiroko asked, looking around.
Everyone nodded, seemingly done talking about what they found.
"Ok. I'll show everyone the cafeteria since I'm sure we are all hungry." Kaori spoke with a gentle voice, getting up and ready to show the others the way.