~~~Episode TwentyOne~~~
"I dont remember telling you to scuffle." Akina said in a smooth tone, her eyes narrowed faintly as she stood in front of the five girls. Hiroko stepped forward a little,
"I'm sorry mam..." she said, but Akina just shook her head.
"No apologizing. I want three laps girls, go!" she said. The girls didn't complain, but instead obeyed, turning and starting their first lap with Hiroko quickly joining them. Akina shook her head a little, but turned as Kazuki came up. He smiled,
"Hows your day going Akina?" he asked. Akina gave a faint smile,
"Like every other day."
she saw Haku, Yuri, and Zeph behind Kazuki.
"Who are these three?" she asked.
"This is Haku, Yuri, and Zeph. They're new students...sort of."
This made Akina smile, and she stepped forward. "New students? Hmm, I've never trained boys. I've heard they take longer to cooperate than girls, and they take even longer to learn a lesson."
Haku twitched slightly, obviously not liking the insult. Akina looked back at Kazuki,
"I'll take them from here Kazuki." she said. Kazuki nodded,
"Right, see ya later then." he said. Zeph wished Kazuki would stay as he watched the man walk away. Akina scared him for some reason.
Akina looked at them, "Alright, join the others in running." she ordered.
Haku blinked, "What? But why, we didn't do anything." he said.
"Yeah, they were the ones messing around, not us." Zeph added.
Akina didn't reply for a moment, narrowing her eyes at the two.
"I said, go join your fellow students in running." she said, her tone dark.
Haku and Zeph both gulped, quickly nodding.
"Yes mam!" they both said quickly, and ran to join the others. Yuri smiled a little, nodding to Akina before jogging forward to catch up.
Zeph was sitting on the ground, pouting. "This stinks. Shes treating us like...like we're idiots!" he said to Haku. The two were sitting on the sidelines with the others as Akina spoke, telling them of the next lesson. They were barely catching what Akina was saying as the talked to one another.
"...you'll be sent in to the forest tonight, and you'll be partnered up as well. Your goal is to work together to get out of the forest, and getting all..."
"Haku, are you sure this place has heartless? Why are we here again?"
"This is a newer world, and yes, there are heartless. I just dont know where they are..."
"...you have until morning to be out. Whomever gets out first..."
"Well, maybe someone is controlling them, like back on Scyaro."
"Yeah...you might be right Zeph, but-"
there was a two shots fired, making Haku and Zeph cry out in surprise. Haku looked at the ground where his foot had just been to see a smoking bullet hole in the grass. Both boys looked up to see all the girls staring at them, as well as Akina, who still held both guns.
"If you dont mind, I'm speaking, so shut up." Akina snapped. She smiled as she looked back at the girls, putting the guns back into their holsters.
"Alright, I'll partner you up. Remember what I've told you and you should do fine."
The group of teens all stood, Haku and Zeph looking more than confused. Haku tapped Yuri on the shoulder.
"Yuri, what the hells going on?" he whispered. Yuri shook her head,
"You two really should pay attention...we're being partnered up and being sent into the forest for the night."
"Yuri, your with Hiroko." Akina said. Yuri left the two to stand beside Hiroko, both girls smiling at eachother. Zeph narrowed his eyes, "This stinks..." he said to Haku.
"Yoshi and Yumi, Sakura and Haku, Kiyoshi and Zeph." Akina said, finishing up the pairings. The eight teens stood beside their partner, Sakura looking less than pleased with her partner.
Akina walked in front of them, pointing back to the horizon.
"The sun is setting as you can see. Today's activities will assist you in the forest, and try not to get hurt." she said. She turned away from them,
"Your lesson begins...NOW!" she called out, shooting into the air.
Haku mumbled under his breath as he followed Sakura through the forest, walking along a faintly distinct path. The sun had set, blanketing the forest with darkness. Even with the moon shining brightly above, the forest was still frighteningly dark. Sakura stopped, looking back at him.
"Have you seen any yet?" she asked. Haku blinked, obviously clueless.
"Seen any what?"
"You cant be serious! You mean this entire time you've just been following me like a lost puppy!" she snapped, narrowing her eyes. Haku narrowed his eyes as well,
"Hey, dont get snippy with me! Just tell me what the hell we're supposed to be doing in this stupid forest!"
Sakura groaned, "Why Akina...why partner me with this fool..." she said under her breath. She looked at Haku, "Alright, we need to get out of this forest by morning with 4 tablets. Ones silver, blue, red, and gold. Each one is hidden within this forest, and there is 3 of each color, which means one team wont get any. But, we can fight each other for tablets, and we can steal them from each other as well. Got it?"
Haku nodded, "Sounds simple enough."
"Well, maybe you should've been paying attention then." Sakura said as she turned and continued walking. Haku quickly followed, not wanting to get left alone in this forest. He didn't know why, but he felt as though someone was watching them.
Zeph cried out as something grabbed his foot. He fell to the ground,
"AHH! GET IT OFF!" he yelled. He blinked as Kiyoshi laughed, and he looked up at her from his place on the ground.
"What the hell are you laughing at?! I've been..." he trailed off as he sat up and turned. He blushed slightly as he saw a root sticking up out of the ground, the culprit who had grabbed him. He stood up quickly, dusting himself off as he cleared his throat, "Yeah, I knew it was just a root..." he said.
Kiyoshi smiled, "Sure you did." she said. She turned, "Alright, we've found a blue tablet, but we still need to find the other three." she said. Zeph nodded a little,
"Yeah, I still dont get what the point of this is, even after you explained it to me."
he said as he continued to follow her.
"There! Hiroko, theres a gold tablet!"
Yuri said to her partner, a smile on her face. Hiroko ran up beside her, looking up to where Yuri was pointing. High up in the branches of an oak, tied to a tiny branch, was a gold tablet. Hiroko smiled as well,
"Great job Yuri!" she said.
She ran up to the tree, leaping up and grabbing a low branch and swinging herself up onto it. Yuri stood and watched in awe from the ground as Hiroko scaled the tree, swinging from branch to branch until she came directly below the gold tablet.
"Geez, your like an acrobat!" Yuri complimented from below. Hiroko nodded a little, "Comes from practice! I'll show you sometime!" she said as she reached for the tablet. Suddenly, her gaze shifted to something behind Yuri.
"Yuri, watch out!" she yelled, her eyes widening. Yuri blinked, confused for a second. A shiver ran up her spine, and she whiped around to see several heartless rising up from the shadows. A few were shadows, but the others were newer heartless she had never seen before. They had human form, but were ink black, with spikes along their arms and legs. Horns spiraled out of their heads, and they were hunched over slightly, large black wings adorning their backs. Yuri leapt back as the new heartless flew forward, slashing at her with razor like claws. Yuri jumped back again and suddenly hit into something, almost knocking the breath out of her. She realized it was the oak she had backed up into. She looked forward as the bright yellow eyes of the heartless came closer, the new creatures coming at her with a flap of their wings.
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