Chapter 2 - New Beginnings
'Ring ring!' Rion's alarm rings, waking him up from his sleep and marking the beginning of a new day, the first day in the Iconian College of Defense. Rion lazily yawns and snoozes the alarm, waking up to the boring dorm room that he was assigned to. It had a small bed in one corner, a dresser opposite the bed directly and a table with a chair beside the bed where he had dropped his duffel bag. There was an emblem of the school painted proudly on the ceiling. It has a door beside the dresser that led to the small bathroom that doubled as a toilet.
As he turns on the shower, the cold droplets hit him hard reminding him of an experience he had in the past. It was a rainy day, that day, when he had run from the run-down orphanage with his sister, back in his hometown of Coste, Iturrea. It was raining hard and no one was ready to take two drenched children in their houses. He couldn't blame them however, after all the crime rate in those slums were horrible and for all those people knew, he and his sister could have been planning to rob them. So he had to protect his sister using his clothes as a make-shift umbrella to shield her from the rain. But that was all in the past. His new life at the college was a new beginning. Never again would they have to experience such misfortune.
Rion put on the uniform but looking in the mirror, something felt off. He grabs the cardigan that came with it and puts it on, instantly feeling a lot more comfortable. He grabbed his notebook and pen, ready for the day, and heads out the door. Turns out his room is directly opposite that of Kasuto, who comes out at the same time. "Hey Kasuto." Rion says, trying to build a stable relationship with this grumpy squadmate of his. "Yeah, hey Raoul….uhm..Rial…" "Rion" Rion corrects him. "Yeah Rion. Sorry for yesterday, I was in a really foul mood. I hope I can have a second chance at a first impression." He says, suprisingly pleasantly. "Yeah, sure thing." Rion responds. "Let's go to class then"
Arriving at the nearly empty classroom once again, they met Hanne already sitting at her usual spot beside the door but Connor was no where to be seen. "So where's Connor?" Kasuto asks Hanne. "No idea. I've been here 20 minutes and still haven't seen him. I was already getting bored." She replied. "So, were just going to sit here waiting for him?" Rion asks, but before he can get a response he notices two ninja stars flying directly to his face. They're too fast for him to react, but thankfully Hanne acts quickly, growing thick vines out of the ground fast enough to catch the blades. "What was that?" Kasuto asks looking in the direction where the blades came from. There doesn't seem to be anything at all there. "That was crazy!" Hanne says.
"Quick reflexes, Hanne! Very good for making quick desicions while in a fight." They suddenly hear a voice from their back. Rion looks back quickly, bursting some flames from his hand at the direction of the sound. "Woah, calm down, youngblood." He hears from the fire, quickly stopping his flames. As the smoke clears, they see Connor smiling at them through the smoke. "How did you…..When did you....Wha…" Kasuto begins, interrupted by Connor. "Told you I was grandmaster rank. Suprised much?" He says, his bright smile unwavering. "Were you trying to kill me?" Rion says loudly, almost hysterically. "Were you trying to kill me?" Connor fires back. "Those flames were so hot they even melted my arm, and not just any flame can melt me." Connor continues, showing them his left arm that seemed to have melted off. "Now I've seen both your strengths" He says pointing in the direction of Rion and Hanne, "But I'm yet to see yours" he addresses Kasuto, his arm slowly growing back.
Before Kasuto can respond, he spins right back, turning into a translucent slime that slides very quickly to the top of the desk, turning back normal there. "Okay class, today we're going to have a multi squad training today. You'll meet with memebers of other squads and you'll be tested on your strengths and weaknesses." He says beaming. "Okay, let's go to the multi squad training centre"
The multi squad training centre is a very large building. It has almost every different biome in the world in it, structured in a way that trainees could learn how to fight in every possible situation they found themselves. As Squad 2 entered the training centre, they heard an angry voice. "Connor! Your squad is very late!" It was the bored administrator from earlier. She was wearing glasses this time and looked visibly furious. "Relax, Isabella, I was just testing my squad out first" Connor replies her, placing his arm on her neck. With her iconic glasses and her fiery expressions back on her face, Rion instantly recognized her as Isabella Krystal, one of the eight Divine Rangers also known as the Deathbringer of the Divines. He wonders how he didn't recognize her previously. She quickly removes Connor's arm, then turns to address the trainees. Apart from Squad 2, there were also two more squads. Squad 1's leader was Loiuse Theroux, a grandmaster ranked ranger known for her reckless fighting style as Bulldozer. Her squad was made up of two dreadlocked guys, one tall and built, the other short and scrawny as well as a short black haired girl wearing an odd mask. Squad 3 on the other hand had Akànjí Bamişílę as it's leader. He was well known not only as a Grandmaster ranked ranger, but also as a model for various popular fashion brands. He was known as Sintra.
"Listen up squads. I assume your leaders have already told you the basics. As you should know, I am Isabella Krystal of the divines. You should also recognize squad 1's leader as Louise Theroux and squad 3's leader as Akànjí Bamişílę, but you'll not recognize squad 2's leader. He's Connor Wood, a grandmaster ranked ranger. He's usually on assassin missions which is why the public rarely sees him." This goofball leader as an assassin? Rion could barely believe his ears.
Isabella continues, "Now that you know us rangers, get to know each other as trainees. Teamwork builds from friendship and teamwork is a very important skill in the Civil Defence. So acquaint yourselves with each other and we'll meet again after that." She stops speaking and after that and, turning into her translucent ghost form, she sinks right through the floor.
Rion looks around and tries to talk to the people from the other squads. He reasons that the quickest and easiest way to know these people's kami and how to work with them in a fight is to take a look at their ID cards, so he goes ahead and does that.
Squad 2 Members
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Name - Rion von Maxim Age - 16 Kami - Pyrogenesis Hair colour - Brown Rank - Adept Height - 1.8 m Nationality - Iturrean Weight - 52 kg Class - Emitter Eye colour - Black
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Name - Hanne Jörđsøn Age - 15 Kami - ChloroKinesis Hair colour - Blonde Rank - Adept Height - 1.73 m Nationality - Odeintian Weight - 50 kg Class - Psyche Eye colour - Green
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Name - Kasuto Richarlison Age - 17 Kami - Mental Gymnastics Hair colour - White Rank - Adept Height - 1.85 m Nationality - Bellezean Weight - 55 kg Class - Booster Eye colour - Blue
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Squad 1 Members
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Name - Misimi Adéfaíkù Age - 17 Kami - Light Manipulation Hair colour - Black Rank - Master Height - 1.98 m Nationality - Iturrean Weight - 75 kg Class - Psyche Eye colour - Blue
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Name - Remilekun Adéfaíkù Age - 15 Kami - Sacrifice Hair colour - Black Rank - Adept Height - 1.70 m Nationality - Iturrean Weight - 51 kg Class - Mutater Eye colour - Blue
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Name - Olive Chu Age - 15 Kami - Elastic Morph Hair colour - Black Rank - Adept Height - 1.68 m Nationality - Bellezean Weight - 46 kg Class - Mutater Eye colour - Brown
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Squad 3 Members
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Name - Viktor Leverkusen Age - 15 Kami - MagnitoKinesis Hair colour - Ginger Rank - Adept Height - 1.81 m Nationality - Odentian Weight - 82 kg Class - Mutater Eye colour - Grey
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Name - Alia Richarlison Age - 15 Kami - Vortex Hair colour - Green Rank - Adept Height - 1.67 m Nationality - Iturrean Weight - 51 kg Class - Emitter Eye colour - Green
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Name - Pedro Anderson Age - 17 Kami - Impulse Augmentation Hair colour - Dark brown Rank - Adept Height - 1.75 m Nationality - Odentian Weight - 70 kg Class - Booster Eye colour - Hazel
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