Ch. 12

"How are you feeling Patton?" Teacher Holloway asked me in a cold but caring way.

"Besides a few scratches, I'm feeling pretty good."

I am in Teacher Holloway's office currently. The successful raid of the drug den occurred last night. Teacher Holloway told me to come to his office before school started today because he wanted to talk to me about a few things.

"I deem last night's raid a resounding success. I'll have you know, Patton, that the top echelon is very content with the results," Teacher Holloways said heartily.

Confused by the mention of a top echelon, I enquired, "Top echelon?"

"You didn't think that I was the sole organizer of our little group, right?" Seeing that I didn't answer his question, Teacher Holloway continued, "There is a person who holds a lot of power who is the sponsor of our group. While I am responsible for running the group, that person helps finance and protect our group. Do you understand now?"

"Ohhh, I understand now," I said while nodding my head.

"Good."

"Oh yeah, speaking of our group, is it just the two of us right now?"

"Your observation is correct."

"When are we going to get new members?"

"Not for a while, I think."

"Huh?"

"Since we're on the topic, let me ask you. Do you know what the name of our group is?"

"No, I do not."

"Our group's name is The Bloodied Knife. The group is very much still in its infancy in development. As I've already told you, our group's purpose is to do things other heroes cannot, permanently eliminating threats to society. The criteria of becoming a member are: being young, showing lots of potential, intelligent, possess soldier-like qualities, and the necessary decisiveness to pull the trigger."

"Those are some very specific criterions."

"You are correct. But it is necessary to train an elite force."

"I see."

"In case you're worried about it, I'll let you know that you passed the entrance examination with flying colors. You're officially a member of The Bloodied Knife group," Teacher Holloway said with a smile."

"I am very honored then," I joked.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. School is about to start. You should be heading to homeroom class."

"Actually, one last question."

"What is it?"

"Could you tell me more about the Villeno Mafia Family?"

Teacher Holloway raised his eyes. "Why are you so interested in the Villeno Mafia Family?" He asked.

"Because there is somebody I want dead within the Villeno Mafia Family," I replied coldly.

Teacher Holloway stared into my eyes. "I'm not going to ask who it is or what they did to you, but you must understand that the Villeno Mafia Family is a powerful and deadly entity. When I deem you strong enough to keep your head intact, I will only tell you that. Understand?" Teacher Holloway answered slowly, particularly emphasizing the last part.

I looked back into Teacher Holloway's eyes, and after a moment of silence, I answered, "I understand."

----

"Hey, Patton! I saw you walking out of Teacher Holloway's office. What were you doing in there?" Adam asked curiously as he caught up to me in the hallway."

"Oh, hey Adam. I had a question regarding our assignment last night, so I went to Teacher Holloway's office to ask him a few questions."

"Oh, ok," Adam said with a big smile plastered onto his face.

"What are you smiling about?" I asked after seeing Adam's dumb expression.

"It's a secret," Adam answered mysteriously as he looked at me smugly.

"We're bros, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there are no secrets between bros, c'mon, spill the beans," I said as I nudged Adam's shoulder.

"Alright, already," Adam said in surrender. Adam then proceeded to look around us before wrapping his shoulder around me pulled me closer, and whispered excitedly into my ears, "Last night, I asked Emily out, and she said yes!"

"And?"

"What do you mean and? That's all."

"Oh. I was honestly expecting something bigger," I said as I removed Adam's arm from my shoulder.

"This is big, though…." Adam muttered dejectedly.

"Well, congrats, mate. I wish you the best in your endeavor. Just don't do anything stupid," I lectured Adam.

"Who are you to lecture me. Don't act as if you're much older than me. We're the same age for crying out loud."

I simply smiled in response, then I continued, "Just don't do anything you'll come to regret in the future."

"Fine," Adam replied in a huff.

----

Adam and I entered our homeroom classroom just moments before the bell rang. Teacher Holloway was not yet in the classroom, but that was expected as I knew he purposely arrived late to exclude his authority over the classroom. Adam and I proceeded to walk to our respective seats and wait for Teacher Holloway to arrive at the classroom.

Eventually, Teacher Holloway finally arrived, and the school day went on just like any other school day. Near noon, Teacher Holloway announced to the class that we would be receiving our tailored training regimens. Everyone was stoked to hear this as we have been told how instrumental these customized training regimens will be to our development.

Teacher Holloway then started handing our slips of paper to everyone detailing the contents of their new training regime. After receiving the slip of paper with my name labeled on top of it, I unfolded the paper and carefully read its contents.

After reading its contents, I put the paper back down. I wasn't stunned by its content. I already had a premotion of what I was going to be doing, and it would be safe to say that I was eighty percent correct. The twenty percent that stumped me was that I would be spending most of the training accompanied by Rias. I was not expecting that. I'm not sure whether it is Teacher Holloway or that mysterious backer above Teacher Holloway that's pushing me to be together with Rias. Though I can't complain, after talking with Teacher Holloway about the utility of Rias' quirk, it could perfectly supplement my primary role. Additionally, Rias is a pretty girl. I wouldn't mind being paired with her.

Starting tomorrow, we were to start following our new schedules. The only constant of our schedules was that we were still to first come to homeroom class. After that, most likely, everyone would be split up to do their training.

Given the bubbling excitement within the classroom, Teacher Holloway permitted the class to talk to each other.

I got up from my seat and immediately headed towards where Rias was seated. Though, I quickly realized that Rias had the same thinking as I as she was doing the same thing.

"Hey Patton, seems like you and I will be partners going forward," Rias said cheerily as she whipped her hip.

"That seems to be the case," I replied courteously.

Upon seeing my uniform behavior, Rias nagged, saying, "Drop the formality. We're going to be partners. Let's be livelier with each other, ok?"

I chuckled, "Alright, will do."

The next day, after homeroom ended, Rias and I walked together as we headed towards the shooting ground. Given my role as a sniper and Rias' role as a spotter, it made sense that we'd be spending a lot of time at the shooting range.

Upon entering the shooting range, I noticed that there weren't that many students. Though, to an extent, it was to be expected. Since the dawn of quirks, traditionally, weapons such as firearms have tanked in popularity. Why use a gun when you can shoot lightning out of the tips of your finger or lift a car with one hand? That was the common consensus regarding using guns now. The gun is now considered a coward's weapon. But that has never made sense to me since transmigrating here. All it takes is a good shot to shoot a hole into the person who can shoot lightning out of their fingers or the person who can lift cars to kill them.

----

The sky was dark. The sun has long since stopped blessing the land with its tender love. It was now the moon's turn to reign over the skies. Its bewitching beauty graced the land it oversaw. Besides the occasional cries of bugs within the lush grassland, it was deathly silent. The type of silent one cannot help but feel goosebumps in. A foreshadow of incoming doom.

Within this patch of grassland, two people dressed in dark clothing were lying on the ground. One held a black, robust sniper that promised death to whoever was in its path. Lying next to that person was a woman whose curvy figure was too much for her clothing to hide while holding a binocular.

The pair of assailants did not budge or even emit a sound, not even as much as the sound caused by friction of clothing for over twenty minutes. The bugs have long since stayed quiet now as if knowing the tragedy that was about to take place.

The silence dragged on until it became deafening. Then, with a whisper being the domino effect, the woman holding the binoculars whispered, "fire."

Immediately responding to the woman's order, the man holding the sniper pulled the trigger. What followed was a flash of light rivaling the twinkling stars and then a thunderous boom seconds later. Bugs, mammals, and all sorts of life that were holding their breath erupted in chaos, each creature scrambling and climbing over each other in pursuit of safety. Looking back at where the two figures were initially lying, it was now empty, as if everything was just a fantasy.

On the other side of the grassland, two dark figures walked out of the shrubbery.

"Good job you two," a man wearing a suit announced as he gently pushed his glasses up while gesturing towards the car parked behind him.

The two figures didn't say a thing as they got into the backseats of the car. After the man wearing the suit went into the car's driving seat, the car was started and disappeared into the darkness.

----

"I was expecting that to be easier," the voluptuous female figure said as she removed the mask hiding her face, revealing a pair of ocean blue eyes and luscious crimson hair.

"If they'd known that the rising assassination duo, Viper and Mystic, was going after them, they would've buried themselves in some bunker. Luckily for us, they didn't," the suited man laughed.

"Still, they made it too easy for us, conducting their little meet-up in a forest of all places. It's as if they wanted to tell us exactly where they were."

"Well, we can only say that due to Viper's quirk. They might as well just tell us their exact locations. What do you say, Viper?"

The sniper who has yet to speak a word finally said, "I just want to get back to my dorm and sleep."

"C'mon, you're so boring Patton," Rias whined as she nudged me in the shoulder.

"What come I say? I'm true to my desires."

"Alright now, Rias, you know Patton is an early sleeper. We'll arrive back at campus very shortly. Just hang in there boy," Teacher Holloway said.

----

After an uneventful drive back, I finally got back to my dorm and flopped onto my bed. It was a tiring night for me. It was much harder to find the target with my thermo-vision than Rias and Teacher Holloway suggested. Keep in mind that not only was the forest vast in size, but it was also filled with vibrant life that also emitted heat. It took me lots of energy and time to find the human silhouettes within the thousands of other silhouettes.

Just when I was about to fall asleep, I heard Gina communicate to me, "Hey, Patton!"

"Oh. Hey Gina."

"Listen, I want to tell you something."

"Could it wait till tomorrow? In case you haven't noticed, I'm exhausted right now."

"No!"

I sighed. "Fine," I said, "What do you want to tell me."

"Remember I told you that there are many other celestials like myself who also have avatars conducting missions for them?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, don't panic when you hear this, but an enemy celestial of mine recently discovered where you are and sent their avatar into this world to kill you!"

"Oh, ok."

"Huh? Did you not hear what I said? I'm telling you that your life is in danger!"

"You don't have to tell me again. I heard you the first time around."

"So why do you seem nonchalant about it?"

"Well, all I have to do to shoot a bullet into the opposing avatar's skill, and then they're dead, right?"

"Yeah?"

"If that the case, I'm not worried at all."

I felt Gina sigh in defeat. "Alright, just don't die on me, ok?"

"You underestimate me."