Prologue #2

Midnight Disaster

***********************************************************************

UNKNOWN

OST - Nightmare in the Locker, Becoming Friends

BRIGHT blue. The fluorescent light bulb above shone brightly into my eyes as I shut them back instantly, attempting to save myself from the sudden onslaught on my sight. I never did enjoy waking up, it always felt as if the very action had done a number on my poor eyes.

Beneath me, I could feel the cold, hard ground as I shuddered slightly, a chill seeping through my clothes and making my temperature slightly drop. My head and neck ached from lying on such a rigid surface.

I wasn't sure how long my body had been resting there. It had probably been a few hours considering my current condition.

Wait a minute... Why exactly was I asleep on the floor?

Actually, where was this?

Warily, I opened my eyes once more, squinting as I tried to find my bearings. Noticing the unfamiliar ceiling above, I moved into a sitting position on the floor, holding my head and giving the room a quick once over.

Gathered around me, orderly placed in the area, were a series of desks as chairs were neatly tucked underneath each of them. By the look of it, this place seemed to be a regular school classroom. 

I felt a bit at ease at the realization. It had been my original intention to attend Nocturne, after all. This was probably one of the institution's rooms.

The strange thing was, I didn't even recognize it.

The last thing I had remembered was being inside of that weird lab... I had never even entered any classrooms in the first place. Naturally, I wouldn't know what they look like.

So how did I end up in here then? Did that person at the door knock me out or something?

Shaking my head fervently, I stood up shakily, leaning my hand on the soft surface of a desk for support. The table itself felt pretty comfortable, so much so that I wasn't really sure if I wanted to take another step.

"Ughhhhh..." a quiet voice suddenly groaned in what seemed to be discomfort, putting me on edge once more.

Now that I thought about it... classroom tables weren't really supposed to feel gentle to the touch, now were they?

Withdrawing my hand as if it was on fire, I jolted away in shock.

Before me, draped over the desk in an uncomfortable position on her stomach, was a girl around my age with long purple strands of hair. She was wearing what seemed to be a pale mahogany business jacket over black pants, accompanied by a pair of grey boots with light grey laces tied into bows. On the ground next to the table, was a brown leather cap. It seemed to have fallen off of her head.

"The blood rushed to my head..." the stranger continued to whimper in a daze, "My legs..."

"Hey, are you alright there?" I questioned her in worry, "Do you need some help?"

"I can't feel them... Who put me in this position...? I never would have done it myself..."

She was far too out of it to hear my questions.

Taking her irritable complaints as a yes, I crouched down, swinging one of her arms over my shoulder in an attempt to awkwardly help her. She barely flinched in response to the sudden movement.

"On the count of three, I'm going to try and help you to stand up, alright?" I warned her soothingly, not wishing to bother her if she had a headache, "I can't help you very well with one arm, so you're going to have to catch yourself. Think you can do that?"

She barely nodded.

"One."

"Two," I could feel her beginning to brace herself for my next number.

"Three!"

With a huff, I shot up from my crouched position, bringing her arm up with me as she simultaneously threw herself upwards. Keeping a tight hold on her arm, I watched carefully as she stumbled backwards, momentarily getting her bearings before her feet suddenly gave out, bringing us down to sit roughly on the floor.

For the second time today, I had been hurt by the very same ground in a mere matter of moments. I was beginning to think that it actually had something against me.

Releasing a sigh, I let go of the girl's arm and stood with my arms akimbo, waiting as the teen attempted to stretch out her legs.

"Feeling better?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," she nodded gratefully as her hair bobbed with the movement, "Thanks for your help."

"It was no problem," I lied, recalling the pain that my butt now felt, "Can you stand by yourself?"

"I should be able to," she informed me as she slowly moved to stand up shakily, managing to steady herself.

"Great," I observed dryly, "So who are you, where are we-- and why the heck are we here?"

Pale silver eyes stared up at me in confusion. "Why do you assume I know anything about our current situation? I just woke up."

Scratching my head sheepishly, I conceded her point. "So who are you then? I'm Murano," I gestured towards myself, "People call me the Ultimate Bounty Hunter."

"So you are also an Ultimate then?" her eyes widened in surprise behind her sunglasses.

"Also? You're one too?"

"Yes... though I can't actually seem to remember it for some reason..." she held her head in pain, looking up at me, "But I am Ritsuki Neikan. You're free to call me Ritsuki."

"You can't remember?" I asked her in bewilderment, "Do you have amnesia or something?"

"If I had amnesia," Ritsuki began sarcastically, "Would I be able to remember getting it?"

"Good point."

The Neikan frowned at the ground in worry.

"Hey, relax," I attempted to calm her down, holding up my hands in a gesture, "I'm sure you'll remember it sooner or later. Maybe you can't remember it right now since you were stressed out?"

"Maybe..." she bit her thumb in thought.

Seeing that she still was showing no signs of calming down, I decided to take a closer look at our surroundings. 

Now that I really looked at it, the floor was a bit strange for a classroom. Every now and then, you could see patches of dirt scattered on the tiled floor. 

Should this really be inside of a classroom? It seemed more as if it was coming from in between the tiles themselves than being tracked on top of them by someone's shoes or something.

At the front of the room, there was what seemed to be a grey teacher's desk, behind which sat a large whiteboard. Nothing particularly unusual there.

On the ceiling and wall respectively, I could make out what appeared to be a surveillance camera and an intercom system. Though the camera inside of the classroom was a bit... odd, there didn't seem to be anything weird about the intercom system.

What was strange was that there was a TV along with the intercom. What was the purpose of having both of them exactly? Did they forget to get rid of the intercoms? Maybe they actually weren't working?

I frowned at the room's layout. Just what kind of situation had we gotten ourselves into?

"...If the time comes for it," Ritsuki finally spoke up, clasping her hands, "Please do not mention the fact that I cannot remember my talent to anyone else, I beg of you. We might not be the only ones here."

"Uh yeah, sure," I relented, "but what do I do if they want to know?"

"I will deal with it when the time comes," she declared resolutely, a fire burning in her eyes.

"Now, I think that's great and all but we really have more pressing problems here than your amnesia," my voice slightly wavered.

"What do you mean?" Ritsuki inquired in confusion at the comment.

I took a glance at the four blank walls all around us. "Why aren't there any windows?" I gave an example, breaking into a cold sweat.

"I see what you mean..." she agreed.

"They aren't even built! They aren't covered or anything... They're flat out not there!" I went off on a tangent, "How are we supposed to breathe? Do they plan to suffocate us?"

"I seriously doubt that they would have kidnapped us just to have us suffocate because there are no windows," Ritsuki considered, holding up a hand, "They likely have some sort of oxygen facilitator, assuming that there are no windows in any other places."

She had a point.

"You're probably right," I sighed once more, calming down, "At any rate, I think we should probably have a look around. We might be able to find out more about our situation rather than just staying here cooped up in such a stuffy place. I trust you're fine with having me for company?"

I didn't wish to impose my presence on her.

Ritsuki shrugged. "Well, yeah-- I guess. It's not like I have much of a choice, now do I?"

Chuckling awkwardly, I averted my gaze back to the open door with a grimace. 

That was a pretty harsh way to put it...

Together, we made our way towards the exit, stopping only to find a piece of paper on the floor in the space between the door frame. 

From what I could see, whatever was on it seemed to be written quite haphazardly in crayon, giving the message an overly childish appearance. Picking it up, I held it up to the light, high enough so that both of us could read the strange piece of folder paper.

Somewhat unnerved by the gleeful aura the message gave off, I decided to read the note aloud for extra emphasis.

"Good morning, students and welcome to your new academy! Please make your way over to the school's auditorium for a public announcement! Don't be late now..." a chill ran down my spine, as I stared at the note in bewilderment. 

There was a rough sketch of the directions we would need to take to reach our destination with the word "AUDITORIUM" emboldened and circled in red.

"What the heck?" my voice shook once I had finished reading it, "Is this a prank?"

Ritsuki bit her nail in thought, seeming a bit uneasy herself. "We'll know whether or not it's a prank if we head over to the place they mentioned..." she finally decided, "By the looks of it, there's no time to waste."

I nodded, shoving the piece of paper into my pocket. I wasn't exactly fond of carrying around such an eerie message.

Exiting the vicinity,  I continued our conversation. "How do we even know if we're late anyway? There was no time written on the paper for us to meet."

"Your guess is as good as mine, really," Ritsuki shrugged, holding up her hands, "Perhaps they forgot, or maybe they wanted us to hurry."

As we walked further down the corridor, I began to hear the sound of voices some distance away as they talked over each other in complete disregard for anyone who wished to be in the presence of silence. 

Ritsuki seemed to be just as irritated by the incoming boisterousness.

"Well, on the bright side, at least we know we're not the only ones trapped in this place," I attempted to calm her down with a nervous smile.

Rather than calm down, she gave me a sharp glare, rubbing her temples as if she was attempting to get rid of a migraine.

Turning the corridor, we came face to face with a group of three other individuals who were each dressed in their own eccentric way. Standing calmly next to a barren wall was a magenta-haired kid with tanned skin and forest green eyes as he stared at the hard surface in thought, seemingly drowning out the duo's volume behind him. His outfit seemed to have a brown and green colour motif, giving off a sense of reliability.

To be honest, I didn't blame him for ignoring his companions.

"Hey, hey! What are you thinking?" an aquamarine-haired girl pestered the boy with a grin, awaiting his answer, "Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Her arms were draped lazily behind her head as she popped around all over the place around the kid for what seemed to be the fun of it, wondering when he would finally reach his last straw and give up on ignoring her. She wore a white jacket over a dark blue shirt and tattered red pants, portraying the aura of a rebel at a first glance. A pair of dark aquamarine boots seemed to make her even taller than she initially was, leaving no possible escape for the teen of a shorter height.

"You're gonna have to answer me eventually, ya know?" she taunted, watching as he flinched at the accurate deduction.

On the other side of the two of them, stood an auburn-haired guy with light green eyes hidden behind a pair of brown glasses. He had a strange mask strapped to the side of his head as he wore loose-fitting clothing, mimicking his easygoing nature. 

He was bent over as he clutched his knee, using his other hand to brace himself against the wall as he cracked up in laughter, stopping every now and then to glance at the shortest of the trio. 

"Oh god," he spluttered, "Y-- your face looks ridiculous..."

The guy's expression twitched in anger as he slammed his face into his palm in exasperation.

"Why do I always attract such weirdoes...?" the magenta-haired boy groaned as he finally moved off, making his way towards our direction.

I honestly felt bad for him.

***

Remember to vote, comment, and tell me what you think!