This plotbunny won't leave me alone!! I should finish my other stories but no...
Short one, I know. It's just the prologue. Chapters will be longer.
Disclaimer : I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor any of its characters.
Ordo Tredecim: Prologue
"– Alright then, that's it for today's homework. Now, I'm going to give you guys a research project to do, and it counts for twenty percent of your grade, so don't slack off now."
There were a few coarse murmurs and some incomprehensible groans, but not one of them showed much enthusiasm about said research project. History was a boring class, a boring subject, with boring things to read and memorize and boring stuff to write about; at least that's the statement you'd receive from most high school students.
Sighing, Ms. Tifa Lockhart, World History teacher, straightened her skirt and rapped the board sharply with her knuckles. Her twelve students looked on pleadingly.
"Since this class is kind of small, I'll give you guys seven topics to choose from. There should be plenty of information to write on, but I don't want some poorly-written essay with information directly from your textbooks," she began, thrusting a bunch of papers to the nearest student; a silver-haired student named Riku, and motioned for him to start handing them out. "You will have to find information from other than your textbooks. Info from the internet is acceptable as long as it is cited properly, but you must have at least two book sources."
Louder groans. Her smile grew wider.
"Yes, that means researching in the library," said Tifa triumphantly, smiling evilly at her students.
"Now, the topics... as usual, first-come-first-serve basis. The handouts I've given you has seven topics to choose from, so take your pick and tell me when you've chosen, and I'll help you go deeper into your topic if it's too broad. This is a group project, so group up, alright?"
"Yes, Ms. Lockhart," they replied dully.
Roxas scanned through the list, frowning. A research paper wasn't so bad; he just had to pick the right topic. Running a hair through his blond spikes, he tried to tune out the rest of the class while making his choice.
"I call Olympus Coliseum, Ancient Greece! With Riku!"
Roxas looked up at the loud proclamation. Sora, his twin brother, was the one who had shouted. Sora was always fascinated with Greek mythology, so it figured he would have been the one to choose that. The only problem with that topic was that it was a very broad one, with loads of additional information that would take days and weeks to sift through. There was no doubt he'd be pairing with Riku, though...
"Ancient China, Land of Dragons, Miss, with Hayner," said Pence, one of Roxas's best friends, putting his hand in the air. Hayner, Roxas's other best friend, gave a loud yawn from beside him on his left. Tifa nodded and wrote the respective names on her own list.
Roxas was finding it harder and harder to concentrate with so many people taking only one look at the list and yelling out what they wanted. At this rate he'd be left with the last topic that nobody would want.
"I'll take Ancient Arabia, Miss!" Roxas grabbed a pencil and quickly crossed out the topics that had been taken. Now, let's see, that left...
"Tribal Africa," someone yelled out, and the pencil made its mark again.
"Atlantis, the Lost City! Olette and I!" called Kairi, a redhead girl, best friends with Sora and Riku. Olette, another one of Roxas's close friends was hovering somewhere near her table, chatting excitedly about their topic.
"That's kind of a hard topic, isn't it, Riku?" Roxas heard Sora ask. "It's not even considered history if you ask me. No facts to prove it."
Roxas tried very hard to tune out the ensuing bickering.
"Pirates, Miss Lockhart," called Seifer, a tall, blond bully in his class. Roxas didn't need to look up to know that he had his trademark smirk on his face.
"Who's in your group, Seifer?"
"Rai and Fuu, of course."
Frowning, Tifa looked down at the list.
"It'll be better to pair off, Seifer. Roxas isn't going to have a partner –"
"It's not my fault he doesn't have friends," said Seifer loudly, leaning back on his chair. Predictably, Sora shot up from his seat to defend his honour.
"Shut up, Seifer! Miss, if Seifer's group can have three people, then Roxas can partner with me!"
"Or me and Pence," added Hayner, shooting Seifer a death glare.
"I can do it on my own, Miss," said Roxas quietly. He wouldn't pair up with Seifer. Never. Not even if you paid him to.
"Are you sure?" asked Tifa uncertainly. Insisting on breaking the trio up would only cause trouble, and even though Roxas could hold his own, asking him to pair up with Seifer was just begging for a national disaster.
"Yes."
"Alright, then, I suppose. Seifer's group will have more sub-topics to write about, then, as there are three of them. So, that just leaves this last topic –"
Roxas glanced down at the list. Marking out the pirates topic which Seifer and his posse chose, he was left with...
"– History of Ordo Tredecim, Organization XIII."
Roxas groaned, letting his head fall onto his desk.
"Cheer up, Rox," said Sora, patting his lump of blond spikes. "The Organization should be easy material. We grew up hearing war stories about it; it's so recent compared to all this ancient stuff."
"Which would make it difficult to research on! Most of it is speculation anyway!" said Roxas indignantly.
"Well, at least you didn't pick Atlantis," said Sora, snickering at Kairi's petulant glare.
"You're not helping, Sora," mumbled Roxas, batting the offending hand away.
"Class! Come on, settle down. There's still a lot more to discuss. Sora, Riku, come up here."
Roxas let his head fall back onto the desk again, blowing his hair out of his eyes irritably. The topic wasn't too difficult, in all honesty, but most of it was speculation. Roxas didn't like speculation. He liked pure, hard, stone-cold facts.
Sure, there was a war. That much was known. That was like, a mere hundred years ago.
What were they fighting for? Uncertain.
Who was involved? The Organization. And an unnamed party.
What happened in the end?
Unknown.
Roxas sighed, already starting to map out his plans for the research.
TBC
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