Chapter 1

Rank 72 and 33

He grumbled as he sat in his bed, he ran his fingers through his brown hair before looking at the clock in the corner of his room. He was wondering if he should have even bother going to class that day. Before shrugging and shifting his position ever so slightly. "Man it's a pain, but Miki will get on my ass if I don't"

He scratched his head before looking at his bandaged up arm, it was a constant reminder that he still hadn't accomplished his goals as he got dressed and slowly put on his school uniform, it had been about two months since he had arrived at Rikka other wise know as Asterisk. He had been going to the Seidoukan Academy's for just as long.

As he finally got his school gear on her heard a knock on the door, he already knew who it was. "Ugh..." He grumbled as he opened his front door to see a brown haired girl in the school colors. She had brown eyes with dark brown hair, her hair was tied in a small pony tail hanging loosely from the side as she smiled. This girl's name was Miki Eri, ranked 33 of the academy.

"Oh, you're up. I was worried that you was going to skip class again today," she gave a soft smile as the teenage boy sighed.

"I don't know why you're worried, as long as I keep my ranking I don't have to worry too much about missing class...man what a pain,"

Miki frowned as she held her hands on her hips, "Hirai, don't be silly...regardless of your rank you should miss class. I mean really, you should think about getting something on campus," Miki pointed out as Hirai lazily grabbed his bag.

As he recalled Miki lived on campus, "man to wake up, get ready and come here before class even starts. How early did you get up?"

"Really early, so I don't want to hear any excuses on why you can't come, now come on!" Miki walked out of Hirai's small apartment as he grumbled before he followed after her.

This was the current life of Hirai Ryunosuke, at least until he found the person he was looking for. He looked around the city as he sighed, everything was a bit too clean for his taste. Almost sterile, it was unsettling especially compared to the place he came from as he glanced over at Miki who resumed talking.

"I heard you made rank 72, congratulations!" it was almost patronizing how Miki said those words as Hirai scoffed before shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Don't get the wrong idea, that only happened because the last rank 72 had to leave the school and Enfield randomly selected me to fill that spot..."

"Of course she did, everyone knows that you should probably be far higher than rank 72," Miki pointed out as Hirai frowned again.

"I have no interest in joining in any of the schools competitions or games, as far as I'm concerned it's a place where I get free food,"

Miki pouted at Hirai's words, but it was a conversation they had both been over multiple times. Still, if Hirai wasn't interested in the Festa why did he even bother going to the city.

They arrived at the large campus, the familiar fountain was in the center as they walked through the gates. It was almost time for class to start as Miki quickly snapped her fingers as a small hologram appeared in front of her. She checked the time and bit her lip. "Come on, we have to hurry up!"

Hirai scoffed, "we don't have the same classes remember, mine don't start for a while actually,"

Miki face tuned red before she pouted again, "ah what? You could have told me that before I got out of bed so early..."

"That's your fault not mine,"

Miki sighed before snapping her fingers, "oh, before I forget we are getting a couple new transfer students today..."

"Really?" Hirai crossed his arms, "didn't we just get a few two months ago...I mean I was apart of that group," honestly, Hirai had no idea how the process worked. Though he doubted it was natural for this to keep happening in such sort succession.

"Just make sure if you see anyone new here try not to freak them out or anything," Miki stated as Hirai rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll make sure to be as nice as I can be..."

Miki nodded as she hurried to her class leaving Hirai there to himself. There were still a couple of students walking around the fountain as Hirai sighed as he walked up to the small puddle of water and examined himself. His hair was a mess and there was still a couple of bags under his yellow eyes. It was clear that he wasn't getting enough sleep.

"Ugh, whatever," he sighed as he dragged his feet to a nearby bench before propping his feet on it. It was his bench at that moment as he slowly closed his eyes. It felt oddly nice for some reason, as if a nostalgic wave was passing through his body reminding him of something important, just as his body started to relax and he started to drift off to sleep he felt someone kick the bench.

"Hey wake up!" the voice was commanding as Hirai grumbled as he looked up to see someone around his age. Hirai barely was able to make out the details of the person, but it was clear that he was a student at the academy.

"Huh, what do you want? Can't you see I'm trying to take a nap?" Hirai whined as the man eye twitched.

"Yeah, that's the problem, you're hogging the entire bench. If you are tired why not try to sleep in your dorm or something, or under a tree..."

Hirai groaned as he looked at the guy, he had a point, though he couldn't help but feel he was trying to cause a problem for him specifically. "There are plenty of other bench's around here, why not pick one of those?"

The teen before him scoffed as he ran his hand through his blonde hair, "how about a quick duel for it then?"

That was probably the real reason, the bench was most likely just an excuse to pick a fight. Hirai looked around to see a crowd starting to gather, most likely the guy was just trying to pick a fight to show off right quick as Hirai sat up and tapped his wrist, he then opened up a small screen and scanned the man in front of him.

His name was Swen Floyd, he was ranked 50 in the school as Hirai scratched the back of his head, "huh, really doesn't someone who is ranked 50 have something better to do with their time?"

Swen eye twitched before laughing, "oh I see, you're scared aren't you?"

Hirai yawned as he jumped up from the bench and looked at him. "Listen, I have no interest in duels, but if it's a fight you want then I'll happily oblige," Hirai sighed as he kicked the dirt beneath him as Swen eye twitched.

"What kind of joke is this? You want to fight, but you don't want to duel... oh I see, you are afraid of losing your rank, it makes sense considering you just made rank 72..."

Hirai rolled his eyes, "as much fun as it would be to listen to you blab. I legit have a million things I would rather do, so are we going to start or what, unless the only way you could possible beat me is by breaking my badge,"

Swen bit his lip the moment Hirai said those words as he unhooked a small badge from his belt before pressing in a green object located on it. The moment he did a long orange whip erupted before a mechanical guard attached itself to the weapon. Hirai frowned as Swen crossed his arms.

"Well, aren't you going to use your Lux?"

"Don't need it..."

It was a blunt reply as Swen nearly screamed lifting his weapon, like a hammer the weapon came down as Hirai eyes narrowed. The weapon hit the earth beneath him as Swen eye twitched before he quickly looked around. His opponent had completely vanished.

"Hu-?" Before Swen could completely realize what had happened he felt his body spinning from a heavy impact before he landed on the ground, "wh-what," he was coughing as he looked around to see Hirai standing behind him.

"...This is lame, I'm done... you completely ruined my mood," Hirai was about to walk away as Swen nearly stomped his feet moving his weapon once again. The beam turned sharped preparing to stab Hirai in the back as Hirai snapped his fingers.

"Oh yeah..." right before the blade reached him Hirai vanished once again Swen was looking around before he noticed a large shadow looming over head.

"You can have the bench back..." with those words Hirai slammed the wooden bench against Swen's head causing his face to be planted firmly in the ground as Hirai sighed he kicked Swen for a moment before scratching the back of his head. The crowd was silent for a moment as Hirai looked at his school badge and snapped it in two.

"I don't need to be ranked 50, you can keep it..." he threw what remained of it onto the ground as he left the crowd with confused looks across their faces.

"Man I'm so cool, that line 'you can have the bench,' perfect..." Hirai laughed to himself as he walked away.

After all, he was happy with rank 72, he didn't need anything less or anything more. After all, any higher would be a bother as he tapped his wrist once again checking the time before scratching the back of his head. "Man I wonder if I should even bother," even when he was on campus it wasn't unusual for him to skip class as he looked at his bandaged arm.

"I wonder if anyone noticed...probably not," Hirai sighed, he knew that someone most likely recorded the fight. As long as it wasn't an official duel his rank wouldn't increase. It still was probably more work than it was worth fighting him, after all not only did he lose his nap but also some time.

He knew Miki was most likely still in class, so he took the time to finally start to walk around the campus. He knew if he entered the building he would have a higher chance of being found that he was skipping class. Not like it really mattered, "maybe I should join a club...meh, it will just end up as another thing I'd end up skipping,"

Thinking about it, even with his rank it was a miracle that he hadn't been kicked it, it wouldn't have mattered too much outside the fact that he wouldn't get free food. It would have been something that he would have been interested in knowing more about if he actually cared about the happenings at the school, Hirai shrugged before finding a comfy tree to as he started to lay under it.

He slowly started to day dream, as he bit his lip and held his arm, "damn it, two month's and no leads...I can't keep pretending like nothing is wrong," he almost let it slip. Why he came here in the first place, nothing before and nothing after mattered. He had to find and kill her no matter what.

Just as his body slowly stopped shacking a large explosion was heard as he opened one of his eyes. Large flames was coming from the side of the building where some of the dorms would be as Hirai scoffed at the fire, it was no doubt the Princess picking another fight as usual as Hirai sat up. He was weighing if it was even worth going to see what it was all about.

"Meh, whatever, I got time to kill before Miki comes out of class.

He dragged his body to the scene, students came started to crowd around the area. Of course they would, it was Julis after all, from the stories that he heard about her she had a bad temper and rather haughty. In fact, even Hirai himself almost got in a fight with her, but decided that messing with a Rank 5 would have drawn far too much attention to himself.

After he finally got around the circle her frowned for a moment, there Riessfeld was, holding her blade. However he didn't recognize the other person, it was to be expected considering there were thousands of students but something was nagging him in the back of his head. Was the kid the new transfer student? If so then it might be for the best to try to stop the fight before he embarrassed himself.

"...I'll let this play out for a bit," Hirai noticed the kid didn't even have a weapon before someone threw him one. It seemed everyone really was a little bit battle hungry as a bright white light connected the two badges. This was an official duel no doubt, no getting around it.

Hirai simply looked at the battle, it was impressive to say the least. He noticed the other students slowly recording what was happening as he cocked his brow. Honestly, Julis should have ended it in less than five seconds, yet here he was standing there for over a minute of time. Her opponent seemed to be far better than the average as Hirai opened a small screen and scanned the student.

"Amagiri Ayato...NO RANK, that's all," it was clear that he was a recent student considering there was no info on him as, yet despite not having a rank he was doing so well, then again the entire ranking system was somewhat busted.

It was almost silly to put so much faith in a system that some could easily ignore or game. Just the idea of putting a numerical value on a strength level was ridicules, not when it was clear so many students had inflated ranks or like he and Miki hid their true potential in fear of being pressured into Festas.

It was clear that Julis patience was running thin as she finally pointed her sword to the transfer student.

"Amaryllis!" she screamed as a large ball of flame slowly traveled towards Ayato, Hirai was shocked that he just ran towards it without a hint of fear.

"Is he stupid?"

Julis smiled, "explode!" at that very moment the orb burst into a large explosion as Ayato was completely covered in flames as Hirai eye narrowed. Normally this would have marked the end of the battle, but Hirai remained silent as Ayato cut through the flames. In the next movement the duel was about to be decided as an arrow of light traveled from the corner of his eye.

Both the transfer student and Julis barely made avoid it as Hirai eye twitched. That wasn't a skill either of them had before, it was clear that someone just made an attempt on their life.

"...I better get out of here before I get dragged into this,"

"Dragged into what I may ask?"

Hirai froze for a moment, he knew that voice as he slowly turned, it was Claudia. She had long, wavy blonde hair with a split bangs at the crown of her head, and purple eyes. She was wearing the school uniform as Hirai cursed his bad luck.

"Enfield..."

"You could be a little more polite when referring to me, though I am positive that you would ignore me either way," Claudia smiled.

"I was just heading back to class..."

"Don't worry, I was not planning on stopping you, but please Hirai, if you do pick a fight I would appreciate it if it was a proper duel, doing what you did completely throws the order of the ranking system and it makes it far more difficult for us to choose who to let into the Festas,"

"Damn it, that was like an hour ago, and you already seen it..." he should have known better considering how fast information traveled through the school. he can already read the headline. 'Rank 72 student easily defeats rank 50' well that was if the battle between Julis and the transfer student didn't steal the spotlight.

"Fine, I'll be more careful from now on, I just wanted to take a nap anyway..." Hirai started to walk away as he could feel Claudia's smile piercing his back.

"Man what an annoying day...plus that assassin, maybe I should look into it myself," it wasn't because he cared what happened to Julis. He honestly couldn't care less, but he was interested in what leads he may find. After all, no matter how you sliced it, someone trying to kill someone else is shady, plus he had time to kill.

"Who knows, maybe this will be the jackpot," Hirai slid out of the school's gates looking at his arm before sighing.