Chapter 02: The New Boys

It was the beginning of a new school week. It was supposed to start pretty well only Mato's morning...well, Mato's didn't. She woke up 15 minutes late and had forgotten to pack her bag the night before. When she hurried to pack her bag she couldn't even find her pencil case! Honestly, she was being really pathetic.

"Mato honey! Are you ready yet!" Mato's mother yelled upstairs.

"No!" Mato yelled back panicking still.

Eventually she found her pencil case, although nothing was in it so she had to go on a hunt around her room for all her pencils. Eventually she found them all and she stuffed them into her pencil case which she then stuffed into her bag. Swinging her bag over her shoulder she ran out of her room and was about to run downstairs when she looked down at herself, realising she was still in her pyjamas. Sighing, she ran back to her room and quickly got dressed before running back out and downstairs.

"Mato, I told you to get ready the night before remember?" her mother scolded as Mato gulped down her breakfast.

"Sorry sorry sorry," Mato repeated before giving her mother a kiss on the cheek. "I've got to go now."

Quickly, Mato ran to the front door, grabbing her phone from the sideboard as she did so, her little bird phone charm making a clinking sound.

Soon, she found herself standing outside Yomi's house. She was about to ring the doorbell when Yomi opened the door.

"Hello Mato," Yomi said.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" Mato exclaimed.

"Oh no you're not," Yomi replied as she stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Mato sighed in relief as she and Yomi started to walk towards school.

When they got to school they greeted Yuu and Kagari, waving hi to Arata and Takuu as they walked passed.

"How was your weekend?" Yuu asked as they all walked to class.

"Oh, it was boring," Mato replied. "My mother made me tidy up the house. It was so unfair. Hiro got to do nothing!"

Mato threw her arms up in the air in melodramatic disbelief.

"Oh Mato, you know you should help around the house, we all do it," Yomi said as she fiddled with the bottom of her hair.

"Hmm," Yuu said in agreement. "I'm always helping Saya out around the house."

"Talking about Saya, where is she?" Mato asked, looking around the corridor for Saya even though she knew she wouldn't find her.

"Oh, she's somewhere. She said she had to go to the office to talk to the new boy."

"New boy?" Kagari asked. "There's a new boy?"

Yuu nodded. "Yeah."

"I wonder what he's like," Mato said.

Finally they reached their class room and they all sat down in their seats. They all tried to guess what the new boy would be like. Would he be kind hearted? Would he be a nerd? Maybe he was going to be really bad and he was expelled from his last school?

Eventually the classroom filled up and the teacher arrived.

"Okay, we have two new students today. Please be nice to them," the teacher announced.

"Two I thought you said there was one?" Mato whispered to Yuu.

"I thought Saya said she was going to talk to the new boy. Maybe I misheard. Maybe she said new boys," Yuu whispered back.

They had to stop talking though because the two boys came in. They looked a bit alike, most likely brothers. One was shorter than the other though. He looked quite timid, looking at his feet. The taller one looked more confident with pride radiating off him.

"Class, this is Katsuya and Shinji Sentokitoite," The teacher said, trying to hold the class' attention.

"Hey," the taller one said. "I'm Katsuya and this is my younger brother, Shinji. We just moved here."

"Okay," the teacher said. "Now, if you could sit down."

The two boys looked around the class for somewhere to sit. Mato looked around too, noticing that there were only two seats available but they weren't next to each other. One was on the other side of the class, next to the window while the other was in front of Mato. The two boys hesitated, obviously not sure which seat either of them should go to. Eventually, after Katsuya whispered something quietly to his brother, Katsuya went to sit next to the window while Shinji sat in front of Mato.

"I'm sorry," the teacher apologised to the brothers. "Tomorrow we will see if we can get you to sit next to each other if you wish."

"No, it's okay," Katsuya piped up from where he was sitting. "We don't need to sit next to each other if it will just mean other people will have to change where they are sitting, right Shinji?"

"Yeah," Shinji muttered as he looked at his desk.

Shinji was an awfully quiet person, wasn't he? Did he even get along with Katsuya? By what Mato had seen, it looked like Katsuya always bossed Shinji around. Maybe all he needed was a friend.

"Hey, I'm Mato Kuroi, it's nice to meat you!" Mato whispered to him as the teacher continued talking about something.

"Uh, hi, I'm Shinji Sentokitoite," Shinji whispered back.

"Sentokitoite? That's a long name. It means 'fighter and archer' right?"

Shinji laughed slightly. "Yes, that's what it's supposed to mean but everybody generally refers to me as Senjitoite, 'when one thousand archers and'. If you put that with Shinji you get 'and when one thousand arches believe."

"Really? That's so interesting!" Mato exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's Katsuya who's referred to as 'fighter and archer'. If you put that with Katsuya you get 'active fighter and archer' although people shorten it to Katsuya Sentoki which means 'Active fighter'. Katsuya's not much of an archer."

"So, does that mean you're an archer?" Mato asked.

Shinji nodded.

"Wow that's so cool!' Mato exclaimed.

"What's so cool?" Yuu asked.

Mato opened her mouth to answer but then the teacher told them all to be quiet. Shinji turned around to face the front and didn't speak another word to Mato. Mato couldn't wait until after lessons so she could speak to Shinji and learn more about him. He might actually be a pretty interesting person.

Black Rock Shooter lifted up her arm and watched as a cannon formed around it. Narrowing her eyes, she shot at Black Death Archer several times but still couldn't touch him. He jumped from side to side in all manners of movements avoiding all of Black Rock Shooter's incoming attacks. Expertly, while still dodging Black Rock Shooter's attacks he still managed to shoot an incoming wave of arrows that shattered down upon them. Luckily no one was hurt to badly. It was annoying how Black Death Archer seemed to have an endless supply of arrows though.

Black Rock Shooter looked at the others and with out one word to explain what she wanted them to do, they all started to do it. Black Gold Saw and Chariot ran one way round the pit while Strength ran the other way. Dead Master raised her hands and when she brought it back down her two skulls charged towards Black Death Archer. He looked at the skulls charging towards them and managed to dodge them just in time. But, as he was too busy focusing on the skulls, Black Gold Saw, Chariot and Strength all converged on him, knocking him to the ground.

Black Death Archer didn't flinch though. Instead he just rolled over and pushed himself back onto his feet, ready to dodge any more attacks. Black Rock Shooter tried to aim her cannon at him but couldn't seem to get him on his own. Annoyingly the others kept getting in the way. Black Rock Shooter took one glance at Dead Master to commutate her thoughts. Dead Master nodded and raised her hand again. When she brought it back down this time though, chains appeared from nowhere, zooming their way across the pit towards Black Death Archer.

But, being distracted and having his hands full fighting with the others, he didn't notice the chains zooming towards him until it was too late.

He had just turned his head and saw the chains coming towards him, trying to jump out of the way. But he didn't jump in time. One chain wrapped itself around his leg and slamming him down to the ground. Black Gold Saw, Chariot and Strength all scattered away and turned to watch Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master. Another tow chains wrapped themselves around each of his arms while the last chain wrapped itself around Black Death Archer's other leg. As Dead Master pulled her arm back towards her, the chains lifted up, lifting Black Death Archer up with them too, holding him up with all his limbs stretched out.

Black Rock Shooter narrowed her eyes once again. Adjusting the aim of her cannon, she looked directly at Black Death Archer and fired.