It was dark….

The boy only saw blackness that tainted the horizon. A voice called out to him….a deep, dark voice, comparison to a low growl.

"Wake up…."

The boy struggled to open his eyelids. He then revealed his dark brown eyes only to be greeted by the same black void. He held his head instinctively from the pain. "What…..was that?" he thought as he groaned. "I could've sworn I heard something…."

"Wake up already you damned fool."

He opened his eyes fully, and scanned around the limitless darkness around him, now fully aware of the increasing intensity of the growling voice. His body prepared itself for a possible threat. "W-Who's there?! Show yourself!" he shouted while still trying to understand where exactly he is or what is going on.

He then turned his body 180 degrees...and sees two large red glowing reptilian-like eyes staring back intently at him. He felt a powerful and ominous force emitting from the burning pair. Then his ears shook as a roar boomed out from the dark, finally convincing his entire being to submit to panic and fear.

"I SAID WAKE UUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP!"

"GAH!" the boy shrieked as he jerked up to reality. He panted heavily as he looked around in fearful awareness as he noticed that he is sitting on a comfortable looking cushioned chair, and caught sight of a blue and white-cladded stewardess looking at him with surprise on her face. "S-Sir? A-Are you alright?" she asked with nervousness, but genuine worry could be heard from her timid sounding voice.

The boy, though drenched with cold sweat, calmed himself and cleared his throat. "S-Sorry, miss. I…..I just had a bad dream that's all," he reassured her as he made a nervous chuckle. The stewardess made a sigh of relief, "Ahh I see. I'm just letting you know that we'll be arriving to our destination soon, sir." She made a smile.

His brain finally clicked, as he remembered why he was on the airship in the first place. " Right…thanks for telling me."

The stewardess smiled again," You're welcome, sir. I'll have to attend to the other passengers now, if you have any trouble don't hesitate to call me up, alright?" The boy chuckled lightly, "I'll be fine, thanks for telling me though." The stewardess smiled once more as she left for the other passengers.

The boy finally dropped his reassuring smile as he sighed with exhaustion, trying to expel out the panic out of his body like sucking out poison from a wound. He rubbed his forehead with his right hand, as he thought, "The same dream again? Geez…..I can't seem to catch a break." "But still…that voice…..sounded so familiar…" He pondered around the thought for a while, and suddenly an image of a girl entered his mind's eye. His questioning face quickly turned into a worried one. "I really hope that she's alright though….it's already been a week since she left…" As he thought about the girl in his mind, he leaned against the seat's arm support, and looked out of the porthole. From his view, the clouds dispersed, and to his slight excitement, a large city-like structure on a mountain appeared before his eyes.

"So that's the 15th hierarchical city of Torifune huh?" he said to himself curiously with a hint of wonder.

As one should know, the hierarchical cities are cities that were built after the Dark War, also known as the First War of Ars Magus, in which a terrible monstrosity known as the Black Beast appeared in the year 2100, and it's only known goal was the complete annihilation of mankind. The Beast also spread a deadly substance known as seithr all around the world's surface, as it was the only way the Black Beast could operate. The behemoth's power was so overwhelming that it killed off more than half of the world's population, and it's seithr has been helpful with the process, with mankind unable to find a way to eliminate it, and most humans and animal died off because of seithr poisoning, either dropping down to a painful death, or even mutating to something even more worse than death.

After the Beast mysteriously went dormant for a year, it gave humanity time to develop Ars Magus and the even more powerful Ars Armagus, which could be used to directly combat the Beast. After the humans figured out how to use them both, they fought alongside the Six Heroes and the Black Beast was finally defeated ten years after its sudden emergence, in the year 2100.

Soon after the destructive war, the NOL or the Novus Orbis Librarium was formed. Long story short, they are basically the leaders and police force of the current state of the world lead by a person called the Imperator. In all of the 23 hierarchical cities, there would be an NOL HQ on each of the cities' highest level, so that the NOL could monitor the cities' activities from above.

Torifune however, is a bit different than the rest of the cities, as the entire city is where students of all ages go to study to become NOL officers. Because of this, Torifune is also known as Academy city. Divided into levels like all cities, Torifune contains 10 levels.

Levels:

1. NOL branch

2. The city's only port

3. Security and management departments

4. Junior high through college facilities

5. Pre-school to elementary

6. Business district

7. Dormitories

However, the 8th, 9th, and 10th levels are off –limits to students.

The boy processed all of the information in his mind, then came to a sudden realization, "Looks like I'll have to join the Military academy to do this…" he thought for a while. He shook his head, "None of that matters now, after all….it's just as long as I can be by her side." He sighed as he thought worriedly about the girl's welfare, then a mechanical voice addressed via the PA of the airship.

"Please buckle up your seat-belts, we will be docking in to Torifune port soon."

The boy shuffled around his seat to get more comfortable as he buckled his seatbelts. He sighed yet again, "Well…..here I am." The PA sounded off again, after a couple of rumbles and the hissing of machinery minutes later.

"Welcome to the 15th hierarchical city of Torifune."

Sometimes being a receptionist can be boring, much less to say about a certain young woman known simply as Miss Penny. It's been only a month since she employed as one of the little receptionists of Torifune, that is, not counting the two week training of memorizing about 95 percent of the whole city. And at this certain moment she has been beginning to doze off at every three seconds as her very eyelids seem to increase by a ton at every drop. "Darn it…I can't fall asleep again," she yawned, nearly every word she says distorted by her tired voice. "But….it's just….so…boring…."

In her small office located near the port where all people should enter, she rests her head comfortably on her arms surrounded by stacks of seemingly endless paper and a medium sized ars-powered monitor next to her. Her blue NOL uniform groaned as she shifts her body for "comfortable" positioning on her well cushioned chair. "Maybe….just a quick power nap," she thought with a smile as her eyelids covered her blue eyes for the last time and darkness quickly enveloped her vision.

Just seconds later, she heard what seems to be a bell ringing. "H-Huh?" she thought, confused. The bell rung again. She heard a heavily distorted sound, barely even audible. She sighed in slight annoyance as she said, "M-Moooom…..please…just let me sleep longer….." She continued to snooze soundly. As the bell stopped ringing, she slowly smiled in satisfaction.

Suddenly she felt a sharp stab at her shoulder, and she woke up in a "professional" manner. "EEK!" she shrieked, and saw a surprised looking crimson haired boy in front of her behind the bulletproof and shockproof window, carrying a duffel bag and wearing a simple black jacket with a red shirt underneath, as well as a matching pair of long pants.

The boy, though startled, asked her with some concern, "A-Are you alright, Miss…Penny?" She panicked, and raised her arms up in a defensive manner, " W-What?! Who are you?! And how do you know my name?!" The boy simply pointed to her chest, "Well….your name tag says so…eh heh."

Miss Penny looked down to her uniform, to see her name tag containing her capitalized name. She blushed with surprise and extreme embarrassment, silently cursing herself for her own stupidity as she calmed herself and successfully gave the boy an awkward but welcoming smile. "A-Aah, w-welcome to Torifune, sir…and I apologize for my, uhh, behavior." The boy replied with a chuckle, "Its okay. I'm uhh a newcomer here, you know, to enlist in the Military Academy."

Miss Penny, now remembering her standard procedure booted up her monitor, "Aah yes, of course. What's your name?"

The boy replied, "Hunter Long."

"Hrmm, Hunter Long….." she scanned her touchscreen monitor for the boy, now revealed as Hunter, as she yawned unconsciously. Hunter decided to jest, "Did you happen to miss your morning coffee?" Miss Penny blushed lightly as she quickly covered her mouth, however she brightened up by the tease," Hehe, maybe, I kinda regretted sleeping late last night," she giggled lightly as she finally found Hunter's name on the list. "Aah there you are," she said, feeling a little proud of herself for finding his name from a long list of letters, "you've arrived pretty late here too, a week late to be exact."

Hunter scratched his head," Sorry about that, I also heard that I have to attend this….orientation right?" Miss Penny thought a bit, she then remembered, "Mmn hmm, every freshmen must go through it to officially enlist into this academy, now the orientation is currently delayed, well….because of the upcoming festival that's going to happen soon, and the academy is busy preparing for it."

"I see," he replied with a look of uncertainty on his face, "So uhh…..what am I supposed to do now?" Miss Penny thought for a bit, "Oh hold on for a moment!" She then scanned her monitor as Hunter quietly observed. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as her eyelids threatened to close for another slumber, but she used her inner energy reserves to force herself back up again, after inputting several codes and producing a small key card. "Here," she hands it to Hunter through the receiver with a tired smile.

Hunter looked at the contents with curiosity as it read, "G-017." "Is this a room keycard?" he asked innocently.

Miss Penny replied with another smile, "Why yes, it's a dormitory keycard to be exact, it'll be your temporary room, at least until you pass the orientation that is," she then pointed to several ars elevators lining up against a decorative wall. "See those elevators? Go in and press floor seven to get to the dormitories, and here," she hands him a small folded booklet, branded with the NOL badge on the cover, "This contains all the necessary information about the whole city, there should be a map in some of the pages as well, so you should have no problem finding the room you're looking for," she continued, doing a good job at forcing her eyelids open.

Hunter took it with gratitude, "I see, hehe, thanks," he smiled warmly.

She made one last smile, "You're welcome," as Hunter walked to the elevators and entered it. She immediately sighed with exhaustion and collapsed on the table face first. "Oh, finally…..I can get some rest for now," she thought with glee. Then, she had another thought, "Weird…..I have a feeling that I forgot to tell him something….about the G…" she thought for a while. "Nah…I guess….it's nothing…." she then finally dozed off, as her colleagues saw big letter Zs coming from her office.

Hunter stepped out of the elevator with an impressed and surprised look on his face as he looked back at the ars-powered machine, "Well that was a smooth ride, not even a single damn shake or jitter, they must have really put some work in this city huh?" "Hmph, unlike Otsu…" he shivered at the thought, "I got stuck in that box for an hour….."

Hunter turned around to look at fairly large decorated windows that plastered the walls in front of him, revealing other large buildings, all of which are actually the dorms of the thousands of students who are currently living in the city. Hunter was extremely impressed by the view, he had never seen anything so breathtaking and expansive as he look out further and noticed grassy hills and what seems to be a large park with a small lake in the middle, no doubt for students to exercise or even to take a break from the stress of the academy. "Whoa, this is just the dormitory?" he blew a failed whistle, "man, if this is just level 7, I wonder how big are the other levels, and not to mention that this city is only one of the smallest," he thought with wonder.

He took out the booklet and flipped the pages for the map of the dormitories, "Well, better not waste any more time," he said to himself as he found the page. "Now let's see if I can find room G-017…..it's…this way." He walked to the right path of the mass corridor following a G sign that was hung right in front of the elevators beside a sign with the letter B, with the ceilings and walls decorated with ars-powered lamps and ars circles, glowing green as it lighted up the corridors.

Walking through multiple corridors, Hunter soon noticed that it was quite quiet. He looked around curiously and found not a single soul. He checked his watch, "11.30 am, from what I heard, all of the students must still be in class," he speculated. He walked some more, and the only sound he heard so far are the echoes of his footsteps, and the slight sound of ringing in his ears whenever he stopped. He shivered, "This place is pretty creepy though, it's too quiet…..I hope that I get to see someone at least."

After many turns and about five minutes, and passing by large double doors labeled with room numbers, he finally looked upon the number G-017. Hunter sighed with relief, "Finally, I thought it's gonna take me forever." He took out the keycard and showed it to the scanner just below the doorknob. Two small ars circles appeared at the surfaces of the keycard and the scanner, two seconds later, the scanner beeped lightly and it's yellow circle turned green, and Hunter could hear locks being turned. He kept the keycard in his pocket, and slowly his hand reached the doorknob. He stopped as his fingers touched it's golden surface, he felt his heart accelerate a bit, "Well, this is it…..once I open this…..there's no turning back now…" He felt a tingling feeling in his stomach, a clear symptom for nervousness, "I guess I'll be going to live with some other people I don't know huh? Well…..I guess…..I'll just have to do what mom says…just act normal…just be yourself…" he thought, as he rubbed his eyes, "…..yeah….yourself…."

He then gripped the doorknob tightly, "But…the only reason why I came here….is just so I could be by her side…" he thought, now filled with determination. "So come on! I'll face any obstacle that gets in my way!" He opened the door and stepped into the room with a semi-confident grin in his face.

However, the sight that welcomed him quickly disintegrated his smile and any thoughts of a "well-refined high class" student dorm, as he looked on in incredible shock at the ungodly mess of clothes, underwear and crumpled blankets that littered the bedroom. Hunter deliberately dropped his duffel bag on the floor, "WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS MESS?!" he screamed. His left eye twitched, his fingers jittered, and his fists slowly clenched into a tight ball as his general cleanliness habits arise from deep within him. "UNACCEPTABLE!"

He rolled his sleeves, and quickly dove into the large pile of cloth like a deranged cleaning maid. "Must…clean…this…..atrocity!" he thought violently, as his hands began to separate the pieces of clothing, shirts, pants, skirts…"Skirts?" Hunter just realized as he lifted up a blue NOL standard uniform short skirt. "Hmm….this must be a co-ed dorm….." he said innocently. His "slight" anger calmed down as he took a moment to carefully look at the clothes around him. He noticed that there were not a single hint of any male standard uniform pieces. "Looks like I'm sharing a room with girls," he sighed, a little blush appeared on his cheeks, he looked at the four beds, noting that three of them are unkempt, "three of them of be exact." Hunter rubbed his brow to calm himself, but still felt a tinge of nervousness in him, "Oh well, I might as well make a good impression first, I'll start by cleaning this room." He began to sort out and fold the clothes.

He carefully picked up and folded any individual piece of clothing, judging by their sizes he folded them cleanly and stacked them on each of the beds based on the three different owners. Then, he suddenly realized that he has a black bra on his hands. "GAH!" he shrieked in surprise as he nearly dropped the bra. He looked at it nervously, his face turning redder as he gulped down a heavy load of saliva. "C-Come on Hunter, you've done this before…..just….just be a man….." he said to himself, desperately trying to anchor his extreme embarrassment down as he slowly folded it neatly.

He then encountered another smaller bra, about an A or B-cup as he thought to himself, he simply folded them neatly as well. Then, he looked at the two stacks of bras, and realized that…..he couldn't seem to find any bra of different sizes that belongs to the third person. Hunter began to have wild thoughts, "D-Does this mean that this girl doesn't wear a bra at all?!" his face turned redder. "Hell, maybe she's a trap who's forced to wear women's clothing?!" he immediately slapped himself at the thought. "I…..I think I rather go with option one….."

A few minutes passed, and he looked on at the nicely stacked tower of clothing on the now clean beds. He sighed with relief, feeling parts of his nervousness disappearing, "It's finally done…bras…panties…..even thongs…." he blushed once more, "…over…." Hunter looked around to ensure that he has had everything, he then noticed a piece lying just by one of the beds. "Ah, must have missed that one," he said as he picked it up, "I nearly…?!"

He looked at it with shock and surprise, as the panty was decorated with multiple faces of cute, cartoonish pandas. Hunter continued to look at it…..and made a rather dry chuckle, "H-Hey…..this reminds me of….., could it be that…." he recycled the thought over and over, and merely folded it and placed the admittedly cute panty on the stack shyly. "Nah…..it's not like we would coincidentally share the same room…..not that I would mind….*sigh*" He looked around the room, "Well, time for the rest."

Three girls walked down the corridor, one of them, a squirrel beastkin stretched her arms up in excitement, "Woohoo! I am so glad that history was cancelled!" shouted the girl happily with short brown hair, a big curly tail and hazel eyes. Another girl, human, with long red hair and blue eyes retorted, "Oh Makoto, you have to understand that history is pretty important, you know?" The beastkin, now known as Makoto replied with a slightly bored tone," I know, I know, Tsubaki….but it's just so BORING," she held her neck like she is choking herself to death, doing the act comically, "and I'm that you would feel the same right, Noel?!" pointing to a blond girl with short slightly shoulder length hair and green eyes. Noel spoke out in a rather timid voice, slightly afraid that she would hurt her friend's feelings as Tsubaki looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Aah, well…..I-I'm afraid that I'll have to go with Tsubaki this time, Makoto….eh heh….s-sorry," she stuttered, "history IS pretty important."

To Noel's surprise, Makoto simply answered with a grin, "Oh whatever, I just want to sleep on my bed for the rest of the day off! HAHAHA!" Noel and Tsubaki made a small nervous chuckle, though amused by their friend's optimism, "Right….." Tsubaki quickly reminded Makoto," Ah ah ah, don't forget that you'll have to help us clean the room, you're not the only one who woke up late you know?" Makoto replied, suddenly remembering the embarrassing mess she made as she stuck out her tongue playfully, "Oh fine fine, I'll help you guys out."

The trio approached a door, branded with the label G-017. Makoto gripped on the doorknob with excitement and she opened it, "HOME SWEET…..?!" her mouth remained opened widely as she looked on at the sight before her. Noel and Tsubaki noticed her shocked expression. Noel asked her, confused and worried, "M-Makoto? I-Is there something wrong?" Makoto's answer, however, surprised both of the girls with confusion, "Did…did the academy hire a cleaning lady?"

Tsubaki and Noel looked at her in the predicted expression, "EEEEEEHHHHHHHH?!"

The three burst into the room, and saw what seems to be god's work. The windows were sparkling, the beds were clean and tidy, not even a single crumple could be seen, their clothes were neatly stacked on the bed in the form of multiple towers, and the floor was shining like it was laced in stardust.

"WOW!" they shouted as they marveled at the picture perfect room. Tsubaki walked around the room, "It's so clean!" she exclaimed. "Yeah, no crap! The cleaning lady must be really good!" replied Makoto, her nose sniffing at the air, picking up a lemon fragrance, surprising her, "She even added a lemon air freshener!"

"She really did!" said Noel as she carefully moved around the clean floor, observing the flawless environment where once was a mess of clothes and lingerie. "Maybe we won't have to clean our room anymore," she giggled at the thought, slightly relieved htat there won't be any more "strainful" work. As Makoto and Tsubaki continue to be impressed by the cleanliness, Noel looked at the folded clothes, and noticed…..a particular trait. The thought quickly came to her like electricity as her small features quickly twisted into one of extreme surprise and disbelief, "T-This…..this style of folding…i….it can't be?!"

Tsubaki caught her distress, and was about to ask her what's wrong if it wasn't for Makoto's hand suddenly covering her mouth, "Mmmnphhmmmnn?!" she mumbled in surprise. Makoto shushed her with a rare serious face as Noel looked at them, her thought still in her mind. Makoto beckoned Noel to come to her as she whispered, "Do you two hear that?"

Makoto's squirrel ears twitched as Noel and Tsubaki listened to the now silent room….and they heard a soft snoring noise echoing around the room. The two looked at her with surprise. "There's someone else here!" said a fearful Noel, nearly breaking her voice and whisper. Makoto put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, "It's coming from the couch…." pointing to the couch that was facing away from them, "I'm going to ambush whoever that is…you two get ready to take him down."

Tsubaki and Noel slowly nodded, and Makoto slowly sneaked towards the snoring couch, as the other two followed closely by, with Noel cowering behind Tsubaki.

Soon Makoto was at the couch, her arms above her, ready to strike. She pointed out three of her fingers, and slowly counting them down as Tsubaki and Noel prepared themselves for what's about to happen. As soon as Makoto pulled down her last finger…she dove right onto the couch and the other two could hear violent thuds and shuffling sounds, "GOTCHA, YOU LITTLE TRESPASSER!"

"AGH! WHAT?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" replied a male voice with a tone of disarray that startled Tsubaki and Noel heavily. Noel however, was in a deeper disbelief, "That voice!"

Makoto soon appeared before them with a struggling crimson haired boy in a rather complex arm-lock. "Hey! There's a guy in here!" she exclaimed slightly angrily. Tsubaki shouted in confusion and disbelief, "A boy?! What's a boy doing in the GIRL'S DORMITARY?!"

The boy stopped resisting when he heard the two words that immediately confused his brain, "Wait…girl's dormitory?!" He looked at them with a hugely embarrassed and confused face, as Noel stepped out of Tsubaki's shadow with a very surprised look on her face. The boy looked at Noel…..and widened his eyes in shock.

A few seconds passed, and Noel's quivering lips produced an answer that momentarily silenced Tsubaki and Makoto….

"H-Hunter?"

Hunter's heart suddenly slowed down, his shocked brown eyes met with her surprised green eyes, and his mouth blurted….

"No…Noel?"