Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Chrome Shelled Regios or Akatsuki no Yona.
Summary: Layfon wasn't the only extraordinary student arriving from Glendan. Hak went with him after being overlooked for a position of heavens blade because he hasn't learned to use Kei yet.
Pairing: Hak x Nina x Naruki
Layfon and Hak are running down the path leading to the student hall where all newcomers are going to be introduced to their new home.
"We're not going to make it." Layfon says worried.
"Shouldn't have fallen asleep on the bus then." Hak tells him, easily matching his speed despite carrying a large, cloth wrapped object at least as tall as himself over his shoulder.
"You fell asleep too, didn't you?" Layfon challenges.
"I'm not worried about coming too late, I'll need to see whoever is in charge here anyways to get put into the military arts." Hak replies calmly as the two slow down to a normal walking pace.
"Why did you leave then? You were on the front lines already and fought alongside the heavens blades." Layfon asks him.
"Yeah, alongside. Not as one of them." Hak says bitterly.
"So why come here if it's happening to you all over again?" Layfon asks.
"Because here it shouldn't matter if I can use Kei or not, I can destroy this whole city if I wanted to with no one to stop me, not even you. You had to leave your precious heavens blade behind after all." Hak tells him confidently.
"Just don't cause too much trouble. People know we arrived together, and I just want to live a peaceful live." Layfon replies.
"I still don't get it. Why stop fighting, you are pretty good. One of the best even. Why waste that talent on what was it? Farming?" Hak asks him.
"Because all it got me was misery and pain." Layfon replies.
"Would you do anything different though?" Hak questions.
"No. I did what had to be done." Layfon answers.
"Hi, I'm from weekly lookin mind If I take your pictures? Oops, I already did. Sorry. You're both not in a uniform, so your new students, aren't you?" A cheerful girl asks them both, already having snapped the photos.
"Yeah, I'm Layfon Alseif and this is Hak. What exactly is Weekly lookin?" Layfon asks.
"You never heard of it? It's the number one magazine in Zuellni city." She tells them.
"You are such a phony. You're a new student here as well." A purple haired girl says arriving behind the brunette together with a black-haired girl.
"Well, that is kind of true, I am a new student here. I guess I should've clarified that I don't actually work for the magazine. But you'll see one of my articles will knock the editors socks off!" The brunette girl says determined.
"She goes a little overboard, but she's got a lot of spirit. That's one of the reasons we're friends." The purple haired girl excuses her friend.
"Speaking of which, let me introduce you to everyone here. I'm Mifi Rotten, this is Naruki Gerni an aspiring police officer and Mayshen here wants to be a baker." The wannabe reporter introduces them.
"The three of us are all from Yoltem city, which cities did you come from?" Naruki asks the two boys.
"We're from Glendan." Hak replies but their focus shifts to a fight starting at the entrance of the building the students are gathering.
"That's Kei energy." Naruki says, feeling the pressure in the air. Hak moves to uncover his weapon but Layfon stops him with a pleading look.
"I smell a scoop." Mifi says going closer to the fight to get some pictures.
"Mifi wait, it's too dangerous." Mayshen tells her and goes after her to stop her while Layfon leaves, hoping to avoid blowing his cover.
"Geeze those guys shouldn't be fighting outside." Naruki says when the two new students fight with Kei enhancements.
"That's it, we should try to stop them." Naruki says when the two boys yell restoration and get out their weapons, a staff and a whip respectively.
Mayshen had to run away when one of the fighters runs in her direction, the fighter however flips over her, landing on a roof of the entrance she ran to and the other fighter doesn't notice her until after he already used his whip to crush the roof's support beam, causing it to collapse.
Naruki ran after Mayshen to help her get to safety before the roof started to collapse and is also caught in the crossfire of the collapsing debris.
'Danger, help her.' Felli says using her telepathic Kei, talking to Layfon since she targeted the one with the most Kei.
As the roof collapses Layfon is kneeling in the middle of it, debris all around him, holding Mayshen in his arms.
"So much for laying low huh Layfon?" Hak says, holding up half of the collapsed roof with one hand, standing over Naruki who's lying on the floor, arms crossed over her face to minimize the damage.
"Speak for yourself." He says sounding disappointed while checking if Mayshen is OK.
"Meh, I have no problem with this." Hak replies.
"How are you doing that?" Naruki asks shocked upon seeing the feat of inhuman strength.
"Never mind that. Can you move aside please I'd like to set it down now." Hak tells her calmly.
"Sorry." She replies and hurries out from under the roof he's holding up.
"Thanks." Hak says tossing the roof half onto the rest of the debris after Layfon cleared out with Mayshen.
"I think that's my line." Naruki tells him, grateful for his heroism.
"Don't sweat it, would be a shame to see such a beautiful girl get hurt." Hak tells her, causing her to blush.
"Uhmpf." Layfon coughs.
"Sorry, we better go." Hak tells her, following Layfon who leads them away form the crowd, but Nina arrived a few moments earlier and feels the enormous amount of Kei still flowing out of his body.
A while later Hak and Layfon are in the president's office.
"As you are aware Zuelli is solely being operated by the students living within it. My being president of the student council means that I'm in control of this city. Therefore, I have the authority to make decisions in Zuellni's best interest." Karian Loss tells them.
"You both are first year general education students, yet earlier at least you Layfon displayed skills that would make senior military arts students look like an amateur. I take it you know a thing or two about fighting." He says.
"I suppose you could say that." Layfon replies.
"Hmpf." Hak scoffs, being overlooked once again and sits down on the couch in the room, waiting angrily.
"Layfon Alseif a student on the work study program. It says here your job is cleaning the machinery department. That's certainly not the most glamorous job to have around here. Your scholarship is only at a D ranking. What you earn from all your hard work will barely cover your tuition and it will be rather physically demanding." Karian tells him.
"I'm aware of that, don't worry I'm strong enough." Layfon replies.
"I think that strength would be better put to use in the military arts. I've bumped your scholarship to an A ranking, and I've waved your tuition. That should make the transfer a little easier." Karian says.
"Transfer? Now hold on a minute. I don't want to be in military arts. Take Hak." Layfon protests.
"Over the past two years, we've lost two Selenium mines in the municipal challenges and now there is only one mine left powering the whole city. If we lose that mine Zuellni is dead, which is why we need your strength to fortify our military Layfon." The president continues.
"If you want strength, then enroll Hak. He's stronger than me." Layfon suggests hopeful, but he gets shot down.
"Sorry, but a fighter without Kei is of no use to the city." Karian tells him. Layfon looks over to Hak with worry as he grips his still covered weapon with all his might and gets up to leave, making Layfon look at his retreating form with empathy and a bit of relief that he didn't lose his cool and leveled the city after getting rejected again.
"Look it's nice that you think so highly of me but all I want to pursue in Zuellni is general studies." Layfon tells him.
"I'm sorry, the welfare of the city has to come first so this is not an option, meaning as of right now you are in military arts." Karian says decisively and a group of girls come in, stripping him down and putting him in an military arts uniform.
While this is happening in the president's office Nina is on her way to him to request, he gets Layfon to join her platoon. On the way to the office she passes Hak and glances at him, having seen him near the boy she wants to recruit and freezes in her spot at seeing the enraged expression on the taller teen's face as he passes her, he doesn't even have direct eye contact with her and she is standing in the hallway frozen with fear until he rounds a corner.
"What was that?" She asks herself, catching her breath and looks to the corner he left but decides it was just her imagination, afterall why would someone so strong come to a student city.
"Excuse me Mr. President, I came to ask you…" Nina says but stops upon seeing the cowering form of Layfon lying on the floor.
"Of well if it isn't the captain of the seventeenth platoon, I'm busy can this wait? Mrs. Uhmm." Karian asks her.
"Nina Antalk sir. And I'd like to request that I'd be allowed to take him for my platoon." Nina requests.
Karian agrees to this and Nina leaves with Layfon in tow and shows him to the men's dorms.
Meanwhile Hak after leaving the administrations building wandered around the city, looking for some way to blow off some steam but is disappointed in his quest for relief. Instead he ends up at the girls' dorms and remembers the purple haired beauty he rescued earlier and her aim to become a police officer so he decides to look for her. He enters the building, ignoring the looks the various girls are giving him and looks around the lobby hoping to find a plan with who has which room but is disappointed when he finds none. After not finding any information on who has which room he goes around asking if anyone knows where the three girls are living and to his luck the 6th girl he asks lives across from them and tells him where to find the room.
"Coming." He hears Mayshen's voice as she walks over to the door, while Mifi can be heard giving another speech.
"Yes?" Mayshen asks opening the door slightly, looking at him through the gap.
"It's Hak. From this morning." He says.
"Oh, yes. Come in please." She says, opening the door fully and he steps inside, still carrying his wrapped-up weapon.
"Nice room you have. I actually haven't seen mine yet." He says glancing around the spacious room, his eyes lingering on Naruki, who is sitting on her bed dressed in only a towel from what he can tell.
"Thank you, uhm if you don't mind me asking why are you here? It's rather late." Mayshen asks shyly.
"Sorry, I can come back tomorrow if that's better." He apologizes and turns around to leave.
"Mayshen, don't send him away, let's hear why he's here first." Mifi berates the black-haired girl.
"Uhm, thanks. I actually came to ask you something Naruki." Hak says, turning to the purple haired girl, who adjusts her towel before walking over to him with a smirk, noticing him checking her out before he focuses back on her face.
"You want to become a police officer right?" Hak asks, getting a nod positive in return from the girl.
"Do you know how I could apply for that?" He asks.
"You want to become a police officer? I mean that's great, but I thought you were planning on joining the military arts." Naruki asks him surprised.
"Yeah well, they rejected me so I'm hoping the police force doesn't have much in terms of requirements." He tells her.
"You can come with me to the police force's orientation if you want. As for requirements, I think the only one is being able to use one's Kei, even slightly. But after your feat earlier I'm guessing that's not a problem." She tells him.
"Great." He sighs disappointed.
"Huh? What's the matter?" Naruki asks.
"I can't use Kei. I never learned how. At first I didn't need to and when I realized that it's a requirement for a lot of things it was already too late and no one wanted to teach me or was able to dumb it down for me." He explains.
"Ohh, I'm sorry." Naruki tells him, giving him a empathic look.
Wait, does that mean you were using only your physical strength earlier today?" Mifi asks shocked.
"Yeah." He says, his mind already busy contemplating what to do next.
"Anyways, thanks and good luck with the orientation tomorrow." He thanks them, waving a quick goodbye as he leaves their room.
"That's really sad for him, isn't it?" Naruki says, going back over to her bed.
"Yes. Maybe you should ask him out, on a date I mean, to get his mind off things." Mifi tells her knowingly.
"Hmpf. Why am I the only one getting teased? Mayshen is all giddy looking forward to the next time she meets Layfon." Naruki tells her.
"That's true, maybe you can double date. Hak and Layfon already know each other after all." Mifi replies, grinning at them challengingly.
"Maybe we will!" Naruki replies confidently.
"We will?" Mayshen asks worried.
"Let's just go to bed." Naruki suggests and goes under her covers, trying to hide the blush at imagining herself going out with Hak.
After Hak left their room he heads to the male dorm, asking a student for the way and quickly finds his room, which is right next to Layfon's.
"So what did Mr. Dick of a President do?" He asks barging into Layfon's room.
"He made me a military arts student. And I am already in a squad. I just can't get a break." Layfon tells him with a deep sigh.
"Yeah well it looks like I'm jobless." Hak tells him.
"Why?" Layfon questions.
"Did you really think I was going to attend regular working classes?" Hak asks.
"No, but maybe police officer?" Layfon suggests.
"I already looked into it, I need my Kei for that as well. Stupid society, useless system." He curses.
"Hey, why don't we try to teach you how to use Kei again? I know we failed in Glendan but maybe that was because all of us heavenly blades never had to think about how to use our Kei, we just did it. I could ask my new squad captain to help you as a favor." Layfon offers.
"Argh, why the fuck not. Not like I could get any worse than 0 Kei." Hak agrees grumbling.
"0 Kei? I think you`ve got it mixed up. I felt you activate your Kei once for a mere second and your amount of Kei is massive, it's even more than two of the heavenly blades' Kei together. Which is why it's probably so hard for you to get a grasp on it. It's so far spread in your body you can't tell what is Kei and what is not, being so freakishly strong doesn't make it any easier for you either." Layfon explains.
"Well I'll be damned, that's the first good news I heard in over half a year." Hak says, looking genuinely surprised.