Disclaimer: See chapter one for disclaimer.
Chapter 2: School Day's!
The entire class burst into questions.
"Hey, are you really Negi's cousin? You look nothing alike!"
"What part of America did you live in?"
"Where did you learn Japanese? You don't have a accent like Negi."
"Why is your hair silver? It's beautiful..."
"I bet you speak good English!" "Of course he speaks English, he's American dummy!"
"Negi-sensei, why is he here and not in the boy's school?"
Negi waved his arm's to try and quiet down the class when John cleared his throat and barked, "CLASS, TEN-HUT!!!" The question's died instantly, and everyone looked at the Spartan. "That's better, now, Sensei?" Negi had jumped about a foot off the floor at the authoritarian bellow. He regained his composure and coughed into a fist, "Well, now we know that John has a good set of lungs." Negi smiled at his own joke and the rest of the class laughed.
"Now the reason he is here and not in the boy's school is because Mahora Academy is thinking of building a campus in America. He's here to observe how the Female part of the Academy works and a couple of years from now another exchange student will observe the Male portion of the Academy. He also happens to be related to me so the Principle signed him up for my class."
Negi looked around, "Now if you have questions, please ask them one at a time, ok?"
Kasumi Asakura, news paper club member, raised her hand, "What part of America did you live in?"
"Colorado, near Cheyenne Mountain."
Misa Kakizaki, cheerleading club member, raised her hand, "How old are you?"
"I'm 15."
Sakurado Shiina, lacrosse club member, raised her hand quickly, "Do you have a girlfriend back in America?"
"No."
Several people whistled. Negi rapped his roll book on his lectern a few time's. "Alright, that's enough questions for now. If you have more questions for him until wait after class or during lunch, now, let's get you seated John. The seat by Asakura-san seam's to be free so you can sit there for the time being "
Kasumi smiled real big as Misa and Shiina booed. John nodded and walked through the rows of desk's and sat gracefully (although he had the feeling that the spot was occupied). Kasumi was struck by how gracefully he moved, like each movement was controlled yet fluid at the same time. Kasumi kind of liked how tall he was.
John arranged his school book's and paper's neatly on his desk. Kasumi leaned over slightly and said, "Hi, my names Asakura." John replied, "Hello." The Spartan flashed a polite smile. To Kasumi the smile was dazzling, causing Kasumi's chest to tighten a bit. "So, how long have you been in the country?"
"Since two in the afternoon, yesterday."
"Oh..."
Kasumi looked away, cheeks a bit red, and thought to herself, come on Asakura, don't let a handsome face distract you from your job. Try to get some more information out of him! Your journalistic instincts demand it! She turned back to John. "So what our your hobbies?"
"I'm sorry, could you hold off your questions until lunch? I'm going to be busy for the next week or so. When I have some free time I'll answer your questions, if that's alright?"
Damn, he's going to be a tough nut to crack, Kasumi thought sullenly nibbling on her thumbs knuckle.
Negi started class and all conversation ceased.
John was faintly impressed by the control Negi had over his students. John remembered briefly about a mission Blue Team had preformed. During the 12th year of the Covenant war, Lord Admiral Chang Xu (9th in command of the UNSC) and his family had been kidnapped by Insurrectionist's. They'd planed to force the UEG to give them a colony ship so they could flee with their family's from human space. The kidnaper's had taken over the Admiral's three story home, located on the still rural plane's of Nebraska. Blue Team was on Earth for mandatory R&R (Rest and Refit in the Spartan's case) when the call came through for the Spartans to suit up and prepare for a hostage rescue situation.
Blue Team dealt with the situation with it's customary flawlessness, and rescued Lord Chang and his family. But, what stuck out in his mind where the Admiral's two fourteen year-old daughter's. They had been near catatonic when the Spartan's had burst in, eliminating the threat to the Admiral's family. To prevent the two girls from going into shock John had ordered Blue Team to remove their helmets. The two girls had gone from almost catatonic to loud and obnoxious as soon as Kelly had tried to strike up a conversation.
He smirked at the memory of Kelly sub-vocalizing a request to bind the girls mouth's with the spare roll of marine rigger tape she had on her at all times.
Kasumi was busy taking notes when a ball of paper hit her in the head. She looked around to see who hit her with the bit of refuse, but no one was looking in her direction so she shrugged and unfolded the ball to see what was inside. It was a hastily written note.
"What happened to, Asakura, the famous news hound? Right about now, you would be asking enough questions to drive a deaf man crazy. I know he's handsome, but that's not like you!
By Misa.
P.S. Point him over to me if your not interested!"
Kasumi, face aflame, crumpled up the note and puffed out a, "Hurmph" loudly.
Lunch Time
John used the line of credit the Principle had started for him to buy some sort of melon flavored bread and was just starting to sit down to eat it when two identical girls (the only thing different about them being their hair styles; one with double buns, one with twin pigtails) walked over to where he was sitting. Fuuka and Fumika Narutaki looked at one another, then at the Spartan. Fuuka stated, "We where wondering how you liked the school and..." Fumika continued, "If you'd like a tour of the campus?"
John once again flashed a polite smile at the twins. John did not know that he had the kind of face that, while it was handsome, became infinitely more so when he smiled. Too bad that during the forty odd years of his life he had not had the chance to smile often and when he did he had been wearing a helmet. 'Thank you for the offer. I might have to take you two up on that later."
Both Fuuka and Fumika blushed, replied, "okay" and hurried off to their seats. John wondered what their problem was. John was about to take a bite of his bread when he saw that the tall raven haired teen he had knocked unconscious yesterday was headed his way. Sighing internally, the Spartan placed his bread aside and raised a eyebrow. "Yes?"
"Sorry about yesterday-de gozaru. I thought you where attacking Asuna and Negi-bozu." She rubbed her head. "That was a good hit yesterday, and with my own weapon no less! Where did you learn those moves? I mean, you barely moved the entire time, and your speed! I've seen master martial artists who where slower-de gozaru!"
"My uncle Mendez taught me everything I know about martial arts and CQC, or close quarters combat. He did not believe in styles or kata's so he taught me, my bothers and sisters to take what worked and didn't and to think on our feet."
Kaede opened one of her eyes at that and asked quietly, "Thats a interesting way to train. So how many moves do you know-de gozaru?"
"Oh, around three or four thousand from various sources. And, as for my speed it's all natural genetics." Both of Kaede's eye's opened at that and her mouth opened a little. "By the way, you're no slouch when it come's to weapon combat... are you alright?"
Kaede walked away muttering about something. The Spartan just shrugged and was lifting his bread to his mouth when he saw a distinct shape on one of the other members of the class. John slowly lowered his piece of bread and whistled at Mana Tatsumiya.
Kasumi had been waiting to corner John so she could ferret out some answers. She had been watching John on the other side of the class room since the beginning of lunch trying to figure out how to accomplish her goal when she saw him whistle at Mana. John quickly flashed a hand signal to the brown-skinned black haired girl when she turned to look at him. John repeated the same hand signal and Mana raised her eyebrow in a questioning manner.
John quickly flashed some more hand signals at Mana and she threw some back. The silent conversation went back and fourth for about five seconds when Mana broke the silence by shaking her head and stating, "No, their air soft, and unloaded." John nodded, gave her a thumbs up, and turned back to his food.
Kasumi wondered what they talked about.
John picked up his still unbitten bread and was about to take a bite when he felt his extremely sensitive survival instincts scream at him. Quick as a viper John leaned foreword in his seat just as two different feet flew through the space his head had just occupied, each foot going in different directions. Spartan time kicked in, and the world seemed to slow and race at the same time.
The entire classroom went from a bedlam of noise to instant silence as the entire class stared at the scene happening before them. John flowed out of the chair like a gust of wind and prepared himself to fight. He spotted the other girl, Ku Fei, he had knocked unconscious yesterday. Standing with her was another girl who had assumed a fighting stance, Chao Rinshen if he remembered correctly.
Both girls resumed the offensive. Chao threw a blindingly fast right cross and Ku Fei launched a quick snap kick aimed at his left kidney. The Spartan raised his arms and intercepted both attacks, his hand covering Chao's right fist and his other hand held Ku Fei's left ankle. Both girls launched another all out assault on the Spartan. Chao threw a straight kick at John's stomach and Ku Fei launched a right straight punch at John's face.
John responded to Chao's attack by bending his arm and striking down at the tip of Chao's ankle with his elbow while tugging her forward and pivoting at the waist toward Ku Fei. John dodged Ku Fei's jab by leaning his head to the far right while aching his back. The Spartan threw Chao toward the other girl and fired off a quick kick into Ku Fei's right ankle causing her to slip and released both girls.
Ku Fei and Chao slammed into each other and collapsed onto the floor in a untidy pile of limbs.
The class rep, Ayaka Yukihiro, surged to her feet and said at the top of her considerable lungs, "John-san, Ku Fei, Rinshen! What's going on here?" Both girls started to issue excuse's from their heap on the floor.
"Well you see, inchou.."
"We where just.."
John stood ramrod straight and barked, "Ma'am, Miss Ku Fei and Miss Rinshen had asked me to show them some techniques on how to disable two foes at once!" Ayaka was a little taken aback at John's military formality but raised a single brow in disbelief.
Ku Fei and Chao scrambled to their feet.
"Yeah, inchou, we had heard that John here was a martial artist, and we where curious how good he was."
"What she said." Ku Fei pointed her thumb at Chao.
The entire class switched between looking at the class rep and the trio.
"Hmmmm...? Well, save it for P.E."
The class rep turned away and the class went back to their individual conversations. John gazed at the two girls and crossed his arms and spoke quietly, "Now, why did you two attack me?"
Both girls had the grace to look embarrassed. Ku Fei looked down blushing, "I told Chao-chan about our fight yesterday and she was curious about how good you are -aru." John raised a hand, "Let me guess, you two decided to test how proficient I was?" Chao beamed at him, "I thought Ku Fei had been joking when she told me she had lost." The girl struck out her hand, "Chao Rinshen, pleased to meet'cah!" The Spartan took the offered hand.
"John. Now if you two don't mind, I'd like to start eating my lunch." Ku Fei hurried away and Chao fallowed at a slower pace.
Being in the spot light was starting to bother the Chief. Back in his time Spartans where viewed with a mix of awe and fear and there where always whispers of the Spartans not being entirely human. The Spartans never really felt at ease with anyone but another Spartan and the fact that he was the last active Spartan also weighed heavily on his mind. Here no one had ever heard of the UNSC or the SPARTAN II program and the Spartans feelings where mixed about his current situation. On one hand, it was nice to be treated like a human being and not another tool in the UNSC's war effort. In the other hand no one ever pestered a Spartan and generally treated them like a tamed grizzly bear, half a ton of mean that was willing to behave at the moment.
John sighed and sat back down in his chair as the two girls hurried off when he felt the same sensation he had been feeling all day. He was being watched. The Spartan did a slow scan of the room but found nothing. Placing a hand on the back of his neck, John turned back to his meal. The Spartan was about to reach for his still unbitten bread when he felt a presence approach.
Turning his head John saw a small purple haired girl, with a juice box (the box's title proclaiming the flavor to be strawberry mango coffee) clutched in her hand, walking up to him. Plastering a polite smile on his face the Spartan asked, "Yes?"
Yue Ayase nearly tripped as she walked up to the newcomer however a hand shot out and helped her remain on her feet. Yue righted herself, blushing furiously, and offered thanks to the Spartan as his hand withdrew. Yue took one huge breath and said quickly, "Negi-sensei asked me to give these printouts to you." She thrust out the stack of seven or so papers out at the Spartan. John took the stack and placed them on his desk.
"Thank you, Miss Ayase was it? Yes, thank you very much."
Yue turned stiffly, cheek's still a shade of red, and marched off muttering, "It should be a crime to smile like that." John wondered what was wrong with his smile. The Spartan's was about to pick up the chunk of bread when a white blur shot through the open window two rows behind him and snatched the meal right out from under the Spartans fingertips. It was the same ermine from the forest yesterday!
The little animal looked at the Spartan over its shoulder with his stolen meal in its mouth and John could have sworn it smirked at him. The rodent sped off and the Spartan felt like smashing his desk to its component parts. The Spartan took a massive calming breath and reasserted his self control.
John thought to himself, Today is going to be one of those day's...
Elsewhere, same time
Twenty or so men in surplus tactical gear stood or sat around a overly large table in a smoke filled room discussing, with great animation, a soccer game two days old when the door to the large room slammed open. A extremely tall and wide man with jet black hair strode over to the table in the new found silence and tossed a folder he had been carrying onto the surface. A couple of pictures slid out of the folder and two pictures in particular caught everyone's attention.
"Boss, are you sure we'll get the money?" A short man with a olive complexion and fiery red hair asked the large man in a slithering voice.
"Da, these two are going to be our main cash crop and the rest are just chaff to be separated." The man's subterranean bass caused several to lean forward to look at the pictures.
"I've already checked out the building's schematics and located the prefect location to fort up." A moderately tall women with green hair and glasses informed the large man.
"Good, well comrades this is going to be our biggest score yet. I want everyone to remember this to be a clean op and that means no unnecessary killing and no mistakes. Any questions?"
The huge man looked around the room. After seeing that there where no questions, nodded.
"Alright, everyone suit up and prepare to move! The vans move in at three!"
Class 3-A, later that day
Class had ended and John was putting his school books into his bag when he caught sight of Negi staggering under a mound of paper heading toward the door. The Spartan stopped what he was doing and hurried over to relive the prepubescent teacher of his burden.
Negi grabbed his knees breathing heavily after John took the stack from him and mumbled a thanks. Negi got his wind back and asked John if he would take the stack to a student who had a cottage on campus, Evangeline. The Spartan said yes and headed for the door consulting a map Negi drawn for him in one hand while carrying a pile of papers in the other.
As soon as John left Negi gave a thumbs up to the rest of the class and preparations commenced for John's welcoming party.
Ten minutes later
Preparations where well underway for John's welcoming party when Negi happened to look out the window while helping hold a ladder. That's odd, Negi thought, that's a lot of vans. Negi walked to the window to get a better look. Negi wondered if they where offloading some freight. The dozen vans approaching at high speed toward the building where black and had blacked out windows. As they neared the school the min-convoy split up and each van headed for different sides of the complex and all of the available entrances.
Negi had a very bad feeling about this and continued to watch as the vehicles screeched to a halt in front of all the entrances. Each vehicle parked driver side on to the doors and men poured out of the cars carrying guns. Negi turned and shouted, "Everyone get away from the windows and stay away from the doors!"
A chorus of confused voices answered him, to which he yelled, "IT DOESN'T MATTER! JUST DO IT!" Negi quickly thought about his options as he heard combat boots rush down the hallways. My staff is in my office and I don't have my training wand with me. I can't control my power all that well without either and I don't want to hurt the girls, plus I don't want to get turned into a ermine, so no magic. My class is the only one in the building and Nagase-san, Ku Fei and Rinshen-san are out getting supplies and Tatsumiya-san had things to do so their not at risk. Chacamaru and Evangeline haven't come to class and the Cheerleader club members are still at practice so they should be safe.
Setsuna can handle herself, Negi thought over what Setsuna had told him about herself after the meeting with the Principle yesterday. The only person who is a wild card in this situation is John. The door to the class room flew open and people holding guns rushed into the room covering Negi and his class with their weapon's. They barked for them to lay on the ground and put their hands on their heads in passable Japanese. A very large man came walking through the door and made his way to where the class rep was laying. A short red haired man came through the door soon after and walked up to Konoka.
The large man said in accented English, "I need someone to translate." Negi saw Setsuna inch closer to Konoka and blurted, "I can translate," to distract the large man from Setusna's action. The huge man turned toward him nodded and said, "Good, now say what I say." Negi nodded.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen I shall be your host for this evening. We are going to hold you hostage until the Academy pays for you. You two however, "he pointed at Konoka and Ayaka, "are going to have your parents pay for you. Pray they pay because in 24 hours where going to blow this place sky high whether they pay or not."
Setsuna jumped to her feet to defend Konoka, but lacking her sword or the special paper required to make shikigammi and still harboring injuries from yesterday's fight, was smashed to the floor by the large man who was much faster then he appeared, unconscious. Cries of fear broke out all around the class and the big man smiled.
"This is going to be so much fun!"
On the path to Evangeline's House, 15 minutes later
John had never gotten lost in his life but as in all things there was a first time for everything. While Negi might be a mage and a teacher the ten year-old boy drew terrible maps. John swore, he thought he had been going the right way when he came to a forest clearing with nothing in it. John swore even louder at that. The Spartan sighed and turned around and muttered about teaching Negi how to draw a tactical map.
John had gone about maybe twenty feet when he heard someone running down another branch of the path. John ran up the path to see who it was and if he could get some directions (another first) and was mildly surprised to see Chacamaru running down the other branch. What surprised him more, was the fact that she was obviously a android. Back in his time, the UN had outlawed the technology after a few instances of rouge A.I.'s taking over the body's of androids and using them to commit a few murders. The fact that the class had a android in it was not all that impossible considering it had a child wizard, of all things.
The Spartan quickly caught up to the android with the intent to pass on the stack of paper when he saw her face, she was distressed. That caused John to pause (the androids he knew of could not display emotion), then he shook himself and asked what was wrong. Chacamaru had heard that a boy had joined class 2-B and that he had silver hair, so she was not surprised to see him. What did surprise her was that he had kept up with her when she was going at a full on sprint. Chacamaru was not as fast as a car on the ground but she could keep up to one. The man running beside her did not even look all that put out keeping up with her. She shook her head and turned when he said something.
"What's wrong?"
They both halted a way's down the trail and faced one another. John asked again, "What's wrong?"
"I caught a radio transmission from Campus Security. Terrorists have captured Negi-sensei and the rest of 2-B and are holding them for ransom."
John's mind raced. Contrary to public opinion of his time, Spartans where not mindless killing machines. The candidates for the SPARTAN II program where selected from the top 1.30 percent of humanity, meaning that while he was also naturally strong and fast he also possessed a mind that could run rings around 98.70 percent of humanity.
Several scenarios raced around the Spartans mind as to why 2-B would be held hostage; One was to hold all of the girls ransom and extort money from the school or the government. Another was to hold only the wealthy members of the class so they could get money from their families. The last was that they planed to hold all the girls hostage so they could make some sort of political message while stringing out the situation as long as they could so they got a lot of media attention then kill themselves and the girls in the end.
The last was the least favorable situation while the first was the most favorable because the kidnappers would have to turn over some of the girls as a show of good faith. One way or another some or all of the girls would die, unless someone stopped the situation. John felt a old weight settle on his shoulders and looked up at Chacamaru, eyes hard.
"You, me and anyone else we can find are going to save them before the situation get's worse."
Outside of the security cordon on a nearby hill, 10 minutes later
John surveyed the controlled chaos of setting up a camp to deal with a situation of this magnitude. The Spartan's exceptional vision allowed him to also see the Mahora Female Middle school building and some of the Terrorists preparations. Chacamaru stood next to him also scanning the commotion below. Whoever these guys where, they where good.
The Terrorists had sealed off the building entrances with their vans and John's enhanced hearing had picked up the fact that Campus Security had detected that the vehicles where all packed with explosives via the use of dogs trained to sniff out explosive chemicals. The Terrorists had also packed the vans with cameras and sensors. The building was located in a very flat area so sniper support was out, plus the fact that the Terrorists had a couple people posted on top of the building. They had also taken the captive class into the middle of the building.
The Terrorists had left a laptop two hundred yards away from the school tied up with a bright red bow. Campus Security had carefully extracted the laptop, turned it on, and found that a video conference program had been opened. The Terrorists had used the video program to relay their demands. The leader of the Terrorists had demanded (in Russian accented English) three million euros for the class and five for Konoka and six million for Ayaka in 24 hours or they would blow up the building.
John turned to Chacamaru and asked, "Do you have any advanced sensors? By that I mean thermal, ultrasonic or electromagnetic." Chacamaru was a little taken aback by the lack of fear in John's voice, usually when someone found out about her being a android they freaked out a little. John looked at her, face hard, and repeated the question. Chacamaru shook her head and said, "No I don't have anything special like that, only a very basic thermal sight for moving about at night."
John nodded, mind still going over plans to assault the building, until he heard the tiniest noise about five hundred yards to his left. Quick like a cobra the Spartan faded into the underbrush without Chacamaru noticing. When she realized she was alone, the android quickly scanned the area but found no trace of the boy and was about to go search for her companion when she heard a grunt of surprise. She rushed toward the scene and hopped no one was hurt.
Mana Tatsumya, merc since she could walk, former partner to a mage and currently student in Mahora Academy, watched as Campus Security set up a HQ to deal with the crisis from the top of the hill with mixed feelings. While she did not say much during class she found her class mates rather amusing, and with a sort of detached sense of fondness. However, she did not take jobs that did not pay and while she did like her class she would not take action unless she got a big fat check.
Mana was up on the hill to check out the situation and to plan a way to assault the building if she was called in, and was just formulating a plan when a hand fell on her shoulder causing her to jump at least a foot into the air. As she was about to land her hands automatically went to her holsters for her air soft pistols (loaded with knockout darts), however two iron hard forearms clamped around her arms pining them to her sides. She let out a grunt of surprise as she heard a rough voice growl into her ear, "Take it easy. It's me, John, you know, from class."
She did remember the boy from class and how he knew she carried her air soft pistols. He had used tac team hand signs to ask if they where real, to which she had answered with hand signs of her own. She had shrugged it off and went about her day, figuring he was some sort of military otaku. She nodded and felt the arms holding her from her weapons drop away.
How did he sneak up on me? The thought rattled around in her mind as she turned to look at the Spartan. I don't think most otaku could prevent me from shooting them, let alone get that close in the first place. Whoever he is, he is someone to watch.
Chacamaru came through the underbrush and Mana had to snort at how much noise the android caused. Mana saw a smirk flash on John's face as if he had read her mind and she felt a slight flush come to her cheeks. Come on Mana! Get your game face on! A smirk, no matter it lights up his face, should effect you this much.
John asked, "Now what are you doing up here?"
"I could ask the same."
"I'm planning to rescue the rest of the class and I could use some help."
"Sorry, I don't work for free."
John looked away and thought. The Spartans had not been familiar with the merc mind-set at the beginning of the war, however by the end of the war they had worked with a few PMC's (some had been better then some marine units). The smirk came back in full force a second later. "You know, I could get Konoka to float you some money for your assistance..."
Mana looked down at the ground and did some quick calculations in her head.
"How much are we talking about here?"
"It would depend upon services rendered."
The young woman thought it for a couple of seconds then nodded.
"I'm in, but, only for the money you understand?"
John turned to Chacamaru. "What are your capabilities? I mean, what can you do?" Mana, curious, also turned to hear what the android could do. "Well, I can fly, I can keep up with a midrange sports car, and I can lift about two thousand pounds above my head and keep it their for a few hours." The Spartan nodded and turned to Mana. "What are your qualifications? I can tell you have done some serious soldering in your time, so don't even bother to hide it." Mana raised a eyebrow at that, but nodded. "I can hit a target moving at 30 mph from one hundred yards away with a pistol and I can do the same with a rifle at two miles. I am also trained as a back up medic and radio operator. And what are your qualifications to lead this little escapade, humm?" Mana was a little testy at having to remember her painful past.
The Spartan debated if he should keep Negi's (and his) secret then decided against it, deciding to tell the full truth. "Well, this whole mess started a day ago when Negi, who is a mage by the way, decided to use a specific spell..."
End Chapter 2