Mysteries in the mist
What…where am I? I ask myself as I take a glance around me. It looks like I'm at a train station or something with the many numerous people who come here often to travel to other cities or the airport.
What's this sharp, harsh pain that I'm feeling? I attempt to move my head but it throbs in pain. I'm starting to see white now. What is going on with me?
Out of nowhere, a short, innocent girl with long white hair found herself lying down on a small bench outside what appears to be the grounds of a school. Looking round her, she noticed numerous students strolling around the school either making their way back home or going back to classes. The long haired girl slowly got up on her feet and took a glance around her, easily spotting the large school that seems to overtake the entirety of the horizon itself.
The newcomer was wearing a standard school uniform with a thigh high skirt and a short buttoned down t-shirt with an emblem on her right shoulder. "I wonder where I am," the girl inquired as she gazed at her surroundings once more before going to ask a few students for directions.
"Uh, excuse me. Do you know where I am," she asked two students wearing the same exact uniform as her who looked confused at her question. "This is a school. Do you need any help with directions," one of the students asked her who nodded at the request.
"Why yes, I do. Do you know who I should consult," the newcomer to the school asked the two students. "You probably need to speak with Tachibana-san. She's the student council president," Another student spoke up, prompting the white haired wave good-bye and made her way towards the school.
This is interesting. Normally, the students would give someone like me a tour of the school. This may be a bit on the...odd side, but eh, it's fine. At least I get to speak with this Tachibana-san. I hope she's nice; it would be awful if I discovered she was….
Finally inside, she took note of her location and noticed directly ahead of her was another fellow student. "E...excuse me miss. Are you the student council president," she asked the student who turned around almost immediately.
Hmm...this is different. It's not just her appearance, but her very outfit is different. Could she be…?
"Listen, um, do you know what this place is?" the student inquired
"This is...the afterlife," she replied.
"Afterlife, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," the white haired girl responded.
"Because you are here, you must be dead," the student said.
"Come again? This must be a joke. Prove I'm not dead!," the girl demanded.
"Guard Skill: Hand Sonic," the girl said as a blade appeared on her right hand.
Aw dammit! What now?
The student lunged at the newcomer with her blade with the newcomer backing away and began running in the opposite direction.
Not thinking for another second, dodged to the right and started running down the halls, making a stop at an empty classroom and entered the room.
"Huh? What's this," the girl inquired as she looked at the top of the door and saw a sign which read PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE.
Thinking she was in the right place, the girl moved her hand towards the door knob and turns it clockwise. At that instant, she heard a click.
"What was that?" She requested audibly.
Looking directly above her, a large mallet came swinging down upon her. It made contact with her body…..
In the principal's office.
"So, you in," a voice was heard in the room.
There was….silence for a short while as a girl laid on the couch surrounded by a plentiful amount of students in the room. The students all ranged from small girl to big, muscular men and a particular student with orange hair was about to shake hands with another.
"Hold on!" A man with purple colored hair wielding a hefty halberd was subsequently hit by the same mallet that hit the girl earlier. He was sent flying outside, heavily injured.
"Idiot fell for his own trap," another student carrying a sword exclaimed.
The girl on the couch lazily opened her eyes to the sound of a metal object colliding with a physical object not far from where she was snoozing. "Hey. Looks like that girl's up," a novice noticed her eyes had opened.
"Have YOU come up with any good names for Battlefront?" A girl with magenta colored hair leaned in on the newcomer who was laying on the couch. "Uh, who are...where am I?"
"Because your here, that means you must be dead," the same girl answered as she backed away from the neophyte and casually moved her hand closer to her once more. "Can you stand?"
The girl moved her gaze from the recently opened doors to the magenta colored haired girl in front of her. She was of average height, wearing a casual school uniform with a skirt which did not seem to surprise her. The then moved her own hand towards the one in front of her and grasped it tightly.
"Welcome to Battlefront," she spoke as she brought the new girl up on her feet. "What's your name if you can remember it?" she asked her.
"Let me think," the girl tried to draw on her memories but came up with…
"Tani….Taniguchi," she said to the magenta colored haired girl.
"First name?" she asked her, but Taniguchi simply shook her head.
"That's ok. The new guy doesn't remember his first name either," the girl attempted to reassure her, but her expression only weaved to sadness.
Taniguchi then turned to the new boy who seemed to be much taller than she is. She implied that his height was 5"9 while she was 4"7 and noticed the uniform he was wearing was torn and badly damaged.
What is with this guy? What the hell happened to his uniform? I thought it was against dress code to wear something of this peculiar...outfit. This is quite weird though. And she said he was a newbie as well? I am a bit...taken aback by all this. I wonder what I should do in this situation….
"Is something the matter? You look kinda down," a blue haired boy asked Taniguchi as he was concerned about her. "No, it's nothing," she responded.
"So, uh...what's with your uniforms? It seems to differ from my own. And the newbies uniform is torn up, as if a weapon was used against him," she inquired about the uniforms.
"Oh, yours isn't the one that's different. Ours is. This uniform is just for us. We are known as the SSS," the girl explained to the two as Taniguchi looked slightly misplaced and confused.
Later on, Taniguchi and Otonashi, the newbie, got their respective uniforms and officially joined Battlefront. Taniguchi saw Yuri, the leader of Battlefront, fire off some rounds from a gun she was using to show Otonashi how to properly utilize its deadly firing damage.
"Here. Even newbies can user this," Yuri said as she handed the gun to Otonashi. "Taniguchi Do you want a gun to take advantage of when facing Angel?" She asked her.
Hmm…" Taniguchi pondered upon the question which was asked of her. "Well, if I'm going to fight Angel, I think I'd like an up close weapon, like a knife or a dagger," she replied.
"If you want one, I could loan you one of my spare knives, but Shiina might have some if you merely ask. But, she's the silent type," Yuri replied.
Taniguchi strolled to the corner from whence Shiina was at, wearing a different...outfit from the rest of Battlefront. Her uniform consisted of a scarf on her neck and by the looks of it, wears nothing underneath her shirt.
"Shiina? May I please borrow a knife?" She politely asked Shiina who was silent and handed her a knife. Walking away, Taniguchi raised her knife in the air and pointed it at the wall as if she was familiar with this kind of switchblade.
"Listen up. Operation Tornado is just about moving," Yuri declared to the group, with everyone but Otonashi and Taniguchi was aware of what this operation is.
"What exactly is this, "Operation Tornado"? It's the first that I've ever heard of it," Taniguchi demanded from Yuri, which prompted Noda to point his blade at her neck.
"Watch how you talk to Yurippe, punk," he threatened her, but she was not in the least bit intimidated by his blade. She shoves it away from her with both of her hands and turned her attention toward Yuri for a detailed description of the said operation.
"Operation Tornado is...we're going to steal the meal tickets from the students!" Yuri yelled, not acting in the least bit guilty about what they were going to do. "You're stealing them!?" Otonashi protested, with Noda raising his blade at him as well.
"Yup, we're literally going to steal them!" Announced Yuri with Taniguchi and Otonashi in complete rejection, but Taniguchi got used to the idea almost immediately. "Fine I'll do it myself." Taniguchi said with Yuri shaking her head in disapproval.
"Not like that Taniguchi. We can't have you go rushing headlong into battle without knowing what you're dealing with. First off, I'm going to tell you where you will be positioned at." Yuri explained to Taniguchi who nodded at her.
"Alright Taniguchi, you will be with Otonashi where your job will be to halt the movements of Angel so she won't try to thwart our plan. Understood?" Yuri asked Taniguchi and Otonashi who both nodded.
"Operation starts in 0800 hours. Operation starts now!" Yuri shouted cheerfully.
Later, outside the school, Battlefront had already made they're preparations for this operation with Taniguchi and Otonashi being stationed at a point that would bar Angel's path.
"It sure is quiet around here. Why are we even posted at this specific spot?" Taniguchi complained.
"It's what we're supposed to do. Yuri told us to stay here so that's what we'll do," Otonashi replied.
"It's not like Angel is going through this area at all now is she? Mean, even if she did, I assure you, I would hold her off while you ran back to get backup," Taniguchi explained.
Taniguchi began to hear loud music in the air around her. Suddenly, directly in front of her, Angel appeared. "Well darn it. I guess we're doomed then," she said.
"Aw shit! What do we do?" Otonashi asked.
"Now well, that is an excellent question. I say we make a break for it. You know, hit and run," Taniguchi quickly grabbed his gun and pulled the trigger, only grazing Angel slightly.
"You hit her!" He exclaimed.
"Of course I did. But, eh, she isn't out. Run?" She requested.
Otonashi nodded and the two took off running away from her with Otonashi using his gun to try to slow her down, but her blade from before appeared on her right hand. This enabled her to block every single bullet that came at her direction.
They came upon an area with the school in the distance. Just as they ran to the top of the stairs, Taniguchi noticed Angel was coming dangerously close to their location.
Dammit!
Taniguchi thought and saw a halberd flying in the air, aimed at Angel but she easily deflected the projectile using her blade. "Dammit, I missed her!" Yelled a slightly annoyed Noda with the rest of the team arrived at the scene.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Hinata spoke to the two.
"She targeted the weakest ones here," Fujimaki stated.
They fired their guns upon Angel but she uttered a phrase which caused a strange barrier to form around her and deflected all the bullets that were coming towards her.
What then? What the hell is this? Just seconds ago, she was using her Hand Sonic to combat me when I told her to kill me. And yet, right now, she's using a completely different skill. Why not? This doesn't make any sense. Wait, hold on. If she's not using Hand Sonic, does that mean she can only keep a single ability active at a time? How interesting...maybe I can use this to my advantage….
Seeing the halberd on the floor near Angel's location, Taniguchi drew out her knife and rushed forward, quickly grabbing the weapon and engaged in close combat against Angel. "What the hell are you doing?! Get out of there! It's too dangerous!" Hinata warned Taniguchi but she ignored his pleas and continued to fight her head-on.
Taniguchi attacked Angel fiercely, trading blow for blow with each attack. Very sudden was she attacked by Angel who slashed her upside her torso.
Dosh garnet! I let my guard down. I have failed Battlefront, failed. Wait, what's that?
Taniguchi saw a weapon coming towards her. Quickly grabbing the weapon slashes Angel upside her torso to her throat with Taniguchi falling to the ground.
"Taniguchi!" Hinata yelled as he and the rest of Battlefront came to her side. "That was really reckless," Hinata commented.
"Yeah, I know. Hmm what's this?" In her hand was a meal ticket.
"You fine with that? Then let's go," urged Hinata as he helped Taniguchi get on her feet and ran with the rest of Battlefront following behind them.
Later on, Battlefront gathered in the cafeteria to dine.
"Huh. I got beef udon," Taniguchi said aloud.
Once she got her food, she took an empty seat next to Iwasawa and ate silently. While she was eating, she noticed Yuri was glaring at her, as if she had just done something wrong.
"Yuri is something-" Hinata tried asking but Yuri had food in her mouth.
She's...upset with me. Figure, it comes as no surprise that someone of her caliber would be angry with me. No matter, for I have done nothing of the sort that would upset her. Wait, what I did back when I engaged Angel in close quarter combat...is that what she's so upset about? I must inquire her immediately and get to the bottom of this.
"Yuri. If you have something to say to me, then please, be my guest," Taniguchi calmly told her.
Swallowing her food, Yuri turned her attention toward Taniguchi with a different expression on her face. "It's what you attempted against Angel. Just what were you thinking, charging at her like that!?" Yuri angrily questioned her.
"There's nothing to say to justify my actions today. But, I do have a question for you. If I may, how come none of you notice her weakness?" asked a concerned Taniguchi.
"We'll continue this discussion tomorrow," exclaimed Yuri.
"Fair enough," Taniguchi said as she casually ate her food and thought about where the weapon came from….
Mysteries in the mist
This is a story I wrote about a year or two ago. Some people might recognize it, others won't. Hope you enjoy it. Please read/review it!
