Ivy and the others dragged me and Rena to Section 12’s library before the training course ended so that we’d avoid the risk of getting hunted down by our new foes from Section 3. Those suckers might be planning for a better comeback so we had to move quick. Besides, Section 12 had a lot to explain about how Annabel died.
When we got to our destination, words started spilling out of Bernie’s mouth. She talked about how twins were often known as the weakest links in the entirety of the Doomsday High student body. She mentioned that twins had the disadvantage of being connected to each other by heart – which means that if one dies, the other dies along with him or her. In rare cases, however, the twins are connected only by body, so if one is injured, the other bears the pain without the existence of the wound itself.
“It’s a bit unexplainable. Triplets, quadruplets and the like don’t have to suffer the same kind of burden… This school just loves to mess with twins,” Bernie told me.
“Anyway, this does mean that Annabel is pardoned from the suspension?” I asked.
“No,” Ivy retorted inquisitively. “Dying as a contender in the course has no consequence. However, dying while watching the course does.”
“Awareness is a part of discipline here in Doomsday High,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately, Belle wasn’t aware, and neither was C. The boy’s luckier though. He died in the middle of the training course so he won’t have to face suspension. They’re both probably wide awake in the clinic right now, but they’re stuck there till the end of classes.”
“Can’t they be traumatized?” I asked, raising a brow. “Death must be painful.”
Bernie sighed. “Students of Doomsday High can’t fear death. Tell me, when you set foot in this school and discovered that you were at a terrible risk of dy- of getting done in, were you scared? On the first exam, did the blades terrify you?”
To both questions, I shook my head.
“Even the thought of getting diced by Anna’s chainsaw doesn’t really scare you, correct?” Bernie asked.
“Yes,” I said with a hint of realization. Anna may scare me, but the first time she tried to behead me with her chainsaw, I didn’t even feel the slightest tinge of fear. Maybe shock would be the more appropriate term for what I felt.
I decided to round up my near-death experiences since the day I came into Doomsday High. Whenever someone tried to kill me, I fought, not because I was scared of dying. I fought because I wanted to live things out and win. “This school really does things to your head.”
“We know,” Ivy said.
“So… Now that I’ve made a discovery, what else is new?” I asked.
“Well, because you pulled off a little stunt at the Arena of Demise, I’d have to declare you our trump card,” Dave said. “It’s a little too big of a responsibility for you since you’re a freshman, but our section hasn’t had a trump card since the day Dayrl left to strengthen his stupid little character in that game called war—what was it again? War make? War create?”
“Warcraft,” Jay rolled her eyes. “Idiot.”
“Yes. Warcraft,” Dave cleared his throat. “Anyway, he’s too busy playing his life away. His parents have given up on—“
“Excuse me,” I interrupted, raising my hand. “I have no idea who this Dayrl person is.”
“He’s C, Jay and Belle’s elder brother,” Dave told me. “Quite a nice fellow. He’s a great strategist too, but he never attended classes since he believes he could make do with his knowledge of computers. Like I said earlier, he used to be our section’s trump card, but with the grades he received, the school had no use for him, so they shoved his name out of the records. He could make a comeback as a freshman, but he doesn’t seem interested in returning here. For one thing, this school doesn’t suit his tastes. He prefers the non-realistic gaming world where he could fantasize about becoming a god.”
“He’s the main reason why Section 12 designs weapons based on ones from video games,” Jay said, pressing a finger firmly to her chin. “In fact, if he’s still around, we’ll find it easier to design a new weapon for you and Rena.”
“Anna and Jay have tried convincing him to come back,” Bernie said. “He won’t budge.”
“Why would he? He doesn’t even like us,” Ivy said to no one in particular. The whole place quieted down in reaction to her statement. In the momentary silence, the only the sounds of our breathing could be heard.
This went on for a while. Then Ivy decided to break the silence by muttering, “What if he… becomes one of them?”
“It’s possible,” Roni told her. “He hates it here.”
“But he has siblings studying here. He can’t join them if they’re bent on killing everyone in this school,” Bernie objected.
“He won’t care if he’s already one of them,” Ivy told her.
My ears were flaring. I couldn’t relate to the conversation, much less interject my questions or reactions to all the words that flew out of their mouths. Their expressions were filled with worry and anxiety. I was about to shout something random, but Rena beat me to it.
“What’s them?” She asked.
There was silence again, but this one was short-lived.
“They’re a group of Reapers,” Dave started, “The students of Doomsday High decided to call them the Death Bringers. They want to bring down this school because they have the power to do so. To explain things further, I’ll tell you a brief history about our school.
“The world as we know it is divided into four parallel sides –Heaven, Earth, Unknown and Hell.. Our school is situated in the Unknown.
“The only way you could access the Unknown is if you come from a generation of Humans that have already entered this parallel universe. These Humans are the students of Doomsday High and their ancestors. Once you’ve made it in, you become a citizen of this universe – an immortal.
“When you go back to earth, your immortality must be kept a secret. If anyone finds out, you’ll have to kill that person. That’s one of the main reasons why DH students are trained to kill. Another reason is that there’s another group that’s out to get you. They’re called the Reapers. Reapers hate immortals, and a small group of them is going all out to bring Doomsday High down."
“That group is called the Death Bringers,” Rena interjected, eyes widening with realization.
Ryan nodded. “Some death bringers have been students of Doomsday High who’ve rejected they’re life here. In fact, our history teacher mentioned that the Death bringers have attempted to attack Doomsday High once. That was probably the year before your parents graduated, Ken. They might know the story.”
“Too bad they didn’t tell me about it,” I retorted.
“Anyway, we ended up explaining a lot of things here,” Dave said. “Twins. Dayrl. Death Bringers.”
“We should get to the clinic,” Bernie said. “The other sections must be in their dorms by now. All coasts might be clear.”
“Might be,” Dave told her. “We can’t be so sure.”
I couldn’t let the library now. There were lots of questions floating above my head, and I needed to have at least one of them answered.
“Wait,” I said, raising my hand. “Before we go, I have one last question.”
“What is it?” Dave asked, askance.
“Who is Tommy… and Decimo?” I inquired. My senses stirred for a moment, as if I was asking the wrong questions, but I proved myself wrong when Dave answered straight-forwardly.
“Tommy is a student of Section 12. Guess he didn’t introduce himself. He shares his room with Will-- Decimo. They don’t get along well, but they seem to be setting their differences aside for the sake of our section. Without them, Section 12 will be wiped out over and over again,” Dave told me. “They’re room is located behind the bookshelf next to the one that hides the dining room. You’ll have to descend an almost never-ending staircase to get there.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“If you look at the architectural design of Doomsday High, you’ll see that every quarter in each dorm are lined up like the steps of a spiral staircase. Your quarter, being the very first one, requires only a narrow walkway to your room. The Second quarter requires a staircase that descends to another room which is located below yours, albeit not directly. This goes on and on to the fiftieth quarter, which is Tommy and Decimo’s room, and it is located at the very bottom of the spiral.
I nodded my head to signal that I had understood every word he meant, though not completely. There were still a lot of questions stuck in my head and that prevented me from comprehending Dave’s explanations.
Dave stepped towards the exit. He probably thought that there was nothing else to talk about. The others sighed in relief, thanking heavens that we were finally going to leave, but then the doors to the library opened all of a sudden, and Arthuria made her way inside along with two other students from Section 3.
One was a short, tan-skinned midget with sleek raven hair and a very innocent smile. You could tell she was a freshman. The other was a young man in his teens. His legs were shaking out of probable nervousness. Obviously a newcomer too.
“What happened to Adeline?” Arthuria inquired.. She needn’t shout the question to shed her grief.
“She got disqualified,” Dave told her. “She lost her mind after Jeck killed Keith. She couldn’t control herself. No one could. She got consumed by anger, so she went ahead and did what she wanted without knowing the consequences. “
Arthuria inhaled sharply. “How am I going to explain this to Keith?”
“I don’t know,” Dave told her. “He might beg for a re-match with Jeck. The guy’s the main reason why his girlfriend’s dead and gone anyway.”
Arthuria sighed. “I don’t want that. Even if all the Sections are at war with each other, I don’t want that.”
“No one wanted this, Arthuria,” Dave said. “Either way, we can’t turn back time. We didn’t expect a disqualification to occur on the first week. It’s too early for things like this. The freshmen are probably stricken. They can’t fear death, but they could feel all other emotions… sadness… worry… shock.”
“I know,” Arthuria whispered before glancing back at her two companions. “You two, introduce yourselves.”
“I’m Sarah,” the tan midget said. “Sarah Primera.”
“I’m J.R,” the boy said, glancing away. “Just… J.R.”
“I’m going to hand these two to Section 12,” Arthuria said. “You guys need them the most. With that said, I’ll be on my way.”
Arthuria looked at my direction and smiled. “Good job on the training course, Mr. Takanashi. Looks like Section 12 has a new trump card.”
I nodded.
“Don’t hog the spotlight to yourself though. Your fame could put you at risk,” Arthuria warned me. “You better take good care out there, firecracker.”
She walked out and with a snap of her fingers, closed the doors behind her. Another momentary silence ensued.
Dave cleared his throat. “So we’ve got…”
“More problems,” Jay finished the sentence for him before turning towards the new ‘recruits. “Welcome to Section 12, newbies.”
The two new kids nodded before huddling to my side.
Sarah grasped my arm. “So you’re Ken Takanashi!”
“Surprised you made it out of the course alive, man! You’re awesome!” J.R said. “I got done in on the first blade!”
“Now, now. Enough with the praises,” Dave told the both of them. “We’ve got to pick up three other members at the clinic.”
“The giant-axe dude, and the one with the scythe?” J.R asked. “You’ve got lots of cool weapons at your disposal.” He ended his statement with a sigh.
Sarah looked at Ivy and yelled, “You’re the girl with the boomerang-slash-bow! Cool win, earlier. Your opponent barely even reached you.”
“It was a matter of luck my friend. I call my baby, the boomer-bow,” Ivy informed Sarah before picking up her weapon which she had conveniently laid on the side of the bookshelf behind her.
“I want something like that too!” Sarah shouted, excitedly.
“You’ll get it soon enough, “ Dave said. “For now, we should really get going.”
“Where to?” Sarah asked.
“The clinic,” Dave retorted, smiling at her. I couldn’t really tell if he was getting pissed off. It was obvious that he was in a hurry though. “We need to fetch Jeck, C and Belle.”
“Now?” J.R. asked.
“Yes, yes,” Dave told him, rolling his eyes. He beckoned them with his right hands. “Now come on. We need to head to the clinic.”
The two new recruits nodded before following him like he was someone that needed to be guarded. Dave had an unsure look plastered on his face. He definitely wasn’t confident in the suddenness of the situation.
I followed shortly after them, half-consciously dragging Rena along with me. She seemed unsure of herself somehow. She glanced at me for a moment and lowered her head back down.
When all of Section 12 had spilled onto the silent hallways, I pulled behind with Rena following suit. We joined Ivy and Bernie, who had chosen to cover up back. They were talking about stuff using their mother tongue. Knowing that they were not in the mood to talk with anyone else, I looked at Rena who still seemed pretty upset about things.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“I don’t think we could trust the new recruits,” she whispered.
“Why?”
“Section 3 must be plotting something. I don’t know what,” she said. “I mean, how could they just selflessly turn over two new recruits when they definitely need them? It’s uncanny… bizarre. It’s making me puke.”
“I don’t think they’re the kind of people who’d betray us – well at least not now,” I told her.
“Look at this school, Ken. You can’t tell who’s who. The students. Everyone. They’re personalities are almost unstable – probably on the psychopathic level. Though I can’t really put them in the ‘psychopath’ bracket because they’re clearly sane enough to control themselves when the situation calls for it. However, they’re still bound to kill for what they want, and what they want is the top students list—“
“Arthuria is trustworthy, Rena. Squall said so himself. Even C told me that Section 3 is
'nice and approachable'.”
“Even so. Athura tried to lay her hands on us… On you. And it’s for the sake of that fucking Top Students list, Ken. You heard her when she said that.”
“I know. But Arthuria—“
“Arthuria might be faking her personality for the sake of being loved, Ken. Don’t you think it’s a great strategy? To foil our minds so that she could slowly make her advancements—“
“I—“
“Don’t be a fucking hypocrite, Takanashi. I don’t fall in love with hypocrites.”
With that said, she stomped ahead.
“Damn. Quarrel,” I heard Bernie say. “What were you two talking about?”
“Nothing in particular,” I retorted.
“Nuh-uh,” Bernie countered. “I heard ‘Section 3’ over and over again. What’s up? Something wrong with the new recruits?”
“Obviously,” I replied. “Rena seems to be having a problem with them.”
“Tell me about it,” Ivy said. “They seemed so… fake… I can’t pinpoint if they were trying so hard to fit in or if they were putting up an act. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice…?”
“I’m bad at detecting lies,” I told her.
“That’s good on your part. I’ve noticed that you’re a bad actor. You’ll make your doubts a little too obvious,” Bernie said.
“Do you think they could hear us?” I asked, glancing up ahead.
“If they had the ears of a bat, yes,” Ivy replied.
“Rena must hate me right now,” I told them.
“Don’t think so,” Bernie said with a playful shrug.
Silence attacked us once more. It’s been what? The third time this happened? Either way, Section 12 has been quieting down a lot, and I didn’t take it as a good sign. Over the years in my past, normal life, I had learnt that silence within a group meant that the group wasn’t getting along well.
“Be wary!” Dave yelled from up front. “Attackers might come out anywhere at any time. You can’t predict the nature of their attack, so we might be wiped out easily.”
“That’s the disadvantage of sending us all out in the open,” Bernie stated rhetorically. “You idiot.”
“Some of us could have stayed behind, but it’s too late to say that. We’re already vulnerable at this stage. Some of the students from other sections may be hiding behind classrooms,” Ivy said.
We made a short halt at the foot of the familiar spiral staircase. The grand paintings on its side had been stained heavily with blood. The carpet had darkened due to the spills. We made our way down slowly and cautiously. The staircase was a good place to be cornered, so we had to be very alert.
“Almost there,” Bernie said in a hush whisper.
When we reached the end of the staircase, we took a right to a white, rectangular door with a sign that said ‘Clinic’ written on it in bold, red letters.
“Finally,” Bernie whispered.
“So far, nothing bad has happened,” Ivy said, breathing a sigh of relief.
We formed a circle around Dave who had taken it as an obligation to open the doors to the clinic. The smell of medicine and the sounds of patients groaning as they came around greeted us. Colder air swept over us as we made our way inside.
“Finally. Took you long enough,” Annabel said. She was sitting on the bed nearest to the entrance. She seemed very well. Jeck was right across her, and her brother was on a bed not too far from hers.
Bernie, Ivy and I decided to huddle closer to her.
“You won’t know how nervous we all were,” Bernie told her.
“Yeah. And we’ve got new recruits,” Ivy beamed. “From Section 3.”
“Is that good news or bad news?” She asked.
“Mostly good. Partly bad,” I told her. “Rena doesn’t seem to be buying them. They seem a little too peculiar.”
“Tell me about it,” Annabel sighed. “Who would believe that Section 3 would give away two of their members easily?”
“Well Arthuria practically handed them over to us,” I told her, matter-of-factly. “She’s the Student Council President.”
Annabel shook her head. “You see, this school permits transferring of Sections on the first week of your life as a freshman. After that, you’re a part of your section forever. There are conditions though. If you join another Section and that Section isn’t what it turned out to be, you get to go back to your original Section or turn yourself over to another which suits your tastes. It’s only been four days into the first week so--”
“The newbies could act like spies,” I finished. “When they get the information they want, they could always go back and report to Section 3.”
“Precisely,” Annabel told me as she stretched her hand out and ruffled my hair. “You’re finally starting to come around, kid.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” I asked.
“Mostly good. Partly bad,” she retorted, smiling.
I turned away from Bernie and Ivy so that they could both talk to Annabel. I waded my way to C who was already conversing with Rena. They’re expressions were serious, but when they saw me coming their way, they chose to stop talking.
“Is there another problem?” I asked Rena.
“No,” Rena murmured. She walked past me, slamming her shoulders against mine.
“What were you two talking about just now?” I asked C.
“Nothing,” he replied.
“I may not have enough evidence to prove that you two were talking about something important, but if I’m not mistaken, you two were dead serious a while ago,” I said. “Is it about me?”
C put up a poker face for a moment before letting it go. “Yes. Yes it is.”
“What’s the problem this time?”
“Rena… She doesn’t want me to talk about this in front of you. My lips are sealed, bro,” He said.
“Can’t you at least give me a hint?” I begged.
“Sorry bro,” C told me. “No.”
“Darn.”
“You might want to ask her yourself,” C suggested.
“You saw what she did earlier. She just told me off. She doesn’t want to talk,” I said.
“Maybe not now. Wait for her to cool off.”
“Sure. How long will that take?”
“Patience, bro,” C reassured. “You know how girls are sometimes. They let their emotions get the best of them. Just do what I say and wait till she cools down. You might be able to strike a smooth conversation.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
“No problem,” C replied.
I moved away from him and decided to go to Jeck’s side where Sarah and J.R. were standing by themselves. I needed to have a good talk with them. I had to set Rena aside. They were more important. I needed to know what their intentions were…
