It's been a few weeks since the start of the school year and things have finally settled down a bit. Everyone has just gotten back into the swing of things and life is slow and quiet like everything else in a small Michigan town. For the most part, at least. The student council has gathered together for their first official meeting in order to make preparations for the year. Some of the meeting will be dedicated to the normal high school affairs, such as how to decorate the halls this year and what the homecoming theme will be. The rest, however, will be deciding a plan of action to take down the local teen gangs that are slowly taking over the bad end of town. Such is the life of the Eerie Sakura High Student Council. These kids don't play around. Well... at least, not all the time.

Achillea Lorrainne, ESHS's student council president, stood at the head of the table with one foot on her chair. Her arms were folded in front of her in a commanding fashion and she wore her usual confident smile. "Alright, everyone," she began, "are we ready to get started?"

"Uhm... Achillea?" whispered a willowy blonde girl from the corner of the room, "No one is here yet. It's just you and me."

"I know that," responded the redhead, "I was just practicing."

Coriander Adonis, an Assault Branch elite, smirked a little. "You need practice? This is your second year on the job."

"Yeah, I know. I just like to be prepared."

Kira walks into the Student council room and looks at the two females and bows, "H-hello I'm new h-here. M-my name is Kira Hall." She stuttered and a boy with a black hood over his face.
"Hello Kira and other people I'm new too I'm Zabel, just Zabel. I'm supposed to be in the assission branch." Kira looked at the boy and whispers loud enough for everyone to here.
"I-I'm in the assassination branch also. I hope to be help to you before... Well if anyone gets close to me I will tell them if they do before a week." She sighed and the boy named Zabel look at Kira from under his hoodie. He takes a seat in a chair away from everyone.

Achillea laughed and hugged Ro back. "Yeah, yeah. I missed you too," she said smiling broadly. Achillea had been training all summer, so she didn't really have time to hang out with anyone over the summer, so it really had been a long time. She was glad to be back to school and have the opportunity to spend time with her friends, even if most of it was spent planning ways to effectively beat up gangs.

"Where... is everyone?" asked Cori from her corner. Her voice was little more than a whisper, but it was loud enough to be heard by Ro and Achillea. "They're all late, as usual."

Kira smiles at the girls and the looks at the hoodie man. "Hi R-Ro..." the shy girl spoke. Zabel just sat in the chair and makes the hoodie lower where you couldn't even his mouth with the lip piercing. Kira wonders how the boy sees. Zabel got up and sat down in a chair where no one was where he can't be bothered, he sighed and looked at his sister 'how long can I keep the fact that I'm stalking her a secret.' He thought and looks through his hoodie and sighed loudly.

Kira looks at the guy named Gin and bowed, "H-Hello I'm Kira Hall." She said without stuttering mostly because she had only contact with a boy her whole life.
Kyle let's out a mean low growl at Gin but it was soft. 'Don't touch my sister I will kill you if you do.' He thought in his head.
Kira heard the soft growl and shrugged it off, "hey does any wonder what Zabel looks like or how he sees?" She announced and Kyle walked out not expecting how Kira asked that. "I will be back." He announced and slams the door and buys a mask that only covered his eyes and he took out his ear ring and took out his lip pricing and walked back in after a hour.
"Not taking anything else off hopefully everyone will trust me even though my eyes are covered if not to bad." He announced and sat in a sit away from everyone yet again.

---

Tokiji opened the door to the room and let it fall shut behind him, tossing his bag carelessly into the corner of the room before glancing at the tables to give a nod of greeting, almost smiling as he caught sight of the nervous-looking freshman. He knew that by next year, they wouldn't be quite so keen to show up on time. "Yo. I'm Tokiji, Recon and Assassination." He stated simply, then glanced at Achillea, he tipped his head to the side to request a rundown on what would be happening for his sister this year, as her spy duties kept her from joining the council. Meanwhile he sat down and opened his notebook, sketching ninjutsu runes as he waited for the rest to arrive.

Taking in a deep, calming breath, Duncan closed his eyes and counted down from ten to quench the annoyance and frustration screaming in the back of his head before he spoke.

"Okay Ms. Roberts... what the hell?"

He had known exactly what was wrong the instant he stepped into the autoshop, woken up and called to school by a panicked phonecall from his Science teacher before the sun even had the audacity to come over the horizon and found her nearly in tears standing next to a little Volkswagen that had no business reeking of gasoline.

"I... I..."

"Put gas in a diesel engine?"

"My boyfriend, actually-"

"You mean that grown-ass man with nail-polish, mascara and a technicolour mop on his head?"

"So he doesn't know much about cars-!"

"Oh?" Duncan snapped right back at her before she could finish, holding up the gascap where the words 'DIESEL ONLY' were written in bold, yellow letters. "Well, does he know fucking English?"

The small, mousey woman, having already been on the verge of crying earlier, visibly recoiled at his tone as tears began forming in her eyes. Seeing this, Duncan took another deep breath, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose to both reign his temper back in and nurse the headache he could already feel coming on.

"Alright, alright, I'll fix it..." He spoke, much softer this time "Just... for God's sake, don't cry."

--------------

When he began, it had been a good two hours before school actually started. Now, after draining the tank, removing the engine, turning it over manually, scrubbing the ever-loving shit out of the fuel-lines and everything else the gas could've touched and then putting everything back together, classes were in full swing. Now sitting in the seperate classroom section overlooking the shop, sipping on a mug of coffee with grease-covered hands and listening to Queen playing over the shop stereo, Duncan leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk.

The boy's idle mind left to wander, Duncan found himself again pondering the odd turn his life had taken- From a soldier in an ancient, secretive order of Knights, fighting in wars and keeping the peace while completely unknown to the world at large to just... being some highschool kid in Michigan, where his greatest challenge was remembering random bullshit for tests and dealing with a bunch of crazy, hormonal people his own age who would have you think they knew everything but lacked the experience to see their own bullshit half the time.

To be frank, he wasn't entirely sure he was quite right for this kind of life; the fact that he'd nearly reduced a grown woman to tears a few hours ago kinda stood as evidence to that.

'Probably gonna have to buy her lunch or something.' The young man thought, reminded of his timid Science teacher on her first real gig out of college as he looked down on her car from the class window 'She didn't need me barking at her like that.'

Reclined, relaxed and enjoying his coffee, it occured to him that he could probably make it to his next class if he washed up real quick and full-on bolted down the hall... buuuut...

"Eh, fuck it. I've earned a break."

Arthur Wright

He drifted through the halls, listless and tired. His arms hung by his sides by the merit of being attached to his shoulders and his eyes had enough bags that someone could mistake him for an insomniac. Between school and training he had little time for writing, any time spent doing so cutting into his sleep. He had pursued an inspiration of his but as a result he lost a lot of sleep. If it weren't for caffeine he wouldn't be awake for all of school. As it was the buzz was starting to wear on him like a wind up key that's slowly coming unwound.

After some fiddling with the knob the door finally opened for him. With a bit of a heavy thud he pushed the door open with the side of his shoulder causing it to swing fully open until it connected with the door stop. With his rather bloodshot eyes, nearly as dark as the abyss itself with only the slightest hint of brown, he scanned across the room looking across each person within, his trademark deep frown etched onto his face like it was stone.


Now he had only been captain of the Assault Squad Elites for roughly half a year. He's been acquainted with Achillea and though she may constantly stand on both of his nerves he obeys her for she is his superior in the hierarchy. Coriander on the other hand he's met on plenty occasions and has found more tolerable in that she is quieter generally. On top of that she is one of the few members of his squad and thus his direct concern. Everything that happens with her is his business, same with all the others on the Assault Squad Elites.

Besides that he's a relative stranger to the rest. He's only aware of the captain of the regular Assault Squad, a lesser but larger selection where the best are usually picked from to join his Elites, by word of mouth, never having met the guy in person. Same went for the head of recon. Anyone working under them was a complete strange to him, hence a number of the people in this room were complete strangers to him.

With a lethargic nod to Achillea he sluggishly plodded towards a seat. He sat near Coriander since she was the only one in the room he even had any business talking to with the possible exception of maybe Achillea if she had news or plans pertinent to him. Besides those two he had no real intention of addressing the others. He didn't even say a word to anyone since he entered the room as he was tired and not in the mood to get in pointless time wasting arguments which would inevitably occur if he opened his easily irritated mouth. He knew he wasn't feeling his best and he was going to keep that his business and no one else's.

Simply sitting roughly near Coriander he just sat there at the table, resting on his elbows on the desk. He was looking down at his fingers. He started to trace an imaginary circle with his index finger. Slowly the finger came around but the circle wasn't even roughly close to a proper circle. It had a point, something circles shouldn't have. He continued tracing circles on the desk in his mind, each one not quite what he wants. The image that was being spun in his brain started to take on closer resemblance to a drunken Spirograph more than anything else. He wasn't happy with it.

Coriander greeted Arthur with a nod and a small smile. Though they didn't know each other particularly well, they were comrades and she worked directly under him. She was glad to see everyone again, including him, even though he usually wasn't glad to see anyone. Cori silently watched Arthur draw imaginary circles on the desk, getting noticeably more irritated than he already was. She sometimes wondered what could be going on in Arthur's head, but she knew it was probably better that she didn't know. After all, there was enough strangeness going on in her own.

Achillea began to pace the room. The Vice President and the Head of Assault were late, as usual. "Where the hell are Callum and Yuki?" she demanded. She was getting a bit impatient. Not only was this the first meeting of the year, but there were a lot of majorly important issues to discuss. Of all times to be late- twenty minutes late, even- this was a pretty poor one. But, of course, there was no way they could know that right now. The information she had to share was top secret. Ninja business only. Once those two arrived, the council would have to be moved to the clubhouse.