The Golden Academy had sent out invitations of attendance to only the best and brightest students in all the world to combat the impending doom of mankind known as The hand of Divine Judgement. The adults had their governments and military but the youth was to be prepared to assist in numbers. The Ishikawa family by tradition had always successfully been recruited to join the Golden Academy classes at the top of the ranks long before the prophecy. The Ishikawa parents were valedictorians and the eldest son Daisuke graduated already the year before. As the second eldest son, he was held to the same standard and expectation but the prediction of the future made his studies more urgent and crucial.
Jun was far from concerned. The world will end one way or another. This is pointless. With a confident gait, he neared the academy's entrance and all around were teenagers aspiring to be better than they are to save the future. Their eyes held a hope waiting to be crushed by the inevitable. Once the buildings turned to rubble and the dead littered the ground, he bet that the same people would end up the first to tuck their tails between their legs. He could sense it. A person's true nature was only revealed in desperate, trying times. It was easy to speak and believe in hope when nothing is wrong but as soon as something goes amiss, many lose sight of it and die. The world had fought back and survived before when he was just a little boy. The youngest, his sister Reiko didn't make it and if not for his parent's connections, he would have been dealt the same fate. He never forgot. All of his senses and body parts were intact but an important part of being human did die that day. Not every death during a war was physical.
An upperclassman asked for his name and rank before allowing him to pass through. A security check of sorts. "Ishikawa, Jun. Rank Gold." He stated his introduction confidently. The upperclassman turned out to be a friend of Daisuke but in a lower rank, rank A. The school assigned letters for every rank except the top who were bestowed a rank named after the Academy itself. Jun stared blankly because it was not his concern who befriended his brother. They were a family bound by name and blood and little else. "May I pass?" he asked, waiting for the upperclassman to step aside. He heaved a slight sigh in displeasure as he walked on. He wouldn't have agreed to studying here or anywhere if he had anything better to do but the world was a bore. Doing nothing was a bore. Jun almost couldn't wait for the world to end, to end them and their pointless existence.
In the meantime, he was stuck playing the role of Ishikawa's promising, living youngest. The instant he set foot inside the academy, there were a mixture of reactions upon recognition. Some of hate and some of admiration all because of who his parents are and their ancestry, judged on deeds that were not his. How he detested it but he was also painfully aware that people are not easy to control. They will do, speak and think what they like. Such is freedom and their right. He would not like his freedom and rights infringed either. Another approached him but a face he does not mind as someone familiar. They were classmates from middle school. "Congratulations." The frail girl blushed as he acknowledged her, his blue eyes looking at her in a way that made her feel like she was the only girl in the world. Her delusion was shattered as his gaze moved elsewhere, back to the gates where he once stood. Another had given a name, a name he could not ignore.
"Excuse me." Jun left the former classmate behind. He was caught in a trance by a girl who had just passed the security check to enter through. Never in his wildest or drunken dreams could he have pictured her here, in his reach. "Sakurai-san." he called out her name formally and kept moving until they stood so close there was barely space to breathe. His brain ceased to function as the moment was confirmed real and not a daydream. Her face was hers, her voice was hers, her hair was shorter than he remembered but that didn't matter. Without thinking, without question and without knowing why he lifted her chin, leaned down and kissed her. The students and staff of the academy gathered that morning became witnesses to his brazen display of affection.