Ayase Takahashi's Story

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"Which book should I get....?" Ayase picked a book from the shelf about Organic Chemistry as she started reading. Just then a guy came up to her ready to speak.

"A-Aphrodite, I l-like you. Will you go out with me?"

"I'm sorry dear, but I only think of you as a friend.", she pouted as she walked away.

She sighed as she checked out the book, crossing her arms. She walked out of the library as more people stated at her whispering the same thing. "Isn't that the Queen or Rose of Saiken?" Sometimes she wished people wouldn't think so highly of her. After all, Reynard had said she needed to control her straightforward self. She brushed her hair aside as she walked into class and sat down. Shortly after, the Headmaster walked in with a girl. Ayase looked at her. A quiet, reserved girl who had a lingering feeling against someone.

Please welcome your newest sister, Artemis!"

Zeus and Ares already introduced themselves in their own unique ways. Zeus talking to himself internally as well as his insect companions and Ares checking his weapons, not letting anyone phase him.

Aphrodite immediately rose from her seat. "K-KAWAII (Cute)!....Oops there I go again speaking my mind. Sorry, my name is Aphrodite, nice to meet you!", she smiled as she walked over to Artemis and hugged her.

Lumina sits on the with her back to the window, knees drawn up to her chest. She rests her forehead on her knees, eyes closed, lost in thought. In her right hand, she clutches a piece of crumbled paper with all her might, calling its soothing words to mind for the umpteenth time.

My Dearest Child,

These past two weeks without you have been hard to bear. Sometimes I wonder to myself; what did I do to deserve this? To have one child cruelly torn from your world, only to have another child leave, and leave willingly at that? Two children barely a step into the crude, unforgiving world of adulthood. Is there anything worse?

But what am I saying? I should be thrilled by the prospect of my firstborn dying for such a worthy cause, giving his all to the very end of his short life. And I should be touched that my secondborn was inspired by his sacrifice, so that she may do the same, face the same terrors for the good of others. A mother's dream.

But, alas, our seperation hasn't been easy. I know contact is risky, so I took the necessary measures so that you would be safe. And I know within my heart that you will understand this mother hen's having to check on her chick, though her chicks are plenty.

Your father is proud of you. He is doing everything he can to keep us all alive and healthy in this world, in the stead of you and your brother. We have moved, but you'll recieve the information once it is safe. We do not know yet when that time will come.

Your sister says that she hates you for leaving her with your jobs, but that she still loves you.

Your sister says that you were I far better teacher than I, who has taken up her education in your stead; I cannot argue with such sound logic.

Your sister asks when you'll be coming home.

Remember, dear, that we'll always be ready to take you home. We will not hate you if you cannot find it in your heart to do as your brother did; we will love you no matter what.

Stay strong, Child.

Mother


Lumina feels a gentle tear roll down her cheek, but she wipes it away swiftly. No use letting the others see her cry. Not like they ever paid her any mind. She rarely even speaks more than one or two words at a time. But it was better that way, for everyone.

"Everyone, meet your newest sister, Artemis!"

Lumina listens to the excited replies from her peers.

"Relax on the name thing; it's just something he does to keep our identities anonymous. We can waste time by giving out names later, Miss."

"Welcome to Saiken." (Okay, so perhaps that wasn't so entusiastic.)

"K-KAWAII!....Oops there I go again speaking my mind. Sorry, my name is Aphrodite, nice to meet you!"

Lumina smiles shakily to herself at the last response. The long run-on sentences told who had said it.

She hesitates for a moment, still sitting toward the back of the room. Should she speak up, or just stay put? No one would notice if she chose the latter, she's ceertain. But then again...

Lumina gets to her feet, letteer still clutched in her hand. Her eyes fall on a pretty young woman whom everyone shrounds. She speaks from a few feet away, hardly daring get any closer.

"Hello, there," she says quietly, barely audible. She looks down at her feet, cheeks red as she gives a small life. "It's good to see a new face around here every once in a while." Face still tomato-like, she looks up, giving Artemis a sheepish smile.

Saiken Student

Suzuhi was hugged tightly by "Aphrodite" and had already met "Ares", "Zeus" and "Athena".
"Uh... Y-Yeah..."
A small smile entered her face.
"Nice to meet you too."
The head master nodded.
"Right, now it's time for business. We need to introduce Artemis to how things work here at Saiken. Ares, you've been here the longest so would you mind helping me out with the serum?"
Suzuhi panicked a bit.
"S-Serum?"
Headmaster sighed.
"Don't worry... It's merely a power accelerator. All members of Saiken are required to have this serum injected so that they get powers."
Suzuhi nodded slowly.
'This is getting stranger and stranger...'

Masenai had watched the other students, including the most popular of them, Aphrodite, give their greetings and silently smiled. Then the headmaster called him up to help with giving Artemis her shot.

Masenai sighs, getting up from his seat looking at The headmaster and Artemis again as he rolled his eyes. "One of these days headmaster, you have to find a sane nurse to help with the injection." He stated as he walks to Artemis, "Follow me to the infirmary we'll get it over with and be done with it as quick as you can say 'howdy doody'." With that statement he walked out of the room and off to the school infirmary where he put his sword on a coat rack and put on a doctor's coat.

"I hate these things as much as I hate Him headmaster." He stated as he waited for Artemis to catch up.

"We haven't found a single sign of him yet. But knowing people like Mr. Michealis he'll show up somewhere eventually." Was his only reply from the headmaster. By the time Artemis reached the infirmary Masenai looked at her.

"Don't worry too much on this little thing. It's like any other form of flu shot except for the fact in a few hours or less you'll start to exhibit some form of power, Zeus for example, He doesn't shoot lightning at stuff, but let's say he can talk to most species of insects and the like known to man. Some get other powers but let's focus on you."

"Just sit down in the chair and the headmaster will give you your injection." Was all Masenai could say at that point. By the time Artemis would sit down Masenai cleaned up one of her arms for the injection. "Hold your breath and count to three."

---

After everyone had given their greetings, the Headmaster began to introduce the serum needed to enhance Artemis.

"Don't worry... It's merely a power accelerator. All members of Saiken are required to have this serum injected so that they get powers."

"It's alright Artemis. You might feel a bit nauseated for the first 5 minutes after injection, but afterwards you'll be feeling stronger than ever. Besides...."

Ayase followed Ares into the infirmary and shuffled a deck of green cards with ancient symbols marked on one side of each as they seemed to blend into the deck. Ayase pulled one out slowly as she turned it around to let Artemis see. It was a picture of a crescent moon.

"My tarot card says the shot will take only 2 hours for your powers to fully adapt to the shot. My my, you must have impeccable stamina, Artemis. And yet, I'm very weak. It took me 7 hours to fully feel the effects of the shot....and a allergic reaction but....that's just me. Haha."

Ayase scratched her back nervously as she smiled. She sat on the bed beside Artemis as she held her hand steady, squeezing it softly while looking into her eyes.

"It's going to be fine. You might think this is weird, barely coming here and getting some sort of weird injection, but it's to help benefit mankind I suppose. You'll have to hear the full speech from the Headmaster later."

She looked at the window as she threw one of her cards at the switch handle that unlocked the window. The card flew with amazing accuracy and a pink aura as it flicked the window open, letting a breeze go through. By the time Ayase looked back, Ares had already prepared Artemis' arm. Ayase smiled at her as she waited for the Headmaster to administer the shot.

He watched as almost all the students flocked to Artemis like flies onto a corpse, to put it in a most gruesome term of words. With Ares giving her the prep and everyone else helping her out or at least giving her moral support he couldn't help but feel just the slightest bit jealous.

His first arrival here was quite unimpressive without a doubt. He was practically the only student in the greeting room since Ares was out sleuthing for his own agenda while Aphrodite was simply out elsewhere. Athena had joined later than him leaving the total number of attending students for his greeting and serum injection a staggeringly few number of peers who were for the most part silent. The headmaster still managed to pull off a warm welcome nonetheless even if he was the only really comforting aspect of his introduction to this establishment. After the injection Morris felt a bit anemic for about five hours after but he was clear to dream about the powers he'd soon possess after all that. Nevertheless, his greeting paled in comparison to the later ones he attended, the current one included.


While Morris had been thinking to himself while everyone else had been setting up the injection or other probably uninteresting activities the room had gotten progressively buggier with the passing of time. A fair number of flies and mosquitoes were buzzing about the upper echelons of the room while plenty of cockroaches, beetles and ants scurried about the floor.
"Do watch where you scurry." He warned the floor treading bugs, shuffling about so as to not step on them. Many of the bugs visited him, greeting him in numerous pleasant ways while they took their share of excess dead cells he wasn't really using. A majority of the insects which had gravitated into this location were already a bit bigger than twice their size and exceptionally smart for a bug. Know what you mean! Many of them said what basically indicated they understood him well enough.

Thinking about it, he figured he really shouldn't be all too jealous of Artemis. He knew he was never much a of a people's person as almost all interactions he's had with others had been negative.

Why would I even want human friends anyways? Most people don't really make very good friends anyways. As long as I got my insect friends I don't need people all too much. Much too much grief human friends are. He pondered his feelings towards making friends. As far as helping others was concerned he knew there would probably be some risk of confrontations but the scale of violence seemed to be quite low in his mind. He would accept the others help as colleagues with the shared goal of helping others but he never saw much need for many of their powers, especially Ares's.


As far as being friends were concerned he was very shy towards the concept even though he wasn't fully aware of this aspect of himself. He's barely spoken to any of them since the day he joined so they were still pretty much all strangers to him even for as long as he's been in this academy. Ever since he had discovered his powers his presence in the school's social microcosm had been minimal at best. The only time he'd generally be seen talking was with his bugs. There was no reason to feel bashful around insects anyways. None of them were judging him solely on his appearance or ability to adhere to social norms, just his personality. Sure, a few insects were generally indifferent to him due to personality divisions but for the most part almost all the insects found him a good friend, even as large as he was compared to them. They had all gotten quite close too, his insect pals and himself. If needed to be they'd lay down their lives to protect him and he'd do just about the same for them.

Now, that is not to say that he doesn't know what life for a bug generally entails. They die all the time, the list of causes longer than could be comfortably listed. Even their interpersonal disputes often result in one party's death. He had grown quite accustomed to losing friends as in his life span many friends he makes among the insects don't last long. The lifespan of many of these bugs might be deterrent enough to probably embitter others but even despite the generally dangerous environments that bugs are lost all the time he still manages to find a great deal of peace when back with his friends. If there was ever any real reason to seek change in this dynamite of his it would be to encourage bugs towards not making life harder on themselves than it already was.

No, he didn't really envy them. His friends were the best and they'd remember him as much more than the general acquaintances these people were to him would. While he watched Artemis strap in he simply took note while keeping an out for his buzzing, crawling friends.