More and more students started to assemble in front of the main gate, forming a crowd of grey and red uniforms. Rei was standing on the sideline, watching groups form to discuss the upcoming trip. From what Rei had overheard, it seems that nobody had any idea about what the plan for today was. At first, he had the suspicion that it was just Miss Nagako who had been too lazy to give a full explanation, and that the other three classes had received all the necessary information. But it seems that Miss Nagako wasn't the problem; it probably was the academy director. Even during the suicide mission, sports test or the close combat tournament, the students had never received enough information to get a full image of the plan.
The Class C students had arrived too, and Rei watched as they talked to all kinds of people, many of which he doesn't even know. Akari was talking and laughing with Akata, with Yoichi for some reason keeping his distance as he watched the two as well. Raku, with his eye-catching green-dyed hair, was talking to Maruta, another Class C student who seems to be quite popular as well. Rei had often seen those two together, and it only made sense for extroverted people to have made relatively close friends by now. The weird, white haired girl in his class, who he forgot the name of, and Hitofumi Isamu, the black haired guy with glasses and a seeming obsession with explosives, were one of those duos too, always being together when Rei saw them. Even Hyodou had a lot of people around her, mostly from her own class.
Having so many people around him made Rei want to escape back to his room.
"Alright my little soldiers, please listen up!" a voice shot out from some transportable speakers through the whole crowd, catching their attention. The Director stood in front of them, with a bunch of staff, including teachers and the student council, standing behind him. "We will now be starting the trip. It's quite simple, really, we're just going to walk a very special place, so please be excited. Now, follow me!"
And just like that, he handed the microphone to one of the staff and started to walk down the hill that the Academy was sitting on. Students chattered to each other, but quickly started following him. As expected, they still wouldn't tell them where they were going.
As a row of groups of students formed behind the Director, Rei noticed that the armed staff were walking next to the column. It almost made him feel like he was being escorted as a prisoner. Was this really necessary?
Rei started walking past the students, wanting to get to the front to talk to Director Mazato. Maybe he could lure the answer of today's goal out of him. But unluckily for him, he was stopped halfway through, with a hand suddenly grabbing his wrist. It surprised Rei so much that he had to stop himself from instinctively pulling away from the attacker.
"Woah, do not worry, I am not your enemy, although I understand that my immense grip strength can be scary," Ouma Fukushi grinned, his left eye still covered by an eye-patch.
"I wasn't scared, you just surprised me. What do you want?" Rei asked as he started walking next to him.
"You seem smart, so where do you bet we're going? Me and Yashiro have been theorizing!" he explained with far too much energy for a morning like this. Akata, who was walking on Fukuchi's right side, had an apologetic look on his face.
It's fine, I was used to dealing with extroverted people by now.
He had thought that Akata was with Akari, but it seems that Akari ws now talking to the Tenji siblings.
"How would I know?"
He didn't want to mention that he was going to talk with the Director, out of fear that the two of them might decide to join him.
"You're a quiet guy, so I thought you were always thinking ahead or somethin'!"
What kind of impression did he have of Rei?
"So sorry to disappoint you, can I go now?"
"Go where?"
"What?"
"Are you searching for someone?"
Uh oh.
"Why does that matter to you?" Rei said, trying to close the conversation, but his opponent wouldn't let him off so easily.
"Let's play rock, paper, scissors! If I win, you have to tell me who you're searching for!"
"Where the hell did this come from, hell no!"
"Oh come on, please! Rock, paper, scissors is a serious game of intellect, you know! It's about reading your enemy's mind and adjusting your own strategy!"
"I don't care, that's not the problem!"
"If you win, I'll be your underling for the rest of the day! I'll have you know that having a natural leader like me serve under someone else is a very rare occurrence!"
"I don't want that, I'm losing either way!"
"Then how about this: if you win, I'll give your class a helpful tool for the upcoming history test," Akata, who had been listening in while laughing to himself, interjected. That perked Rei's interest.
"A helpful tool? Like what?"
"You'll have to win to find out," Akata replied, smiling. "But I promise that it could really make a difference, if used right."
Rei stared at Akata with suspicion. It didn't seem like he was lying, but at the same time, something was fishy about this. Why would he put such high stakes on something this stupid? Rei remembered when Akata had approached Class C, stating that he wanted the classes to get along, so was this part of spreading his agenda? Was this guy really that naive to think that helping each other out in a competition like this was going to work?
"...Fine, I accept."
"Let's go!" Fukuchi celebrated, shooting his arms into the air. "Before we start, let me ask you, will you go scissors?"
Rei looked at him dumbfounded, before replying with a simple "no". He didn't even make up his mind of what we was going to pick yet.
"Hmmmm..." Fukuchi scratched his chin, closing his eyes... or at least his right one. What the hell was he thinking about so long for?
"Rock..." Rei started to say, startling Fukuchi, who looked at Rei with full concentration.
"Paper..."
Fukuchi looked like he was struggling on making a life changing decision, his brows furrowed as he glared at Rei with absolute focus.
"Scissors!"
Rei threw out his hand, his fist formed into a rock. Meanwhile, Fukuchi's hand showed... something. His pinky and ring finger were pulled in like in a fist, but his thumb was sticking out and his middle and index finger slightly curved out. It almost looked like he was holding aa imaginary cup of tea.
"...What the hell is that?"
"Argh, shit! I can't believe you outsmarted me like this! You purposefully replied 'no' to my very cunning question in order to make me confused! You knew that I was going to try to analyze your thought process, getting lost in my own genius before being able to make up my mind, which then led to me now being able to make a choice in time, causing my downfall and loss!"
What was this guy talking about?
Rei could only stare as his opponent rattled on and on about an imaginary battle of minds, before eventually admitting defeat.
"You are a formidable enemy, Master Kawakami. It's not every day that I must admit defeat, so be proud of your achievement of making me bend the knee."
"Please don't call me that, you're not my underling!"
Rei ignored the Idiot, before giving his attention to Akata, who was clapping for Rei's victory, still smiling to himself as he watched the scene unfold.
"So, when will I get my prize?"
The redhair then pressed his index finger against his lips, before answering.
"I'll have it ready in a few days, trust me. It's better if you don't mention it to anyone else for now."
Rei was getting more and more suspicious, but it's not like he had anything to lose.
"Ah, Akata, there you are..." Suddenly, an older man, dressed in the staff uniform, joined them and started to talking to the redhead. "Say, do you remember when or where you've last seen me use my phone? I kind of lost it... I think," he explained, clearly annoyed by the situation he was in.
Rei was rather confused - why would Akata, a student, know when a staff member last used his phone?
"No, my memory isn't that good, you know? Also, why are you here? Aren't you just a technician working at the simulation, Mr. Kaichi?"
"Well, I wish that was my only job, but since we're kind of understaffed I'm being used as an all-rounder... that's also why I've been forced to sometimes take over your class' lessons."
Mr. Kaichi scratched his head as he sighed.
"Well, anyway, if you remember anything, let me know. Now I gotta tell the Director that I lost it so he can lock it... that guy's scary when he gets angry."
With that, the man left them alone and hurried back to his position.
"Amazing, isn't it? Yashiro is even popular with the staff members!" Fukuchi explained, throwing his arm around Akata.
"It's not like that, I just talk to him every now and then. Anyway, don't worry about it Rei, I want our classes to get along, so I'll make sure that you can use the prize well."
It seems Akata had noticed Rei's suspicion, but that didn't make him any less worried. It would probably become clearer if he could trust Akata or not in the coming days.
Before Rei could reach the front, the students arrived at the bottom of the hill, and to everyone's surprise, they made a right turn. A turn to the right, and therefore to the south. In the north, one would relatively quickly make it to Raibo city and the closest High-Train station, the same Rei had taken to get to the Academy on the first day.
But the south was different. Raibo City, and the hill that Kaizen Academy sat on, were both on the border to the Yogore district, previously known as the country of Sakashima, In other words, going south would only lead them further and further into the slums of Yogore. But the Director did not hesitate and kept on walking, with the rest of them following along. Finally, Rei managed to catch up, and surprisingly found Akari and the Tenji siblings in the front as well.
"...Where are we going?" Akari asked, her voice somewhat unsettled.
"It seems like you already have a hunch, hm?" Director Mazato simply replied, not caring to give a clear answer.
"What are we going to do in that district?" Rei put out his uncertainty. It was only then that Akari and the rest noticed him.
Out of all places to visit, that district was the one he wanted to go the least. There was nothing there that he wanted to see. All they would find there was ruin and suffering.
"Who knows? I doubt many have had the pleasure of seeing it with their own eyes, so I thought it was a great opportunity for some sight-seeing!" The Director replied with his usual attitude. The sarcasm made Rei want to throw up.
The group reached the border control, an old looking wall with only a few entry points throughout. In the far distance, they could see construction going on, clearly upgrading part of the wall. HEavily armed men could be seen everywhere, and the group was told to stop and not move before they could even be anywhere close of the entry point, with a whole troop approaching them.
"We are registered for today," The Director mentioned, handing some important looking papers to what seemed like the person in charge of this place. "All information on the people here, our exact purpose, and even the route we're taking should be in there. I've also sent it over digitally, including the signed permit."
It seems that crossing the border and entering the district was quite a hurdle, especially if you wanted to do it with a big, armed group, even if said group was made of a bunch of government officials.
One can only imagine how hard it must be to leave the district as a normal person. Apparently, there are huge criminal organisations whose entire business is to smuggle people through the border. Of course, there are other ways in which a Yogorean person could leave their district, but most of those require an unbelievable amount of power, luck or both.
After standing around for a couple minutes while the border officials double checked the documents, the group was finally let through and officially set foot on the Yogore District. Surprisingly, one couldn't immediately notice an immense difference. The houses did not look as modern as the ones in Raibo city, sure, but other than that it looked like quite the normal neighbourhood.
"I've never been here, but it definitely isn't how I expected it to be. I thought it'd be... less clean," Akari talked to herself as she looked around.
"If we go further in, that will change. The only people living here are government officials or rich people who wanted cheap land," Rei explained, pointing at the people they saw; all of them were in uniform or suits, with the vast majority being security guards or policemen.
"Someone did his homework," the Director pointed out - a comment which Rei swiftly ignored.
Internally, Rei was still praying that they were just going to visit one of the people living in this area, but his prayers went unheard as they kept on marching onward, deeper into the lost lands. There were even privately hired guards that had stopped them multiple times, investigating on why they were here. Even though the neighborhood still looked normal, the atmosphere was tense.
And then, with each step, the houses grew more and more worn down, and the policemen and guards were replaced by common people of all sorts. At first, the people looked and acted like the ones in the cities. Some shot some very curios looks towards the military parade happening, and other than a few rough looking one or two homeless people, there wasn't much of a difference.
But as Rei had foretold, that would change as well.
They kept on walking and walking, until the previously nice-looking houses have transformed into broken down ruins and wooden shacks. Even the best looking houses looked nothing like what one would see in the city; unpainted cubes of concrete, with cracks and roots crawling over the surface. It was rare to see any windows that were in tact; most have been completely shattered or replaced by wooden barrages or plastic tapestry. The road was not maintained either, it got more and more narrow and the ground more and more filled with holes and clustered with trash.
And when the environment changes, so do the people.
Old, ragged clothes that looked like they have been worn through decades. Men, women and even children were lying on the ground next to the road, often with no blanket or mattress. Sometimes Rei wasn't even sure if they were alive. Whole families would walk around carrying bags of the most random goods one could imagine; from food to building materials to tools to toys.
And even though the people seemed relatively calm, they would immediately make way and hold their distance the moment they spotted the group of tourists passing by. Mothers would drag their children away, homeless men would scurry away into alleyways and fathers would stand in front of their families with their hands in their pockets, seemingly clutching into whatever weapons they had on them.
"This... sure feels sketchy. Are we sure patrolling right through here is a good idea? Doesn't feel very safe to say the least," Akki started to comment, probably because the silence combined with the stares of the strangers felt so oppressive. Before Rei could interject, the Director started to speak.
"Ah, you don't feel safe? Can't blame you, I'm sure the people around us are only waiting for the right chance to attack a heavily armed troop of soldiers. We, of course, would never attack them. Having armed Fuji officials abuse their power for the sole sake of tormenting the Yogorean people is unheard of."
"I get it even without the sarcasm," Akki returned, which made Director Mazato turn around for the first time. His smile was still there, and even though he wasn't even looking at Rei, he could feel the piercing glare in his eyes.
"Do you really?"
"Yeah..." Akki looked to the side, breaking the eye-contact. "How much longer will we have to walk anyway?"
"Hah, until we arrive at our destination," the Director simply said as he continued to walk.
The deeper they went, the more Rei started to stare on the ground. The views around him weren't things that he wanted to see. Every time he looked up and made eye contact with a stranger, his heart twisted in a way that he couldn't explain, to the point where he just wanted it gone. His heart would beat far too fast and far too loudly for his liking, and he could feel every drop of sweat on his skin. It felt like every little noise was startling him, like every shadow that moved belonged to that man, who would then jump out to once again hurt Rei. He tried to ignore it all. To ignore the sounds, to look at his feet, to think of something different. But it wasn't working.
Why did they have to come here? He wanted to go home, to hide away. To be somewhere alone, where he knew nobody could get to him.
Suddenly, he could feel a hand on his shoulder. Without hesitation, he leaped away, turning around in a frenzy of fear, his eyes darting around to find the danger. But all he could see was Akari, her hand outstretched, with a worried look on her face.
"Rei...?"
Only now did he realize how he must've looked like. His pupils were narrowed, his breath rapid, his entire body shaking and his lips quivering.
He just looked like a scared child.
"Sorry- I... I didn't mean to, well, I was just deep in thought..." he stammered along as Akari looked at him.
Stop, don't pity me.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Rei took another breath, trying to regain as much of his composure as possible.
"I told you, I'm fine. Don't just surprise me like that while I'm in deep thought," he tried his best to play it off and to snap at her like he usually does, and even though a sheepish smile appeared on Akari's face, it seemed he wasn't able to fully convince her.
Even though Akki was there to witness the whole thing, he surprisingly didn't make any comments at all. He just looked straight ahead, ignoring what was happening next to him.
Pathetic. I'm so pathetic.
And yet, he had no choice but to continue walking ahead. All he could do was try his best to stay calm, and to his luck, Akari started to loosen up and start all kinds of conversations, which served as a well needed distraction. It was probably the first time that Rei was happy to hear Akari talk this much.
They've been walking for almost three hours now, with a small break here and there. Luckily, there have been no serious incidents so far, but Rei was slowly getting an idea of where they were going. Because up ahead was a large hill, one that now bore the nickname of 'Hades Seat'. A throne of which one could view down on the hell that laid beneath it. A view on Hoka, the old capital city of Sakashima.
Before walking up the hill, the group stopped, and the staff started handing out something to the students.
"For safety measures, please take these pills. Even without them you shouldn't be in any danger, but we would rather be safe than sorry," Director Mazato explained, and the students who had not yet figured out where they were started to freak out. "Don't worry, this pill is safe for all of you to take, we've checked your medical history. You should be happy, it might be tiny, but that little thing is a work of genius, and not to mention quite expensive."
Rei could already guess what it was, but this was the first time he heard that a drug like this existed.
Once every student had calmed down and the director managed to convince everyone to take the mysterious pill, they started to climb. Up and up and up. First there was still a somewhat easy road, but that quickly vanished as they started to walk through unmanned forest. More than anything, Rei was glad that they were away from the slums.
Soon, the forest cleared up and it became easier to navigate, all the way until they started to reach the grassy top. And so, with Rei in the front, the students viewed down on the landscape in front of them.
Destruction.
Near the hill, one could still see some houses, or at least remains of them, but the further the eye reached, the harder it became to spot the signs of life. The landscape slowly faded from the ruins of an old city, which were now overgrown with plants and forest, to a lifeless, grey and brown field of nothingness. It was like this place had been under attack just a few days ago, but that was not the case.
"Welcome to Hoka. The first city in history to experience a Hydrogen Bomb attack," the director started to speak once every student had arrived at the top. "21 years ago, in the middle of the night, the False Sun lit up the world for millions of people. 8 million of which died as a direct result of the detonation. This was the price of peace."
For a moment, he went silent. The Director, with his back turned to the students, simply looked down at the destruction. Nobody dared to make a sound.
"We humans excel at destruction. Hoka was a city with ancient history behind it, did you know? The oldest relics have been dated back to thousands of years before Christ. Today, we can assemble a bomb like the False Sun in a matter of hours. How long did people spend to build their home here? How long did they live their life here? How long did they raise their kids here. All that, gone in a matter of seconds. You can take someone's life with a simple kitchen knife, yet how hard is it so save someone's life? How impossible is it to revive someone? How much effort do we have to put into raising a child? We have so many ways of killing someone, yet struggle so hard with saving or protecting anyone."
He turned around to face the students. For once, he did not wear his usual smile.
"It's amazing, isn't it? How good we are at destroying everything that others hold dear. One could admire the progression of technology, to look at this landscape at to see the brilliance in engineering. But that's not the point. Your job isn't to wage war, to kill people or to destroy cities."
He moved his arm, pointing at the remains of Hoka.
"Your job is to make sure that this never has to happen again."
The Director took a breath, almost like he was calming himself.
"It's difficult to save someone's life. It's much easier to kill someone. In other words, you are at a huge disadvantage. There might even come times where the options to kill and to save overlap with each other. But still, in a world where everyone struggles to do good, it's all the more important to have people like you. People who struggle on and on and on. It's my selfish wish, an unreasonable request, and I understand if you could do without that horrible fate. But if you decide to do what is right, even though you might not get a deserving payment, I will not forget you."
Finally, his smile returned, as he looked through the crowd like they weren't there. As Rei followed Mazato's gaze, he was led to Miss Nagako's face, who for the first time returned the director's smile.
"And neither will the people who you saved."