On the rooftop of a building filled with graffiti, a young man was exercising with the upper half of his body laid bare. The body of the young man was full of scars and bruises, there was even one single bullet wound on his back.
This young man was Gunther Bauer a third year of Ryuuga Academy and the big boss of the entire school. Standing at the side waiting for him to finish training was his second-in-command, Jerome Muller. Gunther finished doing his push-ups and Jerome handed him a towel to wipe away his sweat.
"So what do you want to report?"
"The freshmen have been defeated."
When Jerome said those words Gunther's killing intent burst out for a second but he quickly restrained himself.
"Which group did it?"
"We don't know yet, almost all of the freshmen are still knocked out, and the only one who has regained consciousness is too scared to say anything."
"Who's the one still conscious?"
"It's Kyle he's the first one to wake up, and he's in the hospital. Unlike the others, he sustained the most damage. Two of his fingers had been twisted in a way that his bones nearly popped out. Kyle was also hit by what the doctor says to be a blunt object like a mace or a metal bat in different areas of his body, but surprisingly despite being hit by so much none of his bones were broken, it was as if the attacker knew the exact amount of power needed for that to happen."
"Hmm, I will talk to Kyle myself and see what kind of people have dared mess with what is mine."
...
Alex and the others have received their first mission as the Mercenary Circle and it came from Rachel's friend Sayaka.
She was a girl with brown eyes and blonde hair tied up in two neat pigtails with black ribbons, with a height of 161 cm she stood a few centimeters taller than Rachel but it was not noticeable. She was pretty cute but not on the level of Alisa, Rachel, and Evangeline. On her back was a bag carrying something like a bamboo sword.
"Heyo, my name's Sayaka I'm fifteen years old and the best friend of the ice princess over there. Nice to meet yah especially you." Sayaka slowly approached Oliver and started touching his stomach, Oliver surprised by the action backed away.
"Nice abs, your muscles are definitely toned to the max. Well, you're my kind of guy... How about we start dating?"
"What?!" Rachel exclaimed in shock, Oliver wanted to do the same, but since he was dead set on maintaining character he didn't shout out loud, but in his head, he was screaming. 'WHAT!?'
Alisa was quite amused by Sayaka's behavior, while Alex had no thoughts on the matter and simply observed the way Sayaka was moving.
"I'm just kidding, of course, we must get to know each other first alright?"
After hearing the first half of her sentence Oliver and Rachel sighed in relief but hearing the second half of the sentence got them riled up again.
"Hahahaha, you should see your face, Rachel. Of course, I'm not going to date someone I just met. Still, his looks are my ideal type, hmm well whatever I hope we get along." The girl called Sayaka seems to be operating at a different pace from them.
Rachel could only sigh at her energetic best friend. "So Sayaka that's not all you wanted to talk about right?" As if remembering something Sayaka slapped her forehead.
"So back on topic, didn't you text me that you needed help in the kendo club?" Rachel asked.
"Oh right! Yeah, our ace is out sick today, and those arrogant pricks from Hillman High School are coming over. I need one of you guys to replace our ace to fight an exhibition match. To tell you the truth I thought at first, that it would be impossible for you guys, but getting a look at Oliver's bulging muscles, I have newfound expectations of you guys."
Sayaka looked at Oliver with the eyes of a predator looking at her prey. Oliver maintained a serious expression on the outside but was freaking out on the inside.
'What the hell is wrong with the girls in this school?! Why are all of them the strong type?!'
...
While the five were heading to their own respective classrooms Oliver went beside Alex and whispered to him.
"Hey, luckily you weren't caught. Your luck is actually pretty good."
Oliver was of course talking about getting caught by Sayaka, Alex on the other hand understood what Oliver said in a different way.
'He noticed me and even knows what I did to the freshmen at Ryuuga Academy and even the newspaper club... I was so vigilant yesterday, how did he?... Heh, this new comrade in arms is actually that good or did I just get rusty? It's only been five days since I left the battlefield and I'm already losing my edge?'
Alex's stoic face which seemed to be harder than steel had his lips curled up ever so slightly for a few seconds. In Alex's mind, Oliver was someone of equal or even greater skill than himself, so he had a different interpretation of everything Oliver said.
Alex at that moment wanted to witness all of Oliver's skills and see who between them was better, yet he easily restrained this emotion of his. Since he was at school and in the middle of a mission, asking for a duel was no good.
The five of them finally reached the classrooms, Sayaka was a student of classroom 1-C so she needed to separate from the group but before she did so she reminded them, "Don't forget after school go to the kendo clubroom... Oh, wait we'll be using the gymnasium for the exhibition match." The three nodded at Sayaka's reminder.
...
After class, the three headed towards the gymnasium where they heard some people arguing.
"Why the hell did you invite amateurs to help us?!"
"Do you have a better idea? The exhibition match requires five students to participate, you guys are already down by two. We can't use the girls since this is for the men's division right?"
"Damn it! Then I'll just fight the additional two battles! I can do it! I can win even without the captain, and that showboat of an ace!"
The three entered amidst all the screaming. Alex noticed that one of the people screaming was Sayaka and she was screaming at a boy with slightly unkempt fawn-colored dyed hair and brown eyes. He stood at around 179 cm which made him an inch shorter than Alex, his eyes were slightly slanted which made him look angry all the time.
Sayaka noticing the three entering the gymnasium waved her hands. "Over here!" Her frown from a while ago turned into a bright smile.
The boy who was arguing with Sayaka glared at Alex's group. He then approached Alex's group and pointed at them.
"We don't need you here! Go back to where you came from amateurs!"
Sensing the boy's hostile intentions Alex was looking at the boy's unguarded areas which there were a lot, compared to to that delinquent Kyle this guy wasn't even fit to be called a martial artist.
"Now is that how we of the kendo club respect our visitors?"
Another man approached the group, he had a gentle smile floating on his face. A well-combed black hair, with matching black eyes, and with the glasses on, this person looks like the personification of the studious type. When Alex saw the man's center of gravity he was a little surprised, this person was actually pretty good, he was just one level below Kyle.
"But"
"There are no buts, Ryuuji! I apologize for my junior's outburst." The man with the gentle smile bowed his head as he apologized.
"It's ok we are the ones imposing." Rachel quickly responded to the bowing senior.
"Thank you for your forgiveness, allow me to introduce everyone from the male kendo team. This here with the loudmouth is a first-year like you, called Ryuuji. The one beside him is a second-year like me William, and I'm the Vice-Captain Noel."
Rachel then started to introduce the members of the Mercenary Circle. "I see so you're the rumored Rachel and the ones beside you are Alisa, Alex, and Oliver, right? The three of you are very popular in our school at the moment." Noel looked at the group in interest.
"Famous for being weirdos," Ryuuji said with a snicker.
"Ryuuji! How many times are you going to insult our guests?! Apologize now!" Noel yelled at Ryuuji who clicked his tongue in response.
"I apologize for the rude comment." With that insincere apology, Ryuuji bowed his head. Rachel wasn't able to hear the apology she was still stuck on Ryuuji's comment.
'Am I treated like a weirdo as well?! Did even Alisa suddenly become a rumored weirdo as well? How did this happen?! What happened to my Queen like aura?! Was I affected by these four people's weirdness?'
'Wow, I expected there to be lots of rumors about me, but I didn't expect them to be like that. Well, this is interesting, I wonder what else will I experience with these guys beside me.'
While Rachel and Alisa were deep into their own thoughts Noel approached the sleeping teacher who was sitting at the side.
"Sir Lyner these two wish to replace the Captain and Robert."
Noel pointed at Alex and Oliver, Lyner the teacher in charge of the kendo club opened his eyes slightly, looked at the two, and yawned.
"Do whatever you deem fit." After saying that, Lyner went back to sleep.
"There you go welcome to the team, temporarily of course. The opposing team will be arriving at around 5:00 p.m. so there's thirty minutes left, how about we start warming up."
Noel looked at Alex and Oliver very interested in what kind of performance the two will show.