"The mentors of the teams will be as such. Faction 99 will be mentored by Lady Aiko herself. Faction 1 will be mentored by Naru. Faction 2 will be mentored by Miyamoto. Faction 3 will be mentored by Ryuuki," at that point, Yuki and Shu stopped listening.
Once everyone is dismissed, the new members of Faction 3 were greeted by Ryuuki.
"So. You are Yuki and Shuichi, huh? Let's get to know each other, shall we? I would tell you all about me, but i believe my reputation precedes me. You two, of course, already know each other, so tell me a like, dislike, and one of your goals."
Ryu was recognized as the second strongest person in their village. It is said that he has the innate ability to rewind time by ten seconds, but nobody can be quite sure due to it being something only he can experience. It is, of course, false. He can actually wind back 15 seconds. It may not sound super useful, but it really starts to show its true use in combat.
"I'll start. As you know, I'm Shu. I like fire, I don't like not being able to breathe, and my goal is to be able to protect my family,"
"I'm Yuki. I like sweet things, I don't like like the dark, and I want to get stronger just for the thrill of it."
"Simple goals. I can use this to our advantage. I'll go now. I like reading, I don't like heights, and my goal is to turn you two into the most efficient team our nation has ever produced. Seeing how you two are, that shouldn't be too difficult. Your first challenge is to grab these from me. Begin!"
He holds out two silver bells, each one hanging from a different colored string. One string is red, and the other is blue. Shu and Yuki look at each other and nod. Shu dashes behind Ryu, while Yuki rushes him head on. They reach him at the same time, Shu trying to restrain him, and Yuki reaching for the bells. At the last moment, Ryu ducks and for what felt like an eternity because of the impending collision, Shu and Yuki locked eyes, and once time resumes, they crash into each other. Ryu dashes to the side and hides while they are distracted. Yuki gets up and starts scanning her surroundings.
Ryu waits behind a bush, making sure not to let himself be seen. Yuki seems to disappear into thin air while Shu finally seems to gain his bearings. His eyes dart around, hoping to maybe find one of the others to no avail. After a moment, he sees the shadowy figure of Yuki dashing through the tree tops toward an oddly shaped lump in one of the trees. Upon further inspection, Shu realizes that the shape is a hunkered down Ryu. Before he can move toward them, Yuki snatches the bells and appears beside Shu.
"Here ya go. We pass," Yuki hands him a bell dismissively.
"Thanks," Shu just kind of stands there in surprise.
Ryu comes over soon after. "Congratulations. You two pass my test. Now I'll go over the basics. As I'm sure you know, members of the Corps are ranked using the letter system. Most start at F rank, but since you passed the test, you'll start as E ranks. Missions are ranked the same way as members. You are only able to take missions that are of your rank or lower unless specific circumstances arise such as being reccomended for the mission or being approved to do so by your Faction's leader. The higher the rank, the more rewards from completing it. Missions outside the walls are all C rank at minimum, so for the first couple months, we'll be staying inside the walls. Missions typically only go up to SS class at the absolute highest. Follow me to Lady Aiko's office to choose the mission you'll do tomorrow."
Lady Aiko sits at her desk with a proper demeanor, giving off a strict and serious aura. Her hazelnut hair glinting in the sunlight and her sky blue eyes shining with the everlasting fire determination. A small pile of paper sits on the side of her desk.
"Welcome. I presume you are here for a mission. Ryu. What rank are these two?"
"Rank D, ma'am," Ryu responds curtly.
"You don't have to be so formal Ryu. After all, we were in the same faction, no? I was your friend before I was your Empress."
"Sorry, Aiko."
"No worries. So. Missions. At the moment, these are what I have for D rank." She pulls a folder full of paper out of a drawer in her desk, sets it down in front of her, turns the bottom toward the members of Faction 3, and slides it toward them.
Ryu flips it open. "What type of mission do you guys want? They're mostly pretty simple, and all inside the village, because of missions outside the walls automatically receive a rank of C or above."
Shu flips through the papers and one catches his eye. A missing person report. "Yuki. Look at this one."
She goes to his side and looks at the paper. "Shall we?"
"Yes." He shows the paper to Aiko. "This one. We'll take this mission. Let's go, Yuki."
"Wait! That mission is a C rank!" Aiko calls after them, but they were too far gone to hear her.
Out in the streets, Yuki and Shu get to work, searching for signs near where the person was last seen. They couldn't find any clues until Yuki noticed something in an alleyway.
"Blood drops. They lead further down." Yuki takes a moment to inspect it. "It appears to be two days old. Let's follow it."
The amount of blood drops increases the further they go. Yuki begins muttering to herself about how strange this is. After a short amount of time, the trail of blood turns and then stops. Where it ends, there is a curtain with a chunk clearly cut out of it hanging out of a dumpster.
"They must have stopped the bleeding with a chunk off of this. Let's keep going." Yuki continues down the alley.
Eventually, they reach the end. To the right lies a steel door with some blood smeared on the right side of the door and some on the handle as well.
"I'm going in, Shu. Watch my back." Yuki opens the door.