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Multiple Settings "It's Hard to Graduate In a Cyberpunk Dystopia!"

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Lexi Noel
Rumble Six Academy Hallway
Ehb Ehb @ohgodthisisoutofhand
​
Miruno's reaction to being slapped was to tackle Lexi and to start to seemingly strangle her. The floor betrayed Lexi by allowing her to fall, her back then head impacting the old tiles of the floor. Lexi's back slowly was being soaked by the floor, and she was seeing stars. Her fight or flight response was screaming at her to fight. Her last remnant thought of logic was to just push her off, taze her with her remaining glove, anything to stop the fight long enough to retreat. But her fight response was louder. And her fight response was always to scrap hard, fight dirty, and never to relent.

Lexi's response was to take both her hands and clap them on Miruno's ears, causing immense pain. Then follow up with a knee to the gut, hopefully freeing her from the strangulation.

Dimly, she felt the cold tile behind her head was getting warmer as the wound on the back of her head started to pool around her head, matting her hair a deep red. The water made it seem to spread further and look worse than it was, but head wounds always did. Lexi did not have the mind to appreciate the halo of blood lending her intimidation, her mind screaming to win! or die.
 
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Raymond Denhart
Academy Six Hallways​


As Cairn laid out the remaining time they had left to study for the exams, a twinge of panic tried to rise in Raymond’s chest, he was not an independent learner and had probably fallen quite far behind in the course material. Despite the punishment he had mostly just been relieved to be back with the study group. Raymond nodded along with Cairns thorough assessment, he was not quite following the math -another slight worry- but trusted Cairns deductions anyway. He was so articulate even as he pulled his words back towards himself and faded to a mumble. Raymond relaxed a little, thankful to his classmate for the break in the tension between Rin and Miruno, however brief.

He had never seen Miruno this worked up before and it seemed like Rin was not going to back down at all, not even partially for the sake of defusing the confrontation.

-SLAP-

"Woah woah woah!" Raymond rushed over to Mirunos side as she held her cheek. She looked so small. Not sure how to comfort her without intruding too much on her space, Raymond hovered an arm awkwardly around her back. He just wanted her to know she wasn't alone. That the group wasn't against her. Lexi's hand was shaking and she had a fury about her that Raymond didn't want to aggravate. "C'mon Lexi, she was just blowing off steam, we don't gotta get physical." Lexi didn't have the patience for their arguments and mentioning differences in class and privilege would no doubt lead to further escalation. They all went to Academy Six, this was their lot.. for now.

Miruno launched forward into Lexi, he foot slipping as she latched on to the other girls neck. "-Oh shit!"

Raymond panicked and made to clutch the back of Mirunos shirt as best he could, attempting to pull her away from Lexi as they fell. She suddenly reminded him of a street cat as he basically held onto her by the scruff. He threw Rin a quick 'help me out here' signal with his eyebrows. Even on the floor, Lexis retaliation was brutal, clapping Mirunos ears and delivering a sharp knee to the gut. Raymond winced. That had to hurt.

"Hey, Rin, maybe heading off to track down Mr.Yano was kinda hasty, y'know!?" Raymond yelled over his shoulder. Surely that would be fair enough to say at this stage.

He racked his brain for something to say, something with substance. "But still, I was...really glad to see you guys there, I couldn't ask of a better opportunity to leave." He grimaced a little, embarrassed, "So thanks for acting out anyways. And if its any consolation, everyone on the video, very photogenic, an added edge in any decent modeling portfolio!" He said this as if it was really worth taking into account. Seizing a proper grip under Mirunos arms, he pulled her away as gently as he could, sitting her up against the lockers. He was feeling quite useless in the whole situation but tried to be of comfort as he crouched down beside his classmate. "Hey..Miruno..are you okay...? we'll cover for you if you need to go home and recover..I'll go with you if you need help?" He held his hands open, waiting for her response, not sure if she was in a fit enough state to answer.

He looked back at Lexi, It was only then he noticed the blood seeping onto the wet floor and jumped back to his feet, overwhelmed, "Fuck! We need first aid supplies! or uh, ambulance! Lexi?? Are you okay?"

She must have fallen much harder than he had realized and her hair was soaked through, a head wound? Raymond looked at Rin, Cairn and Morissa, needing guidance. Was it even a good idea to move her since she fell on her back? Raymond sank his hands into his hair as the stress closed in on him.


Rithas Rithas Ehb Ehb Karyra Karyra Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon Clairikins Clairikins Emiya Shin Emiya Shin
 
Academy Six- Bloody Hallway

~~~~~

The sight of a fight isn't foreign to Morrisa in the slightest, even though she's usually the one causing or finishing them rather than standing on the sidelines and simply watching it happen. The slap is just a slap; Morrisa's done worse to people in the name of making a point and others have done worse to her for simply speaking her mind, but the two falling to the floor catches her attention. A full-on fight on the ground between the two, with a trail of blood soaking into the freshly-washed floor.

Morrisa's hands tremble on the bucket. She wants to dump it on them- no, that's not quite accurate: she wants to SCREAM. Everyone here is supposed to be FRIENDS. They're supposed to be a TEAM. They're supposed to work TOGETHER. And now they're fighting over guilt and money and now there's blood and people on the floor.


Morrisa sets down the bucket of dirty water, walking around it to grab a cleaning rag and dip it in the bucket of clean water she had most recently brought in, taking it to start cleaning the blood right from the source. The water is still cool, and the soap probably isn't the best for an open wound, but keeping the blood inside always worked out for her.
"We don't need a leader." she claims, taking one of the girl's shaking hands to press against the cloth, already staining red.
Morrisa gets to her feet, turning to Miruno. "If we need a leader, then /I/ will take the role." With her new morality chip installed, she's the best one suited for the job, obviously. "We Will finish cleaning this hallway, including the blood, and then we will study. It doesn't matter whose /fault/ anything is. It never mattered." She's had a lot of time to think of things like guilt and conscience ever since this bloody chip got shoved into her brain. She doesn't even have the luxury of being able to fight against people who wrong her. "We are in this together and we will get out of it together. They want us to fail, and the best revenge will be to prove them wrong."

Her chip didn't shock her during her little speech, a sign that everything she said had to be authentic and correct. Everyone just needs to work together and stop fighting before she gets punished for it AGAIN.


Morrisa picks up her bucket of dirty water, turning her back on the group and shrugging. "Or we can all get in a big ol' slugfest and get to see the inside of a prison together. If ya get ta live that long." She doesn't walk off right away, waiting for someone, anyone, to argue against her or to try to fight her so she might have an excuse to fight back. This bucket of dirty water doesn't /count/ as a weapon, and soaking someone with dirty water certainly wouldn't /hurt/ them, so it would be fine to do, right?
 
Rin Tanaka
Academy Six - Scrappy Hallway
​



Was Rin's words just a focus point on which to intensify Miruno's anger? That what it felt like as the girl stomped on the floor and shouted herself out of breath. It came to Rin that Miruno could not for a second perceive her as genuine. Was every compliment an insult? A piece of advice meaningless pity? She wanted to get what Miruno was trying was say. She was pretty sure she knew. But all of this was scurrying her thoughts. But there was that claim again. That it was her that lead them to that bar. That she was the one who dragged them to the bar for 'Find Mr.Yano'.

In the end, did Miruno really want an apology? Or just someone to vent her anger on? If she did apologize, would that cure Miruno of all her ill wills. Or would she just find another thing that was unsuitable. To groan about and hold over their heads? Would she decide to stay after her speach if Rin just got on her knees? Is that what she wanted. Looks of regret for a girl who had declared distinction from the rest of them? Rin truly did wanted to dissect the claims Miruno was making. To hone down and reflect on what she had done wrong and what deserved to have an apology. Because an apology should always come from the heart? Right? But she would not just make reparations on the word of someone who was clearly demanding for her own vindication for her words and actions. This deserved a more delicate conversation. A conversation that the two could plainly not reach at this moment.

But she wasn't listening. It was she who was missing the point! And not to mention the obvious thing. She had told Miruno time and time again. It wasn't her who-

*SLAP*

Rin gasped, hands quickly clasping in front of her mouth as what had happened was processed. Lexi had just slapped Miruno! As the girl spoke it was clear what her reasonings were. Surely there was a better way to emphasise your point that didn't include slapping your opponent. That was...uncivilized and did little to help calm Miruno down. Lexi's comments were on Rin's 'side'. To her defence. As if there was anything that she needed to be defended about.

It looked Miruno's words had laid an impact on the others for sure. Just not the one that she would have wanted. Because what Lexi had said was true, Miruno had faltered in her own words to think about the exact economics of the situation she was portraying. Sure, she could avoid the debt. And sure, maybe she could find some other pathway for herself. Grand. But the crux of the issue they found themselves in was that for most of them there was no alternate situation available. Academy Six was one of the worst performing schools in the city. It was also the only school that would take any of them as pupils. Everything else they were too low an income or too low a class to even get to knock on the door. 'Easily attained elsewhere?' was anything but the truth. There was a will to drag through this current misery because there was an overwhelming notion that leaving the last chance saloon would only lead to the crumbling of life prospects.

The words from a girl who audibly declared that she could stand outside a burning building and watch while everyone else was stuck inside, having no choice but to try and put the fire out.

She was put off by what Lexi had done. But the spark of this conflict was an miss understanding of where they found themselves in. It wasn't that they were now in a hole. Rather that the deep pit they were born in had gotten slightly muddier on the climb up.

But then Rin saw the face that Miruno pulled.

"Okay...wait..."

So what proceeded next was a little disastourous. The slap had setup an scenario that was now as physically tense as it was through words. Rin could see in live time as Miruno's face went from startled to a sort of frightened fury. Miruno had little interest in sorting this out verbally --- So when she tackled Lexi to the floor with all her might. Rin could only whisper a gentle "no..." as the chaos unfurled infront of her.

"Woo!" yelled Matthew as he clapped his hands. "Scrap-Scrap-Scrap!"

A crossing of the legs. A tilt back, the usual element of friction nowhere to be seen. There was the crack of a head. The hint of blood reddening the wet floor that they stood on. Kicks and punching, grabbing for a hold on anything. Like they were fighting to survive. Over what, exactly? The fumbling of limbs only threatening to get worse. Rin wanted to move. Stop this madness. But her limbs feel disengaged from her, they were somewhere else now. In a world not preoccupied by two of her partners actively trying to kill beat up each other. She knew this was wrong. Move. She could only watch. I want to move. The girl let more blood seep out. Let me move! Are you listening!? I want to

Raymond had the presence to finally pull Miruno up to break up the fight. He yelled something over to her, she didn't quite catch it. But she could see how he was quick to ease the tensions and let things simmer down. Good that someone could do that...if it couldn't be her. Had he picked some sort of secret of the personable trade while slave bartending? Questions for later.

Morrisa stood there claiming her opinion. Say one thing about the girl. She was calm (well, as calm as she ever was) in these situations. Rin tried not to think exactly why she would be. Morrisa ended it with a little declaration of taking the mantle of leader (That didn't and would never exist.) Rin barely even reacted to the weird comment about everyone getting into a fight and going to prison.

To the dark haired girl, this level of 'risky' language had been fine with the chip before. She didn't see how talking about getting into a fight and living could get her-
Morissa felt the familiar sound of a beep.
Uh Oh.
Clairikins Clairikins

WARNING: THREAT OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS INJURED CITIZEN.

VERITAS PROGRRAMME ACTIVATING.​
It wasn't a large jolt this time, mind you. Just a small zap like static electricity from touching something. But it was enough for her grip on the bucket to loosen. She had the reaction time to tilt it away from the rest of the group. So the murky water just spilt down the other side of the hallway. Ruining a lot of the progress they had made.
Whoops.

The bonk of the bucket was enough for Rin to snap back into the living reality. She set her eyes on the two participators of the fight.

"You...you both....you...idiots!"

As Lexi was already given something to hold her head with. Rin walked over to Raymond and Miruno. She frowned at the boy, "Unless you have a few thousand credits to cough up for private. An ambulance called at this time of the night won't arrive till tommorrow. Lexi's gonna be fine, if bloodied. It's a cut on the right side of her head." How did she already know that? "We'll have to check for concussion, who knows. But nothing immediately dangerous. Now." She gave a gentle shove to Raymond. "Go and be useful over there."

Which left Miruno, who was quickly coming off a fighter's high. Alone with the person she had been arguing with mere moments before the fight. The taller girl bored a stare at her. Rin poked her counterpart hard in the chest. "This isn't a game! You can't just charge someone into the ground like that! And don't you give me a 'she started it' line. Escalation is never the solution! What if you had seriously hurt Lexi in that fall. What if you had gotten hurt?" She poked her in the chest again. "What if something had gone wrong!? It only takes a second! Do you want that on your conscience? Do you want that guilt!?" Pink eyes staring through her, Miruno could hear the slight wavering in Rin's voice. The clear choking back of whatever emotion was weighing on her now.

She grabbed Miruno's hand. The adrenaline from her tackle still running through the student. Her obvious instinct was to pull away. But Rin's grip was iron-tight as she raised up Miruno's hand to the girl's face. It was wet, that she had known. Miruno assumed it was just the mixture of water and cleaning liquid getting onto her when she fell. But as Rin held it up to her she could see what had slicked her hand.

It was blood.

Sure, it was mixed with the water. But it was the unmistakeable red hue of blood. Lexi's, obviously. From the wound she herself had given to the girl. She dared to look at her other hand still free from Rin's grasp. It too painted in the blood of a study mate.

What had started which. Who had stared what. Where fault lie. Whatever. The little dark clarity of thought was forming clearing for Miruno. A little more force on that pull down, maybe a slight different landing place, or just a shifting of position before hitting the ground and she could have accidentally done something much much worse than what she did.

Could she have killed someone?

Rin suddenly leaned in, expunging Miruno of her thoughts as she pushed Miruno' hands back into the girl's chest with her own. They were close enough that she could see the slight unnatural distinctions that detailed the irises of the taller classmate. She spoke quietly.

"Do you want this apology? Well here you go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I made you feel whatever your feeling. That what I did has made you feel like crap. Or that some great injustice has been done. I'll say it again. I'll say it a million times if it'll make you feel better. It'll be worth it. Call me the 'girl next door' or too cheery or not feeling grim enough about our circumstances. That I'm virtue-signalling or using this for my benefit. Whatever. I don't care how many times you insult what I think. Claim I'm faking it. That it's an all an act. If I'm an idiot for wanting make sure our teacher was safe after getting threatening messages, then heck, maybe I am. But I don't regret it. Don't delude yourself into thinking the police would ever bother to even look, get real with that line of thought. I didn't ask anyone to follow me. You practically lead the charge so you could see your friend. And you know what? I'm glad we found him quickly. Beaten but alive, mind you. Because I had an feeling some awful had happened. And hell, I think something did and we just don't have everything to piece it together. Not that it matters, as long as he lives. Because nobody is just 'okay' in this city. Do you think I'm just ignoring what happened to everyone there. Do you think I didn't cry my eyes out when I got home because some augmented maniac attacked my friends while I was busy being clueless on top of a stage? That now it feels like everyone's on even more of an edge in a city you can never be in peace with? That it hasn't crossed my mind that if I went by myself, which I would have done. I would probably be dead or worse?"

There was the slightest of pauses, as Rin sniffled. "Still. I. Don't. Regret. Finding out if Yano was okay. An overreach for a teacher? For anyone at all? That's up for you. But if I can make the slightest of differences then I'll do it. I just want people to be safe. To be happy. To graduate. I just want to be able to be a normal high-school girl with friends and good grades in this fucking run down nightmare shithole of a city we live in."

She stepped back, wiping someone from her eye. "There's a bathroom closet-" How many darn closets were in this one hallway!? "You can...clean yourself there if you wish."

*Beep*

*RattleRattle*

"I must admit. I for one, benefited quite a lot from this." Matthew said, making a picture frame with his hands. The gang wondered what he meant by that. "Violence, again? Oh dear, I fear you guys are forming a rather troubling pattern" He was now eating something, presumably from the vending machine he was next to. "Apple flavoured granola bar. For those wondering. Very tasty."

Deciding to ignore that for the moment, Rin decided to go to the second fighter. "And you!" She turned on her heel to the girl still on the floor. "Who slaps people! Honestly! You were making good points! Solid debating! But whatever point you can make kinda loses it's validity after you love-tap their cheek. What if Miruno was secretly a professional rugby player? It would hurt even more now! " Her eyes drifted to the cloth that Lexi was currently using to stem the bleeding. "Oh..."

Rin let out a long sigh as she held her fingers to her temple. "Please don't tell me you gave her a cloth from the mop pile, Morrisa." She stared at the self proclaimed leader for a moment, before wordlessly pointing to a nearby closet. "There's a first aid kit in there, someone please go grab it and clean out the cut for Lexi. Her cut will be a lot worse if we let mop juice be the cleaning agent. If no one has the expertise, I can do it."

"And an extra mop for the blood I guess...."

Ehb Ehb Clairikins Clairikins Teallionn Teallionn Karyra Karyra Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon LowD LowD Skyswimsky Skyswimsky Tau Tau Emiya Shin Emiya Shin
TROPHIES AWARDED!​

Lexi Noel: awarded with the Turn One's Cheek Trophy - "Should have screamed 'Get a hold of yourself!"" - Slap Someone! - School Life Collection Karyra Karyra
Miruno Asagahawa: awarded with the Personal Questions Trophy - "They have thoughts and feelings now!" - Start a fight with a Player Character! - Meta Collection Ehb Ehb
Morrisa Crepuscule: awarded with the Coup, Is that? Trophy - "Captain or not. People are looking at you." - Claim Leadership of the Study Group! - School Life Collection Clairikins Clairikins
 
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shiho-banner.jpg

Shiho Nakamura
Academy Six - Hallway


When the tense conversation between Miruno and Rin happened, Shiho listened quietly while continuing her assigned cleaning work. She wanted to finish this as soon as possible, so that at the very least, she can go home quickly. The blond-haired female student did not even want to formulate a response to Cairn's subsequent reply. After all, it is her choice to stay with the Study Group, and accepted the punishment together with the others.

Besides, there was this infamous proverb that some people here tend to forget: the nail that sticks out, gets hammered down. Shiho did not want to argue her case, lest she got hammered down in the process.

But of course, high school students being high school students. They are also teenagers, which means rebelling is part of their personality.

Just like the ongoing heated discussion which immediately escalated into a bloody fight.

Raymond was the first one to step in, and tried to de-escalate the situation. Shiho on the other hand, did not even bat an eyelid to the fight between Lexi and Miruno. Perhaps she was too numb against violence, considering that the City with No Name is practically full of it in the news. Or, maybe she did not want to clean their mess that had resulted from their heated emotions. Had they remembered Communication 101, this will not happen in the first place. Shiho was disappointed with Rin as well, since that airhead student also failed the Communication 101 course.

Had Rin apologized that she was indeed jumped the gun on Mr. Yano, the fight would not happen in the first place. Miruno was right all along. It was just that she sucked in articulating her words in a more pleasant way, to put it bluntly. Now, she finally got the worst result of what was to be flippant towards the others most of the time.

She continued on with her mopping work, with Morissa in the background so-called taking the leadership. Unfortunately, Shiho visibly cringed at the sight of the delinquent using a cleaning rag to stop Lexi's bleeding from her head. She was going to help out begrudgingly with the situation, until Rin finally came through. Instead of silently tending to their predicaments, she just had to say that bloody sentence.

Shiho facepalmed hard at Rin, as she called them idiots. Yes, they were idiots for acting out based on their emotions. At this point, the blond haired girl finally stopped her work, placing her mop on the mobile wringing station located beside her. Once that was done, she managed to notice that Rin for some reason, whispering to Miruno. And of course, Rin would not leave Lexi alone either, as she gave some scolding of her own.

Rin was really, really burying her head into the sand, was she not? Heck, Matthew was enjoying the goddamn chaos with a snack. That was literally applying salt to wound, right now.

The blond-haired student went straight to the closet where the first aid kit was located. Thankfully, the closet was not locked, or Rin will have one hell of a trouble. It felt like Academy Six had anticipated that fights will be common in this very hallway, considering that the closet did have a box of first aid kit. She gently took out the kit, holding it with two hands carefully like a butler serving a plate of luxurious food. Shiho then walked towards the group with an empty expression.

It seemed that she would say something to the group. Instead, Shiho turned her gaze to Matthew. Her blue eyes, with the help of her ShiftTacts implant, immediately turned her irises into crimson red color.

"Are you trying to signal us something, Matthew? Are you saying that you want to snitch us out? Or, perhaps, were you the one who made the doctored footage that Ms. Kaeilah had watched earlier today?"

She said all that in an unusually composed tone. "If I were you, I would have kept my mouth shut. We can easily overpower you through sheer numbers, you know?"

Shiho added with an eerie smile, before she turned her focus back to the members of the Study Group. The color of her iris soon reverted back to her usual blue.

"Tanaka. You should have apologized earlier on. Asagahawa was right after all. It was just that she did poorly in articulating her thoughts out, and her typical flippant personality further exacerbated the situation." She maintained her previous chilly, emotionless voice from before.

"We should just go to the principal's room, or went to the other classes to seek help. We wouldn't even need to get involved in an actual incident. It was just that us being teenagers think that it was fun being heroes, and heroines searching for him by ourselves. Yelling the pair who fought each other just now being idiots wasn't going to help in this case. All this happened because of us being idiots in the first place, you included."

She took a deep breath, and changed the topic. Shiho then asked the Study Group for help.

"Anyway, help me move Noel to a drier place. If possible, I want to do this properly. Infection is not a joke."


Interactions: Rithas Rithas Karyra Karyra (Lexi) @_anyone_that_wants_to_help

 
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Cairn Orias
Academy Six ~ Washed Up Hallway
​
Cairn was shocked by two things. The first was Rin's hand landing on his shoulder. He jolted, despite it barely counting as an impact, sighing as Rin conveyed her plan. He didn't like that plan. It was unfair. She was the study group's leader, not its babysitter. The second was how little of an effect his words seemed to have on Miruno. She continued to argue unrelentingly against Rin, but why? Why... Rin?

Everything that followed happened so quickly. Matthew's confident quip made him imagine deals from the devil popping up in his C.I.C.I. The phrase 'automatic expulsion clause' suddenly reminded him of an old MMORPG. Lexi's slap... it took him a bit to process that it had actually happened. But Miruno's expression affirmed it. The way her eyebrows tensely furrowed and the slight tremble of her hand against her cheek burned itself into his memory. He watched as they both fell to the floor. Cairn watched. The blood that seeped out from Lexi's head startled him, making him shudder and feel a twinge of pain in his own. He gazed deeply at it as it swirled and mixed with the newly applied water on the floor.

He continued to watch as the others stepped in to separate them.

"Hey, Rin, maybe heading off to track down Mr. Yano was kinda hasty, y'know!?"

That... didn't seem right. Wasn't time of the essence when it came to missing people? How could he say that after seeing his office? The file? Oh, well... hee didn't see the office. The file, maybe Raymond hadn't read it yet. He did only reconvene with the group a few days ago. But Miruno, who was at least aware of one and had seen the other also insisted that. Was it just an emotional exaggeration? Looking back on things, it did seem like Rin and Miruno didn't really get along.

"Tanaka. You should have apologized earlier on. Asagahawa was right after all."

His body moved on its own as he continued to mull things over. Rin was starting to be singled out as culpable. That was...weird. She hadn't strongarmed everyone into coming. Even if she did, it wasn't as if she had orchestrated the events of that night. ...What did Rin do that night? Had she even been caught on camera? The main reason they were here, it was because of the damage that had been caused. The cause of the damage was... someone who had been mentioned indirectly multiple times. That rotten apple. That tenant in the apartment block, the neighbour next door. He crouched down beside Lexi, looming over her. The person responsible was... was...

...Was it? The most that he had to go off of was the video. The video that he knew had to have been fabricated. But it was impossible to make something from nothing. Her leaping onto one of the twins couldn't be faked. Weren't the best lies laced with truth?

He slid his hands underneath Lexi's left side. This entire time, she had been silent. Watching from the sidelines. She was there beside the booth. She was there with Rin. She was there at the center of it all. Didn't she feel the need to say something? ...Actually, it wasn't just her. There was someone else in that video. Fighting the other twin, like the other side of the same coin. Didn't the group deserve to know as much as possible about what happened that night? The only two people who could clear this up were

"Mia and Airani," Cairn said in a low tone, staring at them. "Can you help sort this out?"

Skyswimsky Skyswimsky LowD LowD
 
Matthew Moore
Hallway of Fun​
​
Matthew put his hands up at Shiho's comment. Sure. There was a few other things going on at the moment in this hallway. But for a moment Matthew's attention was purely on the girl giving him a vague threat.

"Oh, spooky. Bite me, Shiho. Numbers? So what? That playfight was the saddest thing I've seen since, well. A certain bar night. Most of you don't have an sharp edge in your body. And those who do are too hamstrung by playing along with society to do anything." He made another picture frame to his eye. "Also, colour theory? Really? Do your eyes turn pink when you're horny?"

Matthew was fine to ignore everything else to see if Shiho would bite back. But he couldn't help but notice his bestest friend ask a question.

"Wow Cairn you're really on fire. Yes, how come no one has mentioned about those two layabouts. Or the creepy Ai, really. The blame game has missed it's greatest figures! Silence forever is not a choice to be made!"

The boy took out another kitkat in his pocket. Had he bought two kitkats? This one was a raspberry flavour. That sick bastard.

Emiya Shin Emiya Shin Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon Tau Tau LowD LowD Skyswimsky Skyswimsky
Anyway, while Matthew was eating another kitkat looking back at them. The other interactions in this hallway were still happening.....

@ Everyone

​
 
Mia Schneider
Hallway 1
Mia had been silent. Very silent indeed. There were just so many things that were simply a hassle that she... kind of stopped caring? At the very least until Miruno started acting out. Already on bad terms with her before, the more the girl kept making a scene, the more she herself felt the urge to do what Lexi ultimately Lexi decided to take into her own hands. Which had been the exact moment Mia took a step back, mentally, once more.

In fact, witnessing all this drama unfold made her appreciate she hadn't been part of it. And, besides, were there always this many members in the study group?! Here and there, Mia simply sighed, doing the menial labor that was given to them without much complaint. She had missed her chance to say anything anyway. Her experience in comparison to the video, or how Rin wanted to just be a normal high-school girl but went apparently out of her way to help people for her selfish reasons. Normal people did not do that.

At least nobody seemed to bother her directly anymore for now. With that nasty video and all, until the cockroach also appeared on the scene. Matthew or somesuch, who promptly repeated what Cairn ( Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon ) had just asked her. ...?! Oh...

"Shut up you stupid cockroach, you can pull your crap somewhere else. Nobody is in the mood to entertain your pathetic demand for drama and gossip." She glared at Matthew ( Rithas Rithas ) for a second, shaking her head slightly before whispering. "What's the point of doing anything about that now? It's already too late." Clearly referring to the video, before finally facing Cairn.

"What is there to sort out?" Sorry to say, she hadn't paid too much attention? "Nobody is going to care about the truth. I went up on there to get attention so they'd let us speak with the VIPs..." She still wasn't aware of what exactly even compelled her to go to the club anyway. "... and everybody - obviously - loved the beat." Better not mention she had the opposite effect in mind. "And then the twins came along and-" Whatshisname? "-Marion's brother was very, very, angry at me. Until Ai punched him, likely assuming he was about to get physical, and one thing led to another, and before Marion was about to use her Heart Stopper Program on Ai, so I jumped in too." She paused. "There was also a super weird girl that... never mind." Hopefully, they wouldn't meet her again. "So that's that. Or do you want a more detailed recount of that tale?"

She wondered, how would he reply? So far Mia hadn't said anything about blame other than barking at Matthew.

Rithas Rithas Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon
 
Lexi Noel
Rumble Six Academy Hallway
Skyswimsky Skyswimsky Rithas Rithas Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon
​
Lexi felt the weight of Miruno being pulled off of her and she started to come back to herself. Breathing hard, she started to realize her overreaction. Then everyone was staring at her. What was...? Then Morissa mentioned blood. She must've hit her head when she landed. It didn't feel too bad, mostly just warm.

As she heard the bucket drop, Lexi was more focused on what on earth could have caused Rin of all people to do so. The blood was stemmed via a rag from the floor. Better that then nothing.

The lecture from Rin wizzed by, as Lexi knew nothing was going to get through Miruno's head until she was shocked awake, as it were. She didn't really want to be fussed over, not when there was work to be done.

"I doubt I'm concussed, I think it was more a stray bit of dirt than the fall. These things happen." Lexi said, cavalier about the whole thing. Lexi stood and was immediately told to go somewhere else. Ugh.

She'd felt worse getting a papercut, honestly. Then again when one's eye has been forcibly removed from one's head... pain scales tended to slide around quite a bit.

"I'm fine." Lexi pushed off of Cairn, "thanks for the lean, but I don't need it."

Looking next to Shiho, she said, "so, you wanted to pretend everything was perfectly functional as a system here and report it to the authorities. I feel like I should ask you about the city's name, to make it obvious why they intervened."

The point being to leave Lexi out of the choice, of course. Lexi was there for a different reason. A ripdoc never installs and tells, of course. Then Lexi tilted her head at the end of Mia's recounting of the story.

"What weird girl? I don't remember a weird girl."
 
Airani D.M.S.
Academy Six | Hallway
Direct Interactions : Rithas Rithas Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon
​

After the whole fiasco at the bar. Aira had been silent, thinking up on what actually happened at the bar. It honestly felt like a blur to her, just who was it that she talked to earlier at the bar? She felt that she knew that person well at the time but now she couldn't recall any of their features at all, much less the times she spent with that person. Among other things, she was basically cleaning the walls of some vandal drawings, not hers obviously. She wouldn't erase her art after all.

She basically spaced out for quite a while, didn't take any notice on the conflict that was happening earlier as she cleaned the walls. That was until she was called out by Cairn. "Eh?" Aira turned around, she looked like as if she was just taken back to the land of the living. A bit bewildered, but there is this mystery that well... Partly because everyone behaved poorly, Aira included. But why does the brunt of the punishments lie on them... And that their punishment at worst would be expulsion or even criminally charged?

Mia opened up with her side of the story. Adding that it's already too late to resolve that. But then again... Everyone haven't heard the part on their end. Nodding along as she heard from Mia's perspective, and when Mia was done with it. Aira raised her hand. "Well, if you're curious then I suppose I can give you my POV of the whole thing." Aira firmly stated, she felt at least ready about to tell what happened from her perspective.

"Me, Miruno, Rin, and Mia was together prior to that whole thing. There's someone else but I can't remember who they are, but I believe we talked about how to get to the lead being that they're in the VIP Section." Aira stated first, she remembered clearly there were 4 of them. "Mia had a panic attack of some sort, Rin calmed her down. Mia walked off, I assumed she'd go to the exit but I noticed she didn't go to where the exit was. And then Miruno and Rin bickered a whole lot. While I stood by just talking to this one fellow I can't seem to remember at all... But I do remember they said something about doing something wild to get access to the VIP section." She can at least remember she was talking to someone, but who was it was a blur. "And then the music happened, folks loved it in exception to Ansel. He was shouting something like threatening violence to Mia. So yes, I can confirm that I sprayed his face because he threatened to get physical to Mia." She paused for a bit. "And Mia then jumped on Marion, and while that was going... Rin stupidly announced loudly for everyone to gather. Like really? Why would you do that?" Aira turned her glance to Rin for a moment at the last sentence, sharp dagger stare as she felt that it was unnecessary at all. "Anyway, Mia ceased with Marion shortly after. And clearly, with adrenaline pumping and everything there's no stopping me and Ansel to settle this. And so I beat Ansel. Seeing Ansel lose, Marion called for this Spyder guy?" She recounted a bit. "Rin jumped on me the moment Spyder arrive to our scene... We collided and get caught in a tangle. And then... I believe there was a scream, couldn't tell who it's from and then that Spyder guy left, and things cooled down from there." Aira finished her recount.

"That's that I guess? Anything you can gather from that Cairn?" She gazed to Cairn, curious if he can solve with her added perspective on the whole fiasco.
 
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Miruno Asagahawa
Academy Six - Hallway



Karyra Karyra
Lexi had clapped their hands into her ears which... well honestly her hair took the brunt of the force, softening up a strike that otherwise should have put her into a daze, she felt a little bit of Lexi's bone contacting her cheekbone, mildly delivering most of the force that didn't dissipate into Miruno's hair. The purple haired girl also was kicking, or rather trying to knee Miruno off as well, but with both of them laying on top of each other, Miruno was more riding her kneecaps rather than anything else. It didn't make it any less uncomfortable, though.

Miruno was still solely focused on this entanglement with Lexi. Miruno being over Lexi as opposed to being the one trapped beneath her did give her an advantage.

She calculated that the best course of action was to try to push herself up. Since the floor was slippery already the best point to get a grip was to either push off Lexi's chest, or better yet Lexi's neck and/or lower jaw. Pushing into Lexi's neck with the added force of gravity would certainly-...

That ultimately never came to be.
Raymond stepped in, and she was yanked off of Lexi on the floor. Seeing herself being pulled away from Lexi, it became apparent that the fight was over. Her adrenaline cut itself off.

Teallionn Teallionn
She felt her senses tune out. When she came back to, she found that Raymond had set her down up against the wall.
"Hey..Miruno..are you okay...? we'll cover for you if you need to go home and recover..I'll go with you if you need help?"

Her had managed to act quickly to stop the fight before it became protracted enough to cause any real damage. Miruno wasn't feeling too hurt. The sting of a slap and jab from being clapped by Lexi on the ground was dulling itself away, slowly but certainly. If anything, it felt like the most major 'injury' was from her torso colliding into Lexi's on the floor from the fall. Her opponent was unsurprisingly.... rather bony. Miruno presumed that people would see Lexi's ribcage if she wore a swimsuit out to the beach.

She was feeling cold, gross and wanted no more than to go home to clean up, but she was otherwise fine. Lexi, on the other hand was looking worse off, just based on how everyone ended up reacting to her.

"Fuck! We need first aid supplies! or uh, ambulance! Lexi?? Are you okay?"

By the sound of it, Miruno's strategy of using the slippery floor and gravity had worked.

Morissa, attempting to tend to Lexi, declared her intentions to become the leader of the study group. Maybe the most pertinent thing that Miruno heard her say was the implication that she - like Lexi, believed that someone out there was trying to orchestrate their collective downfall. But at the same, time, Morissa was still Morissa and it felt likley that her deciding the course of action on things was, to put it mildly, a questionable course of action given her history. That suspect was probably closer to them than they were even realizing. But in any case, Morissa's brave declaration and intentions to set things forward were somewhat dampened when her body convulsed from some sort of pain. The beep that happened before indicated that... she had some kind of shock device on? How was that even legal?


Rithas Rithas
Rin approached Miruno and Raymond. Even before she shooed him off, Miruno knew what to expect.

The apparently guiltless group leader poked Miruno's chest. It was at about the point where Miruno had fallen onto Lexi. She winced in pain.

"This isn't a game! You can't just charge someone into the ground like that! And don't you give me a 'she started it' line. Escalation is never the solution! What if you had seriously hurt Lexi in that fall. What if you had gotten hurt?"
"I have a-! Owch!" Poked in the chest again. "I have right to prevent myself from being slapped, you know!?"

Rin kept on poking Miruno in that same spot. It was a little tender from the fall, and Rin continuing to pursue her nagging-mom like gestures despite Miruno's expressions of pain was not making any of her words of any worth in Miruno's eyes. Miruno was being stared down on. Poked - stabbed even by Rin's index finger. Whatever attempt this was to 'change Miruno's heart' was sullied into nothing more than snide ways at getting physical retribution each time she chose to stab at with her finger.

"What if something had gone wrong!? It only takes a second! Do you want that on your conscience? Do you want that guilt!?"
"You're saying I'm obligated to wait on the 'goodwill' of someone already slapping me - attacking me, to just stop before I try to protect myself from being attacked by them?!"

Rin then took a hold of Miruno's soaked hand. Wanting the girl to see what she had done. The water, the cleaning solution, and the trickle of blood - Lexi's blood. What was this about? Of course there was blood. Miruno had endeavored at the moment she decided to counterattack that her her own life and well being was more valuable to her than that of some girl who had comitted and was threatening to commit more physical violence on her. Miruno wasn't like the boys that Rin had surrounding her when the search for Yano began. A guy could tank more hits, which was one IRL plus of being male. But a battle-ready male, Miruno was not.

Moments ago, Miruno had decided that she would stop Lexi from hurting her. There was a scuffle, but ultimately that objective of stopping Lexi was achieved. Lexi did not force Miruno into silence be slapping her into submission. Drawing blood on Lexi just showed that her plan, while not a total victory, worked. A girl who spent her days clacking away on a keyboard and mouse and occasionally bob around wearing a virtual avatar was able to use the environment to her advantage. She wasn't proud of hurting somoene, but she was proud that she was able to think up such a maneuver in such a quick manner.

In any case, the biggest worry Miruno had in seeing Lexi's blood on her hand was whether the blood's owner was carrying anything like HIV or Herpes or any other virus or disease she may have picked up from playing with people's body parts. That would be really inconvenient.

Unsurprisingly, Miruno Asagahawa was not moved.
Rin pushed Miruno's hands into her chest. Leaving her apparently pinned to the wall a bit. The thought of headbutting Rin to free herself came to Miruno's mind. But that thought of Rin was attempting to attack her was soon dispelled.

"Do you want this apology? Well here you go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I made you feel whatever your feeling. That what I did has made you feel like crap. Or that some great injustice has been done. I'll say it again. I'll say it a million times if it'll make you feel better. It'll be worth it. Call me the 'girl next door' or too cheery or not feeling grim enough about our circumstances. That I'm virtue-signalling or using this for my benefit. Whatever. I don't care how many times you insult what I think. Claim I'm faking it. That it's an all an act. If I'm an idiot for wanting make sure our teacher was safe after getting threatening messages, then heck, maybe I am. But I don't regret it. Don't delude yourself into thinking the police would ever bother to even look, get real with that line of thought. I didn't ask anyone to follow me. You practically lead the charge so you could see your friend. And you know what? I'm glad we found him quickly. Beaten but alive, mind you. Because I had an feeling some awful had happened. And hell, I think something did and we just don't have everything to piece it together. Not that it matters, as long as he lives. Because nobody is just 'okay' in this city. Do you think I'm just ignoring what happened to everyone there. Do you think I didn't cry my eyes out when I got home because some augmented maniac attacked my friends while I was busy being clueless on top of a stage? That now it feels like everyone's on even more of an edge in a city you can never be in peace with? That it hasn't crossed my mind that if I went by myself, which I would have done. I would probably be dead or worse?"

A teary eyed Rin made a sniffle. She apologized. She made it really clear that she really felt like she had no reason to apologize. But she apologized nonetheless. Miruno found it appropriate to respond to that gesture by not saying anything inflammatory any further. Miruno got what she asked for finally, even if it was as facetious as Rin Tanaka could make it.

"Still. I. Don't. Regret. Finding out if Yano was okay. An overreach for a teacher? For anyone at all? That's up for you. But if I can make the slightest of differences then I'll do it. I just want people to be safe. To be happy. To graduate. I just want to be able to be a normal high-school girl with friends and good grades in this fucking run down nightmare shithole of a city we live in."

Rin stepped back. Immediately, Miruno flailed her hands out of Rin's grip. Finally.

"There's a bathroom closet-"
"You can...clean yourself there if you wish."

Miruno was finally left on her own as Rin went over to scold Morissa for using contaminated equipment to help out the injured Lexi. Matthew was stating his amusement.

Shiho whom had been watching all of this unfold, voiced her opinion that seeking out Yano right away on those dicey clues was not a good plan. Miruno felt like Shiho was afraid to sound like she was trying to explicitly take a side between Miruno and Rin, but her words about it all were clear. It, gave Miruno some relief that she wasn't necessarily the only one who had thought about how easily all of this could have been avoided.

Miruno also appreciated that Raymond too, tried not to take sides, and sounded genuinely worried for both her and Lexi. He didn't just completely shut down on Miruno's discontent either at how things turned out either. He wasn't exactly like Rin in his optimism like she'd first thought. Her opinion of him improved a little.


The exchanges between the students continued.
The other members of the group were spitting acid at Matthew's remarks, understandably so.
Cairn brought up a point of interest. He wanted to hear what Mia and Airani had to say - presumably in regards to what had happened that night. Those two were involved with the scuffle that occurred up on the stage. Miruno remembered Airani spraying someone, then herself sneaking through the crowd in order to find the boys to try to get them to... well do something about it before it escalated. But then, the boys at the bar got into a fight to and... everything went out of control after that. Maybe even before Miruno even said a word to the group at the bar even - things were already set in motion to go out of control with no way to stop it.

Helpless. Looking back on the situation it just looked so helpless. There wasn't anything she or even all of them together could really do.

Skyswimsky Skyswimsky
Mia recounted her version of what had happened. Yes, the group with Rin was tasked to try to find the person of interest related to Yano, and those people were apparently up in the VIP area. An area that one could only get invited to. It was suggested that if Rin and co wanted to get to those people, they would either have to pull some strings to get up there, or do something to get them to descend from the VIP area down to their level so they could talk.

Ultimately that 'something' ended up being Mia sneaking - or rather barging - up onto the stage and taking control of the music herself. The owners, attempting to get rid of this intruder, ended up turning into a fight when Airani chose to get involved, spraying one of them with her can of paint. Interestingly Mia mentioned the scary sounding 'heart stopper' program that was set on Airani, as well as a mysterious girl that she ultimately skimmed over. Wait a second, Miruno saw a mysterious girl too...? Lexi seemed to find that detail curious as well.

Miruno fidgeted, but returning to normal, she wondered if anyone would even want to hear what she had to say at this point.


LowD LowD
Airani then gave her version of events. It was a little bit more detailed - she seemed to have a bit more intimate memory of the exact flow of the fight. If anything, Miruno was able to connect the fact that Spyder had been called off of his beat-down of the group at the bar by his employer. So, in a way, it could be said that Airani beating up that one boy was what ultimately got the bouncer away from absolutely dominating the group at the bar.



@_Everyone in General
Miruno had things she wanted to say too. It was evidenced in the troubled expression she wore that only grew more troubled as the two others recounted their stories.

But, after all that had happened, and at least - since it seemed like eyes were on Cairn. Miruno herself remained quiet. But, even though she had been involved with the scuffle, even though she had been bickering with Rin through this whole time, it looked like she had realized something. Stopping her from even going to obvious immediate things like trying to dry herself off. That 'something' was more troubling to her than anything that had happened here in this hallway, thus far.

Had Cairn, or anyone else for that matter, noticed it too?
 
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Cairn Orias
Academy Six ~ Washed Up Hallway
​
Cairn listened to Lexi and immediately pulled his hands to his chest. "Oh. Okay." He felt it wasn't the safest idea to be moving about after that kind of fall, but he didn't insist anything - nothing implied she was putting on a front.

While the others in the group bit back in reaction to Matthew's comments, Cairn stayed silent, as he always had. At first, the only difference between him and some of the others was that he didn't say what he was thinking, but he had started to contemplate them more as opposed to immediately dismissing them. Being called 'on fire' rubbed him the wrong way. His motive wasn't to pin the blame on someone else; more so to try and take it off of Rin. Admittedly, 'blame game' was a short and simple way to put it. He glanced around at his surroundings and mentally backpedalled, wondering if continuing the discussion was fruitful. Did anyone else besides him feel that Rin wasn't really guilty? At least, enough to argue about it? Did Rin herself even care about that at this point?

...No, if he wanted to pursue it, then that was all that mattered.

When he had posed his question towards Mia and Airani, he expected a more agitated, offended response from the two. Instead, they both seemed dazed, as calling their names had just snapped them back to reality. For a moment, Cairn thought it was a bit odd, but even he had blanked out somewhat during the scuffle. The willing and receptive response he did get was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Mia's response confirmed some of his early suspicions regarding the attitude surrounding the situation. About halfway through her recount, he suddenly started patting his back pant pockets, soon pulling a folded wad of paper out and a pen. He hurried over to the trolley Rin had brought out earlier and flattened it out. He flipped the algebraic integer notes package and quickly began scribbling on the backside. Cairn's head was down, clearly focused on the paper, but his body still partly faced towards Mia as she spoke.

"So that's that. Or do you want a more detailed recount of that tale?"

He looked up briefly from his writing. It was illegible. At least, to anyone besides Cairn. Someone with a squint of the eyes and a big imagination might have been able to make some of it out. And while Cairn technically could read what he had written, the scribbles being word for word what Mia had said, he was confused. The gears turned in his head. "Uhh... Mmm... Ohh, that's not 'I', but 'Ai' like 'Airani'. Okay then..." There were some things that were unclear. He did want more explanation on some of it, but he saw Airani raise her hand. "I think that's fine for now. Actually, I should have just used C.I.C.I. for this..."

Cairn wrote alongside Airani as she spoke as well - he felt it was better to have all the notes in one place in front of him - and tried not to analyze or judge any of it until she was finished. Still, he frowned upon hearing that Miruno and Rin were arguing on that night as well. By the end, the paper was full with writing vaguely split into two 'columns', if you could call it that.

"That's that I guess? Anything you can gather from that Cairn?"

Sorting it all chronologically was a bit of a headache, but he picked away at it, drawing lines between blobs of text. Slowly but surely, he was starting to finally get an idea of how things went at the other side of the bar. Hearing them admit to doing some of the things captured in the video was a bit surprising, but he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to avoid getting caught up in it. Cairn was crouched now, staring at the inky scratches in front of him, tapping the face of the trolley with the back of his pen. Something irked him. He took another look around, noticing Airani's eyes specifically set on him. But he felt like everyone, to some degree, was looking at him. Maybe thanks to his spectacle with the pen and paper. Unfortunately, he didn't strike upon some grand reveal as his preceding actions might have implied. ...Yet?

"I'm guessing this 'heart stopper program'... is exactly what it sounds like?" Cairn said aloud without looking at anyone. He shuddered, trying to imagine how it would work. What it would feel like. The memory of him opening Matthew's file forced itself into his mind. "Holy shit." Being hung upside down and drenched suddenly didn't seem all that bad. Now, what else was there? "'Spyder' was definitely the guy who we were talking..." He instinctively looked around for Ḇ̵̫̒a̷̗̾s̷̱̕͝i̶̧̹̊̕ḻ̸̎ and S̸̥̱̐͠a̷̖͉̐̈́m̵͉̍ù̶͖ê̵̱̈l̷͚̞͋. "...with at the bar. In retrospect, 'Kyle' was obviously a pseudonym." He wondered that the person who had called him and the other guys over to the bar and the person who appeared behind them soon afterwards were one and the same the whole time. His memory wasn't clear enough to be sure. But there was one last thing that didn't fit well into the timeline he had created.

"...Mia, you mentioned a 'super weird girl'. Was it... No, it couldn't have been Miruno's AI." The way Mia talked about the girl also seemed to indicate that wasn't the case. Cairn still wanted to know what the point of the AI's disguise even was, but it wasn't really topical. On the other hand, Airani didn't mention anything about this girl... or did she? He skimmed down his paper. An idea popped into his head, and he said it as soon as it materialized. He looked at Airani. "Was she the one... Was she the source of this scream you're talking about?" A frown appeared on his face. So what if she was? Did that matter? The point of his question was ultimately to find out why what had happened... happened. To get to the VIP section... It all started with the music on the stage. But they only did that because of the words of a 'fellow' who Airani couldn't remember...

Some previous words from Lexi popped into his head. Again, he blurted out the thought immediately.

"From the start... was that a set-up?"

Karyra Karyra Skyswimsky Skyswimsky LowD LowD
 
shiho-banner.jpg

Shiho Nakamura
Academy Six - Hallway


"I wouldn't be surprised if the entire thing was a major setup, Cairn."

Shiho once again bantered with the others, while opening up the first aid kit. Once that was done, she started searching for the source of bleeding on Lexi's head.

"Then again, who wanted to set us up, and made us took such a fall? We're just a bunch of low-tier students in an equally low-tier high school. Unless Academy Six has some kind of hidden politics that we don't know, that is. You know, us being victims of 'being at the wrong place, at the wrong time'."

After a minute or two, Shiho finally found the injury area.

"There it is. This will sting a bit, Ms. Noel."

She took out a patch of alcohol-free cleansing wipe to clean the wound on Lexi's head. The blonde-haired student tore open the wrapper, and subsequently took the wipe out carefully. With a patch of cleansing wipe in hand, Shiho gently dabbed on Lexi's head wound.

"As for you, Lexi. I'll reiterate what I had said before: we're just a bunch of low-tier high school students, in an equally low-tier high school. That buff guy in Flanagan's Bar that almost wrecked a quarter of us? Yeah, unless we're as strong, or augmented as he is, I suggest that we shouldn't do anything rash. Sure, the city don't have a name, but what can we do? Unless you're telling me, that we should somehow find a way to turn ourselves into a group of mercenaries with illegal cyberware?"

Despite her rather stern tone, Shiho's control on dabbing the cleansing wipes remained gentle.

"You know what, never mind about on that last sentence. Do we even have the means to track the source of that doctored footage in the first place? If we can do that, probably you can get the justice that you want so badly. But will it worth the cost?"

She did noticed Miruno being quiet all of a sudden. But for now, she decided to leave it be for the time being. Something taking one things at a time something something.


Interactions: Rithas Rithas Karyra Karyra (Lexi) Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon (Cairn)

 
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Rin Tanaka
Academy Six - Third Floor, Hallway B ​
Rin visibly took an effort to keep her composure at Shiho's comment. Miruno 'Poorly articulate her thoughts?'. She insulted everyone and then spear tackled someone! How did out of all that just happened in the last couple minutes did she decide on just further criticising Rin and basically accepting the actions that Miruno took!? What was with everyone upholding some sort of belief in the system? Did they all live in the same place?

Was she getting gaslit?
Was this what gaslighting was?

Thankfully, Cairn seemed (as always) to have a more measured approach to the goings on. Him and Lexi felt like the only people not still trying to dog on her despite the very obvious facts that were laid out. Of course, Lexi was just not dogging on her because she had some form of clarity about the city and didn't just stick their head in the sand. Rin never got around to asking why Lexi was there in the first place. But hells, maybe everyone else just had an innocent aura of privilege and she just hadn't been made aware.

Whatever, Cairn brought up something that did feel rather obvious. Which was to ask about the two perspectives of the two students who exchanged some fisti-cuffs with bar owners.

Mia spoke first, and gracefully avoided mentioning her own panic attack. But it wasn't Rin's place to ever tell anyone that. So it seemed par to course that Airani immeditally did. Rin also frowned at Airani's comment about her during the instigator's retelling of the events. "I was trying to get us all together so we could leave. Damned if I do damned if I don't apparently..." There was something else that was ticking Rin off about her story but she couldn't quite place it. Maybe it'd come back to her when people weren't razzing her on the regular.

Having heard everyone's story. Rin watched with curiosity as Cairn jotted out what he had heard and tried to form some line or theory. Doing it on paper made it look even more detective. What was he cooking?

Rin peeked over his shoulder to see his notepad shortly before he vocalised his thoughts.
Set up? Was he trying to say they had all been tricked. What part, exactly? Rin's and others first thought of a culprit was of course the student sitting opposite of them.

Matthew rolled his eyes before looking back at them. "I'll speak the truth on this. All that happened in the bar was in no part of me. As much as it was slightly funny, setting up people into lethal situations is rather poor taste for me. No worth to me dead. All I did was give you the files that were on Yano's computer with the address."

Rin clicked her fingers, remembering something. "Hang on Airani. I thought that person was your friend? You seemed pretty friendly with eachother.." The name of said person was escaping her, but then again It was awfully loud in there and it had been a busy night. But those who were with Airani at that point could attest to the friendly platitudes shared between her and that person.

And when Rin dredged through her memories about a 'weird girl' that others had mentioned. It did come to her that there was that basic looking student who she had such trouble hearing. Twirling a piece of her hair in thought. "Y-yeah, there was a...Actually seems a bit rude to call her weird without knowing her - a girl, next to the twins. Pretty basic uniform looking girl. I tried to speak to her but the music and speakers kept blaring over her speaking. I got one or two sentences, but it just sounded like she was saying random numbers so I probably missed some...context or something. Maybe she was trying to give me her number..." Rin pursed her lips. Couldn't really see why she would have done that.

Being relieved that someone was tending properly to Lexi's wound. Rin leaned on her mop as she thought this whole 'set up' stuff. "It is all a little fishy when you put it all together like that. But then the question is, as Shiho said. If it was all a set up...then for what?"

BANG

Rin jolted. They all jolted.

BANG BANG

The familiar (to some more then others) sound of gunshots.

This area wasn't one of the worst sectors in this city. But at night it was still common to hear a shot or two in the distance every hour or two. Maybe a brief shootout sometimes. Despite the slight frequency of hearing it, they could all be glad they weren't stuck living in the east sectors. That was where the real crazy shit happened, probably why no one went to school there...

Those shots sounded quite close, probably on a street nearby if one was to take an educated guess. Some overconfident kid messing with some pistol he had just gotten the credits for. Whatever, they were on the third floor here so it wasn't like a stray bullet could go through a window. There was just a general hope that whoever had taken those shots were hopefully on their move out of the area already. Whether it be just for noise complaint or not having to walk home past the person.

"Jeez..." Rin instinctively tucked a stray tuff of hair behind her ear to calm herself down. "What was I saying? Oh yes. Set up, weird people. Did anyone else notice suspicious-" She glanced at Miruno, who had stopped glaring at people and now have some unease over her. "You said something was wrong didn't you? You looked like you'd seen a ghost when you said it." She looked back down at the floor. "But still. Is making some students a bit more miserable an actual goa-"

Rin visibly did a double take at something.

"T-that...er" Rin was still looking down at the floor. Was there some piece of dirt or something that she was seeing? She titled her head, before giving a long gaze at everyone there.

She kneeled down and put her face to the ground. The image of the girl suddenly setting her face down onto the wet tiles was an odd one to see. But Rin stayed like that for a couple of seconds. Minor shifts in her movement as she very slightly pulled her sight along the floor.

"Have you found god?"

BANG

The same type of gunshot. Close, still. Closer? Was someone just getting a kick out of shooting in a street nearby at 8pm for no reason?

Picking something small off the floor, Rin took a breath. "H-Huh, there was like a banana sticker here. Weird, we don't sell bananas in the cafeteria..."

The polite punk stood up straight.
She tucked another stray bit of hair behind her ear.

"I can't help but feel with all the-" She inhaled through her teeth. "Events that have happened in the last while that we should just leave this cleaning to another day. Letsssssss-" She did a slow turn of the various offices and classrooms near them. Sizing them up in whatever parameters she was using.

BANG

Rin jolted, once more.

"Gosh! They really won't let up will they! Like, get a life you losers and stop shooting in a school!" She looked towards the classroom she had picked. "Just put everything into that room. We'll use the time that takes to keep talking about this before we lose whatever progress 'this' is making." She took a hand of a mop bucket.

All of them were relieved to have this session of cleaning over at this point right?
There was a mess of their mess at cleaning the mess to clean up.
It wouldn't look good on them to just leave the buckets in the middle of the hallway for tomorrow.
They were allowed to just store it in one of the spare classrooms. It seemed only natural they could use that time to think about this line of thought Cairn was following.


@ everybody
Cairn Orias: awarded with the Elementary Trophy - "Needlessly inefficient, perhaps. More stylish? Totally." - Do a written investigation! - School Life Collection Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon
 
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Miruno Asagahawa
Academy Six - Hallway

@_Everyone

As Cairn scribbled notes in a very old fashioned manner, he was able to note some things of import. The two that stood out to Miruno the most being in regards to the 'Strange Girl' and the 'heart stopper' program.

What was the 'Heart Stopper' program exactly? Cairn was presuming that it was named after it's exact function. That function being 'to stop someone's heart' probably. With that line of logic, then did that mean that the owners of the bar had been dabbling in chip hacking? But then again, what if 'Heart Stopper' was just some other code word or function? Whatever the case, the scene at the time was so hectic it was unlikely that the exact nature of that program wasn't going to be made apparent just from hammering away at deduction. Still, the possibility that there was some form of chip manipulation and hacking going on in the club was maybe something worth considering.

Next was the strange girl. Miruno had a bit of insight into that topic, presuming that it was the same girl that Mia was talking about, up on that stage.

When Miruno had approached the stage with Rin, there was a 'girl' that something was trying to convince her as someone she had known, a 'childhood friend' that she'd just managed to reunite with. But, that didn't make much sense at all. Miruno had no childhood friends. Her childhood was staying cooped up in her apartment while she kept herself entertained playing with Maki. Miruno went to school just like anyone else, but once classes ended she always went right back home at the order of her parents. Never going to play with the others, never going to anyone elses' houses... always just going home to play with Maki. Looking back at it, Miruno being content makes her cringe at the thought. But, it was for that very reason that the 'thing' that 'strange girl' was trying to convince her of didn't make sense at all. Rin's version of the 'strange girl' was one that was apparently reciting strings of numbers. Odd. But without even knowing what those numbers were all about didn't give much to go on beyond continuing to impress upon the Study Group just how strange the strange girl was.

It was also the moment that Miruno became convinced that they had to get out of that bar as soon as possible. Though, we know how that all turned out.


There was evidence that the twins or someone at that Flanagan's was dabbling in chip hacking somehow. Based on how unnatural Miruno's encounter with this 'strange girl/fake childhood friend' was. So it was entirely possible that the 'Heart Stopper' Program was something named after exactly what it was meant to do. But again, there wasn't enough evidence yet to really confirm anything for sure. It was still just a hunch on Miruno's part.



All in all though, it went back to one core notion. 'They had been set up'. That thought being brought up to the forefront, Matthew was quick to claim his general innocence. Stating that all he'd done was give the files that ultimately gave the address. Right - they shouldn't be too suspicious of Matthew for giving them directions what lead the group into a minefield.


The already tenuous situation between everyone was only broken with the sounds of gunshots outside of the school. Miruno instinctively let her back slide back down on the wall and sit against the floor's edge. If this was an actual VR Match she'd be ducking for that corner to go prone expecting a sneak attack, but out here in realspace those gunshots were likely being aimed at something else. Miruno wasn't unaware of the potential of stray bullets though.

Still, the small chance of being shot versus completely immersing her frontside into the wet floor like Rin did was why she chose to just take cover in a more half-hearted fashion. Seeing Rin's floor sticker antics only made Miruno internally sigh. She wasn't sure who was more stupid. The De-Facto head of the Study Group on her belly on a wet floor or the girl whom failed to see Tanaka's Rin's recklessly impulsive tendencies before the fiasco at the the nightclub was forced into taking place.

With shots going on outside Rin announced that they should end their cleaning duties for the night. But she still wanted to continue the 'discussion'.




While everyone was putting things away Miruno finally started to dry herself off with a towel. There was no physical education that day for her schedule so the only clothes she had on her was her regular uniform. Rin seemed convinced that she may have gotten substantially wet from that tassle with Lexi, but considering Miruno had fallen on top of Lexi in that fight, it was really only her hair getting messed up, and her arms and leggings soaking up a few splashes of mop water. In any case, Miruno Asagawa wanted to go home all the same.

The conversation was still left hanging in the air as they put everything away. It seemed like it was agreed that the whole episode at the bar was a Set Up. Again, Matthew vouched that he had not orchestrated for what had happened at the bar. With the classic villainous reasoning of the Study Group being more useful to him alive than dead. How grim.

Shino plainly questioned why anyone would even want to set up some random students for such an elaborate setup, but she reversed herself a little when she began to ponder the nature of the doctored footage that implicated them in what had happened. She felt like there was someone responsible for that. Shino didn't fail to add in that going that route would be 'cost intensive'.

It was a little hard to pick up that conversation after taking cover from outside gunshots, but continue the conversation they ultimately did as the equipment for cleaning was put away.



There was still something that had yet to be mentioned yet by anyone thus far.

Miruno had hoped that her little outburst would've drawn a bit more attention to it. But ultimately that had not worked out as she had hoped. Everyone seemed to fixate on the surface level of what happened. Whose fault was this, whose responsibility was that. But, everyone had fixate, Miruno herself admittedly even, too hard on the surface if what happened that they didn't catch onto a certain discrepancy of what had happened before they went to the club and after they got into all that trouble. That unsettling fact was still eating away at Miruno the more and more she thought about it.

But, if she said it now - blurting it out after getting into a literal fight with one of them, they'd probably dismiss it right away. So, she'd have to be careful in what she'd say next.

Really though, it would be for the best if this group was simply disbanded. But, seeing Cairn being so earnest about trying to figure things out was just enough to have Miruno not completely give up yet, either.


Seeing her group mates getting close to finishing up putting the cleaning supplies away, and with no shots having rung out for about long enough... Miruno spoke.

"...I guess I should chime in that I saw the 'Weird Girl' too. It definitely wasn't Maki, since she never even bothered to follow me around that night. But anyway, when I saw The Weird Girl she wasn't anyone I knew, but it felt like my mind was trying to convince me that she was supposed be someone I knew - from a long time ago. It freaked me out enough that I started trying to get Rin to take us back home. But, when the fight broke out up on stage things got out of control, and so I went to find the boys but you all were already getting twisted up with that bouncer."

She slid her back against the wall to get down down to towards the floor again - preemptively taking cover from another potential shot going off. If someone with a gun was out outside, the safest place to be in was to remain in the locked up building.

"The strangest thing I experienced in that club was how something was trying to tell me that the 'Weird Girl' was supposed be someone who I used to know. The fact that such as thing is completely impossible for me - long story - was the only thing that kept me from falling into that illusion. But you know, unless any of us have a picture of the weird girl or know where she lives exactly, then whatever we talk about her is gonna just be speculation without going back and finding her or someone who knows what she really is. But - the one thing that's absolutely certain is that 'she' was not normal, maybe not even real at all."

"In any case, I do think there was definitely something going on in that club. But, I also don't really know if it would be right to call it a set-up that was specifically made just for us, though. At least, looking at things at face-value."

Miruno's gaze, wholly neutral, turned up towards the group members who had proposed this had been a 'set up' before she asked her question to them.

"We went there, caused a ruckus, and got in trouble for it. But what makes you guys think that we were any more special than anyone else there at the club? If any one else had gone there and did what we ended up doing, how would they have ended up any less in trouble than we did? Those annoying videos do really look like we were looking for trouble going into that club, but then again, how were we not looking for trouble going into that club? That place was a hangout for the sorts of people we were trying to not be. In yet we pushed our way in there like it was the only way to find Mr. Yano."

To say that this was a Set-Up implied that the things that occurred were prepared with them in mind. Mr. Yano going missing, Going to the Club to Find Him, Starting Fights...

"Consider the following..."

"If Mr. Yano had never failed to assign a sub that day and go missing, then we wouldn't have ever needed to go to Flanagans."
"If we had never went to the bar from Matthew's intel to look for Yano, then we would've never caused any of the trouble that happened there."
"If we never got into any of those fights, then we never would've gotten in as much trouble as we did."

"So, please enlighten me. At what point in that timeline did those 'spontaneous occurrences done in order to find our poor missing teacher' end up actually being something that had been a part of a 'set up?' meant for us to get into trouble, as opposed to just a series of our own decisions and their resulting consequences?"

Someone had to have noticed it if they thought back to what had happened.
 
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Shiho Nakamura
Academy Six - Hallway


Shiho was largely quiet, as she was fully focused on patching up Lexi's head injury. If anything, she was not interested with the topic on the 'weird girl' that some of the Study Group members had met while they were in Flanagan's Bar. One thing for sure, she definitely took Matthew's so-called truth with a grain of salt. The blonde schoolgirl was about to bandage Lexi's injury, until the gunshots rang out. She immediately stopped what she was doing, and tried to look for the nearest exit, just in case whatever that was outside decided to come in. The female student did looked at Rin's peculiar behavior for a moment, before another gunshot occurred again, and it was now closer than before.

"Uh, yeah." Shiho merely nodded at Rin with sagely smile, agreeing that they were done with the cleaning work for today. "I agree with you, Tanaka."

Then of course, another gunshot echoed through the air. The stylish blonde student could only shook her head at this point. Once everything started to calm down again, Shiho continued in treating Lexi's head injury. First, she sterilized her hand with the provided hand sanitizer inside the first aid kit. Then, she carefully unwrapped a clean piece of gauze, and gently pressed it on the injury site. Once that was done, Shiho wrapped the gauze with a roll of light brown colored cloth bandage, and then clipped the cloth bandages with a metal pin that was provided by the first aid kit. Pretty traditional, but it is what it is. It seemed that Academy Six does not have those fancy medigel first aid kits to stop bleeding.

"There you go, Ms. Noel. Hopefully that is good enough for you."

Shiho was done treating Lexi's injury, just in time to hear Miruno's conjectures. Once she was done, the blonde schoolgirl once again sighed, before she stood up on her feet.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to do with your questions here, Asagahawa. But, if you still want to express that the Study Group acted too rashly in searching for Mr. Yano, I think you had already made your point earlier on, and I agreed with that despite others had said otherwise. If you have any more points than that, then please say it in a straightforward manner. Then again, I do have to say that there's no point in beating the dead horse, or crying over spilt milk."

She stretched herself a bit, before she started closing up the first aid kit for storage.

"Urghhh--- What's done, is done! It's not like we can turn back time, and change our actions. Unless you really want..." She gently shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know... Tanaka holding a handwritten formal apology while she does a perfect 90 degree bow to everyone of us? Or, kneeling on the ground like she did just now?"


Interactions: Rithas Rithas Karyra Karyra (Lexi) Ehb Ehb (Miruno)

 
Cairn Orias
Academy Six ~ Washed Up Hallway
​
Possibilities continued to bounce around Cairn's head as the others made comments. He nodded at Matthew's response, the idea of him being the 'mastermind' behind everything never appearing until then. "Yeah, there's no way Matthew did all this." Someone with that kind of influence wouldn't be at Academy Six, much less a fellow student. According to Rin, the mystery girl had been spouting random numbers, which was funny in both the 'fishy weird' sense and the 'laughably weird' sense.

Cairn shook upon the first gunshot, not expecting to hear one that loud. He looked towards the general direction where it came from, turning back around right before the next two sounded. His body straightened up a bit, and he let out a quiet groan. He felt bad watching Rin, who was visibly jittery, though he knew those gunshots weren't targeted towards them nor the school. At least, that was what his intuition told him. He wasn't going to complain about a reason for them to stop cleaning, but he wondered if it might make trouble for them the following day. Still, he helped in rolling the buckets into the classroom Rin had directed them towards.

He was a bit surprised that Miruno decided to speak up, but he listened intently all the same. While he still had his pen and paper with him, it seemed a bit pointless to keep writing things down. After all, they had almost nothing of substance on this unknown girl that had become the center of attention. That, and his hand had gotten cramped from how fast he had been writing before. But Miruno's account of her was the most detailed. The way her experience was described made it sound like a hallucination, but one, Miruno wasn't crazy, and two, multiple people could attest to this person being present. "Maybe she was a friend of Machina." Cairn said it with some initial sarcasm to no one in particular, the idea sprouting from Miruno's comment of her being 'not even real' and Rin's comment of her 'saying random numbers'. But after it had hit the air, he started to think a bit more about it. Not the literal idea that this girl was friends with Machina, but the underlying idea that the figure was also an AI. Or at least, a projection of some sort.

Cairn took in Miruno's counterargument, mentally conceding many of her points. There was definitely something off about that night, but it was a stretch to say it was meticulously planned. Maybe there was some sort of plan, just a... spontaneous one. They had all went there in their uniforms - perhaps that was reason enough for a regular, or group of regulars, to mess with them by making them think they had to cause a ruckus in order to get what they wanted. But in the end... they really were looking for trouble, weren't they? Even if they had been 'baited' into those actions, going through with them was all their responsibility. He scratched the back of his head, but only briefly. After his hand passed a certain point, he winced in pain and stopped, fighting a habit.

Shiho was the first to respond. He was a bit worried, not wanting any more friction for the day. But it did feel a bit like they were treading old ground. Was everything that happened at the bar really so inevitable, that any other Academy Six student would have gotten out more or less the same way?

"...I guess 'set-up' isn't the right way to think about this." Even he believed that the videos weren't targeted at them specifically, and were just the natural byproduct of them fucking around and finding out. Thinking about some of what Miruno had said, he tried imagining the timeline of that night without everyone's faces. His eye twitched. "I feel like... like... we got in more trouble than we should have...?" If he reduced everyone at the bar that night to a blank body, then... "Maybe it's because we were looking for Mr. Yano specifically...?"

He couldn't speak for what had happened on the other side of the bar. But on his side, all that really happened was them describing Mr. Yano's appearance and dropping the names from the file before things got out of hand. That was odd. The bartender offering to... leave and go look for them, too? Even more odd. Wouldn't it make more sense and be much easier to just brush that sort of request off? For things to escalate the way they did, Mr. Yano or the people mentioned in the file had to be very significant to Flanagan's.

...He already knew that, though. It seemed like all the leads just lead to dead ends or back to the beginning. In the end, they were stuck doing this. Considering what some of them had actually done, they really couldn't be let off scot-free. The strongest solace, then... was to find a way to make that venture to the bar worth it. That meant finding out everything behind the scenes. The only ways they could even start to do that were by going back to the bar - fat chance, and they had already botched that the first time - or managing to get it out from Mr. Yano himself - fat chance, and they had already botched that the first time.

Grunting, he sat down and leaned back carefully against against a desk leg, finally realizing his physical and mental exhaustion. He looked down at his paper, dreading the following days. He laid his head back, and briefly entertained the pros and cons of sleeping over at the school.

Before that though, there was a teensy-weensy little thing bugging him about one thing Miruno had said about Machina. He knew for a fact what she had said was... wrong. Her AI was there, albeit with that different appearance. Maybe she was trying to avoid talking about the disguise? She seemed to address it very nonchalantly, as if she truly believed it wasn't there that night. So maybe she meant it literally?
Actually, how was it even possible for her... it to get over to the bar in the first place?
...

Well, he'd been wanting to ask about it for a while, and it seemed this was about as topical as it'd get. A little mental detour wouldn't hurt.

"About Machina, uh... can I ask why it was disguised as a student?"

Rithas Rithas Ehb Ehb Emiya Shin Emiya Shin
 
Raymond Denhart
Academy Six Hallways​


Miruno seemed so undeterred by the scuffle, Raymond felt a bit awkward for having worried about her, as she laid out her arguments anew. He watched as Shiho took swift action and patched Lexis head injury, relieved that it wasn’t as severe as it had looked. She seemed so cool and confident, evening giving Miruno a ribbing about all her complaining.

He didn’t expect to Rin to bend over backwards apologising, just maybe a half-assed “Soz it turned out this way” might’ve been enough for Miruno to feel heard and let it go.

He didn’t really want to get into conspiracy theories… or the timeline for a potential set-up. Some straight forward detention shenanigans was all he’d typed up into his ‘Dreams, Goals and Cool Lyrics’ journal for today. He was also conscious that he needed to conserve some serious brain power for all this studying they were meant to find time for…at least got to bail on the mopping.

The intermittent gun shots, popping especially loud in his ears, were also so not conducive to mellowing the vibe. “What a drag..” He scratched the back of his head, closed his eyes and mulling over what Rin had been saying about about the shooters being losers “haha..roasted..” He chuckled softly to himself.

Wait a sec.. He pursed his lips.

“Uh Rin..? Did you say the shooting was IN the school..?”

Rithas Rithas
 
Machina Exodus
Academy Six - Hallway​


Maki had spent the day… what was the right word to describe it? Sulking? No, that wasn’t it. Resting? Sorta, but that wasn’t quite right either. It wasn’t pleasant, though. Insecurity, fear, frustration, confusion, and a light dusting of various other emotions. If there was a word for it, they weren’t properly collected in a clean and properly indexed database online.

Perhaps this was why people had a tendency to simplify the infinite complexities of emotion into words like "Meh."

Her precious algorithm had failed to land her date, and worse, whether indirectly by her actions or not, several friends had nearly been killed. Oh, ashamed! That was another one. A new one, actually; she usually didn’t feel that. Yuck, no wonder it was listed as a negative emotion.

For the first time in a while, Maki wished she could just curl up in a cocoon of her favorite memorybytes and relax in those echoes of brighter times… maybe forever. Sadly, Friend was already holding how useless she was over her head, and with this latest failure, the threat of deletion was all the stronger. She had to focus on the real world and find some way of staying relevant. Heck, even if it was only to please Yano— one of the only people to treat her like a real person —it’d be worth toughing it out!

Never had Maki regretting watching the real world more quickly.

A long, angry outburst. Throwing blame around. Refusing to help. Insulting the group. The list went on.

Then came the slap. Maki felt a nasty jolt as the swift snapping of the neck to the side made the data in Friend’s Cici jolt. Perhaps the closest thing Maki could feel to physical pain. It was Friend’s reaction that really shocked the already flustered Maki to her core. A counter-attack so savage, it put a friend in actual danger of serious injury!

So it wasn’t just Maki‘s life who Friend had no regard for? Friend…

Friend; noun
Someone who is not an enemy and who you can trust.

…

As she pondered these things, Maki suddenly noticed the conversation shift to the previous day, and then to her directly. She‘d much rather have just stayed curled up in solitude on a day like this, but she wasn’t about to let anyone speak for her on a day like this.

Suddenly, Maki’s frilly, ethereal avatar appeared beside Cairn before she answered his questions. "I am a student, friend. I just learn different things," she said first, finding the categorical error a bit insulting. "I appeared different because I didn’t want to raise suspicion." It was a half-truth, and therefore, a fairly convincing one. Certainly, the shy girl was less flashy than the literal VR cosplay avatar she displayed now.

"I don’t remember sensing another AI though. What did this ‘Weird Girl’ look like… Miruno?"

The name hang in the air for a long and tense moment. Maki never used Miruno’s name. Not once, in what amounted to their entire lives together. It had always been Friend, and Maki was quick to share this behavior with most others shortly after meeting them. It didn’t help that the name contained a trace of Maki’s disgust with her recent behavior, serving to make it sound even more wrong.

Maki also appeared a bit worried, shifting the title so blatantly, as if she was challenging the wrath of a cruel dictator. Yet she couldn’t stand the thought of continuing to use a massively erroneous term for this person who— now that Maki thought about it —hadn’t been a friend to her for several years now.


Ehb Ehb Rithas Rithas Aes_Dragon Aes_Dragon (…and the others, indirectly)
 
Lexi Noel
Academy Six Hallway
Emiya Shin Emiya Shin Rithas Rithas
​
"Yeah, I'm still kind of surprised you guys went to the bar at all. It's not really your guys' scene at all." Lexi added before Shiho dabbed the wound with alcohol, causing Lexi to wince, more from the surprise than the pain.

She waited and listened until Shiho was finished. No point in dissuading her from taking care of the small cut. This was overkill, but whatever. If it made her feel better. The gunshots were strange, but not out of place. Lexi stood up to look, and see where it came from and more importantly, if they were about to get caught up in it. Somewhat mollified by their distance, she returned to the others.

"Like I said earlier, we have to study and ace the exams first. It's no coincidence that we all got slapped with extra work after finding Mr. Yano, I think. but we need to keep our heads above water before we start diving into conspiracies."

Lexi turned to Shiho, "and no, I'm not saying we head to head fight whoever this was, but there's definitely something going on. But if we're all expelled, we can't go forward to figure out what the heck is going on." Lexi's eyes alighted on the music player from earlier. "What if we made our notes into audio stuff? Then we can play it while working. Study and work at the same time. Not the most elegant solution, but it sure is one."

Lexi sighed and started to mop up her mess. She was mopping up the puddle of mostly watery blood. It would probably look bad if they just left a mess here after working, but then again maybe they could blame the shooting.
 
Matthew Moore
Third Floor ​

Matthew at this point had gotten out his own pen and note pad. All digital, of course. But he gave effort to tap the illusionary pen to his lips as he listened to Miruno's analysis. "Okay wait. Now you got even me confused on your intentions. I'm supposed to be the ill-intentioned person in this room. That's not very fair." He kept writing down notes.

"You know I'm starting to get the feeling you would all do great in the debate club. If we had one that is. I think they stopped it after that bullying incident....ents" Matthew scratched his cheek. There was definitely something about poisoned tea. In the literal or metaphorical sense, he could not remember.

Maki materialising gave Matthew and Rin a small jump. Rin was already jumpy, so this did nothing to help her as she continued to put everything away. That fucking thing had to stop just popping up. "G-Good to see you back Maki. You were missed."

"First off, no you weren't. Second of all, Jeez. I thought you had deleted her Miruno? Was gonna post it as top breakup of the year."

Rin peeked her head out into the hallway again.

The boy hit his head against the wall in mild disgust. "God, this is like a shitty version of Robo-Cop Columbo 4. I haven't seen a detective team this disjointed since the seventh 'retelling' of scooby doo. Maybe a smidge of the connecting dots? You guys are all adding last second bits of information. Are you all aiming to get the final 'one more thing' in? It's only clever if you actually figure something out."

Matthew sighed, before putting down his illusionary pen.

"However, I have been able to jot down some clues down myself. I think this may be the weird girl instigating all of your problems and stalling your graduation process..." He turned (metaphorically) his 'notepad' around for others to see.
"Did she look anything like this?"


Miruno Nerdge2.png

Matthew nodded dutifully.
"It's pretty accurate. I gotta say. Thanks for collecting all the evidence."



Rin Tanaka
Academy Six - Third Floor, Storage-Classroom ​

The lights dulled only slightly as Rin fiddled with the 'supposed' light switch for the hallway. "Okay, so that doesn't do anything noticeable. S-Seems like a design fault...". It was probably more for the purpose of slightly easing the suffering of hungover teachers and students then anything else.

An impatient(?) tick appearing as another tuck of a (imaginary) tuft of hair.
They had gotten nearly all of the equipment into the classroom. Storage? Storage classroom. Storage classroom with a maintenance closet apparently. Apparently these closets were an obsession to whoever had built this place. And never cleaned themselves, ironically. Given the amount of cobwebs in these little shut offs. Maintenance closets of various things. One with pipes and closed boxes saying 'danger' on them.
That was also a closet with spiders. Lots of spiders. As one of them found out.
So the door was hastily closed and equipment happily stored in a middle of a classroom.
Best not think about that closet currently full with thousands of spiders.
Best not think about it at all...

Raymond's question had largely been unanswered at first. The rest of the group seemed pretty fixated on the current issues of the bar fight, that frankly he had been too busy badly bartending and spraying soda on (in hindsight) immoral co-workers to think too deeply about. But he had heard what she said right? He hoped this wasn't a new grammar thing. He knew he had missed a couple weeks of school but...

Rin's back was turned to him. Perhaps the girl had not heard him. Or was too fixed on getting the equipment sorted. Her head tilted to the floor all the while. Was she checking for more unique banana peel stickers?

Having not much more to add to the convo at the moment. Raymond made a tactical choice to juuuust check on something.
Tuning out the sounds of his study mates, and risking quickening his inevitable date with tinnitus. Raymond listened. To everything else.
It was quiet. Too quiet. (Oh! He should write that in his journal.) An absence of a stray barking dog or a drunkard playing the drums with a overflowing dumpster.

But what he did hear was something. Someone. Below.

"These easy-pee-zee jobs are all grand. But think about it. We go in, guns blasing. Pop some rich banker's brains out of his head and then take his little penthouse for fun."
"Why do all your hypotheticals walk on some weird fence between edgerunning and basically being the same as the revenants."

There was a soft sound of a door being thwacked open a floor below.
Finally, Rin turned to him with a grim expression. Her eyes softening. "I had hoped they would stop on the first floor without notice...."

The stuttered steps of numerous people.
"Y-Yees I know Ida, I need to do cardio...."

Wait a second.
Is that why they had all gone into the clas-

His focus back in. The voice of Lexi was left, pondering the legitimacy of audio studying techniques. Who was dutifully mopping the floor of her own blood despite Rin's request to clear up.

The smallest of rattles.


Which is why Rin grabbed Lexi by her collar and practically flung her into the room with her. Raymond found himself with the other girl from that fight in his arms as he was forced to catch her. He had done it rather smoothly, to be honest. Neither of them having to stagger back as the whole process was done calmly and quietly. Rin pressed her hand over Lexi's mouth to stop any complaint as she put a finger up to her own mouth. "Shh!" Rin kicked the door closed behind them. Slapping the lights off in the classroom as they were stood in darkness, Rin pressed her face against the door.

TapTap.
Bonk.

Something trying to open a door far away.

"Ah fuck this."

BANG
A gunshot in the very hallway they were just in.
How unfortunate.

"Bro-" A strained male voice carried through the hallway well enough that they could hear it. "You don't have to shoot every fucking locked handle!"
"Someone's still sulky they dropped their pistol in the river on their lunch break." A more boisterous voice, snapping back at the first voice. "Now you're nothing but a portable scanner. Even Ida has a cool baseball bat."
A deep and guttural sigh.
Three people?

Okay, so now they were in a classroom that was full of mop buckets. The only thing that illuminated anything in the room was the faint rays neon lights of the city. And there was intruders with weapons outside for some reason.

"Can't help but feel like there's something weird about this school."
"You mean aside from the fact kids actually go here?"
"No. Well, yes. But something else is picking at me right now..."

The sound of a door being bashed open in three strikes.
Far down the corridor.

"Oh so, she can smash a door open with a bat but I can't shoot it?"
"I-, what? How do you not see how that's different!? Do you want to attract all the attention!?"
"Relaaaax! There's not a soul within a block of this place. We made sure of that. This place doesn't even have automated cleaning. So I don't even get to shoot anyone! So if you would just give me the door thing- "
"Oh my god Lets just find what we cam----"

Rin's brain, running on a small part of copium about their situation. Offered the fact that they were on the third floor. That was like...totally a distance they could jump out from right? A mild sprain or something. Those roll overs that were shown in parkour videos didn't seem that hard.
But, the other more factual of her brain said as it caught up to Ms.Idea. This school was built in a time of too much budget meeting strict floor numbers. Which meant that the floors below them were stupidly tall. Which made the drop from the window like...more then a 60 foot drop. Okay, maybe doing that with no help would be less then ideal...

"Clear. Well, there can't be too many other places it can be then somewhere on this floor..."

The sound of footsteps reappearing after a while told her that the trio of thugs stepped back into the hallway.. They still had a good few rooms to go through before the one they were in. But if they were really gonna bust down every door before they found whatever they were looking for. They were gonna eventually stumble onto the group if nothing about either group's situation changed.

Rin would have done a headcount to keep track of what everyone's state was. But it was basically pitch black in here and so for all she knew some of them were stuck Spiderman posing on the hallway ceiling outside.

The only actual exit down to the lower floor was on the other side of the hallway, which meant it was past the intruders. (Thank you, dystopian Fire-safety regulations.) Which made just running to the exit rather difficult. Especially seeing as the main hallway lights were on. Was there a way to turn them off? Maybe they could find a way to hide, something clever. Or just finding a good timing to get in a place that they had already checked. How thorough were they being, anyway? Could they defend themselves? Unless someone was about to unleash their seventh level black belt in Krav Maga she didn't see how that could end well. Especially given one of them had a FRICKING GUN. Course, they could just try and talk to them. But given how that tactic had gone for the group recently Rin was pretty much steadfast on that not occurring this time.

Was there something else she was not thinking about....

Rin closed her eyes and cringed to herself.
What luck!
Why could she never think of something good in these situations!

THUD

Another door caved in, ever so slightly closer.

And Lexi had been really onto something about the Audio Studying!
It was actually statistically proven to be one of the most efficient ways of studying!
The easing of their multi-tasking would have been great!

Rin softly whimpered to herself.
This Sucked.



@ everybody
 
Last edited:
shiho-banner.jpg

Shiho Nakamura
Academy Six - Third Floor, Storage-Classroom


Shiho was more or less blended to the background, and helped out storing the cleaning tools. The storage closets located on the third floor were indeed disgusting as heck. It anything, that brief but horrifying encounter with spiders made her wanting to go home more than ever. Her brain was practically on power saving mode, to the point she actually missed that the previous shootings were indeed originated inside Academy Six.

She let out a sigh of relief, when everything was done. Shiho was so ready to leave the school.

Unfortunately, things just simply did not want to let up.

The blonde girl was pretty confused when Rin dragged Lexi back in, and quickly turned off the lights in the so-called storage classroom area. She was about to ask Rin about that sudden action of hers, but the loud gunshot that echoed just outside of the hallway clearly gave her the answer. Shiho immediately took a deep breath, and audibly exhaled. She leaned against the wall, close to the door which lead to the room they were currently occupying.

She waited, hoping it is not CICI messing with her senses. Unfortunately, there was indeed another banging sound. But this time, it was the sound of a door that got smashed in.

Shiho's brain scrambled for a response to her group. Judging from the silence that they had until now, it was pretty obvious that the others were pretty much taken aback with the current situation. Without a choice, she quickly moved to Rin's last known location before she turned off the lights, and she spoke to her.

"Rin!" Shiho called out to the pink haired girl with a voice lowered enough for the others to hear. "Stop inhaling copium through CICI! What are our options?! Can we even remotely control or mess the lights through our CICI in this area to cause some distractions? Or, is it possible for us to climb down to the second floor through the windows? I'm sure as hell not trying our luck using our numbers against whatever that is outside at the moment!"


Interactions: Rithas Rithas

 
Raymond Denhart
Third Floor Storage Classroom​


Raymond had closed his eyes to hone in on the bickering voices below them, a trickle of fear ran down his spine as the intruders continued their sloppy approach. They had weapons.. and as far as Raymond knew, they had nothing. He took a heavy breath.

Before he could think of what to do or how to help, Lexi’s body suddenly came flying towards him, knocking the air out of his chest.

He was caught off guard but was actually kinda pleased that he’d managed to catch her, hands clasped over her upper arms, keeping them both steady.

He was stuck by Rins decisiveness and strength in flinging the other girl into to their not particularly safe safe-room. However, even if she was aware of the situation, Lexi probably would not appreciate being tossed into someone. She had just sustained a head injury after all, that must have caused a bit of a head rush at least.

“S-sorry..Lexi.” Raymond mumbled, giving her arms an apologetic pat as he let go. He wanted to ask if she was okay, but didn’t want to insult her, well aware he was still within the slap-zone. He stayed quiet as Rin shut them in, hitting the lights. He winced at the loud bangs, amplified to his ears.


“..Can we even remotely control or mess the lights through our CICI in this area to cause some distractions? Or, is it possible for us to climb down to the second floor through the windows?..” Shiho laid out some solid options to Rin who seemed to be frozen in thought as she pressed her face to the door.

“Why not both! Both sound pretty good to me, Shiho!” He chimed in, keeping his voice low.

He palmed his fist few times, relieving some stress and trying to coax some good ideas to come out along with it. “Uhhh..What if we..Oh! Hey! Maybe Maki could spoof some kind of intruder alert alarm system to buy us some time?” He looked over to where he imagined Miruno to be. “Miruno..? What do ya think, Is that possible?” Man is was dark in here. Raymonds eyes were slow to adjust.

“And let’s just see here..” Raymond turned around and reefed open his nearest window with some effort, “There’s no harm in checking out this whole window situation, right?” He poked his head out into the night air and foolishly looked straight down. He held back the smallest bit of vomit and nodding uncomfortably at the considerable height that stretched down in front of his face. He swallowed purposefully and gently himself leaned back in, trying to look smooth.

“Yeaaahh, it’s not great.”

He put his hands on his hips and peered around the dim room. “Are there like, they any supplies here we could use here.. maybe make a barricade..or..”Raymond reminisced hazily about the off brand cleaning products he used to just throw into a bucket at the end of a night at the bar. Knocking himself about a few times before learning to lay off the bleach. “Maybe, okay hear me out, maybe a light, light, light poisoning from chemical fumes? A self-defensive gassing? It’s happened to me at work a bunch and I’m A-O-Fine!” He thumbs upped the room, even waving it around for good measure, not totally sure who was listening. He just hoped one of his study mates would either pick up what what he was laying down or cut him off because he was now truly out of ideas.


Karyra Karyra Ehb Ehb Rithas Rithas @ Everyone
 
Machina Exodus
Third Floor Storage Classroom
Rithas Rithas Ehb Ehb Teallionn Teallionn​


Maki smiled as Rin initially mentioned she was missed, quickly turning to an irritated scowl as Matthew butt in. Sheesh, what a jerk. "Thanks for your input, Matthew." Sarcasm subroutines were nice and operational. Her list of people to call by name and not ‘friend’ was growing rather rapidly.

… Though she couldn’t help but laugh at the picture.


Maki’s heart suddenly skipped a beat when the loud BANG ripped through the school, which was fairly odd, considering Maki didn’t have a heart. It was times like these Maki wished she had some ability to affect the physical world. Instead, she could only stand there awkwardly and cheer everyone on.

"It should be okay, everyone! Statistically, you each have a higher than 50% chance of surviving this encounter! I’ve just alerted the local police, and they said they’d respond within 2-3 business days." In hindsight, maybe she should’ve left the second part out.

Once in the closet, she listened carefully to everyone’s plans for escape. They kinda sucked. Then again, she didn’t have anything better herself. As the thugs outside continued their tirade, Maki heard Raymond call her name… followed by addressing Miruno.

… Is this what "triggered" felt like?

"I can hear you, you know!?" She protested in a voice that she quickly realized was not nearly as quiet as it should’ve been. "I could, but I need someone else to break through the school’s firewall. Unless you also think I should be good at hacking just because I’m a program."
 
Lexi Noel
Hallway -> Storage classroom
Rithas Rithas Teallionn Teallionn Tau Tau
​
At Matthew's drawing, Lexi shrugged. "I never saw her. Maybe?"

Lexi looked and was content that she had cleaned up her own mess, only to feel a yank at her collar and a shove as she was put in a locker with Raymond. "Buy a girl a dr-"

BANG.

Two goons. Gun and bat. They were coming down the hallway. Rin had muffled Lexi's mouth with her hand, so if she said anything it'd have to be a real solution.

Shiho suggested jumping out the window. No dice, too far and if they injured their legs, that would make getting away impossible. Raymond looked queasy at the height, which told Lexi exactly how bad an idea jumping out of it would be. He also suggested using cleaning chemicals to gas the criminals. Using ancient warcrimes was the best idea so far... but also probably not wise.

She'd have to sell him an augment later to make sure he wouldn't accidentally mustard gas himself to death. Or maybe a pamphlet.

It. They were looking for an it. No person used it as a pronoun, so they weren't looking for a person. Maki was ruled out, considering she was a program. She even admitted it. Maki can't get hurt. She's a projection. But that would mean putting Miruno in firing distance to let Maki even try and scout.

"Maki could scout and see what's going on, but she's tied to Miruno's chip and projector." Lexi thought out loud, saying all this quietly. "They're far away enough that one person could see what they're doing. They're looking for some thing. I doubt Maki falls under that category, and these thugs don't sound smart enough to do the programming required to remove her from Miruno's chip."

...

"I could go and scout. Maki can send back information instantly with my eye." Lexi quickly turned it on with her CICI. "I'm not confident in my sneaking skills, but I caused issues earlier by slapping Miruno so... consider this an apology. If I can't sneak, I'll be a distraction, and I want you all to run."

Quietly, but quickly, Lexi was out of the locker and crouching on the floor. She moved carefully, but with purpose away from the locker, trying to use the wet floor to figure out how far away the thugs were without having to lean her very shootable head around the corner. How far away were they? What were they doing?

Maki recieved a ping on her messenger. Request access to Lexi's Eye?
 
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