Assassination Academy IC: Ch 1 With Fire in our Hearts!

[The Burning Sun]

"Then, when time affords, we must set a match," answered Sobolan and gave the cat-woman a bow, typical of one that might consider the other to be of equal status.

Introducing himself, he said, "I am Sobolan de Otel, or 'Sobolan the cursed', of Chesker. First year student."

He maintained his outward calm and inward readiness, in case the situation became either 'playful' or contentious, and extended his open hand, inviting her to the handshake.

Nari Mastamoto

"Perhaps, Sobolan-san. I am Nari Mastamoto, also a first year student, though that bit is likely obvious." she said, also bowing in the same way. She accepted the handshake. It would be a fun year trying to adjust to life in a foreign country, but she could manage it. She reclaimed her black cloak but did not put it on. "No point in wearing black at day no? I feel now it makes me obvious." It was then that she saw her previous opponent from her first night. "You....You used crystals to commit Seppekku instead of suffering the dishonor of defeat."

Celeste d'Penthièvre and Hiroari Hata, Marketplace(I guess?)

---

Clothes shopping? I doubt they have anything that could compare to my wardrobe...

Somewhat self-consciously, Celeste adjusted her blue tunic and shoulder-length cape. She glanced around to make sure nobody had seen her before entering the weapons shop. From what she could see, there were plenty of of highly-lethal looking firearms...some nasty knives and other bladed accoutrements...and, over in the corner, a tiny rack labeled "NON-LETHAL: FOR SALE."

This is probably the one time in my life I'll ever wish I had more money...

Painfully aware of her near-complete lack of academy points, she stumbled back outside to join those students who were too poor or stingy to buy anything.

...

Clothes shopping...

Hata, near the back of the group, stood silent as the other students flooded the shops. She had been awarded a small sum for making it to the Infirmary alive, but she was reluctant to spend it on something so...frivolous. The clothes her master had given her should suffice, right? She looked around, only to realize that most of the others seemed to have purchased uniforms.

Oh...shoot, I'll stick out. Maybe I should check them out...

She straightened her skirt with a hint of regret, then walked inside - studiously ignoring the racks of weapons. Those, she would not even consider considering.

Later

When Celeste heard the catwoman's voice behind her, she sighed, offering only a brief glance over her shoulder. "I wasn't thinking clearly," she mumbled,"and besides, if I hadn't fought this guy over here first, you would have been a mere pushover."

So saying, Celeste gestured at the wererat, currently exiting the uniform shop. From the side, Hata, who had been rather gingerly poking through a rack of uniforms, glanced over, listening keenly.

[Taigawa]

Nari Mastamoto

"Perhaps, Sobolan-san. I am Nari Mastamoto, also a first year student, though that bit is likely obvious." she said, also bowing in the same way. She accepted the handshake. It would be a fun year trying to adjust to life in a foreign country, but she could manage it. She reclaimed her black cloak but did not put it on. "No point in wearing black at day no? I feel now it makes me obvious." It was then that she saw her previous opponent from her first night. "You....You used crystals to commit Seppekku instead of suffering the dishonor of defeat."

When Celeste heard the catwoman's voice behind her, she sighed, offering only a brief glance over her shoulder. "I wasn't thinking clearly," she mumbled,"and besides, if I hadn't fought this guy over here first, you would have been a mere pushover."

So saying, Celeste gestured at the wererat, currently exiting the uniform shop. From the side, Hata, who had been rather gingerly poking through a rack of uniforms, glanced over, listening keenly.

Nari Mastamoto

The lady indicated her displeasure by lashing her tail. "I was'nt trying. I wanted information, not a fight. The roof had nearly killed me when it collapsed. I saw you and thought you might had told me what the hell was going on; instead you attacked me and I had no other recourse but to fight back. It gave me no pleasure to take the ring from you."

[MightyQuinn]

Sobolan de Otel
The Shopping District

Sobolan exited the shop, his HCS showing the Academy uniform, to see Celeste and Nari talking. There appeared to be some tension, but it didn't seem to be at the point where blood was likely to be shed. Sobolan decided to try to defuse it before it burned to close to the detonator.

"Hello, ladies', he calmly interjected. "I take it that perhaps you met last night? It was some fun, but a little distasteful. I personally prefer to hunt before the kill." Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Nari and then Lady d'Penthièvre, "I imagine the both of you might relate?" Then, "Perhaps we all ought to just remember the facts of it, let the feelings fade, and be colleagues and professionals?"

Sobolan gave them both a smile, hoping that his trying to be nonchalant and charming might help the situation.

[Taigawa]

Sobolan de Otel
The Shopping District

Sobolan exited the shop, his HCS showing the Academy uniform, to see Celeste and Nari talking. There appeared to be some tension, but it didn't seem to be at the point where blood was likely to be shed. Sobolan decided to try to defuse it before it burned to close to the detonator.

"Hello, ladies', he calmly interjected. "I take it that perhaps you met last night? It was some fun, but a little distasteful. I personally prefer to hunt before the kill." Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Nari and then Lady d'Penthièvre, "I imagine the both of you might relate?" Then, "Perhaps we all ought to just remember the facts of it, let the feelings fade, and be colleagues and professionals?"

Sobolan gave them both a smile, hoping that his trying to be nonchalant and charming might help the situation.

Nari Mastamoto

"We met last night yes, and it was less then pleasent. Do you know who dropped the roof on us? I just got lucky that did'nt kill me. Reguardless, it was unfortunete happenstance and I will return the ring if she wants it back. There is no honor in taking what is not yours without making prior agreement to lose said item. I have no ill will towards her, though I have reason to believe she is not of the same mind."

[MightyQuinn]

Sobolan de Otel
The Shopping District

Sobolan exited the shop, his HCS showing the Academy uniform, to see Celeste and Nari talking. There appeared to be some tension, but it didn't seem to be at the point where blood was likely to be shed. Sobolan decided to try to defuse it before it burned to close to the detonator.

"Hello, ladies', he calmly interjected. "I take it that perhaps you met last night? It was some fun, but a little distasteful. I personally prefer to hunt before the kill." Raising an eyebrow, he looked at Nari and then Lady d'Penthièvre, "I imagine the both of you might relate?" Then, "Perhaps we all ought to just remember the facts of it, let the feelings fade, and be colleagues and professionals?"

Sobolan gave them both a smile, hoping that his trying to be nonchalant and charming might help the situation.

Nari Mastamoto

"We met last night yes, and it was less then pleasent. Do you know who dropped the roof on us? I just got lucky that did'nt kill me. Reguardless, it was unfortunete happenstance and I will return the ring if she wants it back. There is no honor in taking what is not yours without making prior agreement to lose said item. I have no ill will towards her, though I have reason to believe she is not of the same mind."

Sobolan de Otel

Sobolan thought he saw Elluette at the rendevouz spot and looking at her watch, so he pointed her out to the ladies and started walking in that direction.

[Atlannia]

Eluette Hartville

He turned back and blushed as he felt a pair of lips touch his forehead, his cheeks turning a deep red before he looked up, giving him a hug before making his way over to the group. He pulled the tags off of his new sweatshirt and tied it around his neck, coming up to Eluette and the others.

“Sorry about that, just got a text and had to run off. I’m back now, what did I miss?”

"Cute top," grinned Eluette, jamming a skinny elbow into Kelsi's side and winking slyly. "You haven't missed much, the newbies are just getting themselves kitted up and then we're heading out for that job I texted you about, y'know in Seafoam?"

Eluette stood up on the balls of her feet to look around the shopping district, noting that most of the new students were wrapping up and on their way back.

Alright, looks like we're all set," called Eluette as the group gathered around her. Eluette herself hadn't bothered to alter her equipment, if it called be called that, her ever present baseball bat leaning on one shoulder. "I already booked us a ride, come on over to the docks and I'll show you."

---

"Welp it doesn't look like much but it'll get us to Seafoam pretty quick." said Eluette, standing proudly with her hands her hips in front of the shining hydrofoil. After an uneventful walk through the market district the group had made it to the waterfront and found themselves here.

The docks were a far cry from the mysterious, shadowy gateway to the unknown that they had appeared as last night. In the bright, morning sun they were a bustling hub of industry as ships and boats of all sizes docked and laaunched, the voices of crew and dockworkers mingling with the rhythmic lapping of waves against and the shrill cries of sea birds. The waterfront itself was fairly modern looking and in good repair, a wide walkway of wooden planks interspersed with comfortable benches allowed pedestrians to meander along its entire length and behind it there were a few cafe's, restaurants and gift shops and the like, lending the area an air of bustling commerce.

Directly in front of the group of students, as if guarding the path down to the hydrofoil was a dour-looking stubble-faced man of about forty, sitting on a crate with his arms folded. "You know what Hartville, you don't look like much. Ain't nothin wrong with the way my ship looks," he said grumpily, looking a little hurt. "Now you lot getting on or not?"

"Aye, aye captain!" replied Eluette, snapping off a loose approximation of a salute that only earned her a scowl from the captain as she turned back to the group. "This is the high speed ferry to Seafoam city, since it's the closest island with a decent airport most of the time you have to go there first to get anywhere else you have a job, I know the academy has some helicopters and other stuff somewhere but they normally never let students use 'em." Eluette lead the group past the captain, who grunted in acknowledgement and up the gangway, which was guarded by an automated gate with a small ticket machine built into it. After fiddling with the ticket machine for a while and then swiping her student card through Eluette got the gate to open and the machine to start spitting out tickets that she advised everyone to take one of, before leading them into the ferry itself.

The interior of the ferry was dominated by bays of seats covered in blue, synthetic fuzz although in the centre of the room was a small kiosk selling food and drinks. Most of the bays had groups of students in them, chatting easily or staring out the windows but it was simple enough to find and empty one that Eluette immediately plopped herself down in before waving invitingly.

"This is pretty much it, the ferry only takes about an hour and it makes the trip three times a day so as long as everything goes according to plan we'll be back in time for dinner. In the mean time, how much do you guys actually know about Seafoam City?"

[Taigawa]

Nari Mastamoto

The panther-woman adknowledged what had been said and took one of the tickets. Though she too thought little of the ferry's appearence, as long as it served it's purpose, she did'nt care. She used her student id card to get something to eat from the kiosk before claiming a seat and begininning to eat her food. Between bites, she stated that she knew "absolutely nothing." It was plain truth, but such annoyed her. She hated being ignorent. However, as she said that, a n old memory stirred. "Oh now I remember. An old naval base with shit for security. This is gonna be fun."

[Sonitusia]

Looking at the hydrofoil boat, Bio dutifully inspected it and placed a small report in her files, remembering it for if she ever needed a ride off the island for later times. She even scanned its captain, of whom seemed to be rather displeased by any mention of his boat being looking bad. She decided not to ever say anything about the vessel, and in fact was rather interested by it, continuing to report on it as they took their tickets and entered the hull. Beverages and snacks were available for purchase, and the hues of blue soothed her optics, almost as blue as the sea outside. Students were already within, so it seemed that this was actually a much more public transport than she had expected.

Sitting down across from Eluette, she seemed like an average high-school girl, gripping onto her seat excitedly as it began to take off.

"...In the mean time, how much do you guys actually know about Seafoam City?"

"Former Alterran naval base sold to investors?" Bio quipped, mentally opening a file in her HUD, "It's basically a city under Alterra's jurisdiction. On paper that is. The city has power over itself due to some slight of hand, and was supposed to become a spa town of sorts. Things changed after its residents used that special legal status the island had as opposed to other cities of Alterra, and people were able to change it into something much larger than a mere resort."

Flicking a crumb that had been on the table in front of her, she continued, "Then the money bags settled down on the island, and as expected, so did their workers. Security on the island is real lazy, you know? Since they're just guards hired by some stakeholders. 'Course that means mercenaries get hired a lot to take care of their criminal problems, like what we're doing now. Aaaand in the end, organized crime became the norm in what was once a beautiful island."

She remembered her brief time their back in the day, trying to uncover what was left of the naval base, if any. It was indeed a great sightseeing destination, but she always felt that there were more than two eyes looking her way at every given moment.

[Hank J Wimbleton]

Frances sat himself down within the near vicinity of Eluette, and looked over at BIO, apparently spouting the entire life story of Seafoam City.

"Umm... Not that this probably adds anything to the discussion, but I also heard that the island is home to one of the most notorious gangs around, with international ties and are a big part of the drug trafficking sector? And uh, there's a poor and a rich district, unofficially?"

Frances cringed at his own wording, as most should do in such a situation, before standing up and getting something to drink, and sitting back down.

[MightyQuinn]

Frances sat himself down within the near vicinity of Eluette, and looked over at BIO, apparently spouting the entire life story of Seafoam City.

"Umm... Not that this probably adds anything to the discussion, but I also heard that the island is home to one of the most notorious gangs around, with international ties and are a big part of the drug trafficking sector? And uh, there's a poor and a rich district, unofficially?"

Frances cringed at his own wording, as most should do in such a situation, before standing up and getting something to drink, and sitting back down.

Sobolan de Otel

The ride was fast and smooth. The hydrofoil's construction muffled the sound of the engines, which would likely sound very powerful with no sound dampening material between them and the passengers. Sobolan began to consider that it was Elluette's habit to find fault with things. To his thinking, the boat's skipper probably had every right to scowl at her, except he made his living by ferrying her, and the likes of their party back and forth. He resolved to pay the skipper a complement as they disembarked.

He imagined that in little time at all they would enter the harbor and reduce speed, so as not to create a wake to overly disturb the smaller boats moored and the ones in slips, Sobolan thought to ask Elluette a question about the mission. He found her chatting to Bio, Nari, and some of the others. When there was a pause in the conversation, he took advantage of the silence.

"Elluette," asked Sobolan, "I'm certain that we can use whatever force necessary to defend ourselves, but what ought to be the 'target' level of inflicted damage that we ought to aim for? Short or, perhaps, long term recovery time?"

[Sonitusia]

"Umm... Not that this probably adds anything to the discussion, but I also heard that the island is home to one of the most notorious gangs around, with international ties and are a big part of the drug trafficking sector? And uh, there's a poor and a rich district, unofficially?"

When Frances sat back down, Bio began to speak again, so that the fellow first-year didn't miss anything she said on the topic. It also seemed that Sobolan had joined them, asking Eluette about the power level that they were allowed to exert. Remembering that they weren't allowed to kill, she quickly set her strength to a low 25 percent, just to limit herself so she didn't go too far.

"It's to be expected in areas like this," she said to Frances, taking out a cigarette and laying it in front of an empty seat, gesturing for Sobolan to join them, "Like I said, organized crime runs wild here, that's why people for hire can make an easy buck. Like us. Even if we get rid of these thugs, there will probably be another group to replace them. We can't destroy the entire game, just the players."

Putting COMFY on her lap, she added, "Not without proper preparation, that is."

[MightyQuinn]

"Umm... Not that this probably adds anything to the discussion, but I also heard that the island is home to one of the most notorious gangs around, with international ties and are a big part of the drug trafficking sector? And uh, there's a poor and a rich district, unofficially?"

When Frances sat back down, Bio began to speak again, so that the fellow first-year didn't miss anything she said on the topic. It also seemed that Sobolan had joined them, asking Eluette about the power level that they were allowed to exert. Remembering that they weren't allowed to kill, she quickly set her strength to a low 25 percent, just to limit herself so she didn't go too far.

"It's to be expected in areas like this," she said to Frances, taking out a cigarette and laying it in front of an empty seat, gesturing for Sobolan to join them, "Like I said, organized crime runs wild here, that's why people for hire can make an easy buck. Like us. Even if we get rid of these thugs, there will probably be another group to replace them. We can't destroy the entire game, just the players."

Putting COMFY on her lap, she added, "Not without proper preparation, that is."

Sobolan picked up the cigarette, lit it, took a puff and remarked, "Nature abhors a vacuum. I'd imagine that missions like these happen at least once a year, if not more." He nodded his thanks to Bio, for the fag. "Makes it possible for us first years to get our feet wet, if we hadn't gotten them wet from our time before the Academy. Not that I've seen a lot of work, since I haven't had a long life, yet"

Then, "I'm sure Elluette has, but has anyone else been by the Surfside Harbor shops before? I find it interesting that the President of the merchants' association sells and weatherproofs musical instruments."

He took another puff, tasting the heat atomized tobacco, rather than taking the smoke into his lungs, and waited for an answer.

[Penguinia-Tempor]

Looking around as she boarded the ferry, Catie saw that there were already groups of other students on their way to Seafoam island as well, most of them presumably having been convinced to take the same or similar jobs that Eluette had offered by their own second-year guides. Weapons could be seen poking out of bags that lay under seats, though Catie knew that nobody would be using them on the ferry.

"Wouldn't hurt to be careful though," She muttered to herself, running a hand over both thigh holsters. The notion of concealed weaponry didn't mean much to most Cheskans, particularly the ones that lived outside of the large cities like her. After grabbing a small snack from the kiosk in the middle of the ferry the last of her meager point total,she walked back to the group with Bio and Sobolan and immediately picked up on their conversation.

"Haven't been by those shops yet. I can see the use for a weatherproofing enchantment in areas with rather extreme weather, though I wouldn't spend money on that if most of our time is going to be spent at the Academy. If you're going to enchant weapons, you'd be better off with a good durability or edge keeping enchantment or perhaps an elemental infusion." Catie said, motioning towards the elemental bands on her right forearm.

[Atlannia]

"Former Alterran naval base sold to investors?" Bio quipped, mentally opening a file in her HUD, "It's basically a city under Alterra's jurisdiction. On paper that is. The city has power over itself due to some slight of hand, and was supposed to become a spa town of sorts. Things changed after its residents used that special legal status the island had as opposed to other cities of Alterra, and people were able to change it into something much larger than a mere resort."

Flicking a crumb that had been on the table in front of her, she continued, "Then the money bags settled down on the island, and as expected, so did their workers. Security on the island is real lazy, you know? Since they're just guards hired by some stakeholders. 'Course that means mercenaries get hired a lot to take care of their criminal problems, like what we're doing now. Aaaand in the end, organized crime became the norm in what was once a beautiful island."

She remembered her brief time their back in the day, trying to uncover what was left of the naval base, if any. It was indeed a great sightseeing destination, but she always felt that there were more than two eyes looking her way at every given moment.

"Well that's basically the gist of it," said Eluette nodding. "I don't know if it was ever beautiful though, I'm pretty sure before the navy rolled in it was a glorified rock covered in bird shit. I mean you know the island you just discovered is boring if the only feature it has enough of to name it after is sea foam. Guess it beats Birdshit Island though."

Frances sat himself down within the near vicinity of Eluette, and looked over at BIO, apparently spouting the entire life story of Seafoam City.

"Umm... Not that this probably adds anything to the discussion, but I also heard that the island is home to one of the most notorious gangs around, with international ties and are a big part of the drug trafficking sector? And uh, there's a poor and a rich district, unofficially?"

Frances cringed at his own wording, as most should do in such a situation, before standing up and getting something to drink, and sitting back down.

"Common misconception," said Eluette when Frances returned, eyeing his drink enviously. "I'mma get one of those, be right back." with that the elf stood up, jogged over to the kiosk and procured a drink from the vendor before walking back slowly, taking a swig from the can as she walked.

"A lot of gangs operate in Seafoam including some pretty major players but none of the big players originated on the island or are based their permanently." She said, sitting back down and stretching out comfortably. "It's a lot more profitable for the gangs to put up with each other and use it for more discreet activities then to get violent and try and take it all for themselves. Open gang warfare would probably be enough for Alterra to get serious about enforcing the law there. The island was briefly under martial law for a while a couple of decades ago but the whole thing fizzled out when the Senator who stirred up all the public support for the intervention died suddenly under mysterious circumstances."

Eluette looked down at her hand, casually inspecting her fingernails. "Well you can draw your own conclusions from that, the point is the major players have seen what happens when they mess with status quo. The local gangs are usually street punks, they mess with the lower classes, running small protection rackets or straight burglary rings, if they ever get organised enough to try something bigger they either get wiped out or hired by one of the internationals." Eluette shrugged. "Anyway you can ask Nate about this stuff if you're curious, he always has an ear to the ground for this kind of stuff. I asked him about the uh, Sharks, before we left and he hadn't even heard of them, which means they're either extremely new, extremely small time or most likely both. If you're worried about Baat Sikarat enforcers coming after us or something it's pretty unlikely."

Sobolan de Otel

The ride was fast and smooth. The hydrofoil's construction muffled the sound of the engines, which would likely sound very powerful with no sound dampening material between them and the passengers. Sobolan began to consider that it was Elluette's habit to find fault with things. To his thinking, the boat's skipper probably had every right to scowl at her, except he made his living by ferrying her, and the likes of their party back and forth. He resolved to pay the skipper a complement as they disembarked.

He imagined that in little time at all they would enter the harbor and reduce speed, so as not to create a wake to overly disturb the smaller boats moored and the ones in slips, Sobolan thought to ask Elluette a question about the mission. He found her chatting to Bio, Nari, and some of the others. When there was a pause in the conversation, he took advantage of the silence.

"Elluette," asked Sobolan, "I'm certain that we can use whatever force necessary to defend ourselves, but what ought to be the 'target' level of inflicted damage that we ought to aim for? Short or, perhaps, long term recovery time?"

"We'd better swing by this..." Eluette frowned and dug out the flier from before, studying it briefly "-Seafoam Shanty Shack and ask. This Quincy guy was kind of vague in the email but the impression I got was that we're trying to get these guys to quit not put them in the hospital permanently. It'll depend how stubborn they are I guess."

Sobolan picked up the cigarette, lit it, took a puff and remarked, "Nature abhors a vacuum. I'd imagine that missions like these happen at least once a year, if not more." He nodded his thanks to Bio, for the fag. "Makes it possible for us first years to get our feet wet, if we hadn't gotten them wet from our time before the Academy. Not that I've seen a lot of work, since I haven't had a long life, yet"

Then, "I'm sure Elluette has, but has anyone else been by the Surfside Harbor shops before? I find it interesting that the President of the merchants' association sells and weatherproofs musical instruments."

He took another puff, tasting the heat atomized tobacco, rather than taking the smoke into his lungs, and waited for an answer.

Looking around as she boarded the ferry, Catie saw that there were already groups of other students on their way to Seafoam island as well, most of them presumably having been convinced to take the same or similar jobs that Eluette had offered by their own second-year guides. Weapons could be seen poking out of bags that lay under seats, though Catie knew that nobody would be using them on the ferry.

"Wouldn't hurt to be careful though," She muttered to herself, running a hand over both thigh holsters. The notion of concealed weaponry didn't mean much to most Cheskans, particularly the ones that lived outside of the large cities like her. After grabbing a small snack from the kiosk in the middle of the ferry the last of her meager point total,she walked back to the group with Bio and Sobolan and immediately picked up on their conversation.

"Haven't been by those shops yet. I can see the use for a weatherproofing enchantment in areas with rather extreme weather, though I wouldn't spend money on that if most of our time is going to be spent at the Academy. If you're going to enchant weapons, you'd be better off with a good durability or edge keeping enchantment or perhaps an elemental infusion." Catie said, motioning towards the elemental bands on her right forearm.

"Salt damage is a pretty major issue on Seafoam," chimed in Eluette, before taking a sip of her drink. There's no beaches or anything, since land is so expensive they've built right to the edge of the coast everywhere, the outer districts are all completely exposed to the wind and spray and anything that doesn't have some kind of salt proofing degrades pretty quickly so it's not uncommon at all for stores to through in salt repelling charms or treatments. It's the source of a bit of local slang, if anybody ever accuses you of not being saltproof it means they think you're untrustworthy or unreliable."

Eluette suddenly pulled out her phone and looked at the display, whistling in mild surprise. "Well would you look at that, we're almost there. Actually if you crane you're neck right you'll probably be able to see it, Seafoam's kinda hard to miss.

---

This turned out to be true. Ahead of the hydrofoil there was nothing except for the vast, flat expanse of the ocean until suddenly the horizon was broken up by a squat, dark monolith.

The city towered out of the ocean like something that plainly did not belong there. Towering skyscrapers rose out of the ocean, ringed by smaller, cheaper buildings that surely represented the lower class areas they had spoken about. As Eluette had said, the ungainly urban sprawl extended right out to the edge of the island, in fact beyond it as the there was no natural land visible to the approaching hydrofoil, everything in line of sight standing upon large, solid looking platforms held only a few metres above the sea by massive pillars.

As the hydrofoil drew nearer to the city the details came into focus and the incredible din of and unique smell of a city announced themselves as well, the result of millions of people working, shouting, sweating, eating and living together.

"Welcome!" Said Eluette, standing up and giving a flourishing bow while steadily ignroign the stares she drew from other students. "To Seafoam City!"

[Taigawa]

Nari Mastamoto

"And here I thought the coastal areas of Chengxi were bad...at least we built our things to look nice." the lady remarked as the sights and smells of the city assulted her senses. Chengxi was capital of Engawa, Nari's homeland. As it was built similarly, but along unltramodern lines, it was the closest thing she had to compare it to. Chengxi was also her hometown, and while she was here supposedly to hone her skills without risk to her life, it would'nt harm to gain some combat experience either. In truth compared to Chengxi, she found the monolithic buildings drab and inelegant. Still, despite her reservations, she had a job to do, and she would do it.

[Hank J Wimbleton]

Frances stepped ashore reluctantly, though to be honest the muggy air of the ship wasn't that much better than the smog and smoke of Seafoam City. Coughing once or twice, the sound of cars and people became almost deafening, like an ambience.

"How long have we got to stay here? Are the docks any better? I feel like I can't even breathe!"

Frances said, feeling an uncomfortable sensation at the bottom of his lungs.

[Sonitusia]

"Looks pretty much the same as two years ago," Bio sighed, her filters starting to work a bit harder to keep the pollution from entering her system, "I can still remember the first time I was here... Landed by plane, lead through the city by a drone who had no sense of emotion..."

She pulled COMFY up, breathing in the filtered air calmly, turning around to take sight of the empty horizon once more. It was soothing, nothing to be seen for miles on end, save for the waves slowly curling up, breaking apart into the beautiful foam this city was named after. She hadn't a care for the island itself, just the view that one could see from it.

"I wonder how 'he' would feel, seeing this..."

[Penguinia-Tempor]

"Salt damage is a pretty major issue on Seafoam," chimed in Eluette, before taking a sip of her drink. There's no beaches or anything, since land is so expensive they've built right to the edge of the coast everywhere, the outer districts are all completely exposed to the wind and spray and anything that doesn't have some kind of salt proofing degrades pretty quickly so it's not uncommon at all for stores to through in salt repelling charms or treatments. It's the source of a bit of local slang, if anybody ever accuses you of not being saltproof it means they think you're untrustworthy or unreliable."

"Well, I guess if you spend all of your time here, then saltproofing would be important. But since we're training to be professional killers, I highly doubt that we'll have to deal with street thugs very often. Preventive maintenance will do." Catie said. When Eluette pulled out her phone and announced that they were almost to the city, Catie quickly took notice and double-checked her weapons again. The last thing she wanted was any live bullets mixed in with her non-lethals.

"To Seafoam City!"

The first thing Catie noticed as she walked off the boat was the stench. A cacophony of smells, most of it being motor oil and smoke, assaulted her senses all at once. Narrowing her eyes as they began to water, she was hit directly by the spray of a breaking wave, the oily water coating the right side of her jacket with a salty slime. She coughed three times, her lungs struggling to adjust to the poor air quality.

"Gross. Now I remember why I hated this place for the hour I waited for the ferry to the island. Must've forgotten about it when my leg got melted." She coughed once again. "I don't suppose we can use Academy Points outside of the island, can we?"

[The Burning Sun]

As Hata stepped onto the island, she kept her hands somewhat outstretched in front of her - for who had time to avoid running into things when there was so much stuff to look at? Princip Island was one thing, and several of the minor ports she had passed through had been pretty eye-opening, but this was, perhaps, the first true city she had seen. Marveling at the massive skyscrapers and the endless urban sprawl, she ignored Elluete's speech and took a deep breath, expecting her first breath of clean air after her time spent trapped in the smoky darkness of the ship's hold. Instead, she doubled over, coughing and scratching her throat as she desperately attempted to purge her lungs of whatever corrosive toxin she had just breathed in.

Dear God...what did I do to deserve this?!? Still coughing, she managed to stumble over to a nearby lamppost, where she collapsed onto the ground. How could anyone possibly live like this?

As the pain ever-so-slowly subsided, Hata tried to calm herself with the memory of the piercing, fresh mountain air that she had been breathing for all her life. Unfortunately, the idea that she would have to withstand this torture for an entire day was too much to handle, and by the time Celeste noticed what was happening and jogged over to help, Hata was about ready to commit ritual suicide, if only so she could wake up in the Academy's infirmary.

Celeste, also none too pleased by the pollution, pulled Hata upright and offered her a handkerchief. "Here," she said, " take this. It's been infused with one of my perfumes, and it might help alleviate the effects of the...air. At any rate, you have to stop dying for a bit and start walking, we're going to go visit some kind of shop or other for information."

Hata gratefully accepted the blue handkerchief, and the two of them made their way back to the group, both hoping that nobody had noticed what had happened.

[MightyQuinn]

Sobolan recalled having first come through Seafoam City two days ago. He'd spent the night and most of the day casually walking about, not really going anywhere in particular or taking note of landmarks. He wasn't surprised at the constant hustle & bustle, noise and air pollution of the place.

Typically, the WereRat was almost always ready for a fight, but the noise made it want to shrink deeper into the young man.

As Sobolan stepped onto the dock, he recalled Eluette mentioning a term or a name that he hadn't heard before.

So he asked, "Eluette, what are the Baat Sikarat? A gang? A group a cut above the local small-timers?"

[Wilderam]

Felix grimaced at the sight of Seafoam. He vaguely remembered it from when he had passed through. Though it had only been a few days ago, He had spent most of the time trying to come to terms with the incredible amount of people, and all of their seemingly endless thoughts.
The only thing he did remember was that taking a breath felt like eating knives.
Forcing his protesting legs and mind into action, he walked off the boat and onto dry... Concrete. Felix would have preferred there to be at least some grass, but alas.
Standing a bit away from his fellow assassins, clustered around Eulette, he began to focus on their their thoughts, so that he could use them as firm anchors to hold onto in the veritable cyclone of emotions in a city. Still, He wasn't stupid, making sure not to actually try and read their thoughts, lest they notice him.

[MightyQuinn]

Nick "Knuckles" Kulane, from the shadowy second story window of the waterside flop house, with the scoped and high powered rifle within arms' reach, watched the ferry docks. He wanted to be in bed, finishing a good night's sleep after being up late, but the Seafoam Sharks' Boss had given a couple of the gang members a rotating duty to keep an eye on the ferry docks for any sign of.... Bilgewater! Getting off of the hydrofoil ferry were a bunch of youngsters in the Princeps Island Academy uniform!

At a glance, they didn't look all that dangerous. Still, the Boss had been around for some time and when Knuckles had been recruited the Boss made it clear that, no matter how they looked, the people from the Academy were not pushovers.

The first thing Knuckles did was to get out his cell phone and send a group text to the rest of the gang. Then, he picked up the rifle and got into a comfortable shooting position. The Boss had wanted to let any interlopers know that the Seafoam Sharks were not going to rollover and die like the other gangs that had come and gone before them. His orders were to deliver the message and then retreat. Who should he give the message to...? There was a tall boy with dishwater blonde hair and a metal walking stick, who just "looked" unfortunate. Well, he'd do as well as any of them as a target.

Breathing easy, Knuckles targeted the boy. He held his breath for a second and squeezed the rifle trigger.

* * * *

Sobolan

He heard the "crack" of the rifle shot and almost instantly Sobolan felt as if he'd been hit in the chest by a freight train! The rifle slug knocked him back a few steps and Sobolan fell back onto his backside, sitting up. "Mother of Curses!" He thought, I've been effing shot! He almost blacked out from the pain! It wasn't silver, though, and he felt the slug being slowly ejected from his body, through the way it had come in.

[Hank J Wimbleton]

A gunshot, a yell, a clattering of a bullet on the wooden dock. Honestly, Frances didn't even react. He just turned around, sighed and picked up a series of quartz spikes, before flinging them into the general direction from which the bullets undoubtedly came, eliciting a shattering of wood and a yell of pain. Flinging himself upwards, a massive pillar of crystals appearing underneath him explosively, he landed in front of some boy, clutching his midriff and a rifle fallen on the floor and nearly demolished by the velocity of a quartz spike. To be honest, Frances felt a little guilty. This was just a child after a-

*BANG*

"Son. Of. A. Bitch."

Frances cursed, and raised a small wall of salt crystals in front of him from the spray of the sea slamming against the shore, and ducked behind it, clutching a wounded leg, a fine lining of crystallized quartz forming around it. There must have been what, about a dozen shooters? What was the law enforcement doing? In any case, backup was here, and shit was about to get real.

[The Burning Sun]

Celeste d'Penthièvre

---

A gunshot already? This is turning out to be more exciting than I thought...

Come to think of it, she wasn't that surprised. This was Seafoam City, after all, holder of the dubious honor of being number one on the "Do Not Visit" list her advisors had given her. If she remembered correctly, it was in her room somewhere. Maybe. Anyway, the gunshot was probably unrelated - plenty of things could have caused it.

Then she saw Sobolan picking himself off of the ground, and another student(Frances? They might have met on the boat) go leaping into a nearby building, which was quickly followed by more gunshots.

Oh...come on now, even I would realize that's a stupid idea.

Still, there was a fellow student in danger, and everybody else looked like they were content to stand by and laugh. She had to help - but how? As distasteful as the building was, it was probably occupied, and it would be unethical to inflict unnecessary collateral damage.

What would Hunt Master Gerhman tell me to do...?

Step 1: Take control of her surroundings.

Standing on the edge of the pier, Celeste quickly aimed and fired a series of small concussive blasts at the second-story wall, ripping open several large holes and exposing a couple of disconcertingly well armed thugs.

Step 2: Begin the assault.

From what she could tell, the gang members were just normal humans. Nothing special would be required to disable them - though she would have to be careful not to kill anybody by accident. Resting her hand on the hilt of the Lance, she offered a quick mental apology to whichever student was inside the building and released part of the mana stored within. Under her guidance, it became a minor lightning spell, arcing through the flop house and striking each resident on the upper floor with its brilliant white tendrils of power. The storm left as quickly as it arrived, leaving the thugs unconscious on the floor and Celeste peering through the smoke - just to make sure nothing unexpected had happened.

Hiroari Hata

---

The fight - if one could call it that - went smoothly and without a hitch. From her position on the ground, Hata had merely sat and watched as her companion seemingly annihilated most of the nearby building. If that was it, Hata had thought, this entire expedition was a massive waste of time. Luckily, it wasn't. Probably, at least. After all, Eluette had mentioned that the gang was quite large. If the failed ambush had been planned, then it stood to reason that the shooter probably had more friends waiting in other buildings, or in the surrounding alleyways. Everyone else was distracted, or otherwise waiting at the dock, which meant that it was her job to go hunt them down. As she quietly got up and snuck into a darkened side street, she found herself...relishing the opportunity.

I spent most of last night running like a deer through the forest. This is my chance to redeem myself

Reaching over her shoulder, Hata grasped the handle of Roukanken and began the pull, only to stop as she remembered Eluette's instructions.

No fatalities. Right.

Hata sighed, then reached further back and grasped Roukanken's sheath instead. In a single smooth motion, she pulled it, and the sword, out of its cloth bindings and held it before her, admiring the smoothly polished black lacquer. She wouldn't be able to swing it effectively, but the presence of the Lotus Blossom and its magical reinforcement should allow her to clobber any unsuspecting fools as hard as she liked. Just in case, though, she drew and resheathed Roukanken several times. One could never be sure what would happen during combat, and, well, if the situation demanded it...

Replacing the katana in its sheath for the final time, she set off at a brisk trot, sword and scabbard in hand.

[Penguinia-Tempor]

The first gunshots were of little concern for Catie. Keeping a calm, collected demeanor as the bullets began to fly all around her, she teleported up to a nearby building, only to watch a student completely annihilate the ambushers with a well-placed lightning spell. Those larger spells were the kind of thing Catie had never managed to master. It was something about having low natural mana reserves, though she figured that her guns and incantation bands were enough to make up for that.

Instead of heading further into the city to track down some more gang members, Catie teleported right back down to Sobolan and extended a hand down towards him. She tried not to look down any lower than his general face area. The bullet he had took was slowly working its way out if his chest, revealing splintered bone and several organs underneath.

Grabbing his hand and pulling upwards, she said, "You look ok."