(Outdated) The King of Elements

The Girl Who Provides Madness

Ugh. That feeling of speeding through darkness again. The lurching feeling he felt in the pit of his stomach. This was going to be something that was going to be hard to get used to. Minutes later, he'd see the light of Amita, a sign that he'd finally be able to open his eyes.

In the ongoing darkness, he could swear he heard a low murmur of a crowd. As the light of Amita began to grow, so did the murmuring. His eyes shot open as he looked down high above Reiax Academy and saw a short, wide line of students in front of a long table that looked to fit about twenty-five people. As his eyes traced the line, he saw a small, childlike figure wave at him. He couldn't help but smile as the ground crept up on him.

"Hi, hi, hi!" Keiko said, looking just as happy and energetic as usual as he gently landed beside her. Man, did anything bring this girl down?

"Hey, Keiko, Michael," he added to the dark, looming tower of a friend behind her, sporting the usual black and gloomy look with a leather-bound book to match. He merely grunted as he continued to read.

"So that's four of our group that here, right?" Michael asked Keiko, who nodded.

"Four?" He looked around the crowd of students, all buzzing with excitement, but didn't see anyone else from his group. "But I only see us three."

"Nonsense!" Keiko said as she looked around. "Ah, there you are." She grabbed the arm of a slim woman wearing a dandelion-yellow short- sleeve shirt.

"H-hey! Oh, hello, Keiko." Kimmy's soft voice broke through the crowd. "Hi, Michael. H-hi, Ke'Undre." Her voice wavered as she looked at Dre. She grew a deeper shade of red as she turned to the group. "How are you guys?"

"Can't complain," Michael sighed as he closed the book and stuffed it in the waist line of his pants. "The question now is, 'Where is the rest of our group?' It's about a quarter after three, and we're the only ones who've shown up so far. I want to see what the big deal is with this school."

Fighting eight-foot tall monsters in a dark forest aren't thrilling to him? Geez, I'd hate to see what he would call "scary." "So, the Edge Walkers weren't a big deal?"

"Was I the one who passed out in said event?"

Silence washed over the small group. Kimmy looked down at her floral patterned sandals while Dre glared at Michael. The aftermath of the entrance exams resurfaced into his mind. An image of Kim, a girl that Dre considered innocence in its purest form, laying on a hospital bed, bruised and bloody, all because of him. "That wasn't cool, man. Not at all."

Thankfully, a person slowly fell behind the group. "Hi, Megumi!" Keiko called to the descending figure. "You have perfect timing. Things weren't going too good here."

"What do you mean?" Megumi asked as she landed gracefully beside Dre. His heart felt like it skipped a beat as her hair brushed against his forearm. It didn't defuse his anger, but it did slightly calm him.

Snap out of it Dre, you idiot, he thought to himself. You have a girlfriend, remember?

"We had a bit of a miscommunication. Nothing to concern yourself about," Michael said, looking down past the shortening line to the towering school. "What we need to be more concerned about is what's going to happen to us behind those walls. If the classes were anything like the entrance exam, we may be in for a long year in Hell."

Dre hadn't thought about that, and considering the disconcerting looks on their faces, neither did they. That would explain why Dre's father acted so reluctant to call them into the room to talk about the school. Great. Just when he thought that he had went through the hardest part of being an Amian, his hardship was apparently just beginning.

Behind Dre, four more people began to appear behind Dre. Among the four, two of them were the last remaining members of his team, Ian and Rose. The other two were Jason and Jerek. "I see that you all survived the exams then, huh," Jerek said as he straightened himself up.

"And let us be the first to say, 'told you so,'" Jason added with a satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, whatever man," Ian said as he and Rose stood up. "How did you two know about the exam, anyway? Did your mom and dad tell you about it?"

"Nope. Our parents probably wouldn't even tell us our birthdays," Jerek said. "We know about it because it's our second time taking it. We didn't pass it the first time."

"Pardon me for asking, but how did you fail it the first time?" Rose asked as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

"To put it frankly," Jason started before Jerek had a chance at speaking, "me and stupid over here couldn't stop fighting with each other long enough to focus on the Edge Walkers-"

"This asshole almost got us killed," Jerek interrupted. "If it wasn't for our teammates, we would've died."

"Don't you call me an asshole, you tool!" Jason snapped.

"You want a piece of me?!" Jerek widened his feet shoulder-length apart and crouched down, as if he were getting ready to prepping himself to body slam Jason.

"Hey," a girl's voice had said among the chaos, clutching silver, folded up clothes under her arm, shimmering in comparison to her dark skin. In her other hand was a sheet of paper and a small black box. Both Jason and Jereksobered up as the young woman stood between the two, catching the whole group by surprise. How did she get here undetected?

She looked over to Jason, then turned her attention to Jerek, both of which looked terrified to be in the same presence as her. "If I have to, I will put an end to your idiotic rambling by killing both of you." She began walking towards the school, her short, black hair swaying with the wind. A cold chill stabbed through Dre as she passed him; a feeling of dread filled his psyche as she eyed him. Michael looked like he would attack you if you looked at him strange; this woman looked like she would kill you without needing a reason.

"Who was that?" Megumi asked as the girl was out of earshot.

"Her? That's Laisha Charles. She's a member of the Akayama team," said Jerek, keeping a watchful eye on the girl. "She's bad news, really bad. I've heard that she unlocked her power in less than five minutes on an oncoming group. The poor bastards never had a chance to even attempt to use their power."

"You mean she killed them all?" Kimmy asked.

"Oh, no. They're still alive," Jerek said. "All seven of them had collapsed at the same time, but they were just rendered unconscious. The unnerving thing is that the girl knock them all out without even moving a muscle."

"I'm assuming that you've seen it happen," Michael stated as the line moved up. They were within a few feet of the school gates.

"Seen it happen? We were almost a part of it!" Jason cut in. "You've noticed that she said we were being idiots 'again,' right? Well, we had an argument at the beginning of the exam about which way we should go to avoid running into the Edge Walkers, and then she came in and told us to shut up. Naturally, I said 'What if we don't?' and I swear to you, she dug her nails into my freaking shoulder."

"And yet, no one in the team saw her doing it." Jerek said. "The only thing we saw was you yelling your lungs out holding your shoulder."

"Say whatever bull you want, man. I know what I saw." Jason turned his attention to Dre. "If at all possible, stay away from that girl."

Dre gulped as he turned towards the school. It looked like Michael was right all along. With a girl like Laisha running around the school, it would be impossible to call this place safe. And yet, for some reason, Dre had looked forward to this school. If at all, he had figured that he'd fit into this school better than the one at Prescott.