Slayer Academy: Origin of Honors

Ketsu

Ketsu nonchalantly walked up to the front gates of Slayer Academy, a single backpack slung over his shoulder which was filled with essential school items: a magazine about food, a few instant-ramen noodle cups, and a pack of breath mints. "I am at the school now," he stated blankly as he entered the school grounds. He looked around at the already bustling students who arrived at school early like he did. Freshmen wandered around exploring the campus while the upperclassmen gossiped about how lame the freshmen were. Ketsu looked neither excited nor disappointed as he traversed the school and ate the cup of ramen he had brought with him from home.

"This place is very crowded," he noted as he shuffled through the crowd of students. Ketsu finished his ramen and placed the cup on an unsuspecting student's backpack, then took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. He unfolded the paper and smoothed out the wrinkles, then examined the paper. It was a map of the school that he received with his acceptance letter.

"Where is it . . ." he asked himself.

"Need help?" a girl from behind him asked. She tapped his shoulder, Ketsu turning around to face her.

"Yes, I do," answered Ketsu. "I am trying to find a classroom."

"Oh, alright then." The girl smiled and held her hand out. "I'm Kelly, by the way. Junior class president."

"Oh. I am Ketsu. Freshman. Not a president," he said and shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you Ketsu," said Kelly with a laugh, though Ketsu was thoroughly confused as to why she was laughing since he wasn't joking around. "Well anyways," continued Kelly, "which class are you looking for? I know where basically every class--"

"F-9," interrupted Ketsu. Kelly's smiled slowly melted after he said that. The many students nearby that heard what Ketsu said all stopped and regarded him with cold glares. Even Ketsu was a bit surprised by this and stepped back a little.

"I-I'm sorry," said Kelly, "but can you repeat that? I must've misheard you over all the noise."

"I said F-9 . . ." repeated Ketsu cautiously.

"You're . . . one of those students?" said Kelly who was starting to sound annoyed. "There's no way." To prove her wrong, Ketsu took out and read the acceptance letter he had conveniently stored in his pocket along with the map. Kelly crossed her arms and bit her lip, clearly upset with what she was hearing. "So you really are one of them," she muttered. She gave Ketsu an annoyed look and said, "Sorry, but I don't remember where that class is." With that, Kelly brushed past Ketsu and muttered swears and curses under her breath. Ketsu quickly left the area to escape the glares and silent gossip the other students were giving him.

Ketsu continued on his way around the school searching for F-9 on his own. He scratched his head and thought long and hard about the way the students reacted when he said what class he was going to. What's so special about F-9, he thought to himself. Ketsu sighed and leaned against a wall. He observed the map one more time and sighed. He had spilled ramen on it the night before on accident, and that pretty much made everything hard to read.

As Ketsu was dealing with his problem, a teacher in a grey suit passed by him. The teacher stopped, took a quick look at Ketsu, then asked, "You a freshman?"

"Wha? Oh, yes," answered Ketsu with a nod.

"You're a bit early aren't you? School doesn't start in twenty minutes."

"There are other students here as well, including freshmen."

"Good point. Though they don't look as lost as you do."

"I spilled ramen on my map."

"Ah. That's too bad."

"Indeed."

"You're pretty straightforward with your responses," the teacher said and chuckled. "Well what class are you looking for?"

"Um . . ." Ketsu scratched his head. He didn't want to attract attention like he did last time.

"Well?"

"I don't want to say?"

"Why not?"

"People glared at me when I asked for assistance."

"People glared?" The teacher thought for a moment, then smiled and said, "I think I know what class you want to go to. Luckily for you, I teach that class."

"Ok."

"Not easy to impress are you . . . well whatever. Come on, follow me. I'll take you there and let you in early."

"May I eat ramen in the classroom?"

"It's a bit early for ramen, don't you think?"

"It's a bit early for you to be questioning people's eating habits, don't you think?"

"Touché," replied the teacher as he led Ketsu to F-9.