★ ☆ᏩᎾᏚᎬᏆ ᏢᎡᎾᏓᎬᏟᎢ☆★

Chapter 1

    Junimono Academy, a seaside school well-known for its successful students, was fairly traditional. They had classrooms with blackboards, the competitive atmosphere, the admirable upperclassmen; the expected. Perhaps they hadn't yet reached poster child status, but they certainly crafted a name for themselves within the high school praxis. The only truly major change was the decision to allow male students into the school around a year ago.
     Ah, and the sudden modernization with the new headmaster, Masuyo Ozawa.
     The school had its share of prestige before Ozawa, but some students seemed... lacking. Their studies definitely held top priority, but with a plethora of clubs and sports, many of the students poured their energy into such activities and failed to spare as comparable of a fighting spirit into their studying as they'd like to.
     That was the state of matters before Masuyo Ozawa.
     As part of her new regimen, all extracurricular activities ceased to a dead halt, and anyone caught participating in such things would be strictly dealt with. Sometimes certain grades would lower, and other times, they'd simply get suspended. If this wasn't bad enough, there was more. Extra work piled into the students' lives, giving them almost no time for anything—as if anything else even mattered anymore. Wake up, study, go to school, study, come home, study, sleep, study. Study, study, study. Repeat. That was an average Junimono student's life.
     To top it all off, Ozawa brought in new staff members, the generals of her oppressive military. These staff members were the best of the best and as harsh as harsh could be, giving stingingly clear instructions and teaching well beyond what the curriculum asked of them. Not only that, they forced a certain mindset into students; if you don't get first place, you're worth nothing; if you aren't successful, don't bother trying; if you don't work, you don't deserve to live. Such was their philosophy, boiled down for the sake of brevity, which they would drill mercilessly into students' already impressionable craniums.
     Students' grades rose, but that was about the only spoil. While a C became the lowest grade achieved by a Junimono student in this time period, the poor souls who received such a mark (or anything remotely comparable) could never pry themselves free from the jaws of infamy. Any traces of an atmosphere of friendly rivalry evolved swiftly into a ravenous, destructive food chain, pitting friend against friend and sibling against sibling. From that fateful point, one could justly claim that a bitter war had hence erupted; in this new hell, you bit and clawed your way through for no one but yourself. When a person suffered victim to this war and fell from the graces of their school rank, their self-confidence and their will lowered suit. And even when a person actually triumphed and soared through the ranks, they constantly needed to be on-guard, lest they lie among the battered they had trampled beneath their feet; no matter what you did, you were never truly safe from enemies.

☆ Akko

     Akko was tired of it.
     She was tired of the fighting, the brainwashing, the empty gazes of her classmates. The constant stress, the pressure, the endless war. She was tired of it all.
     Her brain throbbed against its skull case with these thoughts as she groggily rose from bed on April 11. Today was Monday and her first day as a third year at Junimono Academy. The girl went through her robotic daily routine as per usual, reluctant to return to the hellhole disguised as a school.
     Her high school experience thus far didn't feel very fulfilling. In her first year, she was alone, save for the end when her current friends approached her. They graced her with a sliver of hope for the future... until the emergence of Masuyo Ozawa and her cursed rules. She witnessed the change firsthand—in Ozawa's hands, reality twisted incomprehensibly into the uncanny. Friends and rivals became enemies, the weak were shot down by the smart, and nothing was right. As always, Akko served as an outlier, refusing to involve herself in anyone else's bloodthirsty affairs.
...Assuming she even could if she wanted to.
No one spared her a glance. On the off chance someone did accidentally give her a glance, it was always accompanied with a passive and confused face before they shrugged her off and left with a smirk plastered on their face. Akko's second-year was full of this. With her friends by her side, however, she began to believe everything could possibly turn out fine....
     Well, that was then, and this is now. Noticing she was late, Akko hurriedly finished brushing her hair and ran out the door. Her morning daydream (or nightmare?) gobbled up any last motivation she had to attend class, but knowing her friends would be there helped enliven her spirit again. At least she could meet up with them and they could go on with their third year like normal students should.
     But... is that really what I want?
     The question inexplicably filled her mind for a few seconds. In an attempt to escape it, she picked up her pace. Even if she weren't in such deep thought, she'd have to start gaining speed eventually, seeing as how she was about to be incredibly late on her first day...!
     Before she knew it, Akko found herself at the gates of Junimono Academy. The building was far from a spectacle; surrounding it were drab beige walls, metal gates, and a wall that separated the outside town from the school grounds. Even wide open with students rushing in in groups, it didn't seem at all welcoming. Junimono wasn't a school. It was a prison.
     The more she stared at the bleak walls and cold metal gates, the less she felt she could move towards it at all. Her feet were glued to the ground. She couldn't will her body to quaver hardly a millimeter. Even the rush of near tardiness failed to destroy the destructive thoughts swimming around in her head, swirling, crashing thoughts that battled with one another until all that was left was piercing white noise. As she stood still in this frigid, gray world, she, too, began to freeze.
     But it was at that point she found her song again.
     Akko closed her eyes and began to hum. It was a simple tune, but it freed her, it always did. As she hummed her melody to herself the world stopped being so cold and still, instead bursting with radiance and light. She sighed as a wave of calm washed over her, opened her eyes again, and smiled.
    As long as she could keep her melody close, things would be okay. She found it funny sometimes, how humming a simple tune could lighten her mood when nothing else would. She quickly noted she had no more time to dawdle, though. Taking a deep breath, Akko grasped her fresh mindset and continued her walk up to the school to meet her friends.
     But "meet" wouldn't quite describe their encounter. Once Akko saw them at their usual meeting spot from last year, they gave her a blank look, waved, and walked away, leaving her alone. How strange...? They weren't normally like that, were they? The friends she knew were always nice and greeted her with warmth and hugs. Not... that.  Whatever that was. Perhaps it was some weird first-day anxiety thing? They were third-years, after all, and this would be their last year of fun-filled youth before the stress of adulthood. She brushed it off and headed for class 3-A, her new class that was to be taught by Aiko Nagumo. As she walked, she wondered to herself if things would change this year. She passed the same corridors and the same classrooms, but maybe there would be some new people in her class this time around?
She opened the door to her new class, hoping for the best as she stepped inside, and... nothing. Nothing happened, nothing was different, just nothing. What on Earth did she expect? The same blank faces gaped towards the front of the room—not even specifically at her—, sending out creepy airwaves into Akko's own widened eyes. There were, of course, the select few that were attending to something else, but for the most part, everyone else acted as if they were chained by their necks to the blackboard. There 3-A sat like a bunch of badly programmed NPCs in a game, and the fact that many of them wore similar haircuts didn't help.
     Sighing, Akko begrudgingly trudged over to her seat in the back. This year, she was sitting in the back by the window, and she was not looking forward to it. Anime main characters always get this seat, and she'd like to live her life normally without the intervention of space demon girls. But then again, the idea of being the protagonist of something definitely was exciting. Maybe she could have her own harem.... Uh, that idea was far too unrealistic, though.
     The bell soon rang for class and the supposed Mr. Nagumo stepped into class, a heavy aura snaking out from behind him. His every step thudded, dampened by the wooden flooring, yet resonating so distinctly against the (certainly, faint) classroom chatter; a creeping dissonant note beneath a quiet morning's symphony. The atmosphere instantly plummeted and each student in the room instantly straightened their back, serious looks flicking on as if in reaction to a flipped switch.
    "Rise! Bow! Sit!" The figure's guttural voice rose to an unsettlingly higher volume with each command. Each student performed the actions as synchronized as a choreographed dance, moving as one mass rather than individual bodies.
     "Good morning, class." His tone and expression tautened. "Welcome to your third year of high school. I am Aiko Nagumo, your homeroom teacher, and I will make sure to guide you all to success. Do any less than what I give you and you'll be sure to perish this year."
     Wow, what a warm welcome. Not even a minute into the school year and we're already being crushed under a million pascals of pressure. Yikes.
     Akko's face distorted in a grimace. Meanwhile, Nagumo began taking roll. Familiar names filled the air accompanied by a monotone "Here." and a hand thrown into the air for such a consistently quantifiable time period, Akko could take note of it—precisely 3 seconds in the air, and back down it went. These people were people she's known for two years. They all used to be so bubbly, so vibrant, so free.... Now they were a bunch of robots; all they were missing were nuts and bolts.
     Akko's name was called out next, to which she responded with the same word and gesture down to the inflection. Yet, somehow, her first instinct was that she must've done something wrong, because she earned a number of scornful, dry smiles turned towards her. But obviously, she didn't do anything different than the rest of them, besides that... she wasn't really counting how many seconds her hand was raised. Did that actually matter? Still, that didn't stop everyone from giving her a good gawk as though she were some exotic show creature in a cage. At the very least, their gazes drifted away as quickly as they had drifted upon her. If one thing hadn't changed throughout the years, she supposed it was this. But despite its constancy, this treatment still set her mind confused; how could anyone in their right mind expect anyone else to turn out a perfect, cookie-cutter student? Other perfect, cookie-cutter students? Can—does that kind of person truly exist...?
     Class went on and Mr. Nagumo made sure to burn his lessons straight into the children's heads. Each minute was filled with the harsh words of the teacher and the furious scratches of pencil graphite and the frantic flipping of papers. Nobody trailed off on a tangent, all questions were shut down, and, for a first day, it was "successful."
     Lunch came and Akko bolted out of the room to meet her friends. The day was halfway done, so surely they've loosened up a bit, right? Yeah, totally! She caught two of them in the school store. Their names were Akira and Mayu, and they were the first to take a chance and kindly talk to her in her first year. With a large grin, she halted her sprinting and walked up to them.
     "Heeeey! Akira! Mayu! It's me, Akko! Long time no see!" She yelled, waving her hand in the air.
     Akira and Mayu turned to each other with concerned faces and mumbled to each other before turning back to Akko.
     "Oh... it's Akko," Mayu acknowledged plainly. "Yeah, uh, it's been a while."
     Akko giggled. Mayu'd always been the shy one of the trio.
     "So? How've you two been? Aaah, there's so much we gotta catch up on!" Exclaimed Akko.
     "Perhaps, Akko," Akira lightly agreed with a cold voice, "there is a bit of catching up to be done."Akko struggled to comprehend that the once compassionate girl could speak with a tone so distant.
     "Oho~ Where do I start?" Akko asked herself. "Ooh, so, like, a week ago-"
     Akira's blade of a voice cut in with a sharp, "Enough."
     This isn't the Akira I know.
     "I said a 'bit' of catching up, Akko. That should be more than enough to satiate you. On our end, Mayu and I have business to attend to. We would appreciate it if you could ever so kindly leave us alone." Akira turned and started to walk away. "Come, Mayu. We have no time for someone like her." Her hissing voice rang with shrouded hints of a bitter, complex melancholy.
     Akko could only stand there, extended arm hovering in midair. There's no way that just happened... right? Akira was always so kind, and Mayu, despite being shy, would always speak up for what she believed in. Well, maybe it still is just stress.
     For the rest of the day, Akko told herself that it was just stress. Akira and Mayu had the potential of model students; everyone did at Junimono. It was just the stress and extra pressure of the school's system. That's right. It was nothing more than that, and she tried her best not to overthink it.
     Except... This behavior went on for a week.
     Every friend (or person she thought was a friend) shut her down once she was within a meter of their presence. A typical conversation for that week would start with, "Hey there, old buddy!" before suddenly ending with "Oh... I can't right now. I've got work." At this point, it was unreasonable to assume this was caused by first-day anxiety. After a week, most kids were used to everything their new grade had to offer. Something must have happened... But what?
    Akko continued to ponder on the matter as she headed home the first Friday. She couldn't remember doing anything that would be considered rude or offensive in the slightest, and she was pretty sure her grades were fine, too. Nothing could have happened to have everyone start avoiding her, at least she thought so. Could it be that they all just got tired of her? Well... It certainly was a possibility.
     To say she was frustrated by it all would be a complete understatement. As soon as she got to her and her mother's apartment building, she flopped down on her bed with a loud groan. Luckily for her, her mother wasn't home at the moment, and she could complain and scream and do whatever she well pleased.
     "Aaagh, curse you, Ozawa!" she screamed into her pillow. "You ruined my high school life once, and now it's double ruined! Thanks a lot, you ding dong!"
     Akko wanted to scream and cry and sob her heart out because of that Masuyo Ozawa. Her school life was turned back into a full year of loneliness and those annoying, smug remarks that followed her everywhere. Add all the tons of stress and competition to her plate and you've got yourself a schoolgirl full of regrets and sorrow; she had nothing left but agony.
     In the midst of her sobs, the white noise in the girl's head transformed once more into notes. These notes began to rearrange themselves until a soft, peaceful melody bloomed from the madness. Akko hummed this melody to herself and found her negativity slowly fading away. It was still there, of course, but rather than bring her down and make the gloom even worse, it turned into a feeling of need. She couldn't let Ozawa continue doing this anymore. She couldn't let the others in her shoes deal with all of this nonsense and be hurt by their peers. No. This wouldn't continue any longer.
     Akko's sobs slowly subsided, and she rose. Her hand limply lifted itself up to her face and wiped off the remaining tears and moisture as her legs walked her body to the computer. The girl's fingers suddenly went wild, a bewitching trance driving her to hunt through dozens and dozens of articles that may help her. She looked for something, anything even remotely related to her goals. Of course, anything that applied to this would have other non-related things in suggested articles, and they kept catching her attention. With a few more mindless clicks and an essay on how stars burned out, she finally realized she was getting off-track. She leaned back in her chair and sighed. Could she really do this...?
     The answer was yes. As she positioned herself to sit in front of the computer, a cute, green-haired girl's face caught her attention. Akko clicked on the link and it brought her to an article on some year-old idol group called Gosei Project.
     "'Thirteen high-school girls took down the evil Miyamoto that was breaking the minds of Soranohoshi with the power of song and dance... Miyamoto brainwashed the students... The spread of music inspired everyone to break away...' Holy crap.... This is genius!" she exclaimed, nearly standing up.
     Her eyes quickly scanned through the rest of the paragraphs, sparkling brighter with each indentation. The headmaster of Soranohoshi, a fun-hating woman called Miyamoto, had mind-broken their students and taken away every extra activity. However, a group of extremely unsatisfied students took up the challenge of opening this cruel beast's heart up to face the wonders of reality and show how studying wasn't everything.
     It was almost as if fate guided her here. What happened in Soranohoshi a year ago was pretty much exactly the same as what was currently going on in Junimono right now.... There was no way this was just a coincidence!
     Akko grinned. This was perfect! With some more research on Gosei's methods, she could do the same to Junimono and bring back her old friends. She set to work researching this legendary group, the budding song resounding in her head the entire time. Discovering them made her hear that music again, which signified hope. And she was determined to keep hold of that for as long as she could.