40 A School or a Castle?

Coming out of the train station, Axel turned towards the youth and said, "We're almost there. We've got at least half an hour before the bell rings so we should be fine." Reaching his hand towards the youth, Axel smiled and continued, "I'm Axel. Nice to meet you."

The youth seemed both surprised and happy about Axel's action. Quickly turning his phone off, the youth shook Axel's hand and said in a calm and clear voice, "Akira, Akira Kurusu."

Axel gave Akira a small smile before continuing forward. The petals of the sakura littered the ground around them while some would occasionally drift down on a small breeze. Suddenly, Axel stopped in his tracks as a smile appeared on his face as he saw Ann waiting to cross the road.

"Hey Ann!" He yelled, swing his arms as he attempted to gain her attention.

Ann's head snapped towards Axel as a beautiful smile adorned her face. She quickly dashed towards him and dove at him with her arms wide open as she happily said, "Axel~!"

Luckily, Axel was used to Ann's antics and caught her before spinning into a tight hug. Akira, however, was awestruck as he looked between the two and silently thought, 'Are these two a thing?'

Ann, finally noticing the presence of another, shyly got off Axel. She smoothly fixed her uniform before looking towards Akira.

Akira seemed uncomfortable under Ann's gaze as he started fidgeting while Axel was trying his hardest not to burst into laughter with how funny he looked.

As if she sensed his discomfort, Ann stopped staring at him before reaching her hand out and happily saying, "Nice to meet you! I'm Ann Takamaki, a… friend… of Axel's."

Akira suddenly gained an understanding about the pair. Ann seemed to be into Axel while Axel seemed to either be dense or is purposefully ignoring her signals. Shaking the thought out of his head, Akira firmly shook Ann's hand and said, "Akira Kurusu. I just transferred to Shujin Academy and today is my first day."

*Beep*

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Ann simply smiled and said, "Welcome!" The walk signal switched to green as Ann took off in a whirlwind as her charming laughter lingered.

Opening his mouth to speak, Akira seemed like he wanted to say something but ultimately chose to stay quiet as he thought to himself, 'It's not my place to say anything.'

Just as they were about to leave, a rough and wild voice bellowed, "HEY! Wait up!" Turning towards the source of the voice, the pair were met with a blonde haired student wearing a modified uniform that seemed to a mix of the uniform and punk-style clothes.

The blonde youth seemed exhausted as he spent a couple seconds trying to catch his breath. He held his hand out and tiredly muttered, "…Here, you dropped this."

Inside his palm was a black wallet. Akira quickly reached around his pockets and found his wallet missing. With a pale face, Akira gratefully took his wallet back from the youth and said, "Thank you. I would've been screwed if I lost it."

"Why?" Asked Axel, giving him a curious glance.

With a wry smile, Akira slowly explained that he's technically on house arrest. Seeing that he felt uncomfortable talking about his situation, the youth beamed a bright smile at the pair as he proudly stood tall and said, "I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Ryuji Sakamoto. Second year, just like you two."

Giving him a grateful nod, Akira said, "I'm Akira Kurusu. Nice to meet you… Sakamoto."

Ryuji smiled happily until Akira called him Sakamoto, almost causing him to fall to the ground. Ryuji shot up and angrily muttered, "Don't call me Sakamoto! Just call me Ryuji!"

Axel could barely contain his laughter as he desperately tried to contain it as he slowly said, "Nice to meet you, Sakamoto."

As if it was the last straw, Ryuji seemed to slip and fall to the ground. Groaning, he sadly muttered, "Dude, not you too…"

Both Axel and Akira quickly apologized while helping him off the floor. The trio looked at the time before slowly running to school. They only ran slowly because Ryuji seemed to have an injury which prevented him from going too fast.

As they were about a couple blocks away, a car came speeding around a corner with an angry driver inside. Ryuji seemed to recognize the driver as a disgusted look appeared on his face as he quietly muttered, "Geh… Kamoshida…"

*Beep*

Confused, Akira looked towards Ryuji and asked, "Who's Kamoshida?"

Slapping his forehead, Ryuji said, "What do yo- Wait, are you the new kid?" Seeing Akira give a small nod, Ryuji sighed and continued, "Kamoshida is this big dickhead! He basically has this school wrapped around his finger… well, had."

Ryuji suddenly started slapping Axel's shoulder as he excitedly said, "Now, we have this guy! He showed him that he's not some king of a damn castle!"

*Beep*

A weird headache simultaneously hit the three boys. Akira and Ryuji quickly shook it off before continuing to school while Axel excitedly smiled.

After a couple minutes, the boys all stood in awe at the humongous castle infront of them. Rubbing his eyes, Ryuji muttered, "…You guys seeing this?"

"Yup."

"Mhmm."

Ryuji walked around for a bit before muttering, "This is definitely where they school is, er, was." Akira seemed to be in a daze as he just stared at the castle.

Ignoring the pair, Axel walked towards the front door and gave it a light push. Slowly, the door opened up. Before Akira and Ryuji could react, Axel walked inside while whistling. Both boys looked at each other before quickly following after Axel.

Inside, the boys came to a half as they stared at the interior in awe. Ryuji seemed really impressed as he looked around and slowly muttered, "Woah… are you for real?"

Suddenly, something caught Axel's eye. A suit of armour was walking around. Before Axel could stop him, Ryuji ran up to the armour and angrily yelled, "Yo! Your a student, right? The hecks up with the school!?! Is this some prank!?!"

Wryly smiling to himself, Axel shook his head as he silently cursed, 'Damn it Ryuji!'

What happened next was what Axel completely expected. The armour seemed to call for back-up as it tried to restrain Ryuji. Angered about being manhandled, Ryuji started punching and kicking the armour, only to be stopped by one strong punch to the gut.

Akira tried to help free Ryuji but was quickly restrained by the reinforcements. Ryuji looked towards Axel and screamed, "Dude, run! Get help!"

Giving Ryuji a light smile, Axel dashed at the closest walking armour and heavily struck its chest, sending it flying. Both boys stared at Axel in shock as he continued to weave in and out of the enemy ranks, using their own attacks against their teammates.

While Axel isn't trained formally in hand-to-hand combat, his physical strength isn't something to scoff at. Also, thanks to his repaired magic circuits, Axel's body has been slowly nourished by the magic flowing through it, making him slightly stronger than the average human.

Suddenly, Ryuji turned pale as he screamed, "BEHIND YOU!!!"

Before Axel could react, he was quickly captured by a set of armour. Reprimanding himself for letting his guard down, Axel wryly smiled and whispered, "My hands freaking hurt…"