111 The Teacher and the Student 9

For a moment, no one made a move. Yin Mei appeared relaxed, her expression not revealing anything, while the black clothed people were filled with wariness and tension, like beasts on edge.

No one knew what started it, but someone lunged forward, bringing their blade down. This gave the signal to start. Yin Mei raised her prosthetic leg, using it to block the blade, sparks flying as the metal clashed. The sword didn't make a single scratch. Her hand grabbed at shadows, bringing it up like a curtain against the bullets that flew this way. They sunk into the darkness of the "curtain", as if gobbled up by the shadows.

"Sh-shadow manipulation! This is the retired Captain Mei Wen!" Someone said, and a shiver of fear ran through the group.

They had all reviewed the faculty list of Black Cross Academy before they launched their attack, and among the members, it was definitely the former Brigade members that were the most dangerous. Among those Brigade members, though Mei Wen may not have been the one with the highest rank before retirement, she was most definitely one of the most dangerous.

After all, though she had not been in the Brigade for very long, her name had still spread far and wide in those days.

She was the strongest shadow user in the world, the only one who was able to use shadows to manipulate space and time. Her ability was extremely dangerous, her combat prowess unrivaled, and her cold ruthlessness widely known. Those other countries could only breath a sigh of relief when they had heard that Mei Wen had retired from the Brigade, even though the reason wasn't something they had understood.

After all, hearing that such a talented person had not only lost her leg, but also her partner, it was a big shock.

Although it had been a while since those days, many people still remembered Mei Wen's fearsome reputation.

"According to protocol, shouldn't Mei Wen be guiding and protecting the students!?" Another person said. It was clear that they had a deep understanding of the school.

Yin Mei knew there was a mole, so she didn't think this was too odd.

She kicked the sword of the man attacking her away, the blade flying high in the sky. She released her shadow curtain to grab it as she used her foot to send him flying. The shadows fell to the ground as she did, her body low. Pushing herself with her feet, she appeared suddenly in front of a man several meters away from her, who was now shooting at empty air.

The blade sent a silver arc through the air as it sliced strait through the man's neck, decapitating him cleanly.

She didn't plan on killing everyone though. She needed people alive and extract information from. But these guys weren't that important. The person she wanted was... She glanced around, the screen on her glasses identifying bodies and threats. Not here.

Where was he? The plot information was vague.

"You're all useless." Yin Mei said, standing up and flinging the blood off of the sword in her hand before spearing it into the ground. Bullets continued coming at her, but they were all blocked by shadow shields, which moved and flowed like water to block where they needed to block.

Yin Mei reached her hand out, turning her palm upwards and curving her finger, like beckoning something. Spikes shot up from the ground, and the members of the group shouted in alarm, some killed immediately, others fatally injured, and a few flinging out their abilities to dodge or block them. A few were successful, the others less so.

Like playing a piano, or conducting an orchestra, her single hand moved to some form of silent music, as the solid spikes flowed back down to the ground, before shooting back up again. Again, and again, until the people couldn't stand it, and everyone was on the ground, bleeding, except for her.

She grabbed the sword before walking toward one man, who appeared somewhat better off compared to his comrades. "Now, where's your leader?" Yin Mei asked as she pointed the silver blade point at his neck.

"Who would tell you?" He replied with gritted teeth. They had been completely destroyed. This woman was on another level. He felt that they had underestimated the Brigade. Originally it was supposed to be a fairly easy mission - after all, all the Brigade members here were retired either due to injury or old age. And, in the end, it was just a school.

But it clearly was more than that. State of the art security and veteran Brigade members made for a truly strong defense.

Injured? Old age? Ha!

Even so, compared to the average soldier, they were still stronger.

"Oh? Then you're useless." Yin Mei stabbed him through the eye, a little bit of blood spurting onto her body.

She frowned, but continued to the next person. This was a younger boy, his eyes wide, his face pale from blood loss, and his lip ever so slightly trembling. "Are you going to tell me? I'll stop your blood loss if you do." She said, her expression emotionless.

The boy thought that if there was a devil, then this woman was it.

"The l-l-leader is at the North Gate." The boy answered, before shutting his mouth in surprise, wondering why he did that. He had to admit, a crazy lady pointing a sword at him really had a strong persuasive power...

"Thanks." Yin Mei said, before stabbing him too. Her eyes didn't even blink, her expression remaining unchanged.

"Monster!" A still living man said, completely horrified at her Yin Mei's heartlessness.

Yin Mei stopped. Monster. This was what some people referred to Lu Mei, her previous self, as well.

Was she a monster? She calmly looked down at her hand. Her heart felt like it was wrapped comfortably in darkness. She didn't feel anything. She closed her hand. The man was silenced, along with the rest of the living.

She still didn't feel anything.

But the thought soon faded, as if washed away by the flowing blood that seeped into the earth.

Her tablet suddenly buzzed, and she flipped it over, tapping it open. A hologram of Alexei emerged, his expression calm. "Mei Wen, where are you? We're supposed to be gathered at the gymnasium now."

"I'm headed to the North Gate. Tell security that there's need of cleanup in sector 52." Yin Mei replied, and before Alexei could answer, switched her tablet off. She tossed the tabled into her shadow, where it sunk in and disappeared.

The shadow world could even act as an inter dimensional storage space. It was very convenient. That being said, the one problem was that anyone who possessed the same ability as Yin Mei could similarly access any items she had stored in the space.

But, currently, the only known shadow user who could manipulate space like her was... well, only her. The reason that she knew others who could use the same ability could access her things, was because of the items left behind by former shadow-space users.

Yin Mei flipped her wrist over and looked at the time. Not even ten minutes had passed since the attack. She touched the dark shadowy bark of a nearby tree, and disappeared into it.

When she reemerged, it was by the North Gate. The North Gate. This place was normally very well guarded as it exited out into a protected experimental area often referred to as the mutant garden. It held all sorts of various beasts and flora that had been experimented on and genetically modified, as well as a variety of alien imports.

It was a dangerous area, and occasionally used as training grounds for the students. But because of the attack on the school, there were only a few guards that had been left here, the majority of them having been rerouted to the West Gate.

Yin Mei should have known that that guy was at the North Gate. After all, she knew what he was here for.

She frowned as she saw the guards who should have been on lookout at the gate. They were lying on the ground, and she checked their pulse. Not dead, surprisingly.

She rolled one over, using his thumb to tap on the emblem pinned to his uniform lapel. It was scanned before glowing with a blue light. This was a special SOS signal that was used by the school security.

Standing up, Yin Mei then headed toward the white and pale blue gates that loomed above her. The area beyond was encased in a round dome, the insides hidden from view.

Yin Mei placed her wrist up against the panel by smaller door to the side of the large gates, and a pleasant beep sounded before the door soundlessly slid open. Entering, it soon closed behind her.

It was an elevator, and after rising for a few seconds, came to a stop. She exited, now inside a closed space that overlooked the Mutant Garden that stretched for several kilometers. Although the outside of the dome had appeared white, from the inside, one couldn't see any sort of ceiling, the sun and sky pleasantly displayed by the special screens that stretched from ground to ceiling.

She tapped the leg of her glasses, and it scanned the surroundings, looking for signs of life. It registered the beasts that were already in the school lab's database, and nothing else. She expanded the search region, her eyes constantly scanning the lush forest for people.

The glasses vibrated, giving her a topographical display of the garden, where a small group of little red dots were moving around in the northeastern region.

They had already gotten quite far.

Yin Mei once more entered the world of shadows.

She actually didn't really like traveling through the shadow world, since it always took what felt like ages. Although almost no time passed by in the real world, it was quite agonizing of a feeling, to slowly move through the thick and heavy air.

Moving through the bright and deep emerald greens of the forest, a young man with glasses furrowed his brow, coming to a stop.

"What is it brother?" A girl who looked near identical to him, save for a slightly smaller stature, slightly more delicate features, and longer hair, asked, also coming to a stop. A laser rifle was held in her hands - state of the art, smuggled in from the Free States.

He held up a hand. "Silent. There's something-"

Before he could finish, muffled shouts sounded from behind, and he whipped his head around, shocked when he saw that the elite group of his was now dangling from the trees in some sort of dark black cocoon.

"Who goes there!" He raised his own rifle up, pointing at the dark shadows of the forest. For some reason, he felt like it was darker than before, the shadows stretching out, wanting to consume him.

"Outsiders are forbidden in here." Yin Mei said in an almost pleasant tone of voice as she emerged from the darkness, her glasses tucked back into her pocket. "If the Ming twins had wanted to come for a tour of the school, I'm certain that we would have been glad to comply."

She looked curiously upon the two figures in front of her.

Ming Wei and Ming Yu. She dragged these memories up from the dusty corners of her brain, though not with much difficulty. Ming Yu a little more effort, but she hadn't worked for Ming Wei for not. She still remembered him. She remembered that he was a researcher type. She eyed the rifle in his hands. Perhaps she needed to reconsider her memories.

These twins were descendants of the Ming family - in other words, descendants of Ming Yu. After all, Ming Wei never had children. The family had kept the surname of Ming, instead of the surname of Ming Yu's husband, in order to keep the Ming family line alive.

Ming Wei and Ming Yu both had transmigrated into their bodies, but shockingly enough, neither knew. They both thought that the other was the original person. Yin Mei wanted to laugh. They were both pretty smart, yet somehow so dense?

She couldn't help but find that amusing.

Ming Wei glared at her, a deep frown on his face. "Mei Wen." He stated. Even if Mei Wen was not infamous as a Brigade member, the two would still probably know her, as they were both members of the major families. To top it off, the Mei and Ming families were actually on pretty good terms, as Ming Yu had really doted on the kid that the Mei family had descended from.

"I apologize, but the two of you will need to peacefully come with me. We wouldn't want you to get injured, now would we?" Yin Mei said with a smile on her face. She felt maybe a little bad, recalling that she had owed Ming Wei in the past.

But that was the past, and right now, they were already both in different bodies.

Although Ming Wei was reluctant, not having been able to accomplish his goal before being interrupted by Mei Wen, he knew that he and his sister would not be able to go up against Mei Wen. Even if the tales of her ability were exaggerated, Ming Wei didn't think it would be by much. After all, her ability was well known. Just the potential of it was enough to make him think twice.

Ming Yu was a little upset, but seeing her brother set down his rifle, she could only do the same, her brow crinkled in dissatisfaction.

"It's good that the two of you are so obedient. No need to worry, you'll be treated well." Yin Mei said. Even if they were prosecuted, Yin Mei didn't think that they would be heavily punished. After all, their family's influence was too large. It was more likely that the school would make an under the table deal with the Ming family. Yin Mei didn't know how things would go down though, as in the original plot line, the two had never been caught.

Yin Mei wrapped their hands in shadowy ropes, as a precaution, before undoing the cocoon bindings of the other members of the group. She herded them up and the group began heading back to the North Gate.

No beasts or flora bothered them, mostly because they were much weaker than Yin Mei. They naturally sensed this, and gave the group a wide berth.

When Yin Mei arrived at the gate, things were already beginning to wrap up, and a few new guards were there, the ones who had fainted previously had been taken to the infirmary.

Yin Mei spoke with one of the guards, before they called on others to escort the group away. Yin Mei waved in a jolly manner as she saw the Ming twins off, before heading to report things to the principal and head of security, whom had requested her presence.

"Man. I hope I won't get my salary docked for this." Yin Mei said aloud, pondering upon this very real possibility.