Zuru two~ Life is life

In a twisted world very much like our own. Devils and angels once occupied Earth and Mars. Humanoid creatures of darkness and light created a fragile balance of power and lived in harmony. However one day, someone unbalanced it. And a plagued covered the two worlds, making the angels and devils that survived lose their powers. They lost their wings and horns, making them weaker then before... It was said that this was a punishment because of those who had disrupt the balance...causing the worlds to fall into darkness. But there were a special few that were immune to the plagued and retained their powers. With their superiority, the devils and angels tried to construct a new balance between themselves and the new kind. Those who survived were given a new name. "Man." As the years go by...man slowly grew with complication. As they were born from angels and devils, there were good and bad men. The angels tried their best to keep the peace, but to little avail. "Man" was growing in population faster then the devils or angels. However they slowly constructed the balance that the angels and devils were trying so hard to achieve. With that, the two races decided to live among the man. Withdrawing their wings and horns, they hid their true identity and lived as man. For centuries this went on...and technology improved tremendously. With ancient monuments revealing the idea of another planet like their own, Earth and Mars were soon linked together by a grand central space station. The two planets prospered as time went by, but disturbances in the balance have begun. Darkness once again begins it's uprising. Heaven and Hell will clash once more. However for students, they are still blissfully unaware of these changes...to be honest now, how many students actually watch the news?

It was early in the morning, the sky was still dark and the air was still cold. In the hall of a school, the sounds of fast footwork and swords clashing echoed throughout the corridors around it. Two young men were sparing with each other, one dressed in fencing uniform the other a traditional samurai robe. Both welding swords of their after school activity. The fencer forced through a powerful thrust, but his opponent easily countered it by squatting down and unleashing a side wards swing with his kendo stick. The fencer however dodged it by performing a somersault in mid-air and landed behind the kendo welder. "Now...now, don't go easy on me brother." The fencer's opponent taunted as he stood back his battle stance and waited for the fencer's next move. Griping his kendo stick with two hands, he held it forward to defend or strike down the fencer. "Heh. Do you prefer this then?" the fencer replied as his thrusts begin to pick up speed and spin. Unfazed and undaunted, his opponent matched his speed with his own. Each thrust was redirected, each swing was clashed with another. In skill, speed and power...they were equally matched. As the battle continued, the older one commented "You know brother...I met an angel last night."

"What?" the fencer exclaimed as his brother quickly de-armed him with another squat and thrust upwards causing him to fall hard onto the wooden floor. Lowering his hand to him, the fencer's brother then explained, "Hah...I meant she looked as beautiful as an angel to me. You see...I was trying another stunt with my bike..." However he was quickly interrupted harshly as soon as the fencer heard the word stunt. "You went to jump with the bike again didn't you? That suspicious hole in that run down building was caused by you wasn't it? How many times must I tell you not to endanger yourself and that bike! It's our father's! You're the older brother for goodness sake! You don't need me to keep reminding you Krion!" Though the scolding was loud and in a very angry tone...the fencer's brother continued with that innocent smile on his face. "Heh...sorry, but I couldn't help myself...anyways...we better hurry or we're going to be late for class."

"Yeah come on you slow pokes! Class starts in ten and you guys are still not in your uniform!" a third voice added. It was a female with tied up hair, blue cobalt eyes and a light skin complexion already dressed in her uniform and ready to go. "Fine...we'll talk about this later...besides today is an examination day, can't afford to be late now can we?"

Yes...this is who we are...just three innocent students...three innocent siblings...or so we thought...

The three quickly made a run for it to their classroom. Unfortunate for them it was located one floor below. The three siblings ran towards the nearest stairway and gracefully slide down the railings. "I think we're going to make it!" one of them said enthusiastically...however even though they were fast...the bell rang before they could step into the classroom. When they entered, they saw their form teacher already in front of the entire seated class. She had curly shoulder length hair, quite large eyes and wore a black straight dress. She was a kind and caring teacher despite her liking of black, but can be quite fierce when she wants to. Standing besides her was a new face to the three. He wore the same uniform as them and had stylish crimson red hair accompanied by golden yellow eyes. His smile was slight but yet confident. "Krion, Hien and Reina Lockhearts! You do know it's exam week don't you? There's no reason why you should be late."

"Sorry Ms Ang!" the three said in a sorry tone as they proceeded to their seats.

"Now...as I was saying, we have a new student. And as we all know this week is exam week, but he has decided to sit for them despite not being in any of the lessons before. Well anyways we have to begin the exam soon, so would you please...introduce yourself quickly as I prepare the papers."

The young teenager then stepped up and gave the class a bow before saying, "I'm Reiner Rarepe. And it's a pleasure to share the same class as all of you." As he walked to his seat, he gave Krion a devilish glare. One that was both puzzling and yet oddly inviting at the same time. The exam soon began and Krion found himself face to face with one of the toughest obstacles he had to face in his entire life. Even compared to those that are to come in the future...he will always remember this horrifying a-math exam. Where all he could do was sit and stare at the numbers...all the time, "What is this? What is that?" constantly repeated in his mind until he turned to the last page and almost screamed out loud but he did it in his mind instead, "OH MY GOD!" It was the most terrifying thing he had ever saw...a whole question filling up the entire page with what seems like a combination of advance algebra and some other formulas he couldn't understand. A straight zero...he predicted as he found his answer sheet completely blank. "Oh well...it's not like I was ever good with numbers anyway...wonder how everyone else are doing." He said in his mind as he began looking around for his classmate's faces. Scanning through he found expressions ranging from 'hopeless' to 'oh this is so easy!' However there was one expression that really caught his eye. It was from the new student sitting besides him, he was staring at the paper with the same devilish glare he gave him. Krion wasn't sure if it was cause he wanted to rip the paper into shreds, or because the paper was amusingly easy. But before he could confirm it, a shadowy figure stood before him. Turning around he saw a sly smiling teacher, "Are you trying to cheat now Mr Lockheart?" she asked. "Umm no of course not!" Krion replied frantically. "Good. Cause if this was a 'O' level examination hall...looking around would be considered cheating." Ms Ang replied calmly before leaving to check on others. "Haha...hah...whew."

Before long, the exam was over and everyone came rushing out of the classroom. This exam marked the end of all the exams this year, as well as the beginning of a one-week holiday for the teachers to mark the papers, print the report slips and decides who gets promoted. As Krion took his first step out of school, he let out a sigh. Which was added on by another sigh by Hien. And then by a happy cheer from Reina, "WooHoo! No school for a week! So why the glum faces bros?"

"A-math..." the brothers answered together almost simultaneously. "Huh? I thought it was pretty easy." Their sister teased and giggled at the sight of her brothers squatting down in depression and drawing circles on the floor with their fingers. "Hey...come on cheer up! You guys still have practice later on. Can't fight with a gloomy face now can we?" Sighing again, the two brothers nodded and continued their walk home. "You know...you two are very alike..." Reina commented as she saw her brothers sighing together while walking. "Hah...alike? You got to be kidding us." They both said, almost simultaneously once again.

That afternoon the kendo members were once again training in the hall of their school. The freshmen were busy practicing their strokes while the seniors were having it out against each other. Krion however simply just watched from afar...he just didn't felt like going against any of them today. Well, actually he never does...the matches are always over under a minute. So without the challenge...things got boring quickly. It was just another day of practice, or so he thought as from one of the corridors of the hall approached a new challenger. Dressed in their normal school uniform, the student slowly made his way towards them. In one hand was a kendo stick, the other was placed calmly in his pocket. His face carried the same devilish glare as per usual. And his presence quickly caused the entire hall to go silent. "What business do you have here freshman?" one of the seniors asked as he raised his kendo stick towards him. "A challenge. Think you can provide that?" the red haired teen taunted as he too lifted his kendo stick towards the senior. "What a fool...you have my word, I'll give you more then that!" the senior assured as he dashed forward with his kendo stick. Reiner easily dodged a swing of the stick and tripped the senior with his spare leg. "Didn't even lift my sword...no wonder you guys didn't even make it through the first round of the regional tournaments." Reiner commented in disappointment.

"Why you..." A few more seniors soon surrounded the calm red head. Each pissed off by the red head's words. Krion however watching from a far found the new student rather amusing...and reminded him of how Hien and him fought the entire of their own clubs on their first day in this school. Getting up from his comfortable spot in the corner of the hall, Krion joined the newcomer with a smirk on his face. "Don't you just hate it when people can’' life up to their word?" Reiner returned the smirk and replied, "My sentiments exactly..."

"How dare you betray us Krion!" one of the seniors shouted angrily. The two soon found themselves back to back, against almost every kendo member in their school. "Twenty two against two...like the odds my friend?" Krion asked as he stood in his kendo stance. "Absolutely." Reiner replied confidently as they anticipated their opponent's moves. The first one came dashing at Krion. Diverting the kendo stick, Krion swiftly unarmed him with an unexpected swing towards the open side by spinning his body and switching hands of his weapon. The next one came at Reiner and was also quickly taken care of by a clash of swords and a swift sweep of his feet. In the midst of battle Reiner couldn't help but ask Krion why he was so eager to help him. It was unlike anyone to just help a stranger and betray his entire club in doing so...but this one individual, he did it with such ease as though it came naturally.

After taking down a few more members Krion finally gave him an answer, "I just thought it might be fun." Surprised by his comrade's answer Reiner gave him a puzzled look before saying calmly to himself, "Lol. What an interesting character you have." As the battle continued, Reiner slowly found himself back to back with the walls of the hall. "But your actions hinder my purpose here. And thus this is where I take my leave Lockheart." Taking down the few around him with a series of blocks and trips, he made sure no one was looking before fading into the shadows around him. His body entered the darkness as though he was part of it. And as Krion turned to see, he soon found himself alone. His new friend had disappeared like magic. Leaving him to take down the remaining of the kendo club members. "See you later then." Krion said to the wall before grabbing another kendo stick and dashing forward to the remaining seven.

Reiner on the other hand reappeared from the shadows created by the walls of a stairway compartment to the rooftop of a nearby building. Slowly making his way to the edge of the roof, Reiner took out his cell phone and began making a call while watching the face off between Krion and the remaining seven members. Surprisingly Krion wasn't doing very well...as the seven combined their strokes into one fluent motion. Krion found himself unable to bear their combined strength and was quickly cornered to a corner of the hall. "Now...Krion we're going to show you what happens to traitors. You may have beaten us before, but we secretly perfected this style to deal with you...with one more fluent stroke...this battle will end." The tallest of them assured as the seven lifted their kendo sticks and was prepared to deliver the finishing blow. Krion found himself unable to counter them...their strokes could combined their individual strength, and yet form a range that even he couldn't dodge from. With such odds...the only option left would be to defend. However just as he felt like there was truly no way out, someone caught his eye.

Soon the mighty stroke from the seven of them came flying down with intense speed and velocity that would scare just about any kendo warrior. Krion however caught all seven strokes with one of the kendo sticks and a grin on his face. The stick began breaking apart upon the impact, but it was able to withstand enough of the blow for him to launch his counter attack. As the seven were doing a downward stroke, Krion had purposely caught their sticks just above their chest. Leaving them completely open to his incoming second stick. In one swift blow, the seven were bashed with such force that it caused them to fly backwards for a few meters. "Darn you Krion...why do you have to be so strong..." one of them complained as he laid there…trying to cope with the pain of not only from the blow but from losing as well. Krion turned his vision to the someone who caught his eye and replied jokingly, "The answer is simple...there's a beautiful angel watching..." The angel he was talking about turned out to be the same girl who he had tried to cheer up the night before.

Reiner's cell phone soon got through to the person he had wanted to call.

"Reiner here."

"Status report then my boy."

"He has a very interesting character I'll give you that. I came to their practice session and thrashed one of their members in hope that he would challenge me. But to my surprise...he joined me instead."

"I see...so you failed then?"

"Not at all...I can tell you now, his strength comes only momentary and once the condition changes...so does his strength. May it be a good or bad change in condition, his strength decreases and only unveil itself when he has a strong desire to. And so I conclude this unstable symptom...he hasn't awaken."

"Well that isn't a problem anymore...he will in time as the darkness approaches. And when he does..."

"I'll be there to stop him."