It all started off as confusion not chaos. A group of unfamiliar individuals stood near the arena's entrance oddly silent and dressed in regulation robes. At first they looked human, but then one of them tilted their head unnaturally and smiled.Skin peeled, jaws split were they shouldn't. A hiss escaped from a throat that no longer belonged to anything human. Their bones began shifting, warping, cracking like broken puppets, Robes tore as flesh twisted into something grotesque, limbs became talons, faces stretched into fanged voids.A proctor stepped forward to intercept. He didn't even get a word out. The monster lunged, claws through the chest of the proctor. Blood splattering across the pavement.The audience screamed students backed away. A second one burst into flames as it transformed wings of bone ripping from its back.Flash back an hour ago, in a dim chamber beneath the Hero Society tower, Headless stood at the centre while Rika leaned against a blood stained wall. The rose shaped hourglass tattoo on her hand glowing slightly."Well I think it's time we did our part." Headless said coldly.Rika sighed as the tattoo glowed brighter and brighter. "You know nothing has side effects right." She said flatly.The tattoo glowed brighter and brighter until it burned bleeding light across the room. "Time to let the monster out." Headless said with a grin.Back in the trial grounds. "Evacuate the candidates!" a proctor shouted.A monster grabbed him mid- sentence and hurled him through the stands, people ran shield were raised but the barrier had cracked, weakened by Blessing and Kaito's battle.Yuki stumbled back, her eyes wide. She grasped the roots beneath the ground trying to read the enemies but."There's nothing…" she gasped "No soul…, no flow…, these things aren't even alive."Blessing pulled her to safety behind a wall, trying to stay calm. And just then he saw him, high in the tower.Headless, watching everything like a man admiring art. And just as silently, he turned and disappeared.Far off, Naoki stood barely on his feet. Blood on his check, ribbon still in hand. His eyes locked on the tower."You… you did this."The arena burned, screams echoed but he heard none of it. And as smoke rose higher Naoki ran, straight toward the tower, Straight after Headless.Smoke curled through the broken halls of the tower as Naoki dashed upward, lungs burning, the ribbon still clenched tightly in his fist.At the top of the spiralling staircase, he saw him. Headless slowly walking away from the chaos.Naoki yelled, "Stop!"Headless turned slowly, shadows pooling behind him."What are you doing here?" Naoki demanded, chest heaving.There was silence. Then, a voice like steel dragged through silk. "Nothing that concerns a child such as yourself."Naoki's eyes narrowed. "Well whatever it is… I'm gonna stop you anyways."A pause. Then Headless chuckled, not mockingly but genuinely amused by a child's stubbornness. He stepped forward boots tapping with deliberate calm."You?" he asked "You and what army?"Naoki didn't answer."You lost your first fight in seconds," Headless continued. "Then barely stood you're ground against that weak ice conjurer. Your strength is a joke. Your presence here… is pitiful, go back home kid before you get yourself killed."Naoki's grip tightened on the hilt of his blade. Eyes fell to the floor "I" He tried to speak."Face it," Headless said, voice dropping into something cruelly calm. "You're not even a piece on the board. You're just the dust on it."Then, with that he turned his back on him and walked away.Naoki stood frozen, blade trembling, the weight of his powerlessness crashing on him like a curse he couldn't escape.The trial grounds were no longer a battlefield, they were a slaughterhouse. Screams echoed, candidates and proctors scrambled, some trying to defend, others to escape.They had now completely transformed. One with elongated arms like whips, one which moved in blinks, like frames were missing, one with an armored body and flaming core and one with mouths from out of its shoulders.One proctor with enhanced abilities punched the armored one, his arm shattered.A wind user cast a slicing gale, the twitching monster dodged mid attack, reappearing behind him before slamming him face first into the dirt.Flames erupted, shadows lashed out, metal bent like paper. None of it mattered. They were too fast, too strong.Chairman Kaida stood unmoving arms behind his back, sharp eyes narrowed. The chaos unfolded before him like a vision he'd once feared."Those creatures," he muttered, his voice cold and firm. "Those are… Shinigami."He turned slightly. "Kairo, go end this madness."Kairo who was standing calmly with arms crossed, opened his eyes slowly. The usually unreadable look on his face."Yes sir." He said vanishing from the room with a sonic blink.Back at the battlefield. Three of the monsters still rampaged, tearing through whatever defences remained. Proctors lay injured, some unconscious."I thought this place only dealt with people with special abilities, so what in the hell are those things." Blessing asked Yuki quietly with a panic expression on his face."I don't know what they… but what I do know is that they're not alive." She responded with a calm voice.A pause as Blessing stared at Yuki."Not alive huh, mmm ok, ok makes sense but I just have two tiny questions," he said oddly calm. He then took a deep breath and then. "Firstly you mean to tell me we're fighting ghost and secondly how on earth are so calm right now!" He continued. "That guy got split into half, I can see that guy's brains, this is the most gory scene I've ever witnessed and you mean to…"Yuki covered Blessing's mouth his yelling had drawn the attention of one of the Shinigami.It was the fastest of them all the blink Shinigami. As it neared them slowly with a gust of air, Kairo appeared."Another plaything," it grinned, vanishing and reappearing in front of Kairo mid strike.But this time, it stopped mid movement. Kairo had grasped its arm mid movement.And with a single, calm motion, Kairo lifted the Shinigami by the face and slammed it into the ground with such force the arena floor cracked like glass. It twitched once and then lay still.In seeing this Blessing's eyes widened with shock. "Crap that guy's a beast." he whispered."Hey Yuki you said those things aren't even alive how could you tell?" Blessing asked now filled with curiosity rather than fear."I can use fragments of the earth to identify what kind of power a person has and its intensity, I couldn't feel any from them so I just assumed." "So you can tell the type of energy any living thing has by using the earth then?" He asked Yuki yet again."As long as it's alive yes." She said calmly looking at Blessing. "Why do you ask?""Well that guy what kind of power did he use." He stared at Yuki curious for an answer."The power he used right now," She paused scratching her head. "As for the type of power he has it's a little tricky to explain but." She said low her face darkening. "But the power he used to kill that thing is simple… he didn't use any."Blessing's eyes widened even more as he now stared at the man before him, "You mean… to tell me that." He said voice trembling. "What I just witnessed was hundred percent physical strength."Kairo's aura seemed to expand its reach he slowly headed towards another Shinigami.Outside Esther's footsteps echoed across the cracked tiles near the arena, her school shoes scuffed with dirt from the long run. The deafening chaos of the trial ground loomed just ahead.Just as she turned a corner, two men in black vest stepped into her path. "You're not allowed past this point," one said firmly, extending a hand. "This area is restricted,"Before he could finish, a chirpy voice cut the tension."Ah! There you are!"Elan, with her signature smile and bouncing step, appeared behind the two men. "Sorry boys, this one's with me. VIP business. You know how it is."One opened his mouth to argue, but Elan had already slipped an arm around Esther's shoulder, gently turning her away."Come on, Sweetie. I'll take you to your brother. He's itching to see you."Esther looked up, confused, but something about Elan's tone kept her from resisting. As they walked, Elan kept chatting playfully, about how cute her uniform was, how crazy the world these days, and how big brothers are always trouble.But behind that smile her eyes narrowed, flicking toward the arena."The Hero Society mustn't know more than they do about this girl." A silent thought, heavy. "Well for now at least or maybe until big brother returns."Elan kept waking as she vanished into a corridor, light as ever like she was hiding a storm behind her grin.Why was Elan trying to hide Esther's identity, was it to keep her out of danger or was she the danger being kept from everyone else.
