Taboo | How To slay A Kishin IC (PROLOG MODE)

Haven | Midgar International Airport

Aeron widened his stance to keep himself from falling from the ship lifting off, but once they were skyward, he relaxed once more before looking back to Lucy and speaking.

"Well that was fun. You alright?", Aeron asked Lucy before being interrupted by a sudden transmission.

Just then, all of the televisions were turned on and the headmaster of their future school appeared to make a speech. To be honest, Aeron expected for the headmaster to make an introductory speech to the students, though he did not expect for him to quickly get it over with, or to show wildlife getting slaughtered. It did not bother Aeron to see the death and destruction, but it did remind him of the gravity of what his future held. Aeron was more worried about his adoptive sister, Lucy. He was not sure whether or not she had gotten into a live exercise with a live kishin, but he just hoped she was ready for whatever they would face. With that thought in mind, Aeron slowly looked back to the girl holding his hand and briefly stared at her before speaking.

"Quite a sight, huh?", Aeron asked Lucy, gauging her reaction.

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

Lucy relaxed once the ship had taken off, still holding on to Aeron just a bit longer while she regained her balance. Once she was stable and about to let go, the tv scream turned on and a man started to speak She looked closely and listened carefully to what was being said, hoping that she could get some information on the upcoming exam. When her brother asked her about the sight she just smilled at him and put her hands on her hips. "Don't worry Aeron, I'll protect you from them." she stuck out her tongue teasingly and then looked back at the screen

Once enough time had passed Hartman continued to speak, feeling sure that the noise wold have died down by now, "For anyone still watching I would like to congratulate you. You've just passed the first part of the exam. Every hunter and huntress needs courage to carry out their duty. Those who lack it will never survive in this school." The man was moved to the upper left corner of the screen while the rest of it showed a map of a rather large forest area

"As a reward for your bravery, I'll now explain how the rest of the exam will work. The map you see behind me is of a forest owned by the school. It spans over 25 square miles and is filled with the deadliest of kishin. In it you'll find caves, small bodies of water and of cores, wild animals. Each of the kishin you'll encounter will have 1 of six different colored tags. You'll need to kill them and collect one tag of each color. The deeper you move into the forest, the stronger the kishin you will face and the more various colors you'll be able to collect."

Hartman closed his eyes for a moment and took a short breather.It looked as though his speach was almost finished, however... "Oh by the way. There are only 40 red tags in the entire forest. That means out of the 15 thousand students who applied only 40 of you will get to attend the school. You can chose to fight other students for tags if you must but killing your fellow students is strictly forbidden. You're her to protect the innocent not kill anyone who gets in your way. Other than that, how you chose to collect the tags is entirely up to you. I wish you all the best of luck in the exam. Please enjoy your flight." the screen went dark again and the speech was over.

Asura had remained silent until the very end of the broadcast. He gave it his full attention and ignored what was going on around him. He didnt' even notice that Miu had spoke or that another girl had entered the seen. "Only 40 students huh?" he said mostly to himself before turning back to the others. Sounds like their really playing hard ball huh? I knew the exam would be tough, but i wasn't expecting that."

Haven ~ Skies

While Azur shook hands with Raiko, he felt this shock come out of nowhere, pretty much, in a way, "zapping" back himself to his senses. "WhoaAH!" Azur yelled, "Oh god, I felt that shock!" Shaking his hands around as if they were wet, Azur still felt the electricity going through him. In a matter of time, it was pretty much gone, but still lingered a bit. Afterwards, Miu ratted out Raiko for zapping Azur; in response, Raiko does the usual, "It's just a prank!" Azur had his hand to his face, while laughing. "Hey, if I shot someone in the leg and said, 'It's just a prank,' would it still be a prank?" Azur asked, "I think it would be assault. Mostly because you're being 'sault-y.'" Azur took a second to look back and cringe on his horrible joke.

After the uproar died down, the headmaster from before came back on. Nothing from his speech really appealed to Azur, until he stated that only 40 students will be chosen; that was when Azur loudly blurted out, "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me." With that, the headmaster finished up his speech, and the televisions disappeared. The first thing that came to Azur was his relations with the other students. Already, he was making good friends, so he wasn't really worrying about making truces. Secondly, Azur thought about the size of the Kishin; the Kishin that were shown in the video feed were all no match for Azur, due to their estimated BMI's and sizes. Most of them were easily able to be lifted by Azur. However, he did realize that he didn't see any flying Kishin. 'Hmm. Either the video feed didn't show it, or there aren't any airborne Kishin,' Azur thought, 'All I can do for the massive and flying Kishin is to stall for time, so I better play it safe.'

Finally, the final thought that Azur had was about the tags. To him, it did seem like a huge problem for the first part, as he could become a prime target by both Kishin and students if he had any excess tags or he could be forced into hunting students, which is the complete opposite reason of why he went to Balefire. However, Azur only needed six tags, so it would be fine. 'After all, there must be more than 240 Kishin in the forest,' Azur thought, 'Red tags should be a priority.' Snapping out of his deep thought, Azur turned to the others.

"So, after thinking over it," Azur stated, "Do you all wanna do a truce? I mean, if we beat up each other senselessly, what would we get out of it?"

Haven ~ Skies

"Bull shit, I came here to protect the people, not to go on a hunting game with caged animals" Diana commented out loud about the next part of the exam "Why would we need to murder another living being just for the sake of a check mark? That will cause more problems since the ones who only wish to kill will have an advantage"

To say that the viking was disappointed was an understatement, she now had yet another reason to get into this academy. The blonde girl hoped that some of the persons in the ship had the common sense and souls to no be mere murderers detached of emotions.

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

Asura shot the other boy a cocky grin. His request was interesting, but could it be trusted. After all they had only just met, he might have just been saying that to trick them into letting their guard down. Despite this, Asura wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Having three less people trying to stab me in the back doesn't sound half bad. I guess there are strength in numbers." he said while holding his fist out for a fist bump. He couldn't speak for the others but Asura certainly wouldn't attack him unless he was attacked first.

Meanwhile on the inside. Lucy couldn't help but notice the girl who had gotten angry over something. she heard 'bull shit' but everything after that was drowned out by the sound of the others talking. What could of upset her? "Hey big brother? I'm gonna go talk to some people. I'll catch you later ok?" she said as she took her fishies and went to sit by the viking girl who had helped her earlier. When she got there she made sure to set a few feet away from her just in case she was still angry. She didn't want her to hit her or anything. "Hey umm, are you alright? I heard you yell something about bull droppings but I'm not sure what that means."

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

The viking was bending a now broken piece of the railing to calm her mind when she heard a voice towards her. Diana noticed it was the same girl as before, she didn't need to face the wrath that the blonde had in her soul, but she at least explained her anger "It is more a way to say how something is wrong, but fueled with emotions"

Dane sighed and continued "I understand that we will have to fight and kill kishin, but in this test, we will go on a murder spree against caged animals. That is no test of our abilities, it sounds more like a show of who kills the victim first, what a sick thing to use as a filter to enter the academy"

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

The feren seemed all the more confused. It really showed just how little human interaction she had. "You say bull dong when you're mad about something? People are very strange aren't they?" she asked this while taking a few steps closer to her and taking a bite of her fish. She chewed it up good and swallowed it before continuing to speak. "But I don't get it weren't the kishins the one hurting the animals in the video? That's what it looked like to me." she pointed this out and looked down at the world below, being captivated by the pretty view.

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

"That is a normal way of living, they are predators like wolves hunting rabbits or a bear fighting to conquer territory" the viking spoke in a more calm tone "The kishin are, in a sense, predator animals, and here we are, preparing to kill them now that they are captured, giving us the advantage in numbers, but also making them victims of uneccessary killing"

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

Lucy rubbed her head, trying really hard to understand what was wrong. She kind of understood it but themore she thought about it the more questions she had. "But I thought the kishins were bad. And the TV guy just said we had to get the tags right? So maybe you don't gotta kill em if you don't want too?" she took another bite of her sushi and got, what she considered a good idea. "Hey you want some fish? they're yummy!" she said trying to cheer her up.

The skies of Haven | Balefire Air Ship

Aeron was rather surprised by the viking's sudden outburst, but opted to wait for Lucy as she walked over to the girl and began to speak to her, listening to their conversation carefully. It seemed to him that the viking was rather angry over the fact that they were to kill kishin within the forest, and the more he heard, the more he realized that the viking considered them to be like normal animals. This sudden thought brought Aeron to lift his gaze from the food table to the viking herself as he raised an eyebrow in interest. When he did observe though, he noticed how the viking had caused damage to the ship's railing and gave a light frown before looking back to the food table.

As Aeron grabbed a plate and began to fill it with energizing foods, he couldn't help but think about how his views differed quite a bit from the viking's. For one, he did not know whether or not the forest was closed off from the wilderness, or if it was on the academy's borders, just within the kishins' territory. Even if they were caged and brought to the forest, it was for a reason other than simple bloodsport. It was to test and see how the students reacted to peril, whether or not they would hold their ground, and if they did, then whether or not they could hold their own against the monsters.

After filling up his plate, Aeron leaned up against a wall and continued to quietly listen to Lucy and Diana talk, taking bites from the small sandwiches he had gotten.