Claire Beaufort II Location Unknown II Daytime

What even is this place?

As I was being dragged along by the small demonologist, I scanned through the scenery, if you could call it that. It seemed more like a wasteland really. The pier sent us in one direction, which went through a small tunnel of sorts. At least that is what it had appeared to be from the outside. Considering the wall it had been a part of was completely destroyed, I highly doubted it would be its full length.

Akio finally let go of my hand as we approached the entranceway to the tunnel. The sudden shift in motion propelled me forward, almost making me tip over and crash into the little guy.

"Woah there!" sounded Akio, looking slightly concerned. "You okay? I didn't drag you too hard did I?" His words are those of care, yet his face is that of a child who is about to break into laughter. Can't really blame him though, I am sure it was kind of a funny sight.

Just then, a new voice rang out through the air, though it sounded kind of dull. "Heeeeey. You lost there, Derek?"

Akio and I both turned our heads to locate the source of the almost bored voice. After a second, we realized that it came from atop the tunnel, where a black haired girl had been sitting on the edge, right leg crossed over the left, head resting on her fist. She wasn't looking over at us though, she stared down at dark green haired guy wearing a black and white striped shirt that looked akin to a prison uniform.

You know, for some reason I just got the most unsettling feeling… And wait, how the heck did we not see them coming up?

The boy stared right back at the girl with shrewd, yet timid gaze. "I'm not Derek..." He muttered.

"Then who are you?" Returned the girl.

"Hamada…"

"Hamada?"

"Yeah… Toshi Hamada…"

It was about this time that Akio had burst into their conversation. "Hi there unfamiliar people!" Cheered the excitable lad, tossing his arms up in the air, cheshire grin included of course.

This sudden ray of sunshine that just shown into this conversation caught both of the parties by surprise. The black hair girl raised an eyebrow at Akio, while Mr. Hamada on the other hand flinched while taking a few steps back.

"Who are you…?" Questioned the striped guy, sounding like a mixture of fear and aggression. Couldn't really make heads or tails of what it was supposed to be.

"I am Akio Kosuke, only son of the-" And so Akio went onto his spiel once again, as if he was a tape recording.

Why do I feel like I am going to need to hear this a few more times?

The first to reply to him was the black haired girl, though it wasn't as much with words as it was a yawn. "Cool… Nice to meet you." She was pretty uninterested I could tell. "Kasumi Kita, SHSL Computer Engineer."

Kasumi Kita

SHSL Computer Engineer

Is she bored? Is she laughing on the inside? No one really knows, but Kasumi Kita does stand 5'9" (180 cm.) tall and weighs 101 lbs. (45.81 kg.), looking rather slim, if it weren't for her top. If one could pin down an exact term for her hair, it would have to be long, spiky, jet black hair with a fringe in the form of curved spikes reaching down to her half closed black eyes. Of course, she also has a rather explosive high ponytail that is in the same design as the fringe reaching down to her chin, held up by two golden colored hair pins. She is extremely pale, almost as bone white that Akio is. She wears a very large navy blue hoodie that looks extremely fluffy surprisingly, three lilac blue stripes wrapping around the chest. You can't necessarily see her shorts due to the sheer size of her hoodie. To finish off her look, she wears a pair of very fuzzy and warm black socks. That's it. No shoes. Just the socks.

Someone get this girl some shoes, or something…

I finally decided to join the back and forth seeing as I was already this far. "Hello there, good to meet you too. I'm Claire Beaufort, the SHSL Color Guard Member."

Now it was Akio and I's turn to be shocked. "I'm Toshi Hamada… The… SHSL Forger." He seemed pretty ashamed of that as he turned his head away from us and just kind of stared at the floor.

Toshi Hamada

SHSL Forger

This time not appearing to look like a ghost, Toshi Hamada is 5'7" (170.18 cm.) tall and 135 lbs. (61.24 kg.). He is a pretty thin framed guy, appearing as nothing, but skin and bones. He has pretty unkempt dark green hair, spanning down to the base of his neck. Looking at his misty gray eyes is like seeing into an oncoming storm front. He wears a black apron atop of a white sweater adorned with black horizontal stripes and random paint splotches here and there. Some might even say it looks like a top to a prison uniform. That's because it is. For pants, he wears a pair of extremely baggy brown shorts that reach to his knees. Not the nicest pair of clothes around, but at least they don't look like a potato sack. For footwear, he wears a pair of brown canvas slip ons.

I see a recurring theme with all of these introductions… What does it mean though? This is the fourth Hope's Peak student in a row… And can someone clarify why we have a criminal here? I mean, he seems harmless enough, but still…

Now for whatever reason, that small bit of info peaked Ms. Kita's curiosity, as her brow was raised and a look of genuine intrigue appeared. "Well no wonder that name sounded familiar." She seemed rather pleased with herself. "You're that kid who got arrested for forging really famous artwork awhile ago."

Obviously that struck a chord inside of Toshi, as he seemed to visibly wince. "Can we please… Not talk about that?" He looked fairly upset and quite honestly, I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't want that being spread all over.

Kasumi shrugged in response. "Whatever you say, Hams."

"Hams?"

"Would you rather be called Derek?"

"No…"

"Then congratulations, you're Hams now."

I'm not even going to begin to question this…

With the two of them going on a back and forth, though mainly a one sided conversation with the other offering one liner responses, Akio and I shared a few glances. Eventually we just decided to slowly back our way out of the discussion, entering through the tunnel. Once on the other side, we saw that we had gotten even closer to the rather large hill. There appears to be a walkway leading up to the top of it which houses a small one story building. Unlike everything else, said building actually looks relatively intact from the outside. Continuing our little excursion along the concrete path, we saw… I don't even know what those building must have been used for. Some of them were raised high off the ground with stairs connecting them to a smaller building that resembled a factory. I would presume the rising would be in case of flooding, but then again, this island is already high off the water and is surrounded by a cement wall.

Perhaps it was a watchtower? Who knows? I'll figure that out later.

It wasn't even a minute later before we had another set of voices, though they certainly weren't the dup we saw last time.

"Wait, what does that mean ma'am?"

"Please for the last time, don't call me that. Just use my name."

Well this certainly sounds like it is going to be a doozy.

Akio must have been able to tell that I looked slightly concerned because he turned and gave me a small smile. "Don't worry, I met these two earlier. They're nice!"

Gotta love that optimism. Keep on being cheerful Akio.

Akio turned toward the factory shaped building, which revealed a small set of leading into its interior. From what I could tell, a blond someone was sitting down on the staircase and a person in a leather jacket leaning against the stairwell entrance. Akio blitzed on ahead, thankfully not yanking me along this time, and jumped over the pathway's railing to go meet up with the two.

Holy cow… He just jumped that thing with sandals on…

Little to say, I was still impressed by that as I made my way on over. It seemed Mr. Springman here's appearance made the two's previous topic cease. The one leaning against the wall now had a grin on his face as he looked down at our mutual companion, the one sitting down however eyed me over. "Who's the tagalong, pipsqueak?" The man standing asked as he pushed himself from the wall to give Akio a noogie.

The much smaller boy let out a small squeak, almost sounding like a mouse. "H-Hey!" He pouted, though I don't think he was genuinely sad.

"Lay off the kid, would you, Takkaki?" The bleach blond commanded more so than asked.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Lu…" This Ryuji seemed a tad disappointed, but he managed to save face with a quick recovery. "But hey there, I'm Ryuji Takkaki."

"Yo." Is all that the blond had offered up.

"That's Xia Lu! She's-" Akio tried to squeeze in, before Xia had interrupted.

"It's they, Kosuke. Remember that." They said, shooting icy daggers at the small boy. "But yeah, Xia Lu." They stated rather bluntly. Their patience must already be wearing thin. "You probably have caught on that everyone here is a SHSL. I'm the SHSL Astronomer."

Xia Lu

SHSL Astronomer

Locking eyes with Xia can send shivers up the spine with that cold stare of theirs. However, they are 5'1" (154.94 cm.) and 103 lbs. (43.72 kg.). They might be as skinny as a rail, but don't let that alone fool anyone. They have decent length hair, reaching down to their shoulders, which is almost bleach blond colored. It isn't the most well kept head of hair ever, but that seemed to be normal among this cast so far. Their eyes resemble that of a brass color. They are wearing a white tank with the hànzì for cat in red on the front, along with a coat that is a mixture of beige and brownish gold with white fur around the collar as a top. For bottoms, they are wearing a pair of gray casual khakis held up by a brown leather belt, along with a pair of white tennis shoes. To finish the look, they have a necklace with a cross around their neck, while also having a light gray choker on. Finally, a small chain comes out of their left pocket, another small cross attached.

Xia then pointed over at the guy who is supposedly named Ryuji. "He's a boxer."

He seemed slightly irked by that obviously, as Ryuji bared his teeth. "Hey, you stole my thunder!"

Ryuji Takkaki

SHSL Boxer

Meet Mr. Greased Lightnin'- Oh wait, that's copyrighted. Either way, Ryuji might not have a ton of muscle to show, but he makes up for it in his height at 6'1" (185.42 cm.) and being quick on his feet at 180 lbs. (81.65 kg.). He's got a pretty good tan going, a bit on the lighter side, maybe. His hair is an extremely dark brown, easily being confused for black. His eyes are a striking, sharp, crystal blue. His hair is worn in a shiny, slick, solid pompadour. It's small, but realistic. He has three silver loop earrings on the side of his left ear, and a simple black earring on his right. Of course, he is sporting a sleeveless V-neck with a nice black leather jacket on top. Not only does it has silver accents along the stitching, but it also has a hood attached, leather as well. He's rocking a pair of faded blue jeans that have a few rips around the knees, held up by a black leather belt. Finally, he wears a pair of black combat boots that actually reach up to just below his knees, his jeans being tucked into them.

After the two introductions, I finally decided I should speak up. "It's nice to meet you both. I'm Claire Beaufort, SHSL Color Guard Member."

"Color guard? What's that?" Asked the boxer, which I honestly shouldn't have been surprised by.

"I'll… Tell you later."

There's more important things to talk about for now.

"Hey, I haven't really had the chance to ask anyone else, but do either of you know where we are?" I inquired, hoping on the inside that maybe some light could be shed on this situation.

"Nope." Replied Ryuji.

"Not a clue." Said Xia, who just slightly shook their head.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd there goes that wish.

"Well, it was worth a shot, I guess." I looked over to Akio to give him a small head motion to say let's get moving.

"Oh! I actually wanted to stay and talk with them a bit, so I will catch up to you soon Ms. Beaufort!" Cheered the small boy, giving that trademark cheshire smile.

I shrugged. "Alright, well I'll be seeing you all around then. I'm going to go see what else there is."

With them all giving their nods and waves, I stepped away from the party and back towards the pathway.

These certainly are some… Interesting people.

Now as I walked, I kept thinking about three things.

Where are we?

Who else am I going to see?

Why are we all here?

Author's Postscript

Well, here are again folks, in the exact same time situation as before. Yes, another million years have passed. However, you know how I said life screwed me over last time? Well, it decided to be nice to me for a bit because I got hired for the job I applied for. Then I went to my cousin's grad, only to learn right after the party that one of my family members passed away. As you could imagine, I wasn't the... Happiest camper around. Then I went on vacation to visit some family, and lo and behold, here we are.

I am really sorry for the wait. I don't know if any of you have seen, but I am tidying up and refining the blog for this story. Go over there to get some news about this story, as I will also use that for updates on when I am going to be working on this. That, along with you guys can feel free to ask questions, or submit things if you would like. I will happily reply.

Until next time.

Peace (Breaker) out.