On the rooftop of the school, two individuals were speaking.
But it wasn't a chat between friends.
It was a business meeting.
Shizuka reached into her breast pocket, and pulled out a golden credit card, the kind that could store thousands, if not millions of credits on it.
"The bodies are located at 12 degrees north, 38 degrees west." Shizuka replied, handing the man standing next to her, General Duke, the card and giving him the coordinates.
"They're buried deep underground. Remove them, and dispose of the bodies before Sergeant Leo gets a chance to snoop around."
Duke took the card, and removed a square-shaped device from his pocket.
He swiped the card down the side.
Soon, a digital number appeared on the screen.
He let out a whistle.
"500,000 credits." He muttered in amazement.
He glanced back at Shizuka.
"Just to dispose of three bodies?" He asked.
Shizuka glanced at him with cold eyes.
"That includes rush delivery fees." She replied. "I want this done tonight."
Duke nodded, and pocketed the card in his breast pocket.
"Don't worry." He said, patting her shoulder as he passed. "I'll deal with it right away." He replied.
Shizuka shot him a death glare as he passed.
Normally, a man touching her without permission would find themselves becoming very acquainted with her torture chamber.
But…this was extenuating circumstances.
She needed his help.
Minutes later, General Duke and two of his second-year sergeants could be seen exiting the school.
The sergeant on the far right had a portable teleporter strapped to his back.
He grumbled as he felt the intense burden on his back.
He suddenly found himself deeply annoyed that they didn't put wheels on these things.
As the group reached the gate, the guards took one look at Duke, and waved them through.
Duke plugged the coordinated Shizuka had given him into a device similar to the one the head guard had used in the forest, and a dot appeared in the lower-right corner of the screen.
Duke used the device to lead him through the forest, eventually coming across the location Tsukuru and Quinn had fought Riley and his friends in.
It wasn't a long trip, as it was relatively close to the edge of the forest.
When Duke reached the location, one of his sergeants spoke up.
"Hey, wasn't there a tree there?" He asked, pointing to a noticeable gap between a row of trees.
Duke walked forward, and stomped his foot on the ground.
He repeated Shizuka's process from earlier, opening up a deep square hole in the ground.
At the very bottom of the hole, the three bodies could be seen.
Duke looked down at them.
He saw Riley's headless body, with his head located a good distance away from his corpse.
He then looked over at the other two bodies.
Their faces were twisted into a look of terror, and their faces were slightly blue.
It was the tell-tale look of a person buried alive, dying from suffocation.
Duke stomped his foot again.
The very bottom of the hole lifted up like a flat platform.
When it reached the top, one of Duke's sergeants walked on top of the platform.
He grabbed each body one-at-a-time, heaving them over his shoulders like a sack.
Meanwhile, the other sergeant unfastened the portal from his back.
He let out a sigh of relief as he did, feeling the heavy weight on his back suddenly lifted.
As he powered it on, its interior became a swirling vortex of red, designating it as a Red Portal.
The second sergeant walked over to him, and dropped the bodies carelessly over his shoulder.
"Make sure you send the bodies in one-at-a-time." Duke ordered, stomping the ground to return to how Shizuka had left it, leaving no trace that it had been altered.
"We don't want to take the chance of all three bodies being found together and identified."
The sergeant nodded, and tossed them all in one-by-one.
As the first body flew in, a swirling portal appeared on another world.
It was a desolate wasteland with a pitch-black sky.
As Riley's headless body came through, and dropped onto the ground in a heap, a growling sound could be heard.
A group of black beasts approached.
They were the size of small dogs, and looked like rats.
The beasts walked over towards Riley's body, and began viciously tearing it apart, leaving a mangled corpse behind.
Back in the forest, the sergeant threw the last body through.
"Alright, we're done here, men." Duke replied, as he reached them.
The sergeant next to the portal nodded, powering it off, and putting it back on his back.
He let out an audible groan.
The group began to head out of the forest.
As they did, Duke sent a message to Sergeant Shizuka, deleting it on his end once it was sent.
The message had two words, "It's done".
Back in Shizuka's room, she was just about to get ready for bed, when her watch lit up.
Looking at it, she smirked darkly.
She, too, deleted the message.
The next morning, light bled through the blinds in the dorm room of Tsukuru, Quinn, Vorden, and Peter.
The light landed on Tsukuru's face, causing his eyes to open.
A second later, the trumpeting alarm blared through the room, waking everyone else up with a jolt.
As Quinn woke up, he got the System message saying that he had completed his first Daily Quest, granting him 5 Exp.
Like normal, Tsukuru was the first in the shower.
After he dried off, he mentally thought the word 'Inventory'.
Instantly, the System's Inventory screen appeared in front of him. He tapped the shirt image, and the secondary screen overlaid the first.
He grabbed a shirt from the bottom row.
Instantly, pixels began to envelop his chest. When they clustered together, Tsukuru's chosen shirt could be seen.
It was a deep-crimson colored shirt.
It had two dragons flying in different directions, their bodies forming curves.
Where one dragon's tail ended, the other dragon's mouth started, forming a perfect, "ying-yang" symbol.
The dragon on the left was white with blue eyes, while the one on the right was black with red eyes.
Tsukuru then used his Video Creation Skill to create a new copy of his Polymarthimine military uniform, the blazer jacket left unzipped and open as always.
Tsukuru walked back out the door, and headed towards his bed. As he did, Vorden took his turn in the shower.
Tsukuru picked his hoodie off of the desk, and put it on.
After everyone was dressed, Tsukuru put his hand on Quinn's shoulder.
"Why don't you two go on ahead?" Tsukuru replied with a smile as he looked at Peter and Vorden. "We'll catch up."
Vorden gave Tsukuru a strange look, but eventually agreed.
After Peter and Vorden left the room, Quinn turned to Tsukuru.
He raised an eyebrow.
Tsukuru smirked.
He withdrew something from his Inventory, the object appearing in his hand in the form of clustering pixels.
"Here." He replied, handing it to Quinn. "I made this for your…extracurricular activities."
Quinn took the object, and held it in both hands, looking at it.
His eyes widened in surprise.
In his hands, Quinn held a black, full head mask that appeared to be made out of a thick, durable material, while also remaining lightweight.
It had three clasps on either side, giving it a clam-like design that allowed it to split open and envelop its wearer's entire head.
The front of the mask had large eye holes and nostrils, a black screen behind them, allowing the wearer to see through the mask while keeping their eyes hidden from view.
It also had a long line of holes going down from the bottom of the nose down to the edge of the mask in a rectangle, like a kind of respirator.
Despite being black, the mask looked as though somebody had spray-painted a white, skull design on it, with the top of the skull having a flame design, as if the top of the skull was on fire.
Quinn stared at the mask, before looking up at Tsukuru.
Tsukuru smirked at him.
"That'll probably do a better job of hiding your identity than that half-mask you've been wearing ever did."
Quinn smiled, and nodded.
"Thanks." Quinn replied, putting the new mask into his bag. Quinn checked the things in his bag.
In addition to his new mask, he also had Tsukuru's Basic-Tier Knight Gauntlets, the test tube of Layla's blood, as well as the three now-empty test tubes from when he had drank the blood of Riley and his friends.
As Tsukuru and Quinn headed down to the canteen, they found Peter standing alone.
Looking around, Tsukuru saw Vorden sitting at a table in the high-Level section.
But even then, the table he was sitting at was completely empty.
It seemed that nobody wanted to sit with Vorden.
As the three sat down in their regular seats, Tsukuru activated his Ability.
Pixels began to appear between his hands.
When the bright flash of light inevitably came and went, Tsukuru had a…burger of some sort…on a plate in front of him.
It consisted of a round sausage with a round, flattened egg on top, a slice of melted cheese underneath, and the "burger" had small pancakes as the "buns".
Peter stared at the burger in confusion.
Seeing the look, Tsukuru looked away, annoyed.
He flashed back to a conversation he and Shizuka had had last night on their walk back to the school.
Yesterday…
"So, I hear you've been having some…questionable meal options for breakfast lately." Shizuka replied.
Tsukuru gulped, and looked away.
"Pizza…Pizza Breadsticks…"
Tsukuru made the mistake of looking up at her.
She looked him down with a death glare.
"I…I…" He sputtered.
His brain tried to find an excuse, a justification, anything.
Nothing came to mind.
He suddenly felt Shizuka's hand on his shoulder.
It was a tight, vice-grip.
She looked at him with a closed-eye, gentle smile.
And that somehow looked more terrifying than her previous death glare.
"Either you start making better choices, or I will personally make you required to eat the same slop as everyone else in the canteen." She replied in a sweet voice.
Tsukuru gulped, before looking away.
"Yes…ma'am." He muttered in a defeated done.