Sora Ikeda was adjusting to his situation about as well as good be expected given his circumstances. It wasn’t easy attending this school, for many reasons; a new school, in a new city, in a whole other part of the country far away from a home he never intended on leaving so soon. Yeah, he was doing just fine.

Aside from the fact that he was moving from middle school to high school the classes weren’t too different from those back home; for being a prestigious school he didn’t think things were any different than they would have been had he attended high school back home. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; the class size was larger, as was the school and even the city itself, and everything was new and shiny. A far cry from the ancient and run down school building with out-dated equipment and resources he was used to. He was just a country hick after all, moving from a small town in the middle of nowhere to the big city.

It would be hard for him to pursue any of his hobbies here, if he would even have had time to, and the drabness of the place was already wearing him down.

Not for the first time he wished he had his parents here to support him, though he fully understood that coming with him wasn’t feasible; moving the whole family halfway across the country on short notice wasn’t a burden he wanted to place on them anyway. They had helped him find a small apartment with a landlord who was willing to rent to a minor living by himself and they were paying the rent as well, so he couldn’t complain. He’d had to get a part-time job to pay for groceries and luxuries himself but he had no problem pulling his own weight to help his own situation; he’d have to work extra hard to fit his work responsibilities around his schoolwork and club activities, whatever they were, but he could manage. At least with his bike he shouldn’t have much trouble getting around.

All in all, Himikai Academy was not a place Sora would ever have chosen to attend. Even with its prestigious reputation and claims of scholarly excellence for its students the distance, the location, the sheer difficulty of even attending would have been enough to dissuade him from accepting their offer.

But he had to, when he heard about the ‘Hunters Club’.

Sora had never heard of Himikai Academy, he had never applied there or even thought about applying to a school anywhere near it. Yet he had been accepted there. Sora was not dumb but he was no genius either; his test scores were hardly anything to brag about on the national rankings. Neither was he particularly athletic; his tiny school barely even had any sports teams and no accolades to boast of. Even if they did he wasn’t a part of any team so why even mention it.

Simply put there was no reason why anyone should know who Sora Ikeda was, let alone see anything special in him. So why had a prestigious academy located in a city miles away from him seen fit to seek him out and offer him what must have been one of the few opening available? More specifically why had an association with an ominous name like the ‘Hunters Club’ taken an interest in him and why did a simple student club have enough clout to request he be accepted?

There was only one thing ‘special’ about Sora and the fact that that might have had something to do with his admission was troubling.

His parents were worried. So was he. How had anyone found out about ‘that’ little titbit of information and why were they interested in it? What did this ‘Hunters Club’ want with him, or should he say people like him? What would happen if he accepted their offer? What would they do to him or his family if he rejected it?

Sora had accepted the invitation to attend this school most because he had felt that he had no choice, but he would be lying if he didn’t also feel a small amount of curiosity. After classes had ended he found himself standing outside of the clubroom, helpfully sign posted by a garish sign, steeling himself for the encounter he had been dreading ever since he had started packing his stuff into boxes.

Opening the door Sora walked into a room with more occupants than he had expected. They all looked like normal students like him and were all either milling around or eating brownies; it wasn’t exactly the atmosphere he had anticipated. It seemed… normal. At the back of the room, seated behind a desk was an older student with a sheaf of papers in front of him; presumably the club president or whatever the term was.

Not in the mood to make friends or exchange pleasantries Sora slipped quietly into the room and took a seat in an empty chair.