"I saw another one today," a male student whispered to another while hiding in a dark ally of the school grounds. He glanced both ways to make sure nobody besides the group of four students were eavesdropping in on the conversation before continuing. "One of those filthy half breeds. Looks like a cross with a freakin' reptile."

"Eh? The school has seriously lowered their standards this year? Just what are they trying to pull?" a girl said, disgust clearly evident in her tone. "I paid good money to go here thinking that they would keep those things far away."

"I bet they're forming an army to wipe out the [i]normal[/i] humans. Don't trust them for anything," a third boy said. His dark green eyes narrowed with rage. "They want us to just accept these monsters as if they're human, and then it will be too late. Why can't the others see this?!"

"If we don't stop them, who knows how far this new "equality" movement of theirs can spread," the first boy said. "If this school falls to them..."

"Don't worry. I heard that the Swords of Light have infiltrated the school and will put them back in their place soon enough. It's only a matter of time until things go right again," the last boy assured them with a smooth tone. "There's a recruitment going on in the back of the-"

"Hey you, classes will begin in 10 minutes!" A woman in a business suit shouted at them as she passed by, waving them over. "Don't want to be late on your first day!" 

"A-Ah! Yeah," the boy shouted back. They all exchanged irritated glances before heading out.

********************

After the first day of school was over, students began to rush for the exit to visit their dorms or stick around to inspect the various arenas that all of the fights would be taking place in. Hikaru barely managed to maintain her footing as students roughly crammed around the challenge board, writing their names down on slips of paper and then pinning them up for all to see. In doing so they were declaring that they'd be fighting pretty soon, at most a weeks notice, and if the person who they write down would also sign their name then the combatants would get access to the arena for their declared time once the stamp of approval had been given. She spotted that some of the papers already had the red stamps on the lower right corner. Apparently some of the students had eagerly come here together to get the process done as quickly as possible. Must have gotten to know each other during the first day and decided it was as good of a day as any to have a fight.

Hikaru was uneasy about starting a fight so soon after coming here, especially after just finding out that she couldn't use her shinai, the fighting style she primarily used. It would be good to get some fight practice in, but it would also be good to spend more time in classes to brush up on other fighting skills first. For now she just watched some of the other students, sizing them up. The crowd knocked her particularly hard while she was distracted, causing her to stumble sideways into a boy about her age. He was probably European.

"Ah, I'm so sorry," she said with a bow. Hopefully, this being a fight school and all, this wouldn't result in a fight. This boy looked nice enough, but she couldn't tell for sure until his reply.