Torina: First day
 

Students began walking into the school grounds. A man sat atop the tallest building. His gauntlet tapping the wall as his eyes stared behind his shades. Scanning the students with a trained eye. "Not really anyone of interest. What a pitiful lot. A few rare races but nothing too unique." One of the teachers stepped forward. He was tall and strong, a broadsword on his back. Left eye was a high tech analyser, his right arm had a mechanica brace and various runes. The eye of Anubis around his neck.

The student on the roof scaffed. "Once again that paladin does the speaking for the old man. This is my second year and I still haven't seen the headmaster."

The teacher spoke up. "Welcome new students. I am Vevron, I teach divine magic as well as combat enhancing technology. On behalf of the headmaster I welcome you to Torina. In honor of the first day classes are suspended. Feel free to use the various training yards and sparring areans. Explore the campas and please enjoy your stay at our school." The crowd cheered but he was not quite done. "Oh and remember this is a school for combat base skills. If you want to survive the semester I suggest you study."

And Noyce did exactly that. Once they were excused, she stumbled upon the training grounds, looking for an education and a few friends. Friends made the tough times a little less stinging and the relaxing times a little more refreshing.
Her first sparring partner was a rose-skinned girl with slanted black eyes and a black gem on her forehead. Her fingers and toes ended in short, thick claws. Her ears were about as long as Noyce's and resembled butterfly wings. Two goat horns jutted from the hairline and curled back, down, and forward until they ended near her lips. She had a really thin build and her stance was kind of hunched over, but Noyce didn't think it was because of malnutrition or a disease. Finally, she has sharp teeth with incisors that were twice as long as the others. Her weapon of choice was a pair of short spears and she answered to the name of Tazzle.

Noyce and Tazzle were a notably even matchup and the small crowd that gathered to watch Noyce's initiation to Torina weren't quite sure who would come out on top. They were both deceptively agile and flexible, and both dual-wielded some rather light weapons, Noyce using a set of Twin Fang short swords. By speculation, the victor would be the girl who could get inside the other's defenses.
That victor was turning out to be Tazzle. As their duel dragged on, Noyce was forced to focus more and more on defense as Tazzle tired her out. Just as it looked like Noyce was about to eat spear, a crisp, clear female voice stopped Tazzle in mid-thrust with but a single word.
"Stop!"

As though time had froze, Tazzle was unmoving. Noyce slowly backed away, catching her breath. When Tazzle moved again, Noyce followed her gaze to a woman with short bright-green hair and large black-rimmed glasses. Judging from the woman's self-important expression, Noyce decided that she was probably some kind of uptight bitch like a lot of Mother's neighbor back home.
It seemed like a really long instant in time as the woman moved into the center of the small training ground where Noyce and Tazzle were recollecting their air.

"Tazzle, you know that I am required to be present before you initiate a new girl. Those are the rules."
Tazzle simply grunted and stepped back. The woman then turned to Noyce. "But, I think I've seen enough. You passed, precious."
Noyce raised an eyebrow. "Precious? Wait, who are you?"
"Naomi. Naomi Fokado. I and Tazzle here are members of the Azure Council and I'd like to talk to you about enlisting in it yourself."
Noyce wasn't feeling good about the idea, but maybe that was because it was her first day. "Sure, we can talk. I can't guarentee that it will get us anywhere, but we can talk."
"Terrific. Please, Miss uhhh..."
"Noyce Trumann. Just call me Noyce, I guess."
"Miss Noyce, then. Right this way."
Noyce the half-elf followed Naomi and Tazzle off of the training grounds...and probably into a lot of trouble.

Wyrgg Minor of the Fifth Clutch grinned as he padded to the training grounds. Finding another, ridiculously smaller, though oddly spiky, novice to spar with, Wyrgg went through the traditional motions of respect. Standing straight, he disregarded stance to display his full height and self confidence. Less than a second later, he found himself regretting this choice as he flew end over end out of the sparring circle. Swearing loudly, Wyrgg stood and stepped back into the circle. Once again disregarding stance, Wyrgg saw his diminutive opponent barreling at him full tilt this time, with the same move that had thrown him out of the circle. Lifting his massive foot, Wyrgg laughed as the small opponent tried to alter his trajectory. Unfortunately, he moved too fast, and ran chest first into Wyrgg's foot. Lifting the small creature, Wyrgg tossed him out of the circle. As the small beastie reentered the circle for the final round, something unexpected happened.

It grew... and grew... and grew a little more. Finally standing almost half a meter taller than Wyrgg, he grinned as he shook hands with Wyrgg. As the round started, they both dropped into stance. Still slightly shocked by the creature's sudden growth, Wyrgg did what he'd been taught to do when fighting his brother. He kicked him in the shin. Chuckling quietly, Wyrgg shinkicked it again. With the other looking him straight in the eye, Wyrgg delivered a usually devastating straight punch from his gnarled left hand. Unfortunately, though, a devastating shot for an Auryk was apparently just a strong shot to whatever this person claimed to be, effective only for dazing it for a moment and knocking it back a pace. Gutpunching it, Wyrgg planted his good hand on the novice's shoulder. Using his hand for leverage, Wyrgg executed an almost perfect dropkick. As his left foot contacted, Wyrgg decided to improvise a little. Rolling his right food up and over his opponent's head, he shifted his weight for a throw. The effect was better than he could've expected. His opponent was thrown clean of the ring. Haughtiness and competiveness gone from him, Wyrgg helped his former opponent up. "You... good fighter. My name Wyrgg. I am Auryk." he stumbled in his deep voice. As the creature regained its normal stature of about one meter tall, its gender was apparently confirmed as... ahem... neutral. "Hello, Wyrgg. I'm Goll, I'm a naull, a shape changer."

Suzaku wandered around the outside of the sparring arena, watching the other new students and feeling generally self conscious. It wasn't that he was so much afraid of sparring with anyone else, he just...really didn't want to lose.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to challenge him, in this case a large human youth with an equally large sword. Stepping into the ring with this human, apparently answering to the name of Glenn from the cheers of his companions, Suzaku drew a slightly curved longsword, plain except for the emblem of a wolf sleeping on a lilly carved into the blade.

Glenn began the fight with a powerful downward swing that connected with nothing but the floor, as Suzaku had lightly stepped aside at the last minute, spinning slightly and moving behind his opponent. Before he could even begin an attack, however, Glenn had turned and swung again, forcing Suzaku to stay almost constantly on the defensive. This kept up until Suzaku was finally trapped against the edge of the circle. As another slash of his opponents sword came towards him, Suzaku swore loudly and...caught it with his robotic left arm.
Nodding curtly, he said simply, "You won," before turning and walking away.

At Naomi's insistence, Noyce had changed into a uniform which, while she didn't think it looked too good on her, she found it ideal and rather functional.
"The council head, Lady Silvienne Krombite, will just have a simple interview with you." Naomi was saying as she lead Noyce towards one of the all girl's dormitories. Naomi was wearing the same uniform.
Noyce was scratching her cheek. "I have to be in uniform for a 'simple interview?'"
Naomi simply shrugged.

Silvienne Krombite, the council head of the Azure Council. A strikingly beautiful woman with volume-rich blonde hair and clear green eyes that Noyce felt could look into her soul. She radiated nobility with the way she stood up, the way she carried herself...even the way she hugged Noyce.
The "simple interview" as Noami called it was pretty much Noyce answering questions about herself, giving Silvienne and Naomi more than enough time to size up the half-elf in more ways than just physically.

Soon enough, Noyce was released to consider joining the Azure Council. Noyce couldn't think of a reason why, but couldn't think of a reason why not. She returned to the training grounds, finding Tazzle looking out into the people moving around. Noyce figured that the only thing she needed to help her decide was a good reason. There was also curiousity that drew Noyce to wanting to talk to Tazzle. Noyce was a little surprised to learn that the only members of the Azure Council were Silvienne Krombite and Naomi Fokado. Just two young women.
"Silvienne wants to become one of the people who runs this place," Tazzle was explaining without Noyce having asked. Tazzle spreads her arms to indicate all of Torina. "I guess she really admires the headmaster or something and wants to help him as much as she can. Fortunately or unfortunately, nobody seems to give a damn about her dream."
Noyce leaned back in the chair she took. "Everybody's got a dream, huh."
"What's yours?" Tazzle asked, looking as interested as she sounded.
"Change the world for the better. I came to Torina to acquire the skills to do exactly that, but I'm not quite sure where I should go from there."
"Well, you got plenty of time. So, Silvienne asked you to join?"
"Yeah, she did. And yeah, I think I will. Well, after I have more of a look at other things. But I don't think I'd end up refusing."

Noyce and Tazzle continued on into idle chatter, and they found a friend in each other, promising to duel many more times in the future.

Else where a mysterious man in white appeared in the school. Adorning his body was a wide variety of jewelry. He approached a student. "Excuse me, I am looking for the headmaster. Where might I find him?"
"Huh, oh well no one really knows. He rarely shows himself if at all."
The stranger places his arm around the student. "Hmm that is a shame. I guess that means I need to draw him out." A crack was heard as the student fell limp. His neck snapped. "Now some of you I will let go. Those of you that do make it out, I suggest you quickly get that headmaster. Because the longer you take, the more of your classmates I will kill."

Krik'vir's nictitating membranes slid over his eyes as dust was kicked up by the forceful landing of one of the combatants outside of the ring. A sudden idea occurred to him for a new anti-falling protection system, something to change the kinetic energy of falling into anti-gravitational energy when he heard a loud “Crack” and the crowd of students fell silent.

“The longer you take the more of your classmates I will kill” rang out loudly from a hooman who was covered with way too much jewelry.

I wonder what would happen if a gravitic disruptor went off under his feet, too bad that I didn’t invent that yet" Krikvir thought as he typed a memo with his latest invention idea into his gauntlet comp

Noyce shot up from where she was seated.
"Noyce, what's up?" Tazzle asked.
"Some freak in white just killed that student!" Noyce sounded surprised.
"Oh, yeah? Well, sit down."
Noyce faced Tazzle, who most certainly did not rise from her seat.
"Wait a minute. Has this kind of shit happened before?"
Tazzle stretched her arms before her. "Maybe. I haven't seen it before myself, but oddly, I'm not surprised that something like this would happen. Anyways, people who just randomly kill students are not our responsibility. Sit down and don't draw attention to yourself."

Noyce's responce was to draw her Twin Fang short swords.
"Aw, hell. Just be sure to please not haunt me if you should happen to bring that killer's wrath upon you."
But Noyce was already gone, assuming a defensive stance a safe distance from the man's back. "Turn around, murderer, and look upon the face of your executioner!"
"It's always the new people." Tazzle sighed.

He payed little attention to his so called 'executioner'. Litterally beating to death anyone he could get his hands on. "Uh-huh. Look I have news for you. You can kill me ten times over, its nothing more then a minor inconvience."

Staying hidden another man watched on. "Something isn't right here. The school has a detection grid for things like this. How could he have gotten this far undetected. For that matter why is he still not tripping the alarms despite using magical force. I need to bide my time abit longer. Charging in now would just get me killed."

Noyce was just about to try throwing one of her swords to get his attention, except a hand fell upon her shoulder. It was Tazzle.
"Look, if you get involved, you'll just be an addition to the casualties that are mounting up right now."
"But-" Noyce started the say, but Tazzle shook her quickly to silence her.
"Torina didn't accept you as a guardsman here. This is not your responsibility. This is not your time to die."
Noyce's gaze followed the man in white. "There's gotta be something we can do."
Tazzle shrugged. "Well, maybe you can find the Headmaster as that guy wants. I'm sure that if the Headmaster came out to greet him, he'd stop depopulating this place."
Noyce was already gone, without even having a clue on where to look.