The wind whips through your blonde hair as you rush through the alleyway. Your legs move on pure instinct, launching you into the air to latch onto the familiar chain link fence separating the dark shortcut from the main street. You pull yourself up and over the obstruction in seconds, your black gloves barely scratched by the rough movement. You land on the balls of your feet, your shoes comfortably bending with them as you take off.
Your black eyes lock on to the washed-out, gray apartment complex across the one way street. A red car honks at you as you keep running across the street. You don't stop as it honks again and the people still waiting for the signal start to gasp and yell in fear and worry. Those emotions swiftly turn to awe as you slide over the car's hood as it comes to a screeching stop right in the middle of the road. Thankfully there were no other cars behind it, so there's no issue. You shout an apology to the driver as you rush through the open gate of the parking lot.
You say Hi to Mrs. Nakyama as you stop by the mailboxes on the bottom floor. She mentions how you're looking more like her grandson everyday. You reply that the guy must be damn handsome if he looks like you. You share a chuckle before grabbing the three envelopes from your box, Number 313, and telling her goodbye. You'd offer to help her back to her room, but today you need to get back to your bro and fast.
You take the stairs two at a time. You kept a quick pace all the way to the door with your room number on it. Grabbing the key from your pocket and turning it in the knob, you knocked twice before pushing the door open with a shove. You stopped only to take your shoes off at the entrance. Then you fast walked into the plain room with one table in front of a small gray TV Set. Your eyes focused on the black haired young man sitting on the floor while tapping away at his keyboard.
"I'm home, bro!" you stretch your arms as you walk into the living room, the sound of your bones popping reaching your ears.
"Seven minutes," Yamato's eyes remain glued on the bright screen of his laptop, "You were seven minutes late getting back."
You rolled your eyes, "Come on, man. You're still keeping track of that?"
"I must account for any deviations in previous data to obtain accurate measurements. Show me your head."
You knelt to the green matted floor at your brother's right. He stopped typing and turned to look at you as you lifted the hair covering your forehead with one hand. A few seconds of silence passed before he said, "No discoloration or bruises, thus a fight is unlikely. You took one of your shortcuts."
"Better than taking the train. You know how far the station is from the construction site," you smile smugly while taking a seat next to your bro. You lean over his shoulder to look at his laptop screen and change the subject before he can reply, "What have you been doing?"
His eye follow yours to the mess of blue links lining the white screen. He clicks on one of them before answering, "Performing investigations into our family name to locate any connection to our parents."
Your eyes narrow as you nod, "Any luck this time?"
His eyes dart across the website page before backing out, "No. I've found multiple references to the family name of Nagai, but no records detailing our family specifically."
"Hmm," your frown last for but a second, before you smile and clap your brother on the back, "Ah, don't worry too much, bro! We'll find something about our folks sooner or later."
"Not with unfounded confidence."
Another roll of your eyes follows as you stand up, "Anything to drink in the fridge?"
"Three bottles of Ramune, five bottles of water, and one can of coffee."
You grab one of the Ramune's and the can of coffee before closing the fridge. You toss the coffee to your brother who catches it in one hand. You sit next to him and open the bottle, taking a sip as Yamato goes back to typing on his laptop.
"Your actions confuse me, Lord Hayato."
The familiar, ghostly tone leads your eyes to the shimmering image of a metal gauntlet on your right arm. Its gray exterior was broken up by inlaid red crystals that had something swirling in side them. The deep yet otherworldly voice echoed through the room, "You are searching for your elders, yet you do nothing to find them."
"Incorrect," Yamato quickly responds, his voice never rising above a monotone, "All my investigations have been exhaustive."
"All on your 'device' never once leaving your room," your Partner replies, "I have yet to see either of you conduct your search with any true effort."
"Hey back off," you bring the talking gauntlet up to your face, "don't go acting like my bro hasn't done anything! He's doing great! He'll find something soon I know it."
Your Partner lets a silent moment pass before he continues, "My apologies, my young Lords. I mispoke."
You shake your head in slight disappointment, while your brother tells the talking gauntlet to continue. You're still surprised at how easily he accepted the possessed item's presence when you brought it home. His bored expression didn't crack once when you explained how the gauntlets appeared out of the blue and asked to "bond" with you. Just shrugged and asked your Partner questions he couldn't answer.
The spirit continues, "What I meant was, why limit your search to Lord Yamato's "laptop"? If your wish is to find information, then there are other, more direct ways of obtaining it. And I would be glad to assist you."
"That's an, uh, nice suggestion, Partner...," your laugh does nothing to hide your nervousness.
Your brother picks up on this, "What my brother is trying and failing to say is that your suggestions have a 99% chance of getting us put in jail, or wanted by Law Enforcement."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then it wouldn't be worth it," both you and your brother say in unison.
You smile and pat the shimmering gauntlet with your other hand, "Don't worry, Partner. We'll find out about our folks. On our own."
"As you wish," the image of the gauntlets disappears within moments. You briefly wonder how long that guy was listening in, before your head perks up.
"Oh, almost forgot!" you excitedly stand, finishing your Ramune in one go, and make your way to the kitchen. You rifle through the draws before pulling out two small knives. Then you rush back to your brother's side, this time pulling out the three envelopes and slamming them on the floor between you, "Got the mail! I've got a good feeling about this one!"
Your bro stares at the envelopes on the floor, two of which have silver embroidery trailing along the sides. He closes his laptop before looking at you, "It is highly doubtful your feeling will be true. While the letters might be there, the chances of either of us being accepted is-"
"Don't tell me the odds on this!" you shove one of the embroidered letters into his arms while you take the other. Then you hold one of the knives out to him and shoot him a knowing smile, "On three?"
He takes a moment before gripping the knife and nodding, "On three. One..."
You both place the knives under the envelope flaps at the back.
"Two...."
You lift the knife up even that you can almost hear the flimsy paper tearing, while your bro hardly makes a sound.
"Three."
You rip the back of the envelope off, put your knife down and reach inside to grab the letter. Your brother uses a more measured tactic and barely harms his letter's envelope. You both unfold the pieces of thick, stylized paper and start reading from the top:
Dear Nagai Hayato,
After much review and consideration, we at Yokohama Raijin High would be honored to have you attend. Our national Martial Arts division would be to happy have you attend our prestigious institution. We hope that you will enjoy your time with us, as we will certainly enjoy our time with you.
A smug grin grows over your face the more you read through the letter. The rest of it is mostly suggestions, dress codes, yadda yadda yadda. You expected this much. What you're looking for is....ah here it is!
We're certain that you will be a wonderful student to have at our academy...
[]...which is the reason your request to live in one of our dorms with your brother has been accepted. We hope to see you soon.
[]...but, unfortunately, you do not qualify to live in one our dorms. We will do everything in our power to accommodate your commute to our school. We hope to see you soon.
Got it finished early. Hopefully it's good and I got the characters down right. Will admit getting all three's personalities across was kind of difficult.
And, as per usual with AGG Quest, you guys get a choice here. Either you go ahead and live on the campus of the High School, or you live off it in your Apartment. This choice could be considered one of the biggest choices in the Quest. As it will determine what characters you meet, what your adventures are like, how many Monsters you meet, how you encounter the Organization, what your brother starts finding out about your family, etc. etc.
Oh, and don't worry about the colors. They're for style and don't mean anything.
If you're wondering why a High School allows it's students to live in dorms:
1. You guys chose the Prestigious School. The students who attend are the children of the richest, strongest, and most influential people in the country. Do you really think they wouldn't pull some strings to set things up to ensure their kids get advantages that other High Schools don't? The place is closer to a college than a High School.
2. This is an Anime Quest in a High School. Stranger shit has happened.
And, as always, criticisms and questions are welcome.
