2 Chapter 1: New Student

2 Years Later

Brikston High School, a prestigious school that taught not only academics but also many different types of martial arts, where the popular were the strong students, and the unpopular were the weak, untrained students.

The strong students treated the weak students like trash, often beating them up with little to no repercussions, often getting off with a light chastise at best, and the teachers would do absolutely nothing for the victims.

It was a cruel school that favored the strong over the weak.

And Brikston just got a new student.

"So class, we have a new student today," The teacher introduced, gesturing towards a teen who was just a bit shorter than the average height for a seventeen-year-old, standing at 5'7'', with dark brown hair with a pair of sea-green eyes. He was fairly skinny and didn't have much muscle on his body at all.

He wore the typical school uniform, a white collared long-sleeved button-up shirt with a tie going right down the middle with black dress pants and a pair of light brown dress shoes. He had glasses resting on his nose with red frames and thick lenses.

He had a shy grin plastered on his face as he fiddled with his fingers nervously.

"Well, go ahead and introduce yourself," The teacher said, smiling at him politely. The teen gulped and nodded his thanks to the teacher before looking at the class of maybe around twenty or so other teenagers in the room sitting at the desk, two to a desk.

"H-Hi," He stuttered before coughing into his hand, getting snickers from the class with small whispers in between. The teacher grabbed a ruler and slammed it on the blackboard, emitting a loud smack throughout the room, causing all snickering and whispering to stop in an instant.

"You will give your attention to Mr. Apollyon right now, the next who interrupts him will do the Frister Blister," She threatened, getting everyone to immediately straighten up at attention. "Go ahead," She urged nicely once again. He swallowed again and scratched his cheek nervously.

"Hi, I-I'm Leo Apollyon, nice to meet you all," He said, sweat forming on his brow.

"N-N-Nice to meet you too!" A boy mocked his stuttering, getting the class to laugh, even making the teacher hold back a small smile as she walked to her desk.

"Heh heh heh," He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"He even laughed at a joke that was about him, what an idiot!" A girl said loudly, the class roaring with laughter once again at the expense of Leo.

"S-Sorry, guess I am p-pretty dumb," He spoke, shifting his feet a little.

"So like, can you fight? What type of martial arts do you practice? Jujutsu, Judo, Taekwondo, any of those?" Leo's eyes widened and was about to speak but a boy with sandy blonde hair, also in the traditional school uniform but the sleeves were unbuttoned and rolled up, resting on his biceps which were larger than the average teen's,

"How 'bout a spar Ms. Shwarz, me vs. Leo, I wanna test him out if that's okay with you?" Ms. Shwarz narrowed her eyes at the student, but sighed and nodded her head.

"Okay, Conner, but just a spar, no more crippling!" The newly dubbed Conner smirked but nodded nonetheless.

"N-No more?" Leo questioned, a little bit of fear in his voice. Conner cracked his knuckles, a grin on his face.

"Yeah, I have a tendency to breaking limbs or putting people out of commission for the rest of their miserable lives, but don't worry, you're the newbie here so I'll go easy on ya!" He said, putting a smile to ease the boy, who's fear just turned to nervousness at the prospect of the fight that was about to occur.

"I-I appreciate it," Leo said, as the students quickly moved their desks and chairs to the side of the room, revealing a large circle, making the boundary of the fight evident.

"You know the rules of engagement, start whenever you're ready," Ms. Shwarz drawled out lazily as she observed from her seat behind her own desk, resting her chin on her open palm.

"Okay newbie, let's go!" Conner shouted, holding his fist up expertly as he shifted his weight to his feet repeatedly. Leo looked at Conner a bit curiously and shifted into a sloppy stance, raising his fists that were a tad bit too close together.

"What is that stance? He looks constipated," Someone whisper from the crowd of students that had gathered around the circle of engagement, making a few of them laugh quietly.

"And start," The teacher said lazily as she flicked her finger in the air, signaling the start.

Conner jumped forward and planted his fist into Leo's stomach, causing the teen's eyes to widen as spit flew out of his mouth before Conner quickly spun around and then slammed his elbow into Leo's face, breaking Leo's glasses and knocking him to the ground.

Leo clutched his nose with both hands, blood pouring out like a broken dam out of his nose, it quickly covering a lot of his lower face.

"Oh shit, Conner got him good!" A student of small stature shouted, and everyone had grins on their faces. Leo struggled a little bit, but he eventually got up slowly, his hands shaking as he put on his now cracked glasses, one of the thick lenses gone.

"T-That hurt a little bit," He said, but his face told a different story, he was in a lot more pain then he'd like to admit.

"We're not done til Shwarz calls it!" Conner shouted as he rushed, a cruel smirk on his face as he kicked Leo's feet out from under him, causing the teen to land on his back, all the air suddenly going out of his lungs. Conner jumped on top of Leo, pushing his knee into Leo's ribs, getting a small yell of pain to emit from the boy's throat before he repeatedly punched the brown-haired boy in the face till he was littered with red splotches, blood pouring out of his now swollen lips, eyes, and mouth.

"Heh, I knew it. Complete trash!" Conner shouted, venom lacing his voice as he stood up, stomping on Leo's crumpled up body, getting Leo to scream in pain once again. "Trash! Trash! Trash! Trash! Trash! Trash!" He screamed over and over again as he stomped on Leo over and over again, and not a single soul felt pity for the weak boy in front of them, only feeling amusement and superiority over the weakling.

Conner bent over and grabbed Leo's collar and yanked him up, glaring at Leo with disgust in his eyes.

"Welcome to Brikston bitch, enjoy your stay, there's a lot of this coming your way."

"P-P-Pwrease, s-stop," Leo cried out, his speech messily formed as he tried to form his words, but his swollen mouth prevented him from talking right.

"Oh my god!" A girl screamed, trying so hard not to burst into fits of giggles. "He actually asked Conner to stop!"

"Kick his ass, Conner!"

"Show him who's boss!" Conner turned to the crowd of cheering and did a mock bow before looking at Leo once again, his eyes narrowed at the heap of mess in front of him.

"One last grand finale, eh Leo?" Leo tried crawling away but Conner put his foot on top of Leo's chest, holding him in place as he slowly applied pressure to his ribs, a small crack echoing throughout the room as Leo's eyes opened as his scream ripped through the air, silencing all the laughter and cheers throughout the room.

A small part of his shirt turned red before it began spreading, making a messy circle in the center of his abdomen of red, his now bloodstained shirt clinging to his chest.

"Ah, a rib pierced your skin? Gross," Conner commented. "Oh well, one more and I guess I'll be done." He stepped off of Leo, who was panting and gasping for air as he groaned in pain before Conner swung his foot and kicked Leo right in the testicles, causing every guy in proximity to cringe in pain, knowing full well that if they were him, then that would hurt.

Leo was silent for a second, seemingly in shock at what had happened before he curled up in a ball, tears running freely down his eyes, his body shaking as the pain from the kick spread to his whole body, all air in his system seemingly left as he had difficulty breathing.

He wasn't strong enough to fight back.

All he had was his brains and money and neither of those could help him against a pure being of strength.

A being like Conner.

It was then that he slowly saw his vision get blurry as it soon turned black.

Leo opened his eyes and found himself in a blank plain, an unending white everywhere. But then, a feeling of dread filled his system and he suddenly saw a plane of pitch-black swallowing the white slowly as if it were a storm ready to ravish a meadow.

He felt pure hatred, anger, and sadness coming from the darkness slowly approaching, it seemingly miles away, but he didn't want to get caught.

So he turned around and ran as fast as he could.

Only for him to trip and fall, the white plane he was running in shattered like glass and he fell into infinite darkness and he let out a scream of terror.

Leo jolted up, a blanket resting on his legs as he clutched the ends of the said blanket as if it were a lifeline.

That darkness, it was so real, that dream, it was real. It felt real, that feeling of dread, it wasn't a dream, but how else could he explain it?

He shook his head, forcing the small image into the depths of his mind and noticed that he was in a room that looked very familiar to a hospital, but the last thing he remembered was being beaten. . . badly.

"Welcome back, Mr. Apollyon," An elderly female's voice spoke, causing Leo to look to the side and saw an old lady with greying hair in a small white coat with pink nurse cloaks underneath, with a pair of plain white shoes with glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, framing her hazel eyes that showed experience and wisdom. "You've been beaten quite badly, I almost thought my family's special medication wouldn't work on you,"

"Special medication?" Leo questioned as he suddenly realized his body no longer hurt, it only aching. "What do you mean? How could you have healed me so quickly?" The old woman gave a hearty laugh as he marked down a few things on her clipboard, not even glancing at Leo in the process.

"Exactly what I said, it's my family's special medicine that's been passed on through my family for generations. You see, my family is comprised of very successful doctors, almost everyone becomes one, whether they become surgeons at a major hospital, medics in the ever-growing military, or even those like me, who dedicate their services and skills to help the weak at a school like this, where they get trampled on ferociously." A hint of bitterness was detected in her voice, making Leo raise his eyebrow slightly.

"Well, Ms., uh, what was your name again?" The old woman glanced up at him, hazel brown meeting sea-green before she put down her clipboard.

"My name is Rayne Seymore," She introduced, a small smirk playing on her lips as she saw Leo's eyes widen to incredible lengths.

"Seymore? Rayne Seymore? As in the same one who helped thousands of soldiers get back on their feet in the war three years ago?" She nodded, proud that her accomplishments were once again noticed and appreciated.

"The same one, though, I'm retired from treating soldiers, now I just treated students like you who get picked on, tell me, do you have any fighting prowess?" Leo's eyes spaced out for a second, his mind in another place before he suddenly felt a shiver going up his back, giving him chills as he openly shook, shaking his head as he raised his shoulders.

"Ahh, not exactly. The only reason I'm in this school is that my parents wanted me to get a good education and paid for my tuition to come here," Seymore narrowed her eyes at the boy before standing up and approaching the boy before smacking him in the head with her clipboard, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to warn him.

"Do not lie to me child, I know exactly who you are," She stated, a little bit more than anger in her voice. Leo froze as he met her eyes before he looked down, his hands turning into closed fists.

"You do huh? I knew nothing could get past you, you old hag," He was smacked with the clipboard once again, this time it hit him harder, but he didn't even flinch this time.

"Now there is no reason for you to call me that once again, you should know by now that my age is a sensitive subject," Leo shrugged and stood up, stretching his limbs as a groan of satisfaction erupted from his throat.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know." He said. "How'd you know it was me though? Sure, you've treated me more than a dozen or so times, but I've always kept my hood on AND a mask so no one could see my face," He questioned her. She smirked, pleased with the response she was about to make.

"I recognize your voice anywhere Mr. Reaper, now tell me, what is the most feared man, which is actually just a boy, doing at Brikston High? Letting his ass get kicked at that?" He grinned at her, his eyes closed as he smiled.

"Well, I wanted to be normal, and if I flaunt my skills, then I'll just gain more attention and then the enemies I've made would come and harm people," She scoffed at his answer, making him hang his head.

"What a lame excuse," She said, shaking her head. "You could've just lowered your physical prowess, not reduce yourself to the worst fighter in the school. Your name is already the lowest on the list of popularity, you've made quite an impression on your first-period class," She said, disappointment in her voice.

"If people knew I was the Red Reaper, you know how many people wouldn't leave me alone to "test their might" against me? As you said, I was the strongest in the country and I ended the war. They all want a piece of that greatness to claim they beat the Red Reaper." Seymore looked at him with a straight face before laughing.

"Oh my! What a surprise! You actually have a good reason, you are smart after all," She then got serious and her face darkened. "But I'm afraid you're too late with the enemies being attracted to the school though, there's a student who claims to be the Red Reaper, and so far, she is undefeated in combat. She's pretty flawless too," Leo suddenly stopped and turned his head, shock crossing his face.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, someone is claiming to be me? The Red Reaper? Slayer of Men? Savior of the War? THE Red Reaper?" He said, disbelief quite evident in his voice. "AND it's a she? How could they not know I was a dude?!"

"Weeeeelllll," Seymore trailed off. "You didn't sound like a boy too much, and you did have the nice, long, silky black hair of yours that was often hanging out of your hood in a braid," She said, tapping her chin as a grin appeared across her withered face.

"Wait a minute. . ." He said, narrowing his eyes at her. "Did you think I was a girl?!" He shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the nurse, who only laughed and gave a sheepish grin.

"Uh, kinda?" Leo laid back down on the bed and looked at the ceiling.

"Whatever old hag, I'll see you when I wake up." And like that, he drifted off to sleep, completing his first day of Brikston High.

And it would only get worse from here on out.