Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

?In the dark room, it was impossible to determine who the person was.

"Get off me!" Fujiharu jerked her arm away from the assailant.

I pulled Fujiharu away from the person who was grabbing her, however, they didn't give up, this time charging in and pushing me aside.

What on earth? An attacker in this place? And why are they trying to get Fujiharu?

I stood my ground and kept myself between her and the attacker.

"What do you want?" I asked.

The assailant took a step back, and in the darkness of the room, I was able to get a very slight glance at the person's face. It was a boy, who looked no older than 20. Suddenly, he began reaching into his pocket. I couldn't take the risk and let him grab a weapon; with no other choice, I raised my leg and attempted to kick him to the ground.

Using only a small portion of my strength, I connected with his side, sending him crashing to the ground. He didn't get up off the ground, instead, he held his arm in pain.

All of a sudden, Fujiharu was grabbed by another person who was coming from the other entrance. The second assailant was armed with a cloth and covered her mouth with it. As I turned around, I felt someone grab me from behind. It seemed that there were quite a few people in on this plan.

In the dark room, it was hard to comprehend what was going on. I was forced to deal with the person grabbing onto me first. I forcefully shook him off my body before turning around to engage him; however, it seemed just the force of the shake already caused him to fall to the ground. When I looked back around, Fujiharu was already gone.

I quickly glanced at the two attackers who were lying on the ground, it appeared that they weren't going to be much of an issue anymore. One of them tried to grab my leg but I easily shook it off and began running in the direction of the hallway.

It was hard to see what was going on but as I made my way through, I noticed that they were completely out of sight. Eventually, I reached a split where there were two separate directions where they could've gone. I heard loud footsteps behind me, it seemed that the two assailants which were previously on the ground had recovered and were running at me again.

We were still in a relatively empty area, it seemed most people were busy staying in the penguin exhibit so the dark hallway was pretty empty. I quickly scanned around to make sure no one could see, then I braced to fight them off. For some reason, they attacked me one at a time, allowing me to easily pin them to the ground.

"Why are you guys doing this?" I asked.

They didn't respond.

I decided to grab one of their arms and began bending it backwards.

"I expect an answer if you don't want your arm broken."

"U-um, it was someone else's plan, we don't know their intention either!"

I bent their arm back with a little more force.

"Please! Stop, I'll tell you anything, don't break my arm!"

It seemed I didn't really need to threaten them that hard.

I let go of his arm and looked down at them.

"Why are you guys on board with this?"

"T-they offered us a lot of money... we're broke and we've had to resort to this..."

The other assailant nodded.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps in the distance. I didn't want to be seen by any members of the public at this time. I took a step back and pulled the two attackers up.

"I'm going to call the police, you know?"

"Our boss probably has her in his hands right now, he'll definitely do something to her if he finds out you called the police."

"Alright then, you guys are going to tell me where your boss is located."

"We don't kn—"

"Ah, that's not an answer."

The other quickly responded.

"He's probably somewhere in the aquarium! He didn't bring an escape vehicle so I don't think he's going to be leaving."

"I'm not convinced." 𝑓𝗿𝐞𝘦𝘄ｅ𝘣n𝘰𝘷eƖ.c𝘰𝗺

"Please! We weren't informed of everything either!"

There wasn't much I could do, I'd have to find her myself.

"You two stay with me, if you do anything suspicious, I'll kill you."

"Y-yes!"

I began walking through the aquarium once again, and the two assailants were following behind me with no issues. It was pretty hard to tell where they might have gone, the aquarium was rather large and there were lots of different paths to take.

I assumed the boss would want to stay in a relatively isolated area in order to stay out of public view, as a result, I looked at the guide I received at the beginning and deduced which paths would likely have the least amount of people.

I looked around the dark rooms which were populated with lots of fish. There were a few people here and there but they were still the least populated rooms by far. I made my way through several different hallways before I found a place where they might be hiding. Considering the boss probably wanted to be in a locked room with scarce people around, I guess that the janitor's office would be a suitable place.

"I-I think our boss might be in the janitor's office," one of them commented.

I guess I was correct.

I made my way over and twisted the handle, however, it seemed to be locked.

"Do either of you have something I could pick the lock with?"

"N-no..."

I saw one of them fiddling in their pocket.

I quickly grabbed his arm, pulling it out of his pocket and swiftly disarmed him. However, all that was in his hand was a key.

"You have the key on you?"

"N-no... that's my, um, house key."

It obviously did not look like a house key.

I slotted the key into the door and pushed it open. As I walked inside, I saw Fujiharu being held down by some man; there was tape around her mouth so she couldn't speak.

I looked down at her.

"I've got to admit, I'm surprised, Sara."