A deep murmur emerged from the little girl, her mouth agape as students moved to the other end of the gym while I watched in confusion, beginning to take a few steps backwards, eyes however still fixed on the sight before me.

It looked as if she was drawing some of the light from the room.  She appeared to be terrified, so timid and scared in that moment, then suddenly, angry.  Her mouth and eyes stretched in unnatural ways that reminded me of some evil spirit.  Then, she sprung forward towards me.

She grabs my right wrist before I have a chance to move gripping tightly, screaming aloud in a monstrous echo.

What sort of a question was that? "I don-"

A sudden rush of pain filled my stomach as her fist landed a solid blow, causing me to suddenly exhale.  I strained to breathe after the impact, knees shaking as I realise she hadn't yet removed it.  As she did so, I collapsed to the ground coughing, looking up, for a moment I saw the bottom of a shoe and heard a loud ThoooooWUMP, momentarily deafening me and causing a high pitched sound to reverberate in my ears.

Then the pain as I slid and rolled away on the floor.  Through the muffled hearing, I could hear her scream again;

I looked up to see she was no longer looking in my direction, but instead had turned to face the kids, some who had started running further into the other REC areas.  Of the rest, Shugo, Sayuri and Jun stay back, facing her, with... Azume crouched in the corner and hiding her face from the scene.

I try to stand, but as my legs attempt to jettison me upright, they collapse before me, realising I have several bruises in different places.  As I steady myself and my breathing, I notice Shayuri touching Shugo's shoulder with her eyes closed concentrating.  As she does so, Jun appears to mutter something to Shugo, patting him on the back and strafing around the border of the gym, keeping a hand clawed as his eyes remain fixed on Miki.  Shugo appears to be concentrating and psyching himself up.  His teeth are gritted and he begins to breathe more heavily.  He takes the stance of a boxer, fists raised to protect his face.

Miki looks different now, skin pale, and dark under her eyes, she cocks her head at Shugo before rushing at him.  

"NO!" I stand up shouting above the chaos, just as they collide.  A distinct buzzing sound strikes at the moment of impact, Shugo does not appear to break, instead, to my horror, striking back at the girl.  They begin to swing at each other erratically before he knocks her back sliding on the floorboards, still upright.  Her response appears to be one of increased anger, much to Shugo's concern.  He turns to Sayuri and yells at her.  "MOVE."

Sayuri responds immediately, running away panicking as Jun appears to brace himself.  I begin to move towards the conflict as quickly as my legs allow.

Miki lunges at Shugo, who is immediately pulled sideways by some invisible force seemingly by Jun.  Shugo moves just in time, causing Miki to lose balance and topple forward.  Growling on the ground, she stands up again quickly, this time looking in the corner at  Azume.

"WHEEEREE!?!" She screeches at the corner.  Azume doesn't appear to do more than huddle deeper under her arms.   

"TH-THAT'S ENOUGH MIKI!" I yell above the commotion, trying my best to stay calm, though I relaise I probably came across as a little authoritative.

"IDIOT, YOU CAN'T TALK WITH HER WHEN SHE'S LIKE THAT" Shugo shouts back.

Miki turns back to face me, her angry scowl deepening, she growls menacingly;

"I"  I didn't have any information to go on.  Maybe the issue was to do with that cat she mentioned earlier?  Maybe something else.  The problem is that asking an angry person questions was never a good idea, especially a kid who has been through... Whatever this is...

Calm voice.  Calm and friendly.

I feel it again, she rushed forward in an instant and was gripping my left  wrist this time, fingers digging in, her other fist was raised to strike me.  This time, she looked a little confused.  "Where?"

"Wh- mmm"  With that, Miki releases my wrist and begins to calmly walk away.  I stand up and exhale a little in partial relief and follow to assist her.

"What the F-" I hear Shugo swear behind me in disbelief  just as I see 3 doors slam open in front of me.  Norio, along with two other security members emerge in some sort of weird riot gear.  I look back and see the kids looking more tense than before.  Norio approaches cautiously, to my horror with a rifle in his hands.  He appears to notice my look of terror and responds.

"Tranquillisers, Akane's call, not mine."  He winces as his nose begins to bleed, his hand reaching to his belt as he pulls out some sort of handheld device with a syringe in front.  Miki seems unaware of his presence as he approaches behind her.  He jabs her with it before I can respond and catches her, preventing her from hitting her head.

"What the hell are you doing to her?"  I couldn't help but ask, the situation was dire.  What chance do these kids have if this is how they're going to be treated every time they have a meltdown?  Was this the standard here?  Was this their future?  They're not only expected to function in this scenario, but to participate in a classroom setting.

Why?  I knew why.  According to Akane, the students had stopped making any progress.  To develop their powers, they needed more than just a prison environment.  Total freedom within the Rec area wouldn't work either in developing powers as the kids were just defaulting to entertaining themselves.

According to Akane, the kids needed a friendly adult face who could encourage them to move forward with their development.

Norio looks away a moment in contemplation, his nosebleed seemingly worsening before he winces and stands up, taking out and handkerchief and directing one of the other men to pick her up just as I could hear a stretcher approaching.

"My my, couldn't even get through roll call Kai hmm, aww, first days are never easy."  I looked up to see Akane standing by the bed with a strange looking handheld device that was making buzzing and clicking sounds like a geiger counter.  I added the possibility of radiation to my growing list of concerns.

After Miki is loaded in and wheeled away, Akane speaks again before leaving. "The girl will be back by tomorrow for class, carry on."

It takes the other adults some time before they exit.  Each student who had used their powers is examined by security and scanned with another one of those devices.  Eventually though, they pack their things and go, leaving the gym in silence.