Hongbin couldn't help but to be a little shaken at the battle he had just witnessed. It didn't hit him really until he left the Crucible; the fact that this school wasn't just another pretty school, it was a military institution to train young men with magical capabilities to fight in the war, that much was apparent. Whoever Leo was, he was ruthless and Hongbin had to remember to be careful but at the same time, be admirable. He knew this wasn't just fun and games, this was training, and every moment was another moment to improve even more.

With that thought out of the way; Hongbin found himself taking the hallway that lead towards the library, it was the wing next to where the Crucible was located and was the last place that Hongbin could possibly visit before curfew was up and each student was required to return to their assigned dorms.

He strode over to the 'magical' sliding doors with his long legs and was absolutely unsurprised when he found that the library was absolutely and utterly quiet.

Books were a novelty in today's generation. They were still very present and common but most people preferred to load up an electronic document on their devices considering how easy it was to access things on the fly without having to go physically retrieve it. It was even boasted as 'eco-friendly' and what not, but Hongbin, despite loving technology and it's convenience, had a soft spot for books. The scent of a nice untouched book; the sound of pages flapping with every turn, the anticipation when a chapter ended, it was all fascinating for Hongbin.

The Library was, like any other area of the school, huge. The area was littered with aisles of 'books' along with desks and tables obviously made for studying that were placed wherever it was convenient. Hongbin noticed that instead of being primarily aisles of books, it was instead tags that were scannable by electronic devices to obtain a virtual copy of the book unlockable via the school's library rental system. However, for more old fashioned people, like Hongbin, there seemed to be a separate wing further ahead that housed shelves of actual books.

It was no surprise that there would be barely any students in the library, it was after all orientation day after all and classes started literally the day after tomorrow so nobody wanted to spend their last days of summer at a library. Hongbin however was surprised when he found just one person, sitting on one of the many study desks, surrounded by what appeared to be a mountain of books with a laptop in front of him along with other holographic interfaces. Was he studying for a class or something? Maybe some of the upperclassmen had tests on the very first day.

It appeared as though the boy were writing into a book, to which, Hongbin's eyes widened in shock. He neared closer in curiosity however and realized he was actually writing into what seemed to be a journal or a diary. Strange, he thought, people usually kept such documents in video form (mostly to post online and become social idols) or other electronic forms, but it's been awhile since Hongbin has seen somebody physically write into a diary.

The boy who Hongbin immediately noticed had pale blondish sandy-brown hair that was styled in fringe turned to look up at Hongbin curiously. He had thin eyes that seemed to be slightly magnified by the somewhat oversized glasses he was wearing. A smile graced his features and Hongbin couldn't help but to feel a little embarrassed. He was pretty good looking in a very charming way.

"Can I help you?" He asked, his voice was somewhat light but had a tone of maturity behind them.

"N.. No I'm sorry, I was just curious to see what you were doing with all.... this." Hongbin gestured with his hands at all of the books stacked around the stranger as the stranger himself chortled.

"I was being... silly, just checking out some techniques and spells to see if I could mix and match them to my advantage." The boy answered as he took off his oversized glasses and placed them off to the side.

Hongbin couldn't help but to form a smirk, causing a dimple to crease in on the right side of his face. The boy looked like a fennec fox, especially with his thin eyes and blondish hair. Still, he found what he said to be kind of peculiar; it wasn't exactly school related, but at the same time it was .

"How rude of me, sorry about that, I'm N." The boy smiled as he stood up. N... it was just one word, one syllable, but the name rang a bell, a bell that Hongbin couldn't recall at this very moment, but he knew that it was important.

They were around the same height. N gave Hongbin a hand to shake and Hongbin merely smiled in response.

"Hongbin, freshman, good to meet you." He replied genially as N smirked at him. "So what are you doing exactly?"

N chuckled at Hongbin's confusion. He reached for the diary looking thing he was writing in earlier and allowed Hongbin to peek at it. It was filled with a lot of strategies based on timing and executions with spell names scribbled off to the side. "Weird..." Hongbin said as the attack patterns looked very familiar. "Here you're applying your element to your weapon and then others you're casting it..."

"I do a little of both, sometimes at the same time." N quickly corrected with a confident smirk. A statement that Hongbin was all too familiar with. "Who says you can't focus on both casting and augmenting am I right?" N chuckled as Hongbin's brows rose in curiosity.

"I completely get you!" He shouted almost too excitedly as he realized how loud he actually was, clearing his throat. "I do a little bit of both too, though I find my augmentation to be a little better than my casting. I'm trying to work on that."

"Funny, I'm the exact opposite." N responded. He smiled at Hongbin before continuing, "I think it's ludicrous that a person can't try doing both." N chimed as Hongbin laughed along with him.

"I totally agree! Maybe we can help each other out, I'm pretty decent with augmenting, so you can help me out with your spellpower!" Hongbin exclaimed enthusiastically.

N chuckled and tilted his head to the side, glazing his eyes over Hongbin and simply nodded, "Sure, why not?"

At that very moment, a chime hummed through the speaker system.

"All students are advised to head back to their assigned residence halls at this time" The robotic voice hummed out as he heard N clicking his tongue in annoyance.

"Aw man." N whined as he looked at Hongbin and smirked, "Some other time when you're free." He uttered as he looked back at the pile of books he pulled from the shelves. "I have to clean up, you head off first, try not to get lost." Hongbin smiled and rolled his eyes. He's heard that way too many times.

He turned around and left N to clean up his study area and went out the door. It that he never actually got to check out the critically acclaimed selection that the school housed but at least he met someone new, a hybrid at that, just like Hongbin himself.

Immediately as he hit the hallway however, he got holo-message from Hyuk. He opened up his phone and played it as a holographic image of Hyuk popped up. "Heya Hongbin, you should... probably head back here as soon as possible and make sure none of your stuff breaks because things are getting heated up here." The message simply said as Hongbin heard a loud crash before the message cut off.

All at once, all Hongbin could think about was his camera equipment. My... My camera equipment!! He thought intensely, so hard that he could've sworn that he shouted it himself. He couldn't waste any time however. He quickly thought on his feet and race towards the door and rushed over to the resident halls.

----

When Hongbin arrived, he could already hear thrashing from the outside along with familiar voices.

"Ravi! Quit it!" A voice he immediately recognized as Ken's as Hongbin barged in, eyes widened as he felt somewhat deja vu.

There in the middle of the common room of their suite was Ravi, cracking knuckles and putting up his dukes against a stoic and unbothered and unarmed Leo who looked absolutely unamused.

"What's up Leo? Wanna go for a round 2!?" Ravi shouted gruffly. Luck would have it that they would be roomed in the same suite. It was very tense considering the obvious rivalry between Ravi and Leo as displayed from the Crucible. Hongbin prayed to god that they would calm down before they break anything (else if they have already).

Hongbin noticed Hyuk in the corner, slightly panicking, but at the same time laughing hysterically at the 'awesome' sight. He sauntered around the two of them baring their claws at each other so that he wasn't caught in the crossfire and brought himself extremely close to Hongbin, causing him to tense up a little. "I guess these are our suite-mates." Hyuk stated sarcastically and obviously as Hongbin chuckled nervously. They both stopped however once they realized Hongbin's presence.

"Binnie!" Ken shouted enthusiastically as Ravi stood up, upright, grabbing at the collar of his neck and clearing his throat.

"Didn't realize you'd be one of the new faces staying with us too Angel-face." Ravi uttered. Hongbin chortled incredulously as the nickname. At least it was somewhat creative. He noticed that Ravi had some bandages plastered where some of the more mortal cuts were located. Leo wrecked him pretty badly and he could only imagine the damage he could cause in such a small space.

"Hmph" Was all that was uttered from Leo as he looked away, leaning against the wall and ignoring Ravi, causing the latter to make another pissed off noise.

The anxiety in the room calmed down a bit as finally silence filled the room, replacing the anxiety with awkwardness. It was then that the door behind Hongbin opened and a person bumped into his back. He quickly recognized the person as the guy he met literally minutes ago, N. This time, everyone's gaze was fixated on N and everyone seemed to have bowed respectfully. Hongbin blinked slightly confused as Hyuk began to exclaim excitedly.

"Holy cow, you're Cha Hakyeon-sunbaenim, aka N. You're like, a total SWORD badass!" Hyuk spazzed as he simply dropped to his knees and started bowing at N repeatedly and chanting "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy" over and over again, which looked adorably hilarious. Finally it came to Hongbin, the one word, monosyllabic codename, it was all too familiar.

"Wait, you're that N?" Hongbin asked incredulously as N chuckled gracefully and nodded.

Cha Hakyeon, aka, N. Hongbin felt idiotic to not have realized it before. He should've remembered when N said that he was a hybrid like he was. But basically, N was a star. He became a SWORD member three weeks into the school year after attending an actual mission that involved infiltrating an enemy base and deactivating their communications satellite via a tower. He was but a trainee, but his seniors were all captured and detained by enemy forces. The group of trainee's were ordered to return but it was said that N didn't want to abandon his elders. He lead the trainees in tactical warfare and not only did he manage to save his elders with the help fo the rest of the trainees but he himself, singlehandedly disabled the communications tower after memorizing the codes and procedures upon first glance, completing the mission.

All of the trainees were immediately made into SWORD agents that day and N specifically, gained various honors and other forms of recognition. He was literally, a rock star to all students who attended Oceanside. Oh my god, and I offered to help him out with his augmentation, who the hell am I kidding? Hongbin thought, covering his face as he felt absolutely embarrassed.

And if that were true then that means that Ravi and Leo, the names that he recognized earlier, those were the names of the trainees in his group. It honestly, all made sense now. That would make Ravi the flaming blue haired brawler that was able to graduate from high school early due to recognition of his skills in augmentation to immediately attend Oceanside; and Leo as the caster armed with intense wind magic mixing his magery with his natural taekwondo.

That leaves Ken, who Hongbin was already aware that he was a SWORD agent, becoming a full fledged agent after his first initial year.

Everything simply, fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Hongbin's head started to hurt at the sudden brain blast he received as he sighed in disbelief. "I didn't realize I was standing among legends." He uttered as he could've sworn that Ravi and Leo blushed where they stood.

"Please calm down, you're making me blush." N responded as Ken jumped and spazzed.

"N, oh my b-gosh, thank goodness you're here. Ravi and Leo are about to have a throwdown again in the suite!" Ken exclaimed as he tugged on N's arm causing Leo to raise his brow bemused and Ravi clicking his tongue in annoyance.

N blinked and stared at the two of them. "Wonsik.." He uttered as Ravi literally stood upright and saluted while N's eyes trailed over to Leo. "Taekwoon..." N said as Leo did just the same. "You wouldn't want to act childishly in front of two trainee's would you? You guys are their elders after all." N smiled as the two of them nodded. It was strange. Hongbin should be afraid; afraid that N had so much authority, but instead he was enamoured by the sheer coolness and the composure of how N was handling things. "Now let's be civil and play nice, hm?" N finished off as the two of them nodded. "At ease." He finished as Ravi slumped back into a lazy slouch, while Leo continued to stand upright and walked over to a room, most likely his own.

Hongbin never thought that he would be rooming with SWORD Agents, Hyuk was the only one who was a trainee with him. Shouldn't they have roomed with other trainees? Maybe they needed them to room with upperclassmen to help them with their skills.

"Anyway, it's light's out, so let's all head to bed, tomorrow's the last day of summer so let's enjoy it. Don't forget to pick up your class schedules!" N chimed out, almost in a motherly tone. He seemingly took on the role as the suite's leader, to which Hongbin couldn't mind, he was still under the awe that he was staying with N of all people, well not staying with him since he wasn't his literal roommate, but being able to come into contact of his stature was pretty exhilarating. N walked off and left them there into the same room that Leo walked into not long ago, meaning they must've been roommates while Ken sighed in the corner.

"I'm pretty pooped myself it's been a long day!" Ken whined as he quickly flipped around to look at Hongbin. "Hey beanie, we'll catch up tomorrow okay, maybe we can go get some breakfast with your trainee friend here. Hyuk right?" Hyuk nodded eagerly as Hongbin smiled at Ken.

"It's good to see you again too Jaehwan-hyung." Hongbin smiled as Ken whined, placing a finger on Hongbin's lips and tapped at him.

"Hey! It's Agent Ken now y'hear!" He boasted as he grabbed Ravi's shoulder. "Alrighty Ravi let me put you to bed before you pass out somewhere obscure like the kitchen sink or something." He said before his voice trailed off into the hallway, heading to the last room, leaving Hongbin in the common room with Hyuk.

"That was absolutely wicked." Hyuk spazzed as he shook Hongbin's arm in disbelief. Hongbin smiled and ruffled Hyuk's hair instinctively, causing the younger boy to pout adorably, he had a charm about him that made him feel as though he were the younger brother he never had.

"Let's head to bed, we can spazz more tomorrow."

A/N: God that was a stressful chapter! I hope I'm not boring you guys! Stay tuned because things are just beginning! :D