Individual Problems

The door to room 1000 of the black dormitory flew open as a battered Ian dragged himself inside. Luckily there wasn't anything in the room so he closed the door and dropped on the floor. His breathing was ragged and laboured and his body was covered in sweat.

"I can't believe how many he had the doctor heal me," he breathed. "It feels like a torture session."

The trauma of his experience with Dylan on his last day at school flashed in his memories as he turned to his side and curled himself up.

"My vessel durability increased by five points from the torture he put me through. What kind of teacher beats up his student for three hours without a break? He even had the time to call a doctor to heal me so that I don't pass out."

The training session lasted for three hours, and Alfred beat Ian up for most of it. Granting him only five minutes to get healed and then beating him close to death again.

"Training my reflexes, my foot," Ian hissed. "O could barely dodge even one of his punches. How do you dodge when there's a punch aimed at your head barely a second after you took one to the gut? He just wanted to hurt me."

"Do you talk to yourself this often?" Blake asked as he walked out of the bathroom fully clothed.

"Huh?" Ian asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I think because it's my room?" Blake asked in confusion. "Where else would I be?"

"I thought you might have changed rooms because you didn't want to share a room with Flint," Ian replied. "Or me."

"While I hate you, I won't be leaving this room because of that redhead musclebrain," Blake said as he walked past Ian on the floor and sat on his bed.

"You almost killed him though," Ian said with a wince. He could still feel pain from the areas punched by Alfred.

"Yesterday was a warning," Blake retorted. "I would place him at death's door the next time he dares that."

Ian chose to end the conversation at that and crawled into his bed.

Blake's watch beeped as he was about to get on his bed.

"The garden house beside the red dormitory. Now," the message read.

Blake's expression changed as he saw the message. Ian, who was undressing since he decided a hot relaxing bath was a lot better than lying in bed with sore muscles, noticed the change in expression. For the first time since he knew this guy, he saw fear in his eyes as he stared at his watch.

Blake immediately turned on his heel and hurried out the door without a second to waste.

"Oh well," Ian shrugged as he made his way into the bathroom. "His problem, not mine."

Once he was completely undressed, he looked into the mirror and he was a little surprised by the person he was seeing. There hasn't been much improvement, but Ian knew his body more than anyone else. He could see a little muscle building compared to his lean and malnourished form before. He still looked lean but no longer malnourished.

"It's just been about four days here and I can already feel myself changing," he thought. "As I thought, it was the right choice to come here."

He had initially thought of running away from military school to avoid experiencing bullying in school again, but he believed the military would make him stronger. Although things didn't go as planned and he didn't get an ability like he wanted, but he was still getting a little bit stronger than before.

"Ahhhhhhhh," he sighed as he stepped into the tub. "That's the stuff."

He laid back in the bathtub and just let the warmth seep into his muscles. He could feel himself slowly drifting to sleep as his muscles relaxed more, until...

Beep!

His initial thought was that the system which seems to usually be a bearer of bad news is at it again but when he opened his eyes, he saw no screen.

"Oh," he said aloud as he lifted his wrist. "The system watch beeps and the system dings."

[New Message, from Unknown.]

As he opened the message, a holographic list was displayed in front of him. At the top, it read;

"Your COMPULSORY Workout Schedule."

Ian's eyes widened as he read the list and continued to widen as he read even further down.

"What the fu....!!!!"

††††††††††††

Outside the dormitories, Blake made his way to the red dormitory as instructed. His pace was brisk and his panic was obvious on his face as it looked like he was about to get a panic attack.

"Why is he calling me now?" he thought. "What did I do this time?"

He read the message on the watch over and over to confirm the ID and the content of the message. He couldn't believe his eyes.

Unknown to him, he was walking straight into an equally distracted girl who seemed to be looking for someone. She was also looking at a certain picture on her watch and not paying attention to her surroundings and her vision which was hindered by the pink hair covering her eyes in the form of bangs. They both had no idea of the other's presence until they bumped into each other.

"What the hell!" the girl yelled as she fell to the floor while Blake stood there like a brick wall. He stared down at her for a few seconds before proceeding to hurry along.

"Hey!" she yelled after him. "Yeah, run away like a scared little bitch!"

Blake couldn't care less about what she said as his head was already preoccupied.

He soon reached the garden house and slowly walked in with his heart thumping hard in his chest.

The garden house was a beautiful sight with different beautiful, colourful plants and flowers everywhere. Some even grew as vines which snaked around poles and the walls, giving it an aesthetic and picturesque look.

Sitting inside, was the person who had called Blake. Blake's heart raced even faster upon confirming that this wasn't a prank.

"Hello, little brother."