Encore 45 — Hysteria (I)

A week passed and it was now the month of July. On Avalon, Isla entered her dorm room and dumped herself onto the upper bunk of the two bunk beds in the room.

"It's been a week and it's already harder than most of my MPT lessons back at Interblade Academy..."

She breathed out, lying the best she could in her rock-hard bed.

"You're beat, aren't you, Isla?"

A girl asked Isla. She had black hair and eyes. She wore the same uniform as Isla, which was the trainee uniform. Trainees had two months—a month and three weeks, to be exact—to prove themselves to get into a certain squad they wanted.

There were nine squads that trainees could try out for. Some with more space than others.

The most elite squad is the Sabbath Squad. Their squad was more like a mini-organisation. They had about 50 active members and 35 spaces for trainees. The second-most elite squad, the Ironhide Squad, only had 2 spaces, on the other hand.

There were around 270 trainees in total and there were only around 220 spaces, meaning that 50 would either go home or stay in training until they gained a space.

The Ironhide Squad was a squad most focused on special Imperi, meaning that they would have to encounter humanoid Imperi such as Alpha. Isla wanted to join this team, so she could meet Alpha.

The problem was Isla's identity. She was the daughter of the leader of the Ironhide Squad. If she got selected without being near the top of the rankings, then people would complain and be suspicious.

There was a ranked leaderboard which marked where trainees were among the 271 trainees.

This would be based on points gained from doing training activities or events. Practical battles with one another were another way of gaining points.

Doing training could gain someone a maximum of 10 points a day if they did 10 training exercises. Events did not count as exercises. Practical battles could only be done to a certain point. And points could be gained from fighting people with more points than you in practical battles.

Trainees started two weeks ago. The top trainee was a boy named Sho Murakami. He had 1100 points. Since Isla joined the training program late, she had a slight disadvantage.

Isla was 139th out of 271 with 79 points. She had not tried the practical battles as she believed she had little to no hope in them.

"Yeah, I am. We had physical conditioning today."

Another way to earn points was doing exceptionally in lessons, which were more like training sessions.

"God, Instructor Velra must've worked you to the bone. No one likes him from how strict he is. I know the instructors here are strict but he's on another level..."

"Say, Rina, what's your current ranking?"

"I'm... 201st with 23 points. Well, technically I'm 186th since there are a lot of people with 23 points, like me."

"Don't you grind points in order to join the team you want?"

The girl got out of the bottom bunk and stretched herself out. Rina looked up at Isla on her top bunk.

"The team I'm going for is more for public safety. It had loads of spots. I should be fine as long as I'm in the top 150 or so in the next two months."

Isla sighed while looking at her.

"You have it easy."

"Yeah, you need to get at least top 3, if you want to get into the Ironhide Squad. Loads of people want in on that squad ever since the Ethereal Impact. The only people who are top three right now are Sho Murakami, Aria Shinomiya and Kin Wakabayashi. Surpassing them will be almost impossible."

Isla grimaced as she thought about the result of her goal.

(Surpassing Kin Wakabayashi will be fine since he doesn't want to join the Ironhide Squad, but surpassing Shinomiya and Murakami will be hard. I'll have to dedicate all of my time to training and gaining points. Doing well in lessons is bad when I'm particularly average when it comes to intellect.)

"In other words, I need to at least be in second place, if I want to join the Ironhide Squad."

Rina clicked her fingers.

"Bingo,"

"Hey, is it fine if I have someone train me? Namely someone already a part of a squad?"

Isla asked.

"Uhm, I think it should be fine. Sho Murakami was originally taught by the Secret Force commander, Siesta Shiba."

"The commander, huh? No wonder he's number one."

(Does that mean that Kazuya did the same type of exercise? I wonder if Kazuya would get more or less than Sho Murakami.)

"Then I have an idea of how I'll get more points in training."

She grinned.

·———·

The next day, by lunchtime, Isla had managed to max out her points in training. Her points rose to eighty, moving her up to 122nd place, tying her up with a lot of others.

"I'm moving up but there's no way I'll get to 2nd place in the amount of time left. I'd simply lose more points if I went to do practical battles too..."

"My, isn't it the shameless daughter of the Iron Claw, Morisa Chibana?"

"Hm?"

Isla flicked her head around with a scowl on her face. The person standing in front of her sneered, along with a few girls behind her. She had dull brown hair that went down to the base of her neck and hazel eyes. She smiled at Isla insidiously.

"You're...Aria Shinomiya."

The current No.2 in the trainee rankings.

"What did you mean that I'm shameless?"

As Isla asked, perturbed and annoyed by Aria's statement. She stood up and glared at her with barely any space between them.

Ariya sneered.

"What? I just mean that you're not worthy of being the daughter of Morisa Chibana. Placed only 122nd out of 271 trainees? You should at least be in the top 3. I guess you're worth jack-shit. Even a rat is better than you."

It was an obvious attempt at provocation one that Isla did not fall for.

At first, she fell for her acts of provocation but the way she worded things seemed slightly strange to Isla.

Kazuya taught her about provocation when they were in their first year since he believed Isla to be a hot-blooded girl. He said that someone who insulted her needlessly was someone looking for her attention and anger. Although it seemed fairly vague, it applied even more in a situation, like this, when Isla and Ariya have only met for the first time.

She found it strange that she only remembered this now but kept her cool, in response.

Isla smiled when she saw Aria look slightly annoyed.

"What? Were you expecting me to fight back?"

"Huh?!"

"I don't know who you think I am but, I'm better than a screeching crow like you—"

BAM!

Isla fell onto the floor as Aria punched her in the face.

"Ah, shit... I guess provocation does work..."

She whispered to herself.

"Who the fuck do you think you're insulting you, little—?!"

"Stop!"

As Aria approached Isla, a shout ran out. A man walked over to them. He wore a grey uniform with a cloak over one uniform. He was a handsome man with emerald hair and saffron eyes.

There was only one thing that grey uniform meant in the Secret Force.

The white-haired girl smiled as Aria grimaced.

"The Ironhide Squad..."