First Club Meeting

Looking at the building that served as the meeting place for the sword arts club, Damian saw its basic gymnasium type design and quickly entered. Taking a few steps into the building, Damian covered his eyes for a second as they adjusted to the noticeably darker room.

Walking straight through the door at the end of the hall, Damian walked into a room with a completely wooden floor. It smelled fairly fresh within the room due to the windows being open and with a gentle breeze somehow blowing his direction, Damian felt more relaxed.

Wooden swords were hanging against the wall on the far side of the room and in the center, was Peterson, Ben, and some other students standing around talking.

As he began walking over to them, he saw the trophy stand on the opposite side of the room. opposing the wooden swords, and a few rectangle-shaped tape boxes around the floor of the room.

"Hey… This is a pretty nice place." Damian said as he stepped up to the group, to which Peterson looked at his phone while slapping him lightly on the shoulder/

"Your friends have five minutes to get her before we start, if they are late then they will go last in any competitions we compete in," Peterson said as he smiled happily at the prospect of being able to compete in competitions for the 4th year in a row.

"Damian, you can place your stuff against the wall or in the locker room. There are some lockers there if you really want to use them but with only our club ever really using this building, locks aren't entirely needed." Ben said casually as he pointed toward the door on the side of the room which had a small sign outside that said Men's locker room.

"There are also showers in there but with our dorms a few minutes away they are rarely ever used." He said to which Damian thanked him for the information and went over to the locker room.

Walking through the surprisingly automatic locker room door, Damian was surprised by how clean and new the locker room looked, courtesy of the bright motion sensor lights and the unblemished silver lockers lining the room, which quickly impressed him more.

It didn't smell like any old high school locker room either. It smelled oddly like lavender. Putting the smell behind him, Damian picked a locker in the corner of the room, away from a majority of the lockers, and placed his things inside. He was also curious so after doing that, he walked into the shower area and saw it was extremely clean, it also smelled like pine sol so he estimated it was cleaned recently.

Seeing at the showers were split into smaller miniature showers, Damian sighed in relief that he would have some privacy if he ever decided to shower within the locker room. Finishing off Damian's inspection of the locker room, he saw that on a side of the room, there was a small size flat screen mounted in the corner close to the ceiling.

Looking around, he couldn't find the remote for it but considering Peterson had it somewhere, he didn't continue his endeavor.

Leaving the locker room a few minutes later, Damian saw that the rest of his friends except Rose, for obvious reasons, had made it on time.

"Alright then, you are all here," Peterson said loudly, to which Damian quickly took a count of the members.

"Four girls and eight guys, not bad at all…" Damian mumbled softly.

"Now, I officially welcome you all to the sword arts club. As you know, we learn and practice different sword arts here, and the focus of it changes every year. This year, the focus is on the Japanese sword arts, mainly Kenjutsu, Kendo, and Iaido. Before any training though, I need to see how physically fit you all are.

We will stretch for a bit and do some simple exercises before you all do a lap around the eastern side of the campus, Don't worry, you can jog or run but you cannot walk." Peterson said, much to the dismay of some female members.

"Do we really have to run or jog? Can we not just walk?" One female named Mara asked.

"Unfortunately not, I need a good understanding of your stamina before we can do anything else," Peterson said as he asked everyone to spread out, after that they began a series of stretches and when finished with that he gave everyone some grey packaged sweatpants and a purple tee-shirt while saying they could change in the locker rooms if they didn't want to run in the uniform clothes.

With all of the females entering the locker rooms to change out of their skirts and into the sweatpants, the group of twelve started their jog/run around the eastern side of campus. Since there was already a path made that goes around the eastern side of the campus, they simply followed that.

Damian opted to run since he was curious about how his stamina was. After talking with Kai, Ryan, and the other guys, He got a few others to join him. As soon as Peterson said to begin, Damian, Kai, Ryan, and two other guys took off in a run. Instantly creating distance between them and the others who didn't want to run, not that it was a race.

Running past the dorms in the center of campus, Damian felt pretty out of breath. Slowing down his pace just a little, he saw Kai behind him doing about the same as him.

(You need to exercise more) Zera stated softly, to Damian's disappointment.

"I know that… I simply haven't started yet, but I will… I hate being out of shape like this…" Damian said softly in his mind as he continued running until he made it back to the club building.

Stopping tiredly in front of Peterson, Damian saw that Ryan and the other guys that ran with them already resting on the grass. With Kai stopping behind him seconds later, they both walked over to an open spot under some trees and hid from the sun that had slowly begun to set on the horizon.

(This is not good at all Damian, if you go into battle in the future then you will be tired after a few minutes. Even with the enhancements to your body, it can't enhance your stamina.) Zera stated as Damian laid down on the grass.

"I understand, Zera. I will start working out so I am not tired so quickly." He responded before closing his eyes and enjoying the cold breeze against his hot body.

Around fifteen minutes later, Damian was tapped by Kai and after looking around, He saw that the other group had come back. Getting up slowly, the other students gathered around Peterson who was sitting on a bench while looking at his clipboard with the times he had taken down for everyone.

"I must say, you are all fairly good on your times. I will let you all go early and we will meet back every day at the same time to learn some sword art for two hours then our required time together will be over. You can stay after and practice more but be sure to tell me if you plan to do that." Peterson said happily as he looked at all of the students.

With Peterson answering a few questions about what to be wearing when they show up to the club meetings/practice, he let everyone go as the sun was half set on the horizon.

Ryan went back to the dorm to finish his work and with Kate wanting to do the same thing after eating dinner, they both left together. This meant that Damian, Kai, and Ari were all together sitting outside of the club's building alone since everyone else had left.

"You said that the black king was becoming hostile right, Damian?" Ari asked softly, making Damian look up from the game he was playing on his personal phone.

"Yes, the Red King told me that he has been attacked by him multiple times this month."

"He will start attacking the other kings then right?" Kai asked as he looked over at Damian from the other side of Ari.

"I have a feeling he will, so I was thinking that if I ever have a reason to use my powers in public, I should have something to keep my identity a secret," Damian said as he looked at the orange and pink sunset.

"You need a mask then, we all do," Kai said to which Ari nodded.

"Is there a mask shop nearby that we can go to?" Damian asked as they all began to search on their phones for a location.

"There is a mask shop with a high rating around an hour away from the school. It doesn't close until nine so we can go if we use your car, Damian." Ari said as she showed him the name of the place and the location.

"It's a bit far but that's fine, the location is…. And the name…" Damian said softly as he put in the location in his GPS.

"Let's go then, I'll tell rose that I will not be in the room until late tonight," Damian said as he sent her a text while they all began walking over to the parking lot at the entrance to the school.

….

Inside of a dive bar a few hours away from NAU, Within a room connected to the back of the bar, a group of twenty-plus men stood around while looking at a large board with multiple pictures tacked onto it with strings and names connecting it all in a complex web.

In front of the board, a man in his early thirties with straight white hair stood in front of the board and drank a shot of alcohol before throwing the glass against the wall.

"Is everything on schedule?" He asked with a cold voice.

"Yes sir, everything will arrive on time and our men will be prepared for the assault." One man holding a tablet said as he sat at a small table to the side of the room.

"Good… we will set the perfect stage for the country to know how we strains feel."