Chapter 14 - Orientation

"Congratulations, Zax, I totally knew you'd do it!" Grinned my sister, pouring me a glass of champagne.

"Yeah, right...you were definitely surprised when I told you I passed," I replied with a raised eyebrow.

"N-no, I wasn't! So, anyway...is this your first time drinking alcohol?"

Hm, how to answer that...I had tried alcohol a couple of times, but it was kinda expensive, so after I finished drinking, I used my ability to go back in time. I didn't like getting drunk very much, but I didn't mind a little bit and getting a little buzzed.

"Yeah, I've drank a couple of times before."

"Ooh, nice, little bro. What did you try?"

"Beer and vodka shots, and now champagne, I guess."

We were currently in my room, a couple of days after the entrance exam, on the 30th of December. My sister had come over the night after that day and I'd told her that I passed, she tried to act like she'd expected it, but she was definitely surprised. She came over tonight to celebrate, with champagne and sweets galore. I had already treated myself to a ton of cakes and other sweets yesterday, but I definitely wasn't complaining.

"You know, it's sort of a miracle that you aren't morbidly obese...where does all that food go, anyway?"

"I've told you before, it's not like I eat sweets everyday, only once every two weeks and on special occasions. Anyway, what are the classes like for Level J?" I inquired, as I took a bite of chocolate cake.

"Hm? Let's see-...wait, no, now's not the time for that, we're celebrating! And besides, you'll find out in a few days anyway, so no need to be so impatient," She replied with a laugh, flicking my forehead.

"Ow...tch, talk about useless."

"Hey!"

Well, I suppose she had a point, I had no reason to rush. Fine, for now, I'll just focus on enjoying these sweets...

...

...

A few days later, on the 3rd of January, I was walking up the stairs to the entrance of the X-Warrior Academy, around 8:30 AM. I had gone through the entrance exam results of all of my new classmates, specifically their names and where they placed in the first stage. I just figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to know who to be vary of ahead of time.

I entered the building and headed up to the first floor, finding the Level J classroom without too much trouble. It was pretty small, the desk rows were sloped, as in the back rows were each a step higher than the row ahead. There were three rows of three on either side of the class with a small set of stairs down the middle, in other words, two columns of three rows each, for a total of eighteen seats. There weren't individual desks, each row had a long desk with three seats behind it.

A few people had already arrived, but fortunately for me, no one had claimed either of the back corner seats yet. Hm, I think I'll go for the one on the left side of the classroom. Hope no one sits next to me, I'd love to have the entire row to myself.

Bytra and Tairo were already here, sitting in the front row of the same column that I was in. Tairo was by the corner while Bytra was in the middle, the aisle seat in their row was still empty. Including myself, about ten people were currently in the classroom, so there were still six more to arrive.

As the minutes passed by, I felt a sense of triumph as all the seats got filled, but no one took either of the vacant seats in the row I was in. By the time fifteen people had arrived, there were only three unoccupied spots, the middle and aisle seat in the back-left row where I was, and the middle seat of the front-right row. I just had to hope that the last person to arrive would pick the vacant seat in the front.

Hm, from the look of things, it seemed like most of the others had opted to sit with those that they already knew. The door then opened and the last person walked in, taking a slow look around the classroom. His gaze settled on the vacant spot in the front, his brows furrowing with disdain. Crap, looks like he's the type who hates sitting up front, just like me. If I remember right, his name was Kiran Sigdel, he'd placed eleventh in the first stage of the entrance exam.

He glanced at my row, and as our gazes met, I made sure that my expression wasn't a welcoming one, though I wasn't being too aggressive about it...I had no intention of playing nice with anyone, but at the same time, I wasn't going to antagonize people for no good reason either.

After seeming to mull it over, he picked the aisle seat in the row I was in, leaving the middle seat vacant...good, at least he wasn't sitting next to me. He had messy black hair, black eyes with heavy bags underneath them, he wore a black face-mask, dark blue hoodie and dark green trousers with black boots. He looked like he wasn't the talkative type...I certainly hope that's the case.

A few minutes later, an instructor walked in, wearing the same uniform I'd seen the staff who'd been present during the entrance exam wearing, a white shirt under a dark blue coat and dark blue trousers, though he wore it rather messily, the shirt was untucked with a few of the top buttons undone, and he wore the coat over his shoulders without putting his arms into the sleeves. He looked like he was in his late twenties, with spiky black hair that had a few red streaks, orange eyes, he was tall and well-built, and had a heavy stubble.

"Good morning or whatever, new students, uh...congrats on making it this far, I guess. So, normally, Academy days start at 10 AM, but the first day for new Level J students starts at 9 AM in order to deliver a quick orientation, which I've been assigned to do this time...kinda pointless if you ask me, you'll all figure it out eventually anyway. Oh, yeah, you can call me Instructor Jin Satou. I'm supposed to spend this next hour explaining how your classes will go for the next six months in Level J, but that much time is unnecessary...so, I'll wrap this up as soon as possible and you kids can just chill in the remaining time."

No one seemed to know what to make of this instructor's blunt greeting, so everyone just sort of sat back and watched. Instructor Jin Satou kept it brief and simple, which worked perfectly fine for me. I hate listening to people who drone on and on with pointless chatter. He informed us about our timetable for each day over the next six months.

Each day, our classes would begin at 10 AM. The first session would go on till 12 PM, and following a fifteen minute break, the second session would begin and go on till 2:15 PM, after which we'd be given a forty-five minute lunch break, and the day would end with a third session that'd end at 5 PM. Huh, the lunch break was kinda late, if you ask me.

We had three classes in Level J; theory, XFE training and teamwork training. Theory classes would take place in the classroom, and would be lessons on Mutant physiology, combat strategies and other knowledge deemed necessary for X-Warriors to know. XFE training was literally just training to get us more used to using our XFE Manifestations, and would often involve randomly pairing us up and having us spar against each other. Hm, that sounded like it'd be fairly effective training, regularly sparring against Prodigies was definitely a great opportunity.

And finally, teamwork training, this one I didn't like the sound of. Unfortunately, it was very necessary since X-Warriors weren't allowed to take on Mutant-hunting Missions alone, not even Aces. I guess it made sense, but working with others really wasn't my strong suit. The timetable would be the same every single day, the first session would be theory, the second session would be XFE training, and the final session of each day would be teamwork training.

At the end of each month, we'd be administered exams for each of the three classes. In other words, we'd be taking six exams for each of the three subjects of Level J, a total of eighteen exams. Passing Level J and moving onto Level Q at the end of the six months wouldn't require passing every single exam. Instead, it was a cumulatively-based scoring system. In other words, if you did badly in, say, January's theory exam, you could make it up by earning a high score in February's corresponding exam.

Every exam would have a maximum score of ten points, meaning that all three Level J classes had a total possible score of sixty points. Passing Level J required a score of at least thirty-five out of sixty in all three classes with at least one of them being at least forty. You weren't allowed a do-over if you failed, even if it was by a single point, you'd have to start over from the entrance exam all over again. That was only for Level J though, apparently that got a lot more lenient at the higher levels. And with that, Instructor Jin Satou wrapped up his explanation, within about twenty minutes.

"Finally done...well, that's about it, so, uh...any questions?"

"I have a question, sir," Someone responded, raising their hand.

A guy with red hair and blue eyes who was sitting up front in the same row as Tairo and Bytra...if I remember right, he's the guy who placed first in the first stage of the entrance exam, with eighty-one kills. I think his name was Alex Jaice. On another note, the instructor didn't look too happy about the fact that that someone actually had a question.

"Yeah, what is it?" He sighed in reply.

"Oh, uh...I was just wondering, will the timetable you mentioned start from today at 10 AM? It's just, the way you were talking, it sounded like you were saying that classes will start tomorrow."

"Hm? Oh, that's right...today will end early. At 10 AM, we'll all go down to one of the training halls, and I'll be taking each of you on one by one, to find out about your strengths and weaknesses or whatever. It's a pain, but it's my job so I don't have a choice."

Wait, what? Might have been nice to be informed of that beforehand...well, it's a good thing I had brought my X-Weapons with me and had my battle outfit on. Still, if I'd known this was going to happen, I'd have also brought a change of clothes since it was highly likely that I was going to sweat.

Most of my new classmates then began whispering amongst themselves...from the little bits and pieces I could overhear, it sounded like they were all pretty caught off-guard by this sudden announcement. I don't know what they're all complaining about, unlike my weapons which I had to carry on me at all times, they could just pop out their X-Ability Manifestations when they felt like it.

Anyway, forty minutes later, we were all down in one of the training halls.

"Okay, uh...for the order in which you guys take me on, let's see...let's just go with whoever feels like volunteering," Shrugged the instructor, "So, then...who wants to go first?"

No one said anything for a while, before...

"Um, sir? I don't mean any disrespect, but are you sure you can go through sixteen fights in a row?" Inquired one of the others.

"Hm? Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm a K-Ranked X-Warrior, so contrary to appearances, I'm totally swole," He replied, with a half-hearted peace sign, "So, any volunteers to go first?"

Huh, his lack of enthusiasm aside, his confidence certainly didn't seem to be unfounded. And everyone looked a lot more on edge the moment he mentioned that he was K-Ranked, the second highest possible rank that an X-Warrior could achieve, and of which there were less than fifty in the world. No one seemed to want to go first, until finally...

"Interesting, I think I'll go first," Someone volunteered confidently, with a familiar voice...it was Tairo.

God, I hope he gets his ass kicked...

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