IWantToWin

Alice did as her father requested and dropped Ciel off at the entrance to the Community Center. She shoved a card in Ciel's hand before she left.

"You'll have to enter on your own since it's your first time here. This should be enough to pay for a week's trial at the Virtual World and about twelve hours in the pod. I'll pick you up at eight," Alice kept it curt but gave Ciel a nod before leaving.

Ciel didn't particularly know how to feel about Alice, and she could tell Alice didn't know how to feel about her.

She walked up to the wall of the abandoned school building and raised her hand against it. As she touched the wall, she could feel it shake slightly.

So the portals weren't all that different. Ciel decided on an easier method than last time. She smiled at the wall.

"Stop shaking and give me the fucking questions."

Threats should do the trick.

The wall shook harder, and Ciel released her killing intent. Finally, the wall stilled and a blue screen that Ciel felt she hadn't seen in forever popped up.

The questions had changed since she'd last done them, but it'd be a different story to say they were difficult. Rather, this time the questions could be said to have been considerably easier. It only took two hours for Ciel to complete ninety-nine.

Ciel greeted a room of portals once again, but this time, instead of waiting for her head to process what was going on around her, Ciel immediately opened her menu, teleporting to the Virtual Room. It really was similar to an internet cafe.

She walked up to the man running the desk this time. He looked eerily similar to the one from the virtual room she'd been to before. As Ciel passed him the money for twelve hours on the Virtual Pod, she saw the screws and lines in his skin. She felt enlightened.

The man was a drone.

So they had those here. As soon as she paid, she immediately went to grab a virtual pod. She didn't even have time to recognize that the leather on the pods hadn't been made from Entil this time.

The world went bright as a familiar fairy popped into view. Ciel didn't want to admit it, but she'd almost missed this money-sucking demon. She'd paid for her week's subscription at the Virtual Room desk as well, but she felt like the fairy in front of her was more dreary that the first time she'd seen her. Actually, she looked more disdainful than anything.

Ciel observed the disdainful fairy turn happy once more like a switch had been flipped. But the fairy wasn't focused on her.

"Ciel," Leonard said from behind her, "welcome back."

She'd had a plan with Leonard ever since before she'd left the Community Center three weeks ago. He had friended her in the Virtual World, so whenever she went on he would get a notification. Using this method, he would train her on the days she was available.

"Leonard," she said, "it's been a while."

Just like when she'd met Elias, she told Leonard the story of the last few days. She'd decided to also let him on to the secret of her kidnapping.

Leonard nodded subconsciously, "So Elias told you we were brothers."

He looked like he was reminiscing. It took him a moment to snap out of his thoughts.

"So, would you like me to turn the gender in your files back to female?" he asked. "Or would you prefer to wait? Since you'll be getting a new identity soon anyways I doubt it would matter."

Ciel had decided long ago.

"No, keep it. Alice doesn't trust me yet and I don't think I'd be able to give her an answer if she wanted to know more."

She'd be stupid to turn it back.

"Alright, then let's begin training."

They'd walked to the array of doors.

Leonard walked to a door he'd long gotten her to choose. "Martial Technique Training" hung over it.

Leonard opened the door, "After you."

Ciel walked in.

On the other side of the door, Ciel noticed the room she'd entered wasn't nearly as flashy or full of people as the Technoid Shop. As it happened, there were no people in the room other than her and Leonard. Only a door stood in the whole space, the white floor expanding on all sides.

Instantly a menu popped up in front of her. It listed everything from D-1 up to A-10, with pictures of common Technoid versions next to them.

"Choose the placement test," Leonard said, "that way we'll be able to access your current skills. I doubt all you'd be able to handle is D-1."

As soon as he mentioned it, Ciel noticed the button with the words "placement test" under D-1, almost completely hidden from sight. She clicked it without a second thought.

"This will test your skills based on how strong Antes are without their Technoids. Just fight as well as you can."

As Leonard spoke, a dummy popped into existence before them. Ciel watched it get into stance. Without wasting a second, she ran at it.

She jumped, sending herself feet first into the face of the dummy that had appeared. Using her momentum, she sent the dummy crashing into the floor before it managed to set itself up. But that wasn't the end of it. The dummy lifted its legs, wrapping them around the body of the girl who was now standing on it, flinging her back. Ciel stopped herself from being locked on the ground by bracing her legs. But, still holding on with its legs, the dummy raised itself up to her level and punched her in the face.

Pain coursed through her jaw.

As Leonard watched the two, he noticed that in all of Ciel's movements was hidden elegance, like she'd practiced every move a thousand times. He'd only seen such elegance in one kind of person before: professional sword fighters. Still, Ciel managed to outdo them. Leonard watched the dummy disintegrate, leaving Ciel's arm hanging in the air before she'd managed to punch him back.

Ciel just rolled her eyes as the dummy left.

"Recommended Level: 2-D" registered where the dummy had disappeared.

"Impressive," Leonard said, "looks like your technique isn't half bad. You just have to get your strength and endurance up to par and we can put you in a D-2 suit."

Of course, for now, Ciel was still just a D-1. She'd made up for the lack of strength with technique. Crossing levels wasn't all too hard in the beginning, but it got harder the higher-level one got. Power levels on Technoids weren't linear, they were exponential.

Even though Leonard had complimented her technique, he still found errors in it. She looked awkward, not from her moves themselves, but because she was unfamiliar with her own body. One thing he'd seen was that she thought her legs could stretch farther than they could.

Her fighting style seemed more accustomed for sword fighting rather than grappling or mixed martial arts. Still, if she could adjust her style to meet the current standards in order to fight with common weapons, she'd fight in a way no one would expect.

And if you don't expect it you can't prepare for it.

Ciel had come to the same conclusion during her fight. Currently, she was too outdated.

"You need experience," Leonard said, "and there are a few ways you can get it."

The next place Leonard brought her was a familiar sight: the Virtual Arena.

They stood together in the glass pit below the stage, which was currently empty.

"Each time someone joins the Virtual Arena, a new space is created in the Virtual World. That's why players don't need to wait," Leonard explained. "While Balen's a relatively peaceful planet, it's surrounded by some of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy, which means their server is going to be full of battle maniacs."

Leonard clicked through his screen.

"Your goal, in the six months that you're here, is to get to the top of the rankings for level 1 Friendly and Single Duels. I put in a nickname for you, so all you need to do is go on your screen and press shuffle."

Ciel decidedly didn't care about the nickname and followed his instructions.

"You'll be in a D-1 since that's the only free Technoid," were the last words Ciel heard before she was teleported onto the stage. Another D-1 stood across from her, waiting for the countdown to begin.

"IWantToWin Versus Prince," the Virtual World announced. Ciel felt at peace not seeing the ugly gold lettering from before, but after hearing her pretentious-sounding name she couldn't help but regret letting Leonard choose it.

Whatever, if she was going to sound that pretentious she damn well was going to make sure she lived up to it.

The thought of changing it had never crossed her mind, and even if she wanted to, she was bound to be disappointed. Leonard had locked it in. When she'd finally gotten up to date with hacking, it was too late to change. He couldn't deny that with Ciel's haircut she did look a bit like a prince... well more like a lot.

The countdown began.

IWantToWin laughed, "Do you think you're a prince or something?"

Ciel didn't respond. Not because she didn't want to, but because she was dumbfounded by the fact that someone named IWantToWin would talk trash about someone else's name.