The next morning, soon after four o'clock...
Liam's eyes shot open as his CID's alarm went off, and he sat up in bed. After rubbing his eyes a few times, he began to stretch.
In the next room, Lee had just finished a set of handstand push ups, and was heading to a shower.
On the uppermost floor, Kazumi was already outside his dormitory.
On the floor right below, Raidou and Rex were trying to drag Nanami out of his room.
In the next building, Lisa dragged herself out of bed and immediately went for a cold shower.
Two floors above her, Hannah was brushing her teeth while reading a book.
Right in the middle, Ruby was still fast asleep, and Tiffany had fallen off her bed.
On the first floor, Elsie was doing stretches.
When the time hit five o'clock exactly, every member of the Hunter Class received a message.
[A teacher is waiting for you at the foot of your building. You have three minutes to head down to them and receive your instructions. Wear your gym clothes.]
"And so it begins," Lee said as he and Liam jogged downstairs.
They got downstairs and met up with most of the other boys, though a few like Steve, Kofi, Jason, and Jeremy weren't around. Liam, however, met another unwanted face.
"You must feel pretty full of yourself now, right, Lee?" Faust smiled as he approached. He glanced at Liam, then frowned.
"Oh look, it's Mr. Insecurity. Surprised you're up this early, Class Nerd."
Liam rolled his eyes and walked away. Are we supposed to wait in the building's lobby for the others?
He looked around. Caesar isn't here, along with a few others... I'll text him.
Liam pulled up his CID menu, scrolled through, and opened the group chat Nanami had started the day before.
"Where... are... you? Morning... class is abot to—dammit, typo—...start."
At that moment, the elevator far behind them dinged, and Caesar and Steve walked out.
"Like I said, you need to show a bit of confidence, dude," Steve said as he patted his shoulder.
"Um, alright," Caesar muttered quietly.
Liam waited for Caesar to meet his eyes, then waved him over.
"Hi," Liam nodded.
"Hello," Caesar muttered.
Liam wasn't sure how to act around Caesar. Somehow, the guy had worse social anxiety than he did, and Liam had no idea how to deal with that. Caesar had only spoken when talked to first, mumbled all his answers, and generally tried to remain invisible.
He's like me, but worse. At least I have a friend... if that demon of a girl even counts as one...
"Hey, Liam."
Both Caesar and Liam turned around to see Raidou, Rex, and Nanami approaching them.
"Hi," Liam nodded. Caesar remained silent.
"When are we..." Nanami paused to yawn, "moving out?"
"Now," Raidou said as he headed towards the building's entrance/exit. "We don't have the time to wait for the others."
After a few more seconds of conversation, the assembled boys walked out of their dormitory building. Waiting for them, with his arms crossed, was Diamond. He looked irritated, and his eyes swept over them quickly. He remained silent until they were all in ear shot, then—
"Form a horizontal line! Everyone at attention! Count off, starting from one!"
The boys were disoriented for a moment, but soon, they hurried into position. Steve started the count, and it ended on Caesar.
"There are only eleven of you here? Where are the other three?"
"We don't know sir," Raidou answered.
Diamond frowned. "Alright then. We don't need latecomers. Everybody form two queues. We're going on a round trip; from here to Administration, then the Auditorium, the Crucible, and finally the Stadium. I believe you all had your entrance exam in the Stadium, so you should be familiar with it. Alright now, you have ten seconds to form the lines. We rendezvous with the girls at Administration."
The boys scrambled to get in line, then spent more time deciding on proper spacing.
"Alright," Diamond said as he turned. "We're about to begin. I want you to chant 'left, right' as we jog, okay?"
And with that, the run began. At first, some of the boys couldn't keep time properly, so they kept scuffing each other's feet, bumping into each other, or going at the wrong speed. Diamond remained exactly two meters ahead of them, shouting:
"Left, right! Left, right!"
The boys picked it up, a few feeling embarrassed by it. However, by the time they reached Administration, they were chanting it in tandem.
The girls joined them, even though Ruby wasn't there. Bullseye was the teacher guiding them.
They all got a thirty-second break before organizing themselves into four lines of five and continuing the jog. They were still uncoordinated by the time they reached the Auditorium, but as time went along, their breathing, chanting, and running slowly began to mesh together.
Thirty minutes later, they were all sitting on the Stadium's track before the rest of their teachers. They were given ten minutes to rest, and a few of them used that time to observe their surroundings. On the central green area were several different obstacles including tires, a Tarzan swing, and a net spread low over the ground.
"Alright, everybody on your feet," Jet ordered as he stepped forward.
The students obliged.
"Your morning training will begin as follows: you will run half a lap around the track, then break off at the designated area into the quintuple steps. From there, you are to cross the monkey bars, take the Tarzan swing, move through the tire run up to that five-meter-tall rock wall, climb back down and drop into a military crawl under that net, and repeat the whole thing once. Understood?"
"...Yes, sir!"
Jet smiled a little. "You can go back to your dorms to rest up after this. Then, at the end of the day we shall continue with your other training. Alright, you'll be starting one person every forty seconds. Prioritize form over speed. Kazumi, you shall lead the others... begin."
Kazumi took off at a steady pace, his feet and arms pumping rhythmically. He may have run at his own pace, but it still seemed like he was pouring on the speed. He finished the half-lap in under forty seconds, then began to jump across the quintuple steps.
"Lee, go."
By the time Kazumi was halfway across the monkey bars, Lee was a third of the way done with the half-lap. Before leaving the monkey bars, Kazumi swung out on one arm to grab the first rope of the Tarzan swing and pulled it closer. He quickly estimated the distance between each rope; one-and-a-quarter meters. He let go of the bar, then swung from rope to rope seamlessly, without a single pause.
Lee had passed the halfway mark when Kazumi dropped from the twentieth and last rope into the tire run. He took a second to survey the area in front of him, then began to jump from the center of one tire to another without pause.
"Steve, your turn."
Steve, who had been near the front, began to run. By that time, Lee had started the monkey bars, and Kazumi had crossed twenty of the fifty tires. Liam observed the course quietly, taking some mental notes.
Kazumi's pretty efficient. He hasn't made a single mistake that I can see... and Steve's pretty fast too. Lee's a monster, like always. Just like Kazumi. How far apart are those ropes though? How exactly should I position myself when moving from bars to rope? How exactly should I land when moving to the tires? That net—
"Liam."
Liam let his thoughts play on in his head as he ran.
I just need to complete this course to the best of my ability.
Jay was called after him, and by then Liam had almost reached the quintuple steps. He completed the first two obstacles fairly easily, although he slipped up on one bar. Steve was stuck on the middle rope for a few minutes after losing momentum.
Kazumi, on the other hand, was already past the wall, and was halfway through the net. Lee had also begun to climb.
When Liam got to a rope, he kept timing himself on his releases and grabs. He reached Steve, then kicked off him, pushing them apart—Liam backwards, Steve forwards toward the next rope.
By the time they were halfway across the tire run, Jay had reached the ropes, and Kazumi had begun his second run.
More and more people joined in with varying degrees of success. Some hesitated too long, some fell from the obstacles, some got stuck, and some almost gave up halfway. Lisa struggled across the Tarzan swing, and Hannah wasn't well coordinated enough to cross the tires easily. Caesar had somehow slimmed down during the run, but he struggled a bit on the quintuple steps.
When everyone was done, the time was six-forty. Everyone was dismissed, and they reconvened in front of the boys' dorm building at seven-forty to go for their first Threat Assessment and Adaptation class.
"Damn, that was tiring," Lisa sighed as the twenty students who had made it to the morning workout met up and walked to the class together. Jason, Kofi, Jeremy, and Ruby were busy doing punishment drills while wearing weights.
"Feels pretty refreshing after you finish it though," Liam replied.
"Hey, Lisa," Hannah waved. "C'mere for a second."
Lisa waved back, elbowed Liam, then walked towards the other girls.
"Liam, my guy!" Nanami exclaimed as he put an arm over Liam's shoulders. "What's up?"
"The sky," Liam sighed. Nanami pouted as Liam removed his arm, and Rex, who was nearby, laughed.
"Since when did you become sarcastic?" he asked Liam.
"It's a safety mechanism," Liam mumbled.
"He's always been like this," Lee said from behind Nanami.
"Gah!" Nanami jumped. "Stop doing that!"
"Get used to it," Liam grunted.
"Exactly." Lee nodded. "And besides, it helps to train your—"
"Mental fortitude and spatial awareness." Liam finished. "I know."
Lee turned to him, a small frown on his face. "Maybe I should increase the intensity again..."
Liam put his hands together and lowered his head. "Please don't."
"You guys are loud."
All four turned wide-eyed in Jay's direction.
"He just spoke..." Nanami muttered.
"With zero prompting..." Rex continued.
Jay turned to them, his frown visible despite the slight shadow his hood cast over his face. "You were loud. That was the prompt."
"...You sound like an AI," Liam said.
Jay gave him a look he couldn't read, then shook his head. "At least Liam is quieter."
Lee narrowed his eyes. "So you're saying I'm loud?"
"Your voice is too confident. It keeps banging on my eardrums."
Not knowing how to answer that, Lee fell silent.
Raidou, who was a little ahead of them, suddenly paused.
"Hm?" Lee put a hand on his shoulder. "What's up?"
Raidou put a hand to his forehead and groaned.
"Threat Assessment and Adaptation... is a joint class."