While technology had advanced beyond mankind's wildest dreams, the style of architecture this institute employed was firmly rooted in the past. With a lot more space to work with after the collapse, it was founded on the very outskirts of Yoake. While a
regular part of the city mirrored old sci-fi movies of a time long before the great calamity, this institute prided itself on not forgetting mankind's roots. While it appeared much more fragile than the steel-laden bunkers modern humans called housing, this complex was built with just as many modern techniques. Most notably, it employed a magic circuit that allowed it to eject a barrier. This barrier would prevent any major damage hurled its way by outside force.
For someone used to the city-life, Geiru having so much green around it must've made for a jarring contrast to what they were used to. Considering it was situated on what amounted to its own private property, several kilometers of uninhabited wilderness between it and the rest of the nearest civilisation, this wasn't surprising. The only thing linking the location to the rest of society was the long road leading into the institute, continually guarded and maintained by staff. Students needed to be cut off from their previous surroundings in order to grasp the nature of their future mission.
During the day, the courtyards and arenas of Geiru had a near-constant stream of battling happening. Students tested their mettle against one-another, using the vast space awarded to them to try out the limits of both themselves and their construct. It was no surprise, considering the institute encouraged this behaviour with a scoreboard. Two separate kinds: Global and relative. Depending on how a student fared in their practical exam, they were given a set rating. This would be compared to both their own year as well as every other student in the complex. Battling another students would automatically register it through a wristband each of them wore, which calculated a new rating based on who had won. Not battling would cause the rating to deteriorate over time. Falling too low for consecutive periods would mean expulsion.
About a week or two had passed since the new applicants strolled into that kind of establishment.
For those that had schooling before this, it wasn't like anything they were used to. Every lesson was completely optional, without being separated into classes. Students could choose to follow whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. At least, as long as it was being given on that day. The week's schedule was gifted to them ahead of time. Because of this structure, while some made quick friends with their new year-mates, most of them were still largely unknown to each-other. For the non-socialites: A bunch of strangers, even still.
Of course, there were some that immediately caught the eye of many-a-student. The strange Emi and her Viscera, a pair so detached from common reality that weird rumors about them spread like wildfire. Ayesha and Adamas, drawing eyes because of the hulking golem's size and the girl's obliviousness to common etiquette. Yuuto and Fubuki, for causing even more collateral than one of the more infamous last-year students... though that last one came mostly from certain instructors. These three newbie pairs had spotlights thrown on them for these reasons and more, though the extent of their fame still paled in comparison to some of the tales told of the last years.
Not Hugo, though. Despite never really failing, he and Hume had faded into some kind of obscurity. Be it a lack of battles that threw spectators or their mutual passiveness, the fact remained neither of them had any particular reputation surrounding them. But looking back at the lower grade, as far as the second years went, Chidori stood surprisingly high in the relative rankings. It came as a double-edged sword, though. Her and Nehle were often challenged to fights by those looking to boost their own rank. While the duo did win a majority of their skirmishes, it often felt like people only recognized them because they had such a target painted on them. It was still better than poor Renzo, though. People often forgot he existed. His construct, Lun, stood out like a sore thumb. That made it so the construct completely overshadowed the contractor. It got bad enough to the point where people failed to recognize him as a student in the first place.
All of them, however, no matter how recognized, played some part in the tale to come. For now, each of them had something or the other to worry about. After all, two unusual events worthy of their attention were occurring.
The first anomaly went as followed: A ferocious
construct had been rampaging through the courtyard, chasing an unfortunate
student fleeing alongside their
partner. Said student looked hopelessly outmatched, if you consider how the dual-wielding construct covering their retreat was getting bitten and tossed around like a ragdoll. The beast's superior size, speed and strength made it an unfair match. The now-rampaging construct usually wasn't this violent; it roamed campus freely and was more akin to the local pet to most students. Seeing it attack one like this was unusual, especially as the construct belonged to one of the instructors, who wasn't present at the scene of the crime for the moment.
"Goddamn-! Someone, help me already!"
Most students ignored the commotion, either too caught up in their own fights or simply apathetic to the scene for one reason or another. Surprisingly little of them were around on campus, so it wasn't much of a surprise. Still, the poor soul on the receiving end was going to need some aid in dealing with the threat.
The second exciting thing that day was a small, improvised event organised by two of the most infamous second years:
Fujiwara Ren and
Kizakura Yusuke. These two jokers have been fighting each-other every single day ever since they were enrolled at Geiru. They almost never fought never anybody else and the whole institute knew it, instructor and student alike. Their current shenanigans entailed an impromptu tournament with no prize. Ren and Yusuke had, somehow, managed to rope about 10-odd students from varying years into this mess, to be divided in teams between the two of them. They would be having one-on-one matches between the teams to see who's got the superior fighters. There was no incentive to participate other than having some matches to spice up the rankings with and also just generally goofing off. The location was set a small ways from the main building, but still within the complex. There was a clearing in the wilderness, just outside the dormitories, popular among students looking for a scrapping spot you didn't need to ask permission for. It being safe to visit was just a bonus.
In the moment, though, the two were feuding over who got what player.
"No way dude, Fumi's on my team," Ren said.
"What the hell, man? I was first pick!" Yusuke fired back.
"No, you
made yourself first pick! You just flipped a coin and-" Ren angrily tried to rebuke, but was interrupted by a certain
someone in the audience.
"
Shut up!" she yelled. "Do the teams even matter?! Fighting over me is stupid... actually, never mind. This whole thing's stupid. Let's go, Rose."
Fumi turned around and stomped off in a huff. Her
partner chuckled, pacing backwards and away from the crowd. "D'aww, boys... don't be sad about it. Mistress is just-"
"
Can it!"
"Yes yes, mistress~!" he obediently replied, winking at Yusuke and Ren before turning on his heel and following suit.
"Harsh," the
construct behind Yusuke flatly commented with a hushed echo. Its partner was grinding his teeth in frustration.
"Reave, I swear I'm going to-"
"Ahh, well this is a problem..." the
ghost floating next to Ren said, chiming into the conversation with a whispery voice. Said ghost followed the statement up with: "With Fumi out of this, that leaves us with 9 pairs, counting us... someone's going to have to sit back."
The construct's partner rolled his eyes. He said: "Ah, who cares! We can make it like... a trio-tourney... thing. Hey- Hey! That's it! Yo, one of you guys want to captain a team? Three guys in a fight, every fight!" Having stumbled on the revelation, Ren bounced around excitedly, a fire in his eyes. "I'm gunna win it anyway, even if you throw two or three guys at me!"
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