Begin of Chapter two.
As we step into the debate club, two people stare at each other in silence. Or so it would be silent if we hadn’t interrupted.
« What are you doing here, first years ? »
Inquire casually the yellow-haired woman sitting between the two standing people on either of her side.
« We’re here to apply for the debate club. »
Replies a cheerful Max, scanning the room.
« Well, don’t join it as long as Yayoi is President. »
We all looked at the man standing opposite to Yayoi.
« We can’t even debate anymore, everyone just follows Yayoi whatever she says. »
Saying that, he glares at Yayoi who doesn’t react at all.
« If nobody opposes me, does that mean you’re not charismatic enough to inspire others ? »
Welp, I never want to make her mad. Yayoi directs her gaze to Max then to the rest of the team.
« You want to debate ? Beat my charisma or win the tournament. I know one of you is Ryūka’s sibling, so if he’s as strong as she is, you won’t have any difficulty winning. »
She smiles at me, damn Ryūka has one gorgeous friend. I can identify my sister staring daggers at me. Seems like there’s a story here too.
« What tournament ? »
Cuts Alice. The last person who hasn’t speaks until now, next to Ryūka, turns to face Alice.
« Each year, the school hosts a tournament. You can either choose to compete individually or with your club at first. The second time, you compete with your team. The first phase is full of diverse activities selected to give an advantage to each club and a random one to diversify. You gain points for your club, yourself and your team when competing. The best club receives even more opportunities to expand itself. As for the second phase, teams can fight by completing an activity. The team with the most points essentially selects one of their members to propose anything to the school headmaster. And nobody knows what you inquired, so you can spy on anyone without them knowing if you win. »
Well, that’s a lot. The unknown man standing in front of Yayoi took a step toward us.
« Good luck winning. The five beasts crushed everyone last year. »
We can only raise an eyebrow to the said team name.
« Sooo...Can I apply for the club or ? »
Max, who seems to not bounce on her feet for once, ask way too calmly and Yayoi laughs softly.
« Yes, come on. »
We ultimately finished applying to clubs when the time to advance to our first real class came close. We hurried to the classroom and took our places, giving the club application papers to our teacher. Kaneko-sensei raised an eyebrow when she saw I decided to be club-less but stated nothing, not out of respect I suspect. The upcoming classes went fast as we went through the basics of what we’ll learn this year and diner time started as we sat in the cantina with another team. I recognize Jordan, their leader who seems to avoid looking at Aaron too much every two whole seconds. He must be taller than me with nut-brown hair in a classy swept back haircut and sky gray eyes. At his side is a smaller guy with tan skin and remarkably short black hair similar in color to his eyes. He hasn’t spoken once, even during the introduction. Our teacher didn’t care that much as it made her save time. As the group discussed with us, we learnt Jordan joined the music club too. Seth, the smaller guy, remains club-less, very much like me. Another guy in their group, who seems Chinese by his facial traits even if he dyed his hair blue, said his name is Chun and he applied for the debate club. The last member of their team is a petite woman with albinism. Her hairstyle looks like the American or European 40s with a red flower on her left ear, she smiles but doesn’t express that much, mentioning the art club. Well, the art club has a new femme fatale and hime-chan duo. As I inspect our classmates, Seth turns to me.
« Are you going to participate in the tournament ? »
I have to think for a second here. Winning the tournament could grant me access to anyone's identity. If we distinguish who to make friends with, we could dodge our way in life way more than just being elites. You could be as strong as one country with the proper connections. My clan could survive for at least a century this way and I’m sure that is the reason why our parents sent us to this school. In this case, my clan wouldn’t receive any honor achieving this. That’s not what I desire. Our clan was a proud samurai one in the past before falling into illegality. I might not want to do it, but I have to prevent other people from gaining an advantage on me.
« I might, do you plan on participating too ? »
Jordan overhears us, and the two teams stop talking.
« If we all participate, then may the best one win. »
We all smile at each other before resuming our lunch. After that, we had classes where most teams decided to sit together, and we could finally visit our room or should I say apartment in the dormitories. The dormitories are an enormous building in two parts, not one for girls but one for teachers and one for students. Since there are 20 students per grade, there are 20 students per floor. All 9th graders are on the 3rd floor. We had to fill papers before starting the year to have rooms adapted to ourselves. My room is a traditional Japanese one. I have a kitchen area that is quite modern with a traditional wood look. The living room is a washitsu, which means I have a low table with zaisu chairs (chairs without feet on the ground) and a storage closet with sliding doors like any of my doors, in here I have futon to invite friends and can store the table to make space. I have a separate room with a western style bed and a desk and another separate room in which you can undress before going into the bathroom or you can access the toilets. In my bedroom, there’s another storage closet for my clothes which has the same uniform six times (so you can wear it every day) , two jinbei, two yukata, two kimono, standard underwear and sockets and three sports uniforms. On the living room table is a pamphlet saying you can ask for more stuff if needed during the year. You also earn points with your grades to buy stuff during the year, trade or give points. As I can read, your points earned during the year have effects on your score during the tournament. So the tournament isn’t just an event. If you beat people in classes, you can beat them easily during the tournament. Everything you do affects your success in summary. As I finish reading, there’s someone knocking on the door. Seeing how heavy the pounding is, that’s Max. I decide to open my door and see how right I am. My team is waiting. Alice is the first to speak.
« We decided to visit each other's rooms, can we come in ? »
I gesture for them to enter. The three of them inspect my room with enormous open eyes before we end up sitting at the low table.
« Your room is impressive. Mine isn’t that unique. »
Says our never missing energy Max.
« Well, we had to complete papers. Didn’t you think of recreating your house ? »
Alice answers, placing a white sheet on the table. She proceeds to sketch what looks like a blueprint of her intended room.
« I asked for an old French country style. »
« You’re French ? »
Max surprise is the same I’ve had when I saw cantina had popcorn.
« No, I’m German. But I like the old French style. It’s so elegant and cozy. »
Welp, good luck Alice. Max hugged her so suddenly I thought Alice was going to crash on the tatami.
« That’s astonishing, I’m French ! Most of our houses are the same as nowadays German or American rooms but you have great taste. »
Alice is as scarlet as Max’s haircut. As a result I guess I’m the only non-western and gay of our team. Later we moved to the park in the middle of the building, the other teams joining us before examining everyone's apartments. I have trouble seeing people's nationalities outside of their accents but from what I’ve seen Max and Jordan are French, Alice is German, Adele is Italian, Seth is Egyptian, Aaron is American, Chun is Chinese and I’m Japanese. Alice and Adele opted for elegant rooms in France and Italy style, Max, Jordan and Aaron occupy modern minimalist rooms. Chun and I asked for rooms in our Asian origins style when Seth asked for a mix of Chinese and Japanese style. The rest of the day passed by really fast as we talked and got to know each other by playing table games. As we all went to bed, we were full of new knowledge. In the morning, everyone is woken up by an alarm telling us the beginning of the day has started. We ate before heading to our next class : Sports. The gymnasium was a small part of the sports complex. There’s like 4 different places, notables are the baseball and American football fields. Our class joined the other 9th grade class on the track field. I can see how the class 1-1 has way more Japanese people than we do. A small woman you can identify as our sports teacher step forward.
« Hello. I’m Julie Johnson, the first-years sports teacher. I’ll help you all learn how to survive in case you’re in danger in the future as it can happen to certain people. We’ll do two kinds of sports during this year : endurance sports like track and field and defensive martial arts like aikido. You have two hours of sports today so you’ll do both of these. We think it’s important to avoid doing only one sport per month because your muscle will lose its memory if not trained enough. Each team will receive their training task for the first hour before switching sports. Some of you have no experience in either sports so I’ll personally oversee you. »
As minutes passed by, Johnson-sensei called our team to the track field while some teams went into a nearby dojo. I don’t think this first sports class was exceedingly hard : we got prepared, had to take our running speed and make a plan of what to train in priority. Suggesting some of us are slower or faster and have to train with the other people of the same speed that are in another team. Max is the fastest of us, no surprise. I’m the second fastest runner of the team, with Aaron and Alice being bad at it. I’ve joined Max and the faster runners and made a plan. We’re fast so we focus on breathing and running longer distances. Some of us lacked technique and making sure all of us are on the same level thanks to the one who's better at running remains an amazing experience compared to Japan's standard school system where you just want to crush your classmates in every exam to get into the best cursus. As we reached 40 min into the exercises, we decided to have a contest on Saturday evening with track and aikido to acquire all of the first-years levels and help slower students. But for now, I can’t wait for aikido class to overcome my opponents.
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