Today was the day. The morning sun bore down on the training grounds of the academy. Clamoring around the enormous courtyard were hundreds of thousands of students, waiting and biding their time.

With how spacious the courtyard was, which it indeed was, since it was to be used for sparring sessions between multiple explorers at once, there was plenty of room to sit around and chat. Almost everyone had no idea why they had to wake up so early in the morning and report to the training grounds.

All of them had gotten a message about when the class would start, and start it did, at such a terrible time.

The morning sun hadn’t even risen, yet the absurd start time of the Practical Training Class was set at such a horrid part of the day for the younger aged students. Many yawned, still rubbing the bits of sleep sand from their eyes.

Was this part of the training? Endurance and Sleep deprivation? These were things Explorers had to go through, especially in a combat situation.

On a more important note, the topic of today’s clamor was today’s class itself. It was both emphasized by Professor Cyno and by recent rumors cropped up by the upperclassmen. Some underclassmen had overheard a few unsettling things about what would happen today, and word got around on the net.

A class that was, the toughest, the hardest to get through, and not to mention how it was gossiped as the most dangerous event to their well being. Before, Professor Cyno had allayed their concerns at orientation, though now, it seemed that he might have withheld a few details.

Waiting as a group, Amanda’s usual pair of unrequited love birds were chatting, and everyone else was settling in and brewing on their personal devices. Itsuki was tending to his own business, tapping away at his personal device as he listened in.

“What do you think Ikki? Will it be as bad as the rumors?” Stella asked.

“I don’t really know. I haven’t taken any classes yet. The Eastern Bloc forbade me with legal constraints last year, so I only know the hearsay like everyone else.”

Ikki truly didn’t know much about the curriculum, even though he had spent years at the academy. Perhaps Andromeda’s method of training was a trade secret.

Last year, he had intended to enroll after being given a chance by the headmaster for his outstanding performance under Itsuki’s command as a temporary explorer.

Unfortunately, due to his past of running away from home, the Eastern Bloc cut him off and made a political incident out of the situation, accusing Andromeda of kidnapping an in training explorer of theirs.

This was largely hypocritical and irksome, since the Eastern Bloc had done so out of an obligation to a large and influential party in their nation.

This was the Kurogens, and their, what Itsuki would plainly describe as, the pain in the ass branch families, intended to get in Ikki’s way for their own ends. It took a year of bureaucratic and legal hoops to jump through, not to mention a good lawyer for this debacle to clear up.

And in that year, Ikki was forced to not take any classes or face the legal wrath of becoming a traitor to his homeland, subsequently being put on a blacklist from explorer activities if he crossed the line.

This was a fact Shisuki knew all too well, both the dreadful family affairs and political implications.

“Hmmm, it pains me to know that our hapless relatives had caused so much trouble for my Little Brother.” Shisuki hid her internal anger, letting it set into ice. Her demeanor brightened the next second and she gave a graceful smile.

“Though, I do expect them to now be silent in the coming days.”

“What do you mean?” Ikki asked and realized. “Actually, I didn’t get to ask since we were busy, but is it alright for you to come to Andromeda? Won’t you be considered a traitor like me?”

“OH that? That did cross my mind. It shouldn’t be of any concern now, I’ve dealt with the situation on my own. It was quite a dreary time.”

“What exactly did you do? Father is adamant about your role as the next head of the family.”

“It was simple.” Clapping her hands as if it was a forgone conclusion. Shisuki explained. “If I wanted to leave, all I had to do was get rid of those who opposed me. Simply put, I dueled all the opposing parties and won.”

“Y-You did? How did you manage that?”

She didn’t know much about the Eastern Bloc and their explorers, but Stella had enough sense to know that Shisuki had done something unbelievable. An explorer was an explorer, a fighter of unimaginable powers, so for her to defeat any that tried to get in her way seemed close to impossible.

“I believe you are overestimating my nation’s explorers. We do pride ourselves in our manifest abilities that tie well to the way of the blade, but in comparison to what I learned under Teacher Itsuki in my young years, swordplay doesn’t seem to hold a candle to what his breed of explorers use, supposedly, he’s from the generation of explorers just after the war ended.”

A concern then dropped into Shisuki’s lap.

“If I remember, Itsuki was originally from Andromeda, but he got his license in the European Bloc. That is odd, isn’t it? Though, it would explain his prowess.”

If Itsuki had lived in Andromeda, Shisuki hypothesized that he had quite the upbringing.

It was a well known fact that Andromeda boasted the best explorers who had achieved and contributed the most to the worldwide peace that all nations had. Many notable mystics and corebinders had been forged there, and their grunts were of note as well.

Commonly known, which contributed to Andromeda’s fame, the UN ranking system for explorers found that 70% of the top 1000 ranks were from Andromeda and their European allies. The remaining 30% was a mix of Eastern, Chinsui, and Russka explorers.

“Woah!” Amanda’s sudden exclamation caught Shisuki attention. Amanda, checking for herself, found the official ranking site on her personal holo wrist device and it shocked her on how much Andromeda dominated the top 1000 ranks. She glanced at the list and went over a few profiles, spotting Joel and Cyno on the roster’s top 10.

“Stella, going by what this says. I don’t think she is joking. Is that you on here Shisuki?”

Shisuki glanced up the list and nodded as she saw her name, but not on the official roster. Instead, it was on a pending evaluations list.

“Oh yes, after my little duels were done, I was nominated by the nation to be ranked early. Of course, since I did not have an explorer license yet, I was put down as a tentative name on the roster. I really wished I started training in earnest earlier. If I had, then maybe I would have been put on the official roster by now.”

How highly Shisuki was potentially ranked amazed Amanda, though she found something odd, a certain someone wasn’t on the roster.

“Why aren’t there any grunt class explorers on here? I thought Itsuki would be listed, what’s the deal with that?”

It was certainly weird. Grunts made up 90% of the total ranks of explorers, so having not listed seemed impossible. There must have been more outstanding grunts better than Itsuki, the world was massive, so there was a chance.

“I think I can explain.” Nene came up and peered at Amanda’s device. She had been waiting with Amanda and her group, and was biding her time by taking a few interviews with some nearby students, gathering info, so to say.

She took a tablet from her backpack and pulled up the explorer ranking charts on her own device. After a few moments, she found what she was looking for.

“It says here that by UN standards, grunt class explorers are not to be considered on the rankings as they have less weighted manifested abilities than the mystics or corebinders. Huh, talk about being exclusive.”

“More like bias.” Amanda scoffed. “If Itsuki can teach Shisuki to be this strong, then he’s probably a bit higher than her in unofficial rank.”

“Your not.. wrong.” Shisuki almost choked to say that. It hurt her pride to admit that the student had yet to surpass the master. “It is embarrassing, though, with my recent performance in our spar, I do think I am getting better.”

“Hmph! I bet you will, but so will I.”

Amanda had a lofty goal ahead of her, and to her, Itsuki was just a benchmark. The faster she could overcome and beat him in sparring, the closer she would get in becoming an explorer and be able to probe the star depths on her own.

She learned she needed strength to survive the star depths and Itsuki’s level of power was her reference.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself Amanda.” Itsuki warned. “You still have a lot to learn. I have over 10 years of experience on you, so don’t get reckless. The Practical Training Class is nothing “but” easy. You’ll need to pass that first if you want to surpass me.”

“Yeah Yeah.” Amanda shook off his warning, she had heard it a thousand times from the other upperclassman. They were somewhat helpful in giving her advice when she chatted with them during lunch a few days ago.

Many warned her that she shouldn’t involve herself with Itsuki, and she agreed.

If not for how her sparring sessions with him were beneficial, she would have gone off to do her own way of training. That, and he paid her to help with his work, a benefit that was too enticing to pass up.

Just as they got settled, an alarm blared, making everyone go on high alert.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“W-What’s going on?”

“Is this an emergency or something?”

“Hey! Look!”

“What? What is it?”

“Up there! Look, in the sky!”

Turning to the blue expanse above, the sun’s light cresting over the horizon and the dark blue with a tinge of orange and yellow, the students noticed the figure of something winged flying above.

It looked like it had a human shape to its outline. But the flapping wings made it clear to understand that something unidentified had entered the restricted air space. What or who would be so foolish to do so?

Limits to how high a person could jump or operate in the training grounds was set so that no one would get in the way of air traffic or accidentally trigger the anti air defenses of the Terracolony.

The war had ended, but that didn’t mean the underlying defense systems were not still in place. Luckily, whoever was flying up there had realized their mistake and began to descend, but not all the way.

Peering through a pair of binoculars, Itsuki identified who it was and sighed in slight anger. Producing a megaphone from his storage rings on his arms, he shouted.

“GET DOWN FROM THERE! YOU’LL GET IN THE WAY!”

His shouting not going unnoticed, the nearby students sneered at him.

“What a weirdo.”

“Hey, isn’t that the guy who..”

“Yeah, I’ve heard the rumors about him.”

“Can you believe he’s a fourth year?”

“Some upperclassmen call him demonic, talk about wimps.”

“Yeah, he’s so scrawny.”

“Not to mention that attitude.”

“What a jerk, I heard he bullies the underclassmen.”

“What a low life shit.”

Unaffected by these jeers, Itsuki paid more attention to the winged idiot who was flying up above.

Hearing his shout, the figure descended a few meters more and everyone got a better look at who the figure was. It was a girl, though not exactly. Everyone could identify her as a beast human.

She had a coat of dark and light brown fur from head to toe, ears like that of a cat, and the two feathered wings spread out from the back of her hip gave it away that she was not exactly “human”.

Commonly known as beast humans, were people who had been mutated by the core energy. It was only after the discovery of core energy and its effects that the phenomenon of early human mutation after the starfall was solved.

History said that this was perplexing for people during the Starfall, suddenly, out of nowhere, people began changing, in complex and unique ways. Manifested powers were just the tip of the iceberg.

And those were dark years, before the discovery, the early beast humans afflicted with core energy, were hunted and executed. Many believed they were turning into monsters, which was far from the truth.

So much sense less violence, over what? A change in appearance? Wasteful.

Itsuki shook himself to refocus and called out.

“MANA! HURRY UP! AND GET! DOWN!”

“ITSUKI!?”

The winged figure, known as Mana Wyn, realized who it was that was spoiling her fun. There was nothing to do but wait around until something happened, so she took off from the ground to enjoy some free flying.

The feeling of the wind rushing through her hair was exhilarating and she truly didn’t have a care in the world when up here.

“GET DOWN ALREADY!”

Another shout from the mood ruiner caused Mana to pout. She stuck a tongue out and pulled down one of her eyes, a childish gesture but who cared, he couldn’t see her do this up here.

She was so high up that there was no way that he could-

Her safety was then immediately in danger. She saw something coming right at her and as it got closer. She screamed and flapped her wings as fast as she could.

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

“I-Itsuki?” Amanda backed away, fearful as to why Itsuki had so suddenly materialized what looked like an anti air rocket launcher. With how he had that angry look in that blank stare of his as he eyed the sky, she knew what he was going to do.

“Calm down, I’m sure the girl up there is only playing around.”

“I know, but it's against school policy.” He said curtly. “If my memory serves me right, she’s a 2nd year student. By now, she should know not to break the rules. This! Is a very moderate response. Let’s see how she likes flying when she is being chased by rockets.”

“Are you serious!? How extreme are you!?”

Fully exasperated, Amanda wanted to punt Itsuki in the head. He gave her a look and then at everyone around him. To Amanda’s relief, he seemed to calm down and she sighed in relief when Itsuki took one of his hands off the rocket launcher.

“I suggest you all step away.” He said and out of nowhere, another rocket launcher appeared in his other now free hand. “If not, close your ears.” He warned, threw something down that hissed and expanded and then aimed up.

“WAIT!”

But Amanda’s hopes were dashed as many first years dove or ducked down with their hands clasped to their head.

4 resounding booms echoed in the training grounds, and while it was cause for concern for the first years, the upperclassman and idle staff brushed it off. They had gotten so used to Itsuki’s violent tendencies that it had become commonplace.

It was an odd nuance that Amanda picked up.

From the headmaster’s personal abode, Joel peered at the training grounds. He saw as 4 streaking lights rushed up and began chasing a winged student around the airspace above.

With such a concerning sight in front of him, Joel didn’t react or seemed like a caring headmaster. It was more like he was enjoying the show.

He just sighed.

“At least today won’t be boring.”

He took a sip of tea and pressed record on his propped up personal terminal, its camera rolling.

Flapping her wings, Mana tried to evade the rockets. Weaving her way through the streaking projectiles, they passed her by and when she thought she was in the clear, they swerved around.

Their heat seeking sensors had locked onto her, so the only way out was to run until the propellant was used up.

Though, her attempt failed quickly. As soon as she evaded the first 4, another 4 came rocketing up at her. Caught in a pincer, Mana winced and closed her eyes.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!”

All 8 mini rockets bursted, but not into flames. Instead, a net rope unfurled after the rocket’s outer shell disintegrated and propelled the nets at her. Wrapped up, and her wings immobile, Mana fell from the sky, screaming and flailing in the ropes embrace.

With the ground speeding at her, tears welled in her eyes. Her vision went blank and when she thought she would go splat, she felt herself bounce up and off the ground.

Her back thumping to something soft, the rubbery ground she laid on was then deflating. When the cold asphalt touched her back, she saw Itsuki’s deathly blank stare looking down on her.

“Ummmm, Tehe?” She made an amusing sound and it was cute in Itsuki’s opinion. Still, it didn’t sway him from her breach of rules and he hauled to the side so that he could untie her.

“As dorm supervisor, I’ll be making sure I handle you closely this year.” Itsuki said. “Hope you survive.”

“Wait, What? Again? It was bad enough last year, can’t you-?”

“No.” Without even needing to ask, Itsuki gave her the answer she knew he’d give. She slumped her shoulders and dreaded the upcoming semester.

“I only wanted to fly a bit, what’s so wrong with that.” She mumbled.

“Take this more seriously. You’re in your second year, so don’t start making yourself into a bad example to the first years.”

“But I am! I’m teaching them to express themselves, by…”

Mana stopped herself from talking any further. Too scared of Itsuki’s glaring eyes, she could tell that he could see through her bullshiting and half excuses, she zipped her mouth up real tight. A single look into his eyes made her realize he might tighten his attention on her even more, an outcome she didn’t want to repeat like last year.

That time, he didn’t catch her when he shot her out of the sky, or well, he did but wrapped her up in ropes as he hauled her off from the training grounds. Like his many infamous and rude nicknames that people gave him, Itsuki was brutally demonic in how he treated people.

Abrasive? Yes. Uncaring? Yes. Uncompromising? Yes.

To Mana, he was like a tyrant. Though, she would never say it. From a mixture of fear and respect, she held her opinion in. Terrible as he was as a person, as an explorer, he was someone who took his job seriously, a trait she could respect, only a little.

As she was released, she got up and went back to where she was waiting with other beast humans like her. As she was about to call to her friends, a sudden shove pushed her to the ground.

“OW! What the heck was that for!”

Mana looked to see who had pushed her. In front of her stood a first year foreigner. By his hardened features and attire, he was from Russka. The patch on his shirt showed off the Red and White stars of the nation’s flag.

The foreign first year sneered, and pushed his chin up, eyes as if looking at trash.

“Hmph! Filthy animal, don’t make such a commotion, stay in line and don’t give me a headache so early in the morning.”

“What did you say!” Mana shouted and pushed herself up. Clenched tight, her fist came flying but didn’t reach. Shoved back with a kick by the foreign first year, he chuckled at her pathetic display.

“Aren’t you supposed to be stronger, I thought animals like you had some bite.”

“S-Stop.” A sheepish voice interrupted the foreigners' fun. He glared at the new arrival to his fun. A girl with a deer-like nose and antler stepped in, though she kept a distance. She was scared and didn’t seem like the social type.

Still, this deer-like girl tried to stand up for Mana.

“Y-You sh-shouldn't-”

“Shut UP!” Shouted the foreign first year. “Where you get to step in! Stay off of this.”

The foreign first year began to stir his core energy, a sickening green glowed in his eyes.

“No!” Mana hurriedly motioned to the deer-like girl. “Dahlia, stay out of this. I’m fine!”

“B-but-” Dahlia's voice squeaked and then flinched as the foreign first year charged at her.

Her sight going dark as it was covered by her tightly closed eyelid in fear, Dahlia then heard a thump in front of her. She braved a peak and saw the foreign first year twitching on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

“Another rule breaker.” Itsuki said, pressing a taser into the downed student’s back.

He looked at Dahlia and she recoiled in fear. For the telling signs of her shaking, Itsuki instead turned to Mana.

“Hurry up and get her out of here. I’ll deal with this asshole.”

Pressing the taser in, its probes drew blood and the first year screamed.

“Uh? Oh Okay! You sure you don’t need help?”

The first year's screaming was her answer and the boy trying to reach at Itsuki.

“You fucking! Piece of–huh? Argh!”

With no warning, Itsuki grabbed the student’s hair and reeled his face up. Just as fast as he did, he slammed the first year student’s head into the pavement, repeatedly and violently. As he did, he called out.

“Yeah, I can handle him.” He then raised his voice. “GEN! If you’re here, get security! We have an idiot to arrest and expel.”

From the crowd, a rough looking Easterner nodded and quickly ran off, returning minutes later with staff from the training facility.

As they returned, what was left of the first year was a twitching mess that had his face bruised and his nose bleeding so profusely that it seemed like he would die of blood loss at any time.

Quite literally, the student was beaten black and blue. Giving his account along with Mana and Dahlia, Itsuki sighed, wishing that people weren’t idiots and had more control over their emotions.

Wiping the blood from his hands with a towel, he went back to working on his personal terminal. Around, students that didn’t know him well gave him a wide berth, mummering and gossiping.

“He really is a demon.”

“More like a monster, did you see how he broke that guy's face.”

“That guy did deserve it, but Woah! That’s overkill!”

“Hmph! He’s just a grunt, bet I can take him.”

“It’s your funeral.”