Covered in sweat, two students, one with black spiky hair and the other with blonde hair, were running down the track of the academy's training grounds. It was a massive area that had interchangeable equipment all around that in training explorers could use to improve their skills.

From target practice to sparring areas and even a mock forest with a mountain for survival simulation and classes, the academy was truly prepared to hone and sharpen the young new explorers for the dangers of the star depths.

The student with blonde hair was running ahead of the other student. His shorter legs were pushing off the ground at a greater pace than the person behind him, but he didn’t seem all that exhausted.

Catching up from behind, the student with black hair lunged at his fellow student, trying to catch up before they reached the end of this final lap. The blonde one noticed and picked up the pace, breathing a bit heavier.

He felt like he had lost his touch, being almost passed in a foot race against his junior in experience at the academy. But he let the thought drift away as he focused on the remaining distance ahead.

100 meters, 90, 80, 70, 50, 20 and then a mere 10 meters was what was left ahead of them. Putting the last bit of energy they had stored away, the two sprinted. Sweat poured from their faces and wetted their gray gym clothes.

In the next moment, an electronic pinging sound went off as the two crossed the finish line.

“Student I8A1723F - Has completed 20 miles.”

“Student I8A1923K - Has completed 20 miles.”

The black-haired student frowned and sighed heavily whilst out of breath, just a few milliseconds behind, he thought, but wiped his brow to pull his frowning expression off his face. He inhaled and got into a fighting stance with his fists up.

“Come on, let’s finish this.” He said to his panting blonde haired classmate, who then nodded and put up his own fists as well.

Throwing the first punch, the black haired student came down on his shorter friend with a right hook but found himself thrown off by the blonde student’s counter block.

Slipping in, the blonde student made to force his opponent to the ground by tackling him but found himself taking a jab to his cheek when he dashed in after supposedly throwing off his opponent. He didn’t flinch when he took the hit, instead his black eyes fiercely glared back at his opponent.

Momentary fear overcame the black-haired student, and he felt his long spiky hair twitch a bit at the sense of danger, but suddenly his gut was overcome with a depressing force.

A fist had landed square into his lower abdomen and the blonde student capitalized on his successful attack which used his unnerving appearance to draw his opponents’ attention away for a second.

An ensuing back and forth of flying fists flew between the two. A duet of blocks, kicks, and punches, all aimed to subdue or render the other unconscious.

The black haired student seemed more martially adept, his form and stance were near perfection and his movements seemed to have a flowing yet strong control to them.

The blond haired student had a more brash approach to fighting with his fists, he was more like a street brawler, brutal and unfazed as he took every blow without as much as grunting and instead paid it back in kind.

After a good hour of sparring, their wrist devices pinged, signaling the end to their fight.

“Huff, Huff, Huff. You’re still as brutal as I remember, have you learned a few new tricks during your trip?” The black-haired student asked whilst throwing a towel to his friend.

“No.” The other said curtly and grabbed the towel out of the air.

The blonde student wiped his sweating face before readjusting his low hanging ponytail.

“But you’ve gotten faster. Are you ready to start over this year? Ikki?”

“Of course I am.” Ikki sighed, somewhat regretting the wasted previous year he went through.

“Just make sure to go easy on us. We aren’t 4th years like you Itsuki, so cut us some slack in class.” At Ikki’s somewhat knowing sarcasm, Itsuki just gave him a frown.

“You know me well enough already. I don’t give anyone slack, in fact.” Itsuki thought for a moment before opening his mouth to speak again. “Maybe I should make a few more adjustments on how I should handle the new kids?”

“I’m kidding.” Ikki said in a rush, knowing about the kinds of “adjustments” he was talking about. “Jeez, you don’t have to be like that. At this rate, I don’t think you’ll be able to make friends with the new students like this.”

“Excuse me? I have friends.” Itsuki said somewhat offended.

“Yeah? Then name the ones in your year.”

Itsuki then went silent and turned his blank black eyes to the sky.

“You see!” Ikki shouted. “You’ve got to make more friends, I know I count as one, but you’ve got to at least expand your sphere of friends eventually. You can’t keep calling the teachers your friends dude, you’ll be a laughingstock when you graduate.”

“Yeah yeah.” Itsuki dryly responded, uninterested and somewhat forlorn. “Then what do you think I should do? I’ve tried talking to people, but they’re all scared of me.”

“Well? How about you work on your looks? Particularly your eyes.”

“What’s wrong with them?”

Itsuki took his sight away from the sky and looked plainly at Ikki who was sitting beside him on the bench. Ikki shivered for a moment since Itsuki’s black eyes still had that glaring look to them.

It was as if Itsuki was peering blankly at him, but by all intent and purpose, it was scary and intimidating which was strange since Ikki knew his friend didn’t mean to be. It just felt as if Itsuki always had an imposing figure and aura about him, which was strange since Ikki himself was two heads taller than Itsuki, so why did this shorter friend of his seem so large to him.

He thought about what to recommend but came up empty on what he could suggest. Makeup or color changing contacts came to mind, but Itsuki’s manner of speech was another issue that was going to be hard to change.

“N-Nothing. Just forget what I said.” Ikki quickly gave up, sighing, and then sipped his water bottle.

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A few seconds of awkward silence hung in the air. The training grounds were usually packed with students around this time in the morning, but since it was the start of a new academic year, here at Andromeda academy, the students were on break or spending the last few moments of break they had left.

Only a few days remained before classes started and new incoming students should be arriving sometime today.

Feeling he was rested enough, Itsuki got up.

“Let’s head back, wanna take the scenic route or have a race?” He sounded a bit eager, but only Ikki could tell through Itsuki’s blunt tone since he had known him for the past few years.

“How about a race, I want a rematch for that last run we had.”

“What are you? A sore loser?”

“Yup, and I’m proud of it! Got a problem?”

Itsuki nodded and agreed to Ikki’s challenging bravado. He liked his attitude. Getting their jackets on to help fend off the post winter cold, Itsuki put on a warm face mask to help cover up.

He didn’t like to feel cold, it was unsettling and more uncomfortable than a stuffy face mask. Syncing their wrist devices, a countdown over the training ground’s speakers began and the two readied themselves.

“3, 2, 1.” They held their breath and then pushed off the ground. “GO!”

While unordinary to see people running through town at speeds as fast as cars, the occupants of the terracolony found Ikki’s and Itsuki’s race as more of an outdoor exhibition.

Some kids cheered for their favored racer as they rushed by. Many were in favor of Ikki since he was the underdog in this situation.

“Come on Ikki! Don’t let the shrimp beat you again!”

“Idiot! Don’t call him a shrimp, he’ll haunt you if you do!”

“Yeah, that’s right, Itsuki’s scary. With those eyes and all.”

“I know right? He’s like a demon sometimes!”

Feeling as if he took mental damage, Itsuki tripped up a bit mid stride but recovered his balance after a few firm steps.

“Hehe, don’t let them get you down.” Ikki said. “Now come on, or I’ll beat you in this race.”

“Yeah right. Let’s see if you can keep up then.” Getting serious, Itsuki grumbled and leapt up onto a building’s rooftop. He then subsequently jumped to a higher one, cutting through the original wide sidewalk path they were on.

“HEY! I thought we were going to take the same route! And why are you using your core energy?”

“HAVEN’T YOU LEARNED YET, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS GIVE IT YOUR ALL! Especially in a race.”

“Damnit!”

Ikki clicked his tongue but leapt up as well, trying to catch up before Itsuki got too much of a lead on him. Their little display of transhuman strength got many passersby to cry out in awe as the two jumped up what looked like a few stories up.

“I guess school’s back in session.” An old man said whilst sipping his coffee in front of a maid cafe.

“Indeed, I wonder what the new kids can do though?”

“I heard there are a few transfers, I think that was one of them.”

“OH? Do any of them seem special?”

“From what I saw in the news, there’s a beauty among them and she’s got a rack to boot.”

“OLD MAN! Your wife is going to kill you if she finds out you said that.”

“Phf, not like she will anyway. She should be on a trip right now, so I’m in the clear, right?” His compatriot thought, yeah that’s true and was about to make a comment but froze.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Are you– Gah!”

Without any prompting, the lecherous old man got his comeuppance from his wife who was suddenly standing behind him. She had a demon-like expression on her face as her hair writhed in anger and frustration at how her vacation’s flight was canceled, coupling with her lecherous husband and his unnecessary eyes.

In the Terracolony, everyday life seemed to go on like usual, as if the Starfall Calamity War was a bad dream. This was a haven, a place where the survivors could finally live, and explorers would be there to protect the peace.

After taking to the rooftops, Ikki and Itsuki got separated since they had their own custom routes, which they thought were the fastest to their destination.

Itsuki, being a little underhanded, used his higher credentials to slip through the back entrance of the residential area for students. Jumping up and then down a few rooftops, he jumped over a tall wall to land in the grassy lounge area of the dormitory.

“DING! Congratulations, you have broken your record with your race with student I8A1923K.”

“Nice, I guess I win again.”

As cheerful as his words sounded, Itsuki stretched himself up as if his victory was a foregone conclusion. He then made his way through the reception area, somewhat happy but his face didn’t seem like that at all. Feeling his pocket vibrate, he took his personal device out and answered the call.

“Hey kid, are you back yet! Or am I going to have to drag you back to the west?” The voice on the phone was as cheery and talkative as he remembered and Itsuki let his shoulders slacken. He enjoyed talking to this guy but felt like he was treated too much like a kid when he did.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“Good, now, I know you didn’t like how I sent you abroad for a while, but it was for your own good. You’re so cooped up with your work here that you forgot about relaxing, but now that you're back, I thought you might need a reminder. Don’t forget what your role is kid, and remember, you need to relax, you’ve got me and him to have your back.”

Itsuki held back a chuckle since he felt glad but kept that to himself since he didn’t want his friend to pick up on that. This guy was always teasing him and among others he knew did as well.

“Yup, I’ll execute the plan, don’t worry. I’ll get the job done.” His tone as serious as ever, Itsuki patted the side of his hip and felt the familiar shape of his self defense knife and recalled the promise he made to his friends.

They’d do their best for them and for their future, to safeguard their home.

“Good, now go get some R and R before school starts up. See you in class.”

Hanging up first, Itsuki put his device back in his pocket but heard the sound of a door opening from Ikki’s room. Was he back first? Without him knowing?

But that thought got thrown out since he instead saw a scantily clad young girl with long red hair like a river of blood, glaring at him with eyes as dangerous and as if she would spew dragon’s breath at him.

This was par for the course for Itsuki since he knew that more upfront people would be on guard due to his scary set of eyes, but before he could explain, he heard someone coming from behind and felt his consciousness leave him as soon as a cold and metallic object impacted against his head. He faintly saw the color of blue and red strands of hair over him as his vision spun, but his still working ears heard Ikki’s voice.

Scanning his wrist device at the gate, Ikki heard it ding.

“Student I8A1723F has broken the record, better luck next time.”

The device's voice module sounded upbeat and supportive, but Ikki still felt defeated yet again.

“Dang it, I knew I should’ve followed him. That guy knows all the shortcuts.” He sighed but just continued to walk to his dorm room.

As he entered the reception area, he was stunned silent at the sight of two half naked girls, one with red hair and the other blue. The blue one had a towel around her body and he could make out the taller girl’s healthy curves.

The short red one was clad in black pieces of erotically thin clothing, and it made his mind and heart race. This one’s beauty made his heart flutter but his mind then tried to focus on what was going on. The red haired girl began to let out a small scream but.

“WAIT!” Ikki cried out while turning his face away and putting up his opened hand in front of him.

He knew that their reaction would be to be frightened but he needed to make this right. He didn’t think this was his fault but knew that a girl’s image was no small matter. So to amend this, an idea sparked from his adrenaline filled mind.

“I know that what I’ve done has likely dishonored you, so let me make it even.”

Ikki suddenly took off his coat while keeping his eyes closed. He then pulled up his shirt, revealing his six pack and healthy muscular form.

“I’ll get naked too, to make this even, Alright!” Shouting with honorable assurance, Ikki was about to strip off his last layer of clothes but found himself bashed in the head by the red-haired girl’s fist.

“EKKK! It's a pervert! GET AWAY!”

“Gah! AHHHHHHHH!”

It seemed that Stella went a bit too far, since she aimed a bit low and hit a somewhat more delicate head.