No sooner did Reyna reach her new dorm it already had several other girls surrounding the door, four in total. All of them wearing a dark purple uniform and a scowl as they looked Reyna’s way. They had the eyes of predators that saw fresh meat. She frowned. Her first few moments here and already she was being sized up. A girl with a staff in her hands approached her.

“Hey new kid,” She said. “What nailed you in here?”

Reyna frowned, avoiding the girl’s eyes. She tried to move around the group to reach her dorm room but was stopped. The girl with the staff grabbed her wrist, spinning Reyna around to face her. Great… She kept a straight face, her expression as neutral as she could manage.

“Well kid?” The girl with the staff said, leaning into her face. “You got some stones to just ignore me like that. Kinda’ rude, isn’t it?”

Reyna was quiet for a moment., still refusing to make eye contact and staring at her grabbed wrist. It was so tempting to just ball it into a fist and try and fight back. To unpack the training sword in her duffle bag and try scaring these delinquents off. She wanted to, but there were four of them and just one of her. Fighting back would be a death sentence, or at least a long and painful trip to the infirmary.

“Pardon me,” She pulled her wrist out of the girl’s grip, squeezing past her and opening the door to her dorm.

The door was slammed shut just as she cracked it open, the girl grabbed Reyna’s shoulder now.

“Where are you going?” The girl yanked Reyna away from the door. “I want an answer, new kid.”

Reyna gritted her teeth, finally meeting the girl’s eyes before speaking with a curt tone. “I don’t want to talk about it,” She shrugged the girl’s hand from her shoulder. “I don’t want to talk to you guys either. You’re acting like thugs shaking someone down.”

There was a moment of silence. All the girls gave Reyna incredulous looks, as if they couldn’t believe what Reyna had said to them.

The staff girl’s face twisted in rage. She grabbed Reyna by the collar of her shirt and pulled her forward. “Say that again, brat.” She pushed her staff into Reyna’s chin, forcing eye contact. “Say that to my face and see what happens?”

Reyna made no movement, forced to look the girl in the eyes. A moment passed, and the girl shoved Reyna against the wall, letting her go. “Tch, now you’ve pissed me off,” She walked away, her group following behind giving Reyna glares. “You better watch your back new kid,”

Once the group were out of view Reyna dropped her knees. She could still feel the girl’s staff on her face, still hear the hostility in her voice. She had dealt with bullies before, but that bloodlust… that was new. Usually calling people out on their rude behavior would stop them in their tracks, and they’d behave. Even people in Crimson dorms wanted to stay out of trouble and keep up appearances to an extent, but that didn’t seem to be the case here.

“So, getting use to things?”

Reyna looked up, seeing a young woman in a black tracksuit. She gave Reyna a wave and a hand to help her up, which Reyna took. This had to be an instructor.

“T-Thanks…” She looked down for a moment, then back at the woman. “Um… who are you?”

The woman smiled. “I’m Elenore. I’m the dorm advisor here. I also run classes, handle disciplinary action, assign tasks and homework, basically all the grownup work.”

“O-Oh…” Reyna frowned, looking down again. Elenore looked over Reyna for a moment, giving a small chuckle.

“‘If she’s the grownup here, then why wasn’t she stopping that staff chick from nearly pounding my face in?’ That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

Reyna looked up, eyes wide and face red. Elenore laughed.

“Sorry kiddo, I was gonna’ step in if Niu actually hit you, but she didn’t. Besides, everyone here’s a rowdy, rambunctious delinquent. I’d never get work done if I ran around stopping every scrap here.” She patted Reyna on the head. “Plus, I wanted to see what kind of kid you were. You’re Reyna-Mei Song, right?”

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Reyna nodded.

“Alright then Reyna, I think that little interaction gave me a good idea of what you’re like.” She patted Reyna’s shoulder. “Try and stand up for yourself more, okay? These guys’ll eat you alive if you don’t start showing a little bit of teeth.”

“Right…” Reyna pouted. Not that she wanted to be bailed out of any trouble or would start running to an instructor for every fight that happened, but the way this instructor said it… it felt like she was accusing Reyna of being a coward. “I’ll be fine,” Reyna mutter, trying to hide the anger behind her tone. “I can protect myself just fine,”

Elenore chuckled, ruffling Reyna’ hair. “Sure kid, sure. Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you too badly.” She started to walk away. “I’ll come by in a little bit when you and your roommate unpack. Give you a tour of everything.”

And with that Reyna was alone with her thoughts, finally walking into her dorm.

That was… different. Violent students, a nonchalant instructor, and this feeling of disorder in general. “Uuuugh…” She clutched her head, smoothing out her hair. What kind of place was this dorm? Panda Academy was many things, but a lawless playground wasn’t one of them, at least not in the other dorms. I guess Shura was right. This place is full of thugs and delinquents.

She looked around her new room. It’s… really small. It was broken into two sections. The left side had a bunkbed, two drawers next to the bunkbed, and a shelf against at the back of the wall. The right side being just an empty space with some mats along the floor. The layout was clear, the left side was for sleeping and studying, the right was for sparring. True to Instructor Pairon’s words, this dorm really did serve as something of an arena.

After giving the room a quick look Reyna placed her duffle bag on the bottom bunk and started to unpack. She didn’t have as many items as she would have liked given the new room’s size, so all had were her new dark purple dorm uniform, her competition uniforms, three sets of casual clothes, her training sword, a spare pair of sneakers, and a wall scroll she made in the Calligraphy Club. She put her clothes in one of the dressers, her uniforms in the closet, her sword next to the bed, and hung the scroll in the sparring area. She kept everything else in her bag before taking the top bunk. The bed was pretty comfy at least, much like in her old dorm. “The room isn’t bad at least.” Nothing like she was expecting. When Shura had told her this dorm was basically a juvenile detention hall she expected the worst. A dirty room, blood on the floor and walls, delinquent students smoking and hounding her for money. But no, even that bad run in wasn’t the worst she had in mind, and the dorm itself at least was a clean and normal room. I wonder where Kyo is.

“Wow, pretty nice for a place they send problem kids.”

Speak of the literal devil, there she was now. Reyna peeked at the door and watched Kyo come in, the two instantly locked eyes with each other and glared. Kyo was covered in bandages from their fight yesterday, and a few bruises too, though her grey skin made it hard to notice them. It was a little hard to not laugh, especially given the large bandage on her nose where Reyna headbutted her. Then again, Reyna had one to match.

She watched Kyo unpack, noting the items she had. Along with the school uniforms Kyo had a few odd items in the mix. A small poster, a pair of nunchakus, a can of hair dye, an MP3 player, and so on. What Reyna noted most was the pair of nunchakus.

“Weapons are only allowed in the training area.” Reyna said.

“Uh-huh, then explain that sword over there, Blondie,” Kyo shot back, pointing at Reyna’s training sword.

“It’s plastic and it’s a replica,”

“And these are rubber, so shut it.”

Reyna frowned, saying nothing afterwards and going back to unpacking.

Once the two finished unpacking there was another matter to be settled.

“I’m getting top bunk,” Kyo’s tone made it clear that wasn’t a request.

“No,” Reyna shot back.

“Wow, that sounded like I cared about your input.” Kyo started climbing. Then Reyna grabbed her ankle. Kyo shot a glare at Reyna, and she glared back.

“I have had a long morning,” Reyna said. “I was threatened by a bunch of thugs, nearly got into a fight with them for no reason and learned our dorm advisor doesn’t care about it. I have to live with a bunch of delinquents and you for who knows how long, so I want to at least have the top bunk to just think for a minute. Kyo-Annie, so help me I will break your leg if you don’t let me have it.”

Kyo stopped, looking down at Reyna. Her expression blank, and a moment passed before she spoke up. “Wow Blondie… I’m kinda’ shocked now,”

Reyna looked up, taken aback. Kyo actually looked surprised for a second. “Sorry,” Reyna let go of her leg. “I didn’t mean to snap like that. I just had to deal with my old dorm advisor yelling at me, then Shura said all this stuff to scare me and I-”

“Oh, I didn’t mean your hissy fit. I'm just kinda’ shocked you thought I’d actually care about your whining.”

Reyna’s eyes locked onto Kyo, seeing her smug grin and snicker. That was it.

That. Was. It.

She yanked Kyo down and pulled her into the matted area, both girls glaring daggers at each other.

“Do you just annoy me for fun?!”

“Do you always get annoy when you don’t get your way?!”

Both girls rose their fists, ready to strike at the other.

“Wow, I can see why you both at here now.”

Reyna and Kyo looked to the entrance, seeing Elenore giving a cheery, almost excited smile as she clapped her hands together.

“Looks like we’ve got some more live ones to tame!”