I woke to find Melanie gone. At least, not in bed. I allowed myself a moment or two to close my eyes and enjoy the silence before I got up, walking over to the dresser to grab my directional pad and taking a glance at the time to see that it wasn't even seven AM yet. So early.
I had completely forgotten about Victra, I just realized, and pulled on some pants and undershorts to go check if she was still in the dorm room. Peeking into the secondary room, I spotted her. Sound asleep. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I made my way to the bathroom and prepped for the day, cleaning myself up as everyone else slept. When I'd gotten out of the bathroom, it was nearly 6:30. In my past life, I would have been out the door by now. Now, things were much more convenient. There wasn't much to do so early in the morning here, though.
I was about to give in and head back to sleep when I glanced to my side on the dresser next to the bathroom entrance to find a strange old-looking button. It was familiar, for some reason, but I couldn't quite place the thought. A label below the button on the material read Headmaster's Office.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I clicked it. The device beeped and Leslie picked up, "Headmasters Office, who's calling?" I blinked, not wanting to sound like an idiot as I spoke in response, "This is James. Is Mister Subaru in yet?" I heard a silence following that dragged on for almost a minute before Leslie responded. She sounded giddy, "Yes, James. Come on up, I'll meet you at the elevator."
I wasn't sure how to hang up the device, but Leslie seemed to have that covered. I heard a click and the line went silent, so with that settled I headed for the door, taking careful to be as silent as possible.
After making it to the elevator and up the level, I exited onto the main office floor where Leslie greeted me with a grin. She seemed overly pleased about something as she spoke. "Our CEO believes that the early bird isn't early enough, so sometimes he's up all night. Come with me."
We entered through the glass doors that opened on our approach and Leslie brought me up to the Headmasters desk inlaid in a deep brown. I brought my attention up to the man who looked like he'd just risen from the grave as he failed to even notice us in front of him. His attention was purely focused on his work.
Leslie cleared her throat, and ended up scaring the living shit out of the man. He jumped like his heart was going to pop out of his chest, then clutched it and turned to his secretary, "Don't DO that! I almost died!" Mister Subaru said as he moved his chair a bit to face us. He sighed, then transfixed his eyes on me and spoke some more. "So. Up bright and early, are you?"
I nodded in affirmation as I spoke, intending to explain. "Yes, Sir. After spending weeks in bed, I couldn't fit more than a few hours in. You wanted to talk to me?" I looked at the man curiously, assuming this was about my powers. It usually was.
The Headmaster nodded slowly and interlaced his fingers. Whether this was to look more professional or through habit I knew not, but it was a first. Leslie smiled off to my side as she observed us, while Mister Subaru spoke. "You're definitely an odd one too, James. I'm thinking Thomas was the right man to pick you after all. We've been doing some scans on your brain waves and the nature of their flux, and we've determined what you were dreaming about. After some examination and a little experiment, we pieced together an approximation of the dream. However, the nature of this video demands we not share it with you. It is ... complicated. However I now think you are far more special than I originally believed."
I blinked, not having prepared myself for a lecture as I came back to full attention and spoke, hoping it wasn't too obvious. Whatever the Headmaster saw, he was either too serious or too exhausted to notice. "Speaking of odd ducklings, sir, I had a visitor last night. He had words for you."
I hadn't missed what he said, despite his long-windedness, but this took precedence over the topic. I continued after the Headmaster had given me the most curious of expressions. "Oh? Then go ahead, James. What did he say?"
I recounted my nights experience to the CEO and when I was done, he sighed again. It sounded weighed down and heavy as he spoke. "A threat, huh? Well, we'll get around to facing it eventually, though it makes me wonder who he was. Tell me boy. What do you know about this man?" The Headmaster seemed genuinely curious, as his fingers locked tighter.
I spoke, feeling uneasy about the man myself. "He was dressed like a desert bandit, and said he was ... excited to meet me? He said he'd been waiting a long time for it." The Headmaster blanched white, and his eyes dropped to the desk as his hands unclasped. The man looked absolutely traumatized.
Despite this concerning display, He laughed a minute later in what I could only assume was an attempt to not worry me and spoke up. "I-I see! Well then, we'd better start training you! Leslie, take our young James down to the training floor, will you? There's precious little time to be wasted."
Leslie nodded, obviously a little spooked by her bosses response to the news because her face had gone more or less neutral over the course of our exchange. "Of course, Sir. We'll go now. James, will you come with me?" She turned to me with a smoldering determination and I didn't know what to say, so I nodded with a curt response, "Y-yeah. Sure, Leslie."
When we were out of sight, the Headmaster buried his face in his palms, muttering to himself. "He's back? I thought he'd died ... oh gods." We were behind the wall and Leslie was peeping with shameful worry when she turned back to me. "I've never seen him so distressed. Come, we'd better do as he asks, James."
It was a bit of a trip. One I wasn't too used to, having been cooped up in my living space for so long. As we exited onto the training floor, I suddenly remembered Chasey and looked up at the hanging light she had gotten stuck on. A smile came to my face, the thought being amusing. I turned to face Leslie, but she was already heading towards the armory. She'd completely vanished, walking at a quick pace down the white floor.
I broke into a jog, feeling forgotten as I caught up with her before bringing myself down to a fast pace alongside her, "Leslie, I get that you're upset, but don't forget you have a passenger." I exclaimed as we approached the doors to one of the armory rooms. There were multiple along the left wall, each numbered one through twenty for space.
I hadn't gotten to see, but apparently the training hall rocks with activity during the day time. So many students. As I looked back at the quiet but massive grand room, it was almost abandoned. I heard a far-off sword glancing against something in the distance as Leslie searches for the equipment I would need. "It's so quiet."
I heard Leslie laugh at me as she stood up, facing me. Her hair tousling as she held up a pair of golf balls. I looked at her sideways as she spoke, her mood having improved somewhere along the way apparently. "Ready?"
She wasn't serious. We were going to train with balls? The thought brought me back to my night with her and I flushed hard as I pointed to distract her from my blush, "How does this translate into training?" I grabbed one of the green balls as she held it out for me, wondering where she might go with this.
Leslie spoke, a bit out of breath but clearly energized and excited. A huge grin plastered on her face for some reason. "We're starting out simple. I want to see what you're capable of right now." I nodded, following her for the most part. "Okay, lets get started then. Are we going up onto one of the platforms?"
She nodded and threw me a ball before taking off at a speed-pace again after having caught her breath in the armory. I was behind her this time as she led us over to a porter pad I hadn't been to yet. She stood on top of it carefully, turning to wiggle her fingers at me in a playful wave before dematerializing. I stepped on after she'd vanished completely and followed her up to the ring.
When I reappeared, I spotted several machines standing in a row, with the entire platform surrounded by a ball net. The net gave everything else away and I began to have an idea what kind of training we would be doing as I spoke up to Leslie who was fiddling with one of the machines. "Are you going to be shooting balls at me?"
She glanced back quickly as she acknowledged my arrival onto the platform before going back to her work, finally getting up to breath as she pressed a button, spurring the contraption to life. She spoke, not deigning to turn to me as she put a stop to the lively device, pressing the button again to turn it off. "Yes. I'm going to shoot them and I want to see how quickly you will be able to respond. The method of defense is up to you, James. Try not to disappoint ... "
Okay, that didn't sound too hard. I took a deep breath and focused on the ball cannon, speaking out to Leslie. "Ready." A ball came rocketing out of the tube at terminal velocity, giving me no time to dodge as I got a face full, getting thrown in a loop and face-planting onto the ground. I hadn't even hit the floor yet before everything went black.