After having breakfast.
Akio along with the other 4 headed to the assembly hall.
Arriving at the hall, the place was already filled up, the group found some empty seats after looking for some time.
Right as they took their seats, a female student entered the stage.
The girl had green hair and green eyes, she had good looks and was wearing a gentle expression on her face, she seemed like the onee-san type.
"Good morning, everyone, welcome to the Japanese Hunter Academy, I'm the student council president, Hitsuki Amane" She introduced with a calm and gentle voice.
Upon her arrival, all of the students remained quiet and paid attention to the president.
Hitsuki Amane, she was a prodigy that excelled in everything she does, she was academically perfect and have also won multiple competitions regarding gears, she was an excellent pilot.
Amane started her speech, she talked about the academy rules and various things like the facilities, and so on.
After about an hour of explaining, the president finished her speech and instructed the students.
".....That's all I have to say, I hope that all of you will successfully get through all 3 years here in the academy" She said, following which, she got down from the stage.
The students were led to their respective classes after the assembly.
Upon their arrival to the class.
"Yo! Glad we're classmates" Jin said as he patted Akio's back.
"Akio! we're in the same class- I mean, take care of me" Ria excitedly said but fixed her tone.
"Yeah...." Akio replied.
The 3 were in the same class which is 1-C whereas Ayane and Shiela were both class 1-A.
{Brother...I still can't believe we aren't in the same class!!!}
Ayane's voice suddenly resounded in Akio's head.
{We already talked about this, don't use telepathy unless it's an emergency} Akio scolded her through telepathy.
{Sorry...} Ayane apologized, sounding dejected.
Akio looked for his assigned seat and went towards the seat near the window and was one seat away from the back.
He noticed that there was someone already sitting to the seat behind his, it was a girl with a short cyan hair and eyes, she wore a headphone on her ears and stared outside with a hand supporting her chin.
Akio walked towards his seat, upon reaching it, the girl noticed him and stared at him, Akio nodded as a greeting as he noticed that the girl was wearing headphones, the girl nodded back and continued staring outside like before.
Akio pulled the chair and took a seat, he then search for the other 2 and found them right away, Ria was in the front seat on his row while Jin was quite a distance away in the middle seat to the right.
He could see that Ria was already having trouble just the first day, as she was pretending to be a man and looked like a pretty boy, girls started flocking towards her.
The girls asked her a lot of things.
"Hey, what's your name?" One of the girls asked.
"Want to have lunch together?" Another girl asked.
"Can I have your number?" Asked another girl.
Various questions came flying and Ria could only let out words like "U-Uhm...T-That", it was getting out of hand, however, a few seconds later.
*Bam*
The door was suddenly slammed as a female teacher entered.
"Take your seats!" She shouted.
This surprised the other students and the noise died down, all of them went back to their respective seat.
Ria breathed a sigh of relief as the crowd around her has dispersed.
Akio immediately recognized the teacher who had just entered, it was the dorm mother of dorm number 5, however, he didn't think much about it.
Unlike before, the teacher was wearing proper attire of a teacher with her hair still tied up.
She walked towards the middle in front of the whole class and got up the podium.
"Listen up! For all your 3 years in this academy I'll be your class adviser, I'm Uruki Yuria" The teacher announced.
She then proceeded to explain the things that the students will be learning.
On their first year, the students will learn theories concerning gears, their mechanisms, and will have practical training.
On their second year, they will start field training and a competition involving the 7 academies will be held.
Finally, on their third year, the students will be assigned to their own squads and will be given missions like taking out aerial threaths, defending against portals, scavenge missions and raid missions on the ground.
However, along with training as hunters, they would still have normal classes.
Finishing all the explanations, Yuria instructed the students.
"Under your desks, there's a box that contains a training model gear token, we're going to have practical training, you may use customized personal gears if you have one" Yuria said.
Following her instruction, the students checked their desks, Akio also did the same, he found a metal box and opened it, within it, he found a token with blue edges, silver surface, and a yellow gearwheel symbol.
"Now that you have your gears, let's go to the training ground" Yuria said, following which, she exited the classroom.
The whole class got up from their seat and followed Yuria.
After a minute of walking, the class had reached the training ground, it was a large outdoor field which gives the students a large area to pilot their gears.
"The boys' changing rooms are over there, the girls' are that way, go change to your pilot suits" Yuria instructed as she pointed towards 2 opposite directions.
Akio heard this and realized something, he then looked towards Ria and noticed her expression.
As Ria was pretending to be a man, naturally, she had to change in the boys' changing room so she was having a bit of trouble.
Akio walked towards Yuria and inquired.
"Teach, a friend needs to use the toilet" Akio said as he pointed towards Ria.
"Hm?....It's that way" Yuria replied and pointed towards the comfort room.
Before leaving the classroom, the students had already brought their suits, naturally, Ria had it with her, she headed towards the direction that Yuria pointed.
After some time, all of them had finished changing, the suits were skin tight suits, on the other hand, Ria had found a way to hide her chest.
Seeing that the students were ready, Yuria spoke to the class.
"For today's training, you'll be in pairs and spar with your partners, Understood?" Yuria asked.
"Yes!" The class answered.
Yuria started pairing each of the students.
After getting their pairs, the students were assigned to areas where they are supposed to spar.
Akio was paired against the female student that was seated behind him in class.
"I'm Asahiro Akio, nice to meet you" Akio lightly introduced.
"Mhm, Jill Sweiz" Jill shortly introduced, following which, she activated her gear.
Seeing her gear, she had a custom one, it had a mix of white and green, its weapon was an assault rifle and 7 laser blasters that floated behind the gear and would act as support artillery, the rifle was on her hand.
This time, Akio activated the token that was given beforehand, although Akio had [Clown], he had decided not to use it unless absolutely necessary as he didn't want to show it to others.
The training model gear was a mix of white and blue, its weapon was simply an assault rifle for long range combat and a combat knife for close range, the knife was attached horizontally behind the gear just around the waist, and just like Jill, the rifle was on Akio's hand.
The training gear was a 4th generation model, it had a mana capacity of 1000 with its acceleration, attack, and barrier level being only rank C whereas Jill's custom gear was a 6th generation model with 2000 mana capacity and its acceleration, attack, and barrier level being rank A, there was a huge gap between the gears so it was obvious who would won, however, Akio didn't care about it.
Akio took a stance.
Jill saw that her opponent got ready, she readied her rifle and aimed, she then kicked the ground and started making distance, as she flew backwards she started shooting towards Akio, she also controlled the blasters to shoot at Akio.
The goal was simple, it was to deplete the opponent gear's mana, barriers and acceleration used mana, Jill's strategy is to barrage Akio with attacks and make him chase her, with her gear being stronger than her opponent's, Jill thought that beating Akio would be easy.
Akio figured out Jill's plan, he was planning to play along as he didn't want any attention, however, he also didn't want to seem too pathetic, thus, he dodged some bullets.
Akio accelerated and made it seem like he was trying to win, Jill saw that he accelerated and accelerated as well, her acceleration was naturally faster.
The battle went on for some time.
Jill Sweizen, she was a trainee from Germany, she is also skilled in piloting a gear so she was surprised that her opponent had dragged the battle for so long and dodged quite a few of her shots.
After a few more seconds, Akio's gear was about to run out of mana, he stopped his movement and raised his hands showing that he gives up, Jill saw this and stopped her attacks.
On another area.
Ria was paired with a male student.
She had activated her gear, the color of her gear was a mix of silver and black, the weapon is a sword on her right hand and a shield on her left, it was a 6th generation custom gear the same as Jill's.
On the other hand, her opponent was using the training model.
When she saw that her opponent was ready, she immediately accelerated.
Her opponent started shooting her so she held the shield up in front of her to block the bullets.
Upon reaching her opponent, she used the shield and pushed away his rifle, successfully disarming him, he tried to grab the knife behind him but before he could do so, Ria swung her sword towards him, he slashed a few more which depleted the opponent's mana quickly.
After a few slashes, Ria's opponent had ran out of mana so she stopped her attacks.
Moving to the next area.
Jin was paired up with a female student.
"You're cute, how about you date me if I win?" Jin said teasingly.
"Ahaha, sure, if you can win that is" The girl joked.
Both of them proceeded to activate their gears.
They both had custom gears.
Jin had a gear colored with orange and white, it had 2 guns attached to the side, the design were that of handguns, while the girl had a gear colored with pink, she held a katana on her hand, both of their gears were 5th generation with its acceleration, attack, and barrier level being rank B.
Seeing the both of them were ready, they started to battle.
The girl held her katana in front of her and accelerated, seeing this, Jin grabbed both guns and started shooting.
The girl blocked the bullets using her katana and kept getting close, on the other hand, Jin started moving around as to keep the distance between them.
They continued their exchanges with Jin shooting while keeping distance and the girl blocking his attacks and tries to get close.
After some time, the girl finally got close and raised her katana to attack.
Just as she swung her sword, Jin used one of the gun and used it to hit the flat of the katana, he then pointed the other gun towards the girl.
"I win" He said.
"I guess so..." The girl said.
She let go of her sword then leaned her body forward, this surprised Jin.
"What are y-" Before Jin could continue his sentence, his lips were forcefully sealed.
A while later, Yuria saw that all the students had finished their spar and spoke.
"Alright! training's over! go change back to your uniform and let's get back to class" Yuria announced.
The students headed to the changing rooms whereas Ria headed to the comfort room.
After changing, they went back to Yuria and she led them back to the classroom.
During their way back, Jill kept glancing towards Akio, although he felt her glances, Akio didn't mind it.
After getting back to class, Yuria started discussing about theories and gear mechanisms.
As she finished the discussion, Yuria left.
It was already lunch time so the students prepared to leave and head to the cafeteria.