The teams with winners in the free for all were treated to the suite dorms. The quartet made their way up the stairs and to their supreme suite they had earned. Ryuji opened the door and saw the humongous living room filled with expensive couches and rugs.
"It's so huge!"
They even had magical powered refrigerators filled with food and bottled drinks. He was in bliss. For a decade and a half Ryuji had lived in what he would describe as medieval standards. On top of that as an adventurer he had nor real home and found himself sleeping at an inn every night unless he was camping out on the road. To finally have the blessing that is refrigeration and a home that he'll live in for a year felt amazing to him.
The others however were handling it in a different way. Queen sat on the couch crossed her arms and closed her eyes as if to say she had enough of talking to everyone already. Jessy on the other hand was considering the possibilities.
"Hey Ryuji! Do you think I can make a gun mount and put it on that wall over there? They won't mind right? Right? Of course they won't, then I'll get right to it."
After the totally one-sided conversation Jessy began work on her new project.
"I'm gonna check out our beds! Yo peon! Accompany me to the royal mattress chamber."
"Why did you change from street ruffian to aristocrat in the matter of a second?"
Ryuji reluctantly followed into the bedroom and found that all four beds were in the exact same room. They were each separated and looked to be twin sized. Dot immediately started bouncing on her claimed bed.
"Why do I have to sleep in the exact same room as three girls? This is going to be so awkward I just know it."
"Aw, sad you won't be able to beat off at night anymore?"
"Listen here, what a man does with his own private time at night is his own business! ...Hey now that we're alone I can finally ask this. What the hell is with that outfit?"
"I thought you were gonna go for the something way more important there. What's wrong with my outfit?"
"Wrong? You have a visor on indoors, you're wearing a top hat while also wearing a dress, and finally you have bugs bunny gloves on. What's not wrong with that outfit?"
After being laid out by Dots mean right hook Ryuji and the others went to sleep in their super comfortable beds.
In the middle of the night he heard a noise and when he got up the window in the bedroom was open and Dot was no longer in her bed. He leaned out the window and saw her sitting on the roof reading her manga and then he saw it. She didn't have her visor all the way on, the right side was lifted up and where her eye should be there was.
"Nothing?"
Where an eye should be there was instead a black pit. It was if her eye had been scooped out. Ryuji felt like he just saw something he shouldn't have.
'There's a reason she wants to hide it right? Maybe she's just shy about it, I mean I would be too. I'm just gonna pretend like I didn't see anything!'
Ryuji turned around and went back towards his bed. Thoughts of guilt swirled around him and his fragile spirit broke.
'I can't do it! I feel too guilty about seeing it. Maybe I can just tell her I saw it and she'll forgive me and then we can go along our merry way about it.'
He made his way to the roof through the window the same way as Dot had. She was still reading her manga and from what he could tell it was the exact same one from earlier. He awkwardly sat down next to her and as she slowly turned to face him, she freaked out.
"H-hi there!"
She turned to face the other way and when she turned back the visor was covering her missing eye once more. Ryuji admired her for the will to continue on with a farce that was already uncovered.
"I already saw it. You don't have to hide it from me anymore."
"I have no clue what you are talking about."
"Really? Your missing eye? The one I just saw."
"I am not missing an eye."
"Dot, I don't care if you're missing an eye or not. It is not something that you should be ashamed of. Besides, we're going to be with each other for an entire year. Do you really think you can hide it for that long?
Ryuji leaned back as to lull her into a false sense of security and then snatched the visor off. Underneath her visor was a pair of sunglasses. He took those off to reveal a blindfold. He took that off to reveal those tacky glasses that you get for new years. He took those off to reveal gag glasses with a fake nose.
"Ugh Fine! Whatever! Its up to you whether or not you keep it a secret."
Ryuji got up and started to walk away. Dot had been silent and her usual grin that she had worn all day was gone. Ryuji turned back to say one more thing before going to bed.
"I promise I won't tell anyone about what I saw. But just so you know, those girls wouldn't treat you any differently and if anyone else says anything about it Queen will beat em to a pulp."
"Why?"
"Because as of today you're part of the team Dot."
____
"I'm not missing an eye."
A quiet plea came from Dot. Ryuji turned around a little annoyed that she was going to just ignore everything he just said and then he understood what she meant. She wasn't missing an eye. In her hand was her visor and nothing rested over her eyes anymore. Where there should be eyes there were not. On both sides were just empty voids. She was missing both eyes.
"I-I see, well that was definitely a shock, but I think I'm already getting over it!"
Dot turned around and sat back down. Her mood had soured, and Ryuji felt that this was mostly his fault. He sat back down next to her and picked up her manga.
"Didn't you want me to read this with you?"
"You're not even going to ask how I can read with pits for eyes?"
"I'm more curious about how you make anvils fall from the sky to be honest with you."
She looked at Ryuji with intense seriousness for the first time ever.
"The same way I'm able to see. The things I can do are only possible because of my unique ability. I am the Authority of Chaos."
She said it with grave seriousness but to Ryuji the words that spilled out of her mouth sounded like utter drivel. He had heard about blessings, curses, abilities, magic, and about the espers that came from North Kevic. He had even heard about people born with the ability to use magic and skills that had been lost for generations. Despite all that he had never heard of an authority before.
"From that look of utter confusion, I can guess that you've never heard of it before. Well it's not like they get talked about a lot given how rare they are. Just know that authorities are super rare, and there are no duplicates."
"How rare are we talking here?"
"I don't know the exact number but there can't be more than 40 of them."
"That little huh. What about yours, what does it do?"
"It allows me to make the improbable probable."
"That sounds like cheating."
She grinned, took the manga then got up.
"You should get to bed soon. Tomorrow we start the beginning of our yearlong training."
"Don't remind me!"
The next day the group went to their extra special training. Dot decided to not wear eye protection, and everyone saw what she was hiding underneath. To his surprise just about nobody cared or gave her an extra look as they walked to their class. Apparently, a girl with no eyes in this world was just not worth talking about.
They made it to a building on the outskirts of the property. It reminded Ryuji of a detention classroom. Inside were chairs but no desks and one lone board at the center. Five old people sat in front of the board waiting for them to take their seats.
The old man in the middle was the overseer of yesterdays test and after everyone sat down,
he began his lecture.
"Today you will begin your new training to become excellent adventurers. From this day forward you will meet with your personal teacher who will train you every day. The exception is on the fourth day of the week which is reserved for lecture. This training will get you ready for the second test which is in three months. The third and final test will be eleven months from now."
The words test made Ryuji and the rest groan as they could only imagine how grueling and painful those tests were going to be.
"Now as you know skills can be broken up into seven cornerstones. Since you all fill five of those seven cornerstones we have chosen faculty best suited to training you in your respective skill camp. This lady to my left is Amelia. She will be training Jessy in magic."
The lady to his left was the stereotypical old lady you might see in movies and tv as a sage like character.
"My teacher is so cool! Let's get this show on the road Amelia!"
The overly optimistic Jessy walked out with the crone to presumably start her training. Although Ryuji doubted that she could learn much here considering she was already rank A and level 67.
"The man to my right is Professor Moriarty. He is the only faculty we have that specializes in uniquities such as Dot therefore he will be her teacher."
The Moriarty character kinda reminded Ryuji of what a younger Albert Einstein might look like as he strolled up and escorted Dot of the room.
"Is it true you can shoot lasers out of your eyes?"
"Oh I can do you one better than that prof!"
Ryuji had a feeling that anyone who specializes in weirdoes like Dot would get along famously with her.
"The next teacher is for Marie. He is a man who specializes in sacrifice, Oliver."
A tall man with no distinguishable features except for a hug scar over his mouth walked over to Queen.
"I'm a martial artist, why am I getting a teacher for sacrificial skills?"
"That's because little lady your moves are as good as they're going to get but the sacrificial technique you showed off in the free for all was sloppy. I'm going to make you perfect by the end of this year."
For once Queen had been silenced and Ryuji watched in horror as she got put in her place and left with the man.
"Now that just leaves you Ryuji. This man right here is the best swordsman we have at the academy. His name is Wakefield. Now then I will take my leave and I hope you two have a very prosperous training session."
Ryuji now sat alone with the stone-faced old man. Ryuji could only tell he old because of his short white hair. Other than that, the man looked young like he should be in his 40's. Not a lot of wrinkles or spots and we still pretty jacked.
"Now that we're alone we can start."
His voice was raspy and firm.
"Start with what? …Sir."
"Well I heard from your buddies that when the going gets tough you change into a whole other person. Is this true?"
Ryuji hadn't had this problem before that day in the ruins but now it was becoming pretty common place to just lose his mind in the middle of a fight. He tried not to think too hard about it but it did kinda scare him.
"…Yes."
"Listen boy, I am not your psychiatrist, nor do I want to be. I think it's pretty normal to lose it when you're about to die but that right there is the problem with this whole thing."
"Huh?"
"When you lose it you let off moves with no hesitation even though your body gets torn apart and you don't flinch in the face of death. These are all amazing things, but the problem is you can only do it when you're about to die or when you lose your mind."
Wakefield pulled a familiar looking stone out of his pocket.
"You know what this is?"
"The stone that's used for the stadium."
"That's right. This stone will take your mind to a battlefield just like the one in the stadium. One big difference though. The one in the stadium is a training one."
"Training?"
"Basically, that stone had magical formulas written into it to half the pain you would feel in that fake world. This stone is set to double the pain you feel."
"That sounds wonderful."
A less than enthused Ryuji could see where this talk was headed, and he didn't like it. Wakefield on the other smiled a sadistic grin.
"I'm going to beat you senseless until you learn how to control your little personality shifts. We'll do this everyday until you finally get it."
And so, a terrible time for Ryuji began as his training officially started.