Exiting the dimly lit training hall, Tre quickly readjusted his eyes to the overbearing sun overhead, following the path that he took to get to the training hall, expect in reverse.
Entering the main campus area, where large stone buildings surrounded like sentinels guarding an ancient keep; Tre went to find and sit down on some wooden seats.
After procuring a seat, something caught his eye.
Turning his head to his right, there was a board with a heap of papers stuck to them through small pins keeping them upright. Tre began to comb through his memories of learning to read from Lloyd to decipher the pages of text.
On one of them, it read 'Fighting Club! Join now! Learn to become a formidable knight through unlimited spars, and tips on fighting form!'
Continuing to read on, there were other pieces of paper advertising their clubs such as the gardening club, the cookery club, fitness club, ki enhancement club, and many more, sometimes slightly differing from one another.
'That's cool, there's clubs here to be able to improve yourself. I should take up one of these clubs.. hm. Since I'm proficient in swordplay, I should choose something involving my motor skills.."
While thinking about this, Tre noticed a pamphlet on the ground, advertising in the same style as the other clubs, except almost as if it was torn of it's pin purposely, with footprints of dirt embedded onto the paper. Tre grasped the paper, avoiding the earth prints on the paper, clasing it carefully by it's sides.
"Interesting. There's a science club?"
Tre hadn't anticipated there being a science club within this school, let alone the country. This place was so reliant on ki that basic functions where only able to function through the flow of ki running through it. Anything that couldn't be enhanced through ki was almost archaic, atleast compared to the rest of the world. Luckily for them, almost anything can be enhanced with the stuff.
Science has always been looked down upon, as if seen as a competitor for ki. To prevent this mysterious force from overtaking ki in it's uses, and in turn overtaking people who were in high positions due to ki, it was always suppressed one way or another.
'I wouldn't be surprised if the owner of this club was already dead from assassinations. Even in this school, if someone higher up wanted you dead, you're as good as dead from the moment it's decided.'
A sour taste formed in Tre's mouth just thinking of it.
'I may as well go check it out. If they're still there, and are passionate enough.. just maybe..'
Tre read over the location of the club on the paper, scanning until his eyes paused in the bottom right corner of the paper.
J7.
'So if the number is the building, that would mean that J is..'
Tre scanned the buildings around him, moving his finger along with his internal counting.
'There. That should be J.'
Taking the paper and sticking it back on the wooden board, Tre followed towards the building he believed was building J. The building consisted of the same, plain stone bricks that sat side by side from eachother. It wasn't as polished as the training hall, but it must have taken a considerable amount of time to put together.
Approaching it, he swung the wooden doors outward that guarded the inside of this infrastructure, stepping into a slightly dim hallway. On the wall opposite Tre, similar wooden doors were plastered on it. To his left, there were about 4 wooden doors, and to his right, there were 5 wooden doors, with the last on near the stone stairs that lead to the second floor.
Numbers were etched onto the wooden doors, representing their room numbers. Tre followed the room numbers until reaching the one he was looking for.
'4, 5, 6.. here we are. 7.'
Tre knocked loudly on the wooden door, with a thought just now coming into his mind.
'Classes are on right now, right? They probably won't be here.. I should come back in a couple hours. It slipped my mind since Guac seemed like a normal encounter but was actually an anomaly.
Getting ready to leave, the door's steel hinges screamed as it was opening.
'Oh, they were here afterall.'
As the door opened outwards, Tre stepped out of the way for the door to have room to open up.
The person who greeted him was a young woman around his age with silky white hair that reached below her shoulders, fair warm rosy skin, and sharp blue eyes; they donned the same white suit that formed as the school's uniform, with it's purple flowery emblem on the side, just like Guac's.
She paused for a moment, inspecting over Tre, before revealing a silver gladius currently hidden in a sheath covered in engravings of water droplets.
"Who sent you? Usually you have some uniform, are you a rogue this time? A paid vagabond?"
Tre stared at her for a second, realising what she meant after a few seconds of thinking.
'So she gets assassins regularly after all, huh? To be able to handle them at this age is no small feat. Hired killers usually aren't too weak. Sending them on a kid though? Disgusting.'
Before Tre could refute her accusations, she swung her sword quickly at his neck with no hesitation. It's was apparent to Tre that fighting for her life was no rare circumstance.
Weaving under her strike, he struck her forearm with enough force to open up her palm; her sword fell our of her hand, still carrying it's moment and landing behind Tre, on the other side of the hallway.
She reacted to this turn of events quickly, sending her left fist upwards at Tre's neck, intending to crush his throat.
Tre palmed her fist, stopping it before it could build up enough force to be a problem. She was fighting while enhancing her attacks with ki, after all.
With this slight pause in the fight, Tre threw his palm forward. The young woman raised her right arm intending to block an attack, but nothing came. Using this momentary pause, Tre announced;
"I'm here to join the science club."
She looked at him with a puzzled expression, before a slight grin appeared on her face.
"You're a student? You're kidding, right? You fight like a first rate assassin. No, even that's understating it. You're a real killer. Who are you really?"
Tre showed no hesitation or surprise when she suddenly attacked him, and efficiently countered her blows, easily disarming her and putting the initially disadvantaged position into one of a neutral standstill. Most of all, she noticed he had the eyes, the presence, and the stance of a killer. It only took her a single glance to catch this.
Tre let go of her hand, still balled up in a fist, and straightened his posture, as if nothing had happened.
"My name's Tre; I'm a new student here, and I want to join the science club. I.. can join, right?"
She looked slightly dumbfounded, her mouth agape, before her mouth slightly curved upwards.
"Tre, huh? I haven't seen an approach like this with any other attempts at my life. You could have killed me before with your skills anyway. Sorry about that, living has become a bit of a chore since founding this club. Starting over.. I'm sure you understand the implications of joining this club?"
Tre nodded.
"Well.. alright then. I thought the science club would have to shut down since no one was joining, but this is a relief. A new member, and a monster at that!"
Tre looked at her dejectedly.
"A monster? That's pretty rude, you know?"
She gave a soft laugh.
"Haha, alright, sorry sorry. You any good at science, muscle man?"
'Muscle man..?'
"My name is Tre. Stop throwing these nicknames at me, they aren't gonna stick. And yeah, I'm pretty good. How many people are in this club? I want to let them know I'm a member so they don't attack me on sight like you did just now when I'm in here."
She scratched the back of her head, looking away for a second.
"Wanna come in and have a look around? I decorated the place myself you know!"
'Did she seriously just shamelessly avoid the question like that?'
"How.. how many people are in this club..?"
She glanced at the ground for a second, before looking up with a smile.
"Uhh.. including you.. two now!"