A few weeks had passed since the first real round of combat training. During that time, Jane taught Kichirou well in Charon's history, and Jane and Ramirez had been teaching him in the realm of combat. Jane taught him different stances, while Ramirez would spar with him so he could learn his techniques. During the spars, Kichirou would also practice his usage of the symbol technique, and his proficiency with it had drastically improved. Now, he was capable of accurately determining the weak points somebody had in a fight. The combination of his practice, as well as his superhuman abilities, made him a formidable opponent in a flash.
"Today's the day of the exam, are you ready?"
Jane poured both him and her a cup of coffee while Kichirou finished preparing some sort of breakfast, a tradition they'd built up over the last month of living together.
"It doesn't really matter, does it?"
Jane let out a chuckle before giving her response.
"Hehe, yeah, that's true."
"Kichirou and Jane both began to giggle to themselves, as they continued to prepare their breakfast. Kichirou sat down the plates at the table taking his seat. After gathering himself, he pulled out a phone he'd gotten from Jane and used it to send a message to Gray on UMemo.
"I can't go out today, I have something to take care of."
Almost immediately, an indicator appeared, letting Kichirou know Gray was typing out a response.
"Yeah, it's fine, man. I'm actually pretty busy today as well, so I think we're gonna have to call it off."
Kichirou and Gray had been going on almost daily outings, where Gray would show Kichirou around the main parts of the city.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, then"
"Cya"
At that moment, Jane had finished preparing their coffee
"I'm sure you're ready for this. I've taught you all that I know's going to be on the test."
Kichirou was still nervous, despite knowing he was well-prepared. If he wasn't able to pass this examination, he'd be executed. It was reasonable that he'd be nervous, even if he was almost sure to pass, at least in Jane's eyes.
'If I mess things up today…'
Jane cut through Kichirou's thought process, almost as if she were reading his mind.
"You don't have to worry about anything. Jack and I have taught you, at the very least, well enough to pass this test, so you shouldn't feel nervous. Remember, the less confident you are, the worse you'll do, so go in there knowing what you're worth."
Kichirou's gloomy expression brightened if only just a bit.
"Yeah, I'll remember that."
Jane walked over to his side of the table after finishing her breakfast and ruffled his hair a bit.
"It's time we got going, all right?"
Kichirou quickly hooved down his breakfast, and spoke with a mouth half-full.
"Yeah, let's go."
Just as they opened the door to their apartment, they were greeted by the overly optimistic face of Jack Ramirez, a fist extended toward Kichirou.
"Hm?'
Ramirez's only response was to pump his fist out a bit, and Kichirou finally got it, giving Ramirez the fist bump he'd wanted. Ramirez's already big smile somehow got even bigger, and the three stepped out of the apartment together. Kichirou and Jane got into Jane's car, and Jack got into his own, and they started the drive off to Charon Military Academy.
Arriving on 1st Street, Kichirou looked down the road and saw an enormous campus, and a building in the middle with multiple towers capped off with a huge dome, in such a style that was reminiscent of a cathedral. Arriving at a gate the size of a small building, Jane turned on her hazard lights and pulled over to the entrance to park.
"Alright, I'll be here at 3:00 pm to pick you up. If you don't need a ride, just text me, okay?"
Kichirou got out of the car and responded to her while ducking down into the car.
"Alright. I'll see you then."
Jane gave a quick response before driving off.
"Alright, I'll see you soon."
Jane then waved off at Kichirou through the window while driving off. Kichirou decided to watch her go before making his way in through the gate. As he walked in, Kichirou saw many different people of multiple races, and ages, both boys and girls, walking in along with him. As he looked around, he saw a familiar face.
'Oh? That's the girl from the department store from that one time. I don't know how, but her body's super hard, so she'll have no trouble at all in the combat exam.'
Kichirou could only hope that he wouldn't be put against her in the combat exam. He made his way further in, eventually coming across some sort of sign, telling him to go somewhere. Just then, he heard that very same girl from before reading the sign aloud. She was wearing a mixture of black and red, with a blue ribbon in her hair, giving a sense of contrast. At that moment, the katana on her hip caught his attention. Kichirou knew they were allowed, but he hadn't expected anyone to bring their own weapon for the combat exam. Compared to his mere gloves for hand-to-hand, her katana was much more deadly. Her straight, long, brown hair blew around in the wind, and her eyes, a diamond blue, reflected the light.
"'Make your way to room 314 in the west wing of building A.' Where is building A, anyway?"
At that moment, She'd noticed Kichirou standing next to her.
"Hey! You're here for the exams too, right? Let's make our way over together! Two's always better than one."
To strengthen her point, she put up two fingers and started waving them around.
"My name's Victoria, by the way, what's yours?"
Kichirou turned to face her directly before giving his name.
"My name's Kichirou, nice to meet you, Victoria."
Kichirou extended his hand for a professional handshake, met by a high-five from Victoria.
Kichirou chuckled a bit before answering the question she'd asked herself earlier.
"You're looking for Building A, right? It's probably just the big one over there."
Kichirou pointed over to the big central building in the middle of the campus, showing her what he meant.
"Alright, let's go, then."
Victoria began walking over and beckoned Kichirou to catch up so they could walk together. The silence between them had made Kichirou feel uncomfortable, so he attempted to break the ice.
"So…did you study for the test today?"
Victoria was relieved by the sudden question. She didn't like silence very much.
"Yeah! I was up all night studying for it. I don't really remember much of what happened during the rebuilding times, so I had to study for today, but I don't think most people would. What about you?"
Kichirou thought he'd seen a slightly somber look flash across the girl's face, if only for a moment.
"Yeah, I don't really remember all that much from back then either."
Kichirou didn't like openly admitting that he was the outcast the government was looking to kill. Even though it wasn't readily available knowledge that it was Kichirou, it was pretty well known that somebody had been brought into Charon fairly recently, and that that somebody was not fully human. Kichirou didn't know how someone would react if they knew he was stranger than his slightly distorted eyes would let on.
"Looks like we're in the same boat, then."
Just as they finished their conversation, they reached room 314 of the A building. It was shaped like a Socratic Seminar-style classroom, with many rows of seats to seat many students all at once. Kichirou and Victoria walked over to a seat in the 6th row from the front and began studying with one another. After around 10 minutes of that, Kichirou heard a familiar voice.
"Kichirou? Is that you?"
Kichirou turned around to see Gray, standing above him. Just then, Gray jumped down and sat in the seat next to Kichirou.
"You two are studying? What for? Haha, all this stuff's just common knowledge, so it shouldn't be too hard."
Kichirou answered Gray's question very delicately.
"Her and I are both from the same area, and you know how little I really know about all this stuff. We were far from the action for most of it, so we don't have much of an idea about all the details."
Kichirou decided to cover for both himself and Victoria in one, swift motion, which Victoria just nodded along with the whole time.
"She's from your area too? Well, whatever. You guys need any help, just ask me."
Victoria spoke out.
"We will, I'm Victoria by the way. What's your name?"
"My name's Gray."
The two high-fived like they'd known each other their whole lives. And at that moment, the test proctor walked into the room.
"Quiet down everyone!"
The room went silent, with the exception of the proctor.
"All of you are here today because you want to be part of Charon's fighting force, which will soon be sent off to the main branch GDA planet of operations, much bigger and much more advanced than what we have down here, we presume. I'm sure you all think you just need to be the best fighter, but that couldn't be further from the truth. All of you still need to be able to learn, take orders, and grow as people before you go somewhere like that, and thus, the 'Academy' part of Charon Military Academy. You will be asked to learn academics as well as combat as you attend this school, and that is the reason we have this exam. We will begin shortly."
The test began extremely quickly, and Kichirou didn't know how to feel until he flipped his paper over.
"Wait… This prompt is easy!"
Kichirou knew exactly what to talk about on all of his essay questions, and breezed through the test. Before he knew it, time was up, and he'd just barely had time to answer all of them, but he'd done so in great detail.
"Pencils down! I'm sure many of you weren't expecting the written exam to be such an important part of the process, and, to your luck, you will mainly be selected due to your performance on the next examination, the combat exam. Please make your way to the main stadium of building B. The combat exam will be held shortly."
Kichirou felt confident about his answers, and turned to his friend and… acquaintance? To ask them how they'd felt about it. Victoria spoke up first.
"I feel pretty good about it. You never know until you get it back, though."
Kichirou nodded in agreement before turning over to Gray, who seemed to be the most relaxed of the three.
"Piece of cake."
Gray flung his hair back with his left hand before pushing up a pair of nonexistent glasses, drawing a chuckle out of the two.
'Well, here it goes.'
The three began their journey to Building B's stadium, and Kichirou began to think.
'All that's left is the combat examination… It can't be too bad, can it?'