Hello dear readers! Nameless Knight here with a surprise new fic! Floating around on tumblr is a Xillia 2 Countdown Meme image. 57 days until Xillia 2 is released, so each day is taken up by 57 characters/themes to write/draw/photoset/whatever so I've taken up the challenge to write small little pieces in relation to it! To be honest I don't know whether it counts from Day One to Day 57 or counts down from Day 57 to Day One so I decided to do the former. So that means I'm starting with good old Jude.

These stories will be pretty light and for the characters I know nothing about probably become complete nonsense but there should be some fun along the way. I'll be pumping these out each day at rather random times, so forgive any mistakes. I do check but I'm not perfect after all.

Small warning, the Countdown Image contains Character Existence Spoilers so maybe don't go looking if you're curious but haven't played the game.

Tales of Xillia and the Tales of Series are the copyright of Namco Bandai and whoever else owns the rights. I own nothing except for OCs that haven't appeared yet/ever.

Day 1: Jude

"And that concludes our introduction. Once again, a resounding welcome to all new students to Talim Medical School." The dean finished his speech to a resounding chorus of claps from the school staff and the new students inside Talim's massive auditorium.

One of the students was a young Jude Mathis, here for his first day of higher learning! He was excited, nervous, happy, sad, enthralled, anxious... just about every mix of emotions he could muster. He'd moved to Fennmont, left his parents, left his best friend Leia, left it all behind to pursue a career in medicine. His outstanding grades(drilled into him by his dad's constant tests)got him into the school with some of the highest grades around. An already impressive feet enhanced by him being just thirteen years old!

Every single other student towered over him, feeding into his own anxiety. Most of them already had their own facial hair and some were even older, he spotted a few wedding rings on their fingers. He was clearly the youngest one here and just so out of place.

He didn't even have his parents to accompany him either. They were too busy being the sole doctors in his hometown of Leronde. But he'd show them! Okay, maybe that was pretty rude. The town did need them, and mom helped him move and settle in to an apartment in the months he'd been staying in Fennmont, the capital of Rashugal. But with his acceptance into the school he'd get moved over to the dorms. Thank goodness. Running halfway across the city was good exercise but boy was it tiring! He didn't want to show up all sweaty and gross to class either, ew. He was running late each day—night because of the city's night clime making his mind all loopy. If he didn't have his martial arts training he might no even be making it on time in the first place.

But those were worries of the past now! He just had to focus on getting good grades, making lots of friends and helping out the teachers. He'd be the perfect student regardless of his age.

"Alright, now I'd like all our newest doctors and nurses to separate into two lines," the dean told them. The fifty-odd new students segregated themselves, a few of the male nurses getting snickered at for their chosen profession. "Now now, we've all come here to help people. There's no shame in whether it's by a doctor's hands or a nurses. Male or female. Regardless of age." Jude felt the last one was aimed at him in particular. Some of the others even eyeballed him at it but he kept looking at the dean instead of giving any indication he noticed. "Good, now, follow me," he stepped down off the stage and head on through one of the doors.

The two lines of students followed him, getting a bit hung up as well. Jude, near the back of the doctor line, was one of the last ones into the brightly-lit wooden hallway. The dean was speaking, but the distance and all the footsteps following him only let Jude hear broken bits and pieces. It was a shame since it sounded kind of interesting.

Turning around the corner, Jude was suddenly shoved from behind! Someone hit his shoulder and he barely prevented himself from stumbling into the person in front. He was just out of view of the dean, that had to be intentional! Jude turned his head to look at the... very tall boy glaring back down at him. "Get those short legs of yours moving squirt."

Some of the nurses began whispering while the doctors snickered at it. Day one and he was already getting bullied? Just like home, he supposed. "I have to keep pace with the guy in front of me," Jude depressingly answered. He already knew it wouldn't matter.

"Nah, you're just slow," said doctor in front of him said and inched forward just to be a jerk.

He couldn't get into a fight his first day at school. "Alright, I'll try to keep up." Jude hastened his pace... then immediately crashed into the back of the frontal doctor. He should have know.

"What's you're problem?" the doctor whirled and asked. "Should have known better than to let brats still in their diapers into the most prestigious institute of medicine in all of Rieze Maxia." He was also kind of a big guy, and he was pretty clearly faking the anger.

He really didn't want to get into a fight... "I don't have a problem, just an accident."

"Stop holding up the line," the doctor in back shoved him forward. He clenched his fists... he didn't want to get into a fight... "Hey, looking to hit me after something so petty? You really are a kid."

Why were they doing this.

"That's enough!" a girl's voice cut into their argument. Jude looked at one of the nurses standing out by placing her hands on her hips. "The only children here are you two for picking on him."

"Stay outta this nurse," the guy in back waved her attention off.

"Maybe if you two spent more time studying he wouldn't have beat your entrance exam scores," she pinpointed exactly what this was about.

Jude had the fourth-highest score on the entrance exam. He was too excited to notice any other names but his own, but their were certainly others who ranked below him. W-were they actually jealous? He had to bite back a laugh at the situation.

He didn't hold it in well enough. "You making fun of me?" the one in back grew increasingly and irrationally angry. "Let's see how well those grades serve you in action." He made too grip Jude's clothes... but he just dodged around the clumsy grab. "Why you!" he got even madder at that and tried to tackle him!

But his footwork was sloppy and he obviously hadn't been in much more than a one-sided beat down before. Just like a bully. Jude just moved and dodged every attempt to hit him. All that martial arts training was sure paying off! He didn't have to fight if he could just dodge! Dodge long enough for someone to notice.

"Dean!" the girl from before yelled. "A fight!" He'd thank her for that later!

"Get over here you!" the guy tried one last move and ended up slamming himself smack dab into two nurses who screamed ans slapped and kicked him off.

This certainly got the dean's attention now and he hustled over. "What is the meaning of this!" the guy who attacked him glared and panted but didn't answer. "This is a place of healing, not some brawler's pit!" He admonished those around. "Never in all my years has a fight started on these grounds. You truly are an eccentric batch. Who started this?"

"He did!" the guy pointed at Jude as predictable as ever. Jude sighed and indicated him back. Thankfully him plowing right into the nurse line turned enough opinions that they all sided with Jude.

"Hmph, we'll have some worse in my office soon enough," the dean gripped the student's arm. "The rest of you the night is yours." He curtly gave them freedom before dragging off the instigator grumbling all the while.

Jude breathed a sigh of relief... but the other doctor glared at him and a few others gave him weird looks. This was gonna make him an outcast wasn't it? His sigh of relief turned to one of frustration... this was great! Just great! As soon as he got into his room he was gonna cry, he could feel it coming on.

"That was a pretty interesting thing you did there," that familiar voice of the girl snapped him back to the hall. He looked at her, smiling. "You didn't do anything wrong, you know?"

"I know," he felt his tension melt when she spoke. "I, thanks for helping me there."

She giggled, of course. "My name's Prinn, I'm one of the apprentice nurses here. Obviously."

"Jude Mathis," he replayed and offered his hand for a shake. She took it with a small laugh and her grip was surprisingly firm.

"I know," she smiled even wider.

"Oh, uh, right," she already implied that.

She gave a quick glance around before she whispered something to him. "Just to let you know, I saw those two planning this earlier. That's why I intervened."

Wow, really? She was kinda heroic huh? "Thanks even more then," he actually gave her an awkward bow at that.

She giggled again. "That's okay, I couldn't stand to see them bullying." Thankfully she didn't add on kid. She was older than him, but still...

Though that led his mind to another place. "Do you, do you think he'll be kicked out?" First offense on the first day for fighting. That was pretty major.

"Um, no," her smile turned into a frown. "He's from a noble house... the dean will lecture him for a bit but he'll just be let loose without a care." Because that was just how Rashugal was. All the nobles got all the benefits. No wonder he was so angry. He was probably used to getting his way and falling behind someone like Jude was an utter embarrassment. "Watch yourself, okay?"

"Oh, um, I will," her concern was so touching... and she was kinda pretty... no! Bad Jude make friends before girlfriends! "Hey, um, d-do you want to get something to eat?" he awkwardly asked. "A-as thanks for helping me."

"OH, I wouldn't want to impose."

"I-it's alright," he nodded. "I mean, I can cook pretty well and I'm used to making extra and it's not like you'd eat a lot." Did he just say that? "I-I mean, I'm used to making extra so it's not really imposing."

She giggled again. "That's a very kind offer... Doctor Jude," D-Doctor? "but I already made arrangements with a friend of mind. Maybe some other day?"

"Oh, okay, yeah sure..." he answered. "N-Nurse Prinn."

She laughed... enough now that he laughed. "Alright, see you tomorrow then Jude."

"Yeah, see you," he waved as she walked away.

When she was well out of sight he finally breathed again. "Whew..." he mouthed out. That was... so intense... yeah... b-but she'd be his friend. Yeah. He could do this.

His first day was filled with plenty of ups and downs but meeting Prinn certainly was nice.