Chapter 1: Never Winning

Clang!

'Darn!'

The screeching sounds of metal scraping metal echoed through the room, it's lack of occupants only serving to amplify the racket. Two figures stood, their weapons locked together before one disengaged and ran away. It was clear however, that it wouldn't be so simple to escape.

BANG

Fire blossomed outwards as an explosive shell burst into hundreds of pieces of sharp shrapnel that burst out, each packing more than enough punch to sink several centimeters into anything that wasn't metal. Any respite however, was sorely lacking, as the attacker quickly swung again in what resembled a baseball swing.

'It just never ends!'

Several more ear-shattering bangs echoed through the room, the interval between each blast growing shorter and shorter. Each explosion getting just a bit closer towards the small girl in white that they were aimed towards, the latest of which blew her black hair into her face.

Narrowing her eyes, the somewhat diminutive figure struggled to see through the debris, barely managing to make out the blurry shape of another human rushing towards her. Instantly, her own weapon was raised in response in order to block the incoming strike.

CLANG!

Another shriek of her opponent's weapon, a large mace, smashing against her own training sword borrowed from the school. Her opponent's weapon was one that had been forged by themselves, something that, when compared to the standard issue sword that she was using, may as well have been comparing a bullet to a missile.

She skidded along the ground, pushed back by the amount of force contained in the strike. It seemed that she was destined to be on the defensive. Every strike only led into another; an unrelenting offense that would keep anyone on their toes.

Unfortunately for the smaller girl, she was no exception to this rule.

And it was only a matter of time before…

"TIME!" A deep voice called out the signal to stop, a loud alarm sounding at the same moment.

"Amelia Stark vs Yulia Cless. Result: Draw." The monotone robotic voice of the PA system announced the results of the match over the now calming rumble of dust and debris falling to the ground.

"Ms. Stark, you may store your weapon in the lockers provided by the school. Ms. Cless, please be sure to return yours to me before the period ends."

Breathing a sigh of relief, the girl slid the practice sword into the sheath that hung at her waist as she made her way over to the professor that had been overseeing the match, glad to finally be rid of the unwieldy feeling the weapon left in her hands.

Handing over the sword to the professor, Yulia was acutely aware of the few gazes that seemed to follow her the entire way. These were not however, gazes of admiration or appreciation that observed the girl right down to the way she walked.

The PA system once again blared to life as a circular outline of where Yulia and her opponent had been fighting, lit up. "The next pair of students may proceed to make their way down to the field. Please be sure to complete all necessary preparations before stepping into the designated area. Please note that this will be the last match of the day."

It was then that the number of stares that followed the young woman multiplied, many of these pairs of eyes doing a double take between the large monitor that overlooked the area and Yulia before settling once again on her.

0/0/5

Win/Lose/Draw

Acutely aware of the amount of attention that was now focused on her, Yulia increased her pace as much as possible without actually breaking into a jog. In front of so many eyes, it wouldn't be strange for grown adults to feel some degree of nervousness, let alone a young girl who had yet to even make her way out into the real world.

"...can't believe…"

"...how?"

Wincing internally, Yulia could only pretend she didn't hear anything as she finally made her way into the locker room. She already recognized the pattern that things were going to follow. It was always the whispers first, the quiet harmless murmurings of those around her that would begin the cycle that she had lived through.

'I don't want things to end up the same way, but...'

Signal Academy was not only one of the most prestigious combat academy's in the kingdom of Vale, but the third that Yulia had attended in the past year. One semester each at two other combat schools, each accredited in their own right. Of course, given this, the problem hadn't been the quality of education; in fact, that was probably the only part of her school history that Yulia didn't find unbearable.

"#1 Weakest." The moniker passed through Yulia's lips with no small amount of grievance. Ranking in combat schools was based on a point system, + 2 points for winning, - 2 points for losing, and + 1 point for a draw. As cruel as it sounded, the point system weeded out those who would be insufficiently skilled to be put into missions in the field.

The fairly subtle problem however, was that by continuously obtaining draws, one would eventually rise to the top by sheer virtue of never losing points. Of course, the designers of the system had never thought of such a small chink in the system as a problem. Anyone with the ability to obtain consecutive draws, they reasoned, would be similarly skilled enough to easily obtain wins.

And so we were left with Yulia's current predicament; with no suitable weapon to end a match, but unable to be struck as well, it was inevitable that she would obtain the coveted #1 spot… with nothing but draws. Obtaining the ire of her peers, Yulia suffered no small amount of name calling and general bullying that came with the anger of others. Without a single friend to turn to, there was no way that a 15 year old girl could remain unaffected.

No matter how she felt however, there wasn't much to do about it now. Certainly not without any plans or people to rely on, and certainly not while the rather uncomfortable sensation of her white cardigan stuck to the back of her legs remained a rather irritating distraction.

Starting with said article of clothing, Yulia stripped off the remainder of her now sweaty and dusty outfit. Shortly following a pair of light blue shorts and a similarly colored shirt joining the cardigan, Yulia changed into the school uniform. Similarly to its sister school, Beacon, Signal Academy's female uniform consisted of a short skirt, blouse, and vest; the defining difference being the coloration of the two uniforms. While Beacon used a plaid red skirt, Signal's was brown. Similarly, Signal's vest was red, while the color of the blouse stayed the same.

Tossing her soiled clothes into a bag to later be washed, Yulia closed her locker with a resounding bang. The sound was, unfortunately, not enough to muffle what came after.

"Did you see that scoreline? What's with her?" It seemed that the following match had ended rather quickly, with the rest of the class flowing into the room. The discussion however, was not about the match they had just seen, but rather, the display that had come up following the match.

Sighing in resignation of her situation, Yulia held her head down, eyes directed towards her shoes as she exited the locker room.

Thankfully, sparring was always the last class of the day, simply due to the nature of the course and it's tendency to exhaust student's. This of course, left the rest of the day for students to spend as they wished.

'Getting started on assignments may help, it's never too soon… no.' Yulia threw the idea out almost as soon as she considered it. Though she was a decent student, the girl wasn't much of a book worm. Drowning her sorrows in work hadn't had much effect the last time she had tried it either.

'Exercise? No… we just finished sparring…'

Lost in her own thoughts, Yulia failed to notice that she was rapidly closing in on someone's backside. The result was a rather embarrassing collision where, predictably, the shorter girl tripped backwards and fell.

As if mocking her, the only way you would have known that she had even impacted the taller figure in front of her was if you had seen it; the person had barely moved whatsoever, and gave no sign that he and even noticed the girl.

"S-Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!" Ignoring the growing pain in her lower back from her brief introduction to the floor, Yulia managed to muster up an apology as she clambered up from the ground.

"…"

Well, at least this time the person turned around. Yulia could now see that it was a middle-aged man with his hair gelled back and a noticeable 5-o'clock shadow. His most noteworthy feature however, had to be the sour scent of alcohol that seemed to follow the man around.

"Are you… alright?" Once more, Yulia tried to reconcile.

The dead stare she received was answer enough. On the other hand, it did let her observe him a little more. It was uncanny how the man seemed to be able to appear neatly dressed and sloppy at the same time. Eventually though, the lack of reply grew to be almost unbearable.

Just when Yulia was at her wit's end, thinking she would be forever doomed to continue the awkward silence, the man finally spoke. His words were hardly the ones she wanted to hear.

"You… you're the girl who does nothing but tie her practice matches."

Yulia felt her blood turn to ice, a tingle running down her spine as her gaze went from from slightly agitated, to full blown nervous. Something that, unfortunately, didn't escape the person in front of her.

"There a reason you throw all the matches girl?" The question was brusque, and completely without a care in the world about how the receiver felt about it.

"What- what do you mean?"

Finally amused, the other man finally let a small smirk grace his features. "Come now, even if I wasn't an educator, not that I'm a very good one mind you, there aren't many ways that a student can manage a year and a half of straight ties Yulia Cless."

If she had been nervous before, Yulia was now completely terrified; her eyes widened in panic as she stared at the man in front of her.

How, how did he know?!

"Hey, calm down Wei- Whitey, there's nothing wrong with getting a draw." He threw a hand behind him, palm facing up as he shrugged. "Just thought you ought to do better."

"I- think I'm doing fine right now Professor…" Yulia paused, realizing she didn't know the other's name. She also answered her own question.

'Of course he knows, he's a professor…'

"You know what? Follow me." After remaining in a what could be described as pensive position for a moment, the other person in the hallway finally spoke. He had completely ignored her.

"But professor-"

"Hey, you kids don't have classes for the rest of today. Just come along, it won't get in the way of any of your plans. It'll be quick." The man stopped for a moment, his face screwed up in thought before waving his hand and adding: "...and possibly painful. Not too painful though."

She didn't like the sound of that, but what choice did she have? The guy was already moving and, with every step, Yulia could feel her the uncomfortable knot in her chest get just a bit tighter.

"What are we going to be doing Professor?" While she didn't hold much hope that the older man would answer, it was simply unbearable to follow in silence.

He gave her a small smirk before answering in his sandpaper-like voice. "Just going to have some fun." A sharp glint shone in his eyes, not unlike the look that Yulia had received from her opponents. Suddenly, she didn't need the professor to tell her anything anymore. She already had the answer.

They were heading back along the path she had come from.

Back to the sparring arena.