A couple days have passed with today marking the fifth day since Squid Academy's road to Nationals began. Finally assembled with their paperwork already sent to the octoling man, the team didn't have any concerns about their eligibility and instead turned their attention to how they would approach the next few weeks. Gathered together in the club room, all the members of Squid Academy were there for their first official meeting following the unofficial meeting a few days ago. Plenty went on behind the scenes in the last couple of days as the players felt it was their responsibility to begin their solo training, and likewise Fuchsia gathered everyone together to delegate roles for the staff. Fuchsia was unanimously decided to become the head coach of the team with Kosami as her assistant coach. From there on, roles were divided into subcategories: Position and Class coaches who were responsible for the overseeing the specific players in their weapon classes and positions and helping them as trainers, and scouts who were responsible for accumulating intelligence on other teams. Concluding on that announcement, she announced what their task for the day would be, which she wrote on the chalkboard as "Hell Week" that begins immediately following this meeting. An idea she thought up on her own, she didn't even consult with anyone before announcing it based on the surprised reaction from her staff, nonetheless she looked ecstatic to continue. She slaps the board with an enthusiastic grin that borders on crazy and declares that as they are currently, they're far from even winning a single in the tournament despite the amazing talent they had since the roster is composed of first years, players who didn't have any experience outside of the Rank Wars, and rusty third years. A harsh reality, she didn't hesitate to keep talking to them and dish out the facts. As their coach, her goal was to make sure they put their best performance out on the turf, but that all starts with practice. The way hell week works is that on days when there is school, players were to come to the club room right after classes concluded for the day and then head to the gymnasium to begin practice, continuing until late into the night. On days off from school, they would report there first thing in the morning from the break of dawn and work into the evening.

"After spending some time studying everyone's profile these last couple of days, I have an idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are. As such I'll use the upcoming week of hell to overhaul everything you know and take you back to the fundamentals. We'll build a new foundation around your games that starts from your core and works to the intricate details that make you unique. A training menu has been catered to you all in addition to the team practices we'll do, and I expect everyone to work diligently. If we're making our mark at Nattys, we need to conquer ourselves before we conquer the competition." taking a pause, she looks over to Kosami with a nod; Kosami picked up some papers and them out to the players; "I'm not trying to break you or make you feel like we have no chance, quite the opposite. I think we have the potential to be special with the talent we have, but we need a considerable amount of preparation just to catch up with the other teams." all the players understood where she was coming from, some greatly appreciating how seriously she was taking her role as the head coach; she's not meant to be their fake friend who'll give them false encouragement, instead she's there to be honest and show them their faults and help them improve, and if that meant undergoing a harsh regimen, then so be it.

"Alright, for every team practice, we'll perform various drills and exercises to get your bodies used to the conditions of Nattys; some of you have been inactive and others have never experienced the intensity of what awaits. We'll start with group stretching and then a run to get your hearts pumping, from there we'll do a team scrimmage and then you all will be on your way with your personal menus. Some of you will focus on lifting, some on cardio and some on endurance, but the end goal is still the same: bring out the apex of your potential." she puts her hands behind her back and lowers her chin with a solemn glance at her team; "The scrimmage games will serve as a warm up and cool down, playing a couple in the beginning and then a final one before doing cool down stretches. The point of the scrimmages are to help you get acclimated to the spirit of what lies ahead, and to also help you get a better understanding of another. If you know each other's strengths and weaknesses, you can play towards that. The scrimmages will also give me an idea of the lineups we'll use, so make sure to take it seriously. How you perform in them will decide if you're a starter or sit on the bench, and to be upfront, I plan to utilize every single one of you. But as my starters, the games will ride on how well you play especially. Hell week will last until next Friday and then we'll switch to a much friendlier hours. Whew…" she catches her breath, taking a sip of her drink; "I should breakdown how Nationals works while I'm at it...Alright!" she said convincing herself to stay energized, finding that speaking up in front of everyone saps away at her energy. "Similar to what we did in our latest Rank Wars and the Spring Invitational, Nationals also does the 7-game series format where they instead address the singular games as rounds instead to avoid confusion, and unlike any of the competitions we've done so far, all the games will b rather than the standar we've come to know. This is so that there isn't a greater strain on a team if something happens to one player as well some of the other game modes benefiting from more players on the turf…"

As she continued, she explained what each game mode was and the idiosyncrasies that made Nationals the behemoth of a tournament. A tournament holding 128 teams, they were all placed into 16 groups of 8 teams with the top 4 teams of the round robin advancing to the knockout stages. In the knockout stages, the top 64 teams that survived the group battles went at it in a best of 7 elimination series, continuing all the way into the finals. As for the game modes, there were a total of 8, 3 of which were brand new to Squid Academy since these modes were popular in other nations and absent in Inkopolis. Familiar modes return like Clam Blitz, Splat Zones, Rainmaker, Tower Control and of course, Turf War. However, the fresh modes were known as Hide Ink Splat, Booyah Ball, and Last One Standing. Hide Ink Splat is a game mode where there are a team of hiders and seekers, where one full team of 6 must hunt down the lone hider from the opposing side within the allotted time of 10 minutes. The hider isn't allowed to attack the seeker directly nor can they go out of bounds, but they can fire their weapons all they want and throw out their subweapons as long as it allows them to escape and isn't seen as an act of hostility, to which there would be a foul. To make things easier, the hider has a team of helpers who act as diversion and are allowed to attack; the way scoring works is by the single digits, and capturing the one who is "it" gives the seeking team a bonus of 20 points and if the hider prevails, their team instead gets the 20 points; It is possible for a team to win without accomplishing the main objective. The next game mode is Booyah Ball and it plays identical to volleyball with serving and spiking, but differs in weapons being allowed in addition. game also, teams would use their booyah energy gathered to create the ball and have to refill their tanks in time to be able to contest attacks. Much like volleyball, scores go up by 1 and is decided when a team reaches the score of 21 or wins by 2 in the case of overtime. The final mode of the new trio is known as Last One Standing, and also though similar to Hide Ink Seek, it's far more ruthless. Unlike it's familiar counterpart, the objective is straightforward: The first team to lose all their members loses the match. After breaking it down for them, she's glad to see that everyone looked pumped up to test out the new modes. The reason behind why Nationals was such a difficult task was not only the overwhelming card of teams competing, but also the monumental task of playing up to 7 rounds consistently and doing it all under the summer heat, the venues changing periodically but always in a warm host nation. In the group stage, teams played a total of 7 games with each game possessing up to 7 rounds each and continued this all through the knockout stage, with barely any breaks in between the days and often playing many back to back games during the tournament; the time they have before Nationals is precious, because once the tournament begins, their time will be dedicated entirely towards practicing for their opponents.

"So, to kick things off, we're starting wit scrimmage after you do a few laps! We'll do a couple games rotating some players since we don't have enough for two separate games." she said, dismissing them from the club room and into the gymnasium.

While they headed to the locker rooms to change into their gym outfits, the team staff went ahead and set up dummies and obstacles to simulate a real turf war map. As all the players lined up in their gym outfits, they saw the coach and assistants carrying numberless jersey vests of differing colors; she tosses one to every name she calls out, telling them to step forward afterwards. The first scrimmage will be played between the blue team of Azule, Todd, Zaneki, Nelson, Mason, and Pearl against the yellow team of Sky, Evelyn, Parker, Sandra, Jory, and Taylor. A standard game of turf war with th rule applied along with a total of 5 minutes to play, she gave the two sides the freedom to choose the weapons of their choice from the selection available, which were restricted to the standard models. After a few minutes of some moans and groans from the players who hated the idea of using the stock version of their weapons, both sides were ready to begin. A scrimmage meant to gauge where they stood and give her an idea of how to mold the team's starting roster, she encouraged them to play their absolute best.

Both teams went to the opposing sides...

The early moments of the game are sloppy as both sides got used to the extra bodies on the turf, frequently crashing into one another and cutting each other off and getting caught in the line of fire; sub weapons were difficult to maneuver in this case as well, and this was all in a makeshift turf map. The clumsiness wore off quickly after a minute however as the skilled players like Sky and Azule were able to cover the map with ease and begin giving commands once they read the floor, which Fuchsia noticed immediately. Great turf vision, initiative-heavy, and leadership focused, she saw why the two siblings were the clear pillars to build the team around; unfortunately she knew Sky could only be used for under half of the games, a shame such a talent is forced to miss most of their group games. She had to get crafty in how she utilizes not only Sky, but the rest of the Elites who were under the same conditions. All isn't smooth sailing for the teams despite some of the adjustments as Mason and Todd got into some scuffles while going after the same targets, and Nelson especially was having a difficult time trying to match the high pacing of his teammates. Pearl's usual effectiveness on the charger is hampered by the weapon, which forces her to have to make further adjustments and kick out her old habits. Jory and Taylor had some initial trouble matching through movements with the rest of their squad, but thanks to their chemistry they were able to power through their struggles, but Mason and Nelson have no success in staying on the same page. Halfway into the game, a pattern develops. Where the blue team struggles to find a rhythm in their motion of play and constantly found themselves out of sync and with their backs to the wall, the yellow team were operating at a different level with everyone on the same wavelength and playing as though they'd been partners for a long time. Thanks in part to Sky's leadership, the yellow were in control for most of the match and rarely looked to get much of a challenge from the blue team since whenever they tried to make a push, it ended as swiftly as it began. By the end of the match, it got out of hand as the whistle blew at the end of the allotted time.

"Th-they sloshed them!" Reice marveled, his jaw agape viewing the final results.

Fuchsia wore a pained look viewing the scoreboard-aware that this might happen, "The yellow team held them to under ten percent…"

"Looks like some work needs to be done, after all." Bianca adds, also grimacing at how one-sided it became.

The rest of the team that watched on were also stunned by the shocking performance of the blue team, having thought that a team of Azule, Todd, and Zaneki at the helm would've been explosive but instead proved to be quite the opposite. Before the defeat can simmer any further, Fuchsia switches gears and calls the those who had yet to compete to join and switch jerseys with the others. However, since they didn't have enough to make a complete team of fresh players, she mixed them in with the player who still had enough energy to go another round. For the second scrimmage game, the blue team is Pastelle, Reice, Violet, Audrey, Hannah, and Aaron facing off against the yellow team of Sky, Austin, Pearl, Azule, Sandra, and Todd. For this game, she wanted to test the endurance of the previous members as well as give a test run for the fresh crew; she had a rough idea of who she wanted as her starters going into games and desired a starting team capable of lasting multiple games without substitutions, but to make sure, she needed to put them to the test. As expected, it wasn't even close. Despite the amazing ability of Sky, Azule and their team, it's not enough to overpower the freshness of the blue team. The yellow team got sloppy one too many times, and even Sky looked a little worn down at times; even though the blue team had the advantage, they still were less impressive than the opposing side. Regardless, it's a convincing victory for the blue team as they held onto the lead the entire game. After the scrimmage, the exhausted sides use this opportunity to take a breather. Pastelle and Sky use the moment to review their performance and recall the errors they made, dreaded that this was a different tune up to what they'd been handling. Fuchsia claps her hands together notifying them that in the next few minutes they'll do their personal menus, and beforehand she drills into them what they'll need to focus on and what to expect for the coming days. It's already a draining day and their coach is piling on the burden, though they appreciated her efforts they felt a little sour about the intensity. After a few minutes, they began their personal menus. Though a small sample size, Fuchsia already had some teams setups in mind and now saw the rest of practice as a good way to gather more information. Some work on their accuracy, while others practiced on monitoring their ink consumption level, and then there were others who had to get their weight up and do physical training to obtain better speed and durability. Off doing their own thing, Todd and the Sealions were reviewing the game as a recitation lesson for Audrey and Hannah who were following their captain and Sandra in the games, and for the two that competed, it worked as a good indicator of what needed to be worked on. Shortly after the group began, Zaneki approached Todd-alone, and immediately the tension grew. Two captains of two respectable teams, their encounter caught the eyes of everyone in the gymnasium, all wondering what will happen next already knowing the pretext to this confrontation laid in their failure to communicate earlier in the scrimmage game.

Zaneki breaks the silence, "I want a one on one game. Right here, right now."

Everyone turned to Todd wondering what his response would be, "We're here to help the team, so go focus on your menu."

"This is helping, you loser. What better way to gauge our strength than head to head?"

"Sounds to me like you just want an excuse to save your ego after that loss in the rank wars. Still playing it tough for your team?"

"Wow, hitting me where it hurts, huh? Seems to me you're a little insecure about losing in front of your precious girls."

Todd clenches his fist, "You've got a lot of mouth, you know that? A shame you can't back it up."

"Then maybe if you just take the damn challenge you can see for yourself!"

As the two quarrel, Fuchsia caught wind of it and began tapping her foot and then crossing her arms with an irritated glare she counted how many seconds it'd take before she has to go over there and shut them up. She knew this would be expected since the team and staff are composed of rivals, and even if they share a common goal, tensions will flare, but on the first day? Come on man...

Before it could escalate any further, Sandra steps in and becomes the voice of reason, calming them down before they bring any further unwarranted attention. She knew how far Todd grew from those days as a rebel, and the last thing she wanted to see was regression because of a contentious teammate hounding him for an ego boost in battle-she knew Todd to be better than that. In between them with her arms raised, she protects her captain and glares at Zaneki; Audrey and Hannah also stepped in to support and shooed him away, annoyed by his presence. The Rebels came over to back up their captain, but after reading the room of glares on Zaneki, they resigned to resolve the matter as staff before pride. Corey and Dustin place a hand on his shoulder and arm and Phillip did his best to talk him out of trouble and explain that there's a time and place for everything. An embarrassing development since he failed to get what he desired out of Todd, Zaneki took his leave and went to do his personal menu in a secluded environment. The tension in the room vanishes as he made his leave with his trainers, and everyone returned to their work.

With everyone focused on their own work, the gymnasium resembles a training room: Focusing on her accuracy with the uncomfortable charger weapons is Violet soaking in all the tips and advice given by Sky and Pearl-who are also getting some practice in for themselves. Azule, Jory, Pastelle, and Aaron are working on weapon theory and receiving a lesson from the third year, who in turn asks that they monitor his form so he can make improvements since he had considerable rust. Reice, Austin, Taylor, and Nelson were performing a few defense drills with the rollers and working on their upper body and legs since it was vital to have enough strength to lift the weapons but also have the mobility needed to still have enough pace. The next hour goes by swiftly as everyone tires out from the nonstop intensity, almost dropping to the floor once Fuchsia call time. Only the first day and already everyone looked like ghosts-a long week in store for everyone if today's session is just a preview. Afterwards, everyone cleaned up and headed home, but the coach and captain stayed behind to talk over a few things. Fuchsia still had plenty she wanted to review but wondered if Azule would be interested in giving her a hand-they are coach and captain so it helped if he saw what she had recorded so he could plan accordingly as well. Even if they were keeping it professional, that didn't stop Todd, Reice and Cobalt from being a little suspicious about what they truly were up to, finding it suspicious for a boy and girl to stay behind after hours, alone. As bros, they were happy to see Azule looking so radiant and full of life, but at the same time they couldn't help but be curious about the progress of the couple. As the trio eavesdrops on the pair, a puff of steam shoots out their nostrils with reddened faces.

"Is it really fine if I stay over for a bit?" Fuchsia asked, holding plenty of papers in her hand."

"Of course! I'd love to help you out."

"Well, as long as I'm not intruding…"

"Nah. You know they wouldn't mind if you come over!"

YES WE WOULD!

"I-if it's fine with you, then alright. I need to stop by my place first though."

"That's fine, I can come with you."

"NO!"

"No?"

"My bed is a mess you know? I'd have to make it up and move all my stuff from it, and I don't feel like doing it."

"Ah, makes sense. Alright, I'll wait for you at the door."

HMM?

Reice blushes, "I-is she..?"

Todd's face reddened brightly, "I applaud her for being so blunt."

Cobalt's almost in tears, "I'm so proud how far she's come!"

"Anyways, we should get going, no? Nothing will get done if we just stay here."

"Yeah, let's go."

Right away, the trio felt their hearts sink and their legs heavy. The last thing they can afford is to let him find out they were eavesdropping. Quietly and swiftly they clear the hallway as fast as they can to avoid detection, even taking a different exit from the main one. Arriving home far before the two, they got themselves situated and stayed in the room, contemplating on what the two would do for the entire night. What was the lad up to? They would soon find their answer once they hear the door open followed by Azule and Fuchsia's voices greeting them, which they all answered; Azule poked his head in with a beaming smile and wiggling eyebrows to let them know he won't be in the room tonight, which all of them immediately assumed the wrong thing. For the rest of that night, the trio are unable to fall asleep since their ears are finely tuned to hear even the faintest of breaths. Out in the living room, the lights are on at a lowered brightness with the table covered in neatly placed papers, laptops and phones with two cups of tea on some coasters. Where the pair were supposed to sit, which was on the floor with the coffee table brought up to them and the couch as a back rest, the pair were instead on the floor.

"Is that better?" Fuchsia whispered with smirk, trying to hold back her laughter hearing Azule moan in ecstasy.

Azule's eyes roll, "I...can't believe...how good you are!" he said out of breath, twitching a little as her arms repeated the motion."Right...there!" he requests, almost on the verge of passing out from the influx of the sensation as his head felt hot and fuzzy.

"I'm surprised you're so stiff! Looks like even you have a lot of stress built up, huh?"

"It's been so long…"

"Stimulates the senses?" she whispered.

"Y-yeah…"

"Good."

"AH!" Azule eyes widened with his hands clenched.

"Oh, sorry!" Fuchsia said, getting off of him immediately.

Azule holds his back and stands up, "I know my back is tight but you still have to be careful with how you dig. That last elbow really got me."

"My bad, I just thought you had so much tension built in that on spot that maybe a little more pressure would've worked, but I guess that's enough."

"Yeah, thanks for the massage though. That training session really did a number on me."

"I'm surprised that you'd ask me to massage your back, though. I always thought you were naturally loose to the point that you don't need any massage therapy. Er uh-I mean, I understand that a lot has happened, so...you know what I mean." she sighed with blush, embarrassed she was fumbling her words now that she was so close with him than ever before.

"It's fine, I get what you mean. Yeah, lately my body's been feeling tighter than usual, and today was the tipping point. I'm wondering if it might be the side effects for the medication. I'd rather take this over the previous, but this might get annoying.

"Indeed, muscle problems are the last thing you want where we're heading. Make sure to stay hydrated and eat the proper foods to gain the right nutrients, okay?"

"Yes, cooooooaaaaach." Azule sighed.

"Alright, let's get back to work." she claps, taking a seat at her spot, followed by him.

WE'LL KILL YOU, AZULE! The trio thought as they lay in their beds forced to hear them through the thin walls.

Time passes quickly with the two busy at work going through the papers and jotting down notes. Fuchsia's recording everything down in her notepads and cycling between reading and writing while Azule concentrates on watching footage of the other teams and making mental notes, memorizing all their mannerisms, weapon choices, and inserting himself in their perspective and picturing how he'd handle a situation. After time gets away from them, Azule's concentration breaks once Fuchsia's shoulders rub his shoulders. Looking over to her with a lost gaze, she could feel his stare and flashed him a smile. His heart started to race a little as he realized the scenario they're in.

"Don't raise your blood pressure." she poked, noticing the sudden change in his behavior; "I'm almost done with the reports, here. How are you holding up?" she asks in a soft tone, mindful that the others are sleeping now.

Azule peeks at the screen, "I'm watching Skolar play right now."

"Skolar...that's the fifth ranked team. Their top player is Carmichael, who earned the nickname 'Green Viking' for his monstrous power."

"Yeah, really impressive. It's amazing how many strong teams are in this competition. The top half of the competitors look especially terrifying with the heavy hitters they got."

Fuchsia remains diligent in her work, "That's why you got me here as the coach. I'll dissect them and make the best strategy for us." she said softly, neatly filing some papers into a pile meant to be the completed section.

"Wow." Azule marveled; "Your looks aren't the only amazing thing about you. Impeccable skills in scouting and strategy, I'm glad to have you with me."

Fuchsia giggles and pokes him in the belly, "I'm finishing my work. Redeem your good boyfriend points for another time." she said following with a kiss on the cheek and returning to her work with a yawn.

Half asleep and only willing himself awake to keep Fuchsia company, "What do you think of this upcoming competition?" he asks, breaking the slumbering silence that almost had Fuchsia captured.

Fuchsia wrinkles her mouth with a frown-half asleep, "What is there to think?" she mumbles, almost dozing off. "This year's tournament has the potential to be the most competitive in the last couple decades. The defending champions look every bit as strong as one would expect, the best team going into the tournament happens to be the team that won it two years ago and were finalists last year, and the rest of the field looks incredibly strong with over twenty different teams being considered favorites; even the teams without the top ranking seeds have the potential as dark horse candidates. In all seriousness, we shouldn't have a chance in this tournament and yet, we're in. If a competition was based on what's written on the paper, there wouldn't be any competition at all. We have to play the games and take it one at a time. I trust our squad will get the job done." she said, starting to get into a sleepier as she rests her head on his shoulder, promising him it was only for a few seconds; as their coach, she'd do everything in her power to prepare for the big stage, so in turn she expected them to share her determination-she desperately wanted to create something special, especially after seeing what her sister was able to accomplish. Azule smirks and looks down at his clasped hands that tremble a little along with his nervous smile, the surreal reality of Nationals finally taking over his thoughts; no one in the world aside from their home turf counts on them going far with the deep lineup of favorites crowding the place. But for some reason, that excited Azule. The thought that no one even hated them but so much didn't even acknowledge their existence-a challenge he knew all too well from the spring-made him want to beat the best even more and show the world what they were missing out by overlooking his team.

Saturday morning rolls around, and the first one up is Reice. At first he struggled to get a good rest but eventually slept like a log. Almost forgetting everything from last night, his face shrunk as he saw Azule and Fuchsia, then feeling his heart melt seeing their sleeping faces as they cuddled one another, seemingly falling asleep while in the middle of working. A glance at the table and he saw they must've stayed up the entire night working on research all for their sake. He couldn't help but crack a smile seeing how cute the two looked, finding it adorable that Fuchsia had her head resting on his shoulder and in turn Azule's head rests on her head. A solid minute of watching them led to a surprise realization, noticing that they didn't even have a blanket based on how Fuchsia had her arms wrapped around him for warmth. "Sheesh! Talk about hard workers…" he mumbled bringing a blanket over and covering the pair.

As scheduled, everyone gathered in the classroom for the next day of "Hell week" with today's topic differing from yesterday's greatly. Instead of an introduction and basic rundown, Fuchsia dived right into everything she observed previously and highlighted the key faults she found in their performances in scrimmage, also detailing their strengths. A far longer session than before, she broke it down into a practical day of school: for the first three hours, she went over film of other teams and compared it to the sloppy play she recorded previously, having them identify the errors made and offer solutions on how to improve. She stressed the belief that in the same way it was important to view something from a singular perspective, it'd never be the same as seeing it through a third perspective-where it became important for a coach and their player to share an understanding and communicate; she would do her best to help them but they needed to put in the effort to make the corrections, and it wasn't like they were alone as they had a staff ready to help them. After the film session, they took to the gym to continue where they left off, this time doing group exercises for a majority of the day before breaking off into personal training. It was during this time that Fuchsia received word from Principal Caviro that there were some updates for Nationals. The tournament drawing day was happening tomorrow and the school needed to send in a representative for Squid Academy, and the coach and captain were required to attend. After careful consideration of how it'd affect the team during the week, she called everyone over and made the announcement that she'd be gone for a day out in Ravia. A drawing where all the teams would attend, she knew this was the perfect chance to bring along Kosami and do some psychological analysis on the other captains and see firsthand who would prove troublesome. Training continues as planned and ends with th scrimmage game that everyone had been looking forward to, hungry to play better than previously. Little did they know she was throwing in a curve ball for the day and having them operate on Hide Ink Seek rather than giving them a chance to best her in turf wars, bringing home the idea of expecting the unexpected and never getting too comfortable. While Squid Academy is hard at work with their training camp, some of the hottest players in the upcoming tournament arrive in Ravia for tomorrow's drawing.