Chapter 7

Acceptance

I'd hated waiting for the test but walking side by side with Roman to my almost certain failure was a lot worse.

The walk was short and soon enough I found myself standing in front of the large door that I knew would lead to Alex. It was funny thinking that just days ago I was standing in front of this door for the first time.

There was no point in waiting, so I opened the door and stepped in. It was kind of funny, Alex seemed to be standing in the exact place where he had been the first day, I had meet him. Walking in I had expected him to have set up some weird elaborate test or tell me to jump off a cliff or something but nothing like that happened.

Alex smiled at me and said only two words, probably some of the most impactful words anybody had ever said to me, "You're in."

My eyes widened and for a moment I just stared at him, completely dumbfounded, then I glanced over to Roman. Surprise flashed over his face for only a moment before his composed demeaner was back.

I nodded quickly before he continued, "You've already passed your test, that boy you sparred with earlier, I believe his name is Justin, was the test. I had him go find you, fight you, and give a report back. Seems you've got quite the raw talent and have pretty decent pain tolerance. Justin said you never even flinched."

The boy; Justin, had hit me a few times but I didn't even feel like any of the blows were actually meant to hurt me, none of them did.

Alex's supposedly happy mood changed quickly as he told me the next thing, he looked extremely serious now, "Now don't you for a moment think that this offers you a guaranteed spot, I can kick you out any moment, I know Roman would like to keep you in but as he is the second highest ranked person here, he needs my permission to keep anybody in or kick anybody out," the way he said second made it seem as if he was rubbing it in Romans face that he was number two.

Alex gave a quick, "Wait here," before leaving the room. He returned shortly holding a scroll. He handed me the scroll and I opened it up quickly. A blue transparent screen greeted me. After a moment the screen flashed revealing a picture of me with a number 212. I wasn't sure how they had gotten my picture; I didn't remember anybody taking pictures of me since I had gotten here.

After giving me a moment to look at the scroll Alex waved me and Roman out saying, "Roman explain it all to her. I don't feel like explaining this all to a kid. She only gets to stay for now because you like her, if she does anything to annoy me, she's out in a jiffy. You better behave yourself kid," he gave me a scowl before waving us out of the room.

Roman gestured for me to follow him and we left the room, him being clearly annoyed by Alex. Those two didn't seem to have the best chemistry.

Roman sat down on the couch and I joined him. "I've probably got to explain a lot to you right, now don't I?"

I nodded quickly.

"Hand me your scroll."

I quickly gave the device to him and he opened it up. After gesturing to the number 212 he spoke, "So this is your rank, currently there are 212 members and you are the very bottom. I'm number 2 as Alex mentioned, he's number 1. You can move up in ranking by 1 on 1 fighting another member of a higher rank. If the higher wins everything stays the same, if the lower wins they take the higher rank and the higher moves down 1. The higher ranked you are the more respect you will be given. If you're given any at all."

I nodded, it made sense and I had figured there was some sort of ranking system. I was sick of always being the bottom, so I promised myself, I was going to make it to the top.

In the next few weeks I fell into a routine, if Roman wasn't gone on some kind of secret mission, he would train with me in the morning, if he wasn't, I would normally spar with Justin. He was the closest thing I'd ever had to a friend my age.

Everyone here had their own fighting style and I was beginning to develop my own. I was small, still am, and I began to be able to use that as an advantage. Being fast also became one of my advantages.

The more I trained the better I got at dodging, at this point I was starting to be able to land hits as well. Nobody had landed a blow on me in a week.

When I was done training, I would eat out in the bar looking area with everyone else, most people still didn't like me but they'd began to learn I wasn't going anywhere anything soon. Then I'd go to bed in my room.

It was a simple routine and I was finally starting to find a sense of normality in my life, sure this was a strange lifestyle that most people wouldn't choose to live but it was mine and I liked it. It was the first time in my short life that I had known what to expect each day.

The only thing I didn't know was when Roman would return. Some days he would be back in the morning, absolutely exhausted and other days he'd come home late happy. I wasn't allowed to know what he was doing, I didn't care.

One day Roman had come back looking particularly, most of the time he came home in a good mood would mean that we would be able to get some extra training sessions in, but today that wasn't the case.

He threw the door open and grinned at me saying, "Hey kid, you've got a job! Get ready, you've got thirty minutes before we leave!"

Authors note:

WHAT! ANNA UPDATED!? It's only been what 2 months!?

First off I've got to say sorry, my life's in totally disarray right now and Fanfiction kinda got put on the back burner for a while, but I'm back hopefully for good!

I'm sorry this update took so long and sorry its short, this is kinda just a transition chapter so we can get into the main story arc! WOOOP DE DO!

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As always I would love to hear what you thought and I would love any constructive criticism!

BYE Y'ALLS

-Anna-Mae1242