Somewhere, in this blasted world, in a large, dimly-lit room in a building-

"Haaah!"

*THWACK!*

An impact sounded as a wooden practice sword collided strongly on the side of a practice dummy. The user followed-up with several more strong strikes to its left and to its head.

"Hiyaa!"

*THWACK!*

The dummy slightly slid aside from the force as the user readied for another hit.

"Ngghaaa!"

*THWACK!*

*THUD!*

The user delivered a strong kick to the dummy's torso, throwing a fair distance before landing it on its back. They quickly stood above the dummy and proceeded to perform a stab to the dummy's neck, breaking the practice stick.

"*sigh* Shite..." the person mumbled under their breath as they bent down to pick up the other half on the floor, unaware that they were not alone.

"That's the sixth stick this week, Morgan," another person said from behind.

"Well hello to you too, Ann," Morgan replied, scowling as she turned her head to the door. "Didn't you tell me that people should knock before coming in?"

A girl, roughly around her late teens, dressed in a minimalist light-blue blouse and a gray, calf-length skirt, was leaning on the room's door's frame. She rolled her eyes and smirked as she walked towards the other girl in a dignified manner and looked down at the dummy. She examined it as she put a hand on her chin.

"I can see that you're improving with your handling, but your style is...very unrefined," she said to Morgan as the aforementioned person stood up and stretched her back. "You use a two-hander with only one hand most of the time. Swords like those are heavy, sister. Two hands must always be used to ensure proper grip and strength, lest you want to accidentally drop your weapon and give the enemy the upper hand. Though I must admit, you're certainly improving with your pragmatism, Morgan."

"Whatever, mum. Style matters none if you have strength to make up for it!"

Morgan propped up the dummy against the wall before going over to a table and taking a towel to wipe herself. She placed the half of the stick she was holding on the table and removed her ponytail, letting her messy blonde locks fall to her shoulders before turning back to Ann.

"Just an observation, Morgan. In all due honesty, I believe we should all have our own preferences when it comes to certain things," Ann said as she crossed her hands in front of her. Morgan suddenly took off the gray, sweat-soaked sports bra she was wearing and fumbled in the duffel bag on the table.

"Morgan!" Ann exclaimed as Morgan continued looking for something in the bag as she rolled her eyes.

"We're both girls, Ann."

"That's not the point! The door is open! Someone...some GUY...might just walk in, you know?!"

"Whatever, mum," she exasperatedly said as she pulled out a baggy T-shirt and slipped it on before putting the soiled article of clothing in a plastic bag. "There's no one else here but the two of us."

"Don't you ever care about decency, sister?" Ann asked as she frowned at her sister, who simply ignored her.

Morgan slung the bag over her shoulder and walked to the door with Ann in tow. Ann closed the doors before they walked down the vaguely-lit hallway and out of the building to the sidewalk.

"What time is it, Ann?" she asked. Ann looked again at her watch, a gift from their nanny from days past.

"Five-thirty four," Ann said. "Plenty of time to head back to the dorm-"

"Awww! I wanted to eat out!"

"The curfew for we minors is at six, Morgan..."

Morgan sighed.

"Don't we already get served dinner later?" Ann said to her as they walked down the street.

"But the servings are so bloody small! We still have some allowance, right? If we're fast enough, maybe we can get some snack boxes from-"

"Morgan," Ann said loudly. "Fifteen minutes isn't enough. You remember what the dorm manager said, right? Closed doors at six."

Morgan grumbled upon hearing it. "Stupid fockin' curfew..."

"Did you say something?"

"No. You must be hearing things."

Ann could discern the contempt in her sister's tone and sighed. Morgan was a hard-headed young woman, but knowing her, it was both a positive and negative trait for hers for when stuck in activities that seemed impossible, Morgan would always be the one prodding everyone to keep trying everything. But if she didn't get what she wanted, everyone else would all get the receiving end of her tantrum.

Alas, family is forever, after all.

They reached a park. The streets were sparsely populated, with many stores closing down except for the few authorized establishments and the guard posts, adults going about their business and guards of both gender dressed in paramilitary gear marked with a simplified golden chalice symbol on their chests were present, patrolling the area. The duo walked close to one of them, who was holding a baton and guarding a street, closed-off due to unfinished clearing of a collapsed building from ancient times. They continued walking down the street, passing a levitator crate-carrying device which sped past them in a moderate speed.

The two reached their dormitory just as the watch struck at exactly six. They heard the loud chime from the large clock tower near the river of the city, which signaled the start of the curfew for minors.

Morgan and Ann went straight up to their room on the second floor after having their biometrics scanned. The dorm was fairly noisy, with a lot of their fellow students talking to each other. About today, assignments, school, tomorrow, their plans for the weekend and a multitude of others. Morgan dropped her bag on the floor as she kicked her shoes of and collapsed on the bed, while Ann sat down on a chair and opened the holoprojector on the table beside it. Their room was medium-sized, with ample space for the two to have their own beds, one on each side of the room. Morgan's was next to one of the two windows, with a good view of the cityscape. At the foot of each was an integrated dresser for their clothes and for their school supplies. They also had one large study table on Ann's side of the room. Morgan's half was littered with papers and books, while Ann's was fixed neatly. The aforementioned holoprojector was in between, bordering them together with the table light. The table's state also applied to the room itself. Morgan's side was messy, with her drawer being improperly closed with belongings and clothes hanging out. Ann's was spotless, everything being arranged properly.

"Studying again, Ann?" Morgan uninterestedly asked.

"Well, of course," the other girl replied as she looked over and opened several files. "You never know if there's gonna be a surprise test..."

"Hmph. Can you be any more boring? No wonder you don't have many friends..." Morgan mumbled as she put her hands behind her head as she reclined.

"I don't see you hanging out with anyone that much either, you know," Ann retorted. Morgan was not very womanly most, if not all the time. Her sister was a tad more masculine than the usual.

Ann rolled her eyes and started reading through one of the digital books. She felt her and heard her stomach grumble.

"Shite," she thought as she put a hand on her abdomen. "Maybe fifteen minutes was enough time to nab at least five of those snack boxes..."

Ann looked at the projected clock. It was almost ten past six. Dinner was at six-thirty.

"Hmmm. We should probably get downstairs to get ourselves a table," Ann thought as she turned around to ask her sister.

"Um, Morgan? You want to-"

Ann was greeted with the sight of her sister out cold. Morgan was snoring loudly with her mouth open. Her hands were still behind her head. Her hair was messy, as was the bedsheets. One of her legs was hanging off the side of the bed.

Ann stood up and walked over with the intent to wake her up, knowing full well that Morgan would most likely explode at her for ruining her sleep. She observed her sister's get-up. A baggy white shirt (With no undergarments underneath. How improper!)and the school-provided sports shorts. This was Morgan's attire almost always similar to this whenever she wasn't in school. Ann could be considered overdressed in comparison.

"She's only barely feminine when she's asleep. Oh, Morgan..." Ann thought as she shook her head and smiled. "I wonder how things would have been if you weren't like this. Either way, you're still my sister, no matter how irritating you are..."

At that moment, Morgan slowly opened her eyes.

"Ann?" she asked as she raised an eyebrow. "The hell are you doing? You do know that staring at me with my eyes closed doesn't count in whatever staring contest you're trying to do."

Ann snapped out of her trance-like state.

"Oh, uhhh, sorry, sister. I was just thinking about things."

"Ugh, whatever," Morgan mumbled as she turned to her side, facing the window.

"Do you want to go downstairs for supper now? Best to get seats while we still can," Ann asked before Morgan could resume her sleep.

Morgan turned back to her.

"Ah, fuck. Why not? I'm hungry as hell. And I wanna get down there before Lance and Benny get all the lamb chops."

Ann's eyes immediately lit up in anger.

"Those bastards always keep hogging all the meat! What are we waiting for?!"

The two nodded to each other and quickly rushed out the room, with Ann hitting the light switch before the door slammed shut.