Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Soul Calibur – Namco does. I just make this for fun.
Chapter 4: First day
Talim woke up to find herself in a bed she didn't know. The whole room in fact. Her mistrust to the contest and the people felt like a dream – Something that seemed so important when you wake up, but gets trivial as the hands ticks on. Soon she memorized everything she had experienced the past day and she shook her head on the pillow. She was surely just imagining things, that didn't exist. The people might be really nice and she got a taste of the area yesterday, which hadn't anything to criticize the tiniest bit.
A moment she speculated what have had been the source of her wakening and noticed an awful melody outside the window, which had to come from the loudspeakers placed on the buildings. She didn't like the idea that they would be playing every single day while they were here. 'Shoot them, please,' Talim thought and visualized how everything would be peaceful if they died chuckled and swung her legs over the bedside. She crossed the room to the bathroom and took a brief drying, she saw her reflection staring back at herself in the steamy mirror. She could hardly see her big dreamy browns eyes. Her raven black hair was usually in a long plait but it was always loose when she slept or bathed. Right now it fell damp down her back and over her thought back to the time when she was 15: it had been much shorter and in ponytails. She also had had a fringe but it all had grown long over the years. She was 19-years-old and not a little girl any more.
She finished up in the bathroom and went to the wardrobe. She didn't study it yesterday but now she wondered why it was here, because she didn't pack so many clothes, so a wardrobe was unnecessary and a bit too bombastic. A chest of drawers would be enough for her.
Talim took out a training set, which was – surprisingly - in her taste: black shorts, a green scarf and a black sports bra with only thin strops around the back of the neck. Weird, she reflected but decided to try it on.
It fitted her curves perfectly as if they were made for her.
She felt the creepy feeling from earlier returning. It wasn't a dream after all. She had to uncover the truth – the sooner the better.
High-pitched voices met her in the dining room and she stopped shocked by the sight of the other girls. They all had clothes on, which apparently was made for them – and only them. The textile however was black with green borders, patterns and etc,. She dropped the bag containing her weapon.
"Al – also you guys?" she stammered.
They turned their head in the direction of her and appeared to be paralysed too.
"Evidently it looks like that" Sophitia replied helplessly.
"What is our plan?" interrupted Xianghua, who was sitting on one of the couches with her hands placed in her lap.
"We will attend the training as they would expect us to do and we will enquire Samantha for an explanation as soon as possible," Talim answered with forced cheerfulness but nevertheless with a mischievous glimpse playing in her brown eyes.
Sophitia, Cassandra, and Xianghua looked at each other with something there at first seemed like a ghost smile, but as her words came to their minds, their smiles grew bigger. They all nodded assertively at her.
"It sounds like an idea after my head" Sophitia retorted and continued, "We must keep our eyes and ears open. Don't let the slightest thing pass by. It could be important information further on."
"Hey! We could meet after dinner every day and tell what every single of us has discovered. "It came from the fine Xianghua.
"What about we wrote it down? And I'm not just thinking of events but also the personality of e.g. the guys." Suggested Cassandra. Talim saw with unmistakably satisfaction, that her cheerfulness and self-secure had awoken something in the other girls. In reality she was just as afraid and nervous as they were. But if it was the trigger to make the others girls fight for a cause, then she was happy. They would bring the scandal to the real world and it would happen a lot faster than on her own. From another point of view, they had no other opportunity as they were somewhere in a desert they hardly knew and the only way to civilisation was by bus, which was driven by one of Zarzalamels men. And – if the doubt had been there before, it was sure gone now.
"Shall we, ladies?" she asked, as she gathered her weapon from the ground.
"yes, I think we should," replied the others as a echo of each other.
She couldn't keep a little gasp back. This was huge. If she survived the whole thing, she would tell everyone back home about it.
The training centre was greater and bigger than it looked from the outside. She could only guess how much time it must have taken to build the whole thing and she couldn't imagine that even the smallest implement was missing. It was basically the dream of a fighter. A hearts desire would be fulfilled.
Behind her followed several gasps matching her own, even the guys seemed to have showed up at the same time as themselves.
" Hello Talim, how have your day been so far?" asked Kilik next to her.
Talim turned to look at him "It has been fine, how - " her voice trailed off. He looked gorgeous! He had a black cloak with golden green borders and a large pattern on his back.. The front stood wide open and showed a tanned and well-trimmed torso. The green crystal pendant hung to the middle of his chest, matching the rest.
"Something wrong?" he asked with a frown.
She shook her head and tried to hide a blush: " no – no everything is fine. The only problem there may be is that we all have clothes, which are very similar to the normal clothes we are wearing under training or fighting. Not the one we arrived in."
Kilik scanned the room and nodded. "You are right, we - "
He was cut shut by Samantha, who came from the shadows in the other end of the hall.
"Welcome. I have assume you all have noticed that this is the training facility. You may use it all you like except when there's a few days to a fight.. I guess that there are no need for further explanation since it pretty reasonable. There are lockers, showers and dressing rooms like in any other Training facility. We have jacuzzi and sauna. Whatever you want. There are placed food machines around on this ground. As I said yesterday, it's illegal smoking or drinking. We have security cameras so you get caught if you try.
Any questions?" she said in a way that made it clear she didn't really had time for their talking.
"Yes, I have one – When do I get the chance to show the others how talented I am? Like, when are we having our first competition? "Yun-Seoung, who hadn't spoken for awhile, was the one to ask. His hair seemed flaming red against the black and green. He was actually a handsome guy and would be a girls' friend if it wasn't for the mouth of his or more correctly his personality, Talim stated.
" Ah, Mr. Yun-Seoung. I see you have a deep passion for fighting and obviously showing off. I'm impressed. Now, to your question. The first competition are being held in fourteen days. This may be enough to get settled and trained."
Samantha had just finished her sentence, when the next question followed.
"When are we going to see the list of the opponents?" This time it was Maxi. He had never talked before, but Talim discovered that he had a rather pleasant voice.
"You must be Maxi. you're a seafarer as I can read. The list will be placed on your noticeboard in both houses five days before the competition. This may also be the day where you can't train any longer. Any questions related to this?" She looked straight into the eyes of the whole group. Talim got goosebumps. There was something about this woman. She raised her hand.
"Yes, Talim. " Samantha responded.
"It's not to the competition part, but actually why we all got clothes who matches our personality? I'm talking on behalf of the whole group. "
Samantha walked towards Talim and stopped 1 meter from her. She stared strictly at her and Talim could feel how her courage slipped out of her like sand in a time glass.
"Talim. The leader of the girls as it appears, eventually of you all. Yes, good question. We had to do some basic research, so what we did was simply to observe you for a couple of weeks. We know it's a violation of personal rights, but we had to make sure, that you were the best. Anything else?" She spoke a moment later. "I have other things to attend, so please excuse me. Have a nice day gentlemen and ladies."
The sound of her heels faded as she disappeared out of the door.
The group was abandoned with a mixture of rage and confusion. They didn't get any closer to a solution nor did they get smarter about the whole thing. It more seemed like they have got more questions to go than any of them answered.
"What do we do now?" asked Xianghua.
The silence was threatening in the gigantic training facility as they all thought.
" We're trapped here, so we have to continue even if we want to or not." was the attentive statement from Kilik.
They all nodded in agreement and decided that since they hadn't anything else to do, they could just train.
Soon was the sound of weapons clashing against each other present.
continues...
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A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter has been so long to get done. I have had a lot of things on my mind and my life have been a chaos. I hope nonetheless that you like this chapter.