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Anrya's P.O.V.
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle…Somewhere from my sub-consciousness I heard the sound of feet shuffling outside my bedroom door. Still asleep and not quite conscious yet, my senses were dull and everything was dark. The sound lingered in my mind, but I ignored it and returned to my peaceful slumber. I was sinking into the dark, velvety covers of my sub-consciousness when Tap, tap, tap… there came the soft tapping on my bedroom door. I was pulled out of my sub-consciousness as I vaguely wondered who it was tapping on my bedroom door. Slowly cracking open my eyes, I listened for the sound of a person, but heard nothing. Turning to my other side, I got comfortable again, shut my eyes, and began to drift off to sleep once more. Knock, knock, knock A more persistent knock came at my door. Sleepily, but still clearly, I called out "What!" That probably wasn't the most polite thing to say, but I was too tired and not quite awake enough to ask "Who is it?" I sat up in my bed as the person on the other side said, "I'm coming in Anrya-chan."A male voice? The door opened and Ace stepped into my room. "Huh?" Out of habit I checked my clock first to see what time it was: 4:50 a.m., then I put on my glasses. Going slightly into my cranky mode, I asked, "What brings you here this early Ace?"
"Hahaha~" Ace started off good-spiritedly, "Hey don't I get a good morning first~?"
"No," I bluntly answered. Then, "Sorry Ace, but it's kind of early right now and I'm sort of cranky."
"No problem Anrya-chan~" Ace smiled.
"So, what do you want…and how did you get into the mansion?"
"Ah, well Zero-san and Ren-san wanted me to help you guys start off training, so I came to wake you guys up. As for how I got in…well your mansion doesn't really have any guards or security so…"
My eyes widened. "You broke in?"
"Uh…I guess you can put it that way…But I really didn't want to disturb you guys so early in the morning, so I quietly came in…"
"I guess I'll wake up now…" Rubbing the last of the sleepiness away from my eyes, I got out of bed and headed for my bathroom. "Hey Ace…wait outside will ya?"
"Sure." Ace winked and left my room.
"Ugh…so tired…" I yawned. I went into the bathroom to clean myself up. "A shower will probably wake me up…"
Ryo's P.O.V.
-Ten Minutes Earlier-
A person…? I woke up to the sound of an opening window somewhere outside. Did Big Brother Darke wake up and go out again…? Slowly getting out of bed, I went next door to my brother's room.
"…." There my brother sat, alert and awake, silently on his bed. My brother's goggles were already on as well as his scarf.
"Hn, someone's here…" Big brother stood and walked towards the window. Looking outside, he stood silently.
I walked over to my brother's side and looked out the window as well. A person climbed the tree that big brother used most frequently, and entered the fourth floor. The person had green hair. It was Ace.
Anrya's P.O.V.
"Ah~ That felt nice." After a good shower and some clean clothing, I felt refreshed and fully awake. I went out of my room to meet Ace, but found that only Selina was there.
"Good morning Selina. Did Ace wake you too?"
"Yeah." Selina looked slightly tired as well, but she seemed awake and cleaned up.
Creak… The door to Crystal's room opened. "Ugh, you guys are so loud. Can't you be quiet?" Crystal drowsily scowled at me and Selina.
"Hey Crystal," I said, "Didn't Ace go to wake you up?"
"Ugh…yeah he did…but I fell asleep again."
"Well, you might as well wake up now…we have to anyways…" I shifted on my feet.
"Aw—" Crystal opened her mouth to whine again, but was cut off by Ace's arrival.
"Hey ladies, up and ready?" Ace gave a bright smile. Ace looked between us and asked, "The others didn't wake?"
"No," I answered. "Did you go into their rooms and tell them to wake up?"
"Hm…I knocked on their doors, went inside, and shook them a bit…but I guess they didn't quite wake yet…" Ace shrugged.
"Did you try slapping them?"
"Nope. Ren-san insisted that I be polite to you ladies when trying to wake you up…but we're late on schedule right now so…" Ace grinned and walked over to Jasmine's room first. Opening her door, Ace entered Jasmine's room and rummaged through his coat pocket. "Ah, here it is." Ace pulled out an air horn.
"Uh…" I wondered if that was a good idea, but decided to let it go. This should be interesting…but I kinda feel bad for Jasmine…
BLAAAAAAAAAAARE
" Ugh, what the heck was that for?" Jasmine irritatedly groaned.
"Good moooorning Jasmine-chan!" Ace happily said.
Jasmine just gave Ace an irritated look.
"Jasmine, sorry about that, but you're going to have to wake up for a bit of training…" I smiled apologetically.
"Why do I have to?" Jasmine said as she yawned.
"Well Jasmine-chan, would rather have me press this air horn again?" Ace smiled at Jasmine, finger on the trigger.
"Uuuugh…fine." Jasmine got out of bed. "Give me a minute to dress."
"Four of the girls down, one to go," said Ace. Ace left the room and Selina, Crystal, and I followed. Esa's room was the one next to Jasmine's; last one down the hall. As Ace walked down towards Esa's room, he said, "We're very behind schedule…it's already 5:10 a.m."
"Is this training that urgent?" I asked.
"Yup." Ace had gotten to Esa's door and he opened it wide open. Ace grinned. "3 2 1…"
BLAAAAAAAAAAAARE
Esa's P.O.V.
BLAAAAAAAAAAAARE
I woke to the obnoxious sound of an air horn blaring. Erg…somehow this sound feels familiar…Ripping open my eyes, I sat up and grabbed my glasses. I saw the faces of Anrya, Selina, Crystal…and Ace. Ace was grinning widely, air horn in hand. "WHAT THE HECK!" I shouted with a scowl.
"Wakey-wakey Esa-chan," Ace said. "We have to start training and we're already behind schedule."
"Sheesh, couldn't you have woken me up in a less noisy way?" I got out of bed then, grabbed some clothing, and started towards my bathroom.
"Well I did try…but you didn't quite wake up…" Ace smiled.
"Hmph." I then closed the door to my bathroom and started to clean and dress up.
"Now, let me go quickly wake the guys…well just Rai. Darke and Ryo should already be awake…"
"How do you know?" Crystal asked.
"Well…Darke seems sharp and Ryo seems sensitive, so I expect that they heard me come in and woke up."
"Eh? Darke sharp and Ryo sensitive? No way…well maybe Darke is sharp, but Ryo being sensitive?"Crystal looked at Ace disbelievingly. Behind the door of the bathroom, I silently agreed with Crystal.
Ace shrugged. "Maybe that's just me~" Ace and the others continued to talk amongst themselves. It was around then I came out of the bathroom nice and clean. "Well, time to go ladies." Ace went out into to the hall, walked down the hall, and started up the stairs. We followed.
"Yo wait up!" Jasmine came running down the hall towards us.
"Looks like you're finally here," Ace remarked. Then we went up.
Getting to the third floor, we first saw Darke and Ryo standing outside their doors.
"…Hey…uh good morning guys," I awkwardly started off. Everyone except for Ace awkwardly raised/waved their hands at Darke and Ryo. Ace, on the other hand, gave a knowing look at Darke and Ryo with a slight smile. Ace walked towards Rai's door and took out the air horn from his jacket pocket.
"Hey Ace," I said, "Did you get that from Gray?"
"What, the air horn? Yeah. How did you know?"
"Well…it looked and sounded familiar…" I recalled the time when Gray woke us up with the air horn…
Gray rolled her eyes. "Just be thankful that I watched over you while you were knocked out."
Beside her, Jasmine stirred and woke up. "You guys are already arguing?"
"Ugh," Crystal muttered as she too, woke up. "You guys are so loud; I'm trying to sleep here…"
"Oh look, little miss sunshine woke up," Gray said sarcastically. "Good morning princess~"
Crystal glared at Gray through narrowed, sleepy eyes.
Gray just ignored Crystal and clapped her hands. "Since everyone is starting to wake up…I'll wake the others…"
"Five more minutes…" Crystal mumbled going back to sleep.
"Too late," Gray said. She pulled out an air horn…
"Oh shit," Esa said, covering her ears.
…and pulled the trigger. BLAAAAAAAAARE!
The others seemed to remember that as well. I made a face at the memory and then dismissed it. Ace just chuckled and opened Rai's bedroom door. Inside Rai's bedroom was Rai, sleeping. He was sprawled on his bed, sheets all tangled up, a leg and an arm hanging out of the bed. Ace gave a smile and pulled the trigger…
BLAAAAAAAAAARE
"AAAH!" Rai gave a yelp and fell on the floor. "Ow…"
After waking Rai up, we all went downstairs, had breakfast, and went outside to clear grounds.
Anrya's P.O.V.
"Ok everyone," Ace started, "We are officially behind on time because it's 5:45 a.m. and the sun already rose.
"So? What's so important about that?" Crystal said, "We can always train or whatever with the sun in the sky."
"Well, I thought the sunrise would've been a nice view for training…but if you don't think much about views, just think of it this way: The faster we train, the more we'll train, the better your skills will be, and the faster you can rest~" Ace smiled. "You'll probably need that rest because you have a night training session with me too."
No way… I thought. Then, "Um Ace, how often is our training?"
"It's every other day for a week or two, and then we're doing it every day…after that it's for me, Zero and Ren-san to decide how to train you based on your skills."
"Hn," I heard Darke mutter behind me.
"Now," Ace said, "From now forth you are to call me either Ace-san or Ace-sensei…Actually, in Japanese society, if you don't really know a person you're supposed to put an ending of –san after their name, but since not all of you are from Japan, I'll let it slide. Here in training though, you are to call me with either of those suffixes…but I'm not here to lecture (you can leave that to Ren-san) so I'll explain the training. Basically, you can think of me as your physical education teacher!"
Whaaaaaaat? Everyone glanced at Ace, then away.
Shouldn't be too bad I thought. Physical education in school is boring anyways… "So Ace…um I mean Ace-san, what are we exactly doing? What are the details to this training?"
"I like to keep things simple, so I may not always go into detail…but this time I will. Before you even go into mafia warfare, weaponry, flame use or even battle, you need to be fit. Some of you are probably thinking 'so what's so important about that if I can shoot things, fight, etc.'…Well, what about your stamina? What about your strength in battle no matter what type of fighter you are? What about speed? Self-defense? And if nothing else, if you can't fight, how will you run away, or how will you stall the enemy? Do have the stamina, strength, or speed to run away? That's why we're starting from the basics.
"I see your point and it makes sense Ace-san," I said, "But I feel that things got a bit more complicated. Thinking about this and what we're lacking really shows the reality of our skills and knowledge."
Ace smiled. "That's why I like to keep things simple. Thinking too much can be stressful (not saying thinking isn't important, but too much of it isn't healthy) so that's why I'd just do it and progress." Everyone seemed to agree with this. "But I'm telling you now, if you don't work hard, you won't progress. Your skills aren't going to suddenly be perfect in a day…it takes time. How long? I don't know~"
And that's how we started training. First we started off with stretches to loosen our muscles. Next we did some beginner's yoga to soothe our muscles and increase our flexibility. Ace-san mentioned that yoga gets harder. After yoga, we did some easy and not so very easy exercises. Though not all of us were perfect at it, we still managed. Whenever we didn't do something right, Ace-san chided us or made us do it over again until we got it right. Since not all of us were fit (that included me) we were tired and huffing by the time we got to our running unit.
"Now, now, tired already? We just got started!" Ace firmly stood in front of us.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but…" I quickly checked my phone. "It's 7 a.m. now right?"
"Yes."
"So we've been training for an hour and fifteen minutes, right?"
"Yes."
"That's just getting started?"
"Yes."
"You have got to be kidding me," Crystal muttered.
"Well we'd better begin," Ace said. "We've got lots to do. Now, I've mark a path around and about this mountain, so that you can have a feel of different terrains. Some places will be flat, others not…Now this path, I will admit, is pretty long for beginners like you, but it should be bearable."
"How long?" Esa questioned.
"Ah, around 5 1/3 miles…"
"What!" Jasmine exclaimed.
"Don't worry; we're starting off easy today. Later on I'll be timing you guys and trying your speed, stamina, etc. For now, all you have to do is follow the path and run/walk/jog when directed. If this goes as planned, it should take you about…2 hours?" Ace checked his watch.
"We only have 2 hours for 5 1/3 miles!" Crystal exclaimed. "Isn't that too short?"
"It should be plenty of time since you won't be walking constantly," Ace remarked.
"I don't know a lot about pacing and time, but I have done track," I said, "For me (and by the way I'm not a great runner) it took about…(not very sure)10-15 minutes to do one mile?…That is of course, if you're constantly jogging the whole mile. It's pretty hard…"
"Now," Ace said, "Just so that no one cheats or gets clever, I marked a path with some special rods that I brought with me flowing with my lightening flame." Ace gave a slight sadistic smile. "If you don't know already, the lightening flame has one of the highest hardness and is great in defense. I kind of made the path into a barrier, but instead of keeping things out, it keeps you in. If you try to cut through the path to go on a shorter or easier path, you won't be able to because you won't be able to break through."
"Well it's not like we can escape since you're coming with us," Jasmine remarked.
"Hm, were you planning to escape? Well it doesn't matter…and I won't be coming along with you," Ace said.
"Huh?"
"Then how can we know when to run or not?" I asked. Then, "Wait…you're not going to make us run the whole way, are you?"
Ace laughed. "Even if I told you to run the whole way, there wouldn't really be a way to force you to. But don't worry, we're not running the whole way…yet." Most of us groaned at this remark. "But I will be erasing the path as you go. That means you'll know when to run when a lightening flame wall starts advancing on you at a quicker pace." I wondered if that lightning flame wall hurt people…but decided I wouldn't take chances. "Ok, no more talking," Ace said, "Go run to the start of the path there…GO!"
We ran. When we got to the path and entered it, the area behind us was blocked off by a green wall of lightening flame. Along the side and sometimes above, we saw the rods that Ace had mentioned. Flowing and connecting the rods were lightening flames. Out of curiosity, I threw a pebble at the ceiling of the dome like path. When it hit, the pebble bounced back down. Examining the pebble, I saw that it was in good condition. So, the side barrier isn't really electricity…Around me, I saw Selina, followed by the others, throwing small pebbles at the barrier surrounding us. For a path, it was wide. All eight of us could've walked side by side and we still would've had some space left. Picking up another pebble, I aimed it at the slowly progressing wall of lightening flames, and threw. As it impacted the wall, there was a slight zap sound, and then it bounced back. Examining this pebble, I saw that there was a slight seared mark on one side. "Good," I said, thinking somewhat aloud, "That wall isn't here to fry us, but just to zap us a bit if we don't get going at a certain pace…" The others heard me comment and exchanged glances.
"C'mon guys, let's go," Selina said with a yawn.
"Sure," I replied.
Up ahead, Darke walked independently, hands in his pocket, light reflecting off his goggles as his scarf swayed side to side. Beside him, Ryo walked silently alongside him. The terrain we were walking on now was flat, grassy land. At first things were quiet, but soon that changed. For each terrain we experienced, we ran, jogged, and walked for a random amount of time, in a random order. We went through flat, grassy land, uphill, downhill, forest, cement sidewalk, wet grounds, sandy grounds, rocky terrains, etc. Some terrains were natural, while others seemed to be man-made. We went huffing and puffing, cussing, panting, and sometimes yelping inside the path. Darke and Rai seemed to have the best stamina out of all of us. Maybe it was because they were guys…or maybe it was because we weren't fit. Either way, by the time we got to the end of the path, we all collapsed on the ground, some more gracefully than others.
"You guys are right on time~" Ace said with a cheery smile. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite met with a cheery expression.
"No duh," Jasmine remarked, "If we didn't get here on time, we would've been fried. That wall was mad scary."
"Glad you liked it," Ace answered. "Now~ we all get a break time!" Handing out some snacks and drinks, Ace waited for us to get calmed and refreshed. "Currently, it's around 9 a.m. right now. We'll be training till noon and then you'll be free till our night session after dinner." We all groaned. "Now, now, since we did some pretty hard stuff for you guys, we'll do something fun next. Starting off with tree climbing, we'll then do some sports and games perhaps, and end with a water activity. Sounds good?" Everyone, too tired to answer, just nodded. Ace started off with a low V-shaped tree that we could all climb. I was uneasy at first because ticks usually lived in the V-shaped part of a tree, but soon forgot my worries in the fun of the activity. We were all able to scale the short trees, though some better than others, but when Ace began to choose harder ones, less and less of us were able to climb the trees. Ace then began to tell us different ways to scale tall trees.
"Not so easy to climb the tree now huh. In the case you can't seem to easily scale a tree, you have several options. 1. You can use an object or have a partner be your step-stool to get to a branch. 2. You can jump up and grab a branch and pull yourself up. A running start is fine too. Of course you'll need some arm strength for that. 3. If another tree is very close to the tree you want to scale then you can use that other tree to climb up the tree you want. 4. Fly up there 5. If you have any sort of rope, use it somehow to climb up the tree 6. If you have any sort of weapon or stuff you can use as pegs…use it. And I think that's all for now." Ace crossed his arms and leaned on a tree.
"Wow…" Crystal commented.
Next we went to sports. For the most part…I failed at most of the sports. I was pretty decent in tennis, archery, and badminton, but besides those, I sucked. Rai practically put us all to shame with his sport skills, though Darke, Ryo, and Selina weren't too shabby. After our sports unit, we went to our water unit. We were all told to dress casually with swimsuits under our clothing, and meet in the back of the mansion. When we were all dressed and ready, we went to the back.
"Woah, cool! It's a pool!" Rai exclaimed.
"It's pretty big too," Esa remarked.
"Really big," Jasmine added.
"…Uh Ace…I mean Ace-san, I love the pool and all, but we didn't have a pool before…did we? I'm pretty sure there wasn't a pool in the back of the mansion. Ever."
"About that Anrya-chan," Ace said, "I kind of forgot to mention that we constructed your estate a bit yesterday and today…Is it ok with you to have the pool here?"
"Agh that's fine, but next time can you tell me before you construct?"
"Sure."
"This is a pretty cool pool Ace!" Crystal commented.
"Don't forget to add the suffix," Ace chided.
"Yeah, fine, Ace-sensei," Crystal said.
"I just want to say," I started, "You're not that bad of a trainer…teacher…whatever."
"Yeah," Crystal agreed, "You do some fun stuff. Well…some training stuff weren't so fun…"
Jasmine gave Ace a little thumbs up, and Selina smiled.
"At least you're not completely weird or…strange like Zero and Ren," Esa said.
"I can't fully agree with you on that since you don't know our background much, but I'll take it as a compliment" Ace said. "But don't be fooled with this smile and charming looks, I can still become a completely different person~"
"Heh."
"Ace-san, I really like you as our sensei!" Rai said with a grin.
"Glad to hear that," Ace replied, "But training's going to get harder~" Ace gave us a wink.
We then started our water unit. We started off with some balancing games with floating pads, ropes, and hoops. We all did well at first, but as the task got harder, some of us fell into the pool. I fell in once, as did Esa and Rai. The water was shockingly cold, but soon I got used to it. When Esa fell in, she came out cursing very colorfully. Rai on the other hand, came out laughing. After some water activities, we swam for a bit and then it was lunch time. We had our lunch, and collapsed on the couches to rest. When dinner passed we had our nightly session.
And so our training continued. By the end of the week though…
"So tired…" Crystal muttered.
"I know right," Jasmine agreed.
We were all collapsed on the sofas of the living room.
"Yo, if you guys are going to zombie out, at least go upstairs and do it," Gray said. Her arms were crossed and she stood pointedly in front of us.
"Too tired to," Esa muttered.
Gray frowned. "Fine whatever, but just don't stare at me like zombies while I'm on my break." Gray pinched the bridge of her nose. "I pulled off two all-nighters…"
"Hmph, no one told you to…" Crystal muttered.
Gray ignored Crystal and turned on the TV.
"Hey guys," Selina said walking into the living room, "We have to go now for our night session." We all groaned. "Darke, Ryo and Anrya are already out there…we should go too."
And so we continued this training cycle for about three months…
:D