Episode Two

The Assembly Hall

The entrance guards were checking her status as they were sceptical of this young lady with clothes torn from combat as a student of the school, but nevertheless they had to let her through.

"Woahhh" Neru exclaims as she has never seen such modern and futuristic architecture before once in her life as a district 23 resident.

She quickly brushed off the dust within her clothes and readjusted it while walking, and in her carelessness she bumped onto a certain purple haired girl by accident.

As she falls to the ground, she calls out to Neru "Oww, watch where you're going!"

"Ah sorry mate I wasn't looking." Neru quickly apologises and helped the peculiar looking girl get up from the ground

"Holy damn, what happened to you?" The girl inspects Neru's clothing and how torn it was from the grenade during the fight.

"Mind ya damn business." Neru is clearly annoyed by everyone commenting about her clothes.

"Eh? I was just worried about you but whatever. Name's Utaha nice to meet you"

Neru doesn't really care about the girl's name that much but Utaha begins staring her down, awaiting for a response which makes Neru feels obligated to participate in the conversation.

"Nice meeting ya I guess, I'm Neru."

Before the conversation could continue any further however, the speakers relayed an announcement to everyone in the school.

To all students, it is now 8:00 AM. Please meet up in the assembly hall as we begin the starting ceremony.

"Welp time is cutting short now so let's go to the assembly hall." Utaha then grabbed Neru's arm and they both made their way to the meeting place.

"Oi, the fuck you think you're doing? Personal space!" Neru protested a bit, but she just went along with it because Utaha seemed to know where the assembly hall was.

As Neru and Utaha arrive, they find the place packed to the brim with thousands of students from first years to third years. Utaha then guided Neru to the first year's seats and sat down.

"Oi wait a min, why the fuck am I sitting next to you?" Neru was indeed forced to sit next to the purple haired lass, and she didn't know what to make of it. Is this how normal people interact?

"I mean we're friends right? Friends sit next to each other." Utaha was puzzled by Neru's constant aggressiveness.

"Friends? Lady don'tcha think you're missing a few steps?" Neru was noticeably weirded out that she suddenly became Utaha's friend, but she can't be bothered to do anything about it at the moment.

A speaker then stood up on the podium, ready to speak to the crowd of students gathered.

"We will now sing the school anthem. Everyone, stand up!"

"Wait wait wait, what the fuck do you mean school anthem?" Neru was somewhat freaking out as everyone including Utaha stood up while she didn't even know Millennium had a school anthem.

Neru remained composed though, she resorted to the oldest trick in the book: lip syncing.

As the school anthem was over, everyone was ordered to sit down and the ceremony actually began.

My name is Miyahara Nori and I am Seminar's secretary, and on behalf of Seminar I welcome you all to a great start of a brand new year. Now I am aware that the previous year was rough with all the incidents which were not met with an effective response by Seminar, and because of that I apologise on the behalf of Seminar's previous failures last year.

Moving on, Millennium's school rankings have risen exponentially from last year and we are expected to reach top 10 of Kivotos within this year, so I thank you all for the hard work within the previous year to make this feat possible.

Lastly, Seminar would like to thank the first years for applying to our school, as it means much to us that so many young talents came to support this school through fierce competition and determination. We expect much from all of you.

That is all.

Everyone clapped their hands as the secretary dismissed us and left the podium, while Neru was pondering to herself.

"Previous year's incidents eh?"

As everyone left the assembly hall to get on with their day, Neru was walking to the first study hall still accompanied by Utaha, her self proclaimed friend.

"So what's ye first class missy? Because I've gotta go to room 104." Neru questions Utaha, trying to use this as a way to separate from her.

"Oh same! We have the same subject it seems."

"You gotta be fuckin kidding me.." Neru was defeated.

Both girls then sat down for the first lesson of the day, physics. Neru did not understand shit about the subject and tried her best to understand but it is too complicated for someone not academically gifted as her.

"Why the fuck are there so many formulas to remember…" Neru grunted a bit and turned to ask Utaha about them.

"Oi mate how do I apply this agai-"

Neru begins gazing on Utaha who in her eyes flipped a switch and got an entirely different personality. She was extremely focused and straight up ignored Neru entirely, choosing to focus on the lecture instead. The same mentality was shared across everyone else in the classroom who took notes of the lecture in detail.

"I'm so fucking done for…" Neru has now realised the pain of being an unprepared student of a science school.

The lesson went on for 3 straight hours with some minor breaks in between, and Neru was exhausted by the end of it. She does not understand shit at all.

"Neru are you okay? You don't look so good." Utaha however was perfectly fine.

"This is hell… Why the hell is physics so god damn complicated?"

"Neru, that was the easy part."

"WHAT."

"Those are only basic equations, Speed vs Velocity and Normal force..."

"THERE'S MORE?"

Neru was god damn traumatised by physics and curses herself for choosing to accept the scholarship to join this school.

Her woes were behind her though, as lunch break was here and she headed to the cafeteria with Utaha. The selection of dishes were large, with the cafeteria being the size of a football field to accommodate the amount of students. Neru could only watch in awe.

"This place is fucking massive." Compared to her old middle school back in district 23 this place is like a goddamn palace.

Neru then unpacked the lunch her mother prepared for her while Utaha came back to the table with a plate of curry.

"You know Neru, I've been meaning to ask. Are you not from the central districts?" Utaha suddenly asked Neru.

"Ya, how could you tell?" Neru was surprised that Utaha caught on about her being from the outskirts.

"I'm from district 5 and I can say that your dialect is different from ours."

Utaha then began to explain the difference in detail, commenting about how Neru constantly uses slang and shortens words which gave it away.

"Yea so what? You're gonna discriminate against me from being from the outskirts or sum?" Neru was noticeably on guard, unsure about the intentions of Utaha.

"No no no you've got it all wrong. I'm sorry if I offended you but I just find it peculiar that there's non central people in the academy."

"Eh don't mind it I just overreacted a bit." Neru quickly calmed down upon realising that it ain't that deep.

"Welp, see you later then Neru." Utaha finished her meal and prepared to go to her next class.

"See ya later then." She answers back.

TO BE CONTINUED