Now that I didn't get stared at by hundreds, walking felt good.

Until it didn't.

I reached the gates, and well, things happened.

"There you are." A woman smiled, and almost sang the words.

I really wanted to run away but she'd have chased me to the end of the earth. So, that option wasn't available anymore.

There were two other girls near her, wearing awkward smiles. And the guy- the captain or rather, the club leader was looking into the distance, questioning the meaning of life.

"H-Hey, mom. What are you doing here?"

"Well, when you went out for a walk and never came back, I got kind of worried." She chuckled, eyes closed. "Your friend gave me a good idea of where you might be."

I might or might not have said I'd be back after a walk which I eventually forgot and then one thing led to another.

'I'll be sure to skewer him the next time.'

"About that… I had torn clothes and-"

"I understand." Mom looked at me with kind eyes. I had a bad feeling about this. "Let's go back."

Very bad feeling, indeed.

"I kind of wanted fresh air, so I want to go to the city." I didn't know what to say.

I'd acted pretty high and mighty last time, but there was no doubt in my mind, my mom was scary and that was the universal truth.

"You can have all the fresh air in your room." She was still wearing that gentle, angelic smile.

And the fact that there weren't many people here, only made the situation worse. Last time, mom backed off because there were a lot of people, but this time, things were different.

I took a deep breath. "As you can see, I'm alright. And the prelims of the tournament begins tomorrow. I don't have a good saber. I've to find out more about my compatibility too. I'm sorry mom but I want to do this."

She sighed. "Why did you have to take after your father?" She mumbled. But since she was so close to me, I heard her. Of course, I didn't say a word about it. "Alright, but promise me, you won't do anything stupid? You won't get into trouble?" Mom was being so easy, that it was almost frightening. Was this woman seriously, my mother?

"Ri-right."

She grabbed my hands. Still smiling. "If you should get into trouble once more…." She finally glared at me. "I'll take you back and keep you locked up."

I swallowed. This was not good for my heart.

"Uh-huh." I shook my head vigorously.

"Good." She smiled again and came closer to my ear. "And stay away from that Battlesuin Vixen. She's bad news and I think things might be getting a bit too worse for our families. It might lead to war, but nothing should happen to you as long as you're here. So, try not to mix with her." Mom was being a bit too frank but she did have her point.

With the latest developments, the relationship between the Romswells and the Battlesuins was probably pretty bad. In the past, we just pretended that the other didn't exist but I guess I kind of screwed up.

I nodded and mom let me go.

Freed from her, I ran to the club leader. "Let's go."

I didn't want to stay a second longer. The gravity of reality was pulling me a bit too hard, so I wanted to stay away from it.

"Wait!" Mom shouted and I had to look back: I really didn't want to. "If you will, Marg dear."

At that moment Marg teleported and appeared a minute later. There was something in her hands. She gave it to mom and mom threw it to me.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't get that damaged."

"Alright." It was Gramp's sword tucked into its sheathe.

I didn't know why mom was being so nice all of a sudden, but I got the feeling she wanted me to pursue my dreams.

I smiled and gave her a wave.

She waved back.

We left.

***

"Was that really alright, giving him the sword?" Elsa stood next to her mother.

"Oh don't worry dear." Her mother's smiled warped. "If he has the sword, he'll get into trouble, and then we can just drag him back." She almost squirmed with excitement. "He'll be safer with me."

Elsa smiled to hide her awkwardness but some still leaked.

Meanwhile. Marg just watched the drama from a distance. 'What the hell is wrong with this family?'

The Battlesuins and the Romswells were about to go to war, and yet these guys were acting like it was nothing more than a little squabble. And to Marg, this really was the personification of stupidity.

***

I sighed. I didn't know why but something about how mom acted made me feel weird and it kind of stuck.

"How far is the city?"

The club leader, however, was a bit too quiet.

"Not that far. I'd say a walk of about half an hour." And his walking speed was a bit faster than me too.

'How's that not far?' I looked at him with dull eyes. "Anyway, what do I call you?"

"Oh yeah. Never introduced myself. I'm Johnathan Brown. You may call me John."

The name John kind of brought back a lot of memories. My first cousin John, was a very wicked guy. He always teased me because I wasn't aiming to become a villain. In his book, villains were the best and maybe that's why he became the most wanted criminal in the world. He was fairly powerful but the guy had serious issues. But apparently, everybody in the family loved him and even spoiled him.

I didn't like him one bit though.

I tried to shake off the bad feelings. "Nice to meet you. You can call me Jintel."

"Sure, Jintel."

It was like my heart warmed up for a second. Finally, someone called me by my name without freaking out for a second.

I felt good.

"Though I think I heard Eve calling you Helio, and I like Greek Gods, so I'll just call you Helio."

And now, not so much.

With another sigh, I just kept on walking.

***

The outside was mixed. It started by having palm trees all around the academy boundary and gradually shifted to a more desert-like barren land and finally a jungle of some sort. As if sweating buckets wasn't enough, now I had to cross a land of bugs.

I hated anything that crawled.

I didn't want to feel nostalgic but I recognized this place.

"We have training sessions on this part of the island. The mainland is just up ahead."

And the club leader's words only made me feel more awkward.

"SO we'll have to cross the frozen lands too?"

Last time Clyde was keeping us warm, but what about this time?

"NO, we won't have to go there. We can pretty much get to the city, through this forest."

"Works for me."

We kept on walking.

The forest was just as much of a bug house as it used to be. Last time we had our Angelmen Friend and he kind of blasted any and every bug that came near us, so it wasn't much of a problem. This time? It was definitely a problem.

It probably would have been different if I was alone. But I sure wasn't.

"Ummm… John… Johnathan? Didn't we have any other roads?"

It was still a bit weird to call him John.

"Oh yeah, there was another one but it would have taken about five minutes extra. This is the shortcut."

'What the hell is wrong with your senses, man!?'

The guy was walking over the bugs like he was blind or something. Even when centipedes crawled over his body, he just grabbed a bunch and squashed them.

The sheer mentality of this guy was scary.

'Deep breaths.'

I couldn't let this stop me. If I were to become an explorer I'd eventually have to get over my fear of bugs anyway.

With that determination in mind, I walked faster to match Johnathan's pace.

My back felt heavier than usual. I turned my head and hundreds of eyes greeted me. There was a spider on my back. A spider the size of my hand with huge black pupils and red dots all over its black body.

'Oh, shit…'

And so a scream shook the great forest as a young man ran like crazy: the young man being me.

***

As the forest thinned out, signs of civilization crossed my eyes.

Fields of wheat stretched across the horizon, and past that, small houses. And even further behind that in the distance, skyscrapers. This island was weird, no doubt about that.

The forest ended and so did all my anxiety.

Walking around the fields felt otherworldly. I never expected there to be fields like this. I'd only seen stuff like this in picture books and Holo TV. But up close, they did seem rather nice. I touched a few of the plants and the feeling was different. I didn't know how to describe it.

"You coming?" John was quite far already.

"Yeah." I picked up the pace.

We passed by the wooden houses. Some of the residents waved at us, I waved back. John didn't give a second glance to them.

I'd been told that people near the edges who lived in barns like these were lesser beings and that we shouldn't interact with them. Of course, I found that pretty stupid and didn't buy into that crap.

The reason? I had a friend who lived near the borders and to me, he was no less of a human than me.

Gradually, the scenery changed and instead of fields we now had buildings and roads.

It was basically like I was walking through history.

There were a lot of people here going about their days.

"Alright, that's our stop." John pointed at a tall building near the middle of the city. It was pretty tall, at least a hundred floors.

"How did I not see that before?"

"They use holographic tech, so you won't be able to see the building unless you were this close."

Fair enough, no wonder I hadn't seen the building till now.

"Let go of my baby!" A woman screamed on the opposite side of the road as a man clocked in black tried to snatch her baby.

And then there was that. The classic crime scene.

But strangely no one was even giving her a second glance. I guess no one really cared about others?

I sighed. "Is this normal?" I got ready to do something. I could use alpha to track down the man in case he got away.

"Not really. But don't worry. That guy must be new."

"Wha-" Before I could say something, the cries of the woman stopped.

There was a sound of something cracking. And that was all.

The cries of the baby followed next, as its mother picked it up and hugged it tightly.

Apparently, the baby grabber was now on the floor, letting out smokes. "What just happened?"

"Oh yeah. The security on this island is pretty specked. Only inside the city of course. The academy and the city are totally different when it comes to governing."

"Uh-huh." Of course, I still didn't know jackshit about what this guy was even talking about.

So we kept walking and made our way into the building. There were guards by the entrance, dressed in black suits and sunglasses.